USA > Indiana > Allen County > History of Allen County, Indiana, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > 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 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85
Taking into consideration all the facts pertinent to the issue, thus far devel- oped, the more probable route, after leaving the Falls of tho Ohio, at Louisville, wus down that river to he mouth of the Wabash, sinee, on a manuscript map, drawn in 1673, and still etxtant, exhibiting the area of discovery at that date, the Mississippi River is not shown, but the Ohio is traced a short distance helow the Falls, and a part of Eastern and Northern Illinois delincated thereon. From this, the inference is naturally and reasonably drawn that, with the information manifestly in the possession of the compiler of that map, and who must have heen, at the same time, cognizant of the movements of M. de La Salle, if not a companion, it is highly probable that, if the Mississippi liad been then discov- ered, or La Salle had descended the Ohio below the mouth of the Wabash, these additional areas of discovery would have been represented also. " And this," says Mr. Parkman ( who is the possessor of this map), in his account of M. de La Salle's proceedings at that time, " is very significant, as indieating the extent of La Salle's exploration of the following year, 1670."
Accepting this probability as true-and there seems to be little reason to doubt it-that he ascended the Wabash, where did he leave that stream ? The obvious answer is, that if he subsequently embarked on the western extremity of Lake Erie, and ascended the Strait to Lake St. Clair aud heyond, as we have seen, he must have traversed it to " the carrying.place" on " La Riviere de Portage," or Little River, and thenee, hy the portage, to the river " de la Roelie " ( Maumee), at " Ke-ki-ong-a,' and down that river until it debouches into Lake Erie. This is the more probable, too, in view of the further fact that, being a trader as well as a discoverer, the greater inducement was in favor of the central or chief village of the Miamis, not only the principal arena of trade, hut the great converging point of all the sources of information, als stated by Little Turtle in his address to Gen. Wayne at the treaty of Greenville, and his statement was not mere speeulation, hut founded on the traditions of his fathers from time immemorial. Hence, the route was practical, since it offered the means of aequiring more complete and accurate informatiou than was obtain- able from any other souree, coneerning what he most desired to know.
As an objective point, also, Ke- ki-ong-a may have been, and very likely was, visited at an earlier period hy adventurers or traders, seeking new sources of traf- fie, or by priests, desiring to extend the area of civilization hy instructing the natives in a knowledge of the duties imposed by the teaching of the Great Spirit whom they ignorantly worshiped. In support of the proposition that this poiut had been previously visited by white men, it may be stated as a fact that, as early as 1611-12, Champlain, during a series of voyages up the Ottaway to Lake Nipissing, Georgian Bay, Lakes Huron and St. Clair, to the Strait [ Detroit River], thence he deseended the channel to Lake Erie, and, passing around its western extremity, he examined the coast to the southward along the lower extrem- ity of the peninsula of Michigan on his return voyage. Accompanying this expedition was a number of Freweh traders and hunters, who occasionally
* Bancroft, 11, p. 306.
11
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
ventured to greater distances from the shore, in search of game or to gratify curiosity.
About the same time, also, the adventure-loving and persevering Jesuits had formued a part of numerous emigrating hands, spreading over the entire area of New France, and, hy their earnest, active zeal, were establishing missions among the savages wherever they went, the number of converts, prior to 1621, amount- ing to 500. The following year, additional priests were sent from France to aid in the work, and, in 1635, a Jesuit College was founded at Quehec. With the facilities thus afforded, the cultivation of new fields of labor was prosecuted with vigor, extending over the vast domain appropriated hy the French King, the establishment of missions depending upon the success with which their lahors were crowned.
