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 29
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 29
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If the general government ever seriously entertained the project of removing the In- dians of the Grand Traverse country beyond
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the Mississippi, it was abandoned, and sever- al townships, in what are now the counties of Leelanaw, Charlevoix and Emmet, were withdrawn from market and set apart as res- ervations for their benefit. Within the limits of these reservations, each head of a family and each single person of mature age was permitted to select a parcel of land, to be held for his own use, and eventually to be- come his property in fee simple.
As already indicated, the lands on the peninsula were not yet in market. The In- dians held possession of considerable por- tions, but could give no legal title to the soil. They could, however, sell their possessory rights, and white men, recognizing the eli- gibility of the location for agricultural pur- suits, were not backward in becoming pur- chasers, taking the chances of obtaining a title from the government at a future time.
MISSION MOVED TO OMENA.
The combined effect of the several cir- cumstances narrated above was to cause a gradual scattering of the Indians of the mis- sion settlement. Those who had purchased land on the west side of the bay removed to the lands they had selected in the reserved townships. Seeing that the Indian commu- nity at the mission would finally be broken up, Mr. Dougherty wisely concluded to change the location of the mission itself. Accordingly purchase was made of an eligi- ble tract of land, suitable for a farm and manual labor school, on Mission Point, near the place now called Omena, in Leelanaw county, to which he removed early in the spring of 1852.
Considering the scattered condition and migratory habits of the Indians, it was
thought that the most effective work for their Christianization and civilization could be done by gathering the youth into one family, where they would be constantly and for a term of years under the direct supervision and influence of teachers. And then, a well managed industrial school, it was thought, could not fail to exert, in some degree, a ben- eficial influence on the parents and youth of the vicinity, who did not attend, by a practi- cal exhibition of the advantages of education and industry. In this respect the new loca- tion of the mission was well chosen, being in the vicinity of those families who had pur- chased land of the government and who, it might reasonably be expected, would profit by its example.
Mission Point had been occupied by a band of Indians, called, from the name of their chief, Shawb-wah-sun's band, some of whose gardens were included in the tract purchased by Mr. Dougherty. There were apple trees growing there, at the time of the purchase, as large as a man's body. Tradi- tion says that the band had inhabited the western shore of the bay for a long time, and had once been numerous and powerful.
The manual labor school was opened in the fall following the removal. The number of pupils was limited to fifty-twenty-five of each sex. Young children were not received, except in one instance, when the rule was suspended in favor of two homeless orphans. When received into the school, the pupils were first washed and clothed. The common clothing of both sexes consisted of coarse but decent and serviceable material. The boys were employed on the farm; the girls in housework and sewing. At five o'clock in the morning the bell rang for all to rise. At six it called all together for worship. Soon
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after worship breakfast was served, the boys sitting at one table, the girls at another. Af- ter breakfast all repaired to their daily labor and worked till half past eight, when the school bell gave warning to assemble at the school-room. The boys worked under the supervision of Mr. Craker. Every boy had suitable tools assigned him, which he was required to care for and keep in their prop- er places. Mr. Craker kept the tools in order, so that they were always ready for use, and each boy could go to his work promptly. A considerable portion of the mission farm was cleared, and afterwards cultivated, by the labor of the boys. The girls were divided in- to classes, or companies, to each of which was assigned some particular department of do- mestic labor, changes being made weekly, so that all could be instructed in every depart- ment
In the school-room were two teachers, one for the boys and another for the girls. Miss Isabella Morrison, of New Haven, Connecticut, was for many years the girls' teacher. After her resignation the place was filled by Miss Catherine Gibson till the mis- sion was discontinued. Miss Gibson was from Pennsylvania. In the boys' department, the teachers were successively Miss Harriet
Cowles, Miss Beach, John Porter, and Miss Henrietta Dougherty. Miss Cowles came from near Batavia, New York, Miss Beach from White Lake, New York, and Mr. Por- ter from Pennsylvania.
Concerning the mission, it only remains to mention that the financial embarrassment of the board, growing out of the war of the Rebellion, necessitated the discontinuance of the work. The school was finally broken up, and the mission farm passed into other hands and is now owned by a Cincinnati company, who have changed the building in- to a summer hotel, giving it the name of "The Leelanaw."
