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 6
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DELAWARE
LOCATION OF FT. MIAMI
ST. JOSEPH LO
AVENUE. LATER LOCATION OF FORT MIAMI
UNDER RAIMOND,
SY. JOE LOULE
MICHIGAN
ONTARIO
1749
PRESENY ARESIDE
T. ST. JOSEPH R.
ERIE
ANE
LAKE
N.Y.
MAUMEE RIVER
ST
KISKAKON.
OR KE-KI-ON-GA, MIAMI VILLAGE ON SITE OF PRESENT CITY OF FT. WAYNE
TYLE
ILL.
INDIANA
OHIO
PENN
OHIO
(ROUTE OF CELERON
110
MAP OF THE NOTABLE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN CELERON
The map shows the route of Captain Pierre Joseph Bienville de Celeron in 1749. The expedition, intended to claim the land for France, in the name of the king, was composed of two hundred French soldiers and thirty Indians.
CHAUTAUQUA
PRESENT NICKEL PLATE TRACKS
MAUMEE .R.
PORTAGE
50
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
NOTES ON CHAPTER V.
(1) The chief village of Sanosket was on the site of the present San- dusky, Ohio, which derives its name from this source. This was the first of the three important conspiracies of the Indians against the whites in the west. It is well to remember that the Nicolas conspiracy contem- plated the annihilation 'of the French, while the Pontiac outbreak was planned to destroy the English, and the conspiracy of Tecumseh and "The Prophet" was designed to drive the Americans from the west.
(2) New York Colonial Documents, Paris Documents, vol. ix, page 891.
(3) Douville did not return to the west. In March, 1756, he led in an attack on an English fort and there lost his life. (See Montcalm's report, New York Colonial Documents, vol. x, page 416.)
(4) New York Colonial Documents, Paris Documents, vol. x. Charles Regnault, Sieur Dubuisson, was in command at Detroit in 1710, between the administrations of Cadillac and LaForest. During his time, Detroit was attacked by Fox Indians. From 1723 to 1727, he was in command of the post on the site of Fort Wayne. He was twice married; the former wife was Gabrielle Michelle Binet, and the latter, Louise Bizard. (Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collection).
(5) Pennsylvania Archives, vol. ii, page 9.
(6) The name of this officer is also written Blainville de Celeron and Celeron de Bienville.
(7) London Documents, xxix; New York Colonial Documents, vol. vi, page 533. 1
(8) Captain Celeron's Journal, in Margry, vol. vi.
(9) Father Bonnecamps was a pro- fessor of hydrography in the Jesuit college at Quebec. His journal, in the original French and in translated form may be found in the "Jesuit Re- lations," Fort Wayne Public Library.
(10) These early French forts, or posts, appear to have consisted of an enclosure made of palisades set closely together, sheltering a number of log houses clustered within. Bonnecamps refers to eight of these houses in the post on the St. Mary's. At the time Captain Morris was thrown into the fort on the St. Joseph, he was warned against entering any of the "French cabins" within. The Ameri- can forts of the neighborhood were provided with corner block-houses from which the garrison could meet the fire of an enemy.
(11) A number of relics of this old fort of the French have been found. (12) Parkman's "Conspiracy of Pon- tiac," vol. i, page 162.
(13) After the death of Joseph Drouet de Richardville, the widow married John 'Beaubien who thereby became a brother-in-law of Little Turtle and the father-in-law of Jean Baptiste de Richardville.
(14) Helm's History of Allen Coun- ty, page 20.
(15) This town was sometimes called Tawixtwi and Twightwees (British name for the Miamis) Town. Here the British constructed a strong stockaded post which was the scene of the massacre of 1752. It was located on the Miami river, in the present Shelby county, Ohio, at the mouth of Loramie creek. The object of its establishment was to draw the Indians from their loyalty to the French at the site of Fort Wayne and elsewhere.
1
CHAPTER VI-1750-1760.
Surrender of the French Post Miami (Fort Wayne) to the English.
Celeron assumes command at Detroit-Increasing alarm at Post Miami (Fort Wayne)-Raimond's cry of alarm-"No one wants to stay here and have his throat cut!"-The smallpox scourge-Death of Chiefs Coldfoot and LeGris-Captain Neyon de Villiers sent to command Post Miami-The audacity of John Pathin-His arrest-Complaint of the English-Retort of the French-Two men of the Post Miami garrison captured and scalped-Langlade leads in the assault on Pickawillany- Death of LaDemoiselle-Cannibalistic red men-Captain Aubray and his troops-British succor the Indians-Unsuccessful effort to bring French farmers into the Maumee-Wabash valleys-The fall of Quebec and the surrender of Detroit, ends the French rule in the valleys-Lieutenant Butler receives the surrender of Post Miami (Fort Wayne)-Ensign Robert Holmes in command-Lieutenant Jenkins at Quiatanon-The overthrow of French power in the west.
