History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan, Part 23

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co.
Number of Pages: 818

USA > Michigan > St Clair County > History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan > Part 23

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curred at one of these hunts, which is too good to be passed by unnoticed. A young man came on from an Eastern city to visit his country cousins at the West. Having never seen a deer, and being very anxious to engage in a hunt before his return, it was soon arranged to have one. Proceeding to the forest, the young man was stationed on the run-way, with strict instruc- tions to shoot the deer when he passed. The boys, with their hounds and guns, commenced scouring the woods. Soon the deep baying of the hounds was heard, denoting that the game had been started. Nearer and nearer came the pursuer and the pursued. Suddenly a fine buck made his appearance, with his noble antlers laid back upon his shoulders, and his white tail aloft in the air. On he sped past the affrighted youth, who stood with his rifle cocked, his eyes and mouth wide open, the embodiment of wonder and astonishment. Hard upon the heels of the deer came the dogs, and soon the boys, who, seeing their cousin in this ludicrous situa- tion, asked in amazement, 'Why he did not shoot the buck !' 'Buck !' said he, 'I haven't seen any buck. I only saw the d-I coming down the hill with a rocking chair on his head, and his white handkerchief sticking out behind.' Wolves and bears were more numerous than agreeable. They were very destructive to the few flocks of sheep and herds of swine then in the county. They were caught in traps and in dead-falls, and sometimes wolves were inveigled

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into the folds with the sheep, and captured in that way. A large pen was made of poles, and so constructed that it was narrowed up at the top, leaving an opening only a few feet square. This afforded an easy ingress to the hungry wolf, but an effectual barrier to his escape. He would thus be found in the morning, having done no harm, and looking very sheepish indeed.

A novel mode of trapping the bear was sometimes adopted which proved successful. A hollow tree was selected into which a hole was cut of a triangular shape, with the acute angle at the lower side. The hole was made some seven or eight feet from the ground, and just large enough for bruin to squeeze his head through. Inside of the tree, some two or three feet be- low the hole, was suspended a piece of meat. The bear, scenting the food, would climb up the tree, and, in his efforts to get at the meat, would get hung in the acute angle of the hole, from which it was impossible to extricate himself.

"Occasionally a lynx was seen in the swamps in the western part of the county, but they were extremely shy, and it was rare indeed that one was killed. The porcupine was more com- mon; and they proved very troublesome to the hunters' dogs, which would frequently return from the chase at night with their mouths full of their sharp quills. It is supposed by many that the hedgehog and porcupine are identical, but this is a mistake. The only point of resem- blance is in their coat of armor, which consists of long, sharp-pointed quills. Whenever these animals are attacked, they double themselves up into a ball, and thus present a formidable de- fense. Their quills are easily detached, but I think it is a mistaken idea that they have the power of throwing off their quills, as some suppose. The hedgehog is a native of the old world, is small in size, and carniverous; whereas the porcupine is a native of the new world, is about the size of the woodchuck, and lives on roots, vegetables and wild fruits. The badger and the fisher were occasionally seen, but they were by no means common. Most of these wild animals, like the aborigines of the country, have receded before the march of civilization and improvement, and but few of them can now be found within the limits of the county."

A soft-shell turtle was caught in the Belle River District in the summer of 1881. It has been said that a few of these creatures were seen in St. Clair County previously, but this of 1881 is the first of which there is any record.

RELATIONSHIP OF BIRDS AND REPTILES.

We have now passed in review various remarkable forms, separated by an immeasurable distance from each other, and forms which have so mingled the characters of both as to present great difficulties to their being included among the members of either group. Starting from the groveling crocodile, we have seen that there existed gigantic crocodile-like forms; such as the giant-lizard and the iguanodon, that walked, sometimes at least, on their hind limbs; others, like the long-necked, long-tailed compsognathus, from the Solenhofen states, that hopped on the ground after the manner of a bird; then "flying dragons," with bird-like brain and bones, that cleft the air with their twenty-feet expanse of wing; next undoubted birds, with toothed bills, the one with reptilian vertibræ, the other, with a beaver-like tail; while, last of all, omitting the imperfectly-known Sheppey fossil, the feathered archaeopterox, whose twenty caudal segments bar its entrance to every existing family of birds.

