Wisconsin Territory Delegation: The Copper Region

April 17, 2016

By Amorin Mello

A curious series of correspondences from “Morgan”

… continued from Copper Harbor.

The Daily Union (Washington D.C.)
“Liberty, The Union, And The Constitution.”
August 21, 1845.

EDITOR’S CORRESPONDENCE.

—

[From our Regular Correspondent.]

THE COPPER REGION.

La Pointe, Lake Superior

July 28, 1845.

Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

In my last brief letter from this place, I had not time to notice many things which I desired to describe. I have now examined the whole coast of the southern shore of Lake Superior, extending from the Sault Ste. Marie to La Pointe, including a visit to the Anse, and the doubling of Keweena point. During the trip, as stated previously, we had camped out twenty-one nights. I examined the mines worked by the Pittsburg company at Copper harbor, and those worked by the Boston company at Eagle river, as well as picked up all the information I could about other portions of the mineral district, both off and on shore. The object I had in view when visiting it, was to find out, as near as I could, the naked facts in relation to it. The distance of the lake-shore traversed by my part to La Pointe was about five hundred miles – consuming near four weeks’ time to traverse it. I have still before me a journey of three or four hundred miles before I reach the Mississippi river, by the way of the Brulé and St. Croix rivers. I know the public mind has been recently much excited in relation to the mineral region of country of Lake Superior, and that a great many stories are in circulation about it. I know, also, that what is said and published about it, will be read with more or less interest, especially by parties who have embarked in any of the speculations which have been got up about it. It is due to truth and candor, however, for me to declare it as my opinion, that the whole country has been overrated. That copper is found scattered over the country equal in extent to the trap-rock hills and conglomerate ledges, either in its native state, or in the form of a black oxide, as a green silicate, and, perhaps, in some other forms, cannot be denied;- but the difficulty, so far, seems to be that the copper ores are too much diffused, and that no veins such as geologist would term permanent have yet positively been discovered.

Detail of a Survey of Location No. 4 for the Pittsburgh & Boston Copper Harbor Mining Co. Image digitized by the Detroit Public Library Burton Historical Collection for The Cliff Mine Archeology Project Blog.

The richest copper ore yet found is that raised from a vein of black oxide, at Copper harbor, worked by the Pittsburg company, which yields about seventy per cent. of pure copper. But this conglomerate cementation of trap-rock, flint, pebbles, &c., and sand, brought together in a fused black mass, (as is supposed, by the overflowings of the trap, of which the hills are composed near this place,) is exceedingly hard and difficult to blast. An opinion seems to prevail among many respectable geologist, that metallic veins found in conglomerate are never thought to be very permanent. Doctor Pettit, however, informed me that he had traced the vein for near a mile through the conglomerate, and into the hill of trap, across a small lake in the rear of Fort Wilkins. The direction of the vein is from northwest to southeast through the conglomerate, while the course of the lake-shore and hills at this place varies little from north and south. Should the doctor succeed in opening a permanent vein in the hill of trap opposite, of which he is sanguine, it is probable this mine will turn out to be exceedingly valuable. As to these matters, however, time alone, with further explorations, must determine. The doctor assured me that he was at present paying his way, in merely sinking shafts over the vein preparatory to mining operations; which he considered a circumstance favorable to the mine, as this is not of common occurrence.

The mines at Copper harbor and Eagle river are the only two as yet sufficiently broached to enable one to form any tolerably accurate opinion as to their value or prospects.

Edward Larned was the General Agent, and Charles Larned was the sub-Agent, of the New York and Lake Superior Mining Company.

Geologist James Eights “examined several claims of the New York and Lake Superior Mining Company, a group headquartered in Albany, and reported to the company’s trustee, General Gerrit V. Denniston, encouraging estimates that were included in the company’s first annual report.”
~ Encyclopedia of the Earth

Other companies are about commencing operations, or talk of doing so – such as a New York, or rather Albany company, calling themselves “The New York and Lake Superior Mining Company,” under the direction of Mr. Larned, of Albany, in whose service Dr. Euhts has been employed as geologist. They have made locations at various points – at Dead river, Agate harbor, and at Montreal river. I believe they have commenced mining to some extent at Agate harbor.

Joab Bernard was a Trustee of the Boston Mining Company.

One or two other Boston companies, besides that operating at Eagle river, have been formed with the design of operating at other points. Mr. Bernard, formerly of St. Louis, is at the head of one of them. Besides these, there is a kind of Detroit company, organized, it is said, for operating on the Ontonagon river. It has its head, I believe, in Detroit, and its tail almost everywhere. I have not heard of their success in digging, thus far; though they say they have found some valuable mines. Time must determine that. I wish it may be so.

Boston Mining Company stock issued by Joab Bernard. ~ Copper Country Reflections

Boston Mining Company stock issued by Joab Bernard in 1846.
~ Copper Country Reflections

From Copper harbor, I paid a visit to Eagle river – a small stream inaccessible to any craft larger than a moderate-sized Mackinac boat. There is only the open lake for a roadstead off its mouth, and no harbor nearer than Eagle harbor, some few miles to the east of it. In passing west from Copper harbor along the northern shore of Keweena point, the coast, almost from the extremity of Keweena point, to near Eagle river, is an iron-bound coast, presenting huge, longitudinal, black, irregular-shaped masses of trap-conglomerate, often rising up ten or fifteen feet high above water, at some distance from the main shore, leaving small sounds behind them, with bays, to which there are entrances through broken continuities of the advanced breakwater-like ledges. Copper harbor is thus formed by Porter’s island, on which the agency has been so injudiciously placed, and which is nothing but a conglomerate island of this character; with its sides next the lake raised by Nature, so as to afford a barrier against the waves that beat against it from without. The surface of the island over the conglomerate is made up of a mass of pebbles and fragmentary rock, mixed with a small portion of earth, wholly or quite incapable of cultivation. Fort Wilkins is located about two miles from the agency, on the main land, between which and the fort communication in winter is difficult, if not impossible. Of the inexcusable blunder made in putting this garrison on its present badly-selected site, I shall have occasion to speak hereafter.

“Grand Sable Dunes”
~ National Park Service

In travelling up the coast from Sault Ste. Marie, the first 50 or 100 miles, the shore of Lake Superior exhibits, for much of the distance, a white sandy beach, with a growth of pines, silver fir, birch, &c., in the rear. This beach is strewed in places with much whitened and abraded drift-wood, thrown high on the banks by heavy waves in storms, and the action of ice in winter. This drift-wood is met with, at places, from one end of the lake to the other, which we found very convenient for firewood at our encampments. The sand on the southern shore terminates, in a measure, at Grand Sables, which are immense naked pure sand-hills, rising in an almost perpendicular form next to the lake, of from 200 to 300 feet high. Passing this section, we come to white sand-stone in the Pictured Rocks. Leaving these, we make the red sand-stone promontories and shore, at various points from this section, to the extreme end of the lake. It never afterwards wholly disappears. Between promontories of red stone are headlands, &c., standing out often in long, high irregular cliffs, with traverses of from 6, 7, to 8 miles from one to the other, while a kind of rounded bay stretches away inland, having often a sandy beach at its base, with pines growing in the forest in the rear. Into these bays, small rivers, nearly or quite shut in summer with sand, enter the lake.

The first trap-rock we met with, was near Dead river, and at some few points west of it. We then saw no more of it immediately on the coast, till we made the southern shore of Keweena point. All around the coast by the Anse, around Keweena bay, we found nothing but alternations of sand beaches and sand-stone cliffs and points. The inland, distant, and high hills about Huron river, no doubt, are mainly composed of trap-rock.

Detail of Eagle River along the Keweenaw Peninsula's copper range from the from Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians. ~ Wisconsin Historical Society

Detail from Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

Going west from Eagle river, we soon after lost both conglomerate and trap-rock, and found, in their stead, our old companions – red sand-stone shores, cliffs, and promontories, alternating with sandy or gravelly beaches.

Detail of Ontonagon River, “Paul's Cabin,” the Ontonagon Boulder, and the Porcupine Mountains from Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians. ~ Wisconsin Historical Society

Detail of the Ontonagon River, “Paul’s Cabin,” the Ontonagon Boulder, and the Porcupine Mountains from Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

Major Campbell and the U.S. Mineral Agency appear to have been located at the mouth of the Ontonagon River, but were primarily based at Copper Harbor.

The trap-rock east and west of the Portage river rises with, and follows, the range of high hills running, at most points irregularly, from northeast to southwest, parallel with the lake shore. It is said to appear in the Porcupine mountain, which runs parallel with Iron river, and at right angles to the lake shore. This mountain is so named by the Indians, who conceived its principal ridge bore a likeness to a porcupine; but, to my fancy, it bears a better resemblance to a huge hog, with its snout stuck down at the lake-shore, and its back and tail running into the interior. This river and mountain are found about twenty miles west of the Ontonagon river, which is said to be the largest stream that empties into the lake. The site for a farm, or the location of an agency, at its mouth, is very beautiful, and admirably suited for either purpose. The soil is good; the river safe for the entrance and secure anchorage of schooners, and navigable to large barges and keel-boats for twelve miles above its mouth. The trap range, believed to be as rich in copper ores as any part of Lake Superior, crosses this river near its forks, about fifteen miles above its mouth. The government have organized a mineral agency at its mouth, and appointed Major Campbell as agent to reside at it; than whom, a better selection could not have been made.

“Engraving depicting the Schoolcraft expedition crossing the Ontonagon River to investigate a copper boulder.”
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

Detail of the Montreal River and Chequamegon bay from from Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians. ~ Wisconsin Historical Society

Detail of the Montreal River, La Pointe, and Chequamegon bay from from Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

The nearest approach the trap-rock hills make to the lake-shore, beyond the Porcupine mountain, is on the Montreal river, a short distance above the falls. Beyond Montreal river, to La Pointe, we found red-clay cliffs, based on red sand-stone, to occur. Indeed, this combination frequently occurred at various sections of the coast – beginning, first, some miles west of the Portage.

From Copper harbor to Agate harbor is called 7 miles; to Eagle river, 20 miles; to the Portage, 40 miles; to the Ontonagon, 80 miles; to La Pointe, from Copper harbor, 170 miles. From the latter place to the river Brulé is about 70 miles; up which we expect to ascend for 75 miles, make a portage of three miles to the St. Croix river, and descend that for 300 miles to the Mississippi river.

Painting of Douglass Houghton by Robert Thom. Houghton first explored the south shore of Lake Superior in 1840. Houghton died on Lake Superior during a storm on October 13, 1845. The city of Houghton on Chequamegon Bay was named in his honor.

Painting of Professor Douglass Houghton by Robert Thom. Houghton first explored the south shore of Lake Superior in 1840, and died on Lake Superior during a storm on October 13, 1845. Chequamegon Bay’s City of Houghton was named in his honor, and is now known as Houghton Falls State Natural Area.

Going back to Eagle river, at the time of our visit, we found at the mine Mr. Henshaw, Mr. Williams, and Dr. Jackson of Boston, and Dr. Houghton of Michigan, who was passing from Copper harbor to meet his men at his principal camp on Portage river, which he expected to reach that night. The doctor is making a rapid and thorough survey of the country. This work he is conducting in a duplicate manner, under the authority of the United States government. It is both a topographical and geological survey. All his surveyors carry sacks, into which they put pieces of rock broken from every prominent mass they see, and carry into camp at night, for the doctor’s examination, from which he selects specimens for future use. The doctor, from possessing extraordinary strength of constitution, can undergo exposure and fatigue sufficient to break down some of the hardiest men that can be found in the West. He wears his beard as long as a Dunkard’s; has a coat and patched pants made of bed ticking; wears a flat-browned ash-colored, wool hat, and a piece of small hemp cord off a guard chain; and, with two half-breed Indians and a small dog as companions, embarks in a small bark, moving and travelling along the lake shore with great celerity.

“THE PHŒNIX MINE.
Probably no company on Lake Superior has had a longer and harder struggle against adversity than the Phœnix. The original concern, the Lake Superior Copper Company, was among the first which operated at Lake Superior after the relinquishment of the Indian rights to this country in 1843. The trustees of this early organization were David Henshaw and Samuel Williams of Boston, and D. G. Jones and Col. Chas. H. Gratiot, of Detroit; Dr. Charles T. Jackson examined the veins on the property, and work was begun in the latter part of the year 1844. The company met with bad luck from the start, and, the capital stock having become exhausted, it has been reorganized several times in the course of its history.”
~ The Lake Superior Copper Properties: A Guide to Investors and Speculators in in Lake Superior Copper Shares Giving History, Products, Dividend Record and Future Outlook for Each Property, by Henry M. Pinkham, 1888, page 9.

We all sat down to dinner together, by invitation of Mr. Williams, and ate heartily of good, wholesome fare.

After dinner we paid a visit to the shafts at the mine, sunk to a considerable depth in two or three places. Only a few men were at work on one of the shafts; the others seemed to be employed on the saw-mill erecting near the mouth of the river. Others were at work in cutting timbers, &c.

They had also a crushing-mill in a state of forwardness, near the mine.

It is what has been said, and put forth about the value of this mineral deposite, which has done more to incite and feed the copper fever than all other things put together.

Portrait of Doctor Charles Thomas Jackson; Plate 11 of Contributions to the History of American Geology, opposite page 290.

Professor Charles Thomas Jackson.
~ Contributions to the History of American Geology, plate 11, opposite page 290.

Dr. Jackson was up here last year, and has this year come up again in the service of the company. Without going very far to explore the country elsewhere, he has certainly been heard to make some very extravagant declarations about this mine,- such as that he “considered it worth a million of dollars;” that some of the ore raised was “worth $2,000 or $3,000 per ton!” So extravagant have been the talk and calculations about this mine, that shares (in its brief lease) have been sold, it is said, for $500 per share! – or more, perhaps!! No doubt, many members of the company are sincere, and actually believe the mine to be immensely valuable. Mr. Williams and General Wilson, both stockholders, strike a trade between themselves. One agrees or offers to give the other $36,000 for his interest, which the other consents to take. This transaction, under some mysterious arrangement, appears in the newspapers, and is widely copied.

Without wishing to give an opinion as to the value and permanency of this mine, (in which many persons have become, probably, seriously involved,) even were I as well qualified to do so as some others, I can only state what are the views of some scientific and practical gentlemen with whom I fell in while in the country, who were from the eastern cities, and carefully examined the famous Eagle river silver and copper mine. I do not allude to Dr. Houghton; for he declines to give an opinion to any one about any part of the country.

“The remarkable copper-silver ‘halfbreed’ specimen shown above comes from northern Michigan’s Portage Lake Volcanic Series, an extremely thick, Precambrian-aged, flood-basalt deposit that fills up an ancient continental rift valley.”
~ Shared with a Creative Commons license from James St. John

They say this mine is a deposite mine of native silver and copper in pure trap-rock, and no vein at all; that it presents the appearance of these metals being mingled broadcast in the mass of trap-rock; that, in sinking a shaft, the constant danger is, that while a few successive blasts may bring up very rich specimens of the metals, the succeeding blast or stroke of the pick-axe may bring up nothing but plain rock. In other words, that, in all such deposite mines, including deposition of diffused particles of native meteals, there is no certainly their PERMANENT character. How far this mine will extend through the trap, or how long it will hold out, is a matter of uncertainty. Indeed, time alone will show.

It is said metallic veins are most apt to be found in a permanent form where the mountain limestone and trap come in contact.

I have no prejudice against the country, or any parties whatever. I sincerely wish the whole mineral district, and the Eagle mine in particular, were as rich as it has been represented to be. I should like to see such vast mineral wealth as it has been held forth to be, added to the resources of the country.

Doctor William Pettit was a Trustee of the Pittsburg and Boston Copper Harbor Mining Company.

Unless Dr. Pettit has succeeded in fixing the vein of black oxide in the side of the mountain or hill, it is believed by good judges that no permanent vein has yet been discovered, as far as has come to their knowledge, in the country!! That much of the conglomerate and trap-rock sections of the country, however, presents strong indications and widely diffused appearances of silver and copper ores, cannot be denied; and from the great number of active persons engaged in making explorations, it is possible, if not probable, that valuable veins may be discovered in some portions of the country.

To find such out, however, if they exist, unless by accident, must be the work of time and labor – perhaps of years – as the interior is exceedingly difficult, or rather almost impossible, to examine, on account of the impenetrable nature of the woods.

During our long and tedious journey, we were favored with a good deal of fine weather. We however experienced, first and last, five or six thunderstorms, and some tolerably severe gales.

Coasting for such a great length, and camping out at night, was not without some trials and odd incidents – mixed with some considerable hardships.

This beach is by Little Girls’ Point.

On the night before we reached La Pointe, we camped on a rough pebbly beach, some six or eight miles east of Montreal river, under the lea of some high clay cliffs. We kindled our fire on what appeared to be a clear bed of rather large and rounded stones, at the mouth of a gorge in the cliffs.

Topographic map of the gorge at Little Girls Point County Park. ~ United States Geological Society

Topographic map of the gorge in the cliffs at Little Girl’s Point County Park.
~ United States Geological Survey

Next morning early, the fire was rekindled at the same spot, although some rain had falled in the night it being still cloudy, and heavy thunder rolling, indicating an approaching storm. I had placed some potatoes in the fire to roast, while some of the voyageurs were getting other things ready for breakfast; but before we could get anything done, the rain down upon us in torrents. We soon discovered that we had kindled our fire in the bed of a wet weather creek. The water rapidly rose, put out the fire, and washed away my potatoes.

“Indian pone or cake” is frybread, adapted from bannock, which was introduced by fur traders, possibly with Scottish or British origins.

We had then to kindle a new fire at a higher place, which was commenced at the end of a small crooked log. One of the voyageurs had set the frying-pan on the fire with an Indian pone or cake an inch thick, and large enough to cover the bottom it. The under side had begun to bake; another hand had mixed the coffee, and set the coffee-pot on to boil; while a third had been nursing a pot boiling with pork and potatoes, which, as we were detained by rain, the voyageurs thought best to prepare for two meals. One of the part, unfortunately, not observing the connexion between the crooked pole, and the fire at the end of it, jumped with his whole weight on it, which caused it suddenly to turn. In its movement, it turned the frying-pan completely over on the sand, with its contents, which became plastered to the dirt. The coffee-pot was also trounced bottom upwards, and emptied its contents on the sand. The pot of potatoes and pork, not to be outdone, turned over directly into the fire, and very nearly extinguished it. We had, in a measure, to commence operations anew, it being nearly 10 o’clock before we could get breakfast. When near the Madelaine islands, (on the largest of which La Pointe is situated,) the following night, our pilot, amidst the darkness of the evening, got bewildered for a time, when we thought best to land and camp; which, luckily for us, was at a spot within sight of La Pointe. Many trifling incidents of this character befell us in our long journey.

