Detroit History Timeline
from 1701 to 1760

1701(August) The Treaty of Montreal is signed ending the war with the Iroquois.
170103-08-1701
Cadillac returns to Quebec from France having gotten the King's permission to establish a settlement in the Detroit area. The grant hasn't been made formal yet.
170103-10-1701
Quebec - Governor of New France (Hector Louis de Callieres) meets with Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac, Sieur de Douaguet and Mont Desert; Alphonse de Tonty; and others to celebrate the granting of commission of Commandant of 15 square acres of his choice along the Detroit River to Cadillac by Count Ponchartrain, the Minister of Marine under Louis XIV.
170106-04-1701
Cadillac sets sail from Montreal to found a new settlement in the lower region. He takes with him 25 canoes, 2 priests, 50 soldiers, 50 coureurs de bois, 100 Native Americans, and his 2nd in command, Alphonse di Tonty.
170107-23-1701
Cadillac and party reach the Detroit River. They spend the night on Grosse Ile
170107-24-1701
Cadillac
170110-07-1701
A crop of winter wheat is sown, placing Fort Ponchartrain (Detroit) on its way to self-sufficiency. It is the first wheat ever to be sown in present day Michigan.
170110-31-1701
King Louis XIV signs a contract giving Fort Ponchartrain and Frontenac operations to the Company of the Colony of Canada.
170109-01-2001
September (the exact date is uncertain) - Madame Marie Therese Guyon Cadillac and Marianne de Tonty leave Quebec and set out for Fort Ponchartrain du Detroit. They are the first non-Native American women to visit and live in the fort. Woodford says the women arrived in Detroit at this time.
170205-01-1702
(May - exact date unknown)) Mdes. Cadillac and de Tonty (and the families of other soldiers) arrive at Fort Ponchartrain. They are the first non-native women to visit Detroit.
170207-18-1702
Radisson and Arnault (of the Company of the Colony of Canada) arrive at Fort Ponchartrain to assume its control.
170209-25-1702
Cadillac leaves Fort Ponchartrain for Quebec to try to get changes made to the contract with the Company of the Colony (specifically to regain control of his settlement).
1703Fort Ponchartrain is partially burned in a fire set by an unknown arsonist.
170306-28-1703
Thirty Huron families arrive in Detroit from St. Ignace. There they set up a village outside of Fort Ponchartrain.
1704Alphonse de Tonty unofficially commands the garrison at Fort Ponchartrain in Cadillac's absence. He is removed from Detroit after being caught in an embezzlement scheme.
170402-02-1704
Marie Therese Cadillac, daughter of Antoine and Marie Therese (Guyon) Cadillac, is born. She is the first child to be baptized in Detroit.
170406-14-1704
Despite the agreement with the Company of the Colony of Canada, Count Ponchartrain gives Cadillac the power to grant land in and around Fort Ponchartrain to individuals. He is in the middle of a law suit at this time and doesn't actually start divvying up property until 1707.
1705Alphonse de Tonty takes temporary control of the garrison at Fort Ponchartrain for the second time while Cadillac is in Quebec.
170506-14-1705
Control of Fort Ponchartrain is restored to Cadillac (from the Company of the Colony of Canada).
170509-25-1705
Francois de la Forest commands Fort Ponchartrain in Cadillac's absence.
170601-29-1706
Cadillac leaves Fort Ponchartrain du Detroit on a routine visit to Montreal and Quebec. He leaves Lieutenant Etienne Venyard (Veniard), Sieur de Bourgmont in charge.
170606-06-1706
Father del Halle is murdered by an Ottawa man, becoming Detroit's first murder victim.
1707 - 171068 individual land lots are granted to private citizens by Cadillac in and around Fort Ponchartrain.
1710Cadillac is relieved of command of Fort Ponchartrain du Detroit and made governor of Louisiana Territory.
1711Cadillac leaves Fort Ponchartrain for the last time. He is replaced by Charles Regnault, Sieur du Buisson, who fills in for Francois de la Forest, the official replacement.
1712Summer - Francois de la Forest returns to Fort Ponchartrain to take command from Buisson. He holds the position until his death in October of 1714.
1712Summer(?) - Jacques Charles Sabrevois, Sieur de Bleury is made commandant of Fort Ponchartrain. He is not able to fill that position until 1714 (or early 1715).
171205-01-1712
May (exact date not known) - 1,000 Foxes and some Mascoutens arrive in Detroit and begin causing trouble.
171410-16-1714
Francois la Forest dies in Quebec. Buisson takes command of Fort Ponchartrain again - but only until Sabrevois arrives from Quebec in early 1715.
1715A new fort is built at present day Mackinaw City. It is named Fort Michilimackinac.
1715 - 1717Sabrevois, the current commandant of Fort Ponchartrain, uses his own money to try to repair the fort.
1716The French Court voids all deeds set by Cadillac.
171707-01-1717
July (exact date unknown) - Alphonse de Tonty becomes commandant at Fort Ponchartrain.
