USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph county, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories > Part 60
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On the bank of the St. Joseph, near the Mathews bridge, are the remains of an old trading-post or missionary station, which, when the first settlers came, were distinctly visible, and are sufficiently so at the present time to be outlined. The ruins of the stone fire-place and chimney are plainly distin- guishable. Opposite these ruins, on the south bank of the river, the old apple- trees stood, mentioned before, which gave a name to the ford at that point, which was known as the "apple-tree ford."
THE INDIANS,
who had their village in Leonidas, had for their chief John Maguago, who, after Sau-au-quet's death, aspired to the chieftancy of the Pottawattomie nation, or at least that portion of it remaining in Michigan. He was a very fine-looking man. Their main village was on the site of the Olney brothers' farm at the present day, their huts being made of poles, laid up like log- houses, with bark roofs, and a hole cut through the same for the escape of the smoke. These were their permanent residences; their temporary ones, while on their hunting or marauding expeditions, being bark tepees.
They raised corn, potatoes and beans in a small way, but did not harvest very heavy crops, both on account of their method of cultivation and the trespassing of the cattle of their white neighbors. Their winter supplies of corn they buried in trenches, protected from dampness by flag-mats, shelling the same first. Sometimes they packed it in "mokucks," a kind of flag- basket. In the winter they went into the heavy timber for better protection against the severity of the climate, and to make maple-sugar, of which some was very fine. They usually stirred it until it was of the color of a fair article of muscovado, and put up but little in cakes. They made large quantities of it, packing it in mokucks of fifty to sixty pounds weight.
Their milling process was the pestle and wooden mortar, improved by the settlers by adding a spring-pole. In addition to their summer houses they had sleeping platforms, raised several feet above the ground, which were reached by means of a ladder, which the occupants, usually females, drew up after them. These platforms served also as lookout-stations to guard against the trespass of stock on their gardens.
They were, both males and females, like the rest of their race, very fond of gay attire, and red and blue were their favorite colors. Their head- dresses of feathers and beads would draw tears of envy from many a hand- some belle of to-day.
In 1833, "Old" Maguago, as he was called, in distinction from his son John, was the second chief of the Michigan band, and a very old man, and was succeeded by John, as before stated. Old Setone was a quarrelsome
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RES. OF JOHN C. KINNE, LEONIDAS TP., ST JOSEPH COUNTY, MICH.
SOLOMON PIER.
MRS. SOLOMON PIER.
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RESIDENCE OF SOLOMON PIER, LEONIDAS TP, ST JOSEPH CO., MICH.
175
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
character, and always in trouble. The band objected to the settlers plowing at first, but were disposed to be friendly. When Johnson settled in the south part of the township, he and some of his neighbors took the former's breaking teams and broke up several acres for Maguago, and fenced it for him, and continued to plow it every spring so long as he lived on the reservation. The old chief gave them two mokuks of sugar for their work, at first, and one or two each year, as the sugar was plentiful or short.
In 1838 and 1839, Grand Councils of the Indians were held in their village near the present " Reserve" school-house, Muk-moot being present. In 1839, there were five hundred of the tribe present, and negotiations were being carried on to induce them to leave for the west. W. M. Watkins performed a service for Maguago once, similar to the one performed by the younger sons of Noah for that old patriarch, and provoked a similar acknowledg- ment for the commendable act from the wife of the drunken chief, who seized an oar and raised it to brain young Watkins, when Mandoka, her son, caught her and took her away.
At one time one of the Indians seemed to be changing his color, being con- siderably more than one-half white, and was much pleased at the idea that he was going to be a " Chemocoman " (white man).
The boys of the settlers and the Indian boys were great friends, and asso- ciated together as democratically as any fraternity ever did. Maguago's sons, Mandoka, Maqua and Memie, were good wrestlers, and the white boys used to test their skill and strength, and would trip them up, which was not according to the Indian rules of the ring, and brought forth the objurgation from the worsted boys, "No good! Chemocoman cheat !"
Old Setone once ordered Esther Watkins to catch his pony for him, and on her refusal pitched a block of wood at her, which happily missed its mark, but succeeded in getting the cross old fellow a sound thrashing from her brother, Marcus, who saw the act, and, with a hoop-pole in his hands, proceeded to lay it on the old man's bare shoulders unsparingly. Setone soon after got a dreadful scalp-cut with a knife in one of his frequent fights, and Watkins sewed it up and " plastered his nob," not "with vinegar and brown paper," but some healing medicament, and the old man was forever after the Watkins' sworn friend.
