Native American Apology To Governor Of Detroit

Source (ca 1839)

Agent Stickney, Captain Rhea And Antoine Bondy

Note: Antoine, the son of Joseph Duarte Bondy and Marie Josette Gamelin and also my daughter's 6th great grand uncle.

From the Valley of the upper Maumee River, with historical account of Allen County and the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana (also here):

The agent was thankful for the information, but was doubtful whether to credit or reject it, as a mistake in a matter of so much importance, either way, would prove ruinous to his character and cause his disgraceful ejection from the important office which he held. He had been but three months in office or in the country and was acquainted with but few persons.

The character of Bondie was not known to him, and the nature of his communication was such as to require great secrecy, and if true, immediate preparation for the defense of the fort. [Benjamin Franklin] Stickney sent a note to Capt. [James] Rhea, the commanding officer of the garrison, desiring a meeting with him in the open esplanade of the fort, where there could be no one to overhear what might be said.

In weighing and comparing chances and consequences, he determined that it was better that he should be ruined in his reputation, and the government suffer all sacrifices consequent upon the falsity of the report, than that they should both suffer if it proved true. He, therefore, sent a second time to Capt. Rhea, and declared his intention to make the report and give it his sanction. He informed him that he had just received a dispatch from Gov. Harrison, from Vincennes, saying that he was going to Cincinnati, where he must be addressed, if necessary, and that he should send an express to him, directed to that city, and another to Captain Taylor, at Fort Harrison. 

Reconstruction Of Fort Wayne

When nearly ready to dispatch his messenger, Capt. Rhea sent a note to him requesting that he would delay his express to Cincinnati, until he could write a letter to the governor of Ohio, informing him of the report. Stickney complied with this request, and the express was sent with letters to Gov. Harrison and Gov. Meigs. Active preparations were now begun by the little garrison of 100 for defense. Such men as could be spared with teams were employed to send off ladies who were there, with children, to the frontier; and it was subsequently ascertained that within a few hours after the messengers had started, the Indians drew their lines around the fort.

[Captain Rhea]...met the agent, heard his communication and dismissed it by observing that Bondie was a trifling fellow and no reliance could be placed upon what he said. This increased the perplexity of the agent. He sent for Bondie and his interpreter, to have a cross-examination. This being completed, it remained for the agent either to pass the matter without notice and incur the chances of the siege by the Indians of the two posts, to be followed by a regular force of British troops with artillery without any preparation for defense or relief from abroad, or to report the information, without attaching to it his official belief in its correctness, in which case it would have no effect.

The Indian warriors, to the number of some 500, as then supposed, assembled in the neighborhood of the fort; and it was evident that they had hopes of getting possession of it by stratagem. They would lie in wait near the fort, day after day, a few near, but the majority of them as much out of sight as possible. 

Lands At Detroit

George Rogers Clark Papers, 1771-, Volume 8, By George Rogers Clark:

Eldridge Fowler joins the company

 When Leander McCormick in 1890 ceased to be vice president of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, his successor was Eldridge Fowler. This must have been a deep satisfaction to his sister. It was a climaxing point in the new relation between the two that had developed after the death of Mr. McCormick. Brother and sister had always been devoted and in sympathetic touch throughout the varied experiences each had suffered. But there had been something less than congeniality between Mr. McCormick and Mr. Fowler, and the brother had not come freely to his sister's home. There had been business dealings: Mrs. McCormick had early enlisted her husband's interest in her brother, when he was not yet on a firm basis financially, and there is a tradition that she induced Mr. McCormick to lend Eldridge the money that he had been about to spend on a set of emeralds for his young wife. However that may be, Mr. McCormick did offer employment at times and backed business ventures of Eldridge Fowler's with a loan. But though the amenities were observed, the imperious temperament of the master of 135 Rush Street was not agreeable to Eldridge Fowler — whether to endure or to observe. 

Source

After his death brother and sister were able to enter more easily into each other's lives, and Eldridge Fowler was soon able to give Mrs. McCormick and her son Cyrus helpful advice in their problems, personal and business. By the late eighties he had moved from Detroit to Chicago in order to help more. (Source)

Guest Poem Entitled In Detroit

Source

Detroit In The Clergy Reserves Book

Detroit

"Except the settlement at Detroit, no part of Upper Canada was settled or cultivated till the year 1784."

Baptisms And The Beginnings Of Notre Dame

Entries in the book, Chicago's true founder, Thomas J. V. Owen... (text version here):

Father Badin doubtless showed Indian Agent Owen his entries made for Chicago baptisms in the famous record book, which was supposed to have been lost or destroyed for the past seventy-five years. It is now preserved in the archives of Notre Dame University. Permission was given by Very Rev. James A. Burns, C.S.C., Provincial of the Congregation of Holy Cross, to quote the following: 

"Father Badin was the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States. The ceremony was performed by Archbishop Carroll on May 23, 1793, at the Sulpician seminary in Baltimore. When Indian Agent Owen visited Governor Cass at Detroit in July, 1831, the priest had been just one year in the Chicago Indian agency. Enroute for home by way of Niles, Mr. Owen met Father Badin, and discussed with him, as the official director of the government Indian school, the educational affairs of his Indian charges. And at this visit a momentous enterprise was planned."

"...the founder of municipal Chicago with the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States germinated the idea of Notre Dame University — a Catholic college in the Chicago Indian agency."

