USA > Indiana > Knox County > Vincennes > History of Old Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 4
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* "Chippecoke" (an appellation which clung to Vincennes for some time atfer it became a settlement of the white man), while occupied as an Indian village, and as the exclusive habitation of the Piankeshaws, ever had its portals open to all repre- sentatives of tribes belonging to the Miami confederation. Above the door of its
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of Paris in 1761, entitled "Letters Edifying and Curious,"t which con- tains a letter written by Gabriel Marest, Missionary of the Company of Jesus, to Father Gerom of the same company. The letter was written at Kaskaskia and dated November 9, 1712, one hundred and ninety-eight years ago. Still, the place was known to exist twelve years before that and French traders and missionaries were here twelve years, if not, in reality, ninety-one years, previous. What did the first Frenchman think
quaint circular council-house was the tribal totem of the turtle, and within its walls many conferences were held between the red and white man as well as numerous secret meetings to which only the Indians were admitted. In appearance it was not unlike a marine light-house, and towered above the huts and shanties that afforded shelter to the villagers. The boundaries of the village were probably Busseron street on the south and Perry street on the north. Near the south side of Buntin street, between the river bank (colline gravois) and First street, was a large mound, which was used for burial purposes. This, however, was removed when ground was broken for the elevator (on the site) now operated by J. & S. Emison, and the bones of many braves were exhumed. Just how far eastward the limits of the village extended is not known-but it is very probable that they reached from the river as far back as Eighth or Ninth street. At least, it is reasonable to suppose that the Piankeshaws had jurisdiction over that portion of the city. There is a ridge, or elevation, extending from Willow, between Eighth and Ninth street, as far north as Scott street, which was, possibly, before the streets were improved and graded, the only section of the city not subject to inundation. That the Indians made use of this high ground (especially in the southeast end of the city) for burying their dead is evidenced from the fact that well-preserved skeletons are frequently unearthed in that locality. While Joseph V. Hershey was having ground broken March, 1910, for the foundation of his house, in Eighth street, between Vigo and Church streets, the workmen exhumed three skeletons of Indians. The bones of all three denoted that they were the remains of men of unusually large proportions. Of the larger one Mr. Hershey measured the femor of the right leg, which was the only section of the frame intact, and concluded that-calculating upon the proportions of an ordinary man's anatomy-the deceased was fully eight feet in heighth. In 1875, on the same lot, while excavations were being made, the remains of a warrior were uncovered. The bones were in a fair state of preservation, and beside them were war paint, and a hunting knife with buckhorn handle, encased in a raw-hide scabbard, all of which were well preserved. While the Piankeshaws were the only Indians who had a per- manent home here, there were other bands who established temporary wigwams in Vincennes and at various places in the county. The venerable Thomas Dubois says his mother told him often that a tribe of Indians had their camp in her back yard. A large hill, in Washington township, on a farm of L. A. Meyer, near Maria creek, and east of the Frisco (E. & T. H.) railroad, is said to have been the burial ground of the Indians, and tradition has it that the dead there entombed were placed in a sitting posture with their faces turned towards the north.
There are quite a number of volumes bearing this title-"Lettres Edifiant et Curieuse"- in the Cathedral library, from one of which the interview of Father Mer- met with the Medicine Man of the Mascouten Indians, published in another chapter of this volume, is taken. In another book of the same series Father Marset refers to the unusual number of buffaloes and bears to be found along the banks of the Wabash, of the fine quality of the flesh of these animals; and, of course, in this respect, speaks from experience, and as one having the tastes of an epicure, for he says-"the meat of a young bear is very delicious, for I have tried it."
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and see when his canoe passed the place then? More than two hun- dred years have rolled into the abyss of time since that eventful cra! If he could rise up now, and pass down the same streams, what would he see and think? Were it possible for him to get in communica- tion with Quebec, from which he took his departure in a frail birch canoe two long centuries ago for the Gulf streams, he could learn that last June an automobile party departed from the same place, with the Gulf of Mexico its destination, and made the trip in one-hundredth part of the time he had consumed in his lonely voyage, with only the silent stars to bear him company. Water navigation in his day was the only means of transportation known in the inhospitable region he called his own ; locomo- tion overland by steam and electricity was unheard of, and, even the thought of aerial navigation, in ships having speed compared to the winged fleetness of the water fowl he was wont to slay with the most primitive implements of destruction, was to him neither a vision remote nor a dream of the far distant future.
