People of Detroit:
Mayors of Detroit

The following dates and names come from the Detroit Almanac. Burton's History of Detroit gives different dates for some listings. Those are noted.

Mayors of the Town of Detroit
1806 Solomon Sibley (10/7/1769-4/4/1846)
1806 Elijah Brush
Mayors of the City of Detroit
1824 - 1825 John R. Williams (5/4/1782-10/20/1854)
1826 Henry Jackson Hunt (? - 1826)
1826 Jonathan Kearsley (8/20/1786-8/31/1859)
1827 - 1828 John Biddle (?/?/1792-8/25/1859
1829 Jonathan Kearsley (8/20/1786-8/31/1859)
1830 John R. Williams (5/4/1782-10/20/1854)
1831 Marshall Chapin (2/27/1798-12/26/1838)
1832 Levi Cook (12/16/1792-12/2/1866)
1833 Marshall Chapin (2/27/1798-12/26/1838)
1834 Charles Christopher Trowbridge
1834 Andrew Mack (12/29/1800-4/3/1883)
1835 - 1836 Levi Cook (12/16/1792-12/2/1866)
1837 Henry Howard
1838 - March 14, 1839 (resigned) Augustus Seymour Porter (1798-1873)
March 15, 1839 - April 18, 1839 Asher B. Bates (5/2/1810-6/1/1873)
1839 De Garmo Jones (11/11/1787-11/14/1846)
1840 - 1841 Zina Pitcher (4/14/1797-4/4/1872)
1842 Douglass Houghton (9/21/1809-10/13/1845)
1843 Zina Pitcher (4/14/1797-4/4/1872)
1844 - 1846 John R. Williams (5/4/1782-10/20/1854)
1847 James A. VanDyke (1813-1855)
1848 Frederick Buhl (1806-1864)
1849 - 1850 (Burton lists 1848-1849) Charles Howard (8/7/1804-11/6/1883)
1850 - 1851 John Ladue (1803-1854)
1851 - 1852 Zachariah Chandler (12/10/1813-11/1/1879)
1852 - 1853 John H. Harmon (6/21/1819-8/6/1888)
1854 - 1855 Oliver Moulton Hyde (3/10/1804-6/28/1870)
1855 - 56 Henry Ledyard (3/5/1812-6/7/1880)
1856 - 1857 Oliver Moulton Hyde (3/10/1804-6/28/1870)
1858 - 1859 John Patton (1822-?)
1860 - 1861 (Burton says 1860-1862) Christian H. Buhl (1812-?)
1862 - 1863 (Burton says 1864-1865) William C. Duncan (5/18/1820-5/20/1875)
1864 - 1865 Kirkland C. Baker
1866 - 1867 Merrill I. Mills (11/4/1819-9/14/1882)
1868 - 1871 (Burton says 1867-1870) William W. Wheaton (1833-?)
1872 - 1875 (Burton says 1871-1875) Hugh Moffat (1810-1884)
1876 - 1877 Alexander Lewis (1822-?)
1878 - 1879 (Burton says 1877-1879) George C. Langdon (1833-?)
1880 - 1883 (Burton says 1880-1884) William G. Thompson (1842-?)
1884 - 1885 Stephen Benedict Grummond (1834-?)
1886 - 1887 (Burton says 1885-1886) Marvin H. Chamberlain (1842-?)
1888 - 1889 (Burton says 1887) John Pridgeon, Jr. (1852-?)
1890 - 1897 Hazen S. Pingree
Marc 22, 1897 - April 5, 1897 William Rickert
1897 - 1904 William Maybury
1905 - 1906 George P. Codd
1907 - 1908 William Barlum Thompson
1909 - 1910 Philip Breitmeyer
1911 - 1912 William Barlum Thompson
1913 - 1918 Oscar Marx
1919-1922 James J. Couzens
December 5, 1922 - April 9, 1923 John Christian Lodge
April 9, 1923 - June 10, 1924 Frank Ellsworth Doremus
June 10, 1924 - August 2, 1924 Joseph A. Martin
August 2, 1924 - November 21, 1924 John Christian Lodge
November 21, 1924 - January 9, 1928 John W. Smith
January 10, 1928 - January 14, 1930 John Christian Lodge
January 14, 1930 - September 22, 1930 Charles Bowles
September 23, 1930 - May 10, 1933 Frank Murphy
May 10, 1933 - September 8, 1933 Frank Couzens
September 8, 1933 - January 2, 1934 John W. Smith
January 2, 1934 – January 3, 1938 Frank Couzens
January 4, 1938 – January 1, 1940 Richard Reading
January 2, 1940 – January 5, 1948 Edward Jeffries
January 6, 1948 – January 2, 1950 Eugene Van Antwerp
January 3, 1950 – September 12, 1957 Albert Cobo
September 12, 1957 – January 2, 1962 Louis Miriani
January 2, 1962 – January 5, 1970 Jerome Cavanagh
January 6, 1970 – January 1, 1974 Roman Gribbs
January 1, 1974 – January 3, 1994 Coleman Young
January 3, 1994 – December 31, 2001 Dennis Archer
January 1, 2002 – September 18, 2008 Kwame Kilpatrick
September 18, 2008 – May 11, 2009 Kenneth Cockrel, Jr.
May 11, 2009 – December 31, 2013 Dave Bing
January 1, 2014 – present Mike Duggan

