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 4
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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
against the Miamis "in hope that the war would ruin me by putting an end to the trade of Fort Frontenac [Quebec] or that it would enable them to have a constant pretext for complaint against me ; for," he explains-and his explanation is eagerly quoted by those who would prove that LaSalle refers to his former use of the Maumee-Wabash portage-"I should not then be able to go to the Illinois country except by way of the Lakes Huron and Illinois [Michigan] because the other routes which I have discovered by the end of Lake Erie and the southern shore of that-lake would become too dangerous on account of the frequent encounters with the Iroquois who are always about those parts."
In further explanation of his choice short-cut route, LaSalle says in another communication: "The river which you have seen marked on my map of the district to the south of that lake is, in fact, the way to get to the river Ohio, or Beautiful river. * *
* This way is the shortest of all." And then he enters upon a description of the route which appears to show how the traveler passes over the portage from Lake Erie to Lake Chautauqua; thence into a tributary of the Alleghany river, from which stream the voyager makes his way into the Ohio and finally into the Mississippi.8
But, it will be observed, LaSalle wrote of the other "routes" which he had discovered, and merely spoke of this one as "the shortest of all."9 And so, the question remains open and we shall ever cherish the hope that the feet of the great explorer pressed the soil of Fort Wayne in those days of toil and struggle against the discouraging elements of the wilderness as well as against the in- trigues of human enemies.10
NOTES ON CHAPTER III.
(1) See Francis Parkman's "The Jesuits in North America."
(2) History of Indiana, Logan Esarey, page 12.
(3) Many works on the western Indians are to be found in the Fort Wayne Public Library. Dunn's "In- diana," Siocum's "Maumee River Ba- sin" and articles on the subject in the publications of the historical so- cieties of Indiana and Ohio, however, provide the most reliable informa- tion concerning the tribes connected with the history of Fort Wayne.
(4) The coureur de bois, or wood- ranger, was, as a rule, lawless in every view of civilized life. He won his way with the savages, who granted him every license. He was deflant, and beyond the control of state or church. The efforts of the French government to control these first adventurers to invade the west is suggested in the memoir of M. Talon to King Louis XIV, in 1670, in which he said: "They are excluded by law from the honors of the church
and from the communities if they do not marry within fifteen days after the arrival of the ships from France [with women imported for the pur- pose ]."
(5) Dr. Charles E. Siocum, "Mau- mee River Basin," vol. i, page 463.
(6) New York Colonial Documents. (7) Pierre Margry, "Decouvertes des Francais dans l'Amerique Septrion- ale," vol. ii.
(8) That this was
route well known and used in later years is shown by the fact that Captain Celeron, in 1749, took his army over that portion of it extending from Lake Erie to the mouth of the Great Miami river. (See Chapter V).
(9) E. L. Taylor, of Columbus, Ohio, writing in vol. xvi, of the Ohio Ohio Archaelogical and Historical So- ciety Publications expreses the opinion that LaSalle, after travers- ing the Chautauqua Lake and Ohio river route, surely returned by an- other way. "It was necessarily by way of the Great Miami and the Maumee, or by way of the Scioto
31
SAVAGE, ADVENTURER, EXPLORER AND PRIEST
1614 1682
and Sandusky rivers," says he. "No other routes were at that time open to him. Whichever of these routes he may have taken, he was the first white man to have passed over it. The probabilities are that he went by way of the Great Miami and the Maumee [traversing the site of Fort Wayne] to Lake Erie, but it is not certain, and not much can be claimed for it."
(10) Throughout his years of ex- ploration, LaSalle had met the bitter opposition of the Jesuits who, accord- ing to his narrative, contrived in every way to thwart his plans. "As to what you tell me, that even my friends say that I am not popular," he wrote, in 1682 to the representa- tive of the crown, "I do not know who they are, for I am not aware
of any friends of mine in this coun- try." Upon one occasion, Nicolas Perrot served him a deadly poison, and later confessed the deed. "I have pardoned him, nevertheless, in order to avert giving publicity to an affair the mere suspicion of which might stain their [the Jesuits'] reputation," he wrote. "The Jesuits sent to France one of their lay brothers called Joliet, with a map made from hearsay, and this lay brother attributed to him- self the honor of that discovery," writes Abbe Renaudot, friend of La- Salle. * * "No one but M. de La- Salle was capable of having made the discovery." The same writer charges Father Louis Hennepin with plagiarism in claiming as his own LaSalle's description of the lands of his discovery.
