USA > Michigan > Ottawa County > History of Ottawa County, Michigan with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 4
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Their batteaux were gaily painted, were named as fancifully, at least, as are the grander crafts that now float our lakes, usually however, carrying the name of a bird or animal of the woods, or some phenomena of nature. The arrival and departure of these fleets were epochs indeed, unlike any counterpart that our present grander commercial enterprise can furnish. Imagine from ten to thirty of these batteaux in a fleet, the number according to the wealth of each trader and the importance of his locality as a trading post, and (as was the case at Mackinaw, the depot for the entire In- dian trade in those days) from thirty to sixty such fleets starting out some bright morning on their return to the distant posts, in what is now Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, the shores of Lake Su- perior, Rainy Lake, or the Lake of the Woods, or up the Missouri and Mississippi to the several main affluents, and up these streams into the heart of the hunting grounds of the Indians in the several directions. The Stars and Stripes flowing out from each flag-staff on the stern, and some other distinctive sign by flag from the bow of the boat-oars manned by stalwart men who kept even stroke to the song sung by a leader, and all joining in the answering chorus! All this is not soon to be forgotten by any one who has witnessed the sight-and was it not immeasureably more human than the de- parture of our present steamers from port by clanking, wheezy machinery and smoke, and the unearthly, ear-piercing screech of the steam whistle!
The arrival and departure of Mr. Robinson's fleet of batteaux to and from Grand River, once a year, was the grand event to break the monotony of frontier life along the valley from 1821 to 1834.
The Indian trader himself and his family, or his principal clerk and the other members of family or home retinue, did not usually take passage in a batteaux. That was for freight and heavy burden, but their ship was a true outgrowth of the wilderness, a craft of
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HISTORY OF OTTAWA COUNTY.
wholly Indian invention, and which the white man has never been able to improve-a combination, having the qualities of strength without weight, buoyancy with stability, speed with capacity-the bark canoe, or canoe allege. These crafts are from 36 to 40 feet long, about four feet wide and about two and one-half feet deep. The material is birch bark and cedar, the whole fastened or sewed with a peculiar root, and the seams gummed. Not a nail or bit of iron or other metal is used in its construction. So light are they that a man at each end may pick up and carry this canoe with perfect ease, a weight merely of one hundred and fifty pounds, and yet they will carry safely two thousand pounds, not in smooth water only but in any ordinary weather on the lake with a good roll of a sea. Paddles are used for its propulsion, and when manned by its crew of ten men and steersman it will attain a speed of from ten to twelve miles per hour-or much more than that for a short distance. In such crafts as these the lakes were navigated by the earlier ad- venturers, and Governor Cass made his periodical tours in a bark canoe.
Perhaps several days after the departure of the batteaux the trader himself, with his family and personal effects embarked in one of these swift crafts, and with a crew of picked men, expert in its management, would skim over the route to his destination with astonishing speed. This was the passenger steamer, or the fast mail train of those days.
In an old book, published in 1827, we find from the pen of Henry R. Schoolcraft, one of the Indian agents of the time, the following versification.
THE BIRCHEN CANOE.
In the region of lakes where the blue waters sleep, Our beautiful fabric was built; Light cedar supported its weight on the deep, And its sides with the sunbeams were gilt.
The bright leafy bark of the betula tree, A flexible sheathing provides: And the fir's thready roots drew the parts to agree, And bound down its high-swelling sides.
No compass or gavel was used on the bark, No art but the simplest degree;
But the structure was finished, and trim to remark, And as light as a Sylphi's could be.
Its rim was with tender young roots woven round Like a pattern of wicker-work rare;
And it passed on the waves with as lightsome a bound As a basket suspended in air.
The heav'ns in their brightness and glory below Were reflected quite plain to the view; And it moved like a swan-with as graceful a show, Our beautiful birchen canoe.
The trees on the shore as we glided along Seemed moving a contrary way; And our voyagers lightened their toil with a song, That caused every heart to be gay. * * * * *
*
*
Oh, long will we think of those silver bright lakes. And the scenes they exposed to our view; Our friends-and the wishes we formed for their sakes And our bright, yellow, birchen canoe.
