Whitley County, Indiana - The whole text, 1907 (part 2 of 28)

Upon the establishment of Indiana territory, in 1800, Gov. William Henry Harrison thought best to define the line anew, and by proclamation, January 14, 1803, he declared all that part of Indiana territory lying north of a line drawn from the southernmost point of Lake Michigan to Fort Recovery, to be Wayne county, Indiana territory, and we were changed from Wayne county, Northwest territory, to Wayne county, Indiana territory, the seat of government still beingat Detroit, that territory still being a part of Indiana territory. January 11, 1805. Michigan territory was cut off from Indiana territory with line as now between the states. There was no legislature in Indiana territory until after Michigan was taken off in 1805, but on the 7th day of March. 1803, Governor Harrison, by proclamation and without warrant of law, and it was openly charged, for the purpose of furthering some financial schemes of relatives, laid off the county of Dearborn, the line extending from the Ohio river to the north line of the state, and at least far enough west of the east line to include all of Whitley county. The county seat was Lawrenceburg. In 1810, the legislature formed a county in the north-east part of the state and far enough south to include nearly, if not all of Huntington county, and to it was given again the historic name of Wayne, and we were included. In 1S18, the county of Randolph was created by legislative act and we fell within its limits. In 1823, the county of Allen was created and we became a . part, with Fort Wayne as county seat. The only record in Allen county affecting this territory was the naming of all original Whitley county, Murray township, Allen county, and the survey of the Goshen road through present Smith township. In 1834, Huntington county was created, and by the same legislative act the original boundaries of Whitley county were defined, but the act recited that we were attached to Huntington county for judicial purposes.

The second record pertaining to Whitley county is in Huntington county. In 1834, Whitley county was. by the legislature, defined and described as nine congressional townships, and was attached to Huntington county for judicial purposes. As there was no organization of any kind here, there was no reason for any jurisdiction being extended over the few straggling settlers except to protect their persons and property with law, should any occasion present, but this jurisdiction carried the right to extend local government over the territory should necessity arise. Allen county, in 1830. had located the Fort Wayne and Goshen road across its territory and through this county over the trail and substantially as it runs to-day through Churubusco, but few of the monuments by which it was marked exist to-day and no surveyor could ascertain at this time just where it did run, there having since been many changes of record in both counties.

The entire original county of Whitley was surveyed in the years 1828 to and including 1840, and books for entry were opened at Fort Wayne in March, 1830. The survey began in the south-west corner of the county, and all that part of township 30, range 8 (now Cleveland township), south of Eel river, was surveyed in 1828, by Basil Bentley. In 1834, John Hendricks surveyed all of range 8, north of Eel river, being the remainder of Cleveland, all of Richland, Troy and Etna townships; the latter at that time was not a part of this county. Washington township was surveyed by Basil Bentley and William Brookfield in 1834. All of Columbia township, except the Reserve, was surveyed in 1834, by John Hendricks. The Reserve of fourteen sections, at Seeks Village, were surveyed in a whole tract, and report made and work concluded in October, 1827, by Chauncey Carter, and in 1840, the same man surveyed the reserve into sections to conform with adjoining lines. John Hendricks surveyed the whole of Thorncreek township in 1834. Basil Bentley surveyed all of Jefferson township except the reserve, in 1828, and Chauncey Carter surveyed the reserve in 1840. John Hendricks surveyed all of Union township except the reserve in 1834, and as before stated, Chauncey Carter surveyed the reserve in 1840. David Hill surveyed all of Smith township in 1829. All the lands in the county were entered or sold by the government at the Fort Wayne land office, except that ceded by the general government to the state as swamp lands, and these were disposed of by the state from the Indianapolis land office and ran through many years up to comparatively recent time. Much of these swamp lands, considered worthless, have become, through drainage, the very best in the county. In [833, Jesse W. Long entered one hundred and twenty acres, and George Slagle eighty acres, all in section 36, Smith township, and Absalom cept the north-west quarter of section 13. in The above six persons cast their votes Cleveland township, entered by M. P. C. for Jesse Cleveland : there were no other Wood, and the north-west fractional quarter votes cast. This election was held at the of section 7. in same township, by Morse P. house of either Jesse or Benjamin Cleveland ; C. Wood, undoubtedly the same person. By the weight of evidence is that it was at the first of January, 1836, there were one Jesse Cleveland's home, which was also the hundred and twenty-one tracts entered in home of Benjamin H. At the time of hold- Cleveland township, sixty-six in Richland, ing this election, it was decided to name twenty in Washington, twenty-six in Colum- the congressional township 30, range 8, bia, fourteen in Thorncreek, ninety-six in Cleveland. Henry Swihart, many years Jefferson, thirteen in Union, fifty-five in after a resident of the county, proposed the Smith and none in Troy. name, which was seconded by Obenchain,

The price at which the land was sold by and Swihart put the vote, himself and the government was one dollar and twenty- Obenchain voting aye, and no one voting five cents per acre, in, lots to suit purchaser nay. The four Clevelands refrained from of not less than forty acres, and first come voting. On January 2. 1837, Henry had first choice, but to us of to-day it would Swihart was allowed by the Huntington seem the early purchasers selected the county board three dollars for making repoorest instead of the best lots. Such turn of the aforesaid election, change has clearing and drainage made, that On Monday morning, May 15, 1837, much of the first entries are the very poorest the Huntington justices, John F. Merril of our farms, and that so long rejected the and Leander Morrison, met to do business very best. as a county board, but Jesse Cleveland, from no record distinctly its own, the residents 0f authority, these officers ordered an atof township 30, range 8, applied to the tachment to issue for Cleveland. At one

September term. 1836, for an order to hold fu]] explanation, was purged of contempt, an election in said congressional township After reciting in their record that these

The date of that election is not preserved, but counties, they elected Jesse Cleveland presireturn of same was made to Huntington, on dent of the board. They ratified the name tions, ordered that Cleveland township, in Whitley county, embrace all that part of Huntington county known as \\ hitley county, and all of Whitley county became Cleveland township, Huntington county.

Whitley county was named in honor of Col. William Whitley, who was killed at the battle of the Thames, in Canada, in the war of 1 812, and the legislature at its session in 1833 and 1834 defined its boundaries.

On June 10, 1834, Samuel Smith entered the south-east quarter of section 34, in township 32, range 10, and in October of the same year located on his land and lived on it till his death in 1863. The largest early settlement was in the south-east corner of Smith township, and the few settlers gathered at the home of Samuel Smith on the 20th day of August, 1837, and all signed a petition to the Huntington county board asking that the township be name:! in his honor. Therefore, at its September term, 1S37, it was ordered by the Huntington county board that township 32 north, range 10 east, be organized and known by the name of Smith township, and that the remaining east half of Whitley county be added to Smith township and that the west half of Whitley county remain Cleveland township. An election was ordered to be held in said Smith township (east half Whitley county) on the last day of November, 1837, to elect a justice of the peace. Richard Baughan was appointed inspector of said election and George Penn was appointed road supervisor of said township. At this session it was ordered that all that part of the Fort Wayne and Goshen state road running through the north-east part of Whitley county comprise the first road district of Whitley county, and that all persons living in the aforesaid Smith township (east half Whitley county J be attached to said road district.

Robert Starkweather, of Whitley county, was appointed commissioner to survey, relocate and properly define said Fort Wayne and Goshen road through the county.

During the month of October, 1837, Nathaniel Gradeless wrote a petition asking the Huntington county board to organize township 32, range 9, into a civil township and order an election for justice of the peace. This was signed by Benjamin F. Martin, Adam Egolf, Joseph Egolf, John H. Alexander, Martin Overly, Peter Shriner, Daniel Hively, Jacob Shearer and Jacob Brumbaugh. Opposite each name was given the choice of name for the township by each subscriber. Five chose the name of Thorncreek, in honor of the little stream in the north-west corner of the township, already called by that name. Two chose the name of Lake; two others had no choice. Accordingly, on November 6, 1837, the Huntington county board ordered that township 32, range 9, of Whit ley county, be organized and known and designated by the name of Thorncreek township, and that Nathaniel Gradeless be appointed inspector of an election to be held at his house on the first Monday of December, to elect one justice of the peace.

