History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, Part 2

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts & co.
Number of Pages: 553

USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories > Part 2

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The temperature for January at Traverse City, in latitude 44° 45', is the same as that of Des Moines, Iowa, two hundred miles farther south, while the July isotherm of 70° is the same as that of Milwaukee, nearly one hundred and fifty miles to the south. The extremest cold of St. Louis has been below the extreme at Traverse City, and these facts account for the presence of a fine fruit belt along the eastern coast of Lake Michigan.

Peaches are raised from Mackinaw to New Buffalo without difficulty, even when they are killed by excessive cold in southern Illinois and Missouri.

Approaching the centre of the peninsula, the temperature of both summer and winter changes materially, though it is neither as warm in summer nor as cold in winter as in regions to the westward of Lake Michigan.

The summer isotherm for Pontiac is 72°, and it is nearly the same as that of southern Ohio; but as it passes westward it reaches the latitude of Saginaw, in the centre of the peninsula, and thence deflects southward, passing into Indiana around the southern end of Lake Michigan, as far south as Ottawa, Illinois, which is upwards of one hundred and fifty miles south of Saginaw. From Ottawa it trends quite rapidly to the northwest, and in Minnesota reaches beyond the parallel of 45°.

The winter temperature of Pontiac is about 20°, which is something colder than other places in the same latitude in Michigan, being the same as that of Mackinaw in the extreme north of the lower peninsula.

There is a region of more than the average cold in southeastern Michigan, caused undoubtedly by its elevation, and its summer temperature is considerably modified for the same reason.

The extreme minimum winter temperature of Pontiac is almost precisely the same as that of St. Louis, the difference in latitude being four degrees, or about two hundred and eighty miles. The extreme minimum of twenty-four passes through Maumee City, in Ohio, near Pontiac, across the point of Saginaw bay, running thence to a point in the interior a little northwest of Alpena, thence southwest through Grand Rapids and across the States of Indiana and Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri.

Traverse City, and the whole eastern shore of Lake Michigan, are on the extreme minimum of 16°, or eight degrees warmer than Pontiac and St. Louis.

PRECIPITATION.

The average precipitation of rain and snow at Pontiac, which is in latitude 42° 37' 44", is about thirty-five inches, of which eighty-two per cent. falls during the three warm seasons, spring, summer, and autumn.

Owing to the proximity of the great lakes the springs are usually cool and vegetation proportionally backward, but under the excessive heats of the summer months and the influence of the sandy 'loam of the soil, vegetation comes forward with astonishing rapidity. The autumn months are usually agreeable, and frosts are uncommon before October. The climate of Michigan is particularly favorable for the growth of wheat, as the immense production of 1877 amply testifies, and for all small grains, except corn ; the latter having its true home in the prairie region. For the production of most of the fruits of the temperate zone Michigan justly takes high rank, and if her magnificent forests can be preserved to any considerable extent, the State will always remain the leading one in the north- west as a fruit-growing region .*

" These remarks upon the climatic conditions of Michigan have been deduced largely from Professor Alexander Winchell's admirable isothermal charts.

Huron Group 720

V. CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM 720

Marshall Group. 160

Michigan Salt Group 185

Calciferous Sandstone.

Coal Bearing Group. 305

Coal Measures. 125

HISTORY

OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

BY PROFESSORS S. W. DURANT AND H. B. PEIRCE.

CHAPTER I.

PRE-HISTORIC RACES-TRADITIONS-INDIAN NATIONS.

ANTEDATING the various copper-colored nations found occupying the North American continent by the earliest European discoverers, from the tenth to the sixteenth centuries, was a people whose history is completely buried in oblivion. The various Algonquin nations had many mysterious and unsatisfactory traditions of a wonderful people who " many moons ago" occupied the valleys of the Mis- sissippi, the Ohio, and their numerous tributaries, who were found by the pro- genitors of the Lenape and Mengwe, when those people came from the western portions of the continent at a remote period, inhabiting a vast region, and dwell- ing in fortified towns, where they had developed, as compared with the bar- barians surrounding them, a remarkable degree of civilization.

This unknown race, which may have been contemporary, and possibly identical, with the Aztec and Toltec races of Central and Southern America, inhabited an extensive region. Remains of their once flourishing empire are found from the head-waters of the Ohio to the canebrakes of the Arkansas, and from Lake Superior to the valley of the Tennessee.

