USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. I > Part 30
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Detroit was in Indiana but a short time, from the organization of Wayne
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County in January, 1803, until January, or June, 1805. The governor's procla- mation of January 14, 1803 stated that all civil and military offices appointed in Wayne County under the old Northwest Territory should continue to hold their offices until otherwise directed.
GOVERNMENTAL APPOINTMENTS
In May, 1803, the governor made the following appointments to civil offices in Wayne County: James May, James Henry, Antoine Dequindre, Mathias Henry, Francis Navarre, Jacob Visger, John Dodemead, Jean Marie Bobiene (Beaubien), Chabert Joncaire, William McDowell Scott, justices of the court of general quarter sessions of the peace; James May, Chabert Joncaire, James Henry, Jacob Visger, William McDowell Scott, judges of the court of common pleas; Peter Audrain, prothonotary, clerk of the court of general quarter sessions of the peace, recorder and judge of probate; Thomas McCrea, sheriff; Joseph Harrison, coroner; and Francis Desreusseau Belcour, notary public.
On July 15, 1801 Joseph Wilkison (Wilkinson) was appointed coroner of Wayne County, and on the same day David Duncan and John Anderson were appointed justices of the court of general quarter sessions of the peace. On July 18th Richard Smith was appointed sheriff and on the 19th Jacob Visger was given a license to keep a ferry from his land near Detroit across the Detroit River.
It is noted in the executive journal of Indiana Territory that an election was held September 11, 1804, except in Wayne County, where "no election was held in consequence of the proclamation not arriving in time."
FIGHT FOR TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION
The efforts that were made for the erection of Michigan Territory originated in Congress by the presentation of two petitions, one in 1803 and the other in 1804, as noted above. The first petition was signed by Joseph Harrison and a number of other Detroit citizens. The petition was presented in the Senate by Mr. Worthington, October 21, 1803 and was at once referred to a committee composed of Senators Worthington, Breckenridge and Franklin. In their report on November Ist, they stated that census of the district taken in 1800 showed there were 3972 free white inhabitants, and the committee recommended the granting of the petition, the new territory to be governed as provided in the ordinance of 1787. The committee was directed to bring in a bill. The bill being introduced, it passed through the usual forms of reading and debates. On December 6th the title was determined to be "An act to divide Indiana Territory into two separate governments." The bill passed the Senate, was sent to the House, and on December Sth was referred to a committee composed of Congressmen Lucas, Morrow, Chittenden, Lyon and Claggett. The prin- cipal argument against the bill was that the people of Detroit were too few in number to warrant the expense of maintaining a separate government. The extra expense could not have been very great. The general government would have to pay the salaries of a governor, secretary, three judges and civil and court officers. This entire cost would not exceed $10,000 per year and was probably nearer $5,000. The committee reported adversely to the bill, but the House rejected their report and after amending it and providing that the name of the new territory should be "Michigan," postponed final action until the succeeding day. The last vote was taken February 21, 1804, when the bill was rejected by a single vote. There were fifty-eight in favor of the bill
Vol. 1-18
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and fifty-nine opposed to it. In looking over the list of members one finds several names of persons who were then and in after years interested in Detroit. Several of these voted against the measure. One vote only would have changed the entire plan and have made Michigan a territory. Among those who opposed the measure and voted against it was Seth Hastings, a personal friend of Solomon Sibley and a representative from Worcester, Massachusetts; he was the father of Eurotas P. Hastings, a prominent eitizen in later times.
The friends of the territorial organization proceeded with a second petition. The first signer of the petition was James May, but many prominent people signed it, and it was presented to the Senate December 5, 1804. It was referred to Senators Worthington, Breckenridge and Giles. A bill was introduced by Mr. Worthington on December 14th and was debated, amended and passed on the 24th of that month. Upon reaching the house it was further amended, but was finally passed, the Senate concurring in the amendment. It was approved by the President on January 11, 1805.
Thus Michigan became a territory.
Solomon Sibley took a great part in the work at Detroit and among the citizens. The original petitions were sent by him to Senator Worthington to be introduced in the Senate. A joint letter by himself and Jonathan Sehieffelin accompanied the second petition and, at a later time, he added further instruc- tions and new advice to the petitions and documents already in the hands of Congress.
