USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 7
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"After advancing about five miles Major Price's corps received so severe a fire from the enemy, who were secreted in the woods and high grass, as to compel them to retreat. The legion was immediately formed in two lines, principally in a close, thick wood, which extended for miles on our left and for a very considerable distance in front; the ground being covered with old-fallen timber, probably occasioned by a tornado, which rendered it impracticable for the cavalry to act with effect and afforded the enemy the most favorable covert for their mode of warfare. The savages were formed in three lines within sup- porting distance of each other, and extending for near two miles at right angles with the river. I soon discovered from the weight of the fire and extent of their lines that the enemy were in full force in front, in possession of their favorite ground, and endeavoring to turn our left flank. I therefore gave orders for the second line to advance and support the first; and directed Major General Scott to gain and turn the right flank of the savages with the whole force of the mounted volunteers by a circuitous route; at the same time I ordered the front line to advance and charge with trailed arms and rouse the Indians from their coverts at the point of the bayonet, and when up, to deliver a close and well directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so as not to give them time to load again.
"I also ordered Captain Campbell, who commanded the legionary cavalry, to turn the left flank of the enemy next the river, and which afforded a favorable field for that corps to act in. All these orders were obeyed with spirit and promptitude; but such was the impetuosity of the charge by the first line of infantry, that the Indians and Canadian militia and volunteers were drove from their coverts in so short a time that, although every possible exertion was used by the officers of the second line of the legion and by Generals Scott, Todd and Barbee, of the mounted volunteers, to gain their proper positions, but part of each could get up in season to participate in the action; the enemy being drove, in the course of one hour, more than two miles through the thick woods already men- tioned, by less than one-half their numbers. From every account the enemy amounted to two thousand combatants. The troops actually engaged against them were short of nine hundred. This horde of savages with their allies abandoned themselves to flight, and dis- persed with terror and dismay, leaving our victorious army in full and quiet possession of the field of battle, which terminated under the influence of the guns of the British garrison.
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"The bravery and conduct of every officer belonging to the arms, from the generals down to the ensigns, merit highest approbation. * I must beg leave to mention Brigadier General Wilkinson and Colonel Hamtramck, the commandants of the right and left wings of the legion, whose brave example inspired the troops. *
* * The loss of the enemy was more than that of the federal army. The woods were strewed for a con- siderable distance with the dead bodies of Indians and their white auxiliaries, the latter armed with British muskets and bayonets.
"We remained for three days and nights on the banks of the Maumee, in front of the field of battle, during which time all the houses and corn fields were consumed and destroyed for a considerable distance, both above and below Fort Miami, as well as within pistol shot of the garrison who were compelled to remain tacit spectators to this general devastation and conflagration among which were the houses, stores and property of Colonel McKee, the British Indian agent and principal stimulator of the war now existing between the United States and the savages."
Following this battle of Fallen Timber, a sharp correspondence took place between Gen- eral Wayne and Major Campbell, in command of the British garrison at Fort Miami. The latter remonstrated with Wayne for approaching so closely to the fort but the gen- eral's only heed was the issuance of an order for the advance of a reconnoitering party which proceeded within ear shot of the fortification.
After the defeat of the Indians at Fallen Timber, the British seemed less anxious to afford them assistance. Wayne destroyed all the villages along the Maumee and as he could find no enemy that would stand against him, he retired to Greenville in November. There a treaty was signed in August, 1795, by Wayne and the Indian chiefs. The basis of the agreement was that hostilities should cease and all prisoners be restored. The Indian boundary was defined as follows: "The general boundary line between the lands of the United States and the lands of the said Indian tribes shall begin at the mouth of the Cuya- hoga river and run thence up the same to the portage between that of the Tuscarawas, branch of the Muskingum, thence down that branch to the crossing place above Fort Laur- ens, thence westerly, to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami river, running into the Ohio, where commenced the portage between the Miami of the Ohio, and St. Mary's river, which is a branch of the Miami, which runs into Lake Erie; thence a westerly course to Fort Recovery, which stands on a branch of the Wabash; thence southerly in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river opposite the mouth of Kentuck or Cuttawa river." Within these confines, however, the Indians were allowed certain reservations.