Their conical mounds abound in Wisconsin and northern Illinois, and through- out the valleys of the Mississippi and the Ohio are scattered the ruins of a vast and complicated system of fortifications, exhibiting a knowledge of engineering and the mechanic arts akin to that of the ancient Egyptians and the swarming millions of southern Asia.

Along the immediate valley of the Mississippi river are found immense mounds, rivaling in dimensions the famous pyramids of the Nile. The great mound at Cahokia, Illinois, is said to measure seven hundred by five hundred feet, with an altitude of ninety feet. Their various implements of husbandry, of the chase, and of war, and the sacred vessels employed in their religious ceremonies, are turned up by the plow throughout the broad region now occupied by ten or twelve of the most important States of the Union.

They had a knowledge of metals, for the evidence is indisputable that they worked the copper deposits of the upper peninsula of Michigan, and there is reasonable evidence that they built large cities. Certain writers claim that a great manufacturing centre once existed in the vicinity of Rock Island, Illinois, where they had a system of canals connecting the Mississippi with the Rock and Green rivers, and where immense deposits of flint chips and implements would indicate the location of a great manufacturing town. The materials were brought by water conveyance from distant parts of the country, for nothing of the kind exists in the vicinity,-most probably from Minnesota and Dakota,-and here fashioned by skilled workmen, the fragments of whose labor, after the lapse of unknown centuries, evinces a knowledge not unworthy a more modern age.

If these people were the same as those who occupied the southwestern parts of the present United States and peopled and ruled over Mexico and Central America, it is evident that in the course of time they gradually rose from a semi- barbarous condition to one of comparative civilization, as their pyramids in Cali- fornia and Mexico and the gigantic ruins of Yucatan amply testify.

It is even doubtful whether the changes introduced by the Spanish conquerors of these ancient people have on the whole been beneficial. Their rule was at

least destructive of a comparatively advanced civilization, and in the place of a peaceful and evidently happy race we have now the mixed Spanish and Indian blood, and its resultant anarchy and crime. Looking at all the evidences which confront us, bearing upon the history of the American continent, who shall say that when the British Islands and all northern Europe were inhabited by bar- barous tribes, when the cave-bear and the gigantic elk of pre-historic times roamed over the finest tracts of Gaul and Britain, there may not have been upon the great American continent a race of beings equal in intelligence to those who peopled the historic valley of the Nile and left their sign-manual upon the banks of the Euphrates and in the jungles of Siam ? True, they reared no gigantic rock-built temples " or column trophied for triumphal show," but the vast re- mains of fortifications, complicated and systematic earthworks, and wonderful mounds are worthy to stand even beside those crumbling monuments that en- cumber the plains of Egypt and Asia Minor.

Archaeologists and antiquarians have written volumes to prove the descent of the American nations from some imaginary Asiatic race, and cited as evidence of the truth of their propositions the apparent similarity in the languages of the American and Asiatic peoples. Did it ever occur to these philosophers that the American continent, being older geologically than most portions of the eastern hemisphere, may have been peopled anterior to the other, and possibly have given the eastern continent its earliest inhabitants ? No one pretends that America is indebted to Asia for its fauna and flora ; but it might be asserted with as much show of reason and evidence that the great Sequoias of California and the majestic tulip-tree of Indiana and Alabama were emigrants from the slopes of Mount Libanus and the plains of Lombardy, as that the original human inhabi- tants sprang from some ambiguous and mysterious tribe on the banks of the Euphrates or the Yang-tse-kiang.

This ancient people were known to the Indians as the Tallegawe or Allegewi, from whence comes the musical word Allegheny. The outlying branches of this great family quite probably occupied portions of the lower peninsula of Michigan, unless we assume the period of their occupation to have been prior to the last great subsidence of the upper lakes, in which case it is probable that a large pro- portion of the peninsula was at least marshy, if not under water, and consequently uninhabitable. There are no very satisfactory evidences of their occupation, but they may have built temporary cabins among the beautiful lakes and streams of Oakland, and made the region their annual hunting- and fishing-ground. Un- doubtedly, a population much more dense than the copper-colored races ever attained to own occupied a large portion of the region lying eastward of the Rocky mountains, and it is more than speculative that a portion of it found at least a temporary habitation in southern Michigan.

