OUR RHODE ISLAND ROOTS #1: "A Lively Experiment"

WINSOR Colonial Rhode Island Family Connections

1663 Royal Charter

“...It is much in their hearts (if they may be permitted), to hold forth a livelie experiment, that a most flourishing civill state may stand and best bee maintained, and that among our English subjects, with a full libertie in religious concernements; and true pietye rightly grounded upon gospell principles, will give the best and greatest security to sovereignetye, and will lay in the hearts of men the strongest obligations to true loyaltye...”

– King Charles II Charter of 1663

Named in the1663 Royal Charter of Rhode Island & Providence Plantation are a number of our ancestors, including 9th GGF Roger Williams, founder of Providence:

detail of people named in the royal charter

John Clarke (1609 - 1676) my 1st cousin 13x removed [if Bartlett to Watson lineage is verified]

Benjamin Arnold close relation to Governor Benedict Arnold (1615 – 1678) Gov. Benedict was son of 10th great grandfather William Arnold 

William Baulston  Innkeeper (1601 - 1679)husband of aunt of wife of 1st cousin 11x removed (to Whitney to Dart)

John Smith "The Miller" Smithfield namesake (1595 - 1648) great grandfather of wife of 6th great grandfather (to Joshua Winsor II)

Samuel Gorton RI Warwick founder (1592 - 1677)  father-in-law of 9th great grand uncle (to Coles to Townsend)

Roger Williams Founder of Providence (1603 - 1683) twice 9th great grandfather (through his children Mercy and Daniel)

Thomas Olney Jr., Shoemaker (1600 - 1682)
9th great grandfather

Gregory Dexter, Printer (1610–1700) [see MI Dexter/Winsorlineage]
John Coggeshall, Jr., brother of Joshua Coggeshall (1623-1688) who was father-in-law of brother-in-law of great aunt of wife of 6th great grandfather (to Greene/Sayles/Winsor)

Joseph Clarke, brother of John Clarke  (1618 – 1694) 1st cousin 13x removed [if Bartlett-Watson lineage is verified] 

Randall Holden (1612 - 1692), husband of 9th great grand aunt Frances Dungan (1632-1697)  [daughter of "The Falconer's Daughter"]

John Greene, Capt. Deputy Governor (1620 - 1708) father-in-law of 1st cousin 9x removed

William Field (1635-1665) 3rd great grand uncle of husband of 3rd great grand aunt

James Jr. Barker Deputy Governor (1617 - 1702) son-in-law of Frances Latham, "The Falconer's Daughter" and 9th great grandfather [grandfather of Joshua Winsor b. 1682]

William Dyer (1609-1672) husband of Quaker martyr Mary Barrett Dyer and paternal grandfather of husband of 1st cousin 9x removed 

Plat of original home lots in Providence, Rhode Island

 

Christmas Eve 1910: SMITH FAMILY

On this day ~one hundred and five years ago~ my great grandfather William R. Smith did some last minute Christmas shopping! 

 

Merry Christmas 2015

Last year's post:

Smith Christmas Mementos, 1902

 

MICHIGAN PIONEERS #5: Joshua Secord

WINSOR/SECORD FAMILY CONNECTIONS: New York to Michigan 1821

4th GGF Joshua Secord (1781-1851)

a millwright, was born in Clarkstown, Rockland County, New York. His daughter, Mary Abigail "Polly" Secord married Mortimer Winsor and parented my 2nd great grandmother, Lydia Secord Winsor, wife of Andrew Jackson Dort. 

1661Protestant expulsion from La Rochelle.Luiken

BACKGROUND:
(From "Biographical Sketches and Index of Huguenot Settlers of New Rochelle  1687-1776" by Morgan H Secord:)

"AMBROISE de SICAR was a native of La Rochelle, France.  He owned a small vineyard there which supplemented his income as a "saunier" or salt maker.  The revocation of the Edict of Nantes made La Rochelle a target for anti-Protestant forces.  How and when Ambroise and his five children left France is not known.  The first entry in the records of the Huguenot Church in New York City is a baptism of a daughter of Ambroise and his wife JEANNE PERRON.  On 09 Feb 1692 he purchased 109 acres of land in New Rochelle NY from Guillame LeCount for which he paid thirty-eight pistoles & 8 shillings, current money of New York, equal to about $150 in gold."

