By David Heighway, Hamilton County Historian
In the past, people have said that William Conner was the first settler of Hamilton County because he established a trading post here in 1802. However, while he had a license to trade with the Native Americans, the fact is that he did not become a legal resident until 16 years later. He had to wait until the land was officially opened by the United States government for settlement. The document that defined this change was the Treaty of St. Mary’s.
The treaty, like most others, was an agreement by the resident Native American tribes to leave the land and let the government sell it to incoming settlers. The tribes would then move farther west to places like Missouri. While there was some payment involved, they usually gained little from these treaties. However, they had no choice except to move.
Map by John Melish from 1817. Indiana State Archives
There were separate versions of the treaty for the various tribes. The main treaty was with the Miamis who were the pre-eminent tribe in Indiana. This treaty was signed at St. Mary’s, Ohio on October 6, 1818. However, the area that would become Hamilton County was occupied primarily by the Lenape (Delaware) Indians. An 1817 map of the state shows nothing in the central area except something marked as “Delaware Towns” on the upper part of the west fork of the White River.
A separate treaty made with the Lenape was signed on October 3, 1818 by Chief Anderson – whose Lenape name was Kikthawenund – and other Lenape leaders, most of whom lived in what today is Madison County. Among the names were Lapahnihe or Big Bear, James Nanticoke (the Nanticoke Indians were a tribe allied to the Lenape), Captain Killbuck, Netahopuna, The War Mallet, Petchenanais, and others.
An interesting name on the treaty is “Captain Ketchum”, a person who likely had relatives in what would become Hamilton County. George and Charles Ketchum (or Ketchem) were a Lenape father and son who stayed in the local area after other members of the tribe had left, possibly because George had injured himself when out hunting food. They were related to the Brouilette family of fur traders and possibly to Chief Anderson. At one time, they owned land in what today is downtown Carmel.
Miami Treaty of St. Mary’s, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library
William Conner is listed on the document as an interpreter. This was, of course, the treaty that caused his Indian wife, Mekinges, to move west with her family in 1820. Very soon after his Lenape family left, Conner married Elizabeth Chapman, one of the first single white women to move into the area.
The area covered by the treaty became known as the “Delaware New Purchase”. This larger area was soon broken up into sections called Wabash County, which covered the Wabash River drainage area, and Delaware County, which covered the White River drainage area. This put the future Hamilton County in Delaware County, which is how people from the area were listed in the 1820 national census. Hamilton County was declared its own county in 1823. The Delaware New Purchase eventually became about 35 different counties.
With the removal of the indigenous people from the land, white settlers soon began to arrive. In April of 1819, the Shirts/Finch family established themselves just south of the present city of Noblesville (see Indiana State Map from 1819 from the Indiana Historical Society). They built their home at a place on the river called Horseshoe Prairie, which had been the site of a Lenape village. It’s now a gravel pit. Interestingly, the official copy of the Treaty of St. Mary’s was lost for many years. It was found and restored by the Indiana State Library in 2014 and is now part of their collection. As we observe National Native American Heritage Month in November, it’s useful to know where Hamilton County fits into that heritage.
Cover image: The “New Purchase Boundary” historical marker in Carroll County, Indiana, west of the town of Delphi along U.S. Route 421 (Indiana State Roads 39 and 18) . It reads: New Purchase Boundary (Treaty of St. Mary’s) In October 1818, Purchasing Commissioners Lewis Cass, Benjamin Parke and Governor Jonathan Jennings acquired Indian claims on the land shown on this marker. About one-third of modern Indiana was involved in this transaction.