St. Joseph County, Indiana - Chapter 2: Early History, 1907 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter 2: Early History

See. 1. - First Footprints. - The annals of St. Joseph county reach further back into the shadowy reahns of romance and tradition than do those of any other county in the state of Indiana. The landscape of this county was the first in Indiana to be looked upon by the eye of the white man, and its soil was the first to receive the impression of the white man's foot. As in case of many other localities in the state, it is not a question altogether free from doubt as to when civilized man first walked over our valleys and uplands and gazed upon the sparkling waters of our lakes and rivers ; yet, while it must be admitted that the evidence is slight, nevertheless it is the opinion of many of the most trustworthy authorities that such evidence as we have is sufficient to show that in the month of May, 1675, Father James Marquette, the intrepid Jesuit missionary explorer, during his last illness and a little before his death, journeyed up the winding Kankakee to a point a little below the limits of the present city of South Bend. The tradition is that his faithful Indians carried his frail bark and guided his feeble footsteps from that point along the ancient Portage, to the St. Joseph, then the River of the Miamis, upon whose crystal waters he floated down to Lake Michigan. It seems a benediction for all time that this saintly hero should thus, in his last hours upon earth, have passed along our rivers and walked upon our soil, drinking of the sweet waters of our valleys and breathing the airs that we breathe. As he moved by the well-worn trail across the highlands of Portage Prairie he must have looked into the valley where the busy city of South Bend now flourishes, and over the w^ooded plains beyond the St. Joseph where the sun-lit towers of Notre Dame and St. Marj^'s appear upon the distant landscape. Father Marquette represented in himself enterprise, heroism, love of God and a love of human kind. Are these high attributes, so strikingly manifested by our people to-day, the blessed heritage of that far off day ?

Sec. 2. - Routes of Travel. - It was by way of the Sault de Ste. Marie (The Falls of St. Mary's River) and the straits of Mackinaw that the French reached the Northwest from Canada. In 1641 the first Canadian envoys met the western Indians at the Sault. It was not, however, until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders spent a winter on the shores of the northern lakes, nor till 1660 that the devotion of the missionaries, led by Father ]\Iesnard, caused the first station to be established. Five years later, in 1665, Father Claude Allouez built the earliest of the lasting habitations of the white men among the kindly and hospitable Indians of the northern lakes. In 1668, came Fathers Claude Dablon and James Marquette and founded the mission at the Sault. Two years afterwards, in 1670, Nicholas Perrot, as agent for Talon, the Intendant of Canada, explored

Lake j\Iichig-an« as far as Chicago; and in 1671 formal possession was taken of tlie Northwest by French officers in the presence of Indians assembled from the surrounding regions. In the same year Marquette gathered a little flock of listeners at Point St. Ignace, on the mainland west of Mackinac Island. In 1673, two years after the founding of the mission at St. Ignaee, Marquette, with the sanction and active aid of Talon, the far-seeing intendant of Canada, began preparations for his long contemplated exploration to the west of Lake Michigan. He wished to establish missions for the conversion of the Indians living along the borders of the gTeat river running to the south, the existence of which was reported by the Indians and which was believed to flow either into the Gulf of Mexico or into the Pacific Ocean. The government sent Louis Joliet, a merchant of Quebec, and five boatmen to accompany him. On the 13th of May, 1673, the little band of seven left Michilimackinac in two birch bark canoes. They proceeded across the head of Lake ^Michigan into and through Green Bay and thence up the Fox river to an Indian village where Father Allouez had preached to the Miami, Mascouten and Kickapoo tribes. From this village they crossed the portage to the Wisconsin river, down which they floated to the Mississippi, which was thus discovered June 17th, 1673.^

Another route to the west, which was used by the Indians and by the early explorers, was from the stations at the head of the lakes down by the west shore of Lake ]\Iiehigan to the Chicago river; thence up that river and by the portage to the Illinois river, and so down to the Mississippi. A third route was along the eastern or western shore of Lake ^Michigan to the mouth of the River of the Miamis, or St. Joseph, and up that river to the portage at South Bend; thence down a. For a time known as Lake of the Illinois, from the Indians of that name, and also as the Lake of the Dauphin, in honor of the heir to the French throne.

the Kankakee and Illinois to the Mississippi. It is said that there is a southern current along the west shore of Lake Michigan and a northern current along the east shore ; and, consequently, that the voyage down the lake and to the west was usually taken by the Chicago portage, while the return journey from the Illinois country was more often taken by the portage of the Kankakee and the St. Joseph.

There was also a route to the west by Lake Erie, the Maiunee river and the portage to the Wabash, and so on to the Ohio and the Mississippi. It is believed LaSalle knew of this route in his earlier explorations of the west, and that he was the discoverer of the Ohio and the Wabash. This :Maumee route was, however, for a long time unsafe by reason of the incursions of the Iroquois from TSTew York. The route was afterwards adopted as the main highway of civilized commerce to the Southwest, the Wabash and Erie Canal having been constructed over the old portage. The canal fell into disuse only on tlie building of our modern railroads.

After the discovery of the upper Mississippi by Marquette, in 1673, and his return to St. Ignaee, he went again to the Illinois Indians, at their urgent solicitation, and established missions among them, where he toiled until the failure of his health, in 1675. He then started on his I'cturn to the mission at St. Ignaee, near the island of Mackinac, proceeding, as it is believed, bv the more easy and direct way of the Kankakee and St. Joseph, and so passing through the whole length of our county, as already related. After entering Lake ]\Iichigan on this journey, he went along the eastern shore of the lake as far as the little river which bears his name ; on the banks of which, worn out with his labore, he died, May 18, 1675, at the age of thirty-eight years. Two years afterwards his affectionate Indians came down the lake in a fleet of canoes and reverently bore his body to his beloved St. Ignaee, where it was finally laid to rest, and where a suitable monument was erected to his memory on the two hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the upper Mississippi. The state of Wisconsin has caused the statue of Marquette to be placed in the Capitol at Washingrton as that of one of the great men of the West.

Sec. 3. - Historical Data. - While, as already intimated, the writers on our early history are not in agreement on the point, yet there is good authority, as there are also satisfactory reasons, in support of the persistent belief that the great discoverer made his last journey from the west by the ancient route through our own county, so well known to his devoted Indian friends, and w^hich had been used by Indian and Mound Builder for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years, in their annual journeys between the Mississippi and the lakes. This is the opinion of the eminent historian, John Gilmary Shea, who says that on this occasion Marquette "seems to have taken the way by the St. Joseph river and reached the eastern shore of Lake Michigan."«

Bishop Brute also, who in 1834 became the first bishop of Vineennes, says in his writings, as quoted by Henry S. Cauthorn, himself an honored member of an old Vineennes family, that "the St. Joseph portage was used by Father Marquette long before LaSalle and Hennepin passed through that portage." The saintly bishop further says, as also quoted in ]\Ir. Cauthorn 's exceedingly interesting history of his native city, that, very early in their missionary career in the Northwest, "Fathers Marquette and Allouez passed through that portage on their way to the Oubasche country."^ Bishop Brute was a native of France ; and it is reasonable to believe that during the years while he was a. "Discovery and exploration of the Mississippi Valley." See also "The St. Joseph-Kankakee Portage," by George A. Baker; and "La Salle in the Valley of the St. Joseph," by Charles H. Bartlett and Richard H. Lyon. And see Cowles' Hist. Berrien County, Mich., 1871, p. 27.

in charge of the diocese of Vineennes he became w^ell acquainted wdth the old French families of the city and the neighboring towns, and with their histories and traditions ; and that he also familiarized himself with the records of the missions, all of which were written in his native language. From the history of Father Gibault, the friend of George Rogers Clark, we know that the missions of Kaskaskia. Cahokia and other Illinois settlements were closely associated with the mission at Vineennes. Mr. Cauthorn, as quoted by William H. English, tells us that the same missionaries often served at Kaskaskia and Vineennes; that the church records show many intermarriages ; and that there was frequent intercommunication between the two places.* As Marquette w^as himself in charge of those Illinois mis.sions during the last years of his life, we can well understand that what Bishop Brute has told us of the great missionary and his journey has in it something of the certainty of contemporary history. ]\Ir. Cauthorn, former speaker of the Indiana house of representatives, who was one of the most distinguished sons of the old city, and who gave years of devoted study to her early histor^^, says that "It is w^eU known that he [^Marquette] left the Jesuit mission at Kaskaskia a sick and worn out man in consequence of his labors and exposure, to return to St. Ignace, a few days after Easter, 1675. On this, his final trip, he traveled by way of the St. Joseph portage."^ These statements by Bishop Brute and Heniy S. Cauthorn, who had such unequaled opportunities to discover the facts of our early French history, are entitled to the greatest respect. So also is the guarded opinion expressed by John Gilmary Shea. AVith the exception of Francis Parkman, if indeed Parkman be an exception, there is no historian who, from painstaking research, had acquired a more intimate knowledge of the early history of the northwest, or who was more careful in his statement of facts, than Mr. Shea. It seems, then, reasonable to conclude that Marquette crossed our portage in 1675, and that he was therefore the first white man to visit the territory now comprising' the county of St. Joseph.

