Delaware Indians Accused of Being a Witch and Burned at the Stake at Present Day Muncie Indiana

20th  Century History of Delaware County, Indiana  1908   
    Until recently it was supposed that the following incidents, as described by Dillon, took place in the Indian village which stood at the site of Yorktown: "An old Delaware chief, whose name was Tate-e-bock-o-she, through whose influence a treaty had been made with the Delawares in 1804, was accused of witchcraft, tried, condemned and tomahawked. His body was then consumed by fire. The wife of the old chief, his nephew, who was known by the name of Billy Patterson, and an aged Indian whose name was Joshua, were then accused of witchcraft and condemned to death. The two men were burnt at the stake; but the life of the wife of Tate-e-bock-o-she was saved by her brother, who suddenly approached her, took her by the hand, and, without meeting with any opposition from the Indians who were present, led her out of the council-house. He then immediately returned, and checked the growing influence of the Prophet by exclaiming, in a strong, earnest voice: 'The evil spirit has come among us, and we are killing each other.' " A comparison of the different authorities has led Judge Dunn (in an article in the Indianapolis News, March 17, 1906) to the conclusion that "Joshua was killed at the principal Delaware town, which was what the whites called Muncie- town and the Indians Woopicamikink or Wapecomekoke. This is commonly spoken of as being on the site of Muncie, but it was on the north side of the river, directly opposite where Muncie now stands. The traditional site of the mission [the old Moravian mission] where Tatapachkse [Tate-e-bock-o-she] was executed is the southeast quarter of section 17, range 8 east, township 19 north, the location of Little Munsee Town, ' ' in Madison County at the resort now known as ' ' Indian Mounds. ' ' Concerning the old Indian village on the north bank of the river at Muncie there is the following testimony by a pioneer, William Jackson: "The old Indian village and graveyard stood on the north bank of White River, a short distance to the westward of the bridge, on the Muncie and Granville Pike. When I came here many distinct features of the graveyard were still visible. The graves in many instances were surrounded with pens, or poles piled around them. Many skeletons were exhumed and a number of skulls have been preserved."

57 gruesome stories in Indian capture and torture

Robbed by Indians in Early DeKalb County, Indiana

"At that time there was a large Indian Village where Denmark now is, 
And some traders came among them with whiskey, and made them drunk, so 
they came to rob us. We had worked hard all day, until nearly sundown, 
when we went to the house to eat supper. The Indians came yelling and 
soon filled the house. They then drew their knives, bows and arrows, and 
tomahawks, stuck their hands into our supper pot, and our supper was gone 
in a trice. Samuel Houlton drew a large poker, and was about to strike 
when Avery exclaimed, 'Don't strike, Sam, or they will kill us all !" Hughes 
also told him not strike, but let them take what they wanted, and he would go 
to the Indian agent at Fort Wayne and make them pay for it. They then acted 
as true lords of the soil. 

"They poured out their whiskey into their camp kettles, knocked in the 
head of a flour barrel, and also of a pork barrel, and in fifteen minutes flour, 
pork and whiskey were gone. They crossed the creek about twelve rods off, 
and camped for the night, While they were making their fires and drinking 
the whiskey, we rolled out our last barrel of flour and hid it in a brush heap. 
We had also about thirty pounds of pork up in the chamber, they did not 
get, and that was all that saved us from starvation. The two hundred Indians 
fought and screamed all night. A better sample of the infernal regions never 
could be gotten up in this world. 

"As soon as we had secured our barrel of flour, we next resolved that 
when they had generally got drunk, we would alight on them with a vengeance, 
and kill the last one nf them. So we loaded our four guns with slugs and then 
 got two tomahawks and two hand-axes, and waited until they would become 
more drunk. In this, however, we were disappointed. They did not seem 
to get more intoxicated. After drinking twenty gallons of whiskey, eating 
two hundred and thirty pounds of pork, and using up two hundred and fifty 
pounds of flour, with several bushels of potatoes, they started off about eight 
in the morning, well satisfied with what they had done. 

