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Chief Ironstar (1892-1969)

Exploring the post-settlement history of the local Native American population is a subject of considerable interest, but one that I have avoided delving further into on account of the enormous amount of time required to do the subject justice.

However, a reader recently left the following comment on the article Indian Sites of Chesaning:

I seek information on a Native American man, whom my father referred to as Chief Art Henry. I believe that my father’s only brother was named in honor of Chief Art Henry, because my father told me that his grandfather was a neighbor and friendly to Chief Art Henry, whom he admired very much. My father and his brother were born on one of their family’s former farms in Fergus, north of Chesaning. Many years ago, when I began my genealogy research, I drove to what was once Fergus and located my great-grandfather’s farm on Marion Road, where other relatives had also owned farms before the Great Depression. That Marion Road location places them near a Native American site mentioned in this article. So, I’m wondering if the man in question could have lived near the Graves family’s farms, as I always believed, based on my dad’s recollections of having lived close to a well-respected Native American named Chief Art Henry.

I thought I’d do a quick survey and find out what I could about Chief Arthur Henry.

Arthur Henry was born on October 12, 1892, to parents Peter Henry (1861-1917) and Sarah Waindawbun David (1864-1931).

Both parents appear to have residents of what was once the village of Angwassag, an Ojibwa village that stood near Bear Creek, close to where the stream emptied into the Shiawassee River.

The area later became known as Indiantown after the arrival of European settlers, and was centered around what is today the intersection of Fergus Road and Turner Road in St. Charles Township.

Peter Henry’s presence in Indiantown is recorded by Harlan Smith (1872-1940), a prominent archaeologist from Saginaw who began his career studying the history of local tribes here in Saginaw County.

Peter was an important source of native folklore, serving as both a storyteller and interpreter.

Quewis is known to the white men of the neighborhood as Peter Henry. He is a manufacturer of hand-shaved axe handles and lives at Angwassag, the Ojibwa village, near the Shiawassee River in St. Charles Township, Saginaw County, Michigan. The word Quewis is probably for kwiwis, which in turn is a shortened form of kwiwisans; it means little boy, and is a common name. It does not necessarily mean that it is a man's only name; it often becomes attached to a boy who carries the name throughout life, while his real name may never be used except perhaps on rare occasion.

Some Ojibwa Myths and Traditions, Harlan I. Smith (1906).

Even though Peter may indeed have used Quewis as his personal name, it also appears to have served as the family name, since his father is recorded as Henry Quewis (1812-1899).

Henry Quewis was the owner of a twenty acre plot of land near Indiantown, on the south side of Birch Run Road, between Stuart Road and Turner Road. This was later passed down to this son Peter, and is presumably where Arthur Henry spent most of his childhood.

Details on the early life of Arthur Henry are difficult to come by, and much of his personal history must be inferred from the existing records.

He was born on October 15, 1892, in Pinconning, Michigan, although he grew up on his family’s farm St. Charles Township.

He appears to have also been given the name Nowgeeshig in his parents’ native tongue, and strongly identified with his Indian heritage throughout the rest of his life.

He grew up working on his father’s farm, and it can be assumed that he also attended classes at the local Indian school that was built on the northern edge of his father’s property.

He is also said to have attended the Indian school at Mt. Pleasant, and the Haskell Indian School, a boarding school and trade school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs that was located at Lawrence, Kansas.

The land holdings of Peter Henry (Quewis) in St. Charles Township (1896).

As an adult, he worked on a local horse farm for a time, but eventually became an assistant to a stone mason and bricklayer named Ray Mead (1886-1946), and this remained his primary trade for several more years.

He was married to Ella Lyons (1896-1916) at some point, and the couple had one child together, a daughter named Pearl Henry (1914-1987).  Ella had developed a heart condition of some kind, which sadly led to her death at a young age.

He later married a woman named Katherine Wheaton. This marriage ended in divorce, but not before producing two more daughters, Glendora Henry (1921-1993) and Caryl Henry (1925-1994).

Katherine may have been a relative of his first wife, as Ellen Lyon’s mother’s maiden name was Wheaton. Both women were also full-blooded Native American.

Arthur was married for a third time, to Alice Beechum, a miner’s daughter from Bay City.  This marriage took place on October 5, 1928, and it appears that both were living and working down in Flint around this time.

This marriage produce two more children, sons Arthur Roland Henry (1929-2015) and Robert Henry (1930-1997), although there may have been problems in the marriage as both the 1940 and 1950 census indicate that Alice and Arthur were no longer living together as a couple.

Arthur Henry

Henry was a well known figure in Chesaning, and even played on the Chesaning Banners baseball team for a time.  He was talented enough to earn a spot on a semi-professional, traveling baseball team that consisted almost entirely of fellow Indians.

