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ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 OF MICHIGAN 
 
 A STUDY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE 
 
 LOWER PENINSULA DURING THE 
 
 TERRITORIAL PERIOD 
 
 1805-1837 
 
 BY 
 GEORGE NEWMAN FULLER, Ph. D. 
 
 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment 
 of the requirements for the degree of Doctor 
 of Philosophy in the University of Michigan 
 
 WYNKOOP HALLENBECK CRAWFORD CO., STATE PRINTERS 
 LANSING, MICHIGAN, 1916 
 

 TO MY UNCLE, 
 
 NEWMAN A. FULLER, 
 
 WHOSE GENEROSITY HAS ENABLED ME 
 
 TO RENDER TO MY NATIVE STATE THIS SERVICE, 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 
 
 APR 13 W 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 It is impossible to acknowledge adequately the debt 
 I owe to all of those who have so generously aided me 
 in finding and studying my sources. To my master, 
 Professor Claude H. Van Tyne, Head of the Depart- 
 ment of History in the University of Michigan, I wish 
 specially to express my deep obligation for indispen- 
 sable aid received at every stage of the work. Special 
 acknowledgments are due to Professor Edward Ray- 
 mond Turner, also of the University, for invaluable 
 suggestions in preparing the manuscript, and to Pro- 
 fessors Wilbur C. Abbott and Max Farrand of Yale, 
 for assistance received in the inception of the work. 
 
 It would seem almost invidious to particularize the 
 officers and attendants of the University Library, the 
 State Library, the Burton Library, and the city li- 
 braries of Michigan, especially those of Detroit and 
 Grand Rapids, who have been uniformly generous in 
 extending privileges to facilitate these researches. 
 
 The selection of the subject of this work grew out of 
 an interest in Michigan history begun in early years 
 and a desire to make some return to my native State 
 for the advantages I have received from her. The 
 work is now presented as a token of esteem for the 
 pioneer builders of the commonwealth, and to their 
 descendants I wish to express sincere gratitude for the 
 encouragement that has lightened my labor. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TT has been the hope of the author to call atten- 
 tion to the fertile field which lies at the beginning 
 of Michigan's history as an agricultural commonwealth 
 under American institutions. So far from being ex- 
 haustive, this treatise is but an introduction to the 
 subject. Many of its topics could be expanded into 
 useful monographs. For example, the War of 1812 in 
 relation to the Michigan frontier is here but lightly 
 touched upon; the succeeding financial crisis — espe- 
 cially in relation to other factors causing emigration 
 from the eastern states— the dissemination of knowl- 
 edge about Michigan in the East and abroad, the 
 several land and Indian questions, the rise of lake 
 commerce, and many other subjects equally obvious — 
 all would yield richly to the research of the patient 
 student. 
 
 The place of the monograph will be clear in the light 
 of previous works on Michigan. The books that have 
 appeared hitherto are very general accounts in which 
 economic and social factors are incidental ; here, as the 
 leading title is intended to suggest, we are concerned 
 only with those facts which bear directly upon the 
 beginnings of Michigan's economic and social history. 
 
 And if we except the fur trade, the period of Michi- 
 gan Territory is well within those beginnings. Before 
 then the spirit of the French period was unfavorable 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 to the advance of agriculture. The fur trader wished 
 the forests to stand to protect the fur-bearing animals; 
 the missionary wished the frontier distant to preserve 
 his Indian converts from the influence of the white 
 settlements; in the paternalism and militarism of that 
 period there was little room for popular activity 
 through local civil institutions; and there was little 
 immigration and permanent home-building ; after more 
 than a century of French occupation only a few hun- 
 dred families had been planted in the whole of the 
 southern peninsula, mainly at one point, and these 
 families were interested principally in the fur trade. 
 The periods of British and early American occupa- 
 tion were not essentially different. It was the opinion 
 of Major John Biddle, who was at the head of the 
 Detroit Land Office during most of the Territorial 
 period, that "as an American community, founding its 
 prosperity upon the permanent resources of its own 
 industry, Michigan may date its origin in ISIS.^" This 
 was an interpretation by a man of practical affairs 
 speaking near the close of the Territorial period from 
 the viewpoint of the tremendous impulse given to the 
 development of agriculture, industry and commerce by 
 the opening of public land sales at Detroit and the 
 beginning of steam navigation on the Great Lakes. 
 
 The close of Michigan's Territorial history marks 
 also the close of a quite distinct economic period. The 
 years preceding 1837 saw such unprecedented accelera- 
 tion of economic growth and prosperity, and the stag- 
 nation of all activities following the financial crisis of 
 
 1. Historical and Scientific Sketches oj Michigan (Detroit, 
 1834), 163. 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 1837 was SO general and complete, that these years are 
 marked off distinctly from all that followed. 
 
 The author has employed the somewhat vague term 
 "settlement" to indicate the process by which an 
 immigrant population adjusts itself to a new environ- 
 ment. The factors in this process, as here considered, 
 may be gathered into four groups, which while they 
 blend into one another, are fairly distinguishable and 
 correspond approximately to four phases of this ad- 
 justment. They center about (1) governmental aids, 
 (2) immigration, (3) active pioneering and (4) institu- 
 tional growth. The first group involves the military 
 protection of the frontier, the extinguishing of Indian 
 titles, the surveying of lands, the establishment of 
 land offices, the regulation of land sales, the organizing 
 of counties and townships, and the improvement of 
 facilities for transportation. The second group con- 
 cerns the sources of population — why people left their 
 old homes, why they came to Michigan, how they 
 reached Michigan, and the qualities, habits and ideals 
 which they brought with them. A third group relates 
 to clearing the forest, cutting roads, breaking the lands, 
 building homes and villages, and establishing the local 
 institutions of community life. A fourth group deals 
 with subsequent growth, when with immigrants still 
 coming in great numbers, institutions began to take on 
 a permanent character; here are noted the checks and 
 stimuli of institutional" growth and the comparative 
 rate and amount of growth in different periods, the 
 relative tendencies to village and city life, and the con- 
 centration of rural population, the interaction of rural 
 and urban growth, especially with reference to im- 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 provements in transportation, and the distinguishing 
 features of large centers of population. 
 