"We made application to the Indian agent at Fort Wayne, but never got 
any compensation for the articles taken. Every time I think of Indian 
tragedy, I feel thankful that we were prevented from imbruing our hands in 
their life blood. It was the traders, with their whiskey, that made all this trouble. 

57 gruesome stories of Indian capture and torture

The Potawatomi Indians were a kind and peaceful people with the exception of this one woman

Indian Tale from Lagrange County, Indiana

The Potawatomi Indians were a kind and peaceful people with the exception of this one woman.

This is related by eye-witnesses as having occurred on the east bank of Sweet Lake. Late one

 pleasant afternoon, while one of the squaws with along wooden paddle  was stirring a pot of

 hot mush, a little    Indian boy annoyed her to such a degree as to give her passion control of 

her better judgment. Snatching the mush- besmeared paddle from the pot, she severely chastised

 the little red boy. The effect of this hot mush poultice upon the little naked denizen of the forest 

can be better imagined than described. It created quite a commotion in the camp, and in a few

 minutes after the painful occurrence, the loud screams of the frantic little sufferer had

 brought a large assembly of both sexes, who became very much enraged and cried for

 summary vengeance on the cruel offender. Some were in favor of blows, while others, more

 merciful, suggested the application of a poultice of the hot mush. As the witnesses left

 previous to the settlement of the vexed question, it is not certainly known what disposition

 was made of the cruel female. 

57 gruesome tales of Indian capture and torture

The Last French Fort in Present Day Ft. Wayne, Indiana

FRENCH RELICS DUG UP ON THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE.
These three relics of the seventeenth century days of the occupation of the site of Fort Wayne by the French — B medallion bearing the date 1693, a copper kettle and a copper box are of incalculable historical value. The medal lion and the kettle are the property of Kenton P. Baker, 1008 Delaware Avenue. In 1870, while he was superintending some work of excavation at the junction of the present Delaware avenue and St. Joe boulevard, Henry J. Baker, Sr. (grandfather of Kenton P. Baker), uncovered the kettle shown here. It was found to contain some Indian arrowheads and the large brass medallion of which the picture shows the two sides. The indentations of the kettle were made by the ads in the hands of the workman who unearthed the relic. The place of finding the reminders of the French occupation, is the site of the last French fort, erected In 1750. It would seem that the medallion and the kettle have reposed within the limits of the present city of Fort Wayne for a period of nearly two centuries. The medallion was for a time the property of Mrs. C. E. Stapleford, now a resident of Colorado Springs, Col. Mrs. Stapleford ascertained, through correspondence with the mayor of Bordeaux. France, that Gull (William) de Nesmond, whose portrait appears on the medallion which was issued in commemoration of his death In 1963, was a member of a noble family in France. It is interesting to note that an exact duplicate of this medallion, found in the same locality. Is the property of Byron F. Thompson, residing north of Fort Wayne. The small copper box, with a hinged, embossed cover, undoubtedly a relic of the French occupation, is owned by L. W. Hills. It was unearthed by boys while at play in the vicinity of the site of the French fort.