Sec. 1. - Preparations. - IMarriuette and Joliet explored the Mississippi from the mouth of the Wisconsin to a point below the mouth of the Arkansas ; and then returned in their frail canoes, having become satisfied that the great river emptied into the gulf of Mexico. The report of this achievement fired the imagination of the people of all Canada, and of France itself. Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, a native of Normandy, had emigrated to Canada from France, in 1666. In 1669 he set out upon a tour of western exploration, in the course of which he is believed to have discovered the Ohio river and to liave followed its course down below the mouth of the Wabash. He now became ambitious to follow in the footsteps of Marquette and Joliet and to perfect the discoveries so well begun by them. He went to Frontenac, then governor-general of Canada, and laid before him his plan for the establishment of a French empire in the west by connecting Canada and the Gulf of Mexico by a series of posts and forts from the great lakes down to the mouth of the Mississippi. The scheme was worthy the mind of a statesman and was at once accepted by Frontenac, who advised La Salle to proceed to France and obtain for his pro.ject the sanction and patronage of Louis XIV, then king, and of Colbert, his minister of finance and marine. Colbert and the king approved La Salle's plan of empire. He was made a chevalier and given command of the then frontier post of Fort Frontenac. This fort, named after the governor-general, was situated near the east end of Lake Ontario, at the head of the St. Lawrence river, on the site of the present city of Kingston. A fort had alreadv been built at the locality.

but had fallen into neglect. It was to be rebuilt by La Salle and made the base of his operations. He returned from France in high spirits and labored until the close of 1677 in the rebuilding and strengthening of the fort. He then went to France again and obtained additional favors and assistance from the government. On September loth, 1678, La Salle, with his lieutenant, Henry de Tonti, an Italian, and thirty men, arrived at Quebec, and in a few days proceeded to Fort Frontenac. There he was joined by Father Louis Hennepin, who was to become the principal historian of the proposed expedition, and who afterwards, under La Salle's direction, became an extensive explorer and discoverer «

Sec. 2. - On the Great Lakes. - On November 18th, 1678,La Salle embarked in a little vessel, to cross Lake Ontario from Frontenac to Niagara Falls. This is said to have been the first ship that sailed upon this inland sea. The winter following and the first part of the year 1679 was employed in the fur trade with the Indians and in constructing a vessel on Niagara river. This vessel was named the Griffin and was the first to navigate the upper lakes. On the 7th of AugiLst they set sail, passed through Lake Erie, by the straits. Lake St. Clair and Lake Huron, to ]\Iichilimaekinac, where they arrived on the 27th of tlie month. A fort was constructed at this point, and La Salle went with the Griffin to Green Bay for a load of pelts gathered there for him by the Indians. The vassel was sent back to Niagara with her precious cargo, and with instructions to exchange the furs for supplies needed for the expedition.

While waiting for the return of the Griffin La Salle and his party made preparations to proceed to the south end of the lake where he i)roposed to erect a fort and fix permanent headquarters. The canoes were divided into two fleets, one of which started ahead under La Salle himself, while the other was to follow under command of Tonti. The meeting place was to be at the mouth of the River of the

Miamis, afterwards named the St. Joseph. Here, after establishing a strong post to secure the future safety of the enterprise, they would await the coming of the Griffin. La Salle, coasting the western and southern shores of Lake Michigan, arrived at the river on November 1, 1679 ; and during that month built his fort on a high point between the lake and the river, where the city of St. Joseph now stands. He nained the post Fort Miamis. Tonti, coming by the eastern shore of the lake, arrived towards the end of the month."

Sec. 3. - The Portage of the St. Joseph. - That La Salle should have selected the route by the St. Joseph for his first memorable expedition to the west, makes it evident that this route, and the portage by the Kankakee, were, even then, wtII known to the French missionaries and explorers. If Marquette, but a little more than three years previous, had chosen the same route on his last journey from the Mississippi, it is not hard to understand that La Salle should have followed his example. The building of the fort, even before sailing up the river, is proof of La Salle 's confidence in the feasibility of reaching the Mississippi in this way. He must have had full and accurate knowledge of the St. Joseph and the Kankakee and of the portage connecting them. There can be no doubt that Marquette, who had a genius for geographical investigation and who had passed the last years of his life in the missions to the Illinois Indians, was familiar with all the routes from a. The point where La Salle built his fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph river is one of the rare historic spots in the United States. This point is on the lake bluff, at the junction of a deep ravine, seventy or eighty rods southwesterly from the present bank of the river. In 1902 the Daughters of the American Revolution marked the place with a gneiss boulder set upon a granite foundation. On a bronze plate, inserted in the face of the boulder, is the following legend: "This glacial boulder, found in the bed of the Saint Joseph river, was erected, in 1902, by the Algonquin Chapter, Daughters-American Revolution, to commemorate the landing of Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle, and building on this point Fort Miamis, 1679."

the lakes to the Mississippi, including this by the St. Joseph-Kankakee portage. It was the discoveries of jNIarquette that fired the ambition of La Salle. The missionary, on his first voyage to the west, had piloted the way down the Mississippi ; and now, on his last voyage from the west, we may well believe, he piloted the way up the Illinois and Kankakee, across the portage and down the St. Joseph. It is not a little remarkable that on this first effort to reach the great river La Salle, with his fleet of frail canoes, should have crossed from j\Iichilimackinac to the west coast of Lake Michigan, passed the Green Bay route, which ]\Iarquette had first followed, passed the Chicago river route, by which JNIarquette had returned from his first trip, should have coasted the southern extremity of the lake, and even turned north again on the east coast, until he reached the mouth of the St. Joseph river. He did not take this long trip around the lake without cause. If, however, he believed there was a southern current on the west coast and a northern current on the east coast ; and, particularly, if he had information that ]\Iarquette 's last and easiest journey was by the St. Joseph-Kankakee portage, the reasons for his choice of route are perfectly clear. Marquette's fame and his pathetic death were fresh in the minds of his religious brethren at the northern end of the lake; and also in the minds of those Indians who had journeyed with him in his last illness and those others who had even more recently sought out his grave and removed the revered body to St. Ignace. All these Indians were known to La Salle; and from them he certainly knew all the particulars concerning the whole history, and particularly the last journey, of his illustrious predeceasor. Going up the St. Joseph, therefore, we may well conclude. La Salle was but retracing the route so lately taken down the river by Marquette.

son to defend the fort and to await the return of the Griffin. The boat, however, did not return, nor was it ever heard of again. The loss of his ship and supplies was a severe blow to the hopes of La Salle, and interfered greatly with the success of his plans. But he never knew discouragement. The fleet up the river consisted of eight canoes, with La Salle in command. His lieutenant was Tonti, who had served in the French army, where he had lost one of his hands. He was a son of the distinguished financier who gave his name to the tontine system of life insurance. Father Louis Hennepin was also with the party, as likewise were Fathers Gabriel de la Ribourde and Zenobe Membre. As guide La Salle had brought with him a Mohegan Indian named Nika, or the White Beaver, a most faithful follower. There were about thirty men in addition.*

Scene On St. Joseph River Below La Salle Landing

The beautiful St. Joseph, as we know it, was called by La Salle the river of the Miamis, from the great Indian tribe which then occupied its banks. The party expected to reach the portage from this river to the The-a-ki-ki (from theak, a wolf), a name insensibly a. "The St. Joseph-Kankakee Portage," the valuable paper already referred to, read before the Northern Indiana Historical Society by its secretary, George A. Baker.

changed to Kankakee. This portage was known to be seventy or seventy -five miles from the mouth of the river of the Miamis; but it was passed without discovery by the fleet of canoes. The Mohegan guide had left the boats to hunt for game along the banks; and without his aid it was not easy to discover the old passageway up the high banks under the trees, particularly when covered with new fallen snow. The point where the trail starts from the river is at a sharp bend of the stream to the west, about two miles below the present limits of the city of South Bend and within the boundaries of River View Cemetery.

