First Indian Grant of Land to the First White Settler in Monroe Colonel Francis Navarre 1785.
First White Child Born in Monroe.
General Winchester's Headquarters, 1813.
Francois Marie Navarre, the son of Robert Navarre, the royal governor's representative in the settlement. Francois established himself in the Indian fur trade & became known by the sobriquet "Heutrau," a name of apparent Indian origin whose meaning is unknown.
Heutrau & his brother, Robert Jr. became the first white landholders on the River Raisin in 1783 when they negotiated a private treaty with the Potawatomi Indians for a tract of land. Private treaties with the Indians were unlawful under the British, who occupied Michigan at that time, & later under the Americans, who took over in 1796. While the U.S. government would not recognize these treaties, they did allow generous grants of land to any Michigan residents who could provide proof that his land had been occupied by 1796. When the testimony was taken in 1808, Joseph Jobin, the captain of the River Raisin militia, swore that Heutrau had erected his house in 1789.
Loading contexts...
