USA > Michigan > Kent County > Grand Rapids > Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan: History and Account of Their Progress from First. Vol. I > Part 4
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and reduced to a condition of helplessness, thus making them obliged to submit to terms offered by the victors. But when we consider the fact, demonstrated on every page of the world's history, that the tree of civilization does not grow until the soil has been fertilized by human blood, we can condone the warfare waged against the Indians, and by comparison at least point to those treaties as just and merciful ones. Concerning the earlier Indian treaties, Rufus King, in his history of Ohio, says :
"To open the way for surveys and sales of the western lands and to induce immigration, it was essential to obtain the Indian title. A board of commissioners had been established for this purpose in 1784. Instead of seeking peace and friendship through the great council of the northwestern confederacy, which had now transferred its annual meetings from the Scioto to the Rapids of the Maumee (near Toledo), these officials adopted the policy of dealing with the tribes separately. Year after year they treated with sundry gatherings of unauthorized and irresponsible savages, at what are known as the treaties of Fort Stanwix, in October, 1784; Fort McIntosh (mouth of Big Beaver), in January, 1785; Fort Finney (near the mouth of the Big Miami), in January, 1786, and Fort Harmar (mouth of Muskingum), in January, 1789. By these proceedings it was given out and popularly supposed that the Indian tribes on the Ohio had acknowledged the sovereignty of the United States and surrendered all the territory south and east of a line which passed up the Cuyahoga river, and across the portage to the Tuscarawas, then descending this stream to Fort Laurens, thence running west to the portage between the heads of the Big Miami and the Auglaize rivers to Lake Erie. Congress was under the delusion that it had acquired the Indian title and full dominion of all the lands between this line and the Ohio river. The mischief of these travesties was soon discovered in new raids and murders perpetrated upon the settlers of the government lands by the very tribes ignorantly reported and supposed to have ceded to territory."
The Greenville treaty was made by Gen. "Mad Anthony" Wayne, on Aug. 3, 1795, at the close of the Indian war waged in the Maumee valley and throughout Ohio and southern Michigan during the years 1790-95. Full particulars of these hostilities are not germane in this connection, but the provisions of the treaty come properly within the scope of the history of Kent county. Between the Cuyahoga and Tus- carawas and the Maumee and Miami, south to the line from Fort Lau- rens to Laramie's store, the Indians were to retain possession, and be- sides that were to hold the title to all the rest of the country, west of a line from Fort Recovery to the mouth of the Kentucky river, and west and northwest of the Maumee, except Clark's grant on the Ohio river and certain reservations about Detroit and the forts in Ohio and other parts of the Northwest, with the understanding that when they should sell lands it should be to the United States alone, whose protection the Indians acknowledged, and that of no other power whatever. There was to be free passage along the Maumee, Auglaize, Sandusky, and Wabash rivers, and the lake. Twenty thousand dollars' worth of goods were at once delivered to the Indians, and a promise was made of $9,500 worth every year forever.
The United States Senate ratified the Wayne and Greenville treaty in due time, and Southern Michigan and Northwestern Ohio, north of
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the treaty line and west of the "Connecticut Reserve" line, remained unorganized for a number of years thereafter. About the same time (1794) John Jay, as minister to England, concluded his treaty with that country, by the terms of which the British posts were to be aband- oned in the neighborhood of the Great Lakes on or before June I, 1796. The terms not being strictly complied with, in July, 1796, the United States demanded a fulfillment of the treaty and the transfer of authority was accordingly made, General Wayne moving his head- quarters thither and displacing the English commander. In the ab- sence of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, who was the governor of the North- west Territory, Secretary Winthrop Sargent went to Detroit and pro- claimed the county of Wayne, which included what is now the lower peninsula of Michigan, a large part of Indiana, and the Indian country in Ohio, the boundary of which on the south was the Greenville treaty line.