Mr. Robinson, the pioneer, was present at the principal treaties (before referred to) with the Indians of the Northwest, and became so proficient in the use of the several Indian languages as to estab- lish a reputation, which by their own statement was that " he could talk Indian better than the Indians could themselves." We cannot refrain from noting here some peculiarities of the Indian languages. There are certain modes of expression and certain words in all the Indian languages that are only used by the women, and other ex- pressions and words only used by the men. In some tribes these
peculiarities are very marked and have a wide scope of exclusiveness, in others more limited.
The Natchez Indians in the South have three separate and distinct languages-one spoken only by the chiefs or rulers, one by the warriors or hunters, and one by the women; each having a lan- guage of their own, entirely unlike in philology or etymology, in- volving a system of education certainly within the family that would seem to us almost impossible to be maintained, and yet it was inviolably perpetuated.
An amusing illustration of this occurred at the treaty of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1835. Rev. Mr. Slater was selected as inter- preter between the government authorities and the Ottawa Indians. He had acquired the Indian language from these Indians, but prin- cipally its vernacular from the women who were inmates of his family and the most devoted and exemplary members of his mission church. He had translated into the Indian several books for school use and portions of the gospels and the psalms or hymns for re- ligious exercises. He was deemed quite a linguist of that kind.
When the Indian agent had given his talk to the assembled council of Indian dignitaries, Mr. Slater addressed himself to them by putting into Indian the speech of the Government official. No reply was made to it by the Indians-they listened patiently and that was all. This unaccountable and provoking silence was at last broken by one of the lesser chiefs in rank, who said: " If you came here to talk with men why don't you use the tongue of a man, and not speak to us the ' words of a woman?'" Mr. Slater, to his great mortification, had to " step down and out," and another interpreter had to be selected before the treaty could be again attempted, whose knowledge of the Indian language had developed a proper discrim- ination between the perquisites in words pertaining to each sex.
Another peculiarity of Indian languages is that nothing of the nature of profanity can find expression in their vernacular. What- ever of this phase of speech the Indian has occasion to use, he must do it in English, French or Spanish. In their intercourse with the whites they might in truth say as did Caliban to Prospero:
"You taught me your language; and my profit on't Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you For learning me your language."
Many an incident of Rix Robinson's experience could be repeated, as related by him, of his wonderful life not only among the Indians of the Northwest, but with those of Michigan and Ottawa County. The part he has taken in the development of busi- ness projects with varying results, of more or less prominence, will be referred to in this continuous sketch, as we bring down our history to the present. In 1875, at his home in Ada, Kent County, his eventful life ended. Through a long life he maintained a front rank in the history of this State. A man of unswerving, sterling integrity, with a wonderfully magnetic control of those with whom he moved, he was an honored and esteemed representative of that enterprising class of men who, more than sixty years ago, dared all to open the way for civilization in the Northwest; leaving a home where refinement and education had smoothed the way to a life of comparative freedom from toil and privation, for the burdens, the dangers and excitements, the novelties and uncertainties attendant upon a life on the frontier.
To his control of the savage tribes that occupied this portion of Michigan, is mainly attributable the welcome they gave the early settlers, whose encroachments and occupancy so surely augured their own removal and ultimate extinction. The same wealth of mind and purity of private life that distinguished him above the mass of what were then termed "traders," gave him prominence as civilization passed along westward. His name stands one of the foremost of those who have occupied positions of trust and honor in
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HISTORY OF OTTAWA COUNTY.
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our State. With inflexible truth and honor as the groundwork of his character, he fulfilled nobly every demand upon his manhood, and died as he had lived, "without fear and without reproach."
LOUIS CAMPAU
was the second pioneer, and led an eventful life, affectionately saluted and known as "Uncle Louis." He was of French descent, born at Detroit August 11th, 1791. At eight years of age he was taken in charge by his uncle, and for seven years he was a sort of under-servant, going but little to school. The only effect of his school education was to enable him to read the French language, and he was, as to scholarship, simply an illiterate man. His active life was mostly spent as an Indian trader, or as a man of business beyond the frontiers of civilization. Until 1812 he was the right- hand man of his uncle, and was one of the soldiers surrendered by Hull. After the war he was hired by a company of Detroit mer- chants to dispose of the remnants of their goods to the Indians on the Saginaw River. He soon commenced to trade on his own account, and stayed with varying success until the spring of 1826.
In November, 1826, he came to Flat River with goods, and was engaged in buying furs. He left two of his men behind, and, with the rest, pushed on to the Indian village at Grand Rapids, on the west of the river, and soon had a profitable traffic.
