USA > Indiana > Knox County > Vincennes > History of Old Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 5
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* Paroquets (a variety of small parrot), which according to reports of travelers were abundant in the Ohio Valley a hundred years ago, are now found only in lati- tudes from further south. Cuming, in 1807, writing from the mouth of the Scioto, says: "We observed here vast numbers of beautiful, large, green paroquets, which our landlord, Squire Brown, informed us abound all over the country. They keep in flocks, and when they alight on a tree they are not distinguishable from the foliage from their color." -- [ Early Western Travels, IV, p. 161.]
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was half French. And, from this story some historians, no doubt, get their idea of the first French settlement at the old post.
According to a version of Mr. J. M. Hiatt, speaking through "The Political Manual," a publication that came from the Indianapolis press in 1865, "About the year 1690, a French settlement, the first in Indiana, was made at Vincennes, the place then being within the territory claimed at that time by the French upon priority of discovery of La Salle."
The American Cyclopedia, in its treatment of Indiana, says: "Indiana originally constituted a part of New France, and subsequently a part of the northwest territory. The exact period of its settlement is not ascer- tained. In 1702 a party of French Canadians descended the Wabash, and established several posts on its banks, and among others, Vincennes. The Indians made little opposition to the newcomers."
Mr. George J. Langsdale, a brilliant newspaper man, and a writer of considerable ability, several years ago published a bright and sparkling volume entitled, "Monograph of Indiana History," in which he refers to the subject of Vincennes' first settlement in language as follows: "The exact period of the first settlement is not known, but between 1702 and 1710 a party of French Canadians descended the Wabash river and estab- lished a post at Vincennes, which subsequently became the capital of the territory until 1813, and remains the oldest town in the state."
*Denonville declared in 1688 that there were posts on the Wabash and Ohio rivers. This was before Juchereau's post at the mouth of the Ohio. Bishop Brute, the first bishop of the Vincennes diocese of Indiana, fixes the date of the founding of the post and church at from 1700 to 1702. David Thomas, a Quaker, a class of people not often led into exaggera- tions or misstatements, said in 1816 that the post was first visited in 1690 and established in 1702. He adds: "I think the chronology of the first should be preferred." In Hinsdale's "Old Northwest," the statement is made that in 1702 twenty thousand skins were shipped out of the Wabash plain. This strongly indicates the presence of a post somewhere, or sev- eral of them. General Harmar was sent to Vincennes in 1787, and in writing to the secretary of war under date of August 7, 1787, he observes as to the founding of the post: "Monsieur Vincennes, the French officer from whom it derives its name, I am informed, was here and commenced the settlement sixty years ago." That would be 1727. But his testimony is of no more worth than others who conversed with the original settlers or their immediate descendants. Major Ebenezer Denny, who accom- panied Harmar to the post, says with some respect to tradition: "It was first settled by Monsieur Vincennes near 70 years ago, from whom it takes its name." This would be 1717. And his statement is entitled to as much credit as General Harmar's-no more. Another testimony is that of the
* F. A. Meyers, Post Vincennes, p. 10.
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journal of Joseph Buell, an orderly sergeant in Harmar's regiment. He accompanied his regiment to Vincennes in 1787. Mr. Dunn in his "In- diana," reports him as "a man of excellent character, and withal a typical New Englander of the period in his religious and political notions." Mr. Buell wrote this of Vincennes at that time: "The people give themselves up to all kinds of vice, and are as indolent and idle a community as ever composed one town. They might live in affluence if they were industrious. The town has been settled longer than Philadelphia, and one-half of their dwelling houses are yet covered with bark like Indian wigwams." And Philadelphia was laid out by William Penn in 1682.
In the first edition of Bancroft's History of the United States occurs this significant statement: "Vincennes, the only settlement in Indiana, had rapidly and surprisingly increased. Its own population, consisting of two hundred and thirty-two white persons, ten negro and seventeen Indian slaves, was recruited by one hundred and sixty-eight 'strangers.'"
