George Ronan-- Part 4: Setting the Stage for the Fort Dearborn Massacre

One of the most threatened American forts on the Frontier  was a small stockaded fort associated with a fur-trading post near the southern tip of Lake Michigan.  Although the Chicago River and the area is flowed through was officially a part of the United States, the Fort Dearborn soldiers and fur traders were tremendously outnumbered by adjacent bands of Indians.

The predominant Indian group in the area was the Potawatomi nation, who remained allied with the British though their land had been ceded to the United States at the end of the American Revolution at the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

On the Great Lakes, the years before the War of 1812 saw increasingly embittered competition between British-Canadian fur traders and American merchants and fur traders, many of whom were in alliance with the interests of the powerful John Jacob Astor and his American Fur Company.

--Brock-Perry

Charles Gratiot Sr-- Part 1.: Supplied George Rogers Clark

From Wikipedia.

1752- 20 April 1817.  Charles Gratiot's father.  Was a merchant trader during the American Revolution, whose declaration of Independence we are celebrating today, though he was not living in one of the 13 colonies.

he was born in Lausanne, Switzerland and emigrated to Montreal where his uncle was involved in the North American fur trade.  Later, he moved to Illinois country and opened a store in 1777 in Cahokia.  He provided supplies to George Rogers Clark in 1778 for his campaign against the British in Illinois and Indiana.  Gratiot provided Clark with $8,000 in supplies and was never reimbursed.

In 1781, Gratiot relocated to St. Louis, across the Mississippi River and married Victoire Chouteau, daughter of Pierre Laclede Liquest, another influential merchant of the city.  They had 13 children, including Charles and his brother Henry

--Brock-Perry

Treaty of Ghent: How It Affected British Fur Trade

Fur trader and director of the North West Company, William McGillivray, argued to retain the British occupied post at Mackinac to secure the fur trade in American territory but the Treaty of Ghent restored the pre-war boundary and this all occupied posts.

The loss of Mackinac and American assertion of the trading rights granted to the First Nations (Indians) in the 1794 Jay Treaty effectively ended the trade for Britain in the American Northwest.  Another blow to Montreal-based fur traders attempting to control commerce in Michigan and Wisconsin Territories came with the Convention of 1818 which settled the U.S.-British North American boundary west of the Lake of the Woods ending any chance of British commercial expansion into the southwest of the continent.

In case you're wondering, the Lake of the Woods is a large lake located on the borders of Manitoba, Ontario and Minnesota.  West of it, the boundary between the two countries is straight.

--Brock-Perry

The War of 1812 Shaped Wisconsin's Destiny-- Part 1

From the July 13th Milwaukee (Wi) Journal-Sentinel "Oft-overlooked War of 1812 shaped Wisconsin's destiny" by Mary Jones.

The war marked a turning point in the territory, even though Wisconsin did not become a state for decades.  Most of the conflict in the territory revolved around beaver pelts. 

This past weekend, there was a re-enactment of the only battle fought in Wisconsin, plus, in August, the US Navy comes to Milwaukee as part of their commemoration of the war's bicentennial.

Prairie du Chein, in southwest Wisconsin is located between the US military post at St. Louis and the American fort on Mackinac Island in Michigan.  After the war began, the Great Lakes quickly fell to the British and their Indian allies.

The lucrative fur trade ground to a halt.  American soldiers from St. Louis built a fort at Prairie du Chein in 1814.

Mpre to Come.  Brock-Perry