USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 4
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It was early in the spring of 1753 when the expedition under Marin to occupy the Ohio set out from Montreal. All told there were 1500 men. It was not a large army as armies generally are regarded. But, considering that they traveled by bark canoes; that they were outfitted with tools for heavy construction work as well as with weapons; and besides, of a miscellaneous and extensive stock of merchandise and "stuffs:" also that the boats, the tools and arms, and the stock had all to be carried over the steep and long portage at Niagara Falls, it will readily be granted that not numbers alone count in the making of an army. For the time and the place it was a great army.
It moved in two detachments. Its orders were to land at an ap- pointed place and build a fort and thence penetrate into the interior, to establish a thoroughfare to the Ohio river. The first detachment, skirt- ing the south shore of Lake Erie, landed at Barcelona, Celoron's old stopping place, and set about constructing a suitable defense. The main body, however, coming along soon afterwards, proceeded to Presque Isle. which was a new discovery of the French. It was declared that the route from Presque Isle was far better than that which Celoron followed, and Duquesne, speaking of the bay at this point called it "The finest in nature." All of which tends to show how thorough the knowledge of the wilder- ness by the French was, and how reliable their exploration.
Arrived at Presque Isle the expedition at once set about erecting a fort. The site chosen was just within the entrance of the bay, on the top of the bluff west of the mouth of Mill Creek. The location with reference to the survey of the city as it is today, was a little east of the foot of Parade street, the west wall probably near the east line of Parade street, and the north wall or side some distance north of the brow of the present bank or bluff, for a considerable amount of material was taken from that steep hillside from time to time by the railroad, and more by the burners of brick in the yard close by.
The fort was constructed of squared chestnut timbers about ten feet high, planted as a palisade or stockade. Within this enclosure there were the necessary quarters for officers and men, a store-house, a magazine
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and a well. It was 120 feet square. This description of it is given by an Englishman, a conscript to the French, who afterwards made his escape, and the description given would indicate that it was a plain square structure of the stockade plan with a gate opening to the south. There are good reasons for doubting the accuracy of this description. When Washington was at Le Bœuf, (an account of his visit is given in a later chapter ) he learned that the fort at Presque Isle was built on the same plan as that at Le Bœuf but larger. He gives a soldier's description of the defense, and part of his duty being to be accurate in his observations, what he has reported of the fort he saw is doubtless reliable. An ac- count given of the fort describes it as four large houses of solid timber construction, with palisaded bastions at each of the four corners.
This accords better with what is known of the science of military engineering of the time, and it received verification many years after- ward-long after the site had become grass-grown and on the surface no trace remained of any work of any sort that had occupied that place. It was early in the seventies while earth from the side-hill was being removed for railroad construction that the lower portions of much de- cayed timbers were exposed to view. Erie then had a devoted anti- quarian, assiduous in the work of collecting-Capt. W. F. Lutje. News of such a discovery was not slow to reach Capt. Lutje's ears, nor was he tardy in acting upon the impulse to look into the matter. He went at once, and, adding to the instincts of the antiquarian the experience of an artillery officer, it did not take long to decide what the ruins had been. It was one of the bastions of the French fort. The side next the shore was not intact. Part of it had fallen during the work of excavating that had progressed from below, but the points where the angles occurred for the flank and the other face, both of which of course extended inward, were seen, and by the use of the shovel could be verified as part of the bastion formation. In the judgment of Capt. Lutje that bastion had contained the armory or arsenal because of the remains of weapons, in numbers, that were found. It is also worthy of note that one who visited Fort Presque Isle during its occupancy by the French spoke of the bas- tions and added the information that the cannon intended for use in them had not been mounted. Undoubtedly therefore it was a fort of full military scientific character that the French erected at Presque Isle.
