USA > Michigan > A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
"As soon as the savages have made an end of their truck, they take leave of the governor, and so return home by the river Ottawas. To conclude, they did a great deal of good, both to the poor and rich; for you will readily apprehend that everybody turns merchant upon such occasions.
" 'Such was the condition of Michigan under the French domination,' concludes Lanman. The energies of the colonists were directed to the aggrandizement of their 'seigneurs' through the fur trade. Agricul- ture was checked by feudal clogs. The few French peasants scattered around their posts, or mixed with the savages, adored their lords and their priests. Amiable, contented, removed from the populated parts of the world, dwelling in bark or log cottages, stretching along the banks of the streams and surrounded by pickets, they were goaded by no im- pulse of ambition or avarice; they felt no fear, save when bands of the Iroquois advanced to the surrounding forests; for the Iroquois, says Charlevoix, 'set all Canada on fire.' They yielded a cheerful allegiance to their lords, because they loved monarchy. The free schools of the east had scattered intelligence through the English settlements; but they were in ignorance. The conciliatory and mild but artful spirit, first sent abroad by Ignatius Loyola in founding the order of the Jesuits, diffused its influence through the frame-work of society in Michigan; and the thunders of the Vatican had crossed the ocean, and rolled along the shore of the lakes."
Cadillac remained in charge of Detroit, which he founded, until called away from the colony in 1710. That settlement, which was the outer gateway to the Northern Michigan of today, continued to exist but showed little signs of growth during the period of French control.
Meanwhile the rival claims of France and England to the same ter- ritory in the valley of the Ohio and elsewhere, led to quarrels which culminated in the French and Indian war, during which the French lost the forts of Niagara, Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
At Niagara, the English secured a victory which carried with it the control of the situation at Michilimackinac, Detroit and other lake posts. This was in July, 1759, and at the same time the siege of Quebec was in progress where Wolfe had under his command a force of eight thousand men, and was supported by Admiral Saunders with his fleet of twenty-two large ships and some smaller ones. The siege continued for months with attack after attack met by stubborn defense, in a con-
Hosted by Google
70
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
flict between two of the bravest commanders that ever met in battle, both of whom, in the final act of that long drama of war met their deaths on the famous plains of Abraham in that most sanguinary conflict, which gave to the British arms the possession of that almost impregnable for- tress.
Montreal now alone remained as a French stronghold, and after con- siderable siege, by both land and naval forces, it too, on September 8, 1760, surrendered, and the province of New France closed its last chapter in history. It was not until 1763 that the results of the war were fully decided upon by the treaty of Paris, whereby the king of France sur- rendered all Canada to England, and was permitted to retain Louisiana which was shortly thereafter transferred to Spain.
ENGLISH FLAG SUPPLANTS THE FRENCH
Immediately after the surrender of Montreal, Maj. Robert Rogers was sent to take possession of Detroit and to command that and other western lake ports. He took with him about two hundred Royal Rang- ers, and en route was reinforced by American infantry from Pittsburg. The English were now penetrating new territory to meet a foe well pro- tected by fortifications, and supported by the savages of the lake region, who, through the teaching of the Jesuits, had become close friends of the French. They much preferred them to the English because the French met them as associates, while the English would not; and, fur- thermore, these Indians of the lake region had for years been accustomed to think of the English as the allies of their most dreaded savage foes, the Iroquois. It is not surprising that, under such circumstances, the English found the French and the lake Indians combined to resist, to the last, subjugation of the lake posts by their enemy; and, being fore- warned, they were armed for their defense and even more; for Pontiac, the great chief, with a delegation of followers, met Major Rogers at the present site of Cleveland and demanded of Rogers information as to his mission, and why he had dared to come into the country without permission. Rogers informed him of the surrender of the territory by the French to the English, and that he had come to take command at Detroit; and also gave to Pontiac assurances of friendship for the In- dians, and of their kind treatment at the hands of the English. After further conferences Pontiac appeared to be satisfied; the pipe of peace was smoked, and Pontiac tendered his assistance to Major Rogers in continuing his trip to Detroit.