The comment of General William Henry Harrison, Wayne's aide in the campaign, affords additional evidence of the British relationship with the Indians. In a letter dated February 17, 1834, to Hon. Thomas Chilton, General Harrison said :
"That the northwestern and Indian war was a continuation of the Revolutionary con- test is susceptible of proof. The Indians in that quarter had been engaged in the first seven years of the war as the allies of Great Britain and they had no inclination to continue it after the peace of 1783. It is to British influence that their subsequent hostilities are to be attributed. The agents of that government never ceased to stimulate their enmity against the government of the United States, and to represent the peace which had been made as a temporary truce, at the expiration of which, 'their great fathers would unite with them in the war, and drive the long knives from the land which they had so unjustly usurped from his red children.' This was the cause of the detention of the posts of Detroit, Mack- inac and Niagara so long after the treaty of 1783. The reasons assigned for so doing
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deceived nobody, after the failure of the negotiation attempted by General Lincoln, Gov- ernor Randolph and Colonel Pickering, under British mediation voluntarily tendered.
"The bare suggestion of a wish by the British authorities would have been sufficient to induce the Indians to accept the terms proposed by the American commissioners.
* In June, 1794, the Indians assembled at the Miami of the Lake, and were completely
* * On the advance of the Indians equipped out of the King's store, from the fort. *
they were accompanied by a captain of the British army, a sergeant and six matrosses, pro- vided with fixed ammunition, suited to the caliber of two field pieces. Upon the advance of the American army * * the British fort at the Rapids (Fort Miami) was the point of rendezvous for the Indians. There the deficiences in arms, ammunition and equipments were again supplied; and there they were fed with regular rations from the King's store until the arrival of General Wayne with his army. In the general action of that day there were two militia companies from Amherstburg and Detroit. The captain of the cutter, who was also the clerk of the court at that place, was found among the killed and one of his privates taken prisoner."
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CHAPTER VI.
Northwest Boundary Dispute-John Jay Envoy to England-Jay's Treaty Ratified-De- troit Formally Given into Possession of the United States-Colonel Hamtramck Assumes Command-Wayne County Named-Record Concerning General Wayne -Detroit After British Evacuation-St. Clair Appointed Governor of North- west Territory-Other Officials-Ordinance of 1787-First and Second Legisla- tive Assemblies-Wayne County Representatives-Detroit Incorporated as a Town -First Officers-First Fire Department-Conditions in Formative Period-At- titude of British Officers at Fort Malden.
While General Wayne was in camp at Greenville preparing for the advance against the Indians and British, congress determined to put forth an especial effort relative to the adjustment of the northwest boundary dispute. An envoy extraordinary, in the person of John Jay, was sent to the court of St. James. His mission was the perfection of a new treaty with the London government. Arriving in England in the spring of 1794, he reported shortly afterward the flat refusal of the British to evacuate the lake forts. But congress' persistence and that of the envoy resulted later in the effecting of an agreement. In 1795 President Washington ratified what is known as Jay's treaty. This embraced the settle- ment of claims arising from the Revolution; established certain eastern boundaries of the United States; and provided that the posts at Detroit, Mackinac, Niagara and other western settlements should be turned over to the Americans not later than June 1, 1796.
On June 26, James McHenry, secretary of war, submitted to the president the final order for the departure of the British troops at Forts Miami and Detroit. The order was given by Adjutant General George Beckwith at Quebec on June 2d, and directed that a detachment of the Queen's Rangers should occupy both the above forts between the date of the evacuation and the entrance of the American forces, as a guard, "for the protection of the works and public buildings until the troops of the United States are at hand."
