Vigo County, Indiana - Chapter 4, 1891

Who First Passed up the Wabash - Armies of the Revolution Were upon the Soil of Yigo County - The War Changes the Ownership of This Territory - Our First Regularly Organized Government under the Military - Gen. George Rogers Clarke and His Impor¬ tant Achievements - This Territory Becomes Illinois County, Ya. - Capt. Leonard Helm - Etc.

IN the year 1759 - one hundred and thirty-one years ago, the French and Indian army that had been recruited in the Illinois, along the Mississippi at Kaskaskia and other points, floated in their canoes and batteaux down the Mississippi, up the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash, and thence up this river on their way to the lakes and to Quebec.

This was during the French-Indian war commencing in 1756, for the possession of Canada and the northwest, and prior to the fall of Quebec. During the year 1759 the French made every effort to stir up the Indians north of the Ohio, and in their savage war upon the English to make one more effort to preserve the northwest to the French and their Indian allies. Emissaries were sent to Lake Erie, Detroit, Mackinaw, Vincennes, Kaskaskia and Fort Chartres, with presents and ammunition for the purpose of col¬ lecting all the forces possible. The French army in Canada was hard pressed for reinforcements. The English navy had cut off their supplies and reinforcements from the mother country, while the English were constantly receiving reinforcements from Eng¬ land.

Mens, de Aubry, commandant at Fort Chartres, induced 400 of the Illinois French to enlist in his army to go to Canada. He carried with his army 200,000 pounds of flour. To this French force he gathered nearly a thousand Indians. The route by way of the Ohio was closed, the English being in possession of Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh). He with his heterogeneous army of relief therefore ascended the Wabash, following this stream to where is Fort Wayne, and making the portage, floated down the Maumee and entered Lake Erie. During the entire voyage they were being reinforced from the different tribes through whose borders they passed.

We have no authentic records as to what de Aubry did with the Indians occupying a Wea village near where is now Terre Haute. There is no doubt the fleet stopped here and pow-wowed with the chief men of the place. They may have indulged in royal dog feast, a war dance or any of the other high joint, fashionable amusements of that time.

The average members of the original K. Ns. about the year 1759, for some reason were prejudiced against the English and par¬ tial toward the French. The high born native ladies were strongly disposed to cut dead their English lady acquaintances at their most recherche teas and progressive euchre parties. They had no hesi¬ tation, it is supposed, in saying right out that many of the English were " no better than they ought to be."

The French understood best how to manage the Indians, and in the war between the French and English, the natives sided mostly with the Gaul, and so long as the fighting was in the wilderness they were usually victorious over their English foes. But the Eng¬ lish were the easy master on the seas and they overthrew the French by attacking Quebec and when that fell into their hands the final results were easy to be seen.

The real point of contention at first was for the fur trade of the northwest, more than that of territorial conquest. In the great wilderness the French and English trappers and furtraders had crossed paths and they appealed to arms as the sole arbiter in the dispute.

the Ohio river to the lakes by this river was already well known. The country had been well mapped by the trappers and hunters, as well as by the tribes of Indians on the lakes and scattered along the river. They knew the Fort Wayne portage - the carrying point from where the waters flowed south to where they flow north to the lakes.

It was fifty-two years from the time the French -Indian army passed up the Wabash, and no doubt bivouacked where is now Terre Haute, before the English army under Gen. Harrison came to take possession in the name of the union of States.

The white man had discovered and passed down the Mississippi river nearly one hundred years before de Aubry passed up the Wabash, and it is probable before Joliet and Marquette had navi¬ gated the Mississippi and the Illinois rivers, or La Salle had crossed from the lakes to Pittsburgh and had passed down the Ohio.

Long intervals of time followed between these earliest comings and goings of the white man. These explorers and discoverers claimed and cross-claimed the great unknown western world generally to its " widest and uttermost boundaries." The hunters and trappers, in the name of their respective kings, made claim to everything wher¬ ever their pursuit of game or fur animals led them. Back in the Old World the French, English and Spanish nations supported the most extravagant claims made by their respective people.

