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 old narrow 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

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 10,000 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 5,000 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 régime. Secretary Griswold was arrested for inciting 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

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

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.

T

CHAPTER XXV

DETROIT'S FIRST BANK

ENURE of political office is uncertain and the ten-
dency of office-holders in the old days was to take

full 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, 1806, 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 Broadstreet, two money sharks from Boston, came to Detroit and carried east with them between $100,000 and $150,000 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

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