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The Tucker Family

The following information on William Tucker is found in "History of Macomb County, Michigan" published by M.A. Leeson and Company in 1882:


During the French war, and about the year 1753, the Chippewas, who inhabited this section of the State, became engaged in one of the raids so frequent in those days, upon the settlements in Virginia. They surprised a family of Virginians engaged in harvesting wheat near Stoverstown in that State. The head of the family was ruthlessly shot down, and two boys seized as prisoners, and brought to the homes of the tribe. The boys were named Joseph and William Tucker. William was then about eleven years old, Joseph was some years older. These boys were retained as prisoners until near of age, when they, under the influence of the British, were allowed to visit their childhood's home. They had, however, during their captivity, been treated with considerable kindness, and had learned to love the life in the woods. They remained in Virginia but a short time, and returned to the post at Detroit where they entered the employ of traders. They soon engaged in the business themselves. They received supplies of goods from the traders at the post, and visited the different abiding places and camps of the Indians, relying mainly for transportation upon the canoe.


The elder brother, Joseph Tucker, it is believed, was lost on one of these trips. He, with a comrade, had gone on a trading expedition to an island in the northern part of Lake Huron, where a tribe of friendly Indians with whom he was acquainted was accustomed to dwell. The tribe was absent on a hunting expedition to the mainland, and remained away a number of weeks. Upon returning they found in one of the cabins the goods which formed the supplies of the traders, and full equipage thereof. Sometime afterward, they found upon another island a short distance off, the bleached remains to two whites, one of which they recognized as Joseph Tucker by a peculiar brooch he was accustomed to wear. It was presumed that having arrived in the camp of the tribe they sought to visit, and finding the Indians absent, they had with their boat alone, gone to the neighboring island in search of the tribe, and that the boat had, while the traders were searching the island, floated off and left them no means of escape. They had evidently starved, which is the report of the tribe, as given to William Tucker, and so friendly were these Indians to Joseph and his brother there is little reason to disbelieve it.


The outbreak of Pontiac's conspiracy in 1763 found the younger brother William Tucker, in the employ of the English commandant, Major Gladwin, at Detroit. To William Tucker alone, was the garrison at that place indebted for the discovery of Pontiac's intentions, and the consequent saving of the post. The tribe by which he had for years been held captive, was engaged in the enterprise of which the famous Indian chieftain was the leader. He had, according to Indian custom, been adopted into one of the leading families of the tribe, and to the younger members thereof was like a brother. He was intending to go upon a hunting expedition from the fort for a few days, and on the day before the outbreak, was visiting the family in which he had been kept during his captivity, who were tented upon this side of the river, and but a short distance from the fort. While there he made known his intentions as to the sporting trip he was about to take, and solicited the company of one of his young Indian brothers. This was refused. He also, while there, made known to the family that early in the morn he was going to the general camp of the Indians across the river to get some moccasins that were being made for him by a squaw famous for her skill in that line.


As he left camp to go to the fort, his Indian sister secretly followed him beyond the hearing of her family, and with anxious countenance, besought him not to go across the river, but to start at once upon his hunting trip, and she tendered to him some moccasins she had made, in order to enable him to go prepared, without visiting the other side of the river. William's perfect knowledge of the Indian character at once suggested to him that there was some terrible reason for her anxiety, and he besought her to make it known. Her sisterly affection for him finally prompted her to disclose to him fully what she had learned as to the intent of Pontiac. The position of her family had enabled her to become conversant with all the details of the plan so soon to be executed upon the devoted garrison.


Mr. Tucker immediately returned to the fort and informed the commandant of the post of what he had learned. Measures were taken to defeat the nefarious designed of the wily chief. The success of these measures, and the overthrow of Pontiac, are matters of general history, and pertain not particularly to that of this county.


It is more than probable that the facts here set forth as to William Tucker's discovery of the plot of Pontiac, are the only foundation for the romantic statement as to the Indian girl, Catherine, betraying her tribe out of simple admiration for Major Gladwin, who had been but a short time at the post, and even could not speak the Indian lnguage, that have generally been accepted as history. So prone are imaginative historians to accredit the performance of any notable deed solely to persons in high life, that one does not wonder at the ease with which the facts connected with Tucker's discovery of the plot, have been woven into quite a romance, of which Gladwin is the pretened hero.


William Tucker was the first person about the garrison who learned of the deep-laid scheme of Pontiac. He alone conveyed the intelligence to Major Gladwin. Both Lanman and Sheldon, in their histories of the State mention Mr. Tucker as a soldier in the garrison, and accredit him with apprised as above stated, of the conspiracy; but for the sake of ornamental romance, it is claimed that Gladwin was also on the same day apprised by his dusky, smoky sweetheart to the same affect.


