USA > Michigan > St Clair County > History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan > Part 30
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216
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
MICHIGAN IN 1805.
From a report made to the Congress of the United States, October 10, 1805, by Judge A. B. Woodward, and William Hull, Governor up to the period of his treason, a fair idea of Mich - igan Territory of that date may be gleaned. It also deals very clearly with the law of right upon which the private claims were granted.
By the act of the Congress of the United States, establishing the territory, the government thereof was to commence from and after the 30th day of June, 1805. The Presiding Judge arrived at Detroit on Saturday, June 29, and the Governor on July 1, 1805. The Associate Judge, who was previously a resident of the Territory, was already there. July 2, the Gov. ernor administered to the several officers the oaths of office, and on the same day the operation of the government commenced. It was the unfortunate fate of the new government to begin in a scene of the deepest public and private calamity by the conflagration, which destroyed all the buildings of Detroit, June 11, 1805. On the arrival of the new government, a part of the people were found encamped on the public grounds in the vicinity, and the remainder were scattered through the neighboring settlements both on the American and British territory. The place which bore the name Detroit was a spot of about two acres, completely covered with buildings and combustible materials. The narrow intervals of fourteen or fifteen feet used as streets or lanes only excepted, and the whole was environed by a strong net work of piquets. The circumjacent ground, the bank of the river excepted, was a wide common, and though assertions are made regarding the existence among the records of Quebec, of a charter from the King of France confirming the common as an appurtenance to the town, it was either the property of the United States, or at least such as individual claims did not pretend to cover. The folly of attempting to rebuild the town in the original mode was obvious to every mind; yet there existed no authority either in the country or the new government to dispose of the adjacent ground; hence had already arisen a state of dissension which required the interposi- tion of some authority to quiet. Some of the inhabitants, destitute of shelter and hopeless of any prompt arrangements of government, had re-occupied their former ground, and a few buildings had already been erected in the midst of the old ruins. Another portion of the inhabitants had determined to take possession of the adjacent public grounds and to throw themselves on the liberality of the United States Government, either to make them a donation of the ground as a compensation for their sufferings, or to accept a very moderate price for them. If they could have made any arrangements of the various pretensions of individuals, or could have agreed on any plan of a town, they would have soon begun to build; but the want of a civil authority to decide interfering claims or to compel the refractory to submit to the wishes of a majority, had yet prevented them from carrying any particular measure into execution. On the 1st of July, the inhabitants had assembled for the purpose of resolving on some definite mode of pro- cedure. The Judges prevailed on them to defer their intentions for a short time, giving them assurances that the Governor would shortly arrive, and that every arrangement in the power of their domestic government would be made for their relief. On these representations they con- sented to defer their measure for fourteen days. In the evening of the same day, the Governor arrived; it was his first measure to prevent any encroachments being made on the public lands. The situation of the distressed inhabitants then occupied the attention of the Executive for two or three days. The result of these discussions was to proceed to lay out a new town, embracing the whole of the old town and the public lands adjacent; to state to the people that nothing in the nature of a title could be given under any authorities then possessed by the new govern- ment; and that the Executive could not be justified in holding out any charitable donations whatever as a compensation for their sufferings; but that every personal exertion should. be used to obtain a confirmation of the arrangements about to be made and to obtain the liberal attention of the Government of the United States for their distress. A town was accordingly surveyed and laid out, and the want of authority to impart any regular title without the sub- sequent sanction of Congress being first impressed and clearly understood, the lots were ex- posed for sale under that condition. Where the purchaser of a lot was a proprietor in the old town, he was at liberty to extinguish title to former property for his new acquisition, foot for foot, and was expected to pay only for the surplus at the rate expressed in his bid. A consider-
217
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