Without by any means asserting-what is not only far from being ascertained fact, but is, indeed, very improbable; for we are not in a position to state that they appeared on the earth intermediately between the two groups -- that these forms are the direct terms in the series of progressions from reptiles to birds, we can, in their intelligent contemplation, without over- straining the imagination or violating our reason, picture still more modified forms wherein the reptilian and the aviarian types would so harmoniously blend that we should find it impossible to say, "At this point the line between reptiles and birds must be drawn." There can be no reasonable doubt but that the remains, which only through the circumstance of a happy burial have been preserved to us from the second great era of the world's history till now, are no more than a very few examples, with many a blank between, of the fauna which have lived and died, whose tombs no man knoweth.

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THE INDIANS.

T HE Indians having no literature, and of course no written history of their own, have a remem- brance of events more clear and distinct than those who depend upon the written or printed page for their preservation. And any one who has never given the subject attention would be surprised to see how long a time can be covered by tradition, through a single intervening witness between the occurrence and the one relating the incident. To illustrate this point, a man who lost his arm at the storming of Quebec, 1759, repeated the story of that conflict in 1839, the old soldier being ninety-nine years of age. Now should the boy who heard the story live to be ninety and tell it to another of ten, he living eighty years afterward and repeating the tale from one who got it from the man participating in the event, it would be 240 years after the battle, with a single intervening witness. Now the Indians have a language quite complete in words representing natural objects and describing events and names of places, although deficient in terms to describe mechanical works, arts or science, or any of the concomitants of civilization ; and their traditions must have a certain amount of value to the historian, and a few of them will be here presented. The name Otchipwe, which the English tongue has transformed into Chippewa, signifies, "the dwellers in a con- tracted place," evidently applied to these people during their long residence at the foot of Lake Superior, or "Le Sault de St. Marie." It is supposed that this tribe, coming from the northern part of the New England States, struck the great lakes on the north of Lake Ontario, following along Lake Erie, without having touched Niagara Falls, as they make no mention of that, and via the coast of Lake St. Clair and Lake Huron to Mackinaw, or Mee-she-mee-ke-nak the "Great Turtle," as they called the island of Mackinaw. The Oh-dah-wa (Ottawa) branch of the Odjibewa tribe took its course up Lake Michigan (Me-she-gane), the great lodge of the Great Turtle or "Manitou." The main body of the Odjibewas or Otchipwes must have lingered a long time around the shores of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, until finally reaching the Sault St. Marie, having been in a more or less constant state of warfare on the journey, which must have been much slower than the children of Israel. The scene of their principal traditions is about this place and up to the head of Lake Superior, having gradually moved along the south shore, making frequent excursions down the Sautern or Chippewa River. Another branch, the "Bois Forts," of the Algonquins, as they were called by the English, whose native name was Sha-guan-da-gawin-ena, or "men living in thick undergrowth of timber," proceeded on the north of Lake Superior. Their bands had few warlike experiences compared to those south of the lake, who encountered the Mis-qua-kee, or Sacs, and the Oda-gah-mee, or Foxes, and gradually crowded their way, finally reaching the Apostle Islands. On one of them, Madiline, they located, not daring to locate on the main land for fear of the Dacotas or Sioux. These people were at that time in what might be called a flourishing condition. It was many generations ago. From the colony at Madiline Islands, many bands proceeded to Brule River, and thence down the St. Croix, while to the southeast they spread out to Saginaw and Lake Erie. The reasons for believing the Atlantic Coast the original home of this tribe, are the many names of Eastern landmarks referred to in their language, the affinity of the language itself to the Algonquin. These facts, together with the legends of the Ani-chi-na-be, or Od jib-wa, or Chippewa, lead us to believe in this account.

THE OTCHIPWE INVASION.

