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THE
PICTORIAL HISTORY
OF FORT WAYNE
INDIANA
A REVIEW OF
TWO CENTURIES OF OCCUPATION OF THE
REGION ABOUT THE HEAD OF THE
MAUMEE RIVER
By
B. J. GRISWOLD
ILLUSTRATED
WITH HALFTONE ENGRAVINGS
AND THREE HUNDRED PEN DRAWINGS AND MAPS
BY THE AUTHOR
ALSO THE STORY .Vfl OF THE TOWNSHIPS OF ALLEN COUNTY
BY
MRS. SAMUEL R. TAYLOR
CHICAGO Robert O. Law Company 1917 -,^
THE NEV/ YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
82124SA
ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDKN FOUNDATIONS
R 1©27 X.
Copyright, 1917, by B. J. Griswold
Introduction
THE probability that the scattered fragments of the story of Fort Wayne otherwise would be lost to the children of to- morrow suggested the writing of this book.
It is a narrative worthy of preservation — a story to inspire that true love of home which is the foundation of the purest patriotism and citizenship.
The record begins with the appearance of the first adventurous Frenchman among the savages of ancient Kekionga and closes with the story of the departure of Fort Wayne's patriotic sons for the blood-stained battlefields of France, there to give their lives that the world may be made "safe for democracy." Three centuries intervene. The search for the actors in the great drama has un- covered many new names and heroic deeds ; it is with pride that we introduce them now.
If "the love of country is the highest and purest affection of the soul," let us implant that love in the lives of our youth through the re-telling of the story of the deeds which have made possible the blessings of today.
The writer of this book came to Fort Wayne in 1903, "a stranger in a strange land," knowing naught of the romantic story which soon was revealed to him through the study of written and un- written fragments and the narratives of the representatives of the "first families." Someone, he felt, should gather these disconnected facts into a comprehensive whole. Convinced that the task might be deferred until too late to save the fading, crumbling records, he determined to make the work a personal undertaking — not with the impossible result of producing a literary treasure but with the hope that the desired end would overshadow the faultiness of the means of expression.
With my earnest thanks to all the friends who have given unsparing assistance in the preparation of the book, I dedicate it to the service of a more firmly grounded love of home and country.
Fort Wayne, Indiana, ^^ ^ jg v^
August 15, 1917. ' ^4A^^^^--<.^L.^.>--o--tJ^^^^~^^
ILLUSTRATIONS
Abbott, William T 442
Allen, Colonel John 201
Anderson, Calvin 390
Aveline, Francis S 243
Ayres, Dr. Henry P 354
B
Bailey, Peter P 351
Barbour, Myron F 324
Harnett, James 247
Bass, Colonel Sion S 457
Bavless, Sol D 351
Benoit, Rt. Rev. Julian 356
Berghoff, Henry C 660
Bigger, Governor Samuel 393
Bird, Ochmig 427
Borden, Judge James W 341
Bourie, Louis T 438
Bourie, Mrs. Louis 227
Brackenridge, Judge Joseph.. 301
Brandrifl, Alfred D 417
Brenton, Samuel 394
Brooks, Dr. William H 358
C
Carson, Judge William W 285
Case, Charles 400
Cass, General Lewis 367
Celeron, Bienville de 47
Chapeteau, Angeline 176
Champlain. Samuel de 27
Chapman, John 371
Colerick, David H 297
Comparet, Francis .■ 247
Croghan, Major George 201
D
Dawson, John W 341
Dawson, Judge Reuben J. - . .310 Denny, Major Ebenezer ..... 192
Drake, Moses, Jr 458
DuBois, John B 3.54
Edgerton, Alfred P 446
EdKerton. Joseph K 3S6
Edsall, Samuel 267
Edsall, William S 267
Elskwatawa 182
Engelmann, Mrs. Archangel. .3.56
Evans, S. Cary 192
Ewing, Charles W 262
Ewing, Colonel George W 262
Ewing, Judge William G. . . .259 F
Fairfield, Captain Asa 324
Fay, Judge James A 442
Ferry, Lucien P 307
Ferry, Mrs. Lucien P 225
Fleming, WUliam 417
Fry, Jacob 304
PORTRAITS
Girty, Simon 77
Grice, Jesse 560
Griffith, Captain William 211
Griggs, Mrs. Jane T 285
Griswold, Mrs. Angeline 176
H
Hamilton, Allen 259
Hamilton, Andrew Holman ..416
Hanna, Colonel Hugh 271
Hanna, Judge Samuel 243
Hanna, Robert B 193
Harding, Daniel F 560
Harmar, General Josiah 9S
Harrison, William Henry 211
Heald, Mrs. Rebekah Wells. . .178
Hedekin, Michael 310
Higgins, C. R 193
Hoagland, Pliny 380
Holman, Joseph 271
Hosey, William J 560
Humphrey, Colonel George. . .455
Hunt, John Elliott 192
Hu.xford, Dr. Merchant W. ...306 J
Jenkinson, Major Joseph 218
"Johnnie Appleseed" 371
Johnson, Colonel Richard M. .218
Johnston, Colonel John 169
K
Kamm, John J 487
Kaough, William 193
Keil, Frederick W 193
Kil-so-quah 180
King, William 449
Kiser, Peter 353
L
LaFontaine, Chief Francis 3.50
LaSalle, Sieur de 29
Lasselle, Hyacinth 71
Lawton, General Henrv W 455
Little Turtle 162
Lotz, Henry 367
Mc
Mc.Tunkin, Alexander 425
McCuUoch, Judge Hugh 316
M
Maier, John G 3S6
Me-te-a 180
Miller, Edward C 193
Miner, Bvron D 327
Morgan, Oliver P 316
Morss, Samuel E 503
Morss, Samuel S 394
Muhler, Charles F 560
Munson, Charles .\ 503
N Nelson, I. D. G 327
Noel, Smalwood 274
Nuttman, James D 452
O
Oakley, Chauncey B 560
P
Page, William D 193
Parker, Christian 316
Peltier, James C 176
Peltier, Louis C 176
Peltier, Mrs. James 176
Peltier, William H. W 176
Pontiac 61
"Prophet, The" 182
R
Randall, Franklin P 346
Randall, Pcrrv A 561
Reed, Colonel Hugh B 452
Revarre, Anthony, Jr 176
Richard\-ille, Chief 233
Rockhill, William 280
Rockhill, Wright W 193
Rudisill, Henry 297
S
St. Clair, General Arthur 114
Scherer, Henrv P 560
Schmitz, Dr. Charles E 335
Smart, James H 478
Smith, William S 417
Stapleford, Edward 304
Stockbridge, Nathaniel P 367
Sturgis, Dr. Charles E 386
Suttenfleld, Mrs. Laura ,225
Swinney, Colonel Thomas W. .255 T
Taber, Cyrus 241
Tecumseh 18J
Tigar, Thomas 320
Tipton, General .John 255
V
Van Geisen, Munson 400
Vermilvea, Jesse 275
W Wallace, Governor David ....405 Wayne, Major Gen. Anthony
(Frontispiece), 123
Wells, Captain William 165
Wells, Jane T 285
M'ells, Rebekah 178
\^'histler, George Washington. 231
Whistler, Major John 233
WTiite Loon 176
Whitlock, Major Ambrose 131
Williams. .Jesse L 320
Wood, George W 3.35
Woodworth, Dr. B. S .390
Worden, Judge .Tames L 400
Z Zollinger. Colonel Charles A.. 405
MAPS
Maumee-Wabash Portage • 20
How the Rivers Were Made 21
Where the Mastodon Roamed 23
Where the Mound Builders Lived 23
Three Main Water Routes 26
Earliest Maps Showing the Rivers 28
Where the First French Forts Stood 34
Where the Last French Fort Stood 43
Notable Voyage of Celeron 49
Revolution in the West 69
Northwest Territory 79
Where Miami Town Stood 85
Harmar's Ford 99
Map of Fort Wa.rae Site, Drawn in 1790 100
Harmar's Operations 105
Battle of the Site of Fort Wavne, 1790 109
St. Clair's Battlefield 116
Where St. Clair's Army Was Slaughtered. . .117 Map Showing the Movements of General
Wa.vne's Army (1793-4) 125
Wayne's Route -Mong the Maumee 126
Battlefield of Fallen Timber . . - 129
Wayne Trace 133
Where the Two Stockaded Forts were Lo- cated 139
Waj-ne County in 1796 146
Fort Wayne and Surroundings, Map of Major
Wliistler 156-157
First Government Survey of the Region of
Fort Wayne 160-161
Greenville Treaty Boundary Line 169
Where Little Turtle is Buried 177
Where the Fort Dearborn Massacre Occurred. 182
Captain Wells's Farm 186
Map of the Siege of Fort Wa.\Tie, 1812 207
Harrison's Movements Before and After the
Siege 209
Where Major Jenkinson's Men Were Mas- sacred 220
Indian Reservations in Allen Conty 239
Historic Spots in Spy Run 241
Original Area of Allen County 252
Riley's Map of the Military Tract 262
MAPS— (Continued)
Original Plat of Fort Waj*ne 267
County Addition to Fort WaxTie 267
Feeder Canal and It8 Connection with Wa- bash and Erie Canal 325
Route of Wabash and Erie Canal Throuph
Fort Wayne 339
Indiana's Vast Plan of Public Improve- ments 342
Territorial Expansion of Fort Wayne 358
Location of Ruins of Waash and Erie Canal
Acqueducts in Fort Wayne 382
Pioneer Railroads of Northern Indiana and
Ohio 429
Camp Allen 458
Fort Waj-ne's First Baseball Grounds 468
GENERAL
The First White Man 17
Relics of Pre-Historic Man 22
The Mastodon 22
Remains of Extinct Peccar>' 24
Where the First French Forts Stood 34
Sif^nature of Sieur de Vincennes (FrancoiB
Morsane) 36
Burning of French Post Miami Sfl
Where the Last French Post Stood 43
French Relics Dug Up on the Site of Fort
Wayne 62
Steel Tomahawks 54
Scalping Knives 59
Sword Found in Lakeside 68
A Relic of the Indian Wars 75
Two "Turtle" Relics 81
liarmar's Ford Today 99
Grim Remainders of Harmar*8 Battle 101
Curious Relic of Harmar's IBattle 1(>7
Signature of Major Denny 112
Wayne Trace "Marker" 133
General Wayne's Camp Bed 141
Ruins of Last Blockhouse 143
Letter Written by the First Comnuuiduit of
Fort Wayne 145
Andirons of the Old Fort 14B
Two Waj-ne Relics 148
Wayne Coat of Arms 148
Buttons from the Uniforms of Soldiers of
Old Fort Wayne 151
Wavne's Body in Two Graves (Letter) 152
Whistler's Drawing of Fort Waj-ne 156-157
Anthony Wayne Flag 162
Greenville Treaty Signatures 165
Signature of Captain Wells 1fi9
Signature of Colonel Johnston 169
flovomor Hull's Plea for Major Whistler 175
lyittlf Turtle's Grave in ISflO 176
The Coming of Angeline Chapeteau 176
Fort WajTie in 1815 177
Historic Old Apple Tree 178
Is This the Washington Sword? 184
The Home of Kil-so-quah 186
Signature of John P. Hedges 186
General Hull's Fatal Letter 188
Little Turtle Tablet 190
Signature of Lieutenant Ostrander 190
Signature of Captain Heald lIKt
First Brick Building Erected in Fort Wa.i-ne.l92 Captain Wells's Letter Which Foretold the
Savage Outbreak 195
Harrison's Call for Tolunteers to S«Te Fort
Waj-ne 199
Signature of Major Croghan 201
Captain Rhea Foresaw the Siege of Fort
Wayne 203
Allien Harrison Said Goodbye to His Troops
at Fort Wayne ' 205
Cannon Balls Fired from Fort Wayne 207
A Commandant's "Love" Tetter 216
Where Major Jenkinson's Men Were Massa- cred 220
Chief Richardville Monument 225
Chief Richardville's Safe 227
When Whistler Rebuilt Fort Warae 229
Mrs, Suttenfleld's Table 231
Signature of Major Whistler 233
What a Verv Knrlv Historical Work Said
About Fort Wayne 245
Last Council House 249
Signature of Dr. Turner 249
Signature of Alexis Coquillard 249
Charter of Waj-ne Lodge Masons 253
Judge William N. Hood's Commission 257
Presidents' Signattires to Fort Wayne Land
Grants 260
Signature of John McCorkle 2«2
Fort Wayne's First Rocking Chair 280
The Story of the Fugitive Slaves 291
When Henry Rudisill Came to Fort Wayne.. 293
Rudisill Mill 299
Allen County's First Court House 301
"County Seminary" Receipt for Tuition 305
Fourth of July Invitation of 1834 308
Letter from a "Father of the Canal" 312
Canal Construction Contract 314
Early Copy of Fort Waj-ne'a First News- paper 318
Fort Wayne's First Oiurch Building 324
A Newspaper Quarrel of the Thirties 329
Fort WajTie's First Bank Building 330
A Social Affair of IW. 830
When the Early Families Entertained 332
Hugh McCulloch's Record of His First Bank
Salar>- 334
Rockhili House 3t4
.Mayer House 346
Fort Wayne's First Public School Building.. 346
Chief I..aFontaine'8 Chair 850
Courthouse Square in the Forties 3.'i2
Chief LaFontaine's House 353
Original Draft of the City Charter 359
Wabash and Erie Aqueduct at Fort Wavnc..364
General Winfield Scott's Letter .' 365
OrfT (Edsall) Mill 36S
The Hedekin House 368
"Johnnie Appleseed's" Grave 371
I>etter Written by "Johnnie Appleseed" 371
Why Henry Clay Could Not Attend the Canal
Celebration 372
Daniel Webster's Tribute to the Wabash and
Erie Canal 374
\ Page from the Canal Collector's Record
Book 378
Stoves of the Forties 380
Crumbling Ruins of the Canal 382
Private Currency of the Forties 385
.\n Order from Mayor Huxford's Court 389
Extracts from Letters of Henry Cooper 391
Grave of Governor Bigger 393
Plank Road Poster of 1849 399
Ruins of Locks of Wabash and Erie Canal 402
Methodist College 404
Junction of the Rivers in Civil War Times.. 412 Invitation to the First Railroad Excursion. .422
Colerick's Hall 425
Souvenir of Fort Wayne's First Public
Schools 425
Rome Old Railroad Tickets 427
Original Cl.iy School Building 4.'i3
Jefferson School 434
Fragment of a Letter of Colonel George
W. Ewing 435
Reminder of a Forgotten Bank 436
BeforetheWar Social Affair 444
Seal of the City of Fort Waj-ne 449
"Penn-syh-anta" Station 4.54
.\veline House 457
Fourth Court House 461
Operation of Trains in Civil War Times 464
Municipal ".Shinplaster" Currency 467
Relic of the Wood-Burning Locomotive Days. 468 Judge McCulloch's Commission as Secretary
of the Trea.sury 475
First Hoagland School, Remodeled 478
Old High School 482
Entrance to "The Rink" 487
Old Fort Waj-ne. Drawn after the Model of
Isaac Bush 556
I>r. Slocum's Conception of Old Fort Wayne. ..5.57
Port Wayne Centennial H.ymn 559
Reservoir Park. Scene of the Pageant of 1916. .561
Fort Wa>-ne Flag .5«1
Views of Pageant Grounds, 1916 576
Fifth (Present) Courthouse 576
Stirring Scenes of 1917 577
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
The First White Man of the Maumee. A Lakeside Fantasy 17
CHAPTER H.
The Portage That Made Fort Wayne.
The Importance of an understanding of the word "portage" — Its value to the discoverer — Hovi' the Maumee-Wabash portage joined the Great Lakes to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mex- ico— Resume of the story of the development of the "carrying place" — The Fort Wayne rivers — The great glacier — Pre-glacial man — The mastodon — Extinct animal life — The Mound Builders In Allen county 20
CHAPTER III.— 1614-1682.
Savage, Adventurer, Explorer and Priest.
Ancient French records of the Maumee-Wabash development give us the story of the early days of exploration and the struggles between the French, the English and the Indians — Value of the records of the Jesuits — The Miamis and their allies in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin — Kiskakons and Ottawas on Fort Wayne site — Iroquois, from the east, procure firearms and wage a war of extermination upon the Miamis and western tribes — Are forced back — Twightwees at Kekionga — Characteristics of the Miamis — Their allegiance to the French and latterly to the English — Coureur de bois — The Jesuits — Samuel de Champlain on the Maumee? — The earliest maps — La Salle and the never-ending dis- pute 25
CHAPTER IV— 1683-1732. Kekionga During the "Golden Era" of French Rule.
The peaceful mission of the French in the Maumee-Wabash valleys — Opposition to the encroachment of the English traders — The demoralization of the fur trade by the Miami-Iroquois war — Restoration of peace followed by the establishment of a stronger post on the site of Fort Wayne — Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, and his great plan to "monopolize" the Miamis — Cadillac invades the Maumee-Wabash valleys — Tattooed savages at the site of Fort Wayne — Buffalo and bear — Francois Margane establishes Ouiatanon and commands Post Miami (Fort Wayne) — Vincennes founded — Margane burned at the stake 32
CHAPTER v.— 1733-1749.
The Last French Posts on the Site of Fort Wayne.
Longueuil's troops at the head of the Maumee — The Chief Nicolas (Sanosket) uprising— Capture of Post Miami (Fort Wayne) — Its partial destruction by fire while Douville, the commandant, is absent — Dubuisson rebuilds the fort — The remarkable voyage of Captain Bienville de Celeron — The duplicity of LaDemoiselle, chief of the Piankeshaws — Bonnecamps describes the conditions at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) — Chief Cold Foot undeceives Captain Celeron — Raymond builds a new fort on the St. Joseph River 42
CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER VI.— 1750-1760.
Surrender of the French Post Miami (Fort AVayne) to the English.
Celeron assumes command at Detroit — Increasing alarm at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) — Raimond's cry of alarm — "Xo one wants to stay here and iiave liis throat cut!" — The smallpox scourge — Death of Chiefs Cold Foot and LeGris— Captain Neyon de Villiers sent to comamnd Post Miami — The audacity of John Pathin — His arrest — Complaint of the English — Retort of the French — Two men of the Post Miami garrison captured and scalped — Langlade leads in the assault on PickawiUany — Death of LaDem- oiselle — Cannibalistic red men — Surrender of Detroit ends the French rule in the valleys — Lieutenant Butler receives the sur- render of Post Miami (Fort Wayne) — Ensign Robert Holmes in command 51
CHAPTER vn.— 1761-1765. Massacre of the British at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) — Morris and
Croghan.
The beginning of the Conspiracy of Pontiac — Holmes warned of the plot — He discovers the war belt at Keklonga — Holmes betrayed to his death by the Indian maiden — -Shot from ambush — Captain Morris's version — Survivors tell of the plot as planned and exe- cuted by Jacques Godefroy and Mincy Chene — Welch and Law- rence, the traders, and their account of the murder — Ouiatanon falls — Morris at Pontiac's camp — He reaches the site of Fort Wayne — Captured and thrown into the fort — Tied to the stake to be tortured — Saved by Chief Pecanne — Escapes to the fort — Colonel Bradstreet's expedition — Savages bring in the white cap- tives— Colonel George Croghan reaches the site of Fort Wayne 57
CHAPTER VHI.— 17C6-1779.
Miami Town (Fort Wayne) and the Revolution.
The savages renew their allegiance to the English — Sir William John- son fears the Indians may aid the colonists^Would reclaim the site of Fort Wayne — Hamilton in authority at Detroit — Sends out scalping parties to raid the American settlements — McKee, Elliott and the Girtys — George Rogers Clark's brilliant capture of Kas- kaskia. Cahokia and Vincennes — Celeron flees from Ouiatanon — Hamilton's army moves up the Maumee to the site of Fort Wayne — Conference with savage tribes — Valuable goods stored at the Miami village — Proceeds to Vincennes 67
CHAPTER IX.— 1780-1789.
The Massacre of La Balme — Washington Foresees Fort Wayne.
French traders at Miami Town (Fort Wayne) advance the cause of England in their war against the American colonists — The Las- selles, Beaubien and LaFontaine — Hyacinth Lasselle, the first white child born on Fort Wayne soil — The village thrown into consternation upon the approach of LaBalme — His identity and mission — Inhabitants flee to places of safety — LaBalme confis- cates the property of anti-American traders — The camp on the Aboite — Little Turtle leads in the night attack — Slaughter of La- Balme's men — Washington would establish a fort on the site of Fort Wayne 74
CmVPTER X.— 1789-1790.
Life in Miami Town (Fort Wayne), the Anti-American Center of
the" West.
Extracts from the journal of Henry Hay, of Detroit, a British partisan, who sojourned in Miami Town during the winter of 1789-1790 — The social life of the village — Savages bring in many captive
viii CONTENTS
Americans— Others are tortured and scalped— Wild scalp dances of the savages in Lakeside — Little Turtle and LeGris — Religious worship among the whites of the village — People summoned by the ringing of cowbells — Richardville as a youth — His mother — Early merchandising described as a "rascally scrambling trade" — John Kinzie, the Girtys, James Abbott, La Fontaine and Lor- raine— Hay would not risk his "carcass" among the "renegades" (Americans) — Prisoners at Chillicothe village — The town flooded... 85
CHAPTER XL— 1790. The Battle of the Site of Fort Wayne— " Harmar 's Defeat." General Josiah Harmar as a soldier — His mission to France — Is sent to expel George Rogers Clark from Vincennes — Benedict Arnold and Dr. Connoly disturb the west — Major Hamtramck sends An- toine Gamelin to the site of Fort Wayne to pacify the savages — Failure of his mission — Cannibalistic feast at the head of the Maumee — St Clair sends Harmar against the Miami villages (Fort Wayne) — Deplorable condition of the army — Reaches the Miami villages and destroys them with fire — Hardin's detachment led into ambush — A terrible slaughter at Heller's Corners — The army at Chillicothe on the Maumee — The retreat to Cincinnati halted to allow Hardin to return — Plan of the battle on the site of Fort Wayne — The fatal error — Slaughter of Wyllys's regulars at Har- mar's ford — Fierce engagement on the St. Joseph — The retreat — Washington's comment 98
CHAPTER XII.— 1791.
St. Clair's Defeat Imperils the West — Washington's Apprehensions.
