::'\;.;i:.- \.^ :^^' r^^' ■> %-:^^-/ c>,;^ftv>^ c^-.:..-^^ % % •^' ■^z.0^ ': ,\V j5 o,. V- ,.f>^-i.. 35 O^, & ■^ -S-' # ^.<^ X,<^' 'O, .^ .^ 3> Q. .^^^ v'l'S^ ^^6< ^6 '^,._ .aV^' /°- >^ <.^" cS> -^^ -"^^ '= "^^0^ %' ■'■■ 1 1 ^^ ^^ .N^?^ ^- x.^' \^ #' ^^-..x^^' rO- ,- -s^^' o rP- ^^^ V e^ A- ' * \ ,^^ o,. ,v ,^^ ^-. ,.^< "-«. ',..vV '\.^ ■ ■^■' .vV ^-^ ,-.^^' ,-.^^- ^^ "^ , -^T^ '-iU v^^ "''■^ ">::-■■' x^ -,. ,^ \■ -,'-' iV "-<■ •■':,. .<. 0< -."S ^ ,s'^ ~c<. /■ % t. V / ■0- , •>■ /> ^-fi. \' ^,..^- '•^. ^v,..^' •.'^'' -/■ <<■ „VX^ ^. •■'■>■ ,<" .■.'*-^ \- '-^ oX" << ^■f> ^^0^ ^C,-.<^^' vv\^' •^-^ ,-0- ' ^^ .•0 HISTORY OF St. Clair County, MiGHlGAKI, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF ITS SETTLEMENT, GROWTH, DRVELOPMENT AND RESOURCES; AN EXTENSIVK SKETGH OF ITS CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES— THEIR IMPROVEMENTS, INDUSTRIES. MANUFACTORIES, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND SOCIETIES; ITS WAR RECORD. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, PORTRAITS OF PROMINENT MEN AND EARLY SETTLERS; THE WHOLE PRECEDED liY A HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, AND STATISTICS OF THE STATE. \ \\iKam?\mm. CHICAGO: A. T. ANDREAS & CO 1883 -^^^ooS^ V 1 . (o'/' PREFACE. IN these pages an effort has been made to treat the histoi-y of the county in a full and im- partial manner. With the exception of the tir.st chapters — a concise history of Michigan — the work is distinctively local. The story of the French and American pioneers is very fully treated: bo also is that of the old and new settlers of the county. The biographical history has been compiled from the most certain sources. A large sum of money, much labor and time have been expended on this section of the work. Even after the notes were made by the township historians, they were rewritten, sub- mitted in many instances, again placed on the tyi)e-writer, and mailed for revision and appro- val to the parties interested. The plan adopted in the an-angemicnt of subjects and the minuteness of description pu> sued render the work a most valuable record book. All things relating to the State are dealt with in the chapters of Michigan history, which form, as it were, an introduction to the gen- eral history of the county. The latter is carried down from the earliest times, treating fully and impartially every item of interest connected with the county. In searching old documents and French pamphlets, tin; writer arrived at new facts Vi'hich, on account of their connection with the St. Clair region, are introduced into the history of the county, rcather than into that of the State. The reminiscences of early settlement were copipiled from vrritings in possession of the Pioneer Society, or from facts related by old settlers. The papers liy Mi-s. B. C. Farrand, Rev. O. C. Thompson, Moses F. Oarleton, Samuel CarlefcDn, William Grace.Judge \V. T. Mitchell, Dr. Taylor.U. S. A., and Aora P. Stewai-t were of material assistance; while the offices of the County Clerk and the Register of Deeds yielded up a mine of facts of gi-eat value. The introduc- tion of anecdotes is to the personal history of the county just as important as' that of legends is to the general history, and on that account they find a place in this work. , To the members of the Historical Committee of the Pioneer Society, and also to the edit'! of the Times. Commercial and St. Clair Rejnihlican, all of whom placed the tiles of their jou nals at owe disposal, we desire to extend our sincere thanks for the material aid rendered us in t Compilation of this work. The manuscript copy of the general history was submitted to tli Committee early in September, 1882, and on the 2Pth of that month the work of correcting i rors in dates, names and events was completed. Throughout the pages of the general history, a desire to deal fully and fairly with thesui ject cannot fail to be evident. Regarding township and city history, much has been done !• ward rendering it a plain story of men and events. While the general history of the con: ty contains almost every important item of township history, there are many facts and nami so identified with the townships, as to necessitate a sketch of each division of the county. J the compilation of such sketches, official records were solely relied upon, for the reason that the accompanying biographies, the most interesting facts are brought to light, founded on the an thoritv of the persons concerned. WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY. Chicago, June, 1883. CONTENTS. 