(From HUGUENOT TRAILS, “Family History-The Secor Family,” published by The Huguenot society of Canada. Founded 1966. Vol. XV Number 3, 1982, ISSN-0441-6910:)

Secor family cairn, Scarborough

"The Scarborough SECOR family descend from Jacques Sicard born 1675 and the Niagara SECORD family descend from Daniel born 1672. Jacques and Daniel were probably born in Mornac where their father Ambroise was a Saunier (maker of salt).
Records show that most of JACQUES and ANN [Geertje Terrier]'s children moved across the Hudson River to the area around Tappan in Orange County, a predominately Dutch settlement. We find in the existing documents, that this branch of the family as a rule, dropped the final "d", while the members of Ambroise Sicard's family who remained in Westchester County, retained the final "d".
According to Morgan Seacord, who was for many years the historian in New Rochelle, Jean Sicar born 1712 was the father of John Secor ca 1730. It was this JOHN SECOR (ca 1730) who married MARIA GIRAUD (Gerow). Maria was the daughter of Benjamin Giraud and his wife Annatye Kuyper whose marriage is recorded in the Hackensack Dutch Reformed Church records. Maria was the granddaughter of Daniel Giraud born ca 1665 in France and died in York.

John Secor and Maria lived in Kakiat, Orange County N.Y. (this area now Rockland County). Their son ISAAC was born 11 August 1751 probably at Kakiat N.Y. [My records show Clarkstown, about 10 miles away.] He died in Scarborough, Ont. Canada 27th of August 1835. Isaac married MARY SIMMONS (1752-1819). During the Rev. War Isaac and Mary lived in the Haverstraw Precinct of Rockland County. With the exception of their two youngest children, Rebecca and Joseph, we find the birth dates and the baptism dates of their other children in the Clarkstown register of the Tappan Dutch Reformed Church.

This seems to be proof enough that the family remained in this area during the Rev. War.  While Isaac Secor did not fight in the Rev. War, he was loyal to the Crown and assisted the Loyalists in other ways. In his land petitions he mentions that he suffered many hardships at the hand of the Rebels. Because of his mother's illness and his young helpless family he was forced to remain.  Isaac's mother Maria died in 1785. Soon after that he and his family started out on the long trek to Canada. It is possible they stayed in Ballston Falls N.Y. enroute. This was a Loyalist stronghold during the Rev. War. Isaac and Mary's daughter Rebecca was born the 26th of November 1787. It is likely that she was born in Ballston Falls which would account for the family tradition that Isaac and Mary were from Ballston Falls New York.

Isaac Secor entered Canada in 1788 with his wife and five children: Isaac, the younger, Sarah, JOSHUA, Peter and Rebecca. Another son Joseph was born 22 October 1790. Rebecca and Joseph were baptized by Rev. Robt. McDowell, Hamilton Township.  He was in Kingston before going to Napanee where he built the first stone mill. In 1797 Isaac resided in the Township of Marysburg.  By 1804 Isaac Secor and his family had arrived in York. He purchased lot 19 Conc. D in Scarborough where a grist mill was erected. He was located on the West side of the road access and his son Isaac, the young, on the East side. The Highland Creek flowed through the property. The road access became the Markham Road. His son Peter later ran the mill.

Scarborough Historic Mills includes Secor Grist Mill

Isaac and Mary's children all married and had families:
Isaac, the younger (1773-1853) married (1) Rachel Ferguson, (2) Ellithear Ferguson.
Sarah (1775 - ?) married 91) Isaac Benn, (2) James Jones 
JOSHUA (1781 - ?[1851]) married Lydia, surname unknown. [Harris]
Peter (1785-1861) married Elizabeth Winslow
Rebecca (1787 - ?) married Simmons Mallory
Joseph (1790 - 1874) married (1) Ann Stevens, (2) Bridget Ryan
The Secor Cairn, overlooking the Secor Memorial Park, stands on what was known as Secor Hill, now Stevenwood Rd. This commemorative cairn is a tribute to a family of principle who helped build the township of Scarborough [York, Ontario, Canada]." 

JOSHUA'S STORY: 

Joshua's headstone suggests he was born in 1783

We know that JOSHUA SECORD descended from 1681 French Huguenot immigrant, Ambroise Sicard.  The "d" at the end of his surname might lead us to believe that he was great-great grandson of Daniel rather than Jacques but the available records lead back to the Scarborough family that is known as SECOR.  (By his father's generation, Secor and Secord were both used.) 