Legend of the Montreal River is a story about an Indian settlement at the mouth of the Montreal River.

Gichi-waabizheshi (Big Marten) is an example of how Chippewa bands and their leaders were not fixed to one position – geographically or politically – and changed fluidly over time.

1842 Treaty with the Chippewas at La Pointe;
Lake Bands:
“Ki ji ua be she shi, 1st [Chief].
Ke kon o tum, 2nd [Chief].”

1844 Isle Royale Agreement at La Pointe;

Pelican Lake:

“Ke-che-waub-e-sash-e, his x mark.

Nig-gig, his x mark.”

1847 Treaty with the Chippewas at Fond du Lac;
Pelican Lakes:
“Kee-che-waub-ish-ash, 1st chief, his x mark.
Nig-gig, 2d chief, his x mark.“

1854 Treaty with the Chippewas at La Pointe;
Lac Courte Oreilles Band:

“Ke-che-waw-be-shay-she, or the Big Martin, 2d chief, his x mark. [L. S.].

Waw-be-shay-sheence, headman, his x mark. [L. S.].”

At the mouth of the Montreal river, we fell in with a party of seventeen Indians, composed of old Martin and his band, on their way to La Pointe, to be present at the payment expected to take place about the 15th of August.

They had their faces gaudily painted with red and blue stripes, with the exception of one or two, who had theirs painted quite black, and were said to be in mourning on account of deceased friends. They had come from Pelican lake (or, as the French named it, Lac du Flambeau,) being near the headwaters of the Wisconsin river, and one hundred and fifty miles distant. They had with them their wives; children, dogs, and all, walked the whole way. They told our pilot, Jean Baptiste, himself three parts Indian, that they were hungry, and had no canoe with which to get on to La Pointe. We gave them some corn meal, and received some fish from them for a second supply. For the Indians, if they have anything they think you want, never offer generally to sell it to you, till they have first begged all they can; then they will produce their fish, &c., offering to trade; for which they expect an additional supply of the article you have been giving them. Baptiste distributed among them a few twists of tobacco, which seemed very acceptable. Old Martin presented Baptiste with a fine specimen of native copper which he had picked up somewhere on his way – probably on the headwaters of the Montreal river. He desired us to take one of his men with us to La Pointe, in order that he might carry a canoe back to the party, to enable them to reach La Pointe the next day, which we accordingly complied with. We dropped him, however, at his own request, on the point of land some miles south of La Pointe, where he said he had an Indian acquaintance, who hailed him from shore.

Having reached La Pointe, we were prepared to rest a few days, before commencing our voyage to the Mississippi river.

Of things hereabouts, and in general, I will discourse in my next.

In great haste I am,

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

MORGAN.

To be continued in La Pointe…

Posted by Amorin Mello

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Wisconsin Territory Delegation: Copper Harbor

April 11, 2016

By Amorin Mello

A curious series of correspondences from “Morgan”

… continued from Mackinac and Sault Ste Marie.

The Daily Union (Washington D.C.)
“Liberty, The Union, And The Constitution.”
July 22, 1845.

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN.

“The Wisconsin Territorial Seal was designed in 1836 by John S. Horner, the first secretary of the territory, in consultation with Henry Dodge, the first territorial governor. It features an arm holding a pick and a pile of lead ore.”
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

Gen. Henry Dodge, having been re-appointed Governor of the Territory, from which he had been “so ingloriously ejected after the election of 1840, by his political opponents, his valuable services” have ceased as a member of Congress. It became necessary, of course, to elect another delegate. To choose a candidate for this office, a democratic convention was held at the capitol, in Madison, on the 25th June. Horatio N. Wells, of Milwaukie, was elected president; 18 ballots were taken before any one obtained a majority of the votes. Mr. Morgan L. Martin finally received 49, D. A. J. Upham 20, scattering 10. Mr. Martin accepts the nomination.

The Daily Union (Washington D.C.)
“Liberty, The Union, And The Constitution.”
July 29, 1845.

[From our regular correspondent.]

COPPER HARBOR, LAKE SUPERIOR,

JULY 15, 1845.

“Ojibwa village near Sault Ste Marie” by Paul Kane in 1845.
~ Wikipedia.org

Having chartered a Mackinac boat at the Sault St. Marie, and stored away our luggage, tents, provisions, with general camp equipage, &c., taking on board six able-bodied voyageurs, consisting of four descendants of Canadian French, and two half-breed Indians, (one of whom acted as our pilot,) we set off, on the 4th of July, at about 11, a.m., to coast it up the southern shore of Lake Superior, to Copper Harbor – a distance, by the way we were to travel, of over 280 miles.

The heat of the sun, combined with the attacks of musquitoes at night, annoyed us very much at first. I have seen what musquitoes are in many other parts of the world; but I never found them more abundant and troublesome than at some points on Lake Superior.

It took us eleven days’ voyaging to reach this place, travelling all day when the weather was favorable, and lying by when it became stormy, with strong head winds. At night we camped on shore, and generally rose every morning between three and four o’clock, being under way on the water as soon as it was light enough to see. In voyaging in this way, we had a better opportunity to view the country as we passed along, many portions of which were full of interest – such as the Grand Sable, the Pictured Rocks, &c. The former are immense cliffs, rising to the height of two hundred feet above the level of the lake, being composed of pure sand, and reaching about six miles in length along the lake shore, with its front aspects almost perpendicular. It is said, the sand of which they are formed maintains its perpendicularity by reason of the moisture which it derives from the vapor of the lake. The summits contain no vegetation, save here and there a solitary shrub or bush. The rest of this high, bold, and solemn mass stretches out, in silent and naked grandeur, beneath the horizon, forming a picture of desolate sublimity. We passed it late in the afternoon, during a bright and clear sky, when the sun had just begun to hide himself behind its huge masses.

“Once a vessel was sailing over a northern ocean in the midst of the short, Arctic summer. The sun was hot, the air was still, and a group of sailors lying lazily upon the deck were almost asleep, when an exclamation of fear from one of them made them all spring to their feet. The one who had uttered the cry pointed into the air at a little distance, and there the awe-stricken sailors saw a large ship, with all sails set, gliding over what seemed to be a placid ocean, for beneath the ship was the reflection of it.”
~ Round-about Rambles in Lands of Fact and Fancy, by Frank Richard Stockton, 1910, page 277.

I have never travelled on a sheet of water where the effect of mirage is so frequently witnessed as on Lake Superior. For instance: early on Sunday morning, the 6th of July, soon after leaving our encampment, near White Fish Point, the morning being slightly foggy, we saw distinctly the Grand Sable, which must have been fifty miles in advance of us, with intervening points of land. I witnessed a similar instance of mirage when coming through Lake Huron. Early one morning, I distinctly saw Drummond’s island, which the officers of the boat assured me was eighty miles off!

Fata Morgana is an example of a superior mirage. This type of optical illusion is common on the Great Lakes, caused by a thermal inversion between the colder surface of the water and the warmer air mass above it. This is also documented in historical accounts from ocean-faring sailors as the Flying Dutchman. A modern example of this phenomenon on Lake Superior is available on YouTube.com.

I have never seen an atmosphere through which I could discern objects so far as on Lake Superior. Cliffs, headlands, islands, and hills, which often appeared as if within a mile or two of us, were found, on being approached, to be from five to ten miles off. Hence, in making what “voyageurs” called “traverses” – that is, a passage in a direct line from one headland to another, instead of curving with the shore of the lake – inexperienced voyageurs are very liable to be deceived, by supposing the distance to be short, when it is in reality very long. In making which, should a strong wind spring up from shore, a small boat would be liable to be blown out to sea, and the boat and people run the hazard of being lost. We had some brief but painful experience of this deception in apparent distance, by attempting one morning, after having camped at the mouth of the Dead river, to sail before what seemed to be a fair wind from Presqu’isle to Granite Point; but we had not made much over half the distance, when the wind suddenly changed to the west, and blew a gale on our beam, and we came very near being blown out into the open lake – which is just about equivalent to being blown into the Atlantic, for the storms are just as strong, and the waves roll equally as high. Finding we were going to leeward, we dropped sail, and took to our oars; and, although within half a mile of the point we wished to make, it took us hard oaring for about an hour to reach it.

“Pictured Rocks Splash © Lou Waldock”
~ National Park Service

I have never seen a sheet of water, where the wind can succeed in so suddenly throwing the water into turbulent waves, as on Lake Superior. This is owing to its freshness, making it so much lighter than salt water. One night, just as we had oared past a perpendicular red sandstone cliff a mile or two in length, where it would have been impossible for us to make a landing, and had reached a sand beach at the mouth of a small river, where we camped, the surface of the lake up to that time being as smooth as glass, we had no sooner pitched our tents, than a violent wind sprang up from the northeast, and blew a gale nearly all night, shifting from one point to another. In fifteen or twenty minutes after the commencement of the blow, the water of the lake seemed lashed into a fury of commotion, in which our boat could scarcely have survived.

The grandest scenery beheld in the whole route was that presented by the celebrated “Pictured Rocks.” They lie stretched out for nine miles in length, a little east of Grand island. They are considered very dangerous to pass by voyageurs, who generally select favorable spells of weather for the trip.

“Grand Sable Dunes”
~ National Park Service

On the morning of Tuesday, the 8th instant, soon after leaving our camp, the fog cleared up, sufficient to give us a glimpse of these stupendous sandstone cliffs. As the sun rose, the fog became dispersed, and its brilliant beams fell upon and illuminated every portion of them.

They rise in perpendicular walls from the water of the lake shore, to the height of from 200 to 300 feet. They are so precipitous, that they in some places appear to lean over the lake at top, to which small trees are seen leaning over the lake, hanging by their frail roots to the giddy crags above. At one point, a small creek tumbles over a portion of them in a cascade of 100 feet in height. They stretch for nine miles in length, and in all that distance there are only two places where boats can land – one cove being called the Chapel, and the second Miner’s river.

Photograph of “Chapel Rock” by David Kronk.
~ National Park Service

“Bridalveil Falls”
~ National Park Service

So deep is the water, that a boat can pass close along shore, almost touching the cliffs. Indeed, a seventy-four-gun ship can ride with perfect safety within ten feet of their base. Taken altogether, their solemn grandeur, and the awful sublimity of their gigantic forms and elevation, far surpass anything of the kind, probably, on the continent, if not in the world. Next to the Falls of Niagara, they are the greatest natural curiosity they eyes of man can behold. When steamboats are introduced on Lake Superior, they cannot fail to attract the attention of the tourist. They contain vast caves, one of which is only 30 feet wide at its mouth, but, on entering it, suddenly expands to 200 feet in width, beneath a lofty dome of 200 feet high. Different portions of the cliffs go by different names – such as the “Portailles,” the “Doric Rock,” the “Gros Cap,” the “Chapel,” &c. We went into a small bay at the base of the “Chapel,” which consists of an immense mass of rude sandstone, with trees growing on it, expanded in the form of an arch, its extremities resting on irregularly shaped columns, to the number of three or four under each end. Beneath the arch, a deep gorge enters the lake, crowded and choked with luxuriant vegetation. It appeared to me like the finest and most natural Druidical altar to be seen anywhere, not excepting even Stonehenge. Near the Chapel, a brisk little stream falls rapidly over the rocks into the water below. It is impossible to do justice to the splendid appearance of “the Pictured Rocks,” so called on account of the [???? ????? ???????] composed being mixed with iron ore, drippings from which they have stained the surface of the rocks with a variety of tints. The painter alone can convey any just image to the mind’s eye of these grand cliffs, and they will afford him a hundred views, every one of which will differ from the other. I will defy anybody to visit them, as we did, on a clear, bright day, when the lake is smooth, in an open boat, close by the side of them, without having his expectations of their natural grandeur far surpassed.

“Preliminary Chart of Grand Island and Its Approaches, Lake Superior, 1859″
~ Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Boats have sometimes been caught in the Chapel by sudden, high, and contrary winds, and compelled to remain there for three or four days, before being able to proceed. A few miles beyond the “Pictured Rocks,” we came to Grand Island, where, entering its harbor, we stopped at Mrs. Williams’s place, the only settlement on the island, which is very large. This is one of the most splendid and safe harbors on Lake Superior – perfectly land-locked on every side, and extensive enough to contain a large fleet of vessels, being easy of ingress or egress. From Grand Island we continued to persevere in our voyage, and finally reached Copper Harbor, via the Anse, in eleven days from the Sault Ste. Marie.

James Ord was the Indian sub-Agent at Sault Ste Marie.

“The beginning of Methodism in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan west of Sault Ste. Marie is credited to the missionary trail blazers who came to Kewawenon, now known as Keweenaw Bay. The first, in 1832 with John Sunday a converted Canadian Indian. In 1833 Rev. John Clark continued the mission work started by Sunday. He was followed by Rev. Daniel Chandler in 1834 who remained here for two years. Rev. Clark was appointed Superintendent of Lake Superior Missions in 1834 and was instrumental in having a mission house and church school house erected during Rev. Chandler’s mission stay. Houses for the local natives were also erected along the lake shore in the vicinity of the present Whirl-I-Gig Road”

~ L’Anse United Methodist Church

Daniel D. Brockway was the Government blacksmith for the Indian sub-Agency locaed here.

Lathrop Johnson was the Government carpenter for the Indian sub-Agency located here.

At the Anse we fell in with Mr. Ord, the United States Indian agent at the Sault Ste. Marie, who was on a visit to the Indians at that point, to take the census, and to hold a talk with their chiefs in council. We arrived at the Anse a few hours before the council began. The chiefs all sat around a hall on wooden benches, while Mr. Ord, with the interpreter, was seated at the head of the circle. Many of the Indians were fine-looking men. They had a great many petty grievances to relate to the agent, who listened to them with patient attention. The Chippewas about the Anse are said to be much better off than those who trade to La Pointe, at the upper end of the lake.

The Methodists have a missionary station and school on the east side of the bay of Keweewena, and near its head; around which there is an Indian village, consisting of 600 or 700 souls. The Catholics have also a missionary station on the opposite side of the bay, which is here only about a mile or two wide.

Reverend William Hadley Brockway: “The first Methodist minister licensed to preach in the State of Michigan.”
~ Geni.com

The government employs at this Indian post one blacksmith, (Mr. Brockaway,) one carpenter, (Mr. Johnson,) and one teacher, in the person of the Methodist minister. We left the Anse about half-past 4 o’clock, p.m., sailing before a fair wind, reaching the mouth of the Portage, or Sturgeon river, where we camped on a flat point of land severely infested by musquitoes, with the heat equal to any in intensity (which had prevailed during the day) that I ever experienced. At Fort Wilkins, Copper Harbor, on the same day, I have since learned the mercury rose to 100° in the shade. This would seem to be a tremendous degree of heat for such a high latitude, the fort standing on the parallel of 47° 30′.

Detail of "Keewaiwona Bay" with "Anse" and an "Old Indian Village" from Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians. ~ Wisconsin Historical Society

Detail of “Keewaiwona Bay” with “Anse” and the “Old Indian Village” from Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

During the night, we could occasionally hear the plunges of sturgeon floundering in the water, which abound in this lake river. A thunder-storm, also, passed near, before day, which had the effect to cool the air. About half-past 1 o’clock, I was awakened by the loud talk and whooping of Indians, carried on between our Indian half-breed pilot, Jean Baptiste, and a lot of freshly-arrived Indian voyageurs, conducted in the Indian dialect. On looking out of our tent, I discovered a plain-dressed Yankee-looking man, standing in front of it. On hailing him, he proved to be the Rev. Mr. Brockaway, a Methodist minister, and superintendent of Indian missions in this part of the world. He had been on a visit to the missions at the upper end of the lake, and was returning to the Anse, which he was anxious to reach in time to attend to Sunday morning service, (the next day being Sunday,) and from whence he expected to proceed to the Sault Ste. Marie, where he is stationed in the capacity of chaplain to the garrison at that post. He said he had, on reaching our encampment, travelled that day from the Ontonagon river, 80 miles distance, in a bark canoe, accompanied by four Indian voyageurs. After the Indians had prepared some food, with tea, of which Mr. B. and themselves partook, they again set off for the Anse, about 15 miles from us, where they must have arrived at a very early hour. This despatch far exceeded the expedition of our movements, and displayed unusual activity on the part of the enterprising missionary of an extensive and practical church organization.

We rose at three a.m., and in half an hour were under way on the lake. In these latitudes it is light at three in the morning; twilight continuing till eight and nine in the afternoon.

The following night we camped near the mouth of Little Montreal river, in full view of the high mountains or large round hills of trap rocks running along the peninsula of Keweewena towards its extreme point, some of which rise to the elevation of eight hundred feet above the level of the lake.

This U.S. Mineral Agency on Porter’s Island was established in 1843 after the 1842 Treaty with the Chippewa at La Pointe ceded Isle Royale and the southwestern shoreline of Lake Superior (lands known to be rich in copper) from the Chippewa tribe to the United States.

The next day, after some detention, we reached Copper Harbor, and landed near the United States Mineral Agency on Porter’s island, where we found quite a village, consisting of white canvas tents of various sizes and forms, occupied by miners, geologists, speculators, voyageurs, visitors, &c.

The only tenement on the island is a miserable log-cabin, in which General Stockton, for the want of better quarters, is compelled to keep his office. The room which he occupies, is only about eight feet square – just large enough to admit a narrow bed for himself, a table, and two or three chairs. In this salt-box of a room, he is compelled to transact all the business relating to the mineral lands embraced within this important agency. As many as a dozen men at a time are pressing forward to his “bee gum” apartment, endeavoring to have their business transacted.

Andrew Belcher Gray surveyed the Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians in 1845.

The office of the surveyor of this mineral lands, in charge of Mr. Gray, at this agency, is still worse adapted to the transaction of public business. He is compelled to occupy the garret of the log-cabin, with a hole cut through the logs in the gable to serve as a window. In this garret he is obliged to have all his draughting performed, subject to the constant interruption of parties wishing to see plans of the mineral lands. It would seem almost impossible, under such circumstances, for the officers to avoid making mistakes; yet, by dint of unwearied labor and attention to their official duties, they have conducted their affairs with an accuracy and despatch highly creditable to them.

