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 5

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 5


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But the period of Margane's command of the post at the head of the Maumee was not to be of long duration. His services were neeeded elsewhere. From the southern province of Louisiana came the demand for the advantage of his wise counsel and leadership in establishing a post on the lower Wabash, a point nearer to the Ohio river, where the movements of the British could more easily be controlled. The appeal for his co-operation, contained in the letter of M. de Boisbriant to the governor of Canada, is most inter- esting. "He can do more with the Miamis than anyone else," said he, and then followed the offer of "an annuity of three hundred livres [$55.50] which will be paid to him with his salary as a half- lieutenant.''26 It was not until 1731, however, that the Canadian government consented to the transfer of Margane to the Louisiana portion of the Wabash. In this year, Margane established the post known by the various names of St. Vincent, Oposte, The Post "Au Oubache," "Post des Piquichats," and "Little Ouiatanon," and which, three years after the death of its founder, came to be called Vincennes. The present Indiana city developed on this site.27


The tragic death of Margane, who, with another French leader, D'Artaguiette, fell into the hands of savage foes and was burned at the stake five years after the founding of the post, was but an incident of the times when heroism counted for so little in a land where contending forces of whites alternately held and lost the friendship of the murderous savages into whose hands they had placed the powers of destruction.


NOTES ON CHAPTER IV.


(1) "The duty the French Company is obliged to pay to the king * . enables the traders of New York to sell their goods in the Indian coun- try at half the price the people of Canada can, and reap twice the profits they do." (London Documents, New York Colonial Documents, vol. v, page 730.)


(2) Pierre Margry.


(3) It should be understood that at this time, the name Oubache (Wa- bash) was given to the present


Wabash river and also to that por- tion of the present Ohio river from the mouth of the Wabash to the mouth of the Ohio, at the Mississippi. That portion of the Ohio above its confluence with the Wabash was sometimes called the Ohio and oftener known as the Beautiful river.


(4) French America was divided into two great general provinces at this time, Canada and Louisiana, the separating line extending from east to west across the present state of Indiana near the site of Terre Haute.


41


DURING THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF FRENCH RULE


1683 1732


(5) "Memoir de la Marine et des Colonies," Bockwith's Notes on the Northwest, page 97.


(6) Cadillac, in 1707, sallied forth from Detroit at the head of a body of troops, passed up the Maumee and across the portage to the Wabash. for the purpose of displaying the strength of the French arms as a means to discourage the communica- tions between the English and the Indians on the White river.


(7) E. M. Sheldon, "Early History of Michigan," page 85.


(8) Pierre Margry.


(9) The extent of the fur trade can best be grasped through the state- ment that Cadillac offered 10,000 livres for the exclusive right for its con- trol at Detroit. In 1702, 20,000 skins were shipped from the Wabash and Maumee region, and in 1705, 15,- 000 hides and skins were shipped southward from the same sections. Between 1701 and 1704, 30,000 beavers were killed about Detroit.


(10) "Maumee River Basin," vol. i, page 87.


(11) Dunn's "Indiana."


(12) LaSalle was murdered by treacherous companions in 1697 while forcing his way northward from the present state of Texas where, while endeavoring to found a colony on the gulf coast, one of his ships was wrecked, and enemies in his own camp defeated his crowning effort in behalf of his government.


(13) The widespread cloud of mys- tery which for many years enshroud- ed the identity of Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, and his illustrious nephew, Francois Margane. (Morgane or Morgan) has been lifted through the efforts of Edmond Mallet and others, who have given much time to the study of the genealogy of the families bearing the title of Vin- cennes. (See Mallet's article, "Sieur de Vincennes," in Indiana Historical Society Publications, vol. iii, page 58.) Francois Margane de la Valtrie, Sieur de Vincennes, was the full name and title of the second Vincennes, com- mandant at the site of Fort Wayne, whose name is preserved in that of the ancient Indiana city. Vincennes was a seigniory in the present Belle- chasse county, Quebec, granted to the Bissot family in 1672. It passed from Jean Baptiste Bissot to Margane upon


the death of the former, in 1719, pro- ably in the present Lakeside.


(14) Dr. Charles E. Slocum, "Mau- mee River Basin," vol. i, page 86.


(15) New York Colonial Documents, vol. ix, page 569.


(16) New York Colonial Documents, Paris Documents, vol. ix, page 676.


