USA > Michigan > Kent County > Grand Rapids > Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan: History and Account of Their Progress from First. Vol. I > Part 5
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On the admission of Michigan to the Federal Union, the public domain was classified as Congress Lands, so called because they are sold to purchasers by the immediate officers of the general govern- ment conformably to such laws as are or may be, from time to time, enacted by Congress. They are all regularly surveyed into townships of six miles square each, under authority and at the expense of the national government. The townships are again subdivided into sec- tions of one mile square, each containing 640 acres, by lines running parallel with the township and range lines. In addition to these divi- sions, the sections are again subdivided into four equal parts, called the northeast quarter-secton, southeast quarter-section, etc. And again, by a law of Congress which went into effect in July, 1820, these quarter-sections are also divided by a north and south line into two equal parts, called the east half quarter-section and west half quarter- section, containing eighty acres each. It was not until after the war of 1812-15, and the conquest of the Indian Territory north of Wayne's treaty line, that surveys were ordered in the territory of southeastern Michigan. For the purpose of surveying lands in this vicinity of Mich- igan a base line was run on or near the parallel of forty-two degrees and thirty minutes north latitude. A principal north-and-south line, known as the principal meridian, was run at right angles, of course, with the base line, and extending throughout the entire length of the lower peninsula. This meridian line is the boundary between Lenawee and Hillsdale counties. The ranges in Kent county were numbered west from the principal meridian, and the towns were numbered north from the base. Kent county, as has been stated, was included in the reservation known as "Congress lands," and it might be added that the lands within its limits were sold by the Federal government at the statutory price of $1.25 per acre. Early provisions were made for the support of free schools, and Congress reserved one-thirty-sixth part of all lands lying northwest of the Ohio river for their main- tenance, the lands in Michigan thus becoming the nucleus of the present magnificent school fund of the state.
We will now return and take up events incidental to the forma- tion, organization and development of Kent county. After the for- mation of the Ohio state government in 1803, Michigan remained without any semblance of county government or organizations until 1815. The first laying out and naming and defining the boundaries of the county of Kent is to be found in an Act of the Legislative Council, March 2, 1831, and until duly organized it was to be attached to Kalamazoo county. The county as then formed was in extent and according to boundaries the same as it is today, with the exception of the two tiers of townships on the north, which were added to it at a later date.
Although Kent county was created by the above mentioned legislative enactment, it remained unorganized, so far as governmental functions were concerned, until March 24, 1836, when its organization
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was provided for by the provisions of "An Act to organize the county of Kent," and the county took its place among the separate and dis- tinct political divisions of the future state of Michigan.
Of the Indian tribes inhabiting the Grand River Valley when the first definite knowledge of the country was acquired, the Ottawas were the most prominent, while other tribes were represented in fewer numbers. Later, still other tribes made their appearance, but it was chiefly with the Ottawas that the pioneers of this section had to deal. This tribe had possession at the time of the final treaty, and it was with it that negotiations were made providing for the Indian exodus. The Indians were slow to join with the tide of western emi- gration, however, and for many years afterward wandering bands would annually visit their old hunting grounds in Kent county, and their intercourse with the settlers came to be regarded more as an occasion of pleasant remembrance than of dread or danger. Some pleasant friendships were formed between the pioneer families and the former owners of the land which the pale-face was tilling.
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CHAPTER III.
THE THOMAS MISSION
TREATY OF CHICAGO-TWO MISSIONS PROJECTED-HARDSHIPS ENDURED BY EARLY MISSIONARIES-EXPERIENCES OF ISAAC MCCOY-HIS FIRST VISIT TO GRAND RIVER VALLEY-GOSA, A FRIENDLY INDIAN-UNRESTRICTED SALE OF LIQUORS-THE MISSION BUILD- INGS-OUR INDIAN LEGEND-LEONARD SLATER-REMOVAL OF MIS- SION TO BARRY COUNTY.