Reaching the vicinity of Detroit communications were exchanged by messenger between Major Rogers and the French commander, Bel- listre, occasioning considerable delay and uneasiness to the small force of English, in the presence of such strange and savage surroundings, until finally, on November 29th, the fort was surrendered and the Eng- lish flag, for the first time, supplanted that of the French within the territory now comprising the state of Michigan.
A retrospect of French government in the Michigan of today re- veals the fact that the most prominent feature of its mismanagement was the neglect to develop the agricultural and other material resources
Hosted by Google
71
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
of the country looking toward permanent colonization and settlement. Very little land was cleared, few permanent improvements were made, and the settlements were small and weak, as the fur trade, which was the chief occupation of the people, was not calculated to build up and sus- tain large and thriving settlements. Hence, at the close of the French and Indian war, the little trading posts of Sault de Ste. Marie, Michili- mackinac and Detroit were the meager results of a hundred years of French control and colonization in the future state of Michigan, and the old town on the present site of Mackinaw City was the only visible evidence of the rich and populous domain known as Northern Michigan, south of the Straits.
" 'The social condition of Michigan was not much altered by the transfer of its dominion from the French to the British government," says Lanman, in his "History of Michigan." "The French subjects were permitted by the capitulation of Montreal, to remain in the coun- try in the enjoyment of their civil and religious rights; and the fur trade was prosecuted upon the lakes with much energy by English com- panies, who employed French agents in its prosecution. So far as the advancement of agriculture and colonization was concerned, the policy of England in Michigan was not better than that of France. About the year 1763 the British monarch issued a proclamation restricting the extinguishment of native title. By this proclamation the English gov- ernors were prohibited to issue grants of land excepting within certain prescribed limits; and the English subjects were also forbidden to make purchases of the Indians, or settlements, without these bonds. These grants, purchases and settlements, were, however, made, and they form an important part of the ancient claims to land afterward ad- judged by the land board of Michigan. Even after the treaty which granted the right of possession to the limited state, this power was as- sumed on the part of the inhabitants.
"Settlements were made by the French along the principal streams of the lakes. The farms scattered upon the banks of the rivers were of narrow form surrounded by pickets, and the cottages (about fifty in number) on the straits of Detroit, with orchards by their sides, were constructed of logs, with roofs of bark or thatched with straw. It is stated by a contemporary of that period that wheat was sown in rows. Potatoes were first introduced by the English.
"The Canadian-French were an affable and contented class of men preserving the same habits as now prevail among them throughout the state. Schools were unknown, and the instruction of the children con- tinued to be derived from the Catholic priests. Coin began to be in- troduced under English jurisdiction, while peltries were chiefly the cir- culating medium. The first horses used at Detroit were introduced from Fort Duquesne and these were taken from the English by the In- dians at Braddock's defeat."
Soon after the surrender of Detroit to Major Rogers, the English commander proceeded to Michilimackinac to personally take charge of the post there, leaving Captain Campbell at Detroit; but he found it impossible to make the trip at the late season, either by land or water, and so he returned east leaving Michilimackinac, the Soo and Green Bay,
Hosted by Google
.
72
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
although formally ceded to the British, in the actual control and gov- ernment of the French; and thus they remained until the spring of 1761, when they too formally surrendered to the English, and the French withdrew permanently from their possessions and claims in Michigan, although the forts at Michilimackinac, Sault Ste. Marie and St. Joseph, were not occupied by the English until the fall of that year.
