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HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY, MICHIGAN, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF ITS SETTLEMENT, GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND RESOURCES; AN EXTENSIVE AND MINUTE SKETCH 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 BY A HISTORY OF MICHIGAN, STATISTICS OF THE STATE, AND AN ABSTRACT OF ITS LAWS AND CONSTITUTION AND OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. Ilustrateo. CHICAGO: M. A. LEESON & CO. 1882. I I all 'N w Ii —;~- bai. -- -- f r CONTENTS. HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. PAGE. CHAPTER I.- The Aborigines.......................................... 17 The First Immigration............................................ 18 The Second Immigration............................................ 19 The Tartars................................................................ 21 CHAPTER II —French Exploration and Settlement............ 22 The Recent Discoveries of St. Ignace............................ 29 La Salle's Travels........................................................ 34 D etroit....................................................................... 35 CHAPTER III.-The French and Indian War.................... 38 CHAPTER IV.-NATIONAL POLICIES-British Policy........... 44 American Policy.................................................... 44 Ordinance of 1787...................................................... 45 CHAPTER V.-MILITARY HISTORY.-Pontiac's Siege of D etroit.4.................................................... 48 Expeditions of Harmar, Scott and Wilkinson................. 50 Expeditions of St. Clair and Wayne.............................. 53 Gen. Wayne's Great Victory......................................... 54 Revolutionary War.................................................... 56 Hull's Surrender......................................................... 58 Perry's Victory........................................................... 59 Close of the War......................................................... 61 The Tecumseh War..................................................... 62 The Black Hawk War.................................................. 66 The Toledo War......................................................... 66 The Patriot War................................................ 74 The Mexican War...................................................... 78 The War of 1861-65..................................................... 78 CHAPTER VI.-POLITICAL HISTORY................................... 79 Administration of Gen. Cass......................................... 82 Gen. George B. Porter's Administration......................... 89 Administration of Gov. Horner................................... 91 State Officers................................................ 97 Political Statistics........................................................ 101 CHAPTER VII.-MISCELLANEOUS.-Fur Traders and Slave Owners................................................................... 103 Slavery in Michigan.................................................... 103 Sale of Negro Man Pompey.......................................... 106 Public School System.................................................. 106 State University.......................................................... 107 State Normal School..................................... 108 Agricultural College................................... 108 Other Colleges.......................................................... 109 Charitable Institutions........................... 111 The State Public School............................................ 111 Institution for Deaf, Dumb and Blind........................... 112 Asylums for the Insane........................................... 113 Penal Institutions....................................................... 113 The State Prison in 1880................................... 114 State Reform School.................................................... 115 The Land Office-State Library............................... 116 State Fisheries............................. 118 CHAPTER VIII.-STATE SocIETIEs —Pioneer Society of Michigan....................................................... 118 Roll of Pioneers........................................... 119 First State Historical Society...................................... 126 State Agricultural Society........................ 126 State Pomological Society........................................ 126 State Firemen's Association.................................. 126 State Board of Public Health...................................... 127 PAGE. CHAPTER IX.-MICHIGAN AND ITS RESOURCES.-Iron and Steel Industries........................................................... 1 7 The Copper Product.................................................... 128 The Products of a Year................................................. 128 Michigan Crops for 1881..................9....................... 129 The Vessel Interest.................................................... 131 Growth of Forty Years................................................ 131 Leading the Van........................................................ 13 HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY. CHAPTER X.-Introduction............................................. 133 Geological Conformations............................................. 135 Superficial M aterials.................................................. 136 Gas Wells............................................................. 138 Subterranean Channels.............................................. 139 W ater Reservoirs.................................................... 139 Ancient Lake Sites............................................... 141 Mineral Waters........................................................... 141 The Salt Springs of 1797.............................................. 142 Mt. Clemens Magnetic Waters..................................... 142 Analysis............................................................. 144 Fossils......................................................................... 145 Review of Physical Characteristics............................... 145 Archaeological................................................... 146 Forts and Mounds of Macomb...................................... 148 The Second Mound-Stone Mounds............................ 149 Forts Numbers Two and Thi ee..................................... 150 Survey by S. L. Andrews.......................................... 151 Huge Skeletons.......................................................... 152 Sundry Discoveries...................................................... 152 Zoological-Birds............................................ 154 Mammalia....................................... 160 The Flora of the County............................................. 163 Meteorological-The Big Snows................................... 163 The Black Days......................................................... 164 Tornado of 1835-The Meteor and Comet..................1...... Eclipse of the Moon, 1881..................................... CHAPTER XI.-THE INDIANS....................................... 16 The Otchipwe Invasion.............................................. 168 The Miamis and Pottawatomies.................................... 170 Reign of the Cholera............................................. 7 Indian Treaties-Treaty of Greenville.......................... 171 Treaty of Detroit...................................................... 17 Treaty of Brownstown-Treaty of Saginaw................... 173 Well-known Savages................................................ 174 The Eagle Chief........................................................ 176 Okemos.......1............... 179 A Legend of Cusick Lake........................................... 180 Early Traders and Interprters.................................. 181 Distinguished Early Settlers..................................... 186 Captivity cf the Boyer Family.................................... 187 The Lost Child........................................................... 188 The Indians' Raid...................................................... 190 Indians on the Trail of an American............................. 190 Visit to the Indian Village.................................... 191 Manners and Customs...................................................... 193 CHAPTER XII.-The French Pioneers.............................. 194 Detroit in 1763......................................... 197 The Pioneer Laud Buyers of Macomb........................... 199 Squatters' Claims.................................................. 200 Indian Reservations.................................................... 213 La Riviere au Vases and Maconee Reserves..................... 213 il.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ m a~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~: a t * S w raffift 4 i ~ ~ ~ ~ 7~~ ~b Iq_ 11 I vAi CON' PAGE. CHAPTER XIII.-THE MORAVIANs.-Settlement of the Moravian Suspects........................................................ 214 Moravian Indians, 1781................................................ 215 M oravianism............................................................... 216 Moravian Marriages................................................... 216 Moravian Manners, Habits and Customs........................ 217 The Moravian Village......................................... 217 The German Immigration of 1845................................. 219 CHAPTER XIV.-PIONEER HISTORY.................................. 219 Society of 1871...........................................................221 Organization of the County Pioneers............................ 221 Charter Members........................................................ 224 Members Enrolled Since Organization....................225 Pioneer Reminiscences-The O'Connor Family.............. 229 The Tuckar Family...................................................232 Christian Clemens...................................................... 236 C. Clemens in a British Dungeon................................ 237 Distiniguished Visitant................................................. 238 Chastising a Savage..................................................... 238 Col. John Stockton-Thomas Ashley.............................. 239 Chauncey G. Cady............................................... 240 W illiam A. Burt...................................................... 241 The Settlemen. of the Darlings......................... 