Wau bun by Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie
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Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie >> Wau bun
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26 WAU-BUN,
THE
EARLY DAY IN THE NORTHWEST.
BY
MRS. JOHN H. KINZIE,
OF CHICAGO.
"If we but knew the exact meaning of the word 'WAU-BUN,'
we should be happy."--_Critic_.
"WAU-BUN--The dawn--the break of day."--_Ojibeway Vocabulary_.
* * * * *
PHILADELPHIA
1873
PREFACE.
Every work partaking of the nature of an autobiography is supposed to
demand an apology to the public. To refuse such a tribute, would be to
recognize the justice of the charge, so often brought against our
countrymen--of a too great willingness to be made acquainted with the
domestic history and private affairs of their neighbors.
It is, doubtless, to refute this calumny that we find travellers, for
the most part, modestly offering some such form of explanation as this,
to the reader: "That the matter laid before him was, in the first place,
simply letters to friends, never designed to be submitted to other eyes,
and only brought forward now at the solicitation of wiser judges than
the author himself."
No such plea can, in the present instance, be offered. The record of
events in which the writer had herself no share, was preserved in
compliance with the suggestion of a revered relative, whose name often
appears in the following pages. "My child," she would say, "write these
things down, as I tell them to you. Hereafter our children, and even
strangers, will feel interested in hearing the story of our early lives
and sufferings." And it is a matter of no small regret and
self-reproach, that much, very much, thus narrated was, through
negligence, or a spirit of procrastination, suffered to pass unrecorded.
With regard to the pictures of domestic life and experience (preserved,
as will be seen, in journals, letters, and otherwise), it is true their
publication might have been deferred until the writer had passed away
from the scene of action; and such, it was supposed, would have been
their lot--that they would only have been dragged forth hereafter, to
show to a succeeding generation what "The Early Day" of our Western
homes had been. It never entered the anticipations of the most sanguine
that the march of improvement and prosperity would, in less than a
quarter of a century, have so obliterated the traces of "the first
beginning," that a vast and intelligent multitude would be crying out
for information in regard to the early settlement of this portion of our
country, which so few are left to furnish.
An opinion has been expressed, that a comparison of the present times
with those that are past, would enable our young people, emigrating from
their luxurious homes at "the East," to bear, in a spirit of patience
and contentment, the slight privations and hardships they are at this
day called to meet with. If, in one instance, this should be the case,
the writer may well feel happy to have incurred even the charge of
egotism, in giving thus much of her own history.
It may be objected that all that is strictly personal, might have been
more modestly put forth under the name of a third person; or that the
events themselves and the scenes might have been described, while those
participating in them might have been kept more in the background. In
the first case, the narrative would have lost its air of truth and
reality--in the second, the experiment would merely have been tried of
dressing up a theatre for representation, and omitting the actors.
Some who read the following sketches may be inclined to believe that a
residence among our native brethren and an attachment growing out of our
peculiar relation to them, have exaggerated our sympathies, and our
sense of the wrongs they have received at the hands of the whites. This
is not the place to discuss that point. There is a tribunal at which man
shall be judged for that which he has meted out to his fellow-man.
May our countrymen take heed that their legislation shall never unfit
them to appear "with joy, and not with grief," before that tribunal!
CHICAGO, July, 1855.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
Departure from Detroit
CHAPTER II.
Michilimackinac--American Fur Company--Indian Trade--Mission
School--Point St. Ignace
CHAPTER III.
Arrival at Green Bay--Mrs. Arnot--General Root--Political Dispatches--A
Summerset--Shanty-Town--M. Rolette--Indian
Morning Song--Mr. Cadle's Mission--Party at Miss Doty's--Misses
Grignon--Mrs. Baird's Party--Mrs. Beall
CHAPTER IV.
Arrangements for Travelling--Fox River--Judge Doty--Judge
Reaume--M. Boilvin--Canadian Voyageurs: their Songs--The
Kakalin--Wish-tay-yun--Rev. Eleazar Williams--Passage through
the Rapids--Grande Chute--Krissman
CHAPTER V.
