History of Porter County, 1912County history published by The Lewis Publishing Company . . . .
Source Citation:
The Lewis Publishing Company. 1912.
History of Porter County, Indiana: A
Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal
Interests.
Volume I. Chicago, Illinois: The Lewis Publishing Company. 357 p.
HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
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CHAPTER II
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS
THE MOUND BUILDERS - WHO WERE THEY
- DIFFERENT THEORIES - DISTRICTS - EFFIGY MOUNDS - PURPOSES FOR WHICH THE MOUNDS
WERE ERECTED - MOUNDS IN NORTHERN INDIANA - IN PORTER COUNTY - PREHISTORIC
REMAINS - COLLECTIONS OF RELICS - THE MODERN INDIAN - POTTAWATOMIES - THEIR
TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS - THEIR ALLIANCES WITH THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH - TREATIES
OF CESSION - INDIAN TRAILS.
Before the white man the Indian; before the Indian the Mound Builder. Who were
the Mound Builders? Whence came they and wither did they go? These questions
have enlisted the attention of ethnologists for many years, but they have never
been definitely nor satisfactorily answered, and probably never will be. The
earthworks and implements left by the Mound Builders show that they practiced
agriculture, and that in some respects they were more civilized than the Indians
found here by the white men.
The glacial drift has revealed human bones near the skeletons of mastodons, and
this fact has led some of the early writers - notably Foster, Squier & Davis,
Baldwin, Conant and Bancroft - to advance the theory that the Mound Builders
constituted a race of great antiquity - a race that has been extinct for
thousands of years. Later investigations have caused other ethnologists to
arrive at the conclusion that the Mound Builders were the ancestors, and not so
very remote either, of the Indians who inhabited North America at the time the
continent was discovered
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by Columbus. Among the representatives of this later school are Bishop Madison,
Schoolcraft, Sir John Lubbock, Prof. Lucien Carr, of Cambridge, Massachusetts,
and Cyrus Thomas of the United States Bureau of Ethnology.
All over that portion of the United States east of the Rocky mountains are
scattered the mounds erected by this peculiar people. Mr. Thomas, in the Fifth
Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, divides the country into eight
districts, as follows: 1. Wisconsin including the state of that name; 2.
Illinois and Upper Mississippi, embracing eastern Iowa, northeastern Missouri
and northern and central Illinois; 3. Ohio, which includes the State of Ohio,
the western part of West Virginia and eastern Indiana; 4. New York and the lake
region of the central portion; 5. The Appalachian district, embracing western
North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and southeastern
Kentucky; 6. The Middle Mississippi district, which includes southeastern
Missouri, northern Arkansas, middle and western Tennessee, western Kentucky,
southern Illinois and the Wabash Valley in. Indiana; 7. The Lower Mississippi
district, including the southern half of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi; 8.
The Gulf district which embraces all the Gulf states east of Mississippi. While
the mounds in general bear a striking resemblance to each other in structure,
etc., those of each district possess certain characteristics peculiar to the
locality, indicating that the Mound Builders were divided into tribes or
families, each of which followed certain customs not known or practiced by the
others. Frequently the mounds take the form of birds, serpents or animals. This
is especially true of the mounds of Wisconsin, in which the outlines of the
deer, fox, lynx and eagle have been distinctly traced. Some writers think these
effigy mounds were totems, worshipped by the people as guardians of the
villages, but no inscriptions nor traditions have been found to tell how or what
the Mound Builders worshipped, and the mounds themselves a tell a meager story.
One of the greatest effigy mounds so far discovered is the "Great Serpent Mound"
in Adams county, Ohio. It is located on a bluff, which
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is itself serpentine in form, overlooking Brush creek, and is 1,348 feet in
length. The mouth of the serpent is open and directly in front of it is a low
artificial mound, while in the vicinity are several burial mounds. From the fact
that the serpent appears to have been a favorite form of effigy, Peet thinks
that the serpent worship prevailed to some extent among the Mound Builders, but
this, like other theories, is largely a matter of conjecture and speculation.
