The Henry Clay,
a side-wheel steamer that was already old in 1832, creaked into the port of Detroit and discharged a ship’s hold of infantrymen from Virginia. The troops were garrisoned in Detroit as reserves in case Black Hawk’s Native American rebellion over in Wisconsin wasn’t successfully quashed. That afternoon, the soldiers mingled with civilians at General Lewis Cass’ traditional Fourth of July barbecue. By evening, an Army doctor diagnosed two men on
long-legged young man in a flapping black cloak rode
mediately ran away, hiding in a local hotel. Panic took
from town to town, commanding residents to burn
hold of the ship, then the city, and then the territory,
down their barricades and assist their fellow citizens.
in short order.
Though he was arrested, shot at, and wrestled to the
As the July heat set in, black and bloated corpses
authorities, who in turn restored order to their towns
the territory, fear had taken charge in place of gov-
and re-opened the roads from Niles to Jacksonburgh,
ernment. The villages around the city erected block-
and then on through Ann Arbor and into Detroit.
ades and posted armed sentries,in an effort to defend
It was on this wild ride that Mason went lost be-
against cholera. But the primary consequence of this
yond Marshall and wandered in the woods until he
self-interested defense was that the roads needed to
stumbled upon a rustic cabin. He was taken in by the
bring food and supplies to the city, and to fight the
Reverend Mr. John D. Pierce, who was then caring for
disease, were cut off. As the fragile reach of the ter-
his cholera-stricken wife, Millicent (Estabrook) Pierce.
ritorial government collapsed, the acting governor of
Mason discovered that Pierce (along with his friend
the Territory of Michigan realized he needed to ride
Isaac E. Crary) had been developing ideas for a state-
out into the wilderness and reestablish order so that
wide public education system based on the Prussian
the epidemic could be fought successfully.
model. It was just the sort of system Mason had been
years old.
LSA Magazine / FALL 2011
ground by panicked villagers, he calmed the local
were laid out in a dockside warehouse. All around
His name was Stevens T. Mason. He was just 20
18
And so, with his top hat jammed on his head, the
the Henry Clay with Asiatic cholera. The doctor im-
imagining when he gave his first speech as acting governor, impressing upon listeners the importance of
ILLUSTRATION Courtesy of Bentley Historical Library