History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 26

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164

USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 26

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The Ojibbeways effected an entry within the defenses of Fort Mackinaw, the gate being left open while the Indians were amusing the officer and soldiers with a game of ball. In the play the ball was knocked over within the palisade. The players, hurrying through the gates, seemingly intent on regaining the ball, seized their knives and guns from beneath the blankets of their squaws. where they had been purposely concealed, and commenced an indis- criminate massacre. +

* The Chickasaws and Cherokees were at that time, though on their own responsi- bility, waging war aginst some of the tribes of the northwest.

+A detailed account of this most horrible massacre is given by the fur-trader Alex-

238

HISTORIE NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Ensign Hohnes, who was in command at Fort Miami, # learned that to the Miamis in the vicinity of his post was allotted the de- struction of his garrison. Holmes collected the Indians in an assembly, and charged them with forming a conspiracy against his post. They confessed ; said that they were influenced by hostile Indians, and promised to relinquish their designs. The village of Pontiac was within a short distance of the post, and some of his im- mediate followers doubtless attended the assembly. Holmes sup- posed he had partially allayed their irritation, as appears from a letter written ftom him to Major Gladwyn. +

On the 27th of May a young Indian squaw, who was the mistress of Holmes, requested him to visit a sick Indian woman who lived in a wigwam near at hand. "Having confidence in the girl, Holmes followed her out of the fort." Two Indians, who were concealed behind the hut, as he approached it. fired and "stretched him life- less on the ground." The sergeant rushed outside of the palisade to learn the cause of the firing. He was immediately seized by the Indians. The garrison. who by this time had become thoroughly alarmed, and had climbed upon the palisades, was ordered to surren- der by one Godefroy, a Canadian. They were informed, if they submitted their lives would be spared, otherwise they all would be massacred. Having lost their officers and being in great terror, they threw open the gate and gave themselves up as prisoners. Accord- ing to tradition, the garrison was afterward massacred.+

Fort Quiatanon was under the command of Lient. Jenkins, who had no suspicion of any Indian troubles, and on the 1st of June, when he was requested by some of the Indians to visit them in their cabins near by, he unhesitatingly complied with the request. Upon his entering the hut he was immediately seized by the Indian war- riors. Through various other stratagems of a similar nature several of the soldiers were also taken. Jenkins was then told to have the soldiers in the fort surrender. "For," said the Indians, "should your men kill one of our braves, we shall put you all to death."

ander Henry, an eye-witness and one of the few survivors, in his interesting Book of Travels and Adventures, p. 85.

* Now Fort Wayne.

FORT MIAMIS, March 30th, 1763.

+ 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 not to be True; Whereon 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 En- closed; 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 For- ward to the General.

# Brice's History of Fort Wayne.

239

PONTIAC'S FAILURE.

Jenkins thinking that resistance would be useless, ordered the re- maining soldiers to deliver the fort to the Indians. During the night the Indians resolved to break their plighted word, and mas- sacre all their prisoners. Two of the French residents, M. M. Mai- gonville and Lorain, gave the Indians valuable presents, including wampum, brandy, etc., and thus preserved the lives of the English captives. Jenkins, in his letter to Major Gladwyn, commandant at Detroit, states that the Weas were not favorably inclined toward Pontiac's designs ; but being coerced by the surrounding tribes, they undertook to carry out their part of the programme. Well did they succeed. Lieut. Jenkins, with the other prisoners, were, within a few days afterward, sent across the prairies of Illinois to Fort Char- tres.

Detroit held ont, though regularly besieged by Pontiac in person, for more than fifteen months, when, at last. the suffering garrison was relieved by the approach of troops under Gen. Bradstreet. In the meantime Pontiac confederates, wearied and disheartened by the protracted struggle, longed for peace. Several tribes abandoned the declining fortune of Pontiac; and finally the latter gave up the con- test, and retired to the neighborhood of Fort Miamis. Here he remained for several months, when he went westward, down the Wabash and across the prairies to Fort Chartres. The latter fort remained in possession of a French officer, not having been as yet surrendered to the English, the hostility of the Indians preventing its delivery ; and by agreements of the two government's, France and England, it was left in charge of the veteran St. Ange.