One day one of the Indians and one of the young settlers got into a quarrel, and the former made a murderous attack on the latter, when Eliza Hayward seized Mrs. Levi Watkins' pudding-stick, and laid it so heavily and unremittingly about the Indian's head that he was glad to forego his satisfaction until a more convenient season.
Captain Watkins used to make bitters of aloes and whisky, and, refusing to let an Indian have whisky who applied one day for "squiby," the bottle which contained the ill-flavored decoction fell beneath the gaze of the appli- cant, who immediately seized it and drank deeply therefrom, and recovering his breath as well as he could, with the puckering up of his throat and tongue, the victim sputtered out, "White man, one d-n lie!" He never asked Watkins for "squiby" again. Robert Cowen says that the treaty of 1833 for the reservation was prolonged so that the whisky all gave out, and was watered so thoroughly the Indians got sober drinking it, and made trouble in discovering, as they believed, the cheat practised upon them. Mrs. Robert Cowen relates the following incident in relation to her experience with her Indian neighbors : One of them came to her house intoxicated, and ordered her to give him some dinner, which she did, after which he ordered her to fill and light his pipe, the first part of the order being promptly executed, but the latter part, the lighting of the pipe, owing to the extreme state of inebriation the fellow was in, was a feat difficult to accomplish. The coals would fall off the bowl, and he would swear; but finally, taking some paper she made a taper, and the sot managed to get up suction sufficient to light the tobacco, whereat he grunted his thanks and staggered off. She usually was exempt from trouble from them when they were drunk, as she locked her gate, and they were unable to climb the fence.
In the sickly season of 1838, Mr. Cowen went to Pennsylvania, and while he was gone his wife was taken sick, her brother being the housekeeper. One day he was absent and the weather came on chilly, and she had no wood in the house and was too feeble to get it. Seeing some of the Indians go by, she crawled on her hands and knees to the door and beckoned to them, and went back to her bed. A dozen tall fellows came in, and she ex- plained to them her situation and asked them to bring in some wood, and when the "chemocoman, who was gone, came back (paw maw), by and by, and make (man ponee) flour, she would give them some good bread (winett quiskin)." They brought in a large lot of wood, and when Cowen returned the pledge of his wife was redeemed in good measure. They offered her once two mokuks of maple sugar for her little girls, which proceeding, though it was "sweets for the sweet," was scarcely palatable to the mother.
Quite a scare was gotten up in 1838 by a party of fifteen of the Indians, equipped and painted for the war-path, appearing on the roads and about the dwellings of the settlers, who became much alarmed, and called out the militia to disperse the warlike fellows. The Mendon people went into garri- son, but the scare passed over and all was quiet again.
AN INCIDENT OF THE REBELLION,
in which A. T. Watkins, a former county surveyor of the county, was the principal and unfortunate actor, is related by his uncle W. M. Watkins, Esq. A. T. Watkins went south to Mississippi some years before the war and en- gaged in teaching, and soon after married a southern lady, by whom he had two children, a boy and a girl. He was a pronounced Republican at home, and did not conceal his sentiments in Mississippi, though he was not blatant about them; nor did he interfere with the "peculiar institution" of the South.
About the time of the breaking out of the war his father died, and his friends at once notified him of the fact, and of the necessity of his presence to take charge of the estate of the deceased, in order to save a home for his (A. T.'s) mother. He set about his return at once, and the feeling then in the south running very high, some of the people declared he should not leave, but he left nevertheless,-taking a train to make a connection with a railroad running north, which he missed, and chose rather to go on one hundred miles farther, and make another connection, than to stay over twenty-four hours at the first point. Soon after he was gone the parties who opposed his leaving heard of his departure, and immediately started in pur- suit and telegraphed to a station on the road they supposed he would take,- and which he had expected to, and would have taken had he made his first connection,-asking his detention, but on arriving at that point the pursuers found he had taken a different route, and immediately sent another dispatch to a station on the other road for his detention, which point, fortunately, his train had passed before the receipt of the dispatch, and thus he escaped from rebeldom and arrived safely at home.
Almost immediately afterwards the Mississippi was closed, and the mail- service suspended, and so continued until after the surrender of Vicksburg,- during which period he could get no news from his family, whom he left in the south, nor they from him. Soon after Vicksburg fell he sent a letter through the lines to his wife's friends, and received a reply thereto inform- ing him of her death, and that of his little boy, and that his girl was in the care of her relatives, who desired him to come and get her, which he pro- ceeded to do against the remonstrance of his mother and friends, who feared the request was but a scheme to get him in the power of the southerners to make way with him.