Harmar's failure to establish a fort at the head of the Maumee — Consequences of the campaign — Washington summons St. Clair and outlines his plan — Generals Scott and Wilkinson and Colonel Har- din invade the Wabash region — Ouiatanon destroyed — St. Clair's army weakened by desertions — Poor equipment — Harmar predicts St. Clair's defeat — Forts Hamilton and Jefferson established — Army goes into camp on the fateful night of November 3, 1791^ "The bloodiest battlefield of American pioneer history" — Washing- ton in a rage — Savages rejoice and prepare for the coming of the next leader of the Americans 114
CHAPTER XIII.— 1792-1794. "Mad Anthony" Wayne, Savior of the West— "Fallen Timber." Disheartening conditions in the west — Washington's problems — Gen- eral Anthony Wayne chosen to lead the third expedition against the Indians — Washington's opinion of Wayne — Death of Colonel Hardin — Peace messengers tortured to death — Wayne trains his army and proceeds to Fort Washington (Cincinnati) — Joined by Harrison, Whistler, Lewis and Clark — The army at Greenville — British build two forts on American soil — Captain William Wells joins Wayne — The army reaches the Maumee — How Wayne de- ceived the savages — Fort Defiance erected — Blue Jacket leads the savages — The death of William May— Wayne's story of the battle of Fallen Timber — Sharp correspondence between Wayne and Major Campbell, commandant of the British Post Miami— The Americans destroy British property and vast acreages of corn — The result of Wayne's victory 121
CHAPTER XIV.— 1794. The Building and Dedication of Fort Wayne. Wayne's Legion departs from the vicinity of the British fort— Inci- dents of the march to Fort Defiance — Illness of the troops — The final lap to the goal of their hopes — The army reaches the site of Fort Wayne — How the prospect Impressed the soldiers — Wayne selects a location for the fort — Work on the buildings and the palisades is commenced — The "strike" of the volunteers — Wayne
CONTENTS ix
urges haste to avoid the coming cold — Courtmartial of offenders —Corporal Reading sentenced to death — The spy in the tree-top — Unruly soldiers steal beef — Wayne well pleased with the fort — An account of the dedication — Colonel Hamtramck names the post "Fort Wayne" — Hamtramck is given command of the post — Destitute condition of the troops — Wayne's "shoe" order — Departs for Greenville — His letter to General Knox 138
CHAPTER XV.— 1794-1805. The Fort in the Wilderness. Colonel Hamtramck and the incorrigible troops at Fort Wayne — The chiefs sue for peace — A winter of suffering^Wayne prepares for the treaty council — Little Turtle pleads for the retention of the site of Fort Wayne and the Maumee-Wabash portage — Wayne's diplomatic refusal — The treaty signed — Wayne's depart- ure— Visits the president — Sent to Detroit — His death — Starving Indians at Fort Wayne — Hamtramck goes to Detroit — Major Thom- as Pasteur succeeds to the command of Fort Wayne — Conditions during his administration of affairs — Colonel Hunt commands Fort Wayne — Birth of John Elliott Hunt — Marriage of Miss Ruthie Hunt and Dr. Abraham Edwards — Colonel Hunt transferred to Detroit — Captain John Whipple in command of Fort Wayne — Major Pike — Governor Harrison resents the activities of Captain William Wells — Would remove Wells from the Indian service — Colonel John Johnston, Indian agent — Wells and Little Turtle visit eastern cities — Quakers come to teach the Indians the art of agriculture — Fort Dearborn established by Major John Whis- tler 150
CHAPTER XVI.— 1806-1812. The Quiet Before the Savage Storm. Tecumseh and "The Prophet" unite the savages in a conspiracy to destroy the settlers — Captain Wells reports conditions at Fort Wayne — Raptiste Maloch and Angeline Chapeteau — Captain Na- than Heald commands Fort Wayne — His romantic courtship of Re- becca Wells — Lieutenant Ostrander's letter — Congress gives Wells the present Spy Run and Bloomlngdale districts — Harrison's 1809 treaty at Fort Wayne— Lieutenant William Whistler— Col- onel Johnston's troubles — Captain James Rhea in command of Fort Wayne — His weakness of character — The celebration of the 4th of July, 1811— The "big elm"— The battle of Tippecanoe — Sav- ages deceive Colonel Johnston — He is succeeded by Major Stlck- ney — War against England is declared — Rhea foresees Indian war — The death of Little Turtle — The Fort Dearborn massacre — Stories of the survivors 174
CHAPTER Xr^ai.— 1812. The Siege of Fort Wayne.
The massacre of the Fort Dearborn garrison and the surrender of Detroit to the British leave Fort Wayne in a position of peril- General Winchester to the west — Harrison's commission — How Logan, the Shawnee, saved the women and children of Fort Wayne — Me-te-a reveals the savage plot to Antoine Bondie, who tells the story to Major Stickney — Rhea scouts the idea of savage trickery — The murder of Stephen Johnston — Bondie foils the plans of Chief Winamac — "I am a man!" — Rhea, the drunken command- ant— The siege opens with severity — William Oliver's exploit — Harrison's report to the war department — The relief army moves forward — Flight of the savages — The arrival of Harrison's army at Fort Wayne — The arrest of Rhea — He resigns in disgrace — Destruction of the Indian villages — The arrival of General Win- chester—Harrison relinquishes the command and departs for Ohio 198
X CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVIII.— 1812-1813.
British Army Under Muir, Sent Against Fort Wayne, is Turned
Back.
Captain George Croghan at Fort Wayne — Revolt of Captain Ward's men — Winchester's rosy view of the future — Death of Ensign Leg- gett — Winchester's army put^ to rout the expedition imder Major Mulr, designed to destroy Fort Wayne— Suffering of the Ken- tucky troops — General Tupper's disobedience — Harrison's inspir- ing address — The battle of the River Raisin — Death of Colonel Allen — The siege of Fort Meigs — Harrison finds Fort Wayne in peril — Colonel Richard Menter Johnson sent to protect it — John- son's men massacred by savages within sight of the fort- Closing incidents of the war of 1S12 in the west— Death of Tecum- seh 214
CHAPTER XIX.— 1813-1815.
Jenkinson and Whistler, Commandants — Rebuilding Fort Wayne.
Major Jenkinson in command at Fort Wayne — A savage attack on his convoy — Major Whistler succeeds Major Jenkinson — The Sut- tenflelds and the Bouries— The residents of the fort — How the Fourth of July was celebrated in 1814— "Rniistler declares the fort was "an ill-constructed thing at the first" — Purposes to rebuild the stockade — When John Kinzie's scalp was valuable — Hostile chiefs plan attack on the forts— Whistler fears for "the poor devils" in the Indian camps — "No whiskey, no soap" — Whistler rebuilds the fort — John W. Dawson's observations concerning the build- ing and reconstruction of Wayne's and Hunt's forts — Description of the fort buildings and surroundings 223
CHAPTER XX.— 1816-1820.
The Evacuation of Fort AYayne— Wild Gatherings of Savages.
Richardville becomes the most wealthy Indian in the west — Major Vose succeeds Major Whistler in command of Fort Wayne — Relig- ious services in the fort— Doctor Trevitt and Lieutenant Clark— Vose builds the council house— The beginning of decisive canal activity— James Barnett and Samuel Hanna— The fort is aban- doned by the troops— Lonely situation of the pioneers— Captain Riley's prophecy concerning Fort Wayne — Rev. Isaac McCoy braves the perils of western travel and establishes the first Prot- estant mission and the first school— The voyage from Terre Haute — Rev. Mr. Finney's account of the annuity distribution to the Indians— Unprincipled traders— Rumsellers described as "rob- bers, thieves and murderers" — Scenes of debauchery — Major Long's unkind description of the "worthless population" of Fort Wayne ., 237
CHAPTER XXI.— 1821-1823.
Platting the To-wn of Fort Wayne— Allen County Organized.
Doctor Turner, John Hays and Benjamin B. Kercheval, Indian sub- agents — The first postoffice — Kercheval and Hanna, postmasters — The American F^ir Company — Alexis Coquillard, Francis Com- paret, James Aveline, the Ewings, the Hoods, William Rockhill, General John Tipton, the Swinneys, Paul Taber and others locate in the village — "Father" Ross— The first secret order, Wayne Lodge of Masons, organized within the fort— Why General Harri- son blocked the way against the establishment of a town in 1S05 — The government decides to sell the lands about the fort— The land office — Captain Vance and Register Holman— Allen Hamil- ton—John T. Barr and John McCorkle — Robert Young surveys the original plat of Fort Wayne— Swing's tract— Wliy the original streets run askew — Allen county is organized 251
CONTENTS
XI
. CHAPTER XXII.— 1824. Pioneer County Government — The First Lot Buj-ers. Settlers pour into tlie village of Fort Wayne — Arrival of the commis- sioners to establish the government of Allen county — Ewing's Washington Hall and Suttenfield's tavern — The first officials of Al- len county — Grand jury activities — The first attorney's license, trespass suit, divorce case, naturalization grant, tavern license and marriage license — Barr and McCorkle's plat of the town is accepted — Valuable gifts to the county — The original lot-buyers — The county library — Fate of the institution^Wells's pre-emption is opened — The first brick building — A near-war between the Miamis and the Ottawas assists in the foundation of two fortunes 265
CHAPTER XXIII.— 182.>1828. Beginnings of the Wabash and Erie Canal. How the authorities obeyed the laws — The first murder case — The log Jail on the courthouse square — The debtors" prison a faulty bas- tile — The County Seminary — The canal "fever" — Judge Hanna re- veals a plan to David Burr — The canal survey is authorized — Engineers succumb to attacks of fever — .Judge Hanna In the legis- lature— Congress passes the canal bill — A close call — The "feeder" canal — An early lawyer's story — The first gristmill — Pioneer enter- prises— A di'^astrous flood^The Ewings establish extensive fur trade — Fort Wayne loses the government land office 277
CIIAPTED XXIV.— 1829-18:31.
The Village Incorporated — "Underground Railroad" — The First
Courthouse.
The village decides to incorporate — The original town trustees — Laws governing the river ferries — Fort Wayne a "station" on the "under- ground railroad" — The slaves pass through the village — Earliest permanent Catholic and Protestant churches — The Big Leg mur- der—Keel boats on the Maumee — Trade over the St. Mary's — The government authorizes the state to sell the military tract at Fort Wayne— The doom of the old fort — Taber's addition platted— The first courthouse — Cheap rent at the "transfer comer" — ^The steamboat from Defiance — A cruel winter 288
CHAPTER XXV.— 18.32-18.34.
Canal Construction Begins — The First Newspaper — The First Fire
Company.
Congress and the canal — The Indiana legislature appoints a board of canal commissioners — Jesse L. Williams, chief engineer — Fort Wayne thrills with new life — Beginning of construction work is celebrated by the people on February 22, 1832 — The awarding of the construction contracts — Opening of the canal land office — Construction of the "feeder" — The first newspaper, the Sentinel, established by Tigar & Noel— Hugh McCulloch— His first impres- sions of Fort Wayne — "The Phenomenon" — Pioneer mail service. . .303
CHAPTER XXVI.— 1835-1837. Canal Celebration of 183')— The "Irish War"— The First Bank. The canal is opened between Fort Wayne and "Flint Springs" (Hun- tington)— A gay Fourth of July celebration — Oratory at the "feed- er" dam at the St. Joseph^The feud of the factions of Irish work- men on the canal — David Burr summons militia and averts a bloody clash between the "Corkonians" and the "Fardowns" — A hastily organized military company — The voyage by night to the scene of trouble — The belligerents disperse — Establishment of the first bank — "Four kegs of specie" — Charles McCulloch's story of the bank — A woman's description of a pirogue journey over the Maumee — Hard times in the valley — The first church structures — Early taverns — The first cookstove — How the pioneer rats came to town 322
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXVII.— 1838-1839. Boat Yards and Other Pioneer Enterprises — Early Hotels. The state of Indiana "goes wild" over the internal improvement pro- gram— The canal begins to earn money — Early factories and boat yards — Names of some of the earlier boats which plied the canal — An estimate of Alexander McJunkin, schoolmastetr — "Rockhill's Polly," a step in advance of the times — History of the hotel — The Palo Alto (Mayer) house — Other pioneer hotels — Churches 337
CHAPTER. XXVIIL— 1840-1842.
Port Wayne City Incorporated — The First Officials and Their "Work.
The town votes to become a city — Franklin P. Randall prepares the charter — George W. Wood, the first choice of the voters to serve as mayor — The new city officials confronted by many vexatious problems — Rapid growth of the town — Canal troubles — Indiana's fatal misstep — The earliest bands of music — Building of the sec- ond courthouse — The organization of the Fort Wayne Guards — Establishment of the Fort Wayne Times — Joseph Morgan chosen to succeed Mayor Wood — The failure of them silk culture enter- prise 348
CHAPTER XXIX.— 1843. The Great Canal Celebration — General Cass's Address. The canal is opened between Toledo and Lafayette — The memorable Fourth of July, 1843 — Commodore Perry's cannon booms a wel- come to the visitors — The Toledo Guards — The parade — The exer- cises at the Swinney farm (Swinney park) — General Cass's mem- orable address — Peter Kaiser and the barbecue — The toasts — Gen- eral Cass receives a "ducking" — Promoters of the celebration — The packets and the freight boats — Early boat owners — Passen- ger and freight rates — Henry Lotz. mayor — The first daily mail — Highway building — The first daguerreotypes — "Johnnie Apple- seed." 362
CHAPTER XXX.— 1844-1845. The Miamis, "Hunted Like Wild Animals," Taken to the West. Flooded conditions in the spring of 1844 — The "Post" and the "Or- wick" — The first land drainage — The removal of the remnants of Miami nation to the western reservations — "The trail of death" — Savages taken through Fort Wayne on canal boats — Deplorable scenes — Whiskey destroys the lives of many — The favored chiefs — Richardville "play safe" — John M. Wallace, mayor — William Stewart, postmaster — High rates of postage — The first Catholic school 376
CHAPTER XXXI.— 1846-1847. Troops to Mexico— Methodist College — Concordia. Allen county sends three companies of volunteers to the Mexican war — Troops take their entire passage by water — Founding of the Methodist college — Its development and disappearance — Lutheran Male Academy — Concordia College — The Hedekin house, a' well- known hotel of canal days — Merchant W. Huxford. mayor — The third courthouse is erected on the public square — Beginning of the end of the Wabash and Erie canal — "White dog." "blue dog" and "blue pup" — A story of disappointment and despair — The last of the waterway 388
CHAPTER XXXII.— 1848-1850. The First Telegraph Service — The Scourge of Cholera. Fort Wayne secures telegraphic connection with the outside world — • Chester Griswold, the first telegraph operator — Wire troubles — A week of "no service" — The cholera scourge brings death to hun- dreds— Heroes of the epidemic — The cause — The "black swamp" —
CONTENTS xui
California "gold fever" is contagious — Fort Wayne victims — Some of the "Forty-niners" — William Stewart, mayor — Arrival of the steam propeller, "Niagara" — Samuel Stophlet, postmaster — The earliest dentist 397
CHAPTER XXXIII.— 1851-1852.
The Building of the First Railroad — A Plea for Immigration.
Jesse L. Williams suggests a great railroad project — The beginning of the Pittsburgh. Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad — Allen county votes financial aid — Construction work begins — The first locomo- tive— Discouraging failures — Tribute to Judge Hanna — A line west from Fort Wayne — Subscriptions paid in land and labor — The first railroad excursion to Fort Wayne — Banquet and speechmaking — Railroading before the war — The launching of the "H. H. Stout" A plea for Immigration — The vote to exclude the negroes — Dr. Philip G. Jones, mayor — "Egging" the anti-slave editor — Court of common pleas — The earliest "bloomers" cause a near-riot 408
CHAPTER XXXIV.— 185.3-185-1.
While the "Free" Schools Fought for Existence.
The discouraging beginning of the public schools — The first board of education and its problems — The opening of the first schools — Citizens vote against proposition — George A. Irwin — Schools close for want of financial support — E. S. Green and James H. Smart, superintendents — The first graduates — Charles Whit- more, mayor — The Hamilton bank — Colerlck's hall — Wayne town- ship library— Beginning of artificial gas service — Illuminating the streets — When Fort Wayne went "dry" — The first daily newspap- ers—First county fair — Origin of the name "Summit City" — A "roast" of the city market— John G. Maier, postmaster — Mad An- thony Guards 419
CHAPTER XXXV.— 1855-1856.
The Execution of Madden and Keefer — Workingmen ".s Lit)rary.
Two murderers put to death in the jail Inclosure — A tale of horror — The building of the Wabash railroad— The earliest photographs— The Workingmen's Institute and Library — Organization of the fire department— Major Curtis and his bank — Valuable storage — Horace Greeley's apology — Early slavery discussion 432
CHAPTER XXXVI.— 1857-1859. "Regulators" and Criminals — Railroad Shops — Lindenwood
Cemetery. Desperadoes terrorize northern Indiana — "Regulators" capture and hang Gregory McDougall "with order and decorum" — The haunt of the criminals— Kekeonga Guards, the Perry Regulators, the New Haven Vlgilants. the Adams Township Rangers and the St. Joe Detectives — Samuel S. Morss, mayor — Charles Case. congress- man—Bishop Luers and the Fort Wayne diocese — "Planking" downtown streets— Beginning of "Pennsylvania" railroad shops — Tollgate receipts — Lindenwood cemetery — Franklin P. Randall, "war" mayor— The first city directory — The city seal 440
CHAPTER XXXVII.— 1860-1861. Ovation to Douglass— Knights of the Golden Circle — Enlistments
for the Civil War.
Vast crowds greet Stephen A. Douglas, opponent of Abraham Lin- coln— The parade — Nature's amphitheater— Douglas pleads for "half slave, half free" policy — Opposition to the war — Knights of the Golden Circle — Patriotic demonstrations — "Indiana for the Union!"— The news from Fort Sumter— Allen county's pledge—
xiv CONTENTS
The first enlistments — Flag raising at the Wabash railroad shops — Hugh McCuUoch's address — Camp Allen — Henry W. Lawton — An exciting city election — Building of the fourth courthouse — Troubles of the builders 451
CHAPTER XXXVIII.— 1862-1863. Police — Baseball — The First Park — "Shinplaster" Currency. The homecoming of the dead — Enlistments for the war — Patriotic women and children — Political riots — The first police force — The beginnings of baseball — The development of the game — Joseph K. Edgerton, congressman — Old Fort Park purchased — The First Na- tional bank — "Shinplaster" currency issued by the city — Hugh McCulloch named by President Lincoln to serve as the first comp- troller of the currency of the United States — Secretary of the Treasury — The success of his service — The Fort Wayne Gazette — • The Aveline house 463
CHAPTER XXXIX.— 1864-1866. Strikes aud Early Labor Unions — The First Street Paving — The
State Fair.
The strike of the employes of the Pittsburgh. Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad — Troops sent to protect property — The earliest labor unions — The railroad men and the printers — Fincher. the organ- izer— Bitter opposition to Lincoln's policies — Helping the needy families of the soldiers — North Side (Lawton) park purchased by the city — Fort Wayne entertains the Indiana State Fair — The Pomological Society — The first street paving — James L. Worden, mayor — The original Kekionga baseball team — The town "goes mad" over the coming national game — The Kekiongas spread the fame of Fort Wayne — In the first National League — Peter P. Bai- ley, postmaster 470
CHAPTER XL.— 1867-1870. A Den of Thieves — The Beginning of Hospitals — Building of Pour
Railroads.
A reign of lawlessness — Burning of the rendezvous of the criminals — Henry Sharp, mayor — Beginning of three hospitals, Hope, St. Joseph and Lutheran — The criminal court — The first observance of Memorial day — Building of four lines of railroads — The disas- trous flood of 1867 — The Fort Wayne Journal — Olympic theatre, Hamilton's and Ewing's Hall — "The Ghost at the Vault" — Wallace A. Brice and his history of Fort Wayne — Westinghouse and his airbrake — The Rink (Academy of Music) — J. J. Kamm, postmaster — Washington Haskell and his original bicycle 480
CHAPTER XLI.— 1871-1874. The First Horse-Drawn Street Cars — Equal Suffrage — Free Mail
Delivery.
The first street car ride — Development of the original system — Organ- ization of the first society for the advocacy of woman suffrage — Free mail delivery — Charles A. Zollinger, mayor — The fair grounds at the present Swinney park — Race meets — The Fort Wayne Light Guards — The town well a costly "hole in the ground" — Bishop Dwenger — The Lauferty and Cheney banks — The Fort Wayne Daily News 490
CHAPTER XLII.— 1875-1878. Railroad Strike — Rival IMedical Schools — La'wlessness. Industrial controversies precipitate a general strike of railroad em- ployes— Mayor Zollinger reads the "riot act" — Officials In clash with strikers — Troops sent to quell the outbreak — Settlement of
CONTENTS XV
difficulty— Rival medical schools and their differences — The grand jury's report — Grave robberies arouse alarm and indignation — First graduates of medical schools — Superior court is established — The great meteor— James H. Smart, superintendent of schools — Olympic (Bijou) theatre 498
CHAPTER XLIII.— 1879-1884. Water "Works — Telephone — Electric Lighting — Political Dis- turbances.
The proposition to use the "feeder" canal as a means of city water supply precipitates a warm fight — Moses Lane's plan — J. D. Cook's plan Is adopted — The first pumping station— The first telephone system pfoves to be a financial failure — The Western Union venture — Absorbed by the "Bell company — Development of the "Bell" and "Home" systems— Building of the Nickel Plate railroad— The first electric lights— Beginning of the Fort Wayne Electric Works — The execution of Samuel McDonald— Crowds pre- vent James G. Blaine and William McKinley from speaking— Rival torch-light processions — The Masonic Temple — Knights of Labor — The first typewriter — A world championship baseball game 506
CHAPTER XLIV.— 1885-1890. Natural Gas— The State School— South Wayne Tangle. When Fort Wayne was a "natural gas" town— Wanton waste — First company formed in 1885 fails to find gas within the city limits — Citizens invest heavily in Salamonie company, which lays nine- ty-eight miles of pipe to convey gas from Blackford county to Fort Wayne— Charles F. Muhler, mayor — Beginnings of the plant of S. F. Bowser & Company— James B. White, congressman— The Robertson episode In the legislature — Founding of the Indiana School for Feeble Minded Youth— The South Wayne tangle— The first Labor day celebration — Daniel L. Harding, mayor — The first football game — The beginning of golf — Marvin Kuhns, desperado. . .516
CHAPTER XLV.— 1891-1894.
