Who was Chief Carlisle Kawbawgam? | News, Sports, Jobs

Craig Carlisle and Alma Pitts Williams, aka Carlisle and Alma Kawbawgam, are pictured on their way to Europe around 1912 (Image courtesy of H. Fleming via` Marquette Regional History Center)

MARQUETTE — Most people in Marquette recognize the name Charlie Kawbawgam. But a recent research inquiry about Chief Carlisle Kawbawgam raised some interesting questions. To be honest, none of our staff recognized this individual.

So, who was he?

Chief Carlisle Kawbawgam was a singer and entertainer who toured the United Kingdom and Europe just before World War I and spent the war years in the United Kingdom.

A tenor singer, Carlisle entered the European music scene in 1912, nicknamed the “Red Caruso” or “Indian Caruso.” He generally sang in vaudeville shows but claimed to be training as an opera singer. He also claimed to be the “son and heir of the late chief of his tribe,” presumably Charlie Kawbawgam.

Carlisle stated he left his Chippewa village in the Upper Peninsula as a child to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. After graduating, he attended medical school at Yale. Next, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he practiced medicine and sang at private events to earn extra money.

At one of his performances, he met a Chilean woman of “distinguished ancestry.” He married the woman, Alma Lopez, and they sailed to Europe in 1912. Kawbawgam planned to tour and study with an American expatriate voice and elocution teacher, Frank King Clark, in Berlin.

When announcing his singing career, he said that he chose to use the name Carlisle as a tribute to his alma mater.

Kawbawgam toured Europe as an entertainer until the outbreak of World War I, when he and his wife relocated to London. While in the United Kingdom, the couple welcomed two children, Carlisle Jr. in 1916 and little Alma in 1919. The family returned to the United States in 1921 and seemed to disappear.

So, who was this mysterious Chief Carlisle Kawbawgam?

Charlie Kawbawgam and his wife, Charlotte, had two known children, a son born around 1849 and a daughter, Elizabeth, born around 1860. Both children died as infants. In their later years, the couple adopted two family members, Elizabeth and Frank Perreau, after their parents died. There is also an unproven rumor of a boy who had been adopted by the Kawbawgams prior to the Civil War, who died in a hunting accident shortly after returning from serving in the conflict.

But none of those children match the story of Carlisle, who was born around 1882. Additionally, media inquiries to the both the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and Yale Medical School in 1912 found that there was no record of this famous alumnus. It is possible that he could have attended one or both schools under a different name, but this seems unlikely.

The children adopted by the Kawbawgams, Elizabeth and Frank, attended the Mount Pleasant Indian Boarding School following Charlie and Charlotte’s deaths in 1902 and 1904 respectively, not the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

So, who was he?

We believe that Carlisle Kawbawgam was originally born Craig Carlisle Williams. This conclusion is based online genealogy sources, given the similarities between the information on the Craig Williams family and the Carlisle Kawbawgam family, particularly the identical birth information for the two children.

Craig Carlisle Williams was born in Marquette on October 3, 1881. He was the 14th of John Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Bicelander) Williams’ 15 children. John was an African American barber in Marquette. Presumably Craig knew Charlie Kawbawgam during his childhood.

His mother, Elizabeth died in Marquette in August 1887, when Craig was just five years old. A year later, John Ebenezer married Neeton Perry in Chicago.

By 1900, some of the family is listed on the US Census living in Philadelphia where 19-year-old Craig is working as a singer. Others remained in Marquette, including Craig’s older sister, Jessie Amelia Williams. She married another local African American barber, James Rickman. All four of the Rickmans’ surviving children attended Northern Michigan Normal School (now Northern Michigan University) in the 1920s.

In December 1909, Craig married Alma Nash Pitts in Indiana. Alma was born about 1882 or 1883 in Atlanta. She had previously taught school in Washington, D.C. By the 1910 U.S. Census, the couple was living together in Chicago where Craig was now listed as a music publisher. John Ebenezer Williams died in November 1911 in Montreal where he had been living with another of his children.

From Chicago, the couple moved to Europe, where Craig toured as Carlisle Kawbawgam. While we cannot be sure of his motivation, Carlisle was described in newspaper reports as “the first full-blooded American Indian to reveal superior vocal talent.” It appears that he was utilizing the novelty of being a Native American to advance his singing career.

During World War I, the couple lived and toured in the United Kingdom. This is where the two children were born, Carlisle/Craig Jr. in 1916 and little Alma in 1919. In 1916 Carlisle was fined 5 shillings in the Scarborough Police Court for failing to shade a light during a blackout.

As noted previously, the family returned to the United States in 1921. Their disappearance from the records was due to reverting to using the Williams surname. Craig Williams died in Chicago on Jan. 10, 1923. Sometime the following year, his widow, Alma, married her brother-in-law, Craig’s younger brother, Avon Hugo “Hugo” Williams.

By the 1930 U.S. Census, Hugo, Alma and the two children are living in Chicago. Hugo was a heating and plumbing contractor while Alma was a Christian Science practitioner. Craig Jr. went on to serve as a Tuskegee airman during World War II.

The two children, Craig Jr., and little Alma, both married and had children. Hugo died around 1953 and Alma died in 1965.