In 1827 he came back with his family and more goods, and built three log huts, remaining with none but his dependents and Indians until 1832, when the first emigrant, Luther Lincoln came in. He planted a village on "Campau Flat," and the speculative era found him a rich man, doing a large business, president of a bank, &c., the collapse that followed found him struggling to save a little. He afterward did a small business, lived a life of gentlemanly independence by selling off lots, and when his resources failed, his friends saw that he never felt poverty.
He was twice married, his first wife dying at Saginaw, his second, a lady of rare excellence, died in 1869, and he followed April 13th, 1871. He was a tall, fine-looking man, walking lame from an injury in his youth. He was a man of benevolent heart, inclined to be somewhat visionary in the management of his own affairs.
As early as 1830 the white settlements had approached Kala- mazoo, and in 1831-2 the settlers on Gull Prairie were reported to be prospering. On the double Indian trail from the southern part of the State, through Kalamazoo and Barry Counties, many of the early settlers came to the Grand River Valley. In 1832 the first American settlers of Grand Rapids left Detroit, numbering seventy persons, coming through the wilderness by way of Pontiac, from which point they cut their own road, camping out seventeen nights. A portion stopped at Owosso, others at Ionia, only three pushing on that season to the Rapids; from Ionia they came down in batteaux. Among them were the Dexters, Dr. Lincoln, Darius Winsor-whose two sons, Zenas G. and Jacob, are well known in Grand Haven. The latter died in 1874, and the former is still hale and hearty, the oldest living pioneer of the Haven, having come as a clerk to Rix Robinson in 1833. Joel Guild was also a member of the "Dexter Colony," and built the first frame dwelling in the Rapids, known as the "tavern."
Among the early missionary pioneers was the Rev. Gabriel Richards, who arrived as a priest to the Grand River Indians in 1799. He was born in France in 1764, inaugurated the first news- paper in Michigan in 1809, elected in 1823 member of Congress from Michigan, and died in 1832.
Rev. Isaac McCoy visited the Indians of the valley in 1832, and succeeded in arranging for starting the Indian Government Mission.
Richard Godfroy, now in Muskegon with his daughter, Mrs. Sarsfield, the-first white child born at Grand Rapids, arrived in the valley in 1832.
Hiram Jenison arrived in 1833, making Grandville at first his home, and then crossing the river into Jenisonville, in George- town.
Martin Ryerson came to Grand Rapids in 1834, and thence in 1886 became a pioneer of Muskegon.
A most remarkable exodus was that of the relatives of Rix Robinson, forty-four in number, who emigrated from New York State in 1835, by way of Detroit, Mackinaw and Grand Haven. They settled at first in the town of Robinson, and afterwards scat- tered from Blendon to Lowell along the river.
The early settlement of Grand Haven will be given at length under its proper heading.
Silas G. Harris came the same time as Mr. Griffin, and took a pre-emption claim in the eastern part of the County. Both he and his brother, Captain Harris, have been members of the State Legis- lature.
Nathan Troop was one of the pioneers, and an active partici- pant in the earliest affairs of the village and county. The first elec- tion in the county was held at his house.
Capt. William Kanouse came from Toledo in the steamer Don Quixote, in 1837, and was wrecked at Thunder Bay. He crossed the State on foot, and arriving at Grand Rapids, was put in charge of the steamer Gov. Mason, built to ply between Grand Haven and Grand Rapids. He was intimately associated with the history and advancement of the county.
Miss Mary White was the first school teacher in the county, and many of the settlers of Grand Haven owe her a debt of gratitude for the start in learning she gave them.
In the south part of the county settlement scarcely began at all for ten years after its inauguration upon that great natural highway, Grand River, and it is not until the Rev. Van Raalte and his com- peers, Dominies Yipma and Van Der Meuler, with their followers, landed in 1847, that anything of importance was done.
But it would be impossible for us to name, much less do justice here to the memory of these pioneers, to whose self-sacrifice and in- domitable spirit the present generation are indebted for so many of the comforts of civilized life now enjoyed. The names of a few of them will appear in their appropriate place in connection with the several townships.
EARLY REMINISCENCES.
Among the early pioneers of Ottawa County, there are few who have had a better opportunity of knowing that whereof they speak, or who have a more vivid recollection of the facts, than ex-Sheriff Henry Griffin, of Grand Haven.
