USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, together with historic notes on the northwest and the state of Ohio > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
The turkey, in his glossy feathers, strutted the forests, some of them being of prodigious size, weighing thirty-six pounds.
The shy deer and the lordly elk, crowned with outspreading horns, grazed upon the plain and in the open woods, while the solitary moose browsed upon the buds in the thick copsewood that gave him food and a hiding place as well. The fleet-footed antelope nibbled at the tender grasses on the prairies, or bounded away over the ridges to hide in the valleys beyond, from the approach of the stealthy wolf or wily Indian. The belts of timber along the water courses afforded lodgment for the bear, and were the trellises that supported the tangled wild grape- vines, the fruit of which, to this animal, was an article of food. The bear had for his neighbor the panther, the wild cat and the lynx, whose carnivorous appetites were appeased in the destruction of other animals.
Immense herds of buffalo roamed over the extensive area bounded on the east by the Alleghanies and on the north by the lakes, embracing the states of Ohio, Indi- ana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the southern half of Michigan. Their trails checkered the prairies of Indiana and Illinois in every direction, the marks of which, deep worn in the turf, remained for many years after the disappearance of the animals that made them. Their numbers when the country was first known to Europeans were immense, and beyond computation. In
95
Digitized by Google
96
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
their migrations southward in the fall, and on their return from the blue grass regions of Kentucky in the spring, the Ohio River was obstructed for miles during the time occupied by the vast herds in crossing it. Indeed, the French called the buffalo the "Illinois ox," on account of their numbers found in "the country of the Illinois," using that expression in its wider sense, as explained on a preceding page. So great importance was attached to the supposed commercial value of the buffalo for its wool that when Mons. Iberville, in 1698, was engaged to undertake the colonization of Louisiana, the king instructed him to look after the buffalo wool as one of the most im- portant of his duties; and Father Charlevoix, while traveling through "The Illinois," observed that he was surprised that the buffalo had been so long neglected. Among the favorite haunts of the buffalo were the marshes of the Upper Kankakee, the low lands about the lakes of northern Indiana, where the oozy soil furnished early as well as late pasturage, the briny earth upon the Au Glaize, and the Salt Licks upon the Wabash and Illinois rivers were tempting places of resort. From the summit of the high hill at Ouiatanon, overlooking the Wea plains to the east and the Grand Prairie to the west, as far as the eye could reach in either direction, the plains were seen covered with groups, grazing together, or, in long files, stretching away in the distance, their dark forms, contrasting with the green sward upon which they fed or strolled, and inspiring the enthusiasm of the Frenchman, who gave the description quoted on page 104. Still later, when passing through the prairies of Illinois, on his way from Vincennes to Ouiatanon-more a prisoner than an ambassador-George Croghan makes the following entry in his daily journal : "18th and 19th of June, 1765 .- We traveled through a prodigious large meadow, called the Pyankeshaws' hunting ground. Here is no wood to be seen, and the country appears like an ocean. . The ground is exceedingly rich and partially overgrown with wild hemp. The land is well watered and full of buffalo, deer, bears, and all kinds of wild game. 20th and 21st .- We passed through some very large meadows, part of which belonged to the Pyankeshaws on the Vermilion River. The country and soil were much the same as that we traveled over these three days past. Wild hemp grows here in abundance. The game is very plenty. At any time in a half hour we could kill as much as we wanted."
Gen. Clark, in the postscript of his letter dated November, 1779, narrating his campaign in the Illinois country, says, concerning the prairies between Kaskaskia and Vincennes, that "there are large meadows extending beyond the reach of the eye, variegated with
Digitized by Google
97
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GAME.
groves of trees appearing like islands in the sea, covered with buffalos and other game. In many places, with a good glass, you may see all that are upon their feet in a half million acres." It is not known at what time the buffalo was last seen east of the Mississippi. The Indians had a tradition that the cold winter of 17-, called by them "the great cold," on account of its severity, destroyed them. "The snow was so deep, and lay upon the ground for such a length of time, that the buffalo become poor and too weak to resist the inclemency of the weather ;" great numbers of them perished, singly and in groups, and their bones, either as isolated skeletons or in bleaching piles, remained and were found over the country for many years afterwards.
