Frontier Tension Mounts

Before the end of 1811, the Prophet was back at Tippecanoe, the village was rebuilt, and the white settlers were once again in danger.  Tecumseh returned in early 1812 after a successful visit to the Creek, Choctaw, and Cherokee.  He talked of his long-delayed visit to Washington to discuss peace.  Tecumseh claimed that had he been in Prophetstown there would have been no Battle of Tippecanoe.

By spring of 1812, ominous events began to happen.  Two settlers were murdered within three miles of Fort Dearborn and an entire family was massacred five miles outside of Vincennes.  The frontier was in a panic, as a general uprising was thought imminent.  Farmers abandoned their farms, taking refuge in temporary forts hastily built.  Many fled to Kentucky.

Tecumseh blamed the troubles on the Potawatomi who had not joined his confederation, and continued to talk of his friendship with his "white brothers."  Still, he made no effort to visit Washington to broker peace as promised, nor did he do much to restrain his allies.  Rumor had it that he was a British sympathizer.  The commander of Fort Wayne reported to Governor Harrison in Vincennes that "if the country should have a war with Britain, it must be prepared for an Indian war as well."  The year was 1812.

Governor Harrison immediately asked to raise an army which would "scour" the Wabash territory.  The War Department hesitated for fear of driving the Indians straight to the British side.  In no part of the country was war more popular and no where did the mass of able-bodied settlers show more desire to join the fight that in the Old Northwest.

There were only five garrisoned posts between the Ohio River and the Canadian border - Fort Harrison with 50 men, Fort Wayne with 85, Fort Dearborn with 53, Fort Mackinac with 88, and Detroit with 120.  A total force of less than 400 men to defend Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and the Ohio River! 

Next time...As war develops, so do the obstacles
_________________________________
Today in Pioneer History: "On May 16, 1849, New York City finally establishes a hospital for cholera before the epidemic ends, killing 5,000 people.  The poor conditions of the rapidly growing city, along with the constant influx of immigrants from around the world would eventually lead to the first street-cleaning plan,  but not before the disease visited homes of all levels of society. 

Northwest Territory's First Governor

The Northwest Territory's first delegate to Congress was the son of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and from one of Virginia's most prominent families.  William Henry Harrison had been in the army as an aide to Anthony Wayne during the Fallen Timbers battle (see previous post about that battle).  Harrison was serving as Secretary for the Territory and Lieutenant Governor when elected to Congress.

William Henry Harrison was only twenty-six years of age, but his first victory in 1800 was to divide the Northwest Territory into two distinct governments.  The east side was Ohio and the west side was Indiana.  Harrison was made governor of Indiana and resided in Vincennes.  In 1802 Ohio would become the first state from the Northwest Territory.

Meanwhile, the white population was growing rapidly.  By 1810 Indiana had grown from a mere 2,500 people to 25,000.  In this new rush of pioneers, the rights of Indians were barely considered.  The great hunting grounds of deer, bear and buffalo had been laid waste by civilization by 1810.  The Congress had done little to uphold the law to protect natives and their property.  There were laws meant to prevent the sale of liquor to the Indian, but the courts only uphold them outside the boundaries of the state and the territory.

For the most part, the Northwest Territory ignored laws concerning Indians.  In a report, Harrison, known for his distaste for the native race, wrote that only 600 warriors were found on the Wabash and they consumed 6000 gallons of whiskey a year.  The effect was drunken brawls so often that the killing of natives by natives was no longer considered a crime.

Harrison made treaties with remnants of the Miami and Delaware (and smaller tribes) in the early 1800s which he viewed as "a body of the most depraved wretches on earth."  In 1809 Harrison acquired in the Treaty of Fort Wayne, 3 million acres up the Wabash.  This territory, more rich in game than any region south of Lake Michigan, was one more crisis for the natives in the long-brewing conflict with the white man.

Harrison as governor of the white settlers, would be put to the test by one young warrior arising from the Indian tribes...

Next time. Tecumseh calls for union
_________________________________
Today in Pioneer History:  "On April 2, 1670, the Hudson Bay Company is chartered by King Charles II.  A permanent charter to a group of French explorers that opened the North American fur trade to London merchants, the charter conferred not only a trading monopoly but also control of the Hudson River and surrounding areas.

