Francis Godfroy

Francis Godfroy was one of the leaders in a Miami counterattack on an American army led by Lieutenant Colonel John Campbell in the Battle of the Mississinewa on December 17–18, 1812.

After the War of 1812, Godfroy turned increasingly to trade, in partnership with the Miamis' principal chief, Jean Baptiste Richardville.

Until 1827 he alternated residences between the post, known as Mount Pleasant, and the Godfroy treaty reserve in today's Blackford County, Indiana.

From 1818 to 1838, Godfroy was given a total of seventeen sections of land (10,880 acres) and $17,612 in payment for services as chief and for the debts of tribespeople to his trading post, as well as a house and other gifts.

Along with Richardville, he was able to frustrate the efforts of General John Tipton, Governor Lewis Cass, and various Indian agents to bring about rapid land cessions and Miami removal.

In conjunction with traders such as the Ewing brothers, Godfroy and Richardville were able to wrest much larger payments for land ceded by treaty and to postpone the Miamis' removal longer than that of most other midwestern tribes.

A large man, he dressed in a mixture of European and native clothing, often wearing a vest and a blue waistcoat over a ruffled shirt, with a breechcloth, leggings, and moccasins.

Francis Godfroy, a celebrated Miami chief who was half French and half Miami. Hand-colored lithograph from the Aboriginal Portfolio, painted at the Treaty of Fort Wayne (1827).
Grave of Chief Francis Godfroy