USA > Indiana > Allen County > History of Allen County, Indiana, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 2
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" The Aboriginal Period " ,occupies the second place, following, naturally, the period of Discovery, which, while it had a prior existence, did not become known until the advent of discovery. It emhraees, first, the principal generic features of the race, then the great family divisions, based upon a similarity of the lingual elements, taking the Algonquin as the primitive type. This family is noticed with reference to its peculiarities and distinguishing characteristics, mentally and physically. A subdivision into tribes, whose history is more or less intimately connected with this locality, follows, in which the purpose has been to trace the migrations and transmigrations from the period of the first discovery of them to their removal beyond the limits of this State, or their blotting-out from the galaxy of distinct and separate tribes. As an addenda to the tribal history, short
biographies of some of the noted chiefs and representative men who have figured more or less extensively in our immediate vicinity. An appropriate conclusion to this period is presented in n review of the conspiracies preceding and following the overthrow of French power in the territory of the Northwest. The first being a development of the Indian opposition to French control, the other an expression of the combined Indian and French opposition to the ascendancy of the English, in the original dominion of New France.
A new order of things having been inaugurated in the organization of the United States Government, after the closo of the American Revolution, " The Semi-Savage Period " succeeds the " Aboriginal," and introduces the reader to the transactions incident to the struggle for the mastery between the Indians and pioneersmen, in which the latter acquire dominion here and lay tho foundations of permanent settlements and subsequent prosperity, the fruits of which are being enjoyed after the lapse of nearly two centuries and a half from the advent of white men in the Maumee Valley.
When the problem of permanent settlements was demonstrated, and pio- neersmen, desiring to become citizens, moved to be clothed upou with the habili- ments of legislative authority to enjoy and maintain civil and religious liberty, as a separate jurisdiction, then " The Period of Civilization and Law " were fully developed, and Allen County became an integral quantity in the political econ- omy of tho State of Indiana. Under this head may be found the germs of organic life with a careful digest of the proceedings incident to the development and growth of our body politic, with the progressive transitions from the embryonic to the mature state. Following this, the local history of Fort Wayne, our central eity, with the changes, modifications and improvements which time has wrought, and the present elements of prosperity, including the various industries wbich mark a distinctive era in its advance toward supremney. Tben the separate town- ships have been treated historically, in which will appear the dates of settlement, organization and subsequent growth, with the names of the settlers and their connection therewith, followed by biographical sketobes of individual citizens of local and general notoriety, who have left their impress upon society from time to time as they have appeared and still appear on tbo theater of active life. To the preparation of this latter department, Mr. L. H. Newton has given his especial attention.
As introductory to the distinctively local history of the county, we give an elaborate article on its physical geography, with the geological features apparent, followed by a descriptive account of the mounds and archeologieal remains discovered by the industrious research of Col. R. S. Robertson, by whose hiand the articles in question have been prepared. To he appreciated, they need only to be carefully read.
Again, immediately preceding the Township History, will be found a very complete and well-digested outline of our military history, from the pen of Col. J. B. Dodge, to whose energy and skill the people of Allen County are and will be especially indebted for the preservation of these mementos of war.
Appendatory to the preceding divisions also, the reader will find a fund of miscellaneous and statistical matter, which, not coming under any other specifie head, is nevertheless of such momentous value that its omission would be almost criminal, sinec it embodies facts, figures and references so thoroughly digested that our work would be incomplete without them.
And last, though not least, of consequence in this introductory review, is the department of " Illustrations," which includes the maps, portraits, bome views, landscapes and historical representations-mementos of the past, designed to extend into the future, reflexes of the antecedents of coming generations.
These results have only been attained by the patient, effective labor and untiring energy, appropriated by those having in charge the conduct of the several depart- ments of their work. In the preparation of the maps, Messrs. Ellis Kiser and J. A. Johnson, Engineers, have done themselves credit in the completeucss, accu- raey and finish which characterize their productions. As an artist, Mr: Charles H. Radcliff has acquitted biuself with bonor, which entitles bim to high rank in his profession, as the effusions of his pencil fully attest. And, finally, not only the editor and proprietors, but the citizens of Fort Wayne especially, and of Allen County generally, owe much to the thoroughness and efficiency of the labors of Mr. Kiser in colleeting the details of business and historical miscellany of the city and county, than wbow no one, in the opinion of the editor, could have more faithfully and satisfactorily performed the task.
12
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY.
ROUTES TRAVERSED BY THE SCANDINAVIANS, WELSH, NORMANS, POR- TI'GUESE AND FRENCH-TRAFFIC OF FRENCH TRADERS WITH THE INDIANS.
