THE WABASH AND THE MAUMEE
--_Chief line of communication with the tribes of the Early Northwest.
The heart of the Miami Country._
To give a detailed description of the many beautiful rivers, valleys and
forests of the northwest at the opening of the last century, would be
difficult. It was, as before mentioned, a vast domain, well watered and
fertile, and containing some of the best lands in the possession of the
federal government. Two rivers, however, assume such historical
importance, as to merit a more particular mention. Along their courses
two Indian confederacies were organized under the spur of British
influence, to oppose the advance of the infant republic of the United
States. These two rivers were the Wabash and the Maumee, both leading to
the principal center of the fur trade of the northwest, the town of
Detroit.
The valley of the Wabash, famed in song and story, and rich in Indian
legend, is now filled with fields of corn and prosperous cities. At the
close of the Revolution, the great stream swept through an unbroken
wilderness of oak, maple and sycamore from its source to the old French
settlement of Vincennes. Its bluffs, now adorned with the habitations of
a peaceful people, then presented the wild and rugged beauty of
pristine days; its terraces, stretching back to the prairies of the
north and west, were crowned with forests primaeval; while naked Miamis,
Weas and Potawatomi in canoes of bark, rounded its graceful courses to
the waters of the Ohio.
For one who has ridden over the hills to the west and south of Purdue
University, and viewed the gorgeous panorama of the Wea plain, or who
has glimpsed in the perspective the wooded hills of Warren and Vermilion
from the bluffs on the eastern side of the river, it is not hard to
understand why the red man loved the Wabash. An observer who saw it in
the early part of the last century pens this picture: "Its green banks
were lined with the richest verdure. Wild flowers intermingled with the
tall grass that nodded in the passing breeze. Nature seemed clothed in
her bridal robe. Blossoms of the wild plum, hawthorn and red-bud, made
the air redolent." Speaking of the summer, he says: "The wide, fertile
bottom lands of the Wabash, in many places presented one continuous
orchard of wild plum and crab-apple bushes, over-spread with arbors of
the different varieties of the woods grape, wild hops and honeysuckle,
fantastically wreathed together. One bush, or cluster of bushes, often
presenting the crimson plum, the yellow crab-apple, the blue luscious
grape, festoons of matured wild hops, mingled with the red berries of
the clambering sweet-briar, that bound them all lovingly together."
Through all this wild and luxurious wilderness of vines, grasses and
flowers flitted the honey bee, called by the Indians, "the white man's
fly," storing his golden burden in the hollow trunks of the trees.
While on the march from Vincennes, in the last days of September, 1811,
Captain Spier Spencer's Yellow Jackets found three bee trees in an hour
and spent the evening in cutting them down. They were rewarded by a find
of ten gallons of rich honey.
The great river itself now passed between high precipitous bluffs,
crowned with oak, sugar, walnut and hickory, or swept out with long
graceful curves into the lowlands and bottoms, receiving at frequent
intervals the waters of clear, sparkling springs and brooks that leaped
down from rocky gorges and hillsides, or being joined by the currents of
some creek or inlet that in its turn swept back through forest, glade
and glen to sun-lit groves and meadows of blue grass.
Everywhere the waters of the great stream were clear and pellucid. The
plow-share of civilization had not as yet turned up the earth, nor the
filth and sewerage of cities been discharged into the current. In places
the gravelly bottom could be seen at a great depth and the forms of
fishes of great size reposing at ease. "Schools of fishes--salmon, bass,
red-horse and pike--swam close along the shore, catching at the bottoms
of the red-bud and plum that floated on the surface of the water, which
was so clear that myriads of the finny tribe could be seen darting
hither and thither amidst the limpid element, turning up their silvery
sides as they sped out into deeper water."
The whole valley of the Wabash abounded with deer, and their tiny hoofs
wrought foot paths through every hollow and glen. The small prairies
bordered with shady groves, the patches of blue-grass, and the sweet
waters of the springs, were great attractions. The banks of the
Mississinewa, Wild Cat, Pine Creek, Vermilion, and other tributaries,
were formerly noted hunting grounds. George Croghan, who described the
Wabash as running through "one of the finest countries in the world,"
mentions the deer as existing in great numbers. On the march of General
Harrison's men to Tippecanoe, the killing of deer was an every day
occurrence, and at times the frightened animals passed directly in front
of the line of march. Raccoons were also very plentiful. On a fur
trading expedition conducted by a French trader named La Fountaine, from
the old Miamitown (Fort Wayne), in the winter of 1789-90, he succeeded
in picking up about eighty deer skins and about five hundred raccoon
skins in less than thirty days. He descended the Wabash and "turned into
the woods" toward the White River, there bartering with the Indians for
their peltries.
As to wild game, the whole valley was abundantly supplied. In the spring
time, great numbers of wild ducks, geese and brant were found in all the
ponds and marshes; in the woody ground the wild turkey, the pheasant and
the quail. At times, the sun was actually darkened by the flight of wild
pigeons, while the prairie chicken was found in all the open tracts and
grass lands.
The bottom lands of this river, were noted for their fertility. The
annual inundations always left a rich deposit of silt. This silt
produced excellent maize, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers
and melons. These, according to Heckewelder, were important items of
the Indian food supply.
