History of Macomb County, Michigan, Part 21

Author: Leeson, Michael A., [from old catalog] comp
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, M. A. Leeson & co.
Number of Pages: 952

USA > Michigan > Macomb County > History of Macomb County, Michigan > Part 21

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

'Neath which the hunter, brave and bold,

When a wild, blood-curdling yell doth break

All harshly on the still night air.

A moment she let her oars droop,

For she knows 'tis the Indians' wild war whoop

The darkness hovered closer round,

That sets the echoes all in chase

Around that lone and silent place.

But now she seizes oar again, With doubled strength and giddy brain

She sends the little birch canoe

The waters of the placid lake.

" Edith, be quick !" it said to the maid ;

"On, on, brave girl ! one effort more, And you will touch on the island shore."

She gathers all her strength,

She throws it on the oar,

But see ! it breaks, it breaks, And she's not yet at shore.

The hunter tried, but all in vain,

His daughter and the boat to gain.

Their savage foes soon seized and bound,

No mercy at their hands they found ;

And when the sun rose o'er the hill,

There hunters found them lying still-

Now to the rescue she must fly ; She takes her place, she seizes oar, And swiftly pushes from the shore,

In which to lay the fair and brave. Upon the island a lonely mound, That marks the spot, may still be found.

Sleeps with his daughter, Edith Gold.

EARLY TRADERS AND INTERPETERS.

Henry Connor, or Wah-be-sken-dip, was superior to all the traders of that period in disposition and manner. He was a man possessing great muscular strength, yet gentle as a child, and only physically powerful where justice should be enforced or some important point carried. He was a faithful interpreter between the Indian counselors and United States commissioners during the treaty negotiations. After the treaty of 1819, he entered on a trader's life, and continued to the close to merit the confidence and esteem of the savages, Frenchmen, and Americans. Connor was present at the death of Tecumseh, October 5, 1813, when James Whitty encountered the great Indian and killed him. Whitty and Gen. Johnson, he stated,

HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

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HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

attacked the warrior simultaneously ; but the former began and ended that act in the battle of the Thames.

Henry Nelson, another Indian trader known to the old settlers of Macomb, removed from the Huron to the Saginaw district in 1821, and thence with the In- dians to Isabella County, where he died a few years ago.

The St Martins were an old and respectable family. The first of the name who came to America was Adhemar Sieur de St. Martin. He settled in Quebec and held the office of Royal Notary as early as 1660. One of his grand-children came to Detroit in 1740. In April, 1750, is recorded a grant of land (a portion of the now Cass farm) to Jean Baptiste Labutte dit St. Martin. It was his son who became interpreter of the Huron language, and who figured conspicuously during the Pontiac conspiracy in 1763. His services were highly appreciated by Gladwyn, who in his sweeping denunciation of the inhabitants during the siege, always excepts his interpreter, St. Martin. In 1770 he married Marianne, the second daughter of Robert Navarre (Tonton, the Writer, as he was called, to dis- tinguish him from his son Robert, whose sobriquet was Robishe, the Speaker). At the marriage of St. Martin and Marianne Navarre, de Bellestre, the last French commander of Fort Pontchartrain, was present. His family history was closely woven in the destiny of this fort of La Mothe Cadillac. De Tonty and another De Bellistre, uncles of his, had been among its first commanders. It was a melancholy irony of fate, that he should be obliged to resign to the English the post which his ancestors had struggled so nobly to retain. De Bellestre organized the first militia in this part of the country, and gave the command to his brother-in-law, Alexis de Ruisseaux, who had married a Godfrey. St. Martin died a few years after his marriage, leaving a young widow and three children-one boy and two girls.

The Tucker family is referred to in the pioneer history of the county. In the same chapter the Connors are dealt with.

Jean Provencal, or Arvishtoia, appointed Indian blacksmith by Gen. Cass, possessed many good qualities which endeared him to the whites as well as to the Indians. William Tucker, and other old residents of Macomb, remember him well, aand substantiate what has been said of him.

Edward Campan, or Now-o-ke-shick, lost an arm from the accidental discharge of his rifle, while hunting in this county. Notwithstanding the rude, surgical operation, which only the medicine man of that time could perform, he survived, and continued among the most active and popular trappers of this district, until his journey to the Northwest.

Gabriel Godfrey, known as Menissid, was a trader from the lower Huron country. He was one of the family to whom was deeded the lands where Ypsilanti now stands. His visits to the upper Huron or Clinton were few, yet his acquaint-

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HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

ance among the French and American pioneers of Macomb was extensive. Rich- ard Godfrey, his son, now dwells at Grand Rapids in this State.

