History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 6

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr.
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 826

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La Salle, now left to himself and just recovering from a violent fever, went on his journey. From the paper from which these statements are taken, it appears he went on to Onondaga, where he pro- cured guides to a tributary of the Ohio, down which he proceeded to the principal stream, on whose bosom he continued his way till he came to the falls at the present city of Louisville, Ky. It has been asserted that he went on down to its mouth, but that is not well authenticated and is hardly true. The statement that he went as far as the falls is, doubtless, correct. He states, in a letter to Count Frontenac in 1677, that he discovered the Ohio, and that he descended it to the falls. Moreover, Joliet, in a measure his rival, for he was now preparing to go to the northern lakes and from them search the river, made two maps repre- senting the lakes and the Mississippi, on both of which he states that La Salle had discovered the Ohio. Of its course beyond the falls, La Salle does not seem to have learned anything definite, hence his discovery did not in any way settle the great question, and elicited but little comment. Still, it stimulated La Salle to more effort, and while musing on his plans, Joliet and Marquette push on from Green Bay, and discover the river and ascertain the general course of its outlet. On Joliet's return in 1673, he seems to drop from further notice. Other and more venturesome souls were ready to finish the work begun by himself and the zealous Marquette, who, left among the far-away nations, laid down his life. The spirit of

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HISTORY OF OHIO.

La Salle was equal to the enterprise, and as he now had returned from one voyage. of discovery, he stood ready to solve the mystery, and gain the country for his King. Before .this could be ac- complished, however, he saw other things must be done, and made preparations on a scale, for the time, truly marvelous.

Count Frontenac, the new Governor, had no sooner established himself in power than he gave a searching glance over the new realm to see if any undeveloped resources lay yet unnoticed, and what country yet remained open. He learned from the exploits of La Salle on the Ohio, and from Joliet, now returned from the West; of that immense country, and resolving in his mind on some plan whereby it could be formally taken, entered heartily into the plans of La Salle, who, anxious to solve the mystery concerning the outlet of the Great River, gave him the outline of a plan, saga- cious in its conception and grand in its compre- hension. La Salle had also informed him of the endeavors of the English on the Atlantic coast to divert the trade with the Indians, and partly to counteract this, were the plans of La Salle adopted. They were, briefly, to build a chain of forts from Canada, or New France, along the lakes to the Mississippi, and on down that river, thereby hold- ing the country by power as well as by discovery. A fort was to be built on the Ohio as soon as the means could be obtained, and thereby hold that country by the same policy. Thus to La Salle alone may be ascribed the bold plan of gaining the whole West, a plan only thwarted by the force of arms. Through the aid of Frontenac, he was given a proprietary and the rank of nobility, and on his proprietary was erected a fort, which he, in honor of his Governor, called Fort Frontenac. It stood on the site of the present city of Kingston, Canada. Through it he obtained the trade of the Five Nations, and his fortune was so far assured. He next repaired to France, to perfect his arrange- ments, secure his title and obtain means.

On his return he built the fort alluded to, and prepared to go on in the prosecution of his plan. A civil discord arose, however, which for three years prevailed, and seriously threatened his projects. As soon as he could extricate himself, he again repaired to France, receiving additional encouragement in money, grants, and the exclusive privilege of a trade in buffalo skins, then consid- ered a source of great wealth. On his return, he was accompanied by Henry Tonti, son of an illus- trious Italian nobleman, who had fled from his

