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 26
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* P. 161.
+ Croghan, in his Journal, says: "I found Vincennes a village of eighty or ninety French families, settled on the east side of the river, being one of the finest situations that can be found. The French inhabitants hereabouts are an idle, lazy people, a parcel of renegadoes from Canada, and are much worse than the Indians. They took secret pleasure at our misfortune, and the moment we arrived they came to the Indians, exchanging trifles for their valuable plunder. Here is likewise an Indian village of Piankashaws, who were much displeased with the party that took me, telling them that 'our and your chiefs are gone to make peace, and you have begun war, for which our women and children will have reason to cry.' Port Vincent is a place of great consequence for trade, being a fine hunting country all along the Wabash."
# That part of the route from Kaskaskia east, from the earliest settlement of Illi- nois and Indiana, was called "the old Vincennes trace." "This trace," says Gov. Reynolds, in his Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 79, "was celebrated in Illinois. The Indians laid it out more than one hundred and fifty years ago. It commenced at Detroit, thence to Ouiatonon, on the Wabash, thence to Vincennes and thence to Kas- kaskia. It was the Appian way of Illinois in ancient times. It is yet (in 1852) visible in many places between Kaskaskia and Vincennes." It was also visible for years after the white settlements began, between the last place, the Vermilion and Ouiatonon, on the route described .- [AUTHOR.
§ Croghan says of Ouiatonon that there were "about fourteen French families liv- ing in the fort, which stands on the north side of the river; that the Kickapoos and Mascoutins, whose warriors had taken us, live nigh the fort, on the same side of the river, where they have two villages, and the Ouicatonons or Wawcottonans [as Croghan variously spells the name of the Weas] have a village on the south side of the river." "On the south side of the Wabash runs a high bank, in which are several very fine coal mines, and behind this bank is a very large meadow, clear for several miles." The printer made a mistake in setting up Croghan's manuscript, or else Croghan himself committed an unintentional error in his diary in substituting the word south for north in describing the side of the river on which the appearances of coal banks are found. The only locality on the banks of the Wabash, above the Vermilion, where the carbonifer- ous shales resembling coal are exposed is on the west, or north bank, of the river, about four miles above Independence, at a place known as "Black Rock," which, says Prof. Collett, in his report on the geology of Warren county, Indiana, published in the Geolog- ical Survey of Indiana for 1873, pp. 224-5, "is a notable and romantic feature in the river scenery." "A precipitous or overhanging cliff exhibits an almost sheer descent of a
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SUCCESS OF CROGHAN'S MISSION.
from the opposite side of the river, took great interest in Mr. Croghan, and were deeply "concerned at what had happened. They charged the Kickapoos and Mascoutins to take the greatest care of him, and the Indians and white men captured with him, until their chiefs should arrive from Fort Chartres, whither they had gone, some time before, to meet him, and who were necessarily ignorant of his being captured on his way to the same place." From the 4th to the 8th of July Croghan held conferences with the Weas, Pianke- shaws, Kickapoos and Mascoutins, in which, he says, " I was lucky enough to reconcile those nations to His Majesty's interests, and ob- tained their consent to take possession of the posts in their country which the French formerly possessed, and they offered their services should any nation oppose our taking such possession, all of which they confirmed by four large pipes."* On the 11th a messenger arrived from Fort Chartres requesting the Indians to take Croghan and his party thither ; and as Fort Chartres was the place to which he had originally designed going, he desired the chiefs to get ready to set out with him for that place as soon as possible. On the 13th the chiefs from "the Miamis" came in and renewed their "ancient friendship with His Majesty." On the 18th Croghan, with his party and the chiefs of the Miami and other tribes we have mentioned, forming an imposing procession, started off across the country toward Fort Chartres. On the way (neither Croghan's official report or his private journal show the place) they met the great " Pontiac himself, together with the deputies of the Iroquois, Delawares and Shawnees, t who had gone on around to Fort Chartres with Capt.
