USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 1 > Part 10
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When La Salle reached the St. Joseph, in 1679, he found the country in the possession of the Miami Indians, and he gave the name of that tribe to the river. Mr. Dunn says that, "The main body of the Miamis proper, whom the English ealled Twigh-twees. were located in 1680 on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, a little above the site of South Bend."> This was the Miami village at Mount Pleasant on Portage Prairie. The Miamis were a tribe of the great Algonquin nation. This nation formerly occupied the territory now comprized in the New England states, eastern New York and Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, parts of North Carolina, Kentucky and Ten- nessee, and nearly all of Ohio, Indiana, Illi- nois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. There were no less than eleven or twelve tribes of the Algonquin nation: Ottawas, Chippewas, Sacs and Foxes, Miamis, Potta- watomies, Shawnees. Powhatans, Delawares. Mohegans, Naragansetts and Pequods; all speaking different dialects of the same speech. The Algonquins were the most extensive and powerful of the Indian nations. Their bitter enemies were the Iroquois, who occupied western Canada and New York and the country on the south shore of Lake Erie. The nation of the Iroquois was divided into five tribes: Seneeas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Onei-
a. Bartlett and Lyon's "La Salle in the St. Joseph Valley," pp. 52, 64.
b. Hist. Indiana, p. 22.
das and Mohawks. Several years after La Salle's visit, in 1722. they admitted into their confederacy the Tuscarosas, who had some time previously emigrated to New York from the Carolinas. The Iroquois are therefore known in history at first as the Five Nations, and afterwards as the Six Nations. They were perhaps the most highly accomplished and the bravest of the northern Indian na- tions. They are known to our state only by their warlike incursions from the east, and their attacks upon different tribes of their hereditary enemies, the Algonquins. At La . Salle's coming there was almost constant war between the Iroquois and a confederacy of tribes, who called themselves Illinois, that is, real men, or manly fighters. The Illinois, properly speaking, did not constitute a tribe, but a confederacy: Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Tamaronas, Peorias and Mitehigamias. The last tribe, which is said to have come from west of the Mississippi, gave its name to Lake Michigan, formerly called, from the con- federacy, Lake Illinois. The Illinois con- federacy was formed to resist the incursions of the Iroquois, but was scareely a match for the latter. This enmity of the two great con- federacies was at first a chief obstaele to the success of La Salle's explorations. The Iro- quois were allies of the English, while their ancient enemies, the Algonquins, were almost always on good terms with the French. The country to the south of the lakes was there- fore unsafe ground for the French, who were consequently compelled to make their ap- proaches by the lakes from the north." But
even the Indiana and Illinois territory was invaded by the terrible Iroquois ; and the less warlike and less united Algonquins seemed unable to resist them. It was for this reason that La Salle determined to form a powerful and well united confederacy which should take the place of the inefficient Illinois con- federacy, and so proteet both the French posts and missions and the western Indians a. Parkman's Discovery of Great West, p. 17, n.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
themselves from their eastern foes. In this he succeeded. as we have seen. The Miamis .of our valley, and indeed of all northern In- diana, were at first timid about joining against the dreaded Iroquois, but they were finally persuaded by the arguments and the eloquence of La Salle. The result was that the Miamis and all other Indians left north- ern -Indiana and went to reside in the Illinois country, around Starved Rock, joining the great confederacy of Algonquins formed at that point by La Salle. In speaking of two ancient maps, drawn about 1684, Mr. Dunna says : "On neither map is there any mark of an Indian village or French post within the limits of Indiana. although all other known villages and posts are marked. The reason was that there were no Indians resid- ing in Indiana. They had all removed to the Illinois. So far as has yet been discovered, none of them returned before the opening of the eighteenth century."
Soon after La Salle's death his confederacy began to dissolve. The French, however. were then better able to protect themselves, and the Iroquois generally found enough to oc- cupy their attention in the east. Of the tribes gathered by La Salle at Starved Rock, some returned to their former abode, while others sought new habitations. The Pottawatomies who had come from the Green Bay country. in Wisconsin.b took possession of the southern shores of Lake Michigan and the adjacent territories now known as southwestern Michi- gan, northwestern Indiana and northeastern Illinois. The Indians known to the early English speaking inhabitants of St. Joseph county were therefore chiefly Pottawatomies. With them were mingled some Miamis. Chip- pewas and others. The great body of the Miamis, however, went farther south and east in Indiana and into Ohio, their chief settle- ments in Indiana being on the Wabash and
a. Hist. Indiana, p. 34.
b. Dunn's Hist. Indiana, p. 27. And see speech of Hon. Daniel McDonald, in Division VI of this chapter.
near the head waters of the Maumee, where the city of Fort Wayne now stands. But the Miamis always considered themselves the rightful owners of all the territory included within the state of Indiana. as well as a large part of the adjacent sections of Ohio, Illinois and Michigan.
