The French and British
                            at Three Rivers


                      Prepared by the staff of the
             Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
                                  1953


One of a historical series, this pamphlet is published under the
direction of the governing Boards of the Public Library of Fort Wayne
and Allen County.

           BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE SCHOOL CITY OF FORT WAYNE

  B. F. Geyer, President
  Joseph E. Kramer, Secretary
  William C. Gerding, Treasurer
  Willard Shambaugh
  Mrs. Sadie Fulk Roehrs

                 PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD FOR ALLEN COUNTY

The members of this Board include the members of the Board of Trustees
of the School City of Fort Wayne (with the same officers), together with
the following citizens chosen from Allen County outside the corporate
city of Fort Wayne.

  James E. Graham
  Arthur Niemeier
  Mrs. Glenn Henderson
  Mrs. Charles Reynolds


After the discovery of America, four European states, England, France,
Holland, and Spain, laid claim to various portions of the North American
continent. The French claims were largely based upon the discovery of
the St. Lawrence by Cartier in 1521, and subsequent exploration of the
interior of the Continent by Champlain, La Salle, and other Frenchmen.
Ultimately, the territory which the French pre-empted included the St.
Lawrence Valley, the Great Lakes region, the territory extending
southward to the Ohio River, the territory immediately west of the
Mississippi River, and that part of the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico
adjacent to the mouth of the Mississippi River. The French exploited the
fur-trading and fur-producing possibilities of this vast empire; French
priests sought the conversion of the Indian inhabitants to the Catholic
faith; French military forces established a chain of forts or posts
extending along the Great Lakes, down the Wabash River, and along the
Mississippi River to the Gulf. Numerous Frenchmen came to this interior
region, but few Frenchwomen accompanied them; consequently, French
settlements were relatively few and weak. Many Frenchmen formed
temporary or permanent unions with Indian women, and in the next
generation a considerable number of half-breeds were born of these
unions. Important French posts in the area were Presque Isle, Mackinac,
Detroit, Post Miami, Vincennes, New Orleans, Kaskaskia, and St. Louis.

The environs of the Indian village of Kekionga, located in the present
Lakeside section of Fort Wayne, were selected by the French for the
location of Post Miami, because of combined strategic, economic, and
geographic significance. The village was located at the confluence of
the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s Rivers. It was, therefore, on water
highways connecting with Lake Erie and tapping the interior of Michigan
and Ohio. Kekionga was only a few miles from the Wabash River with the
St. Lawrence-Mississippi watershed lying between the two. A shallow
lake, since drained out of existence, extended southwest from Kekionga
to present-day Waynedale, and was navigable by canoe during part of the
year. These factors inevitably made the confluence of the rivers a
portage for east and west traffic between the Great Lakes and the
Mississippi. Pelts and trade goods, passing back and forth from the East
to the Southwest, and in reverse, could travel by canoe all the way
between Lake Erie and New Orleans with the exception of a few miles at
Kekionga. This short break in navigation made the portage necessary; the
geography of the rivers made it possible. Here men were forced to carry
canoe and cargo from the navigable waters at the confluence of the
rivers to the headwaters of the Wabash River.

The portage at Kekionga brought relative prosperity to the Indian rulers
of this region, because a tribute for portage was levied upon every
canoeload of pelts and trade goods. Possession of this valuable location
afforded the Miami Indians at Kekionga political importance, too,
because economic advantage always makes for political interest. The
political power controlling the portage, therefore, dominated the
commercial intercourse of the area.

The French immediately sensed the importance of Kekionga and located
their post nearby at a very early date. The date of the coming of the
first white man to this area is unknown; some believe that Champlain saw
Three Rivers as early as 1614 or 1615. The earliest extant map, dated
1632, indicates that the Maumee River was then known to French
cartographers. Other maps drawn in 1654, 1656 and 1674 chart the rather
thorough exploration of the territory by the French. There is a
possibility that La Salle was on these rivers during the period between
1679 and 1681, for he seemed to have known about the Wabash-Maumee
Portage.

