USA > Michigan > Cass County > History of Cass county, Michigan > Part 10
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Pokagon appears to have been foremost in emulating the good example of his white brothers, and of im- proving the condition of himself and his people.
McCoy makes mention of the fact that this chief and his band "had commenced a village about six miles from the mission, and manifested a disposition to make themselves more comfortable." (This village was undoubtedly west of the St. Joseph River in the Indian reservation.) "In the spring of 1826," con- tinues the writer above quoted, "we were about to afford them some assistance in making improvements, when one of those white men that are commonly hang- ing around the Indians for the purpose of flaying them, like crows around a carcass, interfered and made a contract for making improvements. This ended in disappointment to the Indians." Pokagon again ap- plied to the missionaries, and in November they hired white men to crect for the Indians three hewed log- houses and to fence twenty acres of prairie land. The Indians promised to pay for the labor and the mission
people became security for them, and saw that the work was properly performed. Subsequently they sent over to the Indian village one of their teams in charge of men, who plowed up twenty acres of prairie soil, made them a present of some hogs and loaned them a milch cow.
Prior to this there seems to have been little ad- vancement in the Indians' mode of life. Pokagon's action at this time was in accordance with prin- ciples of progress which actuated him during the remainder of his life, and which won for him the respect of the old residents of Cass County among whom his latter years were spent.
The first settlers in Cass County found within its limits about four or five hundred Indians, almost all of whom were Pottawatomies. They were divided into three bands, each of which had a chief. Two of these chiefs-Pokagon and Weesaw, who have already been frequently mentioned in the previous chapter- were prominent characters, reputable and represent- ative men of their tribe, and the third-Shavehead- seems to have been a renegade, who enjoyed little respect among the Indians, and found even less among the whites. He was, nevertheless, a man of sufficiently powerful personality or active influence to hold the position of chief over a small band of rather inferior Indians.
Pokagon's band, which numbered over two hun- dred persons, occupied originally the prairie in the western part of the county, which retains the chief's name ; but, as we have shown in an extract from Mr. McCoy's history of the Carey Mission, their principal village was established in 1826 in Berrien County. A large part of the band continued to reside in Cass County, moving from place to place as the lands were taken up by settlers, and the latter years of the chief were also passed in this county. Weesaw's home appears to have been in the northeast portion of the county, in Little Prairie Ronde, in Volinia Town- ship, and Shavehead's in the southeastern, within the present limits of Porter Township. The number of men, women and children in the band of the former was about one hundred and fifty, and that of the lat- ter was scarcely half as large.
INDIAN TRAILS IN CASS COUNTY.
The following accurate description of the Indian trails in Cass County, as they appeared at the time the United States survey was made (1826-28) is fur- nished by Amos Smith, the present County Surveyor :* " I find that nearly every township, in the olden time, had its highways and its byways. Some of these seem
* The trails, an delineated by Mr Smith, are shown upon the outline map of the county which appears in this volume.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
to have been of great importance, connecting localities widely separated from each other, while others of less note served only neighboring settlements.
" It is noticeable that the principal Indian trails, like our own main thoroughfares, ran east and west, while others tributary to these came in from the north and south. The Chicago trail, more important because more used than any of the others, coming from the east, entered the county near the half-mile post on the east side of Section 1 in South Porter Township, and run thence westerly, crossing Sections 1, 2, 3, 4. 5, 8, 7 and 18 in South Porter ; Sections 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 20, 17, 18 and 7 in Mason ; Sections 12. 11, 10, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 in Ontwa ; and Sections 12, 11, 10, 15, 16, 17 and 18 in Milton. The Chicago road, as it is now traveled, varies but little from the trail as above described. Near the corner of Sections 4, 5, 8 and 9, in South Porter, the Chicago trail was inter- sected by the Shavehead trail, a branch from the north. This trail, or rather system of trails, as more than a dozen different ones united to form it, had two main branches which came together on Section 29, in North Porter, near the lower end of Shavehead Lake. The west branch, which commenced near the north line of Penn Township, led southerly across Young's Prairie, dividing on Section 28 in Penn. One trail continued south and east to the west, and south of Mud Lake in Calvin, the other running between Donell and Mud Lakes, the two uniting near Birch Lake in Porter. The last-mentioned trail was of great service, later to the early white settlers, in pro- curing supplies from the old distillery, situated on the East Branch of the Christiana Creek, a little south of Donell Lake. The east branch, coming from the direction of Big Prairie Ronde, crossed the county line at the east line of Section 12 in Newberg, just north of Long Lake, and ran southwesterly across Sections 12, 13, 23, 26, 27, 34 and 33, in Newberg, and Sections 4, 9. 8, 17 and 20, in North Porter, and united with the west branch on Section 29, as before stated. Another branch of the Shavehead trail, of. less extent than either of those above described, com- menced at the Indian Sugar Works, near the half mile post on the line between Sections 10 and 11, in North Porter, and ran thence southwesterly, crossing Shavehead Prairie in its course, and uniting with the main branch on Section 32.
