The Yale expositor., 1921-02-17
Do You Know When First
White Man Came to County?

clamation of March %, 1920. The
county lines as first established
had an area about four times as
large as the present boundary and
included not only it's present con-
fine, but large part of what is
now Sanilac, Lapeer, Tuscola, Cen
nessee, Shiawassee, and small
part of Macomb, Saginaw and HUI
ron counties. The Indian Treaty
of 1907 formed the northwest
boundary of the county and was
concluded with the Chippewas,
Ottawas, Patawatomies and Wy
andottes.
In 1922 the boundaries of the
county were reduced. The origin
of th. name of St. Clair county is
somewhat disputed. 1t is thought
by some that the name was in hon
or of General Arthur st. Clair,
who was the first governor of the
Northwest territory. Others main
tain that the name of st. Clair was
due to the fact that the town and
county are in proximity to the
Lake and River st. Clair.
Thus the name of Lake st. Clair
is interesting. The name if spell
ed properly would be st. Claire
and is not taken from General st.
Clair. La Sale entered Lake St.
Clair August IL, 1919. This date
was the celebration of Santa Clara
or Sainte Claire, the foundress of
the order of Franciscan Nuns in
the 18th century. Hennepin, the
historian on board the Griffin" as
LaSalle sailed from Lake Erie up
Through the Detroit river notes
that Lake st. Clair was called OF
seketa by the Iroquois Indians but
1--WE gave it the name of Lake st.
Claire"
Cadillac established Detroit in
17O1 and at once invited the In
dians to settle near the post. Quite
early the Chippewas of the Algon-
quin family came into this section.
The Mississaugas, closely allied to
the Chippewas, settled east of st.
Clair river. Certainly within his
toric times st. Clair county was
inhabited by the Foxes, Miamas
and Potawatomies as we'll.
st. Clair county contained two
Indian reservations, one upon
Black river. the other upon lake ST.
Clair. Among the chiefs of note
should be mentioned Naykeezhig
and Nemekas; the former often
was employed by the late Judge
Bunce. The latter was a chief of
the Chippewas who served under
Patrick Sinclair at the fort just
south of the mouth of Pine river.
Mother Rodd was u frequent visi-
tor to the St. Clair county from
the Indian reservation at Sarnia.
John Riley, for whom Riley town.
ship was named, was an Indian
found by the Americans when they
came to build Fort Gratiot in 1914.
The Rileys were of great help to
the Americans during the war of
1872.
Indian mounds have been found
in st. Clair county. Some eXcava-
tions were made. many valuable
relics were found and Il report fur
nished to the PEABODY Museum of
Archaeology and Ethnology. 1t is
interesting to note that the flags
of three 1&t'.us have hcated over
three fortified places in the coun-
ty; Fort st. Joseph, established
by the French, st. Clair by the
British, and Fort Gratiot by the
Americans. A fortified post was
established by M. duLhu (Du-
Luth) in 1856 about where Fort
Gratiot was placed 1913 years later
as a protection against the Eng
lish and their Indian allies.
In 1765 Lieutenant Patrick Sim
clair built a fort just south of the
mouth of Pine river at st. Clair.
The fort was trading post under
the control of the English. Fort
Gratiot was built in 1914 by the
Americans as protection against
the Indians. The name Gratiot was
taken from Capt. Charles Gratiot,
: the construction engineer.
This interesting outline of
the early history of st. Clair coun-
ty will be continued in next weeks
Expositor.)