U] IA' I g 0 THE STORY OF DETROIT BY GEORGE B. CATLIN LIBRARIAN OF THE DETROIT NEWS PUBLISHED BY THE DETROIT NEWS 1923 COPYRIGHTED 1923, BY THE EVENING NEWS ASSOCIATION DETROIT, MICH. Eitc Lakctsibr j1rrss R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO FOREWORD THE Story of Detroit is a simple, outline history of Detroit's development since the time of Cadillac, written by the librarian of The Detroit News for the promotion of a better understanding of the city's past in the minds of a multitude of new residents and of the younger generation. It is the hope of the publishers that such an, understanding will stimulate a proper civic pride, and develop high ideals of citizenship. The Story of Detroit is reprinted from The Detroit News, in which it appeared serially, beginning January 1 and continuing to August 23, 1923; and is republished in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of, that newspaper by James Edmund Scripps, August 23, 1873. THE DETROIT NEWS. t PREFACE T is in the pastimes and games of childhood that the human race makes preparation for the serious duties of life. The Duke of Wellington remarked that the Battle of Waterloo was really won on the playgrounds of Eton, Harrow and other schools. Childhood is a period of preparation for greater things than military victories but the methods of preparation are so simple that their importance is not generally appreciated. The most common toys of childhood are mere wooden blocks painted in various colors and patterns with which the child makes his first attempts at construction and arrangement. He can arrahge them into an almost infinite variety of interesting designs which appeal alike to his aesthetic sense and his reasoning powers. All through life men of intelligence keep up that interesting game of synthesis, analysis and deduction which they began in childhood. Soon they discard the wooden blocks and begin to utilize the facts of life and human experience as they slowly become revealed and they arrange them into certain definite patterns according to individual taste and ability. The facts of history, considered separately and without correlation, are apparently inert and uninteresting. Most of them are soon forgotten. But when one uses them like building blocks and combines them in some systematic arrangement they work out into patterns and designs of fascinating interest. The writing of the simplest and most unpretentious history, even of a single locality, is, in the main, a game of building blocks. It can mean much or little according to the arrangement and it is rarely the case that any two builders will work out the same pattern. The possibilities of construction are largely governed by the number and patterns of the blocks under the hand of the builder. The Story of Detroit is such a construction. The building blocks that have been employed are but a small part of all that V vi PREFACE are available. The blocks used have been contributed by a multitude of persons some of whom have been prominent actors in the drama of civic life and some have been chroniclers who have collected and handed down the records. To each and all of these the writer owes a great debt, for without their contributions he would have had no blocks with which to build. The City of Detroit, like every other municipality, has certain characteristics peculiar to itself. These have developed out of the city's past experience and they have been accumulating for more than two centuries. The discovery of what these characteristics are and how they were acquired can only be accomplished by a careful study of the history of the city during all those years of character building. When The Detroit News printed its first edition, August 23, 1873, the city had less than ioo,ooo population. A large proportion of these were descendants of earlier settlers. They had grown up together as neighbors and friends. They were intimately acquainted with the city's history and traditions, and had a common ambition for their city's future. Fifty years have rolled their fateful cycle since that day and during the last decade Detroit has taken on a bewildering access of growth. Its population has increased to i,ioo,ooo and its area has expanded from less than fifteen square miles to nearly eightyfive. The old settler element has been submerged in a mighty tide of people from every state, clime and nation which seems to have no ebb. Few of these recent arrivals have much knowledge of Detroit history and traditions which are the solid bases of civic pride and patriotism. Dr. Samuel Johnson remarked long ago, "that man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of lona." The new-comers who have made their homes in Detroit can find plenty of thrill in the early history of their city. In one of his lofty prophetic moments Abraham Lincoln said: "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell PREFACE vii the chorus of the Union." All the new-comers to Detroit share with the old settler element the opportunities of the present, the memories of the past, and the hopes and aspirations for the future because they have become a part of Detroit. Unavoidably they must assume the duties and responsibilities of citizens of this metropolis because their homes are here: "Such is the patriot's boa'st, where'er we roam, His first, best country ever is at home." There was a serious purpose back of the publication of the Story of Detroit. That purpose was to better acquaint the hundreds of thousands of newly acquired residents with the story of their home city and the struggles and triumphs of those hardy generations of men who founded it in a far wilderness; who stood bravely for its defense and who worked, generation after generation, for its gradual upbuilding. In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of its founding The Detroit News laid upon the writer of these pages the task of presenting before the eyes of the younger generation and of those who have recently become citizens a serial story which would acquaint them with the outstanding facts of the city's past. The writer himself is a citizen by adoption having been a continuous resident for the past 31 years, but during that time he has found the history of Detroit a study of fascinating interest. He undertook the task very gladly and has worked with sincerity in the hope of inspiring his readers with a fine enthusiasm for the City of Detroit. "History is the essence of innumerable biographies." Each generation of men does its work and passes into the great silence, but the articulate, audible voices of the past linger in the air for centuries after those who gave them utterance have vanished from the sight of men. Every act, thought, or written book takes color and form from the individual who is responsible for it and rare indeed are those who are free from mental, moral or judicial astigmatism. And since we all see things somewhat differently there appears to be but one reasonable course for the writer to follow, which is to "draw the thing as he sees viii PREFACE it for the God of things as they are," Too often both history and biography are strictly selective relations. We are all too apt to write only of the commendable things and to withhold all revelations of human faults and follies. When this is done the result is a mere silhouette rather than a picture of true perspective, color and contour. What is good and what is evil in human nature'and human institutions are as complementary as are light and darkness, heat and cold, because an intelligent appreciation of either is quite impossible without some exemplification of the other. The lives of some of the greatest men in history have been rendered insipid to intelligent readers because of such onesided biographies. The histories of the Civil War written by men of the North before partisan passions had cooled were so prejudicial and unfair it was inevitable that other histories which lean in the opposite direction should be written for use in the schools of the South. When Sir Peter Lely went to paint the portrait of Oliver Cromwell that grim old warrior said to him: "tpaint me as I am; moles, warts, blotches, wrinkles and all, or I'll pay you not a penny for your pains." The picture that Lely painted is ugly in some of its details but it is honest, for it confesses to the world that whatever faults Cromwell may have had, he was no pretender or poser for the admiration of the world. In conclusion the writer wishes to make grateful acknowledgment to all who have furnished him with building blocks, and particularly to Mr. C.- M. Burton, who gave freely of his rich store of the annals of Detroit., Michigan, and the Northwest Territory; who gave generously of his time and counsel, pointed out certain errors which were due to the haste of compilation, and looked over most of the proofs of the articles published in the serial. -G. B. C. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION........... XVii CHAPTER I. THE CAUSE OF DETROIT'S FOUNDING........ I II. THE COMING OF CADILLAC........... 4 III. CADILLAC'S VILLAGE............IO IV. EARLY TROUBLE WITH INDIANS......... 15 V. DETROIT Two HUNDRED YEARS AGO.... 22 VI. FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN IN RIVALRY...... 27 VII. BEGINNING OF BRITISH CONTROL......... 32 VIII. THE INDIANS FIGHT FOR THEIR HOMELAND...... 36 IX. INDIAN WAR STRATEGY..... 41 X. PONTIAC ABANDONS HIS DIPLOMACY.....45 XI. DARK DAYS IN THE BESIEGED TOWN........ 51 XII. DALZELL'S DISASTER-END OF THE SIEGE 56 XIII. AFTERMATH OF PONTIAC'S SIEGE..... 16 XIV. WAR CLOUDS LOOM IN THE EAST.........67 XV. OLD-FASHIONED PRACTICE IN RUTHLESSNESS..... 71 XVI. BUILDING OF FORT LERNOULT...... 75 XVII. PERSECUTION OF THE MORAVIANS..... 80 XVIII. RECOVERY OF THE WESTERN TERRITORY...... 86 XIX. DETROIT UNDER CANADIAN RULE........ 91 XX. AMERICAN RULE BEGINS.... 97 XXI. DETROIT BECOMES AN INCORPORATED TOWN..... 103 XXII. SEEKERS AFTER GREAT LAND GRANTS.... III XXIII. ALL DETROIT DESTROYED BY FIRE... 115 XXIV. REIGN OF THE GOVERNOR AND JUDGES.120 XXV. DETROIT'S FIRST BANK...125 XXVI. TECUMSEH BECOMES A BRITISH ALLY..128 XXVII. THE WAR OF 1812 BEGINS....132 XXVIII. DETROIT SURRENDERED TO THE BRITISH..138 XXIX. MASSACRE AT FORT DEARBORN... 146 XXX. PREPARATIONS FOR RECOVERING DETROIT..150 XXXI. MASSACRE AT RIVER RAISIN.... 155 XXXII. VICTIMS OF BARBAROUS WARFARE... 160 XXXIII. THE BUILDING OF PERRY'S SHIPS..... 166 IX X CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XXXIV. OLIVER HAZARD PERRY'S VICTORY..... 171 XXXV. AMERICAN INVASION OF CANADA..... 179 XXXVI. BATTLE OF THE THAMES........ 185 XXXVII. STORIES OF THE CITY HALL CANNON....... 190 XXXVIII. FAMINE AND PESTILENCE IN DETROIT...... 195 XXXIX. DETROIT'S LAST INDIAN MASSACRE.... 201 XL. SUSPICIONS OF DISLOYALTY..... 206 XLI. DETROIT BECOMES A CITY........ 210 XLII. EARLY PUBLIC WORKS......... 214 XLIII. RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL PROMOTIONS...... 219 XLIV. FIRST NEWSPAPERS AND SECOND'BANK...... 228 XLV. FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE LAKES...... 232 XLVI. STORY OF THE Walk-in-the-Water....... 238 XLVII. A NEW ERA BEGINS....... 245 XLVIII. LAND TREATIES WITH MICHIGAN INDIANS...... 249 XLIX. THE TREATY OF SAGINAW...... 253 L. DETROIT INi8i8....... 259 LI. A DECADE OF MANY CHANGES......... 265 LII. EXPLORATIONS-THE FIRST STATE CAPITOL...... 271 LIII. OLD KISHKAWKO CHEATS THE HANGMAN.,..... 278 LIV. EARLY WATER SUPPLY-' YE EDITOR' IN JAIL..... 283 LV. MICHIGAN'S LAST INFLICTION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.. 289 LVI. ADVENT OF STEVENS THOMSON MASON...... 294 LVII. THE BLACK HAWK WAR...... 298 LVIII. COMMERCIAL AND CULTURAL PROGRESS...... 303 LIX. YOUNG MEN'S SOCIETY........... 310 LX. DETROIT'S SECOND CHOLERA SCOURGE...... 315 LXI. ANTI-SLAVERY ACTIVITIES..... 321 LXII. THE TOLEDO BOUNDARY WAR........ 329 LXIII. SURRENDER OF TOLEDO-THE CANADIAN REBELLION. 335 LXIV. THE PANIC OF 1837............. 343 LXV. EARLY RAILWAY PROMOTIONS...... 354 LXVI. EE OF WILD CATBANKING....... 359 LXVIl. THE DETROIT & PONTIAC RAILWAY...... 363 LXVIII. FIRST STATE ELECTION-GEOLOGICAL SURVEY..... 372 LXIX. FOUNDING OF MICHIGAN'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 377 LXX. POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1840....... 384 LXXI. PURCHASE OF THE POOR FARM.... 393 LXXII. PRESIDENT VAN BUREN IN DETROIT....... 793 LXXIII. DISCOVERY OF IRON DEPOSITS... 402 CONTENTS Xi CHAPTER PAGE LXXIV. DETROIT'S PASSION FOR FUNERALS....... 407 LXXV. SALE OF MICHIGAN RAILWAYS.......... 413 LXXVI. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ABOLISHED-ADVENT OF THE TELEGRAPH.......... 420 LXXVII. CRUDE CONVENIENCES OF EARLY DAYS..... 427 LXXVIII. THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS......... 432 LXXIX. DETROIT FEMALE SEMINARY... 438 LXXX. EARLY DETROIT THEATERS.... 444 LXXXI. MICHIGAN'S MORMON COLONY..... 449 LXXXII. NOVEL LEGISLATION-ANCIENT LANDMARKS..... 454 LXXXIII. DETROIT'S EARLY GROWING PAINS...... 460 LXXXIV. THE RAILWAY CONSPIRACY-TOBACCO INDUSTRY... 466 LXXXV. DEVELOPMENT OF THE STOVE INDUSTRY..... 472 LXXXVI. EARLY HOSPITALS AND THE Y. M. C. A.. 479 LXXXVII. WATER SUPPLY-THROUGH TRANSPORTATION TO THE EAST. 486 LXXXVIII. DETROIT'S FIRST CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY...... 493 LXXXIX. EVENTS OF THE 1850's....... 500 XC. BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY..... 505 XCI. THE CIVIL WAR....... 512 XCII. "THE FIRE IN THE REAR....... 523 XCIII. AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR.2..... 534 XCIV. EVENTS OF THE 1860'S........ 540 XCV. MEMORIAL DAY-HISTORIC CONFLAGRATIONS.... 545 XCVI. BRIDGE ANDTUNNEL PROPOSALS..... 552 XCVII. TELEPHONES-LIGHTING-PARKS AND BOULEVARDS. 559 XCVIII. BELLE ISLE PARK AND THE GRAND BOULEVARD..... 566 XCIX. FOUR NOTABLE DETROITERS....... 571 C. CHANGES IN LAKE NAVIGATION...... 577 CI. HAZEN S. PINGREE ELECTED MAYOR........ 585 CII. BEGINNING OF THE PINGREE REGIME...... 590 CIII. CONTEST FOR REDUCED LIGHTING RATES...... 598 CIV. PROPOSALS FOR REFORMS IN TAXATION....... 609 CV. THE PINGREE POTATO PATCHES...... 615 CVI. CONFLICT WITH STREET RAILWAY COMPANY..... 621 CVII. MUNICIPAL STREET RAILWAYS-ABOLITION OF OLD RAILWAY CHARTERS...... 631 CVIII. THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR....... 641 CIX. INDUSTRIAL BEGINNINGS OF DETROIT....... 650 CX. SALT DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT....... 658 CXI. REFRIGERATOR CARS AND THE PACKING INDUSTRY.... 664 xli CONTENTS CHAPTER CXII. DETROIT'S POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS CXIII. WHY PROHIBITION CARRIED IN MICHIGAN CXIV. DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CXV. EDUCATION IN DETROIT CXVI. MOVING PICTURES AND NICKELODEONS CXVII. THE ERA OF BICYCLES AND AUTOMOBILES BEGINS CXVIII. AUTOMOBILE HISTORY-MADE IN DETROIT CXIX. THE BANKING POWER OF DETROIT CXX. DETROIT'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD WAR CXXI. IN CONCLUSION APPENDIX PAGE 667 677 681 684 698 705 712 721 726 733 738 INDEX.................... 741 ILLUSTRATIONS DETROIT OF 1708, SUPERPOSED ON PRESENT PLAN OLD FORT PONTCHARTRAIN. INDIAN ATTACK ON DETROIT IN 1712 OLD MISSION HOUSE AT SANDWICH.... VANISHED STREAMS OF CENTRAL DETROIT FRENCH FRONTIER FORTS, 1750... CHIEF PONTIAC...... MAJ. HENRY GLADWIN.. NIGHT ATTACK ON THE SCHOONER Gladwin DEATH OF PONTIAC.... FORT LERNOULT... GEORGE ROGERS CLARK. GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR COL. ARENT SCHUYLER DEPEYSTER.... GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE.... COURTHOUSE AT CHILLICOTHE SIMON GIRTY DEFIES THE AMERICANS STE. ANNE STREET IN 1800 BEGINNING OF THE FIRE OF 1805.. ORIGINAL PLAN OF DETROIT STREETS DETROIT RIVER FRONT IN 1812. GEN. LEWIS CASS GEN. WILLIAM HULL HOUSE OF FRANCOIS NAVARRE, RIVER RAISIN BATTLE OF LAKE. ERIE PERRY MEMORIAL AT PUT-IN-BAY. OLIVER HAZARD PERRY.. TECUMSEH. GEN. WM. HENRY HARRISON CITY HALL CANNON JAMES ABBOTT'S HOUSE. DETROIT'S WHIPPING POST. THE REV. JOHN MONTEITH.. THE REV. DAVID BACON........ FIRST METHODIST CHURCH IN MICHIGAN FIRST METHODIST CHURCH IN DETROIT xiii PAGE 6 9 14 18 23 30 47 47 58 64 76 78 87 87 87 93 98 io6 116 123 136 140 140 156 172 176 18o 180 I8o 193 207 215 220 220 222 224 xiv ILLUSTRATIONS xlv ILLUSTRATIONS MICHIGAN'S FIRST UNIVERSITY.... STEAMBOAT Walk-in-the-Water........ WRECK OF THE Walk-in-the-Water..... MICHIGAN LAND TREATIES.. BLOCKHOUSE JAIL ON JEFFERSON AVENUE...... OLD COUNCIL HOUSE... WAYNE COUNTY JAIL, 1830.. EARLY CHURCHES ON WOODWARD AVENUE... STE. ANNE'S CHURCH........ SCHOOLCRAFT'S MAP OF THE ROUTE OF THE CASS EXPEDITION, 1820. FIRST STATE CAPITOL....... DETROIT IN 1826.. RESERVOIR, FOOT OF ORLEANS STREET, 1840 EXECUTION OF STEVEN G. SIMMONS, SEPTEMBER 24, 1830. BLACK HAWK, CHIEF OF SACS AND FOXES....... HARRIET MARTINEAU....... MRS. ANNE JAMESON.. REV. MARTIN KUNDIG....... REV. GABRIEL RICHARD.. THE JOHN BROWN HOUSE. FINNEY'S HOTEL. FINNEY'S HOTEL BARN.. THE TOLEDO STRIP........... LAST SURVIVOR OF DETROIT'S WINDMILLS...... DANIEL WEBSTER...... WOODWARDVILLE VILLAGE PLAT....... CANAL PACKET BOAT OF 1835. MIXED TRAIN ON DETROIT & PONTIAC RAILWAY....... FIRST LOCOMOTIVE IN MICHIGAN... MICHIGAN CENTRAL'S FIRST DETROIT TERMINAL..... PASSENGER TRAIN ON MICHIGAN CENTRAL, 1845... STEVENS THOMSON MASON, THE "BOY GOVERNOR. GOv. MASON'S HOME IN DETROIT.. ISAAC E. CRARY......... REV. JOHN D. PIERCE...... GEN. U. S. GRANT'S HOME ON EAST FORT STREET...... GEN. U. S. GRANT'S HOME AT JEFFERSON AND RUSSELL STREETS. BLACK HORSE TAVERN, 1835-BEGINNING OF ELOISE... STEVENS T. MASON MONUMENT, CAPITOL PARK....... DR. DOUGLASS HOUGHTON..... PAGE 226 235 243 256 261 261 262 266 267 272 273 280 285 292 299 307 307 317 317 323 326 326 331 344 346 352 355 366 367 369 370 373 373 378 378 390 390 394 398 410 ILLUSTRATIONS XV PAGE WM. A. BURT........... 410 EBER B. WARD....... 410 DETROIT'S FIRST FREE SCHOOL........ 442 KING STRANG'S CASTLE........ 452 JAMES JESSE STRANG........ 452 JOSEPH CAMPAU....... 458 JOSEPH CAMPAU'S HOUSE........ 458 CAPITOL HIGH SCHOOL....... 463 DETROIT'S FIRST TOBACCO FACTORY..........469 DANIEL SCOTTEN....... 470 JOHN J. BAGLEY............. 470 PIONEER FIREPLACE-THE HEART OF EVERY DETROIT HOME FOR 130 YEARS.......... 473 THE BEGINNING OF HARPER HOSPITAL........ 480 THE May/lower, DETROIT AND BUFFALO LINE, 1849......490 FIRST CANAL LOCK AT THE "Soo"........ 494 EUREKA IRON AND STEEL WORKS AT WYANDOTTE, 1860.. 497 REMAINS OF THE OLD NATIONAL HOTEL.......501 JACOB M. HOWARD....... 509 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER........ 509 ISAAC.P. CHRISTIANCY............ 509 THIRD MICHIGAN INFANTRY OFF FOR THE CIVIL WAR, ESCORTED BY DETROIT FIREMEN........... 517 THE " IRON BRIGADE" FACING FEARFUL ODDS AT GETTYSBURG... 522 SHERIFF MARK FLANIGAN..............525 U. S. STEAMER Michigan; NAVY OF THE GREAT LAKES FOR A GENERATION 530 OLD CITY HALL, CADILLAC SQUARE........... 542 VIEW OF CADILLAC SQUARE MARKET FROM CITY HALL ROOF, ABOUT 1875 543 RIVER FRONT AT BATES STREET, 1880, AS PAINTED BY WM. B. CONELY 55-7 TUG Champion WITH Tow OF SHIPS, PAINTED BY S. A. WHIPPLE, 1880. 576 FIVE-MASTED SHIP David Dows, AND DETROIT & CLEVELAND LINER, 1888 579 TOM L. JOHNSON....... 628 HAZEN S. PINGREE............. 628 ZOOTROPE OF 1845, FIRST MOVING PICTURE DEVICE... 700 EARLIEST MOTOR CAR OF RECORD, BUILT TO HAUL FIELD ARTILLERY 708 JAMES' STEAM CARRIAGE, 1832.........709 THE FIRST SELDEN MOTOR CAR, BASIS OF TROUBLESOME PATENTS.710 HENRY FORD IN HIS FIRST CAR........ 717 DETROIT-CLEVELAND AERO-MAIL SERVICE OVER DETROIT BUSINESS CENTER IN 1923.......... 734 -I-- INTRODUCTION DETROIT is a city of metropolitan magnitude with a thrilling history which is the accumulation of more than 2,20 years. For the first 59 years of its existence it was a puny frontier settlement of New France. During the next 23 years it was a part of the British Empire. Then came 13 years of American possession, which was purely nominal, because Great Britain still ruled it. For'a short time Detroit and Michigan were politically a part of Canada, sending representatives to the first and second Canadian Assembly under the Quebec Act. Then came the American conquest of the West and surrender of Detroit to the United States in 1796. In 1812 Detroit was disgracefully surrendered again to Great Britain, but 14 months later., in September, 18 13, it was recovered to American possession. Not only did France, Great Britain and the United States strive together for possession of Detroit, but Spain also maneuvered and schemed for the territory between the Appalachian Range and the Mississippi River. She once invaded MTichigan and destroyed the fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph River in 1780. We have in Detroit today at least 8oopooo citizens who know little or nothing about the past history of their city. Its early struggles, hardships, perils and triumphs are as yet a closed book for them. True patriotism has its root in the history and traditions of every people in their habitat. Therefore, the demand that every foreign-born citizen shall become instantly and on demand 100 per cent American is preposterous. If an ancient, traditional allegiance that should be in the very blood and bones of a man can be cast off like a worn-out garment for a new one, regardless of the fit, patriotism would be purely a superficial and artificial thing. It is in the heart and soul and the understanding of a man that true patriotism must abound. It can only be introduced into the inner and the real man by a 6 xvii xviii INTRODUCTION steady, patient system of educational inculcation. True patriotism is a plant of slow growth. Since the World War we have become intelligently aware of this fact, and very wisely we are discarding the obsolete theory of " the melting pot." The public schools and a number of patriotic societies have been doing a noble work of nationalization, and the newspapers, which must take rank beside the public schools and the universities as an educational institution, have a duty to perform in the field of nationalization. Loyalty begins with the family and has its natural expansion in the larger scope of the municipality, the state and the nation. The man who has no knowledge of the history or traditions of his family, his city, his state or his country, and regards these things as of no account, can never rise to the higher levels of citizenship. In 1805 Sir Walter Scott wrote his "Lay of the Last Minstrel," in which he inserted the following powerful appeal for patriotism: "Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land? Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he has turned From wandering on a foreign strand? If such there breathe, go, mark him well; For him no minstrel raptures swell; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonored, and unsung." We who live in Detroit of today owe a vast debt to the generations of successive races of men who forced their way into the heart of the American continent more than 2oo years ago to found a little settlement in a far wilderness; to discover its wealth of natural resources. Then, by infinite labor and sacrifice, they wrought it into the splendid fabric which we enjoy INTRODUCTTONNXix today. Detroit is a city of splendid achievements, but it is by no means a finished product. What has been done in the past is both an incentive and a challenge to the present generation to carry on to still greater achievements. In this troubled period of international bewilderment and national uncertainty we need a new incentive to nobler doing, and we may well look for these thin~gs in the thrilling story of labor and sacrifice which is the history of our own city. It was the boast of the Apostle St. Paul that he was "ca citizen of no mean city," for while he was a native of Tarsus he also was a citizen of Rome. The citizens of Detroit can and should feel the same degree of pride, for they are the successors and beneficiaries of a host of brave men and women who have redeemed from a savage wilderness this splendid commonwealth and have hung upon it like a jewel of decoration the queenly City of Detroit with its wealth of storied past. A THE STORY OF DETROIT CHAPTER I THE CAUSE OF DETROIT')S ]FOUNDING HO founded Detroit? Every child of the fifth grade W in Detroit public schools answers at once 'and in chorus: "Cadillac." The founder's full name was Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac, but life is short and there is so much to learn and so much that should be learned that we will introduce the founder of our city as plain Cadillac, *for that is the name that is blazoned upon its history, the name of an avenue, a square, a hotel and several monumental tablets. When did Cadillac arrive? On July 23, 1 701, which should be a date fixed in the mind of every native and inhabitant of the city. But back of every action lies a cause, and back of the founding of Detroit lies a train of curious causes. Spain, Portugal, France and Great Britain, all thrilled by the discovery of a new world of unknown extent, rushed across the ocean to grab as much of it as possible. Exploration costs money. Settlement must be encouraged by a show of personal as well as national profit. How could France induce her people to migrate to the New World and make it a profitable possession and a producer of revenue for the King? Spain sought gold and robbed the treasuries of Mexico, Central and South America. Great Britain promoted tobaccogrowing in Virginia. France explored in search of gold, silver and copper, but she found a more immediate source of wealth in a very different natural product, the skins of the beaver. It was the beaver which led to the founding of Detroit. And the skin of the beaver was sought chiefly as a material for making fashionable headgear or hats foi both men and 2 THE STORY OF DE'TROIT women. Up to the time of Louis XII, at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century, the men of Europe had worn caps of velvet and other soft fabrics. Then they began to wear fine fur caps. Louis XII one day made a public appearance wearing the first high hat of record, a lofty-crowned, narrow-brimmed conical affair made of the fine inner fur of the beaver, and immediately a new fashion in hats and hat materials was established. The supply of beaver in the old world was very limited, but the early explorers of Canada, New England and, particularly, of the Great Lakes region found beaver colonies in every stream, and the harvest began. Traders established local markets and the Indians of the Iroquois and Algonquin tribes began trapping beaver and bringing their pelts to these centers to trade for blankets, knives, hatchets, kettles and also for French brandy distilled from the wines produced by the vineyards of France. Brandy had a magnetic attraction for the Indians. They would bring their packs of fur 5oo miles or more to trade for a few urgent necessities and then enjoy a drunken debauch. Mackinac at the tip of the southern peninsula' of Michigan became a trading center to which the Chippewa Indians, the Sacs and Foxes, the Sioux from Minnesota and Dakota, the Winnebagoes from Wisconsin and the Crees from the Hudson Bay country came to trade their peltry for goods and brandy. The fashion in hats spread from France to England, so the English traders set up a post on the Hudson River where Albany now stands and called it Fort Orange. English traders began coming up Lake Erie to Detroit River to buy beaver skins. The region about Detroit was known as Teuscha-Gronde, the "country of the beaver." French brandy was rather expensive and the English had a cheaper liquor distilled from molasses. It was called rum. The English traders could afford to give twice as much in trade for beaver skins. Suddenly the fur trade at Mackinac began to fall off rapidly and it was discovered that the Indians were making the longer journey to Detroit in order to get more "firewater" for their peltry. The traders complained to their government and THE CAUSE OF DETROIT'S FOUNDING 3 their government directed that a strong military post be established at the best site on the Detroit River or Strait to prevent the English traders from coming up the lake to buy fur from the Indians. This order came direct from Count Pontchartrain, minister of marine in the cabinet of Louis XIV, to Gov. Frontenac, of New France. Cadillac had been for several years commandant of the French fort at Mackinac. He was called to Montreal to fit out an expedition which was authorized to found a settlement on Detroit River, build a fort, garrison it and hold it as a barrier against the invasion of the English traders from Fort Orange. The French language has two words signifying "straight." The adjective word is "droit," but the noun is "Detroit." Therefore the name of Detroit signifies that it is the "city of the strait." N CHAPTER II THE COMING OF CADILLAC T was an imposing flotilla which set out from Montreal, June 5, in the summer of o1701, for the founding of Detroit. There were 25 large canoes manned by ioo Frenchmen and carrying bundles of supplies. As an escort there were many more small canoes manned by Indians, who were to act as a convoy and as ambassadors to explain the purpose of the expedition to the Indians of the Straits district and make themselves useful at the portages. Up the Ottawa River, across to Lake Nipissing, down French River to Georgian Bay, across the great bay to Lake Huron and, then, skirting the eastern shore, they came to St. Clair River and thence through Lake St. Clair to Detroit River. There were o50 soldiers, in blue uniforms faced with white, 50o hardy Canadian voyageurs of iron constitution who paddled two hours at a stretch at racing speed. Then the flotilla would stop for a smoke and rest and a new set of paddlers would hurl the canoes along through the clear water. The strokes were timed to the cadence of many boating songs in which the soldiers soon learned to join. Distances were rated by smokes rather than by miles. At night they camped at some convenient place along the shore. On this route they spent 49 days, for the distance was 300 leagues and there were more than 30 portages to be made. Each morning the two Recollet priests who accompanied the expedition celebrated the mass at sunrise. In the head canoe sat Cadillac, leader of the expedition. As they passed densely wooded Belle Isle he began to study the shore on both sides, looking for a site for his fort. They paddled down as far as Grosse Ile and spent the night there. Cadillac discussed the lay of the land with the soldiers and they agreed that the narrowest part of the river was the place for the fort, and on the highest ground that offered a strongly defensible 4 THE COMING OF CADILLAC5 5 location. Back up the river they came, hugging the shore and battling with the strong current. Cadillac noted that the narrowest part of the river was faced on either side by a bluff about 40 feet high. "On which side shall I plant the fortified town that is to guard this strait; which place offers the best defensive conditions?" he asked himself and his soldier associates. On the north side of the river he saw that the bluff ended rather abruptly at its western end in a round-topped hill and around the foot of this hill poured the waters of a small river about 25 feet wide and 10 feet deep. That hill stood ne-ar the present foot of First Street and that little river, later known as the Savoyard, emptied 'into Detroit River near the present line of Third Street. For some distance above its mouth,3 it ran parallel to Detroit River along the present lines of Lamned and Congress streets, crossing the present Woodward Avenue where Congress now intersects. A little to the eastward of that point its course turned north, crossing the site of the present County Building. This parallel course of the two rivers created a narrow tongue or peninsula of high ground which was fairly level at the top and heavily wooded. " There,'' said Cadillac, ''is the place for the fort and the new town. It is defended on three sides by a water front. It commands a fine view up and down the river. Our little brass cannon can send a shot clear across the big river and we can hold the fort against either English invaders or hostile Indians. Here we land and set to work." Within two hours the canoes were unloaded and a camp was made in the woods on the bluff. A hasty meal had been eaten and the axes of ~o expert woodsmen were soon breaking a silence that had b-rooded over the site since time immemorial. The crash of falling trees scattered wild animals in alarm. The trunks were rapidly shaped into logs and the larger of the logs were set aside for the building of a church-the Church of Ste. Anne-which still endures after being twice destroyed by fire and undergoing two removals. The more slender saplings were cut into 20-foot lengths and sharpened at the smaller end 6 THE STORY OF DETROIT for a palisade. Cadillac laid out the line of the stockade with the assistance of Capt. Alphonse de Tonty-who had previously traveled with La Salle-and Lieutenants Chacornacle and Dugne. As soon as the line of the stockade was marked Fathei Nicholas Constantine del Halle, the Recollet priest, and Father Francis Valliant de Gueslis, a Jesuit, marked out the ground for the church at the eastern end of the stockade. The logs for the church were set on end side by side and inserted four feet deep in the ground. All the early houses of Detroit for a period of about ioo years were built in this fashion, instead of being built log upon log and mortised at the ends. The walls of Ste. Anne's Church were raised in place on that first day, and mass was celebrated within them on the green sod next morning. The streets of the first town of Detroit were laid out due north and south and east and west, as was the stockade of log pickets i6 feet high that inclosed them. Therefore the old street plan does not coincide with the present plan, in which the streets nearest the river run parallel with the shore regardless of the points of the compass, and the north and south streets stand at right angles to these. The original stockade extended STREETS AND BLOCKS OF DETROIT OF 1708 SUPERPOSED ON PRESENT STREET PLAN THE COMING OF CADILLAC 7 east and west from about the line of Griswold Street to a point near Wayne Street. The south side ran east and west a little below Jefferson Avenue near the edge of the bluff and the parallel north side ran along the top of the south bank of the little Savoyard River. Next morning the men of the new settlement were awakened at daybreak by the shrill call of wild turkeys marshaling their broods to feed upon the wild grapes which hung in festoons from the trees. The work of setting the stockade'was rushed so as to afford a defense against possible enemies. Curious Indians of the neighborhood gathered about the camp at a distance wondering what the invasion of white men and strange Canadian Indians might mean. The Indian interpreters, Jean and Francois Fafard, went out to them giving the sign of peace with open, outspread hands and assured the natives that theirs was a mission of peace and commerce, and that there was no intention of driving them away. On the contrary, they were urged to establish their villages near the town for mutual protection and advantage. The people of the walled town would be glad to buy their furs and their wild game and fish. This satisfied the Indians. Some of them took to their canoes seeking sturgeon and other fish which then swarmed the waters. Partridge drummed in the woods and in the reedy marsh of a deep cove which then lay below the line of Third Street, wild ducks quacked and clamored and led their young to their feeding places. All that cove was afterward filled in and the old Michigan Central depot and railway yard were established nearly I50 years later on made ground which had been gradually filled in by the leveling of bluffs and small hills. Farther back from the river in the openings of the woods small herds of buffalo grazed, and occasionally a bull elk was to be seen threshing his antlers against the brush to tear away the "velvet" covering from his hardening horns. The stockade finished and the brass cannon mounted on a platform overlooking the Detroit River, Cadillac gave the new fort the name Fort Pontchartrain, in honor of the French 8 THE STORY OF DETROIT minister of marine, who had sent him to found the new settlement in the wilds of Michigan territory. By Sept. i the site of the first settlement was all enclosed. The enclosure had an area less than 37 acres and during the next century of its history it expanded to less than a square mile. Some of the remains of that first planting are still in the soil of modern Detroit. In 1894, or 193 years after they were set up, an excavation at Lamed and Wayne streets turned up many relics, and in 1922 an excavation in Jefferson Avenue disclosed the mouldering bones of 30 people who had given their bodies to the ground of the city they had founded. The original stockade had three massive gates of timber, one toward the east, one toward the west and one toward Detroit River. The Indians gathered from a wide district and established their little villages near the white man's town. These were Ottawas, Hurons, Pottawatomies, Miamis and Wyandottes. In the summer of 1702 the first white women of the settlement came from Montreal by way of Lakes Ontario and Erie. But preparation had to be made for their advent because Detroit lay hundreds of miles from the nearest settlement and without any connecting roads. Where women live, bread is made; so the first settlers planted a little patch of wheat in October of 1701, which they reaped in disappointment in the following July, for the soil of Detroit right about the town was not favorable to wheat. There were no horses, oxen or plows that first year, so the ground was spaded. In 1704 Cadiliac brought three horses and Io head of oxen to Detroit and these made it possible to attempt cropgrowing under more favorable conditions. -Mv 0 z i 0 0 0 0 0 0 L 4 9 CHAPTER III.CADILLAC'S VILLAGE CADILLAC had a plan for building up a populous settlement which involved the marrying of the men settlers to women of the friendly Huron tribe imported from Mackinaw, where many of them had acquired the ways of civilization. Fr. Valliant, the Jesuit priest, opposed this plan because it would attract Indians from the established Jesuit mission at Mackinac. The disagreement caused Fr. Valliant to leave Detroit on the day of his arrival. The new town had one main street extending from end to end of the stockade east and west. It was named Ste. Anne Street. This was paralleled on the north by St. Joachim Street, which ran more than half the distance to a short offset west of Shelby Street, and from that point the offset street was continued under the same name. There were two narrow cross streets, St. Frangois and St. Antoine, and a short alley known as Rencontre, which was only wide enough for a footway between houses. Ste. Anne Street was 20 feet wide and the others 15 feet or less. The houses were all but one story high, but most of them had a loft under the roof and some had a dormer window in the roof, but there was not a pane of glass in the town for many years. The windows were merely square holes closed by solid wooden shutters which were opened in fair weather. The doors were often "Dutch" doors, of which the upper half was kept open for light and ventilation in pleasant weather. The first chimneys were of the "clay and wattle" fashion, consisting of a crib of sticks heavily smeared with wet clay inside and outside. There was little stone near the town. Many of the houses had no floor except hard-packed clay, but a few floors were made of basswood or pine "puncheons," which were slabs of log made fairly smooth one side with an ax or adz. The furniture was such as could be made on the ground IO CADILLAC'S VILLAGE II by rude workmen equipped with a few simple'tools of pioneer life. Cadillac was not in the favor of the Jesuit mission priests of the north and he seemed to delight in annoying them. It was his plan to build up a prosperous trading center regardless of the welfare of the Indians, so he started outbidding the English traders in bartering brandy for furs. The missionary priests opposed this because it meant the demoralization and destruction of the Indians. They were bent upon evangelizing the Indians and saving their souls, while Cadillac wanted to exploit them for money profits. He presently bribed 30 Indians to leave the mission at Mackinac and come to Detroit, but this momentary triumph led to activities on the part of the Jesuits by which Cadillac was discredited with the government and removed to a new post in Louisiana after io stormy years of plotting and counterplotting. For four years after the settlement, Detroit remained at peace with the Indians. During the summer of 1705 Cadillac went to Montreal, and Lieut. Bourgmont was sent to act as commandant in his absence. Bourgmont was a man of violent temper. One day a curious Indian was seen peering into his open window. Bourgmont's dog dashed out and bit the Indian in the leg. The Indian kicked the dog, which ran howling into the house, whereupon Bourgmont rushed out and beat the Indian senseless. This created bad feeling. A few days later Bourgmont interfered in a quarrel between some Ottawa and Miami Indians. He ordered his men to fire on the Ottawas and several were killed. The Indians fled, but as they passed the garden of Fr. Del Halle, near Ste. Anne's Church, they stopped long enough to kill him. They also killed a soldier named Riviere, who was walking some distance from the fort. Fr. Del Halle was the first Christian martyr of Detroit-on June 6, 1706. It was his hand which wrote the first records of Ste. Anne's Church and he was buried in the churchyard. A town without women is a sorry sort of place, because without the influence of wives and mothers, morality, respect for law and human rights, and even the natural sense of thrift, 12 THE STORY OF DETROIT seem to dwindle and die. The early colonists of Virginia were forced to rather strenuous methods in order to obtain wives for the settlers. They resorted to purchase, with stipulated prices in tobacco, then a bounty system; and later plain kidnaping was practiced in the populous centers of Great Britain and Ireland. Arrived at the Virginia coast the women were sometimes put up at auction and sold to the highest bidder, but with the consent of the purchased one held in respect. The first two white women to arrive in Detroit were Madame Cadillac and Madame Tonty, wives respectively of the commandant and his lieutenant. Mmne. Cadillac brought her son, James, aged 7 years, but left her two daughters in the Ursuline Convent in Quebec. They left Quebec, September o10, 1701, with an escort of Canadian voyageurs in birch canoes and made the journey via the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario andLake Erie. They stopped over the winter at Frontenac, now Kingston, and arrived in Detroit late in the following spring. The first women were given a grand reception as they came up the river. The cannon was fired from the parapet of the fort, the soldiers discharged their muskets in a salvo, and all the white men and a horde of Indians made as much noise as possible while the ladies were helped ashore and conducted to the fort on the bluff. Cadillac's enemies, after many failures to oust him from his post, triumphed in the end. He was shifted to Louisiana with the title of governor, but even there he encountered opposition and finally he returned to France having lost all that he had gained during 30 years of labor and hardship in the wilds of America. For many years after Cadillac's departure Detroit was forced to fight for its existence. Cadillac had attracted enough Huron Indians to establish a little village on the river front near the beginning of the present Third Avenue. A large village of Ottawas sprang up on the present site of Walkerville and there was a smaller band of them on the Detroit side opposite Walkerville. Farther away to the west and south were villages of Miamis and Pottawatomies. These tribes were jealous of one CADILLAC'S VILLAGE I3 another and it required a good deal of diplomacy to keep them peaceful. Far to the north about the Straits of Mackinac lived the large and warlike tribe of Chippewas or Ojibways, as the Frenchmen called them. Their name was so difficult to pronounce that both French and English settlers could only make a rude attempt at the phonetic spelling. The Chippewas often came down the lakes to trade in Detroit, and they presently established a sort of halting place on Harsen's Island, at St. Clair Flats. Their visits and introduction to the white man's "firewater" added another element of discord. The Ottawas were a numerous people and divided with the Pottawatomies the dominion over Lower Michigan, but living between the Ottawas and the Chippewas was another sort of twin tribe, domiciled in the Saginaw Valley, around Saginaw Bay, and holding the territory between Saginaw Bay and Thunder Bay. This twin tribe was termed by the French the "Sakis and Reynards," while the English afterward termed them the Sacs and Foxes. These were a semi-civilized people, somewhat after the Iroquois of New York. They felt themselves superior to their neighboring tribes, and did not hesitate to show it. As a result they were generally hated by the other Indians, but not one of the other tribes cared to make war upon them unassisted. The Sacs and Foxes looked with suspicion and hatred upon the invasion of the whites. They despised the other tribes for making peace with them, and awaited opportunity to attack the fort at Detroit and destroy it together with all the invaders. They planned their attack for the spring of I712, when the unwary Joseph Guyon du Buisson was commandant and when the Ottawa warriors would be absent on the warpath among the Indians of the Mississippi Valley. V Al........... / tiI INDIAN ATTACK ON DETROIT IN 1712 CHAPTER IV EARLY TROUBLE WITH INDIANS HE spring of 1712 dawned brightly in Detroit. The wild tribesmen about the settlement were at peace with one another and with the French. Necessity is a grim mistress and the necessity of the Indian was a plentiful supply of game. When game was scarce or there were too many mouths to be fed, the primitive remedy was for each tribe to go upon the warpath every spring and take as many scalps as possible from some hereditary enemy tribe and, incidentally, to lose a few scalps of their own. Thus population was kept within the bounds of subsistence by the chase. But the French government opposed these tribal wars. The traders found that they affected the fur trade and the missionaries' deplored them because so many souls were lost. The governor-general of Canada ordered a cessation of this strife. "But," protested the Indians, "if we do not make war we shall become weak and timid; our young men will lose their manhood; our women will hold us in contempt if we bring home no scalps. We must make war." "Very well, then," answered the government, "if you must make war, make it against the tribes far away who bring us no fur. There are the 'Totes Plattes' of the Mississippi Valley who are of little use to us. Scalp them, if you must take scalps." So each spring a body of young warriors left Detroit to prey upon the "Tetes Plattes" (Flat Heads) of the Mississippi Valley. They left at a stated time which was well known to the Sacs and Foxes, and when that time came in 1712 long lines of tall, fierce Indians from about Saginaw Bay came stealing through the forest toward Detroit. They came via the "grand crossing," which is now in the heart of the city of Flint, and thence by Grand Blanc, Pontiac and Royal Oak, all then virgin 15 i6 THE STORY OF DETROIT forest, and spread out so as completely to encompass the stockade at Detroit. But word of their approach had reached the settlement through friendly Indians who had remained at home, and swift runners were sent out to recall the Ottawas and Hurons who had left for the West. Out of the surrounding forest, closing in on the little fort, came a formidable band of Sacs and Foxes, accompanied by their kindred, the Mascoutins and Outagamies, from the Traverse Bay district. The gates were closed in time, but the enemy acted with deliberation and system. They knew the capture of Detroit would be no one-day task and that there was no chance for immediate scalps, so they made their camp and sat down to a systematic siege, knowing that the fort was short of food after the long winter and must soon be starved into surrender if it could not be intimidated or stormed. Ste. Anne's Church was a vulnerable point which might be fired by blazing arrows while every man would be busy with defense on the parapet, so the commandant burned it while the men could stand by to save the other buildings. Within arrowshot of the fort all around, the enemy threw up trenches and from that shelter they began shooting flaming arrows into the roofs of the settlement. The defenders were kept busy extinguishing a hundred small blazes. The great store of peltry in the warehouse was brought out and laid over the roofs and kept wet with water. When the case began to look desperate the settlers were cheered when from far off out Michigan Avenue way came the shrill war cry of the returning Ottawas and Hurons. The besiegers at once lost heart and hope, and hurriedly retired to the vicinity of Windmill Point. There they made a new camp where, if they were attacked, they would have protected flanks and the attackers must come to them in the open. Du Buisson sent M. Vincennes with all the men he could spare, reinforced by the Indians who had returned and others who were gathered for the fray. They attacked the invaders with fury and the odds of powder and ball proved too much for EARLY TROUBLE WITH INDIANS I7 ---- the Sacs and Foxes. Cowed, they held their ground behind breastworks. The French built platforms from which they could kill the men in the trenches and presently the Sacs and Foxes broke and fled along the shore of the lake and the siege was over. The early chroniclers declared that about I,ooo of them were killed but the number is probably exaggerated. The victorious French and local Indians maintained the pursuit for several days, taking more scalps. There was never another menace to Detroit from those tribesmen. Among the French names that have been commemorated geographically in the State of Michigan that of Pierre Francois de Charlevoix is prominent. Charlevoix was a learned man who made his first visit to America in 1705. He taught four years in a college at Quebec, then returned to France and came back in 1720 to write a history of Canada. In 1721 he arrived in Detroit to establish a mission for the Huron Indians. James Fenimore Cooper has given us some weird and wonderful relations regarding the deadly feud between the Iroquois of New York and the Hurons of Canada. It was an old feud when Champlain arrived and Champlain intensified the hatred of the Iroquois by taking the side of the Hurons with his arquebus men in a battle with the Iroquois. The arquebus was a rude and very heavy musket which required two men to operate it. One carried the gun weighing about 30 pounds and another a tripod on which to rest the muzzle. It had no lock but was fired like the old cannon by means of a small torch or linstock. Year after year the Iroquois raided the Huron villages of Canada until the Hurons were utterly crushed as a warlike tribe. Then, being of a "humble and a contrite heart" they were the first tribe to accept Christianity. Charlevoix came to gather the Detroit Hurons into the pale of the church. The hastily built tepees about the mouth of the Savoyard River near the foot of Third Street had given place to a village of community houses built with pole frames; and covered, roof and sides, with sheets of elm bark. These houses were 40 to 6o feet long and about 20o feet wide. Sections were allotted to particular families, four or five families living in one house. 18 THE STORY OF DETROIT Even then the Hurons felt none too secure, for they surrounded their village with a strong stockade. On the higher ground where Jefferson and Michigan avenues lie th-ey had gardens where they grew corn, peas, beans and some wheat. They also had a community storehouse for their products. The women tilled the soil while the men hunted and trapped. Charlevoix gives a detailed description of their life and that of the Ottawa village on the site of Walkerville, which was also a stockaded village. He describes the Ottawas as the finest formed and most athletic Indians of the neighborhood, but all the tribes seemed to live in a state of armed and watchful neutrality. On the recommendation of Charlevoix the Jesuits at Quebec sent Fr. Armand de la Richardie to Detroit in 1728. The Recollet Fathers governed the parish of Detroit and so, to avoid any possible conflict of jurisdiction, Fr. Richardie obtained permission to found a Huron mission on the Canadian shore. This mission house was erected near the water front directly north of the present site of Assumption College. It was built partly of hewed pine and partly of sawed lumber, 30 by 45 feet on the ground. It remained standing until about the OLD MISSION- HOUSE AT SANDWICH EARLY TROUBLE WITH INDIANS i9 beginning of the Twentieth Century. Afterward a church was built and a priest's residence, a storehouse for furs, another for provisions and a blacksmith shop were established near by. There the Hurons could store their foods and furs, and trade with fur buyers where they could not be tempted with strong liquors or cheated by unscrupulous traders. Everything was done under the eyes of the Jesuit father and his assistants, and this proved such an advantage to the Indians that other tribes often went to Sandwich to trade. This rivalry was anything but pleasing to the Detroit trading post, and the feeling intensified as time passed until only a spark was needed to explode trouble between the Indian tribes on both sides of the river. The explosion came in 1738, but that is another story. It was an act of mercy and a reciprocity in kindness that came near causing a war of extermination between the Huron and Ottawa tribes at Detroit in 1738. It appears that a Huron warrior had been badly wounded in one of those annual forays into the Mississippi Valley. He was captured, but instead of burning him at the stake in the approved fashion, his captors treated him with kindness, nursed him back to health and sent him home to his own people at the Detroit Huron village. The Detroit Hurons held a council and decided that they would make no more war upon such a people. More than that, they would try to discourage the Ottawas from raiding the Tetes Plattes by giving warnings of their attacks in some mutually understood fashion. Next spring the Hurons told the Ottawas they would not go on the warpath. They also told them why and urged the Ottawhs to give up their annual raid. But the Ottawas scoffed at this policy of pacifism and went away breathing threatenings and slaughter. But a few Huron runners stole through the woods at some distance and gave warning to the Tetes Plattes. Then they slipped back and spied upon the Ottawas. One night the Ottawas crept noiselessly upon a sleeping camp of their enemies and lay down to await an opportune moment for their rush. Just then the cry of an owl sounded through the woods. Immediately the sleeping camp was aroused. 20 THE STORY OF DETROIT A moment later the cry was repeated and the camp hurriedly sprang to its arms. Then the warriors scattered through the woods in a wide semicircle to close in on the bewildered band of Ottawas and as they outnumbered the invaders two to one they killed several and drove the others away. On their way back to Detroit the survivors of the raid began discussing the affair in its various phases, the refusal of the Hurons to join the raid, their plea for its abandonment; and they came to the opinion that those owl cries had been excellent imitations given by Huron spies, as a prearranged signal to the Tetes Plattes. When they reached their Ottawa village the whole matter was laid before the tribal council and it was decided that the Hurons must be punished severely for this betrayal. Information regarding the impending outbreak was brought to the priests, who tried to quiet the Ottawas, but without success. The matter was finally compromised by an arrangement which involved the removal of the Hurons to Sandusky, Ohio. After four years' residence there, the old feud had cooled somewhat and the Jesuit fathers at Sandwich planned to bring the Hurons back to Detroit. Here another compromise was arranged. The Ottawas did not want the Hurons near them and the Hurons were afraid to come back, so it was arranged to bring the Hurons from Sandusky to Bois Blanc Island at the mouth of the Detroit River. They remained on the island for five years and Fr. Peter Potier was sent to conduct a mission there. In 1747 good feeling was sufficiently restored to attempt a return up the river, so the Bois Blanc Mission was abandoned and Fr. Potier brought the Hurons to Sandwich Point and sAtled them about the mission house. In 1755 Fr. Richardie went back to Quebec, leaving Fr. Potier in charge of the mission. He remained faithfully at his post and grew old in the service. On the night of July 16, 1781, he was standing near the big fireplace in the mission house reading when he was attacked by vertigo. He fell to the floor so heavily that his skull was fractured against the andiron and he died a few hours later at the age of 72 years. His remains were EARLY TROUBLE WITH INDIANS 21 buried beneath the altar of the old church. In 1I8I the present Church of the Assumption was built and the remains of Fr. Potier were re-interred beneath the altar of that edifice, which still stands. Two other priests had in the meantime been interred beneath the altar of the old church, but the remains of Fr. Potier were easily identified by his tall stature and by the hole in his skull where it had been punctured by the point of the andiron. CHAPTER V DETROIT Two HUNDRED YEARS Aco AR-FLUNG battle lines are apt to get out of alignment and far-flung trading posts tend toward corruption. Most of the Indian wars of the United States have been the direct or indirect results of corrupt practice in remote trading posts. Commandant Alphonse Tonty at Detroit adopted a get-rich-quick policy. The Indians were plied with liquor and badly cheated. Trade began to fall off and furs from Detroit began to find their way, to Fort Orange or Albany, N. Y. The Indians became angry. Settlers became nervous and began to leave. Presently there were less than 30 left. The Indians had taken to agriculture under instruction, and for a time raised wheat and other cereals enough to supply Detroit and other trading posts, but the cheating discouraged them and then they raised only enough for their own needs. Tonty died in office, leaving the affairs of Detroit in bad condition. The government of New France decided that a thoroughly competent and honest business man was needed to take charge of civil affairs here. Once again by a fortuitous combination of circumstances, the man, the issue and the job made fortunate conjunction. In 1730 Robert Navarre, a native of Villeroy, Brittany, came out from France with strong recommendations to the governmental authorities. As his name would imply, he was a scion of nobility, being a direct descendant of the eighth generation of Henry IV of Navarre, King of France. Robert Navarre was sent to Detroit as intendant of the post and he took charge that same year. In 1734 he married Mary Lootman, commonly called Barrois, and they reared a large family. He held his post steadily until the French possession was surrendered to the English in 1760 and for some time thereafter he was in the employ of the English government in the same capacity, serving 22 DETROIT Two HUNDRED YEARS AGO 23 as magistrate, notary, interpreter and controller of fiscal affairs, to the complete satisfaction of all parties concerned. His family continued in honorable esteem through every change of sovereignty. They were loyal to the English during the English regime and loyal to the Americans later on. When VANISHED STREAMS OF CENTRAL DETROIT the War of 1812 came, there were 36 Navarres in military service on the American side, and their descendants are now scattered all over-the country. In early days the area now covered by Detroit contained a number of large creeks besides the Savoyard River. One of these flowed down from the northwest through a deep ravine which crossed Michigan Avenue just north of the present Michigan Central station. The banks of the ravine were afterward graded down and the Michigan Central railroad tracks were laid on the filled-in bed of the stream down to Third Street in 1848. That old stream disappeared long, long ago, but in 1730 it was known as Cabacier's Creek. In 1734 a dam was built across 24 THE STORY OF DETROIT the creek and a grist mill was built which ground all the flour and meal of the settlement for several years. After the American occupation the name was changed to May's Creek. A number of settlers who lived at some distance from the fort erected windmills for their own and their neighbors' use. One of these, known as Knagg's Mill, stood for many years where the western boulevard now ends at the river front. Another old landmark windmill gave the name to Windmill Point where Lake St. Clair joins Detroit River. In the early days the commandants of Detroit were supposed to enjoy a rich perquisite but were required to pay their own expenses and maintain the post without government aid. This policy made the commandants greedy and most of them engaged in corrupt practice for private gain while they reduced their military force as much as they dared in order to curtail their expenses. In 1737 Sieur de Noyelle kept but 17 soldiers to defend Detroit. The trade in beaver fur experienced a boom in consequence of an unusual foreign demand in the 1730's. In 1735 178,000 pounds of beaver was shipped abroad from Quebec. This condition led to a petition to Count Maurepas, who had succeeded Count Pontchartrain as minister of marine, asking that more troops be sent at government expense and that the commandant be placed on a salary. Old Detroit was a quaint sort of place in early days. The stockade of unpainted timber soon began to show signs of decay and occasionally rotten palings had to be replaced with sound timber. The houses, all unpainted and rudely constructed, took on a weather-beaten and rather dilapidated appearance. Some of the roofs sagged and walls became out of plumb, giving the older buildings a staggering effect, but the happy-go-lucky Frenchmen cared little for appearances as long as they were kept dry and warm within. A hardy breed of rough-coated ponies had been developed in the St. Lawrence Valley and the more prosperous residents of Detroit imported these, and also a curious style of twowheeled vehicle with very long thills and without springs. The caleches which are still used in Quebec fairly represent the type. DETROIT Two HUNDRED YEARS AGO 25 The settlers made their own rude sleighs which were shod with straps of iron at the blacksmith shop. Most of these ponies were pacers and some of them were very speedy. They were to be found at every one of the French farms which, having a narrow frontage on the river front above and below the town, were supposed to extend into the wilderness indefinitely. The length of these farms was finally settled at three miles. When these farmers drove into town they wanted to make an impression, so it was a common thing to see a pony driven down Ste. Anne Street at breakneck speed with the vehicle behind bouncing perilously and the wild-looking driver with long floating hair, covered by a conical fur cap, and a faceful of whiskers, swinging a long gad and giving utterance to wild yells, as a warning for all pedestrians to look out for their lives. When two or more of these would meet in the street there would be a challenge for a race and as the ponies came tearing through the street only 20 feet wide, pedestrians sprang into the nearest door without ceremony. All the houses faced flush on the log sidewalk which was only two feet wide. It was in the winter that the "days of real sport" came. The favorite racing places were on the ice of the River Rouge and at Ecorse, and, in midwinter, on the ice of the big river. There were no newspapers in the town and few people who could read one, even in the French language, so Ste. Anne's Church fulfilled the double function of supplying the souls of the inhabitants with grace, and their minds with the news of the day, After morning mass the leading acolyte would hastily doff his robe and take his stand on the little platform at the church door, where he would relate to the assembly gathered in the street all the news of the town and shore; giving notice of dances that were to be held during the week and of the horse races to be held after dinner Sunday afternoon. They were mostly a carefree, jovial lot. The streets of the town were noisy day and night with the folksongs of the old homes across the ocean. The sound of violins could be heard from many houses and dancing was the popular amusement in which young and old joined with equal zest. 26 THE STORY OF DETROIT The Indians loved to gather on the common, east of the fort, to play lacrosse and football and often there were contests between the reds and the whites. After Detroit began to pick up again and show renewed prosperity, French taste was manifested by the whitewashing of houses and palings. The more prosperous citizens painted their front doors a vivid applegreen. The homes were kept very clean. The fare, though simple, was well cooked. Many houses had small looms in which the women wove coarse linens and woolens. Over their beds they hung pictures of the Madonna and a lead crucifix always adorned the wall of the main room. All along the river front, before each house, was a tiny landing wharf with a birch canoe tied to it and sometimes a larger bateau for freighting goods. The waterways were the only highways for many years. Along the ridge now marked by the course of Jefferson Avenue was a rude trail by which the farmers came to the fort. It was interrupted near where the Michigan Stove Works now stands by a narrow but deep ravine through which flowed a stream called Parent's Creek. This was spanned by a log bridge which was destined to be a scene of bloody massacre in 1763, and which was to change Parent's Creek to "Bloody Run." The only remnant of any of those ancient waterways now remaining is a section of old Bloody Run which is still preserved in Elmwood Cemetery. CHAPTER VI FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN IN RIVALRY T is the fate of empires to have their rise and fall, and it is the custom of colonizing nations to rob one another of their distant possessions and to exchange them in trades.' Occasionally, the colonists themselves chafe and fret under outside control and then assert their independence of the mother country, either partial or complete. The decade of the I740's was a period of gathering storm in North America but for a time the menace was barely suggested by whisperings in the court circles of England and France. The more North America was explored the better were the vastness of its area and the wealth of its national resources appreciated. With feeble, struggling colonies domiciled in a continent in which both the mother countries could easily be lost, the French and the English began to feel crowded. Each longed to dispossess the other. Each seemed to feel that conflict loomed in the distance and both began active preparation for it. Entrance from the ocean to New France was by way of the St. Lawrence River. Access to it was by ships, and both nations began building more ships. The French decided to make a safe refuge for their ships and a strong defense of the mouth of the St. Lawrence by building an enormous fortification at Louisburg on the seaward side of Cape Breton Island. For 25 years a large number of workmen toiled at this task under direction of the best military engineers of France and, when finished, it was regarded as impregnable. There the ships of France gathered and made it their cruising center while they sailed up and down the New England coast apparently in aimless fashion. But the fishermen and the coast settlers of New England had their suspicions that a descent upon them was being contemplated. Many years before the French had begun spying out the coast. One of the 27 28 THE STORY OF DETROIT first preferments gained by Cadillac, before he founded Detroit, was through his service as a surveyor of New England harbors and his recommendation of a plan of conquest. For this he was given title to the island of Mt. Desert on the coast of Maine. By 1745 the menace became so ominous that Gov. Shirley of Massachusetts adopted the maxim: "Thrice is he armed who has his quarrel just, and four times he who gets his blow in fust." He planned an attack upon Louisburg with a force of 3,600 hardy New Englanders escorted in 100 New England ships in command of Col. William Pepperell; this to be joined on the way by the British squadron under Commodore Warren. This formidable force took station before Louisburg, April 30, 1745, and after io weeks of siege they forced a surrender. Three years later the peace of Aix la Chapelle was signed which restored the hard won fort to France. This was a mere temporizing measure, for the menace remained and in 1758 the place was surrounded again by 14,000 men under Gen. Amherst, for whom Amherstburg was afterward named, and Admiral Boscawen. Louisburg was taken again and has ever since remained in British possession. It is now a place of no importance. At the same time, far in the interior of the continent, there were other manifestations of the rising storm. An Indian raid was organized by the Chippewa chief Mackinac-whose name is translated "Turtle"-in 1746, and curiously enough a brilliant young chief of the Ottawas named Pontiac came to the rescue of the Detroit settlement, raised the siege and drove the Chippewas away. In the following year the Iroquois tribes of New York induced the Hurons of Detroit to join them in a conspiracy for the destruction of Detroit. The conspiracy was revealed to the French commandant and so came to naught, but the situation was regarded as so perilous that the settlers dared not work far from the fort, and the consequence was a small crop of food stuffs and a near-famine in the following Winter. The French began planting a chain of fortified settlements in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The British retaliated by offering 500,000 acres of Ohio land to colonists who would build a fort FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN IN RIVALRY 29 and maintain it there. The French sent an expedition through that part of the country in 1749, placing lead plates here and there on blazed trees, giving notice that the territory was the property of the King of France. An irrepressible conflict was slowly developing out of an unrepressed national greed for North American territory. French possession really extended from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River through Canada, the Great Lakes region and the Mississippi Valley. West of the Mississippi lay their claimed territory of Louisiana of unknown area. The English having established settlements in New England, Virginia and other parts of the Atlantic coast, claimed possession from sea to sea, and the colonies followed this assertion of right by extending their individual claims from sea to sea. In western Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley the two nations came into collision. The Virginians had pushed a settlement up the Monongahela River and discovered that the Ohio was formed by a junction of the Monongahela with the Allegheny, which came from the north. This junction, they saw, was a very important place for a town and fort. But the French were well aware of the same fact, for they had already penetrated the region and established a chain of forts between the Niagara River and the head waters of the Ohio. The Virginia government sought a peaceable arrangement with the French and sent a special commissioner to treat with them in 1753. That special commissioner happened to be a rising young surveyor and militiaman named George Washington. St. Pierre, the French commandant at the junction of the rivers, received Washington courteously, but flatly refused to make any concessions to the English in general, or to the Ohio Company in particular, that company having been formed to conduct colonization in the Ohio Valley. In 1754 Washington was sent with a force of militia to build a fort where Pittsburgh now stands. They encountered Col. Jumonville with a force of 32 men on a similar mission. In the fight that followed 10o Frenchmen were killed, 21 were taken prisoners and one escaped. But Col. Contrecour with a force of 30 THE STORY OF DETROIT 30THE STORY OF DETROIT I,ooo French was approaching from the north, so Washington returned to Virginia. In the following year Gen. Braddock led a force into the same region and met with memorable disaster. Such was the beginning of the old "French and Indian War," which lasted until 1760 and ended with the surrender of all New FRENCH FRONTIER FORTS, 1750 France to Great Britain. This included Detroit, but during all those bloody years of scalp-taking and mutual slaughter the conflict did not come near Detroit. In 1749 several hundred French settlers were sent to Detroit from Canada and during the following years the military post was materially strengthened. Soldiers and Indians were occasionally sent down to Niagara to aid in the defense of the chain of Ohio forts, but the residents of the town heard little more than vague rumors about the war. When the stronghold of Quebec fell before the attack of Gen. James Wolfe, September 13, 1759, the power of France was broken. Montreal soon surrendered, FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN IN RIVALRY 3 31 but it was not until September 8, 176o, that the entire territory was ceded. No information was sent to. Detroit and the peaceful community assumed that no news was good news. Maj. Rogers was sent with a British force from Niagara to take over the fort at Detroit. The expedition 'traveled in bateaux along the south shore of Lake Erie. They camped one night at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, where Cleveland now stands, and a bold Indian warrior visited the camp. He told Maj. Rogers that his.name was Pontiac; that he was head chief of the Indian nations of the lake country: "Why have you come into my country without permission or invitation? Do you come in peace or in war? " he asked. " I have come- in the name of the great King of England to take possession of Detroit," answered Rogers. "This country does not belong to your great king; it is my country and my people control it; all the country of the lakes," said Pontiac. "We come only to trade; we do not want your lands. We will give you better trade than the French. We will not cheat you as the French have done." Pontiac eyed Rogers suspiciously and said: "I 'will stand in your path until morning and will protect you from harm. At daylight you may proceed safely on your way." Pontiac was a dignified, commanding figure, then in the prime of life. He had his summer camp on Pe~che Island, off the Canadian shore of Lake St. Clair immediately above Belle Isle. He was a man of medium height, strongly built and rather simply dressed, but his face, with strong, regular features, large nose and flaming eyes, showed strong character and his air was that of one accustomed to be obeyed in all his commands and of a man who demanded respect from white men as well as Indians. CHAPTER VII BEGINNING OF BRITISH CONTROL PONTIAC dispatched some of his swiftest runners and canoemen to carry the news of Rogers' approach to the last French commandant at Detroit, FranCois Marie Picote de Bellestre, who had held the post since 1758. Bellestre could not believe that his government had left him in complete ignorance of so important an event as a surrender of all Canada and all New France. He had received no instructions, so he regarded the message as a wild, unfounded rumor. To show his contempt for it he drew a picture of a man on whose head a crow was perched and feeding on his brain. This he posted on the gate of the stockade. He told the Indians that he was the crow and that he would eat the brains of the English. When Rogers arrived at Springwells he sent a messenger to the fort with a report of the surrender and a request that the post be turned over peaceably on his arrival. Bellestre was crushed by the news. When Rogers and his company of troops arrived Bellestre had the drummers beat the assembly, a formal salute was fired from the cannon and the French flag was hauled down, with the usual honors, from the staff where it had floated for 59 years. The French garrison marched out of the fort, the British garrison entered, and all the labor, sacrifice and perils of that long period since Cadillac's arrival had come to naught. Cadillac came to hold back the English from the upper lakes, but now the English were here as conquerors. With beating drums and flying colors the British troops entered the fort. The flag of Great Britain was secured to the halyards of the flagstaff and then it rose slowly to the peak. Again the guns roared, cheers resounded and many voices speaking a strange language clamored in the streets and about the barracks. The old French families within the town and those living on the farms up and down the shore, from the mouth of the 32 BEGINNING OF BRITISH CONTROL 33 River Raisin to the L'Anse Creuse Bay on Lake St. Clair, heard the news in a dazed state of mind and wondered how they would live under the new king; under a code of laws of which they were ignorant and in intimate association with a race for whom they entertained a hereditary hatred. During the 59 years 18 French commandants had governed Detroit affairs. They had been good and bad and indifferent in character, but the people had lived happily for the most part; they were accustomed to their surroundings. Their homes were here and all their worldly possessions, so they decided to stay on, and to hope and plan for a recovery of the territory into French possession. For a time the French people treated the British soldiers coldly and regarded them with suspicion, but most of them were of friendly disposition and after a few weeks the French girls of the settlement, who had at first tossed their heads and switched their skirts contemptuously on meeting the strange soldiers, began to look backward over their shoulders at the passing red-coats. Presently friendly relations were established between the younger set. But the older soldiers and the older French inhabitants, although mutually polite, hardly disguised their contempt for one another. Ten years before the surrender Chevalier Repentigny had been granted a great tract of land about Sault Sainte Marie and had built a fort and several houses there inside a strong stockade. On hearing of the surrender he abandoned it and returned to France. It remained in abandonment for several years. The Mackinac Island post was also abandoned. Maj. Rogers found Detroit a town of 3oo00 dwellings and about 2,000oo inhabitants. Several French families held Indian slaves, whom they had bought from returning war parties. The fort was in excellent condition, but short of supplies. Robert Navarre was retained as civil officer, and he was able to supply 20,oo000 pounds of flour, 0oo bushels of peas and Ioo bushels of corn. Maj. Rogers distributed bodies of troops to posts at Maumee and Sandusky, and was afterwards succeeded as commandant by Capt. Donald Campbell, who was destined to 34 THE STORY OF DETROIT figure in a tragedy three years later. Governmental supervision was under Sir William Johnson of northern New York and Gen. Thomas Gage, who were lieutenants of Sir Jeffrey Amherst, governor-general of the British colony. French submission to British rule in Detroit was more an outward appearance than an inward feeling. Some were reconciled to the new conditions and dismissed the whole matter with a quick shrug of the shoulders and the exclamation, "C'est la guerre" (It is war). Others were irreconcilable. Two or three of the leading French citizens appeared to be very intimate with strange Indians who came and went on unknown business. On rare occasions the head chief of the region, the imperious Pontiac, would appear in town, but rarely in the fort. He seemed on excellent terms with some of the malcontent French, but even toward them he never for a moment unbent his dignity. The fort and stockaded town of Detroit as surrendered by Bellestre was a much larger inclosure than the original town of Cadillac. Its area now measured 372 feet north and south, and 6oo feet east and west. At each corner were strong bastions, or flanking towers, which commanded the approach to the gates. The armament now consisted of five cannon, three mortars and two 3-pounder guns. The narrow streets laid out bv Cadillac and their houses still remained, but the streets had been extended and continued beyond the walls of the stockade. In fact, there were more houses outside the stockade than within it. Desiring to secure the good will of the Indians and to build *up the trade of the post, Gen. Amherst sent Sir William Johnson to Detroit to make a study of the locality. Sir William was an Irishman of considerable means who had lived for many years among the Indians of the Iroquois tribes of New York. He had built a rude castle at what is now Johnstown, N.Y.; had married an Indian woman named Molly Brant, of the Mohawk tribe, and had sent her brother, Joseph Brant, who was destined to figure in American history, to be educated in the schools of Connecticut. Sir William was the ablest Indian commissioner of the country and his influence with the Indians was of great advantage to the government. He made the journey up Lake Erie in BEGINNING OF BRITISH CONTROL 35 bateaux with 300 soldiers and large stores of ammunition, in charge of Capt. Henry Gladwin, and arrived in Detroit, Sept. 3, 1761. He remained here to treat with the Indians for 15 days and secured treaties with the Ottawas, Pottawatomies and Miamis, who lived near the town; with the Chippewas from the north and with the Delawares, Shawnees and Senecas of Ohio. He was very liberal in distributing presents and made an excellent impression on both the.white residents and the native Indians. While in Detroit he met Col. Du Quesne and Maj.La Mothe, who had surrendered their swords to him at Niagara during the French and Indian War. During his stay his life was one continuous round of gaieties. He was soon going in and out of the homes of the citizens like an old friend and on familiar terms with everybody. He visited Fr. Potier's Huron Mission at Sandwich and carried a welcome with him. His diary of the visit tells the story. A short extract will show something of the man and the time he had in Detroit: "September 6-A very fine morning. This evening I am to dine with Capt. Campbell, who is also to give the ladies a ball, that I may meet them. T'hey assembled at 8 p. m. to the number of 20. I opened the ball with Mlle. Cuillerier, a fine girl; we danced until 5 o'clock in the morning. I - "Monday, September 14.-I had for dinner this evening the French gentlemen of Detroit; also the Vicar-general Bocquet of the French church, and the Jesuit Father Potier of the Huron Mission, on the opposite side of the river. There was plenty of good wine and my guests got very merry. I invited them to a ball that I am going to give tomorrow night." That Mlle. Cuillerier was a daughter of the Beaubien family. The family name was Cuillerier, but, like many of the early French families, they added the "de Beaubien" to give the appearance of aristocratic origin. Later the original names were commonly dropped and the adopted name retained. The St. Aubin family of Detroit is another example, their original name having been Cass& For several years Sir William carried on correspondence with Mlle. Cuillerier, until she married James Sterling, a Scotch trader of Detroit. She figures prominently later on in the story of the Pontiac conspiracy. CHAPTER VIII THE INDIANS FIGHT FOR THEIR HOMELAND W HEN civilized races come into intimate contact with barbarians each race yields something to the other and acquires something from the other. The white men who lived among the Indians became semi-barbarous and the Indians at the same time became semi-civilized through the influence of their environment. One of the most striking examples of the effect of this association still survives in a locality long abandoned by the Indians and after several generations of exclusively white occupation. The family and neighborhood feuds of the "highlanders" of the southern mountain districts are a distinct survival of the effects of barbarous association. Living by the chase, the Indian tribes found subsistence very difficult in the winter. One tribe would encroach upon the hunting grounds of another and the result was war. These people were simply fighting for their lives. Such fighting after several generations became a habit and every ambitious Indian felt compelled by the tradition of his tribe to go on the warpath each spring and bring home the scalps of some neighboring tribe. After a member of one tribe had killed one or more members of another tribe, the feud became virtually perpetual. It was a competition founded upon family pride. White men often adopted this practice, but in the early days they preyed upon Indians because the Indians, in defense of their hunting grounds and their means of subsistence, preyed upon the whites. Such men as Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Joshua Fleehart, the Wetzel brothers and many others devoted considerable of their time to hunting the Indians for their scalps, and they took their bloody trophies just as eagerly as did the Indians. When the Indians raided Detroit from time to time, the white men would retaliate by hunting down the Indians and taking their scalps as trophies. The Kentucky and Tennessee 36 THE INDIANS FIGHT FOR THEIR HOMELAND 37 family feuds, such as those of the Hatfields and McCoys, the Tolliver-Martin and Logan feuds and the Hargis-Cockrell feud of recent date, are all survivals of the effect of barbarous environment. Generally speaking, the Indian was as moral and as good a man in every way as the white man. Considering his education and environment he was even better. There were in this western country a surprising number of noble-minded, chivalrous and big-hearted Indians who deserve to be held in high esteem and to whom history owes a meed of simple justice. Yet because these men were enemies of the white men and were barbarians in heredity and environment, their merits are commonly overlooked. Their crimes and cruel barbarities are kept before the eyes of each generation while equal if not more detestable barbarities committed by white men are barely mentioned, if at all. The names of really great Indians, like Pontiac and Tecumseh, stand out conspicuously in the history of Detroit, while others, like Logan, the Corn-Planter, the Half-King and Little Turtle, figure in the history of Ohio. These men, when viewed in the proper perspective, were all valiant patriots. Macaulay's stirring "Lay of Ancient Rome" puts these words in the mouth of Horatius: Then out spake brave Horatius, The captain of the gate: "To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his gods? "And for the tender mother Who dandled him to rest, And for the wife who nurses His baby at her breast, And for the holy maidens Who feed the eternal flame, To save them from false Sextus That wrought the deed of shame." 38 THE STORY OF DETROIT The Indian fought for all those precious things and for the food that sustained life in all his tribe, for the white man's invasion meant destruction of the game, seizure of his land, wanton destruction of the rightful owners and the demoralizi.ng influence of his whisky and his vices. The man who makes successful defense of his own and his neighbors' rights is styled a "patriot"-if he wins. If he is overborne by force of numbers and superior arms he is a rebel, a savage, a traitor or a scoundrel. The fortune of war, uncertain as the turn of a card, decides the morality of the issue. All this is introduction to the memorable Siege of Pontiac, which came near erasing Detroit from the map in 1763. Pontiac was a man of extraordinary will-power and possessed of a compelling personality. His was the master-mind among the several wild tribes of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, western Pennsylvania and New York, for otherwise he could not have attained the stpremacy of leadership among scores of rival chiefs and noted warriors. He was by no means the largest or most powerful man of them physically. His strength was the strength of intellect, will and purpose, and his purpose was patriotic to the core. He was apparently the only Indian chief of his time who saw things in the larger sense; who visioned the ultimate result of the white invasion, and who saw the necessity for abandoning resistance by individual tribes and adopting a plan of close federation similar to that of the Iroquois tribes which, though relatively small in aggregate numbers, were able to act as a unit and had discovered that federation, instead of weakening the sense of the tribal pride and responsibility, actually strengthened it. From the day when the English garrison settled in Detroit, Pontiac began to plot for the elimination of the whites from this region. Either they must leave Detroit voluntarily or they must be exterminated. The French settlers had lived here for 6o years. A number of them had married Indian wives. Frenchmen had no passion for emigration. Many of those who were in the country had been brought here against their will either by order or consent of the king. Most of them were from the coasts THE INDIANS FIGHT FOR THEIR HOMELAND 39 of Normandy and Brittany and quite a number of these were known as saulniers or descendants of saulniers. Their coming was in this fashion: Part of the royal revenue was derived from a tax on salt. People of the coast saw before them the salt water of the ocean and rebelled at paying tax on a product which they could obtain by boiling the sea water. This practice was forbidden under severe penalties and when poor people persisted in secret salt boiling they were hunted down in the same way as are illicit distillers of alcohol. As a punishment many of them were sent to New France to aid in the upbuilding of a new commonwealth. The Indians found the Latin people very adaptable while the British were not, being by nature inclined to stand aloof from other races, even of white men, and to show contempt if not hostility toward darker-skinned races. Some of the leading Frenchmen of Detroit held fast to the hope that eventually their king would recover New France and drive the British out of the country. With such men Pontiac held frequent conferences in Detroit. Pontiac came and went mysteriously. He lived on PCche Island just above Belle Isle in Lake St. Clair and he could visit the French farmers along the shore east of the town without being discovered from the fort. He made long canoe voyages, going as far as Mackinac Island toward the north, to the Ohio River toward the south, to western Pennsylvania, and New York; among the Shawnees of Indiana and the large Pottawatomie towns in southwestern Michigan along the Kalamazoo and St. Joseph rivers. In every place and in every tribe and scattered band he employed his remarkable powers of oratory and his personal magnetism, and presently all these tribes began to look upon him as their deliverer. Considering the time, the area of his operations, his own educational limitations and the character of the different tribes with which he had to deal, his scheme was gigantic. His methods were barbarous of necessity. The aim of Pontiac was the organization of all the Indians in an area of 2oooo00,000 square miles into a compact federation for common offense and defense. He planned a simultaneous attack 40 THE STORY OF DETROIT upon the forts at Mackinac, at St. Joseph- on Lake Michigan, at Detroit., at Fort Pitt-renamed from Fort Du Quesne and now the site of Pittsburgh-at Verango, Le Boeuf, Presque Ilienow Erie, Pa.-Sandusky, O1}o, and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Pontiac studied the local situation at every place and planned a stratagem by which each garrison could be deceived and then overwhelmed. The action was to be practically simultaneous, so that one fort would be unable to lend support to another. His forces were to be distributed in bands of sufficient size to accomplish their appointed task and they were to stop at nothing that might clear the entire western country of the hated English. It was a scheme worthy of Napoleon and showed real military genius. CHAPTER IX INDIAN WAR STRATEGY MAJ. HENRY GLADWIN was commandant of the military forces at Detroit in 1763. Although still a young man he had seen hard military service. He was a lieutenant of the 48th infantry regiment when he was wounded at the defeat of Gen. Braddock in 1755. Two years later he was made a captain in the 8oth regiment. He was promoted to the rank of major June 20, 1759, and on Sept. 3, 1761, he arrived in Detroit with 300 soldiers, part of whom were retained here and the others distributed to other military posts in the west. On assuming command of Detroit Maj. Gladwin appointed Capt. Donald Campbell his deputy commandant. Capt. Campbell was a man of middle age who had come to Detroit with Rogers' forces and had made himself popular with both the French residents and the Indians of the outlying villages. Campbell was easy-going and careless by habit, while Gladwin was a strict disciplinarian and very brusque in his speech and general manner. The Indians took a dislike to Gladwin from the beginning of his command and the French were none too cordial toward him. He had, however, a perfect understanding with Robert Navarre and continued him in the office he had held under successive regimes for a period of 30 years. Pontiac's federation was gradually perfected and his trusted runners called a grand council of the various tribes to be held at the Rivier aux Ecorces in April, 1763. There assembled the head chiefs of the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Miamis, Outagamies, and Massasaugas from Michigan, the Shawnees from Indiana, the Winnebagoes from Wisconsin and the Senecas from western New York and Pennsylvania. Sir William Johnson managed to keep all the other Iroquois Indians save the Senecas out of the federation of Pontiac. At Ecorces Pontiac 41 42 THE STORY OF DETROIT made a stirring speech to arouse the passions of the different tribes and then he made his allotment of forces and gave each division its orders as it left for the post it was assigned to attack. The Pottawatomies were to take the Fort at St. Joseph, the Chippewas were to.captuire Mackinac, and large delegations from several tribes were to assist the Ottawas, under direct command of Pontiac, in the capture of the strongest and most important outpost of Detroit. About May i, it was noticed that an unusual number of Indians were staying about Detroit. Each of the Indian villages seemed to swarm with strangers. The Ottawa camp on the Detroit shore opposite the site of Walkerville grew to the proportions of a large town, on the east side of the ravine of Parent's Creek. Peche Island was a dense camp. Not a sign of hostility was shown.. On the contrary the Indians gathered in great bands at the eastern end of the town to play games and dance the calumet dance with the pipe of peace made as conspicuous as possible. On May 4, Mrs. Guoin, wife of a French resident, visited the Ottawa village on the Canadian shore and on her return told her husband that the Indians were plotting mischief, as she had seen a number of them filing their gun barrels in two so as to make them short enough to be concealed under their blankets. Mr. Guoin told some of the soldiers and thus the news came to Gladwin. On May 7, the plan of the conspiracy was revealed to Gladwin; the Indians in considerable number were to gain peaceful admission to the fort with guns hidden under their blankets. At a given signal they were to shoot down Gladwin and as many as possible of his soldiers while others would open the gates to the Indians who would be waiting outside close to the walls and a general massacre would follow. This betrayal of the plan meant death to the informant in case of discovery, then or perhaps any number of years later, so Gladwin never disclosed the name of his informant. All sorts of fanciful and plausible stories grew out of the mystery and it was only in later years that the story was inferentially told in a letter to the governor of Canada asking promotion for a particular person who had been the means of INDIAN WYAR STRATEGY 43 saving Detroit through information given by a young woman whom he had soon after married. It was the filing of the gun barrels which gave the first clue to the Pontiac conspiracy. In those days files were not common property. They were used exclusively by blacksmiths and gunsmiths and the only place where they could be obtained about Detroit was at the forge in the Huron village near the Sandwich mission. These files were obtained by the Indians without exciting suspicion at first, but the unusual demand for files and the report of their use on the gun barrels came to the ears of Fr. Potier, who managed the Huron Mission. Angelique Cuillerier de Beaubien was an occasional visitor at the mission and Fr. Potier was also a frequent visitor at her father's house which was not far from the eastern end of the town. Antoine Cuillerier de Beaubien was also very intimate with Pontiac who frequently visited his house. He was known to be hostile to the English and very hopeful of a French recovery of the region. At that time the news of the treaty of peace between England and France had not reached Detroit. With the arrival of the first English troops came a few civilians seeking trade at the post. Among those was a sturdy young Scot named James Sterling, who was already acquainted with several Indian dialects and a shrewd trader in merchandise and furs. Sterling became very friendly with Angelique Cuillerier de Beaubien and at the time of the beginning of the Indian menace they were engaged to be married. Ten years after the end of the Siege of Detroit and before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Maj. Bassett, who had succeeded Gladwin as commandant at Detroit, wrote a long letter to Gov.-Gen. Sir Frederick Haldimand at Montreal. The letter contained the following passage which clearly indicates who revealed the conspiracy to Gladwin and supersedes all the other stories: "Should your excellency allow me an interpreter here, I beg 'leave to recommend Mr. James Sterling, who is first merchant in this place and a gentleman of good character during the late 44 THE STORY OFDETROIT Indian war. Through a lady whom he then courted, from whom he had the best information, he was in part the means of saving this garrison. This gentleman is now married to that lady and is connected with the best part of this settlement. He has more to say than anyone here. The Indians can't begin activities without his having information of their design. My interpreter for the Hurons is an idle, drunken fellow hardly worth his keep. If your excellency will appoint Mr. Sterling both French and Huron interpreter, he'll find a proper person for that nation. H. BASSETT, Major of the ioth Regt." That letter clearly sets aside Parkman's story of the "beautiful Ojibway maiden" who had become enamored of Gladwin. It makes an equally good story sustained by data of fact instead of a local tradition which was purely fanciful. It may be assumed that Gladwin in his brusque, imperious way brought the garrison up standing and at once saw that every man was armed and that the gates of the town were kept closed and guarded and a sufficient number of sentinels posted on the parapet day and night. That night the sentinels saw canoes plying steadily to and fro between the Canadian and Detroit shore bringing every available warrior to the camp on the Michigan side. Whispered warnings were given to English settlers living outside the fort to come inside and stay there. But the warning came too late for several people who were caught outside and far away. On Hog Island, now Belle Isle, ground had been cleared at the lower end and it was tilled by soldiers of the fort under direction of a discharged soldier named Fisher who lived in a log cabin near the lower end with his wife and four children. Here vegetables and a little corn and wheat were grown for the use of the fort. A herd of 25 cattle was pastured to supply milk and beef for the fort. Word could not be sent to Fisher. At the same time Sir Robert Davers, who had spent the winter at the fort, was employed by the government to make a survey of the water channels through the St. Clair Flats. Sir Robert had gone to the Flats with Capt. Robertson and six men, one of them Fisher, in a large canoe. All these people were doomed. CHAPTER X PONTIAC ABANDONS His DIPLOMACY PONTIAC'S plan for the capture of Fort Detroit had been carefully laid with every detail prepared in advance. No play could have been staged with greater precision of movement and mechanism. Pontiac, accompanied by 6o chiefs of the assembled tribes, was to obtain a conference with Gladwin. Each chief was to carry a shortened musket concealed under his blanket. Pontiac was to make an address to Gladwin and present a wampum belt after the fashion observed in all Indian councils but the manner of the presentation was to decide the action of his associates. If Pontiac offered the wampum belt in reversed position each chief was to produce his loaded gun and shoot down the British soldier who stood opposite him, for it was assumed that Gladwin would have at least one soldier present for every Indian admitted to the conference. This, it was assumed, would paralyze for the moment all action on the part of the rest of the soldiers for lack of leadership., and before they could recover from the surprise and organize for defense the 6o Indians would be able to kill many more of them with their hatchets. Some of the Indians would then rush to throw open the gates of the fort, where a thousand or more savages who would be waiting would pour into the fort and make a general massacre of the soldiers and civilians until not one person of British blood would be left alive. But if the case seemed unfavorable for such an attempt Pontiac was to offer the wampum belt held in its -proper position. On seeing this the chiefs would stand perfectly passive to the end of Pontiac's speech and then they would file out of the fort behind him and plan some other stratagem for the taking of the fort without too much risk to themselves. -Gladwin, fully informed -of the plan, showed his cool mettle as a soldier by playing a game and meeting the stratagem with a 45 46 THE STORY OF DETROIT 46 THE STORY OF DETROIT bold policy of intimidation. It would not do to show the slightest hesitation in action nor the slightest fear of the Indians. A manifestation of cool confidence and a bold exposure of the treachery would tend to discourage the carrying out of the plot and hasten the abandonment of the state of siege. On the morning of May 8, 1763, an unusual number of Indians gathered about the fort, making no signs of contemplated hostility. They noticed that most of the houses outside the fort were closed and that their inmates were probably inside the fort. This no doubt was accepted as a sign that the whites were suspicious. Soon Pontiac appeared leading a long train of chiefs in single file, each one rigged out in a new blanket of gay colors and in the full panoply of chieftainship. There was a short parley at the east gate of the fort and a moment later the gate was opened. The Indians moved with slow, dignified pace down Anne Street and as the last one passed the portal the gate was immediately closed and barred behind them. From the parapet around the inner side of the walls of the fort many soldiers looked down upon the expectant Indians who lingered outside. Only their heads and the ends of their shouldered muskets could be seen by the Indians outside but the keen eye and quick intelligence of Pontiac took note of them as he passed down the street toward the commandant's headquarters adjoining the barracks. No doubt his confidence was disturbed but neither his face nor his bearing changed at the sight of unusual preparedness in the fort. There was no hesitation about admitting the visitors to headquarters but the Indians saw that the room was already occupied by more than an equal number of soldiers, of whom every man was fully armed and wearing the usual ammunition equipment as if ready for battle. Gladwin motioned to the Indians to array themselves in line along one side of the room. They all sat down on the floor and a moment of silence followed while the Indians and whites eyed each other cautiously. Presently Pontiac broke the silence: "Why does my English brother keep his young men armed and on parade as if ready for battle? Does he expect the soldiers of the French?" PONTIAC ABANDONS His DIPLOMACY 47 Gladwin answered: "I keep my soldiers armed and trained for instant action. By that practice they are kept perfect in their military exercises and ready to fight well if war should come." Another period of silence followed and then Pontiac rose to his feet and began an address to Gladwin. He said he had great respect for the English. They had driven the French warriors away from Detroit because they were mighty men in MAJ. HENRY GLADWIN CHIEF PONTIAC 48 THE STORY OFDETROIT battle. He and his associate chiefs had come to express their good will and eternal friendship for the English and their brave commander and in token of their sincerity he would present a belt of wampum. Later they would light the calumet and smoke together in token of the peace which should always exist between them. As Pontiac began to draw the wampum belt from his girdle Gladwin gave a prearranged signal at which every officer present drew his sword, the privates presented arms and the hall door swung open disclosing a long room full of soldiers with guns held at the "ready." The drums in the barrack room beyond rolled furiously. It was a tense moment for all concerned for death hovered in the air and a mistaken move on either side would be the signal for a savage melee which might fill the place with dead and dying men of both races. Pontiac was a chief of iron nerve. He saw that the game was up but he did not change countenance. He released the wampum belt and handed it to Gladwin right end upward and in that instant of his decision the shadow of death passed from the room. But Gladwin was not content to let the matter pass in this fashion. He looked Pontiac straight in the eyes, then stepped to one of the seated warriors and pulled aside his blanket thus revealing the shortened musket. Then he denounced Pontiac and his associates as treacherous cowards: "You came here pretending to arrange for peace but in reality you were plotting the murder of unarmed men and then the butchery of helpless women and children. I know all about your treachery that you have tried to hide with a lying tongue. Every man of you is armed with a shortened musket: every man of you was prepared at a given signal to shoot one of us down and throw the others into a panic. Then you planned to open the gates and let in your followers, who are waiting outside, for a general massacre." Pontiac rose to the embarrassing situation with his usual dignity. He answered quietly: "My brother does me wrong; he does not believe. Then we will go." The disappointed band took their example from their leader. Pontiac passed down the hall with as deliberate tread and as firm a countenance as when he entered, his men following him through the door and down Anne PONTIAC ABANDONS HIS DIPLOMACY 49 Street. They found a mass of soldiers about the gate but the soldiers opened a passage, the gate swung open slowly, disclosing a savage horde waiting eagerly without. The chiefs passed through the gate and marched with solemn tread down the trail which 50 years later became Jefferson Avenue. Following the departure of Pontiac's delegation from the fort a grim silence fell upon the town. The Indians quickly straggled away to the great camp beyond Parent's Creek on the river front where the story of the incident in the fort was quickly told. Not an Indian appeared about the fort for several hours but just before sundown six warriors of the Ottawa tribe appeared at the gate of the fort leading an aged Indian woman who had been very intemperate and who would do almost anything to obtain a supply of strong drink. Gladwin admitted them to his headquarters and they asked him if it was this woman who had been telling lies about Pontiac and the Indians. Gladwin assured them that the woman was not guilty. They demanded the name of his informant and he told them he had sworn never to reveal it. They dragged the woman back to camp where Pontiac gave her a whipping. She fell to the ground under his blows and several Indians sprang forward with their knives to kill her, but Pontiac waved them back saying that they had no proof and it would be wrong to kill her on mere suspicion. Again the excitement seemed to have subsided and Gladwin believed that the crisis was past. On Sunday afternoon several canoes came down from the camp with Pontiac in charge. They landed near the fort and Pontiac sent for Gladwin to come out on the public common east of the fort and smoke the pipe of peace with him. Gladwin refused, believing it to be a ruse to make him a prisoner. Here Capt. Donald Campbell, who was about 20 years Gladwin's senior, offered to go as Gladwin's representative. He had been on friendly terms with the Indians for several months and believed in their friendship. He went out, smoked with Pontiac and returned safely to tell Gladwin that Pontiac would call a grand council and send all the strange Indians away in peace on the following day. 5o THE STORY OF DETROIT On Monday morning 56 canoes came down in a flotilla and landed near the fort. About 500 Indians were with Pontiac. The gates were closed and Pontiac asked admission for this large band to hold a peace council. Gladwin offered to admit Pontiac and 6o0 of his followers as he had done before, but no more. This answer angered Pontiac who replied that either all his warriors must be admitted or none would enter. "Tell your white chief that he may stay in his fort if he wishes but I will keep this country in spite of him," said the leader of the conspiracy. The whole band began to scatter about the houses outside the fort looking for victims while Pontiac paddled his canoe back to the Indian village. Near the fort lived a widow named Armstrong with her two young men sons. Believing the Indian trouble to be over they had left the fort and gone to their cabin where the boys had begun work in the garden. The Indians fell upon them and killed and scalped them in plain sight of the fort. A number of canoes full of Indians paddled to the foot of Belle Isle, where they found the wife of James Fisher, a retired sergeant of the army, their four children and three soldiers from the fort who were stopping at Fisher's cabin while they worked in the garden belonging to the fort. The Indians killed all the adults and the four children disappeared. Their fate remains unknown to this day, yet their remains may have been lying in the soft mud and ooze of the middle-ground below the island during all the intervening period of 158 years, and the James Scott monument now being erected may mark their unknown graves. The Indians were on the lookout when the surveying expedition of Sir Robert Davers returned from its work at St. Clair Flats and the eight men of that expedition were killed and scalped. The Indians then sent a French resident to the fort to say that all the English outside the fort had been killed and that those within the fort would meet the same fate unless they took to their ships and left this locality. Anchored in the river directly in front of the fort were the little schooner Gladwin and a small sloop named the Beaver. CHAPTER XI DARK DAYS IN THE BESIEGED TOWN THE American Indian is commonly misunderstood by his white brethren. In public and even in private association with strangers he appears to be a slow-witted, unemotional and phlegmatic creature. It is an unusual event that can make him change countenance or show any sort of emotion. But this is all a mask. Under his skin the Indian is a bundle of sensitive nerves and an aggregate of strong passions. He is, normally, always lord of himself and a striking example of selfmastery. He is schooled from his infancy to endure hardships, pain, hunger and thirst without complaint. By nature he is a fatalist and he is as proud and dignified as any man of whatever race. He can endure the most cruel tortures without a breaking of his proud spirit. But once he yields to the emotions or passions that clamor for outward expression he becomes transformed into a creature of tempestuous action. The mask of deception was now completely off and the passionate hatred of the Indians toward the English invaders of their 'country was thereafter in plain evidence. The entire population of the Ottawa village on the Canadian shore and those on Peche Island were brought to Parent's Creek to support the Siege of Detroit. On Belle Isle were 24 head of cattle belonging to the fort. These were slaughtered one by one and their flesh was used to feed the Indian warriors. There were between i,5oo and 2,0oo Indians menacing Detroit, while Gladwin had a garrison of 123 soldiers, the English civilians of the town and about 40 English traders who had come up the lake to buy furs and had been caught by the siege. The food situation for the fort looked very serious and but for the presence of the two little ships they were doomed to starvation and surrender, which would mean a general massacre. The Indians persisted in attempts to get Gladwin into their 5i 52 THE STORY OF DETROIT hands. Messengers came to the fort saying that Pontiac and a number of chiefs were assembled in the house of Antoine Cuillerier de Beaubien about four blocks east of the fort. They wanted Gladwin to come and make peace with them. Gladwin again refused but Capt. Campbell urged that he be permitted to take Lieut. McDougall with him and go under escort of Pontiac to this conference. Consent was reluctantly given. Night was falling as the two men left the fort under protection of Pontiac and journeyed toward the Beaubien house. Just outside the gate they met M. Guoin, whose wife had discovered the Indians filing their gun barrels and who had reported the circumstance. Guoin urged the two soldiers to give up their perilous undertaking but they persisted in going. Near the spot where Randolph Street now crosses Jefferson Avenue a band of painted warriors rushed out of the bushes with uplifted hatchets to dispatch the two white men but Pontiac ordered them to keep their distance. Arrived at the Beaubien house they found the owner of the house seated in a chair which had been placed on top of a table against the wall of the main room. Beaubien was a vain man who dressed in a peculiar fashion with a lavish display of cheap jewelry. His coat was decorated with gold lace, a beaded sash of gay colors was around about his middle and on his feet were elaborate moccasins decorated with colored porcupine quills and beads. On his head as he sat on his improvised throne he wore a tall hat fantastically decorated as if he were some sort of barbarian potentate. When they were all seated before Beaubien, Pontiac stood and spoke. He said that he recognized Beaubien as the" father of the settlement." He would do so until the French would return to recover possession of the country. He told Campbel and McDougall that there was but one way to make peace The English garrison must leave all their arms, ammunition. and other supplies in the fort and take to the two ships and leave Detroit never to return. If they refused these terms they would be starved into surrender and not one would escape alive. DARK DAYS IN THE BESIEGED TOWN5 53 Beaubien appeared in a joyful mood. "There," he said, "I brought this about. I did not think Pontiac would be so easy with you. Leave everything and go away. This country belongs to the French and the Indians. You are lucky to get away with your lives for the Indians can easily destroy you, and their blood is up for war." Capt. Campbell then spoke, recalling all the friendships he had made with the French and Indians. He urged a peaceful settlement with profitable trade between the Indians and the English but told them he had no authority to make peace on any terms. He must report to his superior officer, Maj. Gladwin. He and McDougall would take the message to the fort and bring back Gladwin's answer. As they started to leave the house Pontiac stepped before the door saying: "My father will sleep tonight in the lodge of his red children." The soldiers then realized that they were prisoners in the hands of dangerous enemies. Next day the terms of peace were carried to Gladwin by a delegation of French residents while Capt. Campbell and Lieut. McDougall were held under guard in the house of M. Meloche. Gladwin refused the terms and told the messengers that he would hold the fort at all hazards. Then he wrote a long letter to Gen. Amherst at Niagara giving a complete description of the situation. The letter was carried to the schooner Gladwin, which raised anchor, spread her sails and headed down the river. Five canoes filled with Indians went out to intercept the ship. In the front of the foremost canoe the Indians placed Capt. Campbell as a protection against shots that might be fired from the schooner. Capt. Campbell was a brave man. He called to the men on the Gladwin: "Don't let them board you; keep them off. Pay no attention to me but do your duty." A shot was fired from the schooner and a Pottawatomie warrior rolled dead from a canoe and sank in the river. The canoes hastily paddled away and the Gladwin sailed on her voyage. At this time reports came to the fort that the forts at Sandusky and St. Joseph had been captured and that the settlement on the Maumee at the present site of Toledo was also in 54 T~HE STORY OF DETROIT possession of the Indians. This saddened the garrison and infuriated Pontiac, for he gathered that every attack he had planned had succeeded and that only he, the organizer and leader of the great conspiracy, had failed in his endeavor. The message of the Gladwin brought relief, but the authorities in the East still failed to grasp the gravity of the situation at Detroit. Lieut. Cuyler with ten large bateaux carrying men and provisions started up Lake Erie for the relief of Fort Detroit. On the morning of May 29 the garrison was overjoyed to see this extensive flotilla paddling up the river toward the fort, but when it came nearer they were astonished to discover that the boats were all in the hands of Indians and that the few white soldiers on board were apparently prisoners. Cuyler had landed on Point Pelee of the Lake Erie shore and the Indians had made a night attack and killed several of the party. Lieut. Cuyler had rallied 30 men and got them into the boats, but they were overpowered and then forced to paddle the bateaux all the way to Detroit. As the boats came in front of the fort near the shore two soldiers leaped overboard, but one of them had grappled with an Indian and the Indian brained him with a hatchet. The other man reached shore, but died in half an hour from stab wounds he had received. Two soldiers in the second boat used their paddles on the heads of their guards and then drove their boat into the shallow water under fire of about 6o Indians in the other boats. Thus several barrels of pork and other provisions were saved for the garrison. The eight remaining bateaux went on to the Ottawa camp. There the prisoners were killed, their bodies were tied to logs and sent floating down the river past the fort. Ten days later Fr. La Jaunay arrived from Mackinac to tell the story of the capture of that post. There were 90 men with their officers. Lieut. Jamette and 20o men were killed on the spot and the rest were taken prisoners. Com. Maj. George Etherington, Lieut. Leslie and Ii men were taken from the Chippewas by the Ottawas and their lives were saved through intercession of Fr. Lanvis, of the Jesuit mission at Cross Village. The fate of the other men is not DARK DAYS IN THE BESIEGED TOWN 1 55 recorded. Alexander Henry, who has written an interesting story of the massacre, escaped with the assistance of a French trader who hid him in the loft of his house. After six weary weeks of siege the Indians' food supply was exhausted and Pontiac took the captured bateaux and crossed to the Huron Mission village at Sandwich to buy food from the French farmers as they came to attend mass on Sunday morning. There was no wheeled vehicle on that side of the river so the prosperous farmers were carried to church in chairs attached to long poles which their slaves bore on their shoulders. Pontiac seated hi-mself in one of these chairs and was carried from farm to farm by Indian slaves, buying provisions and giving his notes in payment carved on pieces of birch bark. Afterward, it must in justice be said, he paid every note according to agreement. The slaves* which were found on both sides of the river were Indians of distant tribes who had been brought here as prisoners of war and sold to the whites. CHAPTER XII DALZELL'S DISASTER-END OF THE SIEGE ONTIAC sent word to Gladwin of the capture of the other western posts and added that 900 additional warriors would soon be in front of the fort in Detroit, making between 2,500 and 3,000 Indians to confront a force of 124 men, 300 miles from outside support. In preparation for a possible assault the battery of the fort fired red-hot cannon shot into the houses close to the walls and burned them, so they would offer no shelter for the attacking parties. A demand for the surrender of Capt. Campbell and Lieut. McDougall brought the reply from Pontiac that he had kettles already heating to boil the inmates of the fort, and if these men were surrendered their fate would be the same. One of the ships brought a copy of the treaty of surrender to the fort. Gladwin called in the French residents on July 4 and read it to them. It was the first definite information the French residents had received of the treaty of peace, and they abandoned hope of a recovery of the country. A sortie was made to secure some ammunition hidden in the house of M. Baby, who made known the fact on hearing the treaty read. In the rush to the house a young Chippewa warrior, son of Chief Mackinac or Turtle, was killed. Lieut. Hays scalped him and waved his bloody trophy toward the Indians, who had retired to a distance. This foolish barbarity brought immediate reprisals. The old chief, to avenge his son, rushed into the lodge where Capt. Campbell was held prisoner and killed him with his hatchet. Then he tore off the scalp, cut out the heart and ate it raw. The body was then cut up and cooked and the Indians, who were very short of provisions, ate it in their village. Gladwin tells of a fight in which two Indians were killed and scalped and then cut to pieces by his soldiers, who were not driven to the necessity of eating their victims. 56 DALZELL'S DISASTER-END OF THE SIEGE 57 Blazing rafts, piled high with burning bark and pitch, were sent down the river to destroy the two.ships, but they were easily pushed aside. On July 29 Capt. Dalzell arrived from Niagara with 260 men to raise the siege. He was not an Indian fighter, and Gladwin could hardly dissuade him from making an immediate attack on the Indian camp. Next morning Dalzell planned to surprise and utterly rout the Indians by a sudden attack. An hour before daybreak he led 250 men from the fort anid out the Jefferson Avenue trail. There was not a sound to be heard except the jingle of the soldiers' accoutrements and the first notes of the awakening birds in the trees along the route. Not an Indian sentinel or scout was to be seen when they arrived at the log bridge at the ravine, which was not more than 500oo feet from the great camp of the Indians. The column of soldiers was narrowed to two abreast and ordered across the bridge. The soldiers marched as quietly as possible, and about half of them had crossed when, from both sides of the ravine and from behind every tree and every stump and clump of brush came flashes from the guns of the Indians. The men on the bridge were instantly shot down. Those who had crossed rushed back over the bridge, and many of them dropped and rolled to the bottom of the ravine. Those who had not crossed fell into a panic, and Dalzell rushed about shouting, "Steady, men, steady," while he beat them with the flat of his sword to make them hold together for defense. Fortunately, he had with him Maj. Rogers, who had received the surrender of Detroit. Rogers noticed shots coming from a house near by and charged it with a number of men, who burst in the door and drove out the Indians. This, then, became their fort. Another little group broke into the house of Jacques Campau. Capt. Gray fell riddled with bullets and an Indian scalped him and cut out his heart. The action of Maj. Rogers gave the example to others. But for the invasion of these French farm houses as temporary forts not a man would have lived to reach the fort alive. Presently news of the disaster reached the fort. Gladwin sent several large boats armed with swivel guns to bring back the survivors 11 z 17 flfly DALZELL'S DISASTER-END OF THE SIEGE 59 from their temporary refuges. Only 90 men came back of the 250 who had left, while the Indians lost only about 20o men all told. From that dreadful.day, July 30, 1763, Parent's Creek has been known to Detroiters as "Bloody Run." At some distance from the scene of it, on the fort side of the old ravine, stood an old tree which for many years bore a placard announcing that it had been a silent witness of Dalzell's defeat. The tree, which stood in the yard of the Michigan Stove Works, fell in 1893, and the site is now occupied by a mammoth stove, which is at once an emblem of peaceful industry and civilized. living, which has long dominated the scene of barbaric warfare. While Dalze l's disastrous defeat put new heart and hope in the.Indians and was followed by a feast on human flesh in the great camp, Pontiac was able to see but one hope of victory. That lay in a complete cutting of communications between the garrison of Detroit and the East. But the two ships which maintained communication were well guarded under the guns of the fort while at anchor. Opportunity came, however, on the evening of September 4, when the Gladwin, becalmed off Fighting Island, nine miles down the river, drifted close to the shore before her anchor was dropped. The crew of 12 men dared not sleep and their vigilance saved their lives. Soon after midnight a fleet of canoes came stealing down upon her. They came so swiftly and silently in the darkness that there was time for but one volley of musketry in defense and then the Indians came swarming aboard. Her commander, Horst, had fallen at the first fire of the Indians. Five other men were killed in the first rush. The mate, named Jacobs, saw but one chance of saving the vessel and the lives of the seven men who remained alive. "Fire the magazine," he roared in his biggest deep-sea voice. The' Indians heard the order and understood it. In an instant they turned and dived over the side of the schooner, some boarding the canoes and others striking out for the shore. The Indian is quite as susceptible to panic as his white brother and he is a little slower in his recovery. The Gladwin lay there almost helpless for several hours with seven men ready with 6o THE STORY OFDETROIT their muskets to repel any renewal of the attack. As day began to break the danger lessened and presently a very grateful and welcome morning breeze came up from the lake and the schooner, with its decks blood-stained and the bodies of five whites and several Indians heaped near the starboard quarter, came to anchor before the fort and under protection of its cannon. Gov. Amherst had reason to believe that the Indians had been acting with the knowledge and collusion of the French settlers of Detroit. This was probably true in a few individual cases, but it was not true altogether, as the information and acts of M. Guoin and Angelique Beaubien clearly prove. Gen. Amherst sent a message to M. Neyons, commandant of the French post at St. Louis, saying that such evil councils between the French and Indians must stop. Neyons sent a message to the French at Detroit which led to a prompt acknowledgment of the right of the English garrison to govern here. The siege was maintained until October 12, when Pontiac sued for peace, but Gladwin would only grant an armistice until he could hear from Gen. Amherst. There was nothing to be gained by punishing the Indians, for this would drive them away and put an end to the fur trade at Detroit. Gladwin wrote Amherst to that effect; said the Indians had lost about 90 of their ablest warriors, and if the survivors must be punished it would be easier to punish them through a sale or free distribution of rum,:which would kill as surely as bullets and prove effective over a wider range of territory. He advised that Sir William Johnson be sent again to settle matters. The Siege of Detroit had lasted I S days. At times the provisions had been very short. It was therefore a great relief to the beleaguered garrison, the civilian residents and the sojourners who had been caught by the siege to be able to throw open the gates once more with a feeling of security and hold a grand celebration on the green of the public common with none to molest or make. them afraid. CHAPTER XIII AFTERMATH OF PONTIAC'S SIEGE DURING those weary months of Pontiac's Siege old Robert Navarre kept a diary of daily events. It was written in French, but a few years ago Mr. C. M. Burton had it published in parallel with an English translation. The "Pontiac Diary" is well worth the perusal of all Detroiters who desire a more intimate history of the siege of their city. Pontiac gathered his warriors together and they went down the river in a great fleet of canoes, landing at the mouth of the Maumee River near the site of the city of Toledo. Even yet Pontiac held fast to the belief that the West could be reclaimed to Indian possession. If it could not, he argued in the Indian councils, it would be better for the Indians to die fighting in honorable battle with their natural enemies than to be driven westward where they would have to fight with men of their own race for possession of new hunting grounds. He sent messengers west to the Mississippi Valley using this argument in the hope of raising another conspiracy of still greater magnitude. But his glory had departed with his defeat, and the Indian Napoleon of the West was unable to make a return from his Elba, even for a futile struggle of ioo days, as the little Corsican was to do half a century later. For two years he carried on his propaganda from northern Ohio and Indiana, but the only result was to inflame the passions of the western Indians without enlisting them in his cause. Expeditions undertaken by white men everywhere were discouraged and halted by Indian attacks. An expedition of 6oo men had started from Fort Schlosser on Niagara River to relieve the garrison at Detroit, but twice it was attacked by large bands of Indians. Maj. Wilkins gradually made his way to Lake Erie and started for Detroit with a fleet of bateaux, but a violent gale forced them 61 62 THF, STORY OFDETROIT to shore and 16 boats were sunk with a loss Of 70 men and all the supplies on board. As an addition of men without food would serve only to aggravate conditions at Detroit, the expedition turned back. The winter Of 1763 was hard and lonely at Detroit, for after cold weather came all communication was cut off and food was very scarce. The soldiers of the garrison and the English civilians regarded the French people as instigators of the conspiracy and the two kept aloof from one another. Gen. Amherst asked to be relieved from service in America and Gen. Thomas Gage arrived in New York in November to clear up the aftermath of the Indian War and arrange new peace treaties. All the Indian agents in the West wanted to give up their posts. One of them wrote his superior officer: " For God's sake let me go and raise cabbages; I am sick of Indian warfare." Manifestly Sir William Johnson was the man of the hour and upon him was laid the hard task of pacifying the Indians and making the West safe for white men. He enlisted the Iroquois in the task of putting down the scalping raids of hostile western Indians and the Iroquois broke up several war parties. Presently a delegation Of 400 'western Indians visited Sir William at his home in northern New York and the Senecas were brought to Peace terms. In the spring Of 1764 an army was sent to Detroit and another to Fort Pitt to finish the job of Indian intimidation. Col. John Bradstreet led the army to Detroit to relieve Gladwin and quell the Wyandottes of Sandusky and the Ottawa confederacy. They arrived August 26, 1764, when Bradstreet made treaties with the local Indians, pardoned the French who had sympathized with the Indians, and sent troops to occupy the posts at Mackinac, Green Bay and Sault Ste. Marie. Bradstreet failed to accomplish anything with the Ohio Indians and he returned east via the Ohio shore of Lake Erie, after his boats had been destroyed by a storm. Many of his men died of hardships on the way east. With Col. Bradstreet's command came Israel Putnam who had fought all through the French and Indian War. After AFTERMATH OF PONTIAC'S SIEGE 63 leaving Dettoit he retired to his Connecticut farm until the Revolution called him to arms again. Putnam Avenue in Detroit commemorates his visit to the settlement in 1764. Another expedition left Pittsburgh under Maj. Boquet. This force of 1,5oo men awed the Indians of Ohio, who brought in about 200 prisoners taken in the war and sued for peace. In May, 1765, George Croghan was sent from Fort Pitt to the West, but near the Wabash his command was surprised and all were taken prisoners. The prisoners were taken to Vincennes, where the French ordered their release. This affair had been under Pontiac's direction. At last, convinced of the hopelessness of his cause, Pontiac came to Detroit with Croghan to make peace. He arrived August 17. He offered the peace pipe and agreed to go to Oswego to meet Sir William Johnson. On July 23, 1766, that meeting took place and after three days of conference Pontiac announced his abandonment of the French cause and his allegiance to the British: "While I had the French King by the hand I held fast to it," he said. "I shall do the same with the English, and so will all the western tribes." Pontiac's strange story draws to a close. Like Bernardo del Carpio: "His hope was crushed; his after fate untold in martial strain, SHis banner led the spears no more amidst the hills of Spain." For three years he roved the West like a lost soul. Indian outbreaks occurred, but he kept faith and remained aloof. He was still feared and hated for his past deeds; distrusted by the French because he was an English pensioner and feared by British traders who still remembered the story of Detroit. In the summer of 1769 he was at Cahokia on the Mississippi. The Indians of the neighborhood indulged in a wild orgy of drunkenness and when Pontiac left the feast dazed with liquor a Kaskaskia Indian followed him into the forest, crept up behind him and drove his hatchet into his brain. The murder was said to have been instigated by a British fur trader who hated Pontiac, and the price was said to have been a jug of rum. Pontiac died 64 THE STORY OF DETROIT and was buried on the banks of the Mississippi, but his name is indelibly engraved upon the historic records of old Detroit. Peace was now established between the British and the Indians, but it was a peace which a few years later was to turn the fiery, vengeful passions of the Indians against new settlers Reproduced from an old print DEATH OF PONTIAC NEAR EAST SAINT Louis. His PLACE OF BURIAL ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE RIVER HAS BEEN LOST IN THE CITY OF SAINT Louis who would begin pouring into the West as soon as the British colonies on the Atlantic coast had declared their independence. Then the map of this western country was to be smeared with a deeper and far wider bloodstain than it had known before. Nine years after the Siege of Detroit had ended there was another little incident resulting from it which shows that warfare, AFTERMATH OF PONTIAC'S SIEGE 6 even in the prosecution of a worthy cause, is an ugly thing. Jacques Campau, whose strong log house gave shelter to many men after the battle of Bloody Run, petitioned the King of England for a grant of 12 arpents of land on the river front nearly opoiethe foot of Belle Isle. This he asked in reparation for injuries received. He reported that after the English soldiers had saved their scalps by taking refuge in his house, instead of showing gratitude or even leaving peacefully they had carried off all the portable things of value and destroyed what they could not carry away. Gladwin had court-martialed the men but this did not reimburse Campau. Campau had afterward accepted a commission under Gladwin with a command of 120 men. He had gone to Mackinac and made peace with the Chippewas and spent I0 weeks cutting wood and refitting the post but had never received a penny of pay. Down in the Atlantic Coast colonies the people were rising in revolt against a government in which they had no voice; against taxation without representation, anddenial of the right to trade with ships of every nation. But only faint echoes of this movement reached Detroit until the struggle was at its height. Commerce slowly revived in Detroit and following the end of the siege came an innovation in the -fashion of trading. Exchanges were no longer confined to a system of barter for a new money known as New York, or York currency, came into circulation here. A new civil system was instituted. Capt. George Turnbull, who was commandant in 1767, brought up from Montreal a man named Phillip Dejean, and gave him authority to act as magistrate under the title: Chief Justice of Detroit. Petty suits at law became frequent, and many people were locked up on small provocation.' Even when acquitted of wrongdoing, or when a term of imprisonment was enided, a fee of $I was charged for release from jail. That is but one example of many forms of graft and corruption which came into practice under the improvised judicial system. The local administration also established a tariff law by which all non-residents were.charged a fee of $2 for landing a boat-load of goods or farm products. At first those who 66 THE STORY OF DETROIT committed very serious crimes were sent to Montreal for trial, but eventually Dejean assumed authority of high and low justice. This was his undoing and came near leading to his being hanged. Missionary explorers had discovered bits of copper in the Upper Peninsula, and in 176o attempts were made to open mines. Alexander Henry, the sole survivor of the massacre at Fort Mackinac, conducted the first copper mining operations undertaken by civilized men in the State of Michigan. This was in the year 176o. A shaft was sunk and some free copper was recovered, but in the following spring the mine caved in. The Iwork was then abandoned, and it was not resumed until more than 70 years later'. Another notable event had been the chartering of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670, but in 1770 a rival fur company entered competition with the Hudson's Bay, and it was known as the Northwest Company. The rivalry between them was very bitter for many years. CHAPTER XIV WAR CLOUDS LOOM IN THE EAST U NDER English rule a tract of 12 acres east of the fort and immediately adjoining it was set apart for the use of the post and it was known as "the King's Garden." In the rear of the fort was another tract of 30 acres used as a public common. For a time it was known as "the King's Domain" and later as "the Public Common." This ran northward far into land that is now traversed by Washington Boulevard. Maj. Bassett, the commandant in 1773, fenced off a part of this land for a pasture for his horse but the people of the town made protest because it reduced their pasturage. All around this opening was a forest and to the east and west were farms of early settlers. The fence was ordered removed. In 1774 this region of Michigan was placed under the Quebec Act, which superseded the English Common Law. This act was very offensive to the residents. That was one of the provocations later mentioned in the Declaration of Independence which declared that "the free system of English laws has been abolished in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government so as to render it an example and a fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies." The act was passed in the face of protests, for the British home ministry was unable to see that colonists had any rights which the home government was bound to respect. In spite of the unfavorable conditions settlers straggled into the West and soon there was a solid phalanx of farms extending for many miles along the river front, the shore of Lake St. Clair and down the shore of Lake Erie. Log cabins began to give way to frame houses. The newer log houses were laid up in the fashion commonly seen, log upon log, instead of logs standing upright with one end buried in the ground, as the early French settlers had built them. 67 68 THE STORY OF DETROIT On every farm was an orchard, and the old French pear trees, some of which grew to the height of 8o feet, were to be seen in groups all along the shore. Some of these are still standing and bearing fruit, although they are, ioo to 150 years old. Some seedlings, from Detroit, still live at Monroe. When it was evident that the eastern colonies would rebel the British government took steps to strengthen their hold upon the West. The Indians were told to drive back American settlers who came into the Ohio country from the East and the Indians having full sanction for the protection of their lands at any cost, began to murder such settlers. Capt. Henry Hamilton, a soldier of the ruthless type, was sent to take command in Detroit; Capt. Patrick Sinclair was placed over Mackinac and Capt; Edward Abbott was made commandant at Vincennes. Hamilton found in the " chief justice," Phillip Dej ean, a willing tool for legalizing any sort of irregular practice. A man named Joseph Hecker murdered his brother-in-law, named Moran. Dejean' had no authority for trying the case, but he assumed authority and had Hecker hanged. Jean Coutincineau, a French nomad, and Ann Wiley, a Negress, robbed a store of furs and some hardware. Dejean sentenced them to be hanged, but nobody could be found to act as hangman for so petty an offense. Dejean offered the woman her life if she would ha'ng the Frenchman, which she did, but in such clumsy fashion that the spectators were horrified at the struggles of the victim as he slowly strangled to death. Later the woman was herself hanged, for Dejean had no respect for his word. The years of the American Revolution were grim and terrible years in Detroit, for Hamilton, the commandant, organized a "fire in the rear" of the American Army which led to scores of wanton murders, burning of peaceful settlements, and the captivity and semi-slavery of American captives whose offense was a peaceful invasion of southern Ohio and northern Kentucky. These people were fair game for Hamilton and the Indians of the West, and there was no closed season for the hunting. War parties of Indians were organized here in Detroit. Firearms and ammunition were supplied free, as were blankets, WAR CLOUDS LOOM IN THE EAST 69 kettles, hatchets and red-handled scalping knives. To increase the zeal of the Indian scalp hunters, Hamilton offered a bounty of $5 each for every scalp taken from American settlers, regardless of age or sex. As if this were not enough, he placed the Indians under direct leadership of white men who were his willing tools. Some of these were renegades who had abandoned civilized life and been adopted into Indian tribes, as were the Girty brothers-Silas, James and George. Others were white men who had yielded to the influence of a long residence in barbarous surroundings and who had been inspired with mistaken ideals of patriotism. They might have argued that committing murder "for the King" was no more than standing armies are employed for, but armies fight with armies, and these men preyed upon defenseless settlers who were struggling to build a home in the wilderness where they could rear their families and plant the seeds of civilization. Here at Detroit the chosen leaders of these murderous bands were such men as Capt. Henry Bird, John Butler, William Caldwell, Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott, and a few Frenchmen who were greedy for money and spoils. These bands would leave Detroit for the Ohio Valley, creeping silently upon white settlements, shooting down lone farmers as they worked in their corn planted among the stumps of a clearing, and then fall upon the defenseless wife and children. When they came away they left rotting, mutilated corpses and the ashes of ruined cabins behind them. When they returned to Detroit they carried strings of scalps on long poles, which they bore through the streets like triumphal banners. Then would follow a wild orgy of drunkenness on the public common after Hamilton had paid cash for all the human peltry brought to his warehouse. Thus Hamilton soon came to be known as "The Great Hair-Buyer of Detroit." Under such practice the very name of Detroit became detestable in the minds of the Americans. When settlers took the alarm and rallied for defense in their little blockhouses they were sometimes conquered by firing the building or by 70 THE STORY OF DETROIT starvation. Then would follow the burning at the stake of the leaders of the resistance, with unspeakable barbarities. Frequently these marauding bands would return with prisoners. Bare-footed children were driven long distances under the lash of their captors. If they fell exhausted, a hatchet dispatched them and the scalp was torn off to be sold for $5 at Hamilton's warehouse. Women roused from their beds at dead of night in the light of the blazing roof of a cabin, and dragged over the dead body of a butchered husband, would be driven to Detroit barefoot through the wilderness with little children clinging to a tattered nightgown, and perhaps the mother carrying a babe-in-arms. Arrived on the common in Detroit, they would be surrounded by sympathetic villagers who would try to discourage the brutalities of the drunken Indians, and often they would buy the captives so as to save them from torture. At the same time the Indians would apply the whip to their captives for the purpose of stimulating the bidding for their ransom from captivity. Those were terrible years, yet it is little more than 0oo years ago since such atrocities were ended in Detroit. CHAPTER XV OLD-]FASHIONED PRACTICE IN RUTHLESSNESS SUCH barbarities cried to heaven for relief. News of them stirred the hearts of the people of the East and passed on across the sea to arouse the wholesome indignation of great-hearted Englishmen and women who could not believe them at first. But Dr. Benjamin Franklin carried with him a number of documentary reports which furnished proof positive. From that moment the sympathies of the English people were with the Americans and against. their ruthless government. Here is an extract from one document in the' case. against barbarities. It is quoted from a letter sent by a carrier who was captured, and was addressed to the British governor-general: "May it please your excellency: "At the request of a Seneca chief I hereby send to your excellency, under care of James Hoyd, eight packages of scalps, cured, dried, hooped and painted with all the triumphal marks and of which consignment this is an invoice and explanation. " Package No. i. Contains 43 scalps of Congress soldiers, inside painted red and marked with small black dot to show they were killed by bullets. Those painted brown and marked with a hoe denote that the soldiers were killed while working on their farms. Those marked with a black ring denote that the persons were surprised at night; those marked with a black hatchet denote that persons were killed with a tomahawk. " Package No. 2. Ninety-eight farmers' scalps. A white circle shows that they were surprised in the daytime. Those marked with a red foot show that the men stood their ground and fought in defense of their wives and families. "Package No. 3. Ninety-seven farmers' scalps. The green hoops denote that they were killed in the fields. "No. 4- One hundred and two farmers' scalps; eighteen are marked with a yellow flame to show that they died by 7' 72 THE STO.RY OF DETROIT torture. The one with a black hand attached belonged to a clergyman. "No. 5. Eighty-eight scalps of women. Those with the braided hair were mothers. "No. 6. One hundred ninety-three boys' scalps. "Number 7. Two hundred eleven girls' scalps. "No. 8. One hundred twenty-two scalps of all sorts, among them are 29 infant scalps. (This is not a full record, nor the worst of it, but it is enough.) "The chief of the Senecas sends this message: 'Father, we send you here these many scalps that you may see that we are not idle friends. We wish you to send them to the Great King that he may regard them and be refreshed; and that he may see our faithfulness in destroying his enemies and be convinced that his presents to us are appreciated.'" This one consignment contained 954 scalps, each one evidence of murder, and murder incited and procured by unscrupulous agents who were trying to make a personal record as holders of American territory, regardless of the cost. It was horrors like these which made Edmund t1urke fulminate against his own government with the most bitter invective and which led William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, to exclaim in his speech of Nov. 18, 1777: "If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country I would never lay down my arms-never, never, never!" The American people were much of the same mind, and while some of them employed the appeal to arms and force, others, like Benjamin Franklin, appealed to the humanity of the British government. Failing there, Dr. Franklin went to France and enlisted the aid of that government, which, with its loan of money, arms, ships and men, enabled us to win our independence. All this is now history nearly a century and a half old, but it is still reasonable and proper that every reader should view the facts in the light of the times in which they occurred, bearing in mind the conditions which prevailed at the time. As has been previously stated, it is the common case that when civilized OLD-FASHIONED PRACTICE IN RUTHLESSNESS 73 men become long associated with barbarians they lose some of their thin veneer and make a partial reversion toward a state of barbarism. A state of war begets a number of curious conditions. The final issue of all wars is supposed to be determined by superior skill in generalship and weight of numbers under arms. This is not always the case. Psychology plays an important part. A people who believe they are fighting in a just cause and contending for the natural rights and liberties of themselves and their fellow citizens will fight valiantly and hold on grimly in the face of repeated failures. Even when there seems to be ample iustification for a war and a certain portion of a nation is eager for it, there is always an element which prefers avoidance of conflict and a compromise of the disputed matters. The governing powers generally avoid a declaration of war until they have prepared the minds of the people by propaganda so that the public sentiment is practically unanimous for war and the available fighting men are worked up to a state of passionate hatred toward the opposing government or faction. The most common method employed for propagating the war spirit in a nation is by repeated recitals of wrongs, real and fancied and, when the occasion will permit, by recitals of atrocities committed by " the other fellow " and careful suppression of their own atrocities. We need look no farther back than 1914 to find startling proofs of this practically universal practice. Before the armies of Germany were launched against the Belgian frontier telegraphic reports of attacks on the German frontier and the dropping of bombs from French aeroplanes on German towns were broadcasted and published in every newspaper in the empire. That false propaganda fired the patriotism of millions of Germans who were but a moment before individually opposed to the war. On the other hand, from the moment the invasion began there was a frenzied publication of atrocities on the part of the German troops. This was to fire the patriotism of the French and Belgian people to such a pitch that they would fight to the last man in the defense of their countries and their wives 74 THE STORY OFDETROIT and children. The real atrocities were bad enough but even those were somewhat exaggerated. Atrocities are almost inseparable from warfare. Human nature was much the same in the days of the Ameri-. can Revolution, in the War of 1812 and in the Civil War. Even from the far Philippines came occasional stories of "treating em rough" as in the case of the "water cure." At the outbreak of the Revolution we had statesmen who seemed to hold rank considerably above those who are in sight today. The most astute and far-sighted of these was Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who is said to have employed a line of propaganda that cut deep on both sides like a double-edged sword. There had been atrocities aplenty and they were not confined to one side. Dr. Franklin naturally wished to inspire his fellow patriots with a real passion for unwavering resistance and at the same time he wished to powerfully impress the people of Great Britain with the fact that the employment of barbarians in warfare meant the employment of barbarous methods that would be practiced by primitive wild men who, in the heat of passion, could not be controlled by the civilized man's discipline. Just how much of his propaganda was true or to what extent it was exaggerated is hard to say at this time but his use of it had the desired effect in both countries. A fairly large minority of the British people sympathized with us in the war, and some of the ablest of them denounced the policies of their government as they did more than o100 years later at the time of the Boer war. With these facts in mind we can read Dr. Franklin's propaganda with clearer understanding. The spirit of fair play and a profound respect for the natural rights of the individual man are striking characteristics of the British people, and these things are a part of our own inheritance. CHAPTER XVI BUILDING OF FORT LERNOULT T odiscourage Indian raids into Ohio Gen. Brodhead was sent into the territory with a force of men, and a stockaded fort called Fort Laurens was built at Tuscarawas about 90 miles south of Sandusky. This alarmed the authorities at Detroit, who realized that their stockaded town would be defenseless before h.rtillery attack, so Capt. Richard Beringer Lernoult, who was commandant under Lieut.-Gov. Hamilton, laid out a fort on the higher ground now bounded by Fort, Lafayette, Griswold and Wayne streets, and work was rushed on the construction from Nov. i until the latter part of February of 1778. This fort was connected with the town below by a covered passage and later the stockade of the town was extended so as to include the fort, which in honor of the builder was named Fort Lernoult. For further defense nine vessels were built in a shipyard on the River Rouge, in the vicinity of the present Woodmere Cemetery, and manned and armed for defense of Detroit. This work was begun in 1777 and continued for several years. During the year 1778 two noted frontiersmen were captured in the Ohio country by the Indians and brought to Detroit.. They were Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone of Kentucky. Three times on the way to Detroit the Indians decided to burn Kenton at the stake, for he was a noted Indian fighter, but each time Simon Girty saved him. Kenton escaped from Detroit and made his way alone through the wilderness to Kentucky. Capt. Lernoult tried to ransom Boone at Detroit, but the Indians took him back to Chillicothe and from there he made his escape. The British authorities in the West carried their fire-in-therear policy to great lengths, their idea being so to harass the 75 76 THE STORY OF DETROIT American settlers in the East that they would be forced to give up fighting in the army in order to protect their homes and families. John Butler, a Tory then living in Detroit, had formerly lived in Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania. He planned an N LATrAvTTI 1W Ii.1Ir I - AvC w 11 S FORT LERNOULT, RENAMED FORT SHELBY SUPERPOSED ON PRESENT STREET PLAN Indian raid on his old neighbors and together with Capt. Bird gathered a band of Indians from Detroit and went east. In western New York he was joined by Joseph Brant, the educated Mohawk and brother-in-law of Sir William Johnson. They collected a horde of Iroquois Indians, and with their aid and that BUILDING OF FORT LERNOULT 77 of a number of Tories from Canada perpetrated the Wyoming and Cherry Valley massacres in which more than 300 American scalps were taken. These settlements were defended only by old men, boys and women, as most of the able-bodied men were in the war. For this distinguished service Butler was given the rank of colonel, an annual pension of $2,500 and a tract of 5,000 acres of land at the mouth of the Detroit River on the Canadian shore. Down in southern Ohio were a number of Moravian missions. The Moravians had a large number of Indian converts to Christianity and several mission towns. One of these missionaries, named David Zeisberger, heard that Simon Girty was approaching Fort Laurens on a raid with 800 Indians. He warned the settlers and soldiers to keep close to their fort. Neither the Moravians nor their Indian converts took any part in the war, but frequently they gave warnings of raids which enabled settlers to seek refuge and save their lives. Thus the capture of Fort Laurens at Tuscarawas was prevented. Another Detroit raid against Fort Pitt wassfrustrated by a warning from the Moravian priest, John Gotlieb Heckewelder. Indian atrocities aroused resistance from Kentucky where Detroit raiders had murdered many settlers and laid siege to forts at Boonesville and Harrodsburg. Gen. George Rogers Clark raised a force of 500 hardy Kentuckians who had been fighting Indians from boyhood, and made a raid on the English settlements at Vincennes, Kaskaskia and Cahokia. A band of Ioo volunteers from Pennsylvania attempted to join him but they were utterly destroyed by an Indian attack. Gen. George Rogers Clark was a man of marvelous courage, energy and persistence. With his small force he captured the towns of his objective, and, most important of all, he captured Capt. Henry Hamilton, of Detroit, and his infamous "chief justice," Philip Dejean, who had come with a small force to reinforce Vincennes. This capture was important. The Kentuckians wanted to hang Hamilton and Dejean on the spot, but Clark sent them to Williamsburg, Va., for trial. There they were tried for wanton barbarities and sentenced to be hanged, but 78 THE STORY OF DETROIT wiser counsel prevailed, for their execution would have provoked reprisals, and a number of American prisoners then in British hands might have been executed. Hamilton, in addition to his barbarities, had been an embezzler of crown funds while at Detroit, but all his sins were forgiven and he was made lieutenant-governor of Canada. Later he was made governor of Bermuda and the principal town there bears his name. "Honour and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part: there all the honour lies." However, few men of the present day would care to earn the honors which were bestowed upon the "Great-Hair-Buyer of Detroit" by the same sort of practice. Gen. George Rogers Clark, on the other hand, had deserved well of his country and of his commander-in-chief, but Gen. Washington was prejudiced against him and denied him the credit that was his honest due. Clark wanted to reinforce his Kentuckians and proceed to the capture of Detroit, which he could have accomplished at the time, but Washington refused permission and Clark went back to Kentucky a broken, discourfrom over-indulgence in strong drink. He had captured three frontier towns and had destroyed all the Indian villages GEN. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK in western Ohio as far north as Piqua, on the Miami, which the old settlers. termed "Pick-a-way." The story of his achievements under difficulties which would have discouraged most men, and through hardships which would have wrecked an BUILDING OF FORT LERNOULT 79 ordinary army, is one of the most thrilling in American history. His men encountered a spring freshet on the way to Vincennes and were forced to march all day through flooded territory on which the icy water stood from knee deep to shoulder deep, but they put their trust in Providence, kept their powder dry and won a victory which received scanty appreciation at the time. Col. Arent Schuyler DePeyster, a native of New York City, but an officer in the British Army because of his Tory allegiance to the crown, was sent to take command at Detroit. DePeyster was a very different type of man from Hamilton, but in his new post he fell heir to an established usage of war which he saw no way of abandoning. So he continued the practice of Hamilton in promoting Indian raids. The Indians and their white leaders discovered that the Moravian peaceful Indians and their white missionaries had given warning to settlers and small American posts in the Ohio country. The Moravians had come to America from Bohemia in 1735 and besides founding the towns of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz in Pennsylvania, had established missions over a wide territory. In Ohio they had three mission towns: Gnadenhutten (tents of grace) on the Tuscarawas River, Salem and Schoenbrunn. The Indians regarded the missionaries, Zeisberger, Heckewelder, Senseman, Bull, and Edwards, with a peculiar reverence which was shared in some degree by even the unconverted and warlike Indians. John Butler, and Alexander McKee, of Detroit, tried to hire the Iroquois Indians to destroy the Moravians, but the Iroquois refused. Application was then made to the Chippewas, but the Chippewas, usually willing to take any man's scalp for an inducement, also refused. In this extremity DePeyster decided to capture the missionaries and as many as possible of their followers and bring them to Detroit, where they could be kept under observation and where they would have no opportunity to warn American settlers of approaching Indian raids from Detroit. CHAPTER XVII PERSECUTION OF THE MORAVIANS N the spring of 1781 a raiding party was sent to round up the Moravians in Ohio. On the way they gathered a strong reinforcement of Wyandotte Indians from the town of the Half-King, a noted chief at Upper Sandusky, O. Down near the Moravian towns they came upon the cabin of Robert Wallace, a white settler. Wallace was absent, but Mrs. Wallace and their three children were butchered and scalped. Their clothing was stripped off and carried away and the bodies were left in the cabin. John Fink and another settler were murdered and their bloody clothing was also carried away. The Moravians offered no resistance and were herded together and driven to Upper Sandusky and later from there to Detroit. Many Moravian Indians were left in the lower towns. The Detroit raiders hid the bloody clothing of their victims in their houses. Then word was sent to the Pennsylvania settlements that the Moravian Indians were murdering white settlers and a band of American militia went to the Moravian settlements to punish the offenders. The Indians, unable to understand how the report had gone abroad, protested their innocence and reported that a raid from Detroit had just carried off their missionaries and many of the Christian Indians. The houses were searched and the bloody clothing was found. This discovery infuriated the militiamen. They believed the Moravian Indians to be hypocrites and murderers and told them they must die. The bewildered Indians answered that they were innocent, that their religion forbade the shedding of blood, but that their captors could do with them as they might wish. The militiamen gathered the unfortunate Indians into their meeti1Ig house, made them kneel on the floor and then killed the entire 96 by crushing their skulls with a wooden mallet. 80 PERSECUTION OF THE MORAVIANS 81 The barbarities, it will be seen, were not all on one side of the war. This shocking crime against unoffending Christian Indians brought terrible consequences, for Indians who had heretofore kept out of the war now took the side of the British with savage enthusiasm and a few weeks later Col. Crawford was captured and burned at the stake at Upper Sandusky. The story of his death is blood-curdling. The Moravians were brought to Detroit leaving their crops unharvested in the fields, and a number of white captives were picked up on the way. Among these were two girls 13 and 14 years of age, who were cruelly lashed by the Indians on the Detroit common. The town turned out, of course, to witness the arrival of the raiders and their captives. One of the most prominent men of the town was James May, a man of massive build, weighing 300 pounds. The two girls broke from their captors and rushed to Mr. May, throwing themselves at his feet. When the Indians came to drag them away May knocked them right and left with his fists. Then he took the girls to the council house for shelter. The Indians complained to Alexander McKee, and McKee went to DePeyster saying that the Indians must be allowed to have their own way with their captives without interference, or they would desert the British cause. DePeyster sent for May and told him he must not interfere with the Indians. For another su'ch offense he would put him in the fort dungeon. The Moravians were kept at Detroit several weeks and then were sent up to the Clinton River, where they founded a settlement near Mt. Clemens. During their stay of five years there they built a group of cabins and opened a road through the forest to Detroit, which afterward developed into Gratiot Avenue. The Chippewa Indians objected to the presence of the Moravians and in April, 1786, the Moravians were permitted to leave on condition that they would not meddle with affairs in Ohio. Part of them crossed Lake St. Clair and founded the Moravian town on the River Thames in Canada and others went back to old Gnadenhutten. Their little town of 24 houses on the Clinton River, which 82 THE STORY o.F.ETROIT they had named New Gnadenhutten, and the lands adjoining were sold to John Askin and Major Ancrum of Detroit for $450. The Congress of the United States later gave them a grant of 4,000 acres at New Philadelphia, 0., where they remained until 1807. The Revolutionary War went badly for both parties in the contention. It was more a contest of persistence and endurance than a test of military ability or fighting valor. Both the British and the Americans were near the exhaustion of their resources when the fortunate combination between the American Army and the French fleet forced the surrender of Cornwallis. This brought the British government to the hard decision between beginning the war all over again with little prospect of improving their case, or a termination of the war by treaty of peace and the surrender of all the vast territory for which they had been fighting the Indians and France for more than Ioo years. It was hard for the British government even to think of surrender, particularly to a puny nation of "colonists" whom they regarded as outcasts. But the people of Great Britain had shown increasing sympathy for the Americans, so their autocratic king was forced to accept the issue of surrender much against his will. But the peace treaty did not restore good feeling: Too many hard and cruel things had been done on both sides to be soon forgotten. We had had a surfeit of atrocities in the West. The East was not free from them. The colonists were not all of one mind. The party of independence was the majority party, but there was also a strong Tory-Loyalist party composed of people who gave consent to the divine right of kings and who believed that "the king can do no wrong," being the Lord's anointed ruler and therefore infallible. Between these opposing elements in America the feeling was even more bitter than between the Americans and the English, because the English soldiers were fighting under orders from their government, while the Tories fought voluntarily against their own countrymen and heretofore good neighbors. The majority party, therefore, preyed upon the minority. Persecution intensified, buildings were burned and now and then a PERSECUTION OF THE MORAVIANS 83 too outspoken Tory was tarred and feathered, ridden on a rail or lynched by a mob. As a result there was a general emigration of Tories. Those in the South fled to the Bahama and other West Indian islands. Those in the North fled to Canada. Both elements were forced to leave behind what they could not carry away in hasty flight. Many of these had been people of wealth and education, in fact, generally speaking, they were the aristocratic element. Their property was confiscated, and in the colony of New York alone these confiscations took away property valued at $i5,00ooo,ooo. The terms of the peace treaty, to which both parties gave their solemn pledge, called for either restoration or compensation for the property taken from the exiled Tories. It also stipulated the payment of honest debts owed by Americans to British creditors. But the American people, impoverished by the war and embittered toward the British, neglected to carry out their part of the bargain-flatly refused to do so in some cases-so the British government retaliated by withholding the surrender of Detroit, the western territory, and several frontier forts farther east. The Tories who fled to Canada presently became known as the United Empire Loyalists, and they became important factors in the subsequent development of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the province of Ontario. Many prominent families of Canada of the present day proudly trace their ancestry to the Empire Loyalists. Many citizens of Detroit trace back to the same origin. Practically all the histories of the world, up to a very recent time, are more or less prejudiced in their relations of fact. Some of them are propagandist in some degree. This applies in the case of United States histories in particular, for few of them give a complete or just presentation of all the facts in their true proportion, whether they are telling the story of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the war with Mexico, or the Civil War. But a generation of fair-minded men is coming to the front and many histories and biographies are destined to be rewritten that future generations may see the past in truer perspective. 84 THE STORY OF DETROIT Refusal to surrender Detroit and the West led to a furious outburst of indignation in the new Government of the United States. It offered a barrier against a horde of greedy landgrabbers and it stood in the way of men of small means who had the true pioneering spirit and longed to build them homes in the wilderness and become founders of new states. So intense was the feeling on both sides that it was impossible for the two nations to proceed very far with the most reasonable negotiations at any one treaty conference. It took 59 years of wrangling to settle the northeastern boundary between Canada and the States. It took many years of border warfare to decide the issue in the West. Again the fierce patriotism of the Indians was enlisted in the cause on the British side. This was easily done because it was now the American settlers and land companies which were pressing into Indian territory, seeking possession of cheap lands and planting cabins here and there to become the basis of claims for a grant of land. The case was aggravated because Spain owned the territory known as the two Floridas, East and West, which ran westward to the Mississippi River. Spain claimed the southern part of Georgia and all territory west of Georgia and the Carolinas as far north as the Ohio River, while these colonies each claimed territory westward of the Mississippi. The New England states of Massachusetts and Connecticut tlaimed corresponding strips of territory to the Mississippi River. Spain and Great Britain therefore had a common interest in holding the newly organized states from pressing their territory westward. Through Spain's influence Americans were forbidden the right to navigate the Mississippi River, although France owned Louisiana Territory, which was west of the great river. Great Britain still held undisputed possession of Canada, and this gave her a base for operations in the West, a source of supplies for carrying on a war, and free entrance over her own territory for troops and munitions shipped from abroad. Alexander McKee, British Indian agent at Detroit, was made director of the Indian warfare. He donned full Indian costume, painted his face after the fashion of Indians on the warpath; PERSECUTION OF THE MORAVIANS 85 and went about among the tribes as Pontiac had done more than 20 years before. Again Detroit became an emporium where the Indians could obtain free guns, knives, blankets, food and rum. In one of the official reports showing expenditures for such purposes the relative value of the English and the New York money is disclosed, the bill being rendered at 2,729 pounds, two shillings and sixpence in New York currency or 1,535 pounds, two shillings and eightpence sterling money. SPolitical and family pull enabled Lieut. Jehu Hay to displace DePeyster at Detroit and a long wrangle resulted. DePeyster's American birth and admixture of French blood prejudiced him in the eyes of the British government. He was an accomplished man and a social favorite. Soon after the close of the Revolution he went to Dumfries, Scotland, where he drilled soldiers for the Napoleonic wars. One of his soldiers was a celebrated volunteer, Robert Burns. It was while in this camp that Burns was stricken with his last illness, and his last poem was addressed to Col. DePeyster, who had shown him unusual kindness. That poem was written in grateful acknowledgment. It begins: "My honored Colonel: deep I feel Your interest in the poet's weal. Ah! Sma' heart ha'e I now to speel The steep Parnassus, Surrounded thus by bolus, pill And potion glasses." DePeyster died at Dumfries in 1832. CHAPTER XVIII RECOVERY OF THE WESTERN TERRITORY TO MAKE Detroit a more attractive place for British settlers the government subsidized the erection of a new sawmill and gristmill in 1784, toward which Gov. Haldimand contributed about $1,200. Renewal of Indian atrocities in Ohio stirred Congress to action and Col. Josiah Harmar was authorized to concentrate a strong military force at Fort Pitt while he attempted peace negotiations with the western Indians. Harmar won the Wyandottes, Delawares, Chippewas and Ottawas to a policy of neutrality, but the Shawnees, Cherokees, Senecas of the West or Mingoes, and the Miamis adhered to the British cause. Although the war with Great Britain was over the war in the West continued and between 1783 and 1790 more than 1,500 American settlers were killed and scalped in the Ohio Valley. Harmar attempted a campaign against the hostile Indians with an undisciplined force of 1,400 men. He penetrated their country as far as the present site of Fort Wayne, Ind. There he was surprised and routed and a large part of his command was destroyed in the fight. He retired to Fort Washington, on the site of Cincinnati, a disgraced commander. Gen. George Washington then sent Gen. Arthur St. Clair with a force of 2,300 regulars, warning him that constant vigilance was necessary to prevent disaster such as Harmer had suffered. St. Clair was an able officer, but not an expert Indian fighter. Moreover he was a victim of severe attacks of gout, a very common ailment in those early days of heavy feeding and hard drinking. St. Clair led his army to the junction of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers near the Ohio-Indiana border and there he permitted his camp to be surprised by a great force of Indians and Canadians, with the result that 593 men were killed and 38 officers and 242 privates wounded. The 86 RECOVERY OF THE WESTERN TERRITORY 87 campaign ended in another complete rout. Gen. Washington is said to have used some very strong language on hearing the story. Another notable Indian chief had now come to the front. Little Turtle, chief of the Miamis, had proved himself a master strategist in turning back two successive invasions of the American Army. Washington now looked for a real Indian GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR COL. ARENT GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE SCHUYLER DEPEYSTER fighter who could play the Indians' game of warfare. He picked Gen. Anthony Wayne, then commander-in-chief of the American Army, to end the horrors in the West and to recover by force the territory still held by the British. Wayne found that most of the experienced officers of the West had already been killed or disabled in the previous fights, while the men of the rank and file had become very "jumpy" in consequence of the wild and exaggerated stories which had gone abroad concerning the defeats of Harmar and St. Clair. In May, 1793, he led his half-drilled men to Fort Washington (Cincinnati) and to put heart into these he enlisted a co6nsiderable force of Kentucky Rangers, men who had fought 88 THE STORY OF DETROIT Indians from their boyhood, who understood Indian psychology and methods, and who were as expert woodsmen as the Indians themselves. It may be said in passing that Detroit owes a debt to the Kentucky pioneers which can never be sufficiently appreciated. But that will be a later story. The Kentuckians knew that retreat or surrender to Indian foes meant destruction, so they preferred to die on their feet and fighting, to the last man. The Indians held them in wholesome respect and termed them the "long-knives," because every Kentuckian carried a huge hunting knife which he could use with terrible effect in a handto-hand fight with any opponent. On the Maumee River, then known as the "Miami of the Lakes," the British had in 1794 erected a fort which was their military headquarters for directing Indian operations in Ohio, and a place of refuge in case they should be driven, back by superior numbers-of Americans. This fort stood at the junction of the Maumee and the Au Glaize rivers where the city of Defiance now stands. Washington told Gen. Wayne that in spite of the peace between the two nations, if it should become necessary he should attack and destroy this fort, known as Fort Miami. The site was chosen by Gov. Simcoe of Canada. OnJuly 10, Wayne advanced close to this fort and erected Fort Defiance, which afterward gave its name to the city built on its site. The Indians and Canadians retired down the west bank of the Maumee with Wayne's forces following cautiously, their commander keeping his scouts well in advance and his flanks always covered. The British and Indians had already decided upon the place of best advantage where they would make their stand for a battle. Presently, a short distance south of what is now the city of Toledo, the opposing forces came to a place where a tornado had torn up a considerable tract of heavy timber, leaving the trees piled in confused windrows and creating an ideal situation adapted to Indian warfare. Wayne's vigilance had baffled every attempt at a surprise and the Indians, respecting his manifest ability, styled him "the Blacksnake" because of the vigilant, swift and silent manner of his progress. RECOVERY OF THE WESTERN TERRITORY 8 89 The battle was opened by Indian and British skirmishers firing from concealment in the brush and long grass while the Indians attempted to turn Wayne's left flank, his right being protected by the river. At the same time Wayne pushed forward men along the river front to attack his enemy's right flank because he would naturally consider that side safe from attack. The Indian attempt was broken up by a charge of mounted rangers, and when they retired into the tangled mass of fallen timber the rangers were sent around to their rear to cut off retreat. instead of allowing his men to stand in the open exchanging shots with an enemy behind natural defenses, Wayne sent his foot forces forward with orders to trail their guns and not to fire until they would be at close quarters. This steady and orderly advance without firing a shot awed the Indians, who fired and retreated. The Americans pressed after them into the cover of fallen trees and when the Indians and their white allies attempted to break from the rear of the timber they found the rangers ready for them. A force of 2,000 Indians had fled before the charge of 900 because they had been awed by their unusual method, and when they broke from cover the memory of past disasters and the wanton murder of settlers made the Americans quite as savage as the Indians had been. The woods for several miles were soon strewn with the dead bodies of Indians and Canadians. Wayne remained on the ground three days resting his men, caring for the wounded, burying his dead and burning the houses and crops about the British fort. Among the property destroyed were the house and store of Alexander McKee, the British Indian agent. Gen. Wayne himself suffered an attack of gout and on the morning of the battle his legs were so swollen that it was necessary to lift him to the back of his horse. Joseph Brant tried to make the Indians stand for another fight, but they were cowed and beaten by the systematic methods of "the Blacksnake." This victory sealed the fate of Detroit, but the United States Government did not press matters because it wished to 90 THE STORY OF DETROIT keep peace with Great Britain and employ diplomacy instead of force and arms. Wayne's victory led to the signing of the Treaty of Greenville with the Indians, who there made humble submission to the American Government. At the same time it opened the way to new negotiations with Great Britain, which ended in the signing of the Jay Treaty, by which Detroit, Niagara, Mackinac, Oswego and Miami on the Maumee, all fortified military posts, were formally surrendered without striking another blow. In the meantime Congress had been busy shaping affairs for the new territory in advance of its actual possession. The region north of he Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River, embracing the present states of Wisconsin, part of Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio was styled the Northwest Territory. A scheme of government must be arranged for this sparsely settled western wild and preparations must be made for its division into states when the population would warrant that procedure. A code of special ordinances, known as "the Ordinance of 1787," was drawn up by Rev. Manasseh Cutler, a Congregational minister, and Nathan Dane, an eminent lawyer of Massachusetts, and also a lay preacher of the same denomination. That ordinance was adopted July 13, 1787, while the Constitution of the United States was not completed in the draft until Sept. 17, 1787. The Ordinance of 1787 contained a prohibition of slavery in the new territory, which was the first enactment of the kind in the new world. It declared that "religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." It declared for civil and religious liberty and contained a law of contracts which is quite superior to the pronouncement in the Federal Constitution, which also ignored the issue of slavery. CHAPTER XIX DETROIT UNDER CANADIAN RULE WHILE these stirring events were transpiring other important events of an administrative and judicial nature were taking place. Comparatively few residents of Detroit know that this city and the State of Michigan were for a time, following the American Revolution, incorporated by law with the Province of Canada and under the jurisdiction of British law and Canadian courts. This was the case for a period of eight years. In July, 1788, after the treaty of peace, the Canadian government established the judicial District of Hesse, which included Detroit and all adjoining territory within its jurisdiction. On December 26, 1791, Detroit and Michigan were incorporated as a part of Upper Canada. On July 16, 1792, the Canadian county of Kent was created, which included territory on both sides of Detroit River and all of the State of Michigan. The seat of government for Upper Canada was established at Newark, now Niagara-on-the-Lake, at the mouth of Niagara River. In August, 1792, two delegates, William Macomb and William Grant, were elected to represent Detroit in the Canadian legislature which met at Newark, Sept. 17. This was the first legislative session of the government of Upper Canada, established by the Canada Act of Dec. 26, 1791. That session changed the name of the District of Hesse to "the Western District." In January of 1796 the Canadian Court of General Quarter Sessions held its last session in Detroit. Thus it.will be seen that for a considerable period Detroit existed under two distinct and opposing governments. The Ordinance of 1787 enacted by the Congress of the United States extended American jurisdiction over the town and territory, while British-Canadian authority was imposed by the Canada Act, and Canadian rule 91 92 92 THE STORY OF DETROIT was maintained for a period of five years, formally, and for three years previous to the Canada Act, informally. In 1797 occurred another incident, trifling in itself and without any discoverable consequences, but it is an incident in a conspiracy of treason which dragged many distinguished names in the mire for a time and ended in a number of judicial trials which play an important part in United States history. The conspiracy, at the beginn ing, contemplated the transfer of all the western country east of the Mississippi River to the possession of Spain, apparently with the secret collusion of France. When this failed the 'purpose of the conspiracy was changed. That second purpose was never fully disclosed but the common opinion is that it contemplated the establishment of a government, which would be a formidable rival of the United States, involving the setting up of an empire or a republic which would combine the French dependency of Louisiana and the Spanish dependency of Mexico, which together included everything west of the Mississippi River south of the then undetermined British line. The incident itself was nothing more than a visit to Detroit by Thomas Powers for a conference with Gen. James Wilkinson in connection with the first phase of the great conspiracy, but the real purpose of his visit was not disclosed until several years later. Even then there was nothing revealed that would be admissible as evidence in a court of law. The distinguished conspirators were so able that only here and there at wide intervals was circumstantial evidence of guilt apparent. Positive evidence of treason was afterward discovered 'in the archives of the Spanish government. United States laws were not in force in Detroit until July 113 1796. For some time thereafter the territorial legislature met at Marietta, 0., at Cincinnati, 0., and at Vincennes, Ind. Representation was allotted on a basis of one representative for each 5,ooo inhabitants. The upper house of the legislature consisted of five members appointed by the President, approved by Congress and chosen from the members-elect. The first upper house of council consisted of James Findlay, Jacob Burnet, Henry Vanderberg, David Vance and Robert Oliver. DETROIT UNDER CANADIAN RULE 93 In i8oi the general assembly met at Chillicothe, but two months later it was adjourned to meet at Cincinnati. In February, 1i8o5, under Indiana Territory, the seat of government OLD COURTHOUSE AT CHILLICOTHE, OHIO FIRST CAPITOL OF NORTHWEST TERRITORY was shifted to Vincennes by proclamation of Gov. Harrison. These changes followed the creation of the State of Ohio in 1803. Michigan Territory was created June 30, i8o0, and the Michigan administration of the Governor and Judges held their first session as a legislative body on July 4. The seal of the 94 THE STORY OF DETROIT I 94THE STORY OF DETROIT Territory was adopted July 9. Most of the early sessions were held in the tavern of Richard Smyth, on the east side of Woodward Avenue, between Woodbridge and Jefferson Avenue. This site therefore should be marked by a memorial tablet as the first seat of government for Michigan and Detroit. United States histories are savage in their denunciation of Benedict Arnold for his attempted betrayal of his country into the hands of Great Britain by surrendering the strategic post at West Point on the Hudson River, which held back British ships from the upper part of the river. It is very doubtful if the betrayal would have changed the result of the war even had it been carried into effect, but Arnold stands branded with treason and rightly so. Yet there were circumstances which, while they do not condone his act, furnish some explanation of his conduct. The real arch-traitor of the United States Army, then and for many years after, was a general whose name is hardly mentioned in history except in some honorable connection; a man who, in spite of repeated discoveries of treasonable and disloyal acts, generally managed to side-step the punishments he deserved, to shift the blame and to hold fast to important and profitable offices of public trust. That man was Gen. James Wilkinson, who came to Detroit with Gen. Anthony Wayne and was with him throughout his western campaign. Wilkinson was born in Calvert, Maryland, in 1757. He came of a wealthy family and was educated by private tutors. He was an intimate friend of Benedict Arnold, Horatio Gates, Thomas Conway and Aaron Burr. He served under Arnold for a time and afterward under Gen. Gates. British generalship planned three concerted expeditions by which the American patriot army in northern New York was to be surrounded and destroyed. One expedition was to come from Canada via Lake Champlain under Gen. Burgoyne. A second expedition was to come from Canada via the foot of Lake Ontario and down the Mohawk Valley. A third expedition was to proceed northward from New York City under Howe and Clinton. By these converging expeditions the scattered patriot forces were to be rounded up and forced to surrender. DETROIT UNDER CANADIAN RULE 95 Gen. Gates was in position to oppose the march of Burgoyne's army, and Col. Wilkinson was his chief-of-staff. Benedict Arnold was sent up the Mohawk Valley to block the expedition under St. Leger. Arnold succeeded in routing the British and. their Indians, and forced them to retire to Canada by a clever ruse of intimidation. Then he hurried by forced marches to the support of Gates. He arrived at Bemis Heights to find the battle on, Gates in a blue funk, bordering on panic, and the Americans falling back disheartened. Arnold rushed into the fray, inspired the discouraged Americans with new hope, and turned the tide of battle which forced Burgoyne's surrender. He came out of the fight with a bullet in his knee and was placed under arrest by Gates for disobedience of his order to retire. Immediately Gen. Gates, Gen. Wilkinson and an Irish soldier-of-fortune named Thomas Conway started what is known in history as "The Conway Cabal," which was designed to induce Congress to remove George Washington from the head of the Army and put Gen. Gates in his place. Conway was made the scapegoat by his equally-guilty fellow-conspirators and went to France to take military service. The cabal also involved the promotion of Wilkinson from a colonel to a brigadier-general. Discovery of the plot forced Wilkinson to resign his generalship soon after it had been bestowed, but instead of being barred from service he was attached to the quartermaster-general's department. At the end of the war he was given an important commercial post on the Lower Mississippi and immediately he began intriguing with Spain in a scheme which would deliver the territory between the Appalachians, the great river and the Ohio to Spain. His efforts to prevent the institution of the State of Kentucky led to the disclosure of his plot by Gen. Isaac Shelby. During the interval the inhabitants of this region were left by Congress without support to fight the Indians set upon them by Spanish authorities. They were forced to organize the independent State of Franklin in order' to maintain some form of government and to make an organized defense. 