Without discussing further what may have been the status of civilization among the aborigines of this country, or what divisions of the continent the pre- vailing tribes occupied, from period to period in their migrations and transmigrations, the fact that America was not destined to be the perpetual inheritance of the red man, in the light of the nineteenth century, must he adiuitted. In the progress of the age, new actors appeared on the scene, whose advent heralded the depart- ure of the aboriginal races to habitations beyond the setting sun. In this con- nection, therefore, it will not be out of place to recite hriefly the progress of " the star of empire " westward bound.
" The discovery of a continent, so large that it may he said to have doubled the habitable world. is an event so much the more grand and interesting, that nothing parallel to it can ever occur again in the history of mankind. America had, of course, been known to the barbarous tribes of Eastern Asia for thousands of years ; but it is singular that it should have heen visited by one of the most enterprising nations of Europe five centuries before the time of Columbus, with- out awakening the attention of either statesmen or philosophers."
About the middle of the ninth eentury, the spirit of European adventure is known to have directed its course to the westward, across the Atlantic. In the year $60 A. D., the Seandinavians discovered Iceland, and in 874-75, enlonized it ; and, less than one hundred years later, they discovered and colonized Greenland. [Ene. Brit. I, 706; Cham. Enc. I, 198.]
On the authority of M. Rafn, a Danish historian, well versed in the narra- tives of these early voyagenrs, it is stated, also, that America was discovered hy them in A. D. 985, shortly after the discovery and colonization of Greenland. That early io the following century, and repeatedly afterward, the Icelanders visited the embouchure of the St. Lawrence, the Bay of Gaspe heing their prin- cipal station ; " that they had penetrated along the coast as far south as Carolina and that they introduced a knowledge of Christianity among the natives." [Note .- En. Brit., 706.]
" This account, though meager, is distinct and consistent. Its authenticity can scarcely he disputed ; and it is almost equally obvious that the country it refers to, under the name of Vinland, is in the vicinity of Rhode Island. A conclusion resting on such strong grounds scarcely requires to he supported by the high authority of Humboldt and Malte Brun." [Same.]
" Subsequently to the Scandinavian discoveries, and previous to that of Columbus, America is believed by some to have been visited by a Welsh Prince. In . Cardoc's Historie of Cambria.' it is stated that Madoc, son of Owen Gwynnedd, Prince of Wales, set sail westward in 1170, with a small fleet, aud, after a voyage of several weeks, landed in a region totally different, hoth in its inhabitants and productions, from Europe. Madoc is supposed to have reached the coast of Virginia." [Cham. Enc. I, 198.]
However the facts may have been, as stated in these several accounts, it is apparent that the period had not elapsed when the Old World, ripe with the experi- ence of the past, was ready for the appropriation of the New ; hence, it was reserved for the enterprise of the fifteenth century to transmit the civilization of that age to the new continent across the Atlantic.
One of the primary inducements for the voyage of Columbus, and his pre- decessors as well, was the desire to find a more direct route to the East Indies and China hy sailing westward. These were the objective points in all the voy- ages of discovery during the centuries preceding, to which European enterprise gave origin. With this purpose in view. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, under the patronage of the united kingdoms of Castile and Leon, on the 3d of August. 1492. started on the voyage which resulted in the discovery of the North American continent. " It was toward the East that his hopes directed his western course, hopes whose supposed fulfillment still lives in the misapplication to the New World of the terms Indian and Indics. Much of our subsequent knowledge of America has heen owing to the same desire of reaching the East Indies that led to its discovery." [Cham .. Enc., I, 198].
In the summer of 1501, Manuel, King of Portugal, sent out an expedition for West and Northwest discovery, under the command of Gaspar Cortereal. This expedition traversed the coast of North America for six or seven hundred miles, till. somewhere to the south of the fiftieth degree of north latitude, it was stopped by the icc. "The name of Labrador, transferred from the territory south of the St. Lawrence to a more northern coast, is a memorial of his voyage, and is, perhaps, the only permanent trace of Portuguese adventure within the limits of North America."
[Baneroft, Hist. U. S., I, 13].
The French were among the first to compete for the prosecution of discov- pries in the New World. As early as 1504, and, indeed, anterior to that date. the fisheries of Newfoundland were known and visited by the hardy mar- iners of Brittany and Normandy. These fishermen, in remembrance of their home. gave the name of Cape Breton to an island adjacent. [Bancroft, Hist., 1. p. 13]. A map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence was drawn in 1506, hy Denys, a citizen of Honfleur.
