Excerpt From Hugh Heward's Journal

In a 1790 journal, fur trader Hugh Heward noted that the residence of Sans Craint or Sanscrant, a trader, was about 140 miles up the Huron from its mouth; about 50 miles further, there was an Indian village. Other American records place Sanscrainte not only in proximity to the Potawatomi of Huron, but also show that he interacted with them. In 1794-1795, Bad Bird, an Ottawa 11 chief from Michilimackinac (L'Arbre Croche,) and a Frenchman who lived at Detroit, Baptiste Sanscrainte, were employed by General Anthony Wayne to invite Indians to Greenville, Ohio, for treaty negotiations. In March 1795, these two men went with the trader McKenzie to Kalamazoo, to meet with a general rendevous of the Indians at Muskegon in the spring.  [Source]

This blogger was following in Heward's path as seen in Heward's journal.

Old Fort Mackinaw

History of Michigan, By Sarah Lieb:

Passport to Mackinac

Source

John Howard, Merchant, Mackinac

 Mackinac

23 July 1790

George Hoffman's Probate

Wayne County, Michigan

Probate File 74

George Hoffman

Died 2 March 1810

Coversheet [Image 163]

Several names [Image 196]

Names from circa 1806 to 1810

Including Peter Thiery, Captain Dyson, and Peter Audrain

Also on the list of demands due the estate was

The United States of America

Expenditures on the farm

Known by Earnest's Farm

Source

"It is barely possible that there was another reason for refusing to probate this will which never appeared on the surface. George Hoffman, the decedent, had married Margaret Audrain, daughter of Peter Audrain. Hoffman had been appointed collector at Mackinac (Michilimackinac) and was living there at the time of his death. They had one child, George Worthington Hoffman, who was about seven months old at the time of his father's death. George Hoffman, by his will, gave all of his property to his father and mother, providing that neither his wife nor his then unborn son should take any part of his estate. It is possible that the injustice done the infant son was one of the causes the district court had in refusing to probate this will." [Ibid]

Western District Detroit

From Déliberations Et Mémoires...:

To Detroit In 1760

Source

Source

BREHM, Diedrich native of Germany, became lieut. in the 2d batt. of 60th regt. Feb 21, 1756, and in 1759, acted as asst. engineer; he attended Maj, Rogers to Detroit in 1760, and went thence, it is said, to Michilimackinac; in 1774 he was capt. and March 19, 1783, became a maj. in the British army. (Com. Wilson's Orderly Book, 45.)

OCLC WorldCat has the following entry, citing Diedrich Brehm as the author of the "Plan of the fort at Detroit, 1760."

Plan of the fort at Detroit, 1760.
Author: Diedrich Brehm
Publisher: 1760.
Map : Manuscript   Archival Material : English

Visiting Detroit

Source

Probate File For Captain Lewis Howard

Coversheet

Wayne County, Michigan, Probate File# 75

Louis Howard Image 205

Island of Michilimackinac

Source

A Mackinaw Island newspaper article mentioned how Lewis Howard died:

"It is interesting to note that on January 13, in 1811, Lewis Howard dies on Mackinac Island from injuries sustained in a sleighing accident with a horse."

Lewis Howard's Application For Appointment As Military agent at Mackinaw:

Source - Fold3

From the Genealogy of the Rodman Family, 1620 to 1886:

Source

Michael Dousman, Mackinac's Military Agent

Source

Letters Received By The Office Of The Adjutant General, 1805-1821:

Source

24 July 1815

Letter from Major Morgan

Michael Dousman

Appointed Military Agent

Mackinac

Excavation of Fort Michilimackinac

Excavation Circa 2005 (Near Present-Day Mackinaw City, Michigan)

Excavation of Fort Michilimackinac...:

"Fort Michilimackinac, a stockaded enclosure 380 feet long by 360 feet wide, built early in the eighteenth century and abandoned toward the end of the same century, was one of the most important forts of the early western frontier."  "It saw only one military action, and that a degrading one, when Indians massacred most of the British garrison in the summer of 1763."

Married At Mackinac Island

Fort Mackinac

"Upon August 12, 1824, I [*Elizabeth Therese Baird] was married at our home on Mackinac Island to Henry S. Baird, and the following month we left for Green Bay... ".  "General Gaines, continuing an inspection was also on board, therefore a salute was fired... ."

".Fort Howard did not present so much the appearance of a fortress as did my beloved Fort Mackinac.. ."