The treaty of Chicago was concluded, Aug. 29, 1821, between Lewis Cass and Solomon Sibley, on the part of the United States, and chiefs of the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawatamies nations. As this treaty furnished the basis for the first permanent white settle- ment of the Grand River Valley, its provisions are of interest and importance. According to the terms of the treaty, the Indians ceded all lands within the following boundaries :
"Beginning at a point on the south bank of the river St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, near the Parc aux Vaches, due north from Rum's village, and thence running south to a line drawn east from the south extreme of Lake Michigan, thence with a said line east to the tract ceded by the Pattiwatimas to the United States by the treaty of Fort Meigs, in 1817, if the said line should strike the said tract; but if the said line should pass north of the said tract, then such line shall be continued until it strikes the western boundary of the tract ceded to the United States by the treaty of Detroit, in 1807, and from the ter- mination of the said line following the boundaries of former cessions to the main branch of the Grand River of Lake Michigan, should any of the said lines cross the said river; but if none of the said lines should cross the said river, then to a point due east of the source of the said main branch of the said river, and from such point due west to the source of the said principal branch, and from the crossing of the said river, or from the source thereof as the case may be, down the said river on the north bank thereof, to the mouth; thence follow- ing the shore of Lake Michigan to the south bank of the said river St. Joseph, at the mouth, thereof, and thence with the said south bank to the place of beginning."
The wording of this treaty is somewhat complicated, and the boundaries outlined are vague, but as this is the deed upon which rests the title of every land owner in Kent County, south of Grand River, it is well to preserve the description in its entirety. The In- dians reserved several tracts for villages, but none of these were located on Grand River. A number of personal grants were also made which show the extent to which the early traders had inter- married with the tribes. Those located on Grand river were as fol- lows: "To Theresa Chandler or To-e-ak-qui, a Pattiwatima woman, and to her daughter, Betsey Fisher, one section of land on the south side of the Grand river, opposite to the Spruce Swamp." "To John Riley, son of Me-naw-cum-ago-quoi, one section of land, at the mouth
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of the river Au Foin, on the Grand River, and extending up the said river, and a like grant to Peter Riley, extending down the river." Joseph La Framboise and William Knoggs were also among those remembered as of Indian blood. Article 4 of this treaty contained provisions of the utmost importance to Grand Rapids and read as follows: "In consideration of the cession aforesaid, the United States engage to pay to the Ottawa nation, one thousand dollars in specie, annually forever, and also to appropriate annually, for the term of ten years, the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, to be expended as the President may direct, in the support of a blacksmith, of a teach- er, and of a person to instruct the Ottawas in agriculture, and in the purchase of cattle and farming utensils. And the United States also engage to pay to the Pattawatima nation five thousand dollars in specie, annually, for the term of twenty years, and also to appropriate annually, for the term of fifteen years, the sum of one thousand dol- lars, to be expended as the President may direct, in the support of a blacksmith and a teacher. And one mile square shall be selected, under the direction of the President, on the north side of Grand River, and one mile square on the south side of the St. Joseph, and within the Indian lands not ceded, upon which the blacksmiths and teachers employed for the said tribes, respectively, shall reside." One of the Ottawa chiefs signing this treaty was Kewagoushoum and another was Kay-nee-wee, both of whom were well known to the early settlers of Grand River Valley.
While this treaty was concluded in 1821, it was not for twelve years, or until 1833, that the first of the so-called American settlers came to the Grand River valley, with the Dexter colony. During this intervening period the Grand River valley was occupied only by the Indians, a few traders and the missions founded upon the stipulation of the foregoing treaty.
As appears from the foregoing treaties, there were two missions projected under the foregoing stipulations, one on the north side of Grand river, one mile square, and the other on the south side of the St. Joseph, of the same dimensions. These two missions were in the care of the Baptist denomination and were named by the board of that denomination in care of missionary efforts. These names commemor- ated the two missionaries of that denomination who first entered upon missionary labors in Hindustan, Revs. Thomas and Carey. The Grand river mission was known to them as the Thomas Mission and the St. Joseph effort was called the Carey Mission.
