soldiers at Camp Harrison became engaged in a quarrel one day, and one of them in attempting to shoot the other, carelessly missed his aim and killed an Indian Squaw beyond. Thereupon the reds vowed they would kill the first white "squaw" who should cross to this side of the Wabash River. Accordingly they watched their opportunity, and made two attempts to take the life of Mrs. Vannest. On the first occasion her life was saved by the timely interference of a friendly Indian, and the other time by the violent interference of her realtives and friends. Directly after this her husband took her back to Fort Harrison, where she remained until the "holy ardor" of the fiery savages had died down.
Most of the early settlers throughout the county are mentioned in the histories of the respective townships. See Index.
In the first portion of this volume is given a description of the features of pioneer life in this part of the country, of the privations and sicknesses suffered, as well as of dangers from Indian and beast, and of the abundance of wild game.
Several circular "hunts" or "drives" have been held in this county; but as they have been conducted without the employment of dogs, their success has not been great. The largest competitive chase ever held in this county was in early day and lasted three months. Two leaders were chosen; they picked their men and divided the neighborhood in two parties for a compass of ten miles; they were to bring in the scalps of the slain animals at the end of three months, and the leader who showed the most scalps could demand five gallons of whisky as a treat from the beaten side. A wolf, fox, crow, coon or mink scalp was to be considered equal in value to five other scalps. A squirrel or chipmunk scalp counted one. On the appointed day the opposing forces assembled. The committees began counting early in the morning, and completed the exciting task about three o'clock in the afternoon, when it was ascertained that over 70,000 scalps had been taken! Thus, by a general rivalry the settlers enjoyed the execution of a plan which proved the means of safety and protection to their crops.
In the settlement of Indiana, before the age of canals, railroads, or even wagon roads, the Wabash Valley was the center of attraction, for it was the only means of transportation of products and supplies. Hence the towns and villages along the river were the centers of trade and civilization. All the adjoining region to the east in Indiana and to the west in Illinois were compelled to bring their produce to the Wabash for transportation to New Orleans and other southern markets. At first, flat-boats by hundreds and thousands, forty, fifty, eighty, one-hundred and one-hundred and twenty-five feet long were built, loaded with pork, hogs, beef, cattle, corn, wheat, oats and hay, and sent south. Five hundred of these boats have been sent out of the Big Vermillion from Eugene, Danville and other points on that stream in one year. Scarcely a day in the long April, May and June floods but that from twenty to forty of these boats would pass. They were generally manned by a steersman, -- who was also captain, -- four oarsmen, with long side sweeps, and one general utility boy, who did the cooking. Supplies of food were taken along; and no boat was considered safely equipped which had less than twenty gallons of whisky.
To the boatmen these trips were occasions
of joyous festivity; and the wonderful stories which they brought back of the dangers and terrors of the navigation of the Mississippi, and the strange mysterious eddies in which yet might flow for weeks, -- especially the Widow Woman's eddy, the Grand Gulf, the Brick-house Point, the Red Church -- were as remarkable as Scylla and Charibdis in Roman song and story. Dozens of captains and expert boatmen resided at Clinton, Eugene and Perrysville. The boatmen would sometimes return from the southern markets on foot through the Cherokee nation. The greatest danger to which they were exposed, however, was an attack from some of the noted Murrell's gang of robbers in Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky. While many from Southern Indiana, Ohio, and Eastern Kentucky were robbed and murdered by these desperadoes, all the Vermillion County men fortunately came through safely.
Captain N. H. Adams, who died at Eugene from an over-supply of whisky, started in 1811 with a loaded boat from the Wabash, and had landed at New Madrid, Missouri, when the terrible earthquake occurred, during the night, which was dark and stormy. The trees were shaken and the crash and noise of nature, and the horror of the alarmed people of the doomed town, rendered the scene more terrific than imagination can conceive. And what could have been the feeling of those who witnessed the current of the Mississippi turned furiously up stream for hours! It seemed that the bottom of the river had fallen out. When the cavity made by the earthquake was filled, the current resumed its natural flow, but the sunken lands and broken or inclined forest trees showed that over a large adjoining region a terrible earthquake had taken place.
Mercantile and other supplies were wagoned across the Alleghany mountains, were taken down the Ohio in flat-boats, transferred to keelboats and brought up the Wabash by push-poles and cordelling by ropes which were sent out in advance, tied to trees, and wound up on improvised capstans.