More than a hundred years after the death of La Salle, the renowned Mish-i-kin-ak-wa. or Little Turtle, the greatest of the Miamis, at the treaty of Greenville. in 1795, said to General Anthony Wayne: "I hope you will pay attention to what I will now say to you. I wish to inform you where your younger brothers, the Miamis, live. You have pointed out to us the boundary line be- tween the Indians and the United States; but I now take the liberty to inform you that that line cuts off from the Indians a large portion of country which has been enjoyed by my forefathers from time immemorial, with- out molestation or dispute. The print of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen in this portion. It is well known by all my brothers present, that my fore- father kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence he extended his lines to the headwaters of the Scioto: from thence, to its mouth; from thence, down the Ohio, to the mouth of the Wabash: and from thence, to Chicago, on Lake Michigan."
Dillon informs us that, "In the early part of the eighteenth century, and perhaps for a long period before that time, the Miamis dwelt in small villages, at various suitable places within the boundaries of their large territory. Some of these villages were found on the banks of the Scioto-a few were situ- ated in the vicinity of the headwaters of the great Miami-some stood on the banks of the river Maumee-others on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan-and many were found on the borders of the Wabash. and on some of the principal tributaries of that river. The villages which stood on the banks of the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, those which lay abont the headwaters of the Manmee, and
39
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPHI COUNTY.
those which stood on the borders of the Wa- bash, were often visited by Christian mission- aries and by fur traders, before the middle of the eighteenth century."a
It is plain, therefore, that our Pottawato- mies occupied the valleys of the St. Joseph and Kankakee by grace of the Miamis. "Branches of the Pottawatomie, Shawnee, Delaware and Kiekapoo tribes," says Dillon, "were, at different periods of time, permitted to enter, and reside at various places, within the boundaries of the large territory which was claimed by the Miamis."" Indeed it was not at all uncommon for bands of different Algonquin tribes to dwell in peace within one another's territory. Such a band of the Miamis themselves lived in Wisconsin with the Kickapoos and Mascoutins.c
IV. FORT ST. JOSEPH'S.
Sec. 1 .- THE FRENCH POWER .- While the famous post known as Fort St. Joseph was not located within the limits of St. Joseph county, and not even within the limits of the State of Indiana, yet for nearly a hundred years the history of that post was the history of the valley to which it gave its name, and no history of our county could be complete without giving some attention to the old fort.
On the west bank of the St. Joseph, about sixty miles from the mouth of the river. measured by the windings of the stream, the Miamis retained a noted fishing village which had been located at this point long before the white man's day. "The town," says Mr. Bartlett in his charming volume, Tales of Kankakee Land, "was there when La Salle invaded the region, and doubtless the spot had been held by many rares through many ages past : for this part of the stream was one of the famous fishing grounds."d Across the river, and not far from the east bank. at- tracted no doubt by the same cause, the Potta-
a. Dillon, Hist. Indiana, pp. 5, 6.
b. Ib., p. 14.
c. Dunn's Indiana, pp. 6, 22.
d. Tales of Kankakee Land, p. 158.
watomies, probably soon after coming into the valley, established a village of their own. These towns were located about a mile above the present city of Niles and ten or twelve miles below South Bend." Here, on the east bank of the river, was established, at a very early date, the mission of St. Joseph. It would seem that this mission was founded by Father Allonez, the same zealous missionary who, in 1665, had established at the Falls of St. Mary (Sault Ste. Marie) the first perma- nent mission in the northwest. In 1673, as already noted, when Marquette was on his way to the discovery of the upper Mississippi, he came to an Indian village on the Fox river where Father Allonez had preached to the Miamis, Mascoutins and Kickapoos of the Green Bay country.b It is also known that in 1670, 1671 and 1672, Allonez and Dablon traversed the whole region along the western and southern shores of Lake Michigan; and there can be little doubt that on such a jour- ney the missionaries would visit the famons fishing village of the Miamis.
