LADOGA IN THE BEGINNING
According to Beckwith’s History of Montgomery County of 1881, the first settler in Clark Township was Lucas Baldwin from Berkley County, Virginia. He built a home in the “big woods” of Clark Township in 1826 and entered land on which the town of Ladoga now stands. He built his cabin where the Nazarene church now stands. This was the first building in the township. The early settlers came from Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
Ladoga was laid out by John Meyers (Myers) in 1836, who asked for help from his friends in naming the new town. His only stipulation was that the name not end in –burg, --berg, –ville, or be named for a person. His friend, John Britts, the village blacksmith suggested looking at a world map. They settled on the map of Czarist Russia and found Lake Ladoga. They agreed on that name. As far as I can tell, there is only one other town named Ladoga and that is in Wisconsin.
Dan Clark, for whom Clark Township is named, built his cabin about a quarter of a mile east of the cemetery. The first sermon was preached, the first school taught and the first election held in Dan Clark’s cabin in the woods. In 1840, there were fifteen buildings in Ladoga including two large general merchandise stores. One was owned by Taylor Webster and the other by William Nofsinger, who also taught the first school in Clark Township. By 1848, there were thirty families in the town.
No history of Ladoga and Clark Township would be complete without telling something of the history of Peter Cornstalk and the Cornstalk Indians. This is a history sent to Ruthanna Britts Ball by her brother-in-law, William P. (Bill) Cummings in 2003.
Cornstalk Indians—Livia Miller Ashby, Sept. 19, 1936
The historic wayfaring of the patriarch Abraham from the Ur of the Chaldees up thru Mesopotamia to Paran and thence later down into the Promised Land is faintly mirrored in the life of the Indian chief, Peter Cornstalk as it has come down to us after more than a century has elapsed.
At Point Pleasant in Virginia was waged one of the most closely contested battles ever had with the Indians. There were a number of chiefs present, but the forces were led by the great Chief Cornstalk whose English name was a translation of his Indian cognomen Ah-san-zang, the blade of stalk of the maize plant. After this battle which took place Oct. 10, 1774, the Indians drifted westward. They were located for a while in Ohio where they were in search of a new home. Later they hopefully entered Indiana and had almost traversed it also when they happened onto the then wild beautiful region lying along the head water of Big Raccoon Creek, centering about a mile and a half north west of Roachdale just over the line in Montgomery County from Putnam County.
It was a requisite of Indian life that their settlements whether permanent or temporary must be near a stream where there would be fish, and near a spring and preferably an elevation of land back of the site to furnish protection from the cold wind in winter. In such a spot as this, a band of Miamis built their wigwams and they were under the leadership of Chief Peter Cornstalk. There seems to be some doubt as to the relationship of Chief Peter Cornstalk to the old chief who fought at Point Pleasant. Some say he was the grandson while others say he was nephew. At any rate, he and his tribe were well established when the early settlers came.
This region which he selected was, in miniature a reproduction of the rough country on the Ohio with which he had been familiar since childhood and was probably why he selected the place with which he was so closely identified that the creek along which his encampment lay was given his name Cornstalk by most of the pioneers. The Baptist Church which was erected at a later date on the banks of Cornstalk Creek was called the Cornstalk Church. Across the road and a little to the east of the church on the bluff, almost on the spot where the Indian burying ground was supposed to be was what was know as the High Bluff Schoolhouse, which has long since disappeared.
Map makers use the Miami warrior’s name in identifying the stream which still winds its way thru the land as it did years ago, but the foundation stones of the pioneer church are all that remain of this ancient place of worship. In the same acre is the old burying ground of the pioneers with the grave markers that carry one back in the early decades of the last century.
The place of the old town of Cornstalk or Cornstalktown as it was sometimes called may be reached by driving west and south from Ladoga or east and north from Raccoon. The latter town is on state road 43 near the Putnam/Montgomery line. In driving from Raccoon, the road follows closely the winding Raccoon Creek which finally divides, one fork being the Cornstalk.
When Peter Cornstalk buried his dead on the High Bluff that overlooks the stream near his town, he may have had a vision of their spirits finding pleasure in being so near their beloved stream. It is tradition that the flooded creek lapped away so steadily at the foot of the bluff that some of the graves ere washed away. Others of the graves may be under the soil now traversed by the road which was built in later years.
The first white settlers came to Clark Township ion 1825. By the year 1829, practically all of the township had been assigned to various individuals. There was a period of several years during which the incoming white pioneers mingled with the Indians in Putnam and Montgomery Counties and it is tradition that some of the friendships thus formed were of a close nature.