CHAPTER IV-1683-1732.
Kekionga During the "Golden Era" of French Rule.
The peaceable mission of the French in the Maumee-Wabash valleys- Opposition to the encroachment of the English traders-The demoral- ization of the fur trade by the Miami-Iroquois war-Restoration of peace followed by the establishment of a stronger post on the site of Fort Wayne (1697)-Jean Baptiste Bissot and his great plan to "monopolize" the Miamis-Cadillac invades the Maumee-Wabash valleys-Tattooed savages at the site of Fort Wayne-Buffalo and bear-Margane estab- lishes Quiatanon and commands Post Miami (Fort Wayne)-Founds Vincennes-Margane burned at the stake.
S CHOOLCRAFT tells us that the Indians of the northwest often referred to "the days of the French supremacy as a kind of golden era, when all things in their affairs were better than they now are."
The early Frenchman came to the Maumee-Wbaash valleys on a misson of peace. His nature fitted him well to the unconventional life of the wilderness. He chose a wife from among the dusky belles of the forest and became an Indian in thought and deed. He busied himself in trapping the fur-bearing animals which abounded in countless numbers and he paid a good price to his dark-skinned companions, for their co-operative labor.
Never, after the Frenchman was driven from the Maumee- Wabash valleys, did the red man find another such true companion. When the Englishman came, he scorned close social relationship with the savage, and finally, with the gaining of his confidence, implanted in his mind the belief that the sole object of the westward movement of the new American pioneer was to rob him of his lands. Thus was the benevolent policy of Washington made to appear that of a robber and a thief, with the resultant bloodshed and turmoil which brought discouragement to the whites and ulti- mate loss of everything dear to the heart of the child of the forest. Furthermore, the passing of the "golden era" of the French occu- pation marks the coming of the Indian's deadliest enemy-whiskey.
We have followed the Frenchman from the period of his landing on American soil, groping his watery way up the St. Lawrence, beholding with wonder the cataract of Niagara as he carried his birch bark canoe to launch it upon the waters of Lake Erie, and finally we find him paddling up the Maumee to his destination at the forks of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's. It is now our interesting 32
33
DURING THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF FRENCH RULE
1683 1732
task to consider his movements, with the site of Fort Wayne as a center of his activities, and to share with him his hopes and his fears.
Little did our first Frenchman know that the English colonist on the Atlantic coast would one day also push his way to the west- ward and come upon him with the boldness of one who holds an ownership and who looks upon all others as intruders and tres- passers. But a well-developed fear of this very condition had spread to the mother country long before the close of the seven- teenth century. Lefebore de LaBarre, governor of Canada, writing to Nicholas Colbert in November, 1682, declared he was not at all interested in LaSalle's discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi, but that he was "for turning to account what we possess, prevent- ing the English from destroying our trade, but without a quarrel, and subduing the Iroquois. That," he added, "is quite a sufficient task for three years." In truth, it was the impossible task of a lifetime. For already had come the beginning of the end of the rule of France in all North America.
In increasing numbers, the English pushed their way to the west, seeking always the friendship of the Indians through their ability to offer greater rewards than the French could afford1 in return for the valuable peltries which constituted the sole trade of the region. The keenest minds among the French were now busy with plans to keep back the Englishman and to preserve the friend- ship of the savage.
"If you will pay some attention to the country occupied by the English [the eastern colonies], and that which they intentd to occupy." observed LeMoyne d'Iberville, "to the forces they possess in these colonies, where there are neither priests nor nuns and all propagate their species, and to the forces they will have in thirty or forty years [by the years 1730 or 1740], you can have no doubt that they will seize upon the country which lies between them and the Mississippi, one of the finest countries in the world."2
THE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL THE FUR TRADE.
The true basis of the controversy was the effort to control the fur trade. "If the English once get possession of the River Colbert [Mississippi], for which they are striving with all their might, but which they cannot succeed in doing if we anticipate them," de- clared Abbe Jean Cavalier, brother of LaSalle, "they would be- come masters, also, of the Illinois, the Outaouacs [Ottawas] and all the tribes with whom the French people in New France [Canada] carry on trade. Our colony would then be destroyed."