To the Indian we are indebted for ash-cake, hoecake, succotash, samp,
hominy and many other productions made from the Indian maize. The Miamis
of the Wabash, with a favorable climate and a superior soil, produced a
famous corn with a finer skin and "a meal much whiter" than that raised
by other tribes. How far the cultivation of this cereal had progressed
is not now fully appreciated. In the expedition of General James
Wilkinson against the Wabash Indians in 1791, he is said to have
destroyed over two hundred acres of corn in the milk at Kenapacomaqua,
or the Eel river towns, alone, and to have cut down a total of four
hundred and thirty acres of corn in the whole campaign. In General
Harmar's campaign against Miamitown in the year 1790, nearly twenty
thousand bushels of corn in the ear were destroyed. On the next day
after the battle of Tippecanoe the dragoons of Harrison's army set fire
to the Prophets Town, and burned it to the ground. Judge Isaac Naylor
says that they found there large quantities of corn, beans and peas, and
General John Tipton relates that the commissary loaded six wagons with
corn and "Burnt what was estimated at two thousand bushel."
Of the many other natural advantages of this great valley, much might be
written. Wheat and tobacco, the latter of a fine grade, were growing at
Vincennes in 1765, when Croghan passed through there. Wild hemp was
abundant in the lowlands. The delicious pecan flourished, and walnuts,
hazelnuts and hickory nuts were found in great plenty. The sugar maple
existed everywhere, and the Indians, who were the original sugar makers
of the world, made large quantities of this toothsome article. In
addition to this the whole valley was filled with wild fruits and
berries, such as blackberries, dewberries, raspberries, gooseberries,
and the luscious wild strawberry, that grew everywhere in the open
spaces and far out on the bordering prairies.
This sketch of the Wabash and its wonderful possibilities may not be
more aptly closed, than by appending hereto the description of Thomas
Hutchins, the first geographer of the United States. It appears in his
"Topographical Description," and mention is made of the connection of
the Wabash by a portage with the waters of Lake Erie; the value of the
fur trade at Ouiatenon and Vincennes, and many other points of vital
interest.
[Illustration: The Wabash River at Merom Bluff, Sullivan County,
Indiana, La Motte Prairie beyond.]
"Ouiatenon (Author's note: Just below Lafayette), is a small stockaded
fort on the western side of the Wabash, in which about a dozen families
reside. The neighboring Indians are the Kickapoos, Musquitons,
Pyankeshaws, and a principal part of the Ouiatenons. The whole of these
tribes consists, it is supposed, of about one thousand warriors. The
fertility of soil, and the diversity of timber in this country, are the
same as in the vicinity of Post Vincent. The annual amount of skins and
furs obtained at Ouiatenon is about 8,000 pounds. By the river Wabash,
the inhabitants of Detroit move to the southern parts of Ohio, and the
Illinois country. Their route is by the Miami river (Maumee) to a
carrying place (Author's note: Miamitown or Fort Wayne), which, as
before stated, is nine miles to the Wabash, when this river is raised
with freshies; but at other seasons, the distance is from eighteen to
thirty miles, including the portage. The whole of the latter is through
a level country. Carts are usually employed in transporting boats and
merchandise, from the Miami to the Wabash river."
No less wonderful was the valley of the Maumee, directly on the great
trade route between the Wabash and the post of Detroit. Croghan, who was
a good judge of land, and made careful observations, found the Ottawas
and Wyandots here in 1765, the land of great richness, and game very
plentiful. It was a region greatly beloved by the Indian tribes, and the
scene after the revolution, of many grand councils of the northwestern
confederacy. In a letter of General Anthony Wayne, written in 1794, he
asserts that: "The margins of these beautiful rivers, the Miamis of the
Lake (Maumee), and the Au Glaize (A southern tributary), appear like one
continued village for a number of miles, both above and below this
place, Grand Glaize, nor have I ever before beheld such immense fields
of corn in any part of America, from Canada to Florida."
After General Wayne's army had defeated the Indians at the battle of
Fallen Timbers on this river in 1794, they spent many days after that
conflict in destroying the fields of grain. One who marched with the
army, in August of the above year, describes Indian corn fields
extending for four or five miles along the Au Glaize, and estimated
that there were one thousand acres of growing corn. The whole valley of
the Maumee from its mouth to Fort Wayne, is described as being full of
immense corn fields, large vegetable patches, and old apple trees, and
it is related that Wayne's army, while constructing Fort Defiance for a
period of eight days, "obtained their bread and vegetables from the corn
fields and potato patches surrounding the fort."
Is it any wonder that along these wonderful basins should be located the
seats of power of the Miami Indians, the leaders of the western
confederacy that opposed the claims of the United States to the lands
north of the Ohio; that from the close of the Revolutionary war until
Wayne's victory in 1794, the principal contest was over the possession
of the Miami village, now Fort Wayne, which controlled the trade in both
the Wabash and the Maumee Valleys, and that President George Washington,
consummate strategist that he was, foresaw at once in 1789, the first
year of his presidency, that the possession of the great carrying place
at Miamitown would probably command the whole northwest and put an end
to the Indian wars?