History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 20

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761

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' squibby' (drunk). The quality of the whisky sold to Indians was very bad, having been first watered and drugged for their especial use. I recollect, in 1833, that some Indians came to Schoolcraft from Kala- mazoo and made bitter complaint to Addison Smith about H. B. Hus- ton. They said that he put so much ' bish' (water) in his whisky that it made them sick before they could get ' squibby' (drunk). As to my- self, I sold no whisky to Indians, except during the first two or three years after my arrival in Schoolcraft. What I have said about the Indians has been mainly about those whose headquarters were near Schoolcraft.

"A. H. SCOTT."

MISSIONS.

There were no actual mission stations located within the boundaries of Kalamazoo County previous to its settle- ment by the whites; but there were several in its vicinity, among which were the Carey mission at Niles, in Berrien County, and the Thomas mission at Grand Rapids, in Kent County. There was a mission school established at the Nottawa-Sepee Reservation, in St. Joseph County.

In 1817, Rev. Isaac McCoy, a Baptist minister, began his labors as a missionary among the Indians in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. He was stationed in various places, -at Fort Harrison, on the Wabash, at Fort Wayne, and subsequently at Niles, on the St. Joseph. His labors were at first among the Miamis, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankeshwas, and Pottawattomies, at large, and his travels extended over most of the States of Indiana, Illinois, and portions of Wisconsin and Michigan.

He opened a permanent school at Fort Wayne, on the Maumee River, on the 29th of May, 1820, and continued in charge of it until December, 1822, when, with his family, he removed to a new mission on the St. Joseph River, on the site of the present city of Niles.

His family was with him most of the time during his sojourn at these two stations, and he buried one of his children at Fort Wayne. In November, 1826, Mr. McCoy established a mission at the point now occupied by Grand Rapids, in Kent County. The mission at Niles was named Carey, and the one on Grand River, Thomas, both from Baptist missionaries who first penetrated Hindoostan.

The mission at Niles was for the benefit of the Pottawat- tomies, and the one at Grand Rapids for the benefit of the Ottawas. By the treaty of Chicago, in 1821, the govern- ment had agreed to appropriate a certain sum in aid of the schools, and furnish the necessary machinery for black- smithing and mill purposes.

The Rev. Leonard Slater, who had arrived at Carey in the fall of 1826, was settled at Thomas mission, on Grand River, on the 5th of May, 1827 .* Mr. McCoy made his headquarters at Carey, but often visited Thomas station, and traveled quite extensively among the savages. These two missions were kept up until after the settlement of the country by the whites. The missionaries had every possible opportunity for studying Indian character and habits, and Mr. McCoy seems to have been a very careful and interested observer. We make some extracts from a work, entitled "History of Baptist Indian Missions," pub- lished in 1840 :

"We have always found it difficult to persuade our correspondents

* At a subsequent period Mr. Slater resided and labored with a colony of the Ottawas, who had located in the southern part of Barry County. [See biography.]

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

among the white people that the Indians were naturally like all other human beings, and that the same means which were necessary to im- prove society among the whites were necessary among the Indians.

"INDIAN FESTIVAL .*

" If we would form a correct opinion of a people, we must notice small matters as well as great. We must contemplate them as they are at home. In the summer of 1825, I attended an Indian festival, which, according to custom, they accompanied with dancing. These festivals professedly partake of a religious character, but in reality it seems otherwise. Different festivals have appropriate names. The seasons for some occur regularly, but most of them are occasional, as circumstances are supposed to suggest or require them. That which occurred at this time was one at which singular feats of legerdemain, such as taking meat out of a boiling pot with their naked hand, drink- ing boiling-hot broth, eating fire, etc., are attempted. Some ignorant whites, who have mingled with the Indians, have reported that the latter were very dexterous in these feats, but we have never seen any- thing of the kind attempted among them that was not very clumsily performed.

"On the present occasion, a little tobacco was placed in the centre of the hall, on the bottom of a new moccasin, with a small bundle of cedar sticks, resembling candle matches .; Three large kettles of meat, previously boiled, were hanging over a small fire near the cen- tre of the house.

