USA > Michigan > Mackinac County > Two missionary priests at Mackinac: a lecture delivered at the village of Mackinac for the benefit of St. Anne's Mission in August, 1888 ; The parish register of the Mission of Michilimackinac : a paper read before the Chicago Literary Club in March, 1889 > Part 5
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quite in accordance with his character to have the desire to make this trip. If he did, he had for a companion the Reverend Eleazer Williams, so well known in connection with his claim to be the son of Louis XVI. and the Dauphin of France.
In 1823 Father Richard was elected as a delegate to Con- gress from the territory of Michigan, the only instance in which a Catholic ecclesiastic has been offered or accepted such a po- sition. While in Washington he became a great favorite amongst his colleagues and in the society of the capital. He made at least one important speech. It was concerning a pro- posed appropriation for a military road from Detroit to Fort Dearborn and the mouth of the Chicago River.
In 1832, in a visitation of the Asiatic cholera at Detroit, Father Richard, then almost seventy years old, devoted himself so constantly to the sick and dying, as to cause him finally, en- tirely worn out, to succumb to the dread disease. By his dying bed were the saintly Fenwick, his bishop, and his younger friend and disciple, Frederick Baraga, who after- wards became the bishop of Marquette, and was destined to revive in his own person the glories of the very greatest and earliest of the Indian missionaries.
Of the numerous laymen, soldiers, traders and voyageurs, whose names and signatures appear frequently in this register, and concerning whom history has more or less to say, per- haps the most striking and interesting figure is Charles Michel de Langlade. The record of his baptism appears in the abridgment of the old register preserved at the beginning of this, by which it appears that Charles Michel de Langlade, son of Monsieur de Langlade, was baptized upon the 9th of May, 1729.
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Father Lefranc, in 1754, certifies "that upon the 12th day of August, 1754, he, a missionary priest of the company of Jesis, received the mutual consent to marriage of Le Sieur De Langlade and Charlotte Ambroisine Bourassa, both inhabitants of this post, in the presence of the under- signed witnesses." To this certificate are subscribed the names of the principal inhabitants of Mackinac at the time, including that of " Herbin," commanding at the post. Mad- emoiselle Bourassa was the daughter of an Indian trader of substance and standing, recently removed to Mackinac from Montreal. The register shows that he must have had a large family, and both Indian and negro slaves.
Following the marriage, occur at intervals, careful certifi- cates of baptism of various children of Monsieur and of Mad- ame de Langlade, and in the capacity of godfather and witness, Charles de Langlade has left his signature scores of times in this register.
I do not know whether any of you are familiar with his life but it is one of the most romantic and stirring of any of our pioneers in the West, and he is known among the inhabitants of a neighboring state as " the founder of Wisconsin." His father was Augustin Langlade, who was, at a very early pe- riod in the eighteenth century, a fur trader at Mackinac. Augustin Langlade married a sister of the principal chief of the Ottawas, and Charles de Langlade was therefore a true half-breed.
His early education in letters was undoubtedly one of the cares of Father Du Jaunay, but his early education in arms was, at the solicitation of his savage uncle, intrusted to him. In 1734, being then but five years old, he was allowed by his
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father, under the entreaties of the Indians who had taken a fancy to him, to accompany a war expedition of his uncle against a tribe allied to the English, his father adjuring him upon sending him away, to show no fear. When he was six- teen years of age, his father and he established a trading post at Green Bay, Bay des Puants, as it was called in those days. And from that time the son resided alternately at Green Bay and at Mackinac, when he was not absent upon his numerous military expeditions.
Against the Sacs and Foxes, at the head of a band of Otta- was, Langlade made frequent expeditions after the establish- ment at Green Bay was made, to protect the new settlement or to revenge and punish depredations.
In 1755 there broke out the Seven Years War. The French government wisely undertook to secure, in order to aid the regular troops and the Canadian militia, a contingent of the savages and coureurs de bois, who were to be found about the different trading stations. The command was entrusted to Charles de Langlade. United to the savages by the ties of blood, by the similarity of habits, familiar with their language and with their modes of warfare, of proven courage and abil- ity, Langlade was exactly the man for the situation. He or- ganized a troop of at least 1,500 Indians and half-breeds, who rallied willingly under the French flag against the hated Eng- lish. Among his followers is believed to have been the chief- tain afterwards so famous, Pontiac, but this is by no means certain. This most effective body, Langlade led to Fort Du Quesne, and upon the 9th of July, 1755, about half of his force, with him at its head, together with 250 Frenchmen under Beaujeau, who commanded at Fort Du Quesne, marched out
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from the post and surprised upon the Mononghela river, the army of Braddock, numbering at least 2,000 men. The terrible rout of the English army upon that day is too well known to need re-telling. George Washington, who was present, in command of the Virginia militia, could only say of it, " we are beaten, shamefully beaten, by a handful of savages and French- men."
