The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1886-08-28
GROWTH OF DETROIT.
An American City which has Changed Its
Nationality Three Times.

Detroit is one Of the oldest cities on
this continent. Before Hendrix Hud.
son set foot on the island of Manhat.
tan, and while Henry ". still sat on
the throne of France, the Huron'
pointed out the site whereon il is bull
to Champlain, the founder of Quetec
MS the natural gateway to "thc vas
seas of sweet water" and then wa
born in the brain of the great Froncl
navigator the dream of "Ncw France
which should extend from the Atlantic
TO the Pacific. and have Quebec ant
| Detroit as its eastern and western fort
resscs.
This dream was inherited by tn,
| French monarchs: but it was not unit
ninety years later that one of them ut
| tempted to make it n reality. Their
| LOUIS XIV. commissioned the Sicui
| Antoine de Ia Mothc Cadillac, who from
| 1894 to 1899 had been in command at
| Mackinaw. to found at Detroit settle
| mcnt, and erect there n fort to hold the
| region of the Great Lakes for the
French Government. This was done
and Detroit. under the successive rcigns
of Henry w., Louis Kill, XIV. and
XIV. was for nearly sixty years q
French town--a bit of "sunny France"
hidden away in the heart of the western
wilderness; and such it might have re
mained to this day had not Wolfe, on
dark night in September, l750, scale
the heights of Quebec, and on the Plain,
of Abraham changed the fate of Nortt
America. The surrender of Detror
soon followed the conquest of Quebec,
and then it became an English town,
and the western headquarters of the
British power in America. 1t so re-
maincd-the extreme outpost of West.
ern civiization-until July II, 1896,
when, in pursuance of the peace OF
1888, it was quietly transferred TO the
United States. Thus we see that De-
troit has had unique history. Three
times has it changed its nationality, and
with each change assumed totally differ.
cnt characteristics. AT first it was
| French, then English and last of all
American, and in the present town may
be seen curious blending of the traits
of these various people. The old
French habHdnt and the courtly
English resident have long slumbered
in their graves, but the close observer
will detect that their spirits still walk
abroad, and promenade its streets arm
in arm with the irrepressble Yankee,
who. in his sevcn-league boots, is now
striding across the continent. Brother
Jonathan has every where the astonish.
ing energy which, in well-nigh II single
: day, raised Chicago from its ashes; bat
: here he has been held in check by those
old worth,s. who have now and ther
whispered in his ear the fable of the
: hare and the tortoise. This account.
!, for the fact that Detroit is to-day cll,
rious compound of modern progress and
old-timc conservatism city of vas
enterprises, but enterprise based on 4
broad, substantial and enduring basis
In the summer of 1925 cannon planted
at intervals along the line of the Erie
: canal all the way from Albany to
Buffalo, announced that Clinton's grca
work was completed, and the West
married to the East by bond that
. is indissoluble. Its gates were
no sooner opened than q tide
of emigration set through them
westward. Soon all over New England
and Eastern New York whole families
and in some instances whole hamlets
were on the move, and such an eXodu.
the Israelitcs came up out of Egypt, ant
the Kalmucks fled across the stoppes o
= Asia. At one time it seemed that rura
! | New England would be depopulated
Its best and youngest blood joined il
, the exodus; and to this fact may b'
traced the high character and wonderful
enterprise of the West of to-day. Th'
= first wave rested for awhile in Western
Q New York, and then the gathering tid'
4 swept gradually westward along thu
:. lakes and the Ohio, and finally, in 1880
it touched the shores of Michigan. Thcl
for the first time Detroit became in real
ity an American town.
In the beginning of 1880 Detroit mum
e bered 2, 222 people; that is, it stood pre-
1 cisely where it was in 1905; and tn!
@ during quarter of century when tn
i population of the country generally ha,
increased in ratio altogether unparal
leled in history. But now the old tow
:, began to feel the general impetus. |
increased fourfold in the next ten years
y and thus it has gone on ever since
y doubling about every decade. till now
:, numbers, with its suburbs, fully 200,0O
j, souls.
! The slow-paccd conservatism of it
4 | Olu-tlmc rcSlucntS Is SLlll Scen Ill III
! modern city; but it is now so welded t.
Yankee enterprise that we meet here N
= almost ideal community, safe, but pro
gressive, not engrosscd in mere money
!, getting, but cultivating us well the 50
, cial amenities of life. and eXtractin
= from existence, rs it passes, q healthfu
: and rational enjoyment. mproportio
to its size, Detroit has a smaller foreig
n population that any city in the Union
a and as the bulk of its people are @
y Eastern birth or extraction, it is to-da
!, y more truly New England in characte
= than the good town OF Boston itself. Il
!. no sense is it a Western town. In 1873
= the numerical center of the Union wa
4 found to be fifty-cight miles west G
i Cincinnati. With the speed nj whic
a population is now travelling westward
6 Detroit will soon bc the central city {
!. the country. Edmund Hirke, IN Hal
:. per'S Magazine.