Father Marest, in the letter referred to above, speaks of the richness and fertility of the country and of the abundance of ore. He expressed the belief that experienced miners could find especially lead and tin, and did not doubt that "gold and silver would be found in abundance." Whether or not lead ore, or tin, or gold, or other metal, is present in this region has never been determined by any scientific demonstration or test. In fact, the bowels of the earth around here have never been penetrated for the purpose of obtaining hidden treasures other than coal, gas and oil, which articles are found in the subterranean recesses underlying this local- ity in such innumerable quantities and possessed of such superior qualities as will, of necessity, eventually place Vincennes in a distinct class with the leading cities of wealth and progress. For many years, however, the Illi- nois Indians made annual pilgrimages in the fall of the year to Vincennes, by fording the Wabash river below the city, coming here ostensibly for the purpose of moulding bullets for the winter's chase. Whether the lead from which these missiles of death were cast was obtained therefrom, or not, the moulding operations were always performed on Bunker Hill, south of town, the supposition of the older inhabitants being that the raw material used in the manufacture of the bullets was then there extracted from the earthı.
Bancroft, the historian in his history of the United States says, "that no bay, no lake, no river, no mountain in all the vast expanse of this con- tinent has ever yet been visited by any explorer but that a Jesuit mission- ary had been there before him." The "robes noir" (black robe) priests, all of whom came direct from France, were swayed by a Divine impulse to christianize the savages that dominated the wilderness of the northwest territory. Taking their bearings from Quebec to penetrate the wilds of a country that had not, up to that time, been invaded by a white man, they pointed the bows of their frail water craft towards the south and west, tra-
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versing the northern lakes, establishing missionary stations along the bor- ders thereof, crossing the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin, descend- ing the Mississippi, building chapels at Peoria, (then called St. Louis) at Cahokia, Prairie du Rochen, Kaskaskia, St. Joseph, Quiatenon and Vin- cennes. Wherever, between the lakes and the Ohio, (the Wabash) a chapel could be erected, at whose altar the Indians might be persuaded to bow, they established it, and gathered around it every dusky denizen of the forest who had not been brought irredeemably under the influence and charlatan- ery of the "medicine man." Jacques Marquette was among the most learned and intrepid of these missionaries, and, in all probability, was here before his exploration of the Mississippi, in 1673, or, at least, had been in the Wabash country prior to that event, as Bishop Brute in his writings says that "the St. Joseph portage was used by Father Marquette long before La Salle and Hennepin passed through it; that Father Marquette and Al- louez passed through that portage on their way to the 'Ouachasche' coun- try soon after 1660."
