Porter’s Landing

Porter’s Landing
by Mark Smith, OHS secretary

A few weeks ago while doing some local history research I happened on some photographs in the archive section of LHSM. One photograph showed a group of teen girls in East Leland walking up Horn Road, back when it was still sandy and prone to washouts. In this photo from the 1920’s it is a beautiful summer’s day, about noon based on the shadows. Nine girls wearing loosely fitting, white, short-sleeved blouses with black sashes and knee length black bloomers are laboring up Horn Road in the heat, up the “view hill” from Porter’s Landing on Lake Leelanau. Most of the girls wear wide-brimmed white stetsons. The caption states that the girls were part of a camp, Camp Oshibwa, and they are on an excursion. This was the start of my investigation. This snapshot, this fascinating slice of life from over 100 years ago, inspired me to start digging. I wondered who these girls were, and what it was like to be young and alive under the sun on that beautiful day so long ago.

I knew nothing about Camp Oshibwa. But I knew that Porter’s Landing was named after John Porter of Omena. John Porter came to teach with Reverend Peter Dougherty at Grove Hill School in Omena in 1854, when he was 28 years old. He had been a teacher and a farmer in his home state of Pennsylvania. Porter’s uncle, Andrew Porter, was in charge of the Indian Mission in Bear Creek (Petoskey) in 1854. Mr. John Porter remained a teacher in Omena until 1861, then moved to Section 11 in Leland Township (East Leland), where over time he had purchased 356 acres of prime farmland.  John Porter, in his time, was township supervisor, justice of the peace, township treasurer, highway commissioner and county surveyor. Many of his legal records still survive.

Sometime after the Civil War Mr. Porter and the Reverend George Thompson of Leland seem to have started a small church, called “Concord”, probably situated in Mr. Porter’s house or the Horn Road schoolhouse. Records from 1867 indicate that Reverend Thompson preached there intermittently, relying on good ice to cross over in the winter, a time of relatively easy travel. In 1867 Thompson records 5 males and 6 females in the small congregation. Further research will likely reveal more. John Porter lived a long and respected life, dying in 1904 at the age of 78 and is buried with his family up the hill from his farmhouse, in the East Leland Cemetery on Horn Road.

Fast forwarding to the turn of the century we find that there is a rustic resorter community which has established itself in East Leland. Thanks to a trove of marvelous old photos, an old diary from 1908, a reminiscence by Warren R. Smith, another by Barbara Trueblood Abbot and an unpublished manuscript by Maryellen Gould Hadjisky I was able to piece together a picture of resorter life in East Leland in the early days. It seems that the very first visitors to East Leland came before the turn of the century, but only started coming in any significant numbers some time after 1900, probably venturing on from the Fountain Point Resort on South Lake Leelanau. This paper by necessity will limit itself to the beginnings of the East Leland community. I hope others will read this and add to the story.

The early resorters rented camping sites from Mr. Porter for 5 dollars per summer and he stored their tents in his barn for them until they returned the next summer. The tents were on platforms in the woods near the shore. According to a reminiscence by Warren R. Smith “Mr. Porter may have sold a few lots directly to occupants but he sold most of his Lake Leelanau frontage to Mr. Best (Maro the Prestidigitator) who bought a lot of other lake frontage, and most of us bought from him or his widow.” And who were these intrepid campers? Mostly they were college lecturers and their families who came up Lake Michigan by ship from Lake Forest, Illinois. The early names include the following families: Atkins, Bridgman, Burlap, Stanley, Locy and Gould. Their camps were rustic and their days were long and filled with the physical labor of a camper. According to Barbara Trueblood Abbot: “The air on arrival from downstate always brought on deep breaths and murmurs of appreciation for that clear and unpolluted inspiration, faintly scented with the smell of the pine and balsam, both fresh, and from the fires burning in the stove and fireplace.”

Mostly they arrived at their final destination by boat, at Porter’s Landing, the public access that still exists at the end of Horn Road. Large steamboats were able to dock there, such as the SS Leelanau coming from Fouch’s Landing at the south end of South Lake Leelanau, piloted by Captain VerSnyder (see photo). At the time the roads into East Leland were mostly swampy, and land travel was very difficult as compared to boat passage. According to Warren R. Smith the summer of 1908 “was the one when some farmers from down the lake were angered at the height of the water was kept and blew up the dam with dynamite, lowering the water six feet, more or less. There was water only in the channel in the river and the beaches along our shore were 50 more feet, as I remember from dragging a heavy farmer’s boat out over the beach.”

Also worthy of note is the Indian Trail which existed along the shore of this part of Lake Leelanau, which Mr. Porter insisted be maintained and respected as a right of way for everyone. According to Warren R. Smith, “When we arrived there was a very well defined trail along the lake shore, said to have been an Indian trail from prehistoric times. There are many traces of it still extant. It ran right through our kitchen and it was not unusual to find somebody who was out for a stroll going through our kitchen. Also, I can remember that we came in for some criticism for having obstructed one of the old landmarks. Some of the strollers were doubtless guests from the Linebargers, who for many years had a summer resort-hotel, the only such enterprise in the East Leland.”

What did the resorters do all day and how did they get by? Farmers from Leland and environs would make regular stops at Porter’s Landing, with vegetables, fruit, eggs and butter. Baked goods and other vegetables could be had from Mrs. Richard Steffens, and butter came in large crocks from Spinniken Brothers. Fish were still abundant in the lake and made for great eating. Drinking water came from a spring at the base of Horn Road carried by hand to individual camps. All other water was carried up from the lake until wells started being dug, mainly in the 1940’s. There were no refrigerators or even ice boxes in the early days so resorters relied on spring boxes kept in running freshets. For many years there was ongoing building, adding on, and modifying of the camps, which also took up much time. Shopping trips to Leland by boat also filled up the days, and Leland was the place to mingle with other resorters, young and old. It is said that Leland folk had it easier.

Another popular activity was picnicking. According to Warren R. Smith
“The Gap [at the north end of Lake Leelanau] was the most popular spot for young and old. We could get there by rowboat or with motorboats towing a string of rowboats. The Gap was said to have been an early attempt to cut a canal between the two lakes, the effort being discontinued when the difference in lake levels was observed. More probably it was merely for a road down to the pier which once stood there and sand was blown out by wind to present level.” Baseball games were played “in the Owens lot” and hide and seek was popular amongst the youngsters. In this close-knit community everyone knew each other and the feeling must have resembled an extended family reunion. Most of the camps had a piano and singing was a favorite pastime. In a time before radios people made their own music. Many a quiet summer evening ended with groups of people in canoes in the middle of the lake, singing old favorites. Later this tradition was transferred to the Leland Country Club.

But what of Camp Oshibwa? Clara Porter Atkins (no apparent relation to John Porter) started the camp in 1920. Clara’s daughter, Eleanor, is probably the photographer responsible for the photographs of the girls of the camp. The Atkins family first came to East Leland in 1901, making them one of the earliest. In 1920 Mrs. Atkins and her husband, Professor Martin D. Atkins, were divorced; he subsequently died in 1924. The camp was in operation at least until 1926. It is not clear who attended the camp but it seems possible that the girls who attended were all East Leland summer resorters. Activities at the camp included water sports, hiking, nature walks, drama and singing. Also evident from the photos are girls dressed up as pirates, so many kinds of fun were on offer.

