USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 26
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On July 12th the party again took up its journey toward Fond du Lac, taking its course along the south shore of Lake Superior. Mr. Me- Kenna describes the hazards as well as the pleasures of the voyage, and the beauties of the coast and the islands that they pass, but in all the many landings made there is no record of an inhabitant for a distance of nearly four hundred miles. He found an Indian lodge under the eastern bluff at the mouth of the Montreal river, where there was one man, with several women and children, in a starving condition, and with no means for taking either game or fish. Of this place Mr. McKenna records that "over the eastern bluff of this river goes the pathway of the portage to Lac de Flambeau, which has an outlet in the Chippeway river, which runs into the Mississippi at the foot of Lake Pepin. It was from this lake the party of Indians went who committed the murder on Lake Pepin, and who, after having been surrendered, broke jail at Michili- mackinac and to recover whom is made part of our duty."
ST. MICHAEL'S ISLAND AND LA POINTE
St. Michael's Island is mentioned as about eighteen miles from the mouth of the Montreal river and as showing the first evidence of civili- zation seen since leaving the Sault. Here were horses, cattle and fences. As the expedition approached the island "Indians. to the number of seventy, set up a whooping and yelling and ran down to the beach, each armed with a rifle or gun, and fired a salute of several rounds, Never were poor starving creatures more overjoyed. They had been here, on their way to the treaty, for six days, and had taken in that time but forty fish. The first question I asked on landing. was to know of Mr.
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Cadotte, who has lived here twenty-five years, if he had any milk, and was rejoiced to get the answer 'Oui Monsieur'. The governor and his barges arrived about an hour after sundown. We were received by this worthy French trader with great cordiality. His houses were thrown open for us and all he had was put freely at our disposal. He has an Indian wife-a worthy, well disposed woman-and several children, several sons, and two daughters grown; his daughters both married to traders."
Of the Indians there he says he was struck with their mute appear- ance, after the first expression of joy was over, and "we fed them with flour and pork, and made them happy. They had but one want more, and that was for whisky. This we chose not to gratify.
"This place was once, a hundred years ago, the seit of a Jesuit mission, and it has been long occupied as a trading post. Now there is searcely a vestige of a building left where the cross stood, and where its mysteries were attempted to be explained to the natives. Once in about two years a priest passes from Montreal to Fond du Lac, to visit the scattered remnants of traders, and some few Indians, who have only traditions, when all is left to nature again. Opposite this island is La Pointe, significantly so called, of Lake Superior. It is emphatically the point, whether viewed in its length or breadth. It was here, across the narrows of the lake on the western shore, and about four miles west of Michael's Island that our old friend Mr. Johnson used once to live and where he married his wife. In the year 1791 Mr. Johnson remembers to have been on La Pointe and to have seen a scientific Frenchman or Italian, with his instruments adjusted, taking observations; and en- deavoring to ascertain the longitude. His name was Count Andriani."
Again, writing of La Pointe and vicinity Mr. MeKenna says: "It is a fine center for trade, and from which to send out expresses to the hands of Chippeways that inhabit this region ; and at which, for a more prompt control of the abuses of every description, the government should have an agency. The Indians at these remote points are out of reach of the agency at the Sanlt. between which and the St. Peter's is a void which is too often filled up with cruelties, that need to be checked by the pres- ence of some nearer or more central power."
Continuing the journey several encampments of Indians, or lodges were passed along the shore, one of these being at the month of the Brule. or Burnt river, and within abont eighteen miles of the destina- tion of the commissioners. "Burnt river is a place of divination-the seat of a jongleur's incantations. It is a circle, made of eight poles, twelve feet high, and crossing at the top, which, being covered in with mats. or bark, he enters and foretells future events. When within about ten miles of the end of the lake. we noticed a line stretching from shore to shore, the north and south shores being abont ten miles distant, that seemed like a narrow shadow, not very well defined. As we approached it became more substantial. It was a well defined beach, with trees, pine and aspen, scattered irregularly over it from one end to the other, and
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SCENES ALONG BRULE RIVER
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this was the fond or bottom, or, more properly, head of Lake Superior. We pitehed our tents on the southwestern side of the beach, which is washed by the St. Louis river, and here we met about thirty Indians. We were gladly received by them and made them presents as usual."
