America 250 Series: Dexter and the Push Westward

Editor’s Note: As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, the Dexter Area Historical Society presents a series exploring Dexter’s history within the broader context of state and national events. This first installment examines the village’s founding during America’s westward expansion.

During the early years of our country, the interior of Michigan was largely ignored, and the native population was undisturbed.   There were settlements in Detroit and Mackinaw, but the area now known as Washtenaw County saw few if any Europeans. 

The native inhabitants were mostly of the Algonquin and Iroquoian language groups. The Algonquin group included Potawatomi, Ottawa, Ojibway, also known as the Chippewa, Miami and Sauk. The Iroquoian group included the Hurons also known as Wyandots, Fox, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca. 

These people had lived here for centuries. Many of our place names came from the language of these tribes. Michigan comes from the Ottawa “Mishigami” meaning large water or great water and Washtenaw comes from the Ojibwe word Wash-ten-ong meaning “far off in the interior”. 

In 1812 Congress passed an act requiring that a total of six million acres in the territories of Louisiana, Illinois and Michigan be surveyed and set aside as land bounties for the soldiers of the war with Great Britian.   However, the surveyors deemed the land in Michigan low, swampy, thick with grass and woods and as such unsuitable for cultivation.  In a letter dated November 30, 1815, Surveyor General Edward Tiffin wrote to Joseph Meigs, Commissioner of the General Land Office:

“Taking the country altogether, so far as had been explored, and to all appearances, together with the information received concerning the balance, it is so bad there would not be more than one acre out of a hundred, if there would be one out of a thousand, that would in any case admit cultivation.”

Not wanting to insult the brave soldiers by providing them with unsuitable land, Congress withdrew the designation of Michigan for land bounties and instead provided land in Missouri.  

Just ten years later in 1825, Samuel Dexter wrote to his cousin about his impressions of Michigan:

“I have much to say about this country –‘tis a strange place, different from any new land that I have seen and better, — The interior of Michigan is delightful –a mixture of prairies, oak openings, and woodland, abounding in clear springs, — It is a rolling country well adapted to good roads, and admirably suited for conveying its produce to market.”

Even though the survey of Michigan in 1815 found the land unsuitable, it established the north south principal meridian (Meridian Road) to be used for future land surveys, and a marker was put into the ground where the east/west line (Baseline Road) intersected. 

The lands to the west of the meridian belonged to the Indians and were not surveyed.   In the 1820’s new treaties with the Indians allowed surveying to the west.  Surveyor Joseph Wampler (for whom Wampler’s Lake was named) was hired to continue the survey to the west of the meridian.  

At the time of Samuel Dexter’s first journey west from New York State on horseback in 1824, the Land Act of 1820 (Act making further provision for the sale of public lands) was in effect. The act reduced the per acre price from $2.00 to $1.25 but required payment in full at the time of purchase.  By October of 1824 Dexter had purchased more than 1100 acres in Washtenaw County, including the area that is now the City of Dexter.  He paid just over $1,375, which is equivalent to about $45,000 today.

Dexter commissioned a dam across Mill Creek as well as a log cabin and sawmill built on the west side of Mill Creek where condos are now being built.   A grist mill on the east side of the creek followed. 

The Erie Canal, which opened in 1825, made it easier for settlers to travel west to Michigan and for goods to travel to and from the territory.  The canal ran the length of New York from Albany in the east to Buffalo in the west, where settlers boarded steamships for the trip across Lake Erie.  Folks came from the east, New York and New England, and from Ireland and Germany.

Featured photo: New development marks historic ground along Mill Creek in Dexter, where Judge Samuel Dexter established his early mills. The Pelham condominiums (left) rise on the west bank at the site of his log cabin and sawmill, while the fire station stands where his grist mill once operated. Photo by Doug Marrin.