" Beside the three principal branches of the Shave- head trail above mentioned, there were many others. In fact, the whole township of Porter was a perfect network of trails-a regular "stamping ground" of the Indians, so to speak, as the numerous sugar works, Indian fields and villages, abundantly attest.
" The second branch of the Chicago trail commenced
on Section 30, in Calvin, running thence southeast- erly, crossing Sections 2 and 12, in Mason, very nearly where the wagon road now runs, intersecting the Chicago trail at an Indian village, a few roads west of the present village of Union.
"The third branch commenced on Section 3, in Mason, and ran southwesterly, entering the Chicago trail near what is now Adamsville.
"The fourth and last branch of the Chicago trail, coming from Fort Wayne, Ind., intersected the county and State line, near the southwest corner of Section 20, in Ontwa, and running thence northwesterly, united with the main trail on Section 16, in Milton.
" The trail from the Carey Mission to Grand River Mission, sometimes called the Grand River road, crossed the county line near the corner of Sections 6 and 7, in Howard, and running thence angling across Howard, Pokagon, Silver Creek, Wayne and Volinia Townships left the county at the north line of Section 2, in Volinia. It had no branches. The present ang- ling road running through the greater part of Poka- gon Township, the northwest corner of Howard and a portion of Wayne, occupies very nearly the same posi- tion. In fact, we are indebted to the Indian, or it may be to his predecessor, for some of our best lines of communication, and as many of these are trav- eled to-day, and probably will be for all time to come, where they were marked out hundreds, and it may be thousands of years ago, it shows that great skill and judgment must have been exercised in their location."
POTTAWATOMIE CHIEFS.
The tribal chief-the chief of all the Pottawato- mies-was Topinabe, who died near Niles, in the summer of 1826. Several local historians have com- mitted the error of stating that the same Topinabe who was, in 1795, recognized as the head of his na- tion, and who signed the treaty of Greenville in that year, was living in 1833. signed the treaty at Chicago at that time and went West with the tribe when they were removed, under authority of the Government, in 1838. No statement concerning Topinabe can be more authoritively made than that he died in 1826. At the time the missionary McCoy came into the St. Joseph country (1822) the famous chief was upward of eighty years of age. He had been a man of much nobility of character, had exerted a very potent influence in his tribe and had frequently given evidences of un- usual friendship for the whites (as, for instance, at the Fort Dearborn massacre), but as early at least as 1821 he had become hopelessly enslaved by alcohol. In the year mentioned, at the treaty of Chicago. he was urged by Gen. Cass. the United States Commissioner, to keep sober, if possible, and make an advantageous
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
bargain for his people. His reply indicated the depth of his degradation. He said: . "Father, we do not care for the land, nor the money, nor the goods. What we want is whisky. Give us whisky." In May, 1826, one of Mr. McCoy's missionary companions, writing to bim from Carey, says: "Since last we wrote you, I suppose the Indians have not passed a single day without drinking. Poor old Topinabe (principal chief) is said to be near his end from intoxication." McCoy himself writes: "On the 27th of July, a poor, desti- tute Indian woman was murdered about a mile and a half from our house, under circumstances too shock- ing to be narrated. About the same time, Topinabe, the principal chief, fell from his horse, under the in- fluence of ardent spirits, and received an injury of which he died two days afterward." From this testi- mony, which is unquestionable, being written by a man who was intimately acquainted with the Potta- watomies, and who was living in their midst, it would seem that Topinabe came to his death in the latter part of July or early part of August, 1826. The fact that the name of Topinabe appears at the head of the Indian signatures appended to the treaty of 1828, made at Carey Mission, and the treaty of 1833, made at Chicago, does not tend to overthrow this evidence, for it is known there was another Topinabe in the tribe, a much younger man than the chief of whom we write. The name was undoubtedly hereditary. Topinabe, the valorous and cunning in warfare, the sagamore of his tribe, in his latter years the friend of the whites, has not been honored by the application of his name to any locality in the region where he dwelt, though the lesser chiefs, Pokagon and Weesaw, have been thus given a place in the memory of the race which inhabits their old hunting ground .*