Omena has in fact become an ideal sum- mer resort. '"The Inn" is another resort hotel built upon Omena Point, which is filled every summer with visitors from the south. A large number of very handsome cottages have already been built about Omena bay, and many more are likely to be added in the near future. The village is also likely to be- come a town of considerable importance, not only on this account, but because the Manis- tee & Northeastern Railroad will undoubt- edly soon extend its road to this place. The new Traverse City, Leelanaw & Manistique road also touches at this place.
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CHAPTER V.
MR. DOUGHERTY'S WORK IN THE SETTLEMENTS.
During the period of Mr. Dougherty's residence at Old Mission, there being no phy- sician in the country, he was often applied to for medicine and advice for the sick. On one occasion, after Mr. Boardman had establish- ed himself at the head of the bay, at the place where Traverse City now stands, he was called to prescribe for Mrs. Duncan, who was keeping the boarding house at that place. He found Mrs. Duncan very sick. Two or three days after, not having heard from his patient in the interval, he became anxious for her safety, and resolved to get some information in regard to her condition, and to send a further supply of medicine, or repeat his visit.
There were some men from Boardman's establishment getting out timber at the har- bor on the west side of the peninsula ( Bow- ers' Harbor), which they were conveying home in a boat. Hoping to get the desired information from them, and to send the necessary medicine by their hand, he walked across the peninsula to their place of labor. The men had gone home with a cargo. Thinking he might get to Boardman's in time to return with them on their next trip, he started for the head of the bay on foot, making his way as rapidly as possible along
the beach. There was no bridge over Boardman river near the boarding-house, and, on his arrival, the skiff used for crossing was on the other side. There was no time to lose. Not to be delayed, he quickly entered the stream and waded across, the cold water coming up to his chin. Fortunately he found his patient much improved; unfortunately, the boat in which he had hoped to return was already nearly out of sight, on its way back to the peninsula.
Mr. Dougherty would have been hospita- bly entertained, could he have been persuad- ed to remain, but he felt that he must return home. Not stopping to put on a dry suit that was offered him, he partook of a hasty lunch, and set out on his return. Some one set him across the river in the skiff. As soon as he was out of sight in the woods, he re- solved to dry his clothes, without hindering himself in the journey. Taking off his shirt, he hung it on a stick carried in the hand, spreading it to the sun and air, as he walked rapidly along. The day was warm, and the sun shone brightly. When the shirt was partly dry, he exchanged it for his flannel, putting on the shirt and hanging the flannel on the stick. It was near sundown when he reached home, thoroughly fatigued,
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but happy in the thought that his patient was getting well. The next day he was so sore and stiff as to be scarcely able to move. .
Some years later, after the removal of the mission to the west side of the bay, Mr. Dougherty had an adventure that may serve to illustrate the wild character of the country and the shifts to which the settlers were sometimes reduced. While seeking supplies for his school, one spring, he heard that a vessel, carrying a cargo of provisions, had been wrecked on the shore of Lake Michigan, somewhere south of Sleeping Bear Point, and that consequently there was flour for sale there at a reasonable price. In those days the wrecking on the shore of a vessel with such a cargo, while it was, as now, a misfortune to the owners and under- writers, was not unfrequently a blessing of no small magnitude to the inhabitants. The captain of the unfortunate craft was usually willing and even anxious to sell, at a moder- ate price, such provisions as could be saved from the wreck, and the people were only too glad to buy.
Starting early one morning, Mr. Dough- erty walked across the country to the Indi- an village of Che-ma-go-bing, near the site of the present village of Leland. From Che- ma-go-bing he followed the shore round the bay since marked on the maps as Good Har- bor, past the place afterwards called North Unity, and round the point separating Good Harbor from what was then known as Sleep- ing Bear bay, but since called Glen Arbor bay, his point of destination being the resi- dence of John Lerue, who he knew lived on the shore somewhere in that region.
