Famous
historical characters were among Reverend Philip Gordon's ancestors.
In 1636, John Dingley migrated from England to Massachusetts. His
daughter, Mary, married a son of Miles Standish. Seven Generations
later, Daniel Dingley married Isabella La Prairie (Musk-ko-dence)
who was half French and half Chippewa Indian. Isabella was the daughter
of a clerk for the Northwestern Fur Company mentioned in Curot's
Journal for 1803-4.
Sarah, one of Daniel and Isabella's five children, became Philip's
grandmother. Sarah was born in 1827 at Cadot's trading post at the
mouth of the Yellow River in what is now Burnett County, Wisconsin.
When Sarah was a young girl the family prepared for a long journey
to a new home in St. Joseph, Michigan, on the east shore of Lake
Michigan. They were careful in the construction of a canoe for the
journey. It must have be light as possible because there would be
many portages where Sarah's father would carry the canoe over paths
through forests abounding in pine, spruce, fir and birch. Isabella
would pack a few belongings on her back.
Game, fish and berries were plentiful; available for the taking
so there would be no need to carry many provisions, so there would
be no need to carry many provisions. They would take some wild rice
from the previous year's crop and a supply of furs for trade at
posts along the way. Mink was plentiful and cheap but Dingley had
other furs - muskrat, beaver, otter, but especially fox which was
the most valuable at the time.
Dingley was fortunate in being in an area where birch was readily
available. It was the most satisfactory material for a canoe, being
light and pliable. A completed craft was easily carried by one man.
It was necessary to cut down the tree to obtain the thick sheets
of bark for a canoe. When the family made their preparations, it
was spring and the bark was at its best for canoe building.
It was necessary to cut down the tree to obtain the thick sheets
of bark for a canoe. When the family made their preparations, it
was spring and the bark was at its best for canoe building.
Daniel was experienced in canoe construction. He had prepared material
in advance. Several days before, he had split cedar trees and these
were soaking so they would be ready for the framework when needed.
He began making the canoe by laying out the birchbark sheets. He
placed a wooden frame on them and held them down with stones. Then
he bent up the edges and drove posts into ground around the outside
to hold sides in place.
When he put in the cedar gunwales, Isabella made holes around the
edge with an awl made of quartz and then sewed them in place with
strings she prepared from spruce roots. Ribs were fashioned from
the cedar they had soaking. Daniel then inserted braces, known as
thwarts, to rigidly hold the sides in place.
While they worked, spruce gum was being heated. They used this to
seal the seams and make them watertight. They would take along a
good supply of spruce gum to make repairs along the way. In an emergency,
the gum could be chewed to soften it instead of being heated.
Now they had a craft like that of which Hiawatha said, "I, a light
canoe will build me
that shall float upon the river, like
a yellow leaf of autumn, like a yellow water lily!'
The family traveled much of the summer to reach their new home.
The rivers, which were rushing torrents when they began their journey,
gradually slowed to a calm rhythm as summer advanced.
When the Dingley's reached St. Joseph; Daniel opened a large trading
post. It was Father Gordon later described in some handwritten notes
as a "religious arrival (or revival)" - even after being highly
educated, Father Gordon was noted for his poor penmanship - Daniel
Dingley and his partner, "with a written form of self-dedication
to God, brought the Indian women with whom they had been living
according to Indian custom, and were legally married" in 1829.
One day Daniel Dingley packed a deerskin pouch with some wild rice,
loaded his powder horn and shot pouch, shouldered his rifle and
stared out on a hunting expedition. He was never heard from again.
The family stayed at St. Joseph for a time, then moved to La Pointe
on Madeline Island in Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior.
Sarah experienced the ceremonial fast and isolation as every Indian
girl did when she reached the age of sexual eligibility and adult
importance according to her Indian Mother's tradition. She had learned
her many skills from her mother. She learned to weave, tan hides,
make articles of birchbark, and how to gather and prepare wild foods.
Sarah was a dark-eyed sixteen-year-old when she met the enterprising
French and Indian fur trader, Antoine Gaudin. Sarah was well prepared
for her marriage to Antoine.
Antoine's father, Jean Baptiste Gaudin, who was Philip's great-grandfather,
was a Frenchman who was born at Trois Rivieres in the Province of
Quebec. He was employed as a voyageur from La Pointe. He roamed
the forests as far west as Mille Lacs in what is now Minnesota.
While there he married A-we-ni-shan (Young Beaver) a sister of Hole-in-the-Day,
The Elder. This was the beginning of Philip Gordon's Indian heritage.
A-we-ni-shan's nephew, Hole-in-the-Day, the Younger, (Pug-o-ne-gi-jik),
became a noted figure in Minnesota History. He was the acting head
chief while Buffalo was hereditary chief of the Chippewa or Ojibway
tribe.
When Antoine was twelve years, old he went to Sault Sainte Marie,
Michigan, with his family. A few years later they returned to La
Pointe where the American Fur Company had its headquarters under
Michel Cadot, the "Great Michel" as the Indians called him. Michel
fraternized with the Indians and married Equaysayway, the daughter
of Chief White Crane; but like the other traders, he exploited the
Indians, buying the raw furs at ridiculously low prices. Michel
Cadot did business of about $40,000 annually.
Antoine married Sarah Dingley and in 1845 he opened a trading post
and remained at La Pointe for ten years. Besides the post, he acquired
an interest with Vincent Roy of Superior in the schooner Algonquin.
The ship had been built in 1839 at Black River, Ohio; now know as
Lorain, for the Ohio Fishing and Mining Company. In 1845 it had
been portaged around the Soo Rapids by use of timbers and rollers,
block and tackle and ox team.
Although there had been other sailing vessels on Lake Superior before
the Algonquin, she was the first of importance to carry cargo on
the lake. Gaudin hauled logs from the Bad River area and returned
with lumber and supplies for his trading post at La Pointe.