Pokagon was second in rank among the Pottawato- mies to Topinabe. and the most admirable character among the St. Joseph band. One of the members of the Carey Mission family says : " He was the reality of the noble red man of whom we read. He was a man of considerable talent, and in his many business transactions with the early settlers was never known to break his word." Various instances have been given in the preceding chapter which support this assertion, and prove Pokagon to have been the most progressive individual of his tribe. Ile probably owed his position of chief to the fact that he had a good command of language, and that he married the daugh- ter of Topinabe's brother. His name was originally Sagaquinick. IIe became a convert to the Roman Catholic religion, and continued in the faith all of his
life. Pokagon and most of the members of his band were exempted from the removal to the West which the Government decreed for the tribe. IFis chief objection to departure seems to have arisen from his fear that he and his people would lose the benefits of their religion and partial civilization. After the other Indians had been removed, Pokagon and his band set- tled in Silver Creek Township, of Cass County, and there the good chief died in 1840. As we shall have occasion to speak of the later history of Pokagon in the conclusion of this chapter, we will now pass to some of the other principal characters among the St. Joseph Pottawatomies.
First among them (after those of whom we have written), was Weesaw, the war chief. He had three wives, of whom the favorite was a daughter of Topin- abe. He had a village in Berrien County, just north of Niles, and another (at a later period) in Volinia Township, Cass County, on Dowagiac Creek on the farm now owned by George Newton, where, with about twenty families composing his band, he spent several summers. In the spring, he would go to what is now the B. G. Buell farm on Little Prairie Ronde, and there raise corn and beans and a few other veg- etables. He also frequently visited the northwest portion of the township, in proper season, to make maple sugar. He only visited his hunting grounds in Volinia every third year, allowing an interval for the restoration of game.
Weesaw is described by the Hon. George B. Turner who, when a boy, frequently saw him, as being a superb specimen of physical manhood, and a realiza- tion of the ideal Indian warrior. He was fully six feet high, muscular, finely formed and of stately car- riage. He had the appearance of one who decmed himself every inch a king. Fond of savage ornament and gaudy attire, he was usually dressed in such man- ner as to enhance the natural picturesqueness of his appearance. His leggings were bordered with little bells which tinkled as he walked, his head adorned with a turban of brilliant material, and his waist bound with a sash of the same, while upon his breast he always wore a huge silver amulet or gorget, bur- nished to its utmost brightness. Heavy rings of silver depended from his ears and nose. Occasionally he left off this savage splendor, and appeared in a suit of blue broadcloth. His favorite wife he adorned with a degree of Indian pomp and show, only inferior to his own gorgeousness, and she was always allowed to walk immediately behind him and ahead of the other wives when they accompanied their proud lord to the settlement of the whites. Weesaw was very friendly in his relations with the whites, and per- formed many favors for them. Orlean Putnam has
* Recently the name of Topinabé has been bestowed upen a station on the Mackinaw Divlslon of the Michigan Central Rallroad at Mullett Lake and upon a summer resort and embryo village at the same place, which have been established by some gentlemen of Niles.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
occasion to remember him with pleasurable and kindly feeling. When the surveyors were at work north of "the big swamp" in 1827, they became very much straitened for provisions, the packer who was to supply them having lost his way. Mr. Putnam and another man in this contingency were detailed to pro- cure such articles of food as were needed. There were no white settlers nearer than Pokagon Prairie, but knowing that Weesaw had an encampment on Little Prairie Ronde, they went there conjecturing, and rightly as it turned out, that the chief could supply their wants. They arrived at the Indian camp at night, but the squaws, by Weesaw's direction immediately began preparing food to be taken to the surveying party, and in the morning the chief and his favorite wife accompanied Mr. Putnam and his com- panion some distance on their way back, assisting them in carrying the liberal allowance.of provisions which had been given them.
