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 7

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 7


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Holmes reported the discovery to his superior, Major Henry Gladwyn, in command at Detroit, with the request that the word be forwarded to Sir Jeffrey Amherst. Not satisfied with the mere confession of the savages, however, Holmes continued his search until he found the fatal war-belt. Without hesitation, he wrapped it carefully with a letter which he dispatched by a trusty messenger to Major Gladwyn. Holmes was exultant. He felt that the trouble was now ended. On the 30th of March he wrote to Gladwn as follows :


"Since my last letter to You, wherein I Acquainted You of the Bloody Belt being in this Village I have Made all the search I could about it, and have found it out to be True; Whereupon I Assembled all the Chiefs of this Nation & after a long and trouble- some Spell with them, I Obtained the Belt, with a Speech, as you will Receive Enclosed; This Affair is very timely Stopt, and I hope the News of a Peace will put a stop to any further Troubles with these Indians who are the Principal Ones of Setting Mischief on Foot. I send you the Belt with this packet, which I hope You will forward to the General."2


The "speech" to which Holmes referred in his letter was that spoken by the Indians as they delivered the war belt into his hands. He recalled the words as best he could and repeated them, as follows in the letter which he forwarded to Gladwyn :


"This Belt was Received from the Shawnese Nation, they Received it from the Delawares, and they from the Senecas Who are Very Much Enraged against the English. As for the Indian That Was the Beginner of this we Cannot tell him, but he was One of Their Chiefs, and one That is Always doing Mischief, and the Indian that Brought it to this Place was a Chief who was Down at the Grand Council held in Pennsylvania Last Summer. We Desire you to Send this Down to Your General and George Croghan, and Let them Find Out the man that was Making the Mischief. For our Parts we will be Still and take no More Notice of Their Mis- chief Neither will we be Concern'd in it, if we had Ever so Much


1761 1765


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MASSACRE OF THE BRITISH AT POST MIAMI


Mind to Kill the English, there is always some Discovery Made before we can Accomplish our Design. This is all we Have to Say only you must give Our Warriors some Paints, Some Powder & Ball and some Knives, as they are all Going to War against our Enemies the Cherokees.''3


The commandant, secure in the feeling that trouble was "very timely Stopt," little knew that the plans for the greatest conspiracy of murder in the history of America were being carefully completed in Pontiac's camp but a short distance down the Maumee.


A romantic traditional story relates that in May a beautiful Ojibway maiden,4 in love with the Detroit commandant, Major Gladwyn, revealed to him the widespread plot of Pontiac to seize the entire west, and that the capture of Detroit post was planned for the following day. Thus warned, Gladwyn was enabled to hold the fort through a siege of several months, during which time Fort Sandusky, Fort St. Joseph, Fort Michilimackinac, Fort Ouiatanon and Post Miami passed into the hands of the savages.


At the little fort on the St. Joseph river on the site of Fort Wayne, the garrison learned with fear of the further activities of the Indians. Nevertheless, Ensign Holmes, the commandant, was destined to be the first to lose his life. "And here," observes Park- man, "I cannot but remark on the forlorn situation of these officers, isolated in the wilderness, hundreds of miles, in some instances, from any congenial associates, separated from every human being except the rude soldiers under their command and the white or red savages who ranged the surrounding woods.


SCALPING KNIVES, RELICS OF SAVAGERY.


The blades of two scalping knives here shown in full size, are in the collec- tion of the late Col. R. S. Robertson, now in the possession of his son, R. S. Robertson, jr., of Paducah, Ky., by whom they were loaned. They were found on the site of Fort Wayne.


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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


"On the 27th day of May, a young Indian girl,5 who lived with the commandant, came to tell him that a squaw lay dangerously ill in a wigwam near the fort, and urged him to come to her relief. Having confidence in the girl, Holmes forgot his caution and fol- lowed her out of the fort. Pitched on the edge of a meadow [in the present Lakeside], hidden from view by an intervening spur of woodland, stood a great number of Indian wigwams. When Holmes came in sight of them his treacherous conductress pointed out that in which the sick woman lay. He walked on without suspicion, but, as he drew near, two guns flashed from behind the hut and stretched him lifeless on the grass. The shots were heard at the fort and the sergeant rashly went out to learn the cause. He was immediately taken prisoner, amid exulting yells and whoopings. The soldiers in the fort climbed upon the palisades to look out, when Godefroy, a Canadian, and two other white men, made their appearance and summoned them to surrender, promising that if they did so their lives would be spared."6


