France. In 1669, six years before the death of Marquette, excited by
the reports of the Indians in regard to a river which rose in the
country of the Seneeas and flowed to the sea, he started with a party
of twenty-four maintained at his own expense, on a tour of discovery.
After overcoming the most vexatious difficulties, he reached the Ohio
and descended it to the falls.
Returning to his trading post of LaChine, and pondering his plan
of discovering a new route to China and the East, La Salle was
startled by the reports of IMarquette and Joliet. This seemed, to his
eager mind, the first step toward the realization of his dream, and
centering everything in the enterprise, he sold his property and
hastened to France, where he secured loans of money, and prepared
to carry out his plans upon a large scale. Constructing a large vessel
— the Griffin — he set out with a party of thirty men and three monks,
August 7, 1679, for the scene of Marquette's discoveries. He first
conceived the idea of securing the country, thus discovered, by a
series of forts, which should form a barrier to resist the encroach-
ments of the English, who were gaining a strong hold on the Atlantic
border. This received the encouragement and aid of Frontenac, who
was then governor general of Canada, and, rebuilding Fort Frontenac
as a base of operations, he set sail for Lake Michigan. Arriving
at Green Bay, he loaded his vessel with furs and sent it, under the
care of a pilot and fourteen sailors, on its return voyage. Waiting
there for the Griffin's return until forced to give it up in despair,
he set out with canoes to pursue his enterprise, and landed at St.
Joseph. Following the river bearing the same name, he reached the
Kankakee by a short portage, and passed down that river to the-
Illinois.
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY 3
Marquette's mission had been established near the present site
of Utica, in La Salle County, Illinois. There, in December, 1669, La
Salle found an Indian town of 460 lodges temporarily deserted, and,
passing on to where the City of Peoria now is, found another village
of about eighty lodges, where he landed, and soon established amicable
and permanent relations. With the consent of the tribes, La Salle
soon built the Fort of Crevecoeur, a half a league below, and then
early in March of 1680, set out for Port Frontenae, in Western New
York, and thence to Montreal to repair the loss of his vessel, the
Griffin.
Iroquois Crush the Illinois
In the meantime the Jesuit faction engaged in fierce competi-
tion with him in securing the peltrj- trade of the Indians and, jealous
of La Salle's success and the English of the Atlantic border, united in
stirring up the Iroquois to assault La Salle's Illinois allies in his
absence. "Suddenly," says Parkman, "the village was awakened
from its lethargy as by ci'ash of a thunderbolt. A Shawnee, lately
here on a visit, had left his Illinois friends to return home. He now
reappeared, crossing the river in hot haste, with the announcement
that he had met on his way an army of Iroquois approaching to attack
them. All was in panic and confusion. The lodges disgorged their
frightened inmates; women and children screamed; startled warriors
snatched their weapons. There were less than five hundred of them,
for the greater part of the young men had gone to war. ' '
Decisive Battle at Starved Rock
There Tonti, La Salle's lieutenant, left in charge of the fort, found
himself weakened by the early desertion of most of his foi'ce, and
now, an object of suspicion to his allies, in an awkward and danger-
ous predicament. Undaunted by the untoward circumstances, he joined
the Illinois, and when the Iroquois came upon the scene, in the midst
of the savage melee, faced the 580 warriors, declared that the Illinois
were under the protection of the French king and the governor of
Canada, and demanded that they should be left in peace, backing his"
words with the statement that there were 1,200 of the Illinois and
sixty Frenchmen across the river. These representations had the
effect of checking the ardor of the attacking savages, and a temporary
truce was effected.
It was evident that the truce was but a ruse on the part of the
4 HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
Iroquois to gain an opportunity to test the truth of Tonti's state-
ments, and no sooner had the Illinois retired to their village on the
north side of the river than numbers of the invading tribes, on the
pretext of seeking food, crossed the river and gathered in increasing
numbers about the village. The Illinois knew the design of their foe
too well, and, hastily embarking, they set fire to their lodges and
retired down the river, when the whole band of Iroquois crossed over
and finished their work of havoc at their leisure.
