Vanderburgh County, Indiana - Reminiscences of Mr. Fickas, 1897

Reminiscences of Mr. Fickas

Personal Recollections of Pioneer Times - Where Many of the Early Settlers Located - First Catnpmeeting - Schools - Rude Flouring Mills - Abundant Game - Robbing an Indian Grave - First Steamboat on the Ohio - Journey of the Socialists to New Harmony - Early Times - Threshing Methods.

I do not know that I can commemorate the birthday of the Father of Our Country more acceptably than by complying with a promise long since made to your secretary, to give you a memorandum of my observations as one of the very early settlers of Southwestern Indiana.

I am a genuine descendant of Adam and Eve ; that is to say, I am a sou of Adam and Eve Fickas, who settled near Race creek in Henderson, Ky., in the winter of 1806, and removed from there to the Indiana bank of the Ohio river, opposite Three Mile Island, to the farm in Warrick county adjoining Vanderburgh county, for many years since occupied by Simon Lane. Here my father died and was buried in 1818. My brother who resides in Missouri, and myself are the only survivors of nine children, three sous and six daughters of my parents.

Our nearest neighbors were John Sprinkle, who lived on the site of Newburgh, which town he afterwards platted and sold. It was first called Sprinklesburgh. Above Newburgh were the settlements of William Briscoe, Solomon Vanada and Julius Wiggins, all of whom lived in the vicinity of Cypress creek.

became crazy about the year 1810, and cut off the head of her infant child. There being no place of confinement where she could be secured nearer than the county seat, which was at Vincennes, (it being all Knox county in the southwestern part of Indiana at that time) the woman was sent to the Vincennes jail, where she died.

Daniel Xoble settled below Newburgh, in the vicinity of Three Mile Island, and Daniel James, the uncle of Nathaniel J. and John James, still farther below him. Next came Samuel Lewis, on the place afterwards known as the homestead of General Joe Lane. All these persons made settlements between 1810 and 1812. Aenas McCallister, the progenitor of the well known family of that name, settled opposite the mouth of Green river about the time my father located on the Kentucky side. Our neighbors on the Kentucky side were Martin Vanada, Charles Winfrey, John Fuquay, John A'ankirk, Samuel Miller, George Kincaid and Isaac Knight. Mr. Knight soon removed to the Indiana side, four miles above Evansville. In 1814 Elijah King settled on the point immediately opposite Evansville, where he lived until the time of his death about twenty-five years ago.

I was young when my father made his residence in the vicinity of the present city of Evansville, the date of my birth being October 30, 1804. I am a native of Green Briar County, Virginia, now part of West Virginia, but young as I was, I have a vivid recollection of the earthquake which upset the town of New Madrid, Missouri, in 1811, and caused the sinking of the earth in that locality to such an extent that a lake appeared where previously there had been dry land. The shock of the earthquake was sensibly felt through all our river settlements. In consequence, a religious fever suddenly seized upon the minds of the people, and they thought of little else except to attend religious worship. Many persons were fully convinced that the world was coming to an end. About this time James McGrady, who was the founder of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, appeared in this section and preached to the people. The result of his preaching was the formation of a church organization that has been a powerful element in the religious sentiment of this section of Indiana down to the present day. Finas Ewing and Hiram A. Hunter followed soon after McGrady, and under their inspiration the campmeeting system sprang into existence. A camp-ground was opened on the farm of Jessie McCallister, about three miles from Evansville, in 1815 or 1816. In about two years it was removed to the farm of Isaac Knight in the same neighborhood.

bayou settlemeut, at the farm of Jesse Lane. This system of religious service was kept up year after year, invariably in the autumn season, for a period of thirty or forty years. In after years the Cumberland Presbyterian church opened a camp-ground at New Salem, four miles north of Evansville, and near the mouth of Cypress creek, above Newburgh. They also had other camp-grounds in the adjoining counties of Posey and Gibson and in other quarters. For a long time camp-meetings continued to be annual popularassemblagesof the people. There was a great crowd present at one of the Sunday services held in a log house, and during the sermon the floor gave way and the audience was precipitated to the earth, several feet below, as the house was built high above the ground, so as to be above the annual freshets which inundated the river bottom. Of course, the excitement was intense, while screams, groans and prayers were strangely commingled in the audience. But above the din and crashing of the falling house could be heard the deep voice of a very devout old colored woman crying, "Trust in de Lord, and not a hair on your head shall be hurt." Strange to say, beyond a few slight braises, no person in the house was harmed.

