Early Tennessee Exploration By Dr. Walker

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THE UPPER CUMBERLAND OF PIONEER TIMES, By Alvin B. Wirt:

"In 1750 Dr. Thomas Walker heading an exploration party in the employ of the Loyal Land Company, came into the upper part of this valley over the old Indian trail and gave the English name 'Cumberland' to the Ouasioto Mountains, as well as to the gap in those mountains through which the path passed into Kentucky, and to the Shawnee River in the valley beyond."

"The Cumberland River, which flows through this section, was first known as the “Ouasioto,” but early French explorers gave it the name “Shavanon,” or Shawnee, because they found a few Indians of the Shawnee tribe living in the lower part of the valley."

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."

Flotilla Got Past The Guards

Heights (or Plains) Of Abraham And Quebec City  Illustrated on Map (Partial Section - Map Source LOC)

From The Plains of Abraham:

"As it came level with the batteries of Sillery and Samos, the flotilla had reached its crucial danger point. The French had posts passed without incident, but at the second a guard sighted the leading boats and immediately challenged them."

"Invisible in the dark hour before the dawn, his sharp Qui vive? came as an unwelcome shock. A quick-witted officer of the Fraser Highlanders, Captain Donald McDonald, who in his time had served the Jacobite cause in France and spoke the language perfectly, answered in a low voice, "La France!" The sentry was insistent:  "A quel regiment," he demanded--"De la Reine," McDonald ventured, knowing that part of this battalion was with Bougainville. The sentry, apparently satisfied, did not ask for the password."

"A little further on, under the Samos battery, another sentry repeated the challenge and he could just be seen running down to the water within pistol shot. What are you speaking so quietly for, he wanted to know. Provision boats, replied McDonald. Don't make noise or the English will hear us. Again the sentry let them pass."

A Colony of Émigrés in Canada

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The Amulet

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"Very joyous he [Captain Howard] was in these days. The Seven Years' War was fairly over, the treaty of peace concluded, and the surrender of the French forts on the American frontier already imminent, even thus early in the spring of 1763. His own difficult tour of service here at Fort Prince George, the British stronghold on the eastern edge of the Cherokee country, was nearing its close. He, himself, was to be transferred to a post of ease and comfort at Charlestown... ."

British Flag

"The flag rose buoyantly to the tip of the staff. The Indian town of Old Keowee, on the opposite bank of the river, was all astir and now and again the sonorous note of the conch shell, a detail of the matutinal savage worship, blended oddly with the martial resonance of the British drums beating for roll-call as the garrison of Fort Prince George lined up in front of the barracks."

"...[a soldier] was recollecting that her father's predecessor in command, Captain Coytmore, had been treacherously slaughtered by the Cherokees in a conference at the gate of this fort, within twenty paces of the spot where she now stood."

To Choté

#1 - Fort Loudoun; #4 - Chota and Tanasi Memorials

The Story of Old Fort Loudon (published 1899):

 For even previous to the present outbreak and despite the stipulations of their treaties with the English, the Cherokees were known to have hesitated long in taking sides in the struggle between France and Great Britain, still in progress now in 1758, for supremacy in this western country, and many were suspected of yet inclining to the French, who had made great efforts to detach them from the British interest.

"Where go?" demanded the chief, suspiciously.

"To Choté, old town," she averred at haphazard, naming the famous "beloved town, city of refuge," of the Cherokee nation.

Catholicity In Detroit (Names)

The American Catholic Historical Researches...:

Jane McCrea's Story

Was Jane related to my McCrea cousins?  So far there is no known relationship between James Bigham McCrea (the cousins' father) and Jane McCrea, according to Wikitree.

Source

*Fitch's History of Washington County [New York] (and area of Jane McCrea's murder)

Washington Nearly Worsted

Near Historic National Road (Western Pennsylvania)

From The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell:

 ...just after sunset on a lowering December day, the weary young giant rode into the clearing before Fort Le Boeuf. Legardeur de St. Pierre received them civilly, but George was very nearly worsted in the encounter. He had no French, was a novice in Indian affairs, and almost had the Indians with him suborned by his adversary.

....As to the summons you send me to retire, I do not think myself obliged to obey it. On the return journey Washington and Gist barely escaped with their lives. ...making for the post of an English trader named Frazier on the Monongahela. Near an Indian village with the ominous name of Murthering Town, they were shot at.G.W. back to Williamsburg in January 1754.

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."

Mothers' Instruction

Under the lily and the rose: a short history of Canada for children, by Doughty, Arthur G. (Arthur George), Sir, 1860-1936:

Champlain In Bessboro (Westport)

Source

Bessboro: a History of Westport, Essex Co., N.Y....:

This French Diversion

From The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell:


The middle colonists drew no lessons from this French diversion. The whole idea of conflict with a European power was foreign to them. The Ohio Valley had always provided far too wide a buffer between them and the French. The Indians they felt they could deal with.... .