This was in 1768, when the whole country was in deadly strife with Great Britain, when France and England were resorting to any method whatsoever, and by all manner of means, honorable and otherwise, to force the North American Indians to become their respective allies in waging holy and unholy warfare, one nation against the other, for terri- torial possessions. In his last revised edition Bancroft says, after weigh- ing all the facts by his superior judgment and mature methods of histori- cal test: "The permanent settlement at Vincennes belongs to the year 1702. It is the oldest village in Indiana." In a footnote he quotes his authority for this fact. It reads: "Inhabitants of Post Vincennes to Gen- eral Gage, 18 Sept., 1772. MS." He gave this evidence his full credence. The General Gage referred to bore also the no less numerous, as well as distinguished titles of "Lieutenant-General of the King's Armies, Colonel of the Twenty-second Regiment, General Commander-in-Chief of All His Majesty's Forces in North America," and, acting under instructions from King George, issued from his official headquarters in the city of New York, a proclamation designed for the inhabitants of the Wabash country. The document was dated April 22, 1772, and proclaimed that "Whereas, many persons, contrary to the order of the king, have undertaken to make settlements beyond the boundaries fixed by the treaties made by the Indian nations; and a great number of persons on the river Oubache are leading a wandering life without government and without laws, interrupting the free course of trade, destroying the game, and causing infinite disturbance in the country, which occasions considerable disturbance to the king, as well as those of the Indians, his majesty has been pleased to order, and by these presents, orders are given in the name of the king to all those who have established themselves on lands upon the Oubache, whether at St. Vincent [Vincennes] or elsewhere, to quit those countries instantly and without delay, and to retire at their choice into some one of the colonies
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of his majesty, where they will be received and treated as the other sub- jects of his majesty." This unwarranted and unlooked-for message came to the peaceful and contented inhabitants like a clap of thunder from a clear sky. After recovering from the effects of consternation it produced in the minds of the citizens generally, a coteric of the more prominent and influential residents of Vincennes, headed by St. Marie Racine, made reply to the document on the fourteenth day of September of the same year, stat- ing, in substance, that their possessions were held by "sacred titles," dating from the first settlement of the place, which were of "seventy years' stand- ing," and that their "land had been granted by order and under the pro- tection of his most Christian majesty." To this remonstrance General Gage made answer, demanding forthwith the proof of their assertion, which he desired "to be transported to the feet of his majesty." But meanwhile, and ever after, he left them in the quiet possession of their homes and their lands-a highly important circumstance, the barrister would say-tending to strengthen the evidence that the date of the settle- ment of Vincennes was 1702, if not earlier.
Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle, one of the daring French voyageurs, who visited Vincennes at a very early day, was born of an ancient and honorable family in Rouen. Renouncing his patrimony, or in some way deprived of it by unjust laws, he became a Jesuit, and received in a college of that order a thorough education. But finding the life of a priest in- compatible with his tastes, he quit the fraternity, receiving high testimonials of capacity and fidelity, and embarked as an adventurer for Canada, where he arrived between 1665 and 1667. In 1669 he descended the Ohio, La Belle Riviere, as far as the falls, where Louisville now stands. The as- sertion that about this time he descended the Illinois river to the Missis- sippi, rests on an anonymous report of conversations and is unsupported by his own petitions and documents. Afterward, however, he descended the Illinois and the Mississippi, and at the mouth of the great "father of waters," on April 9, 1682, set up a column with the French arms and took formal possession of the vast fertile valley or domain for his king. In a later effort, from the gulf of Mexico, to reach the mouth of this mighty river, he failed, and while wandering through the wilds of Texas was treacherously murdered by his men in 1687. As he fell his brutal murderers exclaimed: "There, you grand bashaw, there you are!" In 1699 D'Iberville succeeded better in finding "the hidden river" and founded Biloxi, about thirty miles below the site of New Orleans. There seems to be little doubt that La Salle* was here about 1683, as that was the
* We have met with an old volume containing an account of La Salle's second voyage into North America in 1683, written in French, "by Monsieur Joutel, a com- mander in that expedition." They landed at the mouth of the Mississippi, and as- cended that river : "We came to the mouth of a river called the Honabache, said to come from the country of the Iroquois, towards New England" "A fine
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year in which he passed up the Wabash, giving the stream the name of "Ouabache," as indicated by his maps. Finding an Indian settlement, he stopped, as was his wont, to make friends with the tribes and drive bar- gains with them in trading in furs. A few years later the town was abandoned on account of the invasion and depredations of the Iroquois, whose hostility towards the French was very fierce, and which induced La Salle subsequently to retire to his fort on the Illinois, gathering all the other Indian tribes around him, where they remained until about 1711, when the Iroquois withdrew to the mountains. The Piankeshaws promptly returned to their village here, the Weas went to the mouth of the Tippe- canoe and built wigwams, and the Twightwees located at the headwaters of the Maumee. The Delawares later took up their abode in the central part of the state, the Shawnees in the eastern portion, and the Pottawato- mies at the foot of Lake Michigan. The fact that La Salle never miscalled the "Agouassake" (Wabash*), is proof of his intimate knowledge of the stream and a circumstances in itself tending to show that he, in some of his many exploring expeditions, had passed up the river. He was prob- ably the first white man to make the shortt portage between the upper Wabash and the Maumee, and open a near way for traders and trappers to a splendid hunting region. The intimate knowledge had by the early
river, its water remarkably clear, and current gentle." The expression "towards New England," shows how inadequate an idea they had of the extent of our country. Hall's Romance of Western History, p. 29.
