1774.-Major Arent Schuyler De Peyster commandant at Old

Mackinaw, 1774-1779.

1776. Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. 1778.-George Rogers Clark, a Virginian, captures the important posts of Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and Cahokia, in the Ohio Valley, which threatens danger to Detroit and Mackinac. 1779.-At noon Sunday, Oct. 3d, the new Fort at Detroit is named "Fort Lernault."

99

Oct. 4.-Lieut.-Governor Patrick Sinclair arrives at "Old

Mackinaw."

Oct. 15.-Major Arent Schuyler De Peyster leaves Old Mackinaw at 5 P. M. for Detroit, on board His Majesty's armed sloop Welcome, Alexander Harrow, Master.

Oct. 20.-Major De Peyster arrives at Detroit at 8 A. M. Nov. 6, Saturday.-Lieut.-Governor Sinclair sends a detachment of artificers to live and work upon Mackinac Island. The timbers of a house for their use are carried over with them, on the sloop Welcome.

Major De Peyster with a view of building a fort thereupon and removing there with the garrison from Old Mackinaw, "as a measure of safety from the Americans," had previously secured a title to the Island from the Chippewa chief Kitchienago, who occupied it with his band. 1780.-Early in the year the timbers of the Catholic church at Old Mackinaw are hauled over the ice to Mackinac Island and the church re-erected in what is now the old graveyard on Astor Street.

Oct. 22.-John Donald, one of the crew of the sloop Wel-
come, while on watch, falls from the wharf at the Island
and is drowned. He is buried Oct. 24th, at Old Mackinaw.
(The first government wharf at the Island was about
seventy feet west of the present one, and on the prolonga-
tion of the line of the old roadway which runs from in
front of the south sally-port down through the present
Fort gardens. The Bay in front of the Fort was called
"Haldimand Bay.")

Nov. 4.-Lieut.-Governor Patrick Sinclair removes from
Old Mackinaw to Mackinac Island.

1780. Nov. 30.-The sloops Welcome and Angelica and the schooner De Peyster are laid up for the winter at the Island wharf.

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Dec. 21. The sloop Archangel is moored astern of the Angelica. (During several of the previous winters some of the government vessels were laid up in the Cheboygan River, where there was a house which was built for the use of the party in charge of the boats. There was also during the same period a "hay camp" on the Cheboygan River, where hay was cut for use at the Fort.)

1781. Jan. 5.-The crews of the vessels are removed from the Welcome into a block house which they have built upon the Island. (This block house was located near the site of the present village school-house. It was made of cedar timbers which were sawn over "saw-pits" dug in the woods. When practicable in the winter of 1780-81, the troops were engaged in hauling over the ice from Old Mackinaw to the Island the barracks and other buildings belonging to the government. These buildings were made of cedar timbers. The doors, windows, bricks, provisions, et cetera, were transported in boats in the fall of 1780 and in the spring and summer of 1781. During the winter of 178081 a detachment of soldiers wintered at the "Pinery,”— a camp on Pine River about 15 miles north of St. Ignace, where the British had a hay and wood camp. During the winter of 1780-81 the traders made preparations for removing from Old Mackinaw, and in the spring of 1781 made rafts of the timbers of their buildings and floated them to the Island,-transporting their goods, et cetera, by boats.)

1781.-Thursday, May 24. First occupation of the Fort constructed upon the Island of Mackinac, a part only of the troops moving in. The Fort was on the site of the present one, and portions of it are still in a good state of preservation. The garrison was not entirely withdrawn from Old Mackinaw until the summer of 1781, when all the government property had been moved to the Island.

1783.-Second Treaty of Paris, securing the political independence of the United States from Great Britain, and transferring Mackinac Island along with other territory to the new republic.

1783-4.-First of the English fur-trading companies organized at Montreal to trade in the Mackinac country. Later develops into the Northwest Company.

1784.-Mackinac Company incorporated about this year. Its origin is obscure. Composed of much the same firms as the Northwest Company, but operated almost entirely in American territory.

1787.-The famous Ordinance of 1787 issued for the government of the Old Northwest Territory, organized in that year and including part of the Mackinac country.

1794-5.-General Wayne's victory over the western Indians at

the Battle of Fallen Timbers, followed by the Treaty of Greenville.

1796.-Jay's Treaty with Great Britain, by which the western posts still held by the British since the close of the Revolution are turned over to the United States.