In addition to photos of Camp Oshibwa I have included some photos of other scenes from the early days of East Leland: well-to-do young men posed on docks, scenes of campsites, and more. I hope you enjoy looking at these photos as much as I did when I first discovered them. There are many more. And there are many more stories that came out of East Leland in the early days. Hopefully someone will be inspired to tell the story in more depth, but for now here is a taste of the early days of East Leland at Porter’s Landing.

(Details of Clara Porter Atkins’ life from Leelanau Enterprise, 19 July 1973, and ancestry.com, thanks to Marsha Buehler; thanks to the help and support from the Leelanau Historical Society; thanks to Andrew White for providing me with access to papers from the American Home Missionary Society, where details of Reverend George Thompson are to be found. All other sources as mentioned, unpublished.)

On This Day

Life on the Leelanau Peninsula, winter, 167 years ago
Transcription and commentary by Mark Smith, Secretary, OHS

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Jan 26th, 1857
Walter Lowrie, Esq

Grove Hill

Dear Sir,

I enclose to you the vouchers [bills and receipts] for the past six months. The weather has been unusually stormy and a large quantity of snow has fallen making it difficult to get around with the team to get wooden rails. We have had trouble to get our mail but hope we will have crossing on the ice in a day or two.[1] The weather has not been as cold as last winter the coldest has been 50 below zero [last year]. It has been uniformly low for two weeks past down to zero or a few degrees above all the time.

We are all enjoying our usual health and our school is going on as well as might be expected. Such winters make all the duties more laborious. The worst we hope is already past. My hand is gaining but will not probably be well till spring so that I can do much with it. [2]

I will enclose with this a statement of the produce of the farm the past year. Although crops on account of the dry weather were very light in this region, ours would more than pay all of the hire for its cultivation although much of the labor was expended in clearing & fencing which will not have to be repeated next year. It also covers some 20 acres of wheat put in last fall and the digging and stoning of the well. [3] It shows that farm is not a loss to the Board while it affords appropriate employment to the boys and makes them instrumental in aiding to provide their own food. [4]

I sent back the papers and a survey of the old mission lots some time since, also a report of expenses which I hope you have received before this. [5] Our kind regards to all.
Respectfully yours,
P. Dougherty

#1 At this time the mail came to Omena from Old Mission. Once the ice formed across the bay the mail delivery became possible.
#2 In a letter dated Dec. 5th, 1856, Rev. Dougherty relates how he injured his left hand during the gathering of crops under the snow. He apparently suffered an infection (Erysipelas) and the swelling went up his arm.
#3 The original well, located conveniently in the back courtyard of the school building, caved in within two years of its digging in 1853.
#4 Dougherty was constantly reminding Peter Lowrie, his boss and head of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, that his school was largely self-financing. Funds were always scarce. Eventually the school would close in 1870 due to lack of funding.
#5 At this time the Board was in the process of re-surveying and eventually selling off properties at Old Mission

1851 Map

Letter from Omena, January 1854

New Mission, Jan 27th, 1854

Rev. J. Leighton Wilson [Secretary for the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions located in New York]
Dear Sir

1851 Map

Wadsworth’s 1851 map of Omena Bay

Your kind letter was received a few days since. Words of kindness and sympathy strengthen us in hours of trial. Our mercies have been very many, of trials it is not important to speak unless some good may be accomplished thereby. I wrote to Mr. Lowrie [Corresponding Secretary for the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions] by the last express by which you will learn our present condition. After receiving our supplies and getting our buildings in some comfortable condition for winter we have found matter to work on easier. In a climate like this & a region where snow falls almost every day for weeks together the winters are not very comfortable as we have to be in the snow most of the time & with a large family of children much will be carried [on?] in the house – another and more serious difficulty is the leakage of the building. These light snows falling almost every day keep the roof covered to the top. The heat in the building warms the shingles and the snow melts and runs down to the eves where it keeps freezing until banks of ice prevent the water flowing off – thus the water is shut up until it finds its way above the tops of the first courses of shingles & then runs inside. We have much trouble this winter on account of the steady cold weather and the constant falls of snow, and our building is more subject to this difficulty in consequence of the water condutor [sic] being put on the top of the sheathing of the roof. Some of the walls are kept constantly wet and will be much injured The weather has just softened after a fortnight of very severe cold.

Our school is very encouraging. Our children are making improvement and they behave very well. I see no cause of regret that the school has been commenced if funds can be obtained to support it. I think a school like this promises great good to these people.

From the many applications which I have been compelled to refuse there is little doubt but there will be as many children ready to enter the institution as we can at any time accommodate. I have hoped & I encouraged those whom I refused to hope, we would be able to take an additional number in the spring. I confess I have fears, from Mr. Lowrie’s letters, they & we may be disappointed, but our past experiences should teach us patience & faith – help may come in the hour of despair. There is none the less necessity for the diligent use of all proper means however. It is proper therefore that it be understood that one of our teachers will leave in the Spring. One and probably both of the women in the kitchen will leave and there is no prospect of supplying their places here. There is very great need for some prudent and smart woman to take the constant oversight of the kitchen. Mrs. Dougherty has to divide her time between it and the oversight of all other house hold matters which is too much, which precludes the possibility of any proper attention to her own children. I do not find leisure to give any attention to my family until after eight in the evening when the boys go to bed, and can give no time to the school.

To lessen the necessary expenses of the next year a vigorous effort should be made to enlarge our clearings and increase our plantings in the spring. Here our boys can be made useful if there is anyone to plan out and occupy them with such work as they can do most profitably. We have things now in such a state of readiness that with no unforeseen draw back we can commence operations on the farm in the spring with the fair prospect of a greatly increased crop the next fall

I wish very much Mr. Lowrie could personally inspect the premises and see the condition of things. He could then tell better what was best to be done. Just as the door is opened to these people to become citizens of the state and the laws are becoming extended over them there is a strong desire to have their children, especially their boys, educated. There is an increasing necessity for them to acquire a practical knowledge of our language, and we should fail to improve the opportunity which that desire gives of imparting instruction which may make them wise for time & eternity.

I received a letter from Mr. Hall respecting the draft I wrote about which leads me to suppose in the hurry of preparing letters I must [have?] closed the one I sent to before I drew the draft and supposing I had enclosed it I did not send it. The draft if drawn must have been dated the latter part of August.
Yours Truly
P. Dougherty


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This letter to Reverend Leighton was written just a few months after Reverend Dougherty opened the newly built residential school for local Anishinaabe students, Grove Hill School, in the autumn of 1853. Reverend Dougherty sent a letter to his supervisor Walter Lowrie on the 16th of January, just 11 days before sending this letter off to Reverend Leighton on the 24th. The tone of the two letters is quite different.