I attended my first school when I was between nine and ten years old. James Patton opened a school about two miles and a half above Green river, in the year 1814. It was a comical assortment of school books that we used in that school house. An old English reader or two, one or two histories, a few testaments and elementary arithmetics, and Xoah Webster's first edition of the spelling book made up the literary department of this seminary of learning. The school was made up by individual subscription, for there was no public school fund in those days. It was many years before our grand school system was devised and put into operation.

The settlers on both sides of the river had their grinding done at Anthony's mill on Pigeon creek, which afterwards became the property of David Negley and Joel Lambert, or they-went to a mill built on Eace creek, on the Kentucky side, a mile or two above Spottsville.

Very often we were unable to have our meal ground at all, and then we used home-made hominy as a substitute for bread. Before Anthony built his mill on Pigeon creek, my father had improvised a handmill, a kind of a rude corn crusher, which answered the purpose for. pulverizing the corn, and this was in use among our neighbors, until the Anthony mill and the one on Race creek were built.

tiers for their surplus corn and coon skins. Corn was' worth 25 cents per bushel, delivered on the boat, and coon skins were a quarter apiece. In fact, the coon skin was the circulating medium, and it was freely passed back and forth in store-house transactions. The annual visit of Mr. Hayden was held by the neighborhood as an important event because from him was purchased ammunition and such necessary supplies as made mere living at all tolerable, or even possible. At very rare intervals a store boat passed down the river and its landing varied the monotony of commerce. There was also a trading post at the Red Banks, but the settlement was a small affair, the entire population not numbering as many as one hundred souls.

Our supply of salt at the beginning was home-made. The settlers repaired in squads to the Saline Ijanks at Shawueetown, where they made salt and brought it home in sacks on horseback. My father owned the only wagon in the settlement which he had brought with him from Virginia. In the course of a few years, when the trading posts began to pass along the river, we were enabled to procure salt from them manufactured on the Kanawha.

Game of all kinds was so abundant as to be a nuisance. Most of the openings or plantations were very small, embracing only twenty or thirty acres of cleared land, and the settlers were obliged to go around their fields every day, armed with rifles - there were no shotguns in the vicinity - and at night made the same circuits accompanied by a pack of dogs, as a measure of protection against the incursions of all kinds of vermin - raccoons, minks, bears and indeed all kinds of game. When I was nine years old I handled a rifle, as I thought, with the percision of a veteran. One day I saw a large bear swimming across the Ohio. I watched till he scrambled up the bank, close to the house, when I gave him the contents of my gun, and killed the fellow at the first shot. Isaac Knight came along and dressed my bear for me.

My eldest brother, John Fickas - for many years a well known resident of Vanderburgh County - Tom Skillett, Sam Butler and Elisha Brumfield were drafted for the defense of New Orleans during the war of 1812. They went with "The Hunters of Kentucky," to swell the ranks of Jackson in his campaign against Packenham. After Jackson's great victory at New Orleans, they were discharged from service and set out for home on foot. Tiicy Avalked all the way, sleeping in the woods and killing game for their support, on their long and wearisome journey. They brought with them the first intelligence received at Red Banks, or the Green river settlement, of the result of the battle of New Orleans.

I remember very well the circumstances of Absalom Dover, Isaac Strain and others, robbing the grave of an Indian warrior who died while passing through our neighborhood with a small remnant of his tribe. He was buried M'ith his gun, accouterments and trappings placed at his side. It was the intention to procure these trophies that caused the grave to be violated. The gun was found to be the same that had been captured by the Indians when they made a prisoner of Isaac Knight some years before. It had the name of John Small, Vincennes, Ind., sunk on the barrel. I owned the gun after I was grown for a number of years.

The first steamboat that plied the waters of the Ohio was the wonder of the age. Word had been circulated along the river the season before that a real steamboat was being built at Pittsburgh, with the view of plying between that jjoint and New Orleans. Everybody was on the lookout for the wonderful steamer. Finally she appeared, waking the silence of the forest with her voice, and attracting to the riverside all the inhabitants along the shore. The boat was called " Kobert Fulton." She had but one engine, and a single deck, the cabin being built immediately above the hull. She was a side-wheel, as Avere all the early steamboats. The next boats were the Aetna and the Washington, both of them fashioned like the Fulton. The time made by the early steamers was remarkable only for its exceeding slowness. On one occasion my brother John had gone down the river, and he started on foot and alone to walk home from Natchez. A steamboat started up the river, the same morning he set out on foot. When he reached the mouth of Green river the waves were yet dashing against the shore, waves made by the same steamboat which had just passed up the Ohio.

