territory of Michigan was established, whose members were chosen by popular vote, he was elected a member and he took his seat in that body June 7, 1824; and by the repeated suffrages of his constituents he continued a member of the council until 1831. During all this time he was chairman of the judiciary committee and one of the most active and influential members of that branch of the local government. In 1836, after the organization of the state government, he was elected one of the associate justices of the circuit court for the county of Monroe, and he continued to occupy that position until 1839, when, by a change in the judiciary system of the state, the office was abolished.

Judge Lawrence died at Monroe, April 29, 1843.

HON. JEFFERSON G. THURBER

One of the prominent members of the bar of Monroe county was Jefferson G. Thurber, who resided in Monroe for twenty-four years, up to the time of his death, which occurred on May 5, 1858. Mr. Thurber was a native of New Hampshire, born in the village of Unity in the year 1807, received his education at the Academy of Canandaigua, New York, taught school and studied law during his young manhood, and in 1833 came to Monroe and opened a law office on Washington street and entered actively into the practice of his profession and into the political affairs of his city and state. He filled several offices of importance and always with perfect satisfaction to his constituency; prosecuting attorney of the county, judge of probate, and in 1852 was chosen speaker of the house of representatives of which he was elected in that year. He also served one term in the state senate. Mr. Thurber was a very genial, companionable man, possessing qualities which gain friends among all classes, and enjoyed the esteem and confidence of his fellow citizens. The Monroe county bar took appropriate action at the time of his death and adopted the following resolutions.

At a meeting of the bar held at the court house in the city of Monroe on the seventh day of May, 1857, the meeting was called to order by the president of the bar, Hon. D. A. Noble, and the following preamble and resolutions, reported by a committee appointed for that purpose, were unanimously adopted:

'When amid the busy and active scenes of life the announcement is made that death has removed from our midst one who has daily mingled with us in its pleasures and its conflicts, participated with us in the discouragement, the struggles and the high expectations of professional life, and shared in its hopes and successes, we feel that sense of bereavement which finds a necessity for consolation, as well in the brightened memoirs of that association and companionship that forever sunders, as in the brighter hopes of that future which none but the dead can realize. And we feel that it is not all of death to die; to the living, pleasant memories, dear associations and sustaining faith survive; to the dead, the realization of that hope which cheers the dying hour and throws its gilded ray across the tomb, is consummated. And we recognize the truth of this sentiment in the decease of our friend and associate, the Hon. Jefferson G. Thurber.

"Resolved, That by the death of Mr. Thurber the bar has sustained the loss of one of its members alike endeared to it by his uniform courtesy and kindness, and respected for the ability and integrity with which he fulfilled its high duties. That society has lost a member, always ready to give his best exertions for its welfare and advancement, and one who, in the responsible positions of district attorney, judge of probate and repre

sentative and senator in the halls of our state legislature, always discharged his duty with ability and fidelity to the trust reposed in him.

"Resolved, That we tender our strongest sympathy to his bereaved wife and family, and assure her and them that we would not obtrude upon the privacy of their own grief any but the kind and sincere expression of our own sorrow and of deep sympathy in their severe affliction.

"Resolved, That as a testimony of high regard of the character of the deceased and of respect to his memory the members of the bar will attend his funeral in a body and wear the usual badge of mourning for the customary period of time.

"Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published in the National Press and the Monroe Commercial, and that a copy of the same, signed by its officers, be presented to his widow and family.

"T. BABCOCK, Secretary."

JAMES Q. ADAMS

"D. A. NOBLE, President.

was a typical western pioneer lawyer, who came to Monroe in the early days of the territory and entered actively into the stirring scenes of the settlement of this section of the country. He was a native of Keene, New Hampshire, where he was born in 1798, and graduated from Dartmouth College and studied law with the leading lawyer of the place, and also upon his arrival at Monroe, finally being admitted to the bar and soon after joined Hon. Robert McClelland, who had already opened a law office in Monroe. Was elected prosecuting attorney of Monroe county. For years he held the office of postmaster of the city of Monroe. He was president of the corporation that constructed and equipped the rail. road from Monroe to LaPlaisance and was also president of the River Raisin and LaPlaisance Bay Railroad Bank. He was a shrewd and suc cessful practitioner. He died in New York City, aged sixty-seven.

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS

was, at the time of his death, the oldest member of the Monroe county bar, having reached the age of more than four score years. He was born in Springfield, Windsor county, Vermont, February 1, 1809. He was grand-nephew of that other Gouverneur Morris, for whom he was named, who was a member of the convention which framed the Federal constitution and was one of the committee appointed to make the final revision of that instrument. The committee placed it in his hands and it is generally believed that in its language and arrangement is the work of this eminent man. He died in 1818. Gen. Lewis Morris, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a son of Richard Morris, who was once chief justice of the state of New York, a soldier of the revolution at seventeen years of age, and was later on the staff of General Schuyler.

Gouverneur Morris came to Michigan in 1840 with his wife, who was Frances V. Hunt, of Vermont. They settled at Brest, Monroe county, which at the time was a stirring village and in the optimistic views of its aspiring citizens was destined to become a large and prosperous city; these dreams failing to be realized, he with others turned their attention to farming. In 1855 he removed to the city of Monroe and continued to reside there until his death. He was elected to the office of county treasurer in 1860. Upon the expiration of his term of office he formed a co-partnership with Roderick O'Connor, a prominent merchant engaged in the dry goods business; he retained his interest in this line of mercantile life while he still practiced law, and entered actively into poli

tics. Mr. Morris held various county and city offices, among them supervisor, city treasurer, county treasurer, circuit court commissioner, judge of probate and circuit judge for the first term of the twenty-second judicial circuit, composed of Monroe and Washtenaw counties. Judge Morris was afflicted with an impediment of speech which was a serious handicap to his practice in jury trials, but every consideration was given him by his associates of the bar.

