The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-13


remains, but in various local chronicles
number are mentioned and the localities
of some Of them given. The very outpost
of them all was Fort Harrison, three or four
miles from where Terre Haute stands.
which built early 1911. In Sulli-
van county there was one about midway be-
tween New Lebanon and Carlisle and one
near the Wabash river some distance above
Merom. In Knox county, we are told, forts
were erected in every neighborhood and
five are specified in Widner township. In
Daviess county ten are mentioned; in Jack
son three one of them at Vallonia. In the
north part of Union were two, and in Wayne
three or four. one of these being about four
miles west of Richmond. and another mile
north of Washington.
THE PIONEER FORTS.
The Rev. w. c. Smith, an elderly settler
of the Whitewater region, who has left us
an interesting volume of "reminiscences, de-
scribes in a general way these pioneer forts.
The stockades consisted of two rows of
split timbers, twelve to fourteen feet long,
planted in the ground two and half or
three feet deep. The timbers of the second
row were so placed as to cover the cracks
of the first. Small cabins were erected in
side of the stockades for the accommoda-
ton of the families. Usually one block
house was built in each fort The block
houses We're two stories high, the upper
story projecting over the lower say two
feet with port holes in the floor of the
projection, so that the men could see to
shoot the Indians if they succeeded in get
ting to the walls of the blockhouse." Some
times two of these blockhouses were built
at opposite corners of the stockade in such
manner that the projecting story of each
commanded two of the outer walls. An
anecdote or two will show that amid these
preparations for grim war the American
sense of humor was not wanting. One of
the stockades in Knox county was known
as Fort Petticoat,'' because the men be-
ing absent in the army, it's defense de-
pended chiefly upon the women In Jack
son county, when one of the forts was build
ing, a raw Dutchman" named Hickman
was made the butt of many jokes, which
eliminated one day when five men, dis
guising themselves, waylaid him in the
woods for the fun of soaring him. H%ck-
man, thinking them Indians, showed fight
in such deadly earnest that the jokers igno-
mniousy fled, with their intended victim
in hot pursuit, and his flying bullets came
near costing them dear
For some time after the breaking out of
diana frontier but after HulTs surrender
and other British successes in the North
west they became holder. and various war
parties made their way down to the settle
ments, bent on mischief. One of these par
ties attacked Fort Harrison then COM
manded by young captain destined to be,
thirty-seven years later, President of the
United States-Zachary Taylor After d
desperate fight, which nearly proved disas-
trous to the little garrison, the asSailants
were repulsed. Another of these bands pen
etrated to what is now the southern part
of Scott county AID there laid waste a
little settlement, killing twenty-four per-
sons. This was the noted Pigeon Roost
Massacre" the most sanguinary Indian
event in our annals. The murderers were
/ pursued by the Clark county militia, but
without success. One writer-Professor Ry-
land T. Brown, in geological report for 1882
marion county)-says that in retaliation
a company of rangers visited and destroyed
the village of Big Fire a friendly Delaware
chief, whose band was located on White
river just where it crosses the south line
of Marion county. This, we are further
told, cost Governor Harrison much trouble
before he could pacify the aggrieved chief.
There were other notable attacks in
territory Gf we except a hostile demon
stration toward Fort Wayne which
came to lttle), but there were other
murders here and there which kept the
frontier in perpetual apprehension. Militia
| companies were raised both for home de-
Tense and for offensive campaigns, and the
readiness with which Kentucky responded
to our needs is worthy of note. When
Governor Shelby, of that State issued a call
for volunteers several hundred more Of
fered than could be accepted and in every
expedition organized Kentucky companies
are mentioned. OF these expeditions into
| the enemy's country there We're several dur
ing the course of 1S12-13 One of these,
against the Kickapoos, of Illinois, and an
other, against the towns on the Wabash
about the Tippecanoe effected little, but a
third, directed against the Miamis of the
Mississinewa river, resulted in a severe
| fight, known to history as the battle of Mis-
sissinewa. in which the savages were de-
feated. Some marauding parties were
traced to the Delaware villages. that tribe
was suspected of covert enmity and a
force of rangers and militia visited the
White river region and destroyed a guam
tity of corn. Finally, in July of 1913, Col.
| William Russell, with a little army of SIS
men. made circuit of the Indian towns,
going first to the Delawares, thence to the
Miamis on the Mississinewa, thence to the
Wabash bands, and so on around to Fort
| Harrison. No serious opposition was made
| to their march This seems to have SUBJ
| dued the enemy, for after that we hear of
| very little more trouble Various American
successes, eliminating with the battle of
| the Thames, in which Tecumseh fell, was
| an added influence, and soon thereafter the
| hostile TRIBES sued for peace. BY 1914 the
feeling of insecurity had about subsidized,
! and the brief era of the stockade and block
house in Indiana was passing away for
ever. Four years LATER by the treaty of st.
Mary's, the whole central portion Of the
| State was acquired by the government;
| two years later it was thrown open to set
tiers and the old boundary lines, as above
defined, ceased to be the frontier.
GEO. S. COTTMAN.
A 5OO.OO0-GaIIOn Wine Pond.