TREATY OF FOND DU LAC
There was still a journey of twenty-four miles to the American Fur Company's establishment on the St. Louis river, the place designated as the treaty grounds, and this journey up the river was made, and the commissioners and their escort landed at the treaty grounds, Friday, July 28th, while the date for the meeting was fixed for Angust 2nd. The council was held at the headquarters of the American Fur Company and the treaty consummated at this meeting received consideration in that part of this work relating especially to the Indians, but to illustrate the feeling as between the Americans and the British that existed thus recently in this section, I will quote an incident of the council as nar- rated by Mr. MeKenna : "The only incidents of interest which occurred today were those which related to the case of a speaker (an Indian) who had a British medal around his neck. After he had finished his speech, and when in the act of presenting his pipe to be smoked, the governor remarked that we had noticed around his neck a British medal; that we supposed he wore it, not as a badge of authority or power, but as an ornament. If he wore it as a token of authority, we could not smoke with him, but if as an ornament only, we would. He took it from around his neck and laid it on our table, saying he put no value on it. The pipe was then smoked and an American medal given him to take the place of the English one. This may seem fastidious, perhaps, but when you know that one of the chief difficulties with which the government has to contend in this quarter is that which relates to the exercise of British influence over these people; and that an Indian looks, generally, before he elects his side, to the quantum of power that may be there, and com- pares it carefully with that which he may be solicited to abandon, you will see that our exception to a badge of this sort is all proper. It is intended, and especially in council, where so many witness it, as a pro- test against their taking any other side, whilst they profess to look to us for protection. This same Indian had a British flag, also, which he afterwards brought and, in full conneil, laid at our feet. On seeing it there the Indians set up a shout, and in their remarks, gave proof that they knew the import of a flag, and also what its surrender meant. This flag was ordered to be replaced with an American flag."
On the 5th of Angust the treaty was formally signed and the com- missioners then made their demand for the surrender of the murderers, before referred to. Upon this question there was considerable parleying, but the commissioners were firm and insisted that the murderers must be surrendered, which resulted in an agreement on the part of the In- dians to "deliver them at the Sault, or at Green Bay the next spring." With this the commissioners expressed gratification, "and told them it
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would save their people from great calamity, for their great father would not sit still until his white children's blood should be washed out."
At the close of the council, it is narrated by Mr. McKenna, "Every- thing was begun, and has continued, and ended well. The Indians ex- press themselves in terms of thankfulness. They say their great father's hand is full of good things. I have no doubt the impressions made upon young and old will not be easily effaced. Many prejudices against the people of the United States, of whom they knew nothing before, are dissipated and feelings of friendship are produced."
The treaty made as the result of this council had great bearing on the future of the Upper Peninsula. While the primary objects of the council, at the outset. were to have the Chippewa tribe ratify the treaty of Prairie du Chien, establishing peace between the Sioux and the Al- gonquins, and to require the Chippewas to surrender to the judicial authorities certain of their number who had been arrested on a charge of having murdered four Americans at Lake Pepin and had escaped jail at Michilimackinac, the commissioners took upon themselves further powers, subject, however, to ratification by the president. In addition to providing the main objects of the council, as above related, the treaty granted to the government of the United States all mineral rights in the Chippewa territory, especially granting the right to "search and carry away, any metals or minerals from any part of their country." but specifying that this provision should not affect the title to the land.
MINERAL RIGHTS ACQUIRED
The treaty also provided for the cession of a section of land by the Chippewa tribe to each of the persons named in the schedule annexed thereto, intended to comprise all the halfbreeds and their children, and certain named full blooded Indians. Through this provision the way was opened to private ownership of lands by quite a large number of individuals.