Before the coming of the Europeans the Indians hunted the game for the purpose of supplying themselves with the necessary food and clothing. The scattered tribes (whose numbers early writers greatly exaggerated) were few when compared with the area of the country they occupied, and the wild animals were so abundant that enough to supply their wants could be captured near at hand with such rude weapons as their ingenuity fashioned out of wood and stone. With the Europeans came a change. The fur of many of the animals possessed a commercial value in the marts of Europe, where they were bought and used as ornaments and dress by the aristocracy, whose wealth and taste fashioned them into garments of extraordinary richness. Canada was originally settled with a view to the fur trade, and this trade was, to her people, of the first importance-the chief motor of her growth and prosperity. The Indians were supplied with guns, knives and hatchets by the Europeans, in place of their former inferior weapons. Thus encouraged and equipped, and accom- panied by the coureurs des bois, the remotest regions were penetrated, and the fur trade extended to the most distant tribes. Stimulated with a desire for blankets, cotton goods and trinkets, the Indians now began a war upon the wild animals in earnest; and their wanton destruction for their skins and furs alone from that period forward was so enormous that within the next two or three generations the improvident Indians in many localities could scarcely find enough game for their own subsistence.
The coureurs des bois were a class that had much to do with the development of trade and with giving a knowledge of the geography of the country. They became extremely useful to the merchants engaged in the fur trade, and were often a source of great annoyance to the colonial authorities. Three or four of these people, having 7
Digitized by Google
.
98
HISTORIO NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
obtained goods upon credit, would join their stock, put their property into a birch canoe, which they worked themselves, and accompany the Indians in their excursions or go directly into the country where they knew they were to hunt. These voyages were extended twelve or fifteen months (sometimes longer) before the traders would return laden with rich cargoes of fur, and often followed by great numbers of the natives. During the short time required to settle their accounts with the merchants and procure credit for a new stock the traders would contrive to squander their gains before they returned to their favorite mode of life among the savages, their labor being rewarded by indulging themselves in one month's dissi- pation for fifteen of exposure and hardship. " We may not be able to explain the cause, but experience proves that it requires much less time for a civilized people to degenerate into the ways of savage life than is required for the savage to rise into a state of civilization. The indifference about amassing property, and the pleasure of living free from all restraint, soon introduced a licentiousness among the coureurs des bois that did not escape the eye of the missionaries, who complained, with good reason, that they were a disgrace to the Chris- tian religion.
" The food of the coureurs des bois when on their long expeditions was Indian corn, prepared for use by boiling it in strong lye to remove the hull, after which it was mashed and dried. In this state it is soft and friable like rice. The allowance for each man on the voy- age was one quart per day ; and a bushel, with two pounds of pre- pared fat, is reckoned a month's subsistence. No other allowance is made of any kind, not even of salt, and bread is never thought of ; nevertheless the men are healthy on this diet, and capable of per- forming great labor. This mode of victualing was essential to the trade, which was extended to great distances, and in canoes so small as not to admit of the use of any other food. If the men were sup- plied with bread and pork, the canoes would not carry six months' rations, while the ordinary duration of the voyage was not less than fourteen. No other men would be reconciled to such fare except the Canadians, and this fact enabled their employers to secure a monopoly of the fur trade."
"The old voyageurs derisively called new hands at the business mangeurs de lard (pork eaters), as, on leaving Montreal, and while en route to Mackinaw, their rations were pork, hard bread and pea soup, while the old voyageurs in the Indian country ate corn soup and such other food as could be conveniently procured."
Digitized by Google
99
THE COUREURS DES BOIS.
" The coureurs des bois were men of easy virtue. They would eat, riot, drink and play as long as their furs held out," says La Hontan, "and when these were gone they would sell their embroidery, their laces and their clothes. The proceeds of these exhausted, they were forced to go upon new voyages for subsistence."