He says he arrived first in August, 1837, returning for his fam- ily in the October following. He visited Scranton, now Eastman- ville, where Dr. Scranton had taken up a pre-emption a mile long, and next to Capt. Harry Miller's farm, now the County Poor Farm.
Two miles down the river was Warren City (a city on paper only,) which aspired to be the county seat. Benjamin Hopkins was the first settler at Scranton, coming in February, 1837, and there was then a row of shingle shanties from the Rapids to the Haven, es- pecially below Grandville. In winter, parties went on the ice with a load of shingles to sell at the Haven and get pork, flour or whiskey in exchange. In summer they came in "pole" boats. "Yankee" Lewis had a forwarding warehouse at the "lower diggings" at Grand
0
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HISTORY OF OTTAWA COUNTY.
Haven, and had two of these pole boats, constantly engaged in pick- ing up shingles and cordwood, which he disposed of to vessels which came about once a month to the mouth of the river.
The "Owashtenong," a flat- bottomed freight boat, commanded by Capt. Tom White, called the "Poor House," was not a very staunch craft. It was afterwards burned with the old Grand Haven company's mill.
The steamer "Humming Bird" was blown up Aug. 30, 1854. The "Olive Branch," plying between the Rapids and the Haven, was grounded at the latter place and became a wreck.
The "Governor Mason" was the first steamer to ply regularly on the river, and Mr. Griffin was on at the first trip in 1837, Silas Hop- kins being also on board. It was built by the Godfroys. She, was run at a loss for several years and burned at the Haven.
The first pole boat on the river was the "Young Napoleon" built by Lyman Gray for Louis Campau in 1836.
The "Cinderella" was launched at Grandville in June, 1837. The "Algoma," rented by Henry Williams, ran on the river un- der Capt. Rose, a slow running boat, used generally for towing.
The first Grand Haven company started in 1835, the firm were Rix Robinson, Luke White and Dr. Williams. The store was on the river bank at the foot of Franklin street. The Ferry family had a log house near where the Kirby House stands. Dr. Eastman's of- fice was opposite. The only frame building then was the old school house which still stands next to Sprik's livery stable on Third street. It was the place for all public purposes, church and school. Miss Mary White was the first teacher for several years. The first funer- al was that of a mail carrier, a French half-breed, who was solemnly laid away in the Washington street cemetery, then out in the forest, now next to the court house. The Gilberts were then in the Haven, and Frank was a clerk to the company.
There was another Grand Haven company, formed to buy pine lands, erect mills, &c. Rix Robinson had sold Robert Stuart half of his pre-emption, and the latter had placed certain funds in the hands of the Rev. W. M. Ferry, who associated with him his broth- er-in-law, Nathan H. White, who both came on from Detroit by land, arriving at the Haven Sept. 15, 1834, in a canoe and accompanied by the Rev. L. Slater, of the Indian mission. There they found Rix Robinson, Zenas G. Winsor, being his clerk; and Louis Campau had a Frenchman as agent at the lower diggings on the left side of the river near the mouth.
The Grand Haven company built the first mill in 1838, but it never ran, the foundation being insufficient; and the machinery, on the dissolution of the company, which did not prove a financial suc- cess, was purchased by Ferry and put in his Ferrysburg mill in 1841. A mill had been built by the company at Grandville, and was put in the charge of N. H. White. The company lost 200,000 feet of lumber, which escaped into the lake from unskilful handling. The lumber for twelve years after this was brought down in rafts.
Dr. Williams did not remain long, being attacked by the mala- ria, and he soon died. He and Dr. Eastman were the first physi- cians in the county. Luke White died in New York, and thus N. H. White, Rev. Mr. Ferry and Rix Robinson were the only mem- bers of the company left, and in 1846 they settled by arbitration to the satisfaction of all. The award when filed with Mr. Griffin, as county clerk, covered quires of papers, and was made by "Deacon" Brown, a lawyer of Chicago. He took a whole year to decide but did it well. H. C. Akeley in 1866 bought for $13,000 most of the outside village lots which were allotted to Mr. Ferry, and has done well in disposing of them.
Tom Gilbert was a partner with his brother Frank in mercan- tile business, and they were very early business men. They ran pole boats for several years.
