USA > Michigan > St Clair County > St. Clair County, Michigan, its history and its people; a narrative account of its historical progress and its principal interests, Vol. I > Part 20
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By 1840, however. several more families had moved into the new settlement, Robert R. MeNiff. Amasa Rust. John and Reuben Warner. Peter Dumas, Dr. Orange B. Reed, Selden A. Jones, who was postmaster from 1841 to 1846. and later moved to Port Huron, Zael Ward. a brother of Samuel, Jonas C. Brigham. Jacob L. Wolverton, who was for many years the chief designer of the Ward boats. very skillful and successful. There were a few other families but the entire community was dominated by the personality of Samnel Ward, who. during his lifetime. could not brook opposition to his plans or wishes.
EARLY ALGONAC
That part of Algonac lying within section 11 was purchased in 1818 by Dr. Edward Purcell. who was stationed for a time in 1816 at Fort Gratiot in the capacity of surgeon's mate, as he was then termed, or post surgeon. Upon the assessment roll of 1821 the only tax payers living in what is now Algonac were Silas Miller. Ira Marks, and Angus McDonald, although none of these is credited with owning any real estate. In
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1826 Ira Marks and Ebenezer Westbrook bought land in section 10 and the latter later took a very active part in the building of the first Meth- odist Episcopal church at Algonac-the first Protestant church building in the county-doing most of the collecting of the subseriptions and do- nating the land for the site. When the eensus of 1830 was taken there was as yet no evidence of a future town and it was not until 1836 the village plat was made, chiefly bought from Silas Miller and Ebenezer Westbrook, that there began to be a local community. Dan Daniels and Joel Tueker, who had a saw mill and a general store, eame in that year, followed by Horace Beers, Michael Jackson, J. L. and A. G. Peer, Weaver Stewart, Charles Phillips, Charles L. Poole, James Burt, Samuel Russell, George Jasperson, P. F. Brakeman, and they, with a few others, started the village on its career.
CHAPTER XI
REMINISCENCES OF THREE PIONEERS
INDIANS APPEAR WITH SCALPS-THREATEN TO KILL FAMILY-HOW A WOMAN TRAVELED-NANCY BROWN BECOMES MRS. BRAKEMAN- CHOLERA AT FORT GRATIOT-PORT HURON IN 1836-CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS-INDIAN MEDICINE DANCE AND FEAST-ST. CLAIR IN 1830- LUCY COX MARRIES MR. VANCE-CAPT. ANDREW WESTBROOK-THE ST. CLAIR REGION IN 1815-THE COTTRELLS-JOHN K. SMITH-DR. HARMON CHAMBERLAIN-JUDGE BUNCE AND CAPT. AINSWORTHI- JACOB PEER-JACOB KENDALL,-THE HARSENS-THIE WARDS-LAW- YER O'KEEFE-THE OLD COUNTY SEAT-PIONEER STEAMBOATS- INCIDENTS OF WAR OF 1812-FIRST VISITING MINISTER-BRITON VS. YANKEE-ANOTHER INDIAN STORY-THIE HARSENS AGAIN.
By Mrs. Nancy Brakeman
I am the second daughter of Captain William Brown and Martha Thorn, and a grand-daughter of Captain William Thorn, who was a native of Providence. R. I .. and an early settler on the River St. Clair at Cottrellville. who died at Port Huron, 1842. In my family there were nine children, four sons and five daughters. and I was the third child, a native of the town of Moore, Kent county, Upper Canada, born January 17th, 1811. Both my father and mother were of Scotch and English descent. and natives of Detroit.
INDIANS APPEAR WITH SCALPS
My father was born in 1784, and my mother in 1786. They were married in Cottrellville January, 1806, to which place my grandfather Thorn had moved his family shortly after my mother was born. Some time during that year they moved across the river to Canada and pur- chased land of the Indians. and settled on what is known as the Suther- land place, nearly opposite what is now St. Clair city. There they found some very warm friends among the Indians in that vicinity, and some very hostile. during the War of 1812. I remember hearing my mother relate a circumstance that happened at that time. My father had gone away to drive his cattle far back in the woods to secrete them from the Indians: during his absence a number of Indians came into our house with thirteen scalps hung on a pole. some were gray-haired.