able portion of the inhabitants were only tenants in the old town-there being no means of ac- quiring any new titles. The sale, of course, could not be confined merely to former proprie- tors; but as far as possible was confined to former inhabitants. After the sale of a considera- ble part by auction, the remainder was disposed of by private contract, deducting from the pre- vious sales the basis of the terms. As soon as the necessities of the immediate inhabitants were accommodated, the sales were entirely stopped until the pleasure of the government could be consulted. As no title could be made, no payments were required or any moneys permitted to be received until the expiration of one year, to afford time for Congress to interpose. The remaining part was stipulated to be paid in four successive annual installments. The highest sum resulting from the bids was seven cents for a square foot, and the whole averaged at least four cents. In this way the inhabitants were fully satisfied to commence their buildings, and the pretensions of all individuals were immediately reconciled. The validity of any of the titles was not taken into view. The possession under the titles was alone regarded, and the validity of title left to wait the issue of such measures as Congress might adopt relative to land titles in the new Territory. It, therefore, now remained for the Congress of the United States either to refuse the sanction of the arrangement made, or by imparting a regular author- ity to make it, or by some other mode to relieve the inhabitants from the immediate distress occasioned by the calamitous conflagration, strongly impressed with the worth of the people, and deeply commiserating their sufferings, of a great part of which they were eye-witnesses, the officers of their local government could not refrain from adding their warmest degree of recommendation to forward the liberality the Congress of the United States inclined to ex- tend, and the disposition, which prevailed toward attaching their affections, promoting their interests and relieving their distress. " Whether," says the report, "a donation of the acquisitions which have been stated, or of lands more remote, or the application of the pro- ceeds to public purposes within the country would be most acceptable, the undersigned pre- tend not to say; but whatever relief may be extended to them on the part of the United States Government, they hesitate not to assert will be of the most essential utility, and rendered to objects of real merit."
The organization of the courts next demanded consideration. A judicial system was estab- lished on principles of convenience, economy and simplicity. Courts were held under it and all existing business settled; every subject requiring to be legislated upon, was acted upon as far as the government was competent to act. At the close of the other arrrangements, the militia of the Territory were completely organized and brought into the field. The various acts both of legislative and executive character appear in the annual report, which the gen- eral law requires. Grand juries constantly presented addresses to the courts on the subject of their land titles. Several companies of militia elected delegates to a general meeting, which, among other objects, addressed the government on the subject of their titles, and earnestly re- quested the personal attention of the Governor and one of the Judges during a part of the ses- sion of Congress. "Indeed," continues the report, "the confused situation of land titles dur- ing the nine or ten years the United States have had possession of the county, has been such, and is so increasing by lapse of time, as now loudly to call for a definite adjustment. It is now nearly a century and a half since the first settlements were made in this country under the French, in the reign of Louis XIV, whose name it then bore in common with what has since been exclusively termed Louisiana."
In 1673, an officer commissioned by the French Government explored the waters of the West; taking his departure from Lake Michigan, he penetrated to the Ouisconsin River and subsequently to the Mississippi, and returned to the Illinois country, after having sailed down the Mississippi within one degree of latitude of the southern boundary of the United States previous to the late treaty of Paris, April, 1803, and that anterior to the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi by La Salle. Prior to this era, the settlements of the straits had commenced, and Detroit claims an antiquity of fifteen years superior to the city of Philadelphia. The few ti- tles granted by the French Government were of three French acres in front on the bank of the river by forty acres in depth, subject to the feudal and seignoral conditions which usually marked titles in France. The ancient code, the coutume de Paris, was the established law of
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