Such is the story as Parkman tells it, and we are given further "details" by Captain Robert Morris, who came to the village in the next year and who received the account from "the sole survivor" of the garrison. According to the tale of this man, whom Morris found chopping wood by the river bank, as the major's boat came floating by, the savages "killed all but five or six whom they re- served as victims to be sacrificed when they would lose a man in their wars with the English. They had all been killed except this one man," continues Morris, "whom an old squaw had adopted as her son."7


Possibly this "sole survivor" thought he was telling the truth, but it develops that he was not the only one whose life was spared. Others who lived to relate the story, and who told it under oath, were James Barnes, William Bolton, John McCoy and James Beems, who, as they found their way to Detroit during the succeeding weeks, gave their testimony before Gladwyn's court of inquiry.8 The substance of their combined narratives, together with that of John Welch and Robert Lawrence, traders, showed that the French- men in the plot took the lead in the affair, and that the conduct of the savages stands out in commendable contrast with that of their white associates.


On the afternoon preceding the murder, Jacques Godefroy, Miney Chene and three companions named Beaubien, Chavin and Labadie, accompanied by a number of Indians, waited on the bank of the Maumee several miles below the fort, to make the first demonstration of their outlawry. Floating down the stream came two pirogues laden with peltries and propelled by John Welch


L


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MASSACRE OF THE BRITISH AT POST MIAMI


1761 1765


PONTIAC.


Under the direction of the great Ot- tawa leader the little garrison at Post Miami, site of Fort Wayne, fell into the hands of the savages in 1763, and the murder of the Commandant, Holmes, was successfully accomplished. The portrait is after an old print, as pub- lished in President Woodrow Wilson's "A History of the American People," re- produced by permission of the publish- ers, Harper & Brothers.


while the others went into


and Robert Lawrence, who were taking their property to Detroit. Hiding themselves in the brush, the Frenchmen instructed the Indians to induce the traders to come ashore. Here, Welch and Lawrence were seized, and their goods divided among the French- men. Beaubien, Chavin and Labadie took their ill-gotten goods to Detroit, while Godefroy and Chene retained Welch and Lawrence as prisoners, and the party pro- ceeded to Kekionga where they arrived after nightfall.


Holmes already had received warning from a friendly Frenchman that trouble was brewing. He immediately closed the gates of the fort and set his men at work making cartridges.


The testimony of Robert Lawrence, one of the captive traders, develops the story from this point. Lawrence and Welch were first taken to a spot remote from the village and tied securely to stakes driven in the ground. The place of their captivity was probably in the eastern part of the present Lakeside. Two guards remained with them, the village.


"After they were some time gone," says Lawrence, "Mr. Welch asked where they were gone. They told him, to murder Holmes- in his room, if they could. In the night, two Indians returned to where we were tied and [we] were led in that condition to the cabins. In the morning, May 27, they had contrived to get Mr. Holmes out of the fort, waylaid, and killed him, and brought his scalp to the cabins."


This plain statement of the plan of a cold-blooded murder- of the all-night attempt to force the commandant to risk his life, and of its final consummation only when the false appeal came to the finer qualities of kindness and mercy-reveals the depths of the depravity of the conspirators.


Eight men were left in the garrison when the shots which killed Holmes startled them, and a sergeant rushed out to ascertain the occasion of the shooting. He was immediately seized, but before the


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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


Indians or their friends could gain entrance to the fort, the men closed the gate and secured it. Godefroy and the savages, with the captive Welch, then appeared before the fort and demanded that the men come forth and earn the preservation of their lives, or else suffer death in the burning of the stockade and the buildings. Godefroy, who could not speak English, gave the word of command through Welch. Finally, the gate was opened and the men ap- peared. They immediately were taken prisoners. Private Barnes, as he stood before Godefroy, was commanded through the medium of Welch, to remove from his shoes two silver buckles which, he said, would be taken by the Indians if he (Godefroy) failed to appropriate them to his own use.9 Godefroy then announced that a party would be formed at once to proceed to the little post of Ouiatanon, on the Wabash, near the present Lafayette, Indiana, and capture the garrison under Lieutenant Edward Jenkins. The murderers took with them two prisoners from Post Miami as evi- dence that the fort on the St. Joseph had fallen into their hands.


