History of Monroe County, Michigan, Part 18

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York, Munsell & company
Number of Pages: 882

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COLONEL HUBERT LACROIX

Was a native of Montreal, of highly respectable parentage. He came to the River Raisin in the year 1800, where he lived to the time of his

COL. HUBERT LACROIX.

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BIOGRAPHIES OF EARLY SETTLERS.

death, which occurred September 14, 1827, at the age of forty- eight years, enjoying the fullest confidence of his fellow-citizens.

At the organization of the militia by Colonel John Anderson, he was the first man to enlist as a private soldier. He was unanimously chosen captain of the company in which he enlisted, in which capacity he continued until the commencement of the War of 1812. At the surrender of Detroit by General Hull, Captain Lacroix was taken prisoner by the British and for some time kept on board a prison-ship at Malden, and with others destined to Quebec. Mr. Bongrand, an Indian trader who resided at Sandusky, was intimately ac- quainted with Tecumseh, and being in Detroit at the time, with his wife he called on the In- dian chief Tecumseh to ask him to intercede with General Brock for the release of her father. By the persistent and determined efforts of the Indian chief he was released and returned to the River Raisin.

At the battle of River Raisin bis residence and most of his property fell a prey to the devouring element. He subsequently built on the site of the old home, the two-story brick now standing on the north bank of the River Raisin, now owned by Louis Lafontain. His claims for destruction and loss of property were recognized by Congress, and he was remuner. ated for a portion thereof.

When the county of Monroe was organized Captain Lacroix was appointed a colonel in the the militia and sheriff of the county. He was twice elected by his fellow-citizens a member of the legislative council, and in returning at the close of the last session walked from De- troit, and by exposure contracted a severe cold. After lingering a few months he ex- pired.

Colonel Lacroix had two daughters. The elder married one of our most prosperous and enterprising farmers, Antoine F. Robert, now residing in the town of Frenchtown. The younger, the only surviving daughter, is the widow of James Navarre, now residing on the homestead farm on Plumb Creek Bay. She now bas in her possession a very fine minia- ture, painted on ivory in Montreal, of Colonel Lacroix - a remarkably stylish and soldier- like looking officer, dressed in full uniform. She also exhibited to me a full-length portrait, painted in oil in Montreal, of the mother of

Colonel Lacroix - a stately and beautiful lady. At the time of the massacre on the River Raisin this portrait was suspended on the parlor walls. The Indians believing the French were con- cealing and hiding the Kentuckians, seeking prisoners and scalps, ransacked the house from cellar to garret, and finding no prisoners. concealed at last came to the parlor ; finding none there they wreaked their vengeance and disappointment by thrusting sabres through the left breast of the portrait, which still re- tains the marks of violence, and without the slightest alteration or change since the inci- dent occurred.

JOHN WOOD,

One of the survivors of the War of 1812, was a young and industrious farmer in Bracken county, Kentucky, with a wife and two chil- dren, when the gallant Captain Butler, who afterwards fell at the capture of the British batteries at Fort Meigs, raised his flag and solicited the hardy Kentuckians of Bracken county to enroll themselves among the defend- ers of their country. John Wood was one of the number. He suffered all the privations to which the chivalric army of the Northwest was exposed during the disastrous campaign which resulted in the defeat of General Win- chester at the River Raisin. By good fortune he escaped the tomahawk of the savage allies of Great Britain and was sent a prisoner of war to Quebec. He was next, with other American prisoners, dispatched in a transport to Ply- mouth, in England. From Plymouth, accom- panied by a crowd of fellow-prisoners, he was about to be transferred to Dartmoor -- that well-remembered scene of British cruelty - when he found an opportunity to elude his guard and make his escape. He wandered through the country, stealing through by-ways until he found himself at Bristol. Hunger compelled him to enter a grocery, the head- quarters of a British press-gang. Here he was pressed, and despite his protestations that he was a citizen of the United States and a fugi- tive prisoner of war, he was hurried on board his Majesty's frigate Sea Horse, then the flag-ship of the celebrated Sir Peter Parker, and compelled to bear arms against his own countrymen. On board the Sea Horse were several Americans, who, like Wood, had fallen