The late Hon. Henry S. Cauthorn, in "History of Vincennes," published in 1901, says : "While there is no positive evidence that Father Marquette was ever at the site of Vincennes, yet, reasoning by the inductive process, we are bound to conclude that he was here as early as 1660. It would be unreasonable to suppose that this indefatigable worker for the conversion of the Indians would fail to visit so important a point in the Wabash valley as this when he was known to be in its vicinity. This site was a favorite resort for all the Indian tribes on both sides of the Wabash river. It was a safe place of abode for them in consequence of its high situation and the conditions then existing in this part of the surrounding country. From the earliest times until very recent years the entire country on both sides of the Wabash river was covered with water many feet deep twice during cach year during the January and June freshets. Dur- ing these flood seasons the country for hundreds of miles in all di- rections from the site of Vincennes was covered with water many feet deep and offered no suitable abiding place for the Indians. As late as 1846 the Wabash and Embarrass rivers annually overflowed their banks and united their waters, covering the intervening space of eight miles to a depth of seven or eight feet. And in the same way, by overflow, the White river united its waters with the Wabash to the east to a like depth. In 1846 the steamboat Daniel Boone was carried by the force of the overflow cur- rent a short distance above Vincennes from the channel of the Wabash river out into the prairie for over a mile, and was only returned to the river with difficulty. And in the same year the United States mail was carried from Vincennes over the overflowed prairies on the Illinois side to the high ground on the Embarrass river at Lawrenceville, and this was not an unusual or singular occurrence, but happened frequently, until the country was protected by levees. These conditions made the site of Vin- cennes a resort and place of abode for the Indians, as it was always on high
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ground above the reach of any flood. It was here they had their permanent village and fields, which were still visible when the white settlers came to the place. It was here they had their council houses and where all the sur- rounding tribes assembled many times during the year when they returned from the chase or forage. And such a place, where so many of the In- dians could be easily found, it is contrary to reason to suppose that such a zealous missionary as Father Marquette would fail to visit when he was in the Wabash country. I wish to locate Father Marquette at the site of Vincennes, as it will fix the probable date of his visit. It is well known that he left the Jesuit mission at Kaskaskia a sick and worn-out man, in consequence of his labors and exposure, to return to St. Ignace, a few days after Easter, 1675. On this, his final trip, he traveled by way of the St. Joseph portage. He died May 18, 1675, ascending the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, and was buried in the sands of the lake shore before he reached his destination. Therefore, he must have visited the site of Vin- cennes, if at all, prior to 1675, and in all probability about 1660."
It is certain, beyond a reasonable doubt, that missionaries other than one of the four which Champlain brought from France, had been here prior to 1700. "They," says Mr. Cauthorn, in his History of Vincennes, referring to the Jesuit missionaries, "accomplished wonderful results in converting the Indians that inhabited the country about the present site of Vincennes. The records of St. Francis Xavier's church as preserved (I use the words 'as preserved' as Bishop Brute used them whenever lie re- ferred to these records) show from April, 1749, and for a half century after, the greater part of the entries of baptisms, marriages and funerals were of Indian converts. This vast number of Indian converts to the faith as evidenced by these records as preserved show that the work of the missionaries, while fruitful of good, was not the work of a day or month, but of many years. The untamed savages of the forest could not be con- verted to christianity at short notice. The labors of the missionaries were not only slow, but dangerous." In this connection, Judge Law, in an ad- dress delivered before the Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian Society, on February 23, 1839, says: "It was not only toil, hunger and cold that the Jesuit missionaries of the cross were called upon to endure, but many, very many, were tomahawked, or, what was far worse, burned at the stake. No sooner was it known that their predecessors had perished at the stake, or by the scalping knife, than new recruits offered their services to fill their places. In fact, a mission among the Indians was a labor of love to these heralds of the cross.
Jacques Marquette was a blood relative of the late Cyr. Poullet, the dis- tinguished father of Mrs. John Burke, this city. Mr. Poullet, in discus- sing his pious and scholarly relative, always considered, as a matter of fact, that Marquette, prior to his first voyage of exploration and discovery along the Mississippi, had visited Vincennes and spent several days in this vicinity in his efforts to christianize the savages. But just how it were pos-
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sible for Bishop Brute and Mr. Cauthorn to fall into the same error with reference to the probable visit of Father Marquette to Vincennes, and both to fix the date as early as 1660, six years before the distinguished Frenchman took his departure for America from the land of his birth, can only be accounted for from the fact that each of these careful and painstak- ing writers were equally unfortunate in coming in contact with the same erroneous data, made so either by the negligence of the printer who put it in type, or the ignorance of the historian who furnished the copy.
