Goodhue County, Minnesota - The Fuench Occupation, 1893

It is well known that the first white men who visited the northwestern portion of the United States were from France. That nation was the first to plant colonies in Canada along the river St. Lawrence, and they gradually pushed their explorations beyond the great lakes, to the head waters of the Mississippi.

Trading with the native Indians for furs became a very lucrative business in the history of the French occupation. The traders furnished fire-arms, powder and lead to the natives in exchange for peltries. Being accustomed to live by hunting and fishing these Indians soon learned to use such articles as required less labor to obtain the necessaries of life, giving them more time for their favorite pursuit of war than when confined to the use of the bow and arrow. It was natural enough that they welcomed the traders to their country ; for besides the implements they brought for use in hunting and carrying on war with other tribes successfully, the traders furnished them with rum and tobacco, which are considered great luxuries by savage men in all climes.

Trading posts were early established at suitable points throughout this fur-producing region. Though built of logs and roofed with sod and wild grass, there was a space of ground around these log-cabins inclosed with pickets. These posts have been named forts, and were sometimes called factories, for the reason that when fully manned, soldiers and the agents or factors of some mercantile house were quartered therein, and in some cases missionaries, each class having separate cabins within the enclosure. An army officer was placed in authority over all.

There were three distinct objects evidently in view in establishing these posts, namely: To extend the dominion of France, to gain by trade, and to convert the natives.

Two such posts were once occupied within the present limits of Goodhue county. The history of one of them, so far as I am able to find, is very short. It was built on the largest island between Lake Pepin and the mouth of the St. Croix river by LeSueur in 1695; therefore, Prairie Island was the site. Charlevoix relates that the object of the establishment of this post was to interpose a barrier between the Dakotas and Chippewas, and maintain peaceful relations between them which had then been created. He speaks of the island as "having a beautiful prairie," and that "the French of Canada have made it a centre of commerce for the western parts. Many pass the winter here because it is a good country for hunting." From this account I conclude that men who were well-to-do were accustomed to spend their winter vacations in this region.

1721 under the auspices of the Government of France, and upon his return to Europe urged the establishment of a trading post, and sending two missionaries among the tribe of Indians which he called "Sioux." The arguments he used for the establishment of such a post were : The missionaries to learn the language of the Indians and teach them religion ; and that through the country then occupied by this tribe a route to the Pacific Ocean could be discovered. His suggestions were favorably considered, but some delay ensued in carrying out the project on account of the hostility of other tribes occupying the country between the great lakes and the Mississippi valley. In 1726 a treaty with these latter tribes was consummated, and traders allowed to pass unmolested to the country of the Sioux. A company was soon formed for trading and other purposes among them. Rene Boucher was the commandant of this company. Louis Ignatius Guignas and De Gonor were the chaplains or missionaries. They left Montreal on the 16th of June, 1727, and reached the enlargement of the Mississippi, the picturesque Lake Pepin, the 17th of September. The name of Pepin is first given to this lake in the journal of LeSueur in the year 1700, and was probably given in compliment to Stephen Pepin who Avas with LeSueur on the shores of Lake Superior as early as 1679. Immediately after arriving at this lake, Boucher selected a site upon a low point about the middle of the southwestern shore, nearly opposite the bold bluff now known as Maiden Rock. Here he ordered the erection of a stockade of pickets forming a square of one hundred feet with two bastions. The pickets were twelve feet long. Within the enclosure were a log bouse for the commandant, b, residence for the two missionaries, and a store house, all of which were completed by the last of October. The fort was named Bcaiiharnois, in compliment to the then governor of Canada. In a letter from this new fort. Father Guignas thus writes : " In the evening of November 14 we celebrated by shooting off some very beautiful rockets and made the air resound with a hundred shouts of 'Vive le Eoy,' and 'Vive Charles de Beauharnois.' That which contributed a great deal to the merriment was the fright of the Indians who witnessed the scene. When these poor people saw the fire-works in the air like stars falling from the sky, the women and children fled, and the more courageous of the men cried for mercy, begging earnestly that we would stop the astonishing play of the terrible fireworks (medicine)."

