That day Hamilton signed the articles of capitulation and the next, February 25, 1779, at ten o'clock in the morning, Governor Hamilton and his men marched out of the fort between the lines of American troops, in formal token of surrender. Colonel Clark and two of his captains with their companions marched in, hoisted the American flag and took formal possession, and with that act the soil of Indiana became a permanent American possession. In other words, that climax to a dramatic and heroic chapter may be considered as the starting point of Indiana history, for form that planting of American stock to the development of the State of Indiana is a succession of steps, one growing out of the other. Hence, considering all the preceding matter as preliminary, we take up the history proper at this point. (Up to the time of the organization of the Northwest Territory the government was so chaotic and the incoming population so sparse and obscure that there is little record of it. The first American occupancy that comes within the purview of history centered about Vincennes and in Clark's Grant, which was surveyed and settled as early as 1783, or soon thereafter. For some years this latter was the largest American center west of Ohio.)