Chinwa Blackfish

   Another name for Chinwa was Chinwa.

  Research Notes:

Chinwa Blackfish, first son of Chief Blackfish, was most likely the young man who was killed by whites around 1774 and subsequently "replaced" by an adopted white boy named Rogers by the grieving father.

Based on an 1895 account by Mrs. Stinson (Mary Elizabeth Beauchemie), a descendant of Lewis Rogers, Lewis was captured by Shawnee at the behest of Chief Black Fish, who had lost his son [Chinwa] to whites. The memorial for Lewis Rogers at FindAGrave.com calls him "Lewis Chinwa Rogers" and contains a long narrative (found below) that includes Black Fish's adoption of a Rogers boy (in this case, Lewis) to replace Chinwa.

Researcher Don Greene contends that Henry Rogers, aka Chinwa Rogers, was the namesake of Black Fish's "1st son" (Chinwa), who was killed in 1774. However, he also has Henry Chinwa Rogers being adopted around 1760, before the event occurred. In the same book, the entry for Parlie Blackfish shows her marrying Lewis Rogers, which is probably correct.

Sources also differ in the way they identify the lost boy (Chinwa). Some say he was the "only son," others say "first son." He was the "only son" until Young Blackfish was born around 1750, but "first son" does make sense if Chinwa was truly born before Young Blackfish.

There are also discrepancies about the year in which the two white boys named Rogers were born. Find A Grave # 192522520 holds that Lewis was born in 1764. (There is no gravestone.) Don Greene places Lewis' birth year around 1750, but I speculate that he mixed up Henry and Lewis Rogers. An educated guess places Henry Rogers' birth year around 1755. Henry may or may not have been Lewis Rogers' brother.

Remember, Chinwa was supposedly killed in 1774.

***

The following story about Lewis or Henry "Chinwa" Rogers refers to Blackfish's "only son" as the one who was killed, but since it is a story passed down through a couple of generations, that could be an error in the retelling by Rev. Joab Spencer.

[Note: My research indicates that Mrs. Julia Ann Beauchmie Stinson was the granddaughter of Lewis Rogers & Parlie Blackfish through her mother, Mary Elizabeth Rogers, not Henry Rogers & Chelatha Blackfish. Rev. Mackinaw Beauchmie, father of Julia Ann Beauchmie Stinson, is mentioned toward the end of this account in addition to Mrs. Stinson's cousin Graham Rogers, who was most likely a namesake grandson of Lewis Rogers & Parlie Blackfish]

From Find A Grave memorial # 192522520 - Lewis Chinwa Rogers (1764-1830)

When Lewis Chinwa Rogers was born in 1764 in Virginia, his father, Benjamin, was 16 and his mother, Jane, was 16. He had four sons and four daughters with Parlie Chalakatha. He died in 1830 in Fayette, Missouri, at the age of 66.

Our Rogers family of Larkin Rogers [(1766-1839)] [Lewis'] brother had been told this story for many years down through multiple lines of the family that settled in different places in Texas. With DNA we now know this is our relative. Specifically we match descendants of the [Thomas Nesbit] Stinson line. Lewis Rogers was named in his father's will in 1808. There has been speculation but so far I have seen no proof that when Lewis Rogers was stolen by Chief Blackfish he stole Lewis's brother Henry. There may have been a Henry Rogers stolen by Chief Blackfish but I do not believe it was a brother.

Below is a story told by Lewis [Henry] Rogers' grand daughter ["Mrs. Stinson"].

CHIEF BLACKFISH AND HIS WHITE CAPTIVE.
BY REV. J. SPENCER.

Late in the eighteenth century Blackfish, a Shawnee chief then living in Kentucky, lost his only son in a fight with the whites. To make up the loss, as far as possible, he ordered two of his braves, according to history, to capture a white boy to take the place of his dead son. We give the story that follows as told by Mrs. Stinson, a granddaughter of the stolen boy, in her own artless way:
"When the boy was brought to the chief, Blackfish showed the boy the arrows and other things that had belonged to his son, the lost Indian boy, and the father told him that these were his. He was to be brought up as a brave chief, as his own little boy [Chinwa] would have been. So my grandfather lived and grew up with the Indians. But he was always called by the name of Lewis Rogers.

"In course of time this Rogers married the chief's daughter, with whom he had been brought up as brother and sister. When the young man proposed to marry the girl, she still thought he was her own brother, and she felt insulted and told her mother of the strange talk of her brother. Her mother sent her to her father, who told her how it was and how the conduct of her brother was all right; that the young man was not her brother, and he advised her to marry him. She said she could not. She loved him as her brother, but could do no more than this. But her father persuaded her that she ought to marry the young man. She said she could not then consent; she must take time to think about it. So after a year she consented, and they were married.

