History of Howard County

History of Howard County

As written by Richard Kastl in 1982

Introduction

The history of any geographic area is, by and large, shaped and molded by its physical environment. The natural features of Howard County have determined to a large extent its history. The natural resources of the area, though, only determine what is possible. It is left to the people to have the wit to make use and profit by those resources. The study of history is the study of how people have used their environment and their brains.

Prehistoric Indians

Humans have occupied Howard County, Indiana more or less continuously since about 8,000 B.C. Further archeological investigations will, no doubt, push that figure back to at least 12,000 B.C. The inhabitants of Howard County between 8,000 B.C. and 1,000 B.C. are referred to as being of the Archaic tradition. During this time, the culture of these early American Indians is noted for a vast amount of change. These Archaic Indians were hunters and gatherers who increasingly depended upon gathering edible plants and roots for their sustenance. Evidence of these early residents of Howard County is found throughout the county. The high ground near every stream in the county has produced arrowheads, flint scrapers, bone, and a variety of other artifacts attributed to these people.

The tools of these people were made of flint or chert. It is a curious fact that there are some types of chert which are found only in certain localities. Many artifacts from Howard County, which date from this period, are made from Attica chert. This chert can only be found in one locality, near the town of Attica, Indiana—some 65 miles from Kokomo. While these early residents only had their legs to propel them, they did seem to travel about a great deal.

Our evidence for the later Indian groups is quite sketchy at this time, although we have found enough artifacts to at least know that they were here. The Woodland tradition (1,000 B.C. –

A.D. 900) is characterized by their appearance and a more settled way of life. The Mississippian tradition (A.D. 900 – A.D. 1600) is characterized by an increased complexity of the culture, as evidenced in pottery styles and a diverseness of the artifacts produced. Howard County was not a primary center for these last two groups. The scattered evidence indicates that these two groups preferred to settle on the larger rivers and streams. The Wabash River, just a few miles to the north, has the remains of many major settlements on its banks. Evidence points to Howard County as being a hunting ground. Small bands would traverse the area while hunting, but they did not live here permanently.

Historic Indians/French Fur Trade

Historically, the Miami tribe of Indians occupied this region of Indiana. While we tend to think of the Miami as living here from “time immemorial” this was NOT true. The Miami and most other Indians traveled about and occupied a great many different regions. Prior to 1669, the Miami lived west of the Mississippi for a time, and then moved back to the east side of the Mississippi. Father Marquette in 1669 reported that the Miami were living in what is now southern Wisconsin. Gradually, they moved south and east and were found on the portage between the St. Joseph and Kankakee Rivers in 1679. It was not until the early 1700s that the Miami became entrenched in this area. Generally their territory was headquartered in the Fort Wayne region and extended east into Ohio and west to Lafayette, and south.

The French were the first Europeans to come to this area, and undoubtedly passed through Howard County on the Wildcat Creek while trading for furs. The French (and later English) were primarily interested in trade with the Indians. When the Americans finally came to Indiana, they were interested in land.

During this time period, the Miami subsisted on hunting and some agriculture (corn, squash, etc). Gradually they became more and more involved with the fur traders, and depended upon them for goods which they could not otherwise acquire.

They developed many important families of French fur traders on the frontier. One such family was the Drouet de Richarville family. The Richarvilles were descendants of Claude Drouer de Richarville who arrived in Canada in the 1680s. A grandson of Claude, Joseph Drouet de Richarville was a prominent trader at Miamitown between 1750 and 1770. Joseph married Tecumwah, a sister of Chief Little Turtle and they had a son, Jean-Babtiste, in 1761. Jean-Babtiste eventually rose to the position of chief and was one of the signers of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Little Turtle died in 1812, and in 1813 Jean was elected head chief of the Miami.

Like his father, Jean was a trader, and was able to accumulate a considerable amount of wealth through trading and treaties with the whites. At his death, he reported having over $200,000 in cash and several thousand acres of land. Richarville had several children. One daughter, Catherine, married Francis LaFountaine, and another, LaBlonde, married James Godfroy. Francis LaFountaine became chief of the Miami Indians after Richarville’s death, and James Godfroy was the son of Francis Godfroy, the last chief of the Miami.

Jean-Babtiste de Richarville, today, is best remembered for the various treaties he made with the whites. Under the Ordinances of 1785 and 1787, certain procedures were defined for distributing land to American settlers. First, the federal government purchased the land by treaty with the Indians. The land was surveyed, then the land was sold, and finally settlers were allowed to come. The federal government had sole authority to make treaties with the Indians and to provide for an orderly territorial government.

These ordinances also defined the manner in which the lands were to be surveyed. The lands were to be divided into “Congressional Townships.” A Congressional Township was defined as 36 one square mile sections, numbered contiguously. A square mile section contained 640 acres. Normally a homesteader would file on a half or quarter section (320 and 160 acres respectively).

The first settlements in Indiana were along the Ohio River. Gradually people began to move north up the Wabash and finally inland. That is, the places easiest to reach were settled first. Howard County, given its location, is rather inaccessible by water, and it is little wonder that it was the last county in the state to be organized. The Indians in southern Indiana were displaced first, and as more people settled here, the tribes in the more remote sections of the state were confined on smaller and smaller reservations, until they were forced to leave the state.

