Michigan Territory

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Territory of Michigan
the United States
1805–1837
Territorial seal of Michigan Territory
Territorial seal
George B. Porter
• 1834-35
Stevens T. Mason (acting)
• 1835–37
John S. Horner (governing from Wisconsin on land not to be included in the Michiganian state)
Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan (1824-1835)
History 
• Organic Act effective
June 30 1805
January 26 1837
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Indiana Territory
Michigan
Wisconsin Territory

The Territory of Michigan was an

organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805,[1] until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit
was the territorial capital.

History and government

The earliest European explorers of Michigan saw it mostly as a place to control the fur trade. Small military forces,

Jesuit
missions to Native American tribes, and isolated settlements of trappers and traders accounted for most of the non-native inhabitants of what would become Michigan.

Early government in Michigan

After the arrival of Europeans, the area that became the Michigan Territory was first under

Robert Rogers occupied Detroit and its dependent posts. In 1763, Pontiac's Rebellion saw the fall of Fort Michilimackinac to the northern tribes, and a lengthy siege of Fort Detroit
. The siege was lifted in 1764, and rule under a British lieutenant-governor at Detroit followed soon thereafter.

Province of Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario), and the districts of Upper Canada were renamed the next year, with the Hesse District designated as the Western District
.

In addition to the British remaining in the region, several states also held competing claims on the future state of Michigan. In 1779, Virginia established Illinois County with boundaries that encompassed all of the land east of the Mississippi River, north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachian Mountains. For all practical purposes, however, the county government never exercised actual control beyond an area limited to a few old French settlements along the major rivers. The overwhelming majority of the northwestern lands were controlled by the native tribes. New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts also claimed portions of what was to become Michigan, but were even less able to enforce their pretensions, given Britain's control of the Great Lakes and the hostility of the tribes.

Virginia surrendered its claim to lands north and west of the Ohio River effective March 1, 1784. Coincidentally (or not), this was the same day that the findings of a Congressional committee on the western lands, chaired by Thomas Jefferson since the previous October, were reported. Jefferson's recommendations became the basis for the Land Ordinance of 1784, which established that new states equal in all respects to the founding thirteen would be erected in the territory, that they would forever be a part of the United States, and that their governments would be republican in form. The Land Ordinance of 1785 would go further by establishing a procedure for land sales in the new territory. However, the Ohio River remained an effective boundary between the United States and the Northwest tribes for a few more years.

The other states with claims in the Northwest eventually followed Virginia's example, and in 1787, the Congress of the Confederation enacted the Northwest Ordinance, which created the Northwest Territory.[2] The first settlement under the Northwest Ordinance was at Marietta (Ohio) in 1788.

The region that became Michigan was initially unorganized territory and essentially remained under British control; that did not stop Arthur St. Clair, the first Governor of the Northwest Territory, from establishing a structure of government for the area, if only on paper. Knox County was established on June 20, 1790 with boundaries that included the western half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and roughly the middle third of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In 1792, the boundaries of Hamilton County were expanded to include the eastern portions of Michigan not included in Knox County.

American claims to Michigan were frustrated by Britain's refusal to evacuate the forts at

Drummond Island
remained as part of Canada until 1828.

Beginnings of American rule

By proclamation of acting governor and territorial secretary Winthrop Sargent, the "first" Wayne County was established from Knox and Hamilton counties on August 15, 1796, and included most of the area that later became the Michigan Territory, as well as portions of what are now Ohio and Indiana.

In 1800, the western half of the Lower Peninsula and most of the Upper Peninsula were attached to the Indiana Territory when it was established as a separate government from the Northwest Territory. Wayne County was thereby reduced to the remainder of the two peninsulas, and continued under the government of the Northwest Territory. St. Clair County, another Indiana Territory county, was also expanded at this time to include the western portion of the Upper Peninsula and a small sliver of the Lower Peninsula along the shore of Lake Michigan.

When Ohio was admitted as a state in early 1803, the eastern half of Michigan was incorporated into the Indiana Territory. One of the first acts taken that year by the Indiana government under William Henry Harrison was to reorganize Wayne County under Indiana law, adding territory from Knox and St. Clair counties. Michigan's first county now encompassed all of the Lower Peninsula, much of the Upper Peninsula, and those portions of today's Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin that drained into Lake Michigan. In many respects, the change from the government of the Northwest Territory to that of the Indiana Territory had little effect on Wayne County's limited operations. By Governor Harrison's proclamation of January 11, 1803, the courts of Wayne County—common pleas, orphans, and quarter sessions—kept their organization under the new territorial government, with almost identical composition.