In view of the coming organization of theV county the few citizens of township 31, range 8, began to bestir themselves for a township organization. The principal movers were William Rice and Edwin Cone. They personally invited all the settlers to meet at the home of William Rice on the east half of the southwest quarter of section 5, on the 15th day of October, 1837, for the purpose of naming" the township and asking for an organization. David Harden lived at the extreme north-west corner of the township. Just as he was entering the opening in front of the Rice cabin lie met William Corded and Zebulon Birch and they began an animated discussion of the richness of the soil. Each insisted he had the richest land. Arriving at the house, the discussion assumed a genfirst duty was to call, advertise and cause to be held, elections at such places as he would deem most easily of access for the voters, for the purpose of electing a county clerk, recorder, two associate judges and three county commissioners. There were but four organized townships, Cleveland, Smith, Richland and Thorncreek, and four places of voting in these townships were designated as follows: One at the home of already settled, that each man had very rich land, that was all rich and that they had already unconsciously named it Richland township. The remark was so timely that each good naturally passed the pet name he intended to insist upon and all acquiesced in a name that had not been thought of before. Therefore, on November 6, 1837, (same day Thorncreek was named) it was ordered by the Huntington county board that township 31, range 8, he organized and known anddesignated by the name of Richland township, and an election was ordered at the home of Ezra Thompson on the second Monday in December, 1837, and William Rice was appointed inspector of said election. This election was held near the northat the house of John X. More in Smith township. This election was held the first Monday in April, 1838. There was no fear of repeaters or illegal voters. Voters residing in organized townships were required to vote in such townships. Voters living in unorganized townships were ordered to vote at Such designated places as might best suit their convenience. There were no newspapers in which to give notice, but notice was required to be posted at twenty-five conspicuous places in the county, at least one in each congressional township. They were placed on trees along Indian trails, and on the doors of settlers' cabins. A few days before the election, a caucus of convention was called at the home of Calvin Alexander, on the east corner of the northwest quarter of sec- creek in north-east quarter of section 33 tion 9, and just west of the old family burying ground of the Thompson family.

The legislature of Indiana, at its session of 1837 and 1838, declared Whitley to be an independent county from and after the first day of April, 1838, and Governor Wal- " lace appointed Richard Baughan sheriff to serve until after the election. His in Thorncreek township, for the purpose of considering candidates for the offices. About twenty-five citizens attended. It was not like the latter day political caucus. All politics was eliminated and the settlers met to become acquainted, to discuss questions concerning the future of the new county and to select candidates fitted for the offices and vote with concert of action. Abraham Cuppy was selected for clerk, Joseph Parrett.. Jr.. Nathaniel Gradless and Otho W. Gandy for commissioners. Benjamin F. Martin and Jacob A. Yanhonten for associate judges. The election a few days after ratified this action. If there were any votes for any other persons, there is neither record or tradition of it. The place designated by the state precept for holding courts was the house of James Parrett. Jr.. but there beingno such person in the county Richard Baughan notified the persons elected to meet at the house of Joseph Parrett. Jr., on ground now covered by South Whitley, on the 7th day of May. In the presence of the officers elect and other citizens assembled. Baughan opened the election returns, declared the candidates duly elected and administered to them the oath of office on the 7th day of May, 1838. The board of county commissioners organized by electing Otho W. Gandy as president of the board and adopting the eagle side of the dime as the seal of the board of commissioners of Whitley county. The present seal of the board of commissioners was adopted January 4. 1840. and the organization was completed.

The first official act was to appoint Henry Pence assessor for the county for the year 1838; John Collins, treasurer: Benjamin H. Cleveland, three per cent, fund commissioner, and Henry Swihart, county agent. The first tax duplicate, made in 1838, is still in perhaps as good state of preservation as when closed from active use and laid away in [839. It consists of the straw board covers of a well worn atlas by Thomas T. Smiley, teacher, and published by the author in Philadelphia in 1825. It is eight by eleven and one-half inches. It consists of eight leaves of a fairly good quality of foolscap paper, sewed in; only three (six pages) of which are used for names and taxes and the other five are scribbled over with figures, making- calculations no doubt, to insure tax-payers that no mistakes were made in their computation. The handwriting is unquestionably that of Richard Collins, whose name is inseparably connected with the early history of the county. He was the deputy of his brother-in-law, Abraham Cuppy. Descriptions of lands are not given nor is there any way to designate what persons are the owners of realty and who owned personal property only. The amount of taxable property is given in one column, in another the amount of county tax to be collected, and in another the amount of state tax to be collected. The amount of county tax totals two hundred twenty-two dollars and sixty cents, and state tax eighty dollars. thirty-two and one-half cents. The following is the list :

Smith township was the most populous, Cleveland next, Richland next, and Thorncreek close on the others. There was but one person assessed in Columbia township and one in Washington, but two in Troy. Martin and Perry, Jefferson being the only township in the county with no representative on the tax list. Union had eight. The levies as recorded were one per. cent for county purposes and fifty cents per poll. For road purposes, seventy-five cents or one day's road work, for each one hundred dollars of valuation. For state purposes, fifty cents for each poll. On June 26, 1838, the board of commissioners established the commissioners' districts, one, two and three of said county ; all of range 8 to be the first district ; all of range 9 to be the second district; all of range 10 to be the third district, each to have one county commissioner, all to be elected by the voters of the county at large. The fifth township to be organized and the first organized after the Whitley county machine was put into operation was Troy.

On the 3d day of April, 1839. Jesse S. Perrin and Stephen Martin met at the house of the latter to name congressional township 32 in range 8. Perrin was the first settler and lived at the extreme south line of the township near present Larwill. and Martin at the extreme north line of the township. Martin said : "You are an older settler than I am and have honored me by having the meeting at my house. You may name the township." He named it Troy, after the township in the state of New York from which he came. A petition was drawn accordingly and signed by these two men only, was presented to the board of commissioners of Whitley county at their regular session on June 6. 1839, and an order entered of record that township 32, range 8, should be organized as a separate township, to be known as Troy, and that Price Goodrich should be appointed inspector to hold the first election. Following directly, or the next day, came the record establishing Union township. Early in 1839, two petitions were circulated in township 31, range 10, for the organization and naming of the township. One by George Oman, asking that the township be called Union, and the other by Talcott Perry, asking that it be named Adams, in honor of President John Adams. Quite a rivalry was manifested, but Oman secured the most signatures and asked that Perry be appointed inspector to hold the first election. Perry fearing that any opposition before the board of commissioners might endanger the organization, withdrew his petition and on the 7th day of June, 1839, an order was entered organizing the township and naming it Union.

Madison Switzer, David Bennett, William H. Coombs and Daniel R. Bears were, by act of the state legislature of 1838, ordered to proceed to Whitley county and locate the county seat. They were to meet at the house of Joseph Parrett, Jr., on the first Monday in May, 1838. Switzer only appeared, and the board of commissioners adjourned till June 18th, at which time Switzer, Coombs and Bennett met, and after spending ten days examining sites and hearing arguments and offers, located the county seat on section 19, Union township, on lands now principally owned by William A. Clugston. The court house lot was to be near the center of the section about a half mile due east of the present Compton brick church. Lot Bayless, the owner of the lands, agreed to give the county $500, pay all expenses of surveying and location, and purchase a set of record books costing $100. The action of these special commissioners was very unsatisfactory, and the feeling was quite bitter. Corruption was charged against Bayless and others-. A petition was signed by four-fifths of the people of the county, protesting against the action and presented to the legislature in 1839. The protest was so strong that the report of the commissioners was set aside and Isaac Covert, Samuel Edsall, John Jackson and A. S. Ballard were appointed a new set of commissioners. These men, after a week's examination and three adjournments, on the 1 6th day of October, 1839, made the following report, which was accepted by the people of Whitley county:

"We, John Jackson, A. S. Ballard. Isaac Covert and Samuel Edsall. after being duly sworn, proceeded to the discharge of our duties assigned us by law. After examining the several sites presented by those wishing to offer donations, and after making examination of the several sites, do hereby establish the permanent seat of justice in and for said county on section 1 1 , town 3 1 , range 9 east, as the best situation that can be had.

And the county seat was located as it stands to-day. The lands on which it was located belonged to Elihu Chauncey, a resident of Philadelphia. It was fractional section 1 r , containing 443 acres. He was to donate half of said lands to the county and build a saw mill within the limits, on Blue river, which he did. Chauncey's deed, executed February 1. 1840. in Philadelphia, recites :

"Whereas, Elihu Chauncey is the owner hi :i certain tract of land situate in Columbia township, Whitley county, Indiana, which has been selected by commissioners duly appointed, as the location of the county seat of Whitley county: and.

"Whereas, Elihu Chauncey hath agreed to appropriate and convey to and for the use of said county, one-half of the lots into which the site of said town has been laid off; and,

"Whereas, a plat or map of the said site has been made containing twenty-eight squares, each square being sub-divided into eight (8) lots, except squares twenty-one, twenty-two and twenty-eight, which are divided into four lots each, which map had been certified and acknowledged :

"Now, in consideration of said premises and one dollar to him in hand paid, the said Elihu Chauncey releases and quit-claims to Richard Collins all the lots numbered 3. 4. 7 and 8 in all the squares except 21, 22 and 28, and in 21 and 22 lots 3 and 4, and in 28, lots r and 2, to have and to hold the same forever to the use of Whitley county as and for the location of a county seat."

