 | The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent an indigenous view of the subject.(September 2019) |
Pigeon Roost State Historic Site is located between Scottsburg and Henryville, Indiana, United States. A one-lane road off U.S. Route 31 takes the visitor to the site of a village where Native Americans massacred 24 settlers shortly after the War of 1812 began.
Pigeon Roost was established in 1809 by William E. Collings (1758–1828), and consisted mainly of settlers from Kentucky. Collings and his large family held the original land grants in what is now Nelson County, Kentucky, signed by the Governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry. These land grants were deemed illegal. After the passage of the Northwest Ordinance, many squatters moved across the Ohio River and occupied Shawnee lands in southern Indiana. Families living in what is today Scott, Clark, Jefferson and Washington Counties still can often trace their ancestry back to these early settlers. [1]
The town was named Pigeon Roost because of the great number of passenger pigeons in the area. The settlement consisted of a single line of cabins stretching north and south approximately one mile north of the present town of Underwood. The nearest Indian village was located some 20 miles north near the Muskatatuck River. None of the Indians from this settlement are believed to have taken part in the attack on Pigeon Roost. The closest forts (called "blockhouses") were one to the north in Vienna in present-day Scott County and another built by Zebulon Collings to the south near what is now Henryville in Clark County.
| Pigeon Roost Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the War of 1812 and the American Indian Wars | |
 Indiana historical marker | |
| Location | Between Scottsburg, Vienna Township, Scott County, Indiana and Henryville, Monroe Township, Clark County, Indiana, US |
| Coordinates | 38°37′02″N85°46′25″W / 38.617181°N 85.773709°W |
| Date | September 3, 1812 – |
Attack type | Mass murder |
| Deaths | 24 christian settlers 4 Shawnee warriors |
| Perpetrators | Mostly Shawnees possibly some Delawares and Potawatomis |
On September 3, 1812, a small party of Indians (mostly Shawnee, but possibly including some Delawares and Potawatomis) led by Missilimetaw (or Missilemotaw), made a surprise attack on the village, which appeared to be coordinated with attacks on Fort Harrison (near Terre Haute, Indiana) and Siege of Fort Wayne the same month. [2] In all, twenty-four settlers, including fifteen children, were killed, and two children were taken. Only four of the Native American party were killed.
The Native Americans first came across two hunters near Pigeon Roost and attacked them. [2] They then proceeded to the village, where they struck the cabin of Elias Payne. According to hear-say, Payne's wife and seven children were all killed and scalped; Elias was later found by the Indians in the woods with his brother-in-law Isaac Coffman, and they, too, were killed. Elias Payne had been only wounded, but with no one to tend his wounds, he bled to death. Payne's grave was later destroyed during construction of Interstate 65. [3]
Some settlers managed to escape to the blockhouse of Zebulon Collings, but the Collings family lost many members. Henry Collings was killed and his pregnant wife stabbed to death. According to a journal entry by Henry's brother-in-law, George Heinrich Crist, "Henry lived to tell that little Kill Buck shot him". Henry Collings's brother, Richard, was serving in the army under General William Henry Harrison, but his wife and seven children were among the dead. There is little documented evidence for most of the accounts offered. [4]
William Collings' actions during the attack have been the subject of conjecture. One account has him killing four Indians single-handedly and then holding off the remainder of the attackers with broken or unloaded rifles. Another version says Collings and his youngest son sneaked out the back of his cabin and hid in a nearby cornfield, until they finally were able to escape to Zebulon Collings's blockhouse. A third account (from a journal of George Heinrich Crist, Jr) states Capt. John Norris was at the home William Collings. "If Captain John Norris had not been at Uncle Williams, him and John and Lydia would most likely been killed."