" The aged chief, To-pe-ne-be, led in the ceremonies. He delivered a speech of considerable length, without rising from his seat, with a grave countenance, and his eyes almost closed. He then sat and drummed with one stick, and sang at the same time, while his aid at his side rattled the gourd. At length four women appeared before him and danced. A while after this he arose, delivered another speech, then, drumming and dancing, turned round, and moving slowly around the dancing-hall was followed by all the dancing-party. When he had performed his part in leading others went through the same cere- monies, and these werc repeated until every pair had twice led in the dance.

" These exercises were accompanied with many uncouth gestures and strange noises. Occasionally a man would stoop to the kettle and drink a little soup. One fellow, assuming a frantic air, attended with whooping, lifted out of a kettle a deer's head, and holding it by the two horns, with the nose from him, presented it first upwards and afterwards towards many of the by-standers, as he danced around, hallooing. The droppings of the broth was rather an improvement to the floor than an injury, it being the earth, and now becoming pretty dusty. At length he tore asunder the deer's head and dis- tributed it to others, and what was eatable was devoured with affected avidity.

" At the conclusion, which was after sun-setting, each brought his or her vessel and received a portion of the food. Chebass, a chief, sent to me and invited me to eat with him, and I having consented, he placed his bowl on the earth beside me and said, 'Come, let us eat in friendship !' The same dish contained both meat and soup. The chief took hold of the meat with one hand, and with a knife in the other severed his piece, and I followed his example. After eating, another speech was delivered, the music followed, all joined in a dance with increased hilarity, and most of them with their kettles of meat and broth in their hands, and at length breaking off, each went to his home."

The Carey mission was in quite a flourishing condition, as the following extract from the semi-annual report made on the 1st of October, 1825, will show :

"Seventy scholars belong to our school, viz., fifty males and twenty females; fourteen of whom have advanced to the study of arithmetic, twenty-two others to reading and writing. During the last year four have completed their courses, and have left the institution; two are apprentices to the blacksmith's business, and one to the shoemaker's. The residue of the males who are old enough labor a portion of the time on the farm, and the females spend part of their time at the wheel, loom, needle, etc. Two hundred and eight yards of cloth have been manufactured the past year."

In August, 1826, John L. Leib, Esq., government agent,

visited Carey mission, and among others, in his report to the Department of Indian Affairs at Washington, mentions the following facts :

"Two hundred and three acres are now inclosed, of which fifteen were in wheat, fifty in Indian corn, eight in potatoes, pumpkins, and other vegetable products. The residue is appropriated for pasture. There have been added to the buildings, since my last visit, a house and a most excellent grist-mill worked by horses. The usefulness of this mill can scarcely be appreciated, as there is no other of any kind within one hundred miles, at least, of the establishment ; and here, as benevolence is the predominating principle, all the surrounding popu- lation is benefited.

"Numerous Indian families have, since my last visit, settled them - selves around, and have, from the encouragement, countenance, and assistance of the missionary family, made considerable progress in agriculture. Indeed, a whole village has been formed, within six miles of it, under its benevolent auspices and fostering care. I visited them, to witness myself the change in their condition. To good fences, with which many of their grounds are inclosed, succeed do- mestic animals. You now see oxen, cows, and swine grazing around their dwellings, without the danger of destroying their crops."

The following paragraphs concerning a prominent and well-known Indian, probably of the Pottawattomie nation, were furnished by Mr. Van Buren :

"SHAVEHEAD.

" We give herc some recollections of a somewhat noted Indian chief, called Shavehead, that we gathered from those who were acquainted with him on Shavehead Prairie, in Cass County. The prairie was named after him; it was his favorite home, and here he spent the latter part of his life. He had in his more communicative hours, 'tis said, boasted of the white men's scalps he had taken in the battle at Frenchtown, on the river Raisin. He wore them as trophies about his person.

" The old Chicago road, where it crossed the St. Joseph River at Mottville, was called, as we have said, Grand Traverse, or Portage. This road was the great traveled route through the southern part of the Territory to Chicago. Here, at Mottville, the old chief Shave- head 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, Shave- head was accustomed to demand toll of every one who wished to cross the stream. One day M. O. Savan, of Centreville, finding the old chief off his guard, crossed over the St. Joseph free. But on his re- turn, there the old Charon stood, gun in hand, to demand his moiety. Savan stopped his team. Shavehead came up and looked into his wagon, when the former, 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.

