History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens, Part 5

Author: Gansser, Augustus H., 1872-
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond & Arnold
Number of Pages: 738

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races met, we of to-day are not accountable! But we are responsible for these children of this Western Hemisphere, in this, our day and generation. Charity begins at home, and what heart-beat of our people is there to-day, that does not go out in sympathy and kindness to the poor, suffering and dying remnants of the American Indians at our very doors! Let jus- tice be mingled with mercy and love, that the dying race may know and feel, that the pale faces are not forgetful even of the least of Adam's twigs within their borders! Let us make their last days on earth more cheerful, less painful, by the collective assistance and good cheer of our industrious, progressive, prosperous and Christian community, built upon the shores that not so very long ago were the undisturbed hunting grounds of Poor Lo!

Indulge, my native land; indulge the tear That steals impassioned o'er a race's doom! To us, each twig from Adam's stock is near, And sorrows fall upon the Indian's tomb !

LOWER SAGINAW (NOW BAY CITY) IN 1854.

CHAPTER III.

THE COLONIAL PERIOD.

THE ONWARD MARCH OF CIVILIZATION-THE PALE FACES WESTWARD BOUND-YEARS OF EXPLORATION, AND TRADING WITH THE INDIANS-TRAPPERS, HUNTERS AND ADVEN- TURERS-THE SAGINAW VALLEY FOR YEARS THE NORTHERN MOST OUTPOST OF CIVILI- ZATION IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY-INDIAN TITLE TO LAND EXTINGUISHED-THE EARLIEST WHITE SETTLERS.

Home of my heart, I sing of thee, Michigan, my Michigan. Thy lake-bound shores I long to see, Michigan, my Michigan. From Saginaw's tall and whispering pines To Lake Superior's farthest mines, Fair in the light of memory shines, Michigan, my Michigan.

So often have we heard the stirring lines dedicated to our native State, that to the younger generation our commonwealth seems venerable, and ripe with the passing of count- less ages. Yet history records but a single century, since from the almost unknown and seemingly unlimited Northwest Territory Michigan was carved and set up as a separate Territory in 1804. In the "Pioneer Room" of our Capitol at Lansing, there hangs a large colored map, once the property of a Bay County pioneer,-Capt. Joseph F. Marsac. It conveys more eloquently than words could describe the crude ideas regarding our geographical situa- tion, and the wide reaches of territory com- prised at that late day within the boundaries of a single township. In the same room hangs an oil painting, entitled "Detroit in 1820." It

shows a few scattered residences along the river front, dense woods in the background, and strange sailing craft upon the waters. At the time Michigan was created into a separate Territory, the interior was practically unex- plored. A few scattered settlements, together with Detroit, comprised all that was tangible 100 years ago in that future garden spot of the universe,-Michigan, my Michigan!

With the Louisiana Purchase, the tide of immigration was drawn due Westward. End- less caravans crossed Kentucky, Southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, in the restless hunt of hardy pioneers for the El Dorado of the Middle West.

Adventurers, explorers, hunters and trap- pers alone turned aside to face the icy blasts of winter, and the fiery heat of summer, in the

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wilds of the lake region of Michigan. Then, as now, much of that influx came across the Canadian border. The stories of Michigan's rigorous climate had no terrors for a race that faced and lived through the winters of Canada. The stories told by rambling Indians of the par- adise of fish and game within this mysterious lake-bound region drew on these adventurers like a magnet. Neither hardship nor danger could stop their advance. Trackless prairies, dense virgin forests, and impenetrable swamps merely roused their curiosity and spurred them on to delve deeper into the mysteries hidden be- hind the thin curtain of civilization on the east- ern borders of the Territory. The first adven- turers found such a rich reward in beaver skins and similar trophies of the chase and the In- dian trade, that others quickly followed, with varying success. Since for ages the Indians had lauded the Saginaw Valley as their richest hunting ground, it was but natural that these adventurers, hunters and trappers should push straight through to this El Dorado of the abor- igines. Many a white man's hunting lodge was erected on the shores of Saginaw Bay and its tributary rivers, long before any written rec- ords preserved their deeds of daring in this wild land, among wild animals and almost equally ferocious aborigines. Gabriel the Aca- dian, the long-sought hero of folklore, builds his hunting lodge on the banks of the Saginaw, and for many moons enjoys the sport of kings among the denizens of forest and river. This was at a time when the Indians believed this "Land of the Sauks" was haunted by the evil spirits of that ancient race which they had al . most exterminated on this very spot, and these superstitious children of the forest appear not to have interfered much with these daring huntsmen and fishermen. Their quarrel ap- peared to be in times of peace with the advanc- ing mass of pale faces. Where settlements

were planted and the plow and harrow brought harvests from the virgin soil, there was no longer room for the wild game of forest and prairie, and hence the Indian huntsman must take his tepee and move Westward, away from the advancing tide of an older and better, but by him a detested, civilization.

