facilities, the life of the farmer is one to be envied, and the question of keeping the son and daughter upon the farm will be largely settled. § 4. Miscellaneous data. Table I gives an alphabetical list of the townships of the county, their postoffices and some miscellaneous information relating to them, gathered from latest available sources. It shows the population in 1894 to have been 33,181. The city of Monroe is the county. seat, having in 1894, a population of 5,613. There are three incorporated villages, namely: Dundee, 1,115; Petersburg, 446; and Milan, 964. § 5. Early boundaries. B. Historical. Early in the century just closing, "Wayne County" comprised the entire lower peninsula of Michigan, a part of the upper peninsula as well and adjoining portions of Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin. From this vast tract Monroe county was set off in 1817, by proclamation of Gen. Lewis Cass, then governor of Michigan Territory; the present Wayne county having been established two years earlier. The original proclamation by which the boundaries. of the county were first established is here given. "WHEREAS, It is considered that the public good will be promoted by the erection of a new county in the said Territory; Therefore, I do, by virtue of the power and authority in me vested, constitute the whole of that portion of said territory of Michigan which is included within the lines and limits following, that is to say: Beginning at the mouth of the river Huron of Lake Erie, within said territory; thence up the said river in the middle thereof until its intersection with the line between the third and fourth tier of townships south of the "base line," so called; thence due west with the said line until it shall intersect the present Indian boundary line, namely, to the western line of the first range; thence with said line due south to the southern boundary of said territory; thence along the southern boundary thereof, easterly to the southeast corner thereof; thence northerly along the eastern boundary of said territory to a point due east from the place of beginning; thence to the place of beginning; to be and remain henceforward a separate county, to be called the county of Monroe. Given under my hand and the great seal of said Territory. at Detroit, this fourteenth day of July, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, and in the fortieth year of the Independence of the United States of America. LEWIS CASS." An inspection of the present map will show that as thus outlined the county was much larger, upon the north and west particularly. A second proclamation, issued five years later, reduced it to its present limits, but attached to it the county of Lenawee, from which it was separated in 1826. "The county of Monroe, established by an executive act of July 14, 1817, shall be bounded as follows: Beginning at the boundary line between the United States and the province of Upper Canada, where the southern boundary of the county of Wayne intersects the same, thence with the said southern boundary, west to the mouth of the river Huron of Lake Erie; thence with the said boundary, keeping the middle of said river, to the line between the townships numbered four and five south of the base line; thence west to the line between the fifth and sixth ranges east of the principal meridian; thence south to the line between the Territory of Michigan and the State of Ohio, thence with the said line to the boundary between the United States and the province of Upper Canada; thence with the said boundary line to the place of beginning. In testimony whereof I have caused these letters to be made patent, and the great seal of the said Territory to be affixed. Given under my hand at Detroit, this tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the forty-seventh. LEW. CASS. § 6. Indian occupation. The earliest inhabitant, of whom we have any definite traces in southeastern Michigan, was the so called "Mound Builder." If the Paleolithic man of Europe had any representatives in this region his remains and crude implements are yet to be discovered and identified. The tendency of recent investigations of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys is to destroy more and more, the gap between our historic, eastern Indian and the mound building type of savage who depended more upon the soil for his subsistence and defense. It must be admitted, however, that he was intellectually the superior of the Indians who dispossessed him of his fertile fields and drove him, probably southwestward. He cultivated the soil extensively, wove cloth, burned pottery, manufactured a superior stone implement and worked our copper mines for the red metal. For purposes of burial and sacrifice, and apparently for use as signal stations from which messages could be flashed across the country after approved modern methods, he constructed hemispherical and conical mounds of loose earth. Some very interesting mounds of this character along the St. Clair and Detroit rivers were explored thirty years ago by Henry