USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches > Part 5
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
Mr. B. O. Williams unquestionably knew more of the Indian history in this region than any of his contemporaries. In the later years of his life he was frequently interviewed by persons interested in the subject. Many of the interviews were published or otherwise re- corded and it is mainly through information gathered in this way that an authentic account of the Indians has been preserved.
Among the many interesting conversations between Mr. Williams and various recorders of history no others have been so widely quoted as those relating to Okemos, the famous chief of the Red Cedar band of Indians. No history of Shiawassee, Ingham, or Clinton county ever published has omitted the story of the life of
29
SHIAWASSEE COUNTY
this old chief, for he was born in the first, spent most of his life in the second, where a village is named for him, and died in the third ; he was buried in still another county, Ionia. The territory of all these counties was roamed
Okemos was born at or near the Grand Saline, on the Shiawassee river, at a date which is not precisely known, but which has been placed by some historians at about 1788. He was of Saginaw-Chippewa stock, his people
CHIEF JOHN OKEMOS
over as a hunting ground by him and his fol- lowers. It is probable also that no extensive history of the state of Michigan exists in which Okemos has not at least his page. And nearly all of these accounts are based upon the estimate of his character and story given by Mr. Williams. And thus runs the story :
having been of the Shiawassee bands of that tribe. It has been said by some that he was the nephew of the great Pontiac, but there is little reason to believe that such was the case, thought it is not strange that he should, in the spirit of genuine Indian boastfulness, be more than willing to favor the idea that he sustained
30
PAST AND PRESENT OF
that relation to the redoubtable Ottawa chief- tain.
How or where the earlier years of Okemos were passed is not known. His first appear- ance as a warrior was at Sandusky, in the war of 1812, and his participation in that fight was the principal event of all his life. On that oc- casion eighteen young Chippewa braves who were serving as scouts on the side of the Brit- ish, and among whom were Okemos and his cousin Manitocorbway, had come in from the river Raisin, and were crouching in ambush not far from the fort at Sandusky, waiting to surprise the American supply wagons or any small detachment that might pass their lurk- ing place. Suddenly there appeared a body of twenty American cavalrymen approaching them directly in front. The red warriors promptly made their plan, which was to wait until they could count the buttons on the coats of the troopers, then to deliver their fire and close on them with the tomahawk, fully ex- pecting that in the disorder produced by their volley they would be able to kill most of them and take many scalps. But they had reckoned without their host. When the flash of their guns disclosed their place of concealment the cavalrymen instantly charged through the cover upon them, sabre in hand. Almost at the same instant a bugle blast echoed through the woods and a few moments later a much larger body of horsemen, warned of the pres- ence of an enemy by the firing, came at a gallop to the help of their friends.
.
The Indians, entirely surrounded, were cut down to a man, and gashed and pierced by sabre-thrusts, were all left on the field for dead. Most of them were so, but life was not quite extinct in Okemos and Manitocorbway, though both' were wholly insensible and re-
mained so for many hours. At last Okemos returned to consciousness and found that his cousin was also living and conscious. To- gether these two managed to crawl to a small stream near by, where they refreshed them- selves by drinking and washing off the clotted blood. Then, crawling, rolling, dragging themselves painfully and slowly along the ground, they at last reached the river, found a canoe, succeeded in getting into it, pushed off into the stream and relapsed into a state of in- sensibility, in which condition they were not long afterward discovered and rescued by Indians of their own or a friendly band. When at last they again returned to conscious- ness they were surprised at finding themselves in charge of squaws who were faithfully and tenderly nursing them.
Finally both recovered, but Okemos never regained his former vigor and Manitocorbway was little better than a cripple during the re- mainder of his life. Each had been gashed with a dozen wounds, the skulls of both had been cloven, and they carried the broad, deep marks of the sabre-cuts to their graves.
Okemos was but a common warrior in the fight at Sandusky, but for the high qualities and endurance which he showed at that time he was made a chief, and became the leader of the Red Cedar band of Shiawassee Chippewas. After the close of the war he made a perman- ent settlement with his band on the banks of the Cedar river, in Ingham county, a few miles east of Lansing. The villages of the band were all located in the vicinity of the present railroad station of Okemos, and there they re- mained until finally broken up and scattered.