 The first two chapters are introductory. Chapter I 
 gives a general survey of the geologic and physical con- 
 ditions which affected the economic development of the 
 Territory as a whole. Chapter II treats the essential 
 checks and stimuli other than these. Together they 
 should help to unify the chapters that follow. 
 
 The subsequent chapters are based mainly upon those 
 physiographic agents which influenced the time, rate, 
 amount and distribution of population. The part of 
 the Territory affected by immigration before 1837 ap- 
 pears to divide naturally on this basis into a half dozen 
 settlement areas. First, there are the counties of Mon- 
 roe, Wayne, Macomb and St. Clair which have many 
 common physical features, the earliest lands to be set- 
 tled by the French-Canadians and by settlers from 
 eastern states. Oakland, Washtenaw and Lenawee 
 were the first inland counties to receive immigrants and 
 each represents a great line of immigration along which 
 population moved to the interior, respectively north- 
 west to the Saginaw country, west to the valleys of the 
 Kalamazoo and Grand rivers, and to the St. Joseph 
 country in southwestern Michigan. Each of the four 
 river valleys, the St. Joseph, the Kalamazoo, the Sag- 
 inaw and the Grand, make a natural area of settle- 
 ment. The concluding chapters deal with the sources 
 and character of the new population and present a brief 
 resume. 
 
 The author can of course claim no more for the ac- 
 curacy of the results than is warranted by the nature 
 of the materials with which some parts of the work have 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 had to be done. Secondary materials, and not of the 
 best kind, have been in some cases the only possible 
 recourse; but where used these have been carefully 
 pointed out. It should be said of the county histories 
 that despite their frankly commercial nature a few of 
 them show real insight into local problems and deal 
 with them intelligently, while others deserve special 
 praise for fullness of detail obviously gathered pains- 
 takingly. 
 
 In another class are the pioneer reminiscences, many 
 of which are trustworthy and useful. The habit of 
 keeping a diary, or journal of events, common in the 
 early days made it possible for a pioneer to refresh the 
 memory later; many printed reminiscences profess to 
 be an embodiment of facts set down in this manner 
 years before. For some phases of the subject — as the 
 nativity of settlers, the conditions of early travel and 
 transportation, the founding of settlements, and con- 
 temporary local opinion — this material furnishes often 
 about all the information that is obtainable. The vol- 
 lunes of the Michigan Historical Collections are a mine 
 of this material and have been heavily drawn upon. 
 
 The early newspapers have also been used exten- 
 sively. They contain much unconscious testimony of 
 early conditions, especially in the advertisements, and 
 in some aspects of the subject they are quite as valu- 
 able for what they led immigrants to believe about 
 Michigan or about certain localities as for the truth of 
 their statements. Many of them were started as ad- 
 vertising mediums to "boom" their localities and were 
 widely circulated in the East by speculators. 
 
 So far as possible the author has checked these ma- 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 terials from the more reliable classes of data, as the 
 laws, legislative journals, executive documents, court 
 reports, censuses and accredited monographs. Refer- 
 ences are given for all statements taken from them. 
 The vast amount of detail from various sources which 
 the author has examined on every point should of 
 itself afford sufficient check to prevent serious errors. 
 
 In this pioneer attempt the aim has been to be logi- 
 cal, accurate and clear, rather than literary; the au- 
 thor will gladly welcome criticism and correction. 
 
CONTENTS 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Physical Conditions 
 
