USA > Indiana > Knox County > Vincennes > History of Old Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 7
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The attitude of this trio of European kingdoms towards one another in relation to their American possessions, and the civil and military acts of their respective governments on this continent have resulted in making local history, here in this city, subordinate to national history only to the extent that the chapters which comprise a book are subordinate to the vol- ume of which they are an integral part. They have made Vincennes the most historic town in the country. Sanctified by age, she has been the scene of more stirring incidents of bloodshed, intrigues, love and hate,
* The English colonies in America began with villages and outlaying farms; the French colonies with missionary stations, fortified posts or trading houses, or with the three combined. The triple alliance of priest, soldier, and trader continued through the period of colonization. Often, but not always, settlements grew up around these missions or posts, and these settlements constituted the colonies of New France. Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, p. 38.
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strategic warfare, military skill and bravery, than any other spot on the continent. When aborigines held sway, and the blood of Saxon and Celt intermingled with her native born, when a Latin civilization had barely made its impress beyond the borders of the original thirteen colonies, above the ramparts of her primitive fortress had floated in turn the Fleur de Lys, the Cross of St. George and America's banner. Within her garrison had been mobilized the mosquetaires of Louis XIV, the gendarmes of George III, the riflemen of Clark, and the regular troops of Harmar, St. Clair and Harrison. From her blazing altars the light went forth into the darkness of the wilderness, with the chanted prayers of black-robed priests, to arouse the mind and awaken the heart of the child of the forest to his duty to the maker. The position of the old post, topographically and otherwise, from the day of its establishment, and even prior thereto, has been one of im- portance. The real history of the place, until late years but little known even to many dwelling within its precincts, is of greater national import than was ever dreamed by a casual observer of events. Looking backward more than two hundred years, we behold the old town, nestling in the shades of giant forests, far removed from the line of the frontier, a for- midable post in the trackless wilderness, forming one link of a grand chain by which France strenuously attempted to hold her possessions in this country. One hundred years later, during which period it had repeatedly repelled the hostile attacks of savage and semi-savage foes, it is seen yield- ing to British dominion and subject to British power. The war of the revolution, by which all the parental ties that bound us steadfastly to the heaving bosom of our mother country were severed, wrested it also from its conquerors and snatched the northwest territory, in its beauty and grandeur as a priceless gem from the British crown.
The acquisition of the territory by the three great powers above named before the close of the seventeenth century, and, particularly, subsequent to that period, brought about what might be termed an epidemic of conquest and colonization among the people on this side of the ocean so virulent in form as to attack victims of high and low degree, spreading its baleful influence even unto the other side of the great waters. The symptoms of the disease manifested themselves in a maddened race for land, in which England (though more neutral than her rivals), France and Spain were involved; creating also a pursuit for possession bordering on the insane among individuals of greedy or adventurous calibre. It sowed the seeds of dissension and selfishness broadcast throughout the land. Men, having an inordinate desire for wealth and social power, and greed for gain and gold, were lured, through the tempting avenues disloyal citizens had con- structed, to forsake the paths of principle and forget their patriotism, else the pages of American history would have never depicted Aaron Burr, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, as a traitor, no grand jury indict- ments would have been lodged against him for treason, and William Henry
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Harrison of Vincennes, Indiana, would have never had the opportunity to give him the first decisive check he had encountered in his gigantic scheme to dismember the Union. Neither would have George Rogers Clark, in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, feigned an intrigue with Genet, minister from France to the United States, going so far in his pretentions of sincerity to issue a proclamation signed by himself as Major-General of the Armies of France, Commander-in-Chief of the French Revolutionary Legions on the Mississippi; nor would have Daniel Boone accepted a commission as a Spanish officer ; and consequently no breath of suspicion of a treasonable nature would have blurred the bright records of two of the most fearless of frontier fighters, the bravest of soldiers, and the most loyal of American citizens. Clark's position, however, with ref- erence to his proposed conquest of Louisiana, was not in itself treason- able. His prenteded loyalty for France could not be construed as disloyalty to America, when he felt, in putting on the epaulets of a French officer, he had to deal solely with Spain. Notwithstanding his intrigues with Genet and his willingness to undertake an expedition for the conquest of St. Louis and upper Louisiana, he was not really so much in sympathy with the project as he was with the opportunities it might afford for venting his spleen and for paving the way for personal advancement and aggrandize- ment. In the first place, he was espousing a cause of Kentucky at the time that was a personal matter on the part of his constituents and him- self with Spain, because of the latter's attempt to block the Mississippi in order to divert products of Kentucky soil from the markets of New Or- leans. Secondly, he perceived an occasion to appease a warlike spirit, which was ever dominant in his mental and physical makeup. This feel- ing, combined with an uncontrollable desire for adventure and for unsel- fish gain and glory, actuated him and his followers and the followers of Boone-the backwoodsmen of Kentucky and Missouri-to jointly conspire for a conflict of arms in Spanish possessions on the American continent. Although both of these sturdy frontiersmen and pioneer warriors had fought Indians shoulder to shoulder, in this contemplated enterprise they had arrayed themselves to all outward appearances one against the other.
