History of Kent County, Michigan, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 13

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Chapman, Charles C., & Co. (Chicago)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : C.C. Chapman & Co.
Number of Pages: 1434

USA > Michigan > Kent County > History of Kent County, Michigan, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 13

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SEPULCHERS OF THE SAUKS, OR WYANDOTS.

The great burial ground, or Pagigendamowinaki, five miles below the Rapids, on the north side of the river, is well remem- bered by the old settlers, and offers subject of interest even to the traveler of the present time. This rude cemetery presents a sur-

Louis Campan

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face of conical hills. From time to time the searcher among the bones of the dead is rewarded by the discovery of one or other of the many articles placed in the earth with the deceased to be used by him in the land of the hereafter. The number of mounds and the variety of relics which may be found in them point out the place as the necropolis of an extinct race. Stone hatchets, copper brooches, silver rings, arrow-heads, paring knives, skulls, unnum- bered skeletons, all remain to tell of their coming and their stay, of their rise and fall.

The free copper found within the tumuli, the open veins of the Superior and Iron Mountain copper-mines, with all the modus operandi of ancient mining, such as ladders, levers, chisels, and hammer-heads, discovered by the French explorers of the North- west and the Mississippi, are conclusive proofs that a prehistoric people were highly civilized, and that many flourishing colonies were spread throughout the newly formed land, while yet the mammoth, the mastodon, and a hundred other animals, now only known by their gigantic fossil remains, guarded the eastern shore of the continent, as it were, against supposed invasions of the Tow- er-Builders who went west from Babel; while yet the beautiful isles of the Antilles formed an integral portion of this continent, long years before the European Northman dreamed of setting forth to the discovery of Greenland and the Northern isles, and certainly at a time when all that portion of America north of latitude 45 ° was an ice-incumbered waste.

Within the last few years great advances have been made toward the discovery of antiquities, whether pertaining to remains of organic or inorganic nature. Together with many small but telling relics of the early inhabitants of the country, the fossils of prehistoric animals have been unearthed from end to end of the land, and in districts, too, long pronounced by geologists of some repute to be without even a vestige of vertebrate fossils. Among the collected souvenirs of an age about which so very little is known, are 25 vertebræ averaging 13 inches in diameter, and three vertebræ ossified together measure nine cubical feet ; a thigh-bone five feet long by 12 inches in diameter and the shaft 14 by eight inches thick, the entire lot weighing 600 lbs. These fossils are presumed to belong to the Cretaceous period, when the Dinosaur roamed over the country from East to West, desolating the villages of the people. This animal is said to have been 60 feet long, and when feeding in cypress and palm forests, to extend himself 85 feet, so that he might devour the budding tops of those great trees. Other efforts in this direction may lead to great results, and culminate probably in the discovery of a tablet engraven by some learned Mound-Builder, describing in the ancient hieroglyphics of China all those men and beasts whose history excites so much specula- tion. The identity of the Mound-Builders with the Mongolians might lead us to hope for such a consummation ; nor is it beyond the range of probability, particularly in this practical age, to find

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the future labors of some industrious antiquarian requited by the upheaval of a tablet, written in the Tartar characters of 1,700 years ago, bearing on the subject, which can now be treated only on a purely speculative basis.

BOTANICAL.

It is unnecessary to name the flora of Kent county, since the species are so numerous and well known. Dr. Gray, in his treatise on the Botany of the Northern States, east of the Mississippi, gives 130 orders of flowering plants. In 1860 a botanical survey of the State was made under N. H. Winchell. His report re- garded every flower, plant, shrub, tree and grass to be found in Michigan, then numbering 1,205 species, -all native with 85 exceptions. In 1880 Messrs. Wheeler and Smith, of Hubbards- ton, Mich., compiled and published a complete flora of this State, with corrections to date. Of this great number there are at pres- ent found within the confines of Kent county no less than 381 genera, embracing 850 species. A large number of genera, con- sidered in the report of 1860, has disappeared ; while about 25 species have been introduced within the last 15 years. The flowers, etc., are as rich generally as may be found in any of the Northern States; in a few instances the brilliancy of hue is unequaled by any. All appear to reach perfection here.

