History of Michigan

Volume I

The story of Michigan from the earliest times to the present day is told in these pages. There are gaps in the narration. Also some portions receive too extended consideration in proportion to the space bestowed on other topics of equal or perhaps greater importance. Again the authority for many statements is either inadequately stated or is omitted altogether. Every canon dear to the heart of the historical scholar of today has been either broken or ignored. In short, there is no fault herein that the author does not recognize and acknowledge.

And yet this history of Michigan represents many months, and sometimes many years, of research on special subjects — joyous months or years. One such experience involved a morning spent with the kindly Francis Parkman; weeks of reading his precious manuscripts in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Harvard Library; four years of searching in the Library of Congress for a clew to the personality of Henry Gladwin; correspondence with no fewer than four branches of the Gladwin family in England; a rich reward in portraits and manuscripts, and a sheaf of friendships becoming more precious with the years. It is not without deep sympathy that the record is here made of that gentle Oxford scholar, an architect of rare attainments, who so worthily bore the Gladwin name and courage into the great conflict now being waged for human liberty, and who in October, 1914, made the great sacrifice before Calais.

 

Table of Contents.

CHAPTER I
The Mound Builders, the Garden Beds, and the Ancient Miners

CHAPTER II
Indian Folk-Lore Attaching to Michigan Localities

CHAPTER III
Champlain and the Early French Explorations

CHAPTER IV
The Explorers of Lake Superior

CHAPTER V
Missionaries and Missions

CHAPTER VI
Louis XIV and New France; Proclamation at Sault Saint Marie and La Salle's Voyage

CHAPTER VII
The Founding of Detroit

CHAPTER VIII
The English Gain Possession of the Northwest

CHAPTER IX
Carver's Travels; Rogers and Sinclair at Michilimackinac

CHAPTER X
Beginnings of the Revolution in the West

CHAPTER XI
Border Warfare During the Revolution

CHAPTER XII
Marking National Boundaries

CHAPTER XIII
American Government in the Northwest

CHAPTER XIV
Michigan Posts Surrendered by the British

CHAPTER XV
Michigan Becomes a Political Unit

CHAPTER XVI
Michigan in the War or 1813

CHAPTER XIX
Struggles of a Lusty Young State

CHAPTER XX
The Rise and Decline of the Fur Trade

CHAPTER XXI
Political Events Leading to the Formation of the Republican Party

CHAPTER XXII
Michigan in the War of Secession

CHAPTER XXII
The Development of the Upper Peninsula

CHAPTER XXIV
The University of Michigan

CHAPTER XXV
Clearing the Forests

CHAPTER XXVI
The Holland Immigration and the Beginning of Grand Rapids

CHAPTER XXVII
Political Affairs from 1865 to 1897

CHAPTER XXVIII
The Reign of Hazen S. Pingrhe

CHAPTER XXIX
The Political Succession

CHAPTER XXX
The Cuban War

CHAPTER XXXI
The Michigan of Today

 

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James Frederick Joy. The distinction of having been the prime factor in the building of more than sixteen hundred miles of railroad in Michigan alone is of itself sufficient to make the name of James F. Joy one of the most significant in the history of this state. From 1836 until his death in 1896, Mr. Joy was a resident of the city of Detroit. Beginning his career there as a struggling young attorney, he rose to be one of the foremost business men of the United States, a recognized authority on finance, and one of the ablest railroad managers of the middle west. His achievements both in his profession and in practical affairs is remarkable. With his great executive ability he combined attributes of character which marked him as one of the most distinguished of Michigan's citizens. It has been said of him that he was too honest to be politic, too conscientious to be sycophantic and that his practice of all times telling the truth often made enemies of small-minded men, but brought him the friendship, never violated, of the greatest individuals of his time.