A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I, Part 13

Author: Perry F. Powers
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 597


USA > Michigan > A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I > Part 13


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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In 1822 this grievous situation was laid before congress by James Duane Doty, who had removed to Green Bay, then in Brown county, Michigan territory, and in his communication he informed congress of the resulting hardships to the traders, and related that the Indian debtors believed their debts to the traders were paid by a tender of a due amount of furs at the trader's residence, and if the trader was ab- sent he was pretty certain to lose his claim. In that communication a showing was made as to the importance of the trade of this section, and it was claimed it produced a larger revenue than any other, with the possible exception of Orleans. Mackinac was claimed to have yielded duties to the extent of $40,000 in 1807, while in the month of November, 1821, the same point exported 3,000 packs of fars, and it was claimed that the sale of foreign goods in the tributary territory amounted to a million dollars annually.


Upon these representations, congress passed an act in January, 1823, providing for a district court for this locality, to have jurisdic- tion over all offenses and transactions concerning commerce, and deal- ings with the Indians, and also the usual jurisdiction of the county courts. Mr. Doty was made judge of the new court.


In March of the same year an act was passed whereby congress made important changes in the form of territorial government, so that legislative power of the territory was vested in the governor and a coun- cil of nine persons, these nine to be selected by the president and con- firmed by the senate from a list of eighteen to be elected by the peo- ple of the territory; and by the same act the judges were given equity as well as common-law powers.


So that to a considerable extent, the people of the northern portion of the Southern Peninsula are indebted to the necessities and exer-


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tions of the traders and settlers of the Upper Peninsula for the advance- ment of civil government over their country.


When Michigan became a state, in 1837, Michilimackinac county was extended west to the Menominee river and in 1840 south to Saginaw bay. The courts were still held at Mackinac, which village was the center of all civic affairs for Northern Michigan, and during that year (1840) all of the Southern Peninsula at the head of Grand Traverse Bay was laid off as the county of Omeena. This, however, had a brief existence, as the legislature of that year, for the purpose of forwarding the work of the geological and topographical survey, divided that por- tion of the new state into twenty-eight counties.


CONDENSED HISTORY BY COUNTIES


It will become more plainly evident that 1840 was a great formative year in the civil history of Northern Michigan by presenting the mat- ter, as to the creation of its counties, in condensed form :


Aishcum-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Lake, March 8, 1843.


Notipekago-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Mason, March 8, 1843.


Unwatin-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Osceola, March 8, 1843.


Kautawaubet-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Wexford, March 8, 1843.


Mikenauk-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Roscommon, March 8, 1843.


1843.


Kanotin-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Iosco, March 8,


Negwegon-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Alcona, March 8, 1843.


Shawono-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Crawford, March 8, 1843.


Wabassee-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Kalkaska, March 8, 1843. Okkuddo-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Otsego, March 8, 1843.


Cheonoquet-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Montmorency, March 8, 1843.


Anamickee-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Alpena, March 8, 1843.


Keskkauko-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Charlevoix, March 8, 1843.


Tonedogana-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Emmet, March 8, 1843.


Kaykakee-Date of act, April 1, 1840; changed to Clare, March 8, 1843.


In the following table is a list of the counties covered by this his- torical narrative, showing the date when they were laid out (on paper),


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the counties to which they were successively attached for judicial and other civil purposes and the year when they were organized for prac- tical government :


Alcona county-Laid out 1840; attached to Cheboygan, 1853 ; Alpena, 1857; Iosco, 1858; Alpena, 1859; organized 1869.


Alpena county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Cheboy- gan, 1853; organized 1857.


Antrim county-Laid out, 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Grand Traverse, 1853; organized 1863.


Arenac county-Laid out 1831; absorbed by Bay county in 1857; organized 1883.


Benzie county-Laid out 1863; attached to Grand Traverse, 1863; organized 1869.


Charlevoix county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Em- met, 1853; organized 1869.


Cheboygan county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; or- ganized 1853.


Clare county-Laid out 1840; attached to Saginaw, 1840; Midland, 1858; Isabella, 1859; Midland, 1869; Mecosta, 1869; organized 1871.


Crawford county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Cheboygan, 1853; Iosco, 1858; Antrim, 1863; Kalkaska, 1871; organized 1875.