About all that is definitely settled regarding the mounds is that some were
erected for sacrificial purposes; some for signal stations or lookout towers,
but by far the greater number mark the burial places of priests, warriors or
rulers. In the Tennessee district, graves were often formed by slabs of stone
set on edge and contained one or more skeletons. One mound, not far from
Nashville, about forty-five in diameter, when opened was found to contain about
100 skeletons.
A large part of the Twelfth Annual Report of the United States Bureau of
Ethnology is devoted to the Mound Builders and their works. On page 526 of this
report Mr. Thomas, who had charge of the work, says: "Examining the maps of
Indiana and Illinois, which are given together, we see that the works are
confined principally to the eastern portion of the former and the western
portion of the latter. In the eastern part of Indiana the rule of following the
streams seems to have been to a large extent abandoned; especially is this the
case with the cluster in the extreme northeastern corner and the belt commencing
a little north of the middle of the state and extending down the eastern border
to the Ohio river. This belt, which pertains to the group in southwestern Ohio,
seems to be connected with the Wabash series by lines of works along the east
and west forks of White river. The group along the Wabash is confined chiefly to
the middle and lower portions of the valley."
From this quotation one would naturally infer that there are no mounds of
consequence in the lake region of northern Indiana. This is true, in the main,
but in the counties of Laporte, Porter and Lake there are abundant evidences
that the Mound Builders once inhabited this
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region. A few years ago Dr. Higday explored a group of some twenty mounds on a
small tributary of the Kankakee some twelve miles from the city of Laporte.
Among other things he found three skeleton - two adults and one child - one
skull, two copper hatchets, a bear-shaped pipe, two copper needles, an earthen
vessel filled with mould and pieces of tortoise shell, a few flint knives and
pieces of galena and mica.
In Lake county there are several mounds along the shores of Cedar lake, from
which several skeletons, pieces of lead ore, arrow points, etc., have been
taken. About a mile south of Hobart are the remains of four mounds which have
been almost leveled by cultivation. They have never been explored, but a stone
hatchet and several small flints have been found in the immediate vicinity. From
two mounds south of Orchard Grove have been taken portions of human skeletons,
arrow heads and pottery, and on a "sand island" near by is the so-called "Indian
Battle Ground," showing a low breastwork or artificial ridge of earth enclosing
two sides of an area of some three acres of ground. Within the enclosure were
about 200 holes resembling the rifle pits of modern warfare. Numerous skeletons
have been found in this immediate locality.
Although Porter county has not been found so rich in prehistoric remains as some
of her sister counties, one of the finest groups of mounds in northern Indiana
lies within her borders. The original field notes of the United States land
survey in 1834, mention the fact that the north and south line between sections
33 and 34, township 34 north, range 6 west, "passes over a large artificial
mound surrounded by a number of smaller ones." A copy of the original plat now
on file in the state auditor's office at Indianapolis shows this larger mound on
the section line, with a group of nine smaller mounds surrounding it in a
circle. This is the group of mounds located about a mile and a half east of the
village of Boone Grove, on the south side of Wolf creek. At the present time
there are eight mounds visible on an area of some thirty acres. The plat of the
original survey above mentioned shows ten mounds, but it is possible that two of
them have been obliterated by the plow. Seven of the mounds are situated on the
high wooded ground
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close to Wolf creek. The eighth, and largest, is in an open field near the
northeast corner of section 33, township 34 north, range 6 west. It is about 100
feet in diameter and twelve feet in height. In the fall of 1897 the owner of the
farm, John Wark, gave the state geologist the privilege of investigating the
mound, and the result is thus told by Mr. Blatchley in his official report for
that year. "A ditch was dug three feet wide, 32 feet long, and, at the center of
the mound, 14 feet in depth. The mound was found to be composed of a compact,
yellowish clay, in which were a few scattered pebbles of small size. In the
exact center and ten feet from the crest, the earth became darker, harder and
more compact. Six inches lower was a layer of black organic matter, in which
were the remains of a very badly decayed human skeleton. It lay in a reclining
position with its head to the south. Only a few pieces of bone and 14 teeth were
removed, the remainder crumbling to dust. The crowns of the teeth were hard and
solid, but the fangs for the most part crumbled like the bone. No implements of
any kind were found, though the excavations were extended four feet lower and
over an area 5x7 feet in the center of the mound."