Again, in 1636, upon the incoming of the successor of Champlaine, M. de Moutmagny, the interests of the fur trade were especially promoted, and greater activity manifested in that department hy sending out into remote districts per- sons adapted to the wants of the situation. Hunters and traders were indueed hy official recognition to penetrate far into the country of the natives, to negotiate for and secure the trade of distant trihes not before visited, and to carry with them such articles of traffic as would he adapted to the wants of the people where they might temporarily sojourn. By this means, the Indians, in exchange for the furs and peltries, could supply themselves with hatchets, knives and guns, and the opportunities so presented of securing those necessary articles, operated as encour- agements to the Indians to greater effort in procuring the furs required by the traders. Borders of lakes were visited and the larger streams flowing into theni were traversed by these adventurers, in pursuit of these commodities of trade. These traders, as we have seen, were either accompanied or followed hy priests. For purposes of defense, and for the protection of their stores against ravage, rude forts or stockades were created at every head-center of trade. The line of travel was generally suggested hy the aseertained haunts of fur-bearing animals. Hence, the margin of lakes and rivers bordered hy lowlands, were considered the hest points, and offered the greatest inducements to these fur hunters and traders. It had been early ascertained that the margin of Lake Erie, and Lake Michigan as well, were hordered hy lowlands, especially on the south and west. Where the Maumee enters Lake Erie, and for many leagues ahove the mouth of that stream, hoth sides, as long as 160 years ago, at least, were hordered by one vast swamp, abounding at all times with game in numerous variety. Farther up, at the Glaise, and in the vicinity, buffaloes were always to he found. Much of the country. also, between the two lakes, was of the same character, and, as a consequence, was fre- quently visited in search of the class of furs usually found in such localities.
When Raymhault and Pijart were appointed to missionary work among the Algonquins of the North aud West, in 1640, their avenue to the West was hy the way of the Ottawa and French Rivers, and " that the whole coast of Ohio and Southern Michigan remained unknown, except as seen hy missionaries from their stations in Canada." The presumption follows, then, that even at that early date. and hefore, this locality had heen traversed hy these missionaries, and hy traders also, for it is generally conceded that where missionaries have gone the traders have gone hefore. Indeed, the country lying hut a little to the north of this, had heen explored more than twenty years in advance of this date. Of this there can he hut little doubt, if we accept the statement of Champlain in his narrative of explorations.
Returning again to the consideration of the question whether La Salle, dnr- ing the period of his two years' ahsence, from 1669 to 1671, ascended the Wahash to this point, in making connection hetween the Falls of Obio and the west end of Lake Erie; as stated ahove, let it he ohserved that in an official account of his voyages and explorations, the following passages occur :
" In 1676, Sieur de La Salle caused a ship and large house to he huilt above the Falls of Niagara, within three or four leagues of Lake Erie, * * * which, being completed in 1677, ahout the feast of St. John the Baptist, was con- ducted, freighted with merchandise, into the said Lake Eric, and thence passed through the Detroit [Strait]: * *
* navigated Lake Huron as far as Missilimackanack, and thence through that of the Illinois or Missagan heyond the Huron Islands; which said hark was constructed for the greater convenience of trading with the French, who inhabited the said place of Missilimakinak for more than forty years [1637]. * *
* For the continuanee of which trade, he eaused a fort and buildings to he erected and a hark to be hegun, at a place called Crevecoeur, in order to proceed as far as the South Sea, two-thirds of which bark only were huilt, the said Sieur de La Salle having after- ward employed canoes for this trade in said countries, as he had already done for several years, in the rivers Oyo, Quabach and others in the surrounding neighborhood, which flow into the said river Mississippi, whereof possession was taken hy him in the King's name, as appears by the relations made thereof. The countries and rivers of the Oyo or Ahache and circumjacent territory were inhabited hy our Indians, the Chaouanons, Miamis and Illinois." [N. Y. Col. Doc. IX, 182, 183.]
If he had traversed the Wahash and traded along it in canoes several years prior to 1676, at what time is it prohahle these voyages were made and the trading done? At what other time than'in the fall of 1669, and during the years 1670 and 1671 ? If not within that period, when ? for we have no account of his having done so hetween the years 1672 and 1676, the date at which the above account commences. Furthermore, if he was trading at that time on the Wahash, then his articles of traffic passed up La Riviere de Portage, were trans- ported over " the carrying-place " to the St. Mary's, reshipped and taken down the Maumce to Lake Erie. What more prohahle route? What more natural point for the location of a fort, palisaded according to the necessities for protec- tion and defense, than that at the head of the " portage," on the St. Mary's? Witbout direct proof to the contrary, the propositions will be accepted as true, that he traded along the upper Wabash in 1669-71, visited Ke-ki-ong-a
frequently during that period, and caused the old fort to be erected there ahout the year 1670.