When Fort Presque Isle had been built the energies of the entire force were directed toward the construction of a military road extending southward to the Riviere aux Boeufs, where another and smaller fort, called Le Bœuf, was built. This road extended in a practically direct line to the second fort, and a considerable part of the road is still in use. The French engineers paid no regard to natural difficulties or obstacles ; the route was made direct. Ravines, swamps, hills or steep places were taken as they came. But little excavation was done and bridges of a rough and somewhat primitive character were employed in
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crossing the two streams where bridging was necessary. The swamps were crossed by corduroy construction. The important thing to be ac- complished was to take the shortest possible route. In the city of Erie Parade street is practically on the route of the French road, and obtained its name by that circumstance. A section of the corduroy work of the French remained in upper Parade street until somewhere in the decade of the sixties. At the Cold Springs the road turned to a due southerly direction and is the Old French Road of the present city. It ends by that name at the edge of Mill Creek ravine, but on the opposite side is to be found again as a part of the Waterford plank road, and continues as such till the Summit township line is reached, when the Waterford road turning to the east, the French route-disappears. It is for an inter- val only. Presently it is again found and in use for a stretch of several miles, straight south through Summit until, a short distance from the southern line of Summit it had been abandoned. Traces of it remained as an open lane through the woods coming out very near to Major Strong's on the Waterford turnpike, in Waterford township, the pike very nearly occupying the site of the original road, from thence in to the borouglı.
But it is time to return to Fort Presque Isle and the expedition to occupy the Ohio. It has been stated that the fort was built and the road constructed. But this was not accomplished without much hard work and encountering great difficulties. Marin, commander of the expedition, a gruff, choleric old man of 63, but full of force and capacity, spared himself so little that he was stricken down with dysentery, and refusing to be sent home to Montreal was before long in a dying condi- tion. His place was taken by Péan, his lieutenant, of whose private character there is little good to be said (remarks Parkman) but whose conduct as an officer was such that Duquesne calls him a prodigy of talents, resources and zeal. Péan wrote at the end of September that Marin was in extremity, and the Governor, disturbed and alarmed, for he knew the value of the sturdy old officer, looked anxiously for a suc- cessor. He chose another veteran, Legardeur de Saint Pierre, who had just returned from a journey of exploration toward the Rocky moun- tains.
Meanwhile the expedition was already justified by its effects. At first the Indians met the French with jealous suspicions. At Fort Le Bœuf the Half-King, a famous Indian Chief, came and ordered the French to leave the country, but Marin received him with such con- temptuous haughtiness that the Indian went away shedding tears of rage and mortification. In time the attitude of the natives changed. The Indians were daunted and made submission to the French and without distinction came to the French camp and offered help in carrying bag- gage. It was heavy work to carry the cumbrous load of baggage across
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the portages. Much of it is said to have been superfluous, consisting of velvets, silks and other useless and costly articles, sold to the King at enormous prices as necessaries of the expedition-silks and velvets for the soldiers of a campaign in a forest wilderness! where tanned deer- skin was none too tough a material out of which to make their clothing.
There was a third fort planned-at Franklin-and it was the pur- pose to send Péan down the river with the remainder of the force, hoping thus to inspire with terror the wavering tribes, and also to strongly re- inforce the French who were to build a work of defence at the forks of the Ohio. But the plans went all astray. Fevers, lung diseases and scurvy were making fearful havoc, and at length the resolute but dying Marin was compelled to bitterly acknowledge his work but half done. Selecting out of his force three hundred to garrison Fort Presque Isle and Fort Le Bœuf the rest were sent back to Montreal.
Legardeur de Saint Pierre, the successor of Marin, arrived at the end of autumn, and chose to make his headquarters at Fort Le Bœuf, where he spent the winter, the command at Presque Isle being assigned to a lieu- tenant named Reparti.
It seems incredible that that campaign of a summer devoted to military engineering in this portion of the country should have proved so disastrous to the French. In their work of constructing forts and of road-building they were not molested by the natives, but on the contrary assisted. And yet the hardships encountered had reduced them to a really pitiable state. When the miserable remnant arrived at Montreal Governor Duquesne was so shocked by their altered looks that he wrote of them: "I reviewed them and could not help being touched by the pitiable state to which fatigues and exposures had reduced them. Past all doubt if these emaciated figures had gone down the Ohio (the Alleghany is meant) as intended, the river would have been strewn with corpses, and the evil-disposed savages would not have failed to attack the survivors, seeing they were but spectres."
