XII. POTTAWATTOMIE  MILLS - BEN-NACK'S VILLAGE.

The following description of a trip from Lafayette to Turkey creek prairie, by way of Bennack's village, in Tippecanoe township, Marshall county, in 1834, which is copied from "Recollections of the Early Settlements of the Wabash Valley," published by Sanford C. Cox in 1860, is interesting as showing the condition of the country and inhabitants here three-quarters of a century ago:

It was on the tenth of January 1834, that in company with Maj. C ----- , whoever he may have been, that Sanford C. Cox, as he relates in the extract of his book under consideration, according to previous arrangements, set out from Lafayette to explore that portion of northern Indiana comprised within the present boundaries of the counties of Fulton, Pulaski, Marshall, Stark, Kosciusko and Elkhart. A journey of one or two hundred miles was not then, as now, performed in a few hours. The first day they passed through Delphi and stayed over night at Lockport. The second day they passed through Logansport and stayed all night at a farm house six miles farther north on the Michigan road, having ridden leisurely and examined lands on Eel river most of the afternoon-being land hunters on the lookout for land to enter. Their landlord advised them to go on to the Pottawattomie mills, erected at the outlet of Manatau Lake some twenty miles north, and from that point to keep up the Tippecanoe river to its head near the Turkey Creek prairie. Continuing, Mr. Cox said:

"We followed his directions and took up our lonesome journey along the frozen Michigan road, which led through a dense, continuous forest. In the afternoon we arrived at a Mr. Bozarth's, near the Pottawattomie mills. His small, double cabin, which stood near where the town of Rochester now stands, was a welcome sight to us, being the only house we had seen after we started in the morning. Here we stopped for the night and were well entertained by Mr. Bozarth and his pleasant and interesting family, who, though domiciled in the wilderness, would have graced the better circles of metropolitan life.

" After early breakfast we started on our journey, passing the Pottawattomie mills during the first half hour's ride. We stopped for a short time and viewed the celebrated Lake Manitau, or "Devil's lake," where the Indians averred a huge monster had been seen in the shape of a serpent, which defied all human efforts to snare it. There was a tradition existing among the Pottawattomie Indians that there was a monster in the shape

56                                            HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.

Of a serpent existing in this lake long before they crossed the ‘hard waters’ of the north.

“Their superstitious dread of this lake was such that they would not hunt upon its borders nor fish in its waters for fear of incurring the anger of the evil spirit that made its home in this little woodland lake, which perhaps is some three or four miles in length, with a breadth averaging from one-fourth to a half mile, quite irregular, sometimes, quite narrow for several hundred yards, resembling a narrow, sluggish river, at other places widening into bays and more extended sheets of water that reflected sky and forest like a mirror. The appearance of the ground indicated that it had originally been much larger and that its waters had gradually receded; which fact was confirmed by some of the earliest settlers of the neighborhood, who said they had fished years before in portions of the lake, which had become partially or entirely dry land.

“When the government officers were about erecting the Pottawattomie mills, the Indians strenuously objected to the erection of a dam at the outlet of the lake, lest its accumulated waters might disturb and overflow the subterranean chambers of Manitau and the exasperated demon rush forth from his watery dominions and take indiscriminate vengeance on all those who resided near the sacred lake; and to convince the government officials of the real existence of this monster and his terrible paroxysms of rage, which were periodical, they stated that certain seasons of the year the fishes became so alarmed that they rushed pell-mell to the outlet of the lake in large schools or shoals to escape the exasperated monster that threatened their destruction.

“ I have been informed that Austin W. Morris, who completed the survey of the lake for the erection of the mills, said that several of his flagmen whole assisting in its survey had become alarmed and made to shore, declaring that they had seen a monster in the water, and for a while it was difficult for him to get a man to carry the red flag. Whether they really saw anything terrible in the water, or their fears were merely the result of an excited imagination after hearing the Indian legends, Mr. Morris never pretended to say.

“In confirmation of the tradition above alluded to, in the year 1837 there appeared in the columns of the Logansport Telegraph a communication, supposed to have been written by our artist George Winter, giving a more particular and circumstantial description of the monster from an account given to him by a fishing party who said they had seen the serpent, which they represented as being about sixty feet long, the frontal bone three feet across, with eyes as large as saucers.

“The correspondent’s description of the monster produced quite a sensation among the good people of Logansport and the surrounding country, and a party of fifteen or twenty daring spirits, including several scientific gentlemen, was formed to go to the lake on a certain day, with fishing tackle, after the manner of Barry Cornwall’s fishermen, harpoons, spears, etc., to fish out the leviathan demon, or whatever it might be, that by this time had got a character equal to a first-class sea serpent.

A sickly season, combined with other circumstances, prevented this grand piscatorial enterprise, which had been planned on a magnificent scale and publicly advertised throughout the country for weeks; and his wonderful snakeship escaped the leviathan hooks and snares, which had been prepared

HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.                                     57

to lift him from his watery home and (perhaps) his capacious stuffed skin from being exhibited by Barnum allover the world.