" An old frontiersman, who lived not far from Shavehead Prairie, was very fond of the woods, of hunting and trapping. He and Shave- head were great friends, and often spent days together on the hunt. Their friendship had continued so long that the settler had begun to be considered a sort of Leather Stocking companion to the old Indian. One day a report reached his ears that Shavehead had said, 'Deer getting scarce; white man (pointing towards 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 afterwards. "Twas generally believed that the reason Shavehead did not return was be- cause he had crossed the river to 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."

* Pottawattomies.

t Pine splinters.

OCCUPATION BY THE WHITES.

CHAPTER XIV.

OCCUPATION BY THE WHITES.

Causes and Centres of Settlement-Trading-Posts and Traders-Cam- pau, Robinson, Hubbard-Early Settlements-Reminiscences- Nuts, Fruits, and Flowers-Pioneer Money-Wild-Cat Banks.

THE earliest occupation of the interior of the lower peninsula of Michigan by the white people was in connec- tion with the fur trade and Christian missions, in a manner similar to that pursued by the French explorers of the seventeenth century along the outskirts of the territory now constituting the State .*

As a rule, wherever a trading-post was located, a mis- sion, either Catholic or Protestant, was established beside it. These were in some instances located at the villages of the Indians, which were generally on sites well chosen for communication by both land and water. The In- dian trails by land and the numerous large streams which cut the peninsula in all directions, were the earliest means of transit, and along these came the first scattering immigrants to the rich lands of the interior.

At Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, and many other points were located important centres of Indian population, and here converged the great trails which traversed the country. The first interior county settled was Oakland, in 1817. This was on the great Indian trail connecting Detroit with the Saginaw Valley. The settlement of the counties lying west of the principal - meridian began about ten years later, and the tide of immigration, which gradually grew in volume until about 1837, mostly passed over the Washtenaw trail, which followed closely the line now occupied by the Michigan Central Railroad.

Along this trail were Indian villages at points now occu- pied by the cities and villages of Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Gull Prairie, Kalamazoo, Schoolcraft, South Haven, and St. Joseph. These points were nearly all im- portant centres of savage population, and exceedingly con- venient of access by land and water. According to Mr. Campau they were mostly occupied by the Pottawattomies.

The journey into the interior from Detroit, where most of the immigrants landed, was long and toilsome, and soon after a line of stages had been put in operation it was a current joke that the male passengers followed the coach on foot, carrying each a rail on his back, wherewith to work his passage when the vehicle became fast in the mire.

TRADING-POSTS.

Among the prominent trading-posts of the interior was the one located near the great bend of the Kalamazoo. The pioneer trader at this place is not certainly known, but, in this connection, the following letter, written about 1869, from Louis Campau, an early trader at Grand Rap- ids, is interesting :

" Before and a short time after the war of 1812 there was a line of Indian villages from Ypsilanti to the mouth of the St. Joseph River, located as follows : At places where are now Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Jackson, Battle Creek, Gull Prairie, Kalamazoo, Prairie Ronde, South Bend, and St. Joseph,-all of the Pottawattomie tribe. There were

trading-posts at some of these places. At Ypsilanti Mr. Schamber had a post ; at Jackson, Mr. Baerotiea; at Kalamazoo, Mr. Lumai- ville;t at Elkhart, Mr. Mordaunt ; at South Bend, Mr. Bertrand. Messrs. Bennett & Brother were traders at Michigan City. When I passed through Kalamazoo, in 1827, there were but two log houses " LOUIS CAMPAU." there.t

The written statements of the traders who occupied the post at Kalamazoo, or were familiar with its history, show material discrepancies. Mr. Campau's letter would indi- cate that Lumaiville or Numaiville was the first trader here, but the date is not stated. Mr. Robinson agrees with him as to the name of the trader, but fixes the date of the erec-

RIX ROBINSON'S TRADING-HOUSE AT KALAMAZOO, 1824.

tion of the first trading-hut in the fall of 1823. Mr. Gur- don S. Hubbard thinks a Frenchman by the name of La- framboin built the first trading-house, but gives no date. We append interesting letters from Messrs. Robinson and Hubbard.

