(Venetians didn't believe Marco Polo; history vindicated him.)

The Legend of Squitum Waw Waw Ool Kaw
(The man who makes jumping soldiers)

In 1893 and 1894 I was reading law in an office in Northern Texas. Across the Red River in the Indian Territory among all the other remnants of Indian tribes were the so-called Five Civilized Tribes-- The Cherokees, Seminoles, Creeks, Choctaws, and the Chickasaws. For the purpose of handling their business in a more modern manner, these five tribes had changed from hereditary chiefs to governments based on that of the United States, each tribe having its own government. The law firm I was with were the attorneys for the Choctaws and the Chickasaws

A man whose name I no longer remember came to our firm well recommended by somebody. He wanted assistance in locating himself in the Territory where he could study the results these tribes were having with their new form of government. This man was very much of a gentleman, a college man, and I should judge about sixty years of age. He was what is called a good mixer, got acquainted easily, and no one bore resentment. He was making his study for some college or society, as I remember it. Our firm established him with the Indians in authority. I took him with a team and buggy to Tishomingo, then the capital of the Chickasaws. That was the last I saw of him.

He made a great point of my name, and asked if by any chance I was related to Mohawk Ed Hawes?

Never heard of him, I replied.

"Who was your first ancestor in the country?" he wanted to know.

I didn't know. I told him I didn't know our family history, but I believed we had been in America a long time[,] for my great-grandfather was in the American Revolution.

According to this gentleman, one Edward Hawes had come to New Amsterdam, afterwards called New York, the year after the Dutch settled there. He was a stone mason. His partner was a Dutchman. In Holland these two had been working together for some time. They were employed by the Dutch to come to the New World and assist in construction.

(Recently I have looked up the history of those days. The Dutch West India Company established a fur trading post in New York [New Amsterdam] in 1614. At that time there were many Puritans in Holland, driven there from England by religious persecution.)

Well, according to the story, both of these stone masons brought their wives. After the construction work was done, the Dutchman and his wife returned to Holland. Edward and his wife remained in New York. He accepted employment with the company as a fur trader.

He seems to have understood Indians from the start. "Squitum Waw Waw Ool Kaw," or Indian words something similar, was his Indian name. The words are of some tribe beyond the Mohawks. After all these years I am not really sure what the Indian words were, but I am sure of what the man said they meant-- "the man who makes jumping soldiers." He used to make little jumping jacks for the Indian children, and in the forests he would gather a few sticks here and there for later use, or would stop and work a little on one of his toys. The Dutchmen thought Edward strange, the Indians thought him crazy. Edward himself probably thought it was a slick way to avoid arrows, war clubs and scalping knives. I know it was, for Indians never injure anyone they believe insane.

Edward and his wife had one child born in New York, a boy. His wife died from the effects of childbirth, and Edward placed his boy in charge of a squaw, superintended to a considerable extent by a friendly Dutch family. He named the boy Edward.

He continued to trade with the Indians and was successful. After the boy was able to get about on his own legs, Edward's trading trips increased in length. On one such trip he was gone all winter. This time he went as far as the great falls between two great lakes. (This would have to be Niagara Falls[,] between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, and not so long after their discovery by the Frenchman who received renown for it.)

Edward accumulated some money trading for the Dutch. Finally he heard of the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth. Later he and his son went to Boston on an English ship which had been blown far off its course to Boston, and which made the port of New York to refit before proceeding to Boston. They arrived in Boston in the early summer of 1635. (This would compare with the date of June 3, 1635[,] given by one history, also the year other authorities have given; and it would account for his name not being on any passenger list from England.) This stranger to Texas may probably have given me the name of this ship, but I gave no heed, for I was not interested at that time.

Edward and his son lived in Boston and Dedham until the son made up his mind to marry. A girl named Eliony Lumber was what is called a bound girl. Her people had placed her as security for a debt, which meant she must work out at small wages if she lived long enough.(1)

Old Edward bought the contract, and left her free to marry his son, which she did at Dedham. Old Edward then outfitted for a trading trip to the Indians. He hoped to reach the Mohawks again...but was never heard from afterwards.

All the above is the story of the stranger who came to Texas. It is based on Edward's report and came down the annals of the Lumber family. Eliony was related to this stranger's ancestors. At that time I had no idea the Edward referred to might be connected with us, nor did I know he was our first ancestor in America. After my two lawyer associates ceased having fun by referring to me as "Squitum Waw Waw," I forgot it.