Why the period of twelve years was allowed to elapse from the granting of these lands by the Indians to the first American settle- ment can best be understood by reading the account of the hardships endured by the early missionaries. Too little has been said in prior histories of Kent County concerning the life and work of Isaac McCoy. If any man is worthy of a monument erected in loving memory of those who unselfishly devoted themselves to the uplifting of man- kind in this region, it is Isaac McCoy; but because he followed his beloved Indians to the West before the American settlers arrived in the valley, his work has received but little attention, and no tablet has been erected to his memory. The volume which he wrote, entitled a "History of Baptist Indian Missions," is one of the most thrilling and
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interesting stories of frontier life ever written, and the story of the first white settlement at Grand Rapids is best told, largely, in his own words. Mr. McCoy prefaces his volume with this paragraph, which gives the keynote of his understanding of the Indian problem and his never failing sympathy with the Red Men: "Whether Europeans on coming to America supposed that the Indians, on account of their unsettled habits, had no ideas of claims to land and were strangers to the love of country, or whether they supposed that the claims of these naked, unlettered and comparatively inoffensive people ought not to be respected by civilized nations, is uncertain, but whatever their views, they at once decided that the aboriginal tribes were not the owners of the lands they occupied, and therefore they laid claim to the whole country, without a knowledge of its existence. The first step in Indian affairs was wrong and was the beginning of a policy unrighteous in principle and oppressive in its operations. This principle was universally adopted-all denied the Indians were the owners of the country, and, therefore, the whole was divided among European governments, each one of which made such arrangements as it chose to companies or individuals of its subjects." It will thus be seen that Mr. McCoy felt that the Indians had been robbed of their heritage and that the white men owed them not only financial recom- pense but consideration and kindness. The book written by Mr. McCoy is filled with many details not of interest to the people of this region, for his work began in Ohio, took him to Indiana, thence to Michigan, and later to the Indian territory. It must also be remem- bered that in his writings he is not always entirely fair to those of other creeds. He was, possibly, obsessed by the idea that there was no road to salvation, either for red or for white, save through baptism by immersion, and he had little sympathy with or confidence in mis- sionaries of Catholic, Methodist, or other denominations. While his views may appear narrow and bigoted, it is nevertheless a fact that bigotry is almost an essential of real missionary zeal. No man could be tempted to deny himself all the comforts and luxuries of civiliza- tion, to endure cold and hunger, to see his loved ones sicken and die, to forgive grievous wrongs which would stir almost any red-blooded man to acts of vengance, unless he was thoroughly and absolutely con- vinced that his belief was the right and, in fact, the only right one. The reader should bear in mind, therefore, that while his views were restricted to the confines of the Baptist faith, he was a man who made the supreme sacrifice for what he believed to be right, and his whole career was untainted with anything approaching dishonesty.
It was in 1817 that Isaac McCoy, then a young married man, wrote to the officials of the Baptist missionary convention of the United States, asking to be accepted as a missionary to the Indian tribes. He had already been on a preaching tour along the Mississippi Valley, among the destitute white settlers, but he chose to labor among the Indians, and, on Oct. 17, 1817, he was commissioned, for one year, as missionary among the tribes of Indiana and Illinois. His first work was in the neighborhood of Fort Wayne, and the story of his work there among the drunken and degenerate Indians is graphi- cally told. The missionary board was poor, and its field was wide; to many, work among the Hindoos had a more attractive and roman-
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tic call than work among the American Indians whom they knew to be savage, brutal and unappreciative. For this reason, funds for the western missionaries were scarce and McCoy was obliged to rely largely upon individual charities for his support. These sources failed to supply the mission, and McCoy resolved to apply for government aid. In company with a mail carrier, he set out for Detroit, some 200 miles through the forest, and was accorded an interview with Governor Cass, who, according to McCoy, "listened to the story of our wants with sympathy that does honor to humanity." Governor Cass not only gave sympathy, but furnished clothing and food for the Indian pupils from Government funds which he had in his control. It was at this time that McCoy made representations to Governor Cass which led to the provisions for missions which were made in the Chicago treaty. The time of the missionary was divided between preaching, teaching and farming, interrupted by arduous journeys to Ohio to solicit funds. His wife not only bore him many children, but shared all the hardships and privations of the frontier. Speaking of her work at this time the missionary said: "Mrs. McCoy, in addi- tion to domestic labors, in common teaches the larger girls the use of the needle and the spinning wheel. She is more confined to the house than I am, and in the daily routine of her labor there is more same- ness than in mine; and on many accounts, her business is calculated more deeply to depress the spirits and to unnerve the constitution than mine. The apprehension that both her strength and spirits are sink- ing has become another source of disquietude to me. I endeavor to conceal from her as much of that which is discouraging in our affairs as possible, and to place the better side of our prospects toward her ; I am oppressed with many an anxious thought which I dare not com- municate to her."