TALCOTT E. WING

of Monroe was born in Detroit, Michigan, September 24, 1819. His father, Austin E. Wing, was a graduate of Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1814, and moved from Detroit to Monroe in 1829 with his family. He was one of the first sheriffs of Wayne county and was for three terms delegate to Congress from the territory of Michigan. Subsequently he was regent of the University of Michigan, and in 1842 was a member of the state legislature, afterwards holding the office of United States marshal. He died at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1849. He was a public-spirited man, identifying himself with all public enterprises of importance. He was prominently connected with the temperance movement, being president of the first state temperance society. His wife, the mother of Talcott E. Wing, was Harriet Skinner, daughter of Benjamin Skinner, Esq., of Williamstown, Massachusetts. Talcott E. attended the old academy on Bates street, Detroit, until the family removed to Monroe, when he continued his education under the Rev. John O'Brien and Rev. Samuel Center, principal of the Monroe branch of the State University. He entered in 1836 Knox College, Gambier, Ohio. The following year he went to Williams College at Williamstown, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1840. Returning to Monroe he entered the law office of his uncle, Warner Wing, afterwards associate justice of the supreme court, who was at that time practicing law in partnership with the Hon. Robert McClelland. He was admitted to practice in 1844. In 1849 he formed a copartnership with Ira R. Grosvenor for the practice of law, which continued for eight years. He was elected judge of probate in 1864 and re-elected to that office in 1868, since the expiration of the last term continuing his practice, although not an active member of the bar. He has held a number of minor local offices and was instrumental in organizing the union school at Monroe, of which he was a trustee for a number of years, and since 1844 he has held the office of United States circuit court commissioner. Organizing the banking firm of Wing & Johnson, he retained an interest in it until 1864, when it was merged with the First National Bank of Monroe, of which he has been president and cashier. He was elected an officer of the State Historical Society in 1882, and at its meeting held at Lansing June 2, 1887, was made president of the society and was re-elected to that office in 1888.

For forty years Mr. Wing was a member of the Presbyterian church of Monroe, being one of the board of trustees, and was in 1886 elected and ordained an elder of the church. He was instrumental in establishing Sunday schools in the county, and took an active part in teaching and superintending them. He was married in 1844 to Elizabeth P. Johnson, daughter of Colonel Oliver Johnson of Monroe, the fruits of that marriage being four children, three sons and one daughter. The eldest, Talcott J. Wing, was a merchant at Westfield, Massachusetts. Charles R. Wing, the second son, is a lawyer of Monroe and Austin E. Wing is cashier of the Peoples State Bank of Detroit. The daughter is the widow of James Little, residing in Monroe. He was again married in 1859 to Elizabeth Thurber, daughter of Jefferson G. Thurber, by whom

he has one son, Jefferson T. Wing, who is engaged in business in Detroit. In 1886 Mr. Wing entered into an agreement with a firm of publishers to write a history of the city and county of Monroe, which was completed four years later, only a few days before his death, which orcurred at his residence on Elm avenue on January 25, 1890, after an illness of but a few hours.

CHAPTER XXI

GEOLOGY OF MONROE COUNTY

EARLIEST INHABITANT-PREHISTORIC REMAINS NEAR BIG PRAIRIE— SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF LIMESTONES-WORK OF STATE SURVEY-ROADS AND ROAD METAL-STONE AND STONE CRUSHING THE WOOLWITH QUARRIES RAISINVILLE QUARRIES IDA QUARRIES LITTLE LINK

QUARRY-OTTAWA LAKE QUARRIES NEWPORT QUARRIES THE FRENCHTOWN QUARRIES THE STONE BUSINESS OF MONROE-MONROE STONE COMPANY-MONROE QUARRIES LASALLE QUARRIES BEDFORD QUARRIES WHITEFORD QUARRIES.

"The earliest inhabitant, of whom we have any traces in southeastern Michigan," says Prof. W. H. Shuzer of the Geological Survey of Michigan, in his Geological Report on Monroe county, "was the so-called 'Mound Builder.'" The tendency comparatively of recent investigations of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys is to destroy, more and more, the gap between our historic, eastern Indian and the mound building type of savage, who depended more upon the soil for his subsistence and defense. It must be admitted, however, that he was intellectually the superior of the Indians who dispossessed him of his fertile fields, and drove him, probably southwestward. He cultivated the soil extensively, wove cloth, burned pottery, manufactured a superior stone implement and worked our copper mines for the red metal. For purposes of burial and sacrifice, and apparently for use as signal stations, from which messages could be flashed across the country, after approved modern methods, he constructed hemispherical and conical mounds of loose earth. Although no mounds or fortifications are known to exist within the limits of this county, the characteristic implements are here found and it is certain that this interesting type of savage man roamed its forests, drank from its clear springs, and navigated its waterways. Neighboring localities have been found to contain unmistakable evidences of this, in semi-circular structures, where Toledo now stands, which were described by G. K. Gilbert in the Geological Survey of Ohio, in 1873; others along the Detroit and St. Clair rivers were explored over thirty years ago by Henry Gilman, and described in publications of the Smithsonian Institute, and of the Michigan Pioneer Society. At favorably located points fortifications were constructed, sometimes of great magnitude and displaying a surprising degree of military skill and testifying to the patience and skill of these people. History opens with tribes of the great Algonquin nation in possession of this region; the Ottawas, Chippewas and the Pottawatomies. The Wyandotts, or Hurons of the French, originally dwelt upon the St. Lawrence, and are believed to have their descent from the powerful Iroquois, by whom they were driven westward to Michigan and continually persecuted by them-at one time, almost annihilated.