Description of the First French Fort in Present day Ft. Wayne in 1749
WHERE THE FIRST FRENCH FORT. A map drawn by Father Jean Bonne- camps while on the site of Fort Wayne in 1749 (forty-five years before the coming of General Wayne) shows that the French fort of that period (Post Miami) stood on a site which may now be described as a point on the right bank of the St. Mary's river, a short distance north of the Nickel Plate railroad tracks (see map) M. de Ralmond (1748). Ralmond ln 1750 abandoned the. place and erected the last French fort on a site at the junction of the present St. Joe boulevard and Delaware Avenue, on the St. Joseph river, a point also within the present city of Fort Wayne.
Site of the first French fort in present day Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The fort was adjacent to Coldfoot village that was located on the east side of Van Burean Street. The sign erected by the Allen County Historical Museum is incorrect.
THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE was the scene of growing bitter strife between the two powerful European nations which told of the waning power of France in the West. Slowly but certainly the English gained the alliance of the powerful leaders of the more easterly Indian tribes, and even the friendship of the Miamis for their French brothers became a doubtful matter.
"The fort of the Miamis was in a very bad condition when we reached it. Most of the palisades were decayed and fallen into ruin. There were eight houses, or, to speak more correctly, eight miserable huts which only the desire of making money could render endurable. The French there number twenty-two; all of them, including the commandant, had the fever. Monsieur Raimond did not approve the situation of the fort and maintained that it should be placed on the bank of the St. Joseph a scant league from the present site. He wished to show me the spot, but the hindrances of our departure prevented me from going hither. All I could do for him was to trace the plan for his new fort. The latitude of the old one is 41 degrees, 29 minutes."10.
This decaying fort stood on the right bank of the St. Mary's river in the bend of the stream a short distance north of the present Nickel Plate railroad bridges. It is not difficult to picture the commandant, ill with fever, seeking the advice and assistance of these visitors from a civilized section of the world, who declined to discommode themselves to aid him further than to give him a rough draught to guide him in the building of a new fort. But, perhaps, the depression of spirit extended also into the heart of the Celeron. "On the 26th," said he, "I called to me Cold Foot, chief of the Miamis at Kiskakon. and other principal Indians, to whom I repeated, in the presence of M. de Raimond and the officers of our detachment what I had said at the village of LaDemoiselle and the answers I got from them. After listening with much attention, he [Cold Foot] arose and said to me : 'I hope I am deceived, but I am sufficiently attached to the French to say that LaDemoiselle will be false. My grief is to be the only one who loves you, and to see all the nations of the earth let loose against the French." Cold Foot's prophecy was true. LaDemoiselle grew stronger in his opposition to the French and finally drew upon himself a tragedy which marked the beginning of the French and Indian war. Unable to secure a sufficient number of canoes to transport his company by water down the Maumee, Celeron sent some of his men overland to Detroit, at which place the expedition arrived eight days later.
The Last French Fort in Present Day Ft. Wayne, Indiana
FRENCH RELICS DUG UP ON THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE.
These three relics of the seventeenth century days of the occupation of the site of Fort Wayne by the French — B medallion bearing the date 1693, a copper kettle and a copper box are of incalculable historical value. The medal lion and the kettle are the property of Kenton P. Baker, 1008 Delaware Avenue. In 1870, while he was superintending some work of excavation at the junction of the present Delaware avenue and St. Joe boulevard, Henry J. Baker, Sr. (grandfather of Kenton P. Baker), uncovered the kettle shown here. It was found to contain some Indian arrowheads and the large brass medallion of which the picture shows the two sides. The indentations of the kettle were made by the ads in the hands of the workman who unearthed the relic. The place of finding the reminders of the French occupation, is the site of the last French fort, erected In 1750. It would seem that the medallion and the kettle have reposed within the limits of the present city of Fort Wayne for a period of nearly two centuries. The medallion was for a time the property of Mrs. C. E. Stapleford, now a resident of Colorado Springs, Col. Mrs. Stapleford ascertained, through correspondence with the mayor of Bordeaux. France, that Gull (William) de Nesmond, whose portrait appears on the medallion which was issued in commemoration of his death In 1963, was a member of a noble family in France. It is interesting to note that an exact duplicate of this medallion, found in the same locality. Is the property of Byron F. Thompson, residing north of Fort Wayne. The small copper box, with a hinged, embossed cover, undoubtedly a relic of the French occupation, is owned by L. W. Hills. It was unearthed by boys while at play in the vicinity of the site of the French fort.
THE LAST FRENCH FORT IN PRESENT DAY FORT WAYNE, INDIANA
Whatever Captain Rai mond may have thought of the refusal of the visitors to interest themselves in the location of his new fort, it is certain that he lost little time in beginning its erection. By the spring of 1750, this new home of his men, high above the surrounding territory, was ready for occupancy. While the former location was on low ground, the new fort occupied a commanding position on the east bank of the St. Joseph river (at the present St. Joe boulevard and Delaware Avenue, formerly Baker Avenue), where today the automobilist, as he hurries past the historic spot looks out upon a landscape to the westward very similar to that which gladdened the vision of these hardy Frenchmen, now made unromantic, of course, by the evidences of civilization. The coming years were destined to weave about this fort of Captain Raimond many thrilling tales of romance, horror and bloodshed. Here were to be enacted the scenes of the love story of the Englishman, Holmes, and its tragic climax of massacre; the tale of Morris who faced death at the stake ; of Croghan and the remnants of the French and British during the days when the young republic was training a Wayne and a Harrison in the school of warfare.
With the abandonment of the old fort on the St. Mary's, the discarded buildings of the past became the center of an Indian settlement known as a Cold Foot's village, over which Chief Cold Foot presided until his death, which came at a time when his friendship was most keenly needed by the French commandant.
"My people are leaving me for Detroit. Nobody wants to stay here and have his throat cut. All of the tribes who go to the English at Pickawillany come back loaded with gifts. I am too weak to meet the danger. Instead of twenty men, I need five hundred q • q We have made peace with the English; yet they try continually to make war on us by means of the Indians. They intend to be masters of all this upper country. The tribes here are leagued together to kill all the French, that they may have nobody on their lands but their English brothers. This I am told by Cold Foot, a great Miami chief, whom I think an honest man, if there be such thing among the Indians. * * • If the English stay in this country, we are lost. We must attack them and drive them out."1 To add to the distress of mind of the commandant of Post Miami, an epidemic of smallpox spread over the Maumee- Wabash region during the winter of 1751-2 and carried away as its victims, two of his true Indian friends, Chief Cold Foot and Chief LeGris, as well as many of the Miamis who formed the Cold Foot village.