In Nevin's "Black Robes, or Sketches of Missions and Ministers in the Wilderness and on the Border," it is said that the first at- tempt at establishing a mission at this point was made in 1675: and that the design was permanently accomplished in 1680. when Allonez and Dablon. having coasted Lake Michigan from Green Bay, entered the St. Joseph and proceeded up the river until they reached this point. Here. adds the writer, on the east bank of the river. rises a semi- circular bluff. at the base of which. and through the soil of the marshy level, runs a brook into the St. Joseph. On this bluff Allonez built a chapel, and nearby a log cabin for his own accommodation. This mis- sion cared not only for the Miamis across the
a. Mr. Dunn's Hist. Indiana, in a note at page 26, says that an itinerary in the Haldimand Col- lection fixes this point at twelve miles below the South Bend Portage. This might be nearly cor- rect, measuring by the windings of the river.
b. Perkins' Annals of the West, p. 30.
c. Dillon, Hist. Indiana, pp. 2, 12.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
river, but, in the course of the next few years, watched over all the Pottawatomies and other tribes on both sides of the stream, including those around the Notre Dame lakes and along the banks of the Kankakee. . Bartlett and Lyon say that "It does, indeed, seem not unlikely that Allonez, who was with the Miami Indians in 1672, should have followed them from their Wisconsin home when they migrated to this valley. He was certainly here at a later date, devoting the closing years of his life to the work of the mission on the St. Joseph, where he died in 1690."" The same authors, in another connection, say that · about seven thousand Miamis left the St. Joseph valley after the treaty on Portage Prairie with La Salle, and joined that ex- plorer's confederacy on the Illinois, at Starved Rock; and that when La Salle lost his life in Texas, and Tonti retired from the Illinois country, "Father Allouez brought back a remnant of these people to their old home on the St. Joseph."b
On the same high bluff on which the mis- sion of St. Joseph's was established, but how soon after or by whom is not certainly known, a fort was erected, which took its name from the mission, being called Fort St. Joseph's. This fort was thereafter the chief stronghold of the French in this vicinity; and the post was for many years one of the most important in French America. It was the center of the fur trade and other commerce of the St. Joseph and Kankakee valleys. IIere came French and Indians from all the surrounding country ; and to this point expeditions were sent up the river from Lake Michigan, and from here they passed on to the south, across the portage and down the Kankakee, to the Illinois country. The center of missionary effort among the Pottawatomies, Miamis and other tribes ; the center of commerce; and the strong arm of French authority; the mission and post at St. Joseph's long continued to be
a. La Salle in the Valley of the St. Joseph, p. 7.
b. Ib., p. 89, note.
one of the best known of the French stations in the northwest. Fort Miamis, established by La Salle at the mouth of the river, fell into disuse after he left the valley, and Fort St. Joseph took its place.ª
Some have conjectured that it was La Salle himself who, attracted by the unfailing sup- ply of food at this fishing place, and by the opportunities for traffic in the Indian village across the river, built his second fort at this point.b It is more probable, however, that Fort St. Joseph's was built later, and after the establishment of the mission by Allouez; although the idea of a fort at this point might well have occurred to the far-seeing mind of La Salle, as he passed up and down the river." The better opinion is that the military post was established here in 1697.ª But what- ever may have been the origin of the old fort, it is one of the historical certainties of this region, that Fort Miamis, built by La Salle at the mouth of the river, ceased to be oc- cupied after he left the valley; while, on the high bluff between South Bend and Niles, Fort St. Joseph's took its place, and became, and for nearly a hundred years remained, the stronghold of the French and their secure asylum in the surrounding wilderness.e
With the change from Fort Miamis to Fort St. Joseph's, the river also changed its name. The mission gave its name to the fort, and the fort to the river. It was no longer called the river of the Miamis, but the river St. Joseph. To distinguish it from the small St. Joseph, which, with the St. Mary's, near Fort Wayne, forms the Manmec, our river was for a time called the Big St. Joseph's, the St. Joseph's of the Lakes, or the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan. In time, however, it became known, simply as the St. Joseph. From the river the name passed to the valley, and from
a. Baker, St. Joseph-Kankakee Portage, p. 42, note.
b. Bartlett, Tales of Kankakee Land, p. 159.
c. Dunn, Hist. Indiana, p. 26, note.
d. Baker, St. Joseph-Kankakee Portage, p. 43, note.
e. Bartlett, Tales of Kankakee Land, p. 160.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPHI COUNTY.
the river and the valley came the name of our county, as also the familiar title of our county seat, the Queen City of the St. Joseph valley,-all from the pious name given to the ancient mission of St. Joseph's by its founder, the simple-minded and zealous Al- louez. So, too, not only the name but the civilization of the beautiful valley dates from the Mission of St. Joseph's.