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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

victims to the British system of impressment. They determined on desertion, and when lying in the port of St. John's they succeeded in securing a boat during an extremely dark night. They were instantly pursued, and obliged to desert this boat on the shore of New Brunswick and seek safety in the woods. After wandering about two days, exhausted with cold and hunger and fatigue, they were appre- hended by a party of British soldiers and again transferred to the Sea Horse. The punishment that followed was inflicted with all that ingen- ious refinement of cruelty for which the British navy is so celebrated. The Sea Horse, attacked by the squadron under Admiral Cockburn, was shortly after ordered into the Chesapeake, and took an active part in robbing, burning and murdering the defenseless inhabitants of the coast. Mr. Wood and the other American prisoners were never permitted to leave the vessel. A few days after Sir Peter Parker met his fate, Mr. Wood, with seven impressed Americans, attempted to escape in broad day- light by jumping into a boat alongside and pulling rapidly for the shore. One of the num- ber was shot by the sentinel on duty, the rest reached the beach, but were apprehended im- mediately. By order of Admiral Cockburn they were sent in irons to Nova Scotia, and after undergoing the formality of a mock trial were sentenced to be shot. This sentence was commuted to service for life in his Britannic Majesty's army in the East Indies. They were accordingly shipped to England and thence dispatched to Calcutta. For twenty-five years Mr. Wood served as a private soldier in the East India service, and when broken down in spirit and constitution, he was permitted to leave the army and sail for England. Desti- tute and heart-broken he reached London, stated his case to the United States consul and by him was furnished with the means of reaching New York, from thence wended his weary pilgrimage towards the home of his childhood. After an absence of twenty-six years from his wife and children in Kentucky, and without hearing one word with reference to their situation, he arrived at Augusta, in Ken- tucky, the home of his youth. A thousand overpowering emotions rushed upon the old man's heart as he approached the spot that was onee his home. The recognition and welcome must be left to the imagination of the reader.

JAMES KNAGGS,

Captain of the spies and scouts under General Harrison in the War of 1812, was born at Rush- taboo, about twelve miles above South To- ledo, Ohio, on the River Maumee, about the year 1780. From early life he was familiar with the forests in the West, as well as the habits, customs and mode of warfare of the In- dian tribes. His mother's maiden name was Rachel Fry, of Philadelphia. She kept a store at Maumee a number of years. He first settled on the north bank of the River Raisin, about one mile west of the city of Monroe. In the year 1811 he established a regular ferry at the River Huron, on the main road from the River Raisin to Detroit, with only Indians for neigh- bors, who were excited by British emissaries, hostile to all Americans, and were very trouble- some. Captain Knaggs had frequent and des- parate conflicts with them. On one occasion he had a severe encounter with one of the In- dians for some misconduct, and when a brother of the vanquished Indian came at midnight to avenge his brother, a struggle ensued which resulted in his breaking every bone in the body of the Indian by means of a club. During the War of 1812 he rendered the Government im- portant aid, and performed a great many pat- riotic deeds as a spy, scout, ranger and general Indian fighter, and with Medard Labadie and James Bentley captured a British officer, Major McGregor, whom they compelled to ride horse - back on a pony with his legs tied, to Governor Hull's camp at Detroit. McCulloch subse- quently offered a reward of $500 for his head. A British officer with a squad of men some time after came to the River Raisin to secure this reward, and landed on the north side of the river near the present site of the residence of Louis Lafontain, where Knaggs was unloading a boat. They were also seeking for Stephen Downing, James Bentley, Medard Labadie and one other American soldier, for whose beads a large reward had been offered. On inquiring for Knaggs they were shrewdly thrown off their guard by being informed that Knaggs, Bentley, Downing and Labadie had gone but a few days before to Fort Meigs, and had joined the Amer- ican army.

Mr. James Knaggs owned and was living on the farm about seven and a half miles west of Monroe, on the north side of the River Raisin, now owned and occupied by Leonard Stadler.

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BIOGRAPHIES OF EARLY SETTLERS.