On Monday, July 11, 1796, Detroit was formally given into the possession of the new United States. Received at the water's edge by the retiring British, a little cavalcade of sixty-five men, under command of Captain Moses Porter, disembarked from two schooners made fast to the pier at the foot of what is now Shelby street. They marched to Fort Lernoult, built on the hill where the federal building now stands. There they took possession of a richer area than that contained in the original colonies.
At noon the English flag sank from the staff at Fort Lernoult. In its stead the halyards bore aloft a new device. It was one of red and white and blue; an emblem of unity and liberty,-the stars and stripes. All the hardship, all the sufferings; all the unspeakable tor- tures endured by brave men and women at savage hands urged on by gifts from his maj- esty of England were thus rewarded. Thus was the Northwest Territory born of death and suffering and greed, after years of travail and savage warfare in the wilderness.
At the passage of the Quebec act, in 1774, Detroit was directly under British govern- ment; subsequent to 1774 it was a part of the Province of Quebec, until it became part of the United States, in 1783.
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The following British officials were in power in Canada and Detroit between 1760 and 1796:
Sir Jeffrey Amherst, 1760-65; Sir James Murray, 1765-66; Paulus Emilius Irving (acting), 1766; Brigadier General Guy Carleton, 1766-70; Hector Theophilus Cramahe, 1770-74; Sir Guy Carleton (2nd term), governor of Quebec, 1774-78; Sir Frederick Hal- dimand, governor of Quebec, 1778-84; Henry Hamilton, lieutenant governor of Detroit, 1775-82; Henry Hope, lieutenant governor of Canada, 1785; Lord Dorchester (Guy Carle- ton), lieutenant governor of Canada, 1786; John Graves Simcoe, lieutenant governor Up- per Canada, 1792-96; Henry Hamilton, lieutenant governor of Canada, 1784; Jehu Hay, lieutenant governor of Detroit, 1783.
Two days after the arrival of the American force under Captain Porter, Colonel John Francis Hamtramck, General Wayne's former aide-de-camp, took command at Detroit pend- ing the arrival of his superior. Wayne, who had been made civil commissioner as well as commander in chief of the American military, did not reach the post until September. Dur- ing the month prior to his arrival, Secretary Winthrop Sargent, who was a staunch admirer of the general, suggested that the territory surrounding Lake Michigan be em- braced in a single county to be known as Wayne county. This suggestion met with instant and general approval and though Governor St. Clair, first governor of the Northwest Ter- ritory, later offered strenuous objections to what he termed the presumption of the secre- tary, leading citizens brought sufficient pressure to bear, to insure the permanency of the name.
General Wayne remained two months at the Detroit post from which he set sail in November for Erie, Pennsylvania. Before arriving at that port, however, he was taken fatally ill and finally succumbed shortly after disembarking at Erie. At his request his body was buried at the foot of the flagstaff on the parade ground there. Several years later it was removed to Radnor, Pennsylvania.
"Mad" Anthony Wayne was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1745. He became a surveyor and engineer, and, being interested in philosophy, he gained the friendship of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who was later his patron. He joined the army of the Revolution in 1775 and became a brigadier general two years later, serving throughout the war. Wayne particularly distinguished himself in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth. His attack on the heights at Stony Point, defended by six hundred British, in July, 1779, is declared to be the most brilliant exploit of the war. Here he led his men to victory at the point of the bayonet, capturing the fort and over five hundred prisoners without the firing of a gun.
Wayne is considered to have been one of the most able generals of the Revolution. He was irresistible in leading a charge and was a man of great impetuosity, which often bordered on rashness. His last campaign was conducted with great caution and skill. Though but forty-six years old at the time of his death, General Wayne spent nearly half his life in military service for his country.