Count de Frontenac was appointed Governor General of the province of New France in 1672, and with his appointment at that period commenced an epoch noted for the energy manifested hy him in reviving the spirit of discovery, and for the judicious management of the affairs of the province. " His first efforts were directed to the extension of the French interests in the region of the great lakes. Under his guidance and encouragement, the posts of Michilmackinac and Sault Ste. Marie were established, former explorations perfected, and conciliatory treaties made with the immense hordes of Indians, who roamed through that far-off wilderness." The perfection of discoveries to which referenee is made extended not only over territory since known as Canada, but over the entire domain of New France, including the valley of the Maumee and St. Mary's, and the great valley of the Wahash, for all this was a part of the dominion of France in North America.
As early as 1611-12, Freneh priests of the Franciscan and Jesuit Orders hegan to extend their missionary work far to the westward. It was not until many years later that we find any trace- of them among the Miamis of this viein- ity. In 1632, the shores of Lake Huron had heen visited hy Father Sagard. Nine years later, Fathers Rayiuhault and Jogues penetrated as far as Sault Ste. Marie, hut Rene Mesnard, in 1660, and Claude Allouez, in 1666, appear to have been first to establish missions as far to the westward as the Bay des l'uans. The mission at Sault Ste. Marie was permanently established in 1668, and, the year following, Father Marquette having succeeded Allonez at. La Pointe, the lat- ter thien established himself at Green Bay, whence that earnest Father began to enlarge his field of lahor. visiting the countries to the southward and westward of Lake Michigan. Although we have no direct account of the exact period when the mission was established among the Miamis, yet, in view of the direction pur- sued by Allouez about this time. it is fair to presume that Ke-ki-ong-a was vis- ited hy one or more of these priests as early as 1669 or 1670, for, in May, 1671, a grand council of all the adjacent tribes, including the Miamis, previously vis- ited or communicated with, was held at Sault Ste. Marie, in whose presence and with whose consent the Governor General of New France took " possession, in the name of His Majesty, of all the lands lying between the east and west, and from Montreal to the south, so far as it could be done."
Meanwhile, Allouez had heeu pursuing his labors among the Miamis, and extending the heneficent influence of his holy faith ; but it appears to have heen reserved to Marquette to establish a mission among them, and erect there the standard of the Cross, in the year 1673. On the 18th of May, 1675, Marquette died on the river that has sinee taken his name, near the margin of the lake, in southwestern Michigan. Allouez died also, soon after, in the midst of his labors among the Miamis. According to the account given by Hennepin, of the pro- gress made in Christianizing the Indians, it appears that the mission on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, was not established until 1679. The following is his account of the establishment of a post at the mouth of the river, afterward called Fort Miami :
" Just at the mouth of the river Mialuis, there was an eminence, with a kind of platform, naturally fortified. It was pretty high and steep, of a trian- gular form-defended on two sides by the river, and on the other hy a deep diteh, which the fall of the water had made. We felled the trees that were on the top of the hill, and, having eleared the same from bushes for ahout two muusket-shot, we began to huild a.redoubt of eighty feet long, and forty feet broad, with great, square pieces of timber, laid one upon another ; and prepared a great number of stakes, of about twenty-five feet long, to drive into the ground, to make our fort more inaccessible on the river side. We employed the whole month of November (1679), ahout that work, which was very hard, though we had no other food hut the bear's flesh our savage killed. These beasts are very common in that place, hecause of the great quantity of grapes that ahound there; hut their flesh heing too fat and luscious, our men began to he weary of it, and desired to leave to go a-hunting and kill some wild goats. M. de La Salle denied them that liherty, which caused some murmurs among them ; and it was unwillingly that they continued the work. This, together with the approach of the winter, and the apprehension that M. de La Salle had that his vessel (the Griffin) was lost, made him very melancholy, though he conecaled it as much as he could. We made a cahin wherein we performed divine service every Sunday ; and Father Gabriel and I, who preached alternately, took care to take such texts as were suitable to our present circumstances, and fit to inspire us with courage, concord and brotherly love."