Beautiful Encampment--Winnebago Lake--Miss Four-Legs--Garlic
Island--Wild Rice
CHAPTER VI.
Breakfast at Betty More's--Judge Law--Fastidiousness; what
came of it
CHAPTER VII.
Butte des Morts--French Cognomens--Serpentine Course of Fox
River--Lake Puckaway--Lac de Boeuf--Fort Winnebago.
CHAPTER VIII.
Major and Mrs. Twiggs--A Davis--An Indian Funeral--Conjugal
Affliction--Indian Chiefs; Talk-English--The Wild-Cat--The
Dandy
CHAPTER IX.
Housekeeping--The First Dinner
CHAPTER X.
Indian Payment--Pawnee Blanc--The Washington Woman--Raising
Funds
CHAPTER XI.
Louisa--Garrison Life--Dr. Newhall--Affliction--Domestic
Accommodations--Ephraim--New-Year's Day--Native Custom--Day-kau-ray's
Views of Education--Captain Harney's Mince-Pie
CHAPTER XII.
Lizzie Twiggs--Preparation for a Journey--The Regimental Tailor
CHAPTER XIII.
eparture from Fort Winnebago--Duck Creek--Upset in a
Canoe--Pillon--Encamping in Winter--Four Lakes--Indian
Encampment--Blue Mound--Morrison's--A Tennessee Woman
CHAPTER XIV.
Rev. Mr. Kent--Losing One's Way--A Tent Blown Down--Discovery
of a Fence--Hamilton's Diggings--Frontier Housekeeping--Wm.
S. Hamilton--A Miner--Hard Riding--Kellogg's Grove
CHAPTER XV.
Rock River--- Dixon's--John Ogie--Missing the Trail--Hours of
Trouble--Famine in the Camp--Relief
CHAPTER XVI.
A Pottowattamie Lodge--A Tempest--Piche's--Hawley's--The Du
Page--Mr. Dogherty--The Aux Plaines--Mrs. Lawton--Wolf
Point--Chicago
CHAPTER XVII.
Fort Dearborn--Chicago in 1831--First Settlement of Chicago--John
Kinzie, Sen.---Fate of George Forsyth--Trading Posts--Canadian
Voyageurs--M. St. Jean--Louis la Liberte
CHAPTER XVIII.
Massacre at Chicago
CHAPTER XIX.
Massacre, continued--Mrs. Helm--Ensign Ronan--Captain
Wells--Mrs. Holt--Mrs. Heald--The Sau-ga-nash--Sergeant Griffith--Mrs.
Burns--Black Partridge and Mrs. Lee--Nau-non-gee and Sergeant
Hays
CHAPTER XX.
Treatment of American Prisoners by the British--Captivity of Mr.
Kinzie--Battle on Lake Erie--Cruelty of General Proctor's
Troops--General Harrison--Rebuilding of Fort Dearborn--Red Bird--A
Humorous Incident--Cession of the Territory around Chicago
CHAPTER XXI.
Severe Spring Weather--Pistol-Firing--Milk Punch--A Sermon--Pre-emption
to "Kinzie's Addition"--Liberal Sentiments
CHAPTER XXII.
The Captives
CHAPTER XXIII.
Colonel McKillip--Second-Sight--Ball at Hickory Creek--Arrival
of the "Napoleon"--Troubles of Embarkation
CHAPTER XXIV.
Departure for Port Winnebago--A Frightened Indian--Encampment
at Dunkley's Grove--Horses Lost--Getting Mired--An Ague
cured by a Rattlesnake--Crystal Lake--Story of the Little Rail
CHAPTER XXV.
Return Journey, continued--Soldiers' Encampment--Big-Foot Lake--Village
of Maunk-suck--A Young Gallant--Climbing--Mountain-Passes--Turtle
Creek--Kosh-ko-nong--Crossing a Marsh--Twenty-Mile Prairie--Hastings's
Woods--Duck Creek--Brunet--Home
CHAPTER XXVI.
