Vanderburgh County, Indiana - Chapter 2, 1897

Chapter 2

Origifial Families - Their Enter-prises - Conquering the Wilderness Vie et Armis - Col. Hugh Ale Gary the First Settler on the Site of Evansville - The First Rude Log Hut and Where It Stood - Log Hotises then -were Primitive Forts against the Indians - Life of McGary - Siege of Bryant' s Station - First White Male Child Born Here - Purchase of the from the Indians - Gen. Evans.

First Settlers

In writing the history of primitive Evansville and Vanderburgh County, it will be necessary at times in the course of the work here undertaken to refer to older settlements in this vicinity, which supplied much of the brains, bones and sinew of the town of Evansville. There were many older settlements in this section of the country, such as Xew Harmony, Vincennes, Princeton, Boonville, Fort Branch, Newburgh, aud the towns in Kentucky on the other side of the Ohio river, that supplied families who constituted the inhabitants of the infant town of Evansville.

The original families that groped their way through these western wilds, following Indian paths, and deer trails, directed by the sun and moon aud stars and the pocket comjjass, were the residents of Yir- ginia, North Carolina, New York, and other colonial states, who came west to better their condition by growing up with the country. They established the settlements of the towns aforesaid, before the settlement known as Lamasco or Eyansville was thought of. Newburgh in Warrick County even became a more important landing place for steamboats, and in fact had a better landing than Eyansville, and for many years the principal tobacco, grain 'and bacon markets of this section were at that port. New Harmony, Princeton, Boonville and other towns, that did not have the advantage of being located on the navigable Ohio river, were for many years successful rivals of Evansville in business, until the fai--seeing and ambitious men of the surrounding towns began to acquire lands on the banks of the great Ohio river, and prepare for thefoundingof a town that fate had decreed was to become, and did become in half a century, the second largest city in the State of Indiana.

When these pioneer business men began to flock from the surrounding settlements to Evansville, it only required a few years to swallow up effectually the surrounding towns that did not jwssess the same progressive pioneer element. They were forced to succumb to the enterprise and push of the lousiness men of Evansville. The rivalry between Evansville and the other towns on the Ohio river was kept up, however, for many years ; and the leading merchants of Henderson, Ky., and Oweusboro, Ky., particularly, fought hard to retain the river trade, which they considered theirs according to the old-time rule of priority. But the business men of Evansville of that day, who saw that the Ohio river was the only channel to fortunes, soon wrested that trade from their Kentucky competitors, and left them with only two vast industries, viz., whiskey and tobacco, which they were in a position to control, simply because they were peculiarly the products of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. These two industries our Kentucky friends and neighbors control to-day, and will perhaps ever monopolize.

It will therefore be readily seen by tin- intelligent reader that to write a history of the commerce and trade of Evansville, as well as a social and political history, it will be necessary to recur frequently to facts and events in the history of the surrounding towns aforesaid > and of the old frontiersmen, who fought many bloody combats with the_ Indians, taking possession "vi et armis" of that territory, under cover of title from the land offices of the United States, over all the laws of discovery and squatter sovereignty, that the copper-skinned natives believed to be theirs.

The first Caucasian iuhabitant of whicli there is any record, or knowledge of tradition, who settled on the site now known as Evansville, was Col. Hugh McGary, of Kentucky, who came originally frorft good old Virginia stock. Col. McGary landed at this side of the river in 1812 and built himself a liitle two-room log hut on the ground cleared by him in the wilderness.