The Frenchman came on a peaceful mission. He sought trade with the
Indians and brought valuable commercial articles, which were strange,
new and desirable to the red man. The Frenchman was usually willing to
live with the Indian on terms of equality, and to take an Indian woman
in marriage. He wanted no occupation of the land; he did not seek to
dispossess the Indian; his missionaries sought no material advantage. At
first, these practices won the friendship and confidence of the simple
child of the forest, and the relations between Frenchman and Indian were
usually amicable.

French influence, then, in the interior of America and in the region
known today as the great Middle West, was paramount in the beginning
because of primacy of arrival. Meanwhile, the land-hungry English on the
Atlantic Coast rapidly expanded over the entire seaboard driving out the
Indians. The Appalachian Mountains long proved a barrier to English
expansion westward. Not until the English could acquire a suitable beast
of burden for conveying freight and merchandise across the mountains
would French influence in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys be
jeopardized.

The date of establishment of the first French Post at the confluence of
the Rivers is veiled in the mists of the past. We only know, as these
mists lifted, that the French were located here in a small fort, block
house, or trading post which was named Post Miami. Probably of greater
commercial and religious, rather than political importance, it was
situated on the St. Mary’s River near the present crossing of the Nickel
Plate Railroad. The French Officer Bissot may have been stationed here
as commandant in charge of French interests as early as 1697. Cadillac
passed through the portage on his way southward from Detroit in 1707;
already English influence was beginning to be felt in the area. The
Miami Indian population in and about the village approximated 400
persons. They subsisted from their plantings along the Maumee River,
from forest products and hunting, and from their trade with the French.

Francois Margane succeeded Sieur Bissot as commandant at Post Miami. He
extended French influence and power by establishing, first, Post
Ouiatenon at the present location of Wabash, Indiana, and later, Post
Vincennes on the present site of the city of Vincennes. During the first
quarter of the eighteenth century the English began seriously to
undermine French influence with the Indians. This rivalry became more
bitter and culminated in an Indian uprising against the French who were
not destined to dominate the portage much longer. Soon they learned that
the English had erected a stronghold on Laramie Creek, a few miles from
the present site of Sidney, Ohio.

Chief Sanosket, known also as Chief Nicolas of the Hurons, fell under
British control; he made war against the French, and attacked a number
of French posts on the frontier. In alliance with the Miamis, the
Ottawas attacked Post Miami and partially burned the buildings. Ensign
Douville, the commandant, was absent in Detroit. The eight men forming
the garrison were captured, although two of them later escaped to
Detroit. To a certain extent, the French and Miamis soon adjusted their
relations because of mutual need for trade. However, the relationship
thereafter was never sincerely friendly. The ruined fort was partially
restored but gave much evidence of neglect. Father Jean de Bonnecamps
recorded his observations of the fort made in 1749. Griswold’s
_Pictorial History of Fort Wayne_, vol. 1, p. 46 quotes the priest as
follows:

“The fort of the Miamis was in a very bad condition when we reached it.
Most of the palisades were decayed and fallen into ruin. There were
eight houses, or, to speak more correctly, eight miserable huts which
only the desire of making money could make endurable. The French there
number twenty-two; all of them including the commandant, had the fever.
Monsieur Raimond did not approve the situation of the fort and
maintained that it should be placed on the bank of the St. Joseph a
scant league from the present site. He wished to show me the spot, but
the hindrances of our departure prevented me from going hither. All I
could do for him was to trace the plan for his new fort. The latitude of
the old one is 41 degrees and 29 minutes.”

Captain Raimond lost little time in relocating his fort. The site he
chose is the high ground near the present intersection of St. Joe
Boulevard and Delaware Avenue. The old buildings of the original French
fort served as a nucleus for a settlement and were now occupied by the
few Miami Indians who still remained on friendly terms with the French.
The little village came to be known as Coldfoot’s village, in honor of
Miami Chief Coldfoot.