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and some were the soft fair hair of infants. My mother was at the barn and saw them enter the house; she scarcely knew what to do, but thought she must try and protect her four children, the youngest a babe in the cradle, who became James D. Brown, Marine City. As she went in they shook the sealps at her. saying "These are your fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters," meaning they were American scalps. One of the Indians asked her if she was afraid. She replied, "No, I am not afraid of any of you." She could speak their language. He then said. "Give us something to eat." She told them to be quiet and she would. They did so. and she provided them with food, and they left in peace, but she felt it was a very narrow escape; no doubt they respected her courage, and they were always glad to meet with a person speaking their language.
At the time the Indians came in with scalps, they took from a cup- board several bottles containing medicine for the children, such as essence of peppermint. paregorie, etc., and poured the contents on the floor, saying, "These are bad medicine, you have to poison the Indians."
THREATEN TO KILL FAMILY
I also very distinctly remember seeing my father hide the cooking utensils under the door-steps, and bury a small wooden box containing money at the foot of an apple tree for safety from the Indians. On one oceasion they had two yoke of oxen. two cows, three hogs, and four sheep killed in one day by five hundred Indian warriors, on their return after their defeat by Major Croghan at Sandusky. They suffered num- erous depredations of this kind until the hostility of the Indians cul- minated in a determination at council to kill my father and his family, because they thought him to be too much of a Che-mook-ke-mon, or Big Knife (American). However, an old Indian friend of his came at night and acquainted him with the result of the council, and the fact that six Indians had been deputed to come the next afternoon to massacre the family. This friend urged him not to tell the Indians who had reported this, "For," said he, "they will kill me if you do." My father was a very courageous man, and equal to the emergeney ; he prepared for their arrival, and they came just as he had been told, armed with tomahawks and scalping knives; he let them all in the house, and passed them chairs upon which to sit down. He then took his gun in one hand, tomahawk and butcher knife in the other and said to them, "I know why you have come; you have come to kill me and my family." The chief inquired, "Who told you so?" Father replied, "The Great Spirit came in the form of a little bird and told me all you were going to do. But," said he, "the first man that raises his knife or tomahawk is a dead man, I can kill the whole of you before you leave the house." This act of bravery had its desired effect. The Indian respects courage in friend or foe. "Well." said the chief, "give us a sheep and a hog and we will go and have a feast and be friends forever." He told them to take them, which they did, and had a grand time, and left the family unmolested.
They remained there about nine years, until 1814, the year General
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Proetor issued his proclamation requiring all settlers to take the oath of allegience to the laws of Great Britain or leave the country. Accord- ingly my father removed with his family to Detroit, leaving at night in a large row boat with muffled oars. At Detroit he was employed by the United States government to assist in building a stoekade fort. While there was sent by General Butler, then commander of the post of Detroit, with forty men, to drive sixty head of fat cattle around Lake St. Clair to Fort Gratiot, as the troops there were in need of provisions, and this he did very successfully and was greatly praised for it.
In 1816, father purchased land in Cottrellville and removed his family there, and was one of the first settlers on the river in this county after the war. My parents and all the family spoke the Indian and Freneh languages. I learned English, French and Indian at the same time. After the family settled in Cottrellville, father traded with the French and Indians for a long term of years, and employed both Indians and Frenehmen to assist him in his work on his farm. In an early day the family were acquainted with about every French and Indian family on the river, and others at Detroit and Mt. Clemens. I well remember seeing Judge Z. W. Bunce, in 1817, at my grandfather's, William Thorn. when he first came on the river. and again in 1827, when he brought his bride to this county. They were guests at my father's for several days. Also I distinctly remember seeing the late Mark Hopkins, Sr .. father of the late Samuel F. Hopkins, when he first came to this county. He was also a guest at my father's for some time. I spent the winter of 1827-1828 in the family of my uncle, the late James Fulton, Esq., at the county seat, now St. Clair city. He built the first jail in St. Clair county, which I well remember seeing; it was built of logs. I was well acquainted with Mr. Charles Phillips, the blacksmith who made the loek for the door. His children were my schoolmates. I was also ac- quainted with the first prisoner who was confined in the jail, and all his family, who were very respectable and settled on the river in a very early day. He boarded with me eighteen months after my marriage with Mr. Brakeman. My uncle Fulton was sheriff when St. Clair and Macomb eounties were one.
HOW A WOMAN TRAVELED
The mode of traveling in this section in an early day was, in the summer, in sailboats, French batteaux, and canoes; in the winter, in carioles and French trains. I made visits in an early day to St. Clair. Mt. Clemens and Detroit. My family had a large circle of relatives and acquaintances at these places at that time. Occasionally I meet with an old Indian or French friend, and always use their language when visiting with them.
