History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 5

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Michigan > Clinton County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 5
USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 5

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By the combined efforts of the interpreters and traders the Indians were at length pacified, and they retired to their wigwams to sleep off the effects of their intoxication. After they had entirely recovered from their debauch they became perfectly friendly and tractable, and even after the commissioner and his staff of assistants had departed for Detroit, they sent the orator-chief, Washmenondequet, to overtake him, and express to him their pleasure and satis- faction at the result of the council.

By the terms of this treaty, the Indians eeded to the United States an area of territory estimated at about six millions of aeres ; on consideration of which cession, the government agreed to pay to the Chippewa nation annually, forever, the sum of one thousand dollars, in silver coin, and, also, that all annuities to be paid them in pursuance of the stipulations of previous treaties should thereafter be paid in silver. The terms of the treaty of Greenville (in 1795), giving the Indians the right to hunt and fish at will upon the ceded lands, so long as they remained the property of the United States, were applied to this treaty. They were also to be permitted to make sugar wherever they ehose upon the same lands and during the same period, but with- out any unnecessary waste of the trees. The boundaries of the cession, as described in the treaty, were as follows : " Beginning at a point in the present Indian boundary line (identical with the principal meridian of the State) which runs due north from the mouth of the great Auglaize River, six miles south of the place where the base line, so-called, intersects the same; thence west sixty miles; thence in a direct line to the head of Thunder Bay River ; thence down the same, following the courses thereof, to the mouth ; thence northeast to the boundary line between the United States and the British province of Upper Canada ; thence with the same to the line established by the treaty of' De- troit in the year 1807; and thence with said line to the place of beginning."

This immense tract joined the cession of 1807 along the line of the principal meridian, and extended thence west-

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HISTORY OF SIHIAWASSEE AND CLINTON COUNTIES, MICIIIGAN.

ward to a point about three miles northeast of the site of the village of Kalamazoo. From this point, the western boundary of the cession was an unsurveyed line extending northeasterly through the present counties of Kalamazoo, Barry, Ionia, Montealm, Isabella, Clare, Roscommon, and Crawford to Montmoreney, embracing all the country be- tween the diagonal line mentioned and Lake Huron ;* thus including, of course, the entire territory of Clinton County, and all of Shiawassee which had not been covered by the cession of 1807.

Within the boundaries of the great tract conveyed to the government by the treaty of Saginaw a number of tribal and individual reservations were made, viz .: A tract of 8000 acres, including an Indian village, on the east side of the Au Sable; 2000 aeres on the Mesaquisk ; 6000 aeres, to include an Indian village, on the north side of the Kaw- kawling ; 640 acres on the same river, " for the use of the children of Bowkowtonden ;" 9640 acres, in three traets, on the Huron (Cass) River; an island in Saginaw Bay ; a tract of 2000 acres " where Nabobish formerly stood ;" 1000 acres "near the island in Saginaw River ;" 2000 acres "at the mouth of Point Augrais River;" 10,000 acres at Big Rock, on the Shiawassee, and " 3000 aeres on the Shiawassee River at a place called Ketchewandauge- nink ;" 6000 acres at Little Forks, on the Tetabawasink (Tittabawassee) River, and 6000 aeres, near the same stream, "at Blackbird's town ;" 40,000 acres "on the west side of the Saginaw River, to be hereafter located ;" " one traet of 5760 acres upon the Flint River, to include Reaume's (Neome's) village and a place called Kishkaw- bawee;" individual reservations on the Saginaw River to " the Crow" a Chippewa chief, and to three half-breed sons of Gen. Riley; also eleven individual reservations of 640 aeres each, at the Grand Traverse of the Flint River, em- bracing the site of the present city of Flint; five of the . reservations last named being granted for the use of the five children of Jacob Swith the trader, whose influence with the Indians (exerted principally in view of the secur- ing of these same tracts) was largely instrumental in gain- ing the Indians' consent to the treaty, and without which it could hardly have been made.

The ten-thousand-aere reservation " at Big Rock on the Shiawassee River" was located a short distance north of the boundary of Shiawassee County, in Saginaw, at the present village of Chesaning, which took its name from the old Indian village of Che-as-sin-ning (Big Rock), which was included in the reservation.