While Mr. Knaggs was busy drawing in wheat with his little chestnut pony hitched to a cart, news was brought to the settlement that 1,500 Indians were in the region of the Macon and were preparing to make an attack on the set- tlers. Immediate action was necessary. Mr. Knaggs planned the movements, and after bid- ding his family good-by, perhaps forever, en- treated them to use all dexterity in reaching Mr. Robert's farm (the father of Mrs. Polly Knaggs), now known as the Pegler farm and occupied by him, a little west of Monroe, on the south side of the river, He soon ascertained that his scalp was in great demand. The Eng- lish, through McGregor, had made a standing offer of $500 for it, which prompted the In- dians to do their best for the red-skin who could, in a hand to hand fight, encounter and take such a scalp. Knaggs was well known to the Indians as a great warrior and a great brave. Mr. Knaggs, after several fearful en- counters and fights with the red men, con- cluded to visit his family at the Pegler farm. He found on arriving that three British officers were after him and on horseback, and arriving in front of the house dismounted and gave chase. Mr. Knaggs, having no time to go to the door, jumped through the window and soon gained a cornfield near by - the officers nearly up with him, but by good dodging and hard running kept out of their reach. He made several attempts to get one of their horses, but could not succeed. Finding they were no match for him on foot, they concluded to run him down with horses, which they came very near doing, and would have been success- ful had it not been for an old Frenchman liv- ing where old man Hivon lived, adjoining the old Catholic church, on the north side of the River Raisin. This Frenchman befriended him by giving him a hoe for a weapon and opening the trap door of his cellar, where Mr. Knaggs lost no time in hiding. The English officers came up in hot pursuit, and, on asking for Mr. Knaggs, were told that he had just crossed the river, thereby throwing them off his track. Mr. Knaggs, a few days after, was appointed a spy, and was also deputized to carry the mail, a task many a brave man shrank from, and at which many a one lost his scalp. Mr. Knaggs often, on his mission with the mail, came upon scenes that would nearly paralyze him, seeing many times where the

red demons had been but a few moments be- fore, leaving as trophies of their barbarities whole families tomahawked and mutilated in all conceivable ways - the scalps of each indi- vidual taken, little children cut to pieces, their hearts taken out and rubbed against the look- ing-glasses and window panes. This was a common way of showing their cruelty.

Mr. Knaggs was a leading man among the " Raisin men," who were called by General Harrison " the best troops in the world," and with them was engaged in the various battles at Fort Meigs, Brownstown, in many conflicts in the vicinity of Detroit, and under Colonel Richard M. Johnson was present at the battle of the Thames, and was the man who identi- fied the body of Tecumseh, with whom he had been well acquainted.

James Knaggs was the youngest of five brothers, all of whom were active in the mil- itary service. One of them was killed at Chicago, another captured and carried to Hali- fax. The mother of James was in the vicinity at the time of the massacre, and one of those specially designated by Colonel Proctor to be ordered away from the river. Although in her eightieth year, robbed of everything and nearly all her clothing, she almost perished in escap- ing in an open French train through the woods, but reached Detroit in safety. When asked how it happened that she did not perish, she replied, " My spunk kept me warm."

Mr. Knaggs married for his second wife the widow of John Bt. Couture. He sold his farm on the River Raisin, and purchased the house and lot next south of the Presbyterian church, where he died in 1859, aged eighty-four. The house has given place to the present residence of Doctor P. S. Root.

In those early days, when banks and safes were unknown in the West, it was customary to conceal money in the earth in the vicinity of their houses ; and when Mr. Knaggs lived on his farm in Raisinville he was known to have had hiding places for his money. At the time of his death it was generally supposed he had considerable money. Knowing his for- mer habits, it was believed by the heirs that he had continued the practice, and a very diligent search was made. The whole lot in rear of the church was spaded over a number of times in hopes of finding buried treasure, but without success.

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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

The oldest daughter of James and Polly Knaggs was born August 26, 1811, on the farm known now as the Stadler farm, seven and a half miles above Monroe. She was married three times: first, to William Street, who was the father of Job Street, of Caro, Michigan ; second, to John Pegler; and last to Joseph G. Navarre, of the town of Monroe. She died February 27, 1886, after a lingering illness of five months, at the residence of her brother, George Knaggs, in Raisinville. She was a Christian in work and deeds, and in full com- munion and faith of the Roman Catholic church, leaving to mourn her loss one child, Job F. Street - George, James, John and Robert Knaggs, ber brothers, and her only sister, Mrs. Rebecca Rogers, all of whom have resided in Monroe county the most of their lives. The funeral services were held at St. Mary's church in Monroe.