 A. Introduction 1 
 
 I. Close relation of geology and geography to settle- 
 
 ment 
 
 II. Scope of treatment in this chapter 
 
 B . Influences of geographic location 1 
 
 I. Latitude and longitude 
 
 II. Glacial influence on topography, drainage and soil 
 
 III. Climate: interaction of the Great Lakes and the 
 
 westerly winds 
 
 IV. Fauna and flora 
 
 V. Population and institutions 
 
 VI. Commerce: the Great Lakes 
 
 C. Climate 2 
 
 I. Chief agents 
 
 1 . Latitude 
 
 2. Lake Michigan 
 
 3. Westerly winds 
 
 4. Topography 
 
 5. Rainfall 
 .6. Forests 
 
 II. Characteristics 
 
 1. Equable temperature 
 
 2. Absence of extremes of temperature and rain- 
 
 fall 
 
 3. Growing period prolonged 
 
 III. Health 
 
 1. Diseases not favored 
 
 2. Influences correlative with climate 
 
 3. Compared with other states 
 
 4. Early unfavorable reports 
 
 5. Prevalence of "fever and ague" 
 
 6. Imprudences of settlers 
 
xii CONTENTS 
 
 D. Geology 10 
 
 I. The three great epochs 
 
 II. The bed rocks 
 
 1. Basin arrangement 
 
 2. Elevation 
 
 3. Importance to settlement 
 
 a. Minerals 
 
 1) Minerals important to early settle- 
 
 ment 
 
 a) Salt 
 
 (1) Constituent of soil 
 
 (2) Chemical use 
 
 (3) Common use 
 
 (4) Importance how recog- 
 
 nized 
 
 (a) By government 
 
 tax 
 
 (b) By emphasis in 
 
 early geologi- 
 cal reports 
 
 (5) Where and how found 
 
 (a) Brine springs 
 
 (b) Salt licks 
 
 (6) Later exploitation 
 
 b) Building materials 
 
 (1) Clay 
 
 (2) Sandstone 
 
 (3) Limestone 
 
 (4) Sand and gravels 
 
 (5) Boulders 
 
 2) Other minerals slightly exploited 
 
 a) Coal 
 
 b) Gypsum 
 
 3) Mineral waters 
 
 b. Relation of bed rock to soils 
 
 1) As an original source of materials 
 
 2) As affecting present distribution 
 
 a) Limestone 
 
 b) Sandstone 
 
 c) Clay 
 
 d) Mixture over the coal meas- 
 
 ures 
 
CONTENTS xiii 
 
 E. Soils 14 
 
 I. Formation 
 
 1. Preglacial upheavals in northern regions 
 
 2. Glacial action 
 
 II. Depth of soil 
 
 III. Fineness 
 
 1 . United States soil classification for Mich- 
 igan 
 
 IV. Distribution 
 
 1. Glacial outwash aprons 
 
 2. Lake and glacial drainage 
 
 3. Morainal deposits 
 
 4. Till plains 
 
 5. Lake clay 
 
 V. General advantages of these soils 
 
 1 . Variety 
 
 a. Chemical composition 
 
 b. Mechanical composition 
 
 c. Basis for variety of flora and of 
 
 rural industries 
 
 2. Comparative warmth 
 
 a. Sand gains heat rapidly and loses 
 
 it slowly 
 
 b. Clay moderates these qualities 
 
 3. Moisture well proportioned 
 
 a. Depth and clay element prevent 
 
 drying out 
 
 b. Porosity of sand element prevents 
 
 drowning of crops 
 
 c. Absence of irreclaimable marshes 
 
 4. Easy to work 
 
 a. Fineness of surface soil 
 
 b. Comparative freedom from stones 
 
 c. Few barren outcrops 
 
 d. Not too adhesive because of mix- 
 
 ture of clay and sand 
 
 e. Not easily washed away 
 
 5. Endurance under wasteful farming due 
 
 to limestone 
 
 6. Variations, owing to predominance of 
 
 sand, clay or limestone 
 F. Topography 18 
 
 I. Resultant of two forces considered 
 
 II. Relation to neighboring regions 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 III. Modifications 
 
 1 . By unequal resistance of bed rocks 
 
 2. By post-glacial deposits 
 
 IV. Forces determining area 
 
 V. The area settled before 1837 
 
 VI. The shore lands 
 
 VII. Surface configuration: how favorable to agri- 
 culture, grazing, lumbering and manufac- 
 ture 
 
 1. The Grand-Maple-Saginaw Valley 
 
 2. The southeastern watershed 
 
 3. The interior hills 
 
 4. The intervales 
 
 5. The northern watershed 
 
 G. Rivers 22 
 
 I. General character 
 
 II. Southeastern rivers 
 
 1. The Raisin 
 
 2. The Huron 
 
 3. The Clinton 
 
 4. The Saginaw 
 
 5. The St. Clair 
 
 III. Central and southwestern rivers 
 
 1. The vSt. Joseph 
 
 2. The Kalamazoo 
 
 3. The Grand 
 
 IV. Importance of these rivers to early settlement 
 
 1 . French settlements at river mouths 
 
 2. American settlers seek power sites 
 
 a. Importance of water power 
 
 3. Their search facilitated by Indian trails 
 
 along the streams 
 
 4. Village sites at junction of creeks with 
 
 rivers 
 
 5. Village sites at junction of streams with 
 
 Indian trails 
 
 6. Early settlements in the eastern water 
 
 power belt 
 
 7. Water power on the southwestern rivers 
 
 8. The importance of creeks and smaller 
 
 streams 
 
 9. The regulating infiuence of small lakes 
 10. Transportation of logs and lumber 
 
 a. Necessity of economy 
 
CONTENTS XV 
 
 b. Area served by a single mill 
 
 c. Extent of early lumbering 
 
 1) Confined to streams 
 
 2) Average annual product 
 
 d. Importance of streams to later 
 
 lumbering 
 1 1 . Navigation 
 
 a. On the eastern rivers 
 
 b. On the St. Joseph River 
 
 c. On the Kalamazoo River 
 
 d. On the Grand River 
 
 e. Improvements of navigation 
 
 H. The Great Lakes 30 
 
 I. Geological origin 
 
 II. Importance for navigation 
 
 1. Extent of use by settlers 
 
 2. Natural harbors 
 
 3. Beginnings of Great Lakes commerce 
 
 III. Importance of the fisheries 
 
 1. Extent of the early fishing industry 
 
 2. Early accounts of the Great Lakes fish 
 
 3. Varieties of fish 
 
 4. Extent of the early market 
 
 I. The inland lakes 32 
 
 I. Origin 
 
 II. Number, size and depth 
 
 III. The character of their environment: beauty 
 
 IV. Their fish and aquatic fowls 
 
 V. Attitude of the early settlers towards them 
 
 J. Lake formations . 34 
 
 I. Marl 
 
 II. Peat 
 
 III. Muck 
 
 IV. Meadow 
 
 V. Prairie 
 
 K. Flora: the forests 35 
 
 I. As a basis of soil classification 
 
 II. Relation of the forests to settlement 
 
 1 . Protection to soil 
 
 2. Effect upon climate 
 
 3. Effect upon health 
 
 4. Their density an obstacle 
 
 5. Lumbering 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 III. Variety 
 
 1. Compared with Great Britain 
 
 2. Causes of variety 
 
 3. Lumbering 
 
 a. Latitude 
 
 b. River valleys 
 
 c. Streams and swamps 
 
 d. Uplands 
 
 e. Kinds of soil 
 
 IV. Density 
 
 L Variations of soil with density 
 2. Relative positions of areas of different 
 densities 
 
