Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Part 60

Author: Beakes, Samuel W. (Samuel Willard), 1861-; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 886

USA > Michigan > Washtenaw County > Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan > Part 60

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The Indians in Washtenaw county in the eigh- teenth century had been drawn to this section hy the French post at Detroit. Cadillac invited them from the Mackinac region. By the expulsion of the Assequins and Mascoutins, the southern peninsula of Michigan was cleared of all tribes adverse to the Algonquin rule, for the Wyan- dottes or Hurons as the French called them. were friends of the Algonquins, and it had been largely on this account that they had been driven from their original homes. This is the tribe for whom Lake Huron has been named, and, at a later date, the Huron river got its name from the same tribe which had a settlement on the banks of the Huron river. They affirmed themselves to have been the parent tribe of the Iroquois, but they were not a member of the confederacy, but were on

very friendly terms with them. Their offense against the Five Nations was the aid they gave to the French and Algonquins. The Iroquois, with the exception of this tribe, were friendly to the British, and when the Hurons sided with the French, the Five Free Nations ordered them to leave Montreal, which had long been the place for their council fires, and, after numerous en- gagements, drove the remnants of the tribe from the St. Lawrence valley about the middle of the seventeenth century. At the time of the break with the Five Nations they are believed to have numbered ten thousand. They lived in capacious dwellings of bark, had palisaded forts, were di- vided into tribes, and cross-divided into totemie clans. They were, in some measure, an agricul- tural people, bartering their surplus maize with the surrounding tribes, usually receiving fish in exchange. In 1649 the Iroquois stormed their largest villages and they fled, panic-stricken, some finding refuge with the French in Canada, others settling on the eastern shores of Lake Huron : and, the Iroquois still threatening them, they fled beyond Lake Superior, whence the Da- kotas drove them back and they took refuge at Mackinac, with the Algonquin tribes, with whom they have always maintained a close alliance. From thence they, in 1680, descended to Detroit, where they formed a permanent settlement and where, as Parkman puts it, "by their superior valor, capacity and address they soon acquired a marvelous ascendancy over the surrounding Al- gonquins."

The Ojibwas, or Chippewas as they latterly came to be called, the Pottawatomies and the Ot- tawas, were closely allied in blood, language. manners and character. They paid no attention to agriculture. They took no thought for the morrow. At one time they would be gourged to repletion, and at another time they would be per- ishing from hunger. Summer and winter they restlessly wandered through the forests. The Chippewas were first found by the French at Sault Ste. Marie in 1640, when they were at war with the Sioux, whom they drove from the head- waters of the Mississippi. The French estab- lished missionaries among them and they became firm friends of the French as long as the French

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dominion in America lasted. They sided with the British in the Revolutionary war and the war of 1812. At this time they occupied an undefined territory from the Straits of Mackinac to the Mississippi river. They have gradually ceded their land for annuities and still number about fifteen thousand, as they did at the time this country was settled.

The Pottawatomies were another Algonquin race and their name signifies firemakers, referring to their secession from the Ojibwas and making fire for themselves. They spoke one of the rud- est dialects of the Algonquins. When first known, they were in scattered bands, apparently inde - pendent and with no trace of civil government. They were wanderers, frequently at war with neighboring tribes. The Iroquois drove them to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where the Jesuits found them. The gradually spread over southern Mich- igan, and, as we have said, were probably the most numerous Indians in Washtenaw. They sided with the British in the Revolutionary war and the War of 1812. The whole tribe settled in Missouri in 1838. They again scattered. and part of them went to Mexico. There are now about fifteen hundred of them in the United States.

The Ottawas, who were also Algonquins, were driven by the Iroquois from Canada in 1646. When the Iroquois overwhelmed the Hurons the frightened Ottawas fled to Wisconsin and later beyond the Mississippi. Here they ran up against the Sioux who drove them back; part settled in northern Michigan, and part near De- troit. The greatest warrior of the Detroit branch was the celebrated chief Pontiac. This tribe is now scattered, the greater portion now being in the Indian Territory.

