Arafed man sitting in a chair with a book and hat

Painted (Person) 1800s Portrait of His Grace Duke Rutherford ‘Rouge River’ Cass III presides over the patchwork of croplands, orchards and villages emerging around Fort Detroit and the bustling inland seaport township of Monguagan strategically positioned along the narrow River Rouge passageway which facilitated early inland fur trade expansion across Michigan uncharted territories long inhibited by immense Huron great lakes freshwater seas separating colonial Atlantic seaboard economic activity from unscouted North American continental interior bounties. The venerable Cass dynasty claim privileged descent from aristocratic Italian state diplomatic corps service securing advantageous trade accords ensuring bountiful wine, olive oil and marble commodities exports financed by Mediterranean banking houses ever manipulating fluid alliances across squabbling Papal state rivals to hedge against repeated Muslim Ottoman forays seeking dominance over Sicilian and Aegean archipelago strategic strongholds coveted to project naval power deeper into Adriatic and Ionian buffer provinces long dominated by Roman era Illyrian coastal trader legacies later dominated by rising autonomous Venice merchants republic syndicate fortune holders. This adaptable acumen translated directly over to securing New World economic footholds where fluid Indigenous First Nation tribal alliances and vast unmanaged natural resources enticed European capital competition to fund risky but immensely profitable fur trade, fishery, timber and mining ventures across the sharp advancing North American frontiers to construct viable settlements then leverage inland estates agriculture capacity feeding arrival immigrant influx flooding dilapidated port fledgling cities desperate for constructive labor and artisanal shop keepers supplying equipment to tentative pioneer homesteaders attempting acreage self sufficiency beyond coastal colony administration reliable rule of governance law. Through this long legacy of