The following spring, in the month of April, the water rose so high in the lake that the fort had to be abandoned for several weeks. In dispatches sent to France in October, 1729, by the Canadian Government, the following reference is made to Fort Beauharnois. They rex)ort that the fort built among the Sioux, on the border of Lake Pepin, is badly situated on account of freshets, but the Indians assure that the water rose higher than ever before in the spring of 1728 ; and this is credible, inasmuch as it did not so much as reach the fort this year. We learn from the records that this fort was rebuilt on higher ground, in rear of the first site, about the year 1735 with increased dimensions, but was soon after abandoned, as it is recorded that in view of the hostility of the Indians, the commandant and his second concluded with Father Giiignas to burn the fort and descend the Mississippi which they did May 13,

1737. But it was again rebuilt ten years later. The records show that the Sioux Indians, through their deputies, entreated the governor of Canada to re-establish the post in the year 1747, which was accordingly done. The name of the last commandant of this post was St. Pierre who remained here till the summer of 1753 and was then called to the command of Fort Duquesne, a French post in western Pennsylvania.

There is no account of the fort on Lake Pepin being occupied after it was abandoned by St. Pierre one hundred and thirty-eight years ago! It is no matter of wonder that it is now difficult to find the exact spot where it stood. Quite recently two cannon balls have been found in plowing, one of six and the other of four pound caliber, near Frontenac station, which have been deposited with the Minnesota Historical Society. These balls furnish additional interest to the history of the old fort. They were undoubtedly found by the Indians soon after the fort was abandoned, and buried as worthless to them.

There are a few facts relating to St. Pierre after he left this post, which will doubtless be interesting to the people of this county. It appears that he went directly to Montreal, arriving there in October, 1753, and on the third of November following, the Marquis Duquesne wrote to the minister of war in France that he had sent the Sieur de St. Pierre to succeed Marin in command of the army of the Ohio.

St. Pierre did not reach the stockade at French Creek, which was afterward called Fort Duquesne, till the first week in December, and only seven days after his arrival there, young George Washington came, bearing a letter from Governor Dinwiddle, of Virginia, to the commander of the fort. After courteous treatment by St. Pierre for several clays, Washington was sent back with the following note to Governor Dinwiddle :

Sir: - I have the honor to be here the commander-in-chief. M. Washington delivered to me the letter which you wrote to the commander of the French troops. I should have been pleased had you given him the order, or that he had been disposed to go to Canada to see our General, to whom it better belongs than to me to set forth the evidence of the incontestable rights of the King, my Master, to the lands along the Ohio; and to refute the pretentions of the King of Great Britain thereto. I shall transmit your letter to M. the Marquis Duquesne. His reply will be law to me, and if he shall order me to communicate with you, you may be assured that I shall not fail to act promptly.

As to the summons you send me to retire, I do not think I am obliged to obey. Whatever may be your instructions, I am here by order of my general, and I beg you not to doubt for a moment but that I am determined to conform with the exactness and resolution which becomes a good officer. I do not know that in the progress of this campaign anything has passed which can be regarded an act of hostility or contrary to the treaties between the two crowns, the continuation of which pleases us much as it does the English. If you had been pleased to enter into particulars as to the facts which caused your complaint, I should have been honored to give you as full and satisfactory reply as possible. I have made it a duty to receive M, Washington with distinction on account of your dignity and his personal worth.

In the history of the French and Indian war, after Braddock's defeat, we learn that this same St. Pierre was fatally wounded in a battle near Lake George, Tvhile leading the Indian allies of the French army,

From this circumstance we learn that the last commandant of the French fort on Lake Pepin had the privilege of meeting George Washington a second time, while the latter served under General Braddock in his unsuccessful expedition against Fort Daquesne.