USA > Indiana > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, together with historic notes on the Wabash Valley; gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic sources > Part 10
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" Louis (the fourteenth), King of France and Navarre ; To all who shall see these presents, greeting : The care we have always had to procure the welfare and advantage of our subjects, having induced us, notwithstanding the almost continual wars which we have been en- gaged to support from the beginning of our reign, to seek all possible opportunities of enlarging and extending the trade of our American
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
colonies, we did, in the year 1683, give our orders to undertake a dis- covery of the countries and lands which are situated in the northern parts of America, between New France (Canada) and New Mexico. And the Sieur de La Salle, to whom we committed that enterprise, having had success enough to confirm the belief that a communication might be settled from New France to the Gulf of Mexico by means of large rivers ; this obliged us, immediately after the peace of Ryewick (in 1697), to give orders for the establishment of a colony there (under Iberville in 1699), and maintaining a garrison, which has kept and preserved the possession we had taken in the year 1683, of the lands, coasts and islands which are situated in the Gulf of Mexico, between Carolina on the east, and old and New Mexico on the west. But a new war breaking out in Europe shortly after, there was no possi- bility till now of reaping from that new colony the advantages that might have been expected from thence; because the private men who are concerned in the sea trade were all under engagements with the other colonies, which they have been obliged to follow. And where- as, upon the information we have received concerning the disposition and situation of the said countries, known at present by the name of the province of Louisiana, we are of opinion that there may be estab- lished therein a considerable commerce, so much the more advan- tageous to our kingdom in that there has been hitherto a necessity of fetching from foreigners the greatest part of the commodities that may be brought from thence; and because in exchange thereof we need carry thither nothing but the commodities of the growth and manu- facture of our own kingdom; we have resolved to grant the com- merce of the country of Louisiana to the Sieur Anthony Crozat, our counsellor, secretary of the household, crown and revenue, to whom we intrust the execution of this project. We are the more readily inclined thereto because of his zeal and the singular knowledge he has acquired of maritime commerce, encourages us to hope for as good success as he has hitherto had in the divers and sundry enter- prises he has gone upon, and which have procured to our kingdom great quantities of gold and silver in such conjectures as have rendered them very welcome to us. For these reasons, being desirous to show our favor to him, and to regulate the conditions upon which we mean to grant him the said commerce, after having deliberated the affair in our council, of our own certain knowledge, full power and royal authority, · we by these presents, signed by our hand, have appointed and do ap- point the said Sieur Crozat to carry on a trade in all the lands pos- sessed by us, and bounded by New Mexico and by the English of Caroli- na, all the establishments, ports, havens, rivers, and particularly the port
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LOUISIANA GRANTED TO CROZAT.
and haven of Isle Dauphin, heretofore called Massacre; the river St. Louis, heretofore called Mississippi, from the edge of the sea as far as the Illinois,* together with the river St. Philip, heretofore called Mis- souris, and St. Jerome, heretofore called the Ouabache (the Wabash), with all the countries, territories, lakes within land, and the rivers which fall directly or indirectly into that part of the river St. Louis. Our pleasure is, that all the aforesaid lands, countries, streams, rivers and islands, be and remain comprised under the name of the GOVERNMENT OF LOUISIANA, which shall be dependent upon the general government of New France, to which it is subordinate."
Crozat was permitted to search and open mines, and to pay the king one-fifth part of all the gold and silver developed. Work in de- veloping the mines was to be begun in three years, under penalty of forfeiture. Crozat was required to send at least two vessels annually from France to sustain the colonies already established, and for the maintenance of trade.
The next year, 1713, there were, within the limits of Crozat's vast grant, not more than four hundred persons of European descent.
