The Burial Place of Francis Godfroy

This historical marker shares the location where Native American leader and prominent fur trader Francis Godfroy was buried in 1840. In the years that followed, family members and several other Native Americans were buried in the early 19th century.

The importance of this cemetery includes the story of Francis Godfroy, the last Miami war chief, and many others. Godfrey owned a trading post that was a center of the fur trade. Godfroy was a Native American man with French parentage who was born at Little Turtle’s Village located in present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana. As the son of a Miami woman and a French trader, Francis Godfroy was born and raised as both a Frenchman and a member of the Miami people. Following in his father’s footsteps, Godfroy turned to working in trade after the War of 1812 and became a very successful merchant. He later became the last war chief of his tribe in 1830.

Godfroy owned trading posts at Mount Pleasant (located nearby the cemetery) and another reservation in what is now Blackford County, Indiana. After serving as War Chief and succeeding as a businessman, Francis Godfrey passed away in May, 1840. His family, two wives, and other Miami people were buried in the cemetery in the following years. He remains to be a major historical member of the Miami people, and his descendants continue to hold the land which he owned before the Miami removal of 1846.

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