Dougherty’s letter to Lowrie is a “nuts and bolts” report of the conditions of the newly opened Grove Hill Academy, including the details of chores, the enrollment numbers, the work assignments and typical food eaten. This letter, the letter to Reverend Leighton written on January 27th some 11 days later, attempts at first to be more upbeat and hopeful, less complaining, but still stresses the need for a firm, long term financial commitment to the operation of the school, as well as emphasizing the need to procure more help. There is mention of Walter Lowrie’s doubts as to the long term financing of the school, which leads me to believe that Dougherty is attempting to appeal to Leighton’s higher level influence with Lowrie.

Dougherty emphasizes his plan for his mission to become self sufficient with food through increased clearings and plantings, thereby lessening expenses to the Board. Also emphasized in this letter is the need to help the Indians become fully functioning citizens, in the wake of the 1850 ruling by the State of Michigan which granted them citizenship providing they renounced tribal affiliations.

Dougherty’s main goal, stated here and elsewhere, is to educate the Indians to be fully functioning citizens who could not be taken advantage of by the increasing number of white settlers. Dougherty also mentions the structural shortcomings of the newly built school, the ice dam on the roof with water leaking down into the wall, issues which would be addressed a few years later. All in all this letter to Reverend Leighton lays out Dougherty’s long term commitment to the school and his belief in its importance to those it serves. Here (and in other letters) he relates that he has had to turn away applicants, indicating he believes there is a) a strong desire on the part of the Indians to be educated in the ways of the “dominant” culture and b) a need for the school, both practically and morally. Ever the forward thinker, Reverend Dougherty asserts that adequate funding is the proper path forward.

If you would like to know more about the history of Grove Hill Academy, click here.

Mark Smith, January 2023

The Story of Grove Hill School

The Story of Grove Hill School, updated March 2023

By Mark Smith, Omena Historical Society (for a pdf version of this essay click here)

 

Part One, Old Mission

The Early Days

This paper explores the history of Grove Hill School, the boarding school for local Odawa and Ojibwe people opened in Omena, or New Mission, in September 1853. (see note below text for naming conventions of indigenous peoples). Grove Hill School came into being when the first Protestant mission in the Grand Traverse area, founded by Reverend Peter Dougherty in the summer of 1838, moved their operations from Old Mission to the “New Mission” in Omena.  Dougherty was originally sent to the area by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions (BFM) in 1838 and eventually settled on the Old Mission Peninsula, where he would remain to preach and teach until 1852. Funding for the education of the mission Anishinaabek by the Presbyterians was provided through government monies from the 1836 treaty settlement, in which the Indians gave up vast tracts of lands in exchange for a yearly annuity payment and provisions for implements, interpreters, blacksmiths, farmers and teachers.

It is important to note here at the outset that the Anishinabek of the Grand Traverse region were desirous to be educated, and particularly desirous to learn English, to know the law, remain in their homelands, and defend themselves in dealings with the rapacious white settlers of the area.  Reverend Dougherty’s school was seen as an asset to the community, and he was welcomed especially by Chief Aghosa, his main indigenous patron. Students attended Dougherty’s school of their own free will, encouraged by their parents.  Over time more Indians came to settle on “The Point”.

“The Protestant mission became an attraction of sorts to Anishinaabe communities, especially those near L’Arbre Croche, because the teacher taught in not only Anishinaabemowin, but also English.  The Austrian priests near Little Traverse Bay spoke little or no English, and the Indians wanted their children to speak English.” (Fletcher, 30)

Similarly, in 1852 Chief Peshawbe and his people moved from Cross Village to the Leelanau Peninsula, precisely to take advantage of being taught by the English-speaking instructors in the schools, which they deemed to be far more useful than learning from the German speaking priests in Cross Village. Education, especially in English, was seen as a positive force for self-improvement and tribal integrity at a time when the threat of removal was still a very real threat.

Also important to note here at the outset is the fact that the Anishinaabe desired to have trusted white settlers living nearby, in order to help mediate their dealings with the larger body of settlers.  During the 1836 Treaty negotiations in Washington the “chief speaker”, probably Aishquagonabe, speaking to Henry Schoolcraft, said:

“We fear that the whites who will not be our friends will come into our country and trouble us, and that we shall not be able to know where our possessions are, if we do sell our lands, it will be our wish that some of our white friends have lands among us and be associated with us. (Fletcher, 22)

Mainly these “white friends” were métis (mixed blood people), American citizens related through intermarriage who could mediate disputes with other American citizens, but benefactors like Reverend Dougherty also were seen as valued friends to be kept close at hand.

A last note pertains to agency.  From the above two paragraphs it may be assumed that the Indians saw themselves as being totally dependent on the grace and favor of members of the dominant white culture, with very limited options for self-determination and very little legal recourse.  However, the Odawa were anything but naïve or helpless.  Their alliances with certain members of the white community were strategic ways for them to adapt, persist and prosper in their own homelands.  “In 1841, Aghosa told Peter Dougherty that the Grand Traverse Anishinaabek ‘hold on to this place as a bird clings to a tree ready to fall.’” (Fletcher 38) Even though missionaries had varied luck in converting the Grand Traverse Indians to Christian farmers, the coming of the missionaries helped to make them “a group that, although still distinctly Indian, was yet able to adjust to and profit from the encroaching American economy.” (White, 10).

The historian James McClurken holds that the Anishinaabek were sophisticated in their enlistment of missionaries as allies in their attempts to avoid removal to west of the Mississippi:

“Ottawa people understood very well the process of making allies for their own benefit.  As part of their campaign to remain in Michigan, they made allies of those missionaries who opposed removal and supported Ottawa efforts to purchase land.  In the process, they learned that so long as they attended church services, the missionaries would help them build farms and supply them with food, clothing, and medicine.  Some Ottawa adults even went to the missionary schools to learn to read and write so they could conduct their own affairs in American society.” (McClurken, 29)

According to historian Susan Gray “The Ottawa … were far less interested in becoming like white men than in learning to live as Indians in the midst of white settlement.” (Gray, 83). So, despite relying on white benefactors, the Odawa were able to maintain their own traditions and prosper within the newly emerging onrush of white settlers, at least until they were swamped by white settlers after the civil war.

After carving out some acreage for building and cultivation, Dougherty’s mission (the “Old Mission”) grew and prospered.  In 1840 Reverend Dougherty ventured east to be married, returning with his new bride, Miss Maria Higgins (Sprague, and Smith). In the fall of that same year the young Andrew Blackbird was hired as apprentice blacksmith, a post he would keep for five years at a salary of $240 per year.  Many years later Blackbird would write that Dougherty “was indeed a true Christian, and good to the Indians” (Blackbird 55).

In 1842, with the help of the Indians, Dougherty began to build a manse and a mission church.  At the time the church was being built, Reverend Dougherty asked his congregation to make a financial contribution.  Their gift to Dougherty was a large quantity of copper pennies, which Dougherty sent off to a foundry, where the pennies were used to cast a bell for the church (Craker 62). (This bell travelled with the mission to Omena, to become the bell for the new church.)