The party reached Quiatanon on the evening of May 30. "They were to have fell on us and killed us last night," wrote Jenkins in his report to Gladwyn on the 1st of June, "but Mr. Maisongville10 and Lorain gave them wampum not to kill us, & when they told the Interpreter that we were all to be killed, & he, knowing the condition of the fort, beg'd of them to make us prisoners.''11


Lorain, evidently, carried the message to Gladwyn, for Jenkins adds that "he can tell you all."


Jacques Godefroy then made his way to Sandusky where he fell into the hands of Colonel John Bradstreet who had been sent to the west to pacify Pontiac's savages. The guilty wretch ex- pected to be put to death, but it happened that just at this time another emissary of the British, Captain Robert Morris, was setting out from Detroit to visit the Indians at the scene of the murder of Holmes, and Godefroy was given a chance to "make good" by serving as his guide and protector. Believing that Morris had saved his life, Godefroy became, in reality, the preserver of the life of Morris.


THE THRILLING EXPERIENCE OF CAPTAIN MORRIS.


Morris was a captain in the Seventeenth regiment of British infantry, and had come to Detroit with Bradstreet. Fortunately, he was of a literary bent, and the tale of his experiences before and after he reached the site of Fort Wayne has been preserved in a small volume of the captain's efforts, published in England after his return home.


At this time, Pontiac, sullen in the failure of his great con-


63


MASSACRE OF THE BRITISH AT POST MIAMI


1761 1765


spiracy,12 took up his abode five miles from the Maumee, the trail leading out of the site of the present Defiance, in Ohio. To this camp, with messages of peace, Captain Morris, under the direction of Colonel Bradstreet, made his way with a company of Indians and Godefroy as guide. Disappointed and embittered, Pontiac received Morris with coldness, but saved him from imminent death by halt- ing the fierce demonstration of his followers with the proclamation that the life of an ambassador should ever be held sacred. With Pontiac's consent, Morris and his escort finally were allowed to proceed up the Maumee to the site of Fort Wayne where the earlier perils were forgotten in the face of real danger.13


Arriving at the lower point of the present Lakeside, the party of Captain Morris stepped from their canoes and proceeded up the east bank of the St. Joseph toward the fort. Morris remained in boat absorbed in the reading of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleo- patra," when he was rudely aroused by. the arrival of a motley crowd of savages who, on failing to find "the Englishman" in the advance party, had sought him out. He was dragged forth and conducted with many indignities into the fort enclosure, where he was cautioned not to enter any of the French cabins therein.14 Here he was left for a short time, while the savages met in council to determine his future. He was then brought forth to torture. From the beginning, Godefroy-the man who had led in the be- trayal of Holmes at this very spot-befriended Morris, as did also another Frenchman, St. Vincent, who had accompanied Morris from Detroit.


Says the captain in his book :


"Two Indian warriors, with tomahawks in their hands seized me, one by each arm. *


* They dragged me into the water * [St. Joseph river]. I concluded their intention was to drown me and scalp me, but the river was fordable. They led me on till we came near the village [in Spy Run] and there they stopt and stripped me. They could not get off my shirt, which was held by the wrist- bands, after they had pulled it over my head, and in rage and despair I tore it off myself. They then bound my arms with my sash. * The whole village was in an uproar. Godefroy * encouraged Pontiac's nephew and the Little Chief's son to take my part. He spoke to Le Cygne's [a chief] son, who whis- pered his father and the father came and unbound my arms. Ves- culair, upon my speaking, got up and tied me by the neck to a post. I had not the smallest hope of life, when Pecanne,15 king of the Miamis nation, and just out of his minority, having mounted a horse and crossed the river [St. Joseph], rode up to me. When I heard him call out to those about me, and felt his hand behind my neck, I thought he was going to strangle me out of pity [to avoid the tor- tures to which the captain previously referred, but are here omitted] but he untied me, saying, 'I give this man his life. You want Eng-


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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


lish meat-go to Detroit or the Lake, and you'll find enough. What business have you with this man's flesh who has come to speak with us?' "


Captain Morris, on being released, sought refuge in the fort, where he was befriended by a Frenchman named l'Esperance who lodged him in his garret. To this refuge came two young women, said to have been sisters of Chief Pecanne, who showed him kind- nesses. Those who had bound him, however, awaited his reap- pearance, and a band of Kickapoos, arriving after the excitement had abated, threatened to put the captain to death if the Miamis failed to do so.


