Westward Expansion, John Tipton, and the Emergence of the American Midwest 1800-1839 Ginette M
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Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2005 Westward expansion, John Tipton, and the emergence of the American Midwest 1800-1839 Ginette M. Aley Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Aley, Ginette M., "Westward expansion, John Tipton, and the emergence of the American Midwest 1800-1839 " (2005). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 1223. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/1223 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Westward expansion, John Tipton, and the emergence of the American Midwest, 1800-1839 by Ginette M. Aley A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Agricultural History and Rural Studies Program of Study Committee: R. Douglas Hurt, Co-Major Professor Andrejs Plakans, Co-Major Professor Hamilton Cravens George McJimsey James Andrews Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2005 Copyright © Ginette M. Aley, 2005. All rights reserved. UMI Number: 3172197 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3172197 Copyright 2005 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 11 Graduate College Iowa State University This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation of Ginette M. Aley has met the dissertation requirements of Iowa State University Signature was redacted for privacy. Committee em r Signature was redacted for privacy. Commit type Mem. Signature was redacted for privacy. mmittee Mem Signature was redacted for privacy. Co-Major ofes r Signature was redacted for privacy. 2o-Mk:ior P -ofe-= nr Signature was redacted for privacy. For the Major Program iii DEDICATION To my children, Amanda and Jonathan, the memory of my parents, and the Friendship that sustained me. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PREFACE CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1 CHAPTER 2 In the Shadow of the Tomahawk and Rifle: the Tippecanoe Era, 1800-1815 7 CHAPTER 3 Boundaries, Taxes, and Race: John Tipton as Public Official, 1816-1822 61 CHAPTER 4 Agents of Influence: the Limits of Indian Policy in the Early Midwest, 1823-1828 112 CHAPTER 5 Family Men, Gender Roles, and Manhood Northwest of the Ohio River, 1825-1839 169 CHAPTER 6 "We Who Live on the Upper Wabash:" the Politics of Improvement in the Westera Country, 1831-1839 215 CHAPTER 7 Epilogue 267 REFERENCES CITED 268 V ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was as much a window onto my life as it was a labor of love. Not all of it was pleasant nor done under the most conducive of circumstances, but my excitement and belief in its merits spirited me on toward its completion. I have received support and recognition at various stages and in a number of ways, and I would like to note these here. I did the bulk of my research at the Indiana State Library where the vast Tipton Papers are maintained. I cannot say enough about the professional courtesies extended to me there. A considerable amount of preliminary work was done at the Indiana Historical Society. Its facilities are impressive, and its staff was always attentive. Other libraries that I had the privilege of using include the Newberry Library in Chicago, Iowa State University's Parks Library, and Virginia Tech's Newman Library. I was fortunate to have also received funding from a number of sources including the Iowa State University History Department's Roswell Garst Fellowship and from Dr. and Mrs. Robert W. Lawrence. Bob is an Emeritus Professor at York College in York, Nebraska. He and his wife Ruth have committed themselves to helping advance the careers of aspiring women, and I feel honored to have received their financial contributions at critical junctures in my work. Family members who also assisted me and the completion of this work include Charles Turner of Falling Waters, West Virginia, (my paternal uncle), my parents, and paternal grandfather (through his bequest). The generosity of these people freed me up from the time-consuming task of seeking grants which allowed me to focus on researching and writing so that, along with my teaching responsibilities at Iowa State University, Virginia Tech, and Drake University, I could vi achieve my goal of graduating with significant publications. I am grateful for their assistance. A much earlier draft of Chapter Two, in which I examined the socio-economic connections between the developing agricultural frontier and rural society of the early nineteenth-century West, was selected as one of three papers featured at the Newberry Library's 2003 Great Lakes Rural History Seminar. I benefited from the scholarly interaction and subsequently revised the paper along the lines of several of the comments and published it as "Grist, Grit, and Rural Society in the Early Midwest: Insight Gleaned from Grain," Ohio Valley History (Summer 2005, forthcoming). My initial probing of the West of the early republic in terms of native-white relations caused me to ultimately decide to focus on John Tipton. This became the book chapter "Bringing About the Dawn: Agriculture, Internal Improvement, Indian Policy, and Euro-American Hegemony in the Old Northwest, 1800-1846," in Daniel P. Barr, ed., The Boundaries Between Us: Natives, Newcomers, and the Struggle for the Old Northwest, 1740-1840. (Kent State University Press, 2005, forthcoming). I also presented my research at a number of conferences including the Western History Association's Annual Meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, October 2003. Friends, family, and mentors provided a nurturing environment for me to grow as a scholar. I relished the intellectual stimulation of fellow graduate students Kristin McMillan Lunak, Peter Hoehnle, and Sarah Mitchell which helped in a number of ways. My academic mentoring spanned two institutions, and I grew as a scholar and teacher at each place. At Virginia Tech, I learned especially from Professors Peter Wallenstein, Dan Thorp, Fred Baumgartner, and Glenn Bugh. Jack (William C.) Davis was a good friend at the right time, while Jan Francis is a staff member who impressed me with her commitment to students and vii to assisting faculty. At Iowa State University, I had the good fortune to work as Hamilton Cravens' teaching assistant. I admire his understanding of the nineteenth century. Pam Riney-Kehrberg is a long-time friend whose work on Kansas wheat country I admire. Other influences for which I am grateful include Andrew Cayton, a generous scholar in giving me time for conversation about writing on the Midwest; Malcolm Rohrbough, for giving me a semester in a frontier seminar under a true master of the craft; Dorothy Schwieder, for urging me to pay attention to the presence of underlying tensions in my research; Donald Fixico, for instilling in me the importance of attributing the Native American perspective with as much detail as possible; Don Pisani, for his enthusiastic encouragement of graduate students as well as his infectious attitude toward research; Vernon Burton, with whom I worked when he was president of the Agricultural History Society (AHS), for his encouragement of me to keep trying to publish as I go along; Pete Daniel, for his efforts in trying to enable me to work with him as a Smithsonian fellow, although we were not ultimately successful; Fred Williams, for his unwavering support of the AHS and the pursuit of good history; committee members George McJimsey, Andrejs Plakans, and Jim Andrews for their comments about my dissertation which were "right on the money" and much appreciated; and, Ralph D. Gray, Emeritus Professor at Indiana University—Purdue University (Indianapolis), whom I have never met, but who nevertheless offered me the three-volume set of John Tipton's published papers which, quite frankly, allowed me to finish the dissertation when I did. For their examples of excellence and integrity, the willingness to mentor, and their advice—my sincere thanks and gratitude. I reserve my biggest thanks, respect, and gratitude for my advisor, Doug Hurt, whose constant support carried me in those fleeting moments of self-doubt. I could not have chosen a more consummate or professional scholar to study under, and the longer that we worked together, the more I realized how fortunate my choice and his agreement were to my life. Much of this dissertation developed while we were at different institutions, but he made sure that we stayed connected through frequent emails and phone calls, as well as chance meetings. Although in our earlier association he would chide me for not listening to him, in fact I heard and considered every word. I have learned a lot from our many conversations ever since, in which he has shared with me about those who have influenced or guided him, decisions he made and regretted (that I might learn from), as well as his own career aspirations. My esteem for him, his scholarship, and his mentoring is matched only by my appreciation for his friendship, confidence, and respect.