The government has been fortunate in the selection of its agents in the mineral region of Lake Superior. To untiring industry, punctuality, and close attention to business, they unite, in a high degree, the bland, mild, and patient bearing of gentlemen.

General John Stockton was assigned as the Superintendent for this Mineral Agency to reduce corruption.

Gen. Stockton’s labor are severe and perplexing. He is continually beset by crowds of applicants for locations, all anxiously pressing forward to secure leases for copper-mines – among whom are found some utterly reckless of all principles of justice and equity, who endeavor to bend the agent into a compliance with their unjust and unreasonable demands – such as wishing him to supersede prior locations for their benefit, or to grant locations evidently intended to cover town sites, beyond the bounds of his agency, where no mineral exists, which he has no authority to grant; and because he has, in every instance of the kind, resisted their unreasonable applications, he has not escaped making a few enemies among such persons, who are collecting together to abuse and misrepresent him. Considering the cramped quarters furnished him by the government, and the great rush of people upon him from all quarters, under the excitement of a copper fever raging at its height, and many anxious to obtain exclusive advantages, it is surprising how he has succeeded so well as he has done in giving such general satisfaction. His official duties are discharged with a promptitude, fidelity, firmness, and impartiality, which are creditable to the public service. He seems peculiarly fitted, both by habit and nature, for the discharge of the responsible duties involved in the administration of an agency established in a wild an uninhabited country, being traversed at present by bands of people in search of mineral treasures, as diversified in character, dispositions, &c., as the various sections of country from whence they come – many of whom are by no means scrupulous as to the means for promoting their own interest – who probably suppose they can play the same game in the copper mineral region that was practiced in the early leasing of the lead mineral districts of Illinois: that is, seize upon government lands, work and raise mineral ore, cheat the government, and sell rights, where they have never had a claim.

Major Campbell reported on the copper lands here in December of 1843.

It is enough to say that, while such men as Gen. Stockton, Major Campbell, and Mr. Gray, remain in office on the southern shore of Lake Superior, all such desperadoes will be completely foiled and disappointed. The frauds committed on the government in the working of the lead-mines, cannot be repeated in the copper mineral region of the United States. When fraudulently-inclined adventurers find they cannot make the faithful officers of government stationed in this quarter swerve from the strict and impartial discharge of their duty, they will probably unite for the purpose of operating upon government to procure their removal, and endeavor to get men in their places more likely to act as plaint tools in promoting their selfish ends.

Detail of Porter's Island and Fort Wilkins at Copper Harbor along the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula from Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians. ~ Wisconsin Historical Society

Detail of Porter’s Island, Fort Wilkins, Copper Harbor, Agate Harbor, Eagle Harbor, and Little Montreal River along the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula from Map of the Mineral Lands Upon Lake Superior Ceded to the United States by the Treaty of 1842 With the Chippeway Indians.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

The agency being on a narrow small island, half a mile from the mainland, makes it very inconvenient. The island does not afford sufficient timber for fire-wood, and in winter is isolated by ice, &c. It should by all means be removed to the main shore, and placed near Fort Wilkins, which is nearly two miles distant on the main land, or removed up to Eagle Harbor, which is a far preferable and more convenient site for the agency.

There is no question by the great range of trap-rock, running parallel with the southern shore of Lake Superior for a great distance, is [????????] with many valuable veins of copper ore; but to find them and develop them, must be the work of time. The impenetrable stunted forest seems to be little else than a thick, universal hedge, formed by the horizontal interlocked limbs of dwarf white cedars, intermingled with tamarack, birch, and maple. Persons who attempt to penetrate through them, without being protected by a mail of dressed buck-skin, have their clothes soon slit and torn from their bodies in shreds.

Dr. Houghton says, so considerable is the attraction of the trap-rock for the needle, that, on many places, when surveying over its ranges, he cannot rely upon it, and is compelled to run his lines by the sun and stellar observations.

So far as practicable mining operations have progressed in the country, the following seems to be the result:

At Eagle river several locations are being worked, superintended by Col. Gratiot, and on which from 70 to 80 men are employed.

Colonel Charles H Gratiot was the Agent of the Lake Superior Copper Company.

Edward Larned was the General Agent, and Charles Larned was the sub-Agent, of the New York and Lake Superior Mining Company.

At Agate Harbor another company have this season commenced operations under the direction of Mr. Larned, of New York, in whose service from 15 to 20 laborers find employment.

Doctor William Pettit was a Trustee of the Pittsburg and Boston Copper Harbor Mining Company.

At Copper Harbor a company from Pittsburg are working a vein of black oxide of copper, under the superintendence of Dr. Pettit, who has from 30 to 40 hands employed under him. Besides these, there are other small parties at work in various directions. So that it would appear that mining in the United States copper mineral lands has fairly commenced.

Up to this time, the returns made to the agency by two of the above companies – the Eagle River, alias Boston Company, and the Pittsburg Company – amount to the following quantities of ore: The former have raised 500,000 lbs. of ore, worth not less than $125 per ton. The latter company have raised 6,670 lbs. of the black oxide copper ore, the value of which I do not exactly know.

Other companies are organizing for mining purposes, and will probably commence operations the present, or early in the next season.

The country still in the possession of the Chippewa Indians, embraced between the northwestern part of the lake and the British frontier, along Pigeon river, might be easily obtained from them by treaty. And, if poor in mineral wealth, it is a very rich soil and a good agricultural country; and by its acquisition we should at once extend and square out our possession and settlements to the British frontier, which should be protected by detached forts, extending along our lines, towards the Lake of the Woods. According to the present Indian boundary, it is made to pass along the water-line of the lake shore, from Pigeon river, around Fond du Lac; and when some distance east and south of the lake, strikes a straight line west from the Mississippi. The United States, by being cut off by this water-line from all landing sites for harbors or fortifications for one or two hundred miles of the western and northern shore of the lake, will be subject to great inconvenience.

The number of persons at present exploring or visiting the mineral region of Lake Superior, is supposed to amount to five hundred or more. The water of the lake, especially in deep places is remarkably fine and cool for drinking. The surface of the water in the upper part of the lake is said to be 900 feet above the level of the Atlantic. The shores of this great lake are, at many places, bold, high, grand, and solitary – the favorite resort of large eagles, several of which we saw – one, in particular, was a splendid specimen of the bald eagle. The lake abounds in white fish, trout, siskomit, and bass.

The Siscowet, or Fat Trout, is a subspecies of Lake Trout. Drawn by David Starr Jordan, and Barton Warren Evermann, 1911.
~ University of Washington

We caught fine trout almost every day during our voyage, by trailing a hook and line at the end of our boat. On the 13th inst., (the day before reaching Copper Harbor) we caught four fine large trout.

The scenery, climate, &c., of Lake Superior, strike the traveller as being peculiar, and something very different from what is met with in any part of the United States. Game is not abundant. With the exception of a porcupine, and a squirrel or two, we succeeded in killing nothing. Wild fowl, pigeon, and ducks are more plentiful. we killed many of the former, and two pheasants, during our trip. Our half-breed Indians skinned and dressed our porcupine for us, whose flesh we found quite palatable.

At one point I purchased the hind-quarters of a beaver, which some Indians had killed. The tail being considered a great delicacy, I sent it to Mr. Ord and party, who were then travelling in a separate boat, in company with us. We found the beaver meat, when dressed, most delicious food.

Our party, although sleeping in and exposed to showers for a day or two, all enjoyed excellent health. Many voyageurs are attacked with dysentery, but it is very slight, and easily overcome by the use of simple medicine.

I remain yours,

Very truly and respectfully,

MORGAN.

To be continued in The Copper Region…

Posted by Amorin Mello

Filed in 1840s, Wisconsin Territory Delegation ·Tags: Andrew Belcher Gray, Charles H. Gratiot, Charles Larned, Daniel D. Brockway, Douglass Houghton, Eagle River Michigan, Edward Larned, Fort Wilkins Historic State Park, Grand Island National Recreation Area, Hiawatha National Forest, James Ord, Jean Baptiste, John Stockton, Keweenaw Bay, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Keweenaw Peninsula, Lake Superior, Lake Superior Chippewa, Lake Superior Copper, Lake Superior Copper Company, Lathrop Johnson, Little Montreal River, Major Campbell, Morgan Lewis Martin, New York and Lake Superior Mining Company, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Pittsburg and Boston Copper Harbor Mining Company, Portage River, Porter's Island, Presque Isle, Sault Ste Marie, Superior Mirage, United States Mineral Agency, voyageurs, Whitefish Point, William Hadley Brockway, William Pettit, Wisconsin Territory

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Wisconsin Territory Delegation: Mackinac and Sault Ste Marie

April 7, 2016

By Amorin Mello

A curious series of correspondences from “Morgan”

… continued from To The Far West.

The Daily Union (Washington D.C.)
“Liberty, The Union, And The Constitution.”
July 7, 1845.

MADISON, (W.T.,) June 26, 1845.

To the Editor of the Union:

SIR: Our democratic territorial convention has this day nominated the Hon. Morgan L. Martin, of the county of Brown, as the candidate for the delegacy, to succeed Governor Dodge. Mr. Martin is one of our ablest and most reliable democrats, and there is but little doubt of his election by a triumphant majority. Mr. Martin has been fourteen years in the upper branch of our territorial legislature, and has been the presiding officer of that body at four sessions. The democrats of the Territory will go into the canvass in the best possible spirits, and with the fullest confidence of success; for they are well united, and have a candidate worthy of the cause and their most zealous support.

Henry Dodge
~ Wikipedia.org

More than twice the number of immigrants are arriving here daily, this season, than have ever come at any previous season. The administration of Governor Dodge is very popular with all parties, and so are the measures of the national administration, and particularly its course on those two great questions – the annexation of Texas, and the maintenance of our rights to Oregon.

The convention was very fully attended; and, although there was some division when it assembled, as to who the nominee should be, the members left here in the best possible spirits. In haste.

Yours, truly,

J. A. N.

The Daily Union (Washington D.C.)
“Liberty, The Union, And The Constitution.”
July 8, 1845.

[From our regular correspondent.]

MACKINAC, June 29, 1845.

This small town stands on a narrow slip of land sloping from the foot of elevated bluff hills in the rear, to the water. The second and highest elevation is about three-quarters of a mile in the rear of the town, and is three hundred feet above the level of the lake or straits, and nine hundred feet above the level of the ocean. The site of the town winds in a crescent form around a small harbor, indented in the southeastern part of the island.

Painting of Fort Mackinacc by Seth Eastman in 1761. ~ United States Army Center of Military History

Painting of Fort Mackinac by Seth Eastman in 1761.
~ United States Army Center of Military History

The old Fort Mackinac stood on an extreme northern point, putting out into the strait from the southern main land, some 10 or 15 miles to the southward of this place. It was first settled upon as a French missionary station, and a fort erected. When Carver visited it in 1756-’57, the fort was garrisoned by the English, who came into possession of it with the conquest of Canada, a few years before. It then contained 30 houses, and had one hundred men in garrison, besides a government-house, &c. In 1763, the various northwestern tribes of Indians who had long known the French as the first Europeans they had ever formed friendly intercourse with, became highly dissatisfied with the change from French to English rule. A powerful league was, therefore, formed between the Ottowas, Chippewas, the Hurons, Menomonees, &c.; and the celebrated Pontiac was their leader, who bore a deadly hostility to the English.

“No authentic images of Pontiac [also known as Obwandiyag] are known to exist. This interpretation was painted by John Mix Stanley.”
~ Wikipedia.org

He approached the old Fort Mackinac, followed by a large force, and, at first, with apparently friendly feelings. he and his followers commenced a [ba??] play in front of the fort. The English, supposing all was right, ventured out of the fort to see the play; when Pontiac and his men made a sudden run upon the fort, and succeeded in capturing it. The lives of the English were spared; but they were carried off as prisoners, and afterwards ransomed at Montreal at heavy prices.

After peace was made with Pontiac, the fort came again into the occupancy of the English, who transferred it to us, under the treaty of peace, at the close of the revolutionary war. When the late war broke out, the British took both old Fort Mackinac and the fort at this town, and held them up to the treaty of Ghent; and if war were to begin soon, they would inevitably fall into their hands again, owing to our neglect to fortify them in a proper manner. The old site we have abandoned, and erected a small and well-built fort on the hill, just in the rear of the town, on the island, which is about one hundred and fifty feet high above the level of the lake, or strait. About three-quarters of a mile behind the fort, there is a high hill – the highest on the island – with its steep face looking towards the fort and harbor, while its eastern and northern section extends over a narrow plateau, or level, which could be completely raked by guns stationed on the walls of a fort, which should, by all means, be erected near the brow of the hill. This high point of land overlooks and completely commands the fort our troops (two companies) at present occupy.

“Major Charles Gratiot visited Mackinac Island in 1817, using his trained engineer’s eye to carefully record the design of Fort Holmes in these detailed plans. The fort’s blockhouse, walls, and gun platforms are clearly visible on Gratiot’s drawings”
~ Mackinac State Historic Parks

The first news the people heard of the declaration of war in 1812 in Mackinac, was the appearance of a large body of English and Indians on the high hill, who commanded the surrender of the fort, then garrisoned by some fifty or sixty men which was complied with. The English entrenched this high ground, planted some batteries on its ramparts, and named it “Fort Holmes,” which it still bears.

This point is the main key to those important straits which connect two of the great lakes. It is now just in the state of ruins in which the British left it in 1814-’15; and why our government have not strongly fortified it, seems inexplicable. If this hill were strongly fortified, with armed outposts at some other points about the straits, the military defences of this place would be wholly impregnable – even stronger, if anything, than the rock of Gibraltar. The position is a most important one and government should lose no time in putting it in a complete state of defence.

The only communication by water, between the two great lakes of Michigan and Huron, is directly in view of the heights of this harbor.

From the hill of Fort Holmes, there is a most magnificent view. The great sheets of water in the straits, with the islands, distant main-land, &c., are all in full view. The approach of a steamer or vessel can be seen when from twelve to fifteen miles distant, in the eastern or western offing.

This post was first settled in 1764 – the year after the fall of old Mackinac. In 1796 it was conveyed by the English to St. Clair. It has long been a celebrated Indian trading-point, and is so yet; large numbers of whom constantly visit the place in the birch-bark canoes, encamping beneath bark wigwams (or shanties) on the stony beach along the shore.

1843 Drawing of Mission Point Beach at Mackinac Island, Michigan
~ Historic Mackinac, Volume 1, facing-page 367.

This is also a great point for catching lake trout, or salmon-trout, white fish, &c., which are salted down in barrels, and shipped to market, selling for about seven dollars per barrel, on average. This business is in the hands of Indians, half-breed Indians, and French fishermen, who go out into the lakes in Mackinac boats, properly prepared with seines, hooks, &c.

Photograph of Arch Rock on Mackinac Island, by n8huckins, shared under Creative Commons license. ~ Wikipedia.org

Photograph of Arch Rock on Mackinac Island, by n8huckins, shared under Creative Commons.
~ Wikipedia.org

The island of Mackinac is about 9 miles in circumference, and contains several natural curiosities among which, is the Giant’s Arch, or Rock, about a mile northeast of the town. It is 100 feet high – the natural arch having a span of 45 feet wide.

Nearer the centre of the island is Henry’s cave, at which, it is said, this traveller once saved his life from the fury of drunken Indians, by secreting himself in it. It was then full of bones, which have since disappeared.

~ Ste. Anne Catholic Church

In the town of Mackinac, there are two small churches, the most ancient of which is a Catholic chapel, connected with a Catholic mission at the point. The other is a small Protestant church, originally built in connexion with an extensive mission-house founded by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. They have since changed the establishment to the shores of Lake Superior. The mission-house is now occupied by Mr. Herrick, lately from Detroit, who has converted it into a large and commodious tavern, at which we are staying. There is also another comfortable hotel in the place.

I know of no place on the continent that can make a more delightful summer residence than Mackinac. The heat of the summer is scarcely felt here at all. You can sleep under a blanket every night throughout the summer.

The drinking water is equal to, if not better than, any which ever gushed from the hill-sides of the Alleghany mountains. The fish are abundant and delicious. Large steamers running between Buffalo and Chicago pass twice daily, touching in each case.

The American Fur Company have an agent here. The United States government have an Indian sub-agent, also resident at this place.

I went to a small Catholic church to-day, where I heard a short sermon in French. The auditory consisted of French descendants, Indians, half-breeds, and some few Americans.

This island is called the county of Mackinac and Sate of Michigan. I believe, in addition to a State court, the United States district judge occasionally holds a court here.

We leave to-morrow, on the steamboat General Scott, expected up to-night from Green bay, for the Sault de Ste. Marie – the place of rendezvous for persons bound up Lake Superior, on which then is no craft at present, except two or three schooners sailing up the lake from the Sault to Copper Harbor, &c.

When I arrive at the Sault (pronounced Soo) Ste. Marie, I will write you again.

I remain yours, very respectfully.

MORGAN.

The Daily Union (Washington D.C.)
“Liberty, The Union, And The Constitution.”
July 16, 1845.

EDITOR’S CORRESPONDENCE.

—

[From our regular correspondent.]

SAULT STE. MARIE,

Near Lake Superior, July 2, 1845.

We left Mackinaw yesterday, the 1st July, about a quarter-past eight , a.m.; our course for forty miles to the “detour” lying through the open and upper part of Lake Huron, which exposed our little boat to a very heavy rolling sea- the result of the previous day or two’s severe blow on the lakes. Many of the passengers, as usual on such occasions, became severely sea-sick. At half-past 12, p.m., we rounded into St. Mary’s river, where we had smoother water.

“A painting by Paul Kane depicts an encampment on the shores of Lake Huron in about 1845.”
~ The Granger Collection, New York

The river at first appeared very wide, with a low and sandy beach on each side, and a flat swampy country running back into the interior. As we progressed, however, the stream grew more narrow, and again expanded into two smart lakes – the first called Great George, and the latter Little George’s lake. Leaving these lakes, the river fifteen or twenty miles below the Sault again contracted, and turned about among high hills a little distance off, while its margin was skirted with low, falt, gravelly ground, covered with white cedar and other rather dwarfed forest trees. These highlands showed steep hills or knobs of old red sandstone.

It was not long after passing the hills, before we hove in sight of the white and frothy rapids, at the foot of which stands the small village of the Sault, at the principal pier of which we landed – it being 60 miles from the lake.