They did not scruple to intermarry with the Indians, among whom they spent the greater part of their lives. They made excellent sold- iers, and in bush fighting and border warfare they were more than a match for the British regulars. "Their merits were hardihood and skill in woodcraft ; their chief faults were insubordination and law- lessness."
Such were the characteristics of the French traders or coureurs des bois. They penetrated the remotest parts, voyaged upon all of our western rivers, and traveled many of the insignificant streams that afforded hardly water enough to float a canoe. Their influence over the Indians (to whose mode of life they readily adapted themselves) was almost supreme. They were efficient in the service of their king, and materially assisted in staying the downfall of French rule in America.
There is no data from which to ascertain the value of the fur trade, as there were no regular accounts kept. The value of the trade to the French, in 1703, was estimated at two millions of livres, and this could have been from only a partial return, as a large per cent of the trade was carried on clandestinely through Albany and New York, of which the French authorities in Canada could have no knowledge. With the loss of Canada and the West to France, and owing to the dislike of the Indians toward the English, and the want of experience by the latter, the fur trade, controlled at Montreal, fell into decay, and the Hudson Bay Company secured the advantages of its downfall. Dur- ing the winter of 1783-4 some merchants of Canada united their trade under the name of the "Northwest Company"; they did not get successfully to work until 1787. During that year the venture did not exceed forty thousand pounds, but by exertion and the enterprise of the proprietors it was brought, in eleven years, to more than triple that amount (equal to six hundred thousand dollars), yielding propor- tionate profits, and surpassing anything then known in America.
The fur trade was conducted by the English, and subsequently by the Americans, substantially upon the system originally established by the French, with this distinction, that the monopoly was controlled by French officers and favorites, to whom the trade for particular districts was assigned, while the English and Americans controlled it through
Digitized by Google
100
HISTORIO NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
companies operating either under charters or permits from the gov- ernment.
Goods for Indian trade were guns, ammunition, steel for striking fire, gun-flints, and other supplies to repair fire-arms ; knives, hatchets, kettles, beads, men's shirts, blue and red cloths for blankets and petti- coats; vermillion, red, yellow, green and blue ribbons, generally of English manufacture; needles, thread and awls ; looking-glasses, chil- dren's toys, woolen blankets, razors for shaving the head, paints of all colors, tobacco, and, more than all, spirituous liquors. For these articles the Indians gave in exchange the skins of deer, bear, otter, squirrel, marten, lynx, fox, wolf, buffalo, moose, and particularly the beaver, the highest prized of them all. Such was the value attached to the skins and fur of the last that it became the standard of value. All other values were measured by the beaver, the same as we now use gold, in adjusting commercial transactions. All differences in ex- changes of property or in payment for labor were first reduced in value to the beaver skin. Money was rarely received or paid at any of the trading-posts, the only circulating medium were furs and peltries. In this exchange a pound of beaver skin was reckoned at thirty sous, at otter skin at six livres, and marten skins at thirty sous each. This was only about half of the real value of the furs, and it was therefore always agreed to pay either in furs at their equivalent cash value at the fort or double the amount reckoned at current fur value.
When the French controlled the fur trade, the posts in the interior of the country were assigned to officers who were in favor at head- quarters. As they had no money, the merchants of Quebec and Montreal supplied them on credit with the necessary goods, which were to be paid for in peltries at a price agreed upon, thus being required to earn profits for themselves and the merchant. These
officers were often employed to negotiate for the king with the tribes near their trading posts and give them goods as presents, the price for the latter being paid by the intendant upon the approval of the governor. This occasioned many hypothecated accounts, which were turned to the profit of the commandants, particularly in time of war. The commandants as well as private traders were obliged to take out a license from the governor at a cost of four or five hundred livres, in order to carry their goods to the posts, and to charge some effects to the king's account. The most distant posts in the northwest west were prized the greatest, because of the abundance and low price of peltries and the high price of goods at these remote estab- lishments.
Digitized by Google
101
. THE FUR TRADE.