The wife of John Biggs, a sister of William Collings, heard the war party approach her cabin, and fled with her three children to hide in a thicket. The raiders could tell the cabin had just been evacuated, so they burned it and searched for the family. As one of the Indians approached the thicket, the youngest child began to whimper, and Mrs. Biggs stuffed her shawl into the infant's mouth to keep it from betraying their hiding place. When the raiding party moved on, the Biggs family was able to reach Zebulon Colling's blockhouse, but the infant had died of suffocation. [5]
As news of the massacre spread, the other Pigeon Roost settlers fled and assembled at Zebulon Colling's blockhouse. The Indian war party left before the local militia, based in Charlestown, could react. Over one hundred militiamen, [2] led by Major John McCoy, [6] mustered the next day, [2] and followed the attackers as far as the Muscatatuck River, where the trail was lost. [6] Some militia men believed they would have fared better had they been led by General Joseph Bartholomew, who was away from home. [7] A force of Indiana Rangers from Washington County, Indiana under Captain Henry Dawalt intercepted the Pigeon Roost raiders at Sand Creek (in modern Bartholomew County, Indiana). One of the rangers, John Zink, was shot and later died, but the war party was able to escape with only a few casualties. [6]
According to contemporary reports, the leader of the attack was rumored to be an Indian named Missilemotaw. He was captured on September 20, 1813, and under threat of death confessed he had led the raid. He claimed to be a close confidant of the Indian chieftain Tecumseh and told his captors the British had been supplying the Indians with arms and equipment since 1809 in preparation for war.
The massacre was the first Native American attack against U.S. settlers in Indiana during the War of 1812. It is sometimes stated to be part of the larger conflict between the U.S. and Native Americans in the Northwest Territory, [8] though other historians point to previous interactions between the Indians and their victims as a source of motivations behind the massacre. One of the massacre's victims reported the name of his assailant prior to succumbing to his wounds, proving his acquaintance with the attacker. [9] According to historian Lewis Baird, "The Pigeon Roost massacre was not an Indian raid as has been so often stated. The Indians passed through the little hamlet which was the nucleus of Vienna and never harmed a soul, while there. There had been bad blood between the Collins family and the Indians for some time. The Collins boys had stolen a fawn from the Indians and refused to give it up, and from this cause and possibly some other, the whole trouble originated. Those other than Collinses were killed only because they lived in that neighborhood. Neither before nor after the massacre were other white people harmed, showing conclusively that it was only a local fight and giving no cause for alarm to other settlers." [10]
The Pigeon Roost settlement was rebuilt, but was eventually abandoned. Most of the victims were buried in a mass grave, to include members of the Collings and Richey families. Indiana Ranger John Zink was buried in Salem, Indiana's Brock Cemetery.
In 1904 the state of Indiana authorized $2,000 to build a memorial to the victims of the Pigeon Roost Massacre. It is a 44-foot-tall (13 m) obelisk and the area was made a state historic site in 1929.
Recently, new historic markers were placed on US-31 at the entrance to the site and a picnic shelter was built. The state has turned the site over to Scott County. This year a log cabin was built on the site, similar to the ones that would have been built by the early settlers. An annual picnic is held on the site, the second Sunday in September.
Fort Ouiatenon, built in 1717, was the first fortified European settlement in what is now Indiana, United States. It was a palisade stockade with log blockhouse used as a French trading post on the Wabash River located approximately three miles southwest of modern-day West Lafayette. The name 'Ouiatenon' is a French rendering of the name in the Wea language, waayaahtanonki, meaning 'place of the whirlpool'. It was one of three French forts built during the 18th century in what was then New France, later the Northwest Territory and today the state of Indiana, the other two being Fort Miami and Fort Vincennes. A substantial French settlement grew up around the fort in the mid-18th century. It was ceded to the British and abandoned after the French and Indian war. Later, it passed into Indian hands and was destroyed in 1791 by American militia during the Northwest Indian War. It was never a U.S. fort. The original site was rediscovered in the 1960s; the archaeological site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021.
The Copus massacre is a name given to a skirmish occurring on September 15, 1812, between American settlers and Lenape, Wyandot, and Mohawk Native Americans on the Ohio frontier during the War of 1812.
