History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume I, Part 6

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : C.C. Chapman & Co.
Number of Pages: 962

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Under the French and British dominion the points occupied on the eastern boundary of what is now the State of Michigan were considered a part of New France, or Canada. Detroit was known to the French as Fort Pontchartrain. The military commandant, under both governments, exercised a civil jurisdiction over the settlements surrounding their posts. In 1796, when the British garrisons at Detroit and Mackinaw were replaced by detachments by Gen. Wayne, Michigan became a part of the Northwestern Ter- ritory and was organized as the county of Wayne, entitled to one Representative in the General Assembly, held at Chillicothe.

In 1800, Indiana was made a separate Territory, embracing all the country west of the present State of Ohio and of an extension of the western line of that State due north to the territorial limits of the United States; in 1802, the peninsula was annexed to the Territory of Indiana, and in 1805 Michigan began a separate exist- ence. That part of the Territory that lies east of a north and sontlı line through the middle of Lake Michigan was formed into a dis- tinct government, and the provisions of the ordinance of 1787 con- tinued to regulate it. Under this constitution the executive power was invested in a governor, the judicial in three judges, and the

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

legislative in both united; the officers were appointed by the gen- eral Government, and their legislative anthority was restricted to the adoption of laws from codes of the several States. This form of government was to continne until the Territory should contain 5,000 free white males of full age. It then became optional with the peo. ple to choose a legislative body, to be supported by thiem; but sub. sequent legislation by Congress more liberally provided a Legislature at the expense of the general Government and also added to privi- leges in the elective franchise and eligibility to office; as, for exam- ple, under the ordinance a freehold qualification was required, both on the part of the elector and of the elected.

The first officers of the Territory of Michigan were: Win. Hull, Governor; Augustus B. Woodward, Chief Judge; Frederick Bates, Sr., Assistant Judge and Treasurer; Jolin Griffin, Assistant Judge; Col. James May, Marshal; Abijah Hull, Surveyor; Peter Audrain, Clerk of the Legislative Board. May 5, 1807, Joseph Watson was appointed Legislative secretary; in November, 1806, Elijah Brush was appointed treasurer, to succeed Mr. Bates, and the books of the office were delivered over on the 26th of that month; and William McDowell Scott was appointed marshal in November, 1806, to suc- ceed Col. May. The latter never held the office of judge of the Territory, but about 1800-'3 he was chief justice of the court of common pleas.

Augustus Brevoort Woodward was a native of Virginia; was appointed a judge of the Territory in 1805, his term of office expir- ing Feb. 1, 1824. He was soon after appointed judge of the Terri- tory of Florida, and three years after that he died. The grand scheme of " Catholepistemiad," or State University of Michigan, with its numerous details described under sesquipedalian names from the Greek, owed its origin to Judge Woodward.

John Griffin was appointed assistant judge in 1807, his term of office expiring Feb. 1, 1824. He was a native of Virginia, and died in Philadelphia about 1840.

James Withierell was a native of Massachusetts; was appointed a judge of the Territory April 23, 1808, his term of office expiring Feb. 1, 1824, when he was re-appointed for four years, and Feb. 1, 1828, lie was appointed Territorial secretary.

When in 1818 Illinois was admitted into the Union, all the terri- tory lying north of that State and of Indiana was annexed to Mich- igan. In 1819, the Territory was anthorized to elect a delegate to Congress, according to the present nsage with reference to Terri- tories; previous to this time, according to the ordinance 1787, a Territory was not entitled to a delegate until it entered npon the " second grade of Government," and the delegate was then to be chosen by the General Assenibly.

In 1823 Congress abolished the legislative power of the governor and judges, and granted more enlarged ones to a council, to be composed of nine persons selected by the President of the United

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

States from eighteen chosen by the electors of the Territory; and by this law, also, eligibility to office was made co-extensive with the right of suffrage as established by the act of 1819; also the judicial term of office was limited to four years. In 1825 all county officers, except those of a judicial nature, were made elective, and the appointments which remained in the hands of the executive were made subject to the approval of the legislative council. In 1827 the electors were authorized to choose a number of persons for the legislative council, which was empowered to enact all laws not incon- sistent with the ordinance of 1787. Their acts, however, were sub- ject to abolishment by Congress and to veto by the territorial executives.

