History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II, Part 7

Author: Mills, James Cooke
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters
Number of Pages: 838

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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

The first year and a half he spent under the instruction of Father Dreuillettes in acquiring the native language ; and early in 1668, in company with Claude Dablon, he repaired to the land of the Chippewas. At the rapids of the St. Mary's River, through which the waters of the upper lakes rush to the Huron, and which had been so admired by Raymbault, Jogues and Allotiez, on account of its woody isles and inviting bays, they stopped and established the mission of St. Mary. The Chippewas received the religious teachings of Marquette with eagerness, and would gladly have been baptized, but the wise and cautious missionary withheld the rite until he could clearly instruct them in christian duty. In the following year the first christian church in the western wilderness was erected, which was the foundation for the oldest settlement begun by Europeans within the present limits of our State.

But he was not long to remain on this first field of his labors, for, in obedience to the orders of his superiors, in the fall of 1669, he left for the Bay of Chegoimegon. For a whole month, defying the severity of the climate and constant perils of life, he coasted along the shores of the lake, contending with fierce winds, ice and snow. At length he arrived at the village of the Hurons, many of whom had been baptized, and, he says, "still preserve some christianity." It was here, in the depth of a northern winter, surrounded by his Indians, talking in a broken manner with an Illinois captive, that he conceived the idea of a voyage of discovery. He hears of a great river whose course is southward, and rejoices in the prospect, if the Indians will build him a canoe, of seeking its outlet. "This discovery," he wrote, "will give us a complete knowledge of the southern or western sea."

While thus employed with his mission and plans of discovery, the fierce Dakotas, those Iroquois of the West, threatened to desolate the whole region of the lake. First the Ottawas left, then the Hurons, and without a spot they could call their own, turned their faces to the east. The devoted mis- sionary longed to labor in that field made sacred by the blood of Daniel. Brebeuf. Lallemand and others, but the dreaded Iroquois were too near and too dangerous for such an experiment. So, with the faithful Marquette at their head, the fugitive tribes selected for their home the point known as St. Ignace, on the Straits of Mackinaw. Bleak, barren and inhospitable as this spot was, it abounded in fish, and was on the great highway of a grow- ing Indian commerce. IFere, in the summer of 1671, a rude church, made of logs and covered with bark, was built, and around it clustered the still ruder cabins of the Hurons, inclosed by a palisade, to protect the little colony against the attacks of predatory Indians. Thus did Pere Marquette become the founder of St. Ignace, as he had before been of Sault Ste. Marie, thirty years before Cadillac laid the foundation of Detroit.

Further narration of the labors of this illustrious pioneer, of whom we have so high a veneration, his discovery of the Mississippi, his trials and sufferings, his fatal illness and heroic death, and his burial at the mouth of the stream in our State. that bears his name. fill the most glowing pages of our early history. But in this place it is suffice to note that his cultivated mind, his refined taste, his warm and genial nature, his tender concern for the souls in his charge, as well as his calm and immovable courage in every hour of danger, and his cheerful submission to the bitter privations and keen sufferings of the missionary life, his devotion to his faith and to the truth, all entitle him to that high place in the regard of posterity, which he has been slowly but surely acquiring.

Pere Marquette at St. Ignace in 1671, about to start on his journey of discovery of the Mississippi.

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

Did the Jesuits Visit the Saginaw River?

The early writers of our local history, almost without exception, assert that the Jesuit fathers were the first Europeans to visit the Saginaw Valley. Some even contend that they established a christian mission near the month of the river, and that they lived and labored here many years, planting apple trees and cultivating the soil. For the most part these writers content them- selves with merely making the statement, as of fact, as if the plausibleness were sufficiently convincing, and let it pass at that. One writer, however, has undertaken to advance some proof that our earliest pioneers were these black-robed missionaries, who actually planted the christian faith among the Chippewas of this valley. The short paper he prepared on the subject was honored by publication in the Michigan Pioneer Collections, Volume XXII., page 245.