* This would seem to force the conclusion that the "fort" established by Sieur Juchereatt in 1702 was on the Wabash, and not the Ohio. Judge Law claims that no "fort" or "post" was ever founded by the French on the Ohio within the limits of either Indiana or Illinois. He says, further: "The French had no settlement on the Ohio in the early part of the eighteenth century-by a settlement I mean a fixed es- tablishment, a garrison, a town. Sieur Juchereau, for aught I know, may have had a trading house there, but there was no regular French establishment; and, according to Father Marest, it was to such an establishment already garrisoned-a 'fort'-that Father Mermet went * * * As the French settled Vincennes and established a fort there early in the eighteenth century; and as the Mascoutens were located on that stream, and not on the Ohio, and being a branch of the Miamis, and a portion of the Algonquin race, of course supposed to understand the 'Illinois,' 1 think it conclusive that the 'local' of Father Mermet's labors was the 'post' or 'fort' at Vin- cennes, and not the site of the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, where Sienr Juchereau may, or may not, have had a settlement."
+ * * * In the southeast angle of the lake was the portage of the St. Joseph river, which La Salle was much accustomed to traverse. There was by it about four miles of carriage to the Kankakee. The northward current of the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, and the southward current of the western shore, naturally made the St. Joseph portage a return route to Canada, and the Chicago an outward one. At a later day, this same river was found to afford a carriage to an upper branch of the Wabash, and it became the principal channel of supplies for the settlers at Vincennes. One can well imagine how this broad prairie land struck the Canadian from his sterile north-the flower-studded grass of the spring and the tall waving bannerets of the later season, with the luxury of the river bottoms and their timbered margins. Winsor, The Mississippi Basin, pp. 24-26.
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Jesuitt explorers, traders and trappers of this region and its streams may have been obtained by traversing the country themselves, or from the nomadic Indians, which would naturally lead to the conclusion that trad- ing and missionary posts (not military, not permanent settlements) were established on the Wabash prior to the erection of a fort or the founding of a settlement.
Mr. Cauthorn places the first settlement of Vincennes, as a possibility, at a much earlier date than any of his contemporaries. He says that the Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian Society-among whose members were William Henry Harrison, John Gibson, Waller Taylor, Nathaniel Ewing. John Badollette, Elihu Stout, Moses Tabbs, Isaac Blackford, Thomas Randolph, John Law, John Ewing, Benjamin Parke and George Rogers-was organized to investigate and establish authentic evidence con- cerning the early history of the place, and the first subject that occupied the attention of the society was fixing the date of the first settlement by the French. "Before 1820," says Mr. Cauthorn, "the date of the settle- ment of Vincennes by the French was fixed at 1680. Here the matter quietly rested until the advent of Bishop Brute in 1834. He found in the church library connected with St. Francis Xavier church registers and many manuscript documents which had been neglected, as no one had before him been inclined to burn the midnight oil in looking them over, page by page, the only way to obtain the valuable historic information they con- tained, as they were not indexed, but a confused mass. But Bishop Brute did this. He furnished the public, from time to time, through the columns of the Western Sun newspaper results of this investigation. He was a studious, careful and truthful man, and made no statement unless fully sustained by authority in making it, and which can be relied on as correct. He stated that he had found evidence in the church records here and in the records of the mission of St. Louis of Peoria, and the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary at Kaskaskia, Illinois, and the recorder's office there, that both the town of Vincennes (not then known' by that name) and the church of St. Francis Xavier here were both in existence as early as 1708, and perhaps earlier. And in one of his last communications published in the Western Sun, he says he will continue the search, and if anything additional is found indicating an earlier date, he will communicate it to the public. But his investigations were unfor- tunately terminated by his death in 1839. In this connection I will remark that in 1835 Bishop Brute, to familiarize himself with the wants of his immense diocese, embracing all of Indiana and Illinois, made a pastoral visit in person, traveling on horseback, to all the missionary stations in
$ Mr. F. A. Meyers, a former citizen of Vincennes, now residing at Evansville, in an excellent little book entitled, "Post Vincennes," says that he learned from a former pastor of St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral, through documentary evidence, that a missionary priest had been here in 1689 and administered the holy offices of the church to the savages.