The English disputed the French claim to the entire fur trade of the northwest, and denied their title to the valley of the Missis¬ sippi, which lay west of the colonies along the Atlantic coast. The grants from the British crown usually conveyed to the charter pro¬ prietors all the country lying between certain parallels of latitude according to the location of the several grants, and extending west¬ ward to the South sea, as the Pacific ocean was then called. Seeing in time the weakness of such flimsy claims to the vast tract of country upon which no Englishman had even set his feet, they ob¬ tained deeds of cession from the Iroquois Indians - the dominant tribe east of the Mississippi. They claimed all the country between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi by conquest from the several Algonquin tribes who occupied it. On July 13, 1701, the sachems of the Five Nations conveyed to William III., king of Great Britian " their beaver hunting grounds northwest and west from Albany," including a " broad strip on the south side of Lake Erie." Vigo county was in this " broad strip," and this is beyond doubt the first definite bill of sale of the county, that was ever put on record. This deed was evidently to define the other more general transfers of title.

An abstracter therefore of Terre Haute who cared to commence with the commencement in the chain of title, would be no doubt safe in starting with this record deed of the Five Nations to any corner lot in the city. It was always claimed by the English that this was a good and sufficient fee-simple title to the States of Mich¬ igan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The grantors - the Five Nations - recited in their deed " that their ancestors did, more than four score years before, totally conquer, subdue and drive the former occupants out of the country," etc. Then the deed proceeds to recite " that the Iroquois for themselves and heirs granted the English crown the whole soil, the lakes, the rivers, and all things pertaining to said tract of land, with power to erect forts and castles there," only reserving to the grantors "their descendants forever the right of hunting upon the same."

Now, the fact is, that this claim of conquering the country on the part of the Iroquois was so attenuated that an old veteran of the late war would, on examination, have pronounced it a "camp rumor." But the English were great land sharps. They knew this title was shadowy, but is was a " color of title," and this with possession and the payment of taxes in a few years makes a warranty deed.

The Wabash Indians maintained unrelenting hatred and kept up their usual predatory warfare on the English. Their fierce incur¬ sions from this region upon the settlers of Kentucky, in time brought the Anglo-Saxon's heavy revenges, and was the means of wresting by conquest all this region from the possession and armed ownership of the Indians and French, who had held it as coparceners for a considerable time.

When the colonists had revolted against the mother country, and the war of independence was being waged, then it was that the English resorted to the same tactics with the Indians that the French had used so successfully against them. The English had military posts at Detroit, Vincennes and Kaskaskia, and they used every inducement to incite the savages against the "rebels." In 1777 these Indian depredations were so severe upon the Kentuck¬ ians, that Gen. George Rogers Clarke conceived and in 1778 exe¬ cuted an expedition against the French of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. He asked permission and was authorized to raise a regiment, but so poor were the struggling colonies that he was almost left alone to maintain and provide for his little ragged army.

To capture the French posts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes was a bold conception, undertaken by one of America's greatest men. He appealed to Gov. Patrick Henry, of Virginia, and laid before him his daring plans. Gov. Henry at once saw the importance of the proposition, and entered heartily into aiding it all he possibly could. He and Clarke solemnly agreed to keep their secret sacred, and Clarke was instructed to proceed to enlist seven companies of men, ostensibly for the protection of the Kentucky frontier, and at the same time he had another secret order to attack the British posts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes.

This little secret military expedition was one of the compara¬ tively unimportant moves on the chess board of war to all appear¬ ances, yet was in fact, one of the most important movements in behalf of the United States ever conceived and executed. At the time the results were but little understood. The seat of war was east of the Alleghenies, where our Revolutionary sires were winning immortal glory that absorbed the attention of the world. The West was the unknown wilderness, with only the isolated French settle¬ ments about Vincennes, Kaskaskia and Detroit. The country in its wide boundaries was occupied by savages and wild beasts. It was only after the northwest began to be settled, and its capabilities to main¬ tain the rich empire it now possesses was at all realized, the mag¬ nitude of the conquest of Gen. Clarke's expedition. The States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin were saved to the Union by Gen. Clarke and Gov. Henry. The memory of Gen. Clarke, the value of his work, has not been sufficiently understood or appreciated by his countrymen.

At the treaty of peace held at Paris at the close of the Revolu¬ tionary war, the British insisted that the Ohio river should be the northern boundary of the United States. The records and corre¬ spondence of that important treaty show that the only ground on which the American commissioners relied to sustain their claim that the lakes should be the boundary, was the fact "that Gen. Clarke had conquered the country and was in the undisputed mili¬ tary possession of it at the time of the negotiations. This fact was affirmed and admitted, and was the chief ground on which the British commissioners reluctantly abandoned their claim."