By August of 1843 Dougherty would report that his school consisted of forty Indian and eleven white children, making a total of 51 students.  Basic “sounding out” and spelling were taught at first, as the building blocks of literacy.  Of the 51 students, “eight read correctly in their own and our language .. The others are learning the elements [alphabet], and spelling in words of one and two syllables.”  Dougherty admits to being disappointed that students did not attend more regularly but maintains that the capacity of the Indian students was “about on average” with that of the white children. In addition to the regular school, the Sabbath school regularly attracted 40 people, including Chief Aghosa, where the churchgoers were also taught to read “in their own language.. with a good degree of correctness.”  Also encouraging to Dougherty was the fact that drunkenness was down and industriousness was up, thanks to the effects of the church.  (Annual, 1843)

Many Roles

The work of Peter Dougherty entailed much more than preaching.  Dougherty advocated for his congregation in a variety of ways, including writing letters for them, helping them apply for land patents, traveling to Mackinaw with them to receive annuity payments, tending to medical needs, carpentry, gardening, animal husbandry and generally all the labors needed to survive and prosper in a remote wilderness.  From his congregation Dougherty earned the Anishinaabemowin nickname of Mic-koos, “little beaver”, reflecting his short stature and boundless energy (Craker 89).

In the early years the school averaged about 30 students, with great seasonal variations due to sickness, winter hunting, and maple syrup making.  Because the school was a day school, the students were more mobile (and attended less) than if they had been attending a boarding school.

Native Language

One reason for the popularity of Reverend Dougherty’s schools is that instruction took place in English, and parents recognized the advantages of learning the language of the dominant culture. In addition to teaching in English, Dougherty also encouraged the Indians to learn to speak and write in their own language.

Sometime during his other labors he managed to make significant contributions to the study of the local Indian language.  In the first years, the Upper Canadian Bible Society donated to his mission Ojibwa translations of the book of Genesis and the Gospel of John, but Dougherty soon produced books of his own.  In 1844 he published A Chippewa Primer, which Schoolcraft called “of much value to the philologist, as well as being adapted to promote the advance of the pupil. (Vogel 6)

With the help of interpreters Daniel Rodd and Peter Greensky, Reverend Dougherty published other books for his Anishinaabe students, including Short Reading Lessons in the Ojibwa Language (1847), a parallel text primer, and Easy Lessons in Scripture History in the Ojibwa Language (1847).

For Dougherty the primary goal of education was the “moral” aspect; by “moral” Reverend Dougherty referred primarily to the teaching of scripture, so it is not surprising that he valued the primer he wrote for his students, Easy Lessons in Scripture History in the Ojibwa Language. Truthfully, Dougherty, like most everyone of his time, took little interest in the world views of the Odawa.  He found no sense of irony in stating that “The Indian is very superstitious: he believes the Great Spirit has made him distinct from all others.” He criticized what he called the “heathen party” of unbelievers who resisted white culture:

His [the heathen Indian’s] country, his language, his customs, his religion, his medicine, his appetites and passions, are all the special bestowments of him who made him, and therefore they are best for the Indian. (Annual 1850)

Despite the somewhat condescending views in Dougherty’s assessment of indigenous culture, it is important to point out that Dougherty did not seek to actively eradicate the culture of the Anishinaabe, but he did seek to promote Christianity through bi-lingual teaching.  He was certain that, when presented with alternatives to their “heathen” lifestyle, the Indians would choose Christianity. When a new translation of the Ojibwa testament came out in 1859 Dougherty requested that the BFM purchase copies because “There is quite a demand for the Ojibwa testament.  It is studied more and understood better than before.” (Dougherty to Walter Lowrie, 16 Feb. 1859).  Far from seeking to eradicate the native language, Dougherty understood how to use that language to promote scripture and teach “proper” behavior. Incidentally, during America’s Civil War copies of this Ojibwa bible were found among captured Anishinaabe soldiers from the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters of Company K, evidence of the importance of scripture to those soldiers and evidence of Reverend Dougherty’s influence. (Cassidy, “Both..)

The Grove School, converted to the Hotel Leelanau

Here it is important to note an essential distinction: when the first government-run boarding schools later opened in the late 1860’s, the policy was almost always the suppression and prohibition of native languages in the schools with the goal of eradicating all ties to parents and indigenous culture.  This brute force approach was seen as the best way to rapidly “civilize” the native people. Contrary to this philosophy of language suppression, Dougherty believed in the benefits of bilingualism.

In addition to their English studies, both schools [male and female] should be taught to read their own language.  It is found here, as at other missions, that this does not interfere with their regular lessons in English, and it is an acquisition both pleasing and useful to their parents. (Annual 1850)

Note the inclusion of parents which continued to be a feature of the Dougherty philosophy at Grove Hill School in Omena.

Over time most of the families had taken up residence in the immediate vicinity of the old mission and worked tirelessly to produce a surplus of food.  By 1847 Dougherty would write:

Six years ago the site occupied by the village was a dense thicket.  The village now extends nearly a mile in length, containing some twenty log houses and some good log stables belonging to the Indians. During that period they have cleared and cultivated some two hundred acres of new gardens, besides what additions were made to the old ones.  They raise for sale several hundred bushels of corn and potatoes. (Garritt 6)

Despite tremendous difficulties, and despite many setbacks and challenges, it is fair to say that Dougherty’s mission was a success.  The influence of drink provided by the growing population of white settlers remained a serious issue, but all in all the mission prospered and grew.  However, the land at Old Mission, having been set aside as a reservation, did not belong to the Anishinaabek of the mission.  All the improvements made to the mission would be lost if the land could not be purchased and secured for those who had made the improvements. With white settlers flocking to the area to buy land, their future was uncertain.

During this time the Anishinaabek of Michigan were constantly under threat of removal to territory west of the Mississippi, a fate they desperately hoped to avoid. The goal was to find a way to stay put. The second constitution of Michigan in 1850 provided an enhanced chance for the Anishinaabek to remain.  Under the provisions of the 1850 Michigan Constitution, Indians who had renounced tribal affiliations could become citizens of the state, with full voting rights (Karamanski 130). If the Indians could secure a title to some land, and if they were deemed citizens of Michigan, they would feel less threatened by removal. Unfortunately, the lands at Old Mission were not offered for immediate sale.  But land on the Leelanau peninsula had recently been made available for general purchase.  Gradually the Anishinaabek of Old Mission began buying up parcels and relocating to the Leelanau Peninsula, in the environs of present day Omena, where Reverend Dougherty would relocate his New Mission in 1852.

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Part Two, Omena

Finding Workers

The establishment of a manual training boarding school for Anishinaabek

in Omena did not take place without extensive planning.  Even before the move from a day school in Old Mission to a boarding school at the New Mission, Reverend Dougherty expressed his approval of the idea in principle but warned that in order to succeed, the mission would need to rely on “the labors of pious laymen and their wives; … suitable teachers, male and female; farmers; and families to take the charge of the boarding department” primarily because “Much precious time of the missionaries is taken up with labors that could be better performed by others” (Annual 1849).  This would be a recurring theme with Dougherty over the following years as he saw his efforts increasingly devoted to working long, arduous hours of manual labor to maintain the mission, at the expense of his primary job of ministering to his flock. Dougherty rightly foresaw that running a boarding school would be a much bigger task than running a day school.