96 THE STORY OF DETROIT But again Wilkinson evaded punishment. He obtained reinstatement in the Army, which brought him to Detroit as a member of Gen. Wayne's staff. In March, 1792, he was made a brigadier-general and on the death of Gen. Anthony Wayne in 1796, he became Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army. That Detroit conference with Thomas Powers, who was another secret emissary of the Spanish government as later discovered, may not have been important, but in I8o5, through his remarkable powers of intrigue, Wilkinson was appointed governor of Louisiana, the territory he was scheming to betray. He had even served as United States commissioner to receive the formal surrender of the Louisiana Territory. Then followed the discovery of the celebrated Burr conspiracy in which Wilkinson played an important part, but when he was court-martialed on a charge of treason he was acquitted. By many it was believed that Wilkinson was the head and front of the Burr conspiracy. In spite of this continuous and consistent record of treason he was made a major-general in 1813. But again his intriguing nature got him into trouble and another court of inquiry failed to pin the charges on him. At the close of the War of 1812 he was discharged from the Army and went to Mexico, where he had made large investments and owned a great estate. Years later correspondence came to light showing that he had been drawing regular pay from the Spanish government for more than 12 years while he was serving in the United States Army. CHAPTER XX AMERICAN RULE BEGINS A SSOON as it was known that Detroit was to be peaceably surrendered on the arrival of the American troops which were to occupy it, some of the British soldiers began a wanton destruction of both public and private property about the town. This action was not sanctioned by the commandant, Col. Richard England, a gallant officer who would not countenance' acts of petty spite. Windmills along the shore were wrecked, and some of the property within Fort Lernoult which could not be carried away was damaged or destroyed. Bright and clear began the Monday Of July 11, 1796. The British bugles shrilled the reveille as usual. A cannon boomed as the banner of St. George-the meteor flag of England-was hauled to the top of the flagstaff. Two hours later the watchers on the parapet saw far down the river two vessels approaching with every stitch of canvas spread to catch the breeze. It was an event which had been expected for io days. "The Yankees are coming at last," called one of the observers. Some of the disgusted soldiers applied strong adjectives to the Yankees, but hard words do not kill. A large number of officers and men went down to the river front where the foot of Shelby Street now lies to witness the landing. A wharf 15So feet long projected from the shore which was then at the line of Woodbridge Street. On the shore gathered a motley crowd of white settlers. A band of Indians collected around their famous fighting chief, Little Turtle of the Miamis. At the very front of the throng was a wild looking figure, a white man clad in full Indian costume, whose hard face was seared brown -by constant exposure. He was mounted on a spirited black mare. That man was Simon Girty, the notorious renegade who had been one of the most dangerous and ruthless enemies of the American settlers. 97 CA z 0r 98 AMERICANRULE BEGINS 99 When the ships were within half a mile of the wharf and had begun nosing toward the shore Girty gave his mare a savage cut with his whip and forced her into the river. He crossed the swift-running stream holding fast to her tail as the strong creature fought her way to the Canadian shore. She scrambled to the shore and Girty led her up the bluff, where he mounted. He paused a moment to watch the landing of the Americans; then, shaking his clenched fist at them from a safe distance, he gave the shrill Indian war cry and dashed away out of sight. As Marmion escaped from the stronghold of Lord Douglas: "And shout of loud defiance pours, And shook his gauntlet at the toters." The 65 American soldiers who landed were received with cold, dignified courtesy and then were escorted up the hill to the fort. The formal surrender was made by Col. England and at noon the flag of Great Britain came down with a salute, and the flag of the United States was raised with another salute. The Stars and Stripes then contained but 15 stars, two having been added to the original 13 in May, 1795, on account of the admission of the State of Vermont to the Union, March 4, 1791, and the State of Kentucky, July I, 1792. It was not until 41 years later that a star was added for the State of Michigan. The surrender was received by Col. John Francis Hamtramck, who had been with Wayne during the campaign. Col. Hamtramck was born in Canada in 1757, but served in the Revolution with Dubois' New York Regiment. In the Battle of Fallen Timbers he commanded Gen. Wayne's left wing. He died in Detroit April II, 1803, and his remains are now buried in Mt. Elliott Cemetery. The officers who had served under him erected a monument to his memory.. The British forces marched out of the fort with their band playing, and the tune they thought appropriate to the occasion was, "The World Turned Upside Down." Gen. Wayne had suffered severely from gout all through the campaign, but he did not spare himself while there was fighting to be done. He I00 THE STORY OF DETROIT went from here to Presque Ile, now Erie, Pa., and died there Dec. 14, 1796. His remains are buried at Radnor, Pa. Wayne County was named in his honor, as Hamtramck township and village were named in honor of his associate. The death of Gen. Wayne led to the promotion of Gen. James Wilkinson, then here in Detroit, as Commander-in-Chief of the United StatesArmy. Gen. Wilkinson remains one of the baffling figures of American history, for while his attitude and his acts were generally treasonable toward his superiors and toward his Government, he emerged from every 'compromising discovery practically unscathed, and was the recipient of many honors and high offices under the Government which he was seeking to betray. Girty settled down at Malden, now Amherstburg, where the British had already started a new frontier fort and settlement. He was given a tract of land and a pension from the British government, and spent the rest of his days near Amherstburg telling stories of the wild days of Indian warfare. He died there in 1818, and was buried on his own land. A few years ago the ground above his grave was covered by a hog pen in a barnyard. Little Turtle did not run away from the Americans. He showed eagerness to meet them, and when Gen. Wayne arrived in Detroit he shook his hand with enthusiasm and declared him the best warrior chief he had ever faced. Little Turtle was a man of huge frame, in spite of his name. At the surrender of Detroit he was the most conspicuous figure among 'all the Indians. He wore a kilt of bright blue flannel and a coat and vest of the British uniform. On his head was a long, baggy turban cap of which the tip and tassel hung far down his back. It was surrounded by a band of silver coins and brooches and was spangled all over with silver ornaments. In each ear he wore two silver rings and from these depended long strings of silver coins, one string on each side hanging over the front of his shoulders, and one of each hanging behind his shoulders. From the pierced septum of his nose hung a silver ring three inches in diameter. Little Turtle kept at peace with the Americans and died at Ft. Wayne, Ind., in 1812, at the age of 65 years. AMERICAN RULE BEGINS IOI Many of the British residents of Detroit removed to the Canadian side of the river and settled about Windsor, Sandwich, Lake St. Clair, and the Thames River. These removals seemed for a time to threaten the extinction of Detroit as a town of importance., The population before the surrender was a little more than 2,200, which included 178 Negro and Indian slaves, but in a few months it dwindled to about 5oo. It was not until the renewed immigration from the East had been coming for several years that the population again reached 2,200, in i805-the year of the great fire which completely erased Detroit from the map for a time. At the time of the surrender the town proper contained 300 houses, and about two-thirds of the inhabitants were French. There were 12 small ships carrying the entire trade of the Upper Lakes. Up and down the shore for many miles were a series of windmills which ground most of the grain into flour and meal, and they gave the water front an appearance like that of a Dutch landscape. It is a curious fact that in the Northwest Territory and at Detroit in particular the claim of authority of government has often been several jumps ahead of the fact. The ordinance of July 13, 1787, provided a government, and the following officers were appointed: Governor, Gen. Arthur St. Clair; judges, Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Varnum and John Cleves Symmes; secretary, Winthrop Sargent. It was not until nine years later that actual possession was taken of the seat of government at Detroit. Gen. St. Clair, Governor of the Territory, did not arrive until Sept. 5, but Winthrop Sargent arrived earlier on the scene, and on Aug. i5, without any authority at all, he organized the County of Wayne, in honor of Gen. Wayne, and proclaimed that title over a vast area of the new Territory. This precipitate action made Gen. St. Clair very peevish, he having been in Pittsburgh at the time, and having plans and titles of his own in view. When he arrived in Detroit he reprimanded Sargent and asked the citizens what name they would prefer for their district, but the unanimous response was "Wayne County," and the 102 THE STORY OF DETROIT Governor bowed to the popular will, In that year Of 1796 the governing board consisted of the Governor and Judges Symmes,, Turner and Putnam. Putnam soon resigned to become surveyor-general, and Joseph Gilman was appointed judge in his place. Next year Judge Turner resigned and he was succeeded by Return Jonathan Meigs. Gen. St. Clair remained in office until I18o2 but Charles Willing Byrd, his secretary, who had succeeded Sargent, was acting Governor for a time. "CHAPTER XXI DETROIT BECOMES AN INCORPORATED TOWN TREATY is a solemn agreement between two nations. In drawing a treaty it is the mutual aim of the nations in conference to obtain all they can and to give as little as possible. All sorts of ruses and deceptions are employed to hoodwink one another. Because of that curious tendency in diplomacy certain nations have come to regard treaties as "pieces of paper" to serve only the purpose of the moment. In reality treaty making is comparable to the buying of a bill of groceries for the family. If the grocer foists damaged goods upon the purchaser or cheats in his weights and measures, or if the customer passes a bad check or bad money, all confidence and good will between the parties are destroyed. John Jay negotiated the best treaty with Great Britain that it was possible to secure at the time, but when he consented to the stipulation that Americans should pay their honest debts to their British creditors and that the GoVernment should use its power and influence to that end, the American people were infuriated. Jay was execrated everywhere and he was burned in effigy in the streets of Boston, New York and Philadelphia; but he came out of the affair with clean hands and continued his honorable record. Our first treaty with Great Britain, signed Nov. 30, 1782, was a mere protocol, or tentative agreement. The second treaty, of January.20, 1783, merely agreed to an armistice. In the following September we made a more detailed treaty, but still the agreement did not open the way to real peace and good will between the nations. In 1794 we made a treaty of amity, commerce and navigation, which still lacked vital elements. In 1796 and 1798 we made two more treaties in explanation of the terms of the preceding agreements. In 1802 we made another for the payment of indemnities and settlement of debts. And 103 104 THE STORY OF DETROIT then for ten weary years the two nations sat glowering at one another with steadily rising anger until the mutual hatred flamed up in war. But let us return to the little affairs of early Detroit. In 1798 the town acquired its first hand fire engine, which was a puny affair, and established a number of cisterns in different places to supply water for the engine. The money in circulation was mostly in the form of Spanish milled dollars. There was no fractional currency, and to supply this need people took their silver dollars to the blacksmith shops and chiseled them into halves and quarters and shillings as best they could. The carrying of these sharp-cornered fragments of metal with keen and ragged edges proved hard on the pockets of the people and when leather pockets were provided they were constantly lacerating their fingers when they reached for coin. Because of this the people petitioned for an issue of Government subsidiary coins to'meet the common need. A grand jury in Detroit on May Io declared the current money a nuisance, thus formalizing the public protest. In June, 1798, came a new settler to Detroit who was to make important history in a few years and who was destined to promote the advancement of the general welfare more than any one man of his time, although he came only in the capacity of a humble parish priest to take charge of old Ste. Anne's Church and to supervise the Indian missions. This man was the Rev. Gabriel Richard, whose story will follow in its proper place. In those days there was a large strip of country east of the present water works between Jefferson Avenue and the river where the ground was marshy, with here and there an island of solid land. It was termed the "grand marais," or great marsh. Here and there on the islands and on the solid ground farther north stood a settler's cabin. The people who had emigrated to Canada rather than remain in Detroit under American rule had done so at considerable personal sacrifice, and some of them felt that they were entitled to reparations. What they could not obtain by legal resort they decided to take by force. In July, 1798, a considerable number of them crossed the river by night DETROIT BECOMES AN INCORPORATED TOWN Io5 and raided many farm houses under pretense of looking for deserters from the British army. The Court of General Quarter Sessions ordered all such invaders to be seized and brought before it. On the third Monday in December, 1798, Solomon Sibley was elected as a representative for Detroit and on the following January 15, 1799, Jacobus Visger and Chabert de Joncaire were also elected members of the general assembly of the Northwest Territory, the allotment for Wayne County being three members. The assembly began its first session at Cincinnati, February 4, 1799. In May, i8oo, the Northwest Territory was divided and the Territory of Indiana was created. In Septernmber, 18oo00, the first Protestant missionary to the Indians of the West arrived in Detroit. He was the Rev. David Bacon, who had been sent here to look over the field and to report to an association of Congregational churches of Connecticut. Mr. Bacon made the journey on foot, was hospitably received and went back east. In the following year he returned to Detroit with his bride and for several months he taught a school for boys, and Mrs. Bacon, then 17 years old, a school for girls in the vicinity of the present intersection of Shelby and Larned streets. While they were here a son was born to them who became the celebrated Dr. Leonard Bacon, a clergyman. The Rev. Leonard Bacon came to Detroit in later years to dedicate the First Congregational Church edifice, which later became the home of the Detroit Journal. The town of Detroit was incorporated in 1802 and government was established under a board of trustees. The charter was granted by the territorial government, which was then located at Chillicothe, O. Government was exercised by a board of trustees with the assistance of a secretary, an assessor, a collector of taxes and a village marshal who represented the police power of the community. This form of government continued under successive boards until 1805, when the Government at Washington imposed upon the people of Detroit the rule of the Governor and Judges, and appointed to these offices men from the East who had no knowledge of conditions at Detroit ............ 4 - ~i:r7 t STE. ANNE STREET, DETROIT, NOW JE.FFERSON AVENUTE, As IT WAS IN 1800 DETROIT BECOMES AN INCORPORATED TOWN 107 and little sympathy with the inhabitants they were sent to govern. In those early days courts were few and far between. There was one at Cincinnati, another at Marietta, 0., and sessions were held at Chillicothe and at times at Detroit, as occasion would arise. Lawyers traveled from court to court on horseback through the wilderness, carrying their papers in saddlebags and their long cloaks and their food in a leather portmanteau strapped to the rear of their saddles. They traveled in all sorts of weather, stopped for the night at some settler's cabin when they could, and in open camp in the forest when no shelter offered, as they went from court to court. There were no roads except the Indian trails. It was in this way that a number of distinguished settlers came first to Detroit and eventually made this town their home. One of these was Solomon Sibley, who was for many years one of the foremost citizens of Michigan, a justice of the Supreme Court, a delegate to Congress and a promoter of banking, commerce and industry. It was as the companion of Solomon Sibley that another distinguished Detroiter made his advent as a rider on the law circuit. This was Lewis Cass, who was a settler, a distinguished lawyer, a soldier, Governor, Member of Congress, Senator, Secretary of War in President Jackson's Cabinet, Secretary of State in Buchanan's Cabinet, and U. S. Minister to France for several years. Jacob Burnet was a partner of Solomon Sibley. During the term of the general court in Detroit in 18oo the birthday of King George III was celebrated on June 4 and the lawyers, judges and about Ioo leading citizens went to Amherstburg on the U. S. brig of war, John Adams, where they were royally entertained. For the moment at least there was an era of good feeling between men who commonly regarded one another with hostility. The first charter of Detroit prescribed the boundaries of the incorporated village, making the river front the south line. The eastern boundary was the line between the farm of Johrf Askin-later known as the Brush farm-and the farm of 108 THE STORY OF DETROIT Antoine Beaubien; the west line was the line between the farms of William Macomb-later the Cass farm-and that of Pierre Chesne, later known as the Jones farm. The northern limits were fixed at a line two miles north of the river which is about the present location of Warren Avenue. The first board of trustees was composed of John Askin, John Dodemead, James Henry, Charles Francis Girardin and Joseph Campau, all solid men of the community. The trustees appointed Peter Audrain, secretary; Robert Abbott, assessor; Jacob Clemens, collector; Elias Wallen, marshal, and Louis Pelletier, messenger. The first meeting was held in the house of James Henry, and the first consideration of the board was better fire protection. Detroit was still a wooden town with narrow streets and the houses were set close together. All defective chimneys were ordered repaired. Every householder was to keep a barrel filled with water close to his house. Chimneys must be swept every two weeks. Each water barrel must have ears or hooks so it could be carried about on poles. Every house must have a short ladder reaching to the roof and another on the roof to give access to the chimney. All shopkeepers must provide at least one large bag of three bushels capacity for salvaging goods in danger of fire and every house must have three buckets of three gallons capacity each. The men of the village were appointed to various tasks for firefighting as axmen, laddermen, bagmen, engine men, etc. The first organized fire department was created February 23, I802. Battering rams were also provided for bursting in doors and for demolishing buildings which could not be saved. But the enactment of laws is one thing and enforcement is quite another thing. Reports of the proceedings of the trustees indicate that people paid little attention to the fire ordinance, for every month complaints were made and practically all the leading citizens, including the trustees themselves, were fined for non-observance. Ordinances to prevent horse-racing on the streets were fre"quently violated in the newly incorporated Village of Detroit. The price and weight of loaves of bread were strictly regulated DETROIT BECOMES AN INCORPORATED TOWN lo9 and fines were frequent for violations. The price had to be changed frequently, as the cost of flour fluctuated. All the bread of the town was baked by public bakeries in large ovens, as there were no stoves such as came into use many years later. Cooking was done in open fireplaces, and small cakes were sometimes baked in covered kettles over a slow fire. One of the largest ovens in Detroit was owned by a baker named John Harvey, who lived near the present line of Wayne Street, at the western end of the town. Some of the farm houses had a crude, improvised mill for grinding corn. It consisted of a huge mortar and pestle, the mortar being a large stump hollowed out by alternate use of a sharp ax and fire, and the pestle was a beam of hardwood suspended from a limb of a tree overhead by a strip of rawhide. A quantity of corn would be poured into the hollow of the stump and then the grinder would grasp the suspended beam and bring it down upon the corn with a crash. The limb of the tree would spring back, lifting the pestle, and this process would go on for perhaps an hour, until the corn had been reduced to the right degree of fineness. This pounded corn was termed "samp," and boiled samp and milk was one of the main foods of the settlement. It required no great intellectual capacity to operate one of these samp mills, so often the task of making samp was forced upon the least competent member of the family. Thus arose the expression of a person "not knowing enough to pound samp." But samp is now a strange product in civilized communities, and so we say that a particular person does not "know enough to pound sand." This term has no significance whatever. In 1804 the first dock ordinance was passed, as the public wharf was falling into decay and a new one must be built and maintained. A schedule of docking charges was prescribed for all vessels. Those of o10 tons or more paid $i.5o, bateaux were charged 25 cents, and canoes and pirogues, or dugout canoes, were charged a shilling. There were no good wells in the town. Some had been dug; but the water had a bad taste, so everybody went down to the ino THE STORY OF DETROIT river for their water, dipping it with a bucket from a little plank wharf extending perhaps io feet from shore. The Indians, cut off from presents and pensions that had been paid by the British government at Detroit, now resorted to Amherstburg, where they still drew allowances, blankets and rum, and sold their furs. They drew comparisons between the old days and the new, to the disparagement of the Americans and their methods. It may as well be assumed that the British authorities at Amherstburg did little to improve the Indians' attitude toward Detroit and its inhabitants. Soon it became common practice for Indians who came up the lakes and from the Saginaw Valley to stop about Detroit, going and coming on their way to Amherstburg, and to show a marked hostility toward Detroiters. By 1804 this sort of thing had become acute and people began to think that the Indians were being incited to attack Detroit. Because of this situation the gates of the stockade were kept closed and guarded at night. Watchmen were employed to patrol the streets and to look out over the country outside the stockade. The curfew bell was rung and any person found on the streets half an hour later would have to give a good account of himself or be locked up. No Indian was allowed to remain in the town after sunset. All lights were ordered out after i I o'clock, but special permission was granted in case of sickness in a home. CHAPTER XXII SEEKERS AFTER GREAT LAND GRANTS N December, 1804, a number of Detroiters petitioned Congress, asking that, in accordance with the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787, Wayne County be set apart from the rest of the Territory, with a southern boundary established on a line running due east from the southernmost point of Lake Michigan. This petition was granted in 180oS but the boundary line was afterward shifted to the northward of the place contemplated in the original plan. The latitude of the head of Lake Michigan was for a time merely a matter of surveyors' estimate. It was afterward discovered to be several miles farther south than the estimated latitude. Had that line been established for the southern boundary of Michigan the cities of Toledo and Michigan City, Indiana, would have been located in Michigan Territory, as well as a large part of Lucas County, Ohio, and a narrow strip of northern Indiana. Thirty years later the settlement of that boundary line became a very serious question which brought about that exciting episode known as "the Toledo War." Prior to the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, before the sense of nationality had taken a firm hold upon the public mind, the inhabitants of American territory were possessed with a passion for land acquisition. Men of wealth and culture wanted to establish themselves as a sort of landed gentry in accordance with the traditions of their homelands. Men of small means, the merchant class, the landless laboring class, were equally ambitious to secure land for farms and estates, so land hunger became a common obsession. In every state and territory pioneers were pushing into the hinterland regardless of the protests of the Indians and their hostile demonstrations. With no other capital than an ax and a few simple agricultural implements like a spade and 'a hoe, pioneers traveled inland until they found a favorable location. III 112 THE STORY OF DETROIT There they felled trees, erected a log cabin and planted a little corn, wheat, beans and garden vegetables among the stumps. For meats they depended upon the wild game which the Indians regarded as their own exclusive property. Men of means employed land-lookers to seek out areas for great estates. Having located them they bargained with the Indians for a right to settle on the land, making as a rule very liberal contributions of whisky. Having obtained the consent of the unwary Indians they would then apply to the Congress of the United States for a free grant, patent or a purchase at the price of a few cents an acre. When the influence of one wealthy man was insufficient to obtain a great land charter, a number of them would organize a land company and employ their combined influence to the same end. Thus it came to pass that a great part of the state of New York was obtained by private parties in a few grants having the area of principalities. The same practice was followed in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and several other states. The earliest land acquisitions in Detroit under the French regime were specified in arpents. The French arpent being a variable measure the United States Government afterward fixed the standard of measurement at 192.24 feet. On the maps of the area about Detroit these early grants are now designated as numbered private claims. When the British government superseded the French a decided check was placed upon private land acquisition through sharp practice with the Indians. It was by this protective policy that the British finally succeeded in winning the good will of the Indians. When the authority of the United States Government was extended over Michigan the pressure for land acquisition became more and more intense. The Government made several treaties with the Indians by which certain areas of their communal lands were ceded to the United States and then the Government was in position to sell and grant titles to actual settlers. But grants to actual settlers did not satisfy the ambitions of men of wealth, who schemed to get between the Government and the settler by acquiring vast areas for a mere nominal SEEKERS AFTER GREAT LAND GRANTS "113 price which they planned to hold for a rise in value and sell at a big profit to settlers. While Detroit was still in British possession in 1795 two adventurous land grant seekers came from the East to enlist a few prominent Detroiters in a scheme for acquiring a big grant of land. John Askin, a British subject and at the time the largest landholder in Detroit, was chosen by them to head this scheme. Mr. Askin was a man of wealth and perhaps the most influential member of the community. A land company was formed which also included John Askin, Jr., Richard Pattinson, his brother-in-law, Robert Innes, William Robertson and Jonathan Scheiffelin, who had long been an Indian agent at Detroit. An outline map was prepared covering about twenty million acres of the richest section of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana and a stock company was formed to acquire and dispose of this land. The stock was divided into 41 shares and five of these shares were to be given to the Detroiters of the company. Twenty-four shares were set apart to be used in influencing the favorable votes of members of Congress. The promoters themselves were to have the remaining twelve shares, each share representing about fifty thousand acres of land. The company was formed and the promoters employed Dr. Robert Randall of Philadelphia and Charles Whitney of Vermont, both experienced lobbyists, to push through Congress a scheme by which they were to acquire the land at two and one-half cents an acre on time payments. Congressman William Smith of South Carolina made a speech against the proposed grant in which he asked why the Government of the United States should sell its land to these wealthy speculators at such a price when actual settlers of small means were required to pay $1.25 an acre. This protest led to a complete exposure of the scheme. The lobbyists were arraigned before the bar of the House and Whitney was reprimanded and fined. Randall escaped punishment because his connection with the affair was more remote and he was able to plead ignorance. Mr. Askin made several other attempts to secure large grants at prices below the common rate and, failing in that, II4 THE STORY OF DETROIT tried to secure some leases for 999 years. All this sort of practice was regarded as legitimate in those days, for the great interior of the country was still unsettled and people saw no harm in permitting tracts of millions of acres to fall into possession of any man who would pay a price that would be satisfactory to Congress. The most flagrant land scheme was carried into effect in the state of Georgia by which a group of speculators who organized what were termed the "Yazoo land companies" actually secured a grant of 23,ooo000,000ooo acres at a price of three-quarters of a cent per acre. They accomplished the deal by admitting all but one member of the Georgia legislature to partnership with the landgrabbers. When the companies demanded a patent to the land the people of Georgia learned what had been done in secret. They promptly repudiated the act of their legislature, elected a new legislature and repealed the act of sale. The land syndicate appealed to the United States Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the opinion which classed the sale as a contract and cited the constitutional restriction which forbids the passage of laws which invalidate existing contracts. The people of Georgia refused to issue a charter for the land and the Government of the United States, being powerless to coerce them in that particular, paid the land syndicate nearly $ 5,000ooo,00ooo in money for a surrender of their claims. CHAPTER XXIII ALL DETROIT DESTROYED BY FIRE FROM the beginning of time the story of mankind has been a story of slow, laborious upbuilding in pursuance of some definite plan of achievement, and presently comes some cataclysm of nature, some outbreak of elemental forces, or some disaster of warfare, and everything is swept away. For 60 years Frenchmen toiled and suffered hardships to make Detroit a city, only to have the product of all their labor swept into the lap of England. For 36 years the British held Detroit and planned for its future development, only to have it snatched away by the Americans. For nine years the Americans worked and schemed to the same end as the two earlier rulers of Detroit, only to have Detroit reduced to a place of ashes and desolation in a few hours and the inhabitants of 300 primitive houses left homeless and shelterless in a far wilderness. But the unconquerable spirit of man again rose to the grim occasion and the American settlers voiced their courage, hope and faith by blazoning across the seal of their city the legend: "Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus." "We hope for better days; it shall arise from its ashes." A gale of wind was roaring up the river on the morning of June 11, I8o5. The trees along the shore bowed and swayed before it and the leaves of the aspens fluttered and sang with rapid vibrations. John Harvey, the village baker, had set the fresh, fragrant loaves of his bread on the shelves of his little shop, the product of the previous night's output from his massive stone ovens. His stock of flour had run low and he saw that he must replenish it for the bread of the next day. Lighting his clay pipe, he started for the stable adjoining the shop where he housed his frisky French pony, his twowheeled cart of clumsy pattern, "made in Detroit," and a little store of hay and oats provided for the pony. He backed the pony II5 116 THE STORY OF DETROIT out of its stall, harnessed it hurriedly and hitched it between the thills of the cart. He must drive over to the little mill on May's Creek near where the Michigan Central Railroad now crosses Howard Street and bring back several bags of flour. Just before he mounted the cart he stopped to unload his pipe as the wind was blowing the sparks from it into his eyes. He rapped ~~FPle4'-p[pi//BI \I., ~ 'jC;~ ~~ I------- -. "lc--5-S.., I- -li --C ----J-~ ------C-_ /.,ins~ 1. ~~~rTrt~;c, ~--~~ ~ BEGINNING OF THE FIRE OF i 8o the bowl against the heel of his boot and the glowing plug of tobacco dropped to the ground. The wind caught it and whirled it back through the open door of the shed barn and into a pile of hay that lay on the floor. In a moment the wind had fanned the hay into a blaze and Harvey rushed in to stamp out the incipient fire. But the strong wind scattered the blazing hay all over the interior and Harvey was forced to beat a hasty retreat from the whirling flames ALL DETROIT DESTROYED BY FIRE 117 and sparks. He shouted "Fire! Fire!" with all the power of his lungs and the pony and cart dashed off for a wild runaway down the river road. The alarm quickly spread and soon every man in the village was rushing to the scene. The men of the several departments of the fire organization dropped whatever they were doing and took up their several duties. Down Ste. Anne Street they came, carrying axes, bags and battering rams; a group of them came running with the little hand fire engine and its few feet of hose. Already the fire was an imposing spectacle.- The wind drove the flames and sparks in an eastward direction. Embers were smoking on the roofs of several buildings. Harvey's house and shop were past saving and adjoining buildings, set close together, some of them nearly ioo years old and dry as tinder, were bursting into flames. The crew of the little engine worked valiantly but it was impossible to make a stand before the fire, for the flames shot 50 feet or more beyond the buildings already on fire. To fight the fire from the rear was equally impracticable. The sole hope of saving the town from total destruction seemed to lie in battering down buildings before the fire could reach them and then soaking the fallen timbers with water. Men and boys mounted the roofs, beating out sparks and embers with their coats and dashing water upon the roof timbers and thatch from buckets passed up the ladders attached to each house. Women and girls hastily gathered up the most precious of the portable things in their homes and fled down the street with their arms filled with bedding, clothing, dishes, sacred pictures and the treasured crucifixes hastily snatched from the walls. Armed with logs of wood 12 to 20 feet long, gangs of men would charge against the walls of a house at a run. The old building would quake and rock before the blow. A few blows from the battering rams would bring the whole structure crashing down. The barrels and buckets of water by each house were soon emptied and lines of men were formed to pass buckets of water dipped from the river. But it was a losing fight. Three hours of frantic endeavor saw the fire-fighters driven backward little by little until they were forced to escape by 118 THE STORY OF DETROIT the eastern gate and look on in helpless bewilderment. When night fell there was but one unimportant warehouse and a few tottering stone chimneys left standing above the glowing embers of what had once been the incorporated town of Detroit. All the labor and love and hope that had gone into the making of old Detroit were gone, without leaving a trace behind. Household goods were piled in little heaps here and there about the common and on each remnant of a lost home sat a weeping woman surrounded by her children. The little churchyard of old Ste. Anne's Church, where slept the dead of Detroit for a century, was now filled with despairing groups of the homeless, living inhabitants of the town. Calamity is a great leveler of social distinctions and antipathies. The kind hearts of the French farmers up and down the shore were touched with pity and they opened their homes to the limit of their capacity for the shelter of the homeless. Not only the homes and most of the household effects of the people were lost, but there was a still more acute loss. The food supply of the town had been swept away, and already children were tugging at their mothers' skirts and begging for something to eat. They had been without food since early morning. Fr. Gabriel Richard was a man of quick intelligence and he was the first to see the food crisis. He trotted along the shore with his curious shovel hat held tight on his head and the long skirts of his coat of ancient pattern flapping about his legs. With shouts he called out the Frenchmen and led them down to the shore, and soon he had two small flotillas of canoes and a couple of bateaux ranging up and down the river to bring corn meal, milk, eggs and other easily prepared foods from the farms along the shore. The men of the town, having assured themselves that their families were collected together and their household goods guarded, picked their way between heaps of glowing coals trying to locate the sites of their former homes. They found it very difficult, for every landmark was swept away. The stockade was gone and such portions as remained of it had fallen prone. Some of these timbers were afterward used to make improvised ALM, DEITROIT DESTROYED By FIRE19 lig shelters with the aid of bedding, hides and pelts of animals, and blankets. The canoes began to straggle back laden with food and many a child was given a supper of mush and milk that had perhaps been cooked over the coals of the former family home. The collected food was stored on the common and a guard was placed over it to see that it was doled out properly to the needy. Other canoes were sent out to notify farmers farther away of the disaster and of the urgent needs of the people. Later they were to bring in supplies for other days and thus keep life and hope in the people until they could improvise some sort of temporary shelter pending the rebuilding of the town. Quite a number of the inhabitants gave up in utter discouragement and moved away, some into Canada over the river, and some to the Ohio settlements which were now springing up here and there about the old forts and battlegrounds of earlier years. Petitions were sent down the lake to Montreal and even to Congress asking assistance for the stricken people of this hard-won outpost of western civilization. Many Indians gathered about the town to see the wreckage of the white man's hope and to wonder if the town would be rebuilt or if the place would be abandoned. CHAPTER XXIV REIGN OF THE GOVERNOR AND JUDGES MEANWHILE the future history of Detroit was being shaped far away in the scattered village of Washington by the Congress of the United States. The national capital had been moved from Philadelphia to Washington in i 8oo and the plan of preparing for that removal was begun io years before. Maj. L'Enfant, who had served in the Continental Army, had laid out a scheme of streets with broad avenues intersecting the general plan at various angles. It was a superb plan, of which the idea was br'ought from Versailles, France. But few Americans of that day had the imagination or vision to see the applicability of such a vast plan to the District of Columbia, which was then open country. It was, perforce, at the beginning a city of dreams, and it was destined soon to become a city of office-seekers in quest of land grants and offices for all sorts of services, and sometimes for no reason at all except that the applicant wanted an office of some sort with the largest possible salary and the smallest possible allotment of duties. On June 30, i8o5, Congress adopted a plan of government for Detroit, which was to be the seat of government for the new Territory of Michiganjust carved out of the Territory of Indiana. Government was to be placed in the hands of five officials, which was enough for the moment, but curiously enough only one of the five was to be a resident of Detroit. Gen. William Hull, who had fought in the Revolution, was appointed Governor of Michigan Territory. He had graduated from Yale College, taught school and been admitted to the bar to practice law in 1775. After the war he had become a member of the legislature of Massachusetts and held that office until President Jefferson made him Governor of Michigan Territory. Associated with the Governor were three judges, Augustus B. Woodward, Frederick Bates and John Griffin. Woodward I20 REIGN OF THE GOVERNOR AND JUDGES 121 was a native of Virginia, as was his associate, Judge Griffin. Judge Bates was a native of Ohio who came to Detroit in 1797 and had been postmaster here since 1803 and also receiver of the local land office. Stanley Griswold, another outsider, was appointed secretary. Hull was a man 52 years of age but he had the general air of a man much older. He was of sluggish temperament and slow to think and to act. Judge Woodward was a man of many eccentricities. He was tall, angular, lean and sallow. He might have sat as a model for the artist who invented the symbolic figure of Uncle Sam. He was studious and scholarly, being well versed in the classics and extraordinarily fond of airing his learning and his vocabulary. Words of six syllables suited his purpose much better than words of one syllable. Both the Governor and Judge Woodward regarded themselves as the de facto government, but they seldom agreed in matters of legislation. This aggregation was regarded by the residents as a sort of foreign satrapy that had been imposed upon them, but the people held their peace for a time awaiting events and acts to criticize. Their waiting was not long. When they arrived early in July the new governing board, to be known as the "Governor and Judges," and who were to rule over Detroit for nearly 20 years, found the desolated fire district where the town had been, and the inhabitants camping in all manner of improvised shacks and tents. There was no grand reception and the rulers of Detroit had to look about for shelter. While the destruction of Detroit was a great calamity of the moment, it was in the end a real blessing, because without it the city might have continued to expand and grow in conformity to the oldnarrow streets of irregular width. Gov. Hull employed his relative, Abijah Hull, as surveyor, but so hard was it to get service from him that Stanley Griswold and several citizens complained to the Secretary of the Treasury at Washington. Abijah Hull denounced his accusers as liars and sent two challenges to Griswold for a duel to be fought on the Canadian side of the river. The people wanted to begin the erection of new log houses, but were restrained by the Governor until a new street plan 122 THE STORY OF DETROIT could be arranged, as the old streets and lot lines would be disregarded. Gov. Hull and Judge Woodward went to Washington and obtained permission to lay out a new city and secured a grant of Io,ooo acres, now known as the ten-thousand acre tract north of the Grand Boulevard. This was a grant to the community. Under the new arrangement each resident over 17 years of age was to be given a lot of not less than 5,00o square feet area. The remaining land was to be sold to produce funds for building a court house and jail. After the lots were surveyed and distributed the new owners engaged in speculation, trading and selling them. For defense of the Territory the Governor directed the formation of two regiments of infantry and a legionary corps of militia. Then he prescribed an elaborate uniform for the territorial militia, and saw to it that by the time the order was published his own warehouse was supplied with all the materials prescribed. Long blue coats reaching to the knee and faced with buff, and with large white buttons; white vests; blue pantaloons for winter and white duck for summer; half boots or high gaiters, and round black hats with a black feather tipped with red, was the requirement for the privates' uniforms. Officers wore, in addition, red capes and a cocked hat with a white plume. Their coats were to be faced with red and a red cord was to run down the legs of their trousers. All this was very imposing for a town that was as yet to be, and very expensive for the soldiers, who complained bitterly of the cost of their uniforms. Many of the men refused to buy uniforms or turn out to drill, and several were placed under arrest and publicly flogged for disobedience. This did not make for popularity of the new regime. Secretary Griswold was arrested for incitihg insubordination and after a stormy period he left Detroit in 1808, being succeeded by Reuben Atwater. Both men left their names on the map of Detroit in Griswold and Atwater streets. Judge Woodward borrowed from L'Enfant a copy of his plan of the city of Washington, and from this he is said to have made an adaptation which became the plan of the Detroit that REIGN OF THE GOVERNOR AND JUDGES 123 was to be. This new plan was not surveyed with streets east and west intersected by streets running north and south. The central street was laid out at right angles to the river, and Jefferson Avenue, Woodbridge and Atwater streets were placed at right angles to it, so, with the exception of Washington Boulevard and a short ORIGINAL PLAN OF DETROIT STREETS, SHOWING FORMER RIVER FRONT 124 THE STORY OF DETROIT section of Chene'Street, there are practically no north and south streets in 'the city, except in recent additions. The central focus of the street plan was to be at the Campus Martius, where Woodward Avenue, Michigan Avenue and Monroe Avenue were to intersect in an oblong rectangle. The original plan continued Monroe Avenue and Michigan Avenue in straight lines down to the river front. Farther up Woodward Avenue an open space, circular in form and 18 acres in area, was provided for the erection of a court house on the east side of the avenue and the county jail on the other. From this circle or court house place, now Grand Circus Park, six streets were laid out radiating like the spokes of a wheel from the lower half of the semicircle. As will be seen there have been several notable departures from the original plan and there is reason for regretting that the plan was not better followed. CHAPTER XXV DETROIT'S FIRST BANK TENURE of political office is uncertain and the tendenc y of officie-holders in the old days was to take Ifull advantage of their 'opportunities and make hay while the sun shone. In the old days one of the quickest, safest and most profitable ways of making money consisted in starting a bank. Having secured a charter of authorization a bank could print money of doubtful Value or no value at all, and the public, having no government issue of money, felt forced to make use of such bank bills which were, on their face, the bank's promise to pay the bearer the face of the bill in real money, but in reality they were often merely pieces of printed paper. At the request of six Boston men the Governor and Judges issued a charter to the Bank of Detroit in September, i 8o6, with Judge Woodward as president and William Flannigan of Boston as cashier. The charter limited the money issue of the bank to $400,000 and gave it a life term of 101 years. Gov. Hull was authorized to subscribe for the stock of the bank at his own discretion, which gave the people the idea that the wealth of the Territory was back of the bank and its money issues. Parker and Broads tree t, two money sharks from Boston, came to Detroit and carried east with them between $ ioo,ooo and $ i o,ooo in paper money of the new bank to pass on an unwary public. Each bill had the signature of judge Woodward and Cashier Flannigan, neither of whom was possessed of much of this world's goods or visible capital. One of the influential men of the time was Conrad Ten Eyck, commonly known as "Uncle Coon." He was a shrewd, thrifty Dutchman, kept a hotel at Dearborn for many years and served Detroit as United States Marshal and in several other official capacities. Uncle Coon was sometimes a practical joker. During a trip to New York he happened upon a man 1 25 I26 THE STORY OF DETROIT who had money of the Detroit Bank which he was so anxious to unload that he offered it to Ten Eyck at a large reduction. Ten Eyck had some doubts as to the security for the redemption of the money but saw a chance to "sandbag" the bank officials of Detroit, so he bought the money and presented it at the bank for redemption. Flannigan offered him some nice new bills in place of the old ones but Uncle Coon stood out for a redemption in real money according to the promise on the face of the notes. Flannigan at first refused. "What! you refuse to keep the pledge of the bank to the public?" asked Ten Eyck sternly. "No, we do not refuse; we offer you perfectly good money for it." "But I want silver money and if I don't get it the reputation of this bank's money is going to be questioned." The cashier asked for time, called in the other officials and a few hours later enough of the rare silver money was scraped together to redeem Ten Eyck's bills. Thus Uncle Coon made a good profit and on the strength of the reputation made by the redemption the bank issued another bale of currency bills. Soon after, in 1807, Congress disapproved the territorial banking act and the bank went out of business and its bills became practically worthless. Judge Woodward came to Detroit on a salary of $I,200 a year and left a few years later a man of large wealth for that time. Although president of the bank, he held but one share of stock. When he left Detroit in 1825, on being legislated out of office, he advertised a plat of 200 feet front on Jefferson Avenue with a large storehouse on it; 750 acres of land now on the site of Ypsilanti; 320 acres of land on Woodward Avenue on the Six-Mile Road, where he planned the founding of a town to be termed Woodwardville, and 18 farms of 53 acres each adjoining the city. He held this property at a valuation of $ioo,ooo. In April, 1808, James Witherell succeeded Judge Bates in Detroit under appointment by President Jefferson. He came to DETROIT'S FIRST `BANK 127 DETROIT'S FIRST BANK 127 Detroit from Connecticut. For many reasons the rule of the Governor and Judges was very unpopular with the people. In 1809 Fr. Gabriel Richard brought the first printing press to Detroit and printed the first newspaper, but only one issue was printed so far as is known. Still, it was a beginning of publicity through the press. Up to that time citizens who had criticisms to make against the government would write long letters to eastern papers and perhaps a month later copies of the papers would appear in Detroit and the rulers of the city would fume and storm at the criticisms. One citizen named John Gentle found a more effective and immediate resort for publicity. Gentle wrote in a sarcastic vein and held the government up to ridicule. He kept a bulletin board nailed to the front of his house and there he would post his written attacks on the rulers. Emissaries of the Governor and Judges tore away the lampoons and after that Gentle would stand guard over his bulletins. Crowds would gather and the person nearest the bulletin board would read the accusations aloud and the bystanders would applaud each telling thrust. At night Gentle would take his bulletin indoors and post it again and again until the whole town would be well informed as to his personal opinions of the government of the Governor and Judges. CHAPTER XXVI TECUMSEH BECOMES A BRITISH ALLY "R ESIDENTS of Detroit and Michigan Territory gradually accumulated a long list of complaints against their government, which they found neither responsive nor responsible to the people. The Governor and Judges themselves were divided into factions. Congress had not been fortunate in some of its western appointments. It had picked first Harmar and then St. Clair to subdue the western Indians and both had led their commands of inexperienced men into death traps. Gen. Hull was appointed Governor on his former honorable record, but even in middle life he was a man who seemed to be suffering from senile decay. Apparently the old Revolutionary soldier had lost his energy and his nerve, although he retained his ideas of personal thrift. Judge Woodward was his superior in intellect and education, and, soon discovering the fact, he began to oppose his superior officer and to try to take the reins of government out of his hands. Gov. Hull had appointed a friend named John Whipple as his Indian interpreter. Whipple was a party to a case which came before the court and Judge Woodward ruled against him. Whipple went about the town denouncing Judge Woodward as a rascal who employed favoritism and spite in his rulings. The judge had him arrested and tried before himself and two justices of the peace. Whipple was found guilty of slander and fined $5o. Gov. Hull promptly remitted the fine. This act led to another public denunciation. On September 26, 1809, a mass meeting of citizens assembled to draw up a petition asking Congress for a change in the form of government. They asked that the Territory be given two small representative bodies to make laws and three justices who would be bound to enforce the laws. They also asked for representation in Congress by a territorial delegate. Judge 128 TECUMSEH BECOMES A BRITISH ALLY 129 Woodward, George Hoffman, James Henry, Solomon Sibley, and James May were the leaders in this movement, and they were all men of intelligence and high standing in the community. Gov. Hull tried to organize a counter movement, but without notable success. The public petition was presented before Congress in February, 1810io, but at that time the attention of the Federal Government was concentrated on the relations with thegovernment of Great Britain and a series of flagrant acts against the peace and dignity of the United States which presently led to the War of 1812. The petty wrangling and disputation between the people of Detroit and the Governor went on until the war became an absorbing interest. Meanwhile another Indian outbreak was menacing the peace of the Territory. Pontiac was dead, but another notable Indian leader was rising to power. This new leader was Tecumseh, head chief of the Shawnee Indians. Tecumseh lived on Mad River, near the present site of Springfield, O. He was, like Pontiac, a man of average size but of extraordinary ability. He was patriotic, brave, dignified and humane, but an uncompromising enemy to the Americans, not because they were Americans but because they were pressing their settlements steadily into the Indian country and showing not the slightest respect for Indian ownership. He allied himself with the British interests because he regarded the British as the historical friends of the western Indians and the natural enemy of the Americans. With the backing of British influence Tecumseh hoped to check the American advance. Tecumseh had a brother, named Elkswatawah, who was a sort of fanatical medicine man and seer. Because of his psychic peculiarities he was regarded with unusual respect by the Indians, who styled him "The Prophet." Tecumseh employed his rare gifts of oratory and argument, and the Prophet his visions. Together they succeeded in organizing several western tribes for resistance to the American invasion. For a time the only land obtained by the Treaty of Greenville with the Indians was a little patch of Michigan Territory centering at Detroit and extending from Lake St. Clair to the River Raisin, and a similar 13o THE STORY OF DETROIT strip of six miles facing on the Straits of Mackinac, together with the islands of Mackinac and Bois Blanc, in the Straits. Gov. Hull had added to this a cession of land fronting on the Maumee River and Bay, but the Indians had made other treaty cessions to both French and English residents and there was much confusion as to titles. Tecumseh's plan involved the capture of Detroit, Ft. Dearborn (on the site of Chicago), Ft. Wayne, Ind., Vincennes, Ind., and St. Louis, which had become a United States possession through the Louisiana Purchase. His name in the Shawnee language signified "Springing Panther," probably because of his singularly lithe figure and active habit. Tecumseh's Indian runners called successive delegations to his home on Mad River, and occasionally a body of them would come to Ft. Malden, at Amherstburg, to confer with the British. There was no love lost between the British and the Americans. The enmities of the late war were still nursed and kept alive. The British had an added grievance in the chartering of a new fur company headed by John Jacob Astor which was eating into the business of the Hudson's Bay Company, and creating a strong rivalry. Astor was a man of remarkable'energy and enterprise. He had a prosperous trading post at Mackinac Island, and his buyers penetrated far into the West. In i8o8 he had ships on the Pacific Coast gathering furs and he was delivering his goods to foreign markets. In i8io he founded the settlement of Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River. This settlement was destined to figure prominently in the later claim of the United States to the Oregon country. It was this rivalry in the fur trade which led the British at Malden to encourage Tecumseh and the Indians in their conspiracy. Walk-in-the-Water, chief of the Wyandottes, who now had villages near the mouth of Detroit River, came to Gov. Hull and demanded that the American settlers in his vicinity be removed and that they be kept from further encroachments into Indian territory. Already there were settlements near the mouth of the Maumee River, at the Raisin River, on the site of Monroe, at the mouth of the Huron River, at Ecorse, TECUMSEH BECOMES A BRITISH ALLY I31 at River Rouge, and also on the Clinton and St. Clair rivers. In 1809 the Lake Erie settlements had a population estimated at 1,300; Detroit and the down-river settlements had 2,200 and there were about I,ooo people in the northern part of the Territory. About four-fifths of these were French settlers. Repeated visits of large bands of Indians, coming from all directions to Fort Maiden, caused uneasiness at Detroit because it reminded the residents of the beginning of Pontiac's conspiracy. There were only 95 soldiers in Detroit and 79 at Mackinac, while one delegation of Indians which came down from the north was estimated to number 800. The Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandottes, Missasaugas, Pottawatomies, and Winnebagoes all seemed to be combining for an Indian alliance. Detroit appealed to Washington for better military protection. To quiet the trouble, Gen. Harrison, by means of many presents, promises of perpetual annuities and, presumably, the usual contributions of rum, secured a grant of 3,000,000 acres of Indian territory for white settlers, but Tecumseh declared the grant invalid and told Harrison he would resist every attempt to occupy the country. This was equivalent to a declaration of war, so Gen. Harrison gathered troops and Kentucky riflemen to the number of 900 men and built Fort Harrison on a bluff where the city of Terre Haute now stands. Then Harrison advanced toward the Prophet's town on the Tippecanoe River, where a battle was fought with the Indians, and a decisive victory was won November 7, 1811. This engagement is known as the Battle of Tippecanoe. It gave Harrison a great reputation. Tecumseh was absent in the South at the time trying to organize the southern Indians for his war against the Americans. CHAPTER XX VII THE WAR OF 1812 BEGINS WHILE treaty relations were supposed to exist between the United States and Great Britain it was a peace in name only. Open conflict was avoided but the provocations to war were frequent. Great Britain was facing perils at home. Napoleon Bonaparte was dazzling the world by his military achievements on the continent and Great Britain had joined the opposition against him. This caused Napoleon to plan an invasion of Great Britain for, his conquering army once landed on the coast, a conquest would be comparatively easy. This situation led to extraordinary naval expansions by both governments. Great Britain was building ships rapidly but she was lacking in experienced seamen and must recruit them where she could, at any cost, to hold off the conquering Corsican. Her statesmen took the ground that a subject of the King could not separate himself from his allegiance even by taking up foreign residence. Wherever he might be he was still subject to -the call of the King to any service. While this was not intended to apply to citizens of the United States, it was acknowledged on-both sides that many unnaturalized British subjects were living in the United States and some of them were serving on American ships. The Government of the United States had also encouraged shipbuilding and had built' several war frigates, as the United States, the Constitution, the Chesapeake, and the Constellation. Both British and French privateers began to prey upon Ameri-.can merchant shipping, the former to take off seamen under the claim that they were British subjects. The French hostility was a ruse employed to compel the American Government to declare war against Great Britain unless this practice was abandoned. The British ship Leopard fired on the American ship Chesapeake when Coin. James Barron, of the Chesapeake, 132 THE WAR OF 1812 BEGINS 133 refused to allow his men to be mustered by a British officer and men taken from her crew. Twenty men were killed and a number were taken off and impressed into Biritish service. A British propaganda of discontent was started in the United States in the hope of bringing on a civil war which would make the Government powerless but it failed after five years of promotion. Provocations continued and the United States Govern-. ment saw that in spite of our impoverished and unprepared state we must eventually declare war or lose the respect of other nations. War was declared June 19, 1812, regardless of the fact that Great Britain then had 254 ships of the line carrying 74 guns each; 247 frigates and 5o6 smaller vessels of war. She also had four armed vessels on Lake Ontario, a population of 400,000 in Canada to draw upon for military forces and 7,500 Canadians under arms. The Americans had only the small forts at Detroit, Mackinac, Niagara and Oswego to defend a lake coast of 1,700 miles and a puny naval force on the sea, while 3,500 American sailors had been forced into service on British warships. Gov. Hull went to Washington to explain the situation at Detroit to the Government. He urged the strengthening of the defense at Detroit and the building of ships on Lake Erie. In response 1,2oo00 troops were recruited in Ohio. Gov. Hull was placed in command of them. Lewis Cass, of Marietta, was made colonel of the Third Regiment with Robert Morrison and J. R. Munson as majors; Duncan McArthur was made colonel of the First Regiment, James Findlay of the Second, and James Miller was colonel of the Fourth United States Regiment, then stationed at Vincennes. Gen. Elijah Wadsworth raised three additional companies in Ohio. This little army under Gen. Hull started for Detroit June I, 1812, and soon entered a great morass known for many years as "the black swamp." Eighteen days later they were met by messengers from Detroit with the news that Tecumseh was gathering Indians in large numbers at Fort Malden and that Walk-in-the-Water was taking all the Wyandottes who lived below Detroit to the same place. News of the declaration of 134 THE STORY or DETROIT war was slow in reaching Detroit, the Government at Washington having neglected to send immediate word. But the British posts all along the border were promptly notified and immediately prepared for war. Seeing these preparations, citizens of Detroit urged Reuben Atwater, who was acting Governor, to call out the militia and muster every available man for defense, but Atwater was afraid he would offend Hull by such action, so Solomon Sibley, George McDougall, John R. Williams and Elijah Brush took the authority into their own hands and mustered 600o men for defense of Detroit. Judge James Witherell had been an officer of the Revolution, so he was placed in command pending the arrival of Hull's army. Hull, unaware of the declaration of war, loaded some of his supplies, his hospital stores, the muster roll of his army and other valuable documents and supplies on board the schooner Cuyahoga at the mouth of the Maumee River and sent them to Detroit. He placed two lieutenants, the wives of three officers and 30 soldiers on board for a guard. Another small schooner was dispatched with the sick and disabled. It was not until Hull had reached Frenchtown, now Monroe, on the River Raisin, that he received word that war was declared. The information came from Charles Shaler, postmaster at Cleveland. The schooner Cuyahoga sailed confidently from the Maumee and started up the channel between Bois Blanc, or Bob-Lo, Island and the Canadian shore. As she reached Fort Malden a cannon shot fired from the fort across her bow halted her. Her commander was informed that war was declared and the boat was a prize of war and all on board were prisoners. When Gen. Hull's army arrived at River Raisin they stopped to build a bridge and there learned the fate of the schooner. Col. Cass was sent to Malden under a flag of truce to ask for the surrender of the schooner and the prisoners and was naturally laughed at for his pains. The army made slow progress in spite of the haste that then began, for a bridge had to be built across the Huron River at Brownstown. The three Wyandotte villages between the Huron and the present site of Wyandotte, presided over by Chiefs THE WAR OF 18 1,2 BEGINS 135 Split-Log, Lame-Hand and Walk-in-the-Water, offered no resistance. The troops were met at River Rouge by Col. Elijah Brush with a company of militia and they camped that night near the present site of Fort Wayne. Next day they arrived at Detroit and pitched their tents just north of the fort between Capitol Square and what is now Lafayette Boulevard. The officers and men were eager to cross the river at once and attack the enemy, but Gen. Hull appeared to have no appetite for fighting. Detroit at this time had 16o new houses, all built since i8oS, and the 8oo inhabitants were enthusiastic at the marshalling of 2,200 soldiers with 43 cannon, most of them 24-pounders, for their defense. The force of the enemy across the river, all told, was less than 500 men. The town was again inclosed by a strong stockade 14 feet high and of far larger area than any of its predecessors. It extended along the river front from the line of the Cass farm to the Brush farm on the east, up the line of Randolph Street to -Congress Street; then westward to the line of the Cass farm where it met the western side extending down to the river. On the more elevated ground north of the stockade stood the old Fort Lernoult. From the line of Congress Street rose a steep embankment toward the south parapet of the fort. The fort itself was a quadrangle Of 400 feet on each side with a bastion at each corner. All around ran a ditch eight feet wide and eight feet deep. In the middle of the ditch was a line of large sharpened pickets and on the slope were other rows of sharpened stakes forming a formidable abatis for delaying assault on the fort. Unable to resist the insistence of his officers Gen. Hull sent a large force of men across the river on July 12, making a landing near the present site of Walkerville. They were observed by British scouts but no resistance was offered and they made a camp on the farm of Frangois Baby on the present site of Windsor. A scouting party was permitted to go down the river shore as far as Turkey Creek and they returned to report no resistance, although they had seen about 200 Indians near Fighting Island. Hull immediately ordered earthworks thrown up. 44 -.5--- ci 00 z z 0 -r *r 71 136 THE WAR OF 181 v BEGINS 137 Hearing that a band of Indians had gone toward the River Thames by an inland route, Col. McArthur was sent in pursuit. Isaac Hull, nephew of the general, was found living near Moraviantown and several British officers were captured in his house. The expedition found several large boats at the Thames and returned with 200 barrels of flour, 400 blankets and other military stores discovered in that locality. At Beldoon opposite Walpole Island they found 8oo sheep belonging to a Scotch settlement and drove them to the camp. At this time Malden was defended by less than Soo men and could have been taken with ease, but Gen. Hull refused to let his men-make the attempt. A small detachment went down for another survey of the situation and found the bridges gone at Turkey Creek and River Canard and breastworks thrown up on the opposite side. The brig Queen Charlotte had also been brought to- the mouth of Turkey Creek to assist in the defense of the road. While this dallying went on at Detroit the fort at Mackinac, unwarned as to the declaration of war, was surprised and taken by- British troops sent over from St. Joseph's Island. Presently Hull brought most of his force back to Detroit, leaving a small detachment at Sandwich. Word came that Capt. Henry Brush was at River Raisin with 230 more troops for Detroit, 100 head of cattle and other stores. His further advance was opposed by Tecumseh and a force of Indians so he asked for help to bring his men and supplies through.. Maj. Thomas Van Homne of Col. Findlay's regiment was sent with 200 men. When they were near the site of Trenton two of 'their scouts were ambushed and scalped. They went on and near Brownstown the whole command walked into an ambuscade. At the first fire of their unseen enemies 17 men were killed and a still larger number were wounded. Van Homne retreated, maintaining a rear guard fight, and sent for a reinforcement of Soo men from Detroit. CHAPTER XX VIII DETROIT SURRENDERED TO THE BRITISH GEN. HULL seemed to be in a panic. He refused at first to spare any more men from the fort to support Van Homne, and the latter returned with his command. As the weakness of the defense of Fort Maiden was well understood by the rank and file of soldiers at Detroit an order to attack the fort was expected, but Hull kept his own counsel and refused to take any action. Presently a reinforcement of about 700 Indians arrived at Maiden from Mackinac. The detachment of troops which had remained at Sandwich was ordered on August 7 to break camp. This was supposed to be in preparation for an advance on Maiden, but instead of that another order came for them to return to Detroit. As this force at Sandwich had been joined by 650 FrenchCanadians who were eager to fight the British, the order created general astonishment. There were now 2,300 men at the tort, the 650 Canadians across the river and Brush's 230 men waiting reinforcements at River Raisin. Opposed to them across the river were about 400 soldiers and less than i,ooo Indians. It was learned at the fort that a large part of the enemy forces at Maiden had crossed to the American side of the river and were opposite Grosse Ilie, barring the way of communication between Detroit and Ohio. The American troops were on the verge of mutiny because of the conduct of Hull, so he sent down the river a company of Ohio volunteers in charge of Lieut. Dixon Stansbury, 6o Frenchmen under Capt. Antoine Dequindre, Lieut. John L. Eastman with a six-pound cannon and gun crew, Lieut. James Daliba with a howitzer and crew, and detachments of Smith's and Sloane's cavalry to attack the enemy on the line of communication and help Capt. Brush through to Detroit. 138 DETROIT SURRENDERED TO THE BRITISH I39 This small detachment, commanded by Lieut.-Col. Miller, marched in three columns with the artillery in the middle: Near the house of Chief Walk-in-the-Water, near the site of Trenton, they ran into an ambuscade of ioo British regulars, 100 Canadian militia and about 300 Indians, under command of Maj. Muir. Two volleys of grapeshot drove the enemy out of their concealment and the Canadian militia broke and fled. The regulars, unsupported, retreated fighting. The Indians under Tecumseh tried to make a stand, but they were gradually driven back to their boats at the foot of Grosse Ile and the entire command retreated to Fort Malden. This engagement is recorded as the Battle of Brownstown. The Americans lost 18 killed and 57 wounded, most of these casualties having been incurred in the first fire of the enemy from their place of concealment. The British regulars had 24 men wounded and one killed. The militia and the Indians left 60 men killed on the field. Reinforcements were sent for to help break the way to River Raisin and Col. McArthur was dispatched with 100 men and 6oo00 rations. This expedition had been under command of Lidut.-Col. Miller, but in the battle Miller's horse had thrown its rider and Miller was too badly iniured to go on. Col. Lewis Cass sent a messenger asking authority to lead the expedition while Miller and the other wounded men were being sent back to Detroit. Col. Cass also sent a messenger south, asking Gov. R. J. Meigs to come to the relief of Detroit, as the present commander of the post would do nothing himself, nor would he permit his subordinates to accomplish anything in an aggressive way. This message was written in the form of a round robin and it was signed by Cass, Findlay, Elijah Brush, MacArthur and Taylor. The expediton returned to the fort and Gen. Hull from that time kept aloof from his subordinate commanders and remained shut up in his room, holding conversation with none but his son, Capt. Abram F. Hull. While opportunity was being waited by Hull, Gen. Brock came up from Niagara in boats with 300 militia and 30 regulars 140 140 THE STORY OF DETROIT to reinforce Maiden, while a band-of Iroquois Indians made the journey on foot. Brock was given a full report of- all that had transpired. Convinced that he had to do with an incompetent commander whose policy made a superior force ineffective, he sent a battery of two guns up the Canadian shore. The guns GEN. LEWIS CASS GEN. WILLIAM HULL were placed in an excavation for a cellar near the water front on the site of Windsor. Brock decided to take his entire command of about Soo soldiers, mostly militia, and about i,ooo Indians, to the American side. Before this news came to the fort another expedition was sent to help Brush, proceeding several miles back from the river so as to avoid contact with the Indians holding the river road. DETROIT SURRENDERED TO THE BRITISH 141 This relief expedition, under Colonels McArthur and Cass, made its way to the River Raisin with great difficulty, breaking a new trail. In the meantime Gen. Hull had denied his officers' request to lead an expedition across the river to attack the weakly supported battery which now menaced the fort. He also refused to permit his own batteries to open fire on it. Having completed his plan of operations, Gen. Brock on Aug. 15 sent two of his aides, Lieut.-Col. McDonnell and Maj. Glegg, from the Canadian shore under a flag of truce to make a formal demand for the surrender of the fort. They held conference with Hull in hi~ private quarters for three hours. The demand for the surrender contained a covert threat well calculated to intimidate Hull: "You must be aware, sir, of the number of Indians who have attached themselves to my command, and, knowinig their characteristics in warfare, you must appreciate how impossible it will be to control their passions should they once become seriously enraged." Gen. Hull met the demand with an answer which was made known to his subordinate officers but which was not borne out by his subsequent actions. It read: "I am compelled to inform you that I am ready to meet any force which may be at your disposal, and any consequences which may result from any exertion of it you may think proper to make." He added an apology for depredations committed by his soldiers on Canadian soil. That afternoon the battery in the cellar just across the river from Detroit began firing at the fort. Next morning, Aug. 16, Gen. Brock marched part of his force up the American shore and sent a large flotilla which landed men at Springwells. The officers in the fort wanted to take a battery down the river to oppose the landing, but were refused permission. Hull ordered the men who were camped on the north side of the fort to come inside the fortifications. Having formed his soldiers and militia in columns with bands of Indians on each flank, Brock mounted his horse and marched toward the fort as if on parade. The commander of the invasion was apparently well informed as to what was to 142 THE STORY OF DETROIT follow, for at times he rode as far as 300 yards in advance of his troops. A battery of 24-pound cannon on the west side of the fort pointed down the road, which afterward became Fort Street of Detroit. Beside the guns was a supply of 400 rounds of ammunition, and brave men who stood ready and eager to mow down the inferior force in the open ground with volleys of grapeshot with which the guns had been loaded. There were Ioo,ooo rounds of ammunition for small arms in the magazine. Lieut. Anderson had been placed in command of the battery on the west side of the fort, with orders from Hull not to fire a shot until he received the order from himself. The enemy came on steadily, and by 10 o'clock were within musket range. A soldier rushed forward with a match to fire one of the cannon, but Lieut. Anderson drove him back with uplifted sword, saying that no shot must be fired until the order was given by Gen. Hull. Meanwhile the battery across the river was firing as rapidly as possible, but for a time the shots went wild. Now and then a cannon ball would crash through the wooden palings about the fort, and presently one came over the parapet and passed through a dense group of men, killing Lieut. Hanks, who had been paroled after his capture at Mackinac and was now visiting a friend in the fort; Lieut. Sibley, and Dr. Reynolds, one of the surgeons of the post. Dr. Blood, another surgeon, was dangerously wounded by the same shot. The blood of the victims was splashed over the bystanders, and a group of women who were huddled under a bomb-proof on the south side of'the fort shrieked with terror. A few minutes later another shot smashed through the south gate of the fort, killing two privates. Gen. Hull was in his office when an officer rushed in to ask if the fort was to be surrendered without firing a shot. Hull gave no answer. He was busy penning a formal surrender which he soon delivered to his son, Capt. Abram Hull. A moment later Capt. Hull emerged from the general's headquarters bearing a white flag and the letter of surrender. He paused only long enough to order a white flag displayed on the south side of the fort to stop the fire of the battery across the DETROIT SURRENDERED TO THE BRITISH '4 143 river. Then he went out of the fort and advanced under a flag of truce to deliver the surrender to Gen. Brock. At the annual meeting of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society of 1889 Sylvester Lamned made a disclosure of facts revealed to him many years before by his father, Gen. Charles Lamred: " Sylvester," said he, taking from his desk a bundle of papers yellow with age, "I.am about to disclose to you a secret which you must never divulge until I am dead; never until the last survivor who had a part in the transaction is dead. Previous to Gen. Hull's surrender of Detroit some of the officers under Hull became suspicious of Gen. Hull's loy'alty and his courage. They drew up a round robin and signed their names in a circle around a general statement of their views, which contained these words: 'We, whose names are here written, agree to surround Gen. Hull and to place the command of this post in the hands of Col. Lewis Cass in order to prevent a surrender of Detroit to the British.' But there was a bloody traitor in that little group of men, who revealed the plan to Gen. Hull. Next day Gen. Hull scattered the signers. He sent my father in one direction, Lewis Cass in another, and systematically separated them to prevent any joint action. Soon after he surrendered Detroit to Gen. Brock. Gen. Hull was not a traitor. He was atimid man, unfit for the responsibility that had been laid upon him. The leader of that little conspiracy of deposal was Gen. Cass." All the preceding story regarding Hull's surrender of Detroit is compiled from the early and generally accepted versions of the affair; stories which originated chiefly among the men of Gen. Hull's command. Historians who have made wider search for the facts in the case are becoming convinced that a great injustice has been done to Gen. Hull. His own correspondence has been brought to light and it shows that his surrender of Detroit was a forced surrender; that his policy of non-resistance was based upon reasons of humanity and not upon motives of treason or cowardice. Detroit at the time was a remote and isolated post. The soldiers in the fort on the little hill overlooking the town were 144 THE STORY OF DETROIT in a position to put up a successful defense so far as men and arms were concerned. But there were in the stockaded town on the other side of the Savoyard River 8oo civilian inhabitants, mostly men too old for military service and women and children. The greater part of the attacking force was composed of Indians. Throughout the entire territory the Indians were hostile toward the Americans and friendly toward the British. These Indians were eager to fall upon the defenseless people of the town and take their scalps as trophies. They were eager for loot and wanted to drive the Americans out of the country. They were also eager for fopd because food was in very short supply and the prospect of harvesting any of the meager crop under war conditions was very remote. The conquering general who stood back of Gen. Brock and forced the hard condition upon Gen. Hull was General Starvation who loomed in the near distance. Another powerful ally of Brock operated in Washington and this ally was General Neglect. The authorities at Washington seemed entirely absorbed in the problems of the war in the East. They had neglected to warn Hull of the declaration of war but the British in the West were all promptly notified, as were the Indians. Gen. Hull had asked repeatedly for supplies and for more men and had received no reply. He had good reason to believe that he was left entirely dependent upon his own resources and local supplies. He had no military or commissary support within 300 miles or more. In order to force his surrender the British and the Indians did not have to attack the fort or strike a blow. All they had to do was to sit down before Detroit anywhere along the approaches and cut off the arrival of reinforcements or food supplies. If a stage of siege had been brought to pass the people would have been starved into a surrender long before any relief or support could have been sent from the East in 'the face of a small army blocking the way of approach. During the siege the Indians would have harassed the civilians, and upon the surrender they would hardly have been restrained from indulging in a general massacre. The American people have an DETROIT SURRENDERED TO THE BRITISH 14S inborn sense of strict justice but until recently they have never had a full and fair presentation of all the facts in the surrender' of Detroit in 1812. It will be shown, later on, that during the winters of 1812, '13 and '14, the people of Detroit, military and civilian, were hard pressed for means of sustaining life and that they owed their salvation to the foods taken from Canadian settlements and gristmills by raiding expeditions. There can be but little doubt but the surrender was -fully arranged several hours before the event; that Hull's(policy was determined and that his feeble show of resistance was purely theatrical. Apparently he made the mistake of distrusting all his subordinates, and so he took none of them into his -counsel. His show of defense and formal refusal of surrender to Brock were pure deceptions, it would appear, because he made no attempt to resist his opponents by force of arms. CHAPTER XXIX MASSACRE AT FORT DEARBORN THE soldiers in the fort were furious and loudly cursed their commander for his cowardice in surrenderinga well provisioned and amply defended fort to an inferior force without even a decent attempt at defense-. The surrender included Colonels Cass and McArthur, who were on their way back from the River Raisin with 36o men. Capt. Elliott was sent to meet the returning expedition with a copy of the note of surrender, but missed them. They returned to Detroit in ignorance of the surrender and found themselves prisoners of war. The force of BrushI including a company of Ohio volunteers under Capt. Thomas Rowland, and a large amount of supplies, were also included in the surrender. This body of men was so far away from the fort that it could afford to be defiant. They took Elliott prisoner and started for Ohio but next day they released Elliott, who a 't once gathered a party of Indians for the pursuit of Brush's command but did not overtake them. Capt. Rowland afterward fought in the Battle of the Thames and then became a reside 'nt of Detroit, where he spent the remainder of his days. He held a number of public offices and Rowland Street perpetuated his memory until it was recently adjudged a continuation of Shelby Street, and so named. Thomas Rowland was a brother-in-law of Porter Hanks. He built, lived in and died in the house in which Fr. Van Dyke recently died. It was at the noon hour of August 16, 18 12, that Gen. Brock entered the open gate of Fort Shelby to take formal possession of Detroit. He and his staff were in full-dress uniform. The American flag was ingloriously hauled down and again the bloodred banner of England flew from the flagstaff after an interval of i S years of American possession. Among the prizes of the capture was a greatly revered relic of the Revolutionary War, 146 MASSACRE AT FORT DEARBORN 147 - a brass cannon which bore the inscription: "Taken at Saratoga on October I7th, 1777." This cannon was now used to fire the salute to the British flag and the British officers announced that they would add to the inscription: "Retaken at Detroit, August 16, 1812." The battery across the river echoed the salute and the brig Q>ueen Charlotte which had sailed up the river after landing troops at Springwells fired her guns as fast as her crew could work them. At the close of this ceremony, Col. Brock took off his crimson silken sash and threw it about Tecumseh. The chief received it with becoming dignity, but he never wore it afterward, for Tecumseh was a man not given to show. Gen. Hull and his regular soldiers were taken to Montreal as prisoners of war, where they were afterward exchanged. The Ohio volunteers were taken to the Cuyahoga River and released to go back to their homes. The Americans had just completed a brig called the Adams, at the River Rouge shipyard. This was taken over by the British and renamed the Detroit. It was taken to Fort Erie, at the head of Niagara River. One night a few weeks later a company of Americans crossed the river and attempted to tow the brig across to Buffalo, on the American side. Foiled in this attempt they set the ship on fire and turned her adrift in the river, where she soon ran aground and became a total loss. Detroit and Mackinac were lost but disasters were not at an end in the West. On the site of the present city of Chicago a rude fortification known as Fort Dearborn had been erected. It was even more inaccessible for rescuing parties than the others. It was garrisoned by a little company of 54 soldiers and the officers were Capt. Nathan Heald, Lieut. L. T. Helm and Ensign George Ronan. About the fort were a few settlers' cabins, all within a radius of one mile. The officers did not regard the Indian unrest as anything serious until the month of April, when a family named Lee in the outer edge of the settlement were murdered by a passing band of Winnebagoes. From that time the settlers kept close to the fort, which was closely guarded. On August 7 a friendly Pottawatomie Indian 148 THE STORY oF DETROIT named Winnimeg (the Catfish) brought a note from Gen. Hull ordering the abandonment of the fort and the removal of the soldiers and settlers to Fort Wayne. The soldiers and settlers opposed the removal because they would be exposed to open attack on the route. A large band of Indians gathered about the fort and ordered the people to go away. Capt. Heald told them he had been ordered away and would start at once. He promised to turn over all the stores to the Indians. That night he had the powder in the magazine emptied into the river and all the liquors poured into the fort well. Next morning the river was as black as ink and the Indians learned that the store of powder had been destroyed. This infuriated them, but they concealed their enmity. A band of 500 Pottawatomies waited admission to the fort when Capt. Wells arrived with a small band of friendly Miamis. Wells had been adopted by Little Turtle, of the Miamis, the chief who had defeated Harmar and St. Clair and had afterward surrendered to Gen. Wayne. Wells, on hearing of the menace to Fort Dearborn, had come with his friendly Miamis to aid the garrison in the defense, but as soon as he heard of the destruction of the powder stores he told Heald that they were all as good as dead men, for the Pottawatomies were under orders to destroy every white person in the settlement. Wells accepted his fate Indian fashion, blackening his face to show that he was prepared for death. The garrison and the settlers left the fort and started toward Fort Wayne, Ind., but before they had gone two miles on the way the Pottawatomies closed around them. A young Indian leaped into a wagon carrying 12 women and children and tomahawked every one. The men and women held together and fought as best they could, the women doing their part valiantly. Fifty people were butchered and the entire party would have shared the same fate but for the daring interference of John Kinzie, a fur trader in the employ of John Jacob Astor, who had built the first white man's cabin on the site of Chicago in I809. Kinzie had been ordered to remove his family and was permitted to make his way to Detroit. He placed his family in a MASSACRE AT FORT DEARBORN 149 boat and sent them out into the lake to await his return, for, suspecting mischief on the part of the Indians, he followed the wagon trail of Capt. Heald. When the massacre started he began to plead with the Indians to spare at least the women and children, and after 50 had been killed and scalped the Indians spared the lives of 40 men and a few women and children. John Kinzie lived in Detroit for several years, his house being on the south side of Jefferson Avenue, between Shelby and Wayne streets. The wife of Capt. Heald was his step-daughter. Mrs. Heald was rescued from death by an Indian named Black Partridge and a monument in Chicago now perpetuates the story of that rescue in a bronze group. Kinzie's wife and his son, John H., a boy 9 years old, witnessed the massacre from their boat, which had followed the procession near the shore. That boy later married a Connecticut girl, a descendant of Gov. Roger Wolcott. This Mrs. John H. Kinzie later wrote a story of the West, under the title "Waubun." Their only son died and they adopted several children. One of these became Mrs. Joseph Balestier and her granddaughter is now the wife of Rudyard Kipling. Another descendant of John Kinzie was a guest of honor at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. This lady was the oldest living white person who had been born in Chicago, when she died at the age of 82 in 1917. John Kinzie was a traveling fur buyer for John Jacob Astor. He was well known to the Indians all over Michigan and on friendly terms with many tribes. He had been a silversmith before he took to the fur trade and at times worked at his trade just to keep his hands in training. There are still a few pieces of his handiwork among the treasures of some of the older families of the West. The massacre of Fort Dearborn was the direct result of Gen. Hull's order sent to Heald and Heald's misguided obedience to the order, which destroyed his only chance of saving the lives of the people who had trusted themselves to his protection. The massacre took place August 15, 1812, the day before the surrender of Detroit. CHAPTER XXX PREPARATIONS FOR RECOVERING DETROIT HE principal fortifications of old Detroit were Fort Pontchartrain and Fort Lernoult, which was renamed Fort Shelby during the War of 1812. These were designed to protect the town and to control the passage of the river in front of the town. After the occupation of Detroit by the American military forces in 1796 the Indians of the interior, who still adhered to the British cause, went as far as they dared in harassing the Americans. They would come from the interior of the state and camp a mile or two back of the town where they would subsist themselves by killing cattle of the townsfolk, which were turned out to graze on the public common north of the fort. They also stole many of the French ponies, which were owned here in large numbers, and rode them away. Frequently the officials of the town would send a little group of men north of the common to look for lost cattle and ponies. Toward these the Indians maintained a threatening attitude which promised to culminate in battle at any time. In such a case a few white men might be surrounded by Indians and killed before help could reach them from the fort. On June 6, 18o6, Stanley Griswold, secretary of the Territory and acting Governor and commander-in-chief of the military force, issued an order to this effect: It is hereby ordered that a detail of men from three companies, under their respective captains, Capt. Campau, Capt. Tuttle and Capt. Anderson, shall lay out a defensive work on the common above the fort and work upon it until it is completed, to serve as an additional defense of public and private property. Acting under this order the three captains looked over the ground on the upper part of the common and they selected a site which is now represented by the northeast corner of High 150 PREPARATIONS FOR RECOVERING DETROIT IsI Street west and Park Boulevard. There they marked out a circle 40 feet in diameter and threw up an embankment to a height of io feet which was 2 feet wide at the top and surrounded by a ditch from which the earth for the embankment was excavated. On the inner side of the parapet they made a terrace about 3 feet wide so that when a man stood upon it only his head would be visible from the outside. Four small swivel guns were mounted on this parapet. To this defense men who went from the town in search of cattle, or a little group of hunters, could resort for refuge in case of an attack by hostile Indians and hold their own until relief could be sent from Fort Lernoult. The swivel guns were soon returned to the fort because there was no provision for safe storage of ammunition. The ground about the fort was marshy and there was always several feet of water in the ditch. There is no record of any practical use being made of this fortification which was at first termed Fort Croghan, in honor of Col. Croghan. Very soon the outpost came to be regarded as a joke and a useless expenditure of labor, so the soldiers who built it substituted the name "Fort Nonsense." For a time a small guard of soldiers was detailed each day to make use of this fort as a lookout station and to intimidate the Indians, but the practice was soon abandoned. The trees between Fort Lernoult and Fort Nonsense were cut down so as to permit a clear view between them and occasionally the soldiers of Fort Lernoult would engage in target practice by firing a few rounds from the guns on the north side of the fort into Fort Nonsense. After the War of 1812 this fort became a popular playground with the boys of the town. In the winter they used to man the parapet with a few defenders provided with a plentiful supply of snowballs, while the larger number of boys would storm the fort from the outside. In later years as the town grew northward and citizens pushed their residences farther and farther up Woodward Avenue, Rev. George Duffield, DD., built his residence on the west side of Woodward Avenue. When streets were laid out running east and west each side of his property the street on the south 152 THE STORY OF DETROIT side was named George Street and that on the north side was called Duffield Street. In every American city the city fathers seem to have a contempt for all historical and significant street names. Detroit is a notorious offender in the substitution of purely fanciful or descriptive names for the historical. In 1852 George Street was renamed High Street because at that time there was a rather sharp rise on the ground between Montcalm and George streets. These streets were laid out in 1835, but for many years they were regarded as"away out in the country." The locationof Fort Nonsense was in the rear of Dr. Duffield's garden, in which he took great pride. During the winter of 1812 Col. Lewis Cass went to Washington to lay before the War Department charges against Gen. Hull, accusing him of cowardice, incompetence and treason. Hull, after his return east, was summoned to appear for trial by court martial in answer to these charges but President Madison dismissed the court. Another trial was held in 1814 and Hull was found guilty of cowardice and incompetence and sentenced to be shot. But'President Madison pardoned him on account of his former good record. Hull's name was stricken from the roll of the Army. He always protested that his course in Detroit was all that saved the entire white population from massacre at the hands of the Indians. He died at Newton, Mass., in 1825. Not only the American residents at Detroit but those of the country at large felt that the nation was disgraced by the surrender of Detroit and plans were immediately set on foot for a recovery of the lost territory. Gen. William Henry Harrison, who had put down the Indian uprising of 18 11 by winning the Battle of Tippecanoe, was put in command in the West with authority to raise an army. He was assisted by Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, John Logan and William S. Hunter, whom he appointed as aides. These men set out to recruit 500oo fighting men from Kentucky while Gen. Robert Crooks and Gen. Joel Leftwich sought 3,500oo recruits in Pennsylvania. A large force of men was gathered at Dayton, O. Then, through some blunder, an order came appointing Gen. James PREPARATIONS FOR RECOVERING DETROIT 1 153 Winchester commander-in-chief of the Army of the Northwest. Gen. Winchester's appointment was as bad a blunder as were the former appointments of Harmar, St. Clair and Hull. He had served in the Revolution but had been living on his estate in Tennessee for 30 years, completely divorced from military affairs and wholly absorbed in the business of accumulating wealth. He was 61 years old, very fat and flabby, pompous and overbearing toward his subordinates and holding in contempt all opinions save his own. Here was another manifestly incompetent and unfit man picked by Congress, for no reason at all, to take charge of an army of "first-class fighting men" and lead them to their destruction. As Talleyrand once remarked: "It was worse than a crime-it was a blunder." Winchester went to Fort Defiance, Ohio, to take charge of the campaign for the recovery of Detroit. The soldiers hated him for his pompous, overbearing ways. They distrusted him because he was evidently a backnumber as a military leader, and they wanted "01' Tippecanoe" (Gen. Harrison) to lead them because he was thoroughly acquainted with Indian methods of warfare and right in training for the coming events. Gen. Harrison and the other subordinates of Winchester were out gathering troops while Winchester waited, strutting about in uniform. By fall an army of 3,000 men had been recruited but they were undrilled and lacking in supplies. They employed the early part of the winter in destroying Indian towns and forcing their inhabitants to resort to Malden to subsist themselves off the British supplies. The Indians about Detroit took full advantage of their British protection and popularity by preying upon the settlers up and down the river. A number of families left the country, stripped of their property, and sought safety in Ohio. Col. Elliott had taken command of a force of 400 Indians under Chiefs Walk-in-the-Water and Roundhead and 200 Canadian militia under Maj. Reynolds. They built a stockade at Frenchtown, now Monroe, and set up a howitzer to defend it. The settlers there were pretty thoroughly stripped of their 154 THE STORY OF DETROIT belongings and when they had nothing more to be plundered the Indians began threatening their lives. Indians who had been driven out of northern Indiana were inclined to take revenge upon American settlers wherever they were found. Messengers were sent to Gen. Winchester at Defiance to tell him that unless he would come to the rescue the settlers at Frenchtown might all be murdered as their white commander Elliott seemed to give the Indians a free hand. That winter of 1812 was intensely cold. In January Winchester sent 55o men under Col. Lewis and I Io under Col. Allen to offer protection to the settlers at Frenchtown. They crossed the Maumee and the great swamps on the ice and presently stood before the stockade at Frenchtown. This they carried by assault, driving the defenders into the woods. In the fight the Americans lost 12 killed and 55 wounded. CHAPTER XXXI MASSACRE AT RIVER RAISIN COLONELS LEWIS AND ALLEN were men of action. When they arrived at Frenchtown and saw Elliott's forces protected by a stockade, they realized that they must attack at once, for if they waited messengers would bring reinforcements from the garrison at Fort Malden and they would be outnumbered. They immediately deployed their men and charged the stockade at a run. The British and Indians fired on them, but before they could reload, the Americans were in close contact, and the Indians broke from the rear of the stockade and fled to the woods toward the lake. The militia followed them in a rout. Soon after the stockade had been occupied Gen. Winchester arrived at Frenchtown, escorted by 300 men under Col. Samuel Wells. The general looked well to his dignity and ease, and established his headquarters at the best house in the neighborhood, that of Col. Frangois Navarre, which was more than a mile from the town, and on the other side of the River Raisin from the stockade. Peter Navarre and his four brothers warned Winchester that they ri-ight be attacked by a force sent from Fort Malden, but the old general scoffed at the idea. The Navarres, however, went scouting toward Detroit River and discovered far away a line of British troops and Indians crossing the ice just below Grosse Ile and hauling cannon on sleds. They hurried back and reported to Gen. Winchester. Jacques LaSalle, a French resident whose daughter was married to an English officer named Colwell, assured Winchester that the report could not be true, and the old general believed LaSalle in preference to the Navarres. Next day Col. Lewis learned that a large force had crossed Detroit River and were at Stony Creek, with several pieces of 155 156 THE STORY OF DETROIT artillery. He doubled his pickets and sent Col. Wells back to the Maumee with a request for reinforcements. Gen. Brock had returned to Niagara, leaving Fort Malden in charge of Col. Procter. The night of January 23, 1813, was terribly cold, and the pickets, seeing no sign of an enemy, commonly left their posts to gather about the fires and to sleep. HOUSE OF FRANtOIS NAVARRE, RIVER RAISIN GEN. JAMES WINCHESTER'S HEADQUARTERS, 18 I 2 Men were sent to make an occasional round, but it was dark and cold and they did not realize that they were in a position of peril. About 5 o'clock in the morning the Americans were startled by the discovery that a large force of British and Indians was deploying for attack on the north side of the fort, and that batteries had been planted within 300 yards of them. The first information was given by the opening of battery fire with'shells and grapeshot. A force of British regulars was charging from the front, and the militia and the Indians were closing in on both the American flanks. Lieut. Garrett broke away with 16 men, but they were soon overtaken and slaughtered. The American soldiers were thrown into great confusion, but they rallied in squads and began firing in defense. A MASSACRE AT RIVER RAISIN IS7 messenger aroused Gen. Winchester from his bed in the Navarre house. He hurried to the front half, dressed, and a moment later he and Col. Lewis were prisoners in the hands of the Indians, who immediately tore off their coats and vests. On the American left were two experienced Kentucky Indianfighters, Majors Graves and Madison, who held their men together, and drove back their assailants by their expert marksmanship. Graves and Madison found shelter for their men in a garden surrounded by a strong picket fence, and their marksmen maintained so deadly a fire that their assailants fell back. Two pieces of artillery were brought up, but the Americans shot down the gunners so fast that the pieces could not be fired. The captors of Winchester and Lewis and part of the American force told their prisoners that unless Graves and Madison would surrender the Indians would kill and scalp all the prisoners. Already the Indians were waving bloody scalps before their faces and eager for permission to make a general massacre. One party of 30 Americans had been pursued nearly three miles and then were overtaken and killed. Gen. Winchester sent one of his captured officers, Maj. Overton, to the garden where the Kentuckians were holding their ground, informing them that the entire command had been surrendered, and that they must lay down their arms. "What," shouted Madison, "surrender to a pack of Indians? I might as well hand them my scalp. They'll butcher every man of us. I prefer to die fighting." Col. Procter, who had gone forward with Overton under the flag of truce, flew into a passion. "Sir! do you pretend to dictate terms to me?" he roared. "I mean to dictate for myself at least," said Madison. "Rather than submit to a massacre in cold blood I prefer to fight to the last." Procter then assured him that there would be no massacre or violence; that the white troops would restrain the Indians and furnish complete protection. Upon this assurance the Kentuckians laid down their arms and the Indians gathered about 158 THE STORY OF DETROIT them eagerly to seize the guns and to help themselves to the coats of some of the men. Procter announced that the unwounded prisoners or all who were able to walk would be taken to Malden as prisoners of war. The wounded would be given shelter in the town. Several of the residents opened their houses to the wounded, but the bulk of them were housed in the fur warehouses of Gabriel Godfroy and Jean B. Jerome, who had been the first settlers and traders of Frenchtown. Those who looked fit for the long journey on foot were lined up for the march of 20 miles to Fort Malden and were led away following the shore as far as Stony Creek and from there over the ice of Lake Erie. Capt. Hart of the Kentuckians, although badly wounded, wanted to go with the others. Col. Elliott ordered him to remain at Frenchtown where he would be perfectly safe, but he persisted in going. Capt. Hart was a brotherin-law of Henry Clay. The promise of protection was not respected. On the contrary the wounded Americans left at Monroe were virtually delivered over to massacre, for when the return march had reached Stony Creek, Procter kept his pledge to the Indians by opening a barrel of rum. Leaving 200 of them to indulge in a drunken orgy he conducted his prisoners over the ice to Malden and there turned them into a stockade which was open to the terrible winter weather. Tecumseh, seeing that the prisoners could not be protected from the Indians by three or four guards who would probably desert their posts as soon as possible, lighted his tomahawk pipe and spent most of the night patrolling about the stockade. Repeatedly he sternly ordered away lurking Indians who attempted to scale the stockade to indulge their longing for American scalps, for Procter had revived the old scalp bounty of earlier days. The Indians left at Stony Creek drank up their rum and then took the trail back to Frenchtown, which they entered with savage yells early on the morning of January 23. A few of the wounded Americans had left their shelter and these were immediately struck down and scalped. Then Godfroy's fur MASSACRE.AT RIVER RAISIN 159 house was set on fire and its dry timbers were soon crackling with flames. The wounded inmates saw that they were confronted with the hard choice between being roasted alive if they remained inside or being tomahawked and scalped if they left their shelter. As fast as a desperate inmate would crawl to the door he would be dragged out and a moment later his bleeding body minus the scalp and with a round hole in the middle of the forehead would be thrown back into the burning building. The fur house of Jean B. Jerome had been utilized in the same way and the inmates met the same fate. Indians broke into the houses of French residents to drag out the wounded Americans but 60 of them saved their scalps because they were helpless and were roasted alive in the burned buildings. Over 100 men, mostly Kentuckians, were killed in the warehouses. The total of Americans killed numbered 397. The little force of Madison and Graves had laid low 182 of their assailants before they surrendered by order of Gen. Winchester. That march to Malden was by no means a safe or comfortable experience, for now and then a weary prisoner would lag and immediately the Indians would set upon him and the tomahawk and scalping knives would do their bloody work. Captains Hart, McCracken and Woolfolk and Ensign Wells were thus killed on the road and several privates met the same fate. * CHAPTER XXXII VICTIMS OF BARBAROUS WARFARE NEWS of the disaster at River Raisin was brought to Detroit by messengers, and, hearing that a number of American prisoners were at Malden, a delegation of American residents of Detroit hurried down the shore and crossed the river to do what they could to save the prisoners. Col. Procter had a reputation for ruthlessness and it was feared that he would deliver the prisoners over to the Indians. This would mean torture and massacre for some if not all of them, for the Indian blood was up and there were many old scores to settle besides their lost battle at Tippecanoe and the destruction of their towns and crops in Indiana and Ohio. There were kind-hearted and sympathetic British subjects also who went on the same errand. Colonels Francois Baby and Elliott, Captains Aikens, Curtish and Barrow; Rev. Richard Pollard, the Episcopal clergyman of Malden, and Maj. Muir, who was as considerate toward a conquered opponent as he was brave in battle, all used their influence, and they saved the lives of several prisoners who broke away from the Indians. Judge Augustus B. Woodward, Col. Elijah Brush, Henry J. Hunt, Richard Jones, James May, Maj. Stephen Mack, Gabriel Godfroy, Robert Smart, Dr. William Brown, Oliver W. Miller, Antoine Dequindre, Peter J. Desnoyers, John McDonnell, Peter Audrian, Duncan Reid, Alexander Macomb and a number of ladies from Detroit were Americans who went to ransom prisoners. A group of 30 prisoners were brought forward by the Indians, who immediately slaughtered four of them before the spectators to stimulate the bidding of ransom money. The' others were saved by use of money and presents to the Indians. Majors Graves and Madison, who had successfully maintained their stand in the garden at Frenchtown, were forced to run the 16o VICTIMS OF BARBAROUS WARFARE 161 gantlet between a double file of Indians and Graves' skull was cloven while he was running for his life. For his success against Gen. Winchester, Col. Procter was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. On the arrival of a messenger from Frenchtown Gen. Harrison started to go to the rescue, but on hearing of the disastrous defeat which left nothing to rescue, he stopped at Fort Meigs. The Government at Washington incurred terrible responsibilities by choosing irresponsible men to take charge of serious undertakings in the West. Generals Harmar and St. Clair, through their carelessness and inexperience, had sacrificed about 1,2oo00 lives in the Ohio country. Gen. Hull had surrendered Detroit and 2,2o00 men to an 'inferior force. Gen. Winchester had sacrificed a force of nearly i,ooo men through his blundering and stupid neglect. In consequence American commanders were regarded with contempt both by the British and the Indians. The Indians, however, still had a profound respect for the Kentuckian "Long Knives," who had learned to fight them in their own fashion and to kill and scalp as eagerly as did the Indians. Detroit owes a large debt to those valiant Kentucky riflemen and Indian-hunters. They had answered every call for help. They had left their bones on the battlefields of Generals Harmar and St. Clair; they had made the long marches under George Rogers Clarke, and they had helped Gen. Wayne drive his way through to Detroit. Gen. Harrison had more of them in the army he was gathering in Ohio for the recovery of the lost territory. The bones of the men who perished at River Raisin were buried at Frenchtown. In 1818, after Lewis Cass had become Governor, their remains were removed to Detroit, where they were buried with military honors east of Fort Shelby. It was easy to identify the victims of the massacre, for the skull of each one had a round hole in the forehead where the point of an Indian tomahawk had been driven. In 1849 a movement was started by Edward Brooks of Detroit for the removal of these remains of Kentuckians to their native soil. A delegation 162 THE STORY OF DETROITI from Kentucky came to receive them and to conduct their removal. It was evident that Detroit was not to be recovered as easily as it had been captured by the British under Brock, so Gen. Harrison took his time in gathering and drilling his little army. The Americans and the British watched each other's movements by means of scouts. Harrison made his headquarters at Fort Meigs at the Rapids of the Maumee for the remainder of the winter. The ice proved too treacherous for further winter operations, so nothing was done until spring. Meanwhile Gen. Procter strengthened his forces and kept about 2,000 Indian allies in camp at Malden. In the latter part of April he collected the available brigs and gunboats, filled them with men and war materials and sailed to the Maumee to attack Harrison. They landed near old Fort Miami. Harrison, seeing that he was outnumbered, sent Peter Navarre to Fort Defiance to secure reinforcements from Gen. Green Clay. The British began their attack on Fort Meigs May I with a heavy cannonade, to which Harrison responded with occasional shots as he desired to save his ammunition to repulse any attempt at assault. The British batteries boomed away from the opposite side of the Maumee for four days while the reinforcements were awaited. Tecumseh planned a cunning ruse in the hope of drawing the Americans out of their fort. Under cover of darkness a part of the British force was concealed in a ravine near the fort entrance while a detachment of Indians made a detour to the south and began rapid firing of their guns in the woods to give the impression that the reinforcements expected from Defiance were being attacked. On hearing this the Americans were expected to dash out of the fort to go to the rescue and men concealed in the ravine would then cut them off from the rear and capture the fort. Gen. Harrison suspected a trick, for it was too soon for the reinforcements to have arrived, so he merely fired a few rounds of solid shot into the woods and held to the fort. Presently the reinforcements arrived. A British battery had been planted so VicTrIMs OF BARBAROUS WARFARE I63 close to the fort that its fire was proving destructive, and Col. Dudley was sent out with 8oo men on a sudden sortie to drive away the support of the battery and spike the guns. Gen. Harrison gave him strict orders not to venture farther than the guns, and, having done his appointed task, to return promptly to the fort, for the Indians swarmed in the woods and there was danger of an ambush. Dudley's sortie immediately stampeded the crew of the battery and the enemy fled into the woods. Dudley's men forgot their orders, rushed in pursuit and in a few minutes were completely surrounded by Indians. Of the 8oo00 men who went out only 170 lived to return to the fort and these were saved by Tecumseh, who rushed into the melee to beat his frantic followers off their helpless victims and send them back to the fort. Procter's bombardment seemed to have little effect. Harrison's men made a number of sorties which discouraged too close an approach to the fort. While the siege went on a messenger brought the report of Com. Isaac Chauncey's success on Lake Ontario, the capture of Fort George at the mouth of Niagara River by the Americans and the abandonment of Fort Erie at the head of the Niagara River by the British. The siege was then abandoned and the besieging force returned to their ships and boats, carrying their prisoners with them. On the way to the ships a number of the prisoners were killed and scalped and the others were taken to Detroit to be sold for ransom money furnished by civilian residents. As in the case of the residue of prisoners saved at Malden after the River Raisin massacre, these prisoners were literally hawked about- the streets of Detroit to be sold to the highest bidder dr traded for rum. For several days after each of these battles at Frenchtown and Fort Meigs the prisoners of war were led about the streets of Detroit by their Indian captors and offered for ransom money, which ranged from $Io to $80 per life saved. People of Detroit practically exhausted their available resources in this merciful work. Those who had no money would offerblankets, clothing, shawls and trinkets. This practice caused such bitter criticism of Gen. Procter that in July he offered the Indians $5 for each 164 THE STORY OF DETROIT prisoner brought in alive, but this was not such an attractive offer, since by torturing the prisoners on the streets of Detroit the Indians could secure much more. These criticisms angered Procter and in revenge he ordered 30 of the leading citizens of Detroit to leave the country. Some of the deported ones were: H. J. B. Brevoort, William Macomb, Lewis Bond, David McLean, William Wilson, John Dicks, Archibald Lyon, Israel Taylor, Anderson Martin, William M. Scott, David Henderson, William Russell, Joseph Spencer, James Patterson, George R. Chittenden, W. Robertson, John Walker, Conrad Seek, Elijah Brush, Conrad Ten Eyck, Peter Desnoyers, Robert Smart, James Burnett, Richard H. Jones, Dr. William Brown, J. McDonnell, John Congsett, Duncan Reid, A. Langan, George Battzes and James Chittenden. This deportation left the families of some of these men without support and the garrison was compelled to furnish about 1,200 rations a day to the Indian allies and the destitute white residents. Then a deadly epidemic broke out from which many died from lack of proper medical attendance. The Indians wandered about the town at will, forced their way into private houses and helped themselves to whatever they might fancy. One day an Indian took a bolt of cloth from Maj. Dequindre's store and started for the door. Dequindre tore it away from him and threw the Indian out. The Indian raised the war cry which brought several other Indians. Dequindre hurriedly locked his store and ran to headquarters to ask protection for his property. He was told that nothing could be done. The Indians were British allies and must not be offended. Meeting Col. McKee, the Indian agent, Dequindre appealed to him and McKee told him he would do what he could. In the meantime a mob of Indians had broken through the door and windows of the Dequindre store and were helping themselves to the contents. McKee obtained three barrels of whisky from the cellars of Judge McDonnell and Robert Smart. The barrels were rolled out on the common and the heads stove in. In half an hour the Indians were too drunk to cause further trouble and their spite toward Dequindre was forgotten. VICTIMS OF BARBAROUS WARFARE 165 During the period of the war the Canadian or British residents placed a red broad-arrow mark on the doors of their houses and on their cattle, which insured protection from the Indians. Gen. John E. Hunt of Toledo left among his papers a diary of the war period of which the following is a fragment: "On a beautiful Sunday morning.in Detroit I heard the scalp whoop of a war party coming up the river. As they came nearer I saw they were carrying a woman's scalp on a pole. They had with them nine children of the woman who had been scalped, ranging from three years of age to two grown daughters. These prisoners were bareheaded and their clothes were torn to shreds by the brush through which they had travelled. "I brought the entire party into my house and gave them a meal. Told the children not to be frightened for as soon as my brother would return he would buy them. Next day my brother, H. J. Hunt, paid $5oo for the lot." It is hard for those who go about the streets of Detroit today to realize that such things were common occurrences here only Iio years ago. a CHAPTER XXXIII THE BUILDING OF PERRY'S SHIPS N July Gen. Procter made an unsuccessful attack on Fort Stevenson, near Sandusky. The fort was commanded by Maj. George Croghan, who was only 19 years of age but a thorough soldier. Croghan refused a demand for surrender and an attack was made, but so well did the little garrison maintain its fire that Procter lost as many men as were defending the fort, and he retired in disgust. The tide of war had gone heavily against the Americans since Hull's surrender. It was now at the slack and soon it was destined to turn. Com. Chauncey had won victories on Lake Ontario and he now turned his attention to Lake Erie. The shipping on the lake was all in British hands and it became necessary to build new ships before anything could be accomplished at Detroit. Down at Newport, R. I., Oliver Hazard Perry had command of a little flotilla of gunboats. He had attained the rank of naval lieutenant at the age of 28 and had seen nearly 14 years' service at sea. Following the surrender of Detroit and Mackinac a full report of the affair was sent to Washington in care of Daniel Dobbins. President Madison, and Paul Hamilton, Secretary of the Navy, decided that vessels must be built to recover control of the upper lakes. The nearest and most convenient point for shipbuilding was at Presque Ile, where the city of Erie, Pa., is now located. Presque Ile had originally been the site of one of the chain of French forts built to hold the western country against the British. In 1813 the settlement was a hamlet consisting of a few log houses and a log tavern known as Duncan's Erie Hotel. In the lack of available ship carpenters at the moment a gang of choppers, sawyers and house carpenters was sent to get out the necessary lumber. The trees were felled, and the logs I66 THE BUILDING OF PERRY'S SHIPS 167 rolled on skids over pits and sawed into heavy planks by two men, one standing at the bottom of the pit and the other on top of the log, using long heavy saws with cross-handles at each end. It was slow, laborious work performed in the middle of a hard winter. Then a gang of ship carpenters was sent on with plans for two brigs and four smaller ships drawn by a shipbuilder named Eckford. Lieut. Perry arrived on the ground in March to find two gunboats nearly planked and another ready for sheathing, but there was no protection for the yard against attack by the British, who were cruising about the lake. Also there was no material at hand for rigging the vessels. Perry sent for more ship carpenters to rush the work and sent to Buffalo for 40 seamen, who brought two 2-pounder cannons and some muskets to guard the harbor against attack. For the iron work all manner of junk was gathered; old wagon tires, strap hinges and bits of strap iron were collected at Buffalo and forged into ship material. Three gunboats were constructed with schooner rigging and two brigs 141 feet long and 30-foot beam, of 480 tons measurement each, were rapidly put together out of green lumber filled with sap. The ships were launched May 23. Then Perry was called to join Com. Chauncey's command on Lake Ontario and participate in the capture of Fort George on Niagara River. Fort Erie was abandoned by the British, and the Americans were for the time in possession of the Niagara district. At Black Rock was the little ship Caledonia, captured from the British by Lieut. Jesse D. Elliott several months before, and four small gunboats which had been blockaded in the river until Fort Erie was abandoned. These were important additions for Perry's squadron. These boats could not sail against the strong current in the river, so they were towed up to the lake with cables manned by all the available seamen, assisted by 200 soldiers. Elliott had ioo seamen with him and these made an important addition to the 300 men of Perry's command, some of whom were sailors, some woodsmen and some colored laborers. 168 THE STORY OF DETROIT Perry now had two brigs and seven gunboats, three of which were schooner rigged, but there was a long delay in arming them. When the guns arrived most of them were carronades of fairly large caliber, but very short range. His armament was very deficient in long range guns and Perry knew that the British ships were well provided with them. While these operations went on Capt. Robert Heriot Barclay for a time blockaded the harbor at Presque Ile and challenged Perry to come out and fight him; but Perry was waiting for guns and he wanted to try out the sailing qualities of his ships and the capability of his men before engaging a squadron so ably commanded and armed as the British.* The shipbuilding camp at Presque Ile was located in a swampy district and as soon as warm weather came it swarmed with mosquitoes and the men soon began to suffer from malarial fever, and fever and ague. Perry himself was laid up for three weeks and at times as many as 200 of the men would be disabled by disease. Watching his opportunity when the British ships were off the blockade, Perry warped his ships across the bar at the mouth of the harbor and into the lake. Seeing that the "Yankees" were out, Capt. Barclay changed his plan and collected his ships under the guns of the fort at Malden so as to take full advantage of all the available defenses and compel Perry to meet him at disadvantage in a narrow channel where he could only engage with one or two of his ships at a time, while exposed to the fire of the guns from both the ships and shore batteries. Capt. Barclay was an able man who had fought under Lord Nelson and had lost an arm in the Battle of Trafalgar. His men were well disciplined and had had the benefit of considerable experience in sailing on Lake Erie. More than 5o of them had served on battleships on the high seas. Orders came from Washington for Perry to place himself in communication with Gen. Harrison on the Ohio shore. Harrison moved his headquarters to the mouth of Portage River at the present site of Port Clinton, where he could be in touch with Perry as soon as he could bring his ships to the best available THE BUILDING OF PERRY'S SHIPS 169 shelter at Put-in-Bay among the Bass Islands, and at the same time communication could be maintained with the other land forces at Forts Stevenson, Meigs and Sandusky. As soon as Perry moved his headquarters to Put-in-Bay the conferences between the two commanders began. If Barclay remained under the guns of Fort Malden, Perry would have little chance of defeating him, and the stake was too big to warrant rash ventures. Perry and Harrison discussed the feasibility of sending a part of Harrison's army into Canada by night so as to make a concerted attack on Fort Malden and the British squadron by land and water, but the means of getting land forces across the lake were too meager. The fort was now well armed and manned and nearly 2,oo000 Indians were watching the shores and spying upon the Americans. Presently the isolation of the British situation forced Barclay into action. The district about Detroit had been so demoralized by the presence of hostile Indians that very little land had been tilled during the previous season, and so the supply of food had been scanty. The posts at Detroit and Malden must be subsisted by bringing food from outside by water transportation. By the end of the first week of September the situation had become acute, so Barclay decided to meet the issue boldly by challenging Perry to battle on the open lake or wherever he might be encountered. It was known that Perry was at Put-in-Bay, so on the morning of September 13 Barclay sailed down the lake in that direction. The entire population of Malden, military, civilian and Indian, went down to the lake shore at the mouth of Detroit River to watch the progress of the ships and to listen to the cannonade if they could not see the battle when the opposing squadrons would meet. Barclay's ships were ready for instant action. He had a force of 5oo men, of whom 150 were British sailors and 8o. were Canadian sailors, familiar with the waters of the upper lakes. There were 240 soldiers, including quite a number who had been members of the American garrison at Mackinac and had been impressed into the British service. There were also a few Indians. 170,THE STORY OF DETROIT Barclay's flagship was the Detroit, a new brig freshly painted and armed with 19 guns. Next in importance were the brig Queen Charlotte with 17 guns, the brig Hunter with io guns, the Lady Prevost with 13 guns, the schooner Chippewa with one long i 8-pounder and two swivel guns, and the gunboat Little Belt with three guns. About 9 o'clock the American lookout posted on the high rock of the little island of Gibraltar reported that the British were coming and Perry immediately got his squadron under way to meet the enemy. A light wind was blowing which at times gave way to intervals of almost dead cailn, so the approach was very slow. At a quarter to 12 o'clock the Detroit and the Lawrence were a mile and a half apart. Barclay ordered his bugler to call all hands to their appointed posts and five minutes later one of the long British guns sent a shot at the Lawrence which fell short. The British band struck up the air "Rule Britannia" and a moment later the bugle calls sounded from both squadrons again and both steered to the westward, maneuvering for position as they approached one another in the form of the letter V. with the flagships leading each line. CHAPTER XXXIV OLIVER HAZARD PERRY'S VICTORY ERRY had planned his battle from the moment he had made out the alignment of his opponent, and had given explicit orders to the commander of each of his boats as to their position and distances to be maintained in the line of battle and what vessels of the enemy they were each to attack. Perry was at the van with the Lawrence, accompanied by the Scorpion with two guns, a long 32 and a short 12-pounder, and the little schooner Ariel with four short 12-pounders. They were to engage the Detroit, the Hunter and the Chippewa. Elliott, with the Niagara, was to attack the Queen Charlotte, while the gunboats Somers, Porcupine, Tigress and Trippe were to attack the Lady Prevost and the Little Belt. Realizing that his guns were outranged by those of the British, Perry gave orders for all ships to close up at short range as soon as possible, for if they delayed they would all be shot out of action before their main batteries could come within effective range. About noon the first effective shot from the enemy crashed through the bulwark of the Lawrence, but the range was still too great to waste a shot in reply. The schooner Scorpion, commanded by Champlin, fired the first shot for the Americans from her long 32-pounder. This same vessel also fired the last shot of the battle. Then the Ariel fired two of her short I2's, but both fell short. The Lawrence, already hit twice, opened on the Detroit with her long 12 -pounder bow gun. Perry's smaller vessels were slow under sail and were strung out over a distance of two miles in his rear, while the Lawrence was leading to close quarters with the closely massed ships of the enemy. The Scorpion and Ariel kept as close to her as possible, but the fire of the British squadron was concentrated upon the Lawrence. 171 172 THE STORY OF DETROIT -Aý The cannonade became furious. The Niagara's armament consisted chiefly of short range carronades, which were unable to accomplish anything at the distance, and only the two long I2-pounders were used for a time. Perry had a bugle sounded to signal the Niagara and the other ships to close up, but Elliott, although in command of the fastest sailer of the squadron, remained at long range, using only two of his guns, until all the ammunition for them was expended. By the time the BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE, SEPTEMBER IO, 1813 Lawrence could come close enough to make her guns effective she was riddled with shot. Elliott's failure to engage the Queen Charlotte enabled that vessel to close up on the Lawrence. Under such conditions Perry engaged the enemy practically alone for two hours while the Niagara and her consorts remained back out of range, doing no harm to the British ships. This strange reluctance of Elliott to come to close quarters with the enemy was not due to cowardice, for Elliott was a man of proved courage. That his tardiness was deliberate and intentional was plainly evident, since he had backed his main topsail so as to catch the wind from the front and thus hold his ship too far away from the Lawrence to afford any support or OLIVER HAZARD PERRY'S VICTORY 173 to divide the fire of the British guns. As his conduct was afterward analyzed, it was made to appear that he was actuated by jealousy of Perry. If the battle was won by the Americans it would be a momentous event and the commander who won it would become a national hero. By remaining out of range and allowing the Lawrence to be shot to pieces and her commander probably killed in the furious cannonade, Elliott would then succeed to the command and with the rest of the squadron he might accomplish the end in view, recover control of the upper lakes and become famous forever in American history. Under the incessant fire of 54 guns concentrated upon her, the Lawrence was soon riddled with shot, her spars were shot away and she was trailing part of her rigging in the water as she drifted a helpless hulk. Nearly all her guns had been dismounted and of the 103 men on board 22 lay dead on the deck and 61 others were wounded. Every shot that struck her sides made a clean breach through her. Before going into action Perry had hoisted a battle flag made by his order which bore on a plain field of blue a legend in white letters, with the words of Com. James Lawrence, for whom his vessel was named: "Don't Give up the Ship!" The Niagara was still half a mile away and Perry decided to transfer himself to her and bring her into close action. Turning over the wreck of the Lawrence to Lieut. Yarnall with orders to use his own discretion about striking his flag, Perry took a yawl with nine men and was rowed to the Niagara under heavy fire. His yawl was struck by several musket balls, and two oars were shattered, but he made the transfer in safety and boarded the Niagara, which was as yet unharmed, with a crew eager to fight but a commander who for reasons best known to himself had failed in his support to his chief. With Perry went his brother, less than i 5 years of age, who had acted as powder boy on the Lawrence. Yarnall, to save the lives of the nine men who remained uninjured and of the 61 helpless wounded men, struck the flag of the Lawrence, but had they held on for io minutes more it would have been unnecessary. 174 THE STORY OF DETROIT Perry sent Elliott away in a boat to bring up the gunboats and he ordered the Niagara steered for close action. In the meantime the British had suffered considerably from the fire of the Lawrence and Scorpion. The Detroit was badly crippled and the others had suffered a few shots. Elliott had backed his main topsail yard to prevent coming too close to the enemy, but the yards were quickly squared and a puff of wind that came from the south shore enabled the Niagara to plunge straight into the British line. Barclay attempted to swing the Detroit so as to bring her other broadside to bear, as several of his port guns had been dismounted. The Queen Charlotte, which lay very close, was an instant too slow in imitating this action, so her bowsprit and jib-boom fouled the mizzen rigging of the Detroit and both vessels were left entangled and helpless for the moment. Perry steered the Niagara into the gap thus created in the British line of battle and went through it, firing both his broadsides with double-shotted guns. The Detroit and Queen Charlotte received the fire of his port broadside at close range and the Chippewa and Lady Prevost divided the fire of the starboard battery. Once through the line Perry swung the Niagara under the bow of the Detroit and the stern of the Queen Charlotte, and again they were riddled with shot. Both vessels were rendered helpless and their crews were disabled. The crew of the Lady Prevost, appalled at their peril, deserted their guns and fled below decks. The gunboats of Perry's squadron, propelled by the double impulse of the freshening breeze and their long sweeps, came to close action and added to the work of destruction. The Queen Charlotte was the first to strike her flag; Lieut. Inglis on the Detroit, now almost as badly crippled as the Lawrence, shouted: "We surrender." The Hunter and the Lady Prevost struck their flags; the Chippewa at the extreme right of the line and the Little Belt at the left tried to get away but the Scorpion and the Trippe soon overhauled them and the battle was won. Those of the commanders of the British squadron who were not disabled were rowed to the Niagara to make formal OLIVER HAZARD PERRY'S VICTORY 175 surrenders and, arrived on board, they tendered theii swords to Perry. Perry was a chivalrous conqueror. He magnanimously waved them back saying:. "No, gentlemen, put up your swords. You have fought like brave men and it would ill become me to add humiliation to the defeat which Providence has enabled me to give the enemies of my country. How are Coin. Barclay and his men? Our poor fellows are terribly cut up, as you see. For nearly three hours the British watchers on the Canadian shore and the Americans on the Ohio shore listened to the incessant thunder of the guns and watched the rolling cloud of powder s moke which hung over the lake, wondering what the result would be. The Indians on the Canadian shore looked and listened in wonder and when the firing ceased they seemed to realize the result through some strange intuition. "Barclay is beaten," they whispered to one another. "If he is," said Tecumseh, "we can still fight them on land. We have the fort, plenty of guns, plenty of ammunition and plenty of food. We'll beat the Americans yet. We're fighting for our own country when we fight with the British. The great King will send more men and guns." Gen. Procter watched the smoke clouad drift away, hoping to see Barclay emerge with his colors flying, but there came no sign from the shattered specks in the far distance where 68 brave men lay dead -and I190 were wounded. Of these the Americans lost 123, of whom 27 were killed, and the British 135, of whom 41 were killed. Capt. Barclay had been twice wounded with grapeshot, once in the thigh and once in the shoulder. The only British officer who remained unharmed and fit for duty was the commander of the Little Belt..From the moment of surrender there was an instant transformation in the attitude of the men who for three hours had been fighting each other with grim ferocity. They forgot for the moment that they were still enemies. The able-bodied survivors turned to with a will to minister to the wounded and to dispose of the dead. The dead seamen and soldiers were lowered into the lake in short-laden shrouds and the dead officers, V z 011 176 OLIVER HAZARD PERRY'S VICTORY 177 were afterwards carried ashore for burial at Put-in-Bay. The cannon they had manned so well in the fast and furious conflict now boomed their requiem. Com. Perry from the deck of the Niagara wrote his dispatches reporting the result of the battle, and his first message to Gen. Win. H. Harrison stands out in American history: Dear General: We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, one sloop. Yours with great respect and esteem, O. H. PERRY. To the Secretary of the Navy his dispatch was more formal: U. S. Brig Niagara, off West Sister, head of Lake Erie. September o10, 1813, 4 p. m. Sir: It has pleased the Almighty to give to the arms of the United States a signal victory over their enemies on this lake. The British squadron, consisting of two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop have this moment1surrendered to the forces under my command, after a sharp conflict. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully your obedient servant, O. H. PERRY. To Hon. Wm. Jones, Secretary of the Navy. The attitude of Perry toward his beaten opponents was altogether admirable and from that day he and Capt. Barclay remained fast friends. The wounded were given every possible care under the circumstances, and the prisoners were humanely treated. Perry's naval career was brief and brilliant. Following the Battle of Lake Erie a bitter controversy arose between him and Capt. Elliott. In 1814 he was engaged in the defense of Baltimore and after the war he commanded the 7ava on our own coast and later as a part of Decatur's Mediterranean squadron. In 1819 he commanded a squadron in the West Indies and ascended the Orinoco River as far as Angostura, where he was attacked with yellow fever and died. In 1826 his remains were transferred from Venezuela to Newport, R. I. 178 THE STORY OF DETROIT Several statues have been erected to him. Cleveland has a striking monument in commemoration of the Battle of Lake Erie. In 1913 the iooth anniversary of Perry's victory was celebrated at Put-in-Bay and a splendid granite memorial was erected, the central figure being a doric column 300 feet high, and attached is a historical museum with a collection of relics of that troubled period in the West. A large delegation from Rhode Island, Perry's native state, attended the exercises: When the treaty was arranged with Great Britain for disarmament on the Great Lakes Perry's ships became obsolete and some of them sank in Presque Ile Bay. The guns were taken off and distributed about the shore cities, several of them.Coming to Detroit. CHAPTER XXXV AMERI CAN INVASION OF CANADA CONSIDERING the fact that the Rattle of Lake Erie was fought in the middle of one of the Great Lakes Icwhen there were few residents of either shore, there were two very large and intensely interested audiences on the north and the south shores of the lake. At the very front of the crowd on the Canadian shore stood Gen. Procter and Tecumseh surrounded by other officers and chiefs. Back of them were the soldiers of the fort and a band of 2,000 Indians, while scattered about were the civilian residents of Amherstburg and vicinity. Procter appeared dazed and uncertain. Tecumseh was the first to speak. "Well, if Barclay is beaten we are not. We have plenty of men and supplies to prevent the Yankees from landing. We can watch the lake, and mass to oppose them when they come in boats."~ "We must retreat at once," said Procter. "We have no alternative. They will soon cross the lake to attack us. They have three times as many men, and it is impossible to stay and defend this place."~ "What? Run away and not fight! What do you mean? What will become of my people? You promised to protect us against the Americans when we took your side of the war. If you run away you have some place to go. We have no place to go. Our homes and country are here. We have fought your battles here in the West for more than 20 years. We have poured out our blood like water and we have not complained. You have seldom bared your own breast to flying bullets. It suits you better to set the scalp-hunters upon helpless prisoners. If you are afraid to stand and fight the Yankees, turn over the fort and supplies to us and we will fight for our country while you run away. Our lives are in the hands of the Great Spirit. If we cannot hold our land we can at least leave our bones upon it." [79 180 ~THE STORY OF DETROIT In the summer of 1895 the writer of these lines met at Amherstburg an aged Frenchman, Jean Baptiste Bertrand, who was born at Petite Cote, on the Canadian shore just above Fighting Island, in 1802. As a boy of i years he stood with that crowd on the shore of Lake Erie while the guns were booming and heard a violent quarrel between Procter and Tecumseh COM. 0. H. PERRY TECUMSEH GEN. W. H. HARRISON HEROES OF THE WAR IN THE WEST after the silence of uncertainty fell upon the water. At 93 years of age his memory of that day was wonderfully clear although the events of recent years had faded from his mind. "As I remember Procter," said Mr. Bertrand, "he was a very stout-built man, so stout that he did not like to ride on horseback. I guess the horse not like it pretty well neither. His face was very full and very red like the moon when she come up in the fog. He had a big bush of brown whiskers. Some said he had been a butcher before he was a soldier. He went down to the shore in a two-wheeled cart. When he talked AMERICAN INVASION OF CANADA I8i about going away from Malden, Tecumseh was very mad, awful mad at. him. "We all walked back to Malden very slow, keeping up with the cart of the general. The road was very rough. Tecumseh rode ahead on a horse. Just as we were coming into the village and about where the road goes down to the steamboat dock we passed a big stone on the side of the road. Tecumseh, he pull up his horse. He saw me. 'Little boy, come here,' he say. 'Hol' my horse for me.' Then Tecumseh get off and stand on the big stone where he waits for Procter to come up in the cart. He lift his hand and halt the march. "I am holding the horse by the bridle rein. Tecumseh holding his tomahawk pipe in his left hand took hold of the pistol in his belt with his right hand and looked at Procter very fierce. Then he points his finger at him and wave it up an' down. Tecumseh didn't speak good English when he got excited. The words did not come but he shouts before all the people: 'You cow!' (he meant coward). 'You say you 'fraid they come and kill your soldiers. It's not your soldiers you afraid for; it's yourself. You're an old woman. You're not fit to command men. You run away when danger come. You leave poor Indian to fight alone.' "Then Tecumseh gave me a silver shilling for holding his horse and rode on to the fort. Tecumseh was not a big man; about five feet eight inches tall and kind o' slim. He was very light colored for an Indian. I thought he was not full blood. But he was a fine man; kind to everybody; loved little children, but he hated the Americans because they were taking Indian lands. Everybody in Malden liked Tecumseh. He talked pleasantly with everybody, but in a fight he was different, they said. We were all very sad when the news came one day that Tecumseh was killed in a battle up on the River Thames. He was a fine Indian." The Indians at Malden were bewildered as they watched the gathering of canoes and bateaux and some small schooners for the removal of military stores from the fort. When everything was on board that could be carried away, the boats went up the 182 THE STORY OF DETROIT river and most of the soldiers and Indians went away on foot. The boats were ordered to go up the Thames River, where they would be joined by the forces on foot, and the people of Malden saw them no more. The barracks and stores that could not be carried away were set on fire by Procter's orders so that nothing might be of use to the Americans when they came. Down on the Ohio shore there was equal anxiety until the messenger from Perry brought the good news to Gen. Harrison. There were men enough under Harrison's command to oppose any attempt to invade the Ohio country, but a defeat of the lake squadron meant a long delay and a period of watchful uncertainty for the scattered settlers. Gen. Harrison was eager to get across the lake and into Canada as soon as possible, for there was the danger that reinforcements might be sent to Procter. There was a large force of British about Lake Ontario and Niagara River. Harrison wrote from Portage River to Gen. McArthur at Fort Meigs, September 15: "I am so desirous of getting to the opposite side of the lake as soon as possible that I am determined to take none of the artillery from Fort Meigs except five i8-pounder gun carriages and two 12-pounder carriages. I want all the fixed ammunition for cannon and muskets except a small supply to be left for the garrison-about 30 rounds of musket ammunition. Plenty of flints also must be sent. I want all the salted provision and as much flour and biscuits as you can bring with the means of transport you have. "Three of the vessels will go up the Maumee as far as they can get and I will send you as many boats as I can spare. If there are not enough for all the troops and their baggage, the rest must move by land. Hurry on, my friend, as soon as possible. If you do not come immediately I rriust leave you. If necessary you must work all night at the loading. Come on, for God's sake, as soon as possible." Harrison had sent a letter to Gov. Isaac Shelby of Kentucky, asking him to join the expedition with 1,500 men. The Kentuckians rallied to the call with their usual fine enthusiasm, and nearly 3,000 offered their services under their governor, who AMERICAN INVASION OF CANADA 183 was theh 62 years old. Among his troops were Maj. John Adair and John J. Crittendon, who was later United States Senator, and Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, the entire force numbering 3,500 men. They arrived at Port Clinton on the Portage River a few days after Perry's victory. Part of them were detailed to conduct 300 British prisoners captured by Perry to Chillicothe and Franklinton. The Ohio Indians, seeing this massing of military forces, decided to throw in their lot with the winning side, and about 250 Wyandottes, Shawnees and Senecas offered their services to Harrison. A heavy gale swept the lake two days after the battle, but the weather became calm again and was delightful when the embarkation began for the invasion of Canada. The war flotilla started from Put-in-Bay, and on the 25th the army stopped and camped on Middle Sister Island with 5,000 men crowded upon a space of less than seven acres. Harrison sent Com. Perry with the Ariel to reconnoiter at Malden and he returned with the report of the apparent evacuation. Next morning, just before the embarkation for the rest of the journey a proclamation was posted to this effect: "Soldiers: the general entreats his brave troops to remember that they are sons of sires whose fame is immortal; that they are to fight for the rights of their insulted country while their opponents combat for the unjust pretensions of a master. Kentuckians! remember the River Raisin! But remember it only while victory is suspended. The revenge of a soldier can not be gratified upon a fallen enemy." At nine o'clock on the morning of September 27 the flotilla of 16 vessels and nearly ioo boats moved toward Fort Malden, some of them under instruction to make their landing at Hartley's Point at the mouth of the river and others to land on Bois Blanc Island. The landing was made at both places in perfect order. Meanwhile Col. R. M. Johnson marched up the' American shore toward Detroit keeping pace with the flotilla on the lake. As the troops moved on foot to Amherstburg they were met by the women of the town in their best attire. The women had 184 T14E STORY OF DETROIT heard terrible stories about the savagery of the American troops recruited in the West, and particularly evil was the reputation of the Kentuckians among them. They implored mercy and the protection that is due to women, and were immediately reassured by Gov. Shelby, who led the column into the village. The last troop of British soldiers had left only an hour before, so a troop of horsemen was sent to prevent them from destroying the bridge over the River Canard. The bridge had just been set on fire when they reached it, but a volley scattered the rear guard and the bridge was saved. CHAPTER XXXVI THE BATTLE OF THE THAMES N September 29 the Americans on the Canadian side camped atSandwich and the flotilla reached Detroit. Col. Johnson's force arrived in Detroit on the following day. Before his arrival Gen. McArthur had crossed the river with 700 men and driven away the Indians who were still haunting the town. The British had already fled with Procter's army toward the Thames, after setting all the buildings of the fort on fire and doing as much damage as possible. They had filled the well of the fort, 70 feet deep, with all manner of rubbish and filth. When the People's State Bank was built at the southeast corner of Fort and Shelby streets, a few years ago, the excavators for the foundation came upon this well and cleaned it out, recovering bits of broken muskets, cannon balls and other rubbish. At Detroit it was learned that several small vessels had passed up the lake with military stores, bound to the River Thames, so Com. Perry sent the Niagara, the Lady Prevost, the Scorpion and the Tigress under Capt. Elliott in pursuit, and he himself soon followed in the Ariel, accompanied by the Caledonia. The British boats, however, had escaped up the Thames River. Harrison pushed on after Procter and was met by seven British deserters, who told him that Procter with 700 soldiers and 1,2oo00 Indians was in camp on Dolsen's farm, 15i miles from the mouth of the Thames and about 56 miles from Detroit. Procter continued his flight until he came to the present site of Chatham, where McGregor's Creek offered a barrier against attack. He told Tecumseh he would make a stand there and either defeat Harrison or leave his bones on the field. The Americans pressed on, and as they came close to the British line the old Chief Walk-in-the-Water with 60 Wyandotte warriors deserted Procter and joined the Americans, saying they would hereafter fight 1 j86 THE STORY OF DETROIT with the Americans. Gen. Harrison told him to go away and keep as far as possible from the Americans until the war would be over. Procter's men set some houses on fire and also some of their own boats, but the Americans captured the others. Procter continued his flight to within three miles of Moraviantown, where on October 5, 1813, he took a position facing the Americans with the Thames on one flank and a marsh on the other which ran parallel with the river for two miles. There was another small swamp in front of the British position which was located in a large grove of beech and maple. Col. Johnson, supported by Gov. Shelby, led the attack while Gen. Harrison, accompanied by Corn. Perry, Gen. Cass and Col. Butler, looked on from the bank of the Thames. The mounted American troops, charging the line of the enemy, broke through it. In something like five minutes the battle was won. Lieut. Bullock and about 50o men of the 4Ist British Regiment managed to get away, as did Gen. Procter, who had kept a carriage waiting for him in the rear. He lost no time in making for the carriage, followed by a few officers of his personal staff, some dragoons and some mounted Indians. Col. Johnson's attack was directed against the Indians in the swamps who, inspired by Tecumseh, fought desperately. Col. Johnson received one bullet in his hip and another passed through his hand and lacerated his arm. The Battle of the Thames was really little more than a skirmish, for the Americans had only 15 killed and 30 wounded, while the British had 18 killed, 26 wounded and over 6oo taken prisoners. The Indians left 33 dead on the field, and among these was Tecumseh. The gallant Indian warrior had been true to his pledge that he would conquer or die in battle. For a long time stories went the rounds regarding his death. It was commonly said that he fell in a personal encounter with Col. R. M. Johnson, but while the colonel had a fierce hand-to-hand fight with an Indian whom he shot dead with his pistol, he was by no means sure that it was Tecumseh. Many stories have been told about Tecumseh, but all reflect honor upon him. He was as much esteemed and THE BATTLE OF THE THAMES I87 respected on the American side as on the British. Although an uncompromising enemy, he was recognized as a man of fine character who was fighting against fearful odds for possession of his own country and in the cause of his own people. He regarded the torturing of prisoners with disgust and saved the lives of more than one man who had been condemned to die by torture. The court of public opinion, like any other court of common justice, requires that all the testimony in the case be taken before attempt is made to pass judgment. Too often historians assume the character of special pleaders in matters of international and sectional dispute. Our American histories have much to say about the barbarities of the Indians affd the British, and very little to say about the barbarities of the white men and the American troops. Mention has already been made of the forcible removal of the Moravian missionaries and some of their followers from southern Ohio to Detroit because these friendly and neutral people had repeatedly warned American settlers of the approach of raids by the hostile Indians sent from Detroit to exterminate them. Mention has also been made of the barbarous massacre of Christian Indians by American troops from the Pittsburgh district because the Christian Indians were suspected of murdering American settlers. The Moravians brought to Detroit were afterward given permission to settle on the Clinton River just above the present site of Mt. Clemens. The Indians of that locality were so hostile and threatening toward them that several years later they asked permission to leave. Some of them went back to Ohio and Pennsylvania, but another band of them settled on the north side of the River Thames in Canada about 30 miles above the site of Chatham, where they built a village termed Moraviantown. There a few missionaries and several families of Christian Indians lived in log cabins, tilling the soil and taking no part in the hostilities between the Americans and the British. When Gen. Harrison's army arrived at Moraviantown the American soldiers regarded the Moravian Indians as enemies and treated them accordingly. They stripped their gardens of 188 THE STORY OF DETROIT their vegetables, raided the houses, seized all their food supplies, drove the people out and then burned the buildings, leaving nothing to mark the spot except the apple orchards that had been planted and the cellars and foundations of the buildings. The inhabitants were left destitute in a remote wilderness, and they were only saved from starvation through the charity of the people of Detroit and Amherstburg, where the supply of food was very meager. A Canadian historian gives an account of the Battle of the Thames, with the story of the death and burial of Tecumseh, which is partially quoted below: "The day before the battle, about four in the afternoon, the Flemings, who lived near Moraviantown, were told by a Moravian Indian that the Yankees were approaching, and warned them to flee. Fleming placed his family in a canoe and let it drift down the river. Near the mouth of Arnold's Creek he saw the American camp fires around Arnold's mill and steered close to the high river bank to avoid observation. The baby began to cry. Mrs. Fleming gagged it with her apron and they passed safely by. "Tecumseh took a few whites and Indians to reconnoitre the American camp. Desiring to draw them away before they could destroy the mill he sent part of his men to a ridge on one side of the road and then showed himself on the road. As he expected, the Americans started in pursuit of him and Tecumseh retreated up the road and crossed the river at a ford a short distance above the present site of the Thamesville bridge. The Americans, believing that the Indians had fled to Moraviantown, followed along the road and received a volley from the men whom Tecumseh had posted on the ridge. Farther up the river the Americans encountered the main body of the British and Indians at the point of Camden Gore. "Tecumseh was in front of his men directing them in the battle when a musket ball shattered his thigh bone. An American officer rushed toward him as he fell, but Tecumseh raised himself on his elbow and hurled his tomahawk which struck the American in the eye and felled him to the ground. Several Indians picked up their fallen chieftain and carried him toward THE BATTLE OF THE THAMES 189 the rear. At Tecumseh's order they seated him on the ground with his back against a large elm tree and from that position he resumed command, directing his men by loud cries and exhortations until a stray bullet penetrated his heart. Several Indians and white men ran to his body, picked it up and carried it into the woods, where they buried it in a shallow grave. One of the white men who helped to bury Tecumseh was Joe Johnston, a well known trader who lived for many years after near Florence, on the banks of the Sydenham, at a place known as Johnston's Corners. This Johnston was said to be a relative of Sir William Johnson of Tryon County, New York. "Johnston had lived among the Indians from his boyhood and had adopted Indian dress, habits and ideas. In later years he often related to Col. Kirby and other residents of Florence the particulars of Tecumseh's death, but he would never attempt to point out the location of the grave. "A day or two after the battle, Andrew Fleming, then a lad of 17, walked over the battleground. There he came upon the body of a large Indian whom the American soldiers, supposing the body to be that of Tecumseh, had scalped and flayed for pieces of skin to be kept as souvenirs of the battle." But the Indian so mutilated was not Tecumseh, and the trophies thus obtained were therefore spurious. This and many other incidents in wars between civilized and barbarian races go to show that civilization is but skin deep and that it gives way altogether if such a conflict is long sustained. CHAPTER XXX VII STORIES OF THE CITY HALL CANNON I Nfront of the Detroit CityHall, on either side of the east portico, stand two ancient muzzle-loading cannon mounted on stone bases. The inscriptions state that these guns are relics of the War of 18 12 and were used by Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813. But there is much more history and tradition attaching to these guns which every Detroiter should know. Perry won the Battle of Lake Erie and after caring for the wounded on both sides and burying the dead, the prisoners were well treated and the captured British ships taken to Presque Ilie Harbor, now Erie, Pa. The war was by no means ended on the land. Over in Canada there was still a formidable British force about Niagara River, enough, in fact, to give us the worst of an encounter known variously as the Battle of Lundy's Lane, Bridgewater and Niagara, which took place July 25, 1814, io months after the Battle of Lake Erie. For fear of a British raid to attempt recovery of their lost ships-and the Americans could not afford to waste men in guarding them-the ships were scuttled and sunk in the harbor. After the war the 9.,ueen Charlotte and the Detroit were raised and used for several years in the lake carrying trade between Buffalo, Detroit and other lake ports. The cannon from both the British and American ships were dismounted and taken ashore at Erie and stored in the naval yard, but the Government discontinued that station in 18,25 and the guns were sold at auction. Most of them were broken up for junk but several were brought to the Government depot in Detroit, which was on Woodbridge Street between Cass and Wayne. Three guns, some reports say five, lay on the water front half buried in the mud until 1834, when the Government land and property was sold to Oliver Newberry, who established a shipyard there. I90 STORIES OF THIE CITY HALL CANNON 9 191 At the Fourth of July celebration of 1835 the ship carpenters and mechanics employed in Mr. Newberry's yard asked permission to fire one of the guns a few times as their part in the celebration. Mr. Newberry gave consent and they went about the street passing the hat to raise money for buying powder. They applied to N. Prouty, who kept a grocery and restaurant in a frame building which stood on piles over the river on the south side of Woodbridge Street, and who rented the second floor for school purposes. Prouty would give but So cents toward the powder fund and this incensed the workmen, who assured Prouty that he would soon hear from his contribution. They procured a keg of powder and used four pounds for their first charge. The old gun boomed grandly and stood the strain. Then they decided to give Prouty a surprise, so they rammed home 14Y2 pounds of powder- and when they fired this off Prouty's building rocked violently on its pile foundation and all the glass fell out of the windows in a shower. That ended the celebration in that quarter. In 1838 the Canadian Patriot War caused great excitement in Detroit, and in spite of all attempts to preserve strict neutrality many adventurous Americans Joined the "patriots") and took part in a disastrous raid against Windsor. After they were driven out of Canada in confusion and several had been killed and wounded the survivors decided to seize the long range gun and bombard Windsor from this side. They mounted it on two logs, loaded it with powder and a lot of scrap iron and, just as they were elevating the muzzle in the hope of landing a shot in Windsor, Gen. Hugh Brady came rushing to the spot. The men in charge of the gun ran away. After seeing that the gun was unloaded, Gen. Brady ordered a man named Turner Stetson to break it up and render it harmless. Stetson was a huge man. who stood six feet four inches tall and was supposed to be the strongest man in Michigan. He inserted in the muzzle of the gun a wedge-shaped piece of iron,3 and taking a heavy sledge, tried' to split the gun. After sledging away for nearly an hour he only succeeded in chipping off a fragment of the muzzle, and gave up the job. That flaw is still 192 THE STORY OF DETROIT apparent in the muzzle of the longer gun at the south side of the City Hall portico. In 1851 Oliver Newberry was involved in debt and sold 51 feet of his frontage to Franklin Moore and George Foote. In 1871 Buhl & Ducharme bought the other part of the frontage and erected their wholesale hardware building, which still stands on the site. One of the old cannon lay on the dividing line and it is said that Alexander Chapoton, who erected the building, buried that gun to get it out of the way. This story is disputed by some of the old residents. In 1852 the guns were set on end in masonry and used as snubbing posts for boat lines. In 1872 Detroiters experienced a wave of patriotic enthusiasm and Alderman Francis Adams suggested that the city buy the old cannon and convert them into patriotic memorials rather than see them broken up. The longest gun had been sold 'for junk to J. B. Wayne, of the Fulton Iron Works. A subscription was taken up and ten men contributed $Io each for the purchase of the gun to be presented to the city. Five days later Moore & Foote presented the shorter gun to the city. A third cannon of the lot was presented to the Northwestern Historical Society of Ohio, and it now stands beside the Perry monument in Cleveland. The two cannon retained by Detroit were mounted in their present positions in 1874, and on July 4 they were draped with flags and formally dedicated. The Light Guards and the National Guards turned out to escort a procession and the City Hall yard was packed with people while Levi Bishop and several other citizens delivered dedicatory addresses. Levi Bishop, by the way, was a notable citizen of old Detroit. In the 1830's he was a journeyman shoemaker and a member of an artillery company which had an ancient six-pounder cannon which was dragged about the streets and used to fire salutes on July 4 and other patriotic occasions. On the Fourth of July, 1839, they were firing it as rapidly as possible where the Bagley bust now stands on the Campus Martius. The gun grew very hot and the man who was thumbing the vent to prevent ignition of the powder while the gun was being loaded jerked away his thumb TOP--CITY HALL CANNON, 32-POUND CARRONADE, USED ON PERRY'S SHIP BOTTOM-CITrrY HALL CANNON, LONG 24-POUND GUN, USED TO BOMBARD DETROIT IN I812 193 194 THE STORY OF DETROIT as the hot metal seared it. At that instant Levi Bishop was at the muzzle ramming home a bag of gunpowder. A ptemature explosion occurred which shattered Bishop's right arm and he was forced to undergo an amputation without anesthetics. One of the artillery company then attacked the cannon with a sledge and broke it up. Bishop was forced to find a new calling, and he became a noted lawyer and one of the foremost contributors of articles on early Detroit history. It was the general opinion that the accident spoiled a poor shoemaker and made a good lawyer. In his address Mr. Bishop said he remembered that six cannon were brought to Detroit from Erie. There was much dispute as to the number of the guns and also as to the history of each one. John Ramsay, an aged resident of Windsor, said in i874 that he knew the history of the long gun very well but knew nothing about the others. He said that the long gun was not used on any ship in the Battle of Lake Erie. It was one of two long range cannon which were set up in a cellar excavation on the site of Windsor and used to bombard Fort Shelby in Detroit on the morning of Gen. Hull's surrender. One shot from that gun had entered the fort, killing Lieut. Hanks, Lieut. Sibley and Dr. Reynolds, and dangerously wounding Dr. Blood. Its companion gun sent a ball through the south gate of the fort, killing two soldiers. The guns lay about Windsor for several years until they were sold for old iron, and this one which stands at the south side of the City Hall portico was brought across the river. These ancient relics, it will be seen, have an interesting history and the knowledge of the part they have played in both attack and defense of Detroit should make them objects of permanent interest to all Detroiters. CHAPTER XXX VIII FAMINE AND PESTILENCE IN DETROIT THE loss of Barclay's squadron, of Maiden and Detroit, was a heavy blow to the British cause and the Battle of the Thames ended the war in the West. Gen. Procter's conduct was investigated. It was found that he had deserted his command at the beginning of the battle, taking away a number of men from the force that was already outnumbered. For this he was publicly reprimanded and suspended from his rank and pay for six months. He then disappeared from the pages of history and died in Bath, England, in 1858. On October 7, Gen. Harrison started to remove his army back to American soil. He occupied Detroit and Fort Maiden, making such shelter as he could to replace the burned barracks in both places. He found the situation'I in peace almost as difficult as it had been in war, for neither fort was provisioned for the subsistence of an- army. All materials that could not be removed had been burned or destroyed. The Indians had been so troublesome at Detroit that little farming had been done. Amherstburg had been pretty well eaten out and both places were largely dependent upon supplies which must be shipped in from down the lake. The fort at Detroit was renamed Fort Shelby in honor of Gen. Isaac Shelby, governor of Kentucky, and the Kentucky volunteers who had contributed so much toward the success of the war in this section. But the fort itself was only about 400 feet square and several thousand men must be provided for as well as possible before winter would set in and navigation be stopped by the ice in the lake and river. As many as possible of the men were sent down to the Maumee to make their way back to southern Ohio and Kentucky but these had to be furnished with subsistence out of the short supply. The soldiers who were left in Detroit asked what they were to do and the orders were to do the best they 1950 196 T14E STORY OF DETROIT could to keep from starving and freezing. The officers found quarters in the homes of the local residents as did some of the soldiers; but some of them were a rough lot whom nobody wanted in his home. These soldiers were forced to forage for fuel and shelter. Just west of the fort was a farm under lease to James May and adjoining that on the west was May's own farm. The soldiers fell upon the farm buildings and tore them down. They tore away the fences and created general havoc. Mr. May, one of the leading citizens of the town, protested to Gen. Harrison and to Gen. Cass, but they told him that it was a case of dire necessity. The men must have shelter and fuel to keep them warm and cook their food. He must look to the Government for compensation. But the authority of government was far away in Washington and the officials were so engaged with the prosecution of the war along the entire border from the Great Lakes to Maine and from Maine to New Orleans that the conditions in Detroit, however desperate, could command little attention, so the military authorities here did the best they could, ranging far and wide in search of foodstuffs. Gen. Harrison left the fort and troops in charge of Lieut.