Ellen Norton Edwards Ellen has a connection with the Lost Creek settlement near Terre Haute, Indiana. The Lost Creek Settlement is one of two dozen early Black settlements in Indiana.
Ellen ancestors include the
Bass and
Roberts Lost Creek Settlement Families.
Brief History of the Lost Creek Settlement (source: lost-creek.org)
The Lost Creek Settlement was an area of approximately 20 sq. Miles bordering areas of Lost Creek, Otter Creek, and Nevins Townships in Vigo County, Indiana. The migration of Blacks to Lost Creek began in the mid 1820's and continued until 1860.
By the time Indiana was granted statehood in 1816, slavery had been banned in the state constitution. There were blacks in Vigo County prior to 1820. They were unnamed in the 1820 census , and listed as "servants", in the households they served in.
Some history of the early families in the settlement: In 1820, a Supreme Court of Indiana ruling in Polly v. Lasselle freed all the remaining slaves in the state. One of those freed was Armstead Stewart. Armstead Stewart was born in 1783 in Dinwiddie, Virginia. He was a "free man of color" who was head of a Dinwiddie County household of 5 "other free" in 1810, and was taxable in Dinwiddie County, VA on 3 slaves in 1811, 2 in 1812 and his estate was taxable on 2 slaves and 3 horses in 1813. Armstead went missing and was presumed dead. He had been kidnapped by slave trader Daniel Durham, who transported him to Vigo County, and set him free by 1822.
The Bushnell, Cooper, Derixson, and Foster families, originated in Maryland. The Anderson, Bass, Evans, Manuel, Roberts, Stewart, and Walden families originated in Virginia. Those pioneers had relocated to North Carolina prior to the 1820’s, and prior to their migration to Indiana. The Bass were a Nansemond Indian-white mix. The Batton's and Underwood's originated from the Mississippi branch of the Choctaw Indian Tribe. The Foster's and Underwood's families migrated to North Carolina perhaps due to the apartheid laws which had been enacted in Virginia and Maryland, but had not yet been enacted in North Carolina.