"Trolley" Cars— Strike of Street Railway Men— City Building- Public Library.
Electrically-driven street cars supersede the horse-drawn cars — De- velopment of the system— Slattery storage battery— Wayne Knitting Mills— The city building— Allen County Orphan Home — Strike of the street railway employes — Prominent deputy sher- iffs—The public library— The new city charter — Chauncey B. Oakley, Mayor — Dedication of soldiers' monument — The Woman's Club League — The Wayne Club 524
CHAPTER XLVI.— 1895-1899.
Centennial Celebration of the Building of Wayne's Fort— The Sixth Courthouse — The First Automobile.
Fort Wayne celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of the establish- ment of George Wayne's fort— The central committee — Perry A. Randall, general chairman — The parades and drills — The sham battle— Building of the sixth courthouse— Temporary quarters for county offices — The laying of the cornerstone — The first automo- bile— William D. Page, postmaster— Troops for the Spanish-Amer- ican war— Memorial to General Henry W. Lawton— The Citizens' Trust Company — The first rural mail delivery 532
CHAPTER XLVII— 1900-1908.
luterurhan Railroads — Commercial Advancement.
The building of five electric lines gives Fort Wayne a place of prom- inence as an interurban center of the middle west — Henry C.
:^vi
CONTENTS
Berghoff mayor — Police court — Newton W. Gilbert congressman — William J. Hosey mayor — German-American National Bank — Lin- coln National Life Insurance Company — Clarence C. Gilhams con- gressman— Municipal Electric Lighting and Power Plant — Anthony Hotel — Loss of twelve lives in the burning of the Aveline Hotel — Scottish Rite Cathedral — Cyrus Cline congressman — Robert B. Hanna postmaster — Activities of nine years of progress 539
CHAPTER XLVIII— 1909-1915.
Civic Awakening— " Indiana's Second City" — Track Elevation —
The Flood of 1913.
Legislature authorizes Fort Wayne to proceed with civic improve- ments— Revision of park laws — The work of Charles Zueblin, Charles Mulford Robinson, George E. Kessler, Metcalf and Eddy and others — Growth of the park system — City Forestry Depart- ment— Fort Wayne awarded second place among Indiana cities in point of population — Jesse Grice mayor — The Boy Scouts — Weath- er Bureau — Art Smith, aviator — Elevation of railway tracks — The disastrous flood of March, 1913— The Rotary Club — The Palace theatre — The new county farm — Lincoln Highway celebration — Commercial, religious and civic advancement 546
CHAPTER XLIX— 1916-1917.
Indiana's Centennial— Coliseum — Y. M. C. A. — Troops to the
"Border."
Fort Wayne celebrates the one-hundredth anniversary of the admission of Indiana to statehood — The committees — The Industrial Exposi- tion— The parades — Wm. H. Taft guest of honor — Harmar's Ford "marker" — The great Historical Pageant, "The Glorious Gateway of the West" — Donald Robertson and Wallace Rice — The six great scenes of the pageant — The Centennial Hymn — The Fort Wayne flag — Two companies of troops sent to the Mexican border — The Anthony Wayne monument — The Municipal Coliseum — Young Men's Christian Association building — History of the organization — Fort Wayne Anti-Tuberculosis League — "Fort Recovery," tu- berculosis camp — Perry Randall fresh-air school — Erie-Michigan barge canal — Monument to Perry A. Randall — The "Johnnie Apple- seed" tablet — The Vocational Public Schools — Infantile paralysis epidemic — The Presidential election — Strike of street railway em- ployes— The Boy Scouts — Civic health parade — News-Rotary swimming pool — Nearly one hundred miles of paving — St. Joe river dam and park 555
CHAPTER L— 1917. Fort Wayne's Answer to the Call to War Avith Germany.
Patriotic response to the President's call to service — Fort Wayne mili- tary district leads the nation in number of men who enlist for the war — The Lexington Day demonstration — Resolutions of loyalty — — Enlistments for the Regular Army — The departure of Battery D — Battery B. the second unit — Company E, First Infantry — Com- pany B, signal Corps — Recruits for the navy — The Navy League branch — The Motor Reserve Corps — The Officers' Reserve Corps — Council of Patriotic Service — Allen County CouncH of Defense — Splendid response to Red Cross Appeal — Central Red Cross supply depot — Fort Wayne Red Cross chapter — The Red Cross hospital unit — Selective conscription registration — The "Liberty" parade — — Registration of "Alien Enemies" — The "Liberty" bond sale — V. M. C. A. fund over-subscribed — Catholic War Fund — The "War" gardens — The adoption of "Eastern" time — War activities — Con- clusion 571
The Story of the Townships of Allen County 587
Index 707
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
CHAPTER I.
The First White Man of the Maiimee.
A LAKESIDE FANTASY.
WHEN, three centuries ago, the naked, painted savage, paddling his bark canoe with the flow of the St. Mary's turned his course into the counter-current of the St. Joseph, and there greeted his feather-bedecked brother ap- proaching from the northward, he displayed in triumph the friiits of the hunt and chal- lenged the other to show evi- dence of superior skill with the bow.
The challenge was never answered.
With simultaneous move- ment, each nimble-witted son of the forest grasped his weapon and turned in alarm to behold a sight new and terrify- ing. To the southward, round- ing a bend in the Maumee, scarce an arrow-shot distant, appeared a strange canoe. The Kiskakons' — for they were of that ancient clan — were not concerned in the movements of the two red men at the paddles of the mysterious craft. It was the third man whose appear- ance brought the quick heart-
THE FIRST WHITE MAN. The Illustration of the "coureur de bols," or wood-ranger. Is after a draw- ing by Frederick Remington, which ap- pears In Vol. II of President Woodrow Wilson's "A History of the American People." It Is reproduced by permission of the publishers. Harper & Brothers. The first white man to paddle his ca- noe along the south shore of Lake Erie and thence up the unexplored Maumee was doubtless of this reckless, advent- urous type.
beat and threw over them a spell of silence. Slowly the canoe lessened the distance which separated it from the attentive Kiskakons. Suddenly the watchers were brought to a sense of danger ; but the savages in the
17
18 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
approaching canoe dispelled momentary fears by standing, with outstretched arms, while they proclaimed in resounding calls that the mission of the visitors was one of peace and friendship. The people of the Kiskakon village, startled by the commotion, ap- proached cautiously and marvelled at the sight of the stranger. He was clothed in garments of unknown material; he carried in his hand a thing of steel and wood — his substitute for bow and arrow — but, above all, he was of a strange and unknown race. His face seemed white in comparison with those of his inspectors, and his light brown hair and blue eyes proclaimed him to be a visitor from afar.
At last — after the lapse of untold centuries — The First White Man had arrived!
To the wild people of the forest he appeared as a messenger from the gods. He might have been; but he wasn't. He was, in truth, the advance spirit of destruction — the forerunner of the hordes of the whites who would one day, with magic power, tear the boundless wilderness from the grasp of the Red Man and scatter the remnants of his people to the obscure corners of the earth.
As he stepped ashore and bestowed upon the wondering savages his gifts of sparkling beads and bits of shining metals, The First White Man saw before him not the beautiful place of homes which we call Lakeside, but only the smoke rising from the fires of the village of the Kiskakons, hidden by the trees and the high banks of the river. He heard not the "honk-honk" of the whizzing auto- mobile or the "clang-clang" of the pay-as-you-enter trolley car, but only the intermingling of unknown tongues and the call of the wild fowl.
His mission?
To seek a refuge from civilization — to find a home among the savages— to remain a while; perchance to wed an Indian belle — to seek a new place of abode whenever he chose to think that the power of the law "away back there" in New France might seek to grasp him and return him for punishment for his misdeeds — to live the care-free life of the wilderness — to become a savage in all but color. He was of the type of the men who occupy an important place in the story of the frontier — the coureur de bois, or wood-ranger.
His name?
What matters it? He was but one of many of his kind. But he was the first — the very first — and his coming marks the begin- ning of the narrative of the thousands of men and women whose lives make up the story of Fort Wayne. But, to gain the truth.
THE FIRST WHITE MAN OF THE MAUMEE 19
we must know something of the land to which The First White Man came, for, until we do, we can neither judge of his environ- ments nor account for his deeds.
NOTE ON CHAPTER I.
(1) The Klskakons, the "Short-Tailed Bear" clan of the Ottawas, doubt- iBBS had a village on the site of the present Lakeside (Fort Wayne) antedating the Miami occupation. Dr. Reuben G. Thwalte believes that the word Kekionga, by which the settlement was known at a later period. Is a revision of the word Kiskakon, or Klchkagon, which means "to cut." referring, he believes, to the abbreviated tali ot the bear for which the clan was named. (See "Jesuit Relations," vol. xxxlil. page 273; Fort Wayne Public Library). Jacob P, Dunn, the Indian historian, says: "Kls-ka-kon means 'clipped hair,' and was given to these Indians because they shaved the sides of the head and trimmed the remaining locks like the mane of a Roman horse." — "True Indian Stories." page 268, Fort Wayne PubUc Library. "Kiskakon slgrnlfles 'cut tails." " — Pierre Margry.
CHAPTER n.
The Portage That Made Fort Wayne.
The importance of an understanding of tlie meaning of the word, "portage" — Its value to the discoverer — How the Maumee-Wabash portage joined the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico — Resume of the story of the development of the "carrying place" — The Fort Wayne rivers — The great glacier — Pie-glacial man — The mastodon — Extinct animal life — The Mound Builders in Allen county.
THE STORY of the beginnings of the city of Fort "Wayne is the record of the most famous portage in America.
Though the word portage has found no place in our pres- ent-day speech, it throbs with lively interest on the very in- stant we grasp its meaning ; for the mere mention of it brings to our imagination the phantom pageant of the explorer and the adventurer, the black- robed Jesuit Father and the blood thirsty savage, the
|;7r?nS^yne.
THE MAUMEE-WABASH PORTAGE.
The student of the history of Fort Wayne must thoroughly understand the point embodied in the accompanying diagrammatic map which shows the al- most continuous water route between the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the mouth of tlie Mississippi. The only in- terruption in this route Is a stretch of land about eight miles in width, ex- tending westward from the present city of Fort Wayne and separating the waters of the St. Mary's river from those of the Little river and the Wa- bash. In the centuries past, when the rivers and lakes were the only routes of general travel and trade, the site of Fort Wayne was, naturally, the great central point, for, across this piece of ground, or portage, were conveyed the canoes and the articles of trade belonging to the Indian, the French and the British. 20
THE PORTAGE THAT MADE FORT WAYNE
Bl
--■'»«''**''*
M:^-
French and English soldier, and the trader and pioneer, who fade once again into the past as memory fails and we awaken to the reality of things as they are.
Let us all, then, know the meaning of the word, that we may read the story with a common interest — the story of the land over which the stars and stripes have supplanted forever the colors of France and England and where the hum of the wheels of industry and the voices of happy children have taken the place of the clash of arms and the war-whoop of the painted savage.
A portage, or "carrying place," is a pathway between two rivers coursing in generally opposite directions.
In the days when the inland lakes and the rivers formed the highways of travel between dis- tant points, it was a most for- tunate discovery to find a carry place where the voyager could draw his canoe ashore, lift it to his shoulders and take it to a near-by stream, there to launch it and continue his way. The Indian tribe which con- trolled such a carrying place held a strong claim over its enemies in war and trade. The savages understood this and contended for it just as the whites who came upon the scene fought and struggled for a century to control the port- age which marks the site of Fort Wayne.
It is easy to picture the earliest white traveler as he accidentally enters the mouth of the Maumee,' after coursing from the east- ward along the southern shore of Lake Erie. Continuing on up the stream, his observation of the shore lines tells him he has entered a river, but this does not turn him from his determination to explore the region. Day after day, he pushes forward, until, finally, he reaches a point where two rivers — which we now know to be the St. Mary's and St. Joseph— join to form the river which has brought him on his way. And here he finds an Indian strong- hold, the ancient village of the Kiskakons, on the site of Fort Wayne. The savages point out to him the pathway which leads from the St. Mary's across the woodland and prairie to a smaller stream, called in later years Rivere Petite or Little river. He carries his
HOW THE RIVERS WERE MADE.
The outline map Indicates the gener- al area of the great glacial lake which, as It subsided, left at its borders the deposits of earth and stone (moraines) which determined the courses of the rivers and made the site of Fort Wayne in succeeding centuries the battle ground of nations who struggled to possess It because of Its commanding position.
22
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
canoe across the six or seven miles of the portage, launches it, and finds that he is borne out into the "Wabash, thence into the
Ohio, and finally upon the broad waters of the Mississippi. It is natural to picture such a traveler — French, of course, — returning to the centers of civil- ization in New France (Canada) to tell of his discovery and to spread the news of the great abundance of fur-bearing ani- mals in the Maumee-Wabash valleys. This first adventurer, his identity undetermined, dis- covered the shortest route of travel between the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the mouth of the Mississippi. Some give the honor to Robert Cavalier, Sieur de LaSalle.
The present history aims to indicate to a satisfactory de- gree the growth of interest in this particular portage, but it would seem to be helpful to suggest the main points of the coming chapters as they deal with this most important path- way of pioneer commerce. Here, during the ages beyond the memory of the whites, existed the strongest Indian settlement of the middle west.
Here the earliest French explorers and traders estab- lished fortified trading posts which they controlled until the coming of the English.
Here the savages over- threw the English and entered upon the years of frontier war- fare which continued from the days of Pontiac until the build- ing of "Wayne's American fort. Here flourished an im- mense fur trade, the conten-
RELICS OF PREHISTORIC MAN IN ALLEN COUNTY.
The above selections from the widely- famed private museum of Indian and historic relics of L. W. Hills, of Fort Wayne, are specimens of the handiwork of races antedating the Indians. Nos. 1 and 2 (a "bird" and a "tube") were found in a gravel pit near Maysville. Indiana, by John Zlmmer. No. 3. a "bird," formerly owned by John Bic- hart, was found In the same locality. No. 4, of similar form, was unearthed on the Emerick farm. All are made of stone.
THE MASTODON.
Remains of the mastodon have been found in several portions of Allen county.
THE PORTAGE THAT IMADE FORT WAYNE
23
tion for the control of which precipitated the French and Indian war.
Here, in vision, Washington saw an important point for the United States to establish its strongest western post, for the accom- plishment of which purpose he sent Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne.
Here, with the restoration of peace, arose the city of Fort Wayne, inspired to greatness by the building of the Wabash and Erie canal, which paralleled the portage and supplanted it, only to give way in later years to the steam railroad and the electric interurban line.
And now let us speak for a moment of the rivers — these first highways of travel, without which there could have been no portage.
The courses of these historic streams were determined in the glacial age of the world 's physical history.^ When the great mass of ice, moving southwesterly from the region of Hudson's bay, finally became converted into a vast lake which slowly passed away and
WHERE THE 3VL\STODON ROAMED IN ALLEN COUNTY.
Remains found In the vicinity of Fort Wayne indicate that the region was a favorite habitat of prehistoric animals. Henry RudisUl found in Spy Run (1) the tooth of an extinct animal, the American elephant. In 1867 the skele- tons of three mastodons were found in the soft earth In Perry township (2); these w^ere placed in the Chicago Aca- demy of Sciences and were destroyed in the great fire of 1871. The tusk of an- other specimen, found In Lake township (3) measured eleven feet In length and nine Inches in diameter. Remains of another mastodon were found In Cedar Creek township (4). The most recent discovery, In 1912, was that of the skeleton of a mastodon on the S. R. Alden farm, a portion of the Rlchard- vllle reservation (5), immediately southwest of Fort Wayne.
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WHERE THE MOUND BUILDER3 LIVED IN ALLEN COUNTY.
1. Four mounds in Perry township, two on a line north and south about forty feet apart; two others about the same distance apart, extending east and west. Excavators found human bones, arrowheads, copper ornaments and charcoal.
2. Four miles south of the above, on the Coldwater road. Is an oblong mound in which were found a perforated sec- tion of slate, and a stratum of baked earth.
3. At Cedarvllle are located three mounds 100 feet apart, running nearly parallel to the St. Joseph river.
4. A circular mound containing frag- ments of pottery, stone implements and flint.
5. A seml-clrcular mound with ends at the river bank: arc, 20 feet. Large trees falling In decay, exposed pottery, flint and other articles.
6. At the mouth of Cedar creek Is the most southerly of the mounds In Al- len county.
24
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
left a deposit of its earthy elements, the rivers, as we see them today, were left to tell of the ancient visit of the glacier.
There are reasons to be- lieve that the region was in- habited by human beings pre- vious to the coming of the glacier — at least, men lived in portions of the present Ohio before the sea of ice spread its destructive elements over the region to the eastward.' Cer- tain it is that the mighty mas- todon* roamed the region about the site of Fort Wayne, and here, too, were other forms of animal life, now extinct. That ancient, mysterious race of men whom we call the Mound Build- ers, chose to live in this vicin- ity, and the relics of their dwellings are a mute testimony of their mysterious presence."^
But it is not with the Mound Builder and the masto- don that our story deals. The
1 , • ii. J hinus, reproduced from the article, "The
real actors m the drama, ap- pleistocene Period and Its Vertebrata. ■
nparinp at thp first witVi tliP ^^ Oliver P. Hay, In the 1911 report of
pearing, ai ine nrst, Wltn me f^e Indian Department of Geology and
same surroundings of scenery }?c Lrbra?^^"""^"^' ^°'^^ wayne Pub- which formed the settings for
the unknown comedies and tragedies of the past, shift upon the stage of action new backgrounds of hope, aspiration, defeat, tri- umph, and progress. And the close of this book is but the begin- ning, for the greater actors, we doubt not, are to come in a day which is not ours.
REMAINS OF EXTINCT PECCARY FOUND IN FORT VFATNE.
In 1912, the remains of an extinct ani- mal known as the platygonus compres- sus, of the peccary family, were un- earthed by workmen in a gravel pit near Swinney park. The specimen came Into the possession of George A. Jacobs, 1302 Washington boulevard west, and was submitted by the writer to the National Museum for identifica- tion. The skull Is shown herewith. The full skeleton Is that of an almost Iden- tical specimen, the platygonus leptor-
NOTES ON CHAPTER II.
(1) The Miami names of the Fort Wayne rivers are: St. Joseph, Ko- chls-ah-se-pe, or Bean river; St. Mary's, Mah-may-l-wah-se-pe-way, or Strugeon creek, because of the large number of sturgeon that formerly abounded there In the spawning sea- son: the name Maumee Is a form of Miami. See Dunn's "True Indian Stories," Fort Wayne Public Library.
(2) See "Maumee River Basin," Dr. Charles E. Slocum, vol. I, page S: Fort Wayne Public Library; also Annual Report of the Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources, 1905,
(3) See Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society's Publications, vol. i. page 257; Fort Wayne Public Li- brary.
(4) See article on the mastodon In Helm's History of Allen County, by the late Col. R. S. Robertson; Fort Wayne Public Library.
(.5) See article on Prehistoric Re- mains, Helm's History of Allen Coun- ty, by the late Col. R. S. Robertson; Fort Wayne Public Library.
CHAPTER III— 1614-1682. Savage, Adventurer, Explorer and Priest.
Ancient French records of the MaumeeWabash development gives us the story of the early days of exploration and struggles between the French, English and Indians — Value of the records of the Jesuits — The Miamis and their allies in Indiana. Illinois and Wisconsin — Kiskakons and Ottawas on Fort Wayne site — Iroquois, from the east, procure firearms and wage war of extermination upon the Miamis and western tribes — Are forced back — Twightwees at Kekionga — Characteristics of the Miamis — Allegiance to the French and latterly to the English — The coureur de hois — The Jesuits — Samuel de Champlaln on the Maumee? — The earliest maps— LaSalle and the never-ending dispute.
FOR MANY YEARS, a veil of seemingly impenetrable mystery hid from view all certain knowledge of the movements of the earliest whites in the Maumee-Wabash valleys, due to a large extent to the fact that during the entire period of the French occupa- tion, all documents relating to governmental affairs were forwarded first to Quebec and Montreal, in the province of Canada, and from thence to the mother country. Here they were deposited by a gener- ation passed away, and not, without pressure, to be unearthed by the Frenchman of today who cares not to revive the memory of a faded vision of western empire.
It is only through the great personal sacrifice of patriotic men and women of America that the truth has come to us of the present day. In the expenditure of fortunes, the scattered papers in the archives of France, England and Canada, as well as in the colonial records of America, have been made available, and their work of arrangement, annotation and translation, has given us the treasures from which we build our story.
The first accounts of conditions in the middle western portions of America are given to the world through the records of the stal- wart Jesuit Fathers, who, though they thwarted some of the greatest attempts to explore and settle the western lands discovered by LaSalle and his contemporaries, worked with grim determination to make of the savages a great Christian nation which should purify the world.* From the records of their movements, we gain our best knowledge of the Indians in Indiana at the time of the appearance of the first whites.
Gabriel Dreuillettes, stationed at the mission of St. Michael on the west shore of Lake Michigan, reported as early as 1658 that a colony of 24,000 Miamis occupied a portion of the southwest
25
26
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF PORT WAYNE
corner of the present state of Michigan and northwestern Indiana, The invasion of the region by the Iroquois about 1670, with firearms provided by the Dutch of New Amsterdam, was the beginning of a long period of years of warfare between the Iroquois and the various branches of the Miami nation. The region of Green Bay, in Wisconsin formed the center of later settlements of the latter tribes. It appears that at this time— 1682 — the site of Fort Wayne was occupied by the Kiskakons and the Ottawas, branches of the Miamis, for it was in this year that Jean de Lamberville, writing ' to Count de Frontenac, governor of Canada, expressed the fear that an Iroquois army of 12,000 would completely annihilate "the Miamis and their neighbors the Siskakon [Kiskakon] and Ottawa tribes on the headwaters of the Maumee."^ By the year 1700, the Miamis
THE THREE MAIN WATER ROUTES OF THE FRENCH PERIOD.
Before the days of the canal and the railroad, the rivers were the great highways of travel between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. The map shows the three routes most largely used.
