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MICHIGAN AS A PROVINCE 1 - 5
MILITARY and trading posts had been established at Frontenac, at the outlet of Lake Ontario, at Sault Ste Marie and at Michilimackinac, but they were in no sense permanent colonies, though they were almost continuously occupied from the beginning. The first settlement west of Montreal of a real colony, a gathering of settlers who came to stay, who brought with them farmers, artisans, merchants with a view to making homes was at Detroit. Cadillac was responsible for this movement. Here too came the first women, the sure home makers, significant of contentment and a willingness to dwell in the land. There had been no women at the posts not even the wives of officers, because of the hardships and dangers. But from the coming of Mesdames Cadillac and Tonty to Detroit, the presence and influence of the gentler sex have not been lacking.
Antoine de Ia Mothe Cadillac was a native of Gas-cony, France, but the precise place or date of his birth are uncertain. The record of his marriage which took place at Quebec June 25, 1687, gives his age as about twenty-six years, the son of M. Jean de Ia Mothe, sieur of the place called Cadillac of Launay and Ser-montel, Counsellor of the parliament of Toulouse, and of Madam Jeanne de Malenfant. This statement would place the date of his birth about 1661. The family was evidently one of some standing. The education and opportunities of the youth must have been good. We first hear of him in this country at Quebec in 1683.
where he was employed in the department of Marine. The French interests at that time were largely on the lower St. Lawrence and the adjacent coasts. One of their oldest settlements was at Port Royal and here they were in constant conflict with the English. Cadillac must have had some connection with the unpleasant state of affairs between the French and English, for shortly after his marriage to Marie Therese Guyon, a young native of Quebec, in 1687, we find him residing on Mount Desert Island and later at Port Royal.
MICHIGAN
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