During the struggle of the garrison to save themselves from destruction, Mr. Tucker, although really non-combatant, did the duty of a soldier, and for sixty days and nights, was almost steadily on guard. During that time his gun was out of his hands but for a moment at a time. Fully aware of the nature of the enemy, he, of all the garrison, best knew the necessity of constant watchfulness.


After the overthrow of Pontiac, and the restoration of comparative peace, Mr. Tucker returned to Virginia, and married at Stover's Town, August 8,1773, Catherine Hezel. After his marriage he returned to Detroit, and lived there until the Revolutionary war commenced. During that struggle he was employed as an interpreter by the English officers in their intercourse with the Indians. He declined to take the position of a combatant on their side in the struggle. His ability to speak the Indian language of the various tribes made his services of importance.


Prior to the commencement of the struggle upon the part of the colonies for Independence, Tucker had been chiefly engaged in trading expeditions among the Indians, at times acting simply as interpreter for other traders.


In all his intercourse with the Indians he acted the part of an honest, upright man. This, together with the fact that he was by reason of his importance as an interpretor of many Indian dialects, enabled him to exercise large influence. He never hesitated to use this in many cases of attempted frauds upon those with whom he had spent his earlier years. He became to be justly regarded as an especial friend of the savage. As a reward for his kindness the chiefs of the Chippewas on the 22nd of September, A.D. 1780, acting for their whole tribe, executed to him a deed in the name of their people, of a large tract of land nearly all lying between the River Huron, of Lake St. Clair, and the Riviere Aux Vase, extending back from the lake some sixty miles. This deed is written upon parchment, in beautiful handwriting, and was drawn by one T. Williams at Detroit, who certifies thereon, as a Justice of the Peace, that several chiefs whose names are attached to said deed, did make the characters purporting to be made by them, and that the same was their free act and deed.


The chiefs signed it by drawing in ink, their respective "totems", one being a turtle, another a crow, and the others similar symbols, and is now in possesion of the Tucker family. Not being signed by British Governor of Canada, it was not regarded as any proof of title by the United States upon their assuming control of the country, and Mr. Tucker was thus left in the same position as the French settlers upon the lake and Mr. Richard Connor, entirely dependent upon the liberality of the new Republic.


Mr. Tucker had procured the execution of the deed by the Indians, for the purpose of making him a permanent home, a sufficient distance from the growing settlements to allow him to pass his like in the enjoyment of those pursuits so congenial to him, and to leave hunting, trapping and furtrading undisturbed by the bustle of life populated communities, and yet sufficiently near a post of importance to give his home the position of comparitive security from distant marauding tribes.


During the captivity he had undoubtedly admired the great beauty of the country lying upon the Huron. In a state of nature but few sections of the country presented greater attractions to such a man. The fertility of the soil, the great abundance of the game, the loveliness of the situation, its great rural beauty were sufficient attractions. But added to this the spot he had determined to locate upon his favorite one with the Indians, almost steadily it was there camping ground. On and near that spot their traditions told them, many sanguinary battles between the Chippewas and their enemies had been fought, years before the eye of the white men had seen the country of the great lakes.


Mr. Tucker partook somewhat of this veneration and love for the spot, and when at the establishment of peace between the United States and the British Government, the growth of his family demanded the establishment of a fixed home, he immediately prepared to remove them. He arrived with his family in the spring of 1784, and selected as a site for his dwelling a spot but little distance from what was evidently an old Indian fort used in the days of the struggle for possession of this country between the Chippewas and the Sauks.


The remains of this fort as they appeared at his arrival consisted of an embankment and corresponding ditch on the outside, sweeping from the bank of the stream around about one and a half or two acres of ground, to the bank again, making nearly a complete circle. The opening being directly at the river bank. Outside of this were the evidences that the soil had been cultivated and that the Indian had for a time raised his maize there. Within it were found many bits of broken pottery of a peculiar character. There were other similar remains of what must have been rude forts on the bank of the Huronon the lands subsequently and even to this day owned by the desendants of William Tucker.


Of further interest to this history of the Charbonneau family is that William Tucker, the grandson of William Tucker and Catherine Hazel, after the death of his wife, Mary Charon, married Julia Petit, the widow of Louis Charbonneau, and that their daughter, Frances, by her first husband Louis Charbonneau, married Andrew Tucker, the son of William Tucker and Mary Charon.

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