'""Mow Upril 19Il OFFICERS of the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MISSOURI, 1941-1944 GEORGE A
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Missouri , Historical Review In i/iir Issue: Covered 6rid(jes TUarlonCo/leqe Fat/wTmucapsti He 3oura/nond in/fttisoufi Tublhhedbu rxi i r T* I '""mow Upril 19il OFFICERS OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI, 1941-1944 GEORGE A. ROZIER, Perryville, President MARION C. EARLY, St. Louis, First Vice-President E. E. SWAIN, Kirksville, Second Vice-President HENRY C. CHILES, Lexington, Third Vice-President RUSH H. LIMBAUGH, Cape Girardeau, Fourth Vice-President A. P. GREEN, Mexico, Fifth Vice-President THEODORE GARY, Macon, Sixth Vice-President R. B. PRICE, Columbia, Treasurer FLOYD C. SHOEMAKER, Secretary and Librarian TRUSTEES OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1942 MORRIS ANDERSON, Hannibal WM. SOUTHERN, JR., Independence LUDWIG FUERBRINGER, St. Louis HENRY C THOMPSON, Bonne Terre HENRY KRUG, JR., St. Joseph GEORGE H. WILLIAMS, St. Louis JUSTUS R. MOLL, Springfield CHARLES L. WOODS, Rolla JOHN F. RHODES, Kansas City Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1943 JESSE W. BARRETT, St. Louis H. S. STURGIS, Neosho ALBERT M. CLARK, Richmond JAMES TODD, Moberly HENRY J. HASKELL, Kansas City JONAS VILES, Columbia WM. R. PAINTER, Carrollton L. M. WHITE, Mexico JOSEPH PULITZER, St. Louis Term Expires at Annual Meeting, 1944 FRANK P. BRIGGS, Macon ISIDOR LOEB, St. Louis BEN L. EMMONS, St. Charles ALLEN MCREYNOLDS, Carthage STEPHEN B. HUNTER, Cape Girardeau E. E. SWAIN, Kirksville WALDO P. JOHNSON, Osceola ROY D. WILLIAMS, Boonville EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The twenty-six trustees, the President and the Secretary of the Society, the Governor, Secretary of_ State, State Treasurer, and President of the University of Missouri constitute the Executive Committee. zJWissouri Historical 7fyvzezv Floyd Q. Shoemaker', Editor Volume XXXVI dumber Three zApril 1942 »>$%£&%> The Missouri Historical Review is published quarterly. It is sent free to all members of the State Historical Society of Missouri. Membership dues in the Society are $1.00 a year. All communica tions should be addressed to Floyd C. Shoemaker, the State His torical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine. "Entered as second-class matter at the postofflce at Columbia, Missouri, under Act of Congress, October 3, 1917, Sec. JjfiZ" Qontents £TIENNE VENIARD DE BOURGMOND IN THE MISSOURI COUNTRY. By Henri Folmer 279 THE MARION COLLEGE EPISODE IN NORTHEAST MISSOURI HISTORY. By Howard I. McKee 299 FATHER TIMOTHY DEMPSEY. By Harold J. McAuliffe, S.J 320 ADDENDA 334 MISSOURIANA 336 History Under Cover 336 Jefferson Barracks Through Five Wars 339 Missouri Jack Passes His "Physical" 341 Missouri Miniatures—Father Peter John De Smet 343 Red-Letter Books Relating to Missouri—The Shepherd of the Hills. Review by Benjamin E. Powell 349 Missouri Scrapbook 355 HISTORICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS 358 Members Active in Increasing Society's Membership 358 New Members of the Society, November 1941—January 1942.. 361 Activities of County Historical Societies 365 Missouri Boy Makes Good 368 Editors Welcome Weekly Articles 369 Acquisitions 370 Anniversaries 371 Monuments and Memorials 373 Notes 375 Historical Publications 378 Obituaries 385 MISSOURI HISTORY NOT FOUND IN TEXTBOOKS 390 The Butt End of the Joke 390 Now They Have Phones and Want Tires 390 Mr. Henderson Might Look Into This 391 In the Good Old Days, Maybe 392 Now It's "Bluebirds Over the White Cliffs of Dover" r 392 First Fire, Then Smoke 393 He Helped Teach a Whole Country the Evils of Division 393 Such Are the Ways of Women 393 Not Even the Outward and Visible Signs 393 Have Times Changed? 394 History Repeats a Raid on the Pocket book 394 And the Cats Hang Over the Telephone 395 Local Boy Makes Good 395 Watermelon Party 396 Japan, Missouri, Is Patriotic Town 396 Historical Data in Missouri Newspapers and in Magazines 397 (i) ETIENNE VENIARD DE BOURGMOND IN THE MISSOURI COUNTRY BY HENRI FOLMER1 For Spain, it was of interest to keep the country west of the Mississippi as a barrier between New France and New Spain, and the policy of the Spanish officials was in accordance with these views. Expeditions were occasionally sent out to discover where the French were located.2 Spain looked on the countries of the Missouri, the Platte, the Kansas, the Red, the Canadian, and the Arkansas rivers as a very favor able no-man's land and hoped to leave it that way. The French thought differently. Their policy was decidedly more aggressive. It was not their ambition to leave the country west of the Mississippi to the savages and an occasional coureur de hois. France had plans to occupy the western wilderness peaceably—or with force. fitienne Veniard de