Friends of the Indiana State Archives, Inc.

Territorial Records in the Indiana State Archives
By Alan F. January

Territorial documents comprise a small but important group of records in the Indiana State Archives. The number of documents that survive is surprising, considering the vicissitudes of time and the frequent relocation of the seat of government. The bulk of the records was created by the judicial, executive, and legislative branches of territorial government, but these can be supplemented by a variety of records created by local and federal offices.

The case files for the General Court of the Northwest Territory and the Indiana Territory cover the period from 1791 to 1816. In some instances a case’s entire documentation exists; in others only one document survives. There is a finding aid that is searchable by the names of the parties to the case, by the date of the case, and by the type of case (e.g. debt, trespass, divorce, assault and battery). Family history researchers will find the name index particularly useful. Unusual research subjects include slave replevin (i.e., the capture and return of escaped slaves via their legal definition as property) and trading with Indians. In addition to the case files, the State Archives has the two order books of the General Court of Indiana Territory, 1801-1816, the docket book, and minutes of the court.

Four individuals—Arthur St. Clair, William Henry Harrison, John Gibson, and Thomas Posey—served as governors of the Northwest and Indiana Territories. The State Archives has five manuscript boxes of Governor’s Correspondence dating between 1793 and 1816. These consist primarily of recommendations, petitions, memorials, appointments, and other miscellaneous subjects. Four boxes of Governor’s Military Correspondence reflect the importance of the militia on

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the frontier. All of these territorial manuscripts can be searched by name and by subject in a database prepared by the State Archives. Fields for each manuscript in the database include date, agency, county, and record title. Typical subjects include elections, recommendations, militia appointments, Indians, and judges. Family history researchers will find the lengthy petitions to the governor a fertile source for names of pioneer ancestors.

The gubernatorial correspondence in the State Archives should be supplemented by the two-volume printed edition of the messages and papers of Governors Harrison, Gibson, and Posey, issued in 1922 by the Indiana Historical Bureau.

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In addition to correspondence, the State Archives holds the Journal of the Proceedings of the Executive Department of Indiana Territory, 1800-1816. This important volume, which contains the record of

hundreds of appointments to local office, was transcribed and published in 1900. The Indiana Historical Society produced a reprint, with an index, in 1985. Three volumes kept by the Treasurer of Indiana Territory are also in the Archives: the Account (Day) Book, 1806-1814, the Treasurer’s Ledger Book, 1806-1815, and Collector of Revenue Allan D. Thom’s Account Book for 1814-1816. Together these give a good picture of the finances of the territory. Another executive officer, the Attorney General, is represented by one manuscript box of records. There is also one box of election returns covering the years 1803-1816.

The second or representative stage of government in Indiana Territory began on January 3, 1805, with the election of nine representatives to the lower house of the General Assembly. The manuscript journals for most of the sessions of the General Assembly between 1805 and 1815 are in the State Archives. Regretfully, the record is not complete. There are no journals for the sessions of 1806, 1807, and 1810. Only one journal for the upper house, then called the Legislative Council, for the session of 1813-1814 has been located. Gayle Thornbrough and Dorothy Riker transcribed and edited the ten surviving journals and published them as Journals of the General Assembly of Indiana Territory, 1805-1815 (Indianapolis, 1950). For the sessions of 1806, 1807, and 1810, the editors relied upon newspaper accounts and other documents to illustrate the work of the sessions. The annotations and the biographical sketches of the members of the territorial General Assembly make this volume an indispensable source of information for the territorial period of Indiana.

Territorial lawmakers first met at Vincennes, then in 1813 the capital moved to Corydon. During eleven regular and two special sessions the General Assembly enacted hundreds of acts and resolutions. The handwritten manuscript copies of 433 of these pieces of legislation are preserved in the Indiana State Archives. An inventory is available. The laws adopted at the first session were printed in Frankfort, Kentucky. Elihu Stout of Vincennes published the laws passed at subsequent sessions until the removal of the capital to Corydon. The last territorial session laws were printed at Madison and Lexington. Printed copies of these session laws are very scarce today. All of the laws are reprinted in a two-volume compilation entitled Laws of Indiana Territory (Springfield, Ill., and Indianapolis, 1930). Francis S. Philbrick edited the first volume, which covers 1801 through 1809. The second volume, edited by Louis B. Ewbank and Dorothy Riker, picks up in 1809 and closes in 1816. Legislation passed before the creation of the Indiana Territory is reprinted in The Laws of the Northwest Territory, 1788-1800 (Springfield, Ill., 1925), edited by Theodore C. Pease.