In Parkman's "Discovery of the Great West," the missing of the portage and the incidents which resulted from that accident are referred to as follows: "When they approached the site of the present village of South Bend, they looked anxiously along the shore on their right to find the portage or path leading to the headquarters of the Illinois. The Mohegan was absent, luuiting, and, unaided by his practiced eye, they passed the path without seeing it. La Salle landed to search the woods. Hours passed, and he did not return. Hennepin and Tonti grew uneasy, disembarked, bivouacked, ordered guns to be fired, and sent out men to scout the country. Night came, but not their lost leader. Muffled in their blankets and powdered by the thick falling snow-flakes, they sat ruefully speculating as to what had befallen him; nor was it until four o'clock of the next afternoon that they saw him approaching along the margin of the river. His face and hands were besmirched with charcoal ; and he was further decorated with two opossums, which hung from his belt, and which he had killed with a stick as they were swinging head downwards from the bough of a tree, after the fashion of that singular animal. He had missed his way in the forest, and had been forced to make a wide circuit around the edge of a swamp, while the snow, of which the air was full, added to his perplexities. Thus he pushed on through the rest of the day and the greater part of the night, till about two o'clock in the morning he reached the river again and fired his gun as a signal to his party. Hearing no answering shot, he pursued his way along the bank, when he presently saw the gleam of a fire among the dense thickets close at hand. Not doubting that he had found the bivouac of his party, he hastened to the spot. To his surprise no human being w^as to be seen. Under a tree beside the fire was a heap of dry grass impressed with the form of a man who must have fled but a moment before, for his couch was still warm. ... La Salle called out in several Indian languages; but there was dead silence all around. He then, with admirable coolness, took possession of the quarters he had found, shouting to their invisible proprietor that he was about to sleep in his bed ; piled a barricade of bushes around the spot, rekindled the dying fire, w^armed his benumbed hands, stretched himself on the dried grass and slept undisturbed till morning.

Father Louis Hennepin has left us a detailed account of this interesting incident, as also some observations on the journey up the St. Joseph, across* the portage and down the Kankakee*: "We embarked," says his narrative, "on the 3rd of December with thirty men in eight canoes and ascended the river of the Miamis, taking our course to the southeast for about twenty-five leagues.^ We could not make out the portage which we were to take with our canoes and all our equipage in order to go and embark at the source of the river, The-a-ki-ki,'' and as we had gone higher up in a canoe without discovering the place where we h. The French league was about three miles. Charlevoix estimates the distance from the mouth of the river to Fort St. Joseph, near Niles, at twenty leagues, sixty miles, which is very nearly correct; making the distance by the river from South Bend to Lake Michigan between seventy and seventy-five miles.

were to march by land to take the other river which runs by the Illinois, we halted to wait for the Sieur de La Salle, who had gone exploring on land, and as he did not return we did not know what course to pursue. I begged two of our most alert men to penetrate into the woods and fire off their guns, so as to give him notice of the spot where we were waiting for him. Two others ascended the river, but to no purpose, for the night obliged them to retrace their steps. The next day I took two of our men in a lightened canoe, to make greater expedition, and to seek him by ascending the river, but in vain; and at four o'clock in the afternoon we perceived him at a distance; his hands and face all black wdth the coals and wood that he had lighted during the night, which was cold. He had two animals'^ of the size of muskrats hanging to his belt, which had a very beautiful skin, like a kind of ermine, which he killed with blow^s of a stick without these little animals taking flight, and which often let themselves hang by the tail from branches of trees ; and as they were very fat our canoe men feasted on them. He told us that the marshes that he met with obliged him to make a wide sweep, and as moreover he was hindered by the snow, which was falling rapidly, he was unable to reach the bank of the river before two o'clock at night. He fired two gun-shots to notify us, and no one having answered him, he thought the canoes had gone ahead of him, and kept on his way along and up the^river. After marching in this way more than three hours he saw fire on a mound, which he ascended brusquely, and after calling two or three times ; but instead of finding us asleep, as he expected, he saw only a little fire among some brush, and under an oak tree the spot where a man had been lying down on some dry herbs, and who had apparently gone off at the noise which he had heard. It was some Indian. . . . He called to him in two or three languages, and at last, to show him that he did not fear him. he cried that he a. Opossums.

was going to sleep in his place. He renewed the fire, and. after warming himself well, he took steps to guarantee himself against surprise by cutting down around him a quantity of bushes, which, falling across those that remained standing, blocked the way so that no one could approach him without making considerable noise and awakening him. He then extinguished his fire and slept, although it snowed all night. Father Gabriel and I begged the Sieur de La Salle not to leave his party as he had done, showing him that the whole success of our voyage depended on his presence. Our Indian had remained behind to hunt, and not finding us at the portage he went higher up and came to tell us that we would have to descend the river. All our canoes were sent with him, and I remained with Sieur de La Salle, w^ho was very much fatigued, and as our cabin was composed only of flag-mats, it took fire and would have burnt us had I not promptly thrown off the mats, which served as a door to our little quarters, and which was all in flames. We joined our party the next day at the portage, where Father Gabriel had made several crosses (blazes) on the trees that we might recognize it. We found there a number of buffalo horns and the carcasses of those animals, and some canoes that the Indians had made of buffalo skin to cross the river with their load of meat. This place is situated on the edge of a great plain," at the ejftremity of which, on the western side, is a village of Miamis, Mascoutens and Ouiaton (Weas) gathered together.^ The river Seignelay (Kankakee), which flows to the Illinois, rises in a plain in the midst of much boggy land, over which it is not easy to waUc. This river is only a league and a half distant from that of the Miamis, and thus we transported all our equipage and our canoes by a road which we marked for the benefit of thase who might come after us, after leaving at. the portage of the Miamis river, as well as at the fort which we had built at its mouth, letters, which were hung on the trees at the pass to serve as a guide to them who were to come and join us by the barque," to the number of twenty-five. The river Seignelay is navigable for canoes to within a hundred paces of its source, and it increases to such an extent in a short time that it is almost as broad and deeper than the Marne. It takes its course through vast marshes, where it winds about so, though its current is pretty strong, that after sailing on it for a whole day we sometimes found that we had not advanced more than two leagues in a straight line. As far as the eye could reach nothing was to be seen but marshes full of flags and alders. For more than forty leagues of the way we could not have found a camping ground, except for some hummocks of frozen earth upon which we slept and lit our fire. "^

Sec. 4. - At the Village op the jMlvmis. - La Salle continued his voyage down the Kankakee and Illinois, past the great village on the north side of the river, opposite Starved Rock, until, on January 4, 1680, he reached a point on the Illinois, near the site of the present city of Peoria, where on a bluflf or rising ground he erected a fort. Owing to anxiety for the loss of the Griffin and the desperate straits to which he w.is tliereby' reduced, he named the fort Crevecieur (Broken Heart). The winter wore away, and with discontent among his followei-s aiul danger from the Iroquois of New Yoi'k. who were constantly threatening war upon the friendly Illinois, La Salle found it necessary to return to Canada for additional lu'lp. lie sent Father Hennepin with a small \y.\v\y In explore the upper Mississippi, placed Toiiti in charge of the little garrison of Crevecffiur; and, on the first of March, 1680, started on foot on his journey of twelve hundred miles, taking with him three companions, including the faithful Mohegan. After reaching Canada he found, as he had expected, everything in confusion; the Griffin was lost; his agents had cheated him, and his creditors had seized upon his goods. But La Salle knew neither fear nor despair, and by midsummer he was on his way to rejoin the little band on the Illinois. His ill fortune, however, was not ended. On arriving at his posts he found them deserted. The Iroquois had come all the way from New York to harass the friendly Indians of the prairies; and Tonti and his few followers had with difficulty escaped north tow^ard the lakes. Bitterly disappointed, but Avith hopes not yet extinguished, the heroic La Salle, in January, 1681, was compelled to return to Fort Miamis, at the mouth of the St. Joseph.f^

"There was," says Mr. Dunn, in his history of Indiana,'' "something almost touching the supernatural in the courage and resolution of La Salle. At that rude fort on the bank of the St. Joseph, in the discomforts of a severe winter, hundreds of miles from the French settlements, his faithful Tonti carried captive, killed, or a fugitive, he knew not which, his remaining comrades disheartened, his colony swept from the face of the earth, his credit shattered, his means dissipated by disasters of flood and field, this man calmly reconstructed his plans and prepared to renew his enterprise on a more extended basis than before. He determined to refound his colony on the Illinois, and surround it with a confederation of the northwestern tribas that would be strong enough to repel any army the Iroquois could bring against it. His first converts were the warriors of a little band of Abenakis and Mohegans, driven from their New England homes in ihe border wars of the English colonists. These refugees had found no resting place till they reached the clear Avaters of the St. Joseph. They gladly allied themselves to the white chief who promised to interpose the strong arm of the French king for their protection. Scarcely were they won when a Shawnee chief, from a village on the Ohio, appeared and asked protection from the Iroquois. La Salle with easy confidence promised what was asked: 'The Chaonanous^' are too distant ; but let them come to me at the Illinois and they shall be safe.' The chief promised to join him in the succeeding autumn, and kept his word.