1802 (June).-Rev. David Bacon (father of the late Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon, of New Haven, who was born in Detroit, in 1802) arrives at Mackinac as a missionary, under the auspices of the Connecticut Missionary Society, preaching and teaching until August, 1804, when he is recalled. He was the first Protestant who preached at Mackinac. 1809.-The American Fur Company is incorporated by the State of New York, with a capital of a million dollars, furnished by John Jacob Astor.

1812 (June 18).-Congress declares war against Great Britain. The President's proclamation is issued the following day. 1812 (July 16-17).-The British land with troops at a point on the Island since known as "British Landing."

1812 (July 17).—Fort Mackinac captured by the British. 1813 (Sept. 3-6).—British capture the schooners Tigress and Scorpion.

1813 (Sept. 10).-Battle of Lake Erie, in which Commodore

Oliver H. Perry wins a decisive victory over the British fleet under Commodore Barclay.

1814 (Aug. 4).-Battle of Mackinac Island, Major Andrew Hunter Holmes, Captain Isaac Van Horne and Lieut. Heze

kiah Jackson, are killed in an attack on the British and Indians on Mackinac Island.

1815 (Feb. 18).-Peace proclaimed between the United States and Great Britain.

1815 (May 1).-News of peace reaches Fort Mackinac.

1815 (July 18, noon).-Fort Mackinac reoccupied by the United States troops, commanded by Captain Willoughby Morgan and Joseph Kean.

1816.-Fort Howard, at Green Bay, Wisconsin, established by troops from Fort Mackinac.

1819. The first steamboat on the Great Lakes, Walk-in-theWater, arrives at Mackinac.

1819. Robert Stuart becomes the resident business manager for the American Fur Company on Mackinac Island.

1820.-Henry R. Schoolcraft, the eminent writer on the northern Indians, makes his first visit to Mackinac Island, accompanying an official expedition led by Gov. Lewis Cass. Of this visit he has left an interesting account in his Narrative, published at Albany, New York, in 1821.

1820. Rev. Jedidiah Morse, father of the inventor of the electric telegraph, visits Mackinac, and preaches on the Island. 1822 (June 6).-Alexis St. Martin, a Canadian about 19 years of age, employed by the American Fur Company, is accidentally shot, making a hole in his stomach, which healed but never closed. Dr. William Beaumont, Post-Surgeon, attended him, and later made valuable discoveries in gastric digestion. Dr. Beaumont died in 1853; Alexis St. Martin, in 1880.

1823. The first Protestant Mission on the Island established by Rev. William Montague Ferry, under the auspices of the United Foreign Missionary Society.

1825.-The "Mission House" erected for missionary and school

purposes.

1825-27.-Between these years, the Catholic church is removed from its original position to that which it now occupies. 1826.-Thomas L. McKenney, United States Indian Agent, makes an official visit to the Island. The visit is described in his Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes.

1827 (June 1).-Thomas White Ferry, later United States Senator for Michigan born in the Mission House.

1830. Mrs. Juliette A. Kinzie makes the visit to Mackinac described in her Wau-Bun, the "Early Day" in the Northwest, published in 1856.

1831 (Aug. 6).—The "Mission Church" erected in 1830, is dedicated.

1833. Dr. William Beaumont publishes his Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion.

1833. Henry R. Schoolcraft comes to reside at Mackinac as Indian agent for the United States government. His residence continues until 1841, and of this period at Mackinac he has left a delightful record in his Personal Memoirs. 1834. The remains of Major Holmes are found in the old cemetery, Detroit, corner Larned Street and Woodward Avenue; they are placed in a box and buried in the Protestant cemetery near Gratiot, Beaubien and Antoine Streets. 1834 (Aug. 6).—Rev. William Montague Ferry discontinues his services at the Island mission; he removes to Grand Haven, Michigan, founding there what later becomes the First Presbyterian Church.

1834.-John Jacob Astor retires from active business, and Ramsay Crooks becomes President of the American Fur Company.

1835.-Dr. Gilman of New York City is mentioned by Schoolcraft as the author of Life on the Lakes, in which is described a visit to Mackinac and Lake Superior in that year.

1836.-Miss Harriet Martineau, the English authoress, visits Mackinac, which she describes in her work, Society in America.

1836.-Robert Stuart removes his family from Mackinac to Detroit, which now becomes his permanent home.