USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > History of Fort Wayne, from the earliest known accounts of this point, to the present period. Embracing an extended view of the aboriginal tribes of the Northwest, including, more especially, the Miamies with a sketch of the life of General Anthony Wyane; including also a lengthy biography of pioneer settlers of Fort Wayne. Also an account of the manufacturing, mercantile, and railroad interests of Fort Wayne and vicinity > Part 12
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MORRIS AND HIS GUIDES ARRIVE HERE.
it, the whole Indian army, circle within circle, standing round us. Godefroi sat at a little distance from us; and presently came Pon- diac,* and squatted himself, after his fashion, opposite to me. This Indian," continues he, " has a more extensive power than ever was known among that people ; for every chief used to command his own tribe: but eighteen nations, by French intrigne, had been brought to unite, and chuse this man for their commander, after the English had conquered Canada ; having been taught to believe, that, aided by France, they might make a vigorous push and drive us out of North America." * * " Pondiac said to my chief: 'If you have made peace with the English, we have no business to make war on them. The war-belt came from you.' He afterwards said to Godefroi: 'I will lead the nations to war no more; let'em be at peace, if they chuse it; but I myself will never be a friend to the English. I shall now become a wanderer in the woods ; and if they come to seek me there, while I have an arrow left I will shoot at them.'
"He made a speech to the chiefs," continues Morris, "who wanted to put me to death, which does him honor ; and shows that he was acquainted with the law of nations ; . We must not,' said he; " kill ambassadors ; do we not send them to the Flat-heads, our greatest enemies, and they to us? Yet, these are always treated with hospitality.'"
After relieving the party of all but their canoe, clothing; and arms, they were permitted to resume their course without further molestation.
Quitting the inhospitable camp of Pontiac; with poles and pad- dles, against a strong current, they continued their course up the beautiful Maumee, and, in seven days from their first out-set, in the morning, they arrived and made a landing, within sight of Fort Miami, (at this point) which, from the time of its capture, after the death of Holmes, the previous year, had been without a garrison, its only occupants being a few Canadians who had erec- ted some huts within its enciosure, together with a small number of Indians who made it their place of shelter for a time. The open points in the locality of the fort, at that time, were princi- pally covered with the wigwams of the Kickapoos, quite a large body of whom having but lately reached here. On the opposite side,t covered by an intervening strip of forest, quite hiden from view, stood the Miami villages.
Having brought the canoe to a place of landing, a short distance below the fort, and began the adjustment of some necessary affairs;
*The former style of spelling the name, or at least as usually spelt by the English at. that time.
+At the period of Morris' arrival at this point, and for many years after, the reader must infer that the huts of the Miamies extended on both sides of the St. Joseph, dot- ting much of the field adjacent to the " Mad Anthony Park" or orchard, including, perhaps, mueh of the present site of the orehard itself, and on the opposite side, run ning as far west, os the Agricultural Works and theresbout.
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HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
his attendants strode off through the strip of woods* towards the village; and it is stated as most fortunate that he thus remained behind, for, scarcely had his attendants reached the open space be- yond the woods, when they were met by a band of savages, armed with spears, hatchets, and bows and arrows, resolutely determining to destroy the Englishman, Morris .; Not yet perceiving him, the chiefs accompanying Morris, began at once to address them, and to endeavor to dissuade them from their purpose, which had the desired effect, at least, in so far as taking his life was concerned. Coming up, in a few moments, to the point where Morris stood, they at once began to threaten him and treat him very roughly, and took him to the fort, where he was commanded to remain, for- bidding the Canadians there to permit him to enter their huts. A deputation of Shawanoe and Delaware chiefs, which tribes, the reader will remember, were at that time making great prepara- tions to move against the English, though pretending to be friendly, had recently come to the Miami village here, with fourteen war- belts, and with a view of arousing the Miamies again to arms against the English; and it was to these that was mainly ascribed the cause of Morris' treatment on his arrival here. From this point they had proceeded westward, arousing a similar spirit among all the tribes from the Mississippi to the Ohio, avowing that they would never make friends with the English-that they would fight them as long as the sun shone; and earnestly pressed the Illinois tribes to join them in their terrible determination.
