History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume I, Part 4

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : C.C. Chapman & Co.
Number of Pages: 962

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About the close of 1762 he called a general conncil of the tribes, sending ont embassadors in all directions, who with the war-belt of wampum and the tomahawk went from village to village and camp to camp, informing the sachems everywhere that war was impend- ing, and delivering to them the message of Pontiac. They all approved the message, and April 27, 1763, a grand conncil was held near Detroit, when Pontiac stood forth in war paint and delivered

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

" the great speech of the campaign." The English were slow to perceive any dangerous conspiracy in progress, and when the blow was struck, nine ont of twelve of the British posts were surprised and destroyed! Three of these were within the bounds of this State.

The first prominent event of the war was tlie

MASSACRE AT FORT MICHILIMACKINAC,

on the northerninost point of the southern peninsula, the site of the present city of Mackinaw. This Indian ontrage was one of the most ingeniously devised and resolutely executed schemes in American history. The Chippewas (or Ojibways) appointed one of their big ball plays in the vicinity of the post, and invited and inveigled as many of the occupants as they could to the scene of play, then fell upon the unsuspecting and unguarded English in the most brutal inanner. For the details of this horrible scene we are indebted to Alexander Henry, a trader at that point, who experienced several most blood-curdling escapes from death and scalping at the hands of the savages. The result of the massacre was the death of about 70 out of 90 persons. The Ottawa Indians, who occupied mainly the eastern portion of the lower peninsula, were not consulted by the Chippewas with reference to attacking Michilimackinac, and were consequently so enraged that they espoused the canse of the English, through spite; and it was through their instrumentality that Mr. Henry and some of his comrades were saved from death and con- veyed east to the regions of civilization.

Of Mr. Henry's narrow escapes we give the following succinct account. Instead of attending the ball play of the Indians he spent the day writing letters to his friends, as a canoe was to leave for the East the following day. While thins engaged, he heard an Indian war cry and a noise of general confusion. Looking out of the win- dow, he saw a crowd of Indians within the fort, that is, within the village palisade, who were cutting down and scalping every English- man they found. He seized a fowling-piece which he had at hand, and waited a moment for the signal, the drum beat to arms. In that dreadful interval he saw several of his countrymen fall under the tomaliawk and struggle between the knees of an Indian who held him in this manner to scalp him while still alive. Mr. Henry heard no signal to arms; and seeing that it was useless to under- take to resist 400 Indians, he thought only of shelter for himself. He saw many of the Canadian inhabitants of the fort calmly look- ing on, neither opposing the Indians nor suffering injury, and he therefore concluded he might find safety in some of their honses. He stealthily ran to one occupied by Mr. Langlade and family, who were at their windows beholding the bloody scene. Mr. L. scarcely dared to harbor him, but a Pawnee slave of the former concealed him in the garret, locked the stairway door and took away the key. In this situation Mr. Henry obtained through an aperture a view

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

of what was going on without. He saw the dead scalped and man- gled, the dying in writhing agony under the insatiate knife and tomahawk, and the savages drinking human blood from the hollow of their joined hands! Mr. Henry almost felt as if lie were a vic- tim himself, so intense were his sufferings. Soon the Indian fiends began to halloo, " All is finished!" At this instant Henry heard some of the Indians enter the house in which he had taken shelter. The garret was separated from the room below by only a layer of single boards, and Mr. Henry heard all that was said. As soon as the Indians entered they inquired whether there were any English- men in the house. Mr. Langlade replied that he could not say; they might examine for themselves. He then conducted them to the garret door. As the door was locked, a moment of time was snatched by Mr. Henry to crawl into a heap of birch-bark vessels in a dark corner; and although several Indians searched around the garret, one of them coming within arın's length of the sweating prisoner, they went out satisfied that no Englishman was there.