THE LAST FRENCH FORT IN PRESENT DAY FORT WAYNE, INDIANA
Whatever Captain Rai mond may have thought of the refusal of the visitors to interest themselves in the location of his new fort, it is certain that he lost little time in beginning its erection. By the spring of 1750, this new home of his men, high above the surrounding territory, was ready for occupancy. While the former location was on low ground, the new fort occupied a commanding position on the east bank of the St. Joseph river (at the present St. Joe boulevard and Delaware Avenue, formerly Baker Avenue), where today the automobilist, as he hurries past the historic spot looks out upon a landscape to the westward very similar to that which gladdened the vision of these hardy Frenchmen, now made unromantic, of course, by the evidences of civilization. The coming years were destined to weave about this fort of Captain Raimond many thrilling tales of romance, horror and bloodshed. Here were to be enacted the scenes of the love story of the Englishman, Holmes, and its tragic climax of massacre; the tale of Morris who faced death at the stake ; of Croghan and the remnants of the French and British during the days when the young republic was training a Wayne and a Harrison in the school of warfare.
    With the abandonment of the old fort on the St. Mary's, the discarded buildings of the past became the center of an Indian settlement known as a Cold Foot's village, over which Chief Cold Foot presided until his death, which came at a time when his friendship was most keenly needed by the French commandant.
    "My people are leaving me for Detroit. Nobody wants to stay here and have his throat cut. All of the tribes who go to the English at Pickawillany come back loaded with gifts. I am too weak to meet the danger. Instead of twenty men, I need five hundred q • q We have made peace with the English; yet they try continually to make war on us by means of the Indians. They intend to be masters of all this upper country. The tribes here are leagued together to kill all the French, that they may have nobody on their lands but their English brothers. This I am told by Cold Foot, a great Miami chief, whom I think an honest man, if there be such thing among the Indians. * * • If the English stay in this country, we are lost. We must attack them and drive them out."1 To add to the distress of mind of the commandant of Post Miami, an epidemic of smallpox spread over the Maumee- Wabash region during the winter of 1751-2 and carried away as its victims, two of his true Indian friends, Chief Cold Foot and Chief LeGris, as well as many of the Miamis who formed the Cold Foot village.

57 gruesome stories of Indian capture and torture

Miami Indian Hunting Superstitions: Reverence for the Snake and Wolf

The Miami Indians were superstitiously opposed to killing snakes or wolves, and they had a custom of making peace with snakes at certain seasons, by offerings of tobacco, etc. The cliff of rocks on the north side of the canal near the west line of the county, was for many years known as Tobacco Rock, and tobacco has been seen there by early settlers. It was one of the greatest snake dens in the county until the canal was made, which destroyed their hiding places.
   One of the early settlers who lived in the west part of Allen County, Mr. Morrissoe. borrowed a gun from an Indian neighbor known as " Old Zeke, " to go hunting. When he returned the gun Zeke asked him what he killed. Mr. Morrissoe, well know ing the superstition of the Indians in regard to wolves, but not thinking of it at the time, told him he had killed a wolf, at which the old Indian expressed great sorrow, and said that his gun would never shoot straight any more, that it was spoiled; he took it all apart, washed and thoroughly cleaned every par ticle of it and went through some incantation to remove the spell from it. Mr. Morrissoe, who had lived among the Indians many years, said that it was not an uncomm on thing, when In dians killed more game than they could carry home, to leave a f art of it, in a certain place where they could get it the next day. if anyone in the evening would suggest that the wolves might eat it, the reply would always be," they are eating it," after which they would not go after it, but let it remain there. Another one of their peculiar customs was, cleaning and hang ing up in their cabins, the skulls of a certain number of the an imals caught in traps, as they seemed to think it would bring them good luck. 