The English having acquired the territory herein considered. by conquest and treaty, from France. renewed their efforts to reclaim authority over it from its aboriginal inhabitants. To effect this object, they now resort to conciliation and diplomacy. They sent westward George Croghan .*

After closing a treaty with the Indians at Fort Pitt, Croghan started on his mission on the 15th of May 1765, going down the Ohio in two bateaux. His movements were known to the hostile

* Croghan was an old trader who had spent his life among the Indians, and was versed in their language, ways and habits of thought, and who well knew how to flat- ter and cajole them. Besides this, Croghan enjoyed the advantage of a personal ac- quaintance with many of the chiefs and principal men of the Wabash tribes, who had met him while trading at Pickawillany and other places where he had trading estab- lishments. Among the Miami, Wea and Piankashaw bands Croghan had many Indian friends whose attachments toward him were very warm. He was a veteran, up to all the arts of the Indian council house, and had in years gone by conducted many impor- tant treaties between the authorities of New York and Pennsylvania with the Iroquois, Delawares and Shawnees. In the war for the fur trade Croghan suffered severely; the French captured his traders, confiscated his goods, and bankrupted his fortune.

240

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

tribes. A war party of eighty Kickapoos and Mascoutins, " spirited up" to the act by the French traders at Quiatanon, as Croghan says in his Journal, left the latter place, and captured Croghan and his party at daybreak on the Sth of June, in the manner narrated in a previous chapter .* He was carried to Vincennes, his captors con- ducting him a devious course through marshes, tangled forests and small prairie, to the latter place. +

After Croghan had procured wearing apparel (his captors had stripped him well-nigh naked) and purchased some horses he crossed the Wabash, and soon entered the great prairie which he describes in extracts we have already taken from his journal. His route was up through Crawford, Edgar and Vermilion counties, fol- lowing the old traveled trail running along the divide between the Embarrass and the Wabash, and which was a part of the great high- way leading from Detroit to Kaskaskia; } crossed the Vermilion River near Danville, thence along the trail through Warren county, Indiana. Croghan, still a prisoner in charge of his captors, reached Ouiatonon on the afternoon of the 23d of June.$ Here the Weas,

* P. 161.

t Croghan, in his Journal, says: " I found Vincennes a village of eighty or ninety French families, settled on the east side of the river, being one of the finest situations that can be found. The French inhabitants hereabouts are an idle, lazy people, a parcel of renegadoes from Canada, and are much worse than the Indians. They took secret pleasure at our misfortune, and the moment we arrived they came to the Indians, exchanging trifles for their valuable plunder. Here is likewise an Indian village of Piankashaws, who were much displeased with the party that took me, telling them that 'our and your chiefs are gone to make peace, and you have begun war, for which our women and children will have reason to cry.' Port Vincent is a place of great consequence for trade, being a fine hunting country all along the Wabash."

# That part of the route from Kaskaskia east, from the earliest settlement of Illi- nois and Indiana, was called "the old Vincennes trace." "This trace," says Gov. Reynolds, in his Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 79, "was celebrated in Illinois. The Indians laid it out more than one hundred and fifty years ago. It commenced at Detroit, thence to Ouiatonon, on the Wabash, thence to Vincennes and thence to Kas- kaskia. It was the Appian way of Illinois in ancient times. It is yet (in 1852) visible in many places between Kaskaskia and Vincennes." It was also visible for years after the white settlements began, between the last place, the Vermilion and Ouiatonon, on the route described .- [AUTHOR.