(17) New York Colonial Documents, vol. ix, page 759.


(18) In the summer of 1712, Vin- cennes made a boat voyage to Quebec, with a message from Sieur Dubuis- son, then in command at Detroit, to Governor Vaudreuil. "The over- whelming work I have day and night in the public and private councils I hold with the savages," said Dubuis- son, "prevents me from giving you full details." In explanation, he said the English were bribing the Indians to attack and destroy the fort at De- troit, the garrison of which consisted of but thirty men. There were only eight men at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) in this year, and these had accompanied Vincennes to Detroit to assist in defending the post.


(19) New York Colonial Documents, vol. ix, page 894.


(20) "Maumee River Basin," vol. i, . page 466.


(21) New York Colonial Documents, vol. v, page 30.


(22) Paris Documents, New York Colonial Documents.


(23) New York Colonial Documents, vol. ix, page 891.


(24) Judge Law's "Colonial History of Vincennes," page 11; Fort Wayne Public Library.


(25) See article on "Quiatanon," by Oscar J. Craig, Indiana Historical So- ciety Publications, vol. ii, page 319.


(26) "Jesuit Relations," vol. 1xx, page 316; Fort Wayne Public Library.


(27) An erroneous impression, aris- ing from the date of the founding of another post on the Ohio river has placed the time of the establishment of the post of Vincennes in 1702. Jacob P. Dunn, through the citation . of the authority of manuscript let- ters of Margane, unearthed in Paris, shows clearly that the founding of the post at Vincennes took place in 1731. See Dunn's "Indiana," preface to enlarged edition, Fort Wayne Pub- lic Library. See also Dunn's "The Mission to the Oubache," Indiana His- torical Publications, vol. iii.


CHAPTER V-1733-1749.


The Last French Posts on the Site of Fort Wayne.


Longueuil's troops at the head of the Maumee-The Chief Nicolas (Sanosket) uprising-Capture of Post Miami (Fort Wayne)-Its partial destruction by fire while Douville, the commandant, is absent-Dubuis- son rebuilds the fort-The remarkable voyage of Captain Bienville de Celeron-The duplicity of LaDemoiselle, chief of the Piankeshaws- Bonnecamps describes the conditions at Post Miami (Fort Wayne)- Chief Cold Foot undeceives Captain Celeron-Captain Raimond builds a new fort on the St. Joseph river-Cold Foot village-Growth of the fur trade-Description of life on the portage route-The introduction of whiskey-Joseph Drouet de Richardville-The first English post in the west-Raimond foresees disaster.


T HE SITE OF FORT WAYNE was the scene of growing bitter strife between the two powerful European nations which told of the waning power of France in the West. Slowly but certainly the English gained the alliance of the powerful leaders of the more easterly Indian tribes, and even the friendship of the Miamis for their French brothers became a doubtful matter.


As early as 1733, Sieur de Arnaud was sent from Detroit to quell an outbreak among the Ouiatanons (Weas) on the Wabash. In vain did M. de Longueuil himself lead a strong force of French- men across the site of Fort Wayne against a body of unfriendly savages and English gathered on the White river. The display of military power no longer held the savage in check.


And then came the uprising of the Hurons (Wyandottes) under Chief Sanosket (Sandosket)1 known also as Nicolas, the first fierce savage outbreak against the French in the west. It resulted in the burning of several of the posts and the general demoralization of the French military forces in the Maumee-Wabash valleys.


The earlier movements of Nicolas, under the direction of the English, were openly displayed in the massacre of five Frenchmen who were returning to Detroit from their trading posts on the White river, in the present Indiana.


As soon as the emissaries of Nicolas reached the site of Fort Wayne, they deceived the Miamis into the belief that the post at Detroit, with its garrison, had fallen into the hands of the con- spirators and that there remained no reason why the lives of the men at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) should be spared. The Miamis believed the report but were reluctant to massacre the Frenchmen at their post. They did, however, surround the fort, set it on fire, 42


L


1733 1749


THE LAST FRENCH POSTS


43


and take captive the eight men who happened to be within the stockade at the time.2 'Two of the men escaped and made their way to Detroit where the news of the affair caused alarm and put under way a general preparation to check the spreading dis- affection of the savages.


