The Swiss Emigration to the Red River Settlement in 1821 and Its Subsequent Exodus to the United States

Occupation of the Unfortunate Colonists within Sight of a Mass of Ice of 5700 [Cubik°], June 30, 1821

Library and Archives Canada: Peter Rindisbacher/Peter Rindisbacher collection/C-001905.

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From the same author:

Canada 1812 – 1814 Fighting under the British Banner

The Swiss Regiments de Watteville and de Meuron on the Fronts of the Niagara and Montreal

TRAFFORD Publishing, Victoria B.C., Canada, 2009

ISBN 978-l-4269-1001-2

A Diary of Lord Selkirk’s Expedition

On the Banks of the Red River

1816-1817

TRAFFORD Publishing, Victoria B.C., Canada, 2011

ISBN 978-l-4269-9355-8

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ANTOINE de COURTEN

The Swiss Emigration to the Red River Settlement in 1821 and its Subsequent Exodus to the United States

To Alexis, and Oliver.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD

PART I Journey of a Swiss to the Red River in America, the stay there, and return to the homeland

PART II The Red River Colony, by Augustus L. Chetlain

APPENDICES

Appendix I Statement, etc., of the Earl of Selkirk

Appendix II The Selkirk Contract with Swiss Settlers

Appendix III List of Scottish Settlers

Appendix IV State of the Swiss Colonists at Red River

Appendix V Swiss Petition, Signed Huser

Appendix VI Governors of the Red River Settlement

Appendix VII Andrew Tully, by Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve

Appendix VIII Fort Snelling

Appendix IX Biographical

Appendix X Map of the Hayes River 1819

CREDITS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

FOREWORD

The previous situation at Red River

To begin this chapter, the reader is asked to read the few following statements:

- At Montreal, en route, Selkirk had engaged about 100 disbanded soldiers of the de Meuron Rgt. They were chiefly foreigners, a medley of almost all nations – Germans, French, Italians, Swiss, and others; and with a few exceptions, were a rough and lawless set of blackguards. [ … ] The Meurons were bad farmers, as all old soldiers generally are, and withal very bad subjects; quarrelsome, slothful, famous bottle companions, and ready for any enterprise, however lawless and tyrannical¹. [ … ] The Meurons, the Canadians, and the Swiss, we may remark, bore but a small share of these trials (hardships during 5 years of natural disasters etc), and never made any decided stand or effort to advance the colony. The Scotch, alone, had to bear the whole heat and burden of the day².

- The missioners are charmed with the fine appearance of the crops and the industry of the colonists, in particular the Meurons. These men have raised houses and cultivated lands as it were by magic: German Street appears to have been settled there ten years in place of ten months³.

- The Meurons who stay at Red River are from all countries and religions, and behave quite well⁴.

- While at the said Northwest post at Pembina (1819-1820), I observed that Mr. Cameron was particularly assiduous in his attentions to the Settlers lately disbanded from the de Meuron and de Watteville Regiments, treated them with liquor, goods and provision; and I have repeatedly heard him say, that if he could debauch the said disbanded soldiers, or prevail on them to retire from the Red River, he would again collect the half-breeds, and destroy the colony⁵.

How do we have to handle those contradictory statements? Before answering this question, let us at first have a look at the chronology of the establishment at Red River:

1812 (July)      The first 18 Scottish settlers arrive at Red River⁶

1814 (Spring)   Another 90 Scottish settlers arrive at Red River

1817              100 Meurons settle down after having re-conquered the Colony from the Nor’westers

1817 (Autumn) Another 47 Meurons from Lower Canada join them⁷, while 50 of the early Meurons leave the settlement after the expiration of their one-year contract

1818 (August 26)   74 new settlers arrive from Montreal⁸

1821 (Autumn)     172⁹ settlers arrive from Switzerland via Hudson Bay

It is generally admitted that there were frequent disputes between the Meurons and the Scottish settlers. How could they have avoided quarrelling? On the one side puritan Presbyterians from Orkney and Sutherland, and on the other mostly undisciplined Catholics from all over Europe with raw lansquenet habits¹⁰, behaving as if they had saved the colony. Furthermore, the Scots lived in a compact group, had wife and family, and thus certain moral standards and social stability, whereas most of the Meurons, in the absence of nubile (white) girls, lived alone. If the Meurons were not innocent lads, the Scottish settlers were also hard nuts to crack. One can however easily understand that the way of life of those disbanded soldiers shocked the Scots, and that there was also a distinct animosity on their side, due to the feeling (and even the fact) that they had to bear the whole burden of the settlement. Thus it seems that, at that time, the prevailing judgment was: the Scots are virtuous, serious, and reliable; while the Meurons are good-for-nothing, leading a dissolute way of life. And the Catholic priests, for reasons of their own, helped in no way to bring the communities closer, as a marriage between a Catholic and a Presbyterian was simply impossible¹¹. Finally, George Simpson‘s entry about Cameron suggests that the Meurons, willingly or not, still had an appeasing effect on the bellicose attitude or intentions of the Northwest Company in 1819-1820, and thus some raison d’être in this colony.

