HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY
CHAPTER II
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF INDIANA
The most reliable information that can be obtained seems to establish the fact that nearly the whole of Indiana was originally inhabited by three different tribes of Indians, called the Twigtwees or Miamis, the Weas and the Piankeshaws. The last of these occupied nearly all of the Wabash Valley, and was a powerful factor in the celebrated Miami Confederacy. As the tide of immigration poured its throng of Europeans upon the Atlantic shore, and civilization began its westward march across the New World, the sullen savage disdaining the enlightenment of white men, retired constantly to the gloom and solitude of his native forests. Thus, in time, different tribes of Indians came to occupy the same territory. These later tribes were called "Permitted", and throughout the whole of Indiana these stranger Indians were early found. Some of them were the Delawares, Pottawattomies, Shawnees, Kickapoos, Wyandots and Senecas.
THE PIANKESHAWS
The Piankeshaws were one of the Algonquin tribes, and it was people of this nation that occupied the present county of Orange, although at a later date a few Wyandottes and Shawnees were settled here, and the Delawares had strong claim to the land through a treaty with the Piankeshaws in 1767. The boundary lines, as described in several Indian treaties, center in and cross Orange County. One of these is a line running from the mouth of Turtle Creek, on the Wabash River, in what is now Sullivan County, to a point about one mile north of the town of Orleans, and thence in a southwesterly course to a place near the present site of the village of Branchville, Perry County, and thence in a straight line to the mouth of White River. North of this line. it is said, the Piankeshaw Indians never ceded any land to the United States, although their allies, the Delawares, Twightwees and Weas did.
THE INDIAN CESSION TREATIES
At Vincennes, in August, 1804, the Delawares and Piankeshaws relinquished their claims to all land lying south of this tract, and south of a line beginning about four miles southwest from Paoli, on Section 21, running from that place to the Ohio Falls, at Jeffersonville. Beginning at a point fifty-seven miles east from Vincennes, a line was run to the old Indian boundary line, running from the Ohio River, at the mouth of the Kentucky River, to Fort Recovery. This starting point was about one mile north of the town of Orleans and the line connected with the other boundary at that place just mentioned, and intersected the old boundary where it crosses White Water River, in the extreme eastern part of the State, fifty miles north of the Ohio. South of this to the Ohio River all the land was ceded to the United States by certain chiefs and warriors of the Pottawattomie, Miami, Eel River, Delaware and Wea tribes. This treaty was made at Grouceland, near Vincennes, in August, 1805. Thus there is found to be no less than four separate treaties or deeds from the Indians to the United States, conveying in different tracts the land now embraced in Orange County. These were made as follows: At Fort Wayne, June 7, 1803; at Vincennes, August 18 and 27, 1804; at Grouceland, August 21, 1805; at Fort Wayne, September 30, 1809. In nearly all of these Gen. William H. Harrison was Commissioner, acting on the part of the Government.
LOCAL INDIAN VILLAGES
Concerning the more direct Indian occupants of this county, there is but little of reliable information to be found. It seems that the red men in the earliest times did not occupy much of the county as a permanent habitation, but lived at a distance along the larger streams and resorted hither in quest of game. A few small Villages were established at random, one of which was Shawnee, and stood on the banks of Lost River, not far from where that stream sinks in the northeastern part of the county. The chief of this vilLage was known as "King Billy", and is said to have had a red-headed white woman for a wife. After white men began to arrive there were but few Indians in the county, and these only in straggling and roving bands, sometimes for hunting. sometimes for pillage and plunder, and occasionally for bloodshed. Throughout the whole of the Wabash Valley great discontent and hatred was instilled into the Indians against the white settlers who were rapidly destroying their forest hunting grounds. Foremost among those who entertained this bitter hatred for the whites were the renowned Shawnee warrior, Tecumseh, and his brother, called the Prophet. Under their lead an Indian war was begun and only ended with the battle of Tippecanoe, in November 1811. Frequently during these years of terror and strife were the few inhabitants of Orange County compelled to fly to one of the early forts or block-houses that were then built for protection of the pioneers.
THE LOG HOUSES
Probably the first house of this kind in the county was built on the farm now owned by Mr. Samuel Mahan, in the northwestern part of Stampers Creek Township. This was known as the Moore Fort, and in his youth Mr. Edward Moore, now living at Orleans, lived there with his parents. The house was of the regular block style, and a few yards away a trench or deep ditch was dug entirely around it just inside of which was a row of split posts set into the ground slanting out over the ditch. This effectually prevented an approach from the outside to the house where the settlers were congregated. Farther north in the county was another on Lost River, in Orleans Township, on the farm now owned by George Wolfe. This was near the site of the old Shawnee village before spoken of. In Northeast Township, on the farm of Preston Tegarden, stood what was known in early times as the Maxwell Fort, and in its day was the one more frequently resorted to than any other in this part of the county. In the western part a fort was established at French Lick, and during the years when Tecumseh had stirred the Indians into frequent acts of hostility, a company of rangers was stationed at this place for the purpose of protecting the whites in this section. As a Government station this was maintained until about the year 1815.