For two hundred years between 1630 and 1830 there was no change in the conditions of the Ottawa Indians of the Grand River Valley and all other valleys north to the straits. It was owned and occupied by seventeen bands, each governed by a chief or head man and a head chief over all, who did not always inherit his position but sometimes gained it by valor or merit. In religion they were called pagans by the early missionaries. In language they were of the Algonquin stock. They were not warlike after they exterminated the Scodash or "Fire Indians" about 1600. They were hunters, trappers and semi-agricultural people.

All North American Indians are communistic in their lives. The boy when young was taught his life’s work. The best hunters supplied the band with meat. The lucky fisherman divided his catch with all. The expert artisan made the bows and arrows for his tribe. The crafty magician related his dreams and served medicine to the sick. The best orators expounded the traditional laws and shaped the policies of his tribe by his eloquence. He drew his conclusions from nature and the animals he hunted. The great Indian orators were Red Jacket of the Senecas, Tecumseh of the Shawnee, Pa-ban-ne, (The Henry Clay) of the Ottawas.

French fur traders and Jesuit priests came to the Grand River valley during the eighteenth century. They gave good influence to the Indian mode of living. In the year 1765 there came from Montreal, to the rapids of Grand River a French voyageur by the name of Antoine Campau. He wooed, won and married Indian style by just living together with the beautiful daughter of the chief. The result of this union was a son born in 1768. Here he grew into manhood and inherited all the characteristics of an Ottawa Indian. He was over six foot tall, square built, full of life and vim, weight about two hundred pounds. His name as a boy was not known. But when a man grown he had a dream and saw a ghost or phantom bear, which he followed to the source of Grand river, thence north to the head waters of the Muskegon River down that to its mouth, then followed the lake shore to the mouth of Grand River and back home in one day and night, so that he was given the name of Cub-bah-moo-sa, the great walker. At the first treaty with the United States government in 1855 he signed by his mark Cu-cub-bah-moo-sa, the great chief (first syllable very short with a rising inflection, fifth syllable heavy accent). Common usage and American history have shortened it down to Cob-moo-sa. He was known as a shrewd debater, forceful orator, a successful hunter and a good wrestler. He was a zealous pagan and took an active part it in its rites and ceremonies. He did not take part in the war of 1812 with some of his tribe especially Chief Kah-kah-bah and others because he was a good friend of the Great White Father at Washington.

He seems to have lived at different places along Grand River, The Rapids, Ionia and Lowell. He had four wives, eleven sons and three daughters, also an orphan girl, Negonce, left by his oldest son, Gaw-ge. His first wife, Ah-da-wah-qa had four sons namely, Gaw-ge, Wab-sho-gun, Shaw-bo-e and O-gee-moss.

Second wife, Ah-da-go-wem-on, had one son and one daughter. Son, Ah-mah-bes, daughter, Ah-bow-e-na.

Third wife, Ma-sena-be-qua, had three sons and one daughter. Sons, Aush-kah-mah-ga, Antoine, Cogz-he-sa; daughters, Was-sa-yah, mother of Rodney Negake.

Fourth wife, Ah-ne-me-ga had three sons and one daughter. Sons, Mash-she-ba, Cha-way-gosh-gun and Henry Mau-bese, father of Jacob Walker. Daughter, Say-sa-gah, mother of Solomon Bailey.

By the treaty of 1855, the Indians ceded all lands of Grand River Valley and all other valleys north to the Straits for farms in severalty in eight townships in northwestern Michigan. The principal ones were townships 15, 16, 17 and 18 north by range 16 west in Oceana and Mason counties. Each family was given eighty acres and each single person forty acres and many valuable considerations.

There were about fourteen hundred men, women and children and their personal property to be moved from their homes they loved so well to a new and wild country, which was good farming land and heavily timbered. Some were satisfied, others dreaded the change. It took all the first summer to get them down Grand River to Grand Haven where they wintered. The next season they camped at Pentwater and in the spring of 1858 they moved to Elbridge and Crystal townships. Not all the families went in a body, some moved via Newaygo, some stayed for a few years in Hastings or Holland in bark wigwams. Cob-moo-sa did not get to Elbridge until the spring of 1862, and then without any family. His mind so bright gradually failed in his last few years. There is a well founded proof that he had some gold coins save from the treaty of 1833 which he kept buried near a lake in Elbridge which buries his name. Cob-moo-sa lived in Elbridge with Negonce, Mrs. Negake and Mrs. Bailey, where he died in 1865. He was buried in a private pagan cemetery on a small knoll about one hundred rods south of the Government schoolhouse at the northeast corner of Section 27 of Elbridge, Oceana county, Michigan.

On the corner, by the Cob-moo-sa schoolhouse built in 1860 by the U.S. Government for the Indians, under large maple trees, stands a beautiful monument erected by the D.A.R. of Ionia and the people of this neighborhood. It was unveiled June 26, 1927, by two great-great-granddaughters of Cob-moo-sa, witnessed by an audience of about eight hundred Indians and white people, who enjoyed a picnic dinner and a splendid program. Many of Cob-moo-sa’s descendants were there and took part in the program , the last number of which was a song in Indian language, "The End of a Perfect Day," by four of his great-grandchildren.

Dated, July 15, 1931

--Richard E. Southwick, Hart, Mich.