Conjecture is entirely at fault regarding the period of occupation by this un- known people. Immense forest-trees were found growing upon the gigantic mounds of the south and west, whose ages were counted by centuries, and the storm-washed and time-furrowed fortifications and earthworks in the valley of the Ohio bear the marks of venerable age.

THE INDIANS.

Succeeding this ancient race, no doubt, came the tawny nations found inhabit- ing the country by the early European explorers. The nation occupying the

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

greatest area was undoubtedly the Algonquins, which might with propriety be di- vided into three great branches-Algonquins proper, Lenape, and Mengwe. The territory inhabited by these nations comprehended the vast basin of the St. Law- rence and the great lakes, and also included all of New England, the present area of the Middle States, the Ohio valley, and the Atlantic coast as far south as the Carolinas. The Mengwe, Iroquois, or Five Nations, occupied substantially the southern and central portions of the State of New York, but their conquests reached the tribes of the St. Lawrence and New England on the north and east, the Hurons, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Ojibwas, and Illinois on the west, and extended over the Delawares, and southward to the country inhabited by the Mobilian nations. Covering the hills of Pennsylvania and New Jersey were found the ancient people calling themselves Lenni Lenape,-" original men,"-acknowledged by more than forty nations as their " grandfathers," and known to the English as Delawares. They were also called by the French the Loups, or Wolf Nation.

The nations or tribes found occupying the lower peninsula of Michigan at the date of the earliest visits by the French were the Ottawas, Ojibwas, Chippewas, and Pottawatomies, with here and there families and groups of the neighboring Hurons, Miamis, and perhaps others .*

CHAPTER II.

EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES BY THE FRENCH-CARTIER, ROBER- VAL, CHAMPLAIN, LA SALLE.

IN order to a correct understanding of the processes through which the territory of the present State of Michigan t was settled by and became a dependency of the French, it is necessary to consider briefly the early voyages and explorations which first gave to the world a knowledge of the most remarkable rivers and fresh-water seas on the face of the globe.

The discoveries of Columbus and Ponce de Leon in the closing years of the fifteenth and the opening ones of the sixteenth century developed a wonderful spirit of enterprise among the leading nations of Europe. Spain monopolized the regions of the West Indies, Mexico, and Central America, and planted colonies, within the boundaries of the present United States, along the Atlantic ocean and the Mexican gulf. England occupied all the middle region lying between Florida and the Bay of Fundy, while France poured her adventurous spirits into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and thence through the majestic river into the basin of the great lakes, and eventually into the rich valley of the Mississippi.

In 1534, Francis I., of France, commissioned Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo, to prosecute discoveries in the western ocean, and the first expedition under this in- trepid officer, consisting of two small vessels of sixty tons each, and crews aggre- gating sixty-one men, set sail from St. Malo on the 20th of April, 1534. He made a safe and prosperous voyage, during which he explored a portion of the bleak coast of Newfoundland, and arrived in France on the 15th of September of the same year.

His report was favorably received, though he had not touched the mainland, and his explorations had furnished very little actual knowledge of the countries towards which the eyes of Europeon nations were eagerly turned. Preparations were immediately made to send out another expedition. Three vessels were fitted up, -the "Great Herminia," of one hundred and twenty tons, the " Little Herminia," of sixty tons, and the " Hermirillon," of forty tons. The fleet sailed from St. Malo on the 15th of May, 1535. The weather was tempestuous, but after a wearisome voyage the shores of Newfoundland at length appeared in sight. Passing to the north of the great island, they entered, on St. Lawrence's day, the gulf which Cartier named in honor of the saint, and which name subsequently attached to both river and gulf. Proceeding up the river, they reached an Indian village named Sta-da-co-na, which occupied a part of the present site of Quebec. The natives were greatly awed by the appearance of the strange craft, and the flame and thunder of their guns, but their chief, Don-a-co-na, a wary and careful leader, determined to learn the character of the new-comers, and approached the squad- ron guardedly with a fleet of twelve canoes filled with warriors. When within speaking distance he arose and made a speech to Cartier, which a Gaspé Indian interpreted, and in turn translated Cartier's reply. Amicable relations were soon

established, and the chief shortly afterwards again visited the fleet with five hundred of his warriors.