This same Father, the year following, visited the villages of the Miamis in the vicinity and ou the Illinois River, in his experiences, learning much of the hahits and mode of thought of their people, of whom he said: "There were many obstacles that hindered the conversion of the savage; hut, in general, the difficulty proceeds from the indifference they have co everything. When one speaks to them of the creation of the. world and of the mysteries of the Christian religion, they say we have reason, and they applaud, in general, all that we say on the great affairs of our salvation. They would think themselves guilty of a great incivility if they should show the least suspicion of incredulity in respeet to what is proposed. But, after having approved all the discourses upon these inatters, they pretend likewise, on their side, that we ought to pay all possible deference to the relations and reasonings that they may make on their part." Superstition, he says, is one of the great hindrances to conversion, and the cus- tom of traders, in common with themselves, to make the most of the hargain hy cheating, lying and artifice, to promote personal gain, thus eneouraging fraud and iujustice. On the other hand, "the best accounts agree that it was through the agency and persevering exertions of missionariea, combined with the active and enterprising movements of traders, that amicahle relations and a moderate trade were brought ahout between the colonists of Canada and the Miami Indians
15
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
in the seventeenth century. The Indian trade," says Mr. Dillon, ." was carried on by means of men (coureurs des hois), who were hired to manage small vessels on the lakes, and canoes along the shores of the lakes and on the rivers, and to carry burdens of merchandise from the different trading.posts to the principal villages of the Indians who were at peace with the French. At those places, the traders exchanged their wares for valuable furs, with which they returned to the places of deposit. The articles of merchandise used by the French traders in carrying on the fur trade were, chiefly, coarse blue and red cloths, fine scarlet, guns, powder, halls, knives, hatehets, traps, kettles, hoes, blankets, coarse cottons, ribbons, beads, vermilion, tohaceo, spirituous liquors, ete. The poorest elass of fur traders sometimes carried their packs of merchandise by means of leather straps suspended from their shoulders, or with the straps resting against their foreheads. It is probable that some of the Indian villages on the borders of the Wabash were visited by a few of this class of traders before the French founded a settlement at Kaskaskia. It has been intimated, conjecturally, hy a learned writer (Bishop Brut(). that missionaries and traders, before the close of the sev- enteenth century, passed down from the river St. Joseph, left the Kankakee to the west, and visited the Tippecanoe, the Ecl River and the upper parts of the Wabash."
Consequent upon the changes occurring in the administration of Canadian affairs, from the death of Champlain, in 1635. to the year 1672, when Count de Frontenac was appointed Governor-General, a manifest want of judicious manage- ment was apparent in the conduct of administrative officers and subordinates intrusted with the direction of under colonial affairs. The effect of this was to create distrust, induce insubordination, and retard the operations incident to the prosperity of frontier settlements. At this latter date, and subsequently, there was an advance in the regulatory system, and greater activity in the extensions of trade and settlements. Military posts were established and garrisoned, as a means of protecting those engaged in them, at the principal points designated, as war- ranted by the demands of these developing interests. As early as 1672, a eon- siderable trade had grown up among the Miamis and their allies, in the territory watered hy the St. Joseph aud Maumee Rivers, adjacent to Lake Erie, which, in a not very remote period in the future, would demand the attention of the colon- ial authorities to protect and encourage. In common, therefore, with other points of no greater commercial value, a military post was established here and maintained by the Government.
As we have already shown, a fort was built by La Salle, in 1679, at the mouth of the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan, ostensibly for the purpose of pro- tecting trade, but, without doubt, for another purpose, then quite as apparent, defense against the incursions of warlike bands of the Iroquois, especially, who, at that time and for two years or more, had been engaged in a war with the Illi- nois and Miamis, a circumstance, also, tending to show why he had not continued at the head of the Miami of Lake Erie in line of most direct communication between the lakes and Mississippi trade, which had been discovered and traversed by him and his associates for some time previously.
Count Frontenae, in a communication to the French King, dated November 2, 1681, speaking of the relations existing in his department, between the Iroquois and the Western tribes, he says : " The Mohawks bave done nothing in violation of the promises of the ambassadors whom they sent last autumn; but the Onon- dagas and Senecas have not appeared, by their conduet, to be similarly minded and disposed."
