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: 1820
PROVENANCE: Midland Rare Book Co, 20 N. Foster Street, Mansfield, Ohio, 9 September 1941
COPYRIGHT: Held by Indiana Historical Society
RELATED HOLDINGS: SC 1444, Joseph S. Allen
ACCESSION NUMBER: 41.0902
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 Pottawotamies, 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, both of whom were engaged for the project as Deputy Surveyors. Benton does not appear in the Census of 1820 or 1830. Official reports of the surveys are in the Land Office of the State House in Indianapolis.
Sources: Esarey, History of Indiana, pp. 228-229
Madison, The Indiana Way, p. 124
Census of 1820 and 1830
Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 37, p. 384
This collection consists of a booklet with eight pages sewn together with a later cover, providing twenty-one pages of text in the form of a journal. Entries go from 28 February 1820 to 29 April 1820. The journal describes encounters with unfriendly Indians, especially Kickapoos, and some geographical features. Mr. Burnett, who apparently ran a store in the area and who had six sections laid out for him by the survey, appears frequently in the text.
This account, along with that by Allen, was published in Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 37 (December 1941), pp. 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/
2. Click on the "Basic Search" icon.
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4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, SC 1691).
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