Mayor Bernard Brough is shown breaking ground for the Peter Navarre monument in St. Mary's cemetery, Lagrange street and Manhattan boulevard. In the other picture Oliver Navarre, son of the famous scout, is shown pulling up Old Glory.

WITH fitting ceremony, ground was broken Tuesday morning for the monument which is to be erected to the memory of Peter Navarre, famous scout, in St. Mary's cemetery. Mayor Brough turned the first spade of earth where the monument will stand, while Mrs. Charles Stephens, chairwoman of the monument committee also turned a spade of dirt.

Attending the ceremony were city officials, officers and members of the Peter Navarre chapter, National Society of the United States, Daughters of 812, which is erecting the monument, and members of the St. Mary's cemetery board, which donated the ground.

A flag was raised on the staff, about 400 feet form the monument site, by Oliver Navarre, son of the famous scout. It was announced that the cemetery board would donate a 60-foot flagpole to be placed at the head of the Navarre grave.

The monument will be a granite shaft, eight feet high, about 400 feet from the grave and facing Windamere boulevard, where it can be seen by passersby. The dedication for the monument will take place October 6, which has been designated by the mayor as Peter Navarre day.

"No name is more prominent among the early settlers of the Maumee valley than is that of Peter Navarre," according to the history of the city of Toledo and Lucas county.

"He was said to be a grandson of Robert Naverre Navarre, a French army officer, who visited this section in 1745. Peter was born at Detroit in 1785, where his father before him was born. In 1807, with his brother Robert, he erected a cabin near the mouth of the Maumee (east side), which continued to be his residence while he lived.

"Beside Canadian-French, he could speak the Pottawatomie Indian dialect, and partially those of other tribes. In woodcraft and Indian methods he was very skillful, while his bearing was ever that of a 'born gentleman.'

"For several years he was employed by a Detroit house in buying furs of the Miamis near Ft. Wayne, Ind., where he made the acquaintance and friendship of Chief Little Turtle. The war of 1812-1815 closed the fur trade, when Peter and his three brothers--Robert, Alexis and Jaquot (James) -- tendered their services to General Hull. He also besought General Hull to accept the services of the Miamis, which were declined, and they afterwards took part with the British.

"Before seeing active service, the Navarres were included in the surrender of General Hull and paroled altho they denied the right to treat him as a prisoner of war, and at once took an active part for the United States, whereupon, General Proctor, the British commander, offered a reward of 200 pounds for Peter's head or scalp.

"Until the close of the war he acted as scout for General Harrison. He used to say that the worst night he ever spent was as bearer of dispatch from General Harrison than at Fort Meigs, to Fort Stephenson (now Fremont). Amid a thunderstorm of great fury and fall of water, he made the trip of over 80 miles thru the unbroken wilderness and the morning following delivered to General Harrison a reply.

"Because his name was not on the enlistment roll, the law provided no pension for his great service, but by special act of congress his last days were made more comfortable by pecuniary relief. At the close of the war he returned to his home, near the mouth of the Maumee river, where he spent the balance of his life, dying in Toledo, March 20, 1874, in his 89th year.

"For several years previous to his death he served as president of the Maumee Valley Pioneer association."