FRONTIER PERCEPTION AND SETTLEMENT IN NORTHEASTERN INDIANA, 1820 - 1850 Thesis for the Degree of M. A MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY GREGORY STEVEN ROSE 1977 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIII ' 3;; i ’.. (VIII :3 933 2. 2:?“ i3 1“ .v‘r {‘N ,5 K «i ' '8 L ~u~ b: ‘ kJ I 7 ’1 h _- h“ {I ”‘Vv‘u‘b J‘, ”.1 f“ ,- ‘I‘ ,4 ; a) 2 ”3‘ ‘ ’ .A’ ' 1" 1) Efr " r— #7 "II' ,an—g‘ '—- "? I I A .‘ _19 ’ , .3 J '15? . \‘. ' 0,.- \ x ABSTRACT FRONTIER PERCEPTION AND SETTLEMENT IN NORTHEASTERN INDIANA, 1820-1850 BY Gregory Steven Rose Frontier conditions move from place to place through time, and result in significant environmental alteration. The progression of the frontier through a study area in northeastern Indiana between 1820 and 1850 is charted using evidence from travel journals of the period, later writings, and U.S. Census material. Definitions of the frontier stage are reviewed and a revised one of two to ten persons per square mile is used. Primary and secondary sources are consulted in describing and interpreting the modifications of the environment and the changes in settlement, in living conditions, and in the economy between the pre-frontier, frontier, and post-frontier periods. New England, Mid- Atlantic, South, and Eastern Midwest were the major source regions of the settlers present in 1850. The routes most migrants used to get to the study area were the Ohio River, the National Road, and the Erie Canal. Within a short period, from the early 1830's to the early 1840's, the frontier stage of settlement progressed through the study area. Much was written by early visitors Gregory Steven Rose to the Old Northwest, describing fauna, flora, soils, and appraising the suitability of the area for agriculture. Assessments of the study area environment attracted or repelled settlers. Population densities per square mile, the increase of concentrated rural settlements, the change from largely self-sufficient to the beginnings of market agriculture, and the alteration of the environment from forest to fields reveal the progression of the frontier. Mid-Atlantic and Eastern Midwest natives dominated the study area in 1850, bringing with them elements of their varied backgrounds. Successful settlement and economic improvement were the goals of settlers; the environment was rapidly subdued and the frontier stage of settlement rapidly concluded to this end. FRONTIER PERCEPTION AND SETTLEMENT IN NORTHEASTERN INDIANA, 1820-1850 BY Gregory Steven Rose A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Geography 1977 (”é/I - .f7/7 y, Approved af/Z/LL; /f//: (c4.._/ /. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Stanley D. Brunn, my advisor, for his great help, and my committee, Dr. Daniel Jacobson, and Dr. Ian M. Matley. I would also like to thank the Department of Geography for the financial aid I have received, and all those faculty members who have had a hand in my undergraduate and graduate training. I dedicate this thesis to my mother. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Basic Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Study Area and Time Frame. . . . . . . . Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II. THE FRONTIER DEFINED. . . . . . . . . . . . . III. THE PRE-FRONTIER LANDSCAPE. . . . . . . . . . The Land O O O O O C O O O O O O O O O O The Living Landscape . . . . . . . . . . The Original Inhabitants--The Indians. . IV. ENTERING THE LAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pioneer Perception of the Environment. . The White Settlers Invade. . . . . . . . Acquiring the Land . . . . . . . . . . . V. SOURCE AREAS OF THE MIGRANTS IN NORTHEASTERN INDIANA’ 1850. 0 O C O O C O O O O O O O O O The Southern Stream. . . . . . . . . . . The Mid-Atlantic Stream. . . . . . . . . The New England Stream . . . . . . . . . The Eastern Midwest Stream . . . . . . . General Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . VI. The POST-FRONTIER LANDSCAPE . . . . . . . . . The Settlement Progression to 1850 . . . The Living Landscape . . . . . . . . . . The Farmscape, 1850. . . . . . . . . . . VII. SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii Page GUILON . 15 . l7 . 22 . 27 . 37 . 50 . 55 . 66 . 73 . 81 . 87 . 89 .100 .105 .117 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 Migration to Northeastern Indiana by 1850 63 2 Population Densities, 1840 and 1850 91 3 Farmed and Open Acres 94 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Study Area 4 2 Major Routes to Northeastern Indiana, 1820 - 1850 39 3 Source Regions of Settlers, 1850 56 4 Stages of Selected Town and Village Settlement 96 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION There are two meanings of the word "frontier", related but disparate. One is the territory near the border between two settled countries; the other is the territory between the settled and unsettled parts of a country. This second meaning is the one familiar to most of us and perhaps best described in Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 essay. The westward expansion of our country was closely tied to the movement of the frontier, that "nesting ground between savagery and civilization", according to Turner. Between the years 1820 and 1850, the frontier stage passed through a four county study area in northeastern Indiana. The area progressed from a territory not yet settled by whites to a territory entering highly successful agricultural settlement. In 1820, the study area was still Indian owned. By about 1830, Indian title to the land had been relinquished and white settlement had begun. In 1840, all four counties were in the frontier stage, as defined by population densities per square mile. By 1850, the study area exhibited well established and successful agriculture. Because the four counties discussed were not included in the Census of 1830, population densities per square mile cannot be completed. But, because the land had belonged to the Indians only a few years before, because no towns sur- viving today were founded before 1830, and because of the great amount of westward migration in the early and mid- l830's, I suggest that the frontier period in northeastern Indiana began about 1830. By 1840, though all four counties fit into the frontier definition, they were growing quickly, so that by the early 1840's, the frontier period had ended. About five years, from the early 1840's to the late 1840's, saw the early stage of agricultural growth come and go in the study area. By 1850, the next stage, successful and established agriculture, was beginning. Basic Problem The purpose of this study is to show the appearance, progression, and dissolution of the frontier in the study area. A number of specific topics will be considered. The term "frontier" is defined. The change in the environment associated with the changing occupance of the area will be charted, for it was modified greatly by the impact of man's activities. The numbers, sources, and routes of emigrants to the study are also included. Increasing settlement, and the resulting economic changes, show the progression of the frontier through the study area and are covered in the paper. The lifestyles of the pioneers also reflect the changes wrought by the passage of the frontier; they are likewise studied. Study Area and Time Frame I chose the four counties of Dekalb, Lagrange, Noble, and Steuben in northeastern Indiana as my study area for a number of reasons (Figure 1). One is my familiarity with the area. Another is that culturally, northeastern Indiana is a settlement source crossroads, that is, one with repre- sentatives of many regions of the eastern United States settling there. Northeastern Indiana, in physical terms, represents a basically uniform area. Glaciation worked it over, giving the topography much the same variation and look in all four counties. The study area is at the center of a large land area, sufficiently far away from lakes or major rivers that might have affected settlement patterns and times. I have chosen the years 1820 to 1850 because they cover the time from pre-frontier, non-settled territory to post- frontier, successful agricultural settlement. Indiana became a state in 1816, on the strength of the settled areas in the southern part of the state. In 1820, the study area was a wilderness, with no legal white settlements—-only the Indian H MmDCHnH o. 0 OJ £8.00 0302 copao.m oocotoun oka OIHO oc ON 0 .qux 424.02. 'I'Il nu nu. ‘5 «I» oh- :5 HM ”In a d IL Cg De 9 S :9: bmmb uth, who bore earlier the problems of a northward-expanding 25 cession policy32. Three events soon brought the end much closer and increased the demands for migration by all tribes east of the Mississippi River. The first and most important was the Federal Removal Act of 1830; the second was the. . .plans for con- struction of a canal along the Wabash- Maumee between Huntington and Fort Wayne; the third was the anti-Indian hysteria which accompanied the Black Hawk incident in 1832 . No military activity in northeastern Indiana occurred during the Black Hawk War. In fact, the local Indians were very concerned for fear they might become involved in the war against their will. Once all the rumors and furor had died down, the final result in northern Indiana of the war was a near complete halt in immigration due to adverse publicity about the war in emigrants' home areas. This halt was blamed on Indians in general and on the local Indians specifically because they were the closest representatives of Indians. Whites were angry because they wanted increased settlement. Such an irreconcilable cleavage of interest between the two races caused most of the settlers to look forward to the ultimate extinguishment of the Indian title in the northern part of the state and to their eventual re- moval. Fears aroused by Black Hawk increased the settlers' determingzion that the Indians must be removed . To finally clear the Indians out of northern Indiana, in 1832 a treaty with the Potawatomis was concluded that 26 provided for replacement lands to the west, but also kept almost 110 Potawatomi reserves in Indiana. Settlers con- tinued to enter and squat on the reserves in northern Indiana during this time35. The Miami removal was much the same. In 1834, a treaty was signed with the Miamis for resettle- ment, and again reserves in Indiana were retained. Another treaty in 1840 ceded most of the remaining tribal lands, but only the threat of force in 1846 and 1847 brought compliance by the Miamis36. However hesitant, by 1850 most of the Indians had left northern Indiana. No natives were counted in Dekalb, Lagrange, Noble, or Steuben Counties37. Certainly the reluctance of the Indians to move was understandable. In barely a generation, land that was fully Indian owned became fully white owned. This was a bewilder- ing turn of events. The Indian lifestyle was greatly dis- rupted--game ranges were cleared, roads were built, and a system of unfamiliar laws and regulations imposed. The red man was no longer welcome in lands that shortly before had been under his domain alone. The end arrived quickly for the Indians, submerged in an incoming tide of white settlers. "Doom came in a series of treaties when the Indians sur- rendered the last of their lands within the state and agreed to move west of the Mississippi"38. The frontier period arrived, and with it came much alteration of the pre-frontier landscape. 27 CHAPTER IV ENTERING THE LAND The pre-frontier landscape was in an equilibrium in 1820, as it had been for years. Flora, fauna, and the Indians were almost as one, in harmony with each other. The coming of the whites, attracted by favorable accounts and perceptions of the northeastern environment, changed all this. Once attracted, most settlers used a few major routes to get to northeastern Indiana. On arrival, the settler needed to acquire land. All of these activities began in the frontier period, when the study area was undergoing significant change. Pioneer Perceptions of the Environment Before many of the pioneers began to move to the Old Northwest in droves, they wanted to know that there was something worth moving to there. A migration to new land was a considerable undertaking; not only in time, but also in money and effort. The psychological effects were also considerable. To move away from home and family, (most of the pioneers were young), probably never to see family and friends again and to rarely communicate through letters, 28 all added to the hardships of an already difficult journey. The lure of the Old Northwest was such that many took up the challenge despite these obstacles. The attractions of new lands were great enough to pull adventurous people away from the benefits of home, even though many of them failed and fell back. These attractions were publicized in many ways. Many early explorers and later travellers wrote books about the lands they had seen--mostly enthusiastic reports and often reflecting a vested interest--though there were unfavorable reactions as well. The Indian wars in the Ohio-Indiana region of the Old Northwest from about 1785 to 1795 and the fort system set up afterwards, introduced soldiers to areas that many later settled. People from surrounding settled areas, like Kentucky, crossed over into Indiana to hunt and look at land. At home, the land was settling up and the wild fauna decreasing. An autumn trip filled the larder for winter and attracted settlers to Indiana the next sprinng. Government land surveyors also saw the new lands, and often bought large parcels for speculation, moving out to live on part of their land. Through newspapers and books, as well as the very important verbal contacts, infor- mation about the west was transmitted and prospective settlers pondered decisions about the great trek. 29 The study area considered here is not very well repre- sented in the pioneer literature compared to other places, such as the English Prairie in southern Illinois, which was visited and written about by many. The four-county study area was somewhat isolated and out of the mainstream of early travel. Northeastern Indiana was then considered a part of the larger "Wabash Country", which at this time included the whole region from the middle of the state north to Lake Michigan. Its south- ern reaches were timbered with hard- woods intersperced with prairies. . . further north lay poorly drained lands and swamps. . . Difficulty of access was the explana- tion of the relatively late discovery of the Wabash Country. The Upper Wabash furnished an uncertain thoro- fare, and roads from the Ohio were practically nonexistent. The northern entry by way of the Maumee did not become important until after the open- ing of the Erie Canal, but even then few of the people who came west from Buffalo entered this region. Never- theless, settlers pushed as close as possible from the south and east 0. Because few travellers came right through the four- county study area, we need to rely in the main on visitors to nearby areas to get descriptions of the study area and the surrounding region. In particular, the reports on the northeastern Indiana, northwestern Ohio, and south-central Michigan area illustrate some of the pioneer's contemporary views of the study area. 30 The descriptions given by two separate visitors to the general northern Indiana region tell of a wilderness land far different from today's scene. From Christopher Gist: Ohio in those days was wooded, but as Gist moved west toward the prairies beyond the Mississippi, he found the woods becoming less dense. Much of the landscape, even in forested Ohio, was "fine rich level land, with large Meadows, fine clover Bottoms and spacious plains covered with wild rye. The wood chiefly large Walnuts and Hickories, here and there mixed with Poplars, Cherry trees and sugar trees"41. And from John Bradbury: The more northerly parts of the states of Ohio and Indiana, together with the whole of Illinois and western territories . . .(has) been noticed as possessing a different character in its natural state . . .this region is an assembledge of wood- land and prairies or savannas intermixed . . .In a state of nature, these prairies are covered with a luxuriant growth of grass and herbaceous plants. . .If (the settler) places his house at the edge of one of these prairies, it furnishes him food for any number of cattle. . .The woodland affords him the materials neces- sary for his house, his fire, and fences42. The perceptions of woodlands often stressed the variety, size, and potential use of the trees. In the state of nature, this country was almost wholly covered with trees, many of which are of great magnitude. More than one hundred species are found and the tim- ber is of various qualities. . .Of the oak only, there are fourteen or fifteen species, of which the overcup. . .affords the best timber. The post oak. . .is also much esteemed for the durability of its timber when put into the ground. The black locust . . .and honey locust. . .are excellent for shipbuilders. . .For furniture they chiefly use the wild cherry and black walnut. 