Dougherty’s warnings here can be seen as a report “from the trenches” to his superiors, who perhaps could not begin to imagine the hardships of the task. Compared to his brethren ministers out east, who were preaching on Sunday and ministering during the week, Dougherty found himself chief cook and bottle washer in a remote outpost, working long, hard hours.  He described the hardships of

The separation from beloved relatives and friends, the unavoidable absence of many comforts which abound in civilized communities, the limited circle of their Christian community, the apathy, in many cases, of the benighted natives, the many, many days of teaching, and instruction, that must be endured, by our beloved brethren and sisters, in these labors of love and mercy. (Annual 1853)

However, despite Dougherty’s complaints about being constantly short staffed, he persevered.

The School Begins

Reverend Dougherty was opposed to bringing his log schoolhouse from Old Mission over to Omena (as suggested by the BFM) because he felt that the log structures did not indicate permanence to his congregation, and moreover they were not easy to heat and maintain (Dougherty, Letter to Lowrie, Sept 13th, 1851). He insisted on the construction of a new building at Grove Hill, had to advocate strongly for it, and was heavily involved in the planning and construction of it.  The building at Grove Hill was meant as an assurance of commitment to permanent and long-lasting support for the whole community, children and parents.

Grove Hill School went into operation in September of 1853 with twenty boys and nine girls, and the number increased over the next year to 20 girls and 28 boys. The school was designed to accommodate 50 to 60 people, including students, workers, teachers and families.  The school proved to be so popular with parents that it was soon at peak enrollment, with a waiting list for new applicants.

By 1853 Grove Hill had 20 acres under cultivation. A teacher provided agricultural training for the boys and the garden produced food to supply the mission through the winter.  In order to inculcate “habits of industry” the school kept to a rigorous schedule all year round. In his first annual report from Grove Hill to Indian Agent Henry Gilbert, Dougherty described the daily regime:

The regulations of the Institution are as follows.  Rise in summer at half past four and in winter at 5 o’clock am. Prayers half past five & six, breakfast at six and half past six, in summer & winter respectively.  Work from breakfast to half past eight, school at nine, dinner at twelve, school at half past one, work from half past four to six, supper at six, prayers at eight pm.  then the children go to bed. (Annual 1854)

Academic subjects taught at the school included reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, grammar, and philosophy.  Boys also worked outdoors in the garden and girls also were instructed in “domestic labor and economy” (Annual 1854). Although by modern standards the regime of the school seems unnecessarily strict and regimented, it is important to remember that, as L. P. Hartley said “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”  By modern day standards some may judge that the school was unnecessarily harsh, but in fact the strict regime was typical of other boarding schools of its time.  The school was strict, but not cruel.  A more salient criticism may be that of ethnocentrism, but again, it must be remembered that this was a Presbyterian school and typical of its time. We may bemoan the lack of interest in honoring native culture at the school, but we cannot expect Reverend Dougherty to behave like a man existing out of time.

Parental Inclusion

Unlike the government-run boarding schools which started up after the civil war, Dougherty’s Grove Hill School encouraged parents to visit and to be involved.  The hope was that by educating the children the parents also would be lifted up. Dougherty was well aware that some Native parents were against having their children educated:

Education arms the vicious with increased power to do evil; and the minds of the Indians have often been prejudiced against the education of their children, by seeing those who had enjoyed its advantages becoming wiser only to do evil. (Annual 1850)

He rightly saw that if the Odawa were to stand a chance against the steady stream of white settlers who were rapidly flooding into the area, the native families must be helped through education:

Again: these schools are a most important and powerful agency for good, not only to the youth and children but to their parents. Instruction in these communities, to meet their wants, must be on a comprehensive scale.  The white population is closing round them on every side, and everything should be done to enable them to stand side by side with their white neighbors. (Annual 1850)

Dougherty believed that the school needed to be enmeshed in the settlement because parents needed to be able to see for themselves how the school was run.  Grove Hill School was open to all visitors.

To keep his flock together and protected from the sharp dealings of the white settlers, Dougherty knew it was necessary to train his students and their families in the ways of the dominant white culture.  Dougherty knew that if his students were to attend a white school (where they would probably be singled out and ridiculed) they would not fare as well as if they were taught in their own setting.  They lived mainly north of the school, in nearby Aghosatown. Reverend Dougherty tried to keep them close together but almost as soon as his congregation began to settle in the Omena area they started to disburse, “some choosing one place, and some another, and thus their position for the future is quite uncertain” (Annual 1851). A well-known disadvantage of the day school at Old Mission was that students were taken out whenever their parents removed to sugar camps or winter hunting grounds.  The boarding school at New Mission would help address this problem, as well as the general disbursement problem of families living too far away to attend a day school.  Parents were central to Dougherty’s philosophy.

Our efforts ought to regard these people as a whole and the influences which are brought to bear on them ought to reach the adults as well as the children and effect family as well as individual improvement.  We are therefore very fully of the view that the mission must be in the neighborhood of the Indian Settlement.”  (Dougherty, Letter to Walter Lowrie, July 30th, 1851)

The Later Years

Grove Hill School grew and prospered.  For many years it was the center of learning and a place for numerous visitors and meetings, but by the time of the Civil War it was running at a loss.  The gradual dispersal and scattering of Reverend Dougherty’s flock led eventually to the demise of the school.  As early as 1858 Dougherty sensed that the mission would be difficult to maintain, financially, and in 1866 the BFM instructed Dougherty to sell the school, leaving only the church and associated mission. The church was kept open for another 5 years, but attendance continued to dwindle; by 1870 the writing was on the wall and in 1871 the BFM closed both the Omena and the Bear River outstation. “The organization’s precarious financial status did not allow it to continue supporting Indian missions without Indians” (Devens 107).

Dougherty’s last letters to the Corresponding Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions have an air of resignation and sadness.  His friend Walter Lowrie, the previous Corresponding Secretary, died in December 1868, but Dougherty continued writing to his son, John C. Lowrie. In an undated letter from this time Reverend Dougherty looks back over 20 years and opines:

“But little change, in the aspect of things, has taken place, during the past year, except the shadows in the horizon of hope have a darker hue, and the mind as it contemplates them is less buoyant and confident, and looks to the future with a feeling of sadness.” (Dougherty 1870)

Dougherty had hoped that his mission would be a shining example of the benefits of the gospel, a civilizing influence on his flock, and a bulwark against White encroachment, but found in the end that “Intemperance is our greatest trouble and their great besetting sin” and that “As white men settle in around them the facilities and temptations to indulgence increase, and they are yielding more and more every year to these influences” (Dougherty 1870).