Notwithstanding the introduction of steam, the business of shipping continued to be done in a great measure by keel boats and barges, using sails for a motive power, when it was practicable, and resorting to the use of cordel, when the wind was adverse. The trips were long and tedious and the navigators dearly earned all the money they made.

I remember distinctly when George and Frederick Rapp, with their German socialists, passed down the Ohio, en route for their settlement at New Harmony. They landed at my father's house and were amazed to find here in the wild west a man who could speak the German language with fluency. I saw the town of Evansville the first two years of its existence. It was then a little hamlet composed of five or six log cabins, surrounded by a dcns(; forest in its natural state. Where the public square was laid out, and the old court-house subsequently built, was a dense growth of timber yet untouched by the axe. From sucli a beginning our beautiful city has grown. In its infancy ami in its maturity I have watched its progress, and there are not many living who have watched the whole of its development as I have. For seventy-five years I have lived in the town, "or within a dozen miles of it, and I am glad to know that before I close my eyes forever, the record is likely to be made up that will link the scenes of the past with the events of the present, in a firm, unbroken chain.

Early Times And Customs

Many of the old Revolutionary soldiers, dis.satisfied with the slavery of the south,'settled on the banks of the Ohio at different points - near Green River Island, Red Banks (now Henderson) and other places. Abraham Vann settled just above Evansville in 1805. Later on David Knight, a shoemaker, settled on Lost Hill, now Oak Hill.

Many a log house then had but one clapboard door, with a latchstring lock and no window* There were the board roof, puncheon floor, and mud chimney. In the time of the great earthquake in 1811-12 - continued shakes came every few days - the settlers, believing the last day had come, ran out of their homes and went about from house to house and held appealing prayer meetings to the Almighty. Some time after this seismic commotion a large hewed log came up out of Mr. Vann's spring and no one knew where it came from.

One day Mrs. Young, hearing her boys crying in great distress, went out to investigate, and discovered a big black bear in a jien nearby. She got the gun and in short order dispatched the too-bold bruin. The early settlers had a hard time to live. They had to pound their corn into coarse meal to make bread. Then came a man by the name of Knight and built a tread-mill for grinding corn, somewhere near where Lincoln avenue now is located in Knight township. A horse walked on a large inclined tread-wheel and turned the mill. This was superseded by a steam-mill erected by A. P. Hutchinson. Later on came better mills.

In those days knowledge was taught in night-schools for old and young. Mr. Whitney had the first and only mud house in this country ; it was built by Henry Marker. Two men once quarreled with their wives and they settled the trouble by swapping wives, one paying fifty cents to boot. David Akin kept a wood-yai-d. A steamboat after taking wood refused to pay. Akin waded into the water and cut the boat's cable and triumphantly bore it ashore. Samuel Carlisle lived on the old Linxweiler farm on Pigeon creek One Sunday morning the news came that Carlisle had shot his wife and then himself. In his funeral sermon the minister said it was not the husband that did it but a jug of whisky.

In the first days of the country many differences were settled with the fist instead of by law. Silas Parker and Clark Lewis, one sixty years of age and the other seventy, once fought to a finish, General Evans acting as referee. The author has heard these two men many a time crack jokes over how they once cracked heads.

