FROM CARRIAGES TO CARS J.Dallas Dort

SMITH/DORT
JOSIAH DALLAS DORT, nephew of 3rd great grandfather Titus Dort, Jr.
(click here) to see a musical slideshow
correction: the snazzy publicity photo on slideshow cover features a group in a new Dort model car, but Dallas is not behind the wheel as stated

Family history is often passed down through the generations in stories and family records, but some is unexpectedly  uncovered while researching other people.  For instance, I did not know of our connection to the 'rich and somewhat-famous' Dallas, until I expanded the family tree of our common ancestor, Titus Dort, Sr.  We know that Titus Jr. was was a successful brick manufacturer in early Dearborn until 1851 (and brother Josiah -Dallas' dad- worked there with him before moving to the Flint area). Titus Jr. was also an impressive political figure in the early days of Michigan's statehood.  But his nephew Josiah Dallas,

Dallas Dort

known as Dallas, also earned his own recognition in the carriage/automobile industry.

Going back a generation to Titus Dort, Sr., father of Titus (our ancestor) and Josiah (Dallas's father), we find that the family name had been Dart or Darte prior to this time.  Nobody seems to know why the spelling was changed sometime between 1790 and 1800, but it would remain Dort in our family from that time on. 

One unconfirmed (and, likely, embellished) story passed down through the family asserts that my 2nd great-grandfather Andrew Jackson Dort (Dallas' cousin) discouraged neighbor Henry Ford from wooing one of his daughters; chasing him off his front porch with a shotgun.   (Ford would later buy the Dort farm, acreage that later became part of Ford's Greenfield Village.) Mom also fondly remembers a horse-drawn carriage ride with her Uncle Billy (Great Grandma Mae's brother).  Who knows, maybe it was a Durant-Dort carriage! 

Statues of  Dallas Dort (r) and business partner William Durant; Carriage Town Historic Neighborhood, Flint

THE FAMILY LINE:

Richard Darte (1609 - 1630) married Phillipa Spearke 
Born and died in Churston Ferrers, Devon, ENGLAND   

 

Richard Dart (1635 - 1724) the IMMIGRANT (circa 1652); married Bethia Calkins

Born in Churston Ferrers, Devon, ENGLAND; died in New London CONNECTICUT

Daniel Dart (1666 - 1738)  married Elizabeth Douglas

Born and died in Waterford,  New London, CONNECTICUT

Daniel Darte (1691 - 1771) married Jemima Shayler (daughter of Haddam, CT founder)

Born in Waterford, New London, CONNECTICUT, died in Bolton, Tolland, CONNECTICUT

Jonathan Dart (1732 - 1799)  married Lucy Whitney

Born and died in Bolton, Tolland, CONNECTICUT 

 

Timothy Dort/Dart (1756 - 1814) married Margaret Taylor

Born in Bolton, Tolland, CONNECTICUT; died in Gilsum, Cheshire, NEW HAMPSHIRE

 

Titus Dort (1777 - 1844)  married Charlotte Clarke

Born in Gilsum, NEW HAMPSHIRE; died in Jerome, Union, OHIO

 

Titus Dort (1806 - 1879)  married  Diademia Thomas

Born in Bridgeport, VERMONT; died in Dearborn, Wayne, MICHIGAN 

 

Andrew Jackson Dort (1831 - 1905)  married Lydia Secord Windsor

Born in Dearborn, MICHIGAN; died in Ypsilanti, MICHIGAN

 

Mae Louise Dort (1874 - 1964) married Daniel Grame Post

Born in Dearborn, MICHIGAN; died in Milford, MICHIGAN 

 

Ona Dort Post (1897 - 1978) married Leon Vern Smith

Born in Ypsilanti, MICHIGAN; died in Marquette, MICHIGAN

 

Smith married Glover

GloverSmith GENERATION ONE

TITUS DORT, MICHIGAN PIONEER & POLITICIAN

SMITH/POST/DORT family

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)

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.

The summer and autumn of l836 was very rainy. In the month of

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

years. My fellow townsmen have often placed me in positions of respon-

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]

Titus Dort

I am now nearly three scores and ten years of age, and expect soon to pass "to that bourne from whence no traveler returns."** May God continue to bless the State of Michigan, and gather us and all mankind into

the blessed realms of Immortality beyond the grave.

**

**'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…’)

.

DEATH OF COVERED WAGON BABY: Roswell Harmon Post

SMITH/POST FAMILY
(transcribed from 12/15/1934 DETROIT NEWS article, p. 3)  "DEATH ENDS LONG CAREER OF COVERED-WAGON BABY"

A covered-wagon baby, whose life spanned the development of Detroit and Michigan, is dead.
Following a brief illness, Roswell H.[Harmon] Post, building contractor for 45 years, died Friday afternoon in his home 949  Alexandrine Avenue, West.
Mr. Post, who was 88 years old was the youngest of seven sons [of twelve children] of John Franklin Post, pioneer Monroe lumber-man, and was born July 4, 1847 in a covered wagon while his parents paused for the night on the banks of the Miami River, in Ohio, during their long wagon trek from New York State to Michigan.
The family proceeded to Monroe, where Mr. Post's father cut a homestead out of the forest and established a mill.  When the boy was 14, the Civil War broke out and he worked far into the night firing the furnaces of the mill while thousands of feet of lumber were converted into stocks for the guns of Union soldiers.
In later years, Mr. Post became a builder and among the buildings he constructed were the present Union Station at Third Avenue and Fort Street; the old Peninsular Stove Works, several Detroit churches, and the early giant grain elevators at Duluth.  His office and shop stood on the site of the present Detroit Trust Co. on Fort Street, West.

Mr Post's ancestors were prominently identified with the early days of the Republic.  His great, great-grandfather was a captain in the Revolutionary War and his great-grandmother was a niece of Benjamin Franklin.  

He leaves his wife, who was Mary Trueman, of Indianapolis.
He was a member of Zion Lodge No. 1, F & AM; Monroe Chapter, No.1 RAM; Monroe Council, No. 1 R & SM; Detroit Lodge No. 128, and Michigan Encampment, No. 1 IOOP, and Mabel Rebekah Lodge No. 44.  Funeral services to be held at 2:30 p.m. Monday; will be under auspices of members of Zion Lodge.

[Roswell H. Post was born on July 4, 1846 and died on December 14, 1934. His father, John Franklin Post, was born in 2 October 1809 in Broome County, New York.  His mother was Mercy E. Green, born April 6, 1811 or 1817 in Bridgewater, Susquehanna County, PA.  She died on November 14, 1876 and is buried in Potter Cemetery, Monroe County, Michigan.
Roswell's brother, JOHN FRANKLIN POST, JR., was our ancestor.]

GLOVERSMITH FAMILY TREE--Post Branch:

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1. John Franklin Post, Sr. (1809 - 1885)

relationship to GloverSmith Generation #1: 2nd great grandfather

2. John Franklin Post, Jr. (1840 - 1906) [brother of Roswell H. Post]

Son of John F. Post, Sr.

3. Daniel Grame Post (1874 - 1935)

Son of John F. Post, Jr.

4. Ona Dort Post (1897 - 1978)

Daughter of Daniel G. Post

5. Emma F. Smith (1925 - 2020 )

Daughter of Ona Dort Post

 

6. GloverSmith Generation 1

Children of Emma F. Smith