It will be well to digress here a moment and turn our attention to some events, which, though they left no permanent results, but for a miscarriage might have very deeply affected the subsequent history of what is now Kent county and the state of Michigan in general. There is an impression that there has been some "landgrabbing" in recent years, participated in by men in high official positions, including sev- eral members of Congress, but compared with some of the great land "deals" in the first two decades after the treaty of peace with Great Britain, these were very tame affairs. The legislature of Georgia in 1794 had sold to four companies, including some of the most eminent citizens of the country, a vast tract of land lying between the Chatta- hoochie and the Mississippi rivers, and these speculators had succeeded in selling out at a great advance to other speculators in the Middle and Northern States. It was charged and believed that this action by the legislature of Georgia had been procured by corrupt means, and, stim- ulated by its success, a scheme was concocted to "gobble up" nearly the entire lower peninsula of Michigan. It was in 1795, while the treaty of Greenville was still pending and England had not yet yielded possession, that one Dr. Robert Randall, of Maryland, visited Detroit for the purpose of interesting certain Detroit merchants and capitalists in no less a scheme than the purchase of all the rights of the United States in 20,000,000 acres of land in the peninsula for the sum of $500,000. He had associated with him one Whitney, of Vermont, who was looking after New England, while other confederates were "interesting" members of Congress, as members of the Georgia legisla- ture had been "interested" the year before. Among the local people at Detroit who had entered the "combine" were said to be John Askin (merchant and Indian trader), Robert Innis, William Robertson, Da- vid Robertson, and Jonathan Shiffelin. The entire capital stock was divided into forty-one shares, of which five were apportioned to the Detroit parties, six to Randall and Whitney and their associates, and thirty were allotted to members of Congress to "influence" them. Over- tures had been made to a number of members of Congress-just how many is not known-among them Giles, of Virginia; Smith, of South Carolina ; Murray, of Maryland, and others. Randall boasted that he had already "secured" thirty members. But Murray exposed the whole scheme on the floor of the house. Randall was arrested, brought to
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the bar of the house, tried for attempted bribery, convicted of high contempt, and sentenced to be reprimanded and held in custody to the end of the session. The exposure was fatal to the whole scheme and this attempted "land-grab"-not the last, be it said-fell flat and came to naught. It might be interesting, but not profitable to speculate what the effect would have been upon the future of Michigan and Kent county had this gigantic scheme succeeded. Among other things the promoters promised that through the influence of their Detroit repre- sentatives they would maintain peace and amicable relations with the Indians of the peninsula. For many years the Randall-Whitney at- tempted bribery and purchase has been a forgotten episode in the region which their ambition and greed would have made a proprietary estate. Most of the resident promoters were British adherents, and it is probable the whole intrigue would have come to naught after actual American occupation.
But meanwhile Michigan remained a part of the as yet undivided Northwest Territory. The proclamation creating the county of Wayne was issued Aug. 15, 1796, and the boundaries named therein were as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, upon Lake Erie, and with the said river to the portage, between it and the Tus- carawas branch of the Muskingum, thence down the said branch to the forks, at the carrying place above Fort Laurens, thence by a west line to the western boundary of Hamilton county (which is a due north line from the lower Shawanese town upon the Scioto river), thence by a line west-northerly to the southern part of the Portage, between the Miamis of the Ohio and the St. Mary's river, thence by a line also west-northerly to the most southern part of Lake Michigan, thence along the western shores of the same to the northwest part thereof (including the lands upon the streams emptying in the said lake), thence by a due north line to the territorial boundary in Lake Supe- rior, and with the said boundary through Lakes Huron, Sinclair, and Erie, to the mouth of Cuyahoga river, the place of beginning."