§ Croghan says of Quiatonon that there were "abont fourteen French families liv- ing in the fort, which stands on the north side of the river; that the Kickapoos and Mascoutins, whose warriors had taken us, live nigh the fort, on the same side of the river, where they have two villages, and the Quicatonons or Wawcottonans {as Croghan variously spells the name of the Weas] have a village on the south side of the river." "On the south side of the Wabash runs a high bank, in which are several very fine coal mines, and behind this bank is a very large meadow, clear for several miles." The printer made a mistake in setting up Croghan's manuscript, or else Croghan himself committed an unintentional error in his diary in substituting the word south for north in describing the side of the river on which the appearances of coal banks are found. The only locality on the banks of the Wabash, above the Vermilion, where the carbonifer- ous shales resembling coal are exposed is on the west, or north bank, of the river, about four miles above Independence, at a place known as "Black Rock," which, says Prof. Collett, in his report on the geology of Warren county, Indiana, published in the Geolog- ical Survey of Indiana for 1873, pp. 224-5, " is a notable and romantic feature in the river scenery." "A precipitous or overhanging cliff exhibits an almost sheer descent of a.

241

SUCCESS OF CROGHAN'S MISSION.

from the opposite side of the river, took great interest in Mr. Croghan, and were deeply "concerned at what had happened. They charged the Kickapoos and Mascoutins to take the greatest care of him, and the Indians and white men captured with him, until their chiefs should arrive from Fort Chartres, whither they had gone, some time before, to meet him, and who were necessarily ignorant of his being captured on his way to the same place." From the 4th to the 8th of July Croghan held conferences with the Weas, Pianke- shaws, Kickapoos and Mascoutins, in which, he says, " I was lucky enough to reconcile those nations to His Majesty's interests, and ob- tained their consent to take possession of the posts in their country which the French formerly possessed, and they offered their services should any nation oppose our taking such possession, all of which they confirmed by four large pipes."" On the 11th a messenger arrived from Fort Chartres requesting the Indians to take Croghan and his party thither ; and as Fort Chartres was the place to which he had originally designed going. he desired the chiefs to get ready to set out with him for that place as soon as possible. On the 13th the chiefs from "the Miamis" came in and renewed their "ancient friendship with His Majesty." On the 18th Croghan, with his party and the chiefs of the Miami and other tribes we have mentioned, forming an imposing procession, started off across the country toward Fort Chartres. On the way (neither Croghan's official report or his private journal show the place) they met the great " Pontiac himself, together with the deputies of the Iroquois, Delawares and Shawnees, t who had gone on around to Fort Chartres with Capt.

hundred and forty feet to the Wabash, at its foot. The top is composed of yellow, red, brown or black conglomerate sandrock, highly ferruginous, and in part pebbly. At the base of the sandrock, where it joins upon the underlying carbonaceous and pyritous shales are ' pot' or 'rock-houses,' which so constantly accompany this formation in southern Indiana. Some of these, of no great height, have been tunneled back under the cliff to a distance of thirty or forty feet by force of the ancient river once flowing at this level." The position, in many respects, is like Starved Rock, on the Illinois, where La Salle built Fort St. Louis, and commands a fine view of the Wea plains, across the river eastward, and, before the recent growth of timber, of an arm of the Grand Prairie to the westward. The stockade fort and trading-post of Ouiatonon has often been confounded with the Wea villages, which were strung for several miles along the margin of the prairie, near the river, between Attica and La Fayette, on the south or east side of the river; and some writers have mistaken it for the village of Keth- tip-e-ca-nuk, situated on the north bank of the Wabash River, near the mouth of the Tippecanoe. The fort was abandoned as a military post after its capture from the British by the Indians. It was always a place of considerable trade to the English, as well as the French. Thomas Hutchins, in his Historical and Topographical Atlas, pub- lished in 1778, estimates "the annual amount of skins and furs obtained at Ouiatonon at forty thousand dollars."

* Croghan's official report to Sir Wm. Johnson: London Documents, vol. 7, p. 780. + These last-named Indian deputies, with Mr. Frazer, had gone down the Ohio with Croghan, and thence on to Fort Chartres. Not hearing anything from Croghan, or knowing what had become of him, Pontiac and these Indian deputies, on learning that Croghan was at Quiatanon, set out for that place to meet him.