Forts Presque Isle and Le Bœuf were evidently intended for a double purpose. They were not only to serve notice to all concerned that formal possession had been taken of the territory by the French, and to keep open a route of communication, but they were depots in that line of communication between the French capital in Canada and the forts to be built upon the Ohio river proper, the design of Governor Duquesne undoubtedly being to constitute the fort at the forks of the Ohio, as it was then called, the central or strong position of the French defences in the west.
There was also another motive that animated the French. They had long enough been intimate with the savages to understand how strongly they became impressed by the manifestation of power and of enterprise, and they were anxious to so impress the natives as to win thiem as allies. That this could be successfully accomplished in the new
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region the French were opening up their former experience had led them to expect and their later experience while constructing the port- age road to Le Bœuf had confirmed. They had almost completely won over the Indians, notwithstanding the vexatious rebuff administered to the Half-King. This chief, however, as may appear later, remained a faith- ful ally of the English.
It does not appear by anything that has yet been written on the subject, how the French obtained the accurate knowledge they possessed of the route they had selected, for there is no point where a shorter or less difficult route between the waters of Lake Erie and the navigable streams of the interior could be secured. If the Indians of this section had been allied to the French, or even on friendly terms there might be an explanation at hand. But they were not. There had been no trading between the French and Indians in this section of the country. There was, however, a Frenchman of considerable fame, an Indian or adopted Indian, who had penetrated far beyond the regions of French influence. He was an interpreter and at times a guide. Into the region south of this, along the Alleghany river, he had taken his way and in 1753 was posted at Venango with a commission from the French. His name was Joncaire, the son of the more famous Joncaire of the east, and his in- fluence with the Indians was great. Besides the Indians he had allied with him at that post there was a small contingent of French. It was undoubtedly through Joncaire and his explorations, and the information he had obtained from the savages that the route by way of Presque Isle to the Ohio river became known to Governor Duquesne.
It is no easy matter at this late day to obtain accurate information with reference to the true character, mode of construction, and other details of Fort Presque Isle and of the settlement that may or may not have been located adjacent to it, because contemporary accounts vary so widely. From the work on the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania, pub- lished by the State at Harrisburg in 1906, this account of the fort and the settlement are obtained :
"In 1755 it is said 356 families resided near the fort, and in 1757 there were 480. These were soldiers, carriers, traders, missionaries, mechanics, Indians, etc. Being a central point and Fort Duquesne, Fort Niagara and Detroit on the borders, it was at times filled with stores and 1000 men (it is said) have been at one time between Presque Isle and Le Bœuf."
Sir William Johnson, in 1256, undoubtedly from information ob- tained from Indians or scouts, for personally he never visited it, says:
"The barracks within the fort are garrisoned with 150 men. supported chiefly from a French settlement near it, of about 150 families ; Indians
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pretty numerous ; have a priest and school teacher ; grist mills and stills in this settlement."
Fred Post's journal of 1:58 would seem to indicate that the fort was made of palisades planted in the ground, in this respect quite con- trary to what is said of it by others who describe it. His journal says :
"An Indian from Presque Isle reports the fort so out of repairs a strong man might pull any log out of the earth. There are two officers and thirty-four men in the garrison there and not above ten Indians, which they keep constantly hunting for the support of the garrison."
Thomas Bull, an Indian spy, in 1759 speaks of Fort Presque Isle as a bastioned fort. "The garrison," he says, "consists of two officers, two merchants, a clerk, a priest and 103 soldiers. The commander's name is Burinol. The fort is square with four bastions. There are no guns upon the walls yet, but four 4-pounders in one of the bastions, not mounted. The wall is only of single logs, no bank within, a ditch with- out. A magazine, a stone house, stands in the right bastion next the lake."
