Before Indiana became a state, all of Fulton and northern neighboring counties were Potawatomi Territory. The Fulton ? Miami line marked the boundary between Potawatomi and Miami Indian territories.

Abraham (Abram) Burnett, a Potawatomi Indian, was born in November 1812 on the north side of the Tippecanoe River at a place called Muncie. This caused confusion because the present city of Muncie is nowhere near the Tippecanoe River. But Muncie means rocky place in Potawatomi. For years Burnett’s descendant Tom Hamilton searched for the birthplace and finally decided it was on Ernie Hiatt’s farm on 450 North, aka the Indiana Metal Road, in Richland Township.

There were two men named Abraham Burnett, the older one being half white, son of white trader William Burnett and his Potawatomi wife, Cone-zo-qua, daughter of Chief Chebass, who was brother to noted Potawatomi Chief Topinabee. The younger Abraham is usually called Abram Burnett and was a full blood Potawatomi. He is the one who had a trading post on the Tippecanoe River and Michigan Road north of Rochester.

As a young boy Abram was big for his age and served as guide for Rev. Isaac McCoy as they visited Indian villages to spread the gospel. Abram’s Indian name was Nan-Wesh-Mah. He married Marie DemosKakiague, daughter of Chief Aubbeenaubbee. George Winter painted her portrait. Abram was the same age as Father Petit and traveled with him on the return trip to Indiana after the Potawatomi were forcibly removed to Kansas on the Trail of Death in 1838. Petit died in St. Louis in February 1839 on the way back to Indiana.

While Abram was gone on the Trail of Death, someone broke into his trading post and stole many items. Somebody must have told Burnett who stole his goods because he sued the thief in Fulton County court.

Bill and I recently visited the County Clerk’s Office to get a copy of the court record when Burnett sued the man, David Stomder (or maybe it is Stawden ? handwriting is hard to decipher). The date was March 1840.

Handwriting at that time involved the old s that is more like an f, and it is hard to tell w from m.

The list of stolen items is long and typical of a trading post in frontier days: 20 blankets, 10 coats, 10 over coats, a hogs (hogshead or barrel) of kitchen utensils and household furniture, 10 pieces of cloth, 5 rifles, 20 hogs, 3 cows, 5 ponies, 3 trunks, 5 axes, 15 brass and copper kettles, 20 mats, 20 sacks, one keg of salt, one sack of flour, one Bowie knife, 5 tin buckets, 12 plates, 6 dishes, 2 smoothing irons, 18 books, one drawing knife, 5 augers, 12 shirts, 12 collars & Bosoms, several articles of clothing, for a grand total of $600.

A jury of 12 men met and decided to award Burnett $82, instead of the $600 he asked for. The $600 was probably the price Burnett hoped to sell the items for, not the amount he had paid for it. The jury consisted of Stephen M. Bishop, Hiram L. Welton, John Cullen, William Moon, Stephen P. Taylor, Vincent McCoy, Joshua Lindsey, Anthony P. Bellow, William S. Lindsey, Charles Clifton, Aaron Crimmons, and Wilson Shelton, “twelve good and lawful men.”

I am not sure if Burnett ever received the $82 as he went back to court later, asking to be paid.

After 1840 Burnett lived at Sugar Creek, Kansas, where his wife died. Then he married a German woman, Mary Knoflock and spent the rest of his life at Topeka.

In March 1870 Abram Burnett was required to give a deposition in court regarding a land dispute. In this deposition he told of his early life in Indiana.

It is interesting that he was born right here in Fulton County but that was never recorded, leaving it a mystery about where was his birthplace on the Tippecanoe River called Muncie or “rocky place.” Years ago I helped Tom Hamilton search for Burnett’s birthplace. Then Tom brought his five teenage grandsons to visit Ernie Hiatt’s farm a couple of years before Tom died in 2010. Tom and his descendants are members of the Citizen Band Potawatomi Nation.