31 Nothing so much surprises the European on his first entrance into the western country, as the grandeur and beauty of many of these trees . Although the following description applies to Ohio, similar tree specimens were present in Indiana. In the Ohio country, where interested travelers took the trouble to measure the trees, walnuts and sycamore grew six or seven feet in diameter. . .White oaks. . .grew stands so thick that the trunks. . .might rise eighty feet with- out a branch. One oak. . .was six feet in diameter at its base and three feet at a height of seventy-five feet. Near Greenfield, Ohio, a traveler within view of the road for miles measuring Eiurteen or fifteen feet in circumference . . On a winter journey immediately to the north of the study area in Michigan, Charles Fenno Hoffman found that we were in the midst of new clearings, the road leading through a level country as far as the eye could reach, and having its sides faced beyond the fields with trees, which, with tall stems and interlocking summits, stood like giants locking arms along the high- way. . .the effect of this magnificent vegetation was striking even at this season; but after riding for half a day along such a wood, with not a valley to break the view, nor a hill to ound it, it could not but be monotonous 5. One might question the veracity of these statements about the huge size and perfection of these trees. Yet the tendency to over rate the timber resources of the country to attract settlement would likely be counteracted by the realization that these tremendous specimens would have to 32 be cleared before the land could be farmed. Any exaggera- tion of an already monumental task might serve to scare potential settlers away. The prairies provided tracts of land that were already cleared and waiting for the plow. But there was a myth afoot, how pervasive it was is debatable, that the prairie soils would not produce. "If it won't grow trees it won't grow corn". Studies by McManis (1964) and Peters (1969) have attempted to qualify this anti-prairie view, suggesting that prairies were settled, though the smaller ones were first and then the larger ones--first around their wooded edges and on stream courses--because of the pioneer's need for wood. In the study period, evidence from writings show that the pioneers often used the prairies for pastures, though some writers, such as Hoffman and Bradbury, suggested that the growing of crops on the prairies would be highly successful46. If the visitors to the Old Northwest could not agree on the value of the prairie soils, they usually agreed that the grassy areas were a pleasant change from the deep dark woods. A transition between the thick forest and the grassy prairies was provided by the oak openings. Often called park- like, they Were sometimes described as the most beautiful sights in all of the Old Northwest. I struck through a wood so dense that it seemed to terminate the settlements in this direction, and then at a sudden turning of the path, I came at once upon the "oak openings". It would be difficult 33 to convey an idea of the pleasing effect of such a surprise. . .English parks. . .Clumps of the noblest oaks, with not a twig of underwood, extending over a gently undulating grassy surface as far as the eye can reach, here clus- tered together in a grove. . .there rearing their gigantic trunks in soli- tary grandeur from the plain. The feeling of solitude I had when in the deep woods deserted me the moment I came upon this beautiful scene, and I rode on for hours, unable without an effort to divest myself of the4idea that I was in a cultivated country . A pioneer to the south in a prairie described "the pleasing and rapturous appearance of the Plains of Kentucky. A new sky and a strange earth seemed to be presented to our view. . .". The middle western prairies were, as. . . the Rev. Timothy Flint remarked, "diminu- tive though fertile c0pies of the more western ones". They might be completely level for several miles at a stretch, with no vegetation except coarse grass and cane 48 which grew "often higher than a man's head" . Whether the lands in the west were to be held for speculation or immediately settled, the eventual use for most was agricultural. Early visitors not only discussed vegetation, topography, and accessibility, but also soils and wetlands. With endless acres to choose from, it was important that the pioneer choose well. The sentiment was that he might as well get the best lands, for if he did not, someone else would. The eye of the pioneer, trained by personal experience and knowledge handed down through the family for generations, carefully judged the agricultural suitability of the soil. 34 Every man in the new country had an eye for soil. Soldiers in the expeditions of St. Clair and Wayne talked about sloughs, bogs, bottoms, about clay, loam, marl, and deep black earth. Even in dense woods they judged the make-up of the forest floor. White oak, walnut, hickory, sugar maple meant good soil; locust and swamp oak were signs of heavy, undrained earth. The timber told what poverty or fertility lay out of sight. White oak and chestnut lands were good for corn; soft maple and sycamore land was wet and cold. Sassafras, gum, persimmon and small-leafed oaks told a story of thin and stubborn earth; beech and hard maple were a badge of warm, rich4gloamy ground easy to plow and ready to yield . As much as good soils could attract settlement, wetlands could repel it. The fear of sickness was general, and stories of pioneers dying from mysterious malarial "agues" resulting from "miasmal" wetlands were commonso. The reputa- tion for sickness gained by a frontier area could long hinder its growth. Unfortunately, "the surveyors reports for northeastern Indiana were very discouraging. Impassable swamps. . .did not add to the landscape"51. Not only did the presence of wooded swamps discourage settlement; it also hindered travel. Along a road through the marsh and prairie west of Fort Wayne, "mud twelve to fifteen inches deep and water often standing on both sides of the road conveyed the impression that the bottom had fallen out"52. An excellent article by Martin R. Kaatz discusses the effect of wetlands on settlement and the various improve- ments that were made to stimulate growth. While the Black Swamp by name did not extend into northeastern Indiana, there 35 were plenty of wet places present, so many that, accord- ing to Richard Lyle Power, the settlement of Indiana was adversely affected. Indiana was widely accorded the unhappy distinction of being a focal point of swamps and fevers. . . It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that Indiana, far from evoking, laudatory emo- tional outbursts, was passed off by con- temporary eastern writers as being an unmitigated morass. . . Thus it may be proposed that Indiana, subjected as it was to the far reaching social consequences of wet lands, affords an archetype for the study of this sort of environmental condition. The tenacity of its unsavory reputation doubtless ex- plains why the business of finding new homes within Indiana was never accompanied by the emotional manifestations that pro- duced the "Ohio Fever", the "Illinois Fever", or inspired New England people to sing "Michigania". In short, if eastern men in large numbers were attacked by a "fever" to migrate to Indiana, the fact is difficult to discover53. Of course, not all of the newly arrived or potential settlers were knowledgeable about the northeastern Indiana region. Many who came were unsure what they were going to find; many who might have come did not get the information they needed to attract them. Partly because of the imper- fect news of the Old Northwest in the east, settlement lagged in northern Indiana; it was the last province in the heartland to be taken up. People in the East had luring ideas of Ohio and Illinois, but only a vague notion of a never-never land of Indiana. . .Some New Englanders thought that Indiana must be a great deal further than Illinois and were not sure it had been 36 settled at all; it sounded like Indian country. Others had heard of the Indiana marshlands, infested with toads, frogs, snakes and miasma. Travelers had given the region a black account54. Information transfer depended on everything from books to word of mouth, and it could become strangely garbled in any of these transmissions. But for those pioneers who knew, or thought they did, there were a number of different strands woven into the perception of the northeastern Indiana environment. One thread seems generally present. The land was perceived from the standpoint of potential use--while the overwhelming beauty was often mentioned, it was only secondary. The value of the land for agricultural pursuits was utmost in the pioneers' minds, and their writing reflects this. Fertility was a primary consideration, though this was hard to judge. If the land grew heavy vegetation-~good, tall trees--and looked similar to lands at the old home that were productive, the migrant was interested. If the land was near water for domestic use or for transportation, and near a settlement, for Indian protection, assistance, supplies, and society, the settler had found the new homess. A land looker wanted good soil and running water; he sought a location beside a river or a creek. He would avoid lowlands and hillsides. If he could find a natural meadow, ringed in forest with a steady trickle from a spring, he had his heart's desire. The ideal farm site was "rich as a barnyard, level as a house floor, and no stones in the way" 6. 37 The White Settlers Invade Indiana has often been considered a crossroads state, available to Southerners, Easterners, and Northeasterners. A mix of settlers from these various places appears in Indiana, with pioneers from the South dominating southern Indiana, and Northeastern pioneers becoming increasingly a part of northern Indiana. Though accepting the usual risks of generalization, it has been said that pioneers tended to work west along isothermal lines-- that is, remaining in familiar climate zones--and it is clear that the New Englander and New Yorker stuck to the upper reaches of the developing Middle West, hugged the Great Lakes, and worked up their shores. . .Kentuckians went across the Ohio to Indiana, whose "Hoosier" population contained so many Virginians Another source similarly suggests that the migrants moved west as quickly and directly as possible, creating "belts of settlement" where the people and culture of areas due east were reproduced. Thus, Virginia and Carolina mi- grants went to Kentucky and Tennessee, Pennsylvanians to Ohio, and New Englanders to the Great Lakessa. Of course, there were many Southerners who moved to the northern parts of the Old Northwest, and many Northerners who moved south. The Ohio River was the primary highway to the west until the National Road opened and siphoned off those who were moving to areas further north. The opening of the 38 Erie Canal made it another primary route to the west, especially attractive to those whose destination was the Great Lakes country. Local roads served those already in the Old Northwest who moved to the study area, and brought the long distance migrants from the major routes to their new land in northeastern Indiana. Major Routes to the Old Northwest There were three important routes to the Old Northwest used by varying combinations of people from the South, the Middle Atlantic states, New England, and Ohio (Figure 2). Because there was never only one group on each of these routes, the routes are considered here before the chapter dealing with specific sources of the moving population. The three main routes were the Ohio River, the National, or Cumberland Road, and the Erie Canal. American settlers used three principal entryways through Appalachia when they finally did begin to flood into the Middle West. (Southerners). . .crossed over Cumberland Gap to the headwaters of the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers which drain into the Ohio. Men from the Mid-Atlantic states crossed Pennsylvania to the Forks of the Ohio. . .this route was most direct, but also the most diffi- cult, and early on it was supplemented by the Cumberland Road. . .New Englanders and New Yorkers made their entry into the Middle West by way of the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes, a comparatively easy water level route of passage whggh became the principal route of commerce . 39 N WMDGHm «on to... .. m. » 3268. £2452...H - zmwbmfithoz .2. 330m mo}: _ __-—+ --_ -“.—‘aflrnw—A P—n—w—Qr‘—- -—-.- _ l III: .I' III ”.anuambmiflmox O._. mmacom month”... OUW. 0 H9409 ”flab—Euxé fkri». In..;.\.« a J\.Ih(v“. ——._._. -\_ “1-- .._-_7 /\ /"'/ '\_,/ :\ _ U003 “.0..,.QM.JS I}; r. ‘. — IE V,‘ -A I I I I 40 The Ohio River. The Ohio River is the great natural high- way to the west. Its importance in the early settlement of the Old Northwest can hardly be overestimated. The river provided cheap and relatively rapid access to the interior. The Ohio flowed west, the general direction of movement, and for over 1,000 miles there were no insurmountable obstacles to navigation. Because of its availability and the general ease of travel, the Ohio River became the ear- liest way to Indiana and the rest of the Old Northwest. Once to the Ohio, one could build his own flatboat for the family or join another family on a flatboat. Before long, professional boatmen offered transportation down the river for a price. The river's surface by 1820 "was alive with steamboats (sixty by that year), barges, schooner boats, keel boats, flatboats, Kentucky and New Orleans boats, skiffs, rowboats, and ordinary rafts"60. Because below Cincinnati the Ohio River heads more southwesterly than westerly, that city and other towns downstream along the Big Bend became points where emigrants left the river and found land transportation west and north. The section of the river between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati was the most heavily travelled6l. The best time to float down the Ohio, then still a "wild" river, was during the spring flood, a period of high water from April to June. High water lessened the danger from LeTart's Rapids, 230 miles below Pittsburgh, and about fifteen miles upstream 41 from Middleport, Ohio, and from the Grand Chain, a lime- stone ledge that created a series of rapids near Shawnee- town, Illinois. A dangerous obstacle at any time of the .year was the falls, really a series of rapids, at Louis- ville. There were always floating objects, snags, and "planters"-—sunken logs--waiting to ensnare unwary flat- boatmen. At the low water level, from August to October, the river was commonly fifty feet below the spring flood level. Channels through the rapids were then too shallow for navigation, and in some dry years the river could be forded at a few sites. Navigation was curtailed during low water for fear of running aground or getting caught on the rocks in the channel. Movement on the river above Louis- ville was normally halted for eight to ten weeks during mid-winter as well62. Spring was the best season for river travel for a number of reasons. First, the water level was highest, re- ducing the dangers in the channel. Second, the river moved fastest then, so the least amount of time would be spent getting to the West. In periods of low water, the average velocity in navigable channels was two miles per hour; at mean height the speed increased one half, making it comparable to a walking pace. Con- verted into miles gained in a downriver voyage, this was a diffggence of per- haps twenty miles a day . 42 Third, spring was the season for planting. The earlier in the spring that the family got to the West and found a new home, the sooner land could be cleared and crops planted, helping to ensure survival during the coming winter. Settlers left for the headwaters of the Ohio early in the spring as soon as road travel was possible and then waited for the ice to break on the Ohio so they could get started west. Besides Pittsburgh, Olean, New York, on the Allegheny and McKeesport, Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela were important "embarkation" pointsG4. The Ohio River route was used primarily by migrants from the Mid-Atlantic states and from the South. It was simple, easy, and cheap. During Indiana's early settlement period, when only the southern part of the state was open, the Ohio River was the most direct route. The flatboat, because it could be quickly and cheaply constructed, was used by all groups. "The crudest of the boats were little more than good-sized rafts, and. . .might support a barn for cattle and a small cabin for the family"65. These flat- boats were rectangular, usually thirty to forty feet long, with high sides to keep livestock, children, and the family possessions aboard. There were steering oars at the bow and stern, but these were only marginally effective because of the shape of the boat. Generally, the boat was directed by the current alone, especially in the rapids66. Despite 43 the dangers which caused many accidents, thousands of settlers began their trips to the west on a flatboat in the Ohio. As early as 1818, there were about 3,000 settlers waiting at Olean, New York, for the thaw, only one of many embarkation points for the West67. In later years, when other transpor- tation routes became available, the Ohio River still main- tained much importance as a way to the west. National Road. As areas of the Old Northwest further from the Ohio River and its navigable tributaries opened up, there was an increasing need for roads. Land travel had always been an important part of westward migration, and now these new areas demanded more and better roads, connecting local settlements and the east. These roads would help attract settlers to the new areas by making travel easier and also improve the movement of goods. Around settlements in the west, roads were built into the forest to give access from the rivers and allow communication. Unfortunately, these roads to and in the west were not very good. Early western roads achieved the dis- tinction of being even worse than eastern roads. Starting usually as Indian trails, they followed the uplands as much as possi- ble. . .Here and there a few logs were placed side by side to enable passage over the worst mudholes. . .The average road was a partially cleared path on which the traveler weaved back and forth among the stumps and felled trees, trying to avoid the mudholes, which were rumored to swallow horse and rider at a single gulp 8. 44 Responding to constant demands from the western areas, in 1806, the federal government began to fund road improve- ments in the Appalachians. In the west, the state enabling acts set aside 5 percent of the profits from the sale of public lands in each state for road building. Three-fifths of that was to be spent for roads in the state, and two-fifths for interstate roads. This "two percent fund" provided the funds for a national road. The National, or Cumberland Road, began in Washing- ton, D.C., went through Cumberland, Maryland, followed Braddock's Trace west to Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela, and met the Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia. Then, responding to more calls from the west, President Monroe in 1825 approved the act appropriating $150,000 for continuation of the road from Wheeling to Zanesville, Ohio, and the completion of surveys through the seats of government of Ohio, Indiagg, and Illinois to that of Missouri . The National Road was to be not only an important way to the west, but also a patriotic example of the ingenuity of the United States. Built using the best road building technology available, Buley describes the National Road as having been one of the greatest vehicle roads of the world. In its eastern sec- tions, eighty feet wide with a thirty foot center of broken stone one foot deep, with culverts and 45 bridges of cut stone and waterproof mortar, this road furnished a bond between East and West. It caaried mail, emigrants, and freight . Ditches along either side drained off surface water. A lower course of larger crushed stones was topped with a layer of smaller stones, replenished as the need arose. These stones were broken with sledge hammers wielded by men paid a dollar per day71. The presence of an improved road from the east helped fill Indiana. The National Road went through Indianapolis, at the center of the state, and a system of roads in Indiana, discussed below, gave access to areas north and south of the National Road. The Road was soon heavily used, as evi- denced in this letter from Richmond, Indiana, on the Road near the Ohio border, that asked in 1835 Where upon earth do they all come from? It would seem that the whole East and North had broken loose upon us and were pouring in almost as numerous as the northern hordes that overwhelmed ancient Rome. . .