Throughout all these a deep spirit of religious devotion is indicated, as well as a belief in the existence of another world, and that implements of a domestic nature were necessary to the comfort of the departed.
On the Moore farm, three miles northwest of Eugene, Mr. Zeke Sheward, in making an underground "dug-out," for the storing of vegetables, on a small mound surrounded by giants of the original forest, found at a depth of three feet, and at least one foot below the surface of the surrounding soil, some pieces of metal about the size of a teaspoon handle, and one coin. On analysis they were found to be made of lead, antimony and tin. The coin had in relief easily identified figures of a worshiped crocodile of Egypt or a holy water-dog of America, and word characters much resembling those of China or Hindostan. Prof. W. D. Whitney, of Yale College, one of the most thorough linguists of America, believed the characters to be Arabic, but of so ancient a date that the Oriental Society was unable to read them. The director of the British Museum in London determined them to be ancient Hindostanee, but of so ancient a date that no scholar in England could read the inscription. Trees and their remains indicate an age of over 2,000 years for these mounds.
In March 1880, while a company of gravel-road workers were excavating gravel from the bank on the ridge at the southwest corner of the Newport fair-ground, five human skeletons were found, supposed to be the remains of Indians buried at that point in an early day. In the gravel bank along the railroad, at the southeast corner of the fair-ground, another skeleton was found. No implements of war were found with the bones, but ashes were perceivable, which would indicate that they were the remains of Indians. After burying the dead it was their custom, in some parts of the country to build a fire over the corpse. Many of the skeletons thus discovered, as well as a large portion of the bones of the lower animals, on exposure to the air crumble away so easily that it becomes impossible to preserve them for exhibition.
A collection of a dozen skeletons shows, by measurements of the thigh bones found, that the warriors, including a few women, average over six feet and two inches in height. Without animals for transportation, their bones were made wonderfully strong by the constant carrying of heavy burdens, and their joints heavily articulated, and the trochanters forming the attachments of muscles show that they were a race not only of giant stature but also of more than giant strength.
Many relics from these mounds, as well as from the surface of the earth elsewhere, have been collected by old resident physicians and others, especially Professor John Collett, late State Geologist, and Josephus Collett; and an interesting museum may here and there be found presenting great variety of arrow points, spear, heads, stone axes, tomahawks, pestles, mortars, aboriginal pottery, pipes, ornaments, bones of Indian skeletons, etc. these collections also generally include an odd variety of geological and anatomical specimens.
At the advent of the white man to the Wabash Valley the Indians had ceased from their long warfare and were living in a state of quietude. They had no fixed villages or places of residence. For a few months their homes were at some point for summer, and at another location for winter; and their wigwams made of deer-skins and buffalo hides, could be easily removed, or be substituted by others made from the bark of trees. Many of the older settlers can remember
seeing trees the bark of which had been torn off in zigzag fashion seven or eight feet from the ground for the construction of wigwams. All along the banks of creeks and rivers were circular fire holes in which they cooked their food, and at night would sleep upon the ground with their feet hanging down in the warm places thus made.
The Wabash River was by them called Wahbahshikka; by the French, Ouabache; The Vermillion was called Osanamon, but by the French a name which signifies Yellow, Red or Vermillion afterward translated into English as Yellow River.
The Miamis occupied a portion of the county, but their general territory was east of the Wabash. They were a tall straight race, of handsome countenance, -- especially the girls -- brave and terrible as enemies, kind and faithful as friends, and chivalrous in disposition.
