USA > Indiana > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County, Indiana : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 2
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, INDIANA.
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY.
CHAPTER I.
Pre-Columbian Voyages -- What Come of Them-Voyages and Diweareries of Columbus and Others- Explorations, Etc.
WITH the information at present in possesion of the reading world con- " ruing the early discovery of this continent, it will scarcely he claimed that I'dambas was the first to cross the Atlantic from the eastward, in the dirve- tion of America. That he visited this continent in the manner and under the circumstances narrated in the current histories of the day, will not be disputed, for those accounts are sufficiently authentic to be accepted without a peradvent- ure. Admitting this, however, does not affect the question whether carlier navigators had not guarformed a similar task. anticipating his discovery by many centuries.
" About the middle of the ninth century, the spirit of European adventure is known to have direrted its pour-e tu the westward, across the Atlantic. In the year 860, A. D., the Scandinavians discovered leoland, and in 871-75 colo- nize it, and less than one hundred years later they discovered and colonized Greenland.' {Enel. Brit. 1. 706. Chamb. Enel. 1, 198]. " On the author- ity of M. Rafa, a Danish historian well versed in the narrative of these early voyageurs, it is stated, also, that America was discovered by them in A. D. 98%, shortly after the discovery and colonization of fireenland ; that early in the following century, and repeatedly afterward, the levelanders visited the emlumehure of the St. Lawrence, the bay of Gaspe bring their principal station, that they had penetrated along the coast as far south as Carolina ; and that they introduced a knowledge of Christianity among the natives." [Enel. Brit. 1, p. 706. Note.]
" Subsequently to the Scandinavian discoveries, and previous to that of Columbus, America is believed by somwe to have been visited by a Welsh prince. In C'ardor's History of Cambria, it is stated that Mador, sonof' Owen fin ymedd, Prince of Wales, set sail westward in 1170 with a small fleet. and, after a voyage of several weeks, landed in a region totally diferent both in its inhal- itants and productions from Europe. Madue is supposed to have reached the evast of Virginia." [Chamb. Enel. I. p 18. ]
" However the facts may have been, as stated in these several accounts, it is apparent that C'or period had not elapsed when the Old World, ripe with the experieners 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 civili- zation of that age to the new continent across the Atlantic." " The discovery of' n continent so large that it may be said to have doubled the habit:, ble world, is an event so much the more grand and interesting that nothing jar- alled to it can ever occur again in the history of mankind. America had of course lien known to the barbarous tribes of Eastern Aja for thousands of years; but it is singular that it should have been visited by one of the most enterprising nations of Europe five centuries before the time of Cohunhus with- umut awakening the attention of rither Matesmen or philosophers." [Enel. Brit. 1. 70 ;. ]
"One of the primary inducements for the voyages of Columbus, and of his predecessors as well, was the desire to find a morte direct route to the East Indies and China, by sailing westward. There were the objective points in all the voyages of discovery, during the centuries preceding, to which European enterprise gave origin. With this purpose in view, Christopher Columbus, i Connesse, under the patronage of the united kingdom of Castile and Iron, om the 3d of August, 1492, started on the voyage which resulted in the dis- covery of the North American continent." " It was toward the east that his hopes directed his westward course, hopes whose supposed fulfillment will lives in the misapplication to the New World of the terms Indians and Indies, Much of er subsequent knowledge of America has been owing to the same desire of reaching the East Indies that led to its discovery."
