The John Tipton papers

The John Tipton Papers derive their significance from the part Tipton took, between 1807 and 1839, in the transformation of Indiana from a territory of Indian lands with a fringe of white occupation along the southern boundaries into a productive agricultural state struggling for internal improvements from the Great Lakes to the Ohio. He began his public career as a local official in a southern county, the seat of justice of which became the second territorial and the first state capital. He helped locate the permanent capital in the center of the state. He became a leading citizen in northern Indiana, was twice United States Senator, and was the owner of large tracts of land and mills and city property. He was a staunch supporter of internal improvements. He died at Logansport the year after he had removed the Potawatomi Indians from the state. His papers give an inside view of the growth, in a turbulent, dangerous frontier, of democratic political organization and of substantial proprietorships.
-from the Preface