The Behemoth of the West

One potential rival to Benjamin Holladay was too big and powerful for even him to swallow.  Wells, Fargo and Company was founded by two easterners, Henry Wells and William G, Fargo.  Both had years of experience in the express freight business.  Opening their doors  in San Francisco in 1852 to the express and banking needs of the mining industry, they built the most powerful private institution west of the Missouri.

Fargo never bothered to inspect his empire and Wells only did once.  They were more concerned with future policy, leaving the day to day operation to the managers.  Concentrating on banking and shipping gold eastward by sea, their services soon expanded to private mail service and shipment of valuables.  By 1859 they had 126 branches on the West Coast and were expanding into Nevada.  Wells Fargo had become the primary link between the isolated Far West and the rest of the nation.

Oddly the company owned few carriers.  Overland transport was contracted with local or regional stagecoach lines.  In 1861 Wells Fargo took over the western portico of the central stage route from the Butterfield line and in 1866 bought out Ben Holladay for $1.8 million.  Holladay thought he got the last victory, thinking the stage was doomed to the railroad.  It suited Wells Fargo who then dominated every phrase of the business from Missouri to the Pacific.

Wells Fargo began to restrict operations in the stage, instead providing security cars on railroad lines.  The decline of the stagecoach was a sign that the pioneer era was coming to an end.  Wells Fargo survived of course, but stage did not.

Side Note:  One of Wells Fargo's most famous drivers was "Old Charley" Parkhurst.  When he died in 1879, Charley was found to be a woman...(smile)

Next time:  Make Way for the "White Man"
__________________________________
Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 18,  1793, George Washington lays the cornerstone to the United States Capitol building, the home of the legislative branch of American government. The building would take nearly a century to complete, as architects came and went, the British set fire to it and it was called into use during the Civil War.

The New Gang in Town

Manuel Lisa did well with his Missouri Fur Company.  When he died in 1820 of natural causes, he actually was a man of respectability and wealth, but there were two fellow St. Louis residents whose wealth soared over Lisa's.

William Henry Ashley and Andrew Henry started advertising in 1822 in local newspapers for "enterprising young men" willing to ascend the Missouri River to the source.  The list read like a who's who of mountain men - Jim Bridger, James Ayman, William and Milton Sublette, Edward Rose, Jim Beckworth, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Jedediah Smith.

Smith and Fitzpatriick were well educated.  Bridger was illiterate.  Rose who was half black, half Cherokee, had been a pirate on the Mississippi.  All were believers in adventure.

In 1822 the men moved up the Missouri by boat to build a fort and trading post.  After an attack by Indians, they set out in small groups, trading a portion of their catch for a year's provision. 

Henry retired in 1824 but Ashley continued the yearly "rendezvous" where he collected the pelts and re-provisioned the men as a representative from St. Louis.  Thus was born the freelance white trapper who is "the mountain man" as we know them today.  The rendezvous became highly anticipated as a frontier party where businessmen traded goods for pelts amid drunkenness, high stakes gambling, amid contests of strength and an atmosphere of mayhem. 

Next time...Mr. Bridger
__________________________
Today in Pioneer History: "On March 24, 1834, the great western explorer and conservationist John Wesley Powell is born near Palmyra, New York.  A soldier, teacher, explorer, geologist, and anthropologist, Powell played a pivotal role in the settlement and development of the American West.

Battle of New Orleans

Before news of the War of 1812 treaty even reached America, there was one last battle - the Battle of New Orleans.  On January 18, 1815 Jackson's troops overwhelmingly defeated the British.

Fought on the plains of Chalmette, the Battle of New Orleans was one of few American victories on land.  Andrew Jackson's badly organized assortment of men against one of Britain's veterans of Napoleon's war - 2000 Redcoat causalities vs. 21 Americans made it a psychological victory that made a national hero of Andrew Jackson.

On January 8, 1815 the main British column was to hit the American left.  A 2nd column was to attack along the river, a 3rd was to join whichever was more successful.  A 4th column, hampered by a lack of boats, crossed the river and defeated a Kentucky detachment before being ordered to retreat.  The American artillery forces were ready and waiting to mow down troops as they attacked.

The westerners, now free of Indian menaces, hailed Jackson as the new national hero and the port of New Orleans was safe.  America was feeling proud!

Next...a unique kind of  western explorer
_______________________
On this Day in Pioneer History: On March 7, 1876, 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary new invention–the telephone. Now that's a pioneer!

