Sep 20, 2022
Dive with us into the first of our three part series about the history of the land that Conner Prairie sits on today. Our first episode is about William Conner, the namesake of the William Conner House here at the Prairie. We are joined by Hamilton County Historian to dive into all areas of his life-the good, the bad and the ugly!
David Heighway:
You can find more about Hamilton East Public Library’s work in history (County Historian David Heighway’s organization) here: https://www.hepl.lib.in.us/indiana-room/
Order your copy of David’s book “Hidden History of Hamilton County, Indiana” here: https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467150170
The Conner House (come see where some of it went down!): https://www.connerprairie.org/explore/experiences/william-conner-house/
Sources:
Charles B Lasselle, “Old Indian Traders of Indiana” in Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 2, No. 1 (March 1906), pp. 1-13. Accessible at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27785428.
David Zeisberger, Diary of the Moravian mission at Lichtenau, Ohio. 1777-1778.
Box 37, Reel 9. Moravian Church Archives, Bethlehem, PA. (Copy of notes accessed at Conner Prairie Archive)
Denissen Volumes. Detroit Society for Genealogical Research, Detroit, Michigan. (Copy accessed at Conner Prairie Archive)
Dylan Rawles. “William Conner and the War of 1812”. Accessed at https://www.connerprairie.org/william-conner-and-the-war-of-1812/.
“Early Days” by Rev. J. C. Fletcher in “The Indianapolis Daily News”, May 11th 1881, p. 2. Accessed at Newspapers.com.
Eli Lilly Map tracing and Letter October 2, 1934. Accessible on the F Drive:
Indianapolis Gazette December 30th 1823
Indiana DNR, “Indigenous Peoples in Indiana”, accessed at https://www.in.gov/dnr/state-parks/cultural-resources-and-history/native-americans/#:~:text=William%20Henry%20Harrison%2C%20governor%20of,Fox%2C%20Sauk%2C%20and%20Creek.
Indiana State Library, “Treaty of St Mary’s”, accessed at https://blog.library.in.gov/treaty-of-st-marys/.
John F. Haines, History of Hamilton County, IN, p. 161.
Larson and Vanderstal, “Agent of Empire: William Conner on the Indiana Frontier, 1800-1855”, in Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 80, Issue 4, December 1984, p. 327-328.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54507152/william-h.-conner
LEIGH DARBEE, “Fall Creek Massacre,” Encyclopedia of Indianapolis 1994,
(Revised March 2021)
https://indyencyclopedia.org/fall-creek-massacre-1824/
Robert F. Eldredge, Past and Present of Macomb County, Michigan. P.567-568.
Official website of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, “Removal History of the Delaware Tribe”, accessed at https://delawaretribe.org/services-and-programs/historic-preservation/removal-history-of-the-delaware-tribe/.
Western Censor, June 18th 1823, page 58. Accessible online at https://www.digitalindy.org/digital/collection/IH/
https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/Hoosiers-and-the-American-Story-ch-02.pdf
William Conner, Indiana, U.S., Compiled Marriages 1802-1892, 30 Nov. 1820, Fayette, Indiana, accessed at Ancestry.com.
William Conner, 1840 Census, Accessed on Ancestry.com.