It seems to me that some historians who wrote about this period lacked both critical mind and scientific rigour. They quoted other authors without the intention to trace the historical truth, and many amalgams are due to nationalism and adherence to a specific religious community. Furthermore, the chroniclers often were not on the spot, e.g. Alexander Ross who arrived at Red River but in 1825 and thus knew about the former situation only by hearsay.

All this might have contributed to the severe judgement about the Meurons and later the Swiss in general, and such was the atmosphere when the new Swiss immigration wave arrived at Red River in autumn 1821.

The Swiss Immigration to the Continent of America

In his thesis, Wessendorf¹² gives a thoroughly researched picture of the emigration from the Swiss canton of Argovia in the 19th century. One will find a little amount of data before 1816, but an important chapter about the emigration to the USA in 1816/17 and 1840/45, as well as the emigration to South America (Brazil 1819 and in the fifties; Argentina and Uruguay also in the fifties, Chile in the eighties). He doesn’t say much about Canada in particular, but the results of his research are, it seems to me, representative for Switzerland.

Bumsted¹³, who wrote the outstanding synthesis of the 1821 Swiss immigration at Red River Settlement, does not enter into the causes of emigration but mentions Frederick Heurter who, in August 1819, when he had reached Cologne, discovered hundreds of Swiss emigrants heading for Brazil to settle at the expense of the King of Portugal. He also mentions a first Swiss immigration to British North America in 1751 and 1752. He states: The government of Nova Scotia had nothing but trouble with these settlers.

Bovay¹⁴ briefly comments on the disastrous economic situation in Switzerland after the Napoleonic Wars, the starvation in the years 1813-1817, the unemployment and the difficulties of the clock-making industry.

About this book

When I read about Frédéric de Graffenried’s Diary of Lord Selkirk‘s Expedition on the Banks of the Red River 1816/17, my attention was drawn to this 1821 immigration that figured in Bovay’s masterly book. As I observed that his bibliography encompassed few authentic accounts written in English and referring to it, I undertook the work to translate the present narrative¹⁵ of N. Rud. Wyss’. One source leading to another, I eventually assembled some (but certainly not all) available information in the below Appendices. Let me point out that this booklet is the result of the efforts of an amateur for interested readers, and that it has no other aim than to provide some first-hand historical knowledge to English speaking readers. For a book having a professional historical approach to the subject, please first refer to J. M. Bumsted’s Thomas Scott’s Body mentioned above.

The present booklet reproduces Wyss’ venture (Part I), written in his sincere and naïve style, once back in his homeland. His allegations are corroborated, and completed, in a paper written by General August L. Chetlain some sixty years later (Part II). This second account is written in a more sober style, for Chetlain had a certain distance to the matter, in terms of both time and endurance.

A fortunate coincidence led Peter Rindisbacher¹⁶, a talented young painter, to join the expedition with his parents and siblings. I have included a limited number of his drawings and paintings, mostly where they match with the text. There are lots of other authentic works spread mostly over North America, Bovay’s non-exhaustive list counts 187. Rindisbacher is one of the early painters of the Natives in the area between Hudson Bay and the sources of the Mississippi. Chetlain states that, according to competent judges, he would have ranked as an artist with Stanley and Catlin, had he lived. Be it though clearly said here: Rindisbacher’s Indian paintings and drawings¹⁷ are not the subject of this book.

A hint, given incidentally to me by Dr Laura Peers about Sir John Franklin, the explorer, turned out to be a serendipity. I already had integrated a map of his when I discovered his Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1819, 20, 21, and 22. Two years prior to our Swiss party, he had made the same journey, from England to the Orkneys, through Hudson Strait to York Factory, and hence upstream the Hayes River to Norway House. En route, he too met the Eskimos, he too landed at York Factory, and he too had to row up raging rivers and grassy streams, across unhealthy swamps, and had to overcome hard portages. The read of his narrative is a welcome complement to the one of Wyss’ for, on his way to Coppermine N.W.T., he gives countless details about the risky navigation (winds, icebergs, and currents) in Hudson’s Strait, about the populations of the First Nations, the route on the rivers and the survey operations, astronomy, geology, zoology and botanic. And he even finds the time to admire the beauty and the grandeur of the landscapes.

