Sharing Personal History One Life at a Time

Tag: Detroit (page 1 of 1)

A Lovely View: The History of the Graveraet and Harsen Families of Harsens Island, Michigan: Part One

Journey from Albany, New York

British Colonies in North America after Quebec Act 1763 [3]

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 13th, 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]

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The First Land Sales in Port Huron, Michigan

Edward Tiffin Portrait
Edward Tiffin

Tiffin and Michigan Land

After the War of 1812, the federal government conducted surveys of land to be used for military bounties in parts of the Northwest Territory for soldiers who fought in the war.  Each soldier to be given 160 acres.  Edward Tiffin, Surveyor General for the Northwest, issued a letter dated November 30, 1815, to Josiah Meigs, Commissioner of the General Land Office, in which he reported unfavorable conditions in the Michigan Territory describing the land as “so bad that there would not be more than one acre out of a hundred, if there would be one out of a thousand, that would in any case admit of cultivation.”

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Lost in Translation: Frances Harsen, an Indian Woman

Fort Gratiot, Michigan, the outlet of Lake Huron, adjacent to Auminchaw reservation.  Source: Castlenau, Francis De. (1842), Vues et Souvenirs du L’Amerique du Nord, plate. 18, fig. 3.

Beliefs, Values, Morals

“Belief is a beautiful armor

But makes for the heaviest sword

Like punching underwater

You never can hit who you’re trying for

Some need the exhibition

And some have to know they tried

 It’s the chemical weapon

For the war that’s raging on inside”

(John Mayer), Belief

Our beliefs form from our experiences, what we see, hear, read, and think about.  They are assumptions or thoughts we associate with who we are and how we perceive others to be.  They shape and form our opinions and attitudes about what we perceive to be “good” or “bad”.   Values come from our beliefs.  They are the things we think are important.  Honesty, education, loyalty, money, faithfulness are just a few examples.

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