There Was No Sign

From The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell:

"Of the French there was no sign."

"...Montcalm...thought that the British had attacked the French provision convoy... . Wearily the French stood to arms again, but as dawn broke, they could see no threatening movement in front of them. .... Breathing a sigh of relief, Montcalm, convinced that the bulk of the British army was still east of Quebec, retired to his command post in the village of Beauport for a cup of hot tea."

Bellestre At Braddock's Defeat

From Historical Collections, Volume 34

It is probable that Belestre [Francois Marie Picote de Bellestre] was in command of a body of Indians in the battle of Braddock's defeat July 9, 1755. In the succeeding year he is mentioned as being at Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) with 250 Miamis and Ontaganons, and there were 300 more Indians from Detroit and 700 from Mackinac under Repentigny.

The Author Of Legends

Legends Of Detroit was written by Marie Caroline Watson Hamlin.

The third daughter of Robishe [Robert Navarre], Archange Louise, born in 1770, married Dominique Gode Marantette. She was the grandmother [great-grandmother?] of Mrs. Caroline Watson Hamlin, the author of the " Legends of Detroit." [Source]

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Mrs. Hamlin also wrote a piece for the Michigan Historical Collection periodical.  Here are her words:

The following incidents, like little waifs, have drifted down the current of the past into our family history. I have gathered them, for time with its bird-like rapidity will soon sweep along with its wings these souvenirs of the courteous, generous Canadians who came to colonize our beautiful city. 

More from the Grosse Pointe Historical Society:

[Theodore Parsons Hall's] wife was the former Alexandrine Louise Godfroy, who was descended from one Detroit's oldest French families. A frequent guest of the Halls was Marie Caroline Watson Hamlin, who wrote Legends of Le Detroit. The grotto on the Hall's beach commemorated an old French legend of Grosse Pointe recorded in her book.

Background information about Marie Caroline Watson Hamlin, the author of the Legends of le Détroit, can be found in the Red Cedar blog.  She was born in Detroit in 1850 and was married there to William Yates Hamlin in 1878.  Marie C. Hamlin died 20 June 1885 of consumption.

Census 1850

Springwells, Wayne, Michigan

Age: 0

Birth Year (Estimated): 1850

Birthplace: Michigan

Household Role Gender Age Birthplace

John Watson M 39 Michigan

Eliza V Watson F 25 Michigan

Caroline Watson F 0 Michigan

William D Watson M 13 Michigan

Name: William Hamlin

Census 1880

Detroit, Wayne, Michigan

Age: 35

Marital Status: Married

Occupation: Capitalist

Birthplace: Tennessee

Household Role Gender Age Birthplace

Carrie Godfroy Self F 40 Michigan, United States

Liza Watson Other F 30 Michigan, United States

William Hamlin Other M 35 Tennessee, United States

Carrie Hamlin Other F 32 Tennessee, United States

Mary Kelly Other F 15 Ireland

Jennie Brown Other F 23 Ireland

William Hamlin married 2nd Louise Helm [descendant of Major John Whistler], who was born in Cuba, the daughter of a Confederate sympathizer.  The Helm family moved to Newport, Kentucky, after the death of the father, Charles.

William Yates Hamlin erected a monument in honor of his father, his mother and his brother (who died in a duel).

William Hamlin, who was listed as "single," died in Detroit in 1902.

Bricked Between Posts NOLA Pioneer House

Creole Families Of New Orleans:

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"Briquette entre Poteaux"

Marsacs In Old Detroit

From A Little Girl in Old Detroit, by Amanda Minnie Douglas:

A few non-fictional Marsacs from Detroit, including Sophia de Marsac Campeau (see portrait below).

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Fighting On Their Own Terms

From The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell:

According to the field state on the morning of September 13th, Wolfe had with him, when all the men had reached the top of the cliff, 4,828 combatants of all ranks.

Wolfe relied on one factor to tip the balance of the day--his men were all regulars, including the two battalions of the Royal Americans, who had been drilled up to his exacting standards. For the first time in the course of the war in North America they were in a position to fight on their own terms--in the open field, where their superb, mechanical discipline and massed fire power would tell to the utmost.

The area in between (Buttes a Neveu ridge and Quebec), mostly green pasture with a few cornfields, studded here and there with clumps of bushes derived its name from Abraham Martin, a pilot who had owned part of the land in the early years of the colony, and was called the Plains of Abraham.

The pictures below (of French-Indian era reenactors) were originally published here.

Bondy Family Of Detroit

Included in the Legends of Le Détroit was a descendant of Thomas Douaire de Bondy, Joseph Bondy, who married Josette Gamelin.  Joseph and Josette are my grandkids' ancestors.

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