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that vast territory and carefully examined the church records they con- tained. He made a detailed report of this pastoral visit through his diocese in his own happy manner to the Leopoldine Association in France in re- turn for assistance lent him to build up his diocese, a great part of which report is inserted in Father Allerding's (now bishop of Fort Wayne, In- diana) History of the Diocese of Vincennes.
"The communications of Bishop Brute on the subject of the early set- tlements of Vincennes published in the Western Sun, revived interest in the question, and the Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian Society again considered it. John Law, at the request of this society, delivered his cele- brated address on February 22, 1839, when the question was under dis- cussion by this society for the second time. Upon this reconsideration, that society, before 1840, settled upon 1683 as the date of the settlement of Vincennes by the French. This decision of that society was generally accepted by the citizens of Vincennes as conclusive of the question, and it became a common saying as I well remember, and as many old citizens of Vincennes now living also remember, that Vincennes was settled the year after Philadelphia. It is well known as a historical fact that Phila- delphia was settled in 1682.
"Were these men qualified and competent to examine, adjudicate and determine this question? It is sure they were far better qualified than persons living at a distance who have written upon and expressed opinions as to the true date of the settlement of Vincennes. To illustrate, I will only refer to three members of the Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian Society, and the peculiar opportunities they possessed of examining and passing a reliable judgment upon the question. These three members are Nathaniel Ewing, John Badollette and Elihu Stout. The two first came to Vincennes almost with the advent of the territorial government in 1800. The first as receiver of public monies, and the second as the register of the United States land office in this land district. The third came a little later, in the spring of 1804. They were all members of that society and took an active part in the discussion of the question. Messrs. Ewing and Badollette were the equals intellectually of any of the able men who came to Vincennes in territorial days. They all located here permanently and died and were buried here. They all possessed superior advantages for examining and determining this question above all others from the very nature of their several employments. Elihu Stout published the first paper in the northwest territory, at this place, commencing on July 4, 1804, and continuing its publication until the fall of 1845, and from the nature of his business came in contact with the people generally and ascertained their views upon all public questions. Messrs. Ewing and Badollette con- stituted the board of commissioners appointed by the federal government to examine and adjust land titles founded upon the grants of land to the early French settlers from the different commandants of the post while the country was under the jurisdiction of France, and which grants had
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been secured to the several grantees by treaty stipulations and acts of congress. These commissioners held their sessions at Vincennes from 1804 to 1810, and examined and passed upon these old French land grants reaching back to the first settlement of Vincennes by the French. And as there was no record of documentary evidence of these old French grants, the commissioners were compelled to hear oral testimony to establish them. This necessarily brought them in close contact in their official capacity with the old French settlers who could give testimony concerning these French land grants extending back, in many cases, to the first settlement of Vincennes by the French.
"These were the men who took an active part in the discussion of the question as to the date of the settlement of Vincennes by the French, and who finally fixed the date of settlement at 1683. Messrs. Ewing and Bad- ollette were perhaps better qualified to determine this question than any other persons from the very nature of their employment in tracing back matters to the very beginning. Is not more reliance and confidence due and should be given in determining this question to the opinions and con- clusions of men who lived and died in Vincennes and were actually a part of its history, than upon the mere dicta and opinions of men who never lived here, nor visited the place, or who were here only for a few days, and with these crude and imperfect impressions thus obtained in hasty visits, went off and published books purporting to be facts? Count Vol- ney, the celebrated traveler who was here in 1796 for a few days only, states in the history of his travels that the place was settled by the French in 1735. David Thomas, who was here at a much later date, and for a few days only, follows in his wake and gives the erroneous date given by Count Volney. Monnette, Flint and Scott, who have all given an opinion on the subject of the date of the settlement of Vincennes by the French, were never here so far as I know, and derived their information from sec- ond-hand sources, upon which they based their opinions and conclusions. John B. Dillon, who published a book purporting to be a history of In- diana, cannot be regarded as any authority on the subject against the com- bined opinions of such men as I have referred to.
