Henry A. Levake

Henry A. Levake (c. 1793 – c. 1839) was an American fur trader and politician. He served in the first four sessions of the Michigan House of Representatives.

Henry A. Levake
Member of the Michigan House of Representatives
from the Chippewa County district
In office
November 2, 1835 – January 5, 1840
Personal details
Bornc. 1793
Bolton, Vermont
Diedc. 1839
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Biography

Henry Levake[1] was born around 1793 in Bolton, Vermont, the son of Augustus Levesque (or Levake) and Lucy Clark.[2] His father was born in Quebec but had joined the Continental Army at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War when Moses Hazen was recruiting Canadian residents, and as a result had been both excommunicated by the Catholic Church and labeled a traitor by the British, under threat of execution if he returned to Canada. Since he was unable to return home, he had settled in Bolton after the war and opened a hotel.[3]

Henry Levake served in the War of 1812 and then, having secured a fur trading license, moved to Michigan.[3] Exact dates of his movements are not known, but in 1820 he was engaged in business in Michilimackinac County.[4] In the fall of 1822 he acquired a license from the U.S. Indian agent for the area, Henry Schoolcraft, to trade with the Native Americans in the area.[5] He also served as an interpreter for Schoolcraft and his agency, and records indicate that in this capacity he helped supply Native Americans with whiskey, in contravention of the trading rules.[6] He operated a trading post on Grand Island, Michigan, for several years, though probably not past 1828, [7][8] and had accounts with the American Fur Company store in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and a sutler at Fort Brady named John Hulbert.[9] By 1827 he had established a permanent residence in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.[4]

He served in a variety of official posts in Michilimackinac County in the 1820s, and served as a witness to treaties the United States signed in 1826 and 1836 with the Chippewa and Ottawa nations.[4] He served for the first four terms of the Michigan House of Representatives.[10]

Levake died around 1839 in Sault Ste. Marie.[2]

Family

Scholars believe Levake had a relationship of some kind with a Native American woman, which was a common practice among traders trying to improve their business connections. The treaty of 1826 included provisions for land to be given to "half-breeds" and the Native American families of various traders, including one section to a Fanny Levake and all of her children; Fanny's mother is listed as Meeshwanqua. The 1836 treaty granted two sections to the Native American families of various people including Levake.[4][11]

In 1837, Levake married Martha Davenport, leading scholars to believe he had ended his previous relationship.[4]

Notes
  1. His family name is spelled Levake in some sources (Michigan Manual 1877); other sources give Levake as an alternate form of either Leveque (Peters 1997, p. 188) or Levesque (Hammond 1985). Levake is used here throughout, as it is the variant all sources mention in common.
  2. Hammond 1985.
  3. Hammond 1985.
  4. Franzen 2004, p. 221.
  5. Thwaites 1911.
  6. Peters 1997, p. 188.
  7. Hubbard & Peters 1983, p. 88.
  8. Franzen 2004, p. 222.
  9. Franzen 2004, p. 223.
  10. Michigan Manual 1877, pp. 548–556.
  11. Western Historical Co. 1883, p. 208.

References
  • Franzen, John G. (October 1, 2004), "Wintering at Little Island Rock: A Fur Trade Site on Grand Island" (PDF), Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 29 (2): 219–248, doi:10.1179/mca.2004.010, ISSN 0146-1109, S2CID 130616668, retrieved 2018-11-18 – via Illinois State University
  • Hammond, Cleon E. (1985), Augustus Levake, 1754-1822: Biographical Sketch and Partial Genealogy of His Descendants, Schooley's Mountain, N.J.: C. E. Hammond
  • History of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Chicago: Western Historical Co., 1883, retrieved 2018-11-18
  • Hubbard, Bela; Peters, Bernard C. (1983), Lake Superior Journal : Bela Hubbard's Account of the 1840 Houghton Expedition, Marquette, Michigan: Northern Michigan University Press, retrieved 2018-11-18
  • Michigan Manual (1877–78 ed.), Lansing: W. S. George & Co., 1877, retrieved 2018-11-13
  • Peters, Bernard C. (1997), "Letter to the Editor", Michigan Historical Review, 23 (1): 186–190, doi:10.2307/20173668, ISSN 0890-1686, JSTOR 20173668
  • Thwaites, Reuben G., ed. (1911), "Letter from Henry Schoolcraft to Henry Levake, September 9, 1822", Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, vol. 20, pp. 279–280, retrieved 2018-11-18
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