-Col. George Croghan, who thought himself much abused. He sent an expedition down to Port Talbot (now Port Stanley) half way down the Erie shore, where they raided farms and a flour mill in search of food. This enabled him to distribute 50 barrels of flour among the poor inhabitants. In one of his letters to Gen. Harrison, Croghan said: "I am still offering flour to the poor citizens of the territory. Am afraid if the Government withdraws its support two-thirds of them will starve, as they have nothing. Industry is of little avail. Provisions can not be had for love or money. I wish Gov. Cass would make his appearance and establish something like order among his people. I assure you it would be a great relief to the military." Constant rumors circulated about the approach of British troops from the East and of Indian raids from the North. Harrison appointed Gen. Cass military and civil Governor of Michigan FAMINE AND PESTILENCE IN DETROIT 197 Territory and Western Canada, and left for Buffalo October 16, taking 1,300 men for military operations in that region. With a scanty food supply not sufficient for the civilian population, Detroit was further burdened with the quartering of the I7th, 26th, 27th and 28th Regiments of United States Infantry, Capt. Sholes' artillery company and a regiment of Pennsylvania militia. The British prisoners were sent down to Chillicothe, O. Gen. Cass, Col. Paul of the 27th and many other officers left Detroit before winter set in and the command devolved upon Col. Anthony Butler and Col. George Croghan, with the real work falling principally upon Croghan. This was a heavy responsibility to lay upon the shoulders of a man only 22 years of age. A superficial view of the situation might lead to the opinion that the older officers saw trouble ahead and might be seeking avoidance of the responsibility of subsisting Detroit and a small army through the coming winter. Col. Croghan is worthy of particular mention right here. He was born at Louisville, Ky., November 5, 1791. He was graduated from William and Mary College in 1810 and soon after he entered the military service of his country in Gen. Harrison's army. His father had been an officer in the Revolution. His mother was a sister of Gen. George Rogers Clarke, the hero of Vincennes. Croghan fought at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 and was made captain in the I7th Infantry in 1812. For valorous service outside Fort Meigs he was made a major; for his plucky defense of Fort Stephenson against Col. Procter's attack with 500 regulars and 700 Indians he was made a lieutenant colonel and given a gold medal by Congress. He served through the war and resigned from the Army in 1817. In 1824 he was appointed postmaster at New Orleans. In 1825 President John Quincy Adams appointed him inspector-general of the United States Army. He afterward served with distinction in the War with Mexico under Gen. Taylor and was cited for distinguished service in the Battle of Monterey. He died in New Orleans, January 8, 1849. In 1835 a street in the Cityof Detroit was named in his honor but during the i88o's one short section of that street earned a 198 198THE STORY OF DETROIT bad reputation and to relieve the residents of the- odium attaching to a street name which appeared every day in the police news the name was changed to Monroe Avenue, although it connects with the original Monroe Avenue at an angle. In preparation for winter the soldiers were sent to the woods with axes. Trees were felled and hauled from one to three miles to the vicinity of the fort. A quadrangular cantonment of the rudest description was laid out, on lines closely approximating the present street lines of Cass Avenue and Lafayette Boulevard, where low huts of logs and poles were erected. While these were building the soldiers occupied tents and a few vacant houses which were badly damaged by their lawless misuse. The soil about the cantonment was marshy and the most elementary sanitary provisions were commonly neglected, so the enclosure became a mere morass of mud and filth. As a consequence of such conditions a deadly epidemic closely resembling Asiatic cholera soon broke out in the cantonment and spread to the town. In a few weeks about 700 soldiers were dead of it. At first the military interments were made 'in the old English cemetery on the west side of Woodward Avenue between Congress and Lamned streets but the cemetery soon became crowded, and the soldiers became so dispirited and indifferent that they would dig a grave in the most convenient place so as to insure a short carry, for all the funerals were conducted "by hand." At first the surgeons of the post did not realize the extremely infectious nature of the disease and they had no thought of seeking the cause of the infection-which may have been water from a well that had been defiled systematically when the British evacuated Detroit for the second time. As a result the whole town was plague stricken. Burials were presently made in pits with several bodies interred together. One man narrowly escaped being buried alive. Coffins were out of the question and the men were commonly buried in blankets. A bystander named Victor Moross noticed the hand of one victim who had been laid in a pit moving feebly. Moross called out that the man was alive and he was rescued. The earth would be shoveled over the dead, the muffled drums would roll, a single volley FAMINE AND PESTILENCE IN DETROIT i99 would be fired over the pit and the soldiers would go back to their dreary, leaky huts to speculate as to which men would furnish the funeral material for the morrow. After the ground had frozen for the winter and a considerable part of the soldiers had recovered from the disease, the epidemic died out, but there is documentary evidence indicating that the abatement may have been partly due to a discreet scattering of the troops to other cantonments. Adjt. Gen. George McDougall left a report of the disposition of the Michigan militia forces about Detroit on January I1, 1814. His judgment as to distances was not very accurate, but here is his report: Troops at River Aux Ecorces, nine miles, 36 men and officers. Troops at River Rouge, eight miles, 34 men and officers. Troops at South Settlement, three miles, 44 men and officers. The Detroit company, 103 men and officers. Northeast Settlement, two miles, 53 men and officers. Grand Marais (east of Fairview), six miles, 65 men and officers. Grosse Pointe, 15 miles, 43 men and officers. L'Anse Creuse (Goose Bay), 25 miles, 18 men and officers. River Huron (Clinton), 30 miles, 35 men and officers. River St. Clair, 38 men and officers. River Raisin and Otter Creek, 42 miles, 133 men and officers. Total, 602 militiamen from 14 to 50 years of age. 47 commissioned officers. This scattering of troops no doubt relieved the crowding in Detroit, and it relieved the food situation in the town by virtually quartering these defenders on the people of the outlying farms and hamlets. On March 3 Col. Butler left for Kentucky and Col. Croghan was left in sole charge. His letter to Gen. Harrison already published would indicate that the civilians of the town tried to impose upon the youthful commandant by paying no attention to his orders. It was learned in Detroit that a large British force was gathering at the River Thames settlements in Canada, presumably with the intention o attacking Detroit. The Indians began to 200 200 THE STORY OF DETROIT appear in unusual numbers, chiefly members of the Chippewa village on the River Clinton, and of several large villages on the Saginaw River. These conditions did not ease the burden of responsibility of Croghan. As soon as navigation opened in April, Arthur St. Clair, son of the Governor, Gen. St. Clair, was sent up the lake with a squadron of five vessels for an expedition against Mackinac Island, but on looking the situation over, he abandoned the project and returned. The devastation caused by the war and the small production of foodstuffs is pictured in many fragments of letters written from Detroit in those dismal days. Judge Woodward wrote to James Monroe, Secretary of State: "The desolation of this territory is beyond description. No kind of meal or flour is to be procured and nothing for the subsistence of the cattle. More than half the population is desti10 tute of animals for domestic or agricultural purposes. The fencing of their farms is entirely destroyed by the incursions of the enemy and has been used as fuel for the military. Their houses are left without glass and in many cases the flooring has been burned. Their clothing has been plundered from them by the Indians. It is a literal fact that the inhabitants of the River Raisin have been obliged to resort to chopped hay, boiled, for their subsistence. Many, possessing neither firmness of mind or body sufficient to sustain the calamities with which they have been assailed, have sunk into the asylum where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." Several months later the Secretary of War authorized Gov. Cass to distribute PiSoo among the people of the River Raisin district and the entire amount was invested in flour. CHAPTER XXXIX DETROIT'S LAST INDIAN MASSACRE DURING the troubled period before the first British surrender of Detroit the British government had established a system of subsidies among the Indians of Michigan. The Chippewas were a numerous tribe of the North. They had driven the Sac and Fox Indians out of the Saginaw Valley and had established several large villages there. A number of white traders, some French and some American, had established fur trading posts there as agents of the American Fur Company, of which John Jacob Astor was the head. Some of these traders had annexed one or more Indian wives and been virtually adopted into the tribal bands. Judge Riley, who came from Schenectady, N. Y.; Whitmore Knaggs, Jacob Smith, and Louis Campau, first white settler of Grand Rapids, were some of these traders. Antoine Campau, and a huge pioneer named Fisher, known among the Indians as the Grand Blanc, or "Big White," lived as the head of an Indian village where the present town of Grand Blanc is located. These agents diverted trade from the British to the Americans and efforts were made to shift the fur trade from their hands and center it at Amherstburg. A big Indian came into the Saginaw Valley from Canada, apparently to promote that diversion, and at the same time the Indians were given presents of rum, blankets, guns and hatchets when they would bring their furs to Amherstburg. This big Indian became a menace to the Americans, for he soon succeeded in making himself head chief of the Saginaw bands. His name was Kishkawko, which is spelled in various ways in the old records. Kishkawko brought the Saginaw Chippewas into alliance with the British and against the Americans. He was one of the leading scalp-hunters at the River Raisin massacre and he was a terror to settlers who lived about Detroit. After the massacre he 201I 202 THE STORY OF DETROIT came to Detroit with several members of his band and threatened the lives of the Americans. Near the site of Belle Isle bridge he encountered Dr. William McDowell Scott, who had been visiting a patient up the river, and pursued him to Joseph Spencer's tannery (where the amusement park is now located). As the doctor bolted through the door Kishkawko's hatchet whizzed past his head and buried its blade in the door jamb. He then proceeded up the shore, terrorizing all the settlers. Kishkawko was accustomed to bring his band and with it that of Owosso, chief of the Shiawassee Chippewas, to Detroit via Oakland County on their way to Amherstburg. On their way going and coming they would camp near the present foot of Chene Street and now and then they would parade through the streets of Detroit single file in a threatening manner. One day old Kishkawko met Gen. Cass and told him the people of Detroit must give his young men presents or they would become very troublesome. Gen. Cass replied that if his young men showed any disposition to become troublesome the young men of Detroit would take care of them so they would never become troublesome again. William McDowell Scott married Nancy (Mary Ann) Meldrum. They lived in a fine house where the Mariners' Church now stands. The house was burned in a great fire January I, 1842. During the spring of 1814 these Indians drove off many cattle from the farms and occasionally raided the public common in the vicinity of the present Washington Boulevard, and stole cattleof the townspeople. Day by day they became bolder. The gates of the town were kept closed and guarded at night. Watchmen patrolled the streets and the residents slept with their arms beside their beds. Many of the troops were withdrawn for military operations in the Niagara district while a small fort was maintained at St. Clair to watch Indian operations on the St. Clair River. The few soldiers remaining about Detroit were mostly men who were unfit for duty. Among the residents of Detroit in 1814 was a soldier named Ananias McMillan, who lived at the corner of Bates and Lamed streets with his wife and children, one of whom was a son I I years of age named Archibald. He was a man of means and had DETROIT'S LAST INDIAN MASSACRE 203 formerly owned a small distillery at Delaware, Canada, but on joining the American cause he had burned all his buildings there. On September Io, 1814, McMillan returned from an expedition into Canada and found his wife disturbed because the family cow had not come to the gate of the town to be milked and fed as usual on the night before. Indians had been seen about the common and Mrs. McMillan would not let the boy go to look for the cow. McMillan ate his breakfast and then, taking his musket and the boy taking a long goad, they started for the common in search of the cow. As they came to the northeast corner of the fort at Lafayette and Griswold streets they saw three men sitting on a log and stopped to talk with them. The men advised McMillan not to go farther for the Indians had been seen on the common that morning painted as if for war. McMillan persisted. When father and son had gone on' as far as the present intersection of State and Griswold streets two shots were fired from a clump of bushes and the elder McMillan fell dead. An Indian rushed out and scalped him, while the boy fled toward the fort, pursued by another Indian mounted on a pony. As the pony came close the boy whirled about and struck it across the face with his goad, causing it to rear and swerve violently. Again the Indian came on and again the boy used his switch but at the third approach the Indian jumped off his pony, seized the boy and, throwing him across the pony, dashed away up the common. That same day an Indian of Kishkawko's band, named Tonquish, shot a settler named Sargent at River Rouge and Sargent died of the wound two days later. Michael Murphy, a farm hand, drove to Judge Moran's potato field just east of Randolph Street to dig potatoes and the Indians shot him and carried off his scalp, leaving his remains horribly mutilated. The alarm quickly spread and Gen. Cass sent messengers to call out the available men of the town to drive away the Indians. Among those who answered the call were Judges Moran and Conant, Capt. Francis Cicotte, James Cicotte, Edward and George Cicotte, Col. H. J. Hunt, Gen. Lamed, William Meldrum, John and James Meldrum, James, Peter and John Riley, half-breed sons of Judge Riley, who were born at the trading 204 THE STORY OF DETROIT post in the Saginaw Valley; Lambert Beaubien, John B. Beaubien, Joseph Andre, Louis Moran, Louis Dequindre, Lambert LaFoy, Joseph Riopelle, Joseph Visger, Jack Smith, Ben Lucas, and John Ruland. These men, fully armed and equipped, mounted horses and rode to the Witherell farm and then into the woods where they found a hastily deserted Indian camp where beef from a freshly killed cow was roasting on sticks over the fire. There they found Archie McMillan's hat. The Rileys were expert trailers and they led the pursuit. They encountered the Indians in the brush at the rear of the Cass farm. The Indians fired hastily and then fled. Nobody was hit and the white men took up the chase with shrill yells in imitation of the Indian war cry. Suddenly Peter Riley pulled up his horse, sprang to the ground and fired his rifle across the back of his steed. An Indian sprang from a clump of brush and fell dead and Riley ran and scalped him, waving his bloody trophy at the Indians who still fled. A running fight was maintained all the rest of the day and the firing was frequent. Ben Lucas had a hand-to-hand fight with an Indian within a few feet of Gen. Cass and killed his man. The white men scoured the surrounding country for a distance of three miles back of the town and as far as the River Rouge before they returned. Arrived at the common they stopped to take count of themselves and their scalp trophies. It was found that William Meldrum and Maj. Louis Moran were missing. Shouts presently brought an answer from the distance and the two men came in from pursuing an Indian for a long distance. They carried his scalp. The Indians were thoroughly cowed and never troubled Detroit settlers again. Arrived outside the town the Indian-hunters raised the scalp yell, which scared the women, who feared they had all been killed and that the Indians had returned to attack the town. Next morning an Indian woman appeared at the gate of the town with a flag of truce. She said that in addition to the Indians who had been killed and scalped four others had died of their wounds and th-at old Kishkawko was so badly wounded that his men were carrying him in a blanket. She DETROIT'S LAST INDIAN MASSACRE 205 promised there would be no more trouble, but old Kishkawko was destined to live for 12 years more and to be the cause of other alarms. The missing boy, Archie McMillan, was a prisoner among the Indians of old Kishkawko's village at the site of the present city of Saginaw all that winter. Rewards were offered by citizens of Detroit for his safe return to his distracted mother, but the Indians were afraid to bring him back. He was adopted into an Indian family and well treated. All that could be learned in Detroit was that he was alive and well. After the leaves came out on the trees in the following spring Archie attempted to escape, hoping to make his way back to Detroit through the wilderness of Ioo miles alone and on foqt. His absence was soon discovered and Indian trailers followed him. The boy kept looking back over his trail and when he saw his pursuers he took refuge in a hemlock tree which offered concealment and climbed as far as he dared. The Indians soon discovered him and ordered him to come down. He refused, but after they had shot a few blunt arrows which stung him smartly he surrendered and was led back to Saginaw. Presently three Saginaw Indians came to Detroit to sell furs. They were arrested by Capt. Whitmore Knaggs and locked in jail to be held as hostages for the boy's safe return. Word was sent to Saginaw that they would be released only when Archie McMillan was delivered safely at the fort. This resort brought immediate results. A band of Saginaw Indians made the trip to Amherstburg in a canoe, bringing Archie McMillan with them, and, fearing to stop at Detroit, they delivered him to the British authorities at Fort Malden. From there he was brought to Detroit by other Indians and the prisoners held as hostages were released. Archibald McMillan lived for many years after his thrilling adventure and died in Jackson, 1i86o. His son, Archibald, was a well-known Michigan newspaper man in the 188o's, being at one time editor of the Bay City Tribune and later of the Bay City Press. Mrs. Mary McMillan, mother of Archibald, died in her home on Miami Avenue (now Broadway) in 1869. CHAPTER XL SUSPICIONS OF DISLOYALTY N the histories of Detroit thus far published there is scant reference to the status of affairs during the period of the War of 1812. Therefore a little additional detail may not be out of place. It must be remembered that the population of Detroit was of mixed nationalities. The Americans were in intimate contact with the French, who usually sided with them against the British. The British were openly opposed to the American Government and intensely Tory in sentiment. In addition to these there were citizens of Dutch descent who came to Michigan from New York. Most of these were Americans at heart but quite a few Dutch settlers in Michigan and Canada were allied with the "United Empire Loyalists" for one reason or another. The loyalty of some of the Dutch residents of the Hudson and Mohawk valleys had been under suspicion during the early days of the Revolution. This in spite of the fact that they furnished some of the ablest commanders and fighting patriots of the State of New York. Gen. Philip John Schuyler, who rendered valiant service, was displaced by Horatio Gates, a man greatly his inferior. Some of the Dutch families were persecuted under suspicion of Toryism and fled to Canada and the Northwest Territory. Jonathan Schieffelin, of Detroit, was a prominent merchant and was elected to the first legislative assembly in spite of the fact that he always declared his allegiance to the British cause, and his election was contested with the result that FranCois Chabert de Joncaire was substituted for him. During the War of 1812 suspicions as to the loyalty of certain residents led to the laying of serious charges against prominent citizens. One instance will serve to show the public state of mind. Richard Smyth's tavern on Woodward Avenue, just below Jefferson, was a s6rt of public forum and political headquar2o6 SUSCICIONS OF DiSLOYALTY 207 Su~IcnoNs OF DISLOYALTY 207 ters where all local gossip was exchanged. One of the leading citizens of Detroit was James Abbott, a merchant having his store at the southeast corner of Woodward Avenue and Woodbridge Street, where he acted as postmaster in I8o6. He afterward built a mansion where the Hammond Building now stands. A formal charge of disloyalty was made against Mr. Abbott by Richard Smyth, July 7, 1813, to this effect: "I have been acquainted with James Abbott for 13 years and regarded him as a good citizen until two years ago. I have seen a man named William Hands, who is British high sheriff at Sandwich, constantly frequenting Abbott's office at the opening of mail since the declaration of war and I have observed James and Samuel Abbott frequently riding down to the French ferry opposite Sandwich to stop there for some time. At the same time his three sisters and his mother were living at Sandwich and the sisters were mar- JAMES ABBOTT HOUSE SITE OF HAMMOND BUILDING ried to British officers stationed T OR N DOWN IN L88D at Malden. He accompanied Frangois Baby, of Canada, in a search of Detroit homes for property carried off from his house by Hull's soldiers at the time of the invasion of Canada. They went through the houses of several citizens recovering such property. Abbott's conduct in the presence of American citizens and British officers plainly indicated his preference for the latter and his contempt for the former." Abbott's answer to the charges was in the form of a general denial. He made one specific answer, saying that the only house he had searched for Baby's lost household goods was that of Richard Smyth, his accuser, and that Baby there recognized one of his lost carpets on Smyth's floor. Although the evidence was purely circumstantial and more or less prejudiced, Abbott was found guilty of treasonable conduct by a court at Cleveland, 208 THE STORY OF DETRPIT but nothing serious came of the case except a temporary prejudice against Abbott. War seems to have a demoralizing influence everywhere and at all times. In Detroit numerous offenses were committed by soldiers which were tried by courts martial. After the Battle of Lake Erie and the surrender of the crews of Barclay's squadron a number of American soldiers were found serving with the enemy. Most of them had been pressed into the service against their will, but all were tried. Here are a few examples: Private John Baptiste Alard, charged with deserting to the enemy and found serving on the British ship Queen Charlotte. Found not guilty because he had been coerced into the service. Private Hiat Lazer, charged with repeated enlistment for bounty, followed by desertion, swindling and other conduct unbecoming a soldier. Sentenced to have half his pay stopped for i6 months. Sentence made mild because of youth of prisoner and villainous influence of father, who had instigated all his desertions. Joseph Statia, drummer, 1st Artillery; charged with desertion, being in arms against the United States at Mackinac and in the Battle of Lake Erie. Regarded as not of sound mind and forced to make up lost time in U. S. service. James Walsh, 1st Artillery; desertion at Mackinac. Found guilty, but had been a deserter from British service and forced to serve to save his life. Ordered to make up lost time. John Wilson, private, 19th Infantry; disobedience of orders, intoxication and desertion. Walked all the way from Sandusky voluntarily to answer charge. Found guilty and sentenced to be shot. Recommended to mercy because of previous good conduct. Private John Rankin, 19th Infantry; sleeping at his post. Sentenced to be shot. Private John Russell; desertion at Detroit. Sentenced to be shot. Private John Arnold, 28th Infantry; charged with offering counterfeit money for whisky at Richard Smyth's tavern. Sentenced to appear and parade from 8 to o10 o'clock three morn SUSPICIONS OF DISLOYALTY 209 ings in succession, carrying ladle, lead and molds for making counterfeit money; having his face and hands blackened, his coat turned and a label fastened on his back with the inscription "Counterfeit money for sale by John Arnold." Private Adam Smith, I7th Ihfantry; leaving his post while on picket duty; sentenced to wear a ball and chain and act as camp colorman (scavenger) with wheelbarrow and shovel, and have his rations of whiskey stopped for one month. Col. Thomas D. Owings, 28th Infantry; implicated with Colonels Wells and Paul in a charge of misappropriation of public property. Certain property captured from the enemy at the Battle of the Thames was brought to Detroit to be sold to the highest bidder. Proceeds to be.paid to the quartermaster. A pair of elegant map boxes, leather, containing china dishes, silverware and table utensils, valued at $200, supposed to have been the property of Gen. Procter, were retained by said officers for their own private use at their mess. Result of trial not given. These are but a few of many cases tried by courts martial. CHAPTER XLI DETROIT BECOMES A CITY THE War of 18 12 was ended by the Treaty of Ghent, concluded December 24, 1814, but Europe was far away in those days of small, slow-sailing vessels and it was not proclaimed in this country until February 17, 1815. During the interval the Battle of New Orleans was fought and won by the Americans under Andrew Jackson, January 8, 18 15, nearly five. weeks after the treaty had been signed. That treaty provided, among other things, the determination of the boundary between the United States and Canada, from the St. Lawrence River to Lake Superior through the middle of Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron and the middle of the main channel of the connecting rivers. It also extended the boundary from the head of Lake Superior to the Lake of the Woods. The western end of this boundary was fixed at the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods. This provision led to the complete isolation of a portion of the territory of the United States so that it is entirely surrounded by Canada and separated by several miles from the normal United States boundary. If' the reader will open his atlas at the map of the State of Minnesota he will discover this isolated territory. This curious separation arose from a common misunderstanding. The exact location of the 49th parallel of latitude was then unknown but it was supposed to lie north of the Lake of the Woods. Many years later when the boundary was extended westward along the 49th parallel a survey showed that the line ran across the lower side of the lake. This left a square block of United States territory io miles north of the adopted boundary and there it remains, a part of the State of Minnesota. Following the proclamation of peace in 1815 the rule of the Governor and Judges was resumed in Detroit regardless of the 210 DETROIT BECOMES A CITY 211 discontent of the citizens under a government which was in no way representative. During the summer a compromise was effected by which the town of Detroit was to be re-incorporated and given a municipal government under the authority of the Governor and Judges but with local authority exercised by a local board elected from the residents of the town. The Governor and Judges in executive session in the council house on October 24, 1815, adopted an act of incorporation. This act repealed all previous acts of parliament of Great Britain in the Territory of Michigan and also repealed the acts of the Legislative Council of the Northwest Territory in general assembly as approved at Chillicothe, January 18, 1802. The first board elected had the following officers: Solomon Sibley, chairman; James Abbott, treasurer, and Thomas Rowland, secretary. Their term of office expired May 16, 1816, when a new board composed of George McDougall, Stephen Mack, A. Edwards, 0. W. Miller and Peter Desnoyers 'succeeded to the office. Stringent fire regulations were adopted. Neglect to clean chimneys or having a chimney on fire was punishable by a fine of $5; having a stovepipe in contact with wood, $io; storing straw or hay within I5o feet of a house, $io; etc. The town still had a vivid recollection of the great fire caused by John Harvey, the baker. Water barrels, buckets, ladders and other equipment for fighting fire stipulated in the earlier village ordinance were again required. Licenses for selling liquors in taverns, alehouses or other places of public entertainment were issued at the discretion of the trustees on payment of $2o. A bond of $200 with sureties was required. Disorderly conduct in such places was prohibited, also the selling of liquor on Sunday except to boarders and travelers. Gambling and games of chance were prohibited and violation of the law meant forfeiture of license. Horse-racing on the public streets and fast driving were forbidden. Keeping more than one dog, permitting animals to roam at large, and working on the Sabbath except in cases of urgent necessity, were forbidden. Fences were limited to 50 inches in height and they must stand 10 feet back from the road. 212 THE STORY OF DETROIT Gravel walks were ordered constructed and the planting of shade trees, i5 feet apart, each tree to be protected by a box six feet high, was compulsory. A wharf o10 feet wide and extending 200oo feet into the river was authorized June i i, 1816. Fees were to be o50 cents for tying a boat of 5 tons or under, coming from a distance of i0 miles or more. Boats up to 25 tons were to pay $1.50 and larger craft $2. The water front at that time was along the south side of Woodbridge Street. There was a numerous lawless element in the old town and drunken orgies in taverns and on the streets occurred, sometimes on the Sabbath. Such offenses were punished by fines of $3 to $Io. Often the offenders were locked up because they had no money left. The fines were paid by labor on public works. In 1816 Detroit had 85o inhabitants, and few of them seemed to have much r.espect for the local ordinances, for each month a considerable number of the leading citizens, as D. C. McKinstry, John R. Williams, for whom John R. street was named and the first Mayor.of Detroit; Joseph Campau, "richest man in Michigan"; Lewis Cass, Governor; Conrad Ten Eyck, Solomon Sibley, Oliver Williams, Antoine Dequindre, Benjamin Woodworth, Louis Moran and others were frequently mentioned as violators of the fire ordinances. A curious petition came before the trustees December 2, 1812. Charles Lamrned appeared as attorney for the corporation of Ste. Anne's Church and petitioned that the bodies which had been buried about the old church near the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Griswold Street be suffered to remain where they were on condition that the corporation undertake to level the ground to the established grade of Jefferson Avenue so as to form no obstruction when the street should be extended through the cemetery. The petition was granted on condition that a bond of $3,oo000 be filed to assure the performance of the work so as to conform to the street and sidewalk levels. Thus it happened that the remains in this ancient cemetery (in which the first buried was said to have been a child of Cadillac), including almost all the Roman Catholic residents who had died DETROIT BECOMES A CITY 213 in Detroit in the preceding I 15 years, were left under the streets of Detroit, except for a few which already had been removed to another burial plat east of Bates Street. Every time an excavation is made for a building, a sewer or a water or electric main in that vicinity the workmen come upon the serried ranks of unknown dead. During the year 1922 an excavation in Jefferson Avenue uncovered the bones of 30 of these dead-andgone Detroiters-some of them victims of the Indians' tomahawk or bullet. The bones are always laid aside and given reburial out of the line of excavation. In those days there was a constant demand for liquor and tavern licenses, not so much for the refreshment of travelers as for quenching the thirst of the inhabitants of the town. The laws were frequently violated by selling liquors without a license in private homes and stores, and by selling on Sundays. The first prosecution was against Catherine Bailey, for selling liquor on December 29, I816-evidently in anticipation of the New Year celebration, which was very popular in early Detroit. The consumption of strong drink was liberal in the best families. Elijah Willits paid a fine of $20 imposed on Catherine Bailey, who was his mother-in-law. The first licenses were granted to Oliver Williams and Louis Facer. Other licenses were granted from time to time until Detroit was well peppered with saloons. Trials and punishment of citizens for drunkenness and riotous and disorderly conduct were very numerous. The morality of the community seemed to suffer from cheap whisky obtainable in practically every block. "Blind pigs" were numerous. CHAPTER XLII EARLY PUBLIC WORKS PUBLIC market place was established in the middle of Woodward Avenue just below Jefferson Avenue, which consisted of a long, narrow building with a double row of stalls, and for a time places were provided for teams on each side of the market, but presently all teams and even wheelbarrows were ordered away from the market after daylight on Tuesdays and Saturdays, which were the big market days, because these people who paid no stall rent made disastrous competition for the renters of stalls. Fines were frequently imposed for selling unwholesome meats. A weighmaster was appointed to see that weights were correct. His fee was one cent for weighing articles under 28 pounds, two cents for articles between 28 and 56 pounds, and three cents for weighing up to 112 pounds. The sale of produce at any other place than the market, on market days, was punishable by a fine of $5. Purchasing of produce by hucksters to sell about town was punished by a fine of $20. At the upper end of the market building stood the public whipping post, shaped like a letter T and about five feet high. Here men who ran in debt with no intention of paying, deadbeats, petty thieves, disorderly persons, wife-beaters, habitual brawlers and other minor offenders were occasionally triced up, stripped to the waist and given 39 lashes on their bare backs. This practice was discontinued in 1830, and only three offenders were publicly whipped that year. In March, 1817, Oliver W. Miller presented an account for building a bridge across the Savoyard River where Congress Street now intersects Woodward Avenue. His bill for $104.80 was allowed by the board of trustees. Citizens of today can hardly believe that a stream 25 feet wide and from three to eight feet deep once crossed the avenue at that point. It 214 EARLY PUBLIC WORKS 21S had its origin far up on the Brush farm, crossed the lower end of Cadillac Square and emptied into the Detroit River near the site of the old Michigan Central station at the foot of Third Street. The city tax collection for 1817 was reported by Collector John Meldrum at $1,787.37 and he was allowed $89.36 for getting the money out of taxpayers who were even more reluctant than those of the present day. People from outside the town often drove their cattle to the rich pasturage on the public common to the detriment of the townspeople. Such offenders were fined and had their cattle J-Lf. THE WHIPPIN6 POST ESTABLISHED IN I818 AND ABOLISHED IN 1830 216 THE STORY OF DETROIT impounded. Abraham Edwards was allowed payment of a bill of $23.26 on September 9, 1817, for lighting the city. Lighting was by oil lamps on posts at the street corners. John R. Williams submitted an ordinance compelling alleged tavern keepers to keep food and beds for chance lodgers instead of catering exclusively to the casual users of strong drinks. In July, 1817, the rigors of the law were so relaxed as to permit hogs to run at large in the public streets provided their noses were properly ringed to prevent them from rooting up lawns and penetrating into private gardens. In August, Thomas Palmer was authorized to purchase a good fire engine from New York. In November, i818, permission for the first sewer, private, was granted to Antoine Dequindre, to extend from his house on Jefferson Avenue to the river between Randolph and Bates streets. A man named Pollard escaped from jail, leaving in possession of the gaoler one barrel of fish valued at $io. He had damaged the stovepipe to the extent of $3 and left unpaid jail fees and board amounting to $7. The trustees allowed the gaoler to keep the barrel of fish on payment of $4 to the treasurer. In 1819 Benjamin Woodworth was allowed to build a wharf at the foot of Randolph Street to be not more than 40 nor less than 20o feet wide. Woodworth kept the Steamboat Hotel at the corner of Bates and Woodbridge streets. The physicians of the city promoted a clean-up of the river front. Citizens were in the habit of dumping all manure, dead animals and garbage in the river and the shore line was marked by a windrow of offal which smelled to heaven. To correct this the trustees authorized the filling in of the river front between Wing's Wharf, at Griswold Street, and Berthelet's Wharf, at Randolph. A levy of 500 days' work was made upon the citizens. The year -1817 was marked by one event in local history which furnished plenty of excitement at the time and gossip for several years following. President James Monroe arrived on an official visit August 13 and remained here for five days. His arrival was preceded by a letter from the Secretary of War ordering the revenue cutters placed at his disposal for traveling EARLY PUBLIC WORKS 217 about the lakes and rivers. President James Monroe was and still is one of the greater figures in the history of the United States. He had been three times governor of the State of Virginia. He had been minister to Great Britain, France and Spain; one of the signers of the treaty by which we acquired Louisiana, and three years after his visit to Detroit he was to promulgate the celebrated Monroe Doctrine, which says to the powers of the old world: "Hands off American territory." At this time President Monroe was 53 years of age. He was a man a little above middle height with a compact, muscular figure. He still adhered to the dress of Washington's time, knee breeches, silk hose, low cut shoes fastened with silver buckles, a sash with brass buttons, flare coat, buff vest with a frilled ruffle of his shirt fluttering in the breeze. His mouth was large with firmly set lips which gave his face an air of sternness in repose. His forehead was broad, his eyes bluish gray. His face was long, narrowing slightly toward the chin. His hair was combed straight back from his forehead and slicked down by an application of hair oil. His arrival at the Government wharf was signaled by the booming of cannon and practically every man, woman and child was gathered near the river front to see the foremost man of the American Government set foot on the soil of Detroit. A carriage was at hand for his reception and the leading citizens were dressed in their best, many of them being mounted to give the President a triumphal procession through the streets of the town before conducting him to his hotel. Maj. Oliver Williams had been appointed marshal of the parade. Gov. Cass, Gen. Alexander Macomb and Gen. Jacob Brown, heroes of the late war, met the President at the wharf and after greetings and introductions conducted him to his carriage in which they accompanied him. The procession, led by Marshal Williams, moved up the hill and turned east on Jefferson Avenue, moving at a slow pace. As the head of the procession arrived in front of Marshal Williams' own house a handkerchief was waved from an upper window and there was a call which caused the marshal to halt the procession. He rode close to the house, 218 THE STORY OF DETROIT held a brief conversation with some one inside and then dismounted to rush up the steps of the house next door where the sign of Dr. William Brown was displayed. A strong ring at the door bell brought the doctor to the door. After a few hasty words the marshal resumed his place and the procession proceeded on its way. The bewildered dignitaries had waited in wonderment but they noticed that Dr. Brown immediately entered the Williams' house. That night a grand ball was tendered the President at Woodworth's Hotel following a banquet at which an address of welcome was made by Maj. Charles Lamed, the silver-tongued orator of the Territory, to which the President made a dignified response expressing his appreciation of the courtesy and hospitality shown him. At the end of the banquet program the toastmaster, with a roguish twinkle in his eye, called attention to the interrupted progress of the procession and called upon Oliver Williams for an explanation. Mr. Williams, slightly flushed by the refreshments, arose to say that he had no apologies to make, but it gave him great pleasure to announce the arrival at his home of a baby boay, which, in honor of their distinguished guest and this great day in Detroit history, he had named James Monroe Williams. If the speaker had any further remarks to offer they were drowned in rousing cheers in which the dignified President joined heartily. The streets of the town were illuminated with oil lamps and several transparent displays gave welcome to the distinguished visitor. One bore the words: "Welcome, Our Nation's Chief"; another: "The Pilot Who Weathered the Storm." Next day the President reviewed the local troops and attended another reception. Detroit was his last stopping place in an extended tour which included Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York. At Niagara the President was shown unusual courtesy by the British officers of the post. CHAPTER XLIII RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATI6*NAL PROMOTIONS FROM the founding of Detroit in 1701 until 1818 old Ste. Anne's Church had been the center of religious pro-I motion in Detroit. Various regimental chaplains had exercised their function among the soldiers who defended Detroit through all the troubled years, but while there had been many Protestants in Detroit since 1760, they had never manifested enough interest in religion to organize a society, muich less a church. Rev. David Bacon and his wife were sent here in' i8oo by a federation of Congregational churches in Connecticut. They kept two schools here for a time, one for boys and one for girls, 'and Mr. Bacon preached every Sunday in the council house. Later they were sent to Mackinac and after two years in mission work there they were ordered to Ohio. The first itinerant Methodist minister, Rev. Nathaniel Bangs, appeared in Detroit in 1804 and he was followed by a succession of circuit-riding ministers. Rev. Nathaniel Bangs was the great-grandfather of John Kendrick Bangs, Jr., now a resident of Detroit. Then Rev. William Case came to carry on a mission. As a result of his labors Rev. William Mitchell was able in 1810o to organize a little group of Methodist converts into a class or church with the following members: Robert Abbott, Betsy Abbott, his wife; WVilliam McCarty, Maria C. McCarty, his wife; William Stacey, Betsey Stacey, his wife, and Sarah McComb. Mr. McCarty was appointed class-leader. In 1811i Rev. Mitchell held religious services in the home of William Weaver, a Roman Catholic resident of River Rouge. Later in the season Rev. Henry Ryan, presiding elder of a Canadian circuit about the River Thames, held religious services in Detroit, assisted by Rev. Ninian Holmes. Six years later the organization numbered 30 members. 219 220 THE STORY OF DETROIT In the summer of 1816 Rev. John Monteith was sent to Detroit by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and it was through the ministration of this Presbyterian I fI --- I THE REV. JOHN MONTEITH THE REV. DAVID BACON FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNI- FIRST PROTESTANT MISSIONARY VERSITY OF MICHIGAN IN DETROIT preacher that the First Evangelistic Society of Detroit came into existence by organization on March 27, I818. It was in the summer of 1817 that the Rev. Gideon Lanning was sent here by the Genesee conference. He promoted the building of the first Protestant church in Michigan at the River Rouge, but an attack of fever and ague followed by a long siege of malarial fever compelled him to leave the finishing of the work to other hands. It was through the labors of many RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL PROMOTioNS 221 successive missionary preachers that the Protestants of Detroit and Michigan were awakened to sufficient interest in religious life to organize societies and build churches. In the 1820's church organization and building became very active and from that time there was a steady improvement of public and private morality in the community. The first Methodist society was organized in Detroit, April 12, 1821. A.church was erected on a plat of land granted by the Governor and Judges at the southeast corner of Gratiot and Farrar streets, but the church did not prosper because it was so far from the homes of its members. Later the building was used as a local museum and place of entertainment where shows were given. A second church was erected at the northeast corner of Woodward Avenue and Congress Street. The first Episcopal church was incorporated in February, 1825, and the first church was completed in the middle of the block on the east side of Woodward Avenue between Congress and Lamed streets in 1828. In January, 1825, the First Protestant Society, formerly the Evangelistic Society, organized as the First Presbyterian Church and its first church was erected at the northeast corner of Woodward Avenue and Lamed Street. The first Baptist church was organized in 1827 and it dedicated its edifice on the northwest corner of Griswold and Fort streets in 1835. The Catholic church was burned in the fire of I805. There was no other Catholic church building in Detroit until 1825. The Methodist meeting house was the first one after 1805. Shortly after the close of the Warof18I2 the leading citizens of Detroit began to take stock of their municipal and territorial equipment. They found it deficient in the important factors of education and religion. There had been schools, of course, but rarely any systematic education. The town was deplorably deficient in its supply of books, and all of those were in small private libraries and not available for the general public. The old church of Ste. Anne's and its long succession of pastors had 222 THE STORY OF DETROIT ministered well to the spiritual needs of the citizens of the Roman Catholic faith, but there was a large Protestant element whose individual members were like sheep without a shepherd for many years. The year 1817 was the. beginning of a period of general awakening in Detroit during which the people of all nationalities FIRST METHODIST CHURCH IN MICHIGAN, BUILT AT RIVER ROUGE, 1818 and Freligious creeds worked together in perfect harmony for the promotion of education, general culture and religion. As a result came the establishment of the first Michigan newspaper and the first university, the beginning of public library promotion, and the founding of the first Protestant society and the first Protestant churches. In the year 1817 Detroit had among its citizens a number of learned men who saw the urgent need of educational facilities for the people. Foremost in both learning and educational activity RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL PROMOTIONS 223 were Rev. Gabriel Richard, Rev. John Monteith and Judge Augustus B. Woodward. Fr. Richard was the most active of these in the early promotion of schools. He was a very lovable man, a fine scholar and a man of liberal mind. Often when there was no Protestant minister in Detroit he would, on request, preach to the Protestant population in the Council House, conducting religious services somewhat after the method common to Protestant churches. His English was broken and his accent and pronunciation decidedly Gallic. When the English word he wanted did not come to him readily in his discourse he would substitute the French word. For example: One day he preached a sermon from the text, "The Good Shepherd giveth his life for his sheep." Frequently when the word sheep did not come readily to his lips he substituted the French word "moutons." But nearly everybody loved Fr. Richard because he seemed to love everybody. On August 26, 1817, the first educational movement in Detroit came to a head in the passing of an act by the Governor and Judges for the founding of a university. Here was a golden opportunity for Judge Woodward to bring to the surface the most polysyllabic words in his astonishing vocabulary and, like a turtle when it lays its eggs, having once started on this route he seemed unable to stop his raid on the dictionaries. In fact, he overran the dictionaries at several points and fabricated a few terms of his own, which nearly threw the community into convulsions. In the act which he drew he styled the university which was to be, the "Catholepistemiad," or "University of Michigania." But the movement had such vital energy behind it that it could not be stalled by hard words. It was a most ambitious program from the beginning, for the act provided for a university, not a mere college, and provided for 13 professorships, in spite of the lack of professors or funds. Some of the chairs were given such names that only men of daring, as well as learning, would dare to sit upon them. The 13 professorships specified were: Catholepistemia, or universal science; anthropoglossica, or language and literature; 224 THE STORY OF DETROIT mathematica; physiognostica, or natural history; physiographica, or natural philosophy; astronomia, or astronomy; chymia, or chemistry; iatrica, or the medical sciences; ethica, FIRST METHODIST CHURCH IN DETROIT GRATIOT AVENUE AND LIBRARY AVENUE S.E. or ethics; polemitactica, or military science; diegetica, or historical science, and ennoeica, or the science of the mind. By this time Judge Woodward was well warmed up and in a most liberal mood, so he proceeded to grant authority to the professors to found academies, colleges, schools, libraries, museums, athenaeums, botanic gardens, laboratories and such RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL PROMOTIONS 225 other useful literary and scientific institutions as they might deem necessary to the upbuilding of a commonwealth. After giving the community two weeks to recover from word shock, the time had come for assigning the professorships. In the lack of learned men, the funds for hiring them and institutional buildings to house the university, seven professorships were conferred upon the Rev. John Monteith, Presbyterian missionary pastor in Detroit, together with the presidency of the university. The Rev. Mr. Monteith was a graduate of Princeton. The remaining six professorships were bestowed upon Fr. Gabriel Richard, together with the vice-presidency. A more careful survey of Judge Woodward's scheme of education shows him to have been not only a man of scholarship and philosophical mind, but a man of vision. His aim was in the main not only to expand the scope of higher education, but to systematize it somewhat after the fashion that has been adopted in recent years. But he was a man in advance of his time and his sesquipedalian vocabulary often gave offense, where it did not excite derision. An all-wise Providence is able to capitalize and utilize such negative elements in human nature as stupidity and parsimony. When it came to raising a fund for the founding of the university there was no great enthusiasm about subscribing money. In dire perplexity the founders cast about looking for ways and means and then somebody happened to remember that right after the fire of 1805 a considerable sum of money had been contributed from many sources for the relief of the destitute fire sufferers. Between the amount contributed and the.amount distributed there was a discrepancy of $940. It was evident that the committee in charge of the fund had never made an accounting, so President Monteith made a call for the undistributed fund for the use of the university-and got the money. Subscriptions to the amount of $5,ioo were pledged, of which $i,Ioo was payable on demand, $i,ooo the second year, $955 the third year, $825 the fourth year, $571 the fifth year, $631 the sixth year, and $92 in each of the three succeeding years. The Governor and Judges appropriated $300 for t le 226 THE STORY OF DETROIT erection of a building and $8o for a lot. Two months later an additional appropriation of $2oo was made. To swell the university fund further it was proposed that the public tax be increased iS per cent. The faculty was also authorized to conduct four successive lotteries for raising a fund, but neither of these provisions carried. A lot was purchased on the west side of Bates Street, between Congress and Larned, a MICHIGAN'S FIRST UNIVERSITY BATtS STREET, BETWEEN LARNED AND CONGRESS foundation 24 by So feet was built and the corner stone was laid September 24, i817. But the funds came in so slowly that the building languished for a long time. In the interval Mr. Monteith taught a school in the old Meldrum house on Woodbridge Street east of Shelby. There is no specific record that either member of the faculty acted as a professor beyond the record of an appropriation of $1i8.25 for their salaries in 1817, and in 1821 a delayed appropriation of $215 was back salary of the president for the years 1818-19-2o. In i818 H. M. Dickey was commissioned by the university to open a classical school, but a bill of $30 for the rent of rooms RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL PROMOTIONS 227 for this school would indicate that it was held in rented quarters. In 1818 the University Building was completed and Benjamin Stead, James Connor and Oliver Williams were made directors of a Lancastrian school which was conducted by Lemuel Shattuck. In 1819 the school had 183 students, who paid $2.60 each term for their tuition. In 1821 the original university act was repealed and all rights were conveyed to the Governor and a board of 20 trustees. This new board was authorized to found schools and colleges at their discretion. The classical school did not afford Mr. Shattuck a living and Rev. A. W. Welton succeeded him in 1822, with tuition raised to $5. After several years of meager support the board of trustees decided in 1827 to let the teacher continue his services at his own risk. The building was offered rent free and the school staggered along with varying fortunes until May 18, 1837, when the regents of the new state university, established at Ann Arbor by the Act of 1836, were asked to establish a branch in the old University Building in Detroit. The regents appropriated $8,ooo for branches, each branch to receive $5oo toward the support of a teacher and an additional gratuity in proportion to the number of pupils attending each branch. In 1838 the University Building was repaired and a school for boys was opened with a principal and one assistant. Rev. C. W. Fitch was the first principal, receiving $1,5oo a year and his assistant $Soo. The school was continued until 184'2 when the regents cut their appropriation to $5oo. From 1844 until 1858 the school was conducted by the local board of education. CHAPTER XLIV FIRST NEWSPAPERS AND SECOND BANK A THE same time that the first University of Michigan was founded, a society of citizens was organized for the establishment of a city library on August 26, 1817. On the following day a subscription list was circulated and 90 shares of stock were sold at $5 a share. It also was the understanding that in case the scheme for conducting four lotteries for raising $20o,ooo should be carried into effect, a part of that fund should go toward the library. But the lotteries were not conducted, and so for a time the city library, like the university, existed on paper and was of the stuff that dreams are made of. Both were beginnings of a scheme of public enlightenment and evidences of the developing consciousness of the public needs. It was not until the summer of 1831 that a library of any size and a public reading room were really established in Detroit. Another manifestation of mental awakening in Detroit was the founding of the second newspaper, the Detroit Gazette, which issued its first number July 25, 1817. The first newspaper published in Detroit was printed August 31, 1809, under the title "The Michigan Essay and Impartial Observer." Fr. Gabriel Richard, pastor of Ste. Anne's Church, brought the first printing press to be operated in Detroit and Michigan, with the idea of printing a few primary school books, religious pamphlets and a small newspaper if the people would support such an undertaking. He employed James M. Miller, a printer who came from Utica, N. Y., to assemble and operate the press, set the type and do all the work of a small printing office. It was a small hand press of the hand-lever type, and the Michigan Essay pages, 9Y4 by 16 inches, probably represented the limit of its printing capacity. The Michigan Essay was printed four columns to the page and consisted of four pages. One and a half columns were printed 228 FIRST NEWSPAPERS AND SECOND BANK 229 in the French language and the rest in English. There was no telegraph service in those days. Travelers from the East brought occasional copies of New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania newspapers with them which were eagerly sought and literally read to rags by the news-hungry residents of this remote western town. Those papers contained news of the eastern cities and reprints from English newspapers which had been brought by passengers on sailing vessels. In those days any news was good news. Even when it happened to be three months old it was still news. Today a newspaper a few days old is regarded with contempt by the general reading public, and even standard works of literature which have stood the test of time are regarded by many readers as a desperate last resort. There were no annual lists of "best sellers" in the book stores of 1817. The Michigan Essay evidently met with a cool reception. The probability is that only a few copies were sold, and that these were passed from hand to hand for reasons of private economy. It is probable that not more than four issues were published, at the most. Thus far only a few copies, all of one issue, have been discovered. A number of small booklets of a religious nature and some educational leaflets were printed, and presently Printer Miller returned east. He died in Ithaca, N. Y., in 1838. This first printing plant was purchased by Fr. Richard in Baltimore. Its earliest known job was the printing of a 12-page leaflet termed "The Child's Spelling Book." After Miller left Detroit the press was operated under lease by A. Coxshawe. During the War of 1812 Gov. Hull had his proclamations printed on it to be posted about the town. Theophilus Mettez succeeded Coxshawe as printer. Before the arrival of the press Mr. Mettez had been a sort of animated newspaper for the district. After Sunday morning mass in Ste. Anne's Church he would take his stand at the'front of the church on what is now the Jefferson Avenue and Griswold Street corner and proclaim the news of the town and give notice of future dances, weddings, horse races, the condition of the sick 230 THE STORY OF DETROIT of the town, and the incidents and accidents that had occurred along the river shore. The Detroit Gazette was founded in 1817 at the suggestion of Gen. Cass by John P. Sheldon and Ebenezer Reed. The resources of the firm were evidently meager, for the type was badly battered and poorly assorted, even in the first issue, showing that it was second-hand and probably discarded stock from some older printing house. The paper as started was a fourpage affair, 92 by I6~ inches to the page. The first three pages were printed in English and most of the fourth page in the French language. Its first office was in the old home of Conrad Seek on Atwater Street near Wayne. In the interval of eight years between the death of the Michigan Essay and the birth of the Gazette the Territory had increased in population, but people still preferred to borrow their newspaper rather than subscribe and the actual subscribers were very reluctant about paying their subscriptions. After three years of struggling existence the Gazette had but 82 subscribers in Detroit and only I 18 in all Michigan Territory. Two copies circulated among the people across the river in Canada and 32 others were scattered over several eastern states and Ohio. Only 90 of these subscriptions were paid for and few of the advertisers paid their bills. The subscription rate was reduced from $4 to $3 in the hope of winning larger support, but the expectation was not realized and in 1828 the property was leased to H. L. Ball. Mr. Sheldon remained as editor. Mr. Sheldon was a man of more courage than discretion and thus brought himself into trouble for an article which criticised the action of the territorial Supreme Court in 1829. That story will appear in its chronological order. In those early days the supply of silver currency was very small and the business was conducted largely by barter or exchange of farm products and labor for manufactured goods. But as the town grew and its trade increased there was an urgent need for more money and also for a place of safe deposit for the small savings of the community. There was no system of national banks nor was there in circulation a Government FIRST NEWSPAPERS AND SECOND BANK 231 currency with any guaranty of redemption. Public expenses were sometimes met by the issue of due bills of small denomination by the county commissioners appointed by the Governor and these passed as currency. On December 19, 1817, the Governor and Judges, Lewis Cass, Augustus B. Woodward, John Griffin and James Witherell, passed an act for establishing a bank of deposit and issue with a capital of $ioo,ooo in shares of $Ioo each, under the title: The President, Directors & Company of the Bank of Michigan. The first board of directors consisted of Solomon Sibley, Stephen Mack, Henry J. Hunt, Abraham Edwards, John R. Williams, Philip Lecuyer and William Brown. The resources of the bank were small and when the cashier, James McCloskey, departed with $10,300 of its funds it would have failed but for the refunding of the money. John R. Williams was made its first president. In 1823 only $i 5,ooo of its stock had been paid in, but Henry Dwight of Geneva, N. Y., was induced to buy 200oo shares, which gave him practically a controlling interest. The bank became more prosperous and its issues of bills served the community for money for several years. People of the present day may well wonder how business was conducted for many years in Michigan and practically everywhere by the use of printed promises to pay in which the people placed little confidence. The answer is that such money was the best they had. Their situation was quite as good as it is in several European countries today where people know that the money is practically worthless, but they accept it because there is np other available money and invest it in land and goods or outside securities as fast as they are able. CHAPTER XLV FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE GREAT LAKES URING these dull days of little affairs in Detroit there was a faint flickering of the dawn of a new era in the far eastern sky. No sooner was the war ended than the people of New York began agitating for a stupendous project, the construction of the Erie Canal, which would open navigation between the upper lakes and tidewater at New York via the Hudson River. Ground was broken for it July 4, I816, while many scoffed at "Clinton's Ditch," 352 miles long, which was to cost more than $7,oc000,000ooo and was expected to prove a disastrous failure. But the work went on that was to quicken the pulse of the entire nation and open up the great West to speedy settlement. Side by side with this was development of steamboat navigation following Robert Fulton's successful experiment with the Clermont in 1811. Soon the Hudson River was being navigated by a number of steamboats. Each new boat was on a bigger and grander scale than any of its predecessors. A steamboat captain or engineer became more of a popular idol than the governor of the state and at each landing people waited to shake the hand of the men who operated these new wonders of transportation. And the steamboat captains! King Solomon in all his glory was not attired like one of these, nor could he have assumed such an air of lofty grandeur sufficiently tinctured with American bonhommie to please the multitude. News of these undertakings came to Detroit and to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Steamboat building became a passion, and fearful and wonderful were some of those earliest creations. Men who contemplated steamboating on the Great Lakes immediately realized that the frail constructions made for the quiet rivers would never stand up or hold together under the buffeting of the heavy seas of the lakes. At the same 232 FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE GREAT LAKES 233 time the model of the bluff-bowed schooners and brigs would make them too slow. At that time ocean navigation was sacrificing capacity to speed, for fast freights were high. Out of continuous experiment was evolved the graceful model of the clipper ships which bore the Stars and Stripes around the world at the head of the procession for many years. The clipper model then seemed to be the proper thing for a lake steamboat. On the site now occupied by Buffalo, N. Y., were two villages in 1818. The one farthest down Niagara River at the mouth of Scajuaguada Creek was known as Black Rock and the other as Buffalo. The Seneca Indians were almost as numerous as white people about both places. Black Rock had a rude dock and a small shipyard where a number of lake vessels had been built. Buffalo had no harbor. Robert Fulton and his backer, Chancellor Livingston, had such a political pull that they had secured from the Government a monopoly of steamboat river transportation. The only chance for independent ventures was on the Great Lakes, so a number of wealthy men, chiefly of New York City, planned the building of an experimental steamboat for operation on Lake Erie and they selected Black Rock as the place for building. The keel of the boat was laid by Noah Brown, who had built several Hudson River boats. Brown had little idea of the strains a vessel must endure on the lakes so he made the frames and sheathing too light for safety in heavy weather. The model was a clipperized adaptation of the steamer Fulton on the Hudson. Her main deck measured 135 feet in length by 32 feet beam and the hull was eight feet six inches deep. Two masts were carried with rigging for a mainsail, foresail and foretopmast staysail, which were always used when there was a favorable breeze. The boiler and engine were below deck and the paddle wheels, 15 feet in diameter, with buckets four feet ten inches long and having an immersion of two feet six inches, were placed in the exact middle of the boat. The boiler, 20 feet long and nine feet in diameter, was placed forward of the main shaft and the engine was aft of it. The engine was of the 234 THE STORY OF DETROIT vertical type with a cylinder 36 inches in diameter and a fourfoot stroke. The hull was launched May 28, 1818, and the new steamboat was named "Walk-in-the-Water" in honor of the old Wyandotte chief who had been a "good Indian" about Detroit since the war, although still alive. His Wyandotte name was "Mier," Walk-in-the-Water, FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE GREAT LAKES signifying "turtle," which the Indians tried to describe as an animal that walks in the water. In those days steam engine and boiler construction was still in a primitive state. The pressures carried were very low as compared with present practice. Because of these conditions and the strong current of Niagara River the new steamboat lacked the power to fight her way to the lake. Twenty yoke of oxen were hitched to a long cable and with the engine churning the water and the "horned breeze" towing along the shore the Walk-in-the-Water was brought up to Lake Erie. The deck of the new steamboat was like that of a sailing vessel, with a high bow and stern. The cabins were all below the main deck and this practice was followed for many years after. The after cabin was set apart for ladies and partitioned off from the forward par't of the boat; which contained the men's FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE GREAT LAKES 235 cabin, the dining room, baggage room and sleeping berths. The mainmast ran down through the men's cabin and was encased in an octagon box faced with mirrors. The galley was in the bow. In anticipation of the institution of steamboat service between Detroit and Buffalo, instructions had been sent to Detroit for the building of a new dock which would insure at least 10 feet of water. Hudson's Wharf was constructed on piles at the foot of Bates Street. This wharf was wide enough to afford a driveway out to the end, which had a broad T. A little later another wharf, called Wing's, was built at the foot of Shelby Street. At first these wharves extended a long way from shore over shoal water, but in 1825, when the Government donated the Military Reserve, including old Fort Shelby and its embankments, to the city, the earth obtained by grading and leveling the fortifications was hauled down to the river and used to fill the shoal above the river level. This work brought to the surface again the soil that had been so thoroughly poisoned by the encampment of Harrison's army in the winter of 1813 and the workmen began to suffer from sickness. When attempt was made to exhume the bodies of the soldiers who had died of the epidemic the disease broke out again in the town and Mayor H. J. Hunt was the first to die of it. Thereupon the work of exhumation was stopped and another cemetery was left under the streets of the city as that of old Ste. Anne's Church had been. In spite of all subsequent excavations the remains of many of these soldiers still lie under the soil about Fort, Wayne and Cass streets. The Walk-in-the-Water was enrolled and licensed Aug. 22, 1818. Her owners sent Capt. Job Fish, who had operated boats on the Hudson, to take command. John Davis, a lake sailor, was employed as pilot. The shore at Black Rock was lined with spectators, many of whom were Indians, who had assembled to see the first steamboat emerge upon the lake, and 29 favored passengers were on board for this first passage. In those days the steam whistle had not come into use. Steam was too 236 THE STORY OF DETROIT precious to be wasted in the making of a noise, although wood fuel was very cheap. In lieu of a whistle a 4-pounder cannon was securely lashed on the forward deck, to be fired when the steamboat would approach a town. This practice was continued for many years. In those days there were no improved harbors on the lakes and there were no docks strong enough to withstand the waves in a gale. When a steamboat had come within a mile or so of a prospective port the cannon was fired and boats would put off to bring passengers ashore after the boat had stopped her engines. If the weather was unfavorable to such a landing the passengers were carried on. If the weather was dead calm and the boat could sidle up to a shallow bar the passengers were sometimes carried ashore on the backs of the sailors. More passengers were brought out from Buffalo to board the Walk-in-the-Water on August 23 and the first trip up the lake was started by steering for Dunkirk. The route included way stops off Dunkirk, Erie, Cleveland, Sandusky and at Detroit. At each port spectators lined the shore and those who could procure boats put off to row around the new wonder. All sorts of curious comments and ridiculous questions were asked. Some Frenchmen declared that the Yankees had put a floating sawmill on the lake. Others asked what made the wheels go around' and how the boat could go dead against the wind. The best speed obtainable by steam and sails combined was about 10 miles an hour, which was regarded as quite wonderful. The hoarse exhaust from the stack, which rose more than 30 feet above the deck, inspired awe, and the steady beat of the descending buckets of the paddle wheels tossing the water backward in a fierce torrent was a real wonder. At each port Capt. Job Fish would mount one of the paddle boxes and issue commands to the engineer through a speaking trumpet in his best deep-sea voice and in the intervals he would exchange greetings with people in the surrounding boats and give meticulous care to the assistance of the ladies over the side into the boats. The first trip was started from Buffalo at i P.m. Dunkirk was reached at 6 o'clock in the FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE GREAT LAKES '237 evening. The Walk-in-the-Water proceeded at slow speed to Erie, and next morning took on a large supply of cordwood for the long run to Cleveland, where she arrived at I I o'clock. She stood off Cleveland until 6:20 in the evening in order to be sufficiently admired, and arrived at Sandusky at I o'clock that night. CHAPTER XLVI STORY OF THE Walk-in-the-Water SHE last leg of that memorable run remained to be covered. At daylight the steamer proceeded carefully \ up the bay to Venice, where she was again supplied with wood and held for general inspection. At 3 P.M. she was headed across the lake, arriving at the mouth of the Detroit River as darkness fell. There she anchored for the night and proceeded up the river next morning. In anticipation of her arrival Judge Woodward and several other prominent citizens went down to Fighting Island to board the steamboat. Her coming had been awaited with impatience by every resident of Detroit for several days, and when the cannon boomed far down the river the people of Detroit rushed from their homes and merchants locked their stores to go to the new wharf and witness this beginning of a new era on the Great Lakes. Slowly and majestically the Walk-in-the-Water approached, the smoke and showers of sparks belching froin her tall funnel at each asthmatic cough of her engine. As the people on board flocked first to one side and then the other, or forward and aft, she would list gently to one side or her high bow and stern would bob up and down. The waiting crowd saw her sails lowered and furled, and as she came on toward the wharf they discovered the elongated figure of Judge Woodward sitting astride the bowsprit, his lips parted with triumphant grin, a gentle rivulet of tobacco juice trickling down the deep grooves on each side of his chin and the protruding ruffle of his shirt well sprayed with the amber fluid each time he injudiciously spat to windward after the fashion of a landsman. The captain in full uniform mounted the port paddle box with his legs very wide apart and used a shining speaking trumpet to sound his orders. "Ha-alf Spe-ed" came his bull-of-Bashan voice across the water and the paddles turned more slowly. 238 STORY OF THE Walk-in-the-Water 239 "Stand by with that line forward." The sailors rushed to their post at the gangway. "Shut 'er off," came with snappy emphasis and the steamboat drifted clumsily past the wharf ten feet away. "Back her-half speed." The engine was reversed and the boat turned her stern tcward the dock very awkwardly. The captain employed language appropriate to the occasion, evidently much annoyed. It took several reversals of the engine forward and back to bring the vessel to the wharf and then she came to with a crash that made the piling groan and the planks spring while the waiting crowd milled about in great alarm for fear the wharf would be wrecked. But the line was heaved ashore and given a quick turn about a snubbing post. The engine gave a long, expiring wheeze and the Walk-in-the-Water came to rest at the port of her destination. It was not until many years later that bell signals were used for directing the engines of steamboats from the deck. The trip from Buffalo to Detroit had been made in exactly 44 hours and o10 minutes, according to the glittering watch of Capt. Job Fish. Nobody even thought of questioning the authority of that ponderous timepiece, which in size and shape resembled a turnip. The works thereof were contained within three separate casings which could be peeled off like the layers of an onion. Such timepieces are now only to be found in museums. The crowd on the wharf could hardly wait for the passengers to stream ashore before crowding aboard to look the new boat over. On the dock loomed the massive figure of "Uncle Ben" Woodworth, proprietor of the Steamboat Hotel, which flaunted its freshly painted sign from the northwest corner of Bates and Woodbridge streets. Uncle Ben had the largest personal acquaintance of any man in Michigan and his friendly greetings made everybody glad that they had arrived in Detroit whether they came by steamboat or stage overland. He was the universal Uncle of young and old, a man of fervent spirit and a social, political and industrial leader who did much toward putting early Detroit on the map. Also he was a brother 240 THE STORY OF DETROIT of Samuel Woodworth, a noted New York newspaper writer whose name and memory are kept green by innumerable male quartets which have sung his best known song for the past ioo years. It was Samuel Woodworth who wrote that little masterpiece of the simple life: "The Old Oaken Bucket." We shall hear of Uncle Ben again because he was a striking personality in Detroit history. Advertising was as necessary to the success of business ioo years ago as it is today, but only a few shrewd business men realized the necessity. One of these was Capt. Job Fish. On the day following his arrival in Detroit he was assisted by Uncle Ben Woodworth in making up a list of the most prominent citizens of Detroit for a free ride on the waters of Lake St. Clair in the Walk-in-the-Water. We may be sure that Uncle Ben included his own name in the list. The trip was taken with a local pilot on board and plenty of the favorite antidote for seasickness and snake-bites. As the Detroit Gazette, then only 13 months old, published by Sheldon & Reed, summarized the event: "A pleasant time was had by all." While we are considering the story of the first steamboat of the lakes we may as well proceed with her history, which ended with plenty of thrills and was almost tragic. For three years she plowed the "foaming billows" of Lake Erie. Her advertisements of sailings with rates of fare graced the walls of every hotel office about the lakes. This was her rate card: Buffalo to Dunkirk, cabin $3; steerage $I.5o. Buffalo to Erie, cabin $6; steerage $2.50. Buffalo to Grand River, cabin $Io; steerage $4. Buffalo to Cleveland, cabin $12; steerage $5. Buffalo to Sandusky, cabin $I5; steerage $5.5o. Buffalo to Detroit, cabin $18; steerage $7. It should be remembered that in those days a dollar had about three times the purchasing power that it has today, but her carrying capacity all told was about Ioo passengers and she seldom had more than half that number for the route. Her home port was always Black Rock because Buffalo had no harbor. The rivalry between the two towns was quite bitter STORY OF THE Walk-in-the-Water 241 and Buffalo passengers were compelled to embark at Black Rock, much to their disgust. It would have been easy enough to run in at Buffalo Creek, but civic pride prevented that accommodation. In her brief life of three.years thesteamboat earned a handsome profit for her owners. In her time she carried many distinguished passengers. On her first trip she brought to Detroit the Earl of Selkirk with his Countess and their two children. The Earl had established a little colony called Belladoon on the Chenal 'Ecart6, by which one now makes a steamboat trip to Wallaceburg. There were also Col. Dixon, British Indian agent for the Northwest; Col. John Anderson, U. S. engineer, his wife and sister-in-law, Miss Taylor; Col. Leavenworth, U. S. A., with his wife and daughter; Col. James Watson, of Washington, D. C.; Maj. Abraham Edwards, who then lived in Detroit, but later settled in Kalamazoo, and a number of others. In 1820 she brought to Detroit Rev. Jedediah Morse, who published most of our early geographies as a sort of side line to his ministry in the Park Street Congregational Church in Boston. The Rev. Mr. Morse was one of the founders of Andover Theological Seminary and he had been an instructor in Yale College, a director of Indian missions and a defender of orthodoxy. At Detroit he remarked that he had been publishing maps, atlases and geographies of this western country for many years and he thought he would like to have a look at it with his own eyes. In company with this early American geographer was his son, Samuel F. B. Morse, a portrait painter who, after spending three years in London studying with Washington Allston and Benjamin West, had opened a studio in Boston, but foundhimself compelled to travel about seeking commissions to paint portraits of notable persons. Twelve years later he was destined to turn his attention to electro-magnetism, out of which, with the assistance of abler men than himself, he evolved the electro-magnetic telegraph, which made his name immortal. Our Weather Bureau service which gives warnings to mariners of approaching storms was not even dreamed of until more 242 THE STORY OF DETROIT than 50 years after the period of the Walk-in-the-Water. Lake and sea captains in those days watched their barometers, kept their weather eye on the horizon and took their chances with the elements. On the afternoon of October 30, 1821, the Walk-in-theWater started on her last voyage. The boat was now in charge of Capt. Jedediah Rogers, who had succeeded Job Fish. She lay for a time at a pier which had been built on the middle ground in front of Buffalo, and among the passengers who came to her in a yawl were Thomas Palmer of Detroit, Mrs. Palmer and Mr. Palmer's sister Catherine, who later became Mrs. Hinchman, of Detroit. The Palmers were newlyweds returning from their honeymoon journey to New York City. The weather looked threatening, but Capt. Rogers started for Dunkirk in the face of a hard wind which soon became a gale against which it was impossible to make headway. He turned about, hoping to take shelter behind Point Abino, 12 miles from Buffalo. Darkness fell and a driving rain forced all passengers to take shelter below. The boat became unwieldy and Capt. Rogers decided to run for Buffalo for shelter, but the mist was so thick and the darkness so intense he could make out no light. About Io o'clock, fearing that he might run ashore, he had three anchors dropped, one with a chain cable and two with hawsers. The frail hull soon began to show the effect of the lurching strain as the Walk-in-the-Water tugged at her anchors. Oakum began to work out of her calked seams and water began to gather inside her hold. To keep her afloat all the power of the engine was applied to the pumps, but she continued to settle and at the same time to drag her anchors. Below the deck all was confusion. The uproar of crashing crockery was heard in the galley and shrieks of women were heard in the cabin aft. Everybody was forced to hold on to stanchions and other supports to avoid being dashed about like dice in a box. The night wore on with no abatement of the gale and with no prospect of improvement in the condition of the steamboat. About 4 o'clock in the morning the sound of heavy surf was STORY OF THE Walk-in-the-Water 243 heard from the deck, but nothing was visible. The deck gun was loaded and fired as often as possible to call help. The nature of the shore could not be discovered and it became a question whether the boat would remain afloat long enough to be stranded on the beach. At 4:30 Capt. Rogers called all the passengers on deck and told them he had decided to cut loose from his anchors and WRECK OF Walk-in-the-Water, NOVEMBER I, 1821 allow the boat to drift ashore as their only chance of salvation, for otherwise they might go down in deep water. The men all agreed that that was the thing to be done, so the chain cable was slipped and the hawsers were cut with axes. Immediately the vessel lifted on the waves and began to sweep shoreward. In a few minutes she struck lightly on a bar, where she rested for a little and then a huge wave swept her farther up on the beach. When it subsided the vessel careened far over on her side and apparently everything inside her hull went crashing across the cabins and baggage room. There she held for an hour or more, with every sea making a breach over her, drenching the passengers and threatening to / 244 THE STORY OF DETROIT tear them from their hold on the bulwarks and stanchions. Some of the women were in their night clothes and all suffered from exposure. At daybreak a small boat was launched from the leeward side and a sailor went ashore in her carrying the end of a hawser. His boat was dashed high on the beach and he ran to a tree and gave the hawser several turns and knotted it fast. Then, working his way back in the yawl by pulling on the hawser, he reached the stranded vessel, and first the women and then the men were all safely brought ashore. About a mile away they discovered a lighthouse and all made their way to it. The lightkeeper had heard the gun and had built up a big fire for the comfort of any who might come ashore. A little later carriages came from Buffalo to carry them to the Landen House, which was the principal hotel. The Detroit passengers made their homeward journey by wagons across Canada. Among the passengers of the wrecked vessel were: Maj. Jedediah Hunt, Lieut. McKenzie, U.S.A., John Hale, merchant of Canandaigua, N. Y., and afterward of Detroit, Alanson W. Welton, William Berezy, Chauncey Barer, Thomas Gray, John S. Hudson, James Clark, Orlando Cutter, Silas Merriam, Rhoda Latemore, Martha Breary, George Williams, Elisha N. Berge, Edson Hart, George Throop, Miss Osborn, Thomas Palmer, Mary A. Witherell Palmer and Miss Catherine Palmer, and Mr. and Mrs. Salmser of Ohio. John S. Hudson, with his wife and Miss Osborn, were on their way to found an Indian mission at Fort Gratiot, above Port Huron. Mr. and Mrs. Palmer later became the parents of Senator Thomas W. Palmer, of Detroit, who was also president of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, and the donor of Palmer Park to the citizens of Detroit. J. D. Mattheis, of Buffalo, went to the wreck and made several sketches, one of which he presented to Mrs. Palmer, which was the original of the illustration with this chapter. The engine of the Walk-in-the-Water was saved and it afterward served to propel two other lake vessels successively before it went to the junk pile. CHAPTER XL VII A NEW ERA BEGINS.TT ITH the beginning of steam navigation at Detroit i/lcame a demand for more systematic ferry service Iacross the river. Ferrying passengers across the stream had been the casual employment. of a number of Frenchmen and even Indians from time to time. At several landings along the Detroit shore were small wharves for rowboats and canoes, and tied to a post by each was a large tin horn which a person desiring to make the crossing would blow persistently if no ferryman would offer his services along shore. Usually this would call a boat from the other side. In 1818 Edwin Baldwin established a regular ferry between Detroit and the Windsor shore, in which service he -gradually progressed from a canoe to a larger rowboat and when there was sufficient wind he used a sailboat. There was no landing on the Canadian shore. Passengers jumped ashore on the slippery clay bank and scrambled up the bluff. Quite a number of canoes were kept in the mouth of the Savoyard River, which was navigable for canoes and bateaux as far as the present corner of Bates. and Congress streets. The second. steamboat on Lake Erie was the Superior, built at Buffalo Creek, at the foot of the present Washington Street, Buffalo. The old Black Rock wharf was at the foot of the present Porter Street, Buffalo. The model of the second boat was very different from that of the first, but for many years the modeling of lake vessels remained in the experimental stage, for the lake channels were quite shallow in places until the Government deepened them. The Superior started on her first. trip to Detroit April 23, 1822. In 1824 a sister ship was built and named the Henry Clay. During 1825 the two boats maintained a four-day service between Detroit and Buffalo. The Superior was converted into:245 246 THE STORY OF DETROIT a sailing vessel in 1835 and the old engine of the Walk-in-theWater was again transferred to a new boat named the Charles Townsend. The Superior went down in a gale in i843 and the Henry Clay earned unenviable fame by bringing the first epidemic of cholera to Detroit in 1832. In 1825 the Erie Canal was opened and through water transit was installed between the Great Lakes and tidewater. Passenger traffic grew rapidly and people from the eastern states began migrating westward in swarms. This stimulated the building of more lake steamboats and the upbuilding of the West. But most of the early immigrants hurried through Michigan to settle in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. This was due to a propaganda of mischief by which the American Fur Company sought to discourage settlement because the fur business would suffer if the state were cut up into farms. Michigan was represented as having a pestilent climate in which a person from the settled districts of the East would soon die of fever and ague or other malarial diseases, so for several years the flood of settlers held their noses and fairly ran across Michigan. The sense of appreciation of justice as to individual rights of property and person has been slowly developed during all the ages of human history. Primitive men never divided the land on which they lived into individual plats, lots or farms. They held their land in common, tilled it when and where they pleased and each man gathered and stored his own product. When necessity required, the individual stores became a part of the common stores, for the main purpose was to keep life in the tribe rather than in the family. The rights and even the existence of the family were dependentupon the tribe. In that period the organization of human society was much like that of the beehive or the ant hill. Men toiled and fought more for the common good than for individual profit. Out of that condition arose the first development of federation by which several tribes banded together for mutual benefit, on the principle that a bundle of sticks is stronger than any single stick and, therefore, a federation of tribes must be.more secure of its rights than any single tribe. The evolutionary prog A NF-w ER ABF-c;iNs 247 ress then was from the individual to the family, from the family to the clan, from the clan to the tribe, from the tribe to the federation of tribes and thus to the state and nation. At this point the evolutionary process seemed to stop as if the limit of the process of civilization had been reached. Each nation assumed that because it was independent in the control of its internal affairs it had reached the goal of its ambition and owed nothing to any other nation. The idea that a perfectly organized society of nations is quite as necessary as an organized society of individuals is very slowly penetrating the mind of the world. The reasons and necessities which lie back of this society of nations which is to be, because it must be, are exactly the same as the reasons which led to the formation of the clan, the tribe, the state and the nation-mutual protection, mutual aid and the establishment of justice and right everywhere and to all people. Our own Civil War arose out of the dispute as to whether the Union or the individual state is supreme. Certain states held that the Union was a voluntary agreement from which any state was privileged to withdraw whenever the policy of the Federal Government was not agreeable to it. Certain other states held that the Union constituted an indissoluble nation from which no member could withdraw and that each state owed allegiance to the federation, while the federation or Union was equally bound to respect and defend the just rights of each individual state. As long as men consider this question in its largest aspect as between the state and the nation, there is an incurable disagreement; but as soon as they reduce it to its lowest terms-the case between the individual and society-it becomes as simple as the addition of I and 9. The individual who elects to withdraw himself from the social compact and flouts the common rules which govern society at once classes himself as an outlaw, and presently his hand is against every man and every man's hand is raised against him. The question of right, of justice, or of expediency are not at all affected by the number of people involved. Right principle is eternal and indestructible. '248 TihE STORY O:F DETROIT Before the Americas were discovered national rights and feudal rights had long been recognized by all European peoples. But when they invaded the New World they seemed.to ignore any consideration of right so far as the native people were concerned. They plundered them of their accumulated wealth of gold and silver; slaughtered them as if they were wild beasts) and then began two simultaneou's undertakings which were in open contradiction. They endeavored to Christianize all these people through the agency of missionaries-most of whom were noble, unselfish and heroic characters-and at the same time professed adherents of Christianity began to occupy the lands of the aborigines without their consent and to exterminate the rightful owners of the soil when they resisted their occupation. This was most unchristian conduct; but the rule of Might discarded all questions of Right, and organized Christian civilization preyed on unorganized barbarism. CHAPTER XLVIII LAND TREATIES WITH MICHIGAN INDIANS B EFORE Michigan could be rightly and decently opened up to white settlement the consent of the Indians must be obtained by treaties. The Indian was an intelligent man, considering his opportunities. He was quick to see the ultimate result of continued invasion of the European swarm and the constant extension of private land tenure. He would not cede away all his territorial rights because that would make him an exile with no place to go and no means of livelihood. The idea of subsisting himself by gainful industry had never occurred to him. He must have a vast area in which to hunt wild game for his food and plant a few vegetables to eke out his subsistence. His first step toward gainful industry was offered through the fur trade, and white settlement would, of course, soon extinguish that. Unable to obtain cessions of territory which would make him complete master of all the territory, the white man went as far as he could toward beguiling his red brother out of his patrimony in the land. When the Indian proved reluctant his good will was obtained by presents and his consent was gained by plying him with rum until his judgment and sense of caution were temporarily suspended. If he refused to treat at all, treaty negotiations were preceded by warfare to impress him with the uselessness of resistance to the will of the white man. For nearly a century the Northwest Territory, of which Michigan was a part, had been claimed by right of discovery or settlement by France, Great Britain and the United States in turn. During all that time not a rood of land had been ceded to any of these governments by the Indians. To establish some color of rightful ownership the Government of the United States. began the absorption of Michigan Territory by a nibbling process. The first bite was the Treaty of Greenville, obtained in 1795, by 249 250 250 THE STORY OF DETROIT which the Indians ceded a strip of land six miles wide, running from the junction of the Maumee and Auglaize rivers of Ohio to the latitude of the foot of Lake Huron. This narrow strip could offer little inducement to a horde of land-hungry people of the eastern states or to foreign immigrants, so in i8i18 Gov. Cass prepared to take a much larger bite out of the Indian lands of Michigan Territory. This was accomplished by the Treaty of Saginaw. The story of the making of that treaty is decidedly humorous when viewed from the standpoint of the white man and quite tragric when viewed from the standpoint of the Indian. Gov. Cass realized that it was a hazardous undertaking. The Michigan Indians had long been pensioners of the British goverment, receiving regular gratuities from the British agents at Amherstburg. Those agents had repeatedly asserted that their government had no intention of settling in the Indian country, but merely wanted to trade with the Indians and protect them against the invasions of the Americans. The Americans on the other hand were eager to dispossess the Indians of their lands and convert them into private farms, fenced in. That would mean the destruction of wild game and fur-bearing animals and the driving away of the Indians. The War of I8 12-14 had forced the British out of Michigan and demonstrated the ability of the Americans to hold the Territory against the British and Indians combined. It was, however, a matter of discretion to allow the situation to cool and give the Indians time to think it over, while the Amer,icans held on to Detroit and the little territory already ceded before proposing another cession of far greater area. The plan of Gov. Cass in his treaty-making was to go as far as he could rather than as far as he liked. In other words, to obtaini by peaceful means all the area of Michigan that the Indians would grant without making a stand to fight for their rights. During the summer of 1819 Gov. Cass obtained authority from the Government at Washington to negotiate a treaty with the Indians of Michigan for the cession of as much land as they would grant. LAND TREATIES WITH MICHIGAN INDIANS 251 For several years the relations between the Indians of the Saginaw Valley and the local government at Detroit had been maintained through the white traders who had settled among the Indians. Foremost and most useful among these was Louis Campau, who settled at Saginaw in 1816. In preparation for the treaty council Gen. Cass directed Campau to prepare some sort of a council house large enough to accommodate all the Indians who would be likely to attend and the men who would go with him to negotiate the treaty. Word was also sent to the other traders to call a grand council of the Indians to meet at Saginaw in September. Campau brought the traders together and selected for the site of the council house a knoll on the river bank east of the present line of Michigan Avenue and north of the line of Clinton Street of Saginaw. It was all a wilderness in 1819. On this spot some of the trees were felled and a partially cleared space about 300o feet long and about loo feet wide was marked out. Boughs of the trees left standing were interlaced together and thus utilized as support for a roof made by piling upon them the trimmed branches of the felled trees and wide sheets of peeled bark. There were no sides or ends to the council house. Seats were provided by rolling logs in rows the full length of the covered space. In the center a large platform of squared logs and a table were prepared for the Governor and his staff. All around the council house were the wigwams of resident Indians, including the home of the turbulent old Chief Kishkawko. The traders also came and erected huts for the display of their-wares, to be exchanged in trade with the visiting Indians. Another shelter was erected to serve as a dining room and sleeping quarters for the Governor and his associates. Capt. C. L. Cass, younger brother of the Governor, was then in Detroit in command of a company of the U. S. Third Infantry Regiment. Gen. Cass had a schooner loaded with a liberal supply of provisions, blankets and trinkets and five barrels of rum. Capt. Cass' company was sent to the Saginaw River with the schooner, which also carried $3,00ooo in silver, to be displayed before the eyes of the Indians and to be used in the negotiations as a purchase fund. 252 THE STORY OF DETROIT Gen. Cass went overland with a retinue of followers and guards from Detroit, following the well-worn Indian trail via Royal Oak, Pontiac, Silver Lake, Grand Blanc village, the Grand Portage, now in the heart of the city of Flint, and thence down the valley of the Saginaw. Gen. Cass seems to have adopted the slogan of the wellknown flour manufacturers, "Eventually, why not now?"; for his opening address, which was translated sentence by sentence to the Indians by interpreters, proposed the removal of all the Indians from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan to some place west of the Mississippi River and the sale of all their lands to the Government of the United States. The Indians listened in cold astonishment to this brazen proposal. A chilling silence fell as the Governor of Michigan Territory took his seat. Then old Kishkawko sprang to his feet to make a speech in which he fiercely denounced the Governor for daring to suggest such a thing. Some of the other chiefs wanted to discuss the matter further, but Kishkawko stalked out of the council house declaring that he would not discuss a proposal which meant ruin and exile for all the Indians of Michigan. The council was broken up for that day and but for the presence of armed soldiers and citizens of Detroit serious trouble might have resulted. During the rest of the day Kishkawko was taken in hand by traders and others and plentifully plied with liquor. Presently he was carried to his wigwam in a helpless condition. Next day, with Kishkawko still helpless, negotiations were resumed, but the Indians at first refused to consider Gov. Cass' proposal. For three days the commissioner and the leading chiefs haggled over the amount of territory the Indians would be willing to cede and the amount of money in cash payment and in subsequent annual annuities that the Government would pay to the tribes. CHAPTER XLIX THE TREATY OF SAGINAW TRADER Jacob Smith worked as ambassador with the Indians under the stipulation that if the Indians ceded land he and each of his half-breed children should have a liberal allotment of it. Trader Archibald Lyons did likewise on condition that his half-breed daughter Elizabeth be given a generous tract. Louis Campau said that the Indians owed him about $1,50o in trade for goods advanced to them and he urged a cession of land on condition that out of the money the Governor would pay over at the conclusion of the treaty he should have his due from his Indian debtors. There on the council table in full view of all the Indians and traders was that windrow of 3,000 shining silver dollars and the reaction thereof was very powerful. Trader Jacob Smith had a stock of goods for sale and he figured that if Louis Campau were permitted to absorb $1,500 of the available money his trade would show a corresponding shrinkage, so he bustled about among the Indians persuading them to hold out for direct payment of the money to themselves without any reservation for Campau. He routed out Kishkawko and told him about Campau's proposal. Kishkawko went to the council, half-sobered, and said: "We are your children. We want the money delivered in our own hands." At this time the treaty boundaries had been agreed upon and there remained only the delivery of the money, which was to be followed by the opening of the Governor's five barrels of rum for the assembly of about 2,000 Indians. The Indians were plainly impatient for the rum, so Gov. Cass directed that the money be paid direct to them. Louis Campau was furious. He rushed across the council house to Jacob Smith and landed two vicious blows in his opponent's face. The two men clinched and fell in a rough-andtumble fight with all rules suspended, but Henry Connor and 253 2S4 THE STORY OF DETROIT Louis Beaufait, who had come from Detroit with the overland expedition, ran to them and pulled the furious combatants apart. The heads of the rum barrels were then stove in and the ladling out of firewater was begun. But Louis Campau had still another card to play. He knew that the rum had been pretty accurately gauged to the measure of safety and the carrying capacity of the 2,oo000 Indians. He ran to his own trading booth and, rolling out io barrels of his own whisky, began a free distribution on his own account. In half an hour the council camp was the scene of a wild drunken orgie with hundreds of Indians wrangling among themselves and threatening the annihilation of the whites. Gov. Cass, alarmed at the sudden turn of affairs, sent his secretary, Forsyth, to order Campau to stop giving away whisky, but Campau was still smarting with a sense of personal injury, so he answered: "You go tell Gen. Cass that he started this thing himself. If he has a right to give away Government rum I have a right to give away my own whisky." The Indians around the Governor's hut became so excited that they produced their knives and began to talk about scalps. The Governor sent for his brother, the captain, to bring up his soldiers. A platoon of soldiers came and began pressing the Indians back. One obstreperous Indian was given a bayonet thrust through the leg. The sight of blood exploded all the Indians and the war whoop was sounded. Gov. Cass raised his stentorian voice and called over the heads of the Indians to Campau: "Stop the liquor, Louis! Stop the liquor at once or we will all be murdered!" Campau grinned with delight on seeing the Governor's alarm: "Certainment, mon general; certainment; but you began it and you allowed Jake Smith to rob me. Don't be afraid. I'll keep you safe, but remember, you commenced it, mon general." The whisky serving was stopped and Campau went about pacifying the Indians. Presently they were all led away to their cabins and some degree of peace settled over the encampment. Campau went about chuckling with merriment, saying THETREATY OF SAGINAW ý55 to the bystanders: "I lost my money, I lost my fight with Jake, and I lost my whisky, but I gave Cass a good scare anyhow." By the terms of the Treaty of Saginaw the Indians ceded to the United States about 6,00ooo,ooo acres of their territory adjoining the earlier cession of the Greenville Treaty. The eastern boundary began at the principal meridian of the State, running due north from the junction of the Maumee and Auglaize rivers and six miles from the intersecting base line; thence 60 miles due west and thence in a direct line northward to the head of Thunder Bay River in the northwestern part of Oscoda County. From there the boundary followed thle Thunder Bay River to its mouth and thence northward again to the boundary line between the United States and Canada. The western boundary was an unsurveyed line running through the present counties of Kalamazoo, Barry, lonia, Montcalm, Isabella, Clare, Roscommon, and Crawford to Montmorency and embracing all the territory between that western boundary and Lake Huron. In compensation for this the Indians...received $3,000 in cash and a promise of an annuity of $I,ooo to be paid in silver coin. One might well inquire if the annuity is still continued and who'is receiving that $i,ooo. The treaty was signed by Gov. Cass for the 4lnited States and by 114 Indian chiefs, and attested by 23 witnesses. Some of the addresses made by the Indians were very intelligent and their statements of fact were often pathetic. Chief Ogemaw-ke, for whom a Michigan county is named, said: "You do not know our wishes. Our people wonder what has brought you so far from your homes. Your young men have invited us to come and light the council fire. We are here to smoke the pipe of peace, but not to sell our lands. Our American father wants them; our English father treats us better. He has never asked for them. Your people trespass on our hunting grounds. You flock to our shores. Our waters grow warm. Our lands melt away like a cake of ice. Our possessions grow smaller and smaller. The warm wave of the white man rolls in upon us and melts us away. Our women reproach us. MICHIGAN LANDS OBTAINED By TREATIES WITH INDIAN TRIBES 256 THE TREATY OF SAGINAW25 257 Our children want homes. Shall we sell from under them the spot where they spread their blankets? We have not called you here. We smoke with you the pipe of peace." There one sees the brave, dignified realization of an intelligent barbarian of the inevitable trend of events and of the helplessness of himself and his people to prevent their spoliation by a conquering civilized race- of overwhelming numbers. The treaty took away the lands of several important tribes who ceded it because they knew the white men were bound to take it in any case. The pitiful compensation was better than nothing. The Indian knew his case was hopeless and felt forced to the acceptance of Dr. Franklin's maxim: "There never was a good war, nor a bad peace, " while the white man had adopted Josiah Quincy's declaration: "Peaceably if we can; forcibly if we must.'' A slender claim of justification might be pleaded from the fact that the northern half of this ceded territory had once been the possession of the Sac and Fox Indians and had long ago been wrested from them by a combination of the Chippewas and Ottawas, but civilized people are supposed to recognize the right of legal possession even in conquered territory after a certain period of undisturbed possession. 'The first proposal of Gen. Cass had prejudiced the council at the very beginning because it had unwittingly exposed the ultimate intentions of the white man's Government. Even after the treaties had been signed there were certain complications to be dealt with. Most of the traders had secured from the Indians cessions of considerable tracts of land and they held written deeds signed with the totems of the resident chiefs which gave them color of earlier title. It took many years to iron the wrinkles out of these complicated tidles. The early maps of Wayne and several other counties are well marked with the boundaries of "private claims" and in the lack of any survey many of these overlapped. When the Indians saw their lands were bound to be lost to them they made private cessions of land to hundreds of applicants who employed money, presents and whisky in their negotiations. 258 THE STORY OF DETROIT In 1821 Gen. Cass and Solomon Sibley secured from the Indians south of Grand River nearly all the lands of the Ottawas and Pottawatomies in southern Michigan. In the following year, the counties of Washtenaw, Lenawee, Lapeer, Sanilac, Saginaw and Shiawassee were laid out and a line of stages was installed on the Gratiot Road between Detroit and Mt. Clemens. CHAPTER L DETROIT IN I818 N 1818 there was not a mile of improved public road in the Territory of Michigan. Transportation was chiefly over trails which were not available for wagons, so produce and other supplies which did not come from a distance by water were mostly carried on horses fitted with pack saddles. The soldiers of the war had cut a military trail through the Black Swamp from Ohio and a road was presently built from Detroit to Vistula, now Toledo, and on to Sandusky. When Congress proposed a grant of 2,000,000 acres to soldiers of the late war, in quarter-sections of I6o acres each, the surveyor-general made so discouraging a report concerning Michigan lands that the allotments were made elsewhere, i,5oo,ooo acres in Illinois and 5oo,ooo acres in Missouri. Thus it came about that territories far to the westward of Michigan became states earlier. But lands in southern Michigan were surveyed and sales begun to settlers in 1818. The southern border of the State was as yet undetermined. While the ordinance creating the Northwest Territory had specified the boundary on a line running due east from the southernmost point of Lake Michigan it was found that this would shut Indiana away from lake navigation altogether, so a strip that had been allotted to Michigan was granted to Indiana, giving her a port on Lake Michigan, just as a strip of New York territory had been given to Pennsylvania that she might have the port of Erie. There still remained a disputed strip between Michigan and Ohio which was destined to cause prolonged wrangling between the states and to bring them to the verge of actual warfare. What is now the Woodward Avenue Road between Detroit and Pontiac then had no existence beyond the Seven Mile Road, for beyond that point was a great bog or marsh reaching almost 259 26o THE STORY OF DETROIT to the present site of Royal Oak. But Oakland County lay beyond with its lakes and hills luring adventurous settlers. The only passable trail for reaching it was via the Gratiot Avenue Road to the Clinton River and then a trail running northward on the eastern side of the marsh. Enterprising Detroiters organized what was known as the Pontiac Company, which purchased a tract of land which is now occupied by the city of Pontiac. On this they built a flouring mill, a sawmill and a building for a general store in 18i9. A large delegation of the leading citizens went to the new settlement, which was named Pontiac, to celebrate the founding. Among them was Gen. Cass., who was still Governor of the Territory; Judge Woodward, Solomon -Sibley, Daniel LeRoy, Stephen Mack, Austin E. Wing, D. C. McKinstry, Henry J. Hunt, Abraham Edwards, Shubael A. Conant, Alexander Macomb, Archibald Darrow, Stephen Mack, Andrew G. Whiting, and others of the most prominent men of the Territory. After a big dinner with plenty of liquid refreshments, the celebration merged into a hilarious frolic in which sedate men conducted themselves after the fashion of schoolboys. One after another of the party was put through the hopper of the gristmill which had been elevated on stanchions and the miller would declare the quality of the flour. Some who came through were characterized as bran, some as middlings, but when Gen. Cass' portly frame came through the miller pronounced the Governor to be superfine flour. Those who tried to run away from the ordeal were caught and tried and various penalties and forfeits were inflicted upon them. Col. Mack, rigged out like an Indian chief, acted as judge. On the way home some of the men were still in a hilarious mood. They passed the log cabin of a French pioneer and offered him liquid refreshment, but as the Frenchman already had more than enough he refused. Thereupon he was tried for insubordination and sentenced to be hanged:' "until you are dead, dead, dead, and may the Lord have mercy on your soul," said the judge, as solemn as an owl. DETROIT IN 1818 261 A rope was put about his neck and he was barely lifted from the ground. The frightened man fainted and Dr. Chamberlain, feeling his pulse, pronounced him dead. This announcement immediately sobered the roisterers. They revived the man from his faint and so showered him with presents that he would have been willing to be hanged again. The year 1818 witnessed a number of events in Detroit. The Lyceum was organized January 14. The corner stone of Ste. Anne's Church was laid at Larned and Bates streets June 9. July 4 was celebrated with unusual pomp and ceremony in a field back of the old Gen. Cass house between First, Cass, Fort and Lamrned streets, for which the military turned out in full dress. The Detroit Mechanic's Society was organized July 20. It was not limited to mechanics, but had many prominent citizens among its membership. On July 27 an ordinance was passed providing for the public whipping of drunkards, disorderly persons, petty thieves, wifebeaters and other small offenders. A public whipping post was erected just above the market at the intersection of Jefferson and Woodward avenues and remained there until 1831. The first session of a Protestant Sunday school was held October 4, 1818. Detroit built a new jail which was ready for occupation in the spring of I819. The site of it was what is now known as Library Park. This new building was 44 by 88 feet on the ground j-7, BLOCKHOUSE, JEFFERSON AVENUE OLD COUNCIL HOUSE LONG USED AS A JAIL AT JEFFERSON AND RANDOLPH S.W. 262 THE STORY OF DETROIT and was surrounded by a high picket fence. The first jail of record was the guardhouse of the older town located near the eastern end. After the fire of 1805 an old blockhouse on what is now Jefferson Avenue, between Cass and Wayne streets, was utilized for a jail. The last jail preceding the new structure was on the north side of Jefferson Avenue about 50 feet east of Shelby Street. On December 27, 1821, two Indians, Kewaubis, WAYNE COUNTY JAIL, I83o, BUILT ON LIBRARY PARK from the Upper Peninsula, and Katauka, from Green Bay, were hanged in front of this jail for murder. Kewaubis shot down Dr. W. S. Madison without provocation, and Katauka killed a trader named Charles Ulrich for some real or fancied grievance. They were tried and convicted in the Council House in Detroit. On the day of their execution they watched the erection of a rude gallows in the jail yard with keen interest. One of them, to show his contempt for the white man's justice, made a rude sketch on the wall of the cell in which they were confined which represented the gallows with two Indians hanging from it. Then DETROIT IN 18 18 263 they called for a piece of rawhide which they stretched and bound with care over the open end of a pail in their cell, thus making a rude Indian drum. One of them sat down on the floor 'and began beating the drum with his fingers, and to the rude rhythm of this accompaniment the other, standing with his face to the sky before the open window, chanted his death song. His preparation for death being finished, he sat down and drummed for his companion's death song. When they were led to the scaffold and the nooses were placed about their necks, they seemed to be the least concerned individuals of all the throng which witnessed their execution. 'In 1847 the Supreme Court decided that the county had no title to the site of the jail, so the site of the present jail was purchased at Beaubien and Clinton streets and this site has been used up to the present time. In 1823 the people of Detroit, thoroughly disgusted with the rule of the Territory under the Governor and Judges plan, sent a petition to Congress which bore fruit, and on March 3 an act was passed transferring the government to the Governor and a Legislative Council. The people were to elect 18 candidates, of whom the President was to select nine for appointment with the approval of the Senate. When the news arrived at Detroit, March 27, the town held a noisy celebration, firing cannon, and the day ended with fireworks and a banquet at Woodworth's Hotel at which the Governor presided. Thus Judge Woodward and his associates were legislated out of office and soon after he left Detroit. The first Territorial Council was held in Detroit in 1824 and in the following year the Territory was divided into legislative districts. On November 25, 1824, Thanksgiving Day was celebrated in Detroit for the first time. This was due to the steady influx of New Englanders. Gov. Cass, a native of New Hampshire, issued the proclamation. In 1825 the Legislative Council was increased from 9 to 13 members. In that year the first street paving with cobblestones was contracted for in Jefferson Avenue. A board of commissioners started the survey of a road to Chicago. The first horse-boat ferry to Windsor was established. The 264 THE STORY OF DETROIT paddle wheels were operated by horses going round and round a circular track in the middle of the deck. Congress donated to the city the Military Reserve, which included Fort Shelby and considerable adjoining land. Ex-Presidents John Adams and' Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, July 4, and a special session of the common council decreed that all citizens of Detroit wear crepe on their left arms for a period of 30 days. CHAPTER LI A DECADE OF MANY CHANGES DURING the decade of the 182o's Detroit underwent many notable changes which completely altered the* appearance of the main streets south of Lafayette. The fire of i8os had swept away old- Ste. 'Anne's Church along with the rest of the town. There was left but the blackened stumps of a ruin standing in the midst of a graveyard and the place soon grew up to weeds and briars. For a short time services were held in a tent on the common. Then the Meldrum warehouse, the only building left standing after the fire, was used for the church for several years. About i8o9 this was abandoned for a newly built log church on Spring Hill farm in Springwells township which Fr. Richard rented from the United States Government for $;2o5 a year. This served for the people west of the town. For those on the east a rude chapel was built on the Melcher or Church farm in Hamtramck township. Those troubled years were not favorable to a rebuilding of the church. During the War of 1812 Fr. Richard was always loyal to the American cause and for this he was at one time imprisoned in the jail at Sandwich. The people of the church could not agree in the matter of rebuilding, some favoring the old site and some a new one. The matter was finally settled when the Governor and Judges in 1817 gave the parish a grant of land which is now bounded by Bates, Congress, Randolph and Larned streets to be used for a church, parish house and cemetery. On June 9, 1818, the corner stone of the new Ste. Anne's Church was laid by Bishop Flaget, of Montreal. In consideration of this land grant the parish relinquished all claim to the old site where the former church had been burned. The church was also given six sections of land in Monroe County by the Treaty of Fort Meigs. As a result of the abandonment 6 265 266 THE STORY OF DETROIT 266 THE STORY OF DETROIT of the old site the cemetery was leveled off and the property became available for other use. The block bounded by Woodward Avenue, Lamed, Bates and Congress streets had been used since 1760 for Protestant burials and was known as the "English burying-ground." This site was now needed for the building of three Protestant churches and the Governor and Judges ordered the removal of.the remains there interred to a new plat which was purchased EARLY CHURCHES ON WOODWARD AVENUE METHODIST CHURCH, CONGRESS ST.; ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL; PRESBYTERIAN SESSION HOUSE; FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LARNED ST. on the farm of Antoine Beaubien, between the present lines of Clinton Street and Gratiot Avenue. The first Presbyterian church was built at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Larned, St. Paul's Episcopal Church was erected in the middle of the block and the Methodist church was erected at the corner of Congress Street. Then came other changes in consequence of the granting of the Military Reserve to the town. Old Fort Shelby with its towering embankments had frowned down upon the town for many years. The earth of the embankments was removed and dumped along the river front south of the line of Atwater Street and the work of grading down the bold bluff of the river front, which for a time corresponded exactly to that on the Canadian shore, was begun and continued for several years. I~C-~iL~-: '-I-I~F~7~ STE. ANNE'S CHURCH LARNED AND BATES STREETS 267 268 268 THE STORY OF DETROIT In front of Ste. Anne's Church on the lower end of Cadillac Square stood a hill around which the Savoyard River meandered. This hill, known as Piety Hill, was gradually razed and the earth was hauled to the river front. On the river front between First and Second streets stood another hill, ending in a bluff, which was utilized to fill in the low ground below the present line of Third Street, which long after became the site of the depot, car shops, locomotive works and railway yard of the Michigan Central. The demolition of the fort opened the way for a new street and quite naturally it was named Fort Street when it was opened in 1827. Wayne Street was opened a year later and Cass and Shelby streets in 1827. What we now term Cadillac Square was opened as Michigan Grand Avenue in 1 807, but Michigan Avenue proper was not opened until 1831, when the town added a number of new streets. In 18119 the population o'f Michigan Territory was large enough to entitle it to a delegate in Congress.. An election was held in which the right to vote was limited to free white citizens of 21 years of age who had lived in the Territory one year and had paid a county or territorial tax. William Woodbridge, who was already secretary of the Territory and United States collector of customs, received 339 votes; John R. Williams, 196; Henry Jackson Hunt, 97; James McCloskey, Sg, and Judge A. B. Woodward, 28. Mr. Woodbridge had held two offices before the election and the addition of another Federal office provoked such protest among the citizens who had elected him that he resigned in 1 82o,, and Solomon Sibley was elected for thie unexpired term. In 1823 occurred one of the most interesting electoral contests in the history of Detroit. The two leading candidates for territorial delegate in 118'23 were Sheriff Austin E. Wing and Col. John Biddle. Just as they had begun their canvass it became whispered about that the French residents were organizing for the purpose of voting solidly for Fr. Gabriel Richard. At first the earlier candidates laughed at the idea of a priestly candidate who was not a citizen of the United States and whose Engli'sh. was broken speech and interspersed with A DECADE OF MANY CHANGES 269 French words and idioms. But it was discovered that his backing was formidable. To make himself eligible Fr. Richard applied for citizenship papers, but Chief Justice Fletcher of the local court held that the County Court was not the proper place of application. This was so manifestly a political ruse that his colleagues, Judges Witherell and Lecuyer, issued citizenship papers June 28. Judge Fletcher was campaign manager for Mr. Wing and immediately he found that his action had created sympathy for Fr. Richard and prejudice toward Mr. Wing. The Protestant candidates subsidized the Gazette so that it utterly ignored the candidacy of Fr. Richard. John R. Williams, though a member of Ste. Anne's Church, tried to induce Fr. Richard to withdraw his name. At the same time he published a circular in which he told the French residents that if they were deserted by their pastor they would be like sheep without a shepherd. But the French were not convinced and Fr. Richard would not withdraw, whereupon John R. Williams and his uncle, Joseph Campau, left Ste. Anne's Church never to return. Later they became members of the Masonic fraternity, and when they died long after, full of years and honored by the community, they were buried in Elmwood instead of Mt. Elliott Cemetery. The candidates opposed to Fr. Richard had still one resort left. Three years before Francis Labadie had deserted his wife, Apoline Girardin, in St. Berthier parish, Canada. He came to Detroit, became a member of Ste. Anne's Church and married Marie Anne Griffard, widow of Louis Dehetre, Feb. 17, 1817. Fr. Richard, on hearing the story, told Labadie to abandon his new wife and bring his lawful wife to Detroit. Labadie refused to obey and after three separate warnings with plenty of interval between, Fr. Richard solemnly excommunicated Labadie. Labadie brought suit for defamation of character as a result of his excommunication and the Supreme Court of Michigan in the winter of 1821 rendered a verdict of damages to Labadie in the sum of i,i 16. Since Fr. Richard had been acting in accordance with his clerical duty he refused to pay and a judgment to the full 270 TjiE STORY OFDETROIT amount was issued and placed in the hands of the sheriff. There it had lain until the campaign Of 1823. Mr. Wing, thinking to eliminate the candidacy of the priest, arrested Fr. Richard on a writ of execution and locked him in the jail. In the meantime the other candidates began disputing and bargaining' with one another and trying to make political trades with promised support for promised appointments. The election returns came in slowly but seemed to indicate the election of Fr. Richard. John P. Sheldon delayed the publication of the Gazette three days in the hope that outside returns would show a different result. But the priestly candidate led everywhere and notice of his election was handed Fr. Richard in the jail just as he was released from custody. The new delegate was the first Roman Catholic priest to appear in Congress. His appearance was as foreign as possible and like that of the men of a long past generation. He wore knee-breeches, silk stockings, a long black coat, very short in the waist, very voluminous in the collar and with a huge skirt extending almost to his ankles. He listened eagerly to all that was said and took enormous quantities of snuff. But he made friends and secured for Michigan the first appropriation for a Government road across the State., which begins with Michigan Avenue of Detroit and ends with Michigan Avenue in Chicago. CHAPTER LII EXPLORATIONS-THE FIRST STATE CAPITOL N May 26, i82o, the following item appeared in the Detroit Gazette: "Last Wednesday Gov. Cass left Detroit on his exploring tour to Lake Superior and vicinity. He is accompanied by Capt. David B. Douglas, of the corps of U. S. engineers, Lieut. Aeneas Mackay of the artillery, Dr. Alexander Wolcott of the Indian Department, Henry R. Schoolcraft, mineralogist, and four young gentlemen of Detroit. These four were: James D. Doty, Robert A. Forsyth, Charles C. Trowbridge and Alexander R. Chase. The canoes, three in number, are propelled by 27 men with paddles, of whom io are Chippewa Indians, 10 are voyageurs, or Frenchmen accustomed to the Indian trade, and seven are United States soldiers. A handsome U. S. flag was carried at the stern of each canoe. The canoes are about 30 feet long and made of excellent birch bark." This expedition made remarkable time in covering the long route, as there was a keen rivalry between the Indians and the Frenchmen as to which were the best paddlers, and both were anxious to show their quality to the soldiers. Mr. Schoolcraft, in his report of the expedition, wrote: "The specific objects of this journey were to obtain a more correct knowledge of the names, numbers, customs, history, condition, modes of subsistence and dispositions of the various Indian tribes; to survey the topography of the country and collect data for a correct map; to locate a site for a garrison at the foot of Lake Superior and purchase the ground; to investigate the copper prospects, look for lead mines and gypsum quarries, and to purchase from the Indians such tracts as might be necessary to secure to the United States the ultimate advantages to be derived from them." 271 -4 00 0 0 z z 0 0l 0 0 272 EXPLORATIONS-THE FIRST STATE CAPITOL 273 James D. Doty went as secretary, Robert A. Forsyth as the Governor's secretary, Charles C. Trowbridge as assistant topographer, and Alexander R. Chase (brother of Salmon P. Chase, afterward Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court) was a member of the party. This was one of several notable canoe voyages conducted by Gen. Cass. He made one four-months' trip which covered 4,500 miles; a three-months' trip covering 1,5oo miles and another of two months which covered I,ooo miles. On the way the Governor carried a few books and part of the time was passed by having his secretary or some other passenger read aloud. The French voyageurs sang their boat songs and the Indians their wild chants, timed to the stroke of their paddles as they drove the canoes through the water at racing speed. For stretches of two to three hours the canoes would be hard driven. Then the party would land to stretch their legs and smoke. The canoemen estimated distances by the number of pipes smoked. The expedition arrived at Mackinac June 6, and proceeded to Sault Ste. Marie, where the site was selected for a fort which is now known as Fort Brady. Here they found a large assembly of Indians in a camp over which floated a British flag. The Indian chiefs were dressed in cast-off uniforms of British officers. The Indians at first refused to treat with the Americans, but Gen. Cass went unarmed into their camp, hauled down the British flag and trampled it under foot. He informed the Indians that this was now American soil. This bold act assured the Indians that the expedition had authority back of it and presently they made terms for ceding a fort site. From this point the expedition entered Lake Superior and skirted the southern shore to the head of the lake. Thence by way of Fond du Lac River and several portages they reached the Mississippi River. After exploring for a time the region of the head waters of the great river they crossed Wisconsin to Green Bay and returned to Detroit by the lakes. Some time later a large expedition of Chippewa Indians came to Detroit to receive gratuities for their land cession and their good behavior toward the expedition. 274 274 THE STORY OF DETROIT A short time after the Governor and Judges assumed control of Michigan Territory they were given authority by the Government to erect a courthouse. They had planned the erection of the building on Grand Circus Park, but the town did not grow as rapidly as they had expected so they waited for the city's extension to catch up with their original plan. After waiting 17 years they decided to build the courthouse and territorial capitol nearer the town and chose a site at the head of Griswold Street just north of the present State Street. The site is now commemorated by Capitol Square. The contract for the building was let to David C. McKinstry, Thomas Palmer and DeGarmo Jones, July 25, 1823, at $21,000, and the corner stone was laid September 22. The building cost was paid out of the sale of lands of the io,ooo-acre grant. Land sales must have been slow for the building was not ready for occupancy until May 5, 1828. In its time the old capitol was an imposing structure dominating the entire town. On the ground it measured 6o by 90 feet. Across the front was a rude Greek portico with six ionic columns and above it towered a cupola of the ancient pepper-box pattern, 140 feet high. This the country folk and visitors usually climbed to obtain a view of the river and surrounding country, which was mostly forest north of the town. The building was paid for by the sale of 6,Soo acres of the io~ooo-acre tract at $2.12 an acre and Of 144 city lots at $So a lot. One may well ask what would be the price of 6,Soo acres Just north of the Grand Boulevard and 144 lots in any part of the city today. On August 5, 1824, the old governing board of trustees was superseded by the creation of a common council, but in the lack of a city hall the council met at various places by appointment. Sometimes it was at the house of an alderman, sometimes at Woodworth's Hotel, which was always a political center, and occasionally in the old Council House. As soon as the city came into possession of the Military Reserve the council took possession of an old building known as Military Hall just west of Fort Shelby and not far from the present corner cif Cass and Fort streets. EXPLORATIONS-THE FIRST STATE CAPITOL 275 In a steadily growing city buildings have their ups and downs. Some will stand on the same spot for a century or more. Some are destined to be torn down a few years after they are erected but now and then a building, after serving many different uses on its original site, takes up a migratory.. -1;~~.: jj~lfr~: r`~j~. 5:~~:.:: B ~~~'/~ ~-'~ ~;:~ ~;:-~sc'~s~j r. ~`:~: Z' THE OLD STATE CAPITOL ON CAPITOL SQUARE, AFTERWARD UTILIZED FOR A UNION SCHOOL 276 THE STORY OF DETROIT existence and is shifted from place to place until its framework becomes crazed by the stresses of moving and it is finally pulled down by the hands of men if it is not destroyed by fire. One of these migratory structures was first erected as one of a row of buildings on the east side of Fort Shelby in connection with buildings used for the officers' quarters. This building, which stood in about the middle of the row, contained one long room and was known as Military Hall. It was used for trials by court martial and for military receptions and balls. For several years after the peace of I815 the officers' quarters in the northeast corner of the fort cantonment were occupied as a residence by Eurotas P. Hastings, one of the leading citizens, and a similar building in the southwest corner of the cantonment was occupied by Rev. N. M. Wells, commonly styled "Parson" Wells. The officers' quarters inside the fort itself were occupied by Mr. S. Gillet. The two long rows of barracks for the soldiers were occupied by several poor families of the town. When the First Protestant Society organized the First Presbyterian Church and erected its first wooden edifice near the corner of Lamed and Woodward Avenue in 1826, the church society bought the old Military Hall or new Council House and moved it to the rear of the church, facing it on the north side of Lamed Street East. There it was used as a session house and Sunday school room. The common council also used it from time to time. In 1833 a new brick session house was built on the north side of the church. When the society was ready to build a new brick church of much larger dimensions the old wooden church was sold and moved to the northwest corner of Cadillac Square and Bates Street where it became the first edifice of Holy Trinity Church. The old Military Hall was moved to the rear of the Methodist Church on the north side of Congress Street. The African Methodists of the city organized a church in 1839 and their first meetings were held in this old Military Hall. The land on Congress Street near Woodward was needed for other purposes and as Military Hall was becoming dilapidated through EXPLORATIONS-THE FIRST STATE CAPITOL 27 277 long neglect of repairs, it was given to the colored Methodists on condition that they remove it*. Its third migration was to the northwest corner of Croghan (Monroe) and Hastings streets. This society of colored Methodists was reorganized under direct control of the Africain M. E. Church in 1841 and the tottering Military Hall was again removed to Fort Street East, gt short distance west of Beaubien Street. There it was given extensive repairs and converted into a very presentable building which was used by the church until 1 847, when the colored Methodists moved into a new brick church which they had erected on Lafayette Street in the rear of the old Military Hall structure. The subsequent history of Military Hall is lost in obscurity. The year 1829 witnessed a clash between the press and the courts in a contest for the liberty of the press. John P. Sheldon, one of -the founders of the Detroit Gazette, was still its editor. A rival newspaper, the Herald, had been started by H. Chipman and Joseph Seymour May iO, 1825, which was to maintain the struggle for existende for four years. This competition led to frequent clashes in which the rivals told the community very frankly just what they thought of one another. Sheldon was a man of slender physique, but full of pepper and vinegar, so the Herald styled him: "A fretful and malicious little man.") Addressing him personally it once said: "You are anxious to be looked upon as the literary dagger-man of Detroit and you fling your weapons around with indiscriminate malignity. The great and small are alike, objects of your implacable resentment." Such jabs naturally brought retorts in Mr. Sheldon's most vitriolic style, but for all that Sheldon was a very popular man, who, while earning the enmity of public officials and malefactors by his criticisms, usually managed to please the people at large. He not only was active in the promotion of social, political and religious enterprises, but was often one of the leading organizers. Such a man as is today termed a "live wire." CHAPTER LIII OLD KISHKAWKO CHEATS THE HANGMAN ISHKAWKO, the turbulent chief of the Saginaw Indians, who had long been a terror to the settlers in outlying districts, came to the close of his career in 1826. Wherever he found lone women in a settler's cabin he delighted in terrorizing them. On one of his last trips to obtain British gratuities he stopped at the house of Eber Ward on St. Clair River and found only Ward's daughter, Sally, at home. Kishkawko demanded whisky and when he was told there was no whisky in the house he went to a vinegar barrel outside the door, and turning the faucet, allowed the vinegar to run away. Then, drawing his ramrod from his gun, he gave Sally Ward a severe whipping. In 1826 he made his last visit to Amherstburg with his band. He was accompanied by one of his sons, Big Beaver, for whom a settlement north of Royal Oak was afterward named. The Indians had plenty of whisky on their return to Detroit and they held a drunken orgie at their camp on the Chene farm. The orgie ended in a fight in which Kishkawko and Big Beaver hacked the head of Wauwasson, one of their men, to pieces. Then they came to the town, carrying their bloody hatchets, and were placed under arrest. It was found that a murder had been committed, so Kishkawko and Big Beaver were locked up in the new jail, on Library Park. They were tried, found guilty and sentenced to he hanged. While awaiting execution in the jail three of Kishkawko's wives were allowed to visit them. They brought poison which Kishkawko swallowed, but Big Beaver did not. He waited until the jailor's son brought him his supper and then, seizing the boy, he locked him inside his cell and made his escape to Saginaw. A few months later he was pardoned by President John Quincy Adams. Kishkawko was found dead in his cell a few hours after his wives had left. 278 OLD KISHKAWKO CHEATS THE HANGMAN 279 The remains of Kishkawko were buried in the orchard of Antoine Beaubien, near the corner of Woodbridge and Beaubien. Big Beaver was drowned in Saginaw Bay, soon after his pardon arrived, while attempting to cross the bay in a canoe. Some time later another son of Kishkawko, named Chemick, visited Detroit and his portrait was painted by Gildersleeve Hurd, a local artist. At last accounts this portrait was in possession of the Yondotega Club. Another son of Kishkawko, named Blackbird, was well known in Detroit and the Saginaw Valley for several years. Up to 1830 no white man had been executed in Michigan Territory under American law. A few had been tried by court martial at Chillicothe and had been shot there. In all the states and territories the penalty for slaying was hanging, but while there had been several murders in remote places, there were no convictions. Several Indians had been slain by white men in the vicinity of Detroit, but under circumstances which gave some ground for the plea of justifiable homicide. One Indian named Black Duck had been shot and killed at Grosse Ile and the British authorities across the river demanded the punishment of the slayer, but Gen. Cass declared that the British government had no jurisdiction over Michigan Indians or whites. Then he settled the affair with the Indians by a distribution of 40 quarts of whisky. While the two nations were at peace the British government was very reluctant about surrendering its claim of right to search American vessels on the high seas and on the Great Lakes. Several American vessels were held up and searched on Lake Erie as late as 1816, but in the following year the treaty for mutual disarmament on the lakes put an end to that sort of trouble. In 1826 the fishing industry of Michigan began with an experimental shipment to the East of several barrels of salted whitefish and trout, and before 1830 seven vessels were engaged in this trade. The vessels also began bringing to Detroit oysters which had been packed in Baltimore. In 1828 Detroit began a period of rapid growth. In the next six years the population increased from 1,517 to 4,968, IN.$-~ - v,,4~'- - __ ~'N,--. - -~---I-lp--- 16%~t ~ t&1 DETROIT IN i8,26 AS SKETCHED By GEN. ALEXANDER MACOMB OLD KISHKAWKO CHEATS THE HANGMAN 281 and in 1840 it reached 9,192. The country in the interior was rapidly filling up. Many farms and several villages came into existence. All these had Detroit for their market town and shipping port. Stage service was needed on the main roads, but to make stage service possible it was necessary to build plank roads. Ypsilanti, founded in 1823 during the Greek war for independence, was named in 1825 by Judge Woodward, one of the promoters, in honor of Prince Demetrius Ypsilanti of Greece, in spite of the protests of other property owners who proposed other names. Until the Michigan Avenue Road was constructed travel from Ypsilanti to Detroit was by way of an Indian trail to Flat Rock and thence along the Detroit-Toledo Road. The first settlement at Ann Arbor was in 1824. That place was named in honor of Mrs. Ann Rumsey, who was one of the first settlers. Mt. Clemens, named in honor of one of the first settlers and land owners, Christian Clemens, was a small village in 1812. Marine City, first known as Ward's Landing, and later as Newport, promised to develop into a thriving town. St. Clair was started in 1818 when D. C. McKinstry and Thomas Palmer, of Detroit, bought a French farm and platted a town which, for a time, was called Palmer. Pontiac was founded in 1819. Port Huron began to be settled in 1829 and was for several years known as Desmond. The name was changed to Port Huron in 1837. Utica's settlement began in 1817 and Rochester in 1818. These towns meant trade for Detroit. A market place at Detroit meant prosperity and rapid growth for these towns and their surrounding farming country if roads were opened to make wagon transportation possible. Road building in those days consisted merely of clearing the line of travel of trees and stumps and laying corduroy roads made of round logs laid side by side over the marshy ground. The soil everywhere was soft in wet weather and travel at best was reduced to a walking pace. Two days were necessary for a trip to either Pontiac, Rochester or Ann Arbor, and travelers were forced to stay over night at some wayside tavern. The Pontiac Road was surveyed 282 THE STORY OF DETROIT in 18iS, but it was a long time before construction was begun. Mack & Conant, of Detroit, built a road out Woodward Avenue to the Six-Mile Road under Government contract, for which they received $6,ooo, but the worst road problem lay beyond that point. In 1817 the soldiers at Detroit improved the River Road to within io miles of Monroe. In 1827 the Government began building the Michigan Avenue Road. A Government military road was ordered constructed from Detroit to Fort Gratiot, just above Port Huron, but all these were merely mud roads, which were deeply rutted in dry weather and almost impassable in wet weather. As a result Detroit, with vast areas of forest all around it, was obliged to pay $6 and $7 a cord for firewood. It was not until the Michigan Plank*Road Act went into effect in 1848 that dependable roads were provided. Lack of transportation threw the settlers largely upon their own resources. They raised crops for their own consumption principally, for without roads it was impossible to carry them to market. They spent their time clearing their land and fencing it so they could keep stock that could be driven to market on the hoof. The little settlements that sprang up here and there about a blacksmith shop or a small sawmill or gristmill and general store were the chief trading centers for the farmers until the era of plank roads came. Near the water front where produce could be shipped by boat conditions were somewhat better, but the best lands lay back several miles in the interior. CHAPTER LIV EARLY WATER SUPPLY--YE EDITOR' IN JAIL N the early days of Detroit there was much experimenting with wells and other devices for obtaining a water supply. Residents along the shore dipped their water from the river in buckets. To this a few families added a water barrel beside their houses. This served for household use and fire protection. The barrels were required to be kept filled to comply with the fire ordinance, so a number of residents made a business of hauling water in barrels from the river to keep the house barrels and buckets filled. Many wells were dug, but the water did not prove as palatable as the river water. Up on the edge of the public common some shallow wells were dug and left without protection. After a few persons and cattle had been rescued. from them the wells were filled up. For many years one could hardly look the length of any street of the town without discovering somewhere a citizen with a wooden yoke across his shoulders carrying two suspended water buckets. Early in 1820 began the discussion of water supply by some sort of system, but nothing was done until August 5, 1823, when Peter Berthelet, who lived near the river front, was authorized to build a wharf from the shore out to deep water and install a pump for taking water from the river where it would be free from shore contamination. In compensation for this privilege of furnishing water and maintaining a wharf for 99 years, Mr. Berthelet deeded to the city a lot 50 by 90 feet at the northeast corner of Woodbridge and Randolph streets for the erection of a city market. In 1827 Berthelet was authorized to build a market on the site and rent stalls and market privileges. This wharf and pump were erected, but all they gave to the city was the privilege of obtaining pure water by going after it. 283 284 THE STORY OF DETROIT In February, I825, Bethuel Farrand, a manufacturer of pumps at Aurelius, N. Y., came to Detroit to submit a plan for supplying the citizens with water in their homes. An exclusive right was granted him on approval of his plan. He brought from the East, Rufus Wells, to superintend the construction of his system. Tamarack logs were rafted from the Clinton River and bored out so as to convert them into pipes. The hollow logs were mortised together at the ends and laid underground in Woodbridge and Atwater streets and Jefferson Avenue. A line of large wooden pipes was extended along the river bottom to the end of the wharf, where it was connected with a tank elevated 40 feet above the wharf so as to carry the water by gravity to the main along Jefferson Avenue. A reservoir 16 feet square, built of oak plank, was constructed near the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Randolph Street. Penstocks were attached to the system at frequent intervals so that the residents of the neighborhood, by withdrawing a wooden plug, could draw water from the system. Service pipes also were installed in many of the houses, each house paying $io a year for the service. Occasionally a plug would be replaced carelessly and afterward it would be forced out, filling the cellar of the house with water and draining the storage tank so that the entire system would go out of operation for the time. While this was a vast improvement on the universal resort to the river, it was not satisfactory. There was a hope that water might be obtained at considerable pressure by boring artesian wells and thus save the cost of pumping, which was done by horse-power. On the site of Fort Shelby a well four inches in diameter was bored to a depth of 260 feet, but pockets of quicksand gave trouble and the tubing filled with sand and gravel. The well was abandoned. In I830 a new scheme was tried. A brick reservoir was constructed on Fort Street near the present site of the Moffat Building. It had a capacity of 21,811 gallons, and a forcing main was laid from this to the river, where a Io-horsepower s~team pumping engine was installed. The pipes were badly EARLY WATER SUPPLY-'YE EDITOR' IN JAIL 28 285 connected and there was leakage at every joint. Bttesse served, after a fashion, for several years, and in 1831 another reservoir was built, adjoining the first one, with a capacity of 119,poo gallons. This reservoir remained 'in use until 1839, RESERVOIR, FOOT OF ORLEANS STREET, 1840 when it was taken down and service was shifted to a new reservoir Of 42'2,000 gallons capacity erected at the foot of Orleans Street. Liberty of the press was without really irksome restraints in early Detroit, but courts of law are naturally very sensitive to criticism. Many an editor who has ventured a perfectly honest opinion regarding the verdict in a law case has found himself facing summary proceedings for contempt of court. 286 THE STORY OF DETROIT A man named John Reed was convicted of larceny in the Wayne County Circuit Court. While the jury was being drawn he challenged a juror for cause. There is no limit to the number of challenges for cause, if cause can be shown. In this case the challenge for cause, that the man was an enemy of the defendant, was denied and Reed was forced to use one of his limited peremptory challenges. The objectionable juror was dismissed and a jury that was sati~sfactory to Reed convicted him. When the Supreme Court met in January it granted Reed a new trial on a writ of error in which denial of the challenge for cause was the basis of his plea. The decision angered John P. Sheldon and on January 8, 1829, he wrote an editorial in the Detroit Gazette on: "The progress of the perfection of reason in Michigan," in which he said: "The Supreme Court of the Territory terminated its December session last week. As usual, there was little business done and a portion of that little, we are led to believe, was but poorly done." He then proceeded to point out the fault of the court and followed up with later criticisms. Evidently Mr. Sheldon was looking for some result of his attacks and presently he obtained action in the form of an arrest, conviction for contempt of court and a fine of $ioo. All this was "meat and drink" for Sheldon, for it would stir his host of friends to action and the Supreme Court would come in for verbal criticism which it would not be able to punish. Sheldon refused to pay his fine and cheerfully accepted a jail sentence. E. A. Brush and Eurotas P. Hastings came forward offering to pay, but Sheldon refused their offer. That night there was an indignation meeting at the Mansion House Hotel on Jefferson Avenue near Cass Street. The meeting was formally organized with Maj. Jonathan Kearsley, a learned and influential citizen, as chairman. Resolutions were unanimously adopted condemning the Supreme Court and a committee was appointed to collect the fine by public subscription, limiting the contribution of any person to one shilling. This involved the finding of 800 of the 2,000 Detroiters who would take the side of Sheldon against the court. Sheldon was locked 'YE EDITOR' IN JAIL 287 up- March 5, and he continued writing for the Gazette, -dating his articles from the county jail. The case was the talk of the town and the intefest instead of fading grew more intense as time passed. The Gazette articles, " taken from a county jail " In the Mikado fashion, were read each week by hundreds of indignant citizens. In the meantime Sheldon lived like a lord. The best food the town could afford was sent him and scores of the best citizens called on him. On March 7, a public banquet was given Sheldon in the jail. Nearly 300 cit'izens crowded into the building anid a great crowd gathered outside to listen through the open windows while speakers twisted the tail of the Supreme Court and lauded Sheldon for his heroic stand for " the liberty of the press." On March 14 the collectors had raised the amount of the fine. The leading citizens procured a carriage and decorated it. It was driven to the jail at the head of a long procession and Mr. Sheldon's release having been procured, he was driven to the Mansion House to be given a state luncheon. All this was gall and wormwood to the Supreme Court and Sheldon was having the time of his life. In April he retired from the Gazette to become a resident of Pontiac. Ebenezer Reed succeeded him as editor. John P. Sheldon had a younger brother, Thomas Carleton Sheldon, who cut an important figure during the 1830's. He was a boon companion of Gov. Stevens T. Mason. From 1826 to 1829 he was sheriff of Wayne County. He owned a building at the northeast corner of Jefferson Avenue and Shelby Street known as the Sheldon Block. When the Detroit Gazette was burned by an incendiary fire, the plant was owned by Sheldon McKnight, a nephew of John P. and T. C. Sheldon. Nothing was saved but the worn and battered type. Mr. McKnight wished to revive the Gazette but the newspaper had made many enemie~s by its reckless indulgence in personal journalism and its materials were worthless. The Oakland County Chronicle, published by Thomas Simpson, had led a precarious existence at Pontiac. Its backers, Daniel Leroy, Olmstead 288 THE STORY OF DETROIT Chamberlain and Gideon 0. Whittemore were anxious to dispose of it and they sold it to Col. Andrew Mack, Gen. John R. Williams and Joseph Campau, who brought the plant to Detroit and placed it in a vacant store in charge of a husky African slave of Gen. Williams, named Hector. An arrangement was made with Sheldon McKnight for founding a newspaper known as "The Democratic Free Press and Michigan Intelligencer." When Mr. McKnight went to take over the stock of the Oakland County Chronicle, Hector had not been notified of the arrangement. Hector stood on the defensive until Mr. McKnight, himself a man of peppery temper, tried to thrust him aside, and then he assumed the offensive and the new proprietor went out of the place with more haste than dignity. Later it was all explained, and Hector surrendered with apologies. John P. Sheldon returned to become the first editor but after a few months he resigned on account of failing health. Soon afterward Thomas C. Sheldon and his associates bought a controlling interest and cut down the voluminous title of the newspaper to "The Detroit Free Press." It has continued to the present day under that title. Thomas C. Sheldon was a man of massive build, of average height, but with extraordinary shoulders and torso. Sometimes, just to show what he could do, he would take up a barrel of pork and hold it on his knees apparently with the utmost ease. In January, 1837, fire destroyed the Sheldon Block with the Free Press office and a month later the paper was sold to John S. Bagg, A. Smith Bagg and Henry Barns. Mr. Barns had set out from the East in the previous fall with a complete outfit for founding a newspaper at Niles. The early closing of navigation compelled Mr. Barns to winter in Detroit and when the Free Press plant was destroyed he was induced to enter partnership with the Baggs and employ his newspaper material in Detroit. CHAPTER LV MICHIGAN'Is LAST INFLICTION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT HENRY CHIPMAN, a native of Vermont, came to Detroit in 18 24 to practice law. A year later he was associated with Mr. Seymour in the founding of the Herald and still later he was appointed chief justice of the County Court. In this capacity he was so satisfactory that in 1827 he was made supreme justice of Michigan Territory in succession to John Hunt. Afterward he became secretary of the land board which had been established in 1818, city recorder, school inspector and judge of the district Criminal Court. His son, John Logan Chipman, became judge of the Recorder's Court and member of Congress from Detroit. Following the great fire of i8o5, the stones of the chimneys which were left standing were used for the construction of a building on the south side of Jefferson Avenue, between Shelby and Wayne streets. This building served a variety of purposes until 1827 when it was renovated and enlarged to become the Mansion House, which was one o 'f the leading hotels for many years. Owing to bad roads and the fear of lawless characters who sometimes robbed travelers found abroad at night, wayside taverns were kept at intervals of a few miles along every main line of travel. At the present site of Eloise was one of these hostelries known as the Black Horse Tavern. At Wayne was another, kept for several years by Stephen G. Simmons. Simmons was a man of massive build and of fine appearance. He was also a man of considerable education, but he became a hard drinker and when intoxicated he was quarrelsome and even dangerous. He had picked quarrels and then mauled a number of men and had made many bitter enemies. He had a wife who was in feeble health, and two daughters. These women' lived in terror of the husband and father because 289 290 THE STORY OF DETROIT of his violent temper when drunk. One night he went to the room where his wife lay in bed, carrying a jug of whisky. He was in an ugly mood and insisted that his wife drink with him. She took several drinks, hoping to appease him, but he insisted that she take more. On her refusal he struck her a blow with his fist that killed her. Her terrified daughters witnessed the tragedy and tried in vain to restrain him. Seeing that his wife was dead, Simmons became gradually sobered and very penitent. He was arrested, brought to Detroit and tried for murder before Judges Solomon Sibley, Henry Chipman and William Woodbridge, sitting en banc. The prosecution was conducted by B. F. H. Witherell, while George A. O'Keefe, a noted lawyer, defended him. Simmons' guilt was plainly established by the testimony of his own daughters. His general unpopularity undoubtedly had some influence with the jury which convicted him in spite of O'Keefe's eloquent plea for mercy on the ground that a drunken man is not responsible for his acts. The court sentenced Simmons to be hanged September 24, I830. Simmons was given every protection of the law, but it was so hard to find jurors who were not prejudiced against him that over 300 talesmen were sworn and obtained their dismissal on declaring that they believed Simmons should be hanged. At the trial Simmons made a fine appearance as the whisky was out of his system and he looked like a man of superior mental as well as physical ability, as compared with most of the men in the court room. But five years of turbulent living and the testimony that during his drunken sprees he had often beaten his wife and daughters settled the matter of mercy for the offender. The prospect of a public execution in Detroit caused a great stir in all the adjoining territory. Thomas S. Knapp was sheriff of Wayne County, but he balked at officiating as public hangman, flatly refusing to act in that capacity. There was lively discussion of the matter in "Uncle Ben" Woodworth's Steamboat Hotel. "Uncle Ben" held that the law must be enforced or no man would respect it; that any man who MICHIGAN'S LAST INFLICTION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 291 accepted a public office as judge or sheriff should be willing to perform all the duties of his office, however unpleasant. He was challenged on that statement and asked if he would be willing to hang Simmons. "Uncle Ben" was always ready to back up his own words and declared that if he were appointed for that duty he would do it as a service to the Territory for the upholding of the law. Gov. Cass sent for him and, after talking the matter over, appointed him as acting sheriff in place of Knapp. Mr. Woodworth immediately began preparations for the execution, which he was determined to make as impressive as possible. He had a quadrangular grandstand of plank benches constructed about the jail yard, between the jail building and Gratiot Avenue, now Library Park. In the center, on the edge of Gratiot Avenue, a space was left for the scaffold, which was built of heavy timbers. On the day preceding the execution every road leading to Detroit showed a straggling stream of settlers from the surrounding country coming toward Detroit on horseback and on foot. That night the hotels were crowded and some of the people opened their homes to the visitors. Next day the grandstand was packed with spectators two hours before the time set for the execution. Outside the ranks of benches stood a solid mass of people and back of them a row of men on horseback. "Uncle Ben" had called out the regimental band to add to the impressiveness of the affair. Presently the heavy door of the jail swung open and he appeared walking arm in arm with Simmons, while a deputy marched on the other side of the condemned man. Simmons was bareheaded. He stood half a head taller than his conductors. His usually ruddy face was very pale, but he walked to the scaffold and mounted the steps leading to it with a firm step. He sat looking over the throng of witnesses while the death warrant was read, and then arose and delivered an able address in which he confessed his faults, warned all in his hearing to beware of strong drink and said that he had hoped for the mercy of the court and of the Governor. I EXECITI ION OF STEPHEN G. SIMMONS, SEPTEMBER 24, 1830 The house of Thomas Coquillard at the left stood on the site of the J. I.. Hudson Company's store. The large building at the extreme right was the First Methodist Church, then used as a theater. The house nearest the scaffold was that of Israel Noble, undertaker. These buildings were on the site of Crowley, Milner & Company's store. MICHIGAN'S LAST INFLICTION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 293 Then in a strong baritone voice of excellent quality he sang a familiar hymn of that period: "Show pity, Lord, 0 Lord, forgive, Let a repenting rebel live; Are not Thy mercies full and free? May not a sinner trust in Thee? "My crimes are great, but can't surpass The power and glory of Thy grace, Great God, Thy nature hath no bound, So let Thy pardoning love be found." The scene produced a powerful impression upon the assembly. Many who had come to the jail yard eagerto see justice done to a man they disliked began to feel themselves in a more forgiving mood, but only the Governor could halt the execution now, and no reprieve came at the last moment. The acting sheriff led Simmons to the trap beneath the beam of the scaffold. He had provided an unusually strong rope because Simmons weighed more than 250 pounds. The noose was adjusted and the executioner stepped to one side and pulled the lever which released the trap. Simmons shot through the opening and died almost instantly from the breaking of his neck. The crowd hurried away from the scene to discuss the affair from beginning to end at the bars of various taverns, and as a result of this discussion there began to develop from that hour an aversion to capital punishment among the people of Michigan. They had not minded the hanging of a few Indians, but a white man, and one who could make the affair as gruesomely impressive as had Simmons, made it quite a different matter. Three men had been flogged that season at the public whipping post, but shortly after the execution of Simmons the act authorizing the whipping of small offenders was repealed and the whipping post, which had stood as a symbol of law in Detroit for 13 years, was routed from the ground and abolished forever. "Uncle Ben" Woodworth's volunteer service brought its reward in his appointment as sheriff of Wayne County by Gov. Cass in place of Thomas S. Knapp. CHAPTER LVI ADVENT OF STEVENS THOMSON MASON ANDREW JACKSON was- elected President of the United States in 183 1, and when hie made up his Cabinet he appointed Gov. Lewis Cass of Michigan Secretary of War, after first appointing John H. Eaton, and then appointing Eaton governor of Florida. This left the governorship of Michigan Territory vacant, and George B. Porter of Lancaster, Pa., was given the appointment. President Jackson was a man of astonishing frankness. He was the first President openly to confess the adoption of the political "spoils system," with the declaration that "to the victors belong the spoils of public office and patronage." It was more than 50 years afterward that another Democratic President made the pronouncement that " a public office is a public trust. " Mr. Porter owed his appointment as Governor of Michigan Territory to the fact that he was a member of a powerful political machine which had control of p*ublic patronage in Pennsylvania. By virtue of that control they had directed nominations of candidates. The other members of that machine were James Buchanan, afterward President of the United States, Benjamin Champneys and Rhea Frazer. All four were residents of Lancaster, and, being the power behind the state government, they made Lancaster virtually the seat of state government. This little political machine was known as "The Lancaster Regency." Gov. Porter, like many other democratic leaders of early days, had been a lavish entertainer and a man of boundless hospitality. Thomas Jefferson was another who, after he retired to his estate at Monticello, was almost eaten out of house and home by parasitic visitors who always found a welcome there and took full advantage of it. Gov. Porter had no love for the 294 ADVENT OF STEVENS THOMSON MASON 295 western wilds; but he needed the money, and so accepted the office. He was a tall, slender man, very dignified and courteous in manner, and he became popular in Detroit. His family consisted of himself, his wife and two sons, Hume and Andrew, who afterward lived in Washington and achieved some distinction. Andrew married Margaret Biddle, daughter of Maj. John Biddle of Detroit, for whom the old Biddle House was named. This shift in the governorship entailed some serious consequences. John T. Mason of Virginia had been appointed secretary of Michigan Territory May 20, 1830, under Gen. Cass. Mr. Mason's family consisted of his wife, four daughters, Emily, Catherine, Laura and Theodosia, and one son, Stevens Thomson Mason. They lived on the north side of Jefferson Avenue, a few doors east of Beaubien Street. When the new President was preparing his appointments the elder Mason evidently had his ear to the ground and learned of the prospective appointment of Gen. Cass to the Cabinet. -Mr. Mason at once resigned his office of secretary of Michigan Territory in favor of his son, then only 19 years old. Stevens Thomson Mason was an unusually able young man. He was well educated, very popular socially, and possessed of unusual spirit and audacity. The resignation of Gen. Cass,of course, made this stripling acting Governor of Michigan Territory, which at that time was of the area of an empire, embracing the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and a considerable part of what is now North and South Dakota. Detroiters had chafed and fumed under a former government of satrapy, appointed without regard for the preference of Michigan people. Now to have the authority of government vested in a mere boy, recently arrived from Virginia, in preference to quite a number of local men of proved ability and experience, was more than Detroit would bear without protest. The appointment of Gov. Porter did not stop the protest, for in case of his death the boy might become actual Governor. The matter was discussed on street corners, at the bars of all the taverns, and in the homes of the leading citizens. 296 THE STORY OF DETROIT Indignation meetings were held all over the Territory as the news spread. In Detroit a mass meeting appointed Oliver Newberry, Andrew Mack and John E. Schwartz to report whether young Mason was yet 21 years of age. Their report of July 25 showed that he had been born in Loudoun County, Virginia, in 1812, and therefore he could not be 21 years of age in 1831. Another meeting was held at which the public feeling was, if anything, intensified rather than abated. On the eve of his departure for Washington Gen. Cass gave a parting feast to the notables of the town in the Mansion House at which addresses were made by the departing Governor and Maj. John Biddle. Austin E. Wing, on being called upon for a toast, rose in his place and said: " Gentlemen, fill your glasses." This being done with the usual alacrity, Mr. Wing raised his own glass high in the air and said: "The health of the ex-secretary of state." This title had been commonly applied to young Mason in a jesting way and the toast was intended to signify that the people expected his resignation. There was a chilling silence for a moment and then the elder Mason rose to make a plea for his son's succession. He thanked the assembly for the compliment paid him and said he had always tried to do his duty. Then he referred to his son with much feeling: "The boy is smart, gentlemen. He is unusually capable. He has been my able assistant and knows all the duties of the office. There has been much bitter discussion' regarding his succession to the office of secretary of the Territory. I hope you will not condemn him unheard." The elder Mason was greatly moved. His eyes filled with tears and his voice trembled as he proceeded: "Try the boy, gentlemen, try the boy! President Jackson is not to blame for his appointment. If any blame at all attaches to the appointment it is to me. It is due to the fond attachment of a father for his son." Mr. Mason's plea was so simple, so sincere and so actuated by the common feeling of a father for his son that the sentiment of the assembly was changed in an instant. From that moment all protest against the boy's appointment ceased and, as subsequent events will show, the young man made good in his ADVENT OF STEVENS THOMSON MASON 297 office and completely won over the people of Michigan to his side. All through the administration of Gov. Porter young Mason was his right-hand man. During the year 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville and M. Gustave de Beaumont visited Detroit as emissaries of Louis Philippe, "Citizen King" of France. They traveled widely about the country visiting most of the large cities in making an investigation of the management of the prisons in the States. On their return to France they published "The Penitentiary System of the United States," and in 1835 De Tocqueville published his celebrated work, "Democracy in America," which is still well worth reading and is to be found in every public library of our country. A number of newspapers came into existence during the decade. The Northwestern Journal, 1829; Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, 1830; the Democratic Free Press and Michigan Intelligencer, 1831; Detroit Courier, 1830; Detroit Journal, 1835; Journal and Courier, 1835; Detroit Daily Advertiser, 1836. These papers struggled for a time singly, then secured a new lease of life by merging, but most of them were short-lived. The Democratic Free Press was founded by a group of Democratic politicians who wanted a journal to succeed the Gazette. The Detroit Free Press of the present day is its legitimate successor. CHAPTER LVII THE BLACK HAWK WAR GOV. PORTER arrived in Detroit, September 17, 1831, and he died in office, July 7~, 1834. That period was filled with harrowing experiences for all residents of De troi t. In 1832 occurred the so-called "Black Hawk War," which reflects little credit upon the Government of the United States. The twin tribes known as the Sacs and Foxes had been driven from Michigan to Wisconsin many years before. The same policy of land acquisition by treaties secured through liberal use of presents and whisky followed in Wisconsin, after. the fashion of the Treaty of 1819 in Michigan. By suchinethods, in the absence of Black Hawk, their head chief, a treaty was secured by which the Sac and Fox Indians agreed to cede all their lands east of the Mississippi River for an annuity of $r,ooo. A majority of the tribes moved across the great river under leadership of Chief Keokuk in 1823, but their Wisconsin lands had not yet been formally ceded or the suggested price paid. Settlers began pouring into the territory in advance of the settlement and Black Hawk crossed the river with a small band in June, 183 1, to resist this occupation. Immediately the whole country was as excited as if some powerful foreign nation had declared war. Troops were hastily recruited in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. One notable recruit was an angular, -jovial, young lawyer of Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. A call was made for 300 volunteers from Michigan and the Detroit City Guards under Capt. Edward Brooks and the Light Dragoons under Capt. Jackson responded. Two companies were placed under command of Gen. John R. Williams with Edward Brooks as colonel; Jonathan Davis, lieutenant colonel; B. Holbrook, major; Lewis Davenport, quartermaster, and Dr. J. L. Whiting as surgeon. On May 24, they started their 298 THE BLACK HAWK WVAR 299 THE BLACK HAWK WAR 299 long march across the state, but the infantry were recalled when they had reached Saline. The dragoons went on to Chicago. On June 3, two companies of United States regulars, which had come up from Niagara, left Detroit for Chicago on board the Austerlitz and, on June 30, Gen. Winfield Scott left Detroit for Chicago. On July 4, the steamer Henry Clay arrived at Detroit with several companies of soldiers, but on the way up the lake Asiatic cholera broke out on board. This was the be- |i. ginning of the first cholera epidemic in Detroit. The Black Hawk War was a farce, for the old chief with his handful of warriors was defeated at the Wisconsin River, July 21, 1832, and defeated again at Bad Axe River, August I. Black Hawk surrendered August 2. He and nine other chiefs were held as hostages for the good behavior of the Indians and were confined for a time in Fortress Monroe, Va. In the summer of 1833 they were released and BLACK HAWK-CHIEF OF THE SACS shown about several of the AND FOXES larger cities to impress them with the 'uselessness of resistance to the Government of the United States with its millions of white people. It was a rather disgraceful affair all around. During the hostilities when the Indians saw that resistance was useless, 150 of them had laid down their arms and approached a steamboat carrying flags of truce, but the captain of the boat opened fire on them with a battery of six-pound cannon. Black Hawk's surrender was pathetic. He came into the army camp with two Winnebagoes and, when taken before the commander, he said: "You have taken me prisoner. I am grieved. I tried to bring you into ambush. Your guns were well 300 THE STORY OF DETROIT aimed. I saw my evil day was at hand. Black Hawk's heart is dead, but he can stand torture; he is no coward-he is an Indian who fought for his squaws against those who came to cheat them. 'You know the cause of this war and you ought to be ashamed of it. We look up to the Great Spirit. Farewell, my nation. This is the end of Black Hawk." With Black Hawk among the hostages were his two sons, Prophet and Naopope. All three were men of gigantic frames and finely proportioned. Brought before President Jackson, Black Hawk stood like a conqueror rather than a prisoner of war. He said to the President: "I am a man; you are another. If I had not struck for my people you could have said that I was a woman. Black Hawk expects to return to his people." On July 4., 1833, Black Hawk arrived in Detroit and was entertained at the Mansion House. Everybody turn~ed out to see him and all were struck with the splendid bearing of the man and his noble head and countenance. Several mothers of Detroit laid their children in his arms and the old warrior fondled them affectionately. The late Sen. Thomas W. Palmer used to say that he was one of those babies. He was only two years old at the time, but the incident was one of his favorite traditions, handed down by his mother. Black Hawk died in Des Moines,, Iowa., in 1838. Several years later his bones were stolen from their grave, but they were afterward found in possession of a surgeon at Quincy, Ill., and restored. to his tribe. A monument has been erected to him at Rock Island, Ill. Detroit had nearly 4,000 inhabitants in the summer of 1832 when the steamer Henry Clay came up the lake with 370 soldiers on board en route for the Black Hawk War in western Wisconsin. A number of the soldiers had been taken sick very suddenly, so the steamer remained at the Detroit wharf. During the day the nature of the disease began to be suspected since Asiatic cholera was prevalent in several eastern cities. Next day one of the soldiers died and the boat was ordered away from the public wharf. The Henry Clay stopped at Belle Isle for a few hours and then, in doubt as to what should be done, proceeded THE BLACK HAWK WAR 3oi up the lake and St. Clair River to Fort Gratiot, just above the present city of Port Huron. It was decided that it would be useless to go further, so the sick were carried ashore and those who had not yet been attacked were told to make their way to Detroit as best they could. Next day 150o of them arrived in Detroit with the report that a number had died on the way and been abandoned beside the trail. Landlord Andrew Mack, of the Mansion House, who was also U. S. collector of customs here, opened his doors to the refugees. The citizens rendered such aid as they could in caring for the sick. In a short time more than 2oo00 citizens were attacked by the disease and nearly o100 of them died. Fr. Gabriel Richard was always on hand in crises. He nursed the sick, comforted the dying and performed the burial rites over many. On September 13, 1832, he was himself stricken with the disease and in a few hours he was dead at the age of 65 years. His death was mourned as a calamity by Catholics and Protestants alike. In personal appearance Fr. Richard was very tall and angular. His arms and legs were long and his hands big fnd bony. His face was almost cadaverous, ghastly pale and disfigured with a livid scar extending the length of one cheek, the result of a wound received while he was making his escape from a mob of the French Revolution. For years he had been one of the foremost promoters of education and public charity. He founded two schools for boys and two separate schools for girls. The latter were the first vocational training or industrial schools in Michigan, if not in the entire country. The girls were taught all the ordinary household arts as well as book learning. Fr. Richard furnished looms, spinning wheels and all the hand apparatus for manufacturing wool and flax into yarns, as well as dyeing and weaving. He promoted road building and from first to last was very loyal to the United States Government and to the Territory and city in which he lived. Fr. Richard brought the first printing press to Michigan and printed the first books and the first newspaper published in Detroit. He also brought the first church organ to Michigan for 302 THE STORY OF DETROIT the little church in Springwells. The Indians were so charmed with the instrument that they stole the pipes and for weeks afterward the sound of single organ notes could be heard in the woods about the city. His remains were buried in a crypt under the new Ste. Anne's Church, which had been begun in 1818 and finished in 18'28. In 1886 this church was sold that the site might be used for commercial purposes. The parish was divided, one part building Ste. Anne's Church at Howard and Nineteenth streets and the other St. Joachim's Church of the east side. The remains of Fr. Richard were transferred to the new Ste. Anne's. After the building had been razed and excavations begun for the erection 'of stores, the excavators came upon a trench in which 30 cholera victims had been buried in a common grave. CHAPTER LVIII COMMERCIAL AND CULTURAL PROGRESS DETROIT'S first venture in steamboat building was rather modest, the earliest local vessel being the steam ferry boat Argo. In 1820 J. B. St. Armour secured a license for conducting ferry service from the foot of Woodward Avenue to Richmond, afterward renamed Windsor. This service tended to divert profitable custom from the bar of "Uncle Ben" Woodworth's Steamboat Hotel so Mr. Woodworth, eight months later, secured a ferry license to operate from the dock at the foot of Randolph Street. Several other ferries were established by means of large rowboats. In 1825 the first horse-boat, propelled by horses walking about a circular track on the main deck, was instituted by D. C. McKinstryand John Burtis. In 1827 Capt. Burtis built the Argo in a slip on the river front near Wayne Street. This curious craft had a hull consisting of two huge logs hollowed out and held together by the deck. On it a small steam engine of four horsepower was installed. A few years later the Argo was used for transportation between Detroit and St. Clair River ports. She was so small and "cranky" that passengers had to move about her deck with caution. In 1833, Oliver Newberry, who owned the largest warehouse on the lakes and was one of the pioneers of lake transportation, built, at the foot of Wayne Street, the steamer Michigan, I56 feet long, 29 feet beam, 53 feet wide over the guards, and with an I I-foot hold. When built the Michigan was pronounced the largest and finest steamer on the lakes. She was propelled by twin walking-beam, low-pressure engines which were then the largest on the lakes, with a stroke of seven feet three inches and cylinders 40 inches in diameter. The Michigan made her trial trip, October ii, 1833, under command of Capt. Blake. 