' ' As soon as the weather began to moderate La Salle started west on foot, wdth twenty men, to seek communication with the Illinois, who were necessary factors in his plan. The first Indians found were some Outagamies, from whom he received the glad tidings that Tonti was safe with the Pottawatomies near Green Bay. Soon after they found a band of Illinois, to whom La Salle, after making presents and lamenting their misfortunes, submitted his plan. They heard him with satisfaction, and departed to carry the proposal to the remainder of the tribe. Membre says that La Salle visited other tribes at this time, but he does not name them. His journey was not long, for early in the spring he was at Fort Miamis, and, taking with him ten men, went from there up the river to the Miamis, at the village above the portage.^ It was a propitious season for approaching them. In the late conflict they had remained neutral, but they were now beginning to realize that the intentions of the Iroquois towards them were none of the best. They had murdered a band of Miamis the preceding summer, and not only had refused to make reparation, but also had stationed parties of warriors in the h. This great Village of the Miamis was located at and about Mount Pleasant, west of the site of South Bend. The territory covered, as near as can be determined, extended along the St. Joseph about two miles, from the Portage to Mosquito Glen, and west to Chain Lakes and the confines of the Kankakee. The visit of La Salle was made in May, 1681.

Miami country, who assumed the air of conquerors and held up to contempt the power of the French. La Salle found one of these bands of Iroquois at the village. He at once confronted them, threatened them with punishment for their attack on Tonti, and challenged them to repeat in his presence their insults to the French. The Iroquois had not forgotten the former commander of Fort Frontenac, and in his presence their courage oozed away. During the following night, much to the astonishment of the Miamis, they stealthily left the village. With so much of prestige, and by the aid of a band of refugee Indians from the east who were wintering at the point and who at once made alliance with La Salle, the JNIiamis were easily won. On the second day after the flight of the Iroquois they declared their determination to become brothers of the Illinois and children of the French king, and celebrated the new order of things with feasting and dances."

The scene of this treaty with the Miamis, in their famous village at Mount Pleasant on Portage Prairie, one of the most important events in the history of St. Joseph county, is thus graphically described in "La Salle in the Valley of the St. Joseph," by Charles H. Bartlett and Richard H. Lyon :

"To check the Iroquois and to provide for the common defense of the native inhabitants, La Salle sought to form a coalition of all the western tribes and to move the principal bands to the vicinity of Starved Rock,« on the Illinois river. He had matured such a plan while spending the winter at his stronghold. Fort Miamis, at the mouth of our St. Joseph river. He had retreated to this place for safety after having witnessed the desolation of the Illinois town. He found the various tribes favorable to such a plan of defense against the enemy from the east; but its permanent success could not be assured until he had won a. "Fort St. Louis was located on what was then called Le Rocher, now Starved Rock, on the south side of the Illinois river, opposite the town of Utica." Dunn's History of Indiana, p. 32.

the powerful Miamis to the support of the cause. The Iroquois, however, were subtle enough to discover what was going on and, anticipating the movements of the French, they laid siege to the hearts of the JNIiamis with such success as to strongly incline them toward the English. At this critical moment, La Salle, with ten companions, visited the town of the Miamis on our Portage Prairie and in the Chain Lakes region, and invited these Indians to a council. They consented to hear what La Salle might have to say. They would hold a council at the lodge of their head chief on a certain day and when the sun stood at a certain height in the heavens.

"This chief was a very remarkable man. Both the Jesuit missionary. Father Dablon, and also Nicholas Perrot, the most famous of all voyageurs, have left tributes to his memory. They represent him a.s kind-hearted and gentlemanly and possessing great intellectual penetration. So just and wise was he that he was held in great esteem, even among other tribes more or less hostile to the Miamis, as was shown in the delegations which such tribes were constantly sending to consult this wilderness law-giver concerning their own affairs. Father Dablon says that he was a savage only in name. Yet this priest was probably the first white man that the chief had seen. When the hour for the council arrived some of the mats were lifted from the lodge of this head chief and the tent poles moved to one side, so that the people might see the council and might hear the discourse nnd imderstaiid the nature of the transactions that were going forward. The prominent warriors of Ihe tribe were arranged in a semi-circle on either side of their great leader, and before them stood La Salle with his companions around him.

"The scene was one well worthy the brush of some great artist. The little prairie over whicli their glances swept from time to liiiH". .iikI through which the portage path Hk'Ii ran. is spoken of by the early traveler as a place of oreat beauty. Its eastern margin reaches in one spot almost to the landing on the St. Joseph, where the Frenchmen had drawn their canoes out of the water, and after rising by gentle swells to the high point where these lodges of the Miamis then stood, the plain sinks gradually to the west. . . . From the elevated spot at the center, the vision easily includes many miles along the charming valley of the St. Joseph on the east, the tract where South Bend now stands. In that day, sylvan avenues replaced our streets and gigantic forest trees our dwellings, trees that stood far apart and lifted their lowermost branches thirty to forty feet from the ground. Beneath, no undergrowth was allowed to survive, but everywhere was spread a soft, thick turf, W'hile here and there in the park-like vistas could be seen the antlered buck or the does with their fa^ois.

' ' But when those who had assembled for this council turned their eyes to the south and the west, they beheld the great fens and marshes of the Kankakee land sweeping far away with the river's onward course to the plains of Illinois and the Mississippi. Glistening pools everywhere dotted this vast area, pools that were the homes of countless millions of waterfowls. Flocks of plover and snipe swept around the borders of the marsh land, while the cranes stood in a row in the shallow water, or rising on slow and ponderous pinions, tiled off in a never varying line toward the sky's silver edge. A veritable cloud of ducks and geese and swans, coming in from the swift cold waters of the St. Joseph, fell into the silent pools with splash and clamor and confusion of buffeting wings. The unaccustomed eye of the guest in this Indian encampment must have given more than a passing glance to this endless whirl of happy life that fluttered over the marshes. But the red skinned host fixed his gaze not on the water fowls, not on the hundreds of hawks that patrolled the vast fields of wild rice, but upon the great war eagles that rose on slanting pinions, 'climbing their airy spirals to the clouds.' Happy the Indian whose brave deeds were such that his tribe would allow him to fasten to his hair the plumes of the war eagle. Each feather is an historical record. The first one stands for the brave act in which this hero overcame his people 's foe at the ford near the portage landing. The next marks the time when he repulsed the Kickapoos that lay in the tall grasses along the Kankakee to ambush a ]\Iiami hiuiter. And this third feather stands for the victory which he won when the young men of his tribe contended with the Ottawas on this very prairie in the famous ball play. But concerns more important than the birds of the air filled the mind of La Salle as he turned to meet the glance of those flashing eyes that alone gave aniination to the dark and rigid features of those men of the wilderness. One can picture in his fancy the stalwart explorer, with pentrating eye, flowing hair and bronzed, stern visage, standing fearless and self-reliant and drawing to himself the unflinching gaze of those solemn auditors.. La Salle, at the height of his strong manhood, was then thirty-seven .years of age and in perfect health. He was of powerful mold, but there was nothing of the braggart ; yet, when it became necessary, he displayed both his physical strength and his mental force.

awed by threats, he was, withal, a cultivated and refined gentleman, and could shine in the palace of a king as well as in this red man's wigwam. The listening warriors w^ere quickly moved by his eloquence, for La Salle was deeply skilled in the forensic arts as they held sway at that time in the American forest. . . .

"We are sorry that our ancestors did not understand the Indian. We wish that they could have understood him as the French did, as La Salle did. The latter having won their hearts, proceeded to show them at this council what great advantages might be theirs, if they would stand under the banner of the great king, Louis XIV. 'He who is my master,' said he, 'and the master of all this country, is a mighty chief feared by the whole world ; but he loves peace, and the words of his lips are for good alone. He is called the King of France, and he is the mightiest of the chiefs beyond the great water. . . It is his will that you should obey his laws, and make no war without leave of Onontio,* who commands in his name at Quebec and who loves all the nations alike, because such is the will of the great king. You ought, then, to live at peace with your neighbors, and above all with the Illinois. You have had causes of quarrel with them; but their defeat has avenged you. Though they are still strong, they wish to make peace with you. Be content with the glory of having obliged them to ask for it. You have an interest in preserving them : since, if the Iroquois destroy them, they will next destroy you. ijet us all obey the great king and live together in peace under his protection. Be of my mind, and use these guns that I hJive given you, not to make war, but only to hunt and to defend yourselves. ' belts of wampum." The chief received the tokens. His act was significant, for it showed that he and his people were disposed to consider carefully the propositions of their French guest. The chief rfiade no further reply, but dissolved the council. He could make no further reply until the members of the tribe had been given an opportunity to express their preferences. But they did not deliberate long among themselves, for it was found that all with one accord called loudly for the French alliance. So the following day the council was convened again, and the chief gave the tribe's endorsement of a treaty of mutual helpfulness between Miamis and Frenchmen. The oration of the chief was a series of metaphors in which he accepts for his people the protection of the great king, and pledges to his cause the 'beaver and the lands of the Miamis, ' and themselves individually - body, intellect and heart. His speech had all the ecstacy and sincerity of a lover's song. And the Anglo-Saxon must admit that it was greatly to the credit of the French that their empires in the American wil(l(M-iu\ss were thus wooed and won. ' '

