History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan, Part 4

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co.
Number of Pages: 818

USA > Michigan > St Clair County > History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan > Part 4

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During the French and English war Detroit was the principal source of sup- plies to the French troops west of Lake Ontario, and it also furnished a large number of fighting men. The upper posts were not much involved in this war.

" Teuchsa Grondie," one of the many ways of spelling an old Indian name of Detroit, is rendered famous by a large and splendid poem of Levi Bishop, Esq., of

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that city. During the whole of the eighteenth century the history of Michigan was little else than the history of Detroit, as the genius of French Government was to centralize power instead of building up localities for self-government.

About 1704, or three years after the founding of Detroit, this place was at- tacked by the Ottawa Indians, but unsuccessfully ; and again, in 1712, the Otta- gamies, or Fox Indians, who were in secret alliance with the old enemies of the French, the Iroquois, attacked the village and laid siege to it. They were severely repulsed, and their chief offered a capitulation which was refused. Considering this an insult they became enraged and endeavored to burn up the town. Their method of firing the place was to shoot large arrows, mounted with combustible material in flame, in a track through the sky rainbow-form. The bows and arrows being very large and stout, the Indians lay with their backs on the ground, put both feet against the central portion of the inner side of the bow and pulled the strings with all the might of their hands. A ball of blazing material would thus be sent arching over nearly a quarter of a mile, which would come down perpen- dicularly upon the dry shingle roofs of the houses and set them on fire. But this scheme was soon check-mated by the French, who covered the remaining houses with wet skins. The Foxes were considerably disappointed at this and discour- aged, but they made one more desperate attempt, failed, and retreated toward Lake St. Clair, where they again entrenched themselves. From this place how- ever, they were soon dislodged. After this period these Indians occupied Wis- consin for a time and made it dangerous for travelers passing through from the lakes to the Mississippi. They were the Ishmaelites of the wilderness.

In 1749, there was a fresh accession of immigrants to all the points upon the lakes, but the history of this part of the world during the most of this century, is rather monotonous, business and government remaining about the same, without much improvement. The records nearly all concern Canada east of the lake region. It is true, there was almost a constant change of commandants at the posts, and there were many slight changes of administrative policy, but as no great enter- prises were successfully put in operation the events of the period have but little prominence.

The Northwestern Territory during French rule, was simply a vast ranging ground for the numerous Indian tribes, who had no ambition higher than obtaining immediate subsistence of the crudest kind, buying arms, whisky, tobacco, blankets and jewelry by bartering for them the peltries of the chase. Like a drop in the ocean was the missionary work of the few Jesuits at the half dozen posts on the great waters. The forests were full of otter, beaver, bear, deer, grouse, quails, etc., and on the few prairies the grouse, or "prairie chickens," were abundant Not much work was required to obtain a bare subsistence, and human nature generally,

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is not disposed to lay up much for the future. The present material prosperity of America is really an exception to the general law of the world.

In the latter part of 1796, Winthrop Sargent went to Detroit and organized the county of Wayne, forming a part of the Indiana Territory until its division, 1805, when the Territory of Michigan was organized.

CHAPTER III.

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

Soon after the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi in 1682, the Govern- ment of France began to encourage the policy of establishing a line of trading posts and missionary stations, extending through the west, from Canada and the great lakes, to Louisiana ; and this policy was maintained, with partial success, for about seventy-five years. British power was the rival upon which the French continually kept their eye. Of course a collision of arms would result in a short time, and this commenced about 1755. In 1760, Canada, including the lake re- gion, fell into the hands of the British. During the war, occurred Braddock's de- feat, the battles of Niagara, Crown Point and Lake George, and the death of brave Wolfe and Montcalm. September 12 of this year, Major Robert Rogers, a native of New Hampshire, a provincial officer, and then at the height of his reputation, received orders from Sir Jeffrey Amherst to ascend the lakes with a detachment of rangers, and take possession, in the name of his Britannic majesty, of Detroit, Michilimackinac and other western posts, included in the capitulation of Montreal. He left the latter place on the following day with 200 rangers in fifteen whale boats. November 7, they reached the mouth of a river (Chogage), on the southern coast of Lake Erie, where they were met by Pontiac, the Indian chief, who now appears for the first time upon the pages of Michigan history. He haughtily demanded of Rogers why he should appear in his realm with his forces without his permission. The major informed him that the English had obtained permission of Canada, and that he was on his way to Detroit to publish the fact, and to restore a general peace to white men and Indians alike. The next day Pontiac signified his willingness to live at peace with the English, allowing them to remain in his country, provided they paid him due respect. He knew that French power was on the wane, and that it was to the interest of his tribes to establish an early peace with the new power. The Indians, who had collected at the mouth of the Detroit, reported 400 strong, to resist the coming of the British forces, were easily influenced by Pontiac