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE.

Grand Rapids, the political, commercial and intellectual center of Kent county, is situate in latitude 42º 57' 59" N., and longi- tude 85º 39' 59" W. from Greenwich, or 2º 37' 36.27" west from Detroit. Now, as the earth moves before the sun at the rate of 15° in a fraction over one hour, the difference between the time of Detroit and Grand Rapids is 10 min. 20.31 sec., and between Green- wich and Grand Rapids 5.70 hours.

RELIEF FEATURES, OR SUMMITS.

The highest point of the Kent summit is found in Gaines town- ship, where it reaches an elevation of 267 feet above Lake Huron. Grand Rapids comes next in the order of elevation, being 54 feet above Lake Huron; and Lowell next, reaching an altitude of 48 feet above the lake, or 626 feet above the Atlantic ocean.

The northwestern prolongation of the Barry summit, or height of land, is cut off by Gun river, which forms a confluence with the Kalamazoo at Otsego, and is known as the Kent summit. It occurs in the southern part of Kent county, where it finds a culmi- nating point of 213 feet, and according to some authorities 267 feet, above the level of Lake Huron, or 845 feet above that of the Atlantic.

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"PRECIPITATION," OR RAINFALL.

The extreme minimum of annual total precipitation of rain, in- cluding snow, calculated as melted, is 92 per cent. at Grand Rapids, which is only five per cent. above that of Grand Haven, on the lake shore. In spring the minimum at Grand Rapids is noted at 60 per cent., in summer at 54 per cent., in the fall at 60 per cent., and in the winter at 81 per cent. of the mean annual precipitation, which is estimated at 31 inches of rainfall in the United States.

THE ORIGINAL NAME OF THE VALLEY.

The meaning of the original name of this beautiful valley of the Grand river has been a subject of much discussion since 1830-'1, when the pioneer settlement was made at Jackson. Many con- sider that Wustenong, or Wushtenong, rendered in the language of the new Americans, is The Further District, or Land Beyond, from Wushte, further, and nong. place or country. Among the sup- porters of this opinion was R. V. Williams, a man who whiled away many years among the Indians, and always heard the name Wushetenong Sebee freely applied to the river.

Again, Louis Genereau states that Wushtenong was the name of an Indian who lived between the rapids and the estuary of the river, who did not permit any one save his relatives or friends to encroach upon his hunting grounds. The visitors to the camp of this savage knew him as Wushtenong and called the river after his name. An Indian, under the patronage of Genereau as recently as 1877, bears testimony to the correctness of this statement.

Another origin of the name is ascribed to the fact that a chief of the Pottawatomies, then dwelling near where the city of Pitts- burg now stands, had a son whom he named Washington, in honor of the father of this country. The boy ultimately settled in Michigan, and called the river Washtenaw, the nearest approach he could make to the pronunciation of General Washington's name. This is downright nonsense. Long years before the illus- trious name of Washington spread a blaze of light and hope throughout the world, Godfroy, McDougal, Baby, Campau and a hundred other traders dwelling between Ypsilanti and Quebec heard the name Wushtenong, and the savage songs in praise of deeds performed there; so that the author of this definition can only claim for it a very common imaginary foundation.

The Otchipwes, or Chippewas, were wont to call the Rapids Kitchi-onigam, and the river thence to the lake, Owashtanong, or Washtanong-Sibi, meaning respectively "grand portage " and "Grand river." Coming from the Saginaw, when they would strike the river east of Flat river, or Nabaga-Sibi, they called out Nagewassa, meaning "far yet, but not very far." Reaching the rapids, they would point to the lake and shout joyfully awass-ton- ong, to convey the idea that beyond is the place of the last man.

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This definition the writer is inclined to accept. The vocabulary of the Otchipwes points it out as the just one. It approaches al- most the definition given by Louis Genereau and R. V. Williams, and is according to the language of the Chippewas as expounded by the lexicographer, Fred. Baraga, Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie, and one time a missionary at Grand Rapids. It is further substanti- ated by Rev. Albert Lacombe, the great student of Indian language, and appears to be the most acceptable derivation of the name.

DESCRIPTION.

