History of the St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources.., Part 25

Author: Western historical company, Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas & co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Michigan > St Clair County > History of the St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources.. > Part 25

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The St. Martins were an old and respectable family. The first of the name who came to America was Adhemar Sieur de St. Martin. Hle settled in Quebec, and held the office of Royal Notary as early as 1660. One of his grandchildren came to Detroit in 1740. In April, 1750, is recorded a grant of land (a portion of the now Cass farm) to Jean Baptists Labutte dit St. Martin. It was his son who became interpreter of the Huron language, and who figured conspicuously during the Pontiac conspiracy in 1763. His services were highly appreciated by Gladwyn, who, in his sweeping denunciation of the inhabitants during the siege, always excepted his interpreter, St. Martin. In 1760, he married Marianne, the second daughter of Robert Navarre (Tonton, the Writer, as he was called, to distinguish him from his son Robert, whose soubriquet was Robishe, the Speaker). At the marriage of St. Martin and Marianne Navarre, De Bellestre, the last French commander of Fort Pontchartrain, was present. His family history was closely woven in the destiny of this fort of La Mothe Cadillac. De Tonty and another De Bellestre, uncles of his, had been among its first commanders. It was a melancholy irony of fate, that he should be obliged to resign to the English the post which his ancestors had struggled so nobly to retain. De Bellestre organized the first militia in this part of the country, and gave the command to his brother-in-law, Alexis de Ruisseaux, who had married a Godfrey. St. Martin died a few years after his marriage, leaving a young widow and three children-one boy and two girls.

Dr. George Christian Anthon, or Anthony as he was called by his French relatives, and who married in 1770 Marianne Navarre, the widow of St. Martin, was born August 25, 1734, at Salzugen, in the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen. His family was a very old and distinguished one. He devoted himself to surgery, passed two satisfactory examinations, the second before the College of Surgeons in Amsterdam. Ile left Germany in 1754, and sailed as Surgeon in the Dutch West India trade. The vessel was captured by a British privateer and he was brought to New York. Though in a strange country, without means or acquaintances, his abilities were recognized and he was appointed Surgeon to the First Battalion, Sixtieth Regiment, Royal Americans. In 1760, he was detached with the battery which, under Maj. Rogers, took possession of Detroit. Here he met his fate in Marianne Navarre, the young widow of St. Martin. They were married in 1770.

Jean Provençal, or Awishtoia. appointed Indian blacksmith by Gen. Cass, possessed many good qualities which endeared him to the whites as well as to the Indians. William Tucker and other old residents of St. Clair remember him well, and substantiate what has been said of him.

Edward Campau, or Now-o-ke-shick, lost an arm from the accidental discharge of his ritle

while hunting in this county. Notwithstanding the rude surgical operation, which only the medicine man of that time could perform, he survived and continued among the most active and popular trappers of this district, until his journey to the Northwest.

Gabriel Godfroy, known as Menissid, was a trader from the lower Huron country. Ile was one of the family to whom was deeded the land where Ypsilanti now stands. His visits to the upper Huron or Clinton were few, yet his acquaintance among the French and American pioneers of St. Clair was extensive. Richard Godfroy, his son, now dwells at Grand Rapids in this State.

Archibald Lyons was, like many of the white inhabitants of the country bordering on Lake St. Clair, engaged in trapping. In 1818, he left the district (now known as Macomb and St. Clair Counties) for the Saginaw Valley, where he married the beauty of the tribe, Ka-ze-zhe-ah-be-no- qua. This woman was a French half breed, peculiarly superior to all around her, highly intelli- gent, and in possession of principles which could not sanction a wrong. Lyons, while skating down the Saginaw River, in 1827, to play for a dancing party, fell through the ice and was never seen again. After the death of her husband, the widowed Ka-ze-zhe-ah-be-no-qua married Antoine Peltier, who moved from Harrison Township to Lower Saginaw.

François Tremble, grandfather of the Trembles referred to in this section of the work, was well known from Montreal to Detroit and the Riviere aux Hurons so early as 1782. Ten years later-1792-he visited the Saginaw Indians, which proved to be his first and last exploratory trip. It appears this adventurous Frenchman was drowned while flying far away from an Indian camp. The story of his death states that he made a spear-head for an Indian, to be used in killing musk- rats ; another Indian came forward to beg a similar favor, and for him Tremble made still a better spear-head. Indian No. 1 grew jealous, abused the good hunter, and ultimately stabbed him in

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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.

the back. Retiring to his boat, he set sail for his home on Lake St. Clair, but never reached the place. It is supposed he was knocked overboard by the boom of his boat, and was drowned in the waters of Lake Huron.

