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 5
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The following interesting account of the Miamies was written as early as 1718. The writer had made a short stay at the village here,
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21
THE MIAMIES IN 171S
and passed on to their brethren of the Wea and other towns along the Wabash. Says the writer:
"The Miamies are situated sixty leagues from Lake Erie, and number four hundred, all well formed men, and well tattooed ; the women are numerous. They are hard working, and raise a species of maize unlike that of our Indians at Detroit. It is white, of the same size as the other, the skin much finer, and the meal much whiter. This nation is clad in deer skin.# They love plays and dances ; wherefore they have more occupation. The women are well clothed, but the men use scarcely any covering, and are tattooed all over the body. From this Miami village, there is a portage of three leagues to a little and very narrow stream that falls, after a course of twenty leagues, t into the Ohio or the Beautiful River, which dis- charges into the Oanbache-a fine river that falls into the Missis- sippi, forty leagues from Cascachias. Into the Quabache falls also the Casquinampo, which communicates with Carolina; but this is very far off, and always up stream.
"This river Ouabache is the one on which the Ougatenonst are settled. They consist of five villages, which are contiguous the one to the other. One is called Oujatanon; the other Peanquinchias ; and another Petitscatias; and the fourth Lesgros. The name of the last I do not recollect ; but they are all Onjatanons, having the same language as the Miamies-whose brothers they are, and properly all Miamies, having all the same customs and dress. The men arc very numerous-fully a thousand or twelve hundred. They have a custom different from all other nations ; which is, to keep their fort extremely clean, not allowing a blade of grass to remain in it. "The . whole of the fort is sanded like the Tuilleries. Their village is situated on a high hill ; and they have over two leagues of improve- ment, where they raise their Indian corn, pumpkins, and melons. From the summit of this elevation, nothing is visible to the eye but prairies full of buffalo."
In stature, for the most part, the Miamies were of medium height, well built, heads rather round than oblong-countenances agree- able, rather than sedate or morose-swift on foot, and excessively fond of racing-both on foot and horse.|| There were, occasionally to be seen among them some men quite tall, yet with well-pro- portioned bodies. As is intimated in the foregoing, the Twigh- twees or Miamies, unlike most other tribes, were rather cleanly in their habits ; for which they were mostly noted up to a very late period ; and were disposed to cultivate the soil-raising, the maize, beans, squashes, cucumbers, melons, &c. Around and within view *From Colonial History of New York, (a Paris document,) vol. ix, p. 891.
+League, (from the French,) three miles.
#Pronounced as if spelt Wegtenons,
! The Indian race-track, for many years, extended from the south side of the wea end free school building, westward about half a mile For some years before the depars. ure of the Miamies for the west, while the racing was kept up over this track, men from Ohio, and other parts of the country, were accustomed to bring many fast horses here. and often sold them to the Indians at very extravagant prices.
HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
of the present site of Ft. Wayne, at different points, were several small patches of cleared land, which the Indian women and chil- drøn regularly cultivated each year, and brought forth considerable quantities of corn and other products; which, together with the game and fish brought in by the men of the tribe, supplied them with food during the winter. It is a well authenticated fact, how- ever, that, at periods, perhaps in seasons of severe drought, or more especially when the products of their fields were destroyed or over- run, and their villages burned by invading armies, or through conflicts with formidable tribes at more remote periods, and often from neg- lect to prepare for the winter months, the Indians, not unfrequently, found themselves with but scanty supplies for the severe months of winter ; and, huddling themselves about their dingy wigwams, with a few smoking embers in the center, scarcely sufficient to keep them warm, have been known to fast for many consecutive days because of their inability to obtain food.
The extensive field* and open point, just east of, and adjacent to, the confluence of the rivers St. Mary and St. Joseph, in which stands the historic Apple Tree, t near and about which were scattered many of the huts and wigwams of the Miamies to a late period in the present century, had been annually cultivated by this ancient tribe for a period of perhaps one hundred and fifty years or more before the erection of the fort at this point under the direction of General Wayne, in 1794. That their women had long been accustomed to
*As early as 1814, the Indians then here informed John P. Hedges, Esq., -who has now been a resident of Fort Wayne for fifty-five years -- coming here with the army in 1812 .- that this field had been cultivated by others long before them ; and, to. quote their own language, -mingeb-a-westook,-they had planted and raised corn, beans, &s., in this field for many years-a long, long tinic.
