USA > Michigan > Saginaw County > History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II > Part 10
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
The Second Treaty of Saginaw
In 1836 Henry R. Schoolcraft, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, drafted for the government a second treaty which was presented before an Indian council the same year. The friendliness and spirit of gratitude of the Indians, to those white settlers who were kind and generous to them, is well illustrated by an incident in connection with the making of this treaty. James McCormick, who was then settled among the bands on the Indian fields, received from his aboriginal neighbors a tract of six hundred and forty acres of land in recognition of his kindness to them during the prevalence of the small-pox epidemic. This valuable grant had gone into the possession of McCormick ; but in the treaty presented by Schoolcraft there was no men- tion made of it. One of the Indian counselors demanded why this important item was omitted, merely gaining the laconic answer: "It can't be done." "Very well," said the Indian orator, "we will not sell our lands unless our white brother is provided for. We will not sign the treaty." The assembled Indians thereupon dispersed and the Commissioner was left to ponder over a new phase of the nature of the savage, in the deserted wigwam.
In January of the following year the Commissioner invited the Indian counselors to meet him at Detroit, and on the fourteenth of that month they assembled in council. Schoolcraft then assured them that the treaty papers as presented contained full provision that McCormick would be continued as lessee of the lands in question. With this assurance on the honor of an officer of the United States Government, the children of the forest deeded away their hunting grounds, and also, as a few years proved, their muni- ficent gift to their "white brother." The Commissioner never inserted an article guaranteeing the title of the land to McCormick, and as a result he was evicted from a home and farm which he had improved, which he well merited, and which was endeared to him by many associations. By this treaty the Indians ceded to the United States all the reservations mentioned in the first treaty of 1819.
This treaty provided for the sale of these lands, and the sum so derived after deducting the expenses of survey and treaty, was to be invested under direction of the President, in some public stock and the interest thereof to be paid annually to the Indians. Certain sums were also set apart for the payment of their valid debts, and for depredations committed after the sur- render of Detroit, in 1812. The Indians agreed to remove from Michigan to some point west of Lake Superior, or locate west of the Mississippi and southwest of the Missouri, to be decided by Congress. A supplementary article provided for the erection of a lighthouse on the Na-bo-bish tract of land, lying at the mouth of the Saginaw River; and a subsequent article to this treaty, concluded at Saginaw, changed the location of the lighthouse to the forty thousand-acre tract of land, on the west side of the river.
The Treaty of 1838
A treaty was concluded at Saginaw. January 23, 1838, with the several bands of the Chippewa nation, comprehended within the districts of Sagi- naw, in which the chiefs represented, that at the sale of lands for their use a combination was formed and the prices per acre greatly reduced. The treaty then provided that all lands brought into market under the authority of the previous treaty, of January 14, 1837, should be sold to the register and receiver for two years from date of commencement of sale. at $5 per acre, which sum was declared the minimum price; provided. that should any portion of said lands remain unsold at the expiration of the two years, the
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THE TREATY OF SAGINAW
minimum price was to be reduced to $2.50 per acre, at which price the remaining lands were to be disposed of; and after five years from date of ratification of the treaty, if any lands then remained, they were to be sold for the sum they would command, but none less than seventy-five cents per acre.
The Treaty of 1855
On August 2, 1855, a treaty was concluded at Detroit, between George W. Manypenny and Henry C. Gilbert, Commissioners on the part of the United States, and the Chippewa Indians of Saginaw, Swan Creek and Black River, in which the United States agreed to withdraw from sale six adjoining townships of land in Isabella County, and townships 17 and 18 north, ranges 3, 4 and 5 east : agreed to pay the Chippewas the sum of $220,000, to be used for education, agriculture, building material: to build a saw mill at some suitable water-power in Isabella County, at a cost of not exceeding $8,000; to test the claims and pay the just indebtedness of said tribe of Chippewas; to provide an interpreter for said Indians for five years and longer if neces- sary : and said Chippewas ceded to the United States all lands in Michigan heretofore owned by them as reservations; and that the grants and pay- ments provided in this treaty were in lieu and satisfaction of all claims legal and equitable on the part of said Indians, jointly and severally against the United States, for land, money, or other thing guaranteed to said tribes or either of them, by the stipulation of any former treaty or treaties; the entries of land made by the Indians and by the Missionary Society of the M. E. Church for the benefit of the Indians, in townships 14 north and 4 east, and 10 north and 5 east, were confirmed and patents issued.
