USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 1 > Part 11
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a. See Vol. 1, English's Conquest of the North- west, pp. 552-4.
been in actual American possession." And he adds: "The Spaniards did make a raid, to that end, in the winter of 1780-81, and cap- tured Fort St. Joseph's; but they made no at- tempt to hold the country."" This Spanish expedition left St. Louis January 2. 1781, under command of Don Engenio Pourre, the detachment consisting of sixty-five soldiers and sixty Indians.b They marched rapidly across the frozen lands of Illinois and north- western Indiana, and surrounded Fort St. Joseph before there was any intimation of their approach. The garrison was easily over- come, and the Spaniards took formal posses- sion of the post and its dependencies, in the name of the king of Spain. The valley of the St. Joseph, including the territory of our own county, thus for a time became a part of the dominion of Spain. Not desiring to occupy the fort, the Spaniards burned it to the ground and returned to St. Louis. Spain afterwards made a vain attempt to found, on this capture, a claim to a large territory east of the Mississippi. It is interesting to ob- serve that this victory of the little Spanish army from St. Lonis marks the extreme northern limit in the new world of the power of Spain, whose flag then floated from the valley of the St. Joseph to the Straits of Magellan. The old fort was never rebuilt: and soon after, on the establishment of American independence. the soil on which it stood, together with that of all the northwest. was, by reason of the vietories of George Rogers Clark, acknowledged as a part of the territory of the young republic. So passed Fort St. Joseph's, a little over a hundred years after the founding of the mission of Allonez upon the banks of our beautiful river.c
V. THE PARKOVASHI, INDIAN CAMPS AND TRAILS.
While the banks of the Kankakee are low and the soil dark and rich; the banks of the a. Ib. Vol. II, pp. 764-5.
b. See Chap. 3, subd. 2, of this work.
c. Dunn, Hist. Indiana, p. 160. Dillon, Hist. Indiana, p. 173. Bartlett, Tales of Kankakee Land, pp. 183-4.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPHI COUNTY.
St. Joseph are high and the soil dry and gravelly. Accordingly, the growth of timber along the St. Joseph was not "thick woods," but the trees stood well apart, as in a great natural park. The Indian custom of keeping the underbrush and leaves annually burned away added to the park-like appearance of the lands. The expressive phrase "oak open- ings" well describes the fine vistas through the ancient forests that decorated the banks on either side of the beautiful river. Added to the beauty and shade of the woodlands, the waters of the St. Joseph were always, as they are today, clear and cool, while refreshing springs bubbled up everywhere under the high banks or trickled down their face to the stream below. It is little wonder there- fore that this ideal solitude was dear not only to the redman, but also to the birds of the air and the four-footed creatures that roamed the wilderness. Here came the elk and the deer ; but, more than all. this was the favorite haunt of the buffalo, the great wild oxen and cows that came into the cool shadows from the hot sun of the prairies, to browse on the fresh grass and drink of the sweet waters. From the mouth of the river, on either side, and far up beyond the limits of St. Joseph county, extended this magnificent park-like buffalo range. So accustomed were the early French hunters and traders to see the buffalo cows come with their calves for rest and re- freshment to these pleasant haunts along the St. Joseph, that they gave to the place the picturesque appellation of Pare aux Vaches (literally, park of the cows), a term changed in the spelling by our early settlers to parko- vash. The term "parkovash" has been usu- ally, no doubt properly, confined in applica- tion to the plain along the eastern bank of the river above and below the cities of South Bend and Mishawaka.ª
Sec. 1 .- CAMPS AND FISHING RESORTS .- Fort St. Joseph's was in the heart of the
a. Baker, The St. Joseph-Kankakee Portage, p. 6. Bartlett and Lyon, La Salle in the Valley of the St. Joseph, p. 40.
