The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. I, Part 11

Author: Griswold, B. J. (Bert Joseph), 1873-1927; Taylor, Samuel R., Mrs. The story of the townships of Allen County
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : R.O. Law Co.
Number of Pages: 760


USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. I > Part 11


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89


95


1789 1790


LIFE IN MIAMI TOWN (FORT WAYNE)


there is a ceremony of taken it into the Council House, Chiefs House or Place where they keep theire Trophies."


Among the persons mentioned by Hay who do not otherwise figure in the story are Jacques Godefroy (probably the same man who led the conspiracy to murder Ensign Robert Holmes in 1763 and then became the protector of Captain Morris in 1764), Jean Cannehous, Lamoureux, Etienne Pantonne, Henri Rainbeare, Jaque Clairmont, Jean Coustan, Little Egg (a Miami), the Sirropp (an Indian), The Snake (Shawnee chief), The Porcupine, and The Soldier (chiefs who signed the Greenville Treaty), J. B. Lasselle, Ribidos, Francis Lasselle (nephew of Jacques, who with his family, fled when LaBalme's men took the town), B. Lasselle, Mr. and Mrs. Cicotts, LaChambre, Robedeux, The Wolf (a Shawnee chief), J. Forsythe, Sherlock, Montroilles and L. Dubois.


Hay bade adieu to his friends at Miami Town and departed for Detroit on the 1st of April, 1790. There is nothing in his record to suggest that the French, English or savage occupants of the villages anticipated the calamity which befell them within ten months of that time, although they were fully aware of the move- ments which preceded the coming of Harmar. "John Thompson [a prisoner] told me their was a great talk of raising men to come against the Ind's," wrote Hay on March 2, 1790. "However Gen- eral St. Clair who is now at the Bigg Miami [Cincinnati] with two boat loads of goods, means to call the Indians together at a council at Post Vincennes-But if the Indians do not come to a settlement with them, they mean to fight them."


This and other councils were held. The savages, acting on the advice of the British, at Detroit, refused to listen to Washing- ton's terms of peace, and the series of costly wars which form the following chapters of the story, ensued.


NOTES ON CHAPTER X.


(1) Logan Esarey, "History of In- diana," page 102. 1


(3) The original belongs to the Detroit Public Library. A copy fur- nished by C. M. Burton, appears in the Proceedings of the Wisconsin Historical Society, for 1915.


(2) Miami Town, the French village, occupied the ground on the Spy Run bank of the St. Joseph river, extend- ing to the southward nearly to the point of land formed by the conflu- ence of the St. Mary's and the St. Joseph. The writer, in company with Jacob M. Stouder, after a careful reading of Hay's journal and a thor- ough study of the contour of the site in question, is convinced that this spot is the scene of Hay's description. The principal village of the Miamis occupied a site in Lakeside.


(4) The identity of this family is not positively known. Dr. M. M.


Quaife, superintendent of the Wiscon- sin Historical Society, says: "Prob- ably the name should be spelled Ad- hemar. LaBalme, who plundered the traders at Miami Town (Fort Wayne) in 1780. lists one Adhemar. a mer- chant, as 'a dangerous man.' This meant, of course, that he was loyal to the British cause. In March, 1799, one Adhemar, who had been sent by Hamilton to Miami Town with ten pirogues and thirty men to get pro- visions forwarded from Detroit, was captured by George Rogers Clark. In 1788, St. Martin Adhemar was ap- pointed one of the commissioners of the newly-created district of Hesse. William Robertson; the spokesman of the Detroit traders who memorialized Lord Dorchester against the new act, gave as the objection to Adhemar that he was settled at Vincennes, 'in the American states.'"


96


THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


(5) A prominent Detroit merchant.


