Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library
Newspaper Page Text
15 ' ' , Recalling Pioneer Days in Canada Tug following pioneer itory wai i ! 1 a? true by Frank Kattray, a hunter and guide of the Upper Ottawa region, thirty yean ago. We had been hunting deer in the great tract of st that lay, in 1890, between the Ottawa River ifld Georgian Hay. For some days we camped t the head ol a small lake named Kahwaywas kaniOg Scarcely had our tongue got command of tl string oi Ojibway syllable: before we moved nine Set across a rocky and hilly tract; then pitched our tentf at tlu head Ol I lake much resembling the first. Jo our Mirprisc Frank, and the other guides, called it Kahwaywaskigamog. m After B little we called the lakei respectively "Kig" j ''i.' 1 am not sure today whether "Kig" or VW M ne norc northerly, though Frank's story mint well have fixed the location of each in one's memory. He was one of those long-legged back woodsmen who seem built, like the moose, for fast travel in a region of swamps, boulders, ridges and imKh wind fallen timber. His face looked about fifty years old, his legs acted as if about twenty. He had lived in there" all his life, as his father, grand father, and great grandfather had done. It wai m a later time probably during the Revolu tionary War, certainly after the Hudson Bay Company had come southward and established trading-posts on the Upper Ottawa, that Frank's great-grandfather must have trapped, according to Frank's story, about "Kig" and "Wig " "One time." said Frank, after listening to our specu lations about the lakes' similar names, "my granfer's daddy got kind of mixed up, same as you men are. I mind well hearing my granfer tell about it. "In them days the old man was trappin' in 'round here with Ins pardnCT the name of him bein' Jeremy Callback I Kaulback probably), or some such name. They was both from somewheres 'way south I guess probably from New York Province and Holy Terrors on Injins they both was. My granfer used to tell how bis old daddy would be a-peekin' roun' for Injins when he COttldn't more'n hobble. I guess likely he'd kdled so many of 'em they kinda ha'nted his old age. "What the Injins had did to him and old Jeremy 1 never rightly made out. but they was all for Injin huntin'. and that's why they wouldn't jine nary side when the Yankees and the British was fighting in York Province, or wheresomever it was. Jeremy an' Zekle Zekle was my great-granfer's name -wa'n't the kind for lojerin, anyhow they wai too fond of their own ways. 1 guess it wa'n't they was scareder of bullets 'n some thet lined the armies. It's true my grandad used to tell that Zekle and Jeremy would sometimes get mad about the King's crowd hirin' In jins for tightin' on same side. Hut then again they'd get madder at Genera' . , ashington's crowd when they .ccklected that they was fight in' on same side with a lot of French. 1 rench wasn't Injins. but then Injins wasn't French Zekle'd say and French was often more interferiu' with white trappers. "It hint Zekle's an' Jeremy's feelin'i 1;m1 to think of reg'lar Christian - ill tangled up that way with pagan Injins and jabber in' French, when reg'lar Christians' duty nat'rllly was to have turned in and had real good times wipin' both Fren ii and Injins, so's beaver COOld breed more in peace and com fort like, and get their pelts ready Of the only right kind of trap pers at the right season of the year. An Eye A Iways Open for Indians "DOTH on em lived like In- J ins, an' dressed same as In JHis. and fou't Injins an' so they jiat rally was always in the mind were was njtna lookhV 'bout fer f" scalps. All the same they was rtrappm" in this here lnjin COWV ry: y all accounts they done JU makin' money at it, for all ,y was always peekin' roun fer '"Jin siKu. Well, ai I was tellin' ye, them lo trapped all roun 'bout this here egion one year. In the spring I U must have been their win . nirs they wa wantin'-to swap WfmumtKwi and supplies. So, heS.0,d 'an Zekle, Jeremy; says spose we trap right roun' Kah- kitH v,Ra,nnK a,ld Kahwaywas kigamog g,n' aiK)ther winte. and so w WC do'' says Jeremy '2 n was agreed, he cofff!?'' Old Zekle, only Vldt hcv been old then, north J? I!! to mcet at the TOa kahwaywaskigamog By EDWARD W. THOMSON about the first day of October.' or mebby he said kahwaywaswigamog. Anyhow, 'SpOSttV we do,' IA) l Jeremy, and so they was agreed. They was separatin different ways, you will understand. "Jeremy, In was goin' south with his fur to tin tradin' post on Georgian Bay, mebby a hundred miles; an' Zekle he was goin' north-like about the same dis tance to the tradin' post on the Grand River, as they called the Ottawa them times. Likely their notion was they'd get better trade for their furs if they went sep arate. Or mebby they was thinkin' 'bout Injins like two men goin' out for patrishes they reckoned they'd get more if they went separate. And agin they'd hev somethin' diffunt to tell one another in the fall. "I Mixed on the Meeting Place NEVER heerd tell what they was doin' all sum mer, but whatever it was my granfer used to say it couldn't have been agreeable to Injins. Finally, 'long about the first of October, Old Zekle he come 'long here somewheres with his winter supplies in his canoe. He camps fer mebby a couple of