Grand river has its head waters in the townships of Waterloo, Columbia and Liberty, Jackson county. North of Jackson city it forms a confluence with the Au Toin or Portage river, and flows thence in a circuitous course through the northeastern townships of that county, westerly for a distance of eight miles, when it enters upon its northwestern course to Lake Michigan, passing through Ingham and Eaton counties, the southwest part of Clin- ton, the eastern sections of Ionia, westward through Kent and Ottawa, when it enters the lake, after a tortuous course of about 270 miles. It forms the receiver of the Rogue, Thornapple, Flat, Maple, Looking-Glass and Red Cedar rivers as well as hun- dreds of creeks and streamlets. This beautiful stream passes through a magnificent country, draining an area of 7,000 square miles, and now is navigable for steamboats to the foot of the rapids in Kent county.

CHAPTER II.

THE INDIANS.

The origin of the red men, or American Indians, is a subject which interests as well as instructs. It is a favorite with the ethnologist, even as it is one of deep concern to the ordinary reader. The era of their establishment as a distinct and insulated people must be set down and credited to a period immediately after the separation of the Asiatics and the origin of the languages. No doubt whatever can exist when the American Indian is regarded as of Asiatic origin. The fact is that the full-blood Indian of the pres- ent is descended directly from the earliest inhabitants, or, in other words, from the survivors of that people who, on being driven from their fair possessions, retired to the wilderness in sorrow, and reared up their children under the saddening influences of their unquenchable griefs, bequeathing them only the habits of the wild, cloud-roofed homes of their exile-a sullen silence and a rude moral code. In after years those wild sons of the forest and prairie grew in numbers and in strength. Some legend told them of their present sufferings, of the high station which their fathers once had held, and of the riotous race that now reveled in the wealth which should be theirs. The fierce passions of the savage were aroused, and uniting their scattered bands, all marched in silence upon the villages of the Tartars, driving them onward to the capital of their Incas, and consigning their homes to the flames. Once in view of the great city, the hurrying bands halted in sur- prise, while Tartar cunning took advantage of the situation, and. offered to the sons of their former victims pledges of amity and justice, which were sacredly observed. Henceforth Mexico was open to the Indians, bearing precisely the same relation to them that the Hudson Bay Company's villages do to the Northwestern Indians of the present time, -obtaining all and rendering little.

The subjection of the Mongolian race, represented in North America by that branch of it to which those Tartars belonged, seems to have taken place about five centuries prior to the arrival of the Spaniards; while it may be concluded that the war of the races, which resulted in reducing the villages erected by the Tartar hordes to ruin, took place between one and two hundred years later. These statements, though actually referring to events which · in point of time are comparatively modern, can be substantiated only by the fact that about the periods mentioned the dead bodies of an unknown race of men were washed ashore on the European

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coasts; while previous to that time there is no account whatever in European annals of even a vestige of trans-Atlantic humanity being transferred by ocean currents to the shores of the Old World. Toward the latter half of the fifteenth century, two dead bodies, entirely free from decomposition and corresponding with the characteristics of the red men, as afterward seen by Colum- bus, were cast ashore on the Azores, and confirmed the great discoverer in his belief in the existence of a Western world and a Western people.

Storm and flood and disease have created sad havoc in the ranks of the aborigines since the occupation of the country by the white man. Inherent causes have led to the decimation ofthe race even more than the advance of civilization, which seems not to affect it materially. In the maintenance of the same number of represent- atives during three centuries, and its existence in the very face of a most unceremonious, and, whenever necessary, cruel, conquest, the grand dispensations of the Unseen Ruler are demonstrated; for, without the aborigines, savage and treacherous as they were, it is possible that the explorers of former times would have so many natural difficulties to contend with that their work would be surrendered in despair, and the most fertile regions of the conti- nent saved for the plowshares of the coming generations. It is very questionable whether the ultimate resolve of Columbus was not strengthened by the appearance of the bodies of Indians on the coast of Europe, even as the fact of the existence of a people in the interior led the French explorers into the very heart of the continent in later days. From this standpoint their services can not be over-estimated. Their existence is embraced in the plan of the Divinity for his government of the world; and it will not be a matter of surprise to learn that the same intelligence which sent a thrill of liberty through every nerve of the Republic will, in the near future, devise some method under which the remnant of a great and ancient race may taste the sweets of public sympathy, and feel that, after a long season of suffering, they have at last found a shelter amid a sympathizing people.

