Politics / Business & brands / City history
John R. Williams
1782–1854 · merchant, first elected mayor of Detroit
Detroit-born merchant who wrote the 1824 city charter, served as the first elected mayor and co-founded the paper that became the Detroit Free Press; John R Street is named after him.
- Born
Detroit- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 72- Birth name
- John Williams
- Detroit years
- 1782–1854
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
John Williams was born in Detroit in 1782 into the French-Canadian Campau family on his mother's side and grew up speaking French and English; he added the 'R' to his name to tell himself apart from another John Williams in town. After militia service in the 1790s he joined his uncle Joseph Campau's trading business, becoming a wealthy merchant, landowner and bank president, and he led an artillery company in the War of 1812. He wrote the 1824 charter that created an elected mayor and became the city's first, serving again in 1830 and 1844–1846. In 1831 he and Joseph Campau launched the Democratic Free Press, forerunner of the Detroit Free Press. He was also an early University of Michigan trustee, president of the school board and a militia general in the Black Hawk War. He died in 1854 and is buried at Elmwood; John R Street, which he named himself, still crosses the city.
Highlights
- Author of the 1824 city charter and first elected mayor of Detroit
- Mayor in 1824–1825, 1830 and 1844–1846
- Co-founded the forerunner of the Detroit Free Press (1831)
- One of the first trustees of the University of Michigan
- John R Street is named after him
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Memorial
John R Street
North–south artery from downtown through Midtown and beyond, named during his lifetime – by Williams himself.
Buried here · 1854
Elmwood Cemetery
He is interred at Elmwood Cemetery.