USA > Michigan > Midland County > Portrait and biographical album of Midland County, Mich. containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 38
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Value of Local History. ..
ERY few of the present generation realize the great value of local history, living as they do in an age of industry and thrift. The opportunities for speculation and the haste to become wealthy take precedence of everything else, and the fact is not taken into consideration that the pioneers are rapidly passing from the scene of their labors, leaving but little time for the compilation of biographical sketches which constitute the heretofore unwritten history of Midland
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County. Their children have heard from the lips of their aged sires thestory of privation and toil of those who were first at the front in the settlement of the county, but their children will lose sight of the facts unless they be recorded in such manner as to become intelligible and kept fresh in the minds of succeeding generations.
Surrounded, as we are, with everything which wealth and taste can suggest, the fact is almost lost sight of that here were the best years of the lives of our ancestors devoted to the development of one of the best agricultural counties in the State. As the virtues, privations, 'toil and hardships of the pio- neers of Midland are well worthy of a more fitting memorial than can be secured by a granite monu- ment, the design of the publishers is to record a his- tory of inestimable value to every citizen.
The facts mentioned have been carefully culled from every source; neither pains nor expense has been spared in the compilation of this work, which, although not without error, is as correct as can be gathered from the pioneers themselves.
Upon local history depends the perpetuation of facts heretofore unwritten, as well as the biographical sketches of every worthy pioneer"in the county that could be procured. Each sketch speaks volumes ; and a history of one man's life, perhaps of an entire family, is now recorded where naught can efface or destroy it. From this will all future volumes of like import take their data. Those who have volunteered the information from which this work is compiled, will live in the history of this county as long as time lasts. No manlier hands e'er drew a sword than they who faced privation and danger while engaged in the subjugation of the dense wilderness which once covered this now beautiful land, and to them is this volume dedicated.
How Our Fathers Lived.
HE young men and women of to-day have very little conception of the mode of life among the early settlers of Midland Coun- ty. In but few respects are the manners of the present time similar to those of. a quarter of a century ago. The clothing, the dwell- ings, the diet, the social customs, etc., have under-
gone a total revolution as though a new race had taken possession of the land. Pioneer life in Mid- land County finds its parallel in almost every county in the State and throughout the entire Northwest. The land was to be cleared of forests, and the skill of human art used to transplant to the fertile re- gion the civilization of the East. Cabins were to be erected, wells dug, and the rivers and creeks made to labor for the use of mankind.
As many living citizens can well remember, the pioneers had many difficulties to contend with, not the least of which was the journey from civilization to their forest homes. The route lay through a wild and rough country; swamps and marshes were crossed with great exertion and fatigue; rivers were forded with difficulty and danger ; nights were passed in the dense forests, with mother earth for a couch and the trees and foliage for a shelter ; long, weary days and weeks of travel were endured, but finally their eyes were gladdened and their hearts beat faster when a vision of their future home burst upon them.
The first thing upon arrival was to set about build- ing a cabin. While this was being done the family slept in their wagons or upon the grass, while the horses or mules, tethered to prevent escape, grazed on the grass around them. Trees of a suitable and uniform size were selected, felled and prepared for their places. The day for the raising was announced and from far and near came other pioneers to assist in the labor. The structure went up, a log at a time, those engaged in the work stopping now and then to "wet their whistles," and soon it was ready for the clapboard roof, which was held on by huge weight- poles. A door and a window were cut where the good wife directed, a chimney built, and the building was ready for its occupants. The space between the logs was filled in with split sticks of wood, called "chinks," and then daubed over, both inside and out, with mortar made of clay. The floor was some- times nothing more than earth tramped hard and smooth, but was commonly made of "puncheons," or split logs, with the split side turned upwards. The roof was made by gradually drawing in the top to the ridge-pole and on cross-pieces laying the clap- boards, which, being several feet in length, instead of being nailed were held in place by weight-poles, reaching the entire length of the cabin.