The share of De Langlade in this victory, the honor of which really entirely belongs to him, has not been sufficiently recognized by historical writers, who make Beaujeau its hero, but the contemporary accounts leave no doubt in my mind of his rightful claim to the distinction. General Burgoyne, in a letter to Lord George Germaine, in 1777, speaking of Indian allies whom he expected, says: "I am informed that the Ot- tawas and other Indian tribes, who are two days' march from us, are brave and faithful, and that they practice war, and not pillage. They are under the orders of Monsieur de Langlade, the very man who, with his troops, projected and executed Braddock's defeat."
In 1756 Langlade was put in charge of a detachment of French and Indians, and made numerous expeditions from Fort Du Quesne. In 1757 he came back from the west at the head of several hundred natives and joined Montcalm, and after that summer's campaign he received from the Governor of Canada (Vaudreuil) orders to report at the post in Mackinac as second in command to Monsieur Beaujeau, who was a brother of his old comrade at Fort Du Quesne.
In 1759 Langlade left Michilimackinac for Quebec at the head of a body of Indians, and joined the army of the Marquis de Montcalm. It is evident that there were times before the
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fatal day above the Plains of Abraham on the 13th of Septem- ber, 1759, when, had his advice been followed, the army of Wolfe might have been entirely destroyed, but he was not allowed the use of that discretion which had proved so valuable upon the Monongahela. He was at the battle on the 13th of September and had two brothers shot by his side. Six days afterwards Quebec surrendered. Langlade thought the capitulation cowardly, and retired in disgust to Mackinac, where he found awaiting him a lieutenant's commision in the French army signed by Louis XV. Again Langlade joined the army and was present at the last victory of the French and Canadians on the 28th of April, 1760, upon the same field where Montcalm had been previously defeated. But the end was approaching, and the hopelessness of the cause being recognized, Langlade was sent with his Indian troops back to the west, where shortly after he received the following letter from Vaudreuil:
" MONTREAL, Ninth of September, 1760.
" I inform you, sir, that I have to-day been obliged to capit- ulate to the army of General Amherst. This city is, as you know, without defenses. Our troops were considerably di- minished, our means and resources exhausted. We were sur- rounded by three armies, amounting in all to twenty thousand men. General Amherst was, on the sixth of this month, in sight of the walls of this city, General Murray within reach of one of our suburbs and the army of Lake Champlain was at La Prairie Longueil.
" Under these circumstances, with nothing to hope from our efforts, nor even from the sacrifice of our troops, I have ad- visedly decided to capitulate to General Amherst upon condi-
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tions very advantageous for the colonists, and particularly for the inhabitants of Michilimackinac. Indeed, they retain the free exercise of their religion; they are maintained in the pos- session of their goods, real and personal, and of their peltries. They have also free trade just the same as the proper sub- jects of the king of Great Britain.
" The same conditions are accorded to the military. They can appoint persons to act for them in their absence. They, and all citizens in general, can sell to the English or French their goods, sending the proceeds thereof to France, or taking them with them if they choose to return to that country. after the peace. They retain their negroes and Pawnee Indian slaves, but will be obliged to restore those which have been taken from the English. The English General has declared - that the Canadians have become the subjects of His Brittannic Majesty, and consequently the people will not continue to be governed as heretofore by the French code.
" In regard to the troops, the condition has been imposed upon them not to serve during the present war and to lay down their arms before being sent back to France. You will therefore, sir, assemble all the officers and soldiers who are at your post. You will cause them to lay down their arms, and you will proceed with them to such seaport as you think best, to pass from thence to France. The citizens and inhabitants of Michilimackinac will consequently be under the command of the officer whom General Amherst shall appoint to that post.
" You will forward a copy of my letter to St. Joseph and to the neighboring posts, in order that if any soldiers remain there they and the inhabitants may conform thereto.
" I count upon the pleasure of seeing you in France with all your officers.
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" I have the honor to be very sincerely, Monsieur, your very humble and very obedient servant,
" VAUDREUIL."
In 1761 the English arrived at Fort Mackinac. The English officer, Etherington, invited Langlade to reside as before at the fort, and conferred with him upon all questions of local admin- istration, a precaution which proved thereafter of great ser- vice. In 1763, in the conspiracy of Pontiac, Fort Mackinac was surprised by the Indians and the English massacred. But before that event Langlade had occasion to warn Etherington in vain. He was present in the fort at the time of the massacre but could do nothing to arrest it. Immediately afterwards, however, learning that Etherington and his second in command were prisoners and about to be burned at some distance from the fort, he organized a little band of Ottawas, loyal to him- self, and rescued the prisoners, defying the drunken victors to oppose him.