As this expedition of Gen. Clarke's is a part of the vital history of the territory of Vigo county, it should be kept familiar to our people, and as a part of the history of their country and their homes, it should be told in the high schools of the county. Vigo county gets its name from circumstances connected with the expe¬ dition that saved -us from being yet a part of Canada and British subjects, as well as a part of the record title to the country we inhabit. There can be no early history any more interesting and instructive to our young people, and the facts are best told in Gen. Clarke's own words :

"On the 24th of June, 1778, we left our little island [this was Louisville] and run about a mile up the river in order to gain the main channel and shot the falls at the very moment of the sun being in a great eclipse, which caused various conjectures among the superstitious. As I knew that spies were kept on the river below the towns of the Illinois, I had resolved to march part of the way by land, and, of course, left the whole of our baggage, except as much as would equip us in the Indian mode. The whole of our force, after leaving such as was judged not competent to the expected fatigue, consisted only of four companies, commanded by Captains John Montgomery, Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helms and William Harrod. My force being so small to what I expected, owing to the various circumstances already mentioned, I found it necessary to alter my plans of operations.

" I had fully acquainted myself that the French inhabitants in those western settlements had great influence among the Indians in general and were more beloved by them than any other Europeans; that their commercial intercourse was universal throughout the western and northwestern countries, and that the governing interests on the lakes was mostly in the hands of the English, who were not much beloved by them. These and many other ideas similar thereto caused me to resolve, if possible, to strengthen myself by such train of conduct as might probably attach the French inhabit¬ ants to our interests and give us influence in the country we were aim¬ ing for. These were the principles that influenced my future con¬ duct, and fortunately I had just received a letter from Col. Camp¬ bell, dated Pittsburgh, informing me of the contents of the treaties between France and America. As I intended to leave the Ohio at Fort Massac, three leagues below the Tennessee, I landed on a small island in the mouth of that river in order to prepare for the march. In a few hours after one John Duff and a party of hun¬ ters coming down the river were brought to our boats. They were men formerly from the States, and assured us of their happiness in the adventure. * * They had been but lately at Kaskaskia, and were able to give us all the intelligence we wished. They said that Gov. Abbot had lately left Port Vincennes and gone to Detroit on business of importance; that Mr. Rochblave commanded at Kas¬ kaskia, etc. ; that the militia was kept in good order, and spies on the Mississippi, and that all hunters, both Indians and others, were ordered to keep a good lookout for the rebels; that the fort was kept in good order as an asylum, etc., but they believed the whole to proceed more from the fondness for parades than the expecta¬ tion of a visit; that if they received timely notice of us they would collect and give us a warm reception, as they were taught to har¬ bor a most horrid idea of the rebels, especially the Virginians; but that if we could surprise the place, which they were in hopes we might, they made no doubt of our being able to do as we pleased; that they hoped to be received as partakers in the enterprise and wished us to put full confidence in them and they would assist the

" The acquisition to us was great, as I had no intelligence from those posts since the spies I sent twelve months past. But no part of their information pleased me more than that of the inhabitants as viewing us as more savage than their neighbors, the Indians. I was determined to improve upon this if I was fortunate enough to get them into my possession, as I conceived the greater the shock I could give them at first the more sensibly would they feel my lenity and become more valuable friends. This I conceived to be agreeable to human nature, as I had observed it in many instances. Having everything prepared we moved down to a little gully, a small distance above Massac, in which we concealed our boats and set out a northwest course. The weather was favorable. In some parts water was scarce, as well as game. Of course we suffered drought and hunger, but not to excess. On the third day John Saunders, our principal guide, appeared confused and we soon dis¬ covered that he was totally lost, without there was some other cause of his present conduct."

" I asked him various questions, and from his answers I could scarcely determine what to think of him - whether or not that he was lost or wished to deceive us. * * The cry of the whole de¬ tachment was that he was a traitor. He begged that he might be suffered to go some distance into a plain that was in full view to try to make some discovery whether or not he was right. I told him he might go, but that I was suspicious of him from his conduct; that from the first day of his being employed he always said he knew the way well; that there was now a different appearance; that I saw the nature of the country was such that a person once ac¬ quainted with it could not in a short time forget it; that a few men should go with him to prevent his escape, and that if he did not discover and take us into the hunter's road that led from the east into Kaskaskia, which he had frequently described, I would have him immediately put to death, which I was determined to have done. But after a search of an hour or two he came to a place that he knew perfectly well, and we discovered that the poor fellow had been, as they called it, bewildered.

