HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY
CHAPTER II
MURDERS COMMITTED BY INDIANS
Orange County has been fortunate in the scarcity of its Indian murders. After the coming of white men the red natives were seldom seen except in small roving bands. Before this time nearly all of them had moved from this territory in accordance with the various treaties, and only returned at intervals, usually, perhaps in the ardor of the chase, sometimes with the object of wreaking a deep and merciless revenge upon the innocent frontier settlers. There is said to have been three white men killed in the county by the Indians. Concerning one of these there is much doubt and but little reliability. However, on the authority of Uncle Thomas Bedster, of Northwest Township, who is one of the oldest men and earliest settlers now living in the county, it seems that a man named Samuel Wilson was killed in Orangeville Township on the farm now owned by William C. Shirley, at a very early time. Mr. Bedster affirms the truth of this in an emphatic way, and no one was found to dispute it, but several had heard of the matter, although it had nearly escaped their memory. Nothing of the particulars could be learned, and this statement is given for whatever value it may bear in itself. About the year 1814 a man named Vest was shot and killed near where the present town of Orleans is situated. The particulars seem to be about as follows: Some horses were missing in the neighborhood of the Lost River settlement and a party of men were out searching for them. It was supposed that they had been stolen by a band of Indians that was at the time hovering in that part of the county, although this supposition proved to be erroneous. When at a place one-half mile northeast of the present town limits, the men were fired upon by Indians in ambush and Vest was instantly killed. The savages made good their escape, and the victim was buried upon the spot where he fell, and his grave is still pointed out by the citizens of Orleans as a monument of the only savage treachery that ever occurred to stain with blood the settlement of their prosperous community.
THE KILLING OF CHARLES
The murder of William Charles at or near the French Lick Fort, in the spring of 1813, is perhaps the best known of any deed ever committed in the county by the Indians, although many conflicting accounts are told of it. The one most reliable and trustworthy seems to be about as follows, given by Mr. Edward Moore, of Orleans, who, although not present at the time, was often with several members of the Charles family after its occurrence: The victim was a married man and father of one child at the time of the killing, and lived in the fort with his father, Joel Charles and the company of rangers. Charles was plowing in a field near the fort and the Indians crept close to him from the adjoining woods and shot him from their ambush behind a stump. They at once ran to him for the purpose of tomahawking and scalping him. When the killing was done the rangers were some distance away from the fort shooting at a mark, and were unable to reach Charles in time to render him any assistance. He was found with an arrow through one arm, and there were three tomahawk holes in his hat, probably made in their first hasty attempts to obtain the scalp. It is said that his wife was at the time on guard, or rather watching for Indians. This would indicate some apprehension of danger from that source, and if reports be true this was most likely the case. The cause was somewhat of a personal nature between the Indians and the occupants of the fort, and a narration of them would be both tedious and useless. The wife of Charles died in a few months after this of a broken heart and was always lamenting in maniacal tones the loss of her husband, and wore the hat which he had on at the time of his death.
INDIAN TRAILS
There seem to have been two important trails or forest roads that were traversed by the red man across Orange County. One of these was a route from Vincennes to the Ohio Falls and passed near what is now New Prospect in French Lick Township, through the town of Paoli and nearly over Albert’s Hill and thence took a southeasterly course, in nearly the same line as the turnpike, to the Ohio River. The other trail ran east and west across the northern part of the county passing near the town of Orleans. This was a road from Vincennes to Cincinnati and was called the Cincinnati Trace.
INDIAN CAMPING GROUNDS
Throughout the county there are several places peculiarly adapted for camping places and these were often utilized by parties of Indians while on bunting excursions or other temporary journeys to this region. Among the more important of these may be mentioned Valeene, the springs at the source of Stampers Creek, the rise of Lost River at the site of Orangeville, and on Patoka Creek near the town of Newton Stewart, and two miles south of Valeene. During the winter season the Indians were rarely troublesome to the whites, and their acts of hostility usually began in the spring when the "leaves were the size of squirrel ears." From that time until fall the early settlers would go in bands and attend to one another’s crops in order to present a more formidable opposition should there be any attempt at violence on the part of the natives. These, however, were few in Orange County and the people enjoyed much tranquility and freedom from Indian depredations. In the conspiracy of Tecumseh and his prophet brother, the Delawares, who then inhabited much of the White River country, refused to join and the same is probably true of both the Piankeshaws and Shawnees. As these Indians occupied the territory of Orange County it accounts for the comparatively peaceful times immediately prior to the battle of Tippecanoe. Soon after that event the Piankeshaws were sent to Missouri and Kansas and afterward all to Kansas. They have constantly grown less in number, much through the influence of whisky and disease. In 1854 they were united with the Weas, Peorias and Kaskasias, all numbering 259. In 1868 they numbered 179, and since then the Miamis have been annexed to them and are all in the Indian Territory at the present time. A brighter era seems to be upon them as they now own 52,000 acres of land, 3,000 of which are in cultivation and they live in good homes, dress like civilized people and their children attend schools of their own. Eight of their boys have come back to the land of their ancestors, and in 1883 were attending colleges in Indiana. The Delawares and Shawnees to the number of 1,000, were, in 1866, united to the Cherokees in the Indian Territory and are now the most advanced of any tribe of Indians in civilization and are said to be worth more per capita than any others.