Capt. Joseph F. Marsac was born near Detroit on Christmas Day, 1793, and was known from his native place to Fort St. Joseph or Gratiot, and thence to Michilimackinac. Marsac was the happiest model of the Franco-American. Genial as man could be, he endeared himself to all around him, to all with whom he came in contact. During the Black Hawk war excitement, he was one of the first to organize a military company and take the field. with the rank of Captain.

Capt. Leon Snay, a hunter and trapper of great repute, belonged to the better class of French traders, and held the military commission of Captain. Like Marsac, he was well known to all the old American settlers of St. Clair, as well as to the Indians and his own people.

Peter Gruette, François Corbin, John Harsen, with other traders, hunters, trappers and inter- preters, who established temporary posts on the Clinton, Flint. Shiawassee, Black River, etc., made this county a rendezvous, and won the respect of the American pioneers.

Alexander St. Bernard, Anselm Petit, George MeDougal and many others mentioned in this history were all known to the Indian inhabitants.

Harvey Williams, of Detroit. now of Saginaw, one of the few survivors of the Detroit settlers of 1818, in his journey to Saginaw in 1822, with supplies for the troops stationed there, had to ford the Clinton River at five different points. The Indians and first American settlers of St. Clair knew Uncle Harvey well. Though not a trader in the full sense of the term, his dealings with the savages as well as with the civilized inhabitants were extensive and honorable.

Dunoir or Du Nor, was one of the first and best known interpreters under American rule. His order to the Indians was a law. It is related that upon one occasion, he visited the house of John Tucker and asked him to tell the chief of the Salt River band to meet him at the Tucker House on Friday night. Onowisickaw, brother of Francis Macompte, met him as appointed, and both went into the forest in the darkness of that winter's night. This visit resulted in finding a United States cavalry horse stolen from Detroit.

Leon St. George, born at Montreal, Canada, in 1774. came to Michigan in his youth and made a settlement between Detroit and the Clinton or Reviere Aux Hurons. This French Canadian after- ward removed to Detroit, and cleared the land where the city hall stands, as well as many "acres in the vicinity. When the war of 1812 broke out. St. George joined the American troops, and fought through it to its close. After the close of the campaign, he became a trader among the Hurons and Chippewas, and was well known to the pioneers of St. Clair County. His death took place in 1880.

Oliver Williams settled at Detroit in 1807. where he engaged in mercantile life, and became one of the largest dealers then in the Peninsula, bringing at one time from Boston a stock of goods valued at 864,000. In 1811, the sloop-Friends' Good Will -was built for him, which was captured by the British and called the Little Belt.

Capt. John Farley, of the United States Artillery, was among the carly visitors to this seetion of the State.

Michiel. Medor, Joseph, Benoit. Leon and Louis Tremble, whose grandfather is referred to in this chapter. were among the traders known to the Indians, French and Americans of this county previous to and for years after its organization.

Benjamin Cushway was born at Detroit in 1809, and died at Saginaw, May 25, 1881. In 1832 he was appointed Indian blacksmith at Saginaw. He was known among the early settlers of the district, particularly among the French.

Edward MeCarthy, an Irish revolutionist of 1798, came to Detroit in 1829, passed some time near Mt. Clemens, and ultimately continued his travels to the Northwest, where he died.

Baret Le Partes, Dominique Snay. Louis Duprat, William Thebo, Joseph Alloir. Antoine Tremble, John Tremble and François G. Tremble, were among the children of the county when it was organized.

Whittemore and JJames Knaggs, brothers, of French Canadian or French-English descent, were among the early white inhabitants of the Huron country, and, if friendships, dealings and period- ical stays in the neighborhood of the Riviere aux Hurons could bring the title, they were among the first white settlers of the country north of the Huron. Judge Witherell. in referring to these Frenchmen, says : " Capt. Knaggs was a firm and unflinching patriot in times when patriotism

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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.