INDIANS REBEL
But the Indians did not like the change from the government of the social, easy-going, intermingling French to the cold, calculating aggres- sive English, and the French who remained in the country did what they could to fan the savage flames of resentment against the advancement of the new "proprietors" of their soil and hunting grounds. The brave, fiery and able Algonquin, Pontiac, saw his opportunity to organize the western tribes against the invasion of this more dangerous type of white man, and his so-called "conspiracy" fell but little short of its desperate purpose. His conspiracy consisted in a plan to organize all the tribes into a combination to drive out the English, and to main- tain exclusively for the Indians the country northwest of the Ohio. To this end he sent his representatives to all the tribes north of the Ohio and into Canada and as far west as the Mississippi. This work was carried on so secretly and cautiously that not a word of it came to the ears of the English until the spring of 1762. The activities of that war were of short duration within the territory of which we write, but the great chief visited the Upper Peninsula in the building up of his plans, and gained considerable individual following from the tribes of this section who followed him to the contests below the straits, and all the frontier posts became endangered practically at one time. The English had only a small garrison at Fort St. Joseph, and that fort was quickly captured and its garrison sent to Detroit for ex- change; while at Michilimackinac a terrible massacre gave that strong- hold into the treacherous hands of the Chippewas.
MASSACRE AT FORT MICHILIMACKINAC
The fort, about half a mile southwest of the present site of Mack- inaw City, was occupied by Major Etherington, ninety-two soldiers and four English traders. The commander had full and timely warn- ing of the designs of the Indians, but foolishly disbelieved the reports and neglected all precautions. On the second of June, 1763 (the King's birthday), the savages engaged in a game of ball near the gates of the fort. The officers and soldiers, unsuspicious of danger, were idle spectators of the sport. About noon the ball was thrown into the fort and the dusky players rushed after it through the open gate. A party of squaws standing near furnished the assassins with tomahawks which had been concealed beneath their blankets and the massacre began. Details of this terrible affair which dyed with blood this pioneer soil of Northern Michigan are thus given :*
* As a result of the massacre at Fort Michilimackinac Lieutenant Jamette and seventy men were killed and scalped, and Major Etherington, three of the English traders and twenty-three soldiers were taken prisoners and afterward released.
Hosted by Google
.
73
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
"In the midst of the game there was an Indian war-yell, and the crowd of Indians who had rushed after the ball within the pickets, were seen furiously cutting down and scalping the English within the fort; while many of the English were struggling between the knees of the Indians, who scalped them while alive. The Canadians around the fort did not oppose the Indians, or suffer any injury. Henry the trader had seen from his window the butchery of the garrison, and finding that his unaided arm was insufficient to cope with the savages, who had by that time acquired the mastery, soon crawled over a low fence which divided his own house from that of M. Langlade, and en- tering, requested some aid by which he could be preserved from the general massacre. M. Langlade, a Canadian, who had been looking out at his own window, turned for a moment to the trader, and shrugging his shoulders, replied in French that he could do nothing for him. 'Que voudriez-vous, que j'en ferais?' said this white savage. At that moment, a slave belonging to Langlade, of the Pawnee tribe of Indians, carried him to a door, which she opened and informed him that it led to the garret, where he was desired to conceal himself. She then locked. the door with great presence of mind and took away the key. Through an aperture in the wall Henry could command a complete view of the fort. He beheld the barbarian triumphs of the savages in their foulest and blackest form. Heaps of dead lay around the fort, scalped and mangled. The dying were shrieking and writhing under the tomahawk and scalping knife, the bodies of the English soldiers were gashed and their blood was drank by the savages from the hollows of joined hands, amid demon-like yells. Henry remained in terrible suspense for some time, until he heard the cry, 'All is fin- ished,' and at the same time some of the Indians entered the house where he was concealed, and inquired of Langlade whether there were any Englishmen in the house. Mr. Langlade replied that he could not say ; that he did not know of any; they might examine for themselves. The Pawnee slave had secreted Henry by stealth, and did not com- municate the fact to anybody. The Indians, however, were brought to the garret door. The key was soon produced, and the Indians, be- smeared with blood and armed with tomahawks, ascended the stairs just as Henry had crept into a heap of birch-bark vessels which were used in making maple sugar and which lay in the further end of the garret. After making two or three turns around the room, they de- parted without discovering him. The dark color of his clothes, and the absence of light in the room probably prevented his discovery. There was at that time a mat in the room; Henry fell asleep; and he was finally awakened by the wife of M. Langlade, who had gone up to stop a hole in the roof. She was surprised to see him there: re- marked that the Indians had killed most of the English, but that he might hope to escape. Henry lay there during the night. All chance of flight seemed to be lost. He was without provisions, surrounded by savage enemies, and was four hundred miles from Detroit.
