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HISTORY
Thomas
Jefferson wanted the new states of the northwest to have a bill of rights. The bill of rights provided: (1) that the new state
would remain a part of the United States forever, (2) that the state would have to abide by the Articles of Confederation
and the Congress, maintain a government, pay their share of the cost of the Revolutionary debts, and (3) allow no slavery
after 1800. Before this was adopted, the slavery part was stricken.
Jefferson also wanted the ten states to be laid
out in parallels of latitude. No consideration was given to waterways. Northern Indiana would have been part of the state
of Metropotamia, Central Indiana would have been part of Saratoga, and Southern Indiana would have been part of Pelisipia.
All of this was proposed as part of the Ordinance of 1787. When Indiana boundaries were being considered, it would not have
had a lake port.
Pioneers had gone into the Northwest, built cabins and put down roots, but when the surveys were
made, the squatters as well as the Indians were uprooted. Treaties had to be made with the Indians and most of the squatters
had to move on. One seventh of land surveyed was to be held for the men of the Continental Army who held land grants.
When
these issues were to be discussed by the Continental Congress sometimes there would not be a quorum to debate the issues.
The big underlying problem was that many men were trying to find the badly needed money to run the original thirteen states
and settle the Northwest, [the continental currency was worthless] but these men were looking for ways to make themselves
rich.
From this land was the founding of Steen Township as it is known today.
In 1775 the Revolutionary War
started. The immigrants wanted to be free, to be called Americans, and to go on rebuilding their lives. It must be remembered
that these people came to America to get away from the strife of their native countries. The Revolutionary War ended for the
then fledgling United States with the siege and surrender of Yorktown, Virginia on October 19, 1781. Yet, the world conflict
that we call the Revolutionary War still was not formally ended until a peace treaty was signed and the battle ceased between
the British and the French outside Cuddalore, India.
England gave the United States the land between the Mississippi
River and the Atlantic Ocean, excepting Florida and Canada.
The capture of Vincennes on Thursday, February 25, 1779
was one of the greatest victories in the history of the Revolutionary War.
General Hamilton had reoccupied Vincennes.
George Rogers Clark knew that Hamilton would strike again in the spring. With no intentions of waiting for this, and with
no direct orders to move, Clark and his men set off for Vincennes.
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They endured many hardships, wading
creeks and swampy areas sometimes up to their necks to reach Vincennes. Clark and his troops reached Vincennes where Hamilton
had his stronghold and demanded surrender after three days of negotiation. Hamilton, with no choice, handed his sword to Clark.
Clark took the sword and claimed the region between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River in the name of Virginia. In 1784 Virginia
gave the land to the United States. The distance and control were too great and too far away to be governed effectively.
The
Delaware Indians in the Village of Running Fox, chief of the Rabbit Clan, [in 1983 now known as Wheatland, Indiana] received
the news that Hamilton had unconditionally surrendered. Running Fox called for a conference of the chiefs. They talked and
discussed Hamiltons countryside north of the Ohio River. Elders of the Delaware tribe knew it would only be a matter of time
and they would have to move on again. The Rabbit Clan of Chief Running Fox had lived in this valley peacefully for seven winters.
Within 24 hours after Clark had captured Vincennes, the Delawares started their move to the west. Running Fox decided
this time they would not stop to settle until the Grandmother of the Rivers [the Mississippi River] lies a hundred days to
the East of them.
Pioneers came from Virginia and Pennsylvania by way of the Cumberland Gap and the Ohio River. Settlers
crossed into Kentucky across from Portsmouth, Ohio, lingering seven to eight years, then moved on down the Ohio River. They
came to Indiana at Madison, Jeffersonville, and Evansville, or moved on down the Ohio River, going into Missouri or even farther
west.
In 1790 the governor of the Northwest Territory was sent to Vincennes to lay out a county. This county covered
what is now all of Indiana and Michigan. Knox County was named for the Secretary of War, General Knox.
Between 1800
and 1816, changes were many.
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