Parkovash; and into and through these beauti- ful woodlands along the eastern and northern banks of the river came every trail from the surrounding wilderness. Here the bands set up their wigwams, and here the council fires arose. Hard by, on some open spot or high- land, stood a village of Miamis or of Potta- watomies. For in this valley as elsewhere, as said by Maurice Thompson, the villages, or rather camps, of the Indians were usually situated, as were those of the Mound Builders, on highlands close to a stream, pond or lake where plenty of water could easily be had.ª
Favorite fishing places were, of course, an additional attraction. Such was the location in the river at Fort St. Joseph's; where, on one side of the stream, was the ancient vil- lage of the Miamis, and, on the other, the village of the Pottawatomies. "Here," says Mr. Bartlett, "at a place where the waters were shallow, the aborigines had paved a strip of the river's bed from shore to shore with great slabs of limestone. Just who they were that labored at this task, or when they toiled, no one will ever know. These slabs of lime- stone are a characteristic of the surrounding glacial hills. The purpose of dragging the huge, flat stones into the river and disposing them so as to form a paved path through the waters was an important one, since thereby the people might more easily take the great fish with which the river at certain seasons was fairly alive. The canoes were accustomed to go up stream some miles, and then, descend- ing in an open line that reached from bank to bank, so agitated the waters as to drive before them the finny game. Companions, who in the meantime had taken their sta- tions at frequent intervals across the lime- stone floor, stood with uplifted spears await- ing the moment when the form of the rolling sturgeon or the catfish or the swift pickerel or the quick-darting pike should be outlined against the underlying pavement. Those who sometimes witnessed these operations have left the record that when the spearmen were at a. Stories of Indiana, p. 29.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
work, the boats went frequently to the shore and were often weighted down to the water's edge with the burden of fishes. It was noth- ing strange, therefore, that just above this renowned fishing-plaee a great Indian village should have survived from remote times down to a period within the memory of men now living."a
After the Miamis went east and south, to the vicinity of the Maumee and the Wabash, or a man had passed but once, and to follow the Pottawatomies were left in sole possession of the valleys of the St. Joseph and the Kankakee; but, while these Indians came every year in great numbers by way of the St. Joseph portage, with their furs, maple sugar, baskets and trinkets, to the markets at the trading posts down the river. yet no large villages of the tribe were to be found within the limits of St. Joseph county. Pokagon's village was on the west side of the St. Joseph, two miles north of the St. Joseph county line, near Bertrand, and there was a small band settled about a mile or two southwest of the site of South Bend, at a place called Raccoon village; but the main body of the Pottawato- mies was farther south, in Marshall county, around Twin Lakes and Lake Maxinkuekee, The most noted of these trails was that of the Portage, already referred to, extending from La Salle's landing, at a sharp western bend of the St. Joseph, thence aeross to the headwaters of the Kankakee, a little to the west and south of the blue sheet of water. sometimes known as La Salle's and sometimes as Stanfield lake, but perhaps even still more appropriately called Summit lake, because lo- cated almost on the line of the watershed between the St. Joseph and the Kankakee. This famous trail was used chiefly for the carrying of boats from one river to the other ; and therefore eame to be named the Portage, from the French word porter, to carry. The beautiful prairie over which the portage passed was naturally called Portage Prairie. and in Fulton county. Accordingly, while the roving Indian was constantly on the trails throughout all this region, hunting, fishing, or going to or from the trading stations, yet his more permanent abode was in the villages to the south, and when finally he came to be removed to the west, the gathering places for the beginning of his long journey to the lands beyond the Mississippi were, in general, with- out the confines of St. Joseph county. And while of course many redmen had their fixed abode within the limits of St. Joseph county, yet the romantic Parkovash, the prairies, the woodlands and the streams were for visiting, for sightseeing and for hunting and trading, rather than for permanent dwelling places.
See. 2 .- TRAILS AND TRACES .- And so it eame to be that into and through the fair Parkovash ran those numerous traveled ways, a. Tales of Kankakee Land, pp. 158-9.
out of the surrounding wilderness. When whitemen first came into the Indian country they found everywhere those well marked pathways, trodden by human and pony feet, but not by buffaloes or other animals. To these pathways was given the name of trails, and sometimes that of traces. The word trail, as often used by hunters and frontiersmen, denoted the slight trace left where an animal such a trail was no easy matter; but the term was also used to denote a well worn narrow pathway that might have been trodden hun- dreds or thousands of times. These trails have in many instances been adopted as the lines of permanent roads by the eivilized sue- cessors of the roving Indians and their ancient predecessors, the Mound Builders. This use of the trails for our modern highways re- sulted from convenience and long continued custom; for traders, travelers, scouting par- ties and frontiersmen passed along these trails for many years before the wagons of the pioneers widened them out with their wheels. and before the civil authorities finally fixed them as legal public highways.ª
Other trails seem to have led from the St. Joseph, over the prairie to the Miami village at Mount Pleasant, and to Chain lakes, near- a. Ball, Hist. Northwestern Indiana, pp. 76-78.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
by, and thence on to Crum's Point and other places along the Kankakee.
