Editing Emmet County, Michigan (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of Northern Michigan|L'Arbre Croche}}

===Native Americans and New France===
[[Image:1842 Tonedagana Cheboygan Kishkawkee Wyandot PresqueIsle counties Michigan.jpg|thumb|A detail from ''[[:File:1842 A new map of Michigan with its canals roads distances by H.S. Tanner.jpg|A New Map of Michigan with its Canals, Roads & Distances]]'' (1842) by [[Henry Schenck Tanner]], showing Emmet County as Tonedagana, the county's name from 1840 to 1843.<ref name="Newberry">{{cite web |author=Newberry Library |title=Michigan: Individual County Chronologies |url=http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/MI_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106151503/http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/MI_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm |archive-date=November 6, 2016 |access-date=November 4, 2016 |website=Atlas of County Historical Boundaries}}</ref> Several nearby counties are also shown with names that would later be changed.]]
[[Odawa]] history records that Emmet County was thickly populated by indigenous peoples called the Mush-co-desh, which means "the prairie tribe". They had an agrarian society and were said to have "shaped the land by making the woodland into prairie as they abandoned their old worn out gardens which formed grassy plains". Ottawa tradition claims that they slaughtered from forty to fifty thousand Mush-co-desh and drove the rest from the land after the Mush-co-desh insulted an Ottawa war party.<ref>Blackbird, Andrew J.(1887): ''History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan'', The Ypsilantian Job Printing House [https://books.google.com/books?id=bX8CAAAAYAAJ&q=blackbird+mush-co-desh].</ref>

The Odawa were important prior to European colonization for their trading network throughout the Great Lakes area. The Odawa of nearby [[L'Arbre Croche]] fished, hunted, and grew and gathered produce, including corn, squash, onions, cucumbers, turnips, cabbages, melon, and wild strawberries.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karamanski |first=Theodore J. |url=http://archive.org/details/blackbirdssongan0000kara |title=Blackbird's song : Andrew J. Blackbird and the Odawa people |date=2012 |publisher=Michigan State University Press |isbn=978-1-61186-050-4 |location=East Lansing |pages=6, 8–9}}</ref> The Odawa bartered with the French at [[Mackinac Island]], a major fur-trading center where [[Lake Huron]] meets [[Lake Michigan]]. They traded food, bark, and canoes for goods – like clothing and glass and porcelain beads. The canoes and food, including dried fish and meat and produce, supplied the fur traders who worked in the wilderness of the Great Lakes and the Upper Mississippi regions.{{sfn|Karamanski|2012|pp=8–9}} They retained this influence into the 18th century, as French traders relied on them to take furs east from tribes they traded with to the north and west. When French explorers first came to this area, they claimed it as part of [[New France]], based in today's Quebec province.

[[File:Anishinaabe-Anishinini Distribution Map.svg|thumb|Homelands of [[Anishinaabe]] and [[Oji-Cree]], ca. 1800]]
The Ottawa and [[Ojibwe]] tribes were the principal inhabitants of this area, extending across to Manitoulin Island and the Bruce Peninsula of Ontario, Canada. The [[French colonization of the Americas|French]] established [[Fort Michilimackinac]] in about 1715. It was a trading post and the basis of a multicultural settlement that developed around it. Seasonally numerous Native Americans of various tribes would come to trade there.

Pierre du Jaunay, a Jesuit priest from France, served as a missionary at Michilimackinac beginning in 1735. From the Sainte-Anne log church, he served the French and later British residents, neighboring Native Americans, and visiting traders and explorers for almost 30 years.<ref name="Du Jaunay bio">{{Cite web |title=Biography – Du Jaunay, Pierre – Volume IV (1771-1800)  |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/du_jaunay_pierre_4E.html |access-date=March 25, 2022 |website=Dictionary of Canadian Biography}}</ref> Du Jaunay split his time between the Sainte-Anne church and the Saint-Ignace at L’Arbre Croche mission in Cross Village, where he had a farm. He was assisted by several French priests and some Native American slaves.<ref name="Du Jaunay bio" />

===British control===
During the [[Seven Years' War]] (1754–63), [[British colonization of the Americas|British]] and French forces, together with Indian allies on each side, fought on the North American front in what became known in the British colonies as the [[French and Indian War]]. The British took control of Fort Michilimackinac in 1761 and continued to use it as a trading post. In 1763, Ojibwe warriors took the fort as a part of [[Pontiac's Rebellion]] and held it for a year before the British retook it. The British abandoned the wooden fort in 1781 after building the limestone [[Fort Mackinac]] on nearby [[Mackinac Island]].

===US control and white settlement under the Mormons===
An Indian community on the lakeshore in the western part of the county continued to thrive after the British abandoned the fort. After the [[War of 1812]], Mackinac Island and this area became part of the United States.

In the 1840s, Odawa villages lined the Lake Michigan shore from present-day [[Harbor Springs, Michigan|Harbor Springs]] to [[Cross Village, Michigan|Cross Village]]. By Act 119 of the Michigan Legislature approved April 1, 1840, a number of northern counties were delineated. '''Tonedagana County''', a name derived from a Cross Village Odawa war chief, was delineated from [[Mackinac County, Michigan|Michilimackinac County]] but unorganized, so remained attached for judicial purposes.<ref name=PSSM1877>[https://books.google.com/books?id=tFQ6AAAAMAAJ&dq=Tonedagana&pg=PA322 "Tonedagana County."] Michigan Historical Collections, Volume 1, page 322. Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan, Michigan Historical Commission, 1877. Accessed June 7, 2020.</ref><ref name=EC20200607>[https://www.emmetcounty.org/officials-departments/historical-commission/blasts-from-the-past/ "Blasts from the Past: How did Emmet County get named for an Irish Patriot?"] Emmet County, Michigan, official website. Accessed June 7, 2020.</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=George Dawson |date=1840 |title=Acts of the Legislature of the State of Michigan Passed at the Annual Session of 1840 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aDg4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA196 |location=Detroit |pages=196–200}}</ref> The area was mostly reserved for native tribes by treaty provisions with the US federal government until 1875.