The Zimmer massacre was the massacre of four settlers by Native Americans in Mifflin Township, Ashland County, Ohio in September, 1812. Although the exact motive for the attack is unknown, the end result was that four settlers were killed, further increasing the distrust between Native Americans and settlers at the beginning of the War of 1812.
The siege of Fort Wayne took place from September 5 – September 12, 1812, during the War of 1812. The stand-off occurred in the modern city of Fort Wayne, Indiana between the U.S. military garrison at Fort Wayne and a combined force of Potawatomi and Miami forces. The conflict began when warriors under the Potawatomi Native American Chiefs Winamac, and Five Medals killed two members of the U.S. garrison. Over the next several days, the Potawatomi burned the buildings and crops of the fort's adjacent village, and launched assaults from outside the fort. Winamac withdrew on 12 September, ahead of reinforcements led by Major General William Henry Harrison.
Fort Harrison was a War of 1812 era stockade constructed in Oct. 1811 on high ground overlooking the Wabash River on a portion of what is today the modern city of Terre Haute, Indiana, by forces under command of Gen. William Henry Harrison. It was a staging point for Harrison to encamp his forces just prior to the Battle of Tippecanoe a month later. The fort was the site of a famous battle in the War of 1812, the siege of Fort Harrison in Sept. 1812 that was the first significant victory for the U.S. in the war. The fort was abandoned in 1818 as the frontier moved westward.
Fort Stephenson was built in the early 1800s on the west side of the lower Sandusky River. It was the site in 1813 of an American victory in the Battle of Fort Stephenson during the War of 1812.
The Spirit Lake Massacre was an attack by a Wahpekute band of Santee Sioux on scattered Iowa frontier settlements during a severe winter. Suffering a shortage of food, the renegade chief Inkpaduta led 14 Sioux against the settlements near Okoboji and Spirit lakes in the northwestern territory of Iowa near the Minnesota border, in revenge of the murder of Inkpaduta's brother, Sidominadotah, and Sidominadotah's family by Henry Lott. The Sioux killed 35-40 settlers in their scattered holdings, took four young women captive, and headed north. The youngest captive, Abbie Gardner, was kept a few months before being ransomed in early summer. It was the last Native American attack on settlers in Iowa, but the events increased tensions between the Sioux and settlers in the Minnesota Territory. Nearly 30 years after the events, in 1885 Gardner-Sharp published her memoir, History of the Spirit Lake Massacre and Captivity of Miss Abbie Gardner, which was reprinted seven times in small editions. It was one of the last captivity narratives written of European Americans' being held by Native Americans. In 1891, Gardner-Sharp purchased the primitive family cabin and returned home. For the last 30 years of her life, she subsisted on the modest earnings from her book and souvenir sales. The town erected a historical monument to commemorate the attack. The State of Iowa now maintains the park and Abbie Gardner Sharp home site.
The Big Bottom massacre was a mass killing perpetrated by Lenape and Wyandot warriors against American settlers on January 2, 1791. The massacre occurred near present-day Stockport, Ohio. It is considered part of the Northwest Indian Wars, in which native Americans in the Ohio Country clashed with American settlers, seeking to expel them from their territory.
The Sinsinawa Mound raid occurred on June 29, 1832, near the Sinsinawa mining settlement in Michigan Territory. This incident, part of the Black Hawk War, resulted in the deaths of two men; a third man survived by seeking cover in a nearby blockhouse. In the aftermath of the raid, Captain James W. Stephenson set out to pursue the attackers—a straggling band of Sauk Native Americans—but lost their trail at the Mississippi River. The attack occurred in the same week as other skirmishes and raids, and as a result helped contribute to the growing fear in the region. The raid caused the residents of nearby Platteville to consider fleeing their settlement.
