RUSH COUNTY, INDIANA
Indian
Tribes and Indian Occupancy
Prior to the advent of the white
settler to this region, the territory of which Rush county is now a
part was the home of the Delaware Indians. Living in the
main at peace with each other, the various tribes were contented enough
in their aboriginal state, but when the flood of Europeans began to
encroach on the preserves of the red men, they banded together in
powerful alliances to fight the common enemy, the white
man. However, there were at times serious dissensions in
the ranks of the Indians, and early in the eighteenth century the Six
Nations, a strong confederacy of Eastern tribes, had warred against the
Delawares, who were considered by many to be the most advanced of any
of the tribes in their civilization. The Delawares were defeated, and
when the Six Nations sold the lands of the tribe to white settlers, the
Delawares were compelled to move west of the Alleghany
mountains. Falling back gradually before the white
immigration, they finally came to occupy the western part of Ohio
and the eastern portion of Indiana, having taken a particular
fancy to the fertile valley of the Whitewater. Although called
Delawares by the whites, who had so named the tribe because of its
original home along the Delaware river, named after Lord de la Ware,
the Indian name of this tribe was Lenni-Lenappes.
Their principal village in this vicinity was near what later
became known as "Arnold's Home," the farm homestead of Dr. John Arnold,
on the banks of Ben Davis creek in Union township. But
again the tribe had to move farther to the west when, by the terms of a
treaty signed at St. Marys, Ohio, January 15, 1819, they agreed to take
up their home west of the Mississippi river.
TREATY
OF ST. MARYS
Following are the articles of the
treaty with the Delawares at St. Marys in the state of Ohio, between
Jonathan Jennings, Lewis Cass and Benjamin Parke,
commissioners of the United States, and the Delaware Indians.
Art. 1. The Delaware Nation of
Indians cede to the United States all their claims to land in the state
of Indiana.
Art. 2. In consideration of the
aforesaid cession, the United States agree to provide for the Delawares
a country to reside in upon the west side of the Mississippi, and to
guarantee to them the peaceable possession of the same.
Art. 3. The United States also agree
to pay to the Delawares the full value of their improvements in the
country hereby ceded, which valuation shall be made by persons to be
appointed for that purpose by the President of the United States,
and to furnish the Delawares with 120 horses not to exceed in value $40
each, and a sufficient of pirogues to aid in transporting them to the
west side of the Mississippi, and a quantity of provisions proportioned
to their numbers and the extent of their journey.
Art. 4. The Delawares shall be
allowed the use and occupation of their improvements for the term of
three years from the date of this treaty if they so long require it.
Art. 5. The United States agree to
pay to the Delawares a perpetual annuity of $4,000, which,
together with all annuities which the United States by former treaty
agreed to pay them, shall be paid in silver at any place to which the
Delawares may remove.
Art. 6. The United States agree to
provide and support a blacksmith for the Delawares, after their
removal to the west side of the Mississippi.
Art. 8. A sum not exceeding
$13,312.25, shall be paid by the United States, to satisfy certain
claims against the Delaware Nation.
Art. 9. This treaty after it shall be
ratified by the President and Senate, shall be binding on the
contracting parties.
As a result of this treaty a vast
tract of virgin lands were made available to settlement by the whites,
the Indiana territory was freed of the shiftless, though
picturesque, bands of Indians, and another step in the
formation of the great commonwealth of Indiana was consummated.
INVALUABLE
GLIMPSES OF INDIAN LIFE
Dr. John Arnold, in his
"Reminiscences of an Old Settler," which were published in the
Rushville Republican, has left us an invaluable glimpse of Indian
life in its phases directly applying to Rush county. Ben Davis, the
fierce old Indian chief, lived with his followers within what are
the present confines of the county, and it is fortunate so intimate a
review of his violent life and violent death has been preserved.
"At the time they came to this
country, Ben Davis, with a considerable band of followers, located
himself on the pleasant banks of the creek which now bears his name,
but which the Indians, in tender remembrance of their former home,
always called the Mahoning. And I must here say that I think it a pity
that the euphonious Mahoning has been thrown away, and the harsh
and unpoetic 'Ben Davis' used instead. Here, within 200 yards of where
I write, stood their wigwams, and here were enacted the various
phases of savage life. Here, the braves, to barbaric music, performed
their war-dance, chanting their deeds of daring on the battlefield; or,
smoking their pipes, recounted their successful hunts of the
swift-footed deer, the sturdy bear or the fierce panther. Here the
patient squaw nursed her pappose and dreamed pleasant dreams of the possible future of
her offspring. Here the gallant youth wooed and won his dusky bride,
and enjoyed the perfect bliss, the satisfying rapture of knowing that
the heart of her who is dearer to him than life is all his own. Here,
the boys threw the tomahawk, wrestled, ran, and engaged in various
athletic sports, to fit them for their future career in life. Hundreds
of beech trees near the encampment bear the numerous scars inflicted by
the stroke of the tomahawk. On many trees are outlined the figures of
men or animals; but the most characteristic memento was the scalp tree.