"On the Fourth of July, in the evening, we got within a few miles of the town, where we lay until near dark, keeping spies ahead, after which we commenced our march and took possession of a house wherein a large family lived on the bank of the Kaskaskia river, about three-quarters of a mile above town. Here we were informed that the people a few days before were under arms, but had concluded that the cause of the alarm was without foundation, and that at that time there was a great number of men in town, but that the Indians generally had left it, and at present all was quiet. We soon procured a sufficiency of vessels, the more in ease, to con¬ vey us across the river.

"With one of the divisions I marched to the fort and ordered the other two into different quarters of the town. If I met with no resistance at a certain signal, a general shout was to be given, and certain posts were to be immediately possessed, and men of each detachment who could speak the French language were to run through every street and proclaim what had happened, and inform the inhabitants that every person that appeared on the streets would be shot down. This disposition had its desired effect. In a very little time we had possession, and every avenue was guarded to prevent any escape to give the alarm to other villages in case of opposition. Various orders had been issued not worth mentioning, I don't suppose that greater silence ever reigned among the inhab¬ itants of a place than did at this at present; not a person to be seen, not a word to be heard by them for some time, but designedly the greatest noise kept up by our troops through every quarter of the town, and patrols continually the whole night around it, as inter¬ cepting any information was a capital object, and in about two hours the whole of the inhabitants were disarmed and informed that if one was taken attempting to make his escape he should be immediately put to death."

The next morning, July 5, some of the leading citizens were arrested and put in irons, and Gen. Clarke assumed the severest bearing toward the people. Soon the village priest, in company with several of the aged men, visited their supposed implacable conqueror, and begged that the people might be permitted once more to assemble in their church, and there to tell each other a final good-by. They expected to be separated as families, and many of the men put to death. The General consented, and the entire people in deepest misery assembled. At the close of the meeting a deputation was appointed to wait upon their conqueror to beg that they be not separated hopelessly from their families.

Matters had now reached the desired point, and Gen. Clarke from his assumed severity turned to the people in utmost kindness, liberated at once those arrested, and told every one they were at liberty to go and come at pleasure; that they were as free as ever they were and would not be wronged or even annoyed by his sol¬ diers. He then explained his conduct to them fully, and told them it was because they had been told such bloody stories about the rebels that he had come to undeceive them and that they would find in him and his men only good friends.

This conduct of the commander and the news to these French people of the alliance between the French and Americans, made the whole population gladly take the oath of allegiance to Virginia. Their arms were then restored to them and they regarded their con¬ querors as their liberators. Several of the citizens joined a detach¬ ment of Clarke's army that was sent on the expedition to take Cahokia. The inhabitants of this village on hearing what had taken place at Kaskaskia gladly took the oath of allegiance.

Then Gen. Clarke turned his attention to capturing Post Vin¬ cennes. He sent for the Kaskaskia priest, Gibault, and had a con¬ ference with him on the subject. Vincennes was a part of the juris¬ diction of this churchman. The priest told him that he could capt¬ ure Vincennes with but little trouble - that the governor had gone to Detroit; that the place was a strong fort and that there were many Indians, in that part, etc. But when the French or Indi¬ ans heard what had happened at Kaskaskia and how glad the peo¬ ple there were at the change that their sentiments would also change; that his (the priest's) appearance there would have great weight with the people and offered to go on a mission of winning over the people, he only asked that another person might accom¬ pany him and take charge of the temporal affairs of the expedition, etc. Gibault, with Dr. Lafont, was at once sent to Vincennes.

This mission of the representative of the church and the army was completely successful. Upon their arrival at Vincennes they spent a day or two explaining matters to the people, and all readily assented to their proposals. The few emissaries left by Abbot at once left, w'hen the whole population took the oath of allegiance. They elected officers, displayed the American flag to the astonished Indians, and all was happily settled. Thus all this part of Indiana thus peacefully ceased to be British and became citizens of the United States. They informed the Indians that their father, the king of France, was come to life again and was mad at them for fighting for the British; advised them to make peace with the Americans, otherwise they might expect the land to flow with blood. This language from their ancient friends of the Wabash had a most beneficial effect upon the red men.

Gen. Clarke awaited the return and the report of Gibault and party with keenest interest, and when it came was overjoyed. He was the bloodless conqueror of a great country in the wilderness with no instructions what next to do. He never hesitated, but pro¬ ceeded to organize and strengthen the new order of affairs.

He sent Capt. Leonard Helm to take command of Vincennes. This was the first governor of the State of which Vigo county is a part, under the authority of the United States. Soon after Capt. Helm's arrival the whole of the Indian tribes along the Wabash

Gen. Clarke had soon made a treaty of peace with all the Illinois and Wabash Indians to the lakes, and had effectually conquered and possessed all this country.