Sec. 5. - Down the Mississippi. - After his success in the formation of his Indian confederacy and in securing the agreement of the Miamis and other Indians of Indiana. ]\Iichigan, Illinois and Wisconsin to remove to tlu' country around Starved Rock, where Fort St. Louis under command of Tonti should prove a stronghold for their j:)rotection and secure both Indians and French fi-om the incursions of the Iroquois, La Sjtllc. with renewed confidence, went forward in the prosecution of his great enterprise, the exploration of the ^Nlississippi and its valley down to the Gulf of Mexico, His good fortuni' in the organization of the Indians into a confederacy friendly to the French and strong enough to resist the Iroquois, seemed the beginning of a cliange in the fortunes of the hard-tried leader. In June. 1(J81, he had the pleasure of meeting

Tonti at ]\Iackinae. From there he went to Fort Frontenac where he made preparations for his new expedition, and in November was back at Fort Miamis. About the middle of December all things were ready. They did not go at this time by the Kankakee, but moved along the south shore 6t Lake Michigan to the Chicago river, up which they sailed, crossed the portage and passed down the Des Plaines and Illinois to Fort Crevecoeur. On February 6th, 1682, they were on the banks of the Mississippi, and on April the 6th they reached the mouth, or rather the three mouths, of the great river. On the 9th of April, an elevated spot was selected on the bank, in latitude twenty-seven degrees, where a column and a cross were solemnly set up, and the whole country watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries was taken possession of for France and for the Christian religion.'^ La Salle called the country Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV. of France; and the empire so established by this intrepid explorer continued, with one interruption, to be French territory for over one hundred and twenty years, and until another great French ruler. Napoleon Bonaparte, to prevent the rich valley from falling into the hands of the English, conveyed it, in 1803, to the American republic, during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson.

La Salle called the river "Colbert or Mississippi ; " the first in honor of his friend and patron, the great French statesman, the second being the Indian Mesi-sepi, or great river. Marquette had called it the river of the Immaculate Conception. While the discoveries made by ^Marquette and La Salle are those that have been fruitful of great results to our country and to the world, yet the river had been seen by white men many years before either Marquette or La Salle. In 1519, the mouth of the Mississippi was discovered by the Spanish explorer, Alonzo de Pineda, who called it the Espiritu Santo. In 1528, another

Spaniard, Cabeza de Vaca, crossed the river near its mouth. On May 1, 1541. Hernando de Soto, almost as great a man as La Salle himself, in his expedition from Florida, reached the jNIississippi, not far from the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude, at the lower Chickasaw bluft's, a little below the present city of Memphis."^ He called the river Rio Grande, meaning the same as the Indian ]Mesi-sepi, great river.

In 1684, La Salle led another expedition from France. This final venture went all the way by sea, sailing directly for the mouth of the Mississippi ; the intention being to found a -colony at that point. In this voyage the evil fortune of La Salle seemed to return. As he had missed the portage of the Kankakee in coming up the St. Joseph with his fleet of canoes, in 1679, so now his ocean fleet missed the mouth of the Mississippi, and he landed at Mat-agorda bay, or Bay St. Louis, as he called it, in the prasent state of Texas. Here they built a fort and tried to discover the ' ' Hidden River, ' ' as they called the Mississippi. Matters grew worse from month to month, until in ]\Iarch, 1687, a mutiny broke out and many of La Salle's friends, including the faithful Mohegan, were put to death. On the 20th of the month he was hiuLself stricken down.^ So perished the discoverer of the lower Mississippi and founder of Louisiana ; a man fitted for empire, and the greatest, perhaps, of the leaders of French enterprise in America.

Sec. 6. - The Passing op the Portage. - In St. Joseph county, local interest in La Salle centers in his voyage up the St. Joseph and over the portage, in 1679; and in his treaty with the Miamis, in 1681. It is a question how far he w^ent up the river when he missed the landing at the portage on his first visit to our county. "We do not know," say Bartlett and Lyon, in their historical sketch of La Salle in the Valley of the St. Joseph, "how far they ascended the river beyond this point [the portage landing] before their mistake was discovered. It is fair to presume, however, that they could not have continued for any great distance above the spot known as the south bend of the river [a little east of the present Miami street] ; for they must soon have discovered that beyond this place the trend of the river-bed led away from the region of the Kankakee. They landed and prepared to search for the portage. La Salle in his eagerness to find the path, set forth alone. And here the unexpected happened. He was soon lost. . . . The situation was one which might easily confuse any explorer. He was on the spot where the very tip end of the Kankakee valley merges into that of the St. Joseph. Over this spot the water of the latter river once ran, when, in ancient geological times, the portion of our river above the south bend was a continuation of the valley of the Kankakee.* La Salle was looking for a ridge which should divide the two river velleys. He doubtless supposed that the hills to the south of the present road between South Bend and ]Mishawaka [Vistula Avenue], formed that ridge and strove to reach their summit. In doing so, he was compelled to pick his way through the long, swampy tract lying between these hills and the St. Joseph. The view from the highland showed him the great Kankakee marsh on the west. But in his return to his companions, he missed the devious path by which he had come, and tried to go around this marshy tract extending for several miles to the east. Tonti says that 'he had to make the detour. ' In doing so he must have gone east nearly as far as the present site of the village of Osceola. Here he came again to the banks of the St. Joseph. ' '

In Hennepin's account, already quoted, we are informed that it was two o'clock in the night when La Salle reached the river. He had left the party the day before, and considering the shortness of the days in Decema. See Chapter First, Sub-Division VII, "The Great Kankakee."

ber, he must have been walking for ten or twelve hours before he got around the swampy grounds which are now the rich peppermint flats above Mishawaka. Hennepin tells us, moreover, that after La Salle had reached the river and fired his gun to notify his followers, and, receiving no response, he thought the canoes had gone ahead of him ; and that he then kept on his way along up the river, marching more than three hours more before he saw the light on the high ground, where he believed his companions were asleep, but which was an Indian's resting place in which he soon after went to sleep. This gives us probably fifteen hours of travel from the time La Salle left the canoes at the south bend of the river until he settled himself to sleep in the frightened Indian's bed of grass and leaves. It would seem that, allowing for the difficulty of walking in the snow and for all other delays and obstructions, this fifteen hours of continuous walking would have taken La Salle far above the present site of Osceola. The next morning he seems to have changed his mind and turned down the river to find his companions; but it was four o'clock in the afternoon when those in the advance saw him coming along the margin of the river. How high up the river was this point of meeting is also uncertain. From Hennepin's account it is certain that it was far above the portage, for the canoes had gone up beyond the south bend of the river before La Salle left llirm to search for the trail, and Hennepin says that next day he took a lightened canoe and ascended the river to seek their leader. And after they had found him and the IMohegan had come up and told them that the portage was far below, and they had sent back all their canoes with the Indian to wait at the portage, Hennepin says that he staid all night with La Salle "who was very much fatigued," and that on the next day they went down the river and joined the rest of the party at the portage. Tonti says that the point where the Mohegan found the party was two leagues, that is, six miles, above the portage. It would appear, therefore that the point where La Salle was tirst discovered coming down the margin of the river, with the opossums hanging from his belt, must have been not lower than within the present limits of the city of Mishawaka, while the night before was spent by him at least as high up as the site of Osceola.

Iii. Primitive Inhabitants

Dr. J\Iontgomery,« in speaking of the time towards the close of the last ice age, when the great Kankakee carried its waters from Saginaw Bay down the valleys of the St. Joseph and the Kankakee to the Mississippi, tells us that, "If a man could have stood upon the hills of Rum Village, a vast panorama of water would have met his gaze : To the northeast, as far as the eye could reach, a stream from five to six miles wide and a hundred feet in depth, passing at his feet and rolling onward to the southwest, confined only by the hills on the north and on the south ; and to the northwest a tributary of the same great stream three miles wide and limited in the line of his vision only by the horizon." And he adds: "And primitive man was here." This conclusion, that the first man was .already here, is read by the learned scientist in the records of our rocks.

Sec. 1. - The Mound Builders. - But other and more easily deciphered records are found upon the face of the earth, all over the region of the Mississippi valley, indicating the presence, at a comparatively recent period, of a highly intelligent race. These people, for whom we have no name, but who are vaguely included under the general term of ]\Iound Builders, have left evidences of extensive works in the vicinity of our great rivers and their tributaries. These works are of three kinds: Mounds; square and circular enclosures ; and raised embankments of various forms. The absence of remains of buildings is explained by the circumstance that timber was here abundant, and would therefore be chosen for building instead of stone. The Mound Builders are believed to be the same people who have left buildings of stone in New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico and various parts of Central and South America. The stone structures of those countries remain, but the wooden buildings of our own region would leave no trace after a few hundred years. These mysterious people disappeared from our country ages ago. Nature does not give a forest growth at once to abandoned fields ; a preparatory growth of shrubs and softer timber comes first. But forest trees have been found upon the summit of these mounds which show, by annual rings and other signs, at least six hundred years of growth. There could be no better proof of the great antiquity of these mounds. The Mound Builders occupied the country, at least the southern part of it, where their population was densest, for a very long time. This is shown by the extent of their remains, by their workings in the copper mines of the Lake Superior region, and by many other proofs. At the south they were at peace ; but as they advanced northward they came more and more into contact with the wild tribes, before whom they finally retired again towards the southern countries from which they had come.