The town exhibits a collection of wooden log-houses, roofed and weather-boarded with birch bark, gathered along the river at the foot of the falls, here and there showing small framed painted houses, one of which is an hotel, at present overflowing with people bound for the mineral lands of Lake Superior.

The Sault contains, besides the houses noticed, a small United States garrison; the slender wooden stockade defences of which, with officers’ quarters, are almost in a state of dilapidation. There is also a small missionary station and school-house belonging to the Methodists, and a U. S. Indian agency.

A painting of an Ojibwa village near Sault Ste Marie; also by Paul Kane in 1845.
~ Wikipedia.org

There is a collector of the port on each side of the river, which is here about a mile wide, between us and Canada. I imagine there is very little business to do by either functionary. The American Fur Company have a station at the Sault. The Hudson Bay Company have a factory, or station, on the opposite side of the river. I paid a visit to the latter yesterday, having a note of introduction to a Mr. Blenden, their agent, whom I found busy in packing up for a voyage up the Canada side of Lake Superior. He is bound on a tour among the posts towards Hudson’s Bay to the north. Mr. B. received me very politely. He informed me that he intended to carry his children with him, whom he expected to send in the care of friends across to Hudson’s Bay, where they would embark on one of the company’s ships for London, and be from thence conveyed to Edinburgh, to be placed at school. He told me Sir George Simpson, the governor of the company, had passed up the lake not long since, accompanied by his boats, &c. he was bound for the valley of the Red river of the North, where he expected to meet a kind of convention of the authorities of the company’s territories in that quarter – among whom would be the representatives of Selkirk’s colony, the population of which is about 5,000. They produce more grain, &c., than they can find means of having conveyed to market: hence there is some emigration from their colony to the valley of the Mississippi, within the States.

John Ballenden was a Scottish fur trader for Hudson’s Bay Company.

William E Logan’s 1845 survey.

Mr. B. states that the Hudson Bay Company employ about seven ships in their trade – two or three of which, every summer, visit Hudson’s Bay; three double Cape Horn, and ascent the Columbia river; and one or two others are employed at other points. He states that their charter gives them ample territorial jurisdiction over all the lands, mines, &c., on the high lands to the north and west of Lake Superior, but not over the lands immediately along the shore. He states that a geologist, Dr. Logan, is engaged in surveying the country of Upper Canada, and is now employed between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron, or the inlet of the latter lake, called Lake Georgina Bay. He is expected up this summer, to examine the northern shore of Lake Superior, which is supposed to be as rich in copper ore, at certain points, as the southern shore.

The two fur companies (American and Hudson Bay) are on the best possible understanding; which has a very favorable influence on the northwestern tribe of Indians.

In 1830, they mutually agreed to exclude all intoxicating drinks, in their traffic and intercourse, from them. The Indians, in consequence of this wise and humane compact, are everywhere, within their bounds more inoffensive and peaceable. It is just as safe, if not more so, to travel among them, than among the whites. They have a considerable number of birch-bark lodges at the Sault, employing their time in catching fish at the foot of the falls, in their gill-nets. They belong almost exclusively to the Chippewa tribe. The Sault is the greatest place for catching fish I ever saw. They can take ten times as many white fish, salmon-trout, brook-trout, bass, &c., as can be disposed of. The Indians push their canoes up into the foam of the falls, cast forward their nets, and draw it as the current carries the boat down again. Our staple article of food at the Sault is fresh fish.

The falls here, or rapids, have only a descent of about 18 to 21 feet in a mile; while the ground is very favorable to the construction of a ship-canal – the length of which need only be a mile. On the Canada side, the length of the rapids is only about three-quarters of a mile long. It is very likely, if our government refuses to construct a canal on our side, that the English may, ere long, make one on their side; which will be only three-quarters of a mile long.

“Hudson Bay Fort, Sault Ste. Marie. By J.S. Hallam.”
~ Sault Ste. Marie Public Library

The fort at this place, in time of war, should be erected on a considerable hill, about three-quarters of a mile in the rear of the Sault, called Coal-pit hill; which commands a fine view of the falls, river, &c.

There are several schooners (say three or four) on Lake Superior, plying between the head of the falls and Lapointe, Copper Harbor, &c. They have been drawn around the falls on rollers. There is some talk of having a steamer carried around by the same means. A fine new vessel is on the stocks at the head of the falls, which is about half done. It will be launched about the 1st of August. She is building by Newbury & Co.; to be rigged as a fore-and-aft schooner.

At the Sault, a Catholic station was founded from one to two centuries ago, being fixed upon as a missionary station. next to Quebec and Montreal, it is said to be the oldest point settled upon by Europeans in Canada. It has always been an important point for the Indian trade. Here goods are carried round the falls, and sent up Lake Superior to be distributed to various Indian trading-posts, far in the northwestern region of the continent.

The early Catholic Jesuits, or priests, who first explored the far distant, cold, and deary regions bordering the shores and streams of the upper lakes, must have been animated with a deal of perseverance, and influenced by the dictates (to them) of an all-powerful religion. They at every prominent point throughout this vast country erected the cross among the savage tribes, and impressed their minds with the solemn and imposing ceremonies of the religion they professed. Their success among the savage tribes of North America has never been surpassed, if equalled, by more modern and persevering denominations. They acquired an influence over the Indians, which nearly a century of British and American domination has not been sufficeint to efface. Even at this day, the frail wooden cross seen standing in the humble grave-yards of the Indians, sufficiently attests the remaining influence of the Catholic religion. French and Indian have also intermarried more than the Anglo-Saxon and Indian. The latter also more commonly speak French. Indians never, in early times, fought Frenchmen. Our earliest accounts of the vast interior western and northwester regions of this continent were derived from Catholic priests, such as Father Hennespin, &c.

Alexander Henry the Elder and Captain Jonathan Carver were featured in The Story of Chequamegon Bay.

The first Englishmen who explored the upper lakes after the fall of Canada, were Henry and Carver, between the years 1766 and 1775-’76. Their works contain many interesting details relative to the country.

In alluding, in a former letter, to our loss of Hunters’ island by the treaty of Washington, I underrated its size. It is greater in area than the vaunted Isle Royale; being about 50 miles long, instead of 40, and about 40 wide.

A gross error prevails with regard to Isle Royale. It is supposed by some that we acquired it by the Lake Washington treaty, when it has always been ours, since the treaty of peace after the revolution. We have, therefore, given away important territory on Pigeon river, without receiving any equivalent, that I know of.

We have been wind-bound at the Sault for two or three days, by reason of a strong northwester, blowing directly down the river. It has been blowing about a half a gale on the upper lakes for nearly two months past; and, from all indications, the gale may last all summer. The weather in this latitude 46 degrees 30 minutes) is very cold. We have to wear thick woollens and sleep under blankets – it being difficult, on the 2d day of July, 1845, to keep warm at that! The soil produces fine Irish potatoes – better than I have tasted anywhere else – some oats, barley, turnips, rye, and wheat, &c. The soil is miserably bad, back in the interior. The population depends chiefly upon fishing, for a support; which, to all appearance, is a never-failing resource.

From this point, I expect to coast the southern lake shore in an open boat, with five or six “voyageurs;” or send them on, and go up to Copper Harbor in the schooner Swallow.

I shall pass to where mail facilities cease, and where the reduction of postage affords no benefit; and it may be some days before you can get another letter from me.

For more information about Major Arthur Holmes, see chapter 3 of War 1812 by George S. May.

During the late war, the Americans, under command of Major Holmes, burnt down the Hudson Bay Company’s fur agency, or factor, on the opposite site of the river.

Almost the only tribe of Indians visiting or living about the Sault, belong to the Chippewa tribe – which, on the average, are good-locking Indians, and apparently comfortably clad, &c. Many of the half-breeds are really beautiful; and, in regularity of features, figure, and size of hands and feet, would do credit to more civilized life. They seem to me to be more industrious than more southern tribes of Indians among whom I have travelled, and far more inoffensive and civil to the whites. Some of the men are exceedingly tall and fine-looking fellows. I saw yesterday the son of a chief from the Canada side, who stood between six and seven feet high, and was as straight as an arrow. He could not speak a syllable of English. I saw him examining, with much attention, the new schooner building at the head of the falls.

The USS Michigan was launched in 1843, and later renamed as the USS Wolverine in 1905.
~ Wikipedia.org

The names of Indians are often very curious, and, in a measure, put at defiance the power of the English language to express them. I saw a tall man of the Chippewas at Mackinac, as he stood gazing at the United States steamship Michigan. Mr. Biddle, an old resident trader of the place, who spoke Chippewa, was standing near him. he wished to know of Mr. Biddle what sort of a vessel she was; who explained to him that she belong to “his great father, the President, who, if necessary, would use it against his enemies.” This Indian’s name, translated into English, was nothing less than “A Corpse,” or “A Dead Man” – an unusual name, I should think, even for an Indian!

The Indians always keep an abundant supply of dogs, which, about the Sault, seem uniformly to be a cross of the common cur with the wolf, and seem of little use, except to keep up an eternal barking at night about their bark lodges. This is a remarkably fine climate for the Newfoundland dog, some fine specimens of which I have seen in the possession of the whites about the Sault. At Mackinac, and other places in the northwest, the half-breeds especially make draught animals of dogs, in drawing water on trucks, and in performing other labor.

The dogs used by the Indians about Hudson’s Bay are said to be larger and more savage, and used to a greater extent as animals of labor.

The Chippewas, it is said, make no scruple of eating dogs, which they often esteem as a delicacy. This, however, I cannot vouch for.

Yours, very respectfully,

MORGAN.

To be continued in Copper Harbor…

Posted by Amorin Mello

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Wisconsin Territory Delegation: To The Far West

April 4, 2016

By Amorin Mello

The Daily Union was a newspaper in Washington, D.C., now archived online at the Library of Congress, that published a curious series of correspondences with the pen name “Morgan” during 1845. In this series, “Morgan” included a remarkable and vicarious description of his experiences on Lake Superior and at La Pointe. Based on the circumstances and narrative, the identity of “Morgan” is assumed to be Morgan Lewis Martin.

Portrait of Morgan L. Martin Painted by Samuel Marsden Brookes (1816-1892) and Thomas H. Stevenson. Oil on canvas, 1856.
(Wisconsin Historical Museum object #1942.37.) WHI 2786
—
“From the time of his arrival in Green Bay in 1827, Morgan Lewis Martin (1805-1887) was an important figure in Wisconsin. Martin was an organizer of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, a member of the territorial and state legislatures, a delegate to Congress, and a Civil War paymaster. He played a key role in the early development of Milwaukee and for almost fifty years promoted various Fox and Wisconsin River improvement projects. Brookes and Stevenson, a Milwaukee-based partnership, executed this portrait of Martin during a two-month visit to Green Bay in the summer of 1856.”

According to the Biographical Directory of the United States Government:

MARTIN, Morgan Lewis, (cousin of James Duane Doty), a Delegate from the Territory of Wisconsin; born in Martinsburg, Lewis County, N.Y., March 31, 1805; attended the common schools and was graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., in 1824; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Detroit, Mich.; moved to Green Bay, Wis., in 1827 (then a part of Michigan Territory); member of the Michigan Territorial legislature 1831-1835; member of the Wisconsin Territorial legislature 1838-1844 and served as president in 1842 and 1843; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth Congress (March 4, 1845-March 3, 1847); president of the second State constitutional convention in 1847 and 1848; again elected to the State assembly in 1855; member of the State senate in 1858 and 1859; served in the Union Army as paymaster with the rank of major 1861-1865; Indian agent 1866-1869; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1866 to the Fortieth Congress; resumed the practice of his profession; elected judge of Brown County in 1875, in which capacity he served until his death at Green Bay, Brown County, Wis., December 10, 1887; interment in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Shortly before Morgan Lewis Martin was elected to the 29th Congress, the Territory of Wisconsin passed the following Joint Resolution:

JOINT RESOLUTION relative to Mail Routes.

Resolved by the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Wisconsin:

That our Delegate in Congress be requested to procure the establishment of a mail route from Janesville to Racine on the United States road between those places; also one from Racine to Prairie Village in Millwaukee county; and also one from Wheatland to Racine both in the county of Racine; also one from Mineral Point in Iowa county by way of Shullsburg and New Diggings to White Oak Springs in Iowa county, also one from Madison in Dane county via Sun Prairie, Columbus, and Beaver. 113 dam to Waupun in Fond du Lac county; also one from the falls of St. Croix [to] La Point on Lake Superior; also one from Prairieville in Milwaukee county by the way of Lisbon to Limestone in Washington county; also one from Potosi by way of Hurricane and Cassville to Patch Grove in Grant county; also one from Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac county, by the way of Ceresco and Green Lake to Fort Winnebago in Portage cou nty; also one from Madison to Prairie du Chien in Crawford county -by the most direct route; also, one from Plattville in Grant county by Jamestown to Fairplay, and from Fairplay by Hazel Green to White Oak Springs in Iowa county; also, one from Millwaukee by Lisbon, Warren, Oconomewoc, Watertown and Sun Prairie to Madison ; and also, one. from Milwaukee by Hustis Rapids to Fort Winnebago; also, one from Milwaukee via Whitewater and McFadden, on Sugar River to Mineral Point.

APPROVED, February 15, 1845.

The Daily Union (Washington D.C.)
“Liberty, The Union, And The Constitution.”
June 19, 1845.

EDITOR’S CORRESPONDENCE

—

[From our regular correspondent.]

NEW YORK, June 16, 1845.

We have had two arrivals from China, bringing dates as late as the 13th of March; but the papers received are said to contain little news of interest. Trade was represented as dull, except for gray cotton cloth and yarn.

Photographic copy of an 1845 daguerreotype featuring 78 year-old Andrew Jackson (seventh President of the United States) shortly before his death. ~ Commons.WikiMedia.org

The announcement of General Jackson’s death reached this city yesterday afternoon, and produced the deepest feelings of regret among thousands of people. The flags on the shipping in port, and at all the places of public resort, were immediately hoisted at half-mast, as the news spread by extra newspapers over the city like an electric shock. No doubt, arrangements will be speedily made to commemorate his death, and to express the sorrow of the people for the fall of so great a patriot, by every kind of suitable demonstration.

It is seldom in the annals of history that such men as Gen. Jackson rise up and stand out so prominently from the mass of mankind. Whatever else may be thought of him, his devoted love of country, his integrity of purpose, his Christian purity and benevolence can never be questioned by any one.

I have no general news of importance to note. Trade and stocks are dull; without material change in either since my last. Indeed, we have no change to expect till the arrival of the news by the Boston and Liverpool steamer, which is now daily looked for.

I must make my letter brief to-day, as I am about getting ready for a trip to the “far West,” and when you hear from me again, it will be en route towards sunset.

Yours, very truly and respectfully,

MORGAN.

The Daily Union (Washington D.C.)
“Liberty, The Union, And The Constitution.”
June 24, 1845.

EDITOR’S CORRESPONDENCE

—

[From our regular correspondent.]

BUFFALO, N. Y., June 19, 1845.

“Niagara, Hudson River steamboat built 1845.” Painting by James Bard.

I left New York at 7, a.m. yesterday morning, on board the splendid new steamboat called “Niagara,” on her first trip to Albany as a day-boat. She is 275 feet long on her keel, and 285 long on her main deck. Her large engine has a stroke of 11 feet; the main cylinder is 72 inches in diameter. She is fitted up like a palace. She ran the distance from New York to West Point, about 55 or 60 miles, in six minutes less than three hours. No boat runs as well when perfectly new, as when the portions of machinery subject to much friction have been worn smooth. The “Niagara” put us down in Albany a little before 5, p.m. Here we had to wait till 8, p.m., before a train left carrying us west towards Buffalo. We travelled all night, and reached the latter place, 584 or 585 miles, in 36 hours from New York; or, subtracting delays, in the remarkable short space of 30 hours, running time!

I slept as well as I could in the cars; and am here, at half-past 10, p.m., after a fatiguing thirty-six hours’ travel, sitting down trying to indite something for the “Union;” but, from a heavy feeling in my eye-lids, I fear I may make a drowsy affair of it.

Map of the rail roads, from Rome to Albany and Troy, by one of the engineers who assisted in contructing, prepared from actual survey.

“Map of the rail roads, from Rome to Albany and Troy, by one of the engineers who assisted in constructing, prepared from actual survey.” By Levi William, 1845. Digitized by the Library of Congress.

I found the western part of New York, and especially the country west of Utica, much better than I anticipated. The country looked new, for one of the old thirteen. As populous as the State is, western New York contains still much virgin soil to come into cultivation.

The staple productions appear to be wheat, rye, oats, potatoes, barley, &c. The first article is the greatest of all. The valley of the Mohawk is an interesting section of New York; but I think the country lying on the Genesee valley, and bordering the lakes of Cayuga, Seneca, and Canadaigua, c., by far the most interesting – and that portion especially about Seneca Falls, Waterloo, &c. The crops looked remarkably well in color, &c.; but seemed generally rather backward for the season. Wheat has headed very well, but does not appear very high, or to stand very thick on the ground, except in places, as the English farmers express it, I think “the heads of grain may be large and full,” if nothing happens; but “the straw will be light.”

After leaving Albany, the first place we stopped at of any note was Utica – 93 miles west of that town. It contains about 12,000 inhabitants, and is quite a well-built and pretty place. It is in Oneida county, much of which has been settled by industrious Welsh farmers. The county cast a majority of about 700 votes for the democratic electoral ticket last November.

As it was 3 o’clock at night when we reached Utica, we walked out to look at the place by moonlight, and were much pleased with its appearance.

From Utica we pushed on from village to village, bearing a variety of ancient Indian, Greek, and Roman names, till we were set down at this point.

As the country is familiar to many, and has been often described, I may have, in my next, to say something more about it. At present, I must close, or fall asleep over the paper.

Yours, very respectfully,

MORGAN.

P.S. I visit Niagara Falls to-morrow, and expect to return the same day, in time to take a boat (the St. Louis) at seven in the evening for Detroit, Michigan.

The Daily Union (Washington D.C.)
“Liberty, The Union, And The Constitution.”
July 1, 1845.

[From our regular correspondent.]

DETROIT, MICHIGAN, June 24, 1845.

On the next day after I wrote to you from Buffalo, I visited the falls of Niagara, over a railroad of 22 miles in length, running parallel with Niagara river. We passed Black Rock, a small scattered village, which the British captured, and, whose fort they destroyed in 1813. Schlosser was the next point of greatest notoriety, opposite the lower end of Navy island. It now contains only two houses- an old wooden warehouse and pier, (from which the Caroline was cut out,) with one small farm-house, standing, it is said, on the site of the old French fort, erected there prior to the conquest of Canada by the English. Schlosser is within two and a half miles of the falls.