 V. Timbers indicating fertility 
 
 L. Settlement in relation to density of forest 37 
 
 I. Crops specially adapted to various densities 
 
 II. Obstacles to getting first crops 
 
 III. Methods of preparing for first crop 
 
 IV. The easiest first crop 
 
 V. Yield of the first crop 
 
 VI. Comparative quickness of yield 
 
 VII. Increase of yield with successive crops 
 
 VIII. Cost of getting first crop 
 
 IX. Attitude of settlers towards different densities 
 
 M. Wild flora and fauna useful to settlers 44 
 
 N. Obnoxious fauna 45 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 General Influences 
 
 A. Effects of the War of 1812 49 
 
 I. Ill effects 
 
 1. Depopulation of the Territory 
 
 2. Destitution of the returning settlers 
 
 3. Annoyance from the Indians 
 
 4. Financial crisis 
 
 II. Good effects 
 
 1. Economic distress in the East caused emigra- 
 
 tion 
 
 2. Detroit's prominence attracted attention to 
 
 Michigan 
 
CONTENTS xvii 
 
 3. Impulse to improvement of roads 
 
 4. Soldier-settlers 
 
 5. Lewis Cass, governor and Indian agent 
 
 B. Unfavorable reports about Michigan lands 50 
 
 I. Reports of the early surveyors 
 
 1. Connection with military bounty lands 
 
 2. When and where these surveys were made 
 
 3. Probable reasons for character of the reports 
 
 4. Why inexcusable 
 
 5. Relocation of bounty lands 
 
 6. How these reports reached intending settlers 
 
 II. Other reports 
 
 C. Favorable reports 52 
 
 I. Cass's criticism of Tifhn's report 
 
 II. The exploring expedition of 1820 
 
 III. Explorations preceding Cass 
 
 IV. Reports of travelers 
 
 V. Travelers' "Guides" 
 
 VI. Geographies and maps 
 
 VII. Newspapers and magazines 
 
 VIII. Letters from settlers 
 
 IX. Settlers visiting the East 
 
 X. Duration of the prejudice against Michigan 
 XL Ultimate benefit of relocation of bounty lands 
 
 D. Relations with the Indians 57 
 
 I. Cass's problem 
 
 1. Influence of British presents and French 
 
 traders 
 
 2. Policy of the national government 
 
 II. Cass's qualifications 
 
 III. Indian treaties 
 
 1. Treaty of Greenville, 1795 
 
 2. Treaty of Detroit, 1807 
 
 3. Treaty of Saginaw, 1819 
 
 4. Treaty of Chicago, 1821 
 
 5. Treaty of Washington, 1836 
 
 6. Minor treaties 
 
 IV. The Black Hawk War _ 
 
 1 . How connected with Michigan 
 
 2. Effect on settlement 
 
xviii CONTENTS 
 
 3. Its effects complicated with those of the 
 cholera epidemic 
 V. Removal of the Indians 
 
 E. The public lands and settlement 62 
 
 I. Importance of the land question; private claims; 
 
 accurate survey 
 
 II. Cass's land policy in relation to settlement 
 
 III. Significance of the rectangular system of survey 
 
 IV. Personal interest of surveyors in settlement 
 
 V. The rate of survey 
 
 VI. Establishment of land offices 
 
 VII. Regulation of land sales 
 
 1. The credit system and its repeal 
 
 2. Preemption of lands 
 
 VIII. Rate of land sales an index to settlement 
 
 IX. Speculation and banking 
 
 X. The financial crisis of 1837 
 
 F. Improvements in transportation 69 
 
 I. Primitive conditions 
 
 II. Water transportation 
 
 1. The Great Lakes 
 
 a. Passenger traffic on Lake Erie 
 
 b. Lake Michigan and ,the settlement of 
 
 western Michigan 
 
 2. The Erie Canal 
 
 3. Routes and travel from the East 
 
 a. Typical illustrations 
 
 b. Cost of water transportation 
 
 c. Immigration 
 
 4. Rivers and canals 
 
 III. Land transportation 
 
 L National military roads 
 
 a. Monroe Road 
 
 b. Fort Gratiot Road 
 
 c. Saginaw Road 
 
 d. Chicago Road 
 
 e. Maumee-Jonesville Road 
 
 f. La Plaissance Bay Road 
 
 g. Grand River Road 
 
 2. Territorial roads 
 
 a. Turnpikes 
 
 b. Railroads 
 
 c. Plank roads 
 
 3. Township roads 
 
CONTENTS xix 
 
 G. Extension of popular government 82 
 
 I. Early abuses in government 
 
 II. Cass's democratic principles 
 
 III. Obstacles, and how overcome 
 
 IV. Extensions of the elective franchise 
 
 V. The spirit of the East in the early laws 
 
 VI. County government 
 
 1. Extent of popular control 
 
 2. Significance as an index to settlement 
 
 3. Significance of the county seat for settlement 
 
 VII. Township government 
 
 1 . Inheritances from New York and New Eng- 
 
 land 
 
 2. A school of democracy for foreigners 
 
 3. Significance as a measure of settlement 
 
 H. Small educational advantages 91 
 
 I. National land grants 
 
 II. Territorial legislation of 1827 
 
 III. The log schoolhouse and the "academy" 
 
 IV. The "Catholepistemiad" 
 
 V. Educational provisions in the state constitution of 
 
 1835 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The Eastern Shore 
 
 A. Environment 95 
 
 I. Soil 
 
 II. Drainage 
 
 III. Water power 
 
 IV. Timber 
 
 B . Canadian-French settlements 96 
 
 I. Position 
 
 II. Relation to streams 
 
 III. Unhealthful environments 
 
 IV. Relation to canoe navigation 
 
 V. Neglect of the Huron river 
 
 VI. Slight extension inland 
 
 VII. Settlement areas 
 
 1. Detroit group 
 
XX CONTENTS 
 
 2. Clinton River group 
 
 3. St. Clair group 
 
 4. Raisin River group 
 
 VIII. French farms and farming 
 
 1 . Shape and size of farms 
 
 2. Compactness of settlement 
 
 3. Farming 
 
 a. General character 
 
 b. The orchard 
 
 c. "Yankee" opinion 
 
 d. Agricultural implements 
 
 e. Conditions in the small settlements 
 
 f . Conditions in the large settlements 
 
 IX. Characteristics of the Michigan Canadians 
 
 1. Contemporary description 
 
 2. Lack of ambition 
 
 3. Aversion to taxes 
 
 4. Opposition to changes 
 
 5. Gaiety 
 
 6. Sociability 
 
 7. Piety and morality 
 
 8. Refinement among upper classes 
 
 9. Patriotism 
 
 10. Influence of Father Gabriel Richard 
 
 X. Founding of settlements outside of Detroit 
 
 1. On Grosse Isle 
 
 2. On the E corse and the Rouge 
 
 3. On the Raisin River 
 
 4. On the St. Clair 
 
 5. On the Clinton 
 
 6. On Otter and Sandy creeks 
 
 C. American settlement at Detroit 116 
 
 I. Conditions in 1803 
 
 II. Effects of fire of 1805 
 
 III. Eftects of War of 1812 
 
 IV. Growth from 1812 to 1818 
 
 V. The new city plan 
 
 VI. Streets 
 
 VII. Roads 
 
 VIII. Frontier character of life in 1818 
 
 1. Trade 
 
 2. Manufacture 
 
 3. Lake commerce 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 4. Public utilities 
 
 a. Water-supply 
 
 b. Fire-protection 
 
 c. Menaces to health ' 
 