The Michigan Legislature renamed Tonedagana County as Emmet County, after [[Robert Emmet]], on March 8, 1843.<ref name=PSSM1877 /><ref name=EC20200607 /> In 1847, a group of [[Mormons]] settled on nearby [[Beaver Island (Lake Michigan)|Beaver Island]] and established a "kingdom" led by "King" [[James Jesse Strang]]. There were bitter disputes between Strang's followers and other white settlers. Strang, seeking to strengthen his position, gained election to the [[Michigan State House of Representatives]]. In January 1853, he pushed through legislation titled, "An act to organize the County of Emmet", which enlarged Emmet County by attaching the nearby Lake Michigan islands to the county, as well as a portion of Cheboygan County. It also annexed the old [[Charlevoix County, Michigan|Charlevoix County]], which was originally named Keskkauko County and was as yet unorganized, as a township of Emmet County. Due to Strang's influence, Mormons came to dominate county government, causing an exodus of many non-Mormon settlers to neighboring areas. In 1855, the non-Mormon resistance succeeded in getting the Michigan Legislature to reorganize Emmet County. The islands, including Beaver Island and [[North Manitou Island|North]] and [[South Manitou Island]]s, were transferred into the separate [[Manitou County, Michigan|Manitou County]], which effectively eliminated Mormons from Emmet County government.

===Further political divisions===
On April 27, 1857, an election selected Little Traverse (now named Harbor Springs) as the county seat. However, at about this time, investors were trying to promote development at Mackinaw City. Due to their influence, in February 1858, the State Legislature passed an act establishing Mackinaw City as the county seat. The Emmet County Board of Supervisors protested that the county seat had already been established at Little Traverse, and in 1861 the act was repealed as unconstitutional. In a contested election in 1867, residents voted to move the county seat to [[Charlevoix, Michigan|Charlevoix]], which was upheld by a Circuit Court decision in 1868. However, in 1869, Charlevoix County was split from Emmet County, resulting in the county seat being in another county. No provisions for official relocation were authorized, although [[Harbor Springs, Michigan|Harbor Springs]] served as the unofficial county seat until April 1902. The present county seat of Petoskey was selected at that time in a county-wide election.
{{CSS image crop|Image=1872_Chicago_%26_Canada_Southern.jpg|bSize=5000|cWidth=250|cHeight=350|oTop=500|oLeft=2000|Location=right|Description=Most of present day [[Charlevoix County, Michigan|Charlevoix County]] was originally part of Emmet County.}}

[[Charlevoix Township, Michigan|Charlevoix Township]] was organized in 1853 and included all of the nine townships in the southern half of the county. In the 1855 reorganization, four new townships were created by the State Legislature:
* La Croix Township (name changed to [[Cross Village Township, Michigan|Cross Village Township]] in 1875)
* [[Little Traverse Township, Michigan|Little Traverse Township]] (detached from Charlevoix Township)
* [[Bear Creek Township, Michigan|Bear Creek Township]] (detached from Charlevoix Township)
* Old Fort Mackinac (later absorbed into other townships)

In 1855, county supervisors also established the townships of Arbour Croche and Utopia. (The former was a mangled spelling derived from the French ''[[L'Arbre Croche]]'', the historic village later renamed as Harbor Springs.) The state had inadvertently drawn boundaries for Little Traverse and Bear Creek townships such that one area was included in both. The county supervisors' Arbour Croche was defined as having the same boundaries as the state-defined Little Traverse Township, excluding the area overlapping with Bear Creek. Eventually the name Arbour Croche disappeared in favor of Little Traverse. The township of Utopia was later absorbed into other townships.

In 1877, six additional townships were organized:
* [[Bliss Township, Michigan|Bliss Township]]
* [[Friendship Township, Michigan|Friendship Township]]
* [[Littlefield Township, Michigan|Littlefield Township]]
* [[Maple River Township, Michigan|Maple River Township]]
* [[Pleasantview Township, Michigan|Pleasantview Township]]
* [[Readmond Township, Michigan|Readmond Township]]

[[Center Township, Michigan|Center Township]] was added in 1878 and [[Carp Lake Township, Emmet County, Michigan|Carp Lake Township]] in 1879. [[Resort Township, Michigan|Resort Township]] and [[Springvale Township, Michigan|Springvale Township]] were formed in 1880, but were at that time part of Charlevoix County. Those townships, along with Bear Creek, experienced numerous boundary changes. The now defunct townships of Bear Lake and Spring Lake were created out of portions of these townships. In 1897, the portions of these townships remaining in Emmet County were absorbed into Bear Creek and Springvale townships.

Also organized in 1897 were [[West Traverse Township, Michigan|West Traverse Township]] (from portions of Friendship and Little Traverse Townships) and Egleston Township (name changed to [[McKinley Township, Emmet County, Michigan|McKinley Township]] in 1903). In 1923, [[Wawatam Township, Michigan|Wawatam Township]] was the last township organized in the county, when it was detached from Carp Lake Township.