This fact is further stated hy Judge Martin in the introduction to his history of North Carolina: "The French made several attempts to establish permanent settlements on the continent of North America. As early as 1506, one of their Norman navigators sailed from Rouen, visited and drew a chart of the Gulf and a part of the River St. Lawrence, and Thomas Aubert, of Dieppe, in the year 1508, sailed up the River St. Lawrence. And it is known that as varly as the year 1544. the Basque whialors and fishermen from Brittany and Normandy visited its shores." [Vol. I, 2].
A letter to Henry VIII, from an English Captain, written at St. John, Newfoundland, in August, 1527, says that there was at that date in one harbor, eleven sail of Normans and one Breton engaged in the fishery. "About the same time," says Martin, just cited, " the French had growing establishments in Canada for fishing and trading in furs with the natives." In their trathie with the Indians of that loeality, the Iroquois, and otbers, the French, in exchange for the furs obtained from the natives, gave thewu knives, hatchets and other utensils of iron and brass adapted to their use, with trinkets and other articles for ornamentation. To the natives, these articles of European manufact- ure possessed more than a mere commercial value, and hence were treasured up as mementos of fortunate possession, and were transmitted to succeeding gener- ations with characteristic ceremony Three-quarters of a century later, some of these same articles were discovered by Capt. Smith. in his voyage up the Chesa- peake, in possession of the Susquehannocks, who obtained them from the Iroquois. Many of these also passed into other hands, and found their way to territories farther to the westward, traversed by the Iroquois in their numerous warlike expeditions against the Ottawas and other tribes. That some of these found their way round the borders of the lakes even to the head-waters of the ancient Ottawa (Omee or Maumec), would not he out of the natural order of things. The Ke-ki-ong-a of the primitive Miamis, and their predecessors, was the center or radiating point, also, for the numerous kindred hands to the north and south of the great lakes, and is known to have heen visited by some of the original recipients of those articles exchanged for furs on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Indeed, numerous members of the Algonquin family resident on the north of the. St. Lawrence at the date when the traffic with the French traders was heing carried on, began to migrate westward toward Lake Michigan, to the west and south of Lake Erie, whence they were accompanied by traders still ambitious to open and extend the avenues of trade to localities rich in furs and hitherto unoccupied by white men. These traders not unfrequently intermarried with the natives as a means of securing greater confidence and hetter opportuni- ties to advance their pecuniary interests.
Subsequently, Jacques Cartier, on a voyage of discovery, sailed from St. Malo, in France, April 20, 1534. The result of his first voyage was the discovery and reeonnaisance of the Northern Coast of Newfoundland. Having done this, he returned, and made port (St. Malo) on the 15tb of September, of the same year. The prestige acquired in his first voyage induced a second. For this purpose three vessels were fitted out during the winter of 1534-35, and, on the 15th day of May, of the latter year, he enuharked again from the same port to pursue his ideal of discovery under the patronage of the French Government.
Entering the broad gulf at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, he sailed up that stream as far as the Island of Orleans, in the month of September. . little later, he ascended to the site of the present eity of Montreal, where induce- ments were offered by the natives to go farther to the westward, the country ahounding in great stores of gold and copper ; " that there were three great lakes and a sea of fresh water so large that no man had ever found the end." On the 5th of October, he left Montreal, and returning, wintered on the St. Croix River, and the following summer went back to France.
Five years after, in the year 1540, a charter was granted to Franeis de la Roque, Seigneur de Ruherval, investing him with the supreme power over all ter- ritory north of the English settlements. Under this eharter, a squadron of fine vessels, commanded by Admiral Cartier, and supplied with all the necessaries- men and provisions-for forming a colony, hore Ruherval to his new possessions. Upou their arrival a fort was erected with Cartier as Commandant, and a colony planted under favorable auspices. Subsequently, in 1603, an expedition fitted out by a company of Rouen merchants, with the objective purpose of speculation in the fur trade, was sent over to the same territory, in charge of Samuel Cham- plain, a member of the company. One of the results of this expedition was the founding of the city of Quebec, in 1608.