It's Another Scalp

Chippewa Braves Humble The Local Pale Face Aggregation at Ball Game

Arntz's Chippewa Indian base ball team met the local Banners on the home war path, yesterday afternoon, and defeated them with the score of 5 to 1.

Thayer pitched the first five rounds in good style and Kratz was substituted with little improvement.

Arthur Henry, once a Goebel for Chesaning in the old days, was in ambush for the duskies and held the local sluggers to four hits. We understand that Arthur has signed for the remainder of the season and left today for Springport, Mich., for the next engagement. Chingwah caught Henry in perfect form and these two men with Geo. Eagle Eye, the short stop, showed classy stuff in base ball.

Chief "Cold Owl" on first was O. K., and it is said that he once adorned the lists of the Phillies of the National League.

The Chesaning Argus, June 11, 1914.

Glen Arntz was a college baseball coach from Detroit who organized a barnstorming team consisting entirely of Chippewa Indians that toured throughout the Midwest.

One of the players that was signed on the for the 1914 season was Ed Pinnance (1879-1944), who was the first full-blooded American Indian to ever play in the majors. He pitched for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1903.

The “Chief Cold Owl” mentioned in the article may have been referring to Pinnance.

Over the next ten years, Arthur Henry would spend at least part of his time journeying around Michigan as a baseball player, and became well known as a star player on another traveling team, the Cherokee Indian baseball club.

Sometime during the early part of 1920s, the remaining members of the local Chippewa tribe here in the Saginaw Valley decided they were not happy with the performance of the man serving as their chief. They finally decided to find someone new, and elected Arthur Henry to lead the tribe.

Arthur Henry took on the name Chief Ironstar.  He was well suited to the role of tribal leader, and became both an advocate and ambassador for the wider Native American community here in Michigan. 

Chief Ironstar

One of his first recorded public acts as leader appear to have been in the later summer of 1924, when he moved his family from St. Charles to a camp on the western shore of Clark Lake, down in Jackson County.

He had previously visited the area while playing against the local baseball club, the Eagle Point Tigers, and it appears that he may have decided to take an extended vacation in the area, which was an extremely popular tourist destination at the time.

Rather than rent a home or other regular accommodation, he decided to assert his treaty rights and encamped on the grounds of the village schoolhouse.

Nobody...can chase the Red men off their present camp site or any other public property they choose to live upon. If they have a mind to they can hunt and fish anywhere in Michigan, in season and out; nor are they compelled to pay taxes on property, dog license fees, or similar disbursements which harry the soul and pocket book of the white man.

Jackson Citizen Patriot, August 17, 1924.

The group became a sensation among the local residents, many of whom knew of Henry from his time as a baseball star, and the camp became a gathering place for both tourists and locals.  The members of the encampment would weave baskets and fashion ornaments using traditional methods to sell to visitors.

Arthur Henry even signed on with his former rivals and played the last part of the season with the Eagle Point Tigers.

A few years later, Chief Ironstar met with then-governor Alex Groesbeck (1873-1953) to assert his tribe’s right under the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw, which had guaranteed the tribe a yearly payment of $1,000 in silver in addition to other privileges.

Chief Ironstar would visit Lansing several times throughout his political career.  One such visit occurred in July of 1940 when he traveled from St. Charles to Lansing hoping to meet with the governor.  The governor was absent, however, having left to attend the Chesaning Showboat.

Chief Ironstar was also a dedicated ambassador for Indian culture, and worked extensively with civic groups like the Boy Scouts and the YMCA.  He was a frequent visitor at their campouts, where he would share Indian lore, and teach basket weaving, archery, and bow and arrow making.

Ironstar was not only an advocate for his own local tribe, but also took an active role within the wider Native American community. 

For 37 years, Mr. Henry rode a circuit that took him to every tribe in the United States as a census taker and organizer. He was chief of the Michigan Chippewas when a council was formed in 1963. He spoke and wrote Chippewa, Potowatomie, Ottawa and Sioux, the only four written Indian languages in the United States

The Flint Journal, December 17, 1869.

Despite his busy travel schedule, Arthur Henry appears to have spent most of his life near his home in St. Charles, working as a brick mason and paper hanger.

He also spent some time living in Flint, and was living near Lapeer at the time of his passing on December 16, 1969.  He was buried at Riverside Cemetery in St Charles.

PrevPreviousThe Chesaning Argus, December, 1877

One Response

  1. Georgena Qualls says:
    January 17, 2026 at 11:36 pm

    This was my great-father. I was 16 when he passed away. He lived walking distance from my house in Elba Township, Lapeer MI with my Aunt Ella Katherine. If you want information on Arthur Henry, my Aunt Kate is 93 and still lives in Elba. If you need information, contact me.

    Reply

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