Articles taken from the microfilm of Dr. J.B. Maple's Scrapbook, at the library at Terre Haute, Indiana. They were originally printed in the Sullivan Union, dated June 1, June 8, and July 20, 1939. WEBB CEMETERY ONE OF EARLY HISTORIC BURIAL GROUNDS OF SULLIVAN COUNTY Old Cemetery, in Continuous Use for 125 Years, Located About 1 ½ Miles Southeast of Rose Chapel By Samuel S. Brewer It is not generally known that there is a chain of 50 or 60 early cemeteries, many of them of commanding historic interest, located within the boundaries of Sullivan County, Indiana The majority of these cemeteries are along the old Indian trails - the Tippecanoe, Tecumseh, Ontario, Indian Prairie or White River, Busseron of Connecting, and the Palmer's Prairie. The most of them, however, are no longer used as such. Some have actually been obliterated. Others have been abandoned and are now in a dilapidated state of preservation. A few are still in use. The Webb is one of them. It has been in continuous use since February 13th, 1815, or for a period of 125 years next February. The Webb cemetery is located on Gill's Prairie, in Gill Township, about 1 ½ miles southeast of the present Rose Chapel church and about 3 ½ miles south of New Lebanon, Indiana. It is on the northeast side of a county road, running in a general direction from the northwest to the southeast, and fronts to the southwest, with a magnificent view over a wide expanse of level prairie land. The cemetery itself being on a ridge of land running parallel with the road and overlooking the level land below. The survey location is near the northwest corner of the northeast ¼ of the southwest ¼ of Section 1, Town 6 North, Range 10 West, in the above named township and county. The land upon which the cemetery is situated was entered from the Government by John Wallace, the first surveyor of Sullivan county, on February 4th, 1816, and by him conveyed a few years later to Jonathan Webb, a native of New York State, who came to this location of Gill's Prairie in about 1818 from the State of Kentucky. Jonathan Webb fenced off the ground for this cemetery after he acquired the land from John Wallace, and since that time it has always been known as the Webb Cemetery. After the death of Jonathan Webb, the land upon which this particular plot of ground was located eventually became the property of the late Robert Massey, of near Merom, Indiana. He was a son-in-law of Jonathan Webb. His wife being Elizabeth Webb, a daughter of Jonathan Webb. On July 5th, 1894, Robert Massey and Elizabeth, his wife, conveyed the old original cemetery, as then fenced off, but still a part of the family land as far as the record of title was concerned, which he then owned, to the Trustees of the New Lebanon M.E. Church, containing at that time 1 ¼ acres, more or less. Sometime subsequent to July 5th, 1894, but prior to March 25, 1909, additional land was added to the cemetery, so that by the latter date it contained in all 2 acres of land, and it is possible that more has been added since then, as the present cemetery certainly has more than 2 acres in it. It is well fenced. The cemetery lays astride the old Tippecanoe Indian trail. Later the Harrison military road followed over the same course, and remained so until the cemetery was started in 1815. The Vincennes and Terre Haute stage road was not built until after the cemetery was in existence and for that reason its course was changed here so as to take the road out of the cemetery and routed along the foot of the slope, where the present county road now runs, with the exception of the new triangle part of the cemetery which it originally crossed. The depression in the ground in this new triangle part of the cemetery where the old road ran can still be seen. Across the crown of the knoll where this cemetery is situated strode the feet of many famous Indian chieftains in times past, as they marched along the Tippecanoe Indian trail going both north and south. Among a few of them that can be named were Tecumseh, the Prophet, Little Turtle, Cornstalk, Winamac, Little Hawk, and many others of a far earlier date whose names are not now known. Also, in addition to the above named Indian chieftains, marched Major-General George Rogers Clark, with his army of 1,200 men in 1786; Colonel John Francis Hamtramck, in 1790, with his army of 800 men; General William Henry Harrison, in 1811, with his army of 1,200 men; Colonel William Russell, with his army of 300 mounted men and wagon train of 200 wagons, in his first expedition late in December of 1811; Colonel William Russell, in his second expedition, with an army of several hundred men and wagon train, in August of 1812; Lieutenant Fairbanks and