The walk was long and fatiguing. When the shades of evening fell upon the landscape. he had not reached Mr. Lerue's cabin. At
ten o'clock he came to a small shed on the beach, where some cooper had been mak- ing barrels for the fishermen on the coast. It was now too dark to travel, and he re- solved to pass the night there. The air was chilly, but everything was very dry, and he feared to make a fire, lest the shed should be burned. One less conscientious than Mr. Dougherty, and less careful of the rights of others, would not have hesitated for such a reason, but he preferred a night of discom- fort to the risk of injuring a fellow-being. A backwoodsman of more experience would, no doubt, have found a method to make everything safe, while enjoying the luxury of a camp fire. Looking about for the best means of protection from the cold, he found two empty barrels, each with a head out. It occurred to him that these might be con- verted into a sleeping apartment. It required some little ingenuity to get into both at once, but after considerable effort he succeeded. Bringing the second barrel so near he could reach the open end, he worked his head and shoulders into the first, and placing his feet and legs in the second, drew it up as close to the first as possible. In telling the story years afterwards, Mr. Dougherty declared that he slept, and could not recollect his dreams, but, as his business was urgent, the luxury of his bed did not keep him long the next morning. He was out early and soon found Mr. Lerue's house, which was not far off.
He now learned, what would have saved him a toilsome journey had he known it a day earlier, that the flour had been removed to Northport, which was only a few miles from the mission. After breakfast, Mr. Lerue guided him across the point that sepa- rates the bays, and he set out for Northport.
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Arriving there after dark, he was disap- pointed with the information that the flour had all been sold. After a night's rest, not in barrels on the beach, he had no alterna- tive but to return home empty-handed.
Mr. Dougherty was a graduate of Prince- ton Theological Seminary. He was a person of strong convictions, energetic and perse- vering in labor, in manner gentle and pleas- ing. His life work was well done. Blessed with a companion of superior natural and educational endowments, and the sincerety, sweet disposition and polished manners of the ideal Christian lady, the social atmos- phere of his home produced a healthful moral effect on all who came within the sphere of its influence. Mr. and Mrs. Dough- erty were fortunate in their children, of whom there were nine-one son and eight daughters. Two of the daughters died in childhood. The other children grew up to be an honor to their parents and a blessing to the communities in which their lots were cast. At the proper age, most of them were sent east, for a few years, for the sake of the educational advantages that could not be had at home." The society of the early days of the Grand Traverse country was largely in- debted to the Doughertys for the refinement that distinguished it from the coarseness too often found in border settlements.
FIRST MARRIAGE CEREMONY.
Those early days had their romance, as well as their stern realities of hardships and endurance. The first wedding in the Grand Traverse country would, no doubt, form a pleasing episode in the history we are tracing, were all the incidents of the affair placed at the disposal of some one capable of weaving them into shape with an artistic hand.
It has been already mentioned that Dea- con Dame's oldest daughter, Olive M., came to Old Mission the summer following the arrival of the family. She had passed the winter in Wisconsin, where she had been betrothed to Mr. Ansel Salisbury. In the fall after her arrival Mr. Salisbury came to Old Mission to claim his bride. Mr. Dough- erty was anxious that the Indians of his flock should profit by acquaintance with the insti- tutions of Christian civilization. The op- portunity to show them a form of marriage recognized by the white man and the church was too important to let slip; consequently, by the consent of all parties, it was arranged that the ceremony should take place in public.
At a convenient hour in the morning, the little schoolhouse was filled with a mixed company of whites and Indians. There was no newspaper reporter present to describe the trousseau of the bride or the costumes of distinguished guests. We must draw upon the imagination for a picture of the same. We see the bride in simple attire, as became the occasion and the surroundings. There are the Indian women, in their brighest shawls and elaborately beaded moccasins, and the Indian men, some of them clothed in a style only a degree or two removed from the most primitive undress, all looking gravely on, apparently unmoved, yet keenly observant of all that passes. The whites are dressed in their Sunday best, which, to tell the truth, is in most cases somewhat rusty, their hilarity scarcely veiled by the gravity inspired by the solemnity of the occasion. The hymeneal rite is simple and impressive -the more impressive from the simple earn- estness of its administration. Then we see the group of friends on the shore, waving adieus amid smiles and tears, as the newly
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married couple float away in their canoe on the bridal tour.
