Ft. Pontchartrain at Detroit: A Guide to the Daily Lives of Fur Trade and Military Personnel, Settlers, and Missionaries at French Posts (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Ft. Pontchartrain at Detroit: A Guide to the Daily Lives of Fur Trade and Military Personnel, Settlers, and Missionaries at French Posts Dale Standen Ft. Pontchartrain at Detroit: A Guide to the Daily Lives of Fur Trade and Military Personnel, Settlers, and Missionaries at French Posts. 2 vols. Timothy J. Kent. Ossineke: Silver Fox Enterprises, 2001. Pp. 1147, illus. $195.00 Those familiar with Timothy Kent's previous works, notably Birchbark Canoes of the Fur Trade (two volumes) and Tahquamenon Tales, will know what to expect in this further work. Genealogist, enthusiast of fur-trade material culture, living history time-traveller, amateur historian, and self-publisher, Timothy Kent has ballooned his knowledge of French fur-trade material culture into two fat volumes of 1150 double-columned, 8.5 x 11 pages. Ft. Pontchartrain suffers from the weaknesses of an amateur, self-published project devoid of editorial criticism and discipline. Even so, this compendium, although less satisfying than his Birchbark Canoes, contains something of value and can be consulted with profit by amateur and professional alike. Kent proclaims the bias of a living history enthusiast at the outset: to focus upon 'the small, mundane aspects of ... events, rather than broad, sweeping overviews,' in the conviction that 'such minor details of past lives are the most interesting ones to later generations, making the study of history alive, vibrant, and relevant to those living today.' This is fair warning to expect little interpretive awareness of what it all may mean. The division into two volumes follows no obvious thematic rationale: the second simply carries on when the first gets too large. The first fifty pages of volume 1 are an introduction and historical overview before entering the chapters on categories of daily life and material culture in the Great Lakes region, or pays d'en haut: canoe transportation; foodways; hunting and warfare; buildings, hardware, and furnishings; church furnishings, vestments, and activities of missionaries; woodworking, metalworking, and masonry; farming and gardening; clothing; sewing, laundry, and cleaning; grooming and medicine; recreation; and trade and commerce. Volume 2 also contains thirty-one appendices in ninety pages, a bibliography of references cited, and an index. Each chapter is provided with profuse endnotes. Kent's documentary sources are for the most part published ones. Among these the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections is very evident, supplemented with occasional references to relevant archival collections in Michigan, Ontario, and Quebec. Genealogical research on his own ancestors looms large in the archival sources and is interjected frequently throughout the text and appendices, an indication, perhaps, of the nucleus of Kent's indefatigable pursuit, especially since we are advised of the future appearance of twenty ancestral biographies. As one [End Page 813] would expect, Kent draws heavily upon archaeological reports and secondary archaeological studies. There is some appropriate historical scholarship evident in the bibliography and notes, although there are some worrisome omissions, such as Gratien Allaire on éngagés and voyageurs; Guy Frégault on fur trade companies; José Igartua on Montreal merchants; Yves Zoltvany on Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil and the founding of Detroit. Such omissions, and elementary errors such as reference to François de Beauharnois instead of his brother, Charles, as governor of New France after 1726, are not reassuring of accuracy or of familiarity with historical scholarship. Incomplete and irregular citation format renders the work difficult to use. Archival and printed primary sources are not segregated in the bibliography. Archival citations in endnotes frequently lack complete provenance, such as fonds, series, and folio or page numbers. The same is true for the documents reproduced in the appendices and illustrations. The text is amply supported with maps, plans, and illustrations and drawings of artifacts. Although the quality of reproductions is not the highest, they serve the purpose. Readers in search of the minutiae of French fur-trade daily life in the Great Lakes region will find much of interest in Ft. Pontchartrain. Since it won't be read in one sitting, the tedium of unedited prose and needless repetition may not be as off-putting as the volumes' consequent high price. Kent is best when describing what he evidently loves the most: the things of daily...