Among other provisions of the treaty the Chippewa tribe acknowl- edged the authority and jurisdiction of the United States, and disclaimed all connection with any foreign power; and the United States promised the Chippewas an annuity of two thousand dollars per annum in goods and money, and the sum of one thousand dollars per annum to support a school to be located upon the St. Mary's river. An annuity was pro- vided because it was learned that the actual income of the Chippewa tribe from the sales of their furs and other commodities did not exceed three dollars per capita per annum for each member of the tribe, and much of this was in merchandise at a high cost price. With this scant income, in the severe climate of the northern lakes, the Chippewas were indeed a poverty-stricken race, and they often suffered much from want of food. It is true that at certain points fish were abundant at nearly all seasons, but the improvident methods of the Indians were such that this fact did not effect alleviation of the hardships of those of the tribe
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living at a distance from the favored points, especially during the long siege of the winter season.
Aside from the fact that, by the treaty, the United States secured the right to take minerals from any of the Chippewa lands, the fact that the government was looking interestedly at the promises of mineral wealth in northern Michigan is evidenced by the act of this commission in sending a party of twenty men from Fond du Lac to the Ontonagon river with a view to securing the large copper rock mentioned in the account of the expedition of 1820. This exploring party was in charge of George F. Porter. From his report it is made to appear that they came to the object of their search about thirty-five miles up the river from its mouth; the party having traveled on foot the last five miles "over points of mountains from one to three hundred feet high, sep- arated every few rods by deep ravines, the bottoms of which were bogs, and which, by thiek underbrush, were rendered almost impervious to the rays of the sun."
WONDROUS ROCK OF VIRGIN COPPER
Of this wonderful rock, mueh prized by the Indians, and the reports of which had been carried by them and by the traders to the far east many years before, Mr. Porter says: "This remarkable specimen of vir- gin copper lies a little above low water mark, on the west bank of the river, and about thirty-five miles from its mouth. Its appearance is brilliant wherever the metal is visible. It consists of pure copper, rami- fied in every direction through a mass of stone (mostly serpentine, inter- mixed with calcareous spar) in veins of from one to three inches in diameter; and in some parts, exhibiting masses of pure metal of one
hundred pounds weight, but so intimately connected with the surround- ing body that it was found impossible to detach them with any instru- ments which we had provided." The report was to the effect that the rock weighed about a ton, two-thirds of which seemed to be of pure cop- per. but it was impossible for them to move it and take it with them down the precipitous river.
This great copper rock was held sacred by the Indians of the locality, as their "Manitou," and after the attempt of Mr. Johnson, in 1828, to remove it, it was allowed to remain until after the coming of Mr. Paul as the first local settler. In 1842 he sold the rock to a Mr. Julius Eldred, of New York. Before it was removed by this purchaser, it was claimed by the United States government through General Cummingham, who was instrueted by the secretary of war to remove it to Washington. Mr. Eldred was paid for the trouble and expense he had incurred, and the celebrated rock found its way to Washington and is one of the curiosities in the Smithsonian Institution. Its weight is given as 3,708 pounds.
After nearly two hundred years had followed the visit of Nicolet to the section of the country now known as the Upper Peninsula, the in- fluence of the Europeans had scarcely made perceptible advance in the
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way of civilization, though the Indians, from their contact with the white people, had acquired many vices to which they were at first strangers. As a consequence of the conditions much remained to be done, after the close of the war of 1812 to 1814, before there was any real opportunity for permanent settlement.
