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MAP OF MIAMI COUNTY.
POPULATION.POPULATION (FEDERAL CENSUS)
1870 1880 --------------------------------------------- Marysville Township 1,383 1,599 Miami Township 725 1,206 (a) Middle Creek Township 650 1,260 Mound Township 498 739 (b) Osage township 1,396 1,196 (c) Osawatomie Township 1,182 1,199 Paola City 1,811 2,312 Paola Township 624 1,008 Richland Township 844 1,436 (d) Stanton Township 844 904 Sugar Creek Township 444 809 (e) Valley Township 867 Wea Township 1,324 2,467 ----- ------- 11,725 17,002 --------------------------------------------- (a) In 1874, part detached to form Valley. (b) In 1874, part detached to form Valley. (c) In 1874, part detached to form Valley. (d) In 1874, part detached to form Valley. (e) Organized in 1874, from parts of Middle Creek, Osage, Osawatomie, and Stanton INDIAN HISTORY.The Indians that have lived in Miami County are the Miamis, the Confederated tribes, the Pottawatomies and the Shawnees. The Shawnee reservation embraced a strip of land across the northern end of the county, about two and one fourth miles in width. Some of them continued to live here until 1866, when with the remainder of their tribe they moved to the Indian Territory. The Pottawatomie reservation, which was partly in Franklin County, embraced in Miami County, Mound and Osawatomie townships and a small portion of Stanton and Valley township, in all about eighty square miles, or 51,000 acres. This tribe was removed to a reservation on the Kansas river in 1847-48 where a portion of them still remain. The Confederated Tribes were composed of the Weas, Piakeshaws, Peorias and Kaskaskias. They inhabited the northern part of the county, bordering the Shawnee Reservation. Upon their removal here they were but remnants of previously large and powerful tribes. The Weas were at one time a portion of the Miami tribe, their language being almost identical with that of the Miamis. The Confederated Tribes formerly lived in Southern Illinois. In 1818 they removed to Eastern Missouri and settled near St. Genevieve. In 1827 the Weas and Piakeshaws moved to what is now Miami County, the Peorias followed in a year or two, and the Kaskaskias came in 1832. From this time until 1854, these tribes continued to live in undisturbed possession o their reservation, when it became necessary to open the country to settlement, and a treaty was made between them and the Government by which they sold all their lands except for 160 acres for each member of the tribe, ten sections for tribal purposes, and one section for the support of a Mission School. In the formation of this treaty, Col. Manypenny represented the Government and Kio-kun-no-zah, Yellow Beaver, and others as chiefs the Indians; Baptiste Peoria acting as interpreter. As white settlers came in and filled up the county, the Confederated tribes made preparations to make one more removal. With the consent of the Government, a delegation from the tribes purchased a portion of the lands of the Quapaws and Senecas in the Indian Territory in 1866. The purchase was ratified by treaty in 1868 and most of the Confederated tribes removed to their new homes, on Spring River, that year. Many of those who remained were admitted to citizenship and were prosperous members of the community, while some have since gone to the Indian Territory. When the treaty of 1854 was made, the Confederated Tribes numbered 260, but they have steadily declined in numbers. At least two of the members of the Confederated tribes are worthy of brief mention-Win-ris-cah, or Christmas Dagnette, and Baptiste Peoria. The former was born near Terre Haute, Ind., about the year 1800. He was a nephew of a Wea chief, and received a liberal education. Besides three or four Indian languages, he could speak English, French, and Spanish, and at the age of sixteen acted as interpreter for the Government. He removed to Kansas with his tribe, which he served for a number of years as chief and died in 1848. Baptiste Peoria was born also about the year 1800, near Kaskaskia, Ill. He did not receive a school education but by the natural force of his intellect acquired a number of Indian languages, the Shawnee, Delaware and Pottawatomie, besides those of the several Confederated Tribes, and also English and French. He acted for many years in the capacity of interpreter, and for some time as chief, but generally preferred to be on the "outside" as there he could be of much more use to his tribe, which during almost the whole of his long life continued to look up to him as their best advisor. When the tribes removed to the Indian Territory, Baptiste went with them and died there in the year 1874. He was a man of large and enlightened views, and was distinguished for the virtues which spring from a kindly heart and generous spirit. His widow, who was at the time of her marriage to him, the widow of Christmas Dagnette, still resides in Paola, at the ripe age of eighty-two, loved and respected by all who know