The history of Detroit and Michigan; or, The metropolis illustrated; a chronological cyclopedia of the past and present, Vol I, Part 13

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co
Number of Pages: 1096

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Rear concessions were granted for about one hun- dred claims. The number of acres granted origin- ally to claims ranged from less than one half an acre to six hundred and forty acres, and the rear conces- sions covered from three acres to three hundred acres. Judging by the testimony given before the commis- sioners, there must have been a very general, and apparently a concerted, effort among many claimants to swear through each other's claims. The com- missioners themselves reported that the records of the earlier Boards had been so mutilated that it was impossible fully to understand them. The unravel- ling of the history of the claims is made difficult also by the fact that the different Boards designated the same books by different numbers. Volume I. is sometimes called I., sometimes II., and then ap- pears as number III. These errors were appropri- ately supplemented by the careless transcribing and transposing of the names of claimants, surveyors, and clerks,-the same names being spelled in several ways. As late as 1823, at least thirteen original claims were confirmed by Commissioners of Claims that had been left unconfirmed by the first commis- sioners. To these claims they gave new numbers. In the list of claims1 most of them are designated by the new numbers. The only other tract in Wayne County, aside from the Ten Thousand Acre Tract,

1 See Appendix A.

FRENCH FARMS OR PRIVATE CLAIMS.

bearing a specific name or number, and separately surveyed, is the Ship Yard or University Tract on the Rouge. It is called Ship Yard Tract because, during the British occupation, and also under American rule in the War of 1812, vessels were there built and fitted out. It was selected at an early date as part of the lands devoted to the University, and thus came to be called also the University Tract. The first commissioners were George Hoffman, Register, and Frederick Bates, Receiver of the Land Office. On April 16, 1806, Peter Audrain succeeded Hoff- man, and on April 4, 1807, James Abbott suc-

ceeded Bates. Under Act of 1807, the Secretary of Territory, Stanley Griswold, was added to the Commission. On March 18, 1808, Reuben Attwater succeeded Griswold, and up to October, 1814, the Commission consisted of Audrain, Attwater, and Abbott. In 1814 William Woodbridge suc- ceeded Attwater. In 1819 Jonathan Kearsley suc- ceeded Abbott. In 1821 H. B. Brevoort succeeded Audrain, and he, in 1823, was succeeded by John Biddle. The last commissioners were Woodbridge, Kearsley, and Biddle.

.. . ...

CHAPTER V.

THE PUBLIC DOMAIN .- THE PARK LOTS AND THE TEN-THOUSAND-ACRE TRACT. THE GOVERNOR AND JUDGES' PLAN .- LAND BOARDS.

THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

DURING French rule the lands outside the stock- ade and in the immediate vicinity of Fort Pontchar- train were, in part at least, cultivated in common by the inhabitants. Lands similarly situated at Kas- kaskia, Illinois, were guaranteed in perpetuity by the king to the inhabitants and used by them as a "com- mon field;" and rights of the same nature are known to have been exercised by the inhabitants of Detroit. The "common field " was usually enclosed, and each head of a family had a portion entirely at his disposal, subject only to such regulations as would prevent injury to the rights of others. Under these general regulations, the field was usually cultivated simultaneously by its several owners, and much of the work done in common. Outside of these cul- tivated lands were the "commons," used for pastur- age by all alike.

It would not have been expedient to allow the 'lands adjoining the fort to be built upon to any great extent. A certain amount of open space about the stockade was necessary as a protection both from fire and from the Indians. If houses were too near together, they might afford a place of ambush, be used to shoot from into the fort, or serve as look- outs wherefrom to discern the numbers and the preparations of the garrison. A few houses were built outside, but they proved a source of danger and annoyance, and were repeatedly torn down. A letter addressed to James McHenry, Secretary of War, by John Wilkins, Jr., Quartermaster-general, ancestor of the late Colonel William D. Wilkins, gives interesting particulars of the status of the commons and other property at Detroit, at the time it was first surrendered to the United States. It reads as follows :

PITTSBURGH, 17 February, 1797.