REVEREND FATHER GABRIEL RICHARD.

The early pioneer in a new country is always an object of interest, especially to the incoming generation ; and for the reason that the Rev- erend Father Gabriel Richard for nearly a quarter of a century, from 1805 to 1827, was the most prominent and influential citizen in the county of Monroe, I feel assured that an ex- tended sketch of his labors will be well re- ceived by many of our older citizens, who re- member him with great pleasure and affection.

Gabriel Richard was born at Saintes, in the department of Charente-Inferieur, France, on the 15th of October, 1764, and was descended on the side of his mother from the illustrious Bishop Bossuet, one of the most distinguished divines of France, who lived during the reign of Louis XIV. Having been placed at college when quite young, and having finished his clas- sical education and feeling himself called to the ecclesiastical life, he entered the seminary of An- gers, where he prosecuted his theological studies with great success. He subsequently repaired to Losy, near Paris, in order to qualify himself for admission into the Society of St. Sulpice, a congregation of secular priests, devoted to the education of young men for the ministry. At the time of his elevation to the priesthood, in the year 1791, his native country was violently agitated by the revolutionary spirit, which was daily increasing in madness and in fury, threat-

ening the destruction of the established order both in church and state. Owing to the un- settled state of things in France, the superior general of the Sulpicians determined with the approbation of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Carroll, Bishop of Baltimore, to send some members of his society to the United States for the purpose of conducting an ecclesiastical seminary. In ac- cordance with this arrangement several priests of that congregation came to the city of Balti- more in the year 1791, and were followed in successive years by other members of the same society. Among them was the subject of this sketch, who arrived June 24, 1792, in company with Rev. Messrs. Coquard, Matigon and Marechal, whose names are entitled to honor- able mention in the history of the Catholic church of this country.

As St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore was not in such efficient operation as to require a numerous corps of professors, Father Richard and others of St. Sulpice willingly acceded to the request of Bishop Carroll to aid in supply- ing the wants of the Catholic population scat- tered throughout his extensive diocese, reach- ing at that time from Maine to Tennessee and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic Ocean. With this view he accepted the pastoral charge of the Catholics in Illinois, that is, at Prairie de Roche, and in the neighboring country, consisting chiefly of French Canadians.

In 1797 Father Richard visited the congre- gation of a tribe of Indians named the Cahokias, which numbered about three hundred souls, and who possessed a handsome church erected by the Rev. Mr. Leradoux, his predecessor. These missions had been established more than one hundred years previously by the early Jesuit Fathers, who were afterward aided by priests from the Seminary of Foreign Missions at Paris; but the supply of missionaries, espe- cially after the recall of the Jesuit Fathers, was altogether insufficient for the wants of the Catholic population. Father Richard applied himself in this distant and neglected field with all the zeal and prudence which characterize the true missionary, and he had the pleasure of seeing his active efforts crowned with suc- cess. He was, therefore, invited by Bishop Carroll to be the assistant of Mr. Leradoux, for the important services he had rendered to re- ligion. He was inspired by the hope that he would be equally successful in a more respons-

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ible situation at Detroit, where the wants of the people loudly called for additional aid.

Thus after having devoted six long years of his ministry in Illinois, from December 14, 1792, np to the 22d of March, 1798, he left for Detroit, where the presence of a permanent pastor was much needed. He arrived in June, on the feast of Corpus Christi, accompanied by the Rev. John Dilhet, also a Sulpician mis- sionary. Rev. Mr. Leradoux, who had been stationed at Detroit for several years, was alone in the discharge of his clerical duties, was quite advanced in years, and had sought relief from his bishop for the purpose of returning to his native land. As soon as Father Richard arrived, he immediately entered upon his duties as pastor, and soon won the confidence of those under his spiritual charge. At this period the town of Detroit and vicinity con- tained some 1,800 Catholics, mostly of French origin, with a large number scattered along the border of our lakes and rivers and far into the northern regions of Michigan. "The French," says Archbishop Spalding, "seem to have visited Michigan as early as the year 1610, and missionaries went thither occasionally soon after, but no priest appears to have been sta- tioned at Detroit before 1701."