W E HAVE OBSERVED with interest the visit of Captain Celeron and his train of Frenchmen and Indians to the site of Fort Wayne and the activities of the men of the little garrison who, between the more severe attacks of the fever, were able to complete their new fort on the St. Joseph. Celeron, upon his arrival at Detroit, was made the commandant of that central stronghold.
At his lonely post on the St. Joseph, looking across into the present Spy Run, where were grouped a few log huts occupied by the traders, Captain Raimond breathed an atmosphere laden with an omen of disaster. Scarce half a mile to the southward, where the Maumee turns in its course toward the east, lay the village of Kekionga. Its Miami and Shawnee inhabitants-the few who re- mained after the many had fled to the villages of the foes of France -had failed of late to display the warmth of friendship which the French had so long enjoyed. The reason was not hidden from the commandant. He knew that the British, from their fortified settlement at Pickawillany, were constantly sending out emissaries to worry the weak garrisons and win to their cause the few savages who clung to their ancient village. To these, the English offered in return for their peltries twice the amount the French traders could afford to give. The taunts of the savages were galling in the extreme.
One day, in desperation, Captain Raimond dispatched a mes- senger to Detroit with a letter in which he said:
51
52
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
"My people are leaving me for Detroit. Nobody wants to stay here and have his throat cut. All of the tribes who go to the English at Pickawillany come back loaded with gifts. I am too weak to meet the danger. Instead of twenty men, I need five hundred * * * We have made peace with the English; yet they try con- tinually to make war on us by means of the Indians. They intend to be masters of all this upper country. The tribes here are leaguing together to kill all the French, that they may have nobody on their lands but their English brothers. This I am told by Cold Foot, a great Miami chief, whom I think an honest man, if there be such thing among the Indians. * *
* If the English stay in this country, we are lost. We must attack them and drive them out.''1
To add to the distress of mind of the commandant of Post Mi- ami, an epidemic of smallpox spread over the Maumee-Wabash region during the winter of 1751-2 and carried away as its victims two of his true Indian friends, Chief Cold Foot and Chief LeGris,2 as well as many of the Miamis who formed the Cold Foot village.
FRENCH MEDAL BEARING THE DATE 1693
GUIL DE NESMOND
SENA
EU'S
PIETATP
"AMORE.C.,
1
24
FRENCH RELICS DUG UP ON THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE.
These three relics of the seventeenth century days of the occupation of the site of Fort Wayne by the French-a medallion bearing the date 1693, a cop- per kettle and a copper box are of in- calculable historical value. The medal- lion and the kettle are the property of Kenton P. Baker, 1008 Delaware ave- nue. In 1870, while he was superintend- ing some work of excavation at the junction of the present Delaware ave- nue and St. Joe boulevard, Henry J. Baker, sr. (grandfather of Kenton P. Baker), uncovered the kettle shown here. It was found to contain some In- dian arrowheads and the large brass medallion of which the picture shows the two sides. The indentations of the kettle were made by the adz in the hands of the workman who unearthed the relic.
The place of finding the reminders of the French occupation, is the site of the last French fort, erected in 1750. It would seem that the medallion and the kettle have reposed within the lim- its of the present city of Fort Wayne for a period of nearly two centuries. The medallion was for a time the prop- erty of Mrs. C. E. Stapleford, now a resident of Colorado Springs, Col. Mrs. Stapleford ascertained, through correspondence with the mayor of Bordeaux, France, that Guil (William) de Nesmond, whose portrait appears on the medallion which was issued in commemoration of his death in 1963, was a member of a noble family in France. It is interesting to note that an exact dup- licate of this medallion, found in the same locality, is the property of Byron F. Thompson, residing north of Fort Wayne.
The small copper box, with a hinged, embossed cover, undoubtedly a relic of the French occupation, is owned by L. W. Hills. It was unearthed by boys while at play in the vicinity of the site of the French fort.
