Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-03-12
ensiOnClainn.

become serious and peaceable, for they
feared he wsuld raise from the dead. In
this summer Of 1881, at Waterville, an
Indian tried to get in the house to kill
my mother. William Pray helped 10
hoId the door, the Indian meanwhile
stabbing it with his long knife. My
father came to the rescue. The Indian
thought my father had whipped and
abused him previous to this, but when
the Indian chief explained to him that
he was mistaken, that another man had
whipped him and not my father, he
was all right, and afterwards came to
our cabin IN the woods, where he got
some food and slept by the fire till mora
ing, with knife and tomahawk by
him, and showed no inclination to do
harm. Generally, when there was
trouble with an Indian the white man
was equally to blame.
It was a custom with the Indians be-
fore leaving the village to go to Maui
NEE, or Acabagwak( (Ft. Meigs), to ap-
point one of their number to remain
sober until their return as they antic-
ipated high time. On this occasion
the lot fell upon young squaw. On
their return homeward, they,(a dozen
or more) stopped under shade tree
near Watersville to have a. pow-waw
and more whiskey. Other boys and
myself followed up for sight seeing and
soon discovered they were mad and
showed signs of fight. The young In
dian woman being the only sober one
among them, quickly twitched the
knife from the belt of each Indian and
put them in her blanket or bosom; they
soon grasped for their knives but found
them not. They seemed greatly en-
ragged but made no attempt to attack
the squaw who stood with arms folded
faithful to the trust reposed in her.
They soon calmed down and moved on
towards the village.
In the Fall the newcomers, as they
called us, began to shake-every day,
every alternate day and sometimes ev-
cry THIRD day, the latter being the worst
form of ague, and the hardest to break.
Not one of the family was able to help
another to drink of water. The two
physicians could not visit their patients
very often their territory extending
over such broad area. 1t seemed lit
tie use to take calomel or quinine while
the atmosphere is full of malaria, the
rank vegetation almost checking the
flow of low water in the river. The di-
ct of the sick too often consisted of fish
and corn-bread, drinking spring or riv-
er water with the wigglers strained out
oh, the suffering from want of suit
able nourishment-no lemons, no fruit.
One old man declared that he shook SC
with ague that he grasped the rungs OF
the chair and, holding up his feet the
chair would hop all over the room with
him. But it was too serious matter
to joke over.
My mother baked bread from flour
brought from Monroe, Mich, and car
ried loaf four miles to Mr.. Hodges
family. They afterward lived in the
stone house on Bear Rapids, now erron-
eously called by some the Old Mission
Building. The family were all sick
and needed proper nourishment more
than medicine.
1t cost % ct. postage on letter anG
if the postage was not prepaid it was
often difficult to raise the amount
A man now we'll known in Napoleon
who came here later on, was compell
ed to leave letter in the office a long
time for want of As cts.-and the mis-
sive was from home in the old country
In April, 1882, we moved up the riv'
er five miles on the south side, one-hal
mile from the river. A sawmii was
being built at Wolf Rapids, afterward
Otsego, by Guy Nearing. The Mission
station situated about two miles below
this at the mouth of Tontogany Creek
was in full operation. The farm in