With the discovery of America by the expedition projected by Cohunbus, for all the purposes of this work, the subsequent history of pioneer adventures in the Western World, may, with propriety, commence, notwithstanding those antecedent developments. Subsequently, then, on the 20th of April, 1531,
Jacques Cartier sailed fremm St. Malo, in France, on his first voyage of dis- covery, the result of which was a somewhat careful rrennaissance of the north- ern rest of' Newfoundland, thay acquiring a prestige which, nyom his return to France, induced a second expedition, consisting of slave twork. He accordingly embarked on this voyage May 15, 1535. After reaching the Gulf of St. Lawrence, he sailed up the stream as far as the island of' Orleans, reaching that point in the month of September, of the sune year. Later in the fall, he ascended the river to the present site of Montreal, where induce- ments were offered by the natives to go still further westward, with the promise that the country alanded in gold, silver and copper. He did not accept the proffer, however, but, on the 5th of October, he returned, and went into winter quarters on the St. Croix River. The following summer he went back to France
In 1510, under a charter granted by Signeur de Buherval tu Francis de la Roque, Admiral Cartier was placed in command of a squadron of five vessels, supplied with all the necesarios, men and provisions for forming a www. colony on the Roberval possessions in Now France. A lot was created upon their arrival, with Cartier as Commandant. Subsequently. in 103, an expedi- tion was titted out by a company of Ronen merchants, and sent over to the same territory. in charge of Samuel Champlain, a mender of the company. One of the results of this expedition was the founding of Queber, in Fios, Shortly afterward. Champlain was appointed Governor of New France, and remained snch until his death, which occurred in 1635. During the period of his Governor hip, he visited various parts of the territory embraced in his jurisdiction, which included the valleys of the Miand, White River, and the Wabash, His explorations did not, probably, reach this immediate locality, but further to the northward, along the borders of the lakes and the larger streams, traversing the same from the southwand
C'hastranfiat was the innoodiate successor of Chamadain, in the governor- ship of New France. His tenure of offer, however, was short, for. in 1636. he was superseded by De Montmagny, under whose administration there was a noticeable change in the policy of the new government, the four-trade becoming the principal object of attention. Our of the consequences of this new motive agency was the extension of territory adapted to this object, and the enlarge- ment of the arena of trade. Incidental to this, " rude fonts were created, as a means of defense to the trading-houses," and the protection of trading inter- ests generally. "Gradually, these explorations extended westward and south- ward along the margin of the lakes and their tributaries." Wherever trading- houses were created. " not far remote was a never-failing auxiliary, the chapel of the desuit, surmounted by a cross."
When Charles Raymbault and Claude Pijart were appointed to mission- ary labor among the Algompin tribes of the North and West, in IG10, " 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 unknown. exerpt as seen by missionaries from the stations in Canada."4 The infirener might be readily drawn, therefore, that these intermediate localities had been previously visited, though by a different ronte than that contemplated. That they were su visited, there is now searvely a doubt, because, at a date more than twenty years in advance of this, explorations had been made to localities but little to the northward. If' the missionaries bad traversed this territory at the time indicated, the traders had been there before, sier the missionaries were the followers rather than the forerunners of the for-traders.
During the period from 1610 to 1651, continued advances had been made in extending the avenues of trade, and the domain of misionary enterprise was developed in a like ratio. On the fith of August, fil, "two young for- traders, smitten with the love of adventure, joined a band of thetawas, or other Mgmaquina, and, in their gondolas of bark, ventured on a voyage of 500 leagnes. After two years, they re-appeared, accompanied by a fort of fifty cannes." The remote nations visited by these young traders were those beyond Lake Superior, who demanded commerce with the French, and that missionaries be sent them. They sought this alliance from the apparent necessities ol' trade,
* Rancroft's U. S., Vol. II, p. 300.
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, INDIANA.
The Western Indians demanded this alliance also, that they might thereby secure the means of successful resistance to the Iroquois, who were making con- timal inroads upon their territory, having already exterminated the Eries and approached the Miamis and their kindred, the Ilinois. Missionaries were sent met as suggested. Among the first of these was Father Mesnard, who was directed to visit fireen Bay and Lake Superior. This mission was established in 1600. On the 8th of August of that year, Father Claude Allowez embarked on a mission to the Far West. Two years afterward, he returned to Quebec, where he successfully urged the establishment of permanent mision, to be accompanied by colonies of French emigrants. On his return westward, he was accompanied by Claude Pabkm and James Marquette, then recently from France. Their field of labor embraced the region of country extending from Green Bay to the head of Lake Superior, and southward to the countries of the Saes, Faxes, Miamis and Pottawatomies, whither, also, the traders had preceded them.