1614 1682
SAVAGE, ADVENTURER, EXPLORER AND PRIEST 27
had obtained firearms from the French, and there is a tradition that they met and vanquished their foes near the site of the present Terre Haute.
In 1765, long after the French had settled in the Maumee- Wabash valleys, the confederacy of the families of the iliami tribe was composed of two hundred and fifty Twightwees (Twightwigha or Twixtwees, as written by the English), situated at Kekionga; a settlement of three hundred Ouiatanons on the Wabash, near the present Lafayette, Indiana ; and three hundred Piankeshaws, on the Vermillion river.
All students of the Indians pay tribute to the high char- acter of the Miamis, especially during those periods in which they were free from the con- tamination of the habits of their more enlightened white broth- ers. Father Claude Allouez refers to them as gentle, affa- ble and sedate, with a language in harmony with their dignity.
During the time of the dis- puted possession of the Jlau- mee-Wabash valleys by the French, the Jliamis were friends of the French and foes of the English ; but when the American colonists threw off the yoke of the government of the mother country, they trans- ferred their support to the English who convinced them that the United States sought to rob them of their lands and their freedom and to bring upon them degradation and extermination. They fought against a fear of ultimate ruin, and the fierceness of their opposition reveals the intensity of their effort to discourage and terrify the American invader and cause him to abandon his desire to inhabit the west.'
The "action" of the story begins with the relation of the deeds of the first men to arrive npon the scene — men whose names are a matter of record. We doubt not that the care-free coureur de bois* was the earliest to come, bringing an influence which was far from uplifting, and making hard the purifying servnce of the Jesuit Father who soon followed him.
■'>r-s¥it-
SAML'EL DE CHAMPLAIN.
Champlain was the governor of New France (Canada) and founder of Que- bec. His name is the first of the lino of daring explorers to be connected with the Maumee region. He Is be- lieved to have seen the Maumee in 1614 or 1615. When Great Britain compelled his surrender in 1629, he was carried a captive to England: he returned to Canada and died there in 1635. The portrait Is after an old print.
28 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
What name, then, shall we attach to the first known man who saw the Maumee?
One eminent historian is bold enough to say that Samuel de Champlain, who had already discovered a water route between the St. Lawrence river and Georgian Bay, by way of the Nipissing river, and whose knowledge of the coasts of these regions is given to the world in the earliest maps of the Great Lakes, "probably"
EARLIEST MAPS SHOWING THE FORT WAYNE RIVERS.
..»t ^^ °' ^^^ above maps are traced from the pages of Vol. IV of Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America," published by the Houghton MifCIin Co., Boston, by whose permission they are here presented. The reader who desires further information on the subject is referred to the above work, obtainable from the Fort Wayne Public Library.
Map E. — Samuel de Champlain's map (1632), of which this Is a small por- tion of the central part, shows: 1 — Maumee river; 2 — St. Mary's river; 3 — St Joseph river. It probably is the earliest recorded map of the Fort Wayne streams.
Map F. — The Covens and Mortier map (probably 1654) shows: 1 — Maumee river; 2 — Lalie Huron; 3 — Lake Erie; 4 — Lake Ontario; 5 — St. Lawrence river- 6 — Cape Cod; 7 — Long Island.
Map G. — The Nicolas Sanson map (1656) shows: 1 — Maumee river- 2 — SItg of Fort Wayne; 3 — Lake Michigan; 4 — Lake Huron; 5 — St. Lawrence river- 6 — Long Island; 7 — Cape Cod; 8 — Chesapeake bay.
Map H. — Louis Joliefs map (1674) shows: 1 — Site of Fort Wayne- 2 — Mau- mee river; 3 — St. Joseph river; 4 — St. Mary's river; 6 — Ohio (or Wabash) river- 6 — Lake Ontario; 7 — Lake Michigan; 8 — Mlsssissippl river; 9 — Missouri river- 10 — Lake Huron; 11 — Georgian bay; 12 — St. Lawrence river; 13 — Green bay: 14 — Wisconsin river; IB — Illinois river.
1614 1682
SAVAGE, ADVENTURER, EXPLORER AND PRIEST 29
saw the placid waters of the Maumee as early as 1614 or 1615.' Champlain was the founder of Quebec and the first governor of New France (Canada). Certain it is that Champlain's map of 1632 indicates the Maumee, the St. Mary's and the St. Joseph rivers, and certain also is it that "he passed by places he has de- scribed in his book which are no other than Detroit and Lake Erie.'"
Encouraged by the accom- plishments of Champlain and the Jesuits who did valiantserv- ice in reporting the condition of the newly-discovered countries to the westward, the home gov- ernment of France supported other expeditions the success of which is shown by the maps of the. Great Lakes region bear- ing dates of the seventeenth century and forming fascinat- ing objects of study today. Among those of greatest inter- est to us, for they include the Port Wayne site, with its rivers, are the maps of Nicolas Sanson (1656), Pere du Crexius (1680) and Louis Joliet (1672-1674).
LASALLE AND THE PORTAGE.
The ancient dispute concerning the movements of Robert Cav- alier, Sieur de LaSalle, must receive its share of attention at this turn of the story, because the future searcher for the truth may find that LaSalle really trod upon the soil on which the city of Fort Wayne arose. There are likely reasons for the belief that the explorer's journal, which was lost in the wreck of his sailing vessel, the Grififon, on Lake Michigan, contained positive proof that LaSalle not only traversed the Maumee-Wabash valleys and their portage, but that it was a common route of travel of the explorer and his companions. In a communication of 1680, LaSalle reported to the Canadian governor that "there is at the head of Lake Erie ten leagues below the strait [Detroit river?] a river [Maumee?] by which we could shorten the route to the Illinois very much.'" Two years later, he wrote, at a time when the oppo- sition of the Jesuits had reached a distressing point, that his enemies doubtless were aiding in prolonging the war of the Iroquois
ROBERT CAVALIER. SIEUR DE LA- SALLE. That this foremost of aU French ex- plorers of North America traversed the site of Fort Wayne In his Journeys be- tween Lake Erie and the Mississippi Is the belief of many students of the early French period of the Maumee- Wabash vaUeys.
30 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
against the Miamis "in hope that the war would ruin me by putting an end to the trade of Fort Frontenac [Quebec] or that it would enable them to have a constant pretext for complaint against me ; for," he explains— and his explanation is eagerly quoted by those who would prove that LaSalle refers to his former use of the Maumee- Wabash portage— "I should not then be able to go to the Illinois country except by way of the Lakes Huron and Illinois [Michigan] because the other routes which I have discovered by the end of Lake Erie and the southern shore of that lake would become too dangerous on account of the frequent encounters with the Iroquois who are always about those parts.
In further explanation of his choice short-cut route, LaSalle says in another communication: "The river which you have seen marked on my map of the district to the south of that lake is, in fact, the way to get to the river Ohio, or Beautiful river. » • • This way is the shortest of all." And then he enters upon a description of the route which appears to show how the traveler passes over the portage from Lake Erie to Lake Chautauqua; thence into a tributary of the Alleghany river, from which stream the voyager makes his way into the Ohio and finally into the Mississippi.*
But, it will be observed, LaSalle wrote of the other "routes" which he had discovered, and merely spoke of this one as "the shortest of all."* And so, the question remains open and we shall ever cherish the hope that the feet of the great explorer pressed the soil of Fort Wayne in those days of toil and struggle against the discouraging elements of the wilderness as well as against the in- trigues of human enemies.'
, 10
NOTES ON CHAPTER III.
ni t?pp Francis Parkman's "The and from the communities if they do
Jelults in Non" America ■• not marry within fifteen days after
Jesuits in ssoTin Ameiiua.. arrival of the sh ps from France
(2) History of Indiana. Logan {^^itJ;"^omen Imported for the pur- Esarey. page 12. pose]."
(3) Many works on the western (5) pr Charles E. Slocum, "Mau- Indians are to be found in the Fort ,^^5 River Basin," vol. i. page 463. Wayne Public Library. Dunn's ' In- (g) fjg^ York Colonial Documents. JIana," Slocum's "Maumee River Ba- (7) pjerre Margry, "Decouvertes des sin" and articles on the subject in Francals dans I'Amerique Septrlon- the publications of the historical so- ale." vol. 11.
cieties of Indiana and Ohio, however, (g) That this route was well
provide the most reliable informa- known and used in later years Is
tlon concerning the tribes connected shown by the fact that Captain
with the history of Fort Wayne. Celeron, in 1749, took his army over
(4) The coureur de bols, or wood- that portion of it extending from ranger was, as a rule, lawless in Lake Brie to the mouth of the Great everv view of civilized life. He won Miami river. (See Chapter V).
his way with the savages, who (9) E. L. Taylor, of Columbus. Ohio,
granted him every license. He writing Jn vol. xvi of the Ohio
was defiant and beyond the control Ohio Archaelogical and Historical So-
of state or church. The efforts of ciety Publications expreses the
the French government to control opinion that LaSalle, after travers-
these first adventurers to Invade the ing the Chautauqua Lake and Ohio
west is suggested in the memoir of river route, surely returned by an-
M Talon to King Louis XIV, in 1670, other way. "It was necessarily by
In which he said: "They are excluded way of the Great Miami and the
by law from the honors of the church Maumee, or by way of the Scioto
1614 1682
SAVAGE, ADVENTURER, EXPLORER AND PRIEST 31
and Sandusky rivers," says he. "No other routes were at that time open to him. Whichever of these routes he may have taken, he was the first white man to have passed over It, The probabilities are that he went by way of the Great Miami and the Maumee [traversing the site of Fort Wayne] to Lake Erie, but It is not certain, and not much can be claimed for it,"
(10) Throughout his years of ex- ploration. LaSalle had met the bitter opposition of the Jesuits who, accord- ing to his narrative, contrived In every way to thwart his plans. "As to what you tell me. that even my friends say that I am not popular," he wrote, in 1682 to the representa- tive of the crown, "I do not know who they are, for I am not aware
of any friends of mine In this coun- try." Upon one occasion, Nicolas Perrot served him a deadly poison, and later confessed the deed, "I have pardoned him, nevertheless, in order to avert giving publicity to an affair the mere suspicion of which might stain their [the Jesuits'] reputation," he wrote. "The Jesuits sent to France one of their lay brothers called JoUet, with a map made from hearsay, and this lay brother attributed to him- self the honor of that discovery," writes Abbe Renaudot, friend of La- Salle. No one but M. de La- Salle was capable of having made the discovery." The same writer charges Father Louis Hennepin with plagiarism In claiming as his own LaSalle'a description of the lands of his discovery.
CHAPTER IV— 1683-1732. Kekionga During the "Golden Era" of French Rule.
The peaceable mission of the French in the Maumee-Wabash valleys — Opposition to the encroachment ot the English traders — The demoral- ization of the fur trade by the Miami-Iroquois war — Restoration of peace followed by the establishment of a stronger post on the site of Fort Wayne (1697) — Jean Baptiste Bissot and his great plan to "monopolize" the Miamis — Cadillac Invades the Maumee-Wabash valleys — Tattooed savages at the site of Fort Wayne — Buffalo and bear — Margane estab- lishes Ouiatanon and commands Post Miami (Fort Wayne) — Founds Vincennes — Margane burned at the stake.
SCHOOLCRAFT tells us that the Indians of the northwest often referred to "the days of the French supremacy as a kind of golden era, when all things in their affairs were better than they now are."
The early Frenchman came to the Maumee-Wbaash valleys on a misson of peace. His nature fitted him well to the unconventional life of the wilderness. He chose a wife from among the dusky belles of the forest and became an Indian in thought and deed. He busied himself in trapping the fur-bearing animals which abounded in countless numbers and he paid a good price to his dark-skinned companions, for their co-operative labor.
Never, after the Frenchman was driven from the Maumee- Wabash valleys, did the red man find another such true companion. When the Englishman came, he scorned close social relationship with the savage, and finally, with the gaining of his confidence, implanted in his mind the belief that the sole object of the westward movement of the new American pioneer was to rob him of his lands. Thus was the benevolent policy of Washington made to appear that of a robber and a thief, with the resultant bloodshed and turmoil which brought discouragement to the whites and ulti- mate loss of everything dear to the heart of the child of the forest. Furthermore, the passing of the "golden era" of the French occu- pation marks the coming of the Indian's deadliest enemy — whiskey.
We have followed the Frenchman from the period of his landing on American soil, groping his watery way up the St. Lawrence, beholding with wonder the cataract of Niagara as he carried his birch bark canoe to launch it upon the waters of Lake Erie, and finally we find him paddling up the Maumee to his destination at the forks of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's. It is now our interesting
32
i«83 DURING THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF FRENCH RULE 33
task to consider his movements, with the site of Fort Wayne as a center of his activities, and to share with him his hopes and his fears.
Little did our first Frenchman know that the English colonist on the Atlantic coast would one day also push his way to the west- ward and come upon him with the boldness of one who holds an ownership and who looks upon all others as intruders and tres- passers. But a well-developed fear of this very condition had spread to the mother country long before the close of the seven- teenth century. Lefebore de LaBarre, governor of Canada, writing to Nicholas Colbert in November, 1682, declared he was not at all interested in LaSalle's discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi, but that he was "for turning to account what we possess, prevent- ing the English from destroying our trade, but without a quarrel, and siibduing the Iroquois. That," he added, "is quite a sufficient task for three years." In truth, it was the impossible task of a lifetime. For already had come the beginning of the end of the rule of France in all North America.
In increasing numbers, the English pushed their way to the west, seeking always the friendship of the Indians through their ability to offer greater rewards than the French could afford' in return for the valuable peltries which constituted the sole trade of the region. The keenest minds among the French were now busy with plans to keep back the Englishman and to preserve the friend- ship of the savage.
"If you will pay some attention to the country occupied by the English [the eastern colonies], and that which they intentd to occupy." observed LeMoyne d 'Iberville, "to the forces they possess in these colonies, where there are neither priests nor nuns and all propagate their species, and to the forces they will have in thirty or forty years [by the years 1730 or 1740], you can have no doubt that they will seize upon the country which lies between them and the Mississippi, one of the finest countries in the world. "'
THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE FUR TRADE.
The true basis of the controversy was the effort to control the fur trade. "If the English once get possession of the River Colbert [Mississippi], for which they are striving with all their might, but which they cannot succeed in doing if we anticipate them," de- clared Abbe Jean Cavalier, brother of LaSalle, "they would be- come masters, also, of the Illinois, the Outaouacs [Ottawas] and all the tribes with whom the French people in New France [Canada] carry on trade. Our colony would then be destroyed."
D'Iberville sought the privilege of establishing a post on the
34 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
lower Wabash and three others on the western rivers, besides forming an army of 12,000 savages to attack the English settle- ments in Maryland, Virginia and Carolina. The government frowned upon the latter suggestion, but acquiesced in his plan to form a settlement on the Wabash.' One day in 1709, the site of the city of Fort Wayne was the scene of the movement of D 'Iberville 's colony, passing from Detroit to the lower Wabash in the newly- created province of Louisiana.* Following these adventurous pioneers came other groups of colonists, one of the most important of which was under the guidance of M. de Tressenet.'
This plan failed in its gr^t object. De la Motte Cadillac," founder of Detroit (Post Ponchartrain) complained to Count Pon- chartrain that "the forces of the French are too much scattered; they live too far apart'" for mutual protection. Cadillac had established his post at Detroit as a purely commercial venture — "to maintain the trade in beaver skins "^ for shipment to Montreal and thence to France." With like intent, Francois Morgane (Mar-
V'!,
WHERE THE FIRST FRENCH FORTS STOOD.
A map drawn by Father Jean Bonne- camps while on the site of Fort Wayne in 1749 (torty-flve years before the coming of General Wayne) shows that the French fort of that period (Post Miami) stood on a site which may now be described as a point on the right bank of the St. Mary's river, a short distance north of the Nickel Plate rail- road tracks (see map). The command- ants in succession appear to have been Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vin-
cennes (1697), Francois Morgane, Sieur de Vincennes (1725), Ensign Douville (1734), Ensign Dubuisson (1747), M. de Raimond (1748). Ralmond, in 1750, abandoned the place and erected the last French fort on a site at the junction of the present St. Joe boulevard and Delaware avenue, on the St. Joseph riv- er, a point also within the present city of Fort Wayne.
\^ll DURING THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF FRENCH RULE 35
gane or Morgan), who later succeeded to the seigniory and title of Sieur de Vincennes, established a number of trading posts along the banks of the Maumee and Wabash rivers and gave attention to the strengthening and repair of those which already had been established.'"
Meanwhile, the English were giving earnest thought to the best method of driving out the French and securing the good-will of the savages. "The English and the Indians are in good corre- spondence," wrote Colonel Ingoldsby to the British Trade Commis- sioners in 1697, "but the French outdo us much in carressing them." How well the picture describes the contrasting traits of the con- tending forces of the whites ! — sentiment pitted against cold-blooded commercialism, in which the former was gradually broken down and the latter swung into triumph.
J. Chetwynd, P. Doeminique, M. Bladen and E. Ashe, composing an English commission to review the situation in America in 1721 for their king, gave this information in their report :
"From the lake [Erie] to the Mississippi they [the French] have three different routes. The shortest is up the river Miamis or Ouamis [Maumee] on the southwest of Lake Erie, on which river they sail about 150 leagues without interruption, when they find themselves stopt by another landing of about three leagues which they call a carrying place, because they are generally obliged to carry their canoes over land in these places to the next river, and that [river] where they next embark is a very shallow one called La Riviere de portage [Little river] ; hence they row about 40 leagues to the river Oubache [Wabash] and from thence about 120 leagues to the river Ohio, into which the Wabash falls, as the river Ohio does about 80 leagues lower into the Mississippi, which continues its course for about 350 leagues directly to the bay of Mexico."
During the progress of the Iroquois war against the Indians of the west, the sympathy of the British with the Iroquois, had brought to the Miamis and their allies the strong military leader- ship of LaSalle, who, during 1682 and 1683 "was all through In- diana and Illinois urging the tribes to unite and join him at Fort St. Louis [site of Peoria, Illinois]."" The bloody struggle continued, however, until the close of the year 1697 ; indeed, the lasting peace between the warring nations came not until eight years after the tragic death of LaSalle." But now the Indian war was at an end. The French, who had withdrawn to the region about Detroit or to the westward and northward to the lakes, returned to their business in the Maumee-Wabash valleys and sought the protection of the authorities at Quebec. It is at
36
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
this time that we first come upon the names of men intimately connected with the development of the story of the spot on which Fort Wayne now rests.
THE FIRST FRENCH COMMANDANTS.
Heading that list is the name of Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes."
Authorities differ as to the time of the building of the first French fortifications on the site of Fort Wayne, known for a long period as Post (or Fort) Miami. Neither is it known whether or not Bissot was the builder. One historian is posi- tive that "their Post Miami, at the head of the Maumee" was "built about 1680 to 1686," and that it was "rebuilt and strengthened in 1697 by Cap- tain de Vincennes [Bissot]."" The writer discovers Margry telling us that "in the spring [1696], d'Ailleboust d'Argen- teuil had orders to take com- mand of the soldiers who were to go up [from Detroit] to Mis- sillimackinac [Mackinac], and the Sieur Bissot de Vincennes [accompanied by Legardeur de Courtmanche] was directed to go to the Miamis," but it is clear from the context that the Miamis, at this time, were
9
« 2/ U^a^ /y2>y
SIGNATURE OF SIEUR DE VIN- CENNES (FRANCOIS MORGANE).
Two letters written to the French government by Francois Morgane, Sieur de Vincennes. commandant of Post Mi- ami (Fort Wayne) from 1725 to 1731. are reproduced in fac simile in the In- diana Historical Society Publications, Vol. III. in connection with Jacob P. Dunn's article on "The Mission to the Oubache (Wabash)." The above sig- nature is reproduced from one of them. Translation — "Your very humble and very obedient servant, Vinsiene. Of the Fort of the Wabash. This 21 March, 1733." The post was not named for its founder until three years after his tragic death; formerly it was known as "Au Oubache," "Post des Piagui- chats." "Little Ouiatanon," and, latterly, "Oposte."
gathered about the southeast- ern shore of Lake Michigan and that Vincennes made his may to their villages by way of the straits of Mackinaw.
But we do know that with the removal of the Miamis to the site of Fort Wayne, the beautiful place of their beloved Kekionga, at the union of the three rivers, came to the Maumee this first known hero of our story. This was probably in 1697. Bissot 's activities were hastened by an aggressive move of the English. Governor Benjamin Fletcher, of New York, who aroused the fears of Frontenac, governor of Canada, by sending a large party of traders to the west with rich gifts for the savages, whereupon the French governor found himself "under the necessity of sending a much
J8y DURING THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF FRENCH RULE 37
larger niunber of Frenchmen, regulars and militia, than he at first supposed, to expel the enemy [English] from that post [Miami], if they had seized it, or to prevent them from entering." Sieurs de Manteth and Courtmanche, in charge of the expedition were ordered "to think more of fighting than of trading."" They found the post still in the hands of their own people, and the garrison under the command of Bissot, who, we find, was re- appointed to the control of the station in 1706.
That the report of the conduct of Bissot was such as to offend the home government is revealed in a letter from the French throne written by M. de Ponehartrain at Versailles in June, 1706, and addressed to M. de Vaudreuil, then governor of Canada. "You ought not to have sent Sieur de Vinsiene to the Miamis nor Sieur de Louvigny to the Missilimaquina [Mackinac]," he declared, "as they are all accused of carrying on a contraband trade, • * • and His Majesty desires that you cause Sieur de Vinsiene to be severely punished."
Bissot, like many another leading spirit of all times, doubtless had fallen the victim of the spite of his enemies who knew that he had been "expressly forbidden to trade in beaver,"'* (which skins were always always reserved for the enrichment of the home govern- ment) and who had reported a real or alleged failure to observe his instructions. He was a favorite, however, with the Canadian gov- ernor, who had written the king two years earlier that "Sieur de Vinsiene, my. lord, has been former commandant of the Miamis, by whom he was much beloved. This," he explained, "led me to select him in preference to any other to prove to that nation how wrong they were to attack the Iroquois — our allies and theirs — without any cause; and we, M. de Beaueharnois and I, after consultation, permitted the said Sieur de Vinsiene to carry some goods and to take with him six men and two canoes.""
