D CHAPTER XXXIX DETROIT'S LAST INDIAN MASSACRE URING the troubled period before the first British surrender of Detroit the British government had established a system of subsidies among the Indians of Michigan. The Chippewas were a numerous tribe of the North. They had driven the Sac and Fox Indians out of the Saginaw Valley and had established several large villages there. A number of white traders, some French and some American, had established fur trading posts there as agents of the American Fur Company, of which John Jacob Astor was the head. Some of these traders had annexed one or more Indian wives and been virtually adopted into the tribal bands. Judge Riley, who came from Schenectady, N. Y.; Whitmore Knaggs, Jacob Smith, and Louis Campau, first white settler of Grand Rapids, were some of these traders. Antoine Campau, and a huge pioneer named Fisher, known among the Indians as the Grand Blanc, or "Big White," lived as the head of an Indian village where the present town of Grand Blanc is located." These agents diverted trade from the British to the Americans and efforts were made to shift the fur trade from their hands and center it at Amherstburg. A big Indian came into the Saginaw Valley from Canada, apparently to promote that diversion, and at the same time the Indians were given presents of rum, blankets, guns and hatchets when they would bring their furs to Amherstburg. This big Indian became a menace to the Americans, for he soon succeeded in making himself head chief of the Saginaw bands. His name was Kishkawko, which is spelled in various ways in the old records. Kishkawko brought the Saginaw Chippewas into alliance. with the British and against the Americans. He was one of the leading scalp-hunters at the River Raisin massacre and he was a terror to settlers who lived about Detroit. After the massacre he came to Detroit with several members of his band and threatened the lives of the Americans. Near the site of Belle Isle bridge he encountered Dr. William McDowell Scott, who had been visiting a patient up the river, and pursued him to Joseph Spencer's tannery (where the amusement park is now located). As the doctor bolted through the door Kishkawko's hatchet whizzed past his head and buried its blade in the door jamb. He then proceeded up the shore, terrorizing all the settlers. Kishkawko was accustomed to bring his band and with it that of Owosso, chief of the Shiawassee Chippewas, to Detroit via Oakland County on their way to Amherstburg. On their way going and coming they would camp near the present foot of Chene Street and now and then they would parade through the streets of Detroit single file in a threatening manner. One day old Kishkawko met Gen. Cass and told him the people of Detroit must give his young men presents or they would become very troublesome. Gen. Cass replied that if his young men showed any disposition to become troublesome the young men of Detroit would take care of them so they would never become troublesome again. William McDowell Scott married Nancy (Mary Ann) Meldrum. They lived in a fine house where the Mariners' Church now stands. The house was burned in a great fire January 1, 1842. During the spring of 1814 these Indians drove off many cattle from the farms and occasionally raided the public common in the vicinity of the present Washington Boulevard, and stole cattle of the townspeople. Day by day they became bolder. The gates of the town were kept closed and guarded at night. Watchmen patrolled the streets and the residents slept with their arms beside their beds. Many of the troops were withdrawn for military operations in the Niagara district while a small fort was maintained at St. Clair to watch Indian operations on the St. Clair River. The few soldiers remaining about Detroit were mostly men who were unfit for duty. Among the residents of Detroit in 1814 was a soldier named Ananias McMillan, who lived at the corner of Bates and Larned streets with his wife and children, one of whom was a son II years of age named Archibald. He was a man of means and had formerly owned a small distillery at Delaware, Canada, but on joining the American cause he had burned all his buildings there. On September 10, 1814, McMillan returned from an expedition into Canada and found his wife disturbed because the family cow had not come to the gate of the town to be milked and fed as usual on the night before. Indians had been seen about the common and Mrs. McMillan would not let the boy go to look for the cow. McMillan ate his breakfast and then, taking his musket and the boy taking a long goad, they started for the common in search of the cow. As they came to the northeast corner of the fort at Lafayette and Griswold streets they saw three men sitting on a log and stopped to talk with them. The men advised McMillan not to go farther for the Indians had been seen on the common that morning painted as if for war. McMillan persisted. When father and son had gone on as far as the present intersection of State and Griswold streets two shots were fired from a clump of bushes and the elder McMillan fell dead. An Indian rushed out and scalped him, while the boy fled toward the fort, pursued by another Indian mounted on a pony. As the pony came close the boy whirled about and struck it across the