I have not time to describe what has been so often and so well done; the character, appearances, points of view, &c., of these stupendous and wonderful cascades. They forcibly impress upon the mind of the beholder a sense of natural awe and sublimity, probably nowhere else, over this whole earth, to be equalled.

“Niagara Falls Terrapin Point” by Ferdinand Reichardt, 1856.
~ Buffalo History Museum

I crossed the river just below the falls, to the Canada side, and visited the battle-ground of Lundy’s Lane. A village has since sprung up at this place, called Drummondsville, named in honor of the British general who commanded the English troops on that occasion. Most of the battle-ground is now covered by orchards and fields.

I went with Anderson, the guide, (who says he was in the battle as a British soldier,) into an old grave-yard situated near where the British artillery stood, which Col. Miller took at the point of the bayonet. In this grave-yard, Anderson pointed out two graves which he says contains the remains of eighteen American officers. Why cannot American patriotism place some memorial over the graves of these brave men? The only memorial I saw of this kind, on our side, was a painted wooden board, with a simple epitaph, inscribing the name of Captain Hull, of the United States army, stating he had bravely fallen in this battle. Another board of a similar description, erected by the bounty of a corporal and a few privates, over the remains of an English officer, with a tomb-stone placed over Col. Cecil Bishop, of the English forces, who died of wounds received at Black Rock, are all the memorials seen at this burial-ground of Lundy’s Lane, who fell in that action.

Lieutenant-Colonel John Gordon and Captain S. B. Torrens received a monument in their memory several years later from their friend and companion, Major Barry Fox.
~ Niagara Historical Society No. 22 Some Graves on Lundy’s Lane By Ernest Green, page 13.

Col. Gordon, buried in the same ground, lies without a stone. He belonged to the Royal Scotch Highlanders. This battle cost the contending parties over 800 aside, in killed and wounded.

Having seen all worthy of note about the falls, I returned to Buffalo, and sailed at 7 p.m. the same day, on board the St. Louis, for Detroit.

We had on board a large number of emigrants and cabin passengers. The tide of emigration setting west by the lake route is prodigious. Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana, seem to be the great points of attraction just now.

Having touched at Fair Port and Cleveland, we reached this place on the 22d, early in the morning; having passed Fort Malden some twenty miles below.

Detroit is a handsome and well-laid-off town, and growing continually in population and commercial importance. It is situated on the west bank of the Detroit river, which never overflows or has any material rise or fall. Its water, as well as that of the lakes, affords the most delicious drinking water.

This town is connected in its history with many important scenes. Being early settled by the French, it became involved in the English and French Canadian war; and even before it became a part of the United States, it had changed its flag five times. it was once captured by the Indians, and was burnt down in 1803. In 1805, by the ignominious and disgraceful surrender of Gen. Hull, it fell into the hands of the English. This even took place in the southern part of this town, the spot still being pointed out by old settlers who witnessed the transaction. In 1813, Detroit was retaken by the Americans, when a government was reorganized, and Gen. Lewis Cass appointed its governor.

About fifty miles below this, the river Raisin empties into the lake, at a point called Monroe. It was on this river the bloody massacre of the brave Kentuckians by Indians was perpetrated by the non-interference of the English, under whose protection they had placed themselves as prisoners of war.

At Monroe, a most fiendish and cold-blooded crime was recently committed. it seems, a Mr. Hall, cashier of a bank at Monroe, was decoyed into the woods at night, by a man by the name of Wells, of this place, who was extremely intimate with Hall; when he shot him – once in the back of the head, and once in the back of his body. The deed, it is believed, was committed with the diabolical design of obtaining the keys of the bank from Hall, and robbing it. Young Hall has both balls in him, but still survives; and, strange to say, walked out a day or two since. Wells is in prison, and, like other persons guilty of such horrid crimes, professes “insanity.”

“Hydrographical basin of the upper Mississippi River from astronomical and barometrical observations, surveys, and information,” by Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, et al; published by order of the United States Senate, 1843.

Having a copy of M. Nicollet’s map of the upper basin of the Mississippi with me, I have been led to trace our boundary between this country and England, west from the northwestern shore of Lake Superior, beginning at the mouth of Pigeon river, by the late treaty of Washington; and find we have been most severely cheated in the new line, running from the point indicated to the Lake of the Woods. Soon after parting from Lake Superior, ascending Pigeon river, we come to Hunter’s island, about the size of a large county in one of the States. At the northwest point of this island, Pigeon river divides into two streams – one making an extensive turn to the north, while the other makes a bend to the south, uniting again at the foot of the island. Now, by the old line of boundary, the navigation of the entire river belonged to us, with Hunter’s and other islands. These, with the channel north of the island, which is the deepest, have, by the treaty of Washington, by some unaccountable means, been transferred to the English! Formerly, they yielded up the Pigeon river to our traders, &c., and moved their fort from the mouth of the river some forty miles up the lake, to Thunder Bay, where they built Fort William. They have now again come down (as they have a right to do) to Pigeon river, and interrupt the transit of our traders and people up and down its navigable channels and principal portages. Besides Hunter’s island, we have yielded Isle La Croix, still higher up the river. Hunter’s island is about forty miles long by thirty miles wide, with the deep channel on its northern side. Isle La Croix is about ten miles by fifteen miles in diameter. The line from La Croix west, is made to follow the southern chain of lakes, on the most southern part of Pigeon river, till it reaches the river above them. It then passes to the Lake of the Woods, and from thence to the 49th degree of north latitude, and so on west. What pretext there was for changing our boundary northwest of Lake Superior up Pigeon river, where there never was a boundary in dispute, and where the Pigeon river and Hunter’s island had for years been laid down in British maps as our property, is more than I can tell. Those who negotiated the treaty on our side, must have been grossly ignorant of geography, or they must have been woefully overreached by the British minister.

Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, was a Scottish peer from the Royal Society of London, and established the Red River Colony along Hudson Bay (1811). This is neither the same person nor place as Alexander Selkirk’s colony on Más-a-Tierra Island, Chile, which inspired Daniel Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe (1719).

The boundary line, stretching across from Lake Superior, along the Pigeon river, to the Lake of the Woods, Red river, &c., is the weakest and most exposed section of the United States. On the Red river of the North, and north of the Pigeon river, is a large body of hardy half-breed Indians, mixed with the Scotch and Germans, who have descended from Alexander Selkirk’s colony, founded near Hudson’s Bay. These people have about six thousand men capable of performing military duty. They come down to the head-waters of the St. Peter’s and Mississippi rivers every season, for the purpose of hunting buffalo, accompanied with their wagons and teams, which, when they have loaded with buffalo meat, they return to their own country. it is said, these men, with the warriors of the Indian tribes stretching west and north of the United States boundary line, number some twenty thousand fighting men, all of whom are under the control of the Hudson Bay (English) Company. In time of war these forces might be organized and brought to bear with destructive effect upon our new upper settlements in Wisconsin and Iowa, and other portions of our northwestern territory. To guard this weak point on our northwestern frontier, our forts are wrongly placed. The forts Snelling, Winnebago, and Wilkins, are too far in the interior.

Government ought, as early as practicable, to adopt measures to build a strong fort at the junction of Pigeon river with Lake Superior, and then to erect detached forts along our entire line of frontier, up Pigeon river to the Lake of the Woods, and from thence along to the Red river, west. These forts would serve to protect our northwestern settlements, and to keep the British and half-breed Indians, with Selkirk’s descendants, in check.

Let any man carefully examine a map of the country we have described, and he will see the propriety of our suggestion.

I leave here in a day or two for Mackinaw, from whence I will write again.

I am very respectfully and truly, yours,

MORGAN.

The Daily Union (Washington D.C.)
“Liberty, The Union, And The Constitution.”
July 5, 1845.

[From our regular correspondent.]

ON BOARD THE STEAMBOAT WISCONSIN,

Bound from Detroit to Mackinac,

June 27, 1845.

After spending some three or four days in Detroit, where I met with the friendly hospitality of a number of friends and acquaintances, I prepared to leave for Mackinac, at the head of Lake Huron.

“Bank of Michigan Building, SW corner of Jefferson and Griswold, built 1836”
~ History of Detroit and Michigan, by Silas Farmer, 1890.

While I was in Detroit, the United States circuit court was in session, Judges McLean and Wilkins presiding. This tribunal now occupies a very neat stone building, formerly erected and owned by the Bank of Michigan. This bank, in winding up its affairs, fell into debt some forty thousand dollars on their interest account, which, after meeting other liabilities, they were unable to discharge. The government, therefore, purchased this house from them at $40,000, and converted it to its present use.

A Presbyterian convention was also in session for a part of the time during my visit.

The large steamboats plying between Buffalo and the upper lakes, all touch at Detroit, to the number of two a day. Many of these are large and splendid structures of their kind. At this season of the year, they run very full of passengers, and, when bound west, carry out a great many emigrants, who are hunting homes in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. The principal tide is drifting towards Wisconsin at the present, generally landing at Milwaukie, and pushing out into the interior. The boats running on the upper lakes, are at present united in a combination to regular prices. From Buffalo to Chicago, they charge as follows: for cabin passage, 12 dollars; for deck passage, 6 dollars. Cabin to Detroit, 6 dollars; deck, 3 dollars. From Detroit to Mackinac: cabin, 7 dollars; for deck, 4 dollars. Meals for deck passengers charged 25 cents each, extra.

We found the Wisconsin pretty well crowded with passengers when we went on board. Among the deck people were several farmers’ families from Sussex, in England, bound out to Wisconsin, intending to land at Milwaukie, and proceed from thence some little distance into the interior.

On the 26th instant, the United States steam-ship Michigan, and the United States garrison near Detroit, fired minute-guns during the day, in obedience to general orders, and in respect to the memory of Gen. Jackson.

The single ten-inch gun fired from the bow of the Michigan made a loud report, which reverberated along the Canadian shore, as well as along the streets of Detroit.

“Map of the Great Western Railway of Canada, and Connections.” Circa 1879.
~ TrainWeb.org

Should the projected railroad to extend from Lake Ontario to Windsor, opposite Detroit, and that now in progress from the latter place to St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan, be completed, it will have a tendency to make this city a great thoroughfare for travellers, &c., going west.

Leaving Detroit about 9 a.m., we continued up the river till we came to Lake St. Clair. In our progress through it, we could see, by the aid of the glass, the bay formed on its eastern or Canadian side by the entrance of the river Thames, some distance up which, the celebrated battle was fought, which resulted in the death of Tecumseh. Gen. Cass, who now resides in Detroit, dispensing kindness and hospitality to his friends, was in that action, with Gen. Harrison.

From Lake St. Clair, we entered St. Clair river, which is a beautiful stream, forming the southern outlet to Lake Huron. It has cut itself a beautiful canal, on a large scale, through a level country, like Detroit river, leaving gravelly banks, of moderate elevation, on either side. The banks of this river, and especially on the American side, are pretty thickly settled. For some distance in the interior, on the Canada side, the Indians still remain in considerable numbers. At one point, we passed a village of theirs, on the river. At various points, we saw considerable parties of them, either engaged in fishing or travelling, or encamped.

In the afternoon we passed a village on the American side, called Palmer, where a Michigan volunteer company were out on parade, whose band of music greeted us with some lively airs. Near the head of the river, we passed a missionary school and station on the English side; and near the foot of Lake Huron, Fort Gratiot.

For a mile after the St. Clair leaves Lake Huron, the current has a force of six or seven miles per hour. Sail-vessels find it very difficult to stem it; and can only do so, when bound up, by the aid of stiff southerly winds. This river and rapids area serious obstacle to the passage of sail-vessels from the lower to the upper lakes. They are said often to remain wind-bound for a week or more in this river, and at the foot of the rapids. By aid of a tow-path along the shore, on the American side, a mile long, the length of the strongest current, I should think vessels might be pulled up by horse-power into the lake at any time.

“A painting by Paul Kane depicts an encampment on the shores of Lake Huron in about 1845.”
~ The Granger Collection, New York

Late in the afternoon of yesterday, we entered Lake Huron, a huge inland sea. On our right was a vast sheet of water, meeting the horizon, shutting out all sight of land in that direction. We still, however, kept in sight of the western, or American shore; although, at the distance at which we sailed from it, we could see only a small settlement now and then.

The wind, with some clouds and rain, sprung up from the NNE., and threatened a stormy night; but, as the sun went down, the wind fell, the clouds dispersed, and we had a clear, cool, and beautiful starlight night. With conversation, and listening to some music on a piano in the saloon, the evening passed off pleasantly.

The sun this morning rose bright and clear, from the pure bosom of the lake, bringing us a fine and pleasant day.

There is no better tasted, or purer drinking-water found in the world, than that found in these lakes – and especially in the upper lakes. They are, in fact, nothing more than pure fresh-water ocean springs. Your coolest wells in Washington, the Croton in New York, or Schuylkill of Philadelphia, bear scarcely any comparison to this lake water. There is one advantage to mariners navigating these inland seas – under no circumstances are they likely to suffer from a scarcity of drinking-water.

About half-past 2 to 3 p.m., we landed at Mackinac; which I found to be one of the most picturesque and beautiful places I have seen since leaving New York.

As I shall have another opportunity of writing to you from this place, I will say no more at present; but remain your very obedient and humble servant,

MORGAN.

To be continued in Mackinac and Sault Ste Marie…

Posted by Amorin Mello

Filed in 1840s, Wisconsin Territory Delegation ·Tags: Andrew Jackson, Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, Lake St Clair, Lundy's Lane Cemetery, Mackinac, Mohawk Valley, Morgan Lewis Martin, New York City, Niagara Falls, Red River Colony, Selkirk Settlement, Steamboats, The Daily Union, Wisconsin Territory

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Land Office Frauds

March 25, 2016

By Amorin Mello

New York Times

December 9, 1858

—~~~0~~~—

Land Office Frauds.

—~~~0~~~—

AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES HEREABOUT – LOCAL AMUSEMENTS AND EXCITEMENTS – SETTLEMENTS OF SUPERIOR CITY – A CONTROVERSY, AND SECRETARY M’CLELLAND’S ADJUDICATION OF IT – SECRETARY THOMPSON’S REVERSAL OF THAT JUDGEMENT – ITS CONSEQUENCES – LAND-STEALING RAMPANT – INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ENTRY OF SUPERIOR CITY – THE LAND OFFICE REPEALS THE LAW OF THE LAND – A CASE FOR INVESTIGATION.

Correspondence of the New-York Times.

SUPERIOR CITY, Wis., Thursday, Nov. 25.

Detail of Superior City townsite at the head of Lake Superior from 1854 Plat Map of Township 49 North Range 14 West.

Survey of Superior City.

I am booked here for another winter, but fortunately with no fear of starvation this time. We have been most successful the last Summer in our Agricultural labors. The clay soils about here has proved marvelously fruitful, and where we expected little or nothing it has turned out huge potatoes that almost dissolve under the steaming process, and open as white as the inside of a cocoa-nut ; mammoth turnips, as good as turnips can be ; cabbages of enormous size ; and cauliflowers, that queen of vegetables, weighing as much as a child a year old. There is no reason to fear for the future of this country, now that we can show such vegetable products, and talk of our gardens as well as of our mines, forests, furs, and fisheries.

We are not without our excitements here, too ; though we have no model artists, or theatrical exhibitions, to treat our friends with. But our little city is now in a state of commotion produced by causes which often agitate frontier life, and sometimes reach the great center with their echo or reverberation. The Land Office is the great point of interest to frontier men, and the land law is the only jurisprudence save Lynch law, in which we are particularly interested. And as we have no means of reaching the great Federal legislature, through our Local Presses, we are always glad of an opportunity to be heard through the Atlantic organs, which are heard all over the country, and strike a note which the wind takes up and carries not only to San Francisco, but up here to the mouth of the St. Louis River, the hereafter great local point of Pacific and Atlantic intercommunication.

The Eye of the Northwest, pg. 8: James Stinson; Benjamin Thompson; W. W. Corcoran; U. S. Senator Robert J Walker; George W Cass; and Horace S Walbridge.

23rd United States Attorney General Caleb Cushing speculated in the St. Croix River valley for land and copper during the 1840s.

Five or six years ago a few American pioneers – stalwart backwoodsmen, undertook to select a town site out here, and did select one in good faith, and with clubs and muskets in had fought off from their premises a gang of Indians who were claiming to preëmpt it as “American citizens.” The Indians, however, were backup up by a Canadian white man by the name of STINSON, and some of the great speculators who were engaged in another town enterprise alongside here, and this “Indian war” was protracted in the local and general Land Offices some two or three years, when Mr. M’CLELLAND, then Secretary of the Interior, made a final adjudication of all the legal questions involved in the controversy, and sent it back to the Land Office to ascertain and apply the facts to the law as settled, on great deliberation by himself and Mr. CUSHING.

More Proprietors of Supeior from The Eye of the North-west, pg. 9.

More Proprietors of Superior from The Eye of the North-west

, pg. 9: [names are illegible]

4th United States Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland

5th United States Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson.

Meanwhile the original settlers and occupants maintained their adverse possession against the Indians and all the world, and expended a good deal of money in erecting buildings and a pier, and in cutting out streets and in laying out their town, and in carrying on their litigation, which was by no means inexpensive. M’CLELLAND’s determination of the law in their favor encouraged them to go on and incur additional expenses ; and they parted with diverse interests in the town site, some by assignment to persons who advanced money, and some by sale on quit-claim to persons who covenanted to make improvements. They made application to the proper office to enter the site, and nobody objected but the Indians – and the Indians were nowhere. So things stood when the case went back to the General Land Office, and to Mr. Secretary THOMPSON. The worthy Secretary, for some cause altogether unaccountable, adopted the extraordinary (and under the decision of the Supreme Court illegal) course of reversing the final judgement of his predecessor in this very case, (an exercise of power entirely unheard of in a case of mere private right,) and of rejecting the claim of the original occupants and settlers, though it was not contested by somebody who had a better right.

Madison Sweetzer was using Sioux Scrip to claim land, but does not appear to be a mixed blood member of the Sioux/Lakota/Dakota nation.

Commissioner of the General Land Office Thomas Andrews Hendricks later became the 21st Vice President of the United States.

