USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan > Part 21
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When Henry Disbrow removed his family to the River Raisin, they came in a schooner from Sandusky and landed in front of the farm he subsequently bought of Menard. Dis- brow afterwards sold the farm to Charles J. Lanman, and Lanman to Stuart, who platted it as a subdivision known as Stuart Plat. After selling the farm Mr. Disbrow removed to De- troit, remained there two years, then returned to Monroe. He purchased in an unfinished condition the MeComb Street House, of Mr. Taylor, a lawyer.
Mr. Disbrow was by profession a surveyor, but for a number of years both before and after the War of 1812 he was engaged as a merchant, transporting goods from Dayton and dispos- ing of them at River Raisin and Detroit. At one time he had a store on Front street, Mon- roe, opposite the grocery of James Nadeau. While occupying this place one Tebo, a French- man, burglarized the store. The thief was de- tected and punished on the public square at the whipping-post with fifty lashes save one on his bare back, administered by John Mulhollen and Miles Thorp. Well do I remember seeing and hearing the blows of the rawhide, which drew blood at nearly every stroke, and how shocking it was to my feelings in common with those of the bystanders.
Mr. Disbrow was a gentleman of great strength and force of character, highly es- teemed as a citizen, and was at the time of his death and for many years previons an elder in the First Presbyterian church of Monroe.
ALEXIS SOLEAU,
The grandfather of Touissant Solean and Frank X. Soleau, at present merchants of this city, came from France at a very early day, and was among the first settlers on the River Raisin. He purchased a farm on his arrival at Detroit, in Springwells, now West Detroit, and subsequently exchanged his farm in Spring- wells for the Doctor Clark farm, now owned and occupied in part by Mr. Andrew Beier as a residence, and a large portion by I. E. Ilgian- fritz as a nursery. He exchanged the Clark farm for a farm on Sandy Creek, three miles
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
north of Monroe; was in sympathy with the Americans, and took an active partin the War of 1812, and was, with his son Touissant, taken prisoner by the British at Sandy Creek and confined at Malden until both were exchanged, soon after the battle of Brownstown. Was present at Detroit at the surrender of General Hull, and witnessed the indignation of the American army when the white flag was run up over the fort; saw General Cass in anger thereat break his sword over one of the cannon, declaring the surrender a national disgrace.
Alexis was a millwright and carpenter, and built the first grist-mill on the front of the farm subsequently owned by Doctor Clark, near and below the point where the dam crossed the river. He also built the mill at Stony Creek where Brest is now located, both of which mills were burned and destroyed by the British in the War of 1812.
He purchased a farm on Stony Creek, west of the Lake Shore railroad, which Touissant, sr., his son, cleared and resided on the remain- der of his life, dying August 3, 1870 ; was buried at Newport. Touissant Soleau, sr., was mar- ried to Genevieve Burke, at Frenchtown ; had eight sons and four daughters.
Touissant Soleau, jr., the eldest, was born October 1, 1820 ; married November 25, 1847, Phoebe Boardman ; is now a merchant in Mon- roe, copartner of James Robert, on West Front street. He has two sons and two daugh- ters: William T., an attorney practicing in Monroe, who was elected clerk of the city for two terms, also one of the Circuit Court com- missioners at this time ; his second son, Milton B., now resides at Monroe, clerk in a store ; his elder daughter, Ada, married James I. Robert, his present copartner ; the younger daughter married Charles Golden, a lawyer in Monroe and at present the prosecuting attorney of the county.
The second son of Touissant Soleau, sr., David A. Soleau, died early, in the State of Virginia.
The third son, Alexis, resides on his farm on Stony Creek.
The fourth son, Oliver, studied for the priest. hood, and in crossing the ocean on his way to St. Thomas was lost at sea.
James enlisted in the War of the Rebellion, and died from disease contracted in the army.
Adrian was killed in the War of the Rebel- lion at Pulaski.
Henry acted as sutler during the War of the Rebellion.
Frank X. Soleau, son of Touissant Soleau, sr., now a merchant on West Monroe street, served with a very creditable record through the whole War of the Rebellion, and was com- missioned as captain of a company.
Of the four daughters of Touissant Soleau, sr., Roselle married Eli Sancraint; Adaline married Joseph Hyatt; Zoe married Mr. Du- boy, now deceased; and Mary was a music teacher, acquired an education in the convent, and as a Sister died in the State of New York.