SIR,-

The United States have succeeded to a great deal of property at Detroit. The whole ground on which the town of Detroit is situated seems, originally, to have been reserved by the British for the use of the fort; but the merchants and tradesmen preferring to live under the protection of the garrison, grants of lots have been given to them, which, in time, have formed a regular town.

But there yet remains around the town a quantity of vacant ground, which, of course, becomes the property of the United

States. This, from its situation, is valuable. But in order to pre- serve it, there will be a necessity of preventing any persons build- ing on it, or the United States should have it laid out in lots and sold.

The vacant ground I allude to is without the pickets; within the pickets, exclusive of the fort and barracks, there are a number of houses and lots of ground, which the United States have suc- ceeded to, such as the council-house, store-houses, wharf, etc., and two large gardens for the garrison; and outside of the pickets, a ship-yard, consisting of a number of work-shops. I was in- formed, when at Detroit, that there were a number of other buildings than those we got possession of, which had belonged to the British Government, but that, since their removal, were claimed by people living in them. These claims ought to be inquired into.

The public domain or commons included at least all of the northern half of "the Governor and Judges' Plan," and practically all of the land beyond lying between the Cass and Brush farms within a distance of three miles from the river.

A few years subsequent to the date of the Wilkins letter, the Northwest Territorial Legislature adopted the following instructions to their delegate to Congress :

Whereas, The inhabitants of Wayne County, in the town of Detroit, have, time out of mind, enjoyed a small piece of land adjacent to the town, as a public common, for the use of the inhabitants, until partially dispossessed by military authority, therefore,

Resolved, That Paul Fearing, Esq., be instructed to use his endeavors to have the right of the said common confirmed by the United States to the inhabitants aforesaid.

No action was taken by Congress on this or other claims in this region until 1803. The Govern- ment then directed Mr. Jouett, the Indian agent at Detroit, to "inquire into and report the situation of the titles and occupation of the lands private and public." In accordance with instructions, Mr. Jouett made a report concerning claims and settle- ments on the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers, but it contained little of permanent value. In a communi- cation presented to the House of Representatives on January 17, 1805, in regard to the settlement of claims for farms, signed by François de Joncaire and others, the following passages occur :

Your memorialists further solicit the attention of Congress in favor of the claims set up by the citizens of Detroit to the com- mons or domain adjoining said town; and request that the same, by law, may be confirmed to them and their successors with power

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THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

in said corporation to make sale of a part to accommodate persons with lots for building, and to regulate the use of the residue.

We state as a fact generally believed in this country, and con- firmed by many aged persons now living in this district, that a grant was made by the French Government at the time said town was laid out, vesting and conferring in the then inhabitants, their heirs and successors, both the ground plat of said town and the commons, which have ever since been held, used, and enjoyed as such by the inhabitants, to the exception of some unwarrantable encroachments by individuals upon the same.

But unfortunately for the citizens of said town, neither the grant itself nor the record thereof can now be found, the grant being either lost or wrongfully withheld, and the record removed to places without the district and wholly unknown to your memor- ialists.

On August 3, 1805, Governor Hull wrote to Judge Woodward, who was then in Washington, that the inhabitants claimed the common "in consequence of a grant from the French Government, and have used it as a common pasture since the settlement of the country. Their title to it is, at least, doubtful, and it will probably rest with Congress to determine what disposition shall be made of it."

At the request of the Government, Governor Hull and Judge Woodward made a report, on October IO, 1805, as to the title to the town and commons. Their report says, "The circumjacent ground, the bank of the river alone excepted, was a wide com- mons; and though assertions are made respecting the existence, among the records of Quebec, of a charter from the King of France conferring this commons 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 Commons" was the subject of another memorial from the inhabitants of Detroit to the House of Representatives. On February 17, 1808, Mr. Gardner presented a memorial of the inhabi- tants, praying "that the title to a certain parcel of land, amounting to about two thousand acres ad- joining the said City of Detroit, may be granted, in fee simple, to the corporation thereof, for the free use in common of all the memorialists, under such reservations as to the wisdom of Congress shall seem meet."

This petition was referred to the Committee on Public Lands, but was never reported on; and the Governor and Judges assumed control of and dis- posed of the property.

