Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/105

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 45 vivors moved away, a few at a time, to the west. Jlost of them went to the Indian ter- ritor}'. Some effort was made to educate the In- dians, even in the early time. Rev. John Ficklin, a Baptist preacher of Kentucky, was sent by the Kentucky Mission Society to Mis- souri to secure some of the chiklren in order to establish an Indian school in Scott county, Kentucky. He had an interview with the chief of a band of Shawnees and Delawares on the Maramec river. This chief was named Rogers. He was a white man, but had been taken prisoner by the Indians in boyhood and had been so trained by them that he Avas practically an Indian himself. He had mar- ried a young woman, a daughter of the chief, and because of his influence and talents had succeeded to the office. The Indians, under instructions of Captain Rogers, cultivated farms and opened a school in the village, which was attended by the children of the American settlers and of the Indians. These children studied their books in school hours and then engaged in shooting with a bow and arrow and other Indian pastimes, at inter- mission. One of the white children who be- gan his early education in this mixed school was Rev. Louis Williams, who afterwards be- came a distinguished minister. About the time of the cession Captain Rogers and his band had removed to Big Spring, at the head of the Maramec river. They intended to reside in this place, but the country was not suited to them and many of them died. Thej^ attributed these deaths to the influence of the evil spirit and moved away, settling in Franklin county, not far south of Union. The sons of Captain Rogers and Captain Fish, who succeeded him as chief, discussed with Reverend Ficklin the question of sending some of their children to Kentucky. Louis Rogers, a son of Captain Rogers, who could already read and write, offered to go to Kentucky, provided he were permitted to take his family with him. This was assented to, and some of the Indians went to Kentucky to this school. Peck ("Life of Peck," p. Ill) says that this band of In- dians were very thrifty farmers and brought the best cattle to the St. Louis market that the butchers received. The Indian has now disappeared from Southeast Missouri. He no longer pursues the hunt through the forests, or causes the settler to tremble at the sound of the war- hoop. His wigwam, his lodge of poles and mats, his implements of warfare, his tools and utensils no longer exist, or are found only in museums and collections of relics. The very mounds he reared as places for the burial of his dead, as sites for home or tem- ple, are no longer sacred to the purposes for which he dedicated them, but are desecrated by the spade of the explorer and relic hunter, and his very erection of them is denied. Most of those now living within the bor- ders of the state never saw an Indian in his native haunts, and cannot reconstruct the life of the time when he formed an impor- tant part in the making of the history of the country. And yet we cannot give more than mere casual attention to the story of the de- velopment of Southea.st Missouri, without discovering that the Indian once played a great part here. He has left ineffaceable traces of his life, and no one can ever hope to come to a complete understanding of our his- tory without a study of Indian life and char- acter.