the country, and the rights of land were made strictly conformable to it. All these grants, however, required the grantee within a limited period to obtain a confirmation from the King, and with the exception of a very few, this confirmation had never been made. On the conquest of the French possessions by Great Britain, in the war which terminated by the treaty of Paris in the year 1763, as well as in the original articles of capitulation in 1759 and 1760, as in the subsequent treaty itself, the property of the inhabitants of the country is confirmed to them. The expression in the original is leurs biens, nobles et ignobles, meuble et immeuble; it is therefore conceived to comprehend these lands. On the acquisition of the United States of America of that portion of Canada, which is now comprehended within the limits of the territory of Michigan by the treaty of Paris, 1783, the subjects of his Britannic majesty are secured from loss or damage in person, liberty or property, and in the treaty of London, November, 1794, they are still more particularly confirmed in their property of every kind. However defective, therefore, the class of original proprietors may be with respect to the evi- dence of title, according to the American forms, it is conceived their rights are extremely strong. The British Government granted few titles, and these were generally mere permissions of military officers to use or occupy certain pieces of land, often unaccompanied with any writ- ten evidences, but assuming, from long-continued possession, an appearance of right. Under the American Government, no titles of any kind have been granted. From this state of things, some consequences resulted which, if not difficult to foresee, were yet difficult to remedy. One of these consequences, and perhaps not the least important, is the effect it had on the destiny and moral character of the progeny of the original colonist. When it is remembered that the troops of Louis XIV came without women, the description of persons constituting the sec- ond generation will not be difficult to conceive. When it is considered at the same time that, destitute of titles to land, they were precluded from the means of acquiring them, it will be obvious that an entrance into the savage societies or at most employments in the commerce carried on with them, were their only resources. While, therefore, the American colonizations of the same and subsequent date had grown into regular agricultural and opulent States, these countries were destined to anarchy, to ignorance, to poverty. The immigrant, whom · curiosity or enterprise at any time brought into the country, was either attracted to the British side of it or disappeared in some mode less easy to account for; accession by a foreign popula- tion and by a natural increase, being thus at once cut off, the fate of this fine region had been that insignificance which still belongs to it. "The British Government," says Judge Woodward, has confirmed original proprietors, made a donation of a quantity equal to the original grant, termed a continuation, and has granted lands to settlers, without any other price than com- mon fees of office attending such acquisition. Such, however, is the inestimable value of lib- orty to man, that notwithstanding these, and if possible greater inducements to the settlers, the un- dersigned ventured to predict a n.arked superiority to the American side, even at the prices at present required by the United States Government, or a slight variation of them, if the old claims are at once adjusted, and the country laid open to the acquisition of new title.
" From the state of the country which has been represented, another consequence has re- sulted. The encroachments in some instances grafted on original titles and in others without a semblance of title have been made on lands, which are, or ought to be, the property of the United States. Individuals have proceeded to extinguish the native right, contrary to the reg- ulation of all the governments, and in some instances extensive settlements have been made on titles thus acquired. What arrangements the United States will make on this land is not for us to anticipate; we shall only recommend a liberal and merciful disposition to the people of this country, of whom it may be safely asserted they are less to be charged with depravity of character than their governments have been with cruel neglect and indifference.
" The claims of the present inhabitants require to be considered under one more aspect, novel, indeed, but not the less founded on truth. When the American comes into contact with the aboriginal, if he is not considered as an enemy, he is at least regarded as a character with whom they are to struggle, and, if in no other, certainly in a pecuniary view. But the Canadian, allied by blood, by long established intercourse, by countless reciprocity of services, their native claims having long, as to time, been extinguished, and their honor and good faith
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
having been repeatedly pledged for his protection, is uniformly regarded as his . brother, and with him are disposed to make a common cause. Hence, justice to the Canadian inhabitant is an important point of policy in the conduct of the United States Government toward the ab- original inhabitants.
"The extent of the Canadian extinguishment of Indian title, though in itself indefinite, appears first to have received limits in the treaty of Fort Macintosh, 1785. We there find a written dereliction of Indian claims in a breadth six miles from la Riviere aux Raisins, now called Rosine, on Lake Erie, to the lake St. Clair. In the subsequent treaty of Fort Harmar, in 1789, the same dereliction is confirmed. In the ulterior treaty of Greenville, the confor- mation is repeated and additions made.