Of the great Huron, Pontiac, it is written, that he stopped the expedition of Major Rog- ers, who was sent into this country about 1760 to drive out the French. "Why come you into our hunting grounds? My white brother has houses and lands and beasts, why should he take the red man's?" And when Major Rog- ers tried to convince the great chief that he came against the French and not against the natives, Pontiac shook his grave head and re- plied: "My white brother has the talking hand. We cannot compete with his slyness. Yet has he taken our lands, and stolen our strength! I appeal to any white man to say, if he ever entered my wigwam hungry, and I gave him not meat. If he ever came cold and weary, and I provided not good cheer. But then he came alone and as a friend! To-day you come as conquerors! My people have lost much. My people have suffered much. I will see. I accept your belts of wampum, but I stand in your path until to-morrow!" Major Rogers respected the suggestion to wait, and by sun- down of the following day Pontiac had coun- seled with his chieftains and decided that peace was preferable to a war which could accomplish nothing for his race. He sent word to all the tribes of the lake region to permit the expedi- tion to pass, and himself accompanied Rogers' column into Detroit. But his address fur- nished an insight into the natives' treatment of the first pale faces who entered their hunting grounds. The Indians felt instinctively that the daring pale faces who left civilization and their kindred far behind them, who dauntlessly

HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY

entered the primeval forest, and lived even as they lived, came not as enemies, but as friends.

So only can we explain how these first missionaries, these first hunters and trappers, came into the wilderness among this wild and untamed people, and lived to tell their many harrowing experiences. The daring adventur- ers felt safe because of their very weak- ness. The Indians felt assured, that those brave enough to be fearless must be friends. The Hurons treated the mass of pale faces as enemies, but almost invariably befriended the isolated adventurer. Many of these wandering pale faces returned this frendship in kind, marrying Indian girls and becoming so attached to the roving life and the crude hospitality of the Hurons, that they became adopted members of the tribe, and in that favored position did much to soften the natural animosity of the two races.

The earliest explorers of the Saginaw Val- ley invariably came singly and in pairs. For half a century these daring recluses came and went through the land of the Hurons, without attempting any permanent settlement or bring- ing their families with them. Detroit was their home. There they placed their wives, children and other relatives for safekeeping, for while no open act of hostility disturbed the region for years at a time, yet these hardy pio- neers never knew when the sporadic toleration of the Indian would turn to malignant hate, and open friendship to treacherous massacre and bloodshed.

Instances were not uncommon, where these adventurers maintained two separate family es- tablishments,-their original family behind the stockades at Detroit, and an Indian squaw and her children far in the interior. This dual life was prompted more by the instinct of self- preservation, than by a desire of these simple- hearted woodsmen to have a harem. Most of

the hunters and trappers who first visited and lived in these parts, before the opening of the last century, were devout Christians. Each had his patron saint, and few forgot to worship in the way of their fathers, although hundreds of miles separated them from their house of worship and its devoted shepherd. Such were the men who first penetrated the dense virgin forests, the trackless prairies and the for many years impenetrable swamps, which reached northward and westward from Detroit, and bordered the great bay and river in "O-Sauk- e-non!" For the hardships they endured, and the risks they ran, they reaped but a poor re- ward. Few saved anything for the future, and fewer still attained old age. They were driven onward by the spirit of the age! A story was often told around the camp-fires of early pioneers here, how in a pretty settlement of Ontario a sturdy farmer yearned to go into the unknown wilderness of Michigan. His family would go with him, yet they disliked leaving so much comfort and happiness behind. As a last recourse, the priest called on the rest- less parishioner and tried to dissuade him. "You want to go away from all your friends, to the bloodthirsty savages. From your lands, your cattle, your home, to wild and dangerous lands you cannot know. For your cow and her rich milk, you will exchange the wild and worthless buffalo. And how will your poor wife and babies live? Nay, Peter, you cannot, you must not go." But Peter was determined to go. "This country is getting crowded, it is too small, too narrow for me," he would re- ply. "There is free land and lots of it to the Westward, where my children shall become large landowners, and where I shall be better able to provide for my family. Here we are but poor farmers, and I am restless. Yonder is the profusion of the Lord spread out for us, but for the asking. I am going West," and

