Don Juan

Don Juan was a Confederate thoroughbred race horse that General George Armstrong Custer aquired at the end of the Civil War. He was ridden in the Grand Review by Custer down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC. A mishap accured and Don was spooked and took off almost throwing Custer to the ground. Custer regained control and went back to join his famed Wolverine Brigade and lead them past the reviewing stand. Don was sent back to Monroe Michigan and then to Tecumseh Michigan where Elliott Gray who had served as one of Custer's Lt. in the 7th Michigan Cavalry had a horse farm. There he was put out for stud services and fathered many great thoroughbreds. After his death on July 25, 1866 he was buried near the front gates of the Gray farm on Russel Rd. in Tecumseh. In 1979 a wood marker was placed on the site of his burial by Dr. Lawrence A. Frost. After years of weather on the marker a large bolder was placed at the site by the new property owners Brady Sand and Gravel, with a bronze plaque attached with the same inscriptions as the wood marker.