The Northwest as an integral and thriving part of the United States was definitely established.
While it would be interesting herein to follow through the developing communities of those states later to be formed from the territory, the purpose of this book apparently requires confinement of details to the formative period of the territory, and, except in unusual cases, towns and cities settled after 1800 will be left to state histories, which are commonly available.
FORT HARRISON ON THE WABASH
Drawn by Helen Jean Marshall, Grand Ledge, Michigan
The region now known as Indiana was traversed by La Salle, possibly along the Ohio in 1670, along the St. Joseph and the Kankakee in 1679. French traders were at the present site of Fort Wayne early in the eighteenth century, and Fort Ouiatenon (southwest of Lafayette) was built by 1722. Vincennes was established and a fort built there by 1732. This entire region remained under French control until after the French and Indian War, when it was surrendered to the English. Following victories at Kaskaskia and Cahokia in the Illinois country, Americans under George Rogers Clark captured Vincennes in 1779. While his expedition was authorized by Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia as a state venture, the final effect was to establish the claim of the United States to the Northwest Territory sufficiently to secure cession by England in the Treaty of Paris.
This event, followed by cession of state claims, opened up the Middle West to the United States, except for Indian titles. The first American settlement in Indiana was made at Clarksville in 1784.
The Treaty of Greenville, made by Wayne in 1795 gave the United States undisputed title to the southwest corner of the present state of Indiana and certain reservations for white settlements. Thus, a hundred and fifty years ago it was the whites who were privileged to live on reservations in Indian territory, rather than as has been the practice since the memory of living men. The “Vincennes tract” and the “Clark grant” had been occupied before the Northwest Ordinance was framed. There followed the Treaty of Greenville, at irregular intervals, well into the middle of the nineteenth century, more than fifty treaties of more or less importance before all Indian titles had passed to the United States.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON HOUSE