USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 1 > Part 25
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Jean Baptiste Point Au Sable was a French West Indian mulatto, who settled at first at Mobile, then successively at New Orleans, Kaskaskia and St. Louis, and finally on the banks of the Chicago river. Point Au Sable sold his house to the French trader, La Mai: and from La Mai it passed to John Kinzie, in the fall of 1803. Other names appearing on Burnett's books are Deneau de Quindre, the government agent and interpreter for the St. Joseph river; Jean Laline, the government interpreter at Fort Dearborn, who was killed at that place in the spring of 1812; Charles Chan- donai; John and Robert Kinzie; Antoine Leclare. already named, and Joseph Ber- trand, of the Parkovash; Antoine Lafortune, and others. John Kinzie, so well known in early Chicago history. began trading with Burnett, October 1, 1797. In 1800, Kinzie located in the Parkovash, at the site of the old town of Bertrand; and lived there until 1804, when he moved to Chicago. An entry in Burnett's books. dated September 9
15, 1800, gives some insight into the intrigues carried on in those early days by the Span- iards at St. Louis, as well as by British emissaries from Canada, at a time when the power of the United States was not yet well established in these distant regions. It is as follows: "Jean Baptiste Point Au Sable, Dr. To seven bottles spirits paid an Indian, Askin, for going by express with the Span- ish commandant's letter to Fort Wayne." The returns of peltries for the various ad- ventures sent out by Burnett are instructive as giving a definite idea of the comparative numbers of fur bearing animals in this re- gion. For the two years 1800 and 1801, the returns were as follows: Beaver, 9; otter. 119: bear, 10; elk, 1; mink, 248; deer, 1,076; cat. 62; muskrat, 2,014; fox. 107; redskin, 518; raccoon, 5,603.
The last entry on Burnett's day book is dated July 19, 1802, and is a charge to one Louis Pothier of 57 packs of peltries. amount- ing to 20,500 livres, to be paid by draft on Montreal. The old trader is known to have been at the mouth of our river as late as January 20, 1804; at which date he ad- dressed a letter from that point to James May, at Detroit. Like most of the other trad- ers, Burnett was married to an Indian wife. One of his sons, James Burnett. died July 4. 1833, and it is an interesting fact that his estate was administered upon by Lathrop M. Taylor, one of the earliest settlers of St. Joseph county.
Sec. 3 .- BERTRAND .- Another fur trader. and one who comes yet nearer to our early history, was JJoseph Bertrand, who was born in Mackinaw in 1780, and in 1808 located a log cabin and a fur press on the west side of the St. Joseph, near the crosssing of the Great Sauk Trail, just below the little creek known as Pokagon's branch, and opposite the site of the village of Bertrand afterwards named from him. Some slight dealings with Bertrand are shown on Burnett's books. In 1804 Bertrand had married an Indian girl, Madeline, daughter of the Pottawatomie chief
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
Topinabee. At that time he was acting as agent for the American Fur Company, but soon afterwards went into business for him- self. There is a tradition that the logs for Bertrand's eabin were taken from the ruins of the little church once located at old Fort St. Joseph's, a little below on the east side of the river, and said to have been the only building spared by the Spaniards in the burn- ing of the Fort, in 1781. Bertrand's loyalty to the Americans, and his great influence in keeping the Indians at peace, brought upon him the enmity of the British, partienlarly that of the emissaries of the Hudson Bay Company ; and it is said that there was for a time a reward of one hundred pounds sterling placed upon his head. After the close of the war with England, about 1815, he settled on the east side of the river on the spot since known as the village of Bertrand. IIe afterwards removed to St. Mary's, Kan- sas, where he died about the year 1860.