The traet of two thousand acres to be located " where Nabobish formerly stood" was never laid out, but was merged in the forty-thousand-acre reservation " to be here- after located" on the west side of the Saginaw. The old village of Nabobish (so called for the chief of the same name, who died before 1830) was the place which was

known among the later Indians as Assineboining, situated on the south branch of the Shiawassee, in what is now the township of Cohoetah, in the county of Livingston. The reason why the Nabobish reservation was never surveyed and set apart for the use of the Indians in accordance with the terms of the treaty is not known, but the fact that it was never done eansed great dissatisfaction among them ; and during all the years of their stay in this region they never ceased to refer to it in bitter terms, as an act of bad faith on the part of the government. The traet of three thousand acres reserved " on the Shiawassee River, at a place called Ketchewandaugenink," was the "Grand Saline" or " Big Lick" reservation, embracing lands in the northwest corner of the present township of Burns, Shiawassee Co., and also extending into the adjoining townships of Antrim, Shiawassee, and Vernon. This was the only reservation ever laid out for Indians withiu the territory of Shiawassee " and Clinton Counties.

Neither the reservation of Kechewondaugoning nor that which was promised at Nabobish was, strictly speaking, within the scope of the Saginaw treaty, nor within the tract there ceded ; for, as has already been stated, the cession of 1807 included within its boundaries-as described in the treaty of Detroit-a territory which, extending north ward as far as the centre of the west line of Shiawassee, and run- ning thence northeasterly to White Rock on Lake Huron, covered all of that county except the northwest corner,- about one-sixth part of its area. But the Indians did not so understand it. They had no means of knowing where the described lines would fall, and they supposed that the northern boundary of that cession would pass to the south- ward of the head-waters of the Shiawassee River, while in faet it crossed that stream within the present boundary of Saginaw County. The fact, however, that they believed themselves to be still possessors of the Shiawassee Valley is proof that they never intended to include it in the lands ceded by the treaty of 1807. Whether Gen. Cass knew that this region was comprehended within the limits of that csssion-or, indeed, whether the northern boundary de- scribed by the treaty of Detroit was ever accurately run- does not appear ; but if the commissioner was aware of the faet, he did not, and could not, insist on the right of the government to the lands which the Indians believed to be still their own, for by so doing he would probably have enraged them to such an extent that the treaty of Saginaw could not have been concluded.

PLANS FOR INDIAN EMIGRATION.

It has already been mentioned that one of the principal objects of Gen. Cass in convening the treaty-council at Saginaw in September, 1819, was to procure from the In- dians an agreement that they would gradually emigrate from their old hunting-grounds in Michigan and remove beyond the Mississippi River, or at least to the country lying to the westward of Lake Michigan ; but in this the counuissioner was disappointed, as we have seen. This repulse, however, did not cause the government to abandon its cherished idea, aud, finally, after many long years of persuasion, the minds of the red men seemed to have become fully prepared to

› The Indian titlo to all that part of the Lower Peninsula which remained in possession of the Indians after the conclusion of the Saginaw treaty was extinguished by the treaties of Chicago (Aug. 29, 1821) and Washington ( March 28, 1836). By the formuer the Indians ceded the southwest part of the State as far north as Grand River; and by the latter, all the remainder of the peninsula (except a few reservations) which had not been included in previous cessions.

INDIAN EMIGRATION.

entertain the proposition for ultimate removal to the new countries of the far West. Finally, at the beginning of the year 1837, Heury R. Schoolcraft, Indian commissioner, met the chiefs and head men of the Chippewas in council at Detroit, where, on the 14th of January in that year, a treaty was concluded by which the tribe ceded to the United States all the reservations, except those granted to individ- uals, under the Saginaw treaty of 1819, but retained the right to continue for five years in undisturbed occupation of their tracts on the Augrais River, and on the Mushowusk River west of the Saginaw ; no white man to settle or en- croach on those tracts under penalty of five hundred dol- lars. The United States agreed to furnish a farmer and blacksmith for the tribe as before, and to continue the dona- tions of cattle and farming utensils. The lands embraced in the ceded reservations were to be surveyed by the United States and placed in the market with the other public lands as soon as practicable, and the amount due the Indians from this source to be invested by the President in some public stock, the interest to be paid annually to the tribe iu the same manner as their annuities were paid ; and if, at the end of twenty years, the Indians should wish the said stock to be sold and the proceeds divided among the tribe, it might be done with the consent of the President and Senate.