Crozat himself did little to increase the colony, the time of his subordinates being spent in roaming over the country in search of the precious metals. He became wearied at the end of three years spent in profitless adventures, and, in 1717, surrendered his grant back to the crown. In August of the same year the French king turned Louis- iana over to the " Western Company," or the "Mississippi Company," subsequently called "The Company of the Indies," at whose head stood the famous Scotch banker, John Law. The rights ceded to Law's company were as broad as the grant to Crozat. Law was an infla- tionist, believing that wealth could be created without limit by the mere issuing of paper money, and his wild schemes of finance were the most ruinous that ever deluded and bankrupted a confiding people. Louisiana, with its real and undeveloped wealth a hundred times mag-
* The expression, " as far as the Illinois," did not refer to the river of that name, but to the country generally, on both sides of the Mississippi, above the mouth of the Ohio, which, under both the French and Spanish governments was denominated "the country of the Illinois," and this designation appeared in all their records and official letters. For example, letters, deeds, and other official documents bore date, respect- ively, at Kaskaskia, of the Illinois; St. Louis, of the Illinois; St. Charles, of the Illi- nois; not to identify the village where such instruments were executed merely, but to denote the country in which these villages were situated. Therefore, the monopoly of Crozat, by the terms of his patent, extended to the utmost limit of Louisiana, north- ward, which, by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, was fixed at the 49th° of latitude; vide Stoddard's "Sketches of Louisiana," Brackenridge's "Views of Louisiana." From the year 1700 until some time subsequent to the conquest of the country by the British, in 1763, a letter or document executed anywhere within the present limits of the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, or Missouri, would have borne the superscription of "Les Illinois," or "the Illinois."
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
nified, became the basis of a fictitious value, on which an enormous volume of stock, convertible into paper money, was issued. The stock rose in the market like a balloon, and chamber-maids, alike with wealthy ladies, barbers and bankers,-indeed, the whole French peo- ple,- gazing at the ascending phenomenon, grew mad with the desire for speedy wealth. The French debt was paid off; the depleted treasury filled ; poor men and women were made rich in a few days by the con- stantly advancing value of the stocks of the "Company of the West." Confidence in the ultimate wealth of Louisiana was all that was re- quired, and this was given to a degree that would not now be credited as true, were not the facts beyond dispute.
After awhile the balloon exploded ; people began to doubt ; they realized that mere confidence was not solid value; stocks declined ; they awoke to a sorrowful contemplation of their delusion and ruin. Law, from the summit of his glory as a financier, fell into ignominy, and to escape bodily harm fled the country ; and Louisiana, from be- ing the source of untold wealth, sunk into utter ruin and contempt.
It should be said to the credit of "the company " that they made some efforts toward the cultivation of the soil. The growth of tobacco, sugar, rice and indigo was encouraged. Negroes were imported to till the soil. New Orleans was laid out in 1718, and the seat of govern- ment of lower Louisiana subsequently established there. A settlement was made about Natchez. A large number of German emigrants were located on the Mississippi, from whom a portion of the Mississippi has ever since been known as the "German coast." The French settle- ments at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, begun, as appears from most authen- tic accounts, about the year 1700,- certainly not later,- were largely increased by emigration from Canada and France. In the year 1718 the " Company of the West " erected a fortification near Kaskaskia, and named it Fort Chartes, having a charter from the crown so to do. It is situated in the northwest corner of Randolph county, Illinois, on the American bottom. It was garrisoned with a small number of soldiers, and was made the seat of government of "the Illinois." Under the mild government of the "Company," the Illinois marked a steady prosperity, and Fort Chartes became the center of business, fashion and gaiety of all " the Illinois country." In 1756 the fort was reconstruct- ed, this time with solid stone. Its shape was an irregular quadrangle, the exterior sides of the polygon being four hundred and ninety feet, and the walls were two feet two inches thick, pierced with port-holes for cannon. The walls of the fort were eighteen feet high, and con- tained within, guard houses, government house, barracks, powder house, bake house, prison and store room. A very minute description
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FORT CHARTES.
is given of the whole structure within and without in the minutes of its surrender, October 10, 1765, by Louis St. Ange de Belrive, captain of infantry and commandant, and Joseph Le Febvre, the king's store- keeper and acting commissary of the fort, to Mr. Sterling, deputed by Mr. De Gage (Gage), governor of New York and commander of His Majesty's troops in America, to receive possession of the fort and coun- try from the French, according to the seventeenth article of the treaty of peace, concluded on the 10th of February, 1763, between the kings of France and Great Britain .* Fort Chartes was the strongest and most elaborately constructed of any of the French works of defense in America. Here the intendants and several commandants in charge, whose will was law, governed "the Illinois," administered justice to its inhabitants, and settled up estates of deceased persons, for nearly half a century. From this place the English commandants governed " the Illinois," some of them with great injustice and severity, from the time of its surrender, in 1765, to 1772, when a great flood inun- dated the American Bottom, and the Mississippi cut a new channel so near the fort that the wall and two bastions on the west side were un- dermined and fell into the river. The British garrison then abandoned it, and their headquarters were afterward at Kaskaskia.
