The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1944-01-25
Tribute
Continued from Page One

ing and admirable personality.
Addressing the Algonquin
Club recently, Member Pray
said:
Our good friend and former
ce-president, Henry Oliver
Chapoton passed away Saturday,
December 25. 1913. The an
nouncement was a surprise TO
most of us as we had heard he
had been able TO come home
from 1.-The hospital even though
he still had to be in bed. All of
us who have known him canpot
help but have great regret that
he can be with US no more,
Living in Mount Clemens as
| did for a number of years, |
perhaps got better acquainted
with him than some of you here
tonight. And one of the things |
looked forward to each month
during the winters there, were
the Algonquin Fridays when we
came down TO Detroit in his car.
He enjoyed talking about his
experiences and about people.
He was full of local history and
ccnealogy. He knew the French
families, especially those living
in Macomb county, backward
and forward, from their first
coming in, 10 their youngest
children today.
He knew all about the an
Gent Moravian settlement IN
Mount Clemens, and had work
ed out the location of the road
by which they came in and got
out. AS for the present day, he
remarked once while driving
along on the Gratiot road that
from Mount Clemens to the
Eight Mile road he was never
out of sight of some house IN
which he and his bank, the
Mount Clemens Savings Bank,
had not. had or did not have a
direct financial interest. And
that means that he knew or
knew of most of the people llv-
ing in those houses, their inter-
ests, their children and their
problems. That was the kind Of
man he was.
The reason he had these in
terests becomes clearer if you
can view his family back few
generations 1t is then that you
realize he was the living link f,
as DR.. Quaife put it, between
ourselves in present day De-
troit and the Detroit of Cadil-
lac with its isolation, its small
ness and its hardship. For Henry
Chapotoh's great great, great
grandfather Jean, born in south
ern France and trained as sur
geon, arrived at Detroit in 1913,
when the settlement was only
seventeen years old and con-
sisted of wooden stockade fort
with a few outlying farms.
He was an army doctor with
the rank of major but in addi-
ton furnished all the medical
advice for the civilians as there
was no other physician in the
village. To him was assigned
what we now call private claim
number five, later called the
Charles Moran farm, which was
bounded on the east by Hastings
street. He married Mary Made
lline Esteve and they had tWen-
ty children. You can now under
stand why there are still some
Chapotons around.
The first son Of this large
family inherited his father S
name and was man of some
importance. His business was
trading for fur with the Indians
and he was such a close student
of the latter as to be able TO
act as interpreter between the
English garrison and Chief Pom
tiac during the famous siege. He
was also captain of militia.
"A third Jean Chapoton was
born in 1883 and may have been
a fur trader too. He was noticed
by the British Commandant as
being in active communication
with the Americans at Vim
cennes' very serious matter for
the British at that time.
Henry of the fourth genera
ton took part in the War of
1912 as member Of company
of scouts under Captain Aud
rain. He il was who moved his
family including Oliver, the
father of our friend, into Ma
comb county and Mount Glenn
ems in 1880.
oliver. as a boy Of five in
Detroit, witnessed the last Of.
fetal execution performed I'm.
der Michigan law, when a man
named Simmons was hanged
outside the jail located where
the downtown library now
stands. Soon after. he wa!
brought 10 Mount Clemens anc
as his first job was apprenticeo
TO a cooper. Later he changed
10 bookkeeping and then t.
l.