HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

CHAPTER I.

THE INDIANS.

The origin of the red men, or American Indians, is a subject which interests as well as instructs. It is a favorite with the ethnologist, even as it is one of deep concern to the ordinary reader. The era of their establishment as a distinct and insulated people must be set down and credited to a period immediately after the separation of the Asiatics and the origin of the languages. No doubt whatever can exist when the American Indian is regarded as of Asiatic origin. The fact is that the full-blood Indian of the present is descended directly from the earliest inhabitants, or, in other words, from the survivors of that people who, on being driven from their fair possessions, retired to the wilderness in sorrow, and reared up their children under the saddening influences of their unquenchable griefs, bequeathing them only the habits of the wild, cloud-roofed homes of their exile-a sullen silence and a rude moral code. In after years those wild sons of the forest and prairie grew in numbers and in strength. Some legend told them of their present sufferings, of the high station which their fathers once had held, and of the riotous race that now reveled in the wealth which should be theirs. The fierce passions of the savage were aroused, and uniting their scattered bands, all marched in silence upon the villages of the Tartars, driving them onward to the capital of their Incas, and consigning their homes to the flames. Once in view of the great city, the hurrying bands halted in surprise, while Tartar cunning took advantage of the situation, and offered to the sons of their former victims pledges of amity and justice, which were sacredly observed. Henceforth Mexico was open to the Indians, bearing precisely the same relation to them that the Hudson Bay Company's villages do to the Northwestern Indians of the present time, obtaining all and rendering little.

The subjection of the Mongolian race, represented in North America by that branch of it to which those Tartars belonged, seems to have taken place about five centuries prior to the arrival of the Spaniards; while it may be concluded that the war of the races, which resulted in reducing the villages erected by the Tartar (115)

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hordes to ruin, took place between one and two hundred years later. These statements, though actually referring to events which in point of time are comparatively modern, can be substantiated only by the fact that about the periods mentioned the dead bodies of an unknown race of men were washed ashore on the European coasts; while previous to that time there is no account whatever in European annals of even a vestige of trans-Atlantic humanity being transferred by ocean currents to the shores of the Old' World. Toward the latter half of the fifteenth century, two dead bodies, entirely free from decomposition and corresponding with the characteristics of the red men, as afterward seen by Columbus, were cast ashore on the Azores, and confirmed the great discoverer in his belief in the existence of a western world and a western people.

man.

Storm and flood and disease have created sad havoc in the ranks of the aborigines since the occupation of the country by the white Inherent causes have led to the decimation of the race even more than the advance of civilization, which seems not to affect it materially. In the maintenance of the same number of representatives during three centuries, and its existence in the very face of a most unceremonious, and, whenever necessary, cruel conquest, the grand dispensations of the Unseen Ruler are demonstrated; for, without the aborigines, savage and treacherous as they were, it is possible that the explorers of former times would have so many natural difficulties to contend with that their work would be surrendered in despair, and the most fertile regions of the continent saved for the plow-shares of the coming generations. It is very questionable whether the ultimate resolve of Columbus was not strengthened by the appearance of the bodies of Indians on the coast of Europe, even as the fact of the existence of a people in the interior led the French explorers into the very heart of the continent in later days. From this standpoint their services can not be over-estimated. Their existence is embraced in the plan of the Divinity for his government of the world; and it will not be a matter of surprise to learn that the same intelligence which sent a thrill of liberty through every nerve of the Republic will. in the near future, devise some method under which the remnant of a great and ancient race may taste the sweets of public sympathy, and feel that, after a long season of suffering, they have at last found a shelter amid a sympathizing people.

EARLY EXPLORERS.

Among such a people did the Jesuit fathers-Claude Allouez and Claude Dablon-venture in 1665; Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet in 1668, and the hundred missionaries who followed after them. Many of those zealous men visited the lodges of the Saginaws while yet the spirit of Pontiac was living and breathing death to the pale-face; but the very warriors who went forth in 1762 to aid the great Indian chieftain in his proposed

capture of the English garrison of Detroit were among the first to bid the Frenchmen welcome to the valley of the Saginaw, as also to go to the aid of La Balme in 1780, when he marched against the English position at Detroit.

About the year 1520 the Chippewas gained possession of this district, when the massacre of Skull Island resulted in almost the total annihilation of the original possessors, the Sauks. The story of this massacre is thus related by William McCormick:

BATTLE OF SKULL ISLAND.

