History of Livingston County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 3

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The above was amended by a new treaty con- cluded on the 20th of December, 1837, at Flint River, between Henry R. Schoolcraft, commis- sioner, and the Saginaw chiefs and delegates, by the terms of which the United States agreed to reserve a location for the tribe " on the head-waters of the Osage River, in the country visited by a delegation of the said tribe during the present year; to be of proper extent agreeably to their numbers, embracing a due proportion of wood and water, and lying contiguous to tribes of kindred language ;" the meaning and intent of this being to nullify and abrogate that article of the treaty of January 14, 1837, which entitled them to a location in the country lying west of Lake Superior. It was provided by the treaty that the sum of fifty cents for each acre of Indian land sold by the United States should be reserved "as an indemni- fication for the location to be furnished for their future permanent residence and to constitute a fund for emigrating thereto."

The plan of Indian emigration from Michigan, formed and fostered by the government and as- sented to by the chiefs in the treaties of Detroit and Flint River, was partially carried into effect, though against the protestations and entreaties of the Indians, who had bitterly repented of the prom-

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

ises made by their chiefs at the treaties named. In the month of September, 1839, a sad procession of some hundreds of Indians, in charge of United States troops, passed westward through Livingston, bound for the new lands which had been assigned them beyond the Mississippi. There are yet many citizens of the county who recollect the passage of that dejected company. Mr. Joseph B. Skilbeck and others, in Howell, remember their own feelings of indignation at seeing the helpless exiles driven by soldiers, like cattle through the main street of the village, and herded temporarily for rest upon the old public square. But the indignation and sympathy of the white spectators availed nothing, and the unwilling emigrants passed on their weary way to the place of their banishment.

Of the Shiawassees, and other tribes or bands of the Saginaw Chippewa nation, but few were re- moved from the State. The government did not insist on the performance of their agreement, and no general Western emigration took place; but eventually the bands became in a great measure broken up, and the individual members gradually scattered away farther towards the north and west, some of them afterwards becoming the owners of small tracts by purchase (a course which was en- couraged by the government), many removed to reservations in Isabella County, where they or their children are still living; and some crossed the river and lake into Canada.

CHAPTER II.

CESSIONS OF INDIAN LANDS-SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.

Treaty of Greenville-Treaty of Detroit and Cession of Lands, including the present County of Livingston-Treaty of Spring- wells-Treaty of Saginaw-Settlement of the County-Low Estimate of the Value of Michigan Lands by Travelers and Surveyors-Slow Progress of Settlement in consequence-Cor- rection of the Mistaken Opinion-Settlement of the Territory now Livingston County-Unusual Advantages Enjoyed by Set- tlers here-Friendliness of their Indian Neighbors-Regard of the Early Settlers for Education and Religious Worship.

CESSIONS OF LANDS BY INDIANS.

THE United States government, from the time of its formation, has recognized the possessory rights of the Indian tribes in the soil; and the principle has been established that these rights can only be acquired by the government, or with its consent, and can only be alienated from the native Indians by their own voluntary act, done in public and open council, where the tribes are rep-

resented by their chiefs and head men, and the government by its accredited agent or commis- sioner. This principle has always been acted on, and this method observed, by the government in its treaties with Indians for the acquisition of their possessory rights in the public domain.

TREATY OF GREENVILLE IN 1795.

