Remembering Our Ancestors Through Genealogy

A History of Iron County Michigan by Jack Hill Published in 1955, "A History of Iron County Michgan" gives the history and other interesting facts about this Upper Peninsula county. The book was originally printed in two columns. In order to improve the readability of the pages on a web browser it was converted to single column by combining every two original lines. With this exception the transcription was done without changes or corrections. Chapter 1 - The Founding And Conquest of New France

HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN           1   Chapter 1   The Founding And Conquest of New France       Since the coming of the first white men to the New World, three flags have flown over the Upper Peninsula. The first was that of France when Cartier in the year 1534, planted the cross bear- ing the fleur-de-lis, the official symbol of French authority on Cape Gaspe at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. With the ex- ception of a few months in 1628-9 when the English naval forces subdued the hamlets of Port Royal and Quebec, the claims of France were not to be challenged until 1760. At this time the value of the area had become more evident and British imperialism bet- ter organized, the territory was wrested from the French and the red cross of St. George replaced the fleur-de-lis. The British held precarious possession for a period of approximately thirty-six years when the Stars and Stripes were raised over the area in 1796.     The relationship of the Upper Peninsula to New France, under whose domination the area remained for more than two cen- tures, make it of general interest to review briefly the early his- tory of French colonization and conquest in the New World.     The distinction of being the first Frenchmen to enter the north- eastern coast of North America and who in all probability focused attention to its possibilities were the fishermen of the coastal villages of the mother country, France. These adventurers braved the hardships of the Atlantic to exploit the fisheries off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador as early as the year of 1506. No official records were kept by these fishermen and knowledge of their voyages was confined to the stories related by them in the villages from whence they came. At one of these villages was born Jasques Cartier in the year of 1494. That the stories of adventures to distant lands where dwelt a strange people, influenced young Cartier there is no doubt. At any rate, he decided to study navigation and as a young man, he entered the service of the King.     As Cartier was growing to manhood, France was engaged in a continuation of wars, both external and internal. In the maritime ser- vice of the King was an Italian navigator named Giovanni Ver- razano, who had been engaged as a privateer to prey on enemy mer- chantmen. Following the seizure of a treasurer ship sent by Cortez to the King of Spain which contained the Montezuma plunder from Mexico, Verrazano was given a new field of operations by being chosen to head an expedition to explore the northeastern shores of North America. Sighting land in the area of the Carolinas, he skirt- ed the coast to the shores of Nova Scotia and headed back to France where on July 8, 1524, he reported to the King his exploration of over two thousand miles of coast line.     The proficiency of Cartier as a navigator was soon recognized by the Crown and he was assigned the exploration of the American coast where Verrazano had withdrawn. It is the belief of some historians that he made several voyages to the fishing waters off New- foundland before entering the service of the Crown. The first of his four official voyages, however, was undertaken in the year 1534, when he entered and explored one large gulf which he named St. Laurens and took possession of the mainland of Canada for his King, Francis I.     On his second expedition during the ensuing year, he re-entered the gulf and proceeded up the St. Lawrence River to the Huron vill- age of Stadacone, (now Quebec) explored the river to Mount Royale (Montreal) and returned to spend the winter at Stadacone.     In the year of 1541, Cartier entered upon his third voyage. His reports of the country had interested the King, who appointed one of his favorite as viceroy of his new possession and permitted him to begin colonization. The man thus favored was De Roberval and tho colonists were mainly a tough   2      HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   lot of renegades and jailbirds. Cartier preceeded his superior and made his way directly to Quebec where he erected a crude fort and prepared for an indefinite stay.  De Roberval, arriving a short time later, disembarked on Cape Gaspe near the mouth of the river to establish his colony. With the coming of spring, Cartier was glad to turn his caravel toward the homeland and De Roberval moved his little band of outlaws to Quebec where he continued to stay for an- other winter. The colony was a failure and when joined by Cartier on his last voyage, the entire company returned to the homeland.    The reports of Cartier on his discoveries failed to draw the in- terest anticipated in his native land. The people were occupied at the moment with their religious wars. The fishermen continued to make their excursions to the shores of New France. Beuben Gold Thwaites reports, "By 1578, full a hundred and fifty vessels alone, chiefly Breton, were employed in the Newfoundland fisheries, while a good trade with the mainland Indians, as far south as the Potomac, had now sprung up.    