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West he went. He tarried only long enough in Detroit to see his little family under the pro- tecting wing of an old countryman of his, and then he plunged into the wilderness. For years he was one of the most sucessful traders among the Indians. Then came the great war, and one of the first to fall at the River Raisin massacre was the scout, Peter Moultaine. He was well known among the older Indians in these parts, who often spoke of his prowess and his knowl- edge of woodcraft. Perhaps he did not real- ize all his fond dreams of great wealth. Per- haps his family did not reap that greater inde- pendence which he pictured so glowingly ere leaving the community in Ontario they called their home. Restless he was to his dying day. but he was also undoubtedly happy in the free and adventurous life he had chosen for himself. Ambitious he must have been, and if all men were content, what would this world be? How long would the rich and beautiful plains of Michigan, how long this valley, have been left in outer darkness and oblivion, but for the spirit of exploration and adventure which ani- mated Peter Moultaine and his compatriots ?

Such was the career of most of the earliest white men to traverse the wilds of Michigan, and from their hunting lodges see the glories of creation on the wood-bound shores of Sag- inaw Bay. They came and went through the vast wilderness like phantoms of the night. Seldom did they tarry any length of time in any one place. Evangeline learned that to her sorrow, for ere she reached the banks of the Saginaw, after long and wearisome marches, the hunter's lodge was fallen in ruins and de- serted! They sought the home of the beaver; the run of the finny tribes of river and bay, the trail of the bison herd, the antelope and the deer. Where game abounded, and the wan- dering red men had their tepees, there too

camped the border hero of our own State and county.

Years passed, eventful in romance and ad- venture, replete with war and war's alarms. The tide of pale faces Westward bound does not move steadily onward. Each new disturb- ance on the borders stops the onward march of civilization for a time. The forces of the savage aborigines and ambitious settlers drench the dividing line with the blood of the inno- cents, until both sides grow weary with the slaughter.

Then comes an interval of peace and quiet, and this is soon followed by another deter- mined push forward and Westward by the hardy pioneers, reinforced by thousands of im- migrants, who have crossed the Atlantic to escape the "Reign of Terror" in France, the blood-drenched plains of Europe during the Napoleonic wars, and the poverty and distress following in their wake. This wave of immi- gration has for years stopped on the outskirts of Detroit and in neighboring sections of Mich- igan. More than a century has passed since Father Marquette passed up the Detroit River and over the vast waters of Lake Huron and its tributary rivers. A few official exploring parties have since tried to trace the outline of lake and bay and river, and hundreds of daring adventurers have crossed the Lower Peninsula of Michigan in every direction, but none have come to make settlements, none have come to stay.

During all these years of exploration and trading with the Indians, the mouth of the Sag- inaw River has been a rendezvous for the two races in Michigan. The many rivers centering here, the wide reaches of the bay and lake, made it easy for the Indians to reach it in their bark canoes. Even the aborigines appreciated ready water transportation! Hence this valley

HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY

was for years the Northernmost outpost of civilization in the Northwest Territory. The Indian could carry heavy loads of hides and carcasses for long distances and in a short space of time, but he preferred to load them into his canoe and drift rapidly to the rendez- vous where the white trader exchanged warm blankets, fiery rum, cheap trinkets, old-fash- ioned firearms, and similar stock in trade, for the Indian's trophies of the chase. At frequent intervals during the spring. summer and fall, these trading bees were held here, while during the long and bitterly cold winters the white traders rusticated in their protected shacks within the stockades at Detroit.