After resting and refreshing himself thoroughly, Cartier determined to explore the river. Leaving his other ships at anchor near the Indian town, he proceeded in the " Hermirillon" and two boats as far as Lake St. Peter, where he was compelled to leave the vessel on account of shallow water. Pushing onward with the small boats, he arrived on the 2d of October at the Huron village of Hochelaga, situated on the island now occupied by the city of Montreal. Returning to Sta-da-co-na, he wintered in the St. Charles river, a little below the present city of Quebec.

Although Cartier had been peaceably received and generously treated by the natives, he was unprincipled enough to entice Don-a-co-na and two other chiefs and eight warriors on board his vessel, when he immediately secured them and carried them in triumph to France, where the greater part of them soon died.

On his arrival in France, Cartier reported the newly-explored country as desti- tute of gold and silver, and a bleak and inhospitable region.

This report dampened the ardor of those who had been enthusiastic upon the discovery of the " New World," and it was not until 1540 that any further attempts were made to continue the explorations or plant colonies on the St. Lawrence.

Early in the year last mentioned, Francis I. granted patents conveying all terri- tory lying north of that claimed by the English to François de la Roque, Seigneur de Roberval. The commission also invested him with supreme power within its bounds. In the summer of 1540 a squadron of five vessels was fitted out for " New France," as the country had been named. Cartier was appointed to the command, and after a very prosperous voyage they reached the St. Lawrence, and in a few days cast anchor before the Indian town of Sta-da-co-na, where they were at first hospitably received by the natives, who supposed they had brought back their chiefs and warriors. On learning that some of them were dead, and that none would ever return, they became hostile, and Cartier was obliged to move higher up the river, to Cape Rouge, where he laid up three of his vessels, and sent the others back to France with letters to the king. At this point he built a fort, which he named Charlesbourg. Here he passed a very rigorous winter, and, waiting for supplies which were expected during the next season, he remained until too late to return to Europe, and was compelled to pass another winter in the country, which completely disheartened him.

Early in the spring of 1542 he resolved to return, and, sailing down the river and over the stormy gulf of St. Lawrence, he put into the harbor in Newfound- land since called St. John, where he found Roberval, who was on his way to Canada with a company of adventurers, well supplied with stores and provisions. But Cartier was satisfied with his experience and refused to return, and, to avoid forcible detention, weighed anchor in the night and put to sea.

Roberval sailed up the river to Charlesbourg, which he strengthened with addi- tional fortifications, and where he passed the ensuing winter.

Leaving a garrison of thirty men, in the spring of 1543 he returned to France, where he was detained by his sovereign to assist in the wars against Charles V.

After the peace of Cressy, Roberval, in company with his brother Achille and a numerous train of adventurers, again set out for America, but the fleet was never afterwards heard of, and was supposed to have foundered at sea. This terrible calamity completely disheartened Henry II., then (1543) king of France, and he made no further efforts to colonize the Canadas. From this time until 1598 no movement of any importance was made looking to a settlement of the new country. In that year the Marquis de la Roche, a nobleman of Brittany, encouraged by King Henry, fitted out a large expedition for the " New World." As volunteers were slow in coming forward, owing to former disasters, convicts were permitted to join. Nothing of importance resulted from this expedition ; the only noticeable fact in connection with it being that forty convicts were left on Sable Island, near the coast of Nova Scotia. The marquis attempted to equip another expedition, but he was not encouraged at court, and the attempt proved a failure. Chagrined and weary, he soon after sickened and died.

The convicts, left on the barren island and unnoticed for several years, suffered untold hardships, which in the course of twelve years reduced their original num- ber to twelve. . They were finally taken, by a vessel sent to ascertain their fate, to France, where the king pardoned them and supplied them with a liberal sum of money.

In 1599 another expedition was fitted out by M. Chauvin, of Rouen, a naval officer, and one Pontgrave, a sailor-merchant of St. Malo, who, in consideration of a monopoly of the fur trade granted by the king, undertook to establish a colony of five hundred persons in Canada.

