Dr. Kate: Angel on Snowshoes

The Hollywood screenwriter, Adele Commandini saw an episode of TV's "This Is Your Life" which moved her to research and write a full-length biography. Dr. Kate: Angel on Snowshoes was a nationwide bestseller in 1956.

In 2009 the Wisconsin Historical Society Press released another book by the same title for a juvenile audience. I recommend the current and much abbreviated Dr. Kate: Angel on Snowshoes especially to schoolchildren, but also to any interested adults. I have thought very highly of Dr. Kate since I visited the Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb Museum in Woodruff a few years ago. And it seems the author, Rebecca Hogue Wojahn, understands what was so special about Dr. Kate: she simply wanted to help people.

There are, of course, other remarkable things about Dr. Kate. Wojahn manages not only to include them but she also puts them in context for today's young readers.

It was about 1890. Kate was just four years old and her mother died in childbirth. That and similar tragedies led to an interest in a career in medicine (and the specialty of obstetrics), which, of course, was discouraged back then because women weren't supposed to become doctors.  Kate Pelham was well into her 20's by the time her father realized that a medical career would make his daughter happy. From that point on he supported her in that goal. When Kate had two marriage proposals to choose from, her father also told her to pick the one that would make her happy, even if he was a mechanic instead of a doctor.

The man that Kate married, Bill Newcomb, was supportive of Kate's career. However, it wasn't long before Bill started coughing. Bill had previously worked at a defense plant where he breathed metal particles that remained in his lungs. Living in Detroit was making Bill's condition worse. He moved to Wisconsin's northwoods and Kate soon followed.  Just making a go of it away from civilization was tough and when Kate was about to give birth the child didn't make it. She knew it was the doctor's fault - he had given her a strong sedative. This sad event appears to have been such a turn-off that Kate had no intention of resuming her medical career.

In 1928, Kate gave birth to Tommy. When Tommy's fingers were "crushed" by a car door a few years later, Kate's expertise in first aid was discovered by the local physician. He angrily told Kate that her talent was being wasted and at a later date he called and told her that a woman near her house would die if Kate didn't go to her. So Kate Newcomb was pushed back into her old career.

From that point on, as the back cover of Dr. Kate states, she went to her patients "by car, by snowmobile, by canoe and on snowshoes. [And she] never sent a bill," often accepting things like canned vegetables or firewood as payment. I imagine that is enough material for a book right there. But the story isn't over. Kate's love for the people of the northwoods was reciprocated by the community. When Dr. Kate made it known that the area needed a hospital, the people went to work raising money for it - and that fundraising effort might just be the best part of the whole book.

 

Algonkian Church History: Top Seven Posts of 2014

[caption id="attachment_9175" align="aligncenter" width="300"] From the back cover of Proud and Determined.[/caption]

My most popular blogposts this year may have been created prior to this year and prior to the creation of Stockmohistory.com.

Based on the number of hits received thus far this year, seven posts stood out as fan favorites:



1. Bury My Heart at the Monastery

2. A Map of the Stockbridge Mohicans' "Trail of Tears"

3. The Many Trails Symbol and a pdf about the Folk Art of Wisconsin Indians

4. What Was the American Indian Population in 1492?

5. Little Turtle, William Wells, and "Mad" Anthony Wayne

6. Still There! The Lenape and Nanticoke Indians of New Jersey

7. Joseph Smith and the Legend of the Golden Bible

 

Who Was Jean Baptiste Richardville?

Jean Baptiste Richardville's father was a French trader. His mother, Tacumwah, aka Mary Louise, was a Miami Indian. Tacumwah's brother Pacanne was a chief and they may have also been related to Little Turtle. Born in present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1761, Richardville benefitted from a Catholic education and knowledge of trade thanks to his father and also benefitted from his mother's high status in her tribe as well as her control of trade at the portage that connected the Maumee and Wabash rivers.

Anyway, Jean Baptiste Richardville started life out as more of a Euro-American and as he got older and became chief of his mother's people, he was more of an Indian, known by the Miami name of Pechewa, the Wild Cat.

It wasn't until 1816 that Richardville succeeded his uncle as tribal chief. Historian Donald Gaff (150) describes what his life was like until then.

While many faced a harsh existence, Richardville wore fine European clothing and dined with what would have been the high society of the frontier. One contemporary described days filled with drinking, card playing, and concerts. If that were not European enough, Richardville joined a newly formed society named "Most Light Honorable Society of Monks," known later as "Friars of St. Andrew." He also threw parties at his house , including one for Mardi Gras. All of these activities enhanced his business dealings with Europeans and Americans.