British and Indian Trouble

Britain was considered a threat to the whole nation at this time, in particular the western territories.  Britain was fighting Napoleon and had shut off her ports to tobacco, cotton, salt pork, and grain.  The agricultural west was in deep economic trouble.

Rumors persisted that British officials in Canada were arming Indians of the Northwest Territory,
encouraging them to stop land cessions and attack the settlers so Britain would retain the fur trade of the Great Lakes region.

By 1806 Shawnee chief Tecumseh was roaming the frontier from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, urging tribes to form a great coalition to resist US demands and establish a sovereign Indian state in the yet unsettled upper Mississippi Valley.  He would fight or negotiate whichever was needed.

Next time...Tecumseh - Great Warrior and Indian Statesman
________________
Today in Pioneer History: On February 11. 1807, Sacagawea, the Shoshone Indian interpreter and guide to the Lewis and Clark expedition, gives birth to her first child, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau.

Drifitng to War

Aside from Burr and Robinson's schemes, the West had other problems.  Ohio had entered the Union in 1803   Along with representatives from Kentucky and Tennessee, there was a vocal presence in Congress for the Northwest Territories.  Young Henry Clay from Kentucky lead the race for internal improvements at federal expense, protection from the Indians, and territorial expansion.  Talk of war was everywhere in the west.

Along with the southern frontier -- Tennessee and the Mississippi/Alabama territory - the enemy was Spain.  Spain's hold on the Gulf Coast was a threat to prosperity of inland farmers whose direct access to the sea was in jeopardy. 

September 1810 - the Americans struck, overrunning Baton Rouge, forming their own government and applied to the US for annexation.  President James Monroe annexed western Florida, citing it was part of the Louisiana Purchase.  (Not really!)  All of eastern Florida and much of the Gulf Coast remained in Spain's hands. 

Next time - British Trouble...
_____________________
Today in Pioneer History:  On February 8, 1887, President Grover Cleveland signs an act to end tribal control of reservations and divide their land into individual holdings.  The Dawes Severalty Act reversed the long-standing American policy of allowing Indian tribes to maintain their traditional practice of communal use and control of their lands. Instead, the Dawes Act gave the president the power to divide Indian reservations into individual, privately owned plots.

Bargain Hunters vs. the Wheelers and Dealers

Jefferson's negotiating team in the purchase of the New Orleans/Louisiana Purchase were:

1.  Robert Livingston - an aristocratic New Yorker, minister to France.  He was slightly deaf and spoke lousy French.  It is recorded that he thought he had heard wrong when the purchase was of a large land mass the size of the entire United States  rather than the port of New Orleans.

2.  James Monroe - Virginian politician and personal friend of Thomas Jefferson.  He was the
president's special emissary because in those days the President did not travel to foreign countries.  Monroe arrived the day AFTER the French proposal.  He was the bargainer.

Negotiating for Napoleon were:

1.  Talleyrand - the Prime Minister of France, ex-bishop who proposed to Livingston that the purchase include more than just New Orleans.

2.  Barbe Marbois - elder statesman, known for integrity.  He handled the details.  He did such a good job of bargaining that he made the boss dictator (Napoleon wasn't emperor yet) an extra $6 million than Napoleon would have agreed to!

Napoleon wanted quick cash and a good price for the land deal - he got both. 

One stumbling block was that the Americans lacked the required money up front.  The solution? Borrow it from Britain of course.  The British already knew what was going on from their own "spies".  They wanted "weak" United States (as they saw them) to own land rather than "strong" Napoleon and all his power, so they gladly offered the $20 million at 6% interest.  The actual land became US territory on March 8, 1804, although the United States took possession of New Orleans on December 20, 1803. 

Next time...what did we just buy?
__________________________________
On this day inn Pioneer History:  Samuel Clemens, later known as Mark Twin, is born in Florida, Missouri, on this day in 1835.

The War Coninues in the Old Northwest

While Spain was scheming in the lower Mississippi Valley, Britain was plotting in the Old Northwest.  The British still held the forts they had promised to relinquish to the United States at the end of the Revolutionary War.

Britain also encouraged the Iroquois Indian chief, Joseph Brant, to take measures against the US by not ceding any land to the Americans.  While Brant was doing that, Kentuckians were attacking Indians in the Ohio Valley, and the Indians were retaliating.

In 1790 General Josiah Harman's militia was defeated disastrously, losing 183 men.  The following year, General Arthur St. Clair, the first governor of the Northwest Territory, led the army into an ambush, suffering the loss of more than 900 men.

