In 1923, Stanley Newton published, “The Story of Sault Ste. Marie and Chippewa County.” This is part fourteen of a continuing series about the history of Sault Ste. Marie and area in its early years. I have left punctuation and grammar intact. – Laurie Davis
Meanwhile, years before Michigan was made a state, the County of Chippewa was organized, the Act taking effect February 1st, 1826. And what a county it was! Beginning at Isle St. Vital on the north shore of Lake Huron, running due north until it strikes the river (unnamed then, now the Munoskong) which falls into the northwest part of Muddy Lake, of the River St. Mary; thence up that river (the Munoskong) to its source; thence up that river to latitude 46 degrees 31 minutes; thence west to the Mississippi River; thence up that river to its source; thence north to the boundary line of the United States, and with that line returning through Lake Superior to the mouth of the St. Mary’s River, and thence southwest to the place of beginning; these are the one time limits of Chippewa County.
Thus the Mesaba iron range of Minnesota, the sites of Duluth, Superior, Marquette, Houghton, and all the famous Copper Country were once a part of Chippewa County. The county seat was established at Sault Ste. Marie. The county court was empowered to try all suits arising in this district save those pending before the United States district court at Mackinac, Chippewa having been set off from the latter county.
This tremendous and unwieldy empire of a county was reduced by the Act of March 9, 1843, to the following limits: Beginning at a point on a line between Ranges 12 and 13 to the intersection of that line by the north boundary of Town 45; thence north to Lake Superior; thence east and south along the margin of the lake and the west bank of St. Mary’s River to Lake Huron; thence west to a point on Lake Huron south of the line between Ranges 2 and 3 east, thence north and west along the boundary line of Michilimackinac County to the place of beginning; together with Drummond’s Island, Sugar Island, Neebish Island, and smaller contiguous islands in St. Mary’s River.
Have Been Part of Indiana
The Michigan Upper Peninsula of which we are a part was a “Nobody’s Baby” of a land for many decades. Kicked about from pillar to post, it was despised and considered worthless. Originally the domain of prehistoric workers in copper who left no records but their tools and utensils, it became the domain of the Chippewas and the Sioux. Then the French came and were ousted by the English. Our government succeeded, and the hazy and obscure claims upon us of Massachusetts and Connecticut, New York, and Virginia. We found peace for a time, but no consideration as a part of the North-West Territory. When Ohio was carved from this vast region, what was left became known as Indiana Territory, so we have been a part of Indiana. In 1805, that part of the Upper Peninsula east of a line through the middle of Lake Michigan became part of the Michigan Territory. Then the Territory of Illinois was created, extending north to the national boundary, but the east line of Illinois was drawn north from Fort Vincennes, leaving the central part of the Peninsula isolated and belonging nominally to Indiana. In some quarters it was proposed to give this back to the Indians in perpetuity, but the lost block finally came into the Michigan fold.
The way of its coming was this. When Michigan was a Territory, in the first decade of the last century, her southern boundary was a line drawn eastward from the southernmost point of Lake Michigan. Thus the Territory included the mouth of the Maumee River and the village of Toledo, and its boundary touched upon the western confines of Pennsylvania.
Given to Michigan as a Compromise
At the time we applied for statehood, Ohio claimed Toledo and the Maumee Strip, fifteen miles wide and at our southern border. The Attorney General of the United States awarded this strip to Michigan, but the young and feeble Territory lacked the necessary pull in Congress to hold it. Ohio and Indiana exerted influence enough in our legislative halls to prevent the admission of Michigan to the Union. The matter was finally compromised by the confirmation to Michigan of the Upper Peninsula, as it now stands. The compromise did not please all the people of the Lower Peninsula. We were derided, belittled, ridiculed, and called not worth a dollar. We have been vindicated, however, and the world has paid many millions of dollars for the Upper Penisula’s iron and copper, lumber, agricultural products, and fish.
Chippewa County and the Upper Peninsula seem destined to become one of the greatest playgrounds of the nation. Increasing thousands of tourists throng here yearly, to enjoy this glorious summer lad of lakes and leisure.
A State of Superior Predicted
Geographically, we form an entity of our own in the Upper Peninsula. Once we had at Lansing a Great Father who was one of us, and who loved and listened to his white Saulteurs, Sioux, Ottawas, and Menominees of the Northland. But Lansing is far away, with the wide Straits between, and generally our Great Father is busy with other things, discerning but feebly the voices of his distant northern children. Out of this political isolation, it is likely there will come in time, the erection of the great State of Superior, with Sault Ste. Marie, of course, as its capital.
Of the fifteen counties in the Upper Peninsula, Chippewa, Mackinac, Menominee, Gogebic, Ontonagon, and Keweenaw derive their names from Indian sources; Baraga, Schoolcraft, and Marquette are named for former residents of Sault Ste. Marie; Dickinson, Luce, and Alger commemorate prominent citizens of the Lower Peninsula; Houghton keeps the memory of Dr. Douglas Houghton, geologist; the name of Iron County is self-explanatory, and Delta was so named by early settlers who fancied they saw in its shorelines a resemblance to the mouth of the Nile.
Never have the Saulteurs entertained a more charming and appreciative visitor than Mrs. Jameson, who visited this region in 1837, while Chippewa County still stretched its gigantic length to the Mississippi. Steamers were already making regular trips from Detroit to Chicago, and she came up to Mackinac on the “Thomas Jefferson” and was there the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Schoolcraft. She visited the Sault with Mrs. Schoolcraft, and embodied her observations in the now very rare but always delightful English edition of her “Winter Studies and Summer Rambles.”
Mrs. Jameson was impelled to take the trip into the wild and remote country off Lake Huron and Superior, after reading “The Travels and Adventures of Alexander Henry.” Even then, she writes “his book has long been out of print. I had the greatest difficulty in procuring the loan of a copy after sending to Montreal, Quebec, and New York in vain. Mr. Henry is the Ulysses of these parts; and to cruise among the shores, rocks, and islands of Lake Huron without Henry’s Travels, was like coasting Calabria and Sicily without the Odyssey in your head or hand.”
Indian Cuts Off Own Leg
Mrs. Schoolcraft regaled the newcomer with some fascinating stories of Indian fortitude. A Saulteur Chippewa was hunting, when by chance a blighted pine tree fell upon him and fractured his leg, pinning him to the earth. He was in a lonesome place, without the probability of passing aid; and to lie there and starve in agony seemed all that was left to him. In his dilemma, he took out his knife, and with all the contempt of pain of the thoroughbred Indian, he cut off his leg at the point of fracture and bound up the stump. Then he dragged himself along the ground to his canoe and paddled home to his wigwam, where in time, the cure of his wound was accomplished.
The arm of another young Chippewa hunter was shattered by the bursting of his rifle. No one would venture the amputation, and the arm was bound up with herbs and dressings and the usual incantations of the jossakeeds. Biding his time until he was alone, the sufferer with difficulty hacked one of his knives into a saw. With this, he amputated his arm. When his relatives returned they found the severed member lying at one end of the wigwam and the patient sitting at the other, smoking tranquilly and with his wound bound up.
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