own country during one of its political revenons. Coming to France, he made himself famous as the founder of Tontine Life Insurance. Henry Tonti possessed an indomitable will, and though he had suffered the loss of one of his hands by the ex- plosion of a grenade in one of the Sicilian wars, his courage was undaunted, and his ardor un- dimmed. La Salle also brought recruits, mechanics, sailors, cordage and sails for rigging a ship, and merchandise for traffic with the natives. At Montreal, he secured the services of M. La Motte, a person of much energy and integrity of character. He also secured several missionaries before he reached Fort Frontenac. Among them were Louis Hennepin, Gabriel Ribourde and Zenabe Membre. All these were Flemings, all Recollets. Hennepin, of all of them, proved the . best assist- ant. They arrived at the fort early in the autumn of 1678, and preparations were at once made to erect a vessel in which to navigate the lakes, and a fort at the mouth of the Niagara River. The Senecas were rather adverse to the latter proposals when La Motte and Hennepin came, but by the eloquence of the latter, they were pacified and rendered friendly. After a number of vexa- tious delays, the vessel, the Griffin, the first on the lakes, was built, and on the 7th of August, a year after La Salle came here, it was launched, passed over the waters of the northern lakes, and, after a tempestuous voyage, landed at Green Bay. It was soon after stored with furs and sent back, while La Salle and his men awaited its return. It was never afterward heard of. La Salle, becoming impatient, erected a fort, pushed on with a part of his men, leaving part at the fort, and passed over the St. Joseph and Kankakee Rivers, and thence to the Illinois, down whose flood they proceeded to Peoria Lake, where he was obliged to halt, and return to Canada for more men and supplies. He left Tonti and several men to complete a fort, called Fort "Crevecoeur "-broken-hearted. The Indians drove the French away, the men mutinied, and Tonti was obliged to flee. When La Salle returned, he found no one there, and going down as far as the mouth of the Illinois, he retraced his steps, to find some trace of his garrison. Tonti was found safe among the Pottawatomies at Green Bay, and Hennepin and his two followers, sent to explore the head-waters of the Mississippi, were again home, after a captivity among the Sioux.

La Salle renewed his force of men, and the third time set out for the outlet of the Great River.

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He left Canada early in December, 1681, and by February 6, 1682, reached the majestic flood of the mighty stream. On the 24th, they ascended the Chickasaw Bluffs, and, while waiting to find a sailor who had strayed away, erected Fort Prud- homme. They passed several Indian villages fur- ther down the river, in some of which they met with no little opposition. Proceeding onward, ere- long they encountered the tide of the sea, and April 6, they emerged on the broad bosom of the Gulf, "tossing its restless billows, limitless, voice- less and lonely as when born of chaos, without a sign of life."

Coasting about a short time on the shores of the Gulf, the party returned until a sufficiently dry place was reached to effect a landing. Here another cross was raised, also a column, on which was inscribed these words:

" LOUIS LE GRAND, ROI DE FRANCE ET DE NAVARRE, REGNE; LE NEUVIEME, AVRIL, 1682." *

" The whole party," says a "proces verbal," in the archives of France, " chanted the Te Deum, the Exaudiat and the Domine salvum fac Regem, and then after a salute of fire-arms and cries of Vive le Roi, La Salle, standing near the column, said in a loud voice in French :

"In the name of the most high, mighty, invin- cible and victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by the grace of God, King of France and of Navarre, Fourteenth of that name, this ninth day of April, one thousand six hundred and eighty two, I, in virtue of the commission of His Majesty, which I hold in my hand, and which may be seen by all whom it may concern, have taken, and do now take, in the name of His Majesty and of his suc- cessors to the crown, possession of this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbor, ports, bays, adjacent straights, and all the nations, people, provinces, cities, towns, villages, mines, minerals, fisheries, streams and rivers, comprised in the extent of said Louisiana, from the north of the great river St. Louis, other- wise called the Ohio, Alighin, Sipore or Chukago- na, and this with the consent of the Chavunons, Chickachaws, and other people dwelling therein, with whom we have made alliance; as also along the river Colbert or Mississippi, and rivers which discharge themselves therein from its source beyond the Kious or Nadouessious, and this with their consent, and with the consent of the Illinois, Mes- igameas, Natchez, Koroas, which are the most con- siderable nations dwelling therein, with whom also

* Louis the Great, King of France and of Navarre, reigning the ninth day of April, 1682.

we have made alliance, either by ourselves or others in our behalf, as far as its mouth at the sea or Gulf of Mexico, about the twenty-seventh degree of its elevation of the North Pole, and also to the mouth of the River of Palms; upon the assurance which we have received from all these nations that we are the first Europeans who have descended or ascended the river Colbert, hereby protesting against all those who may in future undertake to invade any or all of these countries, peoples or lands, to the prejudice of the right of His Majesty, acquired by the consent of the nations herein named."

