Peter D. Clarke Correspondence

From Frontier Wars MSS, Vol. 11, Draper MSS Collection, in Library State Historical Society – Madison, Wisconsin

635A – Inventory List written by librarian
635B – Cover Page from Library State Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin with Connelley note – September 22, 1898
Letter to Lyman Draper from Peter D. Clarke, Chetopa, Kansas – February 2, 1871
Clarke thanks Draper for the packages he sent, and sends him a copy of his book in return. Folder also contains a piece of paper that seems to be an index of notes from Draper's 'Frontier Wars' with a note written by Connelley in 1898.

635C – Letter to Lyman Draper from P.D. Clarke, Chetopa – March 14, 1871
Clarke informs Draper that "My wife is part Cherokee and part white, Like Myself, but Wyandott," explains regions of the U.S. and Canada where groups of Wyandotts now live, and answers Draper's questions about Tecumseh and Adam Brown Sr.

635D – Letter to Lyman Draper from P.D. Clarke, Cabin Creek, Cherokee Nation – May 30, 1873
Clarke tells Draper about the process and difficulties of publishing his book, and shares some of his personal and family history.

635E – Letter to Lyman Draper from P.D. Clarke, Cabin Creek, Cherokee Nation – Nov. 3, 1873
Clarke tells Draper that he intends to go check on his property in Canada before the end of the year. Writes about the difficulty of farming in the region, and about migrant farm workers, calling them "partly civilized heathen of the Anglo-Saxon race." Discusses the railroad companies that are now seeking to acquire Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickesaw land, which leads to a long lament that "since the first discovery of this continent, by Europeans, many Indian tribes have entirely passed away, and when the last of their race shall have gone from this life, the history of their origin, or where they sprung from, will remain 'past finding out'". Criticizes the Creeks or Muskogees for "mixing up more with the African blood," and worries that "whiskey, will, in time, bring about utter ruin to the Indians of this territory". Also mentions a history of the Cherokee nation currently being written by Mr. Phillips, a congressman from Missouri.

635F – Letter to L.C. Draper from P.D. Clarke, Gordon, County of Essex, Ontario – June 5, 1882
Clarke is surprised to hear from Draper and to receive the books and pamphlets. He mentions the passing of William Walker Jr. and says that "we hang our heads in sorrow, when we think of our missing friend." Clarke also references Chief Isadore, a man named Clark who was mortally wounded at the Thames battle, and Tecumseh. He returns once again to William Walker Jr., and says that "he was the best friend I ever had, or ever will have, in this World." Clarke is surprised that Draper has raised the question of Eleazer Williams again, and he thinks that his life and story have been "unmercifully and thoroughly sifted." Clarke closes the later by stating that he has left the Cherokee Nation for good, and he is living on the banks of the Detroit River, in Canada, alone.

635G – Letter to Mr. Draper from P.D.C., Gordon, County of Essex, Ont. – June 14, 1882
Clarke is unable to supply Draper with any further information about Isadore. He believes that Isadore died in 1831, and he was about fifty years of age at that time. Isadore's mother was Wyandot, and his father was a Frenchman named Chouteau. Isadore was "one of the peace commissioners sent down to Wabash, by General Hull, to hold a council with Tecumseh." Clarke also discusses Chief Walk-in-the-Water, John Norton, Eleazer Williams, and Tecumseh's brother, the Prophet, who "was looked upon as a mysterious and excentric child of Nature." Clarke closes the letter by discussing a business house that he is building on the banks of the Detroit River that will cost him eleven hundred dollars.

635H – Letter to Mr. L. Draper from P.D. Clarke, Gordon, County of Essex, Ont. – July 6, 1882
Clarke is sorry that he cannot provide any further information to Draper about various individuals, because all of it has already been written in his traditional history, and the people who he "gathered it from have passed away." Clarke mentions Chief Warrow, Chief Walk-in-the-Water, Chief Roundhead, War Chief Split Log, the Prophet, Schoo-tush, Jack Brandy, Simon Girty, John Clarke, the Caldwells, and Capt Ally. Clarke closes the letter by discussing General Cass, and relating a story about a delivery made to the Saginaw Indians that included alcohol and knives, and after they swallowed the "firey liquid," the "whole encampment was converted into a pandemonium."