When Gen. Wmn. Hull arrived at Detroit to assume his official duties as Governor, he found the town in ruins, it having been destroyed by fire. Whether it had been burned by design or acci- dent was not known. The inhabitants were without food and shel- ter, camping in the open fields; still they were not discouraged, and soon commenced rebuilding their houses on the same site; Congress also kindly granted the sufferers the site of the old town of Detroit and 10,000 acres of land adjoining. A territorial militia was organ- ized, and a code of laws was adopted similar to those of the original States. This code was signed by Gov. Hull, Augustus B. Wood- ward and Frederick Bates, judges of the Territory, and was called the " Woodward code."

At this time the bounds of the Territory embraced all the coun- try on the American side of the Detroit river, east of the north and south line through the center of Lake Michigan. The Indian land claims had been partially extinguished previous to this period. By the treaty of Fort McIntosh in 1785, and that of Fort Harmar in 1787, extensive cessions had been either made or confirmed, and in 1807 the Indian titles to several tracts became entirely extinct. Settlements having been made under the French and English gov- ernments, with irregularity or absence of definite surveys and records, some confusion sprang up in regard to the titles to valuable tracts. Accordingly Congress establislied a Board of Commission- ers to examine and settle these conflicting claims, and in 1807 another act was passed, confirming, to a certain extent, tlie titles of all such as had been in possession of the lands then occupied by them from the year 1796, the year of the final evacuation by the British garrisons. Other acts were subsequently passed, extending the same conditions to the settlements on the upper lakes.

As chief among the fathers of this State we may mention Gen. Lewis Cass, Stevens T. Mason, Angnstus B. Woodward, John Norvell, Win. Woodbridge, Jolın Biddle, Wm. A. Fletcher, Elon Farnsworth, Solomon Sibley, Benj. B. Kircheval, Jolın R. Wil- liams, George Morrell, Daniel Goodwin, Augustus S. Porter, Benj. F. H. Witherell, Jonathan Shearer and Charles C. Trowbridge, all of Wayne county; Edmund Munday, James Kingsley and Alpheus Felch, of Washtenaw; Ross Wilkins and John J. Adam, of Lena-

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

wee; Warner Wing, Charles Noble and Austin E. Wing, of Monroe county; Randolph Manning, O. D. Richardson and James B. Hunt, of Oakland; Henry R. Schoolcraft, of Chippewa; Albert Miller, of the Saginaw Valley; Jolin Stockton and Robert P. Eldridge, of Macomb; Lucius Lyon, Charles E. Stuart, Edwin H. Lothrop, Epaphroditus Ransom and Hezekiah G. Wells, of Kalamazoo; Isaac E. Crary, John D. Pierce and Oliver C. Comstock, of Calhoun; Kinsley S. Bingham, of Livingston; Jolin S Barry, of St. Joseph; Charles W. Whipple, Calvin Britain and Thomas Fitzgerald, of Berrien; and George Redfield, of Cass. These men and their com- peers shaped the policy of the State, and decided what should be its future. They originated all and established most of the great institutions which are the evidences of our advanced civilization, and of which we are so justly prond.

ADMINISTRATION OF GEN. CASS.

At the close of the war with Great Britain in 1814, an era of prosperity dawned upon the infant territory. Gen. Lewis Cass, who liad served the Governinent with great distinction during the war, was appointed Governor. The condition of the people was very much reduced, the country was wild, and the British flag still waved over the fort at Mackinaw. There was nothing inviting to immi- grants except the mere facts of the close of the war and the exist- ence of a fertile soil and a good climate. The Indians were still dangerous, and the country was still comparatively remote from the centers of civilization and government. Such a set of circum- stances was just the proper environment for the development of all those elements of the "sturdy pioneer" which we so often admire in writing up Western history. Here was the field for stout and brave men; here was the place for the birth and educa- tion of real Spartan men,-men of strength, moral courage and indomitable perseverance.

At first, Gen. Cass had also the care of a small portion of Canada opposite Detroit, and he had only 27 soldiers for defending Detroit against the hostile Indians and carrying on the whole government. Believing that a civil governor should not be encumbered also with military duty, he resigned his brigadier-generalship in the army. But as Governor he soon had occasion to exercise his military power, even to act on the field as commander, in chasing away marauding bands of Indians. The latter seemed to be particularly threatening at this time, endeavoring to make up in yelling and petty depredations what they lacked in sweeping victory over all the pale-faces.