Etherington while a prisoner delegated his authority at the fort to Langlade.
When the Revolutionary war broke out Charles Langlade, then almost fifty years of age, was induced by the English, his old enemies, to attempt to secure, in the interest of the English, all the Western Indians and to raise an auxiliary force of In- dians for use in the war. He joined Burgoyne's army in July, 1777. Burgoyne afterwards complained of the conduct-not of Langlade, but of the savages he led-but Langlade and his comrade St. Luc declared that the fault lay not with the sav- ages but with Burgoyne and his want of tact and justice.
In 1778, Langlade raised an expedition to reinforce Lieuten- ant Governor Hamilton, who was marching upon Colonel George
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Rogers Clark, after the latter had taken possession of the region of the Illinois. Langlade secured the assistance even of the Indians whom the English commandant at Fort Mackinac, De Peyster, called that " horrid refractory set of Indians at Mil- waukee." But the expedition was disbanded upon its arrival at St. Joseph, on the reception of news that Hamilton had sur- rendered to Clark.
For his services in the Revolutionary War, Langlade was given a pension by the English Government. He remained superintendent of the Indians until his death, holding thus an office which, as I understand it, came from the United States Government, as well as a pension from England.
He died in Green Bay in 1800, at the age of seventy-one years. He could enumerate ninety-nine battles and skirmishes in which during his life he had taken part, and expressed in his later years regret that he could not have rounded the even century.
In the course of this paper I have quoted in full the marriage certificate of Charles Gautier de Vierville. He was the nephew of Langlade, and almost equally as distinguished. I shall not have time to sketch his life for you, but it is sufficient to say that he fought with his uncle upon the Plains of Abraham, that he was constantly employed during the Revolutionary War in keeping the Northwestern Indians in line with the English interest, that for his services in war and Indian diplomacy he was given a commission as captain by the English govern- ment, and that after the Revolutionary War and before the ces- sion of Mackinac to the Americans he was the interpreter for the Indians at the post. In 1798 he went amongst the earliest settlers to Prairie du Chien, and there his descendants married
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and lived, and to day are its leading citizens in influence and position.
Langlade's second daughter married Pierre Grignon, and he, too, figures in this register in many different characters. He was an Indian trader, who also became one of the very early settlers at Green Bay, where one of his sons was living a re- spected citizen in 1860 or thereabouts. There are many inter- esting things that could be said of him, but want of time for- bids. One thing. however, related by his son, Augustine de Grignon, a few years before his death, finds confirmation in this register. In 1787 you may remember, Father Payet, as I have said, made a visit to Mackinac. Pierre Grignon was then at Mackinac, and he deemed it, as a good Catholic, a satis- factory opportunity to have his children baptized by a priest, and his own marriage with M'lle De Langlade confirmed and ratified by the same authority. He therefore sent a messen- ger to Green Bay and Madame Grignon and six small child- ren, varying in ages from six months to ten years, were con- veyed to Mackinac in a birch bark canoe, a distance of almost two hundred and fifty miles. When they arrived there they were duly baptized " under condition " (for in all probability the ceremony had been properly enough performed by lay hands), and, as the register sets forth, Father Payet conferred upon the father and mother the sacrament of marriage after (I quote ) " having received the mutual consent that they had al- ready given in the presence of witnesses while awaiting an op- portunity to ratify their alliance before an approved priest and several witnesses, according to the custom and as it is ordered by our Mother, the Holy Church."
Pierre Grignon was evidently a thorough-going man, for a
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few days after this marriage and baptismal ceremony he hunted up and brought to the priest a natural son of his by a savage mother, and had him also baptized. The boy was then thir- teen years of age.
Upon the twenty-third day of May, 1763, two children were baptized by Father Du Jaunay, and he certifies in the entry that one was the son of a woman named Chopin, formerly a slave of Monsieur Le Chevalier, but since sold to an English merchant ("commercant") named " Henneri," " which woman, although not yet baptized, has protested, in presenting her child for holy baptism, that she had never had any other faith than that of the Holy Church, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman, and that her new master had promised not to constrain her on the subject of religion." Ten days after this baptism, occurred the frightful massacre at Fort Mackinac, and this English mer- chant, called " Henneri," had a hard time of it. He has left a little book from which Parkman, in his conspiracy of Pontiac, has drawn his entire account of the massacre. It is entitled " Alexander Henry's Travels." He was the only English trader who escaped, and he, only after almost incredible suffer- ings and dangers, and through the assistance of a friendly Indian. He was concealed at first in the house of Langlade. It would seem from Henry's account that although Langlade protected him, he was none too well disposed toward him, but Langlade's conduct was praised by Etherington and Leslie, and the prejudice which Henry shows, I think must have sprung from seeing Langlade so cool and unconcerned regard- ing his own safety while he (Henry) was in such desperate peril. In his book he gives an account of one moment dur- ing the massacre which vividly impresses my imagination.