The stockade and buildings on the site of Fort Wayne were but partially destroyed. At the time of the attack, Ensign Douville was absent from the post over which he held temporary com- mand. He had been sent from Detroit to the Miamis for the special purpose of inviting them to attend a conference at Montreal,8 and two of their chiefs, Cold Foot and Porc Epic (Hedgehog) had accom-


SITE OF


THE LAST


FRENCH


BOULEVARD


(LATER,


ENGLISH)


FORTON


FORT


WAYNE


SOIL


ERIVER


DE LA- WARE


AVE.


POST


MIAMI


ST.JOSEPHS


ST. JOE


ELMWOOD


PROSPECT AVE


Sketched August, 1913


WHERE THE LAST FRENCH FORT STOOD-SCENE OF THE HOLMES MURDER OF 1763.


The landscape is a view looking up the St. Joseph river in Fort Wayne from a point near the junction of St. Joe boulevard and Delaware avenue. On the high ground at the right, M. de Raimond erected the last of the French forts in 1750. Raimond at that time abandoned the site on the St. Mary's river, near the present Nickel Plate railroad tracks. It was from the new fort that Raimond wrote in alarm to the French governor of Canada that "nobody wants to stay here and have his throat cut; if the English stay in this country we are lost-we must attack and drive them out." In 1760, the fort fell to the British. Ensign Robert Holmes, three years later, was murdered by the In- dians and the men of the garrison were taken prisoners.


44


THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


panied him as far as Detroit, at which place the news of the outbreak overtook him. He proceeded to Montreal alone, while the two friendly chiefs returned to their people.


Sieur Dubuisson, leaving his post at Detroit, then hastened to the post on the site of Fort Wayne in response to penitent protes- tations from the Miamis that they had been deceived into a partici- pation in the outbreak, and pleading for mercy because they had spared the lives of the men. The petition of the savages had been addressed directly to Longueuil, urging him to "send back some Frenchmen to them, and not to deprive them of their indis- pensable supplies, promising him that order would be restored in a short time. That officer yielded to their solicitation, with a view to deprive the enemy [the British] of the liberty of seizing a post of considerable importance."4


Dubuisson was instructed, however, to form but a small estab- lishment for the winter. He was supplied with thirty Frenchmen to garrison the post, as well as a like number to pass onward to the post at Oouiatanon, on the Wabash. The latter were instructed to rejoin Dubuisson in the spring and return with him and his force to Detroit.


It appears that the few Miamis who remained in the region kept their promise of loyalty, but an overt act of characteristic savage cruelty occured at Post Miami soon after the arrival of Dubuisson and his men. One of the latter, captured by a lurking Iroquois, was scalped and the bloody trophy was carried in triumph to the camp of Nicolas.


The larger portion of the Miamis showed their strong disaffec- tion by refusing to return to their village of Kiskakon (Kekionga), but chose rather to gather at the strongholds of the enemies of the French. Only one chief-Cold Foot-and he without influence, remained faithful to the French garrison.5


BIENVILLE DE CELERON VISITS THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE.


The situation was such as to call forth the most drastic action on the part of the French if they would retain a hold on their possessions in the west. Acting upon orders, Dubuisson returned to Detroit, leaving Post Miami in charge of Captain M. de Raimond. This was in the spring of 1748. At this time, France determined upon a powerful stroke to announce to the world its possession of the entire west, with the Alleghany and Ohio rivers as the eastern and southern boundaries. On the 15th of June, 1749, acting under the command of the home government, Captain Pierre Joseph Bien- ville de Celeron,6 with a command of two hundred French soldiers and thirty Indians,7 set out upon a voyage which was designed to


45


THE LAST FRENCH POSTS


1733 1749


end for all time any dispute concerning the true ownership of the lands between the eastern colonies and the Mississippi.