 5. Opinion of travelers 
 
 6. Census of 1818 
 
 IX. Effects of land sales and steam navigation 
 
 1. Immigration of eastern laborers 
 
 2. Embarrassment due to Michigan Can- 
 
 adians 
 
 3. Progress of immigration 
 
 4. Extension of city boundaries 
 
 5. Census of 1823 
 
 X. Growth from 1825 to 1831 
 
 1. Opening of the Erie Canal 
 
 2. Competition with other lake ports 
 
 3. Buildings and stores 
 
 4. Increase of civic consciousness 
 
 5. Census of 1827 
 
 XI. Growth from 1831 to 1834 
 
 1. Immigration of 1831 
 
 2. Black Hawk War and cholera epidemic 
 
 in 1832 
 
 3. Sickness of 1834 
 
 4. Census of 1834 
 
 XII. Period of rapid growth, 1835-1837 
 
 1. Congestion of population in 1835 
 
 2. Increases of population in 1835-1837 
 
 3. Stimulus to business 
 
 4. Rise in value of city lots 
 
 5. Relations with the interior 
 ■ 6. New demand for laborers 
 
 7. Manufactures and commerce 
 
 8. Civic improvements 
 
 a. Sewerage 
 
 b. Water-supply 
 
 c. Fire-protection 
 
 d. Street-lighting and paving 
 
 e. Change in character of buildings 
 
 XIII. Sources of population 
 
 1. New York and New England. 
 
 2. Virginia and Ohio 
 
 3. Negroes 
 
 4. Foreign-bom citizens 
 
 5. French-Canadians 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 XIV. Education and culture 
 
 1. Prestige of city as capital of Territory 
 
 2. Culture of immigrants from the East 
 
 3. Hospitality 
 
 4. Institutions 
 
 5. Opinion of travelers 
 
 D. Monroe 153 
 
 I. Situation and antecedents 
 
 II. Coming of Americans 
 
 III. Slowness of growth from 1817 to 1825 
 
 IV. Stimulating influences 
 
 V. Contemporary opinion as to prospects 
 
 VI. Rapid growth from 1835 to 1837 
 
 E. "Boom towns" 157 
 
 I. Brest 
 
 II. Gibraltar 
 
 III. Flat Rock 
 
 IV. Brownstown 
 
 V. Wyandotte 
 
 F. Mt. Clemens 157 
 
 I. Compared with Monroe 
 
 II. Founding and growth, 1818-1825 
 
 III. Newspaper reports 
 
 IV. Early industries 
 
 V. Speculation 
 
 VI. Competing villages 
 
 VII. Transportation and trade 
 
 G. St. Clair villages 160 
 
 I. St. Clair 
 
 II. Marine City 
 
 III. Port Huron 
 
 IV. Algonac 
 
 V. Travelers' opinions 
 
 H. Interior settlement 166 
 
 I. St. Clair County 
 
 1 . Distribution of population 
 
 2. Influences hindering growth 
 
 3. Land sales, steam navigation and 
 
 speculation 
 
 4. Lumbering and shipbuilding 
 
 II. Macomb County 
 
 1. Central physiographic influences 
 
 2. First land sales 
 
 3. Rapid settlement, 1830-1837 
 
 4. Centers of population 
 
CONTENTS xxiii 
 
 III. Monroe County 
 
 1. Compared with St. Clair and Macomb 
 
 2. Slow settlement until 1822 
 
 3. Rapid settlement, 1822-1837 
 
 4. Centers of population 
 
 5. Township organization 
 
 IV. Wayne County 
 
 1. Compared with Monroe County 
 
 2. Growth of population as measured by 
 
 township organization 
 
 3. Distribution of population in 1837 
 
 I. Comparative growth of counties as shown by the 
 
 censuses 180 
 
 I. Rank of counties in 1820 
 
 II. Relative rank in 1830 
 
 III. Changes in 1830-34 
 
 IV. Numbers and distribution of population in 
 
 1837 
 J. Sources of population 183 
 
 I. New England 
 
 II. Intermediate sources 
 
 III. Nativity of prominent citizens 
 
 IV. French-Canadians, Germans and Scotch 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 The First Inland Counties 
 
 A. Introduction 186 
 
 I. Effect of relative position upon the date of begin- 
 
 nings 
 
 II. General conditions favoring settlement 
 
 III. Time and place of first settlements 
 
 IV. Observations upon their order of fdunding 
 
 1. Precedence of settlement 
 
 2. Interval of time between beginnings at north 
 
 and south 
 
 3. Dates compared with those of inland settle- 
 
 ments eastward 
 
 4. Settlements in the eastern part of these 
 
 counties 
 
xxiv CONTENTS 
 
 B. Explanation of these observations 187 
 
 I. Differences of environment not alone sufficient to 
 
 explain them 
 
 1. Water power and drainage 
 
 2. Timber and openings 
 
 3. Surface and soil 
 
 4. Natural beauty 
 
 II. Sufficient explanation 
 
 1. Nearness of Oakland County to Detroit and 
 
 the consequent priority of its land survey 
 
 2. Personal influence and interest of a United 
 
 States surveyor working in Oaldand 
 County 
 
 3. Opening of the first land office at Detroit, 
 
 leading to explorations into the country 
 nearest to the city 
 
 4. The enterprise of Detroit men willing to 
 
 risk money to promote a village near 
 Detroit 
 
 5. The superior natural advantages of Oakland 
 
 County in "openings," water power, tim- 
 ber, variety of soil and beauty of scenery 
 
 6. The absorption of interest in the lands of 
 
 Oakland County, which were the first to 
 be brought actively to attention 
 
 7. The availabiHty of open land in the shore 
 
 section, especially in Macomb County and 
 in parts of Wayne 
 
 8. The relatively greater distance of the south- 
 
 ern part of the section from the shore, and 
 the intervention of dense forest between 
 the two sections 
 
 III. Sources of information about southern part of sec- 
 
 tion 
 
 1 . French traders at site of Ypsilanti 
 
 2. United States surveyors 
 
 3. Cass expedition of 1820 
 
 4. Fishermen on Huron River 
 
 5. Hunting and exploring parties 
 
 C. Beginnings in Oakland County 199 
 
 I. Influence of Clinton River: Rochester 
 
 II. Influence of Saginaw Trail: Pontiac 
 
CONTENTS XXV 
 
 D. Beginnings in Washtenaw County 201 
 
 I. Influence of Cass expedition, 1820 
 
 II. Influence of Huron River and Indian trails 
 
 1. "French claims" 
 