From a book of travels in Canada and the northwest, published in 1799, by Isaac Weld, who visited Detroit soon after the British evacuation, it appears that the settlement then boasted some three hundred houses. "The town," wrote Weld, "consists of several streets that run parallel to the river, which are intersected by others at right angles. They are very narrow and, not being paved, dirty in the extreme whenever it happens to rain. For the accommodation of passengers, however, there are footways in most of them, formed of square logs laid transversely close to each other. The town is surrounded by a strong stock-
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ade, through which there are four gates, two of them open to the wharfs, and the two others to the north and south side of the town respectively. *
"About two-thirds of the inhabitants of Detroit are of French extraction and the greater part of the inhabitants of the settlement on the river, both above and below the town, are of the same description. The former are mostly engaged in trade and they all appear to be much on an equality. Detroit is a place of very considerable trade; there being no less than twelve trading vessels belonging to it, brigs, sloops and schooners, of from fifty to one hundred tons burden each. * The stores and shops of the town are well furnished and you may buy fine cloth, linen, etc., and every article of wearing apparel as good in their kind and nearly on as reasonable terms as you can purchase them at New York or Philadelphia. * * The inhabitants of Detroit and the neighboring country, however, though they have provisions in plenty, are frequently much distressed for one very necessary concomitant, namely salt. Until within a short time past they had no salt but what was brought from Europe, but salt springs have been discovered in various parts of the country, from which they are now beginning to manufacture that article them- selves. *
* * There is a large Roman Catholic church in the town of Detroit and another on the opposite side called the Huron church from its having been devoted to the use of the Huron Indians. *
* * At night all the Indians, except such as get admittance into private houses, and remain there quietly, are turned out of town and the gates shut upon them."
After President Washington had ratified Jay's treaty, but nearly two months prior to the American occupancy of Detroit, Washington sent the following message to congress :
"The measure now in operation for taking possession of the posts of Detroit and Michilimackinac render it proper that provision should be made for extending to these places and any others alike circumstanced the civil authority of the Northwestern Territory. To do this will require an expense to defray which the ordinary salaries of the governor and secretary of that Territory appear to be incompetent.
"The forming of a new county or new counties, and the appointment of the various officers, which the just exercise of government must require, will oblige the governor and secretary to visit those places, and to spend considerable time in making the arrangements necessary for introducing and establishing the government of the United States. Congress will consider what provisions will in this case be proper."
The chaotic state of affairs relating to the adjustment of the Northwest boundaries dispute tended greatly to complicate and delay the establishment of the civil regime in that territory. In the absence of definite surveys little was known of the exact extent of vast areas that were included with surprising freedom within certain county limits. As a result of this, sweeping and frequent changes were subsequently necessitated. Save for that por- tion in the immediate vicinity of Detroit, the mapping and settlement of the Northwest naturally covered at first the territory adjacent to the Pennsylvania and Virginia settlements.
The American government having reached the limits of its resources in the conduct of the Revolution, congress sought to provide means for the establishment and maintainance of a stable government by the sales of lands in the northwest. General Arthur St. Clair, a former officer in the colonial army, was then president of congress. He was urged to promote such sales, evidently by the promise of a desirable appointment to office in the new territory, once it was developed. Associated with him in this exploitation scheme were Manassah Cutler and Winthrop Sargent. The two latter men became the representatives of the directors of what was known as the New England Ohio Company of Associates. A
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contract between the board of treasury for the United States of America and Manassah Cutler and Winthrop Sargent as agents for this Ohio company was affected in 1787 for the purchase of a certain tract within the present bounds of Ohio. The settlement of a part of this purchase was commenced in the spring of 1788 and in the same year General Arthur St. Clair was appointed by congress to the office of governor of the Northwest.
Winthrop Sargent was made secretary and at the same time Samuel Holden Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum and John Cleves Symmes were appointed judges. The appoint- ment of these officers and the closing of the sale to the Ohio Company was, however, not accomplished without the enactment by congress of a special act, known as the ordinance of 1787, for the establishment of government northwest of the Ohio river. This ordinance, according to William F. Poole, a recognized authority on the early history of the north- west, was intended to insure the consummation of the Ohio Company's purchase of some- thing between one, and one and one-half million acres of land, and was draughted largely by Cutler himself. The ordinance contained certain provisions relative to slavery and to the establishment of schools within the territory. It also provided for the appointment by congress, as need arose, of such executive officers as governor and secretary, the former to serve for a term of three years unless previously removed from office, and the latter to serve four years under the same condition. Both officers were required to hold land within the territory; the governor one thousand and the secretary five hundred acres.