As Mr. Henry was passing the succeeding night in this room he could think of no possible chance of escape from the country. He was out of provisions, the nearest post was Detroit, 400 miles away, and the ronte thither lay through the enemy's country. The next morning he heard Indian voices below informing Mr. Langlade that they had not found an Englishman named Henry among the dead, and that they believed him to be somewhere concealed. Mrs. L., believing that the safety of the household depended on giving up the refugee to his pursuers, prevailed on her husband to lead the Indians up stairs, to the room of Mr. H. The latter was saved from instant death by one of the savages adopting hin as a " brother," in the place of one lost. The Indians were all mad with liquor, however, and Mr. H. again very narrowly escaped death. An hour afterward he was taken out of the fort by an Indian indebted to him for goods, and was under the uplifted knife of the savage when he suddenly broke away from him and made back to Mr. Langlade's house, barely escaping the knife of the Indian the whole distance. The next day he, with three other prisoners, were taken in a canoe toward Lake Michigan, and at Fox Point, 18 miles distant, the Ottawas rescued the whites, through spite at the Chippewas, say- ing that the latter contemplated killing and eating them; but the next day they were returned to the Chippewas, as the result of some kind of agreement about the conduct of the war. He was rescued again by an old friendly Indian claiming him as a brother. The next morning he saw the dead bodies of seven whites dragged forth from the prison lodge he had just occupied. The fattest of these dead bodies was actually served up and feasted on, directly before the eyes of Mr. Henry.

Through the partiality of the Ottawas and complications of mili- tary affairs among the Indians, Mr. Henry, after severe exposures and many more thrilling escapes, was finally landed within terri- tory occupied by whites.

GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR.

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

For more than a year after the massacre, Michilimackinac was ocenpied only by wood rangers and Indians; then, after the treaty, Capt. Howard was sent withli troops to take possession.

SIEGE OF DETROIT.

In the spring of 1763 Pontiac determined to take Detroit by an ingenious assault. He had his men file off their guns so that they would be short enough to conceal under their blanket clothing as they entered the fortification. A Canadian woman who went over to their village on the east side of the river to obtain some venison, saw them thus at work on their guns, and suspected they were pre- paring for an attack on the whites. She told her neighbors what she had seen, and one of them informed the commandant, Major Gladwyn, who at first sliglited the advice, but before another day passed he had full knowledge of the plot. There is a legend that a beautiful Chippewa girl, well known to Gladwyn, divulged to him the scheme which the Indians had in view, namely, that the next day Pontiac would come to the fort with 60 of his chiefs, each armed with a gun ent short and hidden under his blanket; that Pontiac would demand a council, deliver a speech, offer a peace-belt of wampum, holding it in a reversed position as the signal for attack; that the chiefs, sitting upon the ground, would then spring up and fire npon the officers, and the Indians out in the streets would next fall upon the garrison, and kill every Englishman, but sparing all the French.

Gladwyn accordingly put the place in a state of defense as well as he could, and arranged for a quiet reception of the Indians and a sudden attack upon them when he should give a signal. At 10 o'clock, May 7, according to the girl's prediction, the Indians came, entered the fort and proceeded with the programine, but with some hesitation, as they saw their plot had been discovered. Pontiac made his speech, professing friendship for the English, etc., and withont giving his signal for attack, sat down, and heard Major Gladwyn's reply, who suffered him and his inen to retire unmo- lested. He probably feared to take them as prisoners, as war was not actually commenced. The next day Pontiac determined to try again, but was refused entrance at the gate nnless he should come in alone. He turned away in a rage, and in a few minutes some of his men commenced the peculiarly Indian work of attacking an innocent honsehold and murdering them, just beyond the range of British guns. Another squad murdered an Englishman on an island at a little distance. " Pontiac did not authorize these pro- ceedings, but retired across the river and ordered preparations to be made for taking the fort by direct assault, the headquarters of the camp to be on "Bloody run" west of the river. Meanwhile the garrison was kept in readiness for any ontbreak. The very next day Pontiac, having received reinforcements from the Chippewas of Saginaw Bay, commenced tlie attack, but was repnlsed; no deaths

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

upon either side. Gladwyn sent embassadors to arrange for peace, but Pontiac, although professing to be willing in a general way to conelude peace, would not agree to any partieular proposition. A number of Canadians visited the fort and warned the commandant to evaenate, as 1,500 or more Indians would storm the place in all lionr; and soon afterward a Canadian eame with a suminons from Pontiae, demanding Gladwyn to surrender the post at onee, and promising that, in ease of compliance, lie and liis inen would be allowed to go on board their vessels unmolested, leaving their arms and effeets behind. To both these advices Major Gladwyn gave a flat refusal.

