Charles Moran

Charles Moran (April 21, 1797 – October 13, 1876) was an American businessman, jurist, and politician who served three terms in the Michigan House of Representatives. His family was prominent in early Detroit, and he is also related to the Campau and Dequindre families who were influential in the growth of the city. Early life and family Moran was born April 21, 1797, to Charles Moran and Catherine Vessiere dit Laferté, in the family home on Woodbridge Street in Detroit. His younger brother, also named Charles, had died in infancy two years earlier, and his mother died that November. He was the grandson of Charles Claude Moran, an early settler in Detroit who himself was the grandson of Pedro da Silva dit Portugais, the first mail courier in Canada. Through Charles Claude's wife, Marie Ann Campau, daughter of Michel Campau, he was also related to Detroit's influential Campau family. Charles Claude Moran was murdered by his brother-in-law, John Joseph Hacker, in 1775. Hacker's extra-legal execution, along with the executions of Ann Wyley and Jean Contencineau in 1777, led to citizen outrage over Justice Philippe DeJean and Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton's heavy-handed rule. The pair were indicted by a grand jury in Montreal, though they were soon captured by American forces and imprisoned by Thomas Jefferson in Williamsburg, Virginia, so did not face punishment by British authorities. The murder left Marie Ann Campau in charge of a significant land holding—a farm that in present-day Detroit would stretch along the Detroit River for several blocks between St. Antoine and Russell Streets, and extend about three miles back from the river.