USA > Indiana > A popular history of Indiana : with an introduction > Part 3
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
Louis St. Ange was the successor of Vincennes and remained in command of the post during the time of the French occupation of this territory. Though not an educated man he proved a wise and judicious ruler, and was much honored and beloved by the settlement which grew up around the post. For if Quiatanon is entitled to the honor of being the first military and fur-trading post established in Indiana, Vin- cennes can unquestionably claim the honor of being the first permanent European village, since during the years 1634 and 1635 a number of French families gathered around the post, built their cabins, kindled their hearthstone fires, cleared and cultivated the fields and introduced into the very heart of the wild and seemingly interminable forests the habits and customs of foreign life. During the entire French occupation of the state " Vincennes was the only post that could be considered a town." "In 1769 there were sixty-six heads of families at this
43
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
settlement, with fifty women and 150 children; while at Fort Ouiatanon, near Lafayette, there were only twelve heads of families, and at Fort Miami, now Fort Wayne, there were but nine."
In the year 1734 Monsieur de Vincennes is said to have visited the point where the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's forms the Maumee, and there built a fort, referring afterward to the locality as the "key to the northwest." Kekionga, the favorite village of the Miamis, was situated at this point, and was "their chosen central home. Here the tribes gathered in council for war or peace." That it was regarded by the Indians as a most important and desirable location was shown by the vigilance with which they ever defended it. Their appeal at the Greenville treaty in 1795, after their country had been conquered, for permission to still occupy this spot was made by Little Turtle, a > . Miami chief, and was elo- quent and touching. The site of the old fort was a beautiful one, overlooking as it did the junction of the three rivers, and its location was connected with most of the important events which occurred in the northwest during its early history. THE OLD APPLE TREE.
41
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
Around the posts were gathered many of the huts and wigwams of the Miamis, and in the midst of them stood an old apple tree, which Chief Richardville, who was about eighty years old when he died in IS41, used to say was a bearing fruit tree when he was a little boy. The tree is still living, and it is thought that its age must now be 175 years. In one of the huts near this tree this celebrated chief was born, and "out of this tree an Indian, during the siege of ISI2, was shot by one of the soldiers from the fort, a distance of many hundred yards. * In an exulting spirit one of the besiegers was in the habit of climbing the tree each day for several days, and, throwing his arms much like the rooster his wings, would utter a noisy cry like this fowl when crowing, which was finally answered by the crack of a rifle from the fort, and the Indian was seen to fall."
Of the three French posts so early established in our state, Forts Quiatanon and Miami were under the government of Canada, and Vincennes was subject to Louisiana or New France. The boundary line between the two provinces was not well defined, but on the Wabash it was placed at the "site of the present city of Terre Haute."
1
CHAPTER VI.
THE EARLY FRENCH SETTLERS.
NEW FRANCE GROWS SLOWLY-CRUDE METHODS OF AGRICULTURE-LOVE OF FLOWERS-HARDY LIFE AND HOMELY FARE-LIMITED AMUSEMENTS- DANCING IN GREAT FAVOR-" BAREFOOTED WAGONS" -- INDIANS HELD AS SLAVES-THE ROMANTIC "VOYAGEURS"-THEIR WILD FREE LIFE- FRENCH AND INDIANS ON FRIENDLY TERMS.
The French settlement of the Mississippi valley did not increase rapidly. The population of New France, more than half a century after the first attempt at colonization by La Salle, "did not exceed 5,000 whites and half that number of blacks." During this same time, England's colonies on the Atlantic coast had grown rapidly, and were fast developing into a young nation.
