Little Village

Don't forget to attend the LHS play, “Voices from the Hanging” on TONIGHT Friday, May 23, 2025, at 7 p.m. in the LHS auditorium. (It's about Betsey Reed!)

The Tri-County History written in 1883 states that Russellville originated on the site of an Indian town called Little Village.  An early deed entered at Vincennes under the Act of Congress of March 3rd, 1807 confirms the existence of the Little Village settlement.

 “On behalf and as a friend to the heirs of Jacob Noy, G.W. Johnson  located 200 acres of land on the northwest side of the Wabash River,  about 4 miles above the Little Village, which included an improvement formerly made by William Hogue and beginning on the river Wabash.” 

Specific information about the Native Americans who inhabited Little Village is unknown.  Among the tribes, that roamed over the territory of the County were the Miamis, Pottawotamies, Delawares, and Shawnees. Tecumseh, the Shawnee Indian chief, claimed the whole of the Wabash valley, and endeavored to annul the government’s claim to such territory that it had acquired from other tribes. The meeting between Tecumseh and Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison on this subject was witnessed by Austin Tann, an early free black pioneer. Of Lawrence County.

Austin Tann (1791-1869) was among the first African American settlers in what is now known as Lawrence County, Illinois. Tann and his family migrated from the South up into this area with a group associated with the Shaker Colony located in northern Knox County, Indiana. He later moved across the Wabash River and lived at Fort Allison (Russellville). Tann and a few other black settlers were used as Indian Scouts. In 1810 Tann was present at the meeting between Harrison and Tecumseh that took place at the governor's mansion (Grouseland) in the territorial capitol of Vincennes, Indiana. Austin Tann had nine children and several of his descendants still live in Lawrence County. He is buried at the old Tann Family Cemetery, on private property east of Pinkstaff, in Russell Township.

Evidence of the Native Americans’ habitation in the Township is often found when fields are plowed and arrowheads, ax heads and other tools are found in the newly turned earth. The skeleton of an American Indian was found on the farm of William Zehner, in southwestern Russell Township in March of 1929.   The skeleton, believed to be an Indian chieftain, was found buried under about 14 inches of earth in a wheat field. The skull was said to be almost perfect, with the exception of a part of the base crumbled away by age.

Lithograph of Little Turtle reputedly based upon a lost portrait by Gilbert Stuart that was destoyed when the British burned Washington DC in 1813.

The Tri-County History written in 1883 mistakenly created a myth that Little Turtle was buried in a mound near Russellville.  “Among the characters of note, buried in this vicinity, was Little Turtle, the sworn enemy of the pale face, and the father of Captain William Wells, who had been taken captive, when a child, and who was killed in the Chicago massacre, in 1812. Around his neck, in life, he wore a neatly carved figure of the animal, whose name he bore, and when he died it was buried with him, and was a few years ago exhumed.”

Thirty years later, after this was written, the actual grave of Little Turtle was discovered in Northern Indiana during a construction excavation by a homebuilder in Fort Wayne. Little Turtle, Chief of the Miamis, Me-She-Kin-No-Quah, died in 1812, at the home of his son-in-law William Wells, not far from Kekionga and was honored with a military-style funeral at Fort Wayne, not Russell Township. He was buried in his ancestral burial ground near Spy Run. History honors Little Turtle for his courageous valor and peacemaking.

Other Native people had occupied the land along the Wabash River centuries earlier. This is shown by the existence of mounds, commonly in groups, scattered along the river for the distance of a mile and a half from Russellville south. These mounds have been the subject of several investigations; the earlier ones by none other than by the Smithsonian Institute. 

On August 1, 1873 a letter was published from the Smithsonian in the Vincennes Weekly Sun requesting that a map of all mounds in each township be made and forwarded to Dr. A. Patton in Vincennes for distribution to the Washington DC Institute. In addition, human bones, axes, arrow heads, pipes, pottery and anything else fashioned by the hand of the ‘aboriginal man’ be sent along as well.  Upon receipt of this information about the local mounds a Bureau of Ethnology agent from the Smithsonian investigated the local mounds. 

Patton reported to Hon. S. P. Langley, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in the annual report published 1890-1891. “The mounds near Russellville are situated near the bank of the Wabash about a mile south east of the town on the farm of Mr. William Wise. One had been opened a short time before the Bureau investigation and a skeleton found at the depth of 2 feet; a flat rock was lying over it, but no relics of any kind with it. Two others formerly stood near it, but have been removed. According to local information several skeletons were found at the bottom and with them two iron tomahawks, some pipes, some shells and glass beads, and parts of three pairs of beaded buck skin moccasins.

Another mound on the Lawrenceville road, about 3 miles southeast of Russellville, had also been opened and several skeletons found about 2 feet below the surface, with heads outward and feet toward the center. No articles of any kind were with them. Near the town of Russellville formerly stood several mounds, but they were excavated in repairing the road. In these were found arrow heads, a silver breast ornament, two iron tomahawks, a crescent- shaped earring, two stone turtles, two copper kettles, a brass ring, and several skeletons, all at the bottom of the mound.” (It was probably this discovery that led to the belief that Little Turtle was buried there.)

In addition, there was a small Mississippian Native American center near Otter Pond along the Embarras River in Lawrence County, according to the Illinois State Museum. The Mississippian period began 1100 years ago and continued in Illinois until 550 yrs ago. In the northern part of the county evidence of the Riverton Culture dating from c. 1,100 to 1,500 BC has been found and archaeologists working just over the Lawrence County line have found Paleo-Indian artifacts from the Ice Age.