Archibald Lyons, was, like many of the white inhabitants of the country bordering on Lake St. Clair, engaged in trapping. In 1818 he left the district, now known as Macomb and St. Clair counties, for the Saginaw valley, where he married the beanty of the tribe-Ka-ze-zhe-ah-be-no-qua. This woman was a French half-breed, peculiarly superior to all around her, highly intelligent, and in possession of principles which could not sanction a wrong. Lyons, while skating down the Saginaw River, in 1821, to play for a dancing party, fell through the ice, and was never seen again. After the death of her husband, the widowed Ka-ze- zhe-ah-be-no-qua married Antoine Peltier, who moved from Harrison Township to Lower Saginaw.

Francois Tremble, grandfather of the Trembles referred to in this section of the work, was well known from Montreal to Detroit and the Riviere Aux Hurons so early as 1782. Ten years later, 1792, he visited the Saginaw Indians, which proved to be his first and last exploratory trip. It appears this adventurous Frenchman was drowned while flying far away from an Indian camp. The story of his death states, that he made a spear for an Indian to be used in killing mnskrats; another Indian came forward to beg a similar favor, and for him Tremble made still a better spear-head. Indian No. 1 grew jealous, abused the good hunter, and ultimately stabbed him in the back. Retiring to his boat he set sail for his home on Lake St. Clair, but never reached the place. It is supposed he was knocked overboard by the boom of his boat, and was drowned in the waters of Lake Huron.

Captain Joseph F. Marsac was born near Detroit on Christmas day, 1793, and was known from his native place to Fort St. Joseph or Gratiot and thence to Mich- ilimackinac. Marsac was the happiest model of the Franco-American- genial as man could be, he endeared himself to all around him-to all, with whom he came in contact. During the Black Hawk War excitement he was one of the first to organize a military company and take the field with the rank of captain.

Captain Leon Snay, a hunter and trapper of great repnte, belonged to the better class of French traders, and held the military commission of captain. Like Marsac, he was well known to all the old American settlers of Macomb as well as to the Indians and his own people.

Peter Gruette, Francois Corbin, John Harson, with other traders, hunters, trappers, and interpreters, who established temporary posts on the Clinton, Flint, Shiawassee, Black River, etc., made this county a rendezvous, and won the respect of the American pioneers.

Harvey Williams of Detroit, now of Saginaw, one of the few survivors of the Detroit settlers of 1818, in his journey to Saginaw in 1822, with supplies for the

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HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

troops stationed there, had to ford the Clinton River at five different points. The Indians and first American settlers of Macomb knew Uncle Harvey well. Though not a trader in the full sense of the term his dealings with the savages as well as with the civilized inhabitants was extensive and honorable.

Dunois, or Du Nor, was one of the first and best known interpreters under American rule. His order to the Indians was a law. It is related that upon one occasion he visited the house of John Tucker, and asked him to tell the chief of the Salt River band to meet him at the Tucker House on Friday night. Anowi- sickau, brother of Francis Macompte, met him as appointed, and both went into the forest in the darkness of that winter's night. This visit resulted in finding a U. S. cavalry horse stolen from Detroit.

Leon St. George, born at Montreal, Canada, in 1774, came to Michigan in his youth and made a settlement between Detroit and the Clinton or Riviere Aux Hurons. This French-Canadian afterward removed to Detroit, and cleared the land where the city hall stands as well as many acres in the vicinity. When the war of 1812 broke out, St. George joined the American troops, and fought through it to its close. After the close of the campaign he became a trader among the Hurons and Chippewas, and was well known to the pioneers of Macomb County. His death took place in 1880.

Oliver Williams settled at Detroit in 1807, where he engaged in mercantile life, and become one of the largest dealers then in the Peninsula, bringing at one time from Boston a stock of goods valued at $64,000. In 1811, the sloop Friends' Good Will was built for him, which was captured by the British and called The Little Belt. Referring to this $64,000 matter, Mr. C. G. Cady states positively that when he arrived at Detroit, he could carry all the merchandise it contained to Mt. Clemens.

Captain John Farley of the United States Artillery was among the early visi- tors to Mt. Clemens.

Michel Medor, Joseph Benoit, Leon and Louis Tremble, whose grandfather is referred to in this chapter, were among the traders known to the Indians, French, and Americans of Macomb County previous to and for years after its organi- zation.

Benjamin Cushway was born at Detroit in 1809, and died at Saginaw May 25, 1881. In 1832, he was appointed Indian blacksmith at Saginaw. He was known among the early settlers of Macomb, particularly among the French.

