| Before the treaty of Vincennes, which gave the United States a title to the land between the Vincennes tract and the Ohio river, many persons who had started from Virginia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, intending to settle in the Northwest Territory, had stopped in Kentucky, all along the southern bank of the Ohio river, and were waiting for an opportunity to enter Indiana, as soon as the government had possession and the surveys began. There is no regular survey in Kentucky, and settlers were never sure of their titles. Frequently all their possessions were lost through an unknown previous title or claim. | |
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Buffalo & Cumberland Trail across Indiana After the treaty these people entered Indiana over the Blue River, Rome, Yellow Banks, Red Banks, Saline, and other trails. It is said that from 1785 to 1812 more than 2,000 men, women and children were carried into captivity from Kentucky and the Northwest Territory, and that not one in ten was ever heard of again. |
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| The surveyor of range 4 east, made a note of an Indian trace in Harrison county. A trace crossed the south fork of Buck creek two miles above its mouth. It is also recorded about two miles farther south. Probably this trace led from the Ohio river to Corydon, and eventually to the Buffalo trace, tile main trunk line, so far as Indian traces, in southern Indiana, are concerned. Incidentally, the War of 1812 was the cause of the capital of Indiana Territory being moved from Vincennes to Corydon. The Buffalo trace crossed Blue river two or three miles east of the southeast corner of Orange county. The Blue river crossing was historically prominent. Squire Boone’s mill stood on Buck creek, and Boone’s “cave sepulcher” is near by. The Buck creek trace was well known in the pioneer days of Harrison county. | |
| There was a small fort on the Kentucky side of the Ohio, at the mouth of Salt river, and many pioneers came to Indiana, by way of this stream. | |
| “There appears to have been an Indian trail five miles south of what is now Leopold, in Perry county. It led northwest from the Ohio river. Going almost northwest from Rome, in Perry county, and leaving Cannelton, Tell City and Troy from six to eight miles south, an Indian road crossed the Anderson river three miles southeast of Fulda, passed through Fulda, Mariah Hill, and went north of Dale, almost to the southwest corner of Dubois county, entered Pike county, and seems to have been lost at the Freeman line, two miles northeast of Pleasantville. The “Yellow Banks Trail” came up from Rockport, by way of Chrisney, Gentryville, and joined the “Rome Trace” near the Pike county line. Rome was originally called Washington. It was an early county seat of Perry county. E. Buckingham, William Rector and Levi Barber were early settlers in Perry county. These names are found upon the early surveys of Indiana.” | |
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| Survey of the Buffalo Trail. There was a Buffalo trail, made into a trace, that led from the Falls of the Ohio, through the Vincennes Tract to Vincennes. The white men held Clark’s Grant and the Vincennes Tract, but the trail between the two was on Indian land. The land south of this trail was purchased from the Indians at Vincennes, August 18 and 27, 1804. The treaty reads: “Article VI. As the road from Vincennes to Clark’s Grant will form a very inconvenient boundary, and as it is the intention of the parties to these presents, that the v^^hole of the said road shall be within the tract ceded to the United States, it is agreed that the boundary in that quarter shall be a straight line, to be drawn parallel to the course of said road, from the eastern boundary of the tract ceded by the treaty of Fort Wayne, to Clark’s grant, but the said line is not to pass at a greater distance than half a mile from the most northerly bend of said road.”^”*^ Of course this was all General Harrison wished. It gave him possession of the trace from the Ohio river to Vincennes. A surveyor was put to work. He surveyed the actual trace by magnetic courses and measured distances, and thus ascertained his final course and ran the boundary line one-half mile from the trail’s most northerly bend. His record definitely locates the trail to the Vincennes Trace, and from there to Vincennes the range surveyors noted it in their surveys, thus this old trail is a matter of exact record. The survey of this Buffalo trail, where it was used in the treaty, was made by William Rector. The distance was 40 miles and 42 chains. The work was done in July, 1805. The New Albany and Paoli pike is north of this line.^^^ This Buffalo trace or trail is referred to on early maps as “Buffalo Trace,” “Kentucky Road,” “Harrison’s Road,” “Road to Louisville,” “Vincennes Trace,” “Buffalo Trail,” etc. William Rector was surveyor-general of Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas, from 1814 to 1824. | |