Emmet county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; or- ganized 1853.


Gladwin county-Laid out 1831; attached to Saginaw, 1840; Mid- land, 1855; organized 1875.


Grand Traverse county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; organized 1851.


Iosco county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Saginaw, 1853; organized 1857.


Kalkaska county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Grand Traverse, 1853; Antrim, 1863; organized 1871.


Lake county-Laid out 1840; organized 1871.


Leelanau county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Grand Traverse, 1853; organized 1863.


Manistee county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Ot- tawa, 1846; Oceana, 1851; Grand Traverse, 1853; organized 1855.


Mason county-Laid out 1840; attached to Ottawa, 1840; Oceana, 1851; organized 1855.


Missaukee county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Grand Traverse, 1853; Manistee, 1858; Wexford, 1869; organized 1871.


Montmorency county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Cheboygan, 1853; Alpena, 1857; organized 1871.


Ogemaw county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Che- boygan, 1853; Midland, 1859 ; Iosco, 1861; incorporated with Iosco, 1867; organized 1875.


Osceola county-Laid out 1840; attached to Ottawa, 1840; Newaygo, 1857; Mecosta, 1859; organized 1869.


Oscoda county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Cheboy-


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gan, 1853; Alpena, 1857; Iosco, 1858; Alpena, 1859; Alcona, 1869; or- ganized 1871.


Otsego county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Cheboy- gan, 1853; Alpena, 1858; Antrim, 1863; organized 1875.


Presque Isle county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1841; Cheboygan, 1853; Alpena, 1858; organized 1871.


Roscommon county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Cheboygan, 1853; Midland, 1859; organized 1875.


Wexford county-Laid out 1840; attached to Mackinac, 1840; Grand Traverse, 1853; Manistee, 1855; organized 1869.


SOURCES OF NAMES


As a fitting supplement to this tabulated list are presented the fol- lowing extracts from the columns of the Michigan Tradesman, relating to the sources from which the names of the various counties, as well as the state itself, are derived :


"The county names of Michigan present a subject both interesting and difficult. Owing to the fact that the county-making power-gov- ernor, legislative council or legislature-has in no instance when lay- ing out and naming a county seen fit to indicate its motive in assign- ing a certain name to a county or the historical significance of such name, it is frequently difficult and sometimes impossible to determine with certainty the origin of their names.


"When the name is of Indian origin the meaning is frequently doubtful, due to the difficulty in reproducing in English letters the sounds uttered by the Indians, and when the word comes through the French the difficulty is increased. These facts are illustrated in the treaties made with the Indians. Each secretary, in writing out the treaty, in the attempt to reproduce the names of the chiefs who affixed their marks, spelled the names as they sounded to him, the result be- ing, for example, that the Pottawatomie chief, Aishcum, had his name spelled in seven different ways in the eight different treaties which he signed. In the French transcription the sound Inini was by the French written Illini. When the word was repeated to an Indian for transla- tion, the slight difference in sound might indicate an entirely different meaning from the one belonging to the original word. This is the probable explanation of the widely differing meanings which we shall see given to the Indian names of some of the counties.


"The word Michigan first appears as applied to land area in the con- gressional proceedings of 1804, culminating in the act of January 11, 1805, establishing the Territory of Michigan, which included the present Lower Peninsula, but extending southward to a line drawn due east from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan and also that part of the Upper Peninsula east of Mackinac.


"Prior to that, in 1784, a committee of the Congress of the Con- federation, of which Jefferson was chairman, reported a plan for gov- ernment of the Northwest territory and its ultimate division into ten states. One of these was to be named Michigania, to extend westward from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river and include a large part


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of the present state of Wisconsin. Fortunately, this report was not adopted, as our Lower Peninsula was to be a state with the appropriate but cumbersome name, Cherronesus, a Greek word meaning peninsula.


"Nicholas Perrot, who spent the years from 1665 to 1699 among the Indians of the Great Lakes, in his Memoir Upon the Customs and Man- ners of the Savages, in giving an account of the warfare between the Iroquois and the Hurons, after the serious defeat of the latter, says they went after a time to Huron island, at the mouth of Green bay, and the following year, upon hearing of the approach of a large band of Iroquois, they withdrew to 'Mechingan,' where they constructed a strong fort. From the connection he meant by this term the district including the northern part of Wisconsin and the western part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.