(6) William Robertson was a promi- nent merchant who settled at De- troit in 1782. 1786, George Leith (the employer of Henry Hay) wrote a letter to David Gray, then located in Miami Town (Fort Wayne) as a trader, in which he stated that Rob- ertson was seeking the payment of a debt owed by Gray to Robertson. Leith added: "You know what kind of a man Robertson is; therefore, as a friend, I would advise you not to come to Detroit this summer if you have nothing pressing to bring you, as he will do everything in his power to detain you and give you trouble." (See "Letters from Eigh- teenth Century Merchants," compiled by Christopher B. Coleman, from the Lasselle collection, in the Indiana Quarterly Magazine of History.)


(7) Wisconsin Historical Society Proceedings, 1915: "George Sharp, also a prominent trader at Detroit. Robertson describes him as 'of liberal education and highly respected.' Sharp was with Matthew Elliott when the latter ransomed O. M. Spencer at Grand Glaize. The picture Spencer draws of him is not flattering." In 1786, Sharp was located at the site of Fort Wayne. At that time he wrote in a letter to Paul Gamelin, at Vincennes, as follows with reference to a delayed shipment: "We try only to accommodate our customers and to give the goods here at the Detroit prices without risk or expense."


(8) This town, on the Ohio river, a short distance below the site of Cin- cinnati, was called Columbia City. Its founders hoped to make it the me- tropolis of the west. It was ab- sorbed by Cincinnati.


(9) This matter-of-fact description of the capture of a lone and defense- less settler suggests the hazardous situation of every family which un- dertook to live on the frontier. Most of the prisoners brought to the Miami Town were from the regions of Ohio and Kentucky bordering the Ohio river.


(10) Wisconsin Historical Society Proceedings, 1915: "The papers cap- tured from LaBalme upon the destruc- tion of his force near Miami Town in 1780, contained a list of French inhabitants of the place, including one Rivard."


(11) Hay relates the story of the marriage of Miss Rivard to J. B. Lasselle on February 23.


(12) Little Turtle was yet to make his reputation as a warrior although he had already led in the massacre of LaBalme and his followers.


(13) A pani was a slave of the Indian race, usually procured from the Pawnee tribe. (Wisconsin His- torical Society Proceedings, 1915.)


(14) Possibly the same as listed by LaBalme as Paillet.


(15) John Kinzie, whose name is connected inseparably with the story of Fort Dearborn (Chicago). He was located here as a trader.


(16) "One of the oldest inhabitants of Miami Town [Fort Wayne]. His name is included in the 'census' of Indiana of 1769, and also in La- Balme's list of the inhabitants of Miami Town in 1780."-Wisconsin Historical Society's Proceedings, 1915.


(17) Probably the priest, Louis Payet, who was born at Montreal in 1749 and came to Detroit in 1781." -- (Wisconsin Historical Society's Pro- ceedings, 1915.)


(18) LeGris, one of the prominent Miami chiefs of the time; he was a signer of the Greenville Treaty in 1795.


(19) Pecann, Pecan or Pecanne is the Miami chief who rescued Captain Morris at this point in 1764. He was an active chief of the Miamis, who signed the Treaty of Greenville and participated in the battles of the savages up to that time.


(20) Joseph Drouet Richardville, Jean Baptiste Richardville became the successor of Little Turtle as the civil chief of the Miamis.


(21) Ta-cum-wah, the mother of Richardville, was a sister of Little Turtle, a woman of keen intellect and business sagacity, as is suggested by the fact that by the year 1814, Rich- ardville, through her influence, be- came the wealthiest Indian in the west.


(22) A Shawnee chief, some of whose speeches are preserved in the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Col- lections.


(22) An engage was an employe of the trader whose business it was to accompany the Indians on their trap- ping expeditions and guard the in- terests of his employer by prevent- ing the Indians from selling the furs to other parties and to discourage other forms of trickery.


(23) James Abbott, born in Dublin, 1725, became an extensive trader. He was the father of Robert, James and Samuel Abbott, the two former of Detroit and the latter of Mackinac. James Abbott, Jr., married Sarah Whistler, daughter of Major James Whistler, at Chicago, in 1804. Mrs. Abbott was Chicago's first bride.


