Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan


After the French surrender of Michigan Territory, to the English, in 1760, a group of 200 rangers commanded by Major Robert Rogers took control of Fort Detroit and passed it peacefully to the English.

Some settlers became unattracted to the Detroit area and the Native American's dissatisfaction over to British control was part of the reason.

During the spring of 1763 the commanding Major Gladwin, of Detroit, was warned by a man named William Tucker (Tuckar) that Fort Detroit was going to be under attack.

When William was 11 years old, he and his younger brother had been captured (abt 1753) and their father was killed by Chippewa Native Americans, who brought William and his brother with them from Virginia to Michigan. When he was released, at age 18 years, William came to Detroit where he had spent several spring seasons, while he was captive.

William Tucker became the first English-speaking landowner in Macomb County, Michigan. He had served as an interpreter for the British, and maintained an excellent relationship with the Native Americans. He is said to have served during the Revolutionary War, as a captain with the American Militia, and was given a large tract of land in 1780 for his honesty and faithful service. The land (now Selfridge Air Base) was an area he selected as it had been a favorite camping ground of the Chippewa. The deed was signed by a group of Chippewa chiefs, and not by the British government. The son of William Tucker, Edward, stated in part that, my mother made the farm a home. Father had slaves they brought from Virginia they raised all kinds of provisions on the farm which they took to the Detroit market. My parents had ten children, 3 daughters and 7 sons. I was the fifth child and was born in Detroit July 16, 1782. (1)

William Tucker died at his home March 7, 1805. Catherine, his wife, died in 1848.

Tucker did not settle on his land until the spring of 1783. His neighbors to the south were the French who occupied farms along the shores of Lake St Clair and the Detroit River. His neighbors 8 miles to the west were the Moravian Missionaries and their Delaware Native American converts, who arrived in July 1782. Richard Conner (Connor) joined the Moravians in the spring of 1783. He had previously been living with the Moravians in Ohio. The English interpreter Edward Hazel (Hasle) had built a cabin on the river, east of the Moravians, by the winter of 1783. New settlers did not arrive in the area until the 1790's.

Although Tucker's property and home did not lie within the bounds of the future city of Mount Clemens, Tucker was a driving force and received mutual respect and trust between the white's and the Native American's and he helped promote a more peaceful atmosphere in the area. His family also hosted a number of visitors. Joseph Rowe came to teach in their home about 1794. William Case the first regular Methodist minister in Detroit, frequently preached in Tucker's home in the early 1800s, and Tucker's descendants became active in the life of the future city, Mount Clemens.

Moravians and Richard Conner

Many prisoners were taken by the English and their Native American allies to Detroit at the time of the American Revolution. Among them were the Moravian missionaries, or teachers as they were called by the Native Americans, and their Delaware converts under the leadership of David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder. The Christianized Delaware Natives initially occupied a strategic location in the Ohio Valley between the British and American forces. While remaining neutral, the Moravians at times supplied the Americans with information about the movements of hostile Iroquois, supported by the British.

After suffering the loss of all they owned at the hands of the British and their Native allies, the missionaries were acquitted of the British charge of treason, only after a winter of near starvation in the Ohio wilderness. 96 Christianized Natives returned to the area to try and salvage what they could. All, except one young boy and one scalped man, lived. The rest were massacred by a group of American Militia men on March 8, 1782.

The Moravian missionaries were brought back to Detroit by the commandant, Major Schuyler De Peyster, after hearing of the Natives tragedy. It was purposed that the Moravians settle East of Detroit on the River Huron (now called the Clinton River), in an area apart from the path of warrior Natives.

David Zeisberger kept a diary (2) as required by the church. The Zeisberger diary includes the years of 1782-1786, when the Moravians built and lived in the settlement of New Gnadenhutten, across the river from the future, Mount Clemens.

Zeisberger recorded the missionaries' arrival on the River Huron on a Monday July 21, 1782. On July 22, 1782, it is recorded that they examined further up the creek, and found on the south side of the river, a fine place to lay out a town on a height not inferior to that at Schonbrum, Ohio.

On a Tuesday, July 23, 1782 we found many traces that along time ago an Indian town must have stood on this place, for we saw many holes in the ground, which were now filled up but quite recognizable in which Indians have even now the custom of keeping their corn and other property.

In many entries, Zeisberger described their way of life, homes, habits of the Chippewa's and visitors to Detroit.

On Tuesday March 25, 1783, he mentions the arrival of Brother Conner. Conner was the only white man ever allowed to live with the Moravians and appeared to have taken up residence at the same time as William Tucker.

Zeisberger described Tucker as a white man, our neighbor, who settled several weeks ago on the river below us.

There was little food for either the Moravians or the Chippewa's, who resented having to share their hunting grounds and especially with Christianized Indians. The problems increased with wolves taking many cattle, poor crops, and three previous years of famine, which did not end until the bountiful harvest of September 1784.

Despite the harvest, the Chippewa continued to voice their discontent that the Moravians were living on their lands.

On March 4, 1786, three years after the end of the Revolution, when the English should have left Detroit, Major Ancrum, the new English commander at Detroit, and John Askins, a loyal English merchant, each possessed land grants of 2,000 acres of land, which they bought out the Moravian settlement.

Also that year, the first road from Detroit to the future Mount Clemens area was cleared.

The Moravians left in April 1786 and loaded their canoes, none of them remained behind, except Conner's family. Certainly, Conner and his family had special knowledge of Native American customs and language.