his command, in September of 1812; General Samuel Hopkins and his army of 2,600 mounted Kentucky riflemen in October of 1812. A combined total of 7 historic military expeditions, comprising a total of over 7,000 men, whose feet passed over the site of the Webb cemetery before it was ever established as such. These expeditions covered a span of time from 1786 to 1812, or 26 years of the formative period of the State of Indiana and the Northwest Territory. Many notable men of the past have been at its site. Among a few of them were Major-General George Rogers Clark, of Revolutionary fame; Colonel John Francis Hamtramck, of the United States Army and later of Detroit, Michigan, renown; General William Henry Harrison, afterwards President of the Unite States; General Samuel Hopkins, afterwards a famous member of Congress from the state of Kentucky; Captain Zachary Taylor, afterwards a noted General of the Mexican War and later President of the United States; Colonels John C. Breckenridge and Richard M. Johnson, both of whom were later Vice-Presidents, of the United States; Captain Jefferson Davis, afterwards President of the Southern Confederacy; Lieut. Albert Sidney Johnston, afterwards a famous general in the Confederate Army, who was killed at the battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing during the Civil War; Humphrey Marshall, the brother of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America; Colonel William Taylor, the Father of President Zachary Taylor and the quarter-master in command of the Half-Way Fort during the War of 1812; Lieut. Fairbanks, who met his death at Defeat Branch in Fairbanks township a few days after passing over this site; and a few who passed alongside the cemetery after it was established over the state road and the present route of the county road, were Abraham Lincoln in 1830, afterwards President of the United States, during the Civil War; Henry Clay; Lewis Cass; Daniel Woolsey Voorhees; Oliver P. Morton; Benjamin Harrison, afterwards President; Jonathan Jennings. the first Governor of Indiana; Ninian Edwards, later a Governor and Senator from the state of Illinois; Governor Isaac Shelby of Kentucky; and many others who could be named. It is to be regretted that Abraham Lincoln did not pass over the crown of the old part of the cemetery, but he did pass over the new part, or triangle at the west end of the same, where the stage road once passed. The first burial made in the present Webb Cemetery was that of the body of Dudley Mack, early in the morning of February 13, 1815. The burial was made at the side of the old Harrison military road, near the center of the present old part of the cemetery. His grave is now marked with both a headstone and a footmarker, but with no inscription on either of them. The head of his grave was originally marked with a large red sandstone rock, with no inscription on it, placed there by the late Charles W. Webb of New Lebanon, who knew exactly where the grave was located. Many years later this rock was cracked into two halves or rough slabs and the larger half placed at the head and the smaller at the foot, and as above noted no inscription placed on either. The history of the death and burial of Dudley Mack is part of the early history of Sullivan County, Indiana. He and his companion, John Collins, were returning northward from Shakertown. Both were mounted. At or near the Lisman ford over Busseron creek, they were fired upon by Indians. Both were badly wounded. Dudley Mack's horse dashed, with him still astride of it, up the Harrison road to the northwest toward Fort Gill. John Collins' horse ran up a road to the eastward, toward Fort Ledgerwood. Dudley Mack arrived within the stockade enclosure at Fort Gill and there, under an elm tree, fell off his horse dead. (This tree died a few years ago and was cut down. The stump is still there. It is now out in the field about 100 feet southwest of the last elm tree standing at the south end of the group of trees that now surrounds the house on the W.H. (Hank) Poston farm, southeast and across the road from the present Rose Chapel Church). This was late in the afternoon of Sunday, February 12, 1815. His body was carried into Fort Gill. That night, Mary Ann Gill, the wife of William Gill, made the winding sheet in which his body was encased. A walnut tree was cut down, a log of sufficient length was sawed off, the log split into two halves with a wedge and maul, each rounded half-log dug out with a foot adz and wood chisel, holes bored with an augur along the top of the rims of each side and at the ends of both halves, round pegs driven into the bored holes on the lower half, the body placed in this lower half and