(24) George Girty was the youngest of the three notorious brothers- Simon, James and George-terrors to the Americans along the frontier. All were natives of Pennsylvania. George died near Fort Wayne, shortly be- fore the outbreak of the war of 1812.


(25) Colonel Alexander McKee, the traitor who deserted Fort Pitt in or- der to aid the British.


(26) Dr. M. M. Quaife believes this man to have been a son of Pierre Joseph Celoron, former commandant of the post at Detroit, and who was afterward accused of treachery by Colonel Hamilton because of his re- ‹ treat from the attack of George Rogers Clark.


(27) George Ironside was a leading trader of the Maumee valley, born in 1760. He died at Amherstburg, Canada, in 1830. He was in the Brit- ish Indian service for many years.


(28) Antoine Lasselle had lived in Miami Town for nineteen years at the time of the writing of Hay's Journal. On the day of the battle of Fallen Timber, in 1794, Wayne questioned Lasselle and made the fol- lowing report concerning him to the war department: "He says that he has resided for twenty-nine years in Upper Canada, twenty-one of which he has passed at Detroit and on this river [the Maumee], and that he has constantly traded with the Indians all that time; that he resided at the


97


LIFE IN MIAMI TOWN (FORT WAYNE)


1789 1790


Miami villages [Fort Wayne site] for nineteen years before Harmar's expe- dition, when he kept a store at that place, and used to supply other traders with goods." When captured, Lasselle was painted and dressed like an Indian. He was sentenced to be hanged and a temporary gallows erected, when Major John F. Ham- tramck interceded and saved his life. Later he was a licensed trader at Fort Wayne for many years.


(29) The present Spy Run creek which empties into the St. Mary's near the Spy Run bridge.


(30) St. Mary's river.


(31) Blue Jacket was the leader who succeeded to the command of the savages the night before the battle of Fallen Timber, after Little Turtle sought to induce the chiefs to make peace with Wayne. He was one of the signers of the Treaty of Green- ville.


(32) Probably Peter LaFontaine, who, with Charles Beaubien, incited the Indians to the attack of La- Balme. At that time LaFontaine was in charge of the warehouse of Beau- bien, the principal trader at Miami Town.


(33) The Chillicothe village was lo- cated a short distance down the Mau- mee, probably on the site of the pres- ent Catholic cemetery.


(34) Hay refers to this warehouse as a Friponne.


(35) Dr. Quaife: "The census of 1769 includes Lorraine's name among the nine heads of families then at Miami Town. In 1763 he, or another of the same name, was at Quiatanon when the savages overpowered the English garrison. Lorraine and an- other Frenchman were instrumental in saving the lives of the captives."


(36) At this time, preparations for the conquering of the savages un- der the direction of Washington, whose great object was the erection of a fort at the site of this village, were going forward, and many small encounters were occurring in the Ohio region.


(37) This tragic event, receiving the sanction of Hay and the British sym- pathizers who fomented the action of the savages, is but one of many dur- ing this troublous period on the frontier.


CHAPTER XI-1790.


The Battle of the Site of Fort Wayne-"Harmar's Defeat."


General Josiah Harmar as a soldier-His mission to France-Is sent to expel George Rogers Clark from Vincennes-Benedict Arnold and Dr. Conolly disturb the west-Major Hamtramck sends Antoine Gamelin to the site of Fort Wayne to pacify the savages-Failure of his mission- Cannibalistic feast at the head of the Maumee-St. Clair sends Harmar against the Miami villages (Fort Wayne)-Deplorable condition of the army-Reaches the Miami villages and destroys them with fire-Hardin's detachment led into ambush-A terrible slaughter at Heller's Corners- The army at Chilicothe on the Maumee-The retreat to Cincinnati halted to allow Hardin to return-Plan of the battle on the site of Fort Wayne-The fatal error- Slaughter of Wyllys's regulars at Harmar's ford-Fierce engagement on the St. Joseph-The retreat-Washington's comment.