"The name Michigan, applied to the territory and state, unques- tionably was taken from the lake, and that, in turn, had emerged in its present form after many vicissitudes, and was the survival of dif- fering forms and other names.


"The first map to show a body of water at all corresponding to Lake Michigan was that of Sanson, made in 1656, and showing the Strait of Mackinac and an opening at the west into an undefined body of water called Las de Puans. This name was soon after appropriated to the Baye des Puans, which subsequently became Grande Baye, corrupted into Green Bay.


"The map of Du Creux, or Creuxius, of 1660, clearly indicates the Lower Peninsula and the lake on the west and calls it Magnus Lacus Algonquinorum seu Lacus Foetium, the last word having the same meaning as Puans.


"Allouez, one of the Jesuit fathers, in his journal of 1666, refers to 'Lac des Illimouek (probably a mistake for Illiniouek, found else- where in the journal), a large lake which had not before come to our knowledge.'


"The map accompanying the Jesuit Relation of 1670-1 shows the northern part of Lake Michigan under the name Lac des Illinois. This relation speaks of the 'Lake called Mitchiganons, to which the Illinois have given their name.' The map itself is remarkably accurate, so far as Lake Superior is concerned, but does not attempt to give any- thing but the extreme northern part of Lake Michigan, and that not with accuracy. Joliet's map of 1674, while showing the entire lake for the first time, is not at all accurate in its outlines and calls the lake 'Lac des Illinois ou Missihiganin.'


"In another map, the author of which is not known but which ap- pears to have been made shortly after the map of Joliet, Lake Mich- igan appears as 'Michiganong ou des Illinois.' Marquette's map of 1673-4, which showed only the west shore of Lake Michigan, calls the lake 'Lac des Illinois,' while Thevenot's map of 1681, which he pub- lished as Marquette's, calls it 'Lac de Michigami ou Illinois.'


"A map ascribed to Franquelin, dater 1682, calls the lake 'Michi- ganong ou le Grand Lac des Illinois dit Dauphin.'


"Franquelin's map of 1684, much the most complete and accurate map of the Great Lakes up to that date, shows the lake under the name


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HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


of 'Lac des Illinois,' while his map of 1688 calls it 'Lac des Illinois ou Michiganay."


"A map by Coronelli of 1688 bears the name for the lake 'Lac des Illinois ou Michigani ou Lac Dauphin.'


"Denonville, Governor of Canada, in a memoir of 1688, says that La Salle navigated Lake Huron and thence through that of 'the Illi- nois or Missigans.'


"Raudin's map of 1689 has it 'Lac des Illinois ou Missiganin.'


"The Del'Isle map of 1703 calls it 'Lac des Illinois,' and to Lake Huron gives the name 'Lac Huron ou Michigane.'


"In a memoir by Cadillac, written probably about 1697, he describes the countries where he has been during the three years past and in his first reference to this lake calls it 'Lac Michigan ou Illinois,' but dur- ing the remainder of the article always calls it Lac Michigan.


"In the Jesuit Relation of 1712 Pere Marest, a Jesuit priest who had spent some time in Illinois with the Indians, speaking of his re- turn in 1711 to Mackinac, says, 'We sailed the whole length of Lake Michigan, which is named on the maps Lake Illinois without any rea- son since there are no Illinois who dwell in its vicinity.'


"The name Michigan became firmly established as the name of this lake by the time of the maps of Delisle, in 1739, of Bellin, in 1744, and of Mitchell, in 1755, although for some time the issue was doubt- ful whether this name would not be attached to Lake Huron.


"Gallinee's map of 1670, while not disclosing any knowledge of Lake Michigan, and a very inaccurate knowledge of the western shore of Lake Huron, has the latter lake much larger than the reality, under the name Michigane ou Mer Douce des Hurons. The original map made by Gallinee, which was deposited in the Department of the Marine at Paris, has disappeared, but three direct copies are known to exist and these disagree as to whether the final 'e' in Michigane is accented. There are some confirmatory facts to indicate that it should be ac- cented, the Franquelin map of 1688 and the Del'Isle map of 1703 in- dicating this. The written account by. Gallinee of his journey, upon which the map was based, does not, however, indicate the 'e' to be accented.