Upon the first location of the county seat on the lands of Lot Bayless, he caused a survey and plat to be made by the surveyor of Huntington county, but the acts of the commissioners being set aside, it was never put mi record. He subsequently filed a bill against the county for $246, services of the commissioners, surveys and procuring of the reci >rd books. The commissioners allowed and paid him the hundred dollars for the paid the locating commissioners, lint nothing For survey or other expenses, and he accepted the allowance without appeal. At their regular term at Parrett's house in November, 183c), the board of commissioners appointed Henry Swihart county agent, and agreed to meet on the site of the new town on November 2^th of the same vear. to adopt measures for laying off the new town. The board of commissioners. Clerk Cuppy and the sheriff appeared on time, but Henry Swihart not appearing. Richard Collins was appointed in his place. He being present, accepted and gave bond at the temporary county headquarters on outlot j6, on the west bank of Blue river, just north of the Pennsylvania Railroad and almost directly west of the Tuttle flouring mill. Asa Shoemaker's house, more than two miles to the north-west, being the nearest place of habitation, the weather being cold and the ground covered with snow, the session occupied but one day. Richard Collins was ordered at once to proceed with the survey and plat. The few straggling settlers who came in were invited to assist in naming the new town and it was done before adjournment that day. Asa Shoemaker, whose wife was named Elizabeth, wanted it called Elizabethtown ; Richard Collins wanted it called Beaver in honor of the Indian Bvho once owned the nearby reserve; Little Turtle was also suggested. Finally at the suggestion of Abraham Cuppy, ably seconded by Vanhouten, the name Columbia was adopted and the new town was given that name of record on that 25th day of November, 1839, and before any survey had begun, and the board adjourned. This was Thursday. On Friday, Collins began preparations for the survey, and on Saturday, under his direction, George Cromer, surveyor of La- Grange county, began work and prosecuted it vigorously. Just when it was concluded we do not know, but it was finished before the spring of 1840. This first survey included only the town site. The remainder 1 >f the section was surveyed bv the same man

David E. Long bought from Collins, county agent, in January. 1840, the lot on the north-west corner of Main and Van Buren streets at a very low price, with the verbal agreement that he erect a building at once. He did put up a two-room frame building and had it open as a boarding house and hotel by the middle of May. 1840, the first house in the town. On the 7th day oi April. 1840. the commissioners held a special session at the house of Zebulon Birch ami ordered that the county agent be directed to advertise and sell or offer for sale as man) lots as he may deem advisable on the 25th day of May. This was the last session outside the county seat. On the 4th day of May, 1840. the board met at the hotel of I >a\ id I-".. Long, in the town of Columbia, the county seat of said county of Whitley. On the following day it was ordered that congressional township 31, range 9. be organized and called Columbia township, all other names having now disappeared. ( )n the 8th day of September. 1840, there was filed with the commissioners a petition containing seventeen names, asking that congressional township 30. range 9, be organized as a civil township, to be called Washington, and it was so ordered. Daniel Lesley was appointed inspector to hold the firsi election at the house of Abraham Lesley, on Saturday, the sixth day of the month. Thus Washington township held her first election two days after being admitted to the sisterhood of townships.

the township. One asked that it be called Raccoon, another Jefferson, another Fairfield, and the fourth Polk. The competition became so animated that fears were entertained the commissioners would not authorize organization. Finally, all names were withdrawn and a new petition circulated, leaving off the name and asking only for organization, with the understanding that the supporters of the different names would appear before the board and argue the cases. The petition was filed March 5, 1845, and the contestants agreed to appear the next da}'. Chauncy Hadley was the last to sign and endorsed on the back, Jefferson township. On the day of filing, the commissioners, having heard of the jangle, concluded to pass upon it at once. Daniel Rice, president of the board, made the order on the back of the petition calling it Jefferson and it was so entered of record on the 5th day of March, 1845, and an election was ordered held on the first Monday in April. Michael C. Crowell was appointed inspector and the organization of Whitley county and all its townships was completed. The population of the county was, in 1840, 1.237; 1850. 5,190; i860, 10,730; 1870, 14,399; 1880. 16,941; 1890. 17,768: 1900, 17,328.

We deem it worth the while of our read - many cases a distance had to be traveled ers to inquire into the causes that impelled two or three times that of an air line or seethe south one-third of Washington town- tion line, and roads almost impassable in ship. Noble county, to separate from that many places. The county was infested, natcounty and join its future with Whitley urally, from the condition of the surface, countv in 1859, Washington township being with thieves and robbers, who operated all the south-west corner of Noble county. over northern Indiana, north-western Ohio

Noble county was organized in 1836, and southern Michigan. The Noble county two years prior to our organization. Sparta regulators, a combination of citizens for was its first county seat, but there is neither the purpose of protecting life and property record nor tradition of any court house or from these criminals, has a record of darother county buildings ever having been ing well worthy of historical preservation, built at that place. In 1843, the county seat. In one or two cases they did execute obor seat of justice, as it was called, was re- noxious outlaws. A county seat anywhere located at Augusta. Without an unkind located was almost inaccessible from other word for our neighbor, it is just to say No- parts of the county, and there was continuble county was almost covered with lakes ous agitation for changes that were not enand swamps, especially the south and south- tirely settled until commissioners appointed west portion. A wild fastness, scarcely by the governor in 1886, appraised the propequaled by the jungles of the tropics, and erty at Albion and settled the matter for all to this day not entirely cleared away. Roads time.and the present court house was finished were run without regard to lines, and in in 1887 at a cost of $114,000. In March,

1843. almost immediately after location at Augusta, the court house was burned by an incendiary. Again, in 1844. the county seat was located at Port Mitchell and a court house and other buildings erected at a cost of $1,350. This was unsatisfactory to all but the nearby residents, and finally the location was fixed by vote of the people at Albion, in August. 1847. ar>d on tne I^th day of September. 1S47. tne county commissioners ordered the records and offices removed from Port Mitchell to Albion and into a court house costing $4,045. A jail was also built costing $1,300. This court house was destroyed by an incendiary fire in [859 and all the records in the clerk's 1 iffice were destroyed except one order book which Samuel E. Alvord, then clerk, had at his home. Also a very valuable law and miscellaneous library. Matters were further complicated by the building of the Lake Shore Railroad through the comity in 1858, building up the rival towns of Ligonier and Kendallville, near the extreme east and west lines of the county, each clamoring for the county seat or some upheaval or change in count) boundaries that would make them county seats. From 1854 until the final building of the Grand Rapids Railroad in 1873, north and south through the county, near the east line, there was an agitation for the voting of subsidies which was ver\ obnoxious to the people on the west side of the county. Preparations were being made for the building of a new court house at Albion, entailing a heav) tax; and it was buill in t86i, at a cost ol $t 1,000. The people were thoroughly disgusted with paying foi court houses and having to hunt a new one every time they paid their taxes.

Columbia City, with her Pittsburg. Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway completed, was the natural trading point for the people of south and south-western Noble county; was nearer than isolated inland Albion, and a good road led to it from present Etna township, almost air line. The route was well populated and travel over it safe. These and other questions were thoroughly discussed, and an animated campaign began early in 1858 and continued through the winter. Petitions were circulated, speeches made and opponents to the change, mostly from other parts of the county, were almost driven out of the territory. A decided majority of the voters signed the petition for the change, and petitions were filed in both counties in March. 1850. In Whitley county, the, exact date was March 9, 1859, and was laid over to the next term of the commissioners' court as the law directs. On June 10th. the board having heard all the proof and being satisfied the petition was signed b\T a majority of all the qualified vot ers, and that the law had been complied with in both counties, ordered that the south third of Washington township, Noble county, become a part of Whitley county, namely: Sections 25 to 36, inclusive, in township 33, range 8. The signers of the petition w ere :

This change met with great opposition from the board of commissioners of Noble county and every possible obstacle was thrown in the way to prevent it. James Long, one of the county commissioners, resided in the district, and it was only through the great friendship of one of the other commissioners for him that he finally consented to vote with Long for the change. Prior to the change, Lafayette Lamson had laid out the little town of Etna, naming it after the town and township from which he came in Ohio. It was the wish of the citizens that the new township take this name. Accordingly, on the 1 2th day of September, i860.

the commissioners entered of record an order that it be called Etna, and on the following day they appointed A. W. Myers to draft the field notes from the records of Noble county and to transcribe the names of the owners of land therein and place all on record in Whitley county with the valuations. Also to make copy of deed records of said lands and to secure from Noble county the part of Congressional school fund to which Etna township was entitled, all of which was promptly done. The county auditor did on the 19th day of September, i860, appoint T. P. Cunningham trustee of Etna township, to serve until the ensuing general election. This change was followed by two other attempts soon after.