The whole assembly responded with shouts and the salutes of fire-arms. The Sieur de La Salle caused to be planted at the foot of the column a plate of lead, on one side of which was inscribed the arms of France and the following Latin inscrip- tion:

Robertvs Cavellier, cvm Domino de Tonly, Legato, R. P. Zenobi Membro, Recollecto, et, Viginti Gallis Primos Hoc Flvmen inde ab ilineorvm Pago, enavigavit, ejvsqve ostivm fecit Pervivvm, nono Aprilis cio ioc LXXXII.

The whole proceedings were acknowledged be- fore La Metaire, a notary, and the conquest was considered complete.

Thus was the foundation of France laid in the new republic, and thus did she lay claim to the Northwest, which now includes Ohio, and the county, whose history this book perpetuates.

La Salle and his party returned to Canada soon after, and again that country, and France itself, rang with anthems of exultation. He went on to France, where he received the highest honors. He was given a fleet, and sailors as well as colon- ists to return to the New World by way of a south- ern voyage, expecting to find the mouth of the Mississippi by an ocean course. Sailing past the outlets, he was wrecked on the coast of Texas, and in his vain endeavors to find the river or return to Canada, he became lost on the plains of Arkansas, where he, in 1687, was basely murdered by one of his followers. "You are down now, Grand Bashaw," exclaimed his slayer, and despoiling his remains, they left them to be devoured by wild beasts. To such an ignominious end came this daring, bold adven- turer. Alone in the wilderness, he was left, with no monument but the vast realm he had discov- ered, on whose bosom he was left without cover- ing and without protection.

"For force of will and vast conception; for va- rious knowledge, and quick adaptation of his genius

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to untried circumstances; for a sublime magnani- mity, that resigned itself to the will of Heaven, and yet triumphed over affliction by energy of purpose and unfaltering hope-he had no superior among his countrymen. He had won the affec- tions of the governor of Canada, the esteem of Colbert, the confidence of Seignelay, the favor of Louis XIV. After the beginning of the coloniza- tion of Upper Canada, he perfected the discovery of the Mississippi from the Falls of St. Anthony to its mouth; and he will be remembered through all time as the father of colonization in the great central valley of the West."*

Avarice, passion and jealousy were not calmed by the blood of La Salle. All of his conspirators per- ished by ignoble deaths, while only seven of the six- teen succeeded in continuing the journey until they reached Canada, and thence found their way to France.

Tonti, who had been left at Fort St. Louis, on "Starved Rock" on the Illinois, went down in search of his beloved commander. Failing to find him, he returned and remained here until 1700, thousands of miles away from friends. Then he went down the Mississippi to join D'Iberville, who had made the discovery of the mouth of the Mis- sissippi by an ocean voyage. Two years later, he went on a mission to the Chickasaws, but of his subsequent history nothing is known.

The West was now in possession of the French. La Salle's plans were yet feasible. The period of exploration was now over. The great river and its outlet was known, and it only remained for that nation to enter in and occupy' what to many a Frenchman was the "Promised Land." Only eighteen years had elapsed since Marquette and Joliet had descended the river and shown the course of its outlet. A spirit, less bold than La Salle's would never in so short a time have pene- trated for more than a thousand miles an unknown wilderness, and solved the mystery of the world.

When Joutel and his companions reached France in 1688, all Europe was on the eve of war. Other nations than the French wanted part of the New World, and when they saw that nation greedily and rapidly accumulating territory there, they en- deavored to stay its progress. The league of Augs- burg was formed in 1687 by the princes of the Em- pire to restrain the ambition of Louis XIV, and in 1688, he began hostilities by the capture of Philipsburg. The next year, England, under the