D'Iberville sought the privilege of establishing a post on the
34
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
lower Wabash and three others on the western rivers, besides forming an army of 12,000 savages to attack the English settle- ments in Maryland, Virginia and Carolina. The government frowned upon the latter suggestion, but acquiesced in his plan to form a settlement on the Wabash.3 One day in 1709, the site of the city of Fort Wayne was the scene of the movement of D'Iberville's colony, passing from Detroit to the lower Wabash in the newly- created province of Louisiana.4 Following these adventurous pioneers came other groups of colonists, one of the most important of which was under the guidance of M. de Tressenet.5
This plan failed in its great object. De la Motte Cadillac," founder of Detroit (Post Ponchartrain) complained to Count Pon- chartrain that "the forces of the French are too much scattered; they live too far apart'7 for mutual protection. Cadillac had established his post at Detroit as a purely commercial venture- "to maintain the trade in beaver skins"8 for shipment to Montreal and thence to France.9 With like intent, Francois Morgane (Mar-
SA
Led. August, 1913"
WHERE THE FIRST FRENCH FORTS STOOD.
₦
W.
E
PAPE AVES
GULDLIN
SITE OF THE
FIRST
FRENCH
AVE
FORTS
1686 (2)
TO
1750
SY
ROSS
ST.
w SUPERIOR
ACKSON ST
POST MIAMI
LESY MARYS R
MICHAEL
PLAYGROUND
A map drawn by Father Jean Bonne- camps while on the site of Fort Wayne in 1749 (forty-five years before the ST. GREELEY ST coming of General Wayne) shows that BUREN the French fort of that period (Post ST L. (NICKEL PLATE RE Miami) stood on a site which may now be described as a point on the right FULTON bank of the St. Mary's river, a short distance north of the Nickel Plate rail- road tracks (see map). The command- ants in succession appear to have been Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vin- cennes (1697), Francois Morgane, Sieur de Vincennes (1725), Ensign Douville (1734), Ensign Dubuisson (1747), M. de Raimond (1748). Raimond, in 1750, abandoned the place and erected the last French fort on a site at the junction of the present St. Joe boulevard and Delaware avenue, on the St. Joseph riv- er, a point also within the present city of Fort Wayne.
35
DURING THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF FRENCH RULE
1683 1732
gane or Morgan), who later succeeded to the seigniory and title of Sieur de Vincennes, established a number of trading posts along the banks of the Maumee and Wabash rivers and gave attention to the strengthening and repair of those which already had been established.10
Meanwhile, the English were giving earnest thought to the best method of driving out the French and securing the good-will of the savages. "The English and the Indians are in good corre- spondence," wrote Colonel Ingoldsby to the British Trade Commis- sioners in 1697, "but the French outdo us much in carressing them." How well the picture describes the contrasting traits of the con- tending forces of the whites !- sentiment pitted against cold-blooded commercialism, in which the former was gradually broken down and the latter swung into triumph.
J. Chetwynd, P. Dominique, M. Bladen and E. Ashe, composing an English commission to review the situation in America in 1721 for their king, gave this information in their report:
"From the lake [Erie] to the Mississippi they [the French] have three different routes. The shortest is up the river Miamis or Ouamis [Maumee] on the southwest of Lake Erie, on which river they sail about 150 leagues without interruption, when they find themselves stopt by another landing of about three leagues which they call a carrying place, because they are generally obliged to carry their canoes over land in these places to the next river, and that [river] where they next embark is a very shallow one called La Riviere de portage [Little. river] ; hence they row about 40 leagues to the river Oubache [Wabash] and from thence about 120 leagues to the river Ohio, into which the Wabash falls, as the river Ohio does about 80 leagues lower into the Mississippi, which continues its course for about 350 leagues directly to the bay of Mexico."
During the progress of the Iroquois war against the Indians of the west, the sympathy of the British with the Iroquois, had brought to the Miamis and their allies the strong military leader- ship of LaSalle, who, during 1682 and 1683 "was all through In- diana and Illinois urging the tribes to unite and join him at Fort St. Louis [site of Peoria, Illinois]."11 The bloody struggle continued, however, until the close of the year 1697; indeed, the lasting peace between the warring nations came not until eight years after the tragic death of LaSalle.12 But now the Indian war was at an end. The French, who had withdrawn to the region about Detroit or to the westward and northward to the lakes, returned to their business in the Maumee-Wabash valleys and sought the protection of the authorities at Quebec. It is at
.
