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16 MARINE REVIEW. [December 12, endeavored to obtain passage on the schooner Merchant for the copper country, but they would not let him work his passage, and as he had no money he could not go. If he had gone this story would never have been written, because the Merchant never reached her destination. She sank with al! on board. Peter returned to Mackinac island and from there set out for Detroit. He secured employment on the schooner Bela Hubbard, plying at that time between Detroit and Sault Ste. Marie, and had probably made about half a dozen trips when the schooner capsized off Thunder Bay island. Fortunately no one was drowned. After considerable buffet- ing they managed to reach the island and were taken to Bay City by the propeller Chicago. The crew volunteered to work their passage back to Detroit and were all engaged. Before shipping, however, they obeyed the natural instinct to see what manner of place Bay City might be and im- proved the few hours of daylight in that pursuit. In returning to the vessel after dark they had to crawl over piles of lumber 20 ft. high, which, with the natural altitude of the dock, made the deck of the Chicago below a somewhat indistinct mark to jump upon. However, they all made it well except Peter. He jumped into the fore hold and broke his left arm. In all such primitive settlements there is always one person without special training who makes claim to medical knowledge and by common repute obtains a reputation which they do not deserve. In this particular case it was a woman who attended Peter with such success that by the time the boy reached Detroit the arm had swollen to three times its natural size and was giving him excruciating pain. He was taken at once to the office of a physician, who after a cursory examination decided that the only thing to do was to amputate the arm. Doctors have an agreeable custom when proceeding upon a capital operation in emergencies of this character to invite a number of fellow surgeons to witness the operation. They too frequently gather merely as witnesses and do not exercise their perceptive faculties on the patient's behalf as much as they should. Upon this occasion Peter was put into a reclining chair and securely strapped. Sev- eral doctors entered and exchanged greetings with the operating surgeon, but none of them paid any attention to Peter. They drew their chairs about and gathered around in a semi-circle and the operating surgeon proceeded to select his instruments. Peter was silent but pale as a ghost. Presently there entered the room a surgeon whose reputation, already wide, was soon to become national. His name was Zina Pitcher. He did not, as had those who preceded him, merely take a seat, but went immediately to the patient and examined the arm. It was frightfully swollen. He asked the operating surgeon if any steps had been taken to reduce the swelling, and the surgeon, of course, replied in the nega- tive. "We cannot tell anything about the condition of the arm until the swelling is reduced," said Dr. Pitcher. "I think it would be well to delay the operation for a couple of days." : He gave instructions that hot whiskey and water, as hot as it could possibly be borne, should be poured upon the arm at fifteen minutes' inter- vals during the next twenty-four hours. The effect of this treatment was wonderful. When Dr. Pitcher called twenty-four hours later the swelling was greatly reduced. He ordered the treatment continued for twenty- four hours longer and the arm had by that time almost regained its normal size. "My boy," said Dr. Pitcher, "I don't believe we'll amputate this arm at all" temper. The children of his first wife, who was an Indian, could not live with him, owing to ungovernable fits of rage; his white wife, whom he married at the Sault, left him after a life of abject terror with him. She was aided in her flight by the citizens of Sault Ste. Marie, then nothing but a military post, and went to her old home at Detroit. Tanner's rage and grief were frightful to behold. He went to Detroit and tried to pursuade his wife to return. Failing in this he re- turned to the Sault, permanently saddened and vengeful in the extreme. He nursed his enmity in characteristic Indian fashion, and when under the spell of frequent paroxysms of rage threatened to kill all who had spirited his wife away. There is no doubt that during these periods Tanner was totally insane. His life was full of romance. He had been stolen while a baby by a tribe of Indians and had grown up with them. He was supposed to be an Indian, and, indeed, until late in life Tanner believed himself that he was Indian. He was, however, white. His hair was flowing and iron gray in color, and his countenance, save when he was angry, was one of majestic repose and strength. He was the "bogey man" of the little settlement, and an unruly child was always quieted by the mere sugges- tion that Tanner would get her if she didn't keep still. Shortly before the murder Tanner became so menacing in his mien that a public meeting was called to see about incarcerating him for the public safety. Two days before the murder Tanner's house, which stood a little below the Indian agency on the banks of the river, was burned down. The report was spread about that he was burned to death in the house, but a careful search failed to reveal any trace of his apparel or bones in the ruins. The incontestible fact remains, however, that Tanner was never seen afterwards. When the murder was committed Tanner was accused of the crime and searching parties were organized to find him. They searched the woods north of the Sault but found no trace of him. There were many stories of his being seen, and an armed guard patroled the mission grounds every night for two months thereafter. The summer became known as the Tanner summer, and no one passed a tree in a dark night who did not glance nervously behind it for fear Tanner might be there. A few years later, when the Mexican war broke out, Lieut. Tilden stationed at the Sault, was ordered to the front. He was tried in Mexico by court martial for some offense, and during the trial it was hinted that he was suspected of the murder of James Schoolcraft at the Sault. As this report was likely to affect the verdict of the court martial Lieut. Tilden wrote to Rev. Mr. Bingham at the Sault and asked him to circulate a petition among the citizens exonerating him from this suspicion. The minister took the petition to Judge Samuel Ashman who promptly