243 Corbyn Reminiscences.............................................. 244 Carter Reminiscences................................... 245 Daniel W. Day's Reminiscences....................................246 Reminiscences of John D. Holland............................... 248 Early Settlement in Shelby, by L. D. Owen................... 250 The Past and Present-Poem........................................ 254 CHAPTER XV.-PIONEER REMINISCENCES.-Pioneer Mothers 259 The First Homes of the People............................... 260 The Keg of Gold..................................................... 261 Recluse of the Marsh-A Mother-in-law's Journey........ 262 Detroit to Mt. Clemens............................................... 264 Fortunate Hunters...................................................... 263 Deer Hunting-Harrington's Coon Hunting................... 264 Bunce and O'Keefe-Bear Experiences.......................... 265 Dr. Gleeson and the Reptile....................................... 265 Deer lunting Made Easy............................................ 266 Reminiscences of the Bailey Settlement..............2....... 266 The Deer of Providence............................................... 268 Political Turncoat-lnwood's Bear Hunting............... 269 A Bear in Bruce........................................................ 270 Noah Webster and the Bear.......................................... 271 Finch's Wolf Hunting................................ 271 Tragic End of a Wolf-Orderly Retreat............... 272 Making Sugar Among the Wolves................................ 272 The Yellow Cat of Richmond...................................... 273 The Building of the Ship "Harriet"...................... 273 Jacob A. Crawtord and the Speculator........................... 273 Leisure Hours in Pioneer Times.................................. 275 Nuptial Feasts in Early Times.................................... 276 Evening Visits...................................................... 277 Lumberiog in Early Days.278 Lumberilg in Early Days............................................ 278 Seasons of Sickness...................................................... 279 Death of Alanson Church...........................280 A Pioneer Lawyer.......................................... 281 Chesterfield in Early Days......................................... 282 Marriage Record in Early Days................................. 283 Marks for Cattle in Olden Times.................................. 289 Pontiac and St. Clair Mail Routes................................. 290 Temperance and Huuse Haising..................................... 291 A Re rospect.............................................................. 294 CHAPTER XV.-ORGANZATION.................................. 295 St. Clair Township.....................................................296 Macomb County Erected............................................ 296 Locating the County Seat................................ 296 Original Townships................................................... 297 Name Huron Changed to Clinton................................. 297 Change of Boundary...............................................297 Organic Summary....................................................... 298 Establishment of Townships.................................. 299 Miscellaneous Acts....................................... 300 County Officers Past and Present............................. 303 Supervisors' Board....................................................... 304 CHAPTER XVII.-Political History................................306.County Elections............................................................, County E llections.310 CHAPTER XVIII.-THE PRESS OF MACOMB COUNTY.-Journals of Rom eo........................................................329 Journals of Utica.................................................. 330 rENTS. I PAGE. Mt. Clemens.............................. 330 New Baltimore-Richmond.......................................... 335 Armada-Personal Notices.......................33............. 6 CHAPTER XIX.-POETRY OF MACOMB.-The World's Pioneer 344 A Child's Prayer................................... 346 A Legend of Shelby Township................................. 347 Who Dongles the Bell?.......................................... 347 My Mother......................................... 348 The Garden of the Heart..................................... 348 April Storms-Happy To-Night.................................. 349 The Lonely Grave....................................... 349 On the Death of Lincoln.............................................. 350 CHAPTER XX.-Progress of Education............................. 353 Sabbath Schools of the County................................355 CHAPTER XXI.-The Churches of Macomb....................... 358 CHAPTER XXII.-THE WAR FOR THE UNION.-Appointm ents and Statistics..................................................374 Record of Commissioned Officers................................... 376 First Michigan Infantry......................................... 384 Second Michigan Infantry.......................................... 385 Third Michigan Inf try..................................... 38 Fourth Michigan Infantry................................ 386 Fifth Michigan Infantry................................. 387 Sixth Michigan Infantry................................ 392 Seventh Michigan Infantry......................................... 392 Eighth Michigan Infantry.........................................393 Ninth Michigan Infantry................................ 393 Tenth Michigan Infantry...........................................394 Eleventh Michigan Infantry............................... 395 Twelfth. Thirteenth and Fourteenth Michigan Infantry.. 396 Fifteenth and Sixteenth Michigan Infantry............. 397 Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Michigan Infantry................................................................... 398 fantry.X398 Twentieth, Twenty-first and Twenty-second Michigan Iprantry........................................................ 399 T eenty-third, Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, Twentysixth and Twenty-seventh Michigan Infantry.......... 410 Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Michigan Infantry................................................................... 411 First Michigan Colored Infantry.................................. 412 First Michigan Engineers and Mechanics...................... 41 First Michigan Cav..lry............................... 413 Second Michigan Cavalry................................... 415 Third Michigan Cavalry......................................... 416 Fourth and Fifth Michigan Cavalry.............................. 416 Sixth, Seventh andt Eighth Michigan Cavalry.......... 42 Ninth and Tenth Michigan Cavalry...................... 423 Eleventh Michigan Cavalry-Light Artillery................424 Soldiers and Sailors of Macomb and St. Clair..................424 Conclusion................................................................ 430 CHAPTER XXIII.-OLDEN ENTERPRISES.-The City of Belvidere.................................................................... 432 Belvidere Land Titles.................................................. 433 Frederick or Casino-Other Villages............................435 Trem ble Creek........................................................... 435 Railroads and Navigation............................................. 436 The W eeks Contract.................................................. 438 Action of the U. S. Troops............................... 438 R ailroads................................................................... 439 aRailroads...439 Clinton River............................................................ 440 Harbor of Refuge, Belle River..................................... 441 CHAPTER XXIV.-COURTS AND BAR 01 MACOIB.-Circuit Court......................................................................... 442 Retirement of Judge Morell..................................... 442 The Grand Jury and the Judge.......................... 445 Admissions to the Bar of Macomb County....................445 The Present Bar........................................................ 447 Im portant Trials........................................................ 48 Electioneering in 1873........................................... 448 The Hatheway Estate, Air Line Suit......................... 449 The County Court House.............................. 450 Meeting of Romeo Citizens........................................451 Logic of the Conservatives...........................................45 Laying the Corner Stone..........................................454 Mayor Crocker's Address.......................................... 455 The County Jail......................................................460 CHAPTER XXV.Y4OUNTY FINANCES AND STATISTICS.Towns and llages, Population in 1850-60............. 465 Maconb Cou y Statistics in 1850................................. 