Capt. Pouchot, chief engineer of the French army in America, in 1763 gives a description of the fort which may or may not be accurate, as what he says of the situation of the fort and of the country back of it, do not at all agree with fact. If the fort was constructed on Vauban's principle, as we understand it, there certainly were bastions. Capt. Pouchot says :
"At Presque Isle there is a good bay, but only seven or eight feet of water. This fort is sufficiently large. It is built piece upon piece with three outbuildings for the storage of goods in transitu. It is 120 feet square and 15 feet high and built on Vauban's principle, with two doors, one to the north and one on the south. It is situated on a plateau that forms a peninsula, which has given it its name. The country around is good and pleasant. They keep wagons for portage to Fort Le Bœuf. which is six leagues. Although it is in a level country the road is not very good. The fort at Riviere au Bœuf is square, smaller than the one at Presque Isle, but built piece on piece."
Thomas Forbes, lately in the King of France's service, in 1754 writes :
"This fort is situated on a little rising ground at a very small distance from the water of Lake Erie. It is rather larger than that at Niagara, but has likewise no bastions nor outworks of any sort. It is a square area enclosed with logs about twelve feet high, the logs being squared and laid on each other and not more than sixteen or eighteen inches thick. Captain Despontaine is commandant in this fort and his garrison
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was thirty private men. We were eight days employed in unloading our canoes here and carrying the provisions to Fort Le Bœuf, which is built about six leagues from Presque Isle at the head of the Buffaloe river. This fort was composed of four houses built by way of bastions and the intermediate spaces stockaded ; Lieut. St. Blieu was posted here with twenty men."
CHAPTER IV .- WASHINGTON'S MISSION.
HIS JOURNEY TO ERIE COUNTY AND ITS PURPOSE .- THE FRENCH COM- MANDANT REFUSES TO OBEY BRITISH ORDERS.
There was a marked difference between the system of the govern- ment exercised by the French in America and the English colonies on this side of the Atlantic. The English had established not one but num- erous colonies along the Atlantic coast, each having its own char- ter from the Crown. Each lived, then, a life of its own, shut within its own limits, not dreaming of a future collective greatness to which the possession of the west would be a necessary condition. No conscious community of interests held them together, nor was there any authority capable of uniting their forces and turning them to a common object. Some of the servants of the Crown had urged the necessity of joining them all under a strong central government as the only means of making them loyal subjects and arresting the encroachments of France; but the scheme was plainly impracticable. Each province remained in jealous isolation, busied with its own work, growing in strength, in the capacity of self-rule and the spirit of independence and stubbornly resisting all exercise of authority from without. If the English-speaking population flowed westward it was in obedience to natural laws, for the King did not aid the movement, the royal government had no authority to do so, and the colonial assemblies were too much engrossed with immediate local interests.
In the French colonies all was different. Here the representatives of the Crown were men bred in an atmosphere of broad ambition and masterful and far-reaching enterprise. Achievement was demanded of them. They recognized the greatness of the prize, studied the strong and weak points of their rivals, and with a cautious forecast and a daring energy set themselves to the task of defeating them.
If the English colonies were comparatively strong in numbers their numbers could not be brought into action; while if the French forces were small, they were vigorously commanded and always ready at a word .*
But though there was not a governor general of the American colo- nies : a central official who represented the Crown, there was one in- dividual among the colonial governors who failed not to take notice when
* Parkman's Half Century of Conflict.
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there were manifestations of encroachment by the French. This in- dividual was Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia, a dour. hard- headed Scotchman, jealous of his rights and so autocratic that he was nearly all the time at loggerheads with his assembly. Now Robert Din- widdie was of the opinion that pretty nearly all the interior of the conti- nent was part of his colony of Virginia. He refused to recognize a border line or boundary in the crests of the Alleghany range of mountains. Moreover, he kept himself posted. There were countrymen of his as industrious and enterprising as explorers as almost any of the French ; who left their names upon streams and lakes and mountains as monu- ments of their energy and perseverance. These were not lacking among the stragglers across the mountains, into the wilds of the forest in the interior. So Robert Dinwiddie had means at hand of learning when his territory was being trespassed upon. Before the summer of 1753 was ended he had been informed that the French had taken possession and built forts at Presque Isle and Le Bœuf.