From the organization of the territory, in 1788, it had had no rep- resentative government, owing to the restrictions of the "Ordinance of 1787." A reference to this "Compact" will discover to the reader that the legislative function of the territorial government in its first stage of development, and until there should be 5,000 free male inhabitants of full age in the district, was lodged in the governor of the territory, and the judges of the general (or Territorial) court, or any two of the judges and the governor. But in 1798, a census was taken, which dis- closed more than the necessary "5,000 free male inhabitants" in the Territory, and it thus having reached the second stage of territorial government, entitling it to an elective territorial council, on Oct. 29, 1798, Governor St. Clair accordingly proclaimed an election, to be held on the third Monday of December, for the choice of a house of repre- sentatives in the general assembly, to which the territory was entitled at that stage of development. The election was by districts, and Wayne county was entitled to one representative. No election returns are known to be in existence from that part of Wayne county now included in Michigan, but it would seem certain that an election was held at Detroit in December, 1798; if so, it was the first time the elec- tive franchise was ever exercised, under the laws of the United States,
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in what is now the Peninsular State. It would appear that James May, of Detroit, was chosen representative. It would seem also that this election was set aside for some reason, a new proclamation of the governor having assigned three delegates to Wayne county. A new election was held at Detroit, Jan. 14 and 15, 1799, at which four can- didates were voted for, to-wit: Charles Chabert de Joncaire received 68 votes, Jacob Visger 63 votes, Oliver Wiswell 37 votes, and Louis Beaufait 30 votes. Joncaire, Wiswell, and Visger were declared elect- ed. But there is some confusion and lack of record in regard to this first assembly. Wiswell, though declared elected, did not serve, and , Solomon Sibley, though not voted for and not chosen at this election, appears to have served instead. It would seem probable that Wiswell resigned and Solomon Sibley was appointed or elected at a special election in his place, for "on September 28, Solomon Sibley appeared and took his seat." The gentlemen chosen at this election met at Cin- cinnati on Jan. 22, 1799, and organized the first elective legislative body that ever convened within the limits of the Northwest Territory. Twenty-two representatives were chosen in the nine counties then or- ganized, and they constituted the law-making power of the territory, when taken in conjunction with a legislative council of five members, who were appointed by the United States Congress. This was the first time Michigan was ever represented in any legislative body ex- cept an Indian council.
Wayne county (of which the territory now embraced in Kent was then a part), as previously stated, was represented in this assembly by Solomon Sibley, Charles Chabert de Joncaire, and Jacob Visger, all residents of Detroit. The first named, Mr. Sibley, was an exceed- ingly active and influential member of this assembly and was appointed a committee of one to superintend the printing of the laws of the ses- sion. The book as printed is now in possession of the Supreme Court Library in Columbus, Ohio, and in it Mr. Sibley certifies that he has carefully compared the printed laws with the original enrolled bills, and finds them to agree. During the interim between the adjourn- ment of the first and the meeting of the second session of this legisla- ture, Congress passed the act dividing the Northwest Territory and creating the new territory of Indiana.
The first section of the Ordinance of 1787 provided "That the said territory, for the purpose of temporary government, be one district, subject, however, to be divided into two districts, as future circum- stances may in the opinion of Congress make expedient." In Decem- ber, 1789, William Henry Harrison was elected delegate in Congress, and in the following March entered upon his duties, being made chair- man of a committee on the division of the Northwest Territory. Through Harrison's influence the committee reported favorably, and on May 7, 1800, the act was approved, making the division. The di- viding line followed Wayne's treaty line from a point opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river to Fort Recovery, and thence due north to the international boundary. The region east of this line remained under the title of "The Territory Northwest of the Ohio river," and the region west of the line, including the present limits of Kent county, became a part of the Territory of Indiana ; and so remained until June 30, 1805, when the act organizing the Territory of Michigan took
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effect. This separation left the region of which Kent county is now a part-though perhaps considered a part of Wayne-practically under no county jurisdiction, but as all the vast territory of Southern Michi- gan, excepting Detroit and its environs, was as yet the hunting ground of the Aborigines, such a condition of affairs entailed no hardship upon anyone. It must be constantly borne in mind that the Indian title had not yet been extinguished in Michigan, except as to the six-mile strip from the River Raisin to Lake St. Clair, and that even this strip had not been surveyed into lots and brought into market; therefore settle- ment was confined to the old French grants along the river front, and almost entirely within the six-mile strip. Hildreth, writing of the year 1812, and speaking of Governor Hull's arrival at Detroit, says : "Hull's . army reached Detroit, which contained at that time only some 800 in- habitants. The neighboring villages on the strait had about twice as many, the whole Territory of Michigan not much above 5,000, most of them of French origin."