the upper half then fitted onto the projecting pegs from the lower half. By the time the body was thus prepared for burial during the night, great alarm had spread among the few settlers then left living around Fort Gill. They hurried their livestock into the stockade and decided to take all the women and children to Fort Ledgerwood, which happened then to be the best place for protection. All the other forts having been vacated and abandoned by the Government the fall before, in 1814. During the night a messenger arrived from Fort Ledgerwood, for Mary Ann Gill to come and dress the wounds of John Collins who had arrived there, until the nearest doctor, who was at Vincennes, could arrive, which would take 2 days time. A son of John Haddon had already been sent by horse to get him, probably Dr. Keykendall. (Mary Ann Gill, the wife of William Gill, was a daughter of Dr. McCrae, of Wilmington, North Carolina, and before her marriage had been an army nurse). Before daybreak, of the morning of February 13th, 1815, the start was made for Fort Ledgerwood. The coffin containing the body of Dudley Mack was taken along with them in a wagon. When the site was reached where the Webb cemetery is now located, a stop was made long enough to hurriedly dig a grave alongside the then Harrison road. William Gill, a clergyman and school master, conducted the short burial service. The site of the cemetery was then wooded except that part where the Harrison road ran across it, in a general direction from the northwest to the southeast. For many years a tree was left standing at the head of the grave of Dudley Mack, but it was later cut down. The late Charles W. Webb remembered both the tree and the later stump, as well as the location of every grave near that of Dudley Mack, most of whom were his relatives and many of whose graves he had helped dig. The wounds of John Collins at Fort Ledgerwood were dressed by Mary Ann Gill, as soon as they could arrive there, after the burial of Dudley Mack as above explained. He recovered and later became the founder of the numerous Collins' family of Haddon township, this county. Little is now known about Dudley Mack. At the time he was killed, he was a full matured man, of large size, and must have been at least 25 years old, in 1815, which would place his birth date at about 1790. Many New York settlers had settled in this section at that time, and he was one of them. It is not yet fully determined which Mack family of New York state he belonged to, but as soon as it is ascertained, it will be published. ********* Taken from the Sullivan Union, June 8, 1939, read on microfilm at the Terre Haute, Indiana library from Dr. Maple's Scrapbook. HOLLENBACK CEMETERY, ANOTHER EARLY BURIAL GROUND, IN GILL TOWNSHIP Old Cemetery, Now Surrounded by Wheat Field, Is Located on Knoll About One-half Mile Southeast of Rose Chapel. By Samuel S. Brewer Another one of the early cemeteries included in the chain of 50 or 60 historic burial grounds mentioned in last week's article in the Sullivan Union, is the Hollenback, sometimes spelled Hollenbeck, situate along the Tippecanoe Indian trail on Gill's Prairie in Gill Township, Sullivan County, Indiana. The exact survey location is in the Southwest 1/4 of the Southeast 1/4 of Section 35, Town 7 North, Range 10 West, in the above named township and county. The knoll upon which the cemetery is located lies just east of the old Harrison military road, later the Vincennes and Terre Haute stage road. The Tippecanoe Indian trail passed directly over this knoll where the cemetery was later established. The old state road, many years ago, was closed over this original route, then running from the northwest to the southeast, and re-routed on the half-section line running due north and south, until it intersects the county road running east and west along the line between townships 6 and 7. The cemetery is about ½ mile southeast of the present Rose Chapel church. Since the re-location of the old road, as above explained, the cemetery is left out in a field, now in wheat, seeded with lespedesia for fall pasturage. The cemetery as it now stands in this wheat field in about 400 or 500 feet due north of the above said county road, running east and west along the dividing line between townships 6 and 7. The knoll upon which the cemetery is located has two large cedar trees standing at the west side of it, which can be very easily seen from the roadway. At the southwest corner of the cemetery stands an ornamental iron gate, still on its hinges, and surrounding the same are iron posts from which the wires have been removed. This cemetery is about ¾ of a mile northwest of the Webb cemetery, and a little more than ¼ of a