Another unsuccessful attempt was made at colonization in the year of 1590 when Marquis de la Roche landed on barren Sable Is- land on the southern tip of Nova Scotia. Leaving his colony to ex- plore the mainland for a permanent site for settlement, a storm took the vessels of the company to sea and the survivors of the colony were not rescued until thirteen years later.    It was not until the year 1603 that conditions in the mother country permitted earnest prosecution of colonization. In this year Samuel de Champlain, a captain in the royal navy, was chosen to conduct a survey for a settlement from which the fur trade could be controlled and exploited to better advantage. With the aid of charts, prepared by Cartier, he traversed the coast from Cape Cod to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and proceeded up the river to Montreal. His favorable reports on his return to the mother country provided sup- port for further ventures, and the following year the first permanent French settlement was established. The leader in the movement was De Monts, a Calvinist, who had been appointed viceroy and had been granted permission to monopolize the fur trade. As a base of operations, Sieur de Monts chose an island at the mouth of the St. Croix River in the northeast extremity of the State of Maine. Within a year, however, the colony and post were moved to a new location on the southwest coast of Nova Scotia, the entire region now becoming known as Acadia. The new settlement was named Port Royal, (now Annapolis Royal) and became in later years the center of bitter conflict between France and England, culminating in the deportation of 6,000 French Acadians in 1755, a shameful deed most ably recorded by Longfellow in his epic, "Evangeline."    Champlain continued to explore the area thoroughly for a period of two years. He was now convinced that the logical point from which to control the expanding for trade was somewhere along the St. Lawrence River. In 1607, he returned to France for re-enforce- ments.    On the third voyage in 1608, the ship bearing the Champlain colonists was accompanied by another under the command of Pont- grave, who was to re-establish a deserted post at Tadousac near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, while Champlain continued his course up the stream to the abandoned Huron village of Stadacone, where Cartier had spent the winter sixty seven years earlier. Here on July 3, Champlain laid the modest beginnings of Quebec and prepared the way for an uninterrupted conquest of the entire watershed, extending to the far reaches of Illinois, Minnesota and Hudson Bay. This was the habitat of the lowly beaver, whose prime pelt was valued at one hundred livres, with also an abundance of other furbearers. The strategic location at Quebec to control the traffic   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     3   was well chosen.    Steps were immediately taken to divert the fur trade to this point and by 1611, an outpost had been set up at the mouth of the Ottawa River, now the modern city of Montreal. The advance of settlement, however, was slow and Ville- Marie, (Montreal) was not founded until the year 1642.    Champlain soon found that in order to prosecute the fur trade, it was necessary to befriend the natives, learn their languages and acquaint them with the advantages to be derived from mutual barter. He therefore dispatched some of his most promising young men to the various advance areas to live with the Indians, learn their lan- guage and customs, explore the country and make periodic reports. Among those that were chosen for this work and who concern us in this narrative were Etienne Brule and Jean Nicolet. Due to the un- ceasing hostility of the Iroquois to the south, the first labors of these scouts were concentrated on the domain of the Hurons who were found in possession of the area between the Ottawa River and Lake Huron.    Brule, a young man still in his teens, was one of the most adven- turous of the scouts. In 1611, he accompanied the Hurons to their village numbering some twenty five in all and situated at the time along the coast of Georgian Bay. In entering the area, Brule be- came acquainted with the customary route followed by the Hurons to avoid their enemies, the Iroquois. Beginning at Que- bec, the route followed the St. Lawrence to Montreal, thence up the Ottawa to the Mattawa River, along the Mattawa to a series of portages to Lake Nipissing and down the French River to Geor- gian Bay. The journey was long and arduous. Father Brebeuf whote in 1634, "I kept count of the number of portages, and found that we carried our canoes thirty five times, and dragged them at least fifty." The time required to make this journey was usually about thirty days. This route however, was used exclusively for all communication with the west until about the year 1655.    Brule appears to have travelled extensively and his discoveries of Lakes Nipissing, Huron and Ontario were recorded by Father Joseph Le Caron, a Recollect priest, who was sent to the Hurons in 1615. By the year 1622, Brule had extended his explorations be- yond the St. Marys River into Lake Superior where he roamed for some seven years. In 1629, he returned to Quebec to report his discoveries and display the specimens of copper he had collected on Isle Royale and the mainland. He thus became the first white man to set foot on the soil of Michigan and it is highly probable that he entered the forests of Iron County in the course of his travels. As he left no record of his wanderings, they are but lightly touched on by Champlain, his superior, whom he disappointed by turning out to be a rascal, falling into evil ways with the natives by whom he is pre- sumed to have been slain about the year 1632.    