But Morris had not long remained at the fort, before two Miami warriors came to him, and, with raised tomahawks, grasped hin by the arms, forced him without the garrison, and led him to the river. Walking forward into the water with him, Morris' first thought was that the Indians sought to drown him, and then take his scalp ; but, instead, they led him across the stream, then quite low, and moved towards the center of the Miami village, on the west side of the St. Joseph. Nearing the wigwams, the Indians ceased to go further, and at once sought to undress him ; but finding the task rather difficult, they became quite angry thereat, and Morris himself, " in rage and despair," "tore off his uniform." Then tying his arms behind him with his own sash, the Indians drove him forward into the village. Speedily issuing from all the wigwams to see and receive the prisoner, in great numbers, the Indians gathered about him, "like a swarm of angry bees," giving vent to terrific yells-" sounds compared to which, the noc- turnal howlings of starved wolves are gentle and melodious."} The largest portion of the villagers were for killing him; but a division arising between them, as to what was best to do with him, readily
*This point must have been near or just below the confluence of the St. Mary and St. Joseph. A visit to and little survey of all these points, would render them the more interesting and familiar to the thoughtful and curious.
+His. Consp. Pontiac, p 471.
¿Parkman.
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81
ROUGH TREATMENT OF MORRIS AT THE MIAMI VILLAGE.
developed a vociferous debate ; when two of the Canadians, of the names of Godefroi and St. Vincent, who had accompanied him to this point, and who had now followed him to the village, came for- ward and began to intercede with the chiefs in behalf of their pris- oner. A nephew of Pontiac was among the chiefs,-who is rep- resented as a young man, possessing much of the bold spirit of his uncle, and who heroically spoke against the propriety of killing the prisoner; and Godefroi desisted, saying "that he would not see one of the Englishmen put to death, when so many of the Indians were in the hands of the army at Detroit." A Miami chief, called the Swan, is also represented as having protected the prisoner, and cut the sash binding his arms. Morris, beginning now to speak in his own defense, was again seized by a chief called the White Cat, and bound to a post by the neck; at which another chief, called the Pacanne, rode up on horseback, cut the band with his hatchet, at once giving Morris his freedom again, exclaiming, as he did so, " I give this Englishman his life. If you want English meat, go to Detroit or to the lake, and you will find enough of it. What busi- ness have you with this man, who has come to speak with us ?"
The determined will and bold words of Pacanne had the desired effect. A change of feeling now readily began to show itself; and the prisoner, without further words or beating from any of the crowd; was soon violently driven out of the village, whither he soon made his way to the fort. On his way, however, it is stated, an Indian met him, and, with a stick, beat his exposed body.
His position was now most critical ; and while the Canadians in the fort were disposed to protect him, they were yet loth to lay themselves liable to distrust or danger; and the same warriors who had taken him to the village, were now lurking about, ready to em- brace the first opportunity to kill him ; while the Kickapoos, near by, had sent him word that, if the Miamies did not kill him, they would whenever he passed their camp. Again, on the eve of set- ting out on his journey to the Illinois, notwithstanding the dan- gers now thickening about him, and the great distance yet before him, his Canadian and Indian attendants strongly urged him not to proceed farther ; and, on the evening of this day, they held a coun- cil with the Miami chiefs, wherein it became the more evident that his situation was most perilous, and that any attempt to continue his journey would be most disastrous; and while many messages were continually reaching him, threatening to put an end to his life, should he attempt to fulfill his mission, report was also con- veyed to him that several of the Shawanoe deputies were then re- turning to the garrison expressly to kill him. Under these circum- stances, readily abandoning his determination to proceed farther, he soon began to row his bark towards Detroit, whither he arrived on the 17th of September. Not finding Bradstreet there, as he had anticipated, he having returned to Sandusky, and Morris, now quite weary and fatigued, unable to proceed farther, from the hardships
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ITISTOY OF FORT WAYNE.
he had undergone, soon sent the former an account of his efforts, in which, together with the facts already presented, was the following, bearing date September 18:
"The villains have nipped our fairest hopes in the bud. I trem- ble for you at Sandusky ; though I was pleased to find you have one of the vessels with you, and artillery. I wish the chiefs were assembled on board the vessel, and that she had a hole in her bot- tom: Treachery should be paid with treachery ; and it is more than ordinary pleasure to deceive those who would deceive us."