hundred and forty feet to the Wabash, at its foot. The top is composed of yellow, red, brown or black conglomerate sandrock, highly ferruginous, and in part pebbly. At the base of the sandrock, where it joins upon the underlying carbonaceous and pyritous shales are 'pot ' or 'rock-houses,' which so constantly accompany this formation in southern Indiana. Some of these, of no great height, have been tunneled back under the cliff to a distance of thirty or forty feet by force of the ancient river once flowing at this level." The position, in many respects, is like Starved Rock, on the Illinois, where La Salle built Fort St. Louis, and commands a fine view of the Wea plains, across the river eastward, and, before the recent growth of timber, of an arm of the Grand Prairie to the westward. The stockade fort and trading-post of Ouiatonon has often been confounded with the Wea villages, which were strung for several miles along the margin of the prairie, near the river, between Attica and La Fayette, on the south or east side of the river; and some writers have mistaken it for the village of Keth- tip-e-ca-nuk, situated on the north bank of the Wabash River, near the mouth of the Tippecanoe. The fort was abandoned as a military post after its capture from the British by the Indians. It was always a place of considerable trade to the English, as well as the French. Thomas Hutchins, in his Historical and Topographical Atlas, pub- lished in 1778, estimates "the annual amount of skins and furs obtained at Ouiatonon at forty thousand dollars."
* Croghan's official report to Sir Wm. Johnson: London Documents, vol. 7, p. 780. t These last-named Indian deputies, with Mr. Frazer, had gone down the Ohio with Croghan, and thence on to Fort Chartres. Not hearing anything from Croghan, or knowing what had become of him, Pontiac and these Indian deputies, on learning that Croghan was at Quiatanon, set out for that place to meet him.
16
242
HISTORIC NOTES ON THIE NORTHWEST.
Frazer. The whole party, with deputies from the Illinois Indians, now returned to Ouiatanon, and there held another conference, in which were settled all matters with the Illinois Indians. "Pontiac and the Illinois deputies agreed to everything which the other tribes had conceded in the previous conferences at Quiatanon, all of which was ratified with a solemn formality of pipes and belts."*
Here, then, upon the banks of the Wabash at Ouiatonon, did the Indian tribes, with the sanction of Pontiac, solemnly surrender pos- session of the northwest territory to the accredited agent of Great Britain.+ Croghan and his party, now swollen to a large body by the accession of the principal chiefs of the several nations, set out "for the Miamis, and traveled the whole way through a fine rich bottom, alongside the Ouabache, arriving at Eel River on the 27th. About six miles up this river they found a small village of the Twightwee, situated on a very delightful spot of ground on the bank of the river."# Croghan's private journal continues: "July 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st we traveled still alongside the Eel River, passing through fine clear woods and some good meadows, though not so large as those we passed some days before. The country is more overgrown with woods, the soil is sufficiently rich, and well watered with springs."
On the 1st of August they "arrived at the carrying place be- tween the River Miamis and the Ouabache, which is about nine miles long in dry seasons, but not above half that length in freshets." "Within a mile of the Twightwee village," says Croghan, "I was met by the chiefs of that nation, who received us very kindly. Most part of these Indians knew me, and conducted me to their village, where they immediately hoisted an English flag that I had formerly given them at Fort Pitt. The next day they held a council, after which they gave me up all the English prisoners they had, and ex- pressed the pleasure it gave them to see [that] the unhappy differ- ences which had embroiled the several nations in a war with their brethren, the English, were now so near a happy conclusion, and that peace was established in their country."§
* Croghan's official report, already quoted.
+ It is true that Pontiac, with deputies of all the westward tribes, followed Croghan to Detroit, where another conference took place; but this was only a more formal rati- fication of the surrender which the Indians declared they had already made of the ' country at Ouiatonon.
# The Miami Indian name of this village was Ke-na-pa-com-a-qua. Its French name was A l'Anguille, or Eel River town. The Miami name of Eel River was Kin- na-peei-kuoh Sepe, or Water Snake (the Indians call the eel a water-snake fish) River. The village was situated on the north bank of Eel River, about six miles from Logans- port. It was scattered along the river for some three miles.
§ The following is Mr. Croghan's description of the "Miamis," as it appeared in
243
PONTIAC'S TRAGIC DEATH.