As Brule was preparing to enter the shores of Lake Superior, Jean Nicolet, a native of Cherbourg, France, arrived in New France. He was about twenty years of age. His first assignments consisted of two years at a post on Alhumettes Island in the Ottawa River and about nine years among the tribes about Lake Nipissing.    In 1634, he was chosen by Champlain to make an expedition of exploration to the area of Green Bay where many natives were known to congregate. With seven natives he traversed the usual route up the Ottawa River, stopping briefly at his former posts on Allumettes Island and Lake Nipissing. On reaching Georgian Bay he entered North Channel and the Straits of St. Marys. From this point in the journey, historians are not in full agreement, some contending that he entered Lake Superior and crossed over the Peninsula by some convenient river route to the north end of Green Bay, while others hold that he proceeded by way of the Straits of Mackinaw. All are agreed however   4     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   ever that he returned by way of the latter route. Upon arrival on Green Bay, he stopped to rest at the mouth of the Menominee Riv- er where he found a goodly number of natives encamped. Con- tinuing the journey, he entered the mouth of the Fox River where he was made welcome by some four to five thousand natives whose villages were along the east shore on the site now occupied by DePere. Here he made his base while exploring the region and gathering information on the fur trading potentialities. Just how widely he travelled during the year of his stay in Wisconsin has never been determined. In the illness and death of his superior Champlain following the return of the party to Quebec, the official recording of the venture appears to have been overlooked.    Thus far, no great progress had been made in colonization and New France still remained a fishing and fur-trading outpost. A resident population of 240. The outbreak of Iroquois-Huron war- fare in 1642 reduced the fur trade west of Montreal to a minimum. With the aid of firearms secured from the Dutch at Amsterdam, N. Y., the Iroquois forced the Huron tribes to abandon their homelands and retreat to safety in the distant forest of Wisconsin, western Lake Superior and the environs of Hudson Bay, while the traders and Jesuit Fathers sought the refuge of Quebec.    The next adventurers to enter Lake Superior were Pierre Radi- son and Medard Chauart, better known as Radison and Groseilliers. They are credited with the first complete record to be made of the Lake and surrounding areas. They described Sault St. Marie, the Pic- tured Rocks, Keweenaw Peninsula and other points. At Chequamegon Bay where they lived for some time, they erected the first known dwelling of white man on the Lake. It is believed that during the course of the war about 1645, Groseilliers was engaged by the Jesuits to enter Lake Superior in an effort to determine the where- abouts of their Huron converts and friends. How far he ventured on this mission is unknown. The intensity of the warfare, however, discouraged any immediate attempt by the Jesuits to carry on their religious work until the termination of the war.    The exhaustion and final defeat of the Iroquois in Wisconsin open- ed the way for resumption of the fur trade. Groseilliers and his brother-in-law Radison headed a company of 29 Frenchmen in 1658, to organize the new country for the trade and collect the peltries accumulated during the war. The first winter was spent in Wiscon- sin, moving to Lake Superior during the next summer. Using Sault St. Marie and Chequamegon as bases, the two leaders traveled widely and recorded their movement as afore mentioned. In the spring of 1660, they returned to Green Bay from whence they de- parted for Quebec with 300 natives and with 60 canoes filled with pel- rries. This expedition appears to have laid the beginnings of the class known as coureurs-de-bois or forest rangers, who for the ensuing century roamed the wilderness, ignoring all legal restrictions, liv- ing with the natives and often falling into debauchery beneath that of the natives themselves.    As the scouts, explorers and traders paved the way into the wilderness, the Catholic Fathers moved in. Through the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, the conversion of the natives would be in the Catholic faith.    The duties of the Fathers consisted of caring for the reli- gious needs of their compatriots, conversion of the natives and to make them more amenable to the traders, help expand the colonial empire and in later years, to join in explorations. In the perfor- mance of their duties, they suffered unbelievable hardships, star- vation, ridicule, abuse, torture and even death itself. Each cleric was obliged to make an annual report to the Superior of conditions in the field. These journals were combined by the Superior in what is known as a Relations and were subsequently published in France.   