On the 9th day of March, i860, Moses Trumbull. John P. Rowland, H. A. Adair. Leander Nicholas, James A. Nicholas, Robert Bowlesby, Andrew S. Carill, C. B. Wood, Michael Bowman. Thomas Kern, J. Brown, Clayton Fisher, Charles Hanson, Noah Cripe, L. Makemson. J. S. Hindbaugh and John Ruggles. filed petitions in both Noble and Whitley, representing that they were a majority of the voters in sections iu to 24, inclusive, in Washington township. Noble county, a strip one mile wide across the township adjoining that part set off the vear before as Etna township, and asking that they also be set off to Whitley county and made a part of Etna township. After due course of law, the board of commissioners of Whitley county entered an order on the 9th day of June, i860, finding the matters and things contained in the petition to be correct and solemnly declared the strip to be a part of Whitley county. It was to be expected that Noble county would not

On March 10. i860, a petition was filed in both Allen and Whitley counties, by sundry citizens of Allen county, residing in the twelve most westerly sections of Lake township, Allen county, asking that two miles off the west side of that township be declared a part of Whitley county and made a part of Union township, as it lay adjacent to Union township. This was signed by -

On the 9th day of June, i86o; the board found that the legal provisions had been complied with, and ordered that said strip be attached to Whitley county and made a part of Union township. Counties are always loth to yield up any part of their territory, and under ordinary conditions never do so. Allen county never granted the change, and therefore the action of our county was void. The line between original Cleveland and Richland townships was at the very northern part of South Whitley. The line between the original Richland and Troy townships was directly through, the center of Larwill. It will also be remembered that up to 1882 there was but a single voting place in a township. Consequently, about the close of the war, both the villages having grown to a pretentious size, residents on the north line of Cleveland township, practically in South Whitley, resented the idea of going three miles north into the country to vote and several miles into the interior to do township and school business. On the north line ©f Richland the feeling was greater. More than half the voters of Larwill, then a larger town than South Whitley, were obliged to go three miles north and one and a half mile east to the center of Troy township to vote, and anywhere to do local official business. Roads were bad at any season of the year, and by the time of October and November elections almost impassable. At both ends of Richland township there was desire for change. Cleveland would of course be gratified to have her territory increased by one-third its original size, and Richland perfectly contented to have the change made by gaining as much to the north as was lost at the south side. Troy only would be the loser of one-third its territory. At the September term, 1867, a petition was presented to the board of commissioners asking that a voting precinct be established in Larwill, at which place the voters residing in the south two-mile strip of Troy and north one-mile strip of Richland mig-ht vote. This was granted, but the privilege could only be available for general county and state elections and not for township elections. Then this required the expense of having a voting place additional in both Troy to the north and Richland to the south and created the names of New Richland Center and New Troy Center. This was an unsatisfactory makeshift. On the 1 2th day of December, 1868, the people of Cleveland, Richland and southern Troy were almost unanimously in favor of attaching' two miles across the south end of Richland to Cleveland, ' and two miles off the south end of Troy to Richland. The north two-thirds of Troy was appeased by joining Etna township to them, giving them again a full township six miles square. Accordingly, all this was done by order of the board of commissioners on the 12th day of December, 1868. It was supposed the people of Etna township would be more than satisfied with the change, as they would belong to a full-size township and expenses of township administration be lessened. As a concession also the town of Etna was designated as the place of holding elections, which was much more convenient for the

Albert Webster was trustee of Richland, William H. Liggett of Cleveland and Benjamin Wooden of Troy, and as the residence of each of these officers still remained in the townships as they stood before the change, it was ordered that they hold office, as officers of the new townships, until their successors should be elected at the April elections, 1869. With the abolishment of Etna township, her offices were declared vacated. The assessors of Troy and Cleveland resided in the new townships of same name, but James Runkle, assessor of Richland, now a resident of Cleveland, his office was vacated, until the new election of the next spring. The people of Etna township, however, resented the change. For what reason does not appear of record, but tradition says they were proud of their independence and desired to be left alone. The officers held their books and papers, and under protest ceased to perform the functions of their offices. No election was held for officers in April, 1869. The assessor of Troy reported to the commissioners that nearly every resident of Etna township refused to list their property with him, whereupon the board ordered him to return, demand the listing of their property and advise them that any further refusal would put them in contempt of court and that they would be fined under the law punishing persons for refusing to list their property. The case was acute. At the March term, 1869, the trustee of Etna township reported to the commissioners his levies for township and school purposes for the year, which the board refused to consider, but an order was finally entered admitting the levies, but that they should be vacated, and the auditor not to compute taxes on them unless the action making them a part of Troy should be rescinded and vacated, the people already having' taken action toward this aid.

On June jo, 1869, the board found that it was the unanimous wish of the people in this strip that the functions of a township should be restored to them and it was given them and the township of Etna was restored. Since that time there has been agitation for the consolidation of the two townships, but it came more from people outside than within either of them. Some of this was political. Both townships are strongly Republican, each having a trustee, and while politics dominated the election of a county school superintendent, there was Democratic sentiment for consolidation and Republican sentiment against it. This is practically the only political advantage of the office of township trustee. This has so much abated under the superb management of the schools by the present superintendent. George H. Tapy, a Democrat, that with him as the issue at the November election 1904, only Troy and Etna townships elected Republican trustees, though President Roosevelt carried the county by seventy-eight, and each party elected part of its county ticket.

At the loss of Etna township, the people of New Troy tell very much aggrieved over the final outcome of the boundary upheaval of [868. They had another serious and just cause of complaint. It was inserted in the order making the change, insidiously they believed, that each new township should assume all debts contracted by the township of that name before the change. This was m no way objectionable to Cleveland, for the two mile strip would help them pay all debts for improvements of which the people in the strip got no benefit. It was particularly pleasing to the people of Richland, because old Troy township had built a new frame two-story school building in Larwill which was not yet paid for. Richland township and Larwill got the building and New Little Troy was obliged to pay for it. Troy lost her school building, but with loss of one-third her territory and at least half her taxable property she must pay for it. Everyone saw the rank injustice. If an attempt was made to enforce this order, the courts might annul the whole proceeding', and the change of territory being more desirable to the citizens of Richland than getting rid of their just share of debt, they were in a conciliatory mood. The county commissioners therefore appointed Alexander S. McNagny on behalf of Richland township, and Ambrose M. Trumbull on behalf of Troy, to arbitrate and reach a satisfactory settlement. I. B. McDonald, county school examiner, was appointed the third member of the arbitration board and the commissioners bound themselves to ratify any agreement reached by any two of the arbitrators. The arbitrators met at Larwill March 18, [869. McNagny and Trumbull agreed that McDonald should act as referee, president of the board, and manager of the proceedings. Henry McLallen. now president of the hirst National Bank of Columbia City, was selected as secretarv to the hoard of arbitration. Mr. Mel. alien says that McDonald explained the situation so clearly and figured out a settlement so just, that it was accepted without even suggestion of a change.

Indian History

Ages, perhaps centuries, before the era of Columbus, the interior of this vast country, especially along the streams and lakes, was densely populated. Research proves that it was inhabited long before the advent of the red man, by a people whose history is lost forever, and of whom we can never know but little beyond conjecture. We have reason to believe they had fixed habits and places of abode, in a degree surpassing their dusk\- successors. To this people has been given the name of Mound-Builders. Northern Indiana has many proofs of the presence of this race, but not so extensive as found in some other regions.

Some writers have sought to establish proofs of their works in Whitley county. but all these, on close analysis and investigation, have proven to be the work of the Indians beyond all question. If they were here and left evidences, they have since disappeared.

From out of that dark night which hangs forever over all we know or shall know of early America, came the Indian, a waif flung by the surge of time to these later ages of our own. With the advent of the red man.

the Indiana of nature was complete, perfect. It possessed that primeval savage beauty of a world unmarred by man. Lakes, streams, forests, prairies, stored fuel, noble game, all here untouched. For centuries, the Indian lived in peace within its bounds. The forest yielded him deer and bear, the prairies buffalo and wild fowl. On the higher ridges overlooking the larger streams and lakes, he had his principal village sites. Over their placid waters he paddled his dug-out and bark canoe. From their depths he secured with rude hook and spear fishes sufficient to supply his needs, while the skins of muskrats, otter and beaver which he trapped about their marshy margins, furnished him protection against the cold. Through the forest glades, when returning from the chase, his cries of triumph were echoed. Here, in a land of plenty, his wants were few and easily satisfied, his ambitions lowly, his hopes eternal. But to this, as to all things peaceful, there was an end. From across the seas came that "prince of parasites," the white man, self-styled heir to all the ages, conqueror and civilizer, in reality the greatest devastator nature has ever known. First, as a discoverer came he, then as a trapper and trader among the Indians, last as settler of the future state, always a despoiler of the land the natives loved so well. True, there were noble, self-sacrificing souls who came as early missionaries to befriend the natives, to point them the way of the Christian religion, to win them by the example of perfect self-sacrificing lives, but even this zeal was tinctured with the hope of the enlargement and aggrandizement of some particular creed. But little good or even history came from all this. except it leaves to us the story of the general disposition of these savages. Lives they lived of barbarian simplicity, gentleness and hospitality. Their later treachery, savage brutality and general devilishness, though latent in their uncivilized nature, were developed by their contact with white men, and they were apt scholars. The intense hostility of the French and English governments toward each other, transmitted to their subjects in the new world, inspiring them with love of conquest and spoil, and later the hostility toward all white races who had become Americans, by both French and English; these things are principally responsible for the final development of those characteristics of the Indian we have all learned to despise and which our earlier ancestors learned to fear. The history of the Indian from his discovery to his extinction, covers but an infinitesimal portion of the world's history, but it sees this race, educated from uncivilized simplicity to savage brutality; and yet, withal, there were many notable characters who have left lessons of faithfulness, devotion and self-sacrifice* to the world, ever worthy of remembrance and emulation.

