A Lovely View – Part One: From Albany to Detroit

Journey from Albany, New York

After the British capture of Quebec from the French during the French and Indian War at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham on September 13^th, 1759, it would take almost another four years for the French to cede all their territory in North America to the British under the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763. [1] By Great Britain’s Royal Proclamation of 1763, the French Territory of Canada, known as New France, would be renamed the Province of Quebec.  This new province included the Great Lakes Region and the settlement at Detroit. [2]

Anxious for decades to conduct trade business in the Great Lakes Region, Dutch fur traders flooded into Detroit.  One of these traders was the well-known son-in-law of Jacob Harsen, Gerrit aka Garrett Graveraet (hereinafter known as “Gerrit Graveraet”). [4] Gerrit Graveraet was born in Albany, NY on April 2, 1745, to Isaac Grevenraedt and Alida Gerritsen. [5]       According to Walter E. Simmons, Graveraet was a silversmith, who came to Detroit as early as April 14, 1769, where on this date he purchased property on St. Anne’s Street.  Robert Derome, an extensive researcher of silversmithing, denotes Graveraet as a silversmith in the Province of Quebec from 1769 to 1790 and Jacob Harsen as a silversmith and gunsmith in the province from 1767 to 1802. [6]  After reviewing Derome’s data, one might be of the mindset Jacob Harsen came to Detroit earlier than Gerritt Graveraet.  However, after careful consideration of other documentation, one can deduce the date of 1767 for Jacob Harsen could be attributed to his initial service at Fort Niagara and not an indication of his beginnings in the Detroit area.  Fort Niagara would also be included in the British Province of Quebec.  After careful consideration of relative documentation, the author believes Derome’s listing dates are likely accurate for both men, and Gerrit Graveraet was acting as a silversmith at Detroit in 1769, while Jacob Harsen was acting as a silversmith/gunsmith in 1767 at Fort Niagara. 

Jacob Harsen was also of Dutch descent.  He was born February 22, 1738, in Albany, NY to Bernardus Harsen (fka Hassing) and Catharine Pruyn. [7]  At the time of his birth, the financial market of economic trade and livelihood in Albany centered around the fur trade.  His father, Bernardus Harsen, was a blacksmith for the Indians of the Six Nations.  Bernardus is recorded as having been paid for work as a “smith” in 1755 by Sir William Johnson. [8] Jacob came from Albany to work at Fort Niagara as a blacksmith under commission of Sir William Johnson.  It is probable he received this commission through his father.  Sir William Johnson was a Major General of the British Army until 1756 when he was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the British North Colonies.  He served this appointment until his death in 1774 [9]. 

Sir William Johnson commissioned Jacob Harsen before the summer of 1761, as evidenced in Sir William Johnson’s note to himself in July of 1761.  As Johnson made his way from Albany to Detroit to meet with the Indians there, he kept a journal of his travels.  On Saturday, the 22^nd of July, he wrote, “I agreed with Mr. Harsen of Albany (Smith) to work as gunsmith for the Indians who come to Niagara, at 100 pounds currency per annum.  Present Captain Slosser.” [10]  Further evidence of the timeframe of his commission is represented in Johnson’s letter dated April 29, 1762, to Major William Walters, who held post at Fort Niagara, “As I am sensible there must be a good deal of occasion for a smith at your post, I now send up Mr. Harsen.  He would have been there last fall, being then on this way as far as Fort Stanwix [Rome, Oneida County, NY] when his boat was prest which hath hitherto delayed him.” [11]

Confirmation Jacob arrived at Fort Niagara on May 15, 1766, is evidence in his own letter to Johnson dated May 27, 1766, where he states his date of arrival and sends the post from Fort Niagara.  In his letter, Jacob informs Johnson of his concern there are no men to spare to assist him in making a blacksmith shop.  He mentions he took his resolution from Johnson to the Fort to see if he could set up a King’s shop there until Mr. Roberts arrives.  He goes on to tell Johnson that he needs tools for the shop because everything has been taken to another Fort or is in poor repair.  He goes on to explain that Major Wilkins told him that if he wants tools that Johnson will have to pay for them.  He tells Johnson he has no house to live in.  Harsen reiterates that he hopes everything will be settled by the time Mr. Roberts comes.  He goes on to explain that having a shop in the Fort is not a “proper place for him to work.”    Near the end of his letter, Harsen gives an apology for neglecting to have brought 12 months of provisions with him and explains the reason he did not is because he thought money would be granted to him and Mr. Roberts and expresses his dissatisfaction of not receiving a house and a shop outside of the garrison.  He ends his letter stating that working for a house and shop was the sole reason he agreed to come to Niagara in the first place. [12] 

