page_title: Gordon Hall (Dexter, Michigan)
section_title: Samuel William Dexter
hierarchical_section_title: Gordon Hall (Dexter, Michigan) / Samuel William Dexter
caption_attribution_description: English: Judge Samuel W Dexter
context_page_description: Gordon Hall, also known as the Judge Samuel W. Dexter House, is a private house located at 8341 Island Lake Road in Dexter, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1958 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The house is unique in Michigan for its balance, large scale, and massive hexastyle portico. The structure is also significant as the dwelling of Judge Samuel W. Dexter, a pioneering Michigan resident and land baron who had a substantial impact on early development of Washtenaw County and other sections of the state. The house was later owned by Dexter's granddaughter Katherine Dexter McCormick, a pioneering research scientist, suffragist, and philanthropist. In its early days, Gordon Hall hosted at least two, and possibly three United States presidents, and it was almost certainly a stop along the Underground Railroad.
context_section_description: Samuel W. Dexter was born in Boston in 1792 to Samuel Dexter, a politician who served as a Congressman, Senator, and both Secretary of War and Secretary of the Treasury under President John Adams; and Catherine Gordon, daughter of William and Temperance Gordon of Boston.  The younger Dexter attended Harvard University, where he graduated in 1812, and he received a law degree three years later. He moved to Athens, New York, in 1816 and married Amelia Augusta Prevost.  The couple had two children: Samuel, born in 1817, and Augustine, born in 1820. However, both Amelia and Augustine died in 1822.
  In 1824, Dexter moved to Detroit with $80,000, and proceeded to purchase 926 acres of land in Michigan. On that land, Dexter founded Byron, Michigan, the county seat of Shiawassee County, and Saginaw, Michigan, the county seat of Saginaw County. He also purchased land in Webster and Scio Townships in Washtenaw County, on which he later founded the village of Dexter.  On his Washtenaw County holdings, Dexter built a sawmill on Mill Creek, and a log cabin nearby.  Dexter returned to Massachusetts in 1825, and there married his second wife, Susan Dunham. Dexter returned to Michigan in 1826, living in the log cabin while a frame house was built nearby on the riverbank, located on what is now Huron Street in the present-day village of Dexter.
  As the village grew, Dexter's house became the center of activity for the community.  Dexter established a post office in the house, and it was used as a place of worship for a number of different denominations. In 1826, Dexter was appointed Chief Justice of Washtenaw County by Lewis Cass, a post he served in until 1833.  In addition to his sawmill, he also built a grist mill and a boarding house.  In 1829, he established the first newspaper in Washtenaw County, the Western Immigrant, published in Ann Arbor.  He also ran for Congress in 1831, and served as a Regent of the University of Michigan in 1840.
  In 1827, a son was born to Dexter and his wife Susan; however, soon after both Susan Dexter and the infant died. In 1828, Dexter married his third wife, sixteen-year-old Millisent Bond, whose widowed mother had recently settled in Michigan after moving from Massachusetts.  The couple had eight children: Mary (born 1830), Wirt (born 1831), Katherine (born 1833), Hannah (born 1834), Julia (born 1837), Charlotte (born 1839), Isabella (born 1841) and Marshall (born 1858).  All of the children lived to adulthood.
  In 1830, Dexter platted a village on the land surrounding his house; he named it "Dexter" to honor his father. He also obtained land in other parts of Michigan; in addition to establishing Saginaw, Byron, and Dexter, he platted Ionia, Michigan, and by 1835 owned 3,500 acres (1,400 ha) of land in Washtenaw County alone. Dexter was a vocal supporter of railroads (and, indeed, is generally credited as the first person to publicly call for the construction of a transcontinental railroad, in an editorial in 1832), and in 1837 deeded a 100-foot (30 m) wide portion of his land to the state for the purpose of constructing a railroad.
  The railroad was built in 1841, and passed very close to Dexter's Huron Street house. This encouraged him to build a larger country mansion on 1,700 acres (690 ha) outside of Dexter, a house he called "Gordon Hall" in honor of his mother, Catherine Gordon Dexter.
caption: Judge Samuel W. Dexter, c. 1860
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