III. PIERRE NAVARRE.
The first white man to make his perma- nent home in what is now St. Joseph county was Pierre Frieschutz Navarre, an educated gentleman of French descent, who came here from Monroe, Michigan, in 1820, as the agent of the American Fur Company. For several years previous to that date, he, with others, had been through the country, trading with the Indians, but had not remained for any length of time. He now permanently settled at this point and established the first trading post upon the St. Joseph within the limits of this county. We are told that Navarre was a man of literary tastes, of a kind and genial nature, earnest and honest in his deal- ings, though not remarkable for business abil- ity. His brother Francis, a colonel, in the Ameriean army. lost his life in the river Raisin massaere, near Detroit. Pierre, fol- lowing the example of the fur traders who had preceded him, married an Indian wife, a daughter of the Pottawatomies. Tradition represents her to have been a very intelli-
gent woman. They had six children, three sons and three daughters. The children were bright and received a good education, for the time. The sons were Anthony, Isadore and Peter. Anthony is said to have taught a country school here. Friends tried to keep him here when the Pottawatomies went west, but he refused, saying, "What would be the use ? I am only an Indian." They built their dwelling house, the first to be ereeted in this county, on the east side of the St. Joseph river. in what is now Navarre Place addition to the city of South Bend, located between Leeper Island and the bluffs of Chapin place. This was a famous fishing ground; and here, until the building of the dams at Niles and Buchanan, even those who are of the present generation remember the mighty sturgeon that came up in great numbers from Lake Michigan every spring.ª From here to old Fort St. Joseph's was the Parkovash, the be- loved resort of French and Indians. At that time, and ever since the Miamis had gone south and east. to the vicinity of the Wabash and the Maumee, the Pottawatomies were the sole inhabitants of the region. There was, however, no large Indian village near Na- varre's trading post. Old Chief Pokagon was located with a few members of his tribe down the river near Bertrand; and there was another band about two miles south of the new post, on what is now Sumption prairie road, called Raeeoon Village. The main por- tion of the tribe was farther south, in what are now Marshall and Fulton counties. Na- varre's trading post was on the line along which the Indians traded every spring and fall to reach the posts along the river, down to Lake Michigan; at which times they passed through in great numbers with quan- tities of furs, maple sugar, baskets and other articles. The old trails are now marked by city streets and main roads leading through and from South Bend. Mishawaka and other towns, towards Fort Wayne and points to the north, south, east and west. Such trails are a. See Chap. 3, Sub. 7, Sec. 6.
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IIISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
marked by Vistula avenue, through South Bend and Mishawaka: Turkey Creek road; Michigan street and avenne; Snmption Prairie road; Crum's Point road; Laporte avenue; Portage avenue; South Bend ave- nne, or Edwardsburg road; and Mishawaka avenue. The hunting and trapping grounds were mainly down the valley of the Kankakee, which, for centuries, and until within a few years past, has been the sportsman's para- dise. Pierre Navarre when in his prime is said to have been a noble specimen of vig- orous manhood, fully six feet in height, but
by the proprietors of Navarre Place to the Northern Indiana Historical Society, and by the society removed to Leeper park, where it is cared for by the city of South Bend as its most venerable historie relie. Navarre Place, with its beautiful homes occupying the site of the home of this fine pioneer gen- tleman, will perpetuate his name in our his- tory; as will also Navarre street, which over- looks Leeper park, where the ancient resi- dence is preserved, and overlooks likewise the Parc aux Vaches, where the enterprising fur trader set up his Indian home in the
RESIDENCE AND TRADING POST BUILT BY PIERRE NAVARRE, IN 1820, AND NOW PRE- SERVED IN LEEPER PARK, IN THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND.
rather slenderly built." On the removal of the Pottawatomies to the west, in 1840, he went with the tribe, but afterwards returned to this county, where he died at the home of his daughter in South Bend, December 27, 1864. His body rests in Cedar Grove Cemetery, near Notre Dame. The log house built by Navarre in 1820, which was the first fur trading station in St. Joseph county, and where this pioneer and his household, half white and half Indian, so long resided, has been preserved to this day. It was presented
a. See "Art Work of South Bend and Vicin- ity." The Parish Pub. Co., Chicago, 1894.
wilderness, now nearly one hundred years ago.
IV. THIE FIRST SETTLERS.
Sec. 1 .- ALEXIS COQUILLARD .- The first American home established within the limits of St. Joseph county was that of Alexis Coquillard, who is usually regarded as the founder of the city of South Bend. The continuity of our history is well preserved in the life of Mr. Coquillard. While he was a fur trader and of French descent, as were most of his predecessors in the valley of the St. Joseph, and while he was always on
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
friendly terms with the Indians, in so far in St. Joseph county. was located on what that the Pottawatomies would have made him their chief if he had not prevented it; yet both he and his wife were Americans of the Americans. spoke the English language as post stood about readily as they did the French. and came to the valley to lay the foundations of a dis- tinctively American community.
