The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-08-31


Xxx labor and the expenditure of
q ~ ~ half a million dollars is now
complete. For one of the high
lights Of the celebration will be the unwilling at
the fort of new monument to the Rush-Bagot
treaty under which the Canadian-Amercan from
tier of 5000 miles has remained unfortifed for
116 years. Thus in a period of world unrest, of
smoldering hatreds and suspicious and of in
creasing ornaments both on land and sea, this
monument will stand a symbol of the fact
that two nations can live in amity side by side
without having boundary line bristling with
concrete and steel for either defensive or often
sve purposes.
1t is especially appropriate that such monu-
ment should be erected at Fort Niagara, for it
was a focal point for nearly $50 years of almost
endle, conflict first between the French and the
British later between the British and the Amer
leans and in both cases with Indian allies play
ing secondary but nonetheless important part.
Then after this century and a half of warfare
came the century of peace that still prevails.
Old Fort Niagara is not only one of the most
historic posts on American soil but in one re-
spect it is unique. AS part of the modern Fort
Niagara military reservation, it is the only
United States army post over which fly foreign
flags. 1t has two of these which memorabilia
the nations and the periods in history during
which they held this post-the triple feur de lis
of Louis XIV and Great Britains Union Jack of
1859 with it's two crosses Above and between
these two flags is the Star Spangled Banner
but it is one that seems strangely unfamiliar to
Americans of today who visit the fort. For it
has Is stars and Is stripes, the reason being
that it is the American flag of 1896 when there
were only Is states in the Union.
The history of Fort Niagara goes back to 1878
when the French explorer, La Sale, realizing
the strategic value of a fort where the Niagara
river flows into Lake Ontario to control this
gateway to the West, built there crude wooden
fertilization to which he gave the name of Fort
Cont. Like his ship, the Griffon the fort was
burned within year after it's building through
the negligence or treachery of the sergeant and
the men whom La Sale left in charge
decade later the struggle between France
and Great Britain for mastery of the fur trade
and control of the interior of North America was
under way and in 1857 the Marquis de Nonville,
governor-general of New France, reported that
"the fur trade will be lost if the English occupy
Niagara" So he asked the French government
for 1.-TWO good battaonS and the funds necessary
to sustain the movement and occupy the post"
These were supplied him and within three days
there rose timber stockade with four bastions
which bore the official name of Fort De Nonville
but which commonly called Fort Niagara,
name that has persisted to this day.
same fate as Fort Cont. Garrisoned by 100 men,
all but IL of them fell victims to the rigors of
winter and the ravages of the scurvy, that
the fort was abandoned after II months Moth
ing more was done toward holding possession of
this vitality important spot until 1924 when the
MARQUIS de Vaudreuil then governor general of
New France, alarmed by the threat of the Brit
ish trading post at Oswego, decided to build an
other fort at Niagara. Submitting his plans to
WIZ
approval before beginning operations. Even more
Important than the French kings sanction of
the project was that of the Iroquos Indians
the powerful Five Nations who held the balance
of power between their French and English
neighbors They were none too friendly toward
the French because of various armed clashes in
the past and they were pretty likely to look
with suspicion upon the establishment of per-
manent post on their lands
Fortunately for Vaudreuil, a French trader
named Louis de Joncaire, who had been adopted
into the Seneca tribe of the Five Nations, had
trading post at the foot of Niagara gorge and
the encouragement made use of Joneaire to
accomplish his purpose. Various stories have
been told of how the French tricked the Iroquois
into giving their consent to the building of
fort at Niagara but the more belevable one Is
that it was accomplished through Joncaire, who
asked and obtained permission from the Indians
to substitute "stone house" for his trading
shed of bark and logs.
Under a broad Interpretation of the permits
sion given to Joneaire, the French transferred
the site of the post from the foot of the gorge
to the bluff at the mouth of the river overlooking
Lake Ontario, but they scrupuously observed
the letter Of the agreement by building "stone
house"-the plain STRAIGHTFORWARD, rectangular
structure later called 1.-THE Castle" which stands
there today The plans for it were drawn by
the French engineer Chaussegras de Lery who