Two objects chiefly seemed to engage the attention of the French at Fort St. Joseph's : The centralizing of the labors of the sur- rounding missions; and the protection of the fur trade with the tribes of the northwest. While the fort was strong, yet there was com- paratively little resort to force or intimida- tion. The French understood the Indians and lived on friendly terms with them. Not until the year 1730 is there any record of important military operations. In that year an expedition went up the river and over the portage by the Kankakee to punish the Out- agamies at Starved Rock for ontrages com- mitted against the Pottawatomies and other peaceful tribes. This successful operation appears to have been conducted in conjunc- tion with another from post Vincennes against the barberous Outagamies.
Sec. 2 .- BRITISH SUPREMACY .- But the comparative peace which had happily pre- vailed from the days of Marquette and Al- louez and La Salle was brought to a rude termination by the Seven Years' War,-the French and English war, as it was called in America. This conflict had long been brew- ing: it was a struggle of giant powers for the possession of a continent. On May 18, 1756, war was declared; and on September 17, 1759, after the deaths of Wolfe and Mont- calm, Quebee passed from France to Britain. A little less than one year afterwards, on September 8, 1760, Montreal was surrendered. With Montreal went all Canada. which, in the articles of capitulation, was said "to ex- tend to the erest of lands dividing branches of Lakes Erie and Michigan from those of the Miami [the Big Miami, flowing into the
Ohio], the Wabash and the Illinois rivers."@ For nearly two years and a half, or until the treaty of Paris, that provision in the ar- ticles of capitulation made the boundary be- tween the British and French possessions in the northwest a very irregular line. The lands drained by the Maumee and the St. Joseph became British territory: those drained by the Wabash and the Kankakee re- mained French. The northeast part of St. Joseph county, inelnding the greater part of South Bend and all of Mishawaka, ceased forever to be French. The boundary ran ir- regularly along the summit dividing the waters of the St. Joseph from those of the Kankakee. This took the present townships of Clay and Harris, and the greater part of German, Portage and Penn, within the British line; while the rest of the county re- mained French territory. Under the terms of the capitulation of Montreal, Detroit was taken over in the fall. 1760; but Fort St. Joseph's and the other frontier posts were not garrisoned with British troops until the spring of 1761, and some of them even later.
By the treaty of Paris, which was signed February 10, 1763, the British boundaries were extended to the Mississippi. The line drawn through that river from its source to its month was made the boundary between the two nations, except that the city and island of New Orleans were to remain with France. Thereafter the province of Louisiana was con- fined to the territory west of the Mississippi. Spain was a party to the treaty of Paris, and in that treaty ceded the Floridas to Great Britain. By way of compensation for this loss, France, by a private agreement, made over to Spain, New Orleans and what re- mained to her of Louisiana. Thus Spain. for a time, came into the history of the Mis- sissippi valley, and, incidentally, as we shall see, into the history of our own valley of the St. Joseph.
a. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., Vol. 2. pp. 522-24. Smith, Hist. Ind., Vol. 1, Chap. 7.
