Other traders established posts here at a later date, but the rapid advance of the cities, under the regime of enterprise banished the old-time trading-post and erected on its ruins magnificent houses devoted to trade.

THE GARRISON OF FORT SAGINAW.

In the treaty paper the names of soldiers and citizens participating in that important transaction are given. Here it will be necessary to notice only the next important military movement in connection with this county. Early in 1822 it appeared to the Territorial Government, that their new acquisitions on the Saginaw would be utterly worthless unless the articles of the treaty could be carried out in full. Owing to the great number of Indians then inhabiting the district a civil government would prove as mischievous as impolitic, particularly as the warriors of the tribe were characteristically wild if not savage, and beyond the range or power of merely civil government. Aware of this, the Legislative Council asked for special powers from the United States, which, being conferred, a detachment of United States troops was ordered to proceed from the military outpost of Green Bay en route for the treaty ground of the Saginaws. During the first days of July, 1822, two companies of the 3d U. S. Infantry embarked at Fort Howard for the mouth of the Saginaw river, under command of Major Daniel Baker. The command arrived below the present location of Bay City, where the men and stores were transferred from the transport to canoes and flat-boats for the ascent of the river, and the entire command pushed forward to its destination. The troops arrived at a point on the river near the location of the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw R. R. depot, July 25, 1822. Disembarking, they marched to the plateau, and pitched their tents upon the ground where the Taylor House block now stands. Subsequently the men raised a block house, surrounded it with a strong stockade, and literally built a fortress in the heart of the wilderness.

Notwithstanding all the promises made by the Indians, not a few of them looked with jealousy upon the new-comers and their labors. A council was held and the designs of the American soldiers fully discussed; but the peace party prevailed, and the troops were permitted to pursue their operations unmolested, until a building defensive and offensive in all its belongings rose above the river. The officers of this garrison were: Major, Daniel Baker; Captains, John Garland, S. H. Webb; Lieutenants, Otis Wheeler, Edward Brooks, Henry Bainbridge, Charles Baker, Wm. Allen, and Surgeon, Zina Pitcher. The last named officer joined the command in October, while the Surgeon, accompanied by Whitmore Knaggs, arrived overland from Detroit on the evening of July 25, 1822. The families of Maj. Baker, Capt. Garland, and Lieut. Brooks accompanied the command, as also John Dean, sutler; Chauncey Bush, Elliot Gray and T. C. Sheldon, army contractors.

Harvey Williams, John Hamilton, E. S. Williams and Schuyler Hodges arrived at the Fort in December, 1822.

It is related by Surgeon Pitcher that the winter of 1822-23 was very cold, and much snow fell. "When spring came on the rapid solution of it caused a great flood in the Tittabawassee and other tributaries of the Saginaw, so that most of the prairie between the post and Green Point was under water. The succeeding summer was very warm, and the troops, unused to the climate, became sickly as early as July, when, late the following fall, they abandoned the fort, and moved to Detroit by water, in two schooners, one commanded by Capt. Keith and the other by Capt. Walker." Before the departure of the troops, in September, 1823, Lieut. Charles Baker, a brother of the officer in command, and Lieut. Wm. Allen, succumbed to disease. A few private soldiers died within the year of occupation, and were buried near the fort. These deaths, and the wane of that esprit du corps so necessary for troops, had such a detrimental effect that nothing less than removal from the district was called for. Maj. Baker, sympathizing with the men of his command, reported that "nothing but Indians, muskrats and bull-frogs could possibly exist here." The War Department being made aware of this state of affairs ordered the evacuation of the post. Of the officers and men who lived to reach another station, there are only a few survivors. All have served with the U. S. regiment in the Mexican campaign.

THE AMERICAN FUR COMPANY

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established a post at Saginaw in August, 1824, with William McDonald as trader. This post occupied the abandoned fort, a short distance southwest of Campau's trading house, where the Taylor House now stands. For more than two years McDonald transacted the company's affairs, winning for his post an important position. In 1827 Eleazer Jewett was the next factor. rice Reaume, of the Tittabawassee post, was put in charge of the store at Saginaw; but his irascible qualities opposed the interests of the company, and so led to his withdrawal from the Saginaw district. He was suceeded by Ephraim S. Williams in 1828. This early trader employed Jacob Graveradt, Louis Roy and F. Roy to assist him in taking supplies from Detroit. The journey to Saginaw was duly performed and the company's post reopened. the course of a few years the Williams brothers purchased the rights of the American Fur Company, ultimately the interests of the Campau brothers, and became the great fur traders of Northern Michigan. During those early years Judge Abbott, of Detroit, was the chief factor of the company, and wisely made the appointment which resulted so beneficially to his employers and finally to the energetic trader whom he sent into this wild territory.

In

PUBLIC ECONOMY REVOLUTIONIZED.

It was deemed politic by the principals of the American Fur Company as well as by the Indian, French and American trapper, to exert every influence which might have a tendency to turn the tide of immigration away from the Saginaw Valley. To accomplish this they failed not on every occasion to give woful accounts of the country. Such accounts were verified by others who merely saw the marsh land bordering on the river. Even the Government surveyors seemed to have been carried away with the same idea. Relying upon the statements of the trappers, many of them never went into the interior, and actually made their plats from the representations of the interested parties. (See pages 68, 69.) Their reports were, similar to their plats, fictitious, and it was not until 1858 that the Government began to realize the great wrong done the district as well as the trick played upon the United States. A resurvey was made during that year which resulted in spreading a knowledge of the greatness of the forest, valley and the districts adjacent.

In closing this section of the work, it is just and proper that a few of the traits of Saginaw's first white visitors and "habitants " should be reviewed. The first and perhaps the noblest of those traits, was their attachment to that Republic which LaFayette commended to them. "To be known as a Frenchman," says Hubbard, "was to be known as a patriot. In the times which tried men's souls, few parts of the country had more bitter or varied experience than the border counties of Michigan. The Frenchman. was always our reliable and active ally,-cool and unflinching in danger, and shrewd and watchful when caution was most needed. If a man was wanted for some dangerous enterprise, it was a Frenchman who was chosen. Few men survive of the old "habitants" who were interested and intelligent witnesses of Gen. Hull's surrender of the fort at Detroit and with it the whole territory of the Northwest to the British arms. As late as 1825 the feeling of indignation was still fresh in the hearts of the French population, and it would have been a vain attempt to convince one of those who witnessed and entered into the scenes of those times, that the action of Hull was one of mere timidity or weakness, and not of high treason.

Whittemore Knaggs, well known among the Otchipwas as well as by the early settlers, and his brother, James Knaggs, equally well known, were among the truest conservators of the Union interests in the northwest from 1812 to the total expulsion of the British forces, and the partial annihilation of their fierce Indian allies. Judge Witherell, speaking of this French trapper family, says: "Capt. Knaggs was a firm and unflinching patriot in times when patriotism was in demand, during the war of 1812. He was one of the Indian interpreters, spoke freely six or seven of their languages, together with French and English, and exercised great influence over many warrior tribes. On the surrender of