CHAPTER III.

                    INDIAN OCCUPATION, RELICS, ETC.

    By the conditions of a treaty concluded by Governor Harrison with
the Delaware, Miami, and Pottawatomie tribes, at Fort Wayne, Septem-
ber, 1809, the Indians sold and ceded to the United States several million
acres of land east of the Wabash, including the present territory of Clay
county. In October, 1818, at St. Mary’s, Ohio, the Delawares made a
final cession of all their claims to the lands lying within the borders of the
state of Indiana. The tribes named were the occupants of this territory
when the white man first became acquainted with it. Just at what time
the white man first put foot upon the soil of the county may not be
known, but certainly at as early a date as that of the war of 1812, when
it was crossed by United States soldiers in the campaigns attending that
war. It is traditional that in marching from Vincennes to Fort Harrison
a detachment of soldiery crossed Eel river near the site of Bowling
Green, among whom was Samuel Rizley, who afterward located near
the point of their crossing. So, too, what was known in pioneer days
as “The Harrison, Trail,” crossing the south part of the county, by way
of the site of Howesville, was so named from the current belief that
General Harrison conducted his troops over this route on his march from
the frontier capital, civil and mlitary, to the point on the Wabash at
which was built the fortification bearing his name, and that he encamped
one night on the knoll near the head of “The Lake,” a little distance
northeast of the Howesville town plat. Which of these traditions is the
more entitled to credence at this day the writer can not assume to say.
    Though many of the Indians vacated the ceded territory as early as
1819, going to Missouri and Kansas, yet their camp-fires did not die
out here until about the time of the organization of the county, when
many went to the reservation in Miami county, and there were those who
still lingered for several years later. There are no historical
reminiscences nor traditions extant detailing any hostilities nor serious
troubles between the natives and the pioneers of the county during all
the time they associated. They seem to have been on friendly terms, and
at peace. Nor did the aboriginal inhabitants of the territory of this
county leave behind them many well-defined and noteworthy marks or
traces of their occupancy. Sandy Knoll, about a mile west of Eel river,
east of a line from Coffee to Howesville, has attracted more attention, as
such, than any other or, perhaps, all other points, in the county. In
its primitive state, this knoll was elevated from four to five feet above
the surrounding level, circular in shape, and several hundred feet in
diameter. Though the surrounding surface is a clay soil, the mound is

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