R. B. Oglesbee (Probably written in the late 1890's)

R. B. Oglesbee (Probably written in the late 1890's)


	Here, without stopping, we saw where Peter White, beginning with a small cabin in the edge of the thick woods, carved a farm out of the wilderness, built a handsome house and other substantial improvements, and raised a large family prosperously. At the Michigan road land sale at Logansport in October, 1831, he bought 240 acres which he had already inspected and early in the ensuing spring he was in motion with his family and outfit on the long march from the Ohio river almost to the lake. Robert White recalls that journey well, and as we drove slowly along through section 21, where he still owns a part of the original paternal entry, it was easily noticed that his mind was traveling amid scenes familiar to him, three-fourths of a century back, when he, a stout and wide awake lad of 15, was making his first acquaintance with Indians in their native country. Our next purpose was to find some spots connected with La Porte county career of that romantic old half-breed whom they all knew as Old Shadney, but whose correct name was Jean Baptiste Chandonnais. This man was one of that notable group of educated Indians and half-breeds who were friendly to the white influences and exercised a powerful control over the tribes in the treaties and other intercourse with the government. As a young man at the beginning of the century he became a clerk for John Kinzie, the Indian trader, first on the St. Joseph river, then at Fort Dearborn, and in that capacity he knew every prominent red man on either side of Lake Michigan. He was acting for his employer in a confidential relationship at the time of the Fort Dearborn massacre in 1812 and was able to save the entire Kinzie family from slaughter on that occasion. In the war of 1812 he was a trusted scout under Generals Cass and Harrison and rendered the government very valuable service. At the close of the war he became a trader on his own account in connection with the American Fur Company, John J. Astor's great trust, and was located at Chicago, and later on the St. Joseph. The Pottawatomies and their allies trusted him profoundly as one of their agents in the several treaties negotiated with them and in each of those treaties he received grants of land. By the Chicago treaty of 1821 he received two sections on the St. Joseph river, and there he went to reside; but about 1829 he removed to section 28 in Scipio township, this county, and lived with his Indian wife in a typical wigwam. During the Michigan road operations he was useful to William Polke, the road commissioner, and restrained his red friends from a violent prevention of the survey and construction of that highway. At the time of the Blackhawk outbreak he was a valued adviser of the white defenders at the old fort. In 1834 he sold his land in this county to George W. and Reuben Allen and removed to St. Joseph county, where he died in 1837. In his later years he was a miserable victim of the liquor habit and nothing of the heroic was left in him. By the Tippecanoe river treaties of October, 1832, the following donations were affected: "For J. B. Shadernah, one section of land in Door Prairie, where he now lives; to Kesis Shadana, one section; to Louis Chadana, one half section; to Charles Shadana, one half section; to John B. Chadana, one section." These are only a few of the multitude of variations in which his name occurs in the records. The section where he lived was 28; Kesis was his Indian wife; Louis and Charles were his children. A year later, at the Chicago treaty of 1833, he was named with Charles and Mary as his children, Louis and the wife being omitted. In 1847 a congressional grant to his heirs names them as Mary B., his widow, and Charles B. and Mary L. as his children. Louis and Kesis both died between the 1832 and 1833 treaties, and after the death of the latter the old half-breed brought from Detroit a French woman who has been his wife and was the mother of children by him and who now rejoined him and was recognized as his lawful widow after his death. Mr. White remembers that the names of Shadney's children by the squaw wife were Hortense, Kesis and Pos-kow, and that the squaw died in child-birth in the latter part of 1832, Peter White helped to bury her. These Indian children were never mentioned in any of the treaties, and their fate is unknown. A few yards west of Joshua Watson's house there is a low marsh with high banks. This was once a cranberry marsh much frequented by the Indians, who had a dancing ground on the level bank close to the house mentioned; there they gathered periodically to celebrate with much noise some of their tribal ceremonies. At its edge in a rude hut lived a lame Indian who died about 1833 and was buried by Peter White. At this point we left the road and entered a piece of woods in the northwest quarter of Shadney's grant, or donation, or reservation, as section 28 was variously called by the old inhabitants, and proceeded to the center of the section. Mr. White's object here was to find the spot where the Shadney cabins stood and where the squaw was buried; but all the old landmarks have passed away, the face of the country is entirely changed and it was difficult at first to get a starting point. Upon reflection the situation gradually cleared itself in his mind and he was able to indicate the desired spots within a few paces. When the white farmers first settled down in Shadney's vicinity he had a winter cabin and sugar camp in the woods which are still standing in the north part of the southwest quarter of 28, on land now owned by Henry Craft; he had a summer cabin or wigwam a very little east where of where Mr. Watson's house now stands in the northeast quarter of the section; later he constructed a better cabin about 20 rods west and 30 or 40 feet south of the center of the section. In this later cabin died Kesis, and she was buried under a wild cherry tree which grew until a few years ago not more than two or three rods west of the cabin and almost on the center section line. The field containing the sites of the cabin and the grave is now cleared and cultivated and is owned by Mr. Craft. It is a tradition from the pioneer days that Shadney's section was given to him in recompense for his services in quieting the Indians who were objecting to the Michigan road, but the fact is otherwise. The nation would not have rewarded a service to the state of Indiana, especially when the state itself had ample means from the nation, in the shape of a large land grant, to make such a donation. From 1821 to 1847, by every general Pottawatomie treaty and by congressional grant, awards of land and money were made to Shadney and his heirs in recognition of his great service to the nation in the war of 1812 and in the subsequent Indian negotiations, and the congressional files for 1832 show that the specific donation in this county had been under contemplation before the Michigan road service was rendered. Old Shadney's French widow, under the name of Mary B. Chaudonia, lived in St. Joseph county until her death at a very great age in or about 1876, making her home latterly with her grandchildren, who still reside there. She survived her own children, Charles T. Chaudonia, son of her son Charles B., and Edward Breset, son of her daughter Mary L., were faithful Union soldiers in the civil war.