History of the St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources.., Part 22

Author: Western historical company, Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas & co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Michigan > St Clair County > History of the St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources.. > Part 22

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The Family Gruidee, represented here by the sandhill crane and the whooping crane. Neither of these birds breeds here, and they may be set down as common stranglers or " tramps."

The Family Columbider is very small. Only two representatives are found here, viz .. the common loon, well known for many years, and the black-throated loon, a recent visitor. To form an idea of the quickness of this apparently unwielly bird, one must make an attempt to capture him alive or even shoot him. During travels in the Northwest. 1579 80, the writer

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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.

found three specimens of the family living quietly in a lakeside nest, and left them undisturbed. The Rail tribe is comparatively well known here. It includes the Carolina and Virginia rails; the Florida gullinule and the cool, all common summer birds. The rare summer visitors of the tribe comprise the black, yellow, king, and clapper rails.

The grebe tribe or Family Podicipide, comprises the horned grebe, the pied-billed grebe, as common residents; and the red-necked, and red-eared grebe which come here at intervals.

The Family Anatida is perhaps the best known and most useful of the feathered race. It comprises the goose, duck, widgeon, teal and merganser. The birds of the tribe common to the county are the brandt and Canada goose, the mallard, black, pin-tail, gadwall, wood, big black-head, little black-head, ring-necked, poachard, canvas-backed, golden-eye, butter-ball, long-tailed, Labrador, ruddy and fish dueks, the red-breasted merganser, the hooded mergan - ser, American widgeon, green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, and the shoveller teal.

The Family Scolopacide includes the woodcock. American snipe, red-breasted snipe, up- land plover, long-billed curlew. stilt sandpiper, semipalmated. least, pectoral and red-backed sandpipers, Willst, greater yellow-legs, lesser yellow-legs and solitary, spotted and buff-breast- od sandpipers. All these birds are common here. They are all "waders," and subsist on aqua- tic insects, grasshoppers, mollusks, crustaceans, etc.

The Lurida Family comprises all the terns and gulls known in the temperate zone of our continent. The birds of the tribe common to St. Clair County, are the herring gull, the ringed- billed, the laughing and the Bonaparte gulls. The forktail gull is an uncommon visitor. The terns best known here include the Arctic, marsh. Forster's, Wilson's. the little and the black tern.

A man by the name of Conant speared a large eel in Sarnia Bay. May, 1852, the first of the kind, we are informed, ever caught in these waters. It was four feet in length, eight inch- es in circumference in the largest place, and weighed six pounds. The old French settlers, to whom it was exhibited, looked upon the eel with perfect astonishment, never having seen the like before.

MAMMALIA.

Among the many papers on this subject presented to the writer, there is one specially applicable prepared by J. S. Tibbits. It does not mention the New York and brown bats, the shrew and moles which were once known here; yet it deals fully with the larger mammalia, known to the first settlers of the districts bordering on Lake St. Clair. The contributor states :

"Most of the wild animals common to the State were found in great numbers by the early settlers of this county, and the descendants of Nimrod and Esan found abundant material upon which to exercise their favorite pursuit. The animals mostly to be found here were the deer, bear, wolf, lynx, wild eat, fox, coon, badger, fisher, porcupine, woodchuck, rabbit, mink and weasel. The skunk and rat did not make their appearance in the rural districts for nearly ten years after the first settlements were made. They were both as great curiosities to me then as the mermaid would be now. My first experience with a skunk was a sad, though I think a profi- table one. A neighbor, having an open cellar wall, ascertained one day that a skunk had taken refuge in the wall, and he offered me ten cents to kill and skin him. Being anxious to gratify my curiosity to see a skunk, and luy ambition to earn an honest penny, I readily undertook the job. Ascertaining the locality of the animal, I proceeded with a sharpened stiek to dislodge him. Getting down on my knees, I peered into the hole and gave him a sharp punch with my stick. He immediately resorted to his usnal mode of defense, and discharged a full battery square in my face. I retreated in good order, though in very bad odor, and have wisely concluded ever since to let every man skin his own skunks.

"The birds common in these early days were the eagle, hawk, turkey-buzzard, raven, owl, crane, turkey. partridge, duek, wild goose and a variety of the smaller birds. The crow, like the skunk and rat, did not make its appearance till a number of years after the first settlements were made. The turkey-buzzard, so common in those early days, is seldom or never seen now. This bird resembles the wild turkey more nearly than any other bird, though by no means so large. It is not a bird of prey, but, like the raven, lives on carrion. It is a powerful bird on the wing, and soars to great heights, sailing seemingly for hours without a movement of the

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IHISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.

wings. The quills are very valuable for writing purposes, and the possession of one was con- sidered a treasure, inasmuch as with careful usage one would last through a school term of three or four months.

