Background
Joseph Campau was born on February 2, 1769 in Detroit. His parents were Jacques Campau and Catherine Menard.
Joseph Campau was born on February 2, 1769 in Detroit. His parents were Jacques Campau and Catherine Menard.
Campau began his business career as a merchant. He purchased good from Boston, the first person to do so in Detroit, and sold them at his store on Atwater. Campau spoke the dialects of several Native American tribes, French and English to his customers at his three trading posts at Saginaw, on Lake St. Clair, and on Lake Erie. He was called Chemokamun ("big shot") by Chief Wawanosh of Sarnia and Chief Maccounse of Lake St. Clair.
Campau was the first in the city's real estate industry to sell and lease houses that had been built on vacant lots. He was sometimes considered a "slum lord" who was likely to charge late fees with high interest rates to delinquent tenants. However, an obituary stated of Campau, “to the honest and industrious, he was always lenient. ”
C. M. Burton asserts that he was the state's first millionaire. He had become the state's largest landowner, owning property worth more than $10 million. Campau held a large percentage of the stock in Michigan Central Railroad and Bank of Michigan.
Campau held multiple public office positions. He was City Trustee in 1802, City Treasurer, City Inspector of water barrels and City Assessor, appraiser, and over-seer of the poor. In 1802, he was an original trustee of Detroit and its incorporation.
He served in the Michigan Territory Militia as captain in 1806. During the War of 1812, he was a major in the U. S. Army.
With his nephew, John R. Williams, Campau operated the Democratic Free Press and Michigan Intelligencer, which eventually evolved into the Detroit Free Press.
Campau bought a nine-year-old African boy in Montreal as a slave who was to be freed at 21 years of age. Campau and Father Gabriel Richard, the priest of St. Anne's Church, engaged in "heated disagreements" about Campau having sold whiskey to Native Americans and joining the Masons. As a result, he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in 1817.
Campou died on July 23, 1863 and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit. The Masons held the largest funeral in the city's history until that time for Campau.
Although a Catholic, he early became a Mason, and after his estrangement from the Church he was fond of abusing that organization.
Campau was a capable business man of conservative tendencies. His character was marked by numerous eccentricities, which afforded subject matter for local gossip.
On May 12, 1808, he married Adelaide Dequindre, member of one of Detroit's old French families. They lived together over half a century, and had a family of twelve children, all but two of whom lived to maturity.
