History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan, Part 10

Author: Durant, Samuel W. cn
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : D.W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 772

USA > Michigan > Eaton County > History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan > Part 10
USA > Michigan > Ingham County > History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan > Part 10

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The party returned up the river soon after. On the way La Salle was taken violently ill at Fort Prudhomme, a work which he had erected on one of the Chickasaw bluffs on his way down. Father Membre remained to take care of him, while the rest of the party proceeded northward to the region of the great lakes. La Salle recovered slowly, and finally rejoined Tonty at Mackinac in September fol- lowing.

# On Franquelin's map of La Salle's discoveries, published in 1684, this name is written, Che-ka-you.

In 1687 he joined Denonville with a large war-party against the Iro- quois. In 1689 he destroyed a war-party of Iroquois. In 1697 he was in command at Fort Frontenac. He died about 1710.

HISTORY OF INGHAM AND EATON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

In the same year Tonty proceeded once more to the Illinois country and commenced the construction of Fort St. Louis, on the famous rock in La Salle County, III., now commonly known as " Starved Rock," from a legend that the last of the Illinois nation were there starved and de- stroyed by their enemies. La Salle had arranged to pro- eeed to France, but. hearing that the Iroquois were about to attack the Illinois, he changed his plans and joined Touty at Fort St. Louis, and superintended its eonstrue- tion. In the autumn of 1683 he sailed for France, where he so completely won over the king and nobility that he was fitted out with a powerful expedition for the purpose of making further discoveries in the South, and also of establishing a colony on the Mississippi River. Ilis last appearance in the waters of Michigan was in the fall of 1683, when on his way to Quebee, where he set sail for France. The great discoverer, one of the most remarkable men of any age, was assassinated by some of his followers in Texas on the 19th of March, 1687.

Fort St. Louis, on the Illinois, was given by the king to Tonty and La Forest, who occupied it and carried on quite an extensive trade from 1683 to about 1702, when they were sent to other parts of the continent, and Fort St. Louis was, for a time, abandoned. It was, however, again occupied by French traders in 1718, but only for a short time. Charlevoix, passing the spot in 1721, found it deserted.

CHAPTER V.

FROM 1682 TO THE END OF THE FRENCH DO- MINION.

St. Joseph, Mackinac, Detroit-List of French Colonial Governors.

As before stated, a fort ealled Fort St. Joseph was built by Du Lhut at the outlet of Lake Iluron in 1686 ; but it was maintained only about two years, when it was aban- doned. The fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, built by La Salle, and called by him Fort Miamis, was prob- ably occupied occasionally, and possibly continuously, from 1680 until the establishment of a Jesuit mission at the place in the early years of the eighteenth century.

It has been erroneously stated by some writers that the Jesuit Fathers, Allouez, Dablon, and Marquette, visited this point between 1666 and 1670, but we find nothing to corroborate the statement; and there can be very little doubt that La Salle was the first European to visit it. Judge Campbell states that the fort was afterwards re- moved about sixty miles up the St. Joseph River, where Charlevoix visited it in 1721. This would carry it to the spot now occupied by the city of South Bend, Ind.

A military post was established at St. Ignace about 1680. The Jesuit mission, as we have seen, was planted in 1671. After the establishment of a fort Du Lhut seems to have been one of the first commandants. Ile was suc- ceeded by M. Perot in 1686, who continued until 1691, when he was followed by M. de la Porte Louvigny, and the Jatter by JI. de la Motte Cadillac in 1694, who continued until 1699.

Michilimackinac, as it long continued to be written, from the time of its settlement as a mission, was an important post, both as an ecclesiastical and a eivil and military estab- lishment. The Jesuits elung to it tenaciously on account of its favorable location, and for years after the founding of Detroit they tried every means in their power to have the latter discontinued, or, at least, continued as a military post. The first settlement about the Straits of Mack- inae was made on the north shore. The island of Mack- inae was not permanently occupied until 1780, when the English military authorities took possession and erected a fort thereon. Detroit was first permanently occupied by the French in 1701. In early days it was the site of an Indian village, probably of the Wyandot or Huron nation, and bore the name of Tjugh-sagh-ron-die .*

There had long been a desire, not only on the part of the French, but of the English as well, to found a settle- ment and establish a fort on the strait, but the Iroquois confederaey had strongly opposed it. In 1700, Cadillac proceeded to France and laid the matter before Count Pontchartrain, minister for the colonies, who at once be- came interested in the projeet, and through his influence the king commissioned Cadillac to carry out the plan. The latter returned to Canada, arriving at Quebee in March, 1701.