Dr. Beck, while collecting material for his "Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri," in 1820, visited the ruins of old Fort Chartes. At that time enough remained to show the size and strength of this remarkable fortification. Trees over two feet in diameter were growing within its walls. The ruin is in a dense forest, hidden in a tangle of under- growth, furnishing a sad memento of the efforts and blasted hopes of La Belle France to colonize "Les Illinoix."
* The articles of surrender are given at length in the Paris Documents, vol. 10, pp. 1161 to 1166.
CHAPTER XII.
SURRENDER OF LOUISIANA BY THE INDIES COMPANY-EARLY ROUTES.
IN 1731 the company of the Indies surrendered to France, Louisiana, with its forts, colonies and plantations, and from this period forward to the time of the conquest by Great Britain and the Anglo-American colonies, Louisiana was governed through officers appointed by the crown.
We have shown how, when and where colonies were permanently established by the French in Canada, about Kaskaskia, and in Lower Louisiana. It is not within the scope of our inquiries to follow these settlements of the French in their subsequent development, but rather now to show how the establishments of the French along the lakes and near the gulf communicated with each other, and the routes of travel by which they were connected.
The convenient way between Quebec and the several villages in the vicinity of Kaskaskia was around the lakes and down the Illinois River, either by way of the St. Joseph River and the Kankakee port- age or through Chicago Creek and the Des Plaines. The long winters and severe climate on the St. Lawrence made it desirable for many people to abandon Canada for the more genial latitudes of southern Illinois, and the still warmer regions of Louisiana, where snows were unknown and flowers grew the year round. It only required the pro- tection of a fort or other military safeguards to induce the Canadians to change their homes from Canada to more favorable localities southward.
The most feasible route between Canada and the Lower Mississippi settlements was by the Ohio River. This communication, however, was effectually barred against the French. The Iroquois Indians, from the time of Champlain, were allies, first of the Dutch and then of the English, and the implacable enemies of the French. The upper waters of the Ohio were within the acknowledged territory of the Iroquois, whose possessions extended westward of New York and Pennsylvania well toward the Scioto. The Ohio below Pittsburgh was, also, in the debatable ground of the Miamis northward, and Chickasaws south- ward. These nations were warring upon each other continually, and
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THE MAUMEE AND WABASH ROUTE.
the country for many miles beyond either bank of the Ohio was infested with war parties of the contending tribes .*
There were no Indian villages near the Ohio River at the period concerning which we now write. Subsequent to this the Shawnees and Delawares, previously subdued by the Iroquois, were permitted by the latter to establish their towns near the confluence of the Scioto, Mus- kingum and other streams. The valley of the Ohio was within the confines of the " dark and bloody ground." Were a voyager to see smoke ascending above the forest line he would know it was from the camp fire of an enemy, and to be a place of danger. It would indi- cate the presence of a hunting or war party. If they had been suc- cessful they would celebrate the event by the destruction of whoever would commit himself to their hands, and if unfortunate in the chase or on the war-path, disappointment would give a sharper edge to their cruelty. +
The next and more reliable route was that afforded by the Maumee and Wabash, laying within the territory of tribes friendly to the French. The importance of this route was noticed by La Salle; in his letter to Count Frontenac, in 1683, before quoted. La Salle says: "There is a river at the extremity of Lake Erie,¿ within ten leagues of the strait (Detroit River), which will very much shorten the way to the Illinois, it being navigable for canoes to within two leagues of their river."§ As early as 1699, Mons. De Iberville conducted a colony of Canadians from Quebec to Louisiana, by way of the Maumee and Wa- bash. "These were followed by other families, under the leadership of M. Du Tessenet. Emigrants came by land, first ascending the St. Lawrence to Lake Erie, then ascending a river emptying into that lake to the portage of Des Miamis ; their effects being thence transported to the river Miamis, where pirogues, constructed out of a single tree, and large enough to contain thirty persons, were built, with which the voyage down the Mississippi was prosecuted." | This memoir corre- sponds remarkably well with the claim of Little Turtle, in his speech to Gen. Wayne, concerning the antiquity of the title, in his tribe, to the portage of the Wabash at Fort Wayne. It also illustrates the fact that among the first French settlers in lower Louisiana were
* A Miami chief said that his nation had no tradition of " a time when they were not at war with the Chickasaws."