LAND TITLES
One of the troubles of the district of Detroit as it was emerging from British control, was the matter of land titles. Under the French regime, comparatively few people had any paper title to the farm lands they occupied and claimed to own. The farms were located along the Detroit River and the tributary streams such as the Huron River of Lake Erie, the Ecorse, Rouge and the Huron River (now called Clinton River) of Lake St. Clair. No lands were occupied or cul- tivated in the country baek and away from these water courses. Every farm had a frontage on a stream, with a width of from one to three arpents, with an original depth of from forty to sixty arpents. (An arpent is a French acre, having 192.75 feet on a side.) There were no roads through the country and the travel for all persons was by boat along the front of these ribbon farms. Occasionally farms or possessions of larger traets of land were to be found, but the above quantities of forty, eighty and one hundred and twenty arpents were of the customary size.
Conveyances of such farms from the French governor and intendant are occasionally found. The English government made very few grants and passed laws to prohibit the people from buying lands of the Indians. Towards the end of the Revolutionary war, about the year 1780, the people of Detroit began the purchase of farms from the various Indian tribes. Sometimes these purchases would consist only of an ordinary farm, but as time proceeded and the speculators got reckless, larger traets were bought. Some conveyances included 20,000 aeres, and then we find 200,000, 500,000 and 3,000,000 aeres in a single con- veyanee, and an attempt was made in 1795 to purchase the entire lower peninsula of Michigan, or 20,000,000 acres at one time. Titles to legitimate farms in the neighborhood of Detroit were complicated and uncertain and early efforts were made to bring the matter before Congress for relief.
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The first selected officials for the new Territory of Michigan were: William Hull, governor; Stanley Griswold, secretary; Augustus Brevoort Woodward, Frederick Bates and John Griffin, judges.
The town of Detroit was fire-swept on June 11, 1805. Judge Bates resided in Detroit, but the other two judges and the governor did not arrive in Detroit until after the fire. They then appeared to witness a scene of desolation, for every dwelling and building in the place, save one, was destroyed.
The first act passed by the legislative body is dated July 9, 1805 and provided for the territorial seal. It was provided that paper, instead of parchment, should be used in all court records.
BRITISH CITIZENS IN DETROIT
We now reach the point where there was a change of government and where all local affairs were brought more closely under our observation. As we have already seen, the United States had no actual control over the Detroit district until July, 1796. It was reported that the village of Detroit contained about five hundred people. They were mostly French, and the number of English, Irish and Scotch was quite limited. The declarations of the inhabitants to remain British subjects, made in 1796-7, already referred to, contain many names in addition to those of French derivation. These are as follows:
D. McCrea, Louis Moore,
James McIntosh,
William Fleming,
Thomas Green,
Jonathan Nelson,
James Condon,
Angus Mackintosh,
Robert Gouie,
Alexander Duff,
John Askin,
R. McDonnell,
William Smith,
William Mickle,
Richard Pattinson,
John McKoigan,
Robert Innes,
Hugh Heward,
John Clark,
John Martin,
John Grant,
Robert Grant,
Redmond Condon,
James Cartwright,
James Donaldson,
John Fearson,
Richard Donovan,
John Little (Lytle),
Conrad Showles,
James Leith,
Robert Forsyth,
George Sharp,
Mathew Dolson,
Samuel Eddy,
Robert Nichol,
William Hands,
George Meldrum,
Thomas Smith,
John McDonnell,
Robert McDougall,
William Baker,
John McGregor,
Richard Mooney,
William Park,
John Anderson,
James Vincent,
James McGregor,
John Whitehead,
James Anderson,
Joseph Mason,
William Thorn,
James Fraser,
William Harffy,
John Wheaton,
William Mills,
John Cain,
Samuel Edge.
A. Iredell,
Jonathan Schieffelin,
William Forsyth, Alexander Harrow,
Of these, some moved to the Canadian side of the river, some moved away altogether, and many repented of their action in signing the declaration and remained as loyal citizens.
LOYAL AMERICANS IN DETROIT
There was another class, quite as large, that remained in Detroit and accepted the citizenship conferred by Jay's treaty. Among these were:
James Abbott and his three sons, James, Samuel and Robert. James May and his brother, Joseph.