Definitive confirmation of both Graveraet and Harsen in Detroit is the 1779 Census of Detroit.   Both men are listed on this Census, but neither of them is listed on the 1768 Census of Detroit. [13] It has been said that Gerrit Graveraet came to Detroit from Albany with his future business partner, John Visger aka Visgar.  John Visger was also known as a silversmith for a period but was primarily a fur trader and merchant.  While it is true the two men were business partners in the 1780s in Detroit, it is unlikely they came to Detroit together.  Gerrit is documented in the Detroit area as early as 1769 buying the property on St. Anne’s Street, whereas John Visger does not show up in any Detroit records until 1776 when he was called as a witness in the Joseph Schindler trial to give testimony as to his competency as a silversmith. [14]

Joseph Schindler was a silversmith and merchant who was born in Switzerland and arrived in Quebec in 1763.  In 1775, he made plans with another merchant, Monforton, from Montreal to travel to Mackinac in April.  He took his own apprentice, Michel Forton, and four workers with him to Mackinac.  In 1776, he was brought before the Justice of the Peace in Detroit, Philippe Dejean, for having made substandard silver holloware.  At trial, Schlindler’s defense was his failure to serve an apprenticeship before becoming a tradesman made him a poor judge on the quality of silver.  His apprentice, Forton, gave favorable testimony and Schindler was acquitted of the charge.  Dejean made sure he was removed from Detroit.  Schindler moved to Montreal and continued his fur trading business in Detroit despite Dejean’s treatment. [15]

It is more likely Gerrit Graveraet came to Detroit in 1769 with his cousin, Jacob Lansing, to solicit trade for Albany merchants.  This is evidenced by a deed dated December 26, 1770, in which Gerrit Graveraet and Jacob Lansing together convey “a house and a lot of ground within the Fort of Detroit fronted on St. Anne’s Street” to James Gordon and Alexander Macomb.  The witness on the instrument is Collin Andrews. [16] James Gordon, Alexander Macomb and Collin Andrews all have ties to the fur trade in Albany, NY.  This could possibly be the same property Simmons mentions Graveraet purchased on St. Anne’s Street in 1769, but without the record it is impossible to know.  What is known is he sold a piece of property to Alexander Macomb, an Albany merchant and landholder at the time, who would in later years become a wealthy fur trader in the Detroit area for the firm of Phyn & Ellice, and to James Gordon, a young Scots-Irishman, who had initially attempted to come to Detroit via Albany with another Scots-Irishman, John Askin, in 1763.  Due to Pontiac’s Rebellion, Gordon and Askin would have to wait a few years to amass their fortunes.  Onboard ship during the rebellion, the young men fled for their lives and lost their valuable cargo, forcing them back to Albany to face their creditors.  Future business partners, Askin and Gordon worked closely with Macomb in later years. [17]

It is conceivable Gerrit Graveraet had planned for John Visger to follow him to Detroit.  Both men shared family ties to Albany and Schenectady, and it is likely they knew one another before business partnership formally began in Detroit.  Likewise, the deep roots both the Graveraet and Harsen families held in the early Dutch settlements of New York and Albany may have influenced Gerrit’s marriage to Jacob Harsen’s daughter, Sarah — binding two Albany lineages together on the frontier of Michigan’s fur trade.

References:

[1] Wikipedia, (2021).  Battle of the Plains of Abraham, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Plains_of_Abraham, accessed January 16, 2022 and Wikipedia, (2021).  Treaty of Paris, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_(1763), accessed January 16, 2022.

[2] Wikipedia, (2021).  Province of Quebec, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Quebec_(1763%E2%80%931791), accessed January 16, 2022.

[3] Wikimedia, (2021).  British Colonies in North America, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_British_colonies_in_North_America.jpg, accessed January 16, 2022.

[4] According to John Reynolds Totten, this family surname appears with various forms of spelling in the records of the Dutch Church in New Amsterdam (later New York City): Grevenraedt, Grevenraet, Grevenraad, Grevenraadt, Grevenraat, Grevenraed, Grevenraets, Greveraad, Greveraat, Greveraets, Greveurt, and Greverard. Totten, John Reynolds, (July 1929).  Grevenraedt Family With Notes on the Allied Families of De Riemer, Gouverneur and Meyer, NYG&B Record, July 1929, Volume 60, Issue 3, p. 202.