The Illinois, in the meantime, lulled into a false security, divided
into small bands in search of food. One of the tribes, the Tamaroas,
"had the fatuity to remain near the mouth of the Illinois, where they
were assailed by the whole force of the Iroquois. The men fled and
very few of them were killed, but the women and children were cap-
tured to the number, it is said, of seven hundred," many of whom
were put to death with horrible tortures. Soon after the retreat of
the Illinois, the Iroquois discovered the deception of the Frenchmen,
and only the wholesome fear they had of the French governor's power
restrained their venting rage upon Tonti and his two or three com-
panions. As it was, the.y were dismissed and bidden to return to
Canada.
• La Salle Heads Northwestern Indian League
It was in the wake of these events that La Salle returned in the win-
ter of 1680 and found this once populous village devastated and de-
serted, surrounded by the frightful evidences of savage carnage. Dis-
heartened but not cast down, he at once set about repairing his for-
tune. Discerning, at once, the means and object of his enemies, he
set about building a bulwark to stay a second assault. Returning
to Fort Jliami, on the St. Joseph by the borders of Lake Michigan,
he sought to form a defensive league among the Indians whom he
proposed to colonize on the site of the destroyed village of the Illinois.
He found ready material at hand in remnants of tribes fresh from
the fields of King Philip's war; he visited the Miamis and by his
wonderful power won them over to his plans and then in the interval,
before the tribes could arrange for their emigration, he launched out
with a few followers and hurriedly explored the Mississippi to the
Gulf.
Returning to Miehilimackinae in September, 1682, where he had
found Tonti in May of the previous year. La Salle, after directing
his trusty lieutenant to repair to the Illinois, prepared to return to
France for further supplies for the proposed colony; but learning
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY 5
that the Iroquois were planning another incursion, he returned to the
site of the destroyed village and with Tonti began, in December, 1682,
to build the Fort of St. Louis on the eminence which is now known
in history as Starved Rock.
Thus the winter passed, and in the meantime La Salle found em-
ploj^ment for his active mind in conducting the negotiations which
should result in reconciling the Illinois and the Miamis and in cement-
ing the various tribes into a harmonious colony. The spring crowned
his efforts with complete success.
At the Fort of St. Louis
La Salle looked down from his rocks on a concourse of wild human
life. Lodges of barks and rushes, or cabins, of logs were clustered on
the open plain, or along the edges of the bordering forests. Squaws
labored, warriors lounged in the sun, naked children whooped and
gamboled on the grass. Beyond the river, a mile and a half on the
left, the banks were studded once more with the lodges of the Illinois,
who, to the number of 6,000, had returned since their defeat, to their
favorite dwelling place. Scattered along the valley, among the ad-
jacent hills or over the neighboring prairie, were the cantonments
of half a score of other tribes and fragments of tribes, gathered under
the protection of the French — Shawnees from Ohio, Abenakis from
Maine, and Miamis from the sources of the Kankakee and the valleys
of the St. Joseph and the Tippecanoe.
The Deaths of La Salle and Tonti
In the meantime a party was sent to Montreal to secure supplies
and munitions to put the colony in a state of defense, which, to the
disappointment and chagrin of the sorely beset leader, he learned had
been detained by his enemies, who, by a change of governors, had
come into official power. Devolving the command of the enterprise upon
Tonti, La Salle set out in November, 1683, for Canada and France,
where he hoped to thwart his enemies and snatch success from threat-
ened defeat. Triumphant over his enemies, he returned to America in
1685 and, after wandering ineffectually for two years in the wilderness
of Texas, fell dead, pierced through the brain by the bullet of a
traitor in his own band.
It was not until late in 1688 that Tonti heard, with grief and in-
dignation, of the death of La Salle. In 1690, the brave and loyal
lieutenant of the great chevalier received from the French govern-
6 HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
ment the proprietorship of Fort St. Louis on the Illinois, of which
he continued in command until 1702, when by royal order the fort was
abandoned and Tonti transferred to the lower Louisiana. The Fort
of St. Louis was afterward reoccupied for a short time in 1718 by a
party of traders, when it was finally abandoned.