LOUIS LAFONTAIN, SR.,
Father of Louis Lafontain, jr., a resident of this city, was for many years an Indian trader, with headquarters at Fort Wayne, Indiana. In the year 1804 he made a trip to Montreal, Canada, for the purpose of purchasing goods ; there he made the acquaintance of Laurent Durocher in the office of a notary public in which he was a clerk, and induced him to re- turn with him. Pleased with the beautiful banks of the River Raisin, lined on either side with vines loaded with clusters of grapes, Mr. Durocher determined to locate here, and sub sequently became quite prominent among the early settlers on the River Raisin, a particular sketch of whose life will be found elsewhere in this volume.
Lonis Lafontain, sr., purchased the farm on the bank of Detroit River, now constituting a part of the city of Detroit, and known as the " Lafontain farm." The farm adjoining was purchased and occupied by Mr. Schoebert, whose four daughters married John Bougrand, Joseph Loranger, Nathan Hubble, and Louis Lafontain, sr , all of whom moved to and were identified with the early settlement of French- town on the River Raisin.
Julia, one of the daughters of Louis Lafon- tain, jr., married Major James W. Spalding, of Monroe, and after his death she married Charles Ross, of Detroit. A second daughter married Theodore Ilgianfritz, one of the proprietors of the extensive nurseries in this city.
Louis Lafontain, sr., with Laurent Durocher,
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BIOGRAPHIES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
Joseph Loranger and John Bougrand were seated around a table in the store of Joseph Loranger playing euchre, when the Indian guide who always accompanied Mr. Lafontain, rode up to the door the morning before the massacre, and announced the approach of Colonel Proctor's army. All dropped their cards without ceremony. Mr. Loranger and Bongrand crossed the River Raisin and trav- eled through the snow and ice night and day until they reached Sandusky, where their wives were sojourning at the time. Mr. La- fontain rode up the river to avoid meeting any part of the enemy with his guide, then struck a direct route for Detroit, collected his family and crossed over to Canada, remaining there until hostilities ceased.
LAURENT DUROCHER
Was the son of a French Canadian, and was born at the Mission of St. Genevieve, in Mis souri, in 1786. He was educated at the Col- lege of Montreal, and came to the River Raisin in 1805. He took part in the War of 1812 under General Hull, and was in the employ of the Government for some years after the war. He was elected clerk of the county of Monroe in 1818, and held the office for nearly twenty years. He was for six years a member of the territorial council, also a member of the con- vention which framed the first constitution of the State, and after the Territory became a State a member of the legislature. He held the offices of judge of probate, circuit clerk, clerk of the city of Monroe, at various times, and filled with dignity all the positions he was called by the people of the county to serve in. He was, like most of the French settlers upon the " Raisin," an accomplished gentleman, and was the chief legal authority among the French residents.
PETER NAVARRE
Was born in 1785 in Detroit, where his father before him was born, and was the grandson of Robert Navarre, a French officer who visited this section in 1745. No name is more promi- nent among the early settlers than that of Peter Navarre. In Indian methods of warfare he was thoroughly posted, courageous and
brave, while his bearing was ever that of a " born gentleman." With his brother Robert he erected a cabin twenty miles south of River Raisin, opposite Manhattan, to which he re- turned after the elose of the war and spent the rest of his days. He died in March, 1874, aged eighty-nine years.
Peter and his three brothers, Robert, Alexis and James, tendered their services to General Hull. They were included in the surrender and paroled, though they denied the right to be treated as prisoners of war and at once took an active part for the United States, whereup- on General Proctor offered a reward of two hundred pounds for Peter's head or scalp. Until the close of the war he acted as a scout to General Harrison. Peter Navarre and his brothers are referred to in this work in the his- tory of the War of 1812, as those sent by Gen- eral Harrison from the River Raisin to recon- noiter the British army, and brought news of the approach of General Proctor. On the next page is given a portrait of Peter Navarre in passing through a forest in his favorite char- acter as a scout.
