The Moran Family
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The Moran Family Copyright 1949 by Alved of Detroit, Incorporated ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published by Alved of Detroit, Incorporated Manufactured in The United States of America THE FAMILY 200 Years in Detroit By J. BELL MORAN ALVED OF DETROIT, INCORPORATED 1949 THE AUTHOR -from a painting by Lawrence Powers Affectionate!y dedicated to my children Publisher's Note FoRMAL, RATHER than private, publication of this book is due to the insistence of Dr. Milo M. Quaife and ourselves. We felt it should be given wider distribution than was the author's intention when the project was begun. Mr. Moran wrote the book for his children and their children, as he so charmingly states in his Introduction. He refused to believe with us, that the mass of new material concerning Detroit's past captured ·into his narrative made the book an important addition to the Americana of Detroit and Michigan. We argued, too, that his boy"s,eye view of Detroit in transition from a City of Homes, in his eighteen--eighties, into Industry's Metropolis when the century turned is the kind of source record from which future historians will gather their information. ""And, equally important, it is splendid reading for today,.,., we said. ""But, I"m a novice at writing," quoth J. Bell Moran. "Thank the Angels for that, if that" s what you are," we murmured right back at him. That we won our way is evident. You have the book before you. After reading it, you will realize how generously the author has shared his Moran Family with you. THE PUBLISHER Acknowledgment WHEN I finally decided to proceed with this informal story of the Moran family I called upon my good friend, Dr. Milo M. Quaife, the historian, for assistance. Dates, names of people and places must be correct. There were many gaps in our family history which only a historian of ability could search out, prove and fill in. Beginning with the information I had secured from Abbe Casgrain in Quebec, Dr. Quaife undertook his search; he worked through the Moran family papers which are now in the Burton Historical Collection in The Public Library of Detroit and other sources to which he had access. Dr. Quaife suggested copious additions to my narrative, urged deletion of hearsay material; advice which I accepted, and from thep on until the book was ready to print, acted as my guide and advisor. Without his kindly advice, constant cooperation and supervision of my work, this book could not have been completed. J.B.M. ix CONTENTS Po.gt: INTRODUCTION xv I. FAMILY BACKGROUND 1 II. CLAUDE CHARLES MORAN 9 1722,1775 III. THE DEATH OF CLAUDE CHARLES MORAN 22 IV. CHARLES MORAN 32 1755,1815 V. JUDGE CHARLES MORAN 45 1797,1876 VI. JOHN VALLEE MORAN 59 1846,1920 VII. THE CHILDREN OF JOHN VALLEE AND EMMA ETHERIDGE MORAN 71 VIII. AS I REMEMBER 84 Explanation of Footnotes and Appendix at End of Book xi ILLUSTRATIONS THE AUTHOR Frontispiece from a painting by Lawrence Powers Facing Page FRENCH LAND GRANT ( a portion) 30 signed by Beauharnois to Private Claim 5 acquired by Claude Charles Moran from Surgeon Chapoton August 25, 1761 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TITLE DEED 31 signed by President Monroe confirming to Charles Moran ownership of the •·charles Moran Farm·· DETROIT LANDHOLDERS 38 a section from a Map drawn by Patrick McNiff, December, 1796 AARON GREELEY'S MAP OF DETROIT, 1810 39 a section THE OLD MORAN HOME 46 JUDGE CHARLES MORAN 47 from an old photograph JOHN VALLEE MORAN 62 from an old photograph WILLIAM H. MURPHY 78 from a painting by Lawrence Powers THE MORAN FAMILY GENEALOGY Front End Sheet THE MURPHY FAMILY GENEALOGY Back End Sheet THE ETHERIDGE FAMILY GENEALOGY Back End Sheet xiii Introduction EARLY DATES and much information relating to the Moran family are taken from old records kept in the fire.-proof vault of the Basilica at Quebec. About ten years ago I stopped there and was escorted into the vault by Abbe Casgrain, a relative of the Casgrain family of Detroit. The Abbe was very courteous, cooperative and painstaking as he went through the records with me to find informa, tion I needed concerning our antecedents. These records reach back over 300 years and are :filed in annual order. During the early years of Quebec, family records were kept safe in the little old Church still standing in the lower city. When the Cathedral or Basilica, as it is known in Quebec, was built a century or more ago, the old records were transferred to its new :fire,proof vault. Claude Charles Moran moved to Detroit over two hWl' dred years ago and as soon as he became established, records of the Moran family were started by the priests of Ste. Anne. ·The Ste. Anne Parish