57 gruesome stories of Indian capture and torture

A Funny Tale of a Pottawatomie Dinner 

   In October, 183l,  the late Gen. N. D. Grover, at that time Indian Agent, located at Logansport, in company with a young man from Baltimore—an Agent of the Government, in charge of a large amount of money—were en route for Chicago with a supply of change for the disbursing department the Northwestern Agency at that point. The route lay along the Indian trace, the only line of travel between those points. When about half way to Chicago, night was likely to overtake them before they could reach any regular stopping place for travelers.  
    Early in the evening. they reached the Wigwam of an old Indian chief well known to the General to be highly honorable and trustworthy. According to custom, they applied for accommodations for the night. Permission was readily granted, and the squaws set about preparing the evening meal for the guests.
      During the progress of the cooking, the young man .was seen to watch the operations with intense interest. though little attention was paid to it, supposing it was mere curiosity. He grew fidgety and pale, indicative of acute suffering. Though very hungry, he seemed afraid to touch the hominy that was cooked, and dished out in wooden bowls. Finally: the General, seeing the young man’s pallor and indisposition to eat, knowing he was hungry, asked him the cause of his sudden illness. Having, in the meantime, also noticed that the youth had been eyeing with fearful interest, the process of boiling something in a kettle near by, the General became some what alarmed as to his condition, lest some terrible malady had suddenly overtaken him. The young man answered his question by pointing to the kettle he had been watching so intently. Seeing something resembling a baby's hand thrown above the service by the boiling water every few moments, he whispered, almost breathlessly, with fear unmistakably impressed on his countenance, “ Cannibals! Cannibals! they are boiling a negro baby, and are going to eat it, and give to us to eat! Why, they are heathens, and eat one another: and we, too, will be murdered and eaten!" He continued to grow still more excited as the boiling went on, and stoutly insisted on leaving at once, before they were murdered.
   The General, observing his continued trepidation and discomfort, explained to him that what he saw in the kettle was only a skinned raccoon, that animal being often cooked and eaten by white people. This quieted him somewhat, but there was still a tremor about him that destroyed his appetite. The squaws soon discovered the cause of the young man's conduct, and manifested a good deal of merriment. Pointing to the kettle and then to their own hands, they would exclaim: " Muck-she-as-pin (black raccoon), seemingly much delighted with the young man's cause of fear eating a coon, supposing it to be a baby.

57 gruesome stories of Indian capture and torture

Miami Indian Territory and Land Cessions

 It has been correctly said that the Miamis were of the Algonquin family. whose dominions extended from the most eastern extremity of New England westward to the waters of the Mississippi, embracing the territory north from the Gulf of Mexico to the land of the Esquimaux Everywhere throughout this vast expanse, branches of their primitive family were to be found, tracing their lineage back to the parent stock. But, while it is true that they were descendants in direct line " of those who greeted the colonists of Raleigh at Roanoke, of those who welcomed the Pilgrims at Plymouth," they only sustain that relation in common with numerous other kindred tribes, and are only entitled to special consideration because of their enjoyment, by inheritance, of more of the elements in affinity with the parent stem than their less consanguineous neighbors, being, also, more powerful in competition with them. Bancroft says, too: "The Miamis were more stable, and their own traditions preserve the memory of their ancient limits, illustrated by the regular tracing of Little Turtle. at the treaty of Greenville, elsewhere noted. The same reputable historian says further: “ The forests beyond Detroit were at first found unoccupied, or, it may be, roamed over by bands too feeble to attract a trader or win a missionary; the Ottawas, Algonquin fugitives from the basin of the magnificent river whose name commemorates them, fled to the Bay of Saginaw and took possession of the whole north of the peninsula as of a derelict country; yet the Miamis occupied its southern moiety, and their principal mission was founded by Allouez, on the banks of the St. Joseph, in the limits of the present State of Michigan.” In 1670, the Miamis were the most powerful confederacy in the West, when, it is said, an army of five thousand men could be called into the field. It is also stated that, in the early part of the eighteenth century, the Pottawatomies had crowded the Miamis from their dwellings, at Chicago. The intruders came from the islands near the entrance of Green Bay, and were a branch of the great nation of the Chippewas. That nation, or, as some write, the Ojibwas, held the country from the mouth of Green Bay to the head waters of Lake Superior. and were early visited by the French at Sault St. Mary and Chegoimegon." Notwithstanding the fact that they met with occasional reverses, they continued‘ to be a leading and influential tribe, leaving the impress of their name on many of our Western rivers.
   
