In the United States of America, in 1837, Congress declared a section of land 490 miles long and 240 miles wide, as a new state in the union. The new state was shaped like a mitten, with a thumb sticking off to the right side as you studied the map. They called it "Michigan", from the indian name "Michigama", meaning "big lake".
In the 1830's, most of Michigama was populated by Chippewa indians (also called Ojibway), members of a large nation of tribes called the Algonquins. Further back in history Michigan was part of Upper Canada, which is now the Province of Ontario. Later, when the United States ruled the area, the land was called the Northwest Territories. Michigan was carved out of the Northwest Territories.
In the southeastern part of the new state of Michigan was a county called Lapeer, and in the southeastern part of Lapeer was a small township called Almont. Between 1830 and 1860, accounts vary, a remarkable thing happened in and around Almont. Two hundred Scottish families "suddenly" showed up, built farms, and settled in as American citizens. The settlement knew no boundaries, so it spread over four Michigan counties, St. Clair (Berlin Township), Macomb (Bruce township), Oakland (Addison Township), and Lapeer (Almont Township). This "sudden" appearance of Scottish families was part of a general trend in Michigan; between 1830 and 1860, Michigan's population increased from about 175,000 to about 749,000 (5). Foreign born residents of Michigan in 1860 numbered about 149,000 of which close to 4% were from Scotland. (5) Individual family genealogists have traced their own lines back from these first pioneers, but there has been no coordinated effort to understand how all these Scots showed up in this thickly wooded region of the planet within a few years of each other.
This is the story of 200 Scottish families, how they got to southeast Michigan, why they left Scotland, their journey to North America, and struggles in the new country. It is a personal story for me and for many living relatives; we are here because of the strength and spirit of these pioneers.
To better understand the character of these early pioneers, it is necessary to get a perspective on the 1800's in Lapeer. The earliest recorded white settler (James Deneen from Ohio) moved to Lapeer (not a county until February 2, 1835) in 1828. His daughter Anna Deneen was the first European child born in the area that was to become Lapeer county; she was born in 1829. We know then that the Scotch Settlement, centered around Almont did not start until after 1829.
In "A Short History of Almont" (13), Dr. William Hamilton tells us that "In '33 there was a notable increase in the number of actual settlers. David Taylor, John Hopkins, James Thompson and Wm. Robertson commenced the Scotch Settlement in the southwest. Records from Bruce township in Macomb County (2) indicate an even earlier start for the Scotch Settlement "In the year 1830 or 1831, the portion of the township known as the "Scotch Settlement" began to be occupied. One or two families- Crawford and Wylie, also David Taylor- were there previously". (2) It is fairly clear then that the Scottish Settlement had it's beginnings between 1830 and 1835.
Prior to the arrival of non-native people, the land in Lapeer county was occupied by Chippewa Indian families. Archeological records date the earliest Indian people in Michigan to about 5,000 BC, although apparent knife marks were observed on mastodon bones found in Michigan as early as 8,775 BC. Clearly, the pioneers were moving into land that had long been the home of others.
The Chippewas were peaceful and they were nomadic, following herds and wild harvests as the seasons changed. The settlers were farmers who believed in private property and lasting settlements. This must have eased the conflict somewhat since the indians did not understand ownership of land; they simply moved around the settlers. They did have familiar village sites and hunting grounds, but there was more flexibility in the nomadic life.
The Chippewa slowly gave way to change as they moved northward in Michigan and eventually into Canada. The wild harvests in the Lapeer region were not bountiful and the indians moved to follow better food prospects. The Lapeer area was thick with woods and swamps. So, the number of indians in the region in 1828 when James Deenen arrived were much reduced from earlier times.
The last indian war recorded east of the Mississippi River was fought in 1832. By the time the Scotch Settlement families began arriving in Lapeer county, the indians were neither hostile nor plentiful. They lived peacefully, "side by side" from 1828 until 1856, at which time the US government set up the reservation in Isabella county and moved the remaining indians to that location. Just to fill in the rest of the story, the indians lived in reservation poverty until the casinos arrived; they are now richer than the white men who drove them out 175 years ago!