But the logistics of government went from difficult to almost impossible, with the mail between Detroit and the capital at Vincennes being routed at one point through Warren[3] in northeastern Ohio. The deciding factor may have come when an election was called by Governor Harrison for September 11, 1804,[4] to decide whether Indiana Territory (which by this time was responsible for not only the settlements in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois, but the newly acquired District of Louisiana as well) should progress to the second stage of territorial government. But word failed to reach Detroit until after the date had passed,[5] and the settlers of Michigan petitioned Congress in December 1804, asking that Wayne County be set off as an independent territory.[6]

Organization

From 1805 to 1818, the western border was a line through Lake Michigan.

Michigan Territory was established by an act of the United States Congress on January 11, 1805, effective June 30 of that year.[7] The act defined the territory as "all that part of the Indiana Territory, which lies North of a line drawn east from the southerly bend or extreme of lake Michigan, until it shall intersect lake Erie, and East of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States." A historical marker at a roadside park, approximately three miles east of Naubinway at 46°05′50″N 85°23′51″W / 46.09722°N 85.39750°W / 46.09722; -85.39750,[8] commemorates the northernmost point of Lake Michigan, which is located approximately one mile west of the park.[9]

The first territorial governor,

Indians through the 1807 Treaty of Detroit
.

During the War of 1812, following General Isaac Brock's capture of Detroit on August 16, 1812, the Michigan Territory was at least nominally a part of the Province of Upper Canada. On August 24, Colonel Henry Proctor proclaimed the continuation of civil government under existing laws with Proctor acting as Governor and Chief Justice Augustus B. Woodward acting as Secretary. On February 4, 1813, Proctor suspended civil government and imposed martial law.

By 1818, both Illinois and Indiana had been admitted as states; the unincorporated land from their territories was made part of the Michigan Territory; and a strip of land in southern Michigan was given to Indiana.

When Indiana (1816) and Illinois (1818) joined the Union, remnants of their territories were joined to Michigan Territory. An area equal to 30 townships was also transferred from Michigan Territory to Indiana to allow that state access to Lake Michigan. Soon afterward, the federal government rapidly began signing treaties with local Indian tribes and acquiring their lands.

In 1818, a general assembly referendum was held to determine whether a majority of the territory's freeholders favored the creation of a general legislative assembly to replace the system of governors and judges in effect at the time, as provided for by the Northwest Ordinance. The election was called by Territorial Governor Lewis Cass, and results showed a majority opposed changing the system of government.[10]

In 1824, the Michigan Territory graduated to the second grade of territorial status, and the government's power was transferred from the Governor and a handful of judges to the people. The people elected 18 to the Legislative Council, of which nine were approved by the President, and it first sat in council on June 7, 1824. This council was expanded from nine members to 13 in 1825, with the 13 being chosen by the President from a field of 26.

The

Buffalo
.

Between 1833 and 1836, all the remnants of the old Northwest Territory were part of the Michigan Territory along with portions of the Louisiana Purchase.

In 1834, all of the lands acquired in the

Dakotas
.

The disputed portion of Michigan Territory, referred to as the Toledo Strip
Michigan became a state when it agreed to the boundaries dictated by Congress, giving up its claim to the Toledo Strip, and accepted the western portion of the Upper Peninsula.

Meanwhile, in 1835, the

Toledo Strip." The Toledo area of Ohio was finally surrendered in exchange for the western section of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.[11]

Slavery was forbidden in the territory under the Northwest Ordinance, but British and French residents in Michigan were permitted to retain possession of slaves already owned at the time the territory became organized. Census records show that the slave population in the territory numbered 24 in 1810[12] and 32 in 1830.[13] It is believed that those counted as slaves were, in many cases, Indians rather than blacks.

Michigan shrank in 1836 with the creation of the Wisconsin Territory. Wisconsin Territory was established in 1836 with the present boundary in the Upper Peninsula.

On July 3, 1836, in preparation for Michigan statehood, the

Montreal River on the Lake Superior shoreline and the Menominee River on the coast of Lake Michigan.[14] Detroit remained the capital until March 17, 1847 when Lansing was chosen as a replacement. The population of Michigan at the time of statehood is estimated to have been about 200,000, which was well above the Northwest Ordinance
's minimum requirement of 60,000.

Territorial acquisition

The area that became Michigan had been British territory, and was ceded to the United States in 1783, although the native peoples of the area had not ceded control to either the British or Americans for most of the territory by 1783. The majority of it was gained by cession, coerced or otherwise. The people who resided in Michigan before American settlement were the

1821 and 1833), the Carey Mission in 1828 and the Treaty of Washington in 1836 and a later treaty of January 14, 1837.[15]

Territorial subdivisions

An 1831 map of Michigan by David H. Burr, showing boundaries of early counties

Wayne County, Michigan, originally part of the vast Northwest Territory, was eventually whittled down into its current size by the separation of several tracts: Monroe in 1817, Michilimackinac County (later called Mackinac) and Macomb counties in 1818, St. Clair and St. Joseph counties in 1820 and Washtenaw County in 1822. The first township organization was Detroit, in Wayne County, in 1802.