   The great treaty entered into by the Miamis and the Commissioners on the part of the United States, under the provisions of which the first important cession of territory in this part of Indiana was made, was concluded on the 6th of October, 1818, at St. Mary’s, Ohio. The boundaries of the territory embraced in this cession were substantially the following: “Commencing near the town of LaGro, on the Wabash, where the Salamonie unites with the Wabash River; running thence through Wabash and Grant Counties into Madison County, its southeast corner was about four miles southeast of Independence, at the center of Section 17; thence running south of west, with the general course of the Wabash River, across Tipton County, close to the town of Tipton, just north thereof, to where it intersects a line running north and south from Logansport, which is the western boundary of Howard County, one mile west of Range line No. 1, east; thence north to Logansport; thence up the Wabash to the mouth of the Salamonie, the place of beginning. There was contained within these boundaries 930,000 acres. The greater part of this reservation remained in the hands of the Indians until November, 1840, when it was relinquished, being the last of their claims in Indiana.
   By the treaty of October 23, 1826, held at Paradise Springs, known as the old “ Treaty Grounds," the chiefs and warriors of the Miamis, in council with Lewis Cass, James B. Ray and John Tipton, Commissioners representing the United States, ceded to the latter power "all their claim to lands in the State of Indiana, north and west of the Wabash and Miami Rivers, and of the cession made by the said tribe to the United States, by the treaty concluded at St. Mary's, October 6, 1818." By further provision of the same treaty, the State of Indiana was authorized to lay out a canal or road through any of the reservations, and for the use of a canal, six chains along the same were appropriated.
   By treaty of November 6, 1838, they made a further cession to the United States of certain lands reserved by former treaties. Finally, on the 28th of November, 1840, they relinquished their right to all the remaining lands in Indiana, except certain specific reservations, for which they re ceived the sum of $550,000, and agreed to vacate these lands within five years. They did not move, however, until 1847.        

57 gruesome stories of Indian capture and torture

The Act of Revenge by the Miami Indians

     Again, speaking of the Miamis, it is said they possessed a quiet, persevering, but determined nature. To illustrate: "If the death of a brother was to be avenged, they proceeded quietly about the work. Patience, at such a time, was called actively into play; and, if needs be, months might roll away before a blow was struck. While this is generally true of most Indian tribes, it was especially true of the Miamis. A case in point is remembered by many of the earlier residents of Cass County. Many years before. from some cause, whether imaginary or real, an offense was committed by one Thorntown Miami against another, which was kept in remembrance until the favored opportunity presented itself. On the occasion referred to, the event having transpired on the evening of February 24, 1835) —No-ka-me-na, better known as Capt. Flower, a principal chief of the Miamis, was stealthily murdered by a drunken Indian called “ Lame Man," on the south side of the Wabash, opposite Logansport. It seems that Lame Man had long and silently nursed his wrath, and only waited the arrival of the opportune moment. During the day and early evening preceding, he had been lying around one of the trading houses, considerably intoxicated, watching his victim. Later in the evening, he disappeared, and was not again heard or noticed until, on the following morning, it was announced that Capt. Flower had been killed the night previous to compensate for an old grudge. An editorial notice in the Telrgraph of February 28, 1835, thus referred to him: “ Capt, Flower was one of the finest looking Indians be longing to the Miami nation, and his death is regretted by a large number of friends and acquaintances." This was but one notable instance of the many that took place in this locality, exemplifying a peculiarity of the Miami nation as strikingly characteristic. perhaps, as any belonging to other nations.

