Jane Johnston Schoolcraft - Marriage and Family

Marriage and Family

In 1823 Jane married Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, a US Indian agent in the region, who became a founding figure of American cultural anthropology. He was appointed US Indian Agent to the Michigan Territory in 1822 and served in the Northwest until 1841.

In 1826-1827, Henry Schoolcraft produced a handwritten magazine called The Literary Voyager or Muzzeniegen, which included some of Jane’s writings. Although he had only single issues, each was distributed widely to residents in Sault Ste. Marie, then to his friends in Detroit, New York and other eastern cities. The Schoolcrafts' letters to each other during periods of separation often included poetry, also expressing how literature was part of their daily lives.

Henry won fame for his later publications about American Indians, especially the Ojibwe people and their language (also known as Chippewa and Anishinaabemowin). His work was based on information and stories he learned from Jane and the Johnston family, and the access they arranged to other Ojibwe. He was commissioned by the United States Congress for what became a six-volume study of the American Indian. Henry Schoolcraft’s publications, including materials written by Jane Schoolcraft, were the main source for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha (1855).

They had four children:

• William Henry Schoolcraft (b. June 1824 - d. March 1827) died of croup at nearly three. Jane Schoolcraft wrote poems expressing her grief about his loss.
• stillborn daughter (November 1825);
• Jane Susan Ann Schoolcraft (14 October 1827 - 25 November 1892, Richmond, Virginia), called Janee; and
• John Johnston Schoolcraft (2 October 1829-24 April 1864), served in the Civil War but was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg and disabled. He died at age 45 in Elmira, New York.

Jane and Henry Schoolcraft moved to Mackinac Island in 1833, where he was assigned as Indian agent in charge of a larger territory. Their home has since been demolished, but Henry Schoolcraft's office, the Indian Dormitory, survives. The Schoolcrafts took Janee and John to a boarding school in Detroit when they were eleven and nine, respectively, which was hard for the younger boy. Johnston Schoolcraft wrote a poem in Ojibwe that expresses her feelings of loss after their separation. (Use link below to hear poem sung in Ojibwe.)

In 1841, when Henry lost his position as federal Indian agent, the Schoolcrafts moved to New York City. He worked for the state in American Indian research. Jane Schoolcraft suffered from frequent illnesses; she died in 1842 while visiting a sister in Canada. She was buried at St. John's Anglican Church in what is now Ancaster, Ontario.