USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Charcoal sketches of old times in Fort Wayne > Part 7
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Merriam's Creek, which takes its rise in the west part of Marion Township, and empties into the St. Mary's River in Section Six of that Township (29. 13), took its name from that of a pioneer, Adolphus Merri- am. He settled on that stream and entered the land at its mouth. He died at an early day. I find that on November 24, 1825, Judges Hanna and Cush- man (associates) confirmed the letters testamentary which had in vacation of the Allen Circuit Court been granted by the Clerk. As a matter of his- tory, this was the first judicial exercise of probate power in Allen County, and this Court continued to exercise such power in Allen County until late 1829. Then the powers were transferred to a created Probate Court, and William G. Ewing commissioned seven years from September 10, 1829, and was succeeded by Hugh McCulloch, June 20, 1834 -- hence the origin of their respective titles as Judge.
The name Aboite applied to the creek and township of that name. The stream takes its rise in Lake Township, and runs south through Aboite and enters Little River at the Northwest corner of township 29, range 11 Lafayette. Aboite is an ancient name, and its origin is obscure. It was on this stream that La Balme -- a native of France, was defeated in 1780 in making an attempt from Kaskaskia, (Ill.), against the British post at De- troit. He went from Kaskaskia to Vincennes, was joined by a small rein- forcement, and then moved up the Wabash. He directed his efforts to re- duce a British trading post, then standing at the head of the Maumee (Fort Wayne). He plundered the traders and some half-breed Indians, and re- turned from the post and encamped on Aboite. The Miamis attacked him that night, a few of La Balme's men were killed; others escaped, and the expedition failed. This is the first mention I can find of the stream, but its name in that form has remained unchanged. The oldest French here give me to understand that as it was a muddy, stagnant, miry and filthy creek, it was called Aboite, because of its sloppiness. This seems to be the best evidence of the origin of its name. However, on enquiry I find in the French idiom no word like this, signifying sloppiness. But there is another hy- pothesis which seems to imply something of the same nature when fully considered. As it was a sloppy and miry place, and its crossing consid- ered dangerous and deathly, it might have been regarded, figuratively, as a river, to cross which was certain death -- no retreat therefrom -- the very point where life would end, and death begin. The traveler reaching and
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entering into such a stream, would be understood, in French parlance, to be aux abois, like lawyers say of a man just at the point of death, in ex- tremis, or perhaps, as medical men say in articulo, that is, gone to that point between life and death from which there is no retreat or recovery. Taking these two suppositions, we can readily see how this muddy and un- safe stream might originally have been called the Aux Abois, afterwards the prefix suppressed, and finally razed until by long use it became Aboite.
With these reflections I, for the present, leave the subjects named in the caption of this sketch, promising to pursue the investigation as to other rivers and places in the county, at an early period.
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Number XXI
CHARCOAL SKETCHES OF OLD TIMES IN FORT WAYNE
DAILY SENTINEL
Fort Wayne, Monday, May 20, 1872
Page 3, Col. 5-6
Marais de Peage, Commonly Called Prairie du Parsh, in Aboite Township
By Hon. J. W. Dawson
Those who have lived here for thirty years, and even many of later residence hereabouts, are familiar with the name of "Prairie du Parsh, " a small stream, two branches of which are crossed by the Huntington State Road, on the Southeast quarter of Section 13, Congressional Township 30, N. Range 11, E., or Civil Township, Aboite, now the farm of George Bull- ard, about four miles southwest of Wayne. This name is more commonly applied to the marsh which the little streams drain. Both marsh and streams were in an early day, and even now, so swampy and marshy as to nearly forbid a passage across. Like nearly all French and Indian names origi- nally given streams and places, the name has been so corrupted as to de- fy, without investigation, any correct knowledge of the meaning. In fact, scarcely any two persons use the same name to designate it. It is, there- fore my purpose to clear away the debris, so as to discover to the public not only the true original name, but to give the signification of the words which constitute it, in order that it may go accurately into history.
The French very early made use of the Maumee River to this place, then found in the possession of the Miami Indians, to transport their goods, etc., then by the portage or carrying place from the St. Mary's across the land to the first navigable point on the Little Wabash, or Little River, and so on, by boat down the Wabash to the Ohio River. In 1734, Captain M. De Vincennes, of the French army, came up to this place, then called, in the Miami dialect, Ke-ki-ogue, and found it in possession of the Miamis. It was regarded as "the key of the whole country below." He then descended the Wabash to the very mouth of the Wea Creek, a few miles below where Lafayette now stands. There he established a post, and called it Ouiotanon, and then to a place called Chippe-Cake (or Brushwood town), and there he built a fort, which was called Vincennes.