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to yield the situation to Rogers. Even the French commandant at Detroit, Capt. Beletre, was in a situation similar to that of the Indians, and received the news of the defeat of the French from Major Rogers. He was indignant and incredulous, and tried to rouse the fury of his old-time friends, the Indians, but found them "faithless" in this hour of his need. He surrendered with an ill grace, amid the yells of several hundred Indian warriors. It was a source of great amazement to the Indians to see so many men surrender to so few. Nothing is more effective in gaining the respect of Indians than a display of power, and the above proceed- ings led them to be overawed by English powers. They were astonished also at the forbearance of the conquerors in not killing their vanquished enemies on the spot. This surrender of Detroit was on the 29th of November, 1760. The posts elsewhere in the lake region, north and west; were not reached until some time afterward.

The English now thought they had the country perfectly in their own hands, and that there was but little trouble ahead ; but in this respect they were mistaken. The French renewed their efforts to circulate reports among the Indians that the English intended to take all their land from them, etc. The slaughter of the Mo- nongahela, the massacre at Fort William Henry, and the horrible devastation of the western frontier, all bore witness to the fact that the French were successful in pre- judicing the Indians against the British, and the latter began to have trouble at various points. The French had always been in the habit of making presents to the Indians, keeping them supplied with arms, ammunition, etc., and it was not their policy to settle upon their lands. The British, on the other hand, now sup- plied them with nothing, frequently insulting them when they appeared around the forts. Everything conspired to fix the Indian population in their prejudices against the British Government. Even the seeds of the American Revolution were scattered into the west, and began to grow.

The first Indian chief to raise the war-whoop was probably Kiashuta, of the Senecas, but Pontiac, of the Ottawas, was the great George Washington of all the tribes to systemize and render effectual the initial movements of the approaching storm. His home was about eight miles above Detroit, on Pechee Island, which looks out upon the waters of Lake St. Clair. He was a well-formed man, with a countenance indicating a high degree of intelligence. In 1746 he had successfully defended Detroit against the northern tribes, and it is probable he was present and assisted in the defeat of Braddock. About the close of 1762 he called a general council of the tribes, sending out ambassadors in all directions, who, with the war belt of wampum and the tomahawk, went from village to village, and camp to camp, informing the sachems everywhere, that war was impending, and delivering to them the message of Pontiac. They all approved the message, and April 27, 1763, a