36
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
this time that we first come upon the names of men intimately connected with the development of the story of the spot on which Fort Wayne now rests.
THE FIRST FRENCH COMMANDANTS.
Heading that list is the name of Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes.13
Authorities differ as to the time of the building of the first French fortifications on the site of Fort Wayne, known for a long period as Post (or Fort) Miami. Neither is it known C votre très humbles et très obertansta Jonasteur whether or not Bissot was the builder. One historian is posi- tive that "their Post Miami, at the head of the Maumee" was "built about 1680 to 1686," and that it was "rebuilt and Vinenmeno strengthened in 1697 by Cap- tain de Vincennes [Bissot]."14 Dufour Derubache 2.21 mars 1733 The writer discovers Margry telling us that "in the spring [1696], d'Ailleboust d'Argen- SIGNATURE OF SIEUR DE VIN- CENNES (FRANCOIS MORGANE). teuil had orders to take com- Two letters written to the French government by Francois Morgane, Sieur de Vincennes, commandant of Post Mi- ami (Fort Wayne) from 1725 to 1731, are reproduced In fac simile in the In- diana Historical Society Publications, Vol. III. in connection with Jacob P. Dunn's article on "The Mission to the Oubache (Wabash)." The above sig- nature is reproduced from one of them. Translation-"Your very humble and very obedient servant, Vinsiene. Of the Fort of the Wabash. This 21 March, 1733." The post was not named for its founder until three years after his tragic death; formerly it was known as "Au Oubache," "Post des Piagui- chats," "Little Ouiatanon," and, latterly, "Oposte." mand of the soldiers who were to go up [from Detroit] to Mis- sillimackinac [Mackinac], and the Sieur Bissot de Vincennes [accompanied by Legardeur de Courtmanche] was directed to go to the Miamis," but it is clear from the context that the Miamis, at this time, were gathered about the southeast- ern shore of Lake Michigan and that Vincennes made his may to their villages by way of the straits of Mackinaw.
But we do know that with the removal of the Miamis to the site of Fort Wayne, the beautiful place of their beloved Kekionga, at the union of the three rivers, came to the Maumee this first known hero of our story. This was probably in 1697. Bissot's activities were hastened by an aggressive move of the English. Governor Benjamin Fletcher, of New York, who aroused the fears of Frontenac, governor of Canada, by sending a large party of traders to the west with rich gifts for the savages, whereupon the French governor found himself "under the necessity of sending a much
37
DURING THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF FRENCH RULE
1683 1732
larger number of Frenchmen, regulars and militia, than he at first supposed, to expel the enemy [English] from that post [Miami], if they had seized it, or to prevent them from entering." Sieurs de Manteth and Courtmanche, in charge of the expedition were ordered "to think more of fighting than of trading."15 They found the post still in the hands of their own people, and the garrison under the command of Bissot, who, we find, was re- appointed to the control of the station in 1706.
That the report of the conduct of Bissot was such as to offend the home government is revealed in a letter from the French throne written by M. de Ponchartrain at Versailles in June, 1706, and addressed to M. de Vaudreuil, then governor of Canada. "You ought not to have sent Sieur de Vinsiene to the Miamis nor Sieur de Louvigny to the Missilimaquina [Mackinac]," he declared, "as they are all accused of carrying on a contraband trade, * and His Majesty desires that you cause Sieur de Vinsiene * to be severely punished."
Bissot, like many another leading spirit of all times, doubtless had fallen the victim of the spite of his enemies who knew that he had been "expressly forbidden to trade in beaver,"16 (which skins were always always reserved for the enrichment of the home govern- ment) and who had reported a real or alleged failure to observe his instructions. He was a favorite, however, with the Canadian gov- ernor, who had written the king two years earlier that "Sieur de Vinsiene, my lord, has been former commandant of the Miamis, by whom he was much beloved. This," he explained, "led me to select him in preference to any other to prove to that nation how wrong they were to attack the Iroquois-our allies and theirs-without any cause; and we, M. de Beaucharnois and I, after consultation, permitted the said Sieur de Vinsiene to carry some goods and to take with him six men and two canoes."17
From this time forward, Bissot, with the exception of a brief period during which his activities called him to other scenes,18 held the command of the post until 1719. During this time, the per- sistent efforts of the British to gain a foothold in the rich valleys of the Maumee and the Wabash determined him upon a course of action which, in the magnitude of its scope and the uniqueness of its possibilities, stands out strongly among the events of the time. Bissot's plan involved the migration of all the Miamis from the region of the Maumee and the Wabash to a new tribal center, a choice spot on the St. Joseph river of Lake Michigan, at the site of the present city of South Bend, Indiana; there to guard them by force of arms from the influence of the British traders who were appearing in ever-increasing numbers. How well the scheme
38
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
might have served its great purpose is problematical, for the death of Bissot, on the eve of its consummation forever discouraged the plan.