At one time my aunt Fulton and I went from St. Clair to Mt. Clemens in a eanoe with one man to paddle. to take home a young lady cousin who had been visiting them. Another time my father and I went from our home to Detroit all the way on the ice in a cariole; we started before sunrise and arrived in Detroit early in the evening. At one time I went to Detroit in company with my cousin, the late Thomas
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S. Knapp, an early resident of Detroit, in a boat carrying lumber; made a visit, and returned in company with my uncle, Abram Cook. father of Mrs. John Owen, of Detroit. We took passage in a large skiff with Dr. Harmon Chamberlain and Mark Hopkins, Sr. The first day we went as far as Grosse Point and were detained there over night and all the next day by head wind, staying at Knoxson's hotel. The third day there was not much wind and Messrs. Chamberlain and Hopkins rowed and my uncle steered the boat. They missed the right channel and we were obliged to stay overnight on an uninhabited island. I and my uncle slept in the skiff with the sail arranged for an awning; Messrs. Chamberlain and Hopkins slept on shore with an umbrella over then. I remember it was a beautiful moonlight night. The morning of the fourth day they rowed two or three hours when we arrived at Harsen's Island, where we took breakfast and were hospitably entertained at Cap- tain Bassett's. Mrs. Bassett was an English lady who died at Saginaw a few years since. We arrived home that day, and Messrs. Chamber- lain and Hopkins went on to St. Clair.
At one time I rode on horseback in company with Thomas Palmer, father of Senator Palmer, from my home to St. Clair, a distance of ten miles, in one hour and twenty minutes. There was no bridge over Pine river at that time. My uncle Fulton kept the ferry, which was a skiff. When we arrived at the river the boat was on the opposite shore. We called and waited for someone to ferry us across. When they came they put our saddles in the boat and rowed us across while we sat and held our horses by the bridles and swam them over.
Many more visits might be mentioned but these will suffice to give an idea of traveling in this section of the country in an early day. There was no steamboat then on the Port Huron and Detroit route. I distinctly remember seeing Governor Cass and family taking a pleasure ride on the Detroit river in a birch-bark canoe rowed by Frenehmen, who would sing their French songs as they plied the oars. When I was quite a small girl he came up from Detroit in a birch canoe with ten Frenchmen, five on each side of the boat, rowing and singing. He landed at my father's, the men sat on the river bank and ate their corn soup, which they brought with them, and the governor was entertained at the house. He was on his way up the lakes.
NANCY BROWN BECOMES MRS. BRAKEMAN
My first home after my marriage with Mr. Brakeman, in 1832, was one and a half miles north of Point du Chene, now Algonac. We were united in marriage by John K. Smith, Esq., an early settler on the river, an intimate friend of Mr. Brakeman's then and during his life. Mr. Brakeman was then engaged in the mercantile business and also carried on an extensive trade with the French and Indians. He learned then the Indian language so he could converse with them quite fluently. and was a great friend and favorite of theirs. They were very frequent visitors at our house, and never left hungry or cold. My husband had three Indian names; the first given him was Nee-win-ah-skee-zhick-ah- neeteh-kee-nah-see, four-eyed man's friend, from the fact that he clerked
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for Messrs. P. F. Verhoeff & Company, and Mr. Verhoeff wore glasses. so they called him four-eyed man, and Mr. Brakeman was his friend. The second name they gave him was Ah-tong-ganee. the borrower, as he was then selling goods on commission. They would sometimes want him to trust them, but he would refuse, saying the goods were borrowed. hence the name. They always called him by that name and still use it in speaking of him. They mention his name to this day with reverence. even the younger ones who never saw him, will speak of him and tell how their parents have told them about him. The third name was given him about 1832, from a circumstance that occurred while trading with the Indians. An Indian whose name was Sau-guteh, son of Wah-bon-oo- see. then residing in Canada. was in his store at the same time with an Englishman, William Williams, a shoemaker, an early settler on the river. Sau-gutch being a little intoxicated. began to quarrel with Mr. Williams, pointing a loaded gun at him. Neither he (Williams) nor Mr. Brakeman could prevail on him to behave himself. Mr. Brakeman. fearing there might be trouble with the gun, took it from him. stepped to the door and fired it off, then came in, took a heavy walnut ruler and knocked him senseless to the floor. He fell as though dead. His Indian friends who were in company with him never uttered a word. but dragged him from the store to the river, pulling him into their canoe and took him home to Canada. Mr. Brakeman thought he was dead and expected to have trouble with the Indians in regard to it. The next day he saw a canoe laden with Indians paddling for the American shore. They landed and came in his store. San-gutch, the supposed dead man, and his father being in the company. The father told the son to shake hands with Ah-tong-ganee, and bury the tomahawk, meaning to forgive. and be friends, and from thenceforth they must be brothers. He then adopted Mr. Brakeman in his family as a son and gave him the name of a deceased son. Wah-bo-gok. which means white porcupine. From that time until the death of Sau-gutch. which occurred about four years before Mr. Brakeman's death, they were warm friends. In later years. as my hair became gray and Mr. Brakeman's still a beautiful black, and he retained a very youthful appearance. Sau-gutch would speak of it, saying in broken English. pointing to my hair. "Nancy an old squaw, Brakeman, my brother, a young man." The Indians despise gray hair.