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     5   Upon these records has been mainly reconstructed the history of New France.    The first of these Fathers to make their way to the west as far as Quebec were three Recollect friars and a lay brother who ar- rived in 1615. Among these was Father Joseph Le Caron who im- mediately joined Brule in the Huron country where he record- ed the discoveries of Lakes Nipissing, Huron and Ontario. The many obstacles, however, soon overwhelmed the friars and they were compelled to seek the assistance of the more powerful Society of Jesus or Jesuit organization. The first of the Jesuit Fathers arrived in 1625. To the new Fathers was eventually as- signed the Ottawa Mission which included all of the lands west of Lake Huron. Among the tribes within this Mission were the Chip- pewas of Sault St. Marie, the Beavers and Crees situated South- west of Hudson Bay, the Ottawa and refugee Hurons on Lake Su- perior, The Pottawattomies, Miamis, Foxes, Winnebagoes, Sacs and Illinois to the south and some of the Sioux that were found east of the Mississippi River.    The first religious services in Michigan were held at Sault Ste. Marie in 1640 when Jesuits Isaac Jogues and Charles Raymbault came to minister to the Chippewa at that point. The illness of Fath- er Raymbault and the impending war of the natives forced the mission to be vacated and no further attempts were made to found missions on Lake Superior until the termination of the conflic'    The safe return of traders Radison and Groseilliers in 1660 prov- ed that hostilities had ceased and Jesuits made preparations to carry on their work. Father Rene Menard was thereupon assigned to to accompany the natives returning from Quebec to their homes in the west. The Father, well advanced in age, had hoped to con- tact his Huron converts somewhere along the southern shore of Lake Superior. In mid-October the convoy of natives and French whom the Father had accompanied, arrived at the base of Kewee- naw Bay where they prepared to make their winter quarters. The temerity of the Father in reprimanding the local Chieftain, Le Brochet, for his intemperance, brought upon him the enmity of the band and he was by himself as best he could throughout the win- ter. In the spring he was taken by friendly French traders to Che- quamegon Bay which was a point of congregation for the various ad- jacent tribes. Here he learned that some of his Huron friends who had taken refuge at Lac Court Oreilles, some one hundred miles to the southwest were dying of famine. Though forewarned of the risk involved, the Father decided to make the journey immediately. In company with a French aid and some of the Huron tribesmen returning to their homes, he set out on his journey. The natives, however, soon abandoned him and at one of the many portages, he became lost from his French comrade and disappeared, leaving the circumstances of his death in complete in mystery.    In 1665, Father Claude Allouez came to carry on the work of Father Menard. He began his fruitful career among the western tribes with the establishment of the Mission of La Point du Saint Esprit on Chequamegon Bay. It is said that in this twenty-four years of service in the various parts of the Ottawa Mission, he had bap- tized more than 10,000 and instructed more than 100,000 na- tives. Father Allouez traveled widely in the course of his work and gathered additional information about outlying areas from the traders and natives. He returned to Quebec in 1667 to report on his progress and appeal for assistance in his work. Specimens of copper which he had collected were also brought to the atten- tion of the Superior. His appeal for aid was recognized and plans were laid for more stations in the Ottawa Mission.    In the year of 1668, Father Jacques Marquette, who had recent- ly arrived in New France, was assigned the post at Sault Ste. Marie.   6     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   The next year, he was joined by the veteran Father Claude Dab- lon with whom he founded the Mission of Saint Marie du Sault. Father Dablon was now appointed Superior of the Ottawa Mission with headquarters at Sault Ste. Marie and Father Marquette pro- ceeded to Chequamegon to relieve Father Allouez. Father Allouez in turn made his way to Green Bay where he laid the groundwork for another mission. With the aid of Father Dablon the Superior, the St. Xavier Mission was officially founded at the mouth of the Fox river in the year 1670.    By 1670, the population of New France was 6,000. The expansion of the colony appears to have exceeded that intent of former ter- ritorial claims of the Crown and it was now deemed expedient to bring the claims up-to-date. This was accomplished in formal cere- monies held at Sault Ste. Marie in 1671, before the representatives of 14 tribes who were brought together for the occasion. With much pomp, Simon Francois Daumont, the Crown representative, took possession of all interior North America in the name of his King, Louis XIV. Father Allouez, one of the ablest linguists in the native languages, travelled from Green Bay to deliver the oration of the day.    The work of Father Marquette at Chequamegon proved to be of short duration. As the Iroquois had scattered the Hurons and forced the tribes of Lower Michigan to flee to the west, the Sioux of the Mississippi were equally determined to prevent any in- trusion upon their domain and made preparations to drive them back. In 1670, Father Marquette was compelled to join the exodus of refugees to the east. At St. Ignace, he stopped with some 500 Hurons and 1,300 Ottawas and established a mission. This became the most successful mission in the Northwest.    