My personal interest in this research stems from genealogy studies of four branches of my family, the Wallaces, the Rutherfords, the McEwans, and the Mairs; all four of these surnames are represented in the Scotch Settlement. My gg grandparents David Wallace (son of John Wallace and Margaret Mair) and Catharine McEwan (Daughter of John McEwan) left Scotland and were in Almont by the 1860 census. David and Catharine's first child Sarah was born in the Scotch Settlement. Sarah married Robert Rutherford who had moved down from the Northumberland region of Canada and was working in the Scotch Settlement. Robert's family was also from the lowland area of Scotland, the Borders. Sarah and Robert had a daughter Mable Rutherford, and Mable's third son was Douglas Wallace Baldwin, my father.
On the back porch of my sister's (Peggy's ) home in Fenton, Michigan in the summer of 2002, my father casually mentioned that his mother Mable was pure Scottish. "No kidding!" I said. "Where were they from in Scotland?" Nobody knew, and that began a long and wonderful journey back into my history. A detective story unfolded clue by clue, slowly as two years passed, until, in 2004 I hit a brick wall. There were no more records, no letters, no family alive who could tell me more. It looked like I was never going to figure out where my relatives came from in Scotland.
After some reflection, it seemed that the only way I was going to get over that brick wall was to study the entire history and development of the Scotch Settlement. I knew that when Scottish clans left their farms and traveled to other countries they almost always regrouped in the same location of the new land. Sometimes entire Scottish communities left together and reformed their extended families in other parts of the world. Letters would slowly pass over the oceans and entice new emigrants to join their families in the new land. As transportation improved in the late 1800s, travelers went back and forth between family in Scotland and family in Michigan. It was a good guess then that the Scottish families knew each other before they got to Michigan. We would expect that the families came at least from the same region of Scotland. Somehow, there was a social meshwork, a communications network, and complex family ties that linked every single inhabitant of the Scotch Settlement. The question was how, and the task was to map the social meshwork.
So I began the research. I wrote many an email and spend days in Almont, Bruce, Addison, and Berlin Townships talking to people. Over time, I got more and more fascinated with the entire community of Scottish families. I met fellow genealogists on a similar quest and together we began a long and thrilling walk back into history.
In the summer of 2005, my wife Katherine and I went to Scotland on a vacation. I didn't know at the time that I would end up writing an entire book! As we made our way across Ayrshire and the Borders region of southern Scotland, and as we drove past the ocean and the lochs and the mountains of the highlands, I began to get a very strong emotion. I turned to Katherine, as we passed through the Glencoe Valley in the highlands and asked with great wonderment "Why would anyone in their right mind leave a country so beautiful?"
There were undoubtedly many personal reasons why individuals left the beauty of Scotland and came to Canada and America (also New Zealand and Australia). But there are enough common reasons to make a strong case that most of the Scottish who left really had no choice, especially if they wanted to live prosperous and free lives. To understand why they left in such great numbers requires an understanding of what life was like in Scotland in the mid 1800s. If you were not a member of the aristocracy or a leader in the church community, if you were a commoner, a farmer, a laborer, a poor individual from a large family, your life was hard, unrewarding, and the future looked bleak against the backdrop of the blue sea and the majestic highland hills.
Economics, politics, and religion (as is usual in human affairs), were the chief forces that drove the Scots from Scotland. It's hard for North Americans of our generation to feel emotionally the power of conflicting religious doctrines or to empathize with the differences between aristocracy and the landless masses. In The United States, your typical bowling team contains a Catholic, a Jew, a Pagan, and an evangelical minister; none of whom know the other's religious beliefs, and they could give a rip anyway if they did know. In America, religion is an individuals business; if you try to sell your brand of the stuff, people smile and gently close the door in your face. On the same bowling team is a dentist, a piano tuner, a teacher, and a landscaper, and none of them feels inferior or superior- there is little to no class structure in North America. There are bigots, idiots, bores, religious and nationalistic lunatics, and egotistical maniacs- like anywhere else in human nature, but in America, they just might be on the same bowling team.
In Scotland, in the 1600 and 1700's, there was too much class stratification and too little religious tolerance. The potato famine had also spread to Scotland. Irish families were moving away from starvation and into Scottish cities. Many workers, especially weavers in Scotland were forced out of their jobs by industrialization. Hunger and loss of income were weighing heavy on the population by the 1800's.
Outline: Random at the moment
Intro
geography
time line bibliography
table of contents
illustrations
index
terminology
Neighbors
Weddings
Post office
transportation
The church
There is a separate page for the Bibliography.
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