Another kind of trade was carried on by the coureurs des bois, who, sharing the license with the officer at the post, with their canoes laden with goods, went to the villages of the Indians, and followed them on their hunting expeditions, to return after a season's trading with their canoes well loaded. If the coureurs des bois were in a condition to purchase their goods at first hands a quick fortune was assured them, although to obtain it they had to lead a most dangerous and fatiguing life. Some of these traders would return to France after a few years' venture with wealth amounting to two million five hundred thousand livres.
The French were not permitted to exclusively enjoy the enormous profits of the fur trade. We have seen, in treating of the Miami Indians, that at an early day the English and the American colonists were determined to share it, and had become sharp competitors. We. have seen (page 112) that to extend their trade the English had set their allies, the Iroquois, upon the Illinois. So formidable were the inroads made by the English upon the fur trade of the French, by means of the conquests to which they had incited the Iroquois to gain over other tribes that were friendly to the French, that the latter became " of the opinion that if the Iroquois were allowed to proceed they would not only subdue the Illinois, but become masters of all the Ottawa tribes, and divert the trade to the English, so that it was absolutely necessary that the French should either make the Iroquois their friends or destroy them. You perceive, my Lord, that the subject which we have discussed [referring to the efforts of the English of New York and Albany to gain the beaver trade] is to determine who will be master of the beaver trade of the south and southwest."
,
In the struggle to determine who should be masters of the fur trade, the French cared as little- perhaps less-for their Indian allies than the British and Americans did for theirs. The blood that was shed in the English and French colonies north of the Ohio River, for a period of over three-quarters of a century prior to 1763, might well be said to have been spilled in a war for the fur trade.
In the strife between the rivals-the French endeavoring to hold their former possessions, and the English to extend theirs-the strait of Detroit was an object of concern to both. Its strategical position was such that it would give the party possessing it a decided advan- tage. M. Du Lute, or L'Hut, under orders from Gov. De Nonville, left Mackinaw with some fifty odd coureurs de bois in 1688, sailed down Lake Huron and threw up a small stockade fort on the west
Digitized by Google
102
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
bank of the lake, where it discharges into the River St. Clair. The following year Capt. McGregory-Major Patrick Magregore, as his name is spelled in the commission he had in his pocket over the sig- nature of Governor Dongan-with sixty Englishmen and some Indians, with their merchandise loaded in thirty-two canoes, went up Lake Erie on a trading expedition among the Indians at Detroit and Mackinaw. They were encountered by a body of troops under Tonti, La Forest and other officers, who, with coureur de bois and Indians from the upper country, were on their way to join the French forces of Canada in a campaign against the Iroquois villages in New York. The prisoners were sent to Quebec, and the plunder distributed among the captors. Du Lute's stockade was called Fort St. Joseph. In 1688 the fort was placed in command of Baron La Hontan.
Fort St. Joseph served the purposes for which it was constructed, and a few years later, in 1701, Mons. Cadillac established Fort Pont- chartrain on the present site of the city of Detroit, for no other pur- pose than to check the English in the prosecution of the fur trade in that country.
The French interests were soon threatened from another direc- tion. Traders from Pennsylvania found their way westward over the mountains, where they engaged in traffic with the Indians in the valleys of eastern Ohio, and they soon established commercial relations with the Wabash tribes. It appears from a previous chapter that the Miamis were trading at Albany in 1708. To avert this danger the French were compelled at last to erect military posts at Fort Wayne, on the Maumee (called Fort Miamis), at Quiatanon and Vincennes, upon the Wabash. Prior to 1750 Sieur de Ligneris was commanding at Fort Quiatanon, and St. Ange was in charge at Vincennes.
As soon as the English settlements reached the eastern slope of the Alleghanies, their traders passed over the ridge, and they found it exceedingly profitable to trade with the western Indians. They could sell the same quality of goods for a third or a half of what the French usually charged, and still make a handsome profit. This new and rich field was soon overrun by eager adventurers. In the meantime a number of gentlemen, mostly from Virginia, procured an act of parliament constituting "The Ohio Company," and granting them six hundred thousand acres of land on or near the Ohio River. The objects of this company were to till the soil and to open up a trade with the Indians west of the Alleghanies and south of the Ohio.