Around the military posts so widely scattered through French territory a few families had gathered, and into these villages we will now go for a time, and learn a little of the ways and habits of our early French residents. Their homes were at first made somewhat after the manner of the Indian wigwams, with poles and skins of animals, but later on were made of logs, the spaces between the logs being filled with mud, and the roofs thatched with branches of trees and dried leaves or straw. These afterward became more pretentious, having several large rooms with cellars and garrets in which
45
46
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
were dormer windows. Agriculture and fur trading were the chief pursuits. After the French settler had cleared a patch of ground around his rude home, he raised vegetables, grain and tobacco to supply himself and family through the winter, and besides every fall sent "barges loaded with flour, pork, tallow, hides and leather down the Mississippi to New Orleans, from which point the cargoes were reshipped to France and the West Indies. In return came sugar, metal goods and European fabrics." The agricultural implements in use were very primitive, though an improvement on those of the Indians. Besides a rudely made plow, the only other implement was "a heavy iron hoe with a long shank." There were water mills among them, where their grain was ground, which "was transported almost altogether in bags made of elk skins." They plowed with oxen, horses seldom being used. The
furniture of their houses was of course very rude and rough, the chief luxury in which they indulged being the feather bed, in which, with the soft pillows and gaily-colored patchwork quilt, the housewives took especial pride. For these French prized comfort, neither did their native love of beauty leave them in this western wilderness, for around the rude and rustic huts, in addition to their gardens of vegetables and in bright and beautiful contrast to the dark green of the towering forest, they cultivated flowers, which budded and blossomed and made glad their hearts, and reminded them of the fair garden spot of the sunny France they loved so well.
The early French settler lived a careless, free-and-easy * life, and gave little thought to the future. "He lived happily
47
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
in the midst of poverty, content if he could but gain the means to fill his tobacco pouch and decorate the cap of his lady love with a ribbon." The women were generally handsome and dressed gaily; they "wore a gaudy pet- ticoat reaching to the ankles, and above this a habit or skirt reaching to the knees, with large straw hats in summer and fur caps or bonnets in winter." They -
W.
COSTUMES OF EARLY FRENCH SETTLERS.
were "very fond of adorning their heads, the hair of which was always curled and pow-
dered and ornamented with glittering bodkins or aigrettes." "The peasant or farmer wore a coarse blue surtout, fast- ened around the waist with a red strap or sash, and on his head a red cap," with a tassel in the center. This suit was for dress occasions, the sash being replaced in the working day costumes by a leather girdle or belt, and the head covered with a gaily-colored knotted handkerchief. The priests of course wore their long black gowns, with cords around their waists, from which hung the silver
48
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
crucifix, much as the priest of to-day. The French soldier wore a uniform of "white, faced with blue, red, yellow or violet," that of the officer being brightly trimmed in gold lace, while the English soldier furnished a conspicuous target in his bright red uniform.
The religion of these early settlers was that of their native country-Roman Catholic. Their amusements must have been very limited, and no doubt partook largely of such as the forests and the streams could offer. Hunting, and perhaps skating in the winter, fishing and picnic parties in the summer, when "buoyant and gay, they made the wilderness ring with merriment," were popular recreations. Dancing, however, was, as it always is with the French under all condi- tions, a favorite pastime. Mardi Gras was annually cele- brated. "The evening passed in entertainment at the house of some one of the wealthier citizens. Cooking pancakes, such as we call 'Hap-jacks,' was made an amusement in which all the guests took part, the sport consisting in the rivalry of tossing and turning them. The one who tossed them highest and landed them safely again in the long-handled skillet received the compliments of all, while laughter and ridicule were the lot of the unskillful. When cooked, the cakes were piled up on plates, with maple sugar, to form the chief dish for supper. After the feast came dancing until midnight, when the guests bade farewell to worldly gayeties till Lent was over."
The only vehicles found in these settlements were two- wheeled carts without ironwork of any kind. They answered
49
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
the purpose of both wagon and carriage. They had no seats, but when used for the latter a buffalo robe was thrown over the rough bed of the box-like structure. They were some- times called "barefooted wagons" by the Americans.
It is hard to realize that the institution of slavery once flourished on the soil of Indiana, as it did at this period, sur- viving until the early years of the present century. In the early French settlements both negroes and Indians were held in bondage. That Indians were kept in servitude seems strange when such friendly relations existed between them and the French. But it sometimes happened that a victorious tribe, after taking a number of prisoners from the tribes it had con- quered, would sell them as slaves to the whites. These Indian slaves were called Panis, and were more frequently found in the northern than in the southern settlements. The laws gov- erning this system of slavery were comparatively mild. "Slaves were required to be baptized and educated in the Catholic religion. They were not allowed to work on Sundays
or holy days. Their masters were required to furnish them a regular amount of food and clothing, fixed by public officers, and to support them in sickness and old age." The punish- ment of slaves was also restricted by law. It was the mildest form of slavery that ever existed in North America. But the institution did not die when French rule ceased. It continued until after Indiana had become a state.