Again, in 1671. Father Marquette* " gathered the remains of one branch of the Huren nation round a chapel at Point St. Ignace, on the continent north of the peninsula of Michigan," and the year following, "the countries with of the village founded by Marquette, were explored by Mllouez and Pablon, who bare the cross through Wisconsin and the north of Illinois, visit- ing the Mascouting and the Kickajuns, on the Milwaukee, and the Miamis, at the head of Lake Michigan."
Count de Frontenac was appointed by the French King. in 1672. Governor General of the province of Now France, and with this appointment commenced an epich noted for the energy manifested by him in reviving the spirit of dis- curry, and fn the judicions management of the affairs of the province. " ;lis first efforts were directed to the extension of the French interests in the regions of the great lakes. l'oder his guidance and encouragement, the posts of Mich- illimackinac and Sault Ste. Marie were established, former explorations perfected, and conciliatory treaties made with the immense hordes of Indians who named through that far-off wilderness." These discoveries extended not only over territory afterward known as fanada, but over the whole of New France, including the valley of the Maumee and St. Mary's, the valley of the White River and of the Wabash, for all this area was then a part of the dominions of France in North America.
In May. 1671, a grand council of all the adjacent Indian tribes, " inchul- ing the Miamis, previously visited or communicated with, was held at Sault Ste. M.nie, in whose presence and with whose consent the Governor General of Now 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 emildl he done.""
" Meanwhile, Allonez had been pursuing his Inbors among the Miamis, and extending the beurbernt influence of his holy faith, but it appears to have bren reserved to Marquette to establish a mission among them and Greet there the standard of the Cross. m the year 1673. On the 18th of May, 1675. Marquette died on the river that has since taken his name, near the margin of the In'e in Southwestern Michigan. Allouez tied also, soon after, in the midst of his labors among the Miamis. According to the account given by Henne- pin, of the progress made in Christianizing the Indians, it appears that the mission in the St. Joseph's, of Lake Michigan, was not established until 1679." The fidlowing is his account of the establishment of a post at the month of the river, afterward called Fort Miami :
" Inst at the month uf the river Miamis, there was an eminener with a kind of platform, naturally fortified. It was pretty high and steep, of a tri- angular form, defended on two sides by the river, and on the other by a deep ditch which the fall of the water had made. We felled the trees that were on the top of the hill, and, having cleared the same from bushes for about two musket shot, we began to build 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 foort more inaccessible on the river side. We employed the whole month of November ( 1679) about that work, which was very hard, though we had no other final but the bear's flesh our savage killed. These beasts are very common in that place because of the great quantity of grapes that abound there ; but, their flesh being too fat, and Inscious, 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 liberty, which caused some murmura among them, and it was but unwillingly that they continued tho work. This,
together with the approach of the winter, and the apprehension that M. de La Salle lad that his vogel (the (frifin ) was lost, made him very melancholy, though he coneraled it as much as he could. We made a cabin, wherein we performed divine service every Sunday, and Father Gabriel and I, who preached alter- nately, took care to take such texts as were suitable to our present circum- stances, and fit to inspire us with courage, concord and brotherly love."
The year following, this same Father, having visited the villages of the Miamis, in the vicinity and on the Ilinois Hiver, gives some of his experiences among them, with something of their habits and made of thought. He said : "There were many obstacles that hindered the conversion of the savages, but in general the difficulty proceeds from the indifference they have to 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 affair of our salvation. They would think them- selves guilty of a great incivility, if they should show the least suspicion of incredulity in respect to what is proposed. But, after having approved all the discours's upon these matters, 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 hinderances to conversion, and the custion of traders, in common with themselves, to make the most of the bargain by cheating, lying and artifice, to promote personal gain, thus encouraging hand and injustice. On the other hand, " the best accounts agree that it was through the agency and persevering evertions of missionaries, combined with the active and enterprising movements of traders, that amicable, relations and a moderate trade were brought about between the colonists of Canada and the Miami Indians in the seventeenth century."