face with his goad, causing it to rear and swerve violently. Again the Indian came on and again the boy used his switch but at the third approach the Indian jumped off his pony, seized the boy and, throwing him across the pony, dashed away up the common. That same day an Indian of Kishkawko's band, named Tonquish, shot a settler named Sargent at River Rouge and Sargent died of the wound two days later. Michael Murphy, a farm hand, drove to Judge Moran's potato field just east of Randolph Street to dig potatoes and the Indians shot him and carried off his scalp, leaving his remains horribly mutilated. The alarm quickly spread and Gen. Cass sent messengers to call out the available men of the town to drive away the Indians. Among those who answered the call were Judges Moran and Conant, Capt. Francis Cicotte, James Cicotte, Edward and George Cicotte, Col. H. J. Hunt, Gen. Larned, William Meldrum, John and James Meldrum, James, Peter and John Riley, half-breed sons of Judge Riley, who were born at the trading post in the Saginaw Valley; Lambert Beaubien, John B. Beaubien, Joseph Andre, Louis Moran, Louis Dequindre, Lambert LaFoy, Joseph Riopelle, Joseph Visger, Jack Smith, Ben Lucas, and John Ruland. These men, fully armed and equipped, mounted horses and rode to the Witherell farm and then into the woods where they found a hastily deserted Indian camp where beef from a freshly killed cow was roasting on sticks over the fire. There they found Archie McMillan's hat. The Rileys were expert trailers and they led the pursuit. They encountered the Indians in the brush at the rear of the Cass farm. The Indians fired hastily and then fled. Nobody was hit and the white men took up the chase with shrill yells in imitation of the Indian war cry. Suddenly Peter Riley pulled up his horse, sprang to the ground and fired his rifle across the back of his steed. An Indian sprang from a clump of brush and fell dead and Riley ran and scalped him, waving his bloody trophy at the Indians who still fled. A running fight was maintained all the rest of the day and the firing was frequent. Ben Lucas had a hand-to-hand fight with an Indian within a few feet of Gen. Cass and killed his man. The white men scoured the surrounding country for a distance of three miles back of the town and as far as the River Rouge before they returned. Arrived at the common they stopped to take count of themselves and their scalp trophies. It was found that William Meldrum and Maj. Louis Moran were missing. Shouts presently brought an answer from the distance and the two men came in from pursuing an Indian for a long distance. They carried his scalp. The Indians were thoroughly cowed and never troubled Detroit settlers again. Arrived outside the town the Indian-hunters raised the scalp yell, which scared the women, who feared they had all been killed and that the Indians had returned to attack the town. Next morning an Indian woman appeared at the gate of the town with a flag of truce. She said that in addition to the Indians who had been killed and scalped four others had died of their wounds and that old Kishkawko was so badly wounded that his men were carrying him in a blanket. She promised there would be no more trouble, but old Kishkawko was destined to live for 12 years more and to be the cause of other alarms. The missing boy, Archie McMillan, was a prisoner among the Indians of old Kishkawko's village at the site of the present city of Saginaw all that winter. Rewards were offered by citizens of Detroit for his safe return to his distracted mother, but the Indians were afraid to bring him back. He was adopted into an Indian family and well treated. All that could be learned in Detroit was that he was alive and well. After the leaves came out on the trees in the following spring Archie attempted to escape, hoping to make his way back to Detroit through the wilderness of 100 miles alone and on foot. His absence was soon discovered and Indian trailers followed him. The boy kept looking back over his trail and when he saw his pursuers he took refuge in a hemlock tree which offered concealment and climbed as far as he dared. The Indians soon discovered him and ordered him to come down. He refused, but after they had shot a few blunt arrows which stung him smartly he surrendered and was led back to Saginaw. Presently three Saginaw Indians came to Detroit to sell. furs. They were arrested by Capt. Whitmore Knaggs and locked in jail to be held as hostages for the boy's safe return. Word was sent to Saginaw that they would be released only when Archie McMillan was delivered safely at the fort. This resort brought immediate results. A band of Saginaw Indians made the trip to Amherstburg in a canoe, bringing Archie McMillan with them, and, fearing to stop at Detroit, they delivered him to the British authorities at Fort Malden. From there he was brought to Detroit by other Indians and the prisoners held as hostages were released. Archibald McMillan lived for many years after his thrilling adventure and died in Jackson, 1860. His son, Archibald, was a well-known Michigan newspaper man in the 1880's, being at one time editor of the Bay City Tribune and later of the Bay City Press. Mrs. Mary McMillan, mother of Archibald, died in her home on Miami Avenue (now Broadway) in 1869. |