It is very doubtful whether they had any right to dispose of these lands, and their legal right was by no means unquestioned; they, however, claimed the right, and having the power, disposed of the property. The lands were laid out, and designated as Park Lots, and on March 6, 1809, forty-one of them were sold at auction. Very naturally, the sale did not meet the approval of the inhabitants, and on June 3, 1811, a petition was presented to the Gov- ernor and Judges, praying them to annul the sale,

and convey the lots to be " held by the inhabitants of the town of Detroit forever as a commons."

The records state that the petition was received and read, and the prayer thereof not granted.

This decision the older inhabitants received with mingled grief and indignation, one of them saying, " It has come to pass that the lands on the common, that our ancestors and ourselves owned more than one hundred years before the Congress of the United States or the Governor and Judges of Michigan owned one foot of land on the face of the earth, are now exhibited for sale at public auction, to the origi- nal proprietors, on the humiliating conditions that we pay twenty prices for it."

The laying out of a portion of the commons, south of what is now Adams Avenue, into regular city lots was also protested against. Addressing the chief executive of the Territory, one 'of the inhabitants said, "Governor, if you had laid out the commons in lots of from six to twelve acres, they would have made us good meadows or pastures for our cattle in the summer season, and we could afford to pay a handsome price for them; but the lots you are now attempting to sell are not worth the deeds and re- cording. Believe us, Governor, no town will ever exist in these marshes."

Others of them, in a memorial to the President, complained "that the Governor and Judges had lavished between five and six hundred dollars of our taxes in digging wells and erecting pumps on the commons, near half a mile behind the town of De- troit, where no town, in our opinion, will ever exist, and no wells be necessary; and when they were about half finished, the enterprise was abandoned."

All of these protests and memorials were, how- ever, alike unavailing. The Governor and Judges were a law unto themselves, and continued to do as they pleased.

THE PARK LOTS AND THE TEN-THOUSAND-ACRE TRACT.

The Park Lots and the Ten-Thousand-Acre Tract together constitute the ten thousand acres which the Governor and Judges, by Act of 1806, were author- ized to lay out, adjacent to Detroit. The Ten- Thousand-Acre Tract, so-called, is separated from the rest of the land because it was not surveyed until several years after the Park Lots were laid out.

The Park Lots lie on both sides of Woodward Avenue, and extend northwards for nearly two and a half miles from Adams Avenue. They were ordered surveyed by the Governor and Judges on December 14, 1808. James McCloskey, the sur- veyor, was instructed "to commence his survey north- west of the street which runs through the Grand Circus, parallel with the same street, and to begin

THE GOVERNOR AND JUDGES' PLAN .- LAND BOARDS.

with lots of five acres, and increase the size of lots as he proceeds."

The land was surveyed into eighty-six parcels or lots, numbers I to 46 inclusive lying on the east, and the rest on the west side of Woodward Avenue. Owing to the fact that the lines of the Cass and Brush farms narrowed the domain on its northern extremity, the lots were irregular in size and in num- ber of acres.

The Ten-Thousand-Acre Tract was surveyed by Joseph Fletcher in 1816 into forty-eight lots, of one hundred and sixty acres each, and twelve lots of eighty acres each. Half of these smaller lots are situated on the eastern, and half on the western side of the tract.

THE GOVERNOR AND JUDGES' PLAN .- LAND BOARDS.

Prior to the fire of 1805, the town embraced an area of about twenty acres. Immediately after the fire, some of the inhabitants erected temporary dwellings in the midst of the ruins of their former homes. Others determined to take possession of portions of the commons and build thereon. According to a report made on June 24, 1805, by Matthew Ernest, François Lasalle, and Charles Moran, there were sixty-two proprietors of lots in the old town. The size of lots varied from twenty-four to one hundred and sixty-one feet frontage, and from twenty-four to one hundred and twenty-five feet in depth. On Monday, July 1, 1805, the inhabitants assembled under the pear-trees in the Public Garden and informally adopted a plan similar to the old one including a portion of the commons. Judges Woodward and Bates, who were present, prevailed on them to defer further action until the arrival of the governor, and they concluded to wait two weeks. On the evening of the same day the governor arrived. In a letter written August 3, 1805, he says, "After a conversation with the judges it was determined to attempt to convince the proprietors of the impropriety of their proceedings. * * * * They very readily agreed to relinquish their plan and wait for our arrangements. We immediately fixed on a plan, and employed the best surveyor we could find in the country to lay out the streets, squares, and lots. If possible, the plan shall be forwarded by this conveyance. I hope it will be approved by the Government."