It is a matter of history, that Michigan was one of the last of the central tier of States to have its interior opened for settlement, but to the glory of this State be it written that this settlement cost less in blood and in treasure than did the settlement of any of our sister States. Undoubtedly the spirit of Father Mar- quette and the early missionaries exerted a powerful and a peaceful influence over the ab- origines of this region. Equally certain is it, that the long years of intercourse with the rough but honest traders and trappers paved the way for that peaceful settlement. Occa- sionally the Indians of these parts clashed hard with the pale faces, and true to their savage nature the red men committed some beastly crimes, even in this valley. During the several wars between the French and English, and later between the English and the Americans, the warlike tribes along Lake Huron became easily involved, and brought on some bloody battles and sanguinary massacres. The inter- course of the pioneers was never free from danger. But on the whole, the settlement of Michigan was tranquil, compared to the rec- ords of the "bloody ground" in Kentucky, the years of bitter strife between the races in the

valleys of the Ohio, the Mississippi and the Missouri, and on the great Western plains.

In this very valley, and likely upon the very spot where the West Side of Greater Bay City is now situated, the great empire-builder of our commonwealth,-Lewis Cass,-held one of his numerous councils with the Indian tribes of this vicinity, and began the prelimina- ries for the treaties by which the Indians ceded peacefully, by extinguishment of the Indian title, more than one-half of Michigan, and large portions of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.

As we ponder over those masterful treaties with the crafty chieftains, we wonder if our great State has ever done full justice to Lewis Cass, our commonwealth-builder, the Secretary of War under Andrew Jackson, then Minister to France, the sturdy son of Michigan, who for 12 years stood with Webster and Clay in defense of the constitution, who was once the candidate of his party for President, and dur- ing whose second term in the United States Senate that strong movement began in Michi- gan against the extension of slavery North and West. He was a son of Michigan's colonial period, and typical of that generation of strong and good men. We owe much of our early progress to Lewis Cass.

With the close of the War of 1812, and the winning over of the hostile Indians, the roving adventurers went farther north, while in the . south they were followed by pioneers looking for places to settle. The Indians gradually withdrew to the agencies and settlements pro- vided for them by the several treaties.

A new era dawned for Michigan, and the Saginaw Valley was not long to feel its splen- did isolation. The rays of advancing civiliza- tion are sweeping the horizon, and penetrating the darkest recesses of wood and glen. In the changeful tide of human affairs, there comes

CITY HALL AND PUBLIC LIBRARY, BAY CITY, E. S.

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here the opportunity for the founders of homes and the builders of cities. Truly was it written :

Toil swings the axe and forests bow, The fields break out in radiant bloom ; Rich harvests smile behind the plow, And cities cluster round the loom!

Little more than 70 years ago this valley was still but a happy hunting ground. The sound of the woodsman's axe had never broken the forest solitude of centuries, and neither land nor water hereabouts had ever felt aught save the rudest, primeval civilization. The French philosopher and traveler, DeTocque- ville, from his camp of exploration and scien- tific research on the banks of Saginaw Bay, penned for his "Democracy of America" these prophetic lines : "In a few years these impen- etrable forests will have fallen; the sons of civ- ilization will break the silence of the Saginaw ! The banks of the mighty stream will be impris- oned by quays; its current, which now flows tranquil and unnoticed through a nameless waste, will be stemmed by the prows of vessels. We are the last travelers allowed to see the primitive grandeur of this solitude."

Prophetic words soon to be fulfilled. For the restless stream of immigrants is sweeping at last over the narrow limits of Michigan's earliest colonies and flooding the interior. But even the imagination of a DeTocqueville could not have forecast the wonderful transforma- tion of the last half century. The silence of the · Saginaw has been broken by a chorus of indus- try that has startled the commercial world. Out of the wilderness have been hewn thriving communities, beautiful to behold, and along the numberless rivulets and streams that ribbon the breast of the valley, there have been created such rich and bountiful farms as have well earned for Bay County its favorite title, "THE GARDEN SPOT OF MICHIGAN."

However, the period of which we write is still but 1813. Col. Lewis Cass has only just been made Military Governor of Michigan Ter- ritory. Commodore Perry's victory has settled forever the question, whether. the English lion or the American eagle shall hold sway over this yet unfathomed wealth of agricultural and mineral resources, within the lake-bound shores of Michigan, and General Harrison's splendid victory at Tippecanoe has broken the power of Chief Tecumseh's confederation of Indian tribes. The master hand of the commoner is reaching out over the silent forests of Michi- gan's interior, and the light of government investigation is sweeping over the shores of Saginaw river and bay. The surveyor and In- dian agent are quickly followed by the more venturesome of border pioneers. Listen and you will hear :

The martial tread of pioneers Of nations yet to be, The first low wash of waves, where soon Shall roll a human sea. The rudiments of empire here Are plastic yet, and warm; The chaos of a mighty world Is rounding into form!