Many of our older citizens well remember the hospitable tavern of " Ma'am Jobin," as it was familiarly called, four miles south of Mon- roe, on the south bank of Otter Creek. Her husband and Peter Navarre, the Indian scout, upon whose head a large price had been set by the British if captured, were during the War of 1812 taken prisoners by the Indians, bound hand and foot, and were being carried as cap- tives to Malden. Encamping over night on the route, in the morning their bands were loos- ened for temporary relief, and after breakfast- ing Mr. Navarre said to Mr. Jobin: " Now is our time. If we reach Malden we will be hung, and I would rather take my chances of being shot than go any further with our captors. You take one direction, I will another." Both immediately ran for their lives; the balls whistled about and above them, but both es- caped without injury.
THE BLISS FAMILY.
In the spring of 1814 two brothers, Silvanus and Hervey Bliss, of Royalston, Worcester county, Massachusetts, left the parental home, and the first named his young wife and two
PETER NAVARRE, IN THE DRESS OF A SCOUT.
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BIOGRAPHIES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
children, aged respectively one and three years, and wended their way westward,
" With knapsacks on their backs And their spirits were gay, To secure themselves homes In Michigania."
Railroads were not known or thought of in those days, and it required several weeks to make the journey on foot, as they were obliged to do. Many incidents occurred to them by the way, some of which were of an exciting char- acter, as it was war time. They at last reached the settlement on the shore of the lake between the Vermillion and Huron rivers, in Ohio. Their feet getting sore and their funds getting low, they concluded to make their homes with the pioneers of the Buckeye State, and soon set about preparing for the coming of the wife and children, arrangements to bring them and some household goods having been made with a man before leaving Massachusetts. It was late in the summer, however, and not until the hot weather had brought to the newcomers the ague and chill fever, that they were sent for. Owing to stormy weather and consequent bad roads, obliging them to lie by several weeks, they did not reach the settlement until winter had set in, when the tired and worn-out wife and mother was informed that her dear hus- band had died a few weeks before her arrival. Mrs. Bliss was terribly shocked by the sad news, but receiving the sympathy and help of the neighbors and the surviving brother, she in time recovered from the sore bereavement.
The summer following (1815) sickness and death came again to the family, and took from the mother her youngest child, a little boy, aged two years and six months, the other mem- bers of the family barely escaping with their lives the ravages of the much dreaded chill fever.
Not caring longer to remain in a climate so unhealthy, Mr. Bliss having in the meantime married the widow of his deceased brother, in company with a neighbor (Mr. David Frary), he removed his family to the River Raisin (now Monroe, Michigan). Arriving there the latter part of April, 1816, be rented a farm of Jerry Lawrence, a short distance above Mon- roe, and farmed it that season as best he could, not succeeding well, however, on account of the cold weather and early frosts, the summer
of 1816 having since been known as the "cold season."
The following winter Mr. Bliss, in company with Mr. Frary, still his neighbor and friend, moved his family to the Macon settlement, some thirteen or fourteen miles above Monroe, on the river, opposite the point where the Macon Creek enters the Raisin. Here he built a house and made some improvements, suppos- ing that he was on Government land, which he intended to purchase when in market. He remained there some two years, during which time a number of families had settled about him. He then learned that the Indians had withheld from sale a tract of land known as the " Macon reserve" on the early maps, em- bracing nine sections, and covering the im- provements made by the settlers, who were driven off by the Indians, the log cabins of the squatters serving them as wigwams, and the cleared land for pasturage, raising corn, etc. While living there, in March, 1817, your cor- respondent, W. W. Bliss, came to them a " stranger, and they took him in; naked, and they clothed him ; thirsty, and they gave him drink ; " and for the many aets of kindness and care in subsequent years, they are held by him in grateful remembrance.
In the month of June following, Israel Bliss, a younger brother from Massachusetts, came to the settlement at the Macon, and remained with the family until his death, October 23, 1819. Calvin Burnham, a young man from Massachusetts, came to Michigan with his friend, Israel Bliss, and remained with him until his death. Then he returned to Massachu- setts and married his (Bliss's) sister, Lucind K., by whom he had three children, and she having died, he married again, and in 1839 re- moved his family to Blissfield, Michigan, and the next year to Summerfield, Monroe county, same State, where he died some years since, honored and respected by his fellow-men, leav- ing a wife and several children. Olive, the oldest daughter by his first wife, married Lysander Ormsby, of Deerfield, Michigan. Two daughters by his second wife married two brothers, John and Charles Peters, of Peters- burgh, Michigan.