Ira A. Fairchilds, Sr., son of Seth Fairchilds, was born in Otsego county, New York, January 29, 1814, and came to Evansville in 1818, and remembered that Devine McGary'sand Lewis McGary's log cabins stood on the river bank. Lewis' being a double house. Mr. Fairchilds recollected that court was held in one of these rooms, while McGary lived in the other, all his furniture being removed to the one room. Judge Blackford, he also remembered, held the first court. This was perhaps while some construction was going on in Hugh McGary's two-story frame. Mr. Stinson^s cabin stood then about where Sunset park is now. Seth Fairchilds' log cabin was near where the old Blue warehouse is now on Water street. The widow Sweezer kept a ferry across the mouth of Pigeon creek, then a wide stream. It was then two hundred and fifty yards from Water street to the top of the high river bluff. A field of corn was on the river bank. Mr. Fairchilds, before his death, (October, 1896) stated that Hugh McGary weighed about 170 or 180 pounds, was square built, six feet tall, dark complexioned, fiery, and strong. He commanded a company at the battle of Tippecanoe. He had three children, two girls and a boy. His wife was an old-fashioned, good-natured woman. Clarissa, one of McGary's daughters, taught Mr. Fairchilds how to swim. Their cornmeal mill consisted of a spring-pole with an iron wedge in one end aud held in place by a baud which also prevented its splitting. The wedge then beat the corn in the hominy-mortar. Old Mrs. Anthony, of Henderson, would tie her clothes on her head and swim the river. McGary was a trader, and after he built his frame-house established a grocery store in it. He bought up hides, meats, grain, &c., and made considerable money. The salt from the first saltwell^ would preserve meats; they bored deeper, and that which was found then would not preserve meats. So they got their salt from Illinois, back ol Shawneetown. The first road through Vanderburgh county was an Indian trail from Red Bank (Henderson) to Vincenues. Sleds were used in winter and ox-carts in summer. Mr. Faireliiids carried Judge Olnistead across Pigeon creek on his obacii many times. The Indians that came to the settlement in those days gambled in a singular manner. They put a silver picayune on the end of a stick and would shoot at it. Every time one of them hit it it became his who shot, and when he missed he would lament the loss of what might have been his by greater skill. In every hamlet the white jieople also indulged in the same game.

Mr. R. D. McGary, of Kent, Indiana, writes that Colonel Hugh McGary was, in a measure, responsible for the defeat at the battle of Blue Lick, August 19, 1782. The young officers M'ould not wait for General Logan to come with his reinforcements, but contended there were enough brave men who would follow them, and they even hinted cowardice. So Colonels Boone and McGary joined in the advance the next day, and when they reached Licking river the Indians had already crossed over. Now when the young officers saw the great number of Indians, they began to talk of waiting for General Logan to come up. Mr. R. D. McGary writes : "Hugh McGary got mad and swore at them for seeing danger before they had got into it, and cursed them for being cowards. Then he rushed into the river and cried with an oath that all who were not d - d cowards should follow him or he would disgrace them forever. This is what my grandfather and my father have told me often. Colonel Hugh was a man of fiery temper, uncontrollable when mad. He was a vei\y active man, about five feet ten inches tall, and weighed from 180 to 200 pounds. He never knew what fear was." He had a brother John, and they first lived at Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Their wives were the first white women ever seen in that town. When Colonel Hugh McGary left Evansville, he went to Tennessee, where he died at a very old age. These brothers came originally from Ireland when boys.

Early Threshing Methods

The first way tiie farmers had to thresh wheat was trainjiing with a horse, then flailing it out. They took the chaff out witii a sheet. Then the tramp-mill came next.

Matthew Gilbe came from England, where he had a tlircsliing machine. He was the father-in-law of \Vm. Gore, who married Mary Ann Gilbe, and is now a resident of this city, living at oOO Mary street. Gilbe came here December 15, 18.36. He located in this country in the Hornbrook settlement, below Darmstadt. There was then not a threshing machine in the State of Indiana. He saw an advertisement in a Louisville paper of two threshing machines for sale, and he went there and purchased one of them for $100. It was a four-horse power, with not a bit of wood about the power. He brought it to Evansville and had truck- wheels made at Stringtown and mounted his machine on them, and gave notice to the neighbors that the first man who engaged him to thresh he would thresh his wheat free of charge. People came for miles to see it work.

It was not the "ground hog thresher ;" it was a toui'-house power. He threshed for $5 a day, or 6i cents, or a Picayune, a bushel. Wheat was then $1, pork $6 per hundred - in 1839 - while the canal was then being dug. Mr. Rowley, the miller, had the contract for excavating this section of the canal.

A. threshing machine, made differently, came in that year late, but it did not prove a success. It broke the grain. The next was the Tinker, or "ground hog." Then came the big sejiarator, built by Heilman, which was gradually perfected. They were shipped all over the west and south in later years, and they made the traction engines that went with them, and superseded the horse-power, and here is where Heilmau finally made his great fortune.