CHOLERA AT FORT GRATIOT
It was while residing there the first year of our marriage that awful scourge, the Asiatic cholera, attacked the soldiers at Fort Gratiot. It was brought there by a company of soldiers from New York, and so many were dying with it that the commanding officers disbanded them, that seeming to be the only way to manage at that time. The poor fellows, strangers, wandered along the river, not knowing where to go or what to do, and some died by the roadside. There are several soldiers buried on the bank of the river a short distance north or our home in St. Clair township. We cared for several of them who had wandered as far as our place, or rather, to an old log house a little north of our residence, and were there siek and were found by Mr. Brakeman as he
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went one evening in search of his cows. They all recovered under kind treatment and offered us remuneration. On our refusing, thinking we had only done onr duty to fellow men, the soldiers presented us with some books and a gold ring, as a token of their appreciation of the kindness bestowed on them. Some of the books are at present in the library at the Brakeman homestead. One of our neighbors. who was very much alarmed about the cholera, complained to Major Thompson that Mr. Brakeman was harboring cholera soldiers. The major replied, "I am well acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Brakeman; they are doing right. Begone, you seoundrel, or I will call up my men and drum you out of eamp."
At the same time, Major Thompson and other officers, with their families, left Fort Gratiot with a large company of their men and went down in large sailboats to Cottrellville to Captain Brown's. my father. He was a very hospitable man and a great favorite and friend of the officers. Hle and his family kindly entertained the officers and families in their house, the soldiers being quartered in tents in his fields.
PORT HURON IN 1836
In the spring of 1836 we removed to the town of Desmond, now Port Huron, and occupied a frame house standing on the north side of Black river, near the month. At that time there were a great many Indians visiting Port Huron, traveling in their birchen canoes, coming from the Saginaw country and the Au Sable. I well remember the old chief Tawas, who turned away his first wife, Indian style, and took for a second Mrs. Chevalier, an Indian woman whose husband was a French- man. I also remember the old Indian burying-ground, where is now Water street ; also John Riley's house at what is at present the corner of Military and Water streets. I remember seeing John Riley at my father's before my marriage. He had two brothers, James and Peter. and a sister, Naney, a fine looking and well-appearing woman. Peter's wife was a very genteel French lady. I think a native of Detroit, who after his death became Mrs. Rousselle, of Cottrellville. The father of the Rileys was a white man at one time postmaster at Albany, N. Y .. their mother an Indian squaw.
The Indians continued their visits to our house, often bringing presents of maple sugar, venison, berries. baskets, etc. Na-kee-zhick, and his nephew. Kee-nah-kee-zhick, son of the late Mrs. O-bee-dig, visited us after their return from the treaty at Washington, May 9, 1836. Mother Rodd and Mrs. O-bee-dig were frequent visitors at our house. On December 21. 1844. we entertained over night the old chief. O-kee-mos, and family. They were on their way to Sarnia to receive their annuities from the British government. His wife was siek with consumption. He waited on her and treated her very kindly. She died while they were at Sarnia. They returned to their home in the state, taking the body with them.
O-kee-mos showed Mr. Brakeman the sears he received at Sandusky in 1812. his head and shoulders were pretty well scarred over, he said he was known at Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Dexter, Jackson, Pontiac and
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Romeo, and his totem was the bear. He died near Lansing in 1858. My five children all have Indian names.