From this time forward, Bissot, with the exception of a brief period during which his activities called him to other scenes," held the command of the post until 1719. During this time, the per- sistent efforts of the British to gain a foothold in the rich valleys of the Maumee and the Wabash determined him upon a course of action which, in the magnitude of its scope and the uniqueness of its possibilities, stands out strongly among the events of the time. Bissot's plan involved the migration of all the Miamis from the region of the Maumee and the Wabash to a new tribal center, a choice spot on the St. Joseph river of Lake Michigan, at the site of the present city of South Bend, Indiana; there to guard them by force of arms from the influence of the British traders who were appearing in ever-increasing numbers. How well the scheme
38
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
might have served its great purpose is problematical, for the death of Bissot, on the eve of its consummation forever discouraged the plan.
Sieur Dubuisson, sent by the governor of Canada to complete the work as designed by Bissot, failed to carry it to a finish. "I learn from the last letters that have arrived from the Miamis," wrote the disappointed Vaudreuil to the Council of Marine in 1719, "that Sieur de Vinsiene, having died in their village [Kekionga], these Indians have resolved not to remove to the river St. Joseph; this is very dangerous, on account of the facility they have of com- municating with the English, who are incessantly distributing war belts in secret.'"^ Upon the death of Bissot, the British redoubled
BURNING OF THE FRENCH POST MIAMI (SITE OF FORT WAYNE) 1747. During the period of the Chief Nicolas conspiracy, in 1747, while the com- mandant, Ensign Douville, was absent at Detroit, the savages attacked the post situated on the St. Mary's river In the present city of Port Wayne and partially destroyed It with fire. The post was rebuilt, and later, in 1750 a new fort waq established on the left bank of the St. Joseph river. The drawing is after an old woodcut.
i«|| DURING THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF FRENCH RULE 39
their efforts to win the favor of the Miamis; at this time a large number of firearms and quantities of ammunition were given to the savages in exchange for furs.-°
It is interesting now to consider the British view of the situa- tion which is well set forth in a letter of Colonel Caleb Heathcote, addressed to Governor Robert Hunter, of Virginia, who declared that "it is impossible that we and the French can both inhabit this continent in peace, but that one nation must at last give way to the other. So," he observes, " 'tis very necessary that without sleeping away our time, all precautions imaginable should be taken to prevent its falling to our lots to move."^' The student of Ameri- can history who may have been difficult to understand the causes of the French and Indian war, will gather from a study of condi- tions in the west at this period the true reason for the conflict which ultimately broke in all its fury and determined the final exclusion of France from the North American continent.
THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE IN 1718.
A picture of conditions about the confluence of the St. Mary's and the St. Joseph at this time comes down to us from the letter of a French officer, writing in 1718. "The Miamis are sixty leagues from Lake Erie and number four hundred, all good-formed men and well tattooed," he writes. "They are hard-working, and raise a species of maize unlike that of our Indians at Detroit. It is white, of the same size as tlie other, the skin much finer, and the meal much whiter. This nation is clad in deerskin, and when a woman goes with another man, her husband cuts off her nose and refuses to see her any more. They have plays and dances; where- fore they have more occupation. The women are well clothed, but the men use scarcely any covering, and are tattooed all over the body." The writer adds in description of the region to the south- west, along the Wabash, that "from the summit of this elevation nothing is visible to the eye but prairies full of buffalo."-' Another writer of the same year adds strength to the correctness of the latter remarkable statement in the claim that along the Maumee river, at the mouth of the Auglaize, near the present city of Defiance, Ohio, "buffaloes are always to be found; they eat the clay and wallow in it."=° Five years earlier, Father Gabriel Marest, a French missionary, wrote of the region to the southward that "the quantity of buffalo and bear found on the Oubache [Wabash] is incredible,"" and LaSalle in 1682, describing the region of the Ohio, says: "The multitude of buffalo is beyond belief. I have seen twelve hundred of them killed in eight days by a single band of Indians."
40 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
Six years after the death of Bissot, his more famous nephew, Francois Margane, was assigned to the command of the French stronghold on the site of Fort Wayne. Previous to this, in 1719 or 1720, Margane had established the important post of Ouiatanon on the Wabash near the present Lafayette, Indiana, — a position which was maintained as a center of French and Indian power for a period of more than seventy j^ears, indeed, until it was wiped out of existence in 1791 by General James Wilkinson, between the periods of the St. Clair and Wayne campaigns. Today, its exact location is a subject of lively dispute.-^
But the period of Margane 's command of the post at the head of the Maumee was not to be of long duration. His services were neeeded elsewhere. From the southern province of Louisiana came the demand for the advantage of his wise counsel and leadership in establishing a post on the lower Wabash, a point nearer to the Ohio river, where the movements of the British could more easily be controlled. The appeal for his co-operation, contained in the letter of M. de Boisbriant to the governor of Canada, is most inter- esting. "He can do more with the Miamis than anyone else," said he, and then followed the offer of "an annuity of three hundred livres [$55.50] which will be paid to him with his salary as a half- lieutenant."" It was not until 1731, however, that the Canadian government consented to the transfer of Jlargane to the Louisiana portion of the Wabash. In this year, Margane established the post known by the various names of St. Vincent, Oposte, The Post "Au Oubache," "Post des Piquichats," and "Little Ouiatanon." and which, three years after the death of its founder, came to be called Vineennes. The present Indiana city developed on this site."
The tragic death of Margane, who, with another French leader, D'Artaguiette, fell into the hands of savage foes and was burned at the stake five years after the founding of the post, was but an incident of the times when heroism counted for so little in a land where contending forces of whites alternately held and lost the friendship of the murderous savages into whose hands they had placed the powers of destruction.
NOTES ON CHAPTER IV.
(1) "The duty the French Company Wabash river and also to that por- ts obliged to pay to the king • • • tlon of the present Ohio river from enables the traders of New York to the mouth of the Wabash to the sell their goods in the Indian coun- mouth of the Ohio, at the Mississippi, try at half the price the people of That portion of the Ohio above Its Canada can, and reap twice the profits confluence with the Wabash was they do." (London Documents, New sometimes called the Ohio and oftener York Colonial Documents, vol. v, page known as the Beautiful river.
730.) (•*) French America was divided
,„, -ry- „ ni„,„,„ 'nto two great general provinces at
(2) Pierre Margry. ^j,,g ^^^^_ Canada and Louisiana, the
(3) It should be understood that at separating line extending from east this time, the name Oubache (Wa- to west across the present state of bash) was given to the present Indiana near the site of Terre Haute.
1683 1732
DURING THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF FRENCH RULE 41
(5) "Memoir de la Marine et des Colonies," Bockwlths Notes on the Northwest, page 97.
(6) Cadillac, In 1707, sallied forth from Detroit at the head of a body of troops, passed up the Maumee and across the portage to the Wabash, for the purpose of displaying the strength of the French arms as a means to discourage the communica- tions between the English and the Indians on the White river.
(7) E. M. Sheldon. "Early History of Michigan," page 85.
(8) Pierre Margry.
(9) The extent of the fur trade can best be grasped through the state- ment that Cadillac offered 10.000 Uvres for the exclusive right for Its con- trol at Detroit. In 1702, 20,000 skins were shipped from the Wabash and Maumee region, and In 1705, 15,- 000 hides and skins were shipped southward from the same sections. Between 1701 and 1704, 30,000 beavers were killed about Detroit.
(10) "Maumee River Basin," vol. 1, page 87.
(11) Dunn's "Indiana."
(12) LaSalle was murdered by treacherous companions In 1697 while forcing his way northward from the present state of Texas where, while endeavoring to found a colony on the gulf coast, one of his ships was wrecked, and enemies In his own camp defeated his crowning effort In behalf of his government.
(13) The widespread cloud of mys- tery which for many years enshroud- ed the Identity of Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sleur de VIncennes. and his Illustrious nephew, Francois Margane (Morgane or Morgan) has been lifted through the efforts of Edmond Mallet and others, who have given much time to the study of the genealogy of the families bearing the title of VIn- cennes. (See Mallet's article. "Sleur de Vincenne.s." in Indiana Historical Society Publications, vol. HI, page 58.) Francois Margane de la Valtrle, Sleur de VIncennes, was the full name and title of the second VIncennes, com- mandant at the site of Fort Wayne, whose name Is preserved In that of the ancient Indiana city. VIncennes was a seigniory in the present Belle- chasse county. Quebec, granted to the Bissot family In 1672. It passed from Jean Baptiste Bissot to Margane upon
the death of the former, in 1719, pro- ably in the present Lakeside.
(14) Dr. Charles E. Slocum, "Mau- mee River Basin," vol. 1, page 86.
(15) New York Colonial Documents, vol. Ix, page 569.
(16) New York Colonial Documents, Paris Documents, vol. Ix, page 676.
(17) New York Colonial Documents, vol. I.K, page 759.
(18) In the summer of 1712, VIn- cennes made a boat voyage to Quebec, with a message from Sleur Dubuis- son, then in command at Detroit, to (Jovernor Vaudreuil. "The over- whelming work I have day and night In the public and private councils I hold with the savages," said Dubuls- son, "prevents me from giving you full details." In explanation, he said the English were bribing the Indians to attack and destroy the fort at De- troit, the garrison of which consisted of but thirty men. There were only eight men at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) In this year, and these had accompanied Vincenncs to Detroit to assist In defending the post.
(19) New York Colonial Documents, vol. Ix, page 894.
(20) "Maumee River Basin," vol. I, page 466.
(21) New York Colonial Documents, vol. V, page 30.
(22) Paris Documents. New York Colonial Documents.
(23) New York Colonial Documents, vol. ix, page 891.
(24) Judge Law's "Colonial History of VIncennes," page 11; Fort Wayne Public Library.
(25) See article on "Ouiatanon," by Oscar J. Craig, Indiana Historical So- ciety Publications, vol. II, page 319.
(26) "Jesuit Relations," vol. Ixx, page 316; Fort Wayne Public Library.
(27) An erroneous Impression, aris- ing from the date of the founding of another post on the Ohio river has placed the time of the establishment of the post of VIncennes In 1702. Jacob P. Dunn, through the citation of the authority of manuscript let- ters of Margane. unearthed In Paris, shows clearly that the founding of the post at Vincennes took place in 1731. See Dunn's "Indiana." preface to enlarged edition. Fort Wayne Pub- lic Library. See also Dunn's "The Mission to the Oubache," Indiana His- torical Publications, vol. 111.
CHAPTER V— 1733-1749. The Last French Posts on the Site of Fort Wayne.
Longueuil's troops at the head of the Maumee— The Chief Nicolas (Sanosket) uprising— Capture of Post Miami (Fort Wayne)— Its partial destruction by fire while Douville, the commandant, is absent — Dubuls- son rebuilds the fort— The remarkable voyage of Captain Bienville de Celeron — The duplicity of LaDemoiselle, chief of the Piankeshaws — Bonnecamps describes the conditions at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) — Chief Cold Foot undeceives Captain Celeron— Captain Raimond builds a new fort on the St. Joseph river- Cold Foot village— Growth of the fur trade — Description of life on the portage route — The introduction of whiskey— Joseph Drouet de Richardville— The first English post In the west — Raimond foresees disaster.
THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE was the scene of growing bitter strife between the two powerful European nations which told of the waning power of France in the West. Slowly but certainly the English gained the alliance of the powerful leaders of the more easterly Indian tribes, and even the friendship of the Miamis for their French brothers became a doubtful matter.
As early as 1733, Sieur de Arnaud was sent from Detroit to quell an outbreak among the Ouiatanons (Weas) on the Wabash. In vain did M. de Longueuil himself lead a strong force of French- men across the site of Fort Wayne against a body of unfriendly savages and English gathered on the White river. The display of military power no longer held the savage in cheek.
And then came the uprising of the Hurons (Wyandottes) under Chief Sanosket (Sandosket)^ known also as Nicolas, the first fierce savage outbreak against the French in the west. It resulted in the burning of several of the posts and the general demoralization of the French military forces in the Maumee-Wabash valleys.
The earlier movements of Nicolas, under the direction of the English, were openly displayed in the massacre of five Frenchmen who were returning to Detroit from their trading posts on the White river, in the present Indiana.
As soon as the emissaries of Nicolas reached the site of Fort Wayne, they deceived the Miamis into the belief that the post at Detroit, with its garrison, had fallen into the hands of the con- spirators and that there remained no reason why the lives of the men at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) should be spared. The Miamis believed the report but were reluctant to massacre the Frenchmen at their post. They did, however, surround the fort, set it on fire,
42
1733 1749
THE LAST FRENCH POSTS
43
and take captive the eight men who happened to be within the stockade at the time.- Two of the men escaped and made their way to Detroit where the news of the affair caused alarm and put under way a general preparation to check the spreading dis- affection of the savages.
The stockade and buildings on the site of Fort Wayne were but partially destroyed. At the time of the attack, Ensign Douville was absent from the post over which he held temporary com- mand. He had been sent from Detroit to the Miamis for the special purpose of inviting them to attend a conference at Montreal," and two of their chiefs. Cold Foot and Pore Epic (Hedgehog) had accom-
'4 <■ ^-'> Mjfff!
WHERE THE LAST FRENCH FORT STOOD — SCENE OF THE HOLJlIBS
MURDER OF 1763. The landscape Is a view looking up the St. Joseph river in Fort Wayne from a point near the junction of St. Joe boulevard and Deiaware avenue. On the high ground at the right. M. de Raimond erected the last of the French forts in 1750. Raimond at that time abandoned the site on the St. Mary's river, near the present Nickel Plate railroad tracks. It was from the new fort that Raimond wrote in alarm to the French governor of Canada that "nobody wants to stay here and have his throat cut: if the English stay in this country we are lost — we must attack and drive them out." In 1760, the fort fell to the British. Ensign Robert Holmes, three years later, was murdered by the In- dians and the men of the garrison were taken prisoners.
44 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
panied him as far as Detroit, at which place the news of the outbreak overtook him. He proceeded to Montreal alone, while the two friendly chiefs returned to their people.
Sieur Dubuisson, leaving his post at Detroit, then hastened to the post on the site of Fort Wayne in response to penitent protes- tations from the Miamis that they had been deceived into a partici- pation in the outbreak, and pleading for mercy because they had spared the lives of the men. The petition of the savages had been addressed directly to Lougueuil, urging him to "send back some Frenchmen to them, and not to deprive them of their indis- pensable supplies, promising him that order would be restored in a short time. That officer yielded to their solicitation, with a view to deprive the enemy [the British] of the liberty of seizing a post of considerable importance."*
Dubuisson was instructed, however, to form but a small estab- lishment for the winter. He was supplied with thirty Frenchmen to garrison the post, as well as a like number to pass onward to the post at Oouiatanon, on the Wabash. The latter Avere instructed to rejoin Dubuisson in the spring and return with him and his force to Detroit.
It appears that the few Miamis who remained in the region kept their promise of loyalty, but an overt act of characteristic savage cruelty occured at Post Miami soon after the arrival of Dubuisson and his men. One of the latter, captured by a lurking Iroquois, was scalped and the bloody trophy was carried in triumph to the camp of Nicolas.
The larger portion of the Miamis showed their strong disaffec- tion by refusing to return to their village of Kiskakon (Kekionga), but chose rather to gather at the strongholds of the enemies of the French. Only one chief — Cold Foot — and he without influence, remained faithful to the French garrison.''
BIENVILLE DE CELERON VISITS THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE.
The situation was such as to call forth the most drastic action on the part of the French if they would retain a hold on their possessions in the west. Acting upon orders, Dubuisson returned to Detroit, leaving Post Miami in charge of Captain M. de Raimond. This was in the spring of 1748. At this time, France determined upon a powerful stroke to announce to the world its possession of the entire west, with the Alleghany and Ohio rivers as the eastern and southern boundaries. On the 15th of June, 1749, acting under the command of the home government, Captain Pierre Joseph Bien- ville de Celeron," with a command of two hundred French soldiers and thirty Indians,' set out upon a voyage which was designed to
i73| THE LAST FRENCH POSTS 45
end for all time any dispute concerning the true ownership of the lands between the eastern colonies and the Mississippi.
Passing from Lake Erie over the portage into Lake Chautauqua, the expedition entered the Alleghany river, and then coursed down the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Miami river (near the present Cincinnati), where Celeron buried the last of six leaden plates which bore the proclamation that France had taken formal posses- sion of the land. Paddling their canoes up the Great Miami, the expedition, on the 29th of August, approached the village of a famous Miami chief of the Piankeshaw band, known as LeDemoiselle (Young Woman) because of his fondness for dress and ornaments. To this village of LaDemoiselle had fled many of the fugitive Miamis who had deserted Post Miami (Fort Wayne) at the time of the Nicolas outbreak. To regain their confidence, Captain Celeron de- cided upon a council with LaDemoiselle and Chief Baril, represent- ing another band located on the White river, who was in the village at the time. Before proceeding to the town, Celeron dispatched messengers to the post of Captain Raimond, on the site of Fort Wayne, and requested, at once, the presence of an interpreter named Rois, and also as many horses as possible to assist the expedition in bringing their luggage across the portage from the Great Miami river to Post Miami. While wating here, the Miamis .sent four of their chiefs to escort the expedition to LaDemoiselle 's village. Arriving there, Celeron pitched his camp, set the guard and awaited the coming of the interpreter. "During this interval," he says in his record, "I sounded them to learn if they were disposed to return to Kiskakon [site of Fort Wayne], for that is the name of their ancient village. They had two hired English in their village whom I sent away before speaking to these people. On the 11th, tired of waiting for the interpreter and of seeing my provisions mean- while being used up, I determined to give my talk by means of an Iroquois who spoke Miamis well.'"
With lavish distribution of gifts, Celeron made an earnest plea for the return of the Miamis to their village at the head of the Maumee. "In that country," said he, "you will enjoy the pleasures of life, it being the place where repose the bones of your fathers and those of M. de Vincennes fBissot] whom you loved so much and who always governed you in such a way that affairs always went well. If you have forgotten the counsels he gave you, these ashes will recall them to your memory. Have pity on the dead who call you back to your village ! I make an easy road to Kiskakon, where I will re-light your fires."
The next day, LaDemoiselle responded by saying that the sav- ages would not return until the following spring. Celeron was
46 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OP FORT WAYNE
bitterly disappointed, as he had hoped to make them a part of his company.
On the 20th, the canoes were burned and the expedition departed overland for the post on the site of Fort Wayne, "each one carrying his provisions and baggage," writes Celeron, "except the officers, for whom I had procured horses and bearers." This strange expe- dition, as it approached the site of Fort Wayne was formed into four companies, each with an officer at the right and left.
"On the 25th," says Celeron in his journal, "I arrived at M. de Raimond's who commands at Kiskakon, staying there only as long as it was necessary to buy provisions and canoes to convey me to Detroit." A more appreciable reference comes from the journal of the Reverend Father Jean de Bonnecamps.' Describing first the march along the banks of the St. Jlary's, wherein they "found large crabs in abundance," the priest's story continues with the account of the arrival here. He wrote :
"The fort of the Miamis was in a very bad condition when we reached it. ilost of the palisades were decayed and fallen into ruin. There were eight houses, or, to speak more correctlj', eight miserable huts which only the desire of making money could render endurable. The French there number twenty-two ; all of them, including the commandant, had the fever. ]\Ionsieur Raimond did not approve the situation of the fort and maintained that it should be placed on the bank of the St. Joseph a scant league from the present site. He wished to show me the spot, but the hindrances of our departure prevented me from going hither. All I could do for him was to trace the plan for his new fort. The latitude of the old one is 41 degrees, 29 minutes.""
This decaying fort stood on the right bank of the St. Mary's river in the bend of the stream a short distance north of the present Nickel Plate railroad bridges.
It is not difficult to picture the commandant, ill with fever, seeking the advice and assistance of these visitors from a civilized section of the world, who declined to discommode themselves to aid him further than to give him a rough draught to guide him in the building of a new fort. But, perhaps, the depression of spirit ex- tended also to the heart of Celeron. "On the 26th." said he. "I called to me Cold Foot, chief of the Miamis at Kiskakon. and other principal Indians, to whom I repeated, in the presence of M. de Raimond and the officers of our detachment what I had said at the village of LaDemoiselle and the answers I got from them. After listening with much attention, he [Cold Foot] arose and said to me: 'I hope I am deceived, but I am sufficiently attached to the French to say that LaDemoiselle will be false. My grief is to be
1733 1749
THE LAST FRENCH POSTS
47
the only one who loves you, and to see all the nations of the earth
let loose against the French."
Cold Foot's prophecy was true. LaDemoiselle grew stronger
in his opposition to the French and finally drew upon himself a
tragedy which marked the beginning of the French and Indian war.
Unable to secure a suffi- cient number of canoes to transport his company by water down the Maumee, Celeron sent some of his men overland to Detroit, at which place the expedition arrived eight days later.
THE LAST FRENCH FORT
Whatever Captain R a i - mond may have thought of the refusal of the visitors to inter- est themselves in the location of his new fort, it is certain that he lost little time in be- ginning its erection. By the spring of 1750, this new home of his men, high above the surrounding territory, was ready for occupancy. While the former location was on low ground, the new fort occupied a commanding position on the east bank of the St. Joseph river (at the present St. Joe boulevard and Delaware avenue, formerly Baker avenue), where to- day the automobilist, as he hurries past the historic spot looks out upon a landscape to the westward very similar to that which glad- dened the vision of these hardy Frenchmen, now made unromantic, of course, by the evidences of civilization.
The coming years were destined to weave about this fort of Captain Raimond many thrilling tales of romance, horror and blood- shed. Here were to be enacted the scenes of the love story of the Englishman, Holmes, and its tragic climax of massacre; the tale of Morris who faced death at the stake ; of Croghan and the rem- nants of the French and British during the days Avhen the young republic was training a Wayne and a Harrison in the school of warfare."
With the abandonment of the old fort on the St. Mary's, the
CAPTAIN PIERRE JOSEPH BIEN- VILLE DE CELERON. When the daring French leader, Cap- tain Bienville de Celeron, reached the site of Fort Wayne in Sepfember, 1749, with his soldiers and Indian allies, to take possession of the country In the name of the king: of France, he found the French fort "in a very bad condi- tion." Father Bonnecamps. who ac- companied the expedition, gives an In- teresting account of the entire voyage. The portrait is reproduced from the Garner & Lodge History of the United States, by permission of the publishers, John D. Morris & Co.. Philadelphia. The original painting is In the Chateau de Ramezay, Montreal.
