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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

ABBOTT, JAMES.His father, bearing the same name, was a native of Ireland, and established himself in the wilds of Michigan as a fur-trader, before the Declaration of Independence; and the son was born in Detroit in 1775. He commenced active life by following the same business of his father; was postmaster of Detroit from 1808 until 1827, excepting when the English were in possession; was for many years Receiver of public moneys for the Land Office in Detroit; served as a quartermaster-general in the war of 1812; as major of militia in 1835; also as a judge for several years of the Court of Common Pleas; and died in Detroit, full of honors, March 12, 1858.

ALLEN, JOHN.He was born in Rockbridge county, Va., December 30, 1772; went with his father to Kentucky in 1780; was educated at a school kept in Bardstown; and after studying law in Staunton, Va., returned to Kentucky, and began the practice of his profession in Shelbyville. He was following it successfully there at the time the war broke out in 1812, when he raised a regiment of riflemen for service under General Harrison. He was killed, while in the performance of his duty, under trying circumstances, at the massacre of Frenchtown, on the River Raisin, January 22, 1813. His name was given to one of the prominent counties of Kentucky; and the historian, McAfee, when mentioning the fact that he was shot down by an Indian, says: "The savage had the honor of shooting one of the first and greatest citizens of Kentucky."

ALLOUEZ, CLAUDE. He was a Jesuit missionary, who visited Lake Superior in 1665. He went as far west as Point Keweenaw, and spent a considerable time in a fruitless search for copper; and then continuing his journey to La Pointe, the ancient residence of the Ojibwas, where he established a mission, and astonished the natives with pictorial representations of Hell and the Judgment Day. He spent about two years in that locality, instructing the different tribes of the Northwest, and collecting information about the country and people west of Lake Superior. In 1667 he returned to Quebec to procure assistance in his field of labor, and to urge the planting of a French colony in that remote region. He was successful, and two days after his arrival, he began his return to La Pointe, accompanied by competent assistants. In 1669 he founded a mission at Green Bay, where

he endured many hardships; and whatever his merits may have been, it is certain that he and La Salle were not on good terms, it being asserted that he intrigued against the explorer. In 1671 we find him stationed at the Saute de Ste. Marie, where he delivered a curious speech to the Indians, which will be found translated in Parkman's "Discovery of the Great West." According to one of his published letters, he said that the Indians called Lake Michigan Machihiganing. The last that we know of him is, that in 1687 he was at St. Louis, on the Mississippi. While confined to his bed by illness, on hearing that La Salle was approaching that region, he stole away from the mission, and disappeared, as if to shun a meeting with the man he had injured.

ADAM, JOHN J.-He was among the earlier emigrants to the Territory of Michigan; a lawyer by profession; and on several occasions was elected to the State Legislature. În 1837 he was appointed a Regent of the University of Michigan, which position he resigned in 1840; in 1842 he was elected State Treasurer; in 1845, and from 1848 until 1850, he was AuditorGeneral of the State; and from 1844 to 1846, and again from 1848 until 1851, he was Treasurer of the University of Michigan.

ADAMS, L. B. She was the daughter of John Bryan, who emigrated to Michigan from New York in 1823, and was born in the latter State in 1818. Her early education was obtained through private tutors. She was married in 1841 to James R. Adams, who was an editor at White Pigeon and Kalamazoo, and died in 1847; in 1848 she went to Kentucky as a teacher, where she remained three years, and then returned to Michigan, and was for several years a regular writer for the press, especially the Detroit Advertiser and the Michigan Farmer, and also for the New York Tribune. Finding that her literary labors were injuring her health, she obtained a position in the Museum of the Agricultural Department in Washington, where she was associated with the Commissioners Isaac Newton and Horace Capron, and Professor Townend Glover, all of whom highly appreciated her services, and she died in Washington city on the 28th of June, 1870, deeply lamented. She was a writer of graceful verse, and many of her poetic productions were associated with her much loved Michigan and the Valley of St. Joseph.

ANDERSON, JOHN.He was born in Scotland, but emigrated to Canada when quite a young man, and, after spending some little time in Montreal, settled on the River Raisin, in Michigan, as an Indian trader about the year 1805. During the war of 1812 he was captured by the British and Indians, but made his escape and went with his family to Dayton, Ohio. He was a brave man, a good citizen and patriot, and one whom everybody loved and respected. He filled with credit many local offices of honor and trust; exerted great influence among the early settlers in and about Frenchtown; and as he could speak not less than eleven Indian dialects and thoroughly understood the Indian character, he did much, after the war, to make the tribes of Michigan peaceable and friendly. He was for many years an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and died at Monroe in 1841, leaving one

son, Alexander Anderson, who was a lawyer and an accomplished man, and who also died a few years ago. He had a daughter who became the wife of Warner Wing.

