Destination: White Pigeon Prairie 1827-1899

By Kelley L. Taylor

It was a time in history when news and rumors could travel no faster than a trotting horse, yet Americans were keenly aware of the progress being made in the west. By the time the Erie Canal was open for business, wagons were ready to roll. With babies and belongings in hand, these soon-to-be pioneers bid a forever sort of goodbye to their homes and their loved ones. If what they'd heard was true, good things awaited them in the newly rebranded Michigan Territory. Particularly desirable was the White Pigeon Prairie, known for its breath-taking beauty and its plentiful resources of fresh water, fertile soil, and wild game.

This book outlines the development of a community and follows the lives of some of the most interesting families to pass through the area. Whether they stayed for three years or for thirty, they left footprints that should not be swept away. The prairie that became the village was a vital part of Michigan's history that is little remembered today.

As much as I hope the reader is entertained, I also hope to bring a renewed enthusiasm for exploring and preserving history, wherever you may be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: May 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781665742757

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Copyright © 2023 Kelley L. Taylor.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Archway Publishing

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-6657-4276-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-4275-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023907573

Archway Publishing rev. date: 05/23/2023

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Prologue

Chapter 1 Ready, Set, Go!

Chapter 2 Michigan Fever

Chapter 3 The State of Progress

Chapter 4 Fun in the Fifties

Chapter 5 A Rough Road Ahead

Chapter 6 Changing Times

Chapter 7 Tragedy and Triumph

Chapter 8 The Dust Settles

Epilogue

Bibliography

About the Author

History as usually written…is quite different from history as usually lived.

Will and Ariel Durant

Brief Timeline of Important Events

1787: The Northwest Territory was created. It included land that is now Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and part of Minnesota.

1795: Chief White Pigeon was among the 23 Native American signers of the Treaty of Greenville, which ended the Northwest Indian War and ceded land rights to the United States.

1800: Ohio broke away from the Northwest Territory; what remained became known as Indiana Territory.

1805: Michigan Territory was created but did not include the Upper Peninsula. Detroit was the capital; William Hull was territorial governor.

1808: Chief White Pigeon and others from the Council of Three Fires (Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi) signed the Treaty of Brownstown, which ceded additional land to the government for use in constructing a road.

1812: The United States declared war against the British over their interference with shipping and westward expansion. It was known as the War of 1812.

1818: Michigan Territory expanded to include the U.P., Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. Land sales began from a single office in Detroit.

1821: The Treaty of Chicago was signed by Native American leaders, ceding the area that is now St. Joseph County to the U.S. government. A reservation (Nottawasepi) was set aside for the native population, located on the Mendon Prairie.

1823: A new land office opened in Monroe, Michigan

1824: The survey of the military route (called The Chicago Road) began. From Fort Detroit, it led westward to Fort Dearborn, near what is now Chicago.

1825: The Erie Canal was completed, making it possible to travel through New York towards the Great Lakes region without having to cross the Appalachians.

Also in 1825, the land that is now St. Joseph County was assessed for possible settlement. It was found to be occupied by members of the Potawatomi tribe and a handful of Frenchmen who were traders with the native people.

1829: The Territorial government designated a portion of southwest Michigan as St. Joseph County (10/29/1829)

1840: The remaining Native Americans that lived on the reservation at Nottawasepi were forcibly removed.

1845: On October 24, a delegation of twelve Potawatomis went to Washington, D.C. to meet with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of War. Chief Wah-me-me (White Pigeon) was one of those noted at attending.

Preface

Some people are born history lovers. During my 18-year library career, I met several children who thrilled over books about the Civil War, or a certain president, or medieval castles and their inner-workings. I was the opposite of that, as my high school history teachers could verify.

Then I grew up, got married, and moved into an old farmhouse in White Pigeon. As it turned out, it was very old, built circa 1864. I spent a lot of time digging into the home’s past. One of my favorite experiences from those days was searching in the ‘vault’ at the Register of Deeds office in Centreville. In this small room are tall vertical stacks of enormous record books, the earliest of which are handwritten; there’s even a rolling ladder so you can climb up to retrieve those on the top shelves. What a cool place! Another amazing repository I enjoyed was the Archives at WMU, though they have moved to a different building since the days when I went there. This is home to a treasure trove of information, including letters, diaries, ledgers, and so on. I eventually moved on to researching local history, and this has proven to be the most fun of all.

I would love to share the stories I’ve found, so let’s take a walk through the evolution of this prairie that was the gateway to Michigan Territory. Let me introduce you to the ‘boy engineers’ who once made White Pigeon and Mottville their homes, the local minister who saved lives through his work with the Underground Railroad, and one of my favorites, the famous Peak Family Bell Ringers, who once lived in the neighborhood of my old farmhouse.

I hope you enjoy this collection of discoveries as much as I do!

Kelley L. Taylor

Introduction

Today, White Pigeon is a two-stoplight town that people pass through on their way to get somewhere else. It’s hard to believe, but there was once a time is was where everyone wanted to be! The White Pigeon Prairie was the topic of conversations held at dinner tables across the eastern states, most notably in New York and Pennsylvania. It was talked about as far away as England, where a pamphlet was circulated praising its attributes. As explained in the History of St. Joseph County, Michigan, White Pigeon was for years a distributing point of emigration into the west, and all of southwestern Michigan and Northwestern Indiana were settled by emigrants who made their first stop at this spot.¹

The initial flood of settlers brought people who were beyond ordinary. First and foremost, they were incredibly ambitious. They brought with them varying degrees of education, experience, and wealth. They set to work establishing farms, mills, schools, and everything needed for a community to prosper. In the blink of an eye, the wide-open prairie became a township, which later became six townships (White Pigeon, Constantine, Mottville, Fabius, Lockport and Florence)²; and finally, White Pigeon became a village, quickly followed by others in the county.