The first Indian treaty by which the aboriginal title to lands now within the State of Michigan was extinguished was made on the third of August, 1795, at Greenville, Ohio, by General Anthony Wayne, on behalf of the United States, with repre- sentatives of the Wyandots, Shawanese, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattamies, and several other tribes. By the terms of that treaty the Indians ceded to the United States government "the post of De- troit, and all the lands to the north, the west, and the south of it, of which the Indian title has been extinguished by gifts or grants to the French or English governments, and so much more land to be annexed to the district of Detroit as shall be comprehended between the river Rosine (Raisin) on the south, Lake St. Clair on the north, and a line, the general course whereof shall be six miles distant from the west end of Lake Erie and Detroit River. Several other large tracts were also ceded by the treaty; among these being "the post of Michilimackinac, all the island, and lands on the mainland adjacent," and the island of Bois Blanc, -mentioned as being an extra and voluntary gift of the Chippewa nation. Also among the lands ceded by this treaty was "one piece of land six miles square at the mouth of Chikago River emp- tying into the southwest end of Lake Michigan." It was expressly stipulated in the treaty that, in consideration of the peace then and there estab- lished, and of the relinquishments made by the Indians, as well as to manifest the liberality of the United States as the means of making the peace strong and perpetual, "the United States relin- quish their claims to all other Indian lands north- ward of the river Ohio, eastward of the Mississippi, and westward and southward of the great lakes and the waters uniting them,* according to the bound- ary line agreed on between the United States and the King of Great Britain in the peace made be- tween them in the year 1783." And it was de- clared that "the Indian tribes who have a right to those lands are quietly to enjoy them, hunting, planting, and dwelling thereon so long as they

* In its relinquishment of these lands, however, the government excepted the post of Vincennes, on the Wabash, the post of Fort Mariac, towards the mouth of the Ohio, and lands at other places, actually in the occupation of French or other white settlers, to which the Indian title had before been extinguished.

CESSIONS OF INDIAN LANDS.

please, without any molestation from the United States; but when those tribes, or any of them, shall be disposed to sell their lands, or any part of them, they are to be sold only to the United States; and until such sale the United States will protect the said Indian tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their lands against all citizens of the United States, and against all other white persons who intrude upon the same; . . . and if any citizen of the United States, or any other white person or persons, shall presume to settle upon the lands now relinquished by the United States, such citizen or other person shall be out of the protection of the United States, and the Indian tribe on whose land such settlement shall be made may drive off the settler, or punish him in such manner as they shall think fit ; and be- cause such settlements, made without the consent of the United States, will be injurious to them as well as to the Indians, the United States shall be at liberty to break them up, and remove and punish the settlers as they shall think proper, and so to effect the protection of the Indian lands herein- before stipulated." The Indians were also allowed, under the treaty, to have the privilege of hunting and fishing over all the ceded territory during their good behavior.

TREATIES OF DETROIT (1807), OF SPRINGWELLS (1815), AND SAGINAW (1819).

The treaty by which the entire southeastern part of Michigan (including all of the present county of Livingston) was ceded to the United States government was made and concluded at Detroit on the 17th of November, 1807, "by William Hull, Governor of the Territory of Michigan, Su- perintendent of Indian Affairs, and sole commis- sioner of the United States to conclude and sign a treaty or treaties with the several nations of In- dians northwest of the river Ohio, on the one part, and the sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the Ottaway, Chippeway, Wyandotte, and Pottawattamie nations of Indians on the other part." The terri- tory here ceded by the Indians, in consideration of goods and money paid and to be paid to them by the United States, was described in the treaty as "beginning at the mouth of the Miami River of the Lakes [meaning the Maumee], and running thence up the middle thereof to the mouth of the great Auglaize River ; thence running due north until it intersects a parallel of latitude to be drawn from the outlet of Lake Huron, which forms the river Sinclair; thence running northeast on the course that may be found will lead in a direct line to White Rock, in Lake Huron; thence due east until it intersects the boundary line between the United States and Upper Canada, in said lake ;

then southwardly, following the said boundary line down said lake, through the river Sinclair, Lake St. Clair, and the river Detroit into Lake Erie, to a point due east of the aforesaid Miami [Maumee] River; thence west to the place of beginning." For this cession, the government stipulated to pay (in money, goods, agricultural implements, or do- mestic animals, at the discretion of the superin- tendent of Indian affairs) the sum of three thou- sand three hundred and thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents each to the Ottawa and Chippewa tribes, and one-half that amount each to the Potta- wattamies and Wyandots, with a perpetual annuity of two thousand dollars to each of the first-men- tioned tribes, and one-half that sum to each of the others; all to be paid at Detroit. And it was fur- ther declared in the treaty, that "the United States, to manifest their liberality and disposition to en- courage the said Indians in agriculture, further stipulate to furnish the said Indians with two blacksmiths ; one to reside with the Chippewas at Saginaw, and the other with the Ottawas at the Miami, during the term of ten years; said black- smiths are to do such work for the said nations as shall be most useful to them."