was in demand, during the war of 1812. He was one of the Indian interpreters, spoke freely six or seven of their languages, together with French and English, and exercised great influence over many warrior tribes. On the surrender of Detroit to the enemy, he was ordered by the British commandant to leave the territory, and did so, of course ; but joined the first corps of United States troops that advanced toward the frontier. He acted as guide to the division under Gen. Winches- ter, and was present at the bloody defeat in the valley of the Raisin The British Indians discovered him after the surrender and determined to kill him. There happened to be present an Indian, whom Knaggs had defended in former years, who resolved to save the pale-face at every hazard, but the savages would not listen to him. Nothing daunted. however, the brave red warrior placed himself between Knaggs and his foes, and succeeded in keeping them off for some time. The sav- ages pressed closer, and as a dernier resort the friendly Indian seized Knaggs round the waist, kept his own body between the white man and his enemies, and so prevented the repeated blows of toma- hawk and war club from taking effect upon the head of Winchester's French guide. This means of defense continued until both Knagg's and the Indian sought refuge among a number of horses, which stood harnessed close by. Here Knaggs was enabled to avoid the blows aimed at his head, until a British offieer, not so savage as his Indian allies, interposed, and saved the guide from a cruel death." Knaggs survived this terrible trial for many years, and rendered good service to the United States in the negotiations of Indian treaties. James Knaggs was present at the death of Tecumseh, and was considered one of the most unflinching and honorable supporters of the Ameri- can troops. A member of the Avery family of Monroe County, Mich., bears the highest testimony to the Knaggs brothers.

Jacob Smith, or Wah-be-sins, settled with his parents in Northern Ohio, whence he pushed for- ward to the Detroit and Huron district, where he remained some years. During the rambles of the Young Swan he won the friendship of the Hurons and Otchipwes, and as his intercourse with them became more extensive, he entered into all their manners and customs, sympathized with them, and claimed in return their earnest friendship. After some years passed among the Indians of the Clinton or Huron River, he moved to Flint, where he died of disease, in 1825. Baptiste Cochois, or Nickaniss, was the only white friend present at his death-Annemekins, the Indian boy whom he adopted, was the only red man who witnessed the dying struggles of this popular trader. To Smith is due the rescue of the Boyers of Mt. Clemens.

Patrice Reaume, or Wemitigoji, was a native of Quebec. For a period of eight years het traded among the Indians of the St. Clair and Huron and Raisin districts, where he was well and favorably known. Ultimately he was appointed factor for the American Fur Company at the post near Pontiac, and subsequently at the Tittabawassee and Saginaw.

Louis De Quindre, named Missabos, was a friend of Reaume, and like him, a trader. He. too, was known to the pioneers of this county, where he made his home for some years.

Jacob Graveraet, husband of the daughter of the fierce Kiskawko, was a German, who settled for awhile at Albany, N. Y .; moving West, he settled at Detroit, next to Harsen's Island ; moved to Harrison Township in Macomb, again to Harsen's Island, and thence to what is now called Bay County.

Louis Beaufait, or Wagash, was one of the most favorably known and 'genial men in the Michigan of 1800-1820. He was much younger than Smith or Reanme; was a friend of each and all of his fellow-traders, and being so, was the great peace-maker in the traders' circle -- his calm, gentle and sound reasoning always prevailed.

Barney Campan, a nephew of Lonis and Joseph Campan, better known as Oshkinawe, was well-fitted for the life of a trader or hunter. He was honest in all his dealings with the savages, and on this account they styled him Young Man, and acquiesced in all his propositions.

JOSEPH REVEUR.

In the biographical relations of J. R. Bancroft, of Batavia, N. Y., the following notice of an old trapper of the St. Clair district is given : " Samuel de Champlain was the ' Father of New France,' or Canada, by gaining and keeping a foothold near the St. Lawrence, and, in 1608, in laying the foundations of Quebec. He was followed by missionaries, one of whose servants was Jean Bap- tiste Reveur, who died near Lake Champlain about 1665. His great-grandson, Peter Reveur, was an engineer in the French forces in America, and of the party that built the sixty forts from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of the Mississippi, about 1725, and which included Detroit.

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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY

