Rivertown U.S.A.

Rivertown U.S.A.
Cannelton, Indiana's River History

Interview with Mr. Rutherford
Perry County Historian

Mr. Michael Rutherford, Perry County Historian

Interview with Mr. Michael Rutherford

This is the Cannelton Elementary Media Club and we are here today to interview Mr. Michael Rutherford the Perry County Historian.

What was Mr. Bob Cumming's job during the time the bridge was being built and what was his role in getting it here?

He was with the Cannelton newspaper. At the time it was being printed in Tell City. They still had a separate Cannelton newspaper and the Tell City paper. The Perry County News came later.

What Native Americans lived here and when?

I don't believe anybody ever lived here, except there may have been before the Indian time up around Deer Creek. There were some artifact found up on the flat ground right before you get to the bridge about four miles up the river. Perry County, most of southern Indiana, and practically all of Kentucky were there hunting grounds. The Indians lived farther north up in Washington, Indiana and central Indiana. They would come in the fall of the year and camp out for several weeks and months and hunt to take food back to their homes. The Indians were also farmers and they raised crops during the summer time, not that any Indians lived here. They did this where they lived, which is a little farther north, and better farming grounds too. They found some holes in the rocks. We used to call them corn grounding holes up in the cliffs behind the town. Maybe they were, maybe they won't. That's what we used to call them when we were younger. Apparently they used them for that. Maybe they made them when they were camping here as hunters and they didn't live here year long.

Arthur Gerber has found some artifacts up around Deer Creek. Have you ever heard of the Indian mounds? Down in Spencer County there was a mound just a couple of miles across the county line. The mound builders were before the people that we called Indians. These mound builders were called Mississippians. This name was given to them from people in our recent years. They didn't call themselves Mississippians. There were mounds up between Derby and Dexter along the river. The Indians that made these mounds were called the Preak Indians by the residents and workers around here. The mounds can't be found now.

When did the Native Americans live here and when?

Answer 3: Of course they came and left every year. They came and went from their homes in central Indiana. Their may have been a few Indians from Kentucky. Their used to be a lot of buffalo hunting over in Kentucky, because the buffalo ate the wild cane up near the creeks. There was a lot of cane near Hawesville and farther up stream. A lot of the buffalo came up missing shortly before 1790. There was a really cold winter once. There was a buffalo trace near the Boy Scouts. A buffalo trace was a trail the buffalo made between New Albany and Vincennes. They would travel there. They couldn't cross the river there, so they crossed at what they call Falls of the Ohio. They could cross there in the summertime. There was a lot of salt on the Kentucky side. They would go over there every several weeks to lick salt. That buffalo trace was used for many years before 1790. The Indiana official seal has a picture of a guy cutting down a tree with an ax, and they have a buffalo running away from there. It is said that the buffalo came up missing in the late 1780s. That was right after the Revolutionary War. There was a really cold winter. Those that didn't die made it across the Wabash River into Illinois and farther west. They never came back. There were buffalo over in Kentucky, because they liked to eat the cane that was over near Hawesville. All we know about the buffalo and the Indians is that they went out west. The buffalo were the Indians main course of food and shelter. The Indians made the buffalo skin into clothes, tipis, and wigwams. The tipis were made out of buffalo hide. A guy made a joke about buffalo hides in the newspaper. It was a whole column long.

What is the story of Lafayette Springs?

Answer 4: There are two stories. One of them which all the rocks were all sat over in the courthouse yard. The sign over Lafayette Springs said that Laffayette's boat hit Rock Island. He spent the night at a cabin near Lafayette Springs. The next day a lot of the local settlers walked up there and talked to him. That was the story that was going around since at least 1915 or 1916. In the 1980's a man from Tell City, Bert Fenn, looked into river stories and river laws for years. He found three eyewitness accounts of the wreck. It told the true story of the wreck. What really happened was: On the eighth of May, Lafayette was touring the United States at that time. It was sort of a farewell trip. He had been over here with George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He came back, and he got a lot of American products, such as soil to taken back to France to put on his grave. He wanted to be buried with American soil. He died ten years after this trip. His boat was called The Mechanic, was going upstream. They were traveling at night. There used to be a big rock just up above where the dam is. It was on the Indiana side. They called it the Lady Washington Rock. Around 1851, a boat called Lady Washington wrecked on it. It was round so they called it the Elephant Rock. They also called it the Elephant-Butt Rock. Also the Behind Rock. When they were going upstream, day or night, they would go towards the rock. They would almost go to it then go to turn to the Kentucky side. They would go up on the Kentucky side, because the current wasn't as strong. The river made a curve there. There was a question on where the strongest current on the river at the curve, in the inside or the outside. It was the outside of the curve. On the inside of the curve you could go upstream easily. There happened to be a tree there at the time. A tree had gotten washed down there, and they hit the tree. The boat sank, but it didn't sink completely.

This was at about 10:00 p.m. Nobody was around. The only thing that was lost was locked up. It was Laffayette's little dog. Everybody was safe. They spent the night sitting on a mattress. It was mostly dry. It was under an umbrella. They built a fire. It was still raining. They were there for most of the night, and in the morning they looked across the river. They saw a little cabin. That's just up above where the dam is now. They said that they got a rowboat to take them over. There was a family who lived in Kentucky just across the river by Deer Creek Bridge. This was the Stereck family. They had a story in their family that the Lafayette party borrowed a rowboat from them. That may be true. They took Lafayette across the river in the morning, so that he could be in a cabin. He was there several hours, until there was a boat coming down the river from Louisville. They found out who was there, so they took Lafayette on board, and they were supposed to be going to Troy to get more wood. There was a wood yard in Troy. This boat was going downstream, and they turned around, changed their course, and took Lafayette back to Louisville.

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