"In the description of the journey, which was from Niagara river up through Lake Erie, the Straits and Lake Huron, Gallinee says. 'We entered the largest lake in all America, called the Fresh Water Sea of the Hurons, or in Algonquin, Michigane,' thus indicating the latter word to be the translation of 'Le plus Grand Lac,' and being substan- tially the translation of the name found on the map of Creuxius, Magnus Lacus Algonquinorun.


"Moll, in his map of 1720, has Lake Michigan named Illinese Lake or Michigan, and Lake Huron, Huron Lake or Michigan.


"It seems to be reasonably clear that the meaning of the word is the Great Lake, although the real derivation is somewhat uncertain, the first part of the word 'michi' certainly meaning great, or large, and is the same as Missi in Mississippi, Mississaga, and other names. "Schoolcraft derives the word from 'mitchaw,' great, and Sagiegan, lake, but this seems unlikely as it is not common to find an Indian com-


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pound word so greatly contracted as would be necessary to reduce Mitchaw-Sagiegan to Michigan.


"Some authorities also give the meaning of the word Michigan as a place for catching fish, but this again seems improbable.


"Arenac county has had a checkered career. Laid out in 1831, in 1857 a large part was taken off and put into the newly formed Bay county. In 1859 the balance was added to that county and in 1883 it was re-established with its present limits. The name was manufac- tured by Schoolcraft in accordance with a formula which he developed more fully somewhat later. He analyzed Indian words, obtaining the general meaning, and then by combining various roots and using the proper consonants to give euphony he could produce a large number of words of Indian basis, which could be applied to localities as a more or less descriptive name. In this manner the syllable ac, derived from auk or akke, which means land or earth, gives the idea of locality, and Arenac is compounded from the Latin arena, sand-the derived mean- ing of place of combat comes from the fact that such places are sanded -and ac and therefore means sandy place.


"Gladwin county laid out, with Arenac, in 1831, was named in honor of Major Henry Gladwin, who was in command of the Fort at Detroit during its memorable siege by Pontiac in 1763-4, and who for his gal- lant defense was promoted to lieutenant colonel and who afterwards served with distinction upon the British side during the Revolutionary war."


The United States surveys of the Lower Peninsula had been nearly completed when Michigan became a state in 1837, the wholesale Indian title to its lands having become completely extinguished by the treaty of the previous year. Douglass Houghton, the first state geologist, in his second annual report to the legislature of 1839, recommended that the remainder of the Lower Peninsula be subdivided into counties, as it would assist him in making his surveys and maps. He repeated that recommendation to the legislature of 1840; whereupon twenty-eight new counties were laid out, making for the first time a complete subdivision of the Lower Peninsula. The result of this legislation, so far as it affects the portion of the peninsula covered by this work, may be seen by a reference to the table already published of the twenty-eight coun- ties thus legally created, all but one received Indian names, probably at the suggestion of Henry R. Schoolcroft, geologist, scholar, historian, Indian agent and legislator, who had negotiated the treaty of 1836 by which the northeastern part of the Lower Peninsula and the eastern portion of the upper had been ceded by the Indians to the United States, and who was fairly entitled to such honor. The legislature of 1843, however, changed the names of sixteen of the twenty-eight counties, in order to honor historical characters connected with the founding and development of Michigan as a commonwealth of white citizens. Five of the new names were of Irish origin, supposedly in deference to that strong racial element represented in the legislature of that year.


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Alcona county was first named Negwegon. The latter was the name of a well-known Chippewa chief who was a firm friend of the Amer- icans in their conflict with the British terminating in the War of 1812. He was a fine type of the race, over six feet high, muscular, courageous and of strong intellect. He was known also as the Little Wing, the translation of his name. Alcona was undoubtedly a word manufac- tured according to the Schoolcraft formula in which "al" is the Arabic for "the." "Co" is the root of a word meaning plain or prairie. "Na" is a termination meaning "excellent;" hence the entire word has the meaning "the fine or excellent plain."