In times of peace Gov. Cass had high notions of civilizing the Indians, encouraging the purchase of their lands, limiting their hunting grounds to a narrow compass, teaching them agriculture and mechanics and providing the means for their instruction and religious training. The policy of the French and English had been

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

to pacify them with presents and gewgaws, merely to obtain a tem- porary foothold for the purpose of carrying on the fur trade. Those benefited by the trade lived thousands of miles away and had no interest in the permanent development of the country. The United States Government, on the other hand, indorsed Gov. Cass' policy, which was to result in the development of the wealthli of the country and the establishment of all the arts of peace. Gens. Cass and Harrison were accordingly empowered to treat with the Indians on the Miami and Wabash; and July 20 a treaty was signed with the Wyandots, Senecas, Shawnees, Miamis and Delawares, which restored comparative tranquillity. During the sminmer, however, there was Indian war enough to call out all of Gov. Cass' men, in aid of Gen. Brown on the Niagara. Indians can never remain long at peace, whatever may be the obligations they assume in treaty- making. Gov. Cass often headed his forces in person and drove the hostile tribes from place to place until they finally retreated to Saginaw.

An attempt was made to recover Mackinaw from the English in July of this year (1814), but the British works were too strong; how- ever, the establishments at St. Josephi and at Sault Ste. Marie were destroyed. In the following winter the final treaty of peace was ratified between England and the United States. The population of the territory at this time was not over 5,000 or 6,000, seattered over a vast extent, and in a state of great destitution on aeconnt of the calamities of war. Scarcely a family, on resuming the duties of home, found more than the remnants of former wealth and com- fort. Families had been broken up and dispersed; parents had been torn from their children, and children from each other; some had been slain on the battle-field, and others had been inassacred by the ruthless savages. Laws had become a dead letter, and morals had suffered in the general wreck. Agriculture had been almost abandoned and commerce paralyzed; food and all necessa- ries of life were searce, and Inxuries unknown. Money was difficult to get, and the bank paper of Ohio, which was almost the sole cir- eulating medium, was 25 per cent below par.

Such was the gloomy state of domestic affairs when Gen. Cass assumned the office of governor. Besides, lie liad the delicate task of aiding in legislation and of being at the same time the sole exec- utive of the law. In 1817 he made an important treaty with the Indians, by which their title was extinguished to nearly all the land in Ohio, and a great portion in Indiana and Michigan. This treaty attached the isolated population of Michigan to the State of Ohio, made the Territorial government in a fuller sense an integral mem- ber of the federal Union, and removed all apprehension of a hostile confederacy among the Indian tribes along the lake and river frontier.

Hitherto there had not been a road in Michigan, except the mili- tary road along the Detroit river; but as the Indian settlements and lands could not now be interposed as a barrier, Gen. Cass ealled the

HUNTING PRAIRIE WOLVES IN AN EARLY DAY.

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attention of Congress to the necessity of a military road from Detroit to Sandusky, through a trackless morass called the black swamp.

In the summer of this year, the first newspaper published in Michigan was started at Detroit. It was called the Detroit Gazette, and was published by Messrs. Sheldon & Reed, two enterprising young men, the former of whom published an interesting and val- uable early history of Michigan.

The " Western Sun " was the first newspaper published in the Indiana Territory, now comprising the four great States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, and the second in all that country once known as the " Northwestern Territory." It was commenced at Vincennes in 1803, by Elihu Stout, of Kentucky, and first called the Indiana Gazette, and July 4, 1804, was changed to the West- ern Sun. Mr. Stout continued the paper until 1845, amid many discouragements, when he was appointed postmaster at the placc, and he sold out the office.

