Notes for Jean Baptiste Chandonnet/Marie "Mary" Louisa Chapoton

Notes for Jean Baptiste Chandonnet/Marie "Mary" Louisa Chapoton

Jean Baptiste Chandonnet Notes, continued...

From R. David Edmunds "The Potawatomis Keepers of the Fire"
Excerpted by Dennis Johnson January 1, 2001
Page 187-88 In his discussion regarding the August 14th, 1812 evacuation of Ft. Dearborn, (Chicago)
"Many of the Potawatomis' prisoners did not survive the night. The Indians had lost friends and relatives, and they took revenge on several of the captives, yet friendly Potawatomis interceded to save some of the others. Both Heald and his wife were badly wounded but were taken to William Burnett's trading post near the mouth of the St. Joseph River. After the hostile warriors departed to join in the attack on Fort Wayne, Alexander Robinson and his wife carried the Healds by canoe to Mackinac, where they were turned over to the British authorities. Lieutenant Linai Helm, second in command to Heald, eventually was taken to Lake Peoria, where he was ransomed by Forsyth. During the attack Black Partridge had saved Helm's wife, Margaret, by claiming her as his prisioner, and after the battle both he and Waubansee protected Mrs. Helm and the Kinzie family from unfriendly warriors. They later secured the aid of Jean Baptiste Chandonnai, a mixed-blood, who guided Mrs Helm and most of the Kinzies to
Detroit. Other captives were divided among the different bands. Some were killed. Others were ransomed later in the war."

Page 201-202
In his discussion of Robert Dickson British agent for all of the tribes West of Lake Huron
"Dickson's mistrust of the Potawatomis increased when he learned that the Americans had seized several British traders and killed one of his agents active amoung the Potawatomis along the Saint Joseph. In early January, 1814, a part of American Indian agents and interpreters led by Robert Forsyth suprised and captured Joseph Bailly and three other traders living among the St. Joseph villiages. The Potawatomis did not oppose the seizure, and Dickson accused them of compliance in the action. Later, in the spring, one of Dickson's agents, Charles Chardonnai, was killed when he tried to rally the same Potawatomis against an American party visiting in their towns. The Americans were led by Jean Chandonnai, the British agent's nephew, who had arrived from Detroit in an effort to persuade the Saint Joseph Potawatomis to attend an American conference to be held at Greenville. A confrontation between the two relatives occurred, and the younger Chandonnai shot and killed his uncle. Once again the
Potawatomis took no part in the incident but they allowed the Americans to leave unharmed."
Cited Source: Anthony Butler to the secretary of war, January 23, 1814, Potawatomi File, Great Lakes Indian Archives: John Whistler to McArthur, July 1, 1814, ibid, Butler commanded Fort Detroit, Whistler commanded Fort Wayne, Also see Wisconsin Historical Collections, X, 112, fn.1: XIX, 159-160 fn.12.

pg. 221-222: (August 1821) /excerpt by Michelle Margraf/
"In the treaty (of Chicago), the Potawatomis ceded to the United States all of their lands in southwestern Michigan from the St. Joseph River east ot the boundaries of the lands ceded in 1807 and 1817 and stretching as far north as the Grand River. They also relinquisted their claim to a smoall strip of lands in northern INdiana extending from South Bend to the Ohio line. ... Withheld from the cession were a number of small tracts and reserves awarded to particular villages or individuals. Most of the individual reserves, which oculd not be sold without the permision of the president, were granted to mixed-bloods and reflected the growing importance of these people in tribal councils. Amont the recipients of the reserves were the Burnets, Chandonais, Beaubiens, Bertrands, Le Claires, and La Framboises, families resulting from marriages between traders and Potawatomi women." (The next paragraph is full of details about the life of the 'mixed-bloods' granted land in this area.)

Page 241 In his discussion on the Removal
"In 1828, as a first step toward removal, federal officials appointed McCoy to lead a mixed part of the Potawatomis, Ottawa, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks in an exploration of modern Kansas and Oklahoma. Most of the Potawatomis opposed the venture, but Mr. McCoy elisted three Saint Joseph tribesmen, Jean B. Chardonnai, Nagauwatuk (Noise Maker), and Shawanikuk (Southern Thunder), to
accompany him west. Joined by a few Ottawas, McCoy and the Potawatomis spend August and September traveling through Western Missouri and onto the plains of Kansas, where the Indians camped along the Marais des Cygnes River, and met with a party of recently emigrated Shawnees. In October, McCoy and the tribesmen journeyed back to St. Louis, where the missionary made plans to guide the southern Indians into Oklahoma. Unimpressed with Kansas, the Potawatomis and
Ottawas returned to their villiages in Michigan. Cited Source: E Reed to Cass July 12, 1828, M1, Roll 3, 203 National Archives; McCoy to Lykins, August 18, 1828, McCoy papers, Kansas State Historical Society; McCoy to Clark, October 7, 1828 ibid Schultz, Indian Canaan , 101-10. McCoys journal for this trip can be found in Lela Barnes (ed.), "Journal of Isaac McCoy or the exploring expedition of 1828, "Kansas Historical Quarterly, V (August, 1936), 227-77.