About the year 1668, the hostility of the Iroquois had abated some- what and the center of trading operations shifted from Lake Su- perior to Green Bay and the Lower route to the east through Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario was opened to traffic.    In 1673, Father Marquette was chosen to make the expedition to the Mississippi River with Louis Joliet. The story of this voyage is well known and does not warrant repetition. It does, however, show the trend of French expansion to the south in an effort to mark the limits for the northern Europeans who were making their way over the Appalachian mountains to the west in increasing numbers.    Thus New France struggled on. Through the medium of the fur trade monopoly and with the acquiescence of the governors, the country was ruled by the Company of the Hundred Associates and both commercial and political initiative were denied the colon- ists. Agrciulture was neglected for the Frenchmen preferred the life of the coureurs des bois to the slavery on the Seigniorial estates.    The interests of New France and New England gradually led to open conflict and culminated in the French and Indian War which began in 1754. The outcome of the war was decided mainly on the battlefields of Europe and under the terms of peace concluded in 1763, Canada was formally ceded to England.    Father Paul Le Jeune, the Jesuit, in his report to his superiors as recorded in the Relations, of 1634, has left to us this graphic picture of the methods used in hunting and fishing by the Indians of the period: "Let us begin with the Elk. When there is very little snow, they kill it with arrows, the first that we ate being taken this way. But it is a great stroke of luck when they can approach these animals within range of their bows, as they scent the Savages at a great distance, and run as fast as the deer.    When the snow is deep they pursue the Elk on foot, and kill it with thrusts from javelins which are fastened on long poles for the purposes, and which they hurl   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     7   when they dare not or cannot approach the beast.    Sometimes they chase one of these animals for two or three days, the snow being neither hard or deep enough; while at other times a child could almost kill them, for the snow being frozen after a slight thaw or rain, these poor Moose are hurt by it, and cannot go far without being slaughtered.    When the savages have killed a number of the Elks, and passed several days in feasting, they begin to think about drying them and laying them away. They will stretch upon poles the two sides of a large Moose, the bones therof having been removed. If the flesh is too thick, they raise it in strips and slash it besides, so that the smoke may penetrate and dry all sides. When they begin to dry or smoke this meat they pound it with stones and tramp it un- der foot so that no juice may remain to spoil it. At last, when it is smoked, they fold and arrange it in packages, and this forms their future store. Dried meat is poor food, but the fresh meat of the Elk is very easy to digest. It does not remain long in the stomach, therefore the Savages do not cook it much. In regard to taste, it seems to me that beef is not inferior to good Elk meat.    The Castor or Beaver is taken in several ways. In the spring, the Beaver is taken in a trap baited with the wood it eats. The Savages understand perfectly how to handle these traps, which are made to open, when a heavy piece of wood falls upon the animal and kills it. Sometimes when the dogs encounter the Beaver outside of its House, they pursue and take it easily; I have never seen this chase, but have been told of it; and the Savages highly value a dog which scents and runs down this animal.    During the winter they capture them in nets and under the ice, in this way; they make a slit in the ice near the Beavers house, and put into the hole a net, and some wood which serves as bait. This poor animal, searching for food, gets caught in the net made of good, strong, double cord; and emerging from the water to the opening made in the ice, they kill it with a big club.    The other way of taking them under the ice is more noble. Not all the Savages use this method, only the most skillful; they break with blows of the hatchet the Cabin or House of the Beaver, which is indeed wonderfully made. In my opinion no musket ball can pierce it. During the winer it is built upon the shore of some little river or pond, is two stories high, and round. The materials of which it is composed are wood and mud, so well joined and bound together that I have seen our Savages in Midwinter sweat in trying to make an opening into it with their hatchets.    The lower story is in or upon the edge of the water, the upper is above the river. When the cold has frozen the rivers and ponds, the Beaver secludes himself with wood to eat during the winter. He sometimes, however, descends from this story to the lower one, and thence he glides out under the ice.    He goes out to drink and to search for the wood that he eats, which grows upon the banks of the pond or in the pond itself. The wood at the bottom is fastened to the ice and the Beaver goes below to cut it and carry it to his house.    