The 1800 census lists 5,641 people living in the Indiana Territory at the beginning of the 19th century. From Indiana State Museum on Twitter.
Bison were still abundant over large portions of what would become the Indiana Territory and the state of Indiana. A bison is featured prominently on Indiana’s state seal. Read more in Indiana at 200 (7): Bison Made First Indiana Road by Andrea Neal published September 8, 2013 on Indiana Policy.org.
Surveyor's Snapshot of Indiana's Forest in the Early 1800s an event November 15, 2022 by the U.S. Forest Service - Hoosier National Forest and Lawrence County Soil & Water Conservation District on Facebook. Description: Presented by AJ Ariens, Forest Archaeologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Join us Tuesday, Nov. 15, at the Otis Park Bath House to learn what the first men who surveyed the Indiana Territory in the early 1800s said in their notes about the land that they found. You may be surprised at what trees they selected as witness trees and what notes they made. AJ Ariens has studied the notes made over 200 years ago by these men and will share what she’s learned about the lands they surveyed in the early 1800s. Hosted in collaboration with Bedford Parks Department, Purdue University Extension, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Lawrence County Soil & Water Conservation District, and Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Posted October 24, 2022 by U.S. Forest Service - Hoosier National Forest on Facebook.
See more early Indiana information on our Land Records page.
Kids, does your toilet look anything like this? This is a chamber pot from the late 1800s. You kept it under your bed and took it out to use it, especially at night when it was too dark to go to the outhouse. Then, in the morning, you had to empty it! Ask the adults you know if they ever had to use a chamber pot.
1800, March 20 - a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives providing for the division of the Northwest Territory into two separate governments. It passed the House on March 31 and the Senate on April 21 in an amended form. After agreement had been achieved in a conference committee, it was approved by President John Adams on May 7, 1800. The principal supporters of the measure were William Henry Harrison, territorial delegate from Northwest Territory, and Robert C. Harper of South Carolina. They urged that the existing situation was too unwieldy for good government, that the growth of population justified the change, and that popular sentiment made it highly desirable. The passage of this act left the present state of Ohio, approximately half of Michigan and the "gore" in southeastern Indiana in the Northwest Territory and constituted the remainder of the original Northwest Territory as Indiana Territory: Copied from a longer article Act Creating Indiana Territory 1800The Indiana Supreme Court and the Indiana Historical Bureau are collaborating on a major project to gather in one place copies of original documents and research materials relating to Indiana's constitutional history. View the collection and the original Act creating Indiana Territory, 1800 by the Indiana Historical Bureau at IN.gov. One article from a series of articles under the IHB including About Indiana - History and Trivia including Explore Indiana History by Topic including Indiana Documents Leading to Statehood.
24th April 1800: Library of Congress established when John Adams approves a budget of $5,000 posted April 23, 2021 by HistoryPod on YouTube In 1790 the Residence Act established a new city on the Potomac River as the nation’s capital and permanent seat of government. While what was to become the city of Washington, D.C., was being built the Act designated Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the temporary capital for a period of ten years. Since the government in Washington would no longer have access to the sizable collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia, on 24 April President John Adams approved an act that would provide $5,000 ‘for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress ... and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them.’ This established the Library of Congress and allowed for the purchase of approximately 3,000 volumes from England that were housed in the north wing of the Capitol building. The first Librarian of Congress was appointed two years later by President Thomas Jefferson, and over the next decade the Joint Committee on the Library oversaw the library’s expansion. However, in August 1814 both the library and almost all of its contents were destroyed when the British Army burned Washington during the War of 1812. To replace the lost collection, on 30 January 1815 Congress accepted an offer from Thomas Jefferson to purchase his entire personal library for $23,950. Containing 6,487 volumes on subjects ranging from law to languages and mathematics to music, this doubled the size of the library and prompted the comprehensive collecting policies that continue to be a hallmark of today’s Library of Congress.
1800, May 7 - President John Adams approved a bill to divide the Northwest Territory and create Indiana Territory establishing what is now Illinois, Wisconsin, portions of Michigan and Minnesota, with its capital at Vincennes. The bill was introduced to the House of Representatives on March 20. It passed in the House on March 31 and the Senate on April 21. It became law on July 4, 1800. Copied from May 7, 2016 post by Indiana Bicentennial Commission on Facebook. See IHB: Act Creating Indiana Territory 1800 , Indiana Territory information on page 4 of The Indiana Historian March 1996 and the 16 page Indiana Territory with maps and timelines on IN.gov.