The Attack at Ament's Cabin was an event during the Black Hawk War that occurred on 17 or June 18, 1832. The cabin site, in present-day Bureau County, Illinois, was settled by John L. Ament and his brother in 1829, although Ament's brother was quickly bought out by Elijah Phillips. After the 1832 Black Hawk War broke out, Ament and Phillips evacuated the site but later returned to collect belongings. On the morning of 17 or 18 June, the men were attacked by a band of Potawatomi, led by Mike Girty, probably those responsible for the Indian Creek massacre in May. Phillips was killed and the other men took shelter in Ament's cabin. Soldiers from Hennepin arrived after the attack and found Phillips' badly tomahawked body where he had fallen. They set off in a short pursuit of the attackers but eventually returned to Hennepin, Illinois with Phillips' remains.
After the outbreak of the Black Hawk War, at the Battle of Stillman's Run in May 1832, there were minor attacks and skirmishes throughout the duration of the conflict. The war was fought between white settlers in Illinois and present-day Wisconsin and Sauk Chief Black Hawk. The relatively minor attacks of the war were widely dispersed and often carried out by bands of Native Americans that were unaffiliated with Black Hawk's British Band.
Vallonia is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Driftwood and Brownstown townships, Jackson County, Indiana, United States. It was an 18th-century French settlement and 19th-century American frontier fortification known as Fort Vallonia. As of the 2010 census, Vallonia had a population of 336.
The Fall Creek massacre refers to the slaughter of 9 Native Americans—two men, three women, two boys, and two girls—of uncertain tribal origin on March 22, 1824, by seven white settlers in Madison County, Indiana. The tribal band was living in an encampment along Deer Lick Creek, near the falls at Fall Creek, the site of present-day Pendleton, Indiana. The incident sparked national attention as details of the massacre and trial were reported in newspapers of the day. This was the first documented case in which white Americans were convicted, sentenced to death, and executed for the murder of Native Americans under U.S. law. Of the seven white men who participated in the crime, six were captured. The other white man, Thomas Harper, was never apprehended. Four of the men were charged with murder and the other two testified for the prosecution. The four accused men were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. James Hudson was hanged on January 12, 1825, in Madison County, and Andrew Sawyer and John Townsend Bridge Sr. were hanged on June 3, 1825. Moments before he could be executed, James B. Ray, the governor of Indiana, pardoned John Townsend Bridge Jr., the eighteen-year-old son of John Bridge Sr., due to his age, remorse, and the influence the others may have had on his involvement in the murders.
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The Indiana Rangers, also known as the Indiana Territorial Mounted Rangers, were a mounted militia formed in 1807 and operated in the early part of the 19th century to defend settlers in Indiana Territory from attacks by Native Americans. The rangers were present at the Battle of Tippecanoe, and served as auxiliaries to the army during the War of 1812. At the peak of their activities they numbered over 400 men.
Jonathan Alder was an American pioneer, and the first white settler in Madison County, Ohio. As a young child living in Virginia, Alder was kidnapped by Shawnee Indians, and later adopted by a Mingo chief in the Ohio Country. He lived with the Native Americans for many years before returning to the white community.
Anne Rowe Hupp was an American frontierswoman of the Buffalo Creek Valley in Washington County, Pennsylvania. She led the defense of a small, isolated fort, Miller's Blockhouse, against a Shawnee Indian Attack, for more than twenty-four hours in 1782 while she was eight months pregnant.
Leota is an unincorporated community in Finley Township, Scott County, in the U.S. state of Indiana.
The Battle of Wild Cat Creek was the result of a November 1812 punitive expedition against Native American villages during the War of 1812. It has been nicknamed "Spur's Defeat", which is thought to refer to the spurs used by the soldiers to drive their horses away from the battle as quickly as possible. The campaign is sometimes referred to as the Second Battle of Tippecanoe.
Samuel Wear was an American War of Independence soldier who fought at the Battle of Kings Mountain. He was one of the early inhabitants of, and a founder of, the "Lost State of Franklin". He later helped draft the Constitution of the State of Tennessee.
38°37′02″N85°46′25″W / 38.617181°N 85.773709°W
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