Michigan A History of the Wolverine State

by Willis F. Dunbar

From the book jacket:

"Michigan is a comprehensive, up-to-date history of Michigan intended for adult readers and for use in the college classroom. This lively history begins with a description of how prehistoric glaciers chiseled out the Great Lakes, then traces in detail how the countryside was molded over the centuries by the Indians, the early French missionaries, and the pioneers from New England. Michigan also contains a wealth of references to major books and articles on Michigan's colorful past. Careful attention has been given to such subjects as the growth of cities, the transformation of rural life, the development of schools and churches, and the contributions of Michiganians to literature and the arts. The book is more than a narration of people and events of the past; it relates history to the state and its problems today.

Michigan was specially illustrated for Eerdmans by the nationally known Michigan artist Reynold Weidenaar and contains a number of helpful charts and maps. It is the largest and most comprehensive history of the twenty-sixth state available."

800 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[J.D. Steens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an excellent history of my once home state of Michigan. I focused on its early history as a largely unknown territory, “out west,” before it became a state in 1837.

In the 18th century, the activity in eastern North America was concentrated on the colonies along the Atlantic seaboard. The area to the north and west was under the jurisdiction of France. The land around the Great Lakes was hardly controlled by anyone except for the French fur traders, the voyageurs (and later, the French missionaries), who traded with the Indians for furs. The upper Peninsula of Michigan was very much in the thick of this lucrative operation. The lower peninsula was left largely untouched.

The French increasingly bumped heads with the British in North America and on the European continent. In 1786, the Treaty of Paris that ended the French and Indian War in America resulted in the French giving up their lands east of the Mississippi to the British. In 1776, when the colonies declared their independence, Dunbar notes that while the tax on tea (“no taxation without representation”) was seen as the rallying cry for the independence push by the colonies in the east, it was the cost of maintaining the lands west of the Alleghenies that necessitated the British need for revenue. In 1783, when the Americans won their independence, some of the colonies had extensive land claims to the west. Massachusetts claimed all of western New York; Connecticut claimed the northern tier running from mid-Lake Erie to the Mississippi River; and Virginia claimed the lands south of Ohio, to the Mississippi River. By 1800, the states had given up their claims to the western territories as the new USA was being put together

Though Michigan had become part of the British-ceded territory to the USA, the British control and influence remained heavy, especially at Detroit and the Straits of Mackinaw. Settlers pushed west, and increasingly infringed on Indian lands that resulted in skirmishes of one sort or another. In 1787, the western lands became the Northwest Territory (the area north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River under the jurisdiction of the US, except that Connecticut retained ownership of the lands in Northeast Ohio known as the “Western Reserve”). Connecticut sold this land to speculators of the Connecticut land Company who in turn sold it to the settlers. Massachusetts rewarded its veterans with land in western New York. The fur trade continued heavily with John Jacob Astor wresting control from the British (the Hudson Bay Company) and used liquor as an inducement for the Indians to bring his company furs (“the Indians killed for British goods,” Dunbar writes). The Northwest Ordinance (1787) had established a government for these lands and outlined a process for admitting new states to the Union. Ohio had become a state in 1803. In 1805, Michigan in the old Northwest Territory became the Territory of Michigan, which included Indiana and Illinois. In 1816 and 1818 respectively, Indiana and Illinois became states, and parts of Wisconsin were added to Michigan’s territory. In 1836, a boundary dispute with Ohio over the so-called Toledo strip was resolved in Ohio’s favor, but Michigan was given the western half of the Upper Peninsula in return. With that, Michigan gained statehood in 1837. (The Wisconsin lands and Iowa and some of the Dakotas became the Wisconsin Territory).

Treaties were signed with the Indians in this area to place them in reserves but eventually they were relocated further west. This included the 1821 Treaty of Chicago that in time removed the Potawatomies from southwestern Michigan. Lands now became available to the settlers pushing west from the east, which became particularly heavy after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1826. Many in Ohio and western New York moved further west, to Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. The Lower Peninsula of Michigan, initially off the main emigration route, saw a heavy influx in the late 1820s and 1830s.