After the expulsion of the Assequins and Mas- contins. the Indians of southern Michigan were all friends. They had secured free use of the lakes and hunting grounds throughout the entire lower peninsula and as far south as the Ohio. As Schoolcraft, the greatest Indian authority, says :

"There were no languages spoken but those derived more or less recently from the Algon- quins. This generic language was of mild and easy utterance and possessed a full vocabulary,

containing but few sounds not readily enunciated by either the French or the English. The mem- bers of these tribes were people of good stature and pleasing manner, who readily adopted Euro- pean methods of conducting their traffic and transacting their business. They borrowed from the French the complimentary term Bon jour, in meeting, having in their own language no equiva- lent for that of 'good day.' There was no tribe in all the vast expanse of country named which did not, with equal ardor, recognize the French manners as the type of civilization and religion."

All the four tribes named above as using Washtenaw as a common hunting ground, were among the tribes of Indians who overthrew Brad- dock in 1755. Their real affection was for the French, and a few years later Pontiac. an Ottawa, headed a great conspiracy which included all the tribes which hunted in Washtenaw as well as many others which had for its object the driving of the English from the Indian territory. At every post the Indians captured, orders were given to spare all Frenchmen, but to kill all the English. For months, Detroit was beseiged by hordes of the savages, and undoubtedly the game in Washtenaw was part of the subsistence which the Indians lived on. Detroit held out success- fully and the Indians somewhat sullenly submit- ted

In 1764. Schoolcraft estimates the Hurons of Michigan to have numbered twelve hundred and fifty souls : the Pottawatomies seven hundred and fifty. the Chippewas sixteen hundred and the Ot- tawas of all localities thirty-five hundred. Most of the latter were out of Michigan, so that it can readily be seen how thinly populated was this vast expanse of territory. Within ten years of the first settlement of Washtenaw. there were twice as many white inhabitants in Washtenaw county alone as there had been Indians in the whole of Michigan fifty years before.

The French traders were undoubtedly frequent visitors in Washtenaw before its settlement, and Jesuit priests accompanied many of the Indian tribes who hunted here, but they have left no record of what they saw or did within the con- fines of the county. However, in 1809, the first trading post intended to be permanent was es-

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tablished in the county by Labriel Godfroy, Fran- cois Pepin and Romaine Da Chambre, three Frenchmen from Detroit, who located on the Pottawatomie trail at what is now Ypsilanti. At this time, the Indians were not nearly as numer- ous as they had been when the French govern- ment had possession of Detroit, and as to the white inhabitants one authority estimated that there were only four thousand souls in the lower peninsula of Michigan of whom over thirty-five hundred were French, nearly all within the con- fines of Detroit.

These French traders were not ordinary men. The pioneers of Washtenaw and their descend- ants do not seem to have half appreciated them or their work. In fact, they do not seem to have realized who or what they were. Col. Gabriel Godfroy was a man of means. He was a man of influence. He and his companions were firm friends of the Americans at a time when British influence was dominant in Detroit, and both he and his two friends seem to have been great fa- vorites of the Indians. Col. Godfroy succeeded Judge Woodward, the first chief justice of Mich- igan territory as Colonel of the First Michigan Regiment. Gen. Harrison, who was afterward president, appointed Col. Godfroy Indian sub- agent and deputy superintendent of Indian af- fairs, which position he held until his death in 1832. At the time he established the post at what is now Ypsilanti, Col. Godfroy was fifty- one years of age, for he was born in 1758 at Fort Ponchartrain. He was a devout Catholic, one of the head men in the Parish of St. Anne in De- troit. We find him accompanying the bishop. On June 15, 1795, his father deeded him, as the eldest son, the land lying between Twenty-first and Twenty-second streets in Detroit, "together with two slaves, seven oxen and cows, two horses, four hogs, a cart and trappings, a complete plough, two hatchets, two pickaxes, a complete harness, two furnished beds, a frying pan, a dozen plates, six silver spoons and forks, a silver goblet, and many other household articles," in re- turn for which Gabriel was "to lodge, feed, at- tend, and furnish fire and light to said Mr. Jacques Godfroy, his father. so long as he shall live, shall treat him well both in health and sick-