The Agency--The Blacksmith's House--Building a Kitchen--Four-Legs, the
Dandy--Indian Views of Civilization--Efforts of M.
Mazzuchelli--Charlotte
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Cut-Nose--The Fawn--Visit of White Crow--Parting with
Friends--Krissman--Louisa again--The Sunday-School
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Plante--Removal--Domestic Inconveniences--Indian Presents--Grandmother
Day-kau-ray--Indian Customs--Indian Dances--The Medicine-Dance--Indian
Graves--Old Boilvin's Wake
CHAPTER XXIX.
Indian Tales--Story of the Red Fox
CHAPTER XXX.
Story of Shee-shee-banze
CHAPTER XXXI.
Visit to Green Bay--Disappointment--Return Journey--Knaggs's--Blind
Indian--Ma-zhee-gaw-gaw Swamp--Bellefontaine
CHAPTER XXXII.
Commencement of the Sauk War--Winnebago
Council--Crely--Follett--Bravery--The Little Elk--An
Alarm--Man-Eater and his
Party--An Exciting Dance
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Fleeing from the Enemy--Mata--Old Smoker--Meeting with
Menomonees--Raising the Wind--Garlic Island--Winnebago Rapids--The
Waubanakees--Thunder-Storm--Vitelle--Guardapie--Fort Howard
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Panic at Green Bay--Tidings of Cholera--Green Bay Flies--Doyle,
the Murderer--Death of Lieutenant Foster--A Hardened Criminal--Good
News from the Seat of War--Departure for Home--Shipwreck
at the Grand Chute--A Wet Encampment--An Unexpected
Arrival--Reinforcement of Volunteers--La Grosse Americaine--Arrival
at Home
CHAPTER XXXV.
Conclusion of the War--Treaty at Rock Island--Cholera among the
Troops--Wau-kaun-kah--Wild-Cat's Frolic at the Mee-kan--Surrender
of the Winnebago Prisoners
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Delay in the Annual Payment--Scalp-Dances--Groundless Alarm--Arrival
of Governor Porter--Payment--Escape of the Prisoners--Neighbors
Lost--Reappearance--Robineau--Bellaire
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Agathe--"Kinzie's Addition"--Tomah--Indian Acuteness--Indian
Simplicity
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Famine--Day-kau-ray's Daughter--Noble Resolution of a Chief--Bread
for the Hungry--Rev. Mr. Kent--An Escaped Prisoner--The
Cut-Nose again--Leave-taking with our Red Children--Departure
from Fort Winnebago
APPENDIX
THE "EARLY DAY" IN THE NORTHWEST.
CHAPTER I.
DEPARTURE FROM DETROIT.
It was on a dark, rainy evening in the month of September, 1830, that we
went on board the steamer "Henry Clay," to take passage for Green Bay.
All our friends in Detroit had congratulated us upon our good fortune in
being spared the voyage in one of the little schooners which at this
time afforded the ordinary means of communication with the few and
distant settlements on Lakes Huron and Michigan.
Each one had some experience to relate of his own or Of his friends'
mischances in these precarious journeys--long detentions on the St.
Clair flats--furious head-winds off Thunder Bay, or interminable Calms
at Mackinac or the Manitous. That which most enhanced our sense of
peculiar good luck, was the true story of one of our relatives having
left Detroit in the month of June and reached Chicago in the September
following, having been actually three months in performing what is
sometimes accomplished by even a sail-vessel in four days.
But the certainty of encountering similar misadventures would have
weighed little with me. I was now to visit, nay, more, to become a
resident of that land which had, for long years, been to me a region of
romance. Since the time when, as a child, my highest delight had been in
the letters of a dear relative, describing to me his home and mode of
life in the "Indian country," and still later, in his felicitous
narration of a tour with General Cass, in 1820, to the sources of the
Mississippi--nay, even earlier, in the days when I stood at my teacher's
knee, and spelled out the long word Mich-i-li-mack-i-nac, that distant
land, with its vast lakes, its boundless prairies, and its mighty
forests, had possessed a wonderful charm for my imagination. Now I was
to see it!--it was to be my home!