The Indiana legislature certainly did not attribute disloyal motives to the attitude of Clark in this connection, when both branches of that hon- orable body, in 1903, passed a bill making provision for placing a statue of the man commemorative of his patriotism and heroism in the Hall of Fame of the national capitol, a fitting testimonial by a great state-not to a favorite son, but to a distinguished soldier and patriot whose country, native and adopted states had flagrantly neglected to take cognizance of the valiant services he had rendered his common country or the manifold blessings that accrued to the nation therefrom. Governor Durbin, with more or less ceremony, vetoed the measure, performing an official act which
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failed to provoke a single plaudit from the ranks of his admiring con- stituents.
Clark and Vincennes are inseparable-they are synonymous. Hence the hero of the place of which we write bids us proceed with the story.
According to tradition, it was in September, 1702,* when autumn was just beginning to tinge the leafy verdure with gold, that M. Juchereau de St. Dennis and his four companions looked upon Vincennes for the first time. This quintette of Canadians-headed by Juchereau, soldier, citizen, trader, trapper, consisted also of Pierre Leondary, a French commissioned officer; Messrs. Godare and Troitre, coureurs de bois, and Father Le Veigne (predecessor of Father Mermet)-came by water and portage at the behest of religo-commercial people of Quebec, bearing credentials of their worth. The mission on which they were bent was fraught with an object of three-fold significance. Juchereau [ regarded by some of his biographers as a Huront half-breed, and as a Frenchmant of Irish descent] was a French gentleman (a type of the gentilhomme) with a penchant for adventure and speculation, and came here ostensibly to establish a trading post on the banks of the St. Jerome (Wabash) river, with full permission from the governor of Canada to engage in the lucrative and fascinating traffic of peltries, a trade out of which the noblesse of Canada and continental Europe were reaping harvests of fabulous wealth. Lieutenant Leondary had been or- dered, in conjunction with Juchereau, by the French government, to build a fort, and Father Le Veigne came from Montreal at the instigation of a Jesuit, to whom he was only an assistant, with instructions to erect a chapel and carry the light of the gospel farther into the darkened recesses of wil- derness wastes. This trio of voyageurs, nurturing impulses born with them upon the far-away shores of another continent, swayed by conditions aris- ing in the land of their adoption, along the borders of the St. Lawrence, were easily persuaded to become the light-bearers in a country flooded with darkness, accepting as their guide and sceptre the cross and the sword. Representing, as they did, a separation of duties, they were nevertheless firmly held by a union of interests, for the furtherance of which they in- cessantly labored. Encouraged by the reception accorded them by the na- tives when their pirogues-convoyed by a flotilla of birch canoes manned by Indians-landed at the foot of Broadway [now] street, in the shadow cast by the Piankashaw council house upon the placid bosom of the Wa- bash, their labor of love at once became a joyful task. They immediately began the erection of a primitive church and the construction of a rude fortification further down the river at the foot of Barnet street, the French Canadians and Piankeshaw Indians, between whom friendly relations ex- isted, voluntarily aiding in the work as it progressed. In selecting the
* La Harpe's Journal, Feb. 8, 1703.
t O. F. Baker, History Knox County, 1886.
