Yorktown/Mt. Pleasant Historical Alliance and Museum

Category: H 1751-1800

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1788 Administration of the Northwest Territory Begins

Governor Arthur St. Clair arrived within the Northwest Territory at Marietta, Ohio to begin administration of civil duties within the territory. St. Clair formally established the territorial government on July 15, 1788. The settlement of Losantiville was renamed by St. Clair to “Cincinnati” in 1790 and he moved the administrative and military center of the territory to Fort Washington.

Fort Washington was in downtown Cincinnati, providing easy access to the Ohio River. The Fort was the major staging area for settlers, troops and supplies during the settlement of the Northwest Territory.

The first written criminal and civil laws of the Northwest Territory were established. Thirty-seven different laws were written with the understanding that the laws had to have been passed previously in one of the thirteen original states. A structured court system was established.

Many early trips west began in Marietta or Cincinnati. The first part of Indiana to be settled was in the south and southwest, along the rivers.

Marietta is on the Ohio River Between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati
1822 Map of Indiana

The settlement of Indiana happened primarily from the rivers. The south and southwestern parts of Indiana were divided into counties first. Fort Vincennes was established by the French between 1731-1732. The Fort was later was occupied by the British who called it Sackville before it became a possession of the U.S.

Vincennes was used to muster soldiers to fight in the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. The soldiers marched along the Wabash to near the confluence of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers. The area is known today as Battle Ground, Indiana. It was there that General William Henry Harrison met the confederacy of tribes led by Tenskwatawa, “The Prophet” for battle. Tenskwatawa was the brother of the great Shawnee warrior, Tecumseh, who was not at the battle.

Vincennes was the first capital of Indiana Territory until it was moved to Corydon on May 1, 1813.

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1787 Northwest Territory Established

The Northwest Territory was established by the Northwest Ordinance on lands that that later became Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota.   The territory marked the the nation’s first post-colonial organized territory. The territory ceased to exist on March 1, 1803 when other territories were made from the land it contained.

At first, the land in the Territory was absorbed first into Indiana Territory and Ohio. Indiana territory was much larger than the state of Indiana today. Indiana Territory existed from July 4, 1800, to December 11, 1816, ending when Indiana became a state.

Map of the Northwest Territory 1787

 Book: Charles Kendall Adams, A History of the United States (Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1909) pg 189; Map Credit: Courtesy the private collection of Roy Winkelman

History of the Northwest Territory Divisions

Map Courtesy of: Indiana History Blog, (blog.history.in.gov)

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1783 Treaty Ending the Revolutionary War

The Treaty of Paris was signed with the British ending the Revolutionary War.

The Spanish, along with American citizens, marched into Western Quebec (what later became the Northwest Territory, which included Indiana), and expelled the British forces. Sir Henry Clinton lead forces that forced British General Cornwallis to retreat to Yorktown, Virginia. Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781.

 On September 3, 1783, the treaty was signed between Great Britain and the United States which officially ended the war.

Below: In 1774, Indiana was part of the Province of Quebec. In 1883, present-day Indiana was ceded by the British to the United States.

Map, 2005 Encyclopedia of Britannia
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1763 Restriction on Westward Movement

The British took possession of the area that included what would become the Northwest Territory from the French. In the Royal Proclamation of 1763, Britain forbid American colonists from settling in the “New West”, which included present-day Indiana. The British allowed a few hundred Frenchmen who were already settled in the area to remain but the colonists were restricted from crossing the Appalachian Mountains to settle. The British had set aside this land in treaties with Native Americans.

As crowding and competition increased, the prohibition put stress on the European settlers and contributed to the American rebellion and revolution. The line was just west of Appalachia and is referred to as the Proclamation Line.

1763 France Ceded Land to Great Britain. Proclamation line west of Appalachian Mountains.
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1785-1795 Little Turtle’s War

Little Turtle’s War, also known as the Northwest Indian War, was fought between 1785-1795. Britain ceded the land in the Northwest Territory to the United States after the end of the Revolutionary War but Britain maintained military forts and outposts around the Great Lakes even after that time. The agreement between the U.S. and Britain, the Treaty of Paris (1783), marked the Great Lakes as a boundary between the two countries.

Britain continued to support Native American agitators. Native Americans had a centuries-old history of conflict among themselves over the land surrounding the Great Lakes. In 1785, Native Americans formed the Western Confederation of tribes with the help of Britain to resist European settlers encroaching on the tribal lands. The tribes also wanted all land north of the Ohio River This is considered to be the first conflict of the United States Indian Wars.

The United States was defeated badly in Harmar Campaign in 1790 and St. Clair’s Defeat in 1791. The St. Clair’s Defeat cost the lives of 1,000. President Washington sent General “Mad Dog” Anthony Wayne to lead the forces to enforce land rights in the Northwest Territory. (Note: Ft. Wayne, Indiana is named for Anthony Wayne.)

Unknown to the Western Confederacy who thought that Britain would help them, the Brits had signed the Jay Treaty in 1795 which gave assurances to the U.S. that Britain would no longer aid the Native Americans.

In 1794, General Wayne won a decisive victory in the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794.

After the defeat of the Western Confederacy, the Native Americans were compelled to sign the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. The treaty, included the Delaware, Wyandot, Shawnee, Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Miami, Wea, Kickapoo, and Kaskaskia tribes. The treaty redefined the boundary between the U.S. and Native American land. This line was known as the Greenville Treaty Line. The treaty gave a large swath of land to the United States government that included northwestern Ohio and a strip of land in southern Indiana.

(Map from Ohio Lands and Their Subdivisions (1918) page 98)

VISIT US

9132 W Smith St., Yorktown, Indiana 47396
Next to Osborn County Kitchen
Free Parking in the Town Lot

Museum is Open

12 Noon-4:00 PM on Thursdays and Fridays

Other hours by appointment

Contact us

Karen Strahan Brown Good,  President Email: yorktownhistoricalalliance@gmail.com

Phone: 765-729-0093

 

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