ViNCENNES AND FoRT ChARTRES FoUNDED
The French early improved the opening thus made for them. From
1688 to 1697, little progress was made in colonization, owing to the
wars between France and Great Britain, but after the peace of Ryswick
the project was taken up with renewed activity. In 1698 large num-
bers of emigrants, under the lead of officers appointed by the crown,
left France for the New World, and in the following year founded
the settlement of Biloxi, on Mobile Bay. In 1700 the settlement of
the French and Indians at old Kaskaskia was moved to the site where
the village of that name now stands. A year later a permanent settle-
ment was made at Detroit by Antoine de la Motte Cadillac, who,
in July of that year, arrived from Montreal with a missionary and
100 men, and in 1795 was authorized by the French government
to grant land in small quantities to actual settlers in the vicinity
of Detroit.
In 1702 Sieur Jueherau and a missionary named Mermet estab-
lished a post at Vincennes. Trouble with the Indians, and the wet,
swampy condition of the surrounding country, delayed the develop-
ment of the little settlement there but throughout the early history
of the country this post continued to be of the fii'st importance.
In 1718 Fort Chartres was erected on the Mississippi, sixteen miles
above Kaskaskia. About the fort rapidly gathered a village, which
was subsequently called New Chartres; five miles away the village
of Prairie du Roeher became a growing settlement, while all along the
river, between Kaskaskia and the fort, a .strong chain of settlements
was formed, within a year after the latter was finished. The erection
of Fort Chartres at this point was dictated by national considera-
tions, rather than by fear of the Indians.
The colonization of Louisiana consequent upon the exploration of
the Mississippi and the influx of colonists who found homes at Cahokia
and Kaskaskia, made this section the key to the French possessions
in America, the connecting link between Canada and Louisiana. In
that region the French settlers, little disturbed by the forages of the
Sacs and Foxes, pushed their improvements to the Illinois, while
lands were granted, though perhaps never occupied some distance up
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY 7
the stream. The military force found occupation in supporting the
friendly Illinois tribes against the Iroquois and Sacs and Foxes, and in
unsatisfactory or disastrous campaigns against the Chickasaws. In
the meantime, from the Southwest the Spaniards were jealously watch-
ing the French colonists, while the British, gradually pushing west-
ward, were building forts near the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
French Evacuation op the Country
The European war of 1741-46, in which France and England were
opposed, was echoed in these western wilds, and it was found that
Fort Chartres must be strenghtened or abandoned. The former course
prevailed, and in 1750 the old fortress of wood was transformed into
one of stone, and garrisoned by a full regiment of French grenadiers.
It was from this point that an important contingent sallied for the
capture of George Washington and his forces at Fort Necessity, on
July 4, 1754, and thus furnished to George II one of the causes for
a declaration of hostilities and the beginning of the old French war.
During the ensuing year a detachment burned Fort Granville, sixty
miles from Philadelphia; another party routed Major Grant near
Fort Duquesne, but, compelled to abandon the fortress, fired it and
floated down the river by the light of its flames ; again, a large detach-
ment, with some friendly Indians, assisted in the attempt to raise
the British siege of Niagara, leaving the flower of the garrison dead
upon the field.
The British Masters
The fort was no longer in condition to maintain the offensive and,
learning that the British were preparing to make a hostile descent
from Pittsburgh, the commandant writes to the French governor
general as follows: "I have made all arrangements, according to my
strength, to receive the enemy." The victory of the British on the
Plains of Abraham decided the contest, but the little backwoods citadel,
knowing but little of the general nature of the struggle, dreamed
that it might be the means of regaining, on more successful fields, the
possessions thus lost to the Fi-ench. The news that Fort Chartres,
with all territory east of the river, had been surrendered without so
much as a sight of the enemy, came like a thunderclap upon the
patriotic French colony. Many of the settlers, with Laclede, who had
just arrived at the head of a new colony, expressed their disgust by
going to the site of St. Louis, which they suppossed to be still French
territory.