465,_ 0:: f A: 7 - - -I~~~~ii I, ks ^ ^ \ I -- - -,: ~i~ ---.. I eI I I -af 2 *a __ ~ ~1._~_ --- - ----- --- —-- WRITER'S PREFACE. The period has passed away forever when the once philosophic phrase —a thousand years scarce serve to form a State. could be used with propriety. The same may now be said of history. The busy activities of our days, the march of progress, the wonderful advances of science and art. contribute to the realization of ideas, and crowd into a period of fifty years a greater number of remarkable and important events, than fifty decades of olden times in the Eastern World could offer to the chronicler. Therefore, the compilation of history is not only justifiable. but also essential. It is the enduring record of years that can only through it be recalled, of men who will be honored by the American manhood of this and coming generations. This work is dedicated to the people of Macomb County. With the exception of the first part, the history of Michigan, it is distinctively local, and as such must be considered a magnificent record of a worthy people. The work of the French and American pioneers of Macomb extends over a century. Within that period, they have raised it from its primitive condition to the rank of one of the first divisions of the State-cultivated its wild lands, built its villages and towns and brought into existence two important centers of population-Mt. Clemens and Romeo. They transmuted the marsh into firm earth, removed the forests, and decorated the river banks with happy homes and fertile fields. It is difficult to point out precisely the men who were foremost in contributing to this result: all share in the prosperity of the county. and take a special pride in its advancement; each citizen has experienced the luxury of doing good, and feels that life is not now a mere shadow of a dream. The alarms and anxieties attendant on the pioneer life have been changed to certainties and happy greetings. Those who saw the primeval forest waving over the land, lived on through the days of its destruction to see the clearings covered with the houses of merchants and manufacturers. or the fields and homes of a prosperous people. They wear the honors which justly belong to them; while those who died, obtained a glimpse of what they labored for before passing away, and live in the memory of the present. The pioneers who are gone beheld the budding desires of younger days expand into the flower, and. seeing, went to the undiscovered land beyond the grave, leaving their memories and their deeds to be carried down the stream of time. In these pages. an effort has been made to treat the history of the county in a full and impartial manner. Doubtless a few inaccuracies may have crept in; but such must be attributed to other causes. rather than carelessness. In regard to the pages devoted to personal history, a large sum of money. much labor and time have been expended on them. Even after the personal notes taken by the township historian were rewritten, and in many instances submitted, this very copy was placed on type-writer and mailed to the person concerned for revision. The biographies given here, together with their collection, would necessitate the steady work of one experienced man for five years. The collection 1 of such facts as appear in the State and County histories, would entail on an inexperienced writer ten years' steady work, while the compilation of township histories, as they appear Ge 7 14r, i~-i — -- I II C -Lp I ~: -- — ~ ----- - - iv WRITER'S PREFACE. here, would doubtless occupy the attention of such a writer for a year. Within a few months, this work has been begun and completed. Notwithstanding this remarkable celerity, it will be evident that little or nothing, which should have a place in its pages, has been omitted. It will also be evident throughout that the writer of the general history, as well as the gentlemen who collected the biographical notices, have realized the simple fact of undeserved praise being undisguised satire. In some instances, this realization may have led to too 1brief references to many men, an account of whose lives might occupy many pages. The plan of this work is specially adapted to a great record book. All things pertaining in general to the State are dealt with in the State history, and form, as it were, an introduction to the county history. The latter is carried down from the first Otchipwe invasion to the present time, treating fully and impartially every subject of general interest to the people. So with the cities and the villages-they have been very liberally sketched; while each township has just sufficient notice given it to render its history a most valuable record for the future. We have been ably assisted in the work by the members of the county press. The written sketches of Judge James B. Eldredge, Edgar Weeks, John E. Day, Rev. H. N. Bissell, Dr. Hollister, were all requisitioned and yielded up a mine of historical information. The reminiscences of early settlement were selected from the writings of members of the pioneer society, while the numerous anecdotes were written from facts obtained from the old settlers. To the county officers our most sincere thanks are offered-first, for placing their well-kept records at our disposal; second, for the material aid rendered in searching old record books, and lastly, for the genial courtesy which marked their intercourse with us on all occasions. To Chauncey G. Cady, George H. Cannon and John E. Day, members of the Historical Committee of the Pioneer Society, we desire to extend our thanks for the deep interest which they have taken in the work, as well as recognition of their faithful labors on the Committee of Revision and Correction. The gentlemen engaged in the biographical department of the work were H. O. Brown, in Bruce and Washington; W. M. Bucklin, at Romeo; E. B. Belden, in Ray; F. A. Stitt, in Sterling; Thomas Mitchell, in Harrison and Erin; William Dicer. in Shelby; Jesse Cloud, in Utica; George T. Mason, at Mt. Clemens City; S. A. Stinson. in Chesterfield; John E. Day, Secretary of the Pioneer Society, compiled the general and biographical history of Armada and Richmond Townships; Horatio N. Richards, of Lenox, and Calv.n Davis, of Macomb. The support extended to the history was not so general as it should be; yet we feel satisfied that the quality of our subscribers compensates in a great measure for the loss in number, by rendering our book so excellent in its biographical features. While the work deals with the county generally, it has, from a historical standpoint, been written expressly for those who supported it. The very few among the intelligent classes who did not order a book cannot now obtain a copy from us. To all we have given a history, which we believe is perfect in detail, and from the patrons of the work we ask only a careful perusal of the various chapters before their criticism. CHICAGO, July, 1882. M. A. LEESON..Wd. *Z- -- I, 0, . - Z -- CONTENTS. vii TAGE. Population in 1870................................................ 466 Statistical, 1870...................................................... 466 Population in 1880...................................................... 467 Equalized Valuation, 1842-81................................... 468 CHAPTER XXVI. —ARICULTURAL ANT) FARMERS' ASSOCIATIONs.-Agricultural Development........................... 469 Macomb County Agricultural Society......................... 473 Union Farmers' Club.................................................. 474 The Grang................................................... 475 Macomb County Grange............................................... 475 Fine Stock Sheep Raisers............................................. 476 Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company.................... 481 Sheep-Shearers' Association...................................... 482 CHAPTER XXVII.-Necrology......................................... 484 CHAPTER XXVIII. —Chronology...............4............. 496 IIISTORY OF TOWNS. CHAPTER XXIX.-MOUNT CLEMENS CITY.-Early Settlement................................ 519 Dentists and Dentistry............................................... 23 Platting the Village................................................ 523 Organization..................................................... 524 Trustees.......................................... 526 Election in 1882......................................................... 527 American Settlers in 1821-22..................................... 529 First Flouring Mill, Orchards, Cemetery....................... 59 Glass Factory, Saw-Mills............................................ 530 Inaugurating the Canal, Mount Clemens in 1868........... 530 Progress in 1880......................................................... 531 Era of Advancement................................................... 532 Telephone Exchange, Taxation..............................,.. 535 The Clinton River................................... 535 The Death of Four Citizens........................................ 536 Industries.............................................................. 537 Hotels......................................................... 539 Religious History...................................... 541 Schools of Mount Clemens............................................ 544 Private Schools, 1840 to 1857..................................... 548 History of the Academy............................... 550 Private Schools, 1857 to 1881....................................... 558 Denominational Scuuis............................. 559 Union School........................................................... 559 Teachers, 1857 to 1882........................................... 560 Officers and Trustees................................................... 561 Statistics...................................................... 562 Masonic, I. O. O. F................................................... 564 Manufacturing Industries.................................... 565 Clinton Township, Organization................................... 567 Town ostr.............................................................. 568 Schools and School Statistics................................. 569 Biographical Sketches................................................ 570 CHAPTER XXX.-RoMEo.-Naming the Village.............. 613 Organic..................................................................... 613 First Settlers............................................................ 616 The Old Inhabitants.......................................... 620 The First Post Office.................................................. 623 Pioneer Physicians......................... 6..... 624 Reminiscences of Early Times.................................. 624 Leisure Hours....................................................... 625 A Few Well Remembered Settlers................................ 625 Romeo in 1836-37........................................................ 626 Romeo in 1881...................................................... 628 Schools and School Teachers.................... 628 The Romeo Academy.................................................. 530 R-ligious.................................................... 632 Libraries and Museums............................................... 636 Societies.................................................................... 636 Romeo Carriage Company............................................ 639 Romeo Mineral Well......................................... 639 Sash and Blind Factory............................................ 641 Biographical Sketches................................................ 642 CHAPTER XXXI.-ARMADA.-Organization, First Town Meeting.......................................................... 679 Meeting.. 679 Pioneers of Armada........................................ 681 Armada Village......................................... 683 Post Office.................................................................. 685 PAGE. Armada Agricultural Society....................................... 