History of Detroit and Wayne County and early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Vol. I, Part 70

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Detroit, Pub. by S. Farmer & co., for Munsell & co., New York
Number of Pages: 1094

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We have seen that he sailed for France in 1717. After having wandered all over America, he re- turned to his birthplace to "fight his battles o'er." In August, 1721, his wife was at St. Nicolas de la Grave, and there are records of the sale of property at Caumont by them in that year. Cadillac himself was then in Paris, having gone thither to obtain the governorship of Castelsarrasin. Just a year later, in August, 1722, a decree authorizing his appointment was issued, but the details were not settled until December II, when he was duly commissioned governor and mayor. For this office he paid 16,500 livres, 1,500 being for a tax or bonus of two sous per livre on the principal sum of 15,000. He was also to pay 300 livres yearly to the king, but this amount he was authorized to collect of the city. On April 16, 1723, he transmitted his commission from Paris to the council of the city for registration, and on September 9, 1723, it was read to the coun- cil at Castelsarrasin and recorded.

His appointment was made under an edict of Louis XIV., of the same year in which was repealed an edict of 1717, giving municipalities the choice of their own officers. How long he held the office is uncertain. In 1724 the king took away the municipal offices he had granted, and Cadillac possi- bly was superseded. He, however, continued to reside at Castelsarrasin, and his remains were in- terred in the old church of the Carmelites at that place.

The church was confiscated in 1791, at the time of the French Revolution ; becoming national prop- erty, it was turned into a prison and greatly changed, therefore the exact location of his tomb cannot be

found. He died at midnight on October 15, 1730, and was buried on the following day.

THE FOUNDING AND GROWTH OF DETROIT.

There are circumstances that indicate the possible existence of a trading post at Detroit, fifteen years prior to the coming of Cadillac; but if any such post existed, it was composed of only a few coureurs de bois. In Volume IV. of the New York docu- mentary collections are reports of several councils between the English and Indians, which clearly indicate that no permanent post existed at Detroit prior to his coming.

While stationed at Mackinaw, Cadillac became convinced that the Indians must be gathered in one locality before the Government could gain control over them. The soil and situation at Mackinaw were not favorable for a settlement, and Cadillac thought that the English could be more easily pre- vented from trading with the western Indians if a French post were established at Detroit. Fearing that a written communication would not sufficiently convince the French Government of the wisdom of his plans, the Governor of Canada determined to allow him to present them in person, and accord- ingly he sailed for France. His plans met with favor, and after an interview with Count Pontchar- train, and a personal examination of his project by Louis XIV., he received the authority he desired. For the building of the fort 1, 500 livres was allowed him ; he was appointed commandant, and the king agreed to grant an allowance for the subsistence of himself and wife, two children, and two ser- vants.

It was no easy task that Cadillac had undertaken. Even before he came, he knew that his enterprise would be opposed by the Jesuits at Mackinaw and the traders at Montreal. He knew also that the English and the Iroquois would destroy the post if possible. He had, however, fully counted the cost, and had achieved almost perfection in his plans. The friendly Indians were to be gathered about the settlement, so that the coureurs de bois could find neither furs nor favorites elsewhere, and in case of attack the Indians and French could help each other. Cadillac was strenuous in urging that the Indians be taught the French language, that they might understand for themselves the proposals of the king, and not be dependent on priests or inter- preters, both of whom would, on occasion, accom- modate their interpretation to selfish purposes. Cadillac also favored the intermarriage of the French and Indians. This was contrary to custom in many of the settlements, but was permitted at Detroit, and there can be no doubt that these unions greatly served the colony.

332

THE FOUNDING AND GROWTH OF DETROIT.

The French colonial documents show that on October 16, 1700, M. de Callières wrote to Count Pontchartrain as follows :

I shall send Sieur de la Mothe and Sieur de Tonty in the spring to construct a fort at Detroit. My design is that they shall go by the Outaoues (Ottawa) River in order to take possession of that post from the Lake Huron side, by that means avoiding the Niagara passage, so as not to give umbrage to the Iroquois.

Returning to America, Cadillac arrived at Quebec on March 8, 1701. The same day he left for Mon- treal, where he arrived March 12, and for some weeks busied himself in arranging for the trip. All was finally in readiness, and on June 5 he left Mon- treal, having with him M. de Tonty as captain, and Messrs. Dugue and Chacornacle as lieutenants, with fifty soldiers in blue coats with white facings, also fifty emigrants and two priests.

