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24th. I left Washington for the north, taking my children
along from their respective schools at Philadelphia and Brooklyn,
for their summer vacation, and only halting long enough at Utica and
Vernon, to direct a marble monument to be erected to the memory of
my father. The site selected for this was the cemetery on the
Scanado (usually spelled without regard however to the popular
pronunciation Skenandoah), Vernon. It appeared expedient to
make this a family monument, and I directed the several faces to be
inscribed as follows:--
THIS MONUMENT
IS ERECTED
In memory of
A FATHER,
A MOTHER AND
A SISTER,
By the
surviving children.
* * * * *
COLONEL LAWRENCE SCHOOLCRAFT,
A soldier of
the Revolution of 1776,
(He being the
second in descent from James,
who came from
England in the reign of Queen Anne,)
Born Feb. 3d,
1757. Died June 7th, 1840,
In his 84th
year.
He lived and
died a patriot, a Christian, and an honest man.
* * * * *
MARGARET ANN BARBARA,
Consort of
Col. Lawrence Schoolcraft,
Died Feb.
16th, 1832, aged 72.
"Her children
rise up and call her blessed."--PROV.
* * * * *
MISS MARGARET HELEN,
Daughter of
Lawrence and Margaret Ann Barbara Schoolcraft,
Born 18th
June, 1806
Died 12th
April, 1829, in her 23d year.
I reached Detroit early in August. A letter from Mackinack, of the
13th of that month, says: "The children arrived at midnight past,
safe and sound, and they seem quite delighted. Eveline seems to be
the centre of attraction with them all. I have not a word new to
say. A change has come over the spirit of our notables. Samuel, the
day before your letter was received, expressed his opinion, that 'it
would go hard with you.' A dog when he supposes himself unnoticed in
the act of stealing, looks mean, but when he is discovered in
the act, he looks meaner still. And I know of no better comparison
than this clique, and that dog."
24th. Hon. Andrew Stevenson, American Minister in London,
responds to my inquiries on certain historical points, respecting
which he has kindly charged his agent to institute inquiries.
Sept. 5th. I reached the agency at Mackinack about the
beginning of September. Facilis, a young man of equally ready and
respectable talents, writes me, from Detroit, under this date,
expressing a wish to be employed in the execution of some of the
fiscal duties of the superintendency during the season. "I write to
you," he adds, "as a friend. Times are hard, and every little that
is directed to aid one in his efforts to stem the current of life,
possesses an incalculable value." I yielded the more readily to this
request from the chain of circumstances which, however favorable,
had hitherto disappointed his most ardent aims and the just
expectations of his friends.
11th. Joanna Baillie, the celebrated authoress, who has spent
a long life in the most honorable and deeply characteristic literary
labors, writes from her residence at Hampstead (Eng.), as if with
undiminished vigor of hope, expressing her interest in the progress
of historical letters in this (to her) remote part of the world. How
much closer bonds these literary sympathies are in drawing two
nations of a kindred blood together, than dry and formal diplomatics,
in which it is the object, as Talleyrand says, of human language to
conceal thought!
Oct. 16th. Wisconsin is slowly, but surely, filling up with a
healthy population, and founding her moral, as well as political
institutions, on a solid basis. Rev. Jer. Porter, my old friend
during the interesting scenes at St. Mary's, in 1832 and 1833,
writes me, that, after passing a few years in Illinois, he has
settled at Green Bay, as the pastor of a healthful and increasing
church. "I have recently," he writes, "made an excursion on
horseback, in the interior of the territory. I traveled about 400
miles, being from home sixteen days. I went to meet a convention of
ministers and delegates from Presbyterian and Congregational
churches, to see if we could form a union of the two denominations
in the territory, so that we might have a perfect co-operation in
every good work. We had twelve ministers of these denominations
present, all but four or five now in the territory, and were so
happy as to form a basis of union, which will, I trust, prove
permanent, and be a great blessing to our churches. This seems to us
a very favorable beginning.