+Chief Richardville often told the old settlers here that this old apple tree was there when he was a little boy ; and that it was then a " bearing tree ; " that the hutin which he was born stood very near to it. The chief attained an age of near eighty years, and died in 1841. With these facts it is presumed that, at the present time (September, 1867), the tree is about one hundred and thirty odd years old. From the fact of his early associations, his birth, de., being so intimately related to this old tree and its adjacent localities, Richardville ever looked upon it with the warmest veneration and regard. The tree is thought to have sprang from a seed accidently dropped or purposely planted by some of the early French traders or missionaries visiting this point. In the spring of 1866, a heavy storm swept away its main trunk, leaving it as now seen in the opposite engraving. The circumference, as measured by the writer and a friend, in the month of June, (1867) was 12 feet. The fruit is small, and usually ripens in the month ot October. By the taste of the leaf of the tree, there would seem to be sufficient strength and vitality in it, if not otherwise molested, to survive at least a half century or more to come. Says Mr. J. L. Williams : " We need not question its identity. There are specimens of the hardier varieties in this country now bearing fruit at the age of 150 to 200 years." Let its memory be perpetuated by a careful preservation of it in future years. Its historic renown well entitles it to the careful attention of the present owners of the ancient field of the Miamies, in which it has so long lived, blossomed, and borne its fruit. Let a neat railing be placed about it as a means to its better protection and Fare. It, was out of this tree that an Indian, during the seige of 1812, was shot by one or' the soldiers from the fort, a distance of many hundred yards. In an exulting spirit, one of the beseigers was in the habit of climbing the tree each day for several days, and. hrowing his arms, much like the rooster his wings, when crowing, would utter a noise ery like this fowl, which was finally answered by the crack of a rifle from the rt, and the Indian was seen to fall.
THE , OLD APPLE TREE".
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KE-KI-ONG-A-ITS MEANING.
extensive agricultural pursuits is most fully confirmed by all the early visitant3 of this locality, and the regions adjacent.
In a letter to the Secretary of war, General Knox, bearing date August 14, 1794, General Wayne said: "The margin of those beautiful rivers, the Miamis of the lake (or Maumee) and Auglaize, appear like one continued village for a number of miles, both above and below this place (confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee); nor have I ever beheld such immense fields of corn, in any part of Ameri- ca, from Canada to Florida ."
The accounts of 1812, are of a similar character. Several villages were then located at different points, here and within a range of. some ten miles of Ft. Wayne; the most considerable village then being about ten miles below this point, on the Maumee, A large amount of corn and wheat were then destroyed, much of it purport- ed to have been of a very excellent quality ; showing, that, by a long contact with the English and French, from whom had sprung many of the half-breeds, then so numerous among the Miamics and other tribes living near and about them, these Indians had attained many advantages in civilized relations, in the way of agriculture, &c. ; and many of the villagers were then living in very good log-cabins, raising annually excellent crops of both corn and wheat. Ox-teams, brought from Canada, were also employed among them, at that period, to very good advantage .*
The Indian loved the wild fruits, and here, in the region of Fort Wayne, there were, at an early period, an abundance of wild plums, haws, berries, &c. The Indians were accustomed to cherish the belief that for them the Great Spirit had especially caused these to come forth and ripen with each season ; and every species of food, from the roots, vegetables, and fruits, to the animals themselves, were alike considered as imbued with some peculiar principle in which the Great Spirit had infused some special element of excellence. intended to impart to the red man both health and strength. Here, more especially, the blackberry was most abundant, and from this fact, this point was long known to the Indians as Ke-ki-ong-a, f
* Recollections of Mr. George Taylor, a resident of Plymouth, Ind., who was here in 1812, and, by command of his superior officers of the army, helped to destroy many of the Indian settlements of this region.