1721Pierre Francois Xavier Charlevoix visits Fort Ponchartrain. His visit leads to Father Richardie's founding of the Huron Mission in the Windsor area (across the river from Detroit) in 1728.
1721Winter 1721-22 Tonty goes to Quebec to answer to complaints about his leadership at Fort Ponchartrain.
1724Tonty travels to Quebec to answer to charges that he violated Francois la Marque's rights.
1725 - 1730Officials in Paris and Quebec decide to beef up Fort Ponchartrain in lieu of wars with Great Britain. New settlers come to the area from Nova Scotia.
1727a) Marquis de Beauharnois becomes Governor of New France
1727b) Alphonse de Tonty travels to Quebec to welcome new governor, Marquis de Beauharnois.
1727c) Marquis de Beauharnois fires Tonty from command at Fort Ponchartrain, effective Spring 1728.
172711-10-1727
November - After having been relieved of command (to have taken effect in the spring of 1728), Alphonse de Tonty dies in Fort Ponchartrain.
1728Father Armand de la Richardie is sent to Detroit by the Jesuit order of Quebec to build a mission for the Hurons.
1728Father Richardie builds a Huron Mission across the Detroit River in present day Windsor, Ontario.
1728Jean Baptist de St. Ours, Sieur des Chaillons (Deschaillons?) is commissioned to take Tonty's place as commandant of Fort Ponchartrain. He is the fifth official commandant at the settlement.
1729Spring - Chaillons (Deschaillons?) gives up command at Fort Ponchartrain in hopes of a military promotion.
1730(Year not certain) Louis Henry Deschamps, Sieur de Boishebert replaces Chaillons, becoming the sixth commandant of Fort Ponchartrain.
173010-15-1730
Cadillac dies in Castelsarrasin, France.
1733a) Louis Henry Deschamps, Sieur de Boishebert leaves his post at Fort Ponchartrain.
1733b) Ives Jacques Hugues Pean, Sieur de Livandiere replaces Deschamps as commandant at Fort Ponchartrain.
1734Robert Navarre, son of Robert Navarre of Villeroy, France, is appointed royal notary of Fort Ponchartrain. It is the first time the court has seen fit to provide such a position.
1735Wheat is added to Fort Ponchartrain's list of exports (other items include maple syrup and fur).
1736Nicolas Joseph des Noyelles becomes the unofficial (?) commandant of Fort Ponchartrain.
173606-06-1736
Louis Henry Deschamps dies in Montreal.
1739Pierre Jacques Payan de Noyan, Sieur de Charvis, becomes the eighth official commandant of Fort Ponchartrain.
174207-06-1742
Pierre Joseph Celoron, Sieur de Blainville, becomes the ninth official commandant of Fort Ponchartrain.
1743Paul Joseph le Moine, Chevalier de Longeuil is appointed commandant of Fort Ponchartrain (to take effect in 1744)
1744The Ouendots (Hurons) leave the Mission in Windsor for the Ohio River Valley, then Bois Blanc (Bob-Lo) Island, where they live until 1749.
174504-30-1745
British and New Englanders attack the French post Louisburg (at the head of the St. Lawrence River) in attempts to gain full access to the great waterway. The ensuing battle lasts 10 weeks and ends with the French surrendering the post.
1746Chief Mackinac leads a group of Chippewas in an attack on Fort Ponchartrain. The attack is halted by Chief Pontiac, of the Ottawas, who drives the Chippewas away.
174701-26-1747
Ives Jacques Hugues Pean, Sieur de Livandiere dies.
174706-09-1747
Jean Baptist de St. Ours, Sieur Deschaillons, dies in Quebec.
1748The French and British sign the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle. Louisburg once again becomes a French post.
1749The Ounedots (Hurons) return to the mission in Windsor.
1750Pierre Joseph Celoron, Sieur de Blainville, is appointed to a second term as commandant of Fort Ponchartrain.
1754(Year is not certain) Jacques Pierre Daneau, Sieur de Muy becomes commandant of Fort Ponchartrain.
1758British General Jeffrey Amherst leads a second attack on Louisburg. The British once again take possession of he fort. Later the same year, the British take Fort Duquesne.
1758Francois Marie Picote de Bellestre becomes commandant of Fort Ponchartrain. He is the last commandant under French command.
175805-18-1758
Jacques Pierre Daneau, Sieur de Muy dies in Fort Ponchartrain. Jean Baptiste Henry Beranger assumes the role of commandant until Picote de Belestre arrives later in the year. Belestre is the last commandant under French rule.
1759(July) The British capture Fort Niagara
175904-12-1759
Pierre Joseph Celoron, Sieur de Blainville, dies in Montreal.
175909-13-1759
The British capture Quebec.
176009-08-1760
The British capture Montreal. The Articles of Capitulation stipulate that all remaining French posts are to be handed over to the British.
176011-29-1760
Major Robert Rogers takes command of Fort Ponchartrain (now called Fort Detroit) for the British.
176012-23-1760
Major Rogers leaves Detroit for Fort Pitt. Captain Donald Campbell becomes commandant.
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Glossary:
Algonquin

