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1901.} MARINE REVIEW. 15 Meanwhile there lived at Mackinaw a man, one-quarter of him Indian, his mother being a half breed, who was destined to give the central figure of this story a prodigious start in life. His name was Robert J. Graveraet Of him it might be said as Hamlet said of his father: The front of Jove himself-- An eye like Mars, to threaten and command, A station like the herald Mercury, New lighted on a heaven kissing hill, A combination and a form indeed Whereon each god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man. Graveraet was not an ordinary man. He would be singled out as a natural leader among thousands. He was ambitious; he had a will of iron; he had the faculty of winning men; he was generous, gentle, but firm; he had great intelligence and energy; and his Indian mother had promised land in the little steamer Tecumseh. At the Sault they trans- ferred their few belongings to a Mackinaw barge, and after eight days of rowing, towing, poling and sailing reached Carp river and anchored at Indian Town, now known as Marquette. The first person to greet the little party was Charley Bawgam, a full blooded Chippeway Indian, lithe as a sapling, and in the prime of life. This Indian is living yet, now nearly 100 years old, and almost blind. He invited the party into his cedar wig- wam and his wife cooked a fine supper of fresh venison, wild duck, geese, fresh white fish, potatoes, bread and coffee. Bawgam, savage though he was, knew how to live. The next morning Graveraet gave each member a pack strap and blanket and directed him to use his own discretion in putting into the pack what he thought he could carry a distance of twelve miles up hill. Graveraet put into his own pack more than twice the quantity that any other member of the party could carry, and thus equipped the caravan started for the much-discussed iron hills. When they had journeyed about two miles Graveraet given him a constitution that did not know the meaning of fatigue. For grace of bearing and beauty of proportion Graveraet challenged instant admira- tion; and, moreover, his muscles were of steel. This man recognized more quickly than any of his as- sociates the immeasurable value of the iron deposits. He believed that he had a claim upon two of the most valuable of them--the Cleve- land and the Lake Superior --and he induced John H. Mann and Samuel Moody to undertake their pre-emp- tion. How sadly he was mistaken regarding his pri- ority of right will later be revealed. In the summer of 1848 Graveraet met at Mackinaw Mr. Edward Clark of Worcester, Mass., a representative of Mr. Waterman A. Fisher of Worcester, who had become interested in the accounts of the mineral wealth of the region and who had sent Clark to investigate. Fisher was the proprietor of a cot- ton factory and was reputed to be a wealthy man, as wealth was accounted in those days. Clark, like all the rest, was on the copper scent until he fell in with Graveraet. Graveraet in- duced him to stop at Carp river to inspect the iron mines. He took him to the Cleveland and Lake Superior locations, where Moody, Mann and Rogers were holding possession, and showed him the apparently inexhaustible de- posits. He also took him to the Jackson forge and gave him a bloom of iron and some ore. Clark returned to Worcester, where the iron was drawn into wire at a factory and proved most excellent. He had no trouble in enlisting Fisher's aid in developing the iron mines. Graveraet, too, appeared upon the scene in the early winter, having made the journey from Marquette to Saginaw on snow shoes. Graveraet had perfect mastery over his physical resources and a journey of this character was as nothing to him. Fisher was charmed with the man. He readily assented to advance the necessary capital, Graveraet offering as security leases from Moody and Mann upon the Cleveland location and from Rogers upon the Lake Superior location. A. R. Harlow of Worcester, a practical me- chanic, was also induced to join forces and he accordingly constructed the necessary machinery for a forge. In March, 1849, the Marquette Iron Co. was organized, consisting of W. A. Fisher, A. R. Harlow, E. B. Clark and R. J. Graveraet. It was decided to ship the machinery to Marquette as soon as it should be finished and Harlow was to follow immediately thereafter. Graveraet returned at once to Mackinac island to engage a number of workmen for the mines, because, beyond the pre-emptors, there were no white men whatever in the Lake Superior region. He had no difficulty in enlisting the aid of ten men, though to all accounts the region to which he invited them was as bleak and barren as the proverbial wilderness. In April, 1849, Graveraet and his party set forth for the MARQUETTE IN 1863, SHOWING THE TYPE OF ORE CARRIER THEN PREVAILING ON THE LAKES. observed that one member of the party, a well-formed though slender lad, was staggering under his load, and as he passed him whisked it from off his shoulders and threw it upon a his own much heavier one as though it had been a fea- ther. Even then the lad had difficulty in keeping up with Graveraet's giant strides. "Jump on my shoulders, Peter," invited the leader, There was not doubt of Graveraet's ability to carry Peter, pack and all, but the boy's pride was a_ bit wounded. When the party halted at a little brook for lunch, Graveraet again reached for the stripling's pack after lunch was over. "T will carry my own pack, sir," said Peter. He has been carrying it ever since and several others along with it. And thus we meet our hero-- Peter White of Marquette-- who, man and boy, has had the most fascinating career of anyone who has ever been identified with the his- tory of the region of the great father of lakes. The theme is fruitful. Cid CHAPTER Peter White was born at Rome, Oneida county, New York, October 381, 1880. He remained in that town for nine years, when his family removed to Green Bay, Wis. Up to his fifteenth year nothing particular happened. Peter was just an ordinary boy, going to school and soaking into his system such knowledge as a boy could get. The piping school-boy times, how- ever, were not to his liking and he started out to make his own way in the world. He might, indeed, be called a fifteen-year-old runaway. At any rate he did not see a relative again for ten years. The world's base at that time to him was Mackinac island, whither he went. It was just when the copper excitement was at its height and the imagination of Peter was greatly inflamed by it. In a little while he left for the Sault in the hope of reaching the promised land. He arrived at the Sault on the very day that James Schoolcraft was murdered and found the little settle- ment in a perfect turmoil of excitement over the crime. It was popularly supposed that the murder was committed by John Tanner, a strange and eccentric character, whose house had been burned down two days pre- ceding the murder and who had mysteriously disappeared.* Peter *This murder is even today shrouded in impenetrable mystery. James School- craft was the leading man at Sault. Ste. Marie. While walking in slippers and easy gown through a clearing on his own grounds he was shot through the heart by someone hidden behind a clump of bushes near by, the passage of the bullet being distinctly cut through the foliage. The wadding of the gun was found close by on the ground and proved to be a leaf torn from a hymn book used at the Baptist mission chapel services. Tanner, known as "Old Tanner," was usually employed to interpret the sermons in the Sunday afternoon meetings which were conducted in the Indian language. He had a violent and absolutely uncontrollable