The first steamer on the Wabash made its appearance about 1820, an event of signal importance and popular excitement. All the people both wondered and rejoiced. The screaming fife, the throbbing drum and the roaring cannon welcomed the new power. Afterward steamers became more common, one or more passing every day. At one time, when Vermillion was at its flood, and the river at Perrysville obstructed by ice, as many as eleven steamers sought harbor at Eugene.
The territory comprising Vermillion County was originally a part of Vigo County. In 1821 Vigo County was divided by the organization of Parke County, which comprised Vermillion as a part of it, and Roseville, on the Big Raccoon Creek, was the county seat.
In 1823, by an act of the Legislature of the State, Parke County was divided by the Wabash River, the part west of the river being organized as Vermillion County, and named from the rivers. The Big Vermillion had been for many years the boundary between the possessions of the Peankeshaws on the south and the Kickapoos and Pottawatomies on the north, and during the period of ownership by France it was a part of the boundary between Canada and Louisiana.
Vermillion County was created by an act of the General Assembly, approved January 2, 1824. The full text is as follows:
"SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, That from and after the first day of February next, all that part of the counties of Parke and Wabash included within the following bounds shall form and constitute a new county, that is to say: Beginning on the west bank of the Wabash River, where the township line dividing townships numbered thirteen and fourteen north of the base line, of range number nine west of the second principal meridian crosses the same; thence west to the State line; thence north to the line dividing townships numbered nineteen and twenty north; thence east to the Wabash River; and thence south with the meanders of said river to the place of beginning.
"SECTION 2. The said new county shall, from and after the first day of February next, be known and designated by the name of the county of Vermillion, and it shall enjoy all the rights, privileges and jurisdictions which to a separate and independent county do or may properly belong or appertain: Provided always, That all suits, pleas, plaints, actions and proceedings which may before the first day of March next have been commenced, instituted and pending within the county of Parke, shall be prosecuted to final judgment and effect in the same manner as if this act had not been passed: Provided also, That
the State and county taxes which are now due within the bounds of the said new county shall be collected and paid in the same manner and by the same officers as they would have been if the creation of the said new county had not taken place.
"SECTION 3. Robert Sturgus and Samuel Caldwell, of the county of Vigo, Moses Robbins, of Parke County, William Pugh, of Sullivan County, and William McIntosh, of the county of Putnam, are hereby appointed commissioners, agreeably to the act entitled 'An act for the fixing of the seats of justice in all new counties hereafter to be laid off.' The commissioners above named, or a majority of them, shall convene at the house of James Blair, in the said new county of Vermillion, on the first Monday of March next and immediately proceed to discharge the duties assigned them by law. It is hereby made the duty of the sheriff of Parke County to notify the said commissioners either in person or by written notice of their appointment, on or before the first day of February next: and the said sheriff of Parke County shall receive from the said county of Vermillion such compensation therefor as the county commissioners of said new county of Vermillion shall deem just and reasonable; who are hereby authorized to allow the same out of any monies in the treasury of said county, not otherwise appropriated, in the same manner as other allowances are made.
"SECTION 4. The Circuit Court of the county of Vermillion shall meet at the house of James Blair, in the said new county of Vermillion, until suitable accommodations can be had at the seat of justice; and so soon as the courts of said county are satisfied that suitable accommodations can be had at the county seat, they shall adjourn their courts thereto, after which time the courts of the said county shall be holden at the seat of justice of said county established by law: Provided always, That the Circuit Court shall have authority to adjourn the court from the house of James Blair as aforesaid, to any other place, previous to the completion of the public buildings, should the said court or a majority of them deem it expedient.
"SECTION 5. The Board of County Commissioners of the said county of Vermillion shall, within six months after the permanent seat of justice of said county shall have been selected, proceed to erect the necessary public building thereon.
SECTION 6. The agent who shall be appointed for the sales of lots at the seat of justice of said new county shall reserve and receive ten per centum out of the proceeds of all donations made to the said county, and also out of the proceeds of all sales made of lots at the county seat of said county, and pay the same over to such person or persons as may be appointed by law to receive the same, for the use of a county library for the said county of Vermillion, which he shall pay over at such time and place as may be directed by law.
"SECTION 7. The powers, privileges and authorities that are granted to the qualified voters of the county of Dubois and others named in the act entitled 'an act incorporating a county library' in the counties therein named, approved January 28, 1818, to organize support and conduct a county library, are hereby granted to the qualified voters of the county of Vermillion; and the same powers and authorities therein granted, and the same duties therein required of the several officers and persons elected by the qualified voters of Dubois and other counties therein named, for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of the act aforesaid, according to the true intent and meaning