(It) is well denomi- nated "the National Road"; it might be appropriately called even now the Road of Nations, for we have samples of most of them upon it72. A road the likes of the National Road was unique in the United States, but it was far from perfect. Construction in Indiana did not begin until about 1835, too late for use by many settlers who took different routes west. Because it was the only road of its kind to the west, it saw heavy use. This traffic formed deep ruts that became 46 full scale gullies with heavy rains or melting snows and in places the road washed out. Due to the long construction time, when the western sections were finally opened, the eastern sections needed repair. A constant road maintenance program was necessary73. The National Road was used by all four groups of settlers. Ohioans, due to the relatively short trip in- volved, used the Road and other local roads to Indiana ex- tensively, though New Englanders did not travel the Road as heavily. Because the eastern portion of the road went through Pennsylvania, many natives from that state used the National Road to get west. The Road was easily reached from all parts of the Mid-Atlantic states. The Erie Canal. Soon after its opening in 1825, the Erie Canal became the primary route to the west. The long cross- mountain journey to get to the Ohio River could be avoided, and the canal opened the Old Northwest to an increased flow of settlers. The Ohio was no longer the only water route to the Interior--now the Great Lakes were also available via the Canal. The Canal followed the best natural lowland route across the Appalachians--the Mowhawk Valley-~and pro- vided an all water route to the Great Lakes. This water route might have been more expensive, but it was much less laborious. The governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, was the great promoter of the Canal; its detractors called it 47 "Clinton's Ditch". Begun in 1817, it may have resembled a ditch, being forty feet wide at the top, twenty-eight feet wide at the bottom, and only four feet deep. The locks were even narrower, only twelve feet wide, and ninety feet long. Because of the small locks, the largest canal boats could only carry about 100 tons. The amount of effort and expense involved in construction was tremen- dous, but the results justified the cost. The Canal was instrumental in the growth of the Great Lakes country-- the northern part of the Old Northwest74. This was because, "The principal effect of this waterway was to deflect the immigrant stream from the Ohio Valley to the Great Lakes"75. Canal boats, pulled by mules or horses, got the emi- grant and his baggage to Buffalo. Travelers might complain of over- crowded canal boats, poor food, and swarming mosquitoes, but they were nevertheless able to travel cheaply, take their household goods with them, and be sure of reaching their destina- tion without losing a wagon in a mud- hole76. Buffalo was the western terminus of the Canal. There, the migrant transferred his goods to a lake sailboat, or increas- ingly, a steamer. Regular packet steamer service between Buffalo and Detroit was opened in 1833. Three dollars got deck passage on this line, and the total cost to a traveler going from Massachusetts to Michigan was estimated to be about ten dollars. For this low cost, it is not surprising 48 that immigrants preferred to avoid the dangers of the Ohio River and take the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes77. Emi- grants from many different places used the Erie Canal-Great Lakes route, especially New Englanders and New Yorkers. Foreign immigrants also were common on the Canal, because of the excellent connections from New York City. Charles Fenno Hoffman described the possessions of fellow travelers on his journey on a steamboat between Cleveland and Detroit about 1835. They differed according to the origin of their owner. The effects of the Yankee were generally limited to a Dearborn wagon, a featherbed, a saddle and bridle, some knickknack in the way of a machine for shelling corn, hatchel- ling flax, or, for aught I know, manu- facturing wooden nutmegs for family use . . .Whenever. . .you see an antique fashioned looking-glass, a decrepit bureau, and some tenderly preserved old china, you will probably. . .have the whole housekeeping array of a Briton. . . But still further do the Swiss and Germans carry their family relics. Mark that quaint-looking wagon which lumbers up a dozen square feet of deck. . .It might be worth something in a museum, but it has cost five times its7§alue to transport it over the Atlantic . After landing at one of the many lake ports--Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, or later Chicago, the emigrant got on local roads and headed for his inland destination. Transportation to the west was by 1850 much different than it had been in 1820. The National Road and the Erie Canal competed with the Ohio River for the commerce of 49 and emigrants to the Old Northwest. Railroads and inter and intra-state canal projects were also present, the former one waxing and the latter two waning. Plank roads were being built in an attempt to improve the awful road conditions. The three main transportation routes, Ohio River, National Road, and Erie Canal, were competing for travelers, and drawing a different clientele. No one group used one route exclusively-—representatives from each settlement source were on each route. Probably, due to nearness, mostly Southerners and Mid-Atlantic natives used the Ohio River; all three, with Mid-Atlantic statesmen dominating, used the National Road; and New England and Mid-Atlantic emigrants primarily used the Erie Canal. Local Roads Because river transportation in Indiana left many interior areas inaccessible, and the National Road and Erie Canal-Great Lakes routes got migrants only to the general area, the hunger for new land also included a demand for an improved internal road network. Using former Indian trails, military traces, surveyors' roads, and newly hacked paths, a road network was built. In December, 1821, rely- ing on the money from the "Three Percent Fund", the state legislature planned out an extensive road system for Indiana. Indianapolis, the new state capitol, and Fort Wayne, were to be the two foci of the system, with a major road connecting 50 them. .This road helped improve the connections between the National Road and northeastern Indiana. In 1826, the major north-south road in Indiana, the Michigan Road, was begun. When completed, it ran for 265 miles from Madison on the Ohio, through Indianapolis, and on north to Michigan City on Lake Michigan. Situated at the mouth of Trail Creek on Lake Michigan, Michigan City was intended to become the Buffalo of Lake Michigan, and the Michigan Road was to assist in its rise. The Michigan Road had many purposes. It was to be of military value, assist in the removal of Indians from northern Indiana, and open northern Indiana to the southern emigrant routes. Both the Ohio River and the National Road would connect to the road, and the new lands in the north could be easily reached. The entire route of the Michigan Road was open eight months in the year by 183679. The roads proposed by the legisla- ture and the many local roads all opened the interior to new settlers from the South and the other regions. BecauSe the rivers were shallow this far north, and the study area was near the drainage divide between the Gulf of Mexico' and the Great Lakes, local road transportation was of major importance in the settlement of northeastern Indiana. Acquiring the Land On arrival, there were at least four different ways for a settler to get possession of his chosen land. The settlers 51 had ideas about the type of land they would like to settle. Once the land had been chosen, possession had to be gained. One way to obtain land was to squat on it. The pioneer would see an attractive parcel of land on his travels or in his destination area, and then stop and set up camp. A temporary stay led to permanence. Gradually, improvements were made--a clearing for the cabin, a few small fields laid out and planted, perhaps a pen built for some livestock. The pioneer's problem here was uncertainty, and his advan- tage was low cost. To the pioneer without enough money to buy land, squatting was the logical answer. The government had plenty of land elsewhere and it would never miss twenty acres! Someone else with enough money might buy the land and move to settle on it, only to find it already occupied. Many ugly scenes resulted over this problem. The squatter claimed "squatter's rights": discovery, improvements, and possession. The owner claimed the deed gave him legal title to the land. Often the squatter would pack up and leave, to repeat this cycle elsewhere, or the new owner would buy him out for a few dollars, paying for the "improvements" and further pinch- ing an already depleted purse. Other times the resolution of this difficulty was less amicable and more violent. Many times, the land was not bought and in a few years, when the squatter had collected enough money, he purchased the land himself. 52 A way to avoid starting out from scratch was to pur- chase land from an original legal settler. Often, a settler would buy land, attempt to farm it for a few years, and then decide to give up. These people either moved back east to their old homes, or to a more settled area, or moved further out to the edges of the frontier. Those who failed are rare- ly mentioned in the glorified stories of westward expansion, but they were quite numerous. Because the old settler wanted to leave his failure, a new migrant often could buy the land and the improvements at a good bargain. The new settler family would move into the cabin and start farming the al- ready cleared land immediately, thus saving time and much labor. Those who bought land from the government, thus gaining a clear title to it, could go about this in a few different ways. The pioneer could investigate the area, pick a tract of public land to his liking, set up a lean-to and move in. Within a few days, he went to the land office to purchase the parcel. Or somewhere in the western country (the pioneers) would stop at a district land office. On the wall they would see the public lands marked out in timbered sections, prairie sections, rolling lands, ridges and river bottoms. They would make their choice, count out their money, and find their corners . Before 1820, the price per acre was two dollars and the minimum amount of land 160 acres, or a quarter section. 53 After that year, the land could be purchased in eighty acre parcels at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acresl. After 1820, the installment plan was instituted. A down payment of one quarter of the total charge was required, with the rest to be paid in four annual installments. This change was in the main an attempt to make land easier for individuals to buy (smaller parcels, lower prices, liberal credit) and to reduce the attractiveness of speculator's landsBz. The land act of 1820 was a real watershed in the history of the public domain because it changed the emphasis from the production of revenue for the federal govern- ment to getting the landBinto the hands of actual settlers . Speculators often bought huge parcels of land from the government and then resold small parts at inflated prices. The government policy of selling large acreages had played into the speculator's hands. They could afford the high ini- tial investment required to buy a large parcel of land. The pioneer, who perhaps could only afford forty acres, not the 160 he was required to buy when dealing with the government, bought the smaller acreage from a speculator at an inflated price. Speculators often sent agents into newly opened lands to select the best parcels for the land company. Great por- tions of the Old Northwest were purchased by speculators, though the Panic.of 1837 collapsed the land boom at that time and caused many bankruptcies among speculators. Not only did 54 the equation of northeastern Indiana with the Black Swamp slow settlement, but also the holding of land by speculators convinced many pioneers to move on to government lands. In the state, large holdings by speculators occurred mostly in the prairies of northwest and west central Indiana84. There was still much land available from the government. In 1840, when Indiana had a population of 700,000, one fifth of the public lands were still for sale, mostly in north and central Indiana85. Timothy Flint, an early American geographer, described the Indiana frontier scene in the mid-1820's, combining the environment and man. The following statement describes the beginnings of the transformation of Indiana from a natural landscape to a cultural one, of which acquiring the land was the first step. If we could present a scenic map of this state. . .it would present a grand and very interesting landscape of deep forests, wide and flowering prairies, thousands of log cabins, and in the villages, brick houses rising beside them. . .We should see thousands of dead trees surrounding the in- cipient establishments. -On the edges of of the prairies, we should see cabins or houses. . .vast droves of cattle, rumina- ting in the vicinity of these establish- ments. . .There would be a singular melange of nature and art. . .the bark hovels of the Indians in many places would remain intermixed with the habitations of the whites. But the most pleasing part of the picture would be. . .independent and respectable yeomen presiding over these changes 6. 55 CHAPTER V SOURCE AREAS OF THE MIGRANTS IN NORTHEASTERN INDIANA , 1 8 5 0 Four primary streams of settlers flowed out from source regions to set up new homes in northeastern Indiana (Figure 3). The Census of 1850 provided data on the number of migrants in the study area from each of the source areas and by state. The main sources were the South, the Mid-Atlantic states, New England, and the Eastern Midwest. The source region of the migrant is defined as the state or region of birth, regardless of his last place of residence before coming to the four-county study area. If a settler was born in New York, moved to Pennsylvania, then to Kentucky, Ohio, and southern Indiana before coming to the study area, the settler would be considered a native of New York. Chil- dren born while in Ohio would be considered Ohio natives. Southern Stream By 1820, the South had a long tradition of trans— Appalachian pioneering. Beginning after the French and Indian war, frontiersmen had moved over the mountains into the newly British territory, despite Crown laws reserving that territory for the Indians. Through Cumberland Gap, North Carolinans, Virginians, and some Marylanders came to settle Kentucky and Tennessee. Many of these peOple were 56 m mmDGHh 0. an! .2350 .m .3 623m 3:... I... m o £8.00 0302 ad 830.. one .wmmdfimmo mzoaum momnom . llIIIIII'II‘l 82 .3538 no 9.193s momcom I.) r. \ .7:- i \J / y, . 31.. glib or. . I) EDEN n) p .I. -53)” u.|\.\ ‘.n.\. \L . | 4;». .H. \l\\.. . , 2. _ A \J \W.....\ .b "III 1‘ .‘ .r‘ 9,0 I ..4 .eu\\ N)‘ «.5. \ - .. \ z.) I J _ \\ 02... ESE... .o r .. k-_._..- _.._ -dk.-- --- 5- - _-__.. (“I :1 , . U .4 N 57 southern highlanders, pioneers in the western parts of their home states, who responded to the wilderness call. Thus, Kentucky and Tennessee were settled mainly from the South- east, and in time these two states provided the bulk of the early settlers of Indiana, particularly in southern Indiana. Indiana received more Southerners than Ohio or Illinois. This may be partially the result of Indiana's nearness to routes from the southern backcountry. The Ohio River swings southward along its contact with Indiana, making the state that much closer for Southern migrant387. The southern routes to Indiana opened up before the northern ones, help- ing to attract Southern settlers who were used to pioneering and might well have grown up in a frontier family. Because of these various reasons, the Southern character of southern Indiana was often noted. An old view has been that northern Indiana had no Southern settlers--they stayed south of the National Road. Work by Lang, using the 1850 Census, has shown that while Southerners far from dominated the settle— ment of the four-county study area, they were present88. The Southern migrants to the Old Northwest were primar- ily uplanders, not plantation owners. For those plantation owners who wished to move west and continue the plantation- slave system, routes to the Lower South, also a newly opened frontier area at this time, beckoned. The poorer southern uplanders left for a number of reasons. The soils in Virginia, 58 Maryland, and North Carolina were being exhausted. Settle- ment was not recent in these places, and as farmers saw de— creasing returns from the soil they listened with increasing interest to stories about the west. The plantation-slave owners held the best land in the old South, poor upcountry farmers could not afford to buy parcels from them, so the new lands were the poor man's only hope. Those non-slave- owning farmers who had good lands near the plantations were faced with a dilemma. They were not producing or profiting much--they had only the family's labor available, and as land values rose, so did taxes. Under these conditions, when a purchase offer came from a plantation owner, the temptation to sell out and move west was great. It is possi— ble that the free farmer who was forced out in this manner became disgusted by the slavery system, and would avoid it when deciding on a new location. Besides those who felt the economic impact of slavery in this way, there were those who had religious objections to slavery. The fact that slavery was forbidden in the Northwest Territory helped attract both groupsag. Further, the land in Kentucky and Tennessee, the original stopping place of many of these Southern migrants from North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland was filling up--at least in the defini- tion of the day. The lands across the Ohio River were avail- able for their sons and daughters to pioneergo. And, as always, there were those who left their homes for the west 59 for no exact reason and for no exact location—-they were "bitten" by the urge to move on. In 1835, a westward headed migrant from North Carolina was asked where he was going. "No where in pertick'lar. Me and my wife thought we'd hunt a place to settle. We've no plunder--nothin' but just ourselves and this nag--we thoughtnge'd try our luck in a new country . Routes There were two modes of travel for Southerners going to the Old Northwest--by river or by land. Often their route was a combination of the two. For those who had to cross the Appalachian Mountains to get to Indiana, the move was more difficult. The roads led through the major passes, but these passes were still high up in the mountains, and much effort was expended in the long climb up and down. To make use of the rivers, one had to cross the great drainage divide to find a west flowing stream. Once on that stream, rapids and falls were a problem. For those moving north from Kentucky or Tennessee, the trip was shorter and safer. Excellent water connections eased transport between states south of the Ohio River and Indiana. Roads were an important early improvement in the Old Northwest, and could also be used. For all of the migrants, travel westward was seasonal. The frozen rivers in winter brought water traffic to a halt, as did the late summer low water period. Roads were also dan— gerous in winter, and travel was curtailed. 