The farmers helped each other out. They raked up wheat and oats with a hand-rake. The improved threshing machines came before the reapers. Cradles then were used. If a man raised one hundred bushels of wheat in that early day he was counted a big farmer.

Tramping out wheat on the ground was an early method. No iron forks were in use then - all wooden forks. In harvest times whisky as a beverage was openly used, and set out where a harvester could get it when he wanted it. There were no more oxen then than horses. A stump-puller was a mere hook and chain. The first harrow was made of wood. The first plow was all wood, except the shear - wooden "mould-boards." The first iron plows were cast-iron; now they are steel. They were then made in blacksmith shops, now they are made in big factories.

The first bakers who lived here used to carry bread around in baskets. The first bread cart was for one horse and was built by Frederick Wetzel, who owned a bakery.

Vanderburgh County Formed out of Warrick County, Which \^ as Originally a Part of Knox County - The Part General Evans Took in Forming Evansville - First Town Election - First Census in i8ig - Gradual Growth of the County-scat of the New County - fudge Henry Vanderburgh.

County was created in 1813, out of tliat j)art of Knox ''' County soutli of what is known as "Rector's Base Line," which was the first line run by government surveyors through the Southern Indiana territory and upon w^hich all subsequent government surveys were based. Warrick County, which then comprised all the territory out of which Vanderburgh County was subsequently formed, extended from the Harrison Couuty line to the Wabash river.

Colonel McGary, who owned the lower part of what subsequently became the location of the city of Evansville, laid out a number of lots and donated some of them to Warrick county, on condition that the contemplated court-house should be located on them. He had an eye to business and knew that the court-house would enhance the value of his projjerty.

The territorial legislature, the following year (1814) divided the vast territory covered by Warrick county, creating Posey county out ot the west portion and Perry county out of the east portion. This left the site of Evansville in the southwest corner of the remaining territory still known as Warrick county. The same legislature disappointed the hopes of Colonel McGary, by locating the seat of justice about four miles from Xewburgh, on a tract of laud owned by Nathaniel Ewing, which had been donated for that purpose. This location was known as " Darlington. "

Nothing worthy of note, in its effect on the future of Evansville, occurred after that, until 1816 and 1817, at which period General Robert M. Evans, who was then a resident of New Harmony, and James W. Jones, both enterprising gentlemen, conceived the idea that there were the elements of a promising settlement here. They owneil that portion of the site of Evansville north of what is now Main street, so tiiey proposed to the indomitable ^IcGary that the tliree re-plat tiie

McGary had sold some parts of the tract to other parties in the meantime, and further complications arose causing General Evans to make another survey. It seems that the survey took precedence, and the town was named Evansville in his honor. He was a learned man and endowed with wonderful executive ability. He now had plats of the enlarged town printed and sent broadcast over the country. These fell into the hands of citizens of Yincennes, which was then a government fort, and of New Harmony, which was then a prosperous settlement, and of other interior towns in the Wabash valley, and soon a large number of settlers was headed for Evansville.

In 1818, another important event occurred, which did much to further the interests of Evansville. The legislature of that year divided the territory of Warrick county and formed Vanderburgh county from the western portion of it, naming it in honor of Judge Henry Vanderburgh, a territorial judge of Indiana. This act was approved January 7, 1818. This was the opportunity for Genera] Evans and Robert McGary, and they were not slow to act. The same legislature appointed a board of commissioners to fix the seat of justice for the new county of Vanderburgh, and through the intercession of General Evans and Colonel McGary they offered one hundred lots and $500 in cash if the state's commissioners would locate the court-house in Evansville, and the following report was made to the county commissioners, viz:

"In consideration of the local advantages of Evansville, and a liberal donation by the proprietors of 100 lots and $500 in cash, or such material as will suit in the erection of the public buildings, we, the commissioners appointed by the legislature, have established and fixed the permanent seat of justice of Vanderburgh county, at Evans-

First Town Election

This was the beginning of the first prosperous era for the town of Evansville, and in August of that year (1818) the first election was held and the following trustees were elected :

Hugh McGary, Isaac Fairchild, Everton Kinnerly, Alfred O. Warner and Francis J. Bentley. Hugh McGary was elected president of the town board, Elisha Harrison "was chosen secretary and lister (now called assessor) of taxable property, John Connor was chosen treas- urer, and Aljibonse Fairchild collector and marshall. The first levy of taxes made was twenty cents on the dollar of real property and a special tax on various kinds of personal property ; but as valuations were very low the tax amounted to very little, turning into the treasury the first year the magnificent sum of $191.28. It is a significant fact that the first meeting of the town trustees was not held until the 29th of March, 1819, nearly nine months after they had been elected. But as there were no sjioils to deal out to ward-healers in those days as there are now, there was no inducement for the town trustees to be in a hurry about getting together.