303 304 THE STORY OF DETROIT Steamboat navigation increased rapidly on the lakes. During May, 1836, 90 steamboats stopped at Detroit wharves. The steamer United States brought over 700 passengers from Buffalo. Competition led to a steady reduction of fares, and in 1846 a cabin passage to Buffalo commonly sold for $6. The boats engaged in racing to attract passengers, and sometimes passengers were carried for almost nothing to discourage competition. The Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company, which now leads the world in fresh-water steamboat service, was not organized until I850, but since 1852 it has been under practically the same ownership. With the steady growth of Detroit in the '30's came a notable expansion of the Roman Catholic Church here. In earlier times Detroit had been virtually a part of the Diocese of Baltimore. Later it was attached to the Diocese of Bardstown, Ky., and then of Cincinnati. In 1833 the Diocese of Detroit was created and Bishop Frederick Rese was its first bishop. Previous to the organization of the First Presbyterian Church the First Protestant Society had a church building on the north side of Cadillac Square, at the northwest corner of Bates Street. This building was purchased and utilized by the second Catholic church, known as Holy Trinity, with Fr. Martin Kundig, former assistant of Ste. Anne's, as priest of the parish. The great majority of the members of Ste. Anne's Church were of French descent. The new church was established in the interest of the Irish Catholic residents, who had begun to come to Detroit in large numbers. Among the people of the town, Holy Trinity was commonly termed "the Irish church." Fr. Kundig was a man of German birth, powerful physique, enormous industry and inexhaustible philanthropy, to whom the City of Detroit owes a monument to commemorate his heroic public service in a time which tried men's souls. His fame began in the year 1834, when he opened Holy Trinity Church as a hospital, for it was then that the second cholera epidemic came to scourge Detroit and to terrorize the surrounding country. The educational urge which began to be manifest in Detroit in 1817 and which immediately found expression in the founding "COMMERCIAL AND CULTURAL PROGRESS 305 of the first Michigan university and the organization of the first city library, made progress in other directions. One of these was the founding of the Detroit Gazette, the first newspaper to make a long struggle for existence and to serve its purpose for a period of 17 years. The Detroit Lyceum, a literary, scientific, patriotic and benevolent association, was organized January 14, I818, with Judge A. B. Woodward as president; William Woodbridge and Gen. Charles Lamed as vice-presidents; Geo. B. Lamed, secretary; and Dr. J. L. Whiting as treasurer. It maintained a precarious existence for three years in spite of a characteristic charter drawn by the president in his most grandiloquent style. The Detroit Mechanic's Society was organized in the tavern of Col. Richard Smyth on the west side of Woodward between Woodbridge Street and Jefferson Avenue, June 13, 1818. Four weeks later, the organization was perfected with the following officers: President, Robert Irwin; vice-president, Benjamin Stead; secretary, John P. Sheldon; treasurer, John S. Roby; stewards, Chauncey S. Payne, Paul Clapp, Charles Hoxward, Ebenezer Reed and Jeremiah Moors. It is quite probable that the term, "Mechanic's Society," was adopted for reasons of democracy, with the intention of uniting men of all trades and professions in a society for mutual improvement. Chauncey S. Payne was a jeweler and silversmith; John S. Roby kept an auction and commission store; Paul Clapp was a hat and cap merchant; Charles Howard was an engineer for the hydraulic company which supplied the city with water for several years. Sheldon and Reed were publishers of the Gazette. The membership included many of the leading men of all professions and trades. The society erected a building on the site of the present McGraw Building, southwest corner of Griswold and Lafayette, the site measuring 135 by 75 feet. A two-story wooden building was built and first used in June, 1834. The society in the course of time gathered a library of 4,000 volumes. In 1876 the property was sold to Thomas McGraw for $II2,500 on account of 3o6 THE STORY oF DETROIT difficulties resulting from the erection of a new building. The library eventually passed into the hands of the Public Library. In July, 1831, the Detroit Athenaeum was organized with Lewis Cass, president; John Biddle, vice-president; R. S. Rice, *treasurer, and H. S. Cole, secretary. This society was organized to conduct a library and reading room and occupied quarters on the west side of Griswold Street, just in the rear of the present building of the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company. Usually it is only when some famous literary celebrity visits a city that the inhabitants have the opportunity to see themselves as others see them. Mrs. Anne Jameson visited the Great Lakes region in 1837 and remained in Detroit several days while waiting for a steamboat to carry her to Mackinac. She stopped at the American House and, finding the weather bad and the town rather dull, she visited one of these institutions in search of books. This is her account of the experience: "I read in the papers of long lists of books received which the public were invited to inspect. I asked for a circulating library and was directed to the only one in the place. I had to ascend a steep staircase so disgustingly dirty that it was necessary to draw my skirts around me to escape pollution. On entering a large room, unfurnished except with book shelves, I found several men sitting, or rather sprawling, on chairs and reading newspapers. The collection of books was small, but they were not of a common or vulgar description. I found some of the best publications in French and English. The man who stood behind the counter neither moved his hat from his head nor bowed as I entered, nor showed any officious anxiety to serve me. "When I asked on what terms I might have some books to read he told me to take any book I wished and not to think about payment or deposit. I remonstrated that I was a stranger whose stay was uncertain. He replied that from a lady and a stranger he could not accept remuneration. Then he gave himself some trouble to find the books I wished and I took them away with me. He did not even ask the name of the hotel at which I was staying, and, when I returned the books, persisted in declining payment from 'a lady and a stranger.' " COMMERCIAL AND CULTURAL PROGRESS 307 Soon after 1833 the Athenaeum was merged into the Young Men's Society. A few days before the arrival of Mrs. Jameson another famous English woman, Harriet Martineau, visited Detroit. She afterward wrote: "We landed at Detroit from Lake Erie at seven o'clock on the morning of June 13, 1836, and reached HARRIET MARTINEAU MRS. ANNE JAMESON Two DISTINGUISHED ENGLISH WOMEN the American House just in time for breakfast." (The American House was remodeled from the residence of Gov. Hull, built in 1807 and converted into a hotel in 1835. It stood on the south side of Jefferson Avenue near Randolph Street.) "At that long table I had the pleasure of seeing the healthiest set of faces that I beheld since leaving England. The breakfast was excellent and we were served with much consideration, but the place was so full and the accommodations of Detroit are so insufficient for the influx of people that strangers must put up with much 308 THE STORY OF DETROIT delay and inconvenience until new houses of entertainment are opened. We had to wait until one o'clock before any of us could have a room in which to dress. The streets of the town are wide and airy but the houses, churches and stores are poor for the capital city of a territory or state. Wooden planks, laid on grass, form the pavement in all the outskirts of the place. The deficiency is of stone, not of labor. "Thousands of settlers are pouring in. Many of these are Irish, German and Dutch, working their way into the back country and glad to be employed for a while at Detroit to earn money to carry them further. The country about Detroit is as flat as can be imagined. A lady of Detroit remarked that if she were to build a house in these parts she would build a hill first. "The society of Detroit is very choice. It has continued so since the old colonial days and there is every reason to think that it will become, under its new dignities of statehood, a more and more desirable place of residence. A gentleman remarked in the reading room in our hearing that 'lynching was the only way to treat abolitionists'; but the most enlightened society is, I believe, equal to any to be found in the United States. Here we began to see many of the half-breed Indians of whom we afterward saw so many farther north. I never have seen such imps and flibbertigibbets as the half-breed boys that we saw rowing, paddling and diving in the waters and playing pranks along the shores. It was wholly unexpected to find ourselves in accomplished society on the far side of Lake Erie. "Our road out of town toward the west was for several miles thronged with Indians. Residents of Detroit told me they found it impossible to be romantic about these people. We, however, could not help feeling the excitement of the spectacle when we saw them standing in their singularly majestic attitudes by the road-side; one with a bunch of feathers tied at the back of the head; another with arms folded in his blanket; a third with her infant lashed to a board and thus carried on her shoulders. "As soon as we entered the woods the road became as bad as I suppose roads ever are. Something snapped and the driver COMMERCIAL AND CULTUR.AL PROGRESS 30 309 cried out. The kingbolt had given way. Our gentlemen and those of the mail stage which happened to be at hand helped make repairs. We ladies walked on gathering an abundance of flowers and picking our way along the swampy corduroy road. In less than an hour the stage took us up. No more accidents occurred before breakfast. We were abundantly amused while our meal was preparing at Dearborn. One of the passengers took up a violin and played for us. The lady of the house sat by the window fixing her candle-wicks in the molds. On the piazza sat a group of immigrants who interested us. The wife had her eight children with her, the youngest puny twins. She said she had brought them in a wagon 400 miles and if they could live through the ioo that remained to be traveled before they reached her husband's land 'She hoped they might thrive. Her bundle of baby things had been stolen from the wagon. "'After a good meal we saw the stage passengers stowed into a lumber wagon and we presently followed in our more comfortable vehicle. Before long something else snapped. The splihnter-bar was broken. Juggernaut's car would have 'broke to bits' on such a road. We went to a settler's house to refresh ourselves. Three years before he had bought 8o acres for a dollar an acre. He could now sell it for $2o an acre. We dined well nine miles before we reached Ypsilanti. At Ypsilanti I picked up an Ann Arbor newspaper. It was badly printed but the contents were pretty good. It could happen nowhere out of America that so raw a settlement as Ann Arbor, where there is difficulty in procuring decent accommodations, should have a newspaper." Miss, Martineau proceeded via Tecumseh, Jonesville, White Pigeon, Niles and Michigan City to Chicago, where auction sales of wet prairie land were a sort of craze. From there 'she traveled southward into the heart of Illinois, then back to Lake Michigan and around the lakes by boat, stopping at Mackinac. She spent two years traveling about the United States, saw many prominent people and all the principal cities in spite of the hardships of travel and the crude accommodations for travelers in the crowded taverns, hotels and log cabins of settlers. CHAPTER LIX YOUNG MEN's SOCIETY OREMOST among the literary societies of Detroit in the 1830's was the Young Men's Society. Young men of the town were accustomed to meet in the evenings at certain stores in the lack of any club room. One of these places was the store of John Clark & Company on Jefferson Avenue, between Woodward and Griswold Street. In the winter of 1832 this little group began agitating the formation of a literary and debating society. Several meetings were held and then a formal meeting in the session house of the First Presbyterian Church, which adjoined the church, on the northeast corner of Woodward and Larned Street. There on January 13, 1833, the society was organized in due form. Dr. Douglass Houghton was the prime mover. He was a brilliant young man who, although only 21 years old and very small of stature, had already earned a reputation as one of the biggest minds in Michigan. He was a native of Fredonia, N. Y., and a graduate of the polytechnic school at Troy, who had been sent here to deliver a series of lectures on science. He liked Detroit so well that he formed a partnership with a local doctor-for he was also a graduate in medicine-and besides attending the sick he pulled the teeth of the community. But Dr. Houghton was a scientist of very wide learning and about him gathered a group of the brightest young men of Detroit who soon became known as "Dr. Houghton's boys." "The boys" naturally wanted Dr. Houghton for president of the society, but he promoted the election of Franklin Sawyer, a local newspaper man and printer, and accepted the vicepresidency for himself. Under such leadership the Young Men's Society attracted to its membership the flower of the community and became an important factor in the promotion of local culture. Its early meetings were held either at the 310 YOUNG TMEN'S SOCIETY 3" Presbyterian Session House or the Council House, and Dr. Houghton delivered the first lecture given by the society. Some famous debates were held and several members attained national and even world-wide celebrity. Anson Burlingame, another son of rural New York, made his maiden speech in the old session room. He was a law student in Detroit at the time. Later he became famous in many ways, first as minister to China and afterward as the chosen envoy of China to formulate treaties with the United States and the several European governments. Dr. Houghton will be considered biographically later on. In 1836 the society was given a lot on Woodward Avenue which it sold and the proceeds were invested in a lot on Jefferson Avenue between Bates and Randolph streets where a building 45 by 95 feet was finished in 1850. The society struggled for years with that building debt, but in the meantime accumulated a very good library. Later another building was erected on Woodbridge Street in the rear of the Biddle House, which was opened for use in I86i. It contained the largest hall in the city, seating 1,500 persons, and produced a good revenue until larger halls and opera houses were built. The property was sold to Luther Beecher, owner of the Biddle House, in 1875, and rooms were rented on the second floor of the Merrill Block, northeast corner of Woodward and Jefferson. At this time the library contained 16,ooo volumes and the society had 500 annual members and 150 life members. In 1882 the society disbanded after an existence of 49 years. Many of its books and other properties passed to the Public Library, including the marble bust of Gen. Cass, which is a conspicuous ornament of the new library building. In the roll of its officers and members one finds the names of the leading citizens of Detroit during two generations. It is probable that no other voluntary organization of a cultural character exerted so great an influence upon the city, and particularly upon the young men of Detroit. The site of the Merrill Block has an interesting story. Shortly before 1820 Robert Smart, an industrious Scotchman, I 312 THE STORY OF DETROIT came from the old country to Detroit. He was a bachelor and began earning his livelihood by driving a one-horse dray. "Bob" Smart soon became a popular town character. He saved his money and invested it in a lot at the northeast corner of Jefferson and Woodward avenues when all the business of the town was down on Woodbridge Street and only a few scattered residences stood on Woodward Avenue. On the corner he afterward erected a two-story building which he leased to Henry V. Disbrow to be used as a dry goods store about 1827. Mr. Disbrow remained in possession for several years. Another Scotchman succeeded him. Then M. M. Brown used it for a clothing store. Colin Campbell and James Jack followed with a dry goods store which for years was known as the " Scotch Store, " while the building itself was long known as the Smart Block. Campbell & Jack later became the firm of Campbell & Linn in which Thomas Linn became a partner. Mr. Linn outlived his partner and most of his associates by many years. In his later days he lived on the site of the Kresge Building at Adams and Park Boulevard. In the rear of the Smart Block Robert Smart built a twostory double cottage which stood about 20 feet back from Woodward Avenue with a picket fence and a row of trees in front. In this yard used to gather a number of old cronies of the time, like Ben Woodworth of the Steamboat Hotel, Commodore Henry Brevoort, Austin E. Wing, Dr. Win. Brown, Gen. Charles Larnd, Judge Caniff, Peter Desnoyers and Joseph Campau, to smoke, gossip, and talk politics and business in the quiet summer evenings. Having obtained a start in the world Robert Smart persuaded his nephew David Smart to come over from Scotland and join him. The two bachelors, uncle and nephew, lived in one half of the double cottage and the other half was occupied by Mrs. Sally Nolan who was the grandmother of James Scott, donor of the Scott Fountain. She lived alone but acted as housekeeper for the Smarts. After a time their house was destroyed by fire and the Smarts built another double house on the west side of Bates Street nearly opposite the site where YOUNG M1~EN'S SOCIETY 313 the central police station was afterward built on a small park space. Mrs. Nolan continued as their housekeeper. When Robert Smart died he left most of his estate to his nephew David but provided for Mrs. Nolan by bequeathing to her the house, $5,000 in money and an annuity of $300. Following the death of his Uncle Bob, David Smart went to board with Mrs. Doty on Bates Street near Monroe. There he became intimate with a new set of male acquaintances. Through them he became acquainted with Mary Williams, a daughter of John R. Williams, who lived on the site of the old Michigan Garden property where later Edmund A. Brush built his home and which is now in part represented by the Ferry Seed warehouses, the Lyceum Theater and stores facing on the east side of Randolph Street. Following their marriage the Smarts lived in a house next to Alexander D. Frazer, one door east of the southeast corner of Jefferson and Antoine. There David Smart died and his widow married Commodore James McKinstry, U.S.N. After a few years he died and Mrs. McKinstry traveled abroad. She died in Egypt. She had no children but had come into possession of a good deal of property from the estates of her father and her two husbands. During his lifetime David Smart was for a time in partnership with a man named Brewster and they conducted a forwarding and commission building. After the destruction of the Woodward Avenue house and adjoining store the Smarts erected several small buildings on the site. In the I840's a Mr. Waterman leased the northern half of the lot and erected a four-story brick building. He encountered business difficulties and sold his lease to Charles Merrill, a dealer in lumber. Mr. Merrill and his son-in-law Thomas W. Palmer leased the entire ground of the Smart property for 40 years, agreeing to erect a new building, keep up insurance and pay $8,ooo a year ground rent. The building they erected still stands and is known as the Merrill Block. It has been used by many people and for many purposes. The Young Men's Society once occupied the.upper floors. The Y. M. C. A. occupied the third floor in early days. In 1859 Merrill's Hall was opened with capacity for 314 THE STORY OF DETROIT 1,000 persons. Later it, became the home of Wonderland until the Temple Theater and Wonderland Building was erected on Monroe Avenue' near the Campus. Still later, after some remodeling the Avenue Theater was established in the building. The property descended from Mrs. McKinstry to the children of her brother, Gen. Thomas Williams, U.S.A., one of whom was Bishop G. Mott Williams. CHAPTER LX DETROIT'S SECOND CHOLERA SCOURGE ON July 7i, 1834, Gov. Porter of Michigan Territory died very suddenly. The circumstances of his death must have aroused suspicion of Asiatic cholera in the minds of the attending physicians, for his funeral was held on the day of his death. Between that time and August i several cases occurred with the unmistakable symptoms of cholera and an alarm went through the city. There was a hurried cleaning of streets and alleys, but the plague continued. Fr. Kundig, priest of Holy Trinity Church, was quick to realize the emergency, for so great was the general terror that sometimes when one person was attacked in a house the rest of the family would flee, leaving the victim to the care of physicians and nurses. Many people hurriedly left town, but the people of surrounding towns were afraid of them. They built fences across the roads leading out of Detroit and tore up the bridges. Some Detroit people who went to a tavern in Rochester were turned into the street and had their baggage thrown out after them. Fr. Kundig tore up the benches in his'church, built a partition across the middle to separate the men patients from the women, and organized it as a hospital. He induced about 25 of the young women of his congregation to enlist- as nurses. He also enlisted an Irish ditch digger named John Canann to act as official gravedigger, and procured a horse and two-wheeled cart for him with which to gather up the sick and bring them to his church and to carry away the dead each morning from the improvised hospital and the homes about town. It is said that i n the' worst period of the plague the total deaths in one day numbered 36. It was told of a cholera victim named Rider that Canann found him in a comatose condition and, supposing him to be 315 316 THE STORY OF DETROIT dead, carried him out and laid him with a row of bodies in the cart. Just as he was about to drive to the cemetery he noticed that Rider was still alive and lifted him out. Rider protested that he was as good as dead and would be ready for burial by the time they would arrive at the cemetery, but Canann left him behind. Rider recovered and was alive in St. Louis 30 years later. The session room of the Presbyterian Church was also utilized as a cholera hospital and there Dr. Douglass Houghton and several other physicians ministered to the afflicted. The death of Gov. Porter left the young Stevens T. Mason acting Governor of the Territory. Charles C. Trowbridge was Mayor of the city. These men remained at their posts of duty and did all in their power to minister to the afflicted and to calm the panic-stricken. Mrs. Boyer, wife of the proprietor of the Mansion House, died of the disease and immediately the house was deserted. In one day such notable citizens as Gen. Charles Lamed, F. P. Browning, Thomas Knapp, sheriff; E. B. Canning, and Mrs. B. F. H. Witherell were swept from the land of the living. Some who sought safety in flight died by the roadside or in outward bound stages. Between July 7 and September 15, more than one-eighth of the people remaining in the city died of the disease. Such a disaster naturally brought dire distress upon the city. Many widows and orphans were left without support or even subsistence. The organization for relief of the poor had always been inadequate. An example is shown in the act of the Governor and Judges in 1806 when they appropriated $25 for support of the poor of Detroit after the great fire. In 1827 each township was authorized to elect two overseers of the poor. Apparently the intent was to create public offices rather than poor relief, for two years later each township was authorized to elect five overseers of the poor. In 1831 the community woke up and reduced the number of overseers to one for each township. In 1833 the office of city director of the poor was created, but the situation after the cholera epidemic must have been baffling for Fr. Kundig felt forced to take the matter of poor DETROIT'S SECOND CHOLERA SCOURGE 317 relief into his own hands. In 1828 an attempt had been made to establish a poor farm, but it had been voted down. Several other attempts failed, but in 1832, 17 acres of the Leib farm were purchased on the north side of Gratiot Avenue just west of Mt. Elliott Avenue. This was presently increased to 25 acres. The cost of the land was $200. Supervisor French erected a REV. MARTIN KUNDIG REV. GABRIEL RICHARD Two FAITHFUL SERVANTS OF GOD long shed-like building at a cost of $95o, using the cheapest building materials obtainable. J. P. Cooley was appointed keeper and the institution was opened in January, 1833. Following the cholera the city was burdened with many invalids, widows and orphans and the poor house was utilized to its capacity. In the lack of other provisions for their care Bishop Rese placed the Sisters of St. Clare in charge of the inmates. Most of the inmates were brought to the institution 318 THE STORY OF DETROIT by Fr. Kundig, who took pains to search out the needy and, having assumed so many of the duties, he was appointed supervisor of the poor in the fall of 1834. The county allowed him 16 cents a day for the care of the inmates, but the actual cost was about double that amount, for provisions were hard to get and labor was scarce owing to the departure of many people from the city. There were more than ioo inmates of the poor house and 60o of those were invalids. Firewood was needed, but the ground was so soft between the county poor house and the woods on the northern end of the farm that a horse could hardly drag more than an empty cart. To remedy this difficulty Fr. Kundig had a sort of log tramway laid which served its purpose. Fr. Kundig did not limit his expenditures to the public allowance, but spent his own money for supplies. When that was gone he ran in debt personally for them. In 1837 his resources and credit were exhausted and there were 300 poor to be cared for, so the county raised his allowance to 22 cents a day-but none of the money was paid to him. It was given in the form of county warrants and the priest in using them in trade was forced to accept a discount of 40 to 6o per cent. In 1838 his creditors descended upon the poor house en masse and literally stripped the building, taking beds from the sick in order to satisfy their demands. They also took over all of Fr. Kundig's personal belongings from his house, leaving him as poor as his charges. Years later the State was shamed into awarding him $3,000 compensation, but that was but a fraction, of his debt incurred in behalf of the helpless poor. The case of the children in the poor house was pitiful, but the creditors of Fr. Kundig were so eager for their money that some of them seized all the clothing of the orphans that was not on their backs. Soon after the close of 1842 Fr. Kundig left Detroit under a cloud of debt to take a parish in Milwaukee. There he was better appreciated and rose to the rank of vicar general. This enabled him in later years to pay off all his Detroit obligations out of his salary-and the people of Detroit permitted him to do it. DETROIT'S SECOND CH-OLERA SCOURGE 31 319 The services of Rev. Martin Kundig to the people of Detroit during the cholera epidemic of 1834, and following that as supervisor of the poor and manager of the old county poor farm, have never been properly appreciated. The first pastor of Holy Trinity Church was a man of stalwart frame, resolute, resourceful and fearless in the midst of panic. It was the custom in his time to toll the passing bell when a member of any parish died. But when deaths were occurring at the rate of iO to.36 a day the solemn clangor of the church bells sent shivers of dread throughout the community and people began to hold their hands over their ears to shut out the fearsome sound. Fr. Kundig begged that the tolling of bells be stopped and it was done. The priest himself was regarded as a carrier of plague and was generally avoided. The physicians of Detroit worked night and day, but their remedies, apparently, were futile. Some of them resorted to heavy dosage of calomel and bleeding of patients whose blood was already reduced by the disease. Practically all who were so treated died a few hours later. Others dosed their patients with strong liquors, opium, rhubarb, and cayenne pepper, hoping to check the discharges and to warm the blood of the cholera victims, who became in a single hour emaciated and blue and shivering with cold while the terrible cramps doubled them up with pain. There were no nurses to keep up treatment after the doctors had left to hurry to the next sufferer so Fr. Kundig organized a Catholic Female Association for nursing the sick and caring for children suddenly orphaned by the plague. For such children it was necessary to provide temporary homes and care. He led weeping children from door to door to find temporary guardians. Some were housed in the county poor house on Gratiot Avenue and others were placed in an abandoned building on Lamned Street, near Randolph, under care of the young women of the Catholic Female Association. Out of that association and the common necessity came the organization known as St. Vincent's Female Orphan Asylum. This had its real beginning in the spring of 1836 when 20 acres of land adjoining the poor farm were leased on the Gratiot Road beyond 320 THE STORY OF DETROIT Mt. Elliott Avenue, and a building was erected for housing the overflow of orphans from the poor farm and those for whom temporary care had been secured in the homes of the citizens and farmers about Detroit. This building never had fewer than 20 children inmates under its roof. In connection with it a school was opened and maintained until 1839. Holy Trinity Church was founded, as has already been stated, as a parish for the Irish Catholics of the city who did not feel entirely at home among the French Catholics, because they knew nothing of the language. In addition to the Irish there were a considerable number of German Catholics in the city. For the benefit of these Fr. Kundig began conducting services in Ste. Anne's and preaching in the German language in 1833. Out of this innovation developed the founding of St. Mary's Catholic Church in 1841 at the southeast corner of Croghan (now Monroe Avenue) and St. Antoine Street. He often conducted services in the old log church on the Melcher farm in Hamtramck township which had been hurriedly built in 1809. This church, known as "La Chappelle de Nord Est," is supposed to have been reconstructed from the timbers of an old log barn on the farm of FranCois Paul Melcher, near the line of Jefferson Avenue somewhere between Baldwin and Field avenues of the present time. Bishop Rese authorized repairs to be made in February, 1834. Fr. Kundig removed some of the roof boards and shingles which had become rotten, but a violent wind came and blew the whole structure down on the night of February 22, 1834. A new church was then erected on the site and stood there until 1861, when it was burned. Fr. Kundig died in Milwaukee March 6, 1879. CHAPTER LXI ANTI-SLAVERY ACTIVITIES F ROM very early times Detroit had been a slave-holding territory. Negro and Indian slaves were held here when the British came in 1760, and in spite of the prohibition of slavery in the Ordinance of 1787,slaves continued to be held here as private property in 1830, when the slave population of Detroit still numbered 30 persons. When slavery was abolished in New York a number of owners sold their slaves to people in Detroit and they were brought here. But sentiment was growing for the abolition of slavery and already runaway slaves from the South were being helped into Canada. In 1827 an act was passed requiring registration in the county clerk's office of all colored residents. No blacks were to be allowed in the Territory unless they could produce a certificate of their freedom. But the owners of slaves had such influence that six years passed without any attempt at enforcement of the law. On June 14, 1833, Thornton Blackburn and his wife, colored, were claimed by Kentucky officials as runaway slaves, although they had lived in Detroit in freedom for two years. They were arrested and taken before a justice, who ordered them delivered to the claimants. While this hearing was in progress a crowd of Negroes gathered in front of the building, but no resistance was offered when the Blackburns were taken to the jail on Library Park. A local colored woman was allowed to visit Mrs. Blackburn and the women changed clothing in jail, thus enabling Mrs. Blackburn to escape to Canada. A mob of Negroes gathered about the jail on the following Monday, when it was expected that Blackburn would be taken away by steamboat. There was another gathering waiting at the wharf. When the sheriff, John M. Wilson,'attempted to 321 322 THE STORY OF DETROITT take Blackburn from the jail to the wharf in a carriage the local Negroes made a rush, took Blackburn out of the carriage and hurried him to a boat which landed him in Canada. Blackburn was arrested in Canada and lodged in Sandwich jail. The Canadian government refused to surrender him to the Kentuckians. In this riot the sheriff of Wayne County was seriously wounded with clubs and stones employed by the mob. A number of Negroes were arrested and the others threatened to effect their release by violence. Gen. Cass, then Secretary of War, happened to be home on a visit and he ordered out a company of Government troops to assist the civil authorities in maintaining order. This incident gave a new impetus to anti-slavery sentiment in Detroit and Michigan, and in 1837 the Detroit Anti-Slavery Society was organized. This society had- for its avowed purpose the recognition of the Negro as a man entitled to his liberty, and the abolition of slavery in the United States. In this organization such leading citizens of Detroit as Shubael A. Conant, Edwin Brooks, E. W. Cowles, Cullen Brown, William Kirkland, Alanson Sheley and Peter Boughton were very active. Other societies were organized out in the state and these worked together in common cause for the promotion of abolition and to aid the escape of slaves to Canada. The organization became connected with that curious secret system of transportation known as the "Underground Railway," which had its stations established in a chain of towns about one night's journey apart. In each of these towns was a trusted member of the organization who could be depended upon to give food, shelter and concealment to an escaped slave and guidance by night to the next station beyond. Hundreds of fugitive slaves were helped to a safe refuge in Canada and for many years the towns of Windsor and Chatham had a very large colored population composed of escaped slaves from the United States. Anti-slavery sentiment rose to the pitch of frenzy in the case of certain individuals like John Brown of Ossowatamie. Shortly before the historic raid on Harper's Ferry, John Brown came to Detroit on his way from Kansas, bringing with him 14 slaves whom he had picked up in ANTI-SLAVERY ACTIVITIES 323 ANTI-SLAVERY ACTIVITIES 323 Missouri to be smuggled into Canada. They had made the journey most of the way traveling by night from station to station of the Underground Railway. Brown arrived in Detroit March 12, 1859, and saw his charges safely across the river. That night Frederick Douglass, an ex-slave and one of the greatest orators of the country, delivered a lecture in Detroit. After the lecture Fred Douglass, John Brown, George de Baptiste, William Lambert, John Richards, Dr. J. Ferguson, William Webb and several other active anti-slavery leaders held a meeting at the house of William Webb, 185 Congress Street East, at which Brown revealed his scheme for a wholesale delivery J I of slaves from their owners in )1 northern Virginia. It was an illadvised scheme from the beginning. Brown with a little band of 18 men on Sunday evening, October16, 1859, seized the armory at Harper's Ferry and made THE JOHN BROWN HOUSE hostages of several citizens. The 185 CONGRESS STREET EAST citizens rallied and shot several of Brown's men and scattered the others. Brown, with his two sons and three others, barricaded themselves in an engine house instead of seeking safety in flight. After Brown's two sons had been killed and himself badly wounded, they surrendered. For this act Brown was hanged December 2, 1859. The incident created intense bitterness between the North and South. It made compromises impossible and was one of the causes leading to the Civil War. John G. Whittier, the Quaker poet, immortalized one Michigan man who had been involved in helping slaves to their freedom. Jonathan Walker, a sea captain, was solicited by some escaped slaves at Pensacola, Fla., to take them on board his ship and land them in the West Indies. Walker took them on 324 THE STORY OF DETROIT board and sailed toward Cuba, but was overhauled by a United States Government ship. He was held in long confinement at Pensacola and then sentenced to be branded in the hand with the letters "S. S.," signifying slave-stealer, fined and released. Capt. Walker, on abandoning the sea, settled in Muskegon County, Michigan, where he died a few years ago. To the end of his days he was known throughout the country as "the man with the branded hand." Whittier's anti-slavery poems fairly flame with the zeal of the poet for that cause. One stanza of his poem, "The Branded Hand," will show the character of the other 12 stanzas: "Then lift that manly right-hand, bold plowman of the wave! Its branded palm shall prophesy, 'Salvation to the slave!' Hold up its fire-wrough't language, that whoso reads may feel His heart swell strong within him, his sinews change to steel." Strong language that, for a peaceful Quaker. It well exemplifies the passionate mood which possessed the people of the North and South in those grim days of long ago, when we were a divided people about to spring to arms for the settlement of a question which should have been settled by government purchase of the slaves, and might have been but for the fomentation of prejudice and passion on both sides of the question. When we read how simply and effectually the government of Brazil abolished slavery by government purchase, taking plenty of time for the task, we are filled with vain regrets for the blunders of the past. There were several routes by which the Underground Railway crossed Lower Michigan en route from the Indiana and Ohio borders to Canada. The more western route was via Niles, Cassopolis, Vicksburg; Battle Creek and Marshall. A more eastern passage was furnished runaway slaves via Morenci, Adrian, Tecumseh, Ypsilanti and Detroit. In the course of time the slave-hunters and their subsidized sympathizers began to watch the main lines of travel for the purpose of intercepting slaves. This compelled a diversion of the route to the St. Clair River. ANTI-SLAVERY ACTIVITIES 325 There were a number of Detroit citizens who aided the slaves and furnished them concealment while they were awaiting opportunity to cross into Canada. One of the best known of these was Seymour Finney, who kept the Finney House, at the southeast corner of Woodward and Gratiot avenues, where Kern's dry goods house now stands. The barn of Finney's Hotel stood at the northeast corner of State and Griswold streets, where the Detroit Savings Bank is now located. It was in Finney's barn that runaway slaves were most commonly hidden. Each line of the Underground Railway had its general manager and station agents. The Battle Creek station was in charge of Erastus Hussey, a Quaker, who spent freely of his time and money in helping slaves to their freedom. On the Adrian route Mrs. Laura Haviland was an agent. She also conducted a school for colored children. Mr. Hussey is said to have assisted more than i,ooo slaves between 1840 and the beginning of the Civil War. At first there were only five antislavery men in Battle Creek. They were Silas Dodge, Abel Densmore, Henry Willis, Theron H. Chadwick, and a colored man named Samuel Strauther, for whom the Colored Masonic Lodge in Battle Creek was named. But others came into the organization from time to time. The stations averaged between o10 and i5 miles apart and the slaves usually traveled by night, sometimes under personal guidance and sometimes guided by well known landmarks. Nobody received any money, for it was a voluntary work of humanity. The service of the Underground Railway began at the Ohio River, and slaves were helped across Ohio and Indiana and Michigan by means of agents who provided concealment and food during the day and guidance by night. At Cassopolis the chief agent was a Quaker named Zachariah Shugart, and with him were associated Stephen Bogue, Joel East and Parker Osborn. At Schoolcraft it was Dr. Nathan Thomas; at Climax, William Gardner. Next station beyond Battle Creek was Marshall, where Jabez S. Fitch was agent with plenty of aides. At Albion, Edward M. Johnson passed the fugitives on to Parma, j g111,/l '-I~-I. )~arUs~~~u~M,.m:~.4~,~_ ~;~~ ~~ ~.~ ~~..--- ~C4 C-~~-- ~CI~ I ~LIC ~LCI 18~5f crr~ -- c~-~s II IIIIIAICIPI.r i qlP ABOVE-FINNEY'S HOTEL BARN, FUGITIVE SLAVE REFUGE BELOW-FINNEY'S HOTEL, ON THE SITE OF KERN'S STORE 326 ANTI-SLAVERY ACTIVITIES32 Y27 where Townsend E. Gidley transferred them to Jackson. Abel F. Fitch was the agent at Michigan Center. Fitch was one of a group of farmers who. figured in the railroad conspiracy of i8so. He was charged with conspiracy and malicious destruction of property, but died while awaiting trial. There were stations at Leoni and Grass Lake. A Mr. Francisco was the agent at Francisco and Samuel W. Dexter and his sons at Dexter. There the flight sometimes shifted to Scio, in charge of Theodore Foster. Guy Beckley co-operated with Foster at Ann Arbor, where the two published the Signal of Liberty, the organ of the Liberty Party. Jsphn Geddes was agent at Geddes and the next stations in order were Ypsilanti and Plymouth. From Plymouth the route followed River Rouge to Swartsburg and thence to Detroit, where slaves were commonly taken across the river by night in rowboats. When this route to Detroit River was too closely watched by agents of the slave owners, the route was shifted northward via Northville, Farmington, Birmingham, Pontiac, Rochester, Utica, Romeo and Richmond or New Haven, from which points the fugitives were piloted to the St. Clair River. One of the famous stations was located on Spring Hill Farm in Shelby township, Macomb County, and a detailed account of it has been written by Mrs. Liberetta Green, who was born in 184R and whose name indicates her father's loyal adherence to the Liberty Party when the abolitionists were regarded as disreputable. In the side of a hill on" this farm belonging to Peter Lerrich, Mrs. Green's father, was a fine natural spring and into the side of the hill a spring house was excavated to serve as a family refrigerator. When the Underground Railway route turned in that-direction this spring house was enlarged so as to form a cave capable of giving concealment to several persons. The' entrance to the spring house was carefully concealed by the planting of vines, which had to be lifted aside before the door could be opened. On the top of the hill Mr. Lerrich, assisted by several neighbors, transplanted a large fir balsam tree which made a conspicuous landmark visible against the sky from a 328 THE S+ORY OF DETROIT long distance. This tree was termed "the beacon tree" and fugitive slaves made it their guiding point as they traveled by night, it being located about 40 rods away from the road. There scores of fugitives found shelter while the slavehunters traveled the roads and visited barns and outhouses in search of them. The Lerrich family kept the place stored with food and there was a signal agreed upon by which the slaves would notify the family that they were hiding in the cave. When that signal was displayed the family avoided the spring house during daylight hours and made preparations for passing the fugitives on to the St. Clair River and to Canada. All this is unknown history to the present generation, but steps are now being taken to mark the spring house at Spring Hill with a memorial tablet. As a result of this Underground Railway service one can still pick out the way stations along the route because of the unusual number of colored people in certain towns like Indianapolis, Cassopolis, Ypsilanti, etc. After the Civil War was well under way slave-hunting became decadent and the proclamation of emancipation put an end to it. The fugitives, instead of hurrying to Canada, stopped at towns along the way and settled about them. Indianapolis thus acquired a large colored population. On the Canadian side Windsor and Chatham acquired numerous colored residents, but many of them drifted back to the United States after the end of the war. The Underground Railway was in active operation for more than 20 years. CHAPTER LXII THE TOLEDO BOUNDARY WAR GROVER CLEVELAND, when President of the United, States, once declared that "we are a self-willed and sometimes violent people." This is perfectly true, as has been proven in many a historic incident. As a rule the American people are slow to wrath, but once thoroughly aroused we are apt to go far in our contentions. There have been several historic episodes which came near culminating in war between states. Michigan was once on the verge of war and'made an armed invasion into the territory which is now a part of the State of Ohio, but which then rightfully belonged to Michigan. The ordinance creating the Northwest Territory was drawn in 1787. It prepared for the subsequent division of the Territory into states with a prescribed geographical line for the divisional boundary between the states of the southern and the northern tier. The framers of the ordinance had no definite idea as to the exact latitude of any given point in the vast territory, so they "lumped" their estimate by declaring that the boundary between the two tiers of states should be a line beginning at the most southern extremity of Lake Michigan and running due east to Lake Erie. It was afterward discovered that such a line would run some distance south of Maumee Bay and that besides cutting off the State of Indiana'from access to Lake Michigan, except through Michigan territory, it would give to Michigan, Maumee Bay and the city of Toledo. Toledo is a city which has existed under several names. The first settlement was known as Swan Creek. A little later it was termed Port Lawrence. Then for some reason unknown it was renamed Vistula atid finally the present name, Toledo, was adopted. Ohio was raised to statehood in 1802 and admitted to the Union of states in 1803. This gave the people'of that state a 329 33~ THE STORY OF DETROIT decided advantage over the rest of the Territory, for now they had representatives in Congress and opportunity to form favorable combinations of political advantage with representatives of other states. In 1816 Indiana was admitted to the Union and then the first discovery was made regarding that previously defined boundary line. Indiana pleaded her right to a port on Lake Michigan, and got it, together with a strip of territory that had been regarded as belonging to Michigan. The people of Michigan grumbled, but protest, went to no serious lengths. The advantages of ownership of Maumee Bay were plainly apparent to the people of Ohio and they employed their inside pull in Congress to get it. When the people of Ohio drew up their constitution they inserted a "joker" which was destined to make trouble. It agreed to the prescribed line between Ohio and Michigan: "Provided, that if the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan should extend so far south that a line drawn due east from it would not intersect Lake Erie, or if it should intersect Lake Erie east of the mouth of the Maumee River, then and in that case, with the assent of Congress, the northern boundary of this state shall be established by extending it to a direct line running from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of Maumee Bay, after intersecting the due north line from the mouth of the Maumee River." In i816 Gov. Cass of Michigan authorized a survey of the line and William Harris, a surveyor of the Government Land Office, was engaged to make it. But it was found that, through the influence of interested Ohioans, the Land Office of the United States, instead of furnishing Harris with a copy of the terms of the Northwest Territory ordinance, had given him a copy of the boundary provisions of the Ohio constitution. Gov. Cass made a strong protest to President Monroe, who then directed that the line be run again in conformity with the Ordinance of 1787. That second survey was made by John A. Fulton. Thereafter the contention between the states was over the conflicting terms of the Harris line and the Fulton line. THE TOLEDO BOUNDARY WAR.331 The matter rested until I82I, when the assessor of Waynesfield township of Wood County, Ohio, undertook to list for taxation the property between the Fulton and the Harris lines. This led to a second protest. In 1834 Michigan was entitled through its attained population to elevation to statehood. Thereupon the dispute became warm over the state ownership of Toledo and the Toledo strip. Ohio sentiment was in the majority among the people of Toledo. But the fact that Toledo was then virtually cut off from Ohio by the Black Swamp, while there was free ac6ess to the settled territory of Monroe County, had influence and led some to hold for adherence to the Fulton line. There was active propaganda in both states and some curious claims and petitions were made. One of the most appealing claims was that of certain distressed Toledoans for annexation to Ohio on the ground that Michigan was such an unhealthy state. The health of the people, they held, ought to be the first consideration of the Government. As a part of Michigan they would become perpetual victims of fever and ague. On February 23, 1835, at the suggestion of Gov. Lucas, the Ohio legislature passed an act asserting Ohio's claim to the THE TOLEDO STRIP 33'2 THE STORY OF DETROIT disputed territory north of the Harris line and expressing a determination to enforce that claim. Three commissioners, Uri Seeley, Jonathan Taylor and John Patterson, were appointed to resurvey the Harris line and establish it as the northern boundary of Ohio. But Michigan was not caught napping. The acting Governor, Stevens T. Mason, called the attention of the Legislative Council to the scheme of Ohio and advised prompt action in defense of Michigan's just claim. The Legislativel Council responded with an act forbidding any official acts or functions on the part of Ohio citizens north of the Fulton line under a penalty of $i,ooo or imprisonment at hard labor for a period of five years. A like penalty was fixed for any person of another state accepting any office in said Territory of Michigan. As a consequence of this act no taxes were levied in that strip during 1835. Some of the property owners did not care how long the condition would last. A But the official set of Ohioans elected for the district in April, 1835, wanted to assume their duties. They petitioned Gov. Mason to assist in maintaining peace and order in the Toledo strip while they would exercise their respective official functions. Gov. Mason's answer was to call out the Michigan militia under Gen. Joseph W. Brown to defend the rights of Michigan. Gathering a force of about I,ooo men, Gov. Mason and Gen. Brown marched to Perrysburg, where they halted to await developments from the other side. In Monroe County they gathered enough men to make the total number I,i6o, practically all of them mounted men. At the same time Gov. Lucas, of Ohio, accompanied by his military staff and the boundary commissioners, reached Perrysburg to officially mark the Harris line. Gov. Lucas had the backing of several hundred Ohio militiamen in command of Gen. John Bell, of Lower Sandusky, now Fremont. There at Perrysburg stood two opposing forces of embattled farmers waiting to fire the shot to be heard 'round the world. It was Gov. Lucas' move-to begin the overt act of surveying which would be the signal for Michigan's attack. At THE TOLEDO BOUNDARY WAR 333 this critical moment Richard Rush, of Philadelphia, and Col. Howard,.of Baltimore, rushed upon the scene as special commissioners from President Jackson to stay the impending warfare and institute peace proceedings. They were accompanied by Elisha Whittlesey, Congressman, of Ohio. Several conferences were held between the opposing forces. A collision was avoided, but no settlement could be arranged except by an abandonment of Ohio's plan. The matter was referred by President Jackson to Attorney General Butler, who declared that the attempted action of Ohio was in violation of the laws of the United States, but that the re-marking of the Harris line would not constitute such a violation. He also declared the act of Michigan prohibiting the exercise of Ohio's authority north of the Fulton line valid until annulled by Congress. With this understanding the survey was permitted to proceed under the watchful eyes of Michigan men. The Michigan men were impatient for action and on April 25 Gen. Brown advanced upon the surveyors and their guards with a force of 60 men and opened fire, whereupon the surveyors and their escort lost no time in getting out of range of the Michigan muskets, which had been "borrowed" from the Government arsenal at White Pigeon, now Pigeon. Nine men of the surveying party made haste too slowly and were taken prisoners and carried off to Tecumseh, Michigan. No shots were fired in return and those fired by Michigan men went high over the heads of their opponents. The Ohio legislature met in extra session and appropriated $300,000 for carrying into effect Gov. Lucas' orders. Another bill was passed, providing for the creation of the County of Lucas, which included the disputed territory. In the meantime Michigan men were busily abducting Ohio men found in the strip. Although the situation remained ticklish and there was danger of serious conflict, the only bloodshed of the Toledo War was incurred when Deputy Sheriff Joseph Wood, of Monroe, attempted to arrest Two Stickney at Davis' tavern. Stickney stabbed Wood with a dirk as the arrest was attempted and 334 THE STORY OF DETROIT thus disabled his would-be captor. Wood suffered a four-inch gash across his chest, but the wound was not serious. The father of Two Stickney, Benjamin F. Stickney, was both original and eccentric in the naming of his children, his sons being known respectively as One Stickney, Two Stickney, Three Stickney and so forth to designate their order of birth by their names. CHAPTER LXIII SURRENDER OF TOLEDo-TIHE CANADIAN REBELLION THE County of Lucas having been created in Michigan Territory by act of Ohio's legislature, the next step would be the formal opening of court to establish the tide. The day set was September 7, 1835, but the Michigan men were so numerous and so determined that court must be held in secret to avoid a clash of armed forces. It was planned to have the court protected by ioo militiamen and on Sunday, September 6, three associate judges, the sheriff and others met at Miami and prepared to enter Toledo. But hearing that 1,200 armed Michiganders were at hand, it was decided that it would be safer for a small group of men to enter Toledo at night and immediately- after midnight to open a court of common pleas in the County of Lucas for the first time. At the appointed time a group of about 25 men met in a schoolhouse where Washington, Monroe, Michigan and Erie streets now form a square in Toledo. The judges were Jonathan H. Jerome, Baxter Bowman and William Wilson. Junius Flagg acted as sheriff and Dr. Horatio Conant, of Maumee,.as clerk. The court was opened by the dim light of a tallow candle on the clerk's table and the only business performed was the appointment of John Baldwin, Robert Gower and Cyrus Holloway as county commissioners. The clerk wrote his minutes on loose sheets of paper and presently the presiding judge announced that, " there being no further business, the court would stand adjourned. " At this moment a sentinel who had been posted without allowed his sense of humor full play and thrusting his head inside the door he shouted: "The Michigan men are coming." Immediately there was a panic and the attendants at court began bolting through the door. The clerk of the court paused 335 336 THE STORY OF DETROIT to thrust his minutes into his tall beaver hat and he was the last man to reach his horse. Away went the Ohio men on horseback through the woods, expecting every moment to hear bullets whizzing about their ears. Presently, in passing under an overhanging limb of a tree the clerk's high hat, containing his notes, was knocked from his head and the record of the court was lost. The rout did not halt until the men had crossed Swan Creek. There the excited clerk told of his loss and Col. Vanfleet volunteered to go back and recover them, which he did. A new phase was added to the situation when a courier rode up to the energetic Stevens T. Mason, who was acting as Governor of Michigan, and handed him a dispatch from Washington informing him that John S. Horner of Pennsylvania had been appointed Governor of Michigan Territory. Gov. Horner was a man of fine appearance, a Virginian by birth and a friend of President Jackson. He was also under the influence of the eight Ohio congressmen and inclined to favor their cause. The, new Governor with his wife and secretary obtained board at the house of Mrs. Abigal Snelling, who lived on the north side of Congress Street, two doors west of Shelby Street. But the new Governor discovered that he had dis-placed a popular idol, for the whole town was against him and very much for young Mason. He held his office only 25 days, but they were days of trouble for he met with jibes and sneers on the streets. Called to Ypsilanti on official business, a mob gathered in front of the tavern where he stopped and threw stones through the windows. His assailants seemed to know the location of the bed in his room and he was obliged to sleep on the floor to escape injury. Next morning the landlord included a stiff charge for broken windows in the Governor's hotel bill. At the October election of 1835 a constitution was adopted, and Stevens T. Mason was elected Governor, Edward Munday Lieutenant Governor, and Isaac E. Crary Representative in Congress. The legislature met on the second Monday in November and elected Lucius Lyon and John Norvell U. S. Senators. State courts were not organized until July, 1836. SURRENDER OF TOLEDO 337 Gov. Horner was later appointed secretary of Wisconsin Territory. He was afterward register of the land office for 13 years and eventually became probate judge of Green Lake and Marquette counties. A constitution having been adopted for Michigan, the legislature adjourned to meet again in January, hoping that in the meantime Michigan would be admitted to the Union. The settlement of ownership of the Toledo strip led to long debate in Congress. Some Senators held that Michigan, having qualified as a state and asked admission to the Union, Congress was in duty bound to grant the petition. But the Ohio men, led by Senator Thomas Ewing, played politics in the Senate and lobbied skillfully. They raised the point that a state seeking admission was a petitioner and that it was an act of impertinence to stipulate terms involving territorial claims on which they were to be admitted. John C. Calhoun held to the same opinion; that Congress had the sole power to dictate terms of admission. Arkansas was admitted at once without condition, but the admission of Michigan was finally conditioned upon surrender of all claim to the Toledo strip. Michigan indignantly refused to surrender. A convention was called at Ann Arbor and the action was a flat refusal of the Government's terms, so Michigan remained a state outside the Union from November, 1836, until January, 1837. Michigan finally surrendered the Toledo strip in exchange for the Upper Peninsula, which was separated from Wisconsin Territory and added to Michigan. This was about the best trade in the history of the State. The event was celebrated elaborately and 26 guns were fired in honor of the 26th state of the Union. During the exciting days of 1835-36 in Michigan, trouble was brewing on the other side of the Detrcit River, where the Canadian rebellion or "Patriot War" was in preparation. Canada was governed by a sort of oligarchy which had grown up imperceptibly. The people were represented in their lower house of parliament, but the upper house controlled legislation, patronage and government grants of every sort. The legislative council was granting its members and political adherents tracts of 5,000 338 THE STORY OF DETROIT acres, 1,200 additional acres for each child and 200 each to servants and relatives, while the mass of the people could not get land for a small homestead. Robert Hamilton accumulated in this fashion an estate of 200,000 acres, and there were many other grants of nearly that size. Special favors were shown to United Empire Loyalists and to the clergy. This aggregation of politicians and capitalists monopolized the offices, controlled the courts and ruled Canada in their own way for 35 years. They became known as "The Family Compact." The poor people, finding that they had no direct appeal to the crown for redress of their wrongs at the hands of these favorites of fortune, began plotting a rebellion which would compel the' home government to take notice of their plight. One of the leaders of revolt in Lower Canada was Louis J. Papineau and in Upper Canada William Lyon Mackenzie, of Toronto, was the leader. At St. Denis on October 22, 1837, a collision took place between government troops and insurgents in which the troops were forced to retire. Soon afterward insurgent bodies were defeated at St. Charles and St. Eustace. William Lyon Mackenzie was a Scotch member of parliament and editor of a newspaper in Toronto. He took part in an affair at Montgomery's Tavern, near Toronto, which was quickly dispersed and he fled across the border to the United States to carry on a propaganda of revolt in Buffalo. He not only enlisted Canadians who were living in the United States, but a number of American enthusiasts who wanted to help the Canadian people to their liberty. Mackenzie fortified Navy Island, in Niagara River, which was in Canadian territory, and Col. Allen N. McNabb at the same time gathered a Loyalist force on the Canadian shore. An American steamboat, the Caroline, was used to carry insurgents from the American side to Navy Island. On December 28, 1837, McNabb sent men across the river who set the Caroline on fire and cut her mooring lines so she went blazing down the rapids and stranded above Niagara Falls. In the following January the rebels on Navy Island moved to Detroit, where they found plenty of ardent sympathizers eager THE CANADIAN REBELLION 339 to enlist in the patriot cause and to aid them with arms, money and other supplies. It was whispered to them that in the Wayne County jail were 450 muskets which might be seized without difficulty if the seizure could be made discreetly without compromising the American Government. The hint was taken and the arms appropriated. A badly organized mob of undisciplined and irresponsible men then planned a grand coup under the leadership of a truculent Irish enthusiast, Dr. E. A. Theller, a former Canadian. With a force of 132 men Theller went to the river front, where the schooner Ann was tied to the wharf, and took possession of the boat. With reckless enthusiasm they sailed down to Amherstburg to shoot up the town, but the loyal Canadians were waiting for them. Their return fire cut the halyards on the Ann, letting her mainsail down so she drifted aground at Elliott's Point, where all on board were captured by Col. Radcliff. After the Ann left Detroit, Gov. Mason led a force of militia down the American shore in the hope of recovering the stolen vessel and preserving neutrality, but the Ann was out of reach on the Canadian shore of the river. Dr. Theller escaped from prison, returned to Detroit and published a newspaper here, "The Spirit of '76,'" in 1839-40, and also practiced medicine. He also published a book on the Canadian rebellion. There were plenty of patriots left in Detroit and a large number of sympathizers. The hotels of Detroit were full of them and there was lively discussion on the streets and in the homes, for most of the American-born residents frankly sympathized with the patriots. More arms were needed, so one night in February, 1838, a gang of men went with wagons to the Government arsenal at Dearborn, from which they carried away 500 muskets and other supplies, which were brought to Detroit and hidden in the hayloft of the Eagle Hotel, which stood on the south side of Woodbridge Street, near Griswold. Horace Heath, proprietor of the hotel, was a red-hot advocate of the patriot cause and was glad to furnish them a headquarters. This seizure brought Gen. Hugh Brady, U.S.A., into action for a search and the arms were recovered. In February, 1838, 34~ THE STORY OF D)ETROIT a great mob of patriots formed in front of the Eagle Hotel and marched down the shore to a point opposite Fighting Island. They crossed the river on the ice and camped on the island, but next day they were attacked by infantry and artillery and driven back across the river with a loss of iS killed and 40 wounded. Thus Fighting Island won a right to its name. A few days later another patriot band was defeated on Pelee Island in Lake Erie. In June Capt. Frederick Marryat, the writer of sea stories, was a guest at the American House on Jefferson Avenue near Randolph Street. He had said and written some bitter things about the patriots, so to show their displeasure a number of Detroiters gathered up all his books they could find in the city and made a bonfire of them in front of the hotel. Marryat decided that Detroit was not a safe place for him so he hurriedly left town and wrote some more uncomplimentary articles about Canadians and Americans. Capt. Marryat was the Joseph Conrad of the English literature of the 1830's and 1840's. During the period of the Canadian rebellion the official class in the United States had plenty of trouble, for an overwhelming majority of the people were favoring the patriots and eager not only to aid them but to participate in their overt acts which were in violation of the laws of neutrality. President Van Buren issued- a proclamation of warning, and military officers along the border were kept on the jump to prevent raids into Canada. The most serious occurrence in the neighborhood of Detroit occurred in December, 1838. Lucius Verus Bierce, of Akron, 0., gathered a band of 135 men and boarded the steamboat Champlain at the foot of Rivard Street. They landed just above Walkerville about 2 o'clock in the morning and then marched down to Windsor, where they set fire to the military barracks and guardhouse and to the steamer Thames which was at the dock. Several soldiers sleeping in the barracks were burned to death. Several others were shot as they escaped from the burning building. News of this marauding expedition from the American side was carried to Sandwich, where a strong body of militia was quartered under command of Col. John Prince. Surgeon John J. THE CANADIAN REBELLION 341 Hume mounted his horse and rode up the river road alone to reconnoitre. As he passed an orchard he was fired upon by the misguided patriots and fell dead in the road. This lawless act brought serious reprisals, for the Canadian militia, hearing the shots, came rapidly up the road and encountered the patriots in FranCois Baby's orchard. One volley from the militia took all the fight out of the patriots and they broke and fled toward the site of Walkerville, closely pursued by the militia. Twenty-one of them were killed and four were captured. Col. Prince stood these four against the fence of the orchard and had them shot. The patriots who escaped made their way up the shore and began crossing in canoes and boats. In one of the boats was Capt. James B. Armstrong, of Port Huron, whose arm was badly shattered by a bullet. When Armstrong's arm was being amputated by Dr. Hurd, of Detroit, he remarked that he would gladly give his other arm to the cause of liberty. This was the last battle of the Canadian rebellion and it was watched by a great throng of Detroiters who gathered along the river front. In the old churchyard in Sandwich lie the remains of Surgeon Hume, who was killed. His monument is a massive slab of stone supported on short pillars bearing the following inscription: SACRED To the memory of John James Hume, Esquire, M. D. Staff assistant surgeon, Who was infamously murdered and his body afterwards brutally mangled by a gang of armed ruffians from the United States styling themselves PATRIOTS who committed this cowardly and shameful outrage on the morning of the 4th of December, 1838: having intercepted the deceased while proceeding to render professional assistance to Her Majesty's gallant militia engaged at Windsor, U. C., in repelling the incursion of this rebel crew more properly styled PIRATES! 342 THE STORY OF DETROIT The Canadian rebellion was in itself a puny affair in which the insurgents accomplished nothing of importance in a military way. It did serve, however, to command the attention of the home government in England and was really a petition presented on bayonets. A systematic investigation followed. The Earl of Durham was sent over to Canada as Lord High Commissioner and Governor-General. At the end of five months he was able to make a report which is still one of the most notable documents of the colonial office. The old regime, so firmly entrenched in power and influence for 35 years, was not to be shattered at once, but gradually reforms were introduced in spite of the opposition of the family compact element. The way was paved for the establishment of a government which would be responsible to the people of Canada, and in 1849 a fully responsible government was introduced by Lord Elgin. To express its spite toward the reform movement "The Family Compact" now became mildly. insurgent. Its members burned the parliament building in Montreal and bombarded Lord Elgin very liberally with rotten eggs and stones, but that was the last expiring struggle of a decadent political organization. CHAPTER LXIV THE PANIC OF 1837 HE people of Michigan were forced to wait several years before they could begin to realize on their own wealth. President Andrew Jackson's political machine found it could not control the distribution of the Government money as it pleased among the banks of the country. The men who were in control of the United States Bank were more interested in the financial ability and solvency of trustees of Government funds than in their political party allegiance; so the choleric President, believing that the bank was hostile to him, set about destroying the bank by withdrawing from its custody all Government funds. This immediately destroyed the machinery which had been controlling the distribution of available money without substituting another and an equally efficient machine for the same purpose. The result was that real money virtually disappeared from circulation, and without the common medium of exchange business of every sort languished and died. President Jackson was neither a financier nor a literary man. He might have read with profit Dean Swift's epigram: "Money, the life-blood of the nation, Corrupts and stagnates in the veins Unless a proper circulation Its motion and its heat sustains." Banks in New York and other eastern cities began to close their doors and the epidemic of business failure rapidly spread all over the country. Hundreds of bubble land schemes and town promotions burst. The United States Bank, established in 1816, had become a power in the land in 1830. It was the common resort for loans and it is quite possible that some of the accusations that the bank officials had used their influence of 343 344 THE STORY OF DETROIT 344 THE STORY OF DETROIT money control for their own enrichment were true, for such was-and still is-the way of some in the financial world. Presently the Government money was shifted to various state banks. The Bank of Michigan and the Farmers & Mechanics Bank of Detroit were loaned $1,5oo,ooo of Government funds at an interest rate of 2 per cent. State banks about the country began paying the Government interest in bills of their own issue, but this money was regarded as of doubtful value, LAST SURVIVOR OF DETROIT'S EARLY WINDMILLS NEAR 24TH STREET IN 1838 so President Jackson ordered that all money paid for Government land should be coin money. He did not realize that the supply of coin money was not sufficient for this purpose, and when people could not get coin money on any terms, land sales stopped. Presently manufacturing stopped and business stopped. Thousands of men were thrown out of work. Farmers could not get acceptable money for their crops. Only the people of continental Europe can fully realize the consequences which followed the general panic of 1837, which reduced the people of the United States to the necessity of trading by barter for a time. During that brief period when Michigan was a state, but still outside the Union, the people were planning and dreaming of great achievements. They proposed to show the other states THE PANIC OF 1837 345 how a real, live, enterprising state should be developed by the concentrated energies and enthusiasm of its people. They proposed to perform in a decade or less what would have been a worthy achievement for a quarter of a century. Were they not rich in land, in lumber, in copper, in iron, in salt, gypsum and many other things? Could not these possessions be utilized at once as a basis of credit upon which millions of money could be borrowed for building railways and canals, opening mines, building mills and other things which would soon earn the money with which to pay off the loans? On paper it looked as simple as a sum in addition. The wealth of the state was here. It could not be taken away. Its value could not be affected by bank failures or money shortages. Having thus assured themselves, they plunged recklessly and came down with a crash. It did not occur to them that railways, canals and other great enterprises can only be profitable when they have the sure patronage of a settled country of large population. That is where their calculation failed and became a dream promotion. Mirabeau, one of the greatest men France has produced, once made this epigrammatic statement: "The two greatest inventions of the human mind are writing and money-the common language of intelligence and the common language of self-interest." Detroit had two distinguished visitors in the summer of 1837. One was Mrs. Annie B. Jameson, the English authoress, who has already been mentioned. The other was Daniel Webster. Both arrived the same day, July 8. Mr. Webster was 55 years old. He had been a political leader and statesman and a public idol, but had accumulated only a modest fortune. His farm at Marshfield, Mass., was his home and resting place, but it was not a large producer of revenue. Public lands in the West had been selling at $1.25 to $3 an acre and, realizing that they would soon become valuable, Mr. Webster looked about for investments in the West. Distrustful of the land boomers and town promoters, he wanted dependable information and sent his son, Daniel Fletcher Webster, to Detroit to look the situation over. Fletcher 346 THE STORY OF DETROIT 346THE STORY OF DETROIT Webster opened a law office here early in 1837, and with his wife boarded at the Michigan Exchange Hotel at the southwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and Shelby Street. When Daniel Webster arrived with several members of his family in July nearly everybody in Detroit dropped in at the Michigan Exchange to see the great man. They found him a man of imposing personality and dignified bearing, but very approachable and genial. Most of them were awed by the jovian brow and the great flaming eyes which glowed below it. Mr. Webster's wonderful pipe organ voice charmed all who heard it, and the general verdict of Detroiters was much like that of the Englishman who saw him later on the streets of Liverpool: that "no mortal man could possibly be as wise as Daniel Webster looked." The facilities for seeing and hearing Daniel Webster within the walls of the Michigan ExDANIEL WEBSTER IN 1837 change were limited. He was the greatest orator and the greatest Whig of his day, so the local Whigs obtained permission to hold a mass meeting in Gen. Cass' grove, between the present lines of Fort and Lafayette streets and in the neighborhood of First Street. Tables were laid under the shade of the trees for oo00 of the elite of Detroit and after a bountiful dinner Mr. Webster mounted the speaker's table and addressed a gathering of about 1,5oo people. He criticized the financial policy of President Jackson and advocated the establishment of a national bank as a national necessity. Mr. Webster afterward traveled about southern Michigan, northern Indiana and Illinois in his own carriage. While in Detroit he engaged Robert E. Walker, a young English settler, THE PANIC OF 1837 347 THE PANIC OF 1837 347 as his coachman for this long tour. Mr. Walker afterward married Elizabeth Lee, daughter of the founder of Leesville, which is now absorbed into the city. His son, Dr. Henry 0. Walker, became a widely noted surgeon of Detroit. Mr. Webster's dignified manner repelled intimacies. While all admired his genius very few came into close personal friendship with him as was the case with his rival, Henry Clay. He was always in need of a guardian to take care of his income and to restrain his expenditures. In the lack of such control, regardless of his income, he was always in debt. Wealthy friends gave him a great deal of money but it always slipped through his fingers. He gave money away without a thought and he was equally thoughtless in contracting obligations. Having given his note he seldom gave any thought to the payment. While in Detroit it is said that he was driven to Flat Rock to see the beginning of the prospective canal which was to open navigation across the lower tier of counties to Lake Michigan. Asked to subscribe to the enterprise as a stockholder he gave his note for $1,700, but the note, it is said, was never paid. While on his tour he bought a large farm at LaSalle, Ill., and placed his son Fletcher in charge of it. He also bought land in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, and was one of a group of Congressmen who subscribed to the boom town of Winnebago City. But apparently all these investments subsequently lapsed and Mr. Webster died a poor man. The panic of 1837 mowed down all such promotions and investments, for nobody could obtain money to keep up payments. There was never a time since the founding of Detroit that did not have its get-rich-quick, or something-for-nothing promotion. Heretofore landless first settlers were hungry for farms of vast areas. Grants were sought from kings, ministers and lesser functionaries. Those who were so fortunate as to obtain grants proceeded to sell them in parcels to settlers at a round profit. Grants were sought from the Indians, but when Detroit and Michigan came under British authority a close restraint was put upon that sort of exploitation. 348 THE STORY OF DETROIT With the American re'gime came the c eding of Indian lands to the United States and the subsequent sales of land to private parties at rates averaging about $1,.25 an acre. Then exploitation took on a new phase. Several industrial and commercial establishments were necessary to the founding of a new settlement. First there must be a gristmill for grinding flour and meal. There must also be a sawmill for sawing lumber. The operation of both mills depended upon a stream of water of considerable volume and sufficient fall to insure water power. Then there must be a blacksmith shop for public service and a general store for the public convenience where settlers could exchange their own products for manufactured necessities. During this stage of territorial development many enterprising men roamed the forests and followed the streams in search of available water power. Having found what seemed to be a favorable site for a town, application was made to the Government land' office and the town site was bought on the installment plan, for the promoter needed all the money he could produce and borrow in order to build a small sawmill or gristmill, to construct a rude log dam with a backing of clay to make it water-tight, and a wooden flume to lead the water from the dam to the water wheels of the two mills. A general store, opened in the rudest of buildings and meagerly stocked with manufactured goods, would attract trade from settlers over a large area. A blacksmith shop was a common necessity, for *all iron implements, bolts, hinges, chains and even nails were then forged by hand. Horses must be kept shod all the year around and oxen during the icy months of the winter. Usually the town-site promoters worked in groups. A scout or prospector was employed to find available sites, being engaged at regular wages and with a promise of a share in the profits of exploitation. Back of him were several men of means who would furnish the money for the founding and manage the general promotion and auction sales of lots for future homes and business places. It was through such promotions that towns like Pontiac, Rochester and Ypsilanti were founded, but there were also many town-building enterprises which came to an THE PANIC OF 1837 349 end with the erection of a few cheap buildings and the sale of town lots. One of the most spectacular of the multitude of boom towns which came to naught was the Port Sheldon promotion. Port Sheldon is not to be found on the present maps of Michigan, but the name was in everybody's mouth in the first days of Michigan's statehood. A number of eastern capitalists who had a political and financial pull in the Bank of the United States in Philadelphia worked out the promotion of Port Sheldon, without much expense to themselves, but by methods which cut both ways amid the trusting public. They organized the Port Sheldon Company, and on the representations published in a boom circular borrowed heavily from the Bank of the United States. Their paper city was located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, in Ottawa County, near the outlet of Pigeon Lake. With borrowed money a big gang of men was engaged to clear I60 acres, lay out streets, and erect a number of buildings. The chief promoter was Alex H. Jaudon, of Philadelphia, who was not only a clever promoter, but an expert in the art of exchanging wild cat money for land, labor, goods and other real values. These men wanted to establish their town, which was to be a formidable rival to Detroit, at the mouth of Grand River, but they found other parties had obtained the land about Grand Haven so they shifted to a cheaper location 13 miles south. They spent $i10,000ooo in making improvements during the first 18 months of their promotion. The land was cleared, streets laid out, lots were subdivided, and a big general store erected and stocked with goods brought by lake vessels. The offerings of this store were not surpassed even in Detroit. Fifteen first class buildings were erected in the first six months. Then followed the erection of a mill at $zo,ooo; the building of a road through sand and marsh to Grand Haven at a cost of $Io,ooo; erection of a company office at $io,ooo, and the crowning folly, the erection of a great hotel, 60 by I20 feet on the ground, at a cost of $6o,ooo. This hotel, named the Ottawa House, did not average a guest more than once a month. 350o THE STORY OF DETROIT Elaborate maps of the town were on display everywhere, showing a city of 142 blocks, each block containing 24 building lots. Seven lots were reserved for churches, one for a fish market, two for general markets, four for a railroad depot, four for a city hall, and one for a schoolhouse. The map showed the line of a railway as passing through the city to a great terminal erected on the edge of Lake Michigan, and showing a lively exchange of merchandise in transit between the railway and steamboats and sailing vessels. The map showed a projected railway extending from this paper city of Port Sheldon to Grand Rapids and thence across the state to Port Huron. From Port Sheldon two miles of the railway line was cleared of trees, stumps and brush, and graded and laid with railway ties. A railway depot was built on the plan of a Greek temple, with its projecting roof supported by Greek columns. The town lots were 64 by 128 feet in area and several of the streets were provided with wooden sidewalks. Port Sheldon looked like a sure winner for a time and about 300 people settled there, but the panic of 1837 stopped everything and the promoters abandoned their undertaking. Gradually the town was abandoned and its buildings fell into decay. Today the site is a lonely place on the Lake Michigan shore. When the United States Bank of Philadelphia collapsed a large amount of securities of the Port Sheldon Company were discovered among its assets, having been deposited as security for loans. Port Sheldon is the most conspicuous example of the results of that period of exploitation. Out of this town-site exploitation came a hoary-headed anecdote which the older generation will remember. An eastern investor, captivated by the prospectus of a promoting company, sent a young man to look over the ground and make a report on the lay of the land, volume and fall, or water head, of the stream that was to furnish power, the dam, the mills, etc. His agent wrote tersely the result of his investigation: He had "found the location, also a dam by a mill site, but no mill by a dam site." On receiving this information the'capitalist withheld his intended investment. TiiE PANNIC OF 18137 351 Even within the present limits of Detroit several suburban boom towns were promoted by ardent speculators. In 1836 some promoters planned the purchase of the Reeder farm (known as "private claim 39") near the present site of Fort Wayne, and planned the founding of a town which would become a rival of Detroit. It fell through when the land title was found to be defective. In the same year Judge Benjamin F. H. Witherell bought a tract just outside the present limits of Highland Park in Greenfield township, and laid out the town of Cassandra. The site is now included in the city boundary. The lots did not sell, so the promoters bought a load of iron ore and scattered it about to support a claim of rich mineral deposits. But the rumor that this was a "salted" claim or mine prospect leaked out and the alluring advertising failed to create a rush of buyers. In the district now termed Delray in the western part of the city a town termed Belgrade was laid out and lots were advertised for sale. Charles A. Trowbridge promoted a town which was named Catville, on the basis of the initials of his name. It is now the village of New Boston. These are but a few examples of the town promotions which immediately preceded the panic of 1837. That panic caused the sudden collapse of innumerable speculative balloons and left both promoters and buyers of boom-town lots bankrupt. Judge Augustus B. Woodward appears to have been a pioneer in speculative town promotions. He promoted the founding of Ypsilanti in 1825 and named it in honor of Demetrius Ypsilanti, one of the leaders of the Greek war of independence. He bought 1,280 acres of the lo,ooo-acre tract for $1,780, and on land about the Ford plant and the street railway barns of the present time, he laid out the town of Woodwardville. His plat displayed a rectangular plan of 36 city blocks and 14 streets with an open plaza in the center. Twenty of the blocks were given central parks for breathing places. Land was cheap. The lots were offered at prices ranging from $io to $50 each. A town built on the plan of the Woodwardville which never materialized would be a more comfortable place to live in than some of the 352 THE STORY OF DETROIT 352 THE STORY OF DETROIT congested areas of the present day, where mammoth apartment houses with hundreds of inmates each make a silent but pathetic appeal for breathing space. Later, when railway and vessel transportation opened up a wide market for Michigan pine lumber a new type of town exploitation came into the field. Many bustling settlements sprang up about the larger lumber camps and along the streams where logs were floated down to the mills. As soon as the lumber PLAT OF THE VLLAE OF WO ODWARDVILLE WALCNUT STREET flwit ELM PEET~ tlicr ~ lie '0 www lu W 4 h W W 7 D ILI LI LOCUSNT STREE'r sl~d a CONGE55Ave u L OAK S9 Alm 4~YJI~ i~f L~lb WIC)IOF~Y T~t7 ~-----;;;r;-r-;--~------7 THE PANIC OF 1837 353 was cut off many of these towns were abandoned. The roads leading to them grew up with seedlings of second growth timber. The district became deserted after forest fires caused by the neglect of the lumbermen had left it a desolate waste of blackened stumps and stubs of dead timber, with the surface soil burned away and the land all about reduced to the condition of a desert where agriculture would be out of the question for at least 25 years. The lands were abandoned by the owners. Taxes were left unpaid and again the State became the victim of uncontrolled exploitation. CHAPTER LXV EARLY RAILWAY PROMOTIONS N 1837 Michigan was filled with the valor of ignorance and an enthusiasm which could see no barriers in the way of progress. Three railway systems were considered as crossing the state in parallel lines about 50 miles apart and having all their terminals retained strictly within the state and completely detached from any other system of transportation except the steamboats and sailing vessels of the lakes. One was projected to be known as the Michigan Northern and to extend from Port Huron to Grand Haven. The second was to be the Michigan Central, running from Detroit to St. Joseph on Lake Michigan, and the other was to be the Michigan Southern, with its. terminals at Monroe and New Buffalo. The lack of-paying traffic to be derived from a wilderness did not give them pause. They estimated that by the time the railways would be built rapid settlement would provide a paying traffic. At the same time the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo and Grand rivers were to be converted into canals to furnish water transportation. The"boy governor," StevensT. Mason, was wild with enthusiasm and many of the older heads were turned by the visions of these dream promotions. All that was necessary, they believed, was to borrow the money and build the railways and canals. The future would take care of itself. The legislature of Michigan authorized a loan of $5,000,000, but when it came to the borrowing it was discovered that President Jackson had put a crimp in the common resort for funds, the United States Bank. Bonds were issued, and armed with the State of Michigan's promise to pay and a mortgage upon the resources of the State to the amount of $5,ooo,ooo, Gov. Mason and Theodore Romeyn went gaily to the East. Down East the Detroit financiers found nothing doing in the money lending line on any sort of security until they visited the 354 EARLY RAILWAY PROMOTIONS 355 Morris'Canal & Banking Company of New Jersey. This was supposed to be a solid concern but, like most of the others, it had operated largely through use of the Government funds. With these withdrawn its tenure of life would be precarious, CANAL PACKET BOAT OF 1835 but neither the "boy governor" nor Mr. Romeyn knew, or if they did, did not seem to care. A loan of $5,000,000 made the managers of the concern open their eyes. They did not have that amount of money in hand that day, but they could manage to squeeze out, say $200,000, in a day or two and they could forward the rest to Detroit very soon. 356 356 THE STORY OiF DETROIT So the Detroit financial agents lifted their $Sooo,ooo of good Michigan bonds out of their old horsehide covered and brass bound trunk, laid them on the counter of the bank and packed away $2o0,ooo in nice crisp bills of the Morris Canal & Banking Company in the place of $200,000 worth of the bonds. "Now what are you going to do with the rest of these bonds? You ought not to be lugging them about the country." " Why, " said the Michigan men, " we may as well leave them here and you can forward the money to us as fast as possible." So the two travelers headed for home with their money treasure, steaming up the Hudson River and then through the Erie Canal by a fast packet boat hauled by teams of horses, moving at a slow trot. As they would approach a town or a canal lock the captain of the packet would seize his great horn and blow a blast that might almost awake the dead Indians along the banks, and so preparation was always made for their rapid transit at a rate of four or five miles an hour. Now and then the pilot would sound the alarm: "Low Bridge," and those who were accustomed to canal travel would immediately duck low in their chairs or, if standing, prostrate themselves on hands and knees on the deck until the boat would emerge again- from the dark shadow of the highway bridge over the canal. Those who did not heed the warning call would lose their hats or be knocked sprawling on the deck. From Buffalo they took steamer for Detroit, stopping at ports along the south shore of the lake. Each man stood watch in turn over that trunk with its precious freight and slept at night with one eye and one ear open. In spite of the vigilance of the "boy governor" and his fellowambassador to the money courts of the East, something very mysterious happened to that trunkful of paper money. They arrived safely in Detroit, broke the seals on the trunk and, in the presence of witnesses in the Bank of Michigan, proceeded to count. the money. It seemed to be just $5,000 short. They counted it again and again and so did others, and it was still $5,000 short. EARLY RAILWAY PROMOTIONS 357 / Thereupon Stevens Thomson Mason and Theodore Romeyn gave each other a very searching look and there was a long and awkward pause. Then there was another count to discover just which package of bills was missing, for the bills were all numbered consecutively and bound in packages. The officials *of the Morris Canal & Banking Company, they then discovered, had added another private mark on each of the bills. These marks were uniform in character and the purpose of them was that when any of these bills might come back to the bank of issue for redemption, the banking company would know that particular bill was a part of the money loaned to the State of Michigan. The bank officials wanted to see just how long their bills would circulate in Michigan before they would begin to come back to them. It was found that there was no package missing; that the bills amounting to $5,ooo had been extracted from many different packages, which gave the appearance of a systematic robbery by some person unknown. The numbers of the missing bills were noted and recorded. The remaining $195,oo000 in bills were locked up in the vault of the Bank of Michigan and the men who had counted the money took time to do some independent thinking. A day or two later the Governor met Romeyn on the street. "Look here, Romeyn," said he. "That money is gone somewhere. You and I saw it counted. We put it in the trunk, locked the trunk, sealed it and watched it all the way to Detroit. Either you or I stole it and by-- it was not I. I'll take my oath on that. That money must be found or you and I must make it good. Now we'll wait a couple of weeks and see if it will turn up. Romeyn protested that he was as much mystified as was the Governor, and they separated. Those bills with the bank's private mark and numbering on them could be advertised and made identifiable. Whoever had them would find some risk in trying to circulate them with positive identification made easy. Inside the prescribed two weeks a sealed package arrived at the Bank of Michigan from Cleveland and when the package was opened, behold, there was the missing $5,ooo, and the incident was closed. 3S8 THE STORY OF DETROIT More bills came from the Morris Canal & Banking Company from tiune to time until the State had a deposit of about $2,2oo,ooo of them. Then the Morris Canal & Banking Company failed and the money stopped coming. This did not occur until after many months. The State of Michigan invested the money in railway construction and got rather poor value for its money. Meanwhile the $5,ooo0oo in Michigan bonds had been sold abroad and the proceeds went into the coffers of the moribund banking house. Michigan was saddled with a debt of $5,oooooo and accruing interest and all she had to show for it was a certain mileage of badly constructed railway line and more than $2,000,ooo in worthless, unissued bills of a dead bank. It was a disastrous venture all around, but it illustrates the financial and industrial perils of the period of the 1830's. The fine thing about the affair was that Michigan stood bravely to her pledge. The State did not attempt to repudiate the bonds for which she had received no money, and the presumption is that the men into whose hands the money finally gravitated found themselves losers when the Morris Canal & Banking Company failed. CHAPTER LXVI ERA OF "WILD CAT BANKING" MONEY might be termed "the universal commodity" because it is a commodity for which men are willing to exchange their goods, their service and sometimes even their liberty and their personal honor. It is the universal symbol of value, although it has of itself alone no value at all. The value of paper money is expressed in its printed pledge and in the honor and probity of the man, the bank or the nation that issues it. Today we have, in the United States, a system of bank currency which we all accept, not on the security of the bank issue, but upon the good faith and credit of the people of the United States, for the national Government stands back of every dollar of national currency. But situations occasionally arise wheni money becomes demoralized or ceases to circulate between man and man at. its face value. When that happens human intelligence is baffled and business can only be done with extreme difficulty. The interruption of the usual distribution of Government money through the United States Bank and its various depositories by President Andrew Jackson struck a staggering blow at business all over the country. People in general did not know how to get along without money and when they could not get good money they reluctantly accepted bad money, knowing it to be of doubtful value, but hoping to find some other person who would accept it. Michigan needed money desperately in 1838. The general eagerness to go ahead with many visionary enterprises swept caution aside and the legislature passed a general banking law which provided for an unlimited number of "safety fund" banks. Under this law a bank could be organized and the stockholders could issue money based upon first mortgages upon real estate for its security. On paper and in principle it seemed 359 360 TIHE STORY OF D)ETROIT sound enough but in practice it proved disastrous. The experiment has been tried many times and in many countries and each time it has ended in a demoralization of values in general and a destruction of public and private credit, followed by a long period of business depression. Under this law, known as the "wild cat" banking law, banks sprang up like mushroom growths. The term "wild cat" arose from the fact that several fraudulent banks made large issues of currency. The engraving and printing was done by a few firms which printed bills for all the banks. These firms economized their engraving expenses as much as possible and many of the bills circulated in the West bore an engraving of the figure of a wild cat or panther. Another device much used on Michigan money was the figure of a spirited horse dashing across the face of the bill and printed in red ink. "Wild cat" and "red horse" money soon became terms to express utter worthlessness. Gov. Mason, quite as innocent of any knowledge of the laws of money as he was of intent to do wrong, signed the bill and reckoned that he had settled an embarrassing problem. In the course of time his signature to that bill temporarily destroyed his popularity. Money, so scarce for several months before the passing of the banking law, soon became plentiful and business began to boom. Prices began to rise, land sold rapidly and paper wealth accumulated. It was the custom for each bank of issue to send its money as far from home as possible to be circulated, in the hope that it would never be returned for redemption. But this practice was neutralized because banks of other states reciprocated by flooding Michigan with their bills. Detroit money also went out into the state and outside state banks sent their money to Detroit. Most of these banks were well aware of the worthlessness of the paper currency, but there was a rivalry between them to see which could circulate the most bills. In case a flood of their own bills should be returned to be redeemed in coin money, the bank could fail and avoid responsibility. Of course certain protections had to be thrown around the issues of currency under the banking act. All banks were required to keep on hand a stipulated amount of silver and gold ERA OF "WILD CAT BANKING "36 361 coin in proportion to their issue of bills. Marshall J. Bacon, an attorney, was appointed banking commissioner to travel about the state, look over the record of currency issues of each. bank and then count the silver and gold money held by each bank for redeeming its bills. But the record of bills issued was carelessly kept. Generally a bank was willing to confess but a fraction of its money issue. There was not sufficient silver or gold money in Michigan to enable the banks to comply with the law, so they adoipted a curious practice. The movements of the banking commissioner were jealously watched and banks were warned of his approach. They took care to have a respectable showing of coin money when he would arrive at a particular bank. As soon as he had counted the' coin and given the bank his approval in his report, the coin, stored in nail kegs and other improvisedl receptacles, would be hustled out the back door to be whirled away by a fast team to the next bank to be visited by the commissioner. There it would be counted again and credited to another bank. So the merry chase between the commissioner and the available real money would go on from town to town and bank to bank about the state. If the commissioner discovered this trickery, which he could hardly have failed to do, he kept his own council and let the practice go on. The alternative would be the closing of most of the banks, the immediate discrediting Of all the bills in circulation and business chaos. The people of Michigan and of most of the other states were in exactly the predicament which now confronts the people of Germany, Russia and several other European countries. As fast as their money is discredited it falls in purchasing va'lue. Then the governments try to compensate the depreciated value by rushing more money through the public printing presses. They all know that this practice must have an end and that the end will be chaos, but they do not see their way out of the dilemma by a steady process of currency deflation until the volume of money is reduced to an amount which can be sustained by the available security. Banking Commissioner Bacon in time became alarmed at his own discoveries of the juggling of the security funds between 362 THE STORY OF DETROIT banks, so he began to change the regularity of his visits and drop in upon banks which had not been fortified against his call by the rapid transit transfer of money from some other bank. This compelled the adoption of a new scheme by which the available coin money was distributed about and used as a sort of camouflage. Bacon called at the Bank of Sandstone, in Jackson County, and when he asked for an exhibit of real coin money he was shown several nail kegs apparently overflowing with silver and gold. The directors of the bank entertained him lavishly and delayed his investigation in the hope that he would make it fast and perfunctory. They had the money all right, they assured him. It would be a tedious task to count the contents of all the overflowing kegs, but to their consternation Bacon began counting and soon the money in the kegs came to an end and the remainder of their ponderous contents was found to consist of nails, spikes and other heavy hardware of little value. Within the period of Io months 49 banks were organized in Michigan, but the bubble soon burst and in 1839 only seven remained in existence. Meanwhile, the state was flooded with money issues of dead banks. A man with his pockets filled with bills could hardly buy the necessities of life. Flour was Si6 a barrel, potatoes $2 a bushel and other things in proportion. As soon as money became discredited and could not be circulated prices of commodities fell in money value. Flour fell to $8 a barrel in 1839 and in 1842 it sold for $2.25. In fact money values had lost all significance in Michigan. In this period of storm and stress the Bank of Michigan and the Farmers & Mechanics Bank of Detroit were carefully conducted. The general demoralization crippled both of them for a time because coin money almost disappeared into private hoards, but they were soon able to resume specie redemption of their own bills. Both these banks kept faith with the public. The Bank of Michigan went out of business in 1844 and the Farmers & Mechanics Bank in 1839, with all claims paid. The latter bank was revived in 1845 and ended its career honorably in 1869. CHAPTER LX VII THE DETROIT & PONTIAC RAILWAY WHEN railway building had its beginning in the United States the promoters had but a limited vision of the future. Waterways had always been the main arteries of transportation and it was supposed that they would always so remain. There was no idea of great transcontinental or even interstate railways of continuous trackage and through transportation for loaded cars without unloading and reloading for transfer from one railway to another. Railways were regarded as necessary links between waterways. Each railway was supposed to retain its cars for use on its own lines without interchanges in the use of rolling stock. The beginning of the modern idea in railway operation came when it was proposed to connect transportation on the upper lakes with that on the Hudson River by a railway from Buffalo to Albany. Out of that promotion eventually developed the great system of the New York Central. That curious idea of the Michigan people of having three railway systems all their own, without connection with any system of any other state, was in perfect correspondence with the general idea. Pontiac, founded in 18i9 by certain enterprising citizens of Detroit, was a " boom town " which the owners of the town plat were anxious to promote. These men employed their social, financial and political pulls for the charteri,ng and building of the first railway out of Detroit to Pontiac. They also imparted their enthusiasm to Editor John P. Sheldon, of the Detroit Gazette, and his 'Inspiration made him a prophet of the future in opposition to the common opinion. On December 17, 1829., he wrote an editorial to this effect: "Ten years hence, or before, the citizens of Detroit will be able to reach the Atlantic In 24 hours. Twenty years hence the navigation of our broad and beautiful lakes will be of no manner 363 364 THE STORY OF DETROIT of use to us because land transportation will be so much cheaper. It will be a comfortable thing to get into-not a coach or steamboat-but a snug house built over a steam engine and, after journeying smoothly and safely at the rate of 30 or 40 miles an hour, find yourself at breakfast next morning in New York or Washington." Just how much of this was evidence of personal enthusiasm and how much was paid propaganda it is impossible to judge, but certain Detroiters wanted that road to Pontiac to boom their town and, incidentally, they wanted the aid of state appropriations to finance the building. It was ten years later when the road was finished as far as Birmingham and it took 14 years to extend it as far as Pontiac. The first railway charter of Michigan was for the Detroit & Pontiac Railway, issued July 31, 1830. This was the first incorporated railway within the limits of the old Northwest Territory, which shows that enterprise was not lacking in Detroit. The older states of Ohio, Indiana,and Illinois were far behind the Territory of Michigan seven years before it attained the rank of statehood. It has been a rather common characteristic of Michigan people that they are quick of vision and fast starters, but rather slow finishers. After the state or territory, like many other human organizations, discovers something that needs to be done, it holds a meeting, passes resolutions, appoints committees and then draws a long'breath, assuming that the thing is as good as accomplished. The charter of 1830 gave the incorporators authority to build a railway from Detroit to Pontiac, and then the incorporators sat down and dreamed of the future, but did nothing at all. In March, 1834, a new corporation was chartered which had a scheme for financing the enterprise by establishing the Bank of Pontiac with a speculative capital of $ioo,ooo, secured by a mortgage on the assets of the railway company. This bank opened May 26, 1835, with $99,oo000 of its capital stock subscribed, butonly ten percent of it was paid in. Sherman Stevens acted as cashier and also as manager of the Detroit & Pontiac Railway, which was to be built with paper money issues of the Bank of Pontiac. The bank redeemed its bills in specie THE DETROIT & PONTIAC RAILWAY 365 long after most of the other banks had suspended in the panic year of 1837 but presently collapsed. It was revived for a short time following the panic but soon passed out of existence. Work on the right of way was not begun until April 25, 1836, when choppers and "swampers" were put to work clearing the timber and grubbing out the stumps and brush over I5 miles of the surveyed line. All went well with the building of the Detroit & Pontiac Railway as far as the Six-Mile Road. There the builders ran into the bed of a prehistoric glacial lake which had gradually filled up with marine plants and had become encrusted over with a thin layer of soil which was covered with brush and small timber. When this land was' cleared the soil was found to be what the old settlers used to term a "quaking prairie." The surface soil was underlaid with the water and bog, remainders of the old lake. When the soil was thrown up to make a roadbed the necessary cutting on each side would weaken its support and the heaping of the soil on the roadbed would cause it to sink out of sight, leaving an open canal of water. To fill this discovered channel of unknown depth, trees were felled and laid across it side by side as for a corduroy road. Brush was then piled on top of the trees and earth shoveled upon the brush, but in a day or two-perhaps next morning-the construction gangs would find all their work sunk out of sight and an open channel of water again marking the right of way. It took a wide swath out of the forest on each side of the track and endless labor to create a solid roadbed. That explains why it took three years of discouraging endeavor to build the first section as far as Birmingham. The first track consisted of stout oaken stringers laid upon crossties. The wooden rails were surfaced with a sheathing of strap iron. The road was first operated as far as Royal Oak, July 21, 1838. For several months the cars were operated by horse power, but in the summer of 1839 a locomotive, the second to arrive in Michigan, was brought to Detroit from Philadelphia and it went into operation August 16. In those days all locomotives were named like steamboats, instead of being designated 366 THE STORY OF DETROIT by numbers as today. The name of this first locomotive was the "Sherman Stevens." That tiny locomotive must have been honestly constructed, for it was used on the same line until 1858, and for several years later on the Port Huron and Owosso line. The first railway passenger cars, like the first automobiles, were of curious construction. The designers in both instances showed that they were enslaved to past traditions. The automobile designers made their first vehicles with dashboards and even a whipsocket like horse buggies, and the early railway passenger car designers made their cars like the old-fashioned stagecoaches. The railway coaches were light, four-wheeled MIXED TRAIN ON DETROIT & PONTIAC RAILWAY, 1843 affairs. The seats ran lengthwise of the car and each car was divided into three compartments by transverse partitions. Entrance was gained by three doors on each side of the car. At first little attention was paid to regular stations. A passenger anywhere along the road would signal his desire to board the train and the accommodating engineer, would stop his train and "set 'er back" to pick up the passenger. Passengers were also discharged anywhere on signal to the engineer. On the soft roadbed the engine and cars would press the track into the earth, and mud would squirt viciously from the ends of the ties on each side of the track, to the unspeakable disgust of people who walked beside the road. This bending and sagging of the tracks under a heavy load caused the strap iron on the wooden rails to break now and then. The ends of the broken rails would curl upward and when struck by the wheels would be thrust upward through the floor of the car. Many passengers were injured by these "snakeheads," as the broken rails were termed, and now and then one THE DETROIT & PONTIAC RAILWAY 367 was impaled and killed. In 1845 the Detroit & Pontiac Railway advertised a "new and elegant car sheathed with iron on the bottom to guard against 'snake-heads."'" Passengers naturally tried to board that particular car. The locomotives burned wood and to promote draft for the fire they carried enormous stacks nearly as large- as the boilers. At every exhaust of steam a shower of sparks and cinders was FIRST LOCOMOTIVE IN MICHIGAN-ERIE & KALAMAZOO RAILWAY BEGINNING OF LAKE SHORE & MICHIGAN SOUTHERN coughed high in the air, so a law was passed compelling them to cover the stacks with wire screens to retain the larger sparks. The engineer and fireman on the early locomotives had no cab to protect them from the weather. The fireman stoked his engine by thrusting four-foot cordwood, mostly pine and hemlock, into the fire-box, ducking his head artfully each time to avoid the flame which would shoot out of the door. The tender of the engine resembled a lumber wagon loaded with cordwood and barrels of water. The first engine had but one pair of driving wheels. For several years the Detroit & Pontiac Railway had its Detroit terminal at Jefferson Avenue and Dequindre Street, but 368 THE STORY OF DETROIT the citizens thought this an out-of-the-way place, so in 1842 the tracks were swung from Dequindre to Gratiot Avenue, and a new station was established on Gratiot Avenue opposite the present store of the J. L. Hudson Company. This change caused a sudden shift in hotel activities. Hiram R. Andrews had come to Detroit some time bef6re and married the widow of Orson Eddy, who ran a tin shop near the lower end of Bates Street. Mr. Andrews bought the site where the Shubert-Detroit Opera House now stands for $6,5oo and erected a hotel which was styled "Andrews' Railroad Hotel." The rear end of this hotel was connected with the depot, and thus it gathered in most of the travelers coming from the direction and vicinity of Pontiac. That site was sold by his executors in I86i1 for $23,500. In 1867 it was sold again for $5o,ooo, and in 1868 it was sold again to Dr. E. M. Clark for $55,ooo. But while the railway on Gratiot Avenue was a convenience to passengers, it was an intolerable nuisance to people who lived along the street, and to pedestrians and to farmers who drove their teams along the road on each side of the track. The street was unpaved and the soil very moist, so the passing of a train showered pedestrians, fences and houses with squirting mud, and horses went mad with fright when the engine bore down on them. Sparks from the engines often set roofs on fire. Within a year the citizens petitioned for the removal of the tracks and the restoration of the old station on Jefferson Avenue. Attempts were made to moderate the nuisance but in vain, so in 1848 the common council ordered the tracks removed. The Detroit & Pontiac Railway paid no attention to the order so citizens gathered at night and tore up the tracks in Gratiot Avenue from the depot to Beaubien Street. This cut off the use of the switch and turntable for the locomotive and trains were forced to run backward as far as Royal Oak. Watches were set by the railway management, after the track had been relaid, but another gang of track-wreckers tore them up again. Twelve of them were identified and arrested. Public sympathy was with the arrested men and they were acquitted. This war went on until the summer of 1851, when the railway THE DETROIT & PONTIAC RAILWAY 369 was shifted back to Dequindre Street. The tracks were relaid with T-rails and in 1852 trains began using the Brush Street depot. Meanwhile railroad building made progress on other lines. The Michigan Central was chartered in 1832. The cost of laying a single track strap rail to Ypsilanti was estimated at $3,200 per mile. People along the route and in the towns subscribed ~---- -3;ce , c-- c;Zc - ts' -" c--I i-- --i-------2 -'11'-- "' '" '"cCc- -C--,. MICHIGAN CENTRAL'S FIRST DETROIT TERMINAL GRISWOLD AND MICHIGAN AVENUE S.W. to the stock. As in the case of the Pontiac road the company was authorized to establish a bank at Ypsilanti with a capital of $1oo0,o. By November of 1836 the road had been grubbed as far as Ypsilanti and graded for 10 miles. In January, 1838, the road was in operation as far as Dearborn and on February 3 the first car was run to Ypsilanti. This car was a sumptuous affair, seating 66 persons. It was built-in Detroit by John G. Hays, and was named the "Governor Mason," the name being blazoned along each side. That first trip was a memorable affair as the car was filled with state officials and prominent citizens, for whom a big 370 THE STORY OF DETROIT dinner was given by the citizens of Ypsilanti. On the return trip the car was stopped at Dearborn, but there the engineer found it impossible to start his engine again. After he had labored long under the censorious eyes of his passengers and had been driven to the verge of frenzy by their sarcastic remarks, the engineer announced himself as "clean beat." Horses were engaged first to haul the engine to a siding and then to pull the car into Detroit. At that time the Michigan Central track led straight down Michigan Avenue and the station stood where the McGraw Building is now located, at the southwest corner of Michigan and Griswold Street. The station was a one-story wooden building of small size. When operation became regular Al" -.% A*Pljjg Fin PASSENGER TRAIN OF MICHIGAN CENTRAL RAILROAD, 1845 the fare to Ypsilanti was $1.5o. Trains left Detroit at 6 a. m. and I p. m. and left Ypsilanti at 10 a. m. and 4 p. m. Receipts at the beginning averaged about $300 a day from passenger service. In 1848 the Michigan Central, noting the experience on Gratiot Avenue, made preparations for shifting their station to the foot of Third Street and the tracks were diverted to that point by following down the bed of the old mill stream known as May's Creek. Cars began operation by horse power over the Michigan Southern from Toledo to Adrian, October I, 1836. The road had been chartered in 1833 and it was the first to be operated in Michigan. Its first locomotive arrived in Toledo in January, 1837, and this was the first railway engine to arrive in Michigan. The first charter of this line was issued to the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, which gave a perpetual lease*to the Michigan Southern in I849. A line from Monroe to Petersburgh was opened in 1839, to Adrian in 1840 and to Hillsdale in 1843. In 1855 a THE DETROIT & PONTIAC RAILWAY 371 combination was made with the Northern Indiana Railway under the title Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana. In i855 the Lake Shore Railway was completed between Buffalo and Toledo and a later merger created the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. The first through railway connection to the East was provided when the Great Western Railway was completed across Canada to Windsor on January 17, 1854. That achievement was followed by one of the most enthusiastic celebrations ever held in Detroit. CHAPTER LXVIII FIRST DAYS OF STATEHOOD HEN Michigan became a state the electors were pretty evenly divided between the Democratic and the Whig parties. Andrew Jackson was President and under his administration a powerful and far-reaching political machine had been built up. It was the natural desire of the administration to enroll Michigan as a Democratic state. Even in that early day politics was a rather expert game and some of the methods of creating party majorities were singularly frank. Stevens Thomson Mason had the backing of the machine as well as of the young men about town and he was elected Governor by a small majority over his opponent, John Biddle. In preparation for the second state election there was an unprecedented promotion of public works, some of which were highly visionary. One modest scheme involved the construction of a canal across the lower part of Michigan, via Gibraltar and Flat Rock, to Lake Michigan, utilizing the Huron River as far as possible and other natural channels as they would be encountered until the canal reached the St. Joseph River. Such trifling details as a preliminary survey, a profile map showing elevations and excavations, and estimates of probable cost were entirely ignored. The main purpose in view was the importation of several hundred Irish laborers from New York, all guaranteed Democrats, armed with papers declaring their intention to become citizens, and their safe delivery at the polling places, where they would be sure to vote and "vote right." Even at that the election of the "boy governor," Stevens Thomson Mason, commonly called "Tom" by the gay young 'men of the Democratic camp, was a rather close squeeze. His opponent was the doughty Whig and very popular old settler, C. C. Trowbridge. The count of votes after the November election of 1837 showed 11,268 372 FIRST DAYS OF STATEHOOD 373 votes for Mason and 11,031 for Mr. Trowbridge. But for the valiant fighting Irish voters the case might have been different. As it was, interest in the public works seemed to flag right after election. Winter was near and the imported patriots began to drift away. The canal undertaking was not resumed, but during the next decade Michigan had several recurrent Pi 0 Gov. MASON's HOME STEVENS THOMSON MASON ON JEFFERSON AVE. MICHIGAN'S "BOY GOVERNOR" attacks of canalitis as the success of the Erie Canal created an enthusiasm for similar undertakings in several states. Next in importance to the notable legislation for educational promotion was another new departure which was promoted by Dr. Douglass Houghton. Dr. Houghton had the opinion that Michigan was a* state very rich in mineral resources, but these must first be discovered and located and then developed. He urged that the legislature make an appropriation for a systematic geological survey which would show the extent of copper, iron, salt and gypsum deposits and possibly the existence 374 THE STORY OFDETROIT of the more precious metals. The state was poor in money resources and the settlers who were working everywhere clearing land and building cabins and fences for the establishment of farms could ill afford a heavy tax levy. It is probable that no other man in the state than Dr. Houghton could have induced the legislature to appropriate annual funds for carrying on a geological survey, but $3,000 was provided for the first year of experimental survey and other sums for three following years, that for the fourth year being $i2,000. Dr. Houghton was made state geologist and he made his first investigations in the Upper Peninsula. His report, filed in 1838, justified the appropriation 'and he set out for a second survey in the Lower Peninsula, assisted by Abram Sager, zobiogist; Sylvester Higgins, topographer and draughtsman; John Wright, botanist; Columbus C. Douglass and Bela Hubbard, assistant geologists, and William P. Smith, mechanical zoologist, whatever that might mean. By these and succeeding surveys the people of Michigan were made acquainted with the stratifications of the soil and rocks of the state and the direction of their various dips, the available limestones and sandstones, and the probable depths of salt deposits in various places, thus paving the way for future development of these natural resources. From the moment when Michigan achieved the rank of statehood, and even before her admission to the Union, the first thrills of a new life began to be manifested among the more enlightened citizens of the state. The men were already here who were to shape Michigan's system of education and secure ample provision for the support of primary, secondary and university education. Here also were the men who were destined to discover the wealth of the state's natural resources and to begin their development. Men like Douglass Houghton, Isaac E. Crary, Rev. John D. Pierce, Judge William Austin Burt, Eber Brock Ward and several others loom large in the histry o Miciga, yet, except to a few of the citizens of the Detroit of today, these names have no particular significance. When one encounters the records of these remarkable men he is sorely tempted to abandon history for biography. FIRST DAYS OF STATEHOOD 375 Michigan was a pioneer among states in recognizing that public education is a natural function of government. Before that, education was largely left to private enterprise. The Ordinance of the Northwest Territory in 1787 declared that "religion and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." But something more than moral support is needed to foster education. It needs genius of organization and the backing of ample funds for continual support. In 1833 an act was passed providing for common schools in Detroit. It was approved by Gov. Porter during his brief tenure of office. It provided for the election of six commissioners, six directors and six inspectors of public schools. The commissioners were to divide the city into school districts; the directors were to select and purchase sites for schools in the name of the mayor, recorder, aldermen and freemen of Detroit, and levy taxes for the building of schoolhouses. The inspectors were to supervise education. The record of performance under this promising act is altogether missing, so one may assume that little was done at the time. But while the men of Detroit showed lack of initiative, the women promoted what was known as the Free School Society. Jane M. Palmer, Mary S. Wendell and a number of other publicspirited women circulated a petition, raised funds, built a schoolhouse and established a school. They published a notice in the winter of 1833 to this effect: "It can not have escaped the observation of any citizen that in our midst are many children who are growing up not only in poverty, but in ignorance. The object of our society is to take these children and bring them under the culture and moral restraint of a school. We have employed for the year past a competent instructress and have collected together under her not far from a daily average of o50 scholars. There have been no less than 150 names upon the roll of the school since its commencement. In addition to $232 which the society has paid to the instructress and expended for wood and other incidental 376 376 THE STORY OF DETROIT expenses we have erected a plain but substantial schoolhouse at a cost Of $475, toward which we have paid 30 leaving a balance of $125." I 3O Here one may read a polite i~ntimation to the people of the city that a little contribution will be appreciated. The city at that time had 4,000 population and the number of children listed in the school plainly indicates that a much larger number could have had no schooling at all, making all due allowance for those who probably attended the parochial schools maintained by the Catholic churches. But the school system of Michigan had already begun to take shape in the little village of Marshall, 130 miles out in the state. In the summer of 1834 two men sat on a log near the present site of the Calhoun County courthouse discussing the rise of Michigan to the rank of statehood, the form of government that should be established, and what provisions should be made for public education without involving the struggling settlers in too heavy a debt. These men were Isaac E. Crary and Rev. John D. Pierce. The consequences which grew out of that informal conference and perfect agreement between those men are an important part of the history of Michigan. CHAPTER LXIX FOUNDING OF MICHIGAN'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM SAAC E. CRARY was born at Preston, Conn., October 2, 1804, and spent his boyhood on a farm. He graduated from Washington (Trinity) College at Hartford, studied law and after admission to the bar was associated with George D. Prentiss in editing the New England Weekly Review. He came to Michigan in 1831 and for two years boarded in the home of Rev. John Davis Pierce, a Congregational missionary who had settled in Marshall and was preaching and establishing churches over a wide district. The Rev. Mr. Pierce was born in Chesterfield, N. H., in 1797, but, left an orphan when 2 years old, he grew up on the farm of an uncle at Worcester, Mass. Up to the age of 20 his schooling had been limited to eight weeks of each year. At this time he was released from indenture and set about getting an education. He graduated with honor from Brown University at the age of 25. He taught school one year and after another year in Princeton Theological Seminary he was licensed to preach by the Congregational Association. His first charge was at Oneida, N. Y., but his church was disrupted by the antiMasonic agitation. The Home Missionary Society sent him to Michigan to settle at Marshall in July, 1831. When refugees from plague-stricken Detroit brought cholera to Marshall, in 1832, Mr. Pierce and Mr. Crary organized such relief as they could and cared for a number of victims who had been deserted by their panic-stricken relatives. At their conference on a log in the woods both men agreed that education ought to be made a distinct department of government and that such a department should be established in Michigan by constitutional enactment. In furtherance of education they agreed that the State should have a public officer who should have general charge of public education. 377 iA 378 THE STORY OF DETROIT No other state in the Union had any such advanced constitutional provision. When the first constitutional convention was called in 1835, Mr. Crary was a delegate and his unusual interest in education led to his appointment as chairman of the committee on public ISAAC E. CRARY REV. JOHN D. PIERCE FOUNDERS OF MICHIGAN'S SCHOOL SYSTEM education. Vested with this authority he drew up the constitutional enactment providing for a state department of education and the appointment of a state superintendent of public instruction. This constitution was adopted in October, 1835, and at the same election Stevens Thomson Mason was elected Governor of Michigan and Gen. Isaac E. Crary was elected Representative to Congress. The Governor and the Congressmanelect made the trip to Washington together and while en route Gen. Crary thoroughly aired his views regarding public education at public expense. FOUNDING OF MICHIGAN'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 379 Gov. Mason asked what man in Mr. Crary's estimation was best qualified to serve as superintendent of public instruction, and at Crary's suggestion the Governor appointed the Rev. Mr. Pierce to the office. When the appointment was later confirmed, the legislature asked Mr. Pierce to prepare a plan for the organization and the support of the public schools of Michigan. Mr. Pierce had five months for the framing of his scheme and he went east to counsel with educators of larger experience. He conferred with John A. Dix and Gov. Marcy of New York, with Gov. Edward Everett of Massachusetts, President Humphrey of Amherst College, President Day of Yale, and a number of other distinguished men of the time. He also attended the American Institute of Instruction at Worcester, Mass., a college of professional teachers at Cincinnati, and a convention of teachers held at Cleveland. Before this convention Mr. Pierce outlined his half-formed plans for Michigan. A prominent educator of Ohio remarked that "their state was 50 years behind Michigan for lack of such a beginning and such a man as Mr. Pierce." The report of the Rev. Mr. Pierce submitted to the Michigan legislature that winter was filled with innovations, but it was so admirably and reasonably stated that it was adopted without a dissenting vote. The next big question which confronted Mr. Pierce and the legislature of Michigan was the ways and means of putting the new educational scheme into operation and sustaining it. For many years it had been the custom of Congress to reserve Section 16 of each township to be devoted to educational purposes. As a rule as soon as Congress would make these grants the local land-grabbers would utilize their political pull to have the public school lands sold and the land speculators would bid them in for a song. Rarely was a price of more than $i an acre realized and sometimes they were sold for less. At that time any Michigan man who tried to influence Congress was under a handicap. Congress was inclined to be 380 THE STORY OF DETROIT peevish because Michigan had made so much trouble over the Toledo strip, but here Mr. Pierce had a strong advocate in his best friend, Representative Crary. Gen. Crary managed to get on good terms with the committee on admission of Michigan to statehood. He also managed to so alter the wording of the provision for the grant of school lands that instead of.having them ceded direct to each township the school lands of Michigan were conveyed to the State. This change in the wording of the stereotyped act for admitting states to the Union escaped the notice of the committee on admission and that altered provision made it possible to hold the school lands out of the market at the discretion of the State until they would rise in value. The same act set apart 72 sections of land for the establishment of a state university. This land was located in the southeastern corner of the Territory and the city of Toledo now occupies practically all of it. It was sold under act of the territorial authorities for a very low price instead of being prudently held for a rise in value. When it came to the provisions for founding a state university Mr. Pierce encountered difficulties in another quarter. Quite a number of colleges had been founded in the state, but their existence was more in theory and on paper than in fact. The promoters of these colleges were almost without exception strictly sectarian. These sectarian colleges wanted all the university lands apportioned among thqm. They argued that no state university had ever succeeded or could succeed. Mr. Pierce argued eloquently for a non-sectarian state university, and thus incurred the enmity of the sectarian promoters. They regarded his contention as particularly heinous because he was a Christian minister. But Mr. Pierce was an able debater. He won out against the sectarian combination by one vote in the House after the measure had carried in the Senate. But the sectarians still refused to surrender and Mr. Pierce began correspondence with noted educators, seeking support for his plan. He wrote an appeal to the leading citizens of. Michigan in which he propounded this question: "Shall we, FOUNDING OF MICHIGAN'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 381I at the commencement of our career as a state, grant to an indefinite number of private associations the right of conferring degrees, or, for the present, concentrate our energies in one university?" It was a long and rather bitter fight in which one man was arrayed against many, but Mr. Pierce again won his cause. That accomplished, he found another contention to settle for the common weal. This was a fight for free education. The wealthy men of the state had always opposed free schools. It was their opinion that education should not be free, for liberal education of the masses would lead to popular discontent and too many scholars would mean too few laborers who would be contented with their humble station. MIr. Pierce held that the property of the state was common property and that it should be used for the education of every child of the state on an equal footing and with fair advantage. This could only be accomplished by making every child free of tuition charges and rate bills. Again Mr. Pierce won out against strong opposition. Mr. Pierce was the first citizen of the United States to function as a state superintendent of public instruction. He accomplished great ends at a time when there was not a single teachers' association in the state, or a normal school or anything like an organic and developed system in school work. In later years he told the story of this struggle and paid full tribute to the benefits he received from the study of a work on the Prussian school system which he had found in a translation by Victor Cousin, and from which he adopted many features for the school system of Michigan. John Davis Pierce died at the residence of his daughter in Medford, Mass., April 5, 1882, in his 86th year. At his request his remains were brought to Michigan and interred in the cemetery at Marshall. His life was one of splendid achievements and the commonwealth to which he gave his best years and talents owes him high honors. Founding the first state university in a state which was as vet mostly a wilderness without roads was a task which called 382 THE STORY OF DETROIT for rare genius of adaptation, for it was the aim of the founders to make the University of Michigan available for the youth of all the state. The university was a development out of earlier provisions for educational establishment. An act of Congress in 1804 reserved for the founding of a seminary one township of land in the Detroit district. The treaty with the Indians at Fort Meigs in September, 1817, set apart three sections of land for the foundation of the College of Detroit. The title for this college was changed by Judge Woodward to the "Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania." In 1821, before the lands had been located, the University of Michigan was chartered by the territorial authorities. The name was changed at the suggestion of Gov. Wm. Woodbridge. Ann Arbor was, at the time of the founding, a very small village rated as a twodays' journe'y from Detroit. It was hardly accessible to the capital city, much less to the widely scattered villages and settlements of the interior. As there was no way of bringing the young men and women of the state to the university and no way of feeding and lodging them in Ann Arbor, the founders did the next best thing by trying to deliver the university to the students near their own homes. To do this eight branches were established as follows: Pontiac, 1837, in charge of Prof. G. P. Williams; Monroe, 1838, Rev. Samuel Center; Kalamazoo, 1838, Prof. G. B. Eastman; Detroit, 1838, Rev. C. W. Fitch; Niles, 1838, Prof. Joseph Whiting; White Pigeon, 1839, Rev. Samuel Newbury; Tecumseh, 1839, Prof. Andrew Harvie; Romeo, 1842, Prof. Rufus Nutting. It will be noted that there was a liberal utilization of educated Christian ministers to whom the additional salary was no doubt a blessing, for the early ministers drew but meager salaries from their little congregations. There was also a preparatory school at Ann Arbor, opened in 1840. For the express purpose of holding the university lands out of the market until they would rise in value, a price of $26 an acre was fixed for them when other Government land could be bought for $1.25. These lands had been selected with unusual care and their superior quality caused certain private interests .FOUNDING OF~ MICHIGAN'S EDUCATIONAL SysTEF-I 383 to scheme for their acquisition on the usual Government terms. Candidates for the legislature were promised the political and financial support of the land-grabbers if they would pledge themselves to vote for a sale of these lands at $1.25 an acre. As a result a bill authorizing such a sale was passed, but Gov. Mason, on being shown the purpose of the trick legislation, vetoed the bill. Isaac E. Crary died in Marshall in 1854, and as his name is hardly known to the present generation, a brief outline of his record of service to the State of Michigan will not be out of place. Mr. Crary was an able lawyer and legislator both in the first constitutional convention of 1835, and in the state legislature in which he was speaker of the house during one term. He was the first justice of the peace in Calhoun County. He platted the village of Bellevue. He was one of the first citizens of the state to make extensive plantings of improved fruit trees; a regent of the university and active in the promotion of many new enterprises. He was also a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1850 by which the constitution was thoroughly revised. While in Congress Mr. Crary, who -was an ardent Democrat, made some criticism of the military career of Gen. Win. Henry Harrison, the Whig candidate for the Presidency. This brought upon him a carefully prepared attack on the floor of the House by Thomas Corwin of Ohio, who was a remarkable orator, humorist and story-teller. When Corwin made a speech he always had a packed house and caught the crowd. His attack upon Mr. Crary, who was a very serious man, was a ridiculous burlesque of purely fanciful creation and without any shadow of truth, but it created one of the most sensational scenes ever witnessed in Congress by a burst of oratory. As Crary was commonly adjudged to have been annihilated by the storm of wit and sarcasm, he was thereafter alluded to as "the late Congressman Crary." It was a cruel punishment, but at that time most of the Ohio representatives in Congress lost no opportunity to hold Michigan and Michigan men up to ridicule because of their determined resistance to the transfer of the Toledo strip. CHAPTER LXX POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1840 FOR the first time in American history there was a spontaneous outburst of class feeling among the American people in the Presidential campaign Of 1840. In that campaign there was a popular demonstration against the political machine that had been built up by President Jackson. That machine had now decreed, at his suggestion, the election of Martin Van Buren of New York as his successor. There was also the feeling that the poor were arrayed against the rich, the pioneer settlers against the capitalists of the big cities, and in some measure the West against the East. Popular enthusiasm) however, was manifested all over the country and the manner of its origin was peculiar. The panic Of i1837, precipitated by reckless speculation, vicious banking and the destruction of the United States Bank by President Jackson, had created widespread discontent. Col. James Watson Webb, editor of the New Y~ork Courier and Enquirer, started a Presidential boom for Gen. Win. Henry Harrison. Col. Webb had been an officer in the United States Army from 18 18 to 1 827. The first post to which he was assigned with the rank of lieutenant was Detroit, where he spent the winter of i819 and took part in several theatrical performances given by the Army officers in a large brick storehouse owned by the Government, at the foot of Wayne Street, which the soldiers fitted up as a theater. His service in several western posts continued for several years and in that connection he became acquainted with Gen. Harrison, who had won the battkes of Tippecanoe and the Thames. Gen. Harrison, in 1840, had been in retirement for several years, but the people of the West in 1834 had begun promoting a western man for the Presidency and Col. Webb had suggested Gen. Harrison. In 1840 Webb promoted the nomination of 384 POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1840 385 Harrison again. Henry Clay was a popular idol, but he had made many enemies and the fact that he was a slave owner made him a dubious candidate in the North, where "freesoilers" were numerous. On Harrison's nomination the Baltimore Republican, a Democratic paper, made the following comment: "Give him a barrel of hard cider and settle a pension of $2,000 a year on him, and our word for it he will sit the remainder of his days in a log cabin content with his lot." The pioneering element of the West resented this as expressive of the contempt of Van Buren's supporters for the settler class and for people of small means. From that moment the slogan and general symbolism of the campaign was fixed. The log cabin became a glorified creation and the barrel of hard cider symbolic of the fount of justice for the poor man. Processions such as had never been seen paraded all over the country. The stock display in each was a huge float bearing a log cabin with a coon-skin nailed to the door and a barrel of hard cider on tap. In every city and village the Whigs erected a log cabin for political headquarters. In Detroit they erected one 40 by 50 feet at the southeast corner of Jefferson Avenue and Randolph Street. This building was fitted up with pioneer furniture contributed by many persons. Strings of dried apples, seed corn, dried pumpkin and sides of bacon hung suspended from the rafters. This huge "wigwam" was dedicated April 21 and a crowd of 1,00ooo persons gathered to feast on johnnycake, pork and beans, hominy, samp and milk, pumpkin pie and other simple pioneer fare which they washed down with liberal potations of hard cider and a stronger compound of hard cider and whisky, which was termed "stone-fence" because of the enduring intoxication that followed liberal use. One Detroit Whig meeting drew i5,ooo people from the interior of the state and as there were not enough hotels or beds in private houses to accommodate the visitors, many of them slept in doorways and on the sidewalks. Detroit at the time had 9,000 population. One group of visitors came from many miles away rolling along the road a huge ball 15 feet in diameter, while they constantly sang out: "Keep the ball 386 THE STORY OF DETROIT a-rolling." Never was there such a number of campaign songs and some of them became historic. Maine used to hold her elections in October and the election in Maine was watched eagerly. Hence the chorus following a Harrison victory in Maine: "Have you heard the news from Maine, How she went-hell bent, For Governor Kent? And Tippecanoe and Tyler, too, Sure with them we'll beat little Van." Col. Richard Mentor Johnson, of Kentucky, Democratic candidate for Vice-President, was supposed to be the man who had killed Tecumseh in a personal encounter at the Battle of the Thames. Col. Johnson was by no means sure of it, but a popular song went: Sound the bugles rumsey dumsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh. He was brought to Detroit to take part in a Democratic barbecue held on the Cass farm to show that the Democrats also had a war hero for a candidate. Col. Johnson was then Vice-President of the United States, seeking re-election. It was falsely asserted that Gen. Harrison had skulked at the Battle of the Thames and that Johnson was the only real hero of the engagement. Col. Johnson was loyal enough to discredit the campaign story. The election was a landslide as Harrison received 234 votes in the electoral count to 60 for Van Buiren. James G. Birney, candidate of the uncompromising antislavery party, polled 7,059 votes. Some of the very aged men of today may remember some of the campaign songs of 1840 so a few examples may be excused by the younger readers. One which was sung to the tune of "The Little Pig's Tail" began: What has caused this great commotion, motion, motion, Our country through? It is the ball a-rolling on, on, ChorusFor Tippecanoe and Tyler, too-Tippecanoe and Tyler too, And with them we will beat little Van, Van, Van, etc. POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1840 387 Another, sung to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne," went: Should good old cider be despised And ne'er regarded more? Should plain log cabins be despised Our fathers built of yore? For the true old style, my boys, For the true old style, Let's take a mug of cider, now, For the true old style. There were several other songs to the same tune, like: Can grateful freemen slight his claims Who bravely did defend Their lives and fortunes at the Thames, The farmer of North Bend. Tunes that are still used and many that are now long forgotten were sung: "The Marseillaise," "Not a Drum Was Heard," "Bonnets o' Blue," "The Old Oaken Bucket," "Sparkling and Bright," "Buy a Broom," "Pizen Sarpient," "There's Nae Luck About the House," "Bonaparte's Return from Russia," "You Remember It, Don't You?" "Yankee Doodle," "Rosin the Bow," "Star Spangled Banner," "Speed the Plough," "In the Bay of Biscay O," "Hail Columbia," "All the Blue Bonnets," "Hail to the Chief," "Gaily the Troubadour," "Gilderoy," "The Constitution and the Guerriere," "The Battle of the Nile," "Hunters of Kentucky," "Highland Laddie," "The Campbells Are Coming," "Hey, Come Along Josey," "Young Lochinvar," "Malbrouk," "I Want To Be a Nun," "Oh, Lonely Is the Forest Shade," "Ye Mariners of England," "Ye Sons of Columbia," "Scots Wha Hae Wi' Wallace Bled," "John Anderson My Jo John," "Pennsylvania Quickstep," "Who'll Be King but Charlie?" "Low Down in Old Virginny, Long Time Ago," "Life Let Us Cherish," "Jefferson and Liberty," "New Durham," and "A Life on the Ocean Wave." One is immediately struck with the number of Scotch songs which had become popular all over the United States. The Irish were represented with "Sprig o' Shillelah and Shamrock 388 THE STORY OF DETROIT So Green." Many of these airs are long forgotten, while others seem destined to be sung forever. The first political subdivision of the City of Detroit into wards was made under the act of March 27, I839. These were the boundaries: First ward: Shelby Street, Michigan Avenue, the line of the Forsyth farm (between Fifth and Sixth streets), and the river. Second ward: Randolph, Monroe and Michigan avenues, Shelby Street, and the river. Third ward: Randolph, St. Antoine, Croghan (now Monroe), and the river. Fourth ward: St. Antoine, Gratiot, the Witherell farm (Dequindre Street), and the river. The old settlers pronounced Dequindre, "De-candre." Nine years later the eastern boundary was extended to Rivard Street and that addition was styled the seventh ward. The fifth ward included the territory between Woodward Avenue and the Jones farm (Fifth Street), and the northern city limits. The sixth ward was bounded by Woodward Avenue, Monroe Avenue to St. Antoine Street and thence by Gratiot Avenue to Rivard Street and north to the three-mile limits of all the old ribbon farms. For some reason the eastern limits was retracted in 1842 or '43 so as to exclude,the Witherell farm but in I848 the boundary was extended to Rivard Street, creating the seventh ward. An election notice of the early 1840's specified the following voting places for the various wards: First ward, the brick store of Oliver Newberry, corner of Jefferson and Cass Street; second ward, City Hall, east side of Military Square (the Campus Martius); third ward, east wing of American House; fourth ward, house of Mrs. Kelsey, north side of Jefferson between Hastings and Rivard; fifth ward, the shop of James W. Sutton, northeast corner State and Griswold streets; sixth ward, National Theater, southeast corner Gratiot and Farrar (Library Avenue). This last building was formerly the first Methodist church erected in Detroit. The call for the election of 1843 designated six polling places. Apparently only five wards held an election as a special election was called for the sixth ward, March 15, 1843, which was held at the Railroad Hotel, March POLITICAL CAMPAIGN OF 1840 389 25, at which James Stewart was elected alderman. Several special elections were held that year to fill vacancies caused by resignations. One alderman was forced to resign on account of corrupt practice. In 1839 the Michigan Central ran its first train to Ann Arbor. A celebration was held at the new terminus which was attended by the Brady Guards and about 8oo citizens of Detroit on October 17. The first Firemen's Hall was erected that year at the northeast corner of Lamed and Bates streets at a cost of $3,300. Up to 1839 all letters written in Detroit were so folded as to form their own envelope and sealed with hot wax, but during that year manufactured envelopes came into use. Steamboat accidents began to occur on the lakes. On September I, 1839, the steamboat Great Western was partially burned at Detroit and on August 4, 1840, the boiler of the Erie exploded as she was passing Amherstburg, killing one person and badly scalding five. Congress made its first appropriation for a survey of the Great Lakes in 1841. On April 4 President Harrison died of ptomaine poisoning, after being in office only one month, and Vice-President Tyler succeeded him. Impressive funeral services were held in the Presbyterian Church, corner of Woodward and Lamed, at which Judge Ross Wilkins delivered a eulogy. Political feeling was so intense that some excitable Whigs suspected that the President had been deliberately poisoned by the Democrats. Detroit was without a military fortification for several years after the razing of old Fort Shelby. The flagstaff of the old fort on which Gen. Hull raised the flag of surrender in 1812 was never used again. The firemen of Detroit wanted to utilize it for making a ladder, but on April 19, 1818, it was blown down. In 1873 when the excavation was being made for John Owen's house on Fort Street the workmen came upon the stump of the old flagstaff. It was preserved and marked with a brass plate and inscription and is now a possession of the Public Library. In 1830 the U. S. Government established military barracks virC1 4L. ----- ---- HOUSE ON EAST FORT STREET (ABOVE), AND AT JEFFERSON AND RUSSELL STREET (BELOW), WHERE GEN. U. S. GRANT LIVED 390 POLITICAL. CAMPAIGN OF 1840 391 for its troops in Detroit by lease and purchase of a plat of ground on the Mullett farm. This plat was on the south side of Gratiot Avenue, centering about Russell Street. Buildings were erected and the post was used for about 25 years. Among the noted commandants who had charge of the barracks were Gen. Hugh Brady in 1841 and Lieut. Ulysses S. Grant in i851. The future commander of the United States Army and President of the United States did not look like a man of destiny while in Detroit. He had served in the Mexican War, earned promotion as lieutenant by, bravery at the Battle of Moliho del Rey and was breveted captain after Chapultepec. On August 22, 1848, he married Julia T. Dent. On his first arrival in Detroit he lived at the National Hotel, on the site of the present First National Bank Building. Later he rented a frame cottage at 253 Fort Street East, but after living there a short time the Grants combined with Capt. Gore and wife in renting the Washington Alston Bacon house on the northeast corner of Jefferson Avenue and Russell Street. On a pane of glass in one of the bedrooms Mr. Bacon discovered the inscription: "Lieut. U. S. Grant." After Grant had become a national hero this inscription was no longer regarded as a disfigurement and when the house was torn down in 1873 Mr. Bacon carefully preserved that pane of glass. The Grants used to attend weekly balls in the old Michigan Exchange Hotel at the southwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and Shelby Street. The captain did not dance, but stood around looking bored while other officers led Mrs. Grant through the cotillion. He was taciturn, unemotional and sometimes appeared a dull man. He hated the clerical part of his work, but when it came to drill, discipline and other strictly military duties he was remarkably efficient. In 1841 the Government appropriated 50o,ooo for the erection of a fort and the site selected was in Springwells township, on the site of the camp ground used by soldiers who were mustered for the Black Hawk War in 1832. A plat of 66 acres was purchased and the fort, begun in 1843, was completed, with the usual deliberation of Government works, in 1851 at a cost of 392 THE STORY OF DETROIT $I50,000. In 1833 a Government arsenal was built at Dearborn. The new fort was named Fort Wayne in memory of Gen. Anthony Wayne and it is still in use, but its once formidable battery was dismantled shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. There is reason for mutual congratulations between the Canadian and United States governments that along their border line of about 4,000 miles there is not a fortification equipped for military defense nor an armed vessel for any other purpose than police duty. CHAPTER LXXI PURCHASE OF THE POOR FARM N 1839 it became apparent to citizens of Wayne County that their provisions for the care of the poor were inadequate. The poor house and grounds purchased from the Leib farm at Gratiot and Mt. Elliott avenues consisted of a ramshackle building on a plat of 25 acres. More land was needed and a larger building. Land close to the city was becoming expensive so the county purchased 16o acres in Nankin township on the Chicago Road-the property now a part of the tract at Eloise-16 miles from Detroit. This was known as the Samuel Torbert farm. The owner had established on it a sort of road house known as the "Black Horse Tavern." Torbert had been ruined by wild cat money and he sold his farm for $8oo. An adjoining farm of 120 acres was also purchased for $8oo. The Black Horse Tavern consisted of two separate log buildings which had been joined by extending the roof of each. For years it had been one of the stopping places for travelers on their two-day journey from Detroit to Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. It had been the scene of many a carousal. With whisky selling at three cents a glass intemperance was a rule rather than an exception. The poor charges were removed from the old farm to the new in April, 1839, and for six years nothing notable was done for their comfort. In 1845 a new building was erected at a cost of $4,51 5. This was a three-story brick building measuring 78 by 37 feet on the ground. It was heated by rude box stoves, lighted by oil lamps and tallow candles and divided into rooms by thin partitions. The danger of destruction by fire or from collapse of its weak walls was always imminent, but a special Providence seemed to protect its inmates, until the old building was torn down in 1895. The old property on Gratiot Avenue was sold for $1,124. 393 394 THE STORY OFDETROIT 394 THE STORY OF DETROIT The county insane asylum of today developed from a small frame building erected on the poor farm in 1841 and which was known as the "Crazy House." It was crazy enough in its construction, for it was divided into box stalls in which the more violent inmates were chained to staples in the wall and bedded down with straw, after the manner of horses and cattle. They were fed through grated windows like wild beasts, and the place was filthy beyond description. As a measure of economy, the building also was utilized as a shelter for the hogs BLACK HORSE TAVERN, I835 BEGINNING OF ELOISE of the county farm. For this purpose it was erected on stilts and hogs slept beneath the ground floor and sought shelter there in bad weather. The squealing of the hogs and the wild cries of the maniacs in their stalls mingled in an outcry for humanity that fell on deaf ears for many years. Civilization is a relative and variable thing. One must consult certain indices or barometers to determine whether its status is high or low. One index is the manner in which children are protected from corrupting influences, the children of the poor as well as the children of the more fortunate. Another index is the provision which is made for the care of the sick, the poor, the physically unfit, the mentally incompetent and the insane. PURCHA SE OF THE POOR FARM39 395 The most civilized races of ancient times looked after all these things according to their light and the Roman Empire adopted many of their methods, but when Rome fell before the barbarian invasion, such institutions as asylums went out of existence altogether for a long time, and when they were afterward revived the asylums for the insane were institutions intended more for the protection of the public than for humane treatment of the insane. S. M. Keenan, who has been for 30 years an attache of the Wayne County institution at Eloise, has written an intensely interesting brochure on the history of the treatment of the insane which is an admirable condensation of the best authorities on the subject. Mr. Keenan says: " To the Quakers America owes its first insane asylum, which was built in Philadelphia in 1752. The first state asylum was built in Williamsburg, Va., in 1773. The city of New York erected one in 1791 and Baltimore, Md., in 17_97. But in most of the state asylums little thought was given to the welfare or comfort of the inmates, the main idea being to shut them away from the sight of men and keep them where they could harm no one but themselves." It was the life work of Dorothea Lynde Dix, a Massachusetts philanthropist, which brought about a series of radical reforms in the care of county house prison and asylum inmates. She began her labors by making personal visits and careful investigations of many institutions all over the country. On September 28, 1 86o, she visited the Wayne County House and found the conditions there deplorable. Twelve insane patients were confined in small, rude cells without any sanitary conveniences, ventilation or comfort. The accumulated filth caused such a nauseating stench that the stomachs of several persons who accompanied her revolted as they fled hastily to the open air. Rev. Dr. George Duffield, who was one of the party, said afterward: "There is no horse-stall, scarcely a hog-pen, in this city which is not a luxurious parlor in comparison with the cells in which these poor creatures are confined." Miss Dix said that while her visitations at such institutions'had been many, the Wayne County institution was the worst she had yet seen. 396 THE STORY OF DETROIT Even after that publicity, nothing material was done for a period of eight years despite the pleading of the medical superintendent and members of the staff of the institution. It was a visit by a mass delegation of Detroit physicians and their scathing report which started the beginning of'reforms in 1868, and once started, progress in sanitation, decency and humanity never stopped. As a result the institutions at Eloise compare favorably with the best in the country and the work of betterment is still in progress. Treatment of the insane has been divided into three stages, the barbaric, the humane and the remedial. The first existed from early times to the middle of the Nineteenth Century. Humane treatment has advanced steadily for more than so years, and the remedial is a recent development which is due to the promotion of scientific medicine, curative and preventive, which attempts to trace all human ailments to their cause and source. Insanity has always been a baffling mystery so it is not strange that in early times it was attributed to possession of the individual by one or more demons. Modern science is not content to accept theories or suppositions. It keeps at work patiently, often blindly and under the most discouraging conditions, but ultimately it uncovers the trail and begins to follow it with the same persistence as that which led to the discovery. CHAPTER LXXII PRESIDENT VAN BUREN IN DETROIT EX-PRESIDENT MARTIN VAN BUREN made a trip to Lake Superior in the summer of 1842 and on July 8 arrived in Detroit on his return trip. The steamer Fairport, with a party of citizens on board, went up Lake St. Clair to meet the Great Western, on which Mr. Van Buren was a passenger. The two boats were lashed together and Maj. Jonathan Kearsley, chairman of the welcoming committee, delivered his address on the boat. Dr. Douglass Houghton, who was then Mayor of Detroit, and Gov. John S. Barry met the steamers at the dock, where a great procession was waiting to escort the former President to the American House on the south side of Jefferson Avenue, just east of Randolph Street. SA great crowd gathered in the street and the visitor was led out upon the balcony where all could see him and at the same time listen to another address of welcome by Aid. Ten Eyck. By this time the visitor had his fill of eloquence so he was conducted to the dining room, where many curious citizens peered through the door in the hotel, after which he was shown the town. In the evening another reception was tendered by Dr. Houghton at the residence of Dr. Zina Pitcher. Evidently Mr. Van Buren wanted to make a good impression to offset the savage criticisms that had been made against his administration. On Sunday morning he attended service in the Methodist Church at Woodward Avenue and Congress Street and in the afternoon visited the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches. Fate still pursued him, with another reception held in the American House in the evening. On Monday morning he made a visit to Ann Arbor and returned to Detroit in the afternoon believing his troubles were over with reception committees, but he was met by a large delegation of German citizens, to whom the prefix "Van" 397 398 THE STORY" OF DETROIT seemed as good as "Von," and a fourth address was delivered by John B. Schick on behalf of the German residents of Detroit. At 8 p. m. he boarded the steamer Fairport for Cleveland and the last utterance of Detroit in his honor was a parting salute of 26 guns. Mr. Van Buren never returned to Detroit. Stevens T. Mason, first Governor of Michigan, died in New York, January 4, 1843. Funeral services were held in his honor in St. Paul's Church, on the east side of Woodward Avenue between Congress and Larned streets. The military bodies of the city turned out, and all the civil officers. Although he died at the age of 31 years, Gov. Mason had a remarkable career. He was a handsome man with a winning personality. He could STEVENS T. MASON MONUMENT, CAPITOL PARK A FEW FEET SOUTH OF THIS SPOT ANANIAS MCMILLAN WAS SHOT AND SCALPED BY INDIANS SEPTEMBER 15, 1814 PRESIDENT VAN BUREN IN DETROIT 399 deliver an able address and his letters and papers show unusual ability. Although he made serious blunders as Governor because of his youth and lack of experience, he was highly esteemed by the citizens in general and was the most popular man in Detroit in his heyday. On June 4, 1905, the remains of Gov. Mason were brought from New York to Detroit, accompanied by his sister, Emily Mason, then 92 years of age; his daughter, Mrs. Dorothy Mason Wright; his grandson, E. H. Wright, and his two brothers, and also several grandnephews and great-grandchildren. Ceremonies of an impressive nature were held in the Light-Guard Armory. Rev. David M. Cooper, who had known Gov. Mason during his sojourn in Detroit 70 years before, conducted the exercises. Gov. Fred M. Warner, Mayor George P. Codd and other public officials were in attendance. From the armory a procession proceeded with the remains to Capitol Square, the site of the old State Capitol, where the interment took place. Later the fine bronze monument, representing the Governor as he appeared while in Michigan, was erected over the grave. In 1841 the people of Detroit numbered about II,ooo and there was some discussion regarding police protection. This would involve considerable increase of taxation, so a group of men organized a volunteer night watch. Previous to that time there had been several similar organizations, but they had been sporadic and short-lived. The Blackburn riot in 1833 was followed by three months of voluntary night watch service. Again during the Patriot War in 1838 a watch had been established. In 1843 a series of robberies caused another revival of the practice, but the service was always performed in a careless and irresponsible fashion. It was not until 1854 that definite steps were taken for the maintenance of a paid police service. In the early days of the old town strict fire regulations were enacted, but the laws were not well respected. For many years it was the practice of the city to buy fire engines, hose and other equipment and to depend upon volunteer firemen for the 400 THE STORY OF DETROIT public protection. In the lack of a fire alarm service the common council in 1836 posted a standing order offering $S reward for the person giving the first alarm of a fire or ringing the bell, The fire alarms were usually sounded from the bell in the steeple of the Presbyterian Church at the northeast corner of Woodward Avenue and Lamned Street. For this purpose the bell rope was allowed to dangle down into the open porch direcdly under the spire. The sexton of the church kept a little candy shop directly across Woodward Avenue, but when he was not on duty, any person discovering a fire or a great volume of smoke would shout "Fire! Fire!" and running to the church entrance he would ring the bell with all his might. Later a watch was established to look out over the city from the church belfry at night, and presently a bell code was established so that citizens, aroused from their beds at night, could tell by the strokes of the bell the direction of the fire. The old Fireman's Hall at Lamned and Bates streets was the first firemen's headquarters, but others were established from time to time. The firemen were all volunteers from the young men of the city. They enlisted the most aristocratic young men of the town as well as some of the best fighting men. They were the idols of the town and the rivalry between the companies was very keen. As the streets were generally in bad condition the firemen preferred to run with their apparatus, all pulled by men and hand-ropes, along the sidewalks. This damaged the walks and often destroyed the picket fences, but when "the boys" were out for a fire they were almost beyond control. No complaints against them had much standing in a court of law. The firemen dressed in picturesque fashion, wearing stiff leather helmets like those worn today, red flanriel shirts, blue breeches stuffed inside the legs of tall boots and girded about the waist by an ornamental belt. In 1837 there were three active fire companies and one hose company. As the city grew, others were added. These companies raced to the fires with frantic speed and the company which first got a stream of water going raised a loud PRESIDENT VAN BUREN IN DETROIT 401 cheer. Sometimes they purposely obstructed one another, or when they -would meet at a corner and their apparatus became entangled, there would be a brisk fight. In the summer time the firemen of different cities would travel long distances to hold tournaments and compete in skill and speed in the handling of their apparatus. But Detroit was not very liberal in furnishing apparatus and the supply of hose was often perilously short. On New Year's Day of 1842 the entire block bounded by Jefferson and Woodward avenues and Woodbridge and Griswold streets was ravaged by fire and only a few of the buildings were saved. CHAPTER LXXIII DISCOVERY OF IRON ORE DEPOSITS DURING the decade of the 1840's the people of Michigan began to realize the mineral wealth of their Upper Peninsula. This peninsula, by the way, is larger in area than any of the following states: Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, or Rhode Island. Its area is 16,237 square miles and its coast line is longer than that of any state save Florida. Some of the earliest explorers discovered outcroppings of copper and later it was found that prehistoric tribesmen had excavated pits and mined copper in a crude way centuries before the white man set foot on American soil. Early attempts at mining undertaken with small capital very commonly failed for several reasons. It required large capital to sink deep shafts and install the necessary machinery for raising the copper to the surface and converting it into merchantable ingots. Previous to the building of the Governmerit locks at the rapids of the St. Mary's River, all freight between Lakes Huron and Superior had to be transferred from vessel to vessel by means of wagons hauled by horses. This made the cost of handling excessive. This copper of the Upper Peninsula was what is termed native or free copper, which is mostly the natural metal occurring in flakes, nuggets of all sizes, and sometimes in huge masses. The smaller particles are mingled with rock from which it is commonly separated by means of stamp mills, which hammer the rock to powder. The pulverized mass is then heated to the melting point of copper and the pure copper is poured into massive bars or ingots. It was the geological survey first begun under direction of Dr. Douglass Houghton, state geologist, which began to disclose the vast wealth of both copper and iron in the Upper Peninsula. The Indians had often asserted that there were 402 DISCOVERY OF IRON ORE DEPOSITS 403 whole mountains of iron in the peninsula, but the white men needed to be shown before they would believe. In the summer of 1844 William A. Burt, of Detroit, was engaged with Dr. Houghton* in surveying boundaries for Marquette County. Nine years before, while surveying in Wisconsin, Mr. Burt had experienced difficulties in the use of the magnetic compass. The compass needle would not point to the true north, but varied greatly according to its location. The magnetic compass is always influenced by any mass of iron in its vicinity. Also the magnetic pole does not always lie in the same direction as the North Pole and allowance must be made for its shifting variations. Mr. Burt experimented with the construction of a compass which would take its direction from the sun and in the course of time evolved a really wonderful instrument which is known to the world as "Burt's solar compass," now a standard instrument all over the world. In connection with the solar compass which Mr. Burt was using in the Marquette district there was also a magnetic compass employed for the sake of comparison. Mr. Burt discovered one day that while the solar instrument was adjusted to true north the magnetic compass needle pointed 87 degrees away from true north, or almost at a right angle. Mr. Burt shouted to his assistants: "Boys, the compass acts crazy. There is some powerful attraction near here. Look around and see if you can find iron ore." The men came and looked at the compass and then scattered about in the direction toward which the needle was pointing. They soon discovered bits of iron ore. This incident occurred about one mile from Teal Lake. News of the discovery was brought to Detroit and from here it was scattered over the state. As a result there was rather intensive exploration by private investigators in the Upper Peninsula. Two years later the Jackson Mining Company started operations on Carp River, three miles from Negaunee. The Marquette Iron Company was second in the field and in a few years many other small forges were set up for the production of iron. 404 THE STORY OF DETROIT When mining operations began in the Upper Peninsula it was on a Government royalty basis. The Government owned the lands and a certain percentage of the value of ore mined was paid to the Government for the privilege of mining. When white explorers first visited Northern Michigan there was a large block of mass copper lying in the bed of the Ontonagon River which had been held in veneration as a sacred object by many generations of Indians. For a time the Indians would not allow it to be handled, but in 1776 Alexander Henry, who had conducted the opening of a shaft for a copper mine in 1760, obtained permission to cut off a piece of the copper, and with an ax he chiseled away a piece weighing ioo pounds. In 1843 J. Paull bought the block of copper from the Indians and with their assistance raised it on skids and rollers and moved it to the mouth of the river, where it was hoisted on board a schooner and taken to Sault Ste. Marie. There the copper was seized by United States authorities and carried to Washington. For a time it was on exhibition in the Smithsonian Institution. Then it was removed to the basement and became buried under other contributions until it was almost forgotten, but it was afterward given a more conspicuous place. The block of copper was 4 feet 6 inches long, 4 feet wide and 17 inches thick. Much larger masses were afterward found in some of the mines. Soon after the Michigan Central Railroad terminal had been established at the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Griswold Street, a spur track was run into Woodward Avenue and down the middle of the avenue to the river for the purpose of transferring cargoes between the railway and the steamboats. The grade, however, was so steep that the experiment was not a success. For a time there was under consideration a proposal for making a cut through the street to moderate the grade. The plan was to have the railway tracks I5 feet below the surface at the crossing of Jefferson Avenue and to bridge the street over the railway cut. Property owners objected to this disfigurement of their street and in 1844 the track was removed and lower Woodward Avenue escaped from degeneration into a railway yard. DISCOVERY OF IRON ORE DEPOSITS 405 Soon after railway operation was established came the beginning of railway express service instituted by private concerns. George E. Pomeroy organized an express company at Albany, N. Y., in 1841. Charles H. Mifler began an express service in Detroit in 1842, but presently the Pomeroy Company began branching out over land and water transportation and in February, 1844, it opened an office in Detroit in connection with C. Morse's book store, on the north side of Jefferson Avenue, just west of Bates Street. In 1845 the name was changed to Wells Company's Express and the office was moved to the basement of the Farmers & Mechanics Bank, on the south side of Jefferson Avenue between Griswold and Shelby streets. In I86o it was reorganized under the title American Express Company. Many rival institutions sprang up, but this company still survives. The year 1844 saw the first feeble beginnings of park development in Detroit. Judge Woodward's unique plan of the city gave us our broad main avenues and a number of open spaces for public parks. The Campus Martius in the civic center, Grand Circus Park, Library Park, Capitol Park and.several others were contemplated in that plan. But for many years they stood neglected. The county jail had been erected on Library Park and the first Capitol of Michigan on Capitol Park. Grand Circus Park was a low, marshy place. On the west side of Woodward Avenue it was mostly a weedy pond where wild ducks often fed. On the east side it was marked by several bog holes. The soil of Detroit in general was rather wet and marshy. Numerous springs were scattered over it and these fed several creeks of considerable size. Two branches of May's Creek had their sources in Grand Circus Park. The Savoyard River was the natural outlet for a series of springs and bogs on the Brush farm, and where Cass Park now lies, high and dry, was anotherlarge slough which furnished a tributary for May's Creek, which flowed down the line of Fifth Street, receiving water from springs and bog holes in the vicinity of High and Orchard streets. These last mentioned bogs were donated to the city for park purposes by the land owners, Crane & Wesson, and they are marked today by the location of Elton and Crawford Parks, 406 THE STORY OFDETROIT which are very small ovals in Fifth Street. Gen. Cass found that people were using his slough for a general dump. Dead horses, dogs, and all manner qf rubbish such as people farther downtown used to dump into the river, were left there to become a nuisance. He deeded five acres to the city for park purposes in order to enlist the authorities in the suppression of the nuisance. People who had homes in the neighborhood of Grand Circus Park began to tire of the chorus of basso profundo bull frogs, which did not soothe their slumbers, and in 1844 H. H. Leroy, who had an attractive home where the David Whitney Building now stands, enlisted his neighbors in a common cause for park improvement. As a result the ponds and bogs were filled with earth and the surface was raised from one to four feet. Even then the soil was not dry, so in 1846 a lot at the southwest corner of Adams Avenue and Clifford Street and another lot on the west side of Bagley Avenue near Clifford Street were sold for $15o and $125 respectively to raise money for further park improvement. At that time Bagley Avenue was named Macomb Avenue in honor of Gen. Alexander Macomb. Another street on the east side had also been named Macomb Street. Manyyears later when Gov. Bagley built his home on the present site of the Statler Hotel, the name of Macomb was changed to Bagley Avenue. In the spring of 1853 $1,5o00 more was expended on Grand Circus. Trees were planted and a fence was built around it to prevent mutilation of the planted trees. This fence was maintained for several years and it was not entirely removed until after the close of the Civil War. CHAPTER LXXIV DETROIT'S PASSION FOR FUNERALS IN the summer of 1844 a tragic steamboat explosion occurred at the Windsor dock when the boiler of the General Vance, owned by Samuel Woodworth, son of Uncle Ben, proprietor of the Steamboat Hotel, exploded. Sam Woodworth was one of the best known young men of the city. For years he had been his father's assistant in the management of the hotel and of the several stage lines which his father ran to Mt. Clemens, Pontiac, Monroe and Ypsilanti. These old-fashioned stages were gorgeously painted and made as comfortable as possible. Baggage of passengers was carried at the rear in a receptacle called the "boot." The driver and one or two favored passengers sat on a high seat in front. The others were stowed away inside and when the stage would strike a bit of corduroy or other bad road they would be shaken up like dice in a box. Instead of being equipped with steel springs they were supported on thoroughbraces or slings made of several strips of leather. Sam Woodworth always dressed in the extreme fashion of the period. He was always in the street to welcome passengers arriving by stage or steamboat and he sped the parting guests as cheerily as he received them. When the ferry business became profitable he gave much attention to that and presently he ventured as owner of a small steamboat called the Spy and another called the General Vance. This was the pride of his heart and he loved to take the wheel and make a spectacular landing at the wharf. On June 25, 1844, after landing at Windsor he stood on the upper deck immediately above the boiler. By the rail a few feet away stood Major Truax. Suddenly the boiler exploded with a noise like a peal of thunder and the horrified bystanders on the dock saw the body of Sam Woodworth sailing 50o feet in the air. Both men were instantly killed and the whole town turned out to attend their funerals. 407 408 THE STORY OF DETROIT Funeral attendance was a sort of popular craze in those days. When local celebrities or popular citizens died, the church bells were tolled and the sexton would strike the number of years of the deceased. As most people knew who the sick and feeble citizens were, the identity of the deceased was commonly known before it could be announced in the newspapers. But local deaths were insufficient to satisfy the public craving for funeral sermons, so when a President, ex-President, Vice-President or statesman of national reputation died, Detroit usually held a formal funeral and one of the "silver-tongued" orators of the city would deliver a eulogy. This was done at the deaths of Presidents Harrison, Jackson, Taylor and several others. Daniel Webster, Henry Clay and many men of less celebrity were so honored. The funeral of President Jackson was held in Detroit, July 2, 1845. In I845 a postal rate of five cents was established. Congress did not authorize the issue of postage stamps until March 3, 1847. The postage stamp, by the way, was the invention of Rowland Hill, who established the system of the postoffice in England. Up to 1847 letters mailed in Detroit bore no postage stamps. When a letter was presented at the postoffice the postmaster imprinted on the envelope a circular stamp much like those used today only about twice as large. This stamp showed the name of the postoffice where the letter was mailed, the date of mailing and whether the postage was unpaid or prepaid. If it was unpaid the receiver of the letter paid the postage, and if the letter proved to be a dun he usually regretted his investment of five cents for a moment of unhappiness and humiliation. Previous to 1845 postal rates varied according to the distance a letter was carried. If the distance was within 30 miles the postage was six cents. For more than 400 miles the rate was 25 cents. The new rate of 1845 charged five cents for distances up to 300 miles and o10 cents for greater distances. In 1851 the rate was reduced to three cents for each half-ounce or fraction thereof for distances up to 300 miles and six cents for each half-ounce for greater distances. Along main traveled roads the stages carried the mails in strong leather bags. Postoffices along the byways received the mail from carriers on horseback. DETROIT'S PASSION FOR FUNERALS 409 For many years the office of postmaster was commonly bestowed upon some citizen whose place of business was centrally located. The postoffice was generally in a store. James Abbott was postmaster in Detroit in 18o6 and his place of business was on the southwest corner of Woodward Avenue and Woodbridge Street. In 1831 it was on the south side of Jefferson Avenue, just west of Wayne Street. Then it shifted to the northeast corner of Jefferson and Shelby. In 1843 it was kept in the basement on the southwest corner of Jefferson and Griswold. In 1849 it was on the ground floor under the Mariner's Church, at Woodward and Woodbridge. The first Government postoffice and custom house was built at the northwest corner of Griswold and Larned streets and was opened for business January 30, i86o. Detroit was therefore nearly 159 years old before it had this recognition from the Government. The Scotch Presbyterian Church on Bates Street, near police headquarters, was first used in 1844 and in that same year the First Congregational Society was organized in the old City Hall on Cadillac Square. It built its first church at Jefferson Avenue and Beaubien Street in 1846 and a few years later built at Fort and Wayne streets. Dr. Douglass Houghton was drowned near Eagle River in Lake Superior in October, 1845. His body was not recovered until the following spring and was brought to Detroit May 14, 1846. His death cast a gloom over the city and state, for "the little doctor" was generally recognized as one of the brainiest and most useful citizens of the commonwealth. His death put an end to the geological survey for several years and until many years later, when Prof. Winchell succeeded to the office of state geologist, that office remained vacant. Douglass Houghton was a remarkable man in many ways. He was a scholar, a scientist of national reputation, and he had a remarkable imagination which could picture the future of Michigan very clearly. In addition to these things he was a man of extraordinary personal magnetism and charm. He was diminutive in size, standing only five feet four inches in his boots. His strength was puny and his health always delicate, but his indomitable will and energy drove him on and made him a 410 THE STORY OF DETROIT 410 THE STORY OF DETROIT leader among men. Surveying and exploring in the rigorous climate of the Upper Peninsula wore him down. He became partially crippled with rheumatism in consequence of exposure, but nothing could stop him until he went down in the icy waters of Lake Superior. His coming to Detroit was accidental and also providential, for he was the man who was needed to help start Michigan on the way to high rank among states. He was born September 21, 1809, and was so frail an infant that his parents, in Fredonia, N. Y., had hard work to keep him alive. He was unusually bright, but liked the study of nature better than books and was always in the woods and fields and on the water. He was educated at the Rensselaer Scientific School at Troy, N. Y., where he received his diploma in 1828, and was retained as a teacher. DR. DOUGLASS HOUGHTON WM. A. BURT EBER B. \ARD DISCOVERERS OF MICHIGAN'S RESOURCES DETROIT'S PASSION FOR FUNERALS 4 411 In 1830 the people of Detroit felt the need of more culture and they delegated Lucius Lyon, their delegate in Congress, to find a man who would deliver a series of lectures on natural science in Detroit. Mr. Lyon applied to Prof. Eaton, at the Troy polytechnic school, who was one of the leading men of science. "We've got the very man for you," Prof. Eaton said. He opened the door of the laboratory and shouted: " Douglass,come out. Here's a job to your liking." Through the door came a little fellow only 21 years of age and looking much younger. His first appearance staggered Mr. Lyon, who thought for a moment that Prof. Eaton must be joking. But he was assured that Douglass Houghton had every qualification and that he would be able to show the people of Detroit things in the heavens and the earth that they had never dreamed of in their philosophy. In addition to his broad scientific knowledge he had been licensed to practice medicine. That young man has since been liberally honored by the people of Michigan, who have named a township, a county, a lake, a city, a school of mines, and a school in Detroit to perpetuate his name. Two years after his arrival in Detroit he was working day and night caring for victims of the cholera. He was one of the founders of the Young Men's Society and the foremost men of the city and state were proud to call him friend. At first some of the older residents called him " bub," but they soon got over that..On October 13, 1845, Dr. Houghton was about 20 miles from Eagle River and set out in a sailboat with five men to make the journey. A heavy gale came up. The men wanted to run for shelter, but Dr. Houghton held the tiller and steered his course. At his feet crouched his black and white spaniel dog, always his inseparable companion. A heavy fall of snow began shutting off the view of the shore and Dr. Houghton set the men to rowing to increase their speed..Suddenly they ran into a heavy surf breaking over a sunken reef. The sailboat shot high in the air, spilling the men out, and then turned over backward. Two of the men were thrown upon 412 THE STORY OF DETROIT a ledge of rock, to which they were able to cling, but Dr. Houghton and the other three were lost. That storm continued until the snow lay three feet deep. Dr. Houghton's remains were interred in Elmwood Cemetery and Detroit gave him a monster funeral. On the University grounds at Ann Arbor stands a square monument of limestone bearing four tablets and surmounted by a broken column. The inscription reads: "To the memory of Douglass Houghton, M.D., professor of chemistry, mineralogy and geology in this university and geological surveyor general in this state. In science learned, in action prompt, while boldly engaged in public duty, by the overturning of a boat in Lake Superior, he perished. Sinking, never, alas! to be seen again until the sea give up its dead. October 13, 1845, aged 36. The trustees of the University of Michigan this stone have taken care to place." This monument has been moved several times. It is now in the rear of the library building. A full-length portrait showing Dr. Houghton in his field dress and with his dog, against a background of the pictured rocks of Lake Superior, was painted by Alvah Bradish, a well known Detroit artist. It adorns the wall of the Capitol at Lansing. Mr. Bradish also published a memoir of his scientist friend. CHAPTER LXXV SALE OF THE MICHIGAN RAILWAYS MICHIGAN'S great scheme for the construction of state-owned railways collapsed in 1846 and such lines as had been constructed were sold to Eastern capitalists. The Michigan Central had been constructed as far as Kalamazoo, the Michigan Southern from Monroe to Hillsdale. Nothing at all had been done toward building the Michigan Northern, which was to run from Port Huron to Grand Haven. The State had issued bonds to the amount of S5,ooo,ooo and after receiving about $2,ooo,ooo of the proceeds the Morris Canal & Banking Company, from which the loan had been made, had failed. All the State had to show for this debt was $2,00o,o6o in bank notes of a bank that had failed and left its money issues without hope of redemption and therefore worthless. The State had invested money in railway building and canal construction far beyond its financial ability. When ordinary money had become worthless it had issued state script money, which was in the form of promissory notes. These were heavily discounted. In 1846 the State found its treasury empty, its credit destroyed, and the railways it had hastily and cheaply built falling into a rapid decline. Facing this situation James F. Joy, then a member of the law firm of Porter & Joy, of Detroit, wrote several letters to local newspapers advising the sale of the railways to whomever would buy them at a fair valuation, and the issue of liberal charters to encourage railway building. Railways were still a new venture all over the world. There was no such thing as an experienced railway manager in the country. There were only a few men of vision, courage and enterprise who could afford to take a chance in railway extension. Down in New York was John W. Brooks, a civil engineer who had been made superintendent of the Syracuse & Rochester 413 414 THE STORY OF DLETROIT Railway, now known as the Auburn branch of the New York Central. Mr. Brooks saw two of Mr. Joy's letters and came to Michigan, seeking opportunity. He met Mr. Joy in his office and talked over the situation in Michigan. He also traveled over the Michigan Central as far as it had been constructed. Then he went to Boston to enlist the interest of capitalists, and as a result John M. Forbes, a wealthy tea importer; John E. Thayer, a Boston banker; John C. Green, a merchant trading with China, and George Griswold became interested. In addition to these Erastus Corning, a wealthy iron manufacturer of Albany, N. Y., and D. A. Neal also agreed to make a venture for the purchase of the Michigan Central. John M. Forbes was shrewd in all of his varied business undertakings and a bold adventurer when a proposal appealed to him. Having heard the story of Michigan's attempt to establish state railways and being convinced that a railway line across Michigan to the head of lake navigation must ultimately prove a profitable venture, he employed Daniel Webster to draw up a charter to be submitted to the Michigan legislature in case a deal could be made for the purchase of the line already completed from Detroit to Kalamazoo. Armed with that charter and the promise of financial backing Mr. Brooks returned to Detroit to undertake negotiations with the state legislature. Some of the discussions preceding the purchase and charter grant would furnish amusement for modern readers if they had been preserved. One cause of hesitation on the part of the legislature was due to the fear that the Michigan Central, once in possession of Eastern capitalists-who were supposed to be unscrupulous pagans-Sunday trains would be run to the desecration of the Christian Sabbath. Amendments were offered stipulating that not only must there be no Sunday operation of the railway but that the 'directors of the road must attend church twice each Sunday. Gov. Alpheus Felch appeared to take the most practical view of the case and it was he who stood out for what he regarded as a fair price for the property and reasonable terms of payment. SALE OF THE MICHIGAN RAILWAYS 415 It was urged on the part of the opponents that the Michigan Central was beginning to pay a fair profit and that as it was extended and the state became more settled, the profits would increase. But the State was unable to undertake the completion of the line or to keep its tracks in repair. After a deal had been made at a price of $2,ooo,ooo, which was a very moderate figure, John M. Forbes undertook the financing of the purchase. His acquaintance and association with Boston merchants was intimate. He was also in touch with men who had made fortunes in the whaling industry of New Bedford, which at that time was in a state of decline. He presented his scheme to these men and also to his former partner, John C. Green of New York City. A good deal of capital made in ocean trade was then being invested in the mills of New England and in short railway lines along the Atlantic coast. Mr. Brooks' report on the Michigan Central showed that the income of the road had increased Ioo per cent in the past year and, as the country became more thickly settled and transportation was extended across the state, it was sure to increase very rapidly. Several capitalists who had agreed to join in the enterprise backed out, but the original incorporators held to their bargain. Mr. Forbes succeeded in raising the necessary money and in organizing the company. Six months later he wrote: "I shall, I hope, have cause to look back upon this September of 1846 as one of the best spent months of my life." He took the presidency of the Michigan Central against his own inclination because the contributions to the purchasing fund had mostly been made with that stipulation. He was a busy man of many interests so he placed most of the burden of his railway presidency upon George B. Upton, the. treasurer, and turned over his salary to him. The task of operating the road and extending it was laid upon John W. Brooks, who was established at Detroit. The 145 miles of track already laid were in bad condition. On all that line there were but four passenger stations. Even at Detroit the station was a rude elongated shed at the corner 416 THE STORY OF DETROIT of Michigan Avenue and Griswold Street. There remained 56 miles of line to be built. The entire rolling stock of the road was valued at $68,ooo and of this the most valuable single item was a little locomotive weighing 12 tons and valued at $4,000. Between Detroit and Ypsilanti the line had been in operation eight years. The stringers of timber six inches square on which straps of iron two and a quarter inches wide by half an inch thick had been spiked were showing signs of rapid decay. All this must be replaced by rolled iron rails weighing 60 pounds to the yard, and most of this iron must be imported from abroad. Mr. Forbes and his associate investors visited Michigan in the summer of 1847 and held the first annual meeting of the Michigan Central at Detroit in June. At that meeting they authorized an expenditure of $2,000,000 for extension of the line after they had traveled over it on a tour of inspection, going as far as Chicago and returning by boat via the Straits of Mackinaw rather than repeat the journey by wagons overland. Mr. Forbes' letters describe the journey: "Steamer Empire, Mackinaw, June i I, 1847. "We reached Detroit at 1:3o in the night and landed in the mud; slept an hour or two and had to get up and go to find T. Howe; Brooks, our mainstay, having gone West. We decided to follow and started at eight or so on our railroad. "(For the first few miles the country was dreary; flat with a great deal of surface water, through forests mostly but dense and melancholy ones, water under foot and huge decaying trees lying about; the trees generally tall and with no foliage except near the top. "We found the road in a most deplorable condition, the iron broken up often into pieces not a foot long and sometimes only wood for spaces of several feet. In other places short pieces of iron almost athwart-ship, but our protection was in its being so short that no snake-heads could reach the cars. This bad road lasted about 80 miles, the bad country about 30, when we came to a little drier soil and passed through several flourishing villages. SALE OF THE MICHIGAN RAILWAYS 417 "Here we began to see the famous oak openings-noble oak trees just far enough apart to let each take its handsome natural shape, just as a park should be; but sad to tell we seldom saw the openings in their beauty for the trees had generally been girdled and stood naked and dead (some of them dying, having been girdled this year), and fine fields of wheat growing right up to their trunks and fields varying from 20 to 200 acres each; but few flowers to be seen and the houses far from our New England houses in neatness. At night we reached a dirty tavern at Kalamazoo where the road terminated. "At Kalamazoo we learned that Brooks had gone to Niles and we resolved to follow him. Arranged to start in a barouche with four horses at 4 A.M. We sat till I 1:30 talking with our engineers whom we sent to get information about our routes, and then turned in. In an hour Brooks arrived and came to my room and after an hour's talk we decided to take him with us and push for the celebrated city of St. Joseph, 56 miles distant. The roads were execrable, full of deep holes and gullies where we had a right to expect a capsize, but the weather was lovely beyond measure and on the whole we enjoyed our drive excepting that, not daring to drink the water, our tongues were parched like fever patients. "At four o'clock we reached the marsh which surrounds St. Joseph. Figure to yourself a pestilential black mud, quivering and shaking under its own weight, with tufts of grass, rank and uneven, a deep river in the midst and sand banks where the mud ceases. Rising up from this was a steep but small bluff extending into the lake, on which the city stands. Two handsome houses built in 1837 and I believe now empty, two large wooden taverns, one now untenanted, and a few other indifferent looking places with some stray houses along the river, complete the coup d'oeil of this famous city which had sprung up in a night and withered next day. The only pleasant thing was the view of Lake Michigan, blue like the ocean, and wide. "We started out to make our observations accompanied by pretty much all the town, some half dozen people, who took care we should not be alone a moment for fear we should not 418 THE STORY OF DETROIT appreciate fully the beauties of the place. We went over to Uncle Sam Russell's 'Eden,' which has a fine map of land laid out into cities and is' called 'North St. Joseph' (now Benton Harbor). Nothing would induce me to visit this place again unless I could carry Mr. Russell with me and witness his first interview with his domain. "We left St. Joseph Sunday morning for Niles 26 miles and arrived there to dinner. The country dull for 12 miles and then tolerable. We started at 7 along the lake shore for Michigan City; a beautiful day, the lake just like the ocean, plenty of deer tracks. Got there at 11 and examined the harbor to our satisfaction and at 2 P.M. embarked in the steamer for Chicago taking leave of Brooks who returned to Detroit. Found Mr.' Ogden (William B. Ogden, first mayor of Chicago) on board, a very agreeable man who came to Chicago 12 years ago when it was a wilderness, and now there are I5,ooo to 20,000 people there. Arrived at Chicago at 5 P.M.