60 The waterways provided the first transportation routes into the interior. The deep penetration north and south of tributaries of the Ohio River, the master stream for river travel, increased the amount of readily available land. Migrants from the Southeast came west on to the Ohio and then went up the Wabash or its tributary, the White, to get to interior Indiana. Settlers from Kentucky and Tennessee could float north on a river such as the Licking or Kentucky, join the Ohio River, and then float up into Indiana. The tribu- taries in Indiana served as interior extensions of the Ohio. Settlers and supplies arrived and surplus goods left via the rivers. During most of the second decade of the century, Indiana's settlement was roughly U-shaped, following the course of the Ohio and the Wabash, with the extremities separated by unoccupied wilderness, through which ran the east fork of the White. . . The Ohio River was Ehe parent of the communities as yet9 . Settlers from the South crossing the mountains by land on their way west generally used well known roads. Many of these roads converged on Pittsburgh, where river transport could be obtained. Roads such as Braddock's Trace (1755) and Forbe's Road (1758) were originally cleared and improved for military expeditions and later became turnpikesgB. Other roads, such as Boone's Road, also called the Wilderness Road, went up the long valleys, crossed the mountains through gaps, and met the Ohio further downstream. Boone's Road was later extended 61 across the Ohio to Vincennes, Indiana, and Zane's Trace across to Zanesville, Ohiog4. These were all long overland journeys. A trip from Philadelphia to Louisville, Kentucky, via the Great Valley and Wilderness Roads involved about 700 miles. Even though this was the longest route to the west, many Virginians used itgs. Most of the older roads avoided striking out across Ohio. They stayed south of the Ohio River until they were at least to Louisville. Kentucky had been settling for years, and its road system was far better than that north of the Ohio. Migrants from further east joined those from Kentucky or Tennessee who were moving north using local roads to get from the old home to interior Indiana. They crossed the Ohio on ferries. These ferry boats, the best about twenty feet long, round bottomed with a keel, constantly took pioneers across the river. During seasons when the water was not too high or rough, "all day long, and frequently all night. . . the ferry men crossed back and forth, ferrying people over into the 'promised land'"96. In the early period, north of the Ohio no important land highway except Zane's Trace lay. . .Not until 1818 was the Cumberland Road finished to connect the Northwest to the East. . .The National Road, west of Wheeling, begun in 1825, was to serve the newest settlements that had worked so far in- land that the tributaries of the Chi? were shrunk too small to be of help . The coming of the National or Cumberland Road made land travel to the Old Northwest much easier. Even though the 62 road had its best eastern connection in the Mid—Atlantic states, the road was heavily used by Southerners, particular- ly Virginians and Marylandersgg. Local roads headed north from the Ohio River and from the National Road helped South- erners migrate to the study area. Amounts and Settlement Using the Census of 1850 and Elfrieda Lang's article, the percent of the study area population from the South is given in Table 199. In 1850, 3.1 percent of the population of northeastern Indiana was of Southern nativity. They came primarily from two states: Virginia, 1.6 percent, and Maryland, 1.2 percent, with Kentucky a distant third, 0.2 per- cent. Other states in the South were represented, but their natives were not numerous in the study area. There were more Marylanders than Virginians in Dekalb and Lagrange Counties; the situation was reversed in Steuben and Noble Counties. Noble County had more than twice as many Virginians as Marylanders, and was the only county where there was such a disparity between the two southern states. Steuben County shows a markedly lower percentage of Southerners than the other counties. There is no evidence of specific towns settled by Southerners. The South lacked the urbanizing social forces present in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. South- erners had been pioneering for years, and they likely retained H mqmda .mv .ow .mm .om .mm .Ammma .noumzv av smoumflm mo mcflnmmmz mcmflde .=ommH CH cofiumaomom m.m:mach cnmcuuoz mo mwmwamc¢ cm: .mcmq momflumam “condom II. S.H .cmmAEOHz ummsoflz o.mm mcmHGCH H.Hm h.mw m.mm m.mw h.mm cumummm m.mm 0H50 8 N.H usofiuoossou o.~ ucofium> H.H mwmnwb 302 m.oa chm>HSmccmm 5.4m m.mm v.0m n.mm m.hm oflucmaumnvflz N.mH xuo» 3oz N.o axosuswx N.H ccmflsumz m.H m.¢ m.m m.m H.m Epsom o.H macamufl> comm Eoum :ofiumaomom mucsoo mucooo >uc500 mucsou mmufl mosum mmnm mpsum mo mmmucmoumm can soflomm cwnsmum manoz mmcmnmmq namxmo CH w cofimmm mousom mouaom on» CH mwumum msfloqu mouse cw w cw w ca w cw w omwa wm fiZflHDZH 2mmam¢mmfimoz OB ZOHBfimOHS 64 their pioneer independence when settling in northeastern Indiana by founding their own separate homesteads, as most of the pioneers did. In 1850, Southern natives were only a small percent of the four-county population total, 3.1 percent, and at a maximum in Noble County of 4.9 percent. Some sources have suggested that areas above the National Road were too far north for Southerners to settle in any substantial amountsloo. However, Lang claims that After 1830 the National Road no longer served as a dividing line for southerners, who now began to swing their axes to clear areas for settlement in thslregion north of the Wabash River . Extensive areas in the Lower Mississippi Valley were Open- ing up at this time. These areas were easily reached by Southeasterns, who moved to Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, and even southern Illinois. Sectional controversy between the South and North, New England especially, was escalating all through the study period of 1820 to 1850, and this may have helped keep Southerners further south among their own. Sectional conflict was seen in cultural conflict between the two groups. Some Southerners were apt to stereotype all New Englanders as wooden nutmeg peddlers, and some Yankees considered the Southerner lazy and uncouth. 65 The Census materials for 1850 suggest this enmity between South and North in the study area. Noble County, the south- eastern one of the four had the most Southerners (4.9 percent) and the fewest New Englanders (2.7 percent), while Steuben, the northeastern county, had the most New Englanders (8.7 percent) and the fewest Southerners (1.3 percent). Though this may reflect the animosity between the two groups, it more likely reflects different transportation routes. Noble County was closer to the Wabash River water route from the southwest, and also had a local road connection, the Quaker Trace. This road went north from the National Road at Richmond to Allen County, just south of the study area. Also terminating in Allen County was Wayne's Trace, which went north through Ohio and was left from the military expe- ditions against the Indians in the 1790'3102. Because ease of travel was always important in migrations, roads and rivers to northeastern Indiana that terminated just south of the study area would encourage Southern settlement nearby. There was plenty of open territory in northeastern Indiana, so Southerners' dislike of Yankees need not have kept them away. But as Northerners migrated to the study area in increasing numbers, they competed with Southerners for the better lands. The availability of large areas of land in the Lower Mississippi Valley channelled much Southern migration west, perhaps in response to both competition for lands and northern settlers. The Southerners found it more to their advantage to move west, so they went, leaving the 66 northern portion of the Old Northwest to others. It must always be kept in mind that direct Southern migration to northeastern Indiana was very limited, compris- ing barely over 3 percent of the total study area population. That the southern influence in northeastern Indiana was great— er than this small percentage indicates should be realized. Many Southerners settled in Ohio or southern Indiana before they came to northeastern Indiana, but the Census data do not show this step in the migration from the South. Accord- ing to Lang, As a rule, immigrants from the South reached Indiana by traveling through Ohio. Then, too, there were those who lived for a number of years in southern Indiana before removing to the area north of the Wabash River. Children were born in Ohio and in counties south of the National Road 0 . These people might be listed as Ohioans or Indianians, but they were really children of the South. The Mid-Atlantic Stream The people of the Mid-Atlantic states, like the South- erners, had a pioneering tradition. The excellent lands of upstate and western New York and of western Pennsylvania had attracted settlers as soon as the French and Indian War ended in 1763. Though the lands across the Appalachians were re- served for the Indians by the treaty that ended the war, pioneers moved there anyway. They often were massacred by Indians, particularly during the Revolutionary War, but the 67 attractions were great enough to overcome the dangers for some. Until the 1780's, the frontier line in New York, remained stationary at Rome, or the site of Fort Stanwix. Beyond were the villages and hunting grounds of the strong Six Nations . . .Reports filtering back. . . encouraged land seekers to believe that it was a fine country1 as in- deed it later proved to be 04. As soon as the Revolution was over and the Indians were removed or put into reservations, the area expanded tremen- dously. "As early as 1791, it was reported. . .that 'immi- grants are swarming into this fertile region in shoals like the ancient Israelites seeking the land of promise'"105. The years of pioneering helped nurture the idea of further expansion, so that once western lands opened, there were many in the population of the Middle States who were ready, willing, and able to pioneer in the west. The Erie canal had a strong impact on westward move— ment. After about 1830, not only did it ease the way to the west, but it also brought goods from the west to the East. The westwas soon a grain exporter, and this cheap western grain pulled eastern prices down and changed farming practices in the east. The worn-out soils of New York and Pennsylvania proved incapable of com- peting with the virgin lands of the west in cereal production, forcing farmer after farmer into market garden- ing, cattle raising, or dairy industry. 68 This agricultural upheaval released thousand318£ men for the westward migration . Those who could not afford to make the change, or who did not want to, sold their land to the newly expanding farmers and moved to the cities or to new opportunities in the west. Routes Movements to the west from the Mid-Atlantic states was greatly helped by the improvement of routes to the west. Before the National Road, local roads through Pennsylvania, such as Forbes' or Braddock's, led to Pittsburgh, where the Ohio River could be taken to the West. Movers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania traversed these routes. New Yorkers arrived at Pittsburgh via the Mohawk and Genesee Turnpikes or by the Catskill Road to Olean107. These early routes depended on the Ohio River for the final leg to the west. The improvement of Braddock's Trace into the National Road in the East, and its extension to the west, provided another route to the interior. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal also assisted movement to the westloe. The Erie Canal was used the most, transporting an increasing number of people from the Mid-Atlantic states to the west. Some pioneers from the Middle States continued to use the old routes--the National Road, Forbes Road or the Catskill Turnpike, to reach the Ohio; then made their way down the river and northward. . .More took advantage of a newly completed all-water route between easfigand west, the Erie Canal. . . . 69 The canal changed the migrant's destination areas. The long journey to the west was made easier at the same time that lands closer home in upstate and western New York were filling. The Erie Canal opened an all water route to the lands further west. Because the canal emptied into Lake Erie, the Great Lakes became important routes them- selves. At Buffalo, lake ships took migrants to western lake ports. The coming of steam to the Great Lakes increased the attraction of this route to the west. The Great Lakes areas of the Old Northwest drew many new settlers, and these people were mainly from the Middle States and New England. "The principal effect of (the Erie Canal) was to deflect the immigrant stream from the Ohio Valley to the Great Lakes"110. Western Lake Erie was a major landing area. Even in a steamer, the trip around Michigan was lengthy. Roads were built to cut across Michigan and open areas mainly west of the study area. Two of these from Detroit were the Chicago Road, completed in 1832 to Chicago, and the Territorial Road, open to St. Joseph, Michigan, by 1834111. Many travelers settled lands near these roads, so much so that Billington claims that the northern counties of Indiana were settled by the overflow of settlers moving west along the Chicago Road112 .Another road was the Vistula Road, heading west from Toledo through the northern two counties in the study area113. The 'Wabash and Erie Canal, from the Wabash over to Lake Erie at ffloledo, also helped move settlers west past northeastern 70 Indiana. All of these northern routes attracted Mid-Atlantic, and New England, settlers to the west, reducing the Southern influence in the study area and making the Great Lakes area strongly Northeastern in outlook and culture. Amounts and Settlement Again, referring to the Census of 1850 and Elfrieda Lang's article, percentages of the study area population native to the Mid-Atlantic states is presented in Table 1. In 1850, 27.8 percent of the population in northeastern In- diana was of Mid-Atlantic nativity. New York (16.2 percent) and Pennsylvania (10.5 percent) with New Jersey a distant third (1.1 percent), represented most of the Mid-Atlantic population in the study area. Delaware, the other state in the region, had very few natives present. There were more New Yorkers than Pennsylvanians in Lagrange and Steuben Counties, while the situation was reversed, though not with such a large spread between the two groups, in Dekalb and Noble Counties. All four counties had natives of New Jersey present though they were few. Mid-Atlantic statesmen, like Southerners, did not tend to move west to settle in town groups. New York and Penn- sylvania had a tradition of western pioneering, as can be seen by the number of Mid-Atlantic natives in the study area. There were more urban centers in the Mid-Atlantic states than in the South, so townspeople were likely to move to new 71 western towns. Even New Jersey and Delaware were largely rural states at that time, so natives from those states probably were as likely to have been farmers as not. Natives of Mid-Atlantic states represented over one quarter of the population of the study area in 1850. These people probably had, by sheer numbers alone, a substantial impact on the west. Often the settlement of the west is viewed as two streams, the Southerners versus the New Englanders. Yet the Mid-Atlantic states' natives far out— numbered those from New England and the South put together. Migrants from the Mid-Atlantic states did not represent the extremes of Americans, as did the New Englanders and Southern- ers, so they have been relegated to a secondary position. All three of the major routes to the west passed through the Mid—Atlantic states--the Erie Canal through New York, the National Road through a corner of southwestern Pennsyl— vania, and the major tributaries of the Ohio River, the Alleghany and the MOnongahela, in western Pennsylvania. The major routes to the west were easily reached by natives of all Mid-Atlantic states. The ready accessibility of these routes may be reflected in the larger number of Mid—Atlantic states' natives in the study area. In each of the northern two counties of the study area, LagrangeauuiSteuben, there were at least twice as many New York natives as there were Pennsylvania natives in 1850. 72 In each of the two southern counties, there were slightly more Pennsylvania natives than New York natives. This difference in population seems to support Billington's conten- tion that the northern counties were settled mainly from the overflow of the Chicago Roadll4. Since the Erie Canal went right through the heart of New York, it was very accessible to New Yorkers wishing to move west, more so than the National Road or the Ohio River, both south in Pennsylvania. Spilling over to the south from the Great Lakes-Chicago Road route, New Yorkers filled the northern part of the study area, closer to their routes, first. Steuben, the northern county with the greatest percent of New York natives present, bears the name of a New York county, another bit of evidence for the route segregation. Pennsylvanians, having the National Road and Ohio River routes more available, took those ways west. These two routes entered the southern part of Indiana. Pennsylvanians worked northward toward the study area, and so were more prevalent in the southern part of the study area, closer to their routes. The data for the whole of northern Indiana support the notion of southward diffusion of New York natives and northward diffusion of Pennsylvania natives from their respective rOutesllS. From routes preferred by natives of Pennsylvania or New York, their settlement concentrations diffused outward, with the most natives near their chosen routes. 73 The New England Stream Many of the same forces that were at work expelling Mid-Atlantic states' natives were also forcing New Englanders west. Particularly after about 1830, the Industrial Revolu- tion began to hit New England. Along with it came a revolu- tion in agriculture. Between the two, conditions were ripe for a large scale movement to the West. The growth of mill towns created an urban demand for grain and vegetables. Crop specialization resulted, especially a turn to sheep grazing for wool production. Pastures began to replace cultivated fields, and farms became larger. This freed many for movement to the west. Competition from the new grain production in the Old Northwest lowered the grain price in the east, making cereal production unprofitable and increasing pasturing and grazing. New England had its own frontiers. Since colonial days, New Englanders had been moving out past the settled lands to settle new territory. This movement had been much different than in other areas because town groups settled the wilder- ness. Towns had grown at the same time that new lands had, so the increase of settled territory in New England had been slow. Northern and northwestern New England were frontiers in the period after the Revolution. But soils there were poor and rocky, unfortunately, and when the competition from the new, fertile, lands in the west hit the frontiers in the east, potential frontiersmen shifted their move to the 74 west. New Englanders felt a strong regional identity, and many still moved to the New England frontiers, rather than to the west. Those who did move west, sometimes went in whole towns, transferring adventuresome townspeople from New England to the west. Sheep grazing required little manual labor but much land. Hence farms in- creased rapidly as the fortunates who switched to wool growing early bought out their neighbors. Dispossessed farmers could move into the valley towns seeking jobs in mills or go west to the fertile lake country. . . (After 1840) the flood of cereals from virgin western soils lowered prices so radically that thousands of New England farmers gave up to the strugc%e, most of them moving west themselves I . Routes At the same time that changes in the lives of New Englanders were going on--the agricultural and industrial revolutions--the transportation routes to the west were im- proved by the Erie Canal. New England is separated from New York by a broad mountain chain, and land routes across were very difficult in the past. The opening of the:Erie Canal, connecting the Atlantic with the Great Lakes, made the journey west much easier for New Englanders. By roads to Albany, or sea routes to New York City, then up the Hudson River, to the Erie Canal and on to the Great Lakes, New Englanders came to the west in increasing numbers after about 1830. Of course, for years, New Englanders, though 75 in fewer numbers, had been coming west. The older major routes, the Ohio River and the National Road, were used by many. But from about 1830 on, conditions at home deter- iorated and transportation routes improved, so that the new lands in the west were now much more attractive and availa- ble to New Englanders. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, the extension of steam navi- gation on the Great Lakes in the thirties, and the railroad connec- tions between Boston and the Lake ports early in the forties, opened to New England movers the rich and vacant lands of the North Central states, and, at the same time, poured a competitive and destructive flood of agricultural surpluses from these cheap, rich virgin soils upon the farmers of New England117. Local connections from the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes, as discussed above in the section on the Mid-Atlantic states, also gave New Englanders access to the interior. Because New Englanders relied most heavily on the Erie Canal- Lakes route to the west, these roads were very important to their migration. Another local connection was the Wabash and Erie Canal, begun in 1832 to connect Lake Erie via the Maumee River with the Ohio River via the Wabash. Though open for those on the Erie Canal-Lakes route to use, few did so, and the canal was gradually overshadowed by the railroadsllB. Amounts and Settlement Table 1 presents the percent of New Englanders found in the study area from the Census of 1850 and Elfrieda Lang's 76 article. Five point one percent of the study area population was native to New England in 1850. Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut respectively had the largest percent of New England natives in northeastern Indiana: 2.0 percent, 1.3 percent, and 1.2 percent. The three other New England states also contributed natives, but very few. The whole New England region comprised a relatively small percent of the population. Steuben county, in the northeast, had the largest percent of its population New England natives, 8.7; while Noble, the southwestern county, had the least, 2.3. New Englanders, unlike the two groups previously considered, sometimes moved to the west in town groups. This type of move- ment was a latter day manifestation of the first Puritan move- ments out of the Boston area. Religious consciousness had resulted in a social order that stressed the town unit. Reli- gious and social control was made more effective by the town system. Within the New England town, like a township in the Old Northwest, several villages usually developed. When population increase, declining agriculture, or missionary zeal dictated that a migration was necessary, a group of interested people from the town or a village in it would meet. They commonly formed an association or company, usually including a minister. Delegates were normally sent to look for land in the new area. Once land had been found and arranged for, the migration was thoroughly planned. This 77 usually included organizing a new church for the settlement. The minister of the new church, along with representatives of the most respected families who were moving, led the group. The settlers left for the west as a unit. On arrival, a church was built, shortly followed by a schoolhouse. The colonizing system that had settled New England moved west, settling large areas of New York, parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio (especially the Western Reserve), and further westllg. Though in many cases the New England migration to the west did not take this form, the colony system was unique and identified New England or New England heritage settlers. With the help of this town settlement system, by 1850, in successive periods from the close of the 18th Century, parts of New York and Pennsylvania, the Western Reserve of northern Ohio, northern Indiana and Illinois, southern Michigan and Wisconsin, and north central Iowa, had become a Greater New England--the sphere of influence of the combined New England and I28 York stock of New England origin . Two New England towns are found in the study area, Orland in Steuben County and Wolcottville in Lagrange County. Founded about 1837, Wolcottville settlement was led by George Wolcott who emigrated from Connecticut. Orland provides a better example of a New England town. John Stocker from Windham County, Vermont, came to Steuben County deputized to find good land for his and neighbors' families. The town was settled in 1834, a Baptist church for the settlers was set up 78 in 1835, and soon plans for the "Orland Academy" were drawn up121. This concentration of Vermonters may be responsible for the large percent of Vermont natives found in Steuben County in 1850. Despite the fact that Indiana was right in the line of westward movement, few New Englanders settled there. "Para- doxically, although the state lay directly in the path of westward-moving thousands, thousands moved westward and never saw it"122. A number of possible reasons for this unusual happening can be suggested. Reports read back east dwelled on the wetlands of Indiana. Power, mentioned above, suggests that Yankees avoided Indiana because of this wet- lands stereotype—-Indiana was "passed off by contemporary eastern writers as being an unmitigated morass"123. These poor reports separated most people from any ideas they may have held about settling in Indiana, even though it was accessible along the way west. Those who did settle, either single families or groups of two or three families, mostly arrived between 1830 and 1837, settling the northern tier of counties from Steuben on the eastern border. . .going in smaller numbers to the second tier; and only here and there into the third. Certain counties came gradually during these years to be known as New England counties. These lay in general along the northern border, dipping iggth along the eastern border. . . . This sorting out process, with more New Englanders in the north than to the south, suggests the settlement diffusion 79 process described for the Mid-Atlantic states. Moving out from their primary routes to the west, New Englanders settled in fewer amounts further away from them. New Englanders' primary routes were the northern ones: the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes, and northern roads such as the Michigan Road. The nearness of routes to the west helps explain the con— centration of 69.9 percent of the New Englanders in the northern two counties, Lagrange and Steuben. Fifty-nine point five percent of the New England natives were in the eastern counties, Steuben and Dekalb, showing the influence of the Lake Erie-Vistula Road route and the New England settlements in Ohio. Steuben County, the northeastern county, alone had 42.7 percent of the New Englanders, responding to the influ- ences of both east and north and of Orland, a New England town, within the county. Noble, in the southwest, was furthest from the New England stream and only had 13.3 percent of the New England natives in the study area in 1850. Another possible reason for the avoidance of Indiana by New Englanders was the presence of Southerners, mentioned above in the Southern native section. Different cultural backgrounds resulted in two peoples with differing views. New Englanders were methodical about farming, business, and edu- cation. Southerners in general less so. Southern settlers took life easy. . . they let their cattle forage and the weeds take their fields. . .While 80 Yankee farmers planted grass seed, mowed hay, and rotated grain, their southern neighbors were content with a sequence of "corn, weeds, hogs, mud, and corn. . .". "Cow milking" Yankees built barns for their cattle and made butter and cheese. They planted fruit trees. . .They even cut firewood into regular leggths and stored it under a roof . These are of course generalizations; there were shift- less Yankees and hardworking Southerners. But underlying these cultural variances were the increasing sectional differ- ences that were surfacing with the slavery issue. This issue was a focus of many other differences, and may have caused the New Englanders to avoid Indiana, for it was the home of the Hoosier, and all the Southern influences that word con- jured up. Despite the relatively small amount of New England na- tives in northeastern Indiana, their influence was strongly felt. Schools, towns, businesses, and community leaders came from their ranks. Much of the early cultural life of the settlements came from the New Englanders' efforts. New Yorkers, because their state had been settled by many New Englanders, came to be identified with the Yankees. Interestingly enough,-the counties, which were popular with New Englanders were also the choice of natives from the Empire State. One may, therefore, conclude that many of the ancestors of New Yorkers were Yankees. Probably 50 percent or more of the native New Yorkers who settled in northern Indiana were of New England extraction126. 81 Eastern Midwest Stream This section considers those who came to the study area in northern Indiana from Michigan, Ohio, or other parts of Indiana, defined as the Eastern Midwest. The 1850 Census lo- cated natives of other North Central states living in the study area, but their numbers were generally low. Of these, Illinois, the next state west, had the most natives in the study area. The retreat east from failure on the far frontier may account for those natives from western areas now in north- eastern Indiana. A number of New Englanders and South- erners, as well as some foreigners, by-passed the Hoosier state for Illi- nois and lived there from five to ten27 years before retreating into Indiana . During this stay, children born there were considered natives of Illinois. The settlers who were natives of Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana had family ties back to older settled areas in the East and South. Because the Census data reveal only the nativity location, and nothing about the past migrations of families previous to the birth of the interviewee, this paper only considers the listed place of birth. Having been born in a frontier area, these peOple were full of pioneering heritage. They likely had grown up on the frontier, and subscribed to frontier notions of westward move- ment and pioneering spirit. Plenty of land was probably available near home, and many remained in the area of their birth. Some, however, felt the urge to move and start pioneering 82 on their own. People migrated west from Ohio or north from southern Indiana because the country was filling up, the best sites were taken, or the land that remained was too ex- pensive. Land in northern Indiana was late in opening for settlement, so here was new land nearby. Other pioneers, who had been on the far frontiers of Michigan, Illinois, and the rest of the Old Northwest, may have fallen back to the east in retreat. Northern Indiana provided a frontier that was new, yet relatively civilized, and closer to markets and neighbors than areas on the settlement fringe. For those who were in retreat yet not beaten, the study area may have been just what was desired. A word of clarification is needed concerning the Indiana native figures. By 1850, the study area had been settling for thirty years, a generation. Natives of Indiana included those born in the study area as well as native migrants from Indiana. The Indiana native figures must be considered in this light. Routes The routes used by natives of the Eastern Midwest were the same as those used by many natives of other regions. Water transport, both the Ohio River and its Indiana tribu- taries and the Great Lakes brought Ohioans. Natives of south- ern Indiana could move north along the Wabash River and the Wabash and Erie Canal, also used by Ohioans. Land routes were probably used by most migrants because they were more direct and the trip was likely to be short. 83 The National Road would bring Ohioans west, and the Michigan Road would take them north. Southern Indiana natives also took the Michigan Road to get close to the study area. The road from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne brought members of the two groups even nearer. For northwestern Ohioans, the Vistula Road went from Toledo right into Steuben and Lagrange Counties. The Chicago Road tracked west from Detroit, coming to within a few miles of the study area and giving Michigan- ders an easy route in. Local roads branching off from the main routes were very important in bringing settlers to the study area. Amounts and Settlement From the Census of 1850 and Lang's article, the percent of the study area population native to Ohio, Michigan, or Indiana is given in Table 1. In 1850, 59.7 percent of the population of northeastern Indiana was from Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. That the majority of settlers were native to the Eastern Midwest should not be surprising. The history of westward expansion demonstrates that proximity was of primary importance; unless nature's obstacles intervened, each new region was settled from neighboring areas rather than distant points. . . "In thirty states out of thirty-four", wrote the Superintendent of the Cen- sus in 1860, "it will be perceived that the native emigrants have chief- ly preferred to locate in a state immediiggly adjacent to that of their birth" . 84 Indiana natives comprised twenty-six percent of the popula- tion, but what part of the population was native to the study area and what part native to the state is uncertain. There were more Ohio natives than Indiana natives in all counties except Lagrange, where native Hoosiers slightly outnumbered Ohioans. The southern two counties of the study area, Dekalb and Noble, had more Ohioans than the northern two, with Dekalb, the southeastern county, having the most Ohioans, 40.1 percent. Native Hoosiers comprised about a quarter of the population in all four counties. Michigan natives concentrated in the northern two counties, and over forty-nine percent of the Michigan natives in the four coun- ties were in the northeast county of Steuben. Ohio natives comprised nearly a third of the population of the study area in 1850. Because Ohio was one of the new western lands, it had been settled by people from many differ- ent source areas. "Many of the parents born in another section of the United States or in a foreign country had used Ohio as a stepping stone to the Hoosier State"129. The three sources of settlers described above, the South, the Mid-Atlan- tic states, and New England, also combined in Ohio. Thus, those Ohioans who came to Indiana were from as many varied backgrounds as the Hoosiers themselves. "Customs and tradi- tions of other sections and countries continued to be a part of their lives and their children's 1ives"130. One of these customs was town founding. Some Ohio groups followed the New England tradition and sent delegates to find 85 land in Indiana for a migrating group from a town. Dekalb County, residence of the largest percent of Ohio natives in the study area, was first settled by an Ohioan, John Houlton, who arrived in 1833. A number of Ohio colonies settled in Dekalb County, helping to swell the number of Ohioans there. Groups in the county represented Morrow and Trumball Counties in Ohiol3l. Over thirty-seven percent of the population of Noble County had been natives of Ohio. As in all cases, most of the migrants came west singly or in families looking for better conditions. The migration of Ohio natives was, like all other migrations, not necessarily direct. "From the county histories, it is obvious that some families had lived in southern Indiana before removing to the northern part of the state"132. Michigan natives were few, and mostly concentrated in the northern two counties of the study area, Steuben and Lagrange. Parents of Michigan natives were likely to have come from New York or New England. Since Steuben and Lagrange Counties also had the most New York and New England natives present, Michiganders mainly moved to those counties in Indiana with the strongest Northeastern connections. Steuben and Lagrange Counties are closest to Michigan so local moves may have brought natives of that state to Indiana. Those who were natives of Indiana fall into two cate— gories. One category consists of those native Hoosiers who were born outside of the study area; the other of those who were born in the study area. By 1850, thirty years of 86 settlement had been going on, and many children and even grandchildren of original settlers had been born in the four counties. The age distribution of the population considered in Lang's "An Analysis of Northern Indiana's Population in 1850", assists in understanding the problem of the native Indianian population figures. Just how many Indiana natives were born in the study area is uncertain, but it should be noted that the majority of (the Hoosier natives in northern Indiana) were below ten years of age. For this reason, one might. . .conclude that the number of Indianians is not of any great significance, especially since the parents themselves had come from New England, from the South, from the Middle Atlantic States, or from foreign coun- tries. It was, after all, the older generation that made the furrow which the children followed133. The Southern influence in southern Indiana is well recognized. The area settled early, before the large scale migrations of New Englanders and Mid-Atlantic natives to Indiana. For these groups, New York and Ohio were attractive frontiers in the first few decades of the 19th Century. Southerners had been settling Kentucky and Tennessee since well before 1800, and those states were no longer frontier. Across the Ohio lay Indiana, and many headed there and settled. Southerners, then, comprised the bulk of the Hoosiers in southern Indiana. The tide from the East was up to 1816 flowing into western New York, Penn- sylvania, and Ohio; and although southern Indiana was filling up with farms and towns, the new population was chiefly from Kentucky, Tennessee, 134 or the Southern States along the coast . 