EARLY EXPLORERS.

Among such people did the Jesuit fathers-Claude Allouez and Claude Dablon-venture in 1665, Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet in 1668, and the hundred missionaries who fol- lowed after them. Many of those zealous men visited the lodges of the Chippewas while yet the spirit of Pontiac was living and breathing death to the pale-face; but the very warriors who went forth in 1762 to aid the great Indian chieftain in his proposed capture of the English garrison of Detroit, were among the first to bid the Frenchman welcome to the valley of the Washtenong, as also to rush to the aid of La Balme in 1780, when he marched against the British position at Detroit.

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ANNIHILATION OF THE SAUKS.

About the year 1520 the Chippewas gained possession of this district, when the massacre of Skull Island resulted in almost the total annihilation of the original possessors, the Sauks. The story of this massacre was thus related by William R. McCormick to the writer :

On nearly all the tributaries can be found mounds filled with human bones, which I have opened for my own satisfaction, and found them lying in all directions, showing they were thrown together without any regularity, upon which I became satisfied they were killed in battle. This awakened in me a curiosity to find out what people they were, and where and what had become of them. I often questioned the Indians in regard to it, but they would invariably say that there were two or three very old Indians living on the bay that could tell me all about it, giving me their names. Accordingly, in one of my journeys to the bay I sought out the Indians in question. I think this was in 1834. I found him a very old man and asked him his age. He said he thought he was a great deal over 100 years. His faculties were as bright as a man of 50. I told him I understood he could give me the tradition of liis race. He replied he could, as it was handed down to him by his grandfather, who he said was older than he was now when he told him. For fear I would not get it correct I called to my aid an educated man who was part Indian, Peter Grewett, a man well known by the early settlers as an Indian trader, and is still living, I believe, in Gratiot county, and has spent his life with the Indians, in the fur trade, and was for many years in the em- ployment of the American Fur Company.

The old Indian, Puttasamine by name, commenced as follows : He said the Sauks occupied the whole of the Saginaw river and its tributaries, extending from Thunder Bay on the north to the head of the Shiawassee on the south, and from Lake Michigan on the west to Detroit on the east through the valley of the Grand river. The balance of Michigan was occupied by the Pottawato- mies, and the Lake Superior country was occupied by the Chippe- was and Ottawas, while the Monomonies were at the head of Green Bay in Wisconsin, and another tribe west of the Mississippi which he called Sioux. The main village of the Sauks stood on the west side of the Saginaw river, just below where the residence of Frank Fitzhugh now is, and opposite the mill of N. B. Bradley. The Sauks were always at war with their Chippewa neighbors on the north and the Pottawatomies on the south, and also with other nations in Canada; until at last a council was called, consisting of the Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Monomonies, Ottawas and Six Nations of New York. At an appointed time they all met at the Island of Mackinaw, where they fitted out a large army and started in bark canoes, and came down the west shore of Lake Huron. They then stole along the west shore of Saginaw Bay by night, and lay concealed during the day, until they arrived at a place called

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Petobegong, about ten miles from the mouth of the Saginaw. Here they landed part of their army, while the rest crossed the bay and landed to the east of the mouth of the Saginaw river in the night. In the morning both armies started up the river, one on each side, so as to attack both villages at once. The army on the west side attacked the main village first by surprise, and massa- cred nearly all; the balance retreated across the river to another village, which stood near where the court-house now stands, near the ferry, in Portsmouth. At this time that part of the army that had landed on the east side of the river came up, and a desperate battle ensued in the vicinity of the residence of William R. Mc- Cormick, that being the highest land, and where they had attempted to fortifiy themselves; and at the present time, by dig- ging in this hill, you will find it full of human bones of the victims of that battle. Here they were again defeated. They then crossed the river and retreated to Skull Island, which is the next island above what is now Stone's Island. Here they considered themselves safe. as their enemies had no canoes and they could not fortify themselves. But the next night after their retreat to the island the ice froze thick enough for the allies to cross, which they did, when another massacre ensued; here they were all exter- minated with the exception of 12 females. Since that time this island has been known as "Skull Island," from the number of skulls found on it. in after years. The allies then divided, some going up the Cass, some up the Flint, others up the Shiawassee, Tittabawassee, Maple and Grand, where there were different bands located. But the largest battles were fought on the Flint, on the bluff.