-hotter than Tophet. Established ourselves in an immense hotel and, the pangs of thirst being unbearable, we here broke into lake water astonishingly and happily without bad effect. Mr. Ogden came for us in his carryall and took us to drive about the town. Some of the houses are on a bluff looking out on the blue lake and it was lovely at sunset beyond imagination. A few trees however and the ground under foot dampish, being called 'wet prairie.' Mr. Ogden offered to drive us next day to Grand Prairie, 20 miles distant but the roads were bad, the weather hot and after a week's train we did not think it worth while." Mr. Ogden tried to sell the visitors from the East a tract of the wet prairie land within a mile of the hotel at SI.2; an acre but they were too-wary to venture an investment. A few years later they regretted their caution. The Michigan Central Railroad was completed to Chicago and completely laid with T-rails in a remarkably short time considering the period in which the work was done. The financing of the undertaking, which consumed more than $6,000,000 in the first three years of private ownership, was accomplished through the labor of John M. Forbes, and with the SALE OF THE MICHIGAN RAILWAYS 419 exception of one small loan made abroad not one cent of foreign capital went into the early construction and equipment of the road. An eight per cent dividend of $176,ooo earned in 1848 was paid in stock so the money could be used for the completion of the road. John M. Forbes also played an important part in the financing of the building of the Illinois Central and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railways, and James F. Joy of Detroit was associated with both these undertakings. Mr. Forbes was also the backer of the company which built the first ship canal at Sault Ste. Marie with Mr. Brooks as constructor. The Michigan Southern was sold to another company of capitalists. All the states were jealous of their railway privileges. When the Michigan Central and Michigan Southern sought an entrance to Chicago, which, in 1847, was a town of Io,ooO-considerably smaller than Detroit-the legislatures of Indiana and Illinois, instigated by the promoters of railways in their own borders, at first refused to issue charters for crossing these states to Chicago. The railway promoters of Michigan were forced to all sorts of schemes of indirection in order to reach their goal. The Michigan Southern effected a consolidation with the Northern Indiana, which involved a diversion from White Pigeon into Indiana. Its charter required the road to be constructed through Niles, so the people of Michigan fought the consolidation. The Michigan Central relieved that situation by taking up the obligation to construct its line through Niles to New Buffalo. But when attempt was made to carry on to Chicago, Michigan people objected because their railroad would then be of profit and convenience to the people of northern Indiana and Illinois. That period might be termed the infancy and childhood of railway understanding. The Michigan Central finally wormed its way into Chicago through collusion with the Illinois Central, which explains why the two still utilize the same station in Chicago. CHAPTER LXXVI CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. ABOLISHED-ADVENT -OF THE TELEGRAPH MICHIGAN startled the world in 1846 by abolishing capital punishment. This abolition grew out of two incidents which occurred with an interval of nearly eight years between, but their effect was cumulative. The hanging of Stephen G. Simmons in Detroit in 1830 made a profound impression upon the public mind and produced a revulsion of public sentiment against the universal practice of civilized countries. In 1838 a man named Fitzpatrick was declared guilty on circumstantial evidence after a fair trial by the Canadian court at Sandwich. He was hanged in the Sandwich jail-yard. A few months later a man named Sellers died and on his deathbed he confessed his guilt of the crime for which Fitzpatrick had been hanged. People on both sides of the border were profoundly impressed by this incident. Government, in the exercise of its judicial function, had done an innocent man to death. The State had taken away something that it could not restore, for reparation to the individual was impossible. Capital punishment became a sort of standard subject of discussion among the people of Michigan. The clergy, almost without exception, were insistent upon the infliction of the extreme penalty. They opposed abolition on Biblical grounds. In those days they did not know that the law of retaliation-an eye for an eve, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for a life-was a written statute long before the birth of Abraham. Had they known of the codes of Hammurabi and of Manu they might not have been so sure of the divine origin of the law. Abolition of the death penalty, came about by indirection. Michigan had adopted many laws of other states, most of them based upon the Common Law of England. They had passed other 420 CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ABOLISHED 421 laws which modified these. Some of the statutes were contradictory because the conflicting laws had not been repealed. The laws were published in the order of their passage, without systematic arrangement, so a lawyer had to comb the entire code and often he was still left in doubt and dependent upon the offhand ruling of a judge. Chief Justice Fletcher revised the Michigan statutes in I838, but his work was so hastily done that it brought little improvement. In 1845 Sanford M. Green, a very able lawyer of Oakland County, was a member of the state senate and he was commissioned to make a thorough revision of the laws of Michigan and to make recommendations to the legislature. When his report was made the legislature made a few changes and adopted the report as a single act, May 18, 1846. In this revised code the penalty for murder was limited to imprisonment at hard labor for life. Immediately there was an outburst of opposition to this reform and it was led by about 50 of the leading citizens of Detroit. They fulminated against it in the press and enlisted the pulpit in their cause. At the request of 41 citizens who signed a formal petition, the Rev. George Duffield of the First Presbyterian Church preached a powerful sermon against abolition of the death penalty as contrary to the laws of God and of civilized men. That sermon was printed and circulated all over the state, but it brought no demand for restoration of the death penalty. Following the Civil War there was an astonishing increase of homicide all over the country. This is the common sequel of all wars and it is but an unwarranted continuation of the practice of men killing one another because of opposing opinions and purposes. As a consequence there was in 1866 an attempt to revive the death penalty in Michigan. But the returned soldiers soon readjusted themselves to peace conditions and the clamor for the hangman's rope ceased. Following the World War, with its savage violence at the fighting front and its shameless profiteering among the civilians, came a sudden increase of crime in Detroit and many other cities. The offenders have been for the most part young men 422 THE STORY OF DETROIT and mere boys. These misguided offenders adopted a new form of profiteering. Being unable to take advantage of the opportunity to exploit their fellow men by charging extravagant prices for their product, they took up arms and began taking money and valuables by force. Occasionally those who resisted robbery in this form were killed, as were officers of the law who tried to arrest the malefactors. For this cause we have had another attempt to legislate the death penalty back into the statutes of Michigan. In a city directory of Detroit, published in 1846 by James H. Wellings and owned by the Misses Sylvia and Julia Allen, of 283 Eliot Street, there are interesting descriptions of the condition of Detroit in that year. It was observed that the city's public debt was $276,481, and the publisher of the directory tried to soothe the popular apprehension by showing how the money had been spent and the results that had been attained. It appeared that the old Savoyard River, always a rather stagnant stream with little current, had been badly polluted until it had become an open sewer, nauseating to both sight and smell. To correct this evil a grand sewer had just been built, four feet six inches wide and five feet high, the walls being of stone covered by an arch of brick. This extended from Beaubien Street to the river front, with an outlet near Oliver Newberry's warehouse near the lower border of the Cass farm. To carry off the water of a tributary of the Savoyard, which brought drainage from the Brush and Beaubien farms, a plank sewer,00oo feet long was built northward into that district. A number of other sewers had been constructed. The old hydraulic works had been purchased for $34,658 and $116,500oo had been expended on new waterworks. The City Hall Market, Berthelet Market, Washington Market, at Larned and Wayne, and the Firemen's Hall had involved an expenditure of $29,617. In addition, $12,129 had been expended for fire apparatus and $417 for oil lamps for lighting the streets. In ten years the city had spent $266,076 for necessary public improvements and some of the conservative citizens regarded this as reckless expenditure for a city of 13,000 population. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ABOLISHED 423 Church founding and building had brought into existence 17 societies and 15 churches. There were Ste. Anne's Church, between Congress and Lamed and Bates streets; Holy Trinity, at Bates Street and Cadillac Square; St. Mary's, at Croghan (Monroe) and St. Antoine; St. Peter's, then building at Jefferson and Antoine; St. Paul's Episcopal, on the west side of Woodward, adjoining the session house of the First Presbyterian, at the corner of Lamed, and the First Methodist, at the northeast corner of Congress; the Scotch Presbyterian, at Bates and Farmer; the First Congregational, at Jefferson and Beaubien; the Second Methodist, on Congress near Randolph; the Colored Methodist, on Lafayette, between Brush and Beaubien; the First Baptist, at Fort and Griswold; the Colored American Baptist, on Fort, between Beaubien and Antoine; the German Lutheran, at Monroe and Farrar, and the Bethel or Mariners' Church, at Woodward and Woodbridge. In addition there was a German Evangelical Lutheran Society holding services in the council chamber of the old City Hall while its church was building at Congress and Rivard, and a society of the Disciples holding services in a schoolhouse near the corner of Congress and Randolph. With so many churches so closely grouped about the civic center the inhabitants had little excuse for neglecting public worship. John S. Bagg was postmaster, Charles Richmond assistant, and Morris M. Williams clerk. Postal rates, 5 cents for each half ounce for distances under 300 miles; over 300 miles, 10 cents. Drop letters (not mailed), 2 cents for each half ounce. Newspapers of 1,900 square inches or less, sent not exceeding 30 miles, were free of postal charge; sent over 30 miles and not exceeding Ioo miles, I cent each; over Ioo miles or out of the state, I 2 cents each. The average daily edition of The Detroit News today is 19,870 inches. University buildings had been constructed at Ann Arbor at a cost of $5o,o0o. No tuition was charged to students beyond an entrance fee of $0o. The regents were: Jonathan Kearsley, Marvin Allen, Edward Mundy, John Owen, Alex H. Redfield, Rev. George Duffield, Rev. Charles C. Taylor, Elijah H. Pilcher, 424 THE STORY OF DETROIT Hon. Elon Farnsworth, Dr. Zina Pitcher, Hon. Austin E. Wing and Minot T. Lane. Eben N. Wilcox was secretary. The advertisements in the directory are particularly attractive. Hiram R. Andrews extolled his Railroad Hotel on the Campus, near the Michigan Central and Pontiac depots. "Travelers wishing to take cars or boats will be furnished meals at 25 cents. A carriage and baggage wagon are in readiness at all times to convey them to the cars or boats, GRATIS. Board by the day, 75 cents." In those days life in Detroit was surely worth all it cost. An accommodating veterinary, Dr.W. P. Lomas, advertised "cathartic, diuretic, tonic and cordial medicines ready prepared for use, with or without administration." The Michigan Central Railroad ad is quite fetching. "A passenger train will leave Detroit for the west daily at 8 A.M. and arrive at Kalamazoo at 6 P.M. the same day and another train will leave Kalamazoo at 6:30 A.M. arriving in Detroit at 5 P.M. Sundays excepted. By this route the traveler passes through the second tier of counties containing the following beautiful villages: Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Dexter, Jackson, Albion, Marshall, Battle Creek and Kalamazoo; 146 miles in 10 hours; thence by B. Humphrey & Co.'s line of post coaches to St. Joseph, 56 miles in I2 hours; and thence by Captain Ward's boat Champion, built expressly for this route, to Chicago, 70 miles in five hours, weather permitting, making 270 miles in about 30 hours to and from Detroit and Chicago. Stages will be in readiness to take passengers from Battle Creek to Grand Rapids and from Kalamazoo to the Indiana towns." The year 1847 was one of varied events in Detroit. It was the year of the last session of the legislature in the old Capitol Building, the next session being the first to be held in Lansing, then a remote and rather inaccessible town in the woods. It was the geographical location which led to the selection of Lansing. Several of the towns of the state were working in intense rivalry to acquire the Capitol. Detroit seemed not very eager to retain it. Among the petitioners for the Capitol were Lyons, Byron, Saginaw, Eaton Rapids, Jackson, Marshall, ADVENT OF THE TELEGRAPH42 425 Ann Arbor., Utica, Corunna and Battle Creek. The hotel men of Detroit were, of course, hopeful of having the Capitol retained here because it brought grist to their mills and promoted the flow of liquid refreshments. Somebody, just for a joke, suggested Lansing, then a rude settlement of a few log houses. This brought into action a powerful land lobby which would profit by that adoption. It also stirred the eloquence of opposing members. Levi Bishop, of Detroit, asked: "What, shall we take the Capitol from a large and beautiful city to a howling wilderness? Shall we stick it down in the woods and mud on the banks of the Grand River, amid choking miasma, where the howling of wolves and the hissing of massasaugas (rattlesnakes) and the groans of bullfrogs resound to the hammer of the woodpecker and the solitary note of the whippoorwill?" But that was just what was done and nobody regrets the choice today. This year, 1 845, witnessed the first exhibition of the working of telegraph instruments in Detroit, with a lecture on the subject of electrical communication. The instruments shown were of the recording type, by which a pen and ink registered the dots and dashes on a roll of paper. The lecture was delivered by a Dr. Boynton in the session house of the First Presbyterian Church at Lamned and Woodward. Ezra Cornell had completed a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore. Then, in association with J. J. Speed, he contracted to erect a line from Buffalo to Milwaukee, connecting all the towns along the route. The other contracting parties were Smith and Vail, representing the owners of the patent. They came to Detroit in 1846, gave another exhibition in the old State Capitol, and solicited subs -criptions toward the undertaking. Cornell built the line from Buffalo to Cleveland, and Speed the line from Cleveland to Detroit. M. B. Wood undertook the extensions from Detroit to Chicago, and a man named Tillottson was to carry on to Milwaukee. The section between Detroit and Ypsilanti was first used in November, 1847. A telegraph office was established at the northeast corner ofJefferson and Cass avenues and a number of amateur operators 426 THE STORY OFDETROIT were brought from the East. The boys used their idle hours in fixing up shocking machines for playing tricks on curious people who came to see the working of the new wonder. Chicago was in communication with Detroit by the end of 1848. Two rival lines, the O'Reilly and the Snow lines, were brought to Detroit. But rivalry led to disastrous competition and the end of that was a gradual consolidation of companies. The Western Union Telegraph was organized April 4, 1856, and it began absorbing the earlier companies. The first telegraph cable was laid across the Detroit River in I857. This cable was a section of a longer cable that was being manufactured for a submarine line to Newfoundland. In 1858 came the news that the first Atlantic cable had been laid and was in operation. Detroit held a noisy celebration. On August 18 came a message over the cable from Queen Victoria and the town went wild. Bonfires flamed at street intersections, cannon boomed and the citizens marched in processions cheering and waving flags. All this is an old story now. With all the conveniences of telegraph and telephones operating across the continents and radio messages going around the world, the people of today can hardly realize what it meant to Detroit to be able to have communication in an instant instead of waiting from three days to a week for news of our own country and a much longer time for news from abroad. Detroit ceased to be a remote, isolated city and was right in the swim. It may be said in passing that Ezra Cornell, after amassing a great fortune through telegraph contracts and investments, was able to found Cornell University by use of his own funds and to enlist the aid of the State of New York through his social and political influence. CHAPTER LXX VII CRUDE CONVENIENCES OF EARLY DAYS THE first bathtub in the United States is said to have been built in Cincinnati and installed in a house in that Tcity in 1842. It was a mass~ive and expensive affair made of heavy sheet lead and encased in mah~ogany, which its proud possessor exhibited to his guests at a Christmas party. The news spread, and next day the newspapers of Cincinnati denounced the bathtub as a luxurious and undemocratic vanity. This denunciation stirred up the medical men, who followed with other denunciations, declaring its use destructive to vitality and a menace to health. But the bathtub was not to be abolished by denunciations. It was a novelty, and other luxurious people installed them. Fearful that indiscriminate bathing might impair the vitality of the American race, the common council of Philadelphia in 1843 attempted to lessen the dangers by prohibiting bathing in bathtubs between November i and March i. But the Federal Constitution assures "cthe right of the people to be secure in their persons., houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures." Therefore the ordinance could not be enforced., and the people, with the perversity that is characteristic of the human race, bathed with increasing enthusiasm as soon as the practice was forbidden. Boston in 1845 made bathing unlawful except when prescribed by a physician, but the good old family doctors were quite as complaisant in recommending bathing to their wealthy patients as many were, long afterward, in writing prescriptions for alcoholic stimulants. Virginia, however, struck at the very heart of this new menace by levying a special tax Of $3o a year on all bathtubs. This had a marked restraining effect on the new vice, but surreptitious bathtubs even then were hidden away in dark closets by 42-7 428 THE STORY OF DETROIT carpenters and plumbers who were first subsidized and pledged to secrecy. In most modern American homes the bathtub is now considered an almost indispensable adjunct. The British people took to bathing with fine enthusiasm, but they did it in a modified form in portable tin bathtubs built somewhat after the fashion of a throne, as became loyal subjects of their sovereign. Finding the continental people somewhat prejudiced against bathtubs, British travelers used to carry their tubs with them on their travels, and this so humiliated European hotelkeepers that they installed bathtubs in all firstclass hotels. Landlords in all American cities having large foreign populations complain bitterly because the foreign tenants insist on using these costly installations for coal bins, but if they were students of psychology they might correct this misuse by placarding the tub with the prohibitory notice: "This tub must not be used for bathing." In spite of the perils of bathing in tubs, most of us are still alive and some go so far as to assert that the frequently bathed person makes a more savory and agreeable companion in a crowded room or even in a street car. If the foregoing record is authentic, Detroit must have been entirely overlooked by the chronicler. Installation of bathtubs as fixtures in Detroit homes was the culmination of an evolutionary process. There is no positive record as to what Detroit home made the first installation. In the earliest times the wooden family washtub did double duty. On Monday morning it served for washing the family linen. On Saturday afternoons and evenings it was used for personal ablutions. The "big kettle" was hung on the crane or set directly on the bed of coals in the fireplace to heat water. The washtub was set in the middle of the kitchen floor and when all was ready "mother" scheduled the program of baths for the children. The tub, half filled with water, was adjusted to the right temperature by additions of hot and cold, and mother's hand was the thermometer. Boy number one was called to undergo this penitential ordeal. In spite of tearful protests that he was clean and had been "in swimmin' only CRUDE CONVENIENCES OF EARLY DAYS 429 yisteday" in the river, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter. An old apron was pinned over the window to insure privacy; his divested clothing was laid on a chair and he took a standing position in the middle of the tub, always protesting that the water was either too hot or too cold. Then mother tucked up her sleeves and advanced to the attackwith washrag, soap and towel. The early form of soap was a jelly-like substance known as "soft soap." It was made in the family dooryard in a huge kettle adjoining the lye-leach under the shade of the old apple tree. Its simple ingredients consisted of the waste grease carefully saved in the family kitchen, the refuse pieces of solid fat pork, and strong lye obtained by leaching water through the carefully saved hardwood ashes. The lye had to be of a certain strength and in the lack of a scientifically graduated hydrometer mother used a common hen's egg. As long as the brown lye that came through the leach-tub of ashes would float an egg the lye was good. When the egg would sink, the lye was judged too weak for soap-making. The fats were boiled in the lye until thoroughly dissolved and then the soap was ladled into a barrel. When cool it became semi-solid like jelly. It was powerful stuff, possessing an evil, acrid odor and when applied to the flesh it produced a sensation like the first warning thrills of a mustard plaster. No dirt could stand before it and tender skins would fairly shrivel under it. Later came the introduction of a hard soap made in bricks three inches square and twelve inches long, compounded of caustic soda or potash, grease and rosin. A drop of suds from either of these soaps splashed in the eyes would move the most hardened stoic to tears. One by one the children were thoroughly scoured and late in the evening, when they had been sent to bed, father and mother took their turn at the grand finale of family ablutions. Some of the pioneers of Detroit were men of enterprise beyond their time and one of these was David C. McKinstry. One will find his name in nearly every promotive enterprise from the founding of villages and establishment of sawmills and grist 430 THE STORY OF DETROIT mills to smaller and more individual undertakings. Often before embarking upon a new venture he would lay a sort of political foundation to insure to himself a monopoly. Mr. McKinstry usually ventured his money and his time on a "sure thing." In 1827 he procured the passing of an ordinance to this effect: "If any person or persons shall exhibit any puppet show, wiredancing, tumbling, juggling or sleight-of-hand within this territory and shall ask or receive any pay in money or other property for exhibiting the same, such person or persons shall for every such offense pay a fine of not less than,Io or exceeding $20." Behind that bulwark of law Maj. McKinstry proceeded to launch a number of amusement enterprises. In 1834 he was operating a local theater, a circus, a museum, and the first public amusement garden. His circus was a small affair housed in a wooden building at the northeast corner 'of Gratiot and Farrar streets. On the southeast corner stood the first Methodist church erected in Detroit. It was so far uptown that few people would attend it, so it was sold to McKinstry to be used as a theater. His largest and most profitable enterprise was his public garden, which occupied the space between Randolph and Brush, Lafayette and Croghan (Monroe) streets. There was an old orchard of fruit trees. Walks were laid out around the border and bypaths under the trees. A small pavilion gave shelter to a band which played Saturday and holiday evenings. Another low building served the purpose of a restaurant and at the lower end, adjoining the restaurant, was a bathhouse consisting of plain stalls, each one containing a wooden tub for bathing. As there was no private bathtub in the town except the family washtub, Maj. McKinstry's bathhouse was the busiest place in town on Saturday nights. There one could bathe in privacy while the band played: "Roll on silver moon, guide the traveler on his way," "Captain Kidd's Lament" or livelier tunes like "Yankee Doodle" and "Hail Columbia." From the adjoining restaurant would come the clatter of knives and forks, the clink of glasses, the quips of the town wits and the giggling of the girls. CRUDE CONVENIENCES OF EARLY DAYS 431 In 1846 T. WV. Whitsey advertised his public baths at the corner of Monroe and Randolph streets and in rivalry with him G. W. Tucker announced the opening of his " toilet saloon" on Jefferson Avenue near Shelby Street. At both places it was announced that hot, cold, shower and salt baths were "ion tap." Then came numerous private bathtubs of tin. The earliest designs were coffin-shaped, portable affairs which were set in the middle of the floor for use and afterward were stood on end in the woodshed at the rear of the house. Few of us will regret the departure of those good old days of the simple life. CHAPTER LXX VIII THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS FOR the first i So years of its existence Detroit was lighted in the homes of the people and on the. public streets by candles and by small lamps which burned lard or whale oil. The lamps were not introduced until about 1830. Matches, such as we have today, came into use by slow degrees. In every home was a tinder box and a flint and steel for making fire. The tinder was merely slightly charred bits of cloth kept very dry in a closed tin box. The steel was a broad bar or oval ring of steel which was made rough on its outer edge. The flint was a piece of very hard flint stone. To light a fire a piece of tinder was laid on the hearth and close above it a person would hold the piece of flint in his left hand and strike it a quick, downward, glancing blow with the roughened piece of steel. Sparks would fly from this contact and fall upon the tinder. The tinder would catch the sparks and begin to glow and then, by blowing it, the tinder would soon be sufficiently ignited to set fire to fine splinters. About 1iSn pine splinters began to be used for matches by dipping one end in melted sulphur. These sulphur matches could not be ignited by scratching, but on touching the burning tinder they would take fire. Such matches were called "locofocos." A litdle later phosphorus was introduced. It was kept in a small vial and when a match tipped with sulphur was dipped into it the match would readily take fire. The phosphorus match was a real wonder for a time. In 1829 a new type of match was introduced which could be lighted by drawing it quickly between two folds of sandpaper. Soon after that the ordinary match was invented. The first use of illuminating gas in Detroit was a small private venture. H. R. Johnson built a hotel at the foot of Third Street for the accommodation of passengers who traveled by 432 THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS 433 the Michigan Central Railroad. As a novelty to attract custom he introduced a small plant for distilling coal in his basement and the resulting gas -was used to light his hotel. All guests had to be watched carefully to prevent them from blowing out the gas when they retired. For reasons of safety the gas was commonly shut off about Io P.M. This innovation came in 1849. At about the same time came the invention of camphene or "burning fluid," a highly inflammable and explosive compound of alcohol, turpentine and camphor gum. This was used in lamps with special burners, but many fires and explosions resulted. In 1851 the first coal gas was produced commercially in Detroit. Lamp-posts were erected at the street corners and on September 24, I85i, the principal streets were first lighted with coal gas. Gradually gas lighting was installed in business houses and in the homes of the more wealthy citizens, but the cost of the gas was very high and the gas itself, insufficiently purified, made such a disagreeable odor in the houses that it was used but sparingly for a long time. In I86i came the advent of the kerosene lamps, which were another menace for a time. Kerosene refining was unskillfully done. Sometimes the oil was perfectly safe to use and at other times it contained so much benzine and gasoline that the lamp would explode and set.fire to the building in which it was used. It took some time to learn how to make an efficient burner that would be safe and a still longer time to devise the glass lampchimney which would prevent the lamps from smoking. For a period of more than 20 years the kerosene lamp was a strong rival of the gas companies, but when the electric light was produced at low cost kerosene was virtually banished from the cities and found its last stronghold on the farms. In 1848 the first company was organized in Detroit for the manufacture of coal gas for illuminating purposes. The utilization of gas for fuel began nearly 30 years later, when the price of gas began to come down while the prices of wood and coal began to rise. The promoters of the first gas company were the Brown brothers of Philadelphia. 434 THE STORY OF DETROIT Like the invention of the steam engine, steamboat, locomotive, printing press, telegraph, and many other epoch-making devices, the first utilization of coal gas is a matter of dispute. Late in the Eighteenth Century, William Murdock of Scotland and Philippe Lebon of France both experimented with the manufacture and distribution of coal gas for illuminating purposes. The first utilization of coal gas in America was a strictly private enterprise undertaken when David Melville of Newport, R. I., installed a little coal distilling plant on his own premises from which he conducted pipes for lighting his own house and the street in front of his home. This was in i8o6, just four years after Boulton & Watt had made a private display of gas illumination at their Soho factory in London and nine years after William Murdock had begun lighting his premises in Old Cumnock, 12 miles east of Ayr, in Scotland. Melville found much trouble in ridding his gas of sulphur, but finally obtained a patent on his process in 1813. Soon after he introduced a gas-lighting system in a cotton mill at Watertown, Mass., and in another mill at Pawtucket, near Providence. In 1816 a gas company was chartered in Baltimore. Boston followed in 1822 and New York in 1823. By 1859 there were 297 gas companies in the United States, and one of these was in Detroit. The capitalization of the industry at that time was $42,86i,000ooo and the aggregate population of the gas-lighted towns was 4,857,000. The City of Detroit Gaslight Company was organized March 14, 1848, and the principal Detroit shareholders were G. V. N. Lothrop, Jacob S. Farrand, Theodore H. Eaton, Alexander Dey, and Lemuel Davis. They erected a small plant in Woodbridge Street between Fifth and Sixth streets, and began supplying street lights in I851. Service in private houses and business blocks soon followed. The rate charged was $3.50 per thousand feet, with a discount of 5 per cent for prompt payment. This was then the standard rate throughout the country, and it continued for 15 years in Detroit. The company was reorganized in 1851 and the name was changed to the Detroit Gaslight Company. Its first engagement THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS 435 with the city was under a io-year contract, which gave it exclusive use of the streets for laying gas mains until 186i1. At the expiration of that period the citizens began to hope for competition which would bring down the gas rate, so the contract was renewed for only five years. This was granted on condition that the company furnish gas for public lighting at $i.So per thousand, while private consumers of less than 500,000ooo feet were to pay $2.50. At the end of this period the common council began to assert its right to regulate the price of gas. The company disputed that right and service was continued without a contract until 1869. Consumption presently outgrew the original plant, so in 1867 the company built a west side plant at the foot of Twenty-first Street and an east side plant at the foot of Chene Street. One purpose of this division of gas production was in furtherance of its claim to the exclusive right to the streets of Detroit under its charter, which ran to 1898. In 1872 the Mutual Gas Company was organized by Thomas Dean, William H. Fitch, E. W.Meddaugh, FrederickE. Driggs and others. It erected a plant at the foot of MeldrumAvenue, which was then outside the city limits. This was done because the old company stubbornly defended its exclusive right to the streets and stood ready to make use of the restraining power of the courts by injunction. The Mutual Company secured patronage during the seven years while this war over exclusive rights was waged by offering reduced rates. The Detroit Gaslight Company met the competition by a still lower rate, and in the fight which raged between the rivals the common rate for gas went down to 50 cents per thousand. A few favored consumers got a rate as low as o10 cents. Naturally the consumers did not worry over the rate war, but it is said that even when they were getting their gas at the cost of production, or less, some of them still complained of fast meters. The rate war was of one benefit to the rival companies, for it encouraged everybody to adopt gas lighting. Such rate wars between rival companies which are contesting for the exclusive privilege of services which are natural monopolies have one common ending. Either the whale swallows Jonah or Jonah 436 THE STORY OF DETROIT swallows the whale. However, that inevitable consolidation did not take place openly. The two companies agreed to divide the territory between them on a common flat rate, the Mutual being awarded the city on the east side and the Detroit Gaslight Company that portion west of Woodward Avenue. There was another reason which prevented open consolidation, for the charter of the Mutual Company forbade any consolidation or combination with another company. Also it was forbidden to sell its own plant to the old company. This division of territory was effected June 28, 1877. This partitioning of the city on an equal rate was equivalent to a consolidation. The city appealed to the Supreme Court on the ground that the charter of the Mutual Company had been violated by subterfuge, and the court sustained the claim of the city. It was then discovered that the stock of the companies ha'd been merged and that both were governed by an interlocking directorate. The city obtained an injunction which barred the use of the streets by the consolidated company and the matter was finally settled by an agreement that service might be continued for the time under the old partitioning agreement, apparently a surrender on the part of the city. But the city held another high trump card which it was presently to play to secure a more reasonable rate. The charter granted to the Mutual Company stipulated that its rate for gas should be no higher than was charged in the cities of Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, Sandusky, or Chicago. Both companies ignored this restraint, the Mutual Company claiming it had a natural right to charge as much as its rival. This game of bluffing went on for several years and several agitations for lower gas rates came to naught. While this gas problem was developing, the Ohio petroleum oil and gas fields were being developed and Toledo profited by the piping of cheap natural gas for use as fuel. The Detroit Natural Gas Company was organized April 30, i886, for the purpose of piping natural gas from Ohio to Detroit. Among the incorporators were 0. W. Shipman, F. G. Chidsey, Frank E. Snow, Wm. A. Jackson, John B. Corliss, J. D. Hawks, THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS43 437 F. W. Hayes, Frank J. Hecker, Ashley Pond, W. C. McMillan, George Jerome and Henry B. Ledyard. This company brought natural gas to Detroit and sold it at a rate Of 35 cents per thousand feet. In 1 893. that supply began to fail, but for a time it was maintained by pumping machinery. By the time it utterly failed the gas field about Learnington, Ont., was developed and a main was laid across Detroit River to tap that supply, which continued until the Ontario government stopped the exportation of gas. This natural gas from Canada fell into the hands of the older gas companies, was turned into the mains after being enriched by the addition of coal gas and was sold at the rate of $i.50o per thousand. In 1872, after long experiment, a process was discovered for producing gas by passing a stream of superheated steam through a mass of incandescent coke while a small stream of crude petroleum was also admitted. The first plant for production of water gas was erected at Phoenixville, Pa. This method proved more profitable and economical than the ordinary coal gas and the illuminating deficiency of water gas was compensated by the addition of a certain proportion of coal gas. During the long, turbulent administration of Hazen S. Pingree as Mayor of Detroit occurred a prolonged contest between the city and the gas companies for cheaper gas. This is a story in itself and will be related in its proper chronological order. CHAPTER LXXIX DETROIT FEMALE SEMINARY IN 1849 there were 6,306 children of school age in Detroit. Of these 4,000 were enrolled in the public schools, but the average attendance was only 1,743. There were 19 small schools scattered about the city and the teachers numbered 21. The total value of school property was I 5,827. Each ward had two representatives on the school board and generally these were men of education and good standing. The first union school, the Barstow, named for Samuel Barstow, long a member of the school board and a promoter of education, was opened in I85o. The first special teacher of music, H. H. Philbrick, was employed in 1849. One of the best known teachers of this period was John F. Nichols, who taught in Detroit from 1848 until 1883, with the exception of the year 185, when he was superintendent of schools at a salary of $900oo. Mr. Nichols was a disciplinarian of the old school who believed in the efficacy of the strap and rod. Quite a number of sedate Detroiters of the present day can recall the tingling effect of the punishments applied by "Old Nick," as he was called. Later his pupils organized the Nichols Alumni Association. In 1830 Gov. Cass, C. C. Trowbridge, Henry M. Campbell, DeGarmo Jones, William Ward, Eurotas P. Hastings, James Abbott, Charles Lamed, and E. A. Brush promoted the cause of female education. Those names might be termed a roll of honor among the early citizens for they were all men of the highest standing. They obtained from the Governor and Judges a grant represented by the ground on which the City Hall now stands. There they erected at a cost of $7,325 a three-story brick building, which was painted buff with white trimmings, and started the Detroit Female Seminary. It opened in 1836 with George Wilson as principal. From 1839 to 1842 Mrs. Hector Scott and her three daughters, Annie, 438 .DETROIT FEMALE SEMINARY 439 Isabella and Eleanor, managed the seminary. Mrs. Scott was an admirable, lovable and highly cultured lady of that aesthetic period when young ladies were recommended to practice the speaking of such words as "prunes and prisms" to give them beautiful mouths and a sweet expression. Her middle name might have been "Modesty" or "Propriety," for it was the fashion of the time to name young ladies after the Christian virtues and graces. So refined and delicately framed was her sense of propriety that she kept the legs of the piano in the school draped in chintz valances and always spoke of them as "limbs"-and that with some hesitation, blushing decorously the while. By such intensive methods were the young ladies of the upper class in.Detroit shielded from coarse language and unholy thoughts. One may wonder what the ghost of Mrs. Scott would make of the modern "flapper." After the close of the seminary Mrs. Scott and her daughters conducted a select school on their own account. Mrs. Scott was a woman of distinguished ancestry and had an interesting story. She was born in Baltimore, Md., the daughter of Luther Martin, one of the ablest lawyers of his time. Luther Martin was a representative in the Continental Congress and afterward in the Constitutional Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States. He advocated the insertion of a clause against the slave trade and when it was defeated he left the convention and refused to sign the Constitution. Later he opposed its ratification by Maryland. After that he supported the Constitution. Luther Martin defended Judge Samuel Chase of the U. S. Supreme Court against a writ of impeachment and won his case. He served Maryland for 27 years as attorney-general and had the largest law practice in the state. In 1807 he defended Aaron Burr against a charge of high treason and won that case. Later he entertained both Burr and Harman Blennerhassett at his Baltimore home. For a time he was chief justice of the Maryland court of oyer and terminer. He was profligate in his living and in 1820 a stroke of paralysis left him unable to practice law and he became dependent upon 440 THE STORY OF DETROIT charity. For several years he made his home with Aaron Burr in New York City and died there July io, 1826. It was the supposition that Luther Martin was "boarding out" an unpaid fee for defending Burr. His daughter Juliette married Hector Scott, who had been a prosperous merchant in New York City. Scott failed in business for some reason and then came some domestic trouble. Divorces were very rare in those days and Mrs. Scott packed up her goods and, taking along her children, came to Detroit in 1836. There were four daughters and, apparently, one son. Three of the daughters assisted their mother in teaching school and, presumably, the other attended to the affairs of their household. One of the daughters after teaching several years in Detroit went to Mt. Clemens, where she died. This daughter and one other were buried with their mother in Elmwood Cemetery. There is also a record of the burial of Hector Scott, aged 32 years, who is supposed to have been a son of Mrs. Scott. One of the early city directories locates the family residence on Miami Avenue, now Broadway. Mrs. Scott was a granddaughter of the celebrated Capt. Michael Cresap, who was charged with responsibility for the murder of the family of Chief Logan in the Ohio country during the Indian troubles of the Revolutionary period. Evidence was afterward produced to refute this accusation of barbarity. Capt. Cresap left five children, the oldest of whom was Mary, who married Luther Martin. Two daughters were born to the Martins and one of these, Juliette, was Mrs. Hector Scott. During that period Mrs. C. M. Kirkland, a woman of considerable literary ability, was a teacher in the seminary, and after the closing of the seminary she wrote several books. Her "Sketches of Western Life," "Western Clearings" and "A New Home in the West-Who Will Follow?" are based upon material gathered while in Detroit. When this seminary was discontinued the property was transferred to the State in trust for the university, and for several years it was used for a variety of purposes. The state armory was housed in it, sessions of the Supreme Court were held in it, DETROIT FEMALE SEMINARY 441 and the offices of several state departments, crowded out of the old Capitol, were established there. Later it was acquired by the city. In i86o the old seminary was torn down and its site and the adjoining land between it and Woodward Avenue were adopted for the site of the CityHall. Previous to that time it was utilized for offices for several city officials. For many years all higher education in Detroit was furnished by private schools. A number of short-lived classical schools, high schools, seminaries and select schools followed in succession. One of the best known select schools was established by Washington Alston Bacon, who came from the "Soo" in 1836 to conduct a school in his residence at the corner of Jefferson and Antoine Street. Later he taught a school in the rear of another residence at Jefferson and Russell Street, to which he had moved. For nearly 40 years Mr. Bacon taught in Detroit, a real old-fashioned pedagogue who drilled his students thoroughly in their studies and kept them in order as no other teacher of the city had been able to do. He maintained discipline with an eagle eye which seemed to see in all directions, and inflicted punishment with two huge rulers, one of massive hickory and the other of maple, which he called "old rattletebang," because one end of it was split and every time it made contact with a victim the split end would vibrate with a harsh clatter. It was in the Bacon house at Jefferson and Russell Street that Gen. Grant spent part of the time when a resident of Detroit. The first "free school," established by the women of Detroit in 1833 and maintained for several years, was held over the grocery store of N. Prouty on the south side of Woodbridge Street near Shelby. This building stood entirely on piles driven into the water front, the ground floor being on the street level and about six feet above the water. All these schools were the result of group promotions. There seemed to be little community enthusiasm for education. But many years before any of these schools were considered there was active and fairly constant educational promotion by one man-Fr. Gabriel Richard, parish priest of Ste. Anne's 442 THE STORY OF DETROIT Church. Very early in the Nineteenth Century he established a school in the town near the church and another at the Grand Marais, near Waterworks Park of today, where many French squatters lived in little shanties on the islands of solid ground which dotted the great marshy tract on the river front of Grosse Pointe Township. He founded another school at what was DETROIT'S FIRST FREE SCHOOL OVER NATHANIEL PROUTY'S GROCERY ON WOODBRIDGE STREET known as the Spring Hill in Springwells township, between the town and the present site of Fort Wayne. At that time there was quite a ridge of sandy and gravelly soil between the line of Fort Street and the river, and on the river side of this ridge and the scattered sand dunes which ran in a chain parallel with the river a number of flowing springs or wells abounded, which gave to the neighborhood and afterward to the township the name "Springwells." At Spring Hill, in a rude building, Fr. Richard established an academy and set up his printing press from which he issued DETROIT FEMALE SEMINARY 443 the first newspaper of the Territory and a number of school books and religious tracts. In these schools, all under direction of Fr. Richard, the rudiments of the English and Latin languages were taught, also elementary algebra and geometry in addition to "the three R's." At Spring Hill Academy he had more than 30 young ladies, who were also taught the domestic arts of the day. For equipment the founder installed 30 spinning wheels and one loom on which linen and woolen cloths were woven. Among the scholars were several Pottawatomie Indian girls who were under the immediate supervision of their grandmother, who held them sternly to their appointed tasks. Other equipment imported from New York consisted of a spinning machine of 40 spindles, an air pump and a frictional or static electrical machine. Vegetable colors and dye pots were also provided for teaching the art of dyeing yarns and woven fabrics. So far as is known this was the first attempt at teaching industrial arts and domestic science in this country. CHAPTER LXXX EARLY DETROIT THEATERS D RAMATIC art has played an important part in Detroit history. Its beginning was crude enough, consisting of amateur theatrical entertainments given by the officers of the fort. Some of these were given in the old Council House. After the United States came into control of Detroit a Government warehouse was built at the foot of Wayne Street. In 1816 the officers and their wives fitted this up as a theater, the ladies painting the scenery with synthetic landscapes such as Claude Gelee Lorrain never dreamed of in his day. A number of distinguished officers took part in plays in this theater, among them Maj. John Biddle and Gen. James Watson Webb, who was here as a lieutenant of the U. S. Army about I825. Webb subsequently became one of the best known newspaper editors and publishers of New York City. Charles Dickens in his "Martin Chuzzlewit" gave exaggerated burlesque sketches of James Watson Webb and Horace Greeley, but used other names. Benjamin Woodworth, proprietor of the Steamboat Hotel, fitted up his barn for a theater in the 1830's. In 1834 the second story of the Smart Block at the northeast corner of Jefferson and Woodward avenues was fitted for a theater. The First Methodist Church, at Gratiot and Farrar streets, was also used as a theater for several years, as was the First Baptist Church on the site of the Dime Bank Building. In 1848 and for several years after the council chamber in the old City Hall on Cadillac Square was occasionally used as a theater. It was here that a skilled mechanic of Bridgeport, Conn., turned barnstorming actor, was playing in 1849 when the news came that Elias Howe had invented a successful sewing machine. The actor's stage name was Isaac Singer Merritt. His real name was Isaac Merritt Singer. Singer knew Howe and at once remarked: "If Elias 444 EARLY DETROITTHEATERS 445 EARLY DETROIT THEATERS 445 Howe can make a sewing machine, so can I. I'll make a better one." He threw aside his stage costume, went back home and produced the Singer sewing machine. On Jefferson Avenue opposite the old Biddle House was a theatrical center for many years. There stood the Metropolitan Theater in 1849 and for many years after it was continued under various names. In 1853 a lively young fellow named "Larry" Brannigan was clerking in Allan Shelden's dry goods store on Jefferson Avenue and spending his nights in the gallery of the Metropolitan. On dull days at the store young Brannigan would entertain his fellow clerks by impersonations of well known characters of the town. This annoyed the head clerk, who advised Brannigan that he would never be a business man and was therefore wasting his time. He should go on the stage. Brannigan walked over to the Metropolitan and got a job as call boy. After a time he was given small parts in plays given by a stock company and gradually he improved until he became one of America's foremost actors. He is known to the world as Lawrence Barrett. In that same building were other theaters known as "The Varieties" and the-Theater Comique. For many years Charles M. Welch managed these theaters. The Detroit Opera House, facing the Campus, now the Shubert-Detroit, was opened in 1869. That building was burned on the night of October 7, 1897, the fire breaking out about an hour after the closing of a performance of "A Lady of Quality." The present opera house was erected immediately afterward. On Randolph, between Monroe and Lafayette, a music hall once owned by Jacob Beller was converted into White's Grand Theater in 188o. This theater was destroyed in the conflagration of January, 1886, which swept away the D. M. Ferry seed houses. On the same site the Lyceum Theater was built. C. J. Whitney's opera house, on the northwest corner of Fort and Shelby streets, was opened in 1875. After the site was sold for a Government postoffice Mr. Whitney built a theater on the east side of Griswold Street, just north of Michigan Avenue, 446 THE STORY OF DETROIT which is now the Garrick Theater. Garry Hough was the first manager of the Detroit Opera House. Detroit has produced many famous stage stars and several playwrights of national reputation. The best known of these is Bronson Howard. Digby Bell was for many years one of the most popular actors. Margaret Mather (Finlayson) was a Detroit girl. George Primrose was once a bellboy in the Biddle House. Garry Hough was another Detroit actor of early days and an inexhaustible mine of reminiscences. He played the part of Gumption Cute in the first Uncle Tom company. It was from his reminiscences that Fred E. Isham wrote his first successful book, "The Strollers," filled with actual occurrences of the old barnstorming days. Mr. Hough's first appearance in Detroit was in 1845 during the wave of temperance agitation. The company gave several performances of "The Drunkard," "The Drunkard's Wife" and the "Broken Merchant" in a tent pitched on Cadillac Square. On the site of the present County Building Jacob Beller conducted a concert hall from 1857 to 1863. One of the first attractions was the Hofer family of Tyrolean singers, yodlers and pianists. One of the players was Justin Juch, who married a Miss Hahn, of Detroit. Their daughter was the famous singer Emma Juch. Mr. Beller lived on the second floor of the building and boarded and lodged his performers on the third floor. They all ate at a common table. Later Mr. Beller built a hotel, bathhouse and dance hall on Jefferson Avenue, east of Belle Isle Bridge, and the place was a popular resort for many years under the name of Beller's Garden. For many years Detroit kept a ban upon Sunday theaters. Occasionally a strictly moral or religious play would be permitted, but even those easements brought denunciations from the "unco guid" citizens and the ministry. One of the latest uses of the old Theater Comique on Jefferson Avenue was for Sunday afternoon lectures delivered by an eccentric old gentleman known as Dr. Landis. Dr. Landis had a maiden daughter who was a tolerable elocutionist. She usually opened the performance with dramatic readings. EARLY DETROIT THEATERS 447 After she had retired the old doctor would lecture "to men only" on private morals and personal hygiene, making an occasional venture into sexology. The lectures were all proper enough, but the young men of the i88o's used to attend them for a Sunday afternoon lark. Those who sat in the gallery would fill their pockets with vegetables gathered from the alleys in the rear of downtown groceries. A cabbage head was in prime demand and an occasional egg of uncertain age was not despised. From time to time as the lecturer would pause for applause the young men would let fly a volley of decayed vegetables. Dr. Landis was an expert dodger, but often things came his way faster than he could sidestep. Instead of abandoning his enterprise in discouragement he went to considerable expense and had the entire proscenium arch hung with a screen of stout wire netting. Behind this fortification he continued his campaign of education and entertainment in comparative safety. In the I89O's the demand for Sunday theaters became more and more insistent, as the city was acquiring a large foreign population. The church-going Detroiters of Puritan characteristics spurned the suggestion and declared that Detroit should never, never be disgraced by the adoption of the continental European Sabbath. At length some inventive genius discovered a way of driving a wedge into the restrictions. Detroit had a Humane Society of occasional activities. One of its notable reforms was the introduction of a new method of disposing of superfluous unlicensed dogs. For years it had been the custom to confine dogs doomed to execution in a large wire cage and then let the cage run down an inclined railway into the river. The yelps of the poor doomed brutes were pitiful to hear, so the Humane Society devised a lethal chamber in which the dogs were destroyed painlessly and without any anticipation of their fate by fumes of burning charcoal admitted through a pipe. The society wanted to branch out and do more humane work, but its funds were limited to occasional contributions from Senator T. W. Palmer and a few other men of wealth. The proposal was made that theaters be permitted to operate on 448 THE STORY OF DETROIT Sunday nights on condition that 20 per cent of their receipts be turned over to the Humane Society. This brought to the support of the theaters quite a number of influential citizens, and the experiment was tried in spite of protests. No great harm seemed to result from the easement. The moral t6ne of the community appeared to maintain its accustomed pitch. The theaters counted their receipts and turned the 20 per cent over to the one accredited agent of the Humane Society. Several years passed. Humane work broadened out a little. Some decrepit horses and diseased animals were disposed of by painless methods. Starving and neglected animals were given relief and poor children were given occasional aid. The society was so loosely organized that it was quite satisfied with the reports of work done by its agent and apparently never asked for an accounting of the funds received from the theaters, which was no small amount. A newspaper investigation was more thorough. It was discovered that the humane agent had become very prosperous and had acquired ownership of several houses and considerable vacant property in good locations. When asked where he got the money for his purchases he declared it was nobody's business. When asked how much money he had received from the Sunday theaters and how it had been spent he was equally reticent. Then came an exposure of the profitable graft. The humane agent retired from office, which he could well afford to do. Under the circumstances the theaters decided to hold up their 20 per cent contribution to charity but they kept right on giving Sunday performances with increased profit and they are doing it yet, apparently by common consent of the majority of the citizens. CHAPTER LXXXI MICHIGAN'S MIORMON COLONY EW Detroiters of the present day are aware of the fact that Michigan had for io years a Mormon colony which was subjected to many persecutions and outrages at the hands of a bigoted, rough aggregation of fishermen and settlers. In 1843 a young lawyer of small stature, but of unusual ability and strong personality, emigrated from western New York to Burlington, Racine County, Wis. His name was James Jesse Strang. In 1844 Strang visited the Mormon settlement at Nauvoo, Ill., where he accepted the faith, was baptized by Joseph Smith and made a missionary elder with an appointment to propagate the faith of his sect in Wisconsin. In the following June, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered by a mob of Nauvoo and it became necessary for the Mormons to make another migration to escape persecution. Strang regarded himself as the most intelligent member of the sect and tried to assume the leadership in succession to Joseph Smith, but he came into conflict with the stronger personality of Brigham Young and was driven out of Nauvoo. Strang had many adherents who followed him to Wisconsin, and they established a communistic settlement on White River, near Burlington, which they named "Voree." When Brigham Young planned the long pilgrimage to Utah part of the sect regarded it as a too hazardous venture and most of these attached themselves to the leadership of Strang. From time to time Strang announced to his followers that he had visions of revelation and direction, and in one of these visions he claimed that he had been directed to establish a colony on SBig Beaver Island in Lake Michigan. There, he said, they would be far removed from their persecutors and might dwell in peace and prosperity. The greater part of the Voree colony followed him to Beaver Island. Along the east shore of Beaver a number 449 450 THE STORY OF DETROIT of fishermen had "squatted" and built cabins. These fishermen tried to oppose the Mormon invasion, but a few men were powerless to prevent the settlement of 2,ooo Mormons, so the fishermen were forced to migrate to the mainland, where they started a propaganda of opposition and persecution against the Mormons. For years the Mormon colony was occasionally raided by armed marauders from the Michigan mainland and many outrages were committed. All sorts of false charges were made against the Mormons, although their sole offenses against the law appear to have been the sanction and practice of polygamy. Strang himself annexed four "spiritual wives" in addition to his legal wife. He made five wives the limit for his followers. It is frequently the case that men who make an initial success in the founding of a new religious sect become the victims of their own conceit and develop megalomania. This appears to have been the case with Strang, who assumed an absolute dictatorship over his followers and conducted the affairs of the islanders as if they were a nation under a paternal despotic government. He soon became known at home and abroad as "King Strang." Strang was a man of fair complexion, with reddish hair and beard. His cold blue eyes seemed to exercise a magnetic influence over his followers and his resolute courage and unwavering manner in the face of opposition seemed to cow larger men who were inclined to rebel against his arbitrary rule while he acted as prophet, priest and king. At first his enemies were confined to the dispossessed squatter fishermen, but presently the fishermen enlisted the farmers and finally the entire population of Mackinac County in their feud against the Mormons. They circulated tales of outrage and murder, robbery of mails, piracy on the lake, kidnaping of women, and all manner of charges of lawlessness. If a settler moved away or disappeared, it was charged that he had been driven out or murdered by the Mormons. The chief cause back of the feud lay in the fact that Beaver Island was a part of Mackinac County. The Mormons outnumbered the other settlers and they voted as one man for whatever MICHIGAN'S MORMON COLONY41 451 candidates for public office Strang might select for Mormon support. Strang could control the election of all county officials and this situation did not please the minority element. In 1pa delegation from Mackinac County visited Detroit and made such representations to United States District Attorney George C. Bates and U. S. Marshal C. H. Knox that they decided that the Beaver Island colony must be investigated and cleaned up. The U. S. steamer Michigan, the only naval vessel of the upper lakes, went to Beaver Island with thd Federal officers and a sufficient escort of soldiers, and 40 men of the Mormon colony who had been charged with crimes were rounded up for judicial inquiry. When the Mormons were confronted with their accusers the charges were so flimsy that- most of the accused were released on the spot, but Strang and a few of his immediate followers were brought to Detroit to be tried on various charges in the United States Court. The trial was held in the old Government Building at the southwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and Griswold Street, now owned and occupied by the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company. Judge Ross Wilkins, of the United States Court, presided. Strang was first arraigned and brought to trial and he conducted his own defense with the assistance of Col. Andrew T. McReynolds, who had recendly returned from the war in Mexico. Before the shrewd questioning of Strang and his counsel the witnesses were easily thrown into confusion and it was evident that their charges were based more upon suspicion and hatred than upon fact. Strang was acquitted by a hostile jury, the charges against the others were dismissed as unfounded and the Mormon leader returned to Beaver Island with increased power and prestige. That fall the Mormons carried the election in Mackinac County and elected the justice-, the sheriff, the assessor, and tax collector. This merely intensified the feeling against them. A further aggravation was added when 'in 18 53 Strang was elected a representative to the Michigan legislature at Lansing. He proved to be an unusually intelligent and forceful legislator and won the approval even of his enemies. In the meantime the Beaver 452 THE STORY OF DETROIT 452 THE STORY OF DETROIT Island colony prospered greatly, for Strang directed the domestic affairs of his followers and allowed no idlers. Every member was compelled to work and to work under direction of Strang, "KING" STRANG'S CASTLE I ". i.' i.i who tried to find for every man the task for which he was best fitted. Strang was himself the busiest and hardest working member of the colony. In addition l to directing religious worship, government, agriculture, fishJAMES JESSE STRANG ing, building, and all manner of domestic affairs, he published a newspaper, the Northern Islander, a book with the title"Ancient and Modern Michilimackinac," and contributed an able report on the "Natural History of Beaver Island" to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. a a MICHIGAN'S MORMON COLONY 453 As is often the case, power went to his head. His domination over his subjects led some of them to leave the island and settle along the mainland where Charlevoix is now located. Strang sent a posse to bring some of them back, but they resisted arrest and, aided by the fishermen and other settlers along the shore, opened fire on the Mormon officials and wounded several of them. But for the rescue of the Mormons by Capt. Stone of the bark Morgan it is probable that all would have been killed. The punishment commonly applied by Strang for petty offenses was the whipping post. In I855 the "bloomer" dressreform craze reached Beaver Island and Strang ordered all the women to don bloomers. Two members of the colony, Thomas Bedford and Alexander Wentworth, induced their wives to rebel against the order. For this Bedford was seized and whipped. From that time a conspiracy began to develop against Strang to accomplish his assassination by the hands of his own rebellious subjects. Strang asked Gov. Bingham for protection and the steamer Michigan was sent to the island. When Strang attempted to go on board he was shot down from an ambush. He died a few days later, leaving directions for his people to migrate back to Voree, Wis., which he had been preparing for them to reoccupy. Soon after the people from the Michigan shore began raiding the island. They drove the Mormons, men, women and children, to refuge on two lake steamers, the Keystone and the Iowa, and they were landed on the dock in Chicago in utter destitution. This was one of the few shameful chapters of persecution that belong in the history of Michigan. CHAPTER LXXXII NOVEL LEGISLATION-ANCIENT LANDMARKS NEWLY created states tend toward innovations in govern ment. In our own generation the attention of -.I-the entire country has been attracted by adoption of new and curious statutes in certain states, notably in Kansas and Oklahoma. Michigan in its early days of statehood frequently drew the attention of the entire country by its adoption of laws such as had never before been enacted in this country. The Michigan school system was one of these and presendly it was imitated by many other states. The Michigan Homestead Act was another. The provisions for a state normal school and a state agricultural college were regarded at first as rather fantastic. Some were inclined to ask what possible use a farmer could have for higher education. Given too much book or scientific knowledge, would he not waste his time in reading instead of raising crops? All these questions have been answered by time and experience and Michigan's early legislators have- been honored by many imitators. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In early days the man who struggled to establish a home or a farm was often the victim of a train of misfortunes. Fever and ague was a disease of almost universal prevalence and it impaired the strength of men and sometimes made invalids of an entire family for months at a stretch. Work fell behind, crops failed, but debts, interest and taxes held the unfortunates in their grip, and often after several years of hard struggle a setdler's house and land would be taken from him for the satisfaction of debt and the family would be reduced to utter poverty. This condition appealed for relief and Rev. John D. Pierce presented the first Homestead Act, by which the State would stand between the debtor and his creditors for the preservation of his home. It was introduced in the legislature Of 1847, but a 454 NOVEL LEGISLATION 455 considerable part of both houses was made up of the creditor class of citizens and the bill was defeated. Mr. Pierce then submitted his proposal to the people by publishing abroad its purport and intent. When the next legislature convened public sentiment had been so shaped as to force its adoption by a large majority. Michigan was one of the first states to discover that the court of last resort is reached by a direct appeal to the people themselves over the heads of the governing power and even the highest courts. Later on we shall find that the Civil War was, at the bottom, an appeal to the people against the Dred Scott decision that had been handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States. All this goes to show that we are a government of the people in fact as well as in assertion. Michigan's first constitution remained in force for I; years. Then certain faults, weaknesses and shortcomings were discovered in it and, after considerable public discussion, a constitutional convention was assembled in 185o to make a thorough revision. Already there was a tendency to too much law-making at the annual sessions of the legislature. It was decided that money could be saved and legislation could be kept within bounds by having the legislature meet once in two years instead of every year. To prevent complexity in laws the new constitution required that every law be confined to a single subject to be specified in its title. License laws for the sale of intoxicating liquors were forbidden. State revenue for ordinary purposes was to be provided by an annual tax on property. Money obtained by specific taxes on corporations was to be applied to the state debt and after that was extinguished it was to be paid into the primary school fund. The State was forbidden to incur any debt beyond 550,000 except for war purposes. The State also was forbidden to aid or become interested in corporation stocks, or works of public improvement except in extending grants for such purposes. State credit could not be loaned in aid of persons or corporations. Taxed property was to be assessed at its cash value. Provision was made for an agricultural school, for a normal school, and for public libraries in ever}y township. All fines for breach of the 456 THE STORY OF DETROIT penal laws were devoted to these libraries. By striking the word "white" from the provision governing the elective franchise Negroes were given the ballot. The limitation upon the State with regard to works of public improvement, restricting its authority to incur debt to the sum of $5o,ooo, was a direct result of the disastrous venturing in. railway promotion which had involved a debt of $5,ooo,ooo. That restriction was not challenged until nearly So years later. In the late 1890's Detroit was inclined to end the controversies with the street railway by a purchase of the property and unexpired franchises for $17,5oo00,000ooo, but when it came to a deal it was found that the constitution of i85o prevented the investment because the State itself, being barred from any such expenditure of money, had no right to confer upon any municipality rights which it did not itself possess by constitutional provision. States and the Federal Government have no powers of authority except such as are delegated to them by the people and expressed in their written constitutions. Only a few of the buildings which stood in the center of Detroit in the 184o's still remain and some of these are worthy of mention as landmarks of the olden time. One of these is the building now owned and occupied by the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company at the southwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and Griswold Street. That building was erected in 1837 for the Bank of Michigan. It is almost directly opposite the site where stood the old Church of Ste. Anne from 1701 to i8o5. About the church was an old cemetery from which the accumulated remains of Detroiters who died between 1701 and i8o5 were never removed. It is said that a good many of the broken tombstones were used in laying the foundation of the building. The Bank of Michigan building is noted as the first building of dressed stone erected in Detroit. It was built of smoothfaced fossilized limestone and when new its walls attracted the attention of many people because of the many curious glistening fossils which showed on the surface of the stone. The Government of the United States secured it by purchase in 1842 for ANCIENT LANDMARKS 457 its first public building in Michigan. There the United States Court was held and the U. S. Marshal and other officials had their offices. For a time the Land Office occupied the basement and later the postoffice was located there. The first field stone building of Detroit was the Mansion House hotel, which was built of the stone of the old chimneys that were left standing after the fire of 18o5. The Mansion House was located on the northwest corner of Jefferson and Wayne and stood facing the river. A road passed between it and the river, and south of the road was a lawn with shade trees extending to the edge of a shore about 25 feet high. At the foot of the bluff flowed the river, which for about ioo feet out from the bluff was very shallow. That shoal was filled up in 1827 by the grading down of the bluff, and dumping of earth from the ramparts of old Fort Shelby, as well as that obtained by the removal of a hill which once occupied the lower part of Cadillac Square. Another ancient landmark is the old Mariners' Church, or Sailors' Bethel, at the northwest corner of Woodward Avenue and Woodbridge Street. The lot was once owned by Miss Charlotte Ann Taylor and her sister, Mrs. Julia Ann Anderson, who came to Detroit on the first trip of the Walk-in-theWater in 1818 and were communicants of St. Paul's Church. Mrs. Anderson died in 1842 and her will bequeathed the lot for the founding of a church for the sailors of the lakes. To provide funds for building a stone church she donated a lot in the rear fronting on Griswold Street, which was sold for $13,100, and some land in Monroe. The Mariners' Church cost $r5,ooo and was dedicated in 1849. Provision was made that the lower floor should be used for business purposes to help defray the cost of maintaining the church. The postoffice occupied it for a time and for many years now it has been used by commission and produce merchants. An ancient landmark on the south side of Jefferson Avenue, midway between Griswold and Shelby streets, was torn down in i88o. This was the home of Joseph Campau, at one time the wealthiest citizen of Michigan. The house itself represented, 458 THE STORY or DETROIT on a rather large scale, the general characteristics of the early French houses of the better sort. The site itself was historic as the Campau house was said to have been built over the foundations of the house in which Cadillac lived. The Campau house tC11 l~sNJ1 I 6momki.. i a- I I r! JOSEPH CAMPAU AND HIS HOME ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF JEFFERSON AVENUE BETWEEN GRISWOLD AND SHELBY STREETS was erected in 1813 at a cost of $6,000. One side of it was used for the office of the owner, who was a man of large affairs and who traded for many years with the Indians. The Indians regarded him as their good friend. Often it is said Mr. Campau allowed several of them to sleep on the floor of his office. The front door was divided across the middle in the old Dutch and French fashion and in his old age Mr. Campau loved to stand leaning over the lower half of the closed door to gossip with the older citizens as they passed the house. This house stood unchanged on the main business street of Detroit ANCIENT LAN-DMARKS 459 for many years after all the other old houses had been removed. It was surrounded by business blocks. Mr. Campau preferred the simple life of pioneer days to the last. Until the time of his death in 1863 his books were kept in the French language. He was the father of Daniel J. Campau, a successful merchant, and grandfather of Daniel J. Campau, Jr., for many years a prominent Democratic politician, horseman and capitalist. CHAPTER LXXXIII DETROIT'S EARLY GROWING PAINS URING the decade of the 1850's Detroit suffered severely from "growing pains." The community had 21,oo000 population in 1850 and in the next five years the population was doubled. This increase called for a sudden expansion in capacity and number of school buildings. It overtaxed the equipment for water supply. The county poor farm was badly in need of new buildings to take care of the increased number of inmates. More fire stations and apparatus were needed; in fact, all the public institutions and services called for expansion. When these needs were put before the eyes of the taxpayers with their prospective costs, besides the expense of street openings, sewers and paving, the effect was almost a panic. On January 5, 1853, a mass meeting was held at the City Hall to protest against the establishment of any more public institutions and to demand economy in public expenditures. Detroiters of early days were quite as reluctant about paying taxes as those of the present time-more so in fact. They adopted two temporizing methods. One of these was to pass the cost of necessary public improvements on to the succeeding generation when possible, and when it was not, to adopt certain temporizing measures. Both these practices are still in vogue. By the issue of bonds for paving, the population of one generation pays for considerable paving that the preceding generation laid and wore out in its time. Each civic administration comes into power with declarations of economy, and the economic method is to delay construction and expansion of necessary public institutions as long as possible, meanwhile renting rooms and old buildings for schools here and there,utilizing abandoned buildings, etc., until the situation becomes intolerable. When the expansion is finally forced the tax rate goes up with a bound 460 DETROIT'S EARLY GROWING PAINS 461 and the administration which happens to be in power when the avalanche starts is roundly denounced for the sins of omission of its predecessors. This is a chronic condition in many cities and Detroit follows the rule. The present high rate of taxation and steadily increasing assessed valuation are results of a forced situation because former administrations did not keep up school construction, sewer construction and other necessities as the situation demanded. Rather than pay taxes for public improvements the citizens of early Detroit preferred to sell their birthright. The Government of the United States granted to the people of Detroit a tract of Io,ooo acres that the proceeds might be used for public purposes. One of these was the building of a courthouse. The northern part of the Grand Boulevard runs through the lower edge of that tract. Most of the valuable grant was sold to build the first 'State Capitol on Capitol Square. The contractors' price for the work was $21,000 and they were given 6,500 acres of the Io,ooo-acre tract at a rating of $2.122 per acre. In addition they were given 144 city lots at a rate of $50o per lot. If the citizens had raised the money in some other way and held fast to the property for a few years, Detroiters of the present day might not be so burdened with taxation. An example is furnished by the utilization of a single school section, one mile square, on which the State Capitol was located in Lansing. At that time Lansing was a small settlement of log houses along Grand River. The 640 acres of the school section, if sold at that time, might have brought $i,5oo. The State, instead of immediately selling the land, waited for the town to grow about the Capitol and ultimately realized between $500,000 and $I,ooo,ooo for the school fund of the State. Utilization of the io,ooo-acre tract in Detroit in the same fashion by holding it on public account would have given Detroit many millions of money for public improvements. When the State abandoned the old Capitol, the buildihg stood idle for several months. In the meantime, Detroit needed a high school or a union school very badly, but neglected to build one. Several times the legislature was petitioned to 46, THE STORY OF DETROIT grant the building to the city for educational purposes, but the legislators delayed action and questioned their own authority to make the grant. The Detroit Board of Education, seeing its petitions ignored, took the law into its own hands. The key of the old Capitol was in custody of Divie B. Duffield, and Mr. Duffield was a member of the Board of Education for the Fifth ward. Opportunity offered for "peaceful penetration" of abandoned state property. One morning people who lived in the vicinity of the Capitol noticed that the windows were open; that workmen were carrying out rubbish and others were carrying in new lumber. Sounds of hammering and sawing came from the interior. Several curious and officious citizens went inside to find a big gang of carpenters clearing away the old desks in the hall of representatives and preparing to erect partitions. "What are you men doing here?" was aske-d. "We're fixing the building over for a school." "But you have no right here. Who gave you authority to take possession of state property and to begin tearing it to pieces?" "We're hired by the Board of Education and as long as we get our money we don't care a rap for any other authority." The officious ones fumed and fretted for a day or two, but the state militia was not called out to eject the invaders. The work went on steadily until the interior of the old Capitol was completely remodeled into schoolrooms and classrooms. The school board had some doubts as to its rights in the building and asked the State for a lease, but the legislators at Lansing and the Governor were still unable to see how to transfer the property, and the answer to the petition was that the school board being already in peaceful possession, no lease of the property was necessary. The building remained in possession of the Board of Education of Detroit without protest from that time until the building, then entirely remodeled and greatly enlarged, was destroyed by fire on January 27, I893. The site was converted into a public park, now known as Capitol Svuare. DETROIT'S EARLY GROWING PAINS46 463 For many years a union school was maintained in the Capitol building. The first high school was established in a new building on Broadway, then Miami Avenue, in 18 59, on the site now used for the Board of Education. In 1863 the high school was removed to the second story of the Capitol building. From that time until January, 1 893, this was the sole high school for CAPITOL HIGH SCHOOL 464 THE STORY OF DETROIT the City of Detroit. The building had been enlarged in all directions. For several years it housed the Public Library as well as the high school., During the 1840's the bell of the First Presbyterian Church was rung at 6 o'clock in the morning, at noon, and at 6 o'clock at night. It also sounded the curfew over the city at 9 o'clock in the evening. There were too many saloons and taverns in the town which existed solely for the purpose of selling strong ale and whisky at three cents a glass and the curfew was sounded to warn disorderly persons off the public streets. This was the period of the short war with Mexico. Two regiments were raised in Detroit, but only one of them went to Mexico, and that in command of Col. Andrew T. McReynolds. They left Detroit April 24, 1847, landing at Vera Cruz. They returned July 8, 1848, after participating in the conquest of the Mexican capital. Ireland was stricken with a terrible famine. The potatoes, the principal food of the Irish masses, rotted in the ground before they could ripen, and before relief could be sent tens of thousands of people died of starvation. On February 25, 1847, a systematic movement in behalf of the Irish was begun in Detroit and as a result Michigan sent 2,348 barrels of provisions, of which 2,175 were flour. As a result of the famine there was an extraordinary emigration of Irish to the United States for several years and Detroit received its full share of the refugees. As a result of three years' failure of the potato crop and the resulting famine and emigration the population of Ireland was reduced from a little over 8,000,o000o to less than 4,000,000. The Detroit Savings Bank, now the oldest bank in Michigan, was incorporated March 5, 1849. The Harmonie Society, still in existence, was organized June ist in the same year. Reports of cholera came from the East and citizens of Detroit became alarmed. Strangers arriving by boat from Buffalo were regarded with suspicion. Notices published in the newspapers warned people to clean up their yards, and the streets and alleys. While the work -of cleaning up was in progress the plague appeared in Detroit early in July, and when it ceased on September 15th it had caused 300 deaths among the citizens. DETROIT'S EARLY GROWING PAINS 46S In 1849 the first plate glass windows in Detroit were placed in the front of George Doty's handsome jewelry store. Before that time all store windows had been composed of ordinary sheet glass in moderate-sized panes. The military officers and the ladies of the city showed an extraordinary interest in these windows, but sarcastic persons alleged that these were more interested in their own reflections in the glass than in the windows themselves or even Mr. Doty's alluring display of clocks, watches, rings and brooches just inside. On September 25, 26 and 27, 1849, the first annual fair of the Michigan State Agricultural Society was held on grounds on the west side of Woodward Avenue, between Adams Avenue and Duffield Street. The fair was a creditable exhibit of products from a new state and was liberally attended by farmers of the southern counties. The third state fair was held in Detroit in 1851 on grounds north of Michigan Avenue, bounded by Grand River, Elizabeth and Spruce streets. The same grounds were used the three following years. In 1856 the state fair was held on grounds north of Jefferson Avenue in Hamtramck, which were used for two years. The eleventh state fair was held on grounds west of Woodward Avenue and north of Davenport Street, which were used for three successive years fcr the fairs and during the rest of the season for a riding park. Later fairs were held for a time on grounds north of Warren Avenue. The Detroit&Pontiac Plank Road was opened in November, 1849. Vice-President Millard Fillmore visited Detroit for a week as the guest of Mayor Howard. In 1850, on the death of President Taylor, he became President of the United States. George Bancroft, the historian, visited Detroit in October, 1849. On August 16, 1841, occurred the first marine disaster on the Great Lakes involving a heavy loss of human lives. The steamer Erie, while on her way from Buffalo to Cleveland, took fire in mid-lake with more than 200 persons on board. A deckload of paints and oils lent such fury to the flames that only 27 persons were saved. Among the steerage passengers were a considerable number of Swiss immigrants on their way west. CHAPTER LXXXIV THE RAILWAY CONSPIRACY-TOBACCO INDUSTRY MICHIGAN has experienced a number of serious and long-drawn contentions between the people and the.M., public service corporations. The first of these to have serious consequences was the "railway conspiracy" of 18so. The Michigan Central Railroad Company had incurred considerable debt and had invested a good deal of money. The road was completed to Michigan City in 185o and was soon to enter Chicago. A large depot topped with a huge dome had been built at the foot of Third Street in Detroit and adjoining it were a freight house, car shops and a plant for building and repairing locomotives. The tracks had been relaid with T-rails weighing 6o pounds to the yard, but the right of way was not yet fenced. Cattle belonging to farmers along the route often strayed upon the tracks and were killed. The farmers sued to recover damages and the railway resisted payment on the ground that the farmers were partly responsible. Trains -no longer stopped wherever they were flagged by would-be passengers and occasionally a train would pass a small way station where several passengers would be waiting. The people, accustomed to board a train anywhere and to be landed near their own doors) did not like the new arrangement. As a result of a number of such causes for complaint the farmers and villagers in certain districts became fiercely hostile toward the new corporation and began plotting against it..Rails were torn up in the night. Ties and logs were laid across the tracks. Passing trains were fired at from the dark lurking-places of the conspirators. Several trains were derailed and the engineers, firemen and even passengers felt that their lives were in peril. These troubles were most acute in the neighborhood of Jackson, Michigan Center, Leoni and 466 THE RAILWAY CONSPIRACY 467 Grass Lake. Matters grew steadily worse until November 19. 1850, when the conspirators entered Detroit and burned the Michigan Central depot, involving a loss of $i5o,0oo. Sheriff Lyman Baldwin of Detroit had employed special deputies to watch the railway, and agents of the law and order element had joined the conspirators for the purpose of discovering who were responsible for the acts of lawlessness. The Michigan Central depot was destroyed by employing a lawless Detroiter named Washington Gay, who climbed to the dome after darkness had fallen and set an infernal machine with a time fuse which gave him plenty of time to get safely away before the building burst into flames. As a result of shrewd detective work the names of the chief conspirators were obtained, and much evidence with regard to the burning of the depot. On April 19, 1851, warrants were issued and Sheriff Baldwin brought 38 of the conspirators, farmers, tavern-keepers and laborers, to Detroit, where they were tried. It was the most notable criminal prosecution in Michigan up to that time. More than I,ooo witnesses were sworn, the largest number in any Michigan law case. Seven of the ablest lawyers of Detroit appeared on behalf of the people and the railway company. The conspirators, seeing they were in a desperate case, spent money lavishly for their own defense. They brought to Detroit as their chief counsel Senator William H. Seward of Auburn, N. Y., then rated as the foremost lawyer 'of the country, and they employed several others as associate counsel. The trial began May 29 and lasted 89 days. During that period Abel F. Fitch, supposed to have been the leader of the organization, died in jail. Twelve of the accused were convicted. Ammi Tilley and Orlando Williams went to prison for terms of o10 years. Richard Price, Eben Price, William Corwin, Ebenezer Farnham, Andrew J. Freeland and Aaron Mount got sentences of eight years each; Lyman Champlin, Willard Champlin, Erastus Champlin and Erastus Smith drew sentences of five years each. This settled the case of those particular men, but it seemed to intensify the hatred of others not yet involved in the war 468 THt~ STORY OF DETROIT against the railway corporation. Within four months after the 12 men were sent to prison the car shops of the company in Detroit were destroyed by incendiaries. In 1854 the new depot was burned. In 1862 the roundhouse was burned and nine locomotives greatly needed for transporting U. S. troops were badly damaged. In 1865 the freight house was burned. It was the common supposition that all these incendiary fires were started by friends and sympathizers of the men who were in prison, but they scattered their depredations and covered their trails so well that they were never discovered. These later fires increased the losses of the corporation by at least $250,000. Jean Nicot, Sieur de Villemain, born at Nimes, France, was appointed ambassador to the court of Portugal in i56o by Francis II. While a resident in Lisbon he obtained some seeds of the tobacco plant from a Flemish sea trader, who also told him how the plant was used. The seeds were planted in France and later the tobacco habit was introduced. The plant was named nicotinia in honor of Nicot. The first permanent American settlement in Virginia dates from 1607, and five years later John Rolfe made a shipment of several thousand pounds of tobacco to London. The use of the weed had already been taught by Sir Walter Raleigh and soon it became a popular fad. Thus a poisonous weed became a great American staple and the basis of an important industry. The annual expenditure for smoking and chewing tobacco, cigars, cigarettes and snuff amounts to many millions of dollars. The habit once started in England, King James tried to abolish it by royal decree with heavy penalties attached for violations, but as yet all legislation for the suppression of the use of tobacco has failed. Detroit, being far removed from the centers of tobacco production, was hardly expected to become one of the largest centers of its manufacture, but about 184o George Miller introduced tobacco manufacture in Detroit in a small two-story frame cottage on the west side of Woodward Avenue, a few doors below Jefferson. Five years later he sold out the business TOBAC2CO INDUSTRY 469 TOBACCO INDUSTRY 469 to his father, Isaac S. Miller, and in 1849 Isaac Miller sold out to another son, T. C. Miller. The Millers stored their tobacco on the second floor, prepared it for cutting, 25 pounds at a time, in the rear of the ground floor, and down in the basement they installed their cutting machinery, which was operated by an aged blind horse and a circular horse-power machine. The horse was stabled in the cellar beside his daily task and product and was never removed until after several years of service he was derricked out, dead. The consumers of the tobacco seemed to have no objection to the slight livery-stable tang imparted by the intimate connection between the horse and the daily product of tobacco. Out of apprenticeship in that tiny tobacco works came two no- I table men of Detroit and Michigan. John Judson Bagley, bornat Medina, N. Y., July 24, 1832, DETROIT'S FIRST TOBACCO was brought to Michigan by his FACTORY parents soon after the state was admitted to the Union. The Bagleys lived successively at Constantine, White Pigeon and Owosso, where John J. obtained a little school education and worked in country stores. At the age of 14 years he came to Detroit and found employment in the tobacco store and factory of Isaac S. Miller and learned something about the business. At the age of 21 he started in business for himself as successor to Mr. Miller, and began producing a brand of fine cut chewing tobacco termed "Mayflower," which became famous and was one of Detroit's staple products for more than 50 years. Mr. Bagley prospered and accumulated a great fortune. He became a director in several 470 THE STORY OF DETROIT banks and a power in the Republican party in Michigan. In 1872 he was elected Governor and reelected in 1874, in spite of a general Democratic landslide. In 1880 he missed election to the United States Senate by only one vote. Another apprentice of the Miller tobacco shop was Daniel Scotten, who started in business for himself in 1856 in partnership with Granger & Lovett, manufacturing the Hiawatha DANIEL SCOTTEN JOHN J. BAGLEY brand of chewing tobacco, which was a keen rival of Bagley's Mayflower for many years. Mr. Scotten also became a noted capitalist of Detroit, the founder of a large industry and builder of the Hotel Cadillac. The Globe Tobacco Company, the American Eagle Tobacco Company, the Banner Tobacco Company, and many cigar manufacturing companies came into the field of Detroit industries to furnish employment and add to the wealth and commercial importance of the city. TOBACCO INDUSTRY 471 It is a rather curious coincidence that three men who worked as apprentices in the little tobacco factory of the Millers and slept at night under the counters to save room rent should all have become wealthy'men-two of them millionaires. This was the case with John J. Bagley, Daniel Scotten and Hiram Granger. Scotten, Granger & Lovett made their start in a small way with a capital of $i,5oo. They began business at 178 Randolph Street in 1856 and moved to the north side of Cadillac Square near the present Family Theater in 1862. Scotten wanted to plunge in tobacco buying just before the Civil War broke. Granger thought the venture risky and sold out to Scotten, Lovett & Company. The new firm bought until they had filled a building on Miami Avenue (Broadway) which they rented for storage, and cleared an immense profit on the subsequent rise in price. In 1882 Mr. Scotten became sole owner and built up a large business on Fort Street West. When he died, March 3, 1899, his estate, largely invested in Detroit property and lands below Sandwich, on the Canadian side of the river, was rated at about $7,ooo,ooo. Largely through the enterprise of these men, Detroit became one of the centers of tobacco manufacture in the country. Other firms entered the business. Cigar manufacturing was begun and the value of the manufactured product steadily increased for many years. In 1922 there were 12 large cigar factories and many small ones in Detroit, which turned out 205,000,000 cigars. At the same time 13,305,120 pounds of chewing tobacco were manufactured. The cigar business employed 12,000 persons. The world's production of tobacco was 4,500,000,000 pounds, of which the United States produced 1,600,ooo000,000oo. Nine billions of cigars were manufactured and 52,000,000,000 cigarettes. Jean Nicot, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Rolfe and their associates certainly started something in their time. ~ CHAPTER LXX.XV DEVELOPMENT OF THE STOVE INDUSTRY DETROIT is the chief center of the stove industry in America. This industry began in a repair service for replacing outworn and broken parts of stoves which had been manufactured chiefly in Albany and Troy, N. Y., and shipped to Detroit. One may well marvel at the lateness and the tardiness of the evolution of the stove either as a means of heating homes and buildings or as a convenience for the preparation of food. Nobody knows when man began to warm himself by a fire or to eat cooked food, but it was many centuries before he learned to write and record his experiences in history. For more than 100oo years after our forefathers landed in America the open fireplace was the sole convenience for heating homes or cooking food. The earliest record of an attempt at stovemaking is that in Alsace in France, where rude boxes of iron were used in connection with a fireplace in 1490. About the year 1735 Christopher Sower, who came from Germany, not far from Alsace, invented what was termed a jamb stove, which was merely an oven attached to a fireplace. This was made in Germantown, Pa., now absorbed into Philadelphia. Dr. Benjamin Franklin in 1744 invented a far more practical stove by boxing in a small fireplace in cast iron so that the radiation of heat would be available from the sides as well as the front. From that radical departure began the evolution of the stoves of the present day. Pioneer settlers of America did not suffer from coal strikes, in fact they did not use coal at all. They had such a wealth of fuel in the standing forests that they destroyed millions of dollars' worth of good fuel and timber by rolling logs into vast heaps and burning them. This was heavy work, so settlers used to exchange labor by meeting together to roll these logs 472 DEVELOPMENT OF THE STOVE INDUSTRY 473 into great piles to be burned. From that practice we have the term "log-rolling," which we apply in a political sense when politicians combine together for mutual aid in securing votes. The open fireplace for 130 years was the center of every home in Detroit. It was built of stones and clay and later of stones and mortar, until bricks began to be manufactured. PIONEER FIREPLACE THE HEART OF EVERY DETROIT HOME FOR 130 YEARS The opening of the fireplace was commonly wide enough to permit the use of sticks of wood four feet long and the recess was about three feet deep. For the foundation of a fire a heavy hardwood log a foot or more in diameter was hauled into the house and rolled to the rear wall of the fireplace. This was termed the "back-log." Against this an armful of dry pine sticks, called kindling-wood, would be laid and lighted by use of flint, steel, tinder and shavings. When the kindling-wood 474 THE STORY OF DETROIT was well ligh-ted a number of sticks of wood would be piled upon it and soon the flames would be leaping up the chimney and the sparks flying high in the air outside. The sticks for the main part of the fire were laid across andirons so as to permit air to find its way under the fire, thus serving the purpose of a rude grate. The andirons consisted of two upright bars or posts of ornamental iron about three feet high, standing on two feet about a foot apart and having a bar of iron attached at a right angle about six inches above the floor. The rear of this fire-bar was supported parallel to the. floor of the hearth by a bend at its inner end and the sticks laid across these bars were thus supported six or eight inches above the hearth. Some of these ancient andirons were of brass and very elaborate in their ornamentation. In one side of the wall of the fireplace two loop hinges of iron would be strongly imbedded in the masonry and from these loops a strong right-angled crane of iron would be hung so that it could be swung in over the fire or out into the room. At the ou'ter end of the crane a large iron hook would be attached and on the top bar between the large hook and the wall of the fireplace would be a number of smaller hooks or chains with hooks attached. These were termed " trammels." From the large hook a huge cast-iron kettle would be hung, and in it vegetables and meats were boiled and cakes and pies would be baked. From the smaller trammels meats were hung for slow roasting. Under a roasting chicken or piece of venison, pork or beef the housewife would set a pan to catch the drippings as the juices were tried out by the heat of the fire. When the roast was well under way she would use a large iron spoon to dip up the drippings from the dripping pan and pour them over the outside of the roast to keep it from scorching and drying up. This process was termed "basting." The roasting pieces were suspended on a "spit," which was a sharp-pointed, slender rod of iron on which the roast could be easily turned from time to time to insure even cooking on all sides. At one side of the fireplace, opposite the attachment of the crane, a narrow bench, termed the "bob," would be made in DEVELOPMENT OF THE STOVE INDUSTRY 47 475 the masonry. This was for the teakettle, which was thus kept hot and out of the way of the crane and its contents. Before Chinese tea found its way into the country homes the women of the pioneer homes used to make fragrant hot drinks by infusing sassafras, peppermint, sage, wintergreen, or other aromatic leaves. Of course a large part of the heat from the old-fashioned fireplace went up the flue, and on a cold winter day when the wind roared like thunder in the chimney and sucked away even more of the heat of the fire, one had to keep turning before the fire to keep from freezing on one side and burning on the other. Here human invention came to the rescue by the construction of the ingle-nook. This was made by building a partition out from the wall of the house on each side of the fireplace and placing a high-backed bench called a "settle" on each side of the fireplace. Grandmothers and grandfathers had as their special prerogative the right to the ingle-seat closest to the fire., where they commonly sat winter evenings smoking their clay pipes and spitting accurately into the fire while they told wonderful stories of adventures with Jn~dians and fairy tales to the children clustered about their knees. At 9 o'clock when the curfew bell would strike, the night watch would call out sonorously: "Nine o'the clock and all's well; curfew. " The family would then rise and prepare for bed. "Curfew " is an adaptation of two French words: "Couvre feu," meaning cover the fire. The head of the house would take the fire shovel and push the glowing coals against the back-log and then cover them with ashes to retard combustion and insure the keeping of the fire alive through the night. Making a fire without matches was no trifling task on a bitter winter morning, as~most Boy Scouts will know. Stoves began coming to Detroit from the East as soon as the Erie Canal was opened in 1825. A few had arrived before that time. The earliest stoves were mere iron boxes made by Conant or Woolson, of Brandon, Vt. For ovens they had a detachable sheet-iron box with a hinged door made to be set on top of the stove, but these were not very satisfactory. 476 THE STORY OF DETROIT Another device was known as the "Dutch oven." It was a covered cast-iron kettle to be set on the hob or hung on the crane for baking certain things. In Detroit most of the bread was baked in large brick or stone ovens by regular bakers. These ovens were merely huge boxes of brick which were heated by filling them with finely split "oven-wood." When the wood was burned out the inside of the oven was swept clean. The baker determined when it was hot enough by thrusting his bare arm inside. If he could hold it there until he could count more than io rather slowly the oven had to be fired again. Once heated, the bread was placed inside in tiers until the oven was filled. Then the opening was tightly closed and the bread was left in all night. Things never burned in those crude ovens. Each loaf was perfectly baked. The crust was thick, hard and brown and the inside of the loaf was wonderfully sweet and fragrant. The end crusts were always given to the children, who were assured that they were good for their teeth. It is probable that ever since Cain and Abel were little fellows children have been forced to eat things that were "good for them" rather than the things they preferred. Stove manufacture was begun in Detroit some time during the I830's. By that time Troy and Albany, N. Y., had become the centers of stove manufacture. When a stove in Detroit would crack or become broken the owners did not care to wait until a new part could be shipped from the East, so the Hydraulic Iron Works in Detroit began to make stove castings and to repair stoves. From this work they gradually began stove manufacture as a side line. Jeremiah Dwyer engaged as an apprentice in this foundry and learned the trade of a molder. He had come to Detroit with his parents from Brooklyn, N. Y. His father bought a small farm in Springwells when Jeremiah was only a year old. When the boy was Ii years old his father was killed by a runaway team of horses that became frightened by a passing train of cars on the Michigan Central Railroad. This compelled Jeremiah Dwyer to seek employment at an early age. DEVELOPMENT OF THE STOVE INDUSTRY 477 In 1849, while working on stove repairs at the Hydraulic Iron Works, he decided to attempt stove manufacturing on his own account as soon as he was able. He went to Albany and worked in stove works there to learn what he could about the business. On his return to Detroit he worked for the D. & M. Railway for a year and then became foreman in a foundry. Soon after a reaper and stove factory was started at Mt. Elliott and Wight streets by Ganson & Mizner. The business was not profitable and Mr. Dwyer and his brother, James Dwyer, and Thomas W. Mizner entered into partnership under the firm name of J. Dwyer & Company, in 186i. The reaper business was discontinued and attention was concentrated upon stove manufacture. In 1864 W. H. Tefft and Merrill I. Mills bought an interest and added new capital and the firm name was changed to the Detroit Stove Works. This venture proved so profitable that in 1871 Jeremiah Dwyer combined with C. A. Ducharme, George H. Barbour and others for the founding of the Michigan Stove Company, and in 1881 James Dwyer organized the Peninsular Stove Company. These three firms prospered greatly and presently Detroit became the largest stove-producing center in the country and therefore in the world. For several years the stove industry was regarded as of the first importance in Detroit manufacturing. Five companies are now engaged in stove manufacture, the Michigan Stove Company, the Detroit Stove Works, the Peninsular Stove Company, the Detroit Vapor Stove Company, and the Art Stove Company. Their products cover a wide range of utilities as they include cooking stoves and ranges, parlor and heating stoves, gas ranges and heaters, electric ranges and heaters, and furnaces for general heating. Their combined annual output is about 6oo00,000 articles and the variety of output is suggested when it is said that one concern produces more than 400 models. Their plants cover an area of more than 40 acres of ground and more than 5,000 men are employed in the industry. 478 THE STORY OF DETROIT The Peninsular Stove Company was incorporated March '23, 1881, the Art Stove Company in 1888 and the Detroit Vapor Stove Company in 1894..The first stoves were sold in Detroit much as vacuum cleaners and sewing machines are commonly sold, by a house to house solicitation. The Dwyers were the first to introduce engineering principles into the foundry business. Before their time little attention was paid to expert combinations of different irons to insure a metal which would flow well in the mold and make perfect plate castings. William H. Keep was the first mechanical engineer employed in foundry work in the state and it was through his experiments in iron mixtures that the southern ores were utilized for such mixtures. CHAPTER LXXX VI EARLY HOSPITALS AND THE Y. M. C. A. WHETHER the City of Detroit was slow in realizing the necessity for hospitals does not appear in the records, but it was very slow in providing them at public expense. For many years the city was dependent upon private and institutional charity for hospital foundations. St. Vincent's Hospital was the first established in the city and its promoters were the Sisters of Charity. It was first opened June 9, 184S, in an old log building at the southwest corner of Lamned and Randolph streets, which had been used as a school by the Sisters of St. Clare in 1833. Five years later the Sisters erected a building on Clinton Street near St. Antoine and the name was changed to St. Mary's. St. Mary's was at first financed by popular subscription and was not then regarded as a Catholic institution. It cared for cholera victims in 1849. The St. Mary's Hospital of the present time was opened November 21,, 1879 -In I 832 Walter Harper came to Detroit from Philadelphia and purchased nearly i,ooo acres of land in several different locations about Detroit. With him came Ann Martin, who had been his housekeeper in Philadelphia and so continued for many years. They lived in obscurity in Detroit. Mrs. Martin, commonly known as "Nancy," kept a stall in the public market for years and was one of the characters of the town-a rather hard-featured woman who could hold her own in exchanging jibes and jokes with the other denizens of the market, but a very thrifty and charitable woman. In the course of time she invested her savings in land until she* had a five-acre plat where Harper Hospital now stands and which is now traversed by Martin Place. She also had 15 acres purchased out of the io,oooacre tract given to the city by the Government for the building of a courthouse. 479 480 THE STORY OF DETROIT 480 THE STORY OF DETROIT In 1859 Mr. Harper and Mrs. Martin felt that they'were growing old and that they were virtually strangers in Detroit despite their long residence. They wanted to devote their property to charitable uses and at the same time provide for care of themselves in their old age. Mr. Harper offered all his Michigan property to the City of Detroit to be utilized for the founding of a hospital and a school for poor boys. He also deeded to trustees appointed by Dr. George Duffield of the First Presbyterian Church, three houses that he still owned in Philadelphia. These properties were valued at the time at THE BEGINNING OF HARPER HOSPITAL $30,000. The stipulation was that he should be paid $2,000 a year, one-half of which would be used toward the discharge of a mortgage of $8,5oo until it was cleared. In 1864 he voluntarily reduced the annuity to $600 a year. Mrs. Martin followed his example by offering her lands in consideration for which the city was to build her a small cottage and pay her an annuity of $6oo a year. A cottage was built for the pair on Mrs. Martin's five-acre plat at a cost of $450, but it was afterward moved to another site, where the two donors lived until Mr. Harper died in 1867. After that Mrs. Martin lived in Harper Hospital to the end of her days. During the Civil War many wounded and invalid soldiers were sent to Detroit to relieve the Government hospitals. Nine cheap frame buildings were erected on a plat leased by the EARLY HOSPITALS AND THE Y. M. C. A. 481 Government on the east side of Woodward Avenue at Martin Place. When these had served their purpose the land was purchased by the trustees of Harper Hospital, which was incorporated May 4, 1863. The hospital buildings for soldiers were erected by the trustees of the hospital and hundreds of sick soldiers were cared for in them. Harper Hospital was opened for patients in January, 1866. A new building was erected on the east side of John R. Street and opened for patients June 19, 1884. Since then large additions have been made, the chief of which was through the benevolence of J. L. Hudson, for many years a leading merchant of Detroit. A nurses' home and school were also established in connection with the hospital. These were added through the munificent gratuities of Mr. James Couzens who made a donation of $300,000 June I, 1919, and later increased the amount to $650,000. The building was opened for use May II, 1922. Grace Hospital was also founded through the charity of private citizens. Amos Chaffee donated the lot at Willis and John R. Street for a homeopathic hospital in 1869. The building was erected after James McMillan donated $Ioo,ooo toward it and John S. Newberry gave $1oo,ooo for an endowment fund. This institution has undergone material expansion in recent years. On land long occupied by a wooden building for contagious diseases, on Hamilton Boulevard near Pirgree Avenue, the city established a new hospital for the same purpose and named it after Dr. Herman Kiefer, long an eminent physician of Detroit. The Providence Hospital was founded in 1869 for the care of small children, but it has grown to a large general hospital with fine equipment. It is located on West Grand Boulevard. The city built and opened on October 12, 1915, a municipal receiving hospital at St. Antoine and Macomb streets which takes care of emergency and city cases. The cost was $250,000. Detroit began to increase in population by leaps and bounds about 1905 and it was evident that the city was deplorably deficient in hospital facilities. A number of citizens and physicians began the promotion of a new general hospital which 482 T14E STORY OF DETROIT was to be of unprecedented size and capacity and in which they aimed to embody all the best features of the leading hospitals of the world. The plans of all the great European hospitals were carefully studied and the collection of a fund was begun. A plat of 20 acres was purchased at the northwest corner of West Grand Boulevard and Hamilton Avenue for $90,000 in 1909. Five years later the site had trebled in value. Plans for a great general hospital were drawn by William B. Stratton and the erection of buildings was begun. The work went on slowly and after two or three of the units were completed it stopped for a time. Then Henry Ford came to the rescue, took over the property and proceeded to the construction of Henry Ford Hospital, with considerable alteration of the original plan, which was for a hospital of smaller units and highly specialized departments. Henry Ford Hospital has also been slow in its development. During the war the main building became well advanced in construction and presently it was turned over to the Government to be styled Government Hospital Number 36. Returned sick and wounded soldiers to the number of 1,500 were cared for in the institution in its uncompleted state and when these were discharged the Government restored the property to Mr. Ford, who resumed the work of completing it. An able staff of.physicians has been employed but the hospital is operated at only a fraction of its capacity as vet. When completed it will contain all the modern equipment of the best hospital practice and more than 1,200 rooms, making it one of the largest institutions of the kind in the country. Detroit's first organization of the Young Men's Christian Association was brought about on September 27, 185i2, through the collaboration of the ministers and laymen of several denominations. Several meetings had been held in advance of that date when Rev. H. D. Kitchell of the First Congregational Church, as chairman of a committee on organization, presented a constitution and by-laws, which were adopted. The first president elected was Edward C. Walker. The vice-presidents EARLY HOSPITALS AND THE Y. M. C. A. 483 were: T. C. Miller, S. M. Holmes, R. C. Smith, L. L. Farnsworth and H. C. Knight. Benjamin Vernor was recording secretary; George Mosley, corresponding secretary; C. N. Ganson, treasurer. The Y. M. C. A. had its origin among the merchants, clerks and salesmen of the City of London and was organized by Sir George Williams in 1844. The first organizations in America were at Montreal and Boston in December, i85I. During the next three years 40 other organizations were formed and that at Detroit was among them. The first international convention was held at Buffalo, June 7, 1854. The first headquarters of the Detroit Y. M. C. A. were in the Phoenix Block, on the south side of Jefferson Avenue between Woodward Avenue and Griswold Street, where an attractive reading room was established. That first organization ended in 1854, but a second organization was effected in 1858. The excitement due to the Civil War and the departure of some of the most active members for the front caused another lapse of the association in 1861, but a third association was formed August I, 1864, with James W. Farrell as president; F. D. Taylor and A. Treadway as vice-presidents; Silas Farmer, corresponding secretary; A. Howard, recording secretary, and T. D. Hawley, treasurer. Leonard Lawrense, David Preston and James W. Frisbie were also active in this organization. This association fitted up rooms in the Merrill Block at the northeast corner of Jefferson and Woodward avenues. On June 24, 1886, the thirteenth international convention was held in the Central Methodist Church in Detroit. While delivering the address of welcome to the delegates to this convention Rev. George Duffield, D.D., fell senseless in the pulpit and died a few days later, after more than 30 years of continuous ministry in Detroit as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. When the "Thumb" peninsula was swept by forest fires in 1871 and several towns in other parts of the state were destroyed by conflagrations the Detroit Y. M. C. A. acted as almoner of the relief funds distributed to the fire sufferers who had been left homeless and destitute. In 1875 a lot on Farmer Street 484 THE STORY OF DETROIT between Gratiot and Monroe avenues was purchased and a building which had been used successively as a hotel barn and a factory was remodeled and fitted up for a Y. M. C. A. headquarters. The apparatus of a defunct gymnasium was purchased and installed and the library of the Mechanics' Society was placed in the custody of the association. For several years the Woman's Christian Temperance Union leased rooms in the building. This property was sold in 1882 and quarters were leased in a store building at 250 Woodward Avenue (old number). A year later the association moved to Monroe Avenue, where it occupied 30 rooms in the Williams Building, facing the Campus Martius. From there it moved to an old skating rink near the northeast corner of Griswold and State streets while the erection of a new building went on at the northeast corner of Griswold and Grand River Avenue. The original cost of that building was $125,000. The building was occupied in 1887 and the old rink was converted into a theater, later known as the Capitol Square Theater. In its first-owned building the Y. M. C. A. prospered greatly and attracted a large membership. Its gymnasium was a popular resort for the young men and boys of the city before the schools began installing gymnasia. Night classes began and it may be said that these schools were the beginning of technical education in Detroit. The rapid growth of the city compelled an expansion of the institution and in May, 1906, a canvass was begun to raise funds. A new building was erected at the northeast corner of Witherell and Adams Avenue at a cost of more than $I,ooo,ooo for building and site, and it was occupied January i, 1909. The membership at the close of 1922 was 8,400 and a canvass was begun at the beginning of 1923 to increase the membership to I2,ooo. The institution had at the beginning of 1923 eight branches, one a railway branch and another for young colored men. During the Nineteenth Century the discovery was gradually made that the sphere of woman can not be altogether confined to the home. By slow degrees they came to occupy an important EARLY HOSPITALS AND THE Y. M. C. A. 485 place in commercial and industrial life and to operate many instruments besides the needle and the broom. As the Y. M. C. A. was organized for the" benefit of young men clerks in London, a like necessity arose for surrounding young women who were more or less detached from the home circle with the influences which have always promoted culture, morality and religion. On January 5, 1893, a conference took place in Detroit in which 15 women discussed the foundation of a Young Woman's Christian Association. A public meeting was held February 28 and on March 16 an organization was effected and officers were elected. Rooms were opened in the Business University Building on John R. Street. In the following October educational and gymnasium classes were opened. Vesper services, a Bible class, parties, receptions, a noon rest, employment bureau, and rooms were services established that first year. Mrs. Grace Whitney Hoff was first president and she served for seven years. Mrs. Hoff has been the chief promoter of the welfare of the institution from the beginning and one of the largest contributors to its upbuilding. The institution undertakes in the service of young women all that the Y. M. C. A. has done for young men and its activities are of considerably wider range. Its club activities are of great variety. The headquarters building is a handsome six-story structure at the southwest corner of Washington Boulevard and Clifford Street, erected in I904. There are also several branches and the management is looking forward to the erection of a much larger building to meet the necessities which have arisen in recent years as a consequence of the phenomenal growth of Detroit. CHAPTER LXXXVII WATER SUPPLY-THROUGH TRANSPORTATION TO THE EAST OR many years the people of Detroit obtained their water service at the hands of successive private corporations. The supply was always inadequate, the rates unsatisfactory, the pressure was barely sufficient to produce a good flow, and the companies engaged in the business made little profit. The city bought the entire system in 1836 for $2u,5o00 and during the next 15 years of public operation suffered an annual deficit which amounted in the aggregate to $85,125. In 1852 the operation was turned over to five trustees and in the following year the Board of Water Commissioners was created for Detroit by act of the legislature. That board has controlled the supply of water for 60 years. During the first 47 years of its existence it was so permanent a body that it had but four presidents. Edmund A. Brush held the office for 26 years, and Chauncey Hurlbut for Iz. Mr. Hurlbut gave liberally of his time and talent to the promotion of the waterworks and when he died in 1885 he bequeathed to the City of Detroit the income from a fortune of about $200oo,000 to be used in beautifying the grounds of the Detroit waterworks and in maintaining a library. The entrance gate to the Waterworks Park is a memorial to Mr. Hurlbut and was paid for out of the fund. At the time the Water Commission was created the pumping plant and reservoir were located on the water front of the Dequindre farm at Orleans Street. Three water lots had been purchased with a river frontage of 350 feet. The reservoir was a circular tower 5o feet high, of brick construction, and this was surmounted by a wooden extension 20 feet high. Inside the tower was a water tank of 422,979 gallons capacity. This 486 THROUGH TRANSPORTATION TO THE EAST 487 reservoir was dangerously small for a city of more than 40,000 population. The city purchased a new site on the Mullett farm in 1851, but the popular denunciation of official extravagance led to the sale of that property as soon as the commissioners came into power. In 1854 ten acres were purchased on the Dequindre farm bounded by Wilkins, Calhoun, Riopelle and Dequindre streets. There a large reservoir of two basins was erected by raising an embankment to a height of 30 feet. These basins were 200 feet square at the top and 2812 feet deep. Their bottom area was only 114 feet square each. Their capacity was 9,000,oo000 gallons. A new intake pipe was extended 175 feet into the river to free it from shore contamination. This plant was steadily drawn upon by increasing lines of mains until again the reservoir capacity became inadequate. In 1874 a tract of 59 acres was purchased at the site of the present waterworks and a new plant was completed three years later. The first three engines installed there were designed by John E. Edwards of Detroit and they were built in Detroit. For 20 years this plant served the needs of the city very well and then it became necessary to construct a new intake to bring a larger supply of water to the settling basin. To escape contamination a water tunnel was constructed under the bed of the river to the head of Belle Isle, where the intake is now located. The entire system is now estimated to be worth $18,ooo,ooo, and the land, pumping machinery and buildings are rated at a value of $9,650,000. With an ocean of water flowing past the city Detroiters became very wasteful of water, regardless of the cost of pumping. Remonstrance did no good, so meters were installed to insure that people would pay in proportion to their use of water. In the following year in spite of the increasing population the water consumption fell off more than 4,000,000,000 gallons. When the private pocket is reached results are always obtained. Many people are of the opinion that Detroit should solve her water problem for all time by the construction of a huge tunnel to Lake Huron, but again the immediate cost forces resort to temporizing measures and a costly system of water 488 THE STORY OF DETROIT filtration is being constructed to protect the consumers from the unavoidable contamination of the water above Detroit's intake system. There are at present more than 1,360 miles of water mains. Soon after the Michigan Central Railroad had reached Chicago on May 21, 1852-and the Michigan Southern reached it just one day later-the people began to see the importance of railway connection with the lines of other states. In 1856 a line from Detroit to Toledo was finished, making connection with the Lake Shore. But through railway communication between Detroit and the East was the thing most needed. In 1834 a charter was obtained by Eastern parties for a railway across the province of Ontario from Niagara Falls to Detroit via Hamilton and London. This railway, first known as the Great Western, was delayed in its construction by the panic of 1837. Its first train from Niagara Falls rolled into Windsor on January 17, 1854, about 5 o'clock in the afternoon. For four hours a great throng of people on both sides of the river had been awaiting its arrival. The air was rent with wild cheers, cannon boomed a welcome, and presently a ferry boat brought the officials of the Great Western across the river to Detroit, where they were given an enthusiastic welcome. A procession of city officials and leading citizens was formed at the Campus Martius and conducted the visitors to the Michigan Central freight house, where a reception was held and dinner was served for 1,700 persons. Six weeks later the first railway ferry boat began service between Detroit and Windsor, carrying freight and passengers. Railway builders still had much to learn. The Great Western, instead of being built to the standard track gauge of the United States (4 feet 8 inches in width), had its tracks laid to a gauge of 5 feet 6 inches. This made it impossible to utilize American cars on the Canadian line. Until the year 1867 all freight and passengers of Michigan railways were unloaded and transferred, involving long delays and great expense in freight handling; but, discovering the advantage of a uniform and THROUGH TRANSPORTATION TO THE EAST 48 489 standard gauge, the Great Western met the difficulty by laying a third rail to adapt their tracks for cars of the standard gauge, so that cars of both gauges could be used and freight and passengers carried through without changing cars. A new giant ferry boat was built for transferring cars. In 1859 a railroad was built from Detroit to Port Huron to make connection with the Grand Trunk system. Sleeping cars were first introduced in August, 1859, each company supp lving its own cars. Pullman sleepers were introduced in June, 1866. The railway between Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo was completed in April, 185 being the second through line between the WVest and the East. The fourth line was for a time known as the Chicago & Canada Southern Railroad, completed in November, 1873, on a route which is almost an air line between Detroit and Buffalo. As this was a shorter line with easier grades and more direct route to the East than the Great Western afforded, the Michigan Central began shifting its traffic that way. The loss of this traffic led to the sale of the Great Western to the Grand Trunk Company. For several years the cars on this new Canada Southern route were ferried over the river just above Amherstburg, where the remains of the old ferry dock are still to be seen. The railway crossed the Trenton channel of the river on a bridge, then it crossed Grosse Ile. Another long bridge carried the railway to Stony Island and from there to the Canadian shore car ferries accomplished the transfer. While these railways to connect the West with the East were building, the Mlichigan Central built two large passenger steamers to make a connection with Buffalo. The Mayiflowr ws cmpltedin ay,1849, and a few months l ate the steamer 4tlantic was added to that service. The Mayflower had 85 staterooms and could carry 300 cabin passengers and a still greater number of deck or steerage passengers. In 1851 the steamer Ocean was added to the Michigan Central line. On August 20, 18 52, the first great disaster occurred on this line when the Atlantic collided with the propeller Ogdensburg, 490 THE STORY OF DETROIT 490THE STORY OF DETROIT six miles off Long Point in Lake Erie. Both steamers were running in a dense fog and shortly before daylight the Ogdensburg drove her bow into the Atlantic, just forward of the paddle box on the port side. The shock was not violent as both boats were moving very slowly. It was supposed that no serious damage had been done, but after proceeding two miles farther it was discovered that the Atlantic was filling with water and in danger of sinking. Including the crew there were about 450 Ui -W 9. WAMAY rFLoW * THE Mayflower, DETROIT & BUFFALO LINE, 1849 persons on board and 200 of those were Norwegian immigrants coming west. The rising water extinguished the fires and the Atlantic drifted helplessly while passengers threw overboard chairs, benches, settees, bedding, anything that would float, and began plunging into,the lake. The Ogdensburg had stopped to make repairs, but hearing the whistle of the Atlantic and the shrieks of her passengers, she turned back and was able to save about 250 before the Atlantic went down four miles from shore in 160 feet of water. It was estimated that 131 lives were lost. The survivors held a meeting and censured the captain of the boat for not providing sufficient life preservers and small boats to save the others. THROUGH TRANSPORTATION TO THE EAST 491 Just to show the rapid advance in lake passenger steamer construction, a description of the Michigan Central steamers in use on the Detroit-Buffalo route in 1857 is worth quoting. "The steamer Plymouth Rock is 360 feet long and has a displacement of 2,500 tons. Her grand cabin extends almost the entire length of the boat and is furnished regardless of expense with rosewood furniture, brocatelle, satin, plush, silk and embroidered easy chairs, tete-a-tetes and divans. The floors are carpeted with the richest tapestry. The painting, woodwork, moulding and gilding are all that art could furnish. The staterooms are actual rooms, 15 feet deep, well lighted and ventilated, with rich carpets, marble-topped washstands and toilets with hot and cold water. They have rosewood French bedsteads, low, wide and roomy, draped with fine muslin printed hangings and covered with the finest marseilles and linen bedding. Larger family rooms are provided, also 'companion' rooms where gentlemen, traveling six or eight together, can have a large, roomy apartment. "On this deck are the bathing apartments with warm and cold showers. At the head of the grand cabin is the silver room, where some $8,ooo worth of magnificently designed silverware may be seen, which, however, is but a small portion of what is provided for the boat. "On the deck below is the ladies' cabin, with reception rooms and connecting by a stairway with the dining room on the deck below. In every stateroom is a life-preserver for each occupant. Seven fire engines of great power, with hose attached, are ready for instant operation. The usual number of life boats are also provided. "The bridal chamber, situated in the upper cabin, in point of splendor puts anything we have seen to the blush. The sheets are of linen cambric, the quilt of straw-colored moire-antique; the sheets and pillowcases are edged with point lace and the beds'are of elaborately carved rosewood. The floor is covered with a heavy pile of tapestry while golden mirrors reflect the gorgeous furniture of the entire room, which is commodious and gilded throughout. We advise every young man to take a look 492 THE STORY OF DETROIT at it. This boat is but one of three of the same size, tonnage, furnishings and perfection throughout, belonging to this line."-Buffalo Daily Republic. When one reflects that this line of steamers was built and operated on Lake Erie nearly 70 years ago he must agree that, except in the matter of size and speed, lake shipping has not advanced so much beyond the craft of that period. CHAPTER LXXXVIII DETROIT'S FIRST CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY T is one thing to discover a natural resource of great value, but discovery and small undertakings do not accomplish much toward development. The first iron was obtained from the ore by use of wood fuel, which is a slow and costly process. The first forges were small affairs and could turn out little manufactured iron in a day. The first shipment of Michigan's iron ore was made from the Jackson mine in 185o and that was a cargo of only five tons. Most, of the early irop companies failed for lack of sufficient capital. It became evident that iron and coal must be brought together from long distances to make profitable production possible. To accomplish this there must be the cheapest kind of transportation and this would be out of the question until it was made possible for loaded vessels of large size to carry ore or coal between the levels of Lake Huron and Lake Superior wi thout unloading or transferring cargo. The difference in the levels of the two lakes averages about 18 feet and the fall occurs at the rapids of Sault Ste. Marie. In 1797-98 the Northwest Fur Company had constructed a small lock on the Canadian side for the use of canoes and barges, but United States troops had badly damaged that in 1814. This original lock is still preserved as a memorial of early navigation on the upper lakes. Promotion of a Government ship canal at the "Soo" was begun by enterprising citizens of Michigan and most of them were Detroiters. Among them were Judge William A. Burt, his son, John Burt, Charles T. Harvey, J. W. Brooks, Dr. Morgan L. Hewitt, Herman B. Ely, Eber Brock Ward, Sheldon McKnight, E. C. Roberts, Peter White, Abner Sherman, Simon Mandelbaum, D. S. Carle, J. W. Brown, William Willard, J. T. Whiting, William A. Pratt, and J. H. Forster. 493 494 THE STORY OF DETROIT The project was laid before Congress and in promotion of the enterprise Congress granted to the State of Michigan 750,000 acres of land, to be subsequently located, to furnish the funds for building the first canal. John Burt was the chief promoter of this appropriation. Realization on this land value was the next obstacle to be overcome and this was accomplished chiefly through the influence of men like John F. Seymour, FIRST CANAL LoCK AT THE "SOO" Erastus Corning, of New York, James F. Joy, J. WV. Brooks, J. V. L. Pruyn, Joseph P. Fairbanks, and John M. Forbes. The land selected for the canal promotion was about one-third in the Upper Peninsula and two-thirds in the Lower. The cost of the first canal was about $i,ooo,ooo. John Burt, of Detroit, was made its first superintendent. The canal was finished in 185S with a length of 5,674 feet, with two locks, each 350 feet long and 70 feet wide, allowing passage for vessels having 12 feet draft. Other locks have been constructed since that time to accommodate the increased size and draft of lake shipping. In 1882 the State of Michigan DETROIT'S FIRST CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY 495 relinquished its control of the lock canal and the United States Government assumed control. The latest construction is a lock 1,350 feet long, 80 feet wide and 25 feet deep. Often as many as five ships are locked through at one time. This canal was one of the most important and valuable improvements ever undertaken in this country, for it opened the way to a traffic which has grown to enormous proportions and which is steadily increasing year by year. It opens a way for cheap transportation for the rich ore deposits of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Canada; for the great volume of grain and lumber produced in the Northwest and for the supplies of coal and other common necessities for all the region tributary to Lake Superior. No canal enterprise in the world is comparable with it in commercial importance. As soon as the wealth of the Upper Peninsula was discovered opportunity for developing Detroit into a great commercial and industrial center loomed conspicuously before the imaginations of men of enterprise and vision. Detroit seemed the most natural midway point at which iron and copper from the North and coal from the fields of Ohio and Pennsylvania could be brought together for manufacturing purposes. The first natural step toward this development lay in a rapid expansion of lake transportation. The next step would be the establishment of iron, steel, copper and brass industries in and about Detroit. Again it happened that Michigan had among her citizens men fitted for great undertakings and endowed with the courage and genius to put them into operation. One of the most conspicuous among these was Capt. Eber Brock Ward. The Ward family was for many years engaged in the promotion of lake navigation. Capt. Sam Ward of the older generation was a native of Wells, Vt. He built his first vessel on the upper lakes at Conneaut, 0., in 1818, a little 27-ton schooner called the Salem, in which he traded for several years along the shore towns. In 1819 he bought land at the mouth of Belle River where it empties into the St. Clair and built a house on what was then termed "Yankee Point." To this log house, roofed with 496 THE STORY OF DETROIT slabs, he moved his family in 1820. He discovered good brick clay and opened a yard for brick manufacture, and in 1828 built a brick house, handsome for that day. He also built a brick tavern. Two years later the township of Cottrellville was created and named in honor of Judge David Cottrell, one of the first settlers, and a postoffice was established at Yankee Point, which was renamed Belle River. From time to time Cap. Samuel Ward would make a trip along the shore to trade with the small towns and for this purpose he converted his schooner into a sort of floating bazar. Most of the trade was by barter as there was little money in circulation. While the Erie Canal was building he launched a schooner of 28 tons on Belle River, which he named the St. Clair. When the canal was opened Capt. Ward took his little schooner through to New York. To pass the canal he unshipped the spars of his schooner at Buffalo, reset them on the Hudson River and sailed down the Hudson. In 1825 he built the Albatross of 20 tons and the Marshal Ney of 73 tons. In 1833 he built the Elizabeth Ward of 65 tons and the Gen. Harrison of 115 tons. This ended his ventures in sailing craft and he turned his attention to steamboats, becoming part owner of the Michigan, built by Oliver Newberry at Detroit. In 1822 his nephew, Eber Brock Ward, son of Eber Ward, came to Belle River. As soon as he was old enough Eber Brock Ward began work as a common sailor for Capt. Sam. The young man presently bought an interest in one of his uncle's schooners and began sailing her on partnership account. As soon as the Michigan Central Railroad was well under way the Wards built two steamboats to furnish passenger service between Detroit and Buffalo in anticipation of through traffic. By the time the Michigan Central had reached Marshall, Capt. Eber B. Ward had two steamers on Lake Michigan to take railway passengers from St. Joseph to Chicago and Milwaukee. When the Michigan Central was diverted to New Buffalo the port service was shifted to that point. During the time the railway was building from Marshall westward passengers completed the overland trip in stages which connected with the Ward boats. DETROIT'S FIRST CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY 497 In 1848 the Michigan Central built the Mayflower, at the time the largest and finest steamer on the lakes, for the Detroit to Buffalo service and soon followed with the Atlantic. The railway was extended to Chicago. This put an end to the Ward service, but Eber Brock Ward was not a man to be discouraged. He made a personal investigation of the Lake Superior ore prospects and became one of the promoters of the Soo Canal. He also began building vessels to make use of the ship canal. sailed on Lake Superior. It was his aim to make Detroit a manufacturing center. To establish an iron industry he organized a corporation known as the Eureka Iron & Steel Company in 1853 in association with U. Tracy Howe, S. M. Holmes, Philip Thurber, Benjamin Vernor, Harmon DeGraff, T. W. Lockwood, S. N. Kendrick, and John S. Van Alstyne. These men and their associates bought 2,200 acres of land on the site of the present town of Wyandbtte, platted a village and built a blast furnace and rolling mills, huge for that time. Capt. Ward went to Chicago and founded another plant, which became the Illinois Steel Company, and he built still another at 498 THE STORY OF DETROIT Milwaukee. At Ludington he established great lumber mills. He built another lumber mill at Toledo to manufacture the hardwood timber of Ohio. He also invested in iron mines. It was his vessel which brought the first cargo of ore from the Jackson mine down the lakes. Out of that first shipment of Lake Superior iron he had the walking beam and main shaft of a new steamer, the Ocean, manufactured. In 1864 he installed a Bessemer converter at Wyandotte and turned out the first Bessemer steel manufactured in America. At the mills he had founded in Chicago in 1865 was rolled the first Bessemer steel rail produced in this country. Capt. Ward was a whirlwind of energy. He insisted on doing the work of two men and gave himself no rest. His physicians warned him that no man could keep up such a pace of activities, but he scoffed at their warnings. When the Pere Marquette Railway became virtually bankrupt he took hold of its affairs and by use of his money, credit and business ability put the concern on its feet. He had the vision to see that wrought iron produced by the old process must give way to mild steel produced by either the Bessemer or the Siemens-Martin open hearth method and urged his associates to transform the Wyandotte plant. It was a critical moment. The change would involve the scrapping of costly installations and replacements which would cost more than a million dollars. While they hesitated Capt. Ward fumed and went about speeding up his various enterprises. He established a shipyard at Wyandotte in 1872, was interested in several newspapers and a promoter of higher education. He lived to see many of his enterprises on the way to great success; to see the little settlement at Yankee Point changed to Belle River, then to Ward's Landing and finally to Marine City. One day the high pressure under which he lived and worked caused the rupture of a blood vessel in his brain and on January 2, 1875, lhe died suddenly of apoplexy while walking on Griswold Street. The home he had built on Fort Street later became the House of the Good Shepherd. At the time of his death he was beyond question the most enterprising DETROIT'S FIRST CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY 499 and the richest man in Michigan, but his estate was so involved and scattered that it took all the talent and time of some of the ablest lawyers of the state to straighten out the entanglements and save a large fortune for his heirs. After his death his associates in the iron plant at Wyandotte still hesitated. The panic of 1873 had shaken the nerve of most business men. Recovery was very slow and new ventures were regarded as risky. So the Wyandotte plant was allowed to potter along in decadent fashion for several years until it was finally shut down forever. The idle iron plant threw many men out of work and Wyandotte seemed for a time in danger of complete extinction, but new manufacturing enterprises came in and revived its prosperity. The iron works buildings took fire one day in the i890's and were destroyed. After that came a gang of men who blew up its cosdly engines., rolls and other machinery and soon nothing was left but a mass of junk to mark the site of what promised to be and what might have been the foremost steel plant of the United States. CHAPTER LXXXIX EVENTS OF THE 1850's N 1829 the Legislative Council of Michigan Territory petitioned the Government for the founding of a hospital for the seamen of the Great Lakes. Congress did not make such provision until 1854, when a plat of eight acres was bought on Jefferson Avenue for $23,000 and a building erected at a cost of $80,oo000. A number of seamen who had been cared for in St. Mary's Hospital were then transferred to the Marine Hospital. In compensation for free care in the hospital each seaman was taxed 40 cents a month, which was reserved out of his wages by the captain of each vessel. For many years the number of patients ranged from 15 to 25. After maintaining this hospital for 66 years the Government is considering its discontinuance. Several counties in the center of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan were famine stricken in the years i856 and 1857. The people generally clamored for access to the land. The poor people complained that the soil of Michigan was being absorbed in large tracts by men of means and that those who could not afford to pay $1.25 an acre were doomed to perpetual poverty. To quiet this complaint a Congressional act known as the "Graduation Act" was passed in 1854 by which certain Government lands were opened to settlement at 50 cents an acre. This reduction caused many people from the towns who knew nothing about agriculture to rush into the wilderness to clear land and plant crops. They accomplished little and much of that was so badly done that the crops were not enough to furnish them even a meager subsistence. Gratiot County was the center of a famine which developed suddenly. There were no roads except trails in much of this country and communication with the outside world was infrequent. An alternation of floods on undrained land followed by a long drouth and then unusually early frosts left many 500 EVENTS OF THE I850'IS 501o EVENTS OF THE i8o's 501 people in desperate straits for food. On May 15, 1857, Detroit citizens held a mass meeting for organizing aid for the unfortunate settlers and $I,ooo was raised at once. The relief measures were kept up for a period of two years and then, the settlers having learned much by hard experience and profited by more favorable seasons, became self-sustaining. The Russell House hotel was first opened for business September 24, 1857. This building replaced the old National Hotel, which had been opened on that site in the winter of 1836. The REMAINS OF THE OLD NATIONAL HOTEL N.E. CORNER CASS AVENUE AND MONTCALM STREET National was refurnished in 1840 by a new proprietor, Edward Lyon, who succeeded Austin Wales. The original hotel was a frame building, having a narrow frontage at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Cadillac Square. In 1847 a brick addition, 35x75 feet, was added on Woodward Avenue. In 1851 the wooden portion of the hotel was removed to the northeast corner of Cass Avenue and Montcalm Street, where it still stands in use as a tenement building. The part removed was replaced by a brick structure. In 1857 the rebuilt National Hotel was bought by William Hale, and it was renamed the Russell House on being leased to W. H. Russell. William J. Chittenden, who was proprietor of the hotel for many years, began as a clerk for Mr. Russell. The hotel changed hands several times and in 1864 Mr. Chittenden and C. S. Whitbeck became the 502 THE STORY oiF DETROIT lessees and proprietors. A large addition was erected on the Woodward Avenue front in 1875 and in 1876 the frontage on Cadillac Square was rebuilt. L. A. McC 'reary then became the partner of Mr. Chi ttenden. Another rebuilding occurred in 18 81. The old Russell House was long one of the leading hotels of Michigan, until it was torn down for the construction of the Hotel Pontchartrain. After a few years of prosperous existence the comparatively new Hotel Pontchartrain was razed to give place to the building of the First National Bank. The old Russell House entertained the Prince of Wales, who was later King Edward VII of Great Britain, when he made a tour of the country in 1859. The Grand Duke Alexis of Russia was a guest when he visited Detroit in 1870. From the time of the famine in Ireland in 1845 there was a steady increase of grain shipments to the East from Michigan. Then came the Crimean War in 18 53, which caused an increased demand for wheat. There was need of an organization to supervise the receiving, storing and shipping of wheat and to keep careful watch of the market price. That need led to the organization of the Detroit Board of Trade on June 5, 1856. The first officers were: H. P. Bridge, president; Duncan Stewart and Robert McChesney, vice-presidents; Joseph Aspinwall, William H. Craig, George W. Bissell, John W. Strong, A. E. Bissell, James E. Pittman, W. Truesdale, and John B. Palmer, directors; H. K. Sanger, treasurer, and Milo D. Hamilton, secretary. The board's first headquarters were in a store under the rear of the Michigan Exchange Hotel, facing on Woodbridge Street. In 1861 the Board of Trade purchased a lot at the southeast corner of Woodbridge and Shelby streets, and later a building was erected which was first occupied in February, 1865. Rules were adopted in 1863 for the inspection and grading of grai n. In June, 1854, Asiatic cholera inflicted its last visitation upon Detroit and it prevailed until the middle of August, the deaths from it averaging about three a day. In July the total deaths from all causes numbered 259 and the majority were the result of cholera. EVENTS OF THE 185OPS50 503 Mention has already been made of the first voyage of a Great Lakes schooner from Detroit to New York City, when Capt. Samuel Ward took his vessel through the Erie Canal. Today there is a movement on foot for establishing a channel for large vessels from the lakes to the ocean via the Welland and St. Lawrence canal system of Canada. But the feat of taking a lake vessel with a cargo from Detroit to Liverpool was first performed 66 years ago. The bark 7. C. Kershaw left Detroit July 22, 1857, with a cargo of lumber and staves. She traversed the Welland Canal, the St. Lawrence and then crossed the ocean to Liverpool. She returned in, the fall with a cargo of iron and' crockery, but too late to make use of the canals, so she came on to Detroit as soon as navigation opened in the spring of 1858. The Kershaw, however, was not the first Great Lakes vessel to cover this route, for the Dean Richmond, of Chicago, made the trip in 1856. The Madeira Pet, with hides from Chicago and staves from Detroit, made the trip in 185S7. Eleven other vessels sailed from the Great Lakes across the ocean in 1858 and 16 in 1859. The panic Of 1857 caused hard times in Detroit. Men of the laboring class with large families were thrown out of work and many children were begging for food and clothing from door to door. This situation appealed to the women of Detroit and they sought means of r~elieving the case of these poor children. On June 2, 1857, about 6o women gathered in the First Congregational Church at the corner of Fort and Wayne streets and formed a plan for founding an industrial school for children. They also provided a place where clothing and food could be brought for distribution and where these little nomads of the street could have the benefit of a school. The first quarters secured were in the two upper stories of a building at 26 Monroe Avenue, where Mrs. M. G. Tyler was installed as teacher and matron. The school opened October 5 with 16 scholars. Within a month the number had increased to 79. Mrs. Tyler was compelled by failing health to give up the work and Mrs. E. M. Sheldon took up her duties. Mrs. Sheldon was the author of "The Early History of Michigan."' 504 504 THE STORY OF DETROIT In May, 1858, larger quarters were obtained at the northwest corner of Washington Boulevard and Grand River Avenue and the feeding of poor children, one meal a day, was begun. For a long time a butcher named John Hull donated the meat for this purpose and after his death this contribution was continued by John Barlum. In 1866 the Society of the Detroit Industrial School purchased the building and lot for $6,ooo and it became an incorporated institution in 1868. In 1879 the old building, originally a factory, was demolished and a new building was erected which still occupies the site. There poor children from a large district were fed, and given clothing and primary schooling, including kindergarten work, which kept many children off the streets and promoted morality. The building had accommodation for 200 and for several years the attendance averaged 100 in the winter and So in the summer. The boys were taught to split wood and do other practical work about the home; the girls were taught the simple domestic arts, sewing, cooking, preparation of vegetables, setting and waiting on table, etc. A Sunday school was also conducted for several years. In recent years the city has so improved its school provisions that such work is now done mostly at public expense. CHAPTER XC BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY DETROIT was a city of 40,000O inhabitants in i850. It contained one-tenth of the entire population of the state. In 1854 it obtained its first railway connection with the East. In that year a tidal wave of political sentiment started in Detroit that was destined a few years later to sweep over the nation. By centralizing and crystallizing public sentiment into political organization it dominated the affairs of the nation for a period of 24 years without interruption. At that time two great political parties, the Democrats and the Whigs, held the allegiance of most of the electors of the nation. Neither party was clearly defined in its attitude toward the chief issue before the nation, which was slavery vs. abolition. There were slave owners and pro-slavery men in both the Whig and Democratic parties. There were also ardent abolitionists in both parties. The long habit of party allegiance prevented these discordant elements from separating from, their parties and uniting in a common cause. Neither element was strong enough to swing its party away from its conservative stand regarding slavery. No political candidate dared to declare himself positively on the leading question because that would mean political defeat. A number of reform elements, however, like the Anti-Slavery and Free-Soil parties, had effected puny organizations. The chief of these, the Free-Soilers, was composed of men who opposed slavery, but were content to limit their contention against the extension of slavery into new territory. The slave owners and those who felt dependent upon the votes of slave owners endeavored to insure that for every free state admitted to the Union there should be a slave state. Thus by maintaining an equal representation in the U. S. Senate they sought to prevent national legislation for the abolition of slavery. The various 505 $o6 THE STORY OF DETROIT ruses and compromises resorted to by these opposing elements fill several important chapters in American history. The Democrats were quite bold and aggressive in their political declarations; the Whigs were cautious and always trying to trim their political sails so as to catch votes of both elements. Because of that weakness the Whigs were usually the minority party. Detroit was for many years one of the principal terminals of the "underground railway," a secret organization by which runaway slaves from the South were helped to a safe refuge under the British flag in Canada. This led to a steady development of abolition sentiment in Detroit and Michigan, for the average citizen felt ashamed when he saw the judicial power of the United States Government enlisted in the capture and return of these slaves. It was the duty of every United States marshal under his oath of office to apprehend every runaway slave. He was under obligation to arrest every citizen of Michigan who aided a runaway slave. It was also the duty of the United States Court to return the slave to his owner and to punish the citizen of Michigan who aided the slave or gave him shelter, by imprisonment and a fine ranging from $500 to $1,ooo. The Government of the United States at that time recognized the slave as property and ownership in slaves was protected by the common laws of property. Such laws did not develop out of majority sentiment, but out of political expediency. For many years there was a standing rule in the Congress of the United States which barred even discussion of human slavery. Americans of the present day can hardly believe that such conditions existed up to 6o years ago. Agitation of the abolition of slavery might be muzzled in political conventions and even in the halls of Congress, but it could not be muzzled among a free people or in a free press. The master politicians of both great parties sat on the safety valve until the growing pressure of public sentiment blew them sky-high. The sudden outburst had such an intensity that it afterward exploded in a Civil War that lasted four years. Following is a relic of slaveholding days in Detroit: BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 507 COPY OF DEED CONVEYING OWNERSHIP OF A DETROIT SLAVE Know all men by these presents: That I, James May, of Detroit, for and in consideration of the sum of 45 pounds, New York currency, to me in hand paid by John Askin, Esqr., of Detroit, the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge to be fully satisfied and paid, have sold and delivered to the said John Askin, Esqr., a certain Negro man, Pompey by name, to have and to hold said Negro unto the said John Askin, Esqr., his heirs, executors and assigns forever; and I, the said James May, for my heirs, executors and assigns, against all manner of person or persons shall and will warrant and forever defend these presents. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 19th of October in the year of our Lord 1794. In the presence of Robert Stevens. Signed, JAMES MAY. Pompey was sold again less than three months after this sale, as the following transfer attests: I do hereby make over my whole right, title and interest in the above mentioned Negro man, Pompey, to Mr. James Donaldson, of this place, for the sum of 50 pounds, New York currency, the receipt of which I do hereby acknowledge, as witness my hand and seal at Detroit this third day of January, 1795. Witness, William McClintock. Signed, JOHN ASKIN. All of the men concerned in these transfers of ownership cf Pompey were leading citizens of Detroit, held in universal high esteem, and were active in public affairs. About 150 slaves were owned in Detroit at the time. Joseph Campau owned seven. The slaves were treated with kindness, were well fed and clothed, and were.not overworked, but gradually they were given their freedom, although two or three Detroiters held slaves as late as 1830. The Detroit Tribune in 1854 was an ardent Free-Soil advocate. Its editors, Joseph Warren and Henry Barns, were outspoken in their policy. They urged the Whig Party to come out boldly with an adoption of the Free-Soil cause, but the party leaders were afraid they would lose all their voters in the South, so they continued their dodging, evasive policy. There were many Free-Soil Democrats, but they would not shift to the Whig Party in case it became out-and-out Free-Soil. The last 508 THE STORY OF DETROIT resort then lay in the formation of a new and entirely independent party in the hope of drawing the Free-Soilers and abolitionists from the Whig Liberty Party and Democratic ranks. The Democratic Free-Soilers had their own Detroit newspaper in the Detroit Daily Democrat, edited by Rev. S. A. Baker. One day Dr. Hiram Benedict, a local dentist, met W. D. Cockran, principal of the Commercial Institute, 70 Woodward Avenue, at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Griswold Street, and they began talking about the necessity of organizing a new party. They were joined by S. P. Mead and Samuel Zug. Presently, when they had fanned their enthusiasm to a ruddy glow, they went to the office of the Daily Democrat to confer with Editor Baker. Mr. Baker was for Free-Soil, but he hoped to bring one of the existing parties to an adoption of it. The four men returned to the street, where they renewed the discussion and drew a crowd of about 20 men, among them Zachariah Chandler, J. M. Edmonds, R. P. Toms, Silas M. Holmes, D. Powers, and Jacob M. Howard. Editor Baker joined them and they went to the Tribune office. This conference occurred May 30, 1854. Two men of that group, Zachariah Chandler and Jacob M. Howard, afterward became famous political leaders and served several terms in the U. S. Senate. As a result of that conference with Warren and Barns in the Tribune office, a public meeting was called in the City Hall. That meeting called amass convention of Free-Soilers to be held in Jackson, Mich., July 6, 1854. In the interval, the Free-Soil Party held a convention June 21, in Kalamazoo, but decided to withdraw its ticket for the coming campaign and to await the result of the convention at Jackson. When the delegates assembled at Jackson it was discovered that there were two distinct brands of delegates: one the Free-Soil element, opposing slavery extension; the other composed of out-and-out abolitionists. The first element were under the lead of Isaac P. Christiancy and the latter were led by Jacob M. Howard. There was no hall in Jackson capable of housing the convention so the two elements adjourned to a grove near by where BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 509 the Free-Soilers organized under a group of oak trees, while the adherents of Mr. Howard held their meeting under another group of oaks a few rods away. Both assemblies drew up formal declarations of principles and adopted resolutions. Then they exchanged their declarations and considered them by joint committee. The Howard platform was adopted in the main JACOB M. HOWARD ZACHARIAH CHANDLER ISAAC P. CHRISTIANCY FOUNDERS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY with a few amendments suggested by Judge Christiancy. Thus the Republican Party was born in a Michigan village founded in 1830 under the name "Jacksonburgh." The Government postal authorities designated it as "Jacksonopolis" and the citizens, objecting to the change, cut the name to plain Jackson in 1833. The oak grove in which the convention was held was then on the outskirts of Jackson on a plat known as "Morgan's Forty Acres," which is now partly occupied by the high school. 5IO THE STORY OF DETROIT While the committees of organization were absent doing their respective tasks, short speeches were made by eight delegates. Among these were Kinsley S. Bingham, Zachariah Chandler, Gen. William T. Howell, Philotus Hayden, and four ministers, Rev. C. C. Foote, Rev. Jesse McBride, Rev. Alanson St. Clair, and Rev. Stephen S. Foster. Mr. Chandler was a leading dry goods merchant of Detroit who had been a candidate for Mayor of Detroit in 1851 against the supposedly invincible Gen. John R. Williams, who had held the office six terms. Mr. Chandler put up a whirlwind campaign and was elected on the Whig ticket. He had been the Whig candidate for Governor in 1852 and although he ran ahead of his party's vote for President by 800 votes, he was defeated. His speech at the Jackson convention was brief, but thoroughly characteristic of the man. He said in the course of his address: "Misfortunes make strange bedfellows. I see before me Whigs, Democrats and Free-Soilers, all mingling together to rebuke a great national wrong. I was born a Whig; I have always lived a Whig, and I hope to die fighting for some of the Whig doctrines. But I do not stand.here as a Whig. I have laid aside party to rebuke treachery. In 1849 McClelland, Stuart and Bingham stumped the state advocating the doctrine of the Wilmot Proviso and pledging their lives, property and sacred honor in the maintenance of those doctrines, but not one of our representatives has ever been honest enough to carry them out except Kinsley S. Bingham." This statement brought rounds of applause and did much toward making Mr. Bingham the first nominee of the new party for Governor of Michigan. In the election of 1856 Mr. Bingham defeated Alpheus Felch, the Democratic candidate, by 71,402 to 54,085 -The name of the party was left blank and the christening was left to Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune. Mr. Greeley suggested the "Democratic-Republican Party," but the title Republican was finally adopted. In 1856 the party nominated John C. Fremont for the Presidency and he was defeated by James Buchanan. The vote was BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 511 split by a diversion to the "Know-Nothing Party," which aimed to exclude all foreign-born citizens from public office. The Know-Nothing Presidential candidate was ex-President Millard Fillmore of New York. Buchanan received 1,838,i69 votes; Fremont 1,341,264, and Fillmore 874,538. In i86o the Republicans rashly nominated Abraham Lincoln, who was not only a western man, but little known and less understood in the East and in the South. Upon his election the slave states expected a precipitate adoption of roughshod methods and began immediately to secede from the Union. The Civil War had for its main' purpose the restoration and preservation of the Union. The emancipation cf the slaves was adopted as a war measure. CHAPTER XCI THE CIVIL WAR APOLITICAL campaign of extraordinary enthusiasm marked- the year 186o. The anti-slavery and FreeSoil elements had at last come into coalition in a party all their own. On September 4 there was an immense Republican gathering in Detroit. A semi-military organization of young Republicans, known as the " Wide-Awakes," was much in evidence in all the state towns of size. They gathered in Detroit wearing hats of uniform pattern and oilcloth capes of brilliant hue. Each one was provided with a kerosene torch'. A procession containing 3,500 of them paraded the main streets of Detroit that night with flaming torches, and the enthusiasm seemed to presage victory for the new party. This enthusiasm, which* was manifested in many Northern states, created alarm in the slave states, forI in case of a Republican victory, they expected an immediate emancipation of their slaves. They were so adjusted to slave labor that free labor was not available. The value of a Southern farm or plantation was., for the time, entirely dependent upon sufficient slave labor to work it. With slavery suddenly destroyed, the landowners believed they would be left helpless and destitute. Years of bitter controversy and recrimination had destroyed all sympathy and confidence between North and South. Beyond question, majority sentiment favored the abolition of slavery. Many farsighted Southerners regarded slavery as a curse and an economic fallacy. Many had voluntarily emancipated their slaves. Another question divided the North from the South. The North held that the union of states had created a nation, a political unit which could not be again divided into its component parts. The majority of Southerners adhered to the doctrine of " state rights," which implied that the Union had been a 512 THE CIVIL WAR 513 voluntary agreement, and since each state had been free to join it or remain independent, each state had retained the right to withdraw from the Union whenever it found the Federal authority burdensome or intolerable. Many of the foremost Southerners were strong Union men. In his time Andrew Jackson, himself an ardent Southerner, had been a fierce advocate of the supremacy of the Federal power. Such men as Alexander H. Stephens, afterward vice-president of the Confederate government, and Robert E. Lee were strongly opposed to secession and spoke boldly against it. ~ But state rights and secession sentiment were in the majority in the South and the leaders of this element decided that their one hope lay in immediately withdrawing from the Union and forming a new and independent confederation. To do this they must act before the Republican Party would come into power. The movement was begun by South Carolina. With the Republican administration at Washington established in power, the Army and Navy of the nation, the arsenals, fortifications and all military equipment would be at its disposal. The presumption was that all these would be used to coerce the states which were determined to secede. Long before the real war cloud loomed on the horizon certain mysterious activities were noticed. At Springfield, Mass., WatervIiet, N. Y., and several other places in the North were United States arsenals. There was a small arsenal at Dearborn, Mich., nine miles from Detroit's City Hall. Just below Detroit was Fort Wayne with a row of huge, muzzle-loading, cast-iron cannon facing the river. Mysterious orders came to each of these places. Thousands of muskets long in storage were condemned as obsolete and ordered sold. They were all of too large caliber for any other purpose than warfare or big game hunting, and when the sales occurred only a few were sold to local buyers, as relics and curios. The others were sold at very low prices and in large lots to strangers who appeared at the sale. They shipped their purchases South and then disappeared. An order came condemning the battery of cannon at Fort Wayne, so the carriages were S14 THE STORY OF DETROIT burned and the dismounted cannon were rolled out on the parade ground, where they remained for nearly 40 years undisturbed. Altogether 135,430 muskets were transferred from the North to the South. A large part of the United States Army was sent with abundant supplies into Texas and placed in command of Gen. David Emanuel Twiggs, a pro-slavery man. Gen. Twiggs was a veteran of the Seminole, Black Hawk and Mexican wars and was 71 years of age at the beginning of the Civil War. On the outbreak of the war Gen. Twiggs promptly surrendered the army and all its stores to the State of Texas. The property loss in military stores was estimated at $1,2o9,500 -The Department of the Interior had $870,000 in its vaults, the proceeds of land sales. This money myste iously disappeared. Jacob M. Thompson, of Mississippi, was Secretary of the Interior. A strong-willed and farsighted President of the United States could have nipped the rebellion in the bud by placing the Federal military forces in charge of the Southern ports and fortifications. President James Buchanan was a timid and hesitating man. He believed in the doctrine of state rights. He asserted that each state was sovereign in its own rights and could not be coerced by any combination of states or by the union of states. He feared to take any action that would offend the South, so the preparations for war went on actively in the southern states. Buchanan's Cabinet was made up as follows: Secretary of State, Lewis Cass of Michigan; Secretary of the Treasury, John A. Dix of New York; Secretary of War, John B. Floyd of Virginia; Secretary of the Interior, Jacob Thompson of Mississippi; Secretary of the Navy, Isaac Toucey of Connecticut; Postmaster-General, Aaron V. Brown of Tennessee. Gen. Cass demanded that measures be taken for strengthening the military power of the Government in the South, and when President Buchanan refused to act, ' Gen. Cass promptly resigned from the Cabinet and returned to Detroit. John B. Floyd, on being charged with corrupt and treasonable conduct in the War Department, resigned and demanded an investigation. The subsequent investigation exonerated him. At THE CIVIL WAR 515 Charleston, S. C., Maj.- Robert Anderson, with a commandOf 7o troops of the Federal Army, saw formidable preparations for war. He called upon Washington for reinforcements. No attention was paid to his report for a time. In fear of being taken by surprise, Maj. Anderson moved his command from Fort Moultrie on the mainland to Fort Sumter, on an island in the harbor. This action stirred up great excitement in Charleston. After a time the little steamer Star of the West was sent with some supplies and reinforcements, but it was prevented from delivering them by hostile demonstrations on the part of the Southern men. In the meantime a convention of the seceded states organized the government of the " Confederate States of America" at Montgomery, Ala., and demanded the withdrawal of United States troops from all posts in the South on the ground that they were now outside of Federal jurisdiction. The Government at Washingtbn was afraid to reinforce Fort Sumter for fear of precipitating a conflict. It was equally afraid to order a withdrawal of troops from Fort Sumter because of sentiment in the North. The Confederate authorities ordered Anderson to withdraw, but he could not do so without orders from Washington. After due warning several shore batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and on the following day the fort was surrendered. Such was the beginning of the Civil War. The whole country saw the Civil War approaching and no one seemed to see a way of preventing the outbreak until it actually occurred. When Maj. Anderson transferred his command to Sumter, Detroit signified its approval by firing a salute of ioo guns in his honor. WVhen he was forced to surrender for lack of Government support the North was inflamed with sudden passion and the South with a great joy, for the Southerners believed they had broken the last restraint upon their independence. A huge mass meeting assembled in Detroit April i 5th on the call of President Lincoln for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion. Nobody realized the extreme gravity of the situation. It was the common belief that an army of ioo,ooo green troops S16 THE STORY OF DETROIT without military training would be able to end the rebellion in 90 days. The enlistment was called for that term. Nobody seemed to realize that it would take more than six months to arm, equip and discipline such an army of green troops and convert it from an armed mob into a scientific fighting machine. The State Treasury of Michigan was practically empty, so the City of Detroit loaned the State $5o,ooo for the raising and equipping of the first regiment. Gen. Cass was at home and in spite of his age, 79 years, he was very active in the measures of national defense. Flags were raised on all the public buildings, the public schools and on many business houses and homes. Liberty poles were erected and patriotic organizations of every sort sprang up like mushrooms in a night. The First Michigan Regiment of Infantry was mustered into service May 2nd and went away on the 13th in command of Col. 0. B. Wilcox with 780 men. It was the first regiment from the West to arrive in Washington. The Second Regiment left Detroit June s. Military activities became the chief interest in Detroit. The fair grounds on the west side of Woodward Avenue, converted into a military cantonment known as Camp Blair, in honor of Gov. Austin Blair, became the rendezvous for troops. Fort Wayne was utilized to the limit of its capacity. The streets of Detroit soon had many young men in uniform parading gaily about, apparently with no thought of the deadly grapple in which they were about to engage for four years. Out in the state, camps were established at all the larger towns. The Third Regiment was recruited at Grand Rapids. The war enthusiasm spread into Canada, where Col. Arthur Rankin, of Windsor, raised a regiment of lancers and offered their services to the United States. The offer was accepted by the Government, but the men were never called upon to serve. A number of Canadians enlisted individually in Michigan regiments and many young Americans who were domiciled in Canada came back to enlist. The first rude shock came with the report of the Battle of Bull Run. A victory for the Union had been confidently expected and the battle had virtually been %Ncn when an unex THE CIVIL WJAR 517 THE CIVIL WAR 517 pected attack by Confederate reinforcements threw the Union army into a panic which resulted in a rout and an undignified retreat to Washington. Even then the Governmental authorities did not discover the folly of sending green, undisciplined troops into battle under command of political officers who were as unprepared as their own men. The Confederate government was far more systematic in its military management. It chose its generals and colonels from lopII 111 AA! -I Ip1 EscORTED BY DETROIT FIREMEN men of military education and gave them a free hand. It broke up its green regiments and scattered the men among veterans and under command of officers in whom they had confidence. As a result the losses of the South were proportionately smaller than those of the North, and victory was frequently snatched from the hands of the North by unexpected incidents. Bad judgment and political hesitation permitted the war to occur and bad management prolonged it at least two years after the issue was a matter of certainty. At Antietam, the bloodiest single day of the war, Lee's force of 40,000o men was finally beaten and his disheartened army was forced to make a long retreat, although McClellan had in his forced to make a long retreat, although McClellan had in his 518 THE STORY OF DETROlT command 75,000 men and an entire army corps which had been held in reserve and had not fired a shot. McClellan did not take up the pursuit until five days later. At Chancellorsville a battle was fought in thick brush and timber where Lee kept his army out of sight. Under a tremendous cannonade he held the attention of Hooker and his army with an insignificant force while the main part of his force made a detour of many miles by forced marching all night. This body of Confederates arrived in the rear of Hooker's army badly winded by an all-night tramp. They were tired, hungry and thirsty, but they had one fierce yell left in their panting lungs and they let it go. As a result of this surprise the Twelfth Union Army Corps was thrown into a panic. The bewilderment spread and the battle was lost. Thus Hooker with 130,000 men was defeated by Lee and Jackson, with only 60o,000. At Gettysburg two equally matched armies of gallant fighting men held to a death grapple for three terrible days and the Union army under Gen. Meade won a victory. Lee's army had suffered most. It was beaten decisively. It was a long way from the Potomac River and the bridge of boats by which it had crossed had been destroyed, but Gen. Meade was a new commander who, having won his first battle, was content to rest on that achievement. He marched his army almost side by side with Lee's to the Potomac. There, with no visible means of getting across, the Southern army turned at bay to make a last desperate stand against an expected attack by troops flushed with victory. To their astonishment no attack was ordered. After waiting a little the Confederates made preparations to cross and were permitted to return to their own territory again without opposition. President Lincoln was humiliated by the incident, but Meade explained that his troops were too exhausted to fight. The war might have ended right there, but it went on nearly two years more because the opportunity for a decisive battle was wasted. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was by no means a brilliant military genius, but he was a fighter of the bulldog type. When he was THE CIVIL WAR 519 balked in any attempt, instead of retiring he pressed forward in a new quarter and sought another resort. Some of his attacks, as he later confessed, were ill-advised. He wasted many valuable lives in several disastrous engagements, as at Cold Harbor, but he never flinched or backed away, as his predecessors had done. Other generals had retired toward Washington on finding progress impossible in a particular direction, but Grant constantly shifted his attack and moved' farther into his enemy's country. He knew that the town of Petersburg, 23 miles south of Richmond, was a railway Junction point through which the Southern army received most of its supplies and reinforcements. He decided to occupy that point and then cut all railway communication with Richmond. He sent a corps of 16,ooo troops to occupy and hold Petersburg, which was then defeiided by only 2,500 Confederates. The troops arrived before the town on the evening of June iS, 1864, hot and tired. Their humane commander allowed them to halt and camp for the night. This gave Gen. Lee time to rush reinforcements to Petersburg. All night every railroad car at his command was rushed over the road loaded to the limit with troops and munitions. That one night of rest for a single Union army corps threw away another golden opportunity for an easy victory. In the next three days Grant's army lost io,0oo men in ineffectual attacks on the town. There for nearly To months the opposing armies stood deadlocked until the following April, when Lee was forced to evacuate both Petersburg and Richmond. A few days later he surrendered at Appomattox. The cost of that one night of hesitation in lives and hardships and money was appalling. Opportunities for striking a decisive blow at an opportune moment were often wasted, and very frequently the mistake was made of attacking the Southern army in front while it was occupying a well chosen position in which little damage could be inflicted by troops fighting in the open without any protection.00lietoeanhtwr It cost this nation more than ioo,oo ie olanta a is more a game of skill in maneuvering for positions of advantage than of brute force. Providence does not always favor 520 THE STORY OF DETROIT the heaviest battalions if they are badly managed by unskilled commanders. The Union Army outnumbered the rebel army by many thousands. Its equipment was far superior. The fighting abilities of the men were equal, but the direction of the rebel army was superior. The Confederate government placed its troops in the command of men of military training and permitted them the exercise of their best judgment except in a few instances. Too often regiments and even brigades of the Union Army were placed in command of political colonels and officers. That blunder was aggravated by the attempt to direct the war operation and movements at the hands of arm-chair commanders in the War Department at Washington. The War Department itself was fossilized by its conservatism. It was offered the use of machine guns of the Gatling type, but would not consider their adoption. It was offered breech-loading rifles and repeating rifles, but rejected them with scorn until near the close of the war. John Ericsson labored long and persevered in the face of discouragements for many months before he secured the means of building the Monitor, the first ironclad warship with a revolving, shell-proof turret, which revolutionized naval warfare the world over. In spite of all the handicaps and embarrassments the war was won, the Union was preserved and the whole nation, North and South, today heartily approves the decision. News of the evacuation of Richmond and its immediate occupation by the Federal troops came to Detroit April 3rd, and the people went delirious with joy. A salute of Ioo guns was fired, processions marched the streets singing war songs and cheering. That night practically every window in the city was illuminated. Bonfires blazed at many street intersections and there was general rejoicing. A few days later a still more extravagant exhibition of joy was made in consequence of the news of the surrender. For five days the end of the war and the return of the boys in blue was the sole topic of conversation, and then came a pall of gloom which settled over the entire nation when on April i5th the news came that President Lincoln had been assassinated. THE CIVIL WAR 521 Practically no business was done during the next 24 hours. Many stores were closed. The entire stock of crepe and black goods of every description was sold out and used for decorations. Never was there such a passionate revulsion of public feeling, for at the'time the crime was generally misunderstood. President Lincoln was the victim of a small band of fanatics who did not represent the sentiment of the people of the South at all. In fact, while they deplored the result of the war and mourned their lost cause, the Southern people were glad it was all over, for they had long realized the hopelessness of their cause. But many people in the North believed the assassination to have been the culminvation of a concerted plan which had come to pass through the agrency of the same men as had led the secession movement and had organized the Confederate government. It took a long time to clear the atmosphere of this unfounded suspicion. In practically every city and village of the North funeral services were held. Detroit held mourning services of imposing proportions on April 25th. A huge catafalque was hauled through the main streets, led by bands playing solemn dirges and followed by a procession more than two miles long. All stores were closed. All the residences stood silent with closed blinds and drawn curtains. Practically the entire population of the city was gathered in the Campus Martius and adjoining thoroughfares. A stand had been erected and Hon. Jacob M. Howard delivered an impressive funeral oration. May 3oth was observed as a day of fasting and prayer. Ii Ylj- K "I,, THE "IRON BRIGADE FACING FEARFUL ODDS AT GrETTYS B URG, JULY 1, 1863.,-- L. - - ý-.