But the most important part of this treaty was that in which the Chippewas agreed to remove from the State of Michigan as soon as a proper location for theru could be ob- tained, for which purpose a deputation was to be sent to view the country occupied by kindred tribes west of Lake Superior ; "and if an arrangement for their future and per- manent residence can be made there which shall be satis- factory to them and the government, they shall be permitted to form a reunion with such tribes and remove thereto. If such an arrangement cannot be effected the government of the United States will use its influence to obtain such location west of the Mississippi River as the legislation of Congress may indicate." An amendment was made to the terms of this treaty by a new treaty made by Mr. School- craft with the Chippewa chiefs at Flint River, Dec. 20, 1837, by which the United States agreed to reserve a location for the tribe " on the head-waters of the Osage River, in the country visited by a delegation of the said tribe during the present year ; to be of proper extent agree- ably to their numbers, embracing a due proportion of wood and water, and lying contiguous to tribes of kindred language;" the meaning and intent of this being to abro- gate that article of the treaty of Detroit which entitled them to lands in the country lying west of Lake Superior. It was provided by the treaty that the sum of fifty cents for each acre of Indian reservation land sold by the United States should be reserved " as an indemnification for the location to be furnished for their future permanent resi- dence, and to constitute a fund for emigrating thereto."

Immediately after the treaty of Flint River, Commis- sioner Schoolcraft called another council, to be hell at Sagi- naw, the reasons for which convention were set forth to be that " the chief's of the bands have represented that combi- nations of purchasers may be formed at the sale of their lands [meaning the reservation lands relinquished by the treaty of Detroit, Jan. 14, 1837], for the purpose of keep-

ing down the price thereof, both at the public and private sales, whereby the proceeds would be greatly diminished ; and such a procedure would defeat some of the primary objects of the cession of the lands to the United States, and thereby originate difficulties to their carly removal and ex- patriation to the country west of the Mississippi." The council was held and a treaty made, in which it was pro- vided that the reservation lands ceded by the treaty of 1837 should be offered for sale by proclamation of the President, and that the sales should be conducted in the same manner as the sales of other government lands, which, together with other guarantees and safeguards to protect the Indians from being wronged in the sale of their reser- vations, had the effect to quiet their apprehensions. This treaty was concluded Jan. 23, 1838.

The time set for the final evacuation of the Michigan peninsula by the Saginaw Chippewas was January, 1842, or five years from the conclusion of the treaty of Detroit, in which they gave their assent to the project of emigra- tion, and relinquished their reservations, except those on Mushowusk and Angrais Rivers, which last two they were to hold until the expiration of the five years of grace. But the plans of the government looking to the removal of the Chippewas from Michigan were never carried into effect. Long before the time agreed on for their departure they had bitterly repented of their promise to remove to the lands in the far West, and they prayed the Great Father that they might be allowed to remain on almost any terms, and to die in the land of their birth. Probably, however, this had less effeet in averting their doom of expatriation than the fact that, in the mean time, they had been almost exterminated by the ravages of the smallpox, which left but a feeble remnant of their once numerous tribe. The bands were broken up, and the few miserable and dejected ones who survived the scourge became too widely scattered to be casily gathered together for banishment. Some of them, in dread of being removed West, preferred to cross into Canada,-and did so. Others (and the greater pro- portion ) went northward into what was then the wilderness. These, or their children, are some of them now living ou the reservation in Isabella County ; a few yet remain in Saginaw, Gratiot, and other counties towards the north ; but very few, if any of them, are now residents of Shia- wassce or Clinton.

REMOVAL OF POTTAWATTAMIE REFUGEES.