11I;iscoverie3 of St. Iguace.. l.i»Saile's Travels Uetn.il. The French and Indian War 38 National I'olicie:) 42 Hritish I'olicy 44 American Policy 44 Ordinance of 17*87 45 I'onliac's Sieye of Detroit 48 Kxpeditions of Hanuar, Seott and Wilkiuson 50 ICxpedilions of St. Clair and Wayne 5.1 >.eu. Wayne's llreat Victory .">4 Itevolutionary War .' -yG Hull's Surrender 58 I'erry's Vietory 59 ("lose of the War 61 I'be Tecuinseh War fi2 The Itlack Hawk War 66 The Toledo War 66 The Patriot War 74 The Mexican War 78 The Warof 1^61-6."; , 78 Prdilical History 79 .\dministralion of tien.Ca.'*? 82 <;en. (Icorge H. Porter's Administration $9 Ailniinistration of Gov. Horner 91 State otlicen* 97 I'olitical Statistics 1 01 Fur Traders and Slave Owners 10:t Slavery in Mi<'lujian K)3 Sale ol Negro Man Pompey UX> Puhlic School System '. I State I'niversitv 107 State Normal School 103 Aktii tiliurat College lOS niher Col leges I(>9 < haritahle Insli tut Ions Ul The Slate PuMic School Ill lu>tilntinn lor I tea f, iMiinband Blind 112 A sy 111 IDS lor the Insane 113 Penal Institutions ll;{ The Slate Prison of 1880 114 State Iteform School Hn The Land otfiee— 8tate Llltrary *, 116 State Fisheries * 118 Pioneer Society of Mieliigan 118 First State Historieal .S>clety 126 Slate Agricultural Society...* „ 126 State Pomnlugieal Soiiety 126 Stale Firemen's Ass rii:oux)Y- 142 Lost Names of Wetiiem Stales „ 144 Superficial Mat«-rial<4 146 Subterranean Channels 150 Waler Koervnirs \^ I'AUK. Marshes 152 Magnetic Wells l.i;; Mineral Waters 153 The Salt Spring of 1797 153 vSoil i.-|i Archieolo^ieal 155 Mounds ot St, Clair County 15H Climatology and Metcorologf 161 IMsease 162 The Hig Snows I6:t The HIack Days 163 Inundation of 1S27 164 Tornado of IS'-i-'t 164 The .Meteor PVl The ( omet 164 Eclipse of the .Moon, 1881 HV4 The Siorin of July 6, 187!) 165 Rotany and Zoidogy 167 The Indians. The Oichipwe Inviusiun 177 The Miamis and Potlawatomies ...179 The llurons 179 The( hippewas I8I Death of the Indian Megish 181 r>rowning of Indian Refugees 18| Cuui-e-kum-e-uon 1h2 Chief Wing 18:1 John Kilev \M O-Ce-Ma-ke-iia-to tS4 Itlaek Duck Murders a Rritlsb Indian 187 Okenion 188 Indians in 1812 18'.) Farly Traders and Interpreters. 189 Joscidi Peveur 192 Dislinguished Karly Visitors 193 Manners and Customs 194 The (iauie of La Crosse 195 An Indian Village 196 The Small-Pox 197 t;en. St. Clair's Letter 200 Treaties with the Otchipwes « 2O0 Treaty at Detroit 201 Treaty at Wa.L\NNI:KS AND CUSTOMS 204 Pioneer Mothers 207 The(Hd Whipping-Post 207 Seasons of Siekness 208 Kventng Visile 209 Nuptial Feasts 209 The Pioneer Funeral 210 The old PoMt Office 210 Retrospect 211 FRENCU PlONKERS. La .'^alle ;iud Hennepin 212 Priviite Claims 215 Michigan in 1805 216 Pioneer Land Buyers of St. ClaJr. - 219 ■Sjuntlers' Claims 220 Land Boiitd, Detroit District— 1807 '220 Privaie Claims in St. Clair 221 Claims .\long St. t lair Itiver to Milk River - 225 Northern i lainis , 233 !>a Riviere du Vases and Maconce Reeervos 235 Tin-; PioM:i;it S4k ir.TV 237 Assossinent Roll in IM21 2.'W .St. (lair Pioneer .Society 2^*9 Summer Meeting of 1882 244 Retro^pcci 245 Moravians, Mormuns and tlKRMAXs 2-W [IfSf 3fI<'FI. I8»3 'a.na. ■/ ^ 9 ^ History of Michigan. CHAPTER I. THE ABORIGINES. Scientists have ascribed to the Mound^'Builders varied origins, and though their divergence of opinion may, for a time, seem incompatible with a thorough investigation of the subject, and tend to a confusion of ideas, no doubt whatever may exist as to the comparative accuracy of conclusions arrived at bj' a few of the investigatoi-s. Like the vexed questions of the Pillar Towers and Garden Beds, it has caused much speculation, and elicited opinions from so man}' antiquarians, ethnologists, and travelers, tliat little remains to be known of the prehistoric peo- ples of America. That this continent is co-existent with the world of the ancients can not be questioned. Every investigation, made under tiie auspices of modern civilization confirms the fact and leaves no channel open througli which the skeptic can escape the thorough refutation of iiis opinions. China, with its numerous living testimonials of antiquit}', with its ancient, thougli limited, literature and its Babelish superstitions, claims a continuous histor}' from antediluvian times ; but although its continuity may be denied with every just reason, there is nothing to prevent the transmission of a hieroglyphic record of its history prior to 1656 Anno Mundi, since many traces of its early settlement survived the Deluge, and became sacred objects