Captain Joseph F. Marsac, one of the original pioneers of Michigan and the Saginaw valley, died at the old homestead in Bay City, June 18, 1880, aged about 90 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.

Captain Marsac was born five miles above Detroit, in the township of Hamtramck. 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 then have been at least twenty-one years old. In conversation with Mr. King, an old gentlemen of West Bay City, in regard to Capt. Marsac’s age, he said: "I was born in Detroit in 1800, and consequently was a boy of 12 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 Captain Marsac was 90 or more years of age. He told me a short time before his death that he thought he was 92 years old.

His ancestors originally came from France. The original name was De Marsac, and his was originally one of the noble families of France. The army was pursuing Proctor upthe Thames before the battle was fought, and the commanding general wanted to send some dispatches to the garrison at Detroit. He called James Grosbeck, a man well acquainted with the Indian character, to be the bearer of the dispatches. The Indians being all around them, Grosbeck declined to go unless young Marsac would go with him. Finally Grosbeck 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 Captain Marsac and his company were sent to Fort Gratiot to work upon the fort, and from there to Fort Malden where he remained until the time of his enlistment expired, when he returned home to assist his father on the farm.

In 1816 he was employed by Kinzie Pritchard and others to go to Chicago as an 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 river 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 river 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 General 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 lake with a company of soldiers to protect them at the treaty, for some of the Indians still preferred war rather than sell their lands.

After the treaty Captain Marsac returned to Detroit in the vessel that had brought out the troops.

General Cass and Captain Marsac were always the greatest of friends, and to this the latter 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 captain’s commission from Governor Cass,* and raised a company of Indian 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 Governor Cass ordering Captain Marsac, with his company, to return.

In 1836 or ’37 he was employed by the government as Indian interpreter, to assist in making a treat 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 Saginaw river and its tributaries, which postion 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 Captain Marsac for his unbounded hospitality and fund of anecdote, 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.

*Cass was not governor when the Black Hawk war broke out. The commission must have been issued by Gov. Mason. Marsac is mentioned as a captain, in the records of Ste. Anne Church, as early as 1829. – C.M.B.