48 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
discarded buildings of the post became the center of an Indian settlement known as Cold Foot village, over which Chief Cold Foot presided until his death, which came at a time when his friendship was most keenly needed by the French commandant.
The reference of Father Bonnecamps to the "miserable huts" of Post Miami "which only the desire of making money could render endurable," is a reminder of the growing importance to the fur trade, the protection of which held these men to guard the Maumee- Wabash valleys against the British. The portage was a busy highway of travel in those days. A word picture of its activi- ties is given by Francis Parkman, the historian of the French, who says:
"From Vincennes one might paddle his canoe northward up the Wabash, until he reached the little wooden fort of Ouiatanon. Thence a path through the woods led to the banks of the Maumee. Two or three Canadians, or half-breeds, of whom there were num- bers about the fort, would carry the canoe on their shoulders, or, for a bottle of whiskey, a few Miamis might be bribed to undertake the task."'='
Parkman's suggestion of the presence of whiskey among the savages at this time brings into the story an element which adds terror to the succeeding chapters of our narrative in which the savage plays a part. For it was at this point that the severe re- strictions of the French against the introduction of intoxicants among the Indians were broken down, and from this time forward the taint of deadly "fire water" blackens the pages of the story of the frontier.
The period of Raimond's administration brought to the region a number of celebrated men, among them Joseph Drouet de Rich- ardville who was destined to leave an illustrious name through the medium of his son, Jean Baptiste de Richard ville (Pe-che-wa), civil chief of the Miamis during the closing days of the strength of the tribe. He was the son of a wealthy French-Canadian trader of Kaskaskia and later of Vincennes. The advantages of the trade situation at the head of the Maumee drew him hither and he is often called the first permanent white settler of the site of Fort Wayne.
Within a brief period after his arrival, Joseph Drouet de Rich- vV ardville married Tah-cum-wah, a daughter of Aque-noch-qua, the f Vt^ vX reigning Miami chief. Tah-cum-wah^^ was a Sister'or Little Turtle, J^ 1)1^ 1 "the greatest Indian of all times."
/S ^ Jean Baptiste de Richardville, son of Joseph Drouet de Richard-
^ ville and Tah-cum-wah, was born in 1761, as he often stated, "near
the old apple tree" in the present Lakeside (city of Fort Wayne).
xV
1733 1749
THE LAST FRENCH FORTS
49
"The associations clustering around this old apple tree, during his childhood days, gave the chief, ever afterward, a profound regard, approaching almost to reverence; hence he was instrumental in its preservation.""
And in the meantime, despite the proclamations of Celeron and his like, the l)uilding of" new French posts, the strengthening of their larger settlements and their boasted claims of possession of the frontier, the garrison of Captain Raimond in their new fort on the St. Joseph, awoke one day to the startling truth that the British had established a settlement but a few short miles to the east — at Pickawillany'^ on the Great Miami — from whence trouble- some emissaries were soon to harass the posts to desperation.
It was the beginning of new and lasting trouble. Raimond knew it, and he was the first to predict the destruction of the hopes of his countrymen in the west.
locAr/o^ of=
MAP OF THE NOTABLE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN CELERON The map shows the route of Captain Pierre Joseph Bienville de Celeron Im 1749. The expedition, intended to claim the land for France, in the name of the king, was composed of two hundred French soldiers and thirty Indians.
50
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF PORT WAYNE
NOTES ON CHAPTER V.
(1) The chief village of Sanosket was on the site of the present San- dusky, Ohio, which derives Its name from this source. This was the first of the three important conspiracies of the Indians against the whites in the west. It is well to remember that the Nicolas conspiracy contem- plated the annihilation of the French, while the Pontiac outbreak was planned to destroy the English, and the conspiracy of Tecumseh and "The Prophet" was designed to drive the Americans from the west.
(2) New Tork Colonial Documents, Paris Documents, vol. Ix, page 891.
(3) Douville did not return to the west. In March, 1756, he led in an attack on an English fort and there lost his life. (See Montcalm's report. New Tork Colonial Documents, vol. x, page 416.)
(4) New York Colonial Documents, Paris Documents, vol. x. Charles Regnault, Sieur Dubuisson, was In command at Detroit In 1710, between the administrations of Cadillac and LaForest. During his time, Detroit was attacked by Fox Indians. From 1723 to 1727, he was in command of the post on the site of Fort Wayne. He was twice married; the former wife was Gabrielle Michelle Binet, and the latter, Louise Bizard. (Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collection).
(5) Pennsylvania Archives, vol. 11, page 9.
(6) The name of this officer Is also written Blainville de Celeron and Celeron de Bienville.
(7) London Documents, xxlx; New York Colonial Documents, vol. vi, page 633. '
(8) Captain Celeron's Journal, In Margry, vol. vi.
(9) Father Bonnecamps was a pro- fessor of hydrography In the Jesuit college at Quebec. His Journal, in the original French and In translated form may be found in the "Jesuit Re- lations," Fort Wayne Public Library.
(10) These early French forts, or posts, appear to have consisted of an enclosure made of palisades set closely together, sheltering a number of log houses clustered within. Bonnecamps refers to eight of these houses in the post on the St. Mary's. At the time Captain Morris was thrown into the fort on the St. Joseph, he was warned against entering any of the "French cabins" within. The Ameri- can forts of the neighborhood were provided with corner block-houses from which the garrison could meet the fire of an enemy.
(11) A number of relics of this old fort of the French have been found.
(12) Parkman's "Conspiracy of Pon- tiac," vol. i, page 162.
(13) After the death of Joseph Drouet de Richardville, the widow married John Beaubien who thereby! became a brothejrj^in-laiSJ — ©f- .Littls Turtle and the fafhe?Mn-law of Jean Baptiste de Richardville.
(14) Helm's History of Allen Coun- ty, page 20.
(15) This town was sometimes called Tawixtwl and Twightwees (British name for the Miamls) Town. Here tlie British constructed a strong stockaded post which was the scene of the massacre of 1752. It was located on the Miami river, in the present Shelby county, Ohio, at the mouth of Loramie creek. The object of its establishment was to draw the Indians from their loyalty to the French at the site of Fort Wayne and elsewhere.
ik
CHAPTER VI— 1750-1760.
Surrender of the French Post Miami (Fort Wayne) to
the English.
Celeron assumes command at Detroit — Increasing alann at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) — Raimond's cry of alarm — "No one wants to stay here and have his throat cut!" — The smallpox scourge — Death ot Chiefs Coldfoot and LeGrls— Captain Neyon de Villiers sent to command Post Miami — The audacity of John Pathin — His arrest — Complaint ot the English — Retort of the French — Two men of the Post Miami garrison captured and scalped — Langlade leads in the assault on PickawUlany — Death of LaDemoiselle — Cannibalistic red men— Captain Aubray and his troops— British succor the Indians— Unsuccessful effort to bring French farmers into the Maumee-Wabash valleys— The fall of Quebec and the surrender of Detroit, ends the French rule in the valleys — Lieutenant Butler receives the surrender of Post Miami (Fort Wayne) — Ensign Robert Holmes in command — Lieutenant Jenkins at Ouiatanon — The overthrow of FVench power in the west.
WE HAVE OBSERVED with interest the visit of Captain Celeron and his train of Frenchmen and Indians to the site of Fort Wayne and the activities of the men of the little garrison who, between the more severe attacks of the fever, were able to complete their new fort on the St. Joseph. Celeron, upon his arrival at Detroit, was made the commandant of that central stronghold.
At his lonely post on the St. Joseph, looking across into the present Spy Run, where were grouped a few log huts occupied by the traders. Captain Raimond breathed an atmosphere laden with an omen of disaster. Scarce half a mile to the southward, where the Maumee turns in its course toward the east, lay the village of Kekionga. Its Miami and Shawnee inhabitants — the few who re- mained after the many had fled to the villages of the foes of France — had failed of late to display the warmth of friendship which the French had so long enjoyed. The reason was not hidden from the commandant. He knew that the British, from their fortified settlement at Piekawillany, were constantly sending out emissaries to worry the weak garrisons and win to their cause the few savages who clung to their ancient village. To these, the English offered in return for their peltries twice the amount the French traders could afford to give. The taunts of the savages were gaUing in the extreme.
One day, in desperation. Captain Raimond dispatched a mes- senger to Detroit with a letter in which he said :
51
52
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
"My people are leaving me for Detroit. Nobody wants to stay here and have his throat cut. All of the tribes who go to the English at Pickawillany come back loaded with gifts. I am too weak to meet the danger. Instead of twenty men, I need five hundred • • * We have made peace with the English ; yet they try con- tinually to make war on us by means of the Indians. They intend to be masters of all this upper country. The tribes here are leaguing together to kill all the French, that they may have nobody on their lands but their English brothers. This I am told by Cold Foot, a great Miami chief, whom I think an honest man, if there be such thing among the Indians. * • * If the English stay in this country, we are lost. We must attack them and drive them out.'"
To add to the distress of mind of the commandant of Post Mi- ami, an epidemic of smallpox spread over the Maumee- Wabash region during the winter of 1751-2 and carried away as its victims two of his true Indian friends. Chief Cold Foot and Chief LeGris,* as well as many of the Miamis who formed the Cold Foot village.
FRENCH RELICS DUG UP ON THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE. These three reUcs of the seventeenth century days of the occupation of the site of Fort Wayne by the French — a medallion bearing the date 1693, a cop- per kettle and a copper box are of In- calculable historical value. The medal- lion and the kettle are the property of Kenton P. Baker, 1008 Delaware ave- nue. In 1870, while he was superintend- ing some work of excavation at the Junction of the present Delaware ave- nue and St. Joe boulevard, Henry J. Baker, sr. (grandfather of Kenton P. Baker), uncovered the kettle shown here. It was found to contain some In- dian arrowheads and the large brass medallion of which the picture shows the two sides. The indentations of the kettle were made by the adz In the hands of the workman who unearthed the relic.
The place of finding the reminders of the French occupation. Is the site of the last French fort, erected in 1750. It would seem that the medallion and the kettle have reposed within the lim- its of the present city of Fort Wayne for a period of nearly two centuries. The medallion was for a time the prop- erty of Mrs. C. E. Stapleford, now a resident of Colorado Springs, Col. Mrs. Stapleford ascertained, through correspondence with the mayor of Bordeaux, France, that Guil (William) de Nesmond. whose portrait appears on the medallion which was issued in commemoration of his death in 1963, was a member of a noble family in France. It is interesting to note that an exact dup< Ucate of this medallion, found in the same locality, is the property of Byron F. Thompson, residing north of Fort Wayne.
The small copper box, with a hinged, embossed cover, undoubtedly a relic of the French occupation. Is owned by L. W. Hills. It was unearthed by boys while at play in the vicinity of the site of the French fort.
J7|« SURRENDER OF THE FRENCH POST MIAMI 53
But Raimond appears to have completed the period of his use- fulness at Post Miami, for he was summoned to Detroit, to give way to a new commandant, Chevalier Neyon (Noyan or Nyon) de Villiers."
Soon after his arrival, Villiers was aroused by the alarm that an Englishman had, in truth, been so bold as to force his way into the fort where a number of savages were gathered, that he might induce them to turn against the French and capture the post. In the nick of time, Villiers secured the intruder, who fought des- perately to escape. The capture of this man — John Pathin — to- gether with the taking of three others by the French near Detroit — was about the first effort at retaliation which the French had un- dertaken. The news of the affair reached Governor George Clinton, of New York, who demanded to know the cause of the warlike act.
"The capture of these four Englishmen [Luke Arrowin, Thomas Borke, Joseph Fortiner and John Pathin] ought not to surprise you," responded the Marquis de la Jonquiere, at Jlontreal. " 'Tis certain, sir, that they did not risk coming, so to say, under his M. G. Majesty's cannon, except with sinister views. • • • As for John Pathin, he entered the fort of the Miamis to persuade the Indians who remained there to unite with those who had fled to the Beautiful [Ohio] river. He has been taken in the French fort. Nothing more is necessary. The little property that was taken belonging to these persons has been claimed by the Indians as plunder. * • • John Pathin could enjoy the same freedom [as the others, who had been released] but he is so mutinous, and uttered so many threats, that I have been obliged to imprison him at Quebec."*
In the midst of the disturbance, two of LaDemoiselle's savages crept close enough to the French fort to capture two of the men of Villier's garrison. Their scalps were carried in triumph to the camps of the foes of the French."
"While conditions at the head of the Maumee and throughout the Wabash valley grew more alarming for the French, there was increased activity at the English settlement at Pickawillany. Chris- topher Gist, sent on an exploring expedition to the west in the in- terest of the Ohio Land Company (of which George "Washington was a member) visited the place in February, 1751. His journal tells of the activity of the village and of the re-construction of the post — the first established by the English in the west, and which was designed to prove a menace to the Kekionga and Detroit strong- holds of the French.
But the scenes were soon to shift. Celeron, commandant of Detroit, had been directed by Governor Jonquiere, of Canada, to
54
THE PICTORIAL fflSTORY OF FORT WAYXE
proceed to Piekawillany and accomplish its destruction. Whether Celeron shirked the undertaking or was too deliberate in his prepa- rations, it does not appear, but it is true that another arose to the occasion and accomplished the work which had been outlined for him.
This leader was Charles Langlade. The Indians at Kekionga, no less than the gar- rison at the post, were taken by surprise one day in June, 1752, when a small army of French and two hundred Chip- pewas and Ottawas, came rap- idly up the ilaumee and turned westward into the St. ]\Iary's on their way to the portage point nearest the Pickawillany post. It was the army come to drive out the English. Langlade had gathered his fol- lowers from the Green Bay region and piloted them to De- troit, where their assistance was offered to the commandant. Celeron accepted their service, supplemented the force by the addition of a few French regu- lars and Canadians, under M. St. Orr (or St. Orr), and directed the expedition against Picka- willany.
No word had reached the British post to warn it of the ap- proach of the attacking party. "Langlade." says one writer, after describing the landing of the canoes on the bank of the St. Mary's, "led his painted savages through the forest to attack La Demoiselle and his English friends.''* The assault was spirited and decisive. "Among the Indians who had been captured was the principal chief of the Piankeshaws, called 'Old Britain' [La Demoiselle], on ac- count of his friendship for the British ; he was killed, cut in pieces, boiled and eaten in full view of the fort, after which the French and their allies moved away.'"
The effect of the fall of Pickawillany was to awe the ^liamis to the extent that they again turned to the French, although Cap- tain "VTilliam Trent, of the English, assembled them at the destroyed
STEEL, TOMAHAWKS.
During the reign of terror on the frontier, the British furnished the sav- ages not only with their firearms and ammunition, with which to fight the foes of Great Britain, but also with scalping knives and tomahawks of steel to displace the Indian knife and toma- hawk of stone. The three specimens shown, representing distinct forms of steel tomahawk, were found on the site of the city of Fort Wayne. A — Made to be riveted to a ■wooden handle. B — - Squaw ax. C — A pipe tomahawk: the wooden handle served as a stem of the pipe, and the head of the instrument as the bowl. A and C are from the col- lection of the late Colonel R. S. Robert- son; B is from the collection of L. W. Hills.
"50 SURRENDER OF THE FRENCH POST MIA3II 55
1 I OU
village but a few weeks later and made a lavish distribution of gifts. The decision of the Pennsylvania legislature to give "the sum of two hundred pounds as a present of condolence to the Twightwee [Miami] nation," failed to restore their loyalty.
Further east, affairs between the British and French were assuming a serious aspect. Major George Washington, after his ineffectual journey to carry a message from Governor Dinwiddle to the French posts, ordering their evacuation, met with moderate success in an encounter at Great ileadows, and this event is often referred to as the opening affair of the French and Indian war, regardless of the assault at Pickawillany.
And so were precipitated the hostilities which closed in the complete overthrow of France in the New World.
Dudng this period of turmoil, the lands at the head of the Maumee were the scene of the action of French troops passing chiefly to the eastward from the Louisiana region. Many of these came up the Wabash, crossed the portage and proceeded down the Maumee. Notable was the expedition of Captain Aubray, in 1759, who, with three hundred French regulars and militia and six hun- dred Indians, carried great quantities of flour for the assistance of Forts Venango and Niagara. The army passed from the Maumee along the south shore of Lake Erie. Captain Aubray was among the French captured by the British at the fall of Fort Niagara in the summer of 1759.'
The early successes of the French suggested to Captain Celeron at Detroit the advisability of peopling the Maumee-Wabash valleys with French farmers, and to this end the government agreed to give to each family thus consenting to locate and engage in tilling the soil, the following equipment: A gun, a hoe, an axe, a plowshare, a scythe and a sickle, two augurs, a sow, six hens, a cock, six pounds of powder, twelve pounds of lead and other favors. Only twelve families consented to move.° Certainly it was no time to choose a home on the frontier. Frequent encounters occurred be- tween the sympathizers of both parties to the great quarrel, that did not cease even Avith the capitulation of Quebec in September, 1760, which formally closed tl'.e French and Indian war.
THE ENGLISH FLAG FLOATS OVER FORT WAYNE SITE.
The quiet surrender of Detroit in the 29th of November, to Major Robert Rogers, automatically threw the entire Maumee- Wabash region into the hands of the British. The garrison of the lonely post on the site of Fort Wayne awaited with interest the appearance of the British leader authorized to take the fort. He was not long in coming. A detachment of twenty rangers
56
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
from the famous "Royal Americans," under command of Lieuten- ant Butler" rode up to the fort in December, 1760, and received its formal transfer.
"I ordered that if possible a party should subsist at the fort [Miami] this winter [1760-1]," says Rogers in his report, "and give the earliest notice at Detroit of the enemy's motives in the coun- try of the Illinois."
Ensign Robert Holmes" appears to have accompanied Butler's rangers to Post Miami, there to serve at intervals until his tragic death three years later.
A second detachment, under Lieutenant Edward Jenkins, passed onward to Ouiatanon and received the surrender of that post. Nothing was now left to the French in the entire west, except the posts of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi.
NOTES ON CHAPTER VI.
(1) Francis Parkman, "Montcalm and Wolf." vol. 1, page 82.
(2) He is not to be confused with the Chief LeGrls, proprietor of the Miami village in Spy Run preceding the Harmar expedition and who signed the treaty of Greenville.
(3) Viiliers was the youngest of seven brothers, six of whom, It Is said, lost their lives in the -wars in Canada. He held the post on the site of Fort Wayne during 1751 and 1752, when he "was transferred to Fort Chartres, on the Illinois bank of the Mississippi, ninety miles above the mouth of the Ohio. In August, 1756, Viiliers commanded an escort of provisions sent from Fort Chartres to Fort Duquesne; arriving in Pennsyl- vania with twenty-three Frenchmen and thirty Indians, he attacked and destroyed Fort GrandviUe. Returning to Fort Chartres, he was named to succeed Captain Macarty as its com- mandant, a position he held until June 15, 1764, when he received the cross of St. Louis as a reward for his fidelity and services. M. Gayarre confounds him with his brother, Cou- lon Viiliers, called the great Viiliers, to whom Washington surrendered in 1754.
(4) New York Colonial Documents, vol. vi, page 733.
(5) E>unn's "Indiana."
(6) Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolf," vol. i, page 85. ,
(7) Colonial Documents, vol. vi, page 730. It Is believed by some his- torians that the main body of the French stopped at Post Miami (Fort W^ayne) and that an attack on Pick- awillany was made by the savages without their leadership, this conjec- ture being based upon the account of one writer that only two French- men were observed on the scene.
(8) Daris Documents, xvi; New York Colonial Documents, vol. x, page 989.
(9) Dr. Charles E. Slocum, "Maumee River Basin," vol. I, page 102; see also Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolf," page 77.
(10) That Butler remained for some time at the post is suggested by a letter written by Captain Donald
Campbell, the first commandant at De- troit, to Colonel Bouquet; "Lieuten- ant Butler and his rangers are living among the Ottawas at the Miami post. At the post where he is sta- tioned, he lis but nine miles from the Wabash." Campbell complains of the large amounts of supplies used at the posts on the St. Joseph and the Wabash. "Major Rogers has about stripped us in supplying the adjoining posts." he writes. "I designed to send a large quantity of ammunition to the Posts of Miarais. St. Joseph and Ouiatanon for the subsistence of the garrisons, as the transportation is so difficult. This I cannot do as I wish, for want [of] ammunition. I wait for an officer from Niagara, to send off [to] the garrison of Ouiatanon. If the major does not send one, I shall be obliged to have a sergeant at Miamis, which is not the general intentions surely that these posts should be commanded by a sergeant." (11) In searching for information concerning Robert Holmes, whose tragic death forms the climax of one of the most romantic tales of the English occupation of the west, the writer finds that his title Is given during the same periods of time as Ensign and Lieutenant. He had been actively engaged against Quebec, serving as a scout in charge of fifty men in the region of Lake Cham- plain. His efforts were designed to harass the French and mislead them as to the enemy's intentions. On the way to the west with Major Rogers to receive the surrender of Detroit, Holmes's boat formed the rear guard for the flotilla of fifteen whaleboats which conveyed the men to their des- tination. Arrived at Detroit, Major Rogers placed Colonel Beletre and the other English prisoners in charge of Holmes and thirty rangers. It is evident that during a portion of the year 1761 Holmes was absent from his post, for we find a written record of Major William Walter to the effect that he has "Ensign Holmes, with two Sergeants, ten Corporals and sixty men assltsing in the building two vessels for Lake Erl."
CHAPTER Vn— 1761-1765.
Massacre of the British at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) — Morris and Croghan.
The beginning of the Conspiracy of Pontiac — Holmes warned of the plot — He discovers the war belt at Kekionga — Holmes betrayed to his death by the Indian maiden — Shot from ambush — Captain Morris' version — Survivors tell of the plot as planned and executed by Jacques Godefroy and Miney Chene — Welch and Lawrence, the traders, and their account of the murder — Ouiatanon falls — Morris at Pontiac's camp — He reaches the site of Fort Wayne — Captured and thrown into the fort — Tied to the stake to be tortured — Saved by Chief Pecanne — Escapes to the fort — Colonel Bradstreet's expedition — Savages bring in the white captives — Colonel George Croghan reaches the site of Fort Wayne — Savages raise the English flag — Croghan describes the villages — Pontiac gives up the fight and leaves for the west — His tragic death.