Bradstreet's main object in returning to Sandusky, was to fulfill his promise with the Delaware and Shawanoe ambassadors to meet them at that point,-about the period of Morris' return .- to receive the prisoners held by them, and conclude a treaty of peace. The deputation not coming to time, left him much disappointed for sev- eral days, when a number of warriors of these tribes came to Brad- street's camp with the plea, that, if he would not attack them, they would bring the prisoners the next week, which Bradstreet readily accepted, and, removing his camp to the carrying-place of Sandns- ky, lay in waiting for the Indians and the prisoners. Soon receiv- ing a letter from General Gage, condemnatory of his course,-in- sisting that his mode of treatment with the Indians was inadequate to effect any good results with them, and ordering him to break en- gagements with them, and move upon the enemy at once, -- close upon the receipt of which also came the journal of Captain Morris, enabling him readily to see " how signally he had been duped ; " though subsequent facts proved that some good did result from Bradstreet's course with the Indians at Detroit, as many of them had become more reasonable and tranquil in their actions. Be- coming dispirited and not seeing fit to comply with Gage's commands, no broke up his camp at Sandusky, and wended his way towards Niagara, meeting with many disasters on his voy- age thither.
Tuo expedition under Bouquet, to the southward, had now done the work. Having penetrated to the center of the Delaware towns, and into the most extensive settlements of the Shawances, about 150 miles from Fort Pitt, to the northwest, with a large body of regular and provincial troops, he soon humbled these wily and unrelenting tribes, and speedily compelled them to deliver all the prisoners in their possession.
During the frontier struggles, for some years prior to Bouquet's campaign, hundreds of families along the borders had been mas- sacred and many carried away to the forest by the Indians; and when Bouquet started on his expedition against the Shawances and Delawares, in the interior, leaving the border settlements, he was eagerly joined by many who, years before, had lost their friends. Among the many prisoners brought into the camp of Bouquet, (over two hundred, in all,) while in the settlements of these tribes, husbands found their wives, and parents their children, from whom
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BOUQUET AND THE CAPTIVES-EFFECTING SCENE.
they had been separated for years. Women, frantic between hope and fear, were running hither and thither, looking piercingly into the face of every child, to find their own, which, perhaps, had died -- and then such shrieks of agony ! Some of the little captives shrank from their own forgotten mothers, and hid in terror in the blankets of the squaws that had adopted them. Some that had been taken away young, had grown up and married Indian husbands or Indian wives, now stood utterly bewildered with conflicting emotions. A young Virginian had found his wife; but his little boy, not two years old when captured, had been torn from her, and had been carried off no one knew whither. One day, a warrior came in leading a child. No one seemed to own it. But soon the mother knew her offspring, and screaming with joy, folded her son to her bosom. An old woman had lost her granddaughter in the French war, nine years before. All her other relatives had died under the knife. Searching, with trembling eagerness, in each face, she at last recognized the altered features of her child. But the girl had forgotten her native tongue, and returned no answer, and made no sign. The old woman groaned, and complained bitterly, that the daughter she had so often sung to sleep on her knees, had forgotten her in her old age. Soldiers and officers were alike overcome. "Sing," said Bouquet to the old lady, "sing the song you used to sing." As the low trembling tones began to ascend, the wild girl gave one sudden start, then listening for a moment longer, her frame shaking like an ague, she burst into a passionate flood of tears. She was indeed the lost child. All else had been offaced from her memory, save the recollection of that sweet song of her infancy. She had heard it in her dreams .* The tender sensibili- ties and affectionate throbbings so often manifested by the civil- ized soul under heavy affliction, were feelings foreign, as a general rule, to the Indian heart. His temperament was iron ; he had ever been nurtured in an opposite condition of growth; and, conse- quently, he is said to have held such expressions of the heart in con- tempt ; but when the song of the old lady was seen by them to touch the captive's heart and bring her again to a mother's arms, they were overcome with emotion, and the heart of the Indian beat heavily under the weight of feeling that suddenly convulsed him as he gazed upon the strange scene then enacted.
Many captive women who returned to the settlements with their friends soon after made their escape, and wandered back to their Indian husbands again, so great was the change that had taken place in their natures. Snch was the magnetic power of the Indian and the wilds of the forest over the civilized sonl.