About 1814, Okemos obtained, through the intercession of Colonel Godfrey, a pardon from the government for the part which he
31
SHIAWASSEE COUNTY
had taken in favor of the British, and he never again fought against the Americans. The same was the case with his kinsman, Mani- tocorbway. The name Okemos, or Ogemaw, meant, in the Chippewa language, "Little Chief," and Che-ogemaw, "Big Chief."
After the breaking up of his band on the Cedar, Okemos had never any permanent place of residence. He died on the 4th of Decem- ber, 1858, at his camp on the Looking Glass river, in Clinton county, above the village of DeWitt. His remains, dressed in the blanket coat and Indian leggins which he had worn in life, were laid in a rough board coffin, in which were also placed his pipe-hatchet, buck- horn-handled knife, tobacco, and some provi- sions ; and thus equipped for the journey to the happy hunting grounds, he was carried to the old village of Peshimnecon, in Ionia county, and there interred in an ancient Indian burial ground near the banks of the Grand river.
The age of Okemos is not known, some writers have made the assertion that he was a centenarian at the time of his death, while others have reduced the figure to between eighty and eighty-five years. In one account of him his birth is placed in the year 1788, as before mentioned. This would make Okemos about twenty-five years old at the time of the Sandusky fight, and it is almost certain that his age could not have been more than that, since both he and Manitocorbway told Mr. Williams that it was the first fight in which they had ever been engaged and that both of them were at that time young and inexperi- enced warriors. This, with the fact that until the end of his life Okemos was little in body and elastic in step, showing none of the signs of extreme old age, renders it probable that the year mentioned was nearly the correct date
of his birth, which would give him the age of seventy years at the time of his death.
Through all his life, Okemos was addicted to the liberal use of ardent spirits, and in his later years (notably from the time when his band became broken up and himself little more than a wanderer) this habit grew stronger upon him, yet he never forgot his dignity. He was always exceedingly proud of his chief- ship and of his (real or pretended) relation- ship to the great Pontiac, and he was always boastful of his exploits. But he sometimes . found himself in a position where neither his rank nor his vaunted prowess could shield him from deserved punishment.
Upon one such occasion in the year 1832, he appeared at the Williams trading post on the Shiawassee, and, backed by twelve or fif- teen braves of his band, demanded whiskey. B. O. Williams, who was then present and in charge, replied that he had no liquor. "I have money and will pay," said Okemos, "you had plenty of whiskey yesterday, and I will have it. You refuse because you are afraid to sell it to me!" "It is true," said the proprietor "that I had whiskey yesterday, but I have not now, and if I had, you should not have it. And if you think I am afraid, look right in my eye and see if you can discover fear there." The chief became enraged and ordered his men to enter the trading house and roll out a barrel of whiskey, saying that he himself would knock in the head. "Go in if you wish to," said Mr. Williams carelessly, "my door is always open." But the braves were discreet and did not move in obedience to their chief's order. Then Okemos grew doubly furious, but in an instant Mr. Williams sprang upon him, seized him by the throat and face with so powerful a grip that the blood spurted; he
32
PAST AND PRESENT OF
snatched the chief's knife from his belt and ordered him to hand over his tomahawk, which he did without unnecessary delay. He was then ordered to leave the place instantly and never, as he valued his safety, to be seen at the trading house again. Disarmed, cowed and completely humbled, he obeyed at once, and moved rapidly away followed by his braves, who had stood passively by without attempting to interfere in his behalf during the scene above described.
Some time afterward Mr. Williams visited the settlements of the Red Cedars for pur- poses of trade, and made his headquarters at the village of Manitocorbway, whom he held in high esteem as an honest, peaceable and straightforward Indian. While there a mes- senger came to him from Okemos-whose vil- lage was not far off-requesting him to come and trade with him. He had not intended to go to Okemos's village, and was not disposed to do so even upon this invitation ; but at the earnest solicitation of his friend Manitocorb- way he finally went, and was received by Oke- mos with marked deference and respect. The chief had previously dealt at Baptiste's trad- ing post, on the Grand river, but from this time all his trade was taken to the Williams station, on the Shiawassee. This incident illus- trates that Indian trait of character which in- variably led them to give their warmest friend- ship and admiration to those who had boldly defied and chastised them, instead of allowing themselves to be browbeaten by their threats and insolence.
