INDIAN TRACES, THEIR EARLY UTILIZATION BY WHITE PEOPLE MODIFIED--NEIGHBORHOOD ROADS--COUNTY ROADS--STATE ROADS--HOW CONSTRUCTED--CORDUROYS--GRADED ROADWAYS--GRAVEL ROADS AND TURNPIKES--PLANK ROADS, RAILROADS, ETC.

INDIAN TRACES.

Among the Indians, as among the people of all nations, whether savage or civilized, recognized routes of travel were a necessity and established by common consent. Of these, there were different grades depending upon the importance of the points connected and their distance from each other, as well as the notability of inter-route stations. The traces were not so much the outgrowth of legislation by a council of chiefs and headmen, or a commission of engineers and road-builders, as by common consent, established by immemorial usage. They became thus fixed thoroughfares, connecting, special points of greater with those of less consequence, and the reverse. Principal traces derive their specialty from the tribe value of the great centers of communication. Some of these became international, as recognized and accepted by other tribes and nations, because of their adaptation to the purposes of general intercourse. In this connection, then, it will be proper to notice some of those of acknowledged consequence.

There were no less than three principal traces or Indiana thoroughfares centering in or passing through Delaware County, In addition to others of minor consequence. For at least one century anterior to the date when permanent white settlements were made heare, the ancient sit of Ou-tain-ink, on the north side of White River, near the present city of Muncie, was recognized as a town of considerable note by the aboriginal inhabitants of the adjacent territories of Northwest, hence the consequent fact that the routes of travel from the important Indian towns on the Miami Rivers of Ohio, to those on White River and the Wabash of Indiana, were made to connect with the apparently central point. That, perhaps from the vicinity of Piqua and Greenville to the towns on the Upper Wabash, was most frequently traversed by the red men first, and afterward by the white men upon their early advent into the valleys watered by the White River and the Wabash. Another trace, little less important, indicated the line of travel from Fort Wayne, the site of Ke-kiong-a, the grand radiating point of the old Miami Confederacy, to the White River and the Lower Wabash, through Thorntown and the other intermediate villages. Indeed, the principal line of this trace to the westward from Ou-tain-ink, became and was utilized as the accepted route of travel from Central and Western Ohio to the white settlements on the Wabash and beyond. The third principal trace came from the direction of the Indiana towns at Chicago, and minor points in the vicinity of the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, the head-waters of the Tippecanoe River, the Wabash and the Mississinewa. Like the last one, this was often traveled by the attendants upon Indian treaties and Indiana payments at the old "treaty grounds," near Paradise Springs, from the settlements to the eastward from this locality, in Indiana and Ohio. In addition to those already noticed, there were many others of more local importance, but of little or no value beyond the immediate vicinity of unpretentious villages, more or less remote from the principal towns of the dominant tribes. These as a whole, constituted the general road system of the primitive inhabitants of Delaware County.

When these traces were no longer suited to the convenience of settlments embracing a larger area of teritory than that occupied by the original pioneers, neighborhood roads became a necessity, and were "cut out" or blazed, accordingly, as time, opportunity and convenience predominated, in the minds of those who at the time were individually interested. In point of antiquity, however, the old "Goverment road," so called, takes precedence over the roads improvised for neighborhood purposes, just noticed. This road was constructed by the United States Government, some time in the year 1821, for the purpose of transporting the Delaware Indians, overland, from this vicinity, and eastward of the Ohio line, to the new territory appropriated to their use, west of the Mississippi, according to the provisions of the treaty of October 3, 1818, at St. Mary's, Ohio. The line of this road extended from Greensville, Ohio, westward, passing through Randolph County, from the site of Union City, entering Delaware County in the vicinity of Smithfield; thence, traversing the margin of White River along its course, through this county, it crossed the western boundary near the south end of the line dividing Sections 11 and 12, in Township 19, Range 8 east, south of the river. From this point, it passed through Chesterfield, to the southwest of Anderson, and thence wessterly in the direction of Crawfordsville. This road answered an important purpose in its day, when the settlements within the limits of Delaware County were in their infancy, and the facilities for the construction of better roads, greatly circumsribed. At a later date, however, necessity provided the means, and willing hands united to construct roads suited to the demands of the time.

The first toad constructed pursuant to the forms of law, so far as we have the means of determining, was "a State road, beginning at the Ohio State line, at the end of a certain road leading from Greenville, in Ohio, toward the Mississinewa River, Thence the nearest and best way to Robert Parson' mill; thence down said river to Lewallen's mill; thence, to intersect the Miamisport road at or near Sanders, in Delaware County." This road was provided for by Legilative enactment, approved February 2, 1832, and established a line of general communication between the settlement of Western Ohio and the Upper Wabash. Another road was provided for at the same session, from Munceytown to Pendleton, in Madison County, and a third connecting Munceytown, Anderson and Fort Wayne. At the session of 1832-33, the Legislature provided for the location, laying out and opening of a road from Munceytown to Logansport; another connecting Munceytown with Delphi, in Carroll County, and a third connecting with New Castle, in Henry County; subsequently, at the session of 1833-34, modifying the routes to Fort Wayne and to Delphi. These constituted the road system of Delaware County, at the dates last named. Other roads established by county authority had been before and were afterward laid out and improved according to the laws in force at the time they were respectively proposed. (Pages 69-70)