The people considered that not more than two or three days would be necessary to lay out and reg- ulate the new town. But they were doomed to disappointment.

A few days after the meeting under the pear- trees Judge Woodward was appointed a standing committee to lay out the new town agreeable to the plan they had adopted ; and his Britannic Majesty's

surveyor, Thomas Smith, was brought over from Upper Canada to assist in that arduous undertaking. Mr. John Gentle, who wrote a full account of the proceedings to a Pittsburgh paper, says :

After a few days spent in preparing their apparatus, the judge began his operations on a height contiguous to the fort. There he placed his instruments, astronomical and astrological, on the summit of a huge stone, which stone shall ever remain a monu- ment of his indefatigable perseverance. 1

For the space of thirty days and thirty nights he viewed the diurnal evolutions of the planets, visible and invisible, and calcu- lated the course and rapidity of the blazing meteors. To his pro- found observations of the heavenly regions the world is indebted for the discovery of the streets, alleys, circles, angles, and squares of this magnificent city,-in theory equal in magnitude and splen- dor to any on the earth.

But the most arduous and tedious performance was the laying out and measuring the marshes a mile back from the town into streets, lots, circles, and grand squares, measuring and unmeasur- ing them, arranging and deranging them, for the space of two full months more. The patience of the people was at length exhausted; and they became so clamorous at last that the Governor and Judges were constrained to rest from their labors and agree to make a division of the lots.

The inhabitants were told to go and choose lots, and if more than one chose the same lot, the legislature would decide which should have the choice. They reasoned against this mode of division, because they well knew it would not succeed; but it was of no use. Several went and chose the same lot; the legislature was applied to for a decision, and a dispute took place between the legislature and the people. In consequence, as was intended, this mode of division was abandoned.

By way of killing time, the judge went to work again with his instruments, and measured the commons over and over for about three weeks more. A few lots were then advertized for sale at auction, on these conditions :- If the proprietors of lots in the old town purchased, they were at liberty to offset the lots they pur- chased with their old lots, foot for foot; and if the old ground was not sufficient to cover the new, two cents would be exacted per foot for the overplus; and all purchasers were to give bonds, pay- able in five years in five installments, to William Hull, Esq., his heirs, etc., etc.

The first lot was purchased by James Abbott, who was instructed by Judge Woodward to bid it up for him, for five hundred dollars. The next, by James Henry, at three hundred dollars: he had old ground to cover with. The next, by Charles Curry, at six hun- dred dollars: he also had ground to cover with. The next was bid up to two thousand six hundred dollars, by Henry and Abbott.

The average price of the fourteen lots sold was now taken, and fixed as a general medium for all future sales. Many applied afterwards for lots; but none could be obtained unless they agreed to pay the fixed average price, which was three hundred dollars on the lower side of the main street and two hundred and fifty on the upper side. As no title could be given, no payments were required to be made under one year.

Early in November, 1805, Governor Hull and Judge Woodward left for Washington, carrying with them a plan to aid in obtaining desired legisla- tion. The plan embraced the old site and also most of the so-called Commons or Public Land, which was almost entirely destitute of trees for a mile or more on all sides, and afforded a fine location for the proposed new city.

1 The stone referred to was undoubtedly the same immense boulder that lay on the Campus Martius, at the junction of Mon- roe and Woodward Avenues, until the street was paved, when it was buried out of sight.

THE GOVERNOR AND JUDGES' PLAN .- LAND BOARDS.

This plan was, probably, lost or destroyed at the time the British were in possession in 1812; in the year 1815 careful search failed to reveal any trace of it.