685 Armada C. L. S. C...................................................... 686 Armada Literary Society............................................. 686 Schools....................................................................... 687 Biographical Sketches......................... 6...87 CHAPTER XXXII.-SHELBY TowNsHIiP.-Organic............ 717 Town Roster................................................ 718 Schools, Utica Village.................................................. 719 Organization, Disco Village......................................... 721 Utica Lyceum, Congregational Church.......................... 722 Biographical Sketches............................................... 722 CHAPTER XXXIII.-BRUCE TowNsHr.p-Grand Trunk Railroad, Air Line............................................... 743 Schools, Scotch Settlement........................................ 743 Bounty for Wolf Scalps-Statistical.............................. 744 Loss (f the Reside Child............................................. 744 Biographical Sketches................................................ 745 CHAPTER XXXIV.-MAcoMB TOWNSHIP.-First Schools..... 767 First Settlers-Orgnization....................................... 767 Town Officers.......................................................... 768 Physical and Statistical............................................... 768 Schools-Macomb Village............................................ 769 Biographical Sketches.................................................. 770 CHAPTER XXXV-RICHMOND TOWNHIP.......................... 778 Town Roster............................................................. 779 Richmond Village................................................ 781 Township Schools in 1881............................................. 781 Baptist Church of Richmond Village............................. 782 Memphis Village................................................. 782 Biographical Sketches.............................................. 786 CHAPTER XXXVI.-WAsHINGTON TOWNsHIP.-Organization................................................... 806 Town Roster........................................................... 887 Grand Trunk Railroad of Michigan.............................. 07 Michigan Air Line Railroad......................................... 808 Reminiscences of Early Days in Washington................. 808 The Crissman School........................................... 808 Schools-A Temperfnce Building................................ 809 Mention of a Few Old Settlers............................... 809 Reminders of the Past-Methodist Church................. 810 Washington Union Church Society................................ 810 South Burial Ground............................................ 811 Villages of the Township............................................. 811 Reminiscences of C. Harlow Green................................ 812 Biographical Sketches.................................................. 813 CHAPTER XXXVII -STERLING TOWNSHIP.-The First Settlers...................................................................... 846 Organization-The First Election............................... 846 Roster of Officers..................................................... 847 School....................................................................... 848 Biographical Sketches.................................... 848 CHAPTER XXXVIII.-W ARIEN TOWNSHIP....................... 852 Town Officers............................................................. 853 Village of Warren...................................................... 853 Township Schools....................................................... 854 St. Clement's Catholic Church...................................... 854 Biographical Sketches................................................. 855 CHAPTER XXXIX.-RAY T WNSHIP................................. 857 Organization..85 Organization............................................................... 858 Town Koster.............................................................. 859 Eccentricities of Town Board...................................... 860 Teachers' Association................................................... 860 Patriot War-Crawford School...................................... 860 Schools in 1881-1882................................................... 860 Ray Center-Davis...................................................... 861 Biogr. phical Sketches.................................................. 863 CHAPTER XL.-LENOX TowNSHIP.-Organization.............. 877 First Meetiug............................................................. 877 Town Roster............................................................... 878 Schols................................................................ 879 Biographical Sketches.................................................. 808 CHAPTER XLL —HARRIsoN TowNSH1P.-Town Roster........ 888 Organization........................................ 889 Physical Characteristics........................................ 889 First Events...................................... '.....^... 890 Literarv aiid Educational 8......................890 Present Schools............................... Biographical Sketches...................... lx. - I i -~ I .4 __ - 1 7_ 7" viii CONTENTS. [., PAGE. CHAPTER XLIL.-ERIN TOWNsHIP.-Organization.............. 893 Township Officers...................................................... 894 Township Schools..................................................... 894 Villages.................................................................. 894 Biographical Sketches.................................................. 895 CHAPTER XLIII.-CHESTERFIELD TOWNSHIP.-Organization 901 Town Roster............................................................... 901 Churches-Schools........................................... 902 Masonic-New Ba'timore..................................... 902 Manufacturing Industries............................................ 903 Biographical Sketches................................................. 904 RECENT HAPPENINGS. Tlansactions of the Pioneer Society, 1882............................. 915 Early Banks and Bankers of Macomb County..................... 917 Wildcat Banks.............................................................. 920 The Bank of Utica............................................................ 920 The Farmers' Bank of Romeo............................................. 922 The Clinton River Baik.................................................... 922 The Bank of Lake St. Clair................................................ 922 Conclusion...................................................... 924 PORTRAITS. Bailey, Asahel....................................................... 633 Bailey, Cynthia................................................................ 633 PAGE. Brownell, W illiam............................................................. 729 Cady, C. G................................... 240 Cannon, George W.......................................... 256 Cannon, Lucy M.............................................................. 256 Cooley, Dennis, M. D. (deceased)...................................... 497 Crolker, T. M................................................................ 569 Day, Erastus...................................................... 793 Dickinson, Joshua B.................................................... 533 Douglass, Isaac....................................................... 617 Hazelton, H. R............................................................... 371 Hendrick, F. G............................................................ 585 Keeler, Mary J............................................................. 809 Keeler, Nathan............................................... 809 Phillips, G. W.................................................................. 681 Phillips, Mrs. G. W............................................................ 681 Sherman, Hiram........................................ 665 Sherman, M. W...................-.....-.............. 665 Smith, Elisha (deceased)............................................ 825 Smith, Mrs. Elisha....................................................... 825 Steffens, Charles............................................................. 479 Sterling, A. W. (deceased).................................................. 519 W eekly, Edgar.................................................................. 443 ILLUSTRATIONS. First Schoolhouse in Romeo............................................... 629 High School Building, Mt Clemens.................................... 551 Macomb County Court House............................................ 305 Macomb County Jail....................................................... 461 ERRATA...................................................................................924 I I I I -.,. _ r - - 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 witha 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 by a few, of the investigators. Like the vexed questions of the Pillar Towers and Garden Beds, it has caused much speculation, and elicited opinions from so many antiquarians, ethnologists, and travelers, that little remains to be known of the prehistoric peoples of America. That this continent is co-existent with the world of the ancients can not be questioned. Every investigation, made under the auspices of modern civilization confirms the fact and leaves no channel open through which the skeptic can escape the thorough refutation of his opinions. China, with its numerous living testimonials of antiquity, with its ancient, though limited, literature and its Babelish superstitions, claims a continuous history 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 historical 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 inhabited this continent, will not be claimed; because it is not probable, though it may be possible, that a settlement in a land which may be considered a portion of the Asiatic continent, was effected by the immediate followers of the first progenitors of the human race. Therefore, on entering the study 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 worlds and in doing so the inquiry 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. R 7_ ~ J 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 the 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 Mongolians, 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 questionable 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 extension 