"The treaty with Great Britain, in 1783, and that of 1794 were made for the accomplish- ment of great national objects, having very little connection with Canadian and Indian claims. The treaties of Fort Macintosh, Fort Harmar, and of Greenville, were all formed on far more important points and the quantity of extinguished Indian title in Michigan, recognized by them is less to be considered as an acquisition of new title, than a definition of the old. The expense of these negotiations, therefore, can scarcely be said in any sense to attach to this country, and it may be said that all of the Indian title at present extinguished within the territory of Michigan has not cost the United States a single dollar, but is entirely a recogni- tion of a previous but indefinite title extinguished by the Canadians. Hence, the question will arise, whether it is more than barely justice to the inhabitants to allow them the whole of this part, or otherwise to permit the proceeds of it to be applied to their benefit in the ed- ucation of their youth, in the erection of public buildings, such as court houses and jails, which the recent conflagration destroyed, and in laying out roads and other improvements in their country. Next to the adjustment of old titles comes the acquisition of new. It is believed, that at this period, and in a particular mode, a very large portion of Indian title may be short- ly extinguished; but, as this part of the subject may hereafter be deemed confidential, it is made the subject of a distinct report. * * *
"The case of the Wyandotte Indians deserves the consideration of the Government. They live in two towns, Maguaga and Brown's town, within the limits of the American title. To the treaty of Fort Harmar, a clause was annexed, stipulating that they might remain unmo- lested. In the treaty of Greenville this provision is omitted. They constantly assert, and there are not wanting reputable citizens who join them in the assertion, that they were sol- emnly promised by Gen. Wayne a continuance of the indulgence. It may, therefore, be worthy of serious consideration, whether it may not be advisable, in the adjustment of titles, to recog- nize their possessions and invest them with the character of citizens."
THE PIONEER LAND BUYERS OF ST. CLAIR.
This is a most important portion of the history of St. Clair County, and indeed one well worthy the attention of every citizen of the State, since most of the names mentioned were house- hold words in the homes of the American pioneers from Michilimackinac to Saginaw, to Detroit, to Grand Rapids, to Chicago, to Milwaukee, back to the St. Joe River, up the Elkhart, and the Kankakee, down to the old post of Vincennes. It is impossible to calculate the re- sults of settlement here by those early French, American, and Franco-American pioneers; but it is within our power to learn who they were, and the very location of their humble cabins.
Before entering upon the history of their times and settlement, let us first inquire into the origin of the names given to their locations. The first and most prominent name is La Riviere Ste. Claire.
St. Clair and Sinclair. - In the year 1765, Patrick Sinclair, an Irish officer in the service of Great Britain, and commandant of Fort Sinclair, purchased 4,000 acres of land on the river above Lake St. Clair, and after him the river was named the Sinclair. In a report made January 17, 1806, by Augustus Woodward, to the Secretary of the Treasury, it is said that this officer was a distinct character, differing physically and morally from St. Clair, of the American serv- ice. In his honor, the lake at the mouth of the Clinton was named St. Clair by his contempo- raries, unaware of the antiquity of the application of such name. The claim of Sinclair
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
remained in his possession seventeen years, utilizing the large pine timber, and deriving heavy profits therefrom.
The rivers, creeks and points of land were named in accord with some physical character- istic or otherwise in honor of one of the first settlers in the neighborhood.
It is said that this name was conferred on Lake St. Clair in 1679, by Rev. Louis Hennepin; but its application to the river is of far more recent date. In 1765, the river was called Sin- clair in honor of Patrick Sinclair, a military officer in charge of a British post, where now stands St. Clair City. This name was applied until the name of the American officer, Arthur St. Clair, was made known, when the Indians and French settlers honored him by substituting his name for that of Sinclair.
Belle River, Black River and Pine River have borne Indian, French and English names successively, as shown in other pages.
The villages of the Hurons were above Detroit. The name Huron, derived from the French Hure, a head, meaning a wild boar's head, was applied to this tribe of Indians by the first French missionaries, for the reason that their hair sprung from the head in bristles, a la porcupine. The French called them Hurons, but among the Indian tribes they were known as Wyandots, or Ouendats.