declined to sign it on the ground that he was not satisfied that Lieut. Tilden was not the guilty man after all. The minister was greatly surprised. He approached Capt. John McKay and found that McKay was also of the opinion that Tilden had committed the crime. Further investigation proved that this impréssion was general 'among a certain class of citizens, and that it was even shared by some members of the Schoolcraft family. It seems that shortly before the murder Schoolcraft and Tilden had had a serious dispute and had parted in great anger Tilden exclaiming that "cold lead would settle it.' There was also a report that Tilden was in love with Schoolcraft's beautiful Indian wife. However, the great mystery has never been solved and never will be. There is today in Peter White's library in Marquette a portrait of Tanner--a virile and striking face. He securely fastened Peter into a chair, and, working with the utmost rapidity, while the youngster screamed with pain, he pulled the bones into place and put the arm in splints. Peter carried his arm in splints for four months, but at the end of that time it was a good arm and is a good arm yet. Some years later Dr. Zina Pitcher died and was borne to an unmarked grave. The Detroit papers, conscious of the man's greatness, suggested the advisability of a public subscription to erect a monument over his rest- ing place. This petition fell under the eye of Peter White, who imme- diately subscribed to the fund. He never received acknowledgement of the receipt of his money. This, however, was not the fault of the paper. It was promptly acknowledged though the issue in which it was acknowl- edged did not reach him. But as a matter of fact Peter White's money did not go into the monument, but was devoted to a far more tender and beautiful purpose. His contribution from Marquette, owing to the uncer- tain mail service of those days, did not reach Detroit until the subscription account was closed. Indeed the entire amount was subscribed in a day. When Peter White's contribution arrived, a florist, noting the eloquence of the letter, offered to plant flowers each succeeding year upon the grave, and to this purpose the money was pledged. One of the most-prized treasures in Peter White's collection today is a photograph of this sturdy old puysician. When Peter's arm had sufficiently mended to permit him to work again he obtained employment as clerk in the store of Freeman & Bro. on Jefferson avenue and remained with the firm for nearly a year. He then shipped with a man who was going to keep the government light- ship at Waugoshaunce reef in the Straits of Mackinac, but when he ' reached Mackinac island he found that the place which he sought had been filled. He obtained employment in the summer time with Capt. Canfield of the light-house service, who was building a crib at Waugoshaunce reef, and in the winter time he obtained a clerkship in the store of Edward Kanter with a much valued permission to go to school. "Mackinac island is small, charming and highly romantic. It is one of the most beautiful spots in the world. It rises abruptly out of the emerald water. It has a superb pebble beach, guarded by overhanging cliffs of craggy rocks, trimmed with exquisite evergreens, but its great attraction lies in its intense humanity, for its government has been Indian, 'French, British and American in succession. Peter White spent two years upon this island, and now, as the president of the Mackinac island state park commission, can look back with pleasure upon those years. Samuel K. Haring was the collector of customs of Mackinac island. In such a small community, where population is only a household, there is much interchange of thought and confidence. Haring took an interest in Peter, his hopes and his ambitions, and when Robert J. Graveraet appeared upon the island in search of men to develop the iron mines of Lake Superior, Haring urged the boy to join the expedition. Graveraet was offering $12 a month and board; Peter was making $35 a month and board; but Haring, who was a man of remarkable foresight and who clearly saw the advantages such a youth would have in a country capable of untold development, urged him to go. So Peter, eighteen years old, offered his services to Graveraet and started out upon his life's work. There followed the tempestuous voyage in the worthless little side-wheeler Tecumseh. The party had gone but a few miles from Mackinac when a huge wave took off the yawl boat, swept the decks clear of freight and sent Capt. Pratt scurrying back into the harbor again. The next day the boat started out again with more passengers than it could either sleep or feed, for it was not intended that the vessel should take over twelve hours in making the trip to Sault Ste. Martie. After an heroic struggle the boat finally got inside of the Detour and there met with such solid ice that she had to back out again. It took the boat ten days to literally hammer her way to the Sault. Meanwhile the supply of food had become exhausted and an incipient bread riot occurred. This was quelled, however, by the boat actually sinking to her deck, furnishing an excitement that tem- porarily banished hunger. There was on board an old man, nicknamed Old Saleratus, who was the butt of every gibe and jest, but he proved the ship's salvation, for his trade was that of ship carpenter. He found the leak and stopped it. Then followed the trip in the Mackinaw barge to Indian Town, which has previously been noted, and the march to the iron hills where Peter at the little brook resolutely picked up his own pack and carried it the rest of the way. He dropped it at the Cleveland mine, which was then known to the little party only as Moody's location. The tramp had been a long and weary one. The country was jagged, broken and mountainous, densely wooded and thick with underbrush, with only a tree blazed here and there by the Indians to guide the way. There is not in the Lake Superior region the even sweep of range and canyon, as in the far west, which frequently affords level stretches for the traveler. It is a constant grade which wearies the lungs as much as it does the legs. Peter was tired when he dropped his pack. Samuel Moody and John H. Mann, who had spent the previous win- ter and summer at the location, came out of a little log shanty to welcome Graveraet. They were keeping possession for this indomitable soul The party was exhausted and lost no time in getting to bed, but Peter w as up betimes in the morning. He found Capt. Moody already stirring. sie