In the face of waning prestige, the French made one spirited attempt to
check the English. Under the leadership of Charles Langlade, a few
Frenchmen and two hundred Chippewas and Ottawas moved down from Detroit
to attack Fort Pickawillany. Assembling their forces at the portage near
Kekionga, they turned into the St. Mary’s River, and thence marched
overland unheralded toward Pickawillany. After a surprise attack the
fort was reduced. In celebration of the victory, and in vengeance for
his friendship with the British, the Indians enjoyed a cannibal feast on
the body of La Demoiselle, chief of the Piankeshaws. This victory
temporarily restored the prestige of France with the Miamis at the
portage. The defeat of Braddock in 1755 still further diminished the
influence of the English among the Indians. Thus, the battle of
propaganda and bribery for the favor of the Indian tribes seesawed back
and forth. The pendulum, however, was swinging in favor of the British.

During the next few years British political emissaries and traders made
ever-increasing trouble for the French; these machinations foreshadowed
the destruction of French power in the Ohio Valley. The small French
garrison, and French half-breed families living in the present Spy Run
Avenue neighborhood, led a precarious existence. The local Indians,
aided and abetted by the English, and well-fortified with whiskey
(hitherto denied them by the French) now liberally dispensed by the
British, increasingly harassed their former French allies.

In 1756, the Seven Years’ War, known in American history as the French
and Indian War, broke out between France and England. One of the prizes
at stake in the contest was the domination of the North American
continent. After the fall of Quebec, concomitant with the defeat of
General Montcalm by General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham, French
authority in North America passed to the English. Shortly thereafter,
the garrison at Detroit surrendered to the English. In December, 1760,
Lieutenant Butler, commanding a detachment of twenty English soldiers,
received the surrender of Fort Miami. Thereafter, the Union Jack flew
over the Maumee portage.

During the period beginning in 1760 and ending with the termination of
the Revolutionary War, British policy seems to have emphasized commerce
and conciliation with the local Indians. British military forces were
never strong in the area, and now that the French were vanquished, the
stockade no longer possessed military value. Fort Miami fell into decay.

A brief era of good feeling between the Indians and the British
followed. Soon, however, there were stirrings among the red men. The
great Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas, a man of superior intelligence and
great skill in statecraft, began inciting the Indians to expel the
British from the entire western country. For a long time the conspiracy
and war preparations continued in secret; not until 1763 were they
revealed. Soon the Indians attacked and laid siege to all the British
forts on the entire frontier; they captured Forts Sandusky, St. Joseph,
Michilmackinac, Ouiatanon and Miami.

At least one romantic but tragic incident occurred in connection with
the attack on Post Miami. Ensign Holmes, English Commandant at the
isolated British fort on the St. Joseph River, was a young and very
lonely man. Rumor has it that he shared few common interests with the
men of his garrison. He sought feminine companionship and found favor in
the eyes of an Indian maiden who reciprocated his affections.

Let Parkman tell the story:

“On the 27th day of May, a young Indian girl, who lived with the
commandant, came to tell him that a squaw lay dangerously ill in a
wigwam near the fort, and urged him to come to her relief. Having
confidence in the girl, Holmes forgot his caution and followed her out
of the fort. Pitched on the edge of a meadow (in present-day Lakeside),
hidden from view by an intervening spur of woodland, stood a great
number of Indian wigwams. When Holmes came in sight of them his
treacherous conductress pointed out that in which the sick woman lay. He
walked on without suspicion, but, as he drew near, two guns flashed from
behind the hut and stretched him lifeless on the grass. The shots were
heard at the fort and the sergeant rashly went out to learn the cause.
He was immediately taken prisoner, amid exulting yells and whoopings.
The soldiers in the fort climbed upon the palisades to look out, when
Godefroy, a Canadian, and two other white men, made their appearance and
summoned them to surrender, promising that if they did so their lives
would be spared.”