#OTD in 1800, President John Adams signed legislation that divided the Northwest Territory. The legislation created the new Indiana Territory (which comprised most of the future states of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and parts of Michigan and Minnesota) and redefined the Northwest Territory (which comprised most of the future state of Ohio, half of Michigan, and a sliver or “gore” of Indiana). The bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 20, 1800. It passed the House on March 31 and the U.S. Senate on April 21 with amendments. A conference committee ironed out the differences before sending it on to the president. The principal supporters of the measure were William Henry Harrison, territorial delegate from Northwest Territory, and Robert C. Harper of South Carolina. They urged that the existing situation was too unwieldy for good government, that the growth of population justified the change, and that popular sentiment made it highly desirable. Learn more at: https://www.in.gov/.../act-creating-indiana-territory-1800/
On May 13, 1800, President John Adams appointed William Henry Harrison as Governor of the Indiana Territory, which at that time included part or the entirety of the future states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. Harrison served in this role for twelve years, during which he sought local recommendations for appointees, encouraged the development of representative government in the new territory, and sought to extinguish American Indian claims and remove them from the territory.
Harrison, a Virginia-born patrician, tried unsuccessfully to introduce slavery into the territory, despite the Northwest Ordinance’s prohibition against it. In 1811, he led a military force against Tenkswatawa near Prophet’s Town. Tactically, the battle is often viewed as a draw, but the outcome had significant geopolitical ramifications which affected the strength of the pan-Indian alliance, influenced the forthcoming War of 1812, and many years later led to Harrison’s ascension to the presidency with the memorable campaign slogan, “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.”
On May 13, 1800, President John Adams appointed William Henry Harrison as Governor of the Indiana Territory, which at that time included parts or wholes of the future states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota.
Harrison served in this role for twelve years, during which he sought local recommendations for appointees, encouraged the development of representative government in the new territory, and sought to extinguish American Indian land claims and remove indigenous people from the territory. Harrison, a Virginia-born patrician, tried unsuccessfully to introduce slavery into the territory, despite the Northwest Ordinance’s prohibition against it.
In 1811, he led a military force against Tenkswatawa near Prophetstown in the Battle of Tippecanoe. Tactically, the battle is often viewed as a draw, but the outcome had significant geopolitical ramifications which affected the strength of the pan-Indian alliance, influenced the forthcoming War of 1812, and many years later led to Harrison’s ascension to the presidency with the memorable campaign slogan, “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.”
The image of Harrison below is courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1800, May 19 - George Washington Whistler was born at the military outpost of Fort Wayne which his father, Major John Whistler (1756–1829), helped build the fort, was commandant and his wife, Anna Bishop. Ft. Wayne at that time was a part of the great Northwest Territory. His father, John Whistler, had been a British soldier under General Burgoyne at the battles of Saratoga in the revolutionary war, later to enlist in American service. Read more on George Washington Whistler.
1800, July 4 - Indiana Territory officially separated from Northwest Territory from July 4, 2018 Tweet by the Indiana State Museum on Twitter.
Although today there are more than thirty bathrooms in the White House, during the early 1800s there was no indoor plumbing or modern toilets.
When President Thomas Jefferson moved into the White House in 1801, guests and White House staff shared a privy outdoors. Jefferson soon installed two water closets upstairs. These were flushed with a cistern installed in the White House attic that distributed water downward through wooden pipes. [ see wooden pipes on our Three Rivers Water Filtration page ]
During John Quincy Adams’ presidency, water was supplied to the White House Grounds from an iron garden pump connected to a well located at the Treasury Building. Despite these additions, running water inside the White House was not installed until the presidency of Andrew Jackson.
In 1831, the federal government purchased Franklin Square, several blocks from the White House, which was home to several natural springs, with the intention of providing piped water to the White House. In 1833, Engineer Robert Leckie installed a plumbing system. Workers began digging brick lined reservoir ponds at the Treasury, the State Department, and the White House. Then, iron pipes were laid into the ground connecting the reservoirs to Franklin Square and water was piped into the White House Ground Floor. Shortly after completion of this project, a bathing room was added to the East Terrace.
Indoor plumbing and the White House water supply continued to improve and develop over time. Today, the White House features a modern plumbing system, supplying water to the White House kitchens and the numerous bathrooms throughout the White House complex. Today’s photograph features a bathroom located on the Ground Floor of the White House near the Library.