lead of William III, joined the alliance, and Louis found himself compelled, with only the aid of the Turks, to contend against the united forces of the Empires of England, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Yet the tide of battle wa- vered. In 1689, the French were defeated at Walcourt, and the Turks at Widin; but in 1690, the French were victorious at Charleroy, and the Turks at Belgrade. The next year, and also the next, victory inclined to the French, but in 1693, Louvois and Luxemberg were dead and Namur surrendered to the allies. The war extended to the New World, where it was maintained with more than equal success by the French, though the En- glish population exceeded it more than twenty to one. In 1688, the French were estimated at about twelve thousand souls in North America, while the English were more than two hundred thousand. At first the war was prosecuted vigorously. In 1689, De. Ste. Helene and D'Iberville, two of the sons of Charles le Morne, crossed the wilderness and reduced the English forts on Hudson's Bay. But in August of the same year, the Iroquois, the hereditary foes of the French, captured and burned Montreal. Frontenac, who had gone on an ex- pedition against New York by sea, was recalled. Fort Frontenac was abandoned, and no French posts left in the West between Trois Rivieres and Mackinaw, and were it not for the Jesuits the en- tire West would now have been abandoned. To recover their influence, the French planned three expeditions. One resulted in the destruction of Schenectady, another, Salmon Falls, and the third, Casco Bay. On the other hand, Nova Scotia was reduced by the colonies, and an expedition against Montreal went as far as to Lake Champlain, where it failed, owing to the dissensions of the leaders. Another expedition, consisting of twenty-four ves- sels, arrived before Quebec, which also failed through the incompetency of Sir William Phipps. During the succeeding years, various border con- flicts occurred, in all of which border scenes of savage cruelty and savage ferocity were enacted. The peace of Ryswick, in 1697, closed the war. France retained Hudson's Bay, and all the places of which she was in possession in 1688; but the boundaries of the English and French claims in the New World were still unsettled.

The conclusion of the conflict left the French at liberty to pursue their scheme of colonization in the Mississippi Valley. In 1698, D'Iberville was sent to the lower province, which, erelong, was made a separateindependency, called Louisiana.

* Bancroft.

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Forts were erected on Mobile Bay, and the division of the territory between the French and the Spaniards was settled. Trouble existed between the French and the Chickasaws, ending in the cruel deaths of many of the leaders, in the fruitless endeavors of the Canadian and Louisi- anian forces combining against the Chickasaws. For many years the conflict raged, with unequal successes, until the Indian power gave way before superior military tactics. In the end, New Orleans was founded, in 1718, and the French power secured.

Before this was consummated, however, France became entangled in another war against the allied powers, ending in her defeat and the loss of Nova Scotia, Hudson's Bay and Newfound- land. The peace of Utrecht closed the war in 1713.

The French, weary with prolonged strife, adopted the plan, more peaceful in its nature, of giving out to distinguished men the monopoly of certain districts in the fur trade, the most pros- perous of any avocation then. Crozat and Cadillac-the latter the founder of Detroit, in 1701-were the chief ones concerned in this. The founding of the villages of Kaskaskia, Ca- hokia, Vincennes, and others in the Mississippi and Wabash Valleys, led to the rapid develop- ment, according to the French custom of all these parts of the West, while along all the chief water-courses, other trading posts and forts were established, rapidly fulfilling the hopes of La Salle, broached so many years before.

The French had, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, four principal routes to their western towns, two of which passed over the soil of Ohio. The first of these was the one followed by Marquette and Joliet, by way of the Lakes to Green Bay, in Wisconsin; thence across a portage to the Wisconsin River, down which they floated to the Mississippi. On their return they came up the Illinois River, to the site of Chicago, whence Joliet returned to Quebec by the Lakes. La Salle's route was first by the Lakes to the St. Joseph's River, which he followed to the portage to the Kankakee, and thence downward to the Mississippi. On his second and third attempt, he crossed the lower peninsula of Michigan to the Kankakee, and again traversed its waters to the Illinois. The third route was established about 1716. It followed the southern shores of Lake Erie to the mouth of the. Maumee River; following this stream, the voyagers went on to the

junction between it and the St. Mary's, which they followed to the " Oubache "-Wabash-and then to the French villages in Vigo and Knox Counties, in Indiana. Vincennes was the oldest and most important one here. It had been founded in 1702 by a French trader, and was, at the date of the establishment of the third route, in a prosperous condition. For many years, the traders crossed the plains of Southern Illinois to the French towns on the bottoms opposite St. Louis. They were afraid to go on down the " Waba " to the Ohio, as the Indians had fright- ened them with accounts of the great monsters below. Finally, some adventurous spirit went down the river, found it emptied into the Ohio, and solved the problem of the true outlet of the Ohio, heretofore supposed to be a tributary of the Wabash.