# Bishop Brute quoted by Bishop de la Hilandeire.
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FIRST CHURCH WEST OF THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS
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sites for these buildings, the voyageurs simply carried out the idea char- acteristic of the French, displaying a judgment most admirable in the loca- tion as to proximity of the structures, one with the other, and the command- ing view of the river, up and down, both afforded.
In the formulation of this plan could be seen the wisdom of the priest, of the soldier and trader combined. These triple alliances were coexten- sive with the northwest territory, and were worked for an immediate end, but the sites they chose [especially the one now under consideration] are as important today as when they were chosen. Nature, the far-seeing goddess, undoubtedly decided all these questions long, long before the white race set foot upon the virgin soil of the new world.
On the first Sunday following the day of the voyageurs' arrival, Father Le Veigne celebrated high mass out in the open on the plot of ground sur- rounding St. Francis Xavier's cathedral, hard-by the partially built church. Villagers, hunters, trappers, coureurs de bois, and hundreds of Indians composed the congregation, and were more mystified and awed than they were spiritually impressed with the ceremonies. Within a comparatively short time both the church and the fort were completed, the cross and the sword implanted in new soil, the post formally established, and the "key to the northwest territory" consecrated to Christianity and dedicated to civilization.
The "fort," which was intended more as a protection for furs and pel- tries, and the men engaged in handling them, was nothing more than a small palisade, which Fort Sackville eventually supplanted and subsequently took on larger proportions. For more than a third of a century, however, it had an awe-inspiring effect on the savages, its presence preventing Indian uprisings that seemed ever and anon imminent. It was builded of heavy timbers, planted in the earth, sharpened on top and leaning outward, en- closing a log magazine buried in the sand; a storehouse constructed pat- teaux en terra (posts in the ground) with the interstices filled with mortar toughened by long prairie grass, and a few rude sheds, or huts of bark. Around this antiquated fortification the inhabitants builded their modest domiciles, and at its portals two-thirds of a century later contending armies of powerful nations adjusted international controversies, altered the boun- daries of nations, states and territories, and transposed their laws.
The modest church, within whose walls, soon after its completion, Father Mermet offered up the holy sacrifice of the mass as the regular celebrant, was named St. Francis Xavier's by this pious and zealous priest. In this crude house of worship, on the site of which the present magnifi- cent cathedral-with its paintings in oil and its marble statuary, its altars with tabernacles of gold and silver, candelabra of brass and bronze, vest- ments and robes of brocaded velvet and satin-rears its lofty spire towards the sky, no light fell upon the earthen floor except through apertures in the slabbed roof, cut for windows and ventilators, and no decorations re-
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lieved the nude walls except a faded print of the patron saint to whom good Father Mermet had dedicated his church. There were no fires in the stoves, because there were no stoves to be had, warmth being obtained from burning logs in the central aisle, the smoke finding its way out of the building through holes cut in the roof. Here the successor of Father Le Veigne, clothed in the sombre habiliments of a Jesuit, told penitents the story of the Christ and administered to supplicants the consoling sacraments in the first church erected west of the Allegheny mountains.
CHAPTER VI. THE SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL LIFE OF FIRST SETTLERS.
HOMES OF TIIE PEOPLE-FUNCTIONS OF SOCIETY'S VOTARIES IN THE EIGHT- EENTH CENTURY-THE DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVEL-POLICIES OF FRENCH INSURE UNITY AMONG TIIEMSELVES AND SECURE GOOD WILL OF INDIANS- LAND ALLOTMENTS FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES-NATIVES NOT ANNOYED BY LAWYERS OR COURTS-HOW MANY OF THE INHABITANTS VIEWED EDU- CATION AND RELIGION-FATHER MAREST AND FATHER MERMET TEACH AND PREACH-FATHER MERMET AND THE MASCOUTINS-FATHER RIVET AND THE FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES-RACIAL SUICIDE NOT IN VOGUE IN EARLY TIMES-ADVENTURES OF VOYAGEURS CELEBRATED WITH BALLS-THE EARL OF SELKIRK ENTERTAINED BY VINCENNES' FOUR HUNDRED.