The first white man lived much as the natives ; their places of habitation, their food, their clothing and environment being necessarily the same. But from the larger streams and lakes, and the frontier he gradually pushed into the interior, until in less than two centuries, a mere second compared with those measureless eternities before he came, the white man has changed beyond recognition the face of the land. From its bounds he has driven forever the buffalo, bear, panther, elk, deer, wild turkey, ivorybilled woodpecker, paroquet and wild pigeon, and obliterated forever the picturesque trails and woodland paths. What the Indians were before Capt. John Smith met them in 1607, or the Pilgrims found them that dreary winter of 1620, we know not and shall never know. When they occupied all this vast country and had never to do with white man, they had a history, but it is neither preserved or disclosed. We are sure they had federations, some rude kind of governmental management in their tribal lives, and exercised control or ownership over certain territory and defended it against their neighbors, as white men in all lands and all stages of civilization. That these tribes were at war with each other, proved them to be in the one respect, at least, equal to the christianized, enlightened and foremost nations of white people with their centuries of intellectual growth.

Misunderstanding and inevitable conflict must come with the co-mingling of races, causing prejudice, clannishness and eventually a war of extinction. Intertribal communication, what we call news, was slow and uncertain, but was not liable to lose any of its intensity by transmission. A race by nature inclined to imagination, excitement and hyperbole, would not suffer a story of wrong to lose force on its journey, and the acts of a slowly but surely conquering race must raise a spirit of hostility and bitterness among the conquered whether black, red or white. And so, while the fight was going on along the Atlantic coast, the natives were gradually forced back and from their original territory there must come a mingling of tribes with race sympathy and growing hatred for the invaders. But the characteristics of the Indian and his history, during the two centuries of his extinction, have been fully set out in numberless histories, differing in many essentials and seldom agreeing in detail, and we are only concerned with the history of the red man in Whitley county, going beyond this only as it may be necessary to make plain that local history.

In at least the last half of the eighteenth century, this territory was occupied jointly by the Miamis and Pottawattamies, though the former made stout claim to all of it, and it must be considered that interwoven with these two great tribes were many smaller ones, such as the Weeas and Eel rivers, and these were mostly branches of the Miamis.

The domain of the Miamis was described by Little Turtle at the treaty of Greenville, June 16. 1795, as follows: "My fathers first kindled the fires at Detroit and covered the territory to the headwaters of the Scioto, thence down the same to the Ohio, thence down that river to the mouth of the Wabash, and thence to Chicago on the south-west end of Lake Michigan, and from thence back to Detroit, and all within these boundaries is Miami territory." This bombastic speech, spoken by the leader of the federation, was no doubt inspired by the determination of himself, his people, and his federated allies, to make the best possible terms with his white conquerors, and especially for himself and the Miamis to retain his capital. Fort Wayne, the very golden gate of the country ; and he must claim far beyond that to the westward, and not allow this much coveted place to fall in the outposts on the extreme western portion of the frontier. To this General Wayne replied that the territory claimed practically covered all that claimed by all the tribes represented' in the convention and a few small ones not represented, intimating that Little Turtle was imbued with the doctrine asserted by statesmen and politicians uf our own time, "claim everything," and gave him little hope to expect the convention would recognize occupancy much to the west of Fort Wayne. The origin of the Pottawattamies and their first location on the continent have never been ascertained. They were known to the French in south-western Michigan. They were probably first known by white men about Lake Michigan, in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. They were described as a somewhat vagrant and unambitious tribe, with little or no organization, wandering almost aimlessly about, and were often destitute while and when other tribes reveled in savage luxury. They were driven eastward by the more western tribes until they were practically confined to north and western Indiana until they came among the Miamis, with whom they fraternized fairly well. Indeed we may say they met and overlapped the Miamis about and along Eel and Blue rivers in Whitley county. In the west part of our county and beyond, they occupied the territory practically ale me. In the eastern part of Whitley county, practically east of the rivers, we find none but the Miamis, including a few Eel rivers and predatory bands of Weeas and others not definable.

About 1790, the Miamis could muster 1,500 warriors. They were at this time always at war with the whites until their disastrous defeat by Gen. Anthony Wayne in 1795. the year prior to the Greenville treaty. After that, they rapidly declined. By a series of treaties between that date and 1809, they ceded lands extending from the Wabash river to the Ohio state line. The annuities proved fatal to them, introducing intoxicating liquors, resulting in indolence, dissipation and violence.

In the war of 1812, they sided with England and being" defeated by General Harrison sued for peace, and a treaty was made on September 15, 1815, and their war spirit was broken. War had broken up the progress they had made in peaceful arts, and drunkenness and debauchery again overwhelmed, leading to internal rights in which nearly 500 of them perished in about fifteen vears. In [822, the census showed they numbered from 2.000 to 3,000 on three reservations. The Weea or Piankeshaw bands of them, numbering 384, removed themselves in 1833 and 1N35 to a reservation of 160.000 acres in Kansas.

The Pel river tribe were Miamis who had located near Eel river, perhaps about 1760, about twelve miles from Logansport. wandering up and down that river into Whitley county. They were removed with -the Pottawattamies in 1837, by Col. Abel Pepper and Alexis Coquillard. Those in Whitley, northern Huntington and eastern

Allen counties were loaded on canal boats at Raccoon Village, Whitley county, May 18, 1837. The Miamis. then reduced to about 1,100, sold to the government 117,000 acres in Indiana for $335,680, still retaining considerable land in reservations, but by treaties made in 1838 and 1840, ceded to the government practically all these reservations and were removed to near Leavenworth, Kansas. At this time, they had dwindled to a wretched, dissipated band of 250, each individual being paid a life annuity of about $125. In 1873. they numbered about 150. and now that once powerful, boastful nation, dominating a great part of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, is extinct as a tribe. Under the treaty stipulation made in

1837, removed to a tract of country on the Osage river, south-west of the Mississippi, under directions of Abel C. Pepper, United States commissioner. The}- had become much nearer civilized than the Miamis and had some good farms and mills and showed many signs of becoming citizens of toleration, if not of usefulness. Record is made of all the incidents of their removal, and a most pathetic one it is. They were gathered from over the territory to Twin Lakes, Marshall county, and the present village of Kewanna, in Fulton count}-, where the principal settlements were. The day before their departure they visited the cemetery where reposed their dead, and their lamentations were indescribable. Turning their faces away from the hallowed spot forever, they did not look back. The}- complained bitterly of deceit in the treaty, but went peaceably. On the way, dry and hot, many of them perished and were buried beside the trail. About two days on their journey they were overtaken by a priest who had spiritually administered to them, and he came as a glorious benediction. Their joy at having him with them on their journey, seemed to mitigate their sorrows and hardships as nothing else could. Nothing more pathetic is recorded in history than the removal of the Pottawattamies from northern Indiana.

In the contest at Greenville there met two diplomats who would have been able to cope with the most sagacious ministers of an European court. They were General Wayne, appearing for the government of the United States, the white man ; and Little Turtle, the representative in chief of the allied federation of the red men. To the learned wisdom of General Wayne Little Turtle was always ready with an answer full of argument and diplomacy.

He was the leader who overthrew the Federal armies in 1790 and 1791, which struck with terror and dismay the white inhabitants on the exposed frontier. He planned and executed the work of destroying the regulars and militia under Harmer and Armstrong, on the line between Whitley and Allen counties. At Greenville, he had the double task of competing with General Wayne and keeping the confidence of his subordinate allied chiefs, who were ever distrustful of his ability and integrity in settling to the best advantage what were really the terms of capitulation of the year before, and its disaster to their cause. His final appearance in the field of diplomacy was at the convention held in Fort Wayne on June 1, 1803.