" ADA, Dec. 12, 1866.

" DEAR SIR,-In answer to yours of the 7th instant I will say the first little trading-hut erected at Kalamazoo was on the north side of the river, and was erected by an old Frenchman by the name of Nu- maiville, in the fall of 1823, who traded there that fall and the winter of 1824, and in the spring returned to Mackinac. In the fall of 1824 I caused more substantial buildings to be erected, and employed the same old man as clerk to trade for me a number of years, my own trading-post being on Grand River., This old Frenchman could not read or write a single word, but would keep his accounts by hiero- glyphics or imitation-pictures, and rehearse it to me in the spring

with almost exact accuracy in the name of the article or the price.

Thus, for a Mackinac blanket, [=]; for a cloth blanket, []; for a calico shirt, T ; for powder, ::; for balls, ::: (coarser dots); and so on. I continued to occupy the place by different clerks until 1837, when I closed up my Indian trade. I generally visited the post once, and sometimes twice, during the winter, but never remained there more than a day or two at a time. I sometimes kept men there to trade the whole year round, but generally only the fall, winter, and early part of spring. In the month of May we generally left in our Mon- treal barges for Mackinac, and returned again in October. These Montreal barges, in which my goods were brought into the country, and furs and pelts taken out, were capable of carrying about eight tons in smooth water. They were propelled by oars, sometimes by a towline, and sometimes by sails, always keeping near shore, camping in the mouth of some river nights, and laying still in rough weather. In these barges my goods and peltries were transported to and from Mackinac for a number of years, until vessels began to run on Lake Michigan, and my freight so bulky I availed myself of larger craft. My goods and articles for trade were furnished me at Mackinac, at

* It has been aptly said by a prominent citizen of Kalamazoo County that " Michigan owes her settlement to the traffic in beaver- skins."

t This name is written by Mr. Robinson Numaiville.

# Alluding to the cabins of the traders.

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

cost and charges, by the late American Fur Company, they receiving my furs in return, under an arrangement between the company and me.

"The Montreal barges were open boats, and to protect our goods and furs from storms we used large oil-cloths.

" Hoping the above may be of some use to you, I am, very respect- fully, " Your Obdt. Servt.,

" RIX ROBINSON."

The following letter from Gurdon S. Hubbard, Esq., of Chicago, was in reply to a series of questions addressed him by Hon. H. G. Wells, and was read by the latter at a meeting of the " State Pioneer Society," held at Marshall, Mich., in August, 1875 :

" 1st. You ask 'as to your coming here (Kalamazoo), and life during the winter of 1820 and 1821.'

"I answer as follows : I was then eighteen years old; my second charge of a post; vacated by Rix Robinson, who was transferred to Grand River. I had five good men ; one ' Cosa,' a pure Indian ; he was full of scars ; a desperate fellow when angry; had a desperate fight with him about midwinter; gave him the worst whipping he said he ever got, after which had no trouble with him ; he was greatly improved by it. We had a strong opposition from traders at Ber- trand and Coldwater. My trade was with the Pottawattomies and Ottawas, and we were kept on the go all winter carrying our goods on our backs to the Indians' hunting-camps, returning laden with furs and peltries. The season was a success ; sold all my goods, and got pay for say nineteen-twentieths; left there early in April, my boat heavily loaded, entering Lake Michigan, and reaching Mackinac early in May. I had some trouble with a few of the Indians; all was peace after I subdued ' Cosa.' In the fall I had left buried in the sand, at the mouth of Kalamazoo River, some heavy articles, because of the rapids, my boat being heavily loaded. In March I took a perogue (a large wood canoe), and with one of my men went for them. We camped at the foot of the rapids in a snow-storm. In the morning, still snowing, we with great effort poled up the rapids; had reached the upper end, I in the bow, poling, my man seated, with paddle; a tree had fallen into the river; pushing out to round it, current still strong, the bow striking the current, my man careless, the canoe would have upset, had I not jumped into the river. Telling my man to follow me down the rapids, I swam, and reached our camping-spot safely, though much exhausted; got dried, and started up again, reaching home next day.