See. 3 .- CHARLEVOIX ON PORTAGE PRAIRIE. -It was while encamped on one of these trails, September 17, 1721, that the celebrated traveler and missionary, Father Charlevoix, wrote his very interesting letter to a friend in France descriptive of our Portage Prairie, as he then found it. The visit to this county at that early date of so distinguished a char- acter as Charlevoix is of itself of sufficient historical interest to justify the making of an extract from his letter written on that oc- casion. The letter also serves to throw light on many points already touched upon in this chapter. The extract is as follows :
"I believe I gave you to understand in my last letter that I had two routes to choose from in going to the Illinois. The first was to return to Lake Michigan. follow along its southern course and enter the little Chicago river. After ascending that river five or six leagues, one passes into the Illinois by two portages, the longer of which is five quarter leagues; but as that river is only a brook at the point, I was warned that at this season I should not find in it enough water for my boat, and therefore I took the other route [by the St. Joseph], which, indeed. has also its inconveniences, and is not nearly so agree- able, but is surer. Yesterday I left the fort of St. Joseph river [Fort St. Joseph's], and ascended that river about six leagues. I dis- embarked on the right, walked five quarter leagues, first following the edge of the water and then crossing the fields into a great prai- rie, all sprinkled with little tufts of woodland which have a very beautiful effect. It is called Ox-Head Prairie, because there was found there, as they say, the head of an ox of monstrous size. Why may there not have been giants among these animals also ?" I en-
a. This "ox-head" was perhaps that of an un- usually large buffalo. More likely, however, it was the head of a mastadon or of a mammoth, many of the remains of both being found at dif- ferent places in the county, particularly in the miry stretches of the Kankakee bottoms. See note to Bartlett and Lyon's La Salle in the Valley of the St. Joseph, p. 37.
camped in an exceedingly beautiful place called the Fort of the Foxes, because the Fox Indians [the Outagamies] had a village there not long ago, fortified in their way. This morning I went a league farther into the prairie, my feet almost constantly in the water, and then found a sort of pond, which communicates with several others of different sizes, the largest of 'which is only a hundred paees in circuit. These are the sources of a river called the Theakiki, which our Cana- dians here corrupted into Kiakiki [Kanka- kee]. Theak means wolf, I do not remember in what language; but this river bears that name because the Mahingans, who are also called the Wolves, formerly took refuge there. We put our boat, which two men had carried up to this point, into the second of these sources, and embarked; but we had scarcely enough water to keep afloat. Ten men in two days could make a straight and navigable canal which would save much trouble, besides ten or twelve leagues of travel, and it is necessary continually to turn so sharply that at each instant one is in danger of breaking his boat [a bark canoe]. as has just happened to us."" It is an interesting circumstance to note in this connection that the canal, or ditch, suggested by Father Charlevoix in 1721. nearly two hundred years ago, has re- cently been dug, and the Kankakee straight- ened and shortened, accordingly, as he said it could be; though it has taken the labor of more than ten men for two days to do it.
