| Notes |
- William Morrison
Posted by Dick Campbell on Mon, 12
Apr 1999
"William Morrison, one of Becker County's earliest white settlers,
was born in Montreal, Canada, March 7th, 1785.
His father was a Scotch immigrant named Allan Morrison, a native of
Stornoway, on the Lewis, one of the Hebrides or western Isles,
forming part of Scotland, and his mother a Canadian French lady named
Jane (or Jessie) Wadin.
William having received a common school education, commenced clerking
in a store in Montreal before he was fifteen years of age.
Montreal was at that time the home and general headquarters of the
British and Canadian fur traders, who came down the Ottawa and St
Lawrence Rivers, in mackinaw boats and birch-bark canoes, every
summer, with their winter's collectionof furs, and returned the same
season, to the far Northwest, with a new supply of goods for the next
winter's business.
The few avenues to fortunes presented to the ambitious young men by
the Canada of that day, coupled with the tales of adventures, and
stories of the large profits made in the fur trade, fired young
Morrison's ambition, and he at the early age of sixteen, was
apprenticed by his father with the Northwest Fur Company, then the
great rival of the more ancient Hudson's Bay Company, and started for
old Grand Portage on Lake Superior, the Company's western
headquarters, with the returning boats.
The next year, in 1802, he was sent to Leech Lake and thence to an
outpost on the headwaters of one of the streams tributary to the Crow
Wing River, from which point they collected furs from their Indian
hunters scattered through what is now Becker and Otter Tail Counties.
These Indians were Pillager Chippewas, and from information gathered
from some of the old Indians I knew at Leech Lake in 1870, and who
remembered well "Sha-gah-nansh-eence," the "Little Englishman," as he
was called by the Chippewas, I would locate this outpost at Shell
Lake.
In 1803-4 Morrison wintered at Upper Rice Lake on the head waters of
the Wild Rice River, and it was during that winter and the spring of
1804 that he visited Lake Itasca and the various smaller lakes which
form part of the source of the Mississippi River. No white man had
ever visited that country before Morrison, and he rightfully claimed
to be the discoverer of the source of this great river, although
Nicollet, Beltrami and Schoolcraft all claimed this honor several
years later.
It being the policy of the Northwest Fur Company not to allow any of
its traders to remain more than one or two years at the game outpost,
Morrison was, in this manner, enabled to visit many places, and
became well acquainted with the fur resources of a vast territory;
the knowledge so acquired soon proved of great value to him.
His industrious habits and natural shrewdness, coupled with his
ability to handle the rough "voyageurs" and his popularity among the
Indians, soon attracted the notice of his employers, and after
several years spent in managing various trading posts tn Minnesota,
he was placed in charge of a number of them, with headquarters at
Sandy Lake, on the upper Mississippi River. It was while stationed
there that an incident occurred, illustrating his popularity with,
and influence over the Indians.
Tecumseh's brother, "The Prophet," had sent out his tobacco to all
the western and northwestern tribes, with a secret message to the
Indians to join him in a general massacre of the whites in the Indian
country.
Such was the reputation and influence of this famous grand medicine
man, the prophet, over the Indians, that although the Chippewas were
of a peaceful disposition and had no great cause of complaint against
their traders, they dared not refuse the invitation. The tobacco sent
was smoked in secret council, the Indians withdrew away from the
trading posts, and generally assumed an unfriendly attitude.
Morrison had left Sandy Lake and gone on a business trip to Fond du
Lac, to meet with the other chief traders and the managing board of
the Northwest Company. While there, messengers came in from Sandy
Lake and a number of other trading posts, with reports, that the
Indians were acting in an unfriendly manner, and that their actions
indicated there was mischief a brewing, but none of the traders'
employes could find out what the trouble was.
The assembled traders decided that Morrison was the only one able to
get the secret out of the Indians, and he started at once for Sandy
Lake, his own post, with the messenger who had brought the report.
They had a light birch canoe and traveled rapidly, so that on the
forenoon of the third day they paddled out of Prairie River into
Sandy Lake.
Some young Indians, who were returning from a deer hunt, recognizing
him, hurried home to spread the news, that the "Little Englishman"
was coming home. From stray hints heard while at Fond du Lac,Morrison
had made up his mind that "The Prophet" was at the bottom of the
trouble, and he soon decided on his plan of action. Paddling close to
the shore he was soon opposite the wigwams of the Indians, but
contrary to custom he never stopped to enquire about the news and
kept on as if in a great hurry. This nettled the suspicious Indians,
and one of them was sent on to intercept Morrison above one of the
small portages which cut across the points formed by the long bends
of the Mississippi River, below the mouth of the Sandy Lake River.
His face was painted black, and as Morrison did not seem to notice
him, the Indian hailed the canoe, when the paddlers stopped. "You
seem to be in great hurry," said the Indian, "what news where you
come from?" "Nothing," answered Morrison, "and what is going on
here?" "Nothing here either." Then Morrison slowly began paddling
away; stopping suddenly, he half turned around saying: "Oh yes, there
is some news I was forgetting. The great medicine man, "The Prophet,"
has been killed by the Long Knives, (the Americans). Then he resumed
paddling and soon reached his stockade, a short distance down the
Mississippi. The next day the Indians flocked in and resumed friendly
relations, without showing the least sign of ill feeling.
As luck would have it, messengers came a few days afterwards from
Lake Superior; confirming his report of the death of "The Prophet,"
and all circumstances connected with the plot came out.
It was a lucky hit. Morrison had calculated that if he could get the
Indians to come around, he would succeed in getting them started out
deer hunting, birch-bark raising, etc., and get them scattered, so
they could not spend their days of idleness in plotting more
mischief.
