down and shoulders up, staring or leering at the strangers. / Returning
to boat & breakfast, subsequently their was a lively scene outside, with
the red men & half breeds. Some of the poor Indians provoked pity,
they seemed so simple natured and laughing. One old man I met
on the boat had not a bad head, and was painted, vermillion daubed
over his cheeks. But the most perfect bit of Indian life was a canoe
& its contents. Twas birch bark as wont, and in the storm sat
its owner, a square faced brown featured fellow, attired only in
a loose long cotton frock, blue and exceedingly dirty. He squatted
there, his chin & cheek resting on his hand, an attitude in which
he was imitated by a squaw, of which there were two in the boat,
both crouching savage like, gazing up, paddles in hand at the steam-
boat. Three or four children, little, large eyed, black mopped crea-
tures, each with little paddles. A heap of fish in the boat, a tin
kettle for cooking, and two dog-pups completed the contents of this
turn out. The fellow had come to sell his fish, and grinned as
he put the silver coin paid him into a skin bag. / Many of
the red-skins were smoking, a mixture of tobacco & a sort of scraped
willow bark. / Aboard, and moving again. Talks with folk.
With Swan & sister, anon with pretty Bertha Livermore. There s
an ugly fellow with projecting lower jaw, red mustache and crescent
whisker who dangleth after her in unseemly manner. Also, this
I had from another girl, a report of a beloved one in California.
Talks with others, with a good-featured Irishwoman, dwelling on this
Lake Shore, who was tender-hearted anent Uncle Tom . With other
girls. Meantime we we stirring, briskly plashing westwards. Passed
the Twelve Apostles, the Seven Devils, and Three Sisters, Islands
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Six: page seventy-six |
| Description: | Describes the people at the town of La Pointe, Wisconsin. |
| Date: | 1853-08-17 |
| Subject: | Children; Compston, Miss; Great Lakes (North America); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Livermore, Bertha; Native Americans; Swan; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | [La Pointe, Wisconsin] |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-02 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Six |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of Gunn's writing and drawing work in New York, a visit to the Catskill Mountains, attending the wedding of his friend Charles Damoreau (Brown), a visit to the Crystal Palace in New York, his friend Lotty's difficult marriage to John Whytal, a sailing trip around Lake Superior, a visit to Mackinac Island in Michigan, a visit to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and a journey by horseback from Kentucky to Louisiana with friends. |
| Subject: | African Americans; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Marriage; Native Americans; Publishers and publishing; Slavery; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Michigan; Wisconsin; Ohio; Kentucky; Mississippi; Alabama; Louisiana |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2011 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