In Silas Farmer's History of Detroit and Wayne County and Early Michigan (1890), a biographical sketch of Joshua's son Lorenzo states that Joshua Secord, wife Lydia (Harris), and 4 children came to Detroit area in Jan. 1821.  Since Joshua's daughter (my great-great-great grandmother) MARY ABIGAIL "Polly" SECORD was born in 1815 in Erie County, New York, it seems reasonable to assume that this family was once again on the move, eager to take part in the "Michigan Fever" migration of New Yorkers (and also former New Yorkers who were compensated with territorial land for Revolutionary War damages to homes and property) to claim acreage in Michigan Territory.   

Lydia Secord Winsor Dort

Having lived thirty years in Michigan, Joshua died April 9, 1851 in Wayne County where he had fifty acres of farmland, four milk cows, two working oxen and other cattle and hogs.  He grew Indian corn and oats.  His estate, estimated at $800, listed his granddaughter LYDIA SECORD WINSOR as an heir along with her brothers Henry and Oscar, since their mother and Joshua's daughter, MARY ABIGAIL, had died prior to Joshua's death.

MICHIGAN PIONEERS #4: Samuel Dexter, Jr.

DEXTER/WINSOR FAMILY CONNECTIONS:  New York to Michigan 1833

Samuel Dexter, Jr. (1787-1856)

Founder of Ionia, Michigan; son of 1st cousin-7x Candace Winsor and father-in-law of 3rd GGAunt Mehitabel Winsor, the sister of 3GGF Mortimer Winsor

BACKGROUND: Samuel Dexter, Jr. was the son of Candace Winsor, the daughter of Rev. John Winsor.  John was a "brother-by-a-different-mother" of our direct ancestor, Joshua Winsor, Jr.   "In the early thirties the fame of the lands in the territory of Michigan reached the East, and among others who became interested was Samuel Dexter, of Herkimer county, New York, near Little Falls.  He was at that time forty-six years of age, had been a member of the New York state Legislature, and had also had a contract of excavating a large section of the Erie canal near his home. In the fall of 1832, in company with Doctor Jewett, later of Lyons, Michigan, he rode horseback through southern and western Michigan, looking up government lands for himself and friends. After following the lake shore to Chicago and investigating the prospects there he came back to Michigan and located lands on the Grand river at Ionia, and Grand Rapids; taking a quarter section at Ionia and a strip eighty rods wide on the east side of Division street reaching from Wealthy avenue to Leonard street on the north in Grand Rapids. Mr. Dexter went to White Pigeon, in the south part of the state, where the United States land office was then, entered his claims and returned home to New York, and spent the winter in selling his farm, getting everything in readiness and writing letters to induce as many as he could to join him in his new venture - that of making a new home in an unbroken wilderness."  (from: "History of Ionia County, Michigan : her people, industries and institutions, with biographical sketches of representative citizens, and genealogical records of many of the old families", 1st volume, edited by E. E. Branch, 1916)

SAMUEL'S STORY: 

Prudence Dexter Tower

as told in Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society Collections, Vol.28. 1897 (p.145-148) "The Journey of Ionia's First Settlers" by Prudence Dexter Tower, daughter of Samuel Dexter, Jr. [Read at Ionia May 27, 1893, on the Sixtieth Anniversary of Their        Arrival.]     "Some recollections of my father, Samuel Dexter, and the pioneers that first settled in Ionia; of their journey and arrival at Ionia: My father visited Michigan in the fall of 1832, and, through letters which he published, others were induced to come to Michigan. He and Mr. Erastus Yeomans bought a canal boat, a scow, and fitted it up to move the families, and as many of our household goods as possible, to Buffalo.      ~We started from Frankfort village, Herkimer county, N. Y., April 22, 1833, with three families, Mr. Yeomans', Oliver Arnold's and Samuel Dexter's, using their own horses to draw the boat. The boat's name was "Walk-in-the-Water," but some one wrote on the side of the boat with chalk, "Michigan Caravan." I think at Utica Mr. Joel Guild and his brother Edward and families embarked with us. We traveled by day and at night had to go ashore to sleep at hotels. At Syracuse Mr. Darius Winsor and family cast their lot with the rest. [NOTES: The above-mentioned boat "Walk-in-the-Water" was named after the first steamboat on the Great Lakes, shipwrecked in 1821.  Also, since Candace's brother Darius died in 1784, this namesake may have been a nephew. Sixty-two people left New York for Michigan on April 22, 1833. There were six families, headed by Samuel Dexter, Erastus Yeomans, Oliver Arnold, Darius Winsor, Edward Guild and Joel Guild. They were also accompanied by five young, single men, Dr. William B. Lincoln, P. M. Fox, Abraham Decker, and Samuel's brothers, Warner Dexter and Winsor Dexter.]     ~The boat was a motley sight, as the deck was piled with wagons taken to pieces and bound on, and every conceivable thing that could be taken to use in such a country where there was nothing to be bought. From Buffalo to Detroit we came by steamer “Superior.”