Alpena county was originally named Anamickee. The latter name was that of a Chippewa chief who signed the treaty of 1826 negotiated by Schoolcraft and was a peculiarly appropriate name for this county. The word means thunder, and the county, as laid out, included the en- tire shore of Thunder bay. The name of the Bay was the English translation of the French "Anse du Tonnere," which appears as early as the map of Franquelin in 1688, and which was probably so called from the Indian name, the Indians believing that it was peculiarly sub- ject to thunder storms. Schoolcraft, in his travels of 1820, refers to his belief and says: "What has been so often reiterated as to the highly electrified state of the atmosphere at this Bay seems to have no foundation in truth; there is nothing in the appearance of the sur- rounding country-in the proximity of mountains or the currents of the atmosphere-to justify a belief that the air contains a surcharge of the electric fluid. In no place does the coast attain a sufficient al- titude to allow us to suppose that it can exert any sensible influence upon the clouds, nor is it known that any mineral exhalations are given out in this vicinity, as has been suggested, capable of conducing to- wards a state of electrical urativility in the atmosphere." The reten- tion of the original name would have preserved this historical tradition and been preferable to the rather meaningless name which was sub- stituted.


Alpena was a word manufactured by Schoolcraft from the Arabic "al," meaning "the," and either "pinai," meaning "partridge," or "penaissee," meaning "bird." In one place in his writings he him- self gives the latter word as the one entering the combination, the name Alpena therefore meaning the bird country, but the former seems more probable, and the word therefore means the partridge, or partridge country.


Antrim county was originally named Meegisee. The latter was the name of a Chippewa chief who signed the treaties of 1821 and 1826, the latter of which was negotiated in behalf of the United State by Schoolcraft, and the meaning of the word is Eagle. The present name was one of the five Irish names to which reference has been made and is taken from that of a county in the northeastern part of Ireland. The name, as it appears printed in the act of 1843, is Antim, and is only one of the evidences of careless proof reading found in the act, as sev- eral other names are misspelled by omission or change of a letter. It is


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difficult to properly characterize such a substitution as this and several others. While some of the Indian names as originally given were not particularly euphonious or pleasing, yet they all were more or less appropriate, while with scarce an exception the substituted names were chosen without any reference to locality, historical connection or general appropriateness.


At the session of 1863 the county of Benzie was established, being taken from the lower part of Leelanau county. The derivation of this name is somewhat uncertain. One explanation is that it is a corrup- tion of Betsey, the popular name of the river which runs through the county. The word "Betsey," however, is itself a corruption of the French name of the river, Riviere Aux Bec Scies, which means the river of the saw bill or Merganser duck, and is the translation by the early French travelers of the Indian name of the stream, Uns-zig-o-ze-bee, which has the same meaning.


Another and more probable explanation is that it is derived from Benzonia, which was settled in 1858, and was the first county seat. This village was settled by a colony from Ohio and one of its purposes was to found an institution of learning, which was subsequently car- ried out. The name Benzonia has been stated to be composed of two Hebrew words meaning Sons of Light, or by another interpretation, Sons of Life, and by still another, Sons of Toil, but Professor Craig, of the University of Michigan, says that it is most improbable that the word is derived from the Hebrew, and if it were, it could not have any one of the above meanings. If, therefore, the name was given in the belief it had such meaning, it seems probable that the scholarship was faulty. The county name might have been given as a contraction of the name of this village, the largest settlement in the county or, pos- sibly, as a combination of the first syllable of the village Ben, with the last syllable of the river, thus making Benzie.


Charlevoix county had as its original name Keskkauko, who was a leading chief of the Saginaw Chippewas and as such signed the In- dian treaty of 1819. He was a noted character in his day, of a tyran- nical, overbearing disposition, little disposed to recognize any system of court or legal procedure. He was finally tried and convicted at Detroit of being accessory to the murder of another Indian in January, 1826, and avoided suffering the penalty of the law by taking poison conveyed to him by one of his wives. The present name was given in honor of Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix, the French Jesuit mis- sionary, traveler and historian. Born in 1682, he came to Canada in 1705 and made extensive travels up the St. Lawrence, through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi in 1721 and wrote during the following year his important history of New France, which, however, was not published until twenty years later.




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