About 1793 to 1795, Rev. Stephen Theodore Badin, said to be the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States, visited the Pottawattamies at Twin Lakes. Marshall county, established a church and built, for the age, a presumptuous log house of worship. Here he, with two co-laborers, ministered for some time to the spiritual want of the Indians and made many excursions over northern Indiana. To the records of these people, now resting in the archives of a monastery in France, we are indebted for much that is interesting.

Describing one of his trips to the eastward, giving description of various points and distance as he could measure it, with the topography of the country; leaves no doubt that in the summer of 1796 he visited a Pottawattamie village in Richland township, Whitley county, near where now stands the village of Larwill. The lake commonly called Kerr's he locates accurately, and gives a good account of the surrounding hills and general topography of the region. The village he says was on the hills on the east bank of the lake. He found a village of some 300 Indians, and labored with them about a fortnight and some of them professed great interest in the doctrines of Christianity, but his visit must have been barren of results as he does not tell of a second visit. He describes a well traveled pathway along the outlet of this lake to another small lake southeastward about two miles, meaning no doubt Souder lake, which is near the center of section 11. Along this little connection and about the lakes, he says many beaver, otter and other fur animals were taken. From these points he traveled northward about six miles where he had learned there was another village, but found it abandoned and most of the huts burned. The spot is not sufficiently defined to be located now, but was evidently in either Troy or Etna township.

Father Badin's visit to Richland township is confirmed by another account from an entirely different source. The commander of the fort at Fort Wayne, in his diary of a year or two earlier (Goodman historical papers) gives an account of a trip to the west and slightly north, a distance of about thirty miles, and the purchase of more than a hundred bear, otter and beaver skins, at a Pottawattamie village on the east bank of a small lake, and his topography and description of route traveled over confirms the place as before described.

As early as 1771, the English commandant at Fort Wayne tells of a visit to the Miamis, distant westward about twenty or twenty-two miles to a point at the confluence of two rivers, one starting some fifteen miles north-east in a large bayou, marsh or lake, evidently meaning Blue river, and the spot described is undoubtedly the point about two miles south of present Columbia City, where Blue river empties into Eel river, right on the line between Seek's Village and Beaver reservations. While at the place he witnessed a green corn dance (Papers of the Western Reserve Historical Society). Old residents say there were still evidences of such village as late as 1840.

In the famous journal of Captain Trent, covering the year 1773, he speaks of an Indian mill, north-west of the fort at the headwaters of the Maumee, distance the journey of a day and a half. The mill was on a short neck of water connecting two lakes and another lake a short distance north-west and almost parallel with the higher of the two, which was the west one. In this mill the Indians ground corn ; quite a quantity was raised by them in the vicinity. He also describes a race track entirely around one of these lakes, with a log bridge covered with earth, over the marshy part at the west end.

Mrs. David Plummer, of Richland township, says that when her father settled near Shriner lake in Thorncreek township, a race track around that lake was still in a pretty fair state of existence. There can be no doubt in the mind of any person who has ever visited the three lakes in northern Thorncreek township, that this is the place, and that the mill was near the present summer residences of Judge J. W. Adair and Col. I. B. Rush. Trent says farther, that the Indians gathered at this spot for many miles in the spring, and again in the fall, for a week's sport of pony racing and other games and amusements. There were foot races by both bucks and squaws, swimming matches, wrestling bouts, tests of endurance in many ways and contests which the captain would not attempt to describe. It was famous all over north-eastern Indiana, and several hundred natives visited the place at each week's entertainment. There were both Miamis and Pottawattamies, but his record is silent as to which tribe owned or controlled the place, or what it was called, if it had a name.

George Crogan on his trip up Eel river in 1765, of which an extended account is given elsewhere in this work, visited a village of Miami Eel river Indians on a stream flowing from the north-west into Eel river and about a mile from Eel river, and about twelve miles from the portage. This must have been on Spring- creek just east of where it is joined by Clear creek in Cleveland township, perhaps half a mile northeast of present South Whitley. There were, as he estimated, about 300 Indians, and they were very hospitable and entertained his men with a good supply of parched corn, venison and wild turkey. He spent a half 1 lay with them.

The student of our country's history is familiar with the campaign of General Harmar in 1790, against Fort Wayne. October 14th Colonel Hardin was detached with one company of regulars and six hundred militia in advance of the main army, and being charged with the destruction of the Indian towns on the forks of the Maumee (Fort Wayne). On the arrival of this advance party, they found the towns abandoned and the principal one burned. There were seven villages at the forks of the Maumee: the larger or Miami, being directly in the forks of the river, contained eighty houses. The army burned all the villages and destroyed about 20,000 bushels of corn. Appearances indicated the Indians had gone westward. General Harmar sent eighty militia and thirty regulars in pursuit, John Armstrong commanding the regulars and Colonel Trotter the militia. The following day Colonel Hardin assumed entire command. This small army moved westward along Turtle's trail until they found themselves near the enemy. The encampment was flanked on each side and in front by deep swamps. The front morass was promptly crossed by the soldiers under a galling fire from a body of savages. The militia broke and fled and could not be rallied. Fifty-two men were killed in a few minutes. The regulars bore the brunt of the battle, one sergeant and twenty-two privates being killed. While endeavoring to hold their position the same became more precarious by the fleeing militia breaking through their ranks and throwing away their guns without firing a shot. Armstrong estimated the Indians at only about a hundred. This gallant officer broke through the band of pursuing Indians and plunged into the swamp, where he remained all night up to his chin in mud and water and concealed by a tussock of high grass. He was compelled to hear the nocturnal orgies of the savages, as they danced around the dead bodies of the soldiers. As day approached the Indians fell asleep, and he extricated himself, retired to a ravine and built a fire by which he recovered the use of his limbs. He had with him his watch and tinder box. This battle was fought near where the Goshen road crosses Eel river and was partly in Whitley and partly in Allen counties.

The different treaties were principally made with the Miamis and Pottawattamies. Indeed, the other smaller tribes were admitted rather by the insistence of the general government than the request of the two powerful tribes. In 1826, the only Indian villages in Whitley county were a small one in section 4, Smith township, on what is now the Goshen road, then only a trail ; one on the Chapiene reservation in Union township ; one on the Beaver reservation in Columbia township ; two in central and west Columbia township; one at the raccoon reservation in the south-east corner of Jefferson township, and Seek's Village near the line between Chapiene and Seek's Village

By 1833, when the settlers began to arrive there were fewer than 200 Indians in the county, about seventy-five or eighty at Seek's Village, a small band at Blue River lake in Smith township, perhaps fifty at Raccoon Village, about sixty in west Columbia township, a small number in Beaver's Reservation and a still smaller number in Coesse's section immediately south of Columbia City. Coesse died in 1854 and his only son died the year before. The son was buried at his home, now the Stoufr farm. Coesse died at Roanoke and lies in an unmarked grave in a field farmed over for many years.

Coesse's wife and two daughters remained on the farm till the spring of 1868, when they sold it and removed to Roanoke, and from thence joined some of their kindred farther down the Wabash valley, and the Indian population was forever extinct in Whitley county.

Whitley county has a rich Indian history, but it has been so long neglected that to gather the fragments of tradition, reports of discoverers, journals of traders, remembrances of early settlers, surface evidence and information of a collateral character, and sift out the truth and arrange all in chronological order, leaves a small narrative for the perusal of future generations.

Much more could be added to this chapter, if we were to set down as historical fact fanciful theories and romantic stories. Here, practically along the Eel river, came the great tribes of Miamis from the east and north, meeting the almost equally powerful

Pottawattamies from the west and northwest; and intermingled among these, individual squads and larger bodies of other tribes, sometimes under the leadership of chiefs. Before there were white men with which to contend, there was war among the tribes, often to the point of extermination, or destruction of tribal relation, and the incorporation of the remnants into other tribes and a commingling of individuals. It is needless to say that much, if not the greater, part of the mass of literature upon this subject is very meagre in fact.

As to-day, some portions of our country are much more densely populated than others, for reasons easily discernible, so in those days before the foot of white man pressed the soil, some portions of the country were more thickly settled with Indians than others. If Whitley county to-day cannot boast of its fine and populous cities, dense population and metropolitan improvements, it can say its rich hunting grounds, small stretches of prairie, its streams and lakes, once made it a very important part of the red man's domain.

Many pages have been written to prove when a fort was first erected at what is now Fort Wayne; but it is quite sure there was a French fort at that place long before 1730. The establishment of the fort proves a previous discovery by white men, as well as a necessity for its erection. Money was not expended and lives risked without an object, and in this case the purpose is easily found. Its strategic and commercial importance, lying at the headwaters of the Maumee to the lake, and in the other direction by a small portage to either Little river or Eel river, and a highway into the vast interior. The country was rich in what the natives had to barter or traffic. It was the largest and most central of all the villages or points in the Miami possessions. Capt. Vincennes visited it as early as 1740, and pronounced it "The Key of the West." Little Turtle named it the "glorious gate" through which all the good words of their chiefs had to pass from the north to the south and from the east to the west.

