Titus Dort established the first brickyard in Detroit and provided the bricks for construction of the U.S. Arsenal buildings at Dearborn (photo: last of the original brick buildings, Commandant's Quarters, now Dearborn Historical Museum)
Dort,
Titus (1806-1879) — of Michigan. Born in Vermont, 1806. Brick manufacturer;
member of Michigan state house of representatives, 1839, 1842, 1865-66 (Wayne
County 1839, 1842, Wayne County 3rd District 1865-66); member of Michigan state
senate 1st District, 1849-52. Died October 7, 1879 (age about 73 years).
from "Pioneer Collections, Vol. 1," by the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan. 1877. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (begins p. 508)
years. My fellow townsmen have often placed me in
positions of respon-
A PERSONAL REMINISCENCE.
BY TITUS DORT, OF DEARBORN.
I was born in the State of Vermont, county of Addison,
and town of
Bridgport [Bridport], on the 17th day of June, 1806. My father
emigrated to Ohio
in the fall of 1811, and settled in Franklinton, the
county seat of Frank-
lin county, on the west side of the Sciota river,
opposite where the city
of Columbus now stands. It was then woodland covered with
trees.
In less than a year after we had taken up our residence
there, war was
declared against Great Britain, and Franklinton was made
the head-
quarters of the Northwestern army.
In 1815 (the war being over), my father moved about 20
miles north-
west on the Big Darby. In 1824 I came to Detroit with a
drove of
cattle, on the Gen. Hull road, through the Black Swamp.
In 1826 I
came to Detroit to reside, and commenced making brick on
the Dequindre
farm, about one mile east of Woodward avenue. In 1829 I
began brick-
making on the river Rouge, about nine miles west of the
city of Detroit.
On the 30th day of November. 1829, I was married to
Deiadamia
Thomas, a daughter of Alanson Thomas, an early settler of
this place.
My wife is six years younger than myself, and is still
living, though
in feeble health. Mr. Thomas, my future father-in-law,
during the war of
1812, removed his family into Champaign county, Ohio,
near Urbana, and
was chosen by Gen. Hull for one of his pilots through the
Black Swamps
to Detroit, and was there surrendered with the army. At
the close of
the war he moved his family back to this place, where his
father and
three brothers then resided.
I continued to make brick until 1851. In 1833 I entered
into a contract
with the War Department of the United States, by Lieut.
Joshua Howard
to make brick for the Government buildings to be erected
at this place,
except about 100,000 in the basement of the Arsenal.
In 1835 I was
appointed a justice of the peace by (Governor Mason and
the Legislative
Council of the Territory of Michigan.
In August, 1836 I was elected one of the delegates
of Wayne county
to meet in a convention at Ann Arbor, in September of
that year to
accept or reject the proposition of Congress for our
Territory to be ad-
mitted into the Union of the States.
The people of the Territory of Michigan, by their
representatives, met
in a convention at the city of Detroit, in the month of
May. 1835, under
an act of the Legislative Council, and formed a State
constitution, and
declared what the boundaries of the State should be,
which conflicted
with what the State of Ohio claimed as a part of her
boundary. The
constitution was approved by the people and transmitted
to Congress,
and that body refused to accept the boundaries as
declared, and sent to
the people the propositions referred to. — changing the
boundary between
us and Ohio. This was rejected by the convention at Ann
Arbor, in
September, 1836. But the people in their primary
capacity, without
the authority of law, got up another convention — they
went through
the forms of an election by ballot in the month of
November — the dele-
gates met at Ann Arbor in the month of December of that
year and
accepted said propositions, which gave us the Upper
Peninsula in lieu of
what was given to Ohio, and in January, 1837, the
constitution was
accepted and we were admitted into the union.
The delegates in the first convention from Wayne county
voted to
accept the said propositions of Congress, but a majority
was against it.
June there was a great freshet, and the banks of the
river were overflown.
There was a full tide of immigration. — 'the roads were
almost impassible,
which made awful times for the immigrants; it was almost
impossible
for them to get from one place to another.
At the annual township meeting of Dearborn, in 1830, I
was elected
under the authority of the State Constitution a Justice
of the Peace for
three years, and then reelected for the term of four
years. In 1830
several of the townships and several wards in the city of
Detroit neg-
lected to elect such officers, and on the 15th of June
Congress ac-
knowledged and accepted our State constitution, except
the boundary,
and then our State laws were accepted by all and many of
the town-
ships and wards had no legal officers and I had many law
cases from
Detroit.
I have been elected at thrice different times to
the House of Repre-
sentatives of our State Legislature, in l838, in 1841, and 1864; also, twice
to the State Senate, in 1848 and in 1850, and
took a seat at each succeed-
ing session.
hi 1849, at the session of the Senate, I was
appointed chairman of the
Committee on Agriculture.
Mr. J. C. Holmes made several communi-
cations to me on the subject of forming a State
Agricultural Society.
The matter was represented by me to the Senate and House,
they, with
few exceptions, united in the formation of such a
society; and in a few
years thereafter a State Agricultural School and College
was organized,
Each of these institutions are now prosperous and an honor
to the State.
I am indebted to Hon. Jonathan Shearer, of Plymouth, for
valuable
advice in the matter. I was one of the Executive Committee for five
sibility and trust, making me for several years
supervisor of the township
of Dearborn; frequently appointed Superintendent of Wayne
County
poor, overseeing the erection of the first and third
brick buildings on
the county farm for their accommodation. Much of my time
for many
years has been spent in administering on the estates of
deceased persons,
and in 1860 was a candidate for the office of Judge of
Probate, but was
defeated with the candidates of the Democratic party
generally.
This closes my civil and political record. I can look
back on many
errors in my past life, but cannot recall any intentional
ones.
I have one son, Andrew J. Dort, who resides with me on the home-
stead farm; is 39 years of age, has seven children, four
sons and three
daughters. [one of the daughters was the blogger's great-grandmother,
Mae Louise Dort]
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| Titus Dort |
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**'He is gone to that bourne from whence no traveller returns.' (Charles
Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, adapted from Shakespeare’s
Hamlet, Act 3, scene 1: ‘The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler
returns…’)
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