It has been stated that in his latter years Okemos degenerated into a vagabond, a com- mon drunkard, and a beggar, but this is wholly incorrect. He was certainly fond of liquor and occasionally became intoxicated, but never
grossly or helplessly so, nor was it a common practice with him. Neither was he a beggar : for, though small presents were often be- stowed upon him, it was never done on ac- count of solicitation on his part. That he was regarded with a considerable degree of respect is shown by the fact that he was not infre- quently entertained as a guest at the houses of people who had known him in his more pros- perous days. This was done by. citizens of Lansing, Corunna, and Owosso; among the latter being the brothers A. L. and B. O. Wil- liams, the two earliest white acquaintances of the chief in all this region.
From another account, in which the writer grows wildly enthusiastic over the prowess of the old chief, we glean some facts concern- ing his character and personal appearance. "Okemos was a little man,-in his prime, be- fore age and wounds had doubled him up. scarcely over five feet in height. He had little apparent dignity except when he had occasion to throw himself upon it to check undue famil- iarity or to impress obedience or subordination and then his 'austere regard of control' was imperative, fierce, 'and effectual. But the natural mood of the chief was quiet and his temperament decidedly social. For an Indian he might be called talkative. * * No better type could be imagined of mad insen- sibility to danger, coupled with coolness and sagacity than existed in this little warrior. · From the outset of his life, as soon as his foot was upon the warpath, he became the implaca- ble enemy of Americans. He first drew his scalping knife as a young brave in the frontier campaigns on the eastern shores of Lake Erie. and, as usual with old men, his clearest recol- lections were of the first campaign. He fought then tiger-like and held rank from his first
33
SHIAWASSEE COUNTY
battle. Okemos * * was the greatest warrior who ever held sway in Michigan a strategist in battle and had real military genius."
The writer of the foregoing speaks of him- self as one of those who, "on many a long winter's evening and many a sultry summer's afternoon, had listened to Okemos's broken, but impassioned and forcible descriptions of his skirmishes, ambushes, and attacks," and refers to the "zest in which every circumstance of carnage and ferocity was brought to remem- brance."
In the same account Okemos is credited with having commanded a war party of Ottawas who with other Indians defeated General Arthur St. Clair on the Miami river in 1791; with having fought in the battle on the Mau- mee river, August 20, 1794, when the Indians suffered a severe defeat by General Anthony Wayne; with being in the battle of Tippecanoe, November 5, 1811, and also in the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813, when General W. H. Harrison de- feated General Proctor and when Tecumseh was killed.
Another biographer of Okemos asserts that, while the battle of Sandusky was the only open fight in which he ever engaged, "he would boast often, when in liquor, of how many Americans he had killed and scalped." This writer continues, "He was accustomed to way- lay the express-riders and bearers of dis- patches between Detroit and Toledo. His custom was to listen and when he heard one coming to step behind a convenient tree, and as he passed, suddenly spring upon him from behind and tomahawk him."
These somewhat conflicting accounts may be reconciled by allowing for a difference in the
point of view. To some persons the old chief probably appeared a typical Indian of the old school of romance, and to others with less sympathy and imagination, a degenerate, drunken redskin. Mr. William's estimate of his military record is undoubtedly the correct one, since he had a minute account of it from both Okemos and Manitocorbway. His long acquaintance with the two chiefs and his inti- mate knowledge of the Chippewa language gave him an exceptionally clear understanding of their story.