On the 5th of June, Cadillac left La Chine with fifty soldiers, and a similar number of Canadian merchants and mechanics. Under him, with the rank of captain, was M. Alphonse de Tonty, a brother of M. Ileuri de Tonty, and two lieutenants. A Jesnit missionary to the Indians, and a Récollet priest as chaplain, accompanied the expedition.

The command arrived safely at Detroit on the 24th of July, 1701. Cadillae constructed a small stockaded work having two bastions, and inclosing sufficient space to con- tain a few log buildings for stores and barracks. Their roofs were thatched with grass. This work Cadillac named in honor of the colonial minister, Fort Pontehartrain.t

In the autumn of 1701 what was known as the " Com- pany of the Colony of Canada" entered into an agreement to oeenpy the posts of Frontenac and Detroit, to complete the forts at the latter place and keep the same in repair, and to do various and sundry other things required by the government, for which they were to have a_monopoly of the fur trade by paying annually a fixed sun per hundred- weight on all furs collected or purchased by them.

It would appear from this that the real objeet of the set- tlement and fort was the prosecution of the fur trade, which, it is probable, was the great instrumentality, next to the missions, in the settlement of the whole of Canada and the lake region.

* Levi Bishop in his interesting legendary poem writes the namo Teuchsa-Grondie. In the Ojibwa tongue the place is said to havo been called Wa-wo-at-e-nong.

f This is generally called the first settlement at Detroit, but there is evidence that somo kind of a work was erected there at an earlier period. It was most probably a post of the coureurs de bois, who frequently carried on a clandestine trade beyond tho reach of the government. It is referred to in the New York Colonial Documents in 1679, 1689, and 1691. It probably had no regular garrison untit 1701.

FROM 1682 TO THE END OF THE FRENCH DOMINION.

It was a cherished plan of Cadillac to gather, like La Salle at Fort St. Louis, a vast collection of the Indians of the lake region at his fort on the Detroit. He and the Jesuits were always antagonistic, and while Cadillae en- deavored to break up the mission at Mackinac and concen- trate the trade and mission enterprise as much as possible at Detroit, Father Marest, in charge of the mission at Mackinac, strove by every means in his power to have the post and mission at Detroit broken up and transferred to Mackinac.

It would appear that notwithstanding the obstinate op- position of the priest Cadillae succeeded in collecting a great number of the Western Indians around his new post. In 1703 there were represented at Detroit the Sauteurs (or Saulteurs), from the Sault Ste. Marie; a band of the Ojibwas; Mississagués, from Canada ; Hurons, from the northern part of the peninsula; and several bands of Miamis, Otta- was, and others.

M. de Cadillac continued in command at Detroit until 1704, when he was arrested in Montreal for alleged mal- feasance in office, and did not return to Detroit until 1706. In the mean time M. Alphonse de Tonty was in command for a season, when, at the request of M. de Cadillac, M. Bourmont was appointed in his place.

The Iroquois Indians, the Jesuits, and the English were strongly opposed to the establishment of a post at Detroit. In 1702 war broke out between England, Holland, and France, the consequences of which were felt more or less in America. In the summer of 1703 the English invited the Indians living in the vicinity of the lakes to a grand council at Albany. It appears, however, that no Western nation, excepting the Ottawas, responded to the invitation. These latter were so wrought upon by the English, who made them believe the French intended to destroy them, that they returned home cherishing bitter feelings against the latter, and the attempted destruction of Fort Pontehar- train soon after was directly traceable to them.

M. de Cadillae was honorably acquitted and again took command at Detroit in August, 1706, but the hostile feel- ing of the savages inereased, and in 1707 they killed three Frenchmen near the fort. In consequence of this and other outrages, Cadillac determined to teach the Indians a lesson, and in the same year led a band of 400 men into the country of the Miamis and compelled them to come to terms and furnish hostages for their future good behavior, besides paying heavily for their depredations.

Iu 1711, M. du Buisson succeeded M. de Cadillac in command at Detroit. The war between the French and English involved the Iroquois confederaey, which about this time admitted the Tuscaroras from the South into its league. The Iroquois stirred up some of the Western na- tions against the French, among them the Outagamies or Foxes and the Mascontins, living beyond Lake Michigan, and in May, 1712, a strong force of these latter appeared before Detroit, and, throwing up intrenchments within fifty yards of the fort, sat down to a regular siege. The French garrison was then reduced to about thirty men, and their allies, the Ottawas, Hurons, and others, were absent on their annual hunt.