Image: Peter Vitale, White House Historical Association
1801, February 17 - Thomas Jefferson was elected 3rd President of the United States. This election was the first peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another in the United States -- from the Federalists to the Democratic-Republicans. From History Channel on Facebook.
1801, July 4 - Secretary of the Indiana Territory John Gibson attested that the population of the entire territory (for purposes of political representation) was 4,875. This included 135 enslaved persons despite the provision in the Northwest Ordinance that prohibited slavery in the territory. The eleventh column counted all other free persons "except Indians, not French." Copied from July 4, 2017 post with photo of the Schedule document on the Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook.
On July 4, 1801, Secretary of the Indiana Territory John Gibson attested that the population of the entire territory (for purposes of political representation) was 4,875. This included 135 enslaved persons despite the provision in the Northwest Ordinance that prohibited slavery in the territory. The eleventh column counted all other free persons "except Indians, not French."
On July 4, 1801, Secretary of the Indiana Territory John Gibson attested that the population of the entire territory (for purposes of political representation) was 4,875. This included 135 enslaved persons despite the provision in the Northwest Ordinance that prohibited slavery in the territory. The 3/5ths clause in the Constitution allowed for each enslaved person to be counted as 3/5ths of a free person for purposes of elected representation.
The census also counted all other free persons "except Indians, not French," meaning free African Americans, of which there were 163. Neither the indigenous populations nor French were considered citizens despite their longer tenure in the Indiana Territory. In the case of the native population, the federal government was already advocating for removal of indigenous populations by this time.
Learn more about the census, slavery in the territory, and territorial relations with indigenous people here:
The image below is courtesy of the Indiana State Library.
1802
An Early Mill at Three Rivers on page 120 of Pamphlets Volume 8 by the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date 1954, on Archive.org In 1802 Daniel Landon purchased the improvements on a tract of land on the St. Mary's River, near Wayne's fort. The mill, which he later erected on the river, may havebeen the earliest water mill in Allen County. The Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County is indebted to Miss Caroline Dunn, librarian of the Indiana Historical Society, who unearthed the federal document on the claims of Landon' s heirs. The report is published verbatim, except that the Library staff has reconciled the punctuation and spelling with current practice.
1802, May 22 - the nation's 1st First Lady Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, born June 2, 1731, died of a severe fever at her home in Mt. Vernon, Virginia. When she married George Washington in January 1759, she was twenty-seven years old and a widowed mother of two. She was also one of the wealthiest women in Virginia, having inherited some 15,000 acres of farmland from her deceased husband, Daniel Parke Custis. Copied from May 22, 2013 Accessible Archives on Facebook.
1802, December 10 - William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark expedition (and brother of George Rogers Clark), filed a document that released Ben McGee from enslavement. The following day, Clark turned McGee's enslavement into an indenture of thirty years servitude. The practice of emancipating enslaved persons who had been brought into Indiana Territory, and then forcing them to enter into long-term indentures was commonly practiced to circumvent territorial laws prohibiting slavery. Indentured servitude remained common practice until the Indiana Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1821.
Learn more about the history of slavery and indentured servitude in Indiana here:Almost a Free StateThe Indiana Constitution of 1816 and the Problem of Slavery by Paul Finkleman published in the March 2015 Indiana Magazine of History. Copied from a December 10, 2018 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebookwith an image that shows a reconstruction of the cabin in which Ben McGee and his wife lived on the Clark property, courtesy of the Falls of the Ohio State Park.
#OTD in 1802, elected representatives of the four counties that made up the Indiana Territory sent a petition to Congress at the behest of Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison. They requested changes to governing ordinances that they hoped would attract more settlers to the territory, setting it on the path to self-government and statehood. However, one of these requested enticements to white settlers was the temporary legalization of slavery.
The representatives requested a ten-year suspension of Article VI of the Ordinance of 1787 that outlawed slavery, arguing that settlers were bypassing the Indiana and Illinois Territories and moving west of the Mississippi because they could not bring the enslaved people they relied on and profited by. The petition went further, requesting that these enslaved people and their children would remain in bondage even after the suspension ended. Congress refused to allow slavery in Indiana Territory, but residents circumvented the restriction through indenture laws, essentially slavery by another name. Learn more about indentured servitude in Indiana at the Mary Clark 2009 historical marker page who was born into slavery in Kentucky, then brought to Indiana as an indentured servant and her court ruling ending indentured servitude in Indiana.