"It is a matter of sincere regret that the Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian Society was permitted to perish for want of appreciation and support. The valuable collection of important physical specimens con- tained in its museum, and its documents and records were suffered to be carried off and scattered, and are not now, for the greater part, in exist- ence, or at least are not accessible to the public."
Not the least feature to invite an early settlement* were the great
* William Henry Smith, who is a careful historian, and whose productions of Northwest Territorial history-of which he has written several volumes-read like charming romances, in his History of Indiana, says: *
* "It is about as difficult to determine when the first actual settlement of the whites was made in Indiana as to determine the exact time and route of the early explorers. For Ft. Wayne it has
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rolling prairies, traversed by rivers, dotted with lakes, hemmed by forests, where both game and fish abounded. The limitless and verdant plains, above which the tall grasses waved like the wind-swept bosom of an emer- ald sea, were criss-crossed with beaten paths over which the buffaloes passed to and fro in vast numbers. The industrious beaver, otter, mink and musk rat filled the streams and alluvial bottoms with their houses and feasted on fish of many varieties; while elk, deer, bear, to say nothing of panthers, wild cats, lynx, skunks and catamounts, sought the deep recesses of woodland or glen. It was to gather these fortunes in furs from field and forest and stream that Canadians came here so early, so often and in such large numbers. It was the unlimited wealth wrapped, as it were, in the skins of these wild animals that made the fur trade of Mon- treal, Quebec and Detroit the most gigantic and profitable enterprise of colonial days. It was the commodities obtained from the wild beasts of this locality that gave Vincennes as early as the eighteenth century com- mercial recognition in France, and placed the wilderness of the northwest in direct communication with the marts of the old world, bringing at
been claimed that it had an important trading post as early as 1672, and several dates have been fixed for the first occupation of Vincennes extending over more than half a century. According to one tradition, French traders visited the site of Vincennes as early as 1690, and many of them remained there, marrying among the Indians and raising families. Another tradition puts the first arrival of the traders or explorers in 1680. Still another is to the effect that a party of French Canadians, in 1702, de- scended the Wabash river, and established several posts. Vincennes being one of them. The historians of the Maumee Valley claim that the first post was established on the present site of Fort Wayne. A part of the confusion which exists as to Fort Wayne has been caused through the misapprehension as to certain visits of the French missionaries. The missionaries left records of their work among the Miami Indians, and as the main villages of the Miamis, when record history first begins, were around the headwaters of the Maumee, it has been taken for granted that the labors of the missionaries were at that point. However, the Miamis first lived around Green Bay, Wisconsin, and when the larger part of the tribe migrated to Indiana and Ohio, a remnant remained at Green Bay. It was among that remnant the missionaries labored. As has already been stated. the maps covering the explorations up to 1684 show no settlements anywhere in Indiana, from the importance attached by the French Government to all such settlements, the conclusion is irresistible that prior to that time none existed. On the Wabash near the present site of Vincennes was an impor- tant Indian village, known as Chip-kaw-kay, and it is highly probable that when the first French settlers arrived they heard stories of prior visits made by traders, and after a lapse of time, these traditions became transposed into facts relating to the first actual settlement. To hold their claim upon the Mississippi Valley, the French, in 1702, determined to establish some posts along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and M. Juchereau did erect a fort at the mouth of the Ohio. Some writers have attempted to claim that Vincennes was the site of this fort, but all the records oppose such a view. M. de Denonville adds to the confusion. In a memoir on the French posses- sions in North America, dated the 8th of March, 1688, he says the French at that time had 'divers establishments' on the Mississippi 'as well as on that of the Oyo, Ouahache, etc .. which flows into the said river, Mississippi.' What he meant by the term 'divers establishments' is doubtful."
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