The situation was eritical, and the Western Indians,

taking advantage of it, made a furious assault on the fort, but were so bravely met by M. du Buisson and his little garrison that they were repulsed and kept at bay until the arrival of their allies. The church and several buildings situated outside the piekets were pulled down by order of the commander, that they might not afford shelter to the enemy.

Upon the arrival of the friendly Indians they immedi- ately joined the garrison, and the contest was desperately maintained, until at length, overcome by force of numbers, the enemy retreated to a fortification which they had pre- viously thrown up, and here they were besieged for nineteen days, when they sued for peace. A parley ensued, but, end- ing without any definite result, the fight was renewed. At length, in a dark and rainy night, the baffled enemy evacu- ated their works and fled to an island in the Detroit River, whither they were pursued, and after a desperate contest of several days their stronghold was taken, their warriors were nearly all slain, and their women and children taken prisoners .* M. du Buisson estimated their whole loss at above a thousand souls.

From a letter written by Father Joseph Marest at Maek- inac in June, 1712, it would appear that as a military post that place had been abandoned since about 1701. The mis- sion, however, had been continued, and constant endeavors were made by the Father to have the garrison restored. The letter contained a renewed request for the re-establish- ment of the post, because of the danger from the Sacs, Foxes, and Mascoutins, who were expected to fall upon Mackinac out of revenge for their defeat at Detroit. De- serters and coureurs de bois were at that time in control, and the missionaries prayed earnestly for a military com- mandant and garrison. From similar correspondence it appears that a new post was established about 1713 on the south side of the strait, whither the mission and chapel of St. Ignace followed.

In 1717, M. de Tonty was again in command at Detroit. Under his administration the fort was substantially rebuilt, the lands adjacent were sold to actual settlers, the colony inereased considerably, and for a time peace and prosperity smiled upon the inhabitants.

In June, 1721, M. de Tonty held a council with the chiefs of the Hurons, Ottawas, and Pottawattomies, and united them in a league against the tribes living west of Lake Michigan. The veteran governor-general, M. de Vaudreuil, who had presided over the interests of Canada for twenty-one years, died on the 10th day of October, 1725, and was succeeded by Charles Le Moyne, Baron de Longueuil, who continued only about one year, and was followed by Charles, Marquis de Beauharnois.

In 1734 the governor-general, Marquis de Beauharnois, introduced a new order of land-tenure into Michigan by making a series of grants upon easy conditions to actual settlers. He was exceedingly anxious to build up a power- ful colony, and rightly judged that the proper way to accomplish this object was to encourage tillers of the soil.

# It seems hardly probable that they brought their women and children with them on such an expedition, though such occurrences have been known among the Indians.

HISTORY OF INGIIAM AND EATON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

But the vast distance of the settlements from the scaboard, and the uncertain market for field products, operated to dis- courage farming, and the business of the people continued, as before, to be confined to the fur trade and the fisheries. The colony increased very slowly, yet there was good so- ciety and more or less wealth, cultivation, and even refine- ment. There were some good and exceedingly substantial buildings, and the people raised many varieties of fruit and vegetables.

The management of all public affairs during the French occupation was chiefly by military commanders, though there were notaries and a few other civil officers. Civil courts were yet in the future; everything was determined by courts-martial, and punishment was immediate and sum- mary, though there was scaree ever complaint of injustice.

The early settlers were eminently social in their habits, and probably managed to extract as much enjoyment from every-day life as any people in the world. Social and church gatherings, festivals, various games, horse-racing, and winter sports made up the round of pleasures which the French people, and especially their Canadian descend- ants, enjoy in the highest degree.

No event of great importance occurred within the terri- tory now constituting the State of Michigan from the date of the attack upon Detroit, in 1712, until the surrender of the French possessions in America to the English. The forts and missions were maintained, and occasionally a new one was founded. Detroit, Mackinac, and the Sault Ste. Marie continued to be the principal points of business, the former two increasing slowly in population and commercial importance. The government and the principal merchants were not without considerable enterprise, and the fur trade was prosecuted with a great deal of energy and business tact. It is also said on good authority that in 1749, under the orders of the Count de la Gallissonniere, then governor- general, a military road was opened from Detroit to the Ohio or Wabash River. It crossed the Maumee at the foot of the " Rapids" above Toledo.

The first settlements at Vincennes, and other points on the Wabash River, were conducted from Detroit as a base of supplies, and the last-named point was the principal depot for the fur trade south and west of Mackinac.