For a fire-place, a space was cut out of the logs on
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one side of the room, usually about six feet in length, and three sides were built up of logs, making an off- set in the wall. This was lined with stone, if con- venient ; if not, then earth was used. The flue, or upper part of the chimney, was built of small split sticks, two and a half or three feet in length, carried a little space above the roof, and plastered over with clay, and when finished was called a "cob and clay" chimney. The door space was also made by cutting an aperture in one side of the room of the required size, the door itself being made of clapboards secured by wooden pins to two cross-pieces. The hinges were also of wood, while the fastening consisted of a wooden latch catching on a hook of the same ma- terial. To open the door from the outside, a strip of buckskin was tied to the latch and drawn through a hole a few inches above the latch bar, so that on pulling the string the latch was lifted from the catch or hook, and the door was opened without further trouble. To lock the door it was only necessary to pull the string through the hole on the inside. Here the family lived, and here the guest and wayfarer were made welcome. The living-room was of good size, but to a large extent it was also kitchen, bed- room, parlor and arsenal, with flitches of bacon and
rings of dried pumpkins suspended from the rafters.
The old cabins are rapidly being superseded by modern frame and brick structures, yet with almost tearful eyes we watch them disappear. Every log and chink has a history; could they speak, they would tell us of the days of toil and privation under- gone by our fathers, of the days made sacred by the birth or death of his children, of the religious services which were held there when no church was yet built in the neighborhood, or the merry-makings at which the neighbors for miles around attended, when logs were to be rolled, and a dance given in the evening; the whole to conclude with a supper, the delicacies of which consisted of venison, maple sugar and corn bread. One by one the old log structures are being removed, but it seems almost a sacrilege to tear them down, so closely have they been connected with the success of our pioneers, many of whom now state that although they are now wealthy and have every comfort and luxury that money can procure, yet the days spent in their primeval home and the kindness which everywhere prevailed among neighbors, brought more happiness than is now enjoyed, although their barns are filled with grain, their pockets with gold and their lands dotted with herds of cattle and sheep.
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INDIAN
HISTORY.
J
A BORIGINAL history in this county is somewhat limited. Although these were their lands, and among the best hunting grounds, they were all removed to a reservation in Isabella County, which had been ceded them by the Govern- ment in 1855, which lands are yet possessed by the remnants of the tribes, now nearly extinct. Nearly all the Indians living in this portion of the State belonged to the Chippewa tribe, although the Pottawatomies and Ottawas were so mixed with them by intermarriage that compara- tively few full-blooded specimens could be found of either tribe. There was always a kindly feeling ex- isting between the Indians and the whites of this county, and no disturbance of importance was noted during the early history of this section. Their time was spent in hunting, fishing and trading, having only a few acres of cleared land, which was cultivated very poorly. Their dances were the occasion of much hilarity, and every one who desired was made wel- come as a looker-on. The " sugar dance," the "green- corn dance," "harvest dance" and "war dance" were the only recreations indulged in, unless it were an occasional "horse race," and these were tame affairs, the ponies following each other along a trail in single file.
Their manner of burial was peculiar. The corpse
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was wrapped with bark and deposited in a shallow grave, which, when filled with earth was covered with bark. A pipe, tobacco, and hatchet were put at the head of the grave; and quarterly, during the first year, a squirrel or other small animal was buried, that the warrior might have sustenance for support until he reached the happy hunting grounds.
The Indians could marry for " a moon " or life, just as they liked. The marriage ceremony consisted only in presenting the bride a necklace, blanket, or any trinket, which if accepted constituted marriage. Their number of wives was not limited, some having three or four.
Pay-mos-ega, the aged Chippewa chief, died at " Indiantown," near St. Louis, and his body was kept "lying in state " for several days; plenty of whisky was furnished the Indians from some quarter, and riot and revelry prevailed. During the carnival of drunkenness three squaws were murdered and their bodies burned.
Me-gon-gay-wan, a daughter of the chief men- tioned, afterward married Henry Ashman, who rep- resented the people in the State Legislature at a later date. Two of his sons live in Isabella County, and are both intelligent and worthy men. Mrs. Mary Gruett, wife of James Gruett, who acted as in- terpreter at the Indian Mission, still lives near St. Louis, and is possessed of quite a fund of informa- tion regarding Indian life.