A detailed account of any of the numerous battles in which he is said to have taken part is nearly certain to resolve itself into the story of the fight at Sandusky. They all appear to be different versions of the same tale. What- ever the battle the circumstances were the same. This, perhaps, may be explained by the statement that "for an Indian he might be called talkative," and the remark that "his clearest recollections were of his first cam- paign." The natural boastfulness of the In- dian, the wounded vanity of a fallen chief, living among the people who had conquered him, a sympathetic audience to stimulate his eloquence, and his imperfect command of the English language,-may not these be reasons for exaggerated stories of his achievements on the warpath? And, yet, should a descendant of the people who benefited by his downfall begrudge him the glory that he coveted or a meed of praise for having possessed in his small body a great man's share of courage and endurance, the only virtues that he knew were such ?
Reflecting upon the apparent injustice which may accompany the displacement of a race es- tablished in a land they love, by a conquering and an alien race, we are impelled to the con-
3
34
PAST AND PRESENT OF
clusion that in God's great and perfect plan the soil of Michigan was intended to raise crops. Okemos represented a type of the ob-
structionists, and the white settler was not a usurper, but the instrument by which a pur- pose was fulfilled.
EARLY SETTLERS AND SETTLEMENTS
In the study of American history the first persons presented are explorers, and the pro- cession has continued up to date, for the country which progresses with marvelous strides and yet ever has its frontier of civiliza- tion must always have explorers. The men of that ilk who have gone up and down the half of the world we call "new" present a long array of interesting personages,-from Lief Ericsson and the sublime Genoese to the latest searchers after gold and fame who in this year have lost their lives under the mocking mirage of Death Valley. And "there still is the East"-there lies- Luzon. De Leon's fountain in some form will exist for hopeful hearts as long as human beings sigh for what they have not. While the "lost lead" beckons with elusive, phantoni hand, the prospector will follow until he goes over the range into oblivion. So long as a new country gives promise of wealth or adven- ture, men will seek their fortunes in that land.
The "new settler" is ever a picturesque character and his historical value is enhanced only by his becoming the "old settler." The more personal our interest in the land he set- tled, the nearer our hearts he comes. As the landing of the Pilgrims is to us a more im- portant event than the Norman Conquest, so the name of Michigan's godfather, our own Pere Marquette, is dearer than Lord Balti- more's or William Penn's.
We of Shiawassee are so new in the anti- quity business that we scarcely realize that we
have a history, but more than three score years and ten have passed since the hand of a white man first held a plow in our fair county, and Michigan's records should have no pages more interesting for us to read than the pages writ- ten by those fruitful years. American settlers will never again meet the same conditions of hardships as those endured by the men who first struck their axes into the dense masses of Shiawassee's timber. It took the working life- time of one generation to clear the forest from the beautiful farms about us, and to that gen- eration we would offer homage.
The people who came into the dark oak forest, chopped a clearing large enough to build a cabin in, and there laid their best years on the altar of the world's development, were heroes. Not all of them will have a para- graph in the annals of our busy land; histor- ians are too few. They may have not even a Daudet to perpetuate one of them as a "Tar- tarin of Tarascon." Many have died unsung, if not unhonored, after rendering to their country a service as honorable as that the soldier gives. No iron cross adorned their breasts, no bugle sounded "taps" above their graves, but the immortelles of a grateful people should lie upon their tombs, for the work they did was of great and lasting benefit to Shia- wassee county.
As has previously been stated, in this work, the brothers, Alfred L. and Benjamin O. Will- iams were the first permanent white settlers in
35
SHIAWASSEE COUNTY
the county. But the first man who entered land in his own name with the intention of tilling the land himself and making his home on it, and who lived, died and was buried on the farm he first located, was Hosea Baker. And as the first furrow in the county was up- turned by his plow, he certainly may be called the pioneer farmer.
