Editing St. Clair Township, Michigan (section)

==Naming==
Being situated on the western banks of the [[St. Clair River]], the city's name is taken from the river, which in turn was named for [[Lake Saint Clair (North America)|Lake Saint Clair]]. An expedition led by the French explorer [[René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]] named it ''Lac Sainte-Claire'', because they entered the lake on August 12, 1679, the [[Calendar of saints|feast day]] of [[Clare of Assisi|Saint Clare of Assisi]].<ref>Jenks, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=micounty&cc=micounty&idno=bad1042.0001.001&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=62 p. 22]</ref> The lake is named on English maps as early as 1710 as Saint Clare. But as early as the [[Mitchell Map]] in 1755, the spelling is presented with the current spelling as St. Clair.<ref>Jenks, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=micounty;cc=micounty;rgn=full%20text;idno=bad1042.0001.001;didno=BAD1042.0001.001;view=image;seq=63;page=root;size=s;frm=frameset; pp. 23-24]</ref> The name is sometimes attributed as honoring the [[American Revolutionary War]] General and Governor of the [[Northwest Territory]] [[Arthur St. Clair]], but the name was in use with the current spelling long before St. Clair was a notable figure. However it is possible that earlier name of the lake was conflated with that of the general in naming some of the political entities near the lake and the river, such as [[St. Clair County, Michigan|St. Clair County]], St. Clair Township, and the cities of [[St. Clair, Michigan|St. Clair]] and [[St. Clair Shores, Michigan|St. Clair Shores]].

The origin of the name has also been confused with that [[Patrick Sinclair]], a British officer who purchased land on the [[St. Clair River]] at the outlet of the [[Pine River (Michigan)|Pine River]]. There, in 1764, he built [[Fort Sinclair]], which was in use for nearly twenty years before being abandoned.<ref>Fuller, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=micounty;cc=micounty;rgn=full%20text;idno=ARH7752.0001.001;didno=ARH7752.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000017 pp. 21-22]</ref>