Only three weeks' provisions were within the fort, and the garri- son was in a deplorable condition. A few Canadians, however, from aeross the river, sent some provisions oeeasionally, by night. Had it not been for this timely assistance, the garrison would doubtless have had to abandon the fort. The Indians themselves soon began to suffer from hunger, as they had not prepared for a long siege; but Pontiae, after some maraudings npon the Freneh settlers liad been made, issued "promises to pay" on bireh bark, with which he pacified the residents. He subsequently redeemed all these notes. About the end of July Capt. Dalzell arrived from Niagara with re-enforcements and provisions, and persuaded Glad- wyn to undertake an aggressive movement against Pontiae. Dalzell was detailed for the purpose of attacking the eamp at Parent's creek, a mile and a lialf away, but being delayed a day, Pontiae learned of his movements and prepared his men to eontest liis marel. On the next morning, July 31, before day-break, Dalzell went out with 250 men, but was repulsed with a loss of 59 killed and wounded, while the Indians lost less than half that number. Parent's ereek was afterward known as " Bloody run."

Shortly afterward, the sehooner "Gladwyn," on its return from Niagara with ammunition and provisions, anchored about nine miles below Detroit for the night, wlien in the darkness about 300 Indiang in canoes came quietly upon the vessel and very nearly sueeeeded in taking it. Slaughter proceeded vigorously until the mate gave orders to his men to blow up the schooner, when the Indians, under- standing the design, fled precipitately, plunging into the water and swimming ashore. This desperate command saved the crew, and the sehooner sueeeeded in reaching the post with the mueh needed supply of provisions.

By this time, September, most of the tribes around Detroit were disposed to sue for peace. A truce being obtained, Gladwyn laid in provisions for the winter, while Pontiae retired with his chiefs to the Maumee country, only to prepare for a resumption of war the next spring. He or his allies the next season carried on a petty warfare until in August, when the garrison, now worn out and redueed, were relieved by fresli troops, Major Bradstreet eom- manding. Pontiae retired to the Maumee again, still to stir up hate against the British. Meanwhile the Indians near Detroit,

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

scarcely comprehending what they were doing, were induced by Bradstreet to declare themselves subjects of Great Britain. An embassy sent to Pontiac induced him also to cease belligerent operations against the British.

In 1769 the great chief and warrior, Pontiac, was killed in Illi- nois by a Kaskaskia Indian, for a barrel of whisky offered by an Englishman named Williamson.

The British at Detroit now changed their policy somewhat, and endeavored to conciliate the Indians, paying them for land and encouraging Frenchi settlements in the vicinity. This encourage- inent was exhibited, in part, in showing some partiality to French customs.

'At this time the fur trade was considerably revived, the princi- pal point of shipment being the Grand Portage of Lake Superior. The charter boundaries of the two companies, the Hudson's Bay and the Northwest, not having been very well defined, the employes of the respective companies often came into conflict. Lord Selkirk, the head of the former company, ended the difficulty by uniting the stock of both companies. An attempt was also made to mine and ship copper, but the project was found too expensive.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

By this important struggle the territory of the present State of Michigan was bnt little affected, the posts of Detroit and Mackinaw being the principal points whence the British operated among the Indians to prejudice them against the " Americans," going so far as to pay a reward for scalps, which the savages of course hesitated not to take from defenseless inhabitants. The expeditions made by the Indians for this purpose were even supported sometimes by the regular troops and local militia. One of these joint expeditions, commanded by Capt. Byrd, set out from Detroit to attack Louis- ville, Ky. It proceeded in boats as far as it could ascend the Maumee, and thence crossed to the Ohio river, on which stream Ruddle's Station was situated, which surrendered at once, without fighting, under the promise of being protected from the Indians; but this promise was broken and all the prisoners massacred.