Richard Conner was born about 1718, in Maryland and was 68 years old when the Moravians left the area. His wife, Margaret, had been captured by Native American's at the age of four years. Conner bought her freedom and then they married. As part of the bargain, the Conner's were obliged to give their first-born child, James to the Native Americans. Several years later, they were able to buy him back. Their son, Henry, later became a highly respected and influential person to the Natives. A daughter, Susanna, may have been the first child bore of both English-speaking parents in Macomb County. She later married Elisha Harrington in 1807, who had settled in the area the previous year. Some of the Conner land later became part of Mount Clemens.

Christian CLEMENS

In the late 1790's, Christian Clemens came to the area with a surveying party under the leadership of Lewis Cass. Clemens had been working as a miller in Detroit, and became interested in the high ridge of land on the Huron River. Born in 1768, the son of a Pennsylvania Mennonite farmer, his mother of German heritage, and spoke no English.

On March 18, 1800 Clemens, together with Oliver Wiswell purchased a distillery that had been built by Nathan Williams and Jared Brooks about 1798. The distillery is considered the first building on the site of future Mount Clemens. In 1801, Clemens bought the land surrounding the distillery, amounting in all to 500 acres from John and Richard Conner. The village of Mount Clemens was later plated on this land in 1818.

In 1802, Clemens built a log house on what became Front Street (later Broadway and then Gratiot Avenue). He married in 1802 to Elizabeth Allen, the widow of a Detroit physician and Native interpreter who had disappeared in 1801. The Allen children were named, James and Mary. Mary, later became the wife of John Stockton.

By 1806, a school had been organized and was in session in Clemens home. Clemens was also active in the local militia, consisting of men between the ages of 14 years and 50 years old , which held in readiness against the Shawnee, along the Huron River.

Clemens conveyed land to the county for building the county courthouse, lands for churches, and helped establish a stage line between Detroit and Mount Clemens. He organized several businesses, including a tannery and a small store for trading furs. He also farmed, operated the distillery and secured a tavern license. Clemens led the townspeople in all matters of public concern until his death, in 1844.

The early history of Mount Clemens stems from the success of early Detroit. The settlers were dependent on the stability and security of the fort for the surrounding settlements.

Settlers specifically targeted areas that had already been weakened by Native American warfare, disease, and starvation. After 1800, it became the policy of the white men to clear the Native American's off the lands. Ownership by an individual was considered everyone's right.

Sometime after Clemens made his first purchase of land in 1801, the area surrounding his land became known as High Banks or Big Springs. A few businesses were started and a few houses were built and continued with those names until 15 families platted the area, Mount Clemens in 1818. By 1811, 5 private claims covered the major portion of the future site. These were claims Number 141 by Christian Clemens claim number 139 by Henry Conner claim number 541 by James Conner and Christian Clemens claim number 542 by Christian Clemens (first settled by Edward Hazel) and claim number 173 by James Abbott, a merchant from Detroit.

The Past and Present of Macomb County by Robert F. Eldridge states a total population of the territory as 4, 762, of whom four-fifths are French, and the remainder American, with a small portion of British.

War of 1812

Many settlers, including Clemens family, fled to Detroit upon the news of the War declared between the English and the United States on June 18, 1812. Lieutenant Colonel Clemens was captured by the British and taken to Fort Detroit in July 1812. During his year of imprisonment, Clemens was allowed to be within the city with his family at night. The Clemens family returned to their homestead shortly after the end of the war on December 24, 1814. Elisha and Susanna (Conners) Harrington also went to Detroit. Their buildings were occupied by Native American's but left without incident after they arrived home.

The Tucker's remained on their land, however were said to have spent thousands of dollars entertaining the Native American's to insure their safety.

The American's retook possession of Fort Detroit on September 29, 1813.

Mount Clemens

Mount Clemens was incorporated as a village again, in 1851 and that same year, village officials were elected.

The years between 1820 and 1840 were a time of growth for the community and in 1824, a dam was authorized as well as territorial roads. In 1833 and 1834, railroads were incorporated and in 1835 a bridge was constructed over the Clinton River.

The Detroit and Canadian Grand Trunk Junction Rail Road sent the first passenger train through Mount Clemens to Port Huron on August 14, 1859. On this same route, Thomas Edison, just a young boy then, served as the area newsboy.

Farming was the usual nineteenth-century occupation. James C. Edgerly arrived in Mount Clemens in 1822, and alter managed Judge Clemens farm. Edgerly recorded, in approximately 1825, Mount Clemens consisted of eight dwellings and one store, a shoemaker's shop, a blacksmith shop, a cooper's shop, and a courthouse with a small jail. He was appointed Justice of the Peace for Macomb County in 1826.

The Late 1800's in Mount Clemens

The entire population of Macomb County in the year 1873 was 28, 286. The census taken early in 1874 shows that 3,000 residents populated Mount Clemens 4,261 in Clinton Township 2,313 in Chesterfield Township.

Many German immigrants had come to the area to avoid military service in their native country. The French-English balance had shifted, adding Germans.

Dr. Abner Hayward was the first physician to make use of mineral waters that had gained public attention to the area around 1872. A year after he moved to the village from Romeo, the citizens were dedicated to the health and pleasure of bathing houses.

In 1879, Mount Clemens was incorporated into a city with Joshua B. Dickinson as its first mayor. Unfortunately, Dickinson died his very first month after the election, and the first function mayor became George M. Crocker.


Some Facts taken from

1. Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol 6 pg 357-61, 1852.
2. Diary of David Zeisberger, a Moravian Missionary, Eugene F. Bliss, transcribed and edited , Vol I 1885.

Contributed by Linda Ball