from Rev. John Clark, Supt. of Missions on the treasurer of the M. E. church, 200 Mulberry Street, N. Y."

Extract from a letter, John R. Livingstone, who succeeded Gabriel Franchère, March 21st, 1839, to C. W. Bomp, agent of the company at La Pointe: ..

I received a draft some time since, from a Mr. Brockway, the Supt. of the Methodist mission at this place, which has been protested, and from what he said of the debts of the mission I conclude he will not pay any accounts except those contracted by his order.

June 13th, 1840, this missionary seems to have been in better standing as appears in a letter, Livingstone to Bomp, of that date.

Mr. Brockway, our Methodist preacher, is up at your place. [La Pointe] I understand from Capt. Woods we owe him $300.or $400.-so that you can honor any of his drafts on us if he wishes to purchase. You would oblige me by accommodating him as much as you can. We all think a great deal of him, not for being an eloquent preacher, but a good, plain, unaffected Christian.

The mission at which these reverend gentlemen labored was located at Little Rapids, about two miles below the village and near the spot where Dulhut, or Duluth, and his companions left their canoes, a century and a half before, to surprise and capture Folle Avoine, the Indian murderer.

In 1883, the old mission barn, in a ruinous state, stood near the two large elm trees nearly in front of the country club; and the remains of a dwelling house, dilapidated and uninhabitable, stood near the drive from the club house to the highway and a little over a hundred feet from the water's edge.

Reverend John H. Pitezel, who was sent to this mission

I

in 1843, gives us a description of the buildings as they were at that time. Of the mission house he says: "One end was frame and partly finished, the other was built of hewed logs, much dilapidated and has since been displaced by a substantial frame building."

The missionary tells of the unsanitary condition in which he found the mission, and of the hardships endured by himself and family, with poor and inadequate help, in making it habitable.

The day school was made up of about 35 scholars; the average attendance during the winter was about eighteen. About this time, Betsey Ge-zhe-go-qua, one of our mission girls was married to John Tanner.

That Betsey here made the mistake of her life, was amply demonstrated by the ill treatment she afterward received at the hands of her eccentric husband.

The missionary writes in October, 1848: "At this time there is not a Protestant society in the place." What had become of the thriving societies established by Fathers Bingham and Porter? Lapsed, doubtless, since the leaders had gone away, and in the ever changing garrison and transient Protestant population, there were none to keep up the organizations.

At that time the garrison had gone to the Mexican war and

the fort was without troops. Sargeant Gent to whose care Fort Brady was consigned kindly offered us quarters, rent free, during the winter. . Little Rapids was still the rallying point for this mission so far as the Indians were concerned. Here were the farm, mission house, chapel and other buildings and conveniences. Our location was

'Lights and Shades of a Missionary Life, Rev. John H. Pitezel, 1859, P. 32, et seq.

a Government Reserve.

The river opened about the

the 9th, we had two arrivals,

A company

first of May, (1849) so that on the Steamers Tecumseh and Franklin. was sent up to occupy the fort and we were obliged to give up our quarters.

At this time Mr. Pitezel was Superintendent of Missions and did not reside at Little Rapids.

But little seems to have been recorded regarding this mission. Nothing has been found to indicate that it was maintained in active condition later than 1850.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Michigan Becomes a State-The War Over the Toledo Strip-Right Would Give it to Michigan-Might Gave it to Ohio-The Upper Peninsula an Unwelcome Addition to the State-Supposed to be Utterly Worthless-Its Checkered History-Gabriel Franchère Stationed at the Sault-His Interesting Letters-Building of the Schooner John Jacob Astor Above the Rapids-Discovery of Stannard's Rock-American Fur Company Buildings at the Sault in 1836-Vessels Calling at the Sault in 1835-1837.

How the Upper Peninsula came to be a part of the State of Michigan is a story which contains something of comedy, a little which came very near being tragedy, absolutely nothing of love and good-will, and is fraught with policy and greed; it tells how, ignoring covenants and agreements, the strong took from the weak that which was rightfully theirs but had not the power to hold; and, strange to relate, it all came out happily.

The story can be but briefly told here. One of the articles of the famous Ordinance of 1787, which was enacted for the government of the territory northwest of the Ohio, provided that there should ultimately be formed from it not less than three nor more than five states, the boundaries of which were designated. If three states were to be formed, they were to be bounded on the east and west by lines which constitute the east and west boundaries of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois respectively, the northern limits being the national boundary. Congress reserved the right to form one or two states out of the territory which lay north of an east and west line

drawn through the southerly bend of Lake Michigan. This, says Judge Cooley,'

was declared to be an article of compact between the original states and the people and the states in said territory, and by the express terms of the Ordinance was to "forever remain unalterable unless by common consent," and it never by common consent had been abrogated or changed.

When Ohio was admitted to the Union its northern boundary was made the old line mentioned in the Ordinance of 1787, that is, an east and west line drawn through the southern extreme of Lake Michigan. The act providing for the territory of Michigan made the said boundary of Ohio the southern boundary of Michigan Territory.

Another article of compact in the Ordinance of 1787 was, that as soon as any of the three or five states to be formed out of the Northwest Territory

shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such state shall be admitted by its delegates into the congress of the United States on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatsoever.

The Territory of Michigan, under which name was called that portion of the Northwest Territory which remained after the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois had been carved out of it, had so increased in population that in 1832, an election was held on the question of forming a state government, a large majority of the voters being in favor of the proposition; but owing to the Black Hawk War, as the disturbance of the Indians on the Mississippi in what is now Southern Wisconsin was called, and the outbreak of cholera, nothing came of this movement toward statehood.

'Cooley's History of Michigan, p. 214.