-J,. - I CHAPTER XCII "'THE FIRE IN THE REAR" BUT the Civil War was not entirely confined to the South. There was in the North a sympathetic element which opposed the war on principle. In certain instances the opposition in the North approached the border line of treason, and this conflict of opinion did much to discourage enlistment and to promote sentiment for an abandonment of the war. This element was content to see a divided nation. It did not regard a union of states as worth fighting to preserve. In rather remote association with this element was a propaganda of disloyalty and betrayal led by agents of the Confederate government. This organization had men of means and influence planted in cities of the Northern border: in Detroit, Sandusky, Toledo, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, and other towns on the American side, and in Windsor, Montreal and other towns in Canada. One of these agents was Jacob M. Thompson, former Secretary of the Interior in Buchanan's Cabinet. A band of these Confederate agents from Montreal led a raid into Vermont and attacked the town of St. Albans. Another band operated about Buffalo from headquarters on the Canadian side. The Canadians kept the Americans informed as far as they were able, and Lord Lyons, British minister, once gave us warning of a very dangerous conspiracy which might have caused serious consequences in Detroit and several other places. Prisoners captured in the South were sent North and held in camps at Chicago, Indianapolis and Columbus. Another camp of rebel prisoners was on Johnsdn's Island, in Sandusky Bay. This camp was guarded by a small land force and by the U. S. armed steamer Michigan. The plot was a concerted movement for releasing these thousands of Southern prisoners in Northern prison camps, and arming them for attacks on Detroit, 523 524 THE STORY OF DETROIT Columbus, Chicago and Indianapolis, thus creating a "fire in the rear" which would compel withdrawal of troops from the Southern front and thus relieve Lee's hard-pressed army. Meetings held in Detroit for recruiting troops were frequently disturbed by these hostile elements. The 24th Michigan Infantry was recruited chiefly from the young men of' Detroit and Wayne County. It had in its ranks the flower of the young men of the city who were not already in the service. Later it was one of four regiments of the "Iron Brigade," which was a part of the small force which opposed Lee's army on the first day at Gettysburg. Its record was brilliant throughout the war. It was recruited for the most part at a public meeting on the Campus Martius on the afternoon of July 15, 1862. An address was made from a small stand before the City Hall by Col. Henry A. Morrow, and the last public speech of Gen. Cass was made that day. Sheriff Mark Flanigan, giant in build and one of the most popular men of the town; Mayor Wm. C. Duncan, Capt. Eber B. Ward, and James F. Joy also spoke. These patriotic addresses were constantly interrupted by hoots and jeers. Already it was evident that conscription must soon be resorted to because volunteers were not as numerous as they had been under the inducement of liberal bounties. It was suggested that a committee be appointed to draft resolutions. Voices in the crowd shouted: "Hear that! We told you there would be a draft." A disorderly mob immediately charged the grandstand to attack Mayor Duncan and Capt. Eber Ward, who had been most active in raising troops. The mob also rushed at the aged Gen. Cass, who was very feeble, and surrounded his carriage, threatening violence. Sheriff Flanigan was a valiant double-fisted man and he met the rush, knocking the disturbers right and left. With a few assistants he covered the retreat of the public officials to the Russell House. At the door of the hotel there was a lively fist fight which lasted for some time. On July 22nd the regiment was raised and soon it was off for the front. This was the most violent opposition shown at a recruiting meeting, but such disturbances were frequent in "THE FIRE IN THE REAR" 525 Detroit. The 24th Michigan Infantry lost 318 men by death in the service. Lieut. Col. Mark Flanigan lost a leg at Gettysburg. Later he was given a brevet as Brigadier General of Volunteers for meritorious service. The intensity of the feeling in Michigan with regard to the war might be illustrated by many newspaper editorials and extracts from speeches on the stump and in the halls of the legislature. One very bitter Democrat of the time was Edward G. Morton, editor and publisher of the Monroe Monitor. Mr. Morton was a Ver- f mont Yankee whlo came to Monroe in 1844. He was mayor of Monroe in 1851 and a member of the legislature in 1849, 50, '53, '63, and '65; also a promoter of the insane asylum at Kalamazoo and the school for the deaf and dumb at Flint. In one of his war editorials he attributed the cause of the war to SHERIFF NMARK FLANIGAN "the damnable sectionalism of the North" and charged that "the abolitionists in their greed of office were determined to prolong the strife as long as possible, destroy the country and raise hell itself." He pronounced John Brown a horse-thief, cutthroat and murderer; denounced the emancipation proclamation, and asserted that the Republican Party of Michigan was as much in rebellion as the State of South Carolina, except that it was not in arms. Judge Pratt of Calhoun County characterized President Lincoln as "the damnable abolitionist who administers the Government." "The people," he said, "ought to rise up and hurl him from his chair and in the eyes of God and men they would be justified." Wilbur F. Storey, who edited the Free Press in 526 526THE STORY OF DETROIT the early days of the war, was most outspoken of all in his savage denunciations of the conduct of the war and the Government at Washington. It was a time when free speech and a free press went the limit of discretion and of public tolerance. Volumes have been written regarding Michigan's part in the Civil War. The record is one to which the present generation can point with pride, for in every department of the national defense Michigan did her part. Her regiments earned enduring fame by their valor and achievements in many great battles. They were very much in evidence all the way from Bull Run to Appomattox, and many left their bones on the fields of Antietam, Chancellorsville, second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chattanooga, and Chickamauga. Several Michigan regiments marched with Sherman from Atlanta to the sea and then doubled back through North Carolina, cutting the Confederacy in two. Out of a population of about half a million people, 90,747 men went to the front from Michigan and many more offered their services. Wayne County sent 9,213 and of those 6,ooo were from the City of Detroit, which did not reach 53,000 population until the close of the war. The death roll of Michigan soldiers numbered 14,343, of whom 358 were officers. At the intersection of Woodward Avenue with the Campus Martius stands a monument erected to the soldiers and sailors of Michigan in the Civil War. As compared with many such monuments erected in recent years it is not so imposing, but there is compensation in the fact that it was so promptly erected. A subscription was circulated soon after the close of the war and a design for the monument submitted by Randolph Rogers, the sculptor, was accepted. The chief feature of the monument is a fine symbolic bronze figure of Michigan extending the shield of her protection over the soldiers and sailors. The monument is 6o feet high and cost $70,000- It was unveiled and dedicated April 9, 1872. During the period of the war Detroit and Wayne County bore their share of the burdens. To induce enlistments $660,55S4 was contributed in bounties. In aid of those families whose C4THE FIRE IN THE REAR") 527 breadwinners were serving their country $547,oo00 was contributed during the war. The women of Detroit conducted relief and aid societies which supplied clothing, boxes of food, hospital supplies and many comforts for the soldiers. The Government was not equipped to perform such services until the war was well under way. The Michigan boys brought home 123 flags which they had captured from the enemy. On July 4, i866, the decimated regiments paraded the streets and were then lined up to show the gaps torn through their ranks by shot and shell, and by the ravages of disease. It was the Civil War that made the people of Michigan and all the other states avid readers of newspapers. News from the front was of universal and intense interest, for there was hardly a family which was not represented by some boy in blue. In 1863 the grim consequences of the war were experienced all over the country. Bloody battles had been fought. Thousands of men had been killed or maimed, thousands were suffering in war prisons. A national crisis came when the Government was forced to conscription. There was a large foreign element in the country which was profiting by the jobs abandoned by the men at the front. Many of these men preferred the safety and profits of peaceful employment to military service and they used their political power to the limit to intimidate the civil officials. Certain politicians who sought the foreign vote encouraged their resistance to the draft, but necessity forced the adoption of conscription. Immediately upon the order of conscription there was an outburst of disloyalty toward the Government and of passionate hatred for the colored race, who were assumed to have been the cause of the war. A great mob arose in New York in sufficient force to overthrow the local government and hold possession of the city for three days, murdering citizens, burning buildings and looting homes. A colored orphan asylum was fired and the inmates might have perished but for police interference. Detroit, like every other city of size, had its draft riot. All these riots occurred in 1863. A colored man named William Faulkner was 528 THE STORY OF DETROIT charged with an offense against two little girls. He was tried before Judge Witherell March 5, 1863. The court room at that time was in a building at the southeast corner of Griswold and Congress streets. A great mob collected before the court building. Ropes were displayed and some guns. Threats of lynching were loudly made. Faulkner was convicted and sentenced to Jackson Prison, but the streets all about the building were densely packed by a mob prepared to lynch Faulkner on the spot. A message was sent to the provost marshal at the military barracks out Gratiot Avenue, and he came with troops. Faulkner was brought to the, street surrounded by 75 soldiers, and immediately clubs and paving stones began to fly. The guards warned the crowd to make way for them and were answered by another shower of stones. The guards fired and several rioters were wounded. One bullet, fired over the heads of the crowd, killed Christopher Lang, a photographer, as he was crossing Griswold Street at Michigan Avenue. After Faulkner was landed safely in Jail the cry was raised by the mob: "Let's drive the Negroes out; they're the cause of all our troubles." The colored population had already sought shelter, but bands of rioters began looking for them. Old Ephraim Clark, sexton of the Colored Episcopal Church, was knocked down And kicked into insensibility as he was leaving the church. Louis Pierce, who kept a little clothing repair shop on Lafayette Street, was sought out in his shop and nearly clubbed to death. His shop was then set on fire and destroyed. His family, which lived upstairs, had to jump from the windows. A young colored woman carrying a baby was knocked down and the baby was tossed from hand to hand in the crowd. At that timne there were many old buildings just east of the present site of the County Building, and in these lived many colored people, most of whom had escaped from slavery. The mob entered that district and burned 3,2 buildings, leaving 200 persons shelterless. The colored people fled from their blazing quarters to seek refuge in a cooper shop kept by Solomon Huston and his brother near the corner of Fort Street East and Beaubien. "THE FIRE IN THE REAR" 529 The Hustons were big, powerful men and they gave the refugees such protection as they could. The cooper shop was fired in several places and all who attempted to put out the flames were knocked down. Attempts were made to burn the Colored Episcopal Church, but Constable Sullivan of the Seventh ward stood guard before it with a pistol and cowed the rioters. Shots were fired by the mob and Edward Crosby, a Michigan Central fireman, was badly wounded by a charge of bird-shot. The mob attacked the fire department when it came to put out the fires, but the hoses were turned upon it and it retreated. The Light Guards, the Lyon Guards, and the 19th Infantry from Fort Wayne were called out and five companies of the 27th Infantry were summoned from camp at Ypsilanti. In the face of disciplined troops the rioters slunk away and hid themselves from sight. No one boasted afterward of having taken part in the disgraceful orgy. Mobs are always cowardly and brutal things and perhaps the best explanation of them is that under certain reactions the human species is apt to drop its centuries of civilization and revert to savagery. But the story of Faulkner is not yet completely told. After he had served several years in prison and his accusers had grown to womanhood they made voluntary confession that they had sworn falsely at the trial and that Faulkner was an innocent man. That confession was followed by his dismissal from prison. It was a poor reparation that the law permitted but Faulkner still had his life, which the mob would have taken by lynch law but for military protection. Most startling of all the hostile war activities in Detroit was an act of piracy on Detroit River and Lake Erie. As has already been said, many agents of the Southern cause had been planted in the cities of the North to foment discord. Some of these were leaders of the draft riots. Some were raiders, but the most serious of their activities was a concer ed attempt to release and arm the rebel prisoners n the North to attack the Northern cities, destroy railway communication and wreck railway trains. There were 8,ooo prisoners at Camp Douglas, near Chicago; 4,000 at Camp Morton, near Indianapolis, and 530 THE STORY OF DETROIT 3,200 at Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, Ohio. These men were all trained soldiers. Those at Johnson's Island were mostly officers. Such forces, released and armed for mischief, might be able to destroy cities and interrupt all communication by railways and telegraph. The leader in the Johnson's Island conspiracy was Maj. C. H. Cole. He had two able and daring assistants in "Bennet G........ U. S. STEAMER Michigan; NAVY OF THE GREAT LAKES FOR A GENERATION Burley," a Scotsman and acting master in the Confederate navy, and John Yates Beall, a wealthy West Virginian, soldier and editor. Cole took up residence at Sandusky, where he pretended to be a speculator in Pennsylvania oil lands. He was well supplied with money and made himself popular. The U. S. armed steamer Michigan was the guardship at Johnson's Island and Cole became very intimate with the officers, crew and waiters on board, where he was several times entertained. Arrangements were made by which he was to be given a dinner on the Michigan on September 19, 1864. Burley and Beall "THE FIRE IN THE REAR" 531 were to co-operate with him from the outside. They were to come from Detroit on the steamer Philo Parsons, which, with the Island Queen, furnished service between Detroit, Put-inBay and Sandusky. Walter O. Ashley was clerk on the Philo Parsons and also part owner. On the morning of the appointed day of the banquet the Parsons left Detroit as usual. She stopped at Sandwich, where several strangers came aboard. She stopped again at Amherstburg, where about 25 more men boarded her and with them came a huge trunk. Nothing unusual occurred until after the Parsons left Kelley's Island, about 4 o'clock. Then the strangers grouped about the big trunk, one of them opened it and the entire band proceeded to arm themselves with revolvers and axes taken from the trunk. They took possession of the boat, shutting the officers in the cabin. At Middle Bass Island they met the Island Queen, which had been seized by another group of conspirators. On that boat some 25 Union soldiers had been taken by surprise and made prisoners, together with the passengers and crew. All the conspirators and prisoners were transferred to the Parsons, and the Island Queen was turned adrift. The Parsons then headed for Sandusky. When it arrived a short distance from the steamer Michigan, Cole put off from the shore in a small boat to keep his dinner engagement. The plan was that a waiter on board the Michigan was to drug the wine of the officers and as soon as they were disabled the conspirators on the Parsons were to obey a signal and come to take possession of the ship. Then they were to use the Michigan for the capture of Johnson's Island and afterward to carry the released prisoners ashore. But the plan had been betrayed. An officer from Johnson's Island came aboard the Michigan as Cole was having a glass of wine with one of the officers, and touching Cole on the shoulder he informed him that he was under arrest as a Confederate spy. Cole laughed lightly and attempted to joke, but he discovered that his case was serious. Beall and Burley on the Philo Parsons waited for a signal that never came so, after a while, they 532 THE STORY OF DETROIT headed the Parsons for Detroit, standing over the crew with loaded revolvers while the captain and clerk were locked in the cabin. As they passed Fighting Island they put the United States soldiers ashore. Then they went on to the dock at Sandwich and after boring several holes in the bottom of the Parsons abandoned her. From there they made their escape into the heart of Canada. Burley was arrested at Toronto charged with robbing a bank during the St. Albans raid. He was brought to Detroit and confined in the House of Correction for several months, and then taken to Port Clinton to be tried for the Philo Parsons affair in the county where the offense had been committed. The jury had evidently been corrupted, for a disagreement resulted. While awaiting a second trial Burley's friends bribed the jail officials and he escaped. In Montreal he wrote the story of the affair which was published by Lovell & Company. The real name of the adventurous young Scot was Bennet G. Burleigh. All through his life he was fascinated by situations of extreme danger, and through a multitude of rash ventures he seemed to bear a charmed life. Twice while in the United States he had the sentence of death passed upon him as a spy, yet each time he escaped. His exploits in the Soudan as a follower of the British army would have won him the Victoria Cross had he been enrolled as a soldier, instead of a correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph. His escape from jail at Port Clinton was made possible through the passing of a file concealed in a pie through the barred windows of his cell. With this he severed the bars, escaped to Detroit and across the river to Canada. His extradition from Canada had been obtained by Henry B. Brown, assistant district attorney at Detroit during the war, later Judge of the United States Circuit Court and afterward Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Burleigh kept out of sight until the close of the war and then went to Texas to become a member of the staff of the Houston Telegraph. Still later he did newspaper work in Brooklyn, N. Y. He returned to England in 1878 and went "THE FIRE IN THE REAR" 533 with thq British war expedition into Egypt in 1 88 1, as a war correspondent. From 1882 until 1913 he was an attache' of the Daily Telegraph. Seven months after his retirement on June 17, 1914. he died in London. Beall was not so fortulnate, mainly because he was more persistent. He shifted his headquarters from Windsor to Hamilton and St. Catharines, Ont. From there he made frequent excursions into New York with a few companions and did a little amateurish train wrecking. Presently he was recognized and arrested as he was crossing the old Suspension Bridge. He was tried by the United States Court and positively identified by Walter Ashley of Detroit. Beall claimed that his act was an act of war and therefore not a capital crime, but he was hanged at Governor's Island in New York Harbor, February 24, 1864. Beall was really a superior sort of man in many ways. His acts and those of his associates were similar in many respects to that of those gallant Union soldiers who participated in the railway raid in northern Georgia in the spring of 186,2. James J. Andrews and 20 other men entered the rebel lines, took possession of the locomotive General' and attempted to cut railway communications in the South by destroying some large bridges. They were captured and Andrews and seven of his associates were executed as spies. Eight escaped from prison and made their way to the North and six others remained prisoners until they were exchanged. War is a savage business. The common penalty of being caught engaged in hostilities or espionage within the enemy's lines is death. Andrews and his brave associates have a monument erected to their memory in Chattanooga Cemetery. It is barely possible that the friends of John Yates Beall have established some memorial to him in his own home town. CHAPTER XCIII AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR WARS of serious magnitude always cause depreciation in the purchasing power of money and the sudden disappearance of silver and gold coin. This was the case at the beginning of the Civil War. The silver dimes, quarters and half dollars, which had been in common use for fractional currency, soon began to disappear from circulation. Some of them had been gathered into private hoards, but most of them were locked up in the vaults of banks to await a rise in their value. Presently the people had no money with which to make change, for even the tiny 3-cent pieces became very scarce. People went about with pockets full of copper pennies, but the supply of those was insufficient, so they resorted to the use of postage stamps. The postoffices in Detroit and everywhere were soon stripped of their supply of stamps, which people bought in sheets to be used for small change. These gummed sheets of stamps carried folded in the pocket would stick together. In the stores where change had to be made constantly, basins of water were kept for soaking the stamps apart, until a petition went to Washington for an issue of stamps without gum. These were issued in large quantity under an act of July 17, 1862. The next resort of the Government was a postal currency bearing the Government imprint of postage stamps of various denominations on small sheets of paper. Next came an issue of "shin-plaster" paper currency on sheets of paper measuring two by three inches, in denominations of 5, IO, 25 and 50 cents. Still later came shin-plasters in denominations of 15 cents and3 cents, the latter being sold in sheets containing 33, which sold for 99 cents. In the darkest days of the war it took $2.852 in paper currency to buy $i in either gold or silver coin. The prices of common necessities rose to correspond with this depreciation in the money of common use. The 534 AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR 535 soldiers who had enlisted at a pay schedule of $13 a month found their monthly pay had a purchasing value of $5 -The first postal currency was received in Detroit October 30, 1862. Detroit, Michigan and the country at large soon became adjusted to the paper currency. For more than 10 years they saw nothing else, except occasional rare pocket pieces which were fondly cherished by the owners. Coins were so precious that they were often adopted as jewelry. The simplest use of coins for jewelry consisted in drilling a small hole near the edge of a quarter or half-dollar and wearing it about the neck on a string. Many coins were smoothed on one side to have the initials of the owner engraved thereon by a jeweler. A few plutocratic individuals who wanted to flaunt their wealth in coins before the eyes of their fellow citizens had watch chains made of dimes or $5 gold pieces, fastened together by links. In later years the Government retired all such mutilated coins by discounting them heavily. Everybody looked forward with longing to the day when specie payment would be resumed. People talked eloquently about the return of the "dollarof our daddies." The Government, in anticipation of an extraordinary demand, coined silver dollars by the carload, but after the average citizen had carried a few of them in his pocket for a while his craving for coin money gave way to a longing for the return of paper money, and many millions of silver dollars never left the Government treasuries. Here was a serious embarrassment, for the Government could not afford to hold a considerable portion of the national treasure in its vaults and out of circulation. This problem was solved by resort to the issue of silver certificates which would be payable in silver dollars and would not be a demand against the gold reserve. People everywhere took the new certificates gladly and it is doubtful if one was ever presented for redemption in a heavy silver dollar. The faith and credit of the Government were good enough for people of the United States as soon as the war was over and we began to pay interest and principal of the national debt. Government bonds instead of selling at a discount went to a premium. Bonds at the higher rates of interest rose to a premium of 125 to 130. 536 THE STORY OFDETROIT In- the critical days of the war many people who had bought Government bonds in a spirit of patriotism hastily sold them at a discount or exchanged them for some other form of property. Thus the bonds naturally gravitated to the possession of the banks. Many millions of dollars in Government bonds were deposited by banks, under the National Banking Act, as security for each bank's issues of bills. The banks profited richly by their Government bond holdings. On the other hand a great multitude of American citizens seemed to forget that they were dealing in a depreciated currency during the war. Because they had more money than ever before they assumed that they were more prosperous, entered into many speculative ventures and indulged in extravagances on borrowed money. As Government money returned to par, the money value of their investments declined, but their promissory notes and mortgages remained at the original figure. Thousands who had contracted debts in dollars which were worth 40 cents or so were staggered when they found that they were obligated to pay these debts in dollars worth 100 cents. They declared this requirement to be unreasonable and unjust and so for many years the "money question" was the principal political issue before the country. One proposal was known as the "Greenback" policy by which the Government was to issue money in whatever volume business might demand, and without any gold reserve as security for its redemption. It was held that the Government's authorization of money was the Government's promise to pay and therefore quite as good as gold. The Greenback movement beca me intensified in the early i88o's and the contention between the currency reformers and the "sound-money" faction was so bitter that on two or three occasions mass meetings of Greenbackers in Detroit were broken up by the police and the speakers were arrested as disorderly persons. For several years the rock-ribbed Republican tenure of Michigan was menaced and occasionally overcome by a fusion ticket made up of Democrats and Greenbackers. When the fallacies of this Greenback proposal were finally proven there was a nation-wide advocacy of "free silver." AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR 537 Silver bullion at the time sold at various prices between 50 and 55 cents an ounce of 480 grains. But when the Government coined a silver dollar of only 420 grains it passed at par with the gold or greenback dollar of Ioo cents value. It was proposed to allow any citizen to buy silver bullion at 50 cents an ounce or thereabouts and have it coined into dollars by the Government. Thus the debtor class hoped to be able to compensate themselves for their money losses due to the return of the dollar to par by paying their debts in 5o-cent bullion dollars. The "freesilver" agitation reached its crisis in 1896, more than 30 years after the war, and the issue was defeated by a modest majority of the electors of the nation. People who ask today when money values will become stabilized and the currency of the World War period restored to par, may be shown this 3o-year experience of one nation which quickly returned to production and prosperity. With all Europe staggering under war debts and industrially and financially demoralized, one might predict that the end of the Twentieth Century will arrive before money values can be restored to their pre-war condition. In 1866 Detroit and the border towns across the river had a period of excitement in consequence of the Fenian demonstrations against Canada. Several years before the war an adventurous man named James Stephens had organized a secret society for the establishment of an Irish republic in Ireland in defiance of the power of Great Britain. The Feriian brotherhood was not taken very seriously until the United States disbanded many Irish soldiers who had served in the Civil War. Secret attempts were made to bring these into a solid organization for the invasion and capture of Canada. It was never a formidable movement, but it naturally excited great apprehension in Canada for armed Fenians gathered in small bands at Eastport, Maine, at St. Albans, Vermont, and at Rouse's Point and Buffalo in NewYork. In Detroit, in connection with the celebration of St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1866, they held a great public celebration with I,ooo enthusiastic Irishmen marching in procession. A great meeting was held on the Campus Martius in front of the City Hall and sympathetic addresses were made by several 538 THE STORY OFDETROIT Detroit citizens. A small invasion took place from St. Albans soon after. On May 30 about 1,5oo Fenians crossed into Canada from Buffalo. They raised the green flag over Fort Erie and caused great alarm. The Canadian militia rallied to the defense and a small skirmish took place, known as the "Battle of Limestone Ridge." The Fenians were quickly dispersed in all these invasions. Several persons were killed and wounded on each side. No invasion was attempted from Detroit, although it was expected in Canada. The United States Government acted promptly and stopped any further disorder. There was an attempt to revive the Fenian activities in 1871, but that also failed. During the war there had been scandalous profiteering, and fraudulent contracting and general cheating of the Government. These things are inseparable from warfare everywhere. That such practices began early we have evidence in a resolution adopted by the Michigan legislature on January I I, 1862, which declared that "traitors in the disguise of patriots have plundered our treasury, destroyed our substance and paralyzed our efforts by a system of fraud and peculation." It was recommended that such frauds against the Government be made a felony punishable by imprisonment for life or by death on the gallows. The State of Ohio adopted similar resolutions. There was a disheartening increase of crime all over the country, North and South, following the war. Embezzlements, fraudulent promotions and defalcations filled the columns of the newspapers. Crimes of violence increased in proportion. There seemed to be a sudden subsidence of the common plane of morality and of individual self-control. The number of murders in the State of Michigan increased so greatly in the year 1866 that a bill for the restoration of capital punishment was presented in the legislature and defeated by a small majority. The prison population of Michigan increased 59 per cent during that year. At Mason, the county seat of Ingham County, a colored boy was lynched by a mob for an attempt to kill his employer who had refused to give him his pay. The mob broke into the jail where the boy was awaiting trial, dragged him to the most convenient tree and hanged him. AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR 539 A survey of the records of every country, following a long war, shows a general decline of public and private morality. From the data of the past it can be shown that the so-called "crime waves" in Detroit and every other large city of the country are merely repetitions of the common eftect of a great war. In this connection a citation of the criminal record in Michigan may not be out of place. In 1848, the year following the abolition of capital punishment, 33 persons were sentenced to the state prison at Jackson and four of these were given life sentences for murder. Next year only one of a total of 30 sentenced was convicted of murder. The effect of war upon crime is shown by the statistics of the i86o's. In 1863, o16 persons were sent to prison and none of these for murder. In 1864, 105 were sentenced, two for murder. In 1865 the prison roster was increased by 161 new convicts, of whom three were slayers. In 1866 the total prison sentences numbered 305, of whom seven were murderers. Prison sentences declined to 250 in 1869, of which two were for murder. The population of the state in I86o was 749,113, and in 1869 it was estimated at 1,100,000. If a complete criminal record of the state for the past 10 years were easily available it would beyond doubt show a similar crime wave following the World War. Profiteering and other less protected methods of separating people from their money follow a war as naturally as an explosion follows the ignition of gunpowder. CHAPTER XCIV EVENTS OF THE i86o'S OR several years after the war the veteran commanders traveled about visiting the principal cities and getting a better knowledge of the country they had helped to save from a disastrous division. Gen. William T. Sherman visited Detroit on Feb. 6, 1866, and was royally entertained. But there was one persistent thorn in the rose of Sherman's triumphal progress, for wherever he went his ears were bombarded with one particular tune which he soon came to loathe. Brass bands met him at the train and as soon as he stepped to the platform one or more bands would strike up the raucously hilarious air of "Marching Through Georgia." The old general would indulge in a wooden smile and try to look as if-he loved it. On his way to his hotel one band would relieve another in keeping the tune going. They played it in the street while he ate his dinner and they serenaded him with it at night. Occasionally the old soldier would moan pitifully to the reception committee in his carriage: "Good Lord deliver me! Have I got to listen to that cursed tune forevermore?" Gen. Joseph B. Hooker came here to succeed Gen. Ord in command of the Department of the Great Lakes, August 22, 1866. President Andrew Johnson arrived in Detroit, September 4. Mr. Lincoln's successor in office had pledged himself to carry out the Lincoln policies with regard to the Southern states and to adopt Mr. Lincoln's views of new questions which had arisen out of the war. President Johnson was a man of unfortunate temperament, perfectly fearless physically, morally and politically, the sort of man who would stand alone against his nation if he believed he was right. He loved contention and made enemies of men who were at first inclined to support him. In the preceding March he had vetoed the Civil Rights Bill, which made the ex-slaves citizens and gave them the ballot without educa540 EvIENTS OF THE i8Ws) 541 tional qualifications, but it was passed over his head. His fighting spirit being aroused by opposition he went to unreasonable lengths in opposing Congressional measures. He was impeached on several charges, but was acquitted by one vote. President Johnson traveled about the country in 1866 seeking vindication, but did not win a popular endorsement. Church building was active in Detroit during the war. The Shaarey Zedek Jewish Society organized September 27, i86I, with 17 members. Three years later it bought the old St. Matthew's Colored Episcopal Church at Antoine and Congress streets and in 1876 tore the building down and replaced it with a much larger edifice. The congregation presently outgrew that building and recently erected an immense tabernacle at the northwest corner of Brush and Willis avenues. The Temple Beth-El was incorporated April 21, 1851, and met for a time in a private house. In 1860 the society bought the French Methodist Church on Rivard Street. In 1867 it bought the Tabernacle Baptist Church at the southwest corner of Washington Boulevard and Clifford Street, which it occupied for more than 30 years. Next it built a fine temple at the northeast corner of Woodward and Erskine Street. In 1922 it erected a still larger temple at Woodward and Gladstone avenues. There are now 22 other Jewish societies in Detroit beside these older congregations. Westminster Presbyterian Church on Washington Boulevard, now St. Aloysius Church, was dedicated January 13, I86i. St. John's Episcopal at Woodward andHigh Street was dedicated December 19, the same year. Other new churches of the war period were: The French Baptist, St. Patrick's Catholic, Christ Episcopal, Central Methodist Chapel at Woodward and Adams Avenue, Immanuel Lutheran, Salem Lutheran, Lafayette Avenue Baptist, Trinity Lutheran, and Holy Trinity Catholic. Central Methodist Church was dedicated November 17, 1867, and the former church at the southwest corner of Woodward and State Street was abandoned. It became a store on the ground floor and St. Andrew's Hall on the second floor. Our Lady of Help Catholic Church was consecrated December 8, 1867. 542 THE STORY OF DETROIT The corner stone for a new CityHall was laid August 6, I868, with imposing ceremonies. The address was delivered by Judge C. I. Walker. In that year the wards of the city were divided into polling precincts for the first time. Detroit Medical College was opened February 2, 1869. The original Detroit Opera.House was first used March 29, that year. Colored children were first admitted to the public schools of Detroit, October i i, 1869.,% I I OLD CITY HALL CADILLAC SQUARE EIVENTS OF THE ig6o's 543 EVENTS OF THE i86o's 543 The old fire alarm system, which once depended on the ringing of the bell of the First Presbyterian Church and yelling "Fire!", gave way in 1866 to the installation of an experimental fire alarm telegraph system, which failed to work satisfactorily. In 1869 the city installed the Gamewell fire alarm system, which is still in use.. The first installation cost S8,500. It had 60 boxes, scattered about the city. In 1872 the apparatus was connected with a bell-striking mechanism which sounded all VIEW OF CADILLAC SQUARE MARKET FROM CITY HALL RooF, ABOUT I87I alarms on the big City Hall bell. This practice was continued until recently, when the frequency of alarms in a great city, scattered over 8o square miles, made a central alarm useless and a disturbing influence. The colored men of Detroit cast their first ballots in the state election of November 8, 1870. In 1871 began the movement for the creation of a Park and Boulevard Commission to supervise the creation of parks and boulevards about the city. The act passed the legislature April 15. The new City Hall was fiiished and the common council formally vacated the old building at the head of Cadillac Square and marched in a body across Woodward Avenue to take 544 THE STORY OF DETROIT possession of the new council room. The aldermen at the time were: First ward, W. Foxen, F. Adams; Second ward, G. W. Balch, W. H. Langley; Third ward, William Wilmot, Charles M. Welch; Fourth ward, T. Henderson, Joseph Kuhn; Fifth ward, A. S. Bagg, Simeon Folsom; Sixth ward, J. D. Allison, M. P. Christian; Eighth ward, D. Dullea,.T. Mahoney; Ninth ward, G. Sutherland, P. Hill; Tenth ward, W. D. Baxter, Arthur O'Keefe. William W. Wheaton was Mayor at the time of the removal, Harry Starkey clerk, James J. Brown city attorney, and J. P. Whittemore city counsellor. The Detroit', Lansing & Northern Railroad, now part of the Pere Marquette, was opened from Detroit to Greenville, September 1,2, 1871 - CHAPTER XCV MEMORIAL DAY-HISTORIC CONFLAGRATIONS.p EACE activities did not cease in Detroit during the war. The city grew as rapidly as ever. The population increased from 45,619 in 186o' #o 53,710 in 1864, and in 1870 it reached 79,577. In 1861 the common council provided for a paid fire department equipped with three steam fire engines. The House of Correction was completed. When it became apparent that the Government must resort to conscription for the war, a number of people began to find business on the Canadian side. This caused the Government to issue an order requiring passes from the provost marshal to prevent citizens fleeing to avoid military service. In those days the fixed ammunition for muzzle-loading muskets was made up in paper cartridges. A soldier in order to load his gun would tear open the end of the cartridge with his teeth and pour the powder into his gun. Then he would ram the paper on top of the powder with his ramrod, after which he would insert the bullet, which was about the size of a plum and weighed more than an ounce. This he would ram repeatedly until his ramrod would rebound clear of the gun barrel. After he had applied a percussion cap his piece was ready to be fired. This kind of ammunition made it necessary that the soldier have good teeth, for otherwise he could not tear open the paper cartridge conveniently. The standard army bread was hardtack, a food which is now represented fairly well by the manufactured dog biscuit. One of the means of avoiding conscription was by having the front teeth extracted. A small number of men who had no thirst for military glory repaired to their dentist and secured physical disqualification, but the result was that missing front teeth became a sort of badge of dishonor and the practice was indulged in but sparingly. 545 546 THE STORY OF DETROIT A number of breech-loading styles of rifles like Sharp's and Spencer's were urged upon the Government for adoption. The Gatling revolving machine gun was offered, but the fossilized officials of the War Department refused to consider either invention which might have decided the issue of the war at least two years before it was won with the antique firearms of Government adoption. Even when the Spanish-American War occurred in 1898, 33 years after the Civil War and many years after breech-loading guns~and smokeless gunpowder had been adopted by all other civilized nations, the United States War Department sent its soldiers into Cuba with obsolete weapons to fight against troops armed with Mauser rifles using smokeless powder and having more than double the effective range of the old Springfield musket. In 1864 the Flint & Pere Marquette trains began entering Detroit, using the tracks of the D. & M. Railway from Holly. On March 25 the Public Library was opened in rooms in the rear of the old Capitol Building, then used by the only high school in etoi. ay301i865, was observed as a day of fasting and prayer all over the country. These fast days were held about once a year during the progress of the war. On August 12, 1865, Gen. Ulysses Grant, then the idol of the nation, visited Detroit accompanied by Mrs. Grant and their four children. The entire city turned out to do him honor. A reception was held at the old Biddle House. The national hero paid a visit to Gen. Cass, attended St. Paul's Church at Shelby and Congress streets, Sunday morning, enjoyed an excursion on the Steamer Michigan on Monday~ and a reception at Senator Chandler's home, now the site of the Detroit News Building at Second and Fort streets, in the evening. Memorial Day, at first styled "Decoration Day," was first celebrated in Detroit on May 29, 1869, when a large procession of citizens, veterans of the Civil War, many of whom wore the old blue uniforms and carried the muskets they had borne in many a battle, paraded the streets. Battle-scarred regimental flags floated over each division and the soldiers lined up to give an exhibition drill and show the citizens how they had charged M~EMORIAL DAY 547 the enemy. Imitations of the shrill "rebel yell" were given with fine enthusiasm. The oration of the day was given by E. B. Fairchild. Then the people went to the city cemeteries to scatter flowers upon the graves of the soldiers of the Civil War and previous wars. The first formal observance of Memorial Day was on May 30, 1868. In 1867 the women of Columbus, Miss., began the practice by scattering flowers on the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers alike. The practice soon came into general adoption. A number of fine patriotic poems were written from time to time for this celebration and some of the best of them were by obscure authors. Among these are: "The Blue and the Gray," by Francis Miles Finch; "Cover Them over with Beautiful Flowers," by Will Carleton, Michigan's poet; and "The Bivouac of the Dead," byTheodore O'Hara, which begins: The muffled drum's sad roll has beat The soldier's last tattoo; No more on Life's parade shall meet That brave and fallen few. On Fame's eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread, And Glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouac of the dead. Like most of the older cities of the country, Detroit had its full share of conflagrations. The first great fire of i8o5 was really a blessing in disguise, for it gave opportunity for a complete re-planning of the city with broad main avenues and a more systematic street arrangement. Otherwise Detroit might have grown up about a maze of crooked and narrow streets as did New Orleans and Boston. Until the period of the Civil War, Detroit depended upon volunteer fire companies for its fire protection. April 27, I837, fire broke out in a bakery on Woodbridge Street and before it was extinguished most of the old wooden buildings between Woodward Avenue and Randolph, Woodbridge and Atwater streets were destroyed, including the Free Press Building. On New Year's Day, 1842, the block bounded 548 THE STORY OF DETROIT 548THE STORY OF DETROIT by Woodward, Griswold, Woodbridge and Atwater streets was swept clean. This fire started in an old tavern which stood on the site of the Mariners' Church. Again the Free Press Building was destroyed. The total loss was only 200oo,ooo, for most of the buildings were old. On May 9, 1848, a fire began on the river front near Bates Street and every building between Bates and Beaubien streets, Jefferson Avenue and the river was destroyed. Among these were several historic buildings like Woodworth's Steamboat Hotel, Berthelet's Market, and the old brick mansion of Gov. Hull, which was the first brick building erected in Michigan. This house was then used as Wales Hotel. It stood on the south side of Jefferson Avenue near Randolph Street. November 20, 1850, saw the destruction of the Michigan Central depot, 100oox8oo feet in area, and a train of Io loaded freight cars. This fire was of incendiary origin and was set by an agent of the railroad conspirators. January 10, 1854, a fire started in a boot and shoe store at the southeast corner of Woodward Avenue and Lamed. The wind was from the south and the firemen made heroic efforts to save the First Presbyterian Church, which stood on the northeast corner. While they were working on the roof the flames shot around the front into the portico under the spire and belfry. Soon they reached up into the spire, which gave such a draft to the blaze that the church could not be saved. The loss was about $5o,ooo. The church bell, which had given fire alarms and sounded curfew for many years, was broken in its fall. Afterward it was melted and many tea bells were cast from its metal and sold as souvenirs. The buildings at the northeast corner of Jefferson and Woodward avenues, including the "Old Scotch Store" of Campbell & Linn, were destroyed February 5, 18'8. The roundhouse of the Michigan Central Railroad, with nine locomotives, was destroyed April 2, 1862. Those engines were badly needed at the time for transporting troops for the war. In October, 1865, fire broke out in the train shed of the Michigan Central station. A strong wind drove the fire so rapidly HISTORIC CONFLAGRATIONS 549 that the firemen working in Third Street were all badly singed. Their clothing was burned and their faces seared, but in spite of entreaties of the bystanders they stood at their posts until a quantity of benzine exploded in an adjoining warehouse. James R. Elliott, then a pipeman, and later a chief of the fire department for whom one of the fire boats is named, was badly disfigured and nearly lost his life before he could be dragged from the wreckage of the explosion. One of the most appalling fires occurred April 26, 1866, when the Brush Street depot and much adjoining property was destroyed. The ferryboat Windsor was unloading a cargo of merchandise at the dock while a gang of freight handlers was loading a car with 25 barrels of naphtha. Beside the freight car which was being loaded with naphtha stood a passenger train full of people which was to leave at 10 P.M. A barrel of naphtha was observed to be leaking badly and a man started to examine it with a lighted lantern in his hand. There was a violent explosion, which scattered blazing naphtha in all directions. The naphtha in the car caught instantly and the barrels began exploding. Soon the adjoining buildings, the ferryboat and the passenger train were all wrapped in flames. Several of the men plunged into the river to extinguish their saturated clothing and about 35 took refuge on the ferryboat as their only avenue of escape. The flames were so fierce that the people on the boat were unable to cast off the mooring line and by the time it had burned in two the boat itself was ablaze. It drifted down the river, coming into contact with several boats at the Woodward Avenue wharf, and but for the prompt arrival of several tugs several of those steamboats would have been destroyed. The ferryboat Detroit went to the rescue of the Windsor passengers, assisted by several people who put out in rowboats, but 17 persons who had fled to the hold were burned to death. The revenue cutter John Sherman engaged in the rescue of fire-trapped men who had jumped into the river. The passenger train in the station was blocked by a freight train ahead of it and some of the passengers were already in their sleeper berths, but the porter dragged them forth and rushed 550 THE STORY OF DETROIT them out of the door. All but one passenger, D. M. Gardner, of Cascade, Kent County, were saved, but many of them were badly burned. Mr. Gardner was suffocated. The depot, warehouse, several cars, and all the buildings on the river front between Brush and Hastings streets were destroyed. The loss was about $i,ooo,ooo. The ferry Windsor was a total loss and its charred wreck was nosed into the marine boneyard below Sandwich. In 1886 a million-dollar fire destroyed the great seed warehouses of the D. M. Ferry Company. The water mains of the neighborhood were too small to supply the demands of the fire department, and the fire spread to the buildings fronting on Randolph Street, destroying practically the entire block, including White's Opera House on the site of the Lyceum Theater, now the New Detroit Opera House. On the night of January 27, 1893, the old Capitol High School on Capitol Square was destroyed. For several months following the high school was conducted in the old Biddle House and Beecher's Hall on Jefferson Avenue. On November 23, 1893, the wholesale dry goods house of Edson, Moore & Company, at Jefferson Avenue and Bates, was destroyed. The fire broke out during the noon hour when a number of the employes were taking a rest on the fifth floor. Two were killed when they were forced to drop from the windows and five others were smothered and carried through to the basement when the floors fell. On October 5, 1894, the furniture store of Keenan & Jahn, at the northwest corner of Woodward Avenue and Grand River, was destroyed. The employes escaped in safety, but a portion of the walls suddenly collapsed, burying 16 firemen, six of whom were instantly killed. The other io recovered, but several of them were badly scarred and crippled for life. July 10, 1895, the Case livery barn on the south side of Congress Street near Shelby was burned and in the ruins the remains of six men were discovered. On the morning after election, November 6, 1895, what is known as the Journal disaster occurred. A steam boiler in a HISTORIC CONFLAGRATIONS 55' basement adjoining the Journal Building on the south side of Lamrned Street near Shelby exploded with such violence that two store buildings, occupied by about 5o people, were blown to pieces in an instant. A number of the inmates had miraculous escapes from death, but 37 were carried down by the falling floors to the basement. The ruins took fire from electric wires. The chief of the fire department hesitated about turning water upon the blaze for fear of drowning those who were imprisoned, and 37 lives were lost. October 7, 1897, about an hour after the close of a performance of "A Lady of Quality," the Detroit Opera House on the Campus Martius burst into flames. Some gas tanks used for calcium lights exploded, blowing off the roof over the stage, and the building was destroyed. Fire crossed the alley and destroyed a new io-story building erected by H. R. Leonard. It was only by a supreme effort that the entire block was saved from destruction. The loss was 'Soo,ooo. November 26, 1901oi, the boiler in the Penberthy Injector plant at Brooklyn Avenue and Abbott Street exploded. The building, 54 by o100 feet and three stories high, contained about ioo operatives at the time. The explosion wrecked the building and the ruins took fire. Thirty persons were killed and many others were injured. Detroit has become so great a city that fires and disasters which once were the sensation of the city for many weeks are now soon forgotten except by the persons immediately concerned. CHAPTER XCVI BRIDGE AND TUNNEL PROPOSALS N 1874 railway traffic across Detroit River had become so heavy that the railways sought relief from their slow and costly system of breaking up trains, loading them on transport ferries, and making them up again on the other side. This involved the loss of more than an hour of time and gave corresponding advantage to through trains on the Lake Shore route via Toledo and Cleveland. There was still a good deal of popular prejudice against railway corporations, so it would hardly do for the railways themselves to attempt the open promotion of a bridge project. In all their controversies with public opinion the railway companies usually appealed to James F. Joy to act as arbiter. Mr. Joy had been largely instrumental in the sale of the state railways to private corporations in 1846. Now that the railways were being operated profitably and their policy seemed to be actuated more by a desire for profits than for public accommodation certain people were inclined to regard Mr. Joy as the betrayer of their interest. In this pass the Detroit Board of Trade was utilized as an agent for the bridge promotion. It called a meeting to be held in Young Men's Hall, April 7, 1874, to consider the project of building a bridge across Detroit River. While this proposal appeared to concern only Detroit, the railways and the vessel interests, in a plan for which the consent of Congress must be obtained before anything could be done, the representation at the meeting was largely from outside Detroit. Delegations from 22 counties ranging from Saginaw in the north to Berrien in the west were in attendance. Philo E. Parsons of Detroit presided and about 30 vice-presidents representing the counties sat on the platform back of the chairman. There were groups of angry-looking vessel men scattered about the hall making vehement protests against any sort of 552 BRIDGE AND TUNNEL PROPOSALS55 553 bridge because it would add an obstruction to the navigation of the river and give railway transportation some advantage in competition with water transportation. Two sessions were held, morning and afternoon. A resolution was offered by A. Smith Bagg advocating a tunnel near Belle Isle instead of a bridge. This brought cheers from the vessel men. Luther Beecher spoke in favor of the tunnel and recommended the use of Belle Isle for a railway yard. The delegates from outside were denounced by several speakers as a lot of grafters and deadbeats who had come to Detroit on free passes, authorized by Mr. Joy, to put over a grab game for the railways. At neither session did the bridge proposal get a decent hearing, but the tunnel was advocated with loud cheers, probably under the supposition that its cost would be prohibitive. The car ferry service was begun January 1, 1867, by the Great Western Railway. The first ferry -transport had been constructed in England, at a cost of $190,000, sent over in sections and assembled at Windsor. This transport, the Great Western, could carry 14 cars at one load. Soon the Michigan railways installed five other car ferries, one of which could handle 21 cars. In 1870 the boats handled 15,0o0 passenger cars and 400,000 freight cars. This steady growth of the traffic led to an attempt to tunnel under the river. On May i 1 1871, James F. Joy applied to the common council for permission to use portions of certain streets for an approach to a tunnel. A number of citizens protested, not because they objected to a tunnel, but because they did not love the railways. On August i permission was given to utilize the lower end of Antoine Street for a tunnel *approach, and on September 14 ground was broken in the railway yard of the D. & M. Railway for a shaft from which the tunnel was to be excavated across the railway yard and under the river to the Canadian shore. The plan of the tunnel wNIas for a bore of 15 feet in diameter., surrounded by walls of masonry. Work on this tunnel went on very slowly, for this was long before the invention of the modern steel tunnel shields and effective excavating apparatus. In 554 THE STORY OF DETROIT the spring of 1873 the tunnel had extended only 135 feet under the river when the workmen opened up a rift in the earth through which poured a great volume of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which nauseated and temporarily blinded them. They refused to continue work, so the surface of the tunnel was closed up and all the expensive masonry was abandoned. The bridge proposal appeared to be equally difficult, because of the opposition of the vessel men and the hostile attitude of the people toward the railways. In 1879 another tunnel was advocated, to be constructed under the river between Grosse Ile and the Canadian shore, parallel with the transit route of the Canada Southern Railroad. Work was begun on this tunnel. This aroused the spirit of competition in Detroit and an act of legislature was passed May 31, 1879, to permit the city to enter into a combination with the Canadian authorities for the building of a tunnel across the river at Belle Isle, and to acquire Belle Isle, to be utilized partly for railway purposes and partly for park purposes. The common council was authorized to issue bonds for $Soo,ooo, with the consent of the Board of Estimates, for the purpose of building either a bridge or a tunnel. Detroit business men were fearful that a tunnel across the river with its entrance at Trenton would make Trenton a transportation center and a possible rival of Detroit. In this connection the first attempt was made to amend the state constitution so as to permit a city of large population to bond itself to raise money for necessary public improvements and promotions without a special act of legislature. This required a two-thirds vote, but the vote resulted in 37,340 for the home rule amendment and 58,040 against it. The excitement caused by the beginning of the tunnel at Grosse Ile subsided very quickly after it was found that the limestone formation under the river was so faulty and irregular that a tunnel could only be constructed there at a prohibitive cost. In I879 several enthusiastic bridge meetings were held in Detroit at which resolutions were adopted, committees appointed and proposals were considered. Everybody was now agreed -except the vessel men-that a bridge must be built. The first BRIDGE AND TUNNEL PROPOSALS 555 meeting was held October i4th and the last on December 8th, when the committee reported in favor of a bridge. Nothing more was done until the bridge project was revived again in the I890's, when plans were considered for a suspension bridge high enough to permit the passage of the tallest sparred vessels on the lakes. Again the lake carriers intervened with an iron insistence that the bridge must have a clear span from shore to shore without any pier in the river. As this would make the span nearly twice the length of Brooklyn Bridge, the cost of building such a bridge capable of handling freight trains would be excessive. Another qualm of apprehension was created in Detroit when the Grand Trunk Railway undertook the construction of a railway tunnel under the St. Clair River at Port Huron. This tunnel was opened for operation in 1891 at a cost of 52,700,00o. Again Detroiters grew apprehensive of the possible development of a railway center which would be a formidable rival to their city, but nothing happened to divert traffic away from Detroit. It was, however, an aggravation to see so conservative and sluggish a corporation as the Grand Trunk Railway in the full achievement of tunnel traffic, while a great corporation like the Michigan Central, part of a continental system, continued to-break up and ferry its trains across the Detroit River, and its transfer boats were sometimes delayed for hours by accumulations of ice. Then came the most curious promotion of all, when the citizens of Detroit were suddenly startled with the exhibition of a very beautiful peristyle that was suggested for erection across the foot of Belle Isle. There was to be in the center a great Doric column of marble 250 feet high to support a crown of electric lights, and from each side of it was to extend a marble colonnade of moderate height with a Greek temple at each end. This was to cost something like I,00oo,ooo and was accompanied by a plan for a bridge across the river. A subscription was started and a number of enthusiastic citizens signed their names for liberal contributions, but the project fell through. The peristyle idea, however, was not a total loss to the designers, 556 THE STORY OF DETROIT as its plan was adopted on a reduced scale for the Perry Memorial Monument at Put-in-Bay. Since the World War a great international bridge proposal has been discussed again and given publicity with elaborate plans, but no bridge is yet in evidence. In every city of steady growth, spasmodic migrations of both the business and the residential centers occur from time to time. In these particulars Detroit has shown a deplorable lack of intelligent direction and control. Early settlement clung tenaciously to the river front for many years. There were good reasons which prevented symmetrical expansion. That tiny, sluggish river, the Savoyard, which crossed Woodward Avenue at Congress Street, was one barrier, for in crossing the stream the early settler felt that he was exposing himself to danger by separating himself from the town. North of the Savoyard the soil was wet. Its timbered areas of solid land were mingled with open springs and bogs. These might have been easily drained by ditches, but settlers preferred to build on land already cleared and drained. In 1812, when Detroit was I i i years old, Woodbridge Street, which was mostly made land redeemed from the edge of the river, was the principal business street. Business moved toward the river in the first Ioo years instead of away from it. The aim of the citizens was to fill in and redeem more land, which they did in 1827. In I820, before the last invasion of the river channel, business houses and taverns began to appear on Woodward Avenue below Jefferson. When Jefferson Avenue was once built up, in 1830, it remained the principal business street for more than 20 years. It was not until I86o that a real movement up Woodward Avenue was attempted by the retail merchants of the city. Soon they filled both sides below the Campus Martius and this was supposed to be the end of the march of business. In 1864 the store of G. & R. McMillan was built on the site of a house formerly occupied by John Owen at the southwest corner of Woodward and Fort Street, where it still stands, occupied by the oldest mercantile firm in Detroit. This was supposed to mark the last limit of business migration northward on the BRIDGE AND TUNNEL PROPOSALS 557 west side of Woodward Avenue. Before building that store the McMillans were on the site of the Metropole Hotel. On the east side of Woodward, business houses extended a little farther north. RIVER FRONT AT BATES STREET, I880, AS PAINTED BY WM. B. CONELY 558 THE STORY OFDETROIT In the early 1870's business crossed the Campus and the section between the Campus and Grand Circus Park began shifting from a street of residences and taverns with shade trees in front to business houses, but even in the 1890's there still remained several old residences on the east side of Woodward which had been transformed into stores. One of the reasons for this business migration was the extreme conservatism of the property owners farther down the street. As long as a building was firm on its foundation and fairly presentable in appearance the owners were reluctant about making modernizing alterations. Such a thing as an elevator for transporting passengers or goods from floor to floor was regarded as an innovation of pure laziness and degeneracy. It was in the Moffat Block, built at the corner of Fort and Griswold streets in 1871, that the first elevator in Detroit was installed. The ideas of property owners with regard to modern plumbing were equally conservative. As a natural consequence, when a merchant wanted larger quarters or a new building to attract trade he looked for a new landlord a little farther on who would build a more modern structure to suit his tenant. When we look into the history of the older cities of Europe we find that most of them have passed through the same experience, but those which are most progressive underwent a change of heart. Old rookeries along their water fronts sometimes stood for centuries, but eventually they were torn down, and whole sections that had been long abandoned to decay have been rebuilt under civic encouragement, aid and control. This has occurred along the banks of the Seine in Paris, along the Danube in Buda-Pesth, the Spree in Berlin, the Rhine at Cologne, Diusseldorf, Mainz and other Rhenish towns, the Elbe and Alster in Hamburg, the Neva in Petrograd, nearly everywhere in fact, including the Thames Embankment in conservative old London. Some day the river front of Detroit is destined to come back to be again a fitting front door of an imperial city and gateway of the State of Michigan. CHAPTER XCVII TELEPHONES--LIGHTING-PARKS AND BOULEVARDS N the latter part of the decade of the 1870o's two notable inventions were adopted for general use in Detroit and the era of telephone communication and electric lighting was ushered in by slow degrees. The first telephone exhibition in Detroit was made by M. C. Kellogg in the rooms of the Detroit Club on March 6, 1877. The District Telegraph Company installed a system in Detroit in 1875. This system, by means of signal boxes, furnished a messenger call, a police call, a burglar alarm and a private fire alarm. The officers were Geo. W. Balch, president; James McMillan, vice-president; S. Dow Elwood, treasurer; J. W. McKenzie, superintendent. Mr. McKenzie was succeeded by W. A. Jackson in January, 1878. Mr. Jackson installed the first Detroit telephone between the office of the District Telegraph Company and his home, and soon after a number of business houses installed telephones. Service was begun in the basement of the District Telegraph office at 135 Griswold Street (old number) on August i5th. The central exchange was soon shifted to 15 Congress Street West and on September I, 188o, an entire floor of the NewberryMcMillan Building at the southeast corner of Griswold and Lamed streets was equipped for a central telephone exchange. In the beginning subscribers were called by name, but presently names gave way to numbers as the service increased in volume. In 1893 a large building was erected for a central exchange at Washington Boulevard and Clifford Street. The rates were regarded as too high and a rival concern, the Detroit Telephone Company, was promoted. After a short time it was absorbed by the Michigan Bell Company. Later another corporation, the Home Telephone Company, began a rival service, but that, too, was absorbed. Service was extended over a good 559 ý6o THE STORY OF DETROIT part of the state in 1881, and in 1893 long distance communication was opened with New York City and Chicago. In 1916 the service became transcontinental. At the opening of that service 200 guests assembled in the Board of Commerce for a banquet. Before each guest was a telephone in communication with the Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco. In 1918, the service having grown beyond the capacity of the telephone building, a new building was erected on Cass Avenue opposite State Street. The city telephone directory, which includes several surrounding towns, now contains 16o,ooo names of subscribers. First exhibitions of the electric arc light were made about the country by traveling circuses in 1879. An exhibition of the Van de Poele electric arc light was given before the Detroit Opera House on the Campus, March 21, 1880. Another exhibition was made in the fall of 1879 from an iron bracket on the corner of the old Free Press Building at the northeast corner of Larned and Shelby streets. That old bracket still remains on the upper corner of the building. In July, 188o, several arc lights were tried experimentally in the D. M. Ferry seed warehouse, but the first attempt to supply lighting service was made by the Brush Electric Lighting Company, organized by Wells W. Leggett, George N. Chase and William M. Porter. This concern installed a small generator in the basement of the Free Press Building and on September 13, i88o, supplied lights for several business houses on Woodward Avenue. Service was begun with 32 lights and at the end of 1883 the concern was furnishing 350 lights from a generating plant on Third Street between Fort and Congress streets. Prices ranged from %16 to $18 a month per light during business hours. Incandescent lights were first used in Detroit in Metcalf's dry goods store, January 27, 1883. Attempts to enter into contract with the city for electric street lighting were for some time balked by the combined influence of the gas companies and their employes who were engaged in lighting and turning out street lamps. The early lighting was contracted for on a moonlight schedule, which meant that on nights when the moon was due to shine the STREET LIGHTING 56I lamps were not lighted, no matter how cloudy the weather or how dark the streets. For advertising and exhibition purposes the electric lighting company erected a tower in Cass Park for exhibiting the efficiency of the arc light as compared with the gas and naphtha lamps, the latter then being used where there were no gas mains. In 1882 and again in 1883 the electric lighting offer was defeated through the gas company's influence, but in 1884 an arrangement was made for electric lighting on Woodward Avenue as far as Adams, and on Jefferson from Third to Brush Street. In that section, 24 arc lamps displaced i16 gas lamps. After a year of experiment the city entered into contract for general street lighting, which involved the erection of 72 towers not less than o104 feet high and 300 arc lights of 2,000 candle power each. This system, once installed, continued for about ten years in spite of the high cost, which ranged from $129 to $240 a lamp per year. This excessive price led to competition. The Detroit Electric Light & Power Company was organized, which underbid the Brush Company in i88o. But when the contract was awarded the Brush Company refused to lease its towers to the rival concern, so a double set of iron towers was installed. For several years thereafter the rival lighting companies were a cause of scandals each time a contract was to be let. They entered actively into politics, each having its pledged candidates for aldermen and each spending money freely for the purchase of 'aldermanic votes. In the meantime Detroit was paying for all the political corruption in an excessive lighting rate, and wasting more money in the futile prosecution of both the bribers and the bribed. It was the long prevalence of this condition which led Mayor Pingree to the promotion of a public lighting plant to be owned and operated by the city for the purpose of lighting the public streets at a reasonable cost. That endeavor.and its subsequent triumph is a story in itself. Early American settlers in Detroit brought with them the traditions of the New England and New York town meeting, a free, voluntary assembly which elected public officials and 562 THE STORY OF DETROIT directed taxation and appropriation for public purposes. It was the fatuous assumption that everybody would be so interested in these matters that all would turn out and that the result would be a free expression of majority opinion. But it happened that such assemblies in Detroit but poorly represented public opinion in many cases, just as in recent years matters of vital import have been decided very often by a vote of less than half the citizens who had a right to vote. There is no cure for indifference. It became necessary for the people to provide some sort of political machine which would protect them from the consequences of their own negligence. The old method of the town meeting remained in practice. until 1873 and it was the promotion of public parks which forced, as a substitute, the creation of a board of estimates. In 1868 a number of farsighted individuals began the agitation of land purchases for the establishment of public parks. In November that year Alderman Richard Hawley introduced a resolution for the appointment of a special commission to receive proposals and purchase lands for public parks. The commission was appointed and it recommended such a large investment that an issue of bonds would be necessary. This was many years before Michigan cities under a home rule policy had authority to issue bonds for public purposes. The constitution of i85o compelled them to secure the permission of the state legislature. The act of authorization was not passed until April 15, 187 1, the farmers upstate, with all out-of-doors before their eyes, having serious doubts as to the need of the city for parks. Under that act six. commissioners, George V. N. Lothrop, John J. Bagley, Robert P. Toms, Merrill I. Mills, A. Smith Bagg, and William A. Butler, were appointed to receive proposals and submit plans for the purchase of land for a public park. This commission was offered 5oo acres in the northwestern part of the city centering about the Tireman. farm, now traversed by Tireman Avenue. Another plat Of 410 acres was offered on the west side of Woodward Avenue four and onehalf miles from the City Hall at i9go an acre. Another plat fronting for half a mile on Detroit River three miles east was offered. PARKS AND BoULEVARDS 563 This last offer was favored by a majority of the commission. Several mass meetings of the informal town meeting type were held, but it was decided that so important a decision was not to be decided by the viva voce vote of a small and heterogeneous assembly of citizens, many of whom were supposed to be personally interested in the location of the park purchase. Also a bond issue of $200,ooo was involved, which was an appalling sum of money in the eyes of Detroiters of 5o years ago. To guard against this sort of selection an act of legislature was procured March 28, 1873, which created a board of estimates, consisting of five members to be selected from the city at large and two from each ward. In addition to these, the president of the common council, chairman of the committee on ways and means, the city controller, city counsellor, and the presidents of the various city boards and commissions were made ex-officio members. To this board of estimates were afterward submitted all appropriations, allowed by the common council, for revision and reduction. It had no power to increase any appropriation. The majority report of the park commission favored the purchase of the Jefferson Avenue site. The minority report, submitted by A. S. Bagg, recommended a division of the fund to be raised by bonding for the purchase of three parks of 200 acres each, one in the east, one in the west, and one in the northern part of the city, so that people of all sections would have equal accessibility to the public parks. This minority report grew out of complaints insinuating that certain members of the park board were personally interested in the development of the city in an eastward direction. Mr. Bagg and William A. Butler were replaced on the commission by Charles I. Walker and Charles C. Trowbridge, but the minority element, although now out of the commission, was still very active. It called a mass meeting and enlisted the aid of Capt. Eber B. Ward. The newly elected Mayor, Hugh Moffat, sided with them. The result was the defeat of the Jefferson Avenue purchase. The purchase was authorized, but Mayor Moffat refused to sign the bonds. Appeal was made to the Supreme Court to compel him to sign and the court declared 564 THE STORY OF DETROIT the park act invalid. Mr. Lothrop, disgusted with the defeat of the proposal, took no further part in the matter. The park promotion lay dormant for several years, and then Eber W. Cottrell submitted a bill to the legislature of 1879 for the creation of a grand boulevard which contained as a rider a clause providing for a public park. In this connection it was reported that the city had been offered Belle Isle for $80,000oo, a purchase which had been advised by Robert E. Roberts in 1874. That deal was made under an agreement of April 8, 1879, at a price of 200,000. The purchase was protested by many prominent citizens of conservative views on the ground that the price was exorbitant for a marshy island of about 700 acres and that the park would be inaccessible to the public except at great expense. But the purchase was made. The Detroit News was founded in 1873, its first edition appearing August 23rd. Its founder was James Edmund Scripps, who was born in London, March 19, 1835, came to the United States with his parents at the age of 9, began his career in journalism in Chicago in 1857, and came to Detroit two years later to be commercial editor of the Advertiser. In 1862 he became business manager of the consolidated Advertiser and Tribune, and a year later the editor. Dissatisfied with the development of that paper during the succeeding decade, he endeavored to persuade his associates, of whom the most prominent and heavily interested was Hiram Walker, that they should abandon the old "blanket-sheet" size and publish the paper in more convenient form. He believed that if the news were condensed and the paper sold at one or two cents a copy instead of the customary five cents, it would be instantly more popular. Failing to persuade them, Mr. Scripps decided to venture alone. He sold his holdings in the Advertiser and Tribune and risked his slender capital on his idea. For the first two months The News was published in rented quarters, moving to a two-story frame residence with one-story brick addition for a pressroom, on Shelby Street between Congress and Lamed, October 23, 1873. The Detroit News' instant popularity justified Mr. Scripps' expectations and tested his resources to keep pace with the PARKS AND BoULEVARDS 56S growth of demand. It was a small, four-page paper, carefully edited and of striking brevity, selling at two cents a copy; and was one of the first, if not the first cheap newspaper published west of the Alleghanies. It became a model for a number of other exceptionally successful ventures in the middle western field of newspaper publishing. For 44 years The News occupied the site of its first home and adjacent property, removing October 15, 1917, to its new building on the site of the old homestead of Zachariah Chandler. Its plant now occupies the entire block bounded by Second, Lafayette, Third, and Fort streets. In its 50 years of existence The News has seen all but one of its early contemporaries pass out. It absorbed the circulation of the Detroit Daily Union the year after the founding of The News, and that of the Detroit Times, which Mr. Scripps had founded to experiment with a one-cent paper, in 1890. The historic Tribune came under Mr. Scripps'control January 1, I89I, and was merged with The News February i, IRi1, in the 66th year of its existence. July 21, 1922,The News absorbed the Detroit Journal, then 40 years old. It was the commingling of the blood of the Tribune and The News which caused these papers, under their single ownership, to organize the celebration of the Soth anniversary of the birth of the Republican Party in 1904, despite their independence of party ties; for it was in the offices of the Tribune that the conference was held which resulted in the organization of the Republican Party "under the oaks" at Jackson, Mich., July 6, 1854. Mr. Scripps died May V29, 19o6, control of The Detroit News thereafter resting in his trustees for a period of 3o years. CHAPTER XCVIII BELLE ISLE PARK AND THE GRAND BOULEVARD FOLLOWING the purchase of Belle Isle there was long wrangling over the appointment of commissioners, successive vetoes of commissioners, successive vetoes by Mayor William G. Thompson, appeals to the courts, and letters to the newspapers favoring and opposing the new park. The discontented element proposed a sale of it and Capt. John Pridgeon offered the city $225,000 for the island. On the island was a residence belonging to Richard Storrs Willis, known as Insulruhe. The house was in custody of Patrolman Cohoon. A mob went to the island to evict Cohoon, but the patrolman was armed and held the fort. The angry discussions slowly subsided and in July, 1881, Mayor Thompson appointed Merrill I. Mills, August Marxhausen, William A. Moore and James McMillan to the custody and control of the island. This commission was known as "the four M's." In the meantime a ferry service was installed with a temporary dock at the southwestern corner of the island, and people began visiting the new park in advance of its improvement. The Indian name of the island in early days had been Mah-na-be-zee, meaning White Swan. It had been utilized for many years at the lower end as a garden for the military post and as a pasture for cattle and hogs. The island was infested by rattlesnakes and the hogs were permitted to run wild until they had exterminated the snakes. As the hogs were numerous the French settlers styled the island Ile aux Cochons or "island of the hogs." The name had been informally changed in the I850's to Belle Isle, without consulting the owners. On August 29, I88i, the latter name was confirmed by an ordinance of the common council. In 1886 permission was granted for the establishment of an electric railway on the island, but it was repealed in response 566 BELLE ISLE PARK AND THE GRAND BOULEVARD 567 to a public protest before anything was done toward construction. In May, 1889, the legislature consolidated the park and the boulevard commissions, The first incumbents of the consolidated office by legislative appointment were Henry M. Duffield, Elliott T. Slocum, William B. Moran and Francis F. Palms. They were soon superseded by the common council's appointment of George H. Russel, John Erhardt, William Livingstone, Jr., and William K. Parcher. Soon after the purchase was made the commissioners employed Frederick Law Olmstead, a noted landscape gardener, to lay out the park, and a survey was made by Eugene Robinson. During the year 1882, 268,oo000 persons visited the island and held picnics and informal gatherings. Canals were planned to serve the double purpose of draining the marshy land and to afford safe canoeing. The island at the first survey was found to be io,8oo feet long and 2,400 feet wide at the widest part. It contained 690 acres. Gradually the island was improved, drives were laid out and graveled. Marshy places were excavated to create lakes. A casino, a lunch and skating pavilion and a boat landing were erected and many miles of drains were laid. In the winter of 1893, when thousands of men were out of work in Detroit, the city converted the marsh at the northeast end in'to a lake and made a driveway around the outer embankment, which was partly constructed by hauling in the earth removed from the embankments of the old Watson Street city reservoir. Before the creation of the addition for the James Scott monument the island had been increased to an area of 707 acres. The purchase, which was regarded as very extravagant at a cost of $200,00ooo, is now valued at 5I6,200,ooo. The construction of the first bridge to the island occurred in 1889 at a cost of 8295,oo. This aroused another violent protest. That bridge stood and rendered good service for nearly 35 years. Several attempts were made to secure a larger bridge as the traffic became more and more congested, but on April 27, I9I5, the bridge took fire near the middle and was destroyed. 568 THE STORY OF DETROIT, 568 THE STORY OF DETROIT. For two years following the destruction of the bridge the only access to the island was by ferryboats. In 1917 a temporary bridge was built at a cost of $ioo,ooo, and this year of 1923 will see the completion of a new permanent bridge 2,193 feet long at a cost of about $3,000,000. Between the American shore and the mainland above the bridge lie several mud flats or middle grounds which are barely covered with water. In the course of time it is probable that the consent of the Government will be obtained to convert these shoals into islands that can be beautified and added to the park. Detroit's Grand Boulevard, which is now one of the busiest and finest public driveways in the world, was created in the face of violent opposition comparable with that which obstructed the acquisition of Belle Isle Park. The first proposal for the Grand Boulevard system was made by Edward Chope, of Greenfield township. He was aided in the promotion by J. P. Mansfield of the same township. In 1876 this proposal began to find favor with the progressive element in the city and in 1877 Edwin F. Conely presented a bill in the legislature authorizing the construction of a boulevard in the townships of Hamtramck, Greenfield and Springwells and through a portion of the City of Detroit. Immediately the conservative opposition rushed a 'strong lobby to Lansing to fight the bill. One eloquent opponent declared the boulevard to be a perfectly useless piece of extravagance; the promotion of a few landowners who wished to profit by the folly of the people of Detroit. The district through which it was proposed to run was so wet and marshy that the boulevard, he said, would be a goose pond during the winter and spring months and a goose pasture in the summer, for who would ever make use of it for a driveway? The bill was defeated by three votes, but the project was by no means dead. At the next session of the legislature Eber W. Cottrell presented it again in connection with the bill for the purchase of Belle Isle, to which the eastern end of the Grand Boulevard was to be the main approach. That bill passed. Mr. Cottrell was an able politician and knew how to handle lobbies. BELLE ISLE PARK AND THE GRAND BOULEVARD 569 All attempts to interest the townships in the boulevard failed. They were willing to profit by the improvement, but were not willing to contribute toward it. The city for a time remained cool toward the proposal. In I880 an appropriation of 5250 was granted to the commission for preliminary work and, in 1882, $2,500 more was provided. There the city halted for a time while private individuals provided for the expense. In 1883 a survey was made on lines represented by the boulevard as it is today. Through the dedication of land between Woodward Avenue and Russell Street by Frisbie & Foxen and Col. John Atkinson, the area for the first half mile of a boulevard 150 feet wide was provided. A formal celebration was held when the fences of this section were removed and the first sod was turned. The sod itself was sold for $100oo, which was the most profitable sale of Detroit realty to date. Next year James A. Randall, who had been an ardent promoter of the boulevard, built a house on the north side of the Grand Boulevard some distance east of Woodward Avenue. Four years later William Stocking built the first house on the section north of Jefferson Avenue and the approach to Belle Isle Bridge. Bela Hubbard, a wealthy landowner and pioneer citizen of the west side, began the improvement of the western section. For several years the appropriations made by the city were pitifully inadequate: S2o,ooo in 1885, $i5,ooo in 1886, and S25,000 in 1887. In the meantime James A. Randall, William Foxen, J. B. Lauder, John V. Ruehle, William W. Wheaton, T. Foxen and several other promoters worked to secure concessions for the right of way and private contributions from persons whose property values would be increased by the boulevard construction. The line of the boulevard now circling the main part of the eitv between Belle Isle Bridge and the foot of Twenty-fourth Street measures 11.29 miles. The land area expropriated for the right of way was 213 acres, of which about nine-tenths was contributed by adjoining property owners. The sections between Jefferson Avenue and the river and between Fort Street and the river were acquired by condemnation proceedings and purchase at a liberally appraised value. 570 THE STORY OF DETROIT Mr. Randall procured his own election to the legislature for the express purpose of promoting the boulevard. It was at his suggestion that the park and boulevard commissions were made one body. He also secured authority by which the city borrowed $5oo,ooo for paving the roadway with macadam. For several years the Grand Boulevard was a lonely thoroughfare, but about 1895 it began to build up, and carriages and bicycles became more and more numerous. Today it is one of the most intensively used thoroughfares of the world of a similar character, and traffic policemen are kept busy at many intersections directing traffic and breaking up congestion. The goose pond and pasture Of 40 years ago is daily, filled with a solid procession of automobiles, because it is the most popular driveway of the city. CHAPTER XCIX FOUR NOTABLE DETROITERS SEVERAL notable young Canadians of Scottish descent came to Detroit shortly before the beginning of the Civil War. They scored such individual success in their business enterprises and played so important a part in the industrial development of Detroit that they earned places of honor in the history of the city. William Ker Muir at the age of 23 years gave up his position as station agent of the railway at Ayr, Scotland, and came to Canada in 18; 2 with a letter of recommendation which secured him employment with the construction company then engaged in building the Great Western Railway from Niagara Falls to Detroit. This road is now known as the Grand Trunk. Mr. Muir proved so capable and industrious that he was afterward made division superintendent of the eastern division and was stationed at Hamilton. There he became an intimate acquaintance of the family of William McMillan, who was interested in the construction of the railway. Two sons of Mr. McMillan, James and Hugh, and George Hendrie, who afterward conducted the railway trucking business at Hamilton, became well known to Mr. Muir. The Great Western was completed to Detroit in 1854. Meanwhile the Great Western was seeking connection toward the West. The Detroit & Pontiac Railway had been operated as a sort of plug line between the two cities for several years, but in 1848 another company procured a charter for the Oakland & Ottawa Railway, which was to extend from Pontiac to Grand Haven. On February 13, 1855, an act of legislature authorized the consolidation of the two roads so as to make a continuous route from Detroit to Grand Haven. From there a line of steamboats was to extend the transportation service to Milwaukee, hence the new title of the railway line, the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee. This 571 572 THE STORY OF DETROIT construction reached Fentonville in October, 1855; Owosso in July, 1856; St. Johns in January, 1857; lonia in the following August; Grand Rapids in July, 1858; Grand Haven, August 30, 1858. While this work was in progress negotiations were conducted between the Michigan and Canadian railway companies, and in 1857 W. K. Muir was sent from Hamilton to act as superintendent of the work of completing the line to Grand Haven. His new office was involved in more detail than one man could well handle. He needed a purchasing agent to gather railway and car-building supplies. His friend, James McMillan, was still in Hamilton employed in a general hardware business, and through the suggestion of Mr. Muir and the influence of the elder McMillan, James McMillan was given the position of purchasing agent. For a time he exercised his function through the wholesale hardware firm of Buhl & Ducharme. For many years there were no connecting tracks between the Michigan Central and Grand Trunk railways. Freight in transit from one line to the other had to be unloaded, trucked from one freight house to the other and there reloaded. Passengers were also transferred between the Third Street and Brush Street depots by hacks and omnibuses. The heavy traffic over that section of Jefferson Avenue, which was badly paved, played havoc with the street surface. This transfer business was conducted by about 50 independent truckmen who lived in Detroit. So many independent truckmen complicated bookkeeping and made trouble for the men who checked freight in and out of Detroit, so Mr. Muir suggested that the railways would be better served by having all transfer service furnished by one trucking concern, which would be under joint control of the railways. That proposal was adopted and Mr. Muir introduced his old friend, George Hendrie, who was an experienced manager of the trucking business in Hamilton. Mr. Hendrie came to Detroit to enjoy a practical monopoly of tle freight transfer business between railway stations and to collect freight about the city. To secure the necessary capital Mr. Hendrie organ FOUR NOTABLE DETROITERS 573 ized the Hendrie Trucking Company. Naturally this did not please the Detroit truckmen, who were thus separated from a highly profitable business in which they all had a co-operative interest. They called upon their friends and in 1858 held an indignation meeting at which harsh criticisms were made concerning the Canadian invasion. Their protests had no effect, and in 186o they made a last spectacular appeal to public sentiment. J. G. Erwin & Company had a shipment of Ioo dressed hogs to be delivered to the Grand Trunk Railway. A long line of Detroit draymen gathered and loaded one or two hogs on each dray and then wound their way in procession through the business streets to show the business men of Detroit how their business had dwindled away. The exhibition produced a general laugh, but no public protest followed. The Hendrie Trucking Company's monopoly continued undisturbed. The first public hacks were introduced in Detroit in 1845 and two years later a line of street omnibuses was introduced. The principal business of both was between depots and along the line of Jefferson Avenue. In the course of time Mr. Hendrie became interested in the omnibus service. A cheaper service was wanted for the transfer of passengers between depots and this need brought about the first street railway promotion in Detroit. Street railway service in this country began with the New York & Harlem Railway, which was a horse car line built in 1832-33 from Prince Street through the Bowery to Fourteenth Street and Murray Hill. Later it was extended farther north and for a time it became a steam railway. Boston had its first street railway in 1836 and Philadelphia soon followed, but street railway building did not become common in cities of moderate size until I86o. During the succeeding 20 years they became the common transportation service in every American city. A street railway franchise was granted to a group of local promoters by the Detroit common council May 24, 1862. The grant involved a deposit of $5,ooo as an assurance of good faith and to prevent the promoters from making use of a free 574 THE STORY OF DETROIT public grant as a means of holding up actual street railway construction. The $5,ooo was not deposited and the franchise was forfeited after four months. In the following November another franchise was granted to another group of citizen promoters. The first franchise granted the right or option to build street railway tracks in certain streets. The second grant gave the exclusive right to lay tracks in Woodward, Jefferson, Witherell, Grand River, Gratiot, Fort, and Third streets, thus opening the way for a monopoly of the most available streets of the city. The promoter of both petitions was Eben N. Willcox. Mr. Willcox went to Syracuse, N. Y., where he interested a number of investors and a deposit of $5,000 was made with the common council January 10, 1863. Then the grantees filed articles of incorporation for the Detroit City Railway with capital stock fixed at 10oo,ooo. Bonds to that amount were floated in Syracuse. A single strap rail track was laid in Jefferson Avenue, extending from the bridge over the D. G.,H. & M. tracks to the Michigan Central depot. The line found little patronage after street car riding had become commonplace and it became evident that the line must be extended for larger public accommodation before it would pay the cost of operation. In 1864 some other investors were added to the company and $21,000 was invested in an extension up Woodward Avenue to Adams. All the tracks consisted of wooden ties and stringers laid on a mud foundation and a rail of strap iron spiked to the stringers. It was of the cheapest possible construction and two one-horse cars served for a time. The operation still did not pay. As a measure of economy the operation of the cars was turned over to George Hendrie, who always had extra horses for his trucking business. In 1867, the stock was increased to $5oo,ooo for further extensions of the line. Sidney D. Miller, E. W. Meddaugh and F. E. Driggs, all railway attorneys at some time, took five $1oo shares each. James McMillan and George Hendrie, acting as trustees for 1,123 shares, became the controlling factors in the Detroit City Railway. The Woodward line was extended to FOUR NOTABLE DETROITERS 575 Erskine Street, the Jefferson Avenue line half way to Belle Isle. But the Fort Street and Grand River Avenue lines were forfeited and snapped up by other promoters, who afterward biilt street railway tracks and furnished service. It was in this way that George Hendrie found the opportunity which made him in later years a street railway magnate and a notable promoter of both city and suburban lines. For many years he held a controlling interest in the main lines of Detroit street railways and was one of the largest holders of street railway bonds as well as stocks, so that even when a majority of the stock was later sold to another company his minority stock, combined with his bond holdings, still made his holdings virtually the controlling interest. James McMillan in 1864 promoted the organization of the Michigan Car Company in association with John S. Newberry, E; C. Dean and George Eaton. This soon became one of Detroit's leading industries and after its consolidation with the Peninsular Car Company, founded by F. J. Hecker and Charles L. Freer, it was one of the largest car-building enterprises of the country. Mr. McMillan's younger brother Hugh came to Detroit in the early i86o's and was for a time employed with the Grand Trunk Railway, but he became one of the officers and general manager of the Michigan Car Company and its subsidiary plants. The two McMillans, George Hendrie and W. K. Muir were always close friends and business associates. In the course of time they became stockholders, officers and directors of practically every great manufacturing enterprise in Detroit, in several railway corporations, and in the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company and other shipping companies. All their undertakings seemed to prosper and all the men became multimillionaires while they contributed very largely toward the prosperity and growth of Detroit from a city. of $0,ooo, when they arrived, to a city of more than a million inhabitants. 10 ga1KI CJ, Tro (Champion xNmiTHTow ~roF -SHIPS, FROM A PAINTING eY S).ARCH.WI'll, F,;:4 z 1 880 CHAPTER C CHANGES IN LAKE NAVIGATION EOPLE who watch the endless and constantly changing panorama of lake shipping that passes up and down Detroit River might be led to the belief that traffic had always been something like that of the present day. But there has been from the very beginning a steady increase in the volume of the traffic, and the number and capacity of the vessels; though perhaps most notable of all is the gradual change in the character of the vessels themselves. While steam navigation began on the lakes in 1818, steam vessels were in the minority for many years. Indeed until the period of the later I88o's there was a very large number of sailing craft on the lakes. The early tendency was toward the construction of vessels of the brig, brigantine aid bark types. A brig was a vessel with two spars, both square-rigged. Another type had the foremast square-rigged and the mizzenmast schooner-, or fore-and-aft-rigged. A bark carried three spars, two being square-rigged and the mizzen schooner-rigged. More men are required to handle a square-rigged ship than to handle a schooner and reasons of economy caused a gradual drift toward the schooner type. Most of these schooners of the early days were two-masted vessels, but as their size and draft increased a third and finally a fourth and fifth mast were added to the larger lake schooners. This persistence of sailing vessels was also a measure of economy. Marine engines and boilers were very expensive. They and their coal supply occupied room that a sailing vessel could utilize for cargo. The construction of sailing vessels was much less costly and a small sailing vessel could pay expenses where a small steamer could not. For many years navigation was partially obstructed and the draft of vessels was limited because of shoals that existed in many of the navigation channels until the United States 577 579 THiE STORY of, DETROIT Government, by the expenditure of millions of dollars, deepened the Lime Kiln Crossing, the channel across Lake St. Clair, the St. Clair Flats Canal, Flay Lake, Livingstone and Neebish channels, and constructed a series of locks and a canal at Sault Ste. Marie. When navigation began, a draft of nine feet was about the limit. A 21-foot channel is now generally available and improvement may be expected to go on until a 25-foot channel is achieved. This persistence of sailing vessels made profitable business for Detroit. In many places the channels are narrow and crooked. Often the current is very strong and the wind unfavorable. In consequence of these conditions it became the custom to have vessels towed by powerful tugs from the foot of Lake Huron to Lake Erie and also upward from lake to lake. Thus valuable time was saved and accidents were avoided, for often a vessel would strand on the channel bank and then the strong current or the wind would swing it across the channel so as to completely block all navigation. The various tug owners and towing companies of Detroit used to find business for about So tugs which carried crews of 10 or 12 men each. At the head of the St. Clair River and at the mouth of Detroit River these tugs would lie in wait for tows up and down. Usually they would wait until three or more sailing vessels would be on hand to be coupled together by long hawsers; then they would start on the journey through the long straits channels. Unless the wind happened to be dead ahead each sailing vessel would keep its canvas spread to lighten the labor of the tug engine and to increase speed. Occasionally a tow of seven or eight schooners would come down Detroit River in procession behind a single big tug. They made a beautiful sight, for there is nothing more graceful than a sailing vessel under way with main and topsails set and jb standing stiff as sheet iron in a quartering breeze. Today even a single schooner with weather-stained and patched sails and paint-peeled hull is a rare sight to remind the people along shore of the days that are no more. This tug business and the prevalence of many lumber schooners, scows and grain boats with cargoes to be unloaded at CHANGES IN LAKE NAVIGATION 579 Detroit wharves made the river front of Detroit much like the average seaport. Sailors, tug men and a horde of double-fisted longshoremen, divided into rival gangs, were numerous along the water front. Their rivalries often culminated in a general melee from which some of the belligerents were pretty sure to be carried to the hospitals for repairs and recuperation. When political caucuses were being held in Detroit some of these gangs were subsidized by ambitious candidates to see that the caucuses were "run right," and to manhandle pernickety citizens who would question the eligibility of a colonized nonFIVE-MASTED SHIP David Dows, AND DETROIT AND CLEVELAND LINER, 1888 resident voter who claimed the right to go from precinct to precinct voting early and often on election day. Along the river front were a number of sailors' lodging houses and "snug harbors" where the men of the lakes would "tie up" for the winter, or until their money was spent, when some would finish the idle months in the House of Correction. There were also many saloons which were frequented by sailors and longshoremen, in season and out of season, and the liquors dispensed at these were strongly tinctured with assault and battery. On Franklin and Atwater streets east of Brush Street was a section known as the "Potomac." It was a sort of subcellar for the underworld of Detroit and a cause of constant anxiety for the police department, which was obliged to keep an unusual number of its most effective officers on guard there. 580 THE STORY OF DETROIT The name of this vicious quarter was derived from one of the earliest songs of our Civil War: "All Quiet Along the Potomac," which began: "All quiet along the Potomac," they say. "Except now and then a stray picket Is shot, as he walks on his beat, to and fro, By a rifleman hid in the thicket. 'Tis nothing-a private or two now and then Will not count in the news of the battle; Not an officer lost-only one of the men, Moaning out, all alone, the death rattle." So, when the roundsman who went about among the patrolmen on duty in the "Potomac quarter" of Detroit turned in his report: "All quiet along the Potomac," the headquarters authorities breathed easier, and the newspaper men seeking stories for the next day were compelled to skirmish in other quarters for news of a startling and sensational order such as the public taste of that day demanded. All this has changed within the period of 30 years. The sailors and longshoremen who kept the police busy 40 years ago have apparently given place to the bootleggers and smugglers of prohibited liquors. And now one may discover in the eastern sky the first flickering of the dawn of another day when Detroit will become not only a lake port, but a world port from which freighted ships will bear cargoes of goods manufactured in the city, and products of a great part of the Lower Peninsula of the state, which will naturally gravitate to this port through rail transportation. A city of more than a million population, devoted to intensive manufacture and holding first place in the world for the manufacture of a number of products, has a sort of compelling power to bring the traders of the world to its doors. Its commercial power should expand very rapidly from the moment when it can place a cargo on board a ship to go without breaking bulk or rehandling to any port of the world. The increase in the carrying capacity of lake shipping, due to the Government expenditures in deepening the channels of navigation, has been very striking in the past 40 years. In CHANGES IN LAKE NAVIGATION;81 1882 the record cargo of iron ore was 1,604 gross tons. In 1885, it was 2,254 tons; in 1890, 2,744 tons; 1895, 3,843 tons; 1900, 7,045 tons; 1905, I4,000 tons. The record cargo of wheat from Chicago to Buffalo in 1845 was 3,678 bushels. Recent wheat cargoes average from 400,000 to 420,000 bushels. Carrying capacity of the larger vessels has doubled since 1900oo and almost quadrupled since I895. Citizens of Detroit were in a state of bewilderment in 1889. They did not look below the surface indications to discover the hands of the invisible government under which they were living. They wondered how it was that men who had repeatedly demonstrated their unfitness for any position of public trust and men of low intelligence bobbed up repeatedly as the nominees of both political parties. The people often had merely the hard choice between two sets of unfit and incompetent public officials. Instead of rallying to their own defense by turning out Cn masse to control caucuses in the interest of good government they seemed to avoid politics more and more, denouncing it as a "dirty business" in which decent men could not take an active part without suffering social and moral defilement. The framing of the city charter was entrusted to such incompetent hands that through certain artful restrictions embodied in the charter the hands of the people were further tied. In proof that this is not a prejudiced opinion of the writer a citation of pulpit opinion is offered to show what reputable people of Detroit thought of their city government after many years of misrule. It was evident to all observers that the laws for regulation of saloons were commonly ignored. Certain lawless gang leaders seemed to enjoy some degree of immunity from punishment for their acts. Occasionally the newspaper reports of common council proceedings and debates gave the impression that the council was not representative of the majority of the citizens, or of the public interest. The Rev. Z. Eddy, D.D., of the First Congregational Church, attended a session just to see whether the newspaper reports were true, or if they were sensational exaggerations. What Dr. Eddy saw 582 THE STORY OF DETROIT and heard at that meeting he described in part in a sermon delivered in the Church of Our Father, then located on the present site of the Hotel Tuller, Sunday, April 14, 1890. He attributed the faults of government to the habitual neglect of the mass of the voters who would not take the trouble to attend caucuses, or to vote on election day. This neglect left local politics in the hands of the more disreputable element. That condition, Dr. Eddy said, was not confined to Detroit, but was common in all the cities of the country. He asked: "And what shall I say of our own City of Detroit? It is reported abroad-and we who live in the city, though some of us have the grace to blush, cannot deny it-that our fair city is governed, plundered, disgraced by the most infamous ring in the land. "Who are our aldermen? Some of them, thank heaven, are honest and true, but they are but a minority. Go into one of their meetings and look around you. Who is yonder red-faced man? A saloonkeeper. Who is next? A bartender. The next? Another saloonkeeper. And so on until you come to the leader of the gang-a man who is now under indictment by the grand jury for gross corruption. "Listen to the talk of the city fathers! What do you hear? 'Liar,' 'Coward,' 'Traitor,' etc., linked with adjectives so vile and profane that they cannot be repeated here or even in the social circle. Why, these are men whom you would not admit into your parlor; you would hardly invite them into your kitchens! If you should chance to hear their voices in your hall, some of you who are gentlemen, but not clergymen, would kick them down stairs. "And these are the men who are chosen to govern the beautiful City of Detroit! These are the men who vote away your money, much of it for services never rendered; much of it for contracts corruptly granted and imperfectly carried into effect-as our streets testify. These are the men whose misrule is fast making Detroit an unsafe and costly city to live in, and a stench in the nostrils of the nation." CHANGES Ix LAKE NAVIGATION 583 Dr. Eddy opined that the remedy lay in bringing together the overwhelming majority of decent and good citizens and having them organize a citizens' party, since the existing parties were both corrupted, and thus divorce municipal affairs from national and state politics. With such a party in power those guilty of crimes against the city would be sent to the penitentiary "to work out their salvation instead of being re-elected to the offices they have disgraced." Next day The News commented editorially on Dr. Eddy's denunciation of the city government and his proposed remedy to this effect: "There is undoubtedly an unhappy condition of affairs at present in the City Hall, but it does not arise so much from the presence of saloonkeepers there as from the absence of any responsible majority capable of governing at all. There is a bad system in vogue. We have a miserable, ill-adjusted charter which deprives the people of the privilege of self-government. A citizens' movement such as Dr. Eddy suggests would give us no relief. We must have a new charter in which the principle of popular sovereignty is recognized and then the majority of respectable citizens will have a chance." A survey of the decade of the 1890's shows it to have been an era of notable reforms in Michigan and Detroit. Up to that time city elections had often been a mere farce. No laws had yet been enacted to regulate the printing and distribution of ballots. Political party committees, then without legal standing, furnished all the ballots used at elections. Fraudulent ballots were circulated outside election booths with the names of regular candidates covered by slips bearing other names. Workers outside polling places furnished electors ballots and "fixed" the ballots. Only the wary elector who read his ballot through carefully could know for whom he was voting. Election boards very commonly manipulated the count and applied pasted slips in favor of candidates who were willing to spend money. Ballots bearing artful alterations were placed in the hands of careless persons, and irresponsible voters were induced to support certain candidates for the consideration of a drink 584 THE STORY OF DETROIT of whisky or some small gratuity. Thus many public officials who were under the public ban managed to continue themselves in office indefinitely. In 189o agitation for the Australian ballot began. A modified form of it with several loopholes left for trickery was adopted at the next session of legislature, but the necessary amendments were afterward added. This was the first important step toward real noiular sovereigntv. CHAPTER CI HAZEN S. PIXGREE ELECTED MAYOR N the face of such conditions as have been described, the better element of the people of Detroit looked about for a political leader who had no connection with the corrupt ring that was in power. At a conference of representative Republican business and professional men shortly 'before the city convention in the fall of 1889, several men of large affairs were considered for nomination for Mayor. The conference agreed on Hazen S. Pingree, of Pingree & Smith, shoe manufacturers, who had never sought public office. Yet he was not wholly unknown in politics. In the Michigan Republican Club of the period, whose membership included Republican leaders throughout the state, himself, James L. Edson, wholesale dry goods merchant, William H. Elliott, department store owner, and Clarence A. Black, wholesale hardware merchant and capitalist, were colloquially known as the "Big Four" of the club. He was recognized as a level-headed, practical and rather forceful man, and the people took a chance on him as a candidate for Mayor in the election of 1889. It was a short but energetic campaign which found the citizens in a peculiar state of mind. Public money had been wasted in the manner already described. The tax rate had risen steadily. Even then, while the tax was insignificant as compared with present rates and assessed valuations were very low in many cases, the people and the press were "viewing with alarm" the tendency toward public extravagance. Belle Isle had been purchased for 3200,o00 in the face of violent opposition. Then a bridge to it had been built at a cost of $295,000. Canals and ditches had been dug and thousands of loads of gravel had been hauled to the island to make roads. A dock and casino had been built and there was no prospect of any cash revenue return for an expenditure of more than $6oo,ooo. 585 586 THE STORY OF DETROIT Conservative citizens asked: "Whither are we drifting?" Then they raised a frenzied shriek for retrenchment and economic reform. The bete noir or bugaboo of the moment was the promotion of the Grand Boulevard, which many citizens and the public press heartily denounced as a scheme of private graft by which the promoters and landowners expected greatly to enrich themselves. The demand was that the Grand Boulevard, which was declared to be a fantastic and useless creation, should be built by the adjoining property owners and that they all dedicate their land and construct the pavement and sidewalks at their own expense without any aid from the city. Mayor John Pridgeon, Jr., who was a candidate for re-election, qualified for the public favor by denouncing the boulevard scheme, but he was handicapped by the fact that the common council and some of the city commissions during his administration had been the cause of many scandals, grand jury investigations and prosecutions for bribery and graft, although he was in no way to blame. Mr. Pingree was asked to declare himself regarding the boulevard, but he replied that it was a matter which he had not carefully investigated. It might be a mistaken promotion or it might be a good thing. As he was not in a position to decide he preferred to defer his declaration of opinion. The newspapers regarded this as an artful evasion and so the newspaper reports of Pingree meetings were brief and critical. The Pridgeon campaign claimed the lion's share of publicity. When Mr. Pingree stood before the audiences at the Republican rallies the people saw a man of large frame and sturdy build who seemed a little awkward and embarrassed and who spoke briefly in a high-pitched voice. What he said was direct and simple, but he had no gift of expression. His complexion was pink and white and as fresh as that of a child. His face was broad and round, his head was spherical and there was hardly a line or wrinkle in his face. Although his jaw was square and heavy his general aspect was that of a man who was "childlike and bland," and this was borne out by his clear, steady and HAZEN S. PINGREE ELECTED MAYOR 587 rather cold blue eyes, with the vacant, far-away look of a reflective man. There was nothing in his external appearance or in his manner of speaking that betrayed in the slightest degree the whirlwind energy, iron persistence and unconquerable courage of the man behind the mask of external mildness. No doubt the political leaders, on looking him over, decided that here was a man of proved business ability who was naturally conservative and of good intentions. Brought before the convention which nominated him the crowd rose and cheered and clamored for a speech. Mr. Pingree bowed in evident embarrassment and said: "All I can say is that I am very grateful for the honor you have conferred upon me. If elected I will discharge the duties of the office to the best of my ability." This speech was in striking contrast to the campaign utterances to which the people of Detroit were accustomed. Candidates for office had been in the habit of promising sweeping reforms with reduction of taxation, new benefits for labor and general promotions of the public welfare. Mr. Pingree already knew that the Mayor is not the government of Detroit, but the executive, so he did not promise the immediate settlement of every vexed question before the people as most of his predecessors-and some of his successors-did in their time. The ticket with which he was elected bore the names of Judge F. H. Chambers as assistant recorder; Thomas P. Tuite, city treasurer; John A. Schmidt, city clerk; Frank A. Rasch, city attorney; Howard Wiest, police justice, and Felix A. Lemkie, justice of the peace. Mr. Tuite, city treasurer-elect, was an erratic but lovable and popular man about town. He was a veteran of the Civil War and a vehement Irish agitator and member of a league which raised a large amount of money in Detroit to aid the Irish Land League. He was a local hero at the time of his election because he had, at the risk of his life, invaded a burning building on Jefferson Avenue and dragged out a number of half-suffocated lodgers from the upper floors. Long afterward it was discovered that he was s21,000 short in his accounts with the city. His record had been honorable and 588 THE STORY OF DETROIT he claimed that he had been victimized by some employe of his office. He was acquitted and afterward moved to New York City. Of a far different type is the record of Howard Wiest, who is, in 1923, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, to which he was appointed in January, 1921. When a comparatively unknown young lawyer he was defeated for judge of the Police Court, moving the next year to Lansing. He is recognized as one of the ablest jurists of Michigan. He has served the state faithfully in many capacities. For 20 years he was a circuit judge of Ingham County and was often called to preside in other circuits. He was born on a farm in Macomb County and received his primary education in the Pontiac schools. He worked while a boy as assistant to his father, who was a mason by trade. Then he learned the machinist's trade. Although his school education stopped at the tenth grade, he was always a student, a reader and a collector of good books. He took service as a clerk in a law office, earned admission to the bar and practiced five years in Detroit. His first public office was his appointment by Gov. Luce as Circuit Court commissioner to fill a vacancy. It is probable that he has presided over more famous trials than any judge in the State of Michigan. His fearless rulings in several cases led to the hostility of certain powerful interests, but his political support by the people of Michigan has been unwavering. Justice Felix A. Lemkie was still "doing business at the old stand" until 1923, when he was defeated in the April election on account of his advanced age. Immediately following Mr. Pingree's election seven aldermen of the common council were indicted by the grand jury for accepting bribes from public contractors. Two professional jury bribers "caught with the goods" also were indicted. It became evident that something more than a change of Mayors was necessary for a cleanup in Detroit. During December of 1889 the agitation for a bridge across the Detroit River was again revived, with the usual violent opposition of the lake carriers, who managed to defeat it. i7 HAZEN S. PINGREE ELECTED MAYOR 589 On December 20, I889, occurred the memorable tragedy of the Tilden School fire during a cantata entertainment. The little girls were attired in costumes covered with cotton batting to represent snow, and one of them came in contact with a lighted candle. Immediately she was sheathed in flames and the other children and the teachers, on rushing to her rescue, had their clothing ignited. A wild panic followed, and as a result six children died of burns and 13 others were badly injured. CHAPTER CII BEGINNING OF THE PINGREE REGIME SHERE is nothing new under the sun. The crimes and misdemeanors of individuals and corrupt practices and oppressions in government are as old as civilization itself. If we turn to Holy Writ we find the following passage in Ecclesiastes ix:I3: "I have also seen wisdom under the sun on this wise, and it seemed great unto me. There was a little city and few men within it; and there came a great king against it and besieged it and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in the city a poor wise man and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then, said I, wisdom is better than strength; nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the cry of him that ruleth among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner destroyeth much good." This brief citation of civic history was made about 2,500 years ago, but it applies perfectly to certain periods in the history of practically every modern city. The "great king," who besieges every city and builds bulwarks against it, is King Graft, and his weapons are various forms of political corruption. Often he takes and holds a city for a period of years and gathers rich spoils, while the inhabitants murmur and look about for some wise and courageous man who will lead them to deliverance from powers that prey. The people of Detroit need not look abroad to find a city which has passed through such an experience, for they themselves inhabit a city which was once ruled by an aggregation of corrupt influences and which, after many years of hard struggle and repeated 'discouragements, succeeded in delivering itself from the coils of political corruption; in attaining, for a time at 590 BEGINNING OF THE PINGREE REGIME 591 least, its freedom and in discovering its soul. That deliverance was not attained through the efforts of "one poor wise man," who worked alone and single-handed, but through the persistence of one man of remarkable patience and courage, who gathered to his support, little by little, a majority of the. people of the city and, with the aid of able supporters, won a victory for both the city and state. That man was Hazen Senter Pingree, who died in London, England, June 18, 1901. Mr. Pingree's political career was one of the most remarkable in the history of the City of Detroit, the State of Michigan, or even the United States of America. Therefore a brief biography of the man can properly claim a place in THE STORY OF DETROIT. Hazen S. Pingree was born in Denmark, Me., August 30, 1840. He was a descendant of Moses Pingree, an English immigrant who settled at Ipswich, Mass., in 1640. Mr. Pingree attended school until he was 14 years old and then became an employe in a cotton mill at Saco, Me. His next employment was in a shoe factory at Hopkinton, Mass., where he became a leather cutter. In August, 1862, at the age of 22, he enlisted in the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. After participating in the second Battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Harris Farm, Cold Harbor, Spottsylvania Court House, North Anna, and South Anna, he was captured in a raid of Mosby's guerillas and presently found himself a prisoner in the Andersonville stockade, where he remained for six months. He was also an inmate of several other war prisons, at Lynchburg, Va., Salsbury, S. C., Savannah and Milan, Ga., being all the time in open stockades without shelter. After many months he was exchanged and rejoined his regiment to take part in' the expedition for the destruction of the Weldon railroad, and battles at Boydton, Petersburg, Sailors Creek and Farmville, and to witness the surrender of Gen. Lee at Appomattox. While a prisoner in Andersonville Mr. Pingree met several soldier prisoners from Detroit and was captivated by their enthusiasm for their home city. Learning that Detroit had some growing shoe industries, he came to Detroit following his 592 THE STORY OF DETROIT discharge in August, 1865. His first position in Detroit was as a clerk and cobbler for R. H. Fyfe, then on Jefferson Avenue. He also worked in H. P. Baldwin & Company's shoe factory. In December, 1866, he and Charles H. Smith formed the partnership shoe firm of Pingree & Smith, their total capital being $1,360. They began operation with eight employes, but in the course of time the number of employes increased to more than 700oo and the annual sales of the firm were more than $,ooo,ooo a year. In 188o Detroit was a steadily growing city of I16,00ooo population. It was a city of beautiful streets and homes. The people were cultured and prosperous far above the average, but through their common neglect of political duties their government had fallen under corrupting influences and had ceased to be representative of the public interest, responsible to the people, or responsive to the public will. A nominally free people, possessed of power to elect representatives of their own choosing for every public office, appeared to be tied hand and foot, politically, and subservient to a corrupt political machine. Through that machine, controlled by a small group of men, the nomination of public officials for both political parties was absolutely dictated. Some of the candidates were men of unimpeachable character, some were obscure citizens quite unknown to the majority of voters, and some were notorious for past political malfeasances and corrupt practices. A few wards of the city managed to elect capable men, but an astonishing number of the members of the common council were saloonkeepers and bartenders, or men who had no known occupation or calling except as chronic holders of petty political offices, appointive or elective. Caucuses were commonly held in saloons and each ward and precinct had its little organization of control. Slates of candidates were prepared in back rooms of saloons and then the caucuses, thronged by the rougher element of the city and studiously avoided by the better element, proceeded to nominate delegates to the conventions. The conventions in turn nominated the candidates of the machine slate, often in the face of BEGINNING OF THE PINEGREE REGIME 593 public protest and in defiance of the denunciations of the newspapers. As a direct result of this condition there was much waste of the public funds and a common neglect of public works and public buildings. The various public utilities and the saloons went virtually without control because they were in fact the invisible power behind the corrupt government. The greater part of the streets of the city were unpaved. The paved streets, even the main thoroughfares, were mostly surfaced with decaying cedar blocks laid on a dirt foundation and therefore very irregular of surface. Woodward Avenue, lined with beautiful homes and bordered with handsome shade trees, had a badly dilapidated pavement of cedar blocks. Through the middle ran the double tracks of the street railway, consisting of strap iron rails laid on wooden stringers, much like the tracks of the steam railways built in the I840's. Between Grand River and the river there were four parallel car tracks. The tracks sank below the grade of the street under the weight of every passing horse car, and the space between the street car rails on all the streets was paved with cobblestones over which the iron-shod feet of the horses clattered noisily. Each horse bore a jingling bell on his collar to warn pedestrians and other vehicles off the tracks. In 1892 there were but four streets in Detroit paved with asphalt. These were Jefferson, Lafayette, Cass, and Second avenues. The surfaces of these had been unskillfully laid and were fast disintegrating. Grand jury investigations into fraudulent contracting and bribery charges connected with various public works were fairly constant and indictments against certain aldermen were frequently returned, but when the cases came to trial the chief witnesses usually were out of town and the cases were commonly ended by a nolle prosse for lack of the necessary evidence to procure a conviction. The disorderly element which was most active in local politics was divided into notorious gangs. The members of these gangs seemed to enjoy some mysterious official protection which made them for several years practically immune to 594 THE STORY OF DETROIT prosecution. The saloon, liquor and beer intere~ts were thoroughly organized in a compact secret organization which enabled the several thousand men concerned to act as a unit in every political undertaking from the caucus to the convention and the election. Most of the election boards contained a majority of representatives of those interests and consequently a good many candidates for public office, and even some of the public commissions, felt that they were compelled to respect the mandates of this sinister influence. The police department, composed of good average men who would have performed their functions acceptably under ordinary circumstances, seemed at times paralyzed and afraid to cope with the lawless gangs. They were not afraid of the gangsters themselves, but of the mysterious influence back of the gangs which seemed able to cause the promotion or the dismissal of any man in the political employment of the ci ty. On assuming the office of Mayor, Mr. Pingree delivered a message to the common council in which he cited certain reform measures which he believed should be set in motion. His message showed an intelligent survey of existing conditions and recommended a number of reforms which have been either fully or partially accomplished during the intervening years. He called attention to the fact that Detroit had about 130 miles of cedar block street pavement, most of which was in bad repair. Within a few years $25o~ooo had been spent on Woodward Avenue and $300,000 on Jefferson Avenue pavements. These had been laid on a dirt foundation and in consequence they had been uneven all the time and were now badly decayed. He advocated abandonment of wood pavements and the laying of brick, stone and asphalt on concrete foundations. Buffalo in 1889, he said, had laid more than $ipooo,ooo worth of durable pavements while Detroit, a city of about the same population, had spent $400,000 for cheap pavements of little value. The Mayor advocated better street cleaning, the work to be done after midnight so as to avoid interference with traffic. Between Grand River Avenue and the river, Woodward Avenue BEGINNING OF THE PINGREE REGIME 595 had four parallel car tracks. The new Mayor advised removal of two of the tracks. He called attention to large areas of platted property held at high prices in the best residence sections of the city which were represented on the assessment rolls at acreage prices. He advised that the assessments be made proportionate to the prices asked for the lots. He alluded to the value of certain public franchises, like those which were commonly given to the street railway companies without any cost whatever. Such grants immediately became capitalized as a basis of bond issues at a value of millions of dollars and were the security for loans with which the tracks were built and cars and equipment were bought without direct cost to the grantee company. Debt thus incurred remained a lien against the franchise value and earning power of the system. Mr. Pingree stated that the city had thus recently given away to a private corporation a value of $5,ooo,ooo or $6,ooo,ooo. He asserted that the city was justly entitled to a reasonable compensation for every such grant. He called attention to the high charges for public electric lighting as compared with other cities. All attempts to secure a reasonable abatement of rates having proved ineffectual, he advised the establishment of a municipal public lighting plant. He noted all about the city many railway crossings on busy public thoroughfares at the street level. The inevitable consequence was many fatal accidents, considerable loss of life every year, and frequent blocking of street traffic by the shifting of long freight trains across the streets. Mr. Pingree advised an immediate institution of proceedings and co-operation between the city and the railways for a gradual separation of grades between the railways and the streets. After the common council had adjourned and some of the politicians had foregathered in their favorite saloons to talk things over it was a common agreement that the new Mayor had given them an "earful." Some of the solid citizens who read their newspapers next day began to wonder what manner of man they had placed at the head of the city government. 596 THE STORY OF DETROIT The mass of the inhabitants did not know what to make of the new Mayor. They opined that at least he was a "self-starter," but they could not see how he was going to make material progress, with a majority of the common council and several powerful corporate interests apparently opposed to all his proposals. The reform element was quite elated, but the new Mayor was a man without experience in practical politics. Citizens wondered whether he was sincere and, if so, had he the forcefulness, tact and persistence to put anything across in the face of a powerful and thoroughly organized opposition? In February, i890, Mr. Pingree went East on business, but took time to gather much information regarding paving practice and rapid electric transit in eastern cities. On his return he advocated a change of policy with regard to paving taxes so that instead of falling in a lump on the owners of abutting property and making their immediate tax excessive, it might be distributed over several years and paid in installments. The city, he urged, could borrow money for paving by bond issues at 4 per cent and thus relieve the burden of the taxpayer, who would have to pay 6 per cent or more. This suggestion was at first strenuously opposed by conservative citizens on the ground that it would be an invitation to reckless expenditures for perishable public improvements, and that it would enable one generation to lay and wear out paving for which the succeeding generation must pay a considerable part of the cost. Its final adoption transformed Detroit from one of the worst paved cities to one of the best. About this time the taxpayers of Detroit found a little comfort in the revelation of a public scandal in the government of Cleveland, where it was found that the city had been swindled out of about;3,000ooo,ooo000 of public funds for which its records gave no accounting. There was some satisfaction in the discovery that Detroit was no worse off than its nearest big neighbor. For the purpose of comparison of the cost of operating the city government of today with that of 1890, the estimates of that year are given below-in round numbers. BEGINNING OF THE PINGREE RE.GIME 597 The budget of the present day is so framed as to make a complete comparison impossible: Estimated Budget for 1890 of 1922 Interest fund................................... 77,000 *.6,492,69o General fund.................................... 216,000o....... Street openings.................................. 40,000 135,000 Public lighting.................................. 126,000 924,023 Garbage collecting................................ 35,000 1- ),/ Fire Dept. pensionsf....................................930 ) T209,323 General road fund............................... 274,0010....... Public sewers................................... 85,oc00....... Public works, gen'l...............................34,000 Public building.................................. 2 1,o0 00....... Belle Isle bridge repair........................... 34,00002,385 Repaving fund...................................,675,000 3341,44I Road district fund............................... 130,000 Public health fund............................... 1io,ooo 1,609,,282 Fire department.................................. 415,000 j 3,743,866 Police department................................ 373,000 4,613,639 Public library.................................... 31,-000 33,,18 Board of Education............................. 06o,oo 7 Recorder's Court................................ 9,000 - 0,So *With sinking fund tIncludes police It is to be seen at once that the items of public expenditure have no correspondence in certain particulars, but there is sufficient comparison to show that Detroit has progressed from a big village with village ideas to a metropolitan city of the fourth magnitude. CHAPTER CIII CONTEST FOR REDUCED LIGHTING RATES WTHEN Hazen S. Pingree became Mayor of Detroit he found a new field for his Yankee inquisitiveness and Nbegan looking over his bailiwick with the idea of discovering its most conspicuous needs. Most of all he wanted to insure that the people of the city were getting value received for their money expended through taxation and paid to various public utility corporations. He discovered that while practically every city of 50,00oo population in the country had installed rapid transit with electric railways, Detroit, with more than 200,000 population, was still jogging along with horse cars of a long obsolete type. Detroit was one of the worst paved cities of its size in the country. When he came to a comparison of the rates for electric lighting and illuminating gas he discovered that Detroit was paying nearly double the rates charged in Cleveland, Toledo, Buffalo and Grand Rapids. All the public service corporations were operating under unexpired franchises, and, through the habitual carelessness of the men in local government, for many years they had been permitted to indulge in a sort of go-asyou-please policy. Immediately he began collecting data of information from other cities for the purpose of comparison to ascertain the difference between the public services which Detroit had and the services that the citizens ought to have. Then, having authenticinformation in his hands, he proposed to set about the institution of such reforms as the situation would seem to warrant. Detroit was paying $1.5o per thousand cubic feet for gas while these other cities were paying 80o cents. Mr. Pingree looked up the records in Detroit and found a number of interesting things. The charter restriction against consolidation of the two local gas companies had been violated and the penalty 598 CONTEST FOR REDUCED LIGHTING RATES 599 was forfeiture of the franchise of the Mutual Gas Company. The Mutual Company had filed a bond of $Ioo,ooo to insure performance of its part of the contract, but it required a long search to discover the bond. The Mutual Company was also obligated to furnish gas as cheaply as the other cities mentioned. It had become a scrambled egg, inextricably interwoven with the Detroit Gaslight Company. Its mains were being connected as its ownership had been. Nobody had challenged the violations of the franchise in former administrations and Mr. Pingree had caught the merged companies "with the goods" and was in position to forfeit the franchise. When this disclosure had been made a mysterious stranger suddenly appeared in Detroit seeking a.gas franchise for the "Detroit Gas Company," a corporation which had no discoverable existence. The stranger registered as Camille Wiedenfeld, of New York, and while he asked for the franchise on a reduced rate of SI.15 per thousand and disclosed that his company expected to absorb both the old companies, he refused to give the names of the parties he represented. This was regarded as equivalent to a confession that he was a stool pigeon promoter for the old companies, who wanted a franchise at a higher rate than was tolerated in other cities. Several other ruses were employed without effect. Mr. Pingree said that he was offered a "bonus" of $5o,ooo if he would sign a gas ordinance for the rate of I1.15 after it had passed the council. He declared that he would veto any ordinance which did not open the way for 8o-cent gas. He produced statistics to show that through the violation of the rate agreement the city was entitled to a total rebate of 55,ooo,ooo on account of the years of overcharging. As a result of his uncompromising attitude, after several months of maneuvering, a franchise was granted on a new basis which presently resulted in an 8ocent gas rate. Then the consolidation of the companies and their property was validated under certain provisions of public regulation. The battle for cheaper gas was a prolonged and stubborn affair which lasted three years, but after it was won it served, 60oo THE STORY OF DETROIT like a summer thunderstorm, to clear the atmosphere. Presently a new policy of fair play was adopted by the gas company. Instead of the old defiance it adopted a policy of conciliation. The complaint department was conducted in accordance with the principles of modern salesmanship. If people became suspicious of the record of their meters a test was welcomed and if fault was found a new meter was cheerfully installed. New methods of production and purification reduced the cost to the company and improved the quality to the consumer. The use of electricity was rapidly displacing gas as an illuminant in spite of the new incandescent mantles, but gas was becoming the almost exclusive fuel for cooking and therefore heat units. were more in demand than illuminating quality. As a measure of fair play and of business policy the company in 1896 made a voluntary reduction of its rate so that consumers who used as much as two million cubic feet annually in the industrial arts were given a rate of 45 cents, while small consumers were given a slight reduction. This act so won the public confidence and approval that when the emergencies of the World War increased costs in general, there was not the slightest complaint when the low rate was increased to 49 cents and the rate to small consumers was raised to 79 cents. The Detroit Gas Company is now producing between 12 and 13 billions of cubic feet of gas annually. Its production in 1895 was a little more than 6oo,000,oo000 cubic feet. Its mains now measure 1,149 miles of underground pipes. The consumers number 235,000. Gas, like water, is a commodity of such universal consumption that the number of consumers might be used as an index of the total population. Detroit has-spread out over more than 8o square miles of territory and in order to secure adequate distribution of gas at fairly uniform pressure for the high and low levels five production plants are in use. The old plants at the foot of Twentyfourth Street and Meldrum Avenue, now greatly enlarged, still serve for the downtown district. There is another plant at Green Avenue and the Wabash Railway for the down-river district, and also a fourth at Tireman Avenue and the Pere CONTEST FOR REDUCED LIGHTING RATES 6oi Marquette for the uptown section. A fifth plant is operated at Wyandotte. The gas war, strenuous enough while it lasted, saved the citizens of Detroit several millions of dollars in gas cost in a few years. Its results served to soothe the public discontent and to beget a feeling of satisfaction. The gas company has learned something of permanent value-the art of maintaining peaceful relations with its patrons. All the agitations and achievements toward municipal ownership of public utilities, the world over, have developed out of policies of rapacity on the part of private corporations. No city in the world cares to bother with the production of its necessities until it feels forced to do so in self-protection. Such undertakings tend to complicate government and to increase public problems, but when service furnished by a private corporation is unsatisfactory and rates are high and petitions go unheeded, a municipality will presently assert itself. Man in the aggregate is very like man the individual. If the fellow who mows a citizen's lawn or takes care of his furnace demands an unreasonable price and suits his own convenience rather than that of his patron, that patron either is going to hire a new man or do the work himself, no matter how he hates to do it. All the promotions of municipal ownership the world over have developed out of the public discontent with privately owned and operated utilities. There is also the notion that certain public utilities of common necessity which are natural monopolies should be furnished at the lowest possible rate for the public benefit, rather than for the production of fat dividends to private owners and for exploitation through stock-jobbing schemes. The Brush Electric Lighting Company obtained a franchise for street lighting in I882. It then offered to light the city with arc lights at 50 cents per lamp a night, or SI83 per lamp a year. Immediately the gas companies which had been lighting the streets by gas lamps and naphtha lamps employed a lobby to work on the common council. All the men and boys engaged in lighting and extinguishing lamps also were enlisted to plead with the council that their occupations be not taken from them. 602 THE STORY OF DETROIT The offer of the Brush Company was defeated in this way in 1882 and again in 1883; but in 1884, after long demonstration of the range and efficiency of electric lighting as compared with gas, by means of an experimental lighting tower erected in Cass Park, the various inducements offered persuaded the common council to make a contract for lighting the city at a cost of $95,oo000 a year. The Brush Company erected 133 iron skeleton towers ranging from 104 to 16o feet high. Most of the towers carried four arc lamps, and a few of them five or six. For several years the Brush Company had a monopoly of electric lighting, and gradually increased the number of lights. Then the Detroit Electric Light & Power Company was organized in 1889 to compete for the city lighting contract. The Detroit Company offered to furnish I,031 lamps for $133,716 a year, whereas the Brush Company had been furnishing only 719 at a cost of $I37,937. Then followed a merry war, during which the Brush Company employed every legal and political artifice to prevent its rival from obtaining the contract. It procured an injunction against the awarding of the contract from Judge Hosmer of the Circuit Court pending a hearing of arguments in the case, but the free and easy council ignored the injunction and voted the award. The council was rebuked and compelled to await the hearing on the injunction. The Brush Company claimed prior and exclusive rights in the streets and control of necessary patents for towers, conduits, lamps and other equipment. Each company employed an extensive lobby, but the contract went to the Detroit Company in the end. Then the Brush Company refused either to sell or lease its towers, poles, line wires, conduits and other street equipment, so the Detroit Company was compelled to install another set. Two sets of towers and poles did not add beauty to the streets. The Brush Company discovered that some of its rival's poles and towers were set close to its own and began cutting down such poles and guy wires of the towers, but that practice was stopped by injunction. In consequence of the public scandals which resulted from the criminations and recriminations exchanged between the CONTEST FOR REDUCED LIGHTING RATES 603 members of the rival lighting companies, rumors of bribery employed to secure votes in the common council, and the excessive cost of electric lighting in Detroit as compared with other cities, Mayor Pingree began in 189o the promotion of a municipal electric lighting plant to furnish lights for the public streets. This brought the heretofore rival companies together on an issue of common cause-the discouragement of municipal lighting-which, it was claimed, would be badly managed, very costly, and would involve infringement of patents and a discouragement of capital. Outside capital, they said, finding Detroit in a hostile attitude toward investors in public service enterprises, would naturally avoid all manner of investment in local enterprises. During the promotion of the public lighting plant the private lighting companies which had profited by exorbitant rates put up a fierce battle for the retention of their privileges and renewal of their lighting contracts. A number of honest aldermen said they had been approached with offers of bribes for their votes, but they were too discreet to reveal the names of the would-be bribers. Presently an alderman from the west side of the city reported to Mayor Pingree.that he had been offered $I,000 for his vote in favor of a certain company's lighting bid. The general manager of the lighting company was the man alleged to have offered the alderman a bribe. Of this $200oo was to be paid in advance and the balance after the lighting contract had been awarded. The alderman told the briber he would take time to think the matter over and in the interval he reported the case to the Mayor, giving the name of the briber. The Mayor advised the alderman to make the deal and accept the money, hoping thereby to establish a case that could not be defeated by intimidation of witnesses or legal technicalities such as had frustrated convictions in many previous bdodling cases. The alderman was advised to have a witness to his transaction waiting in concealment while the conversation took place and the money was handed over. Acting upon this advice the alderman made an appointment with the briber at his house late in the evening after his place of 604 THE STORY o-F DETROIT business had been closed. In preparation for it he stationed his wife behind the open door in the darkened dining room while he made the deal with the electric lighting manager in the sitting room. Next morning he went to the City Hall and handed the Mayor $200 which he said had been given him as the first installment of the bribe. At the next meeting of the common council Mr. Pingree appeared in person, told the story and handed over the $200 to the city clerk. Charges were then made against the briber, who was later arrested, arraigned and brought to trial. In the interval between the institution of proceedings and the trial the information leaked out that the alderman's wife was the supporting witness in the case. Certain interested parties went to the alderman and to the alderman's wife and told them that if her evidence was offered at the coming trial, the attorneys for the defense would make damaging insinuations against her character and so drag her name in the mire that she would never be able to hold up her head again in Detroit. The worried alderman went to Mayor Pingree with tears in his eyes and asked what he should do in the matter. "Do?" said Mr. Pingree grimly. "Do your duty. Your first duty is to your wife. You are to protect her by all means. The City of Detroit is big enough to fight its battles without hiding behind the petticoats of its women or submitting its decent women to the nasty insinuations of corporation attorneys intended to blacken their character and invalidate their evidence in court. We'll fight in the open and take a legal defeat, but we will score a moral victory and put the cusses on record. It will at least show the people of Detroit what they are up against in the fight to obtain their natural rights." At the examination in the police court the alderman took the stand and told his story. The $200 in bills was submitted as an exhibit in the evidence. Severe cross-examination followed in which the attorneys for the defense attacked the reputation of the witness by various innuendoes, but accomplished little. The defendant took the stand to make a flat denial in general and in detail. On one side were arrayed the alderman and CONTEST FOR REDUCED LIGHTING RATES 605 the alleged first installment of the bribe, and no hostile or interested motive was produced in evidence. On the other side was a flat denial, but a very strong interested and personal motive-the avoidance of a charge of felony. The judge presiding at the examination refused for lack of supporting evidence to hold the defendant for trial. The accused party then threatened the Mayor with prosecution for damages due to a false arrest, but the affair went no further. The citizens of Detroit were still free to sit as jurors in the case as presented and to form their own free opinions. It took more than two years of agitation on the part of Mr. Pingree to prepare the public mind for the undertaking of a public lighting plant. In the course of that period he managed to gather some statistics of the actual cost of electric lighting by arc lamps, although no public lighting company or electrical engineer seemed willing to give even an approximate estimate. In spite of the opposition the proposal for a municipal lighting plant to cost approximately $65o,ooo was submitted to the popular vote in April, 1893. The ballot showed 15,282 for the proposal and 1,245 against it. The vote was small, but it showed the public attitude fairly well. The private lighting companies, with the backing of the General Electric Company, used their combined influence to beat the proposed plan. They fought the bonding issue by means of a hired lobby, but the legislature authorized it March 18, 1893. Michigan cities then had no home rule privileges and could issue bonds only by consent of the legislature. In 1836 the city had purchased a site for a public waterworks at the foot of Orleans Street, consisting of three water lots of the Antoine Dequindre farm, with a frontage of 350 feet on the river. Mr. Pingree proposed to utilize that property for the site of the municipal lighting plant, but discovered that it had been leased to the Detroit Dry Dock Company for a period of 20 years at a rental of 1,3oo00 a year. The city was therefore forced to buy a site at the river front, between Bates and Randolph streets, at a cost of $63,135. There an electric light plant was laid out and work of construction begun. 606 THE STOR-Y OF DETROIT The first building erected cost $72,248 and in it machinery was installed for the production of current for 2,000 arc lights and 3,000 incandescent. The first installation brought the expenditure to $739,222. Every man has his personal limitations and Mayor Pingree was no exception. He was absolutely honest and extraordinarily energetic. He was utterly lacking in tact and diplomatic gifts, but he was so forceful and persistent that he often won over men who opposed him by the sheer force of his presentation of facts. He was one of the best judges of leather and workmanship in shoes in the country, but a very poor reader of human character. But sheer luck or a special Providence often seemed to be enlisted on his side when one of his undertakings needed the direction of an unusually capable organizer and executive. His luck was with him when he appointed a public lighting commission of representative business men like J. L. Hudson, C. A. Newcomb, Martin Butzel, Geo. H. Lathrop, Wm. A. Jackson, and W. R. Farrand. These men were appointed March 28, 1893, to serve three years. Several of them had been investors in private electric lighting enterprises. Mr. Pingree was again favored by "Lady Luck" when he picked Alex Dow to direct the installation and operation of the Detroit public lighting plant. Mr. Dow was a stranger to Detroit. It was reported about that any competent electrical engineer who would accept employment with a municipal lighting plant would thereby earn the enmity of all private lighting companies, which were then being gathered into a sort of trust under the control of the General Electric Company. Mr. Dow accepted the office, planned his equipment for installation, and began buying machinery, lamps, poles, wire, and other necessary equipment. He,was a hard-headed Scotchman, a good judge of values and a shrewd trader. Although a man of positive opinions and quick decisions, he was diplomatic in his methods. He finally arranged with the lighting commission for the purchase of a number of Ioo-light dynamos from the Western Electric Company of Chicago, which was outside the electrical combine. The Western Electric had never made a CONTEST FOR REDUCED LIGHTING RATES 607 machine larger than 6o-light capacity, and immediately the Fort Wayne, the Brush, the Peninsular, and the Excelsior electric companies, which were subsidiary companies of the General Electric, began machinations to discredit the Western. The Fort Wayne Electric Company was the owner of the Brush Company and the Peninsular Company of Detroit, and hoped to bar any other company from operation in Detroit. As a means to an end representatives of the local electric lighting companies took the public lighting committee of the common council first to Fort Wayne, Ind., for a little coaching by experts of the company there, and then to Chicago, where they were well entertained while they made an inspection of the first ioo-light machines turned out in the Western Electric shops. The Western Electric was on the lookout for tricks, so it had Prof. Barrett and other disinterested experts on hand when it exhibited its dynamos built for Detroit. The committee on lighting of the common council came home and reported the Western Electric machines to be a total failure. Meanwhile agencies of the local companies had not been idle in Detroit and the council, on the report of its committee, voted at once to rescind the contract with the Western Electric. But reports of another nature and from disinterested sources showed the Western Electric machines to be fully efficient and up to specifications. The Western Electric followed with an offer to install the machines on six months' trial and without cost to the city if they did not comply with every test. The opposition was thus balked in every attempt. The contract with the Western Electric was revived. The plant was installed under the direction of Mr. Dow and began operation, furnishing part of the city lighting April I, 1895. It began lighting the city completely on October i. The cost of lighting that first year was $36 a lamp. Detroit invested in its first installation for electric lighting a little more than $700oo,ooo000. Today it has an investment of $6,279,237. Of that amount $1,636,435 is deducted for depreciation. Although that rating is manifestly excessive, it leaves a net investment of $4,642,8o01. 