May 6, 1812, Congress passed an act requiring that 2,000,000 acres of land should be surveyed in the Territory of Louisiana, the same amount in the Territory of Illinois, and the same amount in the Territory of Michigan, in all 6,000,000 acres, to be set apart for the soldiers in the war with Great Britain. Each soldier was to have 160 acres of land, fit for cultivation. The surveyors under this law reported that there were no lands in Michigan fit for cultiva- tion! This unconscionable report deterred immigration for many years, and the Government took the whole 6,000,000 acres from Illinois and Missoari. The language of that report is so remark- able that we must quote it:

"The country on the Indian boundary line, from the mouth of the Great Auglaize river and running thence for about 50 miles, is (with some few exceptions) low, wet land, with a very thick growth of underbrush, intermixed with very bad marshes, but generally very heavily timbered with beech, cottonwood, oak, etc .; thence continuing north and extending from the Indian boundary east- ward, the number and extent of the swamps increase, with the addition of numbers of lakes, from 20 chains to two and three miles across. Many of the lakes have extensive marshes adjoining their margins, sometimes thickly covered with a species of pine called ' tamarack,' and other places covered with a coarse, high grass, and uniformly covered from six inches to three feet (and more at times) with water. The margins of these lakes are not the only places where swamps are found, for they are interspersed through- ont the whole country and filled with water, as above stated, and varying in extent. The intermediate space between these swamps and lakes, which is probably near one- half of the country, is, with a very few exceptions, a poor, barren, sandy land on which scarcely any vegetation grows except very small, scrubby oaks. In many places that part which may be called dry land is composed of little, short sand-hills, forming a kind of deep basins, the bottoms of many

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

of which are composed of a marsh similar to the above described. The streams are generally narrow, and very deep compared with their width, the shores and bottoms of which are, with a very few exceptions, swampy beyond description; and it is with the utmost difficulty that a place can be found over which horses can be con- veyed with safety.

" A circumstance peculiar to that country is exhibited in many of the marshes by their being thinly covered with a sward of grass, by walking on which evinced the existence of water or a very thin inud immediately under their covering, whichi sinks from six to eighteen inches from the pressure of the foot at every step, and at the same time rising before and behind the person passing over. The margins of many of the lakes and streamns are in a similar situation, and in many places are literally afloat. On approaching the eastern part of the military lands, toward the private claims on the straights and lake, the country does not contain so many swamps and lakes, but the extreme sterility and barrenness of the soil con- tinnes the same. Taking the country altogether, so far as has been explored, and to all appearances, together with the information received concerning the balance, it is so bad there would not be more than one acre out of a hundred, if there would be one out of a thousand, that would in any case admit of cultivation."

It is probable that those Government surveyors made a lazy job of their duty and depended almost entirely upon the fur traders, who were interested in keeping settlers out of the country. But we must make allowance, too, for the universal ignorance existing at that time of the methods of developing the Western country which modern invention lias brought to bear since the days of our fore- fathers. We must remember that our Western prairies were counted worth nothing, even by all the early settlers.

By the year 1818 some immigrants crowded in and further explored and tested the land; and in March, this year, Gov. Cass called for the views of the inhabitants upon the question of chang- ing the civil authority by entering upon the second grade of Terri- torial government. A vote was taken and a majority were found to be against it; but for the purpose of facilitating immigration and settlement, Gov. Cass recommended to the Secretary of the Treasury that the lands in the district of Detroit be at once brought into market. The department immediately complied, and the lands were offered for sale the following autumn. Immigration was now increased more than ever before, and the permanent growth of the country became fully established.

In 1819 the people were allowed to elect a delegate to Congress. The population was now 8,806 in the whole Territory, distributed as follows: Detroit, 1,450, not including the garrison; the Island of Mackinaw, still the entrepot of the fur trade, a stationary popu- lation of about 450, sometimes increased to 2,000 or over; Sault Ste. Marie, 15 or 20 houses, occupied by French and English families.

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The year 1819 was also rendered memorable by the appearance of the first steamboat on the lakes, the " Walk-in-the-water," which came up Lake Erie and went on to Mackinaw.

Up to this time no executive measures had been taken by the people to avail themselves of the school lands appropriated by the ordinance of 1787, except the curious act passed by the Governor and jndges establishing the "Catholepistemiad," or University of Michigan, with 13 " didaxia," or professorships. The scheme for this institution was a grand one, described by quaint, sesquipe- dalian technicalities coined from the Greek language, and the whole devised by that uniqne man, Judge Woodward. The act is given in full in the Territorial laws of Michigan, compiled and printed a few years ago. It was Judge Woodward, also, who laid ont the plan of Detroit, in the form of a cobweb, with a " campus Martius" and a grand circus, and avenues radiating in every direction, grand public parks and squares, etc. Centuries would be required to ful- fill his vast design. Like authors and artists of ancient Greece and Rome, he laid the foundations of grand work for posterity more than for the passing generation.

