LETTER FROM THE ASSISTANT CLERK OF THE COURT OF CLAIMS TRANSMITTING A COPY OF THE FINDINGS FILED BY THE COURT IN THE CASE OF JAMES S. DE LAND AGAINST THE UNITED STATES.
Sir: Pursuant to the order of the court I transmit herewith a certified copy of the findings filed by the court in the aforesaid cause, which case was referred to this court by the Committee on War Claims, House of Representatives, under the act of March 3, 1883, known as the Bowman Act.
The claim in the above-entitled case was transmitted to the court by the Committee on War Claims of the House of Representatives on the 27th day of March, 1906. The case was brought to a hearing on its merits on the 18th day of March, 1907.
Messrs. Pennebaker and Jones appeared for the claimant and the Attorney-General, by his assistant and under his direction, appeared for the defense and the protection of the interests of the United States.
We have before alluded to Judge William R. DeLand, the pioneer and the village patriarch, the magnate of the Arcadean age of our primitive history—as indeed we could not avoid doing, as his name is so closely associated with all our beginnings. A more detailed account of Mr. DeLand, however, is necessary to make up our record. William R. DeLand is a native of Massachusetts, and was born July 20, 1794, at North Brookfield, Worcester county, sixth son of Jedediah DeLand, a soldier of the Revolution and a respectable citizen of that town; was brought up in the rural pursuits of husbandry; received a good common school education, of which he became a "high graduate." Taught school for five or six years—from his twentieth to his twenty-sixth year, in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania. Was married February 25, 1823, to Miss Mary G. Keith, at Caroline, Tompkins County, New York. Returned to his native town in 1824. Emigrated to Michigan in the spring of 1830, leaving North Brookfield April 14 and arriving on the spot on which Jackson now stands May 27, a period of forty days and a distance of about eight hundred miles, whereas the children of Israel were forty years performing a journey of a less distance. On arrival found as "goodly a land" as those migratory Israelites, "a land flowing with milk and wild honey," and plenty of "venison" into the bargain. One of "the first settlers;” took an active part in all its improvements; in the incipient planting of the standard of civilization in this wilderness. Was appointed the first justice of the peace, the only magistrate till the organization of the county in 1833 On the organization of the circuit court, was appointed associate judge of said court for the county of Jackson for four years. Was elected justice of the peace in 1837, county clerk in 1838, for two years, by virtue of which office he was the clerk of the board of supervisors, and issued orders on the treasury for all claims audited and allowed. In 1840 was elected judge of probate.
Mr. DeLand has shared largely in the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens, having held many offices of honor and profit in their gift and conferred by their kind and generous patronage, and for the bestowment of which he will ever feel grateful. In the discharge of all these public duties he has been regarded as a prompt, faithful and efficient officer.
Judge DeLand has also laid his fellow-citizens under obligations for the valuable contributions he has made to our local history. Without his efforts and his care in preserving the records, the light of other days would have, in a great measure, if not wholly, faded away. He has lived to see the little hamlet of four or five houses expand into a great city, and has himself been one of the contributors to that result. May he be spared yet many years, and live to see Jackson double its present size-and prosperity. His sons are Colonel C. V. DeLand. now editor of the Saginaw Republican, residing in East Saginaw, and Captain James S. DeLand, a citizen of Jackson. They were both in the service during the late war, and both severely wounded. These two sons are all the family remaining. Captain DeLand was severely wounded in the last attack on Petersburg, and has lost the use of his left arm.
Mr. DeLand’s family consisted, in addition to the two sons above mentioned, of two other sons, who died in youth, and two daughters. The eldest, Semantha, married Benjamin W. Rockwell, and left one daughter, now Mrs. F. A. Palmer, and two sons, Edward W., of this city, and Thomas D., who resides in Leoni Township. She died in 1854. The younger daughter, Lucy, married Dewitt C. Smith and left one son, who died in Portland, Oregon, four years ago. Mr. Smith died in 1858.
William R. DeLand died November 26, 1876, aged eighty-four. Mrs. DeLand died two years later, November 28, 1878, aged seventy-eight years. Both died on Thanksgiving day and were buried on the first day of December in each year. Both lived long and useful lives, and were greatly mourned. They had long been foremost in the promotion of all good works, as citizens and Christians, and laid down the burdens of life with no duties unfulfilled, and little to regret.
One thing that may be noticed is that of all the old pioneers, who did little or much to promote the growth and welfare of the city, their name does not appear upon any street or place in the city they worked so faithfully to build up from a primitive wilderness. But it will live in history, for no account of the founding and progress of Jackson can possibly be made up if their name and work is omitted.