The settlement at the Macon being broken up, Mr. Bliss removed his family to the " Giles neighborhood," some three or four miles down the river and ten from Monroe, where he
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
bought a " squatter's " claim of a man who had built a honse and cleared a few acres on a tract of Government land of several hundred acres, which lay between Giles's "French farm" on the west and other claims on the east, a part of which he intended to buy when subdivided and in market. But before learning that it had been offered for sale, a man by the name of Martin, " bought from under him " that part of the tract on which he lived, containing one hun- dred and thirty acres, embracing the improve- ments which he had bought and subsequently made, and requiring him to vacate the same without remuneration for the outlay which he had made.
Mr. Bliss being again without a home for his family, and not caring to leave the neighbor- hood, as a school had just been started, and a church (Presbyterian) had been organized at Monroe, with which he and his wife had united at the time of its organization (January 13, 1820), bought of said Martin thirty acres of the unimproved land adjoining Giles's farm, on which he built a good hewed log house, and improved the greater part of it, when find- ing that he had not farm enough to support his family, he sold his place and in June, 1824, bought 132 acres of land some twenty miles up the river, of rich quality and well timbered. To this place the late Colonel Johnson, of Monroe, gave the name of Blissfield. Here in November following Mr. Bliss built a log house, obtaining help to raise it from Petersburgh and Raisinville, ten and twenty miles distant, and to which place he removed his family the fol- lowing month (December, 1824), having no neighbors for a time nearer than Petersburgh, and no mills, stores or shops nearer than Monroe.
Mr. Bliss in 1835 platted a part of his farm, giving the name of Blissfield to the village. He was a man highly esteemed by his neigh- bors and those with whom he was acquainted, having held many positions of trust and re- sponsibility in the latter years of his life.
In 1829 he was instrumental in effecting the organization of the First Presbyterian church of Blissfield, which occurred February 22d of that year, consisting of nine members, includ- ing himself and wife.
In March, 1827, he was appointed by Gov- ernor Cass a justice of the peace, and at the first township meeting in Blissfield, held in
May following, he was elected a justice by the people, which office he held for a number of years.
In March, 1828, he was appointed postmaster at Blissfield, which office he held at the time of his death, which occurred December 31, 1841, aged fifty-two years. His wife survived him some seven years.
Mr. Bliss had seven children, five sons and two daughters, and one step-daughter, six of whom are still living.
William W., born at the Macon March 28, 1817; married in Blissfield, Michigan, Feb- ruary 13, 1840, where he now resides, retired from business.
Hiram W., born in Raisinville, Michigan, June 1,1822; farmer; married October 23, 1842, resides at Deerfield, Michigan.
Whiting G., born in Blissfield, Michigan, November 15, 1827 ; died in childhood.
Hervey K., born in Blissfield, Michigan, Feb- ruary 11, 1830 ; farmer ; married June 22, 1850, and resides in Adrian, Michigan.
Almond L., born November 27, 1832, in Blissfield; married November 25, 1853; real estate and abstract office business in Adrian, Michigan, where he resides.
Emeline B., born in Raisinville, Michigan, February 24, 1819 ; married December 13, 1834. Husband a farmer, now deceased ; lives with daughter in Adrian, Michigan.
Caroline L., born in Raisinville, Michigan, September 28, 1824; married June 30, 1842, and resides with her son in Blissfield, Michigan.
Delight (the step-daughter), born in Massa- chusetts September 24, 1811 ; married in Bliss- field, Michigan, November 23, 1826, by Loren Marsh, Esq., a justice of the peace from Monroe, Michigan, one of the first two marriages in Blissfield, both occurring the same day.
The first school in Blissfield was taught by Chester Stuart, late of Monroe, in the winter of 1826-7, for thirteen dollars per month and "board round."
There are very many incidents in the lives of the Bliss family connected with their settle- ment here, which show what hardships the pioneers endured. They moved here in win. ter, into a log house without floors, doors, win- dows, chimney, and no stoves, and not even " chinked " between the logs. After putting down a "puncheon " floor of split logs, making doors and putting in windows, cutting and
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BIOGRAPHIES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
preparing some wood, etc., occupying some two weeks, Hervey Bliss was obliged to leave his family alone in the woods, no neighbors nearer than ten miles away, and go down to Raisin- ville to work and pay for help in moving and buy supplies for the family. On his way down he met a company of Indians who came and camped within a few rods of the house, where they remained some two weeks.