Of the mound in the woods, the largest is the one near the creek. It is about
seventy feet in diameter and ten feet high. On this mound are several black oak
trees, one of which is about eighteen inches in diameter. The other six mounds
vary from thirty to sixty feet in diameter and from six to eight feet in height.
Four of the mounds were explored in the fall of 1897, but no skeletons or
implements of any kind were found, charcoal and ashes being the only evidence
that the mounds had been constructed by human hands.
Some years ago Hon. George C. Gregg excavated a mound near Cornell creek, about
four miles east of Hebron, and found several skeletons. This mound was composed
entirely of black earth which had been carried from the banks of the creek some
170 feet distant. From a mound south of Hebron was taken some pottery in a fair
state of preservation. A little north of Woodvale, near the western boundary of
the county and not far from Deep river, is a mound resembling a flat-iron in
shape,
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190 feet long, 75 feet in its greatest width, and rising to a height of 22 feet
about the surrounding lowlands. Battey's History of Porter and Lake Counties
(1882), says that near the apex of this mound "there is a well, which was
formerly of enormous depth. The excavation is circular, and has a diameter of
eight or nine feet. Into this well, the early settlers threw the debris of their
clearings, with the intention of filling it up; but the capacity has been so
great that it remains yet unfilled. Numerous small excavations in the adjacent
soil and rocks have led to the conclusion that this was once a 'water-cure'
establishment, and resorted to in ancient times for its baths."
Later geologists have expressed the belief that this mound is a natural
formation, cut off at some period from the adjacent highlands by an overflow of
Deep river. This opinion is based on observations that all the mounds in this
region are composed of clay, while matter thrown out of this elevation by
woodchucks for a depth of from eight to fifteen feet below the crest shows that
it is composed of sand, which is the same as the highlands in the immediate
neighborhood.
Several interesting collections of Mound Builders' relics have been made at
times from those found in Porter county. The Valparaiso high school has a number
of arrow points, spear heads, stones, axes, etc., but in many instances the
specimens are unaccompanied by data as to when, where or by whom they were
found. Dr. J. K. Blackstone of Hebron at one time had a large collection
gathered in the southern part of the county, but this collection has become
scattered. A number of fine specimens have been found in the vicinity of Boone
Grove; near the southeast corner of the county was found some years ago a Celt
formed of diorite about ten inches long and finely polished; and near by was
discovered a cache containing over a peck of flint arrow heads.
At the beginning of the Nineteenth century the region now included within the
limits of Porter county was inhabited by the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians. The
Pottawatomies belonged to the Algonquian group, and were first met by the white
men about the head and on the islands of Green bay, Wisconsin. It is known,
however, that as early as 1616
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they were one of the four tribes whose habitat was along the western shore of
Lake Huron. The Jesuit Relation for 1671, in referring to the west coast of Lake
Huron, says: "Four nations made their abode here, namely: those who bear the
name Puans (i.e. Winnebago), who have always lived here as their own country,
and who have been reduced to nothing from being a very flourishing and populous
people, having been exterminated by the Illinois, their enemies; the Pottawatomi,
the Sauk and the Nation of the Fork (la Fourche) also live here, but as
strangers, or foreigners, driven by fear of the Iroquois (the Neuters and the
Ottawa) from their own lands which are between the lake of the Hurons and that
of the Illinois."
Bottineau says the Pottawatomies were known as the "People of the place of
fire." Other authorities say that the Pottawatomies and Sauk together were
called the "Nation of fire;" that after the former tribe became separated, that
portion known as the Mascoutins or Maskotens - the prairie band - took the name
"Nation of fire," and that it was never afterward applied to the remainder of
the tribe. They were "The most docile and affectionate toward the French of all
the savages," were naturally polite, resisted the encroachments of "fire water,"
were kindly disposed toward Christianity and manifested a willingness to adopt
the customs of civilization. Polygamy was common among them and in their
religion they believed in two spirits which governed the world - Kitchemonedo,
the Great Spirit, and Matchemonedo, the Evil Spirit. The great ceremonial
observance among them was the "Feast of Dreams," at which dog meat was the
principal article of food, and during which a special or individual Manitou was
selected.