In as much as the English still held the northwest at the time the first appointments were made, the position of the executive was not without its embarrassments. However, Governor St. Clair and the judges who, with him, then constituted the legislature, met at Marietta, Ohio, in July, 1788, and proceeded to enact such laws as they deemed fitting. Subsequent sittings of this embryonic legislature were held at Vincennes and Cincinnati, though none of its deliberations, of course, became effective in Detroit until the evacution in July, 1796. Provision was made under the terms of the ordinance for the election of a general assembly whenever the number of adult free male whites within the territory should reach five thousand, one member being chosen for every five hundred citizens. After the number of assemblymen so chosen should exceed twenty-five, the assembly itself was given power further to regulate the representation.
In 1791 St. Clair issued the first proclamation calling for the election of the initial assembly. The body seems not to have met, however, until eight years later when it con- vened at Cincinnati, January 22, 1799. Wayne county was entitled to three representa- tives at this session and after two elections, the first of which occurred in December, 1798, Solomon Sibley, Chabert de Joncaire and Jacobus Visger were chosen as such representa- tives.
In the meantime, Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, acting under British authority, pre- scribed the limits of some nineteen counties, naming that in which Detroit was located the county of Kent. Two members, William Macomb and David William Smith, were chosen to represent this county in the first legislature under British rule, at an election held August 28, 1792. Alexander Grant, also from Detroit, was appointed a member of the council. This body convened at Niagara (then called Newark) in September of the same year and was followed by four succeeding sessions held annually until and including 1796.
With two sets of governors and legislators, one acting under authority of the federal government and the other under that of the crown; and with a variety of county limits and territorial divisions representing the ideas of the opposing executives, the regime in the
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Northwest was naturally characterized by a state of general confusion. Each party was supported by strong followings, but neither for a time could lay claim to any organization of stability. Finally, however, following the session of what may be termed the territorial general assembly at Cincinnati in 1799, an upper council was established. This body was made up of five members nominated by the assembly and named by the president, Jacob Burnet, David Vance, James Findlay, Henry Vanderburg and Robert Oliver being so named. Solomon Sibley was later named to succeed Vanderburg, who lost his member- ship upon the establishment of the Indiana Territory, within the limits of which he resided. Sibley being at the time of his appointment a member of the legislative assembly, the va- cancy in that body caused by his appointment, was filled by the selection of Jonathan Schiefflin.
Of Wayne county's representation at the second assembly Silas Farmer, in his His- tory of Detroit and Michigan, says: "The delegates from Wayne county at the first session of the second assembly, on November 23, 1801, consisted of Charles F. Chabert Joncaire, George McDougall and Jonathan Schiefflin. It is a curious fact, illustrating the principles and politics of that day, that Schiefflin and Joncaire, both of whom served under Governor Hamilton, and joined with the Indians in killing and scalping the white inhabitants in the territory, were afterwards elected to represent in the territorial legislature the very regions they had ravaged. As late as May, 1797, Jonathan Schiefflin had officially declared him- self an English subject, and affirmed that he did not intend to become an American citizen."
At the second session of the first assembly, convened at Cincinnati, in the fall of 1799, both an upper and lower house were formally organized. In accordance with an act of congress, Chillicothe was appointed as the meeting place for the next session, held in No- vember, 1800. This remained the seat of government until the close of the session of 1802, when the governor arbitrarily selected Cincinnati as the place of the next meeting. This gave rise to a storm of protest on the part of the citizens of Chillicothe and even re- sulted in a hostile demonstration against the governor.
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