L
1750 1760
SURRENDER OF THE FRENCH POST MIAMI . 53
But Raimond appears to have completed the period of his use- fulness at Post Miami, for he was summoned to Detroit, to give way to a new commandant, Chevalier Neyon (Noyan or Nyon) de Villiers.3
Soon after his arrival, Villiers was aroused by the alarm that an Englishman had, in truth, been so bold as to force his way into the fort where a number of savages were gathered, that he might induce them to turn against the French and capture the post. In the nick of time, Villiers secured the intruder, who fought des- perately to escape. The capture of this man-John Pathin-to- gether with the taking of three others by the French near Detroit -was about the first effort at retaliation which the French had un- dertaken. The news of the affair reached Governor George Clinton, of New York, who demanded to know the cause of the warlike act. "The capture of these four Englishmen [Luke Arrowin, Thomas Borke, Joseph Fortiner and John Pathin] ought not to surprise you," responded the Marquis de la Jonquiere, at Montreal. " 'Tis certain, sir, that they did not risk coming, so to say, under his M. G. Majesty's cannon, except with sinister views. * * * As for John Pathin, he entered the fort of the Miamis to persuade the Indians who remained there to unite with those who had fled to the Beautiful [Ohio] river. He has been taken in the French fort. Nothing more is necessary. The little property that was taken belonging to these persons has been claimed by the Indians as plunder. ** *
* John Pathin could enjoy the same freedom [as the others, who had been released] but he is so mutinous, and uttered so many threats, that I have been obliged to imprison him at Quebec."4
In the midst of the disturbance, two of LaDemoiselle's savages crept close enough to the French fort to capture two of the men of Villier's garrison. Their scalps were carried in triumph to the camps of the foes of the French.5
While conditions at the head of the Maumee and throughout the Wabash valley grew more alarming for the French, there was increased activity at the English settlement at Pickawillany. Chris- topher Gist, sent on an exploring expedition to the west in the in- terest of the Ohio Land Company (of which George Washington was a member) visited the place in February, 1751. His journal tells of the activity of the village and of the re-construction of the post-the first established by the English in the west, and which was designed to prove a menace to the Kekionga and Detroit strong- holds of the French.
But the scenes were soon to shift. Celeron, commandant of Detroit, had been directed by Governor Jonquiere, of Canada, to
.
.
54
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
proceed to Pickawillany and accomplish its destruction. Whether Celeron shirked the undertaking or was too deliberate in his prepa- rations, it does not appear, but it is true that another arose to the occasion and accomplished the work which had been outlined for him.
This leader was Charles Langlade. The Indians at Kekionga, no less than the gar- rison at the post, were taken by surprise one day in June, B 1752, when a small army of French and two hundred Chip- pewas and Ottawas, came rap- idly up the Maumee and turned westward into the St. Mary's C on their way to the portage point nearest the Pickawillany post. It was the army come STEEL TOMAHAWKS. During the reign of terror on the frontier, the British furnished the sav- ages not only with their firearms and ammunition, with which to fight the foes of Great Britain, but also with scalping knives and tomahawks of steel to displace the Indian knife and toma- hawk of stone. The three specimens shown, representing distinct forms of steel tomahawk, were found on the site of the city of Fort Wayne. A-Made to be riveted to a wooden handle. B- Squaw ax. C-A pipe tomahawk; the wooden handle served as a stem of the pipe, and the head of the instrument as the bowl. A and C are from the col- lection of the late Colonel R. S. Robert- son; B is from the collection of L. W. Hills. to drive out the English. Langlade had gathered his fol- lowers from the Green Bay region and piloted them to De- troit, where their assistance was offered to the commandant. Celeron accepted their service, supplemented the force by the addition of a few French regu- lars and Canadians, under M. St. Orr (or St. Orr), and directed the expedition against Picka- willany.
No word had reached the British post to warn it of the ap- proach of the attacking party. "Langlade," says one writer, after describing the landing of the canoes on the bank of the St. Mary's, "led his painted savages through the forest to attack La Demoiselle and his English friends."6 The assault was spirited and decisive. "Among the Indians who had been captured was the principal chief of the Piankeshaws, called 'Old Britain' [La Demoiselle], on ac- count of his friendship for the British ; he was killed, cut in pieces, boiled and eaten in full view of the fort, after which the French and their allies moved away."7
The effect of the fall of Pickawillany was to awe the Miamis to the extent that they again turned to the French, although Cap- tain William Trent, of the English, assembled them at the destroyed
55
SURRENDER OF THE FRENCH POST MIAMI
1750 1760
village but a few weeks later and made a lavish distribution of gifts. The decision of the Pennsylvania legislature to give "the sum of two hundred pounds as a present of condolence to the Twightwee [Miami] nation," failed to restore their loyalty.