6o8 THE STORY-OF DETROIT The old system of tower lighting was more spectacular than efficient. The lamps, suspended 150o feet above the ground level, wasted most of their illumination on the desert air. A twilight glow was shed over a wide area, but there was no effective lighting anywhere. The total number of street lighting units last year was 14,617. At the lowest rate Detroit ever paid for contract lighting of the streets the cost would have been $i,9oo,,2io. The operation of the city plant last year cost only $61S,287. It gave employment to 250 men. In addition, the city spent $19,498 for power purchased, $10,133 for contract lighting, and $34,938 for necessary street alterations, making a total of $679,87. Detroit is now rated among the best-lighted cities of the country. In addition to the street lighting, the public plant furnishes lighting by incandescent circuits for nearly 400 public buildings, including public schools. The output of power utilized for lighting increased nearly 16 per cent during the year. CHAPTER CIV PROPOSALS FOR REFORMS IN TAXATION A LL expenses of government are paid out of public funds raised by taxation. Taxes are supposed to be levied upon the actual cash value of all real and personal property within the jurisdiction of the local government, and those values are supposed to be determined by a fair assessment made on a uniform basis and without discrimination. A tax levy is one of the simplest functions of government, but the assessment of real and personal property is one of the most complex and difficult of tasks. A very large proportion of personal property escapes taxation altogether through various ingenious ruses and concealments. Many wealthy citizens invest heavily in what are known as non-taxable securities. Just why a government should make discriminations between securities, and grant to some particular form of private property a complete immunity from taxation, is hard to understand because the practice is so manifestly unfair to the man of small means who cannot take advantage of such privileges of immunity. When Mayor Pingree came into office he began to discover many such discriminatory practices. He looked up the assessed valuations of large tracts of vacant property held by wealthy syndicates and found that most of these platted areas were assessed at low acreage valuations. For example: One large farm tract had been platted so as to make nine lots to an acre. The lots were being sold at $25o each. The land syndicate was assessed at a rate of $6o per lot, but as fast as the lots were sold the assessment was raised to $16o each. This was but one example of a general practice and in some of the more expensive land areas the discrimination was still more flagrant. When the Mayor raised an outcry against the practice and insisted that the assessment of such lands be.made proportionate to the 609 61o THE STORY OF D)ETROIT selling price he did not popularize himself with the realty speculators and promoters, but he did succeed in forcing more adequate assessments of the vacant lands. He found that the most valuable real estate and buildings in the city were commonly assessed at about 40 or 50o per cent of their real value while the homes of people of small means were commonly assessed at 70 per cent or more of their value. The street railway company which owned most of the transportation lines in Detroit paid no property tax at all. In lieu of all other taxes it was obliged to pay into the city treasury annually one per cent of its gross earnings. Its visible property, worth more than half a million dollars, and its franchise, worth several millions, went tax-free. Mr. Pingree felt that this was not an adequate return to the city for the use of the public streets and the privilege of collecting fares, but the street railways were safe from interference during the unexpired terms of the various franchises. He decided that as a faithful public servant it devolved upon him to insure that the city was getting all that was due under the specific tax by an examination of the street railway books for a verification of the statement of gross earnings. To his surprise his request for an audit of the books was refused. Mr. Pingree appealed to the courts and then he was even more surprised by a decision which sustained the attitude of the street railway company, because the city had not stipulated in its franchise grant for any audit of the books of the street railway companies. Under such conditions the city was forced to accept what it could get at the street railway's own rating of gross income. The assessor and taxgatherer are never popular members of the community. The more they try to do their duty and equalize the tax in fairness to all citizens, the less popular they are likely to become. When the Mayor of the city attempted to intervene for the correction of the more flagrant discriminations in assessment and taxation he became the target for continuous attacks. Mr. Pingree took note of the fact that.a number of wealthy lake transportation companies, which owned fleets of vessels PROPOSALS FOR REFORMS IN TAXATION 611 and transacted business at the river front, paid no tax to the city. Some of them had nominal head offices in the townships above and below the city, in road houses and the like, where the supervisors were far easier with them than Detroit's assessing officers. Through this curious artifice they were enabled to pay their property taxes at the low township -ates instead of the higher.city rates, although their sole property in the townships was represented by the cheap wooden shacks. Mr. Pingree began a campaign for forcing the transportation companies to pay their tax to the city, but for a long time his intention was defeated through the activities of the lobby, or "third house," which was for many years maintained at Lansing to protect corporations against taxation and the passage of regulatory laws. Because of such activities, which were classed by his opponents as mischievous and meddlesome, the breach between Mr. Pingree and some of the most influential and wealthy citizens constantly widened and the leaders of the political machines used every artifice to prevent his renomination and election. In spite of that powerful opposition to the Mayor and all his open supporters he and they were repeatedly re-elected by increasing majorities by the uncontrolled rank and file of both political parties. Mr. Pingree, instead of being relegated to the obscurity of private life, became the most noted mayor in the United States. Many of his best friends were alienated and some indulged in petty spiteful acts to show their resentment. Soon after he became active in the various reforms already mentioned Mr. Pingree was dropped from the directorate of the Preston National Bank. Manufacturers and jobbers of material for his shoe factory were approached and urged to restrict his credit. The reason for this, it was whispered, was that he had made himself so offensive to all capitalized interests that his name on the directorate of any bank would be regarded as prejudicial. Mr. Pingree had many human faults, but it must be said of him that all his contentions were fought in the open and by open methods in which he took the public into his full confidence. Meanwhile numerous enemies tried to dig the ground from under his feet and made full use of the ablest lobbyists to 612 THE STORY OF DETROIT defeat his measures in the common council and in the legislature at Lansing. It was through his repeated successes in "putting the cusses on record," as he termed it, that the people of Michigan became convinced that municipal governments ought to enjoy the privilege of home rule in their strictly internal affairs. With the year 1893 began a troubled period in Detroit, the State of Michigan and the nation at large. Looking back upon that period of money panic, industrial interruption and business stagnation, and tracing it all to its remote cause, one can better realize how intimately the affairs of the nations are associated. A disaster of serious magnitude in any part of the world makes the rest of the world share to some extent in the consequences. The government of Argentina at the southern end of South America seemed very remote from Europe and the United States. Those people of the Argentine were ambitious and energetic. They wanted to realize in advance the undeveloped wealth of their national resources by mortgaging them for funds with which to make Buenos Aires a commercial rival of London, Paris, Berlin and New York and to surpass those older cities in magnificence. With this purpose in view they made their national assessed valuation the basis of money issues. On that basis they borrowed heavily in the European money markets and the great banking house of Baring Brothers of London was misled into underwriting their bond issues. Money became very plentiful in Argentina. This led to public and private extravagances. Their money began to depreciate rapidly in exchange value and as a result their gold was rapidly drained away in foreign exchange. When it was gone they could not pay either their foreign obligations or even their bond interest. The bondholders looked to Baring Brothers and the Bank of England was forced to come to their relief to prevent an immediate and general disaster. Failing to receive income from Argentine bonds and finding them for the time unsaleable, the foreign market investors began dumping their American securities in a sort of panic. PROPOSALS FOR REFORMS IN TAXATION 6i3 Millions of dollars of United States railway and industrial bonds came into the market and thus our own gold was rapidly drained away to Europe to relieve the situation-there. The national gold reserve, which is the security for our national currency, was so reduced that several times the Government of the United States was forced to buy gold at a premium for the support of its own credit. Banks were hard pressed for money. Loans were stopped and many were called in. The industries were unable to borrow money to continue operation or even to maintain their pay rolls, so one after another they shut down. The Michigan-Peninsular Car Works, the big stove works and most of the other large employers of labor in Detroit were forced to shut down operation. In the winter of 1893 more than TS,ooo workmen of Detroit were out of employment. The city poor commission was swamped with applications for relief. Its funds were soon exhausted and the city government was forced to transfer other funds so that;,ooo families in destitution could be supported. Mayor Pingree deplored the situation and urged that the self-respect of the unfortunate poor be preserved by providing any sort of employment in the public works. Large gangs of men were set to work at breaking stone and other tasks on paving materials for the next season. Extensive improvements were undertaken on Belle Isle, where the marsh at the northeast corner was converted into a lake and the embankment for the outer drive was built. The old city reservoir near the Eastern Market had long been abandoned. Its huge embankment, covering a space of two city blocks, was now an obstruction, so this was razed and hauled away to fill in low ground. Much of the earth was removed to improve Belle Isle. Idle workmen were forced to draw upon their bank deposits and many became alarmed for fear the general disaster would result in bank failures. Several small runs were started on city banks. These were all well supported, but presently the banks were forced to take advantage of the 3o-day notice clause in the banking law. Business men were in desperate straits for money and presently the banks were forced to follow the example of 614 THE STORY OF DETROIT New York and other eastern banks in utilizing clearing house certificates in place of money which could not be obtained. Mr. Pingree realized that many poor families which were too proud to ask for help were suffering in silence. He employed a large force of house-to-house inspectors to travel through the poor districts and crowded tenements to seek these people out and ascertain their actual needs. A number of wealthy citizens combined and organized relief squads. The various Masonic bodies collected money, clothing and food and established relief stores where these were held ready for distribution. They employed drays and other vehicles for the distribution of clothing, food and fuel'to the needy. That was a winter long to be remembered in Detroit. CHAPTER CV THE PINGREE POTATO PATCHES WHEN the spring of 1894 came thousands of workingmen of the city looked for the starting up of the factories and a revival of business which would give them a means of earning their livelihood. But money was still very scarce and business did not revive. Mayor Pingree looked about to discover some means of relieving the distress of the poor which would give them a chance to work for their own benefit. All over Detroit were patches of vacant land, some of them of large area. Most of this land was held by individuals and syndicates who were waiting for a rise in its value. Mr. Pingree made a public appeal to the landowners for the use of such vacant property to be temporarily turned into gardens and potato patches for the use of poor families. For a time the Mayor's office was swamped with applications for potato patches. An executive head was needed for the enterprise and Mayor Pingree appointed Capt. Cornelius Gardiner of the i9th U. S..Infantry, then stationed at Fort Wayne, to act as director of the novel undertaking. Capt. Gardiner, later colonel in the regular army, a native of Holland, Mich., and a graduate of West Point, was in hearty accord with Mr. Pingree and one of his confidential advisers on all public questions and policies from the beginning of his political career as Mayor to the end when he retired as Governor, January I, 1901o. The poor fund had been long exhausted and additional funds borrowed for the emergencies of the winter were also gone. Money was needed to buy seed and garden tools and to hire the patches plowed. Mr. Pingree sent an appeal to the churches of Detroit, suggesting that they take up a special collection on Sunday morning to provide money for this purpose. Apparently most of the pastors must have overlooked the appeal, for when 615 616 THE STORY OF DETROIT the contribution of the churches was delivered at the Mayor's office next morning the total amounted to $13.80. In spite of that, money was provided. One contribution was made by the Mayor in a rather spectacular way, as he said for moral effect, but his enemies declared it to be for political ends. He put up his private saddle horse, a high-bred Kentuckian, at auction and turned the proceeds of the sale into the potato patch fund. Detroit was not the only city which suffered from the panic. There was distress all over the country and many other cities imitated the Pingree potato patch scheme for the relief of their idle poor. In consequence Mayor Pingree became a national celebrity and thereafter his career was watched and he was given an extraordinary degree of publicity. The workingmen of both political parties rallied to his support and the power of the party machines was badly crippled in consequence. The Pingree potato patches scored a great success. A majority of the people who took advantage of the opportunity for making gardens knew how to cultivate the soil, and those who did not know how were given the necessary instruction. Whole families could be seen toiling in the open spaces, planting, hoeing and weeding, and when fall came they harvested a large crop of potatoes, squashes, turnips, sweet corn, tomatoes, beans, and other vegetables. It was a striking demonstration of what people can do when they have access to the soil. Capt. Gardiner was very enthusiastic over the achievement and sought permission to exhibit some of the products in the show windows of Woodward Avenue stores, but Mr. Pingree's hostility toward the local public service corporations and his denunciations of capitalists had made him very unpopular with some of the most influential people of the city. It was commonly said that his attitude had served to prejudice Detroit in the estimation of the eastern capitalists and that Detroit must suffer in consequence because outside capital would not be ventured in any sort of Detroit undertaking. Several merchants told Capt. Gardiner that personally they would be glad to make THE PINGREE POTATO PATCHES 617 an exhibit of the potato patch products, but if they did so they would be classed as friends and admirers of Mayor Pingree and might be boycotted by their best customers as a mark of their disapproval. The potato patches furnished many tons of food for the poor people that winter. The poor were saved from the humiliation of asking for public aid and the city poor fund was relieved of a heavy drain. In spite of that Mr. Pingree's enemies scoffed at the experiment as a piece of spectacular demagoguery indulged solely for the advancement of his private political fortune. During a lapse of nearly 30 years all this class prejudice has disappeared and a retrospect of a very remarkable man and his achievements for the common welfare can now be had with cooler judgment. Dean Swift in his "Travels of Lemuel Gulliver," which many regard as a fantastic flight of his imagination, but which is one of the most powerful political satires ever written, puts these memorable words in the mouth of the King of Brobdignag: "And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together." Three months after he assumed the office of Mayor, finding little prospect of an immediate electrification of the Detroit City Railway or the other street railway lines, and being unable to get anything better than vague promises, Mr. Pingree advocated municipal ownership and operation of street railways. His suggestion was not taken seriously by the people at first, but his proposal gave a new direction to public thought and interest. Detroiters were by nature conservative and much inclined to the maxim of Epictetus "that we are not to lead events but to follow them." So the citizens watched the course of events in local transportation. Those events seemed to play into the Mayor's hands. The Detroit City Railway, which controlled most of the trackage and car service in the city, paid its men $I.5o a day in 618 THE STORY OF DETROIT I891. The men worked from 12 to 14 hours a day. This caused some of them to grumble and to urge united action in a demand for higher wages and shorter hours. In April, a number of men were discharged summarily. It was supposed that they were discharged because they were of the discontented contingent. The other employes demanded their reinstatement. Their demand was ignored and on April 21 some of the street railway employes on the Hendrie lines began a strike. Attempts to replace the strikers with other men led to a general walkout of Detroit City Railway employes. Traffic was tied up for nearly a week. Car tracks were obstructed by barricades; men who tried to run the cars were attacked and cars were wrecked by rioters. One car was run into the river. The police seemed powerless to control. In fact, their sympathy with the strikers seemed to be manifested in their listless efforts to keep the tracks clear and to quell the rioters. By a curious coincidence one of the foremost street railway officials was also a police commissioner and failing to quell the strikers through his department, that official called upon the Mayor, insisting that he should ask the Governor to send the state troops to Detroit. Mr. Pingree refused, holding that the situation was not beyond local control. Local factories were forced to shut down because of the stoppage of transportation. Their employes marched the streets in great processions to express sympathy with the strikers. All this time the Fort Wayne & Belle Isle Company maintained regular service because it was paying its employes $2 a day for an I I-hour day. Mayor Pingree made a public address to the strikers, standing in his dogcart on Woodward Avenue. He conferred with the Detroit City Railway officials, advising them to submit their case to a board of arbitrators. This was done and the strike came to an immediate end. But the attitude of the street railway company had given offense to all labor organizations, and many of the foremost citizens denounced its policy. Mob spirit is infectious and the few days of street disturbances started a general ferment in labor circles. The employes of the THE PINGREE POTATO PATCHES 619 Michigan Car Company were working for low wages Io hours a day. They demanded a 9-hour day at the same pay. The company refused the demand and also refused arbitration, so a strike followed. The police were called to quell the riotous strikers about the plant and fired many shots over their heads. One striker was shot. This occurred April 28, i891. On May 4 the street railway employes demanded a Io-hour day and pay at the rate of 20 cents an hour. The demand was settled by compromise. During that summer there were many demands for a 9-hour day. A bill presented in the legislature in May, to establish a 9-hour cday, was defeated through artful amendments. The Detroit City Railway had begun operation with a 30 -year franchise granted in 1863, but in 1879, when the franchise still had 14 years to run, an extension was secured as a basis for a new bond issue, advancing the date of expiration to 190o9. Mayor Pingree held that this grant of a franchise during the term of a previous franchise was improper and illegal; that the proper termination of the franchise would be in 1893, or only two years away. Public sentiment was decidedly hostile toward the Detroit City Railway and it would have been useless for the old company to apply for a new franchise at that time. At the same time the problem of financing new tracks and the electrification of the lines was dependent upon the securing of another longterm franchise. The situation called for expert corporation strategy. On July 23 several distinguished looking strangers appeared in Detroit and established headquarters in the Hotel Cadillac. The leader was ex-Gov. Thomas M. Waller, of Bridgeport, Conn. William W. Cook of New York, of the firm of Waller, Cook & Wagner, corporation lawyers of Wall Street, was another of the party which held secret conferences with the Detroit City Railway officials and a number of prominent capitalists. Mr. Waller presently announced that a new corporation, composed, as he expressed it, "of American gentlemen and eastern capitalists," had purchased a controlling interest in the 620 THE STORY OF DETROIT Detroit City Railway property. He was reticent as to the price paid, except that it was satisfactory to all parties concerned. He was equally reticent as to the names of the purchasers. Mr. George Hendrie, principal owner of the property, on being interviewed, was also reticent, but explained that his health had been failing and that he wished to escape the burden of care involved in street railway operation. Mr. Waller promised a rapid conversion to an electric system, but apparently his promise was contingent upon the grant of a new franchise for a term of 30 years. It was hoped that a new ownership would clear theoatmosphere of prejudice and remove the obstacle to the franchise. The new owners had in their minds a powerful plea in Detroit's need for rapid electric transit. They used it so effectively that they gained control of a majority of the common council. CHAPTER CVI CONFLICT WITH STREET RAILWAY COMPANY N September 2, 1894, the new company, termed the Detroit Citizens' Street Railway Company, filed articles of incorporation in the names of Thomas M. Waller, of Bridgeport, Conn., holder of 80 shares of stock; William W. Cook, of New York, holder of 80 shares; Mills W. Borse, of Buffalo, 80 shares; Dwight Townsend, of New York, o1 shares; Willard B. Fergusson, of Newburyport, Mass., o1 shares; Hoyt Post, of Detroit, 10 shares, and J. B. Mulliken, of Detroit, 10 shares. It was explained that Mr. Post was merely the representative of certain outside investors. The capital stock of the new company was stated at $4,000,ooo, in 40,000 shares, of which 20,000 was preferred stock and 20,000 was common stock. Of this stock $3,000,000 was represented by the property and franchise value of the old company, Sand $1,ooo,0oo was represented by the same items of the Grand River Company, which had been purchased recently by the Detroit City Railway Company. There was a curious air of mystery connected with the transaction, which gave rise to suspicion, and suspicion led to many inquiries, both in Detroit and elsewhere. As a result Mr. Pingree and many others came to regard this whole transaction as a sort of "wash sale," and the new capitalists as mere stalking horses for the old company, who were expected to divert public attention and secure the much-needed franchise. This state of suspicion blocked progress and the corporation lawyers from the East became very busy again in an endeavor to win public confidence and favor. On September 13 it was announced that a majority interest in the Detroit Citizens' Railway had been acquired by local capitalists, among them men of such high standing and reputation as D. M. Ferry, M. S. Smith, Simon J. Murphy, Henry B. Ledyard, George H. 621 622 THE STORY OF DETROIT Russel, William A. Moore, Ashley Pond, Charles Stinchfield, Henry Russel and others. Here were men of unquestioned integrity who could appeal to the citizens of Detroit without arousing the slightest suspicion. It looked for a moment as if a franchise would be immediately forthcoming. The corporation lawyers from Wall Street, acting with local advisers, had displayed a Machiavellian cunning in picking the new purchasers of the Detroit Citizens' Railway. Not only had they induced men of the highest local standing to make an investment for the promotion of rapid transit, which was in universal demand and sorely needed in Detroit, but they had virtually surrounded Mayor Pingree by bringing his closest friends and nearest neighbors into the deal. There was D. M. Ferry, one of the foremost citizens, who had lived side by side with Mr. Pingree on Woodward Avenue for many years. Right across the street on the northwest corner of Putnam Avenue lived Simon J. Murphy, another friend of long standing. William A. Moore lived just above Mr. Murphy. Each and all of them represented the best citizenship of Detroit. How could Mayor Pingree hold out against a new street railway franchise when it was asked for by such men? The fact that he did still* oppose it led to subsequent estrangement between these friends and neighbors and Mr. Pingree because they regarded his continued opposition as a challenge of their good faith and a senseless opposition to a necessary improvement in transportation. But suspicion, once aroused, is not easily quieted. Mr. Pingree did not question the good faith of the men above named, but he did question the validity and genuineness of the former sale. He got the notion that while these good men and true of the citizenry of Detroit were acting in good faith, that they, too, were unconsciously being used as stalking horses. They doubtless believed that they were holders of a controlling interest in the street railway property, but were they actually in control as they believed? The stockholders of a corporation have certain powers of ownership and control, but back of them stand the bondholders, who hold the mortgages and have the first claim to satisfaction. CONFLICT WITH STREET RAILWAY COMPANY 623 All the inside of the transaction was never clearly known, but rumors were afloat to the effect that the stock held by D. M. Ferry, M. S. Smith and Simon J. Murphy amounted to $5o,oo each; that the McMillans held $ioo,ooo; H. B. Ledyard, $25,ooo; W. C. Colburn, $25,oo000, and H. M. Campbell, $25,000, while J. D. Hawks and others held $I75,0oo in blocks of.Io,ooo and less. It was asserted that the new company held altogether $SSo,ooo of stock, while the old Hendrie interest still held $450,000. In addition to 1450,000 of stock it was said that the Hendrie interest also held,750,000 of the bonds of the company, none of which had been retired, but had been purchased out of the earnings of the system. This rumor gave rise to the suspicion that the Detroit Citizens' Railway Company, at best, could exercise only a nominal control, subject to the will and pleasure of the old company. There remained in the street railway company's treasury $I,ooo,ooo of authorized but unissued bonds. It was the common report that the Detroit Citizens' Railway later hypothecated $750,000 of these by depositing them in Detroit banks as security for a loan of 5oo,ooo for laying tracks and installing electrical equipment on the Jefferson and Woodward Avenue lines. That work was done in I892-93. A 30-year franchise for the new company passed the council, but there was such public protest that a mass meeting was held in the old Lamed Street rink, which had been converted into an auditorium, and 3,000 citizens gathered to protest the franchise. Mayor Pingree vetoed the franchise and the council failed to pass it over his veto, for already the Mayor had some strong adherents in the council. The Mayor then brought a suit to annul the franchise extension of i879, which was tried in the local Federal Court. Judge William H. Taft, then a member of the United States circuit bench, now Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, sustained the contention of the city and Judge Henry H. Swan, of the Federal District Court, Detroit, dissented. The case went to the United States Court of Appeals and the franchise extension to 19o9 was validated. The Supreme Court of 624 THE STORY OF DETROIT the United States refused to review the case. That decision merely stiffened the public resistance in Detroit. A majority of the people decided that no more franchises should be granted on any terms; but the city must make the best of the situation while it lasted and concentrate its efforts upon the ultimate attainment of public ownership. The street railway company was persistent in its endeavors to obtain a franchise and it employed many other ingenious ruses toward that end. On January 23, 1893, Mr. Pingree announced that he had been offered $Ioo,ooo and the governorship of Michigan if he would abandon the fight against the street railway, but he never gave the name of the agent who made the offer. The company, balked in its franchise promotion, attempted to evade the sale of six tickets for 25 cents, which was according to agreement. It resisted the granting of transfers; it opposed the installation of air brakes as a measure of safety. It also offered a number of liberal concessions from time to time to win a franchise, but the public mind was now fixed upon reduced fares and ultimate ownership of the system and the council, now quite respectful of public opinion, refused all offers in exchange for a franchise. On January Io, 1894, Mr. Pingree offered a 3o-year franchise in consideration of a three-cent fare with universal transfers, but the offer was rejected. In September of that year the Detroit Citizens' Railway, finding all negotiations fruitless, sold its interest and the'unexpired franchises to the R. T. Wilson Company, of New York. The sale was said to have been made at 75 cents on the dollar of rated value. Tom L. Johnson, of Cleveland, then came to Detroit to manage the affairs of the new owners. Mr. Pingree had meanwhile been trying to interest outside capital in the building of a system of 3-cent lines in Detroit. Cross-town lines were already badly needed to relieve car congestion in the business section, for nearly all the cars in the city then entered Woodward Avenue and made the trip down to the river front. The Pack brothers, Albert and Greene, had made a fortune by purchasing valuable pine lands in the Alpena district and CONFLICT WITH STREET RAILWAY COMPANY 625 manufacturing and marketing the lumber. They had a large capital ready for investment. They also had a nephew, Charles Pack, who was associated with the street railways of Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland Street Railway and other systems in Toronto and Winnipeg were controlled by what was known as the Everett-Moore syndicate headed, by Henry A. Everett and Edward W. Moore. This combination of circumstances coupled with Mayor Pingree's desire to establish a competing street railway with low fares in Detroit led to conferences toward that end. Everett and Moore and their associates agreed to take the proposal under consideration, but before doing so they wanted an authentic showing of the passenger traffic on Detroit street railways. Naturally the officials of the Detroit Citizens' Railway and of the former company which had sold out to the Detroit Citizens' Railway would not furnish such information to a prospective rival. At this point occurred an incident tending to show that the interest of the former owners had not been extinguished. An estimate of the volume of traffic was made but the syndicate wanted confirmation of it. Andrew Gray had served the old company for many years as purchasing agent, paymaster and in other capacities. He was convinced that his former employers had sold out their interest and therefore he could see no harm in giving the Mayor and his supporters in the common council the benefit of his information. Mr. Gray was called into conference and by request checked up the estimate of travel against his own knowledge of street railway statistics. It was this confirmation that led the Packs and the Everett-Moore syndicate to make the venture. Later Mr. Gray discovered that his former employers were not entirely disinterested. Past experience in street railway franchise promotions had engendered an atmosphere of suspicion in the common council. Some of the aldermen expressed the belief that the proposed franchise grant to the new syndicate was not a bona fide deal but another scheme of the old company to obtain a 30-year 626 THE STORY OF DETROIT franchise through a syndicate that would presently deliver its grant and its property over to the Detroit Citizens' Railway and thus, virtually into the hands of the people whom Mayor Pingree had been opposing for several years. All this was done in conferences. On November 21 Mayor Pingree announced that an agreement had been reached and that the next step would be the granting and acceptance of a franchise for a cross-town system to furnish service at a rate of eight tickets for 25 cents. The aldermen who favored the granting of a franchise to the old company rallied to the defense, as did officials and attorneys of the Citizens' Railway. Several exciting sessions of the common council followed but the franchise was finally passed on December 5 after a stormy session, and Mayor Pingree signed it. Then the battle shifted to new ground. The Detroit Citizens' Railway Company immediately abartdoned the sale of six tickets for 25 cents and charged a straight 5-cent fare without transfers. The Mayor commenced suit for the restoration of the former fare and the street railway officials restored them without contesting the case in the courts. On January 7, 1896, the new owners of the street car lines had an ordinance passed by the council for a rate of eight tickets for 25 cents and transfers on a 5-cent fare, but the Mayor vetoed it. His veto was sustained by a vote of 2; to 6. The state of the public mind was in evidence when next day a crowd of citizens went to the City Hall to congratulate the Mayor. Still eager for a franchise with which to carry on after 1909 and to sustain a new bond issue, the Citizens' Railway experimented for 6o days with the same fare as was proposed for the Detroit cross-town lines. The Fort Wayne & Belle Isle Company, which had always kept on good terms with the city government and its own employes, tried the same experiment, but in both cases the fare was reported to be insufficient. The Citizens' Railway attempted to prevent the building of the cross-town lines by injunction proceedings based on the claim that its original franchise gave it exclusive rights in the CONFLICT WITH STREET RAILWAY COMPANY 627 streets. The local courts refused an injunction and the Detroit Railway lines were built while the suit on appeal was pending. The Detroit Citizens' Railway contention for exclusive and perpetual rights in the streets of Detroit was finally denied by the Supreme Court of Michigan. An appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States did not change the decision of the lower courts. Although the laws of Michigan forbade the consolidation of competing lines, that law was avoided by subterfuge and the Detroit Citizens' Railway gradually absorbed all the other lines. The new consolidated interest became the Detroit United Railways. When Mayor Pingree arranged with the Everett, Moore & Pack syndicate for the franchise they pledged him, verbally, that under no condition would they sell out to the Detroit Citizens' Street Railway Company. But when the franchise was drawn that condition was not clearly stipulated. It was stated that the cost of constructing and equipping the three-cent crosstown lines was $1,8oo,ooo. In consideration of the reduced fare the city was obligated to do the paving between the tracks. When the consolidation came the price paid by the D. U. R. for the three-cent lines was said to be $4,000,000. Mayor Pingree was furious when he heard the sale had been made regardless of the verbal promise. He had a heated interview with Albert Pack and denounced him as a "Judas" who had betrayed the interest of the city for something more than the historic thirty pieces of silver. The sale revived the memory of that Tammany statesman who once asked President Grover Cleveland: "What's the Constitution between frien's?" This was one of several incidents which served to influence Mr. Pingree, after he became Governor, in the pardoning of the military board which, during the preparation for the SpanishAmerican War, defrauded the State out of $35,ooo by sharp practice. The offenders were pardoned on condition of a restitution of the money because, the Governor explained, there were so many men who had betrayed their fellow-citizens for larger sums and were still inside the pale of the law. 628 THE STORY OF DETROIT Mayor Pingree was nominated for Governor on the Republican ticket, November 6, 1896, was elected by a plurality of 84,000 votes, and took his seat at Lansing January I, 1897. One year of his fourth term as Mayor remained when he was inaugurated Governor, and, being anxious to carry through his TOM L. JOHNSON HAZEN S. PINGREE program as Mayor, he planned to discharge the duties of both offices to the end of 1897, when a new Mayor chosen at the regular November election would be installed. His right to hold the two offices was contested and, the Supreme Court deciding against him, he resigned as Mayor. From that time Mr. Pingree devoted his attention chiefly to state affairs. His most notable achievement was the beginning of a movement for setting aside the old charters under which certain steam railways paid a specific tax on gross receipts, and the substitution of CONFLICT WITH STREET RAILWAY COMPANY 629 a property tax, which, when it became operative, greatly increased the revenue of the State. Under the management of Tom L. Johnson, street railway affairs ran more smoothly in Detroit. Mr. Johnson was entirely sympathetic with Mr. Pingree's endeavor toward municipal ownership, but was compelled to look out for the interests of his employers. If the Citizens' Railway could not obtain a longterm franchise its borrowing ability in the money market would be greatly curtailed. Mr. Johnson, after many attempts to secure a 30-year franchise, which always failed, secured the consent of his superiors to offer the sale of the entire system to the City of Detroit, including all property and the estimated value of the unexpired franchises, for S17,5oo,ooo. The value of the unexpired franchises was rated at about $5,ooo,ooo. The city was much inclined to accept the offer, which was generally considered fair, but the deal was prevented by a constitutional obstruction. After the disastrous railway ventures of the State, under the constitution of 1835, measures were taken to prevent future blunders by certain restrictions in the constitution of I85o. The constitution of 1850 declared that: "The State shall not be a party to, nor interested in, any work of internal improvement, nor engaged in carrying on any such work except in the improvement of or aiding in the improvement of the public wagon roads and in the expenditure of grants to the State of land or other property." When Detroit sought authority for a bond issue with which to purchase the street railway property and franchises it was decided that the State had no right to confer upon a municipality any powers from which it was itself constitutionally restrained. That experience started a new contention which resulted in the long and laborious contest to secure the right of home rule for cities and to protect municipalities from outside interference with their strictly internal undertakings. In 1908 a new constitution was adopted for the State of Michigan. It bestowed upon municipalities liberal provisions for the 630 630 THE STORY OF DETROIT unobstructed conduct of their own strictly internal affairs and swept aside the old restrictions which had been a serious embarrassment for many years. Corporation lobbyists can no longer defeat the reasonable intentions of a municipality at the behest of machine politicians who are tools of a private corporation. Mr. Pingree had often protested that the granting of longterm public franchises which would yield large profits to the grantee was wrong in principle. Franchises, he argued, became the immediate basis of large loans and were worth millions of doll1ars. Therefore the municipality should have either a large fee for such grants or the rates charged by the grantees should be strictly regulated. When the expiring franchises of the Detroit United Railways Company were rated at about AS,000,000 in the price asked for the property, the people of Detroit were convinced. From time to time the common council gave permission for certain extensions of street car tracks and other privileges in consideration of certain easements in fares. The Detroit Citizens' Railway Company in one such deal agreed to sell workingmen's tickets in the early morning and evening hours, to reduce the cost of getting workmen to and from their places of employment. But instead of keeping such tickets on sale by conductors on the cars, as other tickets were sold, the tickets were only kept on sale at out-of-the-way stations about the city. Mayor Pingree demanded fulfillment of the agreement, but was compelled to carry the case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ordered the workingmen'7s tickets sold on the street cars the same as other tickets. CHAPTER CVII IMUNICIPAL STREET RAILWAYS-ABOLITION OF OLD RAILWAY CHARTERS OR a period of nearly 30 years the contest between the municipal government of Detroit and the successive owners of the street railway system continued without interruption. Business, legal and political strategy were employed to the limit on the side of the company, and innumerable proposals were made in the hope of obtaining a new 30-year franchise that would validate rates of fare and conditions of service that would be satisfactory to the owners. The issue from the beginning was badly fogged because the methods employed in the early stages of the contest led the people of Detroit constantly to distrust the good faith of the bidding company in every proposal that was framed by its expert corporation lawyers. For several years the street railway question was the main, if not the sole issue in every city election. Each candidate for alderman aroused the inquiry in the public mind as to whether he was a natural choice of the people of the ward in which he lived or whether he was being foisted upon the people by the political machine through the influence of the D. U. R. In all discussions between the citizens and the street railway company the elements of confidence and good faith seemed to be utterly lacking. Lawless, surreptitious and high-handed methods long practiced had made the D. U. R. an outlaw corporation in the opinion of the majority, no matter what sort of proposal it might make. The more insistent the D. U. R. became in its maneuvering for a franchise, the more determined were the people of Detroit to oppose such a grant of privilege. One by one the franchises expired and in the lack of any rights in the streets, a deal was made for continuation of the service on what was known as the 631 632 THE STORY OF-DETROIT "day to day agreement." A strong bulwark of the corporation's defense was the public necessity. At last it came to the issue whether the company would sell its tracks and equipment for an appraised value or whether the city must order the tracks removed, one street at a time, so as to enable the city to build its own tracks. Piecemeal rebuilding and operation presented a serious embarrassment to the city. Downtown merchants were warned that such a proposal would interrupt traffic and cause them a serious loss of trade, and many of them were enlisted as petitioners indirectly in the interest of the D. U. R. In the meantime Detroit was spreading out over an area of nearly 8; square miles with a street railway system adapted for serving less than two-thirds of that area. There was urgent need for new cross-town lines to relieve the congestion of the downtown district and to better serve the new industrial and residential districts. The D. U. R. naturally refused to build new lines without a franchise and the city refused to grant a long-term franchise. A compromise agreement was made by which a new belt line was built via Baltimore and Milwaukee avenues. This affoided a little relief for the congestion and a great benefit to car riders. The attitude of the citizens toward the street railway is illustrated by the vote on certain proposals for settlement. In 1906 the people voted on the Codd-Hutchins franchise proposal: 14,411 for the franchise and 30,978 against it. For several years the main issue in mayoralty contests was settlement of the street railway dispute. In 1912 what was known as the ThompsonHutchins franchise was submitted to the voters. It involved eight tickets for a quarter during the day hours and an option for public purchase. The vote was 22,398 for the franchise and 30,733 against it. The present state constitution grants certain powers to large cities which were prohibited by earlier enactments. Under the Verdier Act the city voted on the question of municipal ownership April 7, 1913. In order to carry it a favorable vote of 6o per cent of the electors was necessary. The result was 42,714 votes for municipal ownership and 10,031 against it. The MIUNICIPAL STREET RAILWAYS 633 declaration for municipal ownership involved a purchase of the D. U. R. properties and a necessary preliminary was a systematic appraisal by expert engineers to determine the actual value. An appraisal committee was appointed, consisting of Joseph Boyer, chairman, E. A. Burch, Fred C. Hees, W. W. Hannan, D. W. Simons, Wm. McMahon, and Louis R. Geist. Through them Frederick T. Barcroft and a corps of experts were employed to make the actual appraisal of property values. That report, submitted in 1909, made a document of about 240 pages. It placed the total value at $11,I21,724. This was only about one-third of the valuation claimed by the D. U. R. and sufficient influence was brought to bear to prevent an adoption of the report. On November 3, 1915, a purchase proposal was submitted to the people by which the purchase price was to be decided by the judges of the Wayne County Circuit Court. The people of Detroit had perfect confidence in the legal ability of the judges and did not question their judicial fairness, but when it came to the exercise of their judgment in a matter involving expert engineering, the electors manifested their doubt by voting down what was styled the "pig-in-a-poke" proposal. The vote for this deal was 32,514 for it and 35,676 against it. In 1919 there was a vote on Mayor James Couzens' proposal. The D. U. R. asked $31,500,000 for its property. This was recognized as far in excess of its actual value, but some were in favor of a purchase even at that rate in order to get rid of the interminable controversy which had hampered transportation development for so many years. The vote was 60,374 for the purchase and 69,059 against it. The city appeared to be blocked at every possible avenue of escape. It was sorely in need of additional car lines and so the awkward expedient of forcing the D. U. R. off the streets by the building of competing lines was authorized by a vote in the spring election of April 5, 1920. This was in support of the Couzens plan and the vote was 88,556 for the plan to 50,409 against it. This amounted to a 63.7 per cent of the electors voting. On April 4, 1921, the people voted on what was termed 634 T~HE STORY OF DETROIT "the D. U. R. service at cost" plan and it was voted down 92,013 to 52,961. At the same election the electors voted 96,224 for a purchase of the lines on which franchises had expired and 49,416 against it. In the following November the people voted 72,030 to oust the D. U. R. from the streets and 36,819 against the proposal. Under the approval of the Couzens plan, construction of Ioo miles of competing or M. O. lines was begun with an authorized bond issue of $I,000,000. Lawsuits were begun by the D. U. R. to block the undertaking, but the work went on and the first municipal car was put in operation February I, 1921. With municipal building and operation actually begun, the D. U. R. moderated its demands. Several important conferences were held and the city, on April I7, 1922, voted to buy the D. ". R. property within the city limits for S19,85o,ooo, with the common understanding that this reduced price was still excessive as compared with the actual value. The vote was;5,669 for the purchase to 12,243 against it. The agreement stipulated certain payments in installments by the city, and on Mlay i; the city assumed control and operation. Much has already been written regarding the main highways of Michigan in territorial times and the early days of statehood. While they beggared description, the early settlers saw to it that they did not beggar the State, by adequate appropriations. Twelve to 15 miles was a day's journey on any road in the I830's and during rainy weather most of them could not be used at all by wheeled vehicles. In 1837 feeble attempts were made to legislate for state improvement of the roads to Ypsilanti, Pontiac, Mt. Clemens, and Howell via Farmington, but nothing came of it. In 1848 a general plank road act was passed by which the State offered to deliver its main highways into private control with charters to run 6o years. With the expectation of charging toll for every passing vehicle and of making just enough improvement of the worst parts of the roads to justify a claim of improvement, there was a general demand for these charters. Many miles of highway were surfaced with planks from I z to 16 MUNICIPAL STREET RAILWAYS 635 feet long and three inches thick, but these were not always satisfactory. The planks soon began to rot. Often they warped badly so that the ends of the planks would be a foot or more above the soil, and when one team passed another team one of them had to remain standing while the other passed because of the tilting of the crooked planks. After a few years gravel began to be used to replace the planks, but on some roads where the drainage was fairly good, as on the Detroit and Howell Road out Grand River, there remained many miles of plank between Detroit and Redford as recently as 1895. The Detroit and Pontiac Plank Road was opened in the fall of 1849, with three toll gates; the Michigan Avenue Road, or Detroit and Saline, in 1850, with eight toll gates; the Detroit and Erin, out Gratiot Avenue, was opened for 30 miles in 1850 with six gates. The Detroit and Howell line was opened in 1851 with Io gates, and the Detroit and Grosse Pointe, nine miles long, was opened with two gates in the same year. For several years these plank roads were a comfort and a blessing, but after that they were seldom in good repair, but the tolls were collected regularly, and toll on all of the roads was rated from the center of Detroit. The common charge for a one- or two-horse vehicle was one cent a mile. For each additional animal the charge was three-quarters of a cent; for every score of sheep or swine the charge was half a cent a mile, for each score of cattle, two cents a mile. If a person attempted to run the gate without paying, the penalty was a fine of $25. After many years the townships began improving the roads and complaints began to be common regarding the condition of the toll roads, which appeared to be operated more for the purpose of taking toll than for the improvement of the highways. At the city limits on every main highway leading out of Detroit stood a toll gate and in order to pass the city limits one had to pay toll from the City Hall, even after the city was maintaining paved streets over the route. The toll roads held their charters and stood for their vested rights. Mayor Pingree protested this action on December 10, 1895, and advocated the abrogation of tolls within the city limits by 636 THE STORY OF DETROIT condemnation and purchase of the tfoil roads' rights. A number of prominent citizens protested against this procedure as anun j ustifi able course which would bring disaster to a lot of widows and orphans whose income was practically limited to their dividends from toll road stock, the most valuable part of the roads being in and near the city. When a purchase of the toll road rights in the city was practically agreed upon, negotiations were begun for acquisition ofý the rights of the Detroit and Lake St. Clair, or Grosse Pointe Road, on Jefferson Avenue as far as Baldwin Avenue. At that particular time the " widows and orphans" were not at all in evidence. In their place appeared a bank president and a street railway official. Although the plank road charter had only 13 more years to run, these officials asked $14,000 for their right to collect toll during that period, claiming that their right over two and four-fifths miles of paved streets maintained by the city was worth $io,ooo-a mile to them. The deal was settled by a compromise. When Go'vernor-elect Pingree assumed his office at Lapsing he had already decided to use his best efforts toward a better equalization of taxation in the state. He aimed to reduce taxation to a uniform basis; to secure the abolition of certain specific taxes such as were levied upon railways and several other public service corporations, and to subject all such properties to assessment and the same rate of taxation as other property. A systematic appraisal of railway property in the state showed a value of more than $200,000,000 which was free from the common tax levy. In place of a property tax certain specific taxes had been levied for more than 50 years. At first the'railways paid, in lieu of all other taxes, one-half of one per cent on capital stock paid in. In i8pi this had been increased to threequarters of one per cent. Ten years later it was increased to one per cent. In 187 1 the basis of the tax was shifted from capital stock to gross income. That tax levied one and one-half per cent on gross income up to $3,000 per mile of road, two per cent on income in excess Of $3',000 per mile up to $6,ooo per mile, and three per cent on gross income in excess of $6,000 per mile of line. This also was in lieu of all other taxes. MUNICIPAL STREET RAILWAYS 637 Gov. Pingree advocated a flat ad-valorem tax on railway property and abolition of the specific taxes. A bill, termed the Atkinson Bill, which embodied the Pingree idea, was introduced in the legislature. Immediately it had the support of all the grangers and farmers. A petition signed by 70,000 citizens went to the legislature asking that the law be enacted and the old charters repealed. In the fall of 1900oo a constitutional amendment necessary to validate the new law was submitted to the people, and adopted by a majority of 5oo,ooo-the largest majority ever given by the people of Michigan. Quite naturally the railways organized an opposition to the proposed bill. Their attorneys were busy in the legislature and in the press. Legislators who were friendly to the railways and opposed to the will of the people were elected to the senate through the agency of the political machine. The railways did not waste their ammunition on the house, which passed by large majorities the Pingree bills each time these bills were offered. They were content to insure the attendance of 19 senators who would "vote right," and during the greater part of three sessions and three special sessions this block of 19 senators successfully opposed the passage of the law, which several times carried in the lower house by large majorities. Thus this group of Michigan senators acquired characterization as "the immortal nineteen." Although they were execrated by the farmers and'a majority of the citizens for opposing the public will, they seemed to find satisfaction elsewhere and some of them afterward benefited by appointment to Federal offices. The arguments of the opponents to the bill were often specious. One stock argument was that the abolition of specific taxes would rob the state of its money support for public primary schools. Another objection was the claim that the law would be unconstitutional. Various other faults were found with it by ingenious objectors. Three times Gov. Pingree called special sessions of the legislature in the face of certain defeat. His explanation in each case was that he proposed to "put the cusses on record." The "cusses" alluded to in this instance were the "immortal nineteen," and his design was so to exhibit 638 638 THE STORY OF DETROIT those men before their constituents that presently there would be a revolt against the political machine which had manage'd to keep them in office, followed by the election of senators who would bow to the public demand instead of the influence of the railways. Some idea of the influence of the railways and other corporations in Michigan's legislative bodies may be gathered from a few citations. On May i S, 1895, a bill for taxing lake shipping owned in Detroit was killed in the legislature. A bill for taxing Pullman cars was defeated May 24th. A bill for increasing the specific tax on railways from 2 to 2Y2 per cent was defeated the same day. Owing to the powerful corporation lobby at the capital, only three bills out of 6o presented in the session of 1895 for better regulation of corporations were passed. So powerful was the machine organization in constantly opposing the popular demand that it took eight years of agitation and hard fighting to overcome it. The battle was fought and really won through the unwavering persistence of Gov. Pingree. Even in the face of certain defeat, the opposition showed its resentment toward the man who had forced the fight by postponing the final action on the bill for ad-valorem taxation of railway property until Gov. Pingree retired from office. The bill was signed by his successor, Gov. Aaron T. Bliss, May 2, 1901, and so became a law. Even then the opposition was continued. Following the enactment, 28 railway corporations brought suits for annulment of the law on the ground of unconstitutionality. They also charged that the assessed valuation of their properties was excessive and unfairly apportioned. The legal battle went on in the courts, and the final decision which made the law operative came June 21, 1905. But even then the opposition was continued. The fight shifted from the legislature to the courts and from the courts to the state board of assessors. Railway property was assessed in 1905 at $284,710,659. A plea was made that the assessments were not uniform throughout the state; that in some counties the rating was much higher than in others. This was made an IMUNICIPAL STREET RAILWAYS 639 excuse for scaling down the railway assessment to what the assessors thought would be more fair, or at least more satisfactory to the railways. This scaling down resulted in a revised assessment of S202,6;I,ooo. At this new shift of the opposition, the Detroit Board of Education entered the fray by bringing suit against the state board of assessors to compel the use of a uniform method of tax rate making. The school board's contention was that the function of the state board of assessors was purely ministerial and that the law gave the state assessors no 'discretion or judicial authority to meddle with the appraised valuation or the tax levy against railway property. The courts sustained the contention of the Detroit Board of Education, ruling that the state assessors were only to perform the mathematical computation of dividing the assessed general value of property into the aggregate of taxes in order to produce the average rate. The results under the property tax law were rather startling. They also showed why the railways had put up so strenuous a fight against the law and its operation. A few comparisons of the railway tax under the old system and the new fully illustrates the case: Under the old specific tax the railways would have paid into the state treasury SI,669,435 in 1902. Under the property tax they were called to contribute S3,288,162. The figures for 19o3 would have been si,865,974 under the specific tax and they were S3,756,149 under the property tax. The tax on the old chartered roads was practically doubled. A judicious use of that excess tax in any year might have procured the election and the allegiance of more than 19 legislators, under the old caucus and convention system of promoting candidates for election. As soon as it was discovered that the state primary schools, instead of being deprived of their support, as the opponents of the property tax had claimed, were now due to receive double their former support from railway taxation, there was some agitation for limiting the contribution to schools, but Michigan did not waver in her historic policy toward free public education. 640 THE STORY OF DETROIT All the above relation is but a threadbare outline of the story of the memorable contest between the people of Michigan and the political machines controlled by powerful corporations and bosses. It had its beginning in Detroit through the initiative of H-azen S. Pingree while he was still Mayor. The bill was drawn by a legislator from Detroit, Col. John Atkinson, who was a leader in the debates on the side of the people. It had the support of other Detroit legislators and its final determination was brought about 'through the suit of the Detroit Board of Education which prevented unfair discrimination in favor of the railroads at the hands of the state board of assessors. The story therefore is rightfully a part of the history of Detroit. CHAPTER CVIII THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR IN 1898 came the Spanish-American War, which was a trifling affair as wars commonly go, but the consequences were momentous because they brought about the beginning of a notable departure from the historic policy of isolation long followed by the Government of the United States. The men of the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan were, as always, very prompt in their response to the call of the Government for troops for the Army and sailors for the Navy. This war came as the result of generations of misrule of Cuba as a colony of Spain. An insurrection had been maintained for io years, ending in 1878, in hope of inducing the United States to intervene. In 1894 small insurrections occurred and the spirit of revolt spread. Filibustering adventurers from the United States smuggled arms to the insurgents. Spain) unable to police the island, even with 200,000 soldiers, gathered the people into detention camps in order to control them, but was unable to feed them. An active junta operated in the United States to secure intervention and it received encouragement, as well as sympathy, from private citizens. The battleship Maine was sent to Havana harbor on a peaceful mission and on February iS, 1898, she wa's blown up with a loss of 266 lives. This brought about strained relations between the nations, although it was never established whether the Spaniards or the insurgents or some unknown accident had brought about the explosion. Diplomatic correspondence followed. Gradually Spain conceded most of our demands for reforms in Cuban administration. But the Cubans wanted independence rather than reforms, and the continued aggravation and excitement maintained in this country forced a declaration of war, in spite of the opposition of the President and the leading men in Congress. Gen. Russell A. Alger, of Detroit, was then Secretary of War in the McKinley a 641 642 THE STORY OF DETROIT Cabinet. He found the country utterly unprepared for war, but full of jingoism. The Regular Army consisted of only 26,640 men. Congress authorized an increase to 275,000. Col. F. J. Hecker and Frank E. Kirby, of Detroit, were employed to buy ships to be used as Army transports. The command of the expeditionary army was placed in the hands of Gen. William R. Shafter, a Michigan man, whose home was at Galesburg. Gen. Shafter was a veteran of the Civil War, aged and burdened with obesity. He had never directed a command larger than a regiment and had been a post commander for more than 3o years. Yet his successful battle before Santiago, July 1, 1898, and the destruction of the entire Spanish fleet off the harbor a few days later by the ships of Admiral Sampson, quickly followed by the surrender of Santiago province and a Spanish army of 26,000, caused Spain to sue for peace. The war was over within 90 days after~ hostilities had been declared. Michigan raised five regiments of infantry and gave them a little training under militia officers. They were the 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th and 35th Infantry regiments. Only the 33rd and 34th were sent to the fighting front, although the 31st formed part of the army of occupation in Cuba during the year of reconstruction there immediately following the war. The others were sent to Southern camps as reserves, where, through the ignorance of their commanders in sanitation, many of them died of typhoid fever. Until the germ theory of infectious diseases had obtained general recognition, camp diseases had always proved more destructive of the lives and health of soldiers than battle. The War Department exercised unusual care in the selection of camp sites. Elaborate instructions were given every commanding officer for sanitary regulations, but green troops are hard to control, particularly when under direction of officers who have had only occasional experience in the militia service. The largest camp was established at Chickamauga, Tenn., amid the most favorable surroundings. Sanitary regulations were neglected and presently typhoid fever and paratyphoid became prevalent. Among 44,803 soldiers, 4,068 unmistakable THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 643 cases of typhoid occurred and 5,892 cases of fever resembling typhoid in certain particulars. The mischief was caused by swarms of flies which infested the unprotected latrines of the camp and then swarmed upon the food of the men. As a result one man of every five in the camp was poisoned and 713 died. In the war between Japan and Russia and in the World War the lesson so dearly learned at Chickamauga resulted in better protection of the health of the soldiers, and because of this and a pretty general inoculation against typhoid, the deaths from camp diseases were relatively very few. The Michigan Naval Reserves were sent into the war on an auxiliary cruiser, the Yosemite, on which they performed excellent service considering their meager opportunities. The total losses of the Army in the fighting in Cuba were 222 privates and 21 officers killed, and I,244 privates and 101 officers wounded. The total loss of Michigan men in battle was 2 enlisted men killed and 13 wounded. The losses from disease were very large considering the short period of service. The 32nd returned to Michigan, September 16, 1898. The 33rd returned to Detroit, September 2, 1898. The 34th returned to Montauk Point, N. Y., August 27. The 31st was sent to Cuba in January, 1899, and remained there until April 25. An additional regiment, the 35th, was mustered out at Savannah, May 17, 1899. This war was more conspicuous for scandals concerning commissary contracts and for the blundering of the fossilized War Department, to which Gen. Alger fell heir, than for any brilliant military achievement. Most of the honors fell to the fighting fleets at Santiago and Manila Bay. The result of the war was the independence of Cuba, and possession of Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands for the United States, which for the first time was called upon to reorganize and administer conquered territory remote from its own borders. It is a brief and very rare war that escapes association with scandal. Brief and simple as was the Spanish-American War it had an unusual notoriety for its private promotions of fraud. Mr. Pingree was handicapped by his weakness as a judge of character in men and by his sense of loyalty to his subordinates 644 THE STORY OF DETROIT and appointees. This sense of loyalty often betrayed him into error. It must be remembered that he was constantly beset with powerful political opponents and enemies in his own party as well as in the Democratic Party. He knew that certain men of both parties were always trying to dig the ground from under his feet and so he often exhibited an excess of confidence and loyalty in men whom he had placed in positions of trust and responsibility. When they went wrong under powerful temptation Mr. Pingree believed that the charges of misfeasance and malfeasance had been invented by his political enemies for the sole purpose of discrediting his administration and defeating the ends which he had in view. During the preparation for the war the Michigan military board, composed of several clever and ambitious young men appointed by Gov. Pingree, became pretty thoroughly corrupted. A large number of military uniforms were owned by the State. It was found that the buttons did not quite conform to the regulations. It would have been a simple matter to correct the fault, but a scheme of profitable and fraudulent profiteering was suggested to the military board and a cunning plan was invented for defrauding the State. An agent of the Henderson-Ames Uniform Company of Kalamazoo, named Bickerstaff, opened a temporary office in Chicago under the title of the "Illinois Supply Company," which had no existence in fact. The military board sold the new uniforms to the Illinois Supply Company for a mere nominal price. The Illinois Supply Company then shipped the uniforms to the Henderson-Ames Company, which made the necessary alteration, changed the labels and then resold them to the State of Michigan at a liberal war price. By this circuitous process the conspirators were able to divide a profit of $35,000. Their secret leaked out, an investigation followed and prosecution was begun. The Henderson-Ames Company, and its agent, Bickerstaff, confronted with the evidence, made restitution and confessed their share in the plot. The quartermaster-general fled to the Pacific Coast. The inspector-general was convicted. THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 645 Eli R. Sutton, who had been an assistant corporation counsel of Detroit and a trusted factotum of Gov. Pingree, though not a member of the military board, was acquitted of complicity in the conspiracy, but later pleaded guilty of perjury at his trial and was fined $2,ooo. The assistant quartermaster-general pleaded guilty and paid a fine of $1,200. The quartermaster-general returned after several months and was sentenced to prison for 10 years. Gov. Pingree was indignant because the Henderson-Ames Company and its agent were not prosecuted, declaring that all were equally guilty and that all should be treated alike, so he commuted the sentences of those who had been convicted by substituting fines. When the Governor was harshly criticized for his intervention he explained that he had merely corrected an unjust discrimination in the punishments and put all the guilty ones on the same basis. In the course of his term as Governor, Mr. Pingree made some investigation of the criminal records of the State in recent years. He discovered that many guilty men who had committed crimes had escaped the punishment of the law through the influence of wealthy friends and powerful political influences. He found that certain men who had been convicted had soon been pardoned through the same influences, while the poor and friendless convicts usually served out their terms. He was a man who was more often controlled by impulse than by discretion and decided he would attempt some correction of the discriminations that he believed had been made in inflicting the punishments of the law. In the course of his two terms he pardoned i50 prisoners and paroled 244. This was an exhibition of official clemency which caused some alarm, but while a number of his acts of grace were ill-advised, no crime wave followed. The recidivists, or habitual criminals, who had been released soon found their way back into prison, but the number of these was relatively small. At the end of his term the Governor declared that while he had doubtless made mistakes, he had acted as he believed for the good of the State. He said that he had discovered so many of the bigger rascals out of prison that he could see little harm in releasing 390 of the lesser ones. 646 THE STORY OF DETROIT Hazen S. Pingree was a man of action. His restless mind was always busy inventing new schemes and proposals for the public welfare. Some of them were intensely practical and some were either too visionary or too costly to be seriously undertaken. He was ambitious for the general betterment and beautification of Detroit and proposed several schemes for public parks which are worthy of mention. One of his park schemes involved the enlargement of Grand Circus Park by condemnation and purchase of land south of Elizabeth Street from Cass Avenue to John R. Street, with branches extending part way down Miami Avenue (now Broadway), and Washington Boulevard. This plan would have created a central park in the heart of Detroit with an area of 32 acres, but the cost of it even then was estimated at about $6,000,000. Another and a far more practical and equally expensive scheme proposed by Mayor Pingree was the public acquisition of the water front from the line of Third Street eastward so as to include the old city waterworks site, still owned by the city, at the foot of Orleans Street. He would have vacated about 18 blocks of all the old and unsightly buildings in that area and converted it into a public park with an esplanade of shade trees, walks, lawns and pavilions for public use. It was a grand idea which visioned one of the great civic improvements to be hoped for, but immediately the property owners and lessees of river front property united in a protest and conservative citizens denounced the proposal as fantastic and ruinously extravagant. The trouble was that few of the sober citizens of Detroit were able to visualize the future as vividly as their shoemaker Mayor, whose rapid fire of new ideas kept some of them in a state of continual alarm. When Mr. Pingree retired from the office of Governor and turned it over to his successor, Aaron T. Bliss, he delivered a voluminous exaugural address in which he reviewed his administration and gave some advice to his successor. He remarked that his venture in political life had cost him dearly. He had labored hard for the public welfare for io years to the neglect of his private business. His best efforts had been THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 647 misunderstood by many. He had alienated numerous old friends and he was $40,000oo poorer in consequence of his two terms as Governor of Michigan. In spite of all that, he regarded his political life as well worth while, and the fact that he had been able to do valuable service to his city and his state was both a satisfaction and a reward. He advised his successor that if he wished to have an easy, comfortable administration, to let the corporations have their way with legislation, but if he wished to serve the state faithfully he would probably have a stormy time of it. The Detroit News published a summary of his many proposals, endeavors and achievements while in political office, which, briefly itemized, filled more than a page of one issue. Mr. Pingree was persuaded to make a trip to South Africa to look over the country and its resources, and to witness its rapid development. While there he contracted some mysterious infection which resulted in an extended ulceration of the stomach and intestines. He started for his home in Detroit, believing he was a doomed man. When he arrived in London his ailment took a more acute turn and he died there, June 18, 1901. His remains were brought to Detroit for burial and his public funeral was one of the largest ever seen in the city. Death pays the debt of nature and ends all human contentions. It was a strange sight to see among the multitude of distinguished Detroiters who in sincere sorrow followed his remains to the grave, scores of men who a few years before had denounced him for his political activities. But even then it seemed hard for some of them to understand the man who had lived and wrought so intensely in the promotion of the public welfare. Fifteen years later a history of the State was written which contained a brief summary of Mr. Pingree's political career and its achievements. Its conclusion is worth repeating here. It said: "It is not possible as yet to obtain a just estimate of the effect produced by the turbulent career of Gov. Pingree. His sudden death in London brought to a quick end a life of great activity. The materials for a study of his administration and of his character are being gathered; and a few years hence a true valuation of his work can be made. Then it will be possible 648 THE STORY OF DETROIT to ascertain how much of statesmanship resulted from the war waged on corporations. At least it can be said that his financial honesty never was doubted, in spite of the dishonesty and corruption proved against many of his friends and advisers. The worst that can be said of him in this respect is that he either shielded or pardoned those who abused his confidence; that he arrayed one class of the community against another; that he flouted courts and taught others to do likewise. Of those numerous politicians who sought to use Mr. Pingree's popularity to further their own ends, it need only be said that they rarely succeeded in carrying out their purposes." Politics, like misfortune, makes strange bedfellows. Mr. Pingree found the political machine of his own party arrayed against him from the moment when he took the side of the people of the city against the public service corporations and began to work for lower service rates and a more just levy of taxation. This forced him to gather about him such support as offered. He was, as has been said, a poor judge of men. He was too apt to take men who agreed with him and made strong pretensions of loyalty into his full confidence. Political and social parasites are quite apt to rally around a new leader, and often they succeed in compromising him and in frustrating his intentions. On the other hand, Mr. Pingree was too apt to distrust and misjudge men who opposed him on principle and with perfectly honest intentions. It must be remembered that he was an absolute novice in political life and that he was bound to make mistakes of judgment, but his career as a whole bears every evidence of an honest intention to be a faithful servant of the whole people, even if that course must array him as an enemy of some particular class. Mr. Pingree's record stands as a permanent part of the history of Detroit and of Michigan. The materials for a complete biography are now available in the Burton Historical Collection, for Mr. Pingree, with all his furious activity was, a man of systematic methods. His journals and scrapbooks, carefully kept up from day to day, are probably much more THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 649 voluminous than were ever compiled by any other citizen of the state. There are enough to load a large truck and they not only afford interesting reading but materials for a comprehensive biography, for he kept everything that came to his hands from both friends and foes. He saved the citizens of Detroit many millions of dollars by reducing their gas rate. He saved them more millions by reducing their cost of electric lighting. He gave them paved streets on easier terms than they had ever known and reduced the cost by installation of public paving plants. He added many millions to the revenue of the State of Michigan byforcing the taxation of railway property and added proportionately to the state appropriations for public schools. Best of all, he succeeded as no other man has done in interesting the people in their own government and their own political welfare. The decade of the 89go's stands out above all others in the history of the city and state for its useful, practical, economic and political reforms, and its activities trace directly to the initiative of one man. The common prediction that his activities would discourage capital against investment in Detroit enterprises and foment hostility between the laboring class and the employing class has not been verified. The rapid expansion of investments in Detroit enterprises indicates no discouragement and there is no city in the country that is more free from labor troubles. CHAPTER CIX INDUSTRIAL BEGINNINGS OF DETROIT I Ni 88o Detroit had a population of 116,340. In the io years that followed it nearly doubled, being increased to 205,876. When a city has passed the ioo,ooo mark of population it is rarely that its population can be doubled in a decade, for there must be some extraordinary influence or combination of attractions to draw to it a large volume of new population. The records show that Detroit has nearly doubled its population in several decades. In igoo we had 285,704; in 1910 we numbered 465,766; in 1920 we passed the million mark. In 1890 the city area was 29'2 miles. Today it is a little more than 84 miles and the surrounding territory for miles in every direction is fast filling with newly built homes. Suburban villages and hamlets of 30o years ago are assuming the proportions of cities, but most of the inhabitants of these suburban towns find their business and occupation in Detroit and thus contribute to its wealth and commercial and industrial importance. Several such suburbs have been swallowed by the city. Highland Park and Hamtramck, although surrounded by the city, still maintain their independent city governments and try to minister to their own necessities. This steady growth is attributable to two main causes-the constant expansion of long-es tabli shed industries and the introduction of new industries which have developed by extending their marketing area and keeping in advance of their competitors in trade. While some of the earlier industries of the city, like the sawmills, the iron furnaces and the copper smelting works, have faded away, others have taken their places. The decadence of the iron industry occurred during a period of transition when charcoal iron was giving place to coke iron and when wrought iron was being superseded by mild steel. While'the forests lasted to supply charcoal, Detroit produced charcoal ipig 65o INDUSTRIAL BEGINNINGS OF DETROIT 651 iron and wrought iron profitably and promised to become one of the centers of the iron and steel industry. When it became necessary to import coke from Pennsylvania and to abandon the old reverberatory furnaces for Bessemer converters or openhearth furnaces, the outlook for a time was so uncertain that the iron manufacturers of the Detroit district hesitated about making new ventures of capital on a far larger scale-and lost an opportunity. Later the discovery of mines of coking coal in the West Virginia district and the increase of transportation facilities opened the way for a revival of iron and steel industries about Detroit, and the new plants on the River Rouge and at Ojibway across the river promise a gradual restoration of this basic industry. When Michigan began the promotion of railways in the i830's there was a demand for railway cars. This was many years before there was any rail communication with the East, so it became necessary to build the cars in Detroit. So far as appears in the records, the first cars manufactured in Detroit were built by John G. Hays. Just as the earliest automobiles were modeled after the road horse buggy of common use, with ordinary carriage wheels, iron tires, a dashboard and even, in one case at least, with a whip-socket, so the first railway cars were modeled after the old-fashioned stagecoach, with side door entrance and coach model throughout. (The term coach was adopted and is still in common use.) Their length was about 20 feet. The seats ran from end to end of the car, one row along each side and a double row placed back to back down the middle. Three side doors were constructed on each side. These cars, like the old stagecoaches, were given names instead of numbers. The locomotives also were named. The first locomotive for the Detroit & Pontiac line was brought from Philadelphia and named the Shrmnan Stevens, after the manager of the line. When the Michigan Central had been constructed to Ypsilanti, John G. Hays built for its equipment a very attfactive car on a new model, with a seating capacity for 66 persons. This car bore along its sides the title Governor 6S2 652 THE STORY OF DETROIT Mason, in honor of the first Governor. How long and to what extent John G. Hays carried his car-building industry can not be ascertained from available records. In 18S3 Dr. George B. Russel organized a company for the manufacture of railway cai s and,3 in a small plant on Gratiot Avenue, began work on a contract for 25 cars for the Detroit & Pontiac Railway. A year later the firm became Robinson, Russel & Company, and so continued until 1 868, when it became incorporated as the Detroit Car & Manufacturing Company. The plant was moved from Gratiot Avenue to the foot of Beaubien Street, and later a larger plant was built on Monroe Avenue near the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee tracks. In 1858 George M. Pullman began the evolution of the modern Pullman car by transforming two Chicago & Alton day coaches into a sleeping car. That first car had three tiers of berths. The sections between berths were divided by curtains instead of solid partitions. Mr. Pullman built a number of other cars in Chicago, each being an improvement on its predecessors, until the Pullman had become a very sumptuous, ornate and popular innovation in railway travel. In 1871 Mr. Pullman came to Detroit and bought the plant of the Detro'it Car & Manufacturing Company, and for eight years Detroit was the center of this industry. The Pullman had ceased to be an experiment, and Mr. Pullman bought a tract of land south of Chicago where the city of Pullman sprang up about his new plant. The Detroit plant continued in operation until 1893, when it was abandoned. It was later sold to the Detroit United Railways to be used as construction and repair shops. The Pullman plant in Detroit covered an area bounded by Monroe, St. Aubin and Macomb streets and the D. & M. Railway tracks. In 1864 James McMillan, John S. Newberry and a number of other men organized the Michigan Car Company, and a large plant was built at Grand Trunk junction. The concern prospered from the first and grew to large proportions. In 1885 Col. Frank J. Hecker and Charles L. Freer organized the Peninsular Car Company and erected a plant at Milwaukee junction. A number of subsidiary concerns, like the Russel Wheel & Foundry INDUSTRIAL BEGINNINGS OF DETROIT 653 Company, Detroit Car Wheel Company, Baugh Steam Forge, and Detroit Pipe & Foundry Company, were gathered into association and the two car companies were merged in 1892 as the Michigan-Peninsular Car Company. In 1899 this plant became merged into the corporation of the American Car & Foundry Company, which has plants scattered all over the country. The principal promoters of the car-building industry in Detroit were: James McMillan, John S. Newberry, Christian H. Buhl, Theodore D. Buhl, Frank J. Hecker, Charles L. Freer, James McGregor, Gen. Russell A. Alger, James F. Joy, Hugh McMillan, and W. C. McMillan. In 1898 the Detroit plants employed more than 9,ooo men and their product was valued at about $28,ooo,ooo. This was one of the big industries which aided the growth of Detroit. One of the vanished industries is that of the building of parlor organs. Two large factories, the Farrand & Votey and the Clough & Warren, flourished in Detroit for many years. Out in the state at Owosso the Estey Organ Works turned out a large production. The parlor organ was the musical instrument of common use in the poor man's cottage. As a once popular song described it: "There's an organ in the parlor to give the house a tone, And you're welcome every e-evening to Maggie Murphy's home." Those factories have ceased to exist, their proprietors having shifted to piano manufacture and later retired from business. The firm of D. M. Ferry & Company is the largest seed producing and marketing house in the world. About the year 182o James Abbott, who was then postmaster of Detroit, made the first venture of record in the production of seeds for.the farmers and gardeners of this part of the country. He was led to the undertaking through frequent inquiries of farmers. Seeds were commonly obtained from the East. Their delivery was often late and sometimes the seeds themselves were disappointing. Mr. Abbott owned a plat of land which is now bounded by 654 THE STORY OF DETROIT Woodward Avenue, Atwater, Woodbridge and Griswold streets and on this he began to grow seeds. He saved the tough wrapping paper in which the mail from the East was commonly bound and made seed envelopes from it. In this way he sent seeds to the posts and settlements of Michigan. The demand grew rapidly and was so far beyond Mr. Abbott's capacity for production that he abandoned the attempt. Many years later when the state had become more settled eastern firms established small seed agencies in Detroit. In I855 Miles Tele Gardner, a New Englander of Scottish descent, came to Detroit as agent for Bloss & Adams, seedsmen of New York. He opened a store at 22 Monroe Avenue, which he styled the "American Seed Store." In 1857 the store was shifted to 166 Woodward Avenue, where it remained until 1864. D. M. Ferry came from near Rochester, N. Y., to Detroit in 1852 with a letter of recommendation to S. Dow Elwood, who had come from the same locality a year before to establish the book and stationery store of S. Dow Elwood & Company in partnership with F. P. Markham, who had been burned out shortly before. Mr. Ferry began his employment as an errand boy. Later he became a clerk in the store and finally bookkeeper. When Mr. Elwood sold out to William B. Howe, Mr. Ferry continued as bookkeeper in the store at 192 Jefferson Avenue. In the meantime Miles T. Gardner had decided to resign his agency and to establish a seed business on his own account, so he formed a partnership with Dexter M. Ferry and Eber F. Church. Mr. Gardner had established a seed farm, known as the Gardner farm, just west of the present site of Eloise on the Detroit and Chicago turnpike. Farther west, just north of Wayne, the firm had a small nursery of 26 acres where they grew ornamental shrubs anfd trees. There was a short interval before the firm of M. T. Gardner & Company was established, when Mr. Gardner was admitted to partnership in the firm of Bloss & Adams. During the year 1866 Mr. Gardner's health failed. He withdrew from the firm and died July 14, 1867, at his home on Howard Street. Mr. Ferry then became the head of the seed INDUSTRIAL BEGINNINGS OF DETROIT 655 firm and he drew into partnership C. C. Bowen, H. K. White and A. E. F. White, who came from Rochester, N. Y., which had at that time become an important center for the nursery business and seedsmen. A farm of 300 acres was purchased in Greenfield township and the business of the firm expanded steadily. In 879 the firm of D. M. Ferry & Company was incorporated with a capital of $75o,ooo. Its headquarters was established on Monroe Avenue east of Randolph, where large warehouses were built and occasionally enlarged to meet the demands for additional seed storage. In1I886 the entire block was destroyed by a conflagration and the concern rebuilt on a still larger scale. It now operated a number of great seed farms, the one near Rochester, Mich., being best known to the people of Detroit. Detroit is one of the chief centers in the manufacture of medical or pharmaceutical preparations, in which three large corporations and many smaller ones are engaged. The" first notable founder of this industry was Frederick Stearns, who arrived in Windsor from Buffalo, on New Year's Day of 1855, and walked across the river on the ice. In company with L. E. Higby he opened a retail drug store at 162 Jefferson Avenue. They moved to the Merrill Block at the corner of Woodward Avenue in 1859 and to the southwest corner of Woodward and Lamed Street in 1863. Soon after Mr. Stearns bought out his partner, as he wished to have a free hand in a venture of drug specialties manufacturing, which he had begun as a side issue in 1856 in a single room, 12 feet square, with one girl as a helper. In the first years of this undertaking he acted as his own traveling representative ih introducing his products to the trade outside Detroit. Twice in 1871 was he burned out, the second fire being connected with an explosion in which several people were killed and injured, and the financial loss was heavy. The property of the old gas plant at Woodbridge and Sixth Street was purchased and when the subsequent expansion had exhausted the available space, a new plant was erected on Twenty-first Street. The present plant at 6533 Jefferson Avenue covers four acres of ground, and employs more than 2,000 employes besides 6S6 THE STORY OF DETROIT 35 traveling men. Its products are sold all over the American continents. In 1867 Dr. Samuel P. Duffield, an expert chemist, in company with Hervey C. Parke and George S. Davis, organized the firm of Duffield, Parke & Company, and established a pharmaceutical laboratory at Cass Avenue and Henry Street. In 1869 Dr. Duffield was succeeded by Dr. August F. Jennings and the firm became Parke, Jennings & Company. In 1871 Dr. Jennings retired and Wm. H. Stevens and John R. Grout invested capital with the firm and became special partners. The new firm became Parke, Davis & Company. That name is still retained because it is known the world over. Parke, Davis & Company was incorporated in 1875 with a capital of $i25,ooo. The laboratory was moved from Cass and Henry Street in 1873 and installed in a new building on the river front just east of Joseph Campau Avenue. It has expanded its activities, area and capital until it is rated as the largest institution of its kind in the world. The plant covers 2o acres of land in the city. It has an experimental farm of great size near Rochester; its capital has been increased to S 12,oo3o,ooo and it employs about 3,000 operatives. Another pharmaceutical laboratory is that of Nelson, Baker & Company, with its plant at Lafayette and Brooklyn Avenue. It is capitalized at $I,oooooo and its officers are: Edwin H. Nelson, president; Alfred Lucking, vice-president; Frank W. Keyser, general manager; J. S. Black, secretary, and C. R. Burrell, treasurer. It gives employment to 25O people. Still another laboratory is that of F. A. Thompson & Company at 1962 Trombley Avenue, which is capitalized at $55o,ooo. Another industry which has made an honorable record and has contributed to the reputation and prosperity of Detroit, is the varnish works of Berry Brothers, which was started on a small scale in 1858 by Joseph H. and Thomas Berry. Their first batch of varnish was made in a 3o-gallon kettle. Today the concern turns out I11,5oo gallons of varnish in a single batch. Its capitalization is $3,000,000. Several other paint, oil and color works like the Detroit White Lead Works, the Acme White Lead & Color Works, the INDUSTRIAL BEGINNINGS OF DETROIT 657 latter now absorbed into the Sherwin & Williams Company, and the Detroit Graphite Company, have built up a profitable business and furnished employment for a large number of men. The stove industry has been treated separately in preceding chapters. It is the steady development of industries like these which attracted population to Detroit. Those mentioned are but a few of many that might be named. The shipbuilding and repairing industry and drydocks, the railways and their terminals with steadily increasing volume of business, lumber yards, machine shops, the brick industry, and hundreds of others have all developed side by side. Every access of new population created a demand for real estate and home building. There was a remarkable development of wholesale trade in Detroit during the i88o's, the most notable instances being in the dry goods, hardware and drug houses. The retail trade grew steadily with the population. The older firms expanded their business and new houses were established until the business center, which in 1880 was on Jefferson Avenue and Woodward Avenue mostly below the Campus Martius, has spread out along the main avenues for long distances. Woodward Avenue in the I88o's and early 1890's was one of the most attractive residence streets of the country, but the march of commerce and industry has driven most of the former residents to other parts of the city. The Government census of i880 gave Detroit as a manufacturing city a production valued at $26,761,532. The capital invested in manufactures was $13,224,373. Employes numbered 17,607 and the wages paid aggregated $5,154,744. Among the products were: Railway cars, $1,448,756; clothing, $1,762,502; seeds, $1,194,066; chewing tobacco, $1,211,146; cigars, $1,200,ooo; meat-packing products, $1,789,731; flour, $1,663,367; boots and shoes, $1,108,225; engines and boilers, $964,655. Another item in the census report shows how Dame Fashion decrees the rise and fall of certain industries. Detroit manufactured $208,500 worth of hoop skirts in 1880, but where are the flowers of yesterday and the snows of yesteryear? CHAPTER CX SALT DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT D OUGLASS HOUGHTON, who was state geologist of Michigan in the 1830's and 1840's, held that the region of the Great Lakes had once been a part of the ocean basin. Its fossils showed that the climate had once been subtropical and the dip of the stratified rocks indicated that vast beds of salt must underlie this region at varying depths. Many years later Prof. Alexander Winchell, the second state geologist, sustained the statements of Houghton and gave more detailed information. Wild ruminant animals were usually the first discoverers of salt springs. Here and there about the wilderness were springs known as "salt licks" because the deer would gather at these places to lick the salt-impregnated soil about them. It is said that salt was obtained by evaporating the water of certain springs in Macomb County as early as 1785. After Senator Lucius Lyon had finished his term in the United States Senate in 1839 he removed from Detroit to Grand Rapids. The demand for salt was so great that he drilled a well 8oo feet deep and from the brine there discovered he manufactured salt which served the needs of the locality for several years; but it was never a very profitable undertaking. Until the Nineteenth Century was well advanced the people of Michigan obtained their chief supply of salt from the Onondaga springs at Syracuse, N.Y. Borings were made for salt at various places. Matthew Porter, of St. Clair, gave some detailed information regarding the discovery of salt deposits, which was published in the Detroit Post and Tribune, June 6, 1882. At Inverhuron, 12 miles north of Kinkarden, salt rock only five feet thick was found at, depth of 700 feet. That discovery indicated that this find was near the limit of the salt bed in that direction. 658 SALT DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT 659 At Kinkarden a salt deposit 17 feet thick was found at a deph of 900 feet. At Goderich, 30 miles south of Kinkarden, a salt deposit 30 feet thick was found at a depth of 1,I10 feet, then came a 20 -foot layer of limestone and under that another salt deposit 40 feet thick. At Warwick, 80 miles south of Goderich, and a little to the eastward, salt 1oo feet thick was found at a depth of 1,200 feet. At Petrolia, 12 miles south of Warwick, salt rock 195 feet thick was found at a depth of 1,260 feet. It was here that petroleum oil was found below the salt. In northern Ohio conditions were practically identical with those encountered at Inverhuron, indicating the southern edge of the great salt basin. Knowledge of the above conditions induced Mr. Crockett McElroy, of the Marine City Stave Company, to bore an experimental well in search of salt at Marine City, in 1882. Salt rock was found at a depth of 1,633 feet and this salt deposit was about 115 feet thick. Salt wells were already operated at Manistee and Saginaw, and in Huron County, but the salt in those places existed in the form of strong brine in pockets of porous rock. At Marine City solid rock salt was first discovered in Michigan. In this first well large masses of sulphur were encountered at a depth of 850 feet. The salt production of the State of Michigan for the month of November, 1883, was as follows: Saginaw County.......................... 138,412 barrels Barry County........................... 99,622 barrels Huron County......................... 36,958 barrels Midland County.......................... 3,862 barrels Manistee County....................... 7,125 barrels St. Clair County.................... 4,780 barrels The total salt production of Michigan for the year 1883 was 2,894,672 barrels, and the common price was about 82 cents a barrel. 660 THE STORY OF DETROIT In 1884 the Marine City Stave Company produced from 2oo to 400 barrels of, salt per day. In 1885 the company produced 75,680 barrels of salt. Because of the known extent of the underlying salt rock and the success of the industry in St. Clair County, it became evident that this vast deposit extended under Detroit and the adjoining territory. At what depths the salt rock lay in different localities could only be determined by experimental boring. In I891 J. B. Ford, a plate glass manufacturer of Pittsburgh, had an experimental well bored at Wyandotte in the hope of obtaining salt for the manufacture of soda ash for the glass industry. Mr. Ford, however, was not the first discoverer of salt at Wyandotte. The Eureka Iron & Steel Company had bored a well several years before in search of natural gas or oil, but found salt. American glass industries had been largely dependent upon foreign soda ash and Mr. Ford's endeavor was to secure a cheaper product through home manufacture. His experimental well proved a success, a plentiful supply of salt being found at a depth of 900 feet. The alkali industry was founded at Wyandotte on the basis of his exploration. In 1895 the Solvay Process Company, a Belgian firm having a plant at Syracuse, N. Y., entered the Michigan salt field to produce soda ash, bicarbonate of soda, sal soda, caustic soda and other products derived from the chemical treatment of natural salt. The grounds of the Detroit Exposition Company just below Fort Wayne were purchased, and 232 acres of additional land adjoining it on the south. The Solvay process was discovered in 1863 by Ernest and Alfred Solvay, of Brussels, Belgium, and as a result came the subsequent founding of the branches in Syracuse and Detroit. The down-river salt industries consist of the Solvay plant, the Semet Solvay Company, the Michigan Alkali Company, the Pennsylvania Salt Company, and the Detroit Rock Salt Company, which mines rock salt near the River Rouge in the Woodmere district. Before the local soda ash industries began operation Detroit imported 40,000,ooo pounds of soda ash annually. In 1918 the Detroit industries SALT DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT 661 exported 238,ooo,ooo pounds of soda ash, 97,378,000 pounds of caustic soda and 40,969,oo000 pounds of other soda products. Michigan salt production began in connection with the great sawmills of lumber towns like Saginaw and Manistee. Vast accumulations of mill refuse were burned to get rid of them, until it occurred to the mill men that this cheap fuel might be turned to profitable use if salt or brine could be found in the earth below. Wells were drilled until they penetrated caverns and seams in porous limestone rock which were filled with strong brine. This was pumped to the surface and evaporated to salt. After Crockett McElroy discovered rock salt at Marine City at a depth of 1,6oo feet the salt was obtained by pumping water into the salt and bringing it to the surface again as a saturated salt solution. This process was also employed at the Wyandotte alkali works and at the Solvay plant. For many purposes-in the meat-packing and hide-curing industries in particular-rock salt is preferred to evaporated salt. Several attempts were made to sink shafts to the rock salt beds in the down-river district, but the earlier ones were failures because the 1,000ooo feet of limestone rock which covers the salt is faulty and filled with seams which contain hydrogen sulphide gas at high pressure. Some of the seams also contain brackish and sulphurated water at high pressure. Several men lost their lives and others were temporarily blinded by this gas, but presently patient endeavor and human ingenuity triumphed over apparently insuperable difficulties and a dry, gas-free shaft I,Ioo feet deep was sunk to the upper layer of rock salt 34 feet thick near where the River Rouge crosses Fort Street West. Rock salt of the best quality has been mined there for several years and already the radiating avenues of the mine aggregate a total length of 20 miles. Each of them penetrates a solid mass of salt and all radiate from a common center about the foot of the shaft. All the machinery is operated by electricity and the mine is as dry and clean as a parlor. But whence came these vast deposits of salt hidden away beneath hundreds of feet of sedimentary rocks and many feet of 662 THE STORY OF DETROIT surface soil? For answer one must turn to the story of creation which the Grand Architect of the Universe has written with His own Hand in the soil and rocks beneath our feet and in the stars of the heavens-which, science tells us, are composed of the same materials as the earth but in a different stage of construction and evolution. Millions of years ago a vast and deep ocean rolled over the region about Detroit. The climate was for a long time tropical, we know, for the fossilized remains of animal life now found therein were such as only live in warm water. Slowly the earth crust was heaved upward in some places while in compensation it sank down in other places. Presently a rim of mountain ranges and high land rose above the surface carrying a pocketed and isolated sea of salt water upward with it. Cut off from tributary streams and subjected to the action of a burning sun and hot winds the water slowly evaporated, leaving a residue of glistening salt. All this time the earth crust was pulsating up and down like the surface of a kettle of cooling lard. This region sank again below sea level and a smaller sea was formed over the place where the ocean once stood. Into this sea poured many tributary streams and all manner of crustaceans, corals, infusoria and--later-marine animals were developed Tn it. The salts of lime precipitated from the tributary waters settled to the bottom to be washed about for ages by the action of the tides. In this mixture of silt, lime, magnesia and other minerals, dead animals became imbedded, to become a part of the general structure. The slime solidified slowly until it became limestone rock. How long did it take to make a deposit I,ooo feet thick under Detroit? Again the surface was heaved upward and far away toward the northwest rose a mighty mountain range. The climate for some reason unknown became intensely cold. Perhaps something happened to the sun which for a time reduced its eternal fires to a dull glow. Perhaps something came between the earth and the sun that for hundreds of years cut off its heat. At any rate something happened which allowed this once tropical region SALT DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT 661 to accumulate a vast blanket of ice many hundreds of feet thick on the sides of the great mountain range, and the slope of the land caused the ice to slowly slide over the limestone rock suirface, bringing down from the northeast a vast collection of granite boulders which are entirely foreign to the district about Detroit. We find their parent bed in the Laurentian granite which lies north and east of Lake Superior and Georgian Bay. This ice flow ground the surface of the limestone to slime again, mingled with it the ground granite, sandstone and shales into a pasty mass with pebbles and boulders scattered through it, which was later to become the soil for the subsistence of all manner of animal and vegetable life, after the great glaciers, having performed their appointed tasks, had melted away.- The earth crust about Detroit was now left at an elevation of;oo feet and more above sea level and into the huge bowls and hollows scooped out by the ice poured many fresh water streams to form the Great Lakes. CHAPTER CXI REFRIGERATOR CARS AND THE PACKING INDUSTRY T has often happened that a very simple invention has not only founded the fortune of the inventor and his associates but has opened the way to big business for a number of industries. One of these inventions was the refrigerator car, which was first constructed by William Davis of Detroit, in 1868. Michigan and other states of the Great Lakes region produced large quantities of beef, pork, mutton, and fish, but the market was restricted because of the perishable nature of these products. Mr. Davis saw an opportunity to extend the range of this trade and with that purpose in view he invented a freezing process and built a refrigerator car. For more than a year he labored to interest meat packers and after a time succeeded in inducing George H. Hammond of Detroit to venture the sending of a carload of beef from Detroit to Boston in an ice-cooled refrigerator car. Mr. Hammond had started a small meat market several years before at the southwest corner of Howard and Third streets. He was a man of remarkable energy and business ability. In 1865 his local trade had increased to a large volume and he moved to the south side of Cadillac Square, then termed Michigan Grand Avenue, in the rear of the old Russell House. Soon afterward he entered into partnership with J. D. Standish and Sidney R. Dixon under the firm name of Hammond, Standish & Company. This firm erected a large packing plant on Twentieth Street and was soon doing the largest business of the kind in Michigan. The carload of fresh beef shipped to Boston showed a big profit and Mr. Hammond entered into another partnership with Caleb Ives to carry on a fresh beef transportation business. One car served for the shipments of the first year; i i were required the second year; 21 for the third year. In 1885 the 664 REFRIGERATOR CARS AND THE PACKING INDUSTRY 665 firm was using 8o00 refrigerator cars and was delivering three shiploads of beef and pork a week at the Atlantic coast. The firm name in the meantime had been changed to George H. Hammond & Company. Huge slaughterhouses and stockyards were established on the main railway lines near the border of Indiana and Illinois, and there the city of Hammond sprang up. The firm also established a packing industry at Omaha, Neb., where cattle from the western plains found a market. Before the death of Mr. Hammond the concern was consuming 2,ooo cattle a day and its annual business ranged from 12 to 15 millions of dollars. This was made possible through the invention of the refrigerator car. It may be said in passing that Mr. Hammond erected the first Io-story building in Detroit. Mr. Hammond was a poor boy who left school at the age of Io to work in a pocketbook factory at Ashburnham, Mass., and from that time he earned his way in the world. He left the pocketbook factory to work in a meat market for several months and then went to Fitchburg to work three years in a factory which made mattresses and palm-leaf hats, for which he was paid $40 a year and board. He came to Detroit in 18;4 when his employer, Milton Frost, moved here to engage in the manufacture of mattresses and furniture on a small scale. Mr. Hammond started a small chair factory at the corner of Farmer and State Street (now Gratiot Avenue), but was soon burned out. After settling with the insurance company and paying his debts his capital was reduced to $13, but with this and a little borrowed money he set up a meat market at the southeast corner of Howard and Thi-rd streets, which was the beginning of his successful career. Refrigerator cars and refrigerator machines opened the way for the development of a mammoth industry and the accumulation of many great fortunes in the United States. Most of the founders of the great packing industries began life as poor boys. One of the most notable of these was Philip Danforth Armour, born on a farm in Madison County, N. Y. With a company of other youthful adventurers he went to California seeking gold and came back home in 1856 with little to show for his venture 666 THE STORY OF DETROIT He went west to Milwaukee and clerked in a grocery. In 1863 he became a partner. Then he began buying wheat from farmers as agent for Eastern buyers. He entered into partnership with John Plankinton, a rmeat packer, and from that beginning he became one of the most successful business men of the country and for a time the largest buyer of cattle, sheep and hogs and the largest shipper of dressed meats. The wild lands of the unsettled areas of the Far West offered free range to breeders of cattle and as a result this country had a generation of "cattle kings," so called. Their enormous production of cattle caused concentrations of the packing business at Chicago, Hammond, Omaha and Kansas City. Detroit today has ii firms engaged in the packing business, but nmost of their product is shipped in from the West and they act as distributors as well as producers of dressed and packed meats. The local industry employs 1,957 men; the capital invested amounts to S;16,082,329; the product marketed has a value of S;-,648,13-, and the material consumed costs:47,993,092 per year. These figures are from the last Governrnent census. CHAPTER CXII DETROIT'S POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS OR many years after Detroit had become a city of considerable size its public affairs were conducted after the fashion of a country village. In i8oi constables were appointed as peace officers for the first time, although the city was then Ioo years old. In 1802, under a newly established civil government, the marshal was authorized to exercise police authority for the enforcement-of ordinances and maintaenence of peace and order in Detroit. In 1804, owing to various manifestations of hostility on the part of the visiting Indians, a night watch was organized consisting of five persons, who patrolled the streets of the town during the last four months of that year. Then the night watch was abandoned for a time, but was revived occasionally as the town appeared to demand special protection. In I825 a local firebug caused a revival of the night watch. In 1833 a riot, caused by an attempt to restore the fugitive slaves, Thornton Blackburn and his wife, to their Southern owner, resulted in the rescue of the slaves and their removal to Canada. The sheriff, John M. Wilson, was badly injured while attempting to deliver the slaves for transportation to the South, and a night watch was again revived for a time until peace again settled down upon the community. In 1841 a disreputable element lived at the intersection of Randolph Street and Michigan Grand Avenue (now Cadillac Square), in the neighborhood of the present County Building. A group of rickety buildings housed a number of notorious characters and the common council authorized the marshal to tear down those buildings and make them uninhabitable. The attempt to control public morals by destruction of buildings, instead of dealing directly with the disreputable inhabitants of the buildings, was perhaps unique, but it also proved to be illegal, for when the marshal 667 668 THE STORY OF DETROIT obeyed the order "Peg" Welch, T. Slaughter and other owners of the buildings sued him for damags and he was compelled to pay. This failure in administration of public affairs, through ignorance and clumsiness, led to a substitution of lawlessness for law. After the Supreme Court had sastained the property rights of the disorderly element in Detroit, a number of publicspirited citizens set about the purification of Detroit by fire in accordance with Holy Writ. A number of buildings occupied by the disreputable element were set on fire by unknown parties. Such methods of fighting lawlessness by lawless practice were bound to fail, but the citizens were so reluctant about paying taxes that they neglected to provide an adequate police force for maintaining peace, order and decency in Detroit. Business men of the city organized for law and order in 1859 and subscribed to a fund for maintaining a police patrol service in the business center of the town. Two years later a police commission, consisting of the Mayor and two men to be appointed by him, was created with authority to employ a number of regular policemen. In 1863, when the draft riots and anti-Negro outbreaks occurred all over the country, the puny police force of Detroit proved powerless. Two years later came a curious institution of police authority in Detroit under what was known as the Metropolitan Police Act of the Michigan legislature. The city government was apparently afraid of the political power of the lawless element, which voted solidly and unanimously in elections then as now. The prevalence of crime in Detroit had become notorious, so at the instigation of Aid. John J. Bagley of the Third ward the legislature was induced to pass a law for the establishment of a police commission, to be appointed by the Governor under authority of the State instead of the authority of the Mayor and common council of Detroit. The act creating the metropolitan police department was passed February 28, 1865. This curious surrender of one department of city government and placing of the police function of the City of Detroit in the hands qf the Governor and legislature illustrates the weakness of a democracy which does not function locally. The lawless DETROIT'S POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS 669 element was organized as a political power in Detroit. It was active in the caucuses or primary elections and it was active in elections, while the better element, when it voted at all, usually voted the straight party ticket and too often quite a number of undesirable candidates were forced upon the ticket by the element which controlled the caucuses in certain wards. The first police commissioners appointed under authority of the State were Jacob S. Farrand, Lorenzo M. Mason, John J. Bagley and Alexander Lewis, all of whom were men of the best class of Detroit citizens. This ntew system displeased the city marshal, constables and deputy sheriffs, whose authority it destroyed. Influence was brought to bear, through the common council, to have the act declared unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court sustained the act and the Detroit police department remained a state institution for 27 years. In 1867 the Woodbridge Street central police station was built. In 1873 another station was built at Gratiot and Russell Street. In 1883 the city dedicated what was then termed "East Park," bounded by Farmer, Randolph and Bates streets, for a site for police headquarters and a building was erected at a cost of $55,0oo which, with its later enlargements, served up to 1923. Patrol wagon service was introduced in 1871 and in 1885 came the institution of telegraph signal boxes for communication between patrolmen on their beats and headquarters. Detroit was one of the first cities of the country to utilize motor vehicles for its police and fire departments. The metropolitan police department as organized April i, i865, installed 51 officers and patrolmen under direction of Supt. Theodore A. Drake, whose salary was fixed at $2,000 a year. Mr. Drake resigned six months later and M. V. Borgman, already promoted from sergeant to captain, was made acting superintendent and later superintendent on August i. He retired December I, 1873. He was succeeded by Stephen K. Stanton. In March, 1876, Mr. Stanton was succeeded by Andrew J. Rogers. In April, 1882, Edwin F. Conely, who later became one of the foremost attorneys of the state, was appointed superintendent of police at a salary of $4,000 a year. 670 THE STORY OF DETROIT James E. Pittman succeeded him in 1885, with M. V. Borgman as deputy. In April, 1891, public dissatisfaction over the failure to arrest members of a local gang which had kidnaped a well known citizen and held him for ransom, led to the displacement of Deputy Borgman and the appointment of Capt. C. C. Starkweather in his place. Mr. Starkweather became superintendent in the following year. He was retired on a pension in 1897, and John Martin succeeded. In his annual message to the common council in 1891 Mayor Pingree averred that the police department was naturally an administrative department of the city government which should be under direction and control of the city government. The creation of the police department had been placed in the hands of the governor of the state in 1865 and for 26 years all police commissioners of Detroit had been appointed by the governors. This was equivalent to a confession that Detroit was not capable of self-government in its police function. At Mr. Pingree's suggestion an act of legislature was obtained in 1892 which placed the appointment of police commissioners in the hands of the Mayor. Under authority of this act, Mayor Pingree on July 13 appointed four police commissioners to succeed the state-appointed commission, which consisted of Col. F. J. Hecker, Martin S. Smith, Sidney D. Miller and ex-Supt. James E. Pittman. The new commission was appointed in accordance with the established practice of naming two Republican and two Democratic commissioners. The first city police commission was composed of S. B. Grummond, Collins B. Hubbard, Albert Ives, Jr., and Carl E. Schmidt. This was one of the several steps taken toward the achievement of home rule for Michigan cities in the administration of their strictly internal affairs. It is almost as difficult to keep politics and ambitious politicians out of departments of municipal administration as it is to keep alcoholic liquors and bootleggers out of prohibition territory. When political patronage is placed in the hands of a city commission through the authority to appoint members of the staff and to employ labor, it is too often the case that DETROIT'S POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS 671 appointments are governed more by the political efficiency of the appointee than by his educational or technical fitness for the tasks he is expected to perform. In the hope of preventing the building up of private and personal political machines in the various departments of Detroit's municipal government, the practice was adopted of naming commissions in which the Republican commissioners were balanced by an equal number of Democrats. That practice was adhered to by Mayor Pingree and his successor until a little coterie of local politicians found a way of abolishing the old practice. This was accomplished by the promotion of what were termed the "ripper acts" of legislature, by which several of the four-member commissions were abolished and a single commissioner was placed at the head of the public works, the parks and boulevards, and the police department respectively. It was a cunningly devised scheme which was vigorously opposed, but the lobby was able to influence the legislature in spite of the opposition. The act became a law May 4, 1901. Wm. C. Maybury was Mayor of Detroit at the time and as he was a good Democrat and likely to continue in office for a long time to come because of his general popularity, the appointment of the one-man commissioners was placed in the hands of the Republican common council. DeWitt H. Moreland was appointed commissioner of public works, Frank C. Andrews commissioner of police, and Robert E. Bolger commissioner of parks and boulevards. Soon afterward all these departments came under fire of criticism and became storm centers of municipal politics. The early history of the one-man commissions would make a long tale, which has no place in this story of Detroit. Frank C. Andrews' retirement was forced by his financial troubles and his arrest and conviction following the collapse of the City Savings Bank. Thereupon Mayor Maybury appointed his friend, George W. Fowle, as commissioner of police. Later John B. Whelan and Fred W. Smith served. In July, 1909, Mayor Philip Breitmeyer appointed Frank H. Croul commissioner of police. Mr. Croul had been a member of the fire commission from 1900 to 190o6 and during that period 672 THE STORY OF DETROIT had taken an unusual interest in civic affairs. As police commissioner he studied the best methods in police administration in many cities and adopted new measures of his own. Mr. Croul organized the first traffic squad for controlling the movement of vehicles in the public streets. He introduced a more strict discipline in the department, established the "flying squadron" to answer calls from every part of the city and also the "minute motorcycle squadron." He also established an ambulance and first aid service equipped with auto-patrol wagons and ambulance, a training school for new patrolmen and a new card-index system for identifying, locating and restoring lost and stolen property. In the first year of this last-named service more than $84,00ooo worth of property was restored to the rightful owners. Mr. Croul found that a system of favoritism had long prevailed in the department by which persons who had a "pull" with aldermen or prominent citizens were granted special privileges and immunities in case of arrest. Such men had been commonly shielded from publicity when they became entangled with the law. When the new commissioner decided that all men should be treated alike and without discrimination he began to accumulate powerful enemies who schemed to displace him. His methods were studied and copied in many other cities. They gave such satisfaction to the people of Detroit that when Mayor Oscar B. Marx came to office a voluntary petition signed by more than io,ooo representative citizens was submitted asking for a reappointment of Mr. Croul. Mayor Marx, after several months' delay, appointed John Gillespie as Mr. Croul's successor. Commissioner Gillespie entered upon his office at a critical time. Detroit was the most prosperous city in the country and paying the highest wages for labor. It was the common understanding that the police department was to be administered under a more "liberal" policy for political purposes. That rumor went abroad and, coupled with the general prosperity of the city, it seemed to serve as a lure to the lawless element everywhere. Pickpockets and other light-fingered gentry soon worked in gangs in the business section of the city and on the DETROIT'S POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS 673 street cars. Gamblers from other cities came to Detroit and set up their establishments. Arrests were frequent but apparently of only momentary effect, for the lawless element seemed to have their bondsmen and attorneys constantly on call, and the parties under arrest were soon on the street again plying their various trades. A number of "gunmen" of the most dangerous element of New York City shifted their operations to Detroit, some of whom were taken back to end their exciting careers in the electric chair. The decline in public safety and public morality and the increase of crime soon led to general criticism. Detroit citizens demanded a tightening of the restraints of the law, but this was not easily accomplished after a large increase of criminal population. The report that Detroit had become a "wide-open town" where everybody had plenty of money and wore expensive jewelry appealed to the predatory element of the entire country. When Mayor Marx became a candidate for re-election in 1916 the campaign was made upon the crime issue. Mr. Marx met the issue by displacing Commissioner Gillespie for the appointment of James Couzens. Commissioner Couzens immediately began making history and a personal record which later carried him to the mayoralty and still later to the United States Senate. His immediate successors as police commissioner were Ernest Marquardt and then Dr. James Inches. On the resignation of Commissioner Inches to become a candidate for Mayor, Frank H. Croul was reappointed police commissioner by Acting Mayor John C. Lodge, and when Mayor Frank Doremus was elected one of his first official acts was his confirmation of the appointment of Commissioner Croul. The superintendents of police who have succeeded Mr. Starkweather are: John Martin, John J. Downey, John B. Downey, Ernest Marquardt, and William J. Rutledge. Detroit had long ago outgrown its police headquarters, but for several years had compensated this inadequacy by increasing the number of district stations. In 1922 an imposing new headquarters building was erected on Beaubien Street between Macomb and Clinton streets at a cost of $1,700,000. 674 THE STORY OF DETROIT Detroit has one of the most efficient police departments in the country today, with a total force of 2,025 men, of whom 1,581 are patrolmen. The new headquarters is a massive structure nine stories in height, which makes an effective addition to the group of municipal buildings in that part of the city. In addition to police headquarters, it also serves for the administrative office of the city health department. Fire-fighting has changed during a century quite as much as military methods. The old bucket brigade gave way to the handpower fire engines early in the Nineteenth Century; the hand engines to the steam engine hauled by galloping horses in i86o. On April 10, 1922, the last horse-drawn fire apparatus made its run in Detroit streets and since that date the gasoline engine has carried the department to all fires. If the old fire laddies of the volunteer department of long ago could line up on the streets to see the department of today go roaring, screeching and clanging by they would no doubt be amazed, but they would think that the good old days when fire-fighting ranked as a real sport had been sacrificed to modern efficiency. They would recall the clang of the old Presbyterian Church bell that called them out, the hurried manning of the tow ropes of the engines, the hoarse, incoherent orders of their captains delivered through speaking trumpets, and the muddy, rutted, unpaved streets which drove them to adopt the sidewalks for their favorite thoroughfare. Rotting planks splintefed and crumbled under the bounding wheels of their engines. Their engine hubs raked and sometimes demolished long lines of picket fences. They would recall the occasional resistance of Maj. Jonathan Kearsley, who stood for law and order and high scholarship in general and was the most valiant defender of the sidewalks and picket fences. The major had lost a leg near Fort Erie in one of the late battles of the NWar of 1812-14. This loss he eked out by use of stout crutches, and whenever a fire alarm sounded he would rush to the street, take his stand in the middle of the sidewalk and wave his crutch defiantly to warn off the approaching firemen. It became a common custom, when it was neces DETROIT'S POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS 675 sary to pass the Kearsley residence at Jefferson and Randolph Street, for a couple of the fleetest runners to go ahead of the engine crew and tenderly lift the old soldier out of the way to prevent his being run over. The personnel of the Detroit fire department today includes more than 1,500 men, who are drilled to a high degree of efficiency. In 1922 they responded to 5,959 alarms, of which 5,145 proved to be actual fires. They make use of about 170 motor-driven machines. In spite of the power of equipment and the skill and courage of the men the fire loss of 1922 amounted to $2,211,728. Two powerful fire boats stationed at the foot of McDougall Avenue and Fifth Street, respectively, lend their aid to the protection of shipping and the water front of the city. A high-pressure water service is provided for the downtown district of high buildings and such buildings are equipped with internal standpipes with hose attached on each floor. The city has 64,229 feet of high-pressure pipe lines equipped with 290 high-pressure hydrants. The pumping station for this special service, located at the river front adjoining the Public Lighting Commission's plant, went into regular service July 30, 1922. The pressures maintained in this service range from 50o to 300 pounds per square inch. This service uses water taken directly from the river and is entirely independent of the ordinary water system of the city. Through use of it the highest buildings of the city are afforded ample protection on their upper floors. Additional fire protection is afforded most of the larger buildings by an automatic sprinkler system. Low-temperature metal fuses release the valves in any apartment as soon as a fire starts and the system will itself serve to extinguish small fires without the assistance of the department. There are 47 engine companies, of which 45 have automobile apparatus and two are high-pressure companies. The ladder companies are 22 in number and there are three rescue companies. The signal service has 2,300 miles of underground wire and 700 miles of overhead. The fire alarm boxes number 1,866, and there are II,623 fire hydrants. The fire commission staff 676 THE STORY OF DETROIT consists of Charles F. Clippert, president; C. Hayward Murphy, vice-president; Wm. J. Chittenden and Wm. E. Metzger, commissioners; Harry Brabyn, secretary, and Wm. G. Longe, Jr., chief clerk. One of the notable facts in the history of the Detroit fire department is the long service of many of the officers. During a period of 57 years the department had but four chiefs. James R. Battle was made chief engineer when the paid fire department succeeded the old volunteer service which had protected the city for many years. Chief Battle had long been a member of the volunteer service. He did not retire until February 9, 1895. James R. Elliott, another member of the old volunteer department, succeeded Chief Battle. Chief Elliott was a battlescarred veteran whose heroism had often imperiled his life and who was terribly burned and scarred in the fight with the conflagration which destroyed the Michigan Central terminal and surrounding buildings in October, 1865. He died in 1898 after serving as chief for three years and was succeeded by John Kendall, who entered the volunteer service in 1853. Chief Kendall retired in December, 1906, and James C. Broderick, another veteran, became the head of the department January I, 1907. He retired June I, 1917, and was succeeded by William E. McGraw. Chief McGraw retired in September, 1919, and was succeeded by Timothy E. Callahan. All these men were veterans of the fire service and each of them earned his promotion by long and faithful service. Their records not only pay tribute to the character of the men themselves but bear evidence to the efficiency of the commission which recognized their title to promotion from grade to grade during many years of faithful service to the city. CHAPTER CXIII WHY PROHIBITION CARRIED IN MICHIGAN DURING the period since the Civil War the people of the United States have developed most of their industries of size. Before that we produced raw materials for export chiefly. The cotton, iron, boot and shoe, and clothing industries were rapidly developing before that war, but they were of small proportions as compared with today. Most of the great cities of the present day, with the exception of New York, Philadelphia and Boston, were of very modest size and population in 1865. Detroit at that time had about 55,oo000 people; Cleveland, 65,ooo; Chicago, a little over 300,000. People everywhere were very busy with their own private affairs. In national, state and municipal affairs the residents of each city seemed content to let a small group of men do their thinking and planning. They adopted without question the political opinions and theories of their party newspapers and permitted little groups of men, through control of caucuses and conventions, to name their candidates for public office, levy taxation, assess private property and spend the public money. Nominally and constitutionally we had a republican form of government, but, through the neglect of the average man regarding his political duties and the scheming of the few men who sought control of public affairs, the government of the country, through all its branches, from the township board up to the national administration, was really more oligarchic than republican. Out of the common negligence and indifference of the average citizen developed an era of graft and corruption which ashamed many cities. It led to a period of muckraking publications and then to the enactment of reforms. Whenever a few individuals or a few interests are permitted to control local government, it is to be expected that those who are in power 677 678 THE STORY OF DETROIT will take profit of their opportunities by promoting their own interests. The use of alcoholic liquors was Very common and the consumption was excessive. This was a demoralizing influence which the people aimed to control, but for many years they were beaten and frustrated in all their endeavors. The sovereignty of the people was nullified in much the same way that Lemuel Gulliver was bound helpless by the Lilliputians. Laws were passed for the regulation of saloons, but the saloon interest did not like to be controlled, so it organized and for a long time it controlled the administration of government in most of the municipalities of the country. Higher licenses were tried as a corrective in the hope of diminishing the number of saloons, but little was accomplished in that direction In April, 1887, the people of the State of Michigan, after manyfailures, obtained the opportunity to vote for a prohibition amendment to the constitution. In the rural districts there was a fairly representative expression of the public will, but in the cities, where the saloon politicians were generally in control of the election boards, the count on any vote was much as this element saw fit to make it. Of the 58 counties of Michigan all but 20 voted for the prohibitory amendment, but the 20 managed to roll up a count of votes which defeated the reform measure. Wayne County with the City of Detroit showed the only large majority against the amendment. The principal counties which declared against it were: Wayne, 22,344; Kent, with the city of Grand Rapids, 4,417; Saginaw, 5,644; St. Clair, 2,968; Macomb, 2,56I; Bay, 2,401; Monroe, 1,491; Muskegon, 1,150. The remaining 12 counties which voted against the amendment showed majorities of less than 500 each except Washtenaw, 875, and Cheboygan, 546. This showing is exclusive of the Upper Peninsula, where the manipulation of the count was most conspicuous. According to the returns, the Lower Peninsula carried prohibition by a vote of 51,974 for the amendment to 46,708 against it, which gave a majority of 5,266 for prohibition in spite of the cities, where the ballot was supposed to be wilfully miscounted in favor of the saloon interest. WHY PROHIBITION CARRIED INX MICHIGAN a 679 The Upper Peninsula showed a majority of 8,589 against prohibition. It was there that the count was most suspicious. At the preceding fall election for choosing a Governor and state officials, which always shows a larger vote than the spring elections, Ontonagon County was as yet undivided by the creation of Gogebic County and the total vote of the county was 1,590. At the spring election Ontonagon County had been divided by the creation of the new County of Gogebic. The count in Ontonagon County showed a majority against prohibition of 222 votes, while Gogebic showed a majority of 1,858 against prohibition. In other words, the majority counted against prohibition in these two counties was probably 0oo more than the total number of electors. There are excellent reasons for believing that prohibition carried the state by a fair majority in 1887, and that it was counted out by corrupt election boards in the larger cities of the Lower Peninsula and in the counties of the Upper Peninsula. In the November election of 1912 a constitutional amendment "relative to the right of women to vote" was submitted to the people. The count of the vote was 247,375 for the amendment and 248,135 against it. Considering the solid opposition of the liquor and saloon interests to equal suffrage, that slender margin of 760 votes also has a very suspicious appearance. These are but two instances in which the power of the saloon interest in elections was brought before the eyes of the entire state. Such manifestations were constant in the municipal elections in the larger cities and towns. Election boards were generally chosen to suit this interest, which was intensely occupied with politics, while the majority of representative citizens kept aloof from caucuses, and many neglected to vote at all. As a result the liquor laws were commonly ignored by men who thought more of their private gain than of the public welfare. There were some saloonkeepers who strictly obeyed the law at all times, but these were few and far between. When a demand was made for a recount in Gogebic and several other counties in the 1887 election, it was found that immediately after the count had been made the ballots had been burned in 680 THE STORY OF DETROIT the districts suspected of ballot manipulation as if by a concerted plan. The people of Michigan were left without any resort but another election and it was 30 years before they could obtain another opportunity to express their opinion. In the meantime the brewing interest had grown to large proportions. The rivalry between the companies was keen and to increase their sales each of the larger breweries began promoting the installation of new saloons, buying licenses in the names of their chosen agents and planting them here and there, in spite of the protests of residents and manufacturing concerns, through their political pull with the common council. All this was merely a storing up of popular wrath against the day when the people of the states and the nation would revolt and outlaw the entire business by the enactment of an amendment to the Federal Constitution. That opportunity came during the World War. State after state adopted prohibitory amendments until a sufficient majority had declared to sustain a Federal Constitutional amendment. Systematic agitation and organization for the promotion of temperance began in the United States in 18o8. It was in 1917, or Io9 years later, that the people were first able to incorporate a prohibitory enactment in their Federal Constitution. During that century of time the power of the saloon and a common defiance of regulatory laws seemed to increase steadily. This was almost entirely due to a systematic weakness in our political organization. It was a common experience for the people to elect to public office men who had been pledged to the support of some particular policy of public demand, and as soon as these men assumed their offices they abandoned the cause to which they had pledged themselves before election and went over to the opposition. The governmental system left the people powerless to control their representatives, who commonly expressed their right to represent their constituents in accordance with their own personal convictions, instead of in response to popular demand. The people had no appeal until the term of office had expired and then they had the privilege of taking a chance with another pledged candidate who might again betray them. CHAPTER CXIV DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA NTIL the spring of 1914 Detroit depended for its orchestral entertainment on visiting symphonic organizations, the metropolitan orchestras coming to Detroit just as the Detroit Orchestra in recent years has gone to Buffalo, Kansas City and other centers not yet possessing a permanent organization. For some time the ambition to own and operate a symphony orchestra had agitated local music-lovers and at the psychological moment there arrived in the United States from European capitals Weston Gales, a young conductor with some experience and considerable ambition and abundant energy. Reading in eastern newspapers the story of Detroit's enthusiasm over a visit of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Gales hied himself straightway here, gathered around him the leaders of musical support and, within a month, was prepared to offer a program with an orchestra of 60 men. This concert took place on February 26, 1914, at the Detroit Opera House. To its success Newton J. Corey, for years the leader in furnishing Detroit's major music attractions, contributed his business experience. During the intermission the Rev. Samuel S. Marquis, then dean of St. Paul's, explained the significance of the event and proclaimed the future of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The committee which backed the orchestra in its initial stages was composed of Mrs. Frederick M. Alger, Mrs. N. J. Corey, Miss Clara E. Dyar, Miss Stella D. Ford, Mrs. Charles H. Hodges, Mrs. Henry B. Joy, Mrs. S. Olin Johnson, Mrs. Abner E. Larned, Mrs. Sidney T. Miller, Mrs. A. H. Sibley, Miss Frances W. Sibley, Mrs. Frederic B. Stevens, Mrs. George S. Stillman, and Miss Jennie M. Stoddard. The venture was warmly received and the Detroit Symphony Society was organized with Otto Kirchner as president. Charles 681 682 THE STORY OF DETROIT F. Brown became manager, and was succeeded in-the third season (1916-1917) by Harry Cyphers. During the fourth season the orchestra passed through troubled seas. Lack of public support commensurate with the expense, difficulties within the orchestra itself, and other contributing events, decided Mr. Gales to abandon his task in mid-season, and for the rest of the season the orchestra imported guest conductors, while it took stock of the situation. Among these guest conductors was Ossip Gabrilowitsch. So wide and instantaneous was his success that the society obtained his services for the ensuing season (1918-1919) and was rewarded by a quickening of interest in the orchestra throughout the community. Before the end of that season the directors, Jerome H. Remick being president of the society, approached Mr. Gabrilowitsch with reference to an extended two-year contract. The conductor consented on his own terms, one of which was a hall which should be primarily at the disposal of the orchestra. Moreover he demanded that it be ready for the season opening that fall. The directors believed the task of raising the money and of raising the building alike impossible. Gabrilowitsch held to his point. William H. Murphy, for long a generous supporter of visiting orchestras, promptly pledged $1oo,ooo, Horace Dodge put up another $100oo,ooo, and these were followed by other sums from other subscribers until 500,000o of a possible $i,ooo,ooo was available, the donors forming themselves into a separate corporation to build and operate Orchestra Hall. Gabrilowitsch himself subscribed $5,000 and became a director. Another of the conductor's demands was for an increased orchestra. Both of these, as well as his other requests, were fulfilled, and on October 23, 1919, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra of 90 men played for the first time in its own Orchestra Hall as the beginning of the sixth season of the orchestra. The wide growth in fame and accomplishment since that date is familiar history. Mr. Cyphers yielded the management to Robert De Bruce, who in turn gave way to William E. Walter, the present manager. DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA68 68,, Mr. Walter's efforts have impressed themselves on the community and the last, ninth, season was beyond all comparison the best, musically and financially, the orchestra ever has enjoyed. In addition to Its 14 Pairs of symphony concerts it gives 20 Sunday popular concerts, directed by Victor Kolar, assistant conductor of the orchestra; five young people's concerts, and 25 concerts in the public schools in co-operation with the Board of Education. Then it travels to other music centers for concerts. The last season such concerts numbered 18. The orchestra represents an annual investment of more than $325,000, of which not less than S200,OOO goes to salaries. For the last several years William H. Murphy, a generous benefactor of the orchestra, has been president. He has just given to Orchestra Hall a pipe organ which will be installed this fall. The annual deficit of more than Sioo~ooo has been met cheerfully by the guarantors who, in the project of Orchestra Hall, have exhibited a constant and effective loyalty and generosity. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra today ranks among the first five in the United States, which at present means in the world. It has added to its energies recently the Detroit Symphony. Choir of several hundred voices. CHAPTER CXV EDUCATION IN DETROIT N the course of the organization of the Territory of Michigan as a state the common practice of setting aside Section i6 of each township and dedicating the proceeds to the support of primary education was adopted. In 1837 the aggregate area of these school sections of the state amounted to more than I,ooo,ooo acres. Wild land was commonly selling at 81.25 an acre, and to delay sales of school land until it would rise in value, a price of 520 an acre was fixed. This relatively high price and the panic of 1837, which paralyzed business for several years, delayed the sale. But land-hungry settlers and speculators were able to play the game of politics to their own advantage even in those early days. Settlers squatted on desirable school sections, and in 1839 an act was passed providing that when a squatter was able to prove that he had cultivated such land before it had been set apart by the state for public schools he should be permitted to buy the land he had occupied at 3I.25 an acre. Rev. John D. Pierce protested against the act to Gov. Mason and the act was vetoed, with the explanation that the Governor was not going "to permit land speculators to masquerade as poverty-stricken squatters" and rob the schools of their natural heritage. December 2, 1837, the common council of Detroit asked A.W. Buel, city attorney, to suggest a plan for the organization of public schools under the laws of the state. Mr. Buel's plan suggested the election of three representative citizens to act as school inspectors. In the following April Henry Chipman, John Farmer and James F. Joy were elected, and Mr. Farmer was made chairman of the first school board under the state law. The basis adopted for districting the city was the system of fire protection under which Detroit was divided into five "fire wardens," or wards. The first school census soon followed, 684 ]EDUCATIONs IN DETROIT 685 showing 1,320 white and 36 colored children between the ages of 5 and I5 years. As some of the wards were more thickly settled and were populated by more prosperous citizens than others, each district levied its own assessment. The expense of conducting schools was eked out by a proportionate division of interest from the primary school fund. When hard times prevented purchasers of school lands keeping up their payments many sales became forfeit, and in 1841 the city schools received only $473.93 from the fund. Meager enough were the school resources in early days according to the school records. School district No. 3 of Greenfield township, formerly No. 5, has a record running back to February 20, 1834, when the district was organized in the house of Ira Hitchcock, with Mr. Hitchcock, William Graham and H. V. D. Bogert as inspectors. A school site was leased from John Goodsell at $3 a year, and $140 was voted for the erection of a schoolhouse. Teachers' salaries were far from princely. When the school was ready for use the board voted 524 to pay a teacher for three months of the year. In 1839 Miss Patterson was paid 525.79 for teaching school three months. The district received that vear only 56.99 of public school fund money. In 1842 school was kept four months but the teacher was paid only $6 a month. Schools were maintained in this fashion by quartering the teacher on the residents of the district by the custom of "boarding around." There was no truant law in those days. In 1838 Benj. F. H. Witherell, director of the seventh school district of Detroit, reported 417 children of school age, of whom only 43 attended school for three months of that y.ear. The school tax of the year yielded 590o, of which 50oo was used for a building and $90 for the salary of a teacher. District No. i had a school over Col. Nathaniel Prouty's grocery, which stood on piles over the river on the south side of Woodbridge Street near Shelby. The rent was 5ioo a year. This school was used until 1842. In 1838 this school had the benefit of the gratuitous services of W. K. Coyl, who served as assessor and collector of funds without compensation..Mr. Coyl in 186o erected one of the landmark 686 686 THE STORY OF DETROIT store buildings of the city, which still stands on one of the most valuable business sites of the city, at the northeast corner of Woodward Avenue and Campus Martius. The' school for district No. 4 was taught by Rev. George Field in the basement of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Miss Melvina A. Hurlbut taught at her home on the northeast corner of Jefferson and Beaubien. In 1841 school district No. i was unable to employ a teacher for Its 135 children because the city schools received only $47'3 from the state funds. The children of the more prosperous families attended private schools and the poor children went without schooling. This condition started agitation for better support of schools under the leadership of Dr. Zina Pitcher, who was Mayor of Detroit in 1 840 and 1841 and president of the board of education in 1843. Because of the reforms that he started Dr. Pitcher has been termed the "father of Detroit's public school systemn." Dr. Pitcher and Aldermen David WV. Fiske and Charles Moran decided the schools must have a definite fund to be raised by a city tax instead of a district tax, and suggested an amendment to the city charter which would authorize a general school tax levy. A resolution asking the legislature to authorize a local tax, not exceeding one-fourth of one per cent of the assessed valuation of property, for the support of free schools and for the election of two persons of each ward as members of a board of education, with power to employ teachers and provide for the maintenance and management of the schools, was framed by Samuel Barstow, for whom the Barstow School was afterward named. This was the first school in Detroit to be named in honor of a citizen. A bill embodying these provisions passed the legislature February 17, 1842. The city was organized as one school district under direction of the board of education and the schools were to be free to all children of the city between the ages Of 4 and 17 years. The board consisted of two inspectors from each ward, or 12 men, and the Mayor and recorder were made ex-officio members. This act has been several times modified to meet changing conditions, but it is still the basis of the city school system. EDUCATION IN DETROIT 68 - Detroit's first board of education, organized March 1 1, 1842, was a sort of honor roll of representative citizens. Dr. Douglass Houghton was president; John S. Abbott, secretary; Daniel J. Campau, treasurer; and Samuel Barstow, Elijah J. Roberts, John Winchell, Willard E. Stearns, Justus Ingersoll, John Watson, George Robb, Charles Peltier, Ebenezer A. Bryan, and William Patterson were the inspectors. Buildings were rented at once in four of the six wards for $166 and schools were opened in May. In the following November a number of "middle schools" were opened with about 500 attending pupils. The teachers of these schools were paid $30 a month and all were men. The six teachers employed in the primary schools were women who were paid only $18 a month. In 1881 Detroit had become a city of nearly 120,000 population with 13 wards. This made a school board of 26 members, which was regarded as unwieldy, so a new law was enacted, abolishing ward representation, and a new 12-member board was elected at large, consisting of George R. Angell, Magnus Butzell, Thomas J. Craft, N. Gallagher, Levi T. Griffin, W. N. Hailman, James Johnstone, Simon C. Karrer, James W. Romeyn, Luther S. Trowbridge, Charles I. Walker, and Carlos E. Warner. It was an ideal board, of which George R. Angell was elected president and Henry M. Utley was appointed secretary. In 1889 the system was again changed back to ward representation, with one inspector for each of the 17 wards. This school board by ward representation went very well for a time, but it gradually underwent a period of degeneration during a time of intense political activity. There was a demand on the part of the people for better regulation of saloons and a more strict enforcement of the law. The element which did not wish to be strictly regulated organized as an adjunct of the party political machines. Through such organization they managed to secure the nomination and election of a good many of their friends to public office. The common council became their bulwark of defense and the school board at times took on the aspect of a political kindergarten for ambitious men who wished 688 THE STORY OF DETROIT to qualify for elective offices and appointive jobs. Ward representation again became unwieldy as new wards were added, so in 1913 the law was again changed so as to authorize a board of seven school inspectors elected at large. That reform has proved of benefit to the city and to the public schools and is still in vogue. The fine enthusiasm and progressive spirit in which free and liberal education was founded in the State of Michigan and City of Detroit have been sustained up to the present hour by successive generations. It is, however, in the City of Detroit that education finds its most liberal promotion. Figures, and financial figures in particular, seem large or small only through comparison. The State of Michigan expended for public school purposes in 1906, SIo,603,9o4. The City of Detroit expended for educational purposes in 1922, $12,887,394. Of this amount, $10,450,528, or 81.2 per cent, went for salaries of teachers and supervisors of teaching; $544,614, or a little over 4 per cent, was expended for administration. Operation of school plants cost $1,415,596 and maintenance $272,347. The public school membership of students in April, 1923, was I50,I86, and the teaching staff numbered 4,840. The kindergarten schools had 11,444 children in charge; the elementary schools, 103,307; the high schools, 15,285; intermediate schools, 6,174; vocational schools, 3,693; continuation schools, 3,592; junior college, 1,142, and special schools, 4,544. In addition there was the Teachers College with 812 students. Apparently the new population which has been finding homes in Detroit during the last Io years consists largely of parents with promising families, for the increase in school membership between 1910 and 1921 was 201 per cent. Another comparison shows that while the city was merely doubling its total population its school census increased 130 per cent. This citation of the ratio of children in the new population will go far toward explaining the difficulties in maintaining school accommodations up to the requirement, which, by the way, has not been done in many years. There is probably no city in the world where the school plants are more thoroughly utilized, for many of them are in EDuCATION INDETROIT 689 operation day and night. The night schools for people of all ages have an enrollment of 28,293, of whom 1,967 are in the elementary classes and 1,333 in high school classes. Summer schools are maintained in 13 buildings with an attendance of 9,906. The total of high school attendance is 19,168. The capital actually invested in Detroit high school plants and equipment aggregates $43,032,568. Most of the land was purchased when prices were very low and most of the buildings were erected when the cost was far less than at present. An estimate of $6o,000,ooo would be very modest for the present value of the city's educational equipment. When the old Capitol High School on Capitol Square burned in the winter of 1893, Detroit was left without any high school building at all until the slow process of constructing the Central High School could be completed. During that long interval quarters were rented in the old Biddle House Block and Beecher's Hall for high school purposes. When the proposal was first made for the building of three high schools, the Central, Eastern and Western, it was denounced as a useless extravagance. Today Detroit has 10 large high schools and they are all crowded. The 1,142 students of the junior college are only accommodated by crowding Central High almost beyond endurance. The scope of education has broadened to an astonishing degree during the past 25 years. Conservative people who would limit primary education to the "three R's" have viewed with alarm and indulged in hostile criticisms. They charge that the children are required to learn so many different things that they learn nothing thoroughly or even well. It is quite possible that enthusiasm may carry innovations too far, but education is still an experimental process, and like all other branches and departments of human endeavor it must find its way by experiment and occasional blundering. The grandfathers of the school children of the present day very commonly left school between the fifth and eighth grades with a fair knowledge of the fundamentals of arithmetic and algebra. They could read and write passably. Their knowledge of geography and grammar was rudimentary, yet their education 69o 690 THE STORY OF DETROIT was supposed to have been finished. What they might obtain thereafter would be through individual effort and largely incidental to their particular occupations. Practically nothing was done toward training observation and attention or to stimulate interest of the individual in the things about him. Much has been accomplished along these lines in recent years and a serious endeavor is being made to promote an intelligent appreciation of good literature. The City of Detroit has done a gracious thing of momentous consequences in the promotion of night schools, to which the boys and girls who have been forced'to become breadwinners may, resort for the advancement of their learning, the discovery of their natural gifts and the promotion of their general efficiency. Parents and other adults who are ambitious for the cultivation of their minds have access to these schools. The attendance of more than 28,000 people in night schools is bound to have its effect upon the present and future generations. Education was once encouraged only among the nimblest minds, yet many of the great men of history were regarded as slow-coaches while in school. They won their way by grim persistence and hard application. But the majority of the students of slow mental processes left school in discouragement and their systematic education was abandoned. Today special effort is made to help these slow-coaches over the hard places by careful classification and providing special classes and schools with specially trained teachers to give them their opportunity. Temperament has barred many a student from education. Certain juvenile minds grow weary of abstractions. They cannot see the good of studying books. They long to be " doing something." Such boys often leave school to enter shops or some gainful employment only to find, after a time, that the book learning they had despised would now help them toward steady advancement. Another, and a very large class of youths, leave school early and are apprenticed to some trade. They are utterly without practical training in preparation for any craft, and so they are forced to work a long time at low wages while they pick up the mere rudiments of their trade. For these EDUCATION iN. DETROIT 691 classes vocational schools are provided which undertake, as far as is possible, a practical schooling in various forms of craftsmanship. Thus in the course of time the student is able to discover whether he has any special talent for the occupation he thought he would like to follow, or if his best abilities lie in some other direction. Vocational schools do not expect to turn out skilled artisans. They are all experimental, but the boy who takes advantage of them will learn many useful things and will acquire a certain co-ordination of hand and brain which will shorten his period of apprenticeship and make him a more skilled workman in the end. Many a man has been handicapped too heavily in his endeavor toward education because of defective eyes, ears, teeth, the presence of adenoids, and other physical defects. The students in Detroit schools are subjected to tests which reveal these defects and lead to their correction as far as is possible. Students are often embarrassed by periods of sickness or mere restlessness which cause them to fail in their final examinations. The old remedy was to spend another semester reviewing the course, thus losing valuable time out of the student's life. Today Detroit provides summer schools in which such deficiencies can be made up so as to enable the student to continue his course along with his class, which is always an encouragement. All these things cost public money, but are they not well worth while? Money is merely a utility. The owner must soon leave his money behind and the only investments which will pay perpetual dividends are investments for the betterment of the human race to be shared by every man's posterity. There are thousands of young men and women who yearn for a college education, but their parents have need of their services at home and have not the means of sending them to one of the outside colleges and universities. With a view to supplying the needs of these students a junior college was established in Central High School. The citizens of Highland Park have imitated the City of Detroit by making a similar establishment. This 692 THE STORY OF DETROIT educational service began with the intention of furnishing the first two years of college courses, with the expectation that the final two years would be taken in the state university or some of the smaller colleges of Michigan. It was evident to the promoters from the first that this institution once established, the necessity would arise for extending its scope to the full college course and the bestowal of degrees. This anticipation is now about to be realized, and the junior college expanded to a full college course, under the title "The College of the City of Detroit," is destined to serve the needs of many ambitious students of modest means. The present need is for an independent establishment which will have all the features of college education and college life. The Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery had its beginning in 1868 as a consequence of many medical and surgical cases being sent to Detroit from the United States Army hospitals for treatment in the temporary hospital which later developed into Harper Hospital. Several of the leading physicians of Detroit promoted the founding of this college, termed the Detroit College of Medicine, and for a time the old hospital buildings were utilized. In 1832 the college leased the old Y. M. C. A. building on Farmer Street. In 1893 it occupied its own building on Antoine Street adjoining St. Mary's Hospital. Several ineffectual attempts were made to effect a combination with the medical department of the University of Michigan. In 1913 a new charter was obtained under the present title of the institution. On July I, 1918, the trustees of the institution transferred their authority to the Detroit board of education and the college became a part of the city's educational system. The students of the institution number about 16o, and the roster of the alumni contains the names of many practitioners of national reputation. The school census of Detroit, taken in June, 1923, showed that in the City of Detroit were 241,599 persons of rated school age, or between the ages of 5 and 20 years. Those enrolled in the public schools numbered 141,102. The enrollment in private and parochial schools was 50,952 and the number not EDUCATI~ON IN DETROIT 693 enrolled in any school was 49,545. The latter portion represents those between the compulsory school ages and the age of 20 years who have left school and have gone to work. The Detroit board of education has its headquarters at 1354-6 Broadway. Its official staff consists of Frank H. Alfred, president; Mrs. Laura F. Osborn, president pro ter; Frank Cody, superintendent; Charles L. Spain, deputy superintendent; Oliver G. Frederick and P. C. Parker, assistant superintendents; S. A. Courtis, director of instruction, normal training and instructional research; H. W. Anderson, assistant director of educational research; C. S. Berry, director of special education; Arthur B. Moehlman, director of educational statistics and reference; J. F. Thomas, director of educational expenditures; A. F. Lederle, chief officer, department of attendance; Charles A. Gadd, business manager and secretary; Herbert L. Reeves, assistant secretary; Albert E. Stewart, supervisor of property; David King, supervising engineer; Malcolmson, Higginbotham & Palmer, architects; McColI, Snyder & McLean, consulting engineers; Guy L. Ingalls, treasurer; Paul Dwyer, attorney. The school board is composed of the following members: Frank H. Alfred, Samuel C. Mumford, Mrs. Laura F. Osborn, Edward D. Devine, Allen Campbell, and Dr. John S. Hall. In the summer of 1877 the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, famous the world over for their schools, planned the institution of a college in Detroit. For a beginning the general superior of the order obtained from Bishop Borgess of the diocese of Detroit the use of the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul at Jefferson Avenue and Antoine Street. The society purchased a residence and lot Ioo by 200 feet on the south side of Jefferson Avenue between Antoine and Hastings streets for $23,000 and started Detroit College with a faculty of five instructors in September, 1877. The college began with a few students, increased to 84 in the second term and 132 in the third term. In April, j881, the institution was incorporated under the state laws as Detroit College with authority to perform all the functions of a college and confer degrees. 694 THE STORY OF DETROIT When the attendance rose to 200, another residence was purchased on the north side of Jefferson Avenue with a lot measuring 53 by 200 feet. Continued growth of the college led to successive purchases of adjoining property and the erection of a handsome building, which was occupied in 1890. The scope of education was broadened as more and more students applied for admission and presently two fine buildings were in use, facing one another from opposite sides of the street, and another on Lamed Street. Under its broadened basis the institution was reorganized in 1911 as the University of Detroit. It provides a high or college preparatory school, a college of arts and sciences, which confers the degrees of A.B. and B.S.; an engineering school; a law school; a school of commerce and finance; a school of journalism, and other educational departments. The enrollment in 1922-23 was i,800 in all departments. Rev. John T. McNichols is the present president of the university. On January I, 1922, the faculty announced that a tract of 4242 acres of land had been purchased in the northwestern part of the city, bounded by Livernois, Palmer Boulevard, Fairfield and Florence avenues, for the erection of a new series of university buildings with all modern equipment. After the new university is established there, the present buildings on Jefferson Avenue will be maintained for night schools and university extension courses. The new university buildings will be built of granite in the mission style of architecture and a huge stadium of steel and concrete capable of accommodating 20,000 spectators has already been constructed. Out of the vocational educational classes established by the Y. M. C. A., in 1891, has developed a collegiate institution of varied scope, known as the Detroit Institute of Technology. It was granted a charter November io, 1909, authorizing the conferring of degrees upon graduates of its several departments of college rank. The Detroit College of Law, chartered by the State May 3, 1893,was absorbed by the Institute of Technology in August, 1915. Degrees offered by this institution, which is housed in the central building of the Y. M. C. A., are: Bachelor EDUCATION IN DETROIT 695 of Science, Bachelor of Laws, Bachelor of Commercial Science, Mechanical Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Graduate in Pharmacy, and Pharmaceutical Chemist. The Institute has an enrollment of more than 3,000 students. Courses preparatory for college are also offered at the "Y." Another educational institution of Detroit known as the "Merrill-Palmer School of Home-making" is still in the experimental and formative stages. The foundation was provided for by the will of Mrs. Lizzie Merrill Palmer, deceased wife of the late Senator T. W. Palmer, of Detroit. Her desire, as expressed in the will, was to found an institution to be known as the Merrill-Palmer Motherhood and Home Training School "in which girls above the age of ten years should be educated, trained, developed and disciplined with special reference to fitting them mentally, morally, physically and religiously for the discharge of the functions of wifehood and motherhood and the management, supervision, direction and inspiration of homes." The property devoted to this purpose had an appraised value of $3,ooo,00ooo. On October 20, 1918, a corporation was organized under the specified name. Miss Edna N. White, of the home economics department of Ohio State University, was engaged to direct the school and she began her work February 5, 1920. Later the home of the late Charles L. Freer, on Ferry Avenue East, was purchased. The scope of the work is as vet limited and purely experimental, being as yet confined to ministrations to children between the ages of two years and school age. The nourishment, dressing, care and training of young children are among the primary duties of a home, but the school management is feeling its way and seeking opportunities for expansion of its scope along the line specified in the bequest of the founder. It was long the common opinion that this nation of ours is a sort of melting pot in which people of many races, religions and political opinions were all fused into a homogeneous mass, but this was a too hasty conclusion. The World War served to shatter it. It is almost as hard for a man to shed his nationality and take on an entirely new allegiance as it is for a leopard to change 696 THE STORY OF DETROIT his spots or an Ethiopian his skin. Each man may sincerely believe he has done it until he is called to face his former compatriots and immediate relatives in battle array. Then he is pretty sure to hear the call of his blood and he is doing very well if he is able to resist it. The result of this surprising discovery was a search for a remedy and very soon intelligent endeavors were made toward systematic Americanization work in all institutions of learning. The schools themselves have undertaken it voluntarily and various patriotic societies are carrying on the work independently. The main idea is to acquaint the foreign-born citizens and sojourners wvith fundamental principles and ideals upon which our Government is based, and to inspire them with an ambition to aid in carrying those principles and ideals into political practice. To the just charge that we do not always live up to our declarations of principle the answer is: that neither individuals nor nations have been able to do that, but, as the centuries roll along, the adherence to the moral standards of each is gradually improved in consequence of, and in proportion to, the advancement of liberal education and religion. Our country through its Government and its fundamental law bestows religious liberty upon every inhabitant, but because of religious sectarianism it is impossible to undertake even the most elementary religious instruction in the public schools. Because of this restriction many parochial schools have been established by people of several denominations who wish to provide religious education for their children in connection with the secular schools. The people who support the religious denominational schools provide the funds by voluntary contribution and at the same time they contribute their share of the tax for support of the public schools. Now and then there has been an ill-advised attempt to legislate these parochial schools out of existence, but majority sentiment stands opposed to all such sectarian coercions and is quite willing to permit all sects to educate their children in accordance with the faith of their fathers. The parochial schools of Detroit afford both secular and religious education to more than 50,00oo0 children. EDUCATION IN DETROIT 697 Their discontinuance for any cause would involve an enormous increase in the'capacity of the public schools and a corresponding expansion of the teaching staff and the annual tax levy for school purposes. CHAPTER CXVI MOVING PICTURES AND NICKELODEONS EVERY generation of men adds materially to the scope and the utilization of human inventions. Practically all inventions have been the work of many hands and brains toiling through several generations, and, sometimes, many centuries of time. Hero of Alexandria invented the first reactionary turbine steam engine 1,8oo years ago, but its practical utilization did not come until late in the Nineteenth Century. Leonardo da Vinci, perhaps the most versatile genius of all time, designed steam engines, airplanes and many hydraulic machines early in the Sixteenth Century, besides making an immortal fame in art. The telegraph, which is regarded as an invention of the Nineteenth Century, was used more than I,ooo years ago by many tribes which communicated with one another across wide areas by means of systematic drum-beats which told the news. The Kaffir tribes of South Africa delivered the story of the British defeat at Majuba Hill to their fellow tribesmen in Capetown several hours before the white man's devices accomplished it. Several inventions which were at first regarded as interesting toys have become not only of practical but universal use. The telephone is one of these, the phonograph is another and another still is the zootrope, the first device for showing moving pictures. The capital that is now invested in the higher developments of these devices and the number of people whom they daily serve run into enormous figures. The first phonograph exhibited in Detroit was on display in the show window of Wright, Kay & Company at the corner of Woodward Avenue and the Campus Martius on February 9, 1890, or a little more than 33 years ago. People generally were interested in the reproduction of the human voice, but regarded the instrument as a toy of little practical utility. Presently the 698 MOVING PICTURES AND NICKELODEONS 699 -1 ý Wonderland Theater and Museum installed a battery of them, each one equipped with ear tubes which gave the patron who dropped a nickel in the slot a monopoly of its entertaining reproduction. Soon after, the "Nickelodeon" came into existence. In this phonographs were the chief attraction. The patron would deposit his nickel, insert the tubes in his ears, and bystanders would watch the fleeting emotions in his face while he listened to a popular song or the alleged ravings of the great tragedian, John E. McCullough, who protested, within the walls of Bloomingdale insane asylum, that he was not mad and occasionally burst into stentorian, maniacal laughter to prove that he was mad. This was one of hundreds of "faked" records made for the entertainment of the gullible and the lovers of the sensational. Another type of slot machine gave the effect of a moving picture while the patron turned a crank which brought into his view a rapid succession of card pictures showing people and animals in a constant change of positions. Few people realized that they were coming into an era of gradually developed inventions which would bring the great musicians, vocal and instrumental, into the home of every humble cottager and which would permit the simultaneous reproduction of the world's greatest pageants and plays and dramatized novels to millions of people scattered all over the globe. While both these developments have made large profits for producing companies, they have also given employment at fabulous salaries to many people who have aided in their reproductions, and also entertainment of educational value to an innumerable host of people. About the year 1845 a mechanical toy known as the "zootrope" was invented. It was a very simple though ingenious device which was based upon the limitations of human vision. The lenses of the eye enable us to see objects by projecting them upon the retina or inner curtain of the eye in very minute form. When we change our direction of gaze or see a new object, the former picture must be faded out and a new one projected upon the retina. This process appears to be instantaneous, but in 700 THE STORY OF DETROIT 700 THE STORY OF DETROIT reality it takes from one-fiftieth to one-tenth of a second for one visual picture to give place to another, according to the sensitiveness of the retina and the intensity of the light. The zootrope consisted of a vertical cylinder having a number of open slits through which, as the cylinder was slowly revolved, a person was given a fleeting glance at the inside of the cylinder on which a number of pictures of men or animals were shown in different positions. When the cylinder was revolved ZOOTROPE OF 1845, FIRST MOVING PICTURE DEVICE at a proper rate of speed, the person before whose eye the slits appeared in quick succession was given the visual illusion of a single animal or person in motion. The next step toward the moving picture was instantaneous photography by which objects in rapid motion could be recorded upon a photographic plate. Edward Muvbridge in 1877 made a number of pictures of trotting horses in full career. This discovery was coupled with the known facts regarding the zo6trope and a number of inventors began working upon the development of the moving picture apparatus. Several inventions appeared under different names during the early 1890's. Thomas A. Edison produced the kinetoscope in 1893. Lumiere, in France, MOVING PICTURES AND NICKELODEONS 701 produced the cinematograph, also termed the kinetograph. Other inventors produced various devices known as the biograph, vitascope, mutoscope and eidoloscope. Great difficulty was experienced in discovering the proper timing of the movement of the film across the illuminated opening of the projecting lantern, and in the timing of the interrupting shutter so as to prevent a flickering, tremulous effect which was very trying to the eyes. This timing was finally approximated at about one-sixteenth of a second. A number of these early crude devices were installed in the nickelodeons and added to their attraction for the curious. For a time the films were very short and each picture lasted for only a few seconds. Gradually the length of the films and the period of each picture was lengthened so as to permit a continued show of any dramatic action. Means of lighting the pictures were also improved by the introduction of powerful electric lamps. The time was then ripe for the earliest movingpicture shows, with the pictures thrown upon a large screen before the gaze of an audience through lenses which magnified the picture on the film about 35,000 times. This enlargement brought out the slightest defect in a film and made it ver.y conspicuous, but expert photography and scientific lens-making have conquered most of the difficulties and done away with these early defects. The drama of the movies as it is exhibited today is a remarkable triumph of human ingenuity. For a time the early crude productions were shown as the finale of some theatrical or vaudeville performance, depicting the movements of a ballet dancer or an acrobat in action. During the summer of 1896 the first extended picture, of large pretensions and requiring several reels of film was shown in the Detroit Opera House on the Campus through an instrument termed the eidoloscope. It was a reproduction of a bullfight in the City of Mexico, which was one of the most difficult of subjects as it was taken at constantly changing distances in natural daylight without artificial lighting. There were intervals of interesting action and others when the bullfighters and their victims were in such a bad light and the atmosphere was 702 702 THE STORY OF DETROIT so obscured by dust that much was left to the imagination. The tremulous flickering of the picture was quite distressing. Most of the spectators were relieved when the exhibition was over. Some time afterward a far more satisfactory picture was shown at the Wonderland, "The Great Train Robbery," which drew a large attendance and gave general satisfaction. Very soon after the beginning of the Twentieth Century the movie theater began to be developed by fitting up vacant stores for that purpose. It is said that the earliest of these movie theaters was opened in Pittsburgh. Its instant success led to the opening of many others in quick succession and a keen rivalry developed both in the production of short picture reels and in the operation of show places. In 1905 John H. Kunsky and the late A. Arthur Caille opened the first movie theater in Detroit on Monroe Avenue, which was known as the Casino. This was soon followed by the opening of rival houses. Two years later the Theater Royal was opened at the corner of Monroe and Farmer streets on a more pretentious plan and for a time it claimed title as the best of its kind in the country. It was there that the first single picture of several reels was exhibited for a long run. The subject was the "Passion Play," and it drew crowds for 10 weeks. Up to that time the standard price of admission had been S cents, but for this longer picture a charge of 25 cents was made. Success achieved at the Casino and the Theater Royal led Kunsky & Caille to branch out with other theaters in Detroit and elsewhere, and the "movies" became an important business, as well as the most popular form of entertainment. For several years they furnished such formidable rivalry to the theaters of the speaking drama that most of the leading actors and actresses were forced to go into the "silent drama." Presendly Mr. Kunsky became the leading impresario of Detroit. For several years the drama of the speaking stage suffered such a decline that a number of owners, lessees and operators of strings of theaters about the country sold out and took to the cyclone cellar. MOVING PICTURES AND NICKELODEONS 703 It was the novelty of the movie theaters which first attracted a large patronage. The character, class and scope of their exhibits steadily improved and the low prices and continuous performances also helped to hold and, increase the patronage. Another new departure was the systematic endeavor to carry the theater to the people by establishing neighborhood moving picture theaters in the residential districts. The first of these in Detroit was the Garden Theater. This, too, went on with such success that eventually it was overdone. At one time there were more than 160 such theaters scattered about the city. The number at the present time is probably between 130 and 140. The dramatization of popular and standard novels and the delineation of historical episodes with the most elaborate settings, and the employment not only of high salaried artists but whole armies of supers, attracted larger patronage, sustained public interest and led to the building of larger theaters with lavish expenditure of money to make them attractive. Investments of motion picture producers in real estate, property and equipment in this country are estimated by Will H. Hays at $500,000,000. They spend $2oo,ooo,ooo annually in production and about S5o,ooo,ooo of this goes for salaries and wages. The annual income of the business in paid admissions is rated at $6oo,ooo,ooo. This country exports more than $6,500,000 worth of films each year. There are about 15,000 regularly operated moving picture houses in the United States and several thousands more of occasionally operated theaters. The tiny nickelodeon of 25 years ago, with its " standing room only" for patrons and its distracting, whangetybang mechanical piano, has developed into vast and gorgeous theaters with mammoth pipe organs and highly paid orchestras of 40 or 50 pieces. The first film exchange was established in Detroit on Griswold Street with a stock of four or five single reels of 800 to 1,ooo feet in length. From this has developed the large business of film exchanges that covers the entire country today. The pioneers in this line of business were A. J. Gillingham, Philip Gleichman, now manager of the Broadway Strand Theater; 704 704 THE STORY OF DETROIT George Weeks, now an executive for the Paramount Pictures Corporation, and several others who later were identified in a big way with the development of the motion picture business in the United States. Today the large Joseph E. Mack Building is known as the "film" building because it contains the offices of half a hundred or more film exchanges and dealers in equipment, such as seats, projecting machines, rolls of tickets, etc. The growth of the moving picture business has been phenomenal. In two decades theaters like the Washington, Broadway Strand, Adams, Madison, and the imposing Capitol have been built, besides numerous and expensive neighborhood theaters. Meanwhile the legitimate theater has been and still is struggling along with old and out-of-date houses. After the building of the Casino Theater, on Monroe Avenue, a store on the east side of Woodward Avenue, between Congress and Lamned streets, was converted into a picture theater. Many people thought the proprietor's had indulged in a disastrous folly while laboring under the delusion that two moving picture houses could live in Detroit. Soon after, another theater was opened in the same block and both found plenty of patronage. The theater of the speaking drama has had a slow, steady and continuous development since -,000o years ago, while the growth of the picture theater has been meteoric. Within a period of less than two decades it has grown from nothing at all to an industry which ranks third among the. great money-making enterprises of this country. The future of the moving picture theater is still on the knees of the gods. The promoters declare that it is still in its infancy, which may be true. CHAPTER CXVII THE ERA OF BICYCLES AND AUTOMOBILES BEGINS DURING the past century human endeavor has been directed with ever increasing intensity to the development of quick communication of messages and rapid transportation of passengers and freight from one place to another. One hundred years ago it took an average of about three weeks to convey a message from Detroit to the Atlantic seaboard. Freight and passenger service was much slower. In June, 190o, a passenger train covered the distance between Chicago and New York in less than 16 hours over a route of 960 miles. A railway speed of 120 miles an hour has been attained for short distances. On May 24, i844, Samuel Finley Breese Morse sent the first electric telegraph message from Baltimore to the chamber of the Supreme Court in Washington without appreciable loss of time. That message: "What God hath wrought," was appropriately chosen from Holy Writ, the entire sentence from Numbers xxiii:23 being: "Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob; neither is there any divination with Israel: Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!" It was a fitting recognition of the fact that all scientific discovery is merely the unveiling of the mystery of creation and the handiwork of God and that all human invention is but the intelligent utilization of elements, forces and principles that have always existed. It was many years later that the discovery was made that instant long distance communication is possible without the use of wires, but already radio communication around the globe has become rather commonplace. During the present year an airplane has crossed this continent in 27 hours and experiments are in progress which are expected to make possible that 705 706 THE STORY OF DETROIT transit between sunrise and sunset. Man's conquest over the elements appears to be a progressive process. The lightnings and the gales have been made messengers and servants. Gravitation has proved the most baffling of these elemental forces, but man has discovered its laws and has attacked its barriers by the employment of gases lighter than air and by use of the inclined plane of Archimedes driven by light engines of extraordinary power. The success already achieved would seem to contain the promise of further and startling conquests, and that gravitation, like the gales which have borne the argosies of maritime nations from port to port, and electrical energy which appears to have endless adaptations to man's service, may some day become a useful and dependable medium for bearing cargoes through the air around the globe. The decade of the 1i890's saw a very remarkable development in passenger transportation, which has since been obscured by the development of motor vehicles. That period might well be termed the decade of the bicycle. Like all the other notable inventions the bicycle was a product of slow development and an elaboration of a very simple device. In the year 1816 Baron von Drais was chief forester to the Grand Duke of Baden. His duties made it necessary to cover long distances on foot. To increase his capacity and speed of foot travel he yoked together two wheels in tandem, attached a swivel and handlebar to the front wheel and placed a saddle on the frame connecting the two wheels. By means of this he was able to increase his running stride to about i5 feet and at the same time to relieve his legs of the weight of his body. He patented this machine under the name of "draisine." Other inventors produced similar devices variously known as " celeripedes," "velocipedons," "curricules," "hobby-horses," and, "dandy-horses" but finally, the terminology settled upon "velocipede." There it rested until about the year 1873, when James Starley of Coventry, England, produced the first highwheeled bicycle with a diameter of 54 to 60 inches. In 1876 H. T. Lawson produced the first "safety" by using small diameter wheels and employing multiplying gears and a chain drive. ERA OF BICYCLES AND AUTOMOBILES 707 But the bicycle did not become universally popular until after Dr. John B. Dunlop, a veterinary surgeon of the north of Ireland, adapted a piece of rubber garden hose to his son's machine and produced the pneumatic tire. At about the same time P. W. Tillinghast, of Providence, R. I., produced a similar device known as the cushion tire. The ball bearing for reducing friction soon followed and presently the bicycle became a utility of practically universal use all over the world. Practically every family in Detroit had one or more. They became the chief means of transportation over city streets and country roads. During the early morning and evening hours the main avenues of Detroit were for several years filled with a solid stream of bicycles carrying people to and from their work, and on Sundays and holidays the country roads were lined by pleasure riders seeking the open and coveringlong distances. Wheelmen's clubs came into existence everywhere. Bicycle racing became a popular sport and salesrooms and repair and service stations were numerous. In 1899 there were 350 bicycle factories in this country which turned out 1,113,000 machines valued at $23,000,000. Then, suddenly, and without apparent reason, the use of bicycles declined to an astonishing degree and the industry faded away to insignificant proportions. Detroit in those days was less keenly alive to the sense of business opportunity than at the present time. It was one of the very few cities of large population which did not enter into bicycle manufacture on a large scale. The most notable venture was that of Hugh Evans and the Dodge Brothers, John and Horace, who began the production of a high-class machine in Windsor just as the popularity of the bicycle began to decline. Their failure to note the passing of the popular fad made them heavy losers in a venture which had promised' a fortune. The Dodge Brothers returned to Detroit with their finances reduced to low ebb. But they were first-clas's mechanics and, soon after, they opened a small machine shop in the Boydell Building on Beaubien Street in 1901o and began making parts for automobiles. Their business expanded rapidly and they were soon forced to establish themselves in larger quarters at Monroe Avenue and Hastings Street. 708 THE STORY OF DETROIT 708 THE STORY OF DETROIT A few years later they were to be counted among the leading producers of automobiles and were soon rajted as multi-millionaires. In 1892 the people of France, and of Paris in particular, developed a craze for experimenting with automobiles and longdistance racing of such machines soon became the leading sport. At first a speed of 15 miles an hour was about the limit, except for very short distances. But these race competitions stimulated invention. In 1897 a Panhard car was driven in a road race over the o106 miles between Paris and the port of Dieppe at a rate better than 23 EARLIEST MOTOR CAR OF RECORD, BUILT TO HAUL FIELD ARTILLERY miles an hour. This race was widely advertised and its results interested many American machinists and inventors. Automobiles were by no means a new invention. Nobody appears to have definite information as to when the development actually began, but doubtless it soon followed the invention of the steam engine. It is known that in the years 1769-70 Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, of France, built two steam carriages, which he used on the common highways. The larger one, which was designed for rapid transit of artillery, is still, preserved in Paris. Cugnot was but one of many obscure experimenters of his time and even he caught the public eye so insecurely that little is known of him except that he used up all his available resources in promoting auto-vehicles and died in poverty. In 1794 Oliver Evans, an American inventor, planned a small steam engine for propelling road vehicles. Failing to find ERA OF BICYCLES AND AUTOMOBILES 709 1 -.1 backing for putting his idea to a test he sent his plans to England, in the hope of obtaining a patent, which had been denied him in this country. These plans fell under the eyes of Trevethick and Vivian, and they proceeded to constructions which made it appear that the plan was their own invention. Trevethick built an engine and propelled a vehicle from Camborne to London, 90 miles, in 1802. Following that a variety of steam JAMES' STEAM CARRIAGE, 1832 carriages were built in England, but the undertaking was temporarily abandoned in 1836. Evans, as early as 1786, had suggested the installation of steam vehicles on the Lancaster Turnpike of Maryland, but nobody produced a practical machine. Several French inventors attracted attention by a revival of motor vehicles in 1891. The way was now opening to this development by the invention of internal combustion gas engines by inventors like Otto, Benz and Daimler. Immediately American inventors took up this promotion. In I895 George B. Selden, of Rochester, N. Y., was granted such a comprehensive series of patents for a motor vehicle propelled by an internal combustion steam or gas engine that, like Fulton and Livingston's steamboat patent, the result was a virtual monopoly of 71O THE STORY OF DETROIT the right to produce motor vehicles. Selden and his sweeping patents stood in the way of progress, for, if the patents could be held valid, he could compel every producer to pay him a royalty on each vehicle produced. Following the first French automobile road race of wide celebrity, Charles B. King, of Detroit, devoted much of his time to turning out a gasoline-driven automobile in his machine r-.Now THE FIRST SELDEN MOTOR CAR, BASIS OF TROUBLESOME PATENTS shop, on the east side, south of Jefferson Avenue. He appeared on the street with his first car in the fall of 1894, producing something of a sensation and raising a general laugh. Mr. King's first machine, like all the other early experiments, was of a design based on the old-fashioned one-horse buggy, with the usual high buggy wheels with iron tires, dashboard, springs, etc. The engine was located underneath the body, instead of being carried under a hood or bonnet in front. All those early engines were highly temperamental things, whizzing along the road smoothly and quietly at times and then, for apparently no reason at all, stopping dead and refusing to listen to argument in any language. In such cases there was ERA OF BICYCLES AND AUTOMOBILES71 711 nothing to do but for the driver to dismount and lie under the machine on his back while he tinkered with wires, valves, batteries and carburetor, often using language appropriate to the occasion as blobs of grease and bits of harder substances dropped into his eyes and open mouth. Those pesky things had a strong penchant for stopping over mudholes, and one could tell the owner of one a block away by the indelible mud stains on the back of his leather coat. Drivers of fine horse equipages would stop and watch the proceedings, sometimes with Jeering remarks and at other times with a sort of sympathy that was maddening. The terminology of inventions usually is an adoption from the language of the country which began their development, and because France was foremost in the revival of motor road vehicles we have such adopted words as "'chassis" and " chauffeur)" directly from the French. Scientific discoveries and mechanical inventions by people of many languages have served to fatten our English vocabulary by the addition of thousands of borrowed words. CHAPTER CXVIII AUTOMOBILE HISTORY-- IADE IN DETROIT HISTORY, philosophy, science, invention, language, and even religion, are each and all aggregates: the slowly accumulated products of human experience, reasoning, revelation and inspiration. It is beyond the capacity of the greatest minds to grasp the complete meaning and scope of any one of them. The best that can be done is to extend that grasp little by little during the period of each generation of men and, curiously enough, the more we extend our grasp the more profound and incomprehensible does the great mystery of the created universe become. The simplest of all these things is history, which means, first, a fairly complete record of human events and experiences, and then individual reasoning and deduction applied to the known facts for the purpose of interpretation. This is fine in theory, but quite impossible in practice, because there is no such thing as a complete record and this partial accumulation is complicated and confused by a complex of disagreements regarding things of common knowledge which every person thinks he understands. One who attempts the writing of history seems to succeed very well while he deals with affairs of the remote past. The reason back of that apparent success lies in the fact that all witnesses who might dispute him have been dead for centuries and that recent generations have settled down to a pretty common acceptance of certain trains of fact and have agreed to eliminate and forget certain other trains of fact. One is hardly conscious of this curious condition until he attempts to write recent history. Then he discovers that there is endless confusion regarding the few simple facts of relatively common knowledge. If one asks the question: "Who invented the automobile?" he will get a bewildering answer, because every man who has 712 AUTOMOBILE HISTORY-MADE IN DETROIT 713 had anything to do with scientific discovery in all the ages has been in some measure a contributor to the invention. If one asks: "Who founded the automobile industry in Detroit?" he will be astonished at the confusion of opinions. As to what man has achieved the greatest success in the business of manufacturing there can be no dispute, but even Henry Ford did not accomplish his success without important contributions from many other men. For no man liveth to himself alone. The thoughts, the hopes, the aspirations, all the ideas or thought images that have occurred to man in the past, are still floating about in the air and those which escape detection in man's waking hours often come to him in his dreams. He may think they are all his own; but some part or germ of them has existed before and all that he is able to do is to add a little to the long aggregate. Men dreamed of flying through the air thousands of years ago, but it took the accumulated aggregate of all that time to make the dream come true in the dawn of the Twentieth Century. So it is with every human achievement down to the creation of the first automobile. "The chariots shall rage in the streets. They shall jostle one against another in the broad ways; they shall seem like torches; they shall run like the lightnings." Those lines were written about 2,500 years ago by the prophet Nahum. Of course Nahum did not in his time have any clear vision of Woodward Avenue and the other "broad ways" of Detroit. He had never heard of Henry Ford, the Packard, Cadillac, Lincoln, Buick, Studebaker, or any other of the multitude of chariots that seem like torches with their blinding headlights; he never heard the raspy honks and whoops of a hundred Klaxon and other makes of horns; he never saw chariots capable of running like lightning and crashing into one another with fatal results at innumerable street intersections, but for all that Nahum had a vision of the future and gave it utterance, and more than 700 generations of men who came after him brought his dream to pass. Even in Detroit the name of the automobile pioneers is legion; and who can say: "I did it"? Some day historical acceptance may single out some individual, and that decision may stand like some of 714 T14E STORY OF DETROIT our judicial decisions which try to limit the scope and application of law-for a time at least. But common agreements do not permanently fix the truth of facts any more than judicial opinions determine justice. L When one takes the backward trail of each man who has figured prominently in the development of Detroit's automobile industry, he can discover in each case some sort of preparation of which the individual was as unaware as were his associates. Back in 1 895 a vision of the automobile possessed two young men of Lansing, Michigan, Ranson E. Olds and Frank Clark. Mr. Olds' father was a manufacturer of stationary gasoline engines; the father of Mr. Clark made carriages, and thus two ideas were naturally merged. Each young man worked in his father's shop. They began experimental work with the idea that Olds was to furnish the engine and Clark the carriage it was to propel. Their fathers disapproved of their distracting experiments, so much of the work was done surreptitiously after factory hours. In 1897 they had progressed far enough to enable them to secure backing for the organization of the "Olds Motor Vehicle Company," with the understanding that they were to concentrate their combined efforts upon the building of just one carriage as perfectly as possible and finish it at the earliest possible moment. Their first Oldsmobile was finished in 1898. It would run, but not so impressively. That machine is now housed with the curios of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington as an example of crude beginnings. Clark was discouraged and sold out to his partner and co-laborer. Then Mr. Olds enlisted in his scheme the financial support of S. L. Smith, who had made a fortune in copper and had capital to risk onl long chance ventures. Various improvements were made and in 1899 a company was formed in Detroit with Olds as manager, and presently he turned out the first Oldsmobile, with a curved dashboard. This machine ran quite impressively and it gave many convincing demonstrations of its efficiency, power and control, although it was a little machine designed to serve as a runabout on paved city streets and the better class of highways. AUTOMOBILE HISTORY-MADE IN DETROIT 715 Demonstration led to demand. In 1901, 1,400 Oldsmobiles were built and in 19o2 the production was 2,500. They went out in all directions, even to far countries. Sir Thomas Lipton, the tea magnate, was soon steering one of them through the ruck of London street traffic, and Queen Helena of Italy was circling about the Quirinal, Capitoline and all the other seven hills of the "Eternal City" in an Oldsmobile. In 1903 a racing machine, the Olds Pirate, driven by H. T. Thomas, now chief engineer of the Reo Motor Car Company, at Lansing, made a world's record for a straightaway mile run on Daytona Beach, Florida, and that same year a similar machine won the "Tour de France." Out of that experiment and achievement developed other ventures. Dodge Brothers made the transmissions and the Leland & Faulkner Machine Company built the engines and other parts of the mechanical construction. Out of that experience came the development of the Cadillac car at the hands of Henry M. Leland, and Dodge Brothers' contribution was the beginning of an experience which led to their early association with the Ford Motor Company, and later to the founding of their own huge plant with its producqion of the Dodge car. In 1904, 5,oo0 Oldsmobiles were manufactured and two of the machines staged the first transcontinental road race, driven by Dwight Huss and T. R. McGargle, respectively, from Washington, D. C., to Seattle. In 1905 the curved dash was replaced by a straight one; production rose to 6,500 cars and the factory hoisted into view the sign: "Largest Automobile Factory in the World." In that year a two-cylinder engine was introduced, known as the "double-action Olds." In 1902 a fire made it necessary to rebuild the plant and the factory was removed to Lansing. In 1906 the company produced a four-cylinder car. Several other men whose names are written large in automobile history were connected with the plant in its early days, among them Roy D. Chapin and Howard Coffin. The former rose to the position of sales manager and the latter to chief engineer, while F. C. Bezner became purchasing agent and James J. Brady traffic manager. 