The Chevalier de Beauchêne, in a volume pub- lished in Paris in 1733, says that he and a company of Algonquin Indians started with Cadillac as an escort, and that, on account of a quarrel, he returned. He gives a detailed account of the affair, but there are various indications that the narrative is one of the fictitious works that were not infrequent at that day.

Cadillac's party came by way of the Ottawa River and Lake Huron, arriving on July 24, 1701. The convoy consisted of twenty-five canoes, which, besides the soldiers and emigrants, brought supplies of various kinds essential to the building and estab- lishment of a new post.

Arriving at Detroit on a hot summer day, the canoes were drawn up on shore, and all of the new comers were soon sheltered in the leafy groves that here and there extended almost to the river's edge. The site of the stockade was selected, and ere long the sound of axes resounded through the woods. Holes were dug for the palisades, and the stockade was soon completed. The locations of chapel, magazine, store, and dwellings were next deter- mined, and before August had passed away, the settlement was fully established.

A few weeks later the soil was broken, and the first wheat sown on the Detroit River was carefully bestowed. On December 6 Cadillac marked out a place for the Huron village, and in February and May of the following year he called the Indians together for a council. These councils, then and after, were the occasions of much local interest, for the Indians were always arrayed in their savage finery ; and as they expected gifts they also brought them; as the "talk" progressed, presents were given and received with almost every point made by either side. When the settlement was a year old, lacking three days, Cadillac for the first time left it, going to Quebec to conclude an agreement with the

trading company which had obtained control of the post. He returned on November 6. These days . were dark ones. There was so much opposition to the establishment that but little trading was done, and between the king and the company, the soldiers were so poorly paid that, in 1703, nine of them deserted. They were glad to return, however, on a promise of pardon, which Cadillac was quite willing to grant, for soldiers as well as settlers were few in number.

He was constantly seeking to enlarge his force, and finally, in a letter of June 14, 1704, Pontchar- train announced that Vaudreuil had been ordered to give him as many soldiers as he asked. Cadillac only being required to pay for their transportation. Pontchartrain also said that all that was just and reasonable Cadillac should have to help him estab- lish the colony, that he had fully explained the mat- ter to Vaudreuil, and that Cadillac would have no further trouble. The letter concludes with these words : "I am leaving you absolute master of this post. Use your effort to succeed at Detroit, and you will not lack for concessions, nor even for a post more considerable than that which you have."

Notwithstanding the explicit directions to Vau- dreuil, the intrigues of traders and others caused him to delay giving the assistance he was required to afford, and in the meantime the trading company brought such charges against Cadillac that in the autumn of 1704 he was compelled to go to Quebec to answer them. In June, 1706, after long delay, he was completely vindicated, and the king again gave him full control of Detroit, and in August of that year Cadillac returned. After his return the colony began to flourish. He induced many fami- lies to settle along the strait, and his oldest son, in a memoir, dated 1730, and addressed to Count Maurepas, claimed that he transported one hundred and fifty inhabitants to Detroit, together with cattle, horses, and other animals, at his own expense, and that he expended for various improvements fully 1 50,000 livres.

The boldness of the early settlers was not ex- ceeded in any other colony on American soil. The settlers of Jamestown and Plymouth Rock were located near the coast, and in an emergency could more easily escape than the first settlers of Detroit, these last established their firesides nearly a thousand miles from the sea, and were literally surrounded by thousands of savages, many of them known to be hostile, and cannibals as well. The colonists were mostly persons of limited means, many of them artisans, whose services were essential in such a colony. Some were gentlemen by birth, who, having failed to inherit a fortune at home, or having

333

THE FOUNDING AND GROWTH OF DETROIT.

lost their inheritance, brought to this western world their empty titles and well-filled scabbards to make homes and fortunes of their own.

Among those who were specially prominent at an early day, Robert Navarre may be mentioned. In his veins coursed the proudest blood of France. The ancient records of Meaux show that Jean Navarre, who married Perette Barat in 1572, was the son of Antoine, Duke de Vendome, and half- brother of Henry IV., King of France and Navarre, the predecessor of the great line of kings forming the Bourbon dynasty. The Robert Navarre, who arrived at Detroit in 1728, was a lineal descendant of this family. On February 10, 1704, he married Marie Barrois, daughter of François Lothman de Barrois, whose father came to Canada as " Agent Generale of the Compagnie des Indes" in 1665. From this marriage sprang a large family, of whom the most noted was the eldest son, Robert. He was born in 1739, and married Louise de Marsac, a granddaughter of Jacob de Marsac de Lomme- sprou, an officer who came with the troops when Cadillac founded Detroit. The children of the Navarres intermarried with many of the prominent families, notably the Macombs, Godfroys, Anthons, Brevoorts, and Campaus. The line in France counts among its descendants representatives of the proudest families of the old nobility, among whom we may mention the name of the Count Léon Clément de Blavette, of Versailles, from whose heraldic tree the descent of Navarre was obtained.