THE KEDZIE FAMILY.
History is being made every day, little by little, but mainly by recording events and actions of men in the past, as they are remem- bered, from the standpoint of the historian. Monroe has a long history, reaching beyond the memory of any now living; and we can only hope to gather fragments showing to com- ing generations the hopes and fears, the actual trials and troubles attending the settlement of a new country.
William Kedzie and wife, five sons and two daughters, emigrated from Delhi, Delaware county, New York, and came to the " Great West," landing at Monroe, May 14, 1826. The change from a rough, hilly country, well cov- ered with rocks and stones, to one as level as a " house floor," so salubrious as this then was, seemed to them as the Garden of Eden. But when they looked upon the people, heard their strange language, saw their mode of travel as they daily passed with a pony and two-wheeled cart, loaded with a family of six or eight, driv- ing like Jehu, with no tire on their wheels, nor a strap of iron about their vehicle, they looked, but looked in vain, for a smash-down. A four-wheeled carriage was very seldom seen on the streets.
There was then no church building in the village; Protestants worshiped in the old yellow court-house, and Catholics in a log building some two miles up on the north bank of the River Raisin, only distinguished from the log houses in that vicinity by a cross on the gable end and one over the front gate. Mr. Kedzie occupied the farm on the north side of the River Raisin, next east of the Robert Clark farm. A large portion of the land at this time lay unoccupied. From the toll bridge, then kept by Peter P. Ferry (one of the old soldiers under Napoleon, and for many years
after county treasurer of Monroe county), up to the Clark farm, between the road and river, was in commons ; also the lands north of the old fort, where Charles Noble then lived, now owned and occupied by Major A. C. Chapman, was in commons, extending a mile back to the woods. The father and sons planted two acres thereof in corn in June after their arrival, and a fine crop was raised. One-half thereof would have been destroyed by the ravenous black- birds but for the free use of powder and shot. The birds seemed to fancy their farming, for they followed them into Lenawee county, where large bounties checked their destructive habits.
In October of that year the family moved up into the woods, twenty-five miles west of Mon- roe, and within a county organized at a later date, and until May, 1827, within the jurisdic- tion of Monroe county. This was a bold push for life -a dense forest, a log house without doors or windows to give protection from sav- age wild beasts who made night hideous with their unearthly howls, and without a neighbor within five miles. With the supply of provi- sions purchased at Monroc they sought their new home - no light task considering the con- dition of the roads, without a bridge on river, streams or gullies. The winter was spent chopping twenty-seven acres, and in the spring ten acres were logged and planted to corn. Their crop not only suffered from the black- birds, but the " coon " lavishly presented his claims for a share, and no little depredations were committed by bears and wolves. Coon- hunting was a pastime to the pioneer whose pork barrel ran low, as the meat made a very palatable and rich dish when properly pre- pared.
That summer four acres more were cleared and sown to wheat, which was reaped with a sickle in July. The following fall the father yielded to the malarial diseases prevailing in the country, notwithstanding the skill of his old friend, Dr. Clark, of Monroe, who stood at his bedside the last six days of his life, ending August 5, 1828, aged forty-seven years.
I leave the reader to conceive what must have been the trials of a widowhood, left with the care of seven children, the eldest under sixteen, with only a beginning made on a new farm in a vast wilderness. She lived, how- ever, to see them all grown to maturity, who,
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
with one consent, call her one " of the daugh- ters who have done virtuously, but she excelled them all." -- Prov. xxxi. 29. Thus ended the life of two pioneers, who were, for a season, citizens of Monroe county sixty years ago.
William Kedzie, the eldest son, was a school- mate of the writer in 1826, under the tuition of Anthony McKee, since a resident of Deer- field, now deceased. Our school-mates of that day were Alexander D. Anderson, John Ander- son, Robert and John Clark (all now deceased), and Charles Lanman, now residing in George- town, D. C. He lived on the same farm fifty- three years, up to the fall of 1879, when he, with a competency, removed to Adrian to spend in case the remainder of life.
James T. Kedzie still resides in Blissfield, one of our most intelligent and highly esteemed citizens.
Professor Kedzie, of the Michigan Agricul- tural College, at Lansing, Michigan, the third son, is constantly adding new laurels to an al- ready well-established reputation.
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