days 'bout the head of Kahwaywaskigamog, keepin' his eye peeled for In jins as usual. "But Injins wa'n't really troublin' his mind it was the notion he might have come to the wrong lake. If he was wrong he'd have to go down to the out end, and paddle round 'bout thirty miles on the creeks, as you men know, and make three long por tages of all his stuff before he could get to the head of Kahwaywaswigamog, if that was where Jeremy would be expectin' him. M 'What was it I did tell Jeremy,' says Old Zekle to himself. T know I meant Kahwaywaskigamog, but darn the names of 'em, mebby I said Kahwaywaswigamog. Skin my cats if I don't disremember. Mebby he's a-waitin' over yonder for me ; or mebby the Reds has raised his hair at last. It was overdoo. If they've killed my old pardner ! But before I say what I'll do to 'em, guess 1 better go 'crost and see.' "So he ups next mornin', and sets out with only his powder horn and rifle and a few bullets, keepin' a lookout for lnjin sign, you may depend. "Well now the cur'us thing was 'bout Jeremy he'd got mixed up with them two names, same as his pardner. Jeremy he'd got to Kahwaywaswigamog all right, and he'd waited a couple of days, and then he says to himself, 'I'm dead sure,' says Jeremy, 'that "The bullrt Ptter onto the boulder, end Uncc. iio the bar 'I of Zekle'. gun. end knocks it clean out ol bin bend! Zekle app'intcd to met t me here, only mebby he didn't. Might be it was Kahwaywaskigamog Zekle said scalp me it it mustn't have been. ( r else I reckon the Injins must have got Zekle's hair it was more'n over dno. Or else he's a-waitin' for me over yonder 'bout nine mile. But I guess they've wiped him Out at last; he'i been gettin' keerleai sinst wt come up here north where Injins is so easy. It'd have been mebby better for Zekle it" he'd gone sojerin' only who's a-goin' to be bossed around? Me, I'll go Yrost to Kahwaywas kigamog an trays.' "So Jeremy. starts for "Kig," 'bout the same time Zekle starts tor "Wig." You'll easy understand the insidcs of 'em both was jttft burnin' up with the notion maybe the Injins had wiped out his old pardner. And so I kind of see 'em a-workin' through the woods, with each of 'em his rifle ready, an' both of 'em a-peekin' in hopes of catchin' sight first of some inur derin' villain of a lnjin. and addin' him to the string of notches all roun' the butt end "Well, sir, the forenoon was gittin' along, and Old Man Zekle was movin' mighty cautious somewheres nigh where he minded he left a lnjin lyin' in the spring, when up flies a raven a piece ahead of him, crost a little sort of natural clearin'. Zekle he knowed he ain't scared up that raven. So he knowed an lnjin done it. And he scrouches down 'bout flat, hopin' the riven wouldn't pint him out to the lnjin, and then he'd have things all his own way. "But the raven flies right straight towards the old man ; then it rises up higher and flies to one side like it was scared agin, and so the Injin'd know there was a gun a-lookin' for him. Zekle he kind of felt kit scalp a-crinklin', for the lnjin would be warned, and there was no tellin' which of 'em would be proud in the end. He'd teetotally forgot Jeremy it was all lnjin and Zekle in old Zekle's mind. The Shots Fired U'T'HERE was a big boulder 'bout a rod in front of 1 the old man he knowed it from last year. It had a kind of corner gone out of one up-side. Zekle he works crawlin' 'long the ground so's he'd get there and peek forrard with his main body all purtected, and only his eye and his gun lookin' out in that up-side corner. "Well, he got there all right, and he raises up with his rifle just in that corner. That same instant he sees just a kind of glint beside a tree 'bout seventy yards 'crost the little clearin' then Mfkmng. The old man let fly and wktmg the other bullet came at him. "It spatters onto the boulder, and glances agin the bar'l of Zekle's gun, and knocks it clean out of his hand ! Wa'n't he rip-tearin' mad? For he knowed the crack of Jeremy's rifle as well as Jeremy knowed the crack of Zekle's. 'What ye been doin' to yourself?' yells Zekle, very insultin'. 'Sech shootin'!' "'Shootin'!' yells back Jeremy. 'You missed clean. If I couldn't shoot better'n that, I'd go for a sojer !' "'I'll show you if I can shoot!' howls the old man, madder'n a hornet, and loadin' again fast as he could pelt it in. " 'Bound to murder me for my traps, eh?' screams Jeremy. 'I'll teach you better,' and he rams his bullet down. " 'Ambushin' yer pardner !' yells Zekle. 'Ye're worse'n any red skin !' "'Ambushin'? You'd have mur dered me if you could hit a barn door!' shouts Jeremy. 'Waylayin' your pardner to murder me !' "'Waylayin'?' the old nan was primin' his lock. 'Call this Kah waywaskigamog?' says he. " 'You pinted to meet me at Kahwaywaswigamog,' says Jeremy. 'I been a-waitin' for you this three days.' "'I didn't I pinted Kahway waskigamog !' roars Zekle, mad der'n a wolverine. " 'Kahwaywasw igamog !' yells Jeremy. " 'Kahwaywaskigamog !' howls Zekle. ' And jest how them two did come to an understandin' ," con cluded Frank Rattray, "I never heard tell rightly. But they did. Only after that there was a kind of coolness bctwigst them, and they'd never go pardners any more, 'cause the both of em had fell into a great contempt for the other fel ler's shootin'."