And he was the wealthiest Indian in America. Inside his house there was French wallpaper, silk curtains, chandeliers and imported carpets. Outside there was a wharf on the St. Mary's River, as well as a barn and a racetrack (Gaff, 151).

Despite all of his wealth, the younger Richardville was still a Miami and he represented the tribe at treaties. In fact, that is where his great wealth came from. Did Richardville skim more of the wealth from his negotiations off the top than the Miami intended? Indian agent John Tipton observed that "the utmost confidence is reposed in him [by the tribe]." Instead of resenting their half-white brother for his success,  the Miami respected his oratorical skill and his ability to maneuver in negotiations with the United States (Gaff, 151).

When he died in 1841, Richardville was the richest man in Indiana. His negotiations allowed Miami descendants to remain in Indiana on privately owned land for many years after treaties had officially removed the tribe.

 

Source:

Gaff, Donald H.  "Three Men from Three Rivers: Navigating between Native and American Identity in the Old Northwest Territory." Printed in The Boundaries between Us, Daniel P. Barr, editor. Kent State University Press, 2006: Kent, Ohio.

Migrations of Native Christian Communities Recorded by W. DeLoss Love

[caption id="attachment_9101" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The red dot is the location of the Brothertown Reservation in the 1830's.[/caption]

W. DeLoss Love's 1899 book, Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England, is, of course more than just a biography. It is still one of the best places to go for the history of the Brothertown Indians. Plus, chapter XIII is called "Indian Friends at Stockbridge." It bears repeating here that the Brothertown Indians had started their settlement in New York State prior to the Revolutionary War, but, finding that location to be unsafe, they retreated to West Stockbridge, Massachusetts for six years. According to Love (page 243), it was the friendships formed during those years that resulted in the Stockbridge Mohicans becoming neighbors with the Brothertown and  Oneida Indians in New York State starting in the 1780's. (As you may know, the move for the Stockbridges was necessary, because they had lost their land - much of it in fraudulent ways.)

Love correctly notes that some of the Stockbridge Mohicans moved to Indiana in 1818.

At this time they began to sell their lands, and this continued until they were all established again beside their friends, the Brothertown Indians, on the east side of Winnebago Lake, in Wisconsin (page 245).

Chapter XXVII, The Last Remove, discusses that in much more detail. On pages 316-317 Love describes the New York Indians' attempted move to Indiana's White River.

It had been determined at Brothertown in 1812 to begin a settlement at White River. [War] deterred them, and many of their number enlisted in the United States service. Some never returned. Finally, when peace had been restored, the town voted, January 13, 1817, to choose five men to go there "in pursuit of a tract of land heretofore sought for by their delegates sent there in the year 1809, and to get a title to it." The Stockbridge tribe also were preparing to remove. Two families went in 1817 and more the next season. On the twenty-fourth of July, 1818, Rev. John Sergeant assembled the tribe in anticipation of this pilgrimage. the old church then dismissed and formed into a new body eleven of their number, for whom he transcribed the Confession of Faith and Covenant in English, adding in their own language a Covenant especially adapted to their circumstances. On the fifteenth of August following, some having gone and more being then ready to depart, another meeting was held, at which the chief, Hendrick Aupaumut, in a "large speech" presented to them from the old church a copy of Scott's Bible "to read on Lord's Days and at other religious meetings." So they said farewell and were gone to return no more.

Love's Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England

The back cover of my copy of Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England is, of course, a pretty good introduction or teaser to what is on the inside. In bold letters it says "W. DeLoss Love's biography of Samson Occom is a work of its time."

It was reprinted in 2000 with an introduction by historian Margaret Connell Szasz. In the 100+ years between it's original publication and the reprint, nobody managed to write a better biography of Occom. Szasz's introduction, however, was needed because it brings needed perspective to today's readers - and she correctly pointed out the book's shortcomings vis-à-vis the reality that it was written by a white man in the 1890's.

In regards to Occom himself, Szasz notes that he was part of a tradition of Native Americans who converted to Christianity and then visited Britain. The first Indian to do so being Pocahontas in 1616. But Occom took it another step farther. Not only was he a Christian, but he was an educated and ordained Presbyterian minister. He raised over 12,000 pounds in a speaking tour. Only to see it go towards establishing a white institution (Dartmouth College) instead of the Indian school he intended the money to go to.

Use this link to read other posts about Samson Occom.