WHITE SETTLERS IN 1826
As late as 1826, when Governor Cass and Colonel MeKenna made the treaty of Fond du Lac with the Chippewas, as may be seen from the foregoing quotations from the record of that expedition, there were practically no settlers in the regions they traversed, except the traders and the military. The account of the settlement at the Sault indicates there were a few artisans, probably essential to the business of the fur traders, but outside that hamlet, or post, there were in the distance of four hundred miles along the lake Superior coast only two or three French traders, each of whom resided with his Indian wife and family in the vicinity of some Indian encampment or trading place; those men- tioned being a Mr. Holliday, on the main land near Keweenaw Bay, and Jean Baptiste Cadotte, on St. Michael's Island. At the Michigan Sault there was Mr. Johnson in the fur trade; Henry R. Schoolcraft, who had in 1822 been appointed Indian agent, with office at the Sault, and who, from 1828 to 1832 represented this district in the territorial legislature, and was later prominent in much government work among the Indians, and as an historian. The importance of his work may be realized when we consider that the treaties he made with Indians brought to the United States, sixteen million acres of land. There was also at the Sault at that time James L. Schoolcraft, a brother of Henry, who established a store there in 1825, and who was later married to Maria Johnson, sister of his brother's wife, and who was in 1846 murdered by Lieutenant Tilden, of the Sault garrison.
In speaking of the settlers at the Sault at that time, we diverge to make mention of a young native-born boy, then only ten years old, John MeDougal Johnson, who attended the mission school at Mackinac island the following year, and in 1829 went east to attend school. In 1831 he returned to the Sault and became an employee of the government, as interpreter for his brother-in-law, Henry R. Schoolcraft, in which ca- pacity he subsequently officiated on many important occasions, among them being the councils at Mackinac in 1836, at. Detroit in 1855, at La Point in 1853 and at Grand Portage in 1856. He also acted as interpre- ยท ter for various other people on different important occasions, and was regarded as one of the very best of Indian interpreters, and is credited with having rendered very valuable services to the United States. He was married in 1842 to Miss Justine Piquette, the daughter of an early settler at the Sault, and he died in 1872, leaving a family of ten children.
The Lake Michigan and Green Bay boundary of the territory was in practically the same condition as that of Lake Superior. There was a military post and a considerable settlement at Mackinac, where the
Vol. 1-13
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American Fur Company, with John Jacob Astor at its head, established its headquarters and is said to have expended fifty thousand dollars in the erection of its buildings, and from which it distributed enormous amounts of merchandise, said to have sometimes reached three million dollars annually, to the Indians of this locality, and to the west and south for many hundred miles. The business of this company was largely handled from Mackinac as a trading center, through its coureurs du bois, who travelled far and near among the Indian tribes, or located in the vicinity of important Indian encampments. It was in 1822 that this company erected the Astor House, as its headquarters. At Macki- nae the government also maintained an important military post, with a strong garrison of two companies of soldiers, and also erected build- ings for, and there established an Indian agency. The business of the Fur Company, and that of the Indian department and the military, at- traeted a number of artisans and small traders, so that the hamlet as- sumed considerable proportions. In 1820 Miehilimackinac was credited with a white population of eight hundred and nineteen, but this was not all properly attributable to the post settlement, for it included the territory then referred to as Michilimackinac, which extended from Sag- inaw to Green Bay.
PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN MICHILIMACKINAC
At this post the first protestant sermon preached in the Upper Penin- sula was delivered in June, 1820, by Rev. Dr. Morse, father of the in- ventor of the telegraph, and as a result of his visit at this time, and of his report thereof to the United Foreign Mission Society of New York, that society in 1822, sent Rev. W. M. Ferry to investigate the conditions, and in 1823 Mr. Ferry and his wife opened a school for Indian children. The work of these Protestant missionaries was assiduous and they soon had a little church in connection with the school. In 1826 this school passed into the hands of the American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, who considered the work of such importance that it was made a central station, with provisions for taking children from distant tribes, and keeping them in a boarding school. Added to the school were shops and gardens wherein to give the Indian boys the advantage of manual training, while the girls were trained for household duties. Ac- cording to the report of this school in 1827, W. M. Ferry was superin- tendent, John S. Hudson, teacher and farmer, and there were six other teachers and one hundred and twelve students; the students having been gathered from all through the Lake region, and as far west as Red river. The names of the other six teachers were Mr. and Mrs. Heyden- burk, Mrs. Hudson, Miss Eunice Osmer, Miss Elizabeth McFarland and Miss Delia Cook. This mission house was the birthplace of Michigan's late senator, D. M. Ferry, during the encumbency of his father as su- perintendent. The next year thirty-three members were added to the church, and even traders were reported as converted in their wilder- ness homes.