Sir William Johnson Came To Detroit In 1761

(Partial) Carte des possessions françoises et angloises dans le Canada, et partie de la Louisiane, 1756.
Map Held At The Library Of Congress
(Fort de Detroit Is On This Part Of The Map)

Source

Candle In The Night

Candle in the night...:

"The three men on the middle seat were talking about the chance of war with England and what it would mean to their business. They had been at it most of the day. Someone was always talking about the possibility of war with somebody. It had been that way ever since she could remember."

"When she was a little girl, it had been talk of war with France or Spain and now it was war with England, but it was only talk. Nothing ever happened. Tamsen closed her eyes. She was sleepy herself. Outside, the driver shouted at the horses and cracked his long whip above their backs. And the rain poured down."

"That's Fort Malden," Mrs. Todd said. If we should have a war, trouble will come out of there."

*Source

* "The British, while holding Detroit, to prevent Gen. Harrison from gaining information of their strength and operations, kept a strict guard over their citizen prisoners...". [From Pioneer Collections]

To Bouquet From Detroit

From the Report of the Public Archives, by Public Archives of Canada:

Year: 1762

Catholicity In Detroit (Names)

The American Catholic Historical Researches...:

Strike Kentucky Settlers Hard And Often

Cabin In Kentucky

From The Kentuckians by Janet Holt Giles:

"Davie, I've come by to give you news.  The British have treated with the Six Nations and the Indians are going over to their side in this war.  All the tribes north of the Ohio know of it and will take their part.  They're aiming to strike at the settlers in Kentucky, hard and often, with British guns and powder baking 'em up, and in time even British officers to lead 'em.  Henry Hamilton had put up a bounty for ever' scalp they take.  Who is Henry Hamilton.  He's the British governor at Detroit."

Source

American Bankers In Detroit

Source

Frederick M. Alger (son of Russell A. Alger) is a second cousin 3x removed of my son-in-law's; Standish Backus and I most likely have mutual Backus ancestors, and another relative of mine married into the Book family (probably related to Dr. J. B. Book). 

Grand Jurymen Were Called From Both Sides Of The River

Upper Canada Sketches:

"...September 3, 1792, 'His Majesty's Court of Oyer and Terminer, and General Gaol Delivery' opened at L'Assomption (now Sandwich, Ontario)... ."

"Grand Jurymen were called from both sides of the river--the Judge himself resided in Detroit--an inquisition was filed on the death at Michillinackinac of an Indian man Wawanisse, another respecting Pierre Lalonde killed at Saguina (Saginaw) by Louis Roy, another of the murder at Detroit of Pierre Grocher by an Indian man called Guillet--there had been also a murder of David Lynd, alias Jacko, on the River La Tranche (the present Thames) by two Indians."

"True bills were found by the Grand Jury against Louis Roy, Guillet and Josiah Cutan of Detroit (for burglary). Roy was acquitted of murder... . Cutan, a coloured man, was found, guilty of burglary at Ste. Anne's and sentenced to death. Guillet was not arrested nor were the two Indians who slew Jacko."

Source*

*See Source Link For Additional Information (including the names of J. Bondy and Francois Gamelin)

Glimpses Of The Detroit Stockade

Source

Also see Messages In Kaskaskia blog post

"The early haze of evening discovered us skirting the edge of a heavy forest, and occasionally, when the fringe of intervening, trees grew somewhat narrower upon our right, we were enabled to catch fleeting glimpses of the Detroit stockade, far away across a space of open ground. It appeared dark and sombre enough in the gathering shadows, but the English flag flapped defiantly against the sky, and once as I gazed that way, the sharp spit of a musket left for an instant a red flare against the black logs in evidence that its garrison were alert and ready."

Via The Wilderness Trace Through Kentucky

Cumberland Gap Area

Henry Hamilton's Journal:

Dramatic And Significant

Clark At Vincennes

Henry Hamilton's Journal:


The most dramatic and significant event of the American Revolution in the West was the capture of Lieutenant-Governor Henry Hamilton of Detroit by tough young George Rogers Clark at Vincennes on February 24th, 1779.

Alexander Sullivan's Troubles

The Cronin Case, Complete: The Assassination of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin ..., By Duke Bailie:

"Alexander Sullivan was born (Abt. 1841) in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada.  His father was, at the time, in the English military service, and is now a pensioner of Great Britain.  When yet a youth, Alexander Sullivan went to Detroit, Mich., and found employment...".

Detroit Free Press; Issue Date: Friday, August 22, 1913 Page 1

"Former Detroiter Once Held in Famous Cronin Murder....Body Will Be Buried Beside That of Spouse in Mt. Elliott Cemetery....died Thursday In Chicago at the age of' 60 years. Friday the body will arrive in Detroit and will he laid beside that of his brilliant wife," Mrs. Margaret Buchanan Sullivan...". 

Settled With His Bride At Detroit

Sixty years in a school-room: ...,  By Julia Ann Tevis, John Tevis:

The Exasperation Of The French

The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell:

"To the exasperation of the French, the British were drawing off more and more of the fur trade. Virginia and Pennsylvania traders penetrated almost to the French life-line and set up a post at Pickawillany, now called Piqua, Ohio, on the Miami river.... ."

Near The Miami River In Ohio

"This forced La Jonquiere to show his hand."

"He ordered one of his most trusted French officers with the Indians, Charles Langlade, to bring a force of loyal Ottawas and Chippewas all the way down from Michilimackinac, through Fort Detroit, to attack the defecting Miamis."

Fort Mackinac

"This they triumphantly did, killing their chief, called variously "Old Briton" and La Demoiselle"... That was in June 1752.  Although none of the British traders had been harmed, the incident alarmed [Virginia Governor] Dinwiddie."