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 Boodhism, 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 these raths, or mounds, and sacrificial altars whereon they 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 Theraputa of the pre-Christian and Christian epochs, and to the reformed Therapute 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 the 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 hammerheads, discovered by the French explorers of the Northwest and Mississippi, are conclusive proofs that those prehistoric people were highly civilized, and that many flourishing colonies were spread throughout the Mississippi Valley, while yet 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 L J L - HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 19 before the European Northmen dreamed of setting forth to the discovery of Greenland and the northern isles, and certainly at a time when all that portion of America north of 45 deg. was an ice-incumbered waste. Within the last few years great advances have been made toward the discovery of antiquities whether pertaining to remains of organic or inorganic nature. Together with many small but telling relics of the early inhabitants of the country, the fossils of prehistoric animals have been unearthed from end to end of the land, and in districts, too, long pronounced by geologists of some repute to be without even a vestige of vertebrate fossils. Among the collected souvenirs of an age about which so very little is known, are twenty-five vertebree averaging thirteen inches in diameter, and three vertabrae, ossified together measuring nine cubical feet; a thigh-bone five feet long by twenty-eight in diameter, and the shaft fourteen by eight inches thick, the entire lot weighing 600 pounds. These fossils are presumed to belong to the cretaceous period when the Dinosaur roamed over the country from east to west, desolating the villages of the people. This animal is said to be sixty feet long, and when feeding in cypress and palm forests, to extend himself eighty-five feet, so that he may devour the budding tops of those great trees. Other efforts in this direction may lead to great results, and culminate probably in the discovery of a tablet engraven by some learned Mound Builder, describing, in the ancient hieroglyphics of China, all those men and beasts whose history excites so much speculation. The identity of the Mound Builders with the Mongolians might lead us to hope for such a consummation; nor is it beyond the range of probability, particularly in this practical age, to find the future of some industrious antiquarian requited by the upheaval of a tablet written in the Tartar characters of 1700 years ago, bearing on a subject which can now be treated only on a purely circumstantial basis. THE SECOND IMMIGRATION.. may have begun a few centuries prior to the Christian era, and unlike the former expedition or expedtions, to have traversed northeastern Asia, to its Arctic confines, and then east to the narrow channel now known as Behring's Straits, which they crossed, and sailing up the unchanging Yukon, settled under the shadow of Mount St. Elias for many years, and pushing south commingled with their countrymen, soon acquiring the characteristics of the descendants of the first colonists. Chinese chronicles tell of such a people, who went north, and were never heard of more. Circumstances conspire to render that particular colony the carrier of a new religious faith and of an alphabetic system of representative character to the old colonists, and they, doubtless, exercised a most beneficial influence in other respects; because the influx of immigrants of such culture as were the Chinese, even of that remote l period, must necessarily bear very favorable results, not only in bringing in reports...... I -r IV-_ r -- 20 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. of their travels, but also accounts from the fatherland bearing on the latest events. With the idea of a second and important exodus there are many theorists united, one of whom says: " It is now the generally received opinion that the first inhabitants of America passed over from Asia through these straits." The Esquimaux of North America, the Samoieds of Asia, and the Laplanders of Europe, are supposed to be of the same family; and this supposition is strengthened by the affinity which exists in their languages. The researches of Humboldt have traced the Mexicans to the vicinity of Behring's Straits; whence it is conjectured, that they, as well as the Peruvians and other tribes, came originally from Asia, and were the Hurignoos, who are, in the Chinese annals, said to have emigrated under Puno, and to have been lost in the north of Siberia." Since this theory is accepted by most antiquarians, there is every reason to believe that from the discovery of what may be called an overland route to what was then considered an eastern extension of that country which is now known as the " Celestial Empire," many caravans of emigrants passed to their new homes in the land of illimitable possibilities until the way became a well-marked trail over which the Asiatic might travel forward, and having once entered the Elysian fields never entertained an idea of returning. Thus from generation to generation the tide of immigration poured in until the slopes of the Pacific and the banks of the great inland rivers became hives of busy industry. Magnificent cities and monuments were raised at the bidding of the tribal leaders, and populous settlements centered with happy villages, sprung up everywhere in manifestation of the power and wealth and knowledge of the people. The colonizing Caucasian of the historic period walked over this great country on the very ruins of a civilization which a thousand years before eclipsed all that of which he could boast. He walked through the wilderness of the West over buried treasures hidden under the accumulated growth of nature, nor rested until he saw, with great surprise, the remains of ancient pyramids and temples and cities, larger and evidently more beautiful than ancient Egypt could bring forth after its long years of uninterrupted history. The pyramids resemble those of Egypt in exterior form, and in some instances are of larger dimensions. The pyramid of Cholula is square, having each side of its base 1,335 feet in length, and its height about 172 feet. Another pyramid, situated in the north of Vera Cruz, is formed of large blocks of highly polished porphyry, and bears upon its front hieroglyphic inscriptions and curious sculpture. Each side of its square base is eighty-two feet in length, and a flight of fifty-seven steps conducts to its summit, which is sixty-five feet in height. The ruins of Palenque are said to extend twenty miles along the ridge of a mountain, and the remains of an Aztec city near the J banks of the river Gila, are spread over more than a square league. Their literature '? 9, 1. L - % I -6 4W _ A ---~' --- —— L HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 21 consisted of hieroglyphics; but their arithmetical knowledge did not extend further than their calculations by the aid of grains of corn. Yet, notwithstanding all their varied accomplishments, and they were evidently many, their notions of religious duty led to a most demoniac zeal, at once barbarously savage and ferociously cruel. Each visiting god, instead of bringing new life to the people, brought death to thousands; and their grotesque idols, exposed to drown the senses of the beholders in fear9 wrought wretchedness rather than spiritual happiness, until, as some learned and humane Montezumian said, the people never approached these idols without fear, and this fear was the great animating principle, the great religious motive power which sustained the terrible religion. Their altars were sprinkled with blood drawn from their own bodies in large quantities, and on them thousands of human victims were sacrificed in honor of the demons whom they worshipped. The head and heart of every captive taken in war were offered up as a bloody sacrifice to the god of battles, while the victorious legions feasted on the remaining portions of the dead bodies. It has been ascertained that, during the ceremonies attendant on the consecration of two of their temples, the number of prisoners offered up in sacrifice was 12,210; while their own legions contributed voluntary victims to the terrible belief in large numbers. Nor did this horrible custom cease immediately after 1521, when Cortez entered the imperial city of the Montezumas; for, on being driven from it, all his troops who fell into the hands of the native soldiers were subjected to the most terrible and prolonged suffering that could be experienced in this world, and when about to yield up that spirit which is indestructible, were offered in sacrifice, their hearts and heads consecrated, and the victors allowed to feast on the yet warm flesh. A reference is made here to the period when the Montezumas ruled over Mexico, simply to gain a better idea of the hideous idolatry which took the place of the old Boodhism of the Mound Builders, and doubtless helped in a great measure to give victory to the new-comers, even as the tenets of Mahommetanism urged the ignorant followers of the prophet to the conquest of great nations. It was not the faith of the people who built the mounds and the pyramids and the temples, and who, two hundred years before the Christian era, built the great wall of jealous China. No; rather was it that terrible faith born of the Tartar victory, which carried the great defences of China at the point of the javelin and hatchet, who afterwards marched to the very walls of Rome, under Alaric, and spread over the islands of Polynesia to the Pacific slopes of South America. THE TARTARS came there, and, like the pure Mongols of Mexico and the Mississippi valley, rose to a state of civilization bordering on that attained by them. Here for centuries the sons of the fierce Tartar race continued to dwell in comparative peace, until the... ~Y iW -- 22 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. all-ruling empire took in the whole country from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and peopled the vast territory watered by the Amazon, with a race that was destined to conquer all the peoples of the Orient, and only to fall before the march of the arch-civilizing Caucasian. In course of time these fierce Tartars pushed their settlements northward, and ultimately entered the territories of the Mound Builders, putting to death all who fell within their reach, and causing the