+Says Mr. Chas. B. Lasselle, in referring to this point : " The Miami name of this village was Ke-ki-ong-a, which, by an inflection of the last syllable, was pronounced as if writtten Ke-ki-ong'a. The name in English, signifies blackberry patch, which. in its turn, passed among the Miamies as a symbol of antiquity. But whether this name was given it on account of the spot being covered with the blackberry, or was meant to represent it as the most ancient village of their race in this country, is not known. though tradition, their unusual regard for it, (the place) and the tenacity with which thev so long defended it, would imply, the latter supposition. The old colonist writers speak of it as the ' Twightwee' village. The French traders called it ' Arme.' The Americans called it ' OMEE' and sometimes ' THE Miami village.' It extended, prin- cipally, along the banks of the St. Joseph river, but was also over the opposite side, and reached to within three or four hundred yards of the conftuence of that river with the St. Mary. The inhabitants of this village anciently belonged to that tribe of Miamies called the Twat-t-wahs, (which the carly colonists spelt . Twightwees,') the nation having consisted of the several tribes of Weahs (at We-ah-ta-nong, on the Wabash,) Ech
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HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
which, interpreted, signified a blackberry patch. And the reader. can well imagine, in the ripening season, a bevy of women and children, with bark baskets, gathering the rich berries of their ke-ki- ong-a.
With the red man, to be idle, was to be happy, great, and free; and, as we have seen in a former page, the Miamies "loved plays, and dances," and thus, with gaming, chanting some familiar refrain, perhaps learned from the medicine men-wrestling, racing, lying, or sitting beneath the shade of some wide-spreading tree, in sum- mer, they whiled away their time during the greater part of the spring, summer, and fall, seldom if ever disturbing the game of the forest, more especially that species (the beaver, the raccoon, the bear, the deer, the buffalo," dc.,) which afforded them valuable furs and skins, until the hunting season began, which was usually about the first of November of each year. This was life among the Miam- ies, and, in fact, among every tribe of the northwest.
In games of chance, moccasin, &c., in which they indulged a great deal, at a late period, more especially, they would participate, unless intoxicated, with the greatest good humor, often betting and losing every article they possessed, even to their guns, hatchets, &c., and never thought it amiss to cheat, whenever an opportunity presented. In foot and horse-racing, they as often went to as great extremes in betting as when at a game of moccasin.
. The greatest labors of the men, in earlier periods, were those of completing palisades; constructing boats; to aid in the building and repair of their cabins ; to prepare the instruments of warfare and the chase; to paint, tattoo, and otherwise adorn their bodies. The women of the red men were ever the toilers ; to them fell the bur- dens of cultivating the fields and patches that brought forth the vege- tation of spring and summer that went to nourish them, in part, the remainder of the year; and before the visit of the trader-who supplied them, in exchange for furs, with hoes, and other imple- ments of use,-how meager and indifferent must have been their means and advantages of cultivating the soil. Some wooden im- plement, perhaps-some sharp bone of an animal, or tortoise shell, doubtless served for a hoe or mattock. And thus toiled the Indian Rivers (at At-ke-no-pe-kong, on Eel river), Twat-wahs, and perhaps some others, whose names and existence, as separate tribes, have long since eeased, and been merged into those of the nation." Now, the faet of the word Ke-ki-ong-a signifying a blackberry patch warrants a strong supposition, at least, that, in view of the fact of there being very early a large patch of that nature at this point, the name Ke-ki-ong-a must primi- tively have been derived therefrom.
#November, 9th, 1712, Father Gabriel Marest, a French missionary, writing from some point perhaps along the Wabash, or, as then called, the Ouabache, after giving a somewhat full and graphic account of the regions bordering on that stream, said it was "rich in minerals, especially lead and tin, and that if experienced miners were to come out from France and work the mines, he had no doubt that gold and silver would be found in abundance. That the quantity of buffalo and bear which was to be found on the banks of the Wabash ( Ouubache), was incredible ; ", and further remarked that " the meat of the bear was very delicious, "for," said he, " I have tried it."-Judge Law's Address, page 11.