Then 1794 the Americans came back under General Anthony Wayne.  He revisted the defeated army and won the decisive battle at Fallen Timbers.  With 3000 troops, Wayne was able to attack an Indian force of some 2000 warriors who were supplied by the British.  Fort Miami, on the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio, had recently been built.

General Anthony Wayne was a prosperous tanner before the Revolutionary War, gained the name "Mad Anthony Wayne" during the Revolution because of his "dashing" behavior.   Washington called him out of retirement to lead the army in the Northwest. Ironically, in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, General Wayne was patient, waiting for just the right time to attack.


Leading the Indians was Blue Jacket, a powerful Shawnee noted for bravery in battle.  He was believed to be a white man who had been kidnapped by the Shawnee early in life.  With the Indians on the run from General Wayne, the British suddenly decided to close the gate of Fort Miami (claiming a policy of neutrality) and the fleeing Shawnee, who were supposed to be protected by the British, instead found themselves alone and defeated both in battle and morally.

The Treaty of Greenville in 1791 which ended the Battle of Fallen Timbers, was represented by Miami chief Little Turtle for the Indians.  Ceded to the Americans was most of the Ohio Territory.  In 1794 in Jay's Treaty, the British finally agreed to give the forts back (again!) in exchange for the payment of debts owned to British merchants .  They retained their trading rights with the Indians in the territory which was a bad mistake for the settlers living there.  (The government continued to care less about the "western settlers" and their struggles to make a life among
the Indians.)

_____________________________
Today in Pioneer History: "On November 24, 1876, William Marcy “Boss” Tweed, leader of New York City’s corrupt Tammany Hall political organization during the 1860s and early 1870s, is delivered to authorities in New York City after his capture in Spain.

James Wilkerson - Traitor for the Spanish Crown

James Wilkerson roused fellow Kentuckians against Congress in 1787 and headed for New Orleans.  He met with the Spanish governor Esteban Miro in charge of New Orleans.  Miro granted Wilkerson trading privileges at the port in exchange for Wilkerson's oath of allegiance and his vow to sew dissent among his frontiersmen.

A change in Spanish policy abruptly opened New Orleans, allowing American traders entry with payment of a 15% duty on goods.  Washington's answer to maintaining allegiance in the West was to purchase the loyalty of the area's chief troublemakers rather than risk their continued plotting against the United States.

Wilkerson suddenly became a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army.  He eventually became a general (it was much easier to become a general back then) and as a general continued to sell his loyalties to the highest bidder.  He served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, but he was twice compelled to resign. He was twice the Senior Officer of the US Army, appointed to be the first Governor of the Louisiana Territory in 1805, and commanded two unsuccessful campaigns along the St. Lawrence River  during the War of 1812.  After his death, he was discovered to have been a paid agent for the Spanish crown.  In other words - a traitor along with Benedict Arnold.  It just took a lot longer to discover that fact!
 ___________________________

On this Day in Pioneer History: "On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War."

Journey through Fort Harrod - Part 2

Fort Harrod is a town within walls!  Inside we find communal hominy blocks in a hollow sycamore stump where corn is pounded by pulling down on a two-handed pestle attached to a bent sapling.  When the sapling recoils, it lifts the pestle up.

The Blacksmith repairs tools and makes tools with an anvil he brought from back East.  He makes the fort's first plow.  He works by a charcoal fire using bellows.

Life within the fort is active.  Women are scraping animal skins to make clothing.  Other women are making lye soap or washing clothes near the spring. 

Outside the walls on the stream is the tub mill which grinds the fort's flour.  Water hits the rotor (a circle of wooden blades at the base).  The rotor turns the vertical shaft attached to millstones in the housing.  Grain is poured into the hopper around the housing and the flour falls into a bin beneath.

A corral pens the horses on the east side of the fort.  Cows and pigs are left to forage in the grass.  Horses are used for transportation and plowing and are left unshod.  During attacks, the horses are brought inside the fort and a 10 stockade gates are bolted with huge logs to close off the corral. Horses are very valuable!

Another job of the horses are to pull "lizards" of corn husked in the field.  The lizards are open triangular shaped boxes, that sit on a Y shaped elm branch, pulled by a horse.  "Huskers" are favorites of the Shawnee to attack, so they are always armed.

Next time...finishing our tour of Fort Harrod
__________________
Today in Pioneer History:  On October 19, 1791,, British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-American force at Yorktown, effectively bringing an end to the American Revolution.

