A twentieth century history of Berrien County, Michigan, Part 4

Author: Coolidge, Orville W
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

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Their immigration westward commenced in 1836, but considerable numbers remained later. In 1840 under the management of Alexis Coquillard of South Bend 2,000 of them were removed. In 1843 the re- mainder, except Pokagon's band, left their Michigan home for their new home beyond the Mississippi.

The descendants of Pokagon and his band are still living in Silver Creek, Cass county, and in portions of Van Buren and Allegan counties.

The Pottawatomies who removed west, were first located near Council Bluffs in Iowa. Some changes were made subse- quently and finally in 1847 a permanent reservation on the Kansas river in Kansas, consisting of a large tract of land in the vicinity of Topeka, was made for them. The Catholics established a mission for them at St. Mary's, in Jackson county, while the Baptists had a mission in an adjoining coun- ty. In 1861 the United States government made a treaty with the Pottawatomies by- which lands were to be allotted in severalty to those who had adopted the customs of the whites and desired a separate allotment. A portion of the reserve was to be assigned in

HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY

a body to those who did not desire the allot- ment. The Michigan Pottawatomies were generally allotted lands in severalty. Chiefs were assigned one section of land, head men one-half section, heads of families one- quarter section, and. other members of the tribe, men, women and children each eighty acres. Lands were also conveyed to the St. Mary's Catholic mission for school and church purposes, and also to the Baptist mission.

A large portion of the Michigan Potta- watomies have dropped all tribal relations and have become full citizens of the United States.

In 1870, a portion of these Indians re- moved to the Indian Territory, the payment of annuities to the Pottawatomies by the government having ceased that year.

The condition of the Pottawatomies after their removal was improved. They are con- sidered as among the most intelligent of the Indian tribes. A large number of them have French blood, owing to the intermarriage of Indian squaws with French traders and hunters, and many of the tribe have very little Indian blood. Nearly all are Chris- tians, a majority belonging to the Catholic Church. Upon the removal of the Potta- watomies to Kansas in 1847, the head chief was Kah-he-ga-wa-ti-an-gah. He was born in Indiana in 1811, and converted in Michi- gan to Christianity under the labors of Rev. Isaac McCoy, the head of the Carey mission, to be hereafter described. This chief, when he became a Christian, discarded his Indian name, and was baptized under the name of Abram B. Burdette. He was known as the big fat man, weighing at the time of his death, 350 pounds. He died in 1870.

This chapter would be incomplete with- out mention of the famous Carey mission among the Pottawatomies of the St. Joseph valley. In 1820, Rev. Isaac McCoy, a Bap- tist clergyman, established a school and mis- sion at Fort Wayne, Indiana. The school became a flourishing one, and was attended 2

largely by Indians and French. In June, 1821, in company with a pupil of his, Abra- ham Burnett, a half-breed and son of Will- iam Burnett, an American trader of St. Jo- seph, who acted as interpreter, McCoy set out from Fort Wayne. to meet some of the Pottawatomies for the purpose of conferring with them on the subject of establishing a school among them. A conference was held with the Indians along the St. Joseph river. The Pottawatomie chiefs were favorable to the scheme. The aid of General Cass was obtained and by a treaty between the government and the Indians in. 1822, a tract of land a mile square, located a mile west of the present Broadway bridge in Niles, was set out for school purposes and in July, 1822, McCoy received from Gen. Cass an appointment to take charge of the mission. The appointment was accompanied with instructions in detail, and McCoy's salary was fixed at $600 a year.

Mr. McCoy removed to this site in 1823. He brought with him a number of capable teachers and assistants and at once estab- lished his school and mission.

A French Catholic mission had existed at Niles, but it appears to have been aban- doned before McCoy arrived. There were no roads, and he was obliged to hew his way through the forests.

The mission was a flourishing one for several years, and conducted with ability. In 1825 Mr. McCoy built a grist mill, the first grist mill erected in Michigan, west of- Ann Arbor and Tecumseh.

The condition of the mission in 1826 is stated by John L. Lieb, a government agent whose duty it was to visit the Indian schools in the territory of Michigan. In that year he made a visit to the Carey mis- sion and in his report to Gen. Cass, appears the following: "There are at present sev- enty scholars in various stages of improve- ment. Two hundred and eight acres are enclosed in fence of which fifteen are in wheat, fifty in corn, eight in potatoes and

HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY

other vegetables. They have a most ex- cellent grist mill worked by horses. The usefulness of this mill can scarcely be ap- preciated as there is no other within one hundred miles at least."