Another website posted:
There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided, always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid. Article 6, Northwest Ordinance of 1787 from a long article at Freedom's Early Ring Ending Slavery in Illinois County, 1787-1818 at the digital imaging project at the Northern Illinois University Libraries.
1803, April 30 - a treaty dated April 30 and signed May 2 called the Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States during President Thomas Jefferson's term. U.S. representatives in Paris agreed to pay $15 million for about 828,000 square miles of land that stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. The territory was formally transferred December 20, 1803 in ceremonies in New Orleans. Read 8 Things You May Not Know About the Louisiana Purchase on History.com.
1803, May 25 - Ralph Waldo Emerson was born. He was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
1803, June 21 - Elihu Stout brought the first printing press to Vincennes, Indiana, see The Perils Of Pioneer Publishing by the Staff of the Indiana Magazine of History.
The Louisiana Purchase Treaty was ratified by the Senate on this day in 1803. The Lewis and Clark Expedition, which aimed to explore and map the new territory, began the following year. This document, an itemized expedition cost estimate provided by Meriwether Lewis, includes items like "mathematical instruments" and "Indian presents." It is part of the Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library. http://go.loc.gov/7wpM50PXSse
1803, November 28 - the Lewis and Clark expedition party landed near Kaskaskia, Indiana Territory. That same day, Lewis left Clark in charge of the boat. He left December 5 on horseback for St. Louis to meet with the Spanish commandant. Learn more about Lewis and Clark in Indiana with Lewis and Clark - Indiana Connections in The Indiana Historian. Copied from November 28, 2017 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook.
1804
1804, May 14 - The Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory leaves St. Louis in the Louisiana Territory. Thomas Jefferson had been trying to send explorers to the American West for years. Read more from the May 14, 2013 Writer's Almanac on The History CenterFacebook page.
1804, July 11 - Alexander Hamilton, one time aide-de-camp to George Washington and former Secretary of the Treasury was mortally wounded in a duel with the sitting Vice President of the United States, Aaron Burr, in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton died the next day and Burr's political career was effectively ruined by the episode. From July 11, 2013 George Washington Birthplace National Monument on Facebook. Read his letter to his wife Elizabeth Hamilton on Today's Document on The National Archivestumblr and his Alexander Hamilton Papers at The Library of Congress.
1804, July 31 - Elihu Stout published the first newspaper in the Indiana Territory. The first issue of the Indiana Gazette does not appear in any library catalog, and may have been lost to time. The second issue, published on August 7, 1804 and other extant issues for 1805 and 1806 are digitally available in Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana Gazette. The second issue is also on the blog Today in Hoosier History: Indiana Territory’s First Newspaper Published by Chandler Lighty posted July 31, 2014 in the Indiana Historic Newspaper Digitization Project blog.
On July 31, 1804, Elihu Stout published the first issue of the Indiana Gazette in Vincennes. The Indiana Territory's...
On July 31, 1804, Elihu Stout published the first issue of the Indiana Gazette in Vincennes. The Indiana Territory's first newspaper ran until 1806, when the publishing house of the Gazette burned to the ground. Stout regrouped, purchased a new printing press from Kentucky, and founded the Western Sun (now the Vincennes Sun-Commercial).
Browse issues of the paper with Hoosier State Chronicles:Indiana Gazette
“Independence is my happiness, and I relate things as they are, without respect to place or persons.” Elihu Stout...
1804, December 5 - Indiana territory elects a General Assembly
1805
Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake 1805, by Eric Sloane, 1965, on Archive.org. "This book--part the diary of Noah Blake, who was 15 in 1805, part a recreation of the life that a youngster in his circumstances would have lived--is a loving tribute to a vanished way of life. Illustrated profusely with Eric Sloane's superb pen-and-ink drawings, it will give its readers a sense of participation in the past that is all too rare in conventional histories.
1805, January 11 - Michigan Territory formed
1805, July 29 - July 29, 1805, the General Assembly of the Indiana Territory met for the first time in Vincennes at the Indiana Territorial Capitol. Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison (pictured below) urged the legislators to “strive to accomplish the wishes of the friends of representative government and to disappoint its enemies.” The session lasted until August 26 and the legislators passed thirty-three laws, which codified the courts, taxes, debt relief for prisoners, and established weights and measures. One of the more controversial acts they passed was a slavery law that allowed slaveholders to keep enslaved persons in the Indiana Territory if they were purchased outside of it. This legislation was in direct violation of Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance that prohibited the slavery in the territory. The act created pushback from newspapers in Cincinnati, and Washington, D.C. publicly denounced it. In a challenging contradiction, Harrison himself brought slaves to the territory, all the while calling for “representative government.” The process to reverse this law began with statehood in 1816. Learn more about the Indiana Territory here: Indiana Territoryin the Indiana Historian magazine March 1999. Copied from a July 29, 2018 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook. The Territory was divided into five counties - St. Clair, Randolph, Knox, Clark and Dearborn. There had been six counties, but Wayne was cut off by the act establishing the Michigan Territory. See IHB: Indiana Territory from July 29, 2015 Facebook post by Indiana Bicentennial Commission on Facebookand July 29, 2017 by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook.
