Cadillac's Village
De la Mothe Cadillac was sent to New France in 1683 by the king. Later he became commandant at Michilimackinac, where he prospered dealing in furs. He also embroiled himself in a lifelong feud with the Jesuit missionaries over the sale of intoxicants to the Indians. In France, an over-supply of furs piled up at the same time that extravagant old Louis XIV was having trouble financing his army's forays in Europe. So it was a convenient time for the king to give in to Jesuit demands that he close the upper Great Lakes to everyone but missionaries.
Cadillac saw that the English would gladly fill the void left by France. Advocating a new outpost, he wrote: "Especially attractive is the region lying south of the pearllike lake to which they gave the name Ste. Claire and the country bordering upon the deep, clear river ... known as Le d'Etroit."
Cadillac advocated a different kind of outpost, one for settlers, not just traders. For mutual protection, he would invite friendly Indian tribes to the area. Eventually the king gave the idea his blessing.
In the spring of 1701, Cadillac embarked from Montreal with about 200 men. Listed among them were these names, recognizable despite spelling variations: Beaufait, Morain, Cadway, Tronbles, Choives, St. Aubin, Proncusal, Rivard, Gurne.
On July 23, 1701, they passed the shores the Frenchmen would later call Grosse Pointe. They landed between present Jefferson Avenue and the Veterans Memorial. Cadillac named his fort after Count Ponchartrain, who had interested the king of France in this settlement.
To help encourage other settlers to come, Cadillac asked his wife and Mme. de Tonty, wife of his second in command, to move to the fort. They became the first European women in Michigan.
Cadillac had assured the Indians already living at "the strait" that the French wanted only to provide a convenient place for them to trade their furs. Even in later years, when French farms reached as far as Grosse Pointe, their life style was minimally threatening to the natives, and relations usually were good. As a precaution, however, Indians always were ordered out of the fort at sundown.
To give everyone access to the river, the grants of land were long and narrow, stretching inland as far as three miles. In later years, they came to be called "ribbon farms." Access to the water was vital for humans and animals and for transporting goods to the fort. Before long, the fort was surrounded by friendly Miamis, Hurons, Chippewas and Ottawas; the Potawatomi arrived later.
There were few Canadian or European women for several decades, and Cadillac gave unofficial approval for the taking of Indian wives by his men. His sensitivity in dealing with the natives was important; in the early years there were only about 100 French people in the fort, while estimates of the local Indian population ran to 6,000.
By 1708, Cadillac's 150 grants stretched well beyond the stockade. The practice for the first decade was for the habitants to return each night to the fort.
Among Cadillac's detractors were jealous fur merchants at Quebec, and friction between him and the missionaries never ceased. He had extricated himself from many difficulties, but in 1710 he was named governor of the vast Louisiana region, an empty promotion because he had to leave his accumulated wealth at Detroit.