When the pioneers came to the prairie, it had mostly (but not completely) been abandoned by the Potawatomi tribe, as per treaties brokered by Lewis Cass. What they left behind was a land unsullied. The ‘oak openings’ lauded in letters and articles were the large open areas where crops could be planted without felling a single tree. These were not natural occurrences; they were the result of decades of work by the Native Americans, who burned off those areas seasonally, to keep them prime for planting. The military road that led to Lake Michigan was a decades-old foot trail, created and maintained by the various tribes that traveled through the area, and its existence was another large part of the allure.

What became of these people after they left is not easily traced. At least some members of the White Pigeon family relocated to Custer, Mason Township, Michigan. Census records show that in 1880, George White Pigeon, age 30, his wife Mary, and their children Macoaoshay and Dowquoah, resided there. According to documents found on Ancestry, there were 409 residents of Mason County who identified as ‘Indian’ in 1860. This record also explains that Indians who have renounced tribal rule and who, under state or territory laws, exercise the rights of citizens, are to be enumerated. George’s occupation was listed as ‘farmer’, so we can see that he sufficiently adapted to the American way of life.

Prologue

WHEN MICHIGANDERS

SPOKE FRENCH

If you look at a United States map prior to the American Revolution, you will see that current-day Michigan was then part of a larger territory called Canada Nouvelle France, or New France. The French were the first white people in this region to interact with the native population, and for the most part, their relationships were congenial. The French were concerned primarily with the fur trade and operating a few scattered trading posts, none of which were disruptive to the Indigenous people. The French influence remains a part of Michigan to this day, with place names like Charlevoix, Marquette, Sault Sainte Marie and even Detroit.

And then there is Latourt. It’s likely that you’ve never heard of it, but if you’re reading this book, you’ve probably been there a time or two; that’s because Latourt was the French name for White Pigeon’s Village. References to Latourt are few and far between. One example is found in the memoir The Life and Times of Ninian Edwards. While recounting the search for the ‘Indians’ accused of the attack known as the Shoal Creek murders in 1812, Edwards, the first and only governor of Illinois Territory stated,

"on the 4th of August, Jacques Mettie, of Peoria, informed Capt. Levering that one of the Indians who committed the murder on Shoal creek was a Pottawottamie, by the name of Nom-bo-itt, and that he was at that time in a village on Yellow creek, whose chief is named Mat-cho-quis, about ninety leagues from Peoria; and that another, also of the same nation, by the name of Me-nac-queth, was at Latourt, or White Pigeon, on the road leading to Detroit, about twelve leagues from St. Joseph".³

Latourt was used interchangeably as a place name and a proper pronoun, as noted in The American Indian: Past and Present edited by Roger Nichols, as in the following paragraph from an essay by John Smudgeon:

"A Potawatomi called Latourt, or the White Pidgeon, left Indiana Territory and passed through the villages on the Illinois River to canvas the Sacs, Foxes, and Sioux, with, it was said, a wampum from Tenskwatawa and an invitation from the British to visit them for arms and ammunition.⁴

The essay went on to explain that Tenskwatawa was the brother of Tecumseh, and they, along with Chief White Pigeon, had the goal of uniting all native tribes to defend against the Americans, which ultimately, they were unable to do.

To help geographically define White Pigeon’s Village is this excerpt from a letter written by William Henry Harrison (then the governor of Indiana Territory). The year was 1812.

A Banditti of scoundrels principally of the Potawatima tribe have for some time assembled at the White Pigeon’s Village upon the headwaters of the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan and which cannot be more than fifty or sixty miles from Mississineway. An attempt to cut them off will be made, or not, from your view of its practicability…⁵

The headwaters of the St. Joseph are at Baw Beese Lake in Hillsdale, Michigan. White Pigeon’s Village covered most of the lower portion of Michigan Territory and a large section of northern Indiana. The ‘Indian’ settlement that was located at modern-day White Pigeon was abandoned in 1815, according to the Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History.⁶

Prior to 1825, Americans had managed to settle Ohio and Indiana by traveling down the Ohio River. Movement into Michigan Territory was impeded by a massive swamp of 1500 square miles known as the Great Black Swamp. This stretched from the southern tip of Lake Erie in Ohio down into parts of Indiana and Michigan. When the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, travel to Michigan Territory was suddenly much more feasible. Now emigrants could cross the state of New York by canal boat, then sail across Lake Erie to disembark at Detroit. The existence of the trail that led to Lake Michigan and beyond, despite its imperfections, gave rise to all sorts of possibilities.

Chapter One

READY, SET, GO!

(the 1820’s)

In the late fall of 1826, three very determined men bumped into each other while exploring the vast, unsettled wilderness that was the White Pigeon Prairie. Two of them were farmers and the other one, a judge, and they were all prospecting for land. It seemed the talk they’d been hearing was true: Michigan Territory was not a wasteland, mucky with swamps and lacking in arable soil. There was no shortage of swamps and bogs, to be sure, but the positives were encouraging. There were plentiful lakes and rivers, an abundance of deer and grouse for feeding large families, and fertile soil for farming. And most importantly, right in the center of it all was the Sauk Trail, which traversed the territory from east to west.

The three men were Judge John Winchell, Arba Heald, and Leonard Cutler, and they are considered by most sources to be the first white settlers of St. Joseph County. On this particular autumn day, they made a gentleman’s agreement to divide the prairie into equal thirds: Winchell claimed the western side, and Heald and Cutler would split the eastern portion. With this agreement, they were establishing squatters’ rights, which would give them first