The Story of Tonguish*
BY MELVIK D. OSBAND.
The story of Tonguish, so familiar in Wayne county when the writer was a boy, seems now to be remembered by only a few, or, if remembered, to be classed, it may be, among legendary tales that have little truth for their foundation; and the absence of any mention of it in the literature of the locality would seem to justify such a classification. But the children of the persons who participated in those exciting events still- live to repeat the story of their fathers and to verify it by their faith in their fathers' veracity.
It is believed that none of the actors are now living. The writer of this, as a boy, was personally acquainted with several of them, and with others who were knowing to the facts, and he lived from infancy to manhood in the immediate vicinity of the graves of Tonguish and his son. The story deals only with facts, and relates a scrap of the history of pioneer life in Wayne
*For the orthography of the name Tonguish, and for his tribal relations, I am indebted to Judge ,T. V. Campbell, of Detroit.