Gillman, of Detroit, and described in publications of the Smithsonian Institution, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and those of the Michi gan Pioneer Society. At favorably located points fortifications were constructed, sometimes of great magnitude, displaying a surprising degree of military skill and testifying to the patience and industry of these people. Two semi-circular structures, now covered by the city of Toledo, were described by G. K. Gilbert, Vol. I, Geological Survey of Ohio, 1873. Although no mounds or fortifications are known within the limits of our county, the characteristic implements are here found, and we are certain that this interesting type of savage man roamed its forests, drank from its clear springs and navigated its waterways. History opens with tribes of the great Algonkian nation in possession of this region; the Ottawas, Chippe was and Pottawattomies. The Wyandottes, or Hurons of the French, originally dwelt upon the St. Lawrence and are believed to have their descent from the powerful Iroquois of New York. They were, however, attacked by the latter, driven to Michigan and continually persecuted by them, being at one time almost annihilated. § 7. Early settlements. Col. Francis Navarre is credited with being the first white settler within the present limits of Monroe county. He settled in 1780 near the mouth of the River Raisin, known by the Indians as "Namet Cybi," and in 1785 secured from his "Pouteouatamie❞ friends a deed to a considerable tract of land, lying south of the river, which land is still largely held by his descendants. 1784 over one hundred families of Canadian French arrived and founded Frenchtown, upon the north bank of the Raisin, opposite Monroe. The same year other French families settled along the creeks to the north and south. § 8. War of 1812. In This part of Michigan was a portion of New France up to the year 1763, when it came into possession of the British and was actually held by them until 1796, although nominally transferred to the United States in 1783, at the clase of the Revolution. By Hull's Treaty of Detroit, in 1807, the Indian titles to lands in the county were extinguished, except nine sections of land upon the Macon reserved for the above four tribes. Encouraged by the British these Indians became unfriendly and during the War of 1812, the eastern part of the county became the scene of bloody hostilities. Marching to the relief of Detroit Gen. Winchester, with 1,000 Kentucky troops, was surprised January 22, 1813, by British and Indian allies and suffered a most crushing defeat; nearly all being killed or captured. The scene of the battle and the terrible massacre, was on the banks of the Raisin, about mile east of the site of Frenchtown, but as the river was frozen it extended southward as far as the poor soldiers succeeded in eluding their savage pursuers. Gen. Winchester, who was spending the night at the cabin of Col. Francis Navarre, was himself captured and taken to Fort Malden, Canada. "Remember the Maine" is but a paraphrase of the Kentuckians' "Remember the Raisin," used later as a battle cry. In 1818 the bones of the unfortunate troops were collected and buried with honors at Detroit in the Protestant burying ground. In 1849 they were transferred, along with others from the battlefield, to Frankfort, Kentucky. The disgraceful surrender of Detroit in August, 1813, was followed within less than a month by the glorious naval victory of Commodore Perry and the stars and stripes again soon floated over the city. Five times had the flag changed within the half century. § 9. Growth of population. These frontier troubles and the malicious report of the government agents in regard to the soil and climate of this portion of the State had much to do in retarding its development. The entire white population of the territory in 1800 was 551, in 1810 but 4,762, of whom nearly one-third were in Monroe county. During the next ten years it increased to 8,896 only, but jumped to 31,639 from 1820 to 1830. In the decade during which the territory acquired statehood, the growth in population was most surprising, reaching 212,267 in 1840. Owing to its fertility, location and natural resources Monroe county had more than its share in this increase. The following table. tells the story of its gradual development: Before the present boundaries of the county were finally estab lished the question of the line between the State of Ohio and Michigan Territory had first to be settled and this brought on the temporary turmoil, known as the "Toledo War." The celebrated "Ordinance of 1787," by which the Northwest Territory was organized, provided that the boundaries should be altered "so as to form one or two states in that of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend, or extreme of Lake Michigan." The map which was then regarded as official was the "Mitchell map," published in 1755 before any accurate survey of the lake had been made, and this map represented Lake Michigan as terminating at latitude 42° 20′ N. This line |