mile southeast of the present W.H. (Hank) Poston farm residence near the Rose Chapel church. The land upon which the cemetery is situate was first purchased from the government by Alexander Chamberlain, on Aug. 23, 1816. (The Southeast ¼ of Section 35, Town 7 North, Range 10 West - the 160-acre tract upon which Fort Gill then stood). Alexander Chamberlain sold this tract of land to Thomas Hollenback in 1817, who owned the same until his death, sometime prior to May of 1847, when the same passed to his children, David, William and Jane Hollenback. The part upon which the cemetery was located going to his daughter, Jane Hollenback, who married for her first husband James Poston and for her second Husband James Madison Mason. By her first marriage she was the mother of the late William H. and James Poston, and by her second, the mother of Mesha Mason. On Feb. 11, 1876, Jane Hollenback Mason and her second husband, James M. Mason, conveyed to William Hollenback, James Poston and Mesha Mason, trustees, for $2.00, the 35 /100 of an acre of land described by metes and bounds, as surveyed by A.F. Estabrook, upon which this cemetery was located, to be by them in trust held and maintained, and their successors in office, held and maintained, as a cemetery of public burying ground. The first burial was made therein sometime subsequent to 1817, and prior to 1847, probably as early as 1825, which would make the cemetery at least over 100 years old. The headstones and monuments which formerly marked the graves in this cemetery have all disappeared, except those placed there by the government at the head of the graves of 3 civil war soldiers, James M. Milam, born April 14, 1836, died Nov. 11, 1878, aged 42 years, 6 mos, 27 days; William H. Hollenback and M.V.Jones. The same historic events and names of notable men, as mentioned in connection with the Webb cemetery article of last week, also are a part of the history of the Hollenback cemetery. The names of those that were buried there cannot now be secured from headstones, except those herein listed of the three soldiers. If the trustees named in the deed of 1876 and their successors had any record of the burials made in this historic cemetery, it would now be of great interest. If no formal record of this kind was kept, it is possible that records made in family Bibles and from other sources among the descendants of Thomas Hollenback could supply many of the names of those that were buried there. Thomas Hollenback and his wife, Patsy Hollenback, were the maternal grandparents of both the late W.H. Poston and James Poston, and the maternal great-grandparents of Ed Poston, now living near Rose Chapel church, and the daughters of the late W.H. Poston, now living at Sullivan, Indiana, and the maternal great-great-grandparents of Donald S. Milam and his sister, both of whom are now living at Evansville, Indiana. On September 16, 1811, the Northeast ¼ of Section 8, Town 6 North, Range 10 West, was entered by Stephen Campbell - this 160 acre tract of land lies just south of the 160 acres above described entered by Alexander Chamberlain of Aug. 23, 1816, and upon which the Hollenbeck cemetery is located. Also just east of the Northeast ¼ of Section 2, in Town 6 North, Range 10 West, lies the Northwest ¼ of Section 1, in the same town and range. This latter 160 acre tract was entered by John Campbell, a brother of Stephen Campbell, on Sept. 12, 1816. Thomas Edwards also entered land on April 26, 1817, a short distance northwest of the tracts above described entered by Stephen and John Campbell. The Thomas Edwards entry being the West ½ of the Northwest ¼ of Section 34, in Town 7 North, Range 10 West, the same being 80 acres, lying about 1 ½ miles northwest of the Stephen Campbell entry. Stephen Campbell and Thomas Edwards were the fathers of the two boys who were captured by the same Indians late in the afternoon of the same day that Dudley Mack was killed, Feb. 12, 1815, as related in last week's issue of the Sullivan Union. The two boys, aged about 15 or 16 years, were out hunting on the high ridge of ground just west of the Stephen Campbell house, called "Club Hill," and the present site of the Hollenback cemetery. The Indians had followed after Dudley Mack as his horse carried him past the house of Stephen Campbell, and the present site of this cemetery, to Fort Gill. The Indians did not pursue him up the then Harrison road, but "skulked" up the ridge west of this road, running in a general northwesterly direction, in order to keep out of sight. As they came up this ridge they came upon these two boys hunting along this ridge just west of the Stephen Campbell house and the present site of the Hollenback cemetery. They