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John Macomb and his son, Alexander. William Macomb, the other son of John, died in the spring of 1796, just before the coming of General Wayne. His three sons, John, William and David, were all minors at the time of the father's death.
Patrick McNiff, the surveyor.
John Cissne, came to River Rouge in 1787.
Nathan Williams.
Herman Eberts, physician.
William Cissne.
John Dodemead.
John Messimore.
Daniel Sawyer.
Jacob Dicks.
Jacob Harsen.
Edward McCarty, came to River Rouge in April, 1796:
Barnabas Harsen.
Jacob Visger.
John Dicks.
John Shaw.
John Carrol (his widow married Daniel Pursley).
William Walker.
Israel Ruland, here in 1786.
John Reynolds, here in 1787, moved to River Thames before 1799.
Francis Jones.
James Havard, here in 1785.
Daniel Pursley.
Adam Brown, a Wyandotte Indian chief in 1785.
Zachariah Hurt.
John Wright.
Nathan IIurt.
William Thorn.
James Conner.
Jacob Baker.
Henry Conner.
Andrew Baker.
Richard Conner.
Christian Clemens.
William Conner.
John Tucker.
John Conner.
William Tucker.
Edward Hezell.
Edward Tucker.
. Jacob Thomas.
Jacob Hill.
Charles Tucker.
John Loveless.
George Cotterall.
George Knaggs.
John Anderson. bearing this name.)
(There were two
William Thorn, Jr.
Peter Curry.
William Hill.
William Knaggs.
James Hobbs.
Michael Yax.
James Cartwright.
Robert Forsyth.
Patrick Fitzpatrick.
Ronald McDonald, clerk for Leith & Shepherd.
Henry Saunders.
Andrew Baker.
Jacob Young (colored).
John Kinzie.
Thomas Edwards.
Thomas Cox.
Alexander McCormick.
Albert Ringeard.
Whitmore Knaggs.
Joseph Cissne (His wife, Rebecca, after David McCrea. his death, married Hugh McVay). Joseph Chamberlain.
GENERAL CONDITIONS, 1796-1800
Detroit was taken possession of on July 11, 1796, by Capt. Moses Porter, with a detachment of sixty-five men. At present we have not the names of the men who constituted this company, but as they were soldiers in the reg-
Godfroy Corbus.
Joseph Hurt.
John Yax (a German).
Gregor McGregor.
Jacob Tucker.
Simon Yax.
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ular army, it is not probable that they became residents of Detroit or that many of them remained here after their term of service had expired.
It was not until the following month that Gen. Anthony Wayne came with a larger number of troops to form the new garrison. It is said that there were five hundred troops in that garrison in the fall of 1796. Secretary Winthrop Sargent was with General Wayne, and there was a number of civilians, some of whom remained at the place.
The people living in Detroit knew very little about the party politics which disturbed the states in 1796. Washington was still President and was termed a federalist, though his opponents called him a monarchist. The political party opposed to him was called the republican, or democrat, and believed in the states' rights doctrine and was afraid, or at least pretended to fear, that the federalists would ultimately deprive the states of their individuality and would enlarge the federal powers and so pave the way to the establishment of a monarchy.
Before any great number of people had come to Detroit, Washington's second term had ended and he was followed by John Adams. Adams also was a federalist and was likewise inclined, as many believed, to monarchical ideas. The republican party was fast increasing its strength in the states, particularly in the southern states, and its influence began to be felt in many ways.
Most of the people who first came to the Ohio region were Revolutionary soldiers and were allied by party feelings with the federalists. The names given to their early settlements, such as Forts Hamilton and Washington of the counties of Washington, Hamilton, St. Clair and Knox, all attest their federalist attachment. St. Clair and Wayne, both friends of Washington, were federalists.
Solomon Sibley came to Detroit in 1798 and very quickly took a leading part in the affairs of the village. Before the end of the first year of his resi- dence, on the third Monday of December, 1798, he was elected to the lower house of the legislative council of the Northwest Territory. He also was a federalist. His competitor at the election was James May, who, as we have already noted, was an Englishman by birth, never lived in the states, and knew nothing about American political questions.
When Sibley attended the legislative council at Cincinnati, he met the best men in the entire northwest. Burnet, in his Notes, says that "In choosing members to the first territorial legislature, the people, in almost every instance, selected the strongest and best men in their respective counties. Party in- fluence was scarcely felt."