Our ride to the quay, through the dark by-ways, in a cart, the only
vehicle which at that day could navigate the muddy, unpaved streets of
Detroit, was a theme for much merriment, and not less so, our descent of
the narrow, perpendicular stair-way by which we reached the little
apartment called the Ladies' Cabin. We were highly delighted with the
accommodations, which, by comparison, seemed the very climax of comfort
and convenience; more especially as the occupants of the cabin
consisted, beside myself, of but a lady and two little girls.
Nothing could exceed the pleasantness of our trip for the first
twenty-four hours. There were some officers, old friends, among the
passengers. We had plenty of books. The gentlemen read aloud
occasionally, admired the solitary magnificence of the scenery around
us, the primeval woods, or the vast expanse of water unenlivened by a
single sail, and then betook themselves to their cigar, or their game of
euchre, to while away the hours.
For a time the passage over Thunder Bay was delightful, but, alas! it
was not destined, in our favor, to belie its name. A storm came on, fast
and furious--what was worse, it was of long duration. The pitching and
rolling of the little boat, the closeness, and even the sea-sickness, we
bore as became us. They were what we had expected, and were prepared
for. But a new feature of discomfort appeared, which almost upset our
philosophy.
The rain, which fell in torrents, soon made its way through every seam
and pore of deck or moulding. Down the stair-way, through the joints and
crevices, it came, saturating first the carpet, then the bedding, until,
finally, we were completely driven, "by stress of weather," into the
Gentlemen's Cabin. Way was made for us very gallantly, and every
provision resorted to for our comfort, and we were congratulating
ourselves on having found a haven in our distress, when, lo! the seams
above opened, and down upon our devoted heads poured such a flood, that
even umbrellas were an insufficient protection. There was nothing left
for the ladies and children but to betake ourselves to the berths,
which, in this apartment, fortunately remained dry; and here we
continued ensconced the livelong day. Our dinner was served up to us on
our pillows. The gentlemen chose the dryest spots, raised their
umbrellas, and sat under them, telling amusing anecdotes, and saying
funny things to cheer us, until the rain ceased, and at nine o'clock in
the evening we were gladdened by the intelligence that we had reached
the pier at Mackinac.
We were received with the most affectionate cordiality by Mr. and Mrs.
Robert Stuart, at whose hospitable mansion we had been for some days
expected.
The repose and comfort of an asylum like this, can be best appreciated
by those who have reached it after a tossing and drenching such as ours
had been. A bright, warm fire, and countenances beaming with kindest
interest, dispelled all sensations of fatigue or annoyance.
After a season of pleasant conversation, the servants were assembled,
the chapter of God's word was solemnly read, the hymn chanted, the
prayer of praise and thanksgiving offered, and we were conducted to our
place of repose.
It is not my purpose here to attempt a portrait of those noble friends
whom I thus met for the first time. To an abler pen than mine should be
assigned the honor of writing the biography of Robert Stuart. All who
have enjoyed the happiness of his acquaintance, or, still more, a
sojourn under his hospitable roof, will carry with them to their latest
hour the impression of his noble bearing, his genial humor, his untiring
benevolence, his upright, uncompromising adherence to principle, his
ardent philanthropy, his noble disinterestedness. Irving in his
"Astoria," and Franchere in his "Narrative," give many striking traits
of his early character, together with events of his history of a
thrilling and romantic interest, but both have left the most valuable
portion unsaid, his after-life, namely, as a Christian gentleman.
Of his beloved partner, who still survives him, mourning on her bereaved
and solitary pilgrimage, yet cheered by the recollection of her long and
useful course as a "Mother in Israel," we will say no more than to offer
the incense of loving hearts, and prayers for the best blessings from
her Father in heaven.
CHAPTER II
MICHILIMACKINAC.