87 The Southern influence went north with migrants to the study area. Thus, those who were not born in the study area, but were native Hoosiers were likely to have been of Southern stock. The nativity region previous to Indiana must be considered. General Conclusions In the Census of 1850, Southern natives comprised 3.1 percent of the study area population, Mid-Atlantic states' natives represented 27.8 percent of the study area popula- tion, New England natives 5.1 percent, and Eastern Midwest natives comprised 59.7 percent of the study area population. The 4.3 percent balance of the population were from other states or foreign countries. Indiana was directly west for Ohio and Mid-Atlantic migrants. The large amount of Ohio and Mid-Atlantic states' natives suggests that migrants took the most direct and avail- able routes to the new land, and so tended to move directly west. The time spread between the settlement of southern and northern Indiana made lands available for southern Hoosiers to move north to when the country at home began to "settle up". Direct migration from the South and New England was small, but the effects of the respective cultures were likely to have been stronger than the percentages alone indicate because of stops before migration to Indiana. Some of the characteristics and traits of their former region were passed on to their children. 88 Time and locational factors played a part in the destina- tions of migrants. Southerners as a group were the furthest west earliest, settling the Kentucky and Tennessee frontiers and crossing the Ohio River to southern Indiana, filling the state northward. Mid-Atlantic statesmen were west next, settling western New York and Pennsylvania and later, Ohio. Central and northern Indiana opened up as the pioneers began to search for new areas west of Ohio. The bulk of New England natives came west last. Frontiers in their own region attract- ed the expanding population until New York and Ohio frontiers opened up. Not until after 1830 did the great migration of New Englanders begin. At this time the more northerly areas in the Old Northwest were opening. The three separate routes to the west, each one a bit further north than the last, helped distribute the migrants. Generalizing, the Ohio River brought Southerners and Mid- Atlantic statesmen west, the National Road brought Mid-Atlan- tic natives, and the Erie Canal-Great Lakes, New Englanders and Mid-Atlantic people. Ohioans were due east, and the bulk of Hoosiers due south, so short, direct movements brought them to the study area. Each entryway served a migration stream from a distinctive source region, and these streams remained remarkably separate as they continued westward across the Middle West135. 89 CHAPTER VI THE POST-FRONTIER LANDSCAPE By shortly after 1840, settlement in northeastern Indiana had advanced to the point where the study area was no longer on the frontier. The frontier stage was ended, and advanced settlement stages had begun. This is not to suggest that the four counties were fully settled--the frontier actually was not far removed and many parts of the counties were still unsettled. But progress in settling the study area was being made and the study area looked far different in this period than it had in the pre-frontier, and even the frontier, stages. The Settlement Progression Northeastern Indiana had been unsettled by whites until about 1830. Soon thereafter, settlement began in earnest and the frontier stage commenced, lasting about ten years. As it continued, with varying periods of heavy migration and periods of limited migration, stages of increasingly heavy settlement evolved. From shortly after 1830 to shortly after 1840, the study area had been considered a part of the frontier, defined by Billington as 90 a geographic region, adjacent to the unsettled portions of the continent in which a low man-land ratio and usually abundant, unexploited natural resources provide an exceptional Opportunity for social and economic betterment to the small-propertied individual 36. Before the early 1840's, the resources of timber, land, and animals were essentially unexploited, and there were few settlers. By 1850, the frontier had moved further west, and the study area was in a post-frontier stage, nearly surrounded by long settled areas. The man-land ratio was no longer low, by the standards of the day, and although abundant resources still remained, they were being exploited at an increasing rate. The changing man-land ratio is particularly useful for showing that the study area was no longer on the frontier! In 1850, three of the four counties had populations near or above 8,000, and the fourth, Steuben, had over 6,000 people. In 1840, the first year the census was taken in the study area, only one county, Lagrange, had more than 3,000 inhabitants. Table 2 shows population and population density per square mile for 1840 and 1850. The population density increase between 1840 and 1850 was substantial. The Census of 1880 defined a density of over eighteen persons per square mile as indicating highly successful agricultural settlement. All four of the counties had over eighteen persons per square mile in 1850. 137 An article by J.F. Hart includes a map of the area that shows most of the study area with at least eighteen persons per square mile by 1860, with a portion of Noble County lagging, but at the level by 1880. Another map138 suggests 91 N mgmde .mmnummn .ma .H wanes .omma .mSmcwo mmumum cmuflas pom cum .m .owma .mSmch mmumum coves: "condom H.HN mmmom m.u mamoa mmva mamuoe mmn¢ mpsum A.mH moam m.m mhmm cam censmum ¢.ma mean m.m «own one manoz A.- Ammm m.m «Gem Ohm museummq m.- Hmmm e.m mesa mmm namxma snflmcmo omma .aom omma seaweed ovma .mom oema was mega sucsoo omma ozm ovma .mmHeHmzma oneoumEH mussoo mmuom mound Exam m mound Such w mmm mmomoa wmv gamma oovmma concoum mam ovvmma mae ommmoa oovmmm manoz was mmmmm wmm mavmma oommmm mmcmummq mom NmNmHH mom momhaa oommmm namxoo ammo ammo mfiumm mfiumm mussoo muccoo w mound ca m cw mmuom ca monom mmmud 2mmo nzm szmdm 95 instead, they planned to produce something they could trade-~better still, something they could sell . . .they continually struggled to wrest fng their land a marketable surplus . To get that surplus, more acres of land were opened to farm- ing as agriculture passed from the uncertainty of the frontier stage to the assurance associated with increasing settlement. In 1850, Lagrange County seems to have been the furthest advanced away from frontier conditions of settlement and agri— culture. Population density per square mile was 9.9 in 1840 and 22.7 in 1850. The county had 1,062 farms in 1850, over 200 more than the next closest county, Dekalb. Lagrange County had fifty-eight percent of its acres in farms, and thirty- eight percent of these acres were unimproved, both values the greatest in the study area. The average number of acres per farm ranged from 130 to 163, close to a quarter section per farm in each county. The farm data show that, though settle- ment was sparse by today's standards, the study area was fill— ing in and frontier conditions of greatly scattered settlement were no longer present in 1850. The founding dates of clustered settlements, not really towns but villages, can also be used to show the increase of settlement (Figure 4). These settlements from Baker and Carmony, consisted of grouped dwellings, usually with a store and sometimes a post office, that serviced the immediate surrounding area142. 96 FIGURE 4 STAGES or: ssLEcree ‘TowN AND 1, | :VILLAG’EIISEITLEMENT I 1 I830-‘Ie4'4 miles Source: Bc‘ménJ '8: Germany ' 7 I l830'l839 I830‘I850 Z I I773 .. I «»-J n‘ “.v‘ V "A". III *2!er n w \J .6 I If. ti’:“‘\ I: IIIIIIIIII. IIIENIIII'I 'I III §\v/ ' .I :1 ,_,I ___.,_...__....__.._._.__1. .____._._‘__1_ ._ cud r—e -.._._. —- -——-—.'-fir--" ‘ I '1 73mm P” . 'JTT I I I _J II: 5'13- .1' .‘t w—avl by. T II II lI'II‘I 1.11. (C 5 fit :1“ IL IIIIII'IIIIII III I'll! III IIIIIIIII III. Illl'lII I IIIIII I o C _.__. I... ......-..__- i_._ _. H._..._.. “I \. AABI'OC '.‘I 71 I. 7' k. L. I I u\_| ‘3)”: Q . a C'II'I", O L. .........._.J ‘I ‘IIIIII' Ii $10an :8 19.4513} ::=')’~u::»3 —-_— w..._.___ _ _t_..‘.__,_._~_l_.__ -._____ -_._ ”-—_._ 1 V 97 Life in the villages and country towns differed but little from that in the country; neighbors were somewhat closer and contacts more frequent, but the essentials of life were the same. A group of houses sprawling at intervals along a road or street full of stumps and seasonal mud holes, weeds, dust and garbage, flanked by a rail fence, paralleled by cow paths for side- walks, with a few rods of wooden sidewalks and hitching racks in front of the "business section" of store, post office, tavern, and blacksmith shop; a couple of churches, a schoolhouse, a doctor's and lawyer's office, a few shops of local trades} men. . .such was the country town . These settlements were a market place for surpluses and a supply center for those items every farmer, no matter how self-sufficient, needed. Items such as salt, gunpowder, and lead were purchased there. In the back country and frontier areas the farmer was dependent on the country storekeeper, who took his surplus in trade and allowed him book credit. Farmers within driving distance of towns or cifiis of any size enjoyed a cash market . In the study area there were thirty-seven towns listed in Baker and Carmony's study of selected Indiana place names that were founded from 1830 to 1850. No towns they listed were begun before 1830, another bit of evidence that the frontier period did not begin until after 1830. With the pioneers heading for homesteads also came the town founders who set up early towns and trading posts to serve the pic- neers. Some towns, like Orland begun in 1834, were the focus 98 of a concentrated rural settlement on the New England town style. According to Baker and Carmony, from 1830 through 1834, seven towns in the study area were begun, two in each county except Steuben, which had one. From 1835 through 1839, seventeen towns were begun, the most during any part of the 1830 to 1850 time period. This reflects the heavy inflow of settlers that moved to the west in the late 1830's. Four towns were started from 1840 through 1844, and nine from 1845 to 1850. The founding of at least thirty-seven towns, present today, by 1850 indicates that settlement was well advanced by 1850, far from the frontier stages. Clustered settlements grew at different rates. Some had advantages of location or function. Those towns on water- courses often supported mills for grinding meal to flour or cutting logs to saw timber. Wilmont in Noble County had a sawmill in 1848, and Wolcottville, on the border between Lagrange County, was settled in 1837 by George Wolcott who set up a gristmill, carding mill, sawmill, and distillery145. The establishment of a post office gave another attraction for business activity in a fledgeling town. Post offices were begun in eleven of the thirty-seven towns between 1830 and 1850. There was much competition between towns for the county seat location. Often the county seat became the main banking and commercial center, as well as the governmental center in the county, though it did not necessarily retain that domi- nance. Two of the four county seats were founded in the 99 previous or same year that the county was. But in the two other cases, four and ten years elapsed between the found- ing of the county and the county seat, suggesting a period when towns vied for the honor. Three of the four county seat towns were founded between 1835 and 1840, the period of heav- iest town founding. Of those few towns where the founders' former home is listed, New Yorkers started three towns, Pennsylvanians one, and Vermonters one. As more towns sprang up, there were more locations to market surpluses, to purchase labor-saving devices, and to learn about new methods and equipment. The frontier stage lasted about ten years in northeast- ern Indiana, from the early 1830's to the early 1840's, accord- ing to the population density limits and other evidence. But frontier conditions in many parts of the study area lasted beyond the early 1840's. Poor soils, poor drainage, or lack of diligence on the pioneer's part slowed progression. Poor- ly drained areas were avoided, especially when better farm- lands were readily availablel46. Large areas in the four counties were waterlogged, so expansion by those farming there was limited until drainage projects were undertaken. The study area was settled unevenly, so that by 1850 or even later, portions of the counties were in an advanced agricul- tural stage while other portions were characteristic of frontier or pre-frontier conditions. 100 Connections with the east were constantly improving. The Erie Canal, and local canal projects such as the Wabash and Erie Canal, made trade and communication with the east much easier. New local roads were built and old ones repaired, in response to demands of farmers who needed better local roads to take their increasing surpluses to collection points for shipment east. The potential for growth and communication represented by the railroad was being recognized. Northeastern Indiana was no longer an isolated frontier by 1850. The filling of the land with settlers and the open- ing of farms, the growth of towns, and the improvement of communication all heralded a new era. The shift from essen- tially self-sufficient agriculture to marketing surpluses indicates the change from frontier to post-frontier condi- tions. The Living Landscape Just as the landscape had been in a pre-frontier state before the great influx of settlers, after the frontier stage was over, the landscape began to exhibit evidences of permanent settlement. Fauna The overabundant fauna of 1820 were no longer as plen- tiful by 1850. The wild animals, particularly the larger ones that required much range and could not learn to adapt to settlement, were feeling the effects of clearing and farming. 101 Before settlement had become too thick and fences were re— quired, domestic livestock had been allowed to root and forage in the woods. The "open range" system allowed live- stock to destroy nesting sites and disturb the smaller game. The more dangerous wild animals, such as bears, panthers, and wolves, were hunted to reduce their depredations on livestock and to make the backwoods settlements safer for families. The removal of only the predator animals normally would have resulted in a large increase in prey animals such as deer. But prey animals were an important source of meat for the settlers, and hunting reduced the population of game ani- mals. The encroachment of settlement on the range also lower- ed the number of game animals, disrupting nesting sites and reducing food supply. Beaver had been present in great numbers in the lakes and swamps of northern Indiana until about 1840, when trappers had finally cleaned them outl47. Deer were especially attractive for skins and meat, and they were exten- sively hunted. Small game, especially those such as squirrels and raccoons who were fond of corn, were hunted as pests. Hunting and settlement together made large inroads on the fauna in the study area. As farming expanded, many of these former game animals, no longer used for food, became pests and were hunted for entertainment. Flora The tremendous trees that covered most of the study area have been discussed in an earlier section. Because of these 102 extensive forests, "the pioneer was of necessity a woodsman before he could be an agriculturalist"148. The forests had to be cleared for farms, and the timber thus supplied was used in the "wood culture" of the frontier. Wood provided housing, fencing, and fuel. Pioneers knew how to remove the trees and how to convert trees to farmstead use. "Since the earliest, settlements along the Atlantic Coast, Americans had been clear- ing the land and raising crops"l49. There were two ways to clear the land for agriculture. One was to chop down the trees; the other was to girdle them and either let them fall naturally or slowly work at them. Felling trees with an axe was a very difficult and long task. Girdling trees was quicker, but the carcass of the tree re- mained standing longer. Most pioneer farmers cleared land using the two methods in combination. Clearing the land had seemed at the start to be an insurmountable task, but through time and small bites, it was accomplished. Once the cabin site had been selected, the trees there were normally cut down and used to build the cabin. Trees in the soon-to-be fields nearby that were especially suited for the cabin were cut and dragged to the site. Because settlers preferred to get a crop started as soon as possible, they girdled most trees rather than remove them to make fields that were "cut smack smooth". "As a rule, the underbrush and trees under eighteen or twenty inches were cut, and the larger ones girdled"150. Girdling involved cutting a ring around the 103 tree, through the bark and into the cortex, wide enough so that the tree literally bled to death. Most trees never put out leaves again if they were girdled in mid-summer, but some, such as ash, hackberry, and sugar maple, also had to be burned deeply. Some farmers let the trees fall naturally, as wind, weather, and destructive insects took their toll, but others set the dead trees on fire the next winter. Most chopped the dead trees down as time allowed. The fallen trees were trimmed, cut into logs, rolled into windrows and burnedlSI. The destruction of such beautiful trees, the likes of which are rarely seen today, seems almost criminal now. Yet the pioneer farmer had little else he could do with them. Trees needed to be cleared before farming could begin, and only so many could be used for housing, fences, and fuel. The woods provided for these needs, but because there was no way to transport logs, and really no demand for them (were not the forests inexhaustable anyway?), the only way the farmer could rid himself of the trees was to burn those he couldn't immediately use. The clearing of these trees took a long time. After the initial harvest, the farmer cleared from two to ten acres per year, depending on the size of his family and other conditions. The newly opened ground was not farmed until the next year, as clearing and burning took the first yearlsz. At this slow rate, even older, longer settled areas still had extensive areas of partially cleared fields. As late as 1840, many fields in Ohio were still cleared of only the underbrush and smaller 104 trees--the larger, girdled ones remained standing. Under the now lifeless trees the first crops were sown, often around the base of the trees. The trunks and limbs pro- vided some shade even yet, and so the yields from these fields were not as high as possible once the field was fully cleared. The field eventually was completely cleared, because it was felt that five acres of a full, unshaded crop were better than fifteen acres of a partial crop raised in a field of girdled tree3153 . Jacob Schramm, a German immigrant looking for land north of Indianapolis in 1836, described the field clearing process. The destruction of the trees is done as follows: In May or in August, one cuts through the bark of all trees on the land to be cleared with an axe, with the exception of the oaks. This causes them to die in a few years. By the end of five years, the whole growth is dead, and many trees are blown down. . .Now, if one wishes to have the land cleared all trees which are standing are cut down, burned through into logs ten feet long then piled into heaps and thus completely burned to asheslg4. Prairies, though few and small, were also put to the plow. The tough prairie sod was the chief deterrent to open- ing the grasslands. The root structure of the grass was ex— tensive and very deep, making plowing especially difficult. The sod had to be turned over when it was green, or it was certain to sprout again. Even then, often the plow did not dig deep enough and the grass grew backlss. 