The second line mentioned in the description of the tract here ceded-that is, the line running due north from the mouth of the Auglaize River, and a prolongation of it to the Straits of Macki- naw-was afterwards adopted by the United States surveyors as the principal meridian line of the lower peninsula of Michigan. The territory ceded by the Indians at the treaty of Detroit embraced all of Michigan lying east of that line as far north as the centre of the present county of Shiawassee, and extending from thence in a northeastwardly direction to the shore of Lake Huron, at a point a little above the northern boundary of the county of Sanilac. Within this ceded territory the In- dians reserved several tracts for their own uses (none of them, however, being within the limits of Livingston County), and they were also to have the privilege of hunting and fishing, under the same conditions as stipulated in the treaty of Greenville.

The Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawattamie na- tions, by the offensive alliance which they made with the British in the war of 1812-15, and their general conduct through that struggle, were con- sidered to have justly forfeited the lands reserved to them. Nevertheless, the government magnan- imously determined not to enforce the forfeiture, but to adopt a conciliatory and friendly policy towards them; and in September, 1815, General . William H. Harrison, General McArthur, and John Graham, Esq., on the part of the govern-

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

ment, held a council with them at Springwells, near Detroit, where, on the eighth of that month, a treaty was concluded, by which it was agreed that " the United States give peace to the Chip- pewa, Ottawa, and Pottawattamie tribes. They also agree to restore to the said Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawattamie tribes all the possessions, rights, and privileges which they enjoyed or were entitled to in the year 1811, prior to the commencement of the late war with Great Britain; and the said tribes upon their part agree to place themselves under the protection of the United States, and of no other power whatsoever." And, at the same time, the treaty made at Greenville in 1795, and subsequent treaties between these tribes and the United States, were confirmed and ratified.

At the treaty of Saginaw, made and concluded on the twenty-fourth of September, 1819, by Gen- eral Lewis Cass, Indian Commissioner, supported by a large retinue of officials, and guarded by a battalion of the Third United States Infantry, on one part, and by one hundred and fourteen Chip- powa and Ottawa chiefs, accompanied by some thousands of the people of their nations, on the other, an immense tract of country, north of the previous cessions, and extending west from the principal meridian to near the village of Kalama- zoo, and thence northward to Thunder Bay River, was ceded to the United States ; but this had no reference to the territory now included in Living- ston County, for in this, the Indian title had been wholly extinguished by the cession made at De- troit in 1807.

LOW ESTIMATE OF THE VALUE OF MICHIGAN LANDS.

Until after the close of the last war between the United States and Great Britain, so little of actual knowledge had been gained concerning the Terri- tory of Michigan that-with the exception of a limited region lying along the Detroit River, and contiguous to a few of the more important points on Lakes Huron, Michigan, and St. Clair-the whole of the lower peninsula might properly have been termed an unexplored and unknown country. In the first year of that war an act was passed by Congress requiring that two millions of acres of land in each of the (then) Territories of Michigan, Illinois, and Louisiana-in all six million acres- should be surveyed and set apart as military tracts, out of which each soldier serving in the armies of the United States in the war with England should be entitled to receive one hundred and sixty acres . of land fit for cultivation. Under the provisions of this act surveys were made; but, while engaged in the work, the surveyors seem to have formed an