In the Lake Superior region have been found, as already intimated, the copper mines worked by these ancient people. In one of these mines there was discovei*ed an immense block of copper weighing nearly six tons. It had been left in the process of removal to the top of the mine, nearly thirty feet above, and was supported on logs of wood which were partly petrified. The stone and copper tools used by the miners were discovered lying about as they had been left by their owTiers ages ago. At the mouth of this mine are piles of earth thrown out in digging the mine ; and out of these embankments trees are

As said by ^laurice Thompson, in his delightful Stories of Indiana, it is hard to realize now what the face of the land looked like fifty or sixty years ag'o, even when old people most graphically describe it from memory. Still more difficult do we find it when we try to look back to the far-off time when the first human footprints were made in Indiana. We might naturally suppose that these first visitors were Indians, but we do not know that this conjecture is anywhere near the truth. What we do know is tnat strange and interesting traces of hmnan activities, dating back probably many centuries, are clearly marked in almost every region. These are mostly earthworks of various forms - ^mounds, embankments, and curious garden-like arrangements of soil beds with walks between. In some places beds or heaps of shells, broken and charred bones of fish, birds and quadrupeds, suggest camping spots where cooking and feasting went on for years. And almost always in connection with these mounds and the like are found human bones, curious copper and stone and pottery implements, and the crude ornaments worn by the people. They had for arms bows and arrows and spears, and used stone axes and knives; while the women sewed with flint needles. They were hunters, fishermen and warriors.

It is said that the Indians found here when white men first arrived had a va^ie tradition that their distant ancestors came from far towards the setting sun. probably the southwest. These first men liked to dwell beside running streams, where they could build earthworks, on high, well-drained land overlooking the course of the w^ater and commanding a view of the surrounding country. Some of the most beautiful landscapes in Indiana lie round about these sites of ancient encampments. Doubtless the Mound Builders were expert canoemen and used the streams as highways of travel and as base lines from which to make explorations and hunting excursions; for almost every water course in Indiana then navigable for canoes has here and there along its banks traces of the Mound Builders' art. The implements of copper, of stone and of pottery found imbedded in the mounds show the effect of patient and quite accurate work. Arrowheads of flint were sometimes so neatly finished that they are marvels of symmetry even when compared with like heads made of steel by the best workmen of Europe for archers in the time when the bowmen of England were the finest soldiers in the world. Stone mortars and pestles for pounding grain and the kernels of nuts and acorns into meal served them instead of mills. For knives they had sharp stones and keen-edged blades of bone. It is evident that the Mound Builders depended mostly upon spears and bows and arrows for killing game. If we knew the form of their bows it would aid us greatly in finding out more about their character as men ; for among the wildwood hunters, before firearms reached them, the bow was the best sign of their condition. Short, weak bows stood for an inferior people; long and strong bows indicated a stalwart race of men. But many of the arrowheads found in the mounds are large and heavy, fitted for use only with powerful bows ; and the axes and spear points were ponderous weapons suggestive of great muscular force in those who used them.

From the northernmost part of the state down to the Ohio river the INIonnd Builders had their fortifications, and the same may be said of the whole country on down to the Gulf of Mexico. In many places stone walls were built instead of earthworks, the masonry being regular and strong, but laid without mortar. We have noted that the mounds were almost invariably built on high points of ground overlooking considerable areas of surrounding countrv. This choice may have been a measure of precaution against the ap- proach of enemies, but there was a more urgent and natural reason for it. In those early days Indiana's territory was almost as much water as dry land. During a great part of the year nearly all the low, flat lands were too wet for camping purposes, and in times of long-continued rain even the animals were all forced by the water to take refuge on the high places. How easy it was then for the Mound Builders to go in their light canoes to the grounds thus surrounded by water and take all the game they needed. No doubt the floods often drove whole herds of deer, flocks of wild turkeys, and even many bears and pimias, wild cats and wolves up to the very walls of the encampments. And this may be why such vast numbers of arrowheads are to this day found on the high grounds.

A great many signs point to the south and southwest as the direction whence the first inhabitants reached Indiana. Sometimes little things are more significant than large ones, and the fact that some of the arrowheads and stone ornaments found in and around our ancient earthworks are made of certain kinds of stone not appearing anywhere this side of Tennessee, speaks almost as clearly as written legend of the route by which their owners came to this region. Some historians have thought that the Mound Builders were a race greatly superior to the Indians found here by the whites, and have tried to show, by remains left here by that vanished people, that they were advanced in intelligence. Others maintain that the Mound Builders were but ordinary Indians, the ancestors of tribes still in existence when the French missionaries and traders came to this region. <*

While no remains of great magnitude, left by the Mound Builders, are found in St. Joseph county, yet indications of the presence of those mysterious people are discovered in many places in and near the valleys of the St. Joseph and the Kankakee.

Near New Carlisle, on the borders of Terre Coupee Prairie, and at various other points such remains are discovered. The most remarkable of these are three large mounds and two small ones, found in Warren township, on the northwest bank of the furthest south of the group of Chain lakes, just south of the Lake Shore railroad tracks. These mounds have supplied some of the finest of the copper axes in the collections of the Northern Indiana Historical Society and other collections; while in the vicinity of the mounds are the usual cloth-marked fragments of pottery and broken stone implements indicating the presence of that old race Avhose remains are so conspicuous throughout the valley of the Kankakee and the Illinois.

Across Portage Prairie, by the portage or pathway from the St. Joseph to the Kankakee, the Mound Builders, like the Indian tribes that came after them, carried on the commerce that went from the lakes to the gulf in those far off years. Old residents who yet remain with us remember this pathway as deep and straight, so deep in places that a man on horseback could abnost touch the level ground on either side with his foot. It is not difficult to understand why this pathway, this ancient trail from the St. Joseph to the Kankakee, should have been straight and deep ; caused as it was by one dusky traveler and burden bearer, moving, man after man, in the footsteps of his predecessor, and by the moccasined foot pressing the soil deeper and deeper, year after year and age after age.

Unnumbered centuries and countless hosts knew the trend of this ancient highway ; ages when the hosts of the lower Mississippi and the gulf, and the regions to the south, sought the copper mines of the upper lake region. Not only in the mounds throughout the great valley and the gulf region, but also in the oldest of the Peruvian tombs, are found implements and tokens made from Lake Superior copper. And we maj^ not doubt that the traffic which these facts imply was itself,

Sec. 2. - Our Miamis and Pott aw atomies. - But the earth records of the Mound Builders are almost as unsatisfactory in the reading as are the records of the rocks which tell us of the presence of man in the geological ages ; and we turn with relief to the somewhat scanty written records, - letters, journals and reports of missionaries, fur traders, explorers and adventurers, - who tell us of the people that occupied these regions when they first became known to civilized man.

When La Salle reached the St. Joseph, in 1679, he found the country in the possession of the Miami Indians, and he gave the name of that tribe to the river. Mr. Dunn says that, "The main body of the Miamis proper, whom the English called Twigh-twees, were located in 1680 on the St. Joseph of Lake ]\Iicliigan, a little above the site of South Bend."^ This was the Miami village at Mount Pleasant on Portage Prairie. The Miamis were a tribe of the great Algonquin nation. This nation formerly occupied the territory now comprized in the New England states, eastern New York and Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, parts of North Carolina. Kentucky and Tennessee, and nearly all of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. There were no less than eleven or twelve tribes of the Algonquin nation : Ottawas, Chippewas, Sacs and Foxes, Miamis, Pottawatomies, Shawnees, Powhatans, Delawares, Mohegans, Naragansetts and Pequods; all speaking different dialects of the same speech. The Algonquins were the most extensive and powerful of the Indian nations. Their bitter enemies were the Iroquois, who occupied western Canada and New York and the country on the south shore of Lake Erie. The nation of the Iroquois was divided into five tribes: Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneia. Bartlett and Lyon's "La Salle in the St. Joseph Valley," pp. 52, 64.

