14 Facts About Francis Palms

Francis Palms was the largest landholder in Michigan during the mid-1850s.

Francis Palms had major business interests as well and was nicknamed "Croesus" because of his wealth.

Francis Palms was born in Antwerp, First French Empire, in what is Belgium December 13,1809 and relocated to Detroit with his parents and siblings in 1833.

Francis Palms's father Ange was a quartermaster in Napoleon's army who emigrated to the New World upon Napoleon's defeat.

In 1836, Francis Palms married his first wife Martha Burnett, who died shortly after the birth of their son, Francis Frederick II.

Francis Palms married his second wife, Catherine Campau, daughter of Joseph, who was a large landowner in early Detroit.

Francis Palms had interest in a stave mill at the end of Palms Road on Anchor Bay.

Francis Palms sold his land in lower Michigan in small parcels for a profit estimated to be between $300,000 and $400,000 and with the proceeds purchased pine and other forest lands in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin.

Francis Palms invested in the white pine areas near the Jump River in Wisconsin along with other successful businessmen including Ezra Cornell, Frederick Weyerhauser and Henry Sage, and in 1875, the men paid between $10 an acre up to $23.59.

Francis Palms received land from a Pottawatomie chief, Chief Lerner, and continued to purchase more Indian Reserve lands as they became available.

Francis Palms was an early supporter of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Francis Palms lived in what is known as the Croul-Francis Palms House at 1394 East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit.

Francis Palms died November 4,1886, and was laid to rest in the Palms Mausoleum built by George D Mason in the Mt.

Francis Palms's remains are interred in the family mausoleum in Mount Elliott Cemetery.