USA > Michigan > Grand Traverse County > Sprague's history of Grand Traverse and Leelanaw counties, Michigan embracing a concise review of their early settlement, industrial development and present conditions...to which will be appended...life sketches of well-known citizens of the county > Part 28
USA > Michigan > Leelanau County > Sprague's history of Grand Traverse and Leelanaw counties, Michigan embracing a concise review of their early settlement, industrial development and present conditions...to which will be appended...life sketches of well-known citizens of the county > Part 28
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The late Rev. George N. Smith, a mis- sionary among the Indians at Northport, whose work will receive more elaborate mention later, tells of having visited the place of the battle at Sleeping Bear and found there buried in the drifting sands the clay kettles set upon stones, as they had been left by the Indians in their flight.
FIRST WHITE SETTLEMENT IN MICHIGAN.
In 1668 Father Claude Allouez founded the first white settlement on Lake Superior and Father Marquette, having been sent to this Ottawa Mission, as it was called, ar- rived at Sault Ste Marie in the spring of 1668, and began his work on the American side. The following year Father Dablon, the superior of the mission, joined him, and this, according to the best information, was the first permanent settlement made on the soil of Michigan by the whites. The Indians had inhabited Mackinaw Island at least some years previous to this. Father Marquette came to Mackinaw in 1670 and in the fol -. lowing year established the mission at St. Ignace.
From the autobiography of Alexander
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Henry, the first English fur trader who ven- tured among the Indians at Mackinaw, we get the first mention of Grand Traverse, al- though we have good reason for believing that the Jesuit missionaries already men- tioned had visited the region all along the shores of Lake Michigan and its bays. The missionaries combined with their religious fervor a zeal for exploration, which has given them a foremost place in the history of the new world, and we have good author- ity for believing that "Le Grande Traverse" was so called by Father Marquette and his co-laborers.
Dr. Leach in his history thinks there is no evidence that Father Marquette ever visited the wilderness bordering upon Grand Traverse bay and that his first tour of discovery from St. Ignace to the west and south was made two years after he took up his residence at St. Ignace, when he set out, in company with Joliet and "passed westward to Green bay, and then to the Mississippi by the way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. Returning, he passed up the Illinois and Des Plaines rivers,crossed the Portage to the Chicago, and from the mouth of that stream coasted along the western shore of the lake to Green bay. After spending the winter and summer there, he set out on a visit to the Illinois, taking the route of the western shore of the lake and the portage to the Des Plaines. On his return, in the spring of 1675, he started to coast for the first time along the eastern shore of the lake. A disease from which he had long been a suf- ferer, assumed increased violence, and it soon became evident that he could not long sur- vive. At the mouth of a little river, sup- posed to be somewhere north of the river that
bears his name, he peacefully passed away, and was buried by his faithful attendants, Pierre and Jacques, who then pursued their lonely journey to St. Ignace. A year after- wards a party of Ottawas, returning from their annual winter hunt, opened the grave, washed and dried the bones, enclosed them in a box of birch bark, and carried them to St. Ignace, where they were received with solemn ceremony, and buried beneath the floor of the little chapel of the mission."
From the time of the death of Pere Mar- quette, in 1675, up to the massacre of Fort Mackinaw, in 1763, we know very little re- garding the occupancy of Grand Traverse and Leelanaw by the Indians, but that they were so occupied at the latter date is very certain, as the fur trader, Henry, who began his traffic with the Indians at Mackinaw in 1761 and was a captive carried away at the time of the massacre, and having spent the winter of 1763 in the region of Aux Sauble river hunting with his captors, gives an ac- count of meeting with a band of Indians from this region. He says: "At the Grand Traverse we met a large party of In- dians who appeared to labor, like ourselves, under considerable alarm, and who dared proceed no further lest they should be de- stroyed by the English. Frequent councils were held and I told them that if ever my countrymen returned to Mackinaw I would recommend them to their favor, on account of the good treatment I had received from them. Thus encouraged, they embarked at an early hour the next morning. In cross- ing the bay we experienced a storm of thunder and lightning. Our port was the village of L'Arbre Croche [Cross Village], which we reached in safety."
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CHAPTER III.
ACTUAL SETTLEMENT BY THE WHITES.