In this article he states that Captain Whitmore Knaggs, in a talk with John and Peter Riley, half-breed natives of this valley, who were then fifty- eight and sixty years of age, was told by them that certain apple trees then growing on the banks of the river, and mentioned in the treaty of 1819, bore fruit when they were boys, and that their chief, Kaw-kaw-is-kaw, or the "Crow", said they were brought by white men wearing long black robes, who were known as Onetia. He also states that Faillon, in his History of Canada, refers to the Sag-ih-naw country, and the salt springs at the junction of two rivers, where Indians came from all parts; and also that in 1684 a large company of colonists and artisans came from France, a portion of whom were sent to the Sag-ih-naw river, and that there were five Jesuit fathers who were instructed to found missions in all this region. The information is vouchsafed that in 1686 the Jesuits Engelrau and Perrott established mis- sions between Cheboygan and Lake Erie; and furthermore that Champlain in his map of 1611 had defined the safe harbor afforded by this river from the storms on the bay connecting two great seas, and showed the river with some degree of accuracy.

However credible these statements may seem to the casual reader, and however satisfying to his sense of historical truth, they are easily and quickly disproved by certain undeniable facts directly connected with them. Any- one who studies this subject, and attempts to verify the theory of the early ministrations of the Jesuits in this valley, is at once confronted with a very singular refutation. Ile will quite naturally turn to the Jesuit Relations. those wonderfully complete, concise, and interesting narratives of the devout missionaries, for accounts of their labors in this field. But, however diligent and careful his research may be, however thorough his study of every manu- script, every page and line, of the original writings of the Jesuit fathers, he will find nothing - not a word, or even a hint that they ever labored here or that they even visited this river. Neither does the word Saginaw, or any of its derivatives, appear in any of the ancient documents, as if it had not in those times been coined. The word Saguenay, however, appears in connec- tion with the founding and work of a mission on the river of that name, above Quebec, which may have confused our narrator in the supposition that it re- ferred to the Saginaw River.

Careful translators, historians, librarians and students of the early history of Michigan, have never discovered any record or even a trace of missionary explorers in Saginaw Valley, or at any point on the western shore of Lake lluron. They quite generally agree that the Jesuits could not have had a direct knowledge of this valley or its inhabitants. It is a fact, however, that the Jesuit Perrott, about 1686, was sent from the northern missions to Lake

THE ADVENT OF WHITE MEN

Erie, to establish missions on its shores. Having a definite purpose and zeal- ous to fulfill it, it is hardly probable that he deviated a hundred miles from his course to enter a storm-tossed bay to visit this valley, of which he could have had but meager knowledge, and that derived from the disconnected accounts of the savages. The same year the mission and fort of St. Joseph was established at the head of the St. Clair River, on the site of Fort Gratiot.

As we have shown in the preceding pages, the pathway of the early French missionaries to the Northwest lay up the Ottawa and connecting streams to Georgian Bay, and while missions and settlements were slowly being established on the shores of Lake Superior, Green Bay and connecting waters, the whole lower portion of Michigan remained unknown and unex- plored. Only along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan did the early ex- plorers plant their primitive settlements, and only in one instance, the St. Joseph's River, did they penetrate the interior. Furthermore, from the middle to the end of the seventeenth century, the whole region of lower Mich- igan was a desolate and abandoned wilderness, rendered inhabitable to the Ottawas and roaming bands of Chippewas by the hostile incursions of the Iroquois. Although Detroit was founded as early as 1701, the first Jesuit mission was not established there until 1732. Cadillac, though a zealous Catholic, was bitterly opposed to the Jesuits, and it is improbable that any of them cut their way through the unbroken forest to the wilderness on the Saginaw.

Knowing with what care and minuteness of detail the Jesuits wrote their narratives, it seems strange, if they did establish a mission on this river, or merely visited the shores of the bay, that they should have neglected to make an authentic record of their explorations, or at least a brief mention of the fact. In the Relations, their every thought and action, the labors and diffi- culties of their ministrations, as well as the results accomplished, are set down with striking fidelity. With all this before us, is it not incredible that they ever entered the Saginaw, much less founded a mission on its shores? Is it not far more credible that the story told Whitmore Knaggs was a mere myth - the thin and distorted remnant of an Indian legend?