" The wild turkey was very common, and vast flocks of several hundred were frequently to be met with. The usual mode of hunting them was for two or three persons to proered cau- tiously through the woods till they came upon a flock, then suddenly tire at random amongst them, the object being to scatter them in all directions. When thus scattered, they will inva- riably return to the same spot to get together again, the old ones coming first to call their young together. The hunters, hid in some secluded place. with their " turkey calls " ready for use, would wait patiently for the return of the old birds. These turkey calls consist of the hollow bone of the turkey's wing, and, in the mouth of an experienced hunter, can be made to exactly imitate the piping sound of the mother bird when calling her brood together. Soon the maternal notes of the old birds are heard, and the hunters respond with their "calls," luring them on to certain destruction. After the old birds are killed. the young ones fall an easy prey to the unerring aim of the skillful marksman. The flesh of the wild turkey is esteemed a great luxury, and one of the most delicious meals I think I ever ate was made from steak cut from the breast of a young turkey, fried in butter, and partaken after a hard day's hunt, in which a companion and myself killed seven large, fine birds.

" The wild turkey is sometimes caught in pens made of poles, some five or six feet in height, and covered over the top to prevent their escape. A covered passage way is made under the pen large enough for the turkeys to crawl through, Corn or other grain is seattered in the passage way and inside the pen. The unsuspecting birds, seeing the grain, commence picking it up, and thus one after another crawls through the hole into the open pen. . Once in, forever in.' for they never think of putting their heads down to crawl out again.

" Deer were also very abundant, and scarcely a day passed but more or less of them were seen in and about the elearings. But little skill was required in killing them, the principal qualification being a steady nerve. During the hot days in the sunumer, when the mosquitoes and gnats were troublesome, the deer would resort to the streams and ponds of water during the night to get rid of their tormentors. Here they would fall an easy prey to the hunter. who. in his canoe, with a torch at the bow, would row noiselessly about. The deer, seeing the light, would remain as it were entranced, presenting to the unerring aim of the hunter two small bright globes of light, between which the fatal bullet was sure to be lodged. Another mode of hunting the deer, which frequently occasioned rare sport, was by watching for them on their run- ways, and shooting them down as they passed. One or two persons were stationed on the run-way. while others with the hounds would seour the woods to scare up the deer. When- over one was started. it would invariably make for the run way. the hounds and the men or boys following in hot pursuit. Rarely, indeed, was it the ease that he was successful in run- ning the gauntlet, but usually fell a victim to his ruthless pursuers. A laughable incident oc- 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, commeneed scouring the woods. Soon the deep baying of the bounds 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 yonth, who stood with his riffe cocked, his eyes and month wide open, the embodiment of wonder and astonishment. Hard upon the heels of the deer eame the dogs, and soon the boys, who, seeing their consin in this ludicrous situa- tion, asked in amazement. . Why he did not shoot the buck !' 'Buck !' said he, 'I haven't seen any buek. I only saw the d-] coming down the hill with a rocking chair on his head, and his white handkerchief sticking ont behind.' Wolves and bears were more numerous than agreeable. They were very destruetiv . to the few flocks of sheep and herds of swing then in the county. They were caught in traps and in dead-falls. and sometimes wolves were inveigled

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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.

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 eseape. 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 reeeded 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 ISS1. 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-neeked, 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 eleft the air with their twenty-feet expanse of wing; next undoubted birds, with toothed bills, the one with reptilian vertibra, the other, with a beaver-like tail: while, last of all, omitting the imperfectly-known Sheppey fossil, the feathered archæopterox, 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 ean 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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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.

THE INDIANS.

T MIE Indians having no literature, and of course no written history of their own, have a rement- branco 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 210 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 Sanlt 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 Meo-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 brauch, the "Bois Forts," of the Algonquins, as they were called by the English, whose native name was Sha-guan-da-gawin-ona, or "mon 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 Saes, and the Oda-gal-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 Otchipses or Chippewas gaine I possession of the district from the mouth of the Kawkawlin to the river now known as the Clinton -called by the French, Riciere our Hurons. At this time the great. struggle for tribu supremey took place, and the last Sank warrior foll before the advancing Chipp was in the valley of the Suriniw. Throughout all this district, particularly along its rivers and streams, may be found moun is filled with human bones, scattered round in all directions, showing, ummistakably, that they were cast together without regularity, and telling of tierce and sanguinary battles. So early as 1836. 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 Grnette, 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 Sanks 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 ronnd Green Bay, and the Sioux west of the Messipi. The main village of the Sank 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 continned 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 Sanks, 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 thiek 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 lInron), 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 Bluff's, 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 Sionx 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 hunting grounds, watching for the straggling conquerers, and slay- ing them whenever opportunity offered.

Tondogong, an Indian chief, who died in 18-10 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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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.

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 440. Pattasamine, 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 1831 ; and further that it had been banded 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.

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History of the St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources.., Part 22

Author: Western historical company, Chicago. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas & co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Western historical company, Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas & co.
Number of Pages: 814