Edward Mc Carthy an Irish revolutionist of 1798, came to Detroit in 1829, passed some time near Mt. Clemens, and ultimately continued his travels to the Northwest, where he died.

Baret Le Partes, Dominique Snay, Louis Duprat, William Thebo, Joseph

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HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

Alloir, Antoine Tremble, John Tremble, Francois G. Tremble, William J. Tucker, were among the children of the county when it was organized.

Whittimore and James Knagys, brothers, of French-Canadian or French- English descent, were among the early white inhabitants of the Huron Country, and if friendships, dealings and periodical stays in the neighborhood of the Reviere aux Hurons could bring the title, they were among the first white settlers of Macomb County. Judge Witherell, in referring to those Frenchmen, says : "Capt. Knaggs was a firm and unflinching patriot in times when patriotism was in demand, during the War of 1812. He was one of the Indian interpreters, spoke freely six or seven of their languages, together with French and English, and exercised great influ- ence over many warrior tribes. On the surrender of Detroit to the enemy, he was ordered by the British Commandant to leave the Territory, and did so, of course, but joined the first corps of United States troops that advanced toward the frontier. He acted as guide to the division under Gen. Winchester, and was present at the bloody defeat in the valley of the Raisin. The British Indians discovered him after the surrender and determined to kill him. There happened to be present an Indian whom Knaggs had defended in former years, who resolved to save the pale- face at every hazard ; but the savages would not listen to him. Nothing daunted, however, the brave red-warrior placed himself between Knaggs and his foes, and succeeded in keeping them off for some time. The savages pressed closer, and as a dernier resort the friendly Indian seized Knaggs round the waist, kept his own body between the white man and his enemies, and so prevented the repeated blows of tomahawk and war-club from taking effect upon the head of Winchester's French guide. This mode of defence continued until both Knaggs and the Indian sought refuge among a number of horses which stood harnessed close by. Here Knaggs was enabled to avoid the blows aimed at his head, until a British officer, not so savage as his Indian allies, interposed, and saved the guide from a cruel death." Knaggs survived this terrible trial for many years, and rendered good service to the United in the negotiation of Indian treaties. James Knaggs was present at the death of Tecumseh, and was considered one of the most unflinching and honorable supporters of the American troops. A member of the Avery family of Monroe County, Mich., bears the highest testimony to the Knagg's Brothers.

Jacob Smith, or Wah-be-sins, settled with his parents in Northern Ohio, whence he pushed forward to the Detroit and Huron district, where he remained some years. During the rambies of the Young Swan, he won the friendship of the Hurons and Otchipwes, and as his intercourse with them became more extensive, he entered into all their manners and customs, sympathized with them, and claimed in return their earnest friendship. After some years passed among the Indians of the Clinton or Huron River, he moved to Flint, where he died of disease in 1825. Baptiste

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HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

Cochois, or Nickaniss, was the only white friend present at his death ; Annemekins, the Indian boy whom he adopted, was the only red-man who witnessed the dying struggles of this popular trader. To Smith is due the rescue of the Boyers of Mount Clemens.

Patrice Reaume, or Wemetigoji, was a native of Quebec. For a period of eight years he traded among the Indians of the Clinton or Huron and the Raisin districts, where he was well and favorably known. Ultimately he was appointed factor for the American Fur Company at the post near Pontiac, and subsequently at the Tittabawassee and Saginaw.

Louis De Quindre, named Missabos, was a friend of Reaume, and, like him, a trader. He, too, was known to the pioneers of Macomb County, where he made his home for some years.

Jacob Gradroot, or Graveraet, husband of the daughter of the fierce Keskawko, was a German, who settled for a while at Albany, N. Y. Moving West, he settled at Detroit ; moved to Harrison township in Macomb, and thence to what is now called Bay County.

Louis Beaufait, or Wagash, was one of the most favorably known and genial men in the Michigan of 1800-1820. He was much younger than Smith or Reaume, was a friend of each and all of his fellow-traders, and being so, was the great peacemaker in the traders' circle ; his calm, gentle and sound reasoning always prevailed.

Barney Campau, a nephew of Louis and Joseph Campau, better known as Oshkinawe, was well fitted for the life of a trader or hunter. He was honest in all his dealings with the savages, and on this account they styled him Young Man, and acquiesced in all his propositions.

DISTINGUISHED EARLY SETTLERS.