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 management was apparent in the conduct of administrative officers and subor- dinates intrusted with the direction of under-colonial affairs. The effect of this was to excite di trust, 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 gar- risoned, as a means of protecting those engaged in them, at the principal points designated, as warranted by the demands of these developing' interests.
In 1672. a considerable trade had grown up among the Miamis and their allies in the country watered by the St. ihreph's and Manmee, the Wabash and White Rivers, encourage and promoted by the French, which, in the near future, promised so auspicionsly, that the attention of the colonial anthor- ities was directed to the necessity of protection, as a means of securing the large revenue to be derived therefrom. In common, therefore, with other points of no greater commercial value, the home government established and maintained military posts at leading points in the territory. One of these posts, ns has been before shown, was created in 1979, by Robert Cavalier de La Salle, at the mouth of the St. Joseph's ( Miami) of Lake Michigan, osten- sibly for the purpose of protecting trade, but really for another purpose, then equally apparent-defense against the incursions of the Iroquois, who, at that time, and for two years previously, had been engaged in a destructive war with the Miami and Ilinois. While this war had been in progress, bands of the Irmpois were passing to and from their own territory away to the eastward, along the old trails south of Lake Erie, across the valleys watered by the Muskingum, Miami and White Hivers, toward the ancient capital of the Twigh- twees, long known as the center of the Miami confederacy, and thence south of Lake Michigan to the country of the Illinois. The notoriety of Ke-ki- ong-a ( Fort Wayne) ns a valuable trading-point, and as the chief source of information from all the surrounding territory-being so readily approachable by the Iroquois especially-illy adapted it to the purposes of local trade during seasons of aggressive warfare. Hence, the loention of Fort Miami, as we have seen, being outside the route traversed by those invading bands, was most judi- cions and opportune, furnishing also a circumstance tending to show why La Salle had not continued to necupy his position at the head of the Miami ot Lake Erie (Maumee), in the most direct line of trade from the lakes to the Mississippi, which he lind several years before discovered and utilized in tho course of his trading enterprises.
In a communication to the French King, dated November 2, 1681, Count de Frontenac, the King's representative in his North American colonies, spenk- ing of the relations existing in his department, between the Iroquois and the Western tribes; says : " The Mohawks have done nothing iu violation of the
. Bancroft's U. S., Vol. 11, p. 327-28.
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, INDIANA.
promises of the ambassadors when they sent last autumn ; but the Onondagas mod Sonecas have not appeared, by their conduct, to be similarly minded and disposed. The artifices of certain persons, to which the English, perhaps, have united their-, have indneed them to continue the war against the Illinois, not withstanding every representation I have made to thom. They last one of their villages and tunk sit or seven hundred prisoners, though mostly chil- dren and old women. What is more versations is, that they wounded with a huile Sieur de Touty, who was endeavoring to bring about some arrangement between them, and who had been loft by Sieur de La Salle' in the same village, with some Frenchmen, to protect the post he had constructed there. I Recalled Fear, aged seventy years, was also found to have been killed while retiring. So that, having waited the entire of this year to see whether I should have any news of them, and whether they would not send to uller me some satisfaction, I resolved to invite them to repair next year to Fort Frontenac, to explain their conduct to me. Though of no consideration, they have become, Sire, so insolent since this expedition against the Windis, and are so strongly encouraged in these sentiments, in order that they be induced to rontiune the war, midler the impression that it will embarrass Sieur de La Salle's discoveries, that it is to be feared they will push their insolence farther, and, on perceiving that we do not afford any secor to our allies, attribute this lo a want of power, that may create in them to come and attack us."