Further east, affairs between the British and French were assuming a serious aspect. Major George Washington, after his ineffectual journey to carry a message from Governor Dinwiddie to the French posts, ordering their evacuation, met with moderate success in an encounter at Great Meadows, and this event is often referred to as the opening affair of the French and Indian war, regardless of the assault at Pickawillany.
And so were precipitated the hostilities which closed in the complete overthrow of France in the New World.
During this period of turmoil, the lands at the head of the Maumee were the scene of the action of French troops passing chiefly to the eastward from the Louisiana region. Many of these came up the Wabash, crossed the portage and proceeded down the Maumee. Notable was the expedition of Captain Aubray, in 1759, who, with three hundred French regulars and militia and six hun- dred Indians, carried great quantities of flour for the assistance of Forts Venango and Niagara. The army passed from the Maumee along the south shore of Lake Erie. Captain Aubray was among the French captured by the British at the fall of Fort Niagara in the summer of 1759.8
The early successes of the French suggested to Captain Celeron at Detroit the advisability of peopling the Maumee-Wabash valleys with French farmers, and to this end the government agreed to give to each family thus consenting to locate and engage in tilling the soil, the following equipment: A gun, a hoe, an axe, a plowshare, a scythe and a sickle, two augurs, a sow, six hens, a cock, six pounds of powder, twelve pounds of lead and other favors. Only twelve families consented to move.9 Certainly it was no time to choose a home on the frontier. Frequent encounters occurred be- tween the sympathizers of both parties to the great quarrel, that did not cease even with the capitulation of Quebec in September, 1760, which formally closed the French and Indian war.
THE ENGLISH FLAG FLOATS OVER FORT WAYNE SITE.
The quiet surrender of Detroit in the 29th of November, to Major Robert Rogers, automatically threw the entire Maumee- Wabash region into the hands of the British. The garrison of the lonely post on the site of Fort Wayne awaited with interest the appearance of the British leader authorized to take the fort. He was not long in coming. A detachment of twenty rangers
56
THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
from the famous "Royal Americans," under command of Lieuten- ant Butler10 rode up to the fort in December, 1760, and received its formal transfer.
"I ordered that if possible a party should subsist at the fort [Miami] this winter [1760-1]," says Rogers in his report, "and give the earliest notice at Detroit of the enemy's motives in the coun- try of the Illinois."
Ensign Robert Holmes11 appears to have accompanied Butler's rangers to Post Miami, there to serve at intervals until his tragic death three years later.
A second detachment, under Lieutenant Edward Jenkins, passed onward to Quiatanon and received the surrender of that post. Nothing was now left to the French in the entire west, except the posts of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi.
NOTES ON CHAPTER VI.
(1) Francis Parkman, "Montcalm and Wolf," vol. i, page 82.
(2) He is not to be confused with the Chief LeGris, proprietor of the Miami village in Spy Run preceding the Harmar expedition and . who signed the treaty of Greenville.
(3) Villiers was the youngest of seven brothers, six of whom, it is said, lost their lives in the wars in Canada. He held the post on the site of Fort Wayne during 1751 and 1752, when he was transferred to Fort Chartres, on the Illinois bank of the Mississippi, ninety miles above the mouth of the Ohio. In August, 1756, Villiers commanded an escort of provisions sent from Fort Chartres to Fort Duquesne; arriving in Pennsyl- vania with twenty-three Frenchmen and thirty Indians, he attacked and destroyed Fort Grandville. Returning to Fort Chartres, he was named to succeed Captain Macarty as its com- mandant, a position he held until June 15, 1764, when he received the cross of St. Louis as a reward for his fidelity and services. M. Gayarre confounds him with his brother, Cou- lon Villiers, called the great Villiers, to whom Washington surrendered in 1754.
(4) New York Colonial Documents, vol. vi, page 733.
(5) Dunn's "Indiana."
(6) Parkman's "Montcalm and
Wolf," vol. i, page 85.
(7) Colonial Documents, vol. vi, page 730. It is believed by some his- torians that the main body of the French stopped at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) and that an attack on Pick- awillany was made by the savages without their leadership, this conjec- ture being based upon the account of one writer that only two French- men were observed on the scene.
(8) Daris Documents, xvi; New York Colonial Documents, vol. x, page 989. (9) Dr. Charles E. Slocum, "Maumee River Basin," vol. i, page 102; see also Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolf," page 77.