In April of the year 1833 he and his son, Ambrose Baker, threaded their way with an ox team and wagon through the almost im- penetrable forest lying northwest of Pontiac to the Shiawassee river. Mr. Baker had sold his farm in a narrow Pennsylvania valley and brought the proceeds to invest in Michigan's wild lands. About two miles north of the Will- iams trading post he found the spot that he selected for a home. There the Shiawassee flows in a sweeping curve around the eastern edge of a broad, level tract containing per- haps thirty acres. In this bend of the winding river he came upon an unexpected clearing. Before and behind were masses of hardwood timber, but here was an open meadow for which he saw no explanation. It was not, of course, a "clearing" in the woodsman's sense of the term. Apparently no timber ever had grown there. It is thought that the river's course once lay across the flat. A few similar places were found along the river and they were generally called "Indian clearings," al- though it is doubtful that the Indians had anything to do with clearing them, unless, as is sometimes suggested, they kept the timber burned from these tracts to provide grazing places for their ponies. It is true the Indians had used a portion of the clearing described as a planting ground, but their cultivation had left few marks and the native grass was growing luxuriantly over its entire surface.
1204371
The timbered land to the west rose in a gentle slope.
A more propitious place for a Michigan settler to begin operations in could hardly be imagined. With the help of his son, Mr. Baker built a cabin at the foot of the timbered slope. It was made of basswood logs, the roof having strips of elm bark in place of shingles and split logs furnished the floor. Only a very limited amount of household furniture had . been brought in the wagon, as certain tools and implements and an amount of seed for planting had been considered of more im- portance. A bedstead was constructed of poles placed in holes bored into the logs forming the side of the house, the poles supported at the opposite end by posts, strips of elm bark joined the two poles and served the purpose well. Other articles of furniture were of the same primitive construction.
Mr. Baker began plowing as early as pos- sible and soon had crops of corn and potatoes in evidence. In midsummer he walked back through the woods to Detroit, leaving Am- brose to go on with the farm work, and re- turned to his former home at Wells, Bradford county, Pennsylvania. On his second trip to the west he was accompanied by his wife and three young daughters, and also a married daughter and her husband, Aaron Swain. In Detroit he purchased a second ox team and wagon with which to transport to the interior his family and the household goods they had brought across Lake Erie by packet boat. Dur- ing part of the tedious journey through the trackless forest their only guide was the trees he had blazed when going out. The day on which they forded the Shiawassee and rested in their cabin home on its western bank, Au- gust 4, 1833, the counties of Shiawassee and
36
PAST AND PRESENT OF
Genesee could boast but three dwel- lings inhabited by white settlers, exclusive of the several trading posts.
Only two or three other families came into the county in 1833. In May of that year John I. Tinkelpaugh, with his family, arrived and built a log house on the west bank of the river, about midway between the Williams trading post and the Baker home. The place is still known as the "Tinkelpaugh place," al- though the family did not occupy it many years. Mr. and Mrs. Tinkelpaugh afterward removed to Clinton county, where he died in 1879.
Sometime in the summer Henry Leach, of Detroit, (probably the builder of the frame barn at the Shiawassee Exchange) entered about one hundred acres a few miles down the river, where he built a cabin and began clear- ing his land. At the place where his log house stood a large brick house was afterward erected. This has been known for many years as the "Van Akin place." Within the summer Jacob Wilkinson also came to that neighbor- hood, which is where the village of Vernon now stands.
In the previous year Henry S. Smith had at- tempted the establishment of trading post be- low Shiawasseetown, but did not make a suc- cess of the venture. He was still living there, but was not engaged in clearing land. These settlers, with the Williams brothers at the Ex- change, were the only neighbors the Bakers had in the first hard year of pioneer life.
Hosea Baker was a fine representative of the class of farmers who first broke the soil in the Lower Peninsula. He was forty-four years of age when he came to Michigan. His experience had fitted him to bear the vicissi- tudes of a settler's life. Early in life he had
possessed a valuable property, and, through the familiar process known as "signing notes with a friend," had lost every dollar that he owned. To satisfy creditors he gave up all that he had, even to his last ax. Then by hard manual labor he got together enough money to buy a new farm in the woods of northern Pennsylvania. There he built a log house for his family and there they lived twelve miles from a settlement. When he was not clear- ing his land, he worked in the town, frequently walking the distance between, and it was his common practice to walk that distance to at- tend service at a Baptist church, of which denomination he was a devoted member. In a few years he had accumulated an amount suf- ficient to bring his family to Michigan under the circumstances described and to purchase ·six hundred acres of land. Of such stuff were Michigan's pioneers made.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.