 2. Woodniff's Grove settlement 
 
 3. Ann Arbor: Territorial Road 
 
 III. Influence of Chicago Road 
 
 1 . Ypsilanti 
 
 2. Saline 
 
 E. Beginnings in Lenawee County 203 
 
 I. Influence of Raisin River 
 
 1 . Tecumseh 
 
 2. Adrian 
 
 3. Clinton 
 
 II. Influence of Chicago Road 
 
 F. vSummary 204 
 
 G. How settlers reached this section: difficulties of transporta- 
 
 tion 205 
 
 I. Rivers: attempts at river improvement 
 
 II. Trails: initial road-making 
 
 III. "Openings" 
 
 H. Extension of frontier 210 
 
 I. Principal agents determining points from which 
 
 frontier was extended 
 
 1. General direction from which settlers came 
 
 2. "Openings" and fertility of soil 
 
 3. Rivers: Ann Arbor, Rochester 
 
 4. Junction of two streams : Tecumseh, Adrian 
 
 5. Junction of river and trail: Pontiac, Ypsi- 
 
 lanti 
 
 6. Military road: Saline, Clinton 
 
 II. Extension of frontier in Oakland County, to 1824, 
 
 1824-30, 1830-34: determining influences 
 
 III. Extension of the frontier in Washtenaw County, 
 
 1824-30, 1830-34: explanation 
 
 IV. Extension of the frontier in Lenawee County, 
 
 1824-30, 1830-34: explanation 
 
 I. Intensive settlement 217 
 
 I. Rate and amount of increase in rural population 
 1. In Oakland County, 1820-30, 1830-34 
 
xxvi CONTENTS 
 
 a. Areal distribution 
 
 b. Village growth: Pontiac, Auburn, 
 
 Rochester 
 
 c. Interaction of farm and village 
 
 2. In Washtenaw County, 1824-30, 1830-34 
 
 a. Distribution 
 
 b. Villages: Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Saline, 
 
 Dexter, Manchester 
 
 c. Relation of village growth to rural de- 
 
 velopment 
 
 3. In Lenawee County 
 
 a. Distribution 
 
 b. Villages: Tecumseh, Adrian, Clinton 
 
 J. Character of population 238 
 
 I. Nativity of foimders of first settlements 
 
 II. Heterogeneity of sources in any given settlement 
 
 III. Names of villages and townships as evidence 
 
 IV. Foreign elements 
 
 H. Methods of founding colonies in this section 242 
 
 I. Individual initiative of home-seekers: Rochester, 
 
 Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Adrian 
 
 II. Initiative of well-to-do speculators: Dexter, Saline, 
 
 Manchester 
 
 III. Commercial partnership: Tecumseh 
 
 IV. Commercial comjoany: Pontiac 
 
 L. Types of colonies 242 
 
 I. The "sawmill town": Tecumseh, Pontiac 
 
 II. The "farming village": Rochester, Farmington 
 
 III. The "stage station": Ypsilanti 
 
 IV. The "Quaker colony": Adrian, Farmington 
 
 V. The "social settlement": experiment inBloomfield 
 
 Township in Oakland County 
 
 M. Education and culture 242 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 St. Joseph Valley and Chicago Road 
 
 A. The counties of this section 244 
 
 B . Physical characteristics 244 
 
 I. Surface 
 
 II. Drainage, water power and navigation 
 
 III. Lakes 
 
 IV. Soil 
 
 V. Forest 
 
 VI. Prairies 
 
 C. General survey of settlement 251 
 
 I. Beginnings of settlement 
 
 1. Cass expedition 
 
 2. Indian cessions and reservations 
 
 3. Relations of Indians and settlers 
 
 4. Influences of Carey Indian Mission 
 
 5. Influence of survey of Chicago Road 
 
 6. "Squatters" on the prairie land 
 
 7. Organization of local government 
 
 II. Condition of roads and travel in this section 
 
 1. Chicago Road as an axis of settlement 
 
 2. Taverns 
 
 3. Post offices 
 
 4. Platting of villages 
 
 III. Influence of St. Joseph River 
 
 1. Mills 
 
 2. Transportation 
 
 IV. Checks to immigration from cholera and Black 
 
 Hawk War 
 
 V. Comparative growth of population in this and 
 
 other sections 
 
 D. Early settlement of western counties, 1822-29 252 
 
 I. Effect of western settlement on rate of growth in 
 
 this section 
 
 II. Counties most favored in this period 
 