Sec. 4 .- OTHER TRAILS .- Next in impor- tanee to the Portage trail was the Great Sauk Trail. To the travel and commerce of the wilderness, between the east and the west, this trail was what our great trunk lines of railroad are now to the travel and commerce. between the same distant localities. The Sauk Trail received its name from the Sac tribe of Indians. The Sacs and Foxes used it in their journeyings from Canada and other eastern points to their homes in the far north-
a. Charlevoix's Travels in North America, Vol. 6, pp. 103-5.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
west. The trail started near the site of De- troit, followed the high ridges aeross Michi- gan, crossed the St. Joseph river at Bertrand, six miles north of South Bend, and then ran westerly, crossing the northwest part of St. Joseph county, over Warren and Olive town- ships, passing through Terre Coupee, and then. by IIudson lake, formerly called Lake du Chemin, through the county of La Porte, and on to the site of Chicago and beyond to the Illinois and northwestern country. This was the path taken by the Iroquois of New York, in their raids against the Miamis, Il- linois and other western tribes. A multitude of smaller trails ran into and out from this great thoroughfare. A well-known Potta- watomie town, called the village of Pokagon, after the wise chief of that name, stood on the west side of the St. Joseph, just south of the Sauk trail. For fifty years and more the Sauk trail has been called the Chicago Road, this name having been given to the old trail after the national government had smoothed and straightened its course from Detroit to Chicago.ª
The Dragoon trace was a well-worn trail leading from Fort Wayne to Chicago. Through this county it passed under the hills above Mishawaka and came into what is now South Bend over the line of Vistula avenue, passing to the west until it united with the Sauk trail. Near the extreme south bend of the St. Joseph river. by what has been known as the Turkey Creek road, now Miami street, another trail left the Dragoon trace and passed on southeasterly through the county. South Michigan street, a part of the old Michigan road, marks the line of yet another southern trail, reaching to the Pottawatomie habitations at Twin lakes. Lake Maxinkuekee and other points in Marshall county; while still another trail went out southwesterly over the line of Sumption Prairie road. Along the east side of the St. Joseph, from its mouth
a. George A. Baker, in The Indianian, Vol. IV., p. 344. Bartlett, Tales of Kankakee Land, p. 223. Ball, Hist. Northwestern Indiana, p. 77.
almost to its source, ran a well-marked trail, connecting at Bertrand with the Sauk trail, and receiving from place to place all the minor trails that entered the Parkovash. Indeed every stream had its trail on either side: for although the canoe glided along the water, vet the chief travel of the wilderness was along the trails, on foot or on the backs of the precious ponies.
Another trail, and the last that need be mentioned, was the Pottawatomie trail, which followed the Kankakee from the Illinois coun- try, crossed the St. Joseph near the site of South Bend, one branch joining with the trail along the river down to Fort St. Joseph's, and another continuing along what is now South Bend avenue and the Edwardsburg road, and connecting at Edwardsburg with the great Sauk trail. As South Bend avenue and the Edwardsburg road mark this trail east of the St. Joseph, the Crum's Point road marks it on the west.
Throughout its course the Indian trail was at first simply a pathway, which in time do- veloped into a well trodden highway. This pathway "never crossed over a hill which it might go around; it crept through the hol- lows, avoiding, however, with greatest care, those conditions in which a moccasin could not be kept dry and elean; it chung to the shadows of the big timber-belts, and, when an arm of the prairie intervened. sought to traverse such a place of possible danger by the route which was shortest and least ex- posed. At every step the ancient path tells the story of wilderness fears. Yet the pre- cinets of this venerable avenue of the old life had also their own peculiar delights. A warm and sheltered path in the winter-time. its fra- grant airs were cool and soft in the summer days. . And then to the Pottawatomie this, above all others, was the ancient high- way of his people. Along its course he saw the war-parties filing away to find the enemy in distant lands and among strange peoples. And he heard the forest walls of the old path re-echo the exultant ery of the returning
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
band, saw the unhappy captives schooling their hearts to a stoie's calm, or following with proud disdain in the footsteps of their conquerors, or nursing thoughts of grim vengeance by glaring scowls and vain mutter- ings. At such an hour the Pottawatomie, standing by the path of his fathers, rejoiced to know that the name of his people was terrible in the land of the enemy. The old men loved to wander along this path and re- hearse the stories of the past, and tell of the times when they with their people, in tumul- tuous throng, hurried home from the chase. "a
VI. THE REMOVAL OF THE POTTAWATOMIES.
The last fact of importanee in the history of the Indians of St. Joseph county is the This pathetic story has been so well told by removal of the Pottawatomies to the west. Marshall county in the general assembly of 1905 and 1907, and the story as told by him is crowded with such a wealth of historical facts, that we cannot do better than give in full his admirable and eloquent speech, de- livered in the House of Representatives, Feb- ruary 3, 1905. Mr. McDonald is one of the best informed men in Indiana on the early history of this section of the state; and, as shown by his address, his heart was in his subject. The address is as follows :
Address of Representative Daniel MeDon- ald of Plymouth, delivered in the House of Representatives, Indianapolis, Friday, Febru- ary 3, 1905, on the bill to erect a monument to the Pottawatomie Indians at Twin Lakes, Marshall county, published by direction of the House of Representatives.