Before the erection of that fort, the local historv of this region is unknown ; and for many years thereafter, we only know that the Indians of this region traded and bartered there, that they had portages or trails from Eel river to the fort, and that the portages and river through this county became what we would liken to-day to a transcontinental railroad; this county was traversed by a great national highway.

From the Great Lakes, over which for two centuries must come the advance guard of civilization, during the terrors of treachery and trails of blood, of French and British claims, and until after the second war with Great Britain and the final breaking down of Indian prowess, through the Whitley county portages and Eel river must a great part of these hardy pioneers pass as though hemmed in by a barbed wire.

On the 26th day of July, 1906, a small number of citizens of Whitley county set out with the avowed purpose of ascertaining all that could be obtained by personal examination and evidence of witnesses of the Indian history of the county. They visited the Island, the spot of executions thereon, the battle ground of the two dominant tribes, Miamis and Pottawattamies, the spot of the "burned cabins," Indian cemeteries, the spot of the massacre at Page's Crossing, the bridge across Beaver run. Little Turtle's Village, Seek's Village, and the location of the homes of both these chiefs. The day was a summer ideal, and when they sat down to picnic on historic ground on Silas Briggs' farm, there were nearly 200 people. Some came to hear, others to tell, others because they felt interested, and many out of idle and listless curiosity, and these unconsciously assisted by inspiring those who came to add their testimony to their most vivid recollection.

Such an array of witnesses will never gather again. Even before these pages have reached the publishers, some of them have gone to take their places in their last narrow homes. As we inspected a place, each would come fonvard and relate what he himself had seen of or on this spot ; what father or mother or other friends had told him, and out of all this, corroborated from all possible sources, comes the following narrative, which may well take its place in the literature of Whitley county as authentic history :

In that notable gathering were Charles Seymour, who lived on the island much more than half a century ago, and saw the things of which he spoke ; John F. Mossman, to whom Indians were familiar, and who fed them in his father's house; George Aker. who as a boy played with Indian boys ; Sanford Mosher, whose recollection of Indians and their day is as vivid as though 'twere yesterday : Silas and Andrew Briggs, who came as the Indian sun was setting, and who carved beautiful, fertile farms out of the Indian wreckage, built magnificent homes and reared large, intelligent fam- ilies on the spots of former Indian habitations, both in possession of all their faculties and able to speak intelligently of what was to be seen in former days, and of rapidly dissolving- evidence ; William and Alexander Ah ire. raised right here on Eel river on a spot hallowed by historic scenes, both have raised worthy families, who have gone forth to fill places of prominence in the world. All these men were yet fully able to tell of the stirring scenes of early days. These and many others gave evidence of incalculable historic value. Without overshadowing the value of the testimony of any of these, it is but truth to say that Alexander More was in position to give more information than any other; an intelligent citizen, possessing a beautiful home and some leisure, and being raised on the most interesting Indian ground in the county, and having made a study of local and historic conditions all his life, he is better able to speak than any other in the county. Mr. More has known from childhood the exact habitations of Little Turtle and the route of the trails or portages, and is desirous of having them marked for perpetuation during his life. He had not for many years visited the spot of Little Turtle's house at the bend of the river, and yet his description of it. from his own recollection and that left by his father, enabled every man in the party to walk directly to the spot.

To the events of this 26th day of July, [906, and a few subsequent trips over the county by nearly the same people, are we mainly indebted for what follows:

What is known as Little Turtle's trail or portage through the county will be hereafter described. At this time, we shall only refer to it as going through the farm of

Alexander More in the northeast corner of section 1 1 and the north-west corner of section 12, in Union township. Eel river at this point formerly cut almost a curve out of the corners of these two sections. Since dredging, the short curves are taken out, but are so small as not to be discernible on the map, or change the location of the places of interest with reference to the river. The trail coming from the west runs almost parallel with the river and about 200 feet from it. The road running north through More's land, coming from the Yellow river road, runs about sixty rods west of the east line of section 1 1 . and parallel with it until about seventy rods from the north line of the section, then, on account of the river, angles to the east. Perhaps ten rods south of the angle is More's house. Directly north and about the angle, stands his large barn. Directly north of the barn is the trail, in many places still plainly visible. About fifty feet north of the trail, almost where the bluff descends to the river, is the spot where stood Little Turtle's house. He had two houses, and of course it is not known whether he occupied both of them at one time or not. He had three wives, but, we are told, not "simultaneously;" so that it can hardly be that two families were domiciled at this place. The houses were about eighty feet apart. The first, supposed to be the larger, stood to the north and slightly west of the other. This was the last habitation of this famous chief in the county, from whence he went to Fort Wayne in the spring or early summer of 1812 and died in midsummer.

east of Turtle's cabin is the intrenchment beginning at the river on the east side, and almost circular in form, except the west side is flattened before it again strikes the river. It is plainly visible, covered with the vegetation of summer, and much more so in winter, though we are quite sure it was dug a century and a quarter ago. The distance around this intrenchment is 360 feet. At its farthest point from the river it is 120 feet, and has about 150 feet on river front. The river front all along here is quite a little bluff, but near the east line of this artificial ridge, is cut down a road to the river, by which horses coming across the river might come directly into the enclosure. Fifty years ag"o the embankment stood up fully four feet, and forty years ago the stations could be easily seen where each man stood to throw it up. and there were more than a hundred such stations. The large timber had been taken from within, and some distance outside the intrenchment, save one tree inside and another about fifty feet south and east of where the east line of the embankment strikes the river. The one outside is gone. There were marks on the outside showing that it had been struck in several places, presumably with axes. Mr. More himself cut to the inside scar and counted the growths, and had others do so, and they counted back to 1 780. The inside tree is dead, but still stands, a stub perhaps twenty feet high. It died fifteen j-ears ago, and by count of the growths by different persons, to the interior scar, makes the time of the cutting into it either 1780 or 1781.

burned on the side next to the river. Had these been burned by a fire running over the ground, or by any other means than by persons encamped along the river, they would not all have been burned on the one side next the river.

At a point on the north line of section 12 where the road strikes the section line, running thence east a few rods on the line, there was noticed, but a few years ago. unmistakable evidence of a great charnel house. Either it had been the scene of a battle or the pestilential ravage of disease. Bones of human beings could have been picked up by the barrel. Pigs turned on the ground plowed it all over with their noses, and crunched the bones for months. A buckle, bridle bit and spur were also plowed up. On this ground, Mr. More found a round excavation about the size of a very large, oldfashioned dug well, walled with stones. In this was crowded endwise all the timber it would hold, and it was almost burned to charcoal. Mr. More dug it out, and it extended down six to seven feet.

At a point on the trail about sixty rods east of the fortification, about the same indications of a battle ground were found, and two large mounds, the outlines still to be seen, were quite plain but a few years ago. Mr. More opened them and took out quite a few human bones, and one entire skeleton.

The Island

What was known to the Indians and the early settlers as "The Island," is that part of Columbia township between Eel river and Mud run, the latter emptying into the former almost on the west line of Seek's Vil- lage reserve. The streams thus form the island, except the east side, which was a prairie or marsh, so wet that at most seasons of the year a canoe would readily float over it. The island was in area 300 or perhaps 400 acres. The road south from the city through the center of sections 14 and 23, Seek's Village reserve, strikes the island as it crosses Eel river. The margin of this island along Eel river is high and bluffy direct to the river for a short distance east of the road. West of the road the bluff recedes some distance, but follows nearly the same lines as the river, leaving what was formerly a low, marshy, dense thicket ten or fifteen rods wide between bluff and river. Except along Eel river the island sloped gradually into marsh and stream scarcely distinguishable. As the road from Columbia City south crosses the river and ascends to the bluff, it strikes the higher part of the island of perhaps eighty acres, that at no time ever witnessed an overflow.

On the margin of Eel river, on each side, was a trail which the Indians had so constructed with earth and timber that at lowwater it was a well worn highway. East of the road some thirty rods, was a splendid spring, and near it the bluff was cut down by a trail or portage to the river, and a crossing was established for some fair-sized craft of the canoe variety. About midway between the road and the junction of the rivers was the trail, portage or crossing, so arranged with stones and timbers as to be passable except in high stages of water. This was the only regular rind well defined approach to the island.

and east of the road from James Compton ire 1848, and moved upon it. His son, Charles Seymour, who spent much of his boyhood at this place, accompanied the expedition and gave the principal information.

At that time information was readily obtained from Coesse's family, and other scattering Indians and early settlers. It was one of the principal strongholds of the Miamis on Eel river, and predatory bands of Indians or whites could reach it only at a great disadvantage to themselves. It was a natural fortification.

There was a legend among the Indians of a white man on a white horse being on the island. This pale rider on his pale steed, kept concealed like a spirit, except when on a mission against the Indians or planning some harm to them. He could ride like the wind, and his sight was dreaded as a pestilence. When he appeared, they were sure some calamity was about to befall them by storm, fire or human foe.