At the first dawn of the eighteenth century Vincennes awakened from infantile slumber to look out upon a land of grandeur, beauty and pic- turesque loveliness. Few were the civilized habitations in the great north- west territory to accord her kindly greeting, Detroit, which still had on her swaddling clothes when Vincennes was born, being the only one of any con- sequence. At both these places the manners and habits of the people, and their adventures, were very similar. Detroit, however, being situated at a more exposed point, and surrounded by warlike Indian tribes, who were en- gaged in hostilities with each other, experienced more of the vicissitudes of war, of which Vincennes always had an ample sufficiency. Sparse, indeed, were the settlements in the vast country lying between these two points. Stockade forts, garrisoned by a handful of men, guarded and protected the portages by which it was possible-often at great risk-to penetrate this cov- etous country from the northern lakes. Kaskaskia, in the Illinois country, with its outlying hamlets, inhabited mostly by Indians, had its birth about the same time as Vincennes, and was governed by the same laws, and had, prac- tically, the same class of people. To these nuclei of civilization, furnished by the three towns, the Wabash, the Illinois, the Mississippi, or some affluent of them, afforded a highway. The famous "Wilderness Road," a route with which the first settlers of Tennessee and Kentucky subse-
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quently became familiar, was also utilized frequently as an avenue of travel by emigrants. Leading down from the mountains, it crossed the Ohio at Louisville, Ky., passed through Vincennes and led directly to Kaskaskia. The architectural design of the homes of the inhabitants of these villages was unique, if it was not artistic. Long, zig-zagged lines of log cabins, with broad verandas, stood along the narrow streets, the interstices filled with mud, or yellow clay, mixed with straw or prairie grass, the chim- neys, built of mud and sticks, standing on the outside. The interior decora- tions of these humble, but happy, homes evidenced that neither the ener- gies nor the tastes of the housekeepers had been overtaxed. A crucifix, the hide of a black bear nailed to the logs, or a pair of antlers of deer, elk, or the horns of a buffalo, were the characteristic furnishings of the average cabin, in which the few articles of furniture used bore the unmistakable trade-mark of having been home-made-puncheon chairs and puncheon tables, and pallets on the puncheon floors. The pristine glory and beauty of the forests were little disturbed by these denizens, who preferred the dark shades of woodland and dell, and the pursuit of the wild beasts that inhabited them, or the bosom of the sky-colored river, to the open fields, whose bright verdure and fertility would seem to invite the occupation of agriculture. The industry of tilling the soil, however, was carried on to a limited extent, but never to a degree that would detract from the charm of the chase. Trapping, hunting and fishing were always paramount to hewing, chopping or delving.
After the establishment of the fort and church, the average citizen of Vincennes, as well as those who dwelt remote from these institutions, felt more secure in the exercise of his social privileges, and religious preroga- tives, And, consequently, an additional glamor was given to a life that in a high degree had been characterized by a constant whirl of social gaieties in a perpetual atmosphere of congeniality. Christenings and weddings, the planting, the harvest, the husking, saints' days-every occasion that was the least bit out of the ordinary was made a gala day and every occur- rence of note called for a carnival or festival. The Creole fiddler was a much sought man, and the inspiring, though cacophonous, music his price- less instrument gave forth nearly every night in the week never ceased to commingle with the joyous and boisterous notes of the merry revelers until the gray dawn of morn gently peeked through the cabin windows or boldly sought admission at the door.
For more than a century the settlers at Vincennes lived in a world of their own, and, after the sceptre of His Britanic majesty was wielded over the regions of the northwest, for a long time, without molestation or hind- rance, the English allowed the French to hold sway in whatever region the adventuresome nature and keen discernment of the latter led them, by permitting them to establish themselves and exert their influence along the banks of the Allegheny to the Ohio. They had already possessed them- selves of the three other great avenues from the St. Lawrence to the
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Mississippi; for the safe possession of the route by way of the Fox and Wisconsin, they had no opponents but in the Sacs and Foxes; that by way of Chicago had been safely pursued since the days of Marquette; and a report on Indian affairs, written by Logan in 1718, proves that they very early made use of the Miami of the Lakes, where, after crossing the carry- ing place of about three leagues, they passed the summit level, and floated down a shallow branch into the Wabash and Ohio. It was upon this line of communication the French established their forts-the nuclei around which human habitations clustered-and, hence, the major portion of pop- ulation of these settlements, at Vincennes, at Detroit, and at Kaskaskia, traced their lineage to the first voyageurs from Canada. This route may have been adopted at a very early period after LaSalle's return from Illi- nois. All routes, however, leading to Vincennes, were more or less circuit- ous, especially overland, and progress necessarily slow. In journeying from one point to another between the Wabash and Illinois countries, con- siderable time was consumed, necessitating two, three, four, or five days in the wilderness. At all seasons of the year travelers were compelled to swim quite a number of water courses in their journey, which were too deep to be forded; the country being wholly destitute of bridges and fer- ries, travelers had, therefore, to rely on their horses as the only substi- tute for those conveniences. That fact made it common, when purchasing a horse, to ask it he were a good swimmer, which was considered the most valuable qualities of a saddle horse, the best of which sold at from $50 to $60.