In the succeeding review of claims, presented by the land holders of St. Clair, or the civil district of St. Clair, as the territory constituting the county in 1818 was called, it will be ob- served that the result of the examination before the board is not given, in the greater number of cases. Now, such a course was made necessary by the fact that, almost in every instance, the claimant's title was proved to the satisfaction of the Land Commissioners who ordered a record to be made of such titles in the Land Office at Detroit and subsequently recommended the issue of United States patents. The report of this board was made in 1810-11, and patents were granted in the year 1812 and years immediately succeeding.
SQUATTERS' CLAIMS.
In 1782, there were nineteen settlers living adjacent to this tract; a year later, twenty set- tlers located on Lake St. Clair near the mouth of the Huron. In 1788, twenty settlements were made on the Riviere aux Hurons, or Clinton; in 1790, a few more settlers located at Point au Tremble.
In 1793, ten families located on lands on the Huron of Lake St. Clair, or Clinton. Seven years later, four families joined the settlement. Six families joined the settlers at the head of the lake, while the salt springs began to attract attention of the people from the mouth of the Huron to the River St. Clair. In 1801, one settler located at these springs, and he was soon joined by others. In 1797, no less than thirty families located lands along the banks of La Riviere au Lait, or Milk River, and northward to the Riviere aux Hurons. These settlers founded their claims on actual settlement and improvement, without any further title. Of this class there were about four hundred on the borders of Lake St. Clair, Rivers Huron, Ecorces, Rouge and Raisin.
LAND BOARD, DETROIT DISTRICT, 1807.
The following extract from a report, dated Detroit, September 1, 1807, deals with the old settlements in the vicinity of Detroit. It suggested that the old farms on the Detroit, the greater number of which contained two or three arpents in front by forty in depth, be extend- ed to an equal depth of eighty arpents. In examining the records of former Commissioners, it is found that all the old farms on that river were mostly granted by the French Government, and that, with very few exceptions, they were of the extent or area referred to above. These farms were under cultivation from 40 to 100 years previous to 1807; so that, at that time, the arable land was entirely exhausted, and minus timber for fences or firewood. For this reason, the Commissioners asked Congress to extend the farms to eighty acres in depth so that the settlers could continue to live on the old ground. It was further shown, that this extension of farms was necessary along the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers, to enable the original settlers and their descendants to reap equal advantages with the new settlers on the Riviere aux Hurons, now the Clinton, and on St. Clair Lake and River, above Detroit.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
CHRONOLOGY OF SETTLEMENT.
! Date of Settle- ment.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
Whether with-
in or without
the American
No. of farms or
distinct set- tlements.
Date of settle-
Whether with-
in or without
the American
No. of farms or
distinct set- tlements.
1758 La Riviere aux Hurons.
Without ..
1
1786 L'Isle à Cochon ..
Within ..
1
1763 Detroit or the Strait ..
Within.
77
1788 La Riviere aux Hurons or Cl't'n. Without ...
20
1765 La Riviere de Sinclair.
Without.
1
1788 La Riviere aux Roches.
Within ..
1
1771 Detroit or the Strait ..
Within.
7
1790 Point au Tremble.
Doubtful ..
4
1776 La Riviere a l'Ecorce.
Within.
10
1792 La Riviere à l'Ecorce
Within.
2
1776 La Grosse Isle.
Within.
10
1792 La Crique à Sable.
Within.
15
1779 La Crique aux Lontres
Without ...
1
1793 La Riviere aux Hurons or Cl't'n.|Without ...
10
1780 La Crique à Sable.
Within.
1
1794. La Riviere à l'Ecorce
Within ..
3
1780 Detroit
Within. .
3
1794 La Crique aux Lontres.
Without ...
22
1780 La Riviere Rouge
Within.
38
1797 La Riviere au Lait
Doubtful ..
30
1780 Point au Tremble ..
Doubtful ..
4
1797 La Riviere à l'Ecorce
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