The visit of Hull and Woodward to Washington resulted in the passage of the Act of April 21, 1806, which authorized the Governor and Judges to lay out a new town and ten thousand acres of land adjacent, and to convey a lot, not to exceed five thousand feet in size, to every person above the age of seventeen years who owned or inhabited a house in Detroit at the time of the fire, and who did not profess or owe allegiance to any foreign power. The balance of the lands were to be devoted to erecting a court-house and jail.

It would appear that members of Congress even then were credited with being open to the influences of conviviality, for Judge Woodward is quoted as saying that he expended three hundred dollars in wine to treat the members of Congress with the purpose of influencing them to pass the bill.

All of the transactions of the Governor and Judges are involved in mystery; and the action of Congress in passing the Act of 1806 seems strangely at variance with what might naturally have been expected.

The giving away of ten thousand acres of valuable United States land, and many of the town lots as well, to enable the Territory to build a court-house and a jail, seems a strange proceeding, especially when it was claimed that the surplus taxes of the Territory for 1805 alone would have been more than sufficient to build a court-house and a jail large enough to accommodate the sparsely inhabited country. It is said that the lands were then of comparatively little value; but if lands, in and near Detroit, were of so little worth, why was the Gov- ernment so dilatory and so careful in the con- firmation of the private claims, so-called, which lay on both sides of the town? Looking at these land matters in all their bearings, it is no wonder that some of the inhabitants thought there was a desire on the part of some of the officials to dis- possess them of their property and drive them out of the Territory.

The delay in the definite adoption of any plan forced the inhabitants to remain scattered here and there, in improvised abodes, all through the summer and fall of 1805. Winter came, and still no action was taken; and such were the delays in connection with the plans of 1806 that not a single house was erected that year; up to May, 1807, only nineteen deeds had been given for lots in the new town. These delays cannot be justified; indeed, there can be no question that had there not been a settled pur- pose to delay action, plans might have been adopted, lots staked out, and proprietorship agreed upon,

much earlier, and all such action would have received whatever of congressional sanction was necessary. All the old records, and the earliest deeds, show that there was gross mismanagement and vexatious delay in the distribution of lots.

The first meeting of the Governor and Judges as a Land Board was on September 6, 1806, and during the month various resolutions were adopted in relation to the manner in which lots should be disposed of. Corner lots, and those most valuable, were to be sold, and others not so advantageously situated were to be given away. This plan did not meet the approval of the citizens, and on October 6, 1806, a public meeting was held and the citizens protested against it vigorously. On October 11 the people were requested to present such a plan as they would approve, and on October 16 a plan was presented which was substantially adopted just one month later.

Under this plan the inhabitants of the town, at the time of the fire, were divided into three classes :- I. Those who owned lots in the town at the time; 2. Those who owned or occupied houses; 3. Those individuals who resided in the town, but who did not own or occupy any lot or house. Those persons in the first class who had improved their lots subse- quent to the fire were allowed to retain the lands occupied or enclosed by them; but as the lots, ac- cording to the new plan, were, in some instances, larger than they had before occupied, they were re- quired to pay from two to three cents per square foot for any excess in size.

Towards Christmas the governor, by agreement, decided the rights of all the claimants, one by one, and located the donation lots; and about New Year every person, male and female, who lived in the town when it was burned, and whom the governor judged eligible, to the number of two hundred and fifty-one, drew their donation lots.

About three weeks after, the board came to- gether, and the governor introduced the question " Whether those who came to Detroit since it was' given up to the Americans by the British, who had not taken the oath of allegiance, should receive do- nation lots," and delivered a lengthy speech in favor of said class of claimants. Judges Woodward and Griffin seemed also at first inclined to favor giving them lots, but the final decision was against such claimants. About two thirds of the two hundred and fifty-one persons who had drawn donation lots but a few days previously were, by this decision, deprived of them. So the farce went on, the people being alternately threatened and cajoled until many of them became almost ready to yield their old holdings and leave the Territory.

Eventually the terms of the Act of 1806 were very liberally construed, and not only individual owners

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The history of Detroit and Michigan; or, The metropolis illustrated; a chronological cyclopedia of the past and present, Vol I, Part 13

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902 Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co
Number of Pages: 1096