Captain Spier Spencer Square

This square honors Captain Spier Spencer, a frontier officer who died at the Battle of Tippecanoe on November seventh, eighteen eleven. Spencer led a company of mounted Indiana riflemen called the Yellow Jackets, named for the bright yellow coats they wore into battle. When General William Henry Harrison's army camped near Prophetstown, the warriors of Tecumseh's confederacy attacked before dawn.

Spencer was shot in the head, and as men carried him from the field a second shot killed him. His company held its ground at a heavy cost. Indiana remembered him.

In eighteen eighteen the state named Spencer County in his honor, and Kentucky named a county for him a few years later. The battle helped make Harrison a national figure, carrying him eventually to the presidency under the slogan Tippecanoe and Tyler too. This quiet square keeps the name of the captain who fell that morning.