He conveyed the estate of his father, which had passed into his posses- sion, to his mother and little girl, and went to Vicksburg, where he deposited his surplus money, with instructions if it was not called for by him within a certain time to remit it to his mother, Mary C. Watkins, and wrote her to that effect. This was the last his friends ever heard from him direct, or received from his own hand; but after the war closed, and peace was declared, they learned the terrible sequel, which was as follows: After depositing his money, as before mentioned, he went in search of his little girl, whom he found as indicated, and immediately made arrangements to take her back to Leonidas ; but the day before he was to leave for the north a squad of rebel cavalry, who were prowling about the neighborhood, arrested him as a spy, but released him upon the representations of his wife's brother. They came again, however, the same night, and said he must go with them to the headquarters of their colonel (a few miles away) and explain matters to him. He went with them, but found no colonel or headquarters, but was summarily tried and hung to a tree, and shot to death while hanging, behind the cabin of an old colored woman, who, after the murderers had departed, cut down the poor mangled body and buried it. The little girl, then grown to the age of seven or eight years, was, after the war closed, sent to her relatives in the north, and was an inmate of the family of W. M. Watkins for some years, where she was educated, and finally went to Ne- braska to her grandmother,-both of them, however, at the present time, being members of Mr. Watkins' family in Leonidas. The money deposited by Mr. Watkins was received by his mother, according to his instructions.
INCIDENTS.
A bear once, pursued fiercely by hunters and dogs, made his way into the village and was discovered by one of the brave pioneer women of Leonidas in her door-yard. She immediately seized the weapon to which her sex possesses an inalienable and indefeasible right, by right of conquest and pos- session, lo! these many years, and sallied forth to dispute possession with Bruin in her garden plat, which his huge plantigrades were demolishing.
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176
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Bruin looked at this new line of attack as it moved to the right, left and front in quick advance, seemingly puzzled to know where the main attack would be made, which was so skilfully masked and manœuvred. The baying of the hounds came floating, deep-mouthed and musical on the air ; the hunters' quick tramp sounded painfully near; but nearer and more dreadful to the pursued beast was the reinforcement of calico and decision moving on his immediate works, and Bruin retreated to the fence, over which he scram- bled, and " clum a tree," from which he was speedily brought by the rifles of the hunters who came up. This may not be " an ower true tale," but we tell it as it was told to us, and our readers can put as much faith in it as seemeth good to them. We do not vouch for its entire accuracy, and yet, if it were true, Bruin would not be the only bear who has been brought to bay by a broom-stick in the hands of a determined woman.
In 1837-8 a military company was organized and drilled in the township, which produced a deal of merriment and sport for the people who were mus- tered into the ranks thereof. The first officers of the company were Levi Watkins, captain, and William Bishop, first lieutenant, who, being old men, the younger men elected, thinking their officers would not call them out to drill ; but the young bloods reckoned without their host, for, though the cap- tain and his lieutenant were along in years, yet they had both been good soldiers in the war of 1812, and were fully competent to drill their company, and they did, putting them through their facings, marching and counter- marching by flank and file, echelon movements, change of front in battle, and all the movements of the old tactics, besides some according to the standard of the captain and lieutenant themselves, who enjoyed the manual of arms and military precision of their awkward squad immensely. The boys were glad to own themselves beat and accept younger drill-masters in the future, and therefore Edward K. Wilcox was elected captain ; O. M. Watkins, first lieutenant ; A. H. Watkins, second lieutenant, and the company organized as artillery; the only heavy ordnance they carried, however, were pocket-pistols. They maintained their organization for some time, and appeared at general parades at Centreville and Sturgis, and at the general trainings in June and September, and general muster in October of each year. There were some thirty or forty men, mostly from Leonidas, being all of the young men of the settlement not exempt from military duty.
THE MILITARY RECORD
made by the men of Leonidas in the war for the Union, was an honorable one. They went forward at the call of the President to beat back treason in its foul and bloody attempt to pull down the temple of freedom, and whether they fought shoulder to shoulder, when the "elbow touch " sent its magnetic thrill through their serried columns, or fighting on the skirmish-line each one for himself, they were heroes all. They faltered not, nor gave back, though their numbers were thinned by the musketry of rebels and their comrades sank to rest, regardless alike of reveille and recall. The bugle sounds in vain for many of them, but they are not forgotten, nor have they, we trust, died in vain. Over each one of those who fell, whether in the camp, the field, the trench or the prison, future ages shall say, as did the young hero of Bunker Hill, " Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."
