ARTHUR SAINTAIR

ARTHUR SAINTAIR


http://www.ogs.on.ca/ogspi/200os/05ss0001.htm - ( Ontario Genealogical Society Provincial Index ) - Globe and Mail, Tuesday, August 23, 2005, Page S9

SAINTAIR, Arthur, 1818 -- Died This Day ... Soldier and politician born in Thurso, Scotland, on March 23, 1736. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he purchased a commission in the British army and was sent to Canada. He took part in the capture of Louisburg, Nova Scotia, on July 26, 1758, and fought under General James WOLFE at the Plains of Abraham. In 1762, he resigned his commission, bought a vast tract of Pennsylvania land and acquired wealth. In 1776, he threw in his lot with George Washington under whom he held the rank of brigadier-general. In 1787, he served as president of the Continental Congress and was named governor of what today is Ohio and Michigan. He sought to end native American land claims and to clear the way for white settlement. The policy was meant to provoke Indians into fighting, so that U.S. forces could then wipe them out. Instead, the U.S. army met a series of defeats. In 1791, he personally led a punitive expedition that ended up being routed at the Battle of the Wabash, with 600 dead. He resigned from the army and, in 1802, was removed as governor. He retired to his Pennsylvania property, where he suffered a series of business reverses and died in poverty. Lake St. Clair is named for him.