"In all the settlements of the French on the Illinois and Wabash rivers " says Monnette, in his History of the Mississippi Valley, "as well as in Louis- iana, they adopted a policy at once singular and benevolent ; a policy well adapted to insure unity and harmony among themselves and to secure the good will and friendship of the numerous tribes in the northwest by which they were surrounded. They seemed, indeed, constituted to harmonize in all their habits and feelings with the Indians among whom they took up their abode. They had left behind them, among the colonists near the Atlantic border, avarice, that ruling passion of the European emigrants in the new world, which has too often sought its gratification in plundering the natives of their little patrimony and the comforts of savage life. Hence, while other colonies were continually embroiled with the natives in exterminating wars, the French who sought peace and friendship, lived in harmony and mutual confidence with the sur- rounding tribes. In all their migrations and explorations to the remotest rivers and hunting grounds, they associated with the Indians 'like a band of brothers,' as equally the children of the same great Father of all. Free from that selfish feeling which prompts men to associate in separate com- munities, with distinct and discordant interests, each endeavoring to mon- opolize all the advantages of time and circumstances, they lived among themselves as one common brotherhood and yet shared with the Indians
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their sufferings, and their hospitalities. Providence smiled upon the happy union of the white man of Europe with the red man of the American wil- derness. The early French were remarkable for their talent of ingratiating themselves with the warlike tribes around them, and for their easy amal- gamation in manners and customs, and blood. Unlike most other European emigrants, who commonly preferred to settle in sparse settlements, remote from each other, the French manifested in a high degree, at the same time, habits both social and vagrant. They settled in compact villages, although isolated, in the midst of a wilderness a thousand miles remote from the dense settlements of Canada. On the margin of a prairie, or on the bank of some gentle stream, their villages sprung up in long, narrow streets, with each family homestead so contiguous that the merry and so- ciable villagers could carry on their voluble conversation, each from his own door or balcony. The young men and voyageurs, proud of their in- fluence among the remote tribes of Indians, delighted in the long and merry voyages, and sought adventures in the distant travels of the fur trade. After months of absence upon the sources of the longest rivers and tributaries among their savage friends, they returned to their village with stores of furs and peltries, prepared to narrate their hardy adventures and the thrilling incidents of their perilous voyage. Their return was greeted with smiling faces, and signalized by balls and dances, at which the whole village assembled, to see the great travelers, and hear the fertile rehearsal of wonderful adventures and strange sights in remote countries.
The participants in these festive occasions-the men and women com- prising at this period the population of the Old Post, manifoldly blessed as they were with healthy offspring-had followed the Indian trails, over- land, or had pursued the same route, by water, over which the red man, many years previous, paddled his frail canoe. Distinctive among them were Spanish, English and French merchants, chaperoned by coureur de bois, who came to seek, Mohammedan-like, a traffic which had refused to come to them, and, whether from choice or policy, adapted themselves very agree- ably to the existing conditions of society .* A community of happy and simple people, indeed, was Old Vincennes from 1702 to the very end of Indiana's territorial existence. The laws which governed, the religious, social, commercial and industrial life it presented, the mannerisms of its inhabitants, the characters and occupations of its people, were so at va- riance with present day conditions, so hostile and diametrically in opposi- tion to the established codes of the descendants of French and English settlers, so repulsive to latter day ethics, as to be almost beyond the com- prehension of the present generation.
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