Now the Savages having broken into this house, these poor ani- mals, which are sometimes in great numbers under one roof, dis- appear under the ice where they can breathe. Their enemies, know- ing this, go walking over the pond or frozen river, carrying a long club in their hands, armed on one side with an iron blade made like a Carpenter's chisel, and on the other with a Whale's bone, I believe.    They sound the ice with this bone, striking upon it and examin- ing it to see if it is hollow and if there is any indication of this, then they cut the ice with their iron blade, looking to see if the water is stirred up by the move-   8     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   ment or breathing of the Beaver. If the water moves, they have a curved stick which they thrust into the hole that they have just made; if they feel the Beaver, they kill it with their big club, which they call ca ouikachit; and, drawing it out of the water, go and make a feast of it at once, unless they have great hopes of taking others.    I asked them why the Beaver waited there until it was killed. "Where will it go?" they said to me. "Its house is broken to pieces and the other places where it could breathe between the water and ice are broken; it remains there in the water seeking air, and meanwhile it is killed."    Sometimes there are two families of Beaver in the same house, that is, two males and two females, with their little ones. The female bears as many as seven, but usually four, five or six.    The Porcupine is taken in a trap, or by coursing. The dog hav- ing discovered it, it is sure to be killed if it is not very near its abode, which it makes under large rocks; having reached this, it is in a place of safety, for neither men nor dog can crawl into it. It cannot run upon the snow, and is therefore very soon put to death. It is hardly larger than a goodsized sucking-pig.    The Savages have told me that near the Saguenay river, toward the North, these animals are much larger. They singe them as we do pigs in France; and, after they are scraped, they are boiled or roasted, and are quite edible, although rather tough, especially the old ones, but the younger ones are tender and delicate.    Bears are taken in a trap, in the spring. In the winter they are found in hollow trees, to which they withdraw, passing several months without eating, and yet they continue to be very fat. They fell a tree, to make their prey emerge, which they kill upon the snow, or as it is coming from its abode.    Hares are caught in nets, or are killed with arrows or darts. I have already stated elsewhere that these animals are white during the snow, and grey at other times. They kill Martens and Squirrels in the same way.    As to birds, some are killed with bows, arrows and darts being used; but this is done rarely. Since they have come into possession of firearms, through their traffic with the English, they have be- come fair Huntsmen, some of them shooting very well.    As to their fishing, they use nets as we do, which they get in trade from the French and Hurons. In regard to Eels, they fish for them in two ways, with a weir and with a harpoon-this harpoon fishing is done only at night. The Savages dry these long fish in smoke.    After they are brought to their cabins, they let them drain a little while; then, cutting off their heads and tails, they open them up the back and after they are cleaned, they are cut with slits, so that the smoke may thoroughly penetrate them. The poles of their Cabins are all loaded with eels. Here you you have their food up to the sea- son of snow, which brings them the Moose."    Father Le Jeune goes on to describe the life among the Montag- nais of the lower St. Lawrence River.    Speaking of the houses, he says, "In order to have some concep- tion of the beauty of this edifice, its construction must be describ- ed. I shall speak from experience, for I have often helped to build it. Now, when we arrived at the place where we were to camp, the women, armed with axes, went here and there in the great forests, cutting the framework of the hostelry where we were to lodge; meantime the men, having drawn a plan thereof, cleared away the snow with their snowshoes.    Imagine now a great ring or square in the snow, two, three, or four feet deep, according to the weather or the place where they encamp. This depth of snow makes a white wall for us, which surrounds us on all sides, except the end where it is broken through to form the door.   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     9   The framework having been brought, which consists of twenty or thirty poles, according to the size of the cabin, it is planted, not upon the ground, but upon the snow; then they throw upon these poles, which converge a little at the top, two or three rolls of bark sewed together, beginning at the bottom, and behold, the house is made.    The ground inside, as well as the wall of snow which extends all around the cabin, is covered with little branches of fir; and, a finishing touch, a wretched skin is fastened to two poles to serve as a door, the doorposts being the snow itself. Now let us examine in detail all the comforts of this cabin.    You cannot stand upright in this house, as much on account of its low roof as the suffocating smoke and consequently you must always lie down, or sit flat upon the ground, the usual posture of the Savages. When you go out, the cold, the snow, and the danger of getting lost in these great woods drive you in again more quickly than the wind, and keep you a prisoner in a dungeon which has neither lock nor key.    