+ General William H. Harrison's Address before the Historical Society of Cin- cinnati.
# The Maumee.
§ Meaning the Wabash.
Extract taken from a memoir, showing that the first establishments in Louisiana were at Mobile, etc., the original manuscript being among the archives in the depart- ment " De la Marine et Des Colonies," in Paris, France.
7
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
those who found their way thither through the "glorious gate," be- longing to the Miamis, connecting the Manmee and Wabash.
Originally, the Maumee was known to the French as the " Miami," " Oumiami," or the "River of the Miamis," from the fact that bands of this tribe of Indians had villages upon its banks. It was also called "Ottawa," or "Tawwa," which is a contraction of the word Ottawa, as families of this tribe "resided on this river from time immemorial." The Shawnee Indian name is "Ottawa-sepe," that is " Ottawa River." By the Hurons, or Wyandots, it was called "Cagh-a-ren-du-te," the "River of the Standing Rock." * Lewis Evans, whose map was pub- lished in 1755, and which is, perhaps, the first English map issued of the territory lying north and west of the Ohio River, lays down the Miami as " Mine-a-mi," a way the Pennsylvania Indian traders had of pronouncing the word Miami. In 1703, Mons. Cadillac, the French commandant at Detroit, in his application for a grant of land six leagues in breadth on either side of the Manmee, upon which he pro- posed to propagate silk-worms, refers to the river as "Grand River " t As early as 1718 it is mentioned as the " Miamis River,"# and it bore this name more generally than that of any other from 1718 to a pe- riod subsequent to the War of 1812. Capt. Robert M'Afee, who was in the various campaigns up and down the Maumee during the War of 1812, and whose history of this war, published at Lexington, Ky., in 1816, gives the most authentic account of the military movements in this quarter, makes frequent mention of the river by the name of " Miami," occasionally designating it as the " Miami of the Lake."
Gen. Joseph Harmar, in his report of the military expedition con- ducted by him to Fort Wayne, in October, 1790, calls the Miami the "Omee." He says: "As there are three Miamis in the northwestern territory, all bearing the name of Miami, I shall in the future, for dis- tinction's sake, when speaking of the Miami of the Lake, call it the ' Omee,' and its towns the Omee Towns. By this name they are best known on the frontier. It is only, however, one of the many corrup- tions or contractions universally used among the French-Americans in pronouncing Indian names. 'Au-Mi,' for instance, is the contraction for 'An Miami.' " §
The habit of the " Coureur de Bois" and others using the mongrel language of the border Canadians, as well, also, the custom prevailing
* "Account of the Present State of Indian Tribes, etc., Inhabiting Ohio." By John Johnson, Indian Agent, June 17, 1819. Published in vol. 1 of Archeologia Americana. + Sheldon's History of Michigan, p. 108.
# Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 886 and 891.
§ Gen. Harmar's official letter to the Secretary of War, under date of November 23, 1790, published in the American State Papers.
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ORIGIN OF THE NAME MAUMEE.
among this class of persons in giving nicknames to rivers and locali- ties, has involved other observers besides Gen. Harmar in the same perplexity. Thomas Hutchins, the American geographer, and Capt. Harry Gordon visited Kaskaskia and the adjacent territory subsequent to the conquest of the northwest territory from the French, and be- came hopelessly entangled in the contractions and epithets applied to the surrounding villages on both sides of the Mississippi. Kaskaskia was abbreviated to "Au-kas," and St. Louis nicknamed "Pain Court " - Short Bread ; Carondelet was called " Vade Pouche" - Empty Pocket ; Ste. Genevieve was called " Missier " - Misery. The Kas- kaskia, after being shortened to Au-kaus, pronounced "Okau," has been further corrupted to Okaw, and at this day we have the singu- lar contradiction of the ancient Kaskaskia being called Kaskaskia near its mouth and " Okaw " at its source.