The last chapter closed the account of the traditional settlement of this region by the Indians, and its discovery by the Jesuit missionaries. We now come to the time of its actual occupancy by the whites. Rev. Dr. Morse, father of the inventor of the tele- graph, visited Mackinaw in June, 1820, and preached the first Protestant sermon ever de- livered in this part of the Northwest. He became interested in the condition of the traders and natives and made to the United Foreign Missionary Society, of New York, a report of his visit, the result of which was that Rev. William M. Ferry was sent in 1822 to explore the field, which resulted in the establishment of a school, which was kept up until 1837, by which time the popula- tion had so changed around Mackinaw that it was thought to be no longer desirable for an Indian mission.
At this time the Indians had permanent settlements at various points in the region. There were gardens on the peninsula in Grand Traverse bay and a village at Old Mission, while west of the bay, in Leelanaw county, a small band had their home on the point afterwards known as New Mission, now Omena, and another on the shore of Lake Michigan not far from the present village of Leland. Dr. Leach thus de-
scribes their dwellings and mode of living at this time.
"Their dwellings were of various sizes and shapes, and were constructed of a varie- ty of materials. The most substantial and permanent consisted of a frame of cedar poles, covered with cedar bark. One of these called, o-maw-gay-ko-gaw-mig, was square or oblong, with perpendicular walls, and a roof with a slope in opposite directions, like the simplest form of frame houses among white men. Another, the ke-no-day-we- gaw-mig, had perpendicular end walls, but the side walls in the upper part were bent in- ward, meeting along the middle line, thus forming the roof in the shape of a broad arch. Houses of this kind were sometimes fifty or sixty feet long, and had places for three fires. The ne-saw-wah-e-gun and the wah-ge-no-gawn were light but very serviceable houses, consisting of frames of poles covered with mats. The former was cone-shaped; the latter regularly convex at the top. The mats, ten or twelve feet long and three or four wide, were made of the long, slender leaves of the cat-tail flag (Typha), properly cured and carefully sewed together. When suitably adjusted on frames, with the edges lapping, they made a serviceable roof. Being light and, when
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rolled up, not inconvenient to carry, they were used for traveling tents. Houses of mats were often used for winter residence in the woods, and were not uncomfortable. The ah-go-beem-wah-gun was a small sum- mer house for young men, usually con- structed of cedar bark, on an elevated plat- form resting on posts, reached only by as- cending a ladder. Winter houses in the woods were sometimes built of slabs, or plank of split timber. They were often cone shaped, and were made tight and warm. They were called pe-no-gawn. In the woods, even in winter, they sometimes lived in temporary wigwams of evergreen boughs, which they managed to make comfortable.
"The Indian houses were without win- dows. The fire was built upon the ground, in the center if the lodge was small; or there was a row of fires down the middle line, in a long ke-no-day-we-gaw-mig. A hole in the roof, above each fire, served for the es- cape of the smoke. A raised platform, a foot or a foot and a half high, covered with mats, along the sides of the room, served for a seat during the day and for a sleeping place at night. The mats, some of them beautifully ornamented with colors, were made of rushes found growing in shallow lakes, in- geniously woven together with twine manu- factured from the bark of the slippery elm.
"In their gardens they cultivated corn, pumpkins, beans and potatoes. Apple trees, the seed for which was originally obtained
from the whites, either the Jesuit mission- aries or the fur traders, were planted in every clearing. Wild fruits, especially choice varieties of wild plums, were grown from seed introduced from their distant southern hunting grounds. The gardens were frequently some distance from the vil- lages. The owners resorted to them at proper season, to do the necessary work, living for the time in portable lodges or in temporary structures erected for the occa- sion.
"Though they hunted more or less at all times, winter was the season devoted more especially to that pursuit. Then the greater part of the population left the vil- lages, and scattered through the forest. The chain of inland lakes in Antrim county, having its outlet at Elk Rapids, was a fav- orite resort, on account of the facilities for fishing, as well as for hunting and trap- ping. Many plunged into the deeper soli- tudes of the forest, and fixed their winter abode on the Manistee, the Muskegon, or the Sauble. Others embarked in ca- noes, and coasted along Lake Michigan to its southern extremity, from there mak- ing their way to the marshes of the Kankakee and the hunting grounds of northern Indiana and Illinois. Several families had their favorite winter camping place on the northeastern shore of Board- man Lake, within the present corporate limits of Traverse City."