Knowing that the treaty was about to be made at Chicago, and being unable to leave his mission, he sent his teacher, accompanied by Abraham Burnett, an Indian pupil, as his messenger, for, as he said, "It was at this treaty that we had been hoping to make some arrangements for getting to a more suitable location for the missions and was relieved by a visit from Colonel Trimble, of Ohio, a United States senator, who was on his way to the treaty meeting. McCoy reduced his proposition to writing and Senator Trimble exercised his good offices in behalf of the missionary work at the Chicago confer- ence. McCoy was greatly rejoiced over this stipulation in the treaty and said: "To bring about such an arrangement as this has caused us much labor, watchfulness and anxiety. Others in their intercourse with the Indians had money and goods with which to purchase their consent to measures to which they otherwise felt disinclined; but we had neither money nor conscience that could thus be used. We had, also, many strong prejudices of the natives to contend with in the matter and still worse passions, which were opposed to us by some mischievous white men. At the moment, when in council, the Puta- watomies demanded of the commissioners a teacher, a certain Roman Catholic Frenchman, who was a United States Indian agent, and he, at the time, was interpreting for the commissioners, stated to them that the Indians desired a teacher being a Roman Catholic. The Indians, the moment they were made, by one of their party who un-
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THE THOMAS MISSION
derstood English, to understand what had been just stated, positively contradicted the statement and declared that they had not requested a Catholic teacher ; that I was the man whom they desired to be their teacher." McCoy secured the position of teacher to the Pottawatamies at the salary of $400 per year, all of which he threw into the fund for the support of the mission and regularly accounted for it to the Board of Missions. The salary of the blacksmith was placed at $365 a year and the $1,500 per annum, allowed to the Ottawas, also pro- vided for the employment of laborers. The teacher whom he had trusted as a messenger to Chicago endeavored to supplant him as superintendent of the Ottawa Mission, but this plot failed and Mr. McCoy went about making preparations to take advantage of the Government support. This included a journey to Washington, where he was received by John C. Calhoun, secretary of war, and his request was granted that Mr. Sears be appointed teacher for the Ottawas. It was on his return from this journey, after he had been for four years in the mission field, facing cold and hunger many times and meeting all the hardships of the frontier, combined with direct poverty, for the sole purpose of educating the Indians and leading them to a better life, that he met what may well be believed to have been the greatest trial of his life. This story, told in his own words, gives the best possible idea of the fearful conditions under which he and his family lived among the savages, and of the spirit which guided him. Mr. McCoy writes as follows :
"It is now in order for me to tell of the severest trial that I have ever experienced in my pilgrimage, in doing which I shall copy from my journal: 'When about five miles from home, I received the dis- tressing intelligence that two days before a Putawatomie Indian had almost murdered one of our little daughters, about nine years of age. She and two of our Indian girls, larger than she, went on an errand about two hundred yards from the house, and the greater part of the way in full view from the house, when three Indians appeared at a little distance from them, one of whom made towards the larger Indian girl. The children fled for their lives. Our daughter, being the least, and being more affected by the fright than the others, and accidentally falling as she ascended the river bank, was left in the rear and fell into the hands of the savage. He choked her until she was on the point of expiring. The Indian girls alarmed the family. Her distressed mother and many others hastened to her relief. Mr. Edmund Liston, an Englishman hired to labor, and Mungosa, one of our Miami lads, first reached the place of the horrid scene, which was just as the child apparently was struggling in the agonies of death and still in the grasp of the monster. He fled and they pursued him, while the two other Indians followed closely in their rear. Liston soon overtook him and knocked him down with a club and beat him se- verely. Mungosa, on coming up, drew his knife and would have despatched him, but was prevented by Liston. The mother, and many of our family, reached the child before she could breathe. The blood was issuing from her neck, mouth and nose, with a considerable quantity of sand and earth in her mouth. The feelings of her mother can be more easily conceived than described. The design of the Indian was of the basest kind, but happily the child was not injured