When Ottawa County was organized it embraced the region north as far as Grand Traverse. In 1844 Sheriff Griffin's jurisdic- tion extended to Mackinaw. Judge Whipple, of Detroit, was the first circuit judge and acted for several terms. Judge "Epaphrodi- tus" Ransom, of Kalamazoo, was his successor, and at the same time Dr. Timothy Eastman was county judge. The legislature in 1846-7 abolished for a time county courts. Mr. Griffin moved to Grand Haven in 1837, dealing in drugs, groceries, and also in lumber.
Dr. Eastman published the second newspaper in the county, Messrs. Barns and Angell publishing the first in July, 1851, the Grand River Times. Dr. Eastman was a man of great ability, was a physician, county surveyor, judge, and in 1850, representative. He died in Chicago. He was a warm friend of the Indians.
In 1847 Dominie Van Raalte came from Holland, and took Griffin down to naturalize the Holland colonists. On Saturday the latter walked 22 miles, and on Sunday listened to a sermon from Van Raalte, who at the close asked his hearers to go the next day to Binnekant's tavern and become citizens. After spending three days there Griffin went to Zeeland and thence to Jamestown, swearing in 306, of whom, to their credit be it said, only 6 could not sign their own names. He then took a pocket compass, and went 15 miles through the woods to Grandville, and thence came home by steamer, with $80 as his week's wages.
It is a singular fact that "Owashtenong" or Grand River is not mentioned by the early Jesuit explorers.
One of Rix Robinson's trading posts was situated in Mr. Grif- fin's lot, corner of 4th and Franklin Streets, which was torn down a few years ago. There one could dig up the bones of deer buried near the house where Rix and his Indian family lived.
The first newspaper was published in Griffin's building, where was the office of the county clerk, Hoyt G. Post; that of the regis- ter, Mr. Angell; also that of Sheriff, George Norton.
As showing the security and confidence in which people lived in the early times, Mr. Griffin relates that when he visited Holland in 1847, Mr. Post had a drawerful of ten guilder gold pieces, and when asked if he was not afraid he would be robbed, he laughed at the idea. People then seldom locked their doors.
Instead of as now travelling by first-class railroads, the mode of travelling along the river was by snow-shoes on Indian trails, on skates on the ice, or in summer at first in a canoe, and later by pole boats.
One of the early steamboat captains was Captain Sibley, of whom a good story is told. He was known to be manly and ac- commodating, and a settler once took advantage of it, waving his hat violently on the bank for the boat to stop. The captain, although he saw no freight, rang the bell and stopped the boat. "I say, cap- tain, I want you to bring me to-morrow a plug of tobacco and a box of matches." "All right," said the captain, rang the bell and was off again.
To illustrate the hardships of the early pioneers we cannot do better than let Mr. Griffin speak in his own words:
"Two families, first settlers at Eastmanville, were out of bread- stuff in January, 1838. Accompanied by J. V. Hopkins (since de- ceased) I started on foot for Grandville, twenty miles up the river, to purchase a little wheat and corn; arrived there, and were informed that the only place to get it was at Howlett's farm. We purchased a load, got it to Ketchum's mill, with the promise of having it ground in a week. On our return home we were overtaken by a tremendous storm. Crossing on the ice was very difficult, but it was accom- plished by having two broad boards and pushing one ahead of the other, and thus by creeping over, the unsafe ice bridge was passed. The storm increased and having no roads or marked trees we got lost in the wilderness between Grandville and Sand Creek. After
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HISTORY OF OTTAWA COUNTY.
wandering all day we fortunately found Sand Creek, following down which to Talmadge post-office led us to the house of the post-master, Father Bethuel Church, whose hospitality was proverbial. This was ten miles and half way home for that day's work. The third day we reached home, and after waiting three days more, prepared an ox team, took our axes to clear the way, and with a lunch of good sandwiches, set out for Grandville for our grist. Two days more and our team was at Grandville, but on the wrong side of the river; no bridge, and the ice still precarious. But in the emergency, with de- termination and pluck, we got the grist over, and started for home on the tenth day from the first movement to get these supplies -- only twenty miles off."
There were a number of additions to the settlers of the county during 1835; Mr. J. V. Hopkins arrived at Scranton, and John Simons and John Crockmore located at the same point about the same time. In 1836 larger additions were made to the infant colony.
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