The Kickapoos or Mosquitans, originally from the north and northwest, occupied the regions south and southwest of the Big Vermillion River, but occasionally, by comity of neighbors, camped for a greater or less time north of the Vermillion, on their neighbor's territory. The Pottawatomies, also of northern origin, owned the territory, and their rights were recognized by the Government in treaties. The county was at times the home of each of these tribes, who at the zenith of their power had their headquarters at the Big Springs, a half mile south of Eugene, and the place was known among the whites as Springfield. There the councils of their confederacy were held, decisions as to wars and other difficulties determined, the great treaty with the British merchants made, and the Governor of Virginia took possession of immense tracts of land on the Lower Wabash. Many of the early settlers, as Esquire James Armour, Samuel Groenendyke, Sr., and Irvin Digby, can recollect meetings held there comprising 800 to 1,000 individuals. The Pottawatomies were of a rather subdued disposition, somewhat stoop-shouldered and of unpleasant countenance; the Kickapoos, on the other hand, were a warlike race, quarrelsome in disposition, adicted to controversy and happy only in giving and receiving blows.
It is believed that the early explorers and the French missionaries passed down or up the Wabash as early as 1702, -- or even as early as 1670. The missionaries, being Jesuits, were very successful by their winning methods in making converts among the savages. Near the Indian village on section 16, township 17 north, 9 west, on cutting down a white oak tree, the rings of growth over the scar made by a white man's ax showed that the incision was made not later than 1720.
In 1790, or later, General Hamtramck led an expedition of Indiana volunteers and militia from Vincennes to attack the non-aggressive Indians and their village on the Shelby farm near the mouth of the Vermillion. These were the remnants of the now weakened Pottawatomie and Kickapoo tribes. This was their favorite camping ground; the confluence of the rivers gave them opportunities for taking fish, which were then very abundant; the adjoining terrace lands were filled with thousands of the greatest variety of plum bushes and grape-vines, and it was known as the great plum patch. The expedition, in two columns, crossed the Indian ford at Eugene, just north of the present mill-dam, where stepping stones were placed for crossing the stream at low water. Thence they marched in a circuitous manner to attack the village in the rear, when the direct division should attack it at the same time from the south. The warriors and braves were off on a hunting expedition, and there
were none to molest or make afraid these "gallant" soldiers except the broken-down old men, the women and the children, and these were unmercifully slaughtered in the coldest of cold blood! It is not a matter of wonder, therefore, that the Indians of this region subsequently took part in the battles of Fallen Timbers and Tippecanoe.
A portion of the Indians of this county became connected with the confederacy that fought the battle of Fallen Timbers near Fort Recovery, Ohio, and participated in the treaty of Greenville, which they tried to observe; but later a smaller division of them were compelled to Join the confederacy of Tecumseh at Tippecanoe.
La Chappelle is the name of the first French trading post established at the Vermillion village, near Hamtramck's battle ground, the northwest quarter of section 33, 18 north, 9 west, by M. Laselle, father of Hon. Charles Laselle, one of the distinguished lawyers of Logansport, this State. Another trading post was subsequently established by an Englishman on the John Collett farm, sections 9 and 16. It was the custom of the French traders here to strike small lead medals, in size a little less than a silver quarter of a dollar, with a few figures and initial letters upon them, and tack them upon trees at the mouths of the tributaries claimed, as a sign of possession.
The Indians of the southern end of the county did their trading at stockades in Sullivan and Knox counties. Among the earliest traders were two brothers, Frenchmen, named Brouillet, which was generally pronounced by the Americans, Bruriet. For some reason the Indians of that region entertained a strong enmity toward one of these brothers. He was captured and brought to their village, near the mouth of a creek south of Clinton, that now bears his name. At once it was decided to burn him at the stake; and to the stake he was fastened, with buckskin thongs. After the men had ceased talking, the squaws, according to Indian custom, had a right to be heard. An aged squaw, who had had a son killed in warfare, demanded the right to adopt the prisoner as a substitute for her lost son; and, whilst this privilege was generally granted, on this occasion the demand was refused, although she pleaded earnestly and long. In her wild but heroic determination, she seized a butcher-knife, and before any one could interfere, cut the prisoner loose, pointed to a canoe on the sandy shore of the Wabash, and told him to run and save his life if he could. He did run. Pushing the canoe out into the water as far as possible, and giving it directive force toward the middle of the river he sprang aboard, and lying lat in its bottom, paddled it into the stream beyond the reach of the Indians' rifles and escaped. This incident gave name to Brouillet's Creek.