Michilimackinac! that gem of the Lakes! How bright and beautiful it
looked as we walked abroad on the following morning! The rain had passed
away, but had left all things glittering in the light of the sun as it
rose up over the waters of Lake Huron, far away to the east. Before us
was the lovely bay, scarcely yet tranquil after the storm, but dotted
with canoes and the boats of the fishermen already getting out their
nets for the trout and whitefish, those treasures of the deep. Along the
beach were scattered the wigwams or lodges of the Ottawas who had come
to the island to trade. The inmates came forth to gaze upon us. A shout
of welcome was sent forth, as they recognized _Shaw-nee-aw-kee,_ who,
from a seven years' residence among them, was well known to each
individual.
A shake of the hand, and an emphatic "_Bon-jour_--_bon-jour_," is the
customary salutation between the Indian and the white man.
"Do the Indians speak French?" I inquired of my husband.
"No; this is a fashion they have learned of the French traders during
many years of intercourse."
Not less hearty was the greeting of each Canadian _engage_, as he
trotted forward to pay his respects to "Monsieur John," and to utter a
long string of felicitations, in a most incomprehensible _patois_. I was
forced to take for granted all the good wishes showered upon "Madame
John," of which I could comprehend nothing but the hope that I should
be happy and contented in my "_vie sauvage_."
The object of our early walk was to visit the Mission-house and school
which had been some few years previously established at this place by
the Presbyterian Board of Missions. It was an object of especial
interest to Mr. and Mrs. Stuart, and its flourishing condition at this
period, and the prospects of extensive future usefulness it held out,
might well gladden their philanthropic hearts. They had lived many years
on the island, and had witnessed its transformation, through God's
blessing on Christian efforts, from a worldly, dissipated community to
one of which it might almost be said, "Religion was every man's
business." This mission establishment was the beloved child and the
common centre of interest of the few Protestant families clustered
around it. Through the zeal and good management of Mr. and Mrs. Ferry,
and the fostering encouragement of the congregation, the school was in
great repute, and it was pleasant to observe the effect of mental and
religious culture in subduing the mischievous, tricky propensities of
the half-breed, and rousing the stolid apathy of the genuine Indian.
These were the palmy days of Mackinac. As the head-quarters of the
American Fur Company, and the entrepot of the whole Northwest, all the
trade in supplies and goods on the one hand, and in furs and products of
the Indian country on the other, was in the hands of the parent
establishment or its numerous outposts scattered along Lakes Superior
and Michigan, the Mississippi, or through still more distant regions.
Probably few are ignorant of the fact, that all the Indian tribes, with
the exception of the Miamis and the Wyandots, had, since the transfer of
the old French possessions to the British Crown, maintained a firm
alliance with the latter. The independence achieved by the United
States did not alter the policy of the natives, nor did our Government
succeed in winning or purchasing their friendship. Great Britain, it is
true, bid high to retain them. Every year the leading men of the
Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottowattamies, Menomonees, Winnebagoes, Sauks, and
Foxes, and even still more remote tribes, journeyed from their distant
homes to Fort Malden in Upper Canada, to receive their annual amount of
presents from their Great Father across the water. It was a
master-policy thus to keep them in pay, and had enabled those who
practised it to do fearful execution through the aid of such allies in
the last war between the two countries.
The presents they thus received were of considerable value, consisting
of blankets, broadcloths or _strouding_, calicoes, guns, kettles, traps,
silver-works (comprising arm-bands, bracelets, brooches; and ear-bobs),
looking-glasses, combs, and various other trinkets distributed with no
niggardly hand.
The magazines and store-houses of the Fur Company at Mackinac were the
resort of all the upper tribes for the sale of their commodities, and
the purchase of all such articles as they had need of, including those
above enumerated, and also ammunition, which, as well as money and
liquor, their British friends very commendably omitted to furnish them.