The most conspicuous and romantic characters of those days were perhaps the coureurs de bois or voyageurs, or forest rangers. They were daring, reckless and immoral. They
50
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
ignored all civil, religious or military authority and indulged in all sorts of wild carousal and dissipation. They wore a "blanket coat or a frock of smoked deer-skin, carried a rifle on the shoulder and a knife and tomahawk in the belt." They conducted the traffic in furs between the Indians and settlers, car- rying with them for trading purposes "blankets, red cloth, guns and hatchets, liquor, tobacco, paint, beads and hawk's bells." They penetrated into every part of the forest where there was an Indian who had a skin to trade, and paddled their light canoes over the COUREUR DES BOIS. streams, camping at night near a river or spring, when "a pile of evergreen boughs formed their bed and the saddle or knapsack a pillow." A day's rations were a "quart of hulled corn and a pint of bear's grease, though at a later period the voyageurs sometimes revelled in bean or pea soup flavored with a piece of salt pork and sea biscuit." We doubt not, however, that they often added to this plain fare a haunch of venison or a fish contributed by forest or stream. Their mode of life was much more like the Indian's than the
51
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
white man's, yet all classes of French treated with respect the opinions, beliefs and customs of the red men, adapting them- selves to their strange characters and wild ways. They lived with them on terms of friendly intercourse, often joining with them in their barbaric feasts and wild dances, and many a dusky maiden became a white man's bride.
While in command of the posts it was the habit of the French to supply the surrounding Indians with guns, ammuni- tion and clothing. When the chiefs visited the forts, they were often received with every attention of honor. The firing of cannon and the roll of the drum announced their approach. These attentions, of course, greatly pleased the Indian warriors and gratified their pride. So it is not strange, as we shall see, that they became in later years the warm friends and firm allies of the French and joined them in resisting the encroach- ments of the English.
CHAPTER VII.
THE ENGLISH AND THE BATTLE OF QUEBEC.
AN INDIAN PLOT TO DESTROY THE FRENCH-THE PLOT REVEALED-FORT MIAMI BURNED -THE ENGLISH APPEAR UPON THE SCENE -- WASHINGTON HAS A MESSAGE FOR THE FRENCH-THEY ARE ORDERED TO EVACUATE ALL POSTS SOUTH OF LAKE ERIE-BATTLE OF QUEBEC-TREATY OF PEACE, 1763-INDIANS ANGERED AT THE DEPARTURE OF THE FRENCH.
Having won the friendship of the red man, the French lived in peaceful security with the tribes around them until the year 1747. At this time Nicholas, a Huron chief, who has been described as a "wily fellow full of savage cruelty," planned a conspiracy to attack and destroy all the French in the country. The English fur traders had been made welcome to his villages and kindly treated. These traders no doubt incited Nicholas to greater enmity against the French, who had in some way aroused the ill humor of this chief. All the western tribes, "excepting those in the Illinois country," entered into this conspiracy. Each tribe was to seize and destroy the French in its part of the country. This plot was revealed by a squaw, who, having climbed into the garret of the house where the council was being held, overheard the plans of the Indians and told them to a Jesuit priest. He at once notified the French commandant at Detroit. But the plot was not discovered in time to prevent the Indians from
52
53
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
burning Fort Miami to the ground, the garrison being captured by the Miamis. In the following year (1748) the post was, however, rebuilt by Lieut. Du- brusson and, Nicholas and his followers having sued for peace, France again controlled the line of stockade posts between Canada and the Mississippi. Dur- ing this same year "an associ- ation called the Ohio Land Com- pany was formed by the English BURNING OF FORT MIAMI. with the view
of making settlements beyond the Alleghanies." For English pluck and English enterprise had been looking over the peaks of those eastern mountains and had seen and coveted the rich fertile valley which lay beyond them.