 III. Influence of Carey Indian Mission 
 
 1 . Founding 
 
xxviii CONTENTS 
 
 2. Early settlers in the neighborhood 
 
 3. Extension of the frontier from this center 
 
 4. Sources of immigration 
 
 5. Influence on Cass County 
 
 a. Synchronous influences 
 
 b. Sources of population 
 
 c. Rate of early settlement 
 
 6. Influence on St. Joseph County 
 
 a. Slight direct influence 
 
 b. Greater influence of the survey of Chi- 
 
 cago Road 
 
 c. Sources of early immigration 
 
 d. Northward extension of the frontier 
 
 7. Influence on beginnings in Berrien County 
 
 a. Niles 
 
 b. Portage Prairie 
 
 c. Berrien Springs 
 
 d. St. Joseph 
 
 1) Early French occupation 
 
 2) First American settlers 
 
 3) First strong impulse to settlement 
 
 8. Acceleration of settlement in the years 1827- 
 
 1829 
 
 a. Survey of lands into sections 
 
 b. Beginning of land sales 
 
 c. Establishment of western counties 
 
 d. Organization of Cass and St. Joseph 
 
 counties 
 
 e. Organization of township government 
 
 E. Early settlement of eastern counties, 1827-29 268 
 
 I. Hillsdale County 
 
 1 . Chief influences 
 
 a. Chicago Road 
 
 b. Prairies 
 
 c. St. Joseph River 
 
 2. First land sales 
 
 3. Influence of these centers of settlement 
 
 II. Branch County 
 
 1. Chief influences similar to those in Hillsdale 
 
 County 
 
 2. Ohio settlement on Bronson Prairie 
 
 3. Retarding influence of the Indians on Cold- 
 
 water Prairie 
 
 4. First settlement on Cocoosh Prairie 
 
CONTENTS xxix 
 
 F. Conditions of settlement in 1830 270 
 
 I. Comparative population of counties 
 
 II. Distribution of population by townships 
 
 G. Settlement of the section from 1830 to 1832 271 
 
 I. Blending of eastern and southern tides of immigra- 
 
 tion 
 
 II. Evidences of a more vigorous immigration 
 
 III. Cholera epidemic and Black Hawk War 
 
 H. Platting and initial growth of villages in the western coun- 
 ties of the section, 1830-34 272 
 
 I. In St. Joseph County 
 
 1. White Pigeon 
 
 2. Centre ville 
 
 3. Mott ville 
 
 4. Constantino 
 
 II. In Cass County 
 
 1 . Edwardsburg 
 
 2 . Cassopolis 
 
 III. In Berrien County 
 
 1. Niles 
 
 2. Berrien Springs 
 
 3. St. Joseph 
 
 4. Bertrand 
 
 I. Settlement of the eastern counties of the section, 1830-34 . . 278 
 
 I. In Branch County 
 
 1. The central area along the Chicago Road 
 
 a. Branch Village 
 
 b. Coldwater 
 
 2. Deflecting influences 
 
 a. Northern settlements related to Cal- 
 
 houn and Jackson counties 
 
 b. Southern settlement 
 
 II. In Hillsdale County 
 
 1 . Jonesville and the Chicago Road settlements 
 
 2. Rural settlement in the Bean Creek Valley 
 
 J. Settlement from 1834 to 1837 284 
 
 I. Distribution of rural population at the close 
 
 of the period 
 
 II. Distribution of village population 
 
 1. Hillsdale County 
 
 a. Jonesville 
 
 b. Hillsdale 
 
XXX CONTENTS 
 
 2. Branch County 
 
 a. Coldwater 
 
 b. Branch 
 
 c. Mason 
 
 d. Union City 
 
 3. St. Joseph County 
 
 a. White Pigeon 
 
 b. Mottville 
 
 c. Constantine 
 
 d. Three Rivers and Lockport 
 
 e. Centre ville 
 
 4. Cass County 
 
 a. Edwardsburg 
 
 b. Cassopolis 
 
 c. Whitman ville 
 
 d. Geneva 
 
 e. Adams ville 
 
 5. Berrien County 
 
 a. Bertrand 
 
 b. Niles 
 
 c. Berrien Springs 
 
 d. St. Joseph 
 d. New Biiffalo 
 
 f . Forest settlement in the interior 
 
 K. Sources of population 301 
 
 I. American sources 
 
 1. Ohio, Indiana and the Carolinas 
 
 2. "Pennsylvania-Dutch" 
 
 3. "Scotch-Irish" 
 
 4. New York and the New England States 
 
 II. Foreign sources 
 
 1 . English 
 
 2. Canadians 
 
 3. Germans 
 
CONTENTS xxxi 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 K.\LAMAZoo Valley and Territorl\l Road 
 