                                                          57 gruesome tales of capture and torture

Unwanted Miami Indians For Dinner in Frontier Indiana

History of Dekalb County, Indiana 1885

   “ At that time there was a large Indian village where -Denmark now is, and some traders came among there with whisky and made them .drunk, so they came to rob us. We had worked hard all day until nearly sundown, when we went to the house to eat supper. The Indians came yelling and soon filled the house. They then drew their knives, bows and arrows and tomahawks, stuck their hands into our supper pot, and our supper was gone in a trice. Samuel Houlton drew a large poker and was about to strike, when Avery exclaimed, ‘Don’t strike, Sam, or they will kill us all!’ Hughes also told him not to strike, but let them take what they wanted, and he would go to the Indian Agent at Fort Wayne and make them pay for it. They then acted as true lords of the soil. 
   “They poured out the whisky into their camp kettles, knocked in the head of a flour barrel and also of a pork barrel, and in fif teen minutes flour, pork and whisky were gone. They crossed the creek about twelve rods off and camped for the night. While they were making their fires and drinking the whisky, we rolled out our last barrel of flour and hid it in a' brush heap. We had also about thirty pounds of pork up in the chamber that they did not get, and that was all that saved us from starvation. The 200 Indians fought and screamed all night. A better sample of the infernal regions never could be gotten up in this world.
       “ As soon as we had secured our barrel of flour, we next re solved that when they had generally got drunk we would alight on them with a vengeance and kill the last one of them. So we loaded our four guns with slugs and then got two tomahawks and two hand axes, and waited until they would become more drunk. In this, however, we were disappointed. They did not seem to get more intoxicated. After drinking twenty gallons of whisky, eating 230 pounds of pork, and using up 250 pounds of flour. With several bushels of potatoes, they started off about eight in the morning well satisfied with what they had done.
   “ We made application to the Indian Agent, at Ft.Wayne, but never got any compensation for the articles taken. Every time I think of the Indian tragedy I feel thankful that we were prevented from imbruing our hands in their life blood. It was the traders, with their whisky, that made all this trouble.

                                        57 gruesome stories of Indian capture and Torture

First Hand Account of the Slaughter and Scalping of 700 U.S. Soldiers on the Wabash

700 U.S. Soldiers were killed at the headwaters of the Wabash River in Indiana under the leadership of General St. Clair. This terrible massacre has been completely ignored by modern historians. 


General Arthur St. Clair, the commanding officer of the army on November 4th, 1791,
700 Men Slaughtered and Scalped on the Wabash River by the Miami Indians

    The coming victory over St. Clair was clearly the result not of overwhelming numbers, but of superior generalship. Here on the banks of the Wabash about daylight on the morning of November 4th, 1791, Little Turtle assailed St. Clair's army in front, on both flanks, and also at the rear near the close of the action, which was about half-past nine o'clock in the morning. At this time it became necessary to make a charge in order to clear the way to the road, so as to permit the retreat of the remnant of the army, which was hurled headlong down the trail, southward for a distance of three or four miles, with terrible slaughter by the victorious and triumphant Indian warriors. No such defeat had heretofore occurred in American history, not even that of General Braddock in 1775. Down to the present time it has only been surpassed once, the disastrous defeat of General Custer on the Big Horn, June 25th, 1876. St. Clair's defeat was described by one Mr. Thomas Irwin in a diary which he kept at the time. He was a wagoner in St. Clair's army. He says, "That battle always reminded him of a furious thunderstorm that comes up quick and rapidly, and soon disappears, leaving havoc and desolation in its path."
     The escape of Stephen Littell was remarkable. At the commencement of the battle he was in the extreme advance. Being unable to keep up with his comrades in their precipitate flight, he sprang aside and hid in a dense thicket as the yelling savages rushed by in hot pursuit. Here he remained some time in dreadful suspense as the roar of the battle died away in the distance, the Indians being in full chase of the flying army. He then ventured slowly forward until he reached the scene of the night's encampment. Awful was the scene presented to him there, the bodies of some seven hundred of the killed and wounded encumbering the ground for the space of about three hundred and fifty yards. It was a cold, frosty morning. The scalped heads presented a very revolting spectacle. A peculiar vapor or steam ascended from them all. Many of these poor creatures were still alive, and groans were heard on all sides. Several of the wounded, knowing that as soon as the savages returned they would be doomed to death by torture, implored young Littell to put an end to their misery. This he refused to do. Ling anxious as to the fate of his father, and seeing among the dead one who bore a strong resemblance to him. he was in the act of turning over the body to examine the features when the exultant and terrific shouts of the returning savages fell upon his ear, and already he could see through the forest the plumed warriors rushing back. It so chanced that an evergreen tree of very dense foliage had been felled near where he stood. It was his only possible covert. He sprang into the tree and turned its branches as well he could around him. Scarcely had he done this when the savages came bounding upon the ground like so many demons. Immediately they commenced their fiend-like acts of torture upon all the wounded. The scenes he continued to witness were more awful than the imagination could possibly conceive. Here our sub ject remained until a suitable time arrived for him to make his escape, which he did — the only one left to tell the sad story of the awful battlefield.