G ENERAL JOSIAH HARMAR, whose name is seldom spoken today except in its association with "defeat," deserves a kindly remembrance by the people of the old north- west, and especially should the people of Fort Wayne appre- ciate more truly his character as a military leader. Born at Philadelphia in 1753, and edu- cated at Robert Prout's Quaker school, Harmar entered the Continental army in 1776. His services raised him successively to the offices of lientenant- colonel, brevet-colonel, briga- dier-general, and general-in- chief of the United States army. During the Revolution, he served in General Nathaniel GENERAL JOSIAH HARMAR. Greene's corps. To him was entrusted the carrying of the ratification of the final treaty of peace to France. Upon his return, he entered at once upon Washington's plans for the pacification of the western tribes. 98


1


The campaign of General Harmar, while commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States in 1790, which re- sulted in the battle on the site of the city of Fort Wayne, recorded in Ameri- can history as "Harmar's Defeat," threw the entire west into a state of alarm. The victory of Little Turtle, in command of the savages, was the sec- ond event in his career as a war chief to lift him to the height of his fame.


Portrait by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons.


99


1790


"HARMAR'S DEFEAT"


We have been impressed with the story of the conditions at the head of the Maumee as revealed in the preceding chapter. A review, then, of the principal events which preceded the famous battle of the site of Fort Wayne will introduce many of the prob- lems which confronted General Harmar and made his work diffi- cult, if not impossible, of accomplishment.


General George Rogers Clark, whose commission had been with- drawn, acting with other independent spirits, decided to garrison the abandoned post at Vincennes, with the "determination that they [the Spanish merchants at Vincennes] should not trade up the river if they would not let the Americans trade down the Mississippi." This unwarranted act received the condemnation of


ARMARS


NICKEL


WASHINGTON BOUL


HARMAR'S FORD AS IT IS TODAY.


This peaceful scene presents a view of Harmar's Ford at the Maumee river, looking from the south bank northwestward into Lakeside, from a point near the foot of Harmar street. The houses front on Edgewater avenue. On Oc- tober 22, 1790, at this spot, where the regulars met the deadly fire of Little Turtle's braves, and at a point farther north, near the present Tennessee avenue, where the militia and the Indians clashed, 183 whites were killed, including Major Wyllys, Major Fontaine and ten other officers.


100


THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


the Council of Virginia, and General Harmar was dispatched with a small force of United States soldiers to remove Clark and the men "who had in a lawless and unauthorized manner taken pos- session of Fort Vincennes." Thus was averted a probable conflict between the United States and Spain and France combined.


The activities of such disturbing elements as Dr. John Conolly, Benedict Arnold (reported to be in Detroit to promote a Mississippi


PRESENT-DAY DISTRICTS: A-BLOOMINGDALE. B-SPY RUN. C-FOREST PARK. D-LAKESIDE. E-DOWNTOWN. F-EAST END.


MAUMEE TOWNS DESTROYED BY GENERAL HARMAR, 1790


05


1


SAD


SHAWNEES


DELAWARES


BAA


A


AAAAA


ELOS!


144


1


7


GARDENS


F


MAP OF THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE DRAWN IN 1790.


When General Harmar's army reached the site of the city of Fort Wayne in October, 1790, one of the soldiers, Ebenezer Denny (later major in St. Clair's army) made a map of the region about the confluence of the St. Joseph and the St. Mary's rivers. This now forms a part of the journal of Major Denny, on record in the Pennsylvania archives. The above map is a re-drawing of Denny's record. While the course of the rivers is inaccurately shown, it is evident that the map-maker sought to indicate the location of the villages of the Miamis, the Shawnees and the Delawares, destroyed by Harmar, together with the cornfields, gardens and forests. Major Denny was a trustworthy soldier, as is proven by the fact that he was chosen as the messenger to convey to President Washington the news of the defeat of St. Clair's troops in 1791.


expedition) and others in the employ of the British kept the savages in a hostile state, so that congress in July, 1787, directed General Arthur St. Clair-or, if he were unable to give the matter his personal attention, then General Harmar-to meet the Indians on the Wabash and there explain fully the attitude of the United States government toward the tribes. General Harmar held the council, but with no decisive result.