The Brouillets took wives from the Miami tribe. The wife of the elder Brouillet belonged to a family in the line of promotion to the chieftianship. On his death the mother returned to her people, and the children were entitled, according to Indian law, to her proper home and position among her people. Her eldest son grew up an athletic and vigorous young man, and became one of the chiefs of the Miamis. He was equitable in his dealings, and energetic in his duties, and chivalrous as a commander. His prudence served to avoid in a great measure any difficulties with his white neighbors, who were constantly encroaching upon his territory and often inflicting injustice upon his people. Frequently the young men desired to avenge their wrongs, but he was able to prevent the butchering episodes of Indian warfare and retaliation.
Josephus Collett, Sr., after surveying
through the the swampy grounds of Hendricks and Montgomery Counties, found that his camp was without sufficient provisions, and all, including himself, were more or less sick. On the return march of Harrison's army to Fort Harrison, now Terre Haute, he directed the others to go on and secure food, and leave him on the bank of Raccoon Creek in a little tent. Chief Brouillet came to him, offered his services to kill game and to dress and cook it for him, and to care for him, which he did as carefully and gently as could a woman. Fifty years afterward, when an old man of eighty, Mr. Collett only could recall the scene with tears in his eyes, and declared that Chief Brouillet was the best looking man that ever trod the banks of the Wabash, and was as kind hearted as he was brave.
In the march to Tippecanoe, the confederate Indians had prepared an ambuscade for Harrison's army at the narrow pass between the high rocky bluffs and the Wabash River, at Vicksburg, near Perrysville. The army forded the river near Montezuma and marched up on the west side of the river and thus avoided that ambuscade. They crossed the Little Vermillion near the present railroad bridge, passed up the hollow just back of Joe Morehead's residence. Remnants of their corduroy bridge may be seen in the miry bottom of Spring Branch, near the brick house on the Head farm. On that march the useless shooting of a gun was prohibited, and even loud talking, under penalty of death. Judge Naylor, of Crawfordsville, who was one of the volunteers, tells the incident that on Oak Island, on S. S. Collett's farm, a frightened deer jumped over the outer rank of men, and finding himself hemmed in, ran in various directions over the enclosed space; and, although the soldiers needed fresh meat, they were not permitted to shoot the animal. It was allowed to get away in safety. On the two spring branches on the John Collett farm, sections 9 and 16, corduroy roads may be seen to this day.
The army marched as close to the river bank as possible for the protection of the pirogues and keel-boats, which carried corn for their horses and provisions for the men. Spies reported that on account of low water, further navigation was impracticable at Coal Creek bar. The boats were landed near where Gardner's old ferry was once established, on the John Collett farm, until a reconnoisance could be made and a site for a stockade reconnoisance could be selected. It was determined to build the stockade on the farm of the late J. W. Porter, at a point known as Porter's eddy, and that it should partially overhang the river so as to protect the boats and their stores. Such a fort could usually have been built in one day, but in the bustle and hurry of handling they lost half their axes in the water. One of these was a long time afterward found, and it was considered curious that a new axe, unused, and mounted with an unused handle, should be found there, until Judge Naylor explained the fact that many axes were there lost on the occasion just referred to, while the men were busily engaged in building the blockade. Persons are now living who remember having seen parts of the stockade.
The Kentuckians and the mounted rifle-men recruited their horses on the rich blue-grass pastures in the river valley bottoms, on the Porter and Collett farms.
A sergeant and eight men were left to guard the stockade. About seven days afterward a wild looking soldier returned, reporting a disastrous battle at Tippecanoe, the defeat and destruction of the whole army, that he alone was left to tell the story, and that they must quickly destroy the post and retreat to a safe place. The sergeant's reply was, "I was