Bradstreet's instructions to Morris contemplated his proceeding onward to the Wabash towns, but the plucky Englishman, after his experience here, decided to await an opportunity of escape. It came in due time, and he, with Godefroy disappeared into the wilderness and reached Detroit after the passage of many days.


At this time, Colonel Henry Bouquet, of the British, advancing from Pennsylvania at the head of six hundred troops, marched to the strongholds of the Senecas, Delawares and Shawnees, in Ohio, demanding that they not only cease their depredations but that before the passage of twelve days they deliver into his hands all the persons in their possession-"Englishmen, Frenchmen, women17 and children, whether adopted into their tribes, married or living among you under any denomination or pretense whatever." Colonel Bouquet returned to Fort Pitt, but one detachment of his army pushed to the westward and followed the left bank of the St. Mary's river to the site of Fort Wayne. Everywhere, the mes- sage of Bouquet was spread, and the savages appeared to fear the consequences of their failure to comply with the colonel's terms. Soon the Indians commenced to arrive at Bouquet's camp with their captives, until a total of thirty-two men and fifty-eight women and children from Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio, who had been taken in the savage raids, were surrendered into the hands of L Bouquet. Many of these were relatives of the members of the rescue camp, and the reunion was the occasion of the most touching emotional scenes.


The savages of the lower Wabash came not under the influence of the expedition of Bouquet, and so, in order to convince them of the attitude of the British, Sir William Johnson, in 1765, chose Colonel George Croghan to visit these tribes, by whom he was well known. Colonel Croghan left Fort Pitt May 15th. After losing two of his men, who were shot by Indians in ambush, the colonel, wounded, was captured and taken to Vincennes. Fortunately he met here a number of leading Indians whom he formerly had be-


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MASSACRE OF THE BRITISH AT POST MIAMI


1761 1765


friended, and he was allowed to proceed up the Wabash river to Ouiatanon and then to Post Miami (Fort Wayne). While at Quiatanon, the chiefs of the Miamis came to him and "renewed their Antient Friendship with His Majesty & all His Subjects in America & Confirmed it with a Pipe," writes Colonel Croghan in his journal. Continuing, he says :


"Within a mile of the Twightwee [Miami] village [Kekionga], I was met by the chiefs of that nation who received us very kindly. The most part of these Indians knew me and conducted me to their village where they immediately hoisted an English flag that I had formerly given them at Fort Pitt. The next day they held a council, after which they gave me up the English prisoners that they had. * *


* The Twightwee village is situated on both sides of a river called St. Joseph. This river where it falls into the Miami [Mau- mee] river about a quarter of a mile from this place is one hundred yards wide, on the east side of which stands a stockade fort some- what ruinous. The Indian village consists of about forty or fifty cabins, besides nine or ten French houses, a runaway colony from Detroit during the late Indian war [the Pontiac uprising]. They were concerned in it, and being afraid of punishment, they came to this spot where ever since they have spirited up the Indians against the English. All the French residing here are a lazy, indolent people, fond of breeding mischief and spiriting up the Indians against the English, and should by no means be suffered to remain here. The country is pleasant, the soil rich and well watered."


As he proceeded to Detroit, which place he reached August 17, and where Colonel Bradstreet awaited the coming of the chiefs for a council, Croghan was accompanied by all the English prisoners released to him at the various points which he visited.


The spectacle of the return of the white captives to the British and of complete submission of the savages to the will of Colonel Croghan (who reported that the Miamis "expressed great pleasure that the unhappy differences which embroiled the several nations with their brethren [the English] were now so near a happy con- clusion"), filled Pontiac's cup of bitterness to the brim. To Croghan, the chief declared that he would no longer give his life to the fight- ing of the whites.


Sad at heart, the great warrior departed for the west, where, near the site of St. Louis, in Missouri, he was treacherously stabbed to death by a Peoria brave-an act prompted, it is said, by an Englishman named Williamson-which precipitated a war of ex- termination of the Peorias.


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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


NOTES ON CHAPTER VII.


(1) Francis Parkman's "The Con- spiracy of Pontiac," vol. i, page 197.


(2) Parkman's "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," vol. i, page 189.


(3) From the Gladwyn Papers, Bur- ton Historical Collection, Detroit.


(4) "The Ojibway maiden, Cath- erine, is unquestionably a myth. Re- cent discoveries show beyond a doubt that the information came from An- gelique Cuillier (also called Beaubien), and that her lover, James Sterling, who later became her husband, was the actual informant."-Landmarks of Wayne County and Detroit," page 90, Robert B. Ross and George B. Cat- lin.