8 HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
Though transferred by treaty to the English in 1763, the fort was
the last place in North America to lower the white ensign of the
Bourbon King, and it was not until the latter part of 1765 that the
British formally accepted the surrender of Fort Chartres. Pontiac,
the unwavering friend of the French, took upon himself, unaided
by his former allies, to hold back the victorious English. Major
Loftus, Captains Pitman and Morris, Lieutenant Frazer, and George
Croghan, some with force, some in disguise, and others with diplo-
macy, sought to reach the fort to accept its capitulation, but each one
was foiled and turned back with his mission unaccomplished, glad to
escape the fate of that Englishman for which Pontiac assured them he
kept a "kettle boiling over a large fire."
Wearied with the inactivity of the French, the Indians sought
an audience with the commandant, and explained their attitude.
"Father," said the chieftain, "I have long wished to see thee, to
recall the battles which we fought together against the misguided
Indians and the English dogs. I lov« the French and I have come
here with my warriors to avenge their wrongs."
But assured by St. Ange that such service could no longer be
accepted, he gave up the struggle, and the flag of St. George rose
in the place of the fair lilies of France. Thus another nationality
was projected into this restricted arena, a situation which was imme-
diately afterward still further complicated by the secret Franco-
Spanish treaty, which made the west bank of the Mississippi the
boundary of the Spanish possessions. "It is significant of the differ-
ent races, and the varying sovereignties in this portion of our coun-
try," says a writer, "that a French soldier from the Spanish City of
St. Louis should be married to an Englishwoman by a French priest
in the British colony of Illinois."
At the first announcement 'of the treaty, the natural hostility of
the people to the English induced large numbers of the colonists to
prepare to follow the French flag, and a hegira followed which swept
out of the colony fully one-third of its 3,000 inhabitants. There was
still a large number left, forming the largest colony in the West ; but
there were forces constantly at work which gi-adually depleted its
numbers. Under the British rule, an abnormal activity among traders
and land speculators was developed. The natives were constantly
overreached in trade by unscrupulous persons protected by the domi-
nant power, and representative of land purchasing organizations
were acquiring vast tracts of country from ignorant savages, who had
little comprehension of the meaning or consequences of these transac-
tions. These schemes and practices, though happily brought to naught
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY 9
by the Revolution, rendered the Indians, for a time, savagely hostile,
and left their blighting influence long after their removal. The lack of
proper sympathy between the governing race and the governed, the
hostility of the savages in which they were involved with the British,
induced many of the French colonists to leave their homes as rapidly
as they could make arrangements to do so.
The British garrison had hitherto occupied the old French Fort
Chartres, but one day in 1772, the river having overflowed its banks
and swept away a bastion and the river wall, the occupants fled with
precipitate haste to the high ground above Kaskaskia, where they erect-
ed a palisade fort. This was the principal achievement of the British
forces, up to the beginning of the war with the colonies. In this
struggle removed from the scene of active operations, the commandant,
resorting to the favorite means of the British during their entire early
history on this continent, furnished supplies and munitions of war
to the savages, and thus equipped, incited them to war upon the un-
protected frontier settlements in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Vir-
ginia.
The British Northwest
During the decade 1764-74 the Indians who occupied the country
northwest of the Ohio River remained at peace with the English,
although in the meantime many English colonists, contrary to the
proclamation of the king, the provisions of the treaty and the earnest
remonstrance of the Indians, continued to make settlements on Indian
lands.
When the British extended dominion over the territory of Indiana
by placing garrisons at the various trading posts, in 1764-65, the total
number of French families within its limits did not probably exceed
eighty or ninety at Vincennes, about fourteen at Fort Ouiatenon on
the Wabash, and nine or ten at the confluence of St. Joseph and St.
Mary's rivers, near the Twightwee Village. At Detroit and in the
vicinity of that post, there were about 1,000 French residents —
men, women and children. The remainder of the French population
in the Northwest resided principally at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Prairie
du Rocher, and in the vicinity of these villages ; and the whole French
population northwest of the Ohio, at. the time, did not exceed 3,000
souls.