Territorial lawmakers devoted much of each session to organizing government on the frontier. They set up counties and established courts and lesser offices of government such as sheriffs, surveyors, and river pilots. They levied fees and taxes. The physical needs of a raw country were of special concern. The General Assembly passed legislation establishing ferries and gristmills, improving river navigation and roads, encouraging the killing of wolves and other predators, organizing a militia, and regulating trade with the Indians. Aspirations to a higher civilization led to the incorporation of towns, churches, seminaries, and “a university in the Indiana Territory,” as well as laws for the support of illegitimate children and inspection of flour, beef, and pork. As the territory prospered there were acts for the incorporation of banks and canal companies. Private legislation granting divorce and relief of individuals became more common, as did sumptuary legislation licensing taverns and for “the prevention of vice and immorality.”

Bills and resolutions concerning slavery came up at almost every session of the territorial General Assembly. The session of 1805 passed a bill allowing any person owning or purchasing

slaves outside the territory to bring them to Indiana and bind them to service. Indentures were to be recorded with the county clerk. The State Archives has the original indenture book for Clark County and a copy of the Knox County book on microfilm.

Knox County Bond
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Before 1800 the only land owned by individuals in Indiana Territory was either in and around Vincennes, where titles went back to the French donations, or in Clark’s Grant, which had been allotted by the state of Virginia to the men who served with George Rogers Clark in his Revolutionary War campaign against the British. The State Archives has the Official Plat Book of Clark’s Grant made by William Clark between 1789 and 1810. The earliest document in the State Archives is the Minute Book of the Town of Clarksville, which dates from 1784. Photostats of the land claims in the District of Vincennes, from the American State Papers, are available.

Sales of public land in Indiana Territory in the southeastern area of the territory known as the “Gore,” began in 1801 at Cincinnati. The State Archives has copies of the two tract books recording all Indiana land sales out of the Cincinnati District between 1801 and 1840.

The first two federal land offices in Indiana were at Vincennes and Jeffersonville. Sales at these two offices began in 1807 and 1808, respectively. The State Archives has the surveyors’ field notes, plat books, tract books, registers of receipts, Registers and Receivers journals, and miscellaneous records from both land districts. Volunteers from the Friends of the Indiana State Archives are currently indexing the names of purchasers in the Vincennes Land District.

The State Archives has several series of microfilm from the National Archives concerning Indiana Territory. These include the General Land Office’s miscellaneous letters sent to district officers and letters to Surveyors General, the latter series dating from 1796. Letters sent by the War Department involving military and Indian affairs and correspondence received by the Secretary of War begin in 1800. Also available are photostatic copies from the National Archives of the muster and payroll records for Indiana militia called into service at the Battle of Tippecanoe and the War of 1812.

Records from several counties formed before 1816 were microfilmed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s. Copies of these microfilms are available at the Indiana State Archives.

The territorial period in Indiana ended in 1816 with admission to statehood. Forty-three delegates from thirteen counties met at Corydon in the summer of 1816 to frame a state constitution. Drafting the document took only eighteen days. Two handwritten copies of the constitution were made, one of them by Dr. David H. Maxwell, a delegate from Jefferson County. This copy, housed today in the State Archives, has been in the hands of the State of Indiana continuously since 1816. It was restored in 1995 by conservator James Canary of Indiana University with funds provided by the Indiana Bar Foundation. It is displayed today in the Indiana State House during legislative sessions in a special case constructed with funds provided by the Indiana State Bar Association. The case is decorated with a veneer of wood from the “Constitution Elm” under which delegates at Corydon sat during their deliberations in 1816.

January, Alan F. “Territorial Records in the Indiana State Archives,” 271-274; in John M. Glen et. al. “Indiana Archives: Indiana before Statehood.” Indiana Magazine of History 99 (Sep 2003): 263-279.

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