During the second decade of the sixteenth century, about the years 1519-20, the Otchipwes or Chippewas gained possession of the district from the mouth of the Kawkawlin to the river- now known as the Clinton-called by the French, Riviere aux Hurons. At this time the great struggle for tribal supremacy took place, and the last Sauk warrior fell before the advancing Chippewas in the valley of the Saginaw. Throughout all this district, particularly along its rivers and streams, may be found mounds filled with human bones, scattered round in all directions, showing, unmistakably, that they were cast together without regularity, and telling of fierce and sanguinary battles. So early as 1834, a few aged Indians resided on the shores of Lake Huron ;

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each of them was questioned regarding the ancient history of his nation, and each of them was not slow to relate the tradition of his tribe, so far as it related to the Chippewa conquest of Northern and Western Michigan. At length the old chief, Puttasamine, was interviewed in the presence of Peter Gruette, a half-breed, well known from Detroit to Mount Clemens, and westward still to Mackinac. Gruette acted as interpreter, and, as a result, the following valuable legendary sketch comes down to us : Puttasamine said the Sauks occupied the whole country, from Thunder Bay on the north to the head-waters of the Shiawasse, and from the mouth of Grand River to that of the Huron, north of Detroit. The rest of the country was occupied by the Pottawatomies, the Lake Superior country by the Otchipwes and Ottawas, the Menomonees round Green Bay, and the Sioux west of the Messipi. The main village of the Sauk nation stood on the west side of the Saginaw River, near its mouth ; and from that place were accustomed to rush forth to war with the Chip- pewas on the north and the Pottawatomies on the south, and also with other nations in Canada. At length a council was called, consisting of Otchipwes, Pottawatomies, Menomonees, Ottawas, and Six Nations of New York, which council assembled on the Island of Mackinac, and where it decided on a war of extermination. The chiefs summoned the warriors, a large army was organ- ized, and, embarking in bark canoes, started down the west shore of Lake Huron. Arriving at Saginaw Bay, the warriors sailed over the waters by night, lay concealed during the day, and so continued their advance until they arrived at a place called Petobegong, about ten miles above the mouth of the Saginaw River. There they disembarked a portion of the army, while the main division crossed the Bay, and made a landing on the east bank of the estuary of the Saginaw, in the night. Next morning, both divisions started up the river so as to attack the eastern and west- ern towns at the same time. The warriors on the west bank attacked the main village, surprised the inhabitants, and massacred almost every man, woman, and child to be found there-the few survivors escaping across the river to another village, which occupied the site of Portsmouth.

The eastern division of the allies came up to the village, which then occupied the site of Bay City, where a desperate battle was fought. Notwithstanding the favorable position held by the Sauks, they were defeated and great numbers slain, the survivors retreating, some into the eastern wilderness, others seeking refuge on Skull Island. Here the refugees considered themselves safe, as the enemy did not appear to possess any canoes; but the season offered the invader that which art denied, for on the next night, the ice was found sufficiently thick to warrant a crossing, which circumstance enabled the allies to advance on the island. Here nothing was left of the Sauks, save twelve women, and those who fled eastward to the river country. The victory was as decisive as it was bloody. The victors reviewed their forces and then divided, some proceeding up the Cass (formerly the Huron), and the Flint; others up the Shiawassee, Tittabawasink, and so spread over the land. The most important battles were fought against other tribes in the neighborhood of the Flint Bluffs, and eastward to Detroit ; but of such Puttasamine could recount very little.

After the extermination of the Sauk warriors, the twelve women referred to remained for dis- posal, and, so important did they appear, that a council of the allies was held to decide their fate. Some were for torturing them to death ; others recommended mercy ; while others still argued that they should be sent west of the Mississippi. The last proposition was carried, and an arrangement made with the Sioux that no tribe should molest them ; that they should be responsible for their protection. The Sioux warriors and women kept their promises faithfully.

The conquered country was divided among the allies, as a common hunting ground ; but great numbers of them who engaged in the chase never returned, nor could any tidings of them be found, for which reason it became the settled opinion of the Indians that the spirits of their victims haunted the hunting grounds, and were killing off their warriors. In reality, the disappearance of many a warrior was due to the fact that a few Sauks, who had escaped the massacre, still lingered around the old and well-known bunting grounds, watching for the straggling conquerers, and slay- ing them whenever opportunity offered.

Tondogong, an Indian chief, who died in 1840 at a very advanced age, has left the record behind that, in his boyhood, about eighty years ago, he killed a Sauk. Even up to the year 1850, the old Indians of the northeastern counties of Michigan believed there was a solitary Sauk still to be seen in the forests of their land ; they had seen the place where he had made his fires and slept. For days after such a discovery they would not leave their camp-grounds - " there is a Sauk in the woods, and they had seen where he built his fires and slept."