(10) That Butler remained for some time at the post is suggested by a letter written by Captain Donald
Campbell, the first commandant at De- troit, to Colonel Bouquet: "Lieuten- ant Butler and his rangers are living among the Ottawas at the Miami post. At the post where he is sta- tioned, hejis but nine miles from the Wabash." Campbell complains of the large amounts of supplies used at the posts on the St. Joseph and the Wabash. "Major Rogers has about stripped us in supplying the adjoining posts," he writes. "I designed to send a large quantity of ammunition to the Posts of Miamis, St. Joseph and Ouiatanon for the subsistence of the garrisons, as the transportation is so difficult. This I cannot do as I wish, for want [of] ammunition. I wait for an officer from Niagara, to send off [to] the garrison of Quiatanon. If the major does not send one, I shall be obliged to have a sergeant at Miamis, which is not the general intentions surely that these posts should be commanded by a sergeant."
(11) In searching for information concerning Robert Holmes, whose tragic death forms the climax of one of the most romantic tales of the English occupation of the west, the writer finds that his title is given during the same periods of time as Ensign and Lieutenant. He had been actively engaged against Quebec, serving as a scout in charge of fifty men in the region of Lake Cham- plain. His efforts were designed to harass the French and mislead them as to the enemy's intentions. On the way to the west with Major Rogers to receive the surrender of Detroit, Holmes's boat formed the rear guard for the flotilla of fifteen whaleboats which conveyed the men to their des- tination. Arrived at Detroit, Major Rogers placed Colonel Beletre and the other English prisoners in charge of Holmes and thirty rangers. It is evident that during a portion of the year 1761 Holmes was absent from his post, for we find a written record of Major William Walter to the effect that he has "Ensign Holmes, with two Sergeants. ten Corporals and sixty men assitsing in the building two vessels for Lake Eri."
-
CHAPTER VII-1761-1765. Massacre of the British at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) -Morris and Croghan.
The beginning of the Conspiracy of Pontiac-Holmes warned of the plot- He discovers the war belt at Kekionga-Holmes betrayed to his death by the Indian maiden-Shot from ambush-Captain Morris' version- Survivors tell of the plot as planned and executed by Jacques Godefroy and Miney Chene-Welch and Lawrence, the traders, and their account of the murder-Quiatanon falls-Morris at Pontiac's camp-He reaches the site of Fort Wayne-Captured and thrown into the fort-Tied to the stake to be tortured-Saved by Chief Pecanne-Escapes to the fort -Colonel Bradstreet's expedition-Savages bring in the white captives- Colonel George Croghan reaches the site of Fort Wayne-Savages raise the English flag-Croghan describes the villages-Pontiac gives up the fight and leaves for the west-His tragic death.
D URING the two years following the fall of the French posts, comparative quiet prevailed throughout the west. But while the British were comfortably surveying their posses- sions, mischief was forming in the cunning brain of a master mind of the savages-Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas.
Inspired by his lessons of the defeat of General Braddock, in which he played a prominent part; by the encouragement of French leaders who still sought the downfall of the British, and by the complaints of the savages of many of the tribes which participated in the French and Indian war, this "Napoleon of the western Indians" planned the most remarkable conspiracy of massacre and overthrow of the whites ever conceived by a savage. That the plan failed was due only to the impetuosity of some of his associates.
Following the war, the Indians, footsore and weary of strife, had been content to live off the bounties of the victors. But soon these bounties ceased, because there was now no rival to claim the affection of the Indians and, indeed, the British war tax had added greatly to the value of those articles which formerly were given with much freedom.
In the fall of 1761, Pontiac sent his messengers to every village of the savages along the Ohio and its tributaries, throughout the upper Great Lakes region, and as far south as the lower Mississippi. With a tomahawk stained red, and with a war belt of wampum, a messenger visited each camp and settlement, where, after throwing down the tomahawk he delivered the message of the great chief.
The quietest of secrecy surrounded the movements of the sav-
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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE
ages to prevent the discovery of the plot. But one day in March, 1763, a friendly Indian sought Ensign Robert Holmes, at the post on the St. Joseph, and informed him that a messenger with a war belt had visited the village of Kekionga and, after making his speech, had left the belt in the hands of the Indians of that settle- ment. Alarmed by the report, the commandant made bold to visit the village and demand the delivery into his hands of the war-belt, together with the interpretation of the speech of the messenger who had come and gone. The savages "did as Indians have often done, confessed their fault with much contrition, laid the blame on a neighboring tribe, and professed eternal friendship for their brethren, the English.'1
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