In a letter written by Gen. Cass to Mr. McCoy in 1823, the General says: "Your report and that of Mr. Noble (a govern- ment inspector) are entirely satisfactory. The affairs of the agency appear to be in the best condition and if the experiment is ever successful, I am satisfied you will make it so."

The object of the mission was not simply to preach the Gospel to the Indians, but to teach them methods of cultivating the soil, and industrial trades and to instill into their minds habits of industry and economy. These objects were partially accomplished and many Indians were induced to lead sober and industrious lives. With the ad- vent, however, of white settlers, the attend- ing sale of liquors to the Indians, and the making of the treaties which evidently con- templated a future removal of the Potta- watomies, the mission began to decline al- though it lingered till about 1832, when Mr. McCoy left to engage in missions farther west.

An interesting history of the Carey mis- sion was furnished by Judge Nathaniel Bacon in an address before the Old Settlers' Association of Berrien county, in 1869. This address is given nearly in full in Cowles' directory of Berrien county, pub- lished in 1871.

The author of this directory, Edward Cowles, now living in Omaha, Nebraska, is himself of Indian blood. His book is a very valuable one, containing much historical re- search, gathered by him with great care and labor and partially prepared by Mr. Cowles while in the office of the father of this his-

torical sketch. The father of Edward Cowles was prominent in securing for the members of Pokagon's band and their de- scendants, at different times, a liberal pro- vision from the Federal government in money, distributed to each man, woman and child equally. To secure these appropria- tions, Mr. Cowles made frequent visits to Washington and was in frequent consulta- tion with Gen. Cass and leading nien in the government. His father was an Ottawa and his mother a Chippewa, but he himself was adopted by the Pottawatomies. Early in life he became a protege of Rev. Mr. Ferry, a Presbyterian missionary at Mack- inac and the father of the late Senator Ferry. Through Mr. Ferry's efforts, Cowles was educated at Oberlin College and was a gen- tleman of high intelligence and courteous manners. He died near Niles about thirty- five years since.

The remnant of Pottawatomies of Poka- gon's band now remaining in southwestern Michigan number about two hundred and thirty. Of these twenty-seven live in Ber- rien county, thirty-nine in Cass county, sev- enty-eight in Van Buren county and eighty- six in Allegan county.

The Carey mission played an important part in the original settlement of Berrien county, and the western part of Cass county. The first settlers who came to this region stopped at the mission, and made it their headquarters, while they were prospecting for a permanent location. Several of them were engaged as teachers in the mission and others assisted in various capacities.

Among those so engaged, were the fol- lowing prominent settlers to whom more special reference will hereafter be made. Calvin Britain, Baldwin Jenkins, John John- son, Geo. H. Claypool, Maj. Timothy Smith, John Pike, and Jas. Gillespie.

SQUIRE THOMPSON THE FIRST WHITE SETTLER OF BERRIEN COUNTY

CHAPTER III

EARLY SETTLEMENT OF BERRIEN COUNTY.

"I hear the tread of pioneers, Of nations yet to be, The first low wash of waves where soon Shall wave a human sea. The rudiments of empire here _ Are plastic yet and warm,

The chaos of a mighty world, Is rounding into form."

About the year 1780; William Burnett, an American from New Jersey, established a trading post at the mouth of the river St. Joseph. He selected a home near the pres- ent site of Napier's bridge, built a house and set out an orchard of apple trees. These trees proved to be of remarkable vitality. In 1876 apples produced from these trees were exhibited at the Michigan State Fair by A. O. Winchester of St. Joseph, who then remarked that they were gathered from trees over a century old. Burnett succeeded in establishing a large and lucrative busi- ness with the Indians, exchanging blankets, utensils, cheap jewelry, hatchets, scalping knives and ardent spirits for furs. Raccoon skins appear to have been the leading com- modity in furs. A portion of Mr. Burnett's books covering the period from 1792 to 1801 have been preserved. Items gathered from these books of account in 1801 may be interesting as showing the character of the trade. The first item dated May 26,

1801, consists of casks and boxes of maple sugar shipped on board the General Hunter, a sloop which made frequent trips to St. Joseph. These casks and boxes contained 1,695 pounds of sugar.