DURING the two years following the fall of the French posts, comparative quiet prevailed throughout the west. But while the British were comfortably surveying their posses- sions, mischief was forming in the cunning brain of a master mind of the savages — Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas.
Inspired by his lessons of the defeat of General Braddock, in which he played a prominent part ; by the encouragement of French leaders who still sought the downfall of the British, and by the complaints of the savages of many of the tribes which participated in the French and Indian war, this "Napoleon of the western Indians" planned the most remarkable conspiracy of massacre and overthrow of the whites ever conceived by a savage. That the plan failed was due only to the impetuosity of some of his associates.
Following the war, the Indians, footsore and weary of strife, had been content to live off the bounties of the victors. But soon these bounties ceased, because there was now no rival to claim the affection of the Indians and, indeed, the British war tax had added greatly to the value of those articles which formerly were given with much freedom.
In the fall of 1761, Pontiac sent his messengers to every village of the savages along the Ohio and its tributaries, throughout the upper Great Lakes region, and as far south as the lower Mississippi. With a tomahawk stained red, and with a war belt of wampum, a messenger visited each camp and settlement, where, after throwing down the tomahawk he delivered the message of the great chief.
The quietest of secrecy surrounded the movements of the sav-
57
58 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
ages to prevent the discovery of the plot. But one day in March, 1763, a friendly Indian sought Ensign Robert Holmes, at the post on the St. Joseph, and informed him that a messenger with a war belt had visited the village of Kekionga and, after making his speech, had left the belt in the hands of the Indians of that settle- ment. Alarmed by the report, the commandant made bold to visit the village and demand the delivery into his hands of the war-belt, together with the interpretation of the speech of the messenger who had come and gone. The savages "did as Indians have often done, confessed their fault with much contrition, laid the blame on a neighboring tribe, and professed eternal friendship for their brethren, the English.'"
Holmes reported the discovery to his superior. Major Henry Gladwyn, in command at Detroit, with the request that the word be forwarded to Sir Jeffrey Amherst. Not satisfied with the mere confession of the savages, however. Holmes continued his search until he found the fatal war-belt. Without hesitation, he wrapped it carefully with a letter which he dispatched by a trusty messenger to Major Gladwyn. Holmes was exultant. He felt that the trouble was now ended. On the 30th of March he wrote to Gladwn as follows :
"Since my last letter to You, wherein I Acquainted You of the Bloody Belt being in this Village I have Made all the search I could about it, and have found it out to be True; Whereupon I Assembled all the Chiefs of this Nation & after a long and trouble- some Spell with them, I Obtained the Belt, with a Speech, as you will Receive Enclosed ; This Affair is very timely Stopt, and I hope the News of a Peace will put a stop to any further Troubles with these Indians who are the Principal Ones of Setting Mischief on Foot. I send you the Belt with this packet, which I hope You will forward to the General."^
The "speech" to which Holmes referred in his letter was that spoken by the Indians as they delivered the war belt into his hands. He recalled the words as best he could and repeated them, as follows in the letter which he forwarded to Gladwyn :
"This Belt was Received from the Shawnese Nation, they Received it from the Delawares, and they from the Senecas Who are Very Much Enraged against the English. As for the Indian That Was the Beginner of this we Cannot tell him, but he was One of Their Chiefs, and one That is Always doing Mischief, and the Indian that Brought it to this Place was a Chief who was Down at the Grand Council held in Pennsylvania Last Summer. We Desire you to Send this Domti to Your General and George Croghan, and Let them Find Out the man that was Making the Mischief. For our Parts we will be Still and take no More Notice of Their Mis- chief Neither will we be Concern'd in it, if we had Ever so Much
1761 1765
MASSACRE OF THE BRITISH AT POST MIAMI
59
Mind to Kill the English, there is always some Discovery Made before we can Accomplish our Design. This is all we Have to Say only you must give Our Warriors some Paints, Some Powder & Ball and some Knives, as they are all Going to War against our Enemies the Cherokees."^
The commandant, secure in the feeling that trouble was "very timely Stopt," little knew that the plans for the greatest conspiracy of murder in the history of America were being carefully completed in Pontiac's camp but a short distance down the Maumee.
A romantic traditional story relates that in May a beautiful Ojibway maiden,* in love with the Detroit commandant, Major Gladwyn, revealed to him the widespread plot of Pontiac to seize the entire west, and that the capture of Detroit post was planned for the following day. Thus warned, Gladwyn was enabled to hold the fort through a siege of several months, during which time Fort Sandusky, Fort St. Joseph, Fort Michilimackinac, Fort Ouiatanon and Post Miami passed into the hands of the savages.
At the little fort on the St. Joseph river on the site of Fort Wayne, the garrison learned with fear of the further activities of the Indians. Nevertheless, Ensign Holmes, the commandant, was destined to be the first to lose his life. "And here," observes Park- man, "I cannot but remark on the forlorn situation of these officers, isolated in the wilderness, hundreds of miles, in some instances, from any congenial associates, separated from every human being except the rude soldiers under their command and the white or red savages who ranged the surrounding woods.
SCALPING KNIVES, RELICS OF SAVAGERY. The blades of two scalping knives here shown In full size, are In the collec- tion of the late Col. R. S. Robertson, now in the possession of his son, R. S, Robertson, Jr., of Paducah. Ky., by whom they were loaned. They were foundl on the site of Fort Wayne.
60 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
' ' On the 27th day of May, a young Indian girl,'^ who lived with the commandant, came to tell him that a sqiiaw lay dangerously ill in a wigwam near the fort, and urged him to come to her relief. Having confidence in the girl, Holmes forgot his caution and fol- lowed her out of the fort. Pitched on the edge of a meadow [in the present Lakeside], hidden from view by an intervening spur of woodland, stood a great number of Indian wigwams. When Holmes came in sight of them his treacherous conductress pointed out that in which the sick woman lay. He walked on withovit suspicion, but, as he drew near, two guns flashed from behind the hut and stretched him lifeless on the grass. The shots were heard at the fort and the sergeant rashly went out to learn the cause. He was immediately taken prisoner, amid exulting yells and whoopings. The soldiers in the fort climbed upon the palisades to look out, when Godefroy, a Canadian, and two other white men, made their appearance and summoned them to surrender, promising that if they did so their lives would be spared.""
Such is the story as Parkman tells it, and we are given further "details" by Captain Robert Morris, who came to the village in the next year and who received the account from "the sole survivor" of the garrison. According to the tale of this man, whom Morris found chopping wood by the river bank, as the major's boat came floating by, the savages "killed all but five or six whom they re- served as victims to be sacrificed when they would lose a man in their wars with the English. They had all been killed except this one man," continues Morris, "whom an old squaw had adopted as her son."'
Possibly this "sole survivor" thought he was telling the truth, but it develops that he was not the only one whose life was spared. Others who lived to relate the story, and who told it under oath, were James Barnes, William Bolton, John McCoy and James Beems. who, as they found their way to Detroit during the succeeding weeks, gave their testimony before Gladwj^n's court of inquiry." The substance of their combined narratives, together with that of John Welch and Robert Lawrence, traders, showed that the French- men in the plot took the lead in the affair, and that the conduct of the savages stands out in commendable contrast with that of their white associates.
On the afternoon preceding the murder, Jacques Godefroy, Miney Chene and three companions named Beaubien, Chavin and Labadie, accompanied by a number of Indians, waited on the bank of the Maumee several miles below the fort, to make the first demonstration of their outlawry. Floating down the stream came two pirogues laden with peltries and propelled by John Welch
1761 1765
MASSACRE OF THE BRITISH AT POST MIAMI
61
and Robert Lawrence, who were taking their property to Detroit. Hiding themselves in the brush, the Frenchmen instructed the Indians to induce the traders to come ashore. Here, Welch and Lawrence were seized, and their goods divided among the French- men. Beaubien, Chavin and Labadie took their ill-gotten goods to Detroit, while Godefroy and Chene retained Welch and Lawrence
as prisoners, and the party pro- ceeded to Kekionga where they arrived after nightfall.
Holmes already had received warning from a friendly Frenchman that trouble was brewing. He immediately closed the gates of the fort and set his men at work making cartridges.
The testimony of Robert Lawrence, one of the captive traders, develops the story from this point. Lawrence and Welch were first taken to a spot remote from the village and tied securely to stakes driven in the ground. The place of their captivity was probably in the eastern part of the present Lakeside. Two guards remained with them, while the others went into the village.
"After they were some time gone," says Lawrence, "Mr. Welch asked where they were gone. They told him, to murder Holmes — in his room, if they could. In the night, two Indians returned to where we were tied and [we] were led in that condition to the cabins. In the morning, May 27, they had contrived to get Mr. Holmes out of the fort, waylaid, and killed him, and brought his scalp to the cabins."
This plain statement of the plan of a cold-blooded murder — of the all-night attempt to force the commandant to risk his life, and of its final consummation only when the false appeal came to the finer qualities of kindness and mercy — reveals the depths of the depravity of the conspirators.
Eight men were left in the garrison when the shots which killed Holmes startled them, and a sergeant rushed out to ascertain the occasion of the shooting. He was immediately seized, but before the
PONT I AC. Under the direction of the great Ot- tawa leader the little garrison at Post Miami, site of Fort Wayne, fell Into the hands of the savages In 1763, and the murder of the Commandant, Holmes, was successfully accomplished. The portrait Is after an old print, as pub- lished In President Woodrow Wilson's "A History of the American People," re- produced by permission of the publish- ers. Harper & Brothers.
62 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
Indians or their friends could gain entrance to the fort, the men closed the gate and secured it. Godefroy and the savages, with the captive Welch, then appeared before the fort and demanded that the men come forth and earn the preservation of their lives, or else suffer death in the burning of the stockade and the buildings. Godefroy, who could not speak English, gave the word of command through Welch. Finally, the gate was opened and the men ap- peared. They immediately were taken prisoners. Private Barnes, as he stood before Godefroy, was commanded through the medium of Welch, to remove from his shoes two silver buckles which, he said, would be taken by the Indians if he (Godefroy) failed to appropriate them to his own use.^ Godefroy then announced that a party would be formed at once to proceed to the little post of Ouiatanon, on the Wabash, near the present Lafayette, Indiana, and capture the garrison under Lieutenant Edward Jenkins. The murderers took with them two prisoners from Post Miami as evi- dence that the fort on the St. Joseph had fallen into their hands.
The party reached Ouiatanon on the evening of May 30. ' ' They were to have fell on us and killed us last night," wrote Jenkins in his report to Gladwyn on the 1st of June, "but Mr. Maisongville^" and Lorain gave them wampum not to kill us, & when they told the Interpreter that we were all to be killed, & he, knowing the condition of the fort, beg'd of them to make us prisoners.""
Lorain, evidently, carried the message to Gladwyn, for Jenkins adds that "he can tell you all."
Jacques Godefroy then made his way to Sandusky where he fell into the hands of Colonel John Bradstreet who had been sent to the west to pacify Pontiac's savages. The guilty wretch ex- pected to be put to death, but it happened that just at this time another emissary of the British, Captain Robert Morris, was setting out from Detroit to visit the Indians at the scene of the murder of Holmes, and Godefroy was given a chance to "make good" by serving as his guide and protector. Believing that Morris had saved his life, Godefroy became, in reality, the preserver of the life of Morris.
THE THRILLING EXPERIENCE OF CAPTAIN MORRIS.
Morris was a captain in the Seventeenth regiment of British infantry, and had come to Detroit with Bradstreet. Fortunately, he was of a literary bent, and the tale of his experiences before and after he reached the site of Fort Wayne has been preserved in a small volume of the captain's efforts, published in England after his return home.
At this time, Pontiae, sullen in the failure of his great eon-
\]ll MASSACRE OF THE BRITISH AT POST MIAMI 63
spiracy,^^ took up his abode five miles from the Maiimee, the trail leading out oi' the site of the present Defiance, in Ohio. To this camp, with messages of peace, Captain Morris, under the direction of Colonel Bradstreet, made his way with a company of Indians and Godefroy as guide. Disappointed and embittered, Pontiae received Morris with coldness, but saved him from imminent death by halt- ing the fierce demonstration of his followers with the proclamation that the life of an ambassador should ever be held sacred. With Pontiae 's consent, Morris and his escort finally were allowed to proceed up the Maumee to the site of Fort Wayne where the earlier perils were forgotten in the face of real danger.'^
Arriving at the lower point of the present Lakeside, the party of Captain Morris stepped from their canoes and proceeded up the east bank of the St. Joseph toward the fort. Morris remained in boat absorbed in the reading of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleo- patra," when he was rudely aroused by the arrival of a motley crowd of savages who, on failing to find "the Englishman" in the advance party, had sought him out. He M'as dragged forth and conducted with many indignities into the fort enclosure, where he was cautioned not to enter any of tlie French cabins therein.'* Here he was left for a short time, while the savages met in council to determine his future. He was then brought forth to torture. From the beginning, Godefroy — the man who had led in the be- trayal of Holmes at this very spot — befriended ]Morris, as did also another Frenchman, St. Vincent, who had accompanied Morris from Detroit.
Says the captain in his book :
"Two Indian warriors, with tomahawks in their hands seized me, one by each arm. * * * Tlicy dragged me into the water [St. Joseph river]. I concluded their intention was to drown me and scalp me, but the river was fordable. They led me on till we came near the village [in Spy Run] and there they stopt and stripped me. They could not get off my shirt, which was held by the wrist- bands, after they had pulled it over my head, and in rage and despair I tore it ofl' myself. They then bound my arms with my sash. * * * The whole village was in an uproar. Godefroy * * * encouraged Pontiae 's nephew and the Little Chief's son to take my part. He spoke to Le Cygne's [a chief] son, who whis- pered his father and the father came and unbound my arms. Ves- culair, upon my speaking, got up and tied me by the neck to a post. I had not the smallest hope of life, when Pecanne,'^ king of the Miamis nation, and just out of his minority, having mounted a horse and crossed the river [St. Joseph], rode up to me. When I heard him call out to those about me, and felt his hand behind my neck, I thought he was going to strangle me out of pity [to avoid the tor- tures to which the captain previously referred, but are here omitted] but he untied me, saying, 'I give this man his life. You want Eng-
64 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
lish meat — go to Detroit or the Lake, and you'll find enough. What business have you with this man's flesh who has come to speak with us?" "
Captain Morris, on being released, sought refuge in the fort, where he was befriended by a Frenchman named I'Esperance who lodged him in his garret. To this refuge came two young women, said to have been sisters of Chief Pecanne, who showed him kind- nesses. Those who had bound him, however, awaited his reap- pearance, and a band of Kickapoos, arriving after the excitement had abated, threatened to put the captain to death if the Miamis failed to do so.
Bradstreet's instructions to Morris contemplated his proceeding onward to the Wabash towns, but the plucky Englishman, after his experience here, decided to await an opportunity of escape. It came in due time, and he, with Godefroy disappeared into the wilderness and reached Detroit after the passage of many days.
At this time. Colonel Henry Bouquet, of the British, advancing from Pennsylvania at the head of six hundred troops, marched to the strongholds of the Senecas, Delawares and Shawnees, in Ohio, demanding that they not only cease their depredations but that before the passage of twelve days they deliver into his hands all the persons in their possession — "Englishmen, Frenchmen, women" and children, whether adopted into their tribes, married or living among you under any denomination or pretense whatever." Colonel Bouquet returned to Fort Pitt, but one detachment of his army pushed to the westward and followed the left bank of the St. Mary's river to the site of Fort Wayne. Everywhere, the mes- sage of Bouquet was spread, and the savages appeared to fear the consequences of their failure to comply with the colonel's terms. Soon the Indians commenced to arrive at Bouquet's camp with their captives, until a total of thirty-two men and fifty-eight women and children from Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio, who had been taken in the savage raids, were surrendered into the hands of Bouquet. Many of these were relatives of the members of the rescue camp, and the reunion was the occasion of the most touching emotional scenes.
The savages of the lower Wabash came not under the influence of the expedition of Bouquet, and so, in order to convince them of the attitude of the British, Sir William Johnson, in 1765, chose Colonel George Croghan to visit these tribes, by whom he was well known. Colonel Croghan left Fort Pitt May 15th. After losing two of his men, who were shot by Indians in ambush, the colonel, wounded, was captured and taken to Vincennes. Fortunately he met here a number of leading Indians whom he formerly had be-
"61 MASSACRE OF THE BRITISH AT POST MIAMI 65
17oD
friended, and he was allowed to proceed up the Wabash river to Ouiatanon and then to Post Miami (Fort AVayne). While at Ouiatanon, the chiefs of the Miamis came to him and "renewed their Antient Friendship with His Majesty & all His Subjects in America & Confirmed it with a Pipe," writes Colonel Croghan in his journal. Continuing, he says:
"Within a mile of the Twightwee [Miami] village [Kekionga], I was met by the chiefs of that nation who received us very kindly. The most part of these Indians knew me and conducted me to their village where they immediately hoisted an English flag that I had formerly given them at Fort Pitt. The next day they held a council, after which they gave me up the English prisoners that they had. • * • The Twightwee village is situated on both sides of a river called St. Joseph. This river where it falls into the Miami [Mau- mee] river about a quarter of a mile from this place is one hundred yards wide, on the east side of which stands a .stockade fort some- what ruinous. The Indian village consists of about forty or fifty cabins, besides nine or ten French houses, a runaway colony from Detroit during the late Indian war [the Pontiac uprising]. They were concerned in it, and being afraid of punishment, they came to this spot where ever since they have spirited up the Indians against the English. All the French residing here are a lazy, indolent people, fond of breeding mischief and spiriting up the Indians against the English, and should by no means be suffered to remain here. The country is pleasant, the soil rich and well watered."
As he proceeded to Detroit, which place he reached August 17, and where Colonel Bradstreet awaited the coming of the chiefs for a council, Croghan was accompanied by all the English prisoners released to him at the various points which he visited.
The spectacle of the return of the white captives to the British and of complete submission of the savages to the will of Colonel Croghan (who reported that the Miamis "expressed great pleasure that the unhappy differences which embroiled the several nations with their brethren [the English] were now so near a happy con- clusion"), filled Pontiac 's cup of bitterness to the brim. To Croghan, the chief declared that he would no longer give his life to the fight- ing of the whites.
Sad at heart, the great warrior departed for the west, where, near the site of St. Louis, in Missouri, he was treacherously stabbed to death by a Peoria brave — an act prompted, it is said, by an Englishman named Williamson — which precipitated a war of ex- termination of the Peorias.
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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
NOTES ON CHAPTER VII.
(1) Francis Parkman's "The Con- spiracy of Pontiac," vol. i, page 197.
(2) Parkman's "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," vol. 1, page 189.
(3) From the Gladwyn Papers, Bur- ton Historical Collection, Detroit.
(4) "The Ojlbway maiden, Cath- erine, is unquestionably a myth. Re- cent discoveries show beyond a doubt that the information came from An- gelique Cuillier (also called Beaubien), and that her lover, James Sterling, who later became her husband, was the actual informant." — Landmarks of Wayne County and Detroit," page 90, Robert B. Ross and George B. Cat- lin.
(B) "Mrs. [Laura] Suttenfleld, de- ceased," wrote the late Colonel R. S. Robertson, "stated that she became acquainted with this woman [the squaw who betrayed Holmes], in 1815, when she had a son. a man of some years, who, the squaw said, was Saginish [English], and from the age of the man, the Inference was drawn that he was the son of Holmes. After leaving here, the woman took up her residence in the Raccoon village. She lived to a great age, and as known to many of the early settlers of Fort Wayne."
(6) Parkman's "The Conspiracy of Pontiac." vol. 1.
(7) Morris adds that he met this man in New York at a later time, where he was eraoloved as a boat- man.
(8) This account is compiled from the Gladwyn Papers in the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit.
(9) Barnes relates that at a later time, in Detroit, when Godefroy was a prisoner, Godefroy paid him for the buckles which he had stolen.
(10) This man was probably the Francois Malsonville whose name ap- pears in the list of French residents of the village on the site of Fort Wavne in 1769. He was here as late as 1778. when Hamilton's array passed over the site from Detroit on the way to its capture at Vlncennes. He had taken several American prisoners but was himself captured by George Rogers Clark's men who, according to Hamilton's report, would have killed him but for the intercession of his brother, Alexis Malsonville. Francois Malsonville was taken to ■Virginia as a fellow-prisoner of Ham- ilton; he committed suicide while In confinement. Alexis Malsonville, ac- cording to Hamilton, was "the person best able to give him information of the country and the character of the
Inhabitants" between Detroit and Vin- cennes.
(11) Parkman's "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," vol. i, page 287.
(12) Detroit, after a severe siege, had been relieved by Colonel John Bradstreet, and Fort Pitt weathered the storm under the protection of the troops of Colonel Henry Bouquet.
(13) En route up the river, the travelers met an Indian riding a beau- tiful white horse which, they were told, had been the property of Gen- eral Braddock, and which had been taken from the field of battle at the time of the ambuscade.
(14) The post had been without a garrison for a period of about eigh- teen months — ever since the Holmes massacre. It was at this time, and until it crumbled Into ruins, tenanted by Indian and French "of the worst sort," as they were described by Sir William Johnson In a report dated this same year. (New York Colonial Documents, vol. vil, page 716.)
(15) Pecanne was an uncle of Chief Jean Baptiste RichardvlUe (see Chap- ter X).
(16) The thrilling narrative of Cap- tain Morris, as quoted from his "Mis- cellanies In Prose and Verse, is given In "Early Western Travels," vol. i, page 301; in "Western Annals." page ISO, and in Parkman's "The Con- spiracy of Pontiac," vol. 11; Fort Wayne Public Library.
(17) "No female captive is ever saved by the Indians from base mo- tives or need fear the violation of her honor. The whole history of the wars may be challenged for a solitary instance of the violation of female chastity." — Schoolcraft. "Travels in the Central Portion of the Mississippi Valley," page 394.