716 THE STORY OF DETROIT So much talent and individual ambition could not find room in one organization and presently a considerable group of them withdrew and organized what later became the Chalmers Motor Corporation. Later another division of them founded the Hudson Motor Car Company. Others became associated with the King and the Columbia Motor companies. Mr. Olds founded as an independent venture the Reo Company. In 1910o W. C. Durant gathered the Olds Motor Works into the General Motors Corporation, which secured control, one after another, of the Cadillac, Buick, Oakland, Scripps-Booth, Chevrolet, and other motor car companies. The most challenging figure in the motor car world is Henry Ford, whose real life story makes all those popular magazine biographies of barefoot boys who won their way on merit from poverty, obscurity, insignificance and subordination to the captaincy of great industries, power and affluence, seem tame and small in comparison. It can only be briefly summarized here. Born on a farm in Dearborn township, Wayne County, Mich., July 30, 1863, he lived the life of the typical farm boy, doing chores at home, attending district school and employing his odd hours at mechanical tinkering about the barn and house. Left school at 16 to learn the machinist trade in a Detroit shop. Tried his hand at watch and jewelry repairing for a side line. After eight years his father lured him back to the land by a presentation of 40 acres of timbered land. Ford accepted, bringing his tools with him. Obtaining a portable sawmill, he proceeded to work up his timber into lumber. In his twenty-fourth year he married Clara J. Bryant, who had grown up on a farm a few miles away. Mr. Ford built his own house with lumber cut from his land, a story-and-a-half cottage, 31 feet square, and moved into it. Tried his hand at building a steam road car, but found no satisfactory boiler. After two years in the new home he returned to the city to become night-shift engineer of Detroit Edison Company, at $4A a month. Later he rose to chief engineer and worked in that capacity for seven years at $125 a month. He lived in a small house on Bagley Avenue, near his job. AUTOMOBILE HISTORY-MADE IN DETROIT 7'1 In a small brick shed at the rear of his rented house he set up a workshop and began experimenting with gas engine construction. His first completed machine was a two-cylindered car which was purely experimental, but when it was finished and rolled out, as the builder expressed it, "the darned thing ran." It could be speeded up to 25 or 30 miles an hour when it was working well. Having now something to show to venturesome investors, he was able to organize the Detroit Automobile Company, and was made chief engineer at $1oo a month, after severing his connection with the Edison Company in 1901. I1is interest was one-sixth of a $50,000 capitalization. This first company became involved in a conflict of individual opinions so Ford withdrew, purchased a little shop at 8 I Park Place and built a larger and better machine, which was completed in 1902. This machine was the basis of the founding of the Ford Motor Company, which was incorporated June 1o, 1903. The early stockholders were Alex. Y. Malcomson, John S. Gray, John F. Dodge, Horace E. Dodge, Horace II. Rackham, Albert Strelow, John W. Anderson, C. H. Bennett, V. C. Frey, *~^ Z ~ 9'~' HENRY FORD IN His FIRST CAR 718 THE STORY OF DETROIT James Couzens, C. H. Woodhall, and Miss R. V. Couzens. Mr. Ford was awarded 25 per cent of the stock and was vicepresident and factory manager. The authorized capital was $o00,000, but only $28,000 was paid in. Again there was some disagreement over matters of policy. Some of the stockholders were timid and doubtful and Mr. Ford was able to buy sufficient stock to make his holding Si per cent in 1906. A little later he purchased enough to give him 584 per cent of the stock. A racing car was built to attract attention and secure free advertising. This car, the "999," named after the locomotive that made a world record on the New York Central in 1893, broke the mile record running over the ice on Baltimore Bay of Lake St. Clair in 1904. Racing was promoted until one of the drivers was badly hurt and then it was discontinued. The Ford Motor Company is now entirely a family possession, all other stockholders having been bought out. It is capitalized at $1oo,ooo,ooo as a Delaware corporation chartered July 9, 1919. Edsel B. Ford, the only son of the family, is president. The progress of the concern in its successive plants at Bellevue and Mack avenues; at Cass and Burroughs avenues; on Piquette Avenue, which is now a branch of the Studebaker; and in the present plant in Highland Park has been the most phenomenal achievement in the industry of the world. In the first year of operation 1,7o8 cars were produced. In 1923 the plant is turning out 6,8oo cars and trucks each day. Twelve years after the start the production reached a volume of 1,000,000 cars. The flaming electric sign on the corner of the service building at Woodward Avenue and the Grand Boulevard which represented a flying automobile and asked the observer to "watch the Fords. go by" was discontinued for obvious reasons. * The Highland Park plant occupies nearly 300 acres, of which 123 acres are under roof. It is the largest individual automobile plant in the world and its system of continuous, systematic production is the wonder of thousands of visitors from all parts of the world. The plant at the River Rouge, with AUTOMOBILE HISTORY--MADE IN DETROIT 719 its blast furnaces and foundries, occupies i,2oo acres. Another branch of construction turns out the Fordson tractors. When the Lincoln Motor Company became involved in an accumulation of debts and was sold, Mr. Ford was the highest bidder and thus became a producer of a car of the highest class as well as of the universally known and used Ford. Ford industries in Detroit alone give employment to more than 1oo,ooo men. If one takes into consideration the innumerable service stations, agencies, assembling plants, manufacturers of accessories, etc., in this and many other countries, he finds exact figures lacking and his imagination stalled. Henry M. Leland is another of the big figures in the automotive industry of Detroit. Before the Oldsmobile Company came to Detroit Mr. Leland had been making engines for naphtha launches, and previous to that he had been making a superior class of gears for bicycles and other machinery in which the avoidance of noise and the reduction of friction were important. He had a small shop on Trombly Avenue. It was through the use of the gears turned out by Leland & Faulkner that the Oldsmobile was made a quiet, smooth-running machine. Mr. Leland built a gasoline engine which was an improvement on the Olds machine, but it was not adopted. About that time Henry Ford was experimenting with his engine in a room leased from the C. R. Wilson Carriage Company, where the Cadillac Motor Car Company was some time afterward located. At that time Mr. Ford was enthusiastic over racing cars. Some of his associates, like Lem. W. Bowen, Clarence Black, William H. Murphy and A. E. F. White, wanted him to build touring cars and, failing in that endeavor, they drew out. In June, 1902, these men had a conference with Mr. Leland and his son, Wilfrid Leland, in Mr. Murphy's office in the Buhl Block, and the Cadillac Motor Car Company, capitalized at $300,000, was organized, with Mr. Bowen as president. The concern occupied the Cass Avenue Building and the Cadillac Company began building the celebrated "one-lung" motor cars, which were highly efficient, but very noisy until the muffler was perfected to quiet the powerful exhaust. 720 THE STORY OF DETROIT Several years later a four-cylinder car was produced and still later an eight-cylinder or double engine of four cylinders each, which was a beautiful piece of mechanism and placed the Cadillac car in the front ranks of the general competition. The Packard Motor Car Company originated at Warren,O., but the proprietors were induced to expand their operations and remove their plant to Detroit after a consultation with Henry B. Joy and several of his associates. The new Packard Company was capitalized at $500,000 in 1903. The enormous plant of this company on East Grand Boulevard is one of the big local industries and its product of motor cars and trucks is famed for high quality. After the Cadillac Company had been absorbed into the General Motors Corporation, Mr. Leland remained in control for a time and then resigned to organize the Lincoln Motor Company, and create another car of the highest class. A detailed story of the development of each automobile industry in Detroit would fill a large volume. In a story of Detroit it is impossible to give more than a mere outline of two of those undertakings which were pioneers and which have survived all the vicissitudes of time, management, competition and trade. These are but striking examples of the story which might be written about each one. Production of automobile parts has developed a number of great industries. The Fisher Body Company and the C. R. Wilson Body Company are the largest in the country. The Morgan & Wright tire plant was started in 1906 and has grown to huge proportions. The Timken-Detroit Axle Company, the Northway Motor Company and the Continental Motors Corporation are proportionally large. Automobile sales companies with their large show rooms, public garages, repair shops, tire emporiums, automobile insurance companies, automobile bus companies and highway transportation companies, trucking companies and other industries developing out of what was a puny and purely experimental undertaking 20o years ago, have resulted in the production of enormous wealth and of unprecedented utility. The social change is quite as striking. CHAPTER CXIX THE BANKING POWER OF DETROIT RACTICALLY everybody who has reached the age of discretion handles money every day and usually carries more or less of it on his person. But very few people have an intelligent understanding as to what money really is and means. The most expert financiers differ in certain particulars as to the function of money and the causes which result from the variability of its available volume and its relation to prices. Their disputes are indirect confessions of the limitations of human understanding. Money has existed in some form from time immemorial. The oldest codes of law which have come down to us from the obscurity of remote antiquity have chapters for the regulation of money and banking, borrowing and lending, interest and security, liens and mortgages, judgments, executions and other provisions for the collection of debt, as well as special humane easements for the relief of those who have been forced into bankruptcy by fire and flood, drouth and crop failure and the depredations of thieves and robbers. We find such provisions in the code of Hammurabi, which was law before the day of Abraham and was centuries old before Moses delivered the Ten Commandments. We also find them in the code of Manu, which has come down to us through the most ancient manuscripts in the Sanskrit. These go to show that in Mesopotamia, India and Egypt 5,ooo years ago men were using money and banks of loan and deposit, and we find that after all these thousands of years the wisest of men still find something to learn about both institutions. Publius Syrus, a learned Roman who lived before the Christian era, said: "Money alone sets the world in motion." The Romans were an eminently practical people who kept their armies and their money at work over vast areas until too much 721 722 THE STORY OF DETROIT money sapped the moral fiber and physical stamina of their upper classes and left them an easy prey to barbarian invaders. Just as an army is said to move about on its stomach, or commissary department, so modern civilization has scored most of its achievements through an intelligent use of money and banks. Without machinery a company of a million men would be powerless to move a solid cube of iron weighing Ioo tons because, while their aggregate strength might easily move it, it would be impossible to utilize that power because only a small group would be able to lay hands upon the mass. Through the utilities of money and banking the power of almost any number of men can easily be applied to any undertaking. It is thus that all great industries and enterprises are first launched and afterward, carried on, and curiously enough it is all accomplished by the use of symbols. A dollar bill or a million dollar Government bond are but pieces of paper in themselves, but what is printed upon them pledges the financial power and the honor and credit of the Government of this nation just as an individual promissory note or a personal check pledges the honor, financial ability and credit of the indivdual. By resort to this machinery of business the manufacturing concern obtains money to erect its plant, buy material and pay wages to the men who convert it into salable products. As the money from sales comes trickling in it gravitates back into the bank, pays off the loan and leaves a margin of profit for deposit. Hundreds of such concerns, all operating in exactly the same way, have made Detroit the city that we see about us and have enabled more than a million people to earn their livelihood and build themselves homes in a locality where only 225 years ago a few roving bands of wild Indians found a precarious existence, and where for more than Ioo years a small group of white men struggled hard for theirsubsistence and were several times on the verge of starvation. The story of Detroit's early experience with money and banking has already been told. Our country is so huge, its centers of population are so widely scattered, that it took a long time for the wisest financiers to learn that the power of a nation, BANKING POWER OF DETROIT 7'3 / -3) physical, financial and moral, is after all but a feeble thing unless it is able to act in unity. Nations with more limited resources learned much sooner than we did the necessity for organizing an effective machinery for financial defense, just the same as they provided standing armies for the national defense. They learned to combine their banking machinery for mutual support and common defense while the people of the United States continued the old policy of letting every bank look out for itself. " When the panic of 1893 reached Detroit in its sweep over the world there were about 30 banks in the city, each one dependent solely upon its own resources in the lack of any unified organization. As money became more and more scarce the depositors became nervous and several small runs were made on different banks. The financiers of Griswold Street realized that if even the weakest of the banks were permitted to be drained of its available money and forced to close its doors, even for a day or two at such a time, the infection of fear would spread and they would all suffer a drain that would cripple them and paralyze business. To prevent that they voluntarily supported the banks which were experiencing runs. Depositors would compensate this in some measure by drawing their money out of one bank and depositing it in another, but a good deal of money was drained away out of circulation and into private hoards and presently the banks were forced to take advantage of the 3o-day notice clause, which had a wholesome effect and stopped the runs. Unable to obtain money which local banks had deposited in eastern banks, because the entire country was suffering from the withdrawal of money for private hoarding, Detroit banks finally were forced to the issue of clearing house certificates, which became a common resort. A clearing house loan certificate is a form of emergency money which was sometimes used to meet currency shortages before the passage of the Federal Reserve Banking Act. Banks are always holders of large amounts of sound securities which have been deposited as collateral security for loans. A bank may therefore be completely drained of its currency and still 724 THE STORY OF DETROIT be perfectly solvent, but it must have time in which to convert its securities into money. When money became very scarce during panics and a bank became unable to settle its balances with the clearing house it was permitted to deposit its approved securities with the clearing house and settle its balances by means of certificates issued by the clearing house to about two-thirds the value of the securities deposited. During September of 1893 the Detroit clearing house issued certificates to the amount Of $380,000. All these certificates were soon redeemed by cash substitution and a serious crisis was thus safely tided over.* In 1907 came another period of depression. These incidents occurring at irregular intervals for ioo years started an agitation for a reform of the national banking system which would better utilize the credit of the country at large and would provide mutual support between all the national banks of the country. That was one of the most opportune political and financial reforms in the history of the nation, for the act was passed December '23, 1913, and the World War began in July of the following year. That moment which, under the old conditions, would have precipitated a general panic found the Government and the banks fortified against such a disaster and sustained by the authority to issue emergency currency as the occasion might require. Each bank was supported by the financial power of every other bank in the Federal Reserve and money was insured against a withdrawal from circulation. Under the establishment of the Federal Reserve Banking Act the entire countrywas districted and 12 cities, conveniently located, were appointed for the location of Federal Reserve banks, each one to serve for a large area. This districting places Detroit in the region served by the Chicago Federal Reserve district bank. The Detroit branch bank was opened in 1918 with a staff of 20 men. In four years that staff increased to 164 men, of whom seven were officers. In February, 1920, the service of the Detroit branch, which at first was confined to the banks of Detroit and Highland Park, was extended over 19 counties of the state, the Detroit branch having all functions of a regional bank except the issue of money. BANKING POWER OF DETROIT 725 About the same time the bankers of Detroit appear to have taken a page from the book of Canadian experience and come to the conclusion that a few very strong banks with many branches would be more effective than a large number of banks. The result was a number of consolidations of the larger banks and the establishing of a great number of branch or neighborhood banks for the purpose of bringing the banks closer to the people, enabling daily deposits from all the business concerns of the outlying districts and the keeping of the local money more available for general use. On June 23, 1923, the total deposits in the banks of Detroit aggregated $566,763,o000, and of this amount $258,143,000 was in savings accounts. Detroit at this time had 3 national banks, 14 state banks, 165 branch banks and 6 trust companies. Their combined capital amounted to $31,884,000oo and the aggregate surplus was $30,016,6i12. This money represents the aggregate of the immediate financial power of the community. It is not the property of the banks themselves, but of tens of thousands of depositors, who, by placing their surplus cash in trust with the various banks and branches, furnish the circulating life blood of business which keeps the wheels of industry turning, builds factories, business blocks, office buildings, homes, and provides wages and salaries for public and private employment, enabling more than a million people to live in peace, comfort and some degree of prosperity in the City of Detroit. CHAPTER CXX DETROIT'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD \VAR A Tthe end Of July, 1914, came the beginning of t 'he W~orld War. A merciful regard for the reader suggests that as little be said about it as possible. For nine years it has been one of the chief topics of conversation and for five of those years little else was talked about. For ten years before it broke like the crack of doom preparations were being made in Europe for the event. The stage was all set for it and all that was needed was some petty conflict anywhere in Europe which would serve as a curtain raiser. This was permitted to occur in the Balkans, and while Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece were putting a crimp in the power of the Turks and shearing them of European territory, the greater powers stood about on the side lines to referee the game and take a hand in the division of the spoil. Austria-Hungary was the first one to grab and by her sudden conversion of a protectorate into an annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina she provoked the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, who was sent to personi~fy the government. In retaliation for that assassination the empire declared war on a petty, kingdom. Russia attempted to interpose. Germany ordered her to keep her hands off the situation. Immediately the greater part of continental Europe became hysterical and all the accumuvilated antipathies and hatreds of past centuries began to glow with fervent heat. 'All attemp ts to refer the case to an international tribunal failed and the first offensive act was the invasion by Germany of little Belgium,, which had been entirely neutral, for the sake of striking a deadly, blow at France. That invasion drew Great Britain into the war. In Detroit and in the United States everywhere the general explosion seemed so far away that our own country could never possibly be involved. The desperate state of all the nations 7264 DETROIT'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD WAR 727 involved seemed to sweep aside at once all international law and all civilization. Although we re-elected President Wilson with the curious slogan: "He kept us out of war," the general conflagration continued to spread and in April, 1917, we were forced to declare war. This nation had been living in the, midst of a general conflagration for three years and had made no preparation for the hour when it would reach us. On land and sea it was unprepared for the event which had long loomed overhead, but once more it was destined to demonstrate to the world the energy and resource which has been characteristic of the American people in the creation of a vast army of men suddenly shifted from peaceful occupations, and arming and equipping it. When the army was ready we were forced to depend upon our allies for getting it across the ocean and to lawless seizure of vessels of other nations for impressment into army transports. It is probable that this demonstration itself had almost as great a moral effect as our actual participation in battle. But one question remained to be settled. Would these American men fight as they did everything else? For a time both France and Great Britain seemed to doubt our fighting qualities. They wanted to break up our army, utilize it for filling. their own shattered ranks, and place it in control of their officers. That misjudgment delayed our active participation for a time and no doubt delayed the victory. The American officers and their men insisted on fighting in their own units and when grim necessity compelled a recognition of their right to do so they proved their mettle convincingly. The second Battle of the Marne proved that the war was virtually decided, but it took months of stubborn fighting to dislodge the enemy from their skillfully prepared strongholds and force them slowly backward in a retreat that could not be halted. On November 11, 1918, an armistice was agreed upon. The German army had lost its morale. The German people were wise enough to see that prolongation of the conflict would mean an invasion of Germany by the Allied armies. Remembering what had been done in their own invasion and devastation 728 THE STORY OF DETROIT of Belgium and France, the German people became panicstricken and began organizing a revolt against the military powers to compel a cessation of hostilities. The result was a general collapse followed by the flight of the emperor into Holland and the end of the war. Once the issue was decided that we were to employ the military might of the people of the United States for the subjugation of the armies of the allied enemy, movements of military organization proceeded swiftly and systematically. A registration was ordered for June 5, 1917, which was intended to record all the men of the nation between the ages of 21 and 30 years. This was a nation-wide undertaking involving an enormous amount of detail work. THE STORY OF DETROIT is concerned chiefly in the results of the various registrations in this city, which not only astonished the country at large, but the people of Detroit themselves, as the registration listed a total of 143,347 men. After sifting out the physically and mentally unfit and those entitled to exemption under the law, these men were taken in charge and sent to training camps. A second registration was made in the summer of 1918 for listing the men who had attained the age of 21 in the interval, and this added 9,094 more young Detroiters. On September 12, 1918, a third registration listed the available men between the ages of 18 and 20 and between 32 and 45. This addition brought the total registration of Detroit for the World War to 296,677. The total registration for the nation listed 9,925,751 men. At the time of this registration it looked as if the war might go on for at least a year longer and possibly to 1920, but the result was no longer in doubt. Only the date of victory was uncertain. The Selective Service Act, which provided for carrying into effect the placing of men in all the branches of the service, signed by President Wilson May 18, 1917, was a decentralization plan, whereby the governor of each state became the official head of the draft with authorization to use the services of all his departments in carrying the provisions into effect. The fundamental duties of state headquarters were the creation, establishment and maintenance of registration, selec DETROIT'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD WAR 729 tion and auxiliary boards. The personnel of the boards was selected by the governors and appointed by the President. In addition, each state organization bore a heavy burden of miscellaneous duties throughout the duration of the war. During the period of the June 5, 1917, registration and the completion of the work created by the registration-which was done by city and county clerks, mayors, sheriffs and health officers-the governors and state organizations were subdividing the states into local boards. To effectuate the ideal of localizing the draft it was considered necessary to have it administered by committees of men intimately acquainted with the lives and circumstances of the people of their communities. This was considered physically possible only in a community not exceeding 30,000 inhabitants, and all boards were created on as near that basis as possible. Under this apportionment Detroit was divided into 26 local boards, each comprising a ward, except in the case of the five larger wards, which were divided. The Government statisticians estimated that Detroit should have a registration of approximately 9o,ooo men, but because of the great influx of young men who had been drawn here by the large wages being paid by institutions engaged in the manufacture of munitions for the Allied powers already in the war, the registration ran 50,000ooo over the estimate. These local boards had original jurisdiction over all classes of claims and exemptions except industry and agriculture. District boards, comprising an average of about 30 local boards, grouped according to their accessibility to the larger centers, were created and began functioning in August, 1917. Their duties were to pass on all original industrial and agricultural claims and all cases appealed from local boards, either by the registrant or the Government appeal agents. Detroit was the location of two district boards: Nos. i and 2 of the eastern district of Michigan. The former had jurisdiction over the local boards of Detroit and Highland Park and the latter the remainder of Wayne County and seven adjoining counties. The state was divided into 136 local and 7 district 730 THE STORY OF DETROIT boards. Local board No. 6, comprising the Fifth ward, with 27 different nationalities and a total registration of 21,894, was the second largest local board in the United States. District board No. I, with 309,950 registrants under its jurisdiction, was the largest district board in the United States, with only five members to do the work. As the war progressed other organizations were created either by authorization of the Government or voluntarily to perform special duties, so that when the armistice was signed nearly every person in Detroit was active in some branch of work for furthering the success of the military forces. Most active and productive among these was the American Protective League, a volunteer body, which in Detroit included about 2,500 of the most prominent residents. They devoted their time to rounding up slackers, delinquents and deserters; investigating all sorts of claims for the local boards; assisting the police and Government officials in raids, and many other duties which they were called on to perform. When the questionnaire system was put into operation, December 15, 1917, the entire legal profession of Detroit was organized into 26 legal advisory boards which devoted their time for two months to assisting registrants to fill out their questionnaires. This organization was retained intact and several hundreds of the members were working on the questionnaires of the 18- to 36-year group on November i i, 19 18, when word came that the armistice had been officially signed and all further activities were ordered stopped. In a number of places there were several hundred waiting in line when the orders came. Medical advisory boards were organized at the four Detroit hospitals for the purpose of examining registrants who were not satisfied with the local board examination. On these medical boards were nearly all the leading physicians and dentists of Detroit who performed many days and nights of volunteer service. Thousands of women were engaged in Red Cross, canteen and other volunteer work; serving lunches to passing troops; knitting, etc. DETROIT'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD WAR 731 In the early spring of 1918 it was noticeable throughout the country that many registrants whose order numbers were some time in the future, and also many whose call had been made, were not responding to the summons of their local boards, thus automatically placing themselves in the delinquent and deserter classes. This situation was applicable mostly to the large cities. Then began a systematic series of raids by the local police with the assistance of the American Protective League on amusement and other gathering places. Detroit was the originator of the plan out of which was created the Detroit Bureau of Delinquents, the only unauthorized but recognized Government board in the country, which worked successfully in connection with all the other agencies. As a result many men were sent to mobilization camps who otherwise might not have gotten there. The exact figures on the number of men who went into the service is not yet known, but it is estimated by the adjutantgeneral of Michigan that the State furnished close to 175,000, of whom approximately 70,000 came from Detroit, which included those of the National Guard who were mobilized immediately after the declaration of war and helped to make up the first army of 1,142,000 men. Enlistments in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and other units were made and accepted as fast as they could be absorbed up to the summer of 1918, when they were discontinued. As the records of the Provost Marshal General's office show only 34,592 men inducted through the selective service from Detroit, it is safe to assume that more than 35,000 men voluntarily entered the service. The Liberty Loans and oversubscribing thereof, which was helped along by the activities of the "Four Minute Men," have passed into history. The men in the combatant branch were only a portion of Detroit's contribution to the successful conclusion of the war. The United States was divided into ii ordnance districts, of which Michigan was one, with Detroit the center of activity. The 475 major industries of the city were quickly converted into makers of munitions ranging from the raw material to the 732 THE STORY OF DETROIT fabricated product. Foremost among these were the production of airplanes, Liberty engines, i55-millimeter gun recoils, shells and tanks, besides thousands of other articles, down even to buttons for uniforms. One firm did n6thing for several months but make buttons for the Government. Detroit ranked about third in the country in the actual monetary value of production, but was probably first in the volume of fabricated products, making all the Liberty engines, most of the airplanes, all the recoils, and a large part of the tanks. In addition Eagle boats and submarine chasers were manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. When the armistice came one large factory was engaged in making airplanes modeled after the "German Albatross," one of the swiftest of the enemy's planes. As a model they had the first German plane of this type which was shot down by the American forces. It was brought here secretly and the men who were engaged in designing improvements which would make it lighter, stronger and swifter were not allowed to go out of the building day or night. The number of deaths recorded by the War Department, pertaining to enlisted men from Michigan only, and covering both home and overseas service, was 3,616. Of those who died, about,00oo were from Detroit. There is no record of deaths among officers. CHAPTER CXXI IN CONCLUSION SHE STORY OF DETROIT began as a daily serial in The Detroit News, on January I, 1923, and it ended, in accordance with the planned schedule, on August 23, which was the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of The Detroit News. A complete, detailed history of Detroit would fill several large volumes. THE STORY OF DETROIT attempts to show a sort of moving picture of the outlines of 16cal history in which the leading events and the persons who figured in them are brought before the eye of the reader in their chronological order, and to show how the city has progressed, stage by stage, from a small and isolated frontier military post in the far interior of an unsettled country, to a city of the fourth rank in magnitude with an estimated population of,200oo,ooo at the end of the summer of 1923. Cities, like individuals, acquire their distinguishing characteristics chiefly out of their environment and experience. Racial traits of the generations of men who have contributed to the upbuilding of a city are also in some measure perpetuated. A glance at the map of the United States will show instantly why the cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, Detroit, and Toledo were first founded and why they afterward developed to what they are. Geographic and trade conditions usually governed the founding, but the subsequent development in each case was largely due to the energetic character of the inhabitants and their intelligent utilization of their natural advantages in the field of commerce, industry and transportation. It has been the aim of the writer to outline briefly the characteristics of the three different governments which have ruled over Detroit in times past, the attitude of the inhabitants toward their government and toward one another; their varied 733 C 04 P-4 734 IN CONCLUSION 735 reactions to constantly changing conditions of war and peace, and something of the individual leadership which gave direction to the activities which transformed Detroit from an insignificant frontier outpost to a great center of commerce, industry, population and civilization. With this end in view he accepted the suggestion of a man who was seven years of age when Detroit was founded and who died in 1778. Voltaire, while discussing the meaning and value of history with a group of scholars, asked: "Why should history be only a recital of battles, sieges, intrigues and negotiations; and why should it contain merely a mass of petty facts rather than a great picture of the opinions, customs and even inclinations of a people?" While the facts of history make strong appeal to scholars, statesmen and men of trained minds, they appeal but moderately and in fragments to the average reader. Facts in themselves are rather dry and often dull, but when one is able to give them some degree of correlation, to trace them back to their origin and then forward toward ultimate or prospective results, they begin to live and move and have distinct meanings. There is no study in the curriculum of the schools which is of greater benefit to the student than history when properly taught. It can develop the highest powers of the human mind: the power to gather, analyze and array any train of facts in their proper rank and relations and then to apply individual judgment which will lead to more or less definite conclusions. A student of history can not expect to gain a clear understanding of either men or events until he has investigated the backgrounds which commonly lie in the twilight zone of every historical period, for just as surely as straws and other "trifles light as air" show the direction from which the wind blows, so a train of minor incidents, when grouped together, will show the political, intellectual, moral and spiritual drift of any given period of history. Quite often, in fact, they prove more illuminating than a serious study of the main events when these are related without their proper and natural setting. 1 736 THE STORY OF DETROIT Fortified with an understanding of the meaning and philosophy of history, the statesman cannot go far astray. The problems which have confronted the human race always have been virtually the same. Each generation of men has grappled with them. Always and in most things they have experimented and failed while in a few particulars they have made small advances from time to time. Primitive man for a time looked only to his own food, shelter and protection. Then he learned to look to the protection of his family, to labor for its subsistence and to die in its defense if necessity required. His sense of association gradually expanded to a feeling of loyalty to his clan, to his tribe, his race, his city and state, and to the government which created a national bond for mutual benefit and for common defense. Thus the family and the home became the foundations of civilization. Before each of these expansions of his sense of loyalty and responsibility man has hesitated long and yielded, with disturbing misgivings, only when necessity compelled. The last expansion which seems to lie far ahead in the future is the most difficult of all. For a long time idealists, poets and prophets have been advocating the adoption of the principle of a universal human brotherhood which would put an end to the common division of the human race into the two classes of friends and foes. But apparently, after centuries of such promotion, the statesmen of the most enlightened nations find their grasp too small and feeble to secure a good hold upon that doctrine; and this in spite of the fact that many millions of them adhere to a religious faith which is based upon a universal fatherhood and brotherhood. The pages of history glow with balefires which warn every generation against the follies and errors of the human races and nations of all past time. Each one in its day has tried to expand, enrich and,empower itself at the expense of other nations, and just as it apparently had attained the goal of its national or racial ambition it crumbled and fell before the combined attack of the peoples it had overridden and subdued, one after another. Even colonies founded by transplanting their own people have CO-'ý--CLV SION 737 revolted and become hostile when great empires have treated them as inferiors and have practiced exploitation instead of fair and friendly treatment. During the past five years a few idealists have labored to extend the bond of human brotherhood by a common league or covenant of mutual aid and protection against wrongs, but apparendly the vision of statesmen is too narrow and primitive selfishness is too strong to make it immediately possible to scatter peace and plenty over a troubled world and read their history in all nations' eyes. All this is sadly true because mankind in general is as yet unable to see the meaning and the philosophy of history. When we look backward over THE STORY or DETROIT and view all its changing peoples and conditions in the light of universal history we discover that it is a remarkable epitome of the history of all cities and all nations. Babylon, Memphis and Thebes had passed through all stages of development from rude barbarism to a high civilization long before the first accepted historian, Herodotus, attempted to make a written record of his time. Those ancient capitals were in districts that had emerged from barbarism more than 7,000 years ago. Their story has been repeated, over and over again, by cities that rose and fell centuries later. Detroit has within a period of 22,2years covered a range of experience and development which extended over ten times that period in the case of those earlier cities. Detroit is a city of greater population and wealth than any of them. Its power for the production of wealth, for extending its commerce, and for subsisting its people in peace and comfort, is greater than that of all those ancient cities combined and is still in the ascendant; but its future lies in the hands of its own people and when they have thoroughly acquainted themselves with the struggles and hardships, triumphs and achievements of the past, they will be better fitted to "carry on.) Life, after all, is like a bank of deposit. We grow rich by what we are able to put into it rather than by what we are permitted to draw out. APPENDIX SINCE Detroit became a city it has had many men serving successively as Mayors. A number of them have been men who were widely known in their time and some of them won distinction in other offices. One of them, Gen. John,R. Williams, was an intermittent Mayor, having been elected to office three times at intervals during a period of 25 years and being defeated later in a contest with Zachariah Chandler. Their names and the dates of their elections to office are as follows: John R. Williams, 1824; Henry J. Hunt, 1826; Mr. Hunt soon died and Jonathan Kearsley succeeded him in 1826; John Biddle, 1827; Jonathan Kearsley, 1829; John R. Williams, 1830; Marshall Chapin, 1831; Levi Cook, 1832; Marshall Chapin, 1833; Charles C. Trowbridge, 1834; Andrew Mack, 1834; Levi Cook, 1835; Henry Howard, 1837; Augustus A. Porter, 1838; DeGarmo Jones, 1839; Dr. Zina Pitcher, 1840; Douglass Houghton, 1842; Dr. Zina Pitcher, 1843; John R. Williams, 1844; James A. VanDyke, 1847; Frederick Buhl, 1848; Charles Howard, 1849; John Ladue, 1850; Zachariah Chandler, 185i; John H. Harmon, 1852; Oliver M. Hyde, 1854; Henry Ledyard, 1855; Oliver M. Hyde, 1856; John Patton, 1858; Christian H. Buhl, 186o; William C. Duncan, 1862; Kirkland C. Barker, 1864; Merrill I. Mills, 1866; William W. Wheaton, 1868; Hugh Moffat, 1872; Alexander Lewis, 1876; George C. Langdon, 1878; William G. Thompson, i88o; S. B. Grummond, 1884; M. H. Chamberlain, 1886; John Pridgeon, Jr., 1888; Hazen S. Pingree, 1890; William Reichert, acting, 1896; William C. Maybury, 1896; George P. Codd, 1905; William B. Thompson, 1907; Philip Breitmeyer, 1909; William B. Thompson, 1911; Oscar B. Marx, 1913; James Couzens, 1919; Frank E. Doremus, 1923. Detroit was founded in 1701, but its growth in population and wealth was very slow during the first 150 years of its history. The census of 1750 showed 483 permanent residents, a garrison" 738 APPENDIX 739 of ioo soldiers and 67 transients. Of these inhabitants 95 were under 15 years of age. In 1773 the population was 1,367 and of these 76 were slaves. In 1778 there were 2,144 residents of whom 127 were slaves. At one time the slave population rose to about 200. The year 1779 showed considerable increase as there were 2,653 people in the town, but 500 of those were prisoners of war and the garrison consisted of 322 soldiers, so the apparent gain in population was due to the fact that more than 8oo persons were detained against their will. These early figures not only included the people who lived within the stockaded town but the people who lived on the ribbon farms up and down the river front. With the census of 1810 begins the enumeration of the residents of the town only, who numbered 1,650; 1820, 1,442; 1830, 2,222; 1840, 9,124. Detroit took on a steady growth about 1835 which has been maintained to a remarkable degree ever since. The census of 185o showed 21,019 population; i860, 45,619; 1870, 79,577; i880, 116,340; 1890, 205,876; 1900, 285,704; 1910, 465,766; 1920, 993,678. This census did not include the completely inclosed cities of Highland Park, of 45,000 population, or Hamtramck, with 48,000. These included cities within the borders of Detroit now have a combined population considerably in excess of Ioo,ooo and the city proper is estimated to have 1,2oo,ooo inhabitants. rk INDEX A Abbott, Betsy, 219. Abbott, Edward, Capt., 68. Abbott, James, 207-8, 211, 409, 438, 653-4. Abbott, John S., 687. Abbott, Robert, 0o8, 219. Abbott, Samuel, 207. Abolition, see Slavery, Antislavery. Accidents, see Disasters, Marine; also Fires. Acme White Lead and Color Works, 656. Actors, 444-7. Adams, John, President, death of, 264. Adams, John Quincy, President, appoints Croghan inspectorgeneral, 197; pardons Big Beaver, 278. Adams, John (U. S. brig), 1o7; renamed Detroit, 147. Adair, John, Maj., 183. Adams, Francis, 192, 544. Adrian, Mich., 370,374. Aero-mail service, 734. Aikens, Capt., 60o. Airplanes, 732; records, 705. Alard, Jean Baptiste, 208. Albatross (schooner), 496. Albatross Airplane, 732. Aldermen, 582, 686; indicted, 588. Alexis, Grand Duke, 502. Alfred, Frank H., 693. Alger, Mrs. Frederick M., 681. Alger, Gen. Russell A., Secy. of War, 641, 643, 653. Alkali industry, 660. Allen, Julia, 422. Allen, Marvin, Regent of University, 423. Allen, Sylvia, 422. Allen, Col., 154-5.Allison, J. D., 544. Almshouse, 393-4. Alster River, Hamburg, 558. Ambulance service, police, 672. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 220. American Car and Foundry Co., 653. American Eagle Tobacco Co., 470. American Express Co., see Express Companies. American Fur Co., 201, 246-7. American House, see Hotels. American Institute of Instruction, 379. American Protective League, 730-1. American Revolution: Arnold conspiracy, 94-5; first warnings, 67; life in Detroit during war, 67-8; end of war, 82. American Seed Store, 654. Americanization work in schools, 696. Amherst, Gen. Sir Jefrey, 28, 34; suspects French settlers, 60; relieved of command, 62. Amherstburg (Fort Malden), no, 183, 20o-2, 250, 278, 339, 531. Amusements, 430. "Ancient and Modern Michilimackinac," 452. Ancrum, Maj., 82. Anderson, H. W., 693. Anderson, Lieut. John, 142, 150, 241. Anderson, John W., 717. Anderson, Mrs. Julia Ann Taylor: passenger on Walkin-the-Water, 241; a founder of Mariners' Church, 457. Anderson, Maj. Robert, 515. Andre, Joseph, 204. Andrews, Frank C., 671. Andrews, Hiram R., 368, 424. Andrews, James J., 533. Andrews' Railroad Hotel, see Hotels. Angell, George R., 687. Ann (schooner), seized by patriots, 339. Ann Arbor, Mich., 281, 309,327, 337, 379, 382, 389, 393, 397, 423-5. Antietam, Battle of, 517. Anti-slavery: riots, 321, 506-27; in politics, 505; society organized, 322; see also Slavery. Appomattox, Lee's surrender at, 519. Area of Detroit, 650. Argentine bonds, 612. Argo (ferryboat), 303. Ariel (gunboat), 17r, 183, 185. Arkansas admitted to Union, 337 -Armistice, Nov. I1, 1918, 727. Armour, Philip Danforth, 665. Armstrong, Capt. James B., 341. Armstrong family murdered by Indians, 50. Arnold, Benedict, 94. 741 Arnold, John, 208-9. Arnold's Creek and Mill, 188. Arsenal, U. S., Dearborn, 339, 392, 513; Springfield, 513; raid at White Pigeon, 333; Harper's Ferry, 322. Art Stove Co., 477-8. Ashley, Walter O., 531, 533. Askin, John, 82, 107-8, 113, 507. Askin, John, Jr., 113. Aspinwall, Joseph, 5o2. Astor, John Jacob, 201; Fur Co., 130. Astoria, Ore., 130. Atkinson, Col. John, 569, 640. Atlantic (steamboat), 489-90, 497 -Atwater, Reuben, 122. Audrian, Peter, 108, i6o. Auglaize River, 88, 250, 252. Austerlitz (steamboat), 299. Australian Ballot, 584. Austria-Hungary, 726. Automobiles, 707-20; early racing, 708, 718; industry, 712-20. Avenue Theater, see Theaters. B Baby, Col. Francois, 135, i6o, 207, 341. Baby, M., house attacked for ammunition, 56. Bacon, David, first Protestant missionary, Io5, 219. Bacon, Leonard, D.D., born in Detroit, 105. Bacon, Marshall J., 361-2. Bacon, Washington Alston, 391, 441. Bagg, A. Smith, 288, 544, 553, 562-3. Bagg, John S., 288, 423. Bagley, Gov. John Judson, 406, 469-71, 562, 668-9; bust of, Bailey, Catherine, first liquor prosecution, 213. Baker, Rev. S. A., 508. Bakeries, og9. Balch, George W., 544, 559. Baldwin, Edwin, ferryman in I818, 245. Baldwin, H. P. Co., 592. Baldwin, John, 335. Baldwin, Lyman, sheriff, 467. Balestier, Mrs. Joseph, 149. Ball, H. L., 230. 742 INDEX Baltimore Republican, see Newspapers. Bancroft, George, historian, visits Detroit, 465. Bangs, John Kendrick, Jr., 219. Bangs, Rev. Nathaniel, Methodist circuit rider, 219. Banks and banking, 343-4, 359-62, 384, 536, 721-5; first in Michigan, 125, 231-2; Bank of Michigan, 344, 357, 362, 456; Bank of Pontiac, 364; Bank of Sandstone, 362; Bank of Ypsilanti, 369; City Savings, 671; Peoples State, 185; Preston National, 611; Detroit Savings, 325, 464; Farmers & Mechanics, 344, 362, 405, Federal Reserve, 723; First National, 391, 502; United States Bank, 343, 349, 359, 384. Banner Tobacco Co., 470. Baptiste, George de, 323. Barbarity on frontier, 71. Barbour, George H., 477. Barclay, Robert Heriot, 168-9, 171-5, 177, 179, 195. Barcroft, Frederick T., 633. Barer, Chauncey, 244. Baring Bros., bank failure, 612. Barker, Kirkland C., 738. Barium, John, 503. Barns, Henry, 288, 507-8. Barracks at Detroit burned, 195. Barrett, Lawrence, actor, 445. Barrett, Prof., 607. Barrois, Marie (Marie Lootman), 22. Barron, Corn. James, 132. Barrow, Capt., 160. Barry, Gov. John S., 397. Barstow, Samuel, 686-7. Barstow Union School, 438, 686. Bassett, Maj. Henry, 43, 67. Bates, Judge Frederick, 120, 126. Bates, George C., 451. Bath houses, 430-1. Bathtubs, introduction opposed, 427-8. Battle, James R., 676. Battle Creek, Mich., 324,424-5. Battles: Indian siege of Detroit, 15-7. French and Indian War: siege of Louisburg, 27; Braddock's defeat, 29-30. Pontiac War: Dalzell's defeat (Bloody Run), 57-9; attack on the Gladwin, 59-60. Revolution: Wyoming massacre, 76-7; Boonesville, Harrodsburg and Vincennes, 77. Territorial wars: Harmar's and St. Clair's defeats, 86-7; Fallen Timbers, 89. War of 1812: Tippecanoe, Battles (Continued): 131; Monguagon, 137; Brownstown, 134, 137, 139; Fort Dearborn massacre, 147-149; River Raisin massacre, 155-9; Fort Meigs, 162-3; Fort Stevenson, 166; Lake Erie, 169-75; Thames, 185 -9; last attack on Detroit, 202-5; New Orleans, 210. Black Hawk War: Bad Axe River, 299. Canadian Rebellion (Patriot War): St. Denis, St. Charles and St. Eustace, 338; Amherstburg, 339; Windsor, 340-1; Fighting Island, 340; Pelee Island, 340. Civil War: Bull Run, 516-7; Antietam, 517-8; Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, 518; Cold Harbor and Petersburg, 519. See also Spanish-American and World wars. Battleship Maine destroyed, 641. Battzes, George, deported, 164. Baugh Steam Forge, 653. Baxter, W. D., 544. Bay County, 678. "Beacon tree," 328. Beall, John Yates, 530-33; hanged as spy, 533. Beaubien, Angelique Cuillerier de, 35, 43, 60. Beaubien, Antoine Cuillerier de, 43, 52-3, ro8, 266, 279. Beaubien, John Baptiste, 204. Beaubien, Lambert, 204. Beaubien Cemetery, 266. Beaubien Farm, see Farms. Beaufait, Louis, Indian interpreter, 253. Beaumont, Gustave de, visits Detroit, 297. Beaver, Country of the ("Teuscha Gronde"), 2. Beaver Island Colony, 449-453. Beaver skins, demand for, 2. Beaver (sloop), 50. Beckley, Guy, 327. Bedford, Thomas, 453. Beecher, Luther, 311, 553. Beecher's Hall, 550, 689. Beldoon (Belladoon), Ont., 137, 241. Belgium invaded by Germany, 726. Belgrade, townsite, 351. Bell, Digby, 446. Bell, Gen. John, 332. Bell of Presbyterian Church, 548. Belladoon (Beldoon), Ont., 137, 241. Belle Isle: farm for Fort Pontchartrain, 51; acquired by city, 554: considered for Belle Isle (Continued): freight yard, 553; names for, 566; purchase, 564, 585; bridge, 567-8; improvements, 585; work on island for unemployed, 613; Scott Fountain, 567. Belle River (Yankee Point and Marine City), 495-6. Beller, Jacob, 445-6. Beller's Gardens, 446. Bellestre, Francois Marie de Picote, French commandant, 32. Bellevue, Mich., 383. Bells, Tolling of, stopped during epidemic, 319. Benedict, Dr. Hiram, 508. Bennett, C. H., 717. Benton Harbor, Mich., 418. Benz Gas Engine, 709. Berezy, Wm., 244. Berge, Elisha, 244. Berlin, Germany, 558. Berry, C. S., 693. Berry, Joseph H., 656. Berry, Thomas, 656. Berry Brothers, 656. Berthelet, Peter, 283. Berthelet's Market, see Markets Berthelet's Wharf, 216, 283. Bertrand, Jean Baptiste, 18o. Bessemer steel, 498, 651. Bezner, F. C., 715. Biblical prophecy, 713. Bickerstaff, involved in war profiteering, 644. Bicycle, era of the, 706. Biddle, Maj. John, 268, 295-6, 306,372,444, 738. Biddle, Margaret (Mrs. Andrew Porter), 295. Biddle House, see Hotels. Biddle House Building used for High School, 689. Biddle House Theater, see Theaters. Bierce, Lucius Verus, 340. Big Beaver, son of Kishkawko, 278. Big Beaver, Mich., 278. Bingham, Gov. Kinsley, 453, 510. Biograph, 701. Bird, Capt. Henry, 69, 76. Birmingham, Mich., 327,364. Birney, James G., 386. Bishop, Levi, 192-4, 425. Bissell, A. E., 502. Bissell, George W., 502. Black, Clarence A., 585, Black, J. S., 656. Black Duck, Indian killed on Grosse le, 276 Black Hawk, Chief, 298-300. Black Hawk War, 298-300,391. Black Horse Tavern, see Hotels. Black Partridge, Indian, 149 INDEX 743 Black Rock, village, 167, 233, 235, 240-1; home port, 241; wharf, 245. Black Swamp of Ohio, 259, 331. Blackbird, son of Kishkawko, 279. Blackburn, Thornton and wife, slaves, 321-2. Blackburn riot, 399, 667. Blair, Austin, 516. Blake, Capt., 303. Blennerhassett, Harmon, 439. Blind pigs in 1816, 213. Bliss, Gov. Aaron T., 638, 646. Block house jail burned, 262. Blood, Dr. William, 142, 194. Bloody Run, 26, 59, 65. Bloomer dress, 453. Bloss & Adams, 654. Board of Commerce, 56o. Board of Education, 462-3, 639, 683, 686-8; see also Schoots, Colleges, Education. Board of Estimates established, 561-3. Board of Trade, organized 1856, 502; promotion, 552. Boats, types of, 577; see also Steamboats, Schooners, etc. Bob-Lo, see Bois Blanc. Bogert, H. V. D., 685. Bogue, Stephen, 325. Bois Blanc Island (in Detroit River, "Bob-lo"), Huron settlement on, 20; War of 1812, 183. Bolger, Robert E., 671. Bond, Lewis, deported, 164. Bonds, Foreign and American, 612-3; Municipal, 554, 563, 629-30; State, 413. Book store, Morse's, 405. Boom towns, 347, 349-51. Boone, Daniel, 36, 75. Boonesville, Ky., 77. Boquet, Maj., 63. Border defenses, 392. Borgess, Bishop C. H., 693. Borgman, M. V., second police supt., 669-70. Borse, Mills W., 621. Bosnia, 726. Boston, law against bathing, 427. Boughton, Peter, 322. Boulevards, see Grand Boulevard, also Streets. Boulton & Watt gas display in London, 434. Boundary lines: Canadian boundary fixed, 21o; court to establish title, 335; disputes, iii; Treaty of Saginaw, 255; Ordinance of 1787, 329, 332; Michigan-Ohio boundary, I i, 259; Minnesota's queer boundary, 21o; surveys, 330-3. Bourgmont, Lieut, ii. Bowen, C. C., 655. Bowen, Lem W., 719. Bowman, Baxter, 335. Boyer, Mrs. Antoine, 316. Boyer, Joseph, 633. Boynton, Dr., 425. Brabyn, Harry, 676. Braddock, Gen. Edward, 30. Bradish, Alvah, 412. Bradstreet, John, 62. Brady, Gen. Hugh, 191, 339 -40, 391. Brady, James J., 715. Brady Guards, 389. Brannigan, Larry (Lawrence Barrett), 445. Brant, Joseph, 34, 76, 89. Breary, Martha, 244. Breitmeyer, Mayor Philip, 671, 738. Brevoort, H. J. B., 164. Brevoort, Com. Henry, 312. Bribery, see Political Corruption, War Profiteering. Brick manufacture, 496. Bridge, H. P., 502. Bridges: Belle Isle, first, 585; burned, 567; new one, 568; proposals for bridge to Canada, 552-6 588; over Savoyard, 214; 6rosse Hle, 489. Broadstreet, money shark, 125. Brock, Gen. Sir Isaac, 139-147, 156, 162. Broderick, James C., 676. Brodhead, Gen., 75. Brooks, Capt. Edward, 161, 289. Brooks, Edwin, 322. Brooks, John W., 413-7, 493-4. Brown, Aaron V., 514. Brown, Charles F., 682. Brown, Cullen, 322. Brown, Justice Henry B., 532. Brown, J. W., 493. Brown, Gen. Jacob, 217. Brown, James J., 544. Brown, John, of Ossowatamie, 322-3, 525. Brown, Gen. Joseph W., 332-3. Brown, M. M., 312. 'Brown, Noah, 233. Brown, Dr. Wm., 160, 164, 218, 231, 312. Brown Brothers of Phila., 433. Browning, F. P., 316. Brownstown, Battle of, 134, 137, 139. Brush, Edmund A., 286, 313, 438, 486. Brush, Elijah, 134-5, 139-40, 146, i6o, 164. Brush, Capt. Henry, 137-40, 146. Brush Electric Light Co., 560-1, 60o-2, 607. Brush Farm, see Farms. Brush Street Depot, see Railroads, Grand Trunk. Bryan, Ebenezer A., 687. Buchanan, James, President, 107, 294, 510-11, 514. Buda-Pesth, 558. Budgets, Detroit's, comparison of 1890 and 1923, 595-7. Buel, A. W., 684. Buffalo Creek, 240-1, 245. Buffalo, N. Y., 233, 235, 240, 245, 338, 356, 371, 425, 483, 489, 523, 537, 594, 598. Buhl, Christian H., 653, 738. Buhl, Frederick, 738. Buhl, Theodore D., 653. Buhl & Ducharme, 192, 572. Buhl Block, 719. Buick Motor Co., 713, 716. Building booms, 349. Buildings: Bank of Michigan, 456; Boydell, 707; Buhl, 719; Business University, 485; Capitol, 274, 424, 461-2; County, 446; David Whitney, 406; Detroit News, 565; Dime Bank, 444; Farmers & Mechanics Bank, 405; Federal, 409, 457; Free Press, 547-8; Hammond, 207, 665 Journal, 550-1; Kresge, 312; Jos. E. Mack, 704; Merrill, 311-2, 444, 483, 655; McGraw, 305, 370; Moffat, 284, 558; Sheldon, 287-8; Smart, see Merrill; Williams, 484. Bull, missionary, 79. Bull Run, Battle of, 516; second, 526. Bullock, Lieut., 186. Burch, E. A., 633. Burgoyne's surrender, 95. Burke, Edmund, 72. Burleigh, Bennet G., 530-2. Burley, Bennet G., see Burleigh. Burlingame, Anson, 311. Burnet, Jacob, 92, 107. Burnett, James, 164. Burns, Robert, 85. Burr, Aaron, 94, 96, 439. Burrell, C. R., 656. Burt, John, 493-4. Burt, William A., 374, 403, 493. Burt Solar Compass, 403. Burtis, John, 303. Burton, Clarence Munroe, viii. Burton Historical Collection, 648. Business depressions, see Panics. Butler, Col. Anthony, 186, 197, i99. Butler, Benjamin F., AttorneyGeneral, U. S., 333. Butler, John, 69; plans Indian raid, 77-8; reward, 79. Butler, William A., 562-3. Butzel, Magnus, 687. Butzel, Martin, 606. Byrd, Charles Willing, 102. Byron, Mich., 424. 744 INDEX C Cabacier's Creek, 23. Cable, telegraph, 426. Cadillac, Antoine de LaMothe, arrival with colonizing company, and the founding of. Detroit, 1-12, 458; disapproval of Jesuits, ii; child buried, 212. Cadillac, Madame, 12. Cadillac Motor Car Co., 713, 715-6, 719-20. Cadillac Square, 457, 664; Piety Hill removed from, 268. Cadillac's village, 10-13. Caille, A. Arthur, 702. Caldwell, Wm., 69. Caledonia (gunboat), captured, 167. Calhoun, John C., 337. Callahan, Timothy E., 676. Camden Gore, Ont., 188. Camps: Blair in Detroit, 516; Chickamauga, 643; Douglas, 529; Morton, 529. Campau, Antoine, 201, Campau, Daniel J., 459, 687. Campau, Jacques, 65. Campau, Joseph, o108, 212, 269, 288, 312, 457-9, 507. Campau, Louis, 201, 251-4. Campau, Capt., 15o. Campbell, Allan, 693. Campbell, Colin, 312, 548. Campbell, Capt. Donald, succeeds Rogers as commandant, 33; popularity, 41; sent as emissary to Pontiac, 49; betrayed, 52-3; killed by Chief Mackinac, 56, Campbell, Henry M., 438, 623. Campbell & Linn, 312, 548. Camphene, 433. Campus Martius, 124, 192, 388, 405,524, 537,556-8, 686. Canada Act, 92. Canada Southern Railroad, see Railroads. Canada surrendered to the British, 33. Canadian boundary line fixed, 210. Canadian Lancers, 516. Canadian Rebellion, 191, 337 -42, 399 -Canal boats, 356. Canals: Erie, 232, 356, 373, 475, 496, 503; Michigan-Erie, 372; projects across Michigan, 373; St. Clair Flats, 578; Sault Ste. Marie, 402, 493-5, 497, 578; Welland and St. Lawrence, 503; see also Livingstone Channel. Canann, John, 315. Canard River, 137, 184. Caniff, Judge A. C., 312. Canning, E. B., 316. Cannon: Souvenir of Revolution, 146; historic relics at City Hall, 1go-4; used in place of steamboat whistle, 237. Canoe voyages, 273. Canteen service of Red Cross, 730. Capacity of vessels, 58o-i. Capital punishment, 68, 262-3, 278-9, 289-293, 420-1, 533, 538. Capitol, Michigan's first: begun, 274; funds for, 461. CapitolHigh School, see Schools. Capitol Square, 274, 399. Capitol Square Park, see Parks. Car building industry, 369, 651-3. Carle, D. S., 493. Carp River, 403. Carriage and wagon industry, 651. Caroline (steamboat) burned, 338. Case, Rev. Wm., 219. Case livery stable, 550. Cass, Capt. A. H., 254. Cass, Capt. C. L., 251. Cass, Gen. Lewis, Governor of Michigan Territory, 1812-31: arrives in Detroit, 107; honors won, 107; commissioned colonel, 133; leads relief expedition, 139-141; prisoner of war, 146; charges against Hull, 152, 161; Battle of the Thames, 186; appointed Governor, 196-7; famine in Detroit, 196; distributes money to people of River Raisin, 200; Trouble with Kishkawko, 202-4; violator of fire ordinance, 21i; met President Monroe at wharf in Detroit, 217; suggested founding of Detroit Gazette, 231 -2; land treaties with Indians, 250-258; founding of Pontiac, 260; Thanksgiving Day celebration, 263; explorations, 271; denies British jurisdiction over Grosse Ile, 279; appoints sheriff to hang Simmons, 291; Secretary of War, Jackson's Cabinet, 294-6; Detroit Athenaeum organized, 306; bust of, 311; orders troops to suppress riots, 322; Toledo boundary war, 330; mass meeting in his grove, 346; donates park to city, 406; Detroit Female Seminary,438; resigns as Secretary of State from Buchanan's Cabinet, 514; active in National defense, 516; last appearance,524; Grant calls,546. Cass Farm, see Farms. Cass Farm Hill leveled, 268. Cass Park lighting towers, 561. Cassandra, boom town, 351. Cassopolis, 324, 328. "Catholepistemiad" or University of Michigania, 223. Catholic Church, see Churches -Catholic. Catholic Mission of Richardie, 18. Catholic Female Assn, 319. Catville, now New Boston, 351. Caucuses, control of, 579, 581, 592. Celebrations: birthday of George III, 107; first railroad, 488; July 4, 1835, 191; July 4, I818, 261; Lee's surrender, 520; new government, 263; patriotic, 191-2; St. Patrick's Day, 537; Thanksgiving, first, 263. Celeripedes, 706. Cemeteries: Mt. Elliott, 99, 269; Ste. Anne's, 118, 212-3, 235, 265-6; Beaubien Farm, 266; Elmwood, 289; 412, 441; English burying ground, 198, 266; Woodmere, 75. Census of manufactures in 1880, 657. Census of population, 738-9; see also Population. Center, Samuel, 382. Chacornacle, Lieut., 6. Chadwick, Theron H., 325. Chaffee, Amos, 481. Chalmers Motor Corporation, 716. Chamber of Commerce, San Francisco, 560. Chamberlain, Dr. Harmon, 261. Chamberlain, Marvin H., 738. Chamberlain, Olmstead, 288. Chambers, Judge F. H., 587. Champion (tug), 424. Champlain, Samuel de, 17. Champlain (steamboat), 340. Champlin, Erastus, 367. Champlin, Lyman, 467. Champlin, Stephen (Com. Perry's aide), 171. Champlin, Willard, 467. Champneys, Benjamin, 294. Chancellorsville, Battle of, 518, 526. Chandler, Zachariah: a founder of Republican Party, 508-1o; entertained Gen. U. S. Grant, 546; home on site of Detroit News Building, 565; Mayor of Detroit, 738. Chapin, Marshall, 738. Chapin, Roy D., 715. Chapoton, Alexander, 192. Charles Townsend (steamboats, 246. INDEX 745 Charleston, S. C., 515. Charlevoix, Pierse Francois de, 17-8. Charlevoix, Mich., 453. Charter, first, o08; new, advocated, 583. Chase, Alexander R., 271-3. Chase, George N., 560. Chase, Justice Samuel, 439. Chatham, Ont., 185, 328. Chattanooga, Battle of, 526. Chauncey, Com. Isaac, 163, 166-7. Cheap money, 536. Cheboygan County, 678. Chemick, son of Kishkawko, 279. Chenal Ecarte, 241. Chene Farm, see Farms. Chesapeake (frigate), 132. Chesne, Pierre, io8. Chevrolet Motor Co., 716. Chicago, 309, 418, 424, 453, 496, 498, 523-4, 560; telegraph line to, 425-6. Chicago Road, 263, 393. Chicago and Canada Southern Railroad, see Railroads. Chickamauga, Battle of, 526; Camp, 643. Chidsey, F. G., 436. Chillicothe, Ohio, 75, 93, 95, 105, 107, 183, 197, 2ii, 279. Chipman, Henry, 277, 289-90, 684. Chipman, John Logan, 289. Chippewa (armed schooner), 170, I71, 174. Chippewa Indians, see Indians. Chittenden, George R., 164. Chittenden, James, 164. Chittenden, Wm. J., Sr., 50o-2. Chittenden, Wm. J., Jr., 676. Cholera, epidemics and victims, 198, 299-304,315-6,377, 41I, 464, 502. Cholera hospitals, 315-6, 479. Chope, Edward, 568. Christian, M. P., 544. Christiancy, Judge Isaac P., 508-9. Church, Eber F., 654. Church of Our Father, see Churches. Church schools, 696. Churches: Baptist: First, 221, 423, 444; Colored American, 423; French, 541; Lafayette Ave. (now Woodward Ave.), 541; Tabernacle, 541; Catholic: 303, 397; Holy Trinity, 276, 304, 315, 319-20, 423, 541; La Chapelle de Nord Est, 320; Church Farm or Melcher Farm Chapel, 265, 320; Our Lady of Help, 541; St. Churches, Catholic(Continued): Aloysius, 541; Ste. Anne's, 16, 212, 219, 230, 265-6, 301-2, 320, 423, 442, 456; te. Anne's founded, 6; burned and Methodist church used, 221; cornerstone laid, 261; land grant, 265; St. Mary's 320, 423, St. Joachim's, 302; St. Patrick's, 541; SS. Peter and Paul (Jesuit), 423, 693; Springwells (Spring Hill Farm log church), 265, 301. Congregational: First, 1o5, 219, 409, 423, 503, 581. Disciples of Christ: 423. Episcopal: 397; Christ, 541; Mariners' (Bethel), 202, 409, 423, 457; St. Johns, 541; St. Matthew's (Colored), 528-9, 541; St. Paul's (First P. E. Church), 221, 266, 423, 546. First Evangelistic Society, 220. Lutheran: German, 423; German Evangelical, 423; Immanuel, Salem, Trinity, 541. Methodist: African, 276, 423; Central (First) 219-21, 266, 388, 397, 423, 444, 483, 541, 686; French, 541; Second, 423. Presbyterian: 1o5, 221, 266, 276, 304,310; Cholera Hospital, 316; Bell used for fire alarm, 400; burned, 548; mentioned, 421, 423, 425, 464, 589, 674; Scotch, 409, 423; Westminster, 541. Protestant: 304; first, 105, 220-1. Universalist: Church of Our Father, 582. Cicotte, Edward, 203. Cicotte, Capt. Francis, 203. Cicotte, George, 203. Cicotte, James, 203. Cinematograph, 700-1. Cincinnati, Ohio, 93, 107, 379; first bathtub in U. S., 427. Cities of U. S., large, 677. Citizens' Street Railway Co., see Street Railways. City Hall: Old, used as theater, 444; abandoned by common council, 543-4; New: historic cannon, 190-4; cornerstone laid, 542; finished and occupied, 543-4. Civil Rights Bill vetoed, 540. Civil War, 514-34; Michigan's enlistments, casualties, finance, trophies, 526-7; Detroit draft riots, 524, 529. Clapp, Paul, 305. Clare, St., Sisters of, 317. Clark, Dr. E. M., 368. Clark, Ephraim, 528. Clark, Frank, 714. Clark, George Rogers, 77-79, 161, 197. Clark, James, 244. Clark, John, 310o. Clay, Gen. Green, 162. Clay, Henry, 385. Clearing house certificates, 724. Clemens, Christian, 281. Clemens, Jacob, io8. Clermont (first steamboat), 232. Cleveland, Grover, 329, 627. Cleveland, Ohio, 237, 379, 425, 489, 596, 598, 625. Clinton River, 260; Indian villages on, 13I, 200. "Clinton's Ditch," 232. Clipper ships, 233. Clippert, Charles F., 676. Clough and Warren Organ Co., 653. Coal gas, 434. Cockran, W. D., 508. Codd, George P., 399, 738. Codd-Hutchins franchise, 632. Code of Hammurabi, 420, 721. Cody, Frank, 693. Coffin, Howard, 715. Cohoon, Patrolman, 566. Coke industry, 651. Colburn, W. C., 623. Cold Harbor, 519. Cole, Maj. C. H., 530-1. Cole, H. S., 306. Colleges: Detroit College of Law, 694; Detroit Institute of Technology, 694-5; Teachers' College, 688; Detroit College of Medicine, 542; College of City of Detroit (Junior College), 688, 691-2; University of Detroit (Detroit College), 693-4. See also University of Michigan. Cologne, Germany, 558. Columbia Motors Co., 716. Columbus, Miss., women begin Memorial Day, 547. Columbus, Ohio, 523-4. Common council meets in council house, 211, 219, 223; Military Hall, 274-5; Woodworth's Hotel, 274; Smyth's Tavern, 206; homes of aldermen, 274; house of James Henry, io8. Commercial Institute, 508. Communication, telegraph, telephone and radio, 705-II. Compass, magnetic and solar, 403. Conant, Dr. Horatio, 335. Conant, Shubael, 203, 260, 322. Conely, Edwin F., 568, 669. Confederate States, 515, 517. 746 INDEX Congress, first Michigan delegates to, 268; Congressmen, 289, 336, 378. Congstett, John, 164. Connor, Henry, 253. Connor, James, 227. Conspiracies: Pontiac, 36-53; Wilkinson, 92, 94, 96; BurrWilkinson, 96; Conway Cabal, 95; Michigan Central Railway, 466; disarmament of the North, 513-4, 522-6; Beal-Burleigh-Cole, 529-33. Constantine, Mich., 469. Constellation (frigate), 132. Constitution (frigate), 132. Constitution (Mich.), adopted, 337; revised, 455; convention, 378; restrictions, 629-30. Continental Motors Corporation, 720. Continuation schools, 689. Contrecour, Col., 29. ' Conway, Thomas, 95. Conway Cabal, 95. Cook, Levi, 738. Cook, Wm. W., 619, 621. Cooking in pioneer days, 474. Cooley, J. P., 317. Cooper, David M., D.D., 399. Copper, first mine, 66; geological exploration, 402; block from Lake Superior, 404. Corey, Newton J.,and Mrs.,681 Corliss, John B., 436. Cornell, Ezra, 425-6. Cornell University, 426. Corning, Erastus, 414, 494. Corruption: political, 579, 585, 590-7,677; methodsof private corporations, 600-4. Corunna, Mich., 425. Corwin, Thomas, 383. Corwin, Wm., 467. Cottrell, Judge David, 496. Cottrell, Eber W., 564, 568. Council Chamber used for theater, 444. Council House, used for sessions of Governor and Judges, 211; as church, 223; for court sessions, 262. Counties, 500, 659, 678. Courtis, Stuart A., 693. Courts, of General Sessions, o15; legal battles of public utility corporations, 638; Mich. Supreme, 230, 236, 286, 563, 588, 668-9; decision on plural offices, 628; Recorder's, 289; Wayne County Circuit, 286, 633; street car controversy, 623-4. U. S., 336, 451, 457, 623, 705. Courts Martial, 152, 208-9. Coutincineau, Jean, 68. Couzens, James, gift to Harper Hospital, 481; street railway Couzens (Continued): purchase, 63.3-4; police commissioner, 673; in Ford Motor Co., 718; Mayor, 738; Senator, 673. Couzens, R. V., Miss, 718. Cowles, E. W., 322. Coxshawe, A., 229. Coyl, W. K., 685. Craft, Thomas J., 687. Craig, Wm. H., 502. Crane & Wesson donate parks, 405. Crary, Isaac C., 336, 374-6, 383. Crawford, Col. Wm., 81. Cresap, Mary (Mrs. Luther Martin), 440. Cresap, Michael, 440. Crime increase follows war, 538-9. Criminals unpunished, 645. Crittenden, John J., 182. Croghan, George, captured by Indians, 63; military career, 166, I96-9. Croghan Street, see Streets. Croghan, Fort, see Fort Croghan, Crooks, Gen. Robert, 152. Crosby, Edward, 529. Cross Village, Mich., 54. Croul, Frank H., 671-3. Cuba, 641-9. Cugnot, Nicholas Joseph, 708. Cuillerier de Beaubien, Angelique, 35, 43, 6o. Cuillerier de Beaubien, Antoine, 43, 52-3, Io8, 266, 279. Curfew, r0o, 464. 475. Currency: money problems in early days, 65, 104; Government petitioned to issue coin, 104; paper money of early banks, 126; "wild cat" issues, 349, 359; "shinplasters" and postage currency, 534-5. Curricules, 706. Curtish, Capt., 16o. Cutler, Manasseh, go. Cutter, Orlando, 244. Cuyahoga (schooner), 134. Cuyler, Lieut., 54. Cyphers, Harry, 682. D Daimler petroleum engine, 709. Daliba, Lieut. James, 138. Dalzell, Capt., 57. "Dandy-horses," 706. Dane Nathan, 90. Danube River, 558. Darrow, Archibald, 260. Davenport, Lewis, 298. Davers, Sir Robert, 44; surveying expedition, 50. Davis, George S., 656. Davis, John, 235. Davis, Lieut. Col. Jonathan, 298. / Davis, Lemuel, 434. Davis, Wm., 664. Day, Jeremiah, President of Yale, 379. Deaf and Dumb School at Flint, 525. Dean, E. C., 575. Dean, Thomas, 435. Dearborn, Mich., 370; arsenal raided, 339. Dearborn, Fort, see Fort Dearborn. Death penalty, see Capital punishment. Deaths in the World War, 732. DeBruce, Robert, 682. Decatur, Stephen, 177. Defiance, Fort, see Fort Defiance. DeGraff, Harmon, 497. Dehetre, Louis, 269. Dejean, Philip, 65-6, 68, 77. Del Halle, Fr. Nicholas Constantine, 6, I1. Delray, site of Belgrade, 351. Democratic Free Press and Michigan Intelligencer, see Newspapers. Democratic Party, 372, 505-6. Democratic-Republican Party, 510. Densmore, Abel, 325. Dent, Julia T. (Mrs. U. S. Grant), 391. DePeyster, Arent Schuyler, 79, 81-5. Deportation of citizens by British, 164. Depreciation of national currency, 534-5. Dequindre, Capt. Antoine, 138, 16o, 164, 212, 216, 605. Dequindre, Louis, 204. Dequindre St. (pronunciation), 388. Desmond, now Port Huron, 281. Desnoyers, Peter J., 16o, 164, 211, 312. Detroit: meaning of name, 3; Cadillac founds city, 4-8; first plan and stockade, 8; first houses, io; creeks and small rivers in district, 23; life in Detroit, 200 years ago, 24; surrendered to British, 32; size and defenses in 1760 and social life, 33; Indian sieges, 13-17, 41-60; law and government, 65; under Canadian rule, 91-92; British refuse to surrender, 82-92; evacuated by British, 97; population and economic conditions in 1796, 1or; incorporated, os5; boundaries, 107-8; early ordinances, Io8 - INDEX 747 Detroit (Continued): 9; burned in 18o5, 115; territorial government, 120; new plan of city (Governor and Judges), 121-2; defenses in 1812, 131-5; surrender of, and documents concerning surrender, 138-47; defenses and protection after War of 1812, 151, 199; American occupation, 195; cantonment plague stricken, 198; becomes a city, 21o; University of Michigan established, 382; ward boundaries, 388; debts, 422; fires a salute to Maj. Robert Anderson, 515; loans State $5o,ooo, 516; registration for World War, 728; Bureau of Delinquents, 731; rank among cities, 733-7; Detroit (brig, Adams), captured by British, named, 147; flagship, 170-4, 190. Detroit (ferry), 549. Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Co., 304,575. Detroit and St. Clair Toll Road (Grosse Pointe Road), 636. Detroit Anti-Slavery Society, 322. Detroit Athenaeum, 306-7. Detroit Automobile Co., 7r7. Detroit Car and Mfg. Co., 652. Detroit Car Wheel Co., 653. Detroit Citizens' Street Railway Co., see Street Railways. Detroit City Guards, 298. Detroit City Railway, see Street Railways. Detroit Club, 559. Detroit College, Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery, Detroit College of Law, etc., see Colleges. Detroit Courier,see Newspapers. Detroit Daily Advertiser, see Newspapers. Detroit Daily Democrat, see Newspapers. Detroit Dry Dock Co., 605. Detroit Edison Co., 716-7. Detroit Electric Light and Power Co., 561, 602. Detroit Exposition Co., 660. Detroit Female Seminary (first) 438, 441. Detroit Gas Co., 599. Detroit Gaslight Co., 433-5, 599. Detroit Gazette, see Newspapers. Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway, see Railroads. Detroit Graphite Co., 657. Detroit Institute of Technology, 694-5. Detroit Journal, seeNewspapers. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, see Newspapers. Detroit Junior College, see Colleges. Detroit, Lansing & Northern Railway, see Railroads. Detroit Light Guards, 192, 529. Detroit Lyceum, 261, 305. Detroit Mechanics'Society, 261, 305, 484. Detroit Natural Gas Co., 436. Detroit News, The, vi, vii, 423, 544-6, 583, 647, 730; see also Newspapers. Detroit Opera House, see Theaters. Detroit Pipe and Foundry Co., 653. Detroit Railway, see Street Railways. Detroit River, shore line filled in, 266; cable across, 426; piracy, 529; proposals for bridging and tunneling, 552 -555, 578. See also Waterfront. Detroit Rock Salt Co., 660. Detroit Stove Works, 477. Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Choir, and Society, 681-3. DetroitTribune,seeNewspapers. Detroit United Railway, see Street Railways. Detroit Vapor Stove Co., 477-8. Detroit White Lead Works, 656. Devine, Edward D., 693. Dexter, Samuel W., 327. Dexter, Mich., 327, 424. Dey, Alexander, 434. Dickey, H. M., classical school, 226-7. Dicks, John, 164. Dieppe, Fr., 708. Diocese of Baltimore, Catholics under, 304. Diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky, Catholics under, 304. Diocese of Cincinnati, Catholics under, 304. Diocese of Detroit created, 304. Directories, 422. Disasters: Marine, 238-44, 246, 389,407,465,489-90. See also Fires. Disbrow, Henry V., 312. Disloyalty propaganda, 523, 529. District Telegraph Co., 559. Dix, Dorothy Lynde, 395. Dix, John A., 379, 514. Dixon, Sidney R., 664. Dixon, Col., British Indian Agent, 241. Dobbins, Daniel, 166. Docks, 109, 212,.216, 236, 303. Dodemead, John, io8. Dodge, Horace Elgin, 682, 707 715, 717. Dodge, John, 707, 715, 717. Dodge, Silas, 325. Dodge Brothers, 707, 715. Dolsen's Farm, 185. Donaldson, James, 507. "Don't give up the ship," 173. Doremus, Frank E., 673, 738. Doty, Mrs. G. D., 313. Doty, George, 465. Doty, James D., 271-2. Douglas, Capt. David B., 271. Douglas, Frederick, 323. Douglass, Columbus C., 374. Dow, Alex, 606-7. Downey, John B., 673. Downey, John J., 673. Draft Boards, 728-30. Draft riots 524, 529. Draist Baron von, 706. Draisine velocipede, 706. Drake, Theodore A., 669. Dred Scott Decision, 455. Dress reform, 453. Driggs, Frederick, 435, 574. Drugs and chemicals, manufacture, 655-6. Ducharme, C. A., 477. Dudley, Col., 163. Duffield, Divie B., 462. Duffield, George, D.D., 151, 395, 421, 423, 480; death, 483. Duffield, Henry M., 567. Duffield, Dr. Samuel P., 656. Duffield, Parke and Co., 656. Dugne, Lieut., 6. Dullea, D., 544. Duncan, Wm. C., 524, 738. Duncan's Erie Hotel, see Hotels. Dunlop, Dr. John B., 707. Durant, W. C., 716. Durham, Earl of, 342. Dusseldorf, 558. Dutch ovens, 476. Dwight, Henry, 231. Dwyer, James, 477. Dwyer, Jeremiah, 476-7. Dwyer, Paul, 693. Dyar, Clara, 681. E Eagle boats, 732. Eagle Hotel, see Hotels. Eagle River, 409, 411. East, Joel, 325. Eastman, Prof. G. B., 382. Eastman, Lieut. John L., 138. Eastport, Maine, 537. Eaton, George, 575. Eaton, John H., Gov. of Fla., 294. Eaton, Theodore H., 434. Eaton, Prof., 411. Eaton Rapids, Mich., 424. Eckford, shipbuilder, 167. Ecorse, Mich., 130. Eddy, Orson, 368. 748 INDEX Eddy, Zachary, D.D., 581-4. Edison, Thomas A., 700-1. Editors, Old-time: Bagg, A. Smith, 288; Bagg, John S., 288; Baker, S. A., 508; Barns, Henry, 288, 507-8; Mackenzie, W. L., 338; McKnight, Sheldon, 287-8; McMillan, Archibald, Jr., 205; Mettez, Theophilus, 230; Morton, Edward G., 525; Reed, Ebenezer, 230, 240; Richard, Rev. Gabriel, 229-30; Scripps, James Edmund, 564-5; Sheldon, John P., 230, 240, 270, 286-8; Sheldon, Thos. C., 287-8; Simpson, Thomas, 287; Storey, Wilbur F., 525; Dr. Theller, 339; Warren, Joseph, 507-8; Webb, James Watson, 384, 444. Edmonds, John M., 508. Edson, James L., 585. Edson, Moore & Co., store burned, 550. Education: 22, 684-97; Board of, 462-3, 639, 683, 686-8; constitutional provisions, 378; founding of. schools, 219, 375. See also Schools, Colleges, University of Michigan. Edward VII of England, visit to Detroit, 502. Edwards, Abraham, 211, 216, 231, 241, 260. Edwards, John E., 487. Eidoloscope, 701. Elbe River, 558. Elections, notable: territorial delegate, 268-9; first state, 372-3, Presidential, of 1840, 384-8; of i860, 511; first Republican, 510-1; first Pingree, 587; municipal lighting, 605; Pingree elected Governor, 628; first prohibition, 678-80; municipal ownership of street railways, 622; street railway settlement, 632-34; Woodrow Wilson, 727. Electric lighting, 433; arc lights and incandescents, 560; introduced, 559; charges contested, 561; companies, 605; municipal lighting, 603-8; tower lights, 608. Elevator, first in Detroit, 558. Elgin, Lord, mobbed, 342. Elizabeth Ward (schooner), 496. Elkswatawah, the Prophet, 129. Elliott, James R., 549, 676. Elliott, Lieut. Jesse D., 167, 171-4, 177, 185. Elliott, Col. Matthew, 69, 146, 153, 155, 158, 16o. Elliott, William H., 585. Elliott's Point, 339. Eloise, Mich., 289, 393-6. Elmwood cemetery, 289. Elwood, S. Dow, 559, 654. Ely, Herman B., 493. Emancipation of slaves, 51r. Empire (steamboat), 416. England, Richard, 97-99. English burying ground, 198, 266. English settlers, 75-78. Enlisted men in World War, 731. Envelopes, first used in Detroit, 389. Epidemics, see Cholera, Typhoid. Epitaph of Dr. John James Hume, 341. Erhardt, John, 567. Ericsson, John, 520. Erie, Pa. (Presque Ile), 166, 190. Erie Canal, 232, 246. Erie (steamboat), 389, 465. Erie & Kalamazoo Railway, see Railroads. Erwin, J. G., & Co., 573. Estey Organ Works, 653. Etherington, Maj. George, 54. Eureka Iron and Steel Co., 497, 660. Evangelistic Society, see Churches. Evans, Hugh, 707. Evans, Oliver, 708. Everett, Gov. Edward, of Mass., 379 -Everett, Henry A., 625. Everett-Moore syndicate, 625, 627; see Street Railways. Ewing, Thomas, 337. Excelsior Electric Co., 607. Executions, see Hangings. Explorations: Gov. Cass', 271 -3; Houghton's, 372, 402. Express companies: Pomeroy, Wells, American, 405. Extravagance in city expenditures, 585. F Facer, Louis, 213. Fafard, Francois, 7. Fafard, Jean, 7. Fairbanks, Joseph P., 494. Fairchild, E. B., 547. Fairport (steamboat), 397-8. Family Compact, 338, 342. See also Canadian Rebellion. Famine in Detroit district, 61 -2, 119, 196-7. Famine relief for Gratiot County settlers, 500-1. Farmer, John, 684. Farmer, Silas, 483. Farmington, Mich., 327. Farms: 107-8; Beaubien, xo8, "266,422; boundaries of farms, 388; Brush, 107, 135, 215, Farms (Continued): 422; Cass, o18, 135, 386, 422; Chene, 278, Chesne, io8; Church or Melcher, 265; Jones, o18, 388; Forsyth, 388; Leib, 317, 393; Macomb, o18; Mullett, 391, 487; Reeder, 351; Spring Hill, 327-8; Tireman, 562; Witherell, 204, 388. Farnham, Ebenezer, 467. Farnsworth, Elon, 424. Farnsworth, L. L. 483. Farrand, Bethuel, 284. Farrand, Jacob S., 434, 669. Farrand, W. R., 606. Farrand & Votey Organ Co., 653. Farrar Street, see Streets. Farrell, James W. 483. Fast-days during the War, 546. Faulkner, Wm., 527-8. Federal Building, 409. Federal Reserve Banks, see Banks and Banking. Felch, Alpheus, 414, 510. Fence regulation, 211. Fences around parks, 406. Fenian activities, 537-8. Fentonville, Mich., 572. Ferguson, Dr. J., 323. Fergusson, Willard B., 621. Ferries: railroad, 488, 552-5; passenger, 245, 263, 303; Detroit, 549; Windsor burned, 549. Ferry, Dexter M., 621, 623, 654. Ferry, D. M. & Co., seedhouses, burned, 445, 55o; experiment with electric lights, 560; industry, 653-5. Feuds, cause of, 36. Field, Rev. George, 686. Fighting Island, 135, 238, 340, 532. Fillmore, Millard, President, 465, 510. Finance, municipal, comparison of budgets, 595-7 -Findlay, James, 92, 133, 137, 139. Finney, Seymour, 325. Fire alarm telegraph installed, 543, 674. Fire Department: 399-400, 674-6; first engine, 104; volunteers, o08; laws, 211-2; new engine purchased, 216; first headquarters, 4oo; paid department established, 545; early and modern methods, 667; old-time fire fighting, 674; chiefs and commissioners, 676; prevention methods, io8; fireboats, 465, 675; motorization, 675. "Fire in the rear" in Detroit 75, 523-4. INDEX 749 Firearms of Civil War times, 545-6. Firemen's Hall, 389, 422; first fire headquarters, 400. Fireplaces of early days, 473-5 -Fires: city destroyed, 115-9, 265; Jan. i, 1842, 401; Stearns, 1871, and Ferry seedhouses, 1885, 655; Tilden School, 589; Michigan Central depot and shops, 467-8; other fires, 499, 547-51, 655, 668; forest, 353, 483. First incorporated railway of Northwest Territory, 364. First Locomotive in Michigan, 366-7. First Methodist Church, see Churches. First National Bank, see Banks and Banking. First Presbyterian Church, see Churches. First telegraph message, 705. First things, iron, forges, etc., 493. First vocational school, 443. Fish, Capt. Job, 235-9. Fisher ("Grand Blanc "), Indian trader, 201. Fisher, James, and family murdered, 44, 50. Fisher Body Co., 720. Fishing industry, 279. Fiske, David, 686. Fitch, Abel F., 327, 467. Fitch, Rev. C. W., 227, 382. Fitch, Jabez S., 325. Fitch, Wm. H., 435. Fitzpatrick hanged, 420. Flag, U. S., first time displayed, 99; hauled down, 146; flagstaff of 1812, 389; raising during Civil War, 516. Flaget, Bishop Joseph Benedict, 265. Flagg, Junius, 335. Flanigan, Mark, 524-5. Flannigan, Wm., 125. Flat Rock, 372; canal, 347; route to Ypsilanti, 28r. Fleehart, Joshua, 36. Flemings, of Moraviantown, 188-9. Fletcher, Chief Justice William A., 269, 421. Flint, Mich., 252. Flint & Pere Marquette Ry., see Railroads. Flint, steel and tinder, 432. Floyd, Gen. John B., 514. "Flying squadron," 572. Folsom, Simeon, 544. Foote, Rev. C. C., 510. Foote, George, 192. Forbes, John E., 414-5, 419, 494. Ford, Edsel B., 718. Ford, Henry, 482, 713, 716-8. Ford, Mrs. Henry (Clara Bryant), 716. Ford, J. B., 660. Ford, Stella D., 681. Ford Hospital, see Hospitals. Ford Motor Co., 715, 718-9, 732. Fordson tractors, 719. Forest fires, 353, 483. Forster, J. H., 493. Forsyth, Robert A., 254, 271-3. Forsyth Farm, see Farms. Forts: 389; Brady, 273; Croghan, 5Is; Dearborn, 130, 146-9; Defiance, 88, 153-4; Erie, 163, 167, 538; French forts, 28; George, 163, 167; Gratiot, 301, military road to, 282; Harrison, 131; Laurens, 75; Lernoult, 75-9, 135, 146, I50-I, see also Fort Shelby; Mackinac, 2, 54, 62, 65, 90, 130, 133, 138, 147, 200; Malden (Amherstburg), 130-3, 137-9, 155, 158, 163, 169, 179-84, 195, 205; Meigs, 88, 161-3, 169, 182, 197; Treaty of, 265; Miami, see Fort Meigs; Fortress Monroe, 299; Moultrie, 515; Nonsense, see Fort Croghan; Pitt, 62, 77 86; Pontchartrain, 7, 50o; Sandusky, 169; Schlosser, 61; Shelby, 146, 161, 182, 194-5, 235, 266, 275, 284, 389, 457, see also Fort Lernoult; Stevenson, 166-9, 197; Sumter, 515; Washington(Cincinnati), 86-7; Wayne, Ind., 86, ioo, 130, 148, 607; Wayne, Mich., 135, 391-2, 513, 5i6, 660. Fort Wayne Electric Co., see Street Railways. Foster, Rev. Stephen S., 510. Foster, Theodore, 327. Foundries, 497. Four Minute Men, 731. Fowle, George W., 671. Foxen, T., 569. Foxen, Wm., 544, 569. France, see French. Franchises, public: Berthelet's water works, and market, 283; Farrand's water works, 284; plank road, 634-5; street railway, see Street Railways; gas lighting, 434-6, 599; electric light and power, 560-1; ferry boats, 303; telephone, 559. Francis Ferdinand, Archduke, 726. Francisco, J., 327. Franklin, Benjamin, 71-2, 95, 257, 472. Franklinton, Ohio, 183. Frauds, election, 579, 583. Frazer, Alexander D., 313. Frazer, Rhea, 294. Frederick, Oliver G., 693. Fredericksburg, Battle of 526. Free Press, Detroit, see Newspapers. Free Press Building, 547, 548. Free School, first in Detroit, 441. Free School Society, 375. Free silver agitation, 536-7. Free Soil Party, 505-509. Free speech, 524-6. Freeland, Andrew J., 467. Freer, Charles L., 575, 652-3; residence, 695. Fremont, John C., 510. Fremont, Ohio, formerly Lower Sandusky, 332. French, D., 317. French: regime in Michigan, 1-31; rivalry with English, 2-3; founding of Detroit, 5-7; and Indian War, 28-31; frontier forts, 28-9; reinforce Detroit, 30; surrender New France, 31; promote Indian plots, 34, 52-3; shelter British troops, 57-8; accept British rule, 60; inhabitants of Detroit, io1; aid Americans, 155. Frenchtown, see Monroe. Frey, V. C., 7i7. Frigates, 132. Frisbie, James W., 483. Frisbie & Foxen, 569. Frost, Milton, 665. Fugitive Slave Law, 506. Fulton, John A., 330. Fulton, Robert, 233-4. Fulton and Livingston's steamboat patent, 709. Fulton boundary line, 330-3. Fulton (steamboat), 233. Fulton Iron Works, 192. Funerals, 389, 407-8, 411, 521, 647 Fur companies, 66, 130, 201, 246. Fur trade, 2, 24, 130, 246. Fyfe, R. H., 592. G Gabrilowitsch, Ossip, 682. Gadd, Charles A., 693. Gage, Gen. Thomas, 34, 62. Gales, Weston, 681. Gallagher, N., 687. Gamewell Fire Alarm System, 543. Gangs, caucuses run by, 592. Ganson & Mizner, 477. Gardiner, Cornelius, 615-6. Gardner, D. M., 550. Gardner, Miles Tele, 654; Company, 654. 750 INDEX 750 INDEX Gardner, Wm., 325. Gardner Farm and Nursery, 654. Garrett, Lieut., 156. Garrick Theater, see Theaters. Gas: 433; illuminating, 433; natural, 436; experiments with, 434; opposition to electricity, 56o-I; production, 1923, 6oo; plants, 6oo-i, 655, rates, 598-601. Gates, Gen. Horatio, 94-5, 206. Gatling gun rejected, 546. Gay, Washington, fires M. C. station, 467. Gazette, Detroit, see Newspapers. Geddes, John, 327. Geist, Louis R., 633. General Harrison (schooner), 496. General Vance (steamboat), explosion of, 407. "General" (locomotive) captured, 533. General Assembly of the Northwest Territory, 92-3, 105, 211. General Electric Co,. 605, 607. General Motors Corporation, 716-720. Gentle, John, 127. Geological Survey, 373, 402. George III, King, birthday celebrated, 107. Georgia land grants, 114. German Albatross, airplane, 732. Germany invades Belgium, 726. Gettysburg, Battle of, 518, 526. Ghent, Treaty of, 210. Gibraltar Island (Lake Erie), 170. Gibraltar, Mich., 372. Gidley, Townsend E., 327. Gillespie, John, 672-3. Gillet, S., 275. Gillingham, A. J., 703. Gilman, Joseph, 102. Girardin, Apoline (Mrs. Francis Labadie), 269. Girardin, Charles Francis, ro8. Girty, Simon, saves Kenton, 75-77; defiance of, 97-09; settles at Amherstburg, 1oo. Girty brothers, George, James and Simon, 69. Glacial action about Detroit, 662-3. Gladwin, Henry, extract from diary, 35; commandant at Detroit, 41; Pontiac conspiracy, 45-55; notified of Campbell's capture, 53; other posts, 56; relieve of command, 62. Gladwin (schooner), 50, 53-4; attacked, 59. Glass industry, 66o. Glegg, Maj., 141. Gleichman, Philip, 703. Globe Tobacco Co., 470. Gnadenhutten, Ohio, massacre, 79-81. Godfroy, Gabriel, 158, i6o. Gogebic County, votes manipulated, 679. Goodsell, John, 685. Gore, Capt., and wife, 391. Government: military inefficiency of, 161; folly in sale of bonds, 535-6; weakness, 668-9. Government, Territorial, 94, 128, 206, 263, 294. See also Michigan. Governor and Judges plan, 95, 105, 120-7, 21I, 231, 274; superseded, 263, 265-6. "Governor Mason" (locomotive), 369; (railroad coach), 652. Gower, Robert, 335. Grace Hospital, see Hospitals. Graduation Act, 500. Graft, see Political Corruption, War Profiteering. Graham, William, 685. Grain shipments, 502. "Grand Blanc" (Fisher), Indian trader, 201. Grand Blanc, Mich., 201, 252. Grand Boulevard, 122, 461, 568-570, 586. Grand Haven, Mich., 349, 354, 413, 57 -2. Grand Marais, 104, 442. Grand Portage (Flint), 252. Grand Prairie, Ill., 418, 572, 678. Grand Rapids, Mich., 201, 424, 516, 658. Grand Trunk Railway, see Railroads. Granger, Hiram, 470-1. Granger & Lovett, tobacconists, 470-1. Grant, Gen. Ulysses Simpson, 391, 441, 518-9, 546. Grant, William, 91. Grass Lake, Mich., 327, 467. Gratiot Road opened, 81. Graves, Maj., 157-61. Gray, Andrew, 625. Gray, John S., 717. Gray, Thomas, 244. "Great Hair Buyer" (Capt. Henry Hamilton), 68-9. Great Lakes, see Navigation. Great Western (steamboat), burned, 389. Great Western Railway, see Railroads. Greeley, Horace, 444, 510. Green, John C., 414-5. Green, Mrs. Liberetta, 327. Green, Sanford M., 421. Green Bay, Wis., 62. Greenback movement, 536. Greenfield township, 655. Greenville, Mich., 544. Greenville, Treaty of, 9o. Griffard, Marie Anne (Mrs. Francis Labadie), 269. Griffin, John, 120, 232. Griffin, Levi T., 687. Gristmills, see Mills. Griswold, George, 414. Griswold, Stanley, 121-2, 150. Grosse le, 139,'279, 489, 554. Grosse Pointe Township, 442. Grosse Pointe Toll Road, 636. Grout, John R., 656. Grummond, Stephen, 670, 738. Gunboats, 171-178; Monitor, 520. Guoin, M., 52. Guoin, Mrs., reveals Pontiac conspiracy, 42. Guyon du Buisson, Joseph, 13, i6. H Hacks, public, 573. Hailman, W. N., 687. Haldimand, Gov., 86. Hale' John, 244. Hale, William, 501. Half King, Chief, 80. Hall, Dr. John S., 693. Halle, Fr. Nicholas Constantine del, see Del Halle. Hamburg, Germany, 558. Hamilton, Henry, 68-9, 75-8. Hamilton, Milo D., 502. Hamilton, Paul, Secy. of Navy, i66. Hamilton, Robert, 338. Hamilton, Ont., 488, 533, 571-2. Hammond, George H., 664-5. Hammond, George H. & Co., pioneer packing house, 665. Hammond, Standish & Co., 664. Hammond Building, 204, 665. Hammond, Ind., 665. Hammurabi, Code of, 420, 721. Hamtramck, John Francis, 99 -100. Hamtramck, Mich., 100, 320, 650,739. Hands, William, 207. Hangings, 68, 262-3, 278-9, 289-93, 420-I, 533,538. Hanks, Lieut. Porter, 142, 146, 194. Hannan, W. W., 633. Harmar, Gen. Josiah, 86, 128, 148, 153, 16i. Harmon, John H., 738. Harmonie Society, 464. Harper, Walter, 479-80. Harper Hospital, see Hospitals. Harper's Ferry, 322. Harris, William, 330. INDEX 75' Harris boundary line, 330-3. Harrison, Gen. William Henry: Changes seat of government to Vincennes, Ind., 93; wins Battle of Tippecanoe, 131; in command in the West, 152; superseded by Gen. Winchester, 153; defends Fort Meigs, 161-2; co-operates with Perry, 168-9; receives Perry's famous message, 777;prepares to invade Canada, 182; proclamation to army, 183; wins Battle of the Thames, 185-7; moves army to Detroit, 195 -6; leaves Col. Croghan in charge, 196; nominated for President, 384; elected, 396; "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" campaign, 384-9 -Harrodsburg, Ky., 77. Harsen's Island, 13. Hart, Edson, 244. Hart, Capt., 158-9. Hartley's Point, 183. Harvey, Charles T., 493. Harvey, John, baker, iog; conflagration starts in bakery of, 115, 211. Harvie, Andrew, 382. Hastings, Eurotas P., 275, 286, 438. Haviland, Mrs. Laura, 325. Hawks, J. D., 436, 623. Hawley, Richard, 562. Hawley, Theodore D., 483. Hay, Lieut. Jehu, 85. Hay Lake Channel, 578. Hayden, Philotus, 510. Hayes, Frederick W., 437. Hays, John G., 369, 651-2. Hays, Will H., 703. Hays, Lieut., 56. Heald, Capt. Nathan, 147-9. Heald, Mrs., 149. Heath, Horace, 339. Hecker, Frank J., 437, 575, 642, 652-3, 670. Hecker, Joseph, 68. Heckewelder, Rev. John Gottlieb, 77-79 -Hector (slave), 288. Hees, Fred C., 633. Helena, Queen of Italy, 715. Helm, Lieut. L. T., 147. Henderson, David, 164. Henderson, T., 544. Henderson-Ames Costume and Uniform Co., 644-5. Hendrie, George, 571-5, 620, 621. Hendrie Trucking Co., 573. Henry, Alexander 55, 66, 404. Henry, James, o18, 129. Henry Clay (steamboat), 245, 299-300. Henry Ford Hospital, see Hospitals. Hero of Alexandria, 698. Herzegovina, 726. Hesse, District of, 91. Hewitt, Dr. Morgan L., 493. Higby, L. E., 655. Higgins, Sylvester, 374. High schools, see Schools. High Street, see Streets. Highland Park, 351, 650, 739; Junior College, 691-2; schools, 691. Hill, Rowland, 408. Hillsdale, Mich., 370, 413. Hinchman, Catherine Palmer, 242. Hitchcock, Ira, 685. Hobby-horses, 706. Hodges, Mrs. Charles H., 681. Hofer family, Tyrolean singers, 446. Hoff, Mrs. GraceWhitney (J. J.), 485. Hoffman, George, 129. Hog Island (Belle Isle), 566. Holbrook, B., 298. Holly, Mich., 546. Holmes, Rev. Ninian, 219. Holmes, Silas M., 483,497, 508. Holloway, Cyrus, 335. Holy Trinity Church, see Churches. Home rule, advocated, 612; granted, 629-30. Homestead Act of Michigan, 454. Hooker, Gen. Joseph B., 518, 540. Hoop skirt industry, 657. Horner, Gov. John S., 336-7. Horse cars, 573, 593, 598; see also Street Railways. Horse racing in streets, 25; restricted, io8, 211. Horses, first in Detroit, 8. Horst, Commander of the Gladwin, killed, 59. Hosmer, Judge George F., 602. Hospitals: 304, 479; Civil War, 480-I; Detroit Receiving, 481; Grace, 481; Harper, 479 -481, 692; Henry Ford, 482; Herman Kiefer, 481; Marine, 500; Providence, 481; St. Mary's 479, 692; St. Vincent's 479; war, 482. Hotels and Taverns: American House, 306-7, 340, 388, 397; Biddle House, 295, 311, 546, 550; Black Horse Tavern, 289, 393; Cadillac, 470; Davis Tavern, 333; Duncan's Erie Hotel, 166; Eagle, patriot headquarters, 339; Finney House, 325; Johnson's, 432; Landen House, Buffalo, N.Y., 244; Mansion House, 286, 289, 296,300,316,457;Metropole, 556;Michigan Exchange, Hotels, etc. (Continued): 346, 391, 502; National, 391, 501; Ottawa House, 349; Pontchartrain, 502; Railroad (Andrews'), 368, 388, 424; Russell House, 500-2, 524; Smyth's Tavern, 94, 206, 305; Statler, 406; Steamboat (Woodworth's), 216-18, 239, 274, 303,407, 444,548; Wales, 548. Hough, Garry, 446. Houghton, Dr. Douglass: Promotes Young Men's Society, 31 -I; nurses cholera victims, 316; begins geological survey, 373-4; Mayor of Detroit, 397, 738; discovers minerals, 402-3; drowned in Lake Superior, 409; biography, 410; memorial, 412; forecasts salt discovery, 658; president, Board of Education, 687. House of Correction completed, 545, 579. House of the Good Shepherd, former E. B. Ward residence, 498. Howard, A., 483. Howard, Bronson, 446. Howard, Charles, 305, 465, 738. Howard, Henry, 738. Howard, Jacob M., 508-9, 521. Howe, Elias, 444. Howe, T., 416. Howe, U. Tracy, 497. Howe, William B., 654. Howell, General William T., 510. Hoyd, James, 71. Hubbard, Bela, 374, 569. Hubbard, Collins B., 670. Hudson, John S., 244. Hudson, Joseph L., 606, 481. Hudson, J. L., Co., 368. Hudson Motor Car Co., 716. Hudson River, 232. Hudson's Bay Co., 66, 130. Hudson's Wharf, 235. Hull, Abijah, 121. Hull, Captain Abram F., 139, 142. Hull, Isaac, 137. Hull, John, 503. Hull, Gen. William: Appointed Governor of Territory, r2o; organizes militia, 122; buys bank shares, 125; quarrels with associates, 128; brings reinforcements to Detroit, 134; restrains subordinates, 17; round robin to depose him, 139-43; surrenders Detroit, 142; exoneration of, 144; taken to Montreal as prisoner, 147; tried by court martial, pardoned by Pres. Madison, 152. 752 INDEX 752 INDEX Humane Society, 447-8. Hume, Dr. John J., 341. Humphrey, B., & Co., 424. Humphrey, Pres., of Amherst, 379. Hunt, Henry Jackson, 160, 165, 203, 231, 235, 260, 268, 738. Hunt, Maj. Jedediah, 244. Hunt, John, 289. Hunt, Gen. John E., 165. Hunter, William S., 152. Hunter (brig), 170-1, 174. Hurd, Dr. Ebenezer, 341. Hurd, Gildersleeve, 279. Hurlbut, Chauncey, 486. Hurlbut, Melvina E., 686. Huron Mission, 18, 55. Huron River, 130, 134, 372. Huron Village, 12. Huss, Dwight, 715. Hussey, Erastus, 325. Huston, Solomon, 528-9. Hyde, Oliver M., 738. Hydraulic Iron Works, 476. I Ile au Cochons (Hog Island, now Belle Isle), 566. Illinois, 90. Illinois Steel Co., 497. Illinois Supply Co., 644. "Immortal Nineteen," 637. Inches, Dr. James, 673. Indiana, 90, II1, 259, 330, 364. Indianapolis, 523-4. Indians: Villages, 7, 12, i8; slaves of French, 33, 55; characteristics, 36-8, 51; besiege Detroit, 41-55; Ohio, 62-3; move to Canada, British influence, Iho; British allies in 1812, 139; massacre at River Raisin, 157-9; raids, 20, 69, 77, 8o, 128-9, 131, 157-9, I63, 2or; hanged, 262-3; lands, 250, 298, 112; mine copper, 404; treaties, 250-258. Tribes: Cherokees, 86; Chippewas, 13, 81, 86, 199-202, 253-7, 271-2; Delawares, 86; Hurons, 18, 20, 55; Iroquois, 76, 79, 140; Miamis, 148; Ojibways, see Chippewas; Ottawas, 86, 131, 257-8; Pottawatomies, 131, 148, 258; Sacs and Foxes, 13-7, 201, 257, 298; Saginaws, 131, 204-5, 278; Senecas, 86, 183, 234; Shawnees, 86, 183; Winnebagoes, 131, 147; Wyandottes, 8o, 86, 131, 133, I83; interpreters and traders, 253-5. Indictments, of Aldermen, 588. Industrial School organized, 503-4. Industries, 495, 677; early development, 650-666; automobile, 712-22; in the World War, 731-2, see also names of industries. Ingalls, Guy L., 693. Ingersoll, Justus, 687. Inglis, Lieut.,Barclay's aide,174. Innes, Robert, 113. Insane asylums, 393-6, 525. Inventions, 698, 700-7, 711. Ionia, Mich., 572. Iowa (steamboat), 453. Irish famine relief, 464. Irish Land League, 587. Iron and steel: Iron ore discovered, 402; first cargo from North, 493, 498; Eureka works, Wyandotte, 497-9; Illinois Steel Co., 497; Milwaukee rolling mill, 498; first Bessemer steel in U. S., 498; first Bessemer rail, 498; Wyandotte industry abandoned, 499; decadence of iron industry, 650; revival at Ojibway and River Rouge, 651. Iron Brigade, 524. Iron ore, discovered, 402; first cargo from Upper Peninsula, 497-9. Irwin, Robert, 305. Isham, Frederic S., 446. Island Queen (steamboat), 531. Ives, Albert, Jr., 670. Ives, Caleb, 664. J Jack, James, 312. Jackson, Gen. Andrew, President, 107, 210, 294, 300, 333, 336, 343, 346, 354, 359, 372, 384, 408, 513. Jackson, Gen. Thomas ("Stonewall"), 518. Jackson, W. A., 436, 559, 606. Jackson, Capt., 298. Jackson, Mich., 327, 424, 466, 565; former names, 509; Republican Party organized, 508-9. Jackson Mining Co., 493, 498. Jacobs, mate on the Gladwin, 59. Jails: 261-3; first, 405; built on Library Park site, 261, 291, 321; Clinton and Beaubien Street site purchased, 263; House of Correction, 545,579; Wayne County, 339. James I, King, prohibits use of tobacco, 468. James' steam carriage, 709. Jameson, Mrs. Annie B., 306, 345. Jamette, Lieut., 54. Jaudon, Alexander H., 349. Java (gunboat), 177. Jay, John, treaty, 90, 103, Jefferson, Thomas, President, 120, 264, 294. Jennings, Dr. August F., 656. Jerome, George, 437. Jerome, Jean B., 158. Jerome, Judge Jonathan, 335. Jewish Synagogues and Societies, 541. John Sherman (U. S. revenue cutter), 549. Johnson, Andrew, President, visits Detroit, 54o; impeachment, 541. Johnson, Edward M., 325. Johnson, H. R., 432. Johnson, Colonel Richard Mentor, 152,183-6, 386. Johnson, Mrs. S. Olin, 681. Johnson, Tom L., 624, 629. Johnson, Sir William, 34-5; 6o, 62-3, 76. Jo hnson's Island, Sandusky Bay, 523, 530-1. Johnston, Joe, 189. Johnstone, James, 687. Joncaire, Francois Charles Chabert de, 105, 206. Jones, DeGarmo, 274, 438, 738. Jones, Richard, 160, 164. Jones, William, 177. Jones Farm, see Farms. Journal and Courier, see Newspapers. Joy, Henry Bourne, 720. Joy, Mrs. Henry B.(Helen Newberry), 681. Joy, James F., 413, 419, 494, 524, 552-3, 653, 684. Juch, Emma, 446. Juch, Justin, 446. Judges, 289, 587-588. July 4, see Celebrations. Jumonville, Col., 29. Junior College, see Colleges. K Kalamazoo, Mich., 382, 413, 424,498. Karrer, Simon C., 687. Katauka (Indian), hanged, 262-3. Kearsley, Maj. Jonathan, 286, 397, 423, 674-5, 738. Keenan, S. M., 395. Keenan & Jahn store, burned, 550. Keep, W. H., 478. Kelley's Island, 531. Kellogg, M. C., 559. Kelsey, Mrs., 388. Kendall, John, 676. Kendrick, S. N., 497. INDEX 753 Kent County, 91, 678. Kenton, Simon, 36, 75. Kentucky, raids in, 77. Kentucky rangers, 88, 161, 183. Keokuk, Indian Chief, 298. Kern's dry goods store, 325. Kerosene lamps, 433. Kershaw, J. C. (bark), sails from Detroit to Liverpool, 503. Kewaubis, hanged, 262-3. Keyser, Frank W., 656. Keystone (steamboat), 453. Kiefer, Dr. Herman, 481. Kiefer Hospital, see Hospitals. Kindergarten enrollment, 688; see also Schools. Kinetograph, 701. Kinetoscope, 700. King, Charles B., 71o. King, David, 693. King Motor Car Co., 716. Kinzie, John, 148-9. Kinzie, Mrs. John H., 149. Kipling, Mrs. Rudyard, 149. Kirby, Frank E., 642. Kirchner, Otto, 681. Kirkland, Mrs. C. M., 440. Kirkland, William, 322. Kishkawko (the Crow), Chippewa Chief, 201-5, 252, 253, 278, 482. Kitchell, Rev. H. D., 482. Knaggs, Whitmore, 201, 205. Knaggs' gristmill, 24. Knapp, Thomas S., 290-3, 316. Knight, H. C., 483. Know-No thing Party, 51I. Knox, C. H., 45T. Kolar, Victor, 683. Kresge Building, 312. Kuhn, Joseph, 544. Kundig, Rev. Martin, 304, 315-9. Kunsky, John H., 702. L Labadie, Francis, 269. La Chapelle de Nord Est, see Churches. Ladue, John, 734. Lady Prevost (brig), 170-1, 174, 185. LaFoy, Lambert, 204. LaJaunay, Fr., 54. Lake Erie, 329, 492, 529, 578; Battle of, I68, I71-78. Lake Huron, 493, 578. Lake Michigan, 309, 329-30. 349-50, 417, 496. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, see Railroads. Lake Superior, 397, 402, 409-10, 412, 493,497 -Lake Transportation Companies dodge taxes, 6io-ri;oppose bridges,552-5. Lambert, William, 323. Lame Hand, Chief, 135. "Lancaster Regency," 294. Lancastrian school, 227. Land cessions-Indian treaties, 249-50, 255-6. Land grants, 112-4, 347-8,379 -80; Soldiers' homestead, 259; Ste. Anne's Church grant, 265; Public School lands, 684. Land office, 457. Land surveys and sales, 259. Landis, Dr. B., 446. Landmarks, 454-8. Lane, Minot T., 424. Lang, Christopher, 528. Langan, A., 164. Langdon, George C., 738. Langley, W. H., 544. Lanning, Rev. Gideon, 220. Lansing, Mich., 424, 461. Lanvis, Fr., 54. Lamed, Mrs. Abner E., 681, Lamed, Gen. Charles: Discloses round robin against Gen. Hull, 143; battles Indian raiders, 203; attorney for Ste. Anne's parish, 212; "silvertongued" orator, 218; vicepres. of Lyceum, 305; member of distinguished coterie, 312; promoter of female education,438;dies of cholera, 438. Lamed, George B., 305. Lamed, Sylvester, 143. La Salle, Jacques, 155. La Salle, Il., 347. Latemore, Rhoda, 244. Lathrop, George H., 606. Lauder, J. B., 569. Lawlessness, 340, 667-8. Lawrence, Cor. James, 173. Lawrence, Perry's flagship, 170 -4. Lawrense, Leonard, 483. Lawson, H. T., 706. Lazer, Hiat, 208. Leavenworth, Col., 241. LeBon, Philip, 434. Lecuyer, Philip, 232, 269. Lederele, A. F., 693. Ledyard, Henry, 738. Ledyard, Henry B., 437, 621, 623. Lee, Elizabeth (Mrs. Robert E. Walker), 347. Lee, Gen. RobertE., 513, 517 -9, 524. Lee family murdered, 147. Leesville, 347. Leftwich, Gen. Joel, 152. Legal Advisory Boards, 730. Leggett, Wells W., 560. Legislative Council, 263,33 2,500. Legislature, territorial, 92; state, 525. Leib Farm, see Farms. Leland, Henry M., 715, 719-20. Leland, Wilfrid, 719. Leland & Faulkner Machine Co., 715, 719. Lemkie, Justice Felix, 587-8. L'Enfant, Maj., Washington City planned by, 120-2. Leonard, H. R., storage house burned, 551. Leonardo da Vinci, 698. Leoni, Mich., 327, 466. Leopard (frigate), r32. Lernoult, Richard Beringer, 75. Lernoult, Fort, see Forts Lernoult and Shelby. Leroy, Daniel, 260, 287. Leroy, H. H., 406. Lerrich, Peter, 327. Leslie, Lieut., 54. Lewis, Alexander, 669, 738. Lewis, Col., 154-7. Liberty loans, 731. Liberty motors, 732. Liberty of the Press, 285-7. Liberty party, 327. Liberty poles, 516. Libraries: First prqmotion of public, 229; circulating, 306; Young Men's Society, 31z; Detroit Mechanics' Society, 305; Public, 305-6, 389, 464, 546. Licenses: Liquor, 213; tavern, 211, 213. Light Dragoons, 298. Light Guard Armory, 399. Lighting systems, 216, 422, 432, 595-608; towers, 561, 6o8; municipally owned, 603-8. Lime Kiln Crossing, 578. Limestone Ridge, Battle of, 538. Lincoln, Abraham, 298, 5sI, 515-6; assassinated, 520-1; funeral services in Detroit, 521, 525. Lincoln Motor Car Co., 713, 719-20. Linn, Thomas, 312. Lipton, Sir Thomas, 715. Liquor problem: Licenses,blind pigs, first prosecution, 213; laws, 455; prohibition, 678 -8o. Little Belt (gunboat), 170-175. Little Turtle, Chief, 87, 97-100oo, 148. Livingston, Chancellor, 234. Livingstone, William, Jr., 567. Livingstone Channel, 578. Lockwood, T. W., 497. Locomotives, early types, 365, 367, 651. Lodge, John C., 673. Logan, Chief (the Cornplanter), 37, 440. Logan, John, 252. Lomas, W. P., 424. London, Eng., 434, 558. 754 S INDEX I London, Ont., 488. Long Point, Lake Erie, disaster near, 490. Longe, William G., Jr., 676. Lootman, Mary, 22. Lorrain, Claude Gelde, 444. Lothrop, George V. N., 434, 562-3. Louis Philippe, King of France, 297. Louisburg, attack on, 28. Louisiana territory, 96; Purchase, 130. Lovett, W. E., tobacco manufacturer, 470. Lucas, Benjamin, 204. Lucas, Robert, Gov. of Ohio., 331-2. Lucas County, Ohio, Iri, 333, 335. Luce, Gov. Cyrus, G., 588. Lucking, Alfred, 656. Ludington, Mich., 498. Lumber industry, 353, 657, 661. Lundy's Lane, Battle of, 190. Lumiere, A., French inventor, 700. Lyceum Society, 261, 305. Lynchings: Prevented by military, 527-9; colored boy lynched in Ingham Co., 538. Lyon, Edward, 501. Lyon, Lucius, 336, 411, 658. Lyon Guards, 529. Lyons, Archibald, 164, 253. Lyons, Elizabeth, 253. Lyons, Lord, British Minister, 523. Lyons, Mich., 424. M McArthur, Gen. Duncan, 133, 137, 139, 141, 146, 182, 185. McBride, Rev. Jesse, 510. McCarty, Maria C., 219. McCarty, William, 219. McChesney, Robert, 502. McClellan, Gen. George N., 517-8 McClelland, Robert, 51o. McClintock, William, 507. McCloskey, James, 231, 268. McColl, Snyder & McLean, 693. McComb, Sarah, 219. McCracken, Capt., 159. McCreary, L. A., 502. McCullough, John E., 699. McDonnell, John, 16o, 164. McDonnell, Lieut. Col.,British, 141. McDougall, George, 52-3, 134, 198, 199, 211. McElroy, Crockett, 659, 661. McGargle, T. R., 715. McGraw, Thomas, 305. McGraw, William E., 676. McGraw Building, 305. McGregor, James, 653. McGregor's Creek, 185. Mack, Col. Andrew, landlord of Mansion House, 288, 296, 301, 734. Mack Stephen, 160, 211, 232, 260. Mack & Conant, road builders, 282. Mackay, Lieut. Aeneas, 271. McKee, Alexander, 69, 79, 8, 84, 89, 164. McKenzie, Lieut., U. S. A., 244. McKenzie, J. W., 559. Mackenzie, William Lyon, 338. Mackinac, Chief (the Turtle), 28, 56. Mackinac, Fort, 2, 54,62,65,90, 130, 133, 138, 147, 200, 309. Mackinac County, 2, 450-1. McKinstry, David C., 212, 260, 274, 281, 303,429-30. McKinstry, Com. James, 313. McKnight, Sheldon, 288, 493. McLean, David, 164. McMahon, William, 633. McMillan, Ananias, 202. McMillan, Archibald, 202, 204 -5. McMillan, Archibald, Jr., 205. McMillan, Hugh, 571, 575,623, 653. McMillan, James, 481, 559, 566, 571-5, 623, 652-3. McMillan, Mary (M r s. Ananias), 205. McMillan, William, 571-2. McMillan, William C.,437, 653. McMillan, G. & R., oldest business house, 556. McNabb, Col. Alien R., 338. McNichols, Fr. John T., 694. Macomb, Alexander, 160, 217, 260, 406. Macomb, William, 91, 164; farm, io8. Macomb County, 658, 678. McReynolds, Col. Andrew T., 451, 464. Madeira Pet (schooner), 503. Madison, James, President, pardons Hull, 152; orders building of Perry's ships, 166. Madison, Maj., 157-160o Madison, Dr. W. S., 262. Mah-na-bee-zee (White Swan), name of Belle Isle, 566. Mahoney, T., 544. Mail carriers, 408. Maine (battleship), blown up, 641. Mainz, Germany, 558. Malcomson, Alexander Y., 717. Malcomson, Higginbotham & Palmer, 693. Malden, Fort, see Forts Malden and Amherstburg. "Man with the branded hand," 324. Mandelbaum, Simon, 493. Mansfield, J. P., 568. Marcy, Gov. of N. Y., 379. Marietta, Ohio, 92, 107. Marine City, 281, 498. Marine City Stove Co., 659-60. Marine Hospitals, see Hospitals. Markets: Berthelet's, 216, 283, 422; burned, 548; public, 422; established, 214; Washington, 422; Wing's, 216. Markham, F. P., 654. Marquardt, Ernest, 673. Marquette County, 337, 403. Marquette Iron Co., 403. Marquis, Samuel S., D.D., 681. Marryatt, Capt. Frederick, 340. Marshal Ney (schooner), 496. Marshall, John, decision on land grants, 114. Marshall, Mich., 324, 376-7, 424, 496. Martin, Anderson, 164. Martin, Ann (Nancy), 479-80. Martin, John, 670, 673. Martin, Luther, 439. Martineau, Harriet, 307. Marx, Oscar B., 672-3, 738. Marxhausen, August, 566. Mason, Catherine, 295. Mason, Emily, 295, 399. Mason, John T., 295. Mason, Laura, 295. Mason, Lorenzo M., 669. Mason, Gov. Stevens T., 287; Secretary, Michigan Territory, 295-7; acting Governor, 316; Toledo War, 332; succeeded by Gov. Horner, 336; enforces neutrality, 339; promotes state railways, 354; injudicious financing, 360; elected Governor, 372; educational reforms, 378-9; vetoes land-grab, 383; dies. 398; buried in Capitol Square, 399; saved school lands to State, 684. Mason, Theodosa, 295. Massacres, Indian, 50, 69-70, 77, 79-81, 147-o, 155-63, 201-4. Matches introduced, 432. Mather, Margaret (Finlayson), 446. Mattheis, J. D., 244. Mattress industry, 665. Maumee Bay and River, 61,88, 130,134,250, 255,329-30. Maurepas, Count, 24. Mauser rifles, 546. May, James, 8r, 129, 16o, 196, 507 -Maybury, William C., 671, 738. INDEX 755 Mayflower (steamboat), 489, 497. Mayors, list of Detroit's, 738. May's Creek, 23-4, i16, 405. Mead, S. P., 508. Meade, Gen. George Gordon, 518. Meat and packing industry, 664-6. Mechanic's Society, 261. Meddaugh, E. W., 435, 574. Meigs, Return Jonathan, Gov. of Ohio, 102, 139. Meigs, Fort, see Fort Meigs. Melcher, Francois Paul, 320. Meldrum, James, 203. Meldrum, John, 203, 215. Meldrum, Mary Ann (Nancy), (Mrs. Wm. M. Scott), 202. Meldrum, William, 203-4, 226. Meldrum warehouse, 265. Melville, David, 434. Memorial Day, origin, 546; poems, 547. Memorial services: For S. T. Mason, 399; for Presidents and others, 389, 408, 521. Merriam, Silas, 244. Merrill, Charles, 313. Merrill Block, see Buildings. Merrill-Palmer School of Homemaking, 695. Metcalf Bros. Drygoods Store, 560. Metropolitan Police Act, 668. Metropolitan Police Commission, 669. Mettez, Theophilus, 230. Metzger, William E., 676. Mexican War period, 464. Miami, Ohio, 9o, 335; see also Fort Meigs. Michigan: Territory created, go, 93-4; under Canadian rule, 9s-5; seal adopted, 94; proclaimed as County of Wayne, ioi; defenses, 122; territorial government, 94, 205, 294; boundaries, I11, 299; roads, see Roads; admitted to the Union, 337; statehood, 337, 372; first Capitol, 405; Capital moved to Lansing, 424; coast line, 402; Upper Peninsula area, 402; finances, 358, 413; troops in Civil War, 516; criminal record, 539; constitutional laws for cities, 562; school, established and laws enacted 684-7. Michigan (U. S. ship), 451, 453, 523, 530-1, 546.. Michigan Alkali Co., 660. Michigan Avenue, see Roads, Streets. Michigan Car Co., 575, 619, 652. Michigan Center, Mich., 327, 466. Michigan Central Railroad, see Railroads. Michigan City, Ind., III 418; reached by M. C. R. R., 466. Michigan Essay and Impartial Observer, see Newspapers. Michigan Exchange, see Hotels. Michigan Garden, 313. Michigan Grand Avenue, see Streets. Michigan Military Board, 644. Michigan Mutual Lifelnsurance Co. Building, 306, 451; first cut-stone structure, 456. Michigan Naval Reserves, 643. Michigan Northern Railway see Railroads. Michigan-Peninsular Car Co., 575, 613,653. Michigan Republican Club, 585. Michigan Southern Railway, see Railroads. Michigan Stove Co., 59, 477. Michigan Territory, including Minnesota, Iowa, and part of Dakota, 295. "Middle Schools," 687. Middle Sister Island, 183. Military forces in 1812, 133; distribution, 199. Military Hall, history of its migrations, 274-7. Military organizations, 298, 643-5. Military Reserve, donated to city, 235, 264, 266, 274. Military Square, see Campus Martius. Miller, Charles H., 405. Miller, George, first Detroit tobacconist, 468. Miller, Isaac S., 469. Miller, Lieut. Col. James, 133, 139. Miller, James M., first printer, 229-30. Miller, Oliver W., i6o, 211, 214. Miller, Sidney D., 574, 670. Miller, Mrs. Sidney T., 681. Miller, T. C., 469, 483. Mills, Merrill I., 477, 562, 566, 738. Mills: lumber and grist, 24, 86, loI, 109, 241, 260, 347, 348; rolling, 498. Milwaukee, Wis., 425, 496, 498. Milwaukee Rolling Mills, 498. Mineral resources of Michigan, 373. Mining, see Copper, Iron, Salt, Mineral Resources. Minnesota, 90, 2I0. Minute motorcycle police, 672. Mirabeau, Honor6 de, epigram of, 345. Mississippi: River, 273; Valley, 61. Mitchell, Rev. William, 219. Mizner, Thomas W., 477. Moehlman, Arthur B., 693. Moffat, Hugh, 563, 738. Moffat Building, 284. Money, 349, 721-5; kind used during Civil War, 534 -Monitor (gunboat), 520. Monroe, James, President, notified of famine, 200; visits Detroit, 216-8; receives protest against Harris line, 330. Monroe, Mich. (Frenchtown), 68, 130, 134, 153-5, 16, 354, 370, 382, 407, 413. Monroe County, 331-2, 678. Monroe Monitor, see Newspapers. Monroe Road, see Roads. Monteith, Rev. John, 220, 223, 225-6. Montgomery, Ala., 515. Montgomery's Tavern, Ont., 338. Montreal, Quebec, 342, 523. Monuments: Perry, 178, 192, 556; Scott Fountain, 312, 567; Bagley, 192; Mason, 399; Soldiers' and Sailors', 526. Moore, Edward W., 625. Moore, Franklin, 192. Moore, William A., 566, 622. Moors, Jeremiah, 305. Moran, Charles, 686. Moran, Louis, 203-4, 212. Moran, William B., 567. Moran, murdered, 68. Moravians: 77-82, 186-9. See Moraviantown. Moraviantown-on-the-Thames, 8x, 137, I86-9. Moreland, DeWitt H., 671. Morenci, Mich., 324. Morgan (bark), 453. Morgan & Wright Tire Co., 720. Mo-gan's Forty Acres, 509. Mormons in Michigan, 449-53. Moross, Victor, 198. Morris Canal and Banking Co., 355-8, 413. Morrison, Maj. Robert, 133. Morrow, Col. Henry A., 524. Morse, C.. 405. Morse, Jedediah, 241. Morse, Samuel F. B., 241, 705. Morton, Edward G., 525. Mosley, George, 483. Motto of Detroit, Ir5. Mount, Aaron, 467. Mt. Clemens, Mich., 81, 281, 407. Mt. Elliott Cemetery, 99, 269. Movie Film Exchange, 703. Moving picture development, 700-04; first exhibition in' Detroit, 700. 756 INDEX - Muir, William Ker, 571-2, 575. Muir, Maj., 139, 16o. Mullett Farm, see Farms. Mulliken, J. B., 621. Mumford, Samuel C., 693. Munday, Edward, 336. Mundy, Edward, 423. Municipal budgets for 1890 and 1923, 595-7. Municipal Lighting Plant, 561, 605-6, 608. Municipal ownership, 603-6, 629-33. Munson, Maj. J. R., 133. Murdock, William, 434. Murphy, Charles Hayward, 676. Murphy, Michael, 203. Murphy, Simon J., 621-3. Murphy, William H., 682-3,719. Muskegon County, 678. Mutoscope, 701. Mutual Gas Co., 435, 599. Muybridge, Edward, 700. N Nahum, Prophecy of, 713. Names of cities and towns, 281. Nankin township, 393. Naopope, son of Black Hawk, 300. National Theater, see Theaters. Nauvoo, Ill., 449. Naval forces, -vessels, etc., see Navies. Navarre, Francois, 155. Navarre, Peter, 155, 162. Navarre, Robert, 22; civil officer, 32-3, 41; diary, 61. Navies: U. S.: John Adams (afterwards renamed Detroit), 107, 147; Ariel, 171, 183, 185; Chesapeake, 132; Constellation, 132; Java, 177; John Sherman, 549; Lawrence, 170-4; Leopold, 132; Michigan, 451, 453, 523, 530-1, 546; Maine, 641; Monitor, 520; Monroe, 171, 185, 520; Niagara, 171-7,185; Scorpion, 171, 174, 185; Somers, 171; Tigress, 171, 185; Trippe, 171, 185; United Stales, 132; Yosemite, 643. British: Chippewa, 170-1, 174; Detroit, 147; Hunter, 170-1, 174; Lady Prevost, 170-1, 174, 185; Little Belt, 170, 175; Queen Charlotte, 137, 147, 170-4, 190. Navigation: Perry's ships carry freig ht, 19o; Walk-in-theWater, 234-44; development of 1820's, 245-6; British maintain right of search on Lake Erie, 279; on lakes, 303-4; Soo Canal, 402, 494-5; St. Clair traverses Erie Canal, 496; Navigation (Continued): railroad transports and ferries, 496; schooners hauled overland at Soo, 497; first transit Great Lakes to Liverpodl, 503; Shipyards, 75, 190, 498. See also Steamboats, Sailinl vessels. Navy Island fortified, 338. Neal, D. A., 414. Neebish Channel, 578. Negroes: Thornton Blackburn and wife, 321-2, 339, 667; riots, 399, 527-8; William Faulkner, 527-9; Solomon Huston, Ephraim C 1 a rk, Louis Pierce, 528; Frederick Douglass, 323; slavery in Detroit, 321; Detroit AntiSlavery Society, 322; "Underground Railway," 322, 324-8, 506; Hector, John R. Williams' slave, 288; Pompey sold in Detroit, 507; enfranchisement, 456, 543; churches, 276, 423, 541; in schools, 542, 685. Nelson, Edwin H., 656. Nelson, Baker & Co., 656. New Boston, 351. New Buffalo, Mich., 354, 419, 496. New England Weekly Review, 377. New Gnadenhutten, 82. New Haven, Mich., 327. New Philadelphia, Ohio, 82. New York & Harlem Railway, see Railroads. New York City, 537; telegraph to, 560. New York State currency, 65. Newark, Ont. (now Niagaraon-the-Lake), 91. Newberry, John S., 481, 652-3, 575. Newberry, Oliver, 190-192, 296, 303, 388, 422, 496. Newbury, Rev. Samuel, 382. Newcomb, C. A., 606. Newport, now Marine City, 281. Newspapers: "animated newspaper," 230; correspondents, 532-3; postal rates, 423; Detroit, 286-8; early Detroit newspapers, 222, 229,297,301, 443; Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, 564; Courier, 297; Daily Advertiser (1836), 297; Daily Democrat, 508; Daily Union, 565; Democratic Free Press and Michigan Intelligencer, 288, 297; Detroit Free Press, 288, 525, 547, 560; Gazette, 228, 230, 240, 270-1, 277, 286-8, 297; destroyed by fire, 287, prophecy, 363; Herald, 277, 289; Journal Newspapers (Continued): (1835), 297; Journal, 565; Journal disaster, 550-1; Journal and Courier, 297; Journal and Michigan Advertiser, 297; Northwestern Journal, 297; The Detroit News, vi, vii, 423, 546, 564-5, 583, 647, 730; Post and Tribune, 658; Times, 565; Tribune, 507-8, 565; Baltimore Republican, 385; Bay City Tribune and Press, 205; Buffalo Daily Republic, 492; Houston Telegraph, 532; London Daily Telegraph, 532; Michigan Essay and Impartial Observer, 228; Monroe Monitor, 525; New York Courier and Enquirer, 384; New York Tribune, 510; Northern Islander, 452; Northwestern Journal, 297; Oakllnd County Chronicle, 287; Signal of Liberty, 327; '"Spirit of '76," 339. See also Editors. Neyons, M., 60. Niagara-on-the-Lake, 57, 90-1, 133, 139, 182. Niagara Falls, 488, 571. Niagara (warship), 171-7, 185. Nichols, John F., 438. Nickelodeons. 699. Nicot, Jean, 468, 471. Night Schools, 688-9o. Night Watch, 399, 667. Niles, Mich., 324, 382, 418-9. Nolan, Mrs. Sally, 312-3. North St. Joseph (Benton Harbor), 418. Northern Islander, see Newspapers. Northville, Mich., 327. Northway Motor & Mfg. Co., 720. Northwest Fur Co., 66, 493. Northwest Territory, go, 105; claimants, 249; Ordinance of, 259, 330. Northwestern Journal, see Newspaper. Norvell, John, 336. Noyelle, Sieur de, 24. Nursing during epidemic, 319. Nutting, Rufus, 382. 0 Oakland & Ottawa Railroads, see Railroads. Oakland County, 260. Oakland Motor Car Co., 716. Ocean (steamboat), 498. Ogden, Wm. B., 418. Ogdensburg (propeller), 489-90. Ogemawke, Chippewa Chief, 255. INDEX 757 Ohio: becomes a state, 93; admitted to Union, 329; constitutional "joker," 330; legislature, 333. Ojibway Indians, see Indians, Chippewa. Ojibway, Ont., 651. O'Keefe, Arthur, 544. O'Keefe, George A., 29o. "Old Nick" (John F. Nichols), 438. "Old Oaken Bucket," 240. Olds, Ransom E., 714. Olds Motor Vehicle Co. (now in General Motors Corporation), 714-5, 719. "Olds Pirate," 715. Oldsmobile of 1899, 714-5. Oliver, Robert, 92. Olmstead, Frederick Law, 567. Omnibuses, 573. Onondaga Springs, Syracuse, N. Y., 658. Ontonagon County, 679. Ontonagon River, 404. Ord, Gen., 540. Ordinance of 1787, 90, 375; fixes boundaries, 329. Ordinances, early municipal: Fire prevention, 104, io8, 211-2; government of trustees, io5; boundaries, 107-8; horse-racing in streets, io8, 211; bread prices, 108-9; docks, iog; night watch, iio; surveys, 121; militia organized, 122; reincorporation as city, 211; board of trustees, 211; sidewalks, 212; Sabbath, 212; liquor, 211, 213; public market, 214; weighmaster, 214; whipping post, 214; bridge over Savoyard, 214; public common, 215; ringing of hogs, 216; hotels and taverns, 216; first private sewer, 216; manure and carcasses, 216. O'Reilly telegraph line, 426. Organ, first church, 301. Organ industry, 653. Orphan Asylum, St. Vincent's, 319-20. Osborn, Laura F., 693. Osborn, Parker, 325. Osborn, Miss, missionary, 244. Oswego, N. Y., 90o, 133. Ottawa Village, 12. Otto Gas Engine, 709. Ovens and baking utensils, 475-6. Overton, Maj., 157. Owen, John, 389, 423, 556. Owings, Col. Thomas D., 209. Owosso, Shiawassee Chief, 202. Owosso, Mich., 469, 572, 653. Oxen first brought to Detroit, 8. Oysters from Baltimore, 279. P Pack, Albert, 624. Pack, Charles, 625. Pack, Greene, 624. Packard Motor Car Co., 713, 720. Packing industry, 646. Paint,- oil and color works, 656-7. Palmer, Catherine (Mrs. Hinchman), 242, 244. Palmer, Jane M., 375. Palmer, John B., 502. Palmer, Lizzie Merrill (Mrs. T. W.), 695. Palmer, Mary A. Witherell (Mrs. Thomas), 242, 244. Palmer, Thomas, father of T.W. Palmer, 216, 242, 244, 274, 281. Palmer, Thomas Witherell, 244, 300, 313, 447, 693. Palmer, Mich. (now St. Clair) 281. Palmer Park, see Parks. Palms, Francis F., 567. Panhard automobile, 708. Panics: (1837), 344-5, 684; (1857), 503; (1893), 612-7; 723-4; (1907), 723-4. Paper money, 359-61. Papineau, Louis J., 338. Parcher, William K., 567. Parent's Creek, 26, 49, 51, 59. Paris, France, 558. Park and Boulevard Commission, 543, 567. Parke, Hervey C., 656. Parke, Davis & Co., 656. Parke, Jennings & Co., 656. Parker, P. C., 693. Parker and Broadstreet, 125. Parks: 405; Belle Isle, see Belle Isle; Capitol Sq., 399, 405, 462; Cass, 405-6, 561; Crawford, 40o5; East, 669; Elton, 405; Grand Circus, 124, 273, 405, 558, 646; Library, 261, 291, 321, 405; Palmer, 244; Public, 562-3, 646. Parochial Schools, see Schools. Parsons, Philo E., 552. Parsons, Samuel H., 101. Passenger and freight transfers, 488. Passenger cars, early types, 366-7. Passion Play, 702. Patriot War, 191, 337-42, 399. Patterson, James, 164. Patterson, John, 332. Patterson, William, 687. Patterson, Miss, 685. Pattinson, Richard, 113. Patton, John, 738 Paul, Col., 197, 209. Paull, J., 404. Pavements, first cobblestone, 263; condition of, in i89o, 593-6, 598. Payne, Chauncey S., 305. Pear trees, French, 68. Peche Island, 51. Pelee Island, 340. Pelletier, Louis, io8. Peltier, George, 687. Penberthy Injector Co.,disaster, 551. Peninsular Car Co., 575, 652. Peninsular Electric Co., 607. Peninsular Stove Co., 477-8. Pennsylvania Salt Co., 66o. Pere Marquette Railway, see Railroads. Peristyle promotion, 555-6. Perry, Oliver Hazard, 166-190, 556. Perry Monument, see Monuments. Perrysburg, Ohio, 332. Petersburg, Siege of, 519. Petersburgh, Mich., 370. Petrograd, 558. Philadelphia bathtub ordinance, 427. Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, 681. Philbrick, H. H., 438. Philo E. Parsons (steamboat), 531-2. Phonograph, first in Detroit, 698. P h o t o g r aphy, instantaneous, and motion, 700. Piano manufacture, 653. Pierce, Rev., John Davis, 374 -8o, 454-5, 684. Pierce, Louis, 528. Piety Hill removed from Cadillac Square, 268. Pigeon, Mich., see White Pigeon. Pigeon Lake, 349. Pilcher, Elijah H., 423. Pingree, Hazen Senter, 437, 561, 585-649, 738; early life, 591-630; nominated for Mayor, 585; elected, 587; criticises assessment system, dropped from bank directorate, 609-1o; poor relief, 613; potato patches, 614-7; antagonism of capitalists, 615 -7; forces arbitration in street car strike, 618-9; controversy over street cars, 621; other events of regime, 620-5; elected Governor, 628; death and funeral, 647. Pingree, Moses, 591. Pingree & Smith, 585, 592. Pioneer days, i1, 347-8, 417. Piracy on Lake Erie, 529-31. Pitcher, Dr. Zina, 397, 424, 686, 738. Pitt, William, 72. 758 INDEX Pittsburgh, Pa., 63. Pittman, James E., 502, 670. Plague, see Cholera epidemics. Plank Road Act, 282, 634-5. Plank Roads, 281, 465, 634-5. Plankington, John, 666. Plate glass windows first installed, 465. Plymouth, Mich., 327. Plymouth Rock (steamboat), 491-2. Point Pelee, Ont., 54. Police Commission, 668-70; replaced by commissioner, 671. Police Department, 399, 667 -74; headquarters building, 673; patrol wagon, 669; signal boxes, 669; stations, 669. Political campaigns, see Elections. Political clubs, 585-7. Political corruption, 65, 579 -585, 588, 590-7, 603-4, 677. Political parties, 372, 385-6. 470, 505-13, 525, 565 -Pollard, Richard, i6c, 216. Pomeroy, George, 405. Pompey (slave), 507. Pond, Ashley, 437, 622. Pontchartrain, Fort, see Fort Pontchartrain. Pontchartrain Hotel, see Hotels. Pontiac, Chief: First encounter with Englis h, 28, 31-34; conspiracy, 38-53; "Pontiac's diary," 61; threatens Gladwin and fort; sues for peace, 59-60; death, 64. Pontiac, Mich., 252, 258-60, 281, 327, 348, 363-8, 382, 407, 571. Pontiac Company, 260. Pontiac Road, see Roads. Poor Farm, 393-4, 460. Poor relief, 216, 318, 483, 613-7; see also Poor Farm, Poorhouse. Poorhouse, 317-9; raided by creditors, 318. Population, in Detroit, vi, 130 -I, 212, 268, 279, 460, 505, 526, 545, 592, 650, 677, 687-8, 738-9. Porcupine (gunboat), 171. Port Clinton, 168, 183, 532. Port Huron, Mich., 281, 350, 354, 413, 555. Port Lawrence (now Toledo), 329. Port of Detroit, 577-81. Port Sheldon Company, 349 -350; boom towns, 349. Port Stanley (Port Talbot), 196. Portage River, 168, 182-3. Porter, Andrew, 295. Porter, Augustus, 738. Porter, George B., Gov., of Fla., 294-8, 315-6,375. Porter, Hume, 295. Porter, Matthew, 658. Porter, William N., 560. Post, Hoyt, 621. Postage stamps invented, 408; used for money, 534. Postal currency issues, 535. Postal rates and service, 408, 423. Postoffice, 409,457. Potato patches, Pingree, 615-7. Potier, Fr. Peter, mission to Hurons, 20-21, 35; death, 43. Potomac, Army of the, 518. "Potomac Quarter," 579-80. Powers, D., 508. Powers, Thomas, 92. Pratt, William A., 493. Pratt, Judge Abner, 525. Prentiss, George D., 377. Presidential campaigns, see Elections. Presidents: See names of; especially, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson,Van Buren, Harrison, Fillmore, Buchanan, Lincoln, and Grant. Presque Ile, Pa. (now Erie), 166, 168, 9Io. Presque Ile Bay, 178. Preston, David. 483. Price, Eben, 467. Price, Richard, 467. Pridgeon, John, Jr., 585, 738. Pridgeon, Capt. John, 566. Primrose, George, 446. Prince, John, 340-I. Prince of Wales (Edward VII), 502. Printers, 229. Printing presses, 127, 229, 301, 442. Prison camps, northern, 523, 529-30. Prisoners, British (1812), 182. Prisoners massacred or sold, 163. Prisoners, war, 523, 529-30. Procter, Gen. Henry, military career, 156, 16o-6, 175, 179 -82, 185, 195, 197, 209. Professorships, in first University of Michigan, 223-4. Prohibition: Agitation begun, 678; provocation which led to i8th amendment, 678-80; vote, 678-9. Prophet, son of Black Hawk, 300. Prouty, Col. Nathaniel, 191, 441, 685. Pruyn, J. V. L., 494. Public debts limited, 456. Public gardens, 430. Public Libraries, see Libraries. Public markets, see Markets. Public utility corporations, 601 -7. Publius Syrus, 721. Pullman, George M., 652. Pullman, Ill., 652. Pullman cars, 489, 652. Put-in-Bay, 169, 177, 183, 531, 556. Putnam, Israel, 62. Putnam, Rufus, 102. Q Quakers, 395. "Quaking prairie," 365. Quebec Act, 67. Queen Charlotte (brig), 137, 147, 170-4, 190. Quincey, Josiah, 257. R Racing cars, 708; Ford's "999, " 718; first transcontinental, 715. Rackham, Horace H., 717. Radcliffe, Col., 339. Railroads: 354; Canada Southern, 489, 554; Chicago & Alton, 652; Chicago & Canada Southern, 489; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, 419; Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee, 477, 553, 571, 574, 652; Detroit, Lansing & Northern, 544; Detroit & Pontiac, 363-7, 571, 651-2; Erie & Kalamazoo, 370; Grand Trunk,.489, 549-50, 555, 571-2, 652: station burned, 549-50; Great Western, 370, 488-9, 553, 571; Illinois Central, 419; Lake Shore, 371; Michigan Central, 354, 369,389,404, 413-9, 424,433, 466-8,476,488-9,496,548-9, 555, 574, 577, 651; Michigan Northern, 354, 413; Michigan Southern, 354, 370, 413, 419, 488; New York Central, 363; New York & Harlem, 573; Northern Indiana, 370, 419; Oakland & Ottawa, 571; Pere Marquette, 498, 544, 546; Port Huron & Owosso, 366; Syracuse & Rochester, 413-4; cars and coaches, 369, 651-2; conspiracy, 327, 466 -8; depots, 424, 367-8; Grand Trunk depot burned 549-50; Michigan Central depots, 404, 416, 424, 574; burned, 467, 548-9, 574; development of roads, ferries, 488, 503, 553-5; Pontiac depot, 433; first train from the East, 488; passenger and freight transfers, 488, 572; promotions, * INDEX 759 Railroads (Continued): 354; sale of Michigan roads, 413; taxation of property, 636-8; tracks torn up by citizens, 368, 466. Raleigh, Sir Walter, 468, 471. Ramsey, John, 194. Randall, James A., 569-70. Randall, Dr. Robert, 113. Rankin, Col. Arthur, 516. Rankin, John, 208. Rasch, Frank A., 587. Real estate:first companies,113; valuations, 60o-1o. Receiving Hospital, see Hospitals. Reclamation of land, 556. Red Cross, 730. Redfield, Alexander H., 423. Reed, Ebenezer, 230, 287, 305. Reed, John, 286. Reeder Farm, see Farms. Reeves, Herbert L., 693. Refrigerator car, first made in Detroit, 664-5. Refuse disposal, 216. Reichert, William, 738. Reid, Duncan, z60, 264. Religious harmony in educational aims, 221-2. Remick, Jerome H., 682. Reo Motor Co., 715-6. Repentigny, Chevalier, 33. Republican Party, 509-513, 525, 565 Rese, Bishop Frederick, 304, 317,320. Reservoirs: 284, 486-7. Resources of Michigan, 344-5, 373. Revolution, see American Revolution. Reynolds, Dr., killed, 142, 194. Reynolds, Maj., 153. Rhine River, 558. Rice, R. S., 306. Richard, Fr. Gabriel, priest at Ste. Anne's, 104, 1i8, 223, 225, 268-70, 441-2; first printing press, 127, 229-30; imprisoned at Sandwich for loyalty, rents government farm, 265; death and burial, 301-2. Richardie, Rev. Armand de ]a, 18, 20. Richards, John, 323. Richmond, Charles, 423. Richmond, Mich., 327. Richmond, Va., surrendered, 519-20. Richmond, Ont. (now Windsor), 303. Richmond (steamboat), first lake vessel to Liverpool, 503. Rider, 315-6. Riley, James, 203-4. Riley, Judge J. V. S., 201-3. Riley, John, 203-4. Riley, Peter, 203-4. Riopelle, Joseph, 204. Riots: Anti-slavery in Detroit, 321-2, 399, 667; draft, 524, 527, 529, 668. "Ripper" acts, 671. River Raisin, 130-4, 137-8, 141, 146; massacre, i55-16r, 183; starvation at, 200. River Rouge, 75, 131, 135, 204, 220, 327; ice racing on, 25; industrial development on, 650-7; salt mine, 660. Rivers, see names of rivers. Roads: 107, 258-9; first government, 270; Chicago (Michigan Ave.), 272,281-2,398; Detroit-Toledo, 281; Flat Rock to Ypsilanti, 281; Gratiot, 81, 258, 260; military road to Ft. Gratiot, 282; Monroe, 282; Pontiac, 281; River, 282; Royal Oak, 260; Seven Mile, 259; Six Mile, 365; Woodward Ave., 282,259; toll and plank, 281-2,465,634-6. Robb, George, 687. Roberts, E. C., 493. Roberts, Elijah J., 687. Roberts, Robert E., 564. Robertson, Capt., 44. Robertson, William, 113, 164. Robinson, Eugene, 567. Robinson, Russel & Co., 652. Roby, John S., 305. Rochester, Mich., 281, 327,438. Rogers, Andrew J., 669. Rogers, Capt. Jedediah, 242-3. Rogers, Randolph, 526. Rogers, Maj. Robert, 31-32,57. Rolfe, John, 468, 471. Romeo, Mich., 327, 382. Romeyn, James W., 687. Romeyn, Theodore, 354-7. Ronan, Ensign George, 147. Roundhead, Chief, 153. Rouse's Point, N. Y., 537. Rowland, Capt. Thomas, 146, 211. Royal Oak, Mich., 252, 260, 365. Ruehle, John V., 569. Ruland, John, 204. Rumsey, Mrs. Ann, 281. Rush, Richard, 333. Russel, Dr. George B., 652. Russel, George H., 567, 621. Russel, Henry, 622. Russel Wheel & Foundry Co., Russell, John, 208. Russell, "Uncle" Sam, 418. Russell, W. H., 5oi. Russell, William, 164. Russell House, see Hotels. Rutledge, William, 673. Ryan, Rev. Henry, 219. 652-3. S Sac and Fox Indians, see Indians. Sager, Abram, 374. Saginaw, Mich., 200, 251, 424. Saginaw County, 678. Saginaw, Treaty of, 255. Sailing vessels: Types described 577-8; Albatross, 496; Ann, 339; Beaver, so; Cuyahoga, 134; Dean Richmond, 503; Elizabeth Ward, 496; Gen. Harrison, 496; Gladwin, 50-4; 59; J. C. Kershaw, 503; Madeira Pet, 503, 572; Marshal Ney, 496; Morgan, 453, St. Clair, 496; Salem, 495. "Sailors' Bethel," see Churches, Episcopal. Sailors' homes and lodging houses, 579. St. Albans, Vt., 523, 532, 537-8. St. Andrew's Hall, 541. St. Armour, J. B., 303. Ste. Anne's, see Churches, Cemeteries, Streets. St. Aubin, Cass6 de, 35. St. Catherine's, Ont., 533. St. Charles, Ont., 338. St. Clair, Rev. Alanson, 5ro. St. Clair, Arthur, sent against the Indians, 86, 148; governor and general, 101-2, 128, 153, i61. St. Clair, Arthur, Jr., 200. St. Clair, Mich., 281. St. Clair County, 660, 678. St. Clair River, 131, 301, 303, 324, 327, 578. St. Clair (schooner), 496. St. Denis, Ont., 338. St. Eustace, Ont., 338. St. John's, Mich., 572. St. Joseph, Mich., 354, 417, 424, 496. St.Joseph River, 372. St. Joseph's Island, 137. St. Lawrence waterway or canal, 503; see also Canals. St. Ledger, Gen., 95. St. Louis, Mo., 130. St. Mary's Catholic Church, see Churches. St. Mary's Hospital, see Hospitals. St. Mary's River, 402. St. Vincent's Female Orphan Asylum, 319. Salaries of Teachers, 1835 and later, 685-7. Salem, Ohio, 79. Salem (schooner), 495. Salmser, Mr. and Mrs., 244. Saloons, 678; influence in politics, 592-4. Schooners, see Sailing vessels. 760 INDEX - Salt deposits, 658-663; Woodmere mine, 661. Samp mills, Io0. Sampson, Adm. W. T., 642. Sandusky, Ohio, 523, 531. Sandwich, Ont., 55, 1or, 138, 185, 207, 340-I, 420, 531-2. Sanger, Henry K., 502. Sanitation, 216, 427. Sargent, Winthrop, 101, 203. Saulniers, 39. Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., 33, 62, 404; canal and locks, 402, 493-5. Savoyard River, 5-17, 23, 144, 214-5, 245,268, 405,422,556; settlement on, 144. Sawmills, see Mills. Sawyer, Franklin, 310. Scajuaguada Creek, 234. Scalp bounty, 69, 71-2. Scheiffelin, Jonathan, 1I3, 206. Schick, John B., 398. Schmidt, Carl E., 670. Schmidt, John A., 587. Schoenbrunn, Ohio, 79. Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 271. Schools: 226-7, 462; act providing for, 375; of 1837, 684; of 1842, 686; attendance and enrollme nt, 438, 684-693; expenditures, 685-9; investment in, 689; lands, 684; lands conserved, 454; Barstow, 686; boards, 375; Commercial Institute, 508; Capitol High, seized, 462; burned, 462-3, 550; other high schools, 688-9; colored children admitted to public schools, 542, 685; DistrictNo. 3, Greenfield, 685; early, 105, 219, 227, 301; industrial organized, 503-4; MiamiAve, 463; parochial, 442, 696; Spring Hill, 442-3; private, 438; public, 379-80, 438; first in Detroit, 441; special, 688-9o; vocational 301, 443, 688,691; first superintendents, 379; rentals, 685, 687; tax, 1838 and later, 639, 697. Schuyler, Gen. Philip John, 206. Schwartz, John E., 296. Scio, Mich., 327. Scorpion(gunboat), i71,174,185. "Scotch Store," 312, 548. Scott, Annie, 438. Scott, Eleanor, 439. Scott, Mrs. Hector (Juliette Martin), 438-9. Scott, Isabella, 439. Scott, James, 312; monument, 312, 567. Scott, Dr. William McDowell, 164, 202. Scott, Gen. Winfield, 299. Scott Fountain, 312. Scotten, Daniel, 470-1. Scripps, James Edmund, 564-5. Scripps-Booth Co., 716. Seal of Michigan Territory, 93-4. Seek, Conrad, 164, 231. Seeley, Uri, 332. Seine River, Paris, 558. Selden, George B., 709. Selective Service Act, 728. Selkirk, Earl and Countess of, 241. Sellers, 420. Semet-Solvay Co., 660. Senators, first U. S. from Michigan, 336. Senseman, Rev., missionary, 79. Seward, William H., 467. Sewers: first private, 216; "grand sewer" built, 422; see also Sanitation. Sewing machines, 444-5. Seymour, John F., 494. Seymour, Joseph, 277, 289. Shaarey Zedek Society and Temple, 541. Shafter, Gen. William R., 642. Shaler, Charles, 134. Shattuck, Lemuel, 227. Shelby, Isaac, Gov. of Ky., 95, 182-6, 195. Shelby, Fort, see Fort Shelby. Sheldon, Mrs. E. M., 503. Sheldon, John P., early editor, 230, 270, 277, 286-8, 305,363. Sheldon, Thomas Carleton, 287. Sheldon Block, 287-8. Sheldon & Reed, publishers, 240. Sheley, Alanson, 322. Sherman, Abner, 493. Sherman, Gen. William T., visits Detroit, 540. "Sherman Stevens" (locomotive), 366, 651. Sherwin-Williams Co., 657. Shinplaster money, 534. Shipbuilding industry, 75, 657. Shipman, 0. W., 436. Shipping, searched by British, on Lake Erie, 279; see also Navigation. Ships, see Sailing Vessels, Steamboats. Shipyards, 75, 190, 498. Shirley, William, Gov. of Mass., 28. Shoe industry, 591-2. Sholes, Capt. of Artillery, 197. Shubert-Detroit, see Theaters. Shugart, Zachariah, 325. Sibley, Mrs. A. H., 681. Sibley, Frances W., 681. Sibley, Solomon: Supreme Court Justice, 105; Delegate to Congress, 105, 268; honors, 107; petitioned for new territorial government, 128-9; mustered troops for War of Sibley, Solmon (Continued): 1812, 134; chairman, Northwest Territory trustees, 211; bank director, 231; treaty with Indians, 258; helped to found Pontiac, 260; sentenced Simmons to be hanged, 290. Sibley, Lieut., 142, 194. Sidewalk ordinance, first, 212. Sieges of Detroit, 13-17, 41-6o, 134-43. Siemens-Martin steel method, 498. Signal of Liberty, see Newspapers. Silver Lake, 252. 'Simmons, Stephen G., murders wife, 289-90; hanged, 291-3, 420. Simons, David W., 633. Simpson, Thomas, 287. Sinclair, Patrick, 68. Singer, Isaac Merritt, 444. Sisters of Charity, 479. Sisters of St. Clare, 317, 479. Slaughter, T.. 668. Slavery: Ordinance of 1787, 90; ant i-slavery riots, 321-2; in early Detroit, 321-2; slavery question of Civil War times, 505-6, 512; fugitive slaves,667;slaves,Hector, 288, Pompey, 507; sold in Detroit, 507; purchased in N. Y. after emancipation, 321; slave population of Detroit, 739. Sleeping cars made in Detroit, 489. Sloan's Cavalry, 138. Slocum, Elliott T., 567. Smart, David, 312-3. Smart, Robert, 160, 164, 311-3. Smart Block, now Merrill Block, see Buildings. Smith, Adam, 209. Smith, Charles H., 592. Smith, Erastus, 467. Smith, Fred W., 671. Smith, Hyrum, 449. Smith, Jack, 204. Smith, Jacob, 201, 253. Smith, Joseph, Mormon, 449. Smith, Martin S., 621, 623, 670. Smith, R. C., 483. Smith, S. L., 714. Smith, William, Congressman, IIt. SmitL, William P., 374. Smith's Cavalry, 138. Smith & Vail, 425. Smithsonian Institution, copper block in, 404; first Oldsmobile in, 714. Smyth, Richard, tavernkeeper, 94, 206-7, 305. Smyth's Tavern, houses first Territorial Assembly, 94, 206; see also Hotels. INDEX 761 Snelling, Mrs. Abigail, 336. Snow, Frank E., 436. Snow Telegraph Lines, 426. Soap-making, 429. Soda ash and allied industries, 660. Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, 526. Soldiers' land grants, 259. Soldiers, recruiting of, see names of wars. Solvay, Alfred and Ernest, 66o. Solvay Process Co., 660-1. Somers (gunboat), 171. Songs, campaign, 386-7. Soo, see Sault Ste. Marie. South Carolina secedes, 513. Sower, Christopher, 472. Spain, Charles L., 693. Spanish-American War, 546, 641-9. Special schools, 688-90. Specie money, 534-5. Speed, John J., 425. Spencer, Joseph, 164; tannery, 202. "Spirit of '76," 339. Split Log, Chief, 135. Spring Hill Farm Log Church, see Churches. Spring Hill School, see Schools, Parochial. Springwells, 391, 442; British troops land at, 147. Spy (steamboat), 407. Stacey, Betsey, 219. Stacey, William, 219. Stadium, University of Detroit, 694. Stagecoach, lines, 258, 407, 424. Stanbury, Lieut. Dixon, 138. Standish, James D., 664. Stanton, Stephen K., 669. Star of the West (steamboat), 515. Starkey, Harry, 544. Starkweather, C. C., 670. Starley, James, 706. State assessors, 609, 639-40. State Fairs, 465. State Rights, 246, 512-4. Statia, Joseph, 208. Stead, Benjamin, 207, 305. Steam carriages, 709. Steamboats: Early, 232; first built in Detroit, 303; accidents, 389, see also Accidents, Lake; railway, 488; rates, 240. Atlantic, 489-90, 497; Austerlitz, 299; Caroline, burned,.38; Champion, 424; Champlain, 340; Charles Townsend, 245; Clermont, 232; Detroit & Buffalo line, 490 -2, 496; Empire, 416; Erie, 389,465; Fairport, 397-8; Fulton, 233; Gen. Vance, 407; Steamboats (Continued): Great Western, 389,397; Henry Clay, 245-6; 299-300; Iowa, 453; Island Queen, 531; Keystone, 453; Mayflower, 489, 497; Mzchigan, 303, 496; Ocean, 489, 498; Ogdensburg, 489-90; Philo E. Parsons, 531-2; Plymouth Rock, 491-2; Richmond, 503; Spy, 407; Star of the West, 515; Superior 245-6, Thames, 340, United States, 304; Walk-in-the-Water, 234-42, 246, 457. See also Navy, U. S. Stearns, Frederick, 655. Stearns, Willard E., 687. Steams Laboratory, 655-6. Stephens, Alexander H., 513. Stephens, James, 537. Sterling, James, 35, 43. Stetson, Turner, I9I. Stevens, Mrs. Frederic B., 681. Stevens, Robert, 507. Stevens, Sherman, 364. Stevens, William H., 656. Stewart, Albert E., 693. Stewart, Duncan, 502. Stewart, James, 389. Stickney, Benjamin F., 334. Stickney, Two, 333-4. Stillman, Mrs. George S., 681. Stinchfield, Charles, 622. Stocking, William, 569. Stoddard, Jennie M., 681. Stone, Captain of the Morgan 453. "Stone-fence" whisky, 385. Stpny Creek, 155. Storey, Wilbur F., 525. Stoves: Companies, 477; industry, 472, 476-7, 613, 657; early types of, 472-5. Strang, James Jesse, 449-52. Stratton, William B., 482. Strauther, Samuel, 325. Street cars, see Street Railways. Street cleaning, 594. Street lighting, 433; electrical, 560-I; towers, 601, 608. Street railways: 593, 646; first in U. S., 573; horse cars, 593, 598; service begins, 573-4; electrification, 620-3; fares, 624, 626, 630, 632; franchise controversy, 595, 619-32; purchase proposals, 622-33; vote on proposed settlements, 633-4; audit denied, 61o; valuations 595, 629-36; cars to Belle Isle approach, 566-7; Citizens' Co. organized, 621 -30; seeks franchise, 621; Detroit City Railway, 574, 617-21, 626-7; Fort Wayne & Belle Isle Co., 618, 626; Grand River Co., 621; Cleveland, Ohio, 625; Grand Belt Street Railway (Continued): lines, 632; strikes, 618-9; Detroit United Railway, 627 -35; city acquires lines, 634. Streets: 311-4, 406; plan, 123; names, 151-2, changes in, 268; Adams, 197, 561, 574; Atwater, 122-3, 579; Bagley (formerly Macomb), 407, 652, 716; Bates, 213, 226, 276; Beaubien, 652; Brush, 561, 579; Cass, 593, 646, 694; Chene, 122, 202; Congress, 125, 214; Croghan (now Monroe), 192, 388; Elizabeth, 646; Erskine, 575; Fairfield, 694; Farrar (now Library), 388; Florence, 694; Fort, 268, 574-5; Franklin, 579; George, 152; Grand River, 574-5, 593-4; Gratiot, 368, 574, 652; Griswold, 122, 203, 229, 653; High, 150-2; Howard, 116; Jefferson, 57, 123, 213-4, 229, 556, 561-3,574-5,593-4, 636, 655; John R., 646; Lafayette, 593; Lafayette East, 203; Livernois, 694; Macomb, 406, 652; Miami (now Broadway), 205, 646, 693; Michigan, I24; Michigan Grand (now Cadillac Sq.), 268, 276, 604; Martin Place, 481; Monroe, 124, 198, 652; Orleans, 284, 645; Palmer Park Blvd., 694; Park, 152; Putnam, 63; Randolph, 135, 203; Ste. Ahne, 46, 48, 117; St. Aubin, 652; Third, 268, 561, 574, 646; Washington Blvd., 123, 646; Witherell, 574; Woodbridge, 123, 207, 212, 556, 653; Woodward, 124, 151, 206-7, 214, 556, 561, 574, 593-5, 653, 686. Strikes, 618-9. Strong, John W., 502. Stuart, David, 510. Studebaker Corporation, 713. Submarine boats, 732. Sullivan, Constable, 529. Summer schools, 689-90. See also Schools. Sunday school, first Protestant, 261. Sunday theaters, see Theaters. Superior (steamboat), 245-6. Supreme Court, 230, 263, 269, 286, 563, 623, 627-30. Sutherland, G., 544. Sutton, Eli R., 645. Sutton, James W., 388. Swan, Judge Henry H., 623. Swan Creek (now Toledo), 329, 336. Symmes, John Cleves, 101-2. Syracuse, N. Y., 574, 658. 762_ INDEX Taft, William Howard, 623. Taverns, required to keep beds and food, 216; licenses, 211i; for names, see Hotels. Taxation, 65, 215, 455, 460-1; on bathtubs, 427-8; abuses, reforms and discriminations, 609-11; road tax, 634-6; railway tax problems, 636-9; on shipping, 638; school taxes, 639. Taylor, Rev. Charles C., 423. Taylor, Charlotte 241, 457. Taylor, Frank D., 483. Taylor, Israel, 139, 164. Taylor, Jonathan, 332. Teachers, 438, 68s. Teachers' College, see Colleges. Tecumseh: Ally of British, 129; plans conquest of the West, 130; gathers Indians at Malden, 133; bars road of American reinforcements,137; leads Indians at Brownstown, 139; honored by Gen. Brock, 147; protects Americans from massacre,158; stratagem fails, 162; rescues 170o Americans, 163; undismayed by Perry's victory, 175; denounces Gen. Procter for cowardice, 179; death in Battle of the Thames, 186-9; subject of a song, 386. Tecumseh, Mich., 324, 333, 382. Tefft, William H., 477. Telegraph: Inventor, 241; beginnings of, 425; primitive, 698; first message, 705; District Telegraph Co., 559. Telephone, 698; centrals, 559 -60; companies, 559-60; exhibited in 1877, 559; long distance, 560. Temperance agitation, 678. Temple Beth-El, 541. Temple Theater, see Theaters. Ten Eyck, Conrad, 125, 212, 164, 397. Territorial Assembly, see Michigan. Teuscha Gronde, "country of the beaver," early name for Detroit region, 2. Thames River, Ont., 81, ror, I37, I82, I85, 187, 219. Thames, Battle of the, 181, 185 -9; Proctelr's retreat, 185; booty sold, 209. Thames (steamboat), 340. Thanksgiving celebration, first in Detroit, 263. Thayer, John E., 414. Theaters: 444-8; Adams, 704; Avenue, 314; Biddle House, 445; Broadway-Strand, 703-4; Capitol, 484,704; Casino, 702, Theatres (Continued): 704; Council Chamber, 444; Detroit Opera House, 542, 56o, 68i, 701, burned, 445, 55I; Family, 471; Garden, 703; Garrick, 446; Lyceum, 313, 445, 550; McKinstry, 430; Madison, 704; Metropolitan, 445; National, 388; New Detroit, 550; Royal, 702; Shubert-Detroit, 368, 445; Temple, 314; Theatre Comique, 445-6; Washington, 704; White's Grand Opera House, 445, burned, 550; Whitney's Opera House, 445; advent of the Sunday theater, 446-8; Wonderland, 314, 699-700, 702. Theller, Dr. E. A., 339. Thomas, H. T., 715. Thomas, J. F., 693. Thomas, Dr. Nathan, 325. Thompson, F. A., & Co., 656. Thompson, Jacob M., 514, 523. Thompson, William B., 738. Thompson William G., 566, 738. Thompson-Hutchins franchise, 632. Three cent fares, 624. Throop, George, 244. Thunder Bay River, 255. Thurber, Philip, 497. Tigress (gunboat), 171, 185. Tilden School fire, see Fires. Tilley, Ammi, 467. Tillinghast, P. W., 707. Tillottson, Mr., 425. Timken-Detroit Axle Co., 720. "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too", 385-6. Tippecanoe, Battle of, 131, 197. Tobacco: Companies, 468-70; tobacco introduced, 468; first factory in Detroit, 469; products, 470. Tocqueville, Alexis de, visits Detroit, 297. Toledo (Swan Creek, Vistula), 61, III, 259, 335, 370-1, 488-9, 498, 523; former town names, 329. Toledo War, I I, 330-4; Toledo surrendered, 337. Toll roads, 634-5, see Roads. Toms, Robert P., 508, 562. Tonquish, Indian, 203. Tonty, Alphonse de, 6; dishonesty in trading with Indians, 22. Tonty, Madame de, arrival in Detroit, 12. Torbet, Samuel, 393. Toronto, Ont., 338. Toucey, Isaac, 514. Town meetings abolished, 561. Town promotions and paper "cities, " 347-50. Townsend, Dwight, 621. Traffic squad organized, 672. Trains wrecked by farmers, 466. Transportation, early, 258; speeded up, 705. Treadway, A., 483. Treasonable surrender and robbery of governmental property, 513-4 -Treaties: Fort Meigs, 265, 382; Ghent, 210; Greenville, 129, 249, 255; Indian land cessions, 249, 257; Jay's, 103; Saginaw, 250, 255; Treaty of 1819, 298. Trevethick, Richard, 709. Trinity (Washington) College, 377. Trippe (gunboat), 171, 174. Trophies of war, 147. Trowbridge, Charles A., 351. Trowbridge, Charles C., 271-3, 316, 438, 563, 738; defeated by Gov. Mason, 372. Trowbridge, Luther S., 687. Truax, Maj., 407. Trucking, 572-3. Truesdale, W., 502. Tucker, G. W., 431. Tuite, Thomas P., 587. Tunnels, completed at Port Huron, 555; first bore started in 1871, 553-4; proposals for Detroit River project, 553; started at Trenton, 554. Turkey Creek, 135-7. Turnbull, George, Capt., 65. Turner, Judge, 102. Tuscarawas, Ohio, 75. Tuttle, Capt., so.Twenty-fourth Michigan Regiment, 524-5. Twiggs, Gen. David E., 514. Tyler, John, President, 386; Harrison and Tyler campaign, 384-9. Tyler, Mrs. M. G., 503. Typhoid epidemic in Spanish War, 642-3. U Ulrich, Charles, 262. "Under the oaks," Republican Party organized, 508-9, 565. Underground Railway routes, 322-8, 5o6. Unemployment, 613. United Empire Loyalists, 83, 2o6, 338. United States (frigate), 132. United States (steamboat), 304. United States Army, see names of wars. United States Bank, see Banks. United States Courts, 336, 451, 457,623,705. INDEX 763 United States Navy, see Navies. University of Detroit, see Colleges. University of Michigan: Founding, first subscriptions and site, 223-6, 305; act establishing, 380-I; branches established, 227, 380-2; lands, 383; buildings and tuition, 423; regents, 423-4; Medical College, 692. Upper Peninsula, 677-9; given to Michigan, 377. Upper Sandusky, Ohio, 80. Upton, George B., 415. Utica, Mich., 281, 327, 425. Utley, Henry Munson, 687. V Valliant, Fr. Francis, 6, 1o. Van Alstyne, John S., 4F97. Van Buren, Martin, President, 340, 384-6; visits Detroit, 397-8. Vance, David, 92. Vandenberg, Henry, 92. Van de Poele arc lamp, 560. Van Dyke, James A., 738. Vanfleet, Col., 336. Van Home, Thomas, 137-8. Varnish factories, 656-7. Varnum, James M., lo. Velocipedes and "velocipedons," 706. Vernor, Benjamin, 483, 497 -Verdier Act, 632. Vicksburg, Mich., 324. Victoria, Queen, 426. Vincennes, M., 16. Vincennes, Ind., 77, 79, 92-3, 130. Vinci, Leonardo da, 698. Virginia, tax on bathtubs, 427. Visger, Jacobus, 105. Visger, Joseph, 204. Vistula (now Toledo), 259, 329. Vitascope, 701. Vivian, Andrew, inventor, 709. Vocational schools, see Schools. Voree, Wis., 449, 453 -w Wadsworth, Gen. Elijah, 133. Wales, Austin, 501. Wales Hotel, see Hotels. Walk-in-the-Water, Chief of Wyandottes, 130, 133, 135, I39, 153, 185, 234. Walk-in-the-Water (steamboat), first on Lakes, 234; first trip, 235-7; passengers and rates, 238-41; wrecked, 242, 246, 457 -Walker, Judge Charles I., 542, 563, 687. Walker, Edward C., 482. Walker, Dr. Henry 0., 347. Walker, Hiram, 564. Walker, John, 164. Walker, Jonathan, "the man with the branded hand," 323-4. Walker, Robert E., 346. Wallace, Robert, family massacred, 80. Wallaceburg, Ont., 241. Wallen, Elias, io8. Waller,Thomas M., ex-Gov. of Conn., 619, 621. Waller, Cook & Wagner, 619, 626. Walpole Island, 137. Walsh, James, 208. Walter, William E., 682-3. War: Casualties, 161, 175, i86, 518-9, 526-7, 643, 732; hospitals, see Hospitals; profiteering, 538, 644; psychology, 73-4, 207-8, 421-2, 538-9; slackers, 1860, 545, 730. See also names of wars. War of 1812: Causes, 132-3; Gov. Hull asks aid, 133; Detroit reinforced, 133-4; local preparations, defenses, 134-5; Mackinac captured, 137; Battle of Monguagon, 137; Hull censured, 138; Battle of Brownstown, 134, 137, 139; Gen. Brock arrives, 139; surrender of Detroit demanded, 141; bombardment, 142; Gen. Lamed's secret, 143; surrender of Detroit, 143; Col. Brush escapes, 146; Hull a prisoner 147; Fort Dearborn massacre, 147-9; Fort Nonsense, 150 -51; Gen. Harrison raises troops, 152; Gen. Winchester in command, 153, defeated, 156-8; Tecumseh protects prisoners, 158; River Raisin massacre, 159; ransoming of prisoners, 160-1; burial of victims, 161; Fort Miami defended, 162-3; leading Detroiters banished, 164; Battle of Lake Erie, 169-75; Perry's dispatches, 177; Tecumseh rebukes Procter, 179-81; Harrison invades Canada, 182-4; Battle of the Thames, 185-9; American atrocities, 187-9; end of war, Treaty of Ghent, 210. Ward, Eber Brock: Developer of state resources, 374; vessel man, 424; Detroit's first captain of industry, 493-9; helps prosecution of Civil War, 524; defeats park purchase, 563; death of, 498. Ward, Sally, 278. Ward, Capt. Samuel, 495-6, 503. Wards, city, 542, 684, 687. Ward's Landing (Marine City), 281, 498. Warner, Carlos E., 687. Warner, Gov. Fred M., 399. Warren, Joseph, 507-8. Wars, see names of. Warships, see Navies. Washington, George, President, 29, 95; dislike of Gen. Clark 78; sends Gens. Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne to seize Northwest Territory, 86-8. Washington, Fort (Cincinnati), see Fort Washington. Washtenaw County, 678. Water Commissioners, 468. Waterfront, 212, 216, 266-8; unappreciated, 558; improvement proposed, 646. Water gas, 437. Water supply: 1og; water works installed, 283; mains of tamarack logs, 284; reservoir on Fort St., 284; moved to foot of Orleans St., 284, 605; service, past and present, 486-8; high pressure, 675. Watertown, Mass., 434. Watson, Col. Jarres, 241. Watson, John, 687. "Waubun," 149. Wauwasson, murdered by Kishkawko, 278. Wayne, Anthony, sent to recover territory, 87-9; succeeded by Wilkinson, 94, 96; death and burial, Ioo; county named, 101; fort named, 392. Wayne, J. B., 192. Wayne County, named, 1oi; boundaries, 257; first election under U. S., 92; poorhouse, 393-4; vote on prohibition, 678; in World War, 729. Wayne, Fort, see Fort Wayne. Weather Bureau, 241. Weaver, William, 219. Webb, Gen. James Watson, editor, 384, 444. Webb, William, 323. Webster, Daniel, visits Detroit, 345-7; 414. Webster, D. Fletcher, 345-7. Weeks, George, 704. Welch, Charles M., 445, 544. Welch, "Peg," 668. Welland Canal, 503; sec also Canals. Wellings, James, 422. Wells, Ensign, killed, 159. Wells, Rev. N. M., 275. Wells, Rufus, 284. Wells, Samuel, 148, 155-6, 209. 764 INDEX Wells Express Co., see Express Companies. Welton, Rev. A. W., 227, 244. Wendell, Mary S., 375. Western Electric Co., 606-7. Western Union Telegraph, 426. Wetzel Brothers, 36. Wharves, 212, 216, 235, 283-4. Wheat, first in Detroit, 8. Wheaton, W. W., 544, 569, 738. Whelan, John B., 671. Whig party, 372, 505-1o, 385. Whipping post, 214, 453; established, 261; abolished, 293. Whipple, John, 128. Whitbeck, C. S., 501. White, A. E. F., 655, 7r9. White, Edna N., 695. White, H. K., 655. White, Peter, 493. White Pigeon (Pigeon), Mich., 333, 382, 419, 469. White's Grand Opera House, see Theaters. Whiting, Andrew G., 260. Whiting, J. L., 298, 305. Whiting, J. T., 493. Whiting, Joseph, 382. Whitney, Charles, 1I3. Whitney's Opera House, see Theaters. Whitsey, T. W., 431. Whittemore, Gideon, 288. Whittemore, J. P., 544. Whittier, John Greenleaf, antislavery poems, 323. Whittlesey, Elisha, 333. "Wide Awake" marching clubs, 512. Wiedenfeld, Camille, 599. Wiest, Judge Howard, 587-8. Wilcox, 0. B., 516. Wild Cat money, 349, 359. Wiley, Ann, 68. Wilkins, Maj., 6r. Wilkins, Judge Ross, 389, 451. Wilkinson, Gen. James, 92-96, 100oo. Willard, William, 493. Willcox, Eben N., 424, 574. Willets, Elijah, 213. Williams, G. P., 382. Williams, Bishop G. Mott, 314. Williams, George, 244. Williams, James Munroe, 218. Williams, John R.: Aids defense of Detroit (i8t2),134; ignores fire ordinances, 212; frames ordinance for taverns, 216; director of Bank of Michigan, 231; defeated for Delegate to Congress, 268; quits Ste. Anne's Church, 269; promotes founding of Free Press, 288: command in Black Williams, John R. (Continued): Woodward (Continued): Hawk War, 298; marriage quarrels with Gov. Hull, 128; of daughter, 313; defeated by ransoms American prisoners, Chandler, t1o; Mayor, 738. 160; describes desolation in Williams, Mary, 313. Detroit, 200; draws UniverWilliams, Morris M., 423. sity Act, 223-5; helps estabWilliams, Oliver, 212-3, 217-8, lish a bank, 231; first steam227; first liquor license, 213. boat ride, 238; at founding of Williams, Orlando, 467. Pontiac, 260; legislated out Williams, Gen. Thomas, 314. of office, 263; defeated for Williamsburg, Va., 77, 395. Delegate to Congress, 268; Willis, Henry, 325. organizes Detroit Lyceum, Willis, Richard Storrs, 566. 305; names first University, Wilmot, William, 544. 382; names Ypsilanti. 281, Wilmot Proviso, 51o. 351; city plan, 405. Wilson, C. R., Carriage Co., Woodwardville (site of High719; Body Co., 720. land Park), 126, 351. Wilson, George, 438. Woodworth, Benjamin, 212, Wilson, John, 208. 239-41, 312, 407, 444; builds Wilson, John M., 321, 667. wharf, 216; appointed sheriff, Wilson, R. T., Co., 624. 290-3; starts ferry, 303; see Wilson, William, 164, 335. also Hotels, Steamboats. Wilson, Woodrow, President, Woodworth, Samuel, "Old Oak726-9. en Bucket," 240; owner of the Winchell, Prof. Alexander, 409, Gen. Vance, 407. 658. Woolfolk, Capt., 159. Winchell, John, 687. Worcester, Mass., 379. Winchester, Gen. James, 153-9, World War, 726-32; draft 161. boards, 728-30. Windsor, Ont. (Richmon d), World's Fair, Chicago, 244. 1oi, 135, 140, 303, 328, 371, Wright, Dorothy Mason, 399. 407, 523, 533; barracks Wright, E. H., 399. burned, 340; first horse-boat Wright, John, 374. ferry to, 245, 263. Wright, Kay & Co., 698. Wing, Austin E., 260, 268-70, Wyandotte: 134; mills and 296, 312,424. shipyard, 498-9; salt wells, Wing's Wharf, 216, 235. 660-1. Winnebago City, 347, 403. Wyoming Valley, Pa., 76. Winnimeg, Chief (the Catfish), 148. Wisconsin, 0o, 298, 337, 403. Y Witherell, B. F. H., 290, 351, Y P ( 528, 685. Yankee Point (Belle River, Witherell, Mrs. B. F. H., 316. Marine City), 495 -Witherell, James, 126, 134, 232, Yarnall, Lieut., 173. 269. Yazoo Land Companies, 114. Witherell Farm, see Farms. Yondotega Club, 279. Wolcott, Dr. Alexander, 271. Yosemite (U. S. cruiser), 643. Wolfe, Gen. James, 30. Young, Brigham, 449. Woman suffrage, vote on, in Y. M. C. A., 313, 482-5, 694-5. 1912, 679. Young Men's Hall, 552. Women's Christian Temper- Young Men's Society, 307, 31oance Union, 484. 3, 411. Women: First in Detroit, 8-12; Y. W. C. A., 485. Civil War, 527. Ypsilanti, Prince Demetrius, Wonderland, see Theaters. 281, 351. Wood, Joseph, 333-4. Ypsilanti, Mich., 126, 281, 309, Wood, M. B., 425. 324-8, 336, 348, 351, 369-70, Wood County, Ohio, 331. 393,424, 651. Woodbridge, William, 268, 290, 305, 382. Woodhall, C. H., 718. Z Woodmere Cemetery, 75. Woodmere salt mine, 661. Zeisberger, David, 77-79. Woodward, Judge Augustus Zo6trope, 698-700. B.: Appointed judge, 120; Zug, Samuel, 508. 4 14 Burton Historical Collection _i Leaflet j'i^?T_1 Published bimonthly by the Detroit Public Library Entered as second class matter February 1, 1922, at the post office - -r at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of August 24, 1912. Vol. III JANUARY, 1925 No. 3 The Mansion of St. Martin BY M. M. QUAIFE. L QOING! going!! gone!!!" ran the headline over an "jG article published in a Detroit paper one day in 1882 describing the demolition of the city's oldest building, the former home of Governor Cass. The ancient mansion had long since fallen upon evil days, in consequence of which its closing years had been passed amid an environment of poverty and squalor; yet within its massive walls of log hovered an atmosphere of romance and a wealth of historic associations, the memory of which was destined long to outlive the sturdy building itself. To sketch in part its history, and to recall to mind some of the interesting men and women whose careers are inextricably bound up with it, is the purpose of the present narrative. When and by whom the house was built seems now impossible to determine; but a story of its origin has long persisted which, although without adequate historical evidence, affords the logical point of departure for the narration upon which we are embarking. When in 1701 Cadillac came to establish at "the Straits of Lake Erie" an outpost 34 BURTON HISTORICAL COLLECTION LEAFLET of civilization, he was received with acclaim by the resident savages. Before long the enthusiasm of Quarante Sols, chief of the Huron village, became such that he expressed a desire for a house wherein he might "live in the French fashion." In due time the order came from Quebec to Cadillac to build for the red ruler a house of oak, forty feet long and twenty feet wide. As ordered, so was it done, and a letter written from Detroit in the summer of 1703 describes the house as "delightfully situated on the margin of the river" on a little eminence overlooking the Huron village. There is no clear-cut evidence to show that the mansion thus constructed for the gratification of red royalty in the infancy of Detroit was identical with the one whose demolition was announced in the headlines of 1882, but the similarity of location and size, together with the known antiquity of the latter, have induced many students of Detroit history to believe that it was, and this belief, together with the story on which it rests, is now a part of the history of the house. As such, and subject to the caution noted, we offer it to the reader. About the year 1740 the Huron band removed from their village near the fort to beautiful Bois Blanc Island. Some time prior to this, one Jean Baptiste Baudry had come out to Detroit and thereby had become the founder of a family which was to become notable in the city's annals. Baudry, who was variously designated, also, as La Butte and St. Martin, was connected with some of the foremost families of Canada. His grandfather had come from France to Quebec about the year 1646; there he married Madeleine Boucher, a sister of the governor of Three Rivers, and founded a numerous and well-known family line. Jean Baptiste, its first Detroit representative, was born at Three Rivers in 1684. His wife was Mary Louise Doyon, who came of a family still more notable in the annals of Canada. One of its connections was Marie Therese, the wife of Cadillac, who in 1702 courageously followed her husband into the wilderness to become in the literal sense the first lady of Detroit. Her arrival has been made the theme of one of the two fine historical paintings which grace the walls of the delivery room of the Public Library. Of Jean Baptiste Baudry it is recorded ItAýNSION OF ST. MARTIN 3 35 that he had mastered the silversmith's art. He engaged in trade with the Indians, learned the language of the Huron, and before many years was serving as interpreter between them and the officials of the French government at Detroit. Not only must the interpreter be intimately acquainted with the natives, but he must enjoy their confidence as well. If the house built by Cadillac for Quarante Sols in 1703 was still standing, there is nothing improbable in the traditional story that when the Huron ceased to have need of it they turned it over to their f riend Baudry; and while this act would give him full ownership f rom the Indian point of view, he would naturally seek a patent f rom the French government to establish his ownership in the eyes of the white men. Such a grant, embracing a tract of land two arpents wide and forty deep, fronting on the river immediately below the fort, was formally issued to Baudry on April 1, 1750. The grant comprised a portion of what was designated by the Americans half a century later as Private Claim No. 55, lying between Cass and Third Avenues, and commonly known throughout most of the nineteenth century as the Cass farm. We are now ready to present what seems,-o be the most probable alternative theory with respect to the origin of the mansion. It is quite probable that Baudry had been an actual occupant of his land in advance of procuring the formal grant. Whenever he located on it, he must have a hod se to live in, and unless he f ound one ready to hand, he must himself have built one. On this view of the case, the years 1740-50 may be taken as marking approximately the date when the old house was erected. Baudry died in 1755, and his body was interred beneath the old church of Ste. Anne, while his soul, it may be presumed, winged its flight to a clime even fairer than that of "the detroit." We have noted that the interpreter was variously known, also, as St. Martin and La Butte (or Des Buttes), these names being derived from those of ancestors in the feminine line of ascent. The former passed to his son Jacques, who commonly went by the name of St. Martin, and this name we will employ henceforth in designating both him and the estate. After the death of the elder St. Martin in 1755, his 36 BURTON H:STORICAL COLLECTION LEAFLET widow continued to live on in the house with her son, Jacques. In 1760 she gained a new daughter, and the mansion acquired a new mistress, when Jacques St. Martin led to the altar Mary Ann Navarre. The bride was a daughter of Robert Navarre, "the scrivener," and no other event in all the long history of the house exceeds in interest her coming to it. In her veins flowed the blood of the ancient kings of Navarre, and one of her relatives by collateral ascent had been the great Henry IV of France, the most popular monarch of all the Bourbon line. He anticipated by more than three centuries the conception which finds present-day expression in the League of Nations, and in a world racked with religious hatreds he conceived that spirit of toleration which we are still striving to achieve. Robert Navarre, the bride's father, had been sent by his government as subintendant and royal notary to Fort Pontchartrain of Detroit in 1730; here for over sixty years he continued a prominent citizen, and here today he is represented by scores of descendants. By the surrender of New France to Great Britain in 1760 he lost his former official status, but he succeeded in rendering his knowledge serviceable to the conquerors, and continued to exercise considerable influence under the new regime. He was an educated man, and to him has been ascribed the authorship of the anonymous manuscript journal of Pontiac's siege on which in large part our knowledge of that famous event depends. Jacques St. Martin and his brother (who went by the name of La Butte), succeeded their father as interpreters to the Huron and both men figure prominently in the stirring drama of Pontiac's siege. Notwithstanding their French and Indian affiliations both men proved true as steel to Major Gladwin, the sadly-harassed British commander, and were among the few Frenchmen in whom he placed implicit trust. During the early weeks of the siege St. Martin continued to live in his house below the fort. But the savages employed it as a shelter from which to fire upon the garrison, and the English in return trained their cannon and small arms upon it. In short, St. Martin's r6le of neutral was rapidly becoming untenable, and when in early July he learned from a friendly Huron that the savages MANSION OF ST. MARTIN 37 were about to compel the French to take up arms against the English, with his "mother-in-law, his wife, and all his dependents" he sought refuge inside the fort. His fidelity was attested by Major Gladwin, who entertained a justifiable distrust of the French settlers in general. Half of them, he wrote in one of his letters, merited the gibbet, while the remaining half "ought to be Decimated." But from this sweeping condemnation he expressly excepted St. Martin and two or three others, characterizing them as "Honest Men." After the siege was over St. Martin returned with his wife to the family homestead, but his period of wedded bliss was terminated untimely when on a day in June, 1768, he, too, was gathered to his fathers. To his wife, Mary Ann, daughter of Navarre, "the scrivener," was left the family estate. The lot of a widow is seldom free from care, and there can be no room for doubt that in the rude circumstances of the time the household of St. Martin had urgent need of a masculine head and protector. Living in the fort at this time, and about the same age as Mrs. St. Martin, was Detroit's only surgeon, George Christian Anthon. A native of Germany, he early studied medicine, and in 1754, at the age of twenty years, repaired to Amsterdam and there engaged as a surgeon in the Dutch West India trade. On his second voyage, outward bound to Surinam, the vessel to which he was attached was captured by an English privateer, carried to New York, and there condemned. Being thus cast adrift in the New World, the youthful surgeon soon found his way into the British army and was a member of Major Rogers' expedition which occupied Detroit in 1760. Here he continued to reside, with but one or two comparatively brief absences, until 1786 when hlie removed with his- family to New York. On one occasion, during Pontiac's siege, he climbed into a pear tree to gain a better view of the enemy, and the latter, discovering him, opened so hot a rifle fire upon the tree that Major Gladwin was compelled to create a diversion by ordering a sortie, under whose cover the surgeon withdrew from his perilous post. In August, 1770 Dr. Anthon became the husband of Jacques St. Martin's widow. Presumably at this time he 38 BURTON HISTORICAL COLLECTION LEAFLET took up his residence at the homestead of his bride, for it is certain that he was its occupant during many succeeding years. Mrs. Anthon died in 1773. leaving to her husband the care of her three children born of her marriage with St. Martin. Of these we need take note of only the youngest daughter, Mary Archange, who had been born in the old house in the spring of 1766. Through the death in 1768 of her father, and the subsequent marriage of her mother to Dr. Anthon, she was reared to womanhood under the guiding care of the latter. In 1788 she attached to the house of St. Martin yet another interesting historical association by becoming the bride of Angus McIntosh, scion of a famous Scottish line. His father, of Moy House near Inverness, had been the head of the McIntosh clan, and a champion of the fallen fortunes of the royal house of Stuart. So warm, in fact, was the devotion of the mistress of Moy House to the Stuart line that on one occasion when Bonnie Prince Charlie was in Scotland heading the last desperate invasion of England she took the field at the head of 300 fighting clansmen, and she it was who caused the "rout of Moy."' Despite such fierce loyalty, however, the madcap enterprise of Prince Charlie ended in bloody failure; the head of Clan McIntosh lost his estate, and as a subsidiary consequence of the developments we are sketching, Angus McIntosh, his young son, departed into voluntary exile. Coming to the New World, he found his way to Detroit, where in time he became a prominent trader, and the local representative of the great Hudson's Bay Company. In consenting to become his bride, therefore, Mary St. Martin was uniting her fortune with that of a man of consequence. When, in 1796, the Americans took possession of Detroit, McIntosh removed to the south side of the river, where he built a large residence just above the site of modern Windsor, which he named Moy House, after his ancestral home. Nearby were storehouses and a wharf, where the sailing vessels employed in the trade of the Great Company loaded or discharged their cargoes. The (1) The sto-ry may be read in Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grandfather. MANSION OF ST. MARTIN 39 Hudson's Bay factor was a man of might in the old days, and the master and mistress of Moy House entertained with lavish hospitality, and in keeping with the custom of the time raised a numerous progeny. At Moy House Mary Archange McIntosh lived out her life within sight of her ancestral birthplace across the river, and in 1827 was buried in Assumption Churchyard at Sandwich, where her grasscovered tombstone may still be seen. A few years after her death, Angus McIntosh, now an old man, returned to his native land to enter into belated possession of his ancestral birthright. The thread of our narrative again leads back to Dr. Anthon. Besides her own children his dying wife had bequeathed to him the care of an orphaned niece, Genevieve Jadot. On the maternal side she sprang from the line of St. Martin, her mother having been a sister of Jacques St. Martin. On the paternal side she was connected with some of the greatest families of Canada; her first Canadian ancestor had come to Quebec in 1617 and there played a role second in importance only to that of Champlain in the early history of New France. To him many persons whose names are illustrious in the annals of Canada trace their ancestry; over none of them does the student linger with more interest than he does over that of the orphan, Genevieve, who was destined in her turn to become the progenitor of a notable family line. She had been born near Sandwich on the eve of Pontiac's uprising, and baptized in the old church of the Huron which stood on the site of the later church of the Assumption. With grim persistence Death had claimed in turn all of her natural protectors., mother, father, uncle, and aunt, leaving her at the age of ten years to the guardianship of Surgeon Anthon. Romance and tragedy in this changeful world go often hand in hand. Ere long Genevieve Jadot blossomed into radiant womanhood and the guardian began to view his ward in the light of a prospective wife. In 1778, when the bride was barely fifteen years old, the two were wed, and the family tradition still survives that her husband had some difficulty in persuading her to give over playing with her dolls. Yet the union seems to have been a happy one, despite the disparity in age between husband and wife. To 40 BURTON HISTORICAL COLLECTION LEAFLET the couple were born many children, at least three of whom attained stations of eminence in their several professions of the law, the pulpit, and the school. John Anthon, born at Detroit in 1784, became one of the foremost jurists of the New York bar. To his efforts the establishment of the Supreme Court of New York City was largely due. Henry Anthon was celebrated as a preacher, being for twenty-five years rector of St. Marks-in-the-Bouerie. Still more notable was the career of Charles Anthon, the classical scholar. He was for forty years a member of the faculty of Columbia, and his scholarship brought him fame in Europe as well as in America. A picture of this remarkable family while domiciled in the old mansion of St. Martin has been etched by Judge Campbell in the following lines: Behind the dormer windows That open on the strait, First cradled were the Anthons, Renowned in Church and State, The good and wise physician, Of all the red men known, Had lore of the German forest, Of star and mine and stone; And the slender, dark-eyed mother, That held them on her knees, Sang songs of the Spanish borderThe land of the Pyrenees. Who knows what golden threads of thought Before the infant memory brought, In manly eloquence were wrought Behind those waving trees? Genevieve Anthon, the "slender dark-eyed mother," must have been, from all accounts, a charming and spirited woman. She was a brunette, with bright black eyes and raven locks that were never tinged with grey although she lived until almost her sixtieth year. In 1798 when New York was swept by an epidemic of yellow fever and all who could fled the city to escape the plague's dread ray MANSION OF ST. MARTIN. 41 ages, not only did Dr. Anthon remain at his post, but Mrs. Anthon, whose infant ears had listened to the triumphant whoop of Pontiac's warriors, bravely faced this even ghastlier foe, and throughout the plague toiled by her husband's side, carrying supplies of food and other comforts to the stricken. The next chapter in the history of the ancient St. Martin homestead brings to view yet another family distinguished in the annals of America. About the year 1755 John Gordon Macomb migrated with his family from Ireland to Albany, New York, and a dozen years or so afterward to Detroit. The newcomers engaged in merchandising and the Indian trade, and achieved a large measure of prosperity. Two sons of the original immigrant, who were actively engaged in the business of the firm about the period of the Revolution, were Alexander and William Macomb. In 1776 they secured a deed of Grosse Isle from the Potawatomi Indians, and in 1781 they bought the old St. Martin farm from the niece of Jacques St. Martin. Several years before this purchase (May, 1773) Alexander Macomb had married Catherine Navarre, a younger sister of Mary Ann, the bride successively of Jacques St. Martin and Dr. Anthon. Possibly this marriage alliance will serve to explain the fact, as reported by the Macomb family historian, that in April, 1782 was born in the old St. Martin house (now the home of Dr. Anthon and his wife, Genevieve) a son to Catherine and Alexander Macomb, to whom also the name Alexander was given. A few years later the family removed to New York City. The residence they there acquired was one of the finest in the city, and in 1790 it was rented by the government to serve as the official residence of President Washington. Macomb speculated in real estate on an enormous scale, a single purchase in 1791 comprising over 6600 square miles, represented today by several New York counties. The boy Alexander, born at Detroit in 1782, entered the U. S. army in 1798, and when he died in 1841 he had been for half a dozen years its commander. Perhaps his most notable exploit was the victory of Plattsburg in 1814, when with about 2000 soldiers he defeated a force of English veterans of the Napoleonic wars seven times as large as his own. 42 BURTON HISTORICAL COLLECTION LEAFLET Precisely when Alexander Macomb disposed of his interest in the St. Martin farm I have been unable to learn. Quite possibly he did so on leaving Detroit for New York, for William Macomb, according to sworn testimony before the U. S. land commissioners, was in possession of the place for many years prior to 1796. This was the year of American occupation of Detroit, from which the validity of all claims to land by right of occupation was reckoned. William Macomb died this same year, having willed the St. Martin homestead (together with certain tracts adjoining) to his three sons, to whom the title was granted by the American government in 1807. At this time James May testified that since 1796 the place had been continuously tenanted by the executors of WVilliam Macomb. May himself, in August, 1804 had leased it for a period of ten years at an annual rental of $500. May was a prominent citizen of Detroit in. his time, a man of multiform interests and activities. He moved about so frequently that of his twenty-two children only two, according to one of the sons, were born in the same house. What disposition he made of the Macomb place, or how long he occupied it, seems impossible now to determine. Long before his lease expired the country was beset by the perplexities which attended the War of 1812. Again, as in Pontiac's war and the Revolution, the old St. Martin mansion reechoed the measured tread of marching armies, while once more throngs of yelping savagesfierce Sioux from the plains of Minnesota and Iowa, proud Foxes whose ancestors had besieged Detroit a century before, crafty Winnebago from the forests of Wisconsin, and Chippewa and Ottawa from the shores of Lake Superior-passed before its doors, or pitched their tepees under the trees which shaded the river bank. It was the expected advent of this horde of "northern savages," flushed with triumph over their easy victory at Mackinac. which blanched the cheek of General Hull and drove him to the most ignominious surrender in all our military annals. Most dramatic occasion of all, the dwellers in the old house on the morning of August 15, 1812, might have beheld from its windows the crossing of Brock's army in open boats from Sandwich to Springwells, and its silent. MANSION OF ST. MARTIN 43 steady advance in dense column formation along the river road to the fort. Not far from the house of St. Martin the Americans had posted two twenty-four pound cannon to rake the river road; the gunners stood with lighted matches, awaiting only the word of command to sweep the advancing column, pinned between the river and the row of houses facing it, with a hurricane of destruction. But America wanted a leader on that fatal day; the command was never uttered, and in consequence Detroit underwent the long nightmare of alien mnilitary rule and subjection to savage spoliation. One of the men who labored most effectively to terminate it was Colonel Lewis Cass of Ohio. His able efforts were rewarded by his appointment as governor of Michigan and for eighteen years he labored, like a Roman proconsul of old, to promote the welfare of his people and magnify the authority of the United States in this region. An existing regulation required the governor of Michigan to be the owner of a certain amount of real estate, and to comply with this requirement Cass in 1816 purchased the Macomb farm, embracing, as we have seen, the old grant made by the French government to Jean Baudrv, dit St. Martin, in April, 1750. The ancient mansion now entered upon perhaps the most interesting period of its long career. for as the residence of Governor Cass it became the White Houcse of the Northwest. To its hospitable shelter came a steady stream of travelers on business or curiosity bent, ranging from James Monroe, the first president of the United States who ever set foot in Detroit, to the tawny savage of the distant wilderness. Of President Monroe's visit in August, 1817 the contemporary Detroit GacLttc reports that a "large number of carriages and of citizens on horseback and on foot" went out along the river road nine miles to the Ecorse to escort the President's party into town. In the returning procession were the President, attended by Governor Cass, General Brown, commander of the U. S. Army, attended by General Macomb. and numerous other military and civil dignitaries. Thus the President was escorted to the ancient house of St. 44 BURTON HISTORICAL COLLECTION LEAFLET Martin, alike the home of Cass and the birthplace of Macomb. Next day the President and the commander of the army reviewed the troops, and on this occasion Governor Cass formally presented General Macomb with a beautiful sword which had been voted him by the state of New York in recognition of his brilliant victory at Plattsburg in 1814. The sword is still preserved, being the property of a granddaughter of the General, who resides in Philadelphia. With the decade of the thirties there began for the St. Martin mansion an era of decline into an obscurity which contrasted strangely with the period of its ancient glory. For one thing, Governor Cass was called to Washington in 1831 to take a position in President Jackson's cabinet. His absence was extended for almost a dozen years, and when he finally returned to Detroit he established his home in a new residence. For with the growth of the city that marked the decade of the thirties the old house had fallen upon evil days. A group of associates had purchased from Cass the portion of his farm lying between Lamed Street and the river, and undertaken an extensive scheme of development. This involved grading down the elevation on wThich the house stood, and filling in some low land which was covered by the river. The panic of 1837 brought disaster to the promoters, but so far as our present story is concerned they had done their work. The house built by St. Martin, if not indeed, by La Mothe Cadillac, was cut in two and the parts were removed to the north side of Lamed Street, between First and Second, where they were joined together for yet another half century of life. Over this later period we prefer to draw the veil of silence. A writer in 1882 describes the ancient mansion as "much out of repair and, although occupied by tenants, is almost literally in ruins." Soon after this it was torn down. Better had it been if it had been destroyed at the time of its removal, for until then the remarkable procession of interesting characters associated with its history continued unbroken, and even the associates who wrought its downfall were among the foremost business men of the city. The MANSION OF ST. MARTIN 45 tuneful lines of Judge Campbell supply our story with a fitting conclusion: The spreading town has shouldered The useless fort away, The grasping hands of Commerce Are closing on the bay, The garden and the orchard No ripened fruit retain, And idlers cross the wheat-fields And trample on the grain. Alas for the brave old mansion Alas for its ancient fame! Old things make room for the present As ashes follow the flame. But all of the massy timbers Are sound and stiff and strong, And in their seasoned fiber lies A store of precious memories, That, wakened by the sounding bow, May murmur music sweet and low, Or quiver into song. The Home of Governor Cass in 1826. (From Thomas L. McKenney's Tour to the Lakes.) At two, I dined with the Governor; and as you may be curious to know what kind of a mansion he occupies, I will give you a sketch of it. It is not exactly in, nor entirely out of the city-I mean its settled parts; but stands by itself on the bank of the river, with the road-way from the city towards Spring Wells. between it and the precipice. or edge of the bank, down which a diagonal and rough way has been cut to the river. The house is of cedar lots, and weather boarded, one story, with a high sharp roof, out of which, and near the centre, coines a short stone chimney of enormous thickness, and on which the roof leans, beinc 46 BURTON HISTORICAL COLLECTION LEAFLET a little sunk round about it. Before the front door, which is nearly in the centre of the building, the building being some fifty feet front, is a porch that, being a little out of its perpendicular position, inclines north. Its figure is as nearly that of a square as of any other figure, with a sharp Chinese looking top, that shoots up some three feet above the eaves of the house, and seems to have in no one place the least connextion with the building. I told the Governor that my puzzle was to decide which was built first, the porch or the house. He acknowledged his inability to decide the question, but added, "the house itself is anterior to the time of Pontiac's war, there being on it now the marks of bullets which were shot into it then." I learned afterwards that the porch had once ornamented the garden as a summer house; but had been advanced from its retirement to grace the front of the residence of the executive of the Michigan territory. A post and board fence runs between the house and the road, the house standing back from the line of it, some ten or twelve feet. Two gate ways open into the enclosure, one having been intended to admit, and the other to let you out. over a circular gravel walk that gives figure to a green plat in front of the door, and between it and the fence. One of these has been shut up, but how long I don't know-So we go in <"nd come out at the same gate. The position occupied by this relic of antiquity, is very beautiful; not on account of the views to it, and from it, only, although these are both fine, but it is sustained on either side and in the back ground, by fertile unland meadows. and flourishing orchards and gardens, which give it a most inviting appearance: and serves to impress one with the idea of old age surrounded by health and cheerfulness. In front are the shores of Canada, with the beautiful river between, and to the right the Huron church. &c., the sound of the bell from which strikes gratefully upon the ear. Now for the inside of the building. You enter first into a room, or saloon, of some ten feet square, in which the Governor receives his business visitors; and where lie scattered about in some tolerable confusion, newspapers and the remains of pamphlets of all MANSION OF ST. MARTIN 47 sort, whilst its sides are ornamented with Indian likenesses, and pipes, and snow shoes, and medals, and bows and arrows, &c. On your left is the door which leads into the dining apartment, back of which is another room, (in which is a fire place,) of about the same size, divided fr om it by folding doors. This dining room is warmed in winter by one half of a stove, whilst the other half, passing through the partition into the saloon, keeps that comfortable. From the right of the audience room, or saloon, you enter the drawing room; and in place of the back room, in the left division, two rooms are arranged, one of which serves for the library, and the other for a lodging room. These rooms being all well carpeted and curtained, and furnished in excellent, but plain style, present a view of comfort which forms a striking contrast to the exterior; and you are made to forget, in the midst of these interior accommodations, the odd-shapen and ancient appearance from without. There is much of the simplicity of republicanism in all this. Extrinsic appearances are to a reasonable extent disregarded; and the hiagher value is attached to the interior; and this is not an unfit emblem of the Governor himself. You are not to imagine, however, that this is intended to apply to his person: that is portly, and altogether governor-like, and in regard to which he is neat in his dress, and though plain, polished in his manners. Some Reminiscences of Elizabeth Cass Goddard. (From Ms. in Burton Collection.) Housekeeping in those days was not the comfortable arrangement of modern times. As General Cass was Governor of the Northwest Territory, his house naturally was the centre of hospitality and in his official position, he was obliged to entertain all distinguished guests. At best the half-breed servant was not very competent, and the burden of work of all kinds fell upon Mrs. Cass. The catering was no easy task; putting down the pork in brine, smoking the hams, 48 BURTON HISTORICAL COLLECTION LEAFLET supplying the larder with pies, plum cake and preserves, dried apples-all of which was the personal labor of my Grandmother and demanded constant watchfulness. Add to these cares, clothing and educating five children; and still always ready to act the part of a gracious, lovable hostess. One wonders how, as my mother has often told me, "she always found time to read for two hours every day." My mother often described in a thrilling manner the visit of the Indian tribes when they came to the Governor's home for their payments. There are not many now living who can recall the beauty of the Detroit River before it was shorn of its grandeur and narrowed in its width by the encroachments of the railroads. The sloping banks with the quaint, low, steep-roofed houses and a carriage road in front of them gave an uninterrupted view of a mile of clear, sapphire blue water, between the American and Canadian shores. As the day drew near for the visit of the Indians, the children were alert and watchful. If the coming was timed by the full of the moon, as was often the case, the anticipation was all the keener. Quietly the surface of the river would seem to be covered with a dark cloud which gradually grew blacker and blacker as it approached the Governor's house. Like sombre sullen ghosts these shapes silently glided down the river until, at a given moment, with one loud whoop, each canoe became a living centre of action and the cry taken up from boat to boat announced the arrival of the Indians and their welcome to the representative of the Great White Father. It was a weird scene and one that must have left an indelible impression upon whoever witnessed it. a 211 F jl -V A I 1- ~ 1': 4-t.* ig ' { i *~ ~.* ~~. If~ L r A~~ ~