The signatures in the early records of St. Anne's Church indicate that most of the officers and early settlers were persons of good education for the time. Very appropriately, the first child born in the colony was a daughter of the founder, Marie Thérèse Cadillac. In a letter, dated August 31, 1703, Cadillac says, "No one has yet died at this post." The first death, so far as known, was that of Father Del Halle, who was killed by an Indian in June, 1706. The first person who died thereafter was Jean Lasalle, who died January 24, 1707. The first marriage, where both parties were French, occurred on May 5, 1710, when Jean Baptiste Tur- pin was married to Margaret Fafard. The next marriage took place on June 12, 1710, between Martin Cirier and Mary Ann Bone.

The records of St. Anne's show that many of the soldiers brought their wives with them, and nearly all the habitans had large families; in one case, one mother is credited with thirty children. "In 1707 there were fourteen births, in 1708, thirteen. At this time they had already begun to build houses outside the fort, and we find in the suburbs a flour mill, and further on, a house and a barn. There were also two hundred and three arpents of cleared ground, ten head of cattle, and one horse."

Up to November 14, 1708, only thirty-nine inhab- itants had houses inside of the fort ; and the whole number of French settlers was sixty-three, of whom thirty-four were traders. In 1709 the king with- drew the soldiers, and left Cadillac to manage the settlement without military aid. The same year twenty-nine discharged soldiers settled at the post, among them men named Marsac, Durocher, La Ferté, and St. Aubin. The total population was then about two hundred. After Cadillac left, and up to 1719, it was deemed uncertain whether the post would be sustained. Many families therefore left, and the settlement at this time was no larger than when first established.

During this period, the births averaged only two per year. In 1719, under the impetus given by John Law and his Mississippi schemes, emigrants again began to join the colony, and in 1722 the pop- ulation once more reached about two hundred. and there were from six to eight births per year.

The Chapoton, Godfroy, Goyan, and Laderoute families were among those who came in 1722 or soon after.

Year after year discharged soldiers and emigrants from further east continued to arrive. In 1730 the births averaged ten or twelve yearly, and the popu- lation continued to increase. There was, however, great mortality among the children for nearly fifty years. In order to promote emigration, on May 24, 1749, Galissonnière, the governor-general, published in all the parishes of Canada- the following procla- mation :

Every man who will go to settle in Detroit shall receive gratui- tously, one spade, one axe, one ploughshare, one large and one small wagon. We will make an advance of other tools to be paid for in two years only. He will be given a Cow, of which he shall return the increase, also a Sow. Seed will be advanced the first year, to be returned at the third harvest. The women and chil- dren will be supported one year. Those will be deprived of the liberality of the King, who shall give themselves up to trade in place of agriculture.

This proclamation accomplished its purpose, and the same year forty-six persons came to Detroit, most of them from Normandy, on the lower Seine, with nine or ten families from Montreal. The next year fifty-seven arrived, and an official census of the same year showed a population of four hundred and eighty-three, which, with the floating popula- tion, made fully five hundred and fifty persons ; among them were thirty-three women over fifteen years of age, and ninety-five under fifteen; there was also a garrison of one hundred men. The births at this time numbered about twenty-five per year. The prosperity of the colonists is also shown by the fact that they possessed one hundred and sixty horses, six hundred and eighty-two cattle, and over two thousand domesticated fowls.

334

THE FOUNDING AND GROWTH OF DETROIT.

In 1751 a large body of immigrants came. The expenses of their journey were paid by the Govern- ment, and land was granted to twenty-three of them. Most of those who came in 1751 and 1752 were young men, and Celeron, the French com- mandant, wrote to the king that wives for the new- comers was their greatest want. In 1752 a bad harvest and the dangers of the war with the English caused immigration for a time to cease.

Other discouragements also beset the colony. On April 21, 1752, M. de Longueuil wrote : "Fam- ine is not the sole scourge we experience; the small-pox commits ravages ; it begins to reach De- troit. Over eighty Indians died of the disease at the adjacent villages, including Chief Kinousaki, who was much attached to the French."

