1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Monroe (Michigan)

MONROE, a city and the county-seat of Monroe county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the Raisin river, 2 m. from Lake Erie, near the south-eastern corner of the state. Pop. (1890), 5258; (1900), 5043; (1904), 6128; (1910), 6893. It is served by the Michigan Central, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the Pere Marquette, and the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line railways, and by electric lines to Detroit and Toledo. There is a statue here (dedicated in 1910) of Gen. G. W. Custer. Monroe has a German Altenheim and St Mary’s academy and college for girls. The city has a large trade in farming-produce and fish, and various manufactures. The place was settled in 1783 by French Canadians and called Frenchtown. In January 1813 the inhabitants, fearing destruction from the British and their Indian allies, pleaded to the Americans for protection, and about 660 men from the army of General James Winchester (1752–1826), sent from the rapids of the Maumee river, on the 18th of January drove a small British force from the village. Three days later General Winchester arrived with 300 more men; but at dawn on the 22nd Colonel Henry A. Proctor (1787–1859) with a force of British and Indians surprised the Americans, defeated their right wing, captured General Winchester and obtained from him an order for the surrender of his entire force. In 1815 Monroe received its present name in honour of James Monroe. In 1817 it was made the county-seat, and in 1827 it was incorporated as a village. It was chartered as a city in 1837 (being rechartered in 1874), and as a city of the fourth class in 1895.