captured both of them about dusk of Feb. 22, 1815. Immediately they hurried with them to the hills just south of the present Rose Branch, first known as "Boudinot Creek:, and just west of the present residence of Ed Poston. From these hills they crossed the log causeway, then a part of the military road running between the Half-Way Fort near the Cottonwood Tree and Fort Coupee, and the natural ford over the Wabash river to Fort Lamotte, all of which had been vacated by the government the fall before. Down this road they went to the ford which they crossed that night without being detected. From there they hurried up the Indian trail leading to the northwest, across the Territory of Illinois and across the Mississippi river into the present state of Iowa. The boys were adopted into an Indian tribe and eventually one of them became an Indian chieftain, where he was afterwards seen many times in later years near St. Joseph, Mo. They both refused to return to Gill's Prairie when found as late as in the 1850's by the 49'ers. Immediately after the discovery that night of their capture, a party of mounted men went in pursuit of these Indians. However, they made the mistake of going northward up the Harrison road toward Fort Harrison, instead of up the trail to the northwest, and for this reason they were unsuccessful in their pursuit, and the Indians with both these boys escaped. The immediate country surrounding the Hollenback and Webb cemeteries was the center of the territory in Gill township, from which the majority of the "Argonauts" of the gold rush of 1849 lived when they left this township for this trip. Among some of those who left for the gold fields of California at this time were William H. Hollenback and his brother, David T. Hollenback, Jr., both sons of William H. Hollenback, Sr., and grandsons of Thomas Hollenback and Patsy Hollenback; Henry R. (Dick) Milam and his brother, John T. Milam, sons of Ambrose and Sarah (Mason) Milam; Joshua Sinex and his brother, William Sinex; Charles W. Webb, a son of Epenetus Webb, Jr; Robert Massey, a son-in-law of Jonathan Webb; John S. Copeland, the father of the late George S. Copeland, a former trustee of Gill township; Augustus Clerk, a brother of the late Rufus D. Clerk, long of New Lebanon, Indiana; Samuel F. Sandusky, father of Murray Sandusky of New Lebanon; John Sandusky, brother of Samuel F. Sandusky; Jonathan Knotts, father of John Proctor Knotts of Palestine, Ill,; Samuel Lillie, father of John and Charles Lillie, and Emerson Short, captain of the trip. There may have been others in addition to these above named that some of the readers may know. Of the 15 above named, all later returned to Gill township, except Augustine Clerk, who died while in California, John S. Copeland, who later died there; and David T. Hollenback, Jr., who left California and went to the Western Australia gold country in the rush to that region in about 1870, in which latter country he remained until about 1902 or 1903, when he returned to Sullivan county, bringing with him his married daughter and her two small girls, about 8 and 10 years old. His son-in-law did not return with him. While here, his daughter's husband, living in Australia, became ill and she returned to that country ahead of her father, who followed her and his two granddaughters a year or two later, or shortly after 1904. He lived there for several years upon his return to Australia, where he died in about 1910 or 1912, at a very advanced age, and is buried in Australia. Of the other 12 who did return to Gill township, all are buried in cemeteries in that township. Henry B. Milam and John T. Milam, at the Milam cemetery, Joshua Sinex and William Sinex at the Webb, William H. Hollenback, at the Hollenback; Charles W. Webb, at the Webb; Robert Massey, at the New Merom cemetery, Merom, Ind. Samuel F. Sandusky died in Missouri and is buried in Mt. Zion cemetery near New Lebanon. John Sandusky is buried in the Webb cemetery. Jonathan Knotts if buried at Palestine, Ill. Samuel Lillie and Emerson Short are both buried in Sullivan county. A whole volume could be written about the experiences of these 15 men who made this eventful trip. They went first to St. Joseph, Mo. From there they followed the old Santa Fe Indian trail until they reached southern California, thence northward up the San Joaquin valley, in that state, until they reached the gold fields. ******** Taken from Dr. Maple's Scrapbook and read on microfilm at the Terre Haute library. Originally printed in The Sullivan Union, June 15, 1939 Another Old Cemetery in Chain Burial Grounds In This County Boudinot "Old Grave Yard" in Gill Township Had First Burial 128 Years Ago. But One Grave Stone