You may well imagine that this decision excited no little astonishment here. All the land stealers looked upon Superior City as vacant ground. They thought the men who selected and settled the town site were outlawed, and had no interests. Some supposed that the Land Office would put the ground up at auction. A chap by the name of SWEETZER came on here fresh from the General Land Office, and undertook to lay Sioux scrip on the whole site. Another – one JOHN GRANT – made application to preëmpt a portion of the site – and, what is the most remarkable feature about this business, GRANT was permitted to enter it as a preëmptor, though it was notoriously a selected town site, and in the adverse possession of town claimants half a year before GRANT ever saw it. This outrage created a great excitement for a small place. The Register, Mr. DANIEL SHAW, excuses himself by saying that he was almost expressly ordered by HENDRICKS to issue the certificate to GRANT, but this we do not believe in these parts. SHAW is clever, and covers his tracks, but nobody here supposes that the Commissioner ever countenanced such a gross violation of a public statute, without a motive. And what motive could the Commissioner have?

Vincent Roy, Jr.

But, besides these movements, one of the Indians – ROY by name, who was defeated as one of the claimants by preëmeption – is now seeking to locate his Chippewa scrip on the town-site, and it is supposed that the same influences which urged him as an American citizen will support his claim as an Indian. A white man by the name of KINGSBURY, encouraged by the disregard of law exhibited by the local office, has made a claim on another part of the town-site. This purports to have originated in the fourth year of a litigation between the town claimants and the illegal preëmptors, and is supposed to be stimulated and encouraged by the Register.

Subsequently to his original rejection of the town-site claim, Mr. Secretary THOMPSON issued instructions to permit the entry, and the County Judge made application on the 18th instant, under the law of the United States, May 23, 1844. On this being known, some of the persons heretofore claiming under the original settlers and occupants (who had selected the town and paid all the expenses of the settlement) came together and formed an organization as a city, under a recent law of Wisconsin, the object of which they declare to be secure to themselves a title from the United States to the lots they specially occupy, and to sell the balance to defray their expenses in entering and alloting the land! The men whose rights vested under the absolute decision of Secretary MCCLELLAND, and who did all that they could do to enter the land, and paid the money for it more than two years ago, – the men whose “respective INTERESTS” the statute of 1844 recognizes and was designed to protect, – these men are all ruled off the course, and the men claiming under them have conspired to divide the land and its proceeds among themselves.

Preemption Act of 1841

Of course these iniquitous and illegal proceedings are all within the reach of the Courts – but they are the legitimate consequence of Mr. JACOB THOMPSON’s repeal of so much of the Preëmption Law of 1841 as excludes from preëmption those portions of the public lands that have been “selected as the site of a city or town.” Mr. THOMPSON has overruled all his predecessors, all the Attorney-General, all the local offices, all the lexicographers, and the English language generally, by deciding solemnly that “selection” does not mean “selection,” but means something else – or more particularly nothing at all. Because, says he, if adverse “selection” excluded a preëmptor, then a preëmptor might be excluded by a false allegation of selection. Was there ever such an argal since Dogberry’s time? The Secretary has discovered an equally efficient “dispensing power” with that of King JAMES of blessed memory, and one which his brethren in the Cabinet may use very efficiently, if Congress does not look into the subject and fix some limits to it. For now, not only the Secretary, but the Commissioner, and the Register and Receiver, all think that they are at liberty to treat the repeal by the Secretary as an effective nullification of the law of the land.

Receiver Eliab B Dean Jr and Register Daniel Shaw were at the Superior City Land Office.

If Congress would amuse their leisure a little by looking at these land office operations on the verge of civilization, they would strike a placer of corruption. Let them open the books and call for the documents, and see what Dr. T. RUSH SPENSER, late Register of the Willow River District, says of his predecessor and successor, Mr. JOHN O. HENNING, and then ascertain by what influences HENNING has been reappointed, and SPENSER transferred to Superior. Let them find out what Receiver DEAN said of Register SHAW, and what Register SHAW said of Receiver DEAN, and why DEAN was dismissed and why SHAW was retained. It will be rare fun for somebody. The country ought to know something about the Land Offices, and such an investigation as this would enlighten the country very materially. I hope it will be made, and that the country will learn how it is that more land has been entered in this district by Indians, foreigners, and minors than by qualified preëmptors, and all for the benefit of a few favored speculators.

Posted by Amorin Mello

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Marangoin River Iron Property

March 21, 2016

By Amorin Mello

MARANGOIN RIVER
IRON PROPERTY

EMBRACING
FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ACRES,
IN SECTIONS 16 AND 20,

TOWN 44, NORTH RANGE 5 WEST,

ASHLAND COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

———–
CLEVELAND, OHIO:
FAIRBANKS, BENEDICT & CO., PRINTERS, HERALD OFFICE.
1865.
—–

Detail of Township 44 North, Range 5 West, from Charles Whittlesey’s 1860 Geological Map of the Penokie Range.

The Penokie Iron Belt rises from low ground into an elevated mountain ridge, near the Fourth Principal Meridian, and extends westerly as far as Range 4 W., T. 44 North, where it drops off into the Valley of Bladder Lake. The iron stratum probably extends in the same general direction, beneath the surface ; but I have been unable to find any out-crop of the ore until after crossing the Marangoin Fork in T. 44, N. R. 5 W. Over this interesting space of about nine (9) miles the country is lower, and covered with the drift materials to a great depth. On the west bank of the Marangoin, in Section 16, T. 44, R. 5, a bold cliff is seen, as a prominent land mark over the country, rising to a level with the Iron Range at Bladder Lake. Here the Penokie system re-appears, embracing a band of magnetic ore, in all respects like that on the main waters of Bad River in Ranges 2 and 3 West. This outburst, or uplift of the strata rises to a height of 200 or 250 feet above the river, and 900 to 1000 feet above Lake Superior It is composed of the same quartz rocks, lying in the same order – the iron near the summit, – has a mural face or bluff to the South, and descends in a distance of about a mile and a-half beneath the level of Aitkin’s Lake on the West, as is represented in the accompanying map.

Atkins Lake may have been named in honor of William Alexander Aitken.

“The second branch [of the Bad River] from the west having, as I could learn, no name, I have called it the ‘Maringouin Fork‘ in my map in commemoration of the myraids of musquitoes that inhabit its banks, that being the name the half-breed French give to those pests of the Bad River region. The Maringouin has its sources near Long Lake, on the west, and on the south interlocks with the upper branches of the Chippewa River, among some lakes, enclosed by drift ridges, which are, by barometrical measurement, eight hundred and seventy-one feet above Lake Superior.”
~ Geological Report on That Portion of Wisconsin Bordering on the South Shore of Lake Superior. Surveyed in the Year 1849, Under the Direction of David Dale Owen, United States Geologist, by Charles Whittlesey, Head of Sub-Corps, page 432.

Beyond this Lake, which discharges into the Nemakagon – a branch of the St. Croix River, the rocks are again generally covered with the drift deposits as far as Lake Long, in Town 44, North Range 7 West. I have not seen iron to the South-west of Lake Aitkin.

The general strike of the uplift through Sections 20, 21 and 16 is North 60° East, and the Dip North West 30° to 50°; but at the west end there is some dislocation, and the strata are flatter. Like the formation at Penokie Gap, there is a series of quartz rocks several hundred feet in thickness tilted more or less to the North. Beneath the ferruginous portion, which is near the middle, there is the same fine-grained, thin-bedded, laminated quartz, approaching to novaculte 50 to 100 feet thick. Below this a bed of coarser sub-crystalline, thicker bedded gray quartz, standing prominent in cliffs, covered with tripe de roche.

Detail of Section 20, reproduced from the Geology of Wisconsin: Volume III.

Detail of Aitkins Lake in Section 20, reproduced from the Geology of Wisconsin: Volume III.

Overlying the iron stratum, is a heavy quartz bed, of a darker color, and more jointed, resembling horne blende rock, 300 to 400 feet thick. The iron portion is in thin layers, which deserve the name of slate. It is full of joints, and the pieces come out in regular forms, with straight edges, not rounded by exposure. It dips conformably with the other beds, to the North, and of course descends with them to great depths, ensuring an inexhaustible supply of ore. On Sections 16, where it is steeper than on Section 20, the breadth of the out-crop is less. Its thickness varies from twenty (20) to sixty (60) feet, although in places there are layers of ore, alternating with quartz beds, over a breadth of 100 feet. Most of the way across the South-west quarter of Section 16 – the out-crop is at or near the edge of the bluff, receding from it towards the East. The height of the bluff is about 100 feet, which gives an excellent opportunity to quarry and throw down the ore, and the atde of a mine.

No analysis of this ore has been made; but it resembles the magnetite of the Penokie Range so closely, as to leave no reasonable doubt of their identity.

Detail of Section 16, reproduced from the Geology of Wisconsin: Volume III.

Detail of the Marengo/Marangoin River in Section 16, reproduced from the Geology of Wisconsin: Volume III.

Four specimens of that ore have been analyzed by three different chemists, the average of which resulted in giving fifty-nine 88/100 (59.88) per cent. of metallic iron. Three of these specimens were selected by myself for the government collections, with the intention of representing an average of the ores. One of the four was selected by a company to represent the best quality of ore, and yielded sixty-eight (68) per cent., the others fifty-six to fifty-eight. A pure magnetic oxide yields 72.40, which is the richest known ore of iron. No injurious chemical ingredient, such as phosphorus, arsenic, or sulphur, has been as yet discovered in the Penokie ores. The only foreign substance is silex, or quartz, a material entirely harmless, and i easily melted with a proper flux. It is from fine grained magnetic ore that the choicest iron is made. This ore is not always as rich, or as easily wrought as the specular and hematite varieties, but invariably produces better iron. It is also very desirable as a mixture with those ores for the purpose f producing a higher grade of metal. Magnetic iron ore is calculated for Bloomeries or common forges, where wrought iron is produced direct from the ore with charcoal, by one process. On this location there is a fall in the Marangoin Fork which I estimate to be equal to a twenty foot overshot wheel. The river is rapid above, and is the most prominent branch of the Bad River. Its sources are in numerous lakes, swamps and springs, which give it great uniformity in the supply of water. The Northern slope of the mountain is heavily covered with hard wood timber for making charcoal, principally sugar-tree. There is an abundance of timber land and water power in the vicinity not yet entered. A horse trail has been cut from the East side of Section 16 to Sibley’s, which is reported to be on easy ground and a trifle over eleven (11) miles in length. From Sibley’s there is a road to Ashland at the head of Chequamegon Bay, a distance of twelve (12) miles due North. At the head of this Bay is a spacious harbor, safe in all weather. The Berlin & Bayfield Railroad will probably pass within ten miles of this property on the East, and the West the Bayfield Branch of the Hudson & Superior Railroad within twelve miles.

Detail of Sibley's saw-mill on the Marengo River from Charles Whittlesey's 1860 Geological Map of the Penokie Range.

Detail of Thaddeus Pembroke Sibley‘s saw-mill on the Marengo River from Charles Whittlesey’s 1860 Geological Map of the Penokie Range.

Thaddeus Pembroke Sibley was accused of being a “champion liar” in the Penokee Survey Incidents.

Ervin “Nigigoons” Leihy had a sawmill located at the Falls on Bad River.

The country on and North of the Iron Range is, for farming purposes, the best part of Lake Superior. Its climate is less severe, and the snow in winter less deep than at the Ontonagon and Portage Lake. Messrs. Sibley & Lehy have for many years raised cattle and farm crops successfully. Hay, oats, potatoes, barley and all kinds of vegetables grow better here than in many farming regions farther South. There is little doubt but wheat and rye can be raised when they are needed. The settlers and the Indians make large quantities of sugar from the sugar-maple, which is abundant and rich in sap. Thus a large part of the forage and the food required about iron works can be produced on the spot. There is no healthier region to be found in the United States. In Europe, a northern climate is considered favorable to the iron business, on account of the increased health and vigor of the laborers, as compared to warmer latitudes. When the railways now designed to connect the Mississippi and the Wisconsin Rivers with Lake Superior, shall have been built, or such portions as shall connect the Iron Range with navigation, charcoal furnaces may be erected at numerous points along the route, where there is timber and water power.

The Penokie Range is now held principally by three organized companies. In case there should be a failure, or a great delay, on the part of the Land Grant Railroad Company in prosecuting that work, on that part of the line from Lake Superior to the iron region, a road will probably by built by the parties interested. No business improves a new country, for the capital employed, so rapidly as the manufacture of iron. The rapid increase of the Town and County of Marquette, in Michigan, where in ten years, from 1855 to 1864 inclusive, the shipments of ore increased from 1,447 to 225,119 tons, is conclusive evidence of this fact. The iron business requires and introduces an intelligent class of mechanics and laborers, because skill and intelligence are necessary to carry it on successfully. For such iron as this pure magnetic ore will produce, there must always be a steady demand, at high prices. The competition for high grade charcoal iron is, and must always be, limited. Thus nature seems to have designed the region watered by the tributaries of the Bad River as an iron manufacturing country.

CHARLES WHITTLESEY.

Cleveland, Jan’y 1, 1865.

Mine shaft found on the Marangoin River Iron Property.

Abandoned mine shaft on the Marangoin River Iron Property.

Posted by Amorin Mello

Filed in Post 1860, Western Reserve ·Tags: Atkins Lake Park, Charles W. Whittlesey, Ervin Barnes Leihy, Gogebic Iron Range, Hudson & Superior Railroad, Land Grant Railroad Company, Marangoin River Iron Property, Marengo River, Mosquito, Thaddeus Pembroke Sibley, William Alexander Aitken, Wisco

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Opinike (or Potatoe) River Property

March 20, 2016

By Amorin Mello

“Map Showing the Succession of Layers Along Potato River” by R. D. Irving, 1873. Reproduced from the Geology of Wisconsin: Volume III.

OPINIKE

(OR POTATOE)

RIVER PROPERTY,

TOWN 46, NORTH RANGE 1, WEST, SECTIONS 16 & 17,

480 ACRES,

ASHLAND COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

————–

Detail of Township 45 North, Range 1 West, from Charles Whittlesey’s 1860 Geological Map of the Penokie Range.

Detail of the Opinike River Property and the Ironton trail in Township 45 North, Range 1 West, from Charles Whittlesey’s 1860 Geological Map of the Penokie Range.

The “Charter Oak” Mining Company occupied these premises in 1845-6 under permits from the government. The reports of the agents of the Company at that time state that copper bearing veins were found in the trap rocks next above the lower Falls. In geological characters and position, the rocks are the same here as at the Upper Falls of the Montreal, herein described. Next below the sandstone is the same black slate; below this the conglomerate, then alternating bands of sandstone and trap, and beneath them the main body of brown and amygdaloid trap. Like the Montreal River beds, they are here tilted up at a high angle to the North-west, their line of outcrop bearing North-east. They are, however, reduced in thickness materially, the conglomerate being about 600 feet, and the bands f sandstone are fewer in number. over the conglomerates, and over the trap, there are several falls and chutes in the river, amounting to 125 or 130 feet in a mile.

Detail of the Upper Falls (Saxon Falls) on the Montreal River in Township 47 North, Range 1 East from Charles Whittlesey’s 1860 Geological Map of the Penokie Range.

Detail of the Upper Falls (Saxon Falls) on the Montreal River and the Old Flambeau Trail in Township 47 North, Range 1 East from Charles Whittlesey’s 1860 Geological Map of the Penokie Range.

Here, as at the Montreal, the best trap is above the chutes, where it is well exposed in the channel of the river. For one mile above the Lower Falls the trap is of a favorable character ; but above this is not visible until the old Ironton trail is reached. The thickness of the productive trap is not as great as it is at the Montreal River. I judge that this tract covers the entire breadth of the soft brown amygdaloid trap. So far as I can form an opinion from the eternal character of the rocks, they promise as well as any part of this range. No part of the ground has been tested by recent explorations for veins, but there is abundant encouragement for a thorough trial. It must be remembered that it is only in the streams that the rocks composting the best part of this copper range are visible. From the Montreal to the Opinike River, neither the conglomerate nor the trap rises above the level of the country. From the Opinike to the forks of Bad River on Section 17, Town 45, Range 2, West, a distance South-easterly of about nine (9) miles, the productive belt of trap does not show itself above the drift materials, which over the country. The process of exploration is therefore much more tedious than it would be if the uplift was elevated into a high mountain ridge, with rocky cliffs exposed to view.

Ironton townsite claim at Saxon Harbor with trails to Odanah and the Penoka Iron Range. (Detail from Wisconsin Public Land Survey Records during November of 1861)

Detail of Ironton landing and trail from T47N R1W.

Ironton is the proper landing for works at the Opinike Falls, as well as for the Montreal River, and the distance is about nine miles. About two miles up the river, the Ironton trail to the Iron Range, crosses the River Opinike. It is highly probable the Ashland Copper Mining Company, which is now at work at the forks of Bad River, will seek an outlet this way. Although there is not a natural harbor at Ironton Landing, there is an angle in the cast which gives shelter to all but Northern winds, and the deep water approaches near the shore. Piers that were sunk there in 1857, have not yet been moved from their foundations by storms or by floating ice. This is the natural outlet for that part of the Iron Range which is East of the Penokie Gap. Although the country is somewhat mountainous, there are no serious obstacles to prevent highways, plank-roads or railroads from being built. Whatever mines may be developed on either the Copper or the Iron Range East of the Bad River, will find this the most convenient route to reach the lake. The water-power of the Opinike is at the upper chutes twenty-eight (28) feet and the lower seventy-five (75) feet – the latter being over the conglomerate rock and the former over trap. It is about three-fourths of a mile between them, and in the distance the river is rapid over a rocky bed. There is sufficient timber on the tract for all mining purposes, and a portion of the soil is equal to any in the country.

Detail of Bad River Falls omitted from Barber's second survey of 1856.

Detail of Ervin “Nigigoons” Leihy’s saw mill.

From the falls of the Opinike to Lehy’s saw-mill, at the falls of Bad River, is about nine (9) miles, in a North-westerly direction. Batteaux can reach Lehy’s mill from the lake during the ordinary stage of water. There is an Indian trail from Lehy’s to the falls, over a level country, somewhat more feasible for a road than the route to Ironton, but for the purposes of a mine the Ironton landing is much preferable. The flow of water in the Opinike is not equal to that of the Montreal, but the total fall is greater. Should workable mineral be found here – as appearances lead me confidently to anticipate – the location has advantages of position and water-power such as to place it next the Montreal River property for economical mining.