AUGUR, CHRISTOPHER COLON.- -He was born in New York, but, having taken up his residence in Michigan, he was appointed a cadet at West Point from that State in 1839. His first service was on Lake Ontario, from 1842 to 1845; he was on duty in Texas when the Mexican war broke out, and after participating in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma and serving as a staff officer during the war was made a captain; he was subsequently stationed in Florida, on the Niagara, at Fort Columbus, in California, at Fort Vancouver, in Oregon, and fought against the Indians in Washington Territory. When the rebellion commenced he was on duty as an instructor at West Point; was made brigadier general of volunteers and stationed at Washington; was engaged at Fredericksburg and in the Shennandoah Valley; had command of the Fifth Army Corps at Cedar Mountain and severely wounded; was made brevet colonel in the regular army for gallant and meritorious services; was next on duty in New Orleans and at Port Hudson, and was made major general of volunteers for gallant and meritorious services; in 1863 he was placed in command of the military department of Washington; and in 1867 was assigned to the command of the department of the Platte, where he is serving at the present time.

BACON, DANIEL S.-He was among the earliest emigrants from the Eastern States to the Territory of Michigan, and for well nigh half a century was a resident of Monroe. He was born in Onondaga, New York, in 1798, commenced his career as a school teacher on the River Raisin in 1822; paid considerable attention to farming; subsequently formed a partnership with Levi S. Humphrey in the prosecution of various kinds of business; and then adopted the profession of law, which he practiced with success. He was at one time a member of the Legislative Council of the Territory; judge of probate, which he held for many years; president of the Bank of Monroe, and also a director of the Michigan Southern Railroad Company. He also held a number of other local positions, in all of which he acquitted himself with ability and a dignified bearing, ever maintaining a pure character, which made him one of the most popular men of his time. He died in Monroe May 18, 1866, at an advanced age, and will long be remembered by troops of friends for his great personal and moral worth, and as a true friend of his adopted State. At the time of his death he held the office of judge of probate for the county of Monroe.

BACON, DAVID.- -He was the father of the eminent Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon, of New Haven, and was sent out as a missionary in 1800 by the Connecticut Missionary Society, and commenced his mission in Detroit, where he remained two years. His next field of operations was on the Maumee, from which locality he removed to the island of Mackinaw, and from that place he returned to Detroit. In his first journey to the West he went on foot from Hartford to Buffalo, carrying a pack on his back. After a

year's sojourn in Michigan he returned to Hartford, married a wife, and started a second time for the Western wilderness. While pursuing his avocations in Michigan his favorite mode of travelling was by the birch canoe; and it was while he was residing in Detroit that his distinguished son was born. Rev. David Bacon was also the founder of the town of Tallmadge, in Ohio, where, we believe, he closed his life. He was one of those men who are called visionary and enthusiastic by men of more prosaic and plodding temperament. He had not a liberal education, but was a man of eminent intellectual powers and of intensely thoughtful habits, and really coveted the self-denying labors to which he subjected himself for the honor of his Divine Master.

BAGG, JOHN S.- He was born in Lanesborough, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, in 1809; when fifteen years of age he went to Oneida county, New York, where he acquired an academical education; he then studied law, and came to the bar of that State in 1835. In 1836 he removed to Michigan and took up his residence in Detroit; and having at once purchased of Sheldon McKnight the Free Press newspaper, entered upon the career of an editor and politician, which he maintained with ability and a high reputation until his death, which occurred in Detroit on the 10th of March, 1870. In 1837 the Free Press establishment was destroyed by fire, and he lost all he possessed, but he was a man of rare energy, and soon worked out of all his difficulties, and was subsequently prosperous in all his business pursuits. The Free Press has long been considered the leading Democratic journal of the State, and among those who were associated with its leading editor and proprietor at different times may be mentioned Silas Bagg, Henry Barnes, A, Smith Bagg, and John H. Harmon. He was a warm personal friend of President Polk, by whom he was appointed Postmaster of Detroit, which position he held for four years; and by President Buchanan he was appointed Marshal for the District of Michigan and held that office for three years. For several years before his death his health was infirm, and he endured his long-continued sufferings with the fortitude of a Christian, and when he died, was lamented by a large circle of attached friends.

BALDWIN, HENRY P.-He was born in Coventry, Rhode Island, February 22, 1814; was left an orphan when a boy, and after receiving a good education was a mercantile clerk at Pawtucket for eight years before becoming of age, after which he was engaged for several years in business on his own account in Woonsocket. In 1838 he emigrated to Detroit, and, identifying himself with the interests of Michigan, became President of the Second National Bank of Detroit; was for two years a State Senator; and he was elected Governor of Michigan for the term commencing with 1869 and ending with the year 1870, to which position he brought a full store of general information gathered from foreign travel and the study of men and books. It is due to his Excellency, moreover, to state that for much of the information contained in this volume the compiler is indebted to him—for a variety of important documents bearing upon the condition of the State, over which he has presided with acknowledged ability. Re-elected in 1870 for a second term.

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