Outpost in the Wilderness: Fort Wayne, 1706-1828

by Charles R. Poinsatte

On hearing of the Miamis’ decision, Governor de Vaudreuil resolved, with the approval of the Council of Marine, to establish a strong post at the headwaters of the Maumee. For this purpose he sent Captain Dubuisson, the former commander at Detroit, who had already achieved success on one occasion with the Miamis, to build the fortifications.[21] Finished in May, 1722, the fort was located on the right bank of the St. Mary’s at a latitude later given by Father Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamps (professor of hydrography at the Jesuit college of Quebec who visited Fort Miami in 1749) as 41 degrees, 29 minutes. Other information Father de Bonnecamps gives indicates that the fort was about one-half mile down the river from the Maumee-Wabash portage road.[22] Writing the Council of Marine on October 24, 1722, de Vaudreuil stated:

The log fort Fort Miami which he Dubuisson had build is the finest in the upper country. It is a strong fort and safe from insult from the savages. This post which is of considerable worth ought to have a missionary. One could be sent there in 1724 if next year the council will send the four Jesuits which I ask.[23]

It is unlikely that the priest requested was ever stationed at Fort Miami, as there is no indication from the Jesuit Relations or other sources of one being here, although it is possible that some missionaries visited this spot on occasion.

Fort Miami proved of value to the French for various reasons. After its construction, it soon became a military post of consequence, with a garrison of twenty to thirty men.[24] It was the policy of the French to locate their garrisons and trading posts wherever there existed a sufficiently large village of friendly Indians or wherever the strategic importance of a place itself made it necessary to erect a fort. Fort Miami combined both of these advantages. Once the Miamis determined to remain at Kiskakon, they would benefit the French not only by their fur trade but would be a means of protection against hostile tribes and the English. The strategic position for a fort at the Maumee-Wabash portage was recognized even by the English as early as 1717.[25] Pouchet, a French historian, writing shortly after the French and Indian War was of the opinion that the French would have been wiser to have strengthened their fortifications in the Miami region than establish their line of defense in the upper Ohio.[26]

Perhaps Fort Miami’s greatest importance was as a center of French activity among the Indians. Being at the principal village of the Miami confederacy, this outpost was used as a counter-balance to the English intrigue from New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas. It is to be noted that Dubuisson was sent to Kiskakon “to counteract the effect of all those Belts it [the Miami nation] was but too frequently receiving and which, as they caused eight or ten Miami canoes to go this year to trade at Orange, might finally induce all that nation to follow their example.”[27]

In 1734, the Sieur de Noyelles was entrusted with the task of gathering the scattered Miamis in their village, where they would be protected from English intrigue. In this affair he was seconded by the Sieur Darnaud who was in command at Fort Miami.[28] The French had good reason to fear the English trader, who had strong economic advantages. The goods furnished by the English in exchange for the furs of the Indians were produced more cheaply than the French items. Also British virtual control of the sea trade meant these goods were transported for less. Finally rum one of the principal factors in the English trade was produced in the colonies, while the French traders had to import brandy from the mother country. As early as 1716, de Vandreuil reported to the Council of Marine that the Iroquois were sending belts to the Miamis and Ouiatenons, an allied tribe on the Wabash, to induce them to seek the necessities of life at the English post on the “Oyo river”. Here the Indians were offered merchandise “a half cheaper than among the French.”[29] The following year the king replied through the Council that he was well pleased to learn that M. de Vincennes, apparently at Kiskakon, had prevented the Miamis and Ouiatenons from accepting the belts of the English. His majesty hoped that the sending of scarlet cloth would turn the savages away from the English trade.[30]