Chauvignerie, wrote in 1736, says the chief totems of the Pottawatomies were the
golden carp, the frog, the tortoise, the crab and the crane. Morgan divides the
tribe into fifteen gentes, as follows: 1st, Moah (wolf); 2nd, Mko (bear); 3d,
Muk (beaver); 4th, Mishawa (elk); 5th, Maak (loon); 6th, Knou (eagle); 7th, Nma
(sturgeon); 8th, Nmapena (carp); 9th, Mgezewa (bald eagle); 10th, Chekwa
(thunder); 11th, Wabozo (rabbit); 12th, Kakaghe (crow); 13th, Wakeshi (fox);
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14th, Penna (turkey); 15th, Mketashshekakah (black hawk). In the Wabozo gens
cremation was practiced to some extent, but as a rule the dead were buried in
the earth. In the early '50s a sawmill was set
up near the mouth of Sandy Hook creek in Boone township, and soon after it was
started a number of old Indians visited the neighborhood to pay their respects
to the graves of some of their ancestors. This led to the discovery of an old
Indian burying ground some seven or eight acres in extent, located in section
21, township 33 north, range 6 west, a short distance north of the Kankakee
river. After the departure of the Indian visitors, excavations were made and a
number of implements, weapons, ornaments, images, etc., were found.
Prior to 1763 the Pottawatomies were loyal to the French, but after the peace of
that year they became allies of the British. They took part in Pontiac's
conspiracy and fought on the side of Great Britain in the Revolutionary war.
They participated in the defeat of General St. Clair near the headwaters of the
Wabash river on November 4, 1791, and when Major Hamtramck tried to make a
treaty of peace with the tribe the next year the head chief declined, claiming
that he was threatened by other Indians. Twenty-five Pottawatomie chiefs took
part in the negotiation of the treaty of Greeneville, August 3, 1795. Soon after
that treaty was made they moved westward and took possession of lands along the
Wabash river, notwithstanding the opposition and objections of the Miamis, and
by the beginning of the Nineteenth century they were in possession of the
country about the head of Lake Michigan, extending from Milwaukee to the Grand
river in Michigan, southward to the Wabash river, southwestward over a large
part of Indiana and Illinois, and eastward across Michigan to Lake Erie. It was
estimated that at that time the tribe had fifty populous villages in the above
mentioned territory.
In the War of 1812 some of the Pottawatomies again took sides with the British.
At a great Indian council held on the Mississinewa river in May, 1812, most of
the tribal chiefs favored peace with the United States and the neighboring
Indian tribes. Dillon, in his History of
25
Indiana (p. 484), reports a speech of one of the Pottawatomie chiefs in which
the orator said: "We are glad that it should please the Great Spirit for us to
meet today, and incline all our hearts for peace. Some of the foolish young men
of our tribe, that have, for some winters past, ceased to listen to the voice of
their chiefs, and followed the council of the Shawnee that pretended to be a
prophet, have killed some of our white brothers this spring at different places.
We have believed that they were encouraged in this mischief by this pretended
prophet, who, we know, has taken great pains to detach them from their own
chiefs and attach them to himself. We have no control over those few vagabonds
and consider them not belonging to our nation; and we will be thankful to any
people who will put them to death wherever found."
In reply to this, Tecumseh insisted that he had been misrepresented "to our
white brothers by pretended chiefs of the Pottawatomie and others who have been
in the habit of selling land that did not belong to them."
The Pottawatomies were among the first Indians to enter into treaties of peace
with the representatives of the United States at the close of the war in 1815.