The island, when it came into the hands of the white man, was denuded of most of its heavy timber. There were scattering trees and unmistakable evidence of the red man's agriculture, but grown over with hazel brush.

On the west side of what is now the road, some forty rods south of the river, were six oak trees standing near each other and alone. when the Seymours came. These showed marks on the west side of frequent burning against them, from the roots up to a little more than the height of a man. and there were many scars of tomahawk or hatchet. About the roots were many charred bones of human beings. Mrs. Seymour inquired and was told by Mrs. Coesse that it was the spot where the Miamis tortured and burned their prisoners, brought sometimes many miles, and she also told of witnessing the burning of some Pottawattamies there when she was a little girl. There were several trees over the island that were similarly burned, but this seemed to be the principal place. The expedition placed a red stake by the roadside forty rods south of the center of section

Charles Seymour related that while living here he knew Coesse's son Simon very well, and often played and hunted with him, but could never get to see old Coesse himself. He says : "Once Simon came over to our patch and ate cucumbers until I thought he would kill himself, and told him so : and he replied, 'Nothing kill Indian." The next spring he took sick and died, but I guess the cucumbers did not kill him ; I took care of him a great deal, saw the autopsy performed and helped bury him. This was the spring of 1852. Once I went over to Coesse's when Simon and his mother were unloading poles off of a wagon ; he told me something to say to his mother, and I repeated it ; she picked up a root and came at me so savage that I ran toward home like a deer; I afterward learned that I had said to her, 'Squaw can't run,' and she showed me that I was mistaken."

river, on the farm now owned by John W. Koch. He was sure it was the scene of a battle between the Miamis and Pottawattamies. He had tended a field of corn on the spot sixty years ago, and saw manyhuman bones and arrow heads. Coesse had told his father about the battle and of Little Turtle's ability as a warrior commanding the victorious Miamis, and that several Pottawattamies were executed on the island.

Mr. Seymour has always been familiar with the spot. There can be no doubt that this was the expedition of the Pottawattamies against the Miamis in 1801, mentioned in several histories. It came about by individual depredations, back and forth between the tribes, aggravated into feuds between the two great bodies. Six of the Pottawattamies crossed the island one night and killed two squaws and took away three ponies. The Miamis retaliated in kind. Then came the Pottawattamies in legion to the island and ran them off to the east until Little Turtle rallied them and gained the day. No doubt the execution Mrs. Coesse witnessed was one of the Indians who killed the Miami squaws.

The Burned Cabins

On the line between Columbia and Union townships, on the west line of section 19. Union, and about forty rods north of the Reserve line, is Compton church, with cemetery to the south. The roads at this point form five points, the brick church in the triangle.

was covered with cabins partly burned when first seen by the new comers. There is tradition of buried treasure thereabouts. Even' possible source has been exhausted to ascertain the history of the place, resulting only in finding that an Indian village once occupied the grounds ; that there is an Indian burying ground on the bluff of the creek to the west. Who they were or what became of them, will never be ascertained. The evidence of Mrs. Revarre, elsewhere in this history set out, is given for what it is worth. That she knew a family there and that they all died off naturally, does not account for the burned cabins. Were we to set down probability for history, we would say that Col. Simrall on his expedition, destroying Turtle Village September 17, 1812, descended this short distance farther and burned this village.

Paige'S Crossing

To the northwest of Compton church is Paige's Crossing, where the road from Columbia City, after crossing the river, branches in three directions. On the west bank of the river, north of the road, Mrs. Coesse was born. Mrs. Revarre's romantic story of the killing of Coesse's father at this point is corroborated by Henry N. Beeson, who says Coesse told him he always shuddered when he thought of the battle at this point, and that he saw the river filled with dead, among whom was his own father. There is also a tradition, now but a rumor of tradition, that the white men came along to a point between Paige's Crossing and Compton church, and being repulsed bv the Indians, retired to the north, leaving a large

If Coesse saw this bloody massacre, then it must have been Simrall and his men. Coesse was too young to have seen any earlier expedition of this character, and there has been none since SimraH's. The further fact that neither Coesse nor Mrs. Revarre mention the name of their illustrious grandfather. Little Turtle, in connection with this battle, indicates that he was dead. He died two months before Simrall's expedition. If such battle occurred, it was undoubtedly between Simrall and the Indians, and before burning their village at Compton church. Though history does not record it, there is nothing to indicate the contrary. In fact, it is highly probable.

At this point, it may be well to observe that Seek's Village reserve was not Chief Seek's reserve. He and Turtle and others had individual reserves in Allen and Huntington counties. Seek's Village reserve was given to the Indians at Seek's Village. Adjoining Seek's Village reserve to the east is Chapiene reserve, a section a mile square being given to that chief. If he ever lived in the county, we do not know it. He was a characterless Indian, of whom history knows but little. He lived about Fort Wayne, and died unrecorded. It is said of him that he traded his reserve, one mile square of the finest land in Whitley county, to some Fort Wayne traders for an old white stallion and two barrels of whiskey. The stallion died on the commons soon after, but not before Chapiene and his friends had drank all the whiskey.

Turtle And Turtle'S Village

The names Little Turtle and Turtle are interchangeable in this narrative. The chief's name was Little Turtle, and his village was properly called Turtle Village. It had some other name before he became prominent, but it being the place of his residence, and he the greatest of all the Miamis, it took his name.

Turtle Village was mostly on the southwest quarter of section 4, Union township, and north of the sharp curve or bend in the river. Turtle was born here; so were his sons and daughters, and likewise his father before him. It was the home of the family as far as Indian tradition could carry.

Historians who have copied after each other without research, say he was born in 1747. In fact, and beyond contradiction, he was born in 1751. Historians have also added, one after the other, that his mother was a Mohican, when in truth she was a Miami.

He attained to the chieftainship at an early age. not by heredity, for heredity is in the maternal line, and his mother was not of a family of chiefs; but he arose to the position because of his superiority over his fellows in statecraft, military ability, sagacity, plainness and forcibility of speech, and ability to gain and hold the confidence of his people. His courage and sagacity became proverbial ; neighboring tribes shrank from him as an adversary, but drew courage and achieved success under his leadership.

The campaign of Wayne in August. 1794, was too much for him. He realized the foolishness of undertaking to keep up the warfare against the United States, as

He returned to his village in Whitley county, and tried to teach his people the arts of peace. By act of congress, he was given about $1,000 in money to erect himself a house. It has been said that he built a brick house, but that is not true. He was economical, and built but a log cabin on the bluff above the bend of the river, as above stated.

By the same act of congress, $1,200 was appropriated to clean off lands about his village for his people. This he expended, hiring his own people to do the work, and by 1801 had about 250 acres cleared and burned off about and around the village. His people were, however, not inclined to work, and it made fuel too far for the squaws to carry, and many of the tribe deserted him and went above to Seek's Village, and others drifted to the villages farther down the river. He abandoned his village in 1802 and moved up the trail to the fort, now More's farm, as fully set out elsewhere in this work.

The next year he went before the legislature of both Ohio and Kentucky, and made personal appeals against selling liquor to his people. He was the first to introduce vaccination among his people for the prevention of small-pox, which was so fatal among them. He learned to vaccinate from the fort surgeon at Fort Wayne, was himself vaccinated there, and next performed it on his own children at Turtle Village. With his removal from the village, the place passed into history.

Turtle went from his home at More's, in the spring of 1812, to Fort Wayne, to be treated by the fort physician. He died July 14, 1812, of what was then called gout, because of swelling in the feet, but of a disease now termed Bright's disease by the profession. He was buried with military honors, about the center of the old orchard at Fort Wayne. He kept well informed as to the events leading up to the war of 1812, which was declared but a month before his death. Had he lived, and his counsel been followed, the disastrous campaign of Harrison against his people had not taken place. Gen. Harrison reached Fort Wayne September 12, 1812, the Indians beat a hasty retreat, and their villages were destroyed. On the 17th. Col. Simrall arrived with a regiment of 320 dragoons, and Col. Farrow with a company of mounted riflemen. The next day their combined force was sent to destroy Turtle Village, but with strict orders not to molest the dead warrior's home at More's. History only says they faithfully performed their work and returned. Were the history given in detail, and correctly, it would be about this way. It was the intention of Gen. Harrison to break the power of the Indians forever. Turtle's Village was supposed to be the only place worthy of destruction, when in fact it was practically deserted. They passed along the trail and the fort and Turtle's home at Mi ire's, burning all the cabins except Turtle's house, and followed this trail to his village, and perhaps burned it as stated. Finding they had performed a feeble work, what more natural than that they passed a little farther down and performed the work which has heretofore been set out as probably occurring at Paige's Crossing and Compton church?