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CHAPTER IV.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRST PROTESTANT MISSION IN GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY.
In May, 1839, Rev. John Fleming and Rev. Peter Dougherty, missionaries of the Presbyterian Board of Missions, having spent the previous winter at Mackinaw, came to Grand Traverse bay to found a school for the education of the Indians. They brought supplies with them, including doors and windows for a house. They landed in Old Mission harbor, where the Indians had - a village, but found only a few lone Indians there, who informed them that the main band were encamped at the mouth of what is now known as Elk river, on the opposite side of the bay. The next day a chief, with a number of men, came over. The mission- aries told him that they had come by direc- tion of their agent at Mackinaw, and by per- mission of their great father, the President, to establish a school among them for the edu- cation of their children, and to teach them a knowledge of the Savior. They were in- : formed that the head chief, with his men, would come in a few days, and then they would give an answer.
¡ missionaries would go with them they would show them the intended location of their new village and gardens, so they could select a good central place for their dwelling and school. Accordingly, about the twentieth of the month, the missionaries, in their Mackinaw boat, accompanied by a fleet of Indian canoes, crossed the bay, landing at what is now Elk Rapids, then called by the Indians Tawassing. The missionaries chose a location about a quarter of a mile south of Elk river and immediately proceeded to cut logs and erect a building. The body of the house was not much more than erected be- fore a messenger came from Mackinaw with the intelligence that Mr. Fleming's wife had suddenly died at that place. Mr. Fleming immediately embarked in the boat bringing the sad news, and returned to Mackinaw. He never returned to the mission. Dr. Leach says :
"After the departure of his comrade, Mr. Dougherty, with the assistance of Peter Greensky, the interpreter, busied himself with the work of finishing the house and clearing away the brush in the vicinity. Once or twice the cedar bark of the roof took fire from the stove pipe, but fortunately
The chief came and the council was held and the missionaries were informed that the Indians had decided to unite all the bands living in the vicinity, and locate near the river on the east side of the bay. If the . the accident was discovered before any ser-
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ious damage was done. The old chief Aish- qua-gwon-a-ba and his wife, perhaps to show their friendliness and make it less lonely for the missionary, came and stayed with him several days in his new house.
"About the 20th of June, Henry R. Schoolcraft, Indian agent at Mackinaw, ar- rived in a small vessel, accompanied by his interpreter, Robert Graverat, and Isaac George as Indian blacksmith. From infor- mation received at Mackinaw, Mr. School- craft had come impressed with the notion that the harbor near the little island, on the west side of the peninsula ( Bowers' Harbor), would be a suitable point at which to locate the blacksmith, carpenter and farmer that, by terms of the recent treaty, the government was obliged to furnish for the benefit of the Indians. Looking over the ground, and consulting the wishes of the Indians, he finally came to the conclusion that Mission Harbor was a more suitable place. Accord- ingly Mr. George was left to commence op- erations, and Mr. Schoolcraft returned to Mackinaw.
"Soon after the departure of Mr. School- craft Ah-go-sa, the chief at Mission Harbor, accompanied by the principal men of his band, visited Mr. Dougherty, saying that most of the Indians at that place were unwill- ing to move over to the east side of the bay, and offering to transport him and his goods across to Mission Harbor, and furnish him a house to live in, if he would take up his residence with them. Convinced that, all things considered, the harbor was a more eligible site for the mission, Mr. Dougherty at once accepted the proposal. Leaving what things were not needed for immediate use, and loading the balance in Indian canoes he was ferried across the bay to the scene
of his future labors-the place where he had first landed not many weeks before, and which, under the name of Old Mission, has since become famous as a center of develop- ment of the agricultural interests of north- western Michigan.
"The next day arrangements were made for opening a school, with interpreter Green- sky as teacher, in the little bark wigwam that the Indians had vacated for Mr. Dough- erty's use. Then followed a hard summer's work. Mr. Dougherty and Mr. George com- menced the construction of a house for them- selves. The logs for the building were cut close along the border of the harbor, floated to a point near where they were to be used, and then dragged to the site of the building by hand. Of course the work could never have been accomplished without the aid of the Indians. The house was covered with shingles, such as the two inexperienced men were able to make, and a few boards brought from Mackinaw with their supplies. The building was so nearly completed that the men found themselves comfortably housed before winter fairly set in.