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grand council was held near Detroit, when Pontiac stood forth in war paint and delivered " the great speech of the campaign." The English were slow to perceive any dangerous conspiracy in progress, and when the blow was struck, nine out of twelve of the British posts were surprised and destroyed. Three of these were within the bounds of this State. The first prominent event of the war was the massacre at Fort Michilimackinac, on the northernmost point of the southern peninsula, the site of the present city of Mackinaw. This Indian outrage was one of the most ingeniously devised and resolutely executed schemes in American his- tory. The Chippewas (or Ojibways) appointed one of their big ball plays in the vicinity of the post and invited and inveigled as many of the occupants as they could to the scene of play, then fell upon the unsuspecting and unguarded English in the most brutal manner. For the details of this horrible scene we are indebted to Alexander Henry, a trader at that point, who experienced several most blood- curdling escapes from death and scalping at the hands of the savages. The result of the massacre was the death of about seventy out of ninety persons. The Ottawa Indians, who occupied mainly the eastern portion of the lower peninsula, were not consulted by the Chippewas, with reference to attacking Michilimackinac, and were consequently so enraged that they espoused the cause of the English, through spite ; and it was through their instrumentality that Mr. Henry and some of his comrades were saved from death and conveyed east to the regions of civilization. Of Mr. Henry's narrow escapes we give the following succinct account: Instead of attending the ball play of the Indians he spent the day writing letters to his friends, as a canoe was to leave for the East the following day. While thus engaged, he heard an Indian war cry and a noise of general confusion. Looking out of the window, he saw a crowd of Indians within the fort, that is, within the village palisade, who were cutting down and scalping every Englishman they found. He seized a fowling piece which he had at hand, and waited a moment for the signal, the drum beat to arms. In that dreadful interval he saw several of his countrymen fall under the tomahawk and struggle between the knees of an Indian, who held him in this manner to scalp him, while still alive. Mr. Henry heard no signal to arms; and seeing it was useless to undertake to resist 400 Indians, he thought only of shelter for himself. He saw many of the Canadian inhabitants of the fort calmly looking on, neither opposing the Indians nor suffering injury, and he therefore concluded he might find safety in some of their houses. He stealthily ran to one occupied by Mr. Langlade and family, who were at their windows beholding the bloody scene. Mr. Langlade scarcely dared to harbor him, but a Pawnee slave of the former concealed him in the garret, locked the stairway door and took away the key. In this situation Mr. Henry obtained, through an aperture, a view of what was going on without. He saw the dead scalped and mangled, the

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dying in writhing agony, under the insatiate knife and tomahawk, and the savages drinking human blood from the hollow of their joined hands ! Mr. Henry almost felt as if he were a victim himself so intense were his sufferings. Soon the Indian fiends began to halloo, " All is finished." At this instant Henry heard some of the Indians enter the house he had taken shelter. The garret was separated from the room below by only a layer of single boards, and Mr. Henry heard all that was said. As soon as the Indians entered they inquired whether there were any En- glishmen in the house. Mr. Langlade replied that he could not say ; they might examine for themselves. He then conducted them to the garret door. As the door was locked, a moment of time was snatched by Mr. Henry to crawl into a heap of birch-bark vessels in a dark corner; and although several Indians searched around the garret, one of them coming within arm's length of the sweating prisoner, they went out satisfied that no Englishman was there.

As Mr. Henry was passing the succeeding night in this room, he could think of no possible chance of escape from the country. He was out of provisions, the nearest post was Detroit, 400 miles away, and the route thither lay through the enemy's country. The next morning he heard Indian voices below informing Mr. Langlade that they had not found an Englishman named Henry among the dead, and they believed him to be somewhere concealed. Mrs. L., believing that the safety of the household depended on giving up the refugee to his pursuers, prevailed on her husband to lead the Indians upstairs to the room of Mr. H. The latter was saved from instant death by one of the savages adopting him as a brother in the place of one lost. The Indians were all mad with liquor, however, and Mr. H. again very narrowly escaped death. An hour afterwards he was taken out of the fort by an Indian indebted to him for goods, and was under the uplifted knife of the savage when he suddenly broke away from him and made back to Mr. Lang- lade's house, barely escaping the knife of the Indian the whole distance. The next day he, with three other prisoners, were taken in a canoe toward Lake Michigan, and at Fox Point, eighteen miles distant, the Ottawas rescued the whites through spite at the Chippewas, saying that the latter contemplated killing and eating them ; but the next day they were returned to the Chippewas, as the result of some kind of agreement about the conduct of the war. He was rescued again by an old friendly Indian claiming him as a brother. The next morning he saw the dead bodies of seven whites dragged forth from the prison lodge he had just occupied. The fattest of these dead bodies was actually served up and feasted on directly before the eyes of Mr. Henry. Through the partiality of the Ottawas and the com- plications of military affairs among the Indians, Mr. Henry, after severe exposures and many more thrilling escapes, was finally landed within territory occupied by whites.

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For more than a year after the massacre, Michilimackinac was occupied only by wood rangers and Indians ; then, after the treaty, Capt. Howard was sent with troops to take possession.

CHAPTER IV.

