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Historic Crossroad |
From the earliest days of Michigan settlement this corner has witnessed travel of many sorts signaling events in the history of Michigan. East lies Monroe's port on Lake Erie where waves of immigrant traffic came from New England by ship in the early eighteen hundreds and adventured west in covered wagons. During the earliest days of settlement an Indian trail led to the Maumee River at Maumee. It became a military road I 1812. Later, when Toledo was founded, southward traffic flowed to the new city pioneering the way for the great highways of today. North the trails, and the roads as they developed, led to Detroit. Stagecoach routes developed in the eighteen thirties north and south past this crossroad and west to Chicago. The Raisin River was first forded by travelers in the vicinity of the present bridge. A toll bridge was built in 1819. It was carried away by a flood March 6, 1832. The present bridge was completed in July 1929. |
Historic Banner Oak Park |
A tall oak grew in the yard of Lord School build on the North East corner of Sterns & Crabb Roads in 1853. Julius Sterns unfurled a United States banner from the tree in 1863 to prove his patriotism and hatred of slavery. Frank Ludwig, noted Toledo architect designed this brick building to be Banner Oak School on the SE Corner in 1871. It housed all 8 grades until 1930 when the four lower grades moved into a portable classroom. Banner Oak, in 1947 was the last rural school to consolidate with Bedford Public Schools. The last classes used in the building in 1955. |
First Presbyterian Church |
This Church, the first Protestant Church in this area and the first Presbyterian Church in Michigan, was organized January 13, 1820. "Minuteman" George Alford, of the Revolutionary War, was one of the charter members. The Rev. John Monteith, who later became the first president of the University of Michigan, conducted services here July 2, 1816 in the Old Log Courthouse. In it the Presbyterians organized this church. Its Sunday School, the first in the Great Northwest Territory, was attended by persons of many faiths. They later helped organize the Monroe County Bible Society. Rev. Monteith dedicated the present building February 15, 1848, Col. Oliver Johnson having donated this site. It was here that General George Armstrong Custer married Elizabeth Bacon. |
First District Court |
Here in the log house of Jean Baptiste Jereaume the Federal Court of the Erie District, Territory of Michigan, held its first session July 3, 1805. President Thomas Jefferson named Judge Augustus B. Woodward to preside. Beginning in 1807 the Hesse District Court of Common Pleas also met here or across the river in Francois Navarre's home. Jereaume's home held wounded American prisoners of war during the Massacre at the River Raisin. In the bitter cold of dawn of January 23, 1813 Indian allies of the British scalped those who could not walk and burned the house. |
Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad |
On April 22, 1833, the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad was granted a charter by the Legislature of the Territory of Michigan and was built and in operation a year before Michigan was a state. It was to connect Toledo (then called Port Lawrence and considered to be in Michigan) with the Kalamazoo River. By November 2, 1836, cars drawn by two horses hitched tandem and changed every four miles made regular trips from Port Lawrence to Adrian. Early in July 1837 the Adrian No. 1 railroad and the first steam locomotive west of the Allegheny Mountains. |
Boyd School |
On this site in 1849 the Reverend Erasmus J. Boyd opened the Young Ladies' Seminary, for 29 years a select school for girls and the town's cultural center. Within four years the Sisters of St. Joseph began its operation when Monroe Public Schools purchased it as the site for a new High School. In 1912, Monroe's students occupied "the only fireproof school in Michigan" until a larger high school was build elsewhere. From 1928 to 1970 the building served as Boyd Elementary School. It was demolished in 1971. |
Boston Custer - Autie Reed |
General George A. Custer's brother, Boston, and his nephew, Harry (Autie) Armstrong Reed, accompanied the ill-fated Little Big Horn Expedition into Montana as civilian Quartermaster employees. While at the rear of the cavalry column they learned Gen. Custer had been sent back an order for ammunition. Anticipating an Indian battle and eager to take part, they rusted forward to join the fighting. Both died with the 7th Calvary on June 25, 1876, and were buried on the battlefield. The family arranged their reburial here, January 8, 1878. |
The Armory Opera House |
In 1888 a wood structure stood here as an opera house and skating rink. The Armory Association formed in 1889 and bought the site. Begun in 1894, the red brick Richardsonian Romanesque building seating 650 persons cost $25,000 by its dedication on July 4, 1895. The Armory had a drill hall used by local Michigan State Troops. It also had a public hall rented for lectures, balls, banquets, concerts and other gatherings. In 1917 it was sold to the Masonic Temple Association and continued to fill the social needs of Monroe until its destruction in a spectacular blaze in 1929. |
Boy Scouts in Monroe County |
The Boy Scout Movement in Monroe was founded on October 16, 1911, when the first scout troop was organized at the old Monroe Armory. Twenty-five boys joined that night. The first scoutmaster was Lt. Ed Stoner of the Michigan Light Guard, Succeeded by Clifton Kolb, a local attorney. More troops organized almost immediately in the city and outlying communities, such as Carleton, Erie, and Temperance. In 1929, Monroe County was one of ten areas in the Midwest chose to field-test a new cub scouts program. During WWII, county scouts collected more thank 600 tons of scrap rubber, metal, and paper for the war effort. By the end of the century, more that 50,000 boys had been scouts. |
The American Surrender |
Protected only by a picket fence nearly 500 Kentucky militiamen fought off three British charges on their camp along the river and silenced the British cannon with their long rifles in the second Battle of the River Raisin, Jan. 22, 1813. They fought for three hours until they saw a white flag approaching from the British lines. They were sure it was a plea for truce. To their surprise it was a message from their captured general. Unaware of their strong position and the approach of General Harrison's reinforcements, Gen. Winchester called for surrender. Although surrounded and low on ammunition, the gallant Kentuckians refused to surrender until the British promised protection for the American wounded and the homes of Frenchtown's settlers. |
Anderson Trading Post |
On this property in 1812 was the trading post John Anderson, famed Scottish pioneer of the River Raisin. Anderson, Colonel of Militia in 1812, was taken prisoner at Detroit, later escaped. Mrs. Anderson, alone at the time of the River Raisin Massacre, successfully defied frenzied Indians who invaded the premises and lapped from the basement floor whiskey which she had emptied from the barrels. Mrs. Anderson sat defiantly upon the family money chest as the savages threatened her with upraised tomahawks. "Shame, so many Indians fight one squaw". Mrs. Anderson cried. Cowed by her words the Indians left and the home was not further molested. |
The Custer Home |
This 116 acre "French ribbon farm", purchased by Gen. George A. Custer, his brother, Nevin, and their wives August 22, 1871, ran northerly from the River Raisin. Nevin Custer farmed it until his death. The present Custer airport, created from part of the farm is named for it. General Custer's famous war-horse, Dandy, who accompanied him to the Little Big Horn, lies buried in the old orchard site back of the residence. Buffalo Bill Cody and Little Annie Oakley would always ride out to the farm to visit Dandy and the General's father, Emmanuel, each time the Wild West Show was near Monroe. |
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