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MICHIGAN AS A PROVINCE 1 - 5
Cadillac's house is believed to have stood on the north side of the present Jefferson avenue, about midway between Griswold and Shelby streets! Artisans skilled in all kinds of useful trades were brought here and were licensed to carry on their business. The first business to which they were required to give attention was that of Cadillac himself, as the lord of the estate. After that was taken care of there was a chance for others. Not that he was grasping or overly selfish, but simply that he asserted the right to claim his own.
Five of Cadillac's thirteen children were born in Detroit. The record of the baptism of the first of
these was undoubtedly destroyed in the fire which burned the church in 1703. But that of Marie-Therese, under date of February 2, 1704, appears in the register of old St. Ann's Church, still extant. Several of these children died and were buried in St. Ann's churchyard. There was a considerable influx of population in the summer of 1706. Two Recollet priests came on, Dominique de Ia Marche and Cherubin Deniau. The former kept the parish records for many years. The increase in the population compelled the enlargement of the palisaded enclosure. The little settlement seemed on the high road to a wonderful success. Its prosperity, however, stirred formidable hostility in influential quarters. Quebec and Montreal were jealous of its rapid growth which had a tendency to detract from theirs. The Company of the Colony objected to the building up of an agricultural community and the settlement of the country to the detriment of the fur business. The Jesuit missionaries, always hostile, complained because their mission at Michilimackinac was broken up and the Indians were coaxed away from them to the new post at Detroit. The result of all this hostility was a concerted attempt to discredit Cadillac and smother his enterprise. Vaudrieul was directed to remove the garrison, and in the summer of 1711 Dubaisson was sent on to carry this order into effect, to supersede Cadillac as governor, and to deliver to him a commission as governor of Louisiana. The latter immediately set out for Quebec whence he sailed for France, leaving his wife at Detroit to look after his property interests there.
MICHIGAN
Page 70
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