A Shirt and a Bible William Polke’s Frontier Indiana

Abstract

William Polke lived an extraordinary life that spanned Indiana’s transformation from a territory to a state. Born in 1775, he survived capture as a child by the Ottawas. In 1793, he served under William Wells in Gen. Anthony Wayne’s army at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. He was an anti-slavery Baptist who moved, along with many family members, from Kentucky to the Indiana Territory in 1808. He fought under William Henry Harrison at Tippecanoe; served as a delegate to the convention that wrote Indiana’s first state constitution; oversaw the construction of the Michigan Road; acted as conductor for the Potawatomi Removal in 1838; and during his lifetime served in a number of public offices. Author John Kester uses extensive archival research to examine the long and accomplished life of this Indiana pioneer.