DDDDDDDDDA DDDDDDD


DA


ADDDADA.


MIAMIS AND SHAWNEES


PRINCIPAL TOWN OF


101


1790


"HARMAR'S DEFEAT"


Major John F. Hamtramck-whose name is connected with the history of Fort Wayne as the first commandant of the post after its establishment by General Wayne-had been sent to assume the charge of Fort Vincennes. Acting in consonance with instructions from President Washington, Major Hamtramck commissioned An- toine Gamelin, a prominent Vincennes merchant, to make a visit


1


2


5


3


6


4


GRIM REMINDERS OF HARMAR'S BATTLE IN LAKESIDE (FORT WAYNE). These war mementos form an interesting part of the display of the relic room in the Allen county court house. 1, 2, 3, 4-Fragments of flintlock guns from the collection of the late Colonel R. S. Robertson; they were found in the St. Joseph and Maumee rivers at the fords which figured in the defeat of General Harmar, October 22, 1790. 5-Bayonet found at the St. Joseph ford, for- merly the property of August Siemon. 6-Flintlock gun found in the St. Joseph river, near the old clubhouse of the St. Joe Athletic club. The gun was dug up from the river bed in 1894 by a Mr. Schafer, while hauling sand: Frank Budd secured it and took it to New York city, where it was seen by R. B. Rossington. Mr. Rossington bought it and brought it back to Fort Wayne.


of pacification to all of the Indian towns along the Wabash and at the head of the Maumee. We have Gamelin's record of his expedi- tion ; special interest centers in these paragraphs from his journal : "The 23d [of April, 1790] I arrived at the Miami Town [Fort Wayne]. The next day, I got the Miami nation, the Chaouanons [Shawnees], and the Delawares all assembled. I gave to each nation two branches of wampum, and began the speeches [supplied to him by Governor St. Clair and Major Hamtramck], the French and English traders being present, they having been invited by the chiefs and I having told them myself that I would be glad to have them present, having nothing to say against anybody. After the speech, I showed them the treaty concluded at Muskingum between His Excellency, Governor St. Clair, and sundry nations. This dis- pleased them. I told them that the purpose of this present time was not to submit to them any condition, but to offer them the peace, which made their displeasure disappear. The great chief1


102


THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


told me he was pleased with the speech; that he would soon give me an answer.


"In a private discourse with the great chief, he told me not to mind what the Chaouanons [Shawnees] would tell me, since they had a bad heart and were the perturbators of all the nations. He said the Miamis had a bad name on account of mischief done on the Ohio river, but he told me it was not occasioned by his young men, but by the Chaouanons, his young men going only for the hunt."


On the 25th, Blue Jacket, chief of the Shawnees and Delawares, at a private conference, declared to Gamelin that the tribes could not give an answer "without hearing from our father [the British commandant] at Detroit."2


Gamelin was a Frenchman with a wide acquaintanceship among the Indians. His failure to touch the heart of the savage was a dark omen, indeed. Within three days after the close of his mission of peace to the French-Indian village on the site of Fort Wayne, a captured American prisoner was burned at the stake and eaten in the Miami town.3


Governor St. Clair, while on a visit to the settlement at Kas- kaskia, received the reports of Gamelin and General Harmar, tell- ing of their failure to make peace with the savages. This deter- mined him, immediately upon his return to Fort Washington, site of Cincinnati, to organize a strong expedition, under General Har- mar, with special instructions to capture the Miami stronghold on the site of Fort Wayne and erect there a military fortification which would command the St. Joseph, the St. Mary's and Maumee at the point of meeting. At this time, General Harmar was made the com- mander-in-chief of the United States army.