Although it is true that apple trees grew along the river, as mentioned in the treaty of 1819, before the coming of the first fur traders, or perhaps as early as the founding of Detroit, there is nothing to associate their origin here with a civilized race. It is known that fruit trees were cultivated by certain Indian tribes east of the lakes, and apple trees were found in the Ohio Valley by the earliest pioneers, hence, it seems more likely that the trees on the banks of the Saginaw, since they were set out in a very irregular manner, much as the Indians plant their maize, originated with them from seeds carried here.

Moreover, no relies or remains of any kind to indicate a residence of the Jesuits, or even a brief sojourn here, have been found in the valley, although two silver crosses, of exquisite workmanship and evidently of European man- ufacture, have been unearthed, one at Bay City, and the other on the banks of the Shiawassee. It is supposed that, could they be traced to Jesuit owner- ship. they were lost by some Indian or early fur trader to whom given. The remains of pre-historie races and of Indian tribes are everywhere found in Saginaw Valley : why, may we ask, if the Jesuits came here at an early date. should they have vanished, leaving no written record, no relics, no trace, not even a clue, of their labors and ministrations.

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THE ADVENT OF WHITE MEN

Primitive Maps

Although Parkman, Bancroft, Winsor and other historians deal very thoroughly with the explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in Michigan, they all are silent as to any early white settlement on the Saginaw. Nowhere in their works is this region even mentioned in connection with missionary labors, for the reason, we believe, that the Jesuit fathers never came to this valley, or, indeed, had any definite knowledge of the country or its inhab- itants. The primitive maps drawn by the Jesuits and other explorers cast some light on this point, and in a measure confirm this belief. One of these very old maps is that of Jean Boisseau, which accompanied the Relations published in 1643. Though it shows the St. Lawrence country and Lac St. Louis ( Lake Ontario) quite correctly, other sections are very inaccurate, indicating a superficial knowledge of the lake region. Lake Huron and Lake Ontario are connected, not by a large lake ( Lake Erie), but by-a series of rivers and broad straits extending from west to east. Lake Huron is too dis- torted to be of any value as determining a bay or river which could have represented the Saginaw, though one stream with tributaries somewhat re- sembling those of this river, is made to flow directly into the lake. Grand Lac des Nadoussian ( Lake Superior) is defined, but Lake Michigan is not shown.

Another old map which appeared in 1657 corrects some of the errors and omissions of the Boisseau map. In this more elaborate drawing Lake Erie is defined with some degree of fidelity, and the straits and Lake St. Clair are put down, but not named. But Lake Huron and a body of water probably intended to represent Lake Michigan are made to run together at a point in the former where Saginaw Bay should appear, entirely cutting off the upper portion of the State. It is perfectly evident that these coasts could not have been explored by the Jesuits at that early date, and what knowledge they possessed of their contours was probably obtained from straggling bands of Indians that came to the northern missions.

The map of the Jesuit Franciscus Creaxius, bearing date of 1660, and published in his Historia du Canadensis, Paris, 1664, is fairly accurate respect- ing the lower lakes and the St. Lawrence. It shows a large indentation in the west coast of Lake Huron, which was probably intended to represent Sag- inaw Bay, but no river is indicated, and it is certain he did not know of its existence. Marquette's map of 1673-74, the original of which is preserved in the archives of St. Mary's College, Montreal, shows only lakes Superior and Illinois, and western rivers which he had known by actual explorations. Joliet's map, which was drawn at the same time while on the expedition with Marquette, though greatly distorted, shows all the Great Lakes, yet with little regard to proportion or true location. The only suggestion of a bay on the west coast of Lake Huron is a small cove or indentation, but no river is shown, indicating that he had no information as to the existence of such a river as the Saginaw. On the other hand, he puts down Sault Ste. Marie. Mackinac. Manitoulin Islands, Green Bay and connecting waters with fair correctness and minuteness of outline, proving that he had full knowledge of all parts that he had actually explored.