"Desiring not to be left alone while the Indians were absent on their annual winter hunt, Mr, Dougherty induced the chief Ah- go-sa and two others, with their families, to remain till sugar making time in the spring, by offering to help them put up com- fortable houses for winter. There is some uncertainty about the style of these houses. We are informed that the offer was to help them put up log or slab shanties. If finally the latter was determined on, the slabs must have been rough planks, split out of suitable logs with beetle and wedges, and smoothed with an ax. Whether the shanties were built cone shape or not, by placing the planks
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on end in a circle, with tops inclining inward like the Ottawa pe-bo-ne-gawn, does not ap- pear. Before they were finished, the weather had become so cold that boiling water had to be used to thaw the clay for plastering the chinks in the walls. Mr. Dougherty's house stood on the bank of the harbor, east of the site afterwards occupied by the more commodious and comfortable mission house. The chief's shanty was built on the south side of the little lake lying a short distance northwest of the harbor. The cabins of the other two Indian families were located a little way south of where the mis- sion church was afterwards built.
"In the fall John Johnston arrived at the mission, having come, by appointment of Mr. Schoolcraft, to reside there as Indian farmer. During the winter the mission family consisted of the four men-Dough- erty, George, Greensky and Johnston. Mr. Johnston had brought with him a yoke of oxen, for use in Indian farming. There was no fodder in the country, unless he may have brought a little with him. Be that as it may, he found it necessary to browse his cattle all winter.
"In the spring of 1840 the log house which had been built at Elk Rapids the pre- vious year was taken down, and the mater- ials were transported across the bay and used in the construction of a school house and wood shed. Until the mission church was built, a year or two after, the school house was used for holding religious services, as well as for school.
"In the fall of 1841, besides Indian wig- wams, there were five buildings at the mis- sion-the school house and four dwellings. All were built of logs, and all, except Mr. Dougherty's house, were covered with cedar
bark. The dwellings were occupied by Mr. Dougherty, missionary, Henry Bradley, mission teacher, John Johnson, Indian farm- re, and David McGulpin, assistant farmer. Mr. George was still there, and there had been another addition to the community in the person of George Johnston, who had come in the capacity of Indian carpenter. As regards race, the little community, the only representatives of Christian civilization in the heart of a savage wilderness, was somewhat mixed. John Johnston was half Indian with a white wife; McGulpin was a white man with an Indian wife. All the others, except Greensky, the interpreter, were whites.
"As the little community represented two races, so also it represented two distinct agencies, working in harmony for the im- provement of the physical, intellectual and moral condition of the Indians. The blacksmith, carpenter and farmer were em- ployes of the United States government, appointed by the Indian agent at Mackinaw, . and subject to his control. It was their duty to instruct the Indians in the simpler and more necessary arts of civilization. The missionary and his assistants, the interpreter and teacher, were employed by the Presby- terian board and supported by missionary funds. The only assistance they received from the government was an allowance for medicines dispensed to the Indians.
"In the fall of 1841 an event occurred that must have created a little flutter of ex- citement in the quiet and isolated settle- ment at the mission. It was on a pleasant morning in September that the little schooner "Supply" came into the harbor, having on board as passengers, besides Mr. and Mrs. Dougherty and their infant daughter, Hen-
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rietta, two persons whose names have since become intimately associated with the events of the early history of the Grand Traverse country. Those two persons were Deacon Joseph Dame and Lewis Miller.
"We are not informed at which time Mrs. Dougherty first came to the mission. On the occasion referred to she and her husband were returning from a visit to Mackinaw, where they had gone some time previously, in order to be within reach of suitable assist- ance at the period of Mrs. Dougherty's con- finement. Deacon Dame had received the appointment of Indian farmer, as successor to John Johnston, and came to enter upon the duties of his office. With him were Mrs. Dame, their eldest son, Eusebius F., and two daughters, Almira and Mary. Another daughter, Olive M., came the following year. Lewis Miller was an orphan, left alone to make his way in the world. His birthplace was Waterloo, Canada West; the date of his birth September 14, 1824. The year 1839 found him in Chicago. From that city, in 1840, he made his way to Mackinaw. Here be became acquainted with the Dames. A strong friendship grew up between him and Mr. and Mrs. Dame. When, in 1841, Dea- con Dame received his appointment as In- dian farmer, and commenced preparations for removal to his new field of labor, Miller, then seventeen years of age, resolved to ac- company him, more for the novelty of the thing than from any definite purpose with reference to the future. Except the children who came with their parents, he was the first white settler in the Grand Traverse country who did not come in consequence of an appointment from the Presbyterian board on the Mackinaw Indian agency. Eusebius
and Almira Dame were in their teens; Mary was younger. During some portion of the time for the next year or two, the three, with young Miller, were pupils in the mission school. Except the Catholic mission school at Little Traverse, it was the first in the Grand Traverse country.