das and Mohawks. Several years after La Salle's visit, in 1722, they admitted into their confederacy the Tuscarosas, who had some time previously emigrated to New York from the Carolinas. The Iroquois are therefore known in history at first as the Five Nations, and afterwards as the Six Nations. They were perhaps the most highly accomplished and the bravest of the northern Indian nations. They are known to our state only by their warlike incursions from the east, and their attacks upon different tribes of their hereditary enemies, the Algonquins. At La Salle's coming there was almost constant war between the Iroquois and a confederacy of tribes, who called themselves Illinois, that is, real men, or manly fighters. The Illinois, properly speaking, did not constitute a tribe, but a confederacy: Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Tamaronas, Peorias and Mitchigamias. The last tribe,, which is said to have come from west of the Mississippi, gave its name to Lake Michigan, formerly called, from the confederacy. Lake Illinois. The Illinois confederacy was formed to resist the incursions of the Iroquois, but was scarcely a match for the latter. This enmity of the two great confederacies was at first a chief obstacle to the success of La Salle's explorations. The Iroquois were allies of the English, while their ancient enemies, the Algonquins, were almost always on good terms with the French. The country to the south of the lakes was therefore unsafe ground for the French, wlio were consequently compelled to make their approaches by the lakes from the north." But even the Indiana and Illinois territory was invaded by the terrible Iroquois ; and the less warlike and less united Algonquins seemed unable to resist them. It was for this reason that La Salle determined to form a powerful and well united confederacy which should take the place of the inefficient Illinois confederacy, and so protect both the French posts and missions and the western Indians themselves from their eastern foes. In this he succeeded, as we have seen. The jNIiamis ,of our valley, and indeed of all northern Indiana, were at first timid about joining against the dreaded Iroquois, but they were finally persuaded by the argimients and the eloquence of La Salle. The result was that the Miamis and all other Indians left northern Tndiana and went to reside in the Illinois country, around Starved Rock, joining the great confederacy of Algonquins formed at that point by La Salle. In speaking of two ancient maps, dra^^^l about 1684, Mr. Dunn" says : ' ' On neither map is there any mark of an Indian village or French post within the limits of Indiana, although all other known villages and posts are marked. The reason was that there were no Indians residing in Indiana. They had all removed to the Illinois. So far as has yet been discovered, none of them returned before the opening of the eighteenth century."

Soon after La Salle's death his confederacy began to dissolve. The French, however, were then better able to protect themselves, and the Iroquois generally found enough to occupy their attention in the east. Of the tribes gathered by La Salle at Starved Rock, some returned to their former abode, while others sought new habitations. The Pottawatomies who had come from the Green Bay country, in Wisconsin,^ took possession of the southern shores of Lake ^Michigan and the adjacent territories now known as southwestern Michigan, northwestern Indiana and northeastern Illinois. The Indians known to the early English speaking inhabitants of St. Joseph county were therefore chiefly Pottawatomies. With them were mingled some Miamis. Chippewas and others. The great body of the jNIiamis, however, went farther south and east in Indiana and into Ohio, their chief settlements in Indiana being on the Wabash and near the head waters of the Maumee, where the city of Fort Wayne now stands. But the Miamis always considered themselves the rightful owners of all the territory included within the state of Indiana, as well as a large part of the adjacent sections of Ohio, Illinois and ^Michigan.

More than a hundred years after the death of La Salle, the renowned i\Iish-i-kin-ak-wa, or Little Turtle, the greatest of the Miamis, at the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, said to General Anthony Wayne : "I hope you will pay attention to what I will now say to you. I wish to inform you where your younger brothers, the Miamis, live. . . . You have pointed out to us the boundary line between the Indians and the United. States; but I now take the liberty to inform you that that line cuts off from the Indians a large portion of country which has been enjoyed by my forefathers from time immemorial, without molestation or dispute. The print of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen in this portion. ... It is well known by all my brothers present, ihat my forefather kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence he extended his lines to the headwaters of the Scioto; from thence, to its mouth; from thence, doAvn the Ohio, to the mouth of the Wabash; and from thence, to Chicago, on Lake Michigan. ' '

Dillon informs us that, "In the early part of the eighteenth century, and perhaps for a long period before that time, the Miamis dwelt in small villages, at varioiis suitable places within the boundaries of their large territory. Some of these villages were found on the banks of the Scioto - a few were situated in the vicinity of the headwaters of the great Miami - ^some stood on the banks of the river ]\Iaumee - others on the St. Joseph of Lake ^Michigan - and many were found on the borders of the Wabash, and on some of the principal tributaries of that river. The villages which stood on the banks of the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, those which lay about the headwaters of the ]\Iaumee, and those which stood on the borders of the Wabash, were often visited by Christian missionaries and by fur traders, before the middle of the eighteenth century."*

It is plain, therefore, that our Pottawatomies occupied the valleys of the St. Joseph and Kankakee by grace of the Miamis. "Branches of the Pottawatomie, Shawnee, Delaware and Kickapoo tribes," says Dillon, "were, at different periods of time, permitted to enter, and reside at various places, within the boundaries of the large territory which was claimed by the Miamis."^ Indeed it was not at all uncommon for bands of different Algonquin tribes to dwell in peace within one another's territory. Such a band of the Miamis themselves lived in Wisconsin with the Kickapoos and Mascoutins.'^

Sec. 1. - TiiE French Po^ver. - While the famous post kno^^^l as Fort St. Joseph was not located within the limits of St. Joseph county, and not even within the limits of the State of Indiana, yet for nearly a hundred years the history of that post was the history of the valley to which it gave its name, and no history of our county could be complete without giving some attention to the old fort.

On the west bank of the St. Joseph, about sixty miles from the mouth of the river, measured by the windings of the stream, the ]\Iiamis retained a noted fishing village which had been located at this point long before the white man's day. "The town," says Mr. Bartlett in his charming volume. Tales of Kankakee Land, "was there when La Salle invaded the region, and doubtless the spot had been held by many races through many ages past ; for this part of the stream was one of the famous fLshing grounds."^' Across the river, and not far from the east bank, attracted no doubt by the same cause, the Pottaa. Dillon, Hist. Indiana, pp. 5, 6.

watomies, probably soon after coming into the valley, established a village of their own. These towns were located about a mile above the present city of Niles and ten or twelve miles below South Bend." Here, on the east bank of the river, was established, at a very early date, the mission of St. Joseph. It would seem that this mission was founded by Father AUouez, the same zealous missionary who, in 1665, had established at the Falls of St. Maiy (Sault Ste. Marie) the firet permanent mission in the northwest. In 1673, as already noted, when ]Marquette was on his way to the discovery of the upper Mississippi, he came to an Indian village on the Fox river where Father Allouez had preached to the ^liamis, Mascoutins and Kickapoos of the Green Bay country.^ It is also known that in 1670, 1671 and 1672, Allouez and Dablon traversed the whole region along the western and southern shores of Lake Michigan;'' and there can be little doubt that on such a journey the missionaries would visit the famous fishing village of the Miamis.

In Nevin's "Black Robes, or Sketches of Missions and Ministers in the Wilderness and on the Border," it is said that the fii-st attempt at establishing a mission at this point was made in 1675 ; and that the design was permanently accomplished in 1()80. when Allouez and Dablon, having coasted Lake ]Michigan from Green Bay, entei-ed the St. Joseph and proceeded up the i-iver until they reached this yioint. ITci-c. adds llic writci-. on the east hank of tlu' rivci-. rises a semicircular blufl'. at the base of which, and through the soil of the niaishy h'veh runs a hi-ook into the St. Joseph. On this blntV Allouez huilt a chapel, aiul neai-by a log - cabin for his own accommodation. This mission cared not only for the T^lianiis across the a. Mr. Dunn's Hist. Indiana, in a note at page 26, says that an itinerary in the Haldiniand Collection fixes this point at twelve miles below the South Bend Portage. This might be nearly correct, measuring by the windings of the river.

river, but, in the course of the next few years, watched over all the Pottawatomies and other tribes on both sides of the stream, including those around the Notre Dame lakes and along the banlvs of the Kankakee. . Bartlett and Lyon say that "It does, indeed, seem not unlikely that Allouez, who was with the Miami Indians in 1672, should have followed them from their Wisconsin home when they migrated to this valley. He was certainly here at a later datej devoting the closing years of his life to the work of the mission on the St. Joseph, where he died in 1690. "« The same authors, in another connection, say that " about seven thousand Miamis left the St. Joseph valley after the treaty on Portage Prairie with La Salle, and joined that explorer's confederacy on the Illinois, at Starved Rock; and that when La Salle lost his life in Texas, and Tonti retired from the Illinois country, "Father Allouez brought back a remnant of these people to their old home on the St. Joseph."'^

On the same high bluff on which the mission of St. Joseph's was established, but how soon after or by whom is not certainly known, a fort was erected, which took its name from the mission, being called Fort St. Joseph's. This fort was thereafter the chief stronghold of the French in this vicinity; and the post was for many years one of the most important in French America. It was the center of the fur trade and other commerce of the St. Joseph and Kankakee valleys. Here came French and Indians from all the surrounding country; and to this point expeditions were sent up the river from Lake Michigan, and from here they passed on to the south, across the portage and down the Kankakee, to the Illinois country. The center of missionary effort among the Pottawatomies, Miamis and other tribes ; the center of commerce ; and the strong arm of French authority; the mission and post at St. Joseph 's long continued to be one of the best known of the French stations in the northwest. Fort Miamis, established by La Salle at the mouth of the river, fell into disuse after he left the valley, and Fort St. Joseph took its place."

