Joseph T. Copeland
Joseph Tarr Copeland was a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 1852 until 1857, as well as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Biography
Copeland was born in New Castle, Maine. He studied at Harvard College and then read law under Daniel Webster. In 1844, he moved to St. Clair, Michigan and later built a sawmill in Bay City, Michigan.At the start of the Civil War, Copeland served first as colonel and commander of the 1st Michigan Volunteer Cavalry, and then the 5th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry. Later promoted to brigadier general, he commanded the "wolverines" of the Michigan Brigade, but was replaced by George A. Custer shortly before the Battle of Gettysburg.
After this, Copeland moved to Orchard Lake, Michigan where he built a residence known as "The Castle". In 1870, he and some local businessmen turned it into a hotel, and in 1873, they sold it to J. Sumner Rogers, who used the site to found the Michigan Military Academy.
In 1878, Copeland moved to Florida, where he served for a time as a judge in Clay County.
He was initially buried in Orange Park, Florida, but was later re-interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Pontiac, Michigan.
The Maine years
Joseph Tarr Copeland was born to Royal and Alice Copeland. Located in Lincoln County, Newcastle sits about forty miles north of Portland, Maine, yet is on a long finger of water extending to the Atlantic coast.Joseph's father, Royal, the 2nd child of Captain Samuel and Emma Copeland, was born August 11, 1790, in either Maine or New Hampshire. Samuel had fought in the Revolutionary War. Joseph's mother, Alice, was born in Wiscasset, Maine on February 9, 1791. She had been orphaned at an early age and was raised by her mother's sister, Mrs. Tarr. In a letter to his children, Joseph's brother writes about his parents' meeting,
Royal, a farmer, and Alice were married in Newcastle, about 1812, 8 years before Maine became a state.
Joseph was the eldest of 11 children – 7 boys and 4 girls:
| Name | Birthdate |
| Joseph Tarr Copeland | May 6, 1813 |
| Emeline Copeland | August 27, 1816 |
| Alice Copeland | October 11, 1817 |
| Samuel Copeland | November 25, 1819 |
| Royal Franklin Copeland | December 4, 1821 |
| Edwin Ruthven Copeland | April 5, 1824 |
| Lucinda Safford Copeland | May 9, 1825 |
| Mary Elizabeth Copeland | January 4, 1828 |
| Daniel Lambart Copeland | April 11, 1833 |
| Alpheus Crosby Copeland | May 1, 1834 |
| Roscoe Pulaski Copeland | March 6, 1838 |
In about 1818, the family moved to Dexter, Maine, where Joseph's eight youngest siblings were born. Unfortunately, both Lucinda Safford and Mary Elizabeth died before their tenth birthdays.
The Copeland's family was not well off, but when he died, Joseph's grandfather left him five hundred dollars to get an education. Joseph attended and graduated from Harvard College. Established in 1817, Harvard is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Upon graduation, Copeland began studying law with Daniel Webster at his Boston law firm. At the time, Webster was one of the most celebrated lawyers in the country. He had been elected a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts in 1827 and was re-elected in 1833. Webster was also one of several Whig candidates for president in 1836. While with Webster, it is rumored that Copeland was sent to Michigan on a "secret mission" by President Andrew Jackson.
Eventually, Joseph returned to Maine. He enlisted as Ensign of the 1st Co. of Riflemen, 3rd Regiment, 1st Brigade of Militia of Maine, on December 20, 1834. He became captain of the same on April 16, 1838; major in July 1838; and colonel on June 28, 1839. Joseph may well have played a role in the bloodless Aroostook War, an 1839 boundary dispute between New Brunswick and Maine. Coincidentally, Daniel Webster negotiated a compromise that averted actual fighting. Always one to be as busy as possible, Copeland was appointed a justice of the peace in Maine on February 12, 1835, and again on February 6, 1838. In 1837, Amos Kendall, postmaster general, appointed Copeland as the postmaster for North New Portland, Maine.
Joseph married Mary Jane Wilson, daughter of Robert & Margaret Wilson, on July 19, 1835. They had three children:
| Name | Birthdate | In |
| Frederick Augustus | June 6, 1836 | Dexter, Penobscot, Maine |
| Florence Hortense | May 9, 1840 | New Portland, Maine |
| Agnes "Aggie" Theresa | June 10, 1842 | New Portland, Maine |
The Judicial years
At some point after the birth of Agnes in 1842, Joseph Tarr Copeland and his family moved to Michigan. They settled in St. Clair, Michigan, in 1844; there, Joseph began a law practice. They were not the first in the family to relocate; Joseph's uncle Chauncey Copeland made the journey in 1834. Eventually, Joseph's parents and at least two of his brothers' families ended up living near Dexter, Michigan.In 1846, a system of county courts was created by the Michigan legislature with jurisdiction of claims in excess of those within a justice's jurisdiction, and not above $500. They also had appellate jurisdiction from justices' courts. The county courts were presided over by two judges elected for a term of four years, respectively called the county judge and second judge, both of whom were paid by fees. On November 3, 1846, Joseph T. Copeland was elected St. Clair county judge, and Z. W. Bunce, second judge.