General term used to describe Native Americans of the following tribes (and others): Delaware, Fox, Huron, Miami, Ojibwa (Chippewa), Ottawa, Potawatomi, Sac, Shawnee and Winnebago.
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Glossary:
arquebus

A 39 pound (approximate) musket that two men would prop on a tri-pod and fire with a small torch. The arquebus was used by Champlain's men against the Iroquois to defend the Hurons. This may be the cause of decades of Iroquois abuse of the Hurons.
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Glossary:
clay and wattle

Building technique used in the construction of chimneys in the early days of Fort Ponchartrain. The technique involved piling sticks and packing them - inside and out - with clay and mud.
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Glossary:
Colbertism

Name for early French mercantilism in America, which Jean-Baptiste Colbert was influential in developing.
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Glossary:
conges

Trade permits issued by the Canadian government/court of France in the late 1600s to early 1700s.
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Glossary:
coureurs de bois

Very early French inhabitants of the current US and Canada who gave up their farmsteads for lives in the fur trade. They often lived with Native Americans.
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Glossary:
District of Hesse

Land district provisioned by the Canadian Council on July 24, 1788. The area was on the east side of the Detroit River.
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Glossary:
Fox

"Properly ""Mesh-kwa-ki-hug"". Native American tribe living in the area between Saginaw Bay and Thunder Bay at the time Detroit was founded. The French called the tribe Renyard. An allied tribe of the Sacs and Mascoutin."
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Glossary:
Huron

A Native American tribe that built a village near Fort Ponchartrain.
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Glossary:
Iroquoian

General term sometimes used to describe Native Americans of the following tribes: Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca.
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Glossary:
Iroquois

"A Native American tribe known for antagonizing and brutalizing the Hurons (see also arquebus)"
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Glossary:
Mascouten

Native American tribe living in the Grand Traverse Bay area at the time Detroit was founded. An allied tribe of the Foxes and Sacs. Also spelled Mascoutin.
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Glossary:
Miami

A Native American tribe that built a village near Fort Ponchartrain.
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Glossary:
Muskhogean

General term used to describe Native Americans of the following tribes: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek.
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Glossary:
New York Currency

First standard currency used in Detroit (first used in 1765).
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Glossary:
Ottawa

A Native American tribe that built a village near Fort Ponchartrain.
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Glossary:
Outagamies

Native American tribe living in the Grand Traverse Bay area at the time Detroit was founded. An allied tribe of the Foxes (and Sacs?).
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Glossary:
Plains Indians

General term used to describe Native Americans of the following tribes: Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, and Pawnee (Pani).
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Glossary:
Potawatomi

A Native American tribe that built a village near Fort Ponchartrain.
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Glossary:
Quebec Act

Act of June 22, 1774, in which British Parliament decides to exercise English law in criminal cases and old French provincial law in civil cases in western settlements. The idea was to discourage people from settling in the west.
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Glossary:
Renyard

See Fox
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Glossary:
ribbon farms

Original land grants given by Cadillac. The lots were typically around 200 feet wide at the river front, with lengths up to 3 miles.
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Glossary:
Sac

See Sauk
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Glossary:
Sakis

See Sauk
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Glossary:
Sauk

Native American tribe living in the area between Saginaw Bay and Thunder Bay at the time Detroit was founded. The French called the tribe Sakis; English and Americans generally call them Sacs. An allied tribe of the Foxes/Renyards and Mascouten.
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Glossary:
Shoshonean

General term used to describe Native Americans of the following tribes: Bannock and Shoshone.
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Glossary:
Treaty of Montreal

Treaty ending the war between the Iroquois and France and England. Negotiations began in July of 1698 and the treaty was signed in August of 1701.
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Glossary:
Treaty of Ryswick

September 20, 1697 treaty ending war between France and England.
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Glossary:
voyageurs

Early French explorers who traveled mainly by water.