At the age of seventeen Marquette entered the Society of Jesus, and in 1666 sailed from his birth-place in Laon, France, for Canada as a mis- sionary, and was one of the first explorers of the Mississippi river. He spent about eighteen months in the vicinity of Three Rivers, where he ac- quired the Montagnais and Algonquin languages, and in April, 1668, went to Lake Superior and there founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie. In the following year he was sent to take the place of Father Allouez among the Ottawas and Hurons of Lapointe; but his stay here was short, these tribes being soon dispersed by the Sioux. Marquette then followed the Hurons to Mackinaw, and there in 1671 built a chapel at the mission of St. Ignatius, or Michilimackinac, to which Mr. Cauthorn refers as St. Ignace. In the following year he wrote of his success at Mackinaw to Father Dablon, the superior of the Jesuit missions in Canada. "I am ready, how- ever," he continued, "to leave it in the hands of another missionary to go on your order to seek new nations toward the South sea, who are still un- known to us, and to teach them of our great God whom they have hitherto not known."* As early as 1669 in fact he had resolved upon exploring the Mississippi, of which he had heard from the Indians, and had made preparations at Lapointe to visit "this river, and the nations that dwell upon it, in order to open the passage to so many of our Fathers who have so long awaited this happiness." His desire was not gratified, however, until 1673, when Frontenac and Talon, the Governor and Intendant of Canada, hav- ing resolved to send an expedition under Louis Jolliet to explore the di- rection and mouth of the Mississippi, Marquette was instructed to accom- pany the party as a missionary. With five other Frenchmen they left Mackinac in two canoes on May 17th, and reaching the Wisconsin river by way of Green bay, Fox river, and a portage, floated down to the Missis- sippi, on whose waters they found themselves by the seventeenth day of June. On June 25th they stopped at an Indian village, where they were kindly received. Somewhere near the mouth of the Ohio, then called the
* The purpose of discovering the Mississippi, of which the tales of the natives had published the magnificence, sprung from Marquette himself. He had resolved on attempting it, in the autumn of 1669, and, when delay intervened, from the necessity of employing himself at Che-goi-me-gon, which Allouez had exchanged for a new mission at Green Bay, he selected a young Illinois as his companion, by whose in- structions he became familiar with the dialect of that tribe. Bancroft, History of the U. S., vol. III, p. 153.
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Ouaboukigou, they met savages who assured them that it was not more than ten days' journey to the sea, and that they bought 'stuffs' and other articles of Europeans on the east side. Continuing their voyage, they arrived at a village called Akamsea, probably about the mouth of the Arkansas. Here they held a council, and having satisfied themselves that they were not more than two or three days' journey from the mouth of the river which undoubtedly emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, or off the Florida coast, and not, as had been conjectured, in California or Virginia, they resolved to return, especially as their further progress would expose them to the danger of a captivity among the Spaniards. They began their homeward voyage on July 17th, 1673, and, passing up the Illinois, instead of the Wisconsin, arrived in September at Green Bay. They had accomplished the object of their mission, and traveled in their open canoes a distance of over 2,500 miles. On the banks of the Illinois Marquette had promised the Kaskaskia Indians to return and preach to them. He was detained by sickness at the mission of St. Francis Xavier on Green bay a full year; but in October, 1674, having previously sent to his superiors an account of his journey down the Mississippi, he set out with two white men and a number of savages for the village of Kaskaskia. On December 14th he was stopped at the portage on the Chicago by infirmities and severe cold, and, dismiss- ing the Indians, resolved to winter there with his two white companions. Resuming his journey March 30, 1675, he reached Kaskaskia April 8th, and immediately upon his arrival began the erection of an altar for the purpose of celebrating in an imposing manner the festival of Easter, but, conscious that his end was approaching, he soon thereafter brought his labors to a close and attempted to return to Mackinaw. He reached no further than a small river whose mouth is on the east shore of Lake Michi- gan, and which still bears his name, and there he died in the presence of the two Frenchmen who had attended him from Green bay. He was buried on the spot, but in 1677 his remains were carried to Mackinaw. The nar- rative of his voyage on the Mississippi was not published until 1681, when it appeared at Paris in Thévenot's Recueil de Voyages, accompanied by a map. This narrative, as well as a journal of the missionary's last expedi- tion, and his autograph map, may be found in Shea's "Discovery and Ex- ploration of the Mississippi Valley." His narrative, for some years after its first publication, was regarded as a fable; but his claim has long since been fully established as the first explorer of the great river of the west, and the first European who saw it after De Soto.
CHAPTER IV. SPECULATIONS OF HISTORIANS ON FIRST SETTLEMENT OF VINCENNES.