The English having now subdued the tribes of the northwest, and completed definite treaties with them at Niagara, began to contemplate a further move to the west and north, with a view to securing the country and posts along the findis and Mississippi ; * " States an l Territories of the Great West," pages 138, 137.
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HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
of which Pontiac soon became aware, and, leaving his place of seclusion on the Maumee, where Morris had met him and received such harsh treatment at the hands of his warriors, with four hun- dred of his chiefs, about the close of autumn, passed up to this point, (Fort Wayne) and, after a short stay, on to the Wabash, and thence to the Mississippi, arousing the tribes at every point to pre- pare to meet and destroy the English; and, having gained the French settlements and other places where the French traders and habitans were to be met, and where the flag of France was still displayed, (for the French held the country about the Illinois, Mis- sissippi, and to the southward, as far as New Orleans, for some time after the loss of Canada and the upper posts,) the French fur- traders and engagees, who dreaded the rivalry of the English in the fur-trade, readily gave encouragement to Pontiac and his followers, still insisting that the King of France was again awake, and his great armies were coming; " that the bayonets of the white-coated warriors would soon glitter amid the forests of the Mississippi." But Pontiac seemed doomed to disappointment and failure; and, after repeated efforts, having visited New Orleans, to gain the aid of the French governor of Louisiana, he returned again to the west.
Determining to try the virtues of peace proposals in advance of the army to the westward and southward, Sir William Johnson sent forward two messengers, Lieut. Fraser and George Croghan, to treat with the Indians on the Mississippi and Illinois. After many hardships, and the loss of their stores, through the severity of the winter, &c., they reached Fort Pitt, where, after some delay und the severe cold had subsided, with a few attendants, Fraser made his way safely down the Ohio for a thousand miles, where, coming to a halt, he met with very rough treatment from the In- dians. A short time after, in the month of May, Croghan, with some Shawnoe and Delaware attendants, also moved down the Ohio, as far as the mouth of the Wabash, where, being fired upon by a party of Kickapoos, and several of the attendants killed, Croghan and the remainder were taken prisoners, whither they proceeded to Vincennes, where, finding many friendly Indians, he was well re- ceived, and the Kickapoos strongly censured for their work. From this point they went to Ouiatenon, arriving there on the 23d, where also Croghan met a great many friendly Indians. Here he began to make preparations for a council, and was met by a large num- ber of Indians, who smoked the pipe of peace with him. Soon re- ceiving an invitation, from St. Ange, to visit Fort Chartres, lower down, Croghau, accompanied by a large number of Indians, left Quiatenon for that point, and had not journeyed far when they met Pontiac and a large body of chiefs and warriors. Pontiac shook the hand of Croghan, who at once returned with the party to Ouiate- non, where a great concourse of chiefs and warriors were gathered.
Pontiac complained that the French had deceived him, and offered the calumet and peace-belt, professing strong concurrence
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85
CROGHAN'S JOURNAL.
with the Ouiatenon chiefs in their expressions of friendship for the English.
At the conclusion of this meeting, collecting the tribes here lie had desired to meet, he soon took up his line of march, followed by Pontiac and a large number of chiefs, and set out towards De- troit, crossing over to this point, Fort Miami, and the village ad- jacent.
Having kept a regular journal of his mission, filling it up at every point on the route,-from which the foregoing is princi- pally drawn,-while here, he wrote,
" August 1st, (1765). The Twigtwee (Twightwee) village is sit- uated on both sides of a river, called St. Joseph. This river where it falls into the Miami (Maumee) river, about a quarter of a mile from this place, is one hundred yards wide, on the east side of which stands a stockade fort, somewhat ruinous .*
"The Indian village consists of about forty or fifty cabins, be- sides nine or ten French houses, a runaway colony from Detroit, during the late Indian war; they were concerned in it, and being afraid of punishment, came to this point, where ever since they have spirited up the Indians against the English. * * *
The country is pleasant, the soil is rich and well watered. After several conferences with these Indians, and their delivering me up all the English prisoners they had, on the 6th of August we set out for Detroit, down the Miamis river in a canoe.