Of our trip on the lake I remember little besides sea-sickness. At Detroit we procured oxen and cows, and as much cooked provisions as possible and started on our journey through the wilderness. There were sixty-three people all told in the party. The first day out from Detroit we could make but seven miles because the roads were so heavy. At Pontiac we stayed one night. This was at that time a very small place and had rather a hard name, so much so that, if any one wanted to send a person to a bad place, he would say, "You go to Pontiac."     ~About twenty miles west of Pontiac we stopped one night with a Mr. Gage and his young wife and baby. I think they had no neighbors nearer than Pontiac and he complained that neighbors were getting too near; their hogs bothered him. From this time we had to camp out nights. At Shiawassee there was one French family, also two brothers by the name of Williams who were Indian traders. One of them my father hired to pilot us through to Ionia. From Shiawassee there had never been a wagon through, and much of the way we had to cut the road as we went along.     ~ At Shiawassee there were three children sick with canker rash or scarlet fever, a son of Edward Guild, myself and younger brother, Riley Dexter. We staid over one day during a heavy rainstorm. The Guild boy and myself soon got better, but little brother grew worse, and when we were in the heavy timberland about thirty miles east of Ionia, the dear little boy died about four o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. Guild had a small trunk which he let us use for a coffin and he was laid in the grave by the light of the camp fires which were burning. My father made a feeling prayer before the coffin was placed in the grave. They piled the grave high with logs to protect it from wolves, and also carved his name, age and date of death on a large tree before leaving the place.     ~ There was a French trader living in Muir who had a squaw for a wife. His name was Generaux. There was also a white man living at Lyons by the name of Belcher. Those were all the inhabitants on the river, except Indians, until you reached Grand Rapids, and I think there were but two white families there.     ~ I must tell you that most of the teams that brought us through from Detroit were ox teams. We had much trouble in crossing marshes and fording streams. Many women walked, and sometimes when we got stuck in the marshes the men had to carry them ashore. At night where we camped the men would build great fires by a log and the women would cook the meals. They had to bake biscuits in tin bakers set up in front of the fire. I think those were times that tried women's souls.     ~When we arrived at Ionia there was a large company of Indians living there. They had planted corn, melons and squashes, and did not like to leave; but through the aid of our interpreter father was able to pay them for their improvements and they left peaceably.     ~There were five wigwams built of bark. Four of them were down by the river. They were very small not more than ten feet square. Each had two bunks on one side, one above the other. The other wigwam was a few rods south and east of where the Novelty mill now stands, in the midst of the cornfield. This one was twelve or fourteen feet square, with a doorway at each end, at which we hung up blankets for doors. My father's family occupied this one. On two, sides of this wigwam was a low platform wide enough to lay a bed. On this we made up four beds and had a little space-between the foot of the beds to tuck in the little ones. In the center the earth floor was hollowed a little where the Indians had had fire. The roof in the center had an opening for smoke to escape. It also served to let in the rain, and one morning after a heavy rain when the creek had overflowed and run down the path into the wigwams,, mother's shoes were floating on the pool in this fireplace.     ~Our goods were mostly sent around the lakes to be left at Grand Haven, together with provisions, and as there was no transportation except by pole boat, it was a long and tedious task to get the goods up from Grand Haven.     ~For a table the men drove stakes in the ground and put sticks across them. They then laid the sideboards of our wagon box on for a top. So you see we had the first extension table in Ionia.     ~ Joel Gould and family went directly to Grand Rapids to live, but the rest of us lived in the wigwams until they could build big houses to live in. The first corn raised was pounded in a large mortar the Indians had dug out in a large hollow stump. The same fall my father brought from Detroit a large coffee mill, with two handles, with which two men could grind the corn. All the settlers had their corn ground in this coffee mill that winter. The next year father bought a small run of stone and put it in his saw mill to run by water, and with this the first wheat raised in Ionia county was ground. It was unbolted flour. Later my father built a grist mill, which has been remodeled and is now known as the Novelty mills.     ~ Mr. [Darius] Winsor had a little daughter sick with consumption who did not long survive after our arrival. Eugene Winsor was born that first fall and was the first white child born in Ionia county."