ness, and in case of such sickness to give him such attendance as is suitable, and furnish all necessary nursing, and when it shall please God to dispose of him, to bury him decently and cause to be said fifty low masses for the repose of his soul." About this time we find Godfroy and two partners spending five thousand pounds on two mills in Detroit. In 1802, he took out a license for a ferry across the Detroit river. In 1803, he was appointed one of two assessors and ap- praisers of Detroit, and he held this office from June 7th to December 3d of that year. He pur- chased French claim No. 525 of two hundred acres at Dearborn, and also two hundred and sixty-eight acres in Detroit. In 1809, we find the supreme court of the territory meeting at the house of Gabriel Godfroy, Jr., his son. In 1811, he and his son-in-law. James McCloskey, are ap- pointed two of the five selectmen of Detroit. In 1814, he is trustee of St. Anne's parish. In 1815. the records show that he has a large tannery in Detroit. In 1813, his house, in which American prisoners were confined, is burned by the Indians together with the prisoners after the battle of the River Raisin, and some indications are that this burned house may have been the first house he built in Ypsilanti, although this can not be stated positively. Next we find him as an Indian agent, and Charles C. Trowbridge, of Detroit, describ- ing a journey to Chicago, says: "On my return from Chicago, I met at St. Joseph. Col. Gabriel Godfroy, an aged but vigorous French gentle- man, a sub-Indian-agent and interpreter, who acted as guide for the remainder of our journey. We were several weeks on this trip and enjoyed it greatly." We find that Col. Godfroy was re- lied upon earlier for information relating to the Indians, that he was intrusted with messages too important to be put on paper, and that his influ- ence over the Indians was evidently of immense value to the American pioneers.

As Godfroy was a true friend to the Americans, so were Pepin and La Chambre, although they do not seem to have cut such a big figure in the early history. In 1786, we find, however, that Francois Pepin got a deed from the Pottawa- tomies for a big tract of land, which was con- firmed by another deed in 1796. This land he

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sold to one Meldrum in 1797 for one thousand two hundred and eighty-six pounds. But it seems to have been a forced sale, as he had been ar- rested for debt by one McDougal, and this is made part of the charges against McDougal when it was sought to keep him from sitting in the legislative council.

In 1795, Pepin is in high disfavor with the British authorities, who complain that both he and La Chambre, the other Ypsilanti trader, with some others, are in sympathy with the Yankees. Col. Burke complains that he sent a letter to the Pottawatomies to stir them up against the Amer- icans and that it fell into the hands of Pepin who added this postscript to it: "My comrades : You know that I have always spoken to you as a brother and this time I am incapable of lying to you. He who writes this (Burke) is neither a Frenchman nor a priest. but a rascal who has been chosen by the English to deceive you." Pepin signed his name to this postscript and forwarded the letter ; and Burke's superior, in forwarding Burke's dispatch, wrote of the impudent message sent to the Pottawatomies by a Canadian, who formerly traded with the Indians and who is now avowedly in the service of the United States, and threatened to do something to Pepin, if he could only lay hands on him.

The trading post of Godfroy, Pepin and La Chambre was a rude log building on the west bank of the Huron. This building was burned between the years 1812 and 1815, and its ruins were pointed out to Jonathan G. Morton in 1825 by McCloskey, a son-in-law of Godfroy, and a band of twenty fellow trappers who were passing through Ypsilanti, as near the present corner of Huron and Pearl streets in Ypsilanti. . Godfroy, after the burning of the first house, built a tem- porary trading house just north of what was afterward called the Arcade.

The Indians called this trading house the Ota- wewigamig. At Ypsilanti the Indian trails for a wide expanse of country intersected, and the In- dians apparently regarded the banks of the Hu- ron with high favor. Hence the three French traders seem to have picked the very best place in the country to come into contact with the rov- ing Indians, and they undoubtedly did a lot of

hunting and trapping themselves. No game law's interfered with their pursuit, and no game war- den watched to see whether they shot in season or not, or limited the number of deer they could shoot. The Indians had a burial place at the foot of the hill from whence many a brave warrior was supposed to have started for the happy hunt- ing ground. Another burying ground was near. and large quantities of bones, arrows, stone hatchets and Indian ornaments have been dug from the soil in that locality. Two years after the first trading house was built, the traders con- cluded to make a permanent settlement, and what is known as the four French claims were pat- ented. This was before the government survey of Michigan, and these French claims were issued under the seal of President Madison, in accord- ance with an act of congress long since obsolete. These claims adjoined each other and were all in the vicinity of the trading post, and contained in all two thousand three hundred and fifty-nine acres. Section 690 of five hundred and sixty- two acres, was deeded to Gabriel Godfroy ; sec- tion 691 of six hundred and twenty-two acres, was deeded to Romaine La Chambre ; section 680 of six hundred and twelve acres, was deeded to Godfroy's children ; and section 690 of five hun- dred and sixty-one acres, to Francois Pepin.