The name of Louisiana was early given that vast region claimed by France, between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains. When the King of France had dominion in North America, all the domain northwest of the River Ohio was included in the Province of Louisiana, the north boundary of which, by the treaty of Utrecht, concluded between France and England in 1713, was fixed at the forty-ninth parallel of latitude north of the equator. After the conquest of the French possessions in America by Great Britain, this tract was ceded by France to the English by the treaty of Paris in 1763. Peter Rever had a son, Jean Reveur, who became a trapper and hunter, and married. in 1776, a woman of French-Indian extraction, attached in domestic service to the British garrison at Detroit. Jean was away most of the time hunting and trading with the Indians, but his wife remained at her old place at the fort in Detroit, where her son Joseph Reveur (now Anglieized into Revore) was born July 4, 1777, one hundred and six years ago. . The babe grew up into a hearty lad and learned the trade of a baker from the British baker at the post. By the treaty of peace, signed at Paris, September 3, 1783, the claim of the English monarch to the Northwest Territory, including Detroit, ceased. Joseph Revore plied his trade of a baker, at Detroit and other Govern- ment military posts on the lakes, until the outbreak of the war of 1812. The Indian allies of the French did not at once accept the peace of 1763, and Pontiac, the great Ottawa chief, incensed at the transfer of his lands from one European power to another, stirred up a great conspiracy of the tribes of the lakes for the destruction of all the British garrisons. Detroit endured an eight months' siege, but was saved by a half-breed Indian girl. the little sister of Joseph Revore's mother, who revealed the plan in time. Peter Reveur, the grandfather of Joseph Revore, was a Lieutenant of the French forees under Monteahn, and was killed with his commander at Quebec in 1759. Jean. the father of Joseph Reveur (or Revore, as now spelled), adhered to the British in the Revolution, but rendered no special service beyond those of scout and pilot near the great lakes. Ile died near where Chicago is, in 1805, aged seventy years, and was with the Indians and their British allies when defeated by Gen. Mad Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1796. Joseph Revore, in the war of 1812, joined the American forces and was with Gen. Hull when he ignobly surrendered his army, the Detroit post and all Michigan to the British. He witnessed the gallant Col. Lewis Cass break his sword rather than deliver it up to the English commander. During the war, he was at Fort Meigs, Maken, and on the River Raisin. The exploit of that war in which this aged veteran takes the most pride, was his participation in Harrison's victory over the allied British and Indians under Proctor and Tecumseh, on the River Thames, where not ten feet away he saw Col. Richard M. Johnson shoot Tecumseh. At the close of the war. he remained in the neighbor- hood of Fort Meigs, working for a Mr. Melntosh in a tavern, and then a Mr. Forsyth, who kept a store. Finally he drifted to Pittsburgh, where he married and where he kept a barber-shop and bakery combined. In his young days, he was a famous athlete and boxer. and even after he was fifty years old he could throw any man in Pittsburgh or that region. His four children having died, he came down the Ohio River with his wife, and about 1850 settled in Felicity. where for many years he followed his trade of a baker. Here, during the late war, his wife died and the ok! man was left without a known relative in the wide world. Finally time made its cruel advances on him, his infirmities increased, and in 1879 he came to the County Infirmary, at Clermont, Ohio. where he still resides."

DISTINGUISHED EARLY VISITORS.

Among the pioneers of Michigan best known to the early settlers of St. Clair, the first was un- doubtedly Lewis Cass. The first Chief Justices-A. B. Woodward and Judge Witherell-were equal- ly well known; while to the first French settlers of this county, all the members of the Campeau family were linked by innumerable interchanges of service.

Augustus Brevoort Woodward was a native of Virginia; was appointed a JJudge of the Terri- tory in 1805. His term of office expired on the Ist of February, 1524. He was soon after ap- pointed a Judge of the Territory of Florida, and died three years thereafter.

John Grillin was appointed one of the Judges of Michigan in 1807. His term of office expired February 1. 1824. He was also a native of Virginia. He died in Philadelphia about forty years since (about 1840).

James Witherell was a native of Massachusetts, and was appointed a Judge of the Territory of Michigan on the 23d day of April, 1808. His term of office expired on the Ist day of February, 1824, when he was re-appointed for four years, and on the Ist of February. 1828. he was appointed Secretary of the Territory. He died on the 9th of January. 1838.

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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.

James May never held the office of Judge of the Territory, but was for some years Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, about the year 1800.

Gen. Lewis Cass, successor of the inglorious Hull in the governorship of the Territory of Mich- igan, 1813, held his high office until appointed a member of the United States Cabinet, as Secretary of War, in 1831. In 1836, he received the portfolio of Minister to France, which office he filled until 1842. In January, 1845, he was elected member of the United States Senate. Throughout his public life, from his efforts to combat Hull's treachery, in 1812, to the close of his career, he was one of the first citizens of the Union. His death brought mourning not only into the homes of the Michigan people, but also into the villages of the Otchipwes, Pottawatomies and Ottawas, whose admiration he won during the earlier years of his service in Michigan.

Gen. Cass was born at Exeter, N. H., October 9, 1782, and died at Detroit. Mich., June 17, 1866. Gen. Cass was known to the Indians, French and Americans from the establishment of the Territory forward. The services which he rendered this State particularly ean never be over-esti- mated.

Gabriel Richards, of the order of St. Sulpice, was born at Saintes, Charente Inferieur, France, October 15, 1764. His mother was a relative of the illustrious Bossuet. He arrived at Baltimore June 24, 1792. and at Detroit in June, 1798. He was the first Delegate of Michigan to the Con- gress of the United States, being elected in 1823. His death took place at Detroit, during the cholera plague, September 13, 1832.