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In 1829 the church had a membership of fifty-two, of which twenty- five were Indians and twenty-seven whites, not including the mission- aries themselves. The mission school prospered for years, and at times registered as high as two hundred pupils. In 1833, because of the ex- pense attendant upon the school, the plan was modified, and the num- ber of scholars limited to fifty, it being intended that smaller schools should be established in the various Indian centers. The following year Mr. Ferry was released and in 1837 the mission school and church were abandoned because of changed conditions, and especially because the Indians then nearly ceased their visits to the island to trade.
During the life of this protestant school and mission there was con- siderable frietion engendered because of the feeling on the part of the Catholics that the field was theirs by right of preemption. As to whether or not there was any beneficial effect as the result of this mission there is a wide diversion of opinion, but the probabilities are that there were benefits derived by some, while perhaps the experience was ruinous to others. John J. Strang says of it: "The civilization of the Protestant Mission gave to the Indian all the white man's wants, with none of the means of gratifying them. It brought before them every temptation of vice, with none of the means of resisting it. It cast upon the mere child of the forest, all the responsibilities of the highest order of civilized society, with none of its experience. The Indian boys educated there were not received in the society of the whites as equals, and wanted the capital to establish themselves in business, and among the Indians they were so ignorant of the modes of procuring subsistence, and so effeminate as to be dependent and despised. They fell into menial employments and dissipation and soon died."
OTHER PIONEER ITEMS
Before the period of which we now speak, for comparison, and as early as 1824, the fishing business had entered the commercial field, and white fish were shipped from Mackinac to Buffalo. This industry grew quite rapidly and was of much importance at this point.
A post-office was established on the island in 1819, and then named it Michilimackinac, but in 1825 the name was shortened to Mackinac.
Among the early pioneers, mention should be made of Ramsay Crooks who, after having represented Mr. Astor in his Pacific coast ad- ventures, and there gained a name as a brave adventurer, became a partner of Mr. Astor, and was the Mackinac agent for the American Fur Company from 1817 to 1822. He was a native of Scotland and entered the employ of Mr. Astor in 1809, having been there three years in the fur trade. In 1834, upon the retirement of Mr. Astor, Mr. Crooks became president of the company.
Other pioneers of Mackinac and St. Ignace will be mentioned in con- nection with the county history.
In those days no settlements were made except at garrisoned posts, and none elsewhere would have been considered safe. The French trad-
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ers who located at advantageous points for trade were almost more In- dian than European, and, as a rule, lived Indian fashion, with Indian wives and halfbreed children, so that they were not in the same danger as real white settlers would have been.
The first important post, or settlement, south of Mackinac was at Green Bay, and we have been unable to learn of but one trader located within the Upper Peninsula to the south of Mackinac in the early years of the 19th century; and that was Louis Chappeau, who located at the mouth of the Menominee river about the year 1800, though there is a conflict of opinion as to the exact date, it having been placed by one writer as early as 1796, and being given by others as about 1805. He is said to have represented George Law, an independent trader who had headquarters at Green Bay.
Here, however, the American Fur Company soon played a winning game, and its representative, William Farnsworth, in 1822, with Marin- ette as his wife, in company with Charles Brush, came from Michili- mackinac to Menominee, and, soon after his arrival, forcibly dispossessed Chappeau, and took possession of his stockade trading post; Chappeau, with his Indian wife and family moving about five miles up the Menom- inee river from its mouth, where he constructed another stockade, and continued his trade, having with him a number of couriers and helpers.
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