October 16: Detroit's First Founder

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is October 16th, and our story is Detroit's First Founder. Antoine Lame excelled at three things, telling tales, making money, and influencing powerful friends. The tales Detroit's founder told were many, starting with his name. Although history remembers him as Antoine Lamey de la Moth, Sieur de Cadillac, his noble titles were a fiction, manufactured by Lamey after his 1683 arrival in New France. Around the same time, Lamey also manufactured his military record in order to obtain a post in New France's navy.

Some saw through Lamey's lies. Nevertheless, his schemes for expanding New France's reach and shoring up profits from the fur trade won him the friendship of the Chancellor of France, Louis the Philippot, Comte de Pontchartrand, as well as Quebec's governor and other officials close to King Louis XIV.

Those friendships, in turn, earned Lame several prestigious government appointments and made it possible for him to found Fort Pontchartrain-du-Decroix in 1701. In Detroit, Lame told more tales, mostly to hide how much money he made conducting trade with the English, selling brandy to Native Americans, and extracting exorbitant fees from Detroit's tradesmen. After outraged Jesuit missionaries protested Lomé's dealings with local tribes, it became impossible for the Pontchartrain to ignore the other complaints he'd received. He launched an investigation, which ultimately unmasked Lomé for the scoundrel he was.

Unwilling to admit to his own poor judgment, the chancellor removed the troublemaker from Detroit by appointing him governor of Louisiana in 1710. In Louisiana, history repeated itself. L'Homme lied, bribed, and schemed in pursuit of profit. When his abuses of power came to light in 1716, the Duke of Orleans, Philippe II, deposed L'Homme and ordered him back to France, where the disgraced former governor was tossed into the Bastille. Yet, even after all that, L'Homme still had friends. Those friends secured his release the following year, as well as an apology and financial restitution.

Laumé then used that money to buy himself the governorship of Castel Saracen. He died there on October 16, 1730, and was buried at the local Carmelite monastery. Laumé's story is a study in human complexity. Intelligence and ambition can achieve great things, yet ethical lapses carry consequences.

It challenges us to consider how we use gifts of cunning, influence, and creativity. Reflect on your ambitions. Are your actions aligned with your values? Take one step today to act with integrity in pursuit of your goals. Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, October 17th, for another story of faith and courage in America.