Antoine moved his family to a farm near the present site of Washburn
in 1855 when William, who would become Philip's father, was only
five years old. He eventually sold his interest in the Algonquin
and in 1860, he lead a group of French and Indians in two long,
slim birchbark canoes down the St. Croix River.
The St. Croix and its tributaries had long been a trade route and
warpath of the Chippewa and Sioux tribes. The last great battle
between the two rivals was fought on the St. Croix. The river ran
red with Sioux blood when the Chippewa Chief Buffalo and his warriors,
although fewer in number, outwitted and defeated the Sioux.
Gaudin proceeded to St. Croix near the mouth of the Snake River,
taking a stock of trade goods for trade with the Indians. Cadot
had a post there as well as at Yellow River and Pokegema Lake to
the west. (You will remember the Yellow River post was the birthplace
of Sarah, grandmother of Father Gordon.)
Although the population in the southern part of the state was growing
at a rapid rate, northwestern Wisconsin was still an untamed wilderness,
covered by seemingly inexhaustible pine forests. The pines thrived
on light, sandy soil deposited in the St. Croix Valley by glaciers.
There were less than six people per square mile.
Lumberman looked longingly at the vast north woods but transportation
of timber was impossible. The Indians had lived here for centuries,
sustained by the resources of forest, lakes and streams. They lived
in harmony with Nature, or existed at its mercy, taking of its abundance
only what they needed for their survival. If they exhausted the
resources of one area they had but to move on to better hunting
grounds and the area they left would soon replenish.
When the lumbermen penetrated the densely forested area they found
that white pine was the most prized for lumber. It was easy to work
with and was light and easily transported. Before the coming of
the railroad all the logs were floated down the rivers. Pine would
float, whereas hardwoods sank to the bottom.
Historians referred to the area as the Folle Avoine Sauteur (literally,
Wild Oats Jumping). The wild oats was actually wild rice, not a
grain at all but a type of grass, which grew profusely in the shallows
along the rivers. The Indians said wild rice must grow with its
feet in the water and its head dry.
Gaudin later planted rice for the Indians at Mulligan Lake, and
he is known as the first conservationist. His descendants have harvested
wild rice ever since; more than five thousand pounds a year have
been taken from this lake. Some of his plantings can still be seen.
Antoine stayed for a while at Lost Post: but with the lumber business
in mind, in 1862 he landed at the junction of the Eau Claire and
St. Croix Rivers at a place the Indians called Amick (the Beaver).
He sold his interests at La Pointe and purchased 40 acres of land
from the Wisconsin Land and Improvement Company and Henry Rice Land
Company.
The log building Gaudin erected on the Eau Claire River was his
home and trading store and became a boarding house for travelers
as well. Winters were severe and often a time of want and privation
with below-zero temperatures and deep snow. Gaudin gave shelter
to Indians who were in need. He became their counselor and spokesman
and acted as mediator between the wandering bands.
Some of the trade goods for the store were hauled from St. Paul
by ox team or horses, pumping along the stage route over stumps
and ruts. The stage line had been established in 1860 through the
wilderness by widening the old foot trails.
The alternate route was up the Brule from La Pointe, navigating
the canoes for about thirty-five miles, then carrying them over
the Brule-St. Croix Portage, a distance of two miles over a pine
ridge.
During their long absences, the missionaries urged the people to
build a chapel or church where they could meet Anton Gordon, familiarly
known as Tony, paid most of the expenses in the construction of
a little log church in Gordon in 1874.
Recognizing the need of education for the children, he erected a
log building in 1883, across from the trading post and next to the
church. Here he taught both white and Indian children to read and
write during the week and provided religious instruction on Sunday.
Gordon had only three months of formal education, but he believed
in education and learned to speak English, French, and Chippewa.
He also read Latin and understood the Sioux tongue.
Gordon's contact with the brown-robed Franciscans was largely responsible
for his education. When he was a young man in La Pointe he had been
choirmaster and interpreter for Bishop Baraga, the famous missionary.
The Bishop had written a grammar and dictionary of the Chippewa
language.
It was only through the influence of his Indian mother that Anton
did not pursue his aspiration to become a priest, a dream fulfilled
many years later by his grandson, Philip.
Before his death in 1907, Tony Gordon had served three years as
the first postmaster of Gordon; he was the town supervisor for six
years and school treasurer for ten years. He was healthy and alert
in his old age and operated the store until 1905.
Tony Gordon hired George Stuntz, who surveyed much of the territory,
to lay out a town. When the Northern Wisconsin Railway was built
in 1862, Gordon deeded the right-of-way and a depot was built. Around
the turn of the century a village was established and named for
its first settler, Tony Gordon. His wife, Sarah, was often called
upon to act as midwife and on some occasions she was transported
by handcar on the Northwestern Railway.
This was the place to which William Gordon had come as a child with
parents, and where he married his Indian wife and fourteen children
were born to them. Among them were seven sons, of whom Philip was
the youngest. This was the village where began the life which was
to take him far from his wilderness home. He became the friend of
the great and famous in all walks of life - statesmen, cardinals,
soldiers, scientists, businessmen, and people of all nations.
Philip's Indian name, "Ti-bish-ko-gi-jik," meaning "Looking into
the Sky" was prophetic of his life's calling as a "Sky Pilot." Did
he plan his career as a young boy? Catherine Gordon McDonald tells
this story:
"My
dad was Father Gordon's brother, Joe. They lived out in the country
and they went into town one day. Phil was supposed to watch the
younger children. When his parents came home, some of the children
were crying. Phil had taken the curtains off the windows and made
himself a priest's robes. The children said, 'Ma, Phil made us pray
all day.'"
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