Lewis Cass (1782 - 1866)

Born 9 Oct 1782 in Exeter, New Hampshire, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth Selden (Spencer) Cass — married 26 May 1806 in Marietta, Ohio

Descendants

Died 17 Jun 1866 at age 83 in Detroit, Michigan, United States

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Biography

Lewis Cass is Notable.

Brig Gen Lewis Cass served in the United States Infantry in the War of 1812
Service started: 1812
Unit(s): 3rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment (Cass'); 27th United States Infantry Regiment
Service ended: May 1, 1814

"Prior to 1800, the only feasible route for settlers to enter the Muskingum County area was by way of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. The heavy virgin forests were not negotiable even by horse for only the foot trails of the Indians wound through them. Then after the Zane Trace was cut from Wheeling west after 1796, it was soon enlarged from a mere trail among the stumps of trees to a road over which wagons, with much effort, could negotiate it- Muskingum County was formed in 1804 and Jefferson Township at about the same time. Cass’ Bottom, settled In 1801 by Major Jonathan Cass, was the first permanent settlement in northern Muskingum County.

The eldest son of Jonathan and Mary Gilman Cass, who was born in Exeter, NH. in 1782, was Lewis Cass. He could remember when his mother held him up to the window to watch the celebration when the U. S. Constitution was signed.

After he finished his education at Exeter Academy, he joined his family at Wilmington, Del., where his father was stationed as a Major in the Army and taught school for a while. But he soon decided that teaching school was not for him and followed his family to Marietta and then to Zanesville and when Muskingum County was formed in the new State of Ohio, he was the first admitted to the bar to practice law, and became the first prosecutor of Muskingum Co., and prosecuted the first murder case in Muskingum Co.

In 1806, Lewis was elected a State Representative and in 1807 was appointed a U. S. Marshal, a position which he held until the War of 1812. In 1806 he married Elizabeth Spencer, daughter of General Spencer of Revolutionary War fame.

The couple settled on land given to them by Major Jonathan Cass and built a double log cabin. Here several of their children were born while Lewis attended to his duties as State Legislator and U. S. Marshal, which entailed much traveling, mostly on horse back. This local residency certainly entitles northern Muskingum County to lay some claim to him, even though he was not native born. He was probably the most notable personage to emerge from this locality. While the exact location of his cabin home is not established, it probably was near where the home originally called Riverdale stood east of Trinway, now the Jennings farm. There are numerous spots where once log cabins stood in the bottoms, which can be recognized by broken dishes, etc., in the fields. One such place is near Riverdale and Lewis Cass sold this land to William Evans, who first started Riverdale."^[1]

"Here the Lewis Cass family lived simply until the threat of war with the English in 1812 stirred him like his father to come to the aid of his country, and he was given the command of a company recruited at Dayton, who went to the defense of Fort Detroit. But despite their heroic efforts there, Fort Detroit was unnecessarily surrendered by the cowardly Gen. Gage to a much inferior force of English troops and Indian allies. Lewis was parolled and came back to Cass’ Bottom where when his parole was up he recruited a company from a headquarters in the maple grove of a thousand trees on his land near his home. He was commissioned a Major General and took an active part in the defeat of the British at the Battle of the Thames and recovery of Fort Detroit, which ended for all time the interference of England In the affairs of the U. S.

In 1815, Cass sold some of his land here and bought large tracts near Detroit. The sale of which later made him very wealthy.

He was given command of Fort Detroit and when the Michigan Territory was formed, he was its first Governor. Lewis Cass took an active interest in the affairs of the Territory, making many trips over it and understood the problems of the settlers and the Indians.

In 1831 he was appointed Secretary of War, and in 1832 participated in the Black Hawk Indian War. In 1836 he was made Minister to France and while there wrote a book on France and the French Court. After serving in France until 1842, he was a candidate in the primary for U. S. President, but lost, but in 1845 was elected to the U. S. Senate and was nominated for the Presidency to run against Zachary Taylor, the hero of the Mexican War, in 1848.