From the Miamis the party proceeded down the Maumee in canoes. "About ninety miles, continues the journal, from the Miamis or Twightwee we came to where a large river, that heads in a large 'lick,' falls into the Miami River; this they call 'The Forks.' The Ottawas claim this country and hunt here .* This nation for- merly lived at Detroit, but are now settled here on account of the richness of the country, where game is always to be found in plenty."
From Defiance Croghan's party were obliged to drag their canoes several miles, "on account of the riffs which interrupt the naviga- tion," at the end of which they came to a village of Wyandottes, who received them kindly. From thence they proceeded in their canoes to the mouth of the Maumee. Passing several large bays and a number of rivers, they reached the Detroit River on the 16th of August, and Detroit on the following morning. +
As for Pontiac, his fate was tragical. He was fond of the French, and often visited the Spanish post at St. Louis, whither many of his old friends had gone from the Illinois side of the river. One day in 1767, as is supposed, he came to Mr. St. Ange (this veteran soldier of France still remained in the country), and said he was going over to Cahokia to visit the Kaskaskia Indians. St. Ange endeavored to dissuade him from it, reminding him of the little friendship existing between him and the British. Pontiac's answer was: "Captain, I am a man. I know how to fight. I have always fought openly. They will not murder me, and if any one attacks me as a brave man,
1765: "The Twightwee village is situated on both sides of a river called St. Joseph's. This river, where it falls into the Miami 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 some- what ruinous." The Indian village consists of about forty or fifty cabins, besides 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 post, where they have ever since spirited up the Indians against the English. All the French residing here are a lazy, indolent people, fond of breeding mischief, and they should not be suffered to remain. The country is pleasant, the soil rich and well watered."
* The place referred to is the mouth of the Auglaize, often designated as "The Forks " in many of the early accounts of the country. It may be noted that Croghan, like nearly all other early travelers, overestimates distances.
+ Croghan describes Detroit as a large stockade "inclosing about eighty houses. It stands on the north side of the river on a high bank, and commands a very pleasant prospect for nine miles above and below the fort. The country is thick settled with French. Their plantations are generally laid out about three or four acres in breadth on the river, and eighty acres in depth; the soil is good, producing plenty of grain. All the people here are generally poor wretches, and consist of three or four hundred French families, a lazy, idle people, depending chiefly on the savages for their subsist- ence. Though the land, with little labor, produces plenty of grain, they scarcely raise as much as will supply their wants, in imitation of Indians, whose manners and customs they have entirely adopted, and cannot subsist without them. The men, women and children speak the Indian tongue perfectly well." At the conclusion of the lengthy conferences with the Indians, in which all matters were "settled to their satisfaction," Croghan set out from Detroit for Niagara, coasting along the north shore of Lake Erie in a birch canoe, arriving at the latter place on the 8th of October.
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
I am his match." Pontiac went over the river, was feasted. got drunk, and retired to the woods to sing medicine songs. In the meanwhile, an English merchant named Williamson bribed a Kas- kaskia Indian with a barrel of rum and promises of a greater reward if he would take Pontiac's life. Pontiac was struck with a pa-ka- ma-gon - tomahawk, and his skull fractured, causing death. This murder aroused the vengeance of all the Indian tribes friendly to Pontiac, and brought about the war resulting in the almost total ex- termination of the Illinois nation. He was a remarkably fine-looking man, neat in his person, and tasty in dress and in the arrangement of his ornaments. His complexion is said to have approached that of the whites .* St. Ange, hearing of Pontiac's death, kindly took charge of the body, and gave it a decent burial near the fort, the site of which is now covered by the city of St. Louis. "Neither mound nor tablet," says Francis Parkman, "marked the burial- place of Pontiac. For a mausoleum a city has arisen above the for- est hue, and the race whom he hated with such burning rancor tram- ple with unceasing footsteps over his forgotten grave."
* I. N. Nicollet's Report, etc., p. 81. Mr. Nicollet received his information con- cerning Pontiac from Col. Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, and Col. Pierre Menard, of Kaskaskia, who were personally acquainted with the facts.