"August 17th .- In the morning we arrived at the fort, (Detroit) which is a large stockade, inclosing about eighty houses ; It stands close on the north side of the river, on a high bank, commands a very pleasant prospect for nine miles above, and nine miles below the fort; the country is thickly settled with French, their plantations are generally laid about three or four acres in breadth on the river, and eighty acres in depth ; the soil is good, producing plenty of grain."" Says the Canadians were both poor and idle,-some 300 or 400 families, depending mainly upon the Indians for subsistence ; had adopted the Indian manners and customs, raising but little grain, and all, men, women, and children, speaking the Indian lan- guage perfectly well, etc.
Many Ottawas, Pottawattamies, and Ojibwas were now assem- bled, and, in the same old council hall where Pontiac, some months . before, by stratagem, had essayed to overthrow the English, great throngs of relenting warriors readily convened in obedience to the call of the English ambassador. The expressions among the tribes and deputies of tribes present, was one of mingled repentence and regret; and on the twenty-seventh of August, Croghan addressed them, after their own figurative style, as follows:
"Children, we are very glad to see so many of you here present
*Any one, from this account, can at any time easily ascertain the site of the old English fort, Miami, of which the reader is already quite familiar.
{" Western Annals," pages 184 and 185.
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HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
at your ancient council-fire, which has been neglected for some time past ; since then, high winds have blown, and raised heavy clouds over your country. I now, by this belt, rekindle your an- cient fire, and throw dry wood upon it, that the blaze may ascend to heaven, so that all nations may see it, and know that you live in peace and tranquility with your fathers the English.
" By this belt I disperse all the black clouds from over your licads, that the sun may shine clear on your women and children, that those unborn may enjoy the blessings of this general peace, now so happily settled between your fathers the English and you, and all your younger brethren to the sun-setting.
" Children, by this belt I gather up all the bones of your de- ceased friends, and bury them deep in the ground, that the buds and sweet flowers of the earth may grow over them, that we may not see them any more.
"Children, with this belt I take the hatchet out of your hands, and pluck up a large tree, and bury it deep, so that it may never be found any more ; and I plant the tree of peace, which all our children may sit under, and smoke in peace with their fathers.
" Children, we have made a road from the sunrising to the sun- setting. I desire that you will preserve that road good and pleas- ant to travel upon, that we may all share the blessing of this happy union."
Closing this great peace-gathering about the last of September, 1765, and after exacting a promise from Pontiac that he would visit Oswego in the spring, and, in behalf of all the tribes he had so recently led against the English, conclude a treaty of peace and amity with Sir William Johnson, Croghan left the scene of his suc- cessful labors, and wended his way towards Niagara.
About the period of the first snow, the 42d regiment of High- landers, a hundred strong, having moved down the Ohio, from Fort Pitt, commanded by Capt. Sterling, arrived at Fort Chartres. The fleur de lis of France was soon lowered ; and, in its stead, the Eng- lish planted their standard and forever destroyed the French power in America-holding, as the English then did, and for many years subsequent, all the western posts, from Canada to the Illinois-which left the Indians also with but little to hope for.
When spring came, Pontiac, true to his word, with his canoe, left his old home on the Manmec, for Oswego, whither he soon ar- rived, and where he made a great speech, and ." sealed his submis- sion to the English" forever.
His canoe laden with the presents he had received at the great council of Oswego, he rowed rapidly toward the Maumee again, where he is said to have spent the following winter, living " in the forest with his wives and children, and hunting like an ordinary warrior." In the spring of 1767, considerable discontent began again to manifest itself among the tribes "from the lakes to the Potomac," and from which eventually came the spilling of much
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ST
DEATH OF PONTIAC.
blood, as at former periods, along the frontier. The Indians had been disturbed in the possession of their lands, and had begun all- other terrible resentment. Pontiac had now long strangely kept out of the way. Whether he had been party to the agitation along the border or not, was not known ; but many had their suspicions. For two years subsequent to this period, Pontiac seems to have kept so close, some where, that few, if any, but his own imme- (liate friends, perhaps, knew or heard of his whereabouts. In the nonth of April,* 1769, however, he seems again to have visited the Illinois, and though not knowing that he had anything special in view, yet the English in that region were excited by his move- ments. From this point, he soon after started for the (then) French settlement of St. Louis, (Mo.), where he was soon after murdered.
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