b. Dyer's Hist. Modern Europe, Book 6, Chap. 6.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
Sec. 3 .- PONTIAC'S WAR .- The discomfiture of France and the transfer of the northwest territory to Great Britain brought about a state of sullen displeasure in the minds of the Indians, who had lived so long on friendly terms with the French. Accordingly, in the early part of 1763, Pontiac, the distinguished chief of the Ottawas, formed a confederacy to expel the English from their newly ac- quired territory. The Ottawa chief was by birth a Catawba, but being captured in war by the Ottawas was adopted by that tribe. By his wisdom and bravery he became not only the chief of the Ottawas, but the leader of the whole Algonquin nation. The con- federacy formed by Pontiae, one of the strongest and best ever organized by the In- dian raee, was composed not only of all the Algonquin tribes, but embraced also the Wyandots and .the Senecas, the latter being one of the Iroquois confederacy, so long at enmity with the Algonquins. Pontiac's plan was to take all the English forts at the same time, by a similar stratagem. A body of picked men was to visit each post in a friendly manner during the month of May, 1763, and then, while the men and officers were off their guard, make a sudden attack and capture the garrison. The plan might have succeeded if it had not been for the treachery of an Indian girl at Detroit, who disclosed Pontiac's design to Major Gladwin, the commander of that post. Major Gladwin immediately sent a message to warn the com- mander at Fort Pitt, formerly, Fort Du Quesne, where the city of Pittsburg now stands. The well conceived stratagem there- fore failed at those two posts. All the other forts, however, were taken by the Indians. Sandusky was captured May 16: St. Joseph's, May 25; Miami (Fort Wayne), May 27; Ouiatanon (Lafayette), June 1; and Michil- limackinac, June 2. Pontiac's war lasted through 1763 and 1764, during which time his will was law from the lakes to the Ohio and the Mississippi, except at Fort Pitt and Detroit ; but the failure to capture those two
strong posts was fatal to his enterprise. His powerful confederacy became dissipated by degrees : and the mighty chief of the Ottawas retired to the Illinois country, near St. Louis. where in 1769. he was basely assassinated by a Kaskaskia Indian, prompted by a reward for his murder by Amherst. the British com- mander.
Fort St. Joseph's was again an English post.ª
Sec. 4 .- GEORGE ROGERS CLARK AND FORT ST. JOSEPH'S .- The British occupancy of the northwest was not again disturbed until after the opening of the American revolution. But on July 4, 1778. George Rogers Clark acting under a commission from Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, captured Kaskas- kia, and soon after took possession of Cahokia and other villages situated on the east side of the Mississippi, a little below where St. Louis now stands. A few days later, through the good offices of Father Gibault, then in charge of Kaskaskia and the adjacent mis- sions, the inhabitants of Vincennes joyfully raised the American flag and proclaimed themselves citizens of the new republic. The French people in the west had no love for the British; and when they learned of the assistance given to Washington by La Fayette and that France herself was aiding the American cause, they were glad to take the first opportunity to throw off the yoke of their ancient enemies.
The British, however. were not disposed to yield possession of this rich territory without a struggle. Towards the end of the same year a strong force was sent from Detroit, by way of the Maumee and the Wabash, and on December 17. 1778, Vincennes was re- taken from the little garrison of Virginians. Although it was mid-winter, Col. Clark pre- pared at once to re-capture the fort : and, on February 24, 1779. after a most heroic march from Kaskaskia, the post on the Wabash
a. Dunn's Hist. Indiana, 69. Poole's Hist. The West, Vol. 6, Chap. 9.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPHI COUNTY.
passed forever into possession of the Ameri- cans.
During the summer of 1779, Clark made preparations to take Detroit and the remain- ing British posts in the western country, in- cluding Fort St. Joseph's. He tells us, in the Memoir which he has left of his conquest of the northwest, and which Mr. William II. English has printed in full in his valuable history and life of George Rogers Clark, that the British sent an expedition from Michili- mackinac, to proceed by way of Fort St. Joseph's and the portage of the Kankakee, for the purpose of driving the American traders out of the Illinois country ; but that on arriv- ing at the fort they were deserted by their Indian allies, and becoming alarmed with- drew to the mouth of the river and sent baek to Michilimackinac for help. When the troops came down the lake to the assistance of the expedition and saw the camp at the mouth of the St. Joseph (probably on the site of La Salle's old Fort Miamis), they mistook their friends for Americans and hastily with- drew, believing that Fort St. Joseph's had fallen into the hands of the Americans. Clark, however, found himself unable to raise a force sufficient to proceed against the northern forts, and. for the time, Fort St. Joseph's and the other northern posts continued in posses- sion of the British.a
Sec. 5 .- TAKEN BY THE SPANIARDS .- Bnt the romantie story of Fort St. Joseph's had yet another episode. Early in 1779, war had again broken out between Spain and England. Louisiana still continued in possession of the Spaniards, and they had a strong military post at St. Louis. Mr. English in his life of George Rogers Clark says that: "General Clark's possession of the Illinois and Wabash country was not only good as against the British, but also as against the Spaniards, and there is scarcely a doubt that the latter would have seized the French towns, and ocenpied the territory, if it had not already
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