25.
LABORS OF THE INDIAN WOMEN.
women in the field, mellowed the soil, beat down the weeds about the corn, cultivated the bean, the squash, the Indian cucumber, the pumpkin and the melon ; and she it was that routed the birds from the patches, gathered the maize and other products of her labor; jerked and dried the deer, bear, and buffalo meat ; prepared, the Indian meal ; dried the winter's fruit ; gathered the wood for the fires, and cooked the meals. And when a bark canoe was built, it was the Indian woman's work to sew the bark with some stringy substance, berliaps peeled from the elm or root of some small tree, and filling the seams with some adhesive substance, to prevent leak- age. When removing from one point to another, or retiring to their hunting-grounds for the winter, to carry the luggage, and material of the wigwam, if taken with them, it was the mission of the Indian women to pack such upon their backs. Did the red man go in pursuit of game, it was the ancient custom of the faithful Indian woman to follow and carry upon her shoulder the fruits of the chase.#
The Indian women were indeed heroes. And when we come to contemplate the toilsome lives they led-their unflinching efforts in all kinds of weather,-in every season of the year-it is not sur- prising that the early sons of the forest were hardy and active- fleet on foot and wily in the fight. Amid toil and drudgery -- trial and vicissitude -- the Indian woman often brought forth the offspring of their masters ; (for they were evidently nearly all, if not quite, in a large degree, at least, veritable slaves to their husbands.) So hardy were they, from constant physical labor and exposure to the open air, it was said of them, that, "in one quarter of an hour a woman would be merry in the house, and delivered, and merry again ; and within two days, abroad ; and after four or five days, at work." The powerful will of the Indian women, together with their long accustomed aversion and heroic indifference to pain, ever roso superior to the momentary pangs accompanying the birth of their offspring. In this they possessed a strong native intuition; and thus far, at least, are worthy of emulation by all the mothers of our present heroic conditions of civilization and intellectual advance- ment. What a world of health and goodness-what an ocean of intellectual excellence and physical beauty might have been ger- minated through the organism of the Indian mother, had she possess-
*" When the Indians arrived and departed," says Mrs. Kenzie, referring to very early times, in the present century, about-Green Bay, "my sense of 'woman's rights' was often outraged. The master of the family, as a general thing, came leisurely bearing a gun and perhaps a lanee in his hand. The woman, with the mats and poles of her lodge upon her shoulders, her papoose, if she had one, the kettles, sacks of corn. and wild rice, and not unfrequently, the household dog, perched on the top of all. If there is a horse or pony in the list of family possessions, the man rides, the squaw trudges after. This unequal division of labor is the result of no want of kind, affection- ate feeling on the part of the husband. It is rather the instinct of the sex to assert their superiority of position and importance, when a proper occasion offers. When out of the reach of observation, and in no danger of compromising his own dignity, the husband is willing enough to relieve his spouse from the burden that custom imposes on her, by sharing her labors and hardships."-" Early Day in the Northwest," pages 359 and 360.
