The French and British at Three Rivers

by Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County

The French and British
at Three Rivers

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

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

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE SCHOOL CITY OF FORT WAYNE

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

PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD FOR ALLEN COUNTY

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

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

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

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