"From Lake Manitau we proceeded on our journey up the Tippecanoe. Our trace passed through the timberland of the Yellow river country. We were told that we would not see a house after leaving the mills, except that of Ben-nack, a half-breed and one of the headmen among the Pottawattomies, at the crossing of the Tippecanoe river, until we arrived at McCartney's, an old Indian trader on Turkey Creek prairie; but as examining the face of the country with a view of entering land was the object of our trip, we had no objection to see it in its primitive grandeur, unmarred and unmolested by the hand of man.

"About 12 o'clock we arrived at the crossing of Tippecanoe, about half a mile below Ben-nack's village. Here we alighted and partook of our noon lunch, and examined the ford where our road crossed the river. The ice had melted away from the shore where we were for more than a rod, while the rest of the stream was covered with ice, which appeared sufficiently strong to bear up our horses, provided we could get them upon it. As the horse I rode was the lightest, we concluded to lead him in and pass him over first, which was done with much difficulty, as the edge of the ice where the horse first reached it struck him about the middle of his breast, and he, by much urging, sprung upon it with a bound. It bore him up and he was led to the opposite shore. With difficulty we got the major's horse to the edge of the ice, and after much coaxing and patting him upon his head we got him to make a bound-the ice broke; he made another spring and it broke again; he made one plunge after another until he broke the ford open from one side of the stream to the other, the major meanwhile clinging hold of the bridle reins on the upper side to prevent the deep strong current from drawing the horse under the ice. We mounted our horses shivering with cold and rattling with icicles, and hastened to Ben-nack's to warm and dry ourselves and horses. Imagine our surprise and chagrin when, calling at his cabin door for admittance, he after much delay cautiously opened the door a few inches only, and asked what we wanted. We told him our sad plight, and that we wished to stop a few minutes to warm by his fire. He made no reply, but immediately closed the door in our face. The Indians peeped out from their wigwams, which surrounded Ben-nack's cabin, with evident surprise and mortification at his want of hospitality. For a moment we thought we would stop at a wigwam and warm at the Indians' campfire, but changed our mind and rode on along the trace to Turkey Creek prairie, wet, cold and slightly out of humor.

"Late in the evening we arrived at McCartney's, on the south side of Turkey Creek prairie, near the cluster of lakes that form the head of Tippecanoe. McCartney had married a daughter of Bennack, and was absent on a trip to Washington City to procure a patent, as we were informed, for a section of reserve land, which he had married with his 'pretty young squaw.' Ben Hurst, one of Indiana's oldest lawyers and one of Gen. Harrison's aids at the battle of Tippecanoe, resided at McCartney's during his absence at Washington to superintend his business, and to guard his wife, Mary, from being spirited away by her father, who had become dissatisfied with the match and declared the marriage a nullity, having been solemnized by an

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officer of Cass County, on Indian Territory, which he insisted was without the jurisdiction of the officer.

“We spent two or three days looking at the country surrounding the big and little Turkey Creek prairies, and passing over portions of what now lies within the limits of Marshall, Elkhart and Kosciusko Counties, then a wild, uncultivated region which contained fifty Indians for every white man. But few white families had penetrated this frontier region, and the major and myself concluded that although the land was rich and productive it was so remote from schools, churches and other advantages of civilization that we did not feel like pitching our tabernacles in that out of the way place. Every day we met with Indians who were exceedingly friendly and invariably inquired for ‘good-ne-tosh’ (Whisky), offering to exchange moccasins, fur skins, or even pay the cash for it. One morning a troop of about twenty squaws and papooses mounted on ponies followed us for more than a mile beseeching us for whisky, which was a contraband article, prohibited by law from being bartered to the Indians. In order to get rid of such an escort over the prairies, the major pulled out a pint flask of whisky from his saddle bags, which we had taken along with us to doctor our horses in case they became sick, and held it up as a prize to whoever could ride and take it out of his hand, meanwhile spurring up his horse to a gallop. Helter-skelter dashed along the squaws on the ponies to seize the prize, the major urging up his hose, and the squaws and papooses goading on their ponies to full speed. One old squaw dashed ahead of the rest and seized the bottle. The rest soon circled around her. She took out the cork and drank our ‘very good health’ and handed it to another until it passed around, the younger women and children touching it but lightly. The major told them to pass it around again, which was done, and the empty bottle thrown in the grass. The old squaw thanked us politely for the whisky and a few crackers we had given to the children, and invited us to their camp, about a mile off, which invitation we courteously declined.

“The liquor soon made the old woman feel like exhibiting her powers of horsemanship, and after telling the little urchin that rode behind her to ‘hold fast’ dashed off at full speed of her pony, followed by the rest, the children clinging on behind their mothers and aunts, dashed from side to side, up and down, as far as we could see them, and their wild halloo rung upon the air for several minutes after they turned into the timber where their village stood.

“While at McCartneys we got sight of his ‘handsome young squaw’ of whose beauty we had heard so much. She appeared to be about twenty years of age, of medium stature, thickset, and was handsomely dressed in Indian costume. I have seen many handsomer Indian women, and thought at the time that her being Bennack’s daughter, and owning a section of land, added charms that could not be appreciated by every beholder.

“A graphic likeness of Bennack may be seen in a group of portraits of distinguished chiefs, headmen and warriors of the Pottawattomie nation in the studio of our able artist, George Winter, whose paintings are much admired by all judges of the fine arts.”