At the great treaty held at Greenville, Ohio, in August, 1795, Little Turtle, the great chief of the Miamis, called this place (now Fort Wayne), where were located the Miami villages, "that glorious gate through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass, from the north to the south, and from the east to the west." It was the great trading point between De- troit and Vincennes. All the goods sold to the Indians on the Wabash and at Vincennes had to pass through this "key to the whole country below," this "glorious gate." All the furs and peltries bought of the Indians had to be returned through this "gate." So profitable was this trade, that at the
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Treaty of Greenville, when General Wayne requested the Indians to cede to the United States six miles square of land at Fort Wayne, and two miles square at the west end of the portage on Little River, about eight miles southwest of this, on now Section 26, Aboite Township, the whole tribe of Miamis objected. Through their chief, Little Turtle, who, addressing General Wayne said: "Elder Brother: I now give you the true sentiments of your younger brothers, the Miamis, with respect to the reservation at the Miami villages. We thank you kindly for contracting the limits you at first proposed. We wish you to take this six miles square on the side of the river (Maumee) where your fort now stands, as your younger brothers, wish to inhabit that beloved spot again. * You shall cut hay whenever you please, and you shall never require in vain the assistance of your younger brothers at that place. Elder Brother: The next place you pointed to was the Little River, and said you wanted two miles square at that place. This is a request that our fathers, the French and British, never made us. It was always ours. This carrying place (portage) has heretofore proved, in a great degree, the subsistence of our younger brothers. That place has brought to us, in the course of one day the amount of one hundred dollars. Let us both own this place, and enjoy in common the advantages it affords."
General Wayne replied in substance that he had traced the lines of two forts which the French had once possessed here -- one on the St. Joseph, near the junction, and one on the St. Mary's not far off, ** and that it was an established rule among European nations to reserve as much land around their forts as their cannon could command. And as to the portage between Fort Wayne and Little River, and the fact that it had produced the Miamis one hundred dollars revenue per day, he remarked that though the French paid the tax or tariff for the use of the portage, yet in the end the Indians who bought the French goods had to pay it. As the United States would al- ways be the carriers between their different posts, he enquired why they should pay annually $8, 000 if they were not to enjoy the privileges of open roads to and from their reservations -- a sum which the United States agreed to pay for this and other considerations, and that the Miamis' share of this was $1, 000, annually. The claim to six mile square at or near the conflu- ence of the rivers St. Joseph and St. Mary's where Fort Wayne now stands, or near it and two miles square in the Wabash, at the end of the portage from the Miami to the Lake, and about eight miles westward from Fort Wayne, was assented to by the Indians. These reservations gave complete control to the United States of the "glorious gate, " "the key to the whole country below." From that day the portage ceased to be a toll-road or turnpike.
Now here comes the origin of the word which has been corrupted into Prairie de Pash, or Prairie du Parsh.
In the French tongue, Peage, pronounced Pa-azh, means toll, tax, as collecting toll at a toll gate, and sometimes used for road, turnpike, etc. A marsh is called Marais, or as near as I can pronounce it on paper, "Ma-rah" -- the first syllable is pronounced ma, as the a in marry, and the second a as in rank; the whole with accent on the last syllable Marais de
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Peage or the turnpike or toll-road swamp, or the turnpike marsh.
I have been thus particular to give the early history of the portage, and that it was a toll-road for revenue purposes to the Indians, in order to bring out from its corruption the name of Marais de Peage. The portage line may be seen marked with much accuracy on the map of Allen County, lately published by Henry J. Rudisill, Esq., Auditor of the county. As for the accuracy of which map I can vouch, and a copy of which every intelli- gent gentleman of the county should have.
From the date of the ratification of the treaty, the portage which crossed this marsh between the present traveled road and the Wabash & Erie Canal, ceased to be a toll-road, and yet the marsh will be known by its original name in history now recorded.
*The "beloved spot" named by Little Turtle was the old Omee, or Miami villages which then stood along the East bank of the St. Joseph, from its confluence extending nearly half a mile, and across the Maumee, where Wagner's Fort then stood, and which he had built but the year previous.
** This was located in the bend of the St. Mary's, south side, about where the estate and residence of Honorable Hugh McCulloch are situated.
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THE | PUBLIC' LIBRARY
FORT WAYNE 1 band ! ALLEN COUNTY
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA
917.7274032C CD01 CHARCOAL SKETCHES OF OLD TIMES IN FORT W
3 0112 025337095
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