Journey through Fort Harrod

Located on the high ground of Wilderness Road, Fort Harrod in Kentucky was a self sufficient community of 200 pioneers.  The group of experienced frontiersmen erected a 264 square foot fort, clearing some 300 trees beyond it.  Let's take a walk around the inside..

There are seven cabins, three blockhouses and a school house - all built with foot-thick walls, squared
top and bottom to fit tightly when chinked with clay. The pointed stockades are 10 foot tall.  Notches in the stockades are placed so riflemen can rest their rifles and fire without being seem from any outside intruders.

Blockhouses, (shown in the phots) located in each corner are military centers and home to the fort's leaders.  The blockhouses were 25x44 and held the families in time of attack.  There is a 2' overhang on the 2nd story which is used for defense - shooting the enemy as he attempts to climb the wall.  First story windows are small so Indians can not hit the inhabitants.  Benches allow defenders to stand tall enough to shot through those small windows. 

The seven cabins line the front wall.  They are 1 1/2 stories, 20' long with a stone foundation to minimize wood floor rot.  (see photo) Split log steps lead up to plank doors with leather strap hinges.  The roof is clapboard and held down with lashed pine.

The schoolhouse has a huge fireplace, wooden slab benches and a dunce stool. It is located with the fort and free standing. Students learn to read from the New Testament of the Bible, and to navigate by the stars.  They are taught the alphabet with wooden paddles.  Their teacher is Jane Coombs.

In the corner of the front along the river, there is no blockhouse but a large spring that provides drinking water as well as serves as an icebox for milk.  The creek runs along the northside of the fort where the women do the washing. There is a legend that the spring is haunted at night by the ghost of the watchman who was murdered by Indians while walking beyond the fort.  Children fear going anywhere near the spring after dark. 

Next time...more inside Fort Harrod!

__________________________
Today in Pioneer History: On October 15, 1880,  the warrior Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists of all time, dies in the Tres Castillos Mountains south of El Paso, Texas.

George Rogers Clark

Red-headed George Rogers Clark, son of a Virginia planter, explored part of the Ohio River in a canoe at the age of 19.  He moved to Kentucky in 1776 at the age of 24.  At the outbreak of the American Revolution, he was sent to the Virginia legislature.  With the help of Governor Patrick Henry he got 500 pounds of gunpowder for the defense of Kentucky settlements.  Clark and seven men ran 400 miles  of ambushes to get the gunpowder into the settler's hands.

Clark returned to Virginia and persuaded officials to mount a counter attack against the British in Illinois country.  In 1778, he and 175 Virginia volunteers boated down the Ohio River and defeated the British at the key fort of Vincennes, strengthening the American claims to the region from the Ohio River to the Canadian border and west to the Mississippi River.

After the Revolution, Clark was impoverished as Virginia failed for years to repay money he had previously spent on his troops (his own money). Without that money, his troops would have starved to death.  He died in 1818 with little to show for a life of service and bravery.

Next time...A settlement hewn from the forest
____________________________

Today in Pioneer History:  On October 12, 1492, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sights a Bahamian island, believing he has reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.

2 Bad Apples...

Crazy Bill William and Charles John Fremont departed for the last time from the Rockies -  one dead and one alive. 

Fremont was again appointed to survey the West for the railroad by his father-in-law, Senator Benton.  Fremont had never been in Colorado or Utah territory before, but the 38th parallel was the practical route for rail travel, so he offered to lead an expedition through the territory in the DEAD OF WINTER!

On November 1848 Fremont tried to recruit men at Fort Bent to join him - all of them turned him down.  They knew that Sangre de Cristo in the winter was suicide.  Fremont ignored them, of course, and reached Pueblo on the 21st of November.  There he found Crazy Bill Williams who was 61 years old by now and an alcoholic.  He, of course, volunteered to "guide" Fremont through the mountains.  Even though Fremont knew better, he still accepted William's offer...I think they made a perfect pair if you have been following the blog for any length of time...

By the way, Crazy Bill was suffering from a gunshot wound he received when he lead the military against his wife's own Indian people....

We continue this story next time with "With Friends Like These"...

---------------------------------------

This Day in History:   On November 27, 1878,  Without bothering to identify the village or do any reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel George Custer leads an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle. Convicted of desertion and mistreatment of soldiers earlier that year in a military court, the government had suspended Custer from rank and command for one year.