The policy of the United States government in reference to the Pottawattamie tribe was the same which was pur- sued towards the Chippewas, except that with the former the plan of emigration was carried out to the end, and most of the people of that tribe were ultimately removed beyond the Mississippi. The Pottawattamies, by various treaties, from 1821 to 1828, had ceded their country to the government, but, like the Chippewas, they had retained several reservations. In September, 1833, however, they ceded these reservations to the United States, and at the same time agreed to evacuate and remove from their lands within three years. They were not removed promptly at the expiration of the time agreed on, but in the autumn of 1838 a large number of them were collected on the St.

HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE AND CLINTON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

Joseph River (by some persons who had taken the contract from government to remove them) and were sent West, es- corted by United States troops. Many, however, had left their villages and hidden themselves to avoid being taken, and quite a number who started, escaped from the troops and returned. In 1839 the process was repeated, and many Indians were collected through all the country from the St. Joseph eastward to the IIuron. But even after this second attempt, a large number of Pottawattamies (amounting in all to several hundreds) had evaded the vigilance of the contractors, and remained behind. In 1840 it was under- stood that a very determined effort would be made to collect all the lingerers and remove them, but the dejected fugitives were equally determined to avoid capture, if possible, and a body of them numbering about two hundred men, women, and children, with their old chief Muckemoot, fled for safety to the northern part of Shiawassee County.

Early in the autumn of that year (1840) Gen. Hugh Brady* arrived at the village of Owosso under orders to use the troops at his command in capturing the Pottawat- tamie band, who were supposed to be lurking in the woods and swamps to the northward. This duty of hunting down the poor wretches and forcing them into exile was very distasteful to the gallant old soldier, but his orders left him no choice. His troops were to be used to assist the cou- tractors in collecting and guarding the Indians, and after- wards in escorting them on their weary way to the Mis- sissippi.

Observation and inquiry soon revealed the fact that the fugitives were a few miles north of Owosso, engaged in picking cranberries on the marshes in the vicinity of the Shiawassee River. It was not long, however, before the Indians became aware of the presence of Gen. Brady, and, of course, knew too well the nature of his errand. Upon this the old chief, Muckemoot, started eastward with two or three followers, and passed swiftly on through Genesee and Oakland Counties, heading for Canada, and fully re- solved never to be taken alive. The companions of Mucke- moot had firearms, but the chief himself' had only his bow and a quiver of arrows at his back, with knife and tomahawk in belt.

llugh Brady was born in Northumberland Co., Pa., in the year 1768. He entered the United States army as ensign in 1792, and served with great credit under " Mad Anthony" Wayne in the Indian campaigns which followed. Ile was made lieutenant in February, 1794, and captain in 1799. In the reduction of the army, which was made soon afterwards, he was mustered out of the service, but was restored with his former rank in 1808 by President Jefferson. ITe fought with great bravery iu the war of 1812, and was severely wounded at the battle of Chippewa, where, as Gen. Scott said in his report of the engagement, " Old Brady showed himself in a sheet of fire." The Ilon. George C. Bates says of him : " Again and again he faced death on the battle-fields of Chippewa, Queeustown, Niagara, and Lundy's Lane, amidst such slaughter as was never seen on any previous battle-field of our country. lle was colonel of the Twenty- second Foot Corps, which crossed bayonets with Col. Basden, of the British Twenty-first. He was en diffident, so modest, so brave, that any mention of his gallant exploits in his presence would drive him from the circle of conversation. Dut whenever duty called bim to action he went calmly, resolutely to it. Not only was Gen. Brady a true soldier, but in all the broadest aspects of the word he was an accomplished American gentleman." His death occurred at Detroit in 1851, the result of his being thrown from his carriage by a pair of frightened horses.