Sometime later when I visited at home, my father told me Edward really was our first ancestor in America, and that he was a stone mason. It caused me to wonder a bit. Dad knew nothing of this legend except what I told him. Afterwards I sometimes thought of the stranger who came to Texas. How could he concoct such a story at the moment of meeting me? He had never heard of me before. Why should he admit his relative was a bound girl when it was the fashion to be free? I had to conclude he thought he was telling the truth. But I dismissed the story as too improbable and romantic, and in any event having no connection with us. My father didn't know who Edward had married. Years later when I found an Eliony Lumber actually had married our Edward, I did some more wondering, but there it stopped. It seemed a coincidence, no more.

But now our distant kinsman, George Hawes, Wrentham, Massachusetts, tells me one of his relatives read among the ancient records of Wrentham something about like this:

"In 1638 the town gave a contract to Edward Haws and son to fell some trees on the public common to be used to make copper's wares for the town's use."

He has never heard of this legend, and I have asked him to search thoroughly for the woodcutting record.

It looks to me like a boy old enough to contract with his father to cut wood in 1638 must have been born before 1635. There must have been two Edward Haweses in Massachusetts in the year 1635. Ten years elapsed after the above contract (if there was one) and the time one Edward Hawes married Eliony in Dedham. How did this Edward (and the other Edward) come?

I have looked on all passenger lists from England to Boston from the years 1620 to 1700. Nothing. Is it unreasonable to believe the elder Edward came earlier? And that the younger Edward was born in New York just as the legend says?

If it was the elder Edward who married Eliony, he was rather old, and what became of the younger Edward?

I said my father knew nothing of this legend. He did not. But he did know, as did the other Hawses, there was a tradition our first settler had lived with the Indians for a time. How long a time? He didn't know. There was a tradition our first settler was a stone mason. I looked very industriously for something that would indicate that the Edward who married Eliony was a stone mason. I found nothing. Of course, that isn't proof that he wasn't a stone mason, but I think there should have been a mention of it somewhere.

Why should this legend come down in the Lumber family? And not in the Hawes family? I believe Edward and his father were honest men, the kind who would come clean when they were bargaining for Eliony. After the marriage Eliony and Edward may have thought it wise not to mention the prefix to Edward's life before he came to Massachusetts. If the elder Edward left an Indian wife in New York and came to Massachusetts just to get his son started, whose business was it? But as Indians were not so well thought of in those days, Edward and Eliony might have thought it wise not to saddle the facts on their children to come.

Of course, this is just imagination on my part.

What happened to Eliony's family? Maybe the debt against her was for their passage money home. Imagination again?

But such things did happen.... I have a neighbor who once had an Indian wife. I know it. If his white wife and children know it, they do not advertize....

I can find no record of the Lumber family[, but] I cannot get away from the fact the man who told me this story believed he was telling the truth. I have had many arguments with myself, and they all end in favor of the legend.

I want to make a correction. I said the Five Civilized Tribes all had changed their form of government. The Choctaws and Chickasaws did. There was talk of the other three tribes doing likewise...but I finally went away soldiering.(2)

---

From Allan C. Edmands II (Fred's grandson) in 2000:
With Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War.

To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close)

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I don't remember whether the other three tribes did finally change or not.

You figure this legend out...but I don't advise you to believe it. Old Edward not only would be in America from 1615, but he would be here five years earlier than the Mayflower, and earlier in America than any other Englishman north of Jamestown, Virginia. His son, Edward, Jr., would be a native son [born] here in North America four or five years earlier than the Mayflower. Also, as there were no English women in Jamestown until long after, it is quite probable Edward, Jr., would be the first child of all English parentage in North America. Wouldn't that be rich? We are the old settlers, and the Mayflower folks are just recent arrivals.

But it would be dangerous, too. Those who make a career of early dates would hate, dislike, and chase you around. It makes no difference to me, for I live far away.(3)

I believe this legend myself.(4)

It seems reasonable to me, especially if there is such a contract as our distant cousin mention[ed]. With the Germans in possession of all the Dutch records, if such still exist, I may never be able to learn all of the truth.(5)

If I had known about this woodcutting contract before, I would have made a try to find it...the truth, I mean. I've had experience turning up the cause of losses for cattlemen, and ten years running my nose in other folks' business for Uncle Sam. Maybe I could find out. If I do, and if I still love you, maybe I will tell you about it.(6)

The itching foot, the unknown trail, ponder as you read this tale.
In the midst of plenty, in a pleasant spot, why is that all forgot?
Why is our heritage to "onward go"? Read of Edward, you will know.
We live long years here and there...if we're nailed down with nails to spare.
If no new voyage we complete, the desire remains in our heads and feet.

General Remarks by Mary Hawes Ashbrook

Mary Hawes Ashbrook
Centralia, Washington

Please, I'd love more information about them if anyone can share with me.

MHA, 1968

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