of the first liistorical epoch. This very survival of a record, such as that of which the Chinese boast, is not at variance with the designs of a God who made and ruled the universe ; but that an antediluvian people iidiabited this continent, will not be claimed ; because it is not probiible, though it may be possible, that a settlement in a land which may be considered a portion of the Asiatic continent, was effected liy the immediate followers of the first progenitors of the human race. Therefore, on entering the studj' of the ancient people who raised these tumulus monuments over large tracts of the country, it will be just sufficient to wander back to that time when the flood-gates of heaven were swung open to hurl destruction on a wicked world ; and in doing so the inquirj- must be based on legendary, or rather upon many circumstantial evidences ; for, so far as written narrative extends, there is nothing to show that a movement of people too far east resulted in a western settlement. 4^—^ 18 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. THE FIRST IMMIGRATION. The first and most probable sources in which the origin of the Builders must be sought, are those countries lying along the eastern coast of Asia, which doubtless at that time stretched far beyond its present limits, and presented a continuous shore from Lapatka to Point Cambodia, holding a population comparatively civilized, and all professing some elementary form of Boodhism of later days. Those peoples, like the Chinese of tlie present, were bound to live at home, and probably observed that law until after the confusion of languages and the dispersion of the builders of Babel, in 1757, A. M.; but subsequently, within the following century, the old Mon- golians, like the new, crossed the great ocean in the very paths taken by the present representatives of the race, arrived on the same shores, which now extend a very questioniible hospitality to them, and entered at once upon the colonization of the country south and east, while the Caucasian race engaged in a similar movement of exploration and colonization over what may be justly termed the western ex- tension of Asia, and both peoples growing stalwart under the change, attained a moral and physical eminence to which they never could lay claim under the tropical sun which shed its beams upon the cradle of the human race. That mysterious people who, like the Brahmins of to-day, worshipped some transitory deity, and in after years, evidently embraced the idealization of Bood- hism, as preached in Mongolia early in the thirty-fifth century of the world, together with acquiring the learning of the Confucian and Pythagorean schools of the same period, spread all over the land, and in their numerous settlements erected tliese raths, or mounds, and sacrificial altai's whereon thej' received their peroidical visiting gods, surrendered their bodies to natural absorption or annihilation, and watched for the return of some transmigrated soul, the while adoring the universe, which with beings they believed would be eternally existent. They possessed religious orders corresponding, in external show at least, with the Essenes or Theraputce of the pre-Christian and Christian epochs, and to the reformed Theraputaj or monks of the present. Every memento of their coming and their stay which has descended to us is an evidence of their civilized condition. The free copper found within tlie tumuli; the open veins of the Superior and Iron Mountain copper mines, with all the modus operandi of ancient mining, such as ladders, levers, chisels and hammer- heads, discovered by the French explorers of the Northwest and Mississippi, are conclusive proofs that those prehistoric people were highly civilised, and that many flourisliing colonies were spread throughout the Mississippi Valley, while j'ct the mammoth, the mastodon, and a hundred other animals, now only known by their gigantic fossil remains, guarded the eastern shore of the continent, as it were, against supposed invasions of the Tower Builders who went west from Babel ; while yet the beautiful isles of the Antilles formed an integral portion of this continent, long years > "V 1>^-V HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 19 before tlie Euiopeiin Northmen dreamed of setting fortii to the discovery of Green- land ;ind tlio nortliern i.sles, and certainly at a time when all that jiortion of America north of 4o deg. was an ice-incumbered waste. Williin tiie last few years great advances have been made toward the dis- covery of anti