Pontiac's Reign

While Pontiac was brokering peace in Detroit, a reign of terror was spreading over the entire frontier.  Settlements south of Lake Erie, and west of Lake Michigan were attacked.  Pioneer families were killed and scalped, traders ambushed along trails, and border towns burned and devastated.  In the Ohio Valley alone, only Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) remained.  Detroit was all that remained in the Northwest.

Military troops under Colonel Henry Bouquet won an important victory at Bushy Run, basically putting the major fire out in the confederacy.  Bouquet and his men built Fort Pitt's blockhouse following the battle, which now stands as a historical landmark.  Beginning to collapse now, the confederacy made treaties with Bouquet in 1764.   Bouquet was honored by the King for his role by the governorship of the new territory of Florida.

Indians of the Northwest were pacified by the treaties in the great councils at Niagara,  Erie and Detroit.  Pontiac fled to Maumee Country west of Lake Erie where he continued to taunt the British "dogs in red." The most he could do by this time was gather 400 warriors on the Maumee and Illinois Rivers and then present himself at Fort Chartres, demanding weapons and ammo.  He was refused and his power was essentially broken.

In 1765 Pontiac gave pledges of friendship and made a formal submission to Sir William Johnson at Oswego where Pontiac renounced his ambition forever to be lord of the West, free from British rule.  There is no record of Pontiac's whereabouts for the next several years until he appears in St. Louis in 1769.  While visiting friends, he is murdered by another Indian who was bribed by a Englishman out for revenge.  The reward for Pontiac's life was a barrel of whiskey.  Pontiac was buried with military honors in St. Louis.  His grave site is lost to history, but is believed to be somewhere under the streets of the present day St. Louis.

Next time...A Liar of Wild Beasts
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On January 17, 1820, Anne Bronte, the youngest of the Bronte sisters is born in Yorkshire England.  Their mother died when Anne was still an infant, and the children were left largely to their own devices in the bleak parsonage in Haworth, a remote village in Yorkshire.

Next Stop - St. Louis

The Walkers were part of the Great Migration, arriving in St. Louis, the Mecca of 1819.  The draw was rumored to be good climate to grow wheat, apples, cotton, tobacco, and a healthy climate that was said to improve whatever ailed you.

Ague and malaria infected more than half the western population and one of the biggest reasons for migration west.  Panic filled many a family to escape the disease and the reports said that bad air was the cause of which the west had nothing but fresh air.  No wonder that St. Louis became one of the worst places for malaria in the United States at that time.

Fortunately none of the Walkers reportedly suffered any instances or deaths from malaria.

Next time - Boonslick Country