During all this time, following the Greenville treaty, the lands re- mained in the hands of the Indians with the exception of the small amount of territory heretofore mentioned. In the main, all of South- ern Michigan was barren of white inhabitants, and so far as the present site of Kent county is concerned, it was, in the language of the young Fourth of July orator, "a howling wilderness." The Indians and what few whites there were in the vicinity of the reservations had con- tinued to live in comparative peace from and after the ending of hostilities by the Greenville treaty. Even during the troublous times, incident to the War of 1812, when Tecumseh was marshalling the men of his race to assist the British forces, there was but little antagonism between the settlers and natives of the region known as Southern Michigan. Feelings of security were necessarily absent, however, ow- ing to the scenes of war enacted at nearby points, and with the news of the great disaster on River Raisin-where an American force num- bering 1,000 was almost annihilated-came a realization of the danger that menaced the settlers. Occasionally, of course, there were out- rages that threatened serious trouble, due to lawless elements in both races and the race hatred entertained by many of the whites ; yet as a rule the Red Men of the Forest pursued their wild and favorite voca- tions, undisturbed by naught save what must have begun to be appar- ent to them-the irresistible and ceaseless onward march of Anglo- Saxon civilization. The end of his dominion in Southern Michigan was rapidly approaching, and in his thoughtful moments the Indian must have heard, reverberating through the air, in tones that a modern policeman would envy, the laconic and authoritative command - "Move On !"
From the year 1807 to 1812 there is little to record in regard to the general growth or progress of the Territory of Michigan, and as far as the lands now contained within the limits of Kent county are con- cerned it may be said that they remained in statu quo. Two things especially were keeping back the settlement of the territory. First, Michigan was bordered along its entire eastern boundary by Upper Canada, a British province, and liable at any moment to become hostile territory, exposing the whole frontier to invasion by the Indian allies of Great Britain, as well as by British troops, and the war-cloud had
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been gathering, more and more portentous, since the opening years of the century. The other cause was the constantly increasing prospect of a new attempt by a confederation of Indians drawn together and led by the Shawanese twins, Tecumseh and his Prophet-brother, Els- quatawa. Tecumseh was an orator of great ability and eloquence, and as a warrior he was noted for his intrepid boldness, undoubted per- sonal courage, and his skill as a strategist. The village of Tecumseh, in Lenawee county, is named in his honor, and to this fact can doubt- less be attributed the erroneous idea that Tecumseh, the warrior, was born on Michigan soil. His birthplace was near the present site of the city of Springfield, Ohio. In writing of him the late Hon. Francis A. Dewey falls into the common error concerning his birth, but otherwise pays him a truthful and deserved tribute, as follows: "In my brief outline I do not wish to omit a few words as a passing notice of the renowned chief, Tecumseh. He was born, and over forty years of his life were spent, in the forests of Michigan. His wigwam was on the banks of the River Raisin. Historians say he possessed a noble figure, and his countenance was strikingly expressive of magnanimity, also was distinguished for moral traits far above his race; a warrior in the broadest Indian sense of the word. He disdained the personal adorn- ments of silver brooches, which the tribes so much delighted to wear. In the War of 1812 he joined in the British service, and had in his command over a thousand Indians belonging in Michigan. In General Proctor's division of the Canadian soldiers, Tecumseh held the rank of brigadier-general in the British service. He still adhered to his Indian dress, a deerskin coat with leggings of the same material, being his constant garb. In this he was found dead at the battle of the Thames, Oct. 5, 1813."