At the close of French rule in Michigan they had posts and missions at Detroit, Mackinac, Sault Ste. Marie, St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan, La Pointe, on Lake Superior, and probably on some of the islands lying in Lakes Iluron and Michigan, and perhaps at other points. The only per- manent population residing beyond the guns of the various forts was found in the settlements stretching along the De- troit and St. Clair Rivers, where each family held an allot- ment of ground, consisting of a long and narrow strip, generally running back perpendicular to the river, some- times for a mile or more. The total white population in 1760, within the limits of the State, did not probably ex- ceed 2000.

LIST OF FRENCH COLONIAL GOVERNORS.

1612-29 .- Samuel de Champlain.

1632-33.ª-Emery de Carn.

* The English held possession of Canada from 1629 to 1632.

1633-35 .- Samuel de Champlain.

1635 .- Mare Antoine de Chasteaufort.

1636 .- Charles Huault de Muntmagny.

1648 .- Louis D'Aillebout de Coulongos.

1651 .- Jean de Lauson.

1656 .- Charles de Lauson-Charney.

1657 .- Chevalier Louis D'Aillebout do Coulonges.

1658 .- Pierre do Voyer, Viseount D'Argenson.

1661 .- Pierre du Bois, Baron D'Avangour.

1663 .- Chevalier Augustin, de Saffrey-Mesey. 1663 .- Alexandre de Prouville, Marquis de Tracy.

1665 .- Chevalier Daniel do Remy de Courcelles.

1672 .- Louis de Buade, Count of Paluan and Frontenac.

1682 .- Antoine Joseph Le Febvre de la Barre.

1685 .- Jaeques Rene de Brisay, Marquis de Denonville.

1689 .- Louis de Buade, Count of Paluan and Frontenae.

1699 .- Chevalier Louis Hector de Callieres.

1703 .- Phillippe de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil.

1725 .- Charles Le Moyne, Baron de Longueuil.

1726 .- Charles, Marquis de Beauharnois.

1747 .- Rolland Michel Barrin, Count de la Gallissonniere.

1749 .- Jacques Pierre de Taffanel, Marquis de la Jonquiere.

1752 .- Charles Le Moyne, Baron de Longueuil.

1752 .- The Marquis Duquesne de Menneville.

1755-60 .- Pierre François, Marquis de Vaudreuil Cavagnal.

UNDER ENGLISH RULE.

CHAPTER VI.

SURRENDER OF DETROIT TO CAPTAIN ROGERS.

Pontine's War-The Quebec Act-The American Revolution-Expe- ditions.

IN the spring of 1754 was opened the celebrated war known in America as the "French-and-Indian War," which after many fluctuating campaigns finally ended in September, 1760, in the surrender of all the French-Can- adian possessions to the British arms.

The war was inaugurated on the 16th of April, 1754, by the seizure of a small unfinished fort at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, in Pennsylvania, held by Ensign Ward with about thirty men, by Capt. Contrecœur at the head of a strong force of French troops and Indian warriors, who had come down the Allegheny from Presq' Islet to drive the British traders from what they considered the lands of the King of France.

The French immediately proceeded to erect a strong compaet work on the place occupied by the Ohio company's stockade, which, in honor of the governor-general of Canada, they named Fort Duquesne.

The first actual collision and bloodshed between the bel- ligerents took place in Westmoreland Co., Pa., between an avance scouting-party of the French and Col. George Washington, commanding a Virginia colonial regiment. In this encounter Jumonville, the French leader, and sev- eral of his men were killed, and the remainder taken prisoners. But retribution speedily followed, for Wash- ington and his command were besieged at Fort Necessity on the 3d of July following by a strong force under M. de Villars, and on the 4th surrendered at discretion to the

t Now the city of Eric, Pa.

SURRENDER OF DETROIT TO CAPTAIN ROGERS.

French commander, who paroled them and sent them back to Virginia.

War, however, was not actually declared until the fol- lowing year (1755), when the famous expedition of Gen. Braddock was put in motion against Fort Duquesne. The terrible defeat and slaughter of that army on the banks of the Monongahela, within ten miles of Fort Duquesne, July 9, 1755, are familiar to every student of history. The French stronghold was at length taken by Gen. John Forbes, at the head of a powerful army, in November, 1758, and the French dominion on the Ohio virtually ended with that event. Washington accompanied both these expeditions.

But this war, though carried on upon a large scale in the Eastern colonies and Canada, did not directly disturb the French settlements in Michigan. The Western Indians espoused the cause of the French, and furnished a great number of warriors to their army. It is said that a strong torce of them was in the field against Gen. Braddock under the celebrated Pontiac, but this is not sufficiently authen- ticated for current history.