William Morrison stayed with the Northwest Fur Company until in 1816,
when being offered better inducements, he joined the American Fur
Company (John Jacob Astor's), and was placed in charge of the
department of Fond du Lac, with headquarters at Old Superior,
Wisconsin. This department embracing within its territory, Lake
Vermillion, Red Lake, Sandy Lake, Leech Lake, Lake Winnebagoshish,
Cass Lake, Otter Tail Lake, Crow Wing on the Mississippi, and Grand
Portage on Lake Superior. He remained in charge of John Jacob Astor's
business there until 1826, when having acquired what was called a
competency for those day', he retired from the fur trade and returned
to Canada. There to purchased a large island, since known as
Morrison's Island, in the St. Lawrence River, between Old Fort
William Henry, now Sorel, on the south shore, and Berthier-en-Haut,
on the north shore of the river.
For some years he was engaged in farming, but pastoral life was too
quiet and unexciting for his active mind, and after a few years spent
on the farm, he settled in Berthier, where for many years he carried
on a mercantile business, and was also judge of the county court.
While trading in the upper Mississippi country, he married a Pillager
Chippewa woman, by whom he had two boys and a girl. His wife dying
soon after the birth of the last born, the children were, according
to Indian custom, taken care of by the wife's mother, who always
thereafter followed and lived with her grandchildren. When Morrison
left the Indian country in 1826, he made arrangements to take his
three children with him, but on the eve of the day set for the
departure of the boats, from Superior for Mackinoe, the grandmother
stole the children and disappeared during the night. Search for them
was made for several days, but with-out success, and they were
necessarily left behind. They returned eventually to Leech Lake, and
in course of time the two boys grew to be great hunters and warriors,
and many Sioux scalps dangled from their belts whenever they went out
with a war party.
In spite of their Indian bringing up, and thanks to the good advice
given them by their uncle, Allan Morrison, they never forgot that
they were of white blood, and always exercised their influence over
their reckless tribesmen to keep them from molesting the whites, and
but for the stand take n by Joseph, (or Ay-gans as the Indians called
him), at Leech Lake during the outbreak of 1862, there would have
been a massacre of the employes and traders at the agency.
Hole-in-the-day, head chief of the Mississippi Chippewas, had stirred
up the Pillagers to such a pitch that they had robbed the stores and
made the whites prisoners. They had met in several councils and the
most reckless of them had decided that the whites must die the next
morning. Ay-gans had taken an active part in the councils, but had
always taken the part of the prisoners. At last, when he saw that all
his efforts had been in vain, he got up and spoke about their
comradeship in war and in the hunts, and also on their relationship
to one another and of that law of nature which binds kin to kin, and
then he bared his arm, displaying his light skin, saying: "You are
talking of killing our white friends. and you say they must die
tomorrow. Look at this arm; it is light colored, the blood that runs
through it is white man's blood, and when you kill our white friends
you will kill me also." That last part of the speech was telling. Ay-
gans was a brave man, and his last words, were to Indian ears, both
defiant and threatening. The next morning other brave men took sides
with the whites and their lives were spared. They were marched down
to Gull Lake as prisoners, and turned over to the care of the Gull
Lake Indians, and afterwards liberated.
Descendants of this Jos. Morrison are now settled on the Wild Rice
River in Norman County, but formerly were a part of the first
contingent of Otter Tail Chippewas, who removed with their father to
Becker County in 1872, and settled around the present agency and the
Old Trading Post.
The daughter was taken into the family of one of the missionaries and
followed them to Stillwater, where she married a German farmer, and
died several years ago. Joseph died at Beaulieu, Minn., in January,
1889. His older brother Richard, or Dekaince, died at Otter Tail Lake
about 1870.
William Morrison's second wife was a Miss Ronssain, daughter of a
Fond du Lac, Minn., Indian trader. She was the mother of two sons and
two daughters, and went with her husband to Canada, where she died a
few years afterwards. William, the older of the two boys, left Canada
for the. west and eventually joining one of Col. Fremont's
expeditions to the Pacific coast, went to California, where he
settled and died about 1850.
The younger son, Donald George, left Canada before he was twenty
years of age, and worked his way through Michigan, Illinois and
Wisconsin to Minnesota, where he settled in the Red River valley near
the boundary line, and became a member of the territorial Legislature
of Minnesota. A few years later he settled in Old Superior;
Wisconsin, where he was elected register of deeds of Douglas County,
an office he held for years afterwards. He died in Superior, in 1898.
After the death: of his second wife, William Morrison found himself
with four young children, with none but hired help to manage and care
for them, so after a couple years of this kind of existence, he
married Miss Elizabeth Ann Kittson, an elder sister of the late
Commodore N. W. Kittson of St Paul, Minnesota. Four daughters were
born of that union.
Mrs. Morrison died in February, 1864, and her husband, who had been
blind for several years could not bear up long under the blow. He
aged rapidly after this, and although surrounded by kind friends who
endeavored by their attentions and company, to keep his mind
interested in the events of the day, he lost all interest in life and
gradually passed away. He died on Morrison's Island August 7th, 1866,
and was buried in Sorel, alongside of his last wife.
In religion he was an Episcopalian, and in politics a Conservative,
and a strong supporter of the Canadian government in the troublesome
years of 1837-38, and possessed of much influence with the
authorities. This he used to good advantage after the rebellion, and
was instrumental in saving the lives and liberty of many of his
patriotic friends."
from pages 226 - 232 in the book "A Pioneer History of Becker County
Minnesota" by Alvin H. Wilcox, published in 1907.
A Pioneer History of Becker County,
Minnesota
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1785 - 1866 (81 years)