One reason why the Cornstalk Indians and the early pioneers lived so peacefully together was because of the character of the chief himself. Everyone I have ever heard speak of him said he was a very agreeable person, sensible, dignified and devout—a man who could be trusted. He had a great ability as a leader and was very peaceful. His influence over his tribe was very great. These are the impressions I have of him as gathered from the grandsons and granddaughters of pioneers who lived near him at that time. It is said that he was a tall, fine looking chief, rather portly as to figure and with a very pleasing manner.
One reason why the general character of Chief Cornstalk and tribe was so worthy was the Quaker influence under which they lived in Ohio. History tells us of the missionary work of the Quakers and the result was seen in the character of the Cornstalk Indians and their industries.
There are several stories which have come down to us about Cornstalk. In the scrap book of Mrs. Sallie Harney Foster, who now lives in Ladoga is a story told by Uncle John W. Harrison of an event that happened when he was a boy and is as follows:
“I was sent to Swank’s Mill seven miles down Raccoon from our house. I had to wait so long that it was almost dark when I started back. I went two miles and came onto fourteen big Indians camped by the creek. One spoke to me in good English and said I was a mighty little boy to be out in the night and asked me to stay all night with them but I would not. He said my sack of meal was not balanced and he would fix it if I would get off my horse. When I did so, he carefully adjusted the sack and going before, then behind the horse and looking said “Too much meal on one side for the other side.” Having properly shifted the sack he placed me on and started the horse.” This was the Indian Chief Cornstalk and it is not necessary to add the small boy thought that Chief Cornstalk was a wonderful Indian.
Mrs. Susie Slayton of Roachdale as a child grew up near the place where the Cornstalk Indians camped on the creek. She related to me the following story about a pioneer family and their relations with the Cornstalk Indians.
“David and Lydia Henry moved to the government land in Montgomery County, Indiana, on the west bank near the mouth of a small stream known as Cornstalk. They brought on one horse several articles of value. A spot was selected east of the mouth of the Cornstalk and the articles were piled in a pile and covered with brush. David made friends with the Indians and as he wished to spend some time farther south, he went to the Indian camp and asked the chief to look after his possessions until he returned in the spring. We are told that Peter Cornstalk took care of their belongings and nothing had been disturbed when they returned.”
Mrs. Slayton also told another interesting story of Cornstalk.
“He was at this time an old man whose former wife had passed away and he had recently married a young Indian girl. A Frenchman who had sold shawls, beads and trinkets that Indians greatly admire, fell in love with her and they ran away. Peter Cornstalk said he didn’t blame her for he was a much better looking and younger man than he was.
Mr. Albert Williams of Raccoon is 74 years old (November 1935) and in a conversation with him at his home he said that his mother had often seen the Indians known as Cornstalk Indians when she was a little girl. His mother died August 12, 1901 being seventy-five years old at the time of her death. She remembered Chief Cornstalk and said he was an old like man then. The Indian burying ground according to Mr. Williams was on the bluff and the bluff is partly washed away. There was a beech tree on the bluff and it is said the Indians danced around this tree. The stump of the tree is still there. When we were children, we found many flints and there was a tradition that Cornstalk had a lot of money buried there.”
“I remember hearing the story of the Indian squaw whose baby’s hand was bitten by an angry sow and she killed the baby because she said it could never be a warrior. The knoll is about gone. Bones used to wash out of the bank. An Indian village was at Mansfield and the Indians used to go thru to Tippecanoe.
In pioneer days Thomas Jackson who has descendants in Putnam County, as a boy visited Chief Cornstalk’s camp north of Fillmore in Marion Township. One time he accepted the chief’s invitation to stay for dinner and strolling into the cooking quarters he found his dinner boiling away in a pot over an open fire. It attracted him. He saw a round furry object bobbing up and down in the water. Investigation revealed it to be a raccoon being cooked with its fur on and insides in. Tommy went to his own home for dinner.
Mrs. McAlinden who formerly lived near Roachdale, but who later lived in Greencastle remembered the Cornstalk Indians. She mentioned especially Jesse Anderson a white settler in Franklin Township who practically lived with the Indians accompanying them on their hunting expeditions.
There was a trail between Cornstalk’s village and the Miami town near Thorntown which was the largest Indian town near here.