Also organized in 1818 were two counties that survive in present-day

Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, while Brown performed a similar function for the settlements around Green Bay. These would become part of the Wisconsin Territory
in 1836.

Oakland County, Michigan was created in 1819, and over time was subdivided into all or parts of Genesee, Lapeer, Sanilac, Shiawassee and Saginaw counties. Saginaw County would be split further into eight separate counties, three of which (Isabella, Arenac and Midland) were established during the territorial period.

Stevens T. Mason ran for governor in the first state elections in 1835.

Lenawee County was created in 1822 from what had been Indian lands, and Hillsdale County was separated from it in 1829. Other parts of Lenawee were turned into Cass and Berrien. Branch also sprung fully formed from Michigan Territory in 1829.

Chippewa County was created from Michilimackinac County in 1826.

Western Michigan and was divided and subdivided into many other counties: Allegan, Barry, Calhoun, Eaton, Ionia, Montcalm, Kent, Ottawa and Clinton
(some created during the territorial period, others split off later).

Jackson and Ingham were created in 1829 from Washtenaw; Isabella was created from parts of Saginaw and Midland counties in 1831. Gratiot County was also established in 1831, with land from Saginaw and Clinton counties.

Seven of the 12 counties created in 1829 were named for members of President Andrew Jackson's Cabinet, and one was named for Jackson himself.

Iowa County, with its seat at Mineral Point, was established in 1829 and transferred to the Wisconsin Territory in 1836.

Michigan Territory briefly governed lands west of the Mississippi, after the statehood of Missouri left the area north of the new state as unorganized territory; this comprised what is now Iowa and that part of Minnesota west of the river. Such was the case until 1834, when that area was placed under the government of Michigan Territory. Dubuque and Des Moines counties were created in 1834, and transferred to the Wisconsin Territory in 1836 upon its organization.

Milwaukee County was established in 1834 and was also transferred to Wisconsin Territory two years later.

Territorial population

Historical population
YearPop.±%
18104,762—    
18208,896+86.8%
183031,639+255.7%
Source: 1810–1830 (includes only Michigan and Wisconsin)[16]

These census numbers do not include most

U.S. Constitution
as "Indians not taxed" (Article I, Sec. 2). Under the Northwest Ordinance, a territory could apply for statehood once it had surpassed 60,000 inhabitants.

The 1830 United States census reported the following population counts for 13 counties in present-day Michigan and 3 in Wisconsin. The boundaries of counties at that time differed significantly from present-day boundaries. The 1810 United States census was reported in terms of four Civil Districts of a single Wayne County: Michilimackinac, Detroit, Erie, and Huron. The 1810 population shown in the table for Mackinac County is that reported for Michilimackinac Civil District, for Macomb County that reported for Huron Civil District. for Monroe County that reported for Erie Civil District, and for Wayne County that reported for Detroit Civil District.[17][18]

1830
Rank
County 1810
Population
1830
Population
1 Wayne 2,227 6,781
2 Oakland 4,911
3 Washtenaw 4,042
4 Monroe 1,340 3,187
5 Macomb 580 2,413
6 Iowa 1,587
7 Lenawee 1,491
8 Brown 1,356
9 St. Joseph 1,313
10 St. Clair 1,114
11 Cass 919
12 Michilimackinac 615 877
13 Crawford 692
14 Chippewa 626
15 Berrien 325
16 Van Buren 5
Michigan Territory 4,762 31,639

Territorial officers

Governors

Governor Dates Served Notes
William Hull March 1, 1805 to August 16, 1812 Surrendered Detroit to British forces, August 16, 1812
Henry Proctor August 24, 1812 to September 28, 1813 Civil governor under British rule to February 4; martial law thereafter until evacuation of Detroit in September
Lewis Cass October 13, 1813 to August 6, 1831 Appointed military governor by General Harrison; civil governor from October 29
George Bryan Porter August 6, 1831 to July 6, 1834 Died in office.
Stevens T. Mason July 6, 1834 to September 15, 1835 ex officio, Acting Governor due to position as Secretary
John S. Horner September 15, 1835 to July 3, 1836 ex officio, Acting Governor due to position as Secretary

Secretaries

Secretary Dates Served
Stanley Griswold March 1, 1805 to March 18, 1808
Reuben Atwater March 18, 1808 to October 15, 1814
William Woodbridge October 15, 1814 to January 15, 1828
James Witherell January 15, 1828 to May 20, 1830
John T. Mason May 20, 1830 to July 12, 1831
Stevens T. Mason July 12, 1831 to September 15, 1835
John S. Horner September 15, 1835 to July 3, 1836

Supreme Court

From 1805 through 1823, Territorial Supreme Court Justices were appointed by the U.S. president, with consent of the U.S. Senate. Their terms had no fixed limits. In 1823, the U.S. Congress passed an act reorganizing territorial government and setting a four-year term of office for justices.