The close of the drama is within the history of our own times. We have seen the Otchipwes

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in all their villages. The sixteenth century had not closed when this tribe boasted of power in number and intelligence ; finally the Otchipwe language predominated, until at the present time it is spoken among Indians from the Arctic Circle south to latitude 40º. Puttasamine, or Pattaquasa- mine, born about the year 1729, stated that the tradition was related to him when a boy, by his grandfather, ninety years previous to 1834 ; and further that it had been handed down to his grand- father from his ancestors, and it was a custom with him to repeat it often to his people, so that their tradition or history should not be lost.

THE MIAMIS AND POTTAWATOMIES.

Western Ohio, Southern Michigan and the country now comprised in the State of Indiana, were once in possession of the Miamis, one of the branches of the powerful Algonquin tribe, that interposed between the tribes of the Six Nations of the northern lake shores and the Mobilian tribes of the Atlantic slopes. Their claim to this territory was proven in the great conclave at Greenville, Ohio, in 1795, immediately prior to entering into the treaty. On that occasion, Machi- kinaqua, a chief and orator of the Miamis, addressing Gen. Wayne, said, " My forefather kindled the first fires at Detroit ; thence he extended his lines from the head-waters of the Scioto River ; thence to its mouth ; thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash ; thence to Chicago and Lake Michigan ; these are the boundaries wherein the prints of my ancestors' houses are every- where to be seen." Historians have acknowledged the truth and claim of the Miami chief, con- firming many of his statements regarding other peoples inhabiting his territory. The Delaware Indians driven before the incoming European colonists ; the Shawanoes from the south forced to move northward by the Aztecs of the southwest or the Mobilians of the southeast, and the Otchip- wes and Pottawatomies of the northern regions. Lago, an Indian chief, referring to the immi- gration of the latter, maintained that a very long time since the Great Spirit sent upon the Potta- watomies a severe winter, and they came over the hard water of Lake Michigan and asked the privilege of hunting until spring ; that the Miamis granted it; that they returned home in the spring, and the next winter came back, and would never return to Lake Superior again.

THE HURONS.

This tribe of Indians was also called Wyandots. They were dispersed by the Iroquois in 1649. A fragment of the Hurons settled at Detroit in 1680. The phrase " Quelles hures " (what heads) was applied by an astonished French traveler to the Wyandots on seeing their fantastic mode of dressing the hair. From hures was derived Huron. After the departure of Jean Nicolet from their territory, now bounded south by Lambton County in Canada, and north by French River and Lake Nipissing, those savages were attacked by the bloodthirsty Iroquois, and driven to new hunting- grounds-some finding a home in Michigan, others in Wisconsin.

Early in the spring of 1712, a number of Foxes and Mascoutins encamped close to the fort at Detroit, holding the country along the St. Clair in check. This post was commanded by M. Du- buisson. His garrison numbered only thirty French soldiers. The Foxes and their allies, the Mas- coutins, soon became insolent, calling themselves owners of all the country. It seems to have been a plan laid by them to burn the fort, but their purpose was communicated to the commandant by a friendly Fox. An express was immediately sent to the hunting grounds of the Ottawas and Hurons by Dubuisson for aid. The Chippewas and another tribe, upon the other side of the lake, were invited to join with him in defending his post. The commandant took such measures of de- fense as his limited force would permit. On the 13th of May, he was re-enforced by seven or eight Frenchmen. Happily other aid arrived-quite a number of Indians from various nations around, who, joining the Hurons, entered the fort to assist in defending it. This brought matters to a crisis, and firing commenced between the besiegers and the besieged. With undaunted courage, Dubuisson for nineteen days continued to defend his post. The assailants were finally obliged to retreat, their provisions becoming exhausted. Some of the Frenchmen, with the Indians, soon started in pursuit, overtaking the enemy near St. Clair, where they had erected intrenchments. They held their position for four days, fighting with much courage, when they were forced to sur- render, receiving no quarters from the victors. All were killed except the women and children, whose lives were spared, and one hundred men who had been tied, but who escaped. There were a few Sacs engaged in this attack on the fort, but more, perhaps, were fighting upon the other side. The Foxes were incensed rather than weakened by the severe loss they sustained near Detroit; and