It was a large, tall tree on whose smooth bark was recorded the number
of scalps taken. The number was over thirty; the marks were one above
another, beginning about two feet from the ground and running up twenty
or twenty-five feet. The emblem for a man was a round skullcap; that
for a woman, the cap surmounted by a roll (to represent twisted
hair) ; that for a child was a broad, horizontal line. This tree
was a great curiosity to strangers, and was calculated to excite great
interest, as it was not only the memorial of the hard fought battle,
but also of the lonely cabin, surprised at the dead hour of night, and
all its inmates ruthlessly butchered. The tree is no longer to be seen;
it was prostrated by a violent wind many years since, much to my regret.
CRAFTY
AND BOASTFUL INDIAN WARRIOR
"Personally, Ben Davis was a large
and powerful Indian warrior, a deadly foe to the whites; and he had
frequently led his braves on raids into the dark and bloody ground—the
debatable name for Kentucky. In most of the battles for the possession
of the present states of Ohio and Indiana, he had taken part. He was
true to his friends, implacable to his foes, fond of fire water, and
when under its influence, regardless of his surroundings, would boast
of his prowess, and the number of scalps he had taken. In
short, he was a representative man of his race, a fair type of the
brave, crafty and boastful Indian warrior.
"After the defeat of the Indians at
Tippecanoe, they were compelled to sell their lands and again move
westward. But old Ben Davis, although well aware that he was
looked upon with dislike and suspicion by the white settlers, still
occasionally revisited his former hunting grounds. In the year 1820, he
had encamped on Blue creek, some three miles from Brookville. He had
been there, perhaps, a week, daily visiting the town and drinking too
much whisky. One day, in the Widow Adair's tavern, he was boasting of
his bloody deeds, unmindful of the angry glances of the crowd around
him, and, among other things, related how he, with his band, surprised
a lonely settler in Kentucky, killing him with all his family except
one boy, who happened to be a short distance from the cabin when
attacked, and who, although hotly pursued, eluded his enemies and
escaped. Now, in that crowded bar-room there was one intensely
interested listener, a stern man, who heard from the lips of the old
chieftain the particulars of the story of his family's massacre;
for he was that flying boy who had saved his life by fleetness of foot
when all his kindred fell. Without a word he left the room. The next
day Ben Davis did not make his appearance in Brookville; but it excited
but little remark, for he was erratic in his movements. The second
day, some one passing his camp, found the old chief cold in death, with
a bullet-hole in his forehead and his pipe fallen by his side, for he
had been sitting by his fire, smoking, when he received his sudden
message to visit the happy hunting-grounds of the Indian's
paradise. It was a fitting death for so fierce a spirit, for though he
had escaped the whistling shot and trenchant steel in many a battle, he
finally fell a victim to private vengeance. Public opinion, while
unanimous as to the author of the deed, recognized the terrible
provocation and justified the act, the more readily as many had
lost friends by the hands of the red man. No judicial investigation was
ever had, and Mr. Young still held a respectable standing in society."
TRACES
OF THE MOUND BUILDERS
While not numerically so evident in
Rush county as in some other sections of Indiana there are distinct
evidences of the presence here in that dim prehistoric
period, the date of which archaeologists have not definitely
fixed, of the Mound Builders, a mysterious race which preceded the
Indian occupancy of this country. Several burial "mounds" formerly were
visible in Rush county, particularly in the southern part of the
county, but with the clearing of the forests and the cultivation of the
soil most of these have been leveled and. in some instances are known
merely as neighborhood traditions. Years ago there was still quite
evident a considerable mound in the northeast quarter of Section 21,
Township 14, Range 9, in Posey township, that in the time of the early
settlement of the county is said to have been 106 feet in diameter and
fifteen feet in height and connected by a sort of a ditch with a
smaller mound to the northeast. Many years ago the mound was covered
with a heavy growth of beech timber, but with the felling of the
timber and the yearly plowing of the ground the monument of a
prehistoric people has gradually assumed almost a level with the
surrounding land. Back in the '80s Louis J. Offutt, then owner of
the land, dug into the larger mound, near the center, and found parts
of several skeletons, copper bands encircling the bones of the arms,
wrists and ankles, bone beads and two curiously perforated pieces of
jawbone with a single tusk-like tooth. The perforations were cut
through the bone into the hollow of the tusk and gave it somewhat the
appearance of a whistle, but its purpose was not quite evident to those
who examined it. Several other such mounds have been explored in this
county with somewhat similar results in the way of unearthing relics of
that ancient period. Forty years ago there was such a mound explored on
the old Gary farm, also in Posey township, and in that were disclosed
numerous bits of pottery, a considerable quantity of beads of a
variegated sort and the skeleton of a gigantic man.
Source: Centennial History of
Rush County, Indiana Edited by A. L. Gray and E.B. Thomas 1921