The census of the town was taken during this year (1819), and showed one hundred and one inhabitants. The only public building in the town at that time, (as the court-house had not as yet been completed), was an inn or tavern kept by Ansel Wood. Esq., which M^as situated on what is now known as Main street, then called the state road. This was known as tlie Bull's Head tavern in later years. The first grocery store, and the only store, was located in a hut built by Hugh McGary, fronting on Water and Main. This store was started in this building by Wm. McKnitt, whose daughter was Mrs. James Steele and who still resides here. Mrs. Steele's mother, Mrs. McKnitt, was a sister of Benona and John B. Stinson, who settled on a farm below town in 1812, on or about McGary's time.

The second store that opened in the town of Evansville, which could pi'operly be called a store, was located on the river bank and was opened by a Frenchman who sold out to a Mr. Armstrong in a few months, and the latter was succeeded by the Lewis Bros. Very little money passed over the counters of the stores in those days, everything being given in exchange for coon skins, bear skins, wolf skins, wood and the few products of the earth that were raised. These were turned into money by the stoi-ekeeper, who floated theiu down the river, even as far as New Orleans.

The first town board of trustees succeeded in doing very little for the good of the town, but doubtless their op2:)ortunities for usefulness were limited ; and in 1820 John M. Dunham, Daniel F. Goldsmith, Prestley Pritchett, William Mills, Jr., and John A. Chandler were elected trustees, which, it will be noticed, was an entirely new board.

Evansville S Progress

Prominent citizens from the surrounding towns and even from a great distance now began to turn their eyes toward Evansvilie. The circuit rider was gradually being displaced by the resident minister. The country about Evansvilie showed evideuces of the advance guard of husbandry, and artisans of various kinds, with their tools were already on the ground. When General Evans moved from New Harmony to Evansvilie, which was in 1824, and took up his active residence here, bringing with him some of the very best men ot the Rapp- Owen community of colonists, the wheels of progress began to turn, slowly, it is true, and propelled as yet by manual, animal, wind or water power, but the signs all pointed nevertheless, to the beginning of the end of want and privation for the sturdy pioneers. About this period in the history of Evansvilie, the town government began to assume shape and system ; churches were organized ; flatboating on the river assumed respectable proportions and steamboats passed up and down the Ohio. In other words society had begun to organize itself. Every phase of life and activity, in all directions, began to show evidences of vigorous energy and systematic co-operation. I shall, therefore, from this time on, through the future pages of this work, treat of these things as I found them and as they have been handed down through tradition, in classified form as nearly as it is possible to do so; and instead of making this work a mere chronology of events, following dates in succession, I shall attempt to give the reader an intelligent, and comprehensive history, devoid of a tedious recital of statistics, etc., in detail.

I lay before the readers what I consider the foundation of Indiana territory, a document in which for the first time the name of Vanderburgh county is made a record of in any way whatever - a name given in memory and honor of the great jurist. General Vanderburgh. This is taken from the records made in 1787 to 1799. In accordance with an ordinance made in 1787, ten persons were nominated, out of whom the president of the United States was authorized to select five as members of the lej^islative council of the territor_y northwest of the Ohio river. From the ten nominees named, President Adams selected Jacob Burnett, James Findlay, Henry Vanderburgh, Robert Oliver and David Vance, who were nominated as the legislative council of the northwestern territory and confirmed by the senate of the United States. The first meeting of the territorial legislature occurred in Cincinnati, September 16, 1799, On the 24th the two houses were duly organized, Henry Vanderburgh being elected president of the council, William C. Schenck, secretary, and Abner Cany, sergeant at arms. On the 7th of May, 1800, the president of the United States approved an act of Congress entitled "An act to divide the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio into two separate governments." On the division of the territory pursuant to this act, the material parts of the ordinance of 1787 remained in force in the territory of Indiana.