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their hostility continuing, not only against the French but the Indian tribes in alliance with them, caused a proposition to be brought forward by the Marquis de Vandreuil to commence a war of ex- termination against the Foxes. To this most of the friendly nations readily assented. A party of French troops was raised and put under the command of DeLouvigny, a Lieutenant, who left Que- bec in March, 1716. He ascended to Detroit in canoes, with all possible dispatch; there he received re-enforcements, and thence urged his way to Mackinac, where " his presence inspired in all the Frenchmen and Indians a confidence which was a presage of victory." With a respectable force- said to have been eight hundred strong-DeLouvigny entered Green Bay and ascended Fox River, to what point is now uncertain, when he encountered the enemy in a palisaded post, and won what was reported to be a decisive victory.

SUNDRY SKETCHES.

The Nippercineans, who are called the true Algonquins by old writers, resided at Lake Nipis- sing, while the Otchipwes resided on Superior, and at the Sault de Ste. Marie. Tradition states that these tribes came into collision with a tribe who were their predecessors on occupation of the lake region. This contest took place at Portagunassee, now Drummond's Island, and at Point de Tour, which resulted in the defeat of the aborigines. To those the Otchipwes gave the name Musko- dainsug, or people of the Little Prairie. Chusco, the old Ottawa of Mackinac, states that this race were the bone cave builders of Menissing or Round Island, and also of the garden beds in the Grand River Valley, and are supposed to be identical with the Mascoutins. The traditions of the Saginaw Indians in 1821, and of Ishquagonabi, of Traverse Bay, seem to agree in this matter.

When the Wyandots of the St. Lawrence, in the middle of the seventeenth century, formed a close league with the French, and also with the Adirondacks or Algonquins, they were brought into violent hostilities with the New York Iroquois confederacy. This led to a perfect separation, which has ever since existed. The Wyandots asserted seniority in membership, and were certainly living at Hochelaga, now Montreal, when Cartier visited that place in 1534. Driven from the St. Lawrence by the confederates, they fled by the Ottawa River to Lake Huron, and thus became the means of giving their name to that lake, as the French gave them the name Huron, from the style in which they wore their hair. The Iroquois called the lake Coniatare.

The Wyandots, driven from the valley of the St. Lawrence up the Ottawa, and thence to Lake Huron about the middle of the seventeenth century, took shelter on Mackinac Island. There they cultivated large fields in the center of the island, which the French called Les Grandes Jardins. Hill and dale were cultivated; loose stones were gathered and piled up in heaps, and the island was their happy home. Ultimately they were driven from it by the Ticdonderaghie to Lake Superior. The Iroquois pursued them to St. Joseph's Island, where the Chippewas met the invaders. Again, above St. Mary's Falls-at Nadowegoning, the place of Iroquois bones-the Chippewas succeeded in driving the confederates back.

In 1634, two Jesuits, Breboeuf and Daniel, established a mission on Lake Huron among the Hurons, a party of whom they accompanied on returning from Quebec.

In 1641, Rev. Charles Raymbault arrived at the Sault de Ste. Marie, attended by some Hurons, and there he heard of the powerful Nadowesies, who lived eighteen days' journey westward. Subse- quently the Huron country was invaded by the Mohawks, their villages as well as the Jesuit mis- sion houses, burned, and the venerable fathers mentioned subjected to death. This failed to deter the Jesuits, and as a consequence their missions were established by other fathers at Keweenaw and Chegoimegon.

Bishop Laval, of Quebec, commissioned Pere Mesnard to preach to the Indians of Lake Supe- rior and Green Bay. He reached St. Theresa's Bay, supposed to be Keweenaw Bay, where he remained eight months. Ultimately he wished to visit the Hurons of St. Michael's Island, and started for Chegoimegon Bay. At Keweenaw Portage he missed his attendant, who carried the canoe, and lost himself in the wilderness. In later years his cassock and breviary were found among the Sioux, and the traditions of the tribe say that the first white man who visited them was killed.

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History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan, Part 23

Author: Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co. Number of Pages: 818

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A.T. Andreas & Co.
Number of Pages: 818