"About 1842, the construction of a more commodious dwelling and a mission church was commenced by Mr. Dougherty. The dwelling, since known as the mission house, was the first frame building erected in the Grand Traverse country. The church had solid walls of hewn cedar timbers laid one upon another and kept in place by the ends being fitted into grooves in upright posts. The timbers were brought from the east side of the bay, in a huge log canoe, or dug-out, called the 'Pe-to-be-go,' which was thirty feet long, and, it is said, was capable of car- rying twenty barrels of flour."
At the present writing, sixty years after the completion of these buildings, the Mission House, enlarged and greatly improved, is owned and occupied by Mr. Rushmore, and known as the Rushmore House, and is used and well patronized as a hotel for summer visitors. The church has been moved from its original location near the beach, up to front the street, sided up, painted and put in good repair, and is owned and used by the Methodist Episcopal church at Old Mission as a place of worship. The little log school- house, in which Mr. Bradley taught Lewis Miller and the young Dames, in connection with the Indian boys and girls, was de- stroyed by fire many years ago.
During the ten years between 1842 and 1852 some changes occurred at the mission. Mr. Bradley as teacher was succeeded by a
·
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gentleman by the name of Whiteside. Not liking the position, Mr. Whiteside soon re- signed, and was followed by Andrew Porter.
Changes were also made, from time to time, among the employes of the Indian agency. Some of them remained in the coun- try after their connection with the agency had terminated, and turned their attention to farming or other pursuits. Among such appear the names of John Campbell, Robert Campbell, William R. Stone and J. M. Pratt. Among the earlier settlers not connected with the mission or the agency were H. K. Coles, John Swaney and Martin S. Wait. O. P. Ladd and his brother-in-law, Orlin Hughson, settled on the peninsula as early as 1850, but remained only two or three years. E. P. Ladd, having come on a visit to his sister, Mrs. Hughson, in May, 1852, was so well pleased with the country that he at once determined to make his home here. G. A. Craker arrived in April of the same year, and immediately hired out to Mr. Dougherty.
The little group of wigwams and log cabins at the harbor had grown to a village of considerable size. The Indians had gen- erally abandoned their early style of wig- wams and were living in houses built of hewn logs and whitewashed on the inside. Seen from a distance, the village presented a pret- ty and inviting appearance; a close inspec- tion did not always confirm first impressions. According to their original custom, the In- dians lived in the village, and cultivated gar- dens some distance away.
The gardens, or patches of cultivated ground, were of all sizes, from one acre to six. The Indians had no legal title to the soil. By the terms of treaty, the peninsula had been reserved for their exclusive occu-
pation for a period of five years, and after that they were to be permitted to remain during the pleasure of the government. The period of five years had long since expired. Their landed property was held by suffrance and was liable at any moment to be taken away. The project of removing them be- yond the Mississippi was at one time serious- ly entertained by the government, or at least it was so understood. The prospect was not pleasing to the Indians. A deputation sent to examine their proposed new home in the west reported unfavorably. They determined not to be removed, preferring to take ref- uge in Canada, as a large part of the Indian population of Emmet county had done sever- al years before.
At this juncture, the adoption of the re- vised state constitution of 1850 made citizens of all civilized persons of Indian descent, not members of any tribe. Here was a way out of the difficulty. They could purchase land of the government, settle down upon it, and claim the protection of the state and the general government as citizens. The land on the peninsula was not yet in market; that on the west shore of the bay was. By the ad- vice of Mr. Dougherty, several families agreed to set apart a certain amount of their next annual payment, for the purchase of land. A list of names was made, and the chief was authorized to receive the money from the agent at Mackinaw, which he brought to Mr. Dougherty for safe keeping. Having made their selections, on the west side of the bay, some of their most trusty men were sent to the land office, at Ionia, the following spring, to make the purchase.
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