| Notes |
- Military service in War of 1812. John Tipton advanced to the rank of major general by 1822. He purchased the Tippecanoe Battleground and gave it to the State of Indiana. Elected Offices included: U. S. Senetor, Indiana Legislator, Harrison County Sheriff. Some sources record his first wife as Martha Shields.
GEN. JOHN TIPTON was born in Sevier County, Tenn., August 14, 1780. His father, Joshua Tipton, was a native of Maryland. When quite young, being impelled by a desire to participate in the excitements of pioneer life, he removed to Ten- nessee. He was one of the most formidable adversaries of Indian strategy, to which he finally fell a victim in 1793. In the fall of 1807 John Tipton, with his mother, two sisters and a half- brother, removed to Indiana Territory, and settled near a place on the Ohio River known as Brinley's Ferry. He purchased fifty acres of land, for which he paid by chopping and splitting rails at 50 cents a hundred. In 1811 he became a member of Capt. Spencer's company of mounted riflemen, known as Yellow Jackets. This company did excellent service in the campaign against the Indians on the Upper Wabash. In the battle of Tip- pecanoe, November 7, 1811, all the company officers above En- sign Tipton having, been killed, he was promoted to the captaincy by Gen. Harrison in the hottest of the fight, and by his superior tact and courage maintained the reputation of his men. He con- tinued in service until the close of the war in that locality. Sub- sequently he was promoted, by regular gradations in the Terri- torial and State militia, to the position of major-general in 1822. At the first election under the State constitution; in 1816, he
was made sheriff of Harrison County, and was re-elected in 1818.
In 1821 he was chosen to represent Harrison County in the State Legislature, and during the same year was one of the commis- sioners that located the State capital of Indiana. In the session which followed he was appointed commissioner- on the part of Indiana to meet a like commissioner from Illinois to locate the boundary line between the two States. The duty was satisfacto- rily performed. In the spring of 1824, without his solicitation or knowledge, he was appointed by President Monroe to the Indian agency, then located at Fort Wayne, which embraced the Pottawattomie, Miami and other Indian tribes on the Upper Wa- bash and Tippecanoe Rivers. Soon after his appointment he re- moved to Fort Wayne, and remained until March, 1828, when, at his instance, the agency was removed to Logansport. He was one of the commissioners appointed by John Quincy Adams to superintend the treaties with the Indians in his jurisdiction, and to his eminent ability were chiefly due the important provisions of the treaties of 1826, whereby valuable lands were opened to the public. He continued in charge of the agency until Decem- ber, 1831, when he was elected United States Senator, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Hon. James Noble. In De- cember, 1832, he was elected for a full term of six years, from March 4, 1833. As a senator he ranked high, distinguishing himself by his accurate knowledge of men and their relations to public affairs, and in working for the best good of the nation, without reference to politics. During the summer of 1838 he was delegated by the President to remove certain disaffected Pot- tawattomie and Miami lndians to the land which had been re- served west of the Mississippi River. Though these Indians had disposed of their lands, they were unwilling to emigrate, and the contractor had found it utterly impossible to proceed further. Gen. Tipton, however, readily comprehending the situation, over- came the difficulties by strategy, and, with a celerity scarcely anticipated, removed the remnants of the once mighty tribes. In March, 1839, he returned to his home in Logansport, and com- improving his vast landed estate on the Wabash. Had he lived to execute his plans for developing the immense resources of that locality, he would have given to Cass County in general, and Logansport in particular, a place in the industrial world un- equaled in Indiana. He died, April 5, 1839, from a sudden ill- ness induced by exposure. Gen. Tipton was twice married- in 1822 to Miss Shields, who died soon after, and in April, 1825, to Miss Matilda Spencer, daughter of Capt. Spear Spencer, who was killed at the battle of Tippecanoe. They had four chil- dren, all of whom are now dead, excepting one daughter, who is the wife of Capt. Thomas S. Dunn, of the United States Army. In 1817 Gen. Tipton received the several degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry, in Pisgah Lodge No.5, at Corydon, Ind. Upon the organization of the Grand Lodge, in 1818, he was elected Grand Senior Warden, and served until September, 1820. He was then elected Grand Master of the State, and served during the fourth and twelfth sessions. In 1822 he was made a Royal Arch Mason, in Louisville, Ky. In the fall of 1828 he organized Tipton Lodge No. 33, of Logansport, and in 1837 procured a charter and organized Logan Royal Arch Chapter, No.2.
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Reference:
"Kin of my Grandchildren, Vol III", Judge Noble K. Littell, 1992, p 18, 25.
"History of Jackson County, Indiana.", Brant and Fuller, 1886, p 724-726.
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