Louis Campau
1791 - 1871
Tall, tough and lance-straight, Louis Campau was Saginaw’s first white settler and the man most responsible for its pioneer transition from a forest wilderness.
Of French descent, he was born near Detroit in 1791. He came to Saginaw in 1816 to set up a fur-trading post when the woods and marshes teemed with beavers, muskrats, foxes, wolves and other fur-bearing animals.
Then 25, he built a big two-story house and trading post near what is now Throop and Niagara, seven blocks north of Court Street. The building was of heavy squared logs, thick enough to serve as a fortress should the Indians become warlike. But Campau, fluent in their dialects, got on well with the Indians. They traded him their hides for cooking utensils, calico, knives, boots and whiskey. By the standard of the times, fur trader Campau treated the Indians fairly. Reputedly his attitude toward them was one of parental concern, sometimes giving them food and other assistance when they needed it.
Campau was a contemporary and friend of General Lewis Cass, territorial governor of Michigan. Cass was trying to wrangle vast tracts of land from the Indians. He wanted to do it by treaty, avoiding bloodshed. Cass reasoned that if he could attract all of the Chippewa chieftains to one central meeting place, he might persuade them to sell a huge slice of eastern Michigan land. He chose Saginaw as the logical meeting place. Cass asked Campau and other traders to help get the Indians together and keep them tractable once assembled. Campau agreed to build a council house for the meeting. This was a rough, roomy shelter near his trading post. Thick logs were rolled into place as seats in front of a raised platform.
When the Indians began to arrive from far and near in the territory in the summer of 1819, the forests around Campau’s clearing soon were filled with Indians. This promised good business for the enterprising Campau. He gave the Indians supplies on credit. The understanding was that he would be paid with money they obtained for the sale of their land.
Through wheedling, threats and offers of money and spacious reservations, Cass talked the Chippewas into signing over their lands in northern Michigan. Campau and his brother served as interpreters. On September 24, 1819, one hundred and fourteen Indian leaders signed the resultant Treaty of Saginaw after 12 days of negotiations. Under terms of the agreement, the Indians were to get $1,000 a year forever. Campau asked that debts to him be deducted before the first payment. When it came time to count out the money, Cass told the Indians they ought to first pay their indebtedness to Campau—but he didn’t make it a command.
That made trouble, because Jacob Smith, a trader friend of quite a group of the Indians, realized that the money paid Campau would be lost to him and other traders. So Smith influenced a chief named Kish-kau-kou, who’d been drunk through most of the negotiations, to talk his tribal friends out of paying Campau. When the Indians reneged on his claim for money, Campau realized Smith, his long-time rival, was behind it. So he leaped onto the council platform and knocked Smith down. Cass and some of his soldiers stopped the ensuing fight.
Campau was furious at what he considered Smith’s knavery and Cass’ tolerance of it. So, in revenge, he opened ten barrels of whiskey and stationed his men beside them to ladle out “firewater” to the eager Indians, who swiftly got drunk, began screaming war whoops and brandished tomahawks.
When Cass implored Campau to shut off the whiskey, the big Frenchman grated in reply: “No, General, you commenced it. You let Smith plunder me.”
Cass averted a possible tragedy by ordering troops to seize Campau’s warehouse, hold the Indians off with bayonets and by enlisting help of other traders in calming the situation.
Campau left Saginaw in 1823 and headed west. He moved along the banks of the Grand River. On a 72-acre tract he bought for $90, he set up a new trading post. It didn’t take him long to figure out that the site of his new business place would be ideal for a city.
Though fur trader Campau lived to see his tract of Grand Rapids land worth millions, he died a relatively poor man. He got into wildcat banking and at one time, was worth $100,000—a massive sum in Michigan’s pioneer era. The panic of 1837 proved his ruin. Within a year he was obliged to hand over most of his property to creditors.
Campau died at 80 in 1871, two years after the death of his wife of 40 years. He left no descendants but a lasting legacy of having helped found two major Michigan cities.