"2d. ' Where was your residence before coming here ?'

" I was a rover; no particular place; after leaving Montreal, April, 1818, claiming the house of John Kinzie, Esq., Chicago, as my home. My journey there was by Mackinac trading-boat, propelled by oars; when wind was fair, a small sail.

"3d. 'How came you to come, and under what auspices ?'

"In 1815 my father removed from Windsor, Vt., to Montreal. In 1817 I was placed in Mr. John Frothingham's hardware-store. Mr. William Matthews came there as the agent of the American Fur Company to purchase goods, and hire clerks and men for that com- pany. I had a friend, John Dryde, at whose father's house Mr. Matthews stayed. John engaged as one of the clerks. I became infatuated with the idea of going. My parents would not listen to it, but, persevering all winter, at the last moment they consented. Mr. Matthews had engaged all the clerks his order called for, and declined on that account and my age (sixteen); but through the inter- cession of my friends, John, his father, and Mr. Gates, he consented. I engaged for five years, at a salary of one hundred and twenty dol- lars per annum, my father signing the indentures with me. We left the 13th of April in Canadian bateaux, thirteen in number, and about one hundred and twenty souls, ascended the St. Lawrence to Toronto ; we passed our boats overland with oxen eighteen miles to Lake Simcoe; thence another portage to Nottawasaga River, and down it to Lake Huron, which we coasted, reaching Mackinac on the 4th of July. I was detailed to Antoine Dechamp's brigade of thirteen boats for the Illinois River, where I wintered the first year. The second year I wintered at the mouth of Muskegon, Lake Michi- gan, and in Kalamazoo the third winter. This answers your third and fourth questions.

" 5th. 'With what tribes of Indians was your trade? What the habits of the Indians when you first knew them compared with that of a later date ?'

" I was a trader with the Indians for twelve years, embracing the Pottawattomies, Ottawas, Kickapoos, Winnebagoes, and Sacks. After the expiration of my five years I continued on a salary ; then half in- terest in profit or loss. The last three years I bought out the American Fur Company between the Illinois and Wabash Rivers, south of the Kankakee. The Indians the first two years were not fully reconciled to the Americans. Their habits were, wild rovers over the hunting- grounds in the winter, and in the summer at their villages, the men amusing themselves at games and visiting from village to village till the squaws had planted corn and beans. After the first or second hoeing, all but a few old men and women would leave, concentrating with other villages at a given point for fun and frolic. If they could get whisky they had a gay time, as well as fighting and killing each other. Their wants were few; they wore hardly any clothing besides blankets, painted hideously ; had their war- and medicine-dances, exhibiting scalps, recounting their war experiences, making feasts and offerings to the good and bad spirits to appease the anger of both. These exhi- bitions gradually lessening, and at the last only occasionally indulged in, except when a warrior died; then a grand pow-pow at burial, re- counting the deeds of the deceased. They became more dressy ; all, with few exceptions, dressed in shirts, and wore expensive clothes and silver ornaments, with more ambition for the riches of this world, consisting in horses, rifles, and clothing.

"6th. 'Did the missionaries (Catholic or Protestant), either, benefit the Indians in your estimation ? Who built the trading-house at Kala- mazoo ? When ? Did you surrender your agency to Rix Robinson ?'

"I think both Catholic and Protestant missions resulted, in the end, in good, but the evidence did not show itself for eight or ten years. The Protestant missionaries educating the girls and boys, and sending them East for college instruction in higher branches, was a sad mistake; they were flattered there by attentions, more out of curiosity, I suppose, than any real interest in them. Returning to their tribes after a lapse of three or four years, they were unfitted for Indian life, and not cared for by, the few whites they met, nine- tenths of them became miserable drunken fellows, a pest both to Indians and whites; and not until they were taught cultivation, and schools organized in their own villages, did education do them any good, but harm. I do not recollect who built the trading-house at Kalamazoo. Think it was Mr. Lafromboin.

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 20

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott Number of Pages: 761

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761