The papers include mostly business correspondence and financial records, including accounts with St. Anne’s Catholic Church (Detroit, Michigan) in 1770, taxes, and accounts relating to the administration of the estates Joseph Campau, administered by Theodore J. and Denys (Denis) J. Campau, and Nic(h)olas Campau, administered by Louis, Joseph, and Barnabas Campau. Other materials include wills, inventories, baptismal certificates, deeds, and a copy of the Campau genealogy. Some of the business correspondence is related to his sons’, Jacques, Nicolas, and Louis, business or financial interests. There is also a document concerning the capitulation of Detroit, 1812. Materials are written mostly in French up to 1849, and, afterwards, in English.
Biography:
Jacques Campau was the first of four children of Jean Louis Campau (1702-1774) and Marie Louise Robert. Jacques, born March 30, 1735 in Detroit, Michigan, married Catherine Menard (died 1781 or 1782) on August 17, 1761. Together they had twelve children: Louis (1762-1763), infant (born/died October 1763), Marie Cecile (1764-1805), Jacques (James) (1766-1838), Louis (1767-1834), Joseph (1769-1863), Nicolas (born 1779, died an infant), Toussaint (1771-1810), Nicolas Amable (1773-1811), Barnabas (1775-1845), Catherine (1779-1834 or 1854), and Denys (1781-1814). On January 5, 1784 Jacques married Francoise Navarre, the daughter of Robert Navarre and widow of Lieutenant George McDougall, then the owner of Hog Island (now Belle Isle). Jacques and Francoise had no children.
Jacques was a pioneer settler of Detroit, Michigan. He bought a farm extending westward from Chene Street toward St. Aubin Avenue. During the disastrous Battle of Bloody Run in 1763, Major Rogers and his fellow soldiers sought refuge in Campau’s home on this property. Jacques served as Captain of the (Michigan) Militia of the Northeast Coast of Detroit. In 1770 he served as treasurer of St. Anne’s Catholic Church. Jacques died on February 16, 1789. (This information is from copy of family genealogy, Burton Historical Records, and City of Detroit.)