On August 21, 1805, Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison and leaders of the Delaware, Potawatomi, Miami, Eel, River, and Wea tribes met at Harrison’s Vincennes home and negotiated the Treaty of Grouseland. The U.S. had recognized the Delaware as sole owner of the tract of land in an 1804 treaty. This aroused the anger of the Miami, who claimed to have owned it and had only permitted the Delaware to occupy it. With the August 1805 treaty, Harrison sought to settle the dispute, to obtain land for the U.S.
According to Indiana to 1816: The Colonial Period, with the "promise of additional annuities the Governor was able not only to get the Delaware to relinquish their claim, but succeeded in purchasing the Miami claim to the tract." In addition to increasing their annuities, Harrison distributed $4,000 to each of the tribes involved in the treaty. Although he considered the conference a success, Native American tribes lost the southern fourth of what would become the State of Indiana.
Through a mixture of bribery and pressure Harrison secured the cession of approximately one-third of Indiana in a series of treaties from 1803 to 1809, including that signed at Grouseland. Historian Dr. James Madison noted that Harrison's methods succeeded because "many Indians did not share the American concept of landownership and transfer of title to land."
1806 - A group of Quakers arrive in Fort Wayne to help Little Turtle and his son-in-law, William Wells, in a project to teach the Miami to become farmers. Wells, an American, had been Anthony Wayne's military scout and interpreter. The project did little to reverse damage to Miami people that resulted from liquor, disease and loss of their land. From Millennium milestones in Fort Wayne in the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper.
1806, May 9 - Paris C. Dunning was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. As a young man he moved to Indiana where he studied law. He got involved in politics and became the only person to hold all four elected state offices under the 1816 Constitution: State Representative, State Senator, Lieutenant Governor, and Governor. IHB: Indiana Governor Paris Chipman Dunning (1806 - 1884) From post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook.
1806, September 23 - Lewis and Clark expedition returns to St. Louis from the Pacific Northwest.
1806, November 29 - Vincennes University was incorporated. The very first college in Indiana was founded in 1801 by William Henry Harrison. One of only two U.S. colleges founded by a President of the United States. William Henry Harrison was the 9th U.S. President. Copie from November 29, 2016 Facebook post by Indiana Bicentennial Commission on Facebook.
1807
In 1807 a Quaker mission to teach the Indians how to farm in Fort Wayne failed partially due to the interference of William Wells. In May, 1807 John Johnston made serious charges against him. Read the rest posted August 4, 2017 on Johnston Farm & Indian Agency on Facebook.
1807, February 27 - Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine.
On November 17, 1807, the U.S. House of Representatives denied a petition from citizens of the Indiana Territory to allow slavery. While Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude in the territory, the practice continued as the article was interpreted to take effect only after its passage, meaning any enslaved persons in the territory at that time remained enslaved.
Throughout the existence of the Indiana Territory, pro-slavery citizens advocated for the repeal of Article VI In 1802, Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison called a convention which adopted a resolution supporting a ten-year suspension of the anti-slavery article and requesting that any enslaved person brought into the territory during that ten years remain enslaved for life.
According to Indiana to 1816, when the U.S. Congress denied the resolution, Governor Harrison adopted a law stating that people of color “brought into the territory must perform the service due their masters and that contracts between master and servants were assignable,” effectively legalizing a form of slavery in the territory. By 1810, the census recorded 237 enslaved persons in the territory, some of whom were enslaved by William Henry Harrison.
By 1809, anti-slavery factions gained a majority in the General Assembly, and in 1810, the laws allowing slavery were repealed. However, existing “indentures” were decided on a case-by-case basis, meaning forced servitude continued.
In 1808, John Johnston had constructed a two story log cabin in Upper Piqua. The size was 26’ x 36’. Fencing for this and 10 acres, cleared fields, 20 acres of upland, and other buildings were built at total cost of app. $1000.