The natural growth of the settlement caused the enlargement of the fort in 1754, and by this time the colony had so prospered that there was an aver- age of thirty births, and from seven to eight marri- ages yearly ; and notwithstanding the war, the settle- ment so fully held its own that in 1760 the births had attained to about forty per year.

In 1755, when the English banished the Acadians from Nova Scotia, many of the fugitives found a refuge in Detroit, and thus, although many about this time went from Detroit to Vincennes, the colony grew and prospered.

In 1764, when Laclede founded St. Louis, many went thither from Detroit, reducing the population of the town and vicinity from two thousand five hundred, to eight hundred, including Indians. A census of 1765 showed that there were three hun- dred and fifty families at Detroit and in the imme- diate neighborhood.

The following copies of official documents con- tained in the Haldimand correspondence, on file in the British Museum at London, and copied for the Department of Archives of Canada, give a variety of interesting details as to the population and re- sources of Detroit on various dates. The first reads as follows :

A GENERAL. RETURN OF ALL THE INHABITANTS OF DETROIT, THEIR POSSESSIONS, CATTLE, HORSES, SERVANTS, AND SLAVES. TAKEN BY PHILIP DEJEAN, JUSTICE OF THE PEACE FOR THE SAID PLACE, THE 22D DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1773 :

Men.

Women.

Young men

from 10 to 20.

Boys from I

Young women

from 10 to 20.

Girls from

I to 10.

Servants.

Men Slaves.

Women Slaves.

South side of Fort North side of Fort The Fort On Hog Island

107 124 66 I

81 107 36 I

33 45 6

II2 137 35

30 24 4

76 134 3º

27 36 27 3

6 26

Total

298

225

284

240

Oxen.

Cows.

Heifers.

Sheep.

Hogs.

Acres of land

in front.

in depth.

Acres of land

cultivated.

Houses.

Barns.

South side of Fort North side of Fort The Fort

211

306

241

424

390 602

228 284

1, 427

On Hog Island

I21

Total

473

600

412

628 1, 067

512

40 2, 6024 280 157

N. B .-- The Troops and Naval Department, with their Cattle, &c., are not included in the above. The men servants are gener- ally more numerous, several being now hunting and at the Indian villages. Although all the farms are calculated at forty acres in depth, eight of them run eighty and one sixty.

P. DEJEAN.

A census of the settlement, taken by order of Governor Hamilton, on April 26, 1778, showed the following totals :

Men, five hundred sixty-four. Women, two hundred seventy- four. Young men and boys, five hundred thirty. Young women and girls, four hundred thirty-eight. Male servants, one hundred seventy-two. Female servants, thirty-nine. Slaves, one hundred twenty-seven. Total, two thousand one hundred forty-four. Oxen, four hundred seventy-eight. Cows, eight hundred eighty- five. Heifers and Steers, six hundred fifty. Sheep, four hun- dred seventy. Hogs, one thousand three hundred and twelve.

A survey of the settlement of Detroit, taken March 31, 1779, was as follows :

Two hundred thirty-nine in Garrison and Navy. Five hundred Prisoners and Extras. (?) Two hundred seventy-two Male inhab- itants. 265 Women, including 34 connected with the army. 253 young men. 100 Young women. 484 Boys. 402 Girls. 60 Male slaves. 78 Female slaves. 413 Oxen. 779 Cows. 619 Steers. 1076 Hogs. 664 Horses. 313 Sheep.

On November 1, 1780, the settlement of Detroit had

394 heads of families. 374 married and young women. 324 young and married men. Ico absent in Indian country. 455 boys from 10 to 15 years. 385 girls from io to 15. 79 Male slaves. 96 Female slaves. 772 Horses. 474 Oxen. 793 Cows. 361 Steers. 279 Sheep. 1,016 Hogs; and there were 12,083 acres of Land under cultivation.

The state of the settlement of Detroit, taken the 20th of July, 1782, was as follows :

321 heads of families. 254 married women. 72 widows and married women. 336 young and married Men. 526 Boys. 503 Girls. 78 Male slaves. 101 Female slaves. 1,112 Horses. 413 Oxen. 452 Heifers. 447 Sheep. 1,370 Hogs. 4,075 Bushels of Wheat sown last fall. 521 acres in Indian Corn. 1,849 acres in Oats. 13,770 acres under cultivation. 3,000 bushels Potatoes supposed to be in the ground. 1,000 barrels of Cider supposed will be made.