Supreme Court Justices Dates Served Notes
Augustus B. Woodward March 2, 1805 to February 1, 1824 Appointed by Thomas Jefferson; resigned following reorganization of court
Frederick Bates March 3, 1805 to November 1808 Appointed by Thomas Jefferson; resigned after being appointed Secretary of Louisiana Territory
John Griffin
December 23, 1805 to February 1, 1824 Appointed by Thomas Jefferson; resigned following reorganization of court
James Witherell April 23, 1808 to January 15, 1828 First appointed by Thomas Jefferson; reappointed by James Monroe; resigned after being appointed Secretary of Michigan Territory
Solomon Sibley February 2, 1824 to July 17, 1836 First appointed by James Monroe, reappointed by John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson; not reappointed after Michigan statehood
John Hunt
February 20, 1824 to June 15, 1827 Twice appointed by James Monroe; died in office
Henry C. Chipman July 18, 1817 to April 25, 1832 Twice appointed by John Quincy Adams; was not reappointed by Andrew Jackson
William Woodbridge January 15, 1828 to April 25, 1832 Appointed by John Quincy Adams; was not reappointed by Andrew Jackson
Ross Wilkins April 26, 1832 to July 17, 1836 Appointed by Andrew Jackson; appointed U.S. District Court judge for Michigan after statehood
George Morell
April 26, 1832 to July 17, 1843 First appointed by Andrew Jackson; appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court by Governor Mason

Congressional delegates

In 1819, Michigan Territory was given the authority to elect a

Congressional delegate
.

Delegate Years Party
William Woodbridge 1819–1820 (16th Congress) Democratic-Republican
Solomon Sibley 1820–1823 (16th and 17th Congresses) Federalist
Gabriel Richard 1823–1825 (18th Congress)
Independent
Austin Eli Wing 1825–1829 (19th and 20th Congresses)
Anti-Jacksonian
John Biddle
1829–1831 (21st Congress)
Jacksonian
Austin Eli Wing 1831–1833 (22nd Congress)
Anti-Jacksonian
Lucius Lyon 1833–1835 (23rd Congress)
Jacksonian
George Wallace Jones 1835–1837 (24th Congress)
Jacksonian

See also

References

  1. ^ Stat. 309
  2. .
  3. ^ "Petition to Congress by Democratic Republicans of Wayne County". Archived from the original on January 29, 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  4. ^ "Proclamation: For an election on entering second territorial stage". Archived from the original on January 29, 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  5. ^ "Proclamation: Announcing that Indiana Territory had passed to the second grade". Archived from the original on January 29, 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  6. ^ "Petition to Congress by Democratic Republicans of Wayne County". Archived from the original on January 29, 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  7. ^ "Act Dividing Indiana Territory, 1805". Archived from the original on January 29, 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
  8. ^ "Naubinway Rest Area". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  9. ^ Northernmost Point of Lake Michigan Archived July 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Michigan Historical Markers
  10. ^ Carter, Clarence E., ed. (1942), The Territorial Papers of the United States, vol. 10, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, pp. 769–770, archived from the original on December 25, 2021, retrieved October 17, 2019
  11. ^ Faber, D. (2008). The Toledo War: The First Michigan-Ohio Rivalry. (p.142-143) University of Michigan Press.
  12. ^ Williams, George Washington (1883). History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880, Vol. II, p. 9. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
  13. ^ Fess, Simeon D. (1910). The History of Political Theory and Party Organization in the United States, p. 272. Boston: Ginn and Company.
  14. ^ Temple, Robert D. (2010). How Wisconsin got its borders. http://www.wisconsintrails.com/culture/How-Wisconsin-got-its-borders-261151011.html Archived June 29, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ "Treaty with the Chippewa, 1837 - Tribal Treaties Database". Archived from the original on July 7, 2022. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  16. ^ Forstall, Richard L. (ed.). Population of the States and Counties of the United States: 1790–1990 (PDF) (Report). United States Census Bureau. p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 16, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  17. ^ Forstall, Richard L. (ed.). Population of the States and Counties of the United States: 1790–1990 (PDF) (Report). United States Census Bureau. pp. 71–73. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 16, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  18. ^ Forstall, Richard L. (ed.). Population of the States and Counties of the United States: 1790–1990 (PDF) (Report). United States Census Bureau. pp. 183–185. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 16, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2020.

External links