NATIONAL POLICIES.

The Great French Scheme .- Soon after the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi by La Salle, in 1682, the government of France began to encourage the policy of establishing a line of trading posts and missionary stations extending through the West from Canada to Louisiana, and this policy was maintained, with partial success, for about seventy-five years.

The river St. Joseph, of Lake Michigan, was called "the river Miamis" in 1679, in which year La Salle built a small fort on its bank, near the lake shore. The principal station of the mission for the instruction of the Miamis was estab- lished on the borders of this river. The first French post within the territory of the Miamis was at the mouth of the river Miamis, on an eminence naturally forti- fied on two sides by the river, and on one side by a deep ditch made by a fall of water. It was of triangular form. The missionary, Hennepin, gives a good description of it, as he was one of the company who built it in 1679. Says he : " We felled the trees that were on the top of the hill, and having cleared the same from bushes for about two musket shot, we began to build a redoubt of eighty feet long and forty feet broad, with great square pieces of timber laid one upon another, and prepared a great number of stakes of about twenty-five feet long to drive into the ground, to make our fort more inaccessible on the river side. We employed the whole month of November about that work, which was very hard, though we had no other food but the bears' flesh our savage killed. These beasts are very common in that place, because of the great quantity of grapes they find there ; but their flesh being too fat and luscious, our men began to be weary of it, and desired leave to go a-hunting to kill some wild goats. M. La Salle denied them that liberty, which caused some murmurs among them, and it was but unwillingly that they continued their work. This, together with the approach of Winter and the apprehension that M. La Salle had that his vessel (the Griffin) was lost, made him very melancholy, though he con- cealed it as much as he could. We made a cabin wherein we performed divine service every Sunday, and Father Gabriel and I, who preached alternately, took care to take such texts as were suitable to our present circumstances and fit to

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inspire us with courage, concord and brotherly love. The fort was at last perfected and called Fort Miamis."

In 1765, the Miamis nation, or confederacy, was composed of four tribes, whose total number of warriors was estimated at only 1,050 men. Of these, about 250 were Twight-wess or Miamis proper, 300 Weas or Ouiate-nons, 300 Pianke- shaws and 200 Schockeys, and at this time the principal villages of the Twight- wess were situated about the head of the Maumee River, at and near the place where Fort Wayne now is. The larger Wea villages were near the banks of the Wabash River, in the vicinity of the Ouiatenon ; and the Shockeys and Piankeshaws dwelt on the banks of the Vermillion and on the borders of the Wabash, between Vin- cennes and Ouiatenon. Branches of the Pottawatomie, Shawnee, Delaware and Kickapoo tribes were permitted at different times to enter within the boundaries of the Miamis and reside for a while.

The wars in which France and England were engaged from 1688 to 1697, retarded the growth of the colonies of those nations in North America, and the efforts made by France to connect Canada and the Gulf of Mexico by a chain of trading-posts and colonies naturally excited the jealousy of England and gradually laid the foundation for a struggle at arms. After several stations were established elsewhere in the West, trading-posts were started at the Miami villages, which stood at the head of the Maumee, at the Wea villages about Ouiatenon, on the Wabash, and at the Piankeshaw villages about the present site of Vincennes. It is probable that before the close of the year 1719, temporary trading-posts were erected at the sites of Fort Wayne, Ouiatenon and Vincennes. The points were probably often visited by French fur traders prior to 1700. In the meanwhile, the English people in this country commenced also to establish military posts west of the Alleghanies, and thus matters went on until they naturally culminated in a general war, which, being waged by the French and Indians combined on one side, was called " the French and Indian war.". This war was terminated in 1763 by a treaty at Paris, by which France ceded to Great Britain all of North America east of the Mississippi except New Orleans and the island on which it is situated; and, indeed, France had the preceding Autumn, by a secret convention, ceded to Spain all the country west of that river.