The circumstances of the 1821 Swiss Immigration at Red River

The reader will find the events that led to the said immigration in Appendix I (Statement, etc., of the Earl of Selkirk), and, in Appendix II, The Selkirk Contract with Swiss Settlers.

Bumsted describes at length the fastidious back and forth of the organization of the Swiss emigration. His scrutiny of the archival record is unequalled.

Great was the surprise, when the Swiss arrived at York Factory. Bumsted writes¹⁸: "On 5 September 1821, George Simpson wrote from York Factory to Andrew Colvile that the Swiss had arrived. He was impressed with Mr Dehouser, but not with the settlers, Simpson reported. The present batch has been most injudiciously selected, men of bad character some taken out of Jails and others out of Work & Mad houses; instead of useful hardy agriculturists they are of all ages und unaccustomed to labourers work being chiefly watch makers, jewellers, pedlars etc. etc.. Your agent Capt’n [de] May has certainly not done his work conscientiously; I do not know how he is paid but conceive from the rabble he has sent out that it must be by head, many without looking to their abilities habits or morals. This assessment – and its criticism of Captain de May – is undoubtedly the most frequently quoted comment on the Swiss who arrived in Red River. As Simpson subsequently acknowledged in a later letter not usually cited, however, his initial impressions had been unwarranted, and most of the Swiss settlers were really quite responsible people. Perhaps de May had not done that bad a job. Later observations by residents of Red River that the Swiss were generally intelligent and well-to-do persons, some of them possessed of considerable means were probably as accurate as Simpson’s first assessment."¹⁹

In Appendix IV, I reproduce a document The State of the Swiss Colonists at Red River (dated 31 July 1822, originally written in French). This paper was probably written by Walter von Hauser, of Glarus/Switzerland (the above Mr. Dehouser, elsewhere also spelled de Huser), who was present as a prospective observer, and had had the opportunity to observe the progress of the settlers. It reveals the name, the origin, the age, the profession, the religion, and a description of the character of each settler, man or woman. One smiles when discovering that 40% of the adults were described as bad or worthless, only 33 % as fair, and some 24% as good or very honest²⁰. One man was described as crazy, and another as simple-minded. Bumsted observes that all but one of the clock-makers were of bad character. In the batch, there were also two men who, in their hometown, had been sentenced to hard labour in irons.

One important question yet remains unanswered: were these misfortunate immigrants ill-suited to be settlers? I believe they weren’t. Of course, there were only 26% farmers among them, but the various professions of the group could perfectly have met the needs of a settlement in full expansion, as this was the case of some towns of the United States in those years. The Swiss had the misfortune to arrive at the wrong time, for, during several previous years, all harvests had been destroyed by the locusts, and if not by this plague then by the floods of the Red River, in a situation made worse by prairie fires that had driven the meat-providing buffalo away from the plains in present-day North Dakota and northern Minnesota. And the wealthier among them might have expected another life than the poor settler’s (Wessendorf). Furthermore, all were disgusted by the behaviour and the enrichment, at their expense, of Governor MacDonell and his closer team. Bumsted ends his chapter of The Swiss and Red River, 1819-1826, with the pertinent conclusion: As a case study in what could go wrong with an early, well-financed settlement venture to the Canadian prairies, the story of the Swiss and Red River is hard to beat.

No wonder the Swiss wanted to depart and move south. They intervened in this sense several times and, in July 1822, that is less than a year after their arrival at the settlement, they even sent a petition to the Governor (see de Huser’s petition in Appendix V), and individual families began to make their way across the American frontier in the direction of Prairie du Chien (nowadays Wisconsin) and the Mississippi. Some ended up eventually in St. Louis, others settled in Minnesota, in Wisconsin, in Missouri, and also in Indiana as did Mrs Zélie Grisard. The voyage was tediously long and, due to the roving Indians, full of dangers. Wyss’ mention of the dramatic massacre of the Tully family inspired me to do further research about the destiny of the two sons who were returned by the Sioux to the garrison at Fort St. Anthony/Fort Snelling. This is the subject of Appendix VII, where Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve recollects the story of Andrew Tully. And, as the reader might be interested to know more about Fort Snelling, I added some information about this stronghold in the middle of the wilderness and 300 miles away from any white people²¹. The same Charlotte writes: Then began our regular fort life, the flag-staff was raised in front of headquarters, the stars ands stripes were run up at the roll of the drum at guard mounting and lowered with the same accompaniment at retreat day after