Hardly had Father Richard been installed pastor than he commenced to provide his flock with all the elements of religion and ed- ucation. Education at this period was at a very low ebb, and his great aim was to stimulate his parishioners with a'love of learning. Here and there, as occasion required, he established schools for their benefit. He was indefatigable in the discharge of the duties of his ministry ; very austere in his habits and mode of living, for his meals were composed of food of the simplest and coarsest kind ; his bed was of the simplest material, and hardly comfortable ; his dress was of the coarsest and cheapest of cloth ; yet he was courteous and affable to every one who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. He commanded the highest respect, both from Catholics and Protestants. He was a profound theologian, a good speaker, a good mathema- tician, and eloquently thundered forth his anathemas against the terrible vice of intem- perance and the use of tobacco. The Catholics of Detroit and vicinity consisted almost ex- clusively of French Canadians; the remaining inhabitants of the town were mostly persons

whose vernacular tongue was the English lan- guage, but there were very few among them who were Catholics.

About a year after his arrival in Detroit, he visited the Catholic congregation on the Island of Mackinaw and Point St. Ignace, where the early Jesuit Fathers had established a mission more than one hundred years before. At these stations and the fur-trading stations on Lakes Superior and Huron the Great Northwest Company of Montreal employed annually 1,700 men, almost all Canadians. Grand Portage was then a trading-post, where nearly 1,000 men assembled in the summer time, and after a short stay dispersed to their winter quarters. Father Richard found such an urgent demand at Mackinaw for the instruction of youth and the correction of the habits of those more ad- vanced in years, that he was disposed to re- main there during the winter, having been very urgently invited to do so by the inhabit- ants of the place. His services, however, were too much needed at Detroit to admit of so long an absence. He therefore returned to Detroit in October, after having touched at St. Joseph's Island and Sault Ste. Marie. One of the first objects which secured immediate attention was to repair and enlarge the church in the old town, which was too small for the congrega- tion. This he accomplished at an expense of some $3,000, notwithstanding the low state of his finances. Unfortunately on the 11th of June, in the year 1805, a most disastrons con- flagration occurred, commencing at nine o'clock in the morning and lasting until noon, when every house was destroyed, together with his lit- tle chureb, built by Father Boeque, a Francisean missionary, in the year 1750.

In 1805 Father Gabriel Richard visited the church then located two miles above the pres- ent St. Mary's church, on the north side of the River Raisin, on the farm formerly known as the " Momonie farm." From that time to the year 1827 he was energetie not only in minis- tering to the church, but was very successful in giving aid to, and obtaining aid from the Government of the United States, for those who had been rendered poor by the desolations of the war. Though he received aid and assistance from time to time from other priests, he had supervision of this church until 1827.

As an indication of the esteem" and respect in which he was held by his Protestant fellow-

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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

citizens, will state that in 1807 the Governor of the Territory and other Protestant gentlemen invited him to preach to them in the English language. He accordingly held his English meetings at noon every Sunday in the council room, where he delivered instructions on the general principles of the Christian religion.

Father Richard's zeal for his flock inspired him with the idea of establishing a printing press and commencing the publication of a French paper and books. For this purpose he sent to Baltimore for the type and press in 1809, and the material in due course of time came by land over mountainous roads, accom- panied by Mr. James M. Miller, the first printer in Detroit. August 31, 1809, the first number of a small sheet, entitled in French " Essai du Michigan," made its appearance, and was con- tinued for a time; but in those days the dis- tance which separated the people of the Terri- tory, and the irregularity of the mails, led to the discontinuance of his journal. His press, however, which was the first introduced into the northwestern portion of the United States, and was for several years the only printing apparatus in Michigan, did useful service under his direction. He also had a bindery attached to his printing office. The press was useful in printing deeds and conveyances for the gov- ernor and judges of the Territory, and when the English took possession of Detroit in 1812, General Brock's proclamation was printed on it. The office, in consequence of the destruc- tion of the old town, was for a long time located at Springwells, in the house of Jacques Lasselle. One part of the building served as a dwelling, another part for his chapel, another for his printing office, and another for a school. The- ophilus Mettez, a native of Detroit, the ancestor of a number of that name in our county, was the first Michigan printer boy.

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History of Monroe County, Michigan, Part 18

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: New York, Munsell & company Number of Pages: 882

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York, Munsell & company
Number of Pages: 882