The old Iroquois blood is flowing in the veins of many of them, and here and there one can trace a descendant of the Miamis, the Senecas, and oftener
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the old and once powerful Pottawatomies. The old Etowah and Ojibway (now corrupted into Ottawa and Chippewa) are also represented largely; so the present tribe, designated as "Chippewas of Saginaw, Swan Creek and Black River," is an amalgamation of several tribes which were once distinct. In the Detroit treaty of Nov. 17, 1807, the lands in the Saginaw territory were set apart for the Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandotte and Pottawatomie nations of Indians, as part of a general and divided concession from the Government ; but it is not until the treaty made at Washington, May 9, 1836, that we see In- dians classified as "Chippewas of Swan Creek and Black River." The Wyandottes and Pottawatomies wandered westward, though many of the latter tribe settled in the Michigan Territory south of what is now the line of the Michigan Central Railroad.
But among the new tribe of Chippeways of Swan Creek and Black River, there was a large number still of Wyandottes and Pottawatomies, although the prevailing number were divided between Ottawas and Chippewas, while occasionally, to this day, a Seneca Indian can be found.
Civilization has been driving them remorselessly before it,-first from the beautiful valley of the Miami, up toward the Maumee; from there to the river Raisin, where Monroe now stands; from there towards the Detroit River, but urging them both west and northward from there to the Flint and Saginaw Rivers; but with all these temporizings urging them westward by offers of large annuities, which many of them accepted on arriving at Swan Creek, Black River and Saginaw, this conglomeration of tribes, under their new name, began to clear land, to hunt . and to fish ; but even in what was then a wilderness, they were not allowed to remain undisturbed; for the American Fur Company began the erection of trad- ing posts, and buying their valuable furs of the In- dian hunter and trapper. They and the subsequent traders paid them off in poor whisky and cheap goods at an exorbitant price.
As civilization advanced, many of the whites took Indian women as concubines, living in this unholy alliance as long as it suited either their convenience or inclination to do so, thus giving to these untutored 4
people their first lesson in civilization by teaching them the prostitution of their young women !
After a while this land became valuable to the
whites ; the steamboat appeared where before the waters of the Saginaw and Tittabawassee had known no more disturbance than the paddle of the Indian in his canoe. Business began to prosper, settlers to come in, and in 1855 these Indians were all called together and told that it was to their interest to give up land then worth one hundred dollars per acre and to move again northward into Isabella County, then almost a wilderness. To this they consented, and moved from their possessions to the lands along the Tittabawassee in this county, and to the reserva- tion in Isabella. There were fully 2,000 Indians living along the Tittabawassee when the first white settler came, and the Wymans, Whitmans, Townsends, Cronkrights and others had no other neighbors for years.
All speak of the Chippewa Indians in the kindliest manner, and when the last ones left Midland County for their new home in Isabella, many tears of regret were shed by the whites at the necessity which caused their parting.
Fifty years ago the Chippewas had undisputed possession of this territory, and the Sauks, another powerful tribe, endeavored to dispossess them of these beautiful valleys, which were such fine hunting grounds. A bloody battle was fought about two and one-half miles west of Midland City, at a bend in the river known as the "Ox-Bow," and many lives were lost on both sides, the "Chippewas" however coming off victorious. Their dead are now lying in the old Indian burying-ground a couple of miles southwest of Midland City.
There were two other burying-grounds immediately east of Midland and inside its corporate limits where many of the aborigines were buried. While exca- vating along the line of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad, the workmen unearthed many bones and utensils which had been placed in the graves to aid the warrior upon his arrival at the happy hunting grounds.