This prison, in addition to the uncomfortable position that one must occupy upon a bed of earth, has four great discomforts, cold, heat, smoke and dogs. As to the cold, you have the snow at your head with only a pine branch between, often nothing but your hat, and the winds are free to enter in a hundred places.    For do not imagine that these pieces of bark are joined as paper is glued and fitted to a window frame; even if there were only the opening at the top, which serves at once as a window and chimney, the coldest winter in France could come in there every day without any trouble. When I lay down at night I could study through this opening both the stars and the moon as easily as if I had been in the open fields.     Nevertheless the cold did not annoy me as much as the heat from the fire. A little place like their cabin is easily heated by a good fire, which sometimes roasted and broiled me on all sides, for the cabin was so narrow that I could not protect myself from the heat.    But as to the smoke, I confess to you that it is martyrdom. It almost killed me, and made me weep continually, though I had neither grief nor sadness in my heart. It sometimes grounded all or us who were in the cabin; that is, it caused us to place our mouths against the earth in order to breathe; as it were to eat the earth, so as not to eat the smoke.    As to the dogs, I do not know that I ought to blame them, for they sometimes rendered me good service. These poor beasts, not be- ing able to live outdoors, came and lay down upon my shoulders, sometimes upon my feet, and as I only had one blanket to serve both as covering and mattress, I was not sorry for this protection, willingly restoring to them a part of the heat I drew from them."    The following interesting account of Indian life is taken from the report of Father Jean de Brebeuf to Father Paul Le Jeune and incorporated with the Relation of 1635.    After relating the hardships encountered in reaching the Huron country, he continues, "I say nothing of the long and wearisome silence to which one is reduced, I mean in the case of newcomers, who have, for the time, no person in their company who speaks their own tongue, and who do not understand that of the Savages. Now these difficulties, since they are the usual ones, were common to us all who come into this country. But on our journey we all had to encounter difficulties that were unusual.    The first was that we were compelled to paddle continually, just as much as the Savages, so that I had not the leisure to recite my Breviary except when I lay down to sleep, when I had more need of rest than of work.    The other was that we had to carry our packages at the port- ages, which was as laborous to us as it was new, and still more for   10    HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   others than it was for me, who already knew a little what it is to be fatigued. At every portage I had to make at least four trips, the others had scarcely fewer. I had once before made the journey to the Hurons, but I did not then ply the paddles, nor carry burdens; nor did the other Religious who made the same journey.    But, in this journey, we all had to begin by these experiences to bear the Cross that our Lord presents to us for his honor, and for the salvation of these poor Barbarians. In truth, I was sometimes so weary that the body could do no more, but at the same time my soul experienced very deep peace, considering that I was suffering for God; no one knows it if he has not experienced it. All did not get off so cheaply.    Father Devost, among others, was very badly treated. They stole from him much of his little outfit. They compelled him to throw away a little steel mill, and almost all our books, some linen, and a good part of the paper that we were taking, and of which we had great need. They deserted him at the Island, among the Algon- quins, where he suffered in good earnest. When he reached the Hurons, he was so worn out and dejected that for a long time he could not get over it."   Continuing, Father Brebeuf describes the Huron dwellings "Hav- ing therefore, determined to stay where we are, the question of building a cabin arose. The cabins of this country are neither Louv- res nor Palaces, nor anything like the buildings of our France, not even like the smallest cottages. They are, however, somewhat bet- ter and more commodious than the hovels of the Montagnais.    I cannot better express the fashion of the Huron dwellings than to compare them to bowers or garden arbors, some of which, in place of branches and vegetation, are covered with cedar bark, some others with large piece of ash, elm, fir, or spruce bark and although the cedar bark is best, according to common opinion and usage, there is nevertheless, this inconvenience, that they are al- most as susceptible to fire as matches.    Hence arise many of the conflagrations of entire villages. There are cabins or arbors of various sizes, some two brasses (one brasse equalled approximately five and one-third feet) in length, others of twenty, of thirty, of forty; the usual width is about four brasses, their height is about the same.    There are no different stories; there is no cellar, no chamber, no garret. It has neither window nor chimney, only a miserable hole in the top of the cabin, left to permit the smoke to escape. This is the way they built our cabin for us."