CHAPTER XXIII.
GEN. CLARK'S CONQUEST OF "THE ILLINOIS."
AFTER the Indians had submitted to English rule the west en- joyed a period of quiet. When the American colonists, long com- plaining against the oppressive acts of the mother country, broke out into open revolt, and the war of the revolution fairly began, the English, from the westward posts of Detroit, Vincennes and Kaskaskia, incited the Indians against the frontier settlements, and from these depots supplied their war parties with guns and ammunition. The depredations of the Indians in Kentucky were so severe that in the fall of 1777 George Rogers Clark conceived, and next year executed, an expe- dition against the French settle- ments of Kaskaskia and Vin- cennes, which not only relieved Kentucky from the incursions of the savages, but at the same time resulted in consequences which are without parallel in the annals of the Northwest .* GEN. CLARK.
* Gen. Clark was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 19th of November, 1752, and died and was buried at Locust Grove, near Louisville, Kentucky, in February, 1818. He came to Kentucky in the spring of 1775, and became early identified as a conspicuous leader in the border wars of that country. The border settlers of Kentucky could not successfully contend against the numerous and active war parties from the Wabash who were continually lurking in their neighborhoods, coming, as Indians do, stealthily, striking a blow where least expected, and escaping before assistance could relieve the localities which they devastated, killing women and children, destroying live stock and burning the pioneers' cabins. Clark conceived the idea of capturing Vincennes and Kaskaskia. Keeping his plans to himself, he proceeded to Williams- burg and laid them before Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, who promptly aided in their execution. From Gov. Henry Clark received two sets of instructions, one, to enlist seven companies of men, ostensibly for the protection of the people of Kentucky, which at that time was a county of Virginia, the other, a secret order, to attack the British post of Kaskaskia! The result of his achievements was overshad- owed by the stirring events of the revolution eastward of the Alleghanies, where other heroes were winning a glory that dazzled while it drew public attention exclusively to
245
246
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
The account here given of Clark's campaign in "The Illinois" is taken from a manuscript memoir composed by Clark himself, at the joint request of Presidents Jefferson and Madison." We prefer giving the account in Gen. Clark's own words, as far as practicable.
The memoir of Gen. Clark proceeds: "On the (24th) of June, 1778, we left our little island, t and run about a mile up the river in order to gain the main channel, and shot the falls at the very mo- ment of the sun being in a great eclipse, which caused various con- jectures among the superstitions. As I knew that spies were kept on the river below the towns of the Illinois, I had resolved to march part of the way by land, and of course left the whole of our bag- gage, except as much as would equip us in the Indian mode. The whole of our force, after leaving such as was judged not competent to [endure] the expected fatigue, consisted only of four companies, commanded by Captains John Montgomery, Joseph Bowman, Leonard Heims and William Harrod. My force being so small to what I expected, owing to the various circumstances already men- tioned, I found it necessary to alter my plans of operation.
"I had fully acquainted myself that the French inhabitants in those western settlements had great influence among the Indians in general, and were more beloved by them than any other Europeans ; that their commercial intercourse was universal throughout the west- ern and northwestern countries, and that the governing interest on the lakes was mostly in the hands of the English, who were not much beloved by them. These, and many other ideas similar thereto, caused me to resolve, if possible, to strengthen myself by such train of conduct as might probably attach the French inhabit- ants to our interest, and give us influence in the country we were aiming for. These were the principles that influenced my future conduct, and, fortunately, I had just received a letter from Col.
them. The west was a wilderness, -excepting the isolated French settlements about Kaskaskia, and at Vincennes and Detroit,-and occupied only by savages and wild animals. It was not until after the great Northwest began to be settled, and its capa- bilities to sustain the empire,-since seated in its lap,- was realized, that the magni- tude of the conquest forced itself into notice. The several states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, carved out of the territory which he so gloriously won,- nay, the whole nation,- owe to the memory of George Rogers Clark a debt of gratitude that cannot be repaid in a mere expression of words. An account of his life and eminent services, worthy of the man, yet remains to be written.