Detroit was entitled to three representatives in this council, but only two, Sibley and Jacob Visger, took their seats. Sibley took an active and leading part in the assembly. Judge Burnet says of him, "Mr. Sibley was a lawyer of high standing, and considered one of the most talented men of the House. He possessed a sound mind, improved by liberal education, and a stability and firmness of character which commanded a general respect and secured to him the confidence and esteem of his fellow members."
Jacob Visger, or perhaps the name was originally spelled Vishiere, was of Dutch ancestry and came to Detroit during the Revolutionary war from Schenectady, New York. He was fairly well educated and had studied law a little. He was a business man and acted occasionally as a judge or justice.
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He was decided in his character, and somewhat opinionated. His action of the case of the will of George Hoffman indicates his character somewhat.
The matter of land titles and land possession was of the greatest import- ance at this time. The government possessed millions of acres of uncultivated land and the land speculators were after big tracts of this wild land, out of which they expected to make fortunes. A great "land grab" in Georgia in 1795, in which members of Congress were supposed to have been interested, was followed in the same year by an attempt to buy the entire lower peninsula of Michigan. Both schemes failed of success, but many purchases of smaller quantities of land succeeded. It was the desire of the Federal Government to furnish homes and farms for the people. It was the effort of speculators to purchase these large tracts and colonize them.
Indiana Territory was organized in May, 1800. This left Detroit in the Ohio district and still a part of the old Northwest Territory. In September of this year a petition of the citizens of Detroit was presented to Congress, asking that their land titles be confirmed. They said that the people were "generally poor and needy, with large and numerous families." They did not mean by this that polygamy was practiced, but that their situation was not favorable when the titles to their homes were unsettled. They said, "Your petitioners feel exceedingly anxious that their rights, titles and claims to their lands may be speedily settled and confirmed in them and their heirs." They asked that the government assist them in establishing schools and that one or more townships of land be set aside for the purpose of endowing an academy or college. They wanted a post office established. This petition was, in 1801, referred to a committee of the house, of which Mr. Pinckney was the chair- man. Little attention was paid to it, for affairs of more political importance were occupying the attention of the house, and our interests were disregarded for the time being.
One of the most important political incidents that ever occupied the atten- ยท tion of America took place at this time. It was on February 11, 1801, that the contest began in the House for the election of President. The vote in the Electoral College stood seventy-three for each of the candidates, Thomas Jef- ferson and Aaron Burr. This was a tie and the election was thus thrown into the House, where for thirty-five consecutive ballots, occupying the time until February 17, the votes were uniform and undecided. It required the vote of nine states to decide the contest, but through all of this exciting time, Jefferson could only muster eight states and Burr but six. In the afternoon of Tuesday, February 17, 1801, the thirty-sixth ballot showed that Jefferson had the votes of ten states and was elected.
America has probably never passed through a more critical time. It was the crisis of political power for the two great parties, federals and democrats. Burr was the representative of the federalist party, while Jefferson was an avowed democrat. It was here that the two parties changed positions and from this time forward the democrats were in control. It was a bloodless revolu- tion; the parting of the ways forever in America between a republican and a monarchical form of government. Small wonder that in such exciting times the interests of Detroit were temporarily forgotten.
In 1798, when Mr. Sibley came to Detroit, there was but one lawyer here, but by 1799 the number had increased. Ezra Fitz Freeman, who was here before 1799, had left, and the lawyers then remaining were Solomon Sibley,
SOLOMON SIBLEY, 1756-1830 First Chief Justice, Common Pleas Court
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Elijah Brush and David Powers. J. Willis also appeared as an attorney in many cases in 1797.
The settlement was practically isolated from civilization. Although the census of 1800 disclosed that there were 3,757 people in Wayne County, most of whom were in Detroit and along the shore lines of the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers, there were no adequate schools to supply any kind of educational training. There was a school house on the St. Clair River in 1797 and the names of two or three teachers are met with in the Detroit settlement. Even the meager schooling which was afforded was not free or compulsory and only those who had the desire to attend and the money to pay for tuition were accommodated. David Bacon, the father of Leonard Bacon, president of Yale University, kept a school in Detroit in 1801 and 1802, and Leonard Bacon was born here in the latter year.