CHAS. WHITTLESEY,

Geologist and Mining Engineer.

Cleveland, Jan’y 1st, 1865.

Posted by Amorin Mello

Filed in Post 1860, Western Reserve ·Tags: Ashland Copper Mining Company, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Charles W. Whittlesey, Charter Oak Mining Company, Ervin Barnes Leihy, Ironton (townsite), Lake Superior Copper, Lower Potato Falls, Montreal River Property, Nonesuch Shale, Opinike River Property, Saxon Falls, Upper Potato Falls, Wisconsin Copper

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Tyler’s Fork Location: Copper Lands

March 19, 2016

By Amorin Mello

Map and Section Showing the Formations at the Junction of Bad River and Tylers Fork" by R. D. Irving, 1873. Published in the Geology of Wisconsin: Volume III.

“Map and Section Showing the Formations at the Junction of Bad River and Tylers Fork” by R. D. Irving, 1873. Reproduced from the Geology of Wisconsin: Volume III.

LETTER OF J. A. BAILEY, ESQ.,

IN REFERENCE TO THE

TYLER’S FORK PROPERTY.

———–

Office of Ashland Copper Mining Company,
Ashland County, Wis., Oct. 20, 1864.

Messrs. A. Whittlesey F. W. Bartlett,

Gentlemen:

“Asaph Whittlesey dressed for his journey from Ashland to Madison, Wisconsin, to take up his seat in the state legislature. Whittlesey is attired for the long trek in winter gear including goggles, a walking staff, and snowshoes.” Circa 1860.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

I have made an examination of the trap beds exposed between this and your location, upon the Copper Range, in Sections 15, 16 and 21, Town 45, North, Range 2, West, in this County, and have collected specimens (which are herewith forwarded) from the Ashland Company’s location, and from various points Eastward to your location.

The accompanying sketch of the territory referred to will assist you in locating the several points from which these specimens were taken, the figures upon the sketch indicating the points referred to.

Detail of the Ashland Copper Mine from 1873; now Copper Falls State Park.

Detail of the Ashland Copper Mine from 1873; located around what is now the main picnic area within Copper Falls State Park.

The specimens No. 1, are from the rocks in place in the bed of the West branch of Bad River, above the falls, near shaft No. 1, and contain a good per centage of native Copper. The copper bearing belt, exposed here across the formation, embraces a breadth of about 500 feet.

Specimens No. 2, are vein rock, from the transverse vein, in which our shaft No. 1 is being sunk. This shaft is now 35 feet deep, carrying small quantities of fine Copper all the way.

The Herbert vein was named after William Herbert: former copper mining agent for the American Fur Company; and former iron mining agent for the Wisconsin & Lake Superior Mining & Smelting Company.

Specimens No. 3, are from the outcrop of the Herbert vein, near the junction of the East and West branches of Bad River, containing “gray ore,” or “gray sulphuret of copper.”

Specimens Nos. 4, 5 and 6 are of trap, taken from the rock in place, along Tyler’s Fork, at the points indicated on the sketch of corresponding numbers.

My explorations and survey have been extended only to a short distance East of the Section line dividing Sections 16 and 17.

The surveys have been carefully made with theodolite and chain, with the view to determine the true course of the copper bearing belt through the “Ashland Company’s” property, and that adjoining on the East; and as near as I can determine from the measurements and the character of the rocks exposed, the course of this belt is East and West, or nearly so, through Section 17, with indications of a curve to the Northward, as we approach to, and enter Section 16.

I have indicated on the sketch the position of what I consider the North line of the outcrop of the copper bearing belt. The South line is not determined, the rocks being covered by drift, sand, &c.

It will be proper for me to add that the productive trap formation, found in place above the falls, in the West branch, corresponds fully with the formation at the same elevation in Tyler’s Fork, on the Western boundary of Section 16; and I am clearly of the opinion that at that point the trap formation, when penetrated to a depth corresponding to that at the falls of the West branch, will be alike productive of copper, and that the most productive veins will be found running parallel with the formation.

Very respectfully, Yours, &c.,

J. A. BAILEY,

Supt. & Engineer A. C. M. Co.

—————-

Ervin “Nigigoons” Leihy had a sawmill located at the Falls on Bad River.

A letter from Mr. E. Leehy, of Bad River Falls, dated Jan’y 6, 1865, states that in shaft No. 2, on the Ashland mine, several hundred feet South of No. 1, and in the productive belt, the copper rock was reached at 20 feet in depth, and the first blast threw out several pounds of native copper in pieces from the size of an egg down.

“Property on which ‘Silver Lead’ has recently been discovered.”

TYLER’S FORK LOCATION.

——-~~0~~——-

COPPER LANDS,

IN
SECTIONS 15 16 AND 21, TOWN 45, NORTH, RANGE 2, WEST.

640 ACRES.

ASHLAND COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

Detail of Township 45 North, Range 2 West, from Charles Whittlesey’s 1860 Geological Map of the Penokie Range.

This location covers a great part, if not all of the breadth of the productive trap formation. The outcrop of the strata is here nearly East and West, with a curve to the North-Eastward on or near this land. The greatest length of the location is North and South, and therefore crosses the formation nearly at right angles. At the Northern end, is the conglomerate and sand rock, which overlies the trap beds. These beds are better exposed at the West, in Section 17, on the Ashland Copper Company’s land, where they are now working and whatever developments may be made there will apply to this property. The strata have a sharp dip to the North, and are thus exposed at the edges, being nearly vertical. Next below, and South of the conglomerate, is a band of black and red trap, of a compact and rather flinty structure, about three hundred (300) feet thick, in which there are numerous transverse veins, cutting the strata at various angles. These are visible in a deep gulf formed on both forks of Bad River, that unite in Section 17. Somme of these cross veins carry copper, both native and as an ore in the form of grey sulphuret. They also carry as vein matter, chlorite, cale, spar, and flucan, or red and green magnesian clay. There are also narrow beds of trap, interstratified with the hard ores, which are softer, owing to a large portion of laumonite. I do not regard the true veins in the upper beds, as likely to furnish mining ground; but as highly valuable indications, which are to be followed into the more promising strata lower down in the system. Next below the hard beds, to the South, is a belt of trap rocks, whose composition and texture I regard as highly favorable.

The Ashland Company is sinking on a cross or transverse vein, at the Southern border of the hard beds; which in the course of 75 or 100 feet along their inclined shaft, will enter what I consider productive ground. The thickness of this ground is not determined, but what I have seen in the branches of the river exceeds half a mile. It is not, however, all alike, as there are in it layers possessing different characters, corresponding in this respect other parts of the trap range in Michigan and Wisconsin.

The stratum at the head of the falls, on the West fork, where the Ashland Company is at work, has been closely examined over a breadth of about 50 feet, and carries small pieces or nuggets of native copper throughout. It is a soft brown amyglaloid, which small bunches of chlorite, spar and laumonite; some prehnite and quartz, in which the copper is found. Lumps weighing one to two pounds have been obtained from this bed away from any appearances of a vein. This is the general character of the mineral belt on Section 17, which I consider as the true mining ground of this part of the range. All these beds are embraced in our location, at a distance of ¼ to ⅓ of a mile on the East. In Sections 16 and 21, the exposure of rock is not as extensive as it is upon 17, for the rocks are covered by drift clay, sand and gravel, except in the streams.

“The most easterly of the two middle forks I have called ‘Tyler’s Fork,’ which is divided above its falls into two equal branches; the other, which preserves the general direction of the main trunk, may, with propriety, retain its name, as the Mashkeg or Bad River.
There is no canoe navigation on Tyler’s Fork, or the Upper Bad River, so swift is the current and narrow and crooked are the channels.
Tyler’s Fork comes out of the mountains about twelve miles southeast by south from Woods’s [at Leihy’s Saw Mill], in a chasm, two hundred feet deep deep, in the red sand-rock and conglomerate. The junction of its ten branches takes place in this narrow gulf or ‘cañon,’ the eastern branch making a plunge of forty-two feet, succeeded, as you ascend, by a series of chutes over trap-rocks forty feet in one-fourth of a mile. Mr. D. Tyler, of the Charter Oak Company, made a location here, and built a rude cabin at the edge of the falls.”
Geological Report on That Portion of Wisconsin Bordering on the South Shore of Lake Superior. Surveyed in the Year 1849, Under the Direction of David Dale Owen, United States Geologist, by Charles Whittlesey, Head of Sub-Corps, page 433.

“Studio portrait of geologist Charles Whittlesey dressed for a field trip.” Circa 1858.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

The East, or “Tyler’s” Fork, shows the trap beds in its channel a large part of the way through Section 16; and they are visible in the small creek that empties into it on Section 21, from the South. To examine the metal-bearing bed, of which I have spoken, after it reaches this location, the rocks must be uncovered by trenches or shafts in the sand and gravel, after having determined the true course of the bed. The search for cross veins can be easily made in the channel of Tyler’s Fork. This is a stream of considerable value for water power, the fall in your property being sufficient for two dams, and the flow of water sufficient for a saw mill. The Exploration of the porous laumonite beds, will be somewhat tedious; but the close proximity to those on the Ashland Company’s property will be of great assistance. As soon as it is demonstrated that these deposits of fine and nugget copper are remunerative at one point on the range, it gives new value to the whole system. Copper deposited in this mode, in other mining districts, has been found to be more uniform over long distances, than it is in veins; because these ores are liable to pass out of the property formations, and into a diabase rock. These copper-bearing longitudinal courses should therefore be most thoroughly searched. In this region, stamp mills can be worked in most cases by water power; a heavy and regular bed can be stoped and broken up ready for the mill, at a much cheaper rate per fathom, than vein matter. The improved stamps, crushers and washers, have of late years much reduced the expence of working mineral-bearing rock. The absence of masses of native copper in the Ashland district, is not now so important as it was when the first explorers made their location here. On this property, the length of the copper-bearing beds is something over a mile, and their breadth at least half a mile. As they extend to a greater depth than any mine can be worked, there is no fear of exhaustion.

CHAS. WHITTLESEY

Geologist and Mining Engineer.

Cleveland, Ohio, Jan. 1st, 1865.

Posted by Amorin Mello

Filed in Post 1860, Western Reserve ·Tags: Asaph Whittlesey Jr., Ashland Copper Mining Company, Bad River, Charles W. Whittlesey, Charter Oak Mining Company, Copper Falls State Park, Ervin Barnes Leihy, F. W. Bartlett, J. A. Bailey, Lake Superior Copper, Nonesuch Shale, Tyler Forks River, William Herbert, Wisconsin Copper

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The Woman In Stone

March 15, 2016

By Amorin Mello & Leo Filipczak

Portrait of the Wheeler and Wood Families from the Wheeler Family Papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society. The woman dressed in white is Harriet "Hattie" Wheeler, according to the book Woman in the Wilderness: Letters of Harriet Wood Wheeler, Missonary Wife, 1832-1892, by Nancy Bunge, 2010.

Photograph of the Wheeler and Wood Families from the Wheeler Family Papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society. The woman dressed in white is Harriet Martha Wheeler, according to the book about her mother, Woman in the Wilderness: Letters of Harriet Wood Wheeler, Missonary Wife, 1832-1892, by Nancy Bunge, 2010.

Leonard Hemenway Wheeler ~ Unnamed Wisconsin by [????]

Leonard Hemenway Wheeler: husband of Harriet Wood Wheeler, and father of author Harriet Martha Wheeler.
~ Unnamed Wisconsin, by John Nelson Davidson, 1895.

Harriet Wood Wheeler: wife of Leonard Wheeler, and mother of Harriet Wheeler. ~ Wisconsin Historical Society

Harriet Wood Wheeler: wife of Leonard Wheeler, and mother of author Harriet Martha Wheeler.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

This is a reproduction of the final chapter from Harriet Martha Wheeler’s 1903 book, The Woman in Stone: A Novel. If you want to read the entire novel without spoiling the final chapter featured here, you can download it here as a PDF file: The Woman in Stone: A Novel. Special thanks to Paul DeMain at Indian Country Today Media Network for making the digitization of this novel possible for the public to read with convenience.

“Hattie” was named after her mother, Harriet Wood Wheeler; the wife of Reverend Leonard Hemenway Wheeler. Hattie was born in 1858 at Odanah, shortly after the events portrayed in her novel. Hattie’s experiences and writings about the Lake Superior Chippewa are summarized in an academic article by Nancy Bunge, published in The American Transcendental Quarterly , Vol. 16, No. 1 , March 2002: Straddling Cultures: Harriet Wheeler’s and William W. Warren’s Renditions of Ojibwe History

William Whipple Warren (c. 1851)
~ Wikimedia.org

“Mary Warren English, White Earth, Minnesota”
~ University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, NEMHC Collections

Harriet Wheeler and William W. Warren not only both lived on Ojibwe reservations in northern Wisconsin during the nineteenth century, but their families had strong bonds between them. William Warren’s sister, Mary Warren English, writes that her brother returned to La Pointe, Wisconsin, from school on the same boat Harriet’s parents took to begin their mission work. The Wheelers liked him and appreciated his help: “He won a warm and life-long friendship–with these most estimable people–by his genial and happy disposition–and ever ready and kindly assistance–during their long and tedious voyage” (Warren Papers). When Mary Warren English’s parents died, she moved in with the Wheelers, and, long after she and Harriet no longer shared the same household, she began letters to Harriet with the salutation, “Dear Sister.” But William Warren’s History of the Ojibwe People (1885) and Harriet Wheeler’s novel The Woman in Stone (1903) reveal that this shared background could not overcome the cultural differences between them. Even though Wheeler and Warren often describe the same events and people, their accounts have different implications. Wheeler, the daughter of Congregational missionaries from New England, portrays the inevitable and necessary decline of the Ojibwe, as emissaries of Christianity help civilization progress; Warren, who had French and Ojibwe ancestors, as well as Yankee roots, identifies growing Anglo-Saxon influence on the Ojibwe as a cause of moral decay.

Hattie’s book appears to provide some valuable insights about certain events in Chequamegon history, yet it is clearly erroneous about other such events. According to the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Harriet’s novel is “based on discovery of petrified body of Indian woman in northern Wisconsin.” This statement seems to acknowledge this peculiar event as being somewhat factual. However, Hattie’s novel is clearly a work of fiction; it appears that some of her references were to actual events. At this point in time, this mystery of the forest may never be thoroughly confirmed or debunked.

An incomplete theater screenplay, with the title “Woman in Stone,” was also written by Hattie. It appears to be based on her novel, can be found at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center Archives, in the Wheeler Family Papers: Northland Mss 14; Box 10; Folder 19. However, only several pages of this screenplay copy still exist in the archive there. A complete copy of Hattie’s screenplay may still exist somewhere else yet.

"The Woman in Stone: A Novel" by Harriet Wheeler

The Woman in Stone: A Novel by Harriet Martha Wheeler, 1903.

[Due to the inconsistencies found in Hattie’s novel, we have omitted most of this novel for this reproduction. We shall skip to the final chapter of Hattie’s novel, to the rediscovery of long lost “Wa-be-goon-a-quace,” the Little Flower Girl. If you want to read the entire novel first, before spoiling this final chapter, you can download it here: The Woman in Stone: A Novel, by Harriet Wheeler, 1903. Special thanks to Paul DeMain at Indian Country Today Media Network for making the digitization of this novel possible for the public to read with convenience.]

(Pages 164-168)

CHAPTER XX.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE WOMAN IN STONE

A hundred years swept over the island Madelaine, bringing change and decay in their train. But, nature renews the waste of time with a prodigal hand and robed the island in verdant loveliness.

lore dedication

Madelaine still towers the queen of the Apostle group, with rocky dells and pine clad shores and odorous forests, through which murmur the breezes from the great lake, and over all hover centuries of history, romance, and legendary lore.

Jean Michel Cadotte was Madelaine’s father-in-law, not husband. Madelaine Cadotte’s Ojibwe name was Ikwezewe, and she was still alive at La Pointe, in her ’90s, during Hattie‘s childhood in Odanah. It’s kind of disturbing how little of this Hattie got right considering Mary Warren (Madeline’s granddaughter) was basically Hattie’s stepsister.

Evolution toward the spiritual is the destiny of humanity and in this trend of progress the Red Men are vanishing before the onward march of the Pale Face. In the place of the blazing Sacred Fire stands the Protestant Mission. The settlers’ cabin supplants the wigwam. No longer are heard the voyageur’s song and the rippling canoes. This is the age of steam, and far and near echoes the shrill whistle. Overgrown mounds mark the sites of the forts of La Ronde and Cadotte. In the spacious log cabin of Jean and Madelaine Cadotte lives their grandson, John Cadotte.

"Dirt trail passing log shack that was probably the home of Michael and Madeline Cadotte, La Pointe." ~ Wisconsin Historical Society

“Dirt trail passing log shack that was probably the home of Michael and Madeline Cadotte, La Pointe,” circa 1897.
~ Wisconsin Historical Society

Jean and Anastasia Cadotte had several grandsons named John Cadotte or Jean Baptiste Cadotte at La Pointe. So did Michel and Madelaine Cadotte.

A practical man is John. He tills his garden, strings his fish-net in the bay, and acts as guide, philosopher and friend for all the tourists who visit the island.

Hildreth Huntington and his father may have been fictionalized, or they may be actual people from the Huntington clan:

The Huntington Family in America: A Genealogical Memoir of the Known Descendants of Simon Huntington from 1633 to 1915, Including Those who Have Retained the Family Name, and Many Bearing Other Surnames

by the Huntington Family Association, 1915.

On a June morning of the year 1857, John sat beneath a sheltering pine mending his fish-net. he smoked a cob-pipe, which he occasionally laid by to whistle a voyageur’s song. A shrill whistle sounded and a tug steamed around the bend to the wharf. John laid aside his fish-net and pipe and strolled to the beach. Two gentlemen, clad in tourist’s costume, stepped from the tug and approached John.

“Can you direct us to Mr. John Cadotte?” said the elder man.

“I am your man,” responded John.

Augustus Hamilton Barber had copper and land claims around the Montreal and Tyler Forks Rivers before his death in 1856. It is possible that this father and son pair in Hattie’s novel actually represent Joel Allen Barber and his father, Giles Addison Barber. They were following up on their belated Augustus’ unresolved business in this area during June of 1857. This theory about the Barber family is explored in more details with “Legend of the Montreal River,” by George Francis Thomas.