Digitized by Google
103
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN TRADERS.
The French, being well aware that the English could offer their goods to the Indians at greatly reduced rates, feared that they would lose the entire Indian trade. At first they protested "against this invasion of the rights of His Most Christian Majesty " to the gov- ernor of the English colonies. This did not produce the desired effect. Their demands were met with equivocations and delays. At last the French determined on summary measures. An order was issued to the commandants of the various posts on Lake Erie, the Ohio and the Wabash, to seize all English traders found west of the Alleghanies. In pursuance of this order, in 1751, four English traders were captured on the Vermilion of the Wabash and sent to Canada. Other traders, dealing with the Indians in other localities, were cap- tured and taken to Presque Isle, and from thence to Canada.
The contest between the rival colonies still went on, increasing in the extent of its line of operations and intensifying in the animosity of the feeling with which it was conducted. We quote from a mem- oir prepared early in 1752, by M. de Longueuil, commandant at Detroit, showing the state of affairs at a previous date in the Wabash country. It appears, from the letters of the commandants at the sev- eral posts named, from which the memoir is compiled, that the Indian tribes upon the Maumee and Wabash, through the successful efforts of the English, had become very much disaffected toward their old friends and masters. M. de Ligneris, commandant at the Ouyatanons, says the memoir, believes that great reliance is not to be placed on the Maskoutins, and that their remaining neutral is all that is to be expected from them and the Kickapoos. He even adds that " we are not to reckon on the nations which appear in our interest ; no Wea chief has appeared at this post for a long time. M. de Villiers, com- mandant at the Miamis-Ft. Wayne-has been disappointed in his expectation of bringing the Miamis back from the White River-part of whom had been to see him-the small-pox having put the whole of them to rout. Coldfoot and his son have died of it, as well as a large portion of our most trusty Indians. Le Gris, chief of the Tepicons, and his mother, are likewise dead ; they are a loss because they were well disposed toward the French."
The memoir continues : "The nations of the River St. Joseph, who were to join those of Detroit, have said they would be ready to perform their promise as soon as Ononontio would have sent the necessary number of Frenchmen. The commandant of this post writes, on the 15th of January, that all the nations appear to take sides against us; that he would not be responsible for the good
Digitized by Google
104
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
dispositions these Indians seem to entertain, inasmuch as the Miamis are their near relatives. On the one hand, Mr. de Jon- caire repeats that the Indians of the beautiful river are all English, for whom alone they work; that all are resolved to sustain each other; and that not a party of Indians go to the beautiful river but leave some [of their numbers] there to increase the rebel forces. On the other hand, "Mr. de St. Ange, commandant of the post of Vincennes, writes to M. des Ligneris [at Quiatanon] to use all means to protect himself from the storm which is ready to burst on the French, that he is busy securing himself against the fury of our enemies."
"The Pianguichias, who are at war with the Chaouanons, ac- cording to the report rendered by Mr. St. Clin, have declared entirely against us. They killed on Christmas five Frenchmen at the Ver- milion. Mr. des Ligneris, who was aware of this attack, sent off a detachment to secure the effects of the Frenchmen from being plun- dered ; but when this detachment arrived at the Vermilion, the Piankashaws had decamped. The bodies of the Frenchmen were found on the ice.
"M. des Ligneris was assured that the Piankashaws had com- mitted this act because four men of their nation had been killed by the French at the Illinois, and four others had been taken and put in irons. It is said that these eight men were going to fight the Chick- asaws, and had, without distrusting anything, entered the quarters of the French, who killed them. It is also reported that the Frenchmen had recourse to this extreme measure because a Frenchman and two slaves had been killed a few days before by another party of Pianka- shaws, and that the Indians in question had no knowledge of that circumstance. The capture of four English traders by M. de Celeron's order last year has not prevented other Englishmen going to trade at the Vermilion River, where the Rev. Father la Richardie wintered."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.