Frenchtown: The River Raisin Settlement

The township south of Monroe carries a name that tells its whole history: Frenchtown, settled around seventeen eighty-four by French Canadian families who strung their long narrow farms along the River Raisin the way their ancestors had farmed along the St. Lawrence. The Potawatomi gave them the land; they built a community that predated American sovereignty over the territory by more than a decade.

This quiet riverbank became briefly famous in January of eighteen thirteen during the War of eighteen twelve. American forces under General James Winchester camped here and were overwhelmed by a British and Native American force. The defeat, and the killing of American prisoners afterward, became a rallying cry: Remember the Raisin. It was one of the worst American defeats of that war. The French families rebuilt, the Americans eventually prevailed, and the original Frenchtown settlement grew into the city of Monroe, while the township around it still carries the settlers' name.