In 1759, when the gallant Capt. Pouchot was struggling against Sir William Johnson at Niagara, M. D'Aubrey col- lected a force of about 1700 French Canadians, coureurs de bois, and Indians of various nationalities, from the posts and settlements of the West, and attempted to raise the siege, but the English force was too strong and well disci- plined for his motley and ill-organized army ; lie was de- feated with considerable loss, and the post surrendered.

In the spring of 1760 three powerful English and colo- nial armies converged from different directions upon the last of the French strongholds,-Fort Levis, on Oracouenton Island, below Ogdensburg, in the St. Lawrence, and Mont- real,-and on the 8th of September, 1760, the sceptre de- parted from France, which for more than 150 years she had wielded over a large portion of the American continent.

On the 12th of September, four days after the surrender of Montreal to Gen. Amherst, that officer dispatched Maj. Robert Rogers, a provincial officer, born in New Hamp- shire, and a comrade of Stark and Putnam during the war, with a force of 250 rangers,* to take possession of the posts still held by the French in the West.

The major left Montreal on the 13th, with his command, in fifteen bateaux. Slowly toiling over the great rapids of the St. Lawrence at La Chine and the Cedars, they entered Lake Ontario, and, keeping near its northern shore, reached Fort Niagara in rongh and stormy weather on the 1st of October. Carrying their bateaux and supplies around the falls, they again launched them on the Niagara River, and pushed on towards Lake Erie. From the foot of Lake Erie, Maj. Rogers, accompanied by a few of his men, made an overland trip to Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh) with dis- patches for Gen. Monckton, in command of that post, after which he rejoined his command at Presq' Isle about the last of October.

On the 10th of November the major encamped at the

mouth of the Cuyahoga River, on the site of the city of Cleveland, Ohio. No body of English troops had before penetrated so far in this direction, and they naturally felt a growing apprehension that they might be on dangerous ground. The season was far advanced, and in the midst of a drizzling rain Rogers determined to encamp and rest his troops until the weather became more favorable. They ac- cordingly pitched their tents under the forest-trecs on ground now occupied by a city of 150,000 people.

PONTIAC.

The command had been only a short time in their tem- porary abode when a party of Indian warriors made their appearance, coming from the West, and announced them- selves as an embassy from the Ottawa chieftain Pontiac, who claimed to be lord over all this wide domain, and for- bade any farther advance of the command until he should appear and hold a conference with the commander. Before the day closed Pontiac made his appearance at the head of a strong war-party, and haughtily demanded of Rogers his business and how he dared enter the country without his permission. The major explained that the French had surrendered all their possessions to the English and that he was on his way by order of the British commander to re- ceive the surrender of the post of Detroit. Pontiac lis- tened attentively until Rogers concluded, when he merely said, "I shall stand in the path until morning," and then silently withdrew with his men.

The Ottawa chieftain was then about fifty years of age and in the prime of his physical and mental powers. He occupied the position of head-chief of the Ottawas and possessed nearly absolute control over the Ojibwas and Pot- tawattomies. The three nations were leagued together in a somewhat loosely-arranged confederation, for purposes offensive and defensive against their red and white enemies. Pontiac also possessed a vast influence over the greater portion of the nations of the Northwest, from the Ohio to the head-waters of the Mississippi.

From his youth up he had been the firm friend of the French, who had treated his people with uniform courtesy and respect. He was shrewd and politic, a man of great natural abilities, yet, at the same time, endowed with all the subtlety and ferocity of the Indian race. The news of the overthrow of the French came like a thunder-clap upon him, and ,he treated it at first as a cunning story invented by the English to gain the ascendency over the Indians. Ile could not believe that the chivalrous Montcalm, at the head of his veteran though wasted battalions, whom he was accustomed to look upon as wellnigh invincible in war, had been overthrown and compelled to surrender the vast domain of Canada. If it were indeed true, he was intelli- gent enough to see that it might be advantageous to his people, and especially to himself, as their great representa- tive, to enter into negotiations; and possibly to make a treaty of peace and amity, with the English. His imper- turbable Indian character and his extraordinary powers as a diplomat, joined with the proverbial cunning of his race, made him an enigma to the English, and constituted him, whether as a secret or open foe, a most dangerous leader of a treacherous and bloodthirsty race.

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History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan, Part 10

Author: Durant, Samuel W. cn Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia : D.W. Ensign & Co. Number of Pages: 772

Author: Durant, Samuel W. cn
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : D.W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 772