The French of course claimed that the English had no right to send fur traders to this territory or plant colonies in it. Captain de Celeron, a French officer, sent the following
54
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
message to the Governor of Pennsylvania: "That if any English traders should thereafter make their appearance on the Ohio river they would be treated without any delicacy." This message did not, however, in the least alarm the English, nor prevent their continuing to make inroads upon the territory claimed by the French. And for several years both nations, while infringing on each other's lands, established many new military posts for future defense, and courted the friendship and following of the Indians. In these efforts the French were more successful, for the haughty warriors did not forget the kind and courteous way in which the French had ever treated them.
WASHINGTON VISITS THE FRENCH COMMANDANT.
In 1753 Gov- ernor Dinwiddie of Virginia, learn- ing of what he con- sidered the pre- suming steps the French were tak- ing in the Ohio valley, sent George Washing- ton, then, though
55
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
but twenty years old, adjutant-general of the Virginia militia, to order the immediate evacuation of the frontier posts the French had built south of Lake Erie and in the Ohio valley. The young messenger is said to have walked the entire way, a distance of 400 miles, and received as an answer from the com- manding officer at Le Bœuf, Legardeur de St. Pierre, "that his orders were to hold possession of the country; and that he would do it to the best of his ability." This message was duly carried back by Washington and hostilities began the following spring between the two countries, fleets being sent over from both France and England. But it is not our purpose to follow this war in all its bloody details, but to pass on at once to its close, for it is only then that it comes within the scope of this narrative.
The decisive battle was fought at Quebec in September, 1759. There General Wolfe, the commander of the British forces, fell mortally wounded. After receiving the fatal shot he heard an officer near by exclaim, "Oh, how they run!" He opened his eyes and said, "Who run?" "The enemy, sir," replied the officer; "they give way everywhere." Then after giving an order to be sent to one of his regiments, General Wolfe continued, "Now God be praised; I will die in peace." Montcalm, the commander of the French forces, also received a mortal wound and died during the battle, after exclaiming: "I am happy that I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." The battle was over and "that point was forever wrested from the power of the French," for the victory was won by the British. 5
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
In 1763, a treaty of peace having been made between the two countries, France surrendered all her possessions in North America to the British, excepting those immedi- ately around the mouth of the Mississippi. At the time of the surrender Major Robert Rogers of the English army was sent to take command of the western ports, and not long after- ward British soldiers were ordered to take possession of Forts Miami and Quiatanon, and Indiana passed forever from under French rule. But on account of the hostilities of the Indians, the English could not reach all the posts that were included in the capitulation, and so had to leave them for some time in the hands of the French. Among these posts was Vincennes, which St. Ange did not leave until May, 1764.
That the French should thus be forced to leave the country greatly surprised and enraged the Indians, for they had had such boundless faith in the power of their French father, as they called the French monarch across the sea, that they. could not understand how it was possible that he would thus allow his subjects to be conquered. The red men saw with sorrow and bitterness the departure of their French allies, and received the English with distrust, and indeed with defiance.
CHAPTER VIII.
PONTIAC AND THE GREAT CONSPIRACY.
PONTIAC THE "KING OF THE FOREST"-A BITTER FOE OF THE ENGLISH- UNWISE POLICY OF THE BRITISH-THE NATIVE TRIBES CONSPIRE TO DESTROY THE MILITARY POSTS AND EXTERMINATE THE ENGLISH-PONTIAC AND THE BLOODY BELTS-POSTS CAPTURED-ENSIGN HOLMES AND THE TREACHEROUS SQUAW-TREATY OF PEACE AT DETROIT-PONTIAC ASSAS- SINATED.
A bold, determined, lordly figure now appears in the picture of the past in the form of the Indian chieftain, Pontiac. He was of the Ottawa tribe and lived near Detroit. He was called the "King of the Forest," and his fame and influence extended from the Atlantic to the Mississippi and from the lakes to the gulf. We meet with him just when Major Robert Rogers came to Detroit to take command of the western posts. Pontiac, hearing of the coming of the victorious Eng- lish, visited the British officer and said to him: "How have you dared to enter my country without my leave?" "I come," replied the English agent, "with no design against the Indians, but to remove the French out of your country and to give the wampum of peace."