For more information on Detroit mayors, check out some of these links

Wikipedia
Cassius Hollenbeck -- a Mayoral Mystery | Cassius Hollenbeck of Detroit, Formerly of Willet, Dies
Political Graveyard
Detroit Library

Special Thanks!

...to Kristy Stoneburner for providing some corrections to this page.

...to Leonard Montie for sharing the Hollenbeck obituary.

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Glossary:
Algonquin

General term used to describe Native Americans of the following tribes (and others): Delaware, Fox, Huron, Miami, Ojibwa (Chippewa), Ottawa, Potawatomi, Sac, Shawnee and Winnebago.
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Glossary:
arquebus

A 39 pound (approximate) musket that two men would prop on a tri-pod and fire with a small torch. The arquebus was used by Champlain's men against the Iroquois to defend the Hurons. This may be the cause of decades of Iroquois abuse of the Hurons.
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Glossary:
clay and wattle

Building technique used in the construction of chimneys in the early days of Fort Ponchartrain. The technique involved piling sticks and packing them - inside and out - with clay and mud.
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Glossary:
Colbertism

Name for early French mercantilism in America, which Jean-Baptiste Colbert was influential in developing.
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Glossary:
conges

Trade permits issued by the Canadian government/court of France in the late 1600s to early 1700s.
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Glossary:
coureurs de bois

Very early French inhabitants of the current US and Canada who gave up their farmsteads for lives in the fur trade. They often lived with Native Americans.
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Glossary:
District of Hesse

Land district provisioned by the Canadian Council on July 24, 1788. The area was on the east side of the Detroit River.
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Glossary:
Fox

"Properly ""Mesh-kwa-ki-hug"". Native American tribe living in the area between Saginaw Bay and Thunder Bay at the time Detroit was founded. The French called the tribe Renyard. An allied tribe of the Sacs and Mascoutin."
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Glossary:
Huron

A Native American tribe that built a village near Fort Ponchartrain.
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Glossary:
Iroquoian

General term sometimes used to describe Native Americans of the following tribes: Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca.
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Glossary:
Iroquois

"A Native American tribe known for antagonizing and brutalizing the Hurons (see also arquebus)"
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Glossary:
Mascouten

Native American tribe living in the Grand Traverse Bay area at the time Detroit was founded. An allied tribe of the Foxes and Sacs. Also spelled Mascoutin.
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Glossary:
Miami

A Native American tribe that built a village near Fort Ponchartrain.
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Glossary:
Muskhogean

General term used to describe Native Americans of the following tribes: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek.
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Glossary:
New York Currency

First standard currency used in Detroit (first used in 1765).
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Glossary:
Ottawa

A Native American tribe that built a village near Fort Ponchartrain.
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Glossary:
Outagamies

Native American tribe living in the Grand Traverse Bay area at the time Detroit was founded. An allied tribe of the Foxes (and Sacs?).
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Glossary:
Plains Indians

General term used to describe Native Americans of the following tribes: Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, and Pawnee (Pani).
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Glossary:
Potawatomi

A Native American tribe that built a village near Fort Ponchartrain.
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Glossary:
Quebec Act

Act of June 22, 1774, in which British Parliament decides to exercise English law in criminal cases and old French provincial law in civil cases in western settlements. The idea was to discourage people from settling in the west.
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Glossary:
Renyard

See Fox
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Glossary:
ribbon farms

Original land grants given by Cadillac. The lots were typically around 200 feet wide at the river front, with lengths up to 3 miles.
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Glossary:
Sac

See Sauk
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Glossary:
Sakis

See Sauk
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Glossary:
Sauk

Native American tribe living in the area between Saginaw Bay and Thunder Bay at the time Detroit was founded. The French called the tribe Sakis; English and Americans generally call them Sacs. An allied tribe of the Foxes/Renyards and Mascouten.
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Glossary:
Shoshonean

General term used to describe Native Americans of the following tribes: Bannock and Shoshone.
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Glossary:
Treaty of Montreal

Treaty ending the war between the Iroquois and France and England. Negotiations began in July of 1698 and the treaty was signed in August of 1701.
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Glossary:
Treaty of Ryswick

September 20, 1697 treaty ending war between France and England.
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Glossary:
voyageurs

Early French explorers who traveled mainly by water.