These hardy Frenchimen believed themselves on the outpost of civilization. They were the first to build a house west of Detroit. No sign of civilization was to be seen outside their clear- ing for miles and miles. Nor did they wish such signs. Their business and cultivation of the soil did not harmonize. The rapid advance of civili- zation put them out of business, and drove them from the country before the first settlement was made. The Indians left first. They no longer felt at home in Detroit, and the government wanted land for homesteading. The first gov- ernment survey of land in Michigan was made in 1816. The Indian title in Washtenaw county had been absolutely extinguished in 1807 by a treaty made by Gen. Hull at Detroit with the Chippewas, Ottawas, Wyandottes and Pottawa- tomies, by which the Indians gave up the land where Washtenaw county is, together with Mon- roe and Wayne. The Saginaw treaty of 1818 and

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the Chicago treaty of 1821 obliterated the Indian title to all the remaining land in Michigan south of the Grand river. The Indians, having sold this land, left for other territory farther west, and "Godfroy's on the Pottawatomie trail," as it had come to be known, was no longer a profitable trading post and was given up about 1820, three years before the first permanent settlement of the county was made. The Indians indicated their regard for Godfroy by stipulating that the United States should deed his children six hundred forty acres of land where he should select it.

It seems probable that the French traders did not remain at their post all the year. It is, in fact, more than likely that it was simply their winter residence during the hunting and trapping sea- son. Nor is it likely that "Godfroy's on the Pot- tawatomie trail" was the only post that Godfroy had. We have seen that he was a man of means, embarking in large enterprises ; and an old De- troit book, in speaking of him, says he established trading posts from Monroe to Fort Vincennes, and that he was a member of the firm of Godfroy & Bengrand, one of the largest and best known firms of traders in the west. At any rate, during the time that his post in Ypsilanti was in oper- ation, he had a large tannery in Detroit and was holding office in Detroit and refusing to under- take the enforcement of the collection of certain taxes, because some people were not required to pay as others were. Apparently Godfroy had the idea of equal and exact justice which goes to make up a good American.

It is interesting to know what became of the four French claims at Ypsilanti. Romaine La Chambre assigned his claim to Gabriel Godfroy, Sr., June 28. 1814, and Godfroy sold the La Chambre claim to Henry I. Hunt on May 5, 1824. Hunt, in turn, sold it to John Stewart on May 20, 1824, and Stewart, with two others, proceeded to plat the village of Ypsilanti. Godfroy, with his wife, Monique (probably his third wife), sold on August 27, 1825. his own claim to Judge Au- gustus W. Woodward, who united with Stewart and Harwood in laying out the village of Ypsi- lanti. The claim of Francois Pepin was sold at auction October 2, 1830. by Arden H. Ballard, · administrator of his estate, to Andrew McKin- stry for six hundred eighty-four dollars. The

claim of the heirs of Gabriel Godfroy eventually found its way into the hands of Agur Clark, by deeds dated from November 20, 1830, to May 28, 1832. Clark sold on December 17, 1838, the greater part to Alfred A. Hunter, who, on May I, 1841, sold to William C. Hunter, who, in turn, 011 December 3, 1849, sold to Julia A., wife of John Van Cleve. From the deeds we find that Godfroy had nine children: Susanne, wife of James McCloskey ; Pierre: Mary Ann, wife of Joseph Visger; Josette, wife of John Smythe ; James Jacques : Richard : Sophia, wife of James R. Whipple: Theresa ; and Alexander D. The latter was a minor in 1832 and the territorial leg- islature passed a special act allowing him to sell this land if his father approves of it, and later in the same year, his father evidently having died before giving approval. if the court should ap- prove. Susanne McCloskey had a daughter who married Judge Isaac P. Christiancy, of the Mich- igan supreme court. Pierre was called Prince Godfroy, and his wife and her sister were consid- ered the two most beautiful women in the terri- tory. "Prince" Godfroy once won a wager by paddling himself across the Detroit river in a wheelbarrow to visit his fiancee. Joseph Visger, whom Mary Ann Godfroy married, was a man of some prominence. Josette, who married John Smythe, after the death of her husband became a nun, and when she died was Mother Superior of the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Jacques was educated in Kentucky and married the daughter of Col. Francois Navarre, the first settler of Monroe. Richard was prominent in the early history of Grand Rapids, where he was Indian agent in 1832. All were loyal Americans. There is nothing to be found that would prove that these children of Godfroy ever resided at Ypsilanti. In fact. it is not probable that they did, although un- doubtedly, the boys, at least, were often at the post. If Godfroy had his family residence at his trading post, then Alexander D. Godfroy, his youngest son, must have been born there, and this would deprive Alpha Washtenaw Bryan of the honor of being the first white child born in the county. But the indications are that Godfroy maintained his residence in Detroit.