The double log cabin of Col. Hugh McGary was a rude affair made of sections of the trunks of trees, hewn smooth on two sides, placed one above the other, and notched at the ends so as to prevent slipping. The crevices between the timbers were filled in with dried grass mixed with mud. The chimneys, of which there were two, one in either end of the hut, were made out of sticks split out of sections of trees, and laid on top of each other. They were plastered over and between with mud. This mud, after drying, was gradually hardened by the heat of the smoke and in course of time became practically fire and waterproof. The cabin was a double, log affair, under one roof with a passage or hallway, ten feet wide, between the two rooms. This passage way or hall was open at either end, and the only doors that the hut contained were in this passage, entering into the rooms at either end of the structure. The only windows in the rude building consisted of two holes cut into the timber walls by .sawing a section out of two of the logs, making a window in the front side of either room. These windows did not contain panes of glass, for glass in those days was very expensive ; besides, the subject of the sketch, who came with his family in an old cart to Evansville, had not taken the precaution to provide himself with such material. It was furthermore considered wise to have as few holes in the walls of one's dwelling as possible, as a wall without holes formed a soi't of barricade against the attacks of the Indians that still infested this region at that time.

The windows of this, the first dwelling ever built on the site of Evansville, were closed by drop-doors made ol' split boards, that were fastened by a sliding beam from the inside. The same sort of fastenings were used in the doors. The doors were likewise made of heavy split boards, and, while through the hours of daylight, the latchstring of the Colonel's hut hung on the outside and all callers were welcomed, when it was pulled in and the doors and windows barred for the night, the little family of Hugh McGary, especially when he was on the inside with his trusty rifle and other weapons of defense, was quite secure from the attacks of the savages and the occasional visits of the hungry wolves and bears that prowled about at night, much after the fashion of the murderous, yet cowardly, Indians.

Only two kinds of material were used in the construction of Hugh McGary's dwelling, viz., wood and dirt. There was actually not an iron nail in the entire structure. Nails were then thirty cents a pound and, while through boats carried them down the river to New Orleans and other southern cities, it was not until three or four years after Hugh McGary had built his hut that the first package of nails was pitched off at the Evausville landing.

Wooden pegs took the place of nails in the construction of the Colonel's dwelling, little holes were bored with augers and pegs, made with the pocket-knife, were driven into the holes, pinning the timbers together. The split boards on the roof were held in their places by means of poles made of young sappliugs, pinned down lengthwise across the roof

The reader must not imagine that Hugh McGary's hut was the only one ever built in this rude manner and under such disadvantages, for the fact is " the woods were full of 'em " as the saying goes ; and even to this day, in some parts oi Vanderburgh County, in what we now call the "back woods" district, these same old-fashioned log houses are to be found, in the construction of which not ten pounds of iron nails were used.

The hut of Col. Hugh McGary, during the fur season, (which is during the months of the year that contain the letter R,) was adorned on the outer walls with coon skins, bear and wolf skins, and occasionally a buck skin, for the old Colonel was not only a brave Indian fighter, but a hunter and trapper of note in his day. Col. McGary had a reputation as an Indian fighter (they did not call them soldiers in those (lays) that was equal to that of Col. Daniel Boone, of Kentucky, of whom he was once a neighbor and a close companion. Col. McGary's record as an Indian fighter began in Kentucky, as a bushwhacker after the redskins, and, like Kit Carson or Buflfalo Bill, he prided himself in running them out of the country, and in swooping down on them and breaking up their little rendezvous whenever he thought they were getting too bold. His first active experience, however, in a regular warfare against the Indian tribes that persisted in robbing and killing the early settlers of that portion of Kentucky, was begun side by side with Col. Daniel Boone, Levi Todd, Col. John Todd, John Hart, Col. Trigg, Col. Logan, and other intrepid, active

In order to write the history of the early Indian wars of Southern Indiana, and to show the connection of Col. Hugh McGary with them, it will be necessary to give an account of these early fights in Kentucky with the redskins.

Fighting Indians

Some of the most bloody conflicts occurred with the Indians in this section of the country, before they became allies of the English, and the battles fought were the outgrowth of disputes over land possessions which the Indians were loth to surrender.