Among the pioneers of Michigan best known to the early settlers of Macomb, the first was, undoubtedly, Lewis Cass. The first Chief Justice, A. B. Woodward, and Judge Witherell, were equally well known; while to the first French settlers of this county, all the members of the Campeau family were linked by innumerable interchanges of service.

Gen. Lewis Cass, successor of the inglorious Hull, in the governorship of the Territory of Michigan, 1813, held his high office until appointed a member of the United States Cabinet, as Secretary of War in 1831. In 1836 he received the port- folio of minister to France, which office he filled until 1842. In January, 1845 he was elected member of the United States Senate. Throughout his public life, from his efforts to combat Hull's treachery in 1812 to the close of his career, he was one of the first citizens of the Union. His death brought mourning not only

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HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

into the homes of the Michigan people, but also into the villages of the Otchipwes, Pottawatomies, and Ottawas, whose admiration he won during the earlier years of his service in Michigan.

Lewis Cass, born at Exeter, N. H., October 9, 1782, died at Detroit, Mich., June 17, 1866. General Cass was known to the Indians, French and Americans from the establishment of the territory forward. The services which he rendered this State particularly can never be over-estimated.

Rev. Gabriel Richards, of the Order of St. Sulpice, was born at Saintes, Clarente Inferieur, France, October 15, 1764. His mother was a relative of the illustrious Bossuet. He arrived at Baltimore, June 24, 1792, and at Detroit in June, 1798. He was the first delegate of Michigan to the Congress of the United States, being elected in 1823. His death took place at Detroit, during the cholera plague, Sep- tember 13, 1832.

Marquis Jacques Cumpeau was born at Detroit, in 1730. He was the son of La Motte Cadillac's secretary, a soldier who accompanied the French troops to that post in 1701. Marquis J. Campeau may be considered the first white settler of Michigan. He sought a home beyond the Fort in 1757, just one year before Nich- olas Patenande began a squatter's life in the district now known as Macomb. He erected the Catholic Church near his home in 1778.

Joseph Campeau was born at Detroit, February 20, 1769. In 1786 he com- menced trading in real estate. This fact, together with his various commercial enterprises, made his name a household word in the homes of the early French settlers.

Christian Clemens, John Stockton, Gen. Brown, and a number of other pioneers of the State, noticed in other sections of this work, are well and favorably remem- bered by the pioneers of this county.

Robert Abbott, son of James Abbott, of Dublin, Ireland, was born at Detroit, in 1771. He is said to be the first man, speaking our language, who opened busi- ness at the old post of Detroit. His father and himself were identified with the early fur traders, and were known from Detroit to Mackinaw and thence to Chicago. The dealings of Robert Abbott with the early settlers of Macomb came next in importance to the business connection of the Campeaus.

CAPTIVITY OF THE BOYER FAMILY.

Previous to the peace of 1815, the Chippewas beyond the Huron County were as savage as they were in the Sixteenth Century. Shortly after the close of the war, Mr. Boyer, wife and children were abducted from their homes near Mount Clemens to that country, which no white being ever entered save as a pinioned captive. At that time the traders had not penetrated the valley of the Saginaw,

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HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

and possibly would not for many years afterwards, had not this abduction of the white settlers of Macomb incited one, at least of the traders to venture into the den of savages. The enterprise was undertaken by Jacob Smith, the trader of the Flint, and resulted successfully. The Boyer family was rescued not only from the most foul bondage, but also from death itself, which was to be meted out to them in a few days, had they not been rescued by the intrepid trader. The par- ticulars of this abduction are set forth in the following statement: Some time before the actual commencement of any settlement at Mount Cle- mens, occurred an incident worthy of mention here. A vast camp of Indians had collected for some purpose at the present site of East Saginaw ; in going by this settlement on their way to this camp an Indian had captured a little boy and girl named Boyer from along the river near the old Edward Theker farm, and had carried them away. All search in the vicinity proving vain, and suspicion falling upon some Indians which had passed on their way to Saginaw, a brave and stalwart trapper named Smith, set out alone through the dark woods and over the vast country that intervenes, to rescue the boy and girl. Arriving at the Indian camp he was recognized as a friendly interpreter; after days of dallying and shrewd negotiations, started joyfully for home, with the little waifs, where he arrived in due time to gladden a mother's aching heart and a father's sadness with the sight of the loved ones. The boy Boyer, since grown to be an aged man, lived until quite recently, to our personal knowledge, near Swan Creek ; but to the day of his death the sight of an Indian would appal him and arouse fears which no effort could over- come.