The battle of the Thames here referred to practically ended the second war with Great Britain so far as operations in the vicinity of Southern Michigan were concerned, and it broke up, once for all, the northwestern Indian confederation, and gave peace to the region of which the future Kent county was a part. But another obstacle to immigration now arose, which for a number of years thereafter re- tarded the settlement of the territory. On May 6, 1812, there had been approved an Act of Congress "to provide for designating, sur- veying, and granting military bounty lands," for the benefit of soldiers who should enlist in the war then about to commence. This act pro- vided for the survey of 6,000,000 acres of military bounty lands, of which 2,000,000 acres were to be located and surveyed in the Territory of Louisiana ; 2,000,000 acres in the Territory of Illinois, and 2,000,000 acres in the Territory of Michigan. The act itself described the lands to be surveyed as "lands fit for cultivation." By a subsequent act of Congress, approved April 29, 1816, entitled "An Act to authorize the survey of 2,000,000 acres of public lands in lieu of that quantity here- tofore authorized to be surveyed in the Territory of Michigan as Mili- tary Bounty Lands," that part of the act of May 6, 1812, which pro- vided for the survey of 2,000,000 acres of said lands in the Territory of Michigan was repealed, and the survey of 1,500,000 additional acres authorized in the Territory of Illinois, and 500,000 acres thereof in the Territory of Missouri. In this latter act, no reason is given for the change in location, but it was based upon an official report of the
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surveyor-general of the state of Ohio, Edward Tiffin, who had been entrusted by the commissioner of the General Land Office with the making of an examination of the military bounty lands in the Territory of Michigan. The report is dated at Chillicothe, Ohio, which was then the capital of the state, Nov. 30, 1815, and begins thus :
"Description of the military land in Michigan. The country on the Indian boundary from the mouth of the great Au Glaize river, and running thence for about fifty miles, is ( with some few exceptions ) low, wet land, with a very thick growth of underbrush, intermixed with very bad marshes, but generally heavily timbered with beech, cotton- wood, oak, etc .; thence continuing north and extending from the In- dian boundary eastward the number and extent of swamps increases, with the addition of numbers of lakes from twenty chains to two and three miles across." After much more labored and depressing descrip- tion, he says: "It is with the utmost difficulty that a place can be found over which horses can be conveyed." He concludes this re- markable report as follows: "Taking the country altogether so far as it has been explored, and to all appearances, together with the infor- mation received in regard to the balance, it is so bad there would not be more than one acre out of one hundred, if there would be more than one out of one thousand, that would in any case admit of cultiva- tion." As all the military lands were to be "fit for cultivation," of course there was nothing for Congress to do but repeal the act author- izing the location of a part of the lands in the Territory of Michigan, and to re-locate them in the high, dry, and salubrious regions of Mis- souri. This curious and long-forgotten incident will bring a smile, perhaps of incredulity, to the faces of thousands of people, should it ever meet their eyes, now dwelling on the magnificent farms in Kent county, and they will wonder whether the Ohio surveyor-general ever saw Michigan at all, and whether he did not get lost in the swamps of the great Auglaize or the Maumee. But the report of the surveyor- general had gone to the General Land Office, and thence it had gone to Congress, where it became officially known that "not one acre in one hundred, if there would be more than one out of one thousand" of the land in Michigan was fit for cultivation, insomuch that it was made the basis for the repeal of the act for the location of the bounty lands. The fame of the "great dismal swamp" of Michigan went abroad and it soon turned aside the tide of immigration, which passed by her doors to other and less desirable localities.
In 1818, the Indian title having been extinguished over a large part of the peninsula, and there being some indications of a tendency of immigration thereto, the first land office in the territory was opened at Detroit. This was an epoch, for now, for the first time, settlers could acquire lands outside the old French and British grants along the Detroit river. Another advantageous fact was that many thou- sands of soldiers-regulars, volunteers, and militia-a great many from Ohio and Kentucky, and others from Pennsylvania, and even from far-away Virginia, had come with Hull and with Harrison, had looked upon the majestic Detroit with its beautiful islands, had noted the farms stretched along the Michigan shore, with their fruitful or- chards and white-paled gardens, and had seen the beautiful Raisin with its vine-clad banks, and other streams gliding down from the deep-
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wooded interior, hinting of possible water-falls and sites for flouring and saw-mills, and eligible locations for villages and towns. They had gone back with the report that Michigan was not one boundless morass, across which it would be impossible to "convey" a horse, and of which not one acre in a hundred would be "fit for cultivation."
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