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1
HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
ed the proper expansion of mind. Even as it was, how many rare and singular examples of oratory came from her. Listen to the stir- ring appeal of Little Turtle, (Me-che-cannah-qual) addressing Gen. Wayne, and others, at the famous treaty of Greenville, July 15th, 1795;
" Elder brother, and all present! I am going to say a few words," said the orator, " in the name of the Pottawattamies, Weas, and Kick- apoos. It is well known to you all, that people are appointed on these occasions, to speak the sentiments of others; therefore am I appointed for those three nations. Elder brother: you told your younger brothers, when we first assembled, that peace was your object ; you swore your interpreters before us to the faithful dis- charge of their duty, and told them the Great Spirit would punish them, did they not perform it. You told us that it was not you, but the President of the fifteen fires of the United States who spoke to us ; that whatever he should say should be firm and lasting ; that it was impossible he should say what was not true. Rest assured that your younger brothers, the Miamies, Chippewas, Ottawas, Pot- tawattamies, Shawanees, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankeshaws, and Kas- kaskias, are well pleased with your words, and are persuaded of your sincerity. You have told us to consider the boundaries you showed us; your younger brothers have done so, and now pro- ceed to give you their answer .*
" Elder brother: Your younger brothers do not wish to hide their sentiments from you. I wish them to be the same with those of the Wyandots and Delawares. You have told us, that most of the reservations you proposed to us, belonged to our fathers, the French and the British. Permit your younger brothers to make a few observations on this subject. Elder brother : We wish you to listen with attention to our words. You have told your younger brothers that the British imposed falsehoods on us, when they said the United States wished to take our lands from us, and that the United States had no such desigu : You pointed out to us the boundary line, which crossed a little below Loramie's store, and struck Fort Recoy- ery,and run from thence to Ohio, opposite the mouth of Kentucky riv- er. Elder brother : You have told us to speak our minds freely, and we now do it. This line takes in the greater and best part of your brother's hunting ground ; therefore your younger brothers are of opinion yon take too much of their lands away, and confine the hunting of our young men within limits too contracted. Your brothers, the Miamis, the proprietors of those lands, and all your younger brothers present, wish you to run the line as you mentioned, to Fort Recovery, and continue it along the road, from thence to Fort Hamilton, on the Great Miami river. This is what your brothers request you to do, and you may rest assured of the free
#This speech not only largely displays the power of Indian oratory,-the native intelligence and goodness of heart of this distinguished Chief. but also carries with it many important historieal facts relating to the early history of Fort Wayne.
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SPEECH OF LITTLE TURTLE.
navigation of that river, from thence to its mouth, forever. Brother: Here is the road we wish to be the boundary between us. What lies to the east we wish to be yours ; that to the west, we would desire to be ours. [Presenting a road belt.]
" Elder brother : In speaking of the reservations, you say they are designed for the same purposes as those for which our fathers, the French and English, occupied them. Your younger brothers now wish to make some observations on them. Elder brother: Listen with attention. You told us you discovered on the Great Miami, traces of an old fort. Brother: it was a fort built by me. You perceived another at Loramie's : 'tis true a Frenchman once lived there for a year or two. The Miami villages were cccupied as you remarked ;* but, it was unknown to your younger brothers, until you told them, that we had sold land there to the French or English. I was surprised to hear you say it was my forefathers had set the example to the other Indians, in selling their lands. I will inform you in what manner the French and English occupied those places. Elder brother: These people were seen by our forc- fathers first at Detroit : afterwards we saw them at the Miami village -that glorious gate, which your younger brothers had the happiness to own, and 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. Brothers, these people never told us they wished to purchase our lands from us.
" 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 for kindly contracting the limits you at first proposed. We wish you to take this six miles square on the side of the river where your fort now stands, as your younger brothers wish to inhabit that beloved spot again. You shall cut hay for your cattle wherever 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.
"The point here referred to. was the following, from General Wayne's speech, made five days previous to the delivery of Little Turtle's specoh, and addressed to the Miamies. Said he,
" I will point out to yon where I discover strong traces of these establishments ; ('orts) and, first of all, I find at Detroit a very strong print, where the first fire was kindled by your forefathers : west, at Vincennes, on the Wabash ; again at Musquiton, on the same river ; a little higher up that stream, they are to be seen at Quitenou, I discover another strong trace at Chicago ; another on the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan. Ihave seen distinctly the prints of a French and British post at the Miami villages, and of a British post at the foot of the rapids, now in their possession; prints, very conspicuous, are on the Great Miami, which were possessed by the French forty-five years ago ; and anothertrace is very distinctly to be seen at Sandusky. It appears to me," he continued, " that if the Great Spirit, as you say, charged your forefathers to preserve their lands entire for their posterity, they have paid very little regard to the sacred injunction : for I see they have parted with those lands to your fathers, the French, and the English are now, or have been, in possession of them all ; therefore, I think the charge urged against the Ottawas, the Chippewas, and other Indians comes with a bad grace. indeed from the very people perhaps that set them the example. The English and French both wore hate ; and yet, your forcfatheres sold them, at various times, portions of your lands."
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