"At length the wife of Langlade determined to point out Henry's place of concealment, and showed the Indians the garret. Her de- sign, she stated, was to prevent the destruction of her own children,
Hosted by Google
74
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
which would take place if an Englishman was discovered concealed in her house. Unlocking the door, she was followed by several Indians, naked down to their waist and intoxicated, who were led by Wenniway, a chief. This warrior was more than six feet in height, and his face and body were covered with charcoal and grease, with the exception of a ring of two inches in diameter which encircled the eye. At their entrance Henry roused himself from the bed which was in the garret, and Wenniway, the chief, advancing with his lips compressed, seized him by the coat with one hand, and with the other held a large carv- ing-knife, as if to plunge it into his breast, while his eyes were stead- fastly fixed on his. Gazing for a moment, he dropped his arm, and said, 'I won't kill you.' He had been engaged in many wars with the English, and had lost a brother, whose name was Musinigon. 'You shall be called after him,' said the savage. Henry was afterwards stripped of his clothes. He was subsequently carried to L'Arbre Croche as a prisoner, where he was rescued by a band of three hundred Ot- tawas, by whom, however, he was soon returned, and finally ran- somed by Wawatam. Several of the bodies of the English who had been slain at Michilimackinac, were boiled and eaten, and Henry, when a prisoner, was given bread by the Indians cut with the knife which had scalped his countrymen. At the capture of Michilimackinac only one trader, M. Tracy, lost his life. Seventy of the English troops were killed, and the rest, together with the prisoners at St. Joseph and Green Bay, were kept in safety by the Ottawas until peace, and then freely restored or ransomed at Montreal. The massacre of the garri- son, and the destruction of the fort by burning, completed this project, which exhibits the strongest lines of tragedy. A number of canoes, filled with English traders, also arrived about the same time; and these were dragged through the water, beaten, and marched by the Indians to the prison lodge. The massacre took place on the 3d of June; and the savages, who were about four hundred in number, entertaining apprehension of the English and the other Indians who had not joined them, soon retired to the island of Mackinac. There Henry was con- cealed by Wawatam from the intoxication of the savages in the ‘salt rock,' where he lay for one night on a heap of human hones. The post of Michilimackinac having been destroyed, the savages seemed to have glutted their revenge; while some repaired to the post at Detroit, to aid Pontias in that siege.
"The operations of Pontiac in this quarter soon called for efficient aid on the part of the English government, and during the season Gen. Bradstreet arrived to the relief of the posts on the lake with an army of three thousand men. Having burned the Indian corn-fields and villages at Sandusky and along the rich bottoms of the Maumee, and dispersed the Indians whom he there found, he reached Detroit without opposition. The tribes of Pontiac, with the exception of the Delawares and Shawanese, finding that they could not successfully compete with such a force, laid down their arms and concluded a treaty of peace. Pontiac, however, took no part in the negotiation, and retired to the Illinois, where he was assassinated about the year 1767 by an Indian of the Peoria tribe. The Ottawas, the Pottawatto-
Hosted by Google
75
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
mies, and Chippewas made common cause in revenging his death, by waging war and nearly exterminating the tribes of the murderer. That terrific drama, got up by this son of the forest, stamps his name with greatness. The living marble and the glowing canvass may not em- body his works; but they are identified with the soil of the western forest, and will live as long as the remembrance of its aboriginal in- habitants, the Algonquin race."