Passing from Lake Erie over the portage into Lake Chautauqua, the expedition entered the Alleghany river, and then coursed down the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Miami river (near the present Cincinnati), where Celeron buried the last of six leaden plates which bore the proclamation that France had taken formal posses- sion of the land. Paddling their canoes up the Great Miami, the expedition, on the 29th of August, approached the village of a famous Miami chief of the Piankeshaw band, known as LeDemoiselle (Young Woman) because of his fondness for dress and ornaments. To this village of LaDemoiselle had fled many of the fugitive Miamis who had deserted Post Miami (Fort Wayne) at the time of the Nicolas outbreak. To regain their confidence, Captain Celeron de- cided upon a council with LaDemoiselle and Chief Baril, represent- ing another band located on the White river, who was in the village at the time. Before proceeding to the town, Celeron dispatched messengers to the post of Captain Raimond, on the site of Fort Wayne, and requested, at once, the presence of an interpreter named Rois, and also as many horses as possible to assist the expedition in bringing their luggage across the portage from the Great Miami river to Post Miami. While wating here, the Miamis sent four of their chiefs to escort the expedition to LaDemoiselle's village. Arriving there, Celeron pitched his camp, set the guard and awaited the coming of the interpreter. "During this interval," he says in his record, "I sounded them to learn if they were disposed to return to Kiskakon [site of Fort Wayne], for that is the name of their ancient village. They had two hired English in their village whom I sent away before speaking to these people. On the 11th, tired of waiting for the interpreter and of seeing my provisions mean- while being used up, I determined to give my talk by means of an Iroquois who spoke Miamis well."8


With lavish distribution of gifts, Celeron made an earnest plea for the return of the Miamis to their village at the head of the Maumee. "In that country," said he, "you will enjoy the pleasures of life, it being the place where repose the bones of your fathers and those of M. de Vincennes [Bissot] whom you loved so much and who always governed you in such a way that affairs always went well. If you have forgotten the counsels he gave you, these ashes will recall them to your memory. Have pity on the dead who call you back to your village ! I make an easy road to Kiskakon, where I will re-light your fires."


The next day, LaDemoiselle responded by saying that the sav- ages would not return until the following spring. Celeron was


46


THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


bitterly disappointed, as he had hoped to make them a part of his company.


On the 20th, the canoes were burned and the expedition departed overland for the post on the site of Fort Wayne, "each one carrying his provisions and baggage," writes Celeron, "except the officers, for whom I had procured horses and bearers." This strange expe- dition, as it approached the site of Fort Wayne was formed into four companies, each with an officer at the right and left.


"On the 25th," says Celeron in his journal, "I arrived at M. de Raimond's who commands at Kiskakon, staying there only as long as it was necessary to buy provisions and canoes to convey me to Detroit." A more appreciable reference comes from the journal of the Reverend Father Jean de Bonnecamps.9 Describing first the march along the banks of the St. Mary's, wherein they "found large crabs in abundance," the priest's story continues with the account of the arrival here. He wrote :


"The fort of the Miamis was in a very bad condition when we reached it. Most of the palisades were decayed and fallen into ruin. There were eight houses, or, to speak more correctly, eight miserable huts which only the desire of making money could render endurable. The French there number twenty-two; all of them, including the commandant, had the fever. Monsieur Raimond did not approve the situation of the fort and maintained that it should be placed on the bank of the St. Joseph a scant league from the present site. He wished to show me the spot, but the hindrances of our departure prevented me from going hither. All I could do for him was to trace the plan for his new fort. The latitude of the old one is 41 degrees, 29 minutes."10


This decaying fort stood on the right bank of the St. Mary's river in the bend of the stream a short distance north of the present Nickel Plate railroad bridges.


It is not difficult to picture the commandant, ill with fever, seeking the advice and assistance of these visitors from a civilized section of the world, who declined to discommode themselves to aid him further than to give him a rough draught to guide him in the building of a new fort. But, perhaps, the depression of spirit ex- tended also to the heart of Celeron. "On the 26th," said he, "I called to me Cold Foot, chief of the Miamis at Kiskakon, and other principal Indians, to whom I repeated, in the presence of M. de Raimond and the officers of our detachment what I had said at the village of LaDemoiselle and the answers I got from them. After listening with much attention, he [Cold Foot] arose and said to me : 'I hope I am deceived, but I am sufficiently attached to the French to say that LaDemoiselle will be false. My grief is to be


1


47


THE LAST FRENCH POSTS .


1733 1749


the only one who loves you, and to see all the nations of the earth let loose against the French."


Cold Foot's prophecy was true. LaDemoiselle grew stronger in his opposition to the French and finally drew upon himself a tragedy which marked the beginning of the French and Indian war. Unable to secure a suffi- cient number of canoes to transport his company by water down the Maumee, Celeron sent some of his men overland to Detroit, at which place the expedition arrived eight days later.