* Judge John B. Dillon, when preparing his first history of Indiana, in 1843, had access to Clark's original manuscript memoir, and copied copious extracts in the vol- ume named, and it is from this source that the extracts appearing in this work were taken. This book of Judge Dillon is not to be confounded with a History of Indiana, prepared and published by him in 1859. His first book, although somewhat crude, is exceedingly valuable for the historical matter it contains relating to the whole North- west, while the latter is a better digested history of the state of which he was an emi- nent citizen.
+ At Louisville.
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CLARK'S CAMPAIGN.
Campbell, dated Pittsburgh, informing me of the contents of the treaties* between France and America. As I intended to leave the Ohio at Fort Massac, three leagues below the Tennessee, I landed on a small island in the month of that river, in order to prepare for the march. In a few hours after, one John Duff and a party of hunters coming down the river were brought to by our boats. They were men formerly from the states, and assured us of their happiness in the adventure. . . . They had been but lately from Kaskaskia, and were able to give us all the intelligence we wished. They said that Gov. Abbot had lately left Port Vincennes, and gone to Detroit on business of importance ; that Mr. Rochblave commanded at Kas- kaskia, etc .; that the militia was kept in good order, and spies on the Mississippi, and that all hunters, both Indians and others, were ordered to keep a good look-out for the rebels ; that the fort was kept in good order as an asylum, etc., but they believed the whole to proceed more from the fondness for parade than the expectation of a visit ; that if they received timely notice of us, they would colleet and give us a warm reception, as they were taught to harbor a most horrid idea of the rebels, especially the Virginians; but that if we could surprise the place, which they were in hopes we might, they made no doubt of our being able to do as we pleased ; that they hoped to be received as partakers in the enterprise, and wished us to put full confidence in them, and they would assist the guides in conducting the party. This was agreed to, and they proved valua- ble men.
"The acquisition to us was great, as I had no intelligence from those posts since the spies I sent twelve months past. But no part of their information pleased me more than that of the inhabitants viewing us as more savage than their neighbors, the Indians. I was determined to improve upon this if I was fortunate enough to get them into my possession, as I conceived the greater the shock I could give them at first the more sensibly would they feel my lenity, and become more valuable friends. This I conceived to be agree- able to human nature, as I had observed it in many instances. Having everything prepared, we moved down to a little gully a small distance above Massac, in which we concealed our boats, and set out a northwest course. The weather was favorable. In some parts water was scarce, as well as game. Of course we suffered drought and hunger, but not to excess. On the third day John
* The timely information received of the alliance between the United States and France was made use of by Gen. Clark with his usual tact and with great success, as will be seen farther on.
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
Saunders, our principal guide, appeared confused, and we soon dis- covered that he was totally lost, without there was some other cause of his present conduct.
"I asked him various questions, and from his answers I could scarcely determine what to think of him,-whether or not that he was lost, or that he wished to deceive us. . . . The cry of the whole detachment was that he was a traitor. Hle begged that he might be suffered to go some distance into a plain that was in full view, to try to make some discovery whether or not he was right. I told him he might go, but that I was suspicious of him, from his conduct ; that from the first day of his being employed he always said he knew the way well ; that there was now a different appearance; that I saw the nature of the country was such that a person once acquainted with it could not in a short time forget it; that a few men should go with him to prevent his escape, and that if he did not discover and take us into the hunter's road that led from the east into Kaskaskia. which he had frequently described, I would have him immediately put to death, which I was determined to have done. But after a search of an hour or two he came to a place that he knew perfectly, and we discovered that the poor fellow had been, as they call it, bewildered.
"On the fourth of July, in the evening, we got within a few miles of the town, where we lay until near dark, keeping spies ahead, after which we commenced our march, and took possession of a house wherein a large family lived, on the bank of the Kaskaskia River, about three-quarters of a mile above the town. Here we were in- formed that the people a few days before were under arms, but had concluded that the cause of the alarm was without foundation, and that at that time there was a great number of men in town, but that the Indians had generally left it, and at present all was quiet. We soon procured a sufficiency of vessels, the more in ease to convey us across the river.
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