" The little story just related serves to give an idea of the means of travel, and manner of life of our first settlers. There was a period of thirty years of this following of trails and paddling of canoes before the project of the turn-pike was thought of. Those were years of ceaseless watchfulness, of constant alarm, of occasional bloodshed, and daily battle with those privations incident upon frontier life. But they were years of enterprise, of determined effort, and finally of suc- cess in the planting of a flourishing settlement."

THE LOST CHILD.

One of the true characteristics of the Indian in the earlier settlement of the West was the abduction and adoption of white children. We have had to record as a part of the history of the early settlement of each of the counties at least one case of child stealing ; nor does Macomb County lack an incident of the kind. We give the case as detailed by Mrs. Bailey, of Romeo, a short time previous to her death.

On the last day of March, 1828, Alanson Finch, a four-year-old son of Albert

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HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

Finch, one of the pioneers of Washington Township, was stolen by the Indians. The child, together with an elder brother, was returning home from the sugar bush, when one suggested to the other the idea of trying who could reach home first by two separate routes. The elder one said he would go across Mr. Bailey's field, and the younger across that of their father. They started, the distance to the house by either way being but about a quarter of a mile. The elder child reached home safely and was anxiously interrogated by his mother as to the whereabouts of his little bro- ther. He told the circumstances of their separate journeys home, and closed by saying that he had given his brother the shortest way, and anticipated finding him at home. Search was immediately instituted, and after many futile efforts to discover the lost one by his friends and the immediate neighbors, the alarm spread through all the settlements in the County, and the entire male portion of them turned out to a man, and scoured the woods in every direction ; but their charitable intentions and endeavors proved unavailing, and after many days they desisted. The child was never found.

Suspicion rested upon an Indian called Kanobe, who had taken a remarkable interest in the child for many months previous to its disappearance. He would go to Mr. Finch's house, and, taking the child upon his knee, would teach him the In- dian language ere the little one could scarcely prattle the mother tongue. This suspicion was strengthened by the fact that Kanobe left the settlement simulta- neously with the abduction or loss of the child. Returning, however, he solemnly assured Mr. Bailey that neither he nor any of the Indians abducted the child. In later years the skull of a boy was found in the neighborhood, which skull is now in possession of Dr. S. L. Andrews. It corresponds with such an one as would be- long to the lost boy.

Some sixteen years after the child was stolen, a person of about twenty years of age came to Romeo and claimed to be Alanson Finch. He told a very plausible story about having been brought up by an Indian, by whom he was told that he had been stolen in his childhood, etc. But when he came to be identified by the Baileys and others, who had known the missing child, he utterly failed in the most prominent points of his claim. He finally left the place, not without leaving some credulous enough to suppose that he was the genuine Alanson Finch, and not the impostor that he really was. Further than this, the affair is involved in the usual myste- rious surroundings of similar cases. The same maternal sufferings were endured by the fond mother at the loss of her darling; the same heroic endeavors were made to recover the lost one ; and the same surmises were indulged in that have characterized all such instances since the white man first became the antagonist of the treacherous Indian. And thus the 'matter rests until the final moment, when all secrets shall be made known, all mysteries solved. Many are apt to attribute

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IHISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

the abduction to the fact that the Finch boys were supposed to have taken some Indian ponies. In retaliation the Indians are said to have stolen the boy.

THE INDIANS' RAID.

In the year 1812, while Elisha Harrington was occupying what is known as the Harrington farm, the Chippewas made a raid on the settlement. Driving into the village, whooping and flourishing their weapons, the savages dismounted, tying their horses to the trees of the old orchard at Frederick. Of course the Harring- tons fled. The Indians in undisturbed possession gave themselves up to plunder and rapine, feasting and debauchery. They burned down the barns, the fences, and other improvements. The surrender of the traitorous Hull at Detroit to the British and their savage allies suggested this sudden foray. Elated with that vic- tory, in which they claimed an equal share of glory with the British, they moved simultaneously upon all the settlements in the district of Detroit, in precisely the same manner as they did on the old settlement at Frederick. It was a sad time for the American settlers. Added to the humiliation of that disgraceful and infamous and treacherous action of Hull, were the dangers of savage forays. Many families fled to Detroit for safety, and among the number was that of Elisha Harrington, fleeing for protection to the very center of the arch-enemy who prompted the In- dians to take those inhuman measures.

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History of Macomb County, Michigan, Part 21

Author: Leeson, Michael A., [from old catalog] comp Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago, M. A. Leeson & co. Number of Pages: 952

Author: Leeson, Michael A., [from old catalog] comp
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, M. A. Leeson & co.
Number of Pages: 952