Sieur Dubuisson, sent by the governor of Canada to complete the work as designed by Bissot, failed to carry it to a finish. "I learn from the last letters that have arrived from the Miamis," wrote the disappointed Vaudreuil to the Council of Marine in 1719, "that Sieur de Vinsiene, having died in their village [Kekionga], these Indians have resolved not to remove to the river St. Joseph; this is very dangerous, on account of the facility they have of com- municating with the English, who are incessantly distributing war belts in secret.''19 Upon the death of Bissot, the British redoubled
(After an old) Woodcut)
BURNING OF THE FRENCH POST MIAMI (SITE OF FORT WAYNE) 1747.
During the period of the Chief Nicolas conspiracy, in 1747, while the com- mandant, Ensign Douville, was absent at Detroit, the savages attacked the post situated on the St. Mary's river in the present city of Fort Wayne and partially destroyed it with fire. The post was rebuilt, and later, in 1750 a new fort was established on the left bank of the St. Joseph river. The drawing is after an old woodcut.
39
DURING THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF FRENCH RULE
1683 1732
their efforts to win the favor of the Miamis; at this time a large number of firearms and quantities of ammunition were given to the savages in exchange for furs.20
It is interesting now to consider the British view of the situa- tion which is well set forth in a letter of Colonel Caleb Heathcote, addressed to Governor Robert Hunter, of Virginia, who declared that "it is impossible that we and the French can both inhabit this continent in peace, but that one nation must at last give way to the other. So," he observes, " 'tis very necessary that without sleeping away our time, all precautions imaginable should be taken to prevent its falling to our lots to move."21 The student of Ameri- can history who may have been difficult to understand the causes of the French and Indian war, will gather from a study of condi- tions in the west at this period the true reason for the conflict which ultimately broke in all its fury and determined the final exclusion of France from the North American continent.
THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE IN 1718.
A picture of conditions about the confluence of the St. Mary's and the St. Joseph at this time comes down to us from the letter of a French officer, writing in 1718. "The Miamis are sixty leagues from Lake Erie and number four hundred, all good-formed men and well tattooed," he writes. "They are hard-working, and raise a species of maize unlike that of our Indians at Detroit. It is white, of the same size as the other, the skin much finer, and the meal much whiter. This nation is clad in deerskin, and when a woman goes with another man, her husband cuts off her nose and refuses to see her any more. They have plays and dances; where- fore they have more occupation. The women are well clothed, but the men use scarcely any covering, and are tattooed all over the body." The writer adds in description of the region to the south- west, along the Wabash, that "from the summit of this elevation nothing is visible to the eye but prairies full of buffalo.''22 Another writer of the same year adds strength to the correctness of the latter remarkable statement in the claim that along the Maumee river, at the mouth of the Auglaize, near the present city of Defiance, Ohio, "buffaloes are always to be found; they eat the clay and wallow in it."28 Five years earlier, Father Gabriel Marest, a French missionary, wrote of the region to the southward that "the quantity of buffalo and bear found on the Oubache [Wabash] is incredible,"24 and LaSalle in 1682, describing the region of the Ohio, says: "The multitude of buffalo is beyond belief. I have seen twelve hundred of them killed in eight days by a single band of Indians."
40
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
Six years after the death of Bissot, his more famous nephew, Francois Margane, was assigned to the command of the French stronghold on the site of Fort Wayne. Previous to this, in 1719 or 1720, Margane had established the important post of Ouiatanon on the Wabash near the present Lafayette, Indiana,-a position which was maintained as a center of French and Indian power for a period of more than seventy years, indeed, until it was wiped out of existence in 1791 by General James Wilkinson, between the periods of the St. Clair and Wayne campaigns. Today, its exact location is a subject of lively dispute.25
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