" The artifices of certain persons, to which the English, perhaps, have united theirs, have induced them to continue the war against the Illinois, notwithstand- ing every representation I had made to them. They hurnt one of their villages, and took six or seven hundred prisoners, though mostly children and old women. What is more vexatious is, that they wounded, with a knife, Sieur de Tonty, who was endeavoring to bring about some arrangement between them, and who had been left by Sieur de La Salle in this same village, with some Frenchmen, to pro- tect the post he had constructed there. A Recollet Friar, aged seventy years, was also found to have been killed whilst retiring. So that, having waited the entire of this year to see whether I should have any news of them, and whether they would uot send to offer me some satisfaction, I resolved to invite them to repair uext year to Fort Frontenae to explain their conduct to me.
" 'Though of no consideration, they have hccome, Sire, so insolent since their expedition against the Illinois, and are so strongly encouraged in these senti- ments, in order that they he induced to continue the war, under the impression that it will embarrass Sieur de La Salle's discoveries, that it is to be feared they will push their insolence farther, aud, on perceiving that we do not afford any succor to our allies, attribute this to a want of power, that may ereate in them to come and attack us."
Some time during the following year, La Salle, in a letter to the Governor General of Canada, mentioned the fact of the existence of a shorter route to the Mississippi than that usually traveled, from Lake Erie up the Maumee, to the Portage ; thence down the Wabash to the Ohio and the great Father of Waters, which he had previously discovered ; notwithstanding which, it bas been the eus- tam of explorers and traders " to go round by the lakes, sometimes descending by Green Bay and the Fox and Illinois Rivers, or hy the head of Lake Michigan, up the St. Joseph's of the lake, to the present site of South Bend ; theuee hy port- age to the Kankakee, and down that river." Why this most direet route should have heen so long ignored, and the other one so long used, apparently with the idea that there was no other, is satisfactorily answered hy M. de La Salle him- self, in a letter hearing date October, 1682: " Because I can no longer go to the Illinois but by the Lakes Huron and Illinois, the other ways which I have dis- covered, by the head of Lake Erie and by the southern coast of the same, hecon- iug too dangerous hy frequent encounters with the Iroquois, who are always upon these coasts." [" Parceque je ne pourrois plus aller aux Islinois, que par les lacs Huron et Islinois, les autres chemins, que j'ay descouverts par le haut dulac
Érié et par la coste méridionale du mêsme lae devenant trop dangereux par les rencontres frequentes des Iroquois, qui sont tousjours de ces eostez-la."]
These conditions continuing to surround the village of the Miamis at the head of the Manmee, as long as hostilities existed between those parties, no steps appear to have been taken toward the erection of a fort there other than that probably built by La Salle, while he occupied the place as a trading-post, until there was a temporary suspension, at least, of warlike operations among the bel- ligerent elements. In 1685, the French Governor began to adopt positive meas- ures for the protection of the Miamis; yet, with greater or lesser activity on the part of the combatants, the warfare continued for a series of years, heing allayed only by treaty, about 1695. Notwithstanding this temporary interruption of trade along the short route to the Mississippi, it was, neverthless, resumed soon after the obstructions were removed, if not before that time, and the necessary defenses erected for its maintenance. This becomes manifest when it is shown that a commandant was appointed by the French Goverment, and provided with the requisite outfit. In an account of the occurrences in Canada from the 1st of November, 1696, to the 15th of October, 1697, appears the following item coneerning appointments in the military department :
" Count de Frontenac, after having taken the advice of the principal officers of this country, ordered D' Argenteuil to place himself at the head of the soldiers about to proceed to Missilimackinac and the Miamis. Sieur de Vincennes was to command at the latter post. These officers and soldiers have precisely, only what is necessary for their subsistence, and are very expressly forbidden to trade in Beaver." And this appointment carries with it the very reasonable presuniption that a fort had already been huilt, which was necessary to be supplied with officers and men. No change appearing to have been made in the mean time, in a like annual report of the occurrence of the preceding year, bearing date of November 16, 1704, was the following statement of appointments made :
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.