Other accounts show the wide-spread influence the French maintained from Fort Miami. There were considerable outlays for the savages in food, merchandise, and the repairing of arms. From here important chiefs were sent to conferences in Detroit and Montreal, with interpreters and guides and all expenses paid. One Miami chief, Cold Foot, was paid handsomely for his loyalty in putting an end to a hostile movement.[31] The expenses for messengers were especially numerous during the year’s 1748-1749, when English influence was particularly active. Between December 25, 1747, and July 25, 1748, 1,894 livres were spent at Fort Miami for presents for the Indians.[32] The high expenditures at Fort Miami of those years, of which we have records, gives some indication of the value the French ascribed to the post at the Maumee headwaters. Some years the annual expenses for the Indians at Fort Miami almost equalled those of Detroit.[33]

Fort Miami had its economic “raison d’etre” as the center of the thriving fur trade of the surrounding region. The furs were brought westward from the northwestern and central parts of the present state of Ohio, as well as northward from the Wabash valley, and eastward from the Illinois country. In his “Memoir of 1757”, Bougainville points out that the Miami post, like many of the French posts, was one “removed from free commerce”.[34] That is, Fort Miami was leased for a period of three years to the commandant or “farmer” who secured exclusive rights to the fur trade. The price of the lease was twelve hundred livres per year. Moreover the farmer was charged with the cost of the presents to the savages as well as the wages of the interpreters. There were extraordinary expenses, however, that the government paid. For instance, Sieur Charly, the farmer at Post Miami in 1747, collected 2,007 livres for the use of twenty-four horses by a party of Indians being led to Detroit for conferences.[34a] These expense accounts had to be approved by the governor and the “intendant”, the financial representative of the crown, who oftentimes scaled the figures down as they saw fit. An example of a most drastic reduction is found in the case of a bill of Sieur Charly for December, 1744. In this instance, Hocquart, the royal intendant moderated the bill from 1,491 livres to 100 livres.[35]

In an ordinary year there issued from Fort Miami 250 to 300 packages of furs. These furs were shipped by way of Detroit to Montreal, as Fort Miami by its geographical position belonged politically and economically within the colony of New France rather than Louisiana. Nevertheless, by its proximity to the Wabash there was frequent communication and trade with the Louisiana settlements, particularly Vincennes and those of the Illinois country. For example, in 1749, 200 livres were paid at Fort Miami to Jean Baptiste Riddey de Bosseron, “voyageur” who had just returned from the Illinois country.[36] Grain and livestock were sent to Fort Miami from the French settlements along the lower Wabash and Ohio rivers. For this reason the price of corn, flour, and beef was generally lower at Fort Miami than at Detroit and the northern posts such as Michilimackinac.[37]

The Maumee-Wabash portage became the scene of increased activity as the French and English rivalry in the upper Ohio country grew more tense during the decade preceding 1756. From the year 1719 when ten canoes of Miami Indians passed down the Maumee on their way to Albany, New York, with furs and returned with firearms, ammunition, and trinkets, the English endeavored to bring the Miamis under their influence. During the 1740’s, there was a notable expansion of English trade with the Indians of this region. Twice—in 1739 and again in 1744—the French commander of Detroit, M. de Longueuil, led strong expeditions along the Maumee-Wabash against British traders on the White river near the center of the present state of Indiana. While he succeeded in his immediate objective, this display of military power no longer held the Indians in check. In 1747, the Wyandot chief, Sanosket, also known as Nicolas, under the influence of the English led an uprising against the French. The Miamis at Kiskakon believing that Detroit had been captured, set fire to Fort Miami and captured the eight men within the stockade at the time.[38] The temporary commander, Ensign Douville, was at Detroit when the Indians committed the pillage. He had been sent to the Miamis in order to invite them to a conference at Montreal, and two of their chiefs, Cold Foot and Porc Epic had accompanied him as far as Detroit when they received the news that the post had been taken.[39] Douville journeyed on to Montreal alone, while Ensign Dubuisson hastened to Kiskakon with the two chiefs and a force of some sixty men, “with a view to deprive the enemy [the British] of the liberty of seizing a post of considerable importance.”[40] Dubuisson found the fort and buildings only partially destroyed, but he was able to do little more than hold his position, without attempting to repair the place.