MICHIGAN TRAILS -
GENEALOGY and HISTORY

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William Hull
Territorial Governor (1805 - 1813)

The first governor of Michigan territory was General William Hull, appointed by President Jefferson, March 1, 1805. The other appointed officers were: Stanley Griswold, scretary; August B. Woodward, Frederick Bates and John Griffin, judges. They arrived in Detroit June 12, 1805 to set up a government for the new territory, but found the little colony in a deplorable condition, for, on the day previous, the village had been devastated by fire and but two buildings remained to offer shelter to the entire population. On the 30th of June, the appointed officials took their respective oats of office, and a civil government for the territory of Michigan was established, until which time all government within the preesnt stte of Michigan had been through the military commanders, appointed successively by the French, British and American governments.

An act regulating grants of lands in Michigan territory was passed by congress March 3, 1807. At this time no provision had been mae for the extinguishment of the Indian title except to a small tract int he vicinity of Detroit. In 1812, Detroit had a population of only about 800 and the entire territory about 5000, mostly French.

The Indian titles were the great hindrance to settlement. In 1806 Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief, endeavored to organize the Indian confederacy of the Michigan, Ohio and Indiana tribes to withstand the encroachments of the whites; and, as a consequence, renewed fears of Indian wars retarded the progress of Michigan settlement. Governor Hull was instructed to negotiate a treaty with the Indians, and to that end, a council was called and held at Detroit and was participated in by the Ottaw, Chippewa, Wyandotte and Pottawottomi tribes, with a result that on November 7, 1807, a treaty was signed ceding to the US a considerable territory within the Lower Peninsula, but was important to the whole territory as being the opening wedge that soon thereafter opened up the way to settlement, or purchase by the government, of nearly all the land within the present state of Michigan.

Up to this time the only means of traveling to the interior was by way of the Indian trails, which centered at Detroit, the principal of which came to Michilmackinac and Sault Ste. Marie, commonly called the war-path, by which the tribes of the north were connected with those of the south. Besides the fear of Indian wars, there was another serious impediment to the settlement of Michigan territory; because so much thereof, including all the principal settlements, was exposed to direct attack by water, and was so contiguous to the British possessions in Canada, where the war clouds that were growing in England wer also becoming ominous and war between the nations, making this a hostile and disrupted territory seemed imminment.

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