JOUETT'S DESCRIPTION OF DETROIT
Charles Jouett in his report in 1803, which will be referred to again, said that the lands along the entire river, where cultivated, were good, with some excep- tions, but that the people were poor and their work in cultivation not good. They were nearly all of French descent. Some had comfortable dwellings built of hewn logs and most generally the necessary out-buildings, barns, etc. They had numerous apple orchards and made quantities of cider. Although Jouett men- tions few distilleries, there are many evidences that stills were numerous through- out the country and whisky was very cheap and abundant. On the St. Clair River there were at least two sawmills, and some lumber there from the pinery was sent to Detroit, though lumber was not produced in sufficient quantity to be used in making frame buildings. In many places the country was beau- tiful. In one place Mr. Jouett writes: "No lands are superior to those along the Huron River. They consist of extensive prairies covered so closely with hazel and other shrubberies as to afford a pleasant shade to the delighted traveler, who cannot but take an agreeable interest in the beautiful sceneries by which he is surrounded."
Nowithstanding all that nature had done for them, many of the farms were al- ready exhausted by cultivation; many of the houses old, dilapidated and unfit for habitation and "scarcely sufficient to shut out the inclemencies of the weather." Along the Ecorse River "the grass and wheat are astonishingly luxuriant; and nature requires to be but aided to produce, in abundance, all the necessaries of life; yet the peoples are poor beyond conception; and no description could give an adequate idea of their servile and degraded situation."
Of the town of Detroit, Jouett wrote: " A stockade encloses the town, fort and citadel. The pickets, as well as the public houses, are in a state of gradual decay and, in a few years, without repairs, must fall to the ground. The streets are narrow, straight, regular and intersect each other at right angles. The houses are, for the most part, low and inelegant."
MCNIFF'S WRITINGS
Another writer of the period was Patrick McNiff. McNiff was a surveyor and had lived in Detroit for many years. In later years he was a justice of the peace and of the court of quarter sessions. In 1799, just after Mr. Sibley had been elected to the assembly, McNiff sent him some "instructions" as to the matters Mr. Sibley was to work for in the council. Regarding the militia law McNiff
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said, "The militia law of the territory as it now stands, does not seem to answer the intended purpose, or the disposition of the inhabitants of this county. They are, almost to a man, refractory, nor will they turn out either to a muster or exer- cise when called upon; the fine or punishment inflicted by that law being so easy and inconsiderable that they would much sooner bear the consequences than obey the order or call of their officers. The safety, and indeed the prosperity, of the county in a great measure depends upon the good order and discipline of the inhabitants. A thoughtful person cannot labor with any degree of courage when he finds that he cannot derive from the joint efforts of his neighbors that protec- tion and safety which ought ever to exist in every civilized society. The inhabi- tants of this place have lived for many years past in a state of licentious freedom, nor can they now bear to be checked. Nothing but a more severe law can bring them to order."
There were no roads through the country and here again we refer to the writings of Mr. McNiff: "The situation of the country in respect to public roads should be taken into consideration. The present seat of justice is at Detroit. The settlements extending thence northerly to the upper end of the river St. Clair, nearly sixty miles, and also from Detroit southwesterly to the foot of the rapids of the Miami (Maumee) River, nearly sixty miles. To those extreme parts of the settlements there are but two periods in the year that persons from the seat of justice can have access to them without the help of a water craft, viz: in the month of September by land, and in the winter when the waters are sufficiently frozen that the ice will bear them; otherwise no access to these places but by water."
RELIGIOUS MATTERS
While nearly all of the people of Detroit were somewhat religiously inclined, it is very certain that the Protestant portion of the community did not let their religion seriously interfere with their secular work. The Moravian teachers had been forcibly brought to the place in 1782 and had located at their settlement near the present city of Mt. Clemens. They had left that place and sold out their holdings before the Americans came. There was no Protestant church organization in 1796, nor for many months later.
Rev. George Mitchell of the Episcopal Church attempted an organization in 1786 and obtained a fairly good subscription list. He preached and lived pre- cariously for more than two years, but became discouraged and left, unable to collect the pittances which were promised him. Richard Pollard, minister, and sheriff of the western district, preached occasionally in 1792 and later, but he always lived on the Canadian side of the river.
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