One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XIV  

THE TRADER SEEKS PELTS

For Exchange: Overstuffed furniture, bed, dresser, sewing machine, bric-a-brac, washer, etc., for good second-hand- usable car. Sacrifice. Going out of town. XYZ, Citizen... Modern Classified Ad.

RESOURCES BEYOND THE WILDEST IMAGINATION lay west of the Alleghanies [Alleghenies]. The white man dreamed of them. Those of the race who were of bold spirit, those who were footloose and free, from will and choice or from force of circum- stance and urge of law, set forth to seek that of which they had dreamed, or perhaps bad heard rumors and tales.

There were more El Dorado’s than one. And one of them was built of the outer covering of wild animals. The adventurous spirits, though many profited little, discovered wealth in the wilderness. Many remained to hunt and trap, many to barter and trade.

In the pelts of beasts was found great riches. And an age came, in the lands west of the Alleghanies [Alleghenies], when fur was king.

In this obscure land dwelt not only several tribes of Indians, but also countless four-legged creatures, some of the smallest of were the most sought after; the marten, the mink, the otter .... Here also dwelt, like the muskrat, in the little rivers, the streams, and the lakes, an animal known as the beaver, that was to become the emblem of success in the fur business. The beaver became king of the pelt donors. Before they got the last of him, he was to be found plying his timbering, dam and house building trade in the Maxinkuckee region. He was among the Very earliest settlers of the township. Barring the mastodon, the 'possum perhaps, and a few such ancients, he may have been the first. Like the rest of them, he left few traces. His houses and dams have long since been destroyed or fallen to decay.

It has been said: "For a century and a half fur was king." A long reign'. A rather hectic one, filled with human deeds of daring, adventure and romance!

Saw Beaver Dams.
An early settler told of seeing large trees growing on what was said to be a beaver dam. The beaver was once here, but he has been gone so long that all traces of his clever works must have been obliterated. MCDONALD tells of a pioneer who settled in a very early day on Aubeenaubee's prairie, a short distance southwest of Lake Maxinkuckee, and quotes him as saying:

"When we came to this country we settled on the prairie. There were the remains of beaver dams from a hundred yards to almost a mile long, and one over that length at Beaver lake. There were also round holes in the prairie covered with grass, that the Indians said were once buffalo wallows. Deep paths were worn in the solid prairies; the Indians said they were made by the tramp of the buffalo."

There were fur traders all through this region at the time of the early settlements. The traders visited the various settlements periodically and paid good prices for all kinds of hides. A traveler, writing in 1829, tells of an establishment maintained by the American Fur Company in northern Indiana to carry on trade with the Indians. It was located on the southern bend of the St. Joseph, "twenty miles below the mouth of the Elkheart [Elkhart]." Its situation was on a high, dry plain, affording a very handsome and extensive site for a village, according to the writer, and "through his place, the road, as lately laid off from Lake Michigan to Indianapolis, passes, affording it the advantage of a road south to the Wabash; as well as the river northwest to the lake, at all times navigable."

Fur Trading.
Trading in furs was, in fact; the principal industry of this northern Indiana region in pioneer days. It was a thriving business long before the first settlers came to Union Township, Referring to the fur trade in the early part of the 13th Century, it has been said that "a string of fur stations owned by JOHN JACOB ASTOR then stretched through northern Indiana to the extreme northern tip of what is now Michigan. The fur business of that period was a thriving and profitable one. One shipment early in 1804 consisted of more than 18,000 skins valued at approximately $100,000, which included fox, wildcat, bear, raccoon, beaver and opossum. These skins were shipped to New York and eventually to Europe, which at that time was an excellent market for furs from the new continent."

Several early travelers commented regarding the fur trade in this region. "When the French possessed Canada and Louisiana," said one, "their traders constantly passed by Chicago into Illinois and by the Maumee into the Wabash, in their voyages." Another reported: "Carts are usually employed in transporting boats and merchandise from the Miami to the Wabash river,"

"The country on the Wabash," according to another traveler, "was early visited by French traders, or hunters from Canada."

Trade became very brisk. It was reported in 1778: "The annual amount of Skins and Furs, obtained at Ouiatanon is about 8000" Explaining the popularity of the French as barterers, a traveler wrote: "The Indians are said to be partial to the French traders, thinking them fairer (in their dealings, not their complexion) than the English or Americans."

The fur trader has vanished. like the beaver from this region. Other kinds of traders and barterers followed. The swapping of horses flourished hereabouts until the motor craze gained momentum early in the 20th Century Since then, occasional barters of this kind have been reported, but they are becoming few and far between. Today's trader, instead of presenting trinkets and gewgaws to red men in exchange for pelts, is more inclined to ridding his conscience and personal tax account of busted buggy cushions, decrepit talking machines, lame whatnots, mortgaged premises, and kindred belongings, and assuming in trade the care and responsibilities of a conglomeration of metal on four wheels, and with an anemic wheeze in its one lung.

A far cry indeed from the romance of the fur trade to the rattle of a gas-buggy! But the transition has been spelled in a magic word, which is PROGRESS.