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The Indians in the fort were furiously cutting down and scalping, while yet living, every Englishman they could find. Langlade was standing at his window calmly gazing at the scene. Henry managed, by climbing a fence, to secure an entrance to Langlade's house, and in despair rushed to him begging for protection. Langlade turned to him for a mo- ment, and then again directing his gaze from the window, calmly answered " And what do you think I can do?" To Henry this seemed a piece of cruel heartlessness, but after all Henry was concealed in Langlade's house and afterwards saved, and I think it more probable that Langlade's question arose not so much from a want of sympathy and compassion as from that invincible coolness which had braved death too many times to consider it for any one the worst thing that could be- fall him.
There are many mentions and signatures in this record of Jean Baptiste Beaubien, afterwards one of the settlers at Mil- waukee and Chicago, and of Alexis La Framboise, who, I think, was afterwards buried under the church at Mackinac Island. La Framboise was, long before Juneau, a settler at the present site of Milwaukee. I would like to speak of him further, but have not time.
I will close this paper, already too long, with two or three stories about another old pioneer in this western country, whose name appears in the latter part of these registers.
Under the direction of Father Richard, in 1821, an election was held, according to the Canadian custom, of marguilliers, (a sort of wardens), for the parish church at Mackinac. Among those first elected, it was certified, was Joseph Rollet, whose name also appears in the register as a witness to several
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acts of marriage and of baptism. He declined to act. I suspect that he did not care to incur the possible necessity of pecuniary contribution which the office would impose upon him. Joseph Rollet was one of the earliest, if not the very earliest, pioneer at Prairie du Chien. He was a very noted Indian trader in this north-western country. His operations extended from St. Louis and Prairie du Chien to the Red River settlements. He brought his goods directly from Montreal through the lakes to Green Bay (of course stopping at Mackinac), and thence through the Fox river and down the Wisconsin in a fleet of Mackinac boats, rowed by French Canadians. He became finally such a great power in the country that he was called " King Rollet," while the Indians named him " The Pheasant," on account of his fast traveling. He may, indeed, have de- ยท clined the position of marguillier because he was only intermit- tently at Mackinac, althoughin 1821, at the time he was elected, he had changed his headquarters, which had formerly been at Prairie du Chien, to Mackinac, by accepting an offer from John Jacob Astor to join him in the American Fur Company, and take charge of the trade of that powerful monopoly in the Northwest. He afterwards again, however, changed his resi- dence to Prairie du Chien, where, in 1827, Governor Cass ap- pointed him chief justice of the county. He is said to have introduced the first swine and the first sheep into Wisconsin, and was always a pushing, energetic and enterprising man. In 1814, being thoroughly in sympathy with the English in the existing war against the Americans, he raised a company of militia, and in connection with one or two other officers, se- cured the surrender of the garrison at the American fort at Prairie du Chien and took them to Mackinac.
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His reputation however suffered from his alleged over- keenness in trading with the Indians. Among other stories it is related, that he persuaded some simple minded Indians (who held to the belief for a long time), that the weight of his foot placed in the scale-on the other side of which were piled furs-was exactly one pound. Among other Indians he se- cured the name of "five more" because they said, let them throw off what number of skins they might, in bartering for an article, his terms were always "five more."
Mrs. Kinzie in her book called " Waubun," tells a capital story of him. A lady remarked to him one day, she says: "I would not be engaged in the Indian trade. It seems to me a system of cheating the poor Indians." "Let me tell you, Madam," replied he, with great earnestness, " it is not so easy a thing to cheat the Indians as you imagine. I have been try- ing it these twenty years, and I have never succeeded."
One more story of him which accounts for my suggestion of his reason for declining the appointment of marguillier, and I have done.
One day he was crossing the river, it is said, at Prairie du Chien, and the ice ran very heavily and very swiftly. He be- came so alarmed for his safety that he solemnly vowed, that if spared, he would devote a thousand dollars to the construction of a Catholic church at Prairie du Chien. After hard work, he and his companion (La Framboise) succeeded in getting through the ice and making a landing. One foot was yet in the boat when Rollet exclaimed, " Collect it if you can. You haven't got my note."
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