Not long after these treaties were made a few adventurous white men began to
encroach upon the Pottawatomie lands and a clamor arose that these lands be
opened to white settlement. A few small tracts were reluctantly ceded to the
United States by the tribe, but it was not until 1832 that all their lands In
the State of Indiana were relinquished to the government. The first treaty of
cession that included a part of what is now Porter county was concluded on the
Wabash river, near the mouth of the Mississinewa, October 16, 1826. Lewis Cass,
James B. Ray and John Tipton acted as commissioners on the part of the United
States, and the treaty was signed by sixty-two of the chiefs and head men of the
Pottawatomie tribe. That portion of the cession within the present limits of
Porter county is thus described; "Begining at a point upon Lake Michigan, ten
miles due north of the southern extreme thereof; running thence, due east, to
the land ceded by the Indians to the United States by the treaty of Chicago
26
(August 29, 1820); thence south, with the boundary thereof, ten miles; thence
west, to the southern extreme of Lake Michigan; thence with the shore thereof to
the place of beginning."
At the same time and place the tribe ceded to the United States "a strip of
land, commencing at Lake Michigan and running thence to the Wabash river, one
hundred feet wide, for a road, and also, one section of good land contiguous to
the said road, for each mile of the same, and also for each mile of a road from
the termination thereof, through Indianapolis to the Ohio river, for the purpose
of making a road aforesaid from Lake Michigan, by the way of Indianapolis, to
some convenient point on the Ohio river."
The remaining portion of Porter county was ceded to the United States by the
treaty of October 26, 1832, which was concluded on the Tippecanoe river "between
Jonathan Jennings, John W. Davis and Mark Crume, Commissioners on the part of
the United States, and the Chiefs, Headman and Warriors of the Pottawatomie
Indians." The lands ceded by the tribe at this time are thus described in
Article I of the treaty: "Beginning at a point on Lake Michigan, where the line
dividing the States of Indiana and Illinois intersects the same; thence with the
margin of said lake, to the intersection of the southern boundary of a cession
made by the Pottawatomies, at the treaty of the Wabash, of eighteen hundred and
twenty-six; thence east, to the northwest corner of the cession made by the
treaty of St. Joseph's in eighteen hundred and twenty-eight; thence south ten
miles; thence with the Indian boundary line to the Michigan road; thence south
with said road to the northern boundary line, as designated in the treaty of
eighteen hundred and twenty-six with the Pottawatomies; thence west with the
Indian boundary line to the river Tippecanoe; thence with the Indian boundary
line, as established by the treaty of eighteen hundred and eighteen at St.
Mary's, to the line dividing the States of Indiana and Illinois; and thence
north; with the line dividing said states to the place of beginning."
For this tract of land, now worth millions of dollars, the United
27
States paid the Indians an annuity of $20,000 for twenty years, gave them goods
to the value of $130,000, and assumed an indebtedness of certain members of the
tribe amounting to $62,412. The next day (October 27, 1832,) the Pottawatomies
concluded a treaty with the same commissioners, relinquishing title to all their
lands in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, south of the Grand river, and a few
years later a reservation was set apart for them in what is now the State of
Kansas. When the time came for their removal to the new reservation, some of
them refused to leave the old hunting grounds and had to be expelled by
soldiers. A portion of the tribe escaped into Canada and later settled upon
Walpole island in Lake St. Clair.
A number of Indian trails passed through Porter county. The most noted of these
aboriginal thoroughfares was probably the old Sauk trail, which ran from St.
Joseph river via Laporte, Valparaiso and Crown Point to the Kankakee river in
Illinois. Another important trail crossed the eastern boundary of the county
near the line between townships 36 and 37, north, and pursued a course a little
north of west until it crossed the Calumet river about a mile west of the
present town of Chesterton. After crossing the Calumet it followed approximately
the ridge to which Leverett has given the name of "Calumet Beach" and crossed
the west line of the county about a mile south of the shore of Lake Michigan.