SIEGE OF DETROIT RAISED
In the meantime an attempt to gain entrance to the fort at Detroit by craft had been twice frustrated by Major Gladwin, who had suc- ceeded Captain Campbell as commandant, and when Pontiac discov- ered that his designs were known he boldly led the attack on that stronghold in person. The siege, which lasted from early in May until late in October, included the awful massacre at Bloody Run, which was the only engagement fought outside the fort. The English force of 250 men were ambushed by the wily Indians and seventy of the men were killed and forty wounded. Within the fort the watchful garrison had little to fear except that the siege might continue until the provisions were exhausted. Fortunately, the food of the besiegers first gave out, and it became necessary for the Indians to raise the siege and go an their annual hunt. Major Gladwin at once laid in a good supply of provisions for the winter, in anticipation of a possible renewal of hostilities, but the Indians made no further demonstration until spring when the negotiations of Sir William Johnson and the approach of General Bradstreet in the summer induced them to re- linquish their purpose. Gladwin county, northeastern Michigan, has a worthy sponsor in the gallant and able commandant at Detroit.
.
The result of Pontiac's conspiracy was that the Indians captured eight of the ten posts which they attacked, hundreds of Englishmen were killed and a reign of terror prevailed throughout the valleys of the west. But its great leader failed in the ultimate object of his mas- terly campaign-the driving of the English from the interior of what is now the great Middle West.
As it was, the term following the protracted French and Indian wars, accompanied by awful savageries, greatly retarded the settle- ment and general development of Michigan.
When the treaties had been duly signed with the several tribes which had been embraced in Pontiac's conspiracy English military officers were sent to again take command of the forts regained, and to Michilimackinac and Sault Ste. Marie came Captain Howard for that purpose, from which time those points remained at least formally in the possession of the English until their acquisition by the United States at the close of the Revolutionary war. With the coming of peace, English and Dutch traders followed in the footsteps of the French to reap the rich rewards offered by the fur trade, but em- ployed the French coureurs des bois as their agents.
A controversy between the Hudson Bay Company and the North- west Company over the division of the territory was adjusted by an
.
Hosted by Google
76
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
arrangement in the nature of a modern "trust," by placing the con- trol of the two companies under one management; all governmental restrictions such as the French had imposed upon the fur trade were removed and free trade in furs was established.
The policy adopted by English in regard to the Indians was in- tended to extend to them pretty much the same freedom which they had originally enjoyed, but to hold over them such supervising control as to prevent tribal wars; to allow to them the principal portion of the territory north and west of the Ohio as their hunting grounds, and to acquire from them the province of Quebec, then including Michi- gan, which was peopled almost entirely with French. They were ac- customed to the government of France and unfamiliar with that of England; were almost exclusively of the Catholic religion, and so, with the coming of the English governor Carlton, the affairs of Canada were placed in the hands of the military and were not very satisfactory un- til the passage by parliament, in 1774, of the "Quebec act." This provided for a governor and council and also for the application of the criminal laws of England; the establishment, by appointment of the crown, of local courts with both civil and criminal jurisdiction; and granting the free exercise of religious belief to the inhabitants of the province; also allowing them to retain their church property. The act also extended the boundaries of the province so as to include all the great lakes, and the country south thereof to the Ohio and west to the Mississippi river. Because of this latter clause opposition was engendered in the ranks of the followers of William Penn, who claimed for his colony a considerable territory within that sought to be given to Quebec; and it also met with disapproval from the settlers in the seaboard colonies of the Atlantic coast, with whose western boundaries the act came in conflict.
Although Michigan was then within the province of Quebec and subject to her government, there was little occasion for laws beyond those enforced by the military, as the colonies had not as yet assumed any great pretense in numbers.
Accurate figures are not accessible, but the best that can be ob- tained are from a census taken at Detroit in 1773 by a justice of the peace, wherein the population of that place was given as two hundred and ninety-eight men, two hundred and twenty-five women, one hun- dred and forty-two young men and women, five hundred and twenty- four children, ninety-three servants, and eighty-five slaves. The area of cultivated land is placed at one thousand and sixty-seven acres, or a trifle over a section and a half.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.