In 1808 Johnston also became assistant surgeon at Fort Wayne. He ordered a large store of medicines for the ‘use of a family remote from the supplies of the fort.’ JJ said that the surgeon at the fort, a certain Dr. Elliot, was a ‘dissipated man and often entirely unfitted, by his bad habits, to attend to business.’ John learned simple surgery and gradually took upon himself a good deal of Elliot’s work. He was appointed assistant surgeon at Fort Wayne due to this. He became a manipulator of broken bones, and also used a ‘shocking instrument’- an old-fashioned electrifying machine - one of the great wonders of science introduced at the early day in our sparsely settled country and used by him as a remedial agent in nervous disorders.
Few people owned tooth brushes until the 1920s. This ivory "necessaire" from around 1808 belonged to a wealthy person. It includes a tooth brush, tooth pick, nail file, and a tiny ear wax spoon. See the dog decoration on the top?
#OTD in 1808, Congress passed the first of three acts that would slowly democratize suffrage rights in the Indiana Territory. The first act gave voting rights to residents owning lots valued at a minimum of $100. This was a lot of money in 1808, and so the act still restricted suffrage to white, propertied men. However, it was more liberal than the Ordinance of 1787, which had required voters to own much larger amounts of property. A year later, in 1809, another suffrage act empowered electors in Indiana Territory to choose a Congressional Delegate, giving them representation in Congress. (Previously, the President appointed this representative). The 1809 act also established the Legislative Council, a popularly elected, basic governing body that mainly worked towards statehood. In 1811, Congress passed yet another act to further liberalize suffrage rights, extending the vote to all free white men who paid county or territorial taxes. Black male Hoosiers did not gain the franchise until 1870 with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, despite being among the state’s early settlers. Women, both Black and white, gained suffrage in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, after almost a century of struggle, advocacy, and determination.
Learn more about the formation of Indiana Territory: https://www.in.gov/history/files/interritory.pdf
The images below are courtesy of Road to Indiana Statehood via Indiana Memory, the Library of Congress, and Newspapers.com..
1809
1809 - John Johnston was appointed Indian Agent in Fort Wayne. William Wells was terminated as Indian Agent on January 28, 1809 and all govt. property was turned over to Johnston. He was now both Factor and Indian Agent. One duty of the agent was payment of annuities. He also had to appraise and report the doings of the British.
In 1809, JJ’s brother Stephen is appointed clerk at the Factory in Fort Wayne. From Johnston 101 continued August 10, 2017 on Johnston Farm & Indian Agency on Facebook.
1809, February 3 - Indiana Territory is divided into two governments forming Illinois Territory.
ON THIS DAY // On February 3, 1809, Congress passed an act dividing the Indiana Territory into two governments, creating the Illinois Territory. You can learn more about the history of the Indiana Territory by reading: The Indiana Historian, March 1999 via Indiana Historical Bureau and IN.gov
1809, February 12 - Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky (now LaRue County). Lincoln's paternal grandfather and namesake, Abraham, had moved his family from Virginia to Kentucky, where he was ambushed and killed in an Indian raid in 1786, with his children, including Lincoln's father Thomas, looking on. It is a legal holiday in Indiana since Thomas Lincoln moved his family in 1816 because of land title disputes to then Perry County, now Spencer County, Indiana. See Abraham Lincoln on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
1809, July 02 - Rosanna Johnston daughter of John Johnston Indian Agent and Factor is born in Fort Wayne. From Rosanna Johnston 101.
1809, September 30 - Indiana Gov. William Henry Harrison arrives in Fort Wayne to negotiate the final treaty with the Miami. His official reports say he refused to give liquor to the Indians, but other reports say he got the Indians drunk and tricked them into signing over nearly 3 million acres of Indian lands. Tecumseh gathers 1,000 warriors to protest Harrison's treachery.From Millennium milestones in Fort Wayne in the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper. Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison then signed a treaty with American Indians that opened up 3,000,000 acres for settlement. It was called the Treaty of Fort Wayne or "Ten O'Clock Line Treaty" because the border was determined by a shadow cast by the sun each September 30 at 10:00 a.m. Copied from September 30, 2017 and September 30, 2014 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook. See INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND TREATIES Vol. II, Treaties Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904 produced by the Oklahoma State University Libraryand Journal of the Proceedings Indian Treaty Fort Wayne, September 30, 1809 at hathitrust.org or Google book.