MORASS IN THE WILDERNESS
Typical of the Saginaw Valley in the Early Days of its Settlement
CHAPTER V THE COMING OF DE TOCQUEVILLE or "A Fortnight in the Wilderness"
Voyage across Lake Erie to Detron - Follow Trail to Pontiac - Pioneer Life in the Wilderness - Taking Trail toward the North - Encounter with Indian - Lost at Night in Forest - They Reach Flint River - Penetrate the Virgin Forest - Hard- ships of the Journey - Arrival at Saginaw River - Picture of Early Saginaw - They Shoot Wild Ducks - Return to Civilization.
A LEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, a distinguished French statesman and traveller, who explored much of this western country in 1831, was probably the first European to penetrate the wilderness of the Saginaw. In his memoirs, which were translated and published in London thirty years after, he states that he was most curious to visit the extreme limits of civilization, and even some of the Indian tribes which had preferred flying to the wildest depths of the forest, to accommodating them- selves to what the white man calls the enjoyments of social life. With this object he traversed places celebrated in Indian history, he reached valleys named by them, he crossed streams still called by the names of their tribes ; but everywhere the wigwam had given way to the log hut, and the log hut to the house - the forest had fallen. Where there had been solitude there was now life; still he seemed to be treading in the steps of the aborigines.
With a trusty companion, named Beaumont, he set forth from Buffalo on the steamboat Ohio at 10 A. M. on July 19, enroute to Detroit, a strong northeast breeze giving to the waters of Lake Erie the appearance of ocean waves. After skirting the southern shore of the lake and touching at Erie, they bore straight across the expanse of fresh waters to the mouth of the Detroit : and in the afternoon of the following day arrived, without unusual incident, at the town of that name.
Detroit at that time was a town of from two to three thousand inhabi- tants, occupying a site cut out of the forest, and contained many French families. Although the settlement was on the frontier of civilization, it had already assumed the life and customs of the east. Almost everything could be found, even French fashions and caricatures from Paris; and the shops seemed as well supplied with goods as those of New York. The looms of Lyons worked for both alike.
"Where you see that church, vonder," some one said, "I cut down the first tree in the forest hereabout." "Here." said another. "was a scene of the conspiracy of Pontiac and of Hull's surrender. But the Indians have gone beyond the Great Lakes, the race is becoming extinct: they are not made for civilization - it kills them." Other settlers, sitting quietly by their fire- sides, said : "Every day the number of Indians is diminishing: it is not that we often make war upon them, but the brandy we sell to them at a low price carries off every year more than our arms could destroy. God, by refusing to these first inhabitants the power of civilization, has predestined them to destruction. The true owners of the continent are those who know how to turn its resources to account."
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THIE COMING OF DE TOCQUEVILLE
This only whetted the curiosity of the adventurous De Tocqueville, to satisfy which he must cross almost impenetrable forests, swim deep rivers. encounter pestilential marshes, sleep exposed to damp air in the woods, and perhaps encounter wild beasts. To subject oneself to such hardships if a dollar is to be gained, the early pioneers conceived worth while: but that a man should take such a journey for the mere satisfaction of curiosity, they could not understand. That the travellers should admire huge trees, or wild scenery, was to them incomprehensible.
Upon inquiry of Major Biddle, the United States agent for the sale of wild lands, they were informed that the country beyond was covered by an almost impenetrable forest, which extended uninterrupted toward the North- west, full of Indians and wild beasts. The government was opening a way through, he said, but the road stopped at Pontiac; and they must not think of fixing themselves further off. On the contrary, the travellers were over- joyed at the prospect of finding a place which the torrent of civilization had not yet invaded.