idea of the country here similar to that expressed by Honton, one of the early French travelers, who, having had a glimpse of some of the swampy re- gions bordering the lakes and rivers, recorded as his opinion of the peninsula lying between the lakes, that it was in truth "the fag-end of the world." Much the same was the estimation in which these lands were held by the surveyor-general, as will be seen by the following extract from his report made November 13, 1815, and having reference to the Michigan surveys, viz .: "The country on the Indian boundary line from the mouth of the Great Auglaize River [that is, the line established by the treaty of Detroit, in 1807, and identical, or nearly so, with the principal meridian of the government surveys], and running thence for about fifty miles, is, with some few exceptions, low, wet land, with a very thick growth of underbrush, intermixed with very bad marshes, but generally very heavily tim- bered with beech, cottonwood, oak, etc .; thence, continuing north, and extending from the Indian boundary eastward, the number and extent of the swamps increases, with the addition of numbers of lakes from twenty chains to two and three miles across. Many of these lakes have extensive marshes adjoining their margins, sometimes thickly covered with a species of pine called tamarack, and other places covered with a coarse, high grass, and uniformly covered from six inches to three feet (and more at times) with water. The margins of these lakes are not the only places where swamps are found, for they are interspersed throughout the whole country and filled with water, as above stated, and varying in extent.

"The intermediate space between these swamps and lakes-which is probably near one-half of the country-is, with very few exceptions, a poor, barren, sandy land, on which scarcely any vege- tation grows, except very small, scrubby oaks. In many places that part which may be called dry land is composed of little, short sand-hills forming a kind of deep basins, the bottoms of many of which are composed of marsh similar to the above described. The streams are generally narrow, and very deep compared with their width, the shores and bottoms of which are, with very few excep- tions, swampy beyond description; and it is with the utmost difficulty that a place can be found over which horses can be conveyed in safety.

" A circumstance peculiar to that country is ex- hibited in many of the marshes, by their being thinly covered with a sward of grass, by walking on which evinces the existence of water, or a very thin mud, immediately under their covering, which sinks from six to eighteen inches under the pressure of the foot at every step, and at the same time rises

SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.

before and behind the person passing over it. The margins of many of the lakes and streams are in similar situation, and in many places are literally afloat. On approaching the eastern part of the military land, towards the private claims on the straits and lake, the country does not contain so many swamps and lakes, but the extreme sterility and barrenness of the soil continue the same. Taking the country altogether, so far as it has been explored, and to all appearances, together with information received concerning the balance, it is so bad that there would not be more than one acre out of a hundred, if there would be one out of a thousand, that would in any case admit of cultiva- tion."

Probably the above was an honest expression of opinion on the part of the surveyor-general, who, of course, based his report on the informa- tion furnished him by his subordinates who per- formed the work in the field ; but how they could have been so deceived (if indeed they were so far deceived as to believe the disparaging state- ments which they made) is certainly a mystery. However it may have been brought about, the result was that Congress passed a law (April 29, 1816) repealing so much of the act of 1812 as authorized the locating of soldiers' lands in Mich- igan, and, in lieu thereof, providing for the survey of one million five hundred thousand acres in Missouri ; so that the brave men who had periled their lives for their country should not be wronged and insulted by the donation of lands of which, according to the surveyors' reports, not one acre in a hundred was fit for cultivation.

The natural effect of all this was to bring the Territory of Michigan into contempt as a country unfit for agriculture ; and this belief was fostered by the Indian traders, who were thoroughly ac- quainted with the interior country and its capabil- ities, but were only too willing to assist in perpet- uating the delusion, in order to postpone the evil day (as they regarded it) when their lucrative busi- ness should be ruined by the advance of white immigration and settlement. And so there grew up a belief, which became well-nigh universal, that all this region, now so beautiful and productive, was a land of irreclaimable swamps and barren sand-knolls, the home of every species of malarial disease, which must forever remain unfit for culture or white occupation; and that its obvious destiny must be to continue in the possession of wild beasts and the aborigines.