On the 4th of October, General Harmar's army departed from Fort Washington for the Miami towns. It was composed of 320 regulars and artillery with three light brass cannon ; 1,133 Kentucky militiamen and a battalion of Pennsylvania infantrymen. From the journal of Major Ebenezer Denny is gained a conception of the deplorable condition of Harmar's army and its equipment. "General Harmar was much disheartened at the kind of people from Kentucky," writes Denny. "One-half certainly serve no other pur- pose than to swell the number. * * * The Colonels [Hardin and Trotter] disputed about the command. There was much trouble in keeping the officers, with their commands, in proper order, and the pack horses, etc., compact."4


L


HARMAR'S ARMY REACHES THE MAUMEE.


The wealth of material provided for the weaving of the story of the movements and engagements of Harmar's army should make the telling of the story an easy one, but the many viewpoints of the


103


"HARMAR'S DEFEAT"


1790


narrators bring difficulty into the task. We have chosen, in review- ing the story, to interweave the narratives of Major Denny and Captain John Armstrong, each of whom kept a daily record of events and of his observations thereon, and to add such com- ments of other narrators as may shed light upon the movements of the campaign.5


On the 14th of October, the army having reached the St. Mary's river, Colonel Hardin, with a company of regulars and six hundred militia, was detached early in the morning to push for the Miami villages at the head of the Maumee, thirty-five miles away, to give battle to the Indians who, it was learned from a captured Shawnee, were preparing to evacuate their settlements.


Hardin's detachment, reaching the Maumee, probably near the present Harmar street and to the eastward, in advance of the main body, found the villages® on both banks of the St. Joseph deserted. The savages, in their departure, left a number of cows and vast quantities of grain and vegetables, including 20,000 bushels of corn. The main village, on the Lakeside shore of the St. Joseph, had been destroyed by fire by the Indians and traders as they deserted it, evidently to prevent the soldiers from enjoying the comforts of their abodes if they should remain during the approaching cold season. The precaution was unnecessary, however, as General Har- mar, on his arrival, continued the work of destruction by consuming with fire all of the dwellings in the neighboring villages-185 addi- tional buildings in all, according to the general's official report."


The men under Hardin, on their arrival at the Miami village,8 fell to plundering the ruins of the burned village and were with dif- ficulty brought under control of their officers. Finally the army went into camp on this ground, and then cast about them to discover the whereabouts of the savages. Major McMullen and others re- ported that the tracks of women and children had been discovered on an Indian path leading out from the villages to the northwest- ward, General Harmar, supposing that the refugees, with their families and baggage, had gathered at some point not far from the settlements, determined to discover their encampment and bring them to battle. Accordingly, on the morning of October 18th, he detached Colonel Trotter, Major Hall, Major Ray and Major Mc- Mullen, with a force of three hundred men composed of thirty regular troops under command of Captain John Armstrong, forty of Major James Fontaine's light horse, and two hundred and thirty riflemen. The detachment was provided with three days' pro- visions and ordered to examine the country around the Miami villages.


104


THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


After the troops, under the command of Colonel Trotter, had moved about one mile from the encampment, the light horsemen discovered, pursued and killed an Indian on horse- back. Before this party re- turned to the columns, a second savage was discovered, when the field officers left their com- mands and pursued the Indian, and left the troops for the space of about half an hour without any directions what- ever. The flight of the second Indian was intercepted by the light horsemen, who de- spatched him after he had wounded one of their party. Colonel Trotter then changed the route of his detachment and marched in various direc- tions until night, when he turned back to the camp at the Miami village. The unex- pected return of Trotter, who had been ordered to recon- noitre for a period of three days, displeased Harmar, and upon the request of Colonel Hardin, the latter was allowed to take the troops out for the remaining two days.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.