The following is a list of the soldiers who bore the honor of Leonidas upon their bayonets and her crest in their hearts, in the war of the great rebellion, as taken from the official records of the State :
FIRST MICHIGAN INFANTRY. Sergeant Moses W. Hoffman, Company B; discharged.
SECOND INFANTRY.
Private James W. Wood, Company F; mustered-out.
Private Charles Van Vleck, Company K; mustered-out.
Private William Cooper, Company K ; discharged at expiration of service. FOURTH INFANTRY.
Private Michael McDonough, Company C; discharged for disability.
Private Don A. Rickett, Company C; discharged for disability.
Private Freeman P. Worden, Company C; killed at Gettysburg.
SIXTH INFANTRY.
Private Hiram D. P. Davis, Company F; re-enlisted and mustered-out. SEVENTH INFANTRY.
Private Joshua Wilferton, Company B; mustered-out. Private John Cramer, Company B; died while a prisoner. Private George W. Foote, Company B; veteran reserve corps. Private Henry B. Renner, Company B; discharged for disability.
Private Francis D. Lee, Company B; mustered-out.
Private George A. Collins, Company I; discharged for disability.
Private Chauncey G. Cole, Company I; re-enlisted.
Private Anthony Gerue, Company I; discharged for disability.
Private Thomas Hatch, Company I; discharged at expiration of service. Private Charles Bishop, Company F; mustered-out.
Private Tower S. Benham, Company K; wounded at Antietam ; re-en- listed and promoted to first lieutenant, captain and major, and mustered-out. Private Thomas Foreman, Company K; discharged for disability ; wounded at Fair Oaks.
Private John A. Ford, Company K; re-enlisted and discharged. Private Festus V. Lyon, Company K; re-enlisted and discharged.
Private Mark W. Orcutt, Company K; discharged June, 1862.
Private Wilbur F. Studley, Company K; discharged for disability.
Private Meigs D. Wolf, Company K; wounded at Fair Oaks; veteran reserve corps.
Private Franklin Bills, Company K; accidentally shot, December 4, 1863.
Private Thomas Miles, Company K; missing at the battle of the Wilder- ness, and never heard of since.
ELEVENTH INFANTRY.
First Lieutenant Christ. Haight, Company A; died at Bardstown, Ken- tucky, February 5, 1862.
Sergeant Stephen P. Marsh, Company A; discharged at expiration of service.
Corporal Lemuel P. Pierce, Company A ; discharged for disability.
Private Charles W. Baird, Company A ; discharged.
Private Byron V. Barker, Company A ; discharged; second lieutenant. Private Olney Bishop, Company A; discharged for disability.
Private Eugene Carpenter, Company A ; discharged for disability.
Private Henry C. Damon, Company A; escaped from Andersonville prison and chased by dogs; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Sidney A. Durfee, Company A; discharged at expiration of ser- vice.
Private Barzillai M. Earl, Company A ; discharged at expiration of ser- vice.
Private James Everton, Company A ; discharged at expiration of service. Private John L. Gould, Company A ; discharged at expiration of service. Private Sylvanus Gould, Company A; died at Bardstown, Kentucky.
Private Richard F. Huxley, Company A; discharged.
Private William S. Lemunyon, Company A; died of wounds before At- lanta. His bowels were shot away by a cannon-ball. and he died in awful agony, but never complained, so his captain says.
Private Charles B. Purchase, Company A ; died at Lavergne, Tennessee, September 15, 1862.
Private Elmer Surdam, Company A ; discharged at expiration of service. Private Royal M. Taylor, Company A; discharged at expiration of ser- vice.
Sergeant Charles Coddington, Company A; captain and mustered-out. Private Byron Thomas, Company A; mustered-out.
Private Julius H. Tompkins, Company A ; discharged at expiration of service. Private W. P. Wood, Company A; discharged.
Private Smolloff H. Wood, Company A; discharged.
Private Albert O. Watkins, Company A; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Harrison Surdam, Company A; mustered-out.
Private Richard Hemingway, Company A; mustered-out.
Private James Benedict, Company A; mustered-out.
Private William P. Thomas, Company A ; died at Rossville, Georgia.
Private William J. Barker, Company A; veteran reserve corps.
Private Jonas N. Barker, Company A ; mustered-out.