"On nearly all the tributaries can be found mounds filled with human bones, which I have opened for my own satisfaction, and found them lying in all directions, showing they were thrown together without any regularity, upon which I became satisfied they were killed in battle. This awakened in me a curiosity to find out what people they were, and where and what had become of them. I often questioned the Indians in regard to it, but they would invariably say that there were two or three very old Indians living on the bay that could tell me all about it, giving me their names. Accordingly, in one of my journeys to the bay I sought out the Indians in question. I think this was in 1834. I found him a very old man, and asked him his age. He said he thought he was a great deal over 100 years. His faculties were as bright as a man of 50. I told him I understood he could give me the tradition of his race. He replied he could, as it was handed down to him by his grandfather, who he said was older than he was now when he told him. For fear I would not get it correct I called to my aid an educated man who was part Indian, Peter Grewett, a man well known by the early settlers as an Indian trader, and is still living, I believe, in Gratiot county, and has spent his life with the Indians, in the fur trade, and was for many years in the employment of the American Fur Company.

"The old Indian, Puttasamine by name, commenced as follows: He said the Sauks occupied the whole of the Saginaw river and its tributaries, extending from Thunder Bay on the north to the head of the Shiawassee on the south, and from Lake Michigan on the west to Detroit on the east. The balance of Michigan was occupied by the Pottawatomies, and the Lake Superior country was occupied by the Chippewas and Ottawas, while the Monomonies were at the head of Green Bay in Wisconsin, and another tribe west of the Mississippi which he called Sows. The main village of the Sauks stood on the west side of the Saginaw river, just below where the residence of Mr. Frank Fitzhugh now is, and opposite the mill of the Hon. N. B. Bradley. The Sauks were always at war with their Chippewa neighbors on the north and the Pottawatomies on the south, and also with other nations in Canada, until at last a council was called, consisting of the Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Monomonies, Ottawas, and Six Nations of New York. At an appointed time they all met at the Island of Mackinaw, where they

fitted out a large army and started in bark canoes, and came down the west shore of Lake Huron. They then stole along the west shore of Saginaw Bay by night, and lay concealed during the day, until they arrived at a place called Petobegong, about ten miles from the mouth of the Saginaw. Here they landed part of their army, while the rest crossed the bay and landed to the east of the mouth of the Saginaw river in the night. In the morning both armies started up the river, one on each side, so as to attack both villages at once. The army on the west side attacked the main village first by surprise, and massacred nearly all; the balance retreated across the river to another village, which stood near where the court-house now stands, near the ferry, in Portsmouth. At this time that part of the army that had landed on the east side of the river came up, and a desperate battle ensued in the vicinity of the residence of William R. McCormick, that being the highest land, and where they had attempted to fortify themselves; and at the present time, by digging in this hill, you will find it full of human bones which were killed in that battle. Here they were again defeated. They then crossed the river and retreated to Skull Island, which is the next island above what is now Stone's Island. Here they considered themselves safe, as their enemies had no canoes and they could not fortify themselves. But the next night after their retreat to the island the ice froze thick enough for the allies to cross, which they did, when another massacre ensued; here they were all exterminated with the exception of 12 females. Since that time this island has been known as "Skull Island," from the number of skulls found on it in after years. The allies then divided, some going up the Cass, some up the Flint, others up the Shiawassee, Tittabawassee, and so on, where there were different bands located. But the largest battles were fought on the Flint on the bluff.

"Another Indian traditionist says another reinforcement met them here, coming through Detroit. Here there is a large number of mounds filled with bones, which can be seen at the present day. They then came down the river and fought another battle on the bluff, about a mile from the present village of Flushing, on the farm formerly owned by a Mr. Bailey. Here there is also a large number of mounds yet to be seen; and, if you should dig them open as I have, you will find them filled with human bones.

"The next battle was fought about 16 miles from Flushing, on the farm formerly occupied by the late James McCormick. There were several battles fought on the Cass, at what is now called the Bend, or Bridgeport Center, where there was a fortification of earthwork which was plainly to be seen 35 years ago. The next important battle was fought on the Tittabawassee just above the farm on which the late James Fraser first settled when he came to the Saginaw Valley. This differs from the rest, as the remains of the slain were all buried in one mound, and it is a very large one. "After the extermination of the whole nation, with the exception of the 12 females before spoken of, a council of the allies was then