Settlements now began to form at the points where now are the cities of Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Jackson, Tecumseh and Pontiac. There were still some annoyances by the Indians. The Sacs and Foxes annually made their appearance to receive presents from the British agents at Malden, and as they passed along they wonld commit many depredations. This practice of the British Govern- ment had a tendency to prejudice the Indians against the Ameri- cans, and it thus became necessary to take some incasures for removing the Indians beyond British infinence or otherwise putting a stop to this dangerous enstom. Accordingly, in the fall of 1819, Gov. Cass desired the Government at Washington to cause a more thorough exploration to be made of the lake region, estimating the number and influence of the Indians, their relations, prejudices, etc., with a view to the further extinguishment of Indian title to land, etc .; but the Government deemed it advisable at this time only to take 10 miles sqnare at Sault Ste. Marie for military pur- poses, and some islands near Mackinaw, where beds of plaster had been found to cxist. However, the general Governinent soon ordered an expedition to be fitted out for such an exploration as. Gov. Cass desired, to travel with birch canoes. The men composing the expedition were Gen. Cass and Robert A. Forsyth, his private secretary; Capt. D. B. Douglass, topographer and astronomer; Dr. Alex. Wolcot, physician; James D. Doty, official secretary; and Charles C. Trowbridge, assistant topographer. Lient. Evans Mac- key was commander of the escort, which consisted of 10 U. S. soldiers. Besides these there were 10 Canadian voyageurs, to manage the canoes, and 10 Indians to act as hunters. The latter were under the direction of James Riley and Joseph Parks, who were also to act as interpreters.

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

This party left Detroit March 24, 1820, and reached Michili- mackinac, June 6. On leaving this place June 14, '22 soldiers, under the command of Lieut. John S. Pierce, were added to the party, and the expedition now numbered 64 persons. They reached the Sault Ste. Marie the 16th, where Gen. Cass called the Indians (Chip- pewas) together, in order to have a definite understanding with them concerning the boundary lines of the land grants, and thereby renew also their sanction of fornier treaties. At first the Indians protested against the Americans having any garrison at the place, and some of them grew violent and almost precipitated a general fight, which would have been disastrous to Gen. Cass' party, as the Indians were far more numerous; but Cass exhibited a great degree of coolness and courage, and caused more deliberate counsels to prevail among the savages. Thus the threatened storm blew over.

The next day the expedition resumed their journey, on Lake Superior, passing the "pictured rocks," and landing at one place where there was a band of friendly Chippewas. June 25 they left Lake Superior, ascended Portage river and returned liome by way of Lake Michigan, after having traveled over 4,000 miles.

The results of the expedition were: a more thorough knowledge of a vast region and of the numbers and disposition of the various tribes of Indians; several important Indian treaties, by which val- uable lands were ceded to the United States; a knowledge of the operations of the Northwest Fur Company; and the selection of sites for a line of military posts.

As the greatest want of the people seemed to be roads, Congress was appealed to for assistance, and not in vain; for that body immediately provided for the opening of roads between Detroit and the Miami river, from Detroit to Chicago, and from Detroit to Fort Gratiot, and for the improvement of La Plaisance Bay. Government surveys were carried into the Territory. Two straight lines were drawn through the center of the Territory,-east and west, and north and soutlı, the latter being denominated the principal meridian and the former the base line. The Territory was also divided into townships of six miles square.

In 1821 there was still a tract of land lying south of Grand river which had not yet been added to the United States, and Gov. Cass deemed it necessary to negotiate with the Indians for it. To accomplish this work he had to visit Chicago; and as a matter of curiosity we will inform the reader of his most feasible route to that place, which he can contrast with that of the present day. Leaving Detroit, he descended to the mouth of the Maumee river; he ascended that river and crossed the intervening country to the Wabash; descended that stream to the Ohio; down the latter to the Mississippi, and up this and the Illinois rivers to Chicago!

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History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume I, Part 6

Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : C.C. Chapman & Co. Number of Pages: 962

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : C.C. Chapman & Co.
Number of Pages: 962