But Pontiac returned a belt, which arrested the march of the party until his leave should be granted. "The next day the chief sent presents of bags and parched corn, and at a
57
58
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
second meeting smoked the calumet with the leader, inviting him to pass onward unmolested, with an escort of warriors to assist in driving his herd of oxen along the shore."
Although Pontiac gave this outward assent to the entrance of the English into his country, he was not at all pleased with it. And he soon began with crafty cunning and strong, resolute will to unite the different Indian nations in a desperate and power- ful resistance to the Eng- lish invasion. In this same year, 1763, "the English government, ap- portioning out her new acquisitions with separate governments, set apart the valley of the Ohio and adjacent region as an Indian domain, and by proclamation strictly for- bade the intrusion of set- tlers thereon." But this PONTIAC. amounted to no more than similar orders from our own government have
V
59
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
in later years. The Indians felt that such restrictions were tyrannical and that their freedom and liberties were interfered with. Besides this, their pride was constantly being humili- ated. Instead of being received at the military posts with the honors they had been accustomed to have from the French, they had cold looks and harsh words from the officers and sometimes blows from the brutal soldiers. "The Indians also missed the trinkets, clothing and ammunition the French had been accustomed to give them. But, even worse than this, the Indians were often sorely punished when they violated treaties, which they really did not understand when signing them."
The English, now that their French foes were conquered, no longer felt the need of the natives as allies, so they did not even treat them as well as they had formerly done. They showed them no courtesy and bestowed upon them no gifts or favors. So it was not strange that even hostile tribes were willing to bury the hatchet and join together in the great con- spiracy of Pontiac. The French settlers and fur traders of course favored this uprising of the Indians against the English, and told them their "Great French Father was only asleep, and would soon awaken, when he would send many boats and men across the water to help them." Pontiac distributed war belts among the tribes and sent by messengers a speech which was attentively listened to in the councils of the braves and fired the savage hearts to deeds of bloodshed and cruelty. Pontiac's plan was to attack all the western posts held by the English simultaneously. It was the greatest Indian con- spiracy ever formed.
60
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
With long hair flowing over his shoulder, a crest of hawks' and eagles' feathers round his head, his body brightly decorated with the war paint, Pontiac led his warriors through the war dance, grasped tomahawk and war knife and was soon ready for the first attack, which was to be made at Detroit. Forts Miami and Quiatanon had now been occupied by the English for over two years. It is not possible, I suppose, for us to even imagine the complete loneliness and dreariness of life in one of these outlying forts. Shut in by an unbroken forest, infested only with wild animals and wilder savages, cut off from communication with the world beyond, except as the lawless fur traders occasionally visited the Indian villages near by, how dreary must have been the twilight hour, how long the cold winter night and how solitary even the bright summer days!
Through the commander at Fort Miami, Ensign Holmes, the positive proof of Pontiac's conspiracy was made known. An Indian, who had found in Holmes a friend, came one day in the spring of 1763 and told him "that the warriors of one of the villages near by had recently received a bloody belt, with a speech pressing them to kill him ( Holmes) and demolish the fort there and which," whispered the friendly Indian, "the warriors were then making preparations to do."
Ensign Holmes soon afterward sent the following letter to Major Gladwyn, commanding the fort of Detroit:
"FORT MIAMI'S, March 30, 1763.
"Since my last letter to you, wherein I acquainted you of the Bloody Belt being in this village, I have made all the
61
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
search I could about it, and have found it out to be true: whereon I assembled all the Chiefs of this Nation, and after a long and troublesome spell with them I Obtained the Belt, with a speech, as you will Receive Enclosed. This Affair is very timely Stopt, and I hope the News of a Peace will put a Stop to any further Troubles with these Indians, who are the Prin- ciple Ones of Setting Mischief on Foot. I send you the Belt with this Packet, which I hope you will Forward to the General."
Notwithstanding this warning the Indians succeeded in
THE OJIBNA GIRL AND MAJOR GLADWYN.
capturing all of the posts except Detroit. The latter post was saved from falling into the hands of the Indians by a beautiful Ojibna girl, who went to see Major Gladwyn, of whom she was very fond, ostensibly to present him with an embroidered pair of moccasins, but in reality to disclose the plot which Pontiac and his warriors intended to carry out the next day. They were to enter the fort, as it would seem, for
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.