In 1684 a map by Jean Baptiste Franquelin appeared, a reduced facsimile of which was made for Francis Parkman, and is now in the Library of Har- vard University, which defines the Great Lakes in fair proportions, Lake Huron having an indentation, quite distorted, on the west coast, named Bay du Saginnam, into which two rivers flow. With slight imagination, one may be made to represent the Saginaw, while the other may be the Au Sable.

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

though no names are given. Minet's map, of date 1685, shows both bay and river, but far from their true form; Coronelli et Tillemon's map of 1688 defines bay and river flowing into it, without names, while Raffery's, of the same year, gives neither bay nor river, and the coast lines are much ilistorted.

Hennepin's efforts to outline the Huron coast, in 1083, failed to show either bay or river, though later. in 1097. he put down a river flowing directly into the lake, very likely intended for the Saginaw. La Hontan's maps of 1703 and 1709 define both bay and river, though far from their true outlines. and named Bay du Sakinan. Later, in 1747, a map accompanying Colden's "Ilistory of the Five Nations," outlines a bay very inaccurately, but no stream How's into it, or on the whole coast of Lake Huron. In 1755 a map by John Mitchell describes a bay named "Saginnam" with fair accuracy, but it is difficult to identify the one small stream emptying into it from the south- east, as being the navigable Saginaw.

From this evident lack of knowledge displayed by the Jesuit explorers respecting our coast line, and bay and river, is it not a logical conclusion that they never visited these shores?

Earliest References to Saginaw

The materials from which a history of the early explorations of Saginaw River and its tributaries, prior to 1819. can be compiled, or, in fact, references to this valley, are very few and very meager. From what little data and in- formation can be gathered, it is evident that until the close of the eighteenth century, the whole territory west and north of Detroit was an impenetrable and unbroken wilderness. What settlements existed in 1800 were confined almost exclusively to the shores of the lakes and connecting straits ; and only the native Indians knew or cared anything about the country to the interior. It was the general impression of settlers at Detroit that the land was full of swamps, impassable lakes and rivers, wild beasts, poisonous reptiles, and worthless for agriculture, fit only as an abode for savages in their wild, hunter state. Even the official reports and papers of the period touch but lightly the unknown territory ; and in only one instance do the Haldimand Papers, on file in the Dominion archives at Ottawa, refer to the Saginaw Valley.

But with all its natural wildness it was the paradise of the animals from which the choicest of fur was obtained, such as the beaver, otter, fisher, marten, mink and muskrat, also deer, bears and elk, while moose were found at the headwaters of the streams which unite to form the Saginaw. Large flocks of wild geese and ducks resorted to the streams to feed on the wild rice that grew in great abundance on their borders; and the waters were stored with bountiful supplies of the choicest varieties of fish. The fertility of the soil was such that, with slight cultivation bestowed by the Indians, it pro- duced abundant crops of corn, that indispensable article of food for the red man. As an indication of the extent of the cultivation of corn in this valley nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, we find a letter from Major De Peyster, commandant of the post at Mackinac, dated May 13, 1779, written to General Haldimand, commander-in-chief of the British forces, the concluding paragraph of which is herewith transcribed, verbatim :

"The Sakis & Reinards seems to be easy about the matter as appears by Gautier's Letter but they will soon open their eyes if it is possible effectually to restrain that trade. On that head as well as how I am to act in case Detroit is taken is what I hope I shall receive your full in- structions about by a light canoe. If Detroit shall be taken it is evident we have but a dismal prospect however what can be expected from two

THE ADVENT OF WHITE MEN

Subdivisions shall be done. I think I may with propriety call my hand full by that name when a part was employed at this Cannon having nine Pieces of Ordnance & only two Artillery men.

I have sent to Saguina to endeavor to secure six hundred Bushels of Corn for the Indians without which our flour will run short by the fall of the year.

"I have the honor, &c.

