emulation. Adrian is one of the best ornamented cities in the State, and is beautifully shaded with maple and elm trees.

Oakwood Cemetery, situated in the northeast portion of the city, on the east bank of the River Raisin, is one of nature's most beautiful landscapes-is laid out in the best style-is ornamented and beautified with that taste and solemn elegance becoming the sacred city of the dead. It is indeed a beautiful and hallowed spot. Here solemnity and beauty associate in harmonious combination.

Situated as Adrian is-upon the main line of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, at its junction with the Jackson and Detroit branches, with fair prospects of the speedy completion of the Adrian and Detroit Railroad with its connections, making a grand trunk line between the East and Southwest, with a good market, for which it has justly been noted since the completion of the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad to this point in 1836, with its large and constantly increasing manufacturing interests, the rich farming country surrounding it, the heauty and healthfulness of its location, its superb schools and the general intelligence of its people-it has a grand future before it.

The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway company employs three hundred men in its repair and car building shops here, which shops are located in the immediate vicinity of the works of the Adrian Car Manufacturing Company. City lots, convenient to these shops, have been laid out and platted, affording mechanics an excellent opportunity to provide for themselves comfortable homes.

Fine building lots, in other portions of the city, can be purchased on very easy terms at comparatively low prices. No city in the State affords better opportunities or offers better inducements to those desirous of procuring houses, whether they wish to engage in business or retire from the active pursuits of life to educate their children, or to enjoy the society of an educated and intelligent people.

DETROIT.

IN preceding chapters of this work, we have given the incidents connected with the history of Detroit more in detail than space will allow at this place. It is our purpose in this sketch to follow, very briefly, the outline of its history, and then to notice its growth, improvements and future prospects.

Established in 1701, by the French, Fort Detroit soon came into rivalry with its older and distant sister, Michilimackinac. Previous to the date mentioned, the latter place had been regarded as the central western outpost of New France, but the establishment of a fort and trading post on the Detroit river drew largely from that place. Its advantages in climate, government and the liberality of its commandant were all that was needed to divert the tide of settlement from Michilimackinac.

Three years after the establishment of Fort Detroit, the English influenced the Indians to set fire to the town, which was, however, but partially destroyed.

In 1712, the Fox Indians made a desperate attempt to destroy it, but after a bold and determined siege of nineteen days, they were repulsed with great loss.

In 1749, the settlement was extended by emigrants sent out at the expense of the French government, but the policy of the new commandant was such as to prevent the rapid growth of the town.

In 1763, Fort Detroit, with all Canada, was transferred to the British Crown. This change was not only distasteful to the French settlers at Detroit, but to the Indians in the surrounding country, who had learned to respect and love their "brothers, the French." This savage dissatisfaction, goaded on by the French, resulted in what is known to history as the Pontiac war, a full account of which has already been given in this work.

In 1796, the American army entered Detroit. The British had previously left the town, and their authority was thus peacefully transferred to the United States.

The Territory of Michigan was organized in 1805, at which date General William Hull was appointed its first Governor. He formed a government at Detroit, in July of that year. The town of Detroit had been entirely destroyed by fire a short time previous, and now advantage was

taken of this circumstance to widen the streets and lay out the future city on an entirely new and enlarged plan.

The growth of Detroit, for many years, depended on the fur trade and the disbursement of public moneys. There was yet needed that impulse which is only produced by the settlement of the surrounding country.

The old town of Detroit was situated a little west of the heart of the present city of Detroit and was built entirely of wood. The streets were narrow, and the place presented a rude, uninviting appearance.

Passing on from 1805 to 1815, we find the " new town" or city of Detroit considerably improved. It had one commodious dock, called the "public wharf." It consisted of a pier, formed by a crib of logs, filled in with stone and gravel. It was about one hundred and fifty feet from the shore, with which it was connected by a bridge, or plank-way. All vessels, whether public or private, were then accustomed to load and unload at this wharf. The rest of the water front was in a state of nature. A second wharf was built in 1826.

There were six or seven stores, for general business, in the town at this date, but not a vessel which then navigated the lakes was owned in Detroit.

The military grounds were occupied by Fort Shelby and the Infantry cantonment. This fort was erected in 1777, by Major Le Noult, the British commander, and was thrown down in 1827. The cantonment was built in 1815, occupying nearly the whole square between Fort Wayne, Lafayette and Cass' line. It consisted of a group of log buildings about one hundred feet long. The court room used in 1834 was, in 1820, used by the court-martial, and as the dancing hall of the cantonment.

The city of Detroit was incorporated by an act passed by the Governor and judges, on the 4th of October, 1815. By this act the municipal authority was invested in five trustees, a secretary, an assessor, a collector and a city marshal, who were to be chosen on the first day of May, annually, by the householders of the city, paying an annual rent of forty dollars.

General John R. Williams was elected the first mayor of Detroit, in 1824, and in 1836, the legislature passed an act extending the limits of the city. This opened the way for that influx of immigration and advancement of commercial enterprise which has made Detroit a great city.

Until 1827, Detroit was the only municipal corporation in the Territory of Michigan, and at that time it contained a population of about two thousand souls, which was about one-tenth of the population of the Territory. Even at that late date, the city was but little else than a military and fur trading post. The inhabitants were principally native French, with a few families from the eastern States. Then only three or four