Another expedition, under Gov. Hamilton, the commandant at Detroit, started out in 1778, and appeared at Vincennes, Ind., with a force of 30 regulars, 50 French volunteers and abont 400 Indians. At this fort the garrison consisted only of Capt. Helm and one soldier, named Henry. Seeing the troops at a distance, they loaded a cannon, which they placed in the open gateway; and Capt. Helm stood by the cannon with a lighted match. When Hamilton with his army approached within hailing distance, Helm called out with a loud voice, " Halt!" This show of resistance made Hamilton stop and demand a surrender of the garrison. "No man," exclaimed Helm, with an oath, " enters here until I know the terms." Ham- ilton replied, " You shall have the honors of war." Helm thereupon

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

surrendered the fort, and the whole garrison, consisting of the two already named (!), marched out and received the customary inarks of respect for their brave defense. Hamilton was soon afterward made to surrender this place to Gen. George Rogers Clark, the ablest American defender in the West. The British soldiers were allowed to return to Detroit; but their commander, who was known to have been active in instigating Indian barbarities, was put in irons and sent to Virginia as a prisoner of war.

The English at Detroit suspected that a certain settlement of pious Moravian missionaries on the Muskingmin river were aiding the American cause, and they called a conference at Niagara and urged the Iroquois to break up the Indian congregation which had collected under these inissionaries; but the Iroquois declined to concern themselves so deeply in white men's quarrels, and sent a message to the Chippewas and Ottawas, requesting them to " make soup " of the Indian congregation on the Muskingum.

These Moravian missionaries caine to Detroit in 1781, before De Peyster, the commandant. A war council was held, and the council- house completely filled with Indians. Capt. Pike, an Indian chief, addressed the assembly and told the commandant that the English might fight the Americans if they chose; it was their cause, not his; that they had raised a quarrel among themselves, and it was their business to fight it out. They had set him on the Americans as the hunter sets his dog upon the game. By the side of the British commander stood another war chief, with a stick in his hand four feet in length, strung with American scalps. This warrior fol- lowed Capt. Pike, saying: " Now, father, here is what has been done with the hatchet you gave me. I have made the use of it you ordered me to do, and found it sharp."

The events just related are specimens of what occurred at and in connection with Detroit from the close of Pontiac's war until a number of years after the establishment of American independence. When the treaty of peace was signed at Versailles in 1783, the British on the frontier reduced their aggressive policy somewhat, but they continued to occupy the lake posts until 1796, on the claim that the lake region was not designed to be included in the treaty by the commissioners, probably on account of their ignorance of the geog- raphy of the region. Meanwhile the Indians extensively organized for depredation upon the Americans, and continued to harass them at every point.

During this period Alex. Mckenzie, an agent of the British gov- ernment, visited Detroit, painted like an Indian, and said that he was just from the upper lakes, and that the tribes in that region were all in arins against any further immigration of Americans, and were ready to attack the infant settlements in Ohio. His state- ments had the desired effect; and, encouraged also by an agent from the Spanish settlements on the Mississippi, the Indians organized a great confederacy against the United States. To put this down, Gen. Harmar was first sent out by the Government, with 1,400 men;

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

but he imprudently divided his army, and he was taken by surprise and defeated by a body of Indians under " Little Turtle." Gen. Arthur St. Clair was next seut out, with 2,000 men, and he suf- fered a like fate. Then Gen. Anthony Wayne was sent West with a still larger army, and on the Manmee he gained an easy victory over the Indians, within a few miles of a British post. He finally concluded a treaty with the Indians at Greenville, which broke up the whole confederacy. The British soon afterward gave up Detroit and Mackinaw.

" It was a considerable time before the Territory of Michigan, now in the possession of the United States, was improved or altered by the increase of settlements. The Canadian French continued to forin the principal part of its population. The interior of the coun- try was but little known, except by the Indians aud the fur traders. The Indian title not being fully extinguished, no lands were brought into market, and consequently the settlements increased but slowly. The State of Michigan at this time constituted simply the county of Wayne in Northwest Territory. It sent one Repre- sentative to the Legislature of that Territory, which was held at Chillicotlie. A court of common pleas was organized for the county, and the General Court of the whole Territory sometimes net at Detroit. No roads had as yet been constructed throngli the interior, nor were there any settlements except on the frontiers. The habits of the people were essentially military, and bnt little attention was paid to agriculture except by the French peasantry. A representation was sent to the General Assembly of the North- west Territory at Chillicothe until 1800, when Indiana was erected into a separate Territory. Two years later Michigan was annexed to Indiana Territory; but in 1805 Michigan separated, and William Hull appointed its first Governor."-Tuttle's Hist. Mich.