105 The Farmscape, 1850 Travelling through the study area around 1850, one would see farms at both extremes-—from small clearings to large open fields--and every degree in between. Though considered as a group, the new settlers were also individuals. Some had been in the study area since the land was ceded by the Indians; others had just arrived. Some families were larger, more diligent, prosperous, or healthy than others. All of these things contributed to a diversity of settlement states in the study area. Starting the Homestead The new settler often came without his family in the spring, selected a site, and cleared and planted a small field. While this was growing, he built a house or a lean-to for the family. The lean-to, or "half-faced" camp was temporary. Two vertical forked poles held up a horizontal pole between them, and from this poles were laid to the ground. This "roof" was covered with poles and brush to keep some of the weather out156. Once the first crOp was planted and progressing, the settler began to prepare for building the log cabin. These cabins, whose ancestry before coming to America is in doubt, provided the first permanent housing for pioneers in the study area. As soon as enough logs had been collected; ash, beech, maple, or poplar of uniform size; they were cut to length, 106 notched, and arranged. To build the typical log cabin, the settler needed about twenty logs, each about one foot in diameter and perhaps twenty feet long, an equal number ten, twelve, or fifteen feet long. These were for the sides and ends of the house. Then came three or four, each shorter than the one below, to form the gables. Each log was notched at the end so the corners wigld not build up faster than the walls 7. Usually neighbors came to assist in the "cabin raisin'", one of the social events on the frontier158. In the newly opened fields, still dominated by girdled trees, crops were sown. The preparation of the soil for planting was not an easy task. Roots dominated the soil, intertwined and very resistant to the plow. Stones and occa- sional boulders also awaited the plow. Grubs were the bane of the pioneer farmers, ready to catch and halt and plow, giving the plowman a case of whiplash. The grubs were the result of the accumulation of sprouts which, cut off or burned off for years, developed just under- ground around the taproot into giant toadstool shapes which could be re- moved only by direct attack with an eight pound grubbing hoe159. Often the first crop was planted by axe. The axe was swung into the soil and twisted slightly. Into that cut went the seeds. If a plow was used, it was a back-breaking task. Southerners tended to use a jumping shovel plow. This was an ordinary plow of wood with the moldboard partially covered with strips of iron; not a very satisfactory implement, but cheap and easily repaired160. 107 The plow was set so that it would cut through the smaller roots and jump over the larger ones. The cutting, jumping, and jerking was very hard on both plowman and teamlsl. This plow seems to have been well suited to frontier conditions, perhaps reflecting the long frontier heritage of Southerners. New Englanders tended to use heavy cast iron plows that cut through most obstructions, even four-inch thick oak roots, and stuck fast in those larger, requiring much effort to dis- lodge the plow. The weight of this plow required a larger teamlez. This plow had replaceable cast iron parts. Broken pieces could be replaced, but this was costly163. Plows for breaking prairie sod gradually were designed and became avail- able. These plows were extra broad to turn over wide strips of sod, and required expensive and scarce steel. Large teams, often oxen, were required to draw the plows, and this, added to the initial cost of the plow, made them uneconomical for most. Also, this type of plow was not ready until late in the study period, and then was mostly used further west where prairies were more extensivel64. After plowing, harrows were used to further pulverize the soil. At first, these were just small cut trees, the branches serving as harrow teeth. Later, a heavy oak plank with teeth of hardwood or iron was usedlss. As the study area settled and more families and livestock appeared, fencing became necessary. The small prairies, like the woods, had served as natural pasture areas for livestock, but even here, as the study area settled, unrestricted grazing 108 could no longer take place. The number of settlements now meant that livestock had to be kept in enclosures to protect crops. Wood again supplied the material. At first, makeshift fences of brush and poles were built. Later, rails were split from logs, ten or twelve feet long, of white ash, oak, chestnut, poplar or walnut. Post and rail fences, and worm fences were built from these rails. Fences were a con- tinual consumer of wood, for they were always deteriorating or breakingl66. Farms grew and the amount of livestock increased, neces- sitating the construction of outbuildings for sheltering them. Many other needs on the farm were filled by handmade wooden items--gates, shovels, hay forks, carts and yokes to name a few. As the period drew to a close, transportation was much improved, surplus products were sent east, and manu- factured goods came west. The farmer no longer relied only on his own skills for things he needed--he increasingly bought them. Sawmills appeared, cutting the farmer's own logs into lumber for building. New agricultural machinery was invented, and farms found they could buy machines that would allow them to increase their farmed acreage and save labor at the same time. At the beginning of the period, Land was plentiful and cheap in relation to labor. Excepting for a few favored regions there were no markets and hence no incentive to produce a surplus. Tools and implements were of the simplest sort, in fact had not been considerably im- proved upon since ancient times 7. 109 Much was changing by the end of the period. Agricul- ture in the study area was coming into its own. New farming machinery, methods, and crops were being introduced. It was the extension of the canals, later the railroads, which was responsible in a large measure for widening the market for farm imple- ments by making it possible to ship (them) into regions previously cut off from main lines of communication and relatively inaccessible. But, more important, it was the canal and railroad which provided the necessary facilities to transport to market the growing quantities of wheat, corn, pork, lard, and tobacco that I68 im- plements were making possible . Farming For the pioneer, the few field crops garden,crops, livestock, and the results of the hunt provided all his food at first. "He might borrow from or 'swap' with a neighbor, but there was no grocery"l69. Depending on how far away the settlers' former home was, familiarity with agriculture in northeastern Indiana varied. The first season settlers had to de- pend largely on themselves. Friendly families along the road might give them a few seeds and tell them some- thing of farming in the new home, 170 but most of it was a great experiment . The primary field crop of the first settlers was corn, and it retained its pre-eminent position for many years. Corn grew well in the partially cleared land, and could be ground into meal, flour, or made into whiskey. Corn ground 110 was prepared as soon as the soil thawed on farms where the field had been cleared the year before. The kernels were planted "when the oak or maple leaves were as large as squirrel ears or when the dogweed blossoms were fully ex- panded"l7l. The new settler made sure a crop was sown as soon as possible. Pumpkins and other squash were often planted in the cornfield after the corn had a good start. The squash used the cornstalks to climb on, and the small cleared fields could produce two crops. Wheat was not usually grown in the first few years a field was planted. The soil was too rich and the wheat grew all to straw, with little grain resultingl72. Once wheat could be grown, it became an important cash crop. Its sur- plus provided money for improvements such as machinery and better seeds and livestockl73. The wheat harvest became a social event like corn husking bees. Cultivation of crops depended on labor, time, and in- clination. Many children spent hours in the clearings with a hoe, chopping weeds and keeping pests away from the ripen- ing crops. At other farms, neighbors "sometimes remarked that they could take hold of the wild cucumber vines at one corner and shake all the corn in the field"174. The increasing livestock populations caused the farmer to turn to haying to supply winter forage. Marsh hay was the firstsourcecof supply, obtained from the wet prairies and 111 riversidesl75. Later, agricultural improvements introduced timothy and other grasses that were planted for pasture crops. The garden was usually the responsibility of the women and girls. Here potatoes, onions, beans, peppers, turnips, and all sorts of other table crops were planted. Spices and herbs for cooking were also grown here, along with common flowers. All the variety of food other than corn and meat for the coming year came from the kitchen garden. Seeds from the garden crops were carefully saved for next year176. The change from producing only enough for the family to producing a marketable surplus shows the dissolution of fron- tier conditions. It was a gradual change in agriculture, because self-sufficiency ruled for many years. Poor transportation facilities and the resultant high costs left the western communities isolated to a certain extent not only from the East, but from each other as well. Scarcity of markets and money further contributed to the practice of a self- sufficient domestic economy. As settlement advanced, towns grew and communications improved in the study area, increasing the demand for more produce. A society in the process of establish- ment in a new region seeks to develop the most available resources of that region, at first for itself, then as communications and markets develop, for exchange with other partsl78. Corn, because it was suited to the new fields and could be used as grain, livestock feed, or whiskey, was the major 112 crop in the study area. Livestock were marketed, moved by drovers to markets in the major towns in the Old Northwest. Grain, both corn and later the small grains, was reduced in bulk by grinding it into flour or producing whiskey in an attempt to reduce the high cost of transportation. Milk was churned to butter or made into cheese to increase its value179. Long distance transportation remained a problem beyond 1850. The roads were best in the summer when they were dry or in the winter when they were frozen. River trans— portation was worst then, and best in spring or fall when the water was highestl80. Despite the difficulties, market agriculture was a goal of pioneers emerging from the frontier stage. Sales of sur- pluses gave the farmer cash he needed to pay off his land or add more, hire additional labor to increase his cleared acreage, and to improve his living conditions. Toward the end of the period, better livestock, improved seeds, horti- culture, and new agricultural methods and machines were available. The land had been producing crops for years, so fertilizers and crop rotations began to interest the farmer. Almanacs were cherished information sources, and farm journals began to circulate, full of new ideas and new products and machineslal. The improvements became self—sustaining, the cash from a small surplus funding the changes that would pro- duce a larger surplus. 113 Commercial farming developed rapidly in the Middle West. . . With the growth of markets and the expansion of agriculture, the machin- ery of buying and selling the farmer's produce became increasingly complex. Simple barter deals and sales by farmers to customers in nearby communi- ties were displaced by sales to buyers, wholesalersi jobbers, drovers, and other specialists 3 . Conditions of Life The conditions of life were much improved in the study area by the end of the period. Hardship had been the word for the life of the first settlers. Long hours of hard work were needed to clear land, build a cabin, secure food, and run the home. The first winter spent in the new land was often one of privation. If the family had arrived late in the spring, the first crop might not have been large. The cabin may not have been finished when winter began. Sickness and death were constant visitors. Accidents in field or forest, and fires in the cabin, often because of improperly constructed chimneys, were common. Because of the heavy reliance on corn and meat for food, malnutrition was not rare. The garden produce, intended to help this problem, was often raided by wild animals or insects. By the close of the period, a greater variety of agricultural products were grown. Wheat, more garden vegetables, and fruits helped balance the diet. Salt, which was a problem on most early frontiers, and sugar were available from general 114 stores. Chickens could be raised now that most of the predators were gone, and there were more milk cows. Eggs, milk, butter, and cheese helped improve the farmer's diet. Illness was a continual threat. Hard work outdoors in all kinds of weather, poor sanitary habits, bad drinking water, and a lack of knowledge about prevention and cure all contributed to illness among the pioneers. Undrained wet- lands were breeding places for mosquitos, and the ague, or malarial fever, was one of the major summer health hazards, along with cholera and typhoid fever183. These problems gave the west its reputation for unhealthfulness184. Eighteen thirty-eight in northern Indiana was apparently one of the worst years for illness. There were long, continual rains that summer and fall. The result was that there never was another season as bad as that in northern Indiana, before or since that time, although malaria and chills continued to prevail to a greater or less extent every summer and fall, until the swamps, mars es, and stagnant pools were drained . As the period ended, increased settlement, better living conditions, drainage, and improved knowledge all combined to reduce illness in the study area. Scarcity of labor was always a problem on the farm. Pioneer families had to rely on themselves for most of the work, except house and barn raisings and harvest bees. Clear- ing, plowing, planting, cultivation, and gathering all took 115 much time. The longest hours were spent by the women, who were sometimes called on to help with the crops in addition to the work of keeping house. Areas of land reduced to cultiva- tion and the amount of crops pro- duced were limited not only by lack of transport facilities and markets, but by the scarcity of labor. . . Government land was within the reach of most, and squatting privileges open to all. Outside the family there was no certain labor supply. Neighbors co-operated. . .but when the need was most urgent, as in har- vest they were most likely to be needed at home18 . This scarcity of labor made the use of machines in farming more attractive. The only way to produce large crops was to use machines to fill the labor requirements. Education on the frontier was a sometime thing. Most recognized the need for it, some settlers more than others. New England natives in the west were said to be strongly in favor of education; southern natives less so. The population density had to reach a certain level before starting a school was practical. Children who were old enough to go to school also were old enough to give an important addition to labor on the farm. For this reason, frontier schools were usually held during the cold months, the slower season on the farm. Because of this, the school year was short, and likely to be interrupted by winter storms that kept the children at home. The route to school was often only a path through the woods on which many children travelled alone. As the area became 116 more thickly settled, the demand for schooling increased. Greater prosperity on the farms where the wolf was no longer "at the door", made parents more receptive to schooling, and improved roads made the trip to school much easier. By the end of the period, schooling was more available and more children were attending187. Religious and cultural activities increased as the fron- tier settled. Churches were built and revival meetings held. These meetings may have served Spiritual needs, but they were also important social gatherings. Cultural activities, often centered around the schools, included adults in spelling bees and the like. Academies, such as the one at Orland in Steuben County, provided educational opportunities beyond the elemen- tary schoolslBB. Great changes occurred in northeastern Indiana between 1820 and 1850. In 1820, the study area was still Indian terri- tory. By 1850, it was the home of over 30,000 settlers. Al- though there were large areas still in originalfbrest or prairie, much of the land was being cleared for agricultural use. Farming had changed greatly since the beginning of the period, going from pioneer self-sufficient farming to produc- tion of surplus and cash grain farming. Nutrition, health, education, and living conditions generally improved, though variation in conditions occurred within the study area. Over- all, in the space of a generation, the face of the study area was completely changed from wilderness through frontier to settled landscape. 117 CHAPTER VII SUMMARY What had been unsettled wilderness in 1820 was a success- ful agricultural region by 1850. Between those two years, the frontier came and went in northeastern Indiana. In 1830, the Indian had recently sold his lands, and few whites were present. By 1840 the frontier period, as defined by a population density of two to ten persons per square mile, was nearly ended. Some— time in the 1840's, the early stage of agricultural growth began and ended, defined by population densities of ten to eighteen persons per square mile, because by 1850, the success- ful agricultural settlement stage was reached, over eighteen persons per square mile. The evolution of the northeastern Indiana landscape has been charted as it passed in to and out of the frontier stage. The pre-frontier landscape was that present before white men entered the study area in great numbers. Successive gla- cial advances had enriched the mineral base of the soil and left a farmable topography. On this, a tremendous bounty of fauna and flora had developed. Fauna of great diversity and number provided the Indians, and the first settlers, with a good supply of food. Trees of a size and beauty rarely seen today covered most of the area. There were also small prairies of grass and wild flowers. 