History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

166

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY.

PUBLIC ECONOMY REVOLUTIONIZED.
It was deemedpolitic by the principals of the American Fur
Company as well as by the Indian, French and American trapper, to
exert every influence which might have a tendency to turn the tide
of immigration away from the Saginaw Valley. To accomplish
this they failed not on every occasion to give woful accounts of the
country. Such accounts were verified by others who merely saw
the marsh land bordering on the river. Even the. Government
surveyors seemed to have been carried away with the same idea.
Relying upon the statements of the trappers, many of them never
went into the interior, and actually made their plats from the representations of the interested parties. (See pages 68, 69.) Their
reports were, similar to their plats, fictitious, and it was not until
1858 that the Government began to realize the great wrong done the
district as well as the trick played upon the United States. A resurvey was made during that year which resulted in spreading a
knowledge of the greatness of the forest, valley and the districts
adjacent.
In closing this section of the work, it is just and proper that a
few of the traits of Saginaw's first white visitors and "habitants "
should be reviewed. The first and perhaps the noblest of those
traits, was their attachment to that Republic which LaFayette commended to them. "To be known as a Frenchman," says Hubbard, 'was to be known as a patriot." In the times which tried
men's souls, few parts of the country had more bitter or varied
experience than the border counties of Michigan. The Frenchman
was always our reliable and active ally,-cool and unflinching in
danger, and shrewd and watchful when caution was most needed.
If a man was wanted for some dangerous enterprise, it was a
Frenchman who was chosen. Few men survive of the old "habitants " who were interested and intelligent witnesses of Gen. Hull's
surrender of the fort at Detroit and with it the whole territory of
the Northwest to the British arms. As late as 1825 the feeling of
indignation was still fresh in the hearts of the French population,
and it would have been a vain attempt to convince one of those
who witnessed and entered into the scenes of those times, that tile
action of Hull was one of mere timidity or weakness, and not of
high treason.
Whittemore Knaggs, well known among the Otchipwas as well
as by the early settlers, and his brother, James Knaggs, equally
well known, were among the truest conservators of the Union interests in the northwest from 1812 to the total expulsion of the
British forces, and the partial annihilation of their fierce Indian
allies. Judge Witherell, speaking of this French trapper family,
says: " Capt. Knaggs was a firm and unflinching patriot in times
when patriotism was in demand, during the war of 1812. He was
one of the Indian interpreters, spoke freely six or seven of their
languages, together with French and English, and exercised
great influence over many warrior tribes. On the surrender of