Sieur de La Salle, in a letter to one of his particular friends, bearing date October, 1852. gives his own reasons for not occupying the site of Ko-bi-ongsa in his trading expeditions, and why the ronte by way of the Manner was not then, and had not for a time boca, traversed by him. This is the extract : " I can no longer go to the Illinois, except by the Lakes Huron and Mineis. because the other ways which I have discovered, by the head of Lake Erie med by the southern cost of the same, becoming too dangerous by frequent encounters with the Iroquois, who are always on these conds."*
Notwithstanding this temporary interruption of trade along the short route to the Mississippi, above indicated, it was, nevertheless, resumed soon after the adistractions were removed, if not before that time, and the necessary defenses were rreeted for its maintenance. Accordingly. a Commandant was appointed for that post prior to the 13th of October, 1697, in the person of Sieur de Vinermes; and the terms of the appointment would seem to indicate that the fort had had a prior existence. Subsequently, in 1701, the same officer was again appointed Commandant of that post, as is shown by the following official relation thereof, bearing date November 16, 1701: " Dispatched Father Valliant and Sieur de Juncaire to Seneca, and I went Sienr de Vin- sione to the Miamis with my annexed order and message to be communicated lo them."
" Sieur de Vinsiene, my lord, has been formerly Commandant at the Miamis (1637), by whom he was much beloved; this led me to select him in preference to many other, to prove to that nation how wrong they were to attack the lempois-our allies and theirs-without any cause; and we-M. de Bran- eharnois and 1-alter consultation, permitted said Sieur de Vincione to carry some goods, and to take with bim six men and two cunges." AAgain. on the 19th of October, 1705, in a communication from M. de Vondrueil to Pontehar- train, the following corroborative passage occur : "I did myself the honor to inform you last year that I regarded the continuance of the peace with the Iroquois as the principal affair of this country, and, as I have always labored on that principle, it is that also which obliged me to send Sienr de lonraire and Sieur de Vinsiene to the Miamis."+
The representatives of the English Government, in the carly part of the eighteenth century, while manifesting a disparition to diseredit the antiquity claimed by the French in the discovery of the line of direct communication by water between the lakes and the Mississippi, awarded them great credit for their method and enterprise in conducting these discoveries Speaking of this particular diseevery, they say: "And, perhaps, such a one as no nation less industrious than the French, would have attempted; but it must be allowed that they have a great advantage over us in this particular, to which even the nature of their religion and government do greatly contribute; for their mis- sistories, in lind obedience to their superiors, spent whole years in exploring new countries ; and the encouragement the late French King gave to the dis- coverera and planters of new tracts of land doth for exceed any advantage your Majesty's royal predecessors have hitherto given to their subjects in Amerien."
During a period of eight or nine years prior to the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, which gave pence to the dependencies of Franer and Great Britain in
* Margry's Desc. Amer, HI, p. 200.
+ N. Y. Col. Doc., Vol. 1X., pp. 200, 750, 766.
America, a continual warfare proscented by these two powerful nations had prevented the progress of discoveries and settlements in the territories of the Great West. While this treaty gave to Great Britain some advantages over the French, in settling the matters in controversy between them, nevertheless, the French King, Louis XIV. logan immediately after to perliet plans for the more complete colonization of the Louisiana Territory by sending numerone colonists who were protected by garrison maintained among them at the expense of the government. Desiring to secure to these colonists all the means, all the privileges, of citizenship, be established a local government among them, and appointed Lemoine de Iberville Governor, and M. de Bienville, Lieutenant Commandant. These early eulogies were located at Biloxi on the northern shores of Lake Borgne, between Mobile Bay and Lacke Pontchartrain. These settlements gradually extended northward along the tributaries of the Mississippi and the Ohio, which movement naturally excited the jealousy and aroused the fear of the English Goverment, which was not long in manifesting the prevailing dissatisfaction. One of the English officials - Dr. D' Avenant, Inspector General of Customs-gave utterance to the following pertinent lan- gnage concerning the same : "Should the French settle at the disembogning of the Mississippi River, they would not be long before they made them- solves masters of that rich province, which would be an addition to their strength very terrible to Eunge, but would more particularly engern England, for. by the opportunity of that settlement, by ererting forts nhung the several lakes between that river and Canada, Grey may intercept all the trade of our northern plantations."
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