All in all, this is a good account by Dunbar from the American perspective. Back then, the lands in the soon-to-be USA were fought over by France and Britain. If not the USA, it may have been French or the British. The Indians never had a chance. Their downfall began with ships that were capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

[Aaron Million · Rating 3 out of 5]

Willis Dunbar has written a concise, readable history of the wonderful state of Michigan. Unfortunately, this book – while thorough – is now somewhat outdated as it is fifty years old. However, for all of the history up to that time, this book succeeds in its purpose to educate, while occasionally entertaining. Dunbar was a professor of history at Western Michigan University and this book was written mainly to help his students learn about Michigan history. However, Dunbar did not write in a strictly academic manner, and while he did not have the flair of a David McCullough, he did write an informative text which is easy to read.

Dunbar goes back to pre-colonial America, to the fragmentary shreds of history surrounding the Indian (this was written before the term Native American came into the common usage that it has today, mostly replacing the word “Indian”) tribes that inhabited what is now Michigan. Due to its location and severe climate, the land was sparsely inhabited, even by the various tribes. Slowly, the white man moved into the state, and sadly, took the land away from the Indians. This was not a brutal takeover like it was in the southern states, but nonetheless the Indians were ejected from the land and sent far out West. First it was the French, then the British, and then, for a very brief period, the Spanish, before Michigan became a part of the new nation of America.

The review of how Michigan's borders became official was interesting. Originally, Michigan's southern border was to extend to the southern tip of Lake Michigan, and then in a straight line East to Lake Erie. However, both Ohio and Indiana became states prior to Michigan. Indiana wanted to have some shoreline on Lake Michigan also, and petitioned Congress to move its norther border up ten miles, which Congress promptly agreed to. Thus, Gary, Michigan City, South Bend, and Elkhart all became Indiana cities. Meanwhile, Ohio demanded to have jurisdiction over the mouth of the Maumee River at Lake Erie. A “war” was technically fought over this, although thankfully nobody was killed. Dunbar details how Andrew Jackson and Congress were predisposed to give Ohio what it wanted as Ohio already had political clout due to being a state, whereas Michigan was still a Territory. Jackson refused to support Michigan's bid for statehood unless Michigan agreed to give up the Maumee River land. Thus, Michigan was forced to accept an alteration of its border with Ohio. So, when you look at Michigan's southern border today, and see how Indiana is further north than Ohio, but how the Michigan-Ohio line runs NE to Lake Erie, that is why.

At times, Dunbar gets a bit carried away with statistics, reciting the number of tons of iron ore processed in succeeding years. He has a good chapter on Michigan's contribution to the Civil War, and how it affected the state in various ways. He also spends considerable time discussing the Upper Peninsula and its vast, though limited and rapidly depleted, resources. Were he writing this today, I think that far more attention would have been paid to the shameless destruction of Michigan's many forests, especially those in the northern Lower Peninsula, and also in the Upper Peninsula. Dunbar barely touches on the ecological and environmental impacts that this greediness caused. Today, we have a much keener sense to pillaging of natural resources. Yet even back then (late 1960s), Dunbar knew that it was wrong.

The part of the book up to right after the Civil War is chronological in structure, and I found this part of the book to be the most enjoyable and interesting. Michigan's founding and subsequent development, along with the many fights over who controlled its land, was enlightening. Post-Civil War, Dunbar switches to a topical format (and he does warn of this at the beginning of the book). While I understand why he did this, it breaks up the continuity of the book and it no longer seemed like a concise history of the state. I would have preferred him to have continued chronologically, showing how – as the population increased and industry expanded – Michigan struggled to cope with the attendant problems that those developments brought.

While much of the book still stands up well, it could definitely use an updated version to take Michigan the rest of the way through the 20th century and now into the 21st. The parts concerning pre-20th century Michigan are still worthwhile to read. After all, not too much has changed concerning the review of Michigan's founding and the activities that occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries. I do not recommend this for everyone; I am from Michigan and even though I no longer live there I still consider it my home state and always will. Anyone not from the state most likely would have little interest in the state's history. But for anyone who is from there or resides there and has an interest in how the state came into being, I do not see where you would find a better resource.

Grade: B-