242

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Frazer. The whole party, with deputies from the Illinois Indians, now returned to Quiatanon, and there held another conference, in which were settled all matters with the Illinois Indians. "Pontiac and the Illinois deputies agreed to everything which the other tribes had conceded in the previous conferences at Quiatanon, all of which was ratified with a solemn formality of pipes and belts. "*

Here. then. upon the banks of the Wabash at Oniatonon, did the Indian tribes, with the sanction of Pontiac, solemnly surrender pos- session of the northwest territory to the accredited agent of Great Britain.+ Croghan and his party, now swollen to a large body by the accession of the principal chiefs of the several nations, set out "for the Miamis, and traveled the whole way through a fine rich bottom, alongside the Ouabache, arriving at Eel River on the 27th. About six miles up this river they found a small village of the Twightwee, situated on a very delightful spot of ground on the bank of the river."# Croghan's private journal continues: " July 28th. 29th. 30th and 31st we traveled still alongside the Eel River, passing through fine clear woods and some good meadows, though not so large as those we passed some days before. The country is more overgrown with woods, the soil is sufficiently rich, and well watered with springs."

On the 1st of August they "arrived at the carrying place be- tween the River Miamis and the Ouabache, which is about nine miles long in dry seasons, but not above half that length in freshets.". "Within a mile of the Twightwee village." says Croghan, " I was met by the chiefs of that nation, who received us very kindly. 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 all the English prisoners they had, and ex- pressed the pleasure it gave them to see [that] the unhappy differ- ences which had embroiled the several nations in a war with their brethren, the English, were now so near a happy conclusion, and that peace was established in their country."$

* Croghan's official report, already quoted.

+ It is true that Pontiac, with deputies of all the westward tribes, followed Croghan to Detroit, where another conference took place; but this was only a more formal rati- fication of the surrender which the Indians declared they had already made of the country at Ouiatonon.

# The Miami Indian name of this village was Ke-na-pa-com-a-qua. Its French name was A l'Anguille, or Eel River town. The Miami name of Eel River was Kin- na-peei-kuoh Sepe, or Water Snake (the Indians call the eel a water-snake fish) River. The village was situated on the north bank of Eel River, about six miles from Logans- port. It was scattered along the river for some three miles.

. § The following is Mr. Croghan's description of the "Miamis," as it appeared in

243

PONTIAC'S TRAGIC DEATHI.

From the Miamis the party proceeded down the Maumee in canoes. "About ninety miles, continues the journal, from the Miamis or Twightwee we came to where a large river, that heads in a large 'lick,' falls into the Miami River; this they call . The Forks.' The Ottawas claim this country and hunt here .* This nation for- merly lived at Detroit, but are now settled here on account of the richness of the country, where game is always to be found in plenty."

From Defiance Croghan's party were obliged to drag their canoes several miles. "on account of the riff's which interrupt the naviga- tion," at the end of which they came to a village of Wyandottes, who received them kindly. From thence they proceeded in their canoes to the mouth of the Maumee. Passing several large bays and a number of rivers, they reached the Detroit River on the 16th of August, and Detroit on the following morning. +

As for Pontiac, his fate was tragical. Ile was fond of the French, and often visited the Spanish post at St. Louis, whither many of his old friends had gone from the Illinois side of the river. One day in 1767, as is supposed, he came to Mr. St. Ange (this veteran soldier of France still remained in the country), and said he was going over to Cahokia to visit the Kaskaskia Indians. . St. Ange endeavored.to dissuade him from it, reminding him of the little friendship existing between him and the British. Pontiac's answer was: "Captain, I am a man. I know how to fight. I have always fought openly. They will not murder me, and if any one attacks me as a brave man,

1765: "The Twightwee rillage is situated on both sides of a river called St. Joseph's. This river, where it falls into the Miami 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; they were concerned in it, and being afraid of punishment came to this post, where they have ever since spirited up the Indians against the English. All the French residing here are a lazy, indolent people, fond of breeding mischief, and they should not be suffered to remain. The conntry is pleasant, the soil rich and well watered."