While there are no tales of battles on Washte-

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naw soil that can be chronicled with certainty that they took place here, we know that, during the War of 1812, an armed body of men tra- versed the county. Just before Gen. Hull inglo- riously surrendered Detroit to the British, word was brought him by a messenger that Col. Brush was at the River Raisin near Monroe with sup- plies for his army. As the British commanded the Detroit river, he was unable to get through without an escort. The word could not be sent along the river, so the messenger, James Knaggs. long a resident of Monroe and one of the best scouts and shots in the country, carried the word to Detroit by way of what is now Ypsilanti. An Indian trail ran from "Godfroy's on the Potta- watomie trail" to the River Raisin at French- town, and it was along this trail that Knaggs hurried with his message. An attempt to send a force of Americans down the banks of the De- troit river met with defeat, and, on August 14. 1812, Gen. Hull sent Colonels Cass and McAr- thur with three hundred fifty men by way of Godfroy's to escort the supplies to Detroit. With- out a moment's delay, the men hustled back over the Indian trails of Washtenaw, only to find that Detroit had been surrendered by the weak and vacillating general on August 16th, and that they had been included in the capitulation.

It was over these same Indian trails in Wash- tenaw that the warriors had hurried to the battle of Frenchtown, and the massacre of the River Raisin in 1813, and some of the prisoners who were not massacred were undoubtedly kept by the Indians in the county and they were redeemed from captivity by the kind hand of Col. Gabriel Godfroy out of his own purse.

When Washtenaw was finally settled, the pio- neers came with a rush, as great, considering the population of the United States in those days and the difficulty of transportation, as was the rush to Oklahoma in our days, when that country was thrown open to settlement. Why, then, it may naturally be asked, was it so long after Michigan was thrown open to settlement and four years after the Indian title in Washtenaw was extin- guished, before the first permanent settlement was made? This question is not a new one. The pioneers of the county, who were delighted

with the country, also asked it. In the very first paper published in the county, November 18. 1829, is a communication from a subscriber on the misrepresentation of Michigan. This was only six years after the first permanent settlement and the question is answered reasonably as follows: "Perhaps no part of the United States has been more generally misrepresented or less generally known than the peninsula of Michigan. Until within a few years it was generally believed to be one vast swamp, extending from lake to lake and perfectly unin- habitable, except in the immediate vicinity of De- troit and Monroe. Geographers contributed to strengthen the popular prejudice against Michi- gan by representing it as such in the maps of the United States. This is accounted for by the fact that all information of the interior came from hunters and traders who wished to continue the monopoly they carried on with the natives.

Nor were the hunters and traders in their na- tural endeavor to preserve these fine hunting and trapping grounds for their own use entirely to blame. Government officials too lazy or too igno- rant for their work or who sought to do it at a distance. added greatly to the misinformation current. On March 6, 1812, congress set aside six million acres for the soldiers in the war with Great Britain, of which two million acres were to be surveyed in Michigan. Each soldier was to have one hundred sixty acres fit for cultivation. The government surveyors reported that there were no lands in Michigan fit for cultivation. This remarkable report runs as follows :

"The country on the Indian boundary line from the mouth of the Great Anglaise river and run- ning thence for about fifty 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 eastward, the number and extent of the swamps increase with the addition of numbers of lakes. from twenty chains to two and three miles across. Many of the lakes have extensive marshes adjoin- ing their margins, sometimes thickly covered with a species of pine called 'tamarack.' and other

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Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Part 60

Author: Beakes, Samuel W. (Samuel Willard), 1861-; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago : The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 886

Author: Beakes, Samuel W. (Samuel Willard), 1861-; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 886