It is very strange, indeed, to say the least, that authors who have made pretense of writing the life of Col. Hugh McGary should have passed very lightly and sujjerficially over the most interesting and thrilling part of his career, both in Kentucky and after he became a resident in Southern Indiana. His Indian war records furnish evidence of his intrepid disposition. Actual occurrences are left for me to record for the first time in any history of Evansville and Vanderburgh county. It is still more astonishing that no alleged historian has ever sought the descendants of this brave pioneer for reminiscences of his life, and yet they live within easy reach of Evansville. His grandson, Hugh D. McGary, is at this time a resident of McGary's, a small village iu Gibson county, not more than nine miles from Princeton. But when we reflect that the histories of this county and city, that have heretofore been written, were compiled in the old stereotyped biographical form, simply for the amount of money that could be made out of the schemes, and not because the authors were prompted by pride of ancestry, I confess I am not much astonished at their looseness.

On the 22d day of March, 1782, a band of twenty-five Wyandotte Indians made a raid on Estill station in Kentucky, killing [one white man and carrying away with them a negro slave. The owner of the station, Capt. James Estill (whose name erroneously appears in " Browne's Narratives " as Ashton) was at the time away from home with Col. Hugh McGary, Daniel Boone, Levi Todd and others, bushwhacking over the hills and through the valleys, sliooting the red devils down wherever they came within range of their guns, ^^'hen Captain Estill returned to his home the following day and learned of the attack, he summoued a posse, and hastened in pursuit of the Indians. Their trail lay toward and across the Kentucky river, leading thence to the Ohio, where the jjursuing party came within two miles of Little Mountain, now called Mount Sterling, a small village, they discovered redskins on the right bank of Hinkston's branch of Licking river, and Col. Hugh McGary and Captain Estill, whose men numbered about the same as the Indians, drew their forces into line on the opposite side of the creek. It is true every man of the good company of the brave pioneers was a good shot, but it is equally as true that the Wyandottes were good shots. The latter were shrewd enough to remain on the defensive and await an attack from the whites.

Under the united leadership of Col. McGary and Captain Estill the assault was not long delayed. With the first volley from the guns of the Kentucky settlers, the chief of the Wyandottes fell to the ground. This seemed to prostrate the Indians and it became very evident that they were ready to retreat. This only encouraged the Kentuckians to press the fight, and for some minutes war was waged in true pioneer manner. Both sides, however, were fighting under cover, and each waiting for the otter to make some open move. The Indians, always patient and slow to act, i-eraained so close in hiding that the impatient settlers determined upon a new movement, which ultimately proved to be the cause of their defeat. Captain Estill detached Lieutenant Miller, with six men with orders to go down some distance and cross the river and come up in the rear of the Indians, while he would entertain them from his present j^osition. Miller and his six men fell an easy prey to the Indians. Nearly all of them were killed. The Indians were shrewd enough not to materially weaken their front that was presented to the forces of Estill. The fight was fierce and lasted three or four hours, when finally McGary's and Estill's men were forced to retreat, pursued in every direction by howling redskins. Only four or five of the Kentuckians escaped with their lives. The Indians are supposed to have lost half of their number.

Siege Of Bryants Station

In the following August, a white renegade by the name of Simon Girty, swooped down upon Kentucky with 500 Indians, made up from the AVyandottes, Miamis, Pottawatomies, Shawnees and Cherokees. They besieged Bryant's station on the Blue Lick I'iver, n branch of the Elk Horn ; but the residents of Bryant's station hnd heard of their approach and were prepared to receive them. The attack was begun after considerable skirmishing Thirteen young men were selected to make a bold attack on the Indians, while the remainder of the garrison, about thirty in number, were prepared to receive the Indians in the rear.

Girty was deceived by this move, and supposing that the main body of the whites had gone in pursuit of his men, he made a charge on the little garrison, which poured such a shower of leaden missiles into his ranks as to completely demoralize the Indians and put them to rout.

The country had, by the appearance of Girty and his red devils, become thoroughly aroused and every able-bodied man was pressed into service. Many women, who had learned to shoot a gun, volunteered, and everybody was on the "qui vive." Among the commanders of the little pioneer army were men of known valor and bravery, the principal ones being Colonels Hugh McGaiy and Trigg, of Harrodsburgh, Colonels John Todd and Levi S. Todd and Harlan, of Lexington, and Lieutenant Colonel Boone of Boonesborough.