* The place referred to is the mouth of the Auglaize, often designated as "The Forks" in many of the early accounts of the country. It may be noted that Croghan, like nearly all other early travelers, overestimates distances.

t Croghan describes Detroit as a large stockade "inclosing about eighty houses. It stands on the north side of the river on a high bank, and commands a very pleasant prospect for nine miles above and below the fort. The country is thick settled with French. Their plantations are generally laid out about three or four acres in breadth on the river, and eighty acres in depth; the soil is good, producing plenty of grain. All the people here are generally poor wretches, and consist of three or four hundred French families, a lazy, idle people, depending chiefly on the savages for their subsist- ence. Though the land, with little labor, produces plenty of grain, they scarcely raise as much as will supply their wants, in imitation of Indians, whose manners and customs they have entirely adopted, and cannot subsist without them. The men, women and children speak the Indian tongue perfectly well." At the conclusion of the lengthy conferences with the Indians, in which all matters were "settled to their satisfaction," Croghan set out from Detroit for Niagara, coasting along the north shore of Lake Erie in a birch canoe, arriving at the latter place on the 8th of October.

244

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

I am his match." Pontiac went over the river, was feasted, got drunk, and retired to the woods to sing medicine songs. In the meanwhile, an English merchant named Williamson bribed a Kas- kaskia Indian with a barrel of rum and promises of a greater reward if he would take Pontiac's life. Pontiac was struck with a pa-ka- ma-gon - tomahawk, and his skull fractured, causing death. This murder aroused the vengeance of all the Indian tribes friendly to Pontiac, and brought about the war resulting in the almost total ex- termination of the Illinois nation. He was a remarkably fine-looking man, neat in his person, and tasty in dress and in the arrangement of his ornaments. His complexion is said to have approached that of the whites .* St. Ange, hearing of Pontiac's death, kindly took charge of the body, and gave it a decent burial near the fort, the site of which is now covered by the city of St. Louis. "Neither mound nor tablet," says Francis Parkman. "marked the burial- place of Pontiac. For a mausoleum a city has arisen above the for- est hue. and the race whom he hated with such burning rancor tram- ple with unceasing footsteps over his forgotten grave."

* I. N. Nicollet's Report, etc., p. 81. Mr. Nicollet received his information con- cerning Pontiac from Col. Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, and Col. Pierre Menard, of Kaskaskia, who were personally acquainted with the facts.

... .

CHAPTER XXIII.

GEN. CLARK'S CONQUEST OF "THE ILLINOIS."

AFTER the Indians had submitted to English rule the west en- joyed a period of quiet. When the American colonists, long com- plaining against the oppressive acts of the mother country, broke out into open revolt, and the war of the revolution fairly began, the English, from the westward posts of Detroit, Vincennes and Kaskaskia, incited the Indians against the frontier settlements, and from these depots supplied their war parties with guns and ammunition. The depredations of the Indians in Kentucky were so severe that in the fall of 1777 George Rogers Clark conceived, and next year executed, an expe- dition against the French settle- ments of Kaskaskia and Vin- cennes, which not only relieved Kentucky from the incursions of the savages, but at the same time resulted in consequences which are without parallel in the annals of the Northwest .* GEN. CLARK.

* Gen. Clark was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 19th of November, 1752, and died and was buried at Locust Grove, near Louisville, Kentucky, in February, 1818. He came to Kentucky in the spring of 1775, and became early identified as a conspicuous leader in the border wars of that country. The border settlers of Kentucky could not successfully contend against the numerous and active war parties from the Wabash who were continually lurking in their neighborhoods, coming, as Indians do, stealthily, striking a blow where least expected, and escaping before assistance could relieve the localities which they devastated, killing women and children, destroying live stock and burning the pioneers' cabins. Clark conceived the idea of capturing Vincennes and Kaskaskia. Keeping his plans to himself, he proceeded to Williams- burg and laid them before Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, who promptly aided in their execution. From Gov. Henry Clark received two sets of instructions. .one, to enlist seven companies of men, ostensibly for the protection of the people of Kentucky, which at that time was a county of Virginia, the other, a secret order, to attack the British post of Kaskaskia! The result of his achievements was overshad- owed by the stirring events of the revolution eastward of the Alleghanies, where other heroes were winning a glory that dazzled while it drew public attention exclusively to

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 26

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903 Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company Number of Pages: 1164

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164