survivors of the death-dealing invasion to seek a refuge from the hordes of this semi-barbarous people in the wilds and fastnesses of the North and Northwest. The beautiful country of the Mound Builders was now in the hands of savage invaders, the quiet, industrious people, who raised the temples and pyramids were gone; and the wealth of intelligence and industry accumulating for ages, passed into the possession of a rapacious horde, who could admire it only so far as it offered objects for plunder. Even in this the invaders were satisfied, and then, having arrived at the height of their ambition, rested on their swords and entered upon the luxury and ease,'in the enjoyment of which they were found when the vanguard of European civilization appeared upon the scene. Meantime the southern countries which these adventurers abandoned after having completed their conquests in the North, were soon peopled by hundreds of people, always moving from island to island and ultimately halting amid the ruins of villages deserted by those who, as legends tell, had passed eastward but never returned; and it would scarcely be a matter for surprise if those emigrants were found to be the progenitors of that race found by the Spaniards in 1532, and identical with the Araucanians, Cuenches and Huiltiches of to-day. CHAPTER II. FRENCH EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT. The fame of Marquette continues to gain strength as days advance. Notwithstanding all his countrymen had written of him, the new Americans continue to inquire into his magnificent career, and to add to the store of information regarding him, already garnered. Rev. Geo. Duffield, of Detroit, is one of his latest biographers, and from his writings on the life of the missionary, we make the following extracts: Jacques Marquette came late to his fame. Open Davenport's Dictionary of Biography, 1831, " comprising the most eminent characters of all ages, nations and professions," and you will not find even so much as his name. Turn for that name. ~ r 4 --- bg A -1 )?*..A -,, / HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 23 to the Cyclopedia of Biography by Parke Godwin, with a supplement by George Sheppard, A. D. 1872, and you will not find it there, and so with many similar works. Hence we see the need of such an historical society as the present, that one of the greatest and best of the original founders of Michigan may receive his due credit, and be honored with an appropriate memorial. Marquette was born of an honorable family at Laon, in the north of France, in the year 1637, but the month and day of his birth are not easily found, and I have nowhere seen his portrait. In 1654 he joined the Society of the Jesuits, and in 1666 was sent to the missions in Canada. After the river St. Lawrence and the great lakes had been mapped out, the all-absorbing object of interest with Governor Frontenac Talch, the intendant, and Marquette himself, was to discover and trace from the north the wonderful Mississippi, that DeSoto, the Spaniard, had first seen at the south in 1541. In 1668 (according to Bancroft,III, 152), he repaired to the Chippewas at the Sault to establish the mission of St. Mary, the oldest settlement begun by Europeans within the present limits of the commonwealth of Michigan. On the day of the immaculate conception of the Holy Virgin, in 1673, he received his orders from Frontenac, to accompany Joliet on his long-desired journey. Taking probably the short trail through the woods he found his companion at Point St. Ignace, where, after many remarkable vicissitudes, both in life and death, he was at length to find his grave, where his numerous friends and admirers, both French and Indian, were for so long a time to lose sight of it again, and where a second time he gains his place as one of the founders of Michigan. Apart from his peculiar mission, which was looked upon by " the Protestant colonies" of New England with anything but favorable eyes; apart from his peculiar dogma of the conception, which has only been officially sanctioned in our day and by the late Pope, there were many things in the life and times of Marquette that, to the lover of biography, make his character as attractive as that of Francis Xavier,. " the great apostle of the Indies," or of his still greater master, Ignatius Loyola. The man in these days who can not admire, and even to a certain extent venerate man as man, apart from his more immediate antecedents or local surroundings, has but a very limited and mistaken idea of the enlightened spirit of the age, or the true dignity of human nature. Honor to whom honor is due, is not only a sound maxim, founded on that equity which is the highest form of justice, but is also in just so many words one of the very first principles of Christianity itself. When I can not give a man credit for what he really is, because he belongs to another party than my own, or give him credit for what he has done, because he belongs to another denomination than my own, I deserve to be consigned for the remainder of my days to a hole in the woods. The pioneers of our country, no doubt, have had a very hard time of it, and ---------------------— _ ---- _ I -- IK ~r4 T 24 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. none more so than my Scotch-Irish ancestors in central Pennsylvania. From the childhood of Daniel Webster down to the present hour, it would argue a very ignorant mind and most unfeeling and ungrateful heart to read the toils and trials and privations endured by men and women in the early settlement of this or any other State; but after all what are the hardships of the early settlers compared with those of Allouez, in 1665, afloat in a frail canoe on the broad expanse of Lake Superior, of Dablon, Marquette, LaSalle, and others of the original explorers? "Defying the severity of climate," as Bancroft has it, " wading through water or through snows, without the comfort of fire; having no bread but pounded corn, and often no food but the unwholesome moss from the rocks; laboring incessantly, exposed to live, as it were, without nourishment, to sleep without a resting place; to travel far, and always incurring perils; to carry their lives in their hands; or rather daily and oftener than every day, to hold them up as targets, expecting captivity, death from the tomahawk, tortures, fires"-(Bancroft, III., 152.) It seems to me that if there are any two classes of men who should be most cordially linked in closest bonds of sympathy with one another, it is the pioneers and explorers. Marquette was much more than a religious enthusiast. He was a scholar and a man of science. Having learned within a few years to speak with ease in six different languages, his talents as a linguist were quite remarkable. A subtle element of romance pervaded his character, which not only makes it exceedingly attractive to us in the retrospect, but was no doubt one of the great sources and elements of his power and success among his beloved Ottawas and Hurons, and others of the great Algonquin tribes, who were found in the immediate vicinity of the straits of Michilimackinac. With a fine eye for natural beauty, he was as much delighted with a rapid river, or extended lake, with an old forest or rolling prairie, or a lofty mountain as a Birch, or a Cole, or a Bierstadt. Every one who touches his character seems emulous of adorning it with a new epithet. Parkman speaks of him as "the humble Marquette, who with clasped hands and up-turned eyes, seems a figure evoked from some dim legend of mediaeval saintship." Bancroft calls him " the meek, gentle, single-hearted, unpretending, illustrious Marquette."Vol. III., p. 157. Many call him " the venerated;" all unite in calling him " the good Marquette," and by this last, most simple, but appropriate'title he will be the best remembered by the generations yet to come. " A man who was delighted at the happy necessity of exposing his life to bring, the word of God " within reach of half a continent deserves that title if any one does. His Catholic eulogist, John Gilman Shea, (Catholic World, November, 1877, p. 267,) writes with pardonable pride: " No missionary of that glorious band of Jesuits who in the seventeenth century announced the faith from the Hudson Bay to the lower Mississippi, who Q ---- ^ __& -9 — mr - 1 - HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 25 hallowed by their labors and life-blood so many a wild spot now occupied by the busy hives of men, none of them impresses us more in his whole life and career with his piety, sanctity and absolute devotion to God, than Father Marquette. In life he seems to have been looked up to with reverence by the wildest savage, by the rude frontiersman, and by the polished officers of government. When he had passed away, his name and his fame, so marked in the great West, was treasured above that of his fellow-laborers, Menard, Allouez, Nouvel or Druillettes." May I not add that, most of all other States, his name and his fame should be dear to Michigan? Such, then, was the man who on the 17th of May, 1673, with the simple outfit of two birch canoes, a supply of smoked meat and Indian corn, and a crew of five men, embarked on what was then known as Lac Des Illinois, now Lake Michigan. June 10th they came to the portage, in Wisconsin, (III., 158,) and after carrying their canoes some two miles over marsh and prairie, " he committed himself to the current that was to bear them he knew not whither-perhaps to the GCulf of Mexico, perhaps to the South Sea, or the Gulf of California." June 17, 1673, where now stands Prairie Du Chien, he had found what he sought, " and with a joy that I can not express we steered forth our canoes on the Mississippi, or great river." We know that the honor of this discovery is very stoutly contested in favor of LaSalle, but for the present we confidently hold with Parkman (Discovery of the Great West, p. 25): "LaSalle discovered the Ohio, and in all probability the Illinois also; but that he discovered the Mississippi has not been proved, nor in the light of the evidence we have, is it likely." In 1846 W. J. A. Bradford, in his notes on the Northwest, says very dogmatically: "Father Hennepin must undoubtedly be considered the discoverer of the Mississippi;" but if the proof of it is only to be established by Hennepin's own narrative, which Parkman describes as a rare mon. ument of brazen mendacity, the proof is still wanting. His famous voyage from the Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico must be considered not only as a falsehood, but a plagiarism. Fortunately for the fame of Marquette, the true record of his labors was not left to doubtful tradition and the hearsay testimony of Charlevoix. Among the papers some twenty-five years since in the archives of the College of Quebec are accounts of the last labors and death of Father Marquette, and of the removal of his remains, prepared for publication by Father Dablon; Marquette's journal of his great expedition, the very map he drew, and a letter left unfinished at the time of his death. So at least says Mr. Shea, and that these documents are to be found in his work on the discovery and exploration of the Mississippi Valley. Leaving, then, the doubtful narrative of Charlevoix and the romantic page of Bancroft founded upon it, we learn the real story of his death. October 25, -- - -- *.'