"Rogers had three children by the chief's daughter. Then his brothers came to him from Virginia. They told him that his mother wanted him to return to her; that she was old and wanted to see her lost son before she died. So he went with his brothers to visit his mother. He was received with great rejoicing. A great many guests were invited to a grand celebration. He was treated with the utmost kindness and had given him everything for his enjoyment. They asked him to lay aside his Indian garb and again to take up his home with his kindred. His mother, who treated him with all the endearment of affection, told him that he must never go back to the Indian country. But he continued to wear his Indian garments, and could not be induced to discard them. He told them he was an Indian now; he had become a son of the chief; he was married to the chief's daughter, whom he loved; and he had three little boys, whom he loved with all the affection of human nature. 'Mother, I came just to visit you because I love you, and have not lost my affection for my brothers. But I have come just on a visit. My wife and children, whom I love more than all else; are still in the forest awaiting my return. I love my wife. We grew up together in the grand old forests. I love my three little boys. If you have invited me here to induce me to remain and live with you, I cannot do as you wish. I must return to my wife and children.'

"He arose early the next morning and called his servants to prepare his horse for a journey. The slave said: 'Massa Lewis, yo' ain' a-going away. Yo' is a-going stay heah.' Father Rogers was a wealthy slaveholder in Virginia, not long come from the mother country, England.

(Page 48)
"Lewis had been three months with his mother. His Indian wife's people told her that her husband would never come back, 'O no,' she said, 'he will come.' So one evening she heard his whoop. She called her children and said: 'I believe I hear your father. ' And then another whoop was heard, and he appeared in sight riding swiftly into the settlement. It had taken him three days to come from Virginia on horseback. Then the mother and children rushed to greet him. He jumped from his horse and embraced his wife and children, exclaiming: 'O Parlie, I will never leave you again!'

"Lewis Rogers, Jr., died in Fayette, Howard County, Mo. One of his sons, Henry Lewis, was educated in Kentucky. He brought about the establishment of the Methodist Mission, of which Thomas Johnson became the superintendent. He loaned Thomas Johnson $4, 000 to go on with the mission. The Rogerses of the Shawnee tribe were sons or descendants of Henry Rogers.

"My mother was a Rogers; Betsy Rogers was her name. She married Mackinac Beauchmie. He was born at Mackinac Strait. He belonged to the American Fur Company. In trapping and hunting among the Indians he traveled down the Ohio River. There he found my mother among the Shawnees and married her. He then continued to live with the Shawnees but he was for several years with the trappers in the Missouri River country toward the mountains. Then he came back and joined the Shawnees in Kansas, about the time they came to Kansas, about 1832. He then joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, and never went back to the Fur Company. He learned to speak good English with the Fur Company, and he became the interpreter for Rev. Thomas Johnson at the mission. He became very useful to Mr. Johnson. At one time he traveled with him on one of his journeys to procure money to build up and maintain the mission. After the Shawnee Mission had become established, Mr. Johnson had my father go among the Pottawattomies to start the mission. He preached to the Pottawattomies and did missionary work among them. The mission was close to Ossawatomie, down on the Marias de Cygne, or on the Pottawattomi Creek. My father [Rev. Beauchmie] died at the mission about 1846 or 1847.


"I was at Fayette, Mo., at the time going to school. I went down on the steamboat on the river at the time some soldiers were going to the Mexican War. They went around by St. Louis and New Orleans."

Henry [Lewis] Rogers, as stated above, was a most excellent man, and, as Mrs. Stinson states, a warm and true friend of the Shawnee Methodist Mission. Her father [Rev. Mackinaw Beauchmie] became a very useful preacher, and was a member of the Indian Mission Conference when he died and an ordained deacon.

Of him Bishop Andrew, in a letter written in 1848 while on a tour among the Indian missions of Kansas, says: "During the past year one who was probably the greatest and best of the Pottawattomies was summoned from earth, Rev. Mackinaw Beauchmie, a man of rare gifts and address and constant piety."
While a missionary to the Shawnees, I heard Brother Johnson tell of his trip East with Beauchmie and how greatly the people were interested in his addresses everywhere they went.

Graham Rogers, a cousin of Mrs. Stinson, was one of my stewards, a most exemplary Christian and in every way a worthy man.