In 1871 Reverend Dougherty writes his last sad letter from Omena, indicating that the members of his church “feel uncomfortable about our proposed removal” and that they “offered to contribute of their means to aid in our support.”   Dougherty explained that

“it was not want of support that led us to think of removing and leaving them, but the circumstances of our family growing up isolated so that they have no fair opportunity for occupation or settlement in life.  They appreciate the motive.  While duty to our family seems to direct us away it is painful to leave home for those for whom our lives have chiefly been spent to be scattered after we have labored so long to gather them.” (Dougherty to J. C. Lowrie, Feb. 10, 1871)

When the church in Old Mission was first built, the Indians gathered up all the pennies they had been saving and gave them to Reverend Dougherty to make a bell for their church.  That bell was brought over to Omena in 1853. As Dougherty signs off for the last time, he mentions the bell in closing: “In the church is the bell and two stoves which belong to the board but I suppose they remain for the use of the Indians as long as they need them.” (Dougherty to J. C. Lowrie, Feb. 10, 1871)

After the mission was closed, the church was only sporadically opened to preaching.  Occasionally Reverend George Nelson Smith from Northport would come to preach, and Alonzo Barnard also preached until 1880.  By 1885 a Congregational Church was organized in Omena and the local Presbyterians joined the Congregationalists in the church (Craker).  Today the church still stands proudly on the hill leading out of town.  Grove Hill School was sold in 1868 and by 1885 was opened as the Hotel Leelanau, an upscale resort destination for summer residents.  It was shut down in 1917 and torn down in 1929 (Holmes).  Apart from a few bricks and blocks hidden in the deep weeds, nothing remains to indicate the existence of Grove Hill School.

(for a pdf version of the Power Point presentation which accompanies this essay, click here)

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(Note: the term “Anishinaabek” or Anishinaabeg refers to several groups of indigenous peoples, including the Odawa and Ojibwe who feature in this paper.  “Anishinaabe” is adjectival. “Anishinaabemowin” designates the language spoken. The term “Indian”, although distasteful to some, was the designation used at the time of this story and indeed the term still used by many Anishinaabek themselves.  The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, for example, is still the standard nomenclature.)


Works Cited

Annual Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. United States, n.p, 1929.

Blackbird, Andrew J. History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan: A Grammar of Their Language, and Personal and Family History of the Author. Petoskey, Mich: Little Traverse Regional Historical Society, 1970.

Cassidy. Michelle. “The More Noise They Make: Odawa and Ojibwe Encounters with American Missionaries in Northern Michigan, 1837-1871.”  Michigan Historical Review, vol. 38, no. 2, Central Michigan University, 2012, pp. 1–34.

Cassidy, Michelle K. “Both the Honor and the Profit”: Anishinaabe Warriors, Soldiers, and Veterans from Pontiac’s War through the Civil War.” https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/133496

Craker, Ruth. First Protestant Mission in the Grand Traverse Region. Rivercrest House, 1979.

Dougherty, Peter, “Dougherty Papers,” 1838-1872, Presbyterian Historical Society, online.

Devens, Carol. Countering Colonization, Native American Women and Great Lakes Missions, 1630-1900.

Fletcher, Matthew. The Eagle Returns. Michigan State University Press, 2012.

Garritt, Joshua Bolles. Historical sketch of the missions among the North American Indians : under the care of the Board of foreign missions of the Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia: Women’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church, 1881.

Gray, Susan E. “Limits and Possibilities: White-Indian Relations in Western Michigan in the Era of Removal.” Michigan Historical Review 20 (1994): 71-91.

Holmes, Amanda. Omena a Place in Time a Sesquicentennial History 1852–2002. 1st., The Omena Historical Society, 2003.

Karamanski, Theodore J. Blackbird’s Song. Michigan State University Press, 2012.

McClurken, James M. “The Ottawa.” In People of the Three Fires: The Ottawa,
Potawatomi, and Ojibway of Michigan.
Grand Rapids: Intertribal Council of
Michigan, 1986.

Singer, Eliot, “Mission Period, Grand Traverse, Epistolary,” Ethno and Superior
History, picaresquescholar.wordpress.com, accessed February 2023.

Smith Family papers (H02-1465.50), The Joint Archives of Holland, Hope College, Holland, MI.

Sprague, Elvin Lyons, and Seddie Powers Smith. Sprague’s History Of Grand Traverse And Leelanaw Counties, Michigan. B.F. Bowen, 1903.

Vogel, Virgil V.  “The Missionary as Acculturation Agent.” Michigan History, vol. 51, no. 3, 1967.

White, Richard. “Ethnohistorical Report on the Grand Traverse Ottawas.” Unpublished manuscript, 1991.

 

Reverend Peter Dougherty

News From Omena, July 1857

Letter to Walter Lowrie from Peter Dougherty, Grove Hill, 17 July, 1857
Transcription and commentary by Mark Smith, secretary, OHS

• In which we learn that Reverend Dougherty is ready to sever ties with the Presbyterian Board unless something can be done about Mr. Porter. •

Reverend Peter Dougherty

Reverend Peter Dougherty

In a previous post, News from Omena, January 1855, we learned of the hardships and challenges Reverend Peter Dougherty faced in organizing and running Grove Hill School, Dougherty’s residential school for Native Americans.  This 1857 letter from Peter Dougherty to Walter Lowrie, corresponding secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, comes a little over two years later and chronicles the infighting between Reverend Dougherty and John Porter over the running of the school.

In Reverend Dougherty’s introductory paragraph he praises Miss W. A. Isbell, Teacher of Female Department, and bemoans her imminent loss due to her heavy work load and low pay. This would be a recurring theme in Dougherty’s letters to Lowrie: the difficulty in recruiting and retaining good staff.

In the second paragraph Dougherty begins to come to the point: he wishes for the Board to change the terms of his employment or to discontinue employing him.  As the letter goes on the source of this ultimatum becomes clear.  At first Dougherty asks for more family time, which means a manse for his family to call their own, a place away from the daily running of the institution (where they currently lived). He also wants to be freed from the running of the school so that he may concentrate more fully on his pastoral duties as a minister to a wider flock.  But really, these wishes are merely the preamble for his main complaint.

Paragraph three bluntly introduces the main source of Dougherty’s dissatisfaction: “I supposed from your letters to me that I was considered in charge here and was responsible for the proper management of the institution.”  This is a delicate matter which Dougherty confronts head on.  Who is in charge of this school, me or Mr. Porter?  It is really quite bluntly put. To complicate matters further, it must be mentioned that John Porter, Teacher of Male Department, was a nephew to Andrew Porter, who was with Dougherty on Old Mission before being sent to Bear Creek (Petoskey) in 1852 to start a mission there. Andrew was Walter Lowrie’s nephew and John was Andrew’s nephew. John Porter arrived on the scene at New Mission in 1854.

Porter claims to have the “right of the entire control of the boys” and does not acknowledge Dougherty as his superior.  Dougherty makes his contempt of Mr. Porter clear, indicating that Porter is not really interested in the hard work of the school (“he got some what tired of the school and found the confinement oppressive”), and that Porter has vowed never to go back inside the school again, instead now to be in charge of outdoor work, for which, according to Dougherty, Porter acknowledges no superintendence (“you are not the boss of me,” in other words).  Dougherty then relinquishes any responsibility for the outdoor work.