( signed )

A. S. De Peyster."

Years afterward, at the conclusion of our last war with England, the reports from the Indian Department cast some light on the number and temper of the Indians residing on the Saginaw. In the Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. XV., page 553, we find :

"Thirteen Indians of Naywash's band arrived at Burlington on the 9th of May from Flint River, and say that they are informed that two vessels and six gun boats, with about 300 men, had passed the River St. Clair, about the 224 or 23d of April (1814), for Michilimackinac, and that not more than about 250 men remained at Detroit. These Indians report that there are about 500 men at Saguina Bay, who were ready to show their attachment to their Great Father, whenever his troops shall return."

During this war the Chippewas were allied with the British, and made a great deal of trouble for the white settlers. Before the seige of Detroit a large band under Kish-kau-kou and his son, Che-mick, tramped from the Saginaw Valley and joined the British forces, raiding the white settlements, killing men, women and children, and burning their homes. Their savage warfare was chiefly directed against the weak and unprotected, and it was not until after the treaty of 1819 had been ratified that the whites in the sparsely settled portions of the territory felt secure from their depredations.

This cowardly old chief of the Chippewas, who lived with his band along the lower stretches of the river, was conspicuous for his ugly disposition. particularly when drunk with "fre-water." He figured in many tragedies of the early days, and was proud and boastful of the number of scalps he had taken. In 1805 he was indicted for the murder of a white man, but evidently the capture of the fierce Chippewa was a duty which the marshal neglected. for a second warrant was issued September 24, 1807. It was drawn by Augustus B. Woodward, chief judge of the Territory of Michigan, and directed to William Scott, marshal of the territory, and was the first case against an Indian in the territorial supreme court. This interesting docu- ment reads as follows :

"You are hereby commanded, as you have before been commanded. to take the body of Kisk-kau-kou, a Chippewa Indian, late of Saguina. in the Indian country, in the territory of Michigan, if he may be found within such territory, and him safely keep so that you may have his body before the judges of our supreme court at Detroit in and for said terri- tory of Michigan, on or before the next ensuing term, to answer the United States on a bill of indictment for murder, found against him by the grand inquest of the body of the said territory of Michigan. And of his writ make due return.'

The return, which was serawled on the back of the paper, reads :

"I have taken the body of the above named Kish-kau-kou, an Indian, in obedience to this capias, on Sunday, the 31st day of July, and in bring- ing him to prison he was rescued from me by an Indian named Little Cedar, and his son, and other Indians unknown."

Omitting some of the verbiage which is repeated, the true bill which the grand jury found against Kish-kau-kou sets forth his crime in the fol- lowing curious manner :

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

"The jury upon their oath present, that Kish-kau-kou, a Chippewa Indian, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and induced by the instigation of the devil, on the ninth day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and two, with force and arms in and upon one Antoine Loson, in the presence of God and of the United States then and there being, did make an assault, and with a cer- tain steel knife of the value of fifty cents, which he in his right hand then and there had and held, felonously, wilfully and by his malice afore- thought did hit, strike and stab, and did then and there give unto him, one mortal wound of the length of one inch and depth of three inches in and upon the back part of the neck of said Antoine, of which said mortal wound he. the said Antoine, did languish, and so languishing, thereof, died."

The wily old chief. however, escaped punishment for the foregoing crime. and lived until after the first settlements were well started in Saginaw Valley. Of other offenses and "deviltries" that he committed more will be told in the following chapter.

Advent of the Fur Traders

The first white men to penetrate the wilderness of the Saginaw were probably coureurs de bois - the renegades of Canada, or possibly voyageurs, a class of men described in English accounts of Detroit as, "generally poor wretches, a lazy, idle people, depending chiefly on the savages for subsist- ence, whose manners and customs they have entirely adopted." While this description was undoubtedly applicable to many of the rough characters seen about the settlements in early days, it is most unjust of the inhabitants gen- erally. There were two distinct classes of these habitants. One was com- posed of the active, intelligent, honest tradesmen and farmers, some of whom were of noble birth and connections: the other comprised the voyageurs and coureurs de bois shiftless half-breeds. Side by side, these two classes built their abodes and lived in harmony : yet each in his own sphere - each con- tented with his lot.

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History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II, Part 7

Author: Mills, James Cooke Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters Number of Pages: 838

Author: Mills, James Cooke
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters
Number of Pages: 838