Some Interesting Facts About the City of Port Huron, Michigan-- Part 1: A Thomas Edison Connection

From the city site.

**  French explorer Daniel Greysolon Duluth established Fort St. Joseph near the present site of the Blue Water Bridge in 1686.

**  1814:  Fort Gratiot was established at the base of Lake Huron and was considered the first organized population in the area.  It was built near the site of Fort St. Joseph.

1825:  Fort Gratiot Lighthouse was built.  It was the first lighthouse in Michigan.  The present lighthouse was built in 1829.

1854:  Thomas A. Edison's family moved to Port Huron where he worked at the railroad selling newspapers and "testing" his new inventions. That explains the Thomas Edison Parkway in Port Hudson.  I did not know he lived there.

More to Come.  --Brock-Perry

Charles Chocteau Gratiot-- Part 2: Builder of Forts

During the War of 1812, Gratiot served as General William Henry Harrison's chief of engineers.and distinguished himself in the construction of Fort Meigs in 1813.  He also rebuilt Fort St. Joseph, later named Fort Gratiot in his honor.  In 1814, he took part in the attack on Mackinac Island where he received the Thanks of Congress.

From 1817 to 1818, he was chief engineer of the Michigan Territory and superintending engineer 1819-1828 in the building of the defenses of Hampton Roads, Virginia.

On May 24, 1828, he was appointed colonel of engineers and brevetted to brigadier general.For the next ten years, he was chief administrator on river, harbor fortifications and road construction in the United States.

--Brock-Perry

200 Years Ago: American Raid on Port Talbot and Burning of Ft St. Joseph, Upper Canada

JULY 20, 1814:  American raid on Port Talbot, Upper Canada.

JULY 20, 1814:  The burning of Fort St. Joseph, Upper Canada.  The American expedition to the Upper Great Lakes under Captain Arthur Sinclair arrives off St. Joseph Island in mid-July.

A shore party burns the abandoned British fort and the fur traders' storehouse.

--Brock-Perry