~-~ ^_ __ __ 26 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 1674, he again left St. Ignace to fulfill a promisd to the Kaskaskias in Illinois. December 4th he reached Chicago, hoping to ascend the river, and by a portage reach the Illinois: but the ice had closed the stream and it was too late. A winter march, facing the cutting wind of the prairie was beyond his strength. His two faithful companions erected a log hut home and chapel-the first dwelling and the first church of the first white settlement of the city-known for its great misfortune the world over, the city of Chicago. With the opening of Spring the good father again set out, and his last letter notes his progress till the 6th of April, 1675. "Just after Easter he was again stricken by disease (dysentery), and he saw that if he would die in the arms of his brethren" at St. Ignace, he must depart at once. Escorted by the Kaskaskias, who were deeply impressed by his zeal, he reached Lake Michigan, gave orders to his faithful men to launch his canoe, and commenced his adventurous voyage along that still unknown and dangerous shore. His strength, however, failed so much that his men despaired of being able to convey him alive to their journey's end; for in fact he became so weak and so exhausted that he could no longer help himself, nor even stir, and had to be handled and carried like a child. He nevertheless in this state maintained an admirable resignation, joy and gentleness, consoling his beloved companions, and encouraging them to suffer courageously all the hardships of this voyage." "On the eve of his death, which was on Friday, he told them, all radiant with joy, that it would take place on the morrow, and spoke so calmly and collectedly of his death and burial that you would have thought it was another's and not his own. Thus did he speak to them as they sailed along the lake, till perceiving the mouth of a river, with an eminence on the bank which he thought suited to his burial, he told them that it was the place of his last repose. They wished, however, to pass on, as the weather permitted it and the day was not far advanced; but God raised a contrary wind, which obliged them to return and enter the river which the father had designated. They then carried him ashore, kindled a little fire and raised a bark cabin for his use, laying him in it with as little discomfort as they could; but they were so depressed by sadness that, as they afterward said, they did not know what they were doing." Many a time and oft, in my favorite summer home at Mackinac, have I had this whole scene pass before me as in a day-dream from Point Lookout, until last Summer it took the form of accordant rhyme: I. Where the gently flowing river merges with the stormy lake, Where upon the beach so barren ceaseless billows roll and break, -. I,( - 0 HISTORY OF MICHTIGAN. 27 There the barque so frail and gallant, known throughout the western world, Glides into the long-sought haven and its weary wings are furled. Here, says one, I end my voyage and my sun goes down at noon; Here I make the final traverse, and the part comes not too soon; Let God have " the greater glory," care have I for naught beside, But to bear the blest evangel, Jesus Christ, the crucified. II. Slow and faint into the forest, straight he takes his quiet way, Kneels upon the virgin mosses, prays as he is wont to pray; Nunc dimittis-then they hear him sweetly sing as ne'er before; Then the angels join in chorus, and Marquette is now no more. This the prayer he leaves behind him, as is said his latest mass"One day bear me to my mission. at the Pointe of St. Ignace." Entered into rest from labor, where all toils and tempests cease, Every sail outspread and swelling, so he finds the port of peace. III. Once again that spot so sacred hears the sound of human feet, And the gently flowing river sees a strange funereal fleet; 'Tis the plumed and painted warriors, of their different tribes the best, Who have met in solemn council to fulfill his last request. Down their cheeks the tears are flowing, for the sainted man of God; Not the bones of dearest kindred dear as those beneath that sod, Reverently the grave they open, call the dear remains their ownSink them in the running water, cleanse and whiten every bone. Place them gently in the mocock, wrought with woman's choicest skill, From the birch the very whitest, and the deepest colored quill; i|"~~ ~ ~In the war canoe the largest, to his consecrated tomb, Like a chief who falls in battle, silently they bear him home. IV. Gathers still the sad procession, as the fleet comes slowly nigh, Where the cross above the chapel stands against the northern sky; Every tribe and every hamlet, from the nooks along the shore, Swell the company of mourners, who shall see his face no more. V. Forth then thro' the deepening twilight sounds the service high and clear, And the dark-stoled priests with tapers guide and guard the rustic bier; In the center of the chapel, close by little Huron's wave, Near the tall and stately cedars, Pere Marquette has found his grave. VI. Still I hear the Miserere sounding loud within my soul, Still I hear the De Profundis, with its solemn cadence roll"For the blood of thy red brother, who shall answer in that day." I When before the throne of judgment earth and heaven shall pass away., Frtebodo hfidbohr h hllase nta a- _ c. \ I -6l 28 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. When these lines were written I had not seen the narrative of Father Dablon, but a further extract from it will show that there was very little poetic license in them as to the leading facts. " God did not permit so precious a deposit to remain unhonored and forgotten amid the forests. The Indians called Kiskakons, who have for nearly ten years publicly professed Christianity, in which they were first instructed by Father Marquette, when stationed at La Pointe du St. Esprit, at the extremity of Lake Superior, were hunting last year, not far from Lake Illinois (i. e. Michigan), and as they were returning early in the Spring they resolved to pass the tomb of their good father, whom they tenderly loved, and God even gave them the thought of taking his bones and conveying them to our church at the mission of St. Ignatius. "They accordingly repaired to the spot and deliberated together, resolving to act with their father, as they usually do with those whom they respect. They opened the grave, unrolled the body, and though the flesh and intestines were all dried up, they found it entire, without the skin being injured. This did not prevent their dissecting it according to custom. They washed the bones and dried them in the sun; then putting them neatly in a box of birch bark, they set out to bear them to our house at St. Ignatius. " The convoy consisted of nearly thirty canoes in excellent order, including even a good number of the Iroquois " (a very ferocious tribe, who were a great terror to other tribes and especially hostile to the Jesuits), "who had joined our Algonquins to honor the ceremony. As they approached our house Father Nouvel, who is superior, went to meet them with Father Pierson, accompanied by all the French and Indians of the place; and having caused the convoy to stop, he made the ordinary interrogations to verify the fact that the body which they bore was really Father Marquette. Then before they landed he intoned the De Profundis in sight of the thirty canoes still on the water, and of all the people still on the shore. After this the body was carried to the church, observing all that the ritual prescribes for such ceremonies. It remained exposed under his catafalque all that day, which was Whitsun Monday, the 8th of June, and the next day, when all the funeral honors had been paid to it, it was deposited in a little vault in the middle of the church, where he reposes as the guardian angel of our Ottawa missions." So far the invaluable record of Dablon. We come now to 1706, when for wellknown reasons, for which we can not pause, the Jesuits at St. Ignace broke up their mission, set fire to their house and chapel and returned to Quebec. What became of the bones of Marquette? Did they carry them with them to Quebec? No; they left in haste, and fled almost as for their lives. "There is nothing in Canadian registers, which are extensive, full and well preserved." "Charlevoix, who was at Quebec on the return of the missionaries, is silent." There is little --—............. --- —............. ----.....