The second item reads as follows: June 3, 1801. Invoice of fifteen packs consigned to David Mitchell at Mackinac by the sloop Hunter, Capt. Rough, master.

Skins.

I Pack containing (musk) Rats 400

Minks

196

Covering

Raccoons

Otters 38

Fishers 6

Martens

Cubs

Covering

IO packs Deer skins containing each 50

3 packs Raccoons containing each 120

On the same date occur the following :

HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY

I pack of Otter containing 100 & 2 skins.

I pack Beaver containing .. 91 & 2 skins.

3 packs (musk) rats contain'g 500 skins.

covering 6 skins.

(wild) cats contain'g

64 skins.

Foxes contain'g 60 skins.

covering 2 skins.

8 packs Bucks containing. . 30 each 50 each

7 packs Does containing ...

29 packs Raccoons containing 120 skins

covering

58 skins

2 packs (musk) rats 500 each

covering 4 skins

Burnett married Kawkemee, sister of Topinabee, principal chief of the Potta- watomie nation, and appears to have had five children by her. The government of the United States by the treaty of Chicago in 1821, gave to John Burnett, a son of Wm. Burnett, and Kawkemee, two sections of land and to the other children each one sec- tion of land. It appears from the reports made by Burnett in 1801 that quite a num- ber of French Canadians then lived at St. Joseph, but these had disappeared before any permanent settlement had been made by American settlers and no relics of these peo- ple remained. They cannot be regarded as pioneers or colonists, as they led a roving life, made no attempt to clear the wilder- ness or make any permanent settlement. Nor can Burnett be regarded as a pioneer. He was simply a fur trader with no thought of encouraging any settlement of the coun- try

At about the same time with that of Bur- netts location at St. Joseph, Joseph Bertrand and one Le Clare, Frenchmen from Canada, located at Bertrand on the St. Joseph river and engaged in the fur trade with the Indians. These men appear to have been employed by Burnett. The place occupied by them was called "parc aux vaches." The name originated from the fact that the Indians claimed that it was formerly a favorite roaming ground of buffalo herds, although literally the words mean a cow-

pen or pasture. Bertrand conducted a large trading business for over fifty years and after his death it was carried on by his son, Joseph. Bertrand married Madeline, daughter of the Indian chief Topinabee, by which marriage five children were born. By the treaty of Chicago, a section of land where the vilage of Bertrand is situated, was given to Madeline, and a half section to each of the children on the portage of the Kankakee, in Indiana, a few miles south of Bertrand.

The residence of these Indian traders does not really form a part of the early set- tlement and colonization of the country. The real pioneer work was done by a different class of men.

The earliest immigration of settlers into Berrien county, came from the south and the majority were of southern origin, either by birth or by descent. They belonged to that hardy and venturesome race of genuine pioneers whose prototype was Daniel Boone. They came into a wilderness, where there were no roads, where savages and wild beasts were numerous, and where none of the comforts and conveniences of civilized life existed. No road to the St. Joseph river existed except a dangerous track from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Niles, crossed by numerous rivers and streams which the traveler was obliged to ford. The only resi- dences between Fort Wayne and Niles were the houses of the French traders at South Bend and Bertrand. It was not till about 1834, after the Erie Canal had been com- pleted and the Chicago road constructed, that immigration set in from the Empire state, to which reference will be made here- after.

The character and manner of life of these southern pioneers may be briefly sum- marized, before entering into detailed his- tory. I have gleaned the following facts from articles published by the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society.

They were a cheerful, contented people

HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY

whose wants were few and easily supplied. They were honest and hospitable. Their food consisted generally of corn bread, pork fattened in the woods, fish, venison and wild game which was abundant. The fruits con- sisted of cranberries, crab apples, wild plum, strawberries, whortleberries, and blackber- ries. The wild strawberry was delicious and was much superior to the domestic straw- berry in flavor and sweetness. The farmer's outfit consisted of an axe, iron wedge, a bull plow which was a shire and landside combined with wooden stock and moldboard, a harrow which was often a tree top or crotch with wooden teeth, and a sickle. Un- til 1830 nearly all the small grain was cut with a sickle. Threshing machines did not begin to appear till about 1842, and at that time they had no separator.