[A few of Samuel's siblings and numerous relatives made the migration from New York state to Michigan Territory during this era.  One brother, Darius Dexter married Mortimer's sister Mehitabel.  Without any proof whatsoever, I have surmised that our Mortimer Winsor may have been raised in their New York home before Mehitabel's death in 1829.  Mortimer married Mary Abigail Secord the following year in Michigan.  Darius Dexter moved west, remarried, and settled in Perry, Illinois where he died in 1866.  The other link to Mortimer may have been the above-mentioned Darius Winsor who was most likely a cousin to Samuel and Mortimer.]

References:
MIGenWeb links to Ionia history online resources 
The Journey of the Dexter Colony 1833 with map of route through Michigan; Ionia County Historical Society, May 2010.

MICHIGAN PIONEERS #3: Mortimer Winsor

WINSOR FAMILY CONNECTIONS:  New York to Michigan @ 1830

3rd GGF Mortimer Winsor (1807-1876) to daughter, Lydia Secord Winsor (1838-1885) to daughter and my great grandmother, Mae Louise Dort (1873-1964)

BACKGROUND: Mortimer Winsor was the great-great-great-great grandson of 1637 English emigrant, JOSHUA WINSOR and 1631 English emigrant (and founder of Providence, Rhode Island) ROGER WILLIAMS. 

Original Providence RI settlement

In the plat of Providence's original fifty-two home lots we find the immigrant ancestors of three interrelated Michigan pioneer families:  Gregory DEXTER (lot #1), Roger WILLIAMS (#14), and Joshua WINSOR (#35).  Two hundred years and many generations later, descendants of these three founding Rhode Island families would take part in the western migration to Michigan Territory.    
By 1802, Mortimer's family had moved from Rhode Island to Herkimer County in New York state.  
The family connections Winsor/Williams/Dexter are as follows:

• First generation Americans, Samuel WINSOR (son of Joshua the Immigrant) married Mercy WILLIAMS (daughter of Rev. Roger Williams)
• Their son JOSHUA WINSOR fathered two sons JOSHUA, JR. (whose mother was Mary Barker) and JOHN (whose mother was Deborah Harding)
• Our direct Winsor lineage runs through the descendants of Joshua Jr. (1709-1796)
• Our Winsor/DEXTER lineage runs through the descendants of Reverend John (1723-1808) whose daughter CANDACE married Samuel DEXTER, Sr., 3rd great grandson of immigrant Gregory Dexter.  (Their son Darius married Mehitabel WINSOR, Mortimer's older sister.  Another son, Samuel, Jr. led the "Dexter Colony" from NY to Ionia, Michigan in 1833. And a third son, John, married Sophia WINSOR, a relation I have yet to connect to Mortimer.)

MORTIMER'S STORY:  What little we know about my third great grandfather, Mortimer WINSOR is pieced together from the stories of others.  Mortimer was born in 1807 to Jesse and Mercy (Smith) Winsor after their relocation from Rhode Island to New York.  We know of four siblings, all of whom were born in Rhode Island and much older than Mortimer.  (Smith Winsor b. 1784, Mehitabel b.1787, David b. 1789 and Clark b. 1796)  This age gap would prove important for Mortimer whose mother died when he was only three; his father when he was ten.  So by 1817, Mortimer was an orphan and very likely taken into the family of an older brother or sister.  Married to Col. Darius Dexter, Sr., his sister Mehitabel was a newly-wed at the time of their mother's death and may have raised her little brother.  By the time of her father's death, the Dexter's were now living half-way to Detroit, in Chautauqua, New York.  Following Mehitabel's death in 1829 and his father, Samuel Sr.'s death in 1832, Darius Dexer moved his family west into the Illinois region where he lived out his life.  
Was Mortimer among this pioneer movement?   Undoubtedly.  He was already in Michigan (ahead of Samuel Dexter's founding of Ionia, Michigan in 1833) as evidenced by Mortimer's marriage to [Mary] Abigail Secord in Washtenaw County on 29 May 1830.  (Mary Abigail's family moved to Michigan from New York in 1821.) 
What records show:

• 1837 Mortimer and Abigail purchased land in Unadilla, Livingston County, Michigan (Abigail's brother Lorenzo Secord was already a landholder there)
• 1838 daughter Lydia Secord Winsor was born 9 Feb. in Dearborn, Michigan
• 1841 son Oscar F. Winsor was born 
• 1844 son Henry Mortimer Winsor was born
• 1849 son Charles B. Winsor was born 
• in the years following his wife "Polly's" death abt 1849, Mortimer was found in Dearborn with a stint in Cedar, Calloway, Missouri where he worked as a carpenter before returning to Michigan where he resided in Wayne County before his death on 5 Nov 1876 in Nankin.
• Although his death information is in the records for Union Chapel Cemetery, Inkster, his gravesite is unknown. 

  

  Lydia Secord Winsor

  Daughter Lydia and her husband Andrew Jackson Dort are buried there along with a number of the Dort family. 

The name "MORTIMER" is not evident in our Winsor family prior to 3rd great grandfather Mortimer Winsor, but its legacy continued: 
~brother David named a son Mortimer David Winsor 
~brother Clark named a son Henry Mortimer Winsor
~Mortimer named a son Henry Mortimer Winsor (who had a daughter named Minnie born in 1870)
~Mortimer's wife's brother named a son Henry Mortimer Secord (who also had a daughter named Minnie born in 1870!)
 

MICHIGAN PIONEER #1: Alanson Thomas

THOMAS FAMILY CONNECTIONS:  Connecticut to Michigan @ 1800

Aaron to Alanson to 3GGM Deiadamia THOMAS (1812-1877), wife of Titus DORT, Jr. (1806-1879)

BACKGROUND:  Alanson Thomas was the great-great-great grandson of Great Migration British immigrants (including Matthias Button  and George Geer) and the son of Aaron, Jr. (1754-1825) whose family had been early settlers of New London, Connecticut, originally of Massachusetts.  Aaron Jr., an American Revolutionary War veteran who served in the Continental Army in 1776, had a brother Joel who moved west following post-war treaties, suggesting a term of military service that qualified him for a land bounty in the Michigan Territory.  Aaron, Jr. followed him about (or before) the year 1800 with his wife and children, of whom sons Aaron III and Alanson were born in Windham County, Vermont. The birth of a third son, Joel, places the family in Detroit by the year 1800 when Alanson was 12. 

At the turn of the nineteenth century, the portion of the Northwest Territory now known as Michigan was still part of Indiana Territory.  At that time it was a hotbed of disputed land claims instigated by the the British and the Native American tribes they encouraged to resist U.S. western expansion.  It was wilderness territory where early landholdings -including the Thomas'- began to emerge as narrow ribbons along the Rouge River down to its capital, Detroit.

At the onset of the War of 1812, Alanson Thomas was listed as one of the early settlers along the northern banks of the Rouge River along with Aaron and Uncle Joel.  It is believed that both he and his brother Aaron III served in military defense of their Michigan properties during that time.  Since Alanson's daughter -and my third great-grandmother- was born in May of 1812 in Champaign County, Ohio, it seems reasonable to assume that Alanson relocated his wife, Polly, and young family out of harm's way until the hostilities of war settled down.  But even after the war, ceded Indian lands continued to create dissatisfaction for Native Americans who resented being pushed out of a territory they once claimed.  According to Farmer's History of Detroit and Wayne County and Early Michigan (1890): 
"After the peace of 1815 the Pottawattomie Indians were disaffected and
troublesome, Whether from any specific grievance or from their natural
habits of lawlessness, they frequently committed little depredations on the
sparse settlers along the river Rouge, west of Detroit. They manifested no
desire to engage in open hostilities, but were indifferent to the rights of the
whites, where they conflicted with their own wants or caprices. Tonguish [Tonquish]
was their chief and also their leader in these acts of lawlessness. In his
relations with the whites he was arrogant and imperious. Followed by his
band he entered the houses of settlers and demanded of the occupants such
articles as his need or caprice indicated, and by intimidation secured his
plunder. He generally planned to execute these little forays at such times
as the men were supposed to be absent from home. At such times his object
could be gained without danger to himself by simply over-awing the women.
When the men were at home the Indians frequently came off second best."