THE INDIANS' HOSPITABLE TREATMENT OF FRENCH VOYAGEURS-RANDOM DATA RELATING TO EARLY SETTLEMENT OF VINCENNES, WHICH INTRO- DUCES GENERAL GAGE AND HIS DEMAND ON THE INHABITANTS AT TIIE POST TO SHOW LAND TITLES-EXTENT OF FUR TRADE IN THE NORTHWEST AND HOW VIEWED BY LOUIS XIV-LA SALLE IN THE WABASH COUNTRY-THE VINCENNES ANTIQUARIAN AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY PLACED THE FOUND- ING OF PIIILADELPHIA AND VINCENNES ABOUT TIIE SAME TIME.
The establishment of commercial relations, which opened communi- cation early in the eighteenth century between the wilderness of the north- west territory and the cities of continental Europe, could never have been effected had not the Indians been first won over by the early trappers and hunters. The first adventurers were French and knew exactly how to win the confidence and respect of the red man, without the bestowal of gifts. How they did it was by artifice which other nations could never fully comprehend. But that they succeeded admirably is shown in the fact that they not only persuaded the Indians to permit them to hunt and trap over the latter's vast domains, but induced the red men to join them and follow the chase for profit, and procure peltries and furs for commercial purposes instead of gathering them for home consumption, to be peddled out for fire-water and trinkets. And the result was that the fur industry in this locality, as will be shown in detail further along, became an enterprise of large proportions.
Unless he was entertaining a Frenchman, the Indian was as fickle as the wind towards his guests, displaying little or no regard for social ethics; and, yet, when he felt so disposed, was the most hospitable and generous host, dispensing not only hospitality but bestowing valuable gifts with a lavish hand to any one who appealed to his fancy and had the courage to boldly ask for shelter beneath the roof of his tepee or tan- barked home. Timidity, in the Indian's eyes, was a crime which could not be condoned. Whether at war or peace with their neighbors, the red men and women, and even the children, vied with one another in be-
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stowing attentions and showing consideration for the voyaging robes de noir and their companions whenever an occasion presented. Before, how- ever, the white man had begun to exert a civilizing influence over the savage to a marked degree, while the country was yet wholly in its primi- tive state, the friendly attitude of the red man towards the priestly voyageurs was so pronounced as to be almost incredible to those who had not been brought directly in contact with it. The adventurous voyages of the French, or, more properly the voyages of the adventurous French, were not more amazing than the consideration shown the voyageurs by the Indians; and this hospitality was not extended by the children of the forest in one section of the country, but was universal, and prevailed in all localities. When the early voyageurs began to explore the shores of the St. Lawrence, extending their explorations over its grand chain of tributary lakes, they encountered all along these water courses many tribes of savage and hostile Indians who, surprising though it may seem, offered them no resistance. When England and France were on the eve of having their first passage at arms on American soil, and the eyes of the nations of the Old World were turned in this direction, wondering what the outcome would be, French priests were pushing their frail ca- noes from the mouth of the Father of Waters up to the Falls of St. An- thony, thousands of miles distant, and were also plying the waters of the Wabash, the Ohio, the Illinois, the Wisconsin and many other important tributaries, in search of souls, when all the land about them echoed with the cry of the wild. The hostile red skins, many of whom looked for the first time on the features of "pale faces," not only allowed them to pass unmolested, but accorded them the most cordial reception, inviting them to their wigwams that they might receive family as well as tribal salutations and partake of hospitality wholly unaffected. On such occa- sions the fat hump of a buffalo, the steak of a bear, or the saddle of a deer or antelope, were prepared with extra care, and a bevy of dusky maidens, dressed in their gaudiest clothes and adorned with beads and trinkets, waved the brilliant plumes of the paroquet* above the devoted heads of the guests, while they ate or slept, that insect interlopers might not offend their appetites nor disturb their slumbers.
The attachments formed between the Indians and French were both instantaneous and lasting, and soon led to the amalgamation of the races; which probably gave rise to the tradition that long before the beginning of the eighteenth century an Indian village, which thrived at Vincennes,
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