Follow Trail to Pontiac
On the twenty-third of July, therefore, they hired two horses, bought a compass and some provisions, and set forth with guns over their shoulders to make their way to the settlement on the far distant Saginaw. A mile from the town the road entered the forest and never left it. They observed that the ground was perfectly flat and often marshy. Now and then they came upon newly-cleared lands, the approach to which was usually announced by the sound of a little bell hung around the neck of cattle, and a few minutes later by the strokes of an axe. As they proceeded, traces of destruction proved the presence of man ; lopped branches covered the path, and trunks half calcined by fire, or slashed by steel, still stood in the way. A little further on the woods seemed struck with sudden death, and in midsummer the branches looked wintry. This was a settler's first measure to prevent the thick foliage overshadowing the Indian corn, which he had planted under the branches.
Next they came upon the settler's hut standing in a plat more carefully cleared than the rest, but in which he sustained an unequal struggle with nature. Like the littered field around it, thus rustic dwelling bore evidences of new and hasty work. Its dimensions were about twenty by thirty feet, and fifteen feet high, with its walls and roof composed of half-hewn logs, the interstices being filled with moss and mud. At the sound of their footsteps a group of children, who had been playing in the dirt, jumped up hastily and fled beneath the paternal roof: whilst two half-wild dogs came out of the hut, and growling, covered the retreat of their young masters. The pioneer himself then appeared, called off his savage dogs, and stepped forward to meet his visitors, holding out his hand in compliance with custom; but his countenance expressed neither kindness nor joy. He spoke only to question them, to gratify his curiosity. Hospitality to him was one of the painful necessities of the wildnerness, a duty of his position.
Pioneer Life in the Wilderness
Within the log hut they noticed a single window, before which hung a muslin curtain, while on the hearth, made of hardened earth, a fire of resinous wood lighted up the interior better than the sun. Over the rustic chimney hung trophies of war or of the chase, a long rifle, a doeskin, and eagles' feathers. On a rough shelf were a few old books, including a bible and Milton's poems. Beneath this in a darkened corner were rude bunks. chests for use instead of wardrobes, and some rustic seats, all the product of
HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
the owner's industry. In the middle of the room was an unsteady table, with its legs still covered with leaves, upon which were an English china tea pot, spoons of pewter and wood, a few cracked cups, and some newspapers.
"The pioneer." wrote De Tocqueville, "despises all that most violently agitates the hearts of man: his fortune or his life will never hang on the turn of a die, or the smiles of a woman; but to obtain competence he has braved exile, solitude, and the numberless ills of savage life, he has slept on the bare ground, he has exposed himself to the fever of the woods and the Indians' tomahawk. Many years ago he took the first step. He has never gone back ; perhaps twenty years hence he will be still going on without desponding or complaining. Can a man capable of such sacrifices be cold and insensible? Is he not influenced by a passion, not of the heart but of the brain, ardent, perserving, and indomitable?
"His whole energies are concentrated in the desire to make a fortune, and he at length succeeds in making for himself an entirely independent existence, into which even the domestic affections are absorbed. He may be said to look upon his wife and children only as detached parts of himself. Deprived of human intercourse with his equals, he has learned to take pleasure in solitude.
"Look at the young woman who is sitting on the other side of the fire, preparing the supper. This woman is in the prime of life ; she also recollects an early youth of comfort. The remains of taste are still to be observed in her dress. But time has pressed heavily upon her ; in her faded features and attenuated limbs it is easy to see that life to her has been a heavy burden. And, indeed, this fragile creature has already been exposed to incredible suffering. To devote herself to austere duties, to submit to unknown priva- tions, to enter upon an existence for which she was not fitted - such has been the employment of her best years, such have been the delights of her married life. Destitution, suffering, and fatigue have weakened her delicate frame, but have not dismayed her courage.
"Round this woman crowd the half-clothed children, glowing with health, careless of the morrow, true children of the wilderness. The log hut shelters this family at night : it is a little world, an ark of civilization in the midst of a green ocean. A few steps off the everlasting forest extends its shades, and solitude again reigns."
