A Time Line in the Land of the Four Flags
1679
Sieur Robert Cavelier de La Salle explored the region of Michiana and established Fort Miami near the mouth of the St Joseph River, formerly known as the River of the Miami.
1684
Father Claude Allouez, a French Jesuit monk, established a mission on the St. joseph River, in the vicinity of present-day Niles, Michigan
1691
The French founded a military and training post (Fort St. Joseph) near the mission.
1697
Fort St. Joseph is one of only three forts left open in North America by the French because of its strategic location adjacent to the portage between the St. Joseph and Kankakee Rivers.
1698
Fort St. Joseph was closed by the French government to control the unregulated fur trade.
1707
The Miami Indians abandoned the Fort St. Joseph area and were replaced by the Potawatomi.
1717
Under orders from the French King, Louis XIV, Fort St. Joseph was reopened.
1754
The French and Indian War broke out in North America pitting France against Great Britain. The Potawatomi supported the French.
1760
The British tacitly gained control of all the French lands in North America east of the Mississippi River.
1761
A British force under the command of Ensign Francis Schlosser re-garrisoned Fort St. Joseph.
1763
Britain and France signed a peace treaty that ended worldwide hostilities between the two nations. Britain was ceded Canada and all the land east of the Mississippi River. The British were nearly driven from the Great Lakes region by an Indian rebellion known as Pontiac's War. During this year the Potawatomi ambushed the British garrison at Fort St. Joseph and killed several soldiers. Ensign Schlosser was taken to Detroit were he was ransomed. Over the next few years, hostilities between Whites and Indians gradually diminished.
The community of Fort St. Joseph fell under control of French merchant, Louis Chevalier, and essentially became a Franco/British trading post.
1775
The American Revolution began in New England and rapidly spread to all thirteen lower British colonies. American nationalism gradually moved westward into the present-day Midwest.
1780
British fear of American incursions into what is today Ohio, Indiana and Michigan caused them to remove nine French families totaling forty-two people from Fort St. Joseph. British traders continued operating from Fort St. Joseph until American forces impounded their property and took them prisoner.
1781
The Spanish militia, made up mostly of Frenchmen, and Indian forces attacked Fort St. Joseph and claimed the region for Carlos III, King of Spain. After only one day, the invaders returned to their base near St. Louis. Fort St. Joseph was never re-occupied.
1783
The American Revolution formally ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris and the United States became a sovereign nation, although British influence remained strong in this area until the Treaty of Greenville took effect in 1795.
1823
White settlers from the South and East began to migrate into the St. Joseph Valley and establish permanent homesteads.