The great profits realized from the fur trade were inducements for still greater adventure, and the extension of settlements farther westward into the Indian country. These inducements were accepted, and numerous traders and other adventure- loving spirits found their way to the extensive domain of New France. Among these, of course, members of the society of Jesuits were found, and, in 1611, a mission had been established among the Indians of that region. From that time forward, vigorous efforts were made for the furtherance of trade in connection with the establishment of missions for the conversion of the Indians. By means of the assiduous perseverance of the French traders and priests, these efforts were generally attended with success. As a result, it is stated that up to 1621, 500 convents of the Recollets had been established in New France. In 1635, a Jesuit college was founded at Quebec. During that year, Champlain, the first Governor of New France, died, and with him, much of the zeal ineident to prosperous settlements. *
The immediate successor of Champlain as Governor, was Chasteaufort, who was superceded by De Montmagny, in 1636. With this latter appointment, a change in the affairs of the Goverment was noticcable, the fur trade becoming the principal object of attention. A consequence of this policy was the explora- tion of other new territory to enlarge the arena of trade. "Rude forts were erected as a means of defense to the trading-houses " and a-protection to the trade. " Not far remote-a never-failing auxiliary-was the chapel of the JJesuit, sur- mounted hy a cross.".|
Gradually, these explorations extended westward and southward along the margin of the lakes and their tributaries, aud the avenues of trade were opened up. Anterior, however, to the progress of events just noted, during the adminis- tration of Gov. Champlain, " in 1611 and 1612,t he asceuded the Grand River as far as Lake Iluron, called the Fresh Sca ; he went thenee to the Petun
* Sheldon's Hist , Mich., p. 22-1. + Sheldon, p. 23-4.
Į N. Y. Col. Ifist., ix. p. 378.
13
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
Nation. next to the Neutral Nation and to the Mascoutins, who were then resid- ing near the place called the Sakiman (between the head of Lake Erie and the Saginaw Bay); from that he went to the Algonquins and Huron tribes, at war with the Iroquois. He passed by places he has himself deseribed in his hook, which are no other than Detroit and Lake Erie."
In 1640, when Charles Raymuhault and Claude Pijart were appointed to mis- sionary work among the Algonquins of the North and West, " their avenue to the West was by the way of the Ottawa and French Rivers, so that the whole coast of Ohio and Southern Michigan remained unknowu, except as scen hy missionaries from the stations in Canada."* From this, it would he readily inferred, that these localities had heen visited previously, though hy a different route, perhaps, than the one proposed, which was no doubt the faet, because, at a date more than twenty years in advance of this, explorations had been made to locali- tics but little to the northward, for where the missionaries went the traders had gone before.
From 1640 to 1654, continued advances had been made in extending the avenues of trade, and the domain of the missionary enterprise was enlarged also. + " In August (6th), 1654, two young fur traders, smitten with the love of adven- ture, joined a band of Ottawas or other Algonquins, and, in their gondolas of bark, ventured on a voyage of five hundred leagues. After two years, they re-appeared, accompanied by a fleet of fifty canoes. * They * describe the vast lakes of the West, and the numerous tribes that hover round them ; they speak of the Knisteneaux, whose homes stretehed away to the North- ern Sea ; of the powerful Sioux, who dwelt beyond Lake Superior; and they demand commerce with the French, and missionaries for the boundless West."
" The remote nations, by the necessity of the ease, still sought alliance with the French. The Mohawks and their confederates, receiving European arius from Alhany, exterminated the Eries, and approached the Miamis and the Illi- nois. The Western Indians desired eommeree with the French, that they night gain means to resist the Iroquois; and, as furs were abundant there, the traders pressed forward to Green Bay." These traders were followed by mission- aries sent out hy the Bishop of Quebec. The charge fell upon Father Mesnard to visit Green Bay and Lake Superior. This mission was established in 1660. In August (8th), Father Claude Allouez embarked on a mission to the far West. He returned to Quebec, two years afterward, and urged the establishment of permanent missions, to be accompanied hy colonies of French emigrants. Sue- cess attended his efforts, and he was aeeompanied on his return to the mission by Claude Dahlon and James Marquette, then recently from France. Their field of' labor embraced the region of country entending from Green Bay to the head of Lake Superior, and southward to the countries of the Sacs, Foxes, Miamis and Pottawatomies, whither, also, the traders had preceded them.
Again, Father Marquette, in 167I,t "gathered the remains of one branch of the Huron Nation round a chapel at Point St. Ignaee, on the continent nortlı of the peninsula of Michigan." The year following, " the countries south of the village founded by Marquette were explored by Allouez aud Dablon, who bore the Cross through Wiseonsin and the north of Illinois, visiting the Maseou- tins and the Kiekapoos, on the Milwaukee, and the Miamis, at the head of Lake Michigan.“
Iu May, 1669, M. Talon, Intendant of Justice, Police and Finance, under the appointment of Louis, the French King, for the Province of New France, having then recently returned from a conference with his sovereign at. Paris, in carrying out the instructions received, to extend the domain of his dis- eovery in the New World, appointed Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, a person of great energy and diseretion, with instructions " to penetrate further than has [had] ever been done, * to the southwest and south ;" to keep a journal of his adventures in all instances, and, on his return, to reply to the written instructions embraced in his commission. These instructions required, also, that he take possession of all the new territory discovered, in the King's name, displaying the arms of Franee, and issuing proces verbaux to settlers to serve as titles. Reporting this appointment to the King, he remarked : " His Majesty will probably have no news of him before two years from this, and when I shall return to Franee." At the same time, with like instructions, Sieur de St. Luisson was appointed to penetrate to the west and northwest.
