Detroit Michigan

Basman, Cyril Louis “Louie”, Jr. – Obituary

Richland, Oregon Cyril Louis “Louie” Basman Jr., 80, a longtime Richland resident, died Jan. 7, 2004, at his home. Louie’s family honored his request that there be no formal service for him. He was born on Jan. 1, 1924, at Detroit, Mich., to Cyril Louis and Joanna Thomaszowski Basman. He attended and graduated from Royal …

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Narrative of the captivity of Alexander Henry, Esq – Indian Captivities

Narrative of the captivity of Alexander Henry, Esq., who, in the time of Pontiac’s War, fell into the hands of the Huron Indians. Detailing a faithful account of the capture of the Garrison of Michilimacki-Nac, and the massacre of about ninety people. Written by himself. When I reached Michilimackinac I found several other traders, who …

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An Account of the Sufferings of Mercy Harbison – Indian Captivities

On the 4th of November, 1791, a force of Americans under General Arthur St. Clair was attacked, near the present Ohio-Indiana boundary line, by about the same number of Indians led by Blue Jacket, Little Turtle, and the white renegade Simon Girty. Their defeat was the most disastrous that ever has been suffered by our arms when engaged against a savage foe on anything like even terms. Out of 86 officers and about 1400 regular and militia soldiers, St. Clair lost 70 officers killed or wounded, and 845 men killed, wounded, or missing. The survivors fled in panic, throwing away their weapons and accoutrements. Such was “St. Clair’s defeat.”

The utter incompetency of the officers commanding this expedition may be judged from the single fact that a great number of women were allowed to accompany the troops into a wilderness known to be infested with the worst kind of savages. There were about 250 of these women with the “army” on the day of the battle. Of these, 56 were killed on the spot, many being pinned to the earth by stakes driven through their bodies. Few of the others escaped captivity.

After this unprecedented victory, the Indians became more troublesome than ever along the frontier. No settler’s home was safe, and many were destroyed in the year of terror that followed. The awful fate of one of those households is told in the following touching narrative of Mercy Harbison, wife of one of the survivors of St. Clair’s defeat. How two of her little children were slaughtered before her eyes, how she was dragged through the wilderness with a babe at her breast, how cruelly maltreated, and how she finally escaped, barefooted and carrying her infant through days and nights of almost superhuman exertion, she has left record in a deposition before the magistrates at Pittsburgh and in the statement here reprinted.

The Osage Massacre

When the treaty council with the Osage at Fort Gibson broke up in disagreement on April 2, 1833, three hundred Osage warriors under the leadership of Clermont departed for the west to attack the Kiowa. It was Clermont’s boast that he never made war on the whites and never made peace with his Indian enemies. At the Salt Plains where the Indians obtained their salt, within what is now Woodward County, Oklahoma, they fell upon the trail of a large party of Kiowa warriors going northeast toward the Osage towns above Clermont’s. The Osage immediately adapted their course to that pursued by their enemies following it back to what they knew would be the defenseless village of women, children, and old men left behind by the warriors. The objects of their cruel vengeance were camped at the mouth of Rainy-Mountain Creek, a southern tributary of the Washita, within the present limits of the reservation at Fort Sill.

Early Exploration and Native Americans

De Soto and his band gave to the Choctaws at Moma Binah and the Chickasaws at Chikasahha their first lesson in the white man’s modus operandi to civilize and Christianize North American Indians; so has the same lesson been continued to be given to that unfortunate people by his white successors from that day to this, …

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Biographical Sketch of Joseph G. Doherty

Doherty, Joseph G.; secretary Cleveland Milling Co.; born, Detroit, Mich.; educated Detroit public schools; married, Dec. 2, 1901; two children; secretary and general mngr. Cleveland Milling Co.; member Masonic order. Golf preferred recreation.

Biographical Sketch of William J. Guthrie

William J. Guthrie, one of San Bernardino’s brightest and most successful business men, was born in Detroit, Michigan, and was there brought up and educated, and started out in life as an employee in a mercantile agency, where he obtained a thorough knowledge of business customs and methods. His connection with that branch of business …

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Biographical Sketch of E. R. Grasselli

Grasselli, E. R.; manufacturer; born, Cleveland, 1872; son of C. A. and Johanna Ireland Grasselli; married, Detroit, Mich., April, 1901, Mabel Field; one son, Eugene Grasselli; began business with the Grasselli Chemical Co.; now 2nd vice pres. and treas.; director Broadway Savings & Trust Co. and Woodland Ave. Savings & Trust Co.; member Union, Country, …

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