Besides their furs, various in kind and often of great value--beaver,
otter, marten, mink, silver-gray and red fox, wolf, bear, and wild-cat,
musk-rat, and smoked deer-skins--the Indians brought for trade
maple-sugar in abundance, considerable quantities of both Indian corn
and _petit-ble_,[1] beans and the _folles avoines_,[2] or wild rice;
while the squaws added to their quota of merchandise a contribution in
the form of moccasins, hunting-pouches, mococks, or little boxes of
birch-bark embroidered with porcupine-quills and filled with
maple-sugar, mats of a neat and durable fabric, and toy-models of Indian
cradles, snow-shoes, canoes, etc., etc.
It was no unusual thing, at this period, to see a hundred or more canoes
of Indians at once approaching the island, laden with their articles of
traffic; and if to these we add the squadrons of large Mackinac boats
constantly arriving from the outposts, with the furs, peltries, and
buffalo-robes collected by the distant traders, some idea may be formed
of the extensive operations and important position of the American Fur
Company, as well as of the vast circle of human beings either
immediately or remotely connected with it.
It is no wonder that the philanthropic mind, surveying these, races of
uncultivated heathen, should stretch forward to the time when, through
an unwearied devotion of the white man's energies, and an untiring
sacrifice of self and fortune, his red brethren might rise in the scale
of social civilization--when Education and Christianity should go hand
in hand, to make "the wilderness blossom as the rose."
Little did the noble souls at that day rejoicing in the success of their
labors at Mackinac, anticipate that in less than a quarter of a century
there would remain of all these numerous tribes but a few scattered
bands, squalid, degraded, with scarce a vestige remaining of their
former lofty character--their lands cajoled or wrested from them, the
graves of their fathers turned up by the ploughshare--themselves chased
farther and farther towards the setting sun, until they were literally
grudged a resting-place on the face of the earth!
Our visit to the Mission-school was of short duration, for the Henry
Clay was to leave at two o'clock, and in the mean time we were to see
what we could of the village and its environs, and after that dine with
Mr. Mitchell, an old friend of my husband. As we walked leisurely along
over the white, gravelly road, many of the residences of the old
inhabitants were pointed out to me. There was the dwelling of Madame
Laframboise, an Ottawa woman, whose husband had taught her to read and
write, and who had ever after continued to use the knowledge she had
acquired for the instruction and improvement of the youth among her own
people. It was her custom to receive a class of young pupils daily at
her house, that she might give them lessons in the branches mentioned,
and also in the principles of the Roman Catholic religion, to which she
was deeply devoted. She was a woman of a vast deal of energy and
enterprise--of a tall and commanding figure, and most dignified
deportment. After the death of her husband, who was killed while away at
his trading-post by a Winnebago named _White Ox_, she was accustomed to
visit herself the trading-posts, superintend the clerks and engages, and
satisfy herself that the business was carried on in a regular and
profitable manner.
The Agency-house, with its unusual luxuries of piazza and gardens, was
situated at the foot of the hill on which the fort was built. It was a
lovely spot, notwithstanding the stunted and dwarfish appearance of all
cultivated vegetation in this cold northern latitude.
The collection of rickety, primitive-looking buildings, occupied by the
officials of the Fur Company, reflected no great credit on the
architectural skill of my husband, who had superintended their
construction, he told me, when little more than a boy.
There were, besides these, the residences of the Dousmans, the Abbotts,
the Biddles, the Drews, and the Lashleys, stretching away along the
base of the beautiful hill, crowned with the white walls and buildings
of the fort, the ascent to which was so steep that on the precipitous
face nearest the beach staircases were built by which to mount from
below.
My head ached intensely, the effect of the motion of the boat on the
previous day, but I did not like to give up to it; so, after I had been
shown all that could be seen of the little settlement in the short time
allowed us, we repaired to Mr. Mitchell's.
We were received by Mrs. M., an extremely pretty, delicate woman, part
French and part Sioux, whose early life had been passed at Prairie du
Chien, on the Mississippi. She had been a great belle among the young
officers at Fort Crawford; so much so, indeed, that the suicide of the
post-surgeon was attributed to an unsuccessful attachment he had
conceived for her. I was greatly struck with her soft and gentle
manners, and the musical intonation of her voice, which I soon learned
was a distinguishing peculiarity of those women in whom are united the
French and native blood.
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