Mrs. Dame accompanied her daughter as far as Mackinaw. The craft in which the company embarked was a large birch bark canoe, navigated by four Indians. They pro- ceeded directly across the bay to the east shore. There the Indians got out a long line manufactured from basswood bark, and run- ning along the beach, towed the canoe rapidly
after them. At night they had reached the mouth of Pine river, where they made their camp. The next morning, the Indians hoist- ed a large, square sail, and, running before a fair wind, they reached Mackinaw at night. Mrs. Dame returned in the canoe, with the Indians, to Old Mission. Mr. and Mrs. Salis- bury remained a few days at Mackinaw, and then embarked on a steamboat for their home in Wisconsin.
CHAPTER VI.
INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH LEWIS MILLER'S TRADE WITH THE INDIANS.
It has already been stated that Lewis Miller came to Old Mission in company with the Dame family, more for the novelty of the thing than because of any definite plan for the future. At that time the fur trade, hav- ing its center at Mackinaw, was still profit- able. When young 'Miller had been at the Mission about a year, he entered into an ar- rangement with Mr. Herrick, a merchant of Mackinaw, to open trade with the Indians on the bay. Mr. Herrick was to furnish the goods, Miller to conduct the business. A wigwam, rented of an Indian, served for a storehouse at the Mission.
To carry on trade with the Indians suc- cessfully and profitably involved a great deal of hard labor. Frequent journeys had to be made to Mackinaw, and to various points
along the shore, at all seasons of the year. When the lake was open Indian canoes or Mackinaw boats were used; when it was closed there was no way but to travel on snow-shoes, on the ice or along the beach. The winter journeys were always attended with hardships, sometimes with danger. Mr. Miller was usually accompanied by a man in his employ, and not unfrequently by two- half-breeds or Indians. When overtaken by night, a camping place was selected on the shore, where there was plenty of fuel at hand, and where some thicket would, in a measure, break the fury of the wintry wind. With their snow-shoes for shovels, the travelers cleared away the snow down to the surface of the ground-not an easy task when, as was sometimes the case, it was three feet or
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more in depth. Then evergreen boughs were set up around the cleared space, as a further protection from the wind, and a thick carpet of twigs was spread on the ground. A fire was built, the kettle hung above it, and tea made. After supper the tired wanderers, each wrapped in two or three Mackinaw blankets, lay down to rest. On one of his journeys to Mackinaw, in the depth of win- ter, Mr. Miller and his companions waded Pine river, where Charlevoix is now situated, both going and returning.
Stopping over at Little Traverse, when on a boat journey in December, Mr. Miller was informed by the Indians that a vessel had gone ashore, near the "Big Stone," on the south side of Little Traverse bay. It was already dark, but, procuring a boat and two Indians to row, he lost no time in crossing the bay to the scene of the disaster. He found the vessel without difficulty. There was no one remaining on board, but a light could be seen, among the trees, some distance back from the beach. Making his way to it, he found gathered round a camp fire the crew of the vessel, which proved to be the "Cham- pion," and eighteen passengers. Had he dropped from the clouds into their midst, the company would have been scarcely more surprised. He was immediately overwhelmed with questions as to who he was, where he came from, and especially where they were. Neither captain, crew nor passengers had any (lefinite notion of the locality they were in. Learning their exact position, they set about making arrangements to get out of the wil- derness. The captain willingly sold to Mr. Miller, at a low price, such supplies as the latter wished to purchase. Some of them bought boats of the Indians and made their way to Mackinaw. A party, led by the cap-
tain, crossed Grand Traverse bay, landing in the vicinity of Omena, and proceeded south, on foot, along the shore of Lake Michigan. As far as known, crew and passengers all eventually reached their homes, but not with- out undergoing considerable hardship. For- tunately there were no women or children on board the "Champion."
The first bride who came to the Grand Traverse country on her wedding tour was Mrs. Lewis Miller, whose maiden name was Catherine Kiley. She was a native of Lon- don, England, and, like her husband, had been left an orphan. Somehow she had found her way to America, and then to the outpost of civilization at Mackinaw. During Mr. Miller's frequent visits to that place, an attachment had grown up between them, which finally resulted in marriage. The wed- ding took place in September, 1845.
