Francis Godfroy correspondence, 1824-1847.
(Kit)

This collection is arranged chronologically.

Processing Information: Collection processing and finding aid completed by Philip N. Williams during 1999. EAD finding aid created by Bethany Fiechter on 2018/04/20.

This collection is open for research.

This collection includes photostats and photocopies of correspondence primarily to Francis Godfroy, dating from 1824 to 1847. Those corresponding with Francis Godfroy include William Griffith Ewing, concerning fur trade and other business relations; Allen Hamilton, a close friend who served as executor of Francis Godfroy's last will and testament; Thomas Hamilton; Colonel Abel C. Pepper, superintendent of Indian Reservations and Indian agent; Samuel Milroy, Colonel Pepper's successor; John Forsyth; General George A. Fate; James Racide; Laz Noble; L. B. Barthalit and Robert Martin. Other materials are accounts, orders for goods, an order of payment, memoranda, a county tax receipt and an executor's settlement of Francis Godfroy's estate. Recurring topics are the surveying of land, treaty alterations and ratification, and the fur trade. One letter which was forwarded to Francis Godfroy by A. C. Pepper is signed by R. M. Johnson, vice president of the United States under Martin Van Buren, dated January 12, 1839. An article of agreement, dated March 2, 1824 is made by Francis and Louis Godfroy with Jonathan Jennings, Benjamin Parke, and Lewis Godfroy, commissioners of the United States.

Francis Godfroy correspondence, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library.

Legal title, copyright, and literary rights reside with the Miami County Historical Society in Peru, Indiana. All requests to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Francis Godfroy was born in 1788 to Jacques Godfroy and an unidentified Miami woman. Godfroy was an Indian trader and had a trading post at his home. He also held considerable land in northeastern Indiana. Godfroy lived among the Miami people and was made war chief of the Miami, fighting with them during the War of 1812. Godfroy had two wives, Sac-a-che-quah and Sac-a-quah-tah, the latter a white woman who had been captured as a child and raised by the Shawnee people. Godfroy died on May 1, 1840.

This collection was received by Rare Books and Manuscripts as a donation from the Miami County Historical Society during 1930 and 1965.

No further additions are expected.