When Gov. Henry received full information of Clarke's success the general assembly of the State of Virginia, in October, 1778, passed an act, of which the following is an extract: "All the citi¬ zens of the commonwealth of Virginia, who are already settled or shall hereafter settle on the western side of the Ohio, shall be in¬ cluded in a distinct county, which shall be called Illinois County; and the governor of this commonwealth, with the advice of the council, may appoint a county lieutenant or commandant-in-chief in that county during pleasure who shall appoint and commission so many deputy commandants, militia officers and commissaries, as he shall think proper in the different districts during pleasure, etc. And all civil officers to which the inhabitants have been accus¬ tomed necessary for the preservation of the peace and the adminis¬ tration of justice shall be chosen by a majority of the citizens in their respective districts, to be convened for that purpose by the county lieutenant or commandant or his deputy, and shall be com¬ missioned by the said county lieutenant or commandant-in-chief."

If the city of Terre Haute had then been in existence it would have been in Illinois county, Va., and a lot of declared rebels, and for the first time living under the authority represented by the stars and stripes. However before the provision of Gov. Henry's law for Illinois county had been fully put into effect, the British commander at Detroit raised an army and passed down the Wabash to recover Vincennes and Kaskaskia. He had thirty regulars, fifty French volunteers and 400 Indians. Thus Vigo county was an actual part of the marching armies of the Revolution. The British army was here, but there were then no curious school children to rush down to the river's bank and cheer for Washington and Gen. Clarke. They proba¬ bly stopped at the Indian village and tried to induce the Indians to go with them to war. The English army reached Vincennes Decem¬ ber 15, 1778. The entire army to guard that post was Capt. Helm and bis single man-of-all-work. Nothing daunted, the brave captain shotted to the muzzle his one little old cannon, wheeled it out on the embrasure and threatened to blow the English army back into the lakes or to the general bow-wows, he didn't care which. A flag was sent to him and a surrender demanded. This he positively refused. After more visiting he finally agreed to surrender only with the honors of war - retaining his side arms and all the other perquisites belonging even to the greatest army and soldiers. He had talked so bravely that the British were doubtful of the attack and granted him the most liberal terms. When they entered and demanded he turn over his force, their amazement maybe imagined when he and his one man stood up to be inspected and catalogued.

When this news reached Gen. Clarke he was aware that the British had determined to recapture all his prizes and drive him out of the Illinois. Knowing that the British army would soon continue on their march from Vincennes to Kaskaskia, this great soldier took steps to anticipate the English, and instead of waiting for them to come and attack him, he would go to them and capture them. His plans were immediately formed. He sent a portion of his force by boat, called "The Willing," with instructions to Capt. Rogers to proceed down the Mississippi, up the Ohio and Wabash and secrete himself a few miles below Vincennes and prohibit all persons from passing up or down. With the other part of his force he moved across now Illinois through the wet prairies, swamps and marshes and swollen streams (in February), and the whole - country was flooded with rains and melting snow, and he, after a severe march of many days, reached the Wabash near where is now St. Francisville, where, after wading for miles through the bot¬ toms, they crossed the river and marched down in the rear of Vin¬ cennes, reaching this point just before daybreak. So secret and rapid had been Clarke's movements that Gen. Hamilton had had no notice of his having left Kaskaskia. The noted Indian, the son of Tobacco, and who was widely known as "The Door of the Wabash," had joined Gen. Clarke with a force of 100 warriors of the Piankashaws. Gen. Clarke declined this friendly offer with thanks, and informed the Indians his force was sufficient.

The fort was at once invested and a galling fire poured upon the gunners. The town had immediately surrendered to Gen. Clarke with joy. After some sharp fighting the fort offered to surrender with terms - after the fashion of Capt. Helm. The offer was refused, when Hamilton and Clarke met in conferenoe, and in the afternoon of February 24, 1779, the fort and garrison, consisting of seventyfive men, surrendered at discretion. Hamilton and his whole force were made prisoners of war. This ended the struggle of war be¬ tween the English and Americans for the possession of this terri¬ tory, and the authority of Virginia was again re-established over all the northwest.

The expedition of Gen. Clarke to capture Vincennes gave rise to the train of circumstances that gave Vigo county its name, the particulars of which are given in the biographical sketch of Col. Vigo, in another part of this work.