It was a wild shoot out at Fort William. A family rivalry brewing for years had finally exploded into a full-blown war, and it all started on this date in 1834.
The story comes from the journal of Charles Larpenteur, a cartman for Fort Union. According to Larpenteur, “There was a family named Deschamps, consisting of ten persons, among whom were the old man and three grown sons, … the very worst of subjects.”
The other family was headed by Jack Rem. The rivalry was set in motion when one of Rem’s sons was fatally beat over the head by a Deschamps.
The following spring, Baptiste Gardepie, a Rem family ally, conspired to kill old man Deschamps and his eldest son Francois. He and others in the Rem clan confronted Deschamps. Gardepie asked him if he wanted to make peace, upon which Deschamps replied, “I will never make peace with you as long as there is a drop of blood in my veins.” … “Blood was quickly let out of his veins, for Gardepie immediately … struck a fatal blow on the old man’s head.”
That fall, Rem’s sons-in-law were killed by a Blackfeet war party. According to Larpenteur, “This accident reduced Jack’s family considerably and enabled the Deschamps family to show their wicked dispositions.” Mother Deschamps told her sons to avenge their father’s death. The boys killed Jack Rem, and swore to kill his friends and others in the fort.
A contingent of men went to Kenneth McKenzie, head of the American Fur Company, asking him to put an end to the Deschamps family. McKenzie complied, and men surrounded Fort William with cannons, muskets, and ammunition. “Old lady” Deschamps came out, peace pipe in hand, to beg for their lives, but she was shot through the heart.
Firing continued through the next day. Wanting to end the battle, the Company set fire to the fort. With both houses aflame, Francois Deschamps escaped to the bastion. The bastion was pummeled with ammo, and Francois was killed, ending the battle and the rivalry.
Wrote Larpenteur: “[It was] not a crueler death than they deserved, but much crueler than I wished to witness.” He noted that peace and comfort was enjoyed in the fort thereafter.
Dakota Datebook by Tessa Sandstrom
Source: Milo Milton Quaife (ed.). Forty Years a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri: The Personal Narrative of Charles Larpenteur, 1833-1872 (Chicago, 1933).