Remains. By Samuel S. Brewer Included in the chain of 50 or 60 early historic cemeteries in Sullivan County, Indiana, is the Boudinot (pronounced Bodino). This cemetery is located along the route of the main Tippecanoe Indian Trail about halfway between the present Rose Branch and the Cottonwood Tree. The present county road runs about ¼ of a mile east of it. The exact survey location is near the Northwest corner of the southeast ¼, of the northwest ¼ of Section 35, Town 7 North, Range 10 West, in Gill Township, Sullivan County, Indiana, the same being on the 160 acre tract of land originally purchased from the government by Elisha Boudinot, on August 26, 1817. John Boudinot, Sr., later came into possession of this land and he died at Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1846, and was buried in this cemetery. The grave of John Boudinot, Sr. in now marked with a headstone, with the following inscription carved upon it: "John Boudinot, born in New Jersey, in 1768, and died in 1846, aged 79 years." This is the only headstone now left standing in this cemetery. A few years after the death of John Boudinot, Sr., a deed was made by John P. Baird, Commissioner of Vigo County, Indiana, to James H. O'Boyle. Acknowledged by William Hendricks, Notary Public, and duly approved by Hon. Solomon Claypool, Judge of the Vigo Circuit Court, in 1858, for all the lands of John Boudinot, Sr., located in Sullivan County, Indiana. Included in these lands, thus conveyed, was the tract upon which this cemetery was located, and referred to in said deed in the following language, "excepting about one-half acre known as the Old Graveyard on the above described premises, the title to which is herewith expressly excepted from this conveyance and the right of way and from the same on the premises reserved. And all the rights, title and interests of the said James T. Moffat and Julia, his wife, and the said Mary A. Boudinot, Edward B. Boudinot, Elias Elliott Boudinot, Kate Boudinot, Tobias Boudinot, Catherine Boudinot, Elijah Lead and Abby, his wife, John W. Hunley and Maria Hunley, his wife, and William Murray, in to to the aforesaid premises, subject to the exception, together with all the privileges, etc., to the said James H. O'Boyle, his heirs and assigns forever". It will be noted, from the foregoing deed, that in 1858, when Judge Solomon Claypool approved the same, with this remarkable exception in it, the Boudinot Cemetery was then of sufficient age, 81 years ago, to be referred to and designated as "the Old Graveyard". In fact, it was at that time 47 years of age, and had been in continuous use, as such, since the early Spring of 1811. It is, therefore, now 128 years old, in 1939. The first burial was made at this particular place, during corn planting time, in the latter part of April or early in May, of 1811. A mounted scout was making his way from the boat landings, at Point Coupee, up the Tecumseh Indiana Trail, to the place where it formed a junction with the main Tippecanoe Indiana Trail, near the large Cottonwood Tree. He was enroute to the then Gill Blockhouse. William Gill, Stephen Campbell, William Berry and John (Clubfoot) Bogard, were about then all the settlers living in this locality. The scout had just crossed the narrow strip of marshland, along the Tecumseh Trail, and had ascended the slope north of this marsh when he was fired upon by Indians. He fell off his horse dead. The Indians rushed up and scalped him, captured his horse, and then made their escape back down the trail to the boat landings, where they crossed the Wabash River, over the ford, then furnished by the exposed vein of coal, over the same. The settlers around the Gill Blockhouse heard the report of the shots, while out in their fields planting corn. They ran toward the place where they heard the shots. They found the body of the scout, lying beside the trail, near the crest of the ridge, north of the Creek, now called the Rose Branch, scalped. A grave was immediately dug on a knoll near where the body was found, on the east side of the Tecumseh Trail, just before it reaches the place where it forms a junction with the main Tippecanoe Trail. This knoll where the body of this slain scout was buried, is now the Boudinot Cemetery and was the first burial made in it. This was in the early Spring of 1811. The expedition of General William Henry Harrison, during the Tippecanoe Campaign, did not pass this place until the following September of 1811, and the Half-Way Ford and other fortifications included in that system of military defenses were not erected until the Spring following of 1812. The large base fort, the Half-way, was first to be built. While it was occupied as a