Land Treaties

There were two treaties of importance in the history of Howard County. In 1838 Chief Richarville and other leaders signed a treaty which sold 177,000 acres of the Great Miami Reserve for a sum of $335,680. This land was then given to the state of Indiana to sell, to help finance the Wabash and Erie Canal. The eastern seven miles of this land lies in western Howard County. The area is known locally as the “Seven-mile strip.” Originally attached to Carroll County to the west, the seven-mile strip was the first part of Howard County, which could, legally, be opened to white settlement. David Landrum has the distinction of being the first permanent white settler in Howard County. His cabin was on the south side of Wildcat Creek in Monroe township. Other settlers soon followed. Among them were: John Harrison, David Foster, Isaac Price, Joshua Barnett, Barnabus Busby, and Isaac Hauck.

The other treaty of importance was concluded on November 28, 1840 at the “Forks of the Wabash.” This was the final treaty between the Federal government and the Miami Indians. Under the terms of the treaty the Miami ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi River. A curious fact is associated with the way in which these treaties were made. For signing a treaty, a chief was rewarded with cash and/or land. Thus, in 1838, Pierre Langlois, was rewarded with a half section of land in western Howard County. In 1840 Chief Richarville received $25,000 and seven sections of land (4.480 acres). The sections of land are referred to as float sections, and Richarville was allowed to pick the location of the land he was awarded. In the same treaty Francis LaFountaine was given one float section. The treaty of 1840 also provided for the removal of the Miami tribe to Kansas territory. Of course, the chiefs who actually signed the treaty were allowed to remain in the state. The tribe was given five years to vacate the state, although they did not actually leave until 1847.

County Organization

Anticipating the removal of the Miami, the Indiana legislature passed an act to create Richardville and Tipton Counties on January 15, 1844. The name was changed to Howard County from Richardville County in 1847 in honor of T.A. Howard. Anticipating is the proper word here, as it was not until 1847 that the settlers could claim legal title to the lands east of the seven-mile strip. There are two exceptions. The act appointed five commissioners to travel to John Harrison’s cabin in Richardville County for the purpose of organizing the county. The commissioners were further directed to locate the seat of justice as near the center of the county as possible. A quick glance at the map reveals that the center of the county is some seven or eight miles east of the seven-mile strip, and therefore amidst the lands which were not yet open to settlement (the two exceptions).

By the second Monday of May 1844, the five commissioners had assembled in the home of John Harrison. Several locations in the seven-mile strip were considered for the county seat. Among others were: New London, Cromwell’s Mill, Harrison’s Home, and Caroline.

David Foster was a trader who first came to Indiana in 1827 from Virginia. He opened a trading post in Burlington in 1835. In 1840, he removed to the eastern edge of the seven-mile strip and opened another trading post. Foster’s trading post was within the float section given to Francis LaFountaine by the treaty of 1840. LaFountaine located the section in 1842 and promptly sold the land to Allen Hamilton of Fort Wayne for $2,000. Foster purchased the LaFountaine Reserve from Hamilton for $4,000. The purchase was made on January 17, 1844, two days after the legislature passed the act which created Richardville County. By a curious change, the LaFountaine Reserve is almost in the exact center of the county, and of course, Foster owned clear title to this land.

The town of Vermont was platted in the hope that it would become the county seat. Vermont was seven miles east of Foster’s land, also on the Wildcat, and located in one of the float sections give to Chief Richardville by the treaty in 1840. This, of course, was the only other site in the county east of the seven-mile strip, which could legally have been settled.

The commissioners met, as directed, and considered the merits of each location. In pressing his case, Foster was successful in talking the commissioners into traveling out to the LaFountaine Reserve and viewing its advantages as a seat of justice. Early accounts suggest that Foster’s arguments were sometimes fluid in nature, whiskey being one of the articles Foster purveyed to the Indians. In any case, Foster agreed to donate forty acres of land on the north side of the Wildcat for the county seat, and also agreed to build a log courthouse. The courthouse was to have been completed by October 1844.

Foster did donate the 40 acres, but somehow he later talked the elected county commissioners into building the structure themselves. The courthouse, which was to have been donated and built by October 1844, was finally completed in December of 1845 at a cost of $290.99.5. Foster was paid $142.71.5 of that figure for his work on the project. Clearly, David Foster, in spite of his reported speech impediment, was a man with a very facile tongue indeed.

The advantages to Foster of locating the county seat on his land were many. Between 1844 and 1849, Foster received $3,485 for land which he sold to early settlers, and Foster still held title to 530 acres of the original 640 acres that he purchased for $4,000. It seems to have been a reasonably secure investment.

Kokomo is Named

The new county seat was named Cocomo, although the spelling was eventually changed to Kokomo. There are two different accounts on the origin of the name Kokomo. One account insists that Kokomo was a Miami Indian chief greatly respected by his tribesmen. Other assert that a remark attributed to Foster was the true state of things. Foster reported said: “Kokomo is the orneriest town I ever knew, so I named it after the orneriest old Indian I ever knew.” This second account is much more picturesque than the first, although, how ornery can a town be if it has no citizens, as it did not have when it was named? Of course, there never has been any proof that Kokomo was ever a chief of the Miami, a minor sub-chief perhaps, but certainly not a chief of major importance. In fact, information on the Indian named Kokomo is very scanty indeed. There does seem to be enough evidence, though, to at least state with some confidence that there was an Indian named Kokomo. It should be pointed out the “Kokomo” referred to in early records lived at the Thorntown Reservation in Boone County.

Since Kokomo is a word of obvious Indian origin, one always wonders what it means in the Miami language. The person who wonders what Kokomo means is lucky indeed; he has three choices. Early historians translate the name as “she-bear” or “black walnut.” The only scholarly research on the matter was by Jacob Piatt Dunn. His sources conclude that the name meant “the Diver,” (literally, “he who goes under”). If one is concerned with historical accuracy, “the diver” is the obvious choice. If accuracy is not important, choose the name which is convenient.