Continuing their journey the travellers reached Pontiac at sunset, and found there about twenty "very neat and pretty houses, forming so many well provided shops, a transparent brook, a clearing about a square half-mile in extent surrounded by the boundless forest." They were taken to the inn and introduced into the bar room, where all assembled to smoke, think, and talk politics on a footing of the most perfect equality. The owner was a very stout gentleman, "whose face had about as much frankness and sim- plicity as that of a Norman horse dealer." For fear of intimidating them he never looked them in the face when he spoke, but waited until they were engaged in talking with someone else, to consider them at his leisure. They were looked upon with surprise and interest, as their travelling dress and guns proved that they were not traders; and travelling for curiosity was a thing never heard of.
De Tocqueville told the landlord that they came to the region to buy land : thereupon they were at once taken into another room, a large candle lighted, and a map of Michigan spread before them.
"This country is not like France," said the host. "with you labor is cheap and land is dear. Here the price of land is nothing, but hands cannot be bought. One must have capital to settle here, only it must be differently
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THE COMING OF DE TOCQUEVILLE
employed. An acre in Michigan never costs more than four or five shillings, when the land is waste. This is about the price of a day's work. In one day, therefore, a laborer may earn enough to purchase an acre of land, but once the purchase is made the difficulty begins. The settler betakes him- self to his newly acquired property, with some cattle, a salted pig, two barrels of meal, and some tea. He pitches his tent in the middle of the wood which is to be his fieldl. His first care is to cut down the nearest trees; with them he quickly builds a rude log hut. The keep of the cattle costs nothing, as they brouse in the forest, not often straying far from the dwelling.
"The greatest expense," he contimied, is in the clearing which costs four or five dollars an acre; but the ground once prepared the settler lays out an acre in potatoes and the rest in wheat and maize. The latter is a providential gift of the wilderness: it grows in our marshes, and flourishes under the shade of the forest better than when exposed to the rays of the sun. Maize saves the settlers' family from perishing, when poverty, sickness, or neglect has hindered his reclaiming sufficient land in the first year. The great diffi- culty is to get over the first years which immediately succeed the first clear- ing. Afterward comes competence, and later wealth.
"Cultivation, at first, of the soil of the forest is always a dangerous undertaking, and there is scarcely an instance of a pioneer and his family escaping the forest fever during the first year. Sometimes all the occupants of a hut will be attacked by it, who resign themselves and hope for better times. There is little prospect of help from neighbors many miles away, and the nearest doctor may be fifty or sixty miles off. They do as the Indians do, they die or get well, as it pleases God.
"In the wilderness men are seized with a hunger for religion. Almost every summer some Methodist preacher comes to visit the new settlements. News of his arrival spreads, and on the day of meeting the settlers and families flock from fifty miles around towards the place. They meet in the open air under the arches of the forest trees, rough logs serving as seats in the rustic temple. The pioneers camp close by for three or four days, and scarcely intermit their devotional exercises."
After receiving some other valuable information, the travellers thanked the landlord for his counsels, and assured him that someday they would profit by them, adding. "Before leaving your country we intend to visit Saginaw. and we wish to consult you on that point."
At the name of Saginaw a remarkable change came over the features of their host. It seemed as if he had been suddenly snatched from real life and transported to a land of wonders. His eyes dilated, his mouth fell, and the most complete astonishment pervaded his countenance.
"You want to go to Saginaw," he exclaimed: "to Saginaw Bay! Two foreign gentlemen, two rational men want to go to Saginaw Bay! It is scarcely credible."
"But why not?" they asked.
"Are you aware," continued their host, "what you undertake? Do you know that Saginaw is the last inhabited spot towards the Pacific, that be- tween this place and Saginaw lies an uncleared wilderness? Do you know that the forest is full of Indians and mosquitoes, that you must sleep at least one night under the damp trees? Have you thought about the fever? Will you be able to get on in the wilderness and to find your way in the labyrinth of our forests?"
"All that may be true," replied the travellers, "but we start tomorrow for Saginaw." By the way," they resumed, "have you never been there?"
"Yes," he replied, "] have been so unlucky as to go there five or six times, but I had a motive in going, and you do not appear to have any."
V
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
They vouchsafed no explanation to this observation, whereupon the landlord took a candle, showed them a bed room, and left them after giving each a truly democratic shake of the band.