her. The Miamis were the first settlers in Miami County. They, as a a portion of the Shawnees, were originally from Ohio. They were removed to what is now Indiana, by Gen. Anthony Wayne, in accordance with the treaty of August 3, 1795. In 1840, a treaty was made by which they agreed to remove to new homes in the Indian Territory (now Kansas) and in 1846, eight hundred Miamis located in the southeast part of the present Miami County, on Sugar Creek. In 1847 about 300 more arrived; and in 1848 about 500 of them returned to Indiana, which return was afterwards acquiesced in by act of Congress. In the same year those Miamis remaining in the county removed their home from Sugar Creek to the Marias des Cygnes in the central southern portion of the county, locating at what has since been known as Miami village. The removal was caused by sickness, superinduced by change of climate, privation and exposure. In three years from the time of their arrival on Sugar Creek their number was reduced by death from 600 to 300, one-half the deaths occurring on Sugar Creek. Their principal burying ground was then about two miles southeast of the present village of Rockville. The original Miami reservation consisted of about 500,000 acres of land, and was bounded on the east by Missouri, on the south by the reservation of the New York Indians, on the west by the Pottawatomie reservation, and on the north by that of the Confederated tribes. In 1854, as white settlers began to see homes on the Miami reservation, the Government purchased all but 72,000 acres, Col Manypenny acting for the Government and Now-a-lun-qua ("Big-Legs") on the part of the Miamis and Jack Hackley as interpreter. The Miamis remained on this remnant of their reservation until 1871, when having been reduced to about 130 in number, the most of them removed to the Neosho River in the Indian Territory. A few remained and became citizens of the United States, made considerable progress in agriculture, and became useful, upright and respected citizens. The agents for these tribes have been the following: Col. Ely Moore, until 1854; Col. A. M. Coffey, 1854 to 1855; Col. M. McCaslin, 1855 to 1857; Gen. Seth Clover, 1857 to 1861; Col. G. A. Colton, 1861 to 1869; James Stanley, 1869 to the time the Agency was abolished. Col. McCaslin was removed by President Buchanan for having protested against the invasion of Kansas by Missourians. He was Colonel of the Fifteenth Virginia Infantry during the rebellion. EARLY SETTLEMENTS.One of the first white men to settle in Miami County was David Lykins, who came here in 1844, from Vigo County, Ind. as missionary to the Confederated tribes of Indians. Other missionaries and teachers came to these tribes and to the Miamis, from time to time, and also traders, all of whom came to aid or live among the Indians. In 1854, bona fide settlers began to arrive with the object of making homes for themselves and developing the resources of the county. Among these in various parts of the county were S. H. Houser, in Stanton township; in Osawatomie Township, Daniel Goodrich, C. A. Foster, John Childers, Harmon Dace, C. H. Crane, John Serpell, William Chestnut, S. L. Adair, R. W. Wood, and O. C. Brown; In Paola, Knowles, Isaac and William Shaw and their mother in June and their brother Cyrus in September, T. J. Hedges, D. L. Peery and W. A. Hesikell; in Richland Township, David Anderson and others; in Middle Creek township, William Blair. In 1855, the following settlers arrived at Paola: Capt. Arbuckle, Charles Alexander, S. P. Boone, W. D. Hoover, Elias Hughes, Thomas Hill, H. Harbison, Dr. Finlay, James and Joseph Lykins, Peter Potts, J. A. and J. H. Phillips, George Tomlinson, and Allen T. Ward; in Osawatomie, Thomas Roberts, S. M. Merritt, James Hughes, James Williams, N. T. Roscoe, William, John, and Patrick Poland, W. A. Sears and John Littlejohn; in Stanton Township, H. B. Standiford, Benjamin Goodrich, James and W. H. Kinkaid, the Bingham boys, Samuel and William Whitehead, Israel Christie, John West, Caleb and Robert Sherer, Hiram Mullens, Josiah and D. H. Bundy, W. B. and Isaiah Nichols, John T. Benning, John Van Horn, Thomas and Perry O'Brien, Orrin Williams, John Oliver, Thomas Roberts and Rev. Martin White. In Wea township, George Town and sons arrived in 1856 and in 1857, J, W. Chandoins, William Blair, Nathan Childers, William Catching, Thomas Grinter, Sumner Myers, S. G. Echols and quite a number of others. In Osage Township, A. Mobley settled as early as 1854 and in 1857, when the lands were open to settlement, quite a large number came in, among them, John Dodd, William Tovinger, J. H. Bruner, A. Westfall, Jonas King, Abijah Bales, James Jones, and A. P. Brown; in 1858, Jerimiah Jolly, Jonathan Ruble, Isaac Polhamus and from fifteen to twenty others. In Marysville Township, H. L. Lyons, James and John Beets, J. G. and Enos McDaniel, J. J. and Owen Park, James Tindle, Joseph Goodwin, John Reed and Charles Barry.
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