Subsequently, in February, 167I, M. Colhert, the King's Seeretary, in a communication addressed to the Intendant, says : "The resolution you have taken to send Sieur de La Salle toward the south, and Sieur de St. Luisson to the north, to discover the South Sea passage, is very good ; but the principal thing to which you ought to apply yourself in discoveries of this nature, is to look for the copper mine. "
As a part of the annual report to the King, in November of the same year, he makes this announcement : " Sieur de La Salle has not yet returned from his journey to the southward of this country. But Sieur de Luisson is returned, after having advaneed as far as five hundred leagues from here [Quehee], and planted the Cross and set up the King's arms in presence of seventeen Indian nations, assembled, on this oeeasion, from all parts, all of whom voluntarily sub- mitted themselves to the dominion of His Majesty, whom alone they regard as their sovereign protector." This meeting was held at the Falls of St. Mary, north of Lake Michigan. He reports, also, that, "according to the caleulations made from the reports of the Indians and from maps, there seems to remain not more than fifteen hundred leagues of navigation to Tartary, China and Japan. Such discoveries must be the work either of time or of the King."
The route pursued by La Salle in this adventure is, to some extent, a matter of eonjeeture, sinee no record made by himself is now known to be extant, except so much as relates to his starting out on such an expedition with Messrs. Dollier and Galline'; and, hecoming dissatisfied with the proposed plans of these two
t Bancroft, II, pp. 320, 321. { Bancroft, I1, pp. 827,328.
gentlemen, to his pursuing a route more in accord with his own judgment. Hav- ing thus separated from them, after a short period of silence, we hear of him a few leagues to the southward of Lake Erie, approaching the head-waters of the principal tributary of the Ohio, the Alleghany, no doubt, which lie deseends until met by a great fall in the river, understood to be the Falls of the Ohio, at Louis- ville. Here the direet narrative ends, and we are left to a consideration of perti- nent circumstanees for tracings of him during the succeeding two or three years. This was in the fall of 1669, and he was the bearer of a commission from the Frenel Government by which he was clothed with authority and directed to make discoveries to the southwest and south of the countries over which their jurisdic- tion thien extended, " and to penetrate in those directions farther than has ever heen done," keeping a journal, and reply, on his return, to the written instrue- tions given-" in all eases to take possession, display the King's arms and draw up proces verbeaux, to serve as titles. Other items in the correspondenee of the government officials, from time to time, during the period of his absence, show that he had not yet returned. Indeed, it was stated in the beginning that his return was not expected until the expiration of two years, at least ; and that he returned accordingly-all these fact tending to show that his movements were fully known by the authorities aforesaid, and in compliance with instructions. Such being the conditions, let us examine, from the context, whether he retraced his steps, as some have affirmed, or took a different route to reach the point contemplated. This objective purpose was to find the outlet of the great river supposed to run to the southwest or south and fall into the Vermilion Sea (Gulf of California), on the western horder of the continent. Animated with a desire to accomplish his mind's ideal of a more direct route to China and Japan, such as seemed to control his actions about the time of his separation from his companions in the vicinity of Lake Erie, it is not presumahle, even, that he was so easily discouraged as to turn baek after having reached the Falls of the Ohio, almost in direct line with his contemplated route. The less objectiouahlo probability is that he either cou- tinued thenee down the Ohio River to the Missisippi, the great " Father of Waters," or started overland toward the line of northern lakes, which might dis- charge an outlet to the westward. Or, again, he may have so farf retraced his steps as to enable him to ascend one of those larger tributaries of the Ohio, the Scioto or Miami, toward the western extremity of Lake Erie, whenee, proceeding north ward, he may have traversed the strait to Lake Huron, and along the eastern houndary of the peninsula of Michigan to the Strait of Miehilimackinae ; thenee, passing to the westward around Green Bay and down the west side of Lake Michigan to its southern border. Leaving this point, his route seemed to lay in the direction of the Illinois, erossing which, he is said to have traced its course to the Mississippi, and, perchance, descended its muddy channel. This route is, in part, coujeetural, hut not wholly so, since the nearest approach to an account of his travels yet produced, incidentally refers to that portion of his travels after leaving Lake Erie, at a period subsequent to his passage down the Ohio.
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