Weesaw removed from Cass County to Berrien in in 1832, and died there not long after, being shot by his own son while the latter was in an almost crazed condition from the effects of drink.
Other chiefs among the St. Joseph Pottawatomies were Chebass and Saugana. The former, who was of high rank, had his village within the present limits of Berrien County. He is frequently mentioned in Mc- Coy's history of the Carey Mission, but compar- atively little is known concerning him. Saugana was the chief whose remarkable dream (related in the preceding chapter) was believed to have saved a large party of Pottawatomies from starvation when on their way to attend a treaty at the Wabash in 1826.
Shavehead appears rather to have been the renegade head of a miscellaneous group of ill-savored savages than a chief among the Pottawatomies. He was one of the most notorious characters among the Indians of Cass County, and many anecdotes and traditions con- cerning him have been handed down to the present generation by early settlers who knew him. He was a sullen, treacherous, vindictive savage-" the ugliest Injun of them all," according to almost universal tes- timony. His appearance was in accordance with his evil nature. He had naturally a vicious and cruel look, which was set off by a peculiar device-that of shaving nearly all the hair from his head. Only a lock on the top and a strip down the back of his head was left, and this flowed down in a shape suggestive of the mane of a lion, or perhaps of some lesser beast. Shavehead never ceased to regard the white man as an enemy and an intruder upon the Western soil. It is probable that he enacted a bloody role in the tragedy at Fort Dearborn and took part in most of the hostilities against the Americans in which his tribe
were engaged. He retained his hatred for the whites when all of the Pottawatomies were living among them in peace. His feeling may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that he never signed any treaties and consequently received no annuities. He was always suspected of evil designs. Hon. George Meacham is authority for the statement that during the Sauk war scare, Gen. Joseph Brown ordered Pokagon to " take care" of Shavehead, meaning that he should be watched or guarded so that he could not join the enemy should they penetrate the country.
The old chief and his small band lived a part of the time on the prairie which bears his name, in Porter Township; a part upon the St. Joseph River, in the extreme southeastern portion of the county; and sometimes wintered east of Young's Prairie. He committed many petty depredations, and was very insolent when he dared to be. On one occasion, he presented himself suddenly before Mrs. Reuben Pegg, of Penn Township, while her husband was away, and impudently insisted that she should give him some tal- low to grease his gun. Being refused very decidedly, he became violent, and threatened the lady's life. Soon after, Mr. Pegg returned home, and, being told of the occurrence, followed Shavehead with a stout ox-goad, and overtaking him, administered a terrible thrashing. Mrs. Lydia Rudd, who was some distance from this Indian defeat, remembers that she heard very distinctly the thud of the stalwart blows.
One of Michigan's pioneers,* who has written much, and is regarded as a good authority upon mat- ters of early history, relates the following concerning Shavehead's residence on the St. Joseph River, op- posite Mottville, his custom of taking toll from those who crossed the stream, and a whipping he received at the hands of Asahel Savary, of Centerville :
" The old Chicago road where it crossed the St. Joseph River at Mottville was called * * *
Grand Traverse or Portage. This road was the great traveled route through the southern part of the terri- tory to Chicago. Here at Mottville, the old chief Shavehead had stationed himself as the Charon to ferry travelers across the stream. There being no grist-mills nearer than Pokagon, the settlers in this part of the country went by this route to get their grinding done. Standing with gun in hand, at this portage, Shavehead was accustomed to demand toll of every one who wished to cross the stream. One day, Asahel Savary, of Centerville, finding the old chief off his guard, crossed over the St. Joseph free. But on his return, there the old Charon stood, gun in hand, to demand his moiety. Savary stopped his team. Shavehead came up and looked into the
*A. D. P. Van Buren, of Kalamazoo County.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY. MICHIGAN.
wagon, when the farmer seizing him by the scalp- lock, drew him close to the wagon, and with his ox- whip gave him a sound flogging. Then seizing the old chief's gun, he fired it off and drove on. Old Shavehead never took any more toll from a settler crossing the St. Joseph River at Mottville."