Register has been maintained continuously since 1704. It is now kept in the Chancellery on Washington Boulevard in Detroit. With but one excep- tion, the Church Register at St. Augustine, Florida, Ste. Anne., s is the oldest Catholic Parish Register in Continental United States. The Cathedral, now known as the Church of SS. Peter and Paul, was built in 1844--1848 at East Jefferson and St. Antoine Streets, a location just about one mile from the old fort. Since the Moran family resided in the Cathedral Parish, its vital records f ram that time forward are pre., served and kept up to date in this beautiful old Church. Few American cities have undergone such changes of fortune as Detroit has experienced during the two and one, half centuries since it was founded in 1701. For any family xv to have lived in one city in the United States for more than 200 years is noteworthy. To me it is quite remarkable that the Moran family has persisted here through civil and economic upheavals; as experienced from the time Claude Charles Moran :first came to the then remote wilderness outpost of New France. Its population when he arrived numbered but a few hundr~d souls. The present day indus, trial metropolis amounts to almost two million in popula, tion. Despite Indian attacks, revolutions, military conquests, conflagrations and changes of government, Claude Charles Moran and his descendants have maintained their homes, reared their families and rooted deeper as generation fol, lowed generation on this Michigan soil. Nearly everyone mentioned in the chapters to follow this introductory note has contributed his part, some being large and some small, to the growth and development of Detroit. I feel that my children, their children and their childrens, children, should be proud of the fact that all are part of this two hundred year saga of a real pioneer family. May the saga lengthen with the growing years. J. BELL MORAN Detroit November 25, 1948 xvi The Moran Family xvii Chapter I Family Background lf:- ~HE ANCESTORS of the present--day Moran family \~ · ) (formerly spelled Morand and Morant) migrated C'i~ from France to Canada in the seventeenth century. No attempt has been made to trace the family history in France, although if the necessary research were made much might be learned about the remote past. Jacques Morant, the founder of the family in America, was born in the parish of St. Martin in Angouleme, a city of southwestern France, in 1661. The date of his migration to Canada has not been found, the nearest approach to it being the record of his marriage at Quebec on November 7, 1684 to Jac- quette Audet. Jacquette was born in the parish of St. Christopher, diocese of Limoges, France, in 1658. Previous to her union with Jacques Moran she had been the wife of Francis Nicholas. Her marriage with Jacques was sol- emnized in the old, though still active, Church in the lower town of Quebec. Jacquette Moran was buried at Quebec July 28, 1717 and Jacques was buried at Charlesbourg on December 24, 1734. They had lived together for one--third of a century when Jacquette died. It had been one of the most troubled and insecure periods in the history of New France. The powerful Iroquois confederacy; always unfriendly and most of the time dangerous to New France through half a dozen generations had been reduced to a peaceful state in 1667 by the Carignan--Salieres Regiment, 1200 strong. Brought from France to America for this particular purpose, their mission was successful. With the coming of peace various officers and soldiers who chose to remain in America were offered generous grants of land and the privelege of separation here. A large number accepted the off er of the government, and many of these becan1e founders of families notable in the history of Canada and the United States up to the present day. Of more immediate importance, however, was the fact that the accession of hundreds of disciplined soldiers as per., manent residents materially increased the strength of the colony and at the same time hastened its growth in popu- lation and the development of natural resources. About the time Jacques Moran claimed his bride the colony was headed once more toward swift and complete ruin. In 1681 Count Frontenac, New France,s ablest gov. emor, was called home. Causes for a renewal of warfare with the Iroquois were not lacking, and the incompetent successors of Governor Frontenac proved incapable of con- trolling the red foe. New France, in fact, had been brought to the brink of ruin by this series of mishaps, when in 1689 an even greater menace loomed from across the ocean. England of Charles II's time was much smaller and weaker than the contemporary France of Louis XN, but England was becoming more prosperous.