Here is a story which Mr. George Edwin Black of Greencastle relates: Two boys who were sons of an early pioneer whose land lay along the trail one noon went home and said to their mother,
“The Indians have just gone along the trail.”
“Yes, I noticed them,” she replied.
“But there was one young squaw who dropped out of line down by the creek.”
The mother then told them she would go down there after a while. It was some four hours later when she found time to go and she was just in time to see the young Indian woman now a mother with her new baby strapped upon her back start out after the others of her family and she moved as if she might overtake them.”
The Indians were induced by the American government representatives to surrender their title to all lands in Putnam and Montgomery Counties by treaty and received but little in payment. The redskin residents began leaving usually urged by American troops soon after 1832 and by 1836 it is believed all of them had departed from our soil. Probably the last to leave were the Cornstalk Indians headed by their chief whose people had roamed Putnam and Montgomery Counties since about 1780.
In 1836 a pow wow and farewell assembly was held near Thorntown before the Indians moved westward. It is said that Thorntown was the largest Indian town near here and one which sent hundreds of warriors to the battlefield. This pow wow is said to have lasted twelve days.
The path of the Shawnee tribe can be traced across the state of Illinois by the familiar names they have left to towns and streams. In Harvey’s history of the Shawnee Indians is given an instance where Peter Cornstalk appeared before the assembly of the Indian nations to protect the grant of land which had been given to them by the governor of Ohio who had attempted to remove them from the state of Ohio.
The Shawnee grants in Missouri were finally revoked and the tribes moved on westward locating on reservations in Kansas where descendants and remains of the Shawnee Indians may be found at this time.
When the Indians ceded these lands, one of the conditions was that each warrior was to be paid annually a specified sum of money for a given number of years, As the money was paid out at Terre Haute they has to pass thru Clark Township and continued to do so until about 1832.
In traveling they moved along well-beaten paths called trails usually very slowly one behind the other. They would go in bands of 20, 50 or 100. They went trailing in a bee line. The Indian sense of direction is very keen and they usually moved in very straight paths as these trails indicate.
There were two of these trails near Ladoga well known to all the settlers, one passing thru Ladoga. In Mr. Anderson’s (William L. Anderson) History of Ladoga is given a very good description of them and is as follows:
“One of these enters the township north of the north of the house that stands on John Brown’s farm and passes just west of Maple Grove school house and just east of the Dunkard church, then to the house Ben Himes lives in, which was built over the trail then to Cornstalktown. This was their route from Thorntown to Terre Haute. If you take a map and draw a straight line from one of these towns to the other, it will pass directly over the trail and you will be surprised to find how straight an Indiana can travel long distances through dense forests. This was their principal route. You will notice that it keeps along the southeast bank of Cornstalk Creek, at no time crossing, and at all times avoiding its crooks. The other trail was only a deviation from this main one. Beginning at Cornstalktown it kept along the northwest bank of Raccoon in a manner similar to that along Cornstalk. It passed through Ladoga, through the south side of Oklahoma, across the creek northeast of Josephus Graybill’s brick house, from there keeping the southeast side of the creek, passing between Drake Brookshire’s house and the creek, it kept its way to Thorntown. No doubt this double route was chosen because it gave greater opportunity for hunting. The point where they crossed the creek beyond Mr. Graybill’s house was long known as the Indian Ford.”
Anderson also observed that, “Although somewhat migratory, they made their chief residence five miles southwest of here, which was know as Cornstalktown, near what is now the Cornstalk Baptist Church on the bank of Cornstalk Creek. Quite a number of sunken graves were to be seen at this place many years afterward. Several of their skeletons were dug up by white people, some for the study of anatomy, others from mere curiosity. The graves were found to be only eighteen inches deep.
“There was another village on Haw Creek known as Dogtown. It was on the south bank about a mile west of the Monon railroad on what is know as the old Stover farm. Also a settlement was made on Little Raccoon near its mouth in less than a mile of Ladoga. Several wigwams were standing here when the settlers came, and years afterward trees were seen stripped of their bark as high as a man could reach. Wigwams were made by setting poles together at the top then covering them with bark and skins.”
It has been over a century since Chief Peter Cornstalk and his tribe roamed along the little stream that is called by his name. As far as we know, the Indian reservations out west became the Promised land for him and his people. I have heard that out west among the Paiutes and other tribes the tradition of the integrity and character of Peter Cornstalk has been handed down from generation to generation. It is said that he lived to be 102 years old, but what really became of him is unknown to his friends in Putnam and Montgomery counties.
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