Collection Information
Historical sketch
Scope and Content note
Cataloging information
Processed
by
Charles Latham
22 May 1992
Updated 14 May 2004
Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 1 folder
COLLECTION DATES: 1819-1820
PROVENANCE: Midland Rare Book Co., 20 N. Foster St., Mansfield, Ohio, 9 September 1941
COPYRIGHT: Held by Indiana Historical Society
RELATED HOLDINGS: SC 1691, Henry P. Benton Journal
ACCESSION NUMBER: 41.0901
Soon after Indiana became a State in 1816, efforts were put in motion to remove some of the Indians who controlled about two-thirds of the area of the State. In 1818 Governor Jonathan Jennings, Judge Benjamin Parke, and General Lewis Cass met the tribes at St. Mary's, Ohio, and concluded a treaty (called the St. Mary's or New Purchase Treaty) which effected purchase of most of the land south of the Wabash River. The Delawares, and later the Kickapoos, agreed to move west of the Mississippi; the Pottawatomies, Miamis, and Weas agreed to withdraw north of the Wabash.
In the following two years, two surveys were made of the upper Wabash country, one by Joseph S. Allen, the other by Henry P. Benton. Official reports of the surveys are in the Land Office of the State House in Indianapolis. Allen, engaged for this project as Deputy Surveyor, lived in Franklin County, near Brookville. He laid out some land in Blooming Grove Township in 1816, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1818.
Sources: Esarey, History of Indiana, pp. 228-229
Madison, The Indiana Way, p. 124
Census of 1820
Historical Atlas of Franklin County, 1882, pp. 15, 101
Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 37, p. 384
This collection consists of a booklet of folio pages sewn together, with five pages of text and five maps. The text is written without punctuation, with many misspellings. The maps show the Wabash and Eel Rivers, with their many tributaries, along with Indian villages, swamps, and other landmarks. The text describes natural features such as cliffs and swamps, including "a Small Clift on the North Side of the River, which is infested with the large Spotted Rattlesnaks So much So that it is Dangerous for a person or even any other living thing to approach the place." Distances in the account are expressed in links (7.92 inches) and chains (66 feet).
This account, along with Benton's was published in Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 37 (December 1941), pages 383-395.
For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:
1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog: http://157.91.92.2/
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4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, SC 1444).
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