In paragraph four we learn that Mr. Porter has been working as Deputy Surveyor for the county.  This job takes him far afield and leaves the rest of the staff short-handed.  The job of surveyor paid $3 per day, which was more than could be earned at the mission. Mr. Joseph Glenn, farmer, and George Craker, assistant, are both of the opinion that Porter’s frequent absences are “unfair”, and in fact George would have left by now (writes Dougherty), had it not been for assurances on Mr. Porter’s part that he would give up surveying.  But Mr. Porter did not give up surveying.  In fact, Porter seems to have been in direct communication with Walter Lowrie and it seems as if Walter Lowrie has told Porter that he does not need to account for his time, and that his pay at the mission would not be docked when Porter was out surveying: “He [Porter] said when he left the institution he intended to report the time thus lost, but that you had written to him he need not make any account of time thus lost.”  In finishing Dougherty softens his criticism somewhat (“I may have wrong views on the matter”) but still manages to imply that Mr. Porter does not really care about his job at the Mission.

The last part of Dougherty’s letter thanks the Board for all its many kindnesses, before circling back to Dougherty’s initial request to be relieved of the duties of running the institution (the school), in favor of just being a minister, which is already enough.  Dougherty seems to be laying down a marker for the Board.  He wants a house for his family and he wants nothing more to do with the school.

It would not be until 1862 that George Craker was appointed Mission Farmer, replacing John Porter.  Mr. Porter and family settled in Leland township and remained, and Porter continued surveying at least as late as 1884.   Mr. Dougherty remained as superintendent and eventually built a house for himself and his family at his own expense, remaining in Omena until the mission is discontinued in 1871.

To sum up, in this 1857 letter from Reverend Dougherty we witness the cauldron of petty rivalries and slights which made the running of Grove Hill School even more difficult than it might have already been.  And here is another thing to consider .. John Porter’s wife, Annis McElvain, was Mary McConnell’s sister.  Mary (McElvain) McConnell, cook and laundress at the school, was later married to George Craker, who was nine years younger than her.  In other words, in addition to John Porter’s relationship to Walter Lowrie, other relationships also determined the fault lines of daily relations at the school.  It wasn’t just the weather, the isolation, and the physical challenges of survival that made the job hard.  It was also infighting.  In fact, the infighting almost led to the closing of the school in 1857, when Reverend Peter Dougherty officially expressed his wish to be relieved of the burden of running it.

But he stayed on.  He worked it out. He persevered for the good of his flock.

And this is why primary sources are so fascinating and so important.  In the letters of Reverend Dougherty we see a man frustrated with the complications and hardships of his life NOW, not merely the summation of a life well-lived.  There was nothing pre-ordained in his success. Fortunately Reverend Dougherty found a way through the crisis and continued his mission to the Native Americans, otherwise we would have no story to tell at all.  By the end of 1858, with the assistance of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, Reverend Dougherty would supervise the building of both a new manse and a new church in Omena.

Thanks to Marsha Buehler, Archives and Exhibit Committee Chair, for help with background biographical info and advice
Here is the letter, and below is the transcription.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Walter Lowrie, Esq.
Grove Hill, July 17th, 1857

Dear Sir

I have our vouchers ready which I will forward with this, with a report of expenses. Miss Isbell would prefer if you would forward her salary to her friends in New Haven. The amt. of her bill her a [?] $19.13. She still complains of her hard service and says she can’t continue to do it another winter. After you wrote to me I saw her and the matter was talked over among the females and Mrs. McConnell assisted her for a time, why she did not continue or whether she will resume I have not learned. Miss Isbell is most industrious, takes good care of the girls, their clothing too, and deserves great praise for the time and labor she gives to them but others may feel that her plans impose more labor than is necessary. All are quite well – the school is going on regularly, not as full as last winter. Our supplies came the 15th. The season has been cold and backward but is now warm growing weather. Our wheat is fair and will if saved nearly furnish our bread for the next year.

After much reflection I feel it a duty to myself and family to signify my wish to have my relation with the board changed, either to have my relation discontinued or so changed that I can live out of the building. It is necessary to have early hours for family work and meals, which imposes on females and small children very early rising or to grow up without even the form of devotion. So with breakfast small children have to be furnished with meals out of time which interferes with the regular work of the dining room & kitchen. Again – with my time occupied as it is every day I find scarcely any time to instruct or take care of my children. Besides these things and the feeling that the members of the church and families here are neglected there are certain things here which I am not satisfied with and which brings me in collision with others and makes me feel I would rather withdraw and let others take the management of the institution.

I supposed from your letters to me that I was considered in charge here and was responsible for the proper management of the institution. After Mr. Porter came we consulted together and agreed on some rules by which the children should be governed. These rules were disregarded and he claimed to have the right of the entire control of the boys, that he had no instruction that there was to be any Superintendence and he did not acknowledge any. As to his management of the boys I say nothing further than I disapproved of it. After he got some what tired of the school and found the confinement oppressive and I became disabled and proposed to take the school he said he would not go in the school again but would take the outdoor work as I wrote to you. After entering in these duties he claimed the same independence he had in the school and told me as to the office of Superintendent he did not know how I had it unless you saw me exercising it & gave me the title because I had assumed the office as there was no Superintendent in other missions. I then relinquished all those matters to him and do not wished [sic] to be considered as responsible any further for out door matters.

The chief source of dissatisfaction with him has been his claiming and exercising the right of leaving the business of the mission to do frequent jobs of surveying. He has accepted the office Deputy Surveyor of the county. He has frequent calls to survey roads, village plots and lots of land from six to twenty miles distant. His doing so produces dissatisfaction. Mr. Glenn spoke of it as unfair and George this spring would have left on this account when the took charge of the farm if I had not persuaded him to remain and Mr. Porter told him he would give up surveying. I do not think it fair that one should have the right to drop the business of the mission and hiring out at $3 per day while others have to devote all their time to the institution, even if a substitute should be hired but when I suggested that it would be but right to allow the time, thus taken, to that and as much extra help had to be hired. He said when he left the institution he intended to report the time thus lost but that that you had written to him he need not make any account of time thus lost. I may have wrong views of this matter but with my views I do not feel well to have matters go so and others dissatisfied and complaining, causing them to feel if those who are regarded as heads here can neglect the interests of the mission for private gain they do not much care how matters go.

These are in a sense little matters but they cause irritation and lead me to the decision to separate myself from the institution and when freed from the responsibility I will not feel constrained to interfere, and those little heart burnings will be avoided.

With regard to the board, we are entirely satisfied and feel grateful for all the kindness we have experienced. My conviction is that duty calls for more time to be devoted to the members of the church and families about here. I do not see a clear indication to leave these people unless the Board do not feel able to sustain a missionary separate from the school. I do not think it would cause as much additional expense as you named if you can get a suitable man with a small family. I make this statement now that you may have time to consider the matter & secure some one – and if I go out of the institution and remain, I may make some arrangements for a place for my family to live.