Alexis Coquillard was born in Detroit, September 28, 1795. In the war of 1812 with Great Britain, though but a boy of seven- teen. he gave his services to the American cause, in the army under William Henry Harrison, seeking the camp of Major George Crogan. the brave defender of Fort Stephen- son on the Sandusky river, and there accept- ing the hazardous duties of dispatch mes- senger for the beleaguered garrison. After the war young Alexis became a fur trader, and was soon acting as agent for John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. In the year 1822, in connection with Francis Com- paret. formerly of Detroit, but then of Fort Wayne, Mr. Coquillard purchased the agency of the fur company for the region of the upper lakes. The partners are said to have paid several thousand dollars for the property and control of this extensive agency.
It was in the year 1823 that Alexis Co- quillard established a trading post on the St. Joseph river. This he operated by himself. Mr. Comparet remaining in charge of the post at Fort Wayne. To distinguish the two posts. the one at this point was called the Big St. Joseph's Station ; and the one at Fort Wayne, the Little St. Joseph's Station. Our river St. Joseph, formerly the river of the Miamis. was for a time called the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan, and afterwards the Big St. Joseph's. to distinguish it from the small stream at Fort Wayne, also called the St. Joseph's river. The posts on the two St. Joseph's were the centers of the fur trade with the Indians of northwestern Indiana and southwestern Michigan.
The first trading post opened at this place by Alexis Coquillard. the first business house
was then called the Dragoon trace, from Fort Wayne to Chicago, but which is now known as Vistula avenue. The half a square easterly from Washington street, and in front of what is known as the Edmund Pitts Taylor residence. Soon after locating at this point Mr. Coquillard abandoned it. and built a more pretentious log store and residence elose to what is now North Michigan street, on the north side of La Salle avenue, and near the site of the fine concrete bridge now (1907) in course of construction over the St. Joseph river, on that avenne. It was at that point that the first ferry on the river was soon after- wards established. The site of this famous and hospitable residence has long been oc- cupied by the Miller and Loutz coal and wood vards. In the spring of 1824. Mr. Coquillard married and brought here from Fort Wayne his wife, Frances C .. danghter of his partner, Francis Comparet. This was the first white man's home in this vicinity. and, for some time. the only one. The unit of society is the family : and the community of the great county of St. Joseph was then gathered in the hospitable home of Alexis and Frances Coquillard. on the banks of the beautiful river that was to give its name to the county.
Sec. 2 .- LATHROP M. TAYLOR .- In 1827 Lathrop Minor Taylor settled here. Mr. Taylor was a native of Clinton, Oneida county, New York, and was born July 4, 1805. He came with his parents to Detroit when he was six years of age. Like Alexis Coquillard, he came to us as a fur trader, from Detroit and by way of Fort Wayne. His brother-in- law. Samuel Hanna, of Fort Wayne, was the senior member of the firm of Samuel Hanna & Co .. general traders at that place, and Mr. Taylor came here as agent of the firm. to establish a trading post at this point. Alexis Coquillard and Lathrop M. Taylor, though rivals in business. seemed to think, with Admiral Schley, that there was glory enough for all; and they worked in harmony for the
ALEXIS COQUILLARD, First white man who settled with his family in St. Joseph County. One of the founders of South Bend.
PUCE 71.5
MARY
Astor ab iu 004
1500
1
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
135
common good of the town of which they were to become the founders. Mr. Coquillard had great faith that the settlement on the St. Joseph would grow towards the north from what is now La Salle avenue, instead of to the south of that line. To the north of us, the St. Joseph country, as it was called, had then received many settlers, while the country to the south, as far as the Wabash river, was occupied exclusively by Indians. IIe therefore advised the new trader to locate his store near to the place where he himself had removed. The site therefore selected by, or for, Mr. Taylor was on what is now East Madison street, on the west bank of the river, and a block north of Mr. Coquillard's own trading post. The locality is close to Judge Lueius Hubbard's residence, between that and the residence of the Ilon. Benjamin F. Shively.