Private Henry C. Barker, Company A; mustered-out. Private A. E. Farnham, Company A ; mustered-out. Private George W. Cramer, Company A; mustered-out. Private Joseph A. Franklin, Company A ; mustered-out. Private Charles Millard, Company A; mustered-out. Private Hiram Vought, Company A ; mustered-out. Private W. W. Truslee, Company B; mustered-out. Private Addison R. Noble, Company B; mustered-out. Private Madison Watkins, Company B; mustered-out. Private Charles Woods, Company B; mustered-out.
Corporal Martin W. Gilbert, Company C; discharged for disability. Corporal Ezra Warren, Company C; died April 12, 1862.
SETH WEST.
MRS. SETH WEST.
RESIDENCE OF SETH WEST, LEONIDAS TP, ST JOSEPH CO., MICH.
177
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Private Daniel B. Watkins, Company C; discharged at expiration of service. Private Levi Wilcox, Company C; died at Murfreesboro, June 28, 1863. Private W. H. Everton, Company D; discharged. Private Anson T. Gilbert, Company D; discharged. Private Rawdon Keyes, Company D; discharged as captain. Private Melvin J. Lyon, Company D ; discharged. Private W. H. Taylor, Company D; died, January 29, 1862. Private Paul H. Orcutt, Company D; mustered-out. Private William E. Morgan, Company A; mustered-out.
Private C. R. Lamson, Company E; mustered-out. Private Edward White, Company F; killed before Atlanta.
Private Judson E. Hall, Company F ; mustered-out. Private Milton Greenwood, Company F; mustered-out. Private Charles H. Farnham, Company F; mustered-out. Private James C. Arnold, Company F; mustered-out. Private James L. Haines, Company F; mustered-out. Private Albert C. Lowther, Company F; mustered-out. Private R. Barnes, Company F; mustered-out; wounded before Atlanta. Private Felix Baldery; Company F; mustered-out. Private John Etheridge, Company F; mustered-out.
Private Henry Etheridge, Company F ; mustered-out.
Private Daniel Forbes, Company F; mustered-out.
Private E. J. Covey, Company F; mustered-out.
Private Wilson R. Lowther, Company F; mustered-out.
First Lieutenant Myron A. Benedict, Company F; lost his right arm be- fore Atlanta; discharged.
Private C. A. Damon, Company F; discharged.
First Lieutenant J. L. Thomas, Company F ; mustered-out.
Corporal Darius C. Dickenson, Company G ; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Augustus Dickenson, Company G ; discharged at expiration of service.
Private Henry Warren, Company G; discharged at expiration of service. Private Samuel C. Dickenson, Company G ; mustered-out.
Private Walter S. Terry, Company I; mustered-out.
Private William Miller, Company I ; mustered-out.
Private Snyder Tutewiler, Company I; mustered-out.
Private A. C. Shafer, Company I; shot three times in as many charges upon rebel works before Atlanta, and still living ; mustered-out.
Private M. Wilder, Company I; mustered-out.
Private D. Brockway, Company I; mustered-out.
Private Jacob Leginger, Company I; mustered-out.
Private Leander Porter, Company I; mustered-out.
Private Frederick Roberts, Company I ; mustered-out.
Private Charles Smithe, Company I; mustered-out.
Private William Snooks, Company I; mustered-out.
, Private Edward W. Watkins, Company K ; discharged at the close of war.
TWELFTH INFANTRY.
Private Herbert L. Childs, Company K ; mustered-out. THIRTEENTH INFANTRY.
Sergeant William A. Noble, Company H; mustered-out.
Private Moses Helme, Company G ; mustered-out.
FIFTEENTH INFANTRY.
Private John H. Kale, Company A; died at Detroit, May 27, 1862. Private S. Lowell Bacheldor, Company I; mustered-out.
SIXTEENTH INFANTRY. Private Elisha M. Johnson, Company H; mustered-out. Private Orris S. Ferris, Company K; mustered-out.
SEVENTEENTH INFANTRY.
Corporal Anthony Gerue, Company C; discharged. Corporal Theodore A. Hutchinson, Company C; mustered-out. Private Charles M. Clement, Company C; mustered-out. Private Clifton C. Clement, Company C; mustered-out. Private Erastimus McDonald, Company C; mustered-out.
Private Henry C. Thomas, Company C; mustered-out.
Private Nathan C. Tenney, Company C; mustered-out.
Private Joshua C. Wolferton, Company C; mustered-out.
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