The seat of government for the territory was located at Vincennes. William Henry Harrison was appointed governor ; John Gibson, secretary ; William Clark, Henry Vanderburgh and John Griffin, territorial judges. At this time the population of the Indiana territory was only 4,875. On January 10, 1801, Governor Harrison issued a proclamation convening the judges at the seat of government at Vincennes, on Monday, January 12, 1801, where they remained in session two weeks, having adopted and published seven laws and three resolutions. The first session of the general court of the territory was held at Vincennes, beginning March 3, 1801. There was no legislature in the Indiana territory until after the separation of Michigan, June 30, 1805, pursuant to an act of Congress January 11th, preceding.

On September 11, 1804 a vote was taken, and a majority of 138 of the freeholders of the territory voted in favor of organizing a General Assembly. Whereui^on Governor Harrison issued a proclamation calling for election of members for a house of representatives, to be held on January 3, 1805, and citing the members to meet at Vincennes on the 1st of February to take measures for the organization of a territorial council.

The first General Assembly ot the territory convened at Vincennes July 29, 1805. On July 30th (Toveruor Harrison delivered his message, and soon after the council and house of representatives by joint ballot elected Benjamin Parke the first delegate to Congress from Indiana territory.

Knox county was oi'ganized during the summer of 1790. Its boundary included the states of Indiana and Michigan. By the year 1798 Wayne county had been formed with Detroit as the county seat, and embraced the greater part of the state of Michigan and some of northern Indiana.

By the year 1802 Clark and Randolph counties had been formed, and in 1805 Dearborn county was added. In June, 1805, Michigan was made a separate territory, and Illinois in March, 1809. There were at this time four counties : Knox, Clark, Dearborn and Harrison in Indiana territory.

In 1810 Jefferson, Franklin and Wayne counties were formed, and in 1813 Gibson and Warrick were organized from territory belonging to Knox. The limits of Warrick county at the time of its organization M-ere all that territory which lies south of a line at a point on the Wabash river at the southwest corner of Gibson county, and running east to the western line of Harrison county, thence south to the Ohio river. It included the present counties of Vanderburgh, Posey, Spencer, Perry and a portion of Ci'awford. Evansville was made the county seat. In 1818 the state legislature passed an act creating Vanderburgh and Spencer counties from the territoiy belonging to Warrick. Vanderburgh county is bounded on the north by Gibson, on the east by AVarrick, on the south by the Ohio river, and on the west by Posey county.

It was named in honor of Henry Vanderburgh, who served as a captain in the Revolution, was a member of the legislative council of the Northwest territory, and a judge of the first court organized in the Indiana territory. The county was organized by an act of the legislature in 1818, and has an area of two hundred and forty square miles. The principal streams are Pigeon, Blue Grass, Wagnon, Big Pond, and Locust creeks. The soil, for the most part, is a .sandy loam and well adapted to the raising of wheat, oats, barley and small garden products. In the river bottoms corn is the only grain that can be raised witli profit. A large part of this land, and especially that of Union township, is subject to an annual overflow in the spring, thus preventing the raising of any grain, excepting that which can be raised and harvested in one season. The soil is composed of the deposits of the river for ages, and being annually added to, its richness cannot be exhausted.

Judge Henry Vanderburgh

The county in which Evansville is situated was called after Judge Henry Vanderburgh, though he was never a citizen of the county. In Troy, New York, he was born in 1760. When only sixteen years old he was appointed a lieutenant in the Fifth New York regiment of Continental troops, ancT commissioned as such by John Jay. John Hancock reappointed him, and later he was commissioned captain in the Second regiment. He served till the close of the war in 1783, and not long afterward located at Yincennes in the Northwest territory, where he was married in February, 1790, to Miss Frances Cornoyer, a French damsel of Post Yincennes. Gen. St. Clair, in 1 791, appointed him justice of the peace and judge of the probate court in Knox county. The first legislature which the people of the Northwest territory had any part in electing met in Cincinnati in 1799. From the nominations, Gen. St. Clair, the territorial governor, selected Judge Yanderburgh as one of the five who constituted the legislative council, and by his colleagues he was chosen president of the council. On the organization of Indiana territory he was selected as one of the territorial judges, a position he was occupying at the time of his death, April 12, 1812. He became a member of the board of trustees of the Yincennes University in 1807. His remains were interred with Masonic honors on a farm east of the Old Post.