Lathrop M. Taylor, like Alexis Coquillard, readily secured the lasting friendship of the- Pottawatomies, whose language he spoke fluently. They aided him in clearing a place in the woods, large enough for his new trad- ing post, and he soon had his stock of goods on hand and was actively engaged in business. It was not long, however, before he was con- vinced that his post was out of the main line of travel. Accordingly, he removed to what is now Vistula avenue, very near to the site of Mr. Coquillard's first trading post. The place has long been occupied by the residence of the late E. Pitts Taylor, brother of Lathrop. The judgment of the younger trader as to the advantages of this locality was perhaps superior to that of the elder. The lines of travel on what have since been known as Vistula avenue, Turkey Creek road and other trails and roads leading towards Fort Wayne and other points south and east, became of more and more importance as the years went by and Indiana became settled towards the Wabash. Mr. Taylor married a daughter of Judge Peter Johnson, father of Evan. Joshua and Lea Johnson, all of whom were noted pioneers. Peter Johnson erected
and kept the first frame house used as a tavern, the old American hotel which was located on the southwest corner of Michigan and Washington streets. Coonley's drug store has now for many years occupied the site. In 1835 Judge Johnson built for his son-in-law a large frame store room on the northwest corner of the same street, opposite the hotel. The Michigan road had now been opened, and commerce and travel abandoned the old routes; and this change Judge John- son and Colonel Taylor both recognized. To this building Lathrop M. Taylor moved his trading post from Vistula avenue, and here he continued to live during the remainder of his days. Cushing's drug store occupied the site for many years after Mr. Taylor ceased to do business; but the old pioneer loved the locality and continued to occupy rooms in the building over the drug store. The Ameri- can Trust Company now occupies the site.ª
Sec. 3 .- FIRST NAME OF THE NEW SETTLE- MENT .- The first entry on L. M. Taylor's books of account, after establishing his agency at this place, is dated at "St. Joseph's, In- diana," October 29, 1827; and is entitled: "Journal of Samuel Hanna. James Barnett and Allen Hamilton, partners in business under the title of Samuel Hanna & Co .. Lathrop M. Taylor, agent." The name "St. Joseph's" is retained throughout the books of the company, and it would seem that this was for some time the recognized name of the trading post. Years afterwards, when the posts of the fur traders had developed into a flourishing town, and the ambitious inhabit- ants became dissatisfied with the name of South Bend, which to them seemed plebeian and meaningless, publie meetings were held to consider other and more stately names for the incipient Queen City of the St. Joseph valley : and among the names then suggested was this old one of St. Joseph's or St. Joseph. At that time, and long afterwards, serious and continued efforts were made for the revival
a. Memoirs Elkhart and St. Joseph Counties, pp. 774, 775. Goodspeed Brothers, Chicago, 1893.
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IIISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
of the original name given to the trading posts of Coquillard and Taylor.
See. 4 .- EARLY DAYS ON THE KANKAKEE .- On Angust 8, 1889, while Colonel Taylor was yet living, Ernest P. Bicknell, then the bril- liant correspondent of the Indianapolis News. afterwards secretary of the Indiana state board of charities, and now at the head of the department of charities in the city of Chicago, wrote for the News the following graphic and gossipy article on "The Winding Kan- kakee" and other kindred topics relating to our very early local history :
"Before the nineteenth century was out of its 'teens' the flat, river-veined country be- tween the Lakes Erie and Michigan was the site of several settlements of Indian traders, meant to be permanent. The swamps and sluggish streams teemed with beaver, mink and muskrat, while the rich grasses of the moist lands fed herds and herds of deer. From the time of La Salle's pioneer explora- tions, trappers and traders had wandered np and down the streams, but they had always made some Canadian town, or perhaps Buf- falo or Detroit, their headquarters.
"But after 'Mad' Anthony Wayne had routed the hostile Indians and calmly assured them he would arise from his grave to fight them if they ever warred against the whites again, there was a freer movement from the East toward these rich hunting grounds. In 1794 a stockade called Fort Wayne was built and garrisoned and under its shadow a settle- ment slowly grew, which outlived the fort but retained its name. Several big eastern fur com- panies established agencies at Fort Wayne. After a few years the traders learned that the old route, up the St. Joseph river from Lake Michigan to a point near the southern- most bend, then a portage of some four miles southwest to the headwaters of the Kankakee, and thenee down that stream toward the Mis- sissippi, or the reverse of this, was a popular one with the Indians.
