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GENERAL JOSEPH BARTHOLOMEW
Joseph Bartholomew was a general in the Indiana Militia.. He played an active role
in the settling of the state of Indiana and in his later years was known for his work
in politics. He was injured in the Battle of Tippecanoe.
Joseph Bartholomew was born in New Jersey, about 1766. While
he was young, the family moved to the western frontier of Pennsylvania.
He learned to use a rifle at a young age and at the age of 10, he
joined a scouting party in a campaign against the marauding Indians;
and often, during the Revolutionary War, served as a patrol.*
Joseph Bartholomew is listed in the Virginia Publick Claims as
having provided 35 pounds of bear meat.
About 1788, Joseph married Christiana Peckinpaugh, and the newly
married
couple migrated to the area of Louisville, Kentucky. Joseph
was engaged in surveying the territory that would become the
state of Indiana. In 1798, he removed with his family to Indiana
Territory, settling in Clark's Grant near the town of Charlestown.
It was there in 1809 that Christiana died,. They couple
had ten children: Joseph, Jr., Sarah, John, Catherine,
Mary, Amelia, Martha, Christiana, Marston Clark, and Albert.
In the spring of 1811, Joseph was married to Miss McNaught. At
about the same time, Joseph was selected by Governor William Henry
Harrison to head a militia regiment to counteract threatened antagonism
of the Indians of the Indiana Territory. Several months
later, the governor issued orders to the regiment to rendeavous at
Vincennes. This campaign included the memorable battle at
Tippecanoe on November 7, 1811. Bartholomew was shot through his
right forearm, breaking both bones. Ensign John Tipton in
his account of the Tippecanoe campaign reported the American
loss at 179 killed and wounded. It was said that Bartholomew's
wound 'gave him much trouble and he suffered throughout his entire
after life from it'.
Joseph erected the first brick farm house in Clark County (Indiana).
He was said to have a 'happy and jovial disposition and his home
was the seat of constant gayety and hospitality'. Joseph Bartholomew
later served as a representative from Clark County in the Indiana State
Legislature and was one of 10 officials appointed to select a site
for the permanent capital for the state.
When his services ended in the legislsture, he returned to his Clark
County farm which then consisted of 230 acres of excellent farming
land. It was while living there that his second wife died after
being thrown from a horse. Joseph and his second wife had five
children: George, Nancy, Angela, James Currie, and William
Milton.
In 1831 after being forced to sell his Indiana farm to satisfy a
$10,000 settlement incurred by his friend Dr. Andrew Hay, Bartholomew
purchased 600 acres of government land in McLean County, Illinois
When William Henry Harrison was nominated as candidate for president in
1841, Joseph quickly rallied tosupport his friend and former
soldier by travelling throughout Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky on his
behalf. The campaign song "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" was a
reference to the famous battle where both the presidential candidate
and his friend Joseph Bartholomew had served.
While campaigning for Harrison on horseback, Bartholomew aggravated a
chronic inflamation of the bladder. He returned home where he
died the next day, November 3, 1840, at age 74. He was buried in the cemetery in the
village of Clarksville, McLean County, Illinois.
Bartholomew County, Indiana
is named after him as is the Bartholomew Trail in Indiana.
*The Bartholomew Family; John, Daniel, and Jacob of Germantown
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