-.4- Q 9~-~~ - -01 — HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 29 doubt, therefore, that the precious remains of the great explorer still lay in the chapel. But the very site of the chapel was soon lost. The new chapel, still standing, was confessedly not on the site of the old one. Could the old site ever be identified? It seemed very doubtful indeed. True, there were a few local and legendary traditions to which reference was made some years since in his correspondence by the Hon. E. G. D. Holden, our present Secretary of State. An Indian now living in St. Ignace told me early last Summer that "his father told him, and that his father told him," and pointed out to him the place on the shore of the bay where a black cross used to stand, which was understood to "point out the direction" of the good father's grave, and where the voyagers would invoke his blessing. I also have it in writing from a very intelligent Indian, that last Summer he called on an aged Indian woman in Petoskey, claiming to be in her 100th year. "I asked her if she had heard, when a girl, anything concerning the Kitchima-ka-da-na-co-na-yay, or "great priest." She said, "Yes. He died at the mouth of the river, and his body was carried to Min-is-sing,"i. e. to St. Ignace. These are but specimens of many similar traditions; but would there ever be anything more than tradition? Early in July I heard in Detroit for the first time, from Col. Stockbridge, who has a large lumber interest in St. Ignace; that when he left there was a report that the site of the old chapel had been discovered. If so, thought I, then we have found Pere Marquette's grave at last-for the one statement in which all seem to agree is that lie was buried in the middle of the chapel. On my arrival in Mackinac I lost but little time before starting for St. Ignace. Though only four miles off we tacked a dozen times and took four hours, and worked hard at that. On reaching Mr. Murray's house, where the supposed discovery had been made, I found precisely what had been described a few days before by a correspondent of the.Evening News. THE RECENT DISCOVERIES AT ST. IGNACE. SHALL WE, OR SHALL WE NOT, RECOVER THE BONES OF MARQUETTE? Correspondence of the Evening News. Mackinac, July 12, 1877. The readers of the Evening News will recollect the recently reported discovery at St. Ignace of the site of the mission chapel founded by Father Marquette in 1670, and under the pavement of which his bones were subsequently deposited. The account created considerable sensation among antiquaries. Being in Mackinac, within four miles of St. Ignatius, I improved the opportunity to cross over and see for myself what the discoveries amounted to. The little steamer Truscott crosses L e). --- —---------------- ---- |a I - - - OKt( ( L 7 I=r 1 I,~~~~~~~~~~ 380 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.., ___................................................ r each afternoon; fare fifty cents. A few steps from the landing we turn into a potato patch, just beyond which the boy who pilots us suddenly announces, "Here's the place." At first glance nothing can be observed more than might be noticed on any vacant lot in Detroit. A closer examination, however, reveals a very slight trench about a foot and a half wide, forming a rectangle 35 by 45 feet and located very nearly, if not exactly, with the points of the compass, the longer measurement being in the direction of east and west. At places in this trench rough stones lay embedded in the earth. At the southern side of the space, about nine feet from the western side, is a hole say three feet deep and eight or ten square, and in the southeast corner another smaller hole. Until the present Spring the site has been covered with a growth of young spruce, the clearing off of which led to the supposed discovery. The larger hole is assumed to have been a cellar under the church in which the valuables are kept; the smaller hole is thought to mark the position of the baptismal font, though why an excavation should be made for it is more than I can conjecture. A few feet west of the rectangle described above are two heaps of stone and earth, evidently the debris of two ruined chimneys. The outlines of the houses to which the chimneys belonged cal also be faintly traced. Mr. Murray, the owner of the ground, is a well-to-do Catholic Irishman, owning as he does 600 acres of land on the Point. lie has lived on the place for twenty years past, and before that lived on Mackinac Island. He is inclined to be superstitious and to magnify the mystery to which he believes he holds the key. As illustrative of this he remarked in my presence that when he was about to build a cow-house some time ago, his sons wished it located on what he now believes to be the site of the ancient church, but the protecting influences of that sacred spot strangely impelled him to adopt a different location. He is confident that by digging below the surface at the center of the church, the "mocock" of bones would be discovered, but thus far owing to a difference between himself and the parish priest, not a spadeful of earth has been turned. The priest believes the location to be the correct one, and is anxious to excavate, but Mr. Murray refuses to permit it without a pledge that whatever is found shall not be carried away from the Point. He offers to give ground for the erection of a church or a monument on the spot, but insists that the sacred relics, if found, must be left where they have for two centuries rested. The bishop is expected at St. Ignace shortly, when the question will be laid before him for adjustment. Now as to the probability of the discovery being confirmed by others yet to be made, I must confess to being less sanguine than Mr. Murray and his neighbors. It is certain that the two ruined chimneys alluded to indicate the location of dwellings at some period in the past. Bits of iron, copper and looking-glass found in the debris j attest this; but whether the buildings stood fifty years ago or 200 no one can posie ------------------------— i --- — r M,. I a- 11 -b l a~ l~ uHISTORY OF MICHIGAN. 31 tively assert. Mr. Murray has known the spot for a quarter of a century, and can vouch for no change having occurred in that time. I think it likely that they are of a much older date. In regard to the assumed church site I think the probabilities favor the existence there at one time of a building of some sort. Whether it occupied the limits assumed-45 by 35 feet-is less certain, while the existence of the cellar would seem to indicate that it was a dwelling rather than a church. On the other hand, it is certain that the mission was founded in this immediate vicinity, and the Murray farm, as fronting on the most protected part of the bay, and affording the best landing for boats, is certainly as likely a spot for Marquette to have adopted as any. But nothing can be told with any certainty till thorough investigation is made. The tradition is that the mission was founded in 1670, that Marquette subsequently visited Wisconsin and Illinois, establishing mission stations as far up the lake as Chicago; that upon his return via the eastern shore of Lake Michigan he died at the mouth of the Pere Marquette river, where Ludington now stands, and was buried there. A few years later his bones were taken up, cleaned and packed in a mocock, or box made of birch bark, and were conveyed with due solemnity back to St. Ignace, where they were permanently deposited beneath the middle of the church. At a still later period Indian wars broke up the mission, and to protect the church from sacrilege the missionaries burned it to the ground. I also found in the possession of the present priest of St. Ignace, Father Jaoka (pronounced Yocca), a pen and ink sketch, on which I looked with most intense interest. This invaluable drawing gives the original site of the French village, the "home of the Jesuits," the Indian village, the Indian fort on the bluff, and, most important of all, very accurately defines the contour of a little bay known as Nadowa-Wikweiamashong-i. e., as Mr. Jacker gave it, Nadowa Huron. Wik-weia -Here is a bay. Anglice-" Little bay of the Hurons;" or according to the Otchepwa dictionary of Bp. Barraga, "Bad bay of the Iroquois squaw." Of the Indian village there is no trace. Their wigwams, built only of poles and bark, have not left a single vestige. Not so with the French village. You may still see the remains of their logs and plaster, and the ruins of their chimneys. On the supposed site of the house of the Jesuits, some 40 by 30 feet, are found distinct outlines of walls, a little well, and a small cellar. Immediately in the rear of the larger building are the remains of a forge, where "the brothers" used to make spades or swords, as the occasion might require. On further inquiry of the priest, who was equally remarkable for his candor and intelligence, and the length of his beard, I found that the sketch of the house of the Jesuits was taken by him from the travels of LaHenton, originally published J in France, but translated and republished in England A. D. 1772. Only a few days + IlIll, -. 32 HISTORY OF MICHIGAN. after I saw a copy of this very same book in the hands of Judge C. I. Walker, of Detroit, and was thus enabled, to my very great satisfaction, to verify the sketch as shown to me by Father Jaoka or Jacker (Yocca). LaHenton says: " The place which I am now in is not above half a league distant from the Illinois lake. Here the Hurons and Ontawas have each of 'em (sic) a village, the one being severed from the other by a single palisade. But the Ontawas are beginning to build a fort upon a hill that stands but 1,000 or 1,200 paces off. * * In this place the Jesuits have a little house or college, adjoining to a sort of chapel and enclosed with pale, which separates it from the village of the Hurons. " The Cuereur du Paris also a very small settlement."-La Henton, vol. I., p. 88. From that moment I entertained the most sanguine hope that the long lost grave of the good Marquette would again be found. Greatly did I regret that I could not remain a few days longer, when the exploration would be made in the presence of the excellent Bishop Mrak, and learn what would be the result. I saw nothing whatever in the well-known character of the bishop, or of the worthy pastor of St. Ignace to justify even for a moment the least suspicion of anything like "pious fraud." Monday, September 3, 1877, Bishop Mrak dug out the first spadeful of ground. For a time, however, the search was discouraging. " Nothing was found that would indicate the former existence of a tomb, vaulted or otherwise," and the bishop went away. After a while a small piece of birch bark came to light, followed by numerous other fragments scorched by fire. Finally a larger and well preserved piece appeared which once evidently formed part of the bottom of an Indian-wig-wap-makakbirch-bark-box or mocock. Evidently the box had been double, such as the Indians sometimes use for greater durability in interments, and had been placed on three or four wooden sills. It was also evident that the box had not been placed on the floor but sunk in the ground, and perhaps covered with a layer of mortar. But it was equally evident that this humble tomb had been disturbed, and the box broken into, and parts of it torn out, after the material had been made brittle by the action of fire. This would explain the absence of its former contents, which," says Mr. Jacker, "lwhat else could we think-were nothing less than Father Marquette's bones! But what had become of them? Further search brought to light two fragments of bone-then thirty-six more-finally a small fragment, apparently of the skull-then similar fragments of the ribs, the hand and the thigh bone. From these circumstances then we deduce the following conclusions: 1. That of M. Pommier, the French surgeon, that these fragments of bones are undoubtedly human, and bear the marks of fire. j 2. That everything goes to show" the haste of profane robbery."