In 1762, after Canada and its dependencies had been surrendered to the English, Pontiac and his partisans secretly organized a powerful confederacy in order to crush at one blow all English power in the West. This great scheme was skillfully projected and cautiously matured. The principal act in the programme was to gain admittance into the fort at Detroit, on pretense of a friendly visit, with shortened muskets concealed under their blankets, and, on a given signal, suddenly break forth upon the garrison ; but an inadvertent remark of an Indian woman led to a

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discovery of the plot, which was consequently averted. Pontiac and his warriors afterward made many attacks upon the English, some of which were successful, but the Indians were finally defeated in the general war.

BRITISH POLICY.

In 1765 the total number of French families within the limits of the North- western Territory did not probably exceed 600. These were in settlements about Detroit, along the river Wabash and the neighborhood of Fort Chartres on the Mis- sissippi. Of these families, about eighty or ninety resided at Post Vincennes, fourteen at Fort Ouiatenon, on the Wabash, and nine or ten at the confluence of the St. Mary and St. Joseph rivers, together with a few on St. Clair lake and river.

The colonial policy of the British Government opposed any measures which might strengthen settlements in the interior of this country, lest they become self- supporting and independent of the mother country ; hence the early and rapid settle- ment of the Northwestern Territory was still further retarded by short-sighted self- ishness of England. That fatal policy consisted mainly in holding the lands in the hands of the government and not allowing it to be subdivided and sold to settlers. But in spite of all her efforts in this direction, she constantly made just such efforts as provoked the American people to rebel, and to rebel successfully, which was within fifteen years after the perfect close of the French and Indian war.

AMERICAN POLICY.

Thomas Jefferson, the shrewd statesman and wise Governor of Virginia, saw from the first that actual occupation of Western lands was the only way to keep them out of the hands of foreigners and Indians. Therefore, directly after the con- quest of Vincennes by Clark he engaged a scientific corps to proceed under an escort to the Mississippi, and ascertain by celestial observations the point on that river intersected by latitude 36 deg. 31 min., the southern limit of the State, and to measure its distance to the Ohio. To Gen. Clark was entrusted the conduct of the military operations in that quarter. He was instructed to select a strong position near that point and establish there a fort and garrison ; thence to extend his conquest northward to the lakes, erecting forts at different points, which might serve as monuments of actual possession, besides affording protection to that por- tion of the country. Fort " Jefferson " was erected and garrisoned on the Missis- sippi a few miles above the southern limit.

The result of these operations was the addition to the chartered limits of Vir- ginia, of that immense region known as the " North western Territory." The sim- ple fact that such and such forts were established by the Americans in this vast region convinced the British Commissioners that we had entitled ourselves to the land. But where are those "monuments " of our power now ?

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ORDINANCE OF 1787.

This ordinance has a marvelous and interesting history. Considerable contro- versy has been indulged in as to who is entitled to the credit for framing it. This belongs undoubtedly, to Nathan Dane ; and to Rufus King and Timothy Pickering belong the credit for suggesting the proviso contained in it against slavery, and also for aids to religion and knowledge, and for assuring forever the common use, without charge, of the great national highways of the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence and their tributaries to all the citizens of the United States. To Thomas Jefferson is also due much credit, as some features of this ordinance were embraced in his ordin- ance of 1784. But the part taken by each in the long, laborious and eventful struggle which had so glorious a consummation in the ordinance, consecrating for- ever, by one imprescriptible and unchangeable monument, the very heart of our country to freedom, knowledge and union, will forever honor the names of those illustrious statesmen.

Jefferson had vainly tried to secure a system of government for the North- western Territory. He was an emancipationist and favored the exclusion of slavery from the Territory, but the South voted him down every time he proposed a meas- ure of this nature. In 1787, as late as July 10, an organizing act without the anti- slavery clause was pending. This concession to the South was expected to carry it. Congress was in session in New York. On July 5, Rev. Manasseh Cutler of Massachusetts, came into New York to lobby on the Northwestern Territory. Everything seemed to fall into his hands. Events were ripe. The state of the public credit, the growing of Southern prejudice, the basis of his mission, his per- sonal character, all combined to complete one of those sudden and marvelous revo- lutions of public sentiment that once in five or ten centuries are seen to sweep over a country like the breath of the Almighty.

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History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan, Part 4

Author: Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co. Number of Pages: 818

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co.
Number of Pages: 818