Some have conjectured that it was La Salle himself who, attracted by the unfailing supply of food at this fishing place, and by the opportunities for traffic in the Indian village across the river, built his second fort at this point. ^ It is more probable, however, that Fort St. Joseph's was built later, and after the establishment of the mission by Allouez; although the idea of a fort at this point might well have occurred to the far-seeing mind of La Salle, as he passed up and down the river.c The better opinion is that the military post was established here in 1697.^^ But whatever may have been the origin of the old fort, it is one of the historical certainties of this region, that Fort Miamis, built by La Salle at the mouth of the river, ceased to be occupied after he left the valley; while, on the high bluff between South Bend and Niles, Fort St. Joseph's took its place, and became, and for nearly a hundred years remained, the stronghold of the French and their secure asylum in the surrounding wilderness.^

With the change from Fort Miamis to Fort St. Joseph's, the river also changed its name. The mission gave its name to the fort, and the fort to the river. It was no longer called the river of the Miamis, but the river St. Joseph. To distinguish it from the small St. Joseph, which, with the St. Mary 's, near Fort Wayne, forms the Maumee, our river was for a time called the Big St. Joseph's, the St. Joseph's of the Lakes, or the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan. In time, however, it became known, simply as the St. Joseph. From the river the name passed to the valley, and from the river and the valley came the name of our county, as also the familiar title of our county seat, the Queen City of the St. Joseph valley, - all from the pious name given to the ancient mission of St. Joseph's by its founder, the simple-minded and zealous Allouez. So, too, not only the name but the civilization of the beautiful valley dates from the Mission of St. Joseph's.

Two objects chiefly seemed to engage the attention of the French at Fort St. Joseph's: The centralizing of the labors of the surrounding missions; and the protection of the fur trade with the tribes of the northwest. While the fort was strong, yet there was comparatively little resort to force or intimidation. The French understood the Indians and lived on friendly terms with them. Not until the year 1730 is there any record of important military operations. In that year an expedition went up the river and over the portage by the Kankakee to punish the Outagamies at StarVed Rock for outrages committed against the Pottawatomies and other peaceful tribes. This successful operation appears to have been conducted in conjunction with another from post Vincennes against the barberous Outagamies.

Sec. 2. - -British Supremacy. - But the comparative peace which had happily prevailed from the days of Marquette and Allouez and La Salle was brought to a rude termination by the Seven Years' War, - the French and English war, as it was called in America. This conflict had long been brewing : it was a struggle of giant powers for the possession of a continent. On May 18, 1756, war was declared; and on September 17, 1759, after the deaths of Wolfe and Montcalm, Quebec passed from France to Britain. A little less than one year afterwards, on September 8, 1760, Montreal was surrendered. With jMontreal went all Canada, which, in the articles of capitulation, was said "to extend to the crest of lands dividing branches of Lakes Erie and Michigan from those of the Miami [the Big Miami, flowing into the

Ohio], the Wabash and the Illinois rivers."" For nearly two years and a half, or until the treaty of Paris, that provision in the articles of capitulation made the boundary between the British and French possessions in the northwest a very irregular line. The lands drained by the ^laumee and the St. Joseph became British territory; those drained by the Wabash and the Kankakee remained French. The northeast part of St. Joseph county, including the greater part of South Bend and all of jMishawaka, ceased forever to be French. The boundary ran irregularly along the summit dividing the waters of the St. Joseph from those of the Kankakee. This took the present townships of Clay and Harris, and the greater part of German, Portage and Penn, within the British line; while the rest of the county remained French territory. Under the terms of the capitulation of ^Montreal, Detroit was taken over in the fall, 1760; but Fort St. Joseph's and the other frontier posts were not garrisoned with British troops until the spring of 1761, and some of them even later. By the treaty of Paris, which was signed February 10, 1763, the British boundaries were extended to the ]\Iississippi. The line drawn through that river from its source to its mouth was made the boundary between the two nations, except that the city and island of New Orleans were to remain with France. Thereafter the province of Louisiana was confined to the territory west of the Mississippi. Spain was a party to the treaty of Paris, and in that treaty ceded the Floridas to Great Britain. By way of compensation for this loss, France, by a private agreeincnt. made over to Spain, New Orleans and what remained to her of Louisiana.^ Thus Spain, for a time, came into the history of the j\Iississippi valley, and, incidentally, as we shall see, into the history of our own valley of the St. Joseph.

of France and the transfer of the northwest territory to Great Britain brought about a state of sullen displeasure in the minds of the Indians, who had lived so long on friendly terms with the French. Accordingly, in the early part of 1763, Pontiac, the distinguished chief of the Ottawas, formed a confederacy to expel the English from their newly acquired territory. The Ottawa chief was by birth a Catawba, but being captured in war by the Ottawas was adopted by that tribe. By his wisdom and bravery he became not only the chief of the Ottawas, but the leader of the whole Algonquin nation. The confederacy formed by Pontiac, one of the strongest and best ever organized by the Indian race, was composed not only of all the Algonquin tribes, but embraced also the Wyandots and .the Senecas, the latter being one of the Iroquois confederacy, so long at enmity with the Algonquins. Pontiac 's plan was to take all the English forts at the same time, by a similar stratagem. A body of picked men was to visit each post in a friendly manner during the mouth of May, 1763, and then, while the men and officers were off their guard, make a sudden attack and capture the garrison. The plan might have succeeded if it had not been for the treachery of an Indian girl at Detroit, who disclosed Pontiac 's design to Major Gladwin, the commander of that post. Major Gladwin immediately sent a message to warn the commander at Fort Pitt, formerly, Fort Du Quesne, where the city of Pittsburg now stands. The well conceived stratagem therefore failed at those two posts. All the other forts, however, were taken by the Indians. Sandusky was captured May 16; St. Joseph's, May 25; Miami (Fort Wayne), May 27; Ouiatanoii (Lafayette), June 1; and Michillimackinac, June 2. Pontiac 's war lasted through 1763 and 1764, during Avhich time his will was law from the lakes to the Ohio and the Mississippi, except at Fort Pitt and Detroit; but the failure to capture those tw^o strong posts was fatal to his enterprise. His powerful confederacy became dissipated by degrees ; and the mighty chief of the Ottawas retired to the Illinois country, near St. Louis, where in 1769. he was basely assassinated by a Kaskaskia Indian, prompted by a reward for his murder by Amherst, the British commander.

Sec. 4. - George Rogers Clark and Fort St. Joseph's. - The British occupancy of the northwest was not again disturbed until after the opening of the American revolution. But on July 4, 1778, George Rogers Clark acting under a commission from Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, captured Kaskaskia, and soon after took possession of Cahokia and other villages situated on the east side of the Mississippi, a little below where St. Louis now stands. A few days later, through the good offices of Father Gibault, then in charge of Kaskaskia and the adjacent missions, the inhabitants of Viucennes joyfully raised the American flag and proclaimed themselves citizens of the new republic. The French people in the west had no love for the British; and when they learned of the assistance given to Washington by La Fayette and that France herself was aiding the American cause, they were glad to take the first opportunity to throw off the yoke of their ancient enemies.

The British, however, were not disposed to yield possession of this rich territory without a struggle. Towards the end of the same vear a strong force was sent from Detroit, by way of the Maumee and the Wabash, and on December 17. 1778, Vincennes was retaken from the little garrison of Virginians. Although it was mid-winter. Col. Clark prepared at once to re-capture the fort; and, on February 24, 1779, after a most heroic march from Kaskaskia, the post on the Wabash

During the summer of 1779, Clark made preparations to take Detroit and the remaining- British posts in the western country, inchiding Fort St. Joseph's. He tells us, in the Memoir which he has left of his conquest of the northwest, and which Mr. William H. English has pri"nted in full ni his valuable history and life of George Rogers Clark, that the British sent an expedition from Michilimackinac, to proceed by way of Fort St. Joseph's and the portage of the Kankakee, for the purpose of driving the American traders out of the Illinois country ; but that on arriving at the fort they were deserted by their Indian allies, and becoming alarmed withdrew to the mouth of the river and sent back to Michilimackinac for help. When the troops came down the lake to the assistance of the expedition and saw the camp at the mouth of the St. Joseph (probably on the site of La Salle's old Fort JMiamis), they mistook their friends for Americans and hastily withdrew, believing that Fort St. Joseph's had fallen into the hands of the Americans. Clark, however, found himself unable to raise a force sufficient to proceed against the northern forts, and, for the time. Fort St. Joseph's and the other northern posts continued in possession of the British."