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beyond what we mention in this place. Her neck was gashed with the monster's nails and her lungs were injured by violent exertions for breath. Her eyes and face soon swelled frightfully, but she re- covered. The Indian was tried, but subsequently was set at liberty until the agent should return, and he at once left the neighborhood." "This circumstance," states Mr. McCoy, "puts our missionary zeal to a test. O, how hard it is to regard a people affectionately, who, while we are toiling and suffering solely for their benefit, and not our own, thus cruelly requite us. I have quitted the society of relatives and many desirable Christian privileges, with a degree of cheerful- ness ; I have spent many days and nights at a time in the wilderness, without seeing the face of a white man, and was content with the company and fare of the natives; I have repeatedly slept on the ground, under falls of rain and of snow, without much depression of spirit ; I have seen the native struggling in the agonies of death, occasioned by the murderous hand of his fellow, and have assisted in burying the murdered, and found my desires for the salvation of the surviving enlarged, and my zeal in the work of reformation increased ; from hand which laid hold on me in the wilderness, to deprive me of life, I have escaped, with resolution to persevere in my efforts to teach them better things. But, alas! this abuse of my dear little daughter, who could not provoke insult, and her narrow escape from greater injury, has taught me a lesson of human frailty which I had not previously learned by experience. The tale of woe, connected with an account of the screams of the affrighted child, of the tears running over more than forty faces of our family, of the anguish of a mother, aggravated by many local considerations, together with the subsequent artless exclamations of the child-'O, he hurt me so much !'-bore down my spirits and deprived me of resolution. I was sinking, when the everlasting arms underneath prevented my fall. Should I endure to the end, let God have all the praise."
The missionary found grace to go on with his work and it would seem that nothing more is necessary to be said as to the quality and strength of his Christian zeal. It is well to know that the three Indians continued their drunken career and, in a quarrel among them- selves, two of the three, including the savage who had attacked the little girl, were killed; thus the crime was speedily avenged without intervention on Mr. McCoy's part.
The first religious services were held at Carey station on Oct. 20, 1822, McCoy preaching to the little company in their tents, while the rain was falling rapidly around them. It was not until December that the missionary was ready to move his family and such of the Indians as were desired to accompany them from Fort Wayne to Carey. There were thirty-two persons in this company, and on ac- count of the snow and the ice, which made difficult the crossing of St. Mary's river, they made but three miles the first day of the journey. Friendly Indians brought them venison, but it was nine days before the company reached the St. Joseph, with men and oxen almost at the point of exhaustion. McCoy found at Carey two laborers, whom Governor Cass had employed for the Ottawa station, but McCoy was allowed to use them for the winter. One of the first moves was in the erection of a school house, and the first school at Carey was
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opened, Jan. 27, 1823, with thirty Indian pupils. There was thus a large number of mouths to be fed and, on Feb. 1, the missionary's journal said: "Having eaten up our corn and having only flour enough for one meal, we sent five of our stoutest Indian boys five miles, to an Indian trader, and borrowed a barrel of flour and a bushel of corn. Our teams were absent and the boys carried it home upon their backs. The flour was damaged; nevertheless, it was very acceptable." On Feb. 7, the journal said: "Ate our last meal of bread for breakfast, which was so scarce that we had to divide it carefully that everyone might take a little. We had saved a few pounds of flour for the small children, whose necessities were in- creased by the want of milk." An Indian was sent out who managed to obtain six quarts of corn, and messengers were sent to Fort Wayne for relief. On Feb. 8, the company breakfasted upon the six quarts of corn, procured the preceding day, and McCoy writes in his journal : . "Blessed be God, we have not yet suffered for want of food, because corn is an excellent substitute for bread. But having now eaten our last corn, we can not avoid feeling some uneasiness about the next meal."
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