Founder of West Michigan
|
Rix Robinson, son of Edward and Eunice Rix Robinson was born in Massachusetts Aug. 28, 1792, received a legal education, was admitted to the bar and came to the junction of the Thornapple and and Grand Rivers in 1821 and was the first white man to settle in Western Michigan, having been twenty-six days enroute from Buffalo to Detroit. He built a little cabin home where Ada village now is and married an Ottawa Indian woman by Indian rites and succeeded Madam La Framboise as an Indian trader in which business he continued until 1834. A huge boulder erected at Ada in 1927 bears the following inscription: In Memory of Rix Robinson Born in Mass, 1792 Founder of West Michigan Established his Ada Trading Post in 1821 a short distance north on river bank. This table marks the site of his home, into which he moved in 1831. Explorer of the north-west territory, fur trader, lumberman, lawyer, bank and friend to the Indians, was first supervisor of Kent, now Grand Rapids, state and county commissioner, and state senator. Also helped to revise the constitution in 1850, when he advocated woman suffrage.
|
Lowell Board of Trade, Lowell: 100 Years of History, 1831-1931, Lowell, Michigan: The Lowell Ledger, 1931
Transcriber: Jennifer Godwin
Created: 21 April 2003