When their flight became known a party of three or four white men set out on horseback from Owosso in pur- suit. The chief and his men had kept to the woods for many miles, but before reaching Pontiae they took the road and pressed on with all speed towards Auburn. Near that place the pursuing party (having heard of the Indians several miles back) overtook and passed themu without awakening their suspicions. Keeping on for a considerable distance the white men finally halted, and when the savages came up, demanded their surrender. Old Muckewoot, sec- ing that he was entrapped, made an involuntary movement of defense, but recovered himself in an instant (probably realizing the hopelessness of resistance with bow and arrow while covered by the firearms of his opponents), and he coolly demanded to know what they wanted, and why they interfered with him on his peaceful journey. " Who are you ?" said the white man whom he addressed. "I am Ogemawkeketo, the Saginaw chief. Why am I molested ?" " No," said the white man, " I have known Ogemawkeketo for many years. You are not he. You are Muckemoot, the Pottawattamie chief, and you must go with me." Theu the old Indian saw that further dissimulation was as vain as resistance. Ilis countenance fell, and he answered very sadly, and yet proudly, " Yes, it is true; I am the great chief of the D'ottawattamies, and it is well for you that you came on me unawares, for otherwise Muckemoot could never have been taken ! I would fight you now, but it is too late ! I will surrender ! . It is very hard, but I will go with you !"

The other Indians, following the lead of their chief, sur- rendered peaceably, and all were taken to Owosso. After the capture of Muckemoot and his followers the main body of Pottawattamies did not make much effort to escape, and they were finally all (or very nearly all) taken in the vicinity of the cranberry marshes, in the present township of Rush. They were brought into Owosso in squads at different times, and these, as they arrived, were placed under guard. Some of them were quartered in a wooden building which had been erected for a hotel, but more in the Log Cabin which had been erected on the southeast corner of Main and Washington Streets as a rendezvous for the supporters of Harrison and Tyler in the Presiden- tial campaign of that year. They were kept in those buildings for a considerable time, until ail who could be found had been brought in. Then a number of four-horse wagons were brought to the place, and into them were loaded the women and children, with their few utensils and other movable articles. Some of the Indian men were allowed transportation in the wagons, some rode on ponies, and many were obliged to travel on foot. Formed in this manner, and closely guarded by troops in front and rear, the mournful procession of Pottawattamies moved out on the road, and sadly took their way to the place of their exile beyond the waters of the Mississippi.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

CHAPTER III.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Laying ont and Construction of Early Reads in the two Counties- Maple River Navigation Projects-Navigation of the Shiawassee- Northern Railroad and Northern Wagen-Road-Detroit and Shia- wassee Railroad Company-Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway-Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad-Detroit, Lan- sing and Northern Railroad-Port Huron Railroad Prejeet-Chi- cage and Lake Huron Railroad Line-Other Projected Railroads.

WHEREVER immigrants of the Anglo-Saxon race estab- lish themselves as pioneers in wild interior regions, the opening of routes of travel between their isolated settle- ments and the nearest civilized communities is one of the first labors which they are called on to perform. In many cases, when the country is heavily timbered (as was the case through the greater part of the counties of Clinton and Shiawassee), this is a heavy task, and one which the pioneer is sometimes obliged to attend to before he can transport his family and their movables to the place which he has chosen for a home. If his location has been selected in a country of openings, he still has some labor to perform in clearing a path through thickets which are occasionally found barring the way, or in filling wet places with brush- wood to allow the passage of his team ; and even if he is migrating on foot, without the convenience of either wagon or animals, he will sometimes find it necessary to fell a tree or two across a water-course, to serve as a foot-bridge for his wife and children, with their seanty stock of household goods. And whether the work be light or heavy, the opening of these rude tracks to pioncer settlements is road- making,-the first step in the direction of public internal improvements in all new countries which are remote from navigable waters.

The earliest highways in the section of country to which this history has reference were the Indian trails, several of which were found traversing the territory of Clinton and Shiawassee Counties at the time when the first settlers came here. The most important of these was the one known as the "Grand River trail," which, leaving that river at the mouth of the Looking-Glass, passed up the last-named stream on its northern side through Clinton County to what are now the villages of De Witt and Laingsburg, and thence through Shiawassee County south of the village of Hartwellville to a point where an ancient Indian village was situated on the Looking-Glass in the present township of Antrim. There it forked, and the more southerly branch (known as the Red Cedar trail) passed south to the Cedar River in Livingston County, but the main Grand River trail continued eastward, crossed the Shiawassee River where the present hamlet of Burns stands, bore away southeast to Byron, and thence across the southwest corner of Genesce County and the northeast corner of Livingston into and through Oakland County to Pontiac and Detroit.

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History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 5

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co.
Number of Pages: 716