In 1791 and 1792 the colony received an accession from Gallipolis. Some of the unfortunate emi- grants who had been deluded thither by false representations, came to Detroit when that bubble

222

203

117

40 1, 1752 117

Acres of land

to Io.

335

THE FOUNDING AND GROWTH OF DETROIT.

burst, and found both homes and friends. The large grants of land, with rations for a specified time from the fort, offered by the English, induced the settlement of a number of Scotch and English families of the highest respectability, yet French continued the predominant language, and soon after 1796, when the town passed under American con- trol, a number of French immigrants arrived. After the surrender the English began to build Fort Malden, and the next year many persons went from Detroit and founded Amherstburg.

The first census taken by the Territory of Michi- gan, on October 1, 1805, showed 525 heads of families at Detroit, and 667 males over sixteen years of age.

About this time emigration from the Eastern States began, but the "Bostonians," as they were called, were not at first made welcome by either French or English. The first American settlers were Solomon Sibley, John Whipple, Dr. William Brown, William Russell, Christian Clemens, James Chittenden, Benjamin Chittenden, Dr. McCoskry, James Henry, Elijah Brush, Henry B. Brevoort, Col. Henry J. Hunt, Augustus Langdon, and Major Whistler.

From 1817 to 1830 the growth of the city was slow but constant. The Gazette did its part to set forth the advantages of the Territory, and a local poet, in one of the numbers for August, 1824, thus sings its charms :

MICHIGAN.

Know ye the land to the emigrant dear, Where the wild flower is blooming one half of the year; Where the dark-eyed chiefs of the native race Still meet in the council and pant in the chase ; Where armies have rallied, by day and by night, To strike or repel, to surrender or fight ? Know ye the land of the billow and breeze, That is poised, like an isle, 'mid fresh water seas, Whose forests are ample, whose prairies are fine, Whose soil is productive, whose climate benign ? Remote from extremes, neither torrid nor cold, 'I' is the land of the sickle, the plow, and the fold ; 'T is a region no eye ere forgets or mistakes, 'T is the land for improvement, the land of the lakes. Our streams are the clearest that nature supplies, And Italy's beauties are marked in our skies, And the isle-spotted lakes that encircle our plains Are the largest and purest this planet contains.

Of the means that fostered immigration, none were more potent than the maps and gazetteers issued by John Farmer; the first appeared in 1825, and many thousands of copies of his maps (espe- cially in 1830) were sold in the Eastern States, and as they furnished all the information obtainable, and in the most accurate manner possible, they were greatly influential in promoting emigration.

Fifteen thousand emigrants arrived in 1830, and

in 1831, 1834, and 1836 particularly, the steamboats were crowded with passengers for Michigan and the West. The Free Press of May 19, 1831, said :

To say nothing of those who have arrived by land, and through Lake Erie by sail vessel, the following steamboats arrived here within the last week. The Enterprise, with 250 passengers ; the Wm. Penn, 150 ; the Ohio, 350 ; the Henry Clay, 480 ; the Supe- rior, 550 ; the Sheldon Thompson, 200; and the Niagara, 200 : amounting to more than 2,000, and nearly all in the prime of life ; mostly heads of families who have come for the purpose of pur- chasing land and settling in Michigan.

Such was the tide of immigration during the entire season of navigation that both steam and sail vessels were crowded to their utmost capacity. On October 7, 1834, four steamboats brought nearly 900 passengers. In January, 1836, three steam- boats-two first class and one second class-arrived each day, with an average of 260 passengers each way. On May 23, 1836, 700 passengers arrived, and during the month there were ninety steamboat arrivals, each boat loaded with passengers. The roads to the interior were literally thronged with wagons. A careful estimate made in June by a citizen showed that one wagon left the city every five minutes during the twelve hours of daylight. In 1837 the immigration was fully as large; there was an average of three steamboats a day, with from 200 to 300 passengers each, and on one occa- sion in the month of May, 2,400 passengers landed in a single day. The larger part of these immi- grants were from New York, and the rest mostly from New England. It is probable that. in propor- tion to its population, Detroit, and in fact the entire State of Michigan, has a larger percentage of New York and New England people than any other west- ern city or State. At one time it seemed as though all New England was coming. The emigration fever pervaded almost every hamlet of New Eng- land, and this song was very popular, and is known to have been largely influential in promoting emi- gration :

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History of Detroit and Wayne County and early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Vol. I, Part 70

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Detroit, Pub. by S. Farmer & co., for Munsell & co., New York Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Detroit, Pub. by S. Farmer & co., for Munsell & co., New York
Number of Pages: 1094