Seemingly a one-man political machine, Copeland was made deputy collector and inspector of revenue for St. Clair County in 1848. In 1849, he became St. Clair's master of chancery and was also elected to the Michigan State Senate, serving one term in the state legislature. He further became the first president of the village of St. Clair in 1850 and its treasurer in 1851.
Under the constitution of 1850, the county courts were abolished and Michigan was divided into circuits composed of one or more counties, with a judge in each to be elected for a term of six years with an annual salary of $1,500. There were six circuits in the state, and the six circuit judges formed the Michigan Supreme Court. St. Clair County was included in the Sixth Judicial District, composed of Oakland, Macomb, St. Clair and Sanilac counties. Naturally, Copeland was elected Circuit Judge and concurrently became the 14th Michigan Supreme Court Justice.
In 1851, after his election as Circuit Judge, Joseph and his family moved to Pontiac, which was within the same judicial district. Copeland was becoming increasingly interested in a lumber enterprise and arranged with Judge Sanford M. Green so that the latter held most of the terms of court in St. Clair County, in addition to holding court in his own district. Beginning in 1854, Copeland began amassing timberland in Midland, Saginaw, Bay, Ogemaw, and Gladwin counties. During the next six years he purchased over 6,370 acres from the U.S. Government and may have purchased additional land from private owners. He reportedly built the first sawmill in Bay City, Michigan. The 1870 Census notes that two of Joseph's brothers, Royal Franklin and Roscoe Pulaski, are "lumber dealers" near Dexter, each with considerable wealth. Perhaps influenced by his famous uncle, Roscoe's son Royal eventually became Mayor of nearby Ann Arbor and ultimately a U.S. Senator from New York.
David Burton and family came to Mich in 1852 and bought a farm on the hill up the lane 80 rods west of our farm in Scio Township, Michigan... He lived there three or four years and then moved to Midland County, Michigan about forty miles from Saganaw. The winter before he and Alphous had been up there to work in a lumber camp that was owned by Joseph and son. He liked the country and bought 160 acres of new land. The next winter after they moved mother and I made them a visit. At that time brother Frank and Samuel were living in Saginaw, Michigan. Joseph and Samuel had a saw mill and got their pine timber up the river near where Burton located and when we made that first visit Frank and wife went with us. From Saganaw one went up the river on the ice as that was the main road in the winter to get back and forth from their lumber camp.
Judge Copeland delivered but few opinions while a member of the Supreme Court, and these are marked by brevity, a good vein of reasoning, and few references to authority. During this time, his health was poor, and Copeland ultimately resigned his position as Circuit and Supreme Court Judge in 1857, before the expiration of his term. Judge Green was elected to replace him.
Upon his retirement from the bench, Copeland moved to West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, and in 1858 built the elaborate, Gothic Revival house that has always been referred to as "the castle" on the north shore of Orchard Lake. On October 6, 1858, Joseph's daughter Florence married English-born Dr. John P. Wilson, who practiced surgery in Pontiac. Together they had four children. The 1860 Federal Census shows Copeland to be the fourth-richest head of household in West Bloomfield Township, with real estate holdings valued at $15,000. In 1860, ever active, he was also a member of the board of Visitors to the Military Academy at West Point. Joseph's only son, Frederick, married Harriet Drake Talbot, in Pontiac, Michigan on May 6, 1860. The following year, on January 13, 1861, Joseph's father, Royal, died in Dexter, Michigan.
Joseph Tarr Copeland, already a distinguished former legislator and Michigan Supreme Court Justice, sold his 136-acre estate in section 32 of Pontiac Township, Michigan in 1858. He and his wife, Mary Jane, relocated several miles to the southwest on the north shore of Orchard Lake, in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. There he built his "castle", which still stands today as the nucleus of St. Mary's College and Preparatory School.
In the spring of 1860, Joseph and his brother Samuel formed a company to finance a mining expedition to the Colorado Territory. A party of seventeen, including five of Joseph's brothers, took a train to Saint Joseph, Missouri, the westernmost rail terminal at the time, and then set off in eleven covered wagons packed with a year's provisions. Three of the group, including Samuel, stayed in the mountains west of Denver long enough to take part in the Colorado Territory's first election on August 19, 1861. Roscoe, Joseph's youngest brother, details the entire adventure – which unfortunately failed to make them all rich – in a fascinating letter to his children.