Taking the Trail Toward the North
At dawn the next day they arose and made ready for the start, their host lending his aid and often reflecting in an undertone: "1 do not well make out what can take two strangers to Saginaw." Until at last De Tocqueville said to him, "we have many reasons for going thither, my dear landlord," and with a wave of the hand they trotted off as fast as they could.
Among the directions given them they had been advised to apply to a settler, named Oliver Williams, as he had long dealt with the Chippewa Indians, and had a son established in Saginaw. (This early pioneer was a great-grandfather of A. B. Williams, a resident of the West Side. ) After riding some miles in the forest, they saw an old man working in a little garden. They spoke to him and found that he was the person they sought. Ile received them with much kindness, and gave them a letter to his son. They asked him if they had anything to fear from the Indians. "No, no," he replied, "you may proceed without fear. For my part, I sleep more fear- lessly among Indians than among white persons."
After leaving Mr. Williams they pursued their way through the woods; from time to time a little lake shone like a white table cloth under green branches. "The charm of these lonely spots," wrote De Tocqueville, "as vet untenanted by man, and where peace and silence reign undisturbed, can hardly be imagined. The solitude is deep, but the feelings produced are tranquil admiration. a soft melancholy, a vague aversion to civilized life, and a sort of savage instinct which causes one to regret that soon this enchant- ing solitude will be no more. Already, indeed, the white man is approaching through the surrounding woods, and in a few years he will have felled the trees now reflected in the limpid waters of the lake, and will have driven to other wilds the animals that feed on its banks."
Encounter With Indian
Still travelling on they at length reached a country of a different aspect. The ground was no longer fat, but thrown into hills and valleys. They noted with delight the rough grandeur of some of these hills, and in one of the picturesque passes they saw close to them, and apparently following step by step, an Indian warrior. He was about thirty years of age, tall and admirably proportioned. His black and shining hair fell down upon his shoulders, and his face was smeared with black and red paint. lle wore a sort of very short blue blouse, and his legs were covered with a loose pantaloon reaching only to the top of the thigh ; and his feet were encased with mocassins. At his side hung a knife, and in his right hand he held a long rifle, while in his left were two birds that he had just killed.
To seize their guns, turn around and face the Indian in the path, was the movement of an instant. He halted in the same manner, and for half a minute all were silent. They could see that in the deep black eyes of the savage gleamed the fierce nature of his tribes. His nose was acquiline slightly depressed at the end, his cheek bones were very high, and his wide mouth showed two rows of dazzling white teeth, proving that the savage, more cleanly than the American, did not pass his day chewing tobacco leaves. He stood their scrutiny with perfect calmness and with steady and unflinching eye. When he saw that the travellers had no hostile intentions, he smiled, probably because he perceived that they had been alarmed. They then addressed him in English and offered him brandy, which he readily
THE COMING OF DE TOCQUEVILLE
accepted without thanking them. Making signs they asked him for the birds which he carried ; and he gave them for a little piece of money. They soon bid him adieu and trotted off.
"At the end of half an hour," continued the narrative, "of rapid riding. on turning round, once more 1 was astounded by seeing the Indian still at my horse's heels. Ile ran with the agility of a wild animal, without speak- ing a single word or seeming to hurry himself. We stopped ; he stopped : we went on ; he went on. We darted at full speed; the Indian doubled his pace : I saw him sometimes on the right, sometimes on the left, jumping over underwood and alighting on the ground without the slightest noise. The sight of the strange figure. now lost in the darkness of the forest, and then again appearing in the daylight, and seeming to fly by our side, caused us to fear that he was leading us into an ambush."
They were full of forebodings when they discovered, right in front of them in the wood, the end of another rifle. They soon came alongside the bearer, and at first took him for an Indian. He was an upright and well- made figure, his neck was bare, and his feet were covered with mocassins. Coming close to him he raised his head, and they stopped short. He came to them, shook them cordially by the hand, and entered into conversation. The Indian rested nearby, and the settler observing him and being told of his having followed the white men, said: "He is a Chippewa, or as the French would call him a 'sautier.' I would wager that he is returning from Canada. where he has received the annual presents from the English. His family cannot be far off."
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