Alternate spellings discovered by the author include:

Graveraet.  Harsen Island Historical Society, (2018).  Descendant List of Jacob Bernardus Harsen, p. 1

Other publications and alternate spellings of this surname include: 

Graverat.  Simmons, Walter E., II (1969), The Silversmiths of Old Detroit, A Thesis, p. 36 and 43 and Farmer, Silas (1890).  History of Detroit and Wayne County and Early Michigan, p. 767.   Demeter, C. Stephan (1993).  Jacob Harsen and the Early Settlement of Harsen’s Island.  The Delta News, 50^th Annual Edition, pp. 6-9.

Gravereat.  Collins, Newell E. (1945).  The Gravereat Family, The Totem Pole, 15, No. 4, pp. 1-4.

Greverat.  Kelley, Sharon, Moreau-DesHarnais, Gail & Trudeau, Alfred (transcribers) (2005).  Thomas Williams Ledger D3 1781-83 Held by the Burton Historical Collection, Michigan’s Habitant Heritage: Journal of the French-Canadian Heritage Society, (Jan. 2005), Vol. 26, Issue #1, p. 3.

[5] Totten, John Reynolds (1930).  Grevenraedt Family, NYG&B Record, Vol. 61, Issue 2 (April 1930), p. 152

[6] Derome, Robert (date unknown).  John Kinzie Silversmith, Robert Derome website, https://rd.uqam.ca/Kinzie/index.html accessed January 16, 2022.

[7] Holland Society of New York:  Church Records of Albany; New York; Albany, Volume 1, Book 1, p. 336.

[8] Ancestry.com, The Papers of Sir William Johnson, The Seven Years War, Volume II, p. 592, p. 1637 ancestry film, [database online].  Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/20216/, accessed January 17, 2022.

[9] Canadiana Heritage website (2022).  History of the Indian Department, Finding Aid 2122, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Northern District of North America fonds: H-2943, https://heritage.canadiana.ca/search/?q0.0=H-2943, accessed January 17, 2022.

[10] Ancestry.com, The Papers of Sir William Johnson, The Seven Years War Period, Volume XIII, The Detroit Journal, p. 243, p. 12520 ancestry film, [database online].  Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/20216/images/dvm_PrimSrc000314-14457-0?ssrc=&backlabel=Return, accessed January 17, 2022.

[11] Ancestry.com, The Papers of Sir William Johnson, The Seven Years War, Volume III, p. 272, p. 2711 ancestry film, [database online].  Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/20216/images/dvm_PrimSrc000314-02713-0?ssrc=&backlabel=Return, accessed January 17, 2022.

[12] Ancestry.com, The Papers of Sir William Johnson, Post-War 1763-1774, Volume V, pp. 226-227, p. 4161-4162 ancestry film, [database online].  Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/20216/images/dvm_PrimSrc000314-04163-0?ssrc=&backlabel=Return, accessed January 17, 2022.

[13] Russell, Donna Valley, Ed., (1982).  Michigan Censuses 1710-1830 Under the French, British, and Americans, Detroit Society for Genealogical Research, Inc.: Detroit, MI.

[14] Simmons, Walter E., II (1969).  The Silversmiths of Old Detroit, A Thesis, p. 42.

[15] Dictionary of Canadian Biography website, (2003-2022).  Schindler, Joseph (Jonas), http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/schindler_joseph_4E.html, accessed January 17, 2022.

[16] FamilySearch.org, (2021).  Deed Records 1766-1918, Wayne County Register of Deeds, Liber A [original] 1766-1776, Film No.926305, Image Group No. 8580428, p.167 of film.  https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/244568?availability=Family%20History%20Library, accessed January 17, 2022.

[17] Carroll, Justin M., (2011).  John Askin’s Many Beneficial Binds: Family, Trade, and Empire in the Great Lakes.  A Dissertation, Michigan State University.  https://d.lib.msu.edu/etd/1767/datastream/OBJ/download/John_Askin_s_many_beneficial_binds___family__trade__and_empire_in_the_Great_Lakes.pdf, accessed January 16, 2022.

[18] Wikipedia, (2022).  Alexander Macomb [print], https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Macomb_(merchant), accessed January 18, 2022.

[19] Ibid.