The Indians called me Ah-tong-gomer-ah-qua, "Borrower's woman," and called my father Pee-nay-wee-on, "Pheasant."
When residing at Desmond I remember seeing Anselm Petit's house on the Flats. Dr. Norman Nash, at that time, was teaching an Indian school.
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS
When young I attended Protestant and Catholic church in private houses, but the first church building I was ever in was the Catholic, in Cottrellville. situated on the George Cottrell farm, and it was said to be the first church erected in St. Clair county. I attended the meetings of Fathers Richard and Badin. Before the church was built I attended one of Fr. Richard's services held at the residence of Colonel George Cottrell. on what is now the Daniel Cottrell farm, grandson of the col- onel. I remember the old father when preaching, informing his congre- gation that "the Yankee Bible was all a paek of lies." These words made a deep impression on my young mind, which I have always remem- bered. My eldest sister, Mrs. Jacob Kendall of Algonac, and I, learned some French Catholic hymns; we were taught by Mrs. Peter Dupree. an old aristocratic French lady, formerly of Detroit, at the time a neigh- bor of my father's family. At one time we were attending one of Father Badin's meetings when we joined in the singing and were complimented by the old priest, he could hear our voices above the young lady Catho- lics. He reproved his young ladies, speaking to them in church, saying, "You ought to be ashamed to have these Protestant girls sing better than you." I still remember one of the tunes, but have forgotten the words of the hymns. The first Sabbath school I attended was taught by a Mr. Beach, a hatter by trade, in a part of a log house. he having a few goods for sale in the other part ; the house stood about one-half mile south of my father's on the Joseph Minnie farm. I also attended a sing- ing school in a log house taught by the late Stephen Huling, an early resident of Port Huron township.
In a very early day my father built a log school house on his farm near his residenee. for the benefit of his children and employed Jacob G. Streit as teacher. He had been previously teaching the family of my uncle, the late Abram Cook of Detroit. He was an intelligent man, well educated, the son of a Lutheran preacher. and a native of the state of Virginia. His father established and taught the first high school in Win- chester, Virginia. Mr. Streit died at Algonac. Among my schoolmates were the late Joseph P. Minnie. Esq., and the Hon. D. B. Harrington, then young men. Mr. Harrington attended the school the winter of 1827-28, boarding at my father's.
My father sometimes tanned hides in an early day and made shoe- pacs himself for his family. The first pair of sale shoes I ever wore was when I was about ten years of age; they were presented to me by the late John K. Smith, Esq .. of Algonac. for assisting Mrs. Smith in taking care of his son, Abram, when a babe.
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I saw matches for the first time in 1832, the early settlers used flint and punk in starting fires. I never used a cooking stove until after my marriage, the cooking was all done by fireplaces.
I well remember some of the olden time lawyers, B. F. HI. Witherell. George A. O'Keefe, A. D. Frazer. W. A. Fletcher. C. W. Whipple, Judge Sibley, also George MeDougal, the Fort Gratiot lighthouse keeper; his brother, Robert, in Detroit, married a French Catholic lady, he was a bachelor, she a widow.
In an early day I was acquainted with Francois Maconse, he kept a hotel at Swan Creek. At one time Messrs. B. F. H. Witherell, O'Keefe, and I think, Whipple, stayed there over night on their way from Detroit to the county seat to attend court. I heard them say they were well entertained. Ilis wife did the cooking, which was well done, as she was a very neat housekeeper, and they had clean comfortable beds.
I was acquainted with a sister of Francois Maconse, named Ain-ose. She resided in the town of Riley. and was a very intelligent woman. possessing quite a business tact. She had a house and a sleigh and in the winter of 1846 she would drive into Port Huron and there W. H. B. Dowling, one of Port Huron's early merchants, would furnish her with goods to sell to the Indians in Riley. She bought up eranberries in exchange for the goods, and would bring in a sleighload to Mr. Dow- ling. She never failed to call on us, sometimes staying over night, we then resided a mile south of Military street bridge.
I was acquainted with John Riley. He would drink occasionally, but was always kind to his wife, except when intoxicated. In one of his fits of intoxication he whipped his wife, when she left him and went to Walpole Island and stayed for some time among the Indians there. He came to my father and begged him to go see her and persuade her to return. Father did so, Riley sending by him presents to her of a new blanket and a pair of new moccasins, while staying at my father's awaiting the result. In due time father returned bringing the wife with him. They shook hands, made friends, and returned home to Desmond.
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