Project Scroll Research Note 2026-28: "The Dowagiake" in print by 1833: an American account of Michigan Territory reprinted in Adam Fergusson's Practical Notes

Dowagiac, Michigan, platted beside the Michigan Central's depot ground in 1848, took the name of the creek. The earliest printed form cited until now was "Dowagiake river" in John T. Blois's Gazetteer of the State of Michigan (1838). Five years earlier the Scottish agriculturist Adam Fergusson printed, as Appendix No. I to his Practical Notes Made During a Tour in Canada, and a Portion of the United States (Edinburgh, 1833), an account of the "Territory of Michigan," "From a small Tract of good authority, published in the States." Of the south-west it says: "This part of the territory possesses several copious mill-streams, particularly Hog Creek, the Dowagiake, Christianna, Pigeon, Crooked and Portage rivers." Of Cass County, "a population of about 2000," it names streams with good mill privileges, "particularly the Dowagiake and Christianna, which are rapid and durable streams," and a belt of rich timbered land "along the Dowagiake, from its source to its mouth." The spelling is the one Blois would use.

Project Scroll Research Note 2026-28, version 1. The note sets out the record quoted, where it is held, what it changes, its limits, and what was searched before calling it new. Web version: projectscroll.com/discoveries/notes/2026-28/.