Taylor was too popular at that time and Cass lost after a bitter campaign. Cass was reelected to the Senate in 1849 and served as Secretary of State under Buchanan. Lewis Cass died at the age of 84 in 1886."^[1]

Legacy

Eight U.S. states have named counties in honor of Lewis Cass: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas. In addition, there are 11 cities, 30 Townships, 3 geographic features, 4 buildings, 5 other places and 15 streets are named in his honor.^[2]

Lewis was born in 1782. Lewis was mentioned on a memorial in Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, United States with a death date of 17 June 1866.^[3]

Research Notes

War of 1812 Brigadier General, Presidential Cabinet Secretary, US Diplomat, Michigan Territorial Governor, US Senator. Born in Exeter, New Hampshire, he moved to Ohio at age 18, where he read law and eventually entered the Ohio Bar Association. During the War of 1812 he was commissioned as Brigadier General, and led his men at the October 5, 1813 Battle of the Thames. On October 29, 1813 he was appointed by President James Madison as Governor of the Michigan Territory, a post he would serve in for the next eighteen and a half years. Mid way though 1831 he was appointed by President Andrew Jackson as United States Secretary of War, replacing John Henry Eaton, who had resigned in the face of a social scandal. He served in the post until 1836, and his tenure was marked by President Jackson's removal of Native Americans from eastern areas that is epitomized by the "Trail of Tears", the 1832 Black Hawk war, and the Seminole Wars in Florida. In 1836 he was appointed as United States Minister to France, serving in that duty until he was elected as a United States Senator from Michigan to the United States Senate in 1845. In 1848 he resigned to run for United States President, losing the election to Zachary Taylor in 1848. Re-elected to the United States Senate, he served again from Michigan from 1849 to 1857, when James Buchanan appointed him United States Secretary of State. Mired in the sectional crisis that gripped the nation in that time, he eventually resigned his post in December 1860 in protest over President Buchanan's refusal to re-enforce the threatened United States Army garrison in Charleston, South Carolina, and his refusal to protect American interests militarily. He remained on the sidelines during the subsequent Civil War, and died in Detroit, Michigan in 1866

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Longaberger, Glenn. "Looking Back." The Transcript (OH: Dresden, 4 January 1973), p. 1; see Glenn Longaberger Articles on Dresden, Ohio.
2. ↑ Wikipedia: List of places named for Lewis Cass
3. ↑ Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
   Find A Grave: Memorial #2256 (accessed 19 January 2024)
   Memorial page for Lewis Cass (9 Oct 1782-17 Jun 1866), citing Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, USA (plot: Section A, Lot 25); Maintained by Find a Grave.

Genealogical Sources:

• New Hampshire, Exeter, Town Vital Records, Volume 1 1657-1848, page 67, Lewis Cass, born 9 Oct 1782; image copy, FamilySearch, film #5511165, image 68 of 241 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G99K-ZWZK?i=67 : accessed 10 Apr 2023) [unindexed].
• West Virginia, Wood County, Marriage Register, 1801-1854, page 2, Lewis Cass and Elizabeth Spencer, 26 May 1806; image copy, FamilySearch, film #4130710, image 5 of 476 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9Z5-GSYB?i=4 : accessed 10 Apr 2023).
  Note: this appears to be a typed copy of an original marriage register book.
• Lewis Cass on Find A Grave: Memorial #2256 Retrieved 07:36, 9 October 2016 (EDT).
• "Hon. Lewis Cass," obituary, The Daily Evening Telegraph [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], 18 Jun 1866, page 7, column 1; image copy, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122654939/ : accessed 10 Apr 2023).

See also:

• Lewis Cass on Wikipedia
• This WikiTree profile is referenced from Wikidata: Item Q503119, en:Wikipedia
• Direct Data Capture, comp. U.S., War of 1812 Service Records, 1812-1815 database on-line. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999, citing:: National Archives and Records Administration. Index to the Compiled Military Service Records for the Volunteer Soldiers Who Served During the War of 1812. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M602, 234 rolls.
• Dunbar, Edith. The Flanders Family from Europe to America (The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., Rutland, VT, 1935) Page 124
• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• This WikiTree profile is referenced from Wikidata: Item Q503119, en:Wikipedia
  

  This profile is part of the Dresden, Ohio One Place Study.