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 directionof the governing Boards of the Public Library of Fort Wayne andAllen 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 ofTrustees of the School City of Fort Wayne (with the same officers), togetherwith the following citizens chosen from Allen County outside the corporatecity 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 NorthAmerican continent. The French claims were largely based upon the discoveryof the St. Lawrence by Cartier in 1521, and subsequent explorationof the interior of the Continent by Champlain, La Salle, and other Frenchmen.Ultimately, the territory which the French pre-empted included theSt. Lawrence Valley, the Great Lakes region, the territory extending southwardto the Ohio River, the territory immediately west of the MississippiRiver, and that part of the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico adjacent to themouth of the Mississippi River. The French exploited the fur-trading andfur-producing possibilities of this vast empire; French priests sought theconversion of the Indian inhabitants to the Catholic faith; French militaryforces established a chain of forts or posts extending along the Great Lakes,down the Wabash River, and along the Mississippi River to the Gulf. NumerousFrenchmen came to this interior region, but few Frenchwomen accompaniedthem; consequently, French settlements were relatively fewand weak. Many Frenchmen formed temporary or permanent unions withIndian women, and in the next generation a considerable number of half-breedswere born of these unions. Important French posts in the area werePresque Isle, Mackinac, Detroit, Post Miami, Vincennes, New Orleans,Kaskaskia, and St. Louis.
The environs of the Indian village of Kekionga, located in the presentLakeside section of Fort Wayne, were selected by the French for thelocation of Post Miami, because of combined strategic, economic, andgeographic significance. The village was located at the confluence of theSt. Joseph and St. Mary’s Rivers. It was, therefore, on water highwaysconnecting 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-Mississippiwatershed lying between the two. A shallow lake, sincedrained out of existence, extended southwest from Kekionga to present-dayWaynedale, and was navigable by canoe during part of the year. Thesefactors inevitably made the confluence of the rivers a portage for east andwest traffic between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. Pelts and tradegoods, passing back and forth from the East to the Southwest, and in reverse,co