The original survey, made in 1834 and 1835, shows in some portions of the county
local trails, but as they were not carefully traced by the surveyors it is
impossible at this late day to determine their sources or the exact direction
they pursued. They were generally "short cuts" between Indian villages or from
one water-course to another. The Wabash railroad follows closely one of these
trails from Clear Lake to Morris in Jackson township; another local trail ran
almost parallel to the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad a little north
of Wheeler, and a third left the old Lafayette & Michigan City road n little
north of Tassinong and ran in a southwesterly direction to Sandy Hook creek,
where the surveyors ceased to trace its course. There was also an Indian trail
from John lake in Jackson township to Long
28
lake in Liberty township. But, in the three-quarters of a century that have
elapsed since the Indians gave up their lands, the trails have been obliterated,
and within another generation or two both the trails and the men who made them
will have been forgotten. The following poem by Hubert M. Skinner was published
a few years ago in the Northwestern Sportsman:
THE SONG OF THE OLD SAC TRAIL
"The Old Sac
Trail, trod first by Indians, later by the explorers, and in early days the
pathway of important military expeditions, followed the narrow strip of land
between Lake Michigan and the swamp of the Kankakee, now covered by a network of
railway lines, the greatest highway of commerce in the world. - Editor."
My course I take by marge of lake or river gentle flowing,
Where footsteps light in rapid flight may find their surest going.
I hold my way through forests gray, beneath their rustling arches,
And on I pass through prairie grass, to guide the silent marches.
In single file, through mile on mile, the braves their chieftains follow,
By night or day they keep their way, they wind round hill and hollow.
From sun to sun I guide them on, the men of bow and quiver,
And on I pass through prairie grass, as flows the living river.
Where waters gleam, I ford the stream; and where the land is broken,
My way I grope down rocky slope, by many a friendly token.
The shrubs and vines, the oaks and pines, the lonely firs and larches
I leave, and pass through prairie grass, to guide the silent marches.
To charts unknown, in books unshown, I am no lane or byway.
Complete with me from seat to sea the continental highway!
I guide the quest from East to West - From West to East deliver,
For on I pass through prairie grass, as flows the living river.
29
The bivouac leaves embers black amid the fern and clover,
And prints of feet the searchers greet, to tell of journeys over.
The sun beats hot. I reckon not how sear its splendor parches,
I onward pass through prairie grass, to guide the silent marches.
The Red Man's God prepared the sod, and to his children gave it.
His wrath is shown in every zone against the men who brave it.
The righteous be, who follow me, and praise the Heavenly Giver,
While on I pass through prairie grass, as flows the living river.
There is an old tribal tradition to the effect that at some period in the remote
past the Pottawatomies, the Chippewas and the Ottawas were one people. In the
early '40s, after the three tribes were removed to reservations west of the
Mississippi, they made a request to be reunited, but the government declined to
grant the request, probably because the combined strength of the three tribes
would be so great as to render them a formidable foe in case of an Indian
outbreak. In 1910 there were about 2,600 Pottawatomies still living. About
two-thirds of them occupied a reservation in Oklahoma; the prairie band,
numbering over 600, lived in Kansas; about 75 were in Calhoun county, Michigan,
and some 220 lived in Canada.
Such, in brief, is the history of the once powerful Indian tribe that inhabited
Porter county. With the relinquishment of their lands in 1832, the power of the
Pottawatomies began to wane. After their removal to their reservation west of
the Mississippi they seemed to lose energy and ambition, becoming satisfied to
live upon the slender annuities doled out to them by the United States
government, and
"The pale face rears his wigwam where the Indian hunters roved;
His hatchet fells the forest fair the Indian maidens loved."
NAVIGATION OF
1912 HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
PREFACE
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I - General Features
CHAPTER II - Aboriginal Inhabitants
CHAPTER III - Settlement and Organization
CHAPTER IV - Internal Improvements
CHAPTER V - Educational Developments
CHAPTER VI - Military History
CHAPTER VII - Township History
CHAPTER VIII - Township History (continued)
CHAPTER IX - The City of Valparaiso
CHAPTER X - Financial and Industrial
CHAPTER XI - The Professions
CHAPTER XII - Societies and Fraternities
CHAPTER XIII - Religious History
CHAPTER XIV - Miscellaneous History
CHAPTER XV - Statistical Review
Transcribed by Steven R. Shook, November 2011