 *Mrs. Elizabeth Therese Fisher Baird was born at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, April 24, 1810.  She married at age 14 and died in 1890.  Her husband was born in Ireland in 1800 and immigrated to the United States in 1805.  [Source] [Also here]

Settlements In The Mackinac Straits

Replica Fort - Mackinaw City

Information found in the Excavation of Fort Michilimackinac...:

"In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there were three successive major trading settlements in the Mackinac Straits area; first, at present day St. Ignace...then present day Mackinaw City, and finally, on Mackinac Island, but documents of the period seldom specify the exact location of the reference."

Happy Birthday, Detroit

A bit of early history from "Cadillac's Village," Or "Detroit Under Cadillac.": With List of Property Owners And A History Of the Settlement, 1701-1710 ..., by Clarence Monroe Burton.

 "The early history of Detroit is scarcely known. The records that contain its story are to be found in Montreal, Quebec, and Paris."

"Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac had been the commandant at Mackinac from 1694 to 1698, and while occupying that position, had cast his eye southward as a better location than Mackinac for founding a colony."

"Having obtained permission from his government to found a colony at Detroit, he set out on his errand in the spring of 1701, and reached the site of the future city on the 24th of July."

Barney Relative Marries Daughter of British Officer...

...who was stationed near Mackinac:

Source

WILLIAM 4 BEDFORD eldest son of Commodore Joshua 3 and Anne (Bedford) Barney. Born Dec. 7, (1781?) Married (1) Rebecca Ridgely May 2, 1799.  He died November 18, 1838, age 58.
She died February 16, 1807.

Children:

I. Rebecca Ridgely, Born July 8, 1801; Married Stephen J. Thompson July 9, 1832

They had children:

1. Charles R. B., died June 27, 1839, age 5 years and 9 months
2. Mary Rebecca,  Married Albert L. Gorter
3. Eliza Young

From the Federal Gazette, September 21, 1815. Married: Stephen J. Thompson and Evelina Barney, September 18, by Glendy.
Baltimore American, October 1 1, 1826. Married: Stephen J. Thompson and Mary B. Hayward, both of Harford County, at "Prospect Hill," residence of Archer Hays, October 10. January 19, 1827. Mrs. Mary B., wife of Stephen J. Thompson, died June 13. July 10, 1832. Married Stephen J. Thompson and Rebecca R. Barney, July 9, 1832. 

2. Joshua; Married Matilda Aiken, daughter of a British army officer stationed on the Canadian frontier opposite Fort Mackinac. 

They had children:

1. William Joshua, Born March 7, 1823, Fort Mackinac. Married, Dubuque, Iowa, Georgianna Floyd, daughter of William Byers Carroll, Louisville, Kentucky.

2. Isabelle Aiken Born March 21, 1825

3. Elizabeth Young Born June 10, 1827; Married William M. Ellicott

4. Rebecca Ridgely (youngest child), Born June 28, 1829. Died March 5, 1835,Dedham, Mass.

Askin's Slaves In Michigan

Know all men by these presents that I Abram Dow of the City of Albany Merchant....two Negro men...Jupiter & the Other Pompey now in the Possession of Mr. John Askin Mercht at Michilimackinac...8 March 1775
Goose Van schaick
Petter W. Dow

Source

Seeking Michigan's article, Island Backdrop, has more:

John Askin, a wealthy Michilimackinac merchant during the 1760s and 1770s, owned two black slaves: Jupiter Wendell, a skilled cooper, and Pompey.

More about slavery in Detroit, including those belonging to John Askin, here.

The Askin & Grant Cousins Of Detroit

John Askin was an extensive trader at Detroit and brother-in-law of [Alexander] Grant. Grant lived at Grosse Pointe and there had a castle well filled with young lady daughters. There were ten in all of whom nine grew to womanhood, Therese (Mrs. Wright) Nellie, Archange (married Thomas Dickson), Phillis (married Alexander Duff), Isabella (married Mr Gilkison) Nancy (married George Jacob) Elizabeth (married James Woods) Mary Julia (married Mr. Milles) and Jean Cameron (married William Richardson).

The absence of any of the ten from the family circle could hardly be noticed for the deficiency was filled by the cousins, daughters of John Askin. Of these cousins frequent visitors at the Grant Castle there were Adelaide Askin (afterwards the wife of Elijah Brush), Therese (who married Colonel Thomas McKee), Ellen (the wife of Richard Pattinson), and Archange who became Mrs Meredith and removed to England with her husband who was an officer in the British forces. [Source]

Source

From the Askin Papers:  Charles Andrew Barthe was the father-in-law of both John Askin and Alexander Grant. 

Dr. John Robert Richardson, profiled here, married John Askin's daughter Madeleine.

The Grants and Askins in Niagara Historical papers.