The fourth route was from the southern shore of Lake Erie, at Presqueville, over a portage of fifteen miles to the head of French Creek, at Waterford, Penn .; thence down that stream to the Ohio, and on to the Mississippi. Along all these routes, ports and posts were carefully maintained. Many were on the soil of Ohio, and were the first attempts of the white race to possess its domain. Many of the ruins of these posts are yet found on the southern shore of Lake Erie, and at the outlets of streams flowing into the lake and the Ohio River. The principal forts were at Mackinaw, at Presqueville, at the mouth of the St. Joseph's, on Starved Rock, and along the Father of Waters. Yet another power was encroaching on them: a sturdy race, clinging to the inhospitable Atlantic shores, were coming over the mountains. The murmurs of a conflict were already heard-a con- flict that would change the fate of a nation.

The French were extending their explorations beyond the Mississippi; they were also forming a political organization, and increasing their influence over the natives. Of a passive nature, however, their power and their influence could not with- stand a more aggressive nature, and they were obliged, finally, to give way. They had the fruitful valleys of the West more than a century; yet they developed no resources, opened no mines of wealth, and left the country as passive as they found it.

Of the growth of the West under French rule, but little else remains to be said. The sturdy Anglo-Saxon race on the Atlantic coast, and their progenitors in England, began, now, to turn their attention to this vast country. The voluptuousness

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of the French court, their neglect of the true basis of wealth, agriculture, and the repressive tendencies laid on the colonists, led the latter to adopt a hunter's life, and leave the country unde- veloped and ready for the people who claimed the country from "sea to sea." Their explorers were now at work. The change was at hand.

Occasional mention has been made in the his- tory of the State, in preceding pages, of settle- ments and trading-posts of the French traders, explorers and missionaries, within the limits of Ohio. The French were the first white men to occupy the northwestern part of the New World, and though their stay was brief, yet it opened the way to a sinewy race, living on the shores of the Atlantic, who in time came, saw, and conquered that part of America, making it what the people of to-day enjoy.

As early as 1669, four years before the discov- ery of the Mississippi by Joliet and Marquette, La Salle, the famous explorer, discovered the Ohio River, and paddled down its gentle current as far as the falls at the present city of Louisville, but he, like others of the day, made no settlement on its banks, only claiming the country for his King by virtue of this discovery.

Early in the beginning of the eighteenth cent- ury, French traders and voyagers passed along the southern shores of Lake Erie, to the mouth of the Maumee, up whose waters they rowed their bark canoes, on their way to their outposts in the Wa- bash and Illinois Valleys, established between 1675 and 1700. As soon as they could, without danger from their inveterate enemies, the Iroquois, masters of all the lower lake country, erect a trading-post at the mouth of this river, they did so. It was made a depot of considerable note, and was, probably, the first permanent habitation of white men in Ohio. It remained until after the peace of 1763, the termination of the French and Indian war, and the occupancy of this country by the English. On the site of the French trading- post, the British, in 1794, erected Fort Miami, which they garrisoned until the country came under the control of Americans. Now, Maumee City covers the ground.

The French had a trading-post at the mouth of the Huron River, in what is now Erie County. When it was built is not now known. It was, how- ever, probably one of their early outposts, and may have been built before 1750. They had an- other on the shore of the bay, on or near the site of Sandusky City. Both this and the one at the

mouth of the Huron River were abandoned before the war of the Revolution. On Lewis Evan's map of the British Middle Colonies, published in 1755, a French fort, called "Fort Junandat, built in 1754," is marked on the east bank of the San- dusky River, several miles below its mouth. Fort Sandusky, on the western bank, is also noted. Several Wyandot towns are likewise marked. But very little is known concerning any of these trading-posts. They were, evidently, only tempo- rary, and were abandoned when the English came into possession of the country.

The mouth of the Cuyahoga River was another important place. On Evan's map there is marked on the west bank of the Cuyahoga, some distance from its mouth, the words "French House," doubt- less, the station of a French trader. The ruins of a house, found about five miles from the mouth of the river, on the west bank, are supposed to be those of the trader's station.

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History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 6

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr. Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Number of Pages: 826

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr.
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 826