Mr & Mrs. Beatty were at North Port last Saturday but the boat left before we got there so we did not see them.

Respectfully yours
P. Dougherty

News from Omena, January 1855

Letter to Walter Lowrie from Peter Dougherty, Grove Hill, January 1, 1855
Transcription and commentary by Mark Smith, secretary, OHS

I’m always thrilled to discover a cache of old diaries or letters. Both fascinating and informative, they are also some of the best primary sources for historians. Letters and diaries are a slice of life lived now, with no clear sense of how the story will end, as it is in life itself. History is settled, it seems, but letters show the true ephemeral nature of history unfolding, before the stories solidify, and sometimes what we find causes us to reassess everything we have been told by the history books.

Written one hundred and sixty-seven years ago, this letter from Reverend Peter Dougherty of Omena to Walter Lowrie, corresponding secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, shows the immediate difficulties and challenges in running the mission and the associated school, Grove Hill Academy. We discover several things. First, we have a list of who was employed at the school, including one George Craker, who would later marry the widow Mrs. Mary McConnell and be the mainstay of the mission church for decades after Dougherty’s departure in 1870. George’s descendants, with Aghosa’s descendants, kept the church in service to its congregation as documented by Ruth Craker, George’s granddaughter, in the book The First Protestant Mission in the Grand Traverse Region, 1932. Also mentioned is Mr. Greensky, Odawa interpreter Peter Greensky, who would eventually become a Methodist minister in his own right, founding Greensky Hill Church, which still stands today, between Petoskey and Charlevoix.

We also discover that some of the boys have been getting in to visit with some of the girls after hours in the boarding school, which results in some strict punishment and a few expulsions from the school. The school, Grove Hill Academy, was residential and focused mainly on manual arts training and basic education for the young Indian residents.

Dougherty’s third paragraph opens with mention of land claims amongst the settlers over at the Old Mission he has left behind, and would seem to indicate that he would like Lowrie to put his weight behind their initiative.

I think paragraphs four and five come to the very heart of the matter for the survival of the mission: the fate of the Indians being swindled out of their land and falling under the influence of intoxicating liquors. 1855 was a time of great turmoil for the Odawa, with a treaty to follow in the summer which would have far reaching implications, but would do little to stop the advances of civilization and its attendant vices.

As if to reinforce the point, Dougherty relates the sad but true tale of Chief Peter Wakazoo’s selling off of the village of Wakazoo (part of present day Northport) to whites while under the influence of strong drink provided to him by those whites. In effect this would be the end of Reverend George N. Smith’s mission, as the Indians dispersed more widely, selling their village lots (which should not have been for immediate sale under the terms of the patents, but due to slack enforcement and incompetence, the details never were enforced.) This reference by Dougherty is priceless as it helps us to triangulate from Reverend Smith’s account of the event in his own diary.

Lastly Peter Dougherty closes with a recap of winter weather so far and notes that they get mail very scarcely and may not see any until winter is over, which means a few more months at least. Such were the vagaries of travel and the sheer isolation of Omena, whose main visitors came by boat, but not in the winter, and proper roads were but a notion at the best of times. Letter writing under these circumstances was almost an act of faith. It is fortunate that these letters have survived their difficult journeys and have been preserved for us to see.  If you would like to see the originals of this letter, and many others from Rev. Peter Dougherty of Omena and Old Mission, click on this link.
Thanks to Marsha Buehler, Archives and Committee Chair, for help with background biographical info and help with transcription.

Walter Lowrie, Esq
Grove Hill, January 1st, 1855

Dear Sir

After long delay I have filled out my report from the 1st of May to Nov. 1st. There is now employed in this institution under pay besides ourselves Miss Isbell, Porter, wife, Mr. Glen and Mrs. McConnell, Sarah Rogers cook, Mrs Milne & Miss Jane Milne and Mr. Greensky Interpreter. Mr. Porter I presume has informed you why Mrs. Milne & her daughter were retained. The circumstances in the judgement of all made it indispensable that they should stay. Mr. Greensky lives in the institute this winter but expects to build himself a house on some land I bought for him, in the spring. He is to receive at the rate of 100 dollars a year. Mr. Glen (and we fully agreed with him) thought he could not do all the choring and attend school. And as he had the right of school three months we had to retain George Craker. He was intending to leave to attend school some place and we offered him his board with the privilege of attending school if he would help do the work morning and evening which he agreed to do. There is due to him for wages from May 1853 to middle Dec 1854 two hundred thirty seven dollars. We borrowed a hand mill to grind corn for hominy. It answers very well.

Grove Hill Academy eventually became Hotel Leelanau

In my last letter I made allusion to a difficulty which led to the dismissal of one of the girls and the punishment of several other scholars. We discovered one night two of the boys in the girls’ sleeping room and found that some of the girls had secretly got a key which opened into the boys’ apartment and had encouraged the boys after we were gone to bed to get up and visit the girls’ rooms. The girl who appeared to be the chief guilty one we dismissed and punished by whipping the girls and boys who had been concerned in the matter. One boy to escape the punishment ran away. One was quite determined not to be whipped and wished me to consent to his going away without punishment which I refused and after some array of rope [?] he pulled off his coat and received the punishment. I then gave him the privilege of leaving if he chose but advised him to stay and behave himself which he decided to do and has behaved very well since. The matter was a painful one at the time but the effect of the punishment good. One of our boys has been very sick with inflammation of the bowels, is now some better after four weeks confinement in our room.

I would mention that the settlers at the old mission who are making claims there, had a meeting some month ago, and agreed to draw up a petition to congress and address letters to all the representatives from the state to have an act passed by which each one whose claim was described, and whose name was on the petition might have his claim secured at the government price. It was said at the meeting the mission would probably represent their own interests and aid the effort by their influence – as there is little communication between that and this this time of year. I have not heard whether the petition has been forwarded. You may be able to further the object and secure the rights of the Board there if you approve of this movement.

The present prospect is that the country will rapidly settle and I am fearful of what the effect will be on the Indians. More or less men will keep liquor. There has been a good deal of drinking during the past season on the Peninsula North of us, at Mr. Smith’s mission, there is danger they will be broken up. Some men have come in and purchased and by furnishing liquor got the chief of that band [Peter Wakazoo] drinking and he has sold the lands of the Indians. The Indians are dispirited and are selling their lots to white men. What they will do time will determine.

Our people are quiet; and not occupying any point that will immediately excite the cupidity of the white men as a point for business and speculation, and their lands being surrounded by state land which is not yet for sale, may not be disturbed. But the only hope for them here or elsewhere is to be men, be sober, industrious, and resist the destructive effects of intoxicating drink.

There has been much stormy weather and cold during the fore part of December but it is now very pleasant and the snow fast wasting. Our mail arrangement is all out of order. We have had no mail yet this winter and do not know if we will get any. I send this to the Post Office it find [sic] its way out.
Resply
yours
P. Dougherty