In the spring of 1600 two vessels were equipped, and Chauvin, with a party of settlers, landed safely at Tadoussac, where he erected a fort and engaged in the fur business. This settlement continued until 1603, when the death of Chauvin caused it to be abandoned, and once more Canada was without a European settlement.

# The total number of Indians within the State in 1870 was about twelve thousand.

t This name is said to be derived from the Indian word Mich-saw-gy-e-gau, meaning " Lake Country." It is also said to be the Indian name of Lake Michigan, meaning "Great Lake."

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

CHAMPLAIN.

After two more unsuccessful expeditions, one under De Chaste,* who was accom- panied by Samuel Champlain, and the other under De Mots, the latter obtained, in 1607, a commission from the king for one year, and, under the representations of Champlain, he resolved to found a colony on the St. Lawrence. Accordingly, he fitted out two vessels and placed them under the command of Champlain, who was a bold and experienced navigator. This expedition sailed from Harfleur on the 13th of April, 1608, and arrived at Tadoussac on the 3d of June following. Leaving Pontgrave to traffic with the Indians, Champlain sailed up the river, and, after a careful examination of the country, fixed upon a promontory covered with noble forest-trees and a luxuriant growth of wild vines, called by the natives "Quibo," or " Quebec," and on the 3d of July, 1608, founded the city of Quebec.+ This was the third permanent settlement in the Atlantic region of North America; St. Augustine, Florida, founded in 1565, and Jamestown, in Virginia, founded in 1607, having preceded it.

The succeeding season-1609-Champlain discovered and explored the long, narrow lake which bears his name and around which throng historic memories. He thoroughly explored the St. Lawrence, the Grand Ottawa, Lake Champlain, and large tracts of country immediately adjacent, and also selected the site and founded the city of Montreal in 1611-13.

He was a most indefatigable explorer and adventurer, and had the honor of founding two of the largest commercial cities of the St. Lawrence valley.

He made repeated voyages between Canada and Europe, and in 1615 brought out four fathers of the Recollet order, who came as missionaries to locate and labor among the Indians.] These were the first priests who settled in Canada.

In 1616, Champlain returned to France, and in 1620 made another visit to Canada, where he encouraged and assisted settlements, and labored in many ways for the benefit of the infant colonies.

During the war which broke out between England and France in 1628, Charles I., of England, commissioned Sir David Kirkt, a French refugee, commander of a squadron, and authorized him to conquer Canada. Kirkt appeared before Quebec the same year and demanded its surrender, but was finally driven off.

QUEBEC TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH.

In 1629, however, when Champlain was reduced to the last extremity for the necessaries of life, Kirkt again appeared before Quebec, when, seeing no hope of successful resistance, and being exposed to the attacks of the Iroquois, he finally accepted the very honorable terms offered by the English commander and surren- dered the city and province. Champlain went to England and soon after to France. The English held possession of Canada for a period of about three years, but, attaching little value to it, they restored it to France upon the conclusion of peace in 1632, when Champlain was once more made governor of the colony. He died in 1635, after an active connection with the French possessions in America of upwards of thirty years.

Possessing the control of the St. Lawrence, and holding the gateway to the sea, the French, as a natural consequence, were the first to explore the region lying to the westward and around the great inland seas which give the St. Lawrence its steady, unceasing flow, and make it one of the grandest rivers upon the globe.

" The purposes of Champlain were more religious than commercial, and he esteemed the salvation of a soul worth more than the conquest of an empire." " His charter recognized the Indian convert as a citizen of France, and the Fran- ciscans were chosen to conduct his missions." But the more active order of the Jesuits eventually took possession, and their missionaries, Jean de Brebœuf, Daniel and Gabriel Lallemand, passed up the Ottawa river to Like Huron, and thence to the Sault St. Marie, and established missions at St. Joseph, St. Louis, and St. Ignace among the Hurons. These operations took place between the years 1634 and 1640. In the latter year Fathers Raymbault, Isaac Jogues, and Pizard labored among the nations situated around Lakes Huron and Nipissing. The war between the Hurons and Iroquois involved these missions, and many of them were broken up and dispersed, and the missionaries tortured with all the hellish ingenuity of the savage.

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History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories, Part 2

Author: Durant, Samuel W Publication date: 1877 Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts & co. Number of Pages: 553

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts & co.
Number of Pages: 553