Governor Dinwiddie was a man of action. He became busy at once. Calling in a young officer, "one of the adjutant-generals of the troops and forces in the colony of Virginia," he commissioned him to proceed through the wilderness bearing despatches to the French, de- manding why they had invaded the domains of King George the Second of England, and commanding them to retire. The young officer was George Washington, his destination was Fort Le Bœuf, and the story of his journey through the wilderness, across the "Allegheny Hill" and up . the Alleghany river and its tributaries, forms one of the most interesting narratives in the history of the continent. His commission was brief and to the point. It was as follows :
"I, reposing special trust and confidence in the ability, conduct, and fidelity of you, the said George Washington, have appointed you my express messenger ; and you are hereby authorized and empowered to proceed hence, with all convenient and possible dispatch, to the part or place, on the river Ohio, where the French have lately erected a fort or forts, or where the commandant of the French forces resides, in order to deliver my letter and message to him; and after waiting not exceeding one week for an answer, you are to take your leave and re- turn immediately back." This commission was dated the 30th day of October "Annoque Domini, 1753."
Washington, at the time he received this important commission, was less than twenty-two years old, but his conduct of the expedition in the face of incessant dangers and hardships, his success in foiling the in- trigues of the French and defeating their designs upon his Indian com- pany, and the success he achieved in obtaining important and reliable in- formation, could not have been exceeded by a seasoned veteran. He Vol. I-3
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tells his own story of the expedition, kept in a diary or journal and sub- mitted as his report to Governor Dinwiddie. He says:
I was commissioned and appointed by the Honorable Robert Din- widdie, Esquire, Governor, etc., of Virginia, to visit and deliver a letter to the commandant of the French forces at the Ohio, and set out on the intended journey on the same day ; on the next I arrived at Fredericks- burg, and engaged Mr. Jacob Vanbraam to be my French interpreter, and proceeded with him to Alexandria, where we provided necessaries. From thence we went to Winchester, and got baggage horses, etc., and from thence we pursued the new road to Wills' Creek, where we arrived on the 14th of November.
Here I engaged Mr. Gist to pilot us out, and also hired four others as servitors, Barnaby Currin and John McQuire, Indian traders, Henry Steward and William Jenkins ; and in company with these persons left the inhabitants the next day.
The excessive rains and vast quantities of snow which had fallen prevented our reaching Mr. Frazier's, an Indian trader, at the mouth of Turtle creek, on Monongahela river, till Thursday the 22d. We were informed here. that expresses had been sent a few days before to the traders down the river, to acquaint them with the French general's death, and the return of the major part of the French army into winter quarters.
The waters were quite impassable without swimming our horses, which obliged us to get the loan of a canoe from Frazier, and to send Barnaby Currin and Henry Seward down the Monongahela, with our baggage, to meet us at the forks of Ohio, about ten miles below; there to cross the Allegheny. About two miles from this, on the southeast side of the river, at the place where the Ohio company intended to erect a fort, lives Shingiss, king of the Delawares. We called upon him to invite him to a council at Logstown.
Shingiss attended us to the Logstown, where we arrived between sun-setting and dark, the twenty-fifth day after I left Williamsburg. We traveled over some extremely good and bad land to get to this place.
As soon as I came into town. I went to Monakatoocha (as the Half-King was out at his hunting cabin on Little Beaver creek, about fifteen miles off ) and informed him by John Davidson, my Indian in- terpreter, that I was sent a messenger to the French general; and was ordered to call upon the sachems of the six nations to acquaint them with it. I gave him a string of wampum and a twist of tobacco, and desired him to send for the Half-King, which he promised to do by a runner in the morning, and for other sachems. I invited him and the other great men present, to my tent. where they stayed about an hour and returned.
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