635I – Letter to Mr. L.C. Draper from P.D. Clarke, Gordon, County of Essex, Ont. – July 16, 1882
Clarke is finding it difficult to remember any more information about the different individuals that Draper is asking about. John Clarke, Peter's brother, was not an interpreter for Tecumseh, but instead was an Indian trader who died in Nebraska on his way to the Rocky Mountains. Warrow didn't have any other names, and his name did not signify anything. Clarke got the traditional accounts of Girty and Brant from different members of the tribe, but they are all gone now. Mrs. Joseph Warrow's mother supplied Clarke with the "account of the captured Wyandott maiden." Clarke closes the letter by discussing a recent trip to Detroit, and he describes it as a "vast whirl-pool of vice & immorality."

635J – Letter to Mr. Draper from P.D. Clarke, Gordon, County of Essex, Ont. – Aug. 10, 1882
Clarke knew five members of the Grey-Eyes family, "namely Doctor, and Esquire Grey Eyes." He believes that there are not many descendants of that family left, and they are now "among the remnant of the Sandusky Wyandotts of Ohio, in South-Eastern Kansas." Clarke thinks that Draper is making some mistakes with two names, and he believes that he has them correctly identified in his own history. Samuel Saunders was among the Wyandotts and Shawnees as a boy, and he eventually became a "tolerable good interpreter."

635K – Letter to Mr. L.C. Draper from P.D. Clarke (?) (final page of letter is missing), Gordon, County of
Essex, Ont. – Sept. 10, 1882
Clarke cannot give Draper a definite account of the father of the Grey Eyes brothers. He does not believe that even a grand child is living, and that "the House of Grey Eyes, you may say, have become extinct." William Walker Jr. had two sisters, Maria and Nancy, and he thinks that Nancy is now living in Wyandott City, Kansas. Draper says that Governor Walker referred to Isadore as "Isadore Chaine or Chen," and Clarke says he was known by the name Peter Isadore Chouteau. Clarke will attempt to find out Isadore Chouteau's Wyandott name and let Draper know. Clarke does not think that anyone in his tribe could "give you a more definite account of Girty and Crawford than what I have given in my history." All of those who were alive when Crawford was burned at the stake have died.

“The Peter D. Clarke Correspondence” (1882)
This document discusses the value of the correspondence between Peter D. Clarke and Lyman C. Draper. Clarke had the "reputation of being an honest man," and even though he was "wholly uneducated," the author believes that his "mind was of high order." The author believes that the letters are valuable because Clarke did not think his letters would ever be published, so he "was wholly unrestrained and entirely natural, and these things cannot be said of his book." The author believes that if students would like to consider the Indian from a psychological view, "he will find the letters of Clarke the most valuable documents in existence for his purpose."

635L – “Native Writers” – Peter D. Clarke (c. 1895)
Peter D. Clarke and William Walker Jr. are the two Wyandots who have written the history of their people. Clarke's work was published, but "through carelessness and negligence the valuable Manuscript of Governor Walker was destroyed by mice after his death." The author of this document is providing an excerpt from the writings of Clarke. During the first quarter of the sixteenth century, a "rupture" occurred between the Wyandotts and Senecas, and this led to years of warfare and wandering.

635M – “II. From the Writings of Walker, The Hurons, Wyandots, Quatoghies” (c. 1895)
Hooquass, "an ancient keeper of the true traditions and oracles of the Wyandotts," describes a volatile Earth whose violence awakened a man in an immense cave in the depths of the earth. An even more violent convulsion awakened the rest of the inhabitants of the cave, and spring welcomed the "origin of the Great Spirit's chosen people, the Wyandotts." The Wyandotts lived for hundreds of years in peace, and eventually they migrated to an area where they were near neighbors with the powerful five nations. War eventually broke out between the Wyandotts and the Iroquois, and it resembled the "Trojan War, being caused by a fair woman." At the close of this document, the writer states that he believes Walker "gives us the best history of the Wyandots during the historical period of their existence, but Clarke gives us the best history of their pre-historic migrations and traditions."