In weighing the value of this characterization of the French “habitants,” we must remember that Volney an intellectual coming from the Paris of the Enlightenment naturally thought of these people as crude and rustic, as indeed they must have appeared to him, but what is more important neither Volney or the Americans appreciated that these French Creoles way of life was different from theirs. The Creoles were not as interested in the middle-class virtue of respectability nor in the acquisition of much property.
Evidently the English-American opinion of the French people living in the Northwest had not changed since the days of George Croghan and earlier. Nor in all likelihood had the French “habitants” and traders changed their manner of living to any great extent. Although they had suffered a great deal financially and were less prosperous since the American occupation of the territory, there is no reason to doubt that these people lived as they did during Henry Hay’s sojourn at Miamitown, independent and satisfied with life.
There is no way of determining the number of inhabitants living in Frenchtown at this time. That the settlement was at least worthy of notice is indicative from the Orderly Books for Fort Wayne. Mention is made repeatedly of the town.[25] The soldiers and their wives were in the habit of frequenting the town, which practice some officers considered inimical to the garrison’s welfare. All military orders published for the civilians living around Fort Wayne were made out in French as well as English, and until the early 1820’s the majority of the population of Fort Wayne were either French or of French-Indian blood.
While most of these French inhabitants during these years remain unknown, there are a few individuals whom we can identify. Besides Antoine Lasselle, there was another member of the Lasselle family who returned to Fort Wayne at an early date. This was Hyacinth Lasselle, the nephew of Antoine Lasselle and the son of Jacques Lasselle. Hyacinth Lasselle was only four years old when his family fled from Miamitown at the advance of LaBalme’s force in 1780. After this he was placed in a private school in Montreal. In May, 1795, he returned to Fort Wayne from where he carried on trading activities until 1804 when he removed his establishment to Vincennes. In appearance he was rather short, being about five feet six inches tall, but at the same time very muscular. His athletic prowess and the fact that he was born at Miamitown made him a great favorite of the Miamis, who entered him in contests against the champions of other tribes.
Other inhabitants of the former Miamitown who returned to the site of Fort Wayne after the American Occupation were Antoine Rivard or Rivarrd and Francis Minie. Rivard’s wife and daughter had entertained Henry Hay quite often while the latter stayed at Miamitown. Included among the new arrivals at Frenchtown were Charles and James Peltier, brothers who had come here from Detroit around 1798. In 1804 the Peltiers secured permission to sell supplies to the garrison at Fort Wayne. At a later date, Charles Peltier was attacked and eaten by wolves within a few miles of the fort. James Peltier married Angeline Chapeteau, an attractive young girl who had come to Fort Wayne from Detroit with her grandparents, Jean Baptiste Maloch and his wife. Jean Baptiste Maloch had been a resident at Detroit before the time of Pontiac’s conspiracy, and he was apparently considered to be a man of some wealth.[26] What prompted him to bring his wife and granddaughter to Fort Wayne at this late date in his life is unknown. Angeline Chapeteau, who was only sixteen when she came to Fort Wayne, instantly became a favorite of the Miamis, who called her “Golden Hair” and formally adopted her into their tribe. Her sister Theresa Chapeteau married Francis Minie, while a second sister married Charles Peltier. One of the most prosperous traders at Fort Wayne prior to the war of 1812 was Louis Bourie. Not only did he trade in furs himself, but he also kept pack horses and large warehouse for the transportation and storage of the merchandise and furs carried by way of the Maumee-Wabash portage. For these services he collected a handsome profit. Two other traders who married Miami women were Peter LaFontaine and Antoine Bondie.
To the west of the fort there came into being a collection of government buildings and sutlers’ establishments, which in time resembled a small village. These log buildings were located at the meeting place of two roads, “Wayne’s trace” (this was the road connecting Fort Wayne with Fort Washington, Cincinnati) and the old Maumee-Wabash portage path.[27] This was the nucleus of the village that made up the plat of the original town of Fort Wayne, when it was laid out in 1824. The sutlers, who lived here, were traders who had been given permission by the government to occupy choice locations near a military outpost and carry on the trade deemed necessary for the garrison. These sutlers were subject to the orders of the commander of the fort, who could dismiss them upon a just provocation. It was also the commander’s duty to see to it that the men were not overcharged and investigate any complaints brought to him either by the sutlers or soldiers. For instance the soldiers complained on one occasion that James Peltier was overcharging them for his merchandise. After an investigation, the commander, Captain Whipple, excused Peltier on the grounds that the cost of transportation for the winter had risen to one hundred dollars a boatload.[28] The sutlers brought their merchandise either by way of the Maumee from Detroit and the East or by way of the St. Mary’s from Cincinnati and the Ohio River.
The largest of the log buildings comprising the small village west of the fort was the two-story council house. This was erected in 1804 by the government to be used as a meeting place between the government officials and the Indians. Around the village and along the banks across the river were gardens and cultivated fields of vegetables and corn. One of the better farms was owned by Colonel Hamtramck and William Wells. Wells managed it and by 1800 had it well fenced. On the property were several buildings, a good orchard, a number of livestock, plus the usual corn fields. Several negro slaves whom Wells had brought from Kentucky did most of the labor.[29] Apparently this farm did not always furnish a dependable source of income, for in 1801, Wells reported to Hamtramck that although he expected to harvest 350 bushels of corn for each of them, he would not be able to sell it because of the overabundance of corn raised that year around Fort Wayne.[30] The reason for this, Wells maintained, was the fact that the military were competing in the corn market. The officers of Fort Wayne were in the practice of having the enlisted men farm the fields for wages.
In June, 1797, the newly appointed General of the United States Army, James Wilkinson, stopped at Fort Wayne during his initial tour of inspection of the western forts. Here he found conditions “truly deplorable”. In his report he stated:
“The army in this quarter presents a frightful picture of the scientific soldier; ignorance and licentiousness have been fostered, while intelligence and virtue have been persecuted and exiled; the consequences were that factions have been generated to sanction enormity, and it follows that all ideas of system, economy, order, subordination and discipline were banished, and that disorder, vice, absurdity, and abuse infected every member of the corps militarie.”[31]
Wilkinson was equally dissatisfied with conditions at Detroit. In fact he found fault everywhere, for the General had a habit of exaggerating ills so that he might gain more credit for employing successful antidotes. He never doubted that his methods were correct, and his solution for the problems at Fort Wayne and Detroit was relatively simple. He merely exchanged garrisons and commandants between the two posts. Colonel Hamtramck with the First Regiment was transferred to Fort Wayne, and Colonel David Strong at Fort Wayne with the Second Regiment was transferred to Detroit.[32]