“My name is Huntington. This young man is my son, Hildreth. We came from New York, and are anxious to explore the region about Tyler’s fork where copper has been discovered. We were directed to you as a guide on whom we might depend. Can we secure your services, sir?” asked the stranger.

“It is also proper to state in addition to what has been already mentioned, that at, or about this time [1857], a road was opened by Mr. Herbert’s order, from the Hay Marsh, six miles out from Ironton, to which point one had been previously opened, to the Range [on the Tyler Forks River], which it struck about midway between Sidebotham’s and Lockwood’s Stations, over which, I suppose, the 50,000 tons as previously mentioned, was to find its way to Ironton, (in a horn).“
~ Penokee Survey Incidents: IV

“I am always open to engagement,” responded John.

“Very well, we will start at once, if agreeable to you.”

“I will run up to the house and pack my traps,” said John.

The stranger strolled along the beach until John’s return. Then all aboard the tug and steamed away towards Ashland. John entertained the strangers with stories and legends of those romantic and adventurous days which were fading into history.

“The company not being satisfied with Mr. Herbert as agent, he was removed and Gen. Cutler appointed in his place, who quickly selected Ashland as headquarters, to which place all the personal property, consisting of merchandise principally, was removed during the summer by myself upon Gen. C.’s order – and Ironton abandoned to its fate.”
~ Penokee Survey Incidents: I

The party left the tug at Ashland and engaged a logger’s team to carry them to Tyler’s Forks, twenty miles away. A rough road had been cut through the forest where once ran an Indian trail. Over this road the horses slowly made their way. Night lowered before they had reached their destination and they pitched their tents in the forest. John kindled a camp-fire and prepared supper. The others gathered wood and arranged bough beds in the tent. They were wearied with the long and tedious journey and early sought this rude couch.

John’s strident tones summoned them to a sunrise breakfast. They broke camp and resumed their journey, arriving at the Forks at noon.

The tourists sat down on the banks of the river and viewed the beautiful falls before them.

“This is the most picturesque spot I have seen, Hildreth. It surpasses Niagara, to my mind,” said Mr. Huntington.

The preface to this novel is a photograph of Brownstone Falls, where the Tyler Forks River empties into the Bad River at Copper Falls State Park. George Francis Thomas’ “A Mystery of the Forest” was originally published as “Legend of the Montreal River“ (and republished here). It suggests that the legend takes place at the Gorge on the Tyler Forks River, where it crosses the Iron Range; not where it terminates on Bad River along the Copper Range.

They gazed about them in wondering admiration. The forest primeval towered above them. Beyond, the falls rolled over their rocky bed. The ceaseless murmur of the rapids sounded below them and over all floated the odors of the pines and balsam firs.

“This description will, I think, give your readers a very good understanding of the condition as well as the true inwardness of the affairs of the Wisconsin & Lake Superior Mining and Smelting Co., in the month of June, 1857.”
[…]
“Rome was not built in a day, but most of these cabins were. I built four myself near the Gorge [on Tyler Forks River], in a day, with the assistance of two halfbreeds, but was not able to find them a week afterwards. This is not only a mystery but a conundrum. I thinksome traveling showman must have stolen them; but although they werenon est we could swear that we had built them, and did.“
~ Penokee Survey Incidents: IV

After dinner the party began their explorations under John’s leadership. Two days were spent in examining the banks of Bad River. On the third morning they came to the gorge. Here, the river narrowed to a few feet and cut its way through high banks of rock. The party examined the rocks on both sides. John climbed to the pool behind the gorge and examined the rocks lying beneath the shallow water. He rested his hand on what seemed to be a water-soaked log and was surprised to find the log a solid block of stone. He examined it carefully. The stone resembled a human form.

“Mr. Huntington, come down here,” he called.

“Have you struck a claim, John?” asked Mr. Huntington.

“Not exactly. Look at this rock. What do you call it, sir?”

Mr. Huntington, his son and the teamster climbed down to the pool and examined the rock.

“A petrification of some sort,” exclaimed Mr. Huntington. “Let us lift it from the water.”

The men struggled some time before they succeeded in raising the solid mass. They rested it against the rocky bank.

Wabigance: Little Flower Girl

Hattie identified this character as “Wa-be-goon-a-quace.” In the Ojibwemowin language, Wabigance is a small flower. Wabigon or Wabegoon is a flower. Wabegoonakwe is a flower that is female.

In Ojibwemowin, a lot of female names have qwe, kwe, quay, on the end of them to make them female. (Kwe is in reference to the head or literally “of the head”). But is is not aways necessary.

“A petrified Indian girl,” exclaimed Mr. Huntington.

The men bent low over the strange figure, examining it carefully.

“Look at her moccasins, father,” exclaimed Hildreth, “and her long hair. Here is a rosary and cross about her neck. Evidently she was a good Catholic.”

“Holy Mother,” exclaimed John, “it is the Little Flower Girl.”“And who was she?” asked Mr. Huntington.

“She was my grandmother Madelaine’s cousin. I have heard my grandmother tell about her many times when I was a boy. The Little Flower Girl lost her mind when her pale-faced lover died in battle. She was always hunting for him in the island woods. One evening she disappeared in her canoe and never returned.”

“How came she by this cross?”

Jacques Marquette aka Pere Marquette aka James (Jim) Marquette ~ Wikipedia.org

Portrait of Jacques Marquette
~ Wikipedia.org

Father Marquette was stationed at the Jesuit mission at La Pointe du Saint Esprit on Madeline Island during 1669-1670.

“The Holy Father Marquette gave it to her grandmother, Ogonã. The Little Flower Girl wore it always. She thought it protected her from evil and would lead her to her lover, Claude.”

And so it has. The cross has led the Little Flower Girl up yonder where she has found her Claude and life immortal.

“A touching romance, worthy to be embalmed in stone,” said Hildreth.

"Barnum's Museum Fire, New York City, 1868 Incredible view of the frozen ruins of Barnum's 'American Museum' just after the March, 1868 fire. 3-1/4x6-3/4" yellow-mount view published by E & HT Anthony; #5971 in their series of 'Anthony's Stereoscopic Views.' Huge ice formations where the water sprays hit the building; burned out windows and doors. ~ CraigCamera.com

“Barnum’s Museum Fire, New York City, 1868 Incredible view of the frozen ruins of Barnum’s ‘American Museum’ just after the March, 1868 fire. 3-1/4×6-3/4″ yellow-mount view published by E & HT Anthony; #5971 in their series of ‘Anthony’s Stereoscopic Views.’ Huge ice formations where the water sprays hit the building; burned out windows and doors.”
~ CraigCamera.com

“Yes, and worthy of a better resting place,” responded Mr. Huntington. “We must take the Little Flower Girl with us, Hildreth. Her life belongs to the public. Our great city will be better for this monument of her romantic, tragic, sorrowing life.”

Over the forest road, where her moccasined feet had strayed one hundred years before, they bore the Little Flower Girl. And the eyes of the Holy Father shone on her as she crossed the silvery water where her “Ave Maria” echoed long ago. Back to the island Madelaine they carried her, and on, down the great lakes, the Little Flower Girl followed in the wake of her lover, Claude. To the great city of New York they bore her. In one of that great city’s museum rests the Woman in Stone.

Rare sighting of Wabigance at the Tyler Forks Gap. (M. Matusewic © 2013)

Wabigance below the Gorge on the Tyler Forks River.
~ Photograph by M. Matusewic © December 2013.
Reproduced with permission.

Posted by Amorin Mello

Filed in 1600s, 1850s, Wheeler Papers ·Tags: George Francis Thomas, Harriet Martha Wheeler, Harriet Wood Wheeler, Hildreth Huntington, Jacques Marquette, Leonard Hemenway Wheeler, Mary Warren English, Nancy Bunge, Ogonã, Tyler Forks Gorge, Wabigance, William Whipple Warren

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The Removal Order of 1849

March 12, 2016

By Amorin Mello

United States. Works Progress Administration:

Chippewa Indian Historical Project Records 1936-1942

(Northland Micro 5; Micro 532)

12th President Zachary Taylor gave the 1849 Removal Order while he was still in office. The 1852 meeting in Washington, D.C. was with 13th President Millard Fillmore. ~ 1848 presidential campaign poster from the Library of Congress

12th President Zachary Taylor gave the 1849 Removal Order while he was still in office. During 1852, Chief Buffalo and his delegation met 13th President Millard Fillmore in Washington, D.C., to petition against this Removal Order.
~ 1848 presidential campaign poster from the Library of Congress

Reel 1; Envelop 1; Item 14.

The Removal Order of 1849

By Jerome Arbuckle

After the war of 1812 the westward advance of the people of the United States of was renewed with vigor. These pioneers were imbued with the idea that the possessions of the Indian tribes, with whom they came in contact, were for their convenience and theirs for the taking. Any attempt on the part of the aboriginal owners to defend their ancestral homes were a signal for a declaration of war, or a punitive expedition, which invariably resulted in the defeat of the Indians.

“Peace Treaties,” incorporating terms and stipulations suitable particularly to the white man’s government, were then negotiated, whereby the Indians ceded their lands, and the remnants of the dispossessed tribe moved westward. The tribes to the south of the Great Lakes, along the Ohio Valley, were the greatest sufferers from this system of acquisition.

Another system used with equal, if less sanguinary success, was the “treaty system.” Treaties of this type were actually little more than receipt signed by the Indian, which acknowledged the cessions of huge tracts of land. The language of the treaties, in some instances, is so plainly a scheme for the dispossession and removal of the Indians that it is doubtful if the signers for the Indians understood the true import of the document. Possibly, and according to the statements handed down from the Indians of earlier days to the present, Indians who signed the treaties were duped and were the victims of treachery and collusion.

By the terms of the Treaties of 1837 and 1842, the Indians ceded to the Government all their territory lying east of the Mississippi embracing the St. Croix district and eastward to the Chocolate River. The Indians, however, were ignorant of the fact that they had ceded these lands. According to the terms, as understood by them, they were permitted to remain within these treaty boundaries and continue to enjoy the privileges of hunting, fishing, ricing and the making of maple sugar, provided they did not molest their white neighbors; but they clearly understood that the Government was to have the right to use the timber and minerals on these lands.

Entitled "Chief Buffalo's Petition to the President" by the Wisconsin Historical Society, this famous symbolic petition was made and delivered completely independently of Chief Buffalo from La Pointe. Or anyone else from the La Pointe Band for that matter. See Chequamegon History's original post for more information.

Entitled “Chief Buffalo’s Petition to the President“ by the Wisconsin Historical Society, the story behind this now famous symbolic petition is actually unrelated to Chief Buffalo from La Pointe, and was created before the Sandy Lake Tragedy. It is a common error to mis-attribute this to Chief Buffalo’s trip to Washington D.C., which occurred after that Tragedy. See Chequamegon History’s original post for more information.

Detail of Benjamin Armstrong from a photograph by Matthew Brady (Minnesota Historical Society). See our Armstrong Engravings post for more information.

Their eyes were opened when the Removal Order of 1849 came like a bolt from the blue. This order cancelled the Indians’ right to hunt and fish in the territory ceded, and gave notification for their removal westward. According to Verwyst, the Franciscan Missionary, many left by reason of this order, and sought a refuge among the westernmost of their tribe who dwelt in Minnesota.

Many of the full bloods, who naturally had a deep attachment for their home soil, refused to budge. The chiefs who signed the treaty were included in this action. They then concluded that they were duped by the Treaty Commissioners and were given a faulty interpretation of the treaty passages. Although the Chippewa realized the futility of armed resistance, those who chose to remain unanimously decided to fight it out. A few white men who were true friends of the Indians, among these was Ben Armstrong, the adopted son of the Head Chief, Buffalo, and he cautioned the Indians against any show of hostility.

See our posts on Chief Buffalo Picture Search and Oshogay for more information about these legendary leaders of the Lake Superior Chippewa.

At a council, Armstrong prevailed upon the chiefs to make a trip to Washington. Accordingly, preparations for the trip were made, a canoe of special make being constructed for the journey. After cautioning the tribesmen to remain calm, pending their return, they set out for Washington in April, 1852. The party was composed of Buffalo, the head Chief, and several sub-chiefs, one of whom was Oshoga, who later became a noted man among the Chippewa. Armstrong was the interpreter and director of the party. The delegation left La Pointe and proceeded by way of the Great Lakes as far as Buffalo, N. Y., and then by rail to Washington. They stopped at the white settlements along the route and their leader, Mr. Armstrong, circulated a petition among the white people. This petition, which was to be presented to the President, urged that the Chippewa be permitted to remain in their own country and the Removal Order reconsidered. Many signatures were obtained, some of the signers being acquaintances of the President, whose signatures he later recognized.

Despite repeated attempts of arbitrary agents, who were employed by the government to administer Indian affairs, and who endeavored to return them back or discourage the trip, they resolutely persisted. The party arrived at Buffalo, New York, practically penniless. By disposing of some Indian trinkets, and by putting the chief on exhibition, they managed to acquire enough money to defray their expenses until they finally arrived at Washington.

Here it seemed their troubles were to begin. They were refused an audience with those persons who might have been able to assist them. Through the kind assistance of Senator Briggs of New York, they eventually managed to arrange for an interview with President Fillmore.

United States Representative George Briggs. ~ Library of Congress

United States Representative George Briggs was helpful in getting an audience with President Millard Fillmore.
~ Library of Congress

At the appointed time they assembled for the interview and after smoking the peace pipe offered by Chief Buffalo, the “Great White Father” listened to their story of conditions in the Northwest. Their petition was presented and read and the meeting adjourned. President Fillmore, deeply impressed by his visitors, directed that their expenses should be paid by the Government and that they should have the freedom of the city for a week.

Vincent Roy, Jr., was also on this famous trip to Washington, D.C. For more information, see this excerpt from Vincent Roy Jr’s biography.

At a second interview the President assured them that their request was granted; that they might remain in the territory in question and that he would countermand the Removal Order. He, furthermore, instructed them that on their return to their homes they should call an assembly of their people at Madeline Island, and prepare for a new treaty in September, 1854.

Their mission was accomplished and all were happy. They had achieved what they sought. An uprising of their people had been averted in which thousands of human lives might have been cruelly slaughtered; so with light hearts they prepared for their homeward trip. Their fare was paid and they returned by rail by way of St. Paul, Minnesota, which was as near as they could get by rail to their homes. From St. Paul they traveled overland, a distance of over two hundred miles, overland. Along the route they frequently met with bands of Chippewa, whom they delighted with the information of the successes of their trip. These groups they instructed to repair to Madeline Island for the treaty at the time stipulated.

Upon their arrival at their own homes, the successes of the delegation was hailed with joy. Runners were dispatched to notify the entire Chippewa nation. As a consequence, many who had left their homes in compliance with the Removal Order now returned.

When the time for the treaty drew near, the Chippewa began to arrive at the Island from all directions. Finally, after careful deliberations, the treaty of 1854 was concluded. This treaty provided for several reservations within the ceded territory. These were Ontonagon and L’Anse, in the present state of Michigan, Lac du Flambeau, Bad River or La Pointe, Red Cliff, and Lac Courte Oreille, in Wisconsin, and Fond du Lac and Grand Portage in Minnesota.

It was at this time that the Chippewa mutually agreed to separate into two divisions, making the Mississippi the dividing line between the Mississippi Chippewa and the Lake Superior Chippewa, and allowing each division the right to deal separately with the Government.

Posted by Amorin Mello

Filed in 1840s, 1850s, Sandy Lake Tragedy and Ojibwe Removal, WPA Project ·Tags: Benjamin Green Armstrong, Chief Buffalo of La Pointe, George Briggs, Millard Fillmore, Oshaage of La Pointe, Vincent Roy (III) Jr., Washington D.C., Zachary Taylor

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April 17, 2016

By Amorin Mello

A curious series of correspondences from “Morgan”

… continued from Copper Harbor.

EDITOR’S CORRESPONDENCE.

—

[From our Regular Correspondent.]

THE COPPER REGION.

La Pointe, Lake Superior

July 28, 1845.

In great haste I am,

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

MORGAN.

To be continued in La Pointe…

April 11, 2016

By Amorin Mello

A curious series of correspondences from “Morgan”

… continued from Mackinac and Sault Ste Marie.

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN.

[From our regular correspondent.]

COPPER HARBOR, LAKE SUPERIOR,

JULY 15, 1845.

I remain yours,

Very truly and respectfully,

MORGAN.

To be continued in The Copper Region…

April 7, 2016

By Amorin Mello

A curious series of correspondences from “Morgan”

… continued from To The Far West.

MADISON, (W.T.,) June 26, 1845.

Yours, truly,

J. A. N.

[From our regular correspondent.]

MACKINAC, June 29, 1845.

I remain yours, very respectfully.

MORGAN.

EDITOR’S CORRESPONDENCE.

—

[From our regular correspondent.]

SAULT STE. MARIE,

Near Lake Superior, July 2, 1845.

Yours, very respectfully,

MORGAN.

To be continued in Copper Harbor…

April 4, 2016

By Amorin Mello

JOINT RESOLUTION relative to Mail Routes.

APPROVED, February 15, 1845.

EDITOR’S CORRESPONDENCE

—

[From our regular correspondent.]

NEW YORK, June 16, 1845.

Yours, very truly and respectfully,

MORGAN.

EDITOR’S CORRESPONDENCE

—

[From our regular correspondent.]

BUFFALO, N. Y., June 19, 1845.

Yours, very respectfully,

MORGAN.

[From our regular correspondent.]

DETROIT, MICHIGAN, June 24, 1845.

I am very respectfully and truly, yours,

MORGAN.

[From our regular correspondent.]

ON BOARD THE STEAMBOAT WISCONSIN,

Bound from Detroit to Mackinac,

June 27, 1845.

MORGAN.

To be continued in Mackinac and Sault Ste Marie…

March 25, 2016

By Amorin Mello

Land Office Frauds.

Correspondence of the New-York Times.

SUPERIOR CITY, Wis., Thursday, Nov. 25.

March 21, 2016

By Amorin Mello

MARANGOIN RIVER IRON PROPERTY

MARANGOIN RIVER
IRON PROPERTY

EMBRACING
FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ACRES,
IN SECTIONS 16 AND 20,

———–
CLEVELAND, OHIO:
FAIRBANKS, BENEDICT & CO., PRINTERS, HERALD OFFICE.
1865.
—–

Office of Ashland Copper Mining Company,
Ashland County, Wis., Oct. 20, 1864.

IN
SECTIONS 15 16 AND 21, TOWN 45, NORTH, RANGE 2, WEST.