ALANSON'S STORY:  (from the same source)

Tonquish's "mark"

"Alanson Thomas lived in a log house on the north side of the river Rouge, about two miles below where the village of Dearborn now stands. His house stood on the brow of the hill. He was one day fixing up some shelves
in his house for his wife’s convenience, when he heard the voice of a man behind him. He turned round and was confronted by the form of Chief
Tonguish, who was ordering his (Thomas’s) wife to hand him something
which he coveted. Thomas demanded, “ What are you doing here?” The
chief sprang at him to seize his person. As quick as thought he met the
brawny fist of Thomas, which landed him senseless the other side of the
room. He then went to him, took him by the hair, raised his head up and
kicked him under each ear, and then threw him out the back door down
the hill. Looking up he saw a band of Tonguish’s Indians standing by
who had witnessed the discomfiture of their chief. One of them, a young
man—son of the chief, looked at Thomas, scowled, shook his head and said,
“Bime-by you be dead.” “ Well, dead or alive,” said Thomas, “I’ll venture
to give you a flogging! ” So he picked up a green withe that had been pro-
cured for fixing his fence, and proceeded to chastise the young man severely.
He jumped up and down and yelled; but he gave the war whoop in vain,
for none of his companions came to his rescue. Thomas’s determined man-
ner over-awed them, and they passively looked on. Instead of serious
trouble, which Thomas anticipated as a result of his treatment, the Indians
were after that afraid of him and avoided him whenever they could."

Location: Wayne Road at Fountain (south of Ann Arbor Trail)
Westland, Wayne Co., Michigan

Source: History of Detroit and Michigan, Silas Farmer 1890 - Part XIII Biographical Pg. 1330-1340

MICHIGAN FEVER: Five Family Stories

(The MICHIGAN pioneer family heritage of ANDREW JACKSON DORT & LYDIA SECORD WINSOR)

Tandem Fit Surculus Arbor

“A shoot at length becomes a tree”

Michigan Territory in 1822

Michigan was carved out of the larger Northwest Territory in 1805 but did not gain full statehood until 1837 after a boundary dispute with Ohio.  In exchange for a narrow ribbon of land on the northern Ohio border, the 'Toledo Strip,' Michigan gained the entire Upper Peninsula and became the twenty-sixth state in the Union.*   

In the 1620's and '30's many of our British-born ancestors joined in the first Great Migration to the Americas.  Two hundred years later, members of those founding families were again branching out westward, pushing the frontier back along the Great Lakes in the quest for land in the Michigan Territory.  It was a new era of growth for that vast region of dense forests and poor roads as native land treaties opened the way for safer settlement and travel was improved with major (yet still primitive) roadways linking regional hubs such as Detroit and Chicago.  The Erie Canal, opened in 1825, provided a valuable water route that spurred further growth to the region.  Michigan was, for the most part, still wilderness as our ancestral families set up pioneer homesteads in a region that radiated out from its heart, Detroit.  In the decade between 1820-1830, Michigan's population had more than tripled to 31,639 (of which the 'town' of Detroit numbered only 2,222 in 1830).

This was the start of "Michigan Fever" as the territory's population jumped to over 212,000 between 1830-1840.  The majority of the pioneers to this region came from New York and New England.  And this is where our Michigan-transplanted family 'shoots' began to take root as newly emerging communities cropped up between Detroit and Grand Rapids.

In the next series of posts, we will explore the lives and legacy of five families from that era -and even earlier- that provided 'a shoot that, at length, became our Michigan family tree'.  These are the families of my great-great grandparents:  

Andrew Jackson Dort and his wife, Lydia Secord Winsor.  

The surnames below no longer appear in our contemporary family tree simply because they 'died out' as the maiden names of female ancestors, the last being my great-grandmother Mae Louise Dort.  The stories behind these names, however, should not be lost to our future generations since it was through each family that most of our early Michigan roots were formed. 

Michigan Territory 1805-1837

#1:  THOMAS
#2:  DORT

#3:  WINSOR

#4:  DEXTER

#5:  SECORD

  

*Titus Dort (father of Andrew Jackson Dort) served as a Wayne County delegate for the First Convention of Assent of the Territory of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Sept. 26-30, 1836.