Bourgmond is closely connected with the attempts made by France to occupy the Missouri after the defeat of de Villasur on the Platte river. In this period, which we might date vaguely from the 1710s to 1725, De Bourgmond played the most important role in the French penetration into the Missouri country. Beginning with the courting of an Indian girl from the Missouris, he ended by establishing a fort on the Missouri river, concluding an alliance with most of the tribes in that 1HBNRI FOLMER, a native of Holland, is a graduate student at the University of Chicago. He arrived in the States in 1936. At the University of Denver, he received his A.B. in 1938 and his M.A. in 1939. The subject of his master's thesis was French Expansion Toward New Mexico in the Eighteenth Century. His doctoral dissertation is being compiled on "French Exploration in the Trans- Mississippi West in the Eighteenth Century." He has published several studies on early explorations and expeditions. This article was submitted to the State Historical Society for publication in April 1941. The author wishes to express his appreciation for the co operation shown him in the preparation of this article by Sara Jones Tucker in charge of the Ethno-History collection of the department of anthropology, University of Chicago. He is equally indebted to the Newberry library, Chicago, for having access to the Edward E. Ayer collection. 2For Spanish frontier policy, see Thomas, Alfred B., After Coronado and The Plains Indians and New Mexico, 1751-1778. ( 279 ) 280 Missouri Historical Review region, and extending the influence of France as far as western Kansas. As in most colonial wars, it was by winning over the native tribes that the occupation of a territory started. Alliances, treaties, intrigues, putting one tribe against another, and, particularly, inciting native tribes to attack the European rival—these are the classical tactics of colonial warfare. The French were masters in the art of fighting powerful enemies, the Spaniards and the English. One of the letters of De Bourgmond refers to his employing this policy for the benefit of France. There can be no doubt that if France had backed up De Bourgmond sufficiently, the entire continent west of the Mississippi would finally have been French. Few whites had as much power over the Indians as De Bourg mond—the Red men trusted and loved him. It is difficult to reconstruct a man's character from a few official documents and administrative letters. But obviously he was kind to the natives and, above all, dealt with them with extreme justice. A fair sample of the prestige he enjoyed among the Red men was his success in having an Indian who had murdered a Frenchman put to death by his own brother in the midst of his tribe, without the aid of French soldiers. In 1723 the Otos and the Iowas, allies of the French, concluded a peace with the Sioux and the Fox, the enemies of the French. De Bourgmond not only succeeded in break ing up this alliance which would have endangered the position of the French in the Missouri as well as in the Illinois country, but he obtained a promise from the Otos and the Iowas to bring him scalps of their former allies. He opposed, as much as was in his power, the Indian slave trade, issuing ordinances as Commander of the Missouri against the purchase of Indian slaves by the French. His sympathies were with the Red men. In one of his letters he speaks of them as "these poor creatures." When Andrew McFarland Davis wrote his chapter on Canada and Louisiana in Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, he did not know the exact name of De Bourgmond. He speaks of "Bornion whose appoint ment was made .... in 1720." Yet no explorer of the Mis- Etienne VSniard de Bourgmond in the Missouri Country 281 souri country more deserves to be known than V6niard de Bourgmond, the coureur de hois who became u Commandant du Missouri" and was knighted by Louis XV for his services in the colony. According to the French historian of the Missouri, Baron Marc de Villiers, De Bourgmond came from an old Norman family. His father was a physician named Charles de V6niard, Seigneur du Vergil.3 In January 1706, while still an ensign, De Bourgmond replaced Tonty as commander of Fort Detroit. He proved a capable officer. With a gar rison of only fifteen men he was able to repulse an attack on Detroit by the Fox. Charlevoix apparently received his information on De Bourgmond's services at Fort Detroit from the young officer's enemies. In his Histoire et Description Generate de la Nouvelle France, Charlevoix gives De Bourgmond's haughty attitude toward the Ottawas as the cause of Indian trouble in his district, resulting in the death of Father Constantin, a Recol lect missionary at Fort Detroit, and a French soldier. Charle voix points out that the fur trade suffered from tribal wars among the Indians.