The first steamboat, the "Walk-in-the- Water," began regular trips between Buffalo and Detroit in 1818, and the immigrants West- ward bound, having before them the long and wearisome trip in the prairie schooner across the Middle West, paused as they heard of this new El Dorado of the Northwest, now so easily reached, and thousands who had started for the Mississippi turned Northward and entered Michigan.

Governor Cass and Woodbridge, his sec- retary, were indefatigable in making their home-building within the State, peaceful, at- tractive and profitable. Wagon roads were the first great necessity, and after a good road

HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY

had been hewn around the shore of Lake Erie and from Detroit to Chicago, the Governor turned his attention to the central part of the State. He recognized the material advantages of the Saginaw Valley, and was ever lauding its rich soil, its boundless forests, its navigable streams, alive with fish, and its commanding position.

About 1825 the Erie Canal was opened for trade and this gave a new impetus to the trade of the Great Lakes, and enhanced the harbor facilities of Saginaw Bay. Steam and sailing craft, bound for shore trade and locating trad- ing centers, sailed up the Saginaw River, and their stories of its beauty and natural advan- tages attracted general attention to this valley.

Southeastern Michigan was secured by treaty from the Indians through Governor William Hull in 1807. This left the Saginaw River and its tributaries in undisputed posses- sion of the natives until 1819. In that year Governor Cass again came to the Saginaw Val- ley, and from September 10th to 22nd, con- ferred with the Indians about the terms of a new treaty. After weary hours of council and harangue, the final terms of that famous treaty were mutually agreed to, granting to the United States all but 40,000 acres of their ter- ritory. The reservation they retained was mostly on the west bank of the river, and reaching around the wide western sweep of Saginaw Bay, proving clearly that this was in- deed their favorite hunting ground. Two In- dian traders, Stephen V. R. Riley and Jacob Smith, who had married Indian squaws, and who with their children were treated by the natives as their own kindred, took an active part in adjusting the differences between the crafty Indians and Michigan's wise com- moner. In appreciation of their services, they were allowed extensive land grants by the na- tional government, the three sons of Mr. Riley,

-John, . Peter and James,-being each given 640 acres. The tract of the eldest became the famous Riley Reserve, now entirely within the confines of Bay City.

In 1835 the people of Michigan, claiming their right under the ordinance of 1787, or- ganized and put into operation a State govern- ment, and sent to the United States Senate, Lucius Lyon and John Norvell. For nearly 14 months these two representatives were kept in the corridors of the Capitol at Washington, until the boundary dispute between the young and ambitious State and the Congress was set- tled, as such disputes are usually settled, in favor of the stronger party,-the Congress. On January 26, 1837, Michigan entered the Union as the 26th State.

In that memorable year the Indians ceded their remaining 40,000 acres to the govern- ment, on condition that these lands be surveyed, and placed on the market at $5 per acre for a certain period, the unsold portion to go for $2.50 per acre. The Indians were to receive the entire proceeds of the sale, less the expenses of the survey and transfer. The cession was brought about through a visit to Washington by the famous Chippewa chiefs, O-ge-ma-ke- ga-to, Ton-dog-a-ne, Sha-e-be-no-se, Wos-so. Mose-ga-shink. Ma-sha-way, and Nau-qua- chic-a-me. They were accompanied by Charles Rodd, a half-breed interpreter, and Capt. Jo- seph F. Marsac, Henry O. O'Connor. Gardner D. Williams, and Benjamin O. Williams, prominent pioneers of the Saginaw Valley. who had the esteem of the Indians. President Thomas Jefferson was much impressed with the martial bearing of the far-famed chieftain, O-ge-ma-ke-ga-to, and during the visit he pre- sented the brave with a gaudy colonel's uni- form, in which he afterward appeared on all state occasions, and in which he was eventually buried. As a result of this visit to the capital

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History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens, Part 5

Author: Gansser, Augustus H., 1872- Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago : Richmond & Arnold Number of Pages: 738

Author: Gansser, Augustus H., 1872-
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond & Arnold
Number of Pages: 738