The Miamis, or bands of their tribe, had villages in order of time; first on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, then upon the Maumee; after this, 1750, they, with factions of other tribes who had become disaffected toward the French, established a mixed village upon the stream now known as the Great Miami, which empties into the Ohio, and in this way the name of Miami has been transferred, successively, from the St. Jo- seph to the Miami, and from the latter to the present Miami, with which it has become permanently identified .* The Miamis were, also, called the "Mau-mees,"- this manner of spelling growing out of one of the several methods of pronouncing the word Miami - and it is doubtless from this source that the name of Maumee is derived +
In this connection we may note the fact that the St. Marys and the Au-glaize were named by the Shawnee Indians, as follows: The first was called by this tribe, who had several villages upon its banks, the " Co-kothe-ke-sepe," Kettle River; and the Au glaize "Cow.then-e- ke-sepe," or Fallen Timber River. These aboriginal names are given by Mr. John Johnson, in his published account of the Indian tribes before referred to.
We will now give a derivation of the name of the Wabash, which has been the result of an examination of a number of authorities. Early French writers have spelled the word in various ways, each en- deavoring, with more or less success, to represent the name as the sev-
* The aboriginal name of the Great Miami was "Assin-erient," or Rocky River, from the word Assin, or Ussin, the Algonquin appellation for stone or stony. Lewis Evan's map of 1755.
+ In an official letter of Gen. Harrison to the Secretary of War, dated March 22, 1814, the name " Miamis " and "Maumees " are given as synonymous terms, referring to the same tribe.
# Mr. Johnson had charge of the Indian affairs in Ohio for many years, and was especially acquainted with the Shawnees and their language.
790994 A
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
eral Algonquin tribes pronounced it. First, we have Father Marquette's orthography, "Oua-bous-kigou ;" and by later French authorities it is spelled " Abache," "Quabache," "Oubashe," "Oubache," "Oubash," "Oubask," "Oubache," "Wabascou," "Wabache," and "Waubache." It should be borne in mind that the French alphabet does not contain the letter W, and that the diphthong " ou" with the French has nearly the same sound as the letter W of the English alphabet. The Jesuits sometimes used a character much like the figure S, which is a Greek contraction formulated by them, to represent a peculiar guttural sound among the Indians, and which we often, though imperfectly, represent by the letter W, or Wau .*
That Wabash is an Indian name, and was early applied to the stream that now bears this name, is clearly established by Father Gravier. This missionary descended the Mississippi in the year 1700, and speak- ing of the Ohio and its tributaries, says: "Three branches are assigned to it, one that comes from the northwest (the Wabash), passing behind the country of the Oumiamis, called the St. Joseph,t which the Indians properly call the Ouabachei; the second comes from the Iroquois (whose country included the head-waters of the Ohio), and is called the Ohio; and the third, which comes from the Chaou- anona# (Shawnees). And all of them uniting to empty into the Mis- sissippi, it is commonly called Ouabachi." §
In the variety of manner in which Wabash is spelled in the exam- ples given above, we clearly trace the Waw-bish-kaw, of the Ojibe- ways; the Wabisca (pronounced Wa-bis-sa) of the modern Algon- quin ; Wau-bish of the Menominees, and Wa-bi of the ancient Algon- quins, words which with all these kindred tongues mean White. I
Therefore the aboriginal of Wabash (Sepe) should be rendered White River. This theory is supported by Lewis Evans, who for many years was a trader among the Indians, inhabiting the country drained by the Wabash and its tributary waters. The extensive knowledge which he acquired in his travels westward of the Alleghanics resulted
* Shea's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, p. 41, foot-note. For example, we find in the Journal of Marquette, 8ab8kig8, for Wabash. The same man- ner of spelling is also observed in names, as written by other missionaries, where they design to represent the sound of the French "ou," or the English W.
+ Probably a mistake of the copyist, and which should be the St. Jerome, a name given by the French to the Wabash, as we have seen in the extracts taken from Crozat's grant. Dr. Shea has pointed out numerous mistakes made by the copyist of the man- uscripts from which the " Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi " are composed.
# The Tennessee.
$ Father Gravier's Journal in Dr. Shea's Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi, pp. 120, 121.
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