Concerning the death of the troublesome old chief (if chief he was), there has always been some mys- tery. Two accounts of his demise, agreeing in essen- tials, are extant. Both belong in the shadowy border land of history where it emerges in the broad uncer- tain domain of tradition. The first, from the writer we have just quoted, is as follows :
"An old frontiersman, who lived not far from Shavehead Prairie, was very fond of the woods, of hunting and trapping. He and Shavehead were very great friends, and often spent days together on the hunt. Their friendship had continued so long that the settler had begun to be considered as a sort of Leatherstocking companion to the old Indian. One day a report reached his ears that Shavehead had said ' Deer getting scarce; white man ' (pointing toward the settler's home), ' kill too many ; Injun no get his part. Me stop white man shoot deer.' His old friend interpreted this ; he knew its meaning, but said nothing. He and the old chief had another hunt together after this. Time passed on, and one pleasant day in autumn, the two old friends went out on a hunt together, and at night the settler returned alone. The old Indian chief was never seen in that region afterward. It was generally believed that the reason Shavehead did not return, was because he had crossed the river to the happy hunting-grounds on the other side. And it was generally conceded that the settler thought he or Shavehead would have to cross the river that day, and that he, the settler, concluded not to go."
The second hypothesis of the death of Shavehead, by the Hon. George B. Turner, involves the eccen- tric Job Wright, the hermit of Diamond Lake Island, and intimates that he may have been responsible for the exit of the chief from this world. Mr. Turner does not vouch for the absolute truth of the story. We will say by way of preface that Job Wright is sup- posed (in the narrative) to have been one of the little band of soldiers attacked at Fort Dearborn by the Pottawatomies in 1812; that Shavehead took an active part in the massacre, and that in subsequent years he was suspected by Wright of burning down a cabin which he (Wright) had built on Diamond Lake Island. These statements should be borne in mind by him who would read understandingly what follows :
" It was late in the afternoon of a beautiful Sep- tember day " [1840]
" that
we dragged our weary limbs into town [Cassopolis] from a long stroll in the woods with dog and gun ; and as we reached the public square we espied a con- siderable number of settlers from the country about, who had gathered in a compact circular body around some object in front of the village store that seemed to deeply interest them.
" We were not long in reaching the spot ; there, in the center of the group stood Shavehead, the re- nowned Pottawatomie chief. His habitual reserve and caution had left him, for he was gesticulating wildly as he told of his feats of bravery in more than one border conflict. It was plain to see that his peculiar weakness had taken possession of him; in other words, that corn whisky, of which he was very fond, had overcome him. The men listened silent and sullen as he told of the scalps he had taken ; of the battles in which he had been engaged. Some re- garded his talk as the bravado of a drunken Indian, while a few old hunters, who hung about the outer circle, thought and felt otherwise. At last Shave- head closed his harangue by referring to the massacre near Chicago, at the same time exhibiting an English medal, in token of his bloody deeds of that eventful day.
" As he closed and the crowd opened to let him pass, many were the curses hurled at him, many the threats we heard pronounced against him. Now for the first time we noticed the tall, gaunt form of the old recluse leaning upon his rifle apart from the main body of listeners, but near enough to hear all that was said. As the drunken chief stalked away, Job mut- tered audibly to himself, ' Yes, it is him, we fought by the wagons; he burned my cabin, curse him.' Suddenly shouldering his rifle, he disappeared from the village, evidently taking the route home. After sunset a settler who came in, reported seeing Job on the track of something, and moving rapidly in a southeasterly direction. Knowing glances were ex- changed among the little knot of villagers, to whom this story was told, they evidently believing that Job had gone to pay his old friend a visit. How far wrong they were in their conjectures, we do not pretend to say. One thing however, is certain ; after that day, Shavehead was never known to brag of the number of white scalps he had taken. We do not pretend to say that he was shot by any of the settlers-for those were peaceful times ; law and order prevailed all over the land ; the animosities engendered by the war of 1812 had nearly all passed away. But this we do say, if Job Wright, the scout, the recluse, went on the trail of Shavehead, in all probability he found him ; moreover, if he did go, something more than an or- dinary business transaction was uppermost in his F
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