Marquis Jacques Campeau was born at Detroit in 1730. He was the son of LaMotte Cadil- lae's secretary, a soldier who accompanied the French troops to that post in 1701. Marquis J. Campeau may be considered the first white settler of Michigan. He sought a home beyond the fort in 1757, just one year before Nicholas Patenaude began a squatter's life in the district now known as Macomb County. He erected the Catholic Church near his home in 1778.

Joseph Campeau was born at Detroit February 20, 1769. In 1786, he commenced trading in real estate. This fact, together with his various commercial enterprises, made his name a house- hold word in the homes of the early French settlers.

Christian Clemens, John Stockton, Gen. Brown, and a number of other pioneers of the State, noticed in other sections of this work, are well and favorably remembered by the pioneers of this county.

Robert Abbott, son of James Abbott, of Dublin, Ireland, was born at Detroit in 1771. He is said to be the first man speaking our language who opened business at the old post of Detroit. His father and himself were identified with the early fur traders, and were known from Detroit to Mackinac and thence to Chicago. The dealings of Robert Abbott with the early settlers of St. Clair eome next in importance to the business connection of the Campeaus.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

The art of hunting not only supplied the Indian with food. but, like that of war, was a means of gratifying his love for distinction. The male children, as soon as they acquired sufficient age and strength, were furnished with a bow and arrow and taught to shoot birds and other small game. Success in killing a large quadruped required years of careful study and practice, and the art was as sedulously inculcated in the minds of the rising generation as are the elements of read- ing, writing and arithmetic in the common schools of civilized communities. The mazes of the forest and the dense, tall grass of the prairies, were the best fields for the exercise of the hunter's skill. No feet could be impressed in the yielding soil but that the tracks were the object of the most searching scrutiny, and revealed at a glance the animal that made them, the direction it was pursuing, and the time that had elapsed since it had passed. In a forest country, he selected the valleys, because they were most frequently the resort for game. The most easily taken, perhaps, of all the animals of the chase, was the deer. It is endowed with a curiosity which prompts it to stop in its tlight and look back at the approaching hunter, who always avails himself of this oppor. tunity to let fly the fatal arrow.

Their general councils were composed of the chiefs and old men. When in council, they usually sat in concentric cireles around the speaker, and each individual, notwithstanding that rankled within, preserved an exterior as immovable as if cast in bronze. Before commencing busi- ness, a person appeared with the sacred pipe, and another with fire to kindle it. After being lighted t was first presented to heaven, secondly to the earth, thirdly to the presiding spirit, and lastly

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the several councilors, each of whom took a whiff. These formalities were observed with as close exactness as state etiquette in civilized courts.

The dwellings of the Indians were of the simplest and rudest character. On some pleasant spot by the bank of a river, or near an ever-running spring, they raised their groups of wigwams, constructed of the bark of trees and easily taken down and removed to another spot. The dwell- ing places of the chiefs were sometimes more spacious, and constructed with greater care, but of the same materials. Skins taken in the chase served them for repose. Though principally dependent upon hunting and fishing, the uncertain supply from those sources led them to eultivate small patches of corn. Every family did everything necessary within itself; commerce or an inter- change of articles being almost unknown to them. In cases of dispute and dissension, cach Indian relied upon himself for retaliation. Blood for blood was the rule, and the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter of course, to innumerable bitter feuds and wars of extermination, where such were possible. War, indeed, rather than peace, was the Indian's glory and delight-war, not conducted as civilization, but war where individual skill, endurance, gallantry and cruelty were prime requisitos. For such a purpose as revenge, the Indian would make great sacrifices, and display a patience and perse- verance truly heroic ; but when the excitement was over, he sank back into a listless, unoccupied, well-nigh useless savage. During the intervals of his more exciting pursuits, the Indian occupied his time in decorating his person with all the refinement of paint and feathers, and in the manu. facture of his arms and of canoes. These were constructed of bark, and so light that they could easily be carried on the shouklers from stream to stream. His amusements were the war dance, athletic games, the narration of his exploits, and listening to the oratory of the chief's ; but during long periods he remained in a state of torpor, gazing listlessly upon the trees of the forests and the clouds that sailed above them : and this vacancy imprinted an habitual gravity and even mel- ancholy upon his general deportment.

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History of the St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources.., Part 25

Author: Western historical company, Chicago. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas & co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Western historical company, Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas & co.
Number of Pages: 814