VINCENNES, PIONEER CITY OF THE MIDDLE WEST  

VINCENNES, Indiana, though a small city of twenty thousand population
is one of the pioneer towns of the Middle West,as well
as one rich in history of the early days. Here was erected
the first church built west of Philadelphia, still in use today and known
as St. Francis Xavier cathedral. It was erected in 1702, made of handmade
brick and finished in native wood, hewn and dressed by hand. It
served as a place of worship, for all the French settlers far up and down
the Wabash Valley. Within its walls was held the first public school
of the Northwest Territory (now Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois). It
is said that Washington paid from his own pocket money as a part of
the teachers' pay. With the coming of a larger number of white settlers
the school was moved from the old church. It was the center of
the small colony of whites, serving the many uses of a public building
and in later years served (1778) as a shelter for Clark's soldiers after
the capture of the English garrison at Fort Knox. In the east wing of
the old church is one of the oldest libraries in the country filled with rare
old books. Found on the shelves are rare old geographies published in
1620-1633. It is claimed that our Government has found some of the
books very valuable in making maps, and as a reference to early history.
There is also a large collection of rare and costly laces.
The old cathedral and library is by far the oldest and most interesting
building in the old town. Yet, there are several others that are
very interesting relics of bygone days. Not far from the old church is
what is called the first Legislature, a one-story French type of dwelling,
used as a place of meeting by Indiana's first Legislature. This structure
is still in fairly good condition and is kept in repair by the city. About
one block west of the Legislature building stands the Harrison home,
a large structure made of hand-made brick, once the home of President
William Henry Harrison; he occupied it at the time of the battle of
Tippecanoe. The old house is visited by hundreds of people yearly.
One room is filled with various Indian relics—a bed of Francis Vigo,—
a portrait of William Henry Harrison painted in Chillicothe, O., more
than one hundred years ago. There is a secret passageway to the tunnel
which once had an outlet at the river. For many years there was a rumor
the home contained a secret room yet unlocated. Many
people had hunted for some clue that would lead them to find it, and
in September, 1915, it was located by a boy, Erwin Van Kirk, who had
heard of the hidden room and had long been trying to locate it. Leading
from a lower room is a grand stairway, and he concluded that the
only possible entrance must be beneath the heavy floor of the stair
landing. He removed several planks from the landing and was rewarded
by finding a room of considerable size. Securing a short ladder
he descended into the room and by the light of a lantern viewed the
floor and walls which no human eye had seen for perhaps a century; the
only article found in the room was an old low-cut shoe with wooden
heel and metal trim. There was no exit from the room, but there
could be traced upon the wall what had once been a door leading into
the rear court. Harrison, at that time governor, is believed to have constructed
the secret room to be used as a hiding-place for valuable documents.
Shortly before the finding of the secret chamber workmen
while excavating for street improvements unearthed the remains of
the walls of Fort Knox. It had always been known that the old Fort
stood somewhere within the city limits, but the exact location was
never known until the decayed butts of the heavy logs were uncovered.
The complete outlines of the wall could be traced, yet the wood was so
decayed that it fell to dust when exposed to air a few hours. Within the
lines of the old walls were found several old English coins many in almost
perfect condition, a few scraps of metal nearly destroyed by rust and
a few bits of broken crockery helped to mark the spot where historic
Fort Knox stood while the cathedral,—fort—and home of Harrison
stand as proof of the white man's first improvement of the western wilderness.
The red man who was there before him left, to mark his first
efforts to imitate the white man, an orchard of several hundred trees.
This orchard was of full fruiting age when the first Frenchman reached
the banks of the Wabash, The location of the orchard was a few miles
southeast of the then Indian village which is now Vincennes. The
orchard lived for many years after the coming of the white men and
bore fruit in abundance. This is perhaps the only case on record of
the Indians of early days planting fruit orchards. This Indian orchard
was of seedling fruit, strong long-lived trees; it is only a few years past
that old trees that had sprouted from the original stump could be seen.
It was supposed that the Indians had secured apple-seed from the early
orchards of the Eastern Settlements, and had planted them near their western home.

For several miles south and west of Vincennes can be
found here and there Indian mounds showing that the Wabash valley
was a favorite hunting ground of the red men. To the south among the
sandstone bluffs in southern Illinois can be found numbers of camping
grounds, shown the burnt walls of sandstone where the winter's fires
were kept burning. The hills. are strewn with flints, and broken pottery.
Vincennes appears to have marked the chief camp, of the various
tribes of the Wabash valley. A short distance below the city is a small
wooded island in the Wabash, here the waters are shallow, passing over
a bed of stone; this was the crossing place of Clark's force and it is
claimed they rested upon the island a few hours before they marched
upon Fort Knox.
ST. FRANCISVILLE, ILL. THOMAS M. CISEL