Monette, John W. History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, by the Three Great European Powers, Spain, France and Great Britain, and the Subsequent Occupation, Settlement, and Extension of Civil Government by the United States, Until the Year 1846, in two volumes, Volume II . New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1846. [format: book], [genre: history]. Permission: Schingoethe Center for Native American Cultures, Aurora University
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=monette2.html

1808, the Indiana Territory east of the Wabash had received such an increase in numbers that it was desirable to assume the second grade of territorial government. Having a population of five thousand free white males, Congress, with a view to a future state government, by an act approved February 3d, 1809, restricted its limits, and authorized a territorial Legislature, agreeably to the provisions of the ordinance of 1787. The Indiana Territory, from this time, was bounded on the west by a line extending up the middle of the Wabash, from its mouth to Vincennes, and thence by a meridian due north to the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. On the north, it was bounded by the southern line of the Michigan Territory. That portion west of the Wabash was erected into a separate territorial government of the first grade, known and designated as the "Illinois Territory." ⁶¹³

[A.D. 1810.] The inhabitants of the Indiana Territory soon began to augment more rapidly, and emigration to seek the fine lands on White River, and upon the Wabash, as well as the regions near the banks of the Ohio, between Cincinnati and New Albany. In 1810 the people had increased in numbers to twenty-four thousand five hundred, and in the newly-erected Territory of Illinois there was an aggregate of twelve thousand three hundred persons. ⁶¹⁴

The population of Michigan Territory, upon its first organization in 1805, exclusive of the troops of the western army, did not exceed three thousand souls. As late as the year 1810, the increase by emigration from the western settlements had been comparatively small, and the census of 1810 gave an aggregate of only eight thousand four hundred souls. ⁶¹⁵ At the opening of the war in 1812, the whole number of people could not have exceeded six thousand souls.

[A.D. 1811.] Thus, at the beginning of hostilities near the close of the year 1811, these three territories together scarcely contained forty thousand inhabitants, including the Creole French on the Detroit, Wabash, and Illinois Rivers. The whole northern half of Michigan still belonged to the Indians, and was in their sole occupancy. Of Indiana, two thirds of its entire area, on the north, were likewise territory to which

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