Immediately after the marriage they set sail in the little sloop "Lady of the Lake" for their home in the wilderness. Mr. Miller had chartered the vessel for the occasion, and had loaded her with goods for the Indian trade, furniture and supplies for housekeeping.
The "Lady" was a bit of a craft, but she was a perfect duck on the water and fleet be- fore anything like a favorable wind. The fates, however, if the fates have anything to do with regulating wedding trips, decreed a long and tempestuous voyage. It was the season when the god of the winds, on the northern lakes, delights to ornament their surface with foaming waves, and tantalize the impatient mariner with variable breezes and the most disappointing kinds of weather. The first day they made the island of St. Hel- ena, where they were compelled to seek the shelter of the harbor. There were a dozen sail or more there, waiting for a favorable
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change. Several times the "Lady" ventured out, but was as often compelled to put back. Finally, seizing the most favorable opportu- nity, she was able to reach Little Traverse. Here she was compelled to remain four days. The newly married couple went on shore and found comfortable quarters in an Indian house. The woman of the house had been brought up in a white family in Mackinaw, and, being able to understand the wants of her guests, was in a degree successful in her kind endeavors to make their stay pleasant.
Leaving Little Traverse, the vessel reached the mouth of Grand Traverse bay, when she was again driven back. At the sec- ond attempt she was obliged to heave to in the mouth of the bay, the captain remaining all night at the helm. As Miller came on deck in the morning, dull, leaden clouds obscured the sky, and the air was filled with snow flakes. He proposed to take the captain's place at the helm, while the latter should
turn in for a little rest. The captain gladly consented. Once installed in authority, Mil- ler made sail, and let the captain sleep till the "Lady" was safely moored in the harbor at Old Mission.
A young bride, coming for the first time to the home of her husband, naturally looks with a great deal of interest at the surround- ings. Sometimes there is disappointment. There was probably no serious disappoint- ment in this case, but it is a part of the tradi- tional family history that as Mrs. Miller came on deck, that gloomy September morn- ing, and looked anxiously out upon the scene, beautiful in its gloominess, and saw only the forest-skirted shore and the smoke curling upward from the log houses of the whites and a few Indian wigwams, the first question she asked her husband was, "Where is the town?"
Mr. Miller's oldest son, Henry L., was the first white child born in the Grand Tra- verse country.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SITE OF TRAVERSE CITY.
Not far south of the shore of Grand Tra- verse bay, at the head of its western arm, lies Boardman lake, a sheet of water a square mile or more in extent. From its northwest- ern angle issues the Boardman river, which flows for some distance in a northwesterly
direction, then turns sharply round toward the east, and, after running along nearly parallel with the bay shore, enters the bay at a point nearly opposite that at which it issues from the lake. Its course from the lake to the bay is not unlike the letter V, with
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its sharp angle turned towards the west. The site of Traverse City lies between the lake and the bay, and extends some distance both east and west, embracing at the present time, 1903, the whole of sections 1, 2, 3, the east half of 4 and 9, and all of 10, II and 12, town 27 north of range II west.
All accounts agree in the statement that before so-called improvements of civiliza- tion had marred the adornments of na- ture this was a most beautiful spot. The waters of Boardman lake were clear as crys- tal. The river, without driftwood or the un- sightly obstructions of fallen trees, ran with a swift current through an open forest of pines, which occupied all the space between the lake and the bay. There was no under- brush nor herbage-only a brown carpet of dead pine leaves upon the ground. So open and park-like was the forest that one could ride through it in all directions on horseback at a rapid pace.
On the right bank of the river, a few rods below its exit from the lake, just where the land slopes gently down to the water, there was a little open space covered with grass, where the Indians sometimes landed from their canoes. On the higher land above were some Indian graves, of no great age, each with a stake at the head and foot. Not far away were other graves, of a circular, mound-like form, the work, probably, of a more ancient people. On the northeastern shore of the lake were a few bark wigwams, where the women and children of some In- dian families usually passed the winter, while the men were absent on their annual hunt. With these exceptions, there was no mark to indicate that the foot of man had ever trod these solitudes, or that his voice had ever been heard above the rippling music of the
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