The bill to ereet a monument to the mem- ory of the Pottawatomie Indians at Menom- inee village, in Marshall county, being under consideration, Representative Daniel MeDon- ald said :
Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
In order that a fair understanding may be had in regard to the subject matter embraced in this bill, I desire to submit the following:
The question of the extinguishment of the a. Bartlett, Tales of Kankakee Land, 83.
of Indian titles to the lands the Pottawatomie Indians in northern Indiana and southern Michigan, and their removal to a reservation to be provided for them west of the Missouri river, was one of the most important and delicate questions the govern- ment had to deal with in the early settlement of this part of the Northwest Territory. Gen- eral treaties were made from 1820 to 1830 between the government agents and the chiefs and headmen of the Pottawatomies by which large tracts of land were ceded to the gov- ernment, and numerous reservations made to various bands of Pottawatomie Indians in northern Indiana and southern Michigan. Later these reservations were eeded back by treaty by the Indians for a stipulated amount, and in all the treaties it was provided that the Indians should remove to the reservation west of the Missouri river within two years from the date thereof. The dates of these treaties were about all in the years 1835 and in 1836, the last date for removal expiring about the first of August, 1838.
The territory now included within the boundaries of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, which was the home of the Pottawatomie In- dians for many years prior to the time they were removed to the reservation west of the Missouri river, was in the early days of the history of America owned and occupied by the Miami Indians, originally known as the Twightwees. It was claimed by France from the time of the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi river by La Salle, in 1682, to 1763, when it was relinquished by treaty to the government of England and held by it until 1779 as a part of her colonial possessions in North America. The state of Virginia ex- tended its jurisdiction over it until 1783 when it became by treaty of peace and by cession from Virginia the property of the United States. In 1787 an ordinanee was passed by Congress creating the territory northwest of the river Ohio, which embraeed the territory of the states above mentioned.
The Pottawatomie tribe of Indians, the owners and inhabitants of the territory now comprising northern Indiana, belonged to the great Algonquin family, and were related by ties of consanguinity to the Ojibways, Chip- pewas and Ottawas. The first trace we have of them locates their territory in the Lake Superior region on the islands near the en- trance of Green bay, holding the country from the latter point to the headwaters of the
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
great lakes. Subsequently they adopted into their tribe many of the Ottawas from Upper Canada.
About 1817 it was estimated that there were in the region north of the Wabash river and south of Lake Michigan something more than two thousand Pottawatomies. They were lo- cated in villages on the Tippecanoe; Kanka- kee; Iroquois; Yellow river; St. Joseph of Lake Michigan; the Elkhart: Maumee or Miamis of the Lake: the St. Jo- seph emptying into it; the St. Marys; Twin lakes; Maxinkuckee; and Lake Ke- wanna. At that time they had no uniform abiding place of residence. During the fall, winter and part of the spring they were seat- tered in the woods hunting and fishing. Their wigwams were made of poles stnek in the ground and tied together with strips of bark, slender hickory withes or raw hide strings. They were covered with bark or a kind of mat made of flagweeds. There was an occa- sional rude hut made of logs or poles, but nearly all the dwellings were wigwams hastily put up as here discribed. They raised some corn, but lived principally on wild game, fish, fruits, nuts, and roots and were clothed with blankets and untanned skins.
From the date of the treaty of peace at Greenville in 1795 to 1832, all the lands in possession of the Pottawatomie and Miami Indians were ceded to the United States. Nearly all the titles to the lands in this part of the country reserved for various bands by the treaty of 1832 were extinguished by United States Commissioner Abel C. Pepper, who seems to have been well fitted for the difficult task assigned him.
In 1831 the legislature of Indiana passed a joint resolution requesting an appropriation by Congress for the purpose of the extinguish- ment of the remaining titles of lands held by the Indians within the state. The appropria- tion was made and three citizens-Jonathan Jennings, first governor of Indiana; John W. Davis and Marks Crume-were appointed by the secretary of war to carry into effect the law authorizing the appropriation. The com- missioners assembled with the several Indian chiefs concerned at a place called Chippe- wayning on the Tippecanoe river where the Michigan road crosses that stream two or three miles north of Rochester and sixteen miles south of Plymouth, where they concluded a. treaty October 27, 1832, by which the chiefs and warriors of the Pottawatomies of Indiana
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