    [Illustration: BURNING OF THE FRENCH POST MIAMI (SITE OF FORT WAYNE)
    1747.

    During the period of the Chief Nicolas conspiracy, in 1747, while
    the commandant, Ensign Douville, was absent at Detroit, the savages
    attacked the post situated on the St. Mary’s river in the present
    city of Fort Wayne and partially destroyed it with fire. The post
    was rebuilt, and later, in 1750 a new fort was established on the
    left bank of the St. Joseph river. The drawing is after an old
    woodcut.

             From Griswold’s _Pictorial History of Fort Wayne, Indiana_]

Ultimately Pontiac’s Conspiracy was quelled and uneasy peace was
restored on the frontier. At the beginning of the American Revolution
the British were confronted with the problem of retaining the Indians as
allies against the Americans. The savages realized the need of British
subsidies and soon became genuinely attached to the redcoats.

In October, 1778, Governor Hamilton’s army, advancing from Detroit
against the forces of George Rogers Clark in southern Indiana, passed
over the portage. The only military action, however, which occurred here
during the Revolutionary War is known as La Balme’s Massacre.

Augustus La Balme, one of the volunteer French officers who had
accompanied the Marquis de LaFayette to America, was commissioned a
colonel in General Washington’s army. In October he appeared at
Kaskaskia, then under American domination since its capture by George
Rogers Clark. He gathered a considerable force of Frenchmen and Indians
and advanced northward, his objective being the expulsion of the British
from Detroit. Arriving at the Indian settlement at Three Rivers, La
Balme and his men plundered the village and destroyed a great deal of
property. At close of day he retired with his 103 men and camped on the
Aboite River. In the dead of night an Indian force under the leadership
of Little Turtle attacked the invader, destroyed nearly a half of the
little force and compelled the remainder to flee. The incident has
little significance except as the initial engagement in a series of
bloody victories won by Little Turtle and the Miami Indians against the
Americans.

The Treaty of Paris in 1783 made the United States nominally paramount
in the Ohio Valley. However, the British, on the pretext of bad faith on
the part of the American Government, continued to occupy forts in the
area which they had contracted to evacuate under terms of the treaty.
Among the forts they still held illegally were Presque Isle, Mackinac,
Detroit, and Fort Miami near Toledo.

From the vantage point of these forts, British military officers and
diplomatic representatives continued friendly relations with the local
Indians. By moral suasion the Indian was influenced to believe that his
friends were British rather than American. Through gifts of food,
equipment and arms, the Indian was relieved of problems of logistics
which might place him at a disadvantage with any American military
force. The Indians massacred hundreds of American settlers on the
western frontier, and burned and pillaged their homes. Under the
leadership of Little Turtle and others in 1790 and 1791, Indian warriors
inflicted overwhelming defeats upon the armies of American Generals
Harmar and St. Clair.

    [Illustration: Chief Little Turtle (Me-she-kin-no-quah)

    The above likeness was made from a cut out of a very old book which
    had been reproduced from a painting made for him while in
    Philadelphia. This painting was destroyed when the Capitol building
    at Washington was burned by the British in the war of 1812. Head
    dress on the forehead, contains three rattles from at least three
    rattlesnakes; has always been considered a splendid likeness of the
    famous Chief.]

American influence and prestige were at a low ebb, indeed, and it
appeared that the Ohio Valley with the portage at Three Rivers might
fall by default to the British after all. In order to prevent this
calamity, General Wayne undertook his campaign westward into the Indian
country from Pittsburgh. He soundly defeated the Indians at Fallen
Timbers in 1794. Wayne’s expedition culminated in the building of the
fort which bears his name and in the formal occupation under the
American flag in September and October, 1794.




                          Transcriber’s Notes


  —Silently corrected a few typos.

  —Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
    is public-domain in the country of publication.

  —In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
    _underscores_.