Colonel Logan had been notified and was on the road to join their forces with reinforcements. The Indians were- by this time thought to be 600 strong, and all the men that the settlers could muster were 181. But every man of them was equal to half a dozen Indians with the same advantages, and the proper judgment. The settlers were, for the most part, eager for the fight, and were in favor of putting the Indians on the defensive from the start. Daniel Boone, however, counselled caution, and said it would not be wise to pursue the Indians until Colonel Logan should arrive with his troops. Many of the soldiers scouted this idea, and some even intimated that it was cowardice on the part of Boone. The fearless frontiersman bore the insult with patience, and was found in the front of the battle when it did come.

This attack by Colonel McGary and Boone and Colonel Hart, of Lexington, proved to be very disastrous, as about seventy of their number were killed in trying to get across the river, including Colonel Boone's son, who was a captain in one of the companies. They had to make a hasty retreat, and Colonel Boone was wounded while trying to get the body of his son from the Indians. The attack upon these Indians turned out to be very unwise.

There were six regiments of men under command of Colonel Logan ordered to the defense of the fort, and it seemed that three of those regiments were about twenty miles in the rear of the first three, and after the first three arrived they soon discovered that the Indians were

A speedy council of war was held by the three commanding officers^ Colonel Daniel Boone, Colonel Hart, of Lexington, and Major McGary, then acting as colonel. Colonels Hart and Boone differed as to what was the best policy. One was in favor of retreating the best way they could until they met the other three regiments which were then near Lexington, eighteen miles away, and the others favored the attack. Thus it was left for Colonel McGary to decide and the order for the attack was accordingly given.

At least seventy of the men were killed in the river and the others retreated as best they could. The Indians succeeded in capturing their horses and all of their provisions and whiskey. They retreated about twelve miles where they fell in with the three other regiments that were ordered to their support. They took a short rest and then in force went back to the scene of their defeat, arriving there about midnight.

The Indians were holding a war dance, and great excitement seemed to prevail on account of their victory, and they were all drunk and disorderly.

These six regiments then crossed I^icking river above and below the fort and got into the rear of the Indians, and then the great massacre of the Indians took place. History says but few of them were allowed to escape.

When they arrived at Lexington they found an order from (ieneral Harrison, commanding all the troops that could be spared from Kentucky to report as rapidly as possible at Yincennes, Indiana, as the treaty of peace which they had been trying to make with Tecuraseh had failed, there was no doubt that a great battle would have to be fought somewhere. Those six regiments and all others that could be got together, including the militia in Indiana, reported at Yincennes according to the General's orders ; and the battle of Tippecanoe, one of the most bloody battles in the Indian wars, was fought. This resulted in bringing about a peace with all the Indian tribes that infested that part of the country of which General Harrison had command.

charged, aud the soldiers and officers started for home. Colonel McGary's regiment, what few were left of them, went to their homes in Kentucky.

Settlement Of Evansville

They started from Yincennes and took the Indian path that terminated somewhere on the Ohio river. They did not then know that said Indian path terminated at what is now the foot of Main street in Evansville. They arrived here at dark, built their camp fires, and remained all night.

Next morning Colonel McGary said that he was greatly pleased with this location. The beautiful view up and down the river seemed to gain his attention and he said to his companions that he believed he would lay his land claim at this point, as he thought it was destined some time or other to be a valuable place. They then proceeded to their homes in Kentucky, at Bardstown.

About four weeks later Colonel McGary returned with his two brothers and some friends, and they brought with them tools for the purpose of building a cabin, which they did.

He came regularly every year after that and made some improvements as a protection of his claim. His cabin remained on the premises where it was built until about the year 1835, when it was torn down to make i-oom for other, more valuable improvements. It had been used up to that time for a warehouse in which to store hides and furs of all kinds. The hut was located about forty feet from the present line of Main street, lower side, and twenty-five feet from the present line of Water street.