(5) "Mrs. [Laura] Suttenfield, de- ceased," wrote the late Colonel R. S. Robertson, "stated that she became acquainted with this woman [the squaw who betrayed Holmes], in 1815, when she had a son, a man of some years, who, the squaw said, was Saginish [English], and from the age of the man, the inference was drawn that he was the son of Holmes. After leaving here, the woman took up her residence in the Raccoon village. She lived to a great age, and as known to many of the early settlers of Fort Wayne."


(6) Parkman's "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," vol. i.


(7) Morris adds that he met this man in New York at a later time, where he was employed as a boat- man.


(8) This account is compiled from the Gladwyn Papers in the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit.


(9) Barnes relates that at a later time, in Detroit, when Godefroy was a prisoner, Godefroy paid him for the buckles which he had stolen.


(10) This man was probably the Francois Maisonville whose name ap- pears in the list of French residents of the village on the site of Fort Wayne in 1769. He was here as late as 1778, when Hamilton's army passed over the site from Detroit on the way to its capture at Vincennes. He had taken several American prisoners but was himself captured by George Rogers Clark's men who, according to Hamilton's report, would have killed him but for the intercession of his brother, Alexis Maisonville. Francois Maisonville was taken to Virginia as a fellow-prisoner of Ham- ilton; he committed suicide while in confinement. Alexis Maisonville, ac- cording to Hamilton, was "the person best able to give him information of the country and the character of the


inhabitants" between Detroit and Vin- cennes.


(11) Parkman's "The Conspiracy of Pontiac," vol. i, page 287.


(12) Detroit, after a severe siege, had been relieved by Colonel John Bradstreet, and Fort Pitt weathered the storm under the protection of the troops of Colonel Henry Bouquet.


(13) En route up the river, the travelers met an Indian riding a beau- tiful white horse which, they were told, had been the property of Gen- eral Braddock, and which had been taken from the field of battle at the time of the ambuscade.


(14) The post had been without a garrison for a period of about elgh- teen months-ever since the Holmes massacre. It was at this time, and until it crumbled into ruins, tenanted by Indian and French "of the worst sort," as they were described by Sir William Johnson in a report dated this same year. (New York Colonial Documents, vol. vii, page 716.)


(15) Pecanne was an uncle of Chief Jean Baptiste Richardville (see Chap- ter X).


(16) The thrilling narrative of Cap- tain Morris, as quoted from his "Mis- cellanies in Prose and Verse, is given in "Early Western Travels," vol. i, page 301; in "Western Annals," page 180, and in Parkman's "The Con- spiracy of Pontiac," vol. ii; Fort Wayne Public Library.


(17) "No female captive is ever saved by the Indians from base mo- tives or need fear the violation of her honor. The whole history of the wars may be challenged for a solitary instance of the violation of female chastity."-Schoolcraft, "Travels in the Central Portion of the Mississippi Valley," page 394.


(18) It will be recalled that the savages at Post Miami (Fort Wayne) in their speech to Ensign Holmes, asked him to send their message and the war belt to "your general and George Croghan, and let them find out the man [Pontiac] that is making the mischief." Colonel Croghan's ac- count of this remarkable expedition is recorded in "Early Western Trav- els," by R. G. Thwaites, vol. i, page 151; "Annals of the West," page 185, and "The Wilderness Trail," vol. ii, by Charles A. Hanna. All are to be found at the Fort Wayne Public Library. The name of Colonel George Croghan is ofttimes confused with that of Major George Croghan, a nephew of George Rogers Clark, who figures in local history of 1812.


CHAPTER VIII-1766-1779. Miami Town (Fort Wayne) and the Revolution.


The savages renew their allegiance with the English-Sir William Johnson fears the Indians may aid the colonists-Would reclaim the site of Fort Wayne-Hamilton in authority at Detroit-Sends out scalping parties to raid the American settlements-McKee, Elliott and the Girtys-George Rogers Clark's brilliant capture of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes- Celeron flees from Quiatanon-Hamilton's army moves up the Maumee to the site of Fort Wayne-Conference with savage tribes-Valuable goods stored at the Miami village-Proceeds to Vincennes-The army passes over the ancient portage-How the beavers helped-The defeat of Hamilton-DePeyster, the tory, assumes command of the scalping parties-Rum demoralizes the savages.




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