Northwest Territory op 1787
CHAPTER II
THE AMERICAN NORTHWEST
Clark as its Father — Conquered Territory Erected into County
OF Illinois — French Rebel at Liberty — Organization and Divi-
sion OP Northwest Territory — The Country of the Illinois
and the Wabash — Indians Crowded by Whites — Prophet's
Town Founded — Harrison, Tecumseh and the Prophet ' ' Fight
it Out" — Indiana and Harrison in The War of 1812 — Battle
op the Thames River, Decisive American Victory — Peace Move-
ments — The Public Land Survey — Creation of the State and
Its Original Counties — Status op the Country in 1816 —
Departure op the Reds — Progressive Organization of Counties.
The time came when the cultured people from the old Eastern,
Middle and Southern states, as well as those who were instinctively
adventuresome, not only filtered into the Northwest Territory along
the borders of the Ohio, but commenced to sift down from the Ca-
nadian north and the country of the former French Louisiana. The
Americans, from long military experience with the French and British
and backwoods warfare with the Indians, had at last obtained the
upper hand in the control of the vast stretch of prairies, lakes, wood-
lands and forests between the Ohio and the headwaters of the Missis-
sippi, and were now to subdue the dusky occupants of that wonderful
region, who still claimed it by virtue of the fact that, as far back
as tradition went, they had hunted and fished over it, and wrestled
back and forth over it in the course of their tribal quarrels and wars
of extermination.
The time was at hand when a higher civilization placed no light
hand upon this glorious land of possibilities and, according to the
ways of the world and the course of human history, the weaker were
to be crowded out that a better period for America and the world
might be introduced. No people were ever better trained, or more
admirably adapted for the work in hand than the keen, hardy Amer-
ican soldiers and pioneers of those days. Never in the world's history
were such brave and intelligent leaders at hand, who combined .strong
traits of statesmanship and conciliatory talents, with absolute fear-
. 11
12 HISTORY OP KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
lessness and rare military ability. Such men as Clark and Harrison
were shrewder than the wiliest savages, in the ranks of their sol-
diers were woodsmen who could outtraek and outscent the most
skillful Indians of the Northwest : and their muscles were of iron
and their nerves steel in the shock of physical combat. Sustained
by more sanitary and generous physical conditions than were enjoyed
by the Indians of the wilds, the whites of this period and country were
even superior in physique to the reds. That fact, added to their
mental advantages, made only one outcome possible when the iinal
clash came.
Following the subjugation of the Indians of the Northwest, espe-
cially those who then roamed or tarried in what is now Northern
Indiana, was the preparation of the land for the establishment of
the homes and families of the whites. This included surveys of the
unorganized territory, and afterward the political and civil creation
of counties and other divisions indicative of American order, govern-
ment and general development.
The story of these phases of Indiana histoiy so closely linked with
the birth of Kosciusko County is one of rare interest, and the main
features of that narrative are set forth at this point.
Clark, Father of American Northwest
Had there been no George Rogei-s Clark, or someone with his
military and diplomatic genius, it is doubtful whether there would
ever have been an American Northwest. So disastrous in their con-
sequences and distracting in their influence were the Indian attacks
incited by the British during the earlier period of the Revolutionary
war that to Colonel Clark was a.ssigned the delicate and arduous
task of counteracting them, so as to render the frontiere of the North-
west comparatively safe.
Recognizing the British posts at Kaskaskia and Vincennes as the
source of the Indians' supplies and inspiration. Colonel Clark directed
his efforts toward the capture of these points and, enlisting the
interests of Patrick Henry, governor of Virginia, and securing such
help as he could give, Clark was able, on June 24, 1778, to start from
the Falls of the Ohio with 153 men for lower Illinois. So skilfully
did he manage his movements that he caught the garrison napping
and captured, on the 5th of July, both force and fort, without shedding
a drop of blood. Cahokia, in the like manner fell without a blow.
Clark's original plan contemplated the attack of Vincennes as the
first object of his campaign, but on reaching the Falls of the Ohio,
HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY 13
his force being so much smaller than he had expected he found it
necessary to change his plan of operations. In his journal, Clark
gives his reasons for the change as follows: "As Post Vin-
cennes, at that time, was a towTi of considerable force, consisting
of nearly 400 militia, with an Indian town adjoining, and great
numbers continually in the neighborhood, and, in the scale of Indian
affairs of more importance than any other, I had thought of attacking