They have gone from this county, and had it not been for the efforts of Major James W. Long, who for several years was Indian Agent in Isabella County, and was instrumental in securing them their patents in fee simple, the probability is that ere this they would have been removed to Isle Royale in Lake Superior, or some other equally undesirable locality. As it is, their present condition, as com-
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pared with the past, is bad enough. They are dwindling away, or migrating each year to their old relatives, the Ottawas of Lake Michigan, the straits of Mackinac and Sault Ste. Marie. Others can be found among the Chippewas of Lake Superior, while those who remain earn a precarious living in amateur farming, hunting, fishing and the manufacture of baskets. They are undoubtedly the victims of fate; but it seems hard that they, the original owners of this land, have been compelled to give up so much when they have received so little. At present about 600 Indians are living on the reservation in Isabella County under the provisions of the treaty of Oct. IS, 1864, which was supplemental to the treaty of Aug. 2, 1855, when the tribe was in the fullness of its glory here. The last families left Midland County in 1865, and occasionally some of them come during the summer months to gather huckleberries, which grow in such profusion along the marshes.
The treaty of 1864 gave to each head of a family So acres of land, and to every Indian, male or female, upon arriving at the age of maturity, 40 acres, with the proviso that the Indian Agent shall classify them as " competent " or " non-competent." In case they are reported as "competent," a patent issues in fee simple, and they can transfer their land or alienate the title the same as any other freeholder. The "'non-competent," while having a patent, cannot transfer the title without consent of the Secretary of the Interior.
The reservation embraces the following Congres- sional townships in Isabella County, all being in towns north, by ranges west of the meridian line: 16, 3 entire : 15, 3; 15, 4; 15, 5 entire ; 14, 5 entire, and the north half of 14, .3 and 14, 4. The principal value at that time attached to these lands was the magnificent pine timber which grew so luxuriantly upon it, while this value was enhanced by its prox- imity to the Chippewa and Salt Rivers, by which the logs could be floated to Saginaw and Bay City.
Lumber speculators soon bought the pine, coupled with the right of removal, at nominal figures, after which land speculators purchased the land. Some of the Indians kept their land, but none of them the timber.
It is as well, perhaps, as it is. The theory of the Indian Commission and the would-be humanitarians, that the North American Indians can be turned into a set of civilized farmers, is a phantasy long since ex-
ploded. A percentage of them may be converted to civilization by schools, etc., but an Indian is an In- dian still. His romantic habits and the pleasures of the chase are more to him than "castled halls," and the delights of out-door and field sports cling to him still as they did his ancestry. Locality is one of their chief attributes. Although they are entitled to land in the reservation, not only land, but the means of having permanent and comfortable homes-notwith- standing all this, which any white man would have accepted greedily, the Indian will not take, but even now can be found in his old haunts, rendered doubly dear to him by habitation and the traditions of child- hood. The Indian problem has had a fair, honest and intelligent trial among the Chippewas of Sagi- naw, Swan Creek and Black River, and as far as ameliorating their condition is concerned, it has been a failure. Schools have been furnished them, with patient, earnest teachers. The gospel has been preached to them, hy hard-working, self-denying min- isters of Christ. Many can speak English ; some can "write, read and cipher;" some are members of the Church, and all are peaceable and quiet. Civiliza- tion has done this much; but it has all been for the benefit of its own cupidity and protection. As for the Indian (!), in the wild woods, unbroken by the ax of the pioneer; by the shim.nering stream, full of sustenance to him, with nature at his command, with his bow and his arrow on his shoulder, or his fishing pole or net in his hand,-the Indian of primitive ages was more one of God's noblemen than the non- descript produced by the hypocrisy of civilization.
The inter-marriage of the race has so reduced them physically that a few more years will find but a mere handful of the noble (?) red men who were formerly owners of this beautiful land. When they are gone who will mourn ? Who will drop a tear in memory of their former greatness? They have been dispossessed slowly but surely until a mere spot of land includes their possessions. Their end is near; their race is nearly run. No more is seen the smoke curling from their wigwams; no more is heard the "tom-tom," as its monotonous sound marshaled the braves for the "war dance.' Their camp fires have gone out; their hunting grounds are transformed into luxuriant meadows and highly cultivated fields. Nothing is left save this humble memorial to indicate that the aborigines ever inhabited this country.