The British revived the old prejudices that the Americans intended to drive the Indians out of the country, and the latter, under the lead of Tecumseh and his brother Elkswatawa, " the prophet," organized again on an extensive scale to make war upon the Amer- icans. The great idea of Tecumseh's life was a universal confed- eracy of all the Indian tribes north and southi to resist the invasion of the whites; and his plan was to surprise them at all their posts throughout the country and capture them by the first assault. At this time the entire white population of Michigan was about 4,800, four-fifths of whom were French and the remainder Americans. The settlements were situated on the rivers Miami and Raisin, on the Huron of Lake Erie, on the Ecorse, Rouge and Detroit rivers, on the Huron of St. Clair, on the St. Clair river and Mackinaw island. Besides, there were here and there a group of liuts belonging to the French fur traders. The villages on the Maumee, the Raisin and the Huron of Lake Erie contained a population of about 1,300; the settlements at Detroit and northiward had about 2,200; Mack- inaw about 1,000. Detroit was garrisoned by 94 men and Mack- inaw by 79.

ROKY

HICKOK & GRAFF

TRAPPING.

TECUMSEH.

If one should inquire who has been the greatest Indian, the most noted, the " principal Indian " in North America since its discov- ery by Columbus, we would be obliged to answer, Tecumseh. For all those qualities which elevate a man far above his race; for talent, tact, skill and bravery as a warrior; for high-minded, honorable and chivalrous bearing as a man; in a word, for all those elements of greatness which place him a long way above his fellows in savage life, the name and fame of Tecnmseh will go down to posterity in the West as one of the most celebrated of the aborigines of this continent,-as one who had no equal among the tribes that dwelt in the country drained by the Mississippi. Born to command him- self, he used all the appliances that would stimulate the courage and nerve the valor of his followers. Always in the front rank of battle, his followers blindly followed his lead, and as his war-cry rang clear above the din and noise of the battle-field, the Shawnee warriors, as they rushed on to victory or the grave, rallied around him, foemen worthy of the steel of the most gallant commander that ever entered the lists in defense of his altar or his home.

The tribe to which Tecumseh, or Tecumtha, as some write it, be- longed, was the Shawnee, or Shawanee. The tradition of the nation held that they originally came from the Gulf of Mexico; that they wended their way up the Mississippi and the Ohio, and settled at or near the present site of Shawneetown, Ill., whence they removed to the upper Wabash. In the latter place, at any rate, they were found early in the 18th century, and were known as the " bravest of the brave." This tribe has uniformly been the bitter enemy of the white man, and in every contest with our people has exhibited a degree of skill and strategy that should characterize the most dangerous foe.

Tecumseh's notoriety and that of his brother, the Prophet, mutu- ally served to establish and strengthen each other. While the Prophet had unlimited power, spiritual and temporal, he distributed his greatness in all the departments of Indian life with a kind of fanaticism that magnetically aronsed the religious and superstitious passions, not only of his own followers, but also of all the tribes in

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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

this part of the country; but Tecumseh concentrated his greatness upon the more practical and business affairs of military conquest. It is doubted whether he was really a sincere believer in the preten- sions of his fanatic brother; if he did not believe in the pretentious feature of tliem he had the shrewdness to keep his unbelief to him- self, knowing that religious fanaticism was one of the strongest im- pulses to reckless bravery .

During his sojourn in the North western Territory, it was Tecum- seh's uppermost desire of life to confederate all the Indian tribes of the country together against the whites, to maintain their choice hunting-grounds. All his public policy converged toward this sin- gle end. In his vast scheme he comprised even all the Indians in the Gulf country,-all in America west of the Alleghany moun- tains. He held, as a subordinate principle, that the Great Spirit had given the Indian race all these hunting-grounds to keep in common, and that no Indian or tribe conld cede any portion of the land to the whites without the consent of all the tribes. Hence, in all his councils witli the whites he ever maintained that the treaties were null and void.

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History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume I, Part 4

Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : C.C. Chapman & Co. Number of Pages: 962

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : C.C. Chapman & Co.
Number of Pages: 962