The dresses of women were generally of linsey cloth. The shoes were made from leather dressed at the tanneries on shares, and made up by local or traveling shoe- makers.

The cotton cloth worn by the ladies was colored with oak bark into a variegated brown, the waist and skirt made up in one piece and gathered at the waist by a cord run in a shirr.

Men were clad in jeans, blue or butter- nut, home made. Pantaloons were often made of buck-skin. The upper garment was something like a blouse, called a wamus, reaching nearly to the hips. Coon or fox skin caps were common.

The first residences of these pioneers were cabins constructed of logs.

Having given this general description of the equipment and outfits of these set- tlers, as furnished us by contemporaries, I now proceed to a brief account of the set- tlers themselves. They settled on or near the St. Joseph river, and their settlements were confined for several years almost wholly to the townships of Niles, Berrien and St. Joseph, a territory embracing a part of Bertrand and Oronoko townships. The

Carey mission, already described, was a temporary headquarters for these settlers at first.

It should be observed at the outset that the early settlers of the county were largely men and women of great natural strength and force of character. We are sometimes prone to exaggerate the virtues of the past, but there is no illusion in stating this propo- sition. It is the naked truth.

The men and women who came from the older regions of the country and cleaned up the forests and who were the advance guard of civilization were no ordinary people. They were largely ambitious young men and women of more than ordinary intelli- gence, who saw in the natural resources of a new and fertile country the prospects of bettering their condition and of developing a civilization better than that of the crowded thoroughfares of the east.

This remark applies not only to the farmers, but to the merchants and business men who were the early leaders in trade and transportation and in mechanical, mer- cantile, banking and professional life. They belonged to a superior class and were gen- erally reading and thinking men, often well educated. They were the cream of the older civilization, and calculated to command re- spect by their sturdy characteristics of mind and body. It would be difficult to find any- where a class of men superior in those quali- ties which command respect and personal influence, to those broad minded, energetic, well developed and impressive characters who led the early business life of Berrien county.

In 1835 a work was published at New York City entitled "A Winter in the West." It consists of letters written in 1833 de- scriptive of travels in several states, and among them was Michigan. The writer traveled on horseback and stopped at Niles. In his work he remarked that the popula- tion of Michigan generally was much su- perior to the ordinary settlers of a new

HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY

country. The writer also says "to no scenery of our country that I have yet seen is the term 'Arcadia' more applicable than to the rich and fairy landscape on the west side of the peninsula, watered by the Kala- mazoo and the St. Joseph. * We were ferried over the St. Joseph at Niles. A low-sided scow was the means of con- veyance. At length, ascending the bank, a beautiful plain with a clump of trees here and there upon its surface, opened to our view. The establishment of the Carey mis- sion, a long, low, white building, could be distinguished afar off faintly in the moon- light, while several winter lodges of the Pottawatomies which inhabit this fine dis- trict, were plainly perceptible over the plain."

The pioneer colonist and farmer of Ber- rien county was Squire Thompson, who came from Ohio to Niles in 1823 and lo- cated on a piece of land on the flat south of the present dam across the St. Joseph river. He planted a field of corn that spring and returned to Ohio for his family, which he brought with him in the fall of the same year. He at once built a log house in which he and his wife, whose maiden name was Charity Florey, and two children, resided.

Mr. Thompson was born in Virginia in 1784 and emigrated in early life to Ohio, where he lived for a time before coming to Michigan. In 1826 he moved to the town- ship of Pokagon, Cass county, where he lived till 1849, when he removed to Sacra- mento, California, where he died the next year.

Mr. Thompson was a strong man phy- sically and mentally. He was a lawyer, mer- chant, farmer, trapper, politician, interpreter and guide. He made frequent trips to De- troit on horseback, taking with him furs and skins. He often tried cases before justices. He was an ardent admirer of "Harry Clay" and frequently delivered Whig speeches. His ordinary costume at all seasons was a pair of pantaloons faced

with buckskin and a red flannel shirt open at the throat. His personality was positive, virile and unique. He was appointed a county judge when Michigan was a terri- tory. While he was living at Niles, the Indians held a council at which it was re- solved to drive him out. As the Indians, however, had ceded the land on which he lived to the United States government, her paid no attention to their hostility and was never molested. He was nominated as a candidate for the state Legislature, but as the Democracy was in the ascendancy, and he was a Whig, he was defeated.