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Early Mistory
PECULATION is easy regard- ing the date of the coming of the first actual settlers to the territory embraced by the Mid- land County boundaries, but absolute knowledge of these facts is hard to obtain. There were many Indians and French half-breeds living here as early as 1830, although their location could hardly be called a permanent one, they being chiefly en- gaged in hunting, trapping and fishing. The first actual white settler who came to stay was John A. Whitman, whose ar- rival dates back to the spring of 1836. Not until the autumn of that year, however, did he bring his family and erect his house, but at that early date his was the first house built in the county. This was located on the east half of section 1 in Inger- soll Township, and for convenience was built near the river. The only neighbors Mr. Whitman had for several years were Indians, of whom he speaks in highest terms. They were living in bark shanties and tents made of skins, but the winters were passed in comparative comfort, and very little sickness was known among them.
Charles Fitzhugh came two years later and pur- chased a large tract of land about the junction of the Chippewa and Tittabawassee Rivers, and near by built a log cabin, which was occupied in 1837 by John Wyman. In this cabin, on the sixth day of
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July, 1837, Julia A. Wyman was born. This event was of no small importance, for hers was the first birth occurring in Midland County among the white settlers. She is now living in Midland City, the wife of John McLean. The cabin previously mentioned stood on the site now occupied by the fair grounds, and was the first house built in Midland Township.
For several years less than half a dozen white families were living in the county. The Indians and French traders were numerous, but no attempts toward improving the land were made except to clear a few acres of the underbrush and "deaden " the large trees. A few potatoes and other vegetables were grown, but the chase was depended upon for supplies, which were obtained from Saginaw by means of a canoe, there being no roads for transportation of goods.
Frank S. Burton was one of the early comers to this county, he having arrived in March, 1856. To him we are indebted for many interesting items con- cerning the early settlements. The Townsends, Cronkrights, and a few others, were squatted along the Chippewa at that date, and John Larkin had made his location here a year or two previous.
Charley Rodd, the half-breed Indian who was afterward the first Sheriff of Isabella County, started a saloon in 1855, in a little store in a small clearing on the "Indian Reserve," which now constitutes a part of the farm of Mr. Geo. F. Ball.
Doubtless there were others that still survive, who at that time were domiciled in log cabins niched in
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small clearings, the whole of which was surrounded by and embosonied in the old, solemn and seemingly everlasting forest. The locality now designated as Midland City was at that day only a lumbering camp, which bore the enphonious title of "The Forks." The only buildings standing at that time inside of the present corporate limits, were a rude lumber shanty, with stables and other outbuildings, which occupied the site of the cemetery. The camp belonged to the Copelands, Ripley and Stewart, who employed Timothy Jerome as their agent. He, al- though a resident of Saginaw, is one of the best known men in Midland County.
There were two or three other points upon the Tittabawassee where the company above mentioned had begun cutting and hauling pine and maintained camps. One was below the junction of the Tobacco with the Tittabawassee, in township 16 north, of range 1 west. This camp was called " Sixteen;" and although it has enjoyed other and better titles since, and is now appropriately styled " Edenville," still the old name clings to it, and many will never call it by any other cognomen than "Sixteen."
The first meeting of the Board of Supervisors was held Aug. 13, 1855,-H. C. Ashman, Chairman ; Ed- win P. Jennings, Clerk; and John A. Whitman, Treasurer. The assessment roll for the entire county, embracing all the territory described further on, amounted to $514,292.04. This assessment was approved Oct. 8, of that year, and a tax of one-half of one per cent. was levied to meet current expenses.
The first marriage in Midland County was that of Sylvester Erway, so long a Supervisor of Edenville Township, and Julia Bowman, daughter of Daniel Bowman, one of the first settlers. The ceremony was performed by Esquire Abraham Egbert, April 6, 1855.
Midland County was organized March 29, 1850, but no officers were elected until the amended act of the Legislature of Feb. 8, 1855, which provided for holding an election. All the territory now included in Midland, Bay, Gratiot, Isabella, Clare, Gladwin and Roscommon Counties, were then included in her boundaries. The first election was held at Mid- land, in November, 1855. The officers elected were, G. W. Whiting, Sheriff; E. P. Jennings, Clerk; H. C. Ashman, Prosecuting Attorney; J. A. Whitman, Treasurer ; Solon Kumvill, Register of Deeds; Sam-
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