Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2026 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== USGenNet Data Repository Notice: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ============================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ============================================================================= History of Bay County Michigan pub. H. R. Page & Co., Chicago - 1883 [p. 29-30] CAPT. JOSEPH F. MAESAC, one of the original pioneers of Michi gan and the Saginaw Valley, died at the old homestead in Bay City, June 18, 1880, aged about ninety years. No man was better known in the Saginaw Valley or more universally respected by all classes for his amiable qualities as a gentleman of the old school. CAPT. MARSAC was born five miles above Detroit, in the township of Hamtramack. His exact age cannot be ascertained, as the records have been lost. But at the battle of the Thames, in 1812, he commanded a company, and must have been at least twenty-one years old. In conversation with MR. KING, an old gentleman of West Bay City, in regard to CAPT. MARSAC'S age, he said: - "I was born in Detroit in 1800, and consequently I was a boy of twelve years when the army left Detroit to pursue Proctor, and I distinctly recollect seeing young MARSAC at the head of his company, as at that time I knew him well." These facts make it certain that at the time of his death CAPT. MARSAc was ninety or more years of age. He told me a short time before his death that he thought he was ninety- two years old. His ancestors originally came from France. The original name was De Le MARSAC, and his was originally one of the noble families of France. The army was pursuing PROCTOR up the Thames before the battle was fought; the commanding general wanted to send some dispatches to the garrison at Detroit. He called JAMES GROSEBECK, a man well acquainted with the Indian character, to be the bearer of the dispatches. The Indians being all around them, GROSEBECK declined to go unless young MARSAC would go with him. Finally GROSEBECK and MARSAC were dispatched. They had to skulk around and travel nights to avoid straggling parties of Indians. They finally reached Detroit and delivered their dispatches and started to return, when they met couriers bringing the news that the battle had been fought and won. "Then," said the captain," I was mad, for I had lost a good fight. "Although, no doubt, he had done a greater service for his country. Soon after this, CAPT. MARSAC and his company were sent to Fort Gratiot to work upon the fort, and from there to Fort Maiden, where he remained until the time of his en- listment expired, when he returned home to assist his father on the farm. In 1816 he was employed by Kinzie Priehard and others to go to Chicago as interpreter and sell goods to the Indians. Chicago then consisted of five houses, including the trading post. He started on horseback on an Indian pony and took the Indian trail for Chicago. At the Indian village on the St. Joseph Eiver, near where Niles now stands, he traded his pony with the Indians for corn, which he loaded in canoes, with which he proceeded down the St. Joseph Eiver to its mouth, and then around the south shore of Lake Michigan to Chicago, where he remained in the employ of the fur company some time. After his time had expired he returned to Detroit on foot. In 1819 he was called by GEN. CASS to go with him to Saginaw to make a treaty with the Chippewa Indians of northern Michigan. He accompanied GEN. CASS on horseback to Saginaw, while a small schooner had been dispatched around the lakes with a company of soldiers to protect them at the treaty, for some of the Indians still preferred war to selling their lands. After the treaty CAPT. MARSAC returned to Detroit in the vessel that had brought out the troops. GEN. CASS and CAPT. MARSAC were always the greatest of friends, and to this the latfcer was indebted for the many offices of trust he held for many years under the Government, which he always filled with the strictest integrity. During many years he was engaged in the custom house in Detroit and other public offices. At the breaking out of the Black Hawk War he received a cap- tain's commission from GOV. PORTER, and raised a company of In- dian fighters and started for the seat of war, with his company, on foot, as there was no other conveyance in those days. When they had nearly reached Chicago, news came that BLACK HAWK had been captured, and a courier was dispatched by GOV. PORTER, ordering CAPT. MARSAC, with his company, to return. In 1836 or 1837 he was employed by the government as Indian interpreter, to assist in making a treaty with the Indians of the Saginaw River and its tributaries for the sale of their reservations to the United States Government, which took place where the city of Flint now is. In 1838 he emigrated to Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, where he was appointed by the Government Indian farmer for the Sag- inaw River and its tributaries, which position he held for many years; until he was superseded by the late JAMES FRASER. No man in the Saginaw Valley was so well known as the late CAPT. MARSAC for his unbounded hospitality and fund of anec- dote, and no man is so missed from the community in which he lived. He has left a record that his children may well feel proud of: "An honest and noble man, respected by all who knew him. ===============================================================================