His son, Isaac, who was born to his par- ents on their way from Ohio to Niles in 1823, is now living at Santa Clara in the state of California. It is highly gratifying and interesting to note that this earliest of pioneers who lived with his parents on the banks of the St. Joseph river eighty-three years ago, before any white family except his own had made any actual settlement in the St. Joseph valley, is now rounding out an old age in perfect physical health and in the full possession of his mental faculties. He removed to California from Michigan in 1849. Before his removal, he married a daughter of Isaac Smith, one of the earliest settlers of Berrien township.

The first white child born in the St. Joseph valley was the daughter of Squire Thompson, Rachel, who was born at Carey (Niles) in 1825. She married Wm. Weed, a farmer of Berrien township, who died many years ago. After the death of her husband she removed to Cameron, Missouri, where she died two years ago.

The second settler in the county was William Kirk who came in the spring of 1824 from Virginia. He lived for a while in a log house near Thompson, but after- wards built a house near the site of the old Michigan Central passenger depot. He re- sided in Niles but a short time, removing farther west.

Baldwin Jenkins next came from Ohio

MRS. RACHAEL WEED THE FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN BERRIEN COUNTY

ISAAC THOMPSON THE SON OF SQUIRE THOMPSON, WHO CAME WITH HIS FATHER TO BERRIEN COUNTY IN 1823

HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY

in the summer of 1824. He remained at Niles a few months examining carefully the surrounding country. He located a home on Pokagon prairie in Cass county. After selecting his farm, he returned to Ohio and brought back with him Benjamin Potter and Nathan Young. Jenkins appears to have remained in Niles a short time, and in the fall of 1825, he returned again to Ohio and brought back with him his family, when he located on his prairie farm. He has left a description of the log houses which were used for a residence by the earliest settlers. They were built of small logs, one upon the other, grooved at the ends so as to fit all round closely, the chinks being closed with strips of mud and wood, with small oblong apertures for windows on the side, and an- other and larger one in front for a door- way, and still another in the roof for a chimney made of sticks and clay, but often a hole was left in the roof through which the smoke, after lingering with the family and the household goods till all was blue, would wander out at its own sweet will. The roof, flat but sloping, was composed of poles covered with boughs or straw. When the weather was inclement, blankets would be put up at the windows.

Mr. Jenkins became a resident of Cass county as stated, but was prominently con- nected with the life of the early settlers of Berrien county, and is entitled to mention in this sketch of our early history. He owned large tracts of land in Berrien county, as well as Cass county. He was one of the first county judges appointed under the old territorial law, for territory then embracing both counties. He was a man of unusual sagacity and ability and was highly respected by all who knew him. He died in 1847 at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Isaac Murphy, at Berrien Center in this county. During the year 1826, Mr. Jenkins kept a dairy, and his family made large quantities

of butter and cheese which were marketed at Fort Wayne. He was a prominent mem- ber of the Baptist Church subsequently or- ganized at Niles, and one of its founders although then living in Pokagon, a few miles away.

In the fall of 1824, John Lybrook came from Richmond, Indiana, via Fort Wayne, and worked for Squire Thompson and the Carey mission. In the spring of 1825, he returned to Richmond and brought back with him Joel G. Yard, John Johnson and his brother. They walked the entire dis- tance each carrying provisions, clothing, an axe and a gun. At this time no dwelling house existed between Fort Wayne and Niles except the trading houses at South Bend and Bertrand. In the fall of 1825 John Johnson brought his family from Rich- mond and settled in Berrien township in Section 29, where he lived till his death.

His son, John Johnson, a former sheriff of this county, now lives on the farm which was settled by his father in 1825, the farm never having gone out of the possession of the family.

John Lybrook settled on a farm a short distance north of Niles, shortly after he re- turned to Ohio and brought back with hint his father, Henry Lybrook, a soldier in the American Revolution. The Lybrooks soon moved to La Grange Prairie, Cass county_ A son Joseph now lives on the farm entered by his father, John Lybrook, in Cass county.

In 1828 Eli Bonnell and A. Tietsort came from Ohio. Bonnell built a log house on the site of present Main street in which? he and his family lived. It was the first house built in the place. Bonnell and Tiet- sort shortly after moved to Cass county.

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A twentieth century history of Berrien County, Michigan, Part 4

Author: Coolidge, Orville W Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Coolidge, Orville W
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1314