THE LAST FRENCH FORT


Whatever Captain Rai- mond may have thought of the refusal of the visitors to inter- est themselves in the location of his new fort, it is certain that he lost little time in be- CAPTAIN PIERRE JOSEPH BIEN- VILLE DE CELERON. ginning its erection. By the When the daring French leader, Cap- tain Bienville de Celeron, reached the site of Fort Wayne in September, 1749, with his soldiers and Indian allies, to take possession of the country in the name of the king of France, he found the French fort "in a very bad condi- tion." Father Bonnecamps, who ac- companied the expedition, gives an in- teresting account of the entire voyage. The portrait is reproduced from the Garner & Lodge History of the United States, by permission of the publishers, John D. Morris & Co., Philadelphia. The original painting is in the Chateau de Ramezay, Montreal. spring of 1750, this new home of his men, high above the surrounding territory, was ready for occupancy. While the former location was on low ground, the new fort occupied a commanding position on the east bank of the St. Joseph river (at the present St. Joe boulevard and Delaware avenue, formerly Baker avenue), where to- day the automobilist, as he hurries past the historic spot looks out upon a landscape to the westward very similar to that which glad- dened the vision of these hardy Frenchmen, now made unromantic, of course, by the evidences of civilization.


The coming years were destined to weave about this fort of Captain Raimond many thrilling tales of romance, horror and blood- shed. Here were to be enacted the scenes of the love story of the Englishman, Holmes, and its tragic climax of massacre; the tale of Morris who faced death at the stake; of Croghan and the rem- nants of the French and British during the days when the young republic was training a Wayne and a Harrison in the school of warfare.11


With the abandonment of the old fort on the St. Mary's, the


.


48


THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


discarded buildings of the post became the center of an Indian settlement known as Cold Foot village, over which Chief Cold Foot presided until his death, which came at a time when his friendship was most keenly needed by the French commandant.


The reference of Father Bonnecamps to the "miserable huts" of Post Miami "which only the desire of making money could render endurable," is a reminder of the growing importance to the fur trade, the protection of which held these men to guard the Maumee-Wabash valleys against the British. The portage was a busy highway of travel in those days. A word picture of its activi- ties is given by Francis Parkman, the historian of the French, who says :


"From Vincennes one might paddle his canoe northward up the Wabash, until he reached the little wooden fort of Quiatanon. Thence a path through the woods led to the banks of the Maumee. Two or three Canadians, or half-breeds, of whom there were num- bers about the fort, would carry the canoe on their shoulders, or, for a bottle of whiskey, a few Miamis might be bribed to undertake the task. "12


Parkman's suggestion of the presence of whiskey among the savages at this time brings into the story an element which adds terror to the succeeding chapters of our narrative in which the savage plays a part. For it was at this point that the severe re- strictions of the French against the introduction of intoxicants `among the Indians were broken down, and from this time forward the taint of deadly "fire water" blackens the pages of the story of the frontier.


The period of Raimond's administration brought to the region a number of celebrated men, among them Joseph Drouet de Rich- ardville who was destined to leave an illustrious name through the medium of his son, Jean Baptiste de Richardville (Pe-che-wa), civil chief of the Miamis during the closing days of the strength of the tribe. He was the son of a wealthy French-Canadian trader of Kaskaskia and later of Vincennes. The advantages of the trade situation at the head of the Maumee drew him hither and he is often called the first permanent white settler of the site of Fort Wayne.


Within a brief period after his arrival, Joseph Drouet de Rich- ardville married Tah-cum-wah, a daughter of Aque-noch-qua, the reigning Miami chief. Tah-cum-wah13 was a sister of Little Turtle, "the greatest Indian of all times."


Jean Baptiste de Richardville, son of Joseph Drouet de Richard- ville and Tah-cum-wah, was born in 1761, as he often stated, "near the old apple tree" in the present Lakeside (city of Fort Wayne).


49


THE LAST FRENCH FORTS


1733 1749


"The associations clustering around this old apple tree, during his childhood days, gave the chief, ever afterward, a profound regard, approaching almost to reverence; hence he was instrumental in its preservation. ''14


And in the meantime, despite the proclamations of Celeron and his like, the building of new French posts, the strengthening of their larger settlements and their boasted claims of possession of the frontier, the garrison of Captain Raimond in their new fort on the St. Joseph, awoke one day to the startling truth that the British had established a settlement but a few short miles to the east-at Pickawillany15 on the Great Miami-from whence trouble- some emissaries were soon to harass the posts to desperation.


It was the beginning of new and lasting trouble. Raimond knew it, and he was the first to predict the destruction of the hopes of his countrymen in the west.




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