Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1886-10-29
Growth OF DETROIT.
An American City which has Changed its
Nationality Three Times.

THIS cODtlneut. DelOTc Ilchuiih Aluu-
son set foot on the island of Manhat-
ian, and while Henry Nv. still sat on
The throne of France, the Hurons
pointed out the site wherein it is built
to Champain, the founder of Quebec,
rs the natural gateway to ''the vast
seas of sweet water" and then was
born in the brain of the great French
navigator the dream of a "New France"
which should extend from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, and have Quebec and
Detroit as its eastern and western fort
resses.
This dream was inherited by the
French monarchs; but it was not until
ninety years later that one of them at
tempted to make it reality. Then
Louis XIV. commissioned the Sieur
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who from
1894 to 1899 had been in command at
Mackinaw, to found at Detroit settle
ment, and erect there fort to hold the
region of the Great Lakes for the
French Government This was done
and Detroit under the successive reigns
of Henry w., Louis Kill, XIV. and
XIV. was for nearly sixty years
French town-a bit of ''sunny France
hidden away in the heart of the western
wilderness; and such it might have re-
manned to this day had not Wolfe. one
dark night in September, 1859, scaled
the heights of Quebec, and on the Plains
of Abraham changed the fate of North
America. The surrender of Detroit
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-
mained-the extreme outpost of West
ern civilzation-until July IL, 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
ent characteristics. At first it was
French, then English and last of all
Amer can, and in the present town may
be seen curious blending of the ira is
of these various people. The old
French habitont and the courtly
English resident have long slumbered
i'm their graves, but the close observer
will detect that their spirits still walk
abroad, and promenade its streets arm
in arm with the irrepress BILE Yankee,
who. in his seven-league boots, is now
striding across the continent. Brother
Jonathan has every where the astonish-
ing energy which, in well-nigh single
day, raised Chicago from its ashes; but
here he has been held in check by those
old worthts who have now and then
whispered in his ear the fable of the
, hare and the tortoise. This accounts
for the fact that Detroit is to-day Gu
rious compound of modern progress and
I old-time conservat SIN "a city of vast
enterprises. but enterprise based on a
broad, substantial and enduring basis.
In the summer of 1925 cannon plant d
e at intervals along the line of the Erie
anal all the way from Albany to
7 Buffalo, announced that Clinton's great
work was completed, and the West
married TO the East by a bond that
is indissoluble. Its gates were
e no sooner opened than "a tide
of emigration set through them
p westward Soon all over New England
and Eastern New York whole families,
! and in some instances whole hamlets,
o were on the move, and such an exodus
o followed as never was seen except when
the Israelites came up out of Egypt, and
= the Kalmucks fled across the steppes OF
Asa At one time it seemed that rural
!, New England would be depopulated
Its best and Youngest blood joined in
+ the exodus; and to this fact may be
. traced the high character and wonderful
2 enterprise o. the West of to-day. The
first wave rested for awhile in Western
q New York, and then the gathering tide
swept gradually westward along the
! lakes and the One and finally in 1880
: t touched the shores of Michigan. Their
. for the first time Detroit became in real
= ity an American town.
e In the beginning of 1880 Detroit mum
bered 2,222 people; that is, it stood pre-.
n cisely where it was in 1905; and this
r during a quarter of a century when the
8 population of the country generally had
increased in a ratio altogether unparal.
@ leled in history. But now the old town
r began to feel the general impetus. II
# increased fourfold in the next ten years
/, and thus it has gone on ever since
n doubling about every decade, till now il
|. numbers, with its suburbs, fully 200, 00(
n souls.
n The slow-paced conservatism of it.
/ old-time residents is still seen in tn,
Is modern city; but it is now so welded t.
e Yankee enterprise that we meet here al
$ almost ideal community, safe, but pro
| gressive, not engrossed in mere money
r getting, but cultivating as well the so
a cial amenities of life. and extracting
s from existence, as it passes, a healthfu
d and rational enjoyment. In proportion
o to its size, Detroit has smaller foreign
! population that any city in the I'm on
v and as the bulk of its people are O
>, Eastern birth or extraction, it is 10 da,
more truly New England in character
than the good town of Boston itself. Ii
no sense is it Western town. In 1885,
the numerical center of the Union wa.
n found to be fifty-eight miles west o
/, Cincinnati. With the speed at which
- population is now travelling westward
/ Detroit will soon be the central city o
]. the country - EdllliLlld hia.ke In1.