military base, from the Spring of 1812 until the Fall of 1814, many deaths of troops occurred. These were all buried on the same knoll, where this scout has been previously buried. Soon after the evacuation of the fort, it was dismantled. The 160-acre tract of land purchased from the government by Elisha Boudinot, on August 26, 1817, contained within its limits this knoll where this scout and these soldiers, had been interred. He fenced this plot of ground off and made a cemetery of it. When he died, sometime subsequent to 1817, and prior to 1835, his body was interred in it, as well as those of his wife, children and other relatives. Until about 30 or 35 years ago, the cemetery was at the west side of a large woods, with a fence around it. Many second-growth trees of considerable size, were scattered over it, and among those trees were at least 5 or 6 head-stones standing, with many others lying on the ground. The large woods and the trees that once stood on the site of this cemetery, have been cut down, and that part of the northwest corner of the "Old Graveyard" where the lone headstone of John Boudinot, Sr., as above explained, stands, is now in the corner of a large triangular shaped field. The driveway "to and from the cemetery" as reserved in the deed, is now a dense growth of underbrush and second-growth trees. This driveway is about 30 feet wide, and runs due north and south, along the dividing line between Sections 34 and 35, in Town 7 North, Range 10 West. The Cottonwood Tree stands about ¼ of a mile northeast of the cemetery. The site of the large Half-Way Fort is about ½ mile northwest thereof. The route of the old Point Coupee Military Road, formerly the Tecumseh Indiana Trail, passes alongside the west line and the route of the main Tippecanoe Indian Trail, less than ¼ of a mile, to the east of it. The Harrison Military Road, built in 1811, passed along the northeast corner of the knoll where the body of the scout was buried, and later the soldiers who died at the Half-Way Fort. When the Vincennes and Terre Haute Stage Road was built, its course was about ¼ of a mile east of the then Boudinot Cemetery. If those who have been keeping the writer's articles on file, will turn to the one entitled "Grand Design of Military Fortifications in the county" in the issue of the Sullivan Union, of February 23, 1939, they will find additional data concerning the Boudinot family. The house built by Elisha Boudinot, shortly after his arrival in Sullivan County, in 1817, from New Jersey, was on the east side of the Vincennes and Terre Houte Stage Road, and near the bridge over the then Boudinot Creek, now called the Rose Branch. It was at this creek the stages were stopped to water the horses. Before long, or in about 1825 the house was enlarged and made into a tavern, called the "State House Tavern". The old Half-Way Tavern, described in a former article, had ceased to be a logical stopping place. The State House Tavern now succeeded it. Here the Stages stopped, in their run between Carlisle and Merom to leave mail. The State House Tavern being the place where the mail for the town of Lebanon, now New Lebanon, received its mail, until about 1845, and possibly until the E.&T.H. Railroad was built in 1852, when the stages were discontinued. The mail for "Lebanon" was brought by horseback over the old Indian Trail which ran from the Victory (Vickery) Springs, on the Stage Line, across the high and dry ground, to the trading post of Jesse Haddon. This was called the Haddon Trail. The line of this old trail can still be followed. The trail ran as far to the northeast as the cabin of Christian Canary, east of New Lebanon, in Hamilton Township. Part of the old State House Tavern is still in use, when it was moved to the location of where the Wheeler residence now stands near Rose Chapel. This old part now in use is over 120 years old. It was at the State House Tavern that not only the mail for "Lebanon" now New Lebanon was deposited, but also that for the town of Bristol, across the river in Illinois, from Point Coupee. The town of Bristol later became a "ghost town" and ceased to exist shortly after Palestine was started and became the Capitol for the State of Illinois. The mail for Palestine was also left here at the State House Tavern, and it was on account of the mail for the State of Illinois arriving from the east was left here, that the tavern became known as the State House Tavern. It was at this post office kept at the State House Tavern that Abraham Lincoln mailed a letter back to Gentryville, Indiana, when the Thomas Lincoln family migrated to Illinois in 1830. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Pat Short (© 2000 Pat Short)