Source: Midwest Pioneers: Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Vol. 19, pg. 159
Charlotte Chandonnet's marriage is cited in Wis. Hist. Colls., xviii, pp. 495, 509. Her adopted son, Jean Baptiste, was clerk for John Kinzie at Chicago, at the time of the Fort Dearborn massacre (1812), where he was instrumental in saving the life of Mrs. Nathan Heald, wife of the commandant. In 1814 he arrested a number of British traders at St. Josephs River, and it was on that occasion that he killed his uncle, who had been serving with Robert Dickson as British agent in Wisconsin, and had been sent for information to St. Josephs. This explains the seeming anomaly noted in Wis. Hist. Colls., x, pp. 112, 113, where the then Editor thought that the younger Chandonnet was in Dickson's service, because he places the altercation and consequent shooting of the elder Chandonnet at an earlier date. The time is fixed as 1814 by a letter in our Draper MSS., 4T8, which accounts for the fact that the elder Chandonnet did not return to Dickson, as noted in his letter of March 15, 1814. Jean Baptiste Chandonnet married Marie Chapoton of Detroit, who visited Mackinac in the winter of 1815-16, and joined her husband at Chicago the following year; see Wis. Hist. Colls., xiv, pp. 24-27. Chandonnet interpreted for the United States at Greenville in 1814, and at Portage des Sioux in 1815. In 1831 he visited the Healds in their Missouri home, on his way to Kansas to select lands for the Potawatomi. He was at the Chicago treaties of 1832 and 1833, but died soon thereafter, somewhere in Michigan.

Source: Wisconsin Historical Collections, Mackinac Baptisms, Vol. XIX, pg. 117:
August 18, 1799, by us the undersigned priest, was baptisted Jean Baptiste, ten years old, born of the late Charles Agacouchin of the potowatowmis nation, and of Marguerite of the Outawas nation, the mother being present. The godfather was Michel La Croix; and the godmother Marianne Cown, who signed with us. Gabriel Richard, priest; Nancy Cown; M. Lacroix.

Source: Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties Volume II:
J. Bts. Chandonnai, sworn interpreter, was present (along with many other people) at the signing of a treaty in Brownstown, Michigan Territory on November 25, 1808.

Source: Wisconsin Historical Collections, Lawe and Grignon Papers, Vol. X, Pg. 112-113:
J.B. Chandonnai was a half-breed son of a Frenchman, and a Chipewaqua, a Pottawatomie woman, and was probably a native of the St. Joseph's Region, Michigan, and born as early as 1770. He was employed by Wm. Burnett, an early trader, in that quarter, from 1792 to 1799, and, it may be, earlier and later. When the War of 1812 commenced, Robert Forsyth, the elder, was sent with a party from Detroit, among them Chandonnai, as emissaries to the Pottawatiomies; and, at the same time John Chandonnai, and ucle of the object of this notice, was sent by the British at Mackinaw, with a party of some thirty Indians, to concilliate the Pottawatomies and apprehend young Chandonnai for his attachment and sympathies for the Americans. The uncle and nephew meeting, the former made known his errand, when the latter warned his uncle if he persisted in his object, and over-stepped a designated line, he would shoot him; but the uncle drew his sword and advanced, and paid the forfeit of his life. The British Indian party, near by, hastened to the spot; to whom young Chandonnai expressed his regret for having killed his uncle, but that he did it in self-defense, as he dared not trust himself in the hands of his enemies; and cautioned thme, if they attempted to cros the line he had marked he should not hesitate to kill as many of them as he could with his double-barreled gun. They beat a parley, and agreed to desiste from their purpose, and return home, if Chandonnai would give them ten gallons of whisky, which he did. At the time of the Chicago massacre, in August 1812, Chandonnai was acting as clerk for John Kinzie, a noted Indian trader at that place; and Mr. Kinzie committed his family to his charge, aided by two friendly Indians, upon whose fidelity he could rely, intending himself to assist the American garrison in their intended retirement to Fort Wayne. While Kinzie's family was protected by these Indians, the treacherous attack was made on the retiring garrison, Chandonnai rushed out, interceded for, and ransomed the wounded Mrs. Heald from her captor, and conveyed her and her husband, Capt. Heald, to St. Joseph's. From there in November following, Chandonnai and a friendly Indian conducted the Kinzie family to Detroit. He was one of the United STate interpreters at the treaty of Greenville in 1814, and at Portage des Sioux and Spring Wells, in 1815. During the period 1818-19, and perhaps longer, he ws engaged as an Indian trader in the Chicago region. At the treat of Chicago in 1821, he was granted two sections of land on the St. Joseph's. He was a witness to the Chicago treat of 1832; and at the treaty there in September 1833, he was allowed a claim of $1000. It is said that he drew a pension fromt he United States for services in the War of 1812; but from Col. Dickenson's letters, it would seem that Chandonnai was a soldier of fortune, and served wherever his interests dictated.