"A trader named Alexis Coquillard was the first to see that right where the two rivers
came nearest together was certain to be a good point for a trading post. The Indian trappers would rather accept lower prices for their skins than carry them over the long four miles of portage. Your ordinary, un- heroie Indian was not given greatly to indus- try. So it was, that in 1823 Coquillard estab- lished himself at the south bend of the St. Joseph river, and South Bend has the settle- ment been ever since. The trader prospered exceedingly and that naturally attracted at- tention. In the summer of 1827 Colonel L. M. Taylor, a young man who was an agent for a fur dealer at Fort Wayne named Hanna, came to South Bend. Colonel Taylor is yet an honored citizen of the city of which he was the second inhabitant, and though almost eighty-five years old is active and in full pos- session of all his faenlties. To him this cor- respondent is indebted for valuable informa- tion.
"In the spring and fall the Indians would come up the Kankakee, their canoes heavily laden with skins. The low, flat banks al- lowed an uninterrupted survey of the course of the stream for miles, and because of its remarkable crookedness the view of a party of Indians in their boats was peculiar. As they moved along in single file. the general appearance was that of a party gliding along in every possible direction through the high grass. On a sharp S-shaped curve, for ex- ample, some of the Indians would be moving west, some east, some north, and some almost due sonth.
"The effeet of this sinnosity was rather dis- conraging to the inexperienced canoeist. After paddling steadily down stream all day, round and round eurves where the rank grass drooped over and narrowed the ribbon of open water, with its tangled mass, it was discouraging to draw the boat ashore and en- camp for the night within sight of the camp- fire. at which he had prepared his breakfast. Though he had traveled many miles he would find that the "bee line" distance from where he began his day's journey was depressingly
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
small. To the experienced canoeist and woodsman, however, this rate of progress was not depressing. It was not because he did not eare to move rapidly, but because hard- ships and exposure and intimate acquaintance with nature had taught him to accept what- ever lot befell, and make the most of it. This it was that gave him his air of profound in- differenee and stoicism in his relations with his friends and enemies and his self-control in times of desperate danger.
"Referring to the devious ways of the Up- per Kankakee, Colonel Taylor related an inci- dent of his early days in the region :
" 'I had decided to send two men down the river in a pirogue to collect skins, and, as I wanted them to bring in a big cargo, deter- mined to furnish them a big boat. I searched through the woods along the St. Joseph river until I found an enormous tree. Two men helped me, and in a few days we had a pirogue made from its trunk that was a beauty. It was forty-five feet long, three and a half feet wide at one end and two feet wide at the other. We drew it aeross the portage sled-fashion with a team of oxen which had been brought to the settlement, and proudly launched it on the Kankakee. My two men set out and in due time returned with their load. But a more thoroughly dis- gusted boat crew I never saw. They vowed, in the strong, unhampered speech which ehar- acterizes the true woodsman, that never more would they hold any relations whatever with was so long that it was almost impossible to get it around the curves of the river, and that a goodly portion of the time both ends of it at once were well planted in the murky banks and had to be dug out with great labor and loss of time. '
my prized pirogue. That vessel, they said, ' removal was begun, and they were taken in
"The Indians of this region were the Potta- watomies, and were at this time an inoffen- sive, shiftless tribe which much preferred the pursuits of peace to those of war. Members of other tribes which occupied the country south and west of the Pottawatomies visited
the South Bend settlement in great numbers to dispose of the skins which they collected. They were easily cheated by the traders and made no complaint, but after an Indian had once been imposed upon he never took his wares to that trader again. The whites soon learned this, and as there was much competi- tion among them in business, they usually treated the simple red man fairly.
"As has so often been the case, the closing history of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians is a sad story. Certain zealous missionaries among them established themselves ten or twelve miles below South Bend on the St. Joseph, and named their settlement the Carey Mission. In time a sturdy Baptist mis- sionary named Isaac MeCoy became the chief man at the mission and he was full of plans for the improvement of the red men. The whites were encroaching on them, and they were scattered sparsely over a wide territory. McCoy conceived the idea that if they were removed to a reservation far away from the whites, where they could be kept simple and free from the degrading viees which they learned by contact with their eivilized brothers. they could be Christianized and made a happy, prosperous, domestie people. He proposed a plan to the government which was eventually adopted. Some 8.000 members of the tribe were gathered at a point on Lake Michigan, and another near where the city of Lafayette now stands, and were paid for their lands. It was several years later that their detachments at intervals for several years more. A reservation for them had been pro- vided on the great western prairie. In the removal the happy, contented and harmless natives were scattered. Their families were broken up, and many who were unwilling to leave the seenes which had been the undis- puted possession of their ancestors for many generations, wandered away among the friendly tribes about them and eluded the government agents.
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