Excerpt from Indiana Agriculture: Agricultural Resources and Development of the State, the Struggles of Pioneer Life Compared With Present Conditions

The State is in the form of an irregular parallelogram, extending from the Ohio River on the south to Lake Michigan on the north, and lying between the States of Ohio on the east and Illinois on the west. From north to south the average length is about 250 miles and in width about 150 miles. Exclusive of the surface covered by lakes the State has 33,809 square miles, or 21,637,760 acres of land. When the Territorial Government of Indiana was established by the act of Congress in May, 1800, it was an almost unbroken wilderness of heavily timbered forests and undulating, grassy plains. As early as 1702 French explorers had found their way here, but seventy years later the population did not exceed 550 white people, though there were many tribes of Indians. In 1808 the white population numbered about 17,000, and the census of 1810 showed the number to be 24,520. The Indian title to lands, extinguished prior to 1812, released to white settlement only the hill regions of the southern part of the State. This embraced a narrow strip, the Indian Boundary Line, as it was named in the titles, beginning in the Whitewater Valley at the southeast boundary and extending in a northwesterly direction to the Wabash River just north of Terre Hante. All north of this line was held by Indian tribes, and was an unbroken hunting ground, abounding in bear, deer and other wild game. This cession of the hilly regions of the State occurred in 1810. Here agriculture began its struggles with the great forests of white and burr oak, walnut, beech and other timber which abounded, covering the hills and valleys alike. The log cabins of the pioneers were built upon the hilltops. They brought little with them in settlement save the Government price of the land they entered, in 80 and 160 acre tracts, rarely larger in size, because they were poor.

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