History of Old Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana

VOLUME I

History, authenticated and systematically compiled, that deals directly with pioneer life of the great northwest territory, is as charming as the most beautiful romance and as fascinating as any picture ever drawn with the facile pen of fiction. The historian, in the development of a field that invites his thought and inspires his pen, unearths facts that lie buried beneath the dust of ages, which shine forth as the light of truth reveals the story of their being with a delightful brilliancy that the recital of fanciful tales cannot impart.

The story of the growth and development of the boundless territory of which Vincennes was the capital will begin at a period when the landscape was a gloomy and impenetrable wilderness, whose tranquility was broken only by the cries of savage men and still more savage beasts, when the dark and dense woods rang with the melody of feathered songsters and caught the rhythmic rippling of many waters, and end with the brilliant achievements of today, which the twentieth century has wrought, ever revering the memory of those men whose hearts of steel and muscles of iron, whose indomitable courage and nobility of purpose impelled them to invade that hostile land and blaze the way for the higher civilization and its attendant blessings which we now enjoy.

 

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION 5

CHAPTER II.
THE PRESENT REMINDERS OF A FORGOTTEN PAST 8

CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST BLACK ROBED PRIEST TO VISIT VINCENNES 22

CHAPTER IV.
SPECULATIONS OF HISTORIANS ON FIRST SETTLEMENT OF VINCENNES 33

CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF VINCENNES 46

CHAPTER VI.
THE SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF FIRST SETTLERS 57

CHAPTER VII.
THE ARRIVAL OF MORGANE DE VINSENNE AT THE OLD TOST 69

CHAPTER VIII.
THE ADVENT OF THE OLD POST'S FOURTH COMMANDANT 77

CHAPTER IX.
A PEN PICTURE OF VINCENNES' POPULATION AT AN EARLY DAY 82

CHAPTER X.
THE BEAUTIES AND BOUNTIES OF NATURE 88

CHAPTER XI.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY BECOMES DOMAINS OF THE BRITISH 97

CHAPTER XII.
THE FIRST ENGLISH AND AMERICAN COMMANDANTS AT VINCENNES 110

CHAPTER XIII.
A PATRIOT WHO DESERVES THE NATION'S PRAISE 123

CHAPTER XIV.
THE LOYALTY OF A SPANISH SOLDIER TO AMERICA 134

CHAPTER XV.
THE CONCEPTION OF CLARK's NORTHWESTERN CAMPAIGN 150

CHAPTER XVI.
THE CAPTURE OF VINCENNES FROM THE BRITISH 173

CHAPTER XVII.
VIRGINIA EXTENDS CIVIL GOVERNMENT TO THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE ORGANIZATION OF NORTHWEST TERRITORY BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 236

CHAPTER XIX.
OLD VINCENNES BECOMES FIRST CAPITAL OF TERRITORY OF INDIANA 276

CHAPTER XX.
A FEW OF VINCENNES' NOTABLE CITIZENS IN EARLY DAYS 315

CHAPTER XXI.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF KNOX COUNTY 335

CHAPTER XXII.
THE BEAUTY AND BOUNTY OF LAND AROUND THE OLD POST 367

CHAPTER XXIII.
THE EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES OF CITY AND COUNTY 393

CHAPTER XXIV.
PROGRESS ALONG THE RELIGIOUS HIGHWAYS 411

CHAPTER XXV.
THE SOCIAL AND FRATERNAL SIDE OF VINCENNES 433

CHAPTER XXVI
OLD AND NEW VINCENNES 464

 

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VOLUME II

 

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Old Vincennes! As one stands within its modernized confines and views its immediate surroundings, or looks searchingly beyond the landscape that environs the ancient city, the shadowy light of far gone years, which wrought a magical influence and seemed to have lived with the invisible spirits of the mighty, breaks forth from the dark- ness of ages and enchants his vision with its mysterious beauty. The murmuring waters of the Wabash, "the venerable hills, rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun," proclaim that he is standing on hallowed ground that he is within the precincts where the gods of the aborigines thundered their terrors; where heroes have bled in battle, and heroines of beauty and virtue have blossomed into girlhood and bloomed into womanhood amid scenes of wild and savage splendor; where military genius has been immortalized in deeds of glory, and where the forests, with a gleam of their pristine beauty and grandeur still lingering, recall the abodes of brutality and cruelty. Looking out from the portals, as it were, of the old town, on either side the eye falls upon a great treasure-house of antiquity, which awakens awe and invites silent communion with the venerable forms of unseen and unknown beings and a steadfast contemplation of their imperishable works. The enchanting scene provokes an enquiring mind to penetrate into the mysteries of nature and the handiwork of a forgotten race and search out the unchangeable beauties in remnants of a woodland world. Before the advent of the red man, and even before the Mound Builders peopled this locality, it is conjectured that a race designated as Fishermen were here, as evidenced by discoveries of bone heaps and tumuli of a character peculiar to that race. There is no doubt that the Mound Builders at one period of the world's existence inhabited this locality in large numbers, as indicated by the numerous mounds to be found in all sections of the county. But whence these mysterious people came, or whither they went, has always been a matter of historical conjecture.