There are several persons now living in the city that have often been in the cabin, such as : Mr. Ira Fairchild, Mr. James Steele, Mr. Wilson Stinson, Mr. Mason Newman, and others whose names I cannot now recall.

Colonel McGary will appear in other chapters, especially in the judicial chapter, as he was the first clerk of the circuit court in about tlie year 1818.

It might be supposed from this history that Hugh McGary was the first white settler in these parts, but that is not so. We learn from history and also from the old pioneers that a number of families resided on the high grounds and hills in the rear of this place, before that time, as far back as 1 775, and also in what is now kown as Periy and Center townsliips.

As history shows Mr. Linxweiler was the first white male chikl born here. His birth occurred in 1803, in a cabin at the foot of what is now Ingle's Coal Mine Hill. The original Linxweiler family floated down the Ohio river in a flatboat and landed at that point. They broke up their flatboat into little pieces, and with other materials from the wrecks of other flat boats they built their cabin in a good and substantial manner. It served for a home for many families thereafter, some of which remained there until a few years ago. There may be even now some portions of this cabin still in existence, as the author saw it standing not many years ago.

It seems as if almost all the families that came here, whether down the river on flatboats or overland, were greatly imjiressed with this location as being an important point for future greatness. These flatboats generally lauded along the shore from the old Barnes' homestead down below the creek, and this soon became a little river settlement.

I will here give the names of many of them as I learned them from themselves and others : John Brownlee, who afterwards removed to Princeton, Gibson county ; also the large and extensive Stinson family, consisting of Floyd Stinson, John B. Stinson, one known as Little John Stinson, Benona Stinson and others; William McNitt's family ; the McCorkle family; the McCallister family; the Knight family; theVann family, one of the descendants of which is now 'Squire Vann of Knight township; the Aken family of Knight township ; the Angel family of Knight township; the McDowell family of Union township; the Catlett family of Union township; the Edmond family of Perry township; the Cox family ; Anthony's family of Union township ; the Stoner family of Union township ; the Greathouse family of Union township ; Neal's family of Union township ; and a great many others whose names will appear in other parts of this history.

Indian Treaty

A very important transaction took place between a western syndicate and the Indians. This syndicate, or land company, undertook to purchase and become the owners of a large portion of Indiana known as the "pocket," the particulars of which are here related from the history of Vanderburgh county : claimed by the Miami confederation of Indians. The boundaries of the territory claimed by the Miamis was described by Little Turtle, a distinguished Miami chief, at that treaty of Greenville in 1795. Addressing General Wayne he said : " You have pointed out to us the boundary line between the ludians and the United States, but I now take the liberty to inform you that that line cuts off from the Indians a large portion of the country which has been enjoyed by my forefathers from time immemorial, without molestation or dispute. The print of my ancestor's houses are everj'where to be seen in this portion. It is well known by ail my brothers present, that my forefather kindled the first fire at Detroit ; from thence he extended his line to the head-waters of the Scioto ; from thence to its mouth ; from thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the "VVabasli ; from thence to Chicago, on Lake Michigan."

Many years prior to the date of this announcement by Chief Little Turtle, however, it will be seen by the following transaction, that the land now included within the bounds of Vanderburgh county was recognized by the whites as belonging to the Piankeshaw ludians.

" In the year 1775," says Dillon, "after the expedition of Lord Dunmore against the Shawnees, Louis Viviat, a merchant of the Illinois country, commenced a negotiation with the Piankeshaw Indians, for the purchase of two large districts of country lying upon the borders of the river Wabash." Viviat acted as agent of an association known as the " Wabash Land Company," and at Post Viucennes, on the 11th day of October, 1775, he obtained from eleven Piankeshaw chiefs a deed from which the provisions relative to the territory of Vanderburgh county are taken : " Know ye, that we, the chiefs and Sachems of the Piankeshaw Indians, in full and public council assembled, at the town or village of Post Saint Vincent (Vincennes) for and in consideration of the sum of five shillings, to us in hand, paid by the said Louis Viviat, and for and in consideration of the following goods and merchandise to us:

Tobacco, Montour, La Grand Couette Ouaouaijao, Taba, Jr., La Monche Noir or the Black Fly, Le Maringonin or Mosquito, Le Petit Castor or the Little Beaver, Kiesquitiehies, Grelot, Sr., Grelot, Jr. The following merchandise was, for the use of the several tribes of our nation, well and truly delivered in full council aforesaid, that is to say : Four hundred blankets, twenty-two pieces of shroud, two hundred and fifty shirts, twelve gross of Star Gartering, one hundred and twenty pieces of ribbon, twenty-four pounds of vermillion, eighteen pairs velvet laced housings, one piece of maiton, fifty-two fusils, thirty-five dozen large buck-horn handled knives, forty dozen Couteau knives, five hundred pounds of brass kettles, ten thousand gun flints, six hundred pounds of gunpowder, two pounds of lead, four hundred pounds of tobacco, forty bushels of salt, three thousand pounds of flour, three horses.

All the following quantities of silverware, viz : Eleven very large arm bands, forty wrist bands, six whole moons, six half moons, nine earwheels, forty-six large crosses, twenty-nine hairpipes, sixty pairs of earbobs, twenty dozen small crosses, twenty dozen nose crosses, and one hundred aud ten dozen brooches, the receipt whereof we do hereby acknowledge."

In consideration of the above named merchandise" and money two several tracts or parcels of land were granted and transfen-ed to said Wabash Land Company. The tract in which the land now comprising Vanderburgh county, was included, was as follows: That tract or parcel of land situated, lying, and being on both sides of the Ouabache river (Wabash) beginning at the mouth of White river, where it empties into the Ouabache river, (about twelve leagues below Post St. Vincent), thence down Ouabache river down several courses thereof, until it empties into the Ohio river, being from said White river to the Ohio fifty-three leagues in length, with forty leagues in length or breadth on east side, and thirty leagues in width or breadth on the west side of the Ouabache river aforesaid.

two tracts of which the foregoing is the larger comprised in all 37,497,600 acres, and these lands were so far as the Indians had any right to sell to a company or individuals, in possession of this company for many years, but Congress after numerous petitions from the company, the last of which was made in 1810, refused to confirm the claim.

The Piankeshaws held possession of the southwest part of the state until 1768, when they gave to the Delawares that portion now included in the counties of Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh, Pike, Warrick, Spencer, and a part of Perry, and the right of the Delawares to sell this land was acknowledged by the Pottow^atomie, Miami, Eel river, and Wea tribes by the 5th article of the treaty concluded at Vincenues, August 18th, 1804. If, however the Piaukeshaw tribe had any just claim to the territory it was relinquished in treaty between said tribe and the United States, proclaimed February 5th, 1805; Article 1. The Piaukeshaw tribe relinquishes aud cedes to the United States forever all the tract of country which lies between the Ohio and Wabash rivers, and below Clark's a;raut, and the tract called the Vincenncs tract, which was ceded by the treaty of Ft. Wayne, and a line connecting said tract and grant to be drawn parallel to the general course of the road leading from Vincennes to the Fall of the Ohio, so as not to pass more than half a mile to the northward of the most northerly bend of said road.

On the 14th day of the same month a treaty on the part of the United States with the Delaware tribe was proclaimed by General W. H. Harrison, governor of Indiana territory. By this treaty the tract above described was ceded by the Delawares to the United States,^ M'ith the provision that an additional annuity of $3,000 was to be paid by the United States to them, and a sum of $500 was appropriated for the purpose of teaching them to cultivate the soil, etc., besides a large supply of agricultural implements and domestic animals were delivered to them. By these treaties with the Piankeshaw and Delaware tribes, conducted at Vincennes, August 18th and 27th, 1804, and proclaimed in February of the following year, the last claim to the territory of which A^anderburgh county is a part, was forever relinquished by the red man. The land was soon placed on the market at the land-office at Post Vincennes and entries and settlement soon followed.