(18) It will be recalled that the savages at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) in their speech to Ensign Holmes, asked him to send their message and the war belt to "your general and George Croghan, and let them And out the man [Pontiac] that Is making the mischief." Colonel Croghan's ac- count of this remarkable expedition is recorded in "Early Western Trav- els," by R. G. Thwaites, vol. i. page 151; "Annals of the W^est." page 185, and "The Wilderness Trail," vol. 11, by Charles A. Hanna. All are to be found at the Fort Wayne Public Library. The name of Colonel George Croghan is ofttimes confused with that of Major George Croghan, a nephew of George Rogers Clark, who figures in local history of 1812.
CHAPTER Vm— 1766-1779. Miami Town (Fort Wayne) and the Revolution.
The savages renew their allegiance with the English — Sir William Johnson fears the Indians may aid the colonists — Would reclaim the site of Fort Wayne — Hamilton in authority at Detroit — Sends out scalping parties to raid the American settlements — McKee, Elliott and the Girtys — George Rogers Clark's brilliant capture of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes — Celeron flees from Ouiatanon — Hamilton's army moves up the Maumee to the site of Fort Wayne — Conference with savage tribes — Valuable goods stored at the Miami village — Proceeds to Vincennes— The army passes over the ancient portage — How the beavers helped — The defeat of Hamilton — DePeyster, the tory, assumes command of the scalping parties — Rum demoralizes the savages.
WITH the passing of Pontiac, the savages gradually assumed a show of friendship for the British which became a vital attachment as soon as the Indians realized their depend- ence for subsistence upon their former antagonists — or rather upon those against whom they had fought with the hope of driving them from the Indian lands.
A new element, too, was gradually creeping into the controversy — the revolt of the American colonists against the British oppres- sion. The Indians, who classed all of the enemies of the French as British — as, indeed, they were, broadly speaking — failed to under- stand the grounds for possible rupture between the colonists and the home government. The problem of holding them as firm allies in ease of a break became a matter of deep concern to the British, who saw a possible chance of their turning to the colonists and assisting them in their fight for independence in case the war should come. That the British feared the outcome is expressed by Sir William Johnson, in charge of Indian affairs in America, as shown by his letter written ten years before the Declaration of Independence.
"I have given them an answer with the utmost caution," he said, "well knowing their disposition, and that they might incline to interest themselves in the acair or fall upon the inhabitants in re- venge for old frauds which they cannot easily forget."
Nor did the alarm of Sir "William subside with the approach of the period which preceded the outbreak of hostilities, for we find him, as late as 1771, observing that "if a very small part of these people have been capable of reducing us to such straits as we were in a few years since [during the Pontiac uprising] what
67
68
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
may we not expect from such a formidable alliance as we are now threatened with?" — a feared coalition of several of tlile western tribes.
The reclaiming of the site of Fort "Wayne at that time also was a matter of concern to Sir William, who sought the co-operation of the home government to strengthen and re-occupy the post at the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's.
"St. Joseph [a post on the St. Joseph river which flows into Lake Michigan] and the Miamis [site of Fort Wayne] have neither of them been re-established," he wrote. "The former is of less consequence for trade than the latter, which is a place of some importance. At the Miamis there may be always a sufficiency of provisions from its vicinity by the river of that name' in the proper season, to protect which the fort there can, at small expense, be rendered tenable against any coupe de mains."
The outbreak of the Revolution found Sir Guy Carleton estab- lished at Detroit as the civil governor of the British possessions in America, and Captain (afterward Colonel) Henry Hamilton, of the Fifteenth Regiment of British troops, holding the dual office of lieutenant-governor and superintendent of Indian affairs. Under the Quebec act, which was so odious in the eyes of the colonists as to merit their condemnation in the Declaration of Independence, the entire region northwest of the Ohio river was made subject to the absolute power of the governor and lieutenant-governor and a council of twenty-three per- sons.
Hamilton, whose personal- ity overshadowed every other factor in the governmental af- fairs of Canada, entered promptly upon a policy of ex- termination of American set- tlers' in the west, "whose arro- gance, disloyalty and im- prudence," he said, "have justly drawn upon them this deplorable sort of war."*
Parties of savages, under the leadership of British soldiers and adventurers, were soon scouring every quarter of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Ken- tucky, where defenseless American pioneers might be captured and brought to Detroit, or wliose scalps formed a kind of gory tribute
SWORD FOUND IN LAKESIDE.
The Illustration is a re-drawing of a picture in Vol. I. of the "History of the Maumee River Basin." from the copyright of Dr. Charles B. Slocum, by his permission. The sword was found in Lakeside (Fort Wayne) and came Into the possession of L. W. Hills; it is now a part of the Slocum collection. The specimen is twenty-two Inches in length. "Probably," says Dr. Slocum, "this weapon was made by a French armorer for a savage warrior who pre- sented a bone of one of his human vic- tims for a handle."
1766 1779
MIAMI TOWN AND THE REVOLUTION
69
to please the enemies of the proposed republic .= Hamilton's official reports of these bloody raids form a sickening page of the story of the time."
McKEE, ELLIOTT AND THE GIRTYS, TRAITORS.
To add to the distressing conditions, Captain Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott and Simon Girty' — men whose names are written in the history of the frontier as synonyms of outlawry — deserted the American stronghold, Fort Pitt, and made their way to Detroit where they offered their services to Hamilton, a man whose policies they were well qualified to promote.
This action of the traitors brought to the fore one of the most daring and picturesque characters of the time — Major George Rogers Clark, of Virginia. The plans of Clark were twofold:
THE REVOLUTION IN THE WEST, BEFORE THE COMING OF HARMAR ST. CLAIR AND WAYNE
The map shows the route of General George Rogers Clark from Pittsburgh to the capture of Vincennes and Kaskaskia (1778): the route of Colonel Hamil- ton from Detroit to his defeat at Vincennes (1778); and the route of La Balmo from Kaskaskia and Vincennes to the scene of his massacre near the site oB Fort Wayne after he had destroyed the Miami village, Keklonga (1780).
Were he to command the posts of Kaskaskia and Cahokia on the Mississippi, and Vincennes on the Wabash, he would not only gain possession of the most important of the centers of British power in the west— aside from Detroit — but their capture would, he hoped, destroy the plan of Hamilton to lead an expedition against Fort Pitt, which had been weakened by the desertion of McKee, Elliott and Girty as well as others whom they had influenced. How well Clark succeeded needs no detailed reference here. With four hun-
70
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
dred men, assigned to him by Governor Patrick Henry' of Virginia, Clark floated down the Ohio to Fort Massac and marched overland to the bloodless capture of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, an accomplish- ment which was followed quickly by the taking of Vincennes.
M. de Celeron (son of Captain Bienville de Celeron), the British agent at Post Ouiatanon, thinking to prevent the northward move- ment of Clark's army, incited the savages to an attack on the Ameri- cans, but a detachment under Captain Leonard Hebn put Celeron and his followers to flight.'
At this moment, Governor Hamilton was under indictment at Detroit for murder, deter- mined by a grand jury called on demand of the outraged peo- ple of the little settlement. A storehouse in the town had been robbed and burned. A negress and a white man had been charged with the crime and adjudged guilty by a jus- tice of the peace, Philippe De- jean, who sentenced them to death. As no one would con- sent to officiate as hangman, Colonel Hamilton offered lib- erty to the woman if she would act as executioner to the man. "Hamilton," says a late author- ity," "was so frightened at the knowledge that a warrant for his arrest was issued, that he gathered all the troops he could at Detroit, stripped the country of all the provisions he could carry and started for Vincennes, [by way of the site of Fort Wayne]."
It is evident that Hamilton sought, by the overthrow of George Rogers Clark, to remove the stain from his name.
HAMILTON'S ARMY AT SITE OF FORT WATNE3.
On October 7, 1778, Hamilton's army, with fifteen large bateaux and numerous pirogues, laden with army supplies and
HYACINTH LASSELLE This portrait of the first white per- son born on the site of the city of Fort Wayne, is from a lithograph in Brice'a "History of Fort Wayne," published in 1868. The father of Hyacinth Lasselle (Jacques Lasselle) Indian agent for the British, came from Montreal to Keki- onga (site of Lakeside) in 1776. Hya- cinth was born February 25. 1777. The family fled to Montreal when La Balme invaded the Miami Village in 1780; a sister of Hyacinth (Marie Anne) fell from their canoe and was drowned. Hyacinth returned to Kekionga in 1795, Wayne's fort having been erected In the meantime. He removed to Vin- cennes, and upon the outbreak of the Indians preceding the battle of Tip- pecanoe, served in Harrison's army and attained the title of major general of militia. A famous but friendly trial concerning the holding of slaves by Lasselle occupied attention during his residence at Logansport, Ind., where he conducted a tavern. Lasselle died in Logansport, January 23, 1843.
JJ«« MIAMI TOWN AND THE REVOLUTION 71
gifts for the Indians, departed from Detroit for the lower "Wabash. The army consisted of 177 whites — 36 British regulars with two lieutenants; 79 militia, with a major and two captains; 45 volun- teers and 17 members of the department of Indian affairs, and a large body of Indians, whose numbers increased as recruits were induced to join the campaign while en route along the Maumee and the Wabash.
"On the 24th," says Hamilton in his official report, "we arrived at the Miamis town [Fort Wayne] after the usual fatigue attend- ing such a navigation, the water [of the Maumee] being remarkably low. Here we met several tribes of the Indians previously sum- moned to meet there and held several conferences, made them presents, and dispatched messengers to the Shawnees, as well as the nations on our route, inviting them to join us or at least watch the motions of the rebels [Americans] on the frontiers, for which purpose I sent them ammunition.""
Goods valued at $50,000 were deposited at the site of Fort Wayne ; these included a six-pounder cannon and a large part of the army supplies brought from Detroit intended for the comfort of the troops during the winter.
With ox-carts in the lead, the British army, after Hamilton had held further councils with the leaders of the Indians, departed for the Wabash. The waters of Little river, en route, were shallow, and the progress of the army was rendered difficult in the extreme. Had it not been for the work of beavers in constructing dams across Little river the advance of the troops would have been still more arduous.
"Having passed the portage of nine miles," wrote Colonel Hamilton, "we arrived at one of the sources of the Oubache [Wa- bash] called the Riviere Petite [Little river]. The waters were so uncommonly low that we should not have been able to have passed but that at the distance of four miles from the landing place the beavers had made a dam which kept up the water. These we cut through to give a passage to our boats, and having taken in our lading at the landing, passed all the boats. The beaver are never molested at this place by the traders or Indians, and soon repair their dam, which is a most serviceable work upon this dif- ficult communication. With great labor, we next passed a swamp called les volets [the water plants], beyond which the little Riviere a Boete [Aboite] joins the one we made our way through. The shallowness of the water obliged us to make a dam across both rivers to back the waters into the swamp, and when we judged the water to be sufficiently raised, cut our dyke and passed with all our craft. The same obstacle occurred at the riviere a I'Auglais, and the same work was to be raised."
The advance troops of Hamilton's army reached Vineennes
72 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
December 16 and demanded the surrender of the post. Clark was at Kaskaskia. The post at Vincennes was in command of Captain Helm, who, with four companions, surrendered the fort, when assured that its "entire garrison" should be granted all the honors of war. The American colors gave place to the banner of Great Britain.
On February 7, 1779, after bringing his little army of 170 men through the flood waters between Kaskaskia and Vincennes, Clark appeared before the fort occupied by Hamilton's garrison. His vigorous attack resulted in the surrender the following day. At last the "scalp buyer" was brought low. With twenty-seven other oflScers and regulars, including his friend Dejean, Hamilton was taken to Virginia, condemned for "gross and most cruel atrocities," and, after being confined in the dungeon of the jail at Williamsburg for a period, he was allowed to depart for England.^"
A few days after the surrender of Hamilton, Clark took pos- session of all of the goods of Hamilton's army which had been stored at the site of Fort Wayne. Captain Helm and Major Legare met the convoy en route to Vincennes and captured forty officers and men.
The defeat of Hamilton's great plan brought to Detroit as his successor Colonel Arent Schuyler DePeyster, a New York tory. Captain Richard Beringer, who was appointed to succeed to the temporary vacancy, proved to be unsuited to the position, but DePeyster appears to have met the situation with satisfaction. One of his first acts was a complaint that the savages had consumed in a very short time 17,520 gallons of whiskey which had utterly unfitted them for their scalping raids.
It will be seen that in spite of Clark's brilliant success, the great stretch of the Maumee and Wabash valleys was still British territory — more strongly so than ever, for with the destruction of Hamilton's army, the British redoubled their efforts to clear the region of American "rebels." Indeed, this condition prevailed until the building of Fort Wayne sixteen years later. The interim provides the material for some of the most thrilling chapters of our story.
176« 1779
MIAMI TOWN AND THE REVOLUTION
73
NOTES ON CHAPTER VIII.
(1) The word Maumee Is a corrup- tion of Miami (Me-ah-me).
(2) New York Colonial Documents, vol. vli, page 974.
(3) The penalty of loyalty to the American cause is shown by the Brit- ish treatment of John Edgar, a promi- nent Detroit merchant, who was taken from his home, and brought to the southwest, over the site of Fort Wayne, and on to Kaskaskia to his banishment. His goods were con- fiscated. Later, the United States congress awarded him two thousand acres of land as a compensation for his loyalty.
(4) "Some Delawares are this day arrived who are desirous of showing their intention of joining their brethren [in warring against the Americans] and have presented me with two pieces of dried meat [scalps], one of which I have given the Chippeways, another to the Mlamis, that they may show in their villages the disposition of the Dela- wares." wrote Hamilton to Haldimand June 18, 1778.
(5) George Rogers Clark called Hamilton "the scalp buyer." Whether or not this title was merited may be Judged from the contents of an In- tercepted message directed to Hamil- ton by one of his oflicers operating along the Ohio river: "I hereby send to your Excellency under care of James Hoyd, eight packages of scalps, cured, dried, hooped and painted with all the triumphal marks, and of which consignment this is an invoice and explanation: Package No. 1. 43 scalps of Congress soldiers, inside painted red with a small black dot to show they were killed by bullets; those painted brown and marked with a hoe denote that the soldiers were killed while at their farms; those marked with a black ring denote that the persons were surprised by night; those marked with a black hatchet denote that the persons were killed with a tomahawk. Package No. 2, 98 farmers' scalps; a white circle denotes that they were surprised In the day- time; those with a red foot denote that the men stood their ground and fought in defense of their wives and families. Package No. 3, 97 farmers' scalps; the green hoops denote that they were killed in the fields. Pack- age No. 4, 102 farmers' scalps; eigh- teen are marked with a yellow flame to show that they died by torture; the one with the black band attached belonged to a clergyman. No. 5. 88 scalps of women; those with the braided hair were mothers. No. 6,
193 boys' scalps. No. 7. 211 girls scalps. No. 8, 122 scalps of all sorts; among them are twenty-nine Infant scalps, and those marked with the small white hooks denote that the child was unborn at the time the mother was killed. The chief of the Senecas sends this message: 'Father, we send you here these many scalps that you may see that we are not idle friends. We want you to send these scalps to the Great King that he may regard them and be re- freshed.' " (This letter was carried to France by Benjamin Franklin and presented as a part of his appeal to France to help America in her pro- test against the British attacks on non-combatants.)
(6) See Roosevelt's "Winning of the West," vol. 11. page 20.
(7) There were four Girty brothers: Thomas lived at Pittsburg and re- mained' loyal to the United States. Simon served as second lieutenant in the Continental army and later de- serted from Port Pitt; after his vil- lainous conduct toward his country- men, he died in Canada in 1S18, having been blind for several years. James married a Shawnee and became a trader with the Indians; he made the village at the head of the Maumee a center of his activities. George married a Delaware woman; he was located at the site of Fort Wayne during a considerable period, and died, while intoxicated. In the Shaw- nee village of Chlllicothe on the Mau- mee two miles below Fort Wayne. During their period of service with the British, the Girtys received two dollars a day. Their savage conduct during this time has been excused by many on the ground of their early training while they were captives of the Indians. All were natives of Pennsylvania.
(8) For a fac simile reproduction of Patrick Henry's instructions to George Rogers Clark, and of the notes which passed between Clark and Hamilton, see "Conquest of the Northwest." vol. 1, by William H. English; Fort Wayne Public Library.
(9) Hamilton, in his report, accused Celeron of treachery.
(10) C. M. Burton. Detroit, in a pamphlet, "Early Detroit, a Sketch of Some of the Interesting Affairs of the Olden Time."
(11) From the George Rogers Clark papers, page 116.
(12) See "Narrative of Henry Ham- ilton," American Magazine of His- tory, vol. 1; Fort Wayne Public Li- brary.
CHAPTER IX— 1780-1789.
The Massacre of LaBalme — ^Washington Foresees Fort
Wayne.
French traders at Miami Town (Fort Wayne) advance the cause of England In their war against the American colonists — The Lasselles, Beaublen and LaFontaine— Hyacinth Lasselle, the first white child born on Fort Wayne soil— The village thrown into consternation upon the approach of LaBalme— His identity and mission— Inhabitants flee to places of safety — LaBalme confiscates the property of anti-American traders — The camp on the Aboite— Little Turtle leads in the night attack— Slaughter of LaBalme's men— George Rogers Clark would take Detroit— Washing- ton prevented from sending troops — British lead savages in attacks on the settlements — Washington would establish a fort on the site of Fort Wayne — His letters — As president, he opens his program of conquest of the west — Colonel Hardin's raid inaugurates the period of warfare on the frontier.
THE NEXT SCENE of the tragic story is laid in Miami Town— the name by which the village on the site of Fort "Wayne was called at this period. The French residents of the place were nearly all traders, though some had been located here for many years and were engaged in various pursuits.' All of them were warm friends of their former foes, the British — and for a mercenary reason. The utter discouragement of the Americans in their attempt to occupy the Maumee-Wabash valleys meant the preservation of the business of fur trading to the French. It was from the savages that they procured the furs which they sold at Detroit for the Montreal and European markets. Anything, therefore, which disturbed the activ- ity of the Indians and turned them from trapping to the war-path tended to destroy their business. Hence, their devotion to the British cause.
None but those holding a license issued by the British author- ities was permitted ito engage in the trading business in this region. Frenchmen were chosen in many cases as the representatives of the British government. Stationed here at the time in the capacity of British Indian agent was Jacques Lasselle,* who had been ap- pointed in 1776. To Jacques Lasselle and wife was born, in 1777, a son. Hyacinth Lasselle, to whom has been awarded the honor of being the first white child born on the site of Fort Wayne.
The year that brought Lasselle to the head of the Maumee (1776) gave also to the region Peter LaFontaine and Charles Beau-
74
1780 1789
LA BALME MASSACRE-WASHINGTON'S VISION 75
bien, from Detroit. Both built log cabins in the village in Spy Bun. Of the two, the name of LaFontaine is best known locally, because it is preserved in that of his grandson, Francis LaFontaine, the last of the line of Miami chiefs. In their marriage with Miami women and the identification of their interests with those of the Indians, LaFontaine and Beaubien declared their loyalty to the red men, which was amply proven five years later when they incited the savages to the massacre of LaBalme and his unfortunate followers.
To the picture of the clus- ter of these French homes, add the villages of the Miamis and the Shawnees, and we have a fair scene of the semi-civilized conditions at the confluence of the St. Mary's and the St. Jo- seph rivers during the Revolu- tion.
The condition of society in the village is reflected in a let- ter written by George Ironside,' a prominent trader, to David Gray at Vincennes. "We have a sort of dance here once a week during the winter," said he, "which has made us pass our time very agreeably." He adds: "Groosbeck is married to Miss Beaufait, and Rede is going to be married as soon as Rivard returns from the Ouias [Wea settlement on the Wa- bash] to Mad'le."
The spirit of the times is suggested in further corre- spondence between Ironside and Gray. "The fate of Cha- peau makes me uneasy of your getting clear of that cursed
country [along the lower Wabash]," wrote Ironside. "For God's sake, if there is any risque, be wary how you undertake the voyage to the Miamis [site of Fort Wayne]."
Ironside in a later letter to Gray tells of the Indians gathered about the "store" at the site of Fort Wayne, waiting for the return
A RELIC OF THE INDIAN WARS.
This sabre, thirty-four Inches In length and ■well preserved, was found several years ago on the field of the de- feat of Harmar on the site of Fort W^ayne, by the late Carl Wolf, of New- Haven, Indiana. The eagle head, at the end of the bone handle stamps it as an American weapon. It Is now in the private museum of L. W. Hills, Fort Wayne.
76 THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
of George Sharp, agent of the "Society of the Miami," who had received a large shipment of intoxicants. "He'll have a forte de affaire to keep the store from being plundered if he won't sell it," wrote Ironside. "As soon as he arrives, they [the Indians] think he will set up an Indian tavern in which he will be the waiter."
To this place came Little Turtle, LeGris, Pecanne, and other savages who were one day to figure strongly in the story of the middle west.
Little Turtle,* called "the greatest Indian of all times," was as yet unknown to fame. But his time was about to eome.^ A tragic event brought him from his place of obscurity and wrote, even though faintly, his name on the page of history. This affair is known as the LaBalme massacre.
On the 3d of November, 1780, numbers of frightened savages created alarm in the quiet Miami Town by rushing in with the tale that an army of the "rebels" (Americans) was approaching rapidly from the southwest. There was no time to call in the scattered braves and traders for a defense of their homes — nothing to do but hasten to places of safety. Hurriedly abandoning the village, the men, women and children fled to the northward or across the St. Joseph, while others launched their canoes and pirogues upon the open river and paddled to places of safety. Among the families which chose the latter method was that of Jacques Lasselle ; in some manner, one of the children, a girl, fell from the boat and was drowned.
Soon the invaders poured into the villages and plundered the dwellings of the traders and a large storehouse belonging to Beau- bien,° remaining long enough to make thorough work of the de- struction of the property of those whom the.y considered the most offensive enemies of the American cause.' Then they retired to their camp for the night. They chose a spot a few miles to the west of the scene of their raid, an open space, on the bank of a small stream, known as Aboite* (or Aboit) river or creek.
The leader of this adventurous body of men was Augustus Mottin de LaBalme. He had served in France as a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry, and as a colonel in the colonial army during the latter part of the American revolution. LaBalme had come to America with the Marquis de LaFayette and entered at once into active service for the republic.
Without announcement, he appeared in October, 1780, at Kas- kaskia on the Mississippi, now under the American flag, where he was received with gladness^ by the French and the Indians wh