                                                57 gruesome tales of Indian capture and torture

Paranormal Activity Near the Site of a Man Burned by Muncie Indians in Indiana

It was common for the Algonquin Indians to burn captives at the stake in Northen Indiana

Indianapolis News, June 15, 1907
  "There is no doubt in my mind that a man was burned to death," he continued, "for I remember well the spot on which it said the Indians burned him.  It was on the Cissel farm about two miles below here. (Windsor, Indian)"
Even the Ground Was Haunted
   "The thing that was most convincing to me was that for years and years nothing would grow on this particular spot.  The ground positively refused to respond to cultivation, although efforts were made repeatedly to get things to grow on it. Funny, isn't it."

                                            57 stories of Indian capture and torture and torture

Over 100 tales of frontier terror

Burning of the French Fort in Present Day Fort Wayne, Indiana

Burning of the French Fort in Present Day Fort Wayne, Indian

Miami Indians burning the French Fort in present day Fort Wayne, Indiana

BURNING OF THE FRENCH POST MIAMI (SITE OF FORT WAYNE) 1747.

   During the period of the Chief Nicolas conspiracy, in 1747, while the commandant, Ensign Douville, was absent in Detroit, the savages attacked the post situated on the St. Mary,s river in the present city of Fort Wayne and partially destroyed it with fire. The post was rebuilt, and later, in 1750 a new fort was; established on the left bank of the St. Joseph river. 

                                         57 gruesome stories of Indian capture and torture

Miami Indian Battle in Noble County, Indiana 

Late in the summer of 1895 Mr. W. A. Kuhn, of Albion, told me of the existence 
of mounds and of the discovery of a large number of bones, skulls, etc., in a 

 peninsula formed by a sharp northeast bend of the Elkhart river, in section 16,  York township. The excavation

took place in 1842, Mr. Kuhn, then a youth of eighteen years, being a participant in

 the work.  An Indian trail, deeply worn and running from Lake Wawassee northeastward toward Mongo-

 quinong, crossed the river at the bend, where there was a fording place. A little  

southwest of  the point where the trail on the Eversole farm crossed the river certain 

peculiarities of  formation in some of the mounds suggested artificial work and led to 

excavation.   The result, as above stated, was the uncovering of many human skulls and other  parts of  human frames. 

    On exposure to the air most of the hones crumbled to  dust, but some retained 

their forms long enough to show a physician and anatomist of the party, Dr. W. H.  

Ninmon, that they belonge to a race different from the European, and probably to 

aborigines or Indians. Everything about the place indi- cated that it was not an ordinary 

burial ground: Together   with the great number of stone implements of war — arrow and 

spearheads,    fragments of  hatchets, and war- clubs — found at different times in the 

vicinity, the trail and ford commanded on either side of the riser by morainic bluffs, 

all told of a savage battle of a past century, long  anterior to the advent of civilized men. 

    Here, at this strategic point, the warriors of the Denizen tribe, probably the  

Miami, met the southward advance of invading foes, who crossed in the face of strong 

resistance and a bloody battle raged on the southern bank, the Miamis lighting desperately

for their ancient homes and hunting grounds; the fierce northern hordes for possession of a

richer country in a  milder climate than their own, the sterile and stormy north and northwest. Such incursions 

are historic. About two hundred and fifty years ago an avalanche of Chippewas,

 Winnebagos,  Sacs and Foxes and Pottawatomies descended upon northern Illinois and Indiana, the beautiful country of the Minnewas, or Miamis, whose ancestral possessions stretched 

from   the Scioto to the Mississippi, and from the St. Joseph valley in southern Michigan to 

the Ohio  river, in- habited by peaceful tribes of the common Minnewa stock, of whom the

 Miamis   were the parent and ruling family, with the capital    home at Ke'-ki-on-ga 

Fort Wayne). 

                     Gruesome stories of Indian capture and torture