Another Indian traditionist says another reinforcement met them here, coming through Detroit. Here there is a large number of mounds filled with bones, which can be seen at the present day. They then came down the river and fought another battle on the bluff, about a mile from the present village of Flushing, on the farm formerly owned by a Mr. Bailey. Here there is also a large number of mounds yet to be seen; and, if you should dig them open as I have, you will find them filled with human bones.

The next battle was fought about 16 miles from Flushing, on the farm formerly occupied by the late James McCormick. There were sevaral battles fought on the Cass, at what is now called the Bend, or Bridgeport Center, where there was a fortification of earthwork which was plainly to be seen 35 years ago. The next important battle was fought on the Tittabawassee, just above the farm on which the late James Fraser first settled when he came to the Saginaw Valley. This differs from the rest, as the remains of the slain were all buried in one mound, and it is a very large one.

After the extermination of the whole nation, with the exception of the 12 females before spoken of, a council of the allies was then held, to know what should be done with them. Some were for torturing and killing, others for sparing their lives; finally it was

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agreed that they should be sent west of the Mississippi, and an arrangement was made with the Sioux that no tribe should molest them, and the Sioux should be responsible for their protection, which agreement was faithfully kept. The conquered country, of which the Grand River Valley is a part; was then divided among them all as a common hunting ground. But a great many who came here to hunt never returned, nor were ever heard of. It be- came the opinion of the Indians that the spirits of the dead Sanks still haunted their hunting grounds and were killing off their hunters, when in fact it was a few Sanks who had escaped the massacre and still lingered around their hunting grounds, watch- ing for straggling hunters and killing them whenever an oppor- tunity occurred. Ton-do-gong, an Indian chief who died in 1840, said he killed a Sauk while hunting when a boy. This must have been over 80 years ago, and up to a few years ago the Indians still believed there was a Sauk in the vicinity. They had seen the place where he had made his fires and slept. I have known them to get together and not hunt for several days, for the reason, they said, there was a Sank in the woods; they had seen where he had slept; you could not make them believe otherwise.

But to go back to the Indian tradition. The country was con- sidered as haunted, and no more Indians came here to hunt, although game was abundant. Finally it was converted into what would be termed among civilized nations a penal colony. Every Indian who committed a crime would flee or be banished to the haunted hunting grounds to escape punishment, for the Indian laws were more severe and strict then than now. "This was long before we became degraded by coming in contact with the whites. said the Indian.

The Chippewas becoming most numerous, finally their language predominated, but at the present time the Indians of the Lower Peninsula do not speak in all respects the same as the Chippewas on Lake Superior, from which they originally sprung, showing that the mixing of different nations has been the cause of the variety in dialect. Put-ta-qua-sa-mine said his grandfather told it to him when he was a boy, which was 90 years before, and that it had been handed down to his grandfather from his ancestors, and was a custom with him to repeat it often to his people, so the tradition or history should not be lost; and a successor was always appointed in case the traditionist should die, that the history of the nation should not be lost, and be handed down from generation to generation.

In speaking with two other old Indians on the same subject, it is found that their tradition is precisely the same, word for word. with one exception. They say the battles on the Flint were fought by the army coming from Detroit. There can be little doubt of the above being a correct narrative, as much so as if it had been written at the time and handed down to us as a matter of history. It forms the most simple and probable history of the destruction of the Sauks, and the coming of the Otchipwes.

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History of Kent County, Michigan, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 13

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Chapman, Charles C., & Co. (Chicago) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : C.C. Chapman & Co. Number of Pages: 1434

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Chapman, Charles C., & Co. (Chicago)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : C.C. Chapman & Co.
Number of Pages: 1434