There were those, however, who believed that this judgment was a false, or at least a hasty one; and chief among those who were skeptical as to the absolute worthlessness of Michigan lands was

Governor Lewis Cass, who not only doubted, but resolved to test its truth, and to disprove or prove it by the evidence of his own senses; and to that end he set out from Detroit, accompanied by Hon. Austin E. Wing and two or three other friends, on a tour of observation and discovery. Through the first stage of their Northwestern journey, after leaving the town, the aspect was by no means re- assuring, and as their horses sunk knee-deep in the sloughs or wallowed through the marshy places along that trail whose horrors and miseries after- wards became so well known to the pioneers, it really seemed as if the dismal tales of the survey- ors and Indian traders would be more than verified. But at last, after having floundered over a distance which seemed a hundred miles, but which in reality was not more than one-eighth part of it, they emerged upon higher ground and into a more open and desirable country, which is now the southeast- ern part of the superb county of Oakland. From that point their journey continued easy and unob- structed towards the northwest, over a dry and rolling country, through beautiful open groves of oak, and along the margins of pure and limpid waters. One of these latter they named Wing Lake, in honor of a member of the party ; another (the largest sheet of water in Oakland) they called Cass Lake; while a little farther on they named a lovely lake for Elizabeth, the governor's wife. During their journey (which was of about a week's duration) they penetrated more than half -way across Oakland County; and when they returned they carried back with them the knowledge and proof that Michigan was not the worthless desert which it had been represented; but, instead, a beautiful and fertile land, awaiting only the touch of the settler's axe and plow, and ready to yield an abundant increase to reward his toil.

SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.

The earliest settlements in Livingston County were made in its southern and southeastern parts, they being comparatively easy of access to immi- grants, who at that time came to the interior por- tions of the State from Detroit by way of Ann Arbor, the route by way of Royal Oak, Birming- ham, and Walled Lake, in Oakland County, not being in use until a somewhat later date.

The first white person who came to make his home within the present limits of the county was Colonel Solomon Peterson, who settled on Portage Creek, in the township now Putnam, in the year 1828, his location being then included in the county of Washtenaw. Some years elapsed be- fore the colonel had any white neighbors in this township.

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HISTORY OF LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

Next to Putnam, Green Oak was the earliest settled township, its first settlers being Stephen Lee and Benjamin Curtis, who came to make their homes there in the fall of the year 1830.

Hartland's first settler was Colonel Samuel Mapes, from Niagara County, New York. The date of his coming to Hartland is not precisely known, but it was in either 1831 or 1832. One of his earliest neighbors in the town was Eli Lee, who came a year or two later. They had neigh- bors not far away, however, across the county line, in Oakland, as both settled in the east part of the township.

Hamburg received its first settler in the person of Jesse Hall, who located there with his family in October, 1831. In November of the same year Heman Lake settled in the same town, near its southeastern corner.

Elijah Marsh and Job Cranston, the first settlers in Brighton, became residents in that township in the fall of 1832. Gardner Bird settled there in the following February.

The last settled of the southern tier of townships was Unadilla, in which Eli Ruggles became the first resident, in June, 1833. He did not remain permanently, but after a time returned to Connec- ticut, from whence he had come to Michigan. The next settlers in Unadilla after Mr. Ruggles were James Craig, Archibald Marshall, and David Holmes (all from Connecticut), who came to this township in the fall of 1833.

In the same year, the first settlement was made in the northern tier of townships by Gilbert W. Pren- tiss, who built his shanty on or near the Shiawassee River, in township four, range four, now Cohoctah. He did not come, however, for the purpose of clear- ing and cultivating a farm as his future home, but only with the object of trading with the Indians; and it was not until the following year that a per- manent settlement was made in the township by Mr. Sanford and family. Two other towns of the northern tier received their first settlers in the same year (1834), viz., John How, Sr., in Deerfield, in June, and George Cornell in the southern part of Tyrone in November. Five other settlers came to the same part of the same town in the follow- ing spring, viz., Isaac Cornell, Henry A. Cornell, Joseph M. Becker, William H. Berry, and William Dawson; and George Dibble settled on the north line of Tyrone at about the same time. All these immigrants came into the county by the route through Oakland.

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History of Livingston County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 3

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 617

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 617