118 The Indians, who had lived for years little disturbing this paradise, were forced to cede their land and leave the area. Through a series of treaties with the Indians, the study area was gradually opened for white settlement. The Indian was felt to be an untrustworthy neighbor, and he owned the land the pioneers wanted, so he was removed. By 1850, the Census found no native Americans present in the study area. This set the stage for entry of the pioneers migrat- ing west and north from areas of decreasing possibilities. They entered a land soon defined as the frontier-abundant, unexploited natural resources and open opportunity. Their perception of the environment helped them decide whether and where to settle. The abundance of the woods, appealing to a wood culture, attracted settlers. Soils were judged by the vegetation on them--to the pioneers, trees generally indi- cated fertility, some species more than others. Prairies elicited a mixed reaction. Some felt that the lack of trees showed sterile soils, others that farming would be easier there because trees wouldn't have to be removed. Wetlands, for both health and agricultural reasons, were generally avoided, and the number of wetlands in the study area may have hindered settlement there. The settlers could acquire land in a number of ways. The least formal was to squat on it. Others bought land from the government or a speculator and got legal title to it. 119 Land problems were always close to the settlers--controver- sies over survey lines, unclear titles, and squatter's rights abounded. The white settlers began to enter the study area in large numbers about 1830. They arrived via three major routes: the Ohio River, the National Road, and the Erie Canal. These migrants came west to better themselves. Land was expensive or unattractive in the East and Old South. Economic condi- tions, associated with the Industrial and Agricultural Revolu- tions, were forcing many west where there were more and better opportunities. There were also some migrants who were just plain adventuresome or restless, and had to be off gaining new experiences. There were four major source regions of nativity as described in the Census of 1850. The Southern natives comprised just over three percent of the population of the study area in 1850. They likely had moved west on the Ohio River or north along its tributaries on local roads. They moved into Indiana in its earliest settle- ment days, and few got as far north as the study area. Other areas west and south were also attracting Southern migrants, reducing the number who came to northeastern Indiana. Over twenty-seven percent of the population in the study area was native to the Mid-Atlantic states. These movers went west on the Ohio River or later on the National Road. From the Road, through the center of the state, Pennsylvanians tended to fan out. New Yorkers often took the Erie Canal west, 120 and settled southward from the Great Lakes. The study area, closer to the lakes route, received more New Yorkers, from the north, than Pennsylvanians who tended to move up from the south. New England natives made up only 5.1 percent of the study area population. They came west later in the study period, generally taking the Erie Canal and Great Lakes route. These routes took them further north and west, but some fil- tered south into the study area. New Englanders had a strong influence on the settlement of New York, and New Yorkers can be culturally lumped with New Englanders. By far the largest portion, almost sixty percent of the study area population were natives of the Eastern Midwest. Ohio and Indiana provided the most migrants. These were western areas that had been formerly settled from elsewhere. The previous nativity location is important in trying to weigh the relative influences of the various cultures. Ohio had had a strong Mid-Atlantic and New England influence, while Indiana was settled much from the South. While western views were strong in natives from Ohio and Indiana who were living in the study area, the influence of their ancestors' native areas were also in their cultural traditions. The passage of the frontier is defined by increasing population densities, town settlements, agricultural sur- pluses, and decreased isolation, brought about by improving transportation and communication with the older settled areas. 121 Prosperity gradually came with the surpluses, and goods could be purchased that formerly were made on the farm. New agri- cultural methods and improvements were tried. The advance of settlement reduced the former abundance of the environment. Wild animals were hunted first for food, and later for pest reduction and sport. Trees were cleared for fields, and most trees, after saving those needed on the farm for fencing, fuel, and construction, were burned. The trees were in such abundance as to be thought inexhaustible. They had to be removed before agriculture could begin and there was no market for logs, so they were destroyed where they fell. The small prairies were plowed, with great diffi- culty, or used for natural grazing lands. The new settlers gradually increased their fields, plant- ing corn the first years. Corn, wild animals, and the small gardens supplied food upon arrival while the log cabin was built and life in the wilderness began. As the farmed acres expanded, more corn, larger gardens, and later wheat were planted. Wheat and livestock often provided the first salable surpluses, and the cash generated helped the farmers buy machinery and improve production. At the end of the study period, life was much different in northeastern Indiana. Health was improving; education and general social and cultural conditions were advancing. Contact with the east was increased. The isolation of the frontier, both in markets and in society, was reduced. The Erie Canal had much to do with this. A route for agricultural goods was 122 opened to the eastern markets. There was now impetus to produce surplus for profit and to improve local transportation routes to decrease the cost of hauling the surplus. west--new Though in Information about agricultural improvement came machines, methods, and improved seed and stock. The men who took up farm land in the Middle West were materialists, not escapists. They did not flee to the wilderness to get away from society, they came to the frontier to secure the blessings of the good life for themselves and their pos- terity. They were ready and willing to work hard, and all they needed was a commercial product, something they could send back to the older settled areas to pay for the goods they desired. They sought land and a farming systeggwhich would deliver such a product . 1820 the study area had seemed far from a place where successful farming could be done, those with foresight and determination could see it ahead. By about 1850, it was arriving; the frontier stage had been passed. The major contributions of this study have been in en- vironmental perception and analysis and in the movement of the frontier. The northeastern Indiana environment has been described and analyzed between the years 1820 and 1850. The quick passage of the frontier stage through the study area, involving about ten years, has been charted using settlement progression and environmental changes. Northeastern Indiana advanced from wilderness to successful agricultural settlement 123 through the frontier stage, and that advance and the asso- ciated changes in the landscape imposed by the settlers has been the subject of this study. Many related topics for study remain. Whether the progression and dissolution of the frontier in northeastern Indiana was fast or slow could be measured by doing a similar study of another area. The sequence of man's impact is im- portant, and a study of northern Michigan, for example, where logging preceded farming, might show settlement progressing at a different rate. A study of the retreat of unsuccessful settlers from the frontier might serve to bring the frontier closer to reality. The myth of the frontiersman rarely in- cludes anything on those who failed, yet their abandoned homesteads helped others get ahead in settlement by providing farms that were already begun. There are many unanswered and unstudied aspects of the frontier that this work, and many others, may eventually fill. 10. 11. 12. 13. FOOTNOTES Ray Allen Billington, America's Frontier Heritage (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1977), pp. 24-25. James B. Trefethen, The American Landscape: 1776 - 1976. Two Centuries of Change (Washington, D.C.: The Wildlife Management Institute, 1976), map facing page 1. Ibid 0 Billington, America's Frontier Heritage, p. 24. Billington, Ray Allen, "The American Frontier", Publication No. 8 (Washington, D.C.: Service Center for Teachers of History, 1958), p. 9. Ibid. J.D.B. DeBow, Supt., The Seventh Census of the United States: 1850 (Washington, D.C.: Robert Armstrong, Public Printer, 1853), p. XXIV. John Fraser Hart, "The Spread of the Frontier and the Growth of Population", in Geoscience and Man, Volume V - Man and Cultural Heritage, eds. H.J. WaIker and W.G. Haag (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 1974), p. 73. John Fraser Hart, The Look of the Land (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-HaII, 1975), pp. 62-63. Ibid, p. 62. Hart, "The Spread", p. 73. William D. Thornbury, Regional Geomorphology of the United States (New York: John Wiley, 1965), p. 223. Elfrieda Lang, "Ohioans in Northern Indiana Before 1850", Indiana Magazine of History 49 (December, 1953), pp. 393-3942 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. R. Carlyle Buley, The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period 1815 - 1840, 2 vols. (Bloomington: Indiana Univer- sity Press, 1951), I, p. 16. William E. Wilson, Indiana: A History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, I9667, p. 7. Louis B. Wright, Life on the American Frontier (New York: Capricorn Books, 1971), p. 62. Buley, I, pp. 148, 177. Ibid., pp. 149, 150. Ibid., p. 151. Ibid., p. 159. Walter Havighurst, The Heartland: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois (New York: Harper and Row, 1974), p. 117. Edgar N. Transeau, "The Prairie Peninsula", Ecology, 16 (July, 1935), PP. 423-437. Walter Havighurst, Land of Promise - The Story of the Northwest Territory TNew York: Macmillan and Co., 1946), p. 5. - Charles Fenno Hoffman, A Winter in the West (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University MIErofilms, 1966), pp. 183—184. Bert Anson, The Miami Indians (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970), pp. 6-7. Ibid., pp. 28, 32; Leon M. Gordon, "The Red Man's Retreat from Northern Indiana", Indiana Magazine of History 46 (March, 1950), P. 39; Wilson, p. 27. Francis S. Philbrick, The Rise of the West, 1754 - 1830 (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1966), p. 286. Anson, p. 191. Frederic L. Paxson, History of the American Frontier, 1763 - 1893 (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1924), p. 164. Gordon, "The Red Man's Retreat", p. 43. Anson, p. 191; Buley, I, pp. 112-113. Everett Claspy, The Potawatomi Indians of Southwestern Michigan (Dowagiac, Michigan: By the Author, 1966), p. 7. ' Anson, p. 194. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. Gordon, "The Red Man's Retreat", p. 50. Ibid., pp. 51, 53. Anson, pp. 199, 205-6, 208-9. Elfrieda Lang, "An Analysis of Northern Indiana's Population in 1850", Indiana Magazine of History Wilson, p. 38. Logan Esarey, The Indiana Home (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1953 , pp. 12-13. Buley, II, pp. 51-53. John Bakeless, The Eyes of Discovery (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1950Y: p. 304. John Bradbury, Travels in the Interior of America in the Years 1809 - 1811 (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Univer- sity MICrofilms, 1966), pp. 307-308. Ibid., pp. 288-289. Bakeless, pp. 310-311. Hoffman, p. 97. Ibid., p. 183; Bradbury, pp. 307-309. Hoffman, pp. 142-143. Bakeless, pp. 314, 315. Havighurst, Heartland, pp. 117-118. Buley, I, pp. 240-249. Lang, "Ohioans", p. 394. Leon M. Gordon, "Effects of the Michigan Road on Northern Indiana, 1830 - 1860", Indiana Magazine of History 46 (December, 1950), p. 393. Richard L. Power, "Wetlands and the Hoosier Stereo- type", The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 22 (June, 19357, pp. 42) 43, 46. Havighurst, Heartland, pp. 143-144. Robert E. Riegel, and R.G. Athern, America Moves West, 4th Edition (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964), pp. 118-119. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. Havighurst, Heartland, p. 118. Richard R. Bartlett, The New Country - A Social History of the American Frontier, 1776 - 1890 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 190. Riegel, p. 111. John Fraser Hart, "The Midwest", Annals of the Associa- tion of American Geographers 62 (June, 1972), p. 260. Ralph H. Brown, Historical Georgraphy of the United States (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1948), I. p. 197. Ibid., PP. 197-198. Ibid., pp. 256-257. Ibid., pp. 256. 8 Ibid. Riegel, p. 220. Brown, p. 258. John Allen Krout, and D.R. Fox, The Completion of Independence, 1790 - 1830 (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971), p. 405. Riegel, pp. 211-212. Buley, I, p. 447. Ibid., p. 449. Riegel, p. 214. John D. Barnhart, and D.F. Carmony, Indiana: From Frontier to.Industrial Commonwealth (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1954), p. 174. Riegel, p. 214. Ibid., p. 229. Ray Allen Billington, Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier, 4th Edition (New York: Macmillan, 1974), p. 289. Ibid. Ibid. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. Hoffman, pp. 106-107. Buley, I, pp. 451-453. Walter Havighurst, Wilderness for Sale. The Story of the First Western Land Rush (New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1956), pp. 330-331. Hildegard Binder Johnson, Order Upon the Land: The Rectangular Land Survey and the Upper Mississippi Country (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), pp. 57, 61. United States Department of Agriculture, Land: The Yearbook of Agriculture, 1958 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,v1958), pp. 32-33. Riegel, p. 179. Billington, Westward Expansion, p. 293. Havighurst, Wilderness, pp. 285-286. Timothy Flint, A Condensed Geography and History of the Western States or the Mississippi Vailey, 2 vols. (Gainesville, Florida: Scholars' Facsimilies and Reprints, 1970), II, pp. 171-172. Barnhart, p. 176. Elfrieda Lang, "Southern Migration to Northern Indiana Before 1850", Indiana Magazine of History 50 (December, 1954), PP. 349-350. Carl Russell Fish, The Rise of the Common Man, 1830 - 1850 (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971), p. 123; Lang "Southern", pp. 350-351. Frederick Jackson Turner, Rise of the New West, 1819 - 1829 (New York: Collier Books, 1962i, p. 70. Lang, "Southern", p. 351. Paxson, p. 194. Buley, I, p. 445. Brown, pp. 229-230. Buley, I, p. 445. Esarey, pp. 19-20. Paxson, pp. 194-195. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118. 119. 120. 121. Lang, "Southern", p. 352. Lang, "Analysis". Lang, "Southern", mentions F.J. Turner and L.K.M. Rosenberry. Lang, "Analysis", p. 18. Ibid., "Southern", p. 354. Ibid., "Analysis", p. 18. Brown, p. 178. Ibid. Billington, Westward, p. 290. Krout, pp. 405, 406. Fish, p. 123. Billington, Westward, p. 289. Ibid. Ibid., p. 292. Ibid. Lang, "Southern", p. 354. Billington, Westward, pp. 292-293. Lang, "Analysis"; and Hart, "Middle West", p. 260. Billington, Westward, pp. 289-290. Frederick Jackson Turner, The United States, 1830 - 1850: The Nation and its Sections (New York: Library, 1965), p. 45. Norton Brown, pp. 268-269; George S. Cottman, Centennial History and Handbook of Indiana (Indianapolis: R. Hyman,il915), p.7102. Max Lois K.M. Rosenberry, The Expansion of New England (New York: Russell and Russell, 1962), maps facing pp. 168, 182, 246. Turner, Rise, pp. 44-45. Rosenberry, pp. 201-202. 122. Power, p. 47. 123. Ibid., p. 43. 124. Rosenberry, pp. 200-201. 125. Havighurst, Heartland, pp. 154-155. 126. Lang, "Analysis", p. 20. 127. Ibid., p. 19. 128. Billington, Westward, 3rd Edition, p. 9. 129. Lang, "Ohioans", p. 398. 130. Ibid., p. 399. 131. Ibid., pp. 400-401. 132. Ibid., p. 397. 133. Lang, "Analysis", p. 21. 134. Rosenberry, pp. 197-198. 135. Hart, "Midwest", p. 260. 136. Billington, "America's Frontier Heritage", p. 25. 137. Hart, "Midwest", p. 261. 138. Hart, The Look, p. 65. 139. Ira Ford, et a1. History of Northeastern Indiana (Lagrange, Steuben, Noble, DekaIb Counties) (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1920), pp. 23, 178, 319, 464. 140. DeBow, Seventh Census, 1850. 141. Paul W. Gates, The Farmer's Age: Agriculture, 1815 - 1860 (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1960), p. 413. 142. Ronald L. Baker, and M. Carmony, lgdiana Place Names (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975). 143. Buley, I, p. 235. 144. Gates, p. 413. 145. Baker, pp. 181, 183. 146. Hart, The Look, p. 7. 147. Esarey, p. 64. 148. Buley, I, p. 159. 149. Ibid., p. 168. 150. Ibid., p. 162. 151. Ibid., pp. 162-163. 152. Esarey, p. 78. 153. Buley, I, footnote, p. 162. 154. Norma M. Stone, trans., Letters of Jacob Schramm and Family from Indiana to Germany in 1836 (Hanover, N.H.: The Dartmouth Printing Co., 1951), pp. 65-66. 155. Buley, I, p. 173. 156. Ibid., p. 142. 157. Esarey, p. 28. 158. Buley, I, pp. 142-143. 159. Ibid., p. 173. 160. Gates, p. 280. 161. Esarey, pp. 83-84. 162. Buley, I, p. 172. 163. Gates, p. 280. 164. Buley, I, pp. 173-174. 165. Ibid., p. 173. 166. Ibid., pp. 164-165. 167. Ibid., p. 169. 168. Gates, p. 280. 169. Esarey, p. 31. 170. Ibid. 171. Buley, I, p. 174. 172. Ibid., pp. 169-170. 173. Hart, "Midwest", p. 265. 174. Buley, I, p. 174 175. Henry S.K. Bartholomew, Pioneer History of Elkhart County, Indiana. With Sketches and Stories (Goshen, Indiana: The Goshen Printery, 1930), pp. 109-110. 176. Esarey, pp. 31—38. 177. Buley, I, p. 202. 178. Ibid., p. 168. 179. Gates, p. 415. 180. Buley, I, p. 530. 181. Gates, pp. 341-344, 418. 182. Ibid., pp. 413, 414. 183. Buley, I, pp. 240-249. 184. Power, "Wetlands". 185. Bartholomew, p. 128. 186. Buley, I, p. 186. 187. Ibid., II, pp. 326-416. 188. Ibid., 417-448; and Louis B. Wright, Culture on the NovingFrontier (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,’1935). 189. Hart, "Midwest", p. 265. BIBLIOGRAPHY Anson, Bert. The Miami Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970. Bakeless, John. The Eyes of Discovery. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1950. Baker, Ronald L., and Marvin Carmony. Indiana Place Names. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975. Barnhart, John D., and D.F. Carmony. Indiana: From Frontier to Industrial Commonwealth. New York: Lewis HistoriEai Publishing Co., 1954. Bartholomew, Henry S.K. 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