"I find the beautiful prairies of the interior rapidly settling with
a very good population from the Eastern States, and the healthiness
of the country gives it some advantages over Illinois. With the
blessing of the Lord, I think this may yet be one of the best States
in the Union."
20th. The Rev. Henry Kearney, of Kitternan Glebe, Dublin
(Ireland), communicates notices of some of the inroads made by death
on the rank of our friends and relatives in that land. "Since my
last, the valued friend of the family, the Right Hon'ble Wm. Saurin
(late Attorney-General) was removed from this world of changes to
the world of durable realities. He was past eighty. The bishop (Dromore)
is still alive, not more than a year younger than his brother. Old
age--found in the ways of righteousness--how honorable!
"You will have learned, from the European newspapers, the agitated
state of all the countries from China to Great Britain. Is the Lord
about to bring to pass the predicted days of retribution on the
nations for abused responsibility, and the restoration of the
ancient nation of Israel, to be, once more, the depository of his
judgment and truth for the recovery of all nations to the great
principles of government and religion taught us in His holy word?"
Nov. 1st. Having concluded the Indian business in the Upper
Lakes for the season, I returned with my family to Detroit, and
employed my leisure in literary investigations.
Dec. 3d. Mr. Josiah Snow apprizes me that he is about, in a
few weeks, to issue the first number of a newspaper devoted to
agriculture, in which he solicits my aid.
15th. J. K. Tefft, Esq., of Savannah, informs me of my
election, on the 9th Sept. last, as an honorary member of the
Georgia Historical Society.
19th. I wrote the following lines in memory of my father:--
The drum no
more shall rouse his heart to beat with patriot fires,
Nor to his
kindling eye impart the flash of martial ires:
Montgomery's
fall, Burgoyne's advance, awake no transient fear;
E'en joy be
dumb that noble France grasped in our cause the spear.
The cloud
that, lowering northward spread, presaging woe and blight,
In that wild
host St. Leger led, no longer arm for fight;
The bomb, the
shell, the flash, the shot, the sortie, and the roar,
No longer
nerve for battle hot--the soldier is no more.
But long
shall memory speak his praise, and mark the grave that blest,
When eighty
years had crowned his days, he laid him down to rest;
The stone
that marks the sylvan spot, the line that tells his name,
The stream,
the shore; be ne'er forgot, and freedom's be his fame.
'Twas liberty
that fired him first, when kings and tyrants plan'd,
And proud
oppression's car accurst, drove madly o'er the land;
And long he
lived when that red car--the driver and the foe
Unhorsed in
fight, o'ermatched in war--laid impotent and low.
He told his
children oft the tale--how tyrants would have bound,
And murderous
yells filled all the vale, and blood begrimed the ground.
They loved
the story of the harms that patriot hands repelled,
And glowed
with ire of wars and arms, and fast the words they held.
The right,
the power, the wealth, the fame, for which the valiant fought,
Have long
been ours in deed and name--life, liberty, and thought;
And while we
hold these blessings, bought with valor, blood, and thrall,
Embalmed in
thought be those who fought and freely periled all.
23d. The Detroit Branch of the University of Michigan
organized, and the Principal sends me a programme of its studies.
Mr. Williams also sends me the programme of the Pontiac Branch.
31st. "We were in hopes," says James L. Schoolcraft, in a
letter from Mackinack, "of seeing a steamboat up during the fine
weather in the latter part of November. It is now, however, since
14th inst., cold. Theodoric has undertaken to conduct a weekly
paper, the Pic Nic, which, thus far, goes off well. Lieut.
Pemberton, in the fort, is engaged in getting up a private theatre.
Thus, you see, we endeavor to ward off winter and solitude in
various ways. The rats are playing the devil with your house. I have
removed all the bedding. They have injured some of your books."
This site includes some historical
materials that may imply negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language
of a particular period or place. These items are presented as part of the
historical record and should not be interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in
any way endorse the stereotypes implied.
Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the
Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers, 1851
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Years with the Indians
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