History of Detroit, a chronicle of its progress, its industries, its institutions, and the people of the fair City of the straits, / by Paul Leake ... [Vol. 3]

HISTORY OF DETROIT

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ties. As a small boy Abraham C. Truax was left in the care of an uncle
in Schenectady, where he was reared to maturity and where hard manual
labor was his portion, with educational advantages of most meager order.
His father was an ensign, or sergeant, in Colonel Abraham Wemple's
regiment during the War of the Revolution, from November 5. 1779,
until October 29, 1781, as shown in the muster rolls of the state department at Albany.
Colonel Truax is supposed to have arrived in Detroit in the opening year of the nineteenth century, nearly forty years prior to the admission of Michigan to the Union. He made the overland trip through
Canada and after establishing his home in Detroit he followed such lines
of enterprise as were possible in the pioneer village on the frontier of
civilization. He accumulated some means and made investments in local
real estate..Concerning the career of this sturdy and honored pioneer
we can not do better than to quote, with slight paraphrase and elimination, from an article prepared by his grandson, Hon. Elliott T. Slocum,
who is one of the representative citizens of Detroit.
"In 1812, when war was declared against Great Britain, being im1 -bued with that spirit of patriotism which throbs the breast of every
true, loyal Huguenot, he shouldered the old flintlock musket in defense
of his native country. He was with General Hull at the time of the surrender, and later, for meritorious conduct, he was commissioned captain by General Cass, and in 1838 was commissioned colonel by Governor
Stevens T. Mason. After peace had been declared he resumed his former
vocation, with which the ravages of war had made havoc. On May 30,
1809, he purchased of Elijah Brush, for three hundred dollars, a strip
of ground on Jefferson avenue, between Wayne and Shelby streets,
where stood the new part of the Michigan Exchange and the store next
to it on the west. About 1813 he erected on said ground a building which
for those days was one of the best in Detroit, and which for many years
was known as the Truax Building. On May 11, 1815, he sold the same
to James May, for two thousand nine hundred dollars.
"In 1817 he established himself-against the opposition of many
friends-upon a plat south of Detroit and on the Detroit river, and this,
after being surveyed into streets and village lots, offered superior inducements to buyers and builders alike. Thus, from a former chaotic
wild, arose the beautiful and flourishing village of Truaxton, now Trenton, Wayne county, Michigan. He was the first white settler to erect a
house in that locality and was known as a successful Indian trader.
Later in life he occupied many prominent federal and municipal offices.
He was a progressive business man, richly endowed with that quality of
integrity which commanded respect and love from all who knew him.
"The old Truax homestead, familiarly designated in its palmy days
as the 'Tavern' or the 'Half-Way House'-between Detroit and Monroe,
-was the best-known old wayside inn in that section of the country. It
was erected, amid Indian wigwams, early in the nineteenth century, and
stands today as 'an altar mark to a patriot's mind.' "
On the 24th of February, 1817, was solemnized the marriage of Colonel Truax to Miss Lucinda Melinda Brigham, of Hanover, New Hampshire, and she was summoned to the life eternal on the eighth of October,
1838. Of their four children two attained to years of maturity-George
Brigham Truax, who became a representative business man of Detroit,
where his death occurred in the year 1869, and Sophia Marie Brigham
Truax, who became the wife of the late Giles B. Slocum and whose long
life has only recently come to its peaceful close. Concerning her the
following pertinent words have been written: "She is a stately, gracious
figure, whose mind forms an indissoluble link between the pioneer epoch