 A. Comparison with settlement in vSt. Joseph Valley 305 
 
 I. Precedence in time 
 
 II. General character 
 
 III. Influence of Indian trails 
 
 IV. Influence of physiographic agents 
 
 B. Waste surface 306 
 
 I. Marsh land 
 
 1. Extent, distribution and environment 
 
 2. Its advantages and disadvantages to settlers 
 
 a. Wild hay 
 
 b. Malaria 
 
 c. Impediment to transportation 
 
 II. Small lakes 
 
 1. Extent, distribution and environment 
 
 2. Its advantages to settlers 
 
 a. Beauty 
 
 b. Healthftdness 
 
 c. Fish 
 
 d. Means of transportation 
 
 3. Why comparatively neglected 
 
 C. Soils 310 
 
 I. In the river bottoms 
 
 II. In the prairies 
 
 1 . Characteristics of its settlement 
 
 a. Relation to forest land 
 
 b. Marginal settlement 
 
 c. Why preferi'ed to timbered land 
 
 2. Distribution in the section 
 
 3. The Kalamazoo prairies 
 
 a. Extent and distribution 
 
 b. Relation to prairies of Cass and St. 
 
 Joseph counties 
 
 c. Unity of earliest settlement in the two 
 
 sections 
 
 d. Immigration from eastern Michigan 
 
xxxli CONTENTS 
 
 e. Mingling of these eastern and southern 
 
 currents 
 
 f . Intermediate steps in immigration from 
 
 New England and from states south 
 
 4. The Calhoun prairies 
 
 5. Other prairies of the section 
 
 a. In Allegan and Van Buren counties 
 
 b. In Jackson County 
 
 III. Openings and plains 
 
 1. Extent and distribution 
 
 2 . Characteristics 
 
 IV. Heavily timbered lands 
 
 1. Slowness of settlement 
 
 2. Varieties of timber 
 
 3. Lumbering and water power 
 
 D. Centralizing agents: water power, drainage and means of 
 
 communication 321 
 
 II. 
 
 Rive 
 
 rs: general influence 
 
 1. 
 
 The Kalamazoo 
 
 
 a. General course 
 
 
 b. Uniformity of volume 
 
 c. Bottom lands 
 
 
 d. Variety 
 
 2. 
 3. 
 
 e. Transportation 
 The St. Joseph 
 The Grand 
 
 4. 
 
 The Paw Paw 
 
 5. 
 
 The Black 
 
 6. 
 
 The Raisin and the Huron 
 
 Indian trails 
 
 1. 
 
 The Washtenaw Trail : relation to the Kala- 
 
 
 mazoo River and the Territorial Road 
 
 2. 
 
 Local trails : relation to roads 
 
 3. 
 
 Concentration at fords : relation to first river 
 
 
 settlements 
 
 
 a. Kalamazoo 
 
 4. 
 
 b. Jackson 
 
 c. Saugatuck 
 
 Agreement of Indians and whites on condi- 
 tions for primitive settlement 
 a. Soil 
 
 
 b. Fish 
 
 
 c. Fords 
 
 
 d. Trade 
 
CONTENTS XX 
 
 e. Water power 
 
 f. Villages 
 
 5. Influence of the Territorial Road on choice 
 of early river sites 
 
 III. The Kalamazoo River: specific influence 
 
 1. First river settlements 
 
 a. Jackson 
 
 1) Environment 
 
 2) Geographic position 
 
 3) Personal motives of settlement 
 
 b. Kalamazoo 
 
 1) Environment 
 
 2) Experiences and motives of 
 
 founder 
 
 c. Saugatuck 
 
 1) Probable motives of its first set- 
 tler 
 
 2. Other river settlements: relative influence of 
 
 Territorial Road and water-power 
 
 a. Otsego 
 
 b. Gun Plains 
 
 c. Allegan 
 
 d. Albion 
 
 e. Marshall 
 
 f. Battle Creek 
 
 3. Early mills 
 
 a. Importance to settlement 
 
 b. Example of slow settlement due to their 
 
 absence 
 
 c. Location of first mills 
 
 IV. The Territorial Road 
 
 1. Rural settlement 
 
 a. Centralizing power of county seats 
 
 b. Influence not separable from that of 
 
 Kalamazoo River 
 
 c. Township organization 
 
 d. Land sales 
 
 e. Appointments of pioneer preacher 
 
 2. Travel 
 
 a. Need of the road 
 
 b. Slowness of improvement 
 
 c. Inconveniences and dangers 
 
 d. Amount of travel 
 
 e. Projected stage line 
 
 f . Condition of road in 1835-37 
 
xxxiv CONTENTS 
 
 3. Village life 
 
 a. Where best exemplified 
 
 b. Jackson 
 
 c. Kalamazoo 
 
 d. Marshall 
 
 1) Its promoters 
 
 a) Sidney Ketchum 
 
 b) John D. Pierce 
 
 c) Isaac E. Crary 
 
 2) Ideals 
 
 3) Actual conditions 
 
 e. Other villages 
 
 E. Deflecting influences 350 
 
 I. The i^rairie settlements 
 
 II. Openings and plains 
 
 III. Grazing lands 
 
 IV. Power sites on tributary streams 
 
 V. Chicago Road 
 
 VI. Rising value and scarcity of good lands untaken 
 
 along Kalamazoo River 
 
 F. Interrelations of settlements 355 
 
 I. Founding 
 
 II. Mills 
 II. Mails 
 
 IV. Merchandise and stores 
 
 G. General retarding influences upon settlement 357 
 
 H. Comparative status of settlement in difterent counties be- 
 fore 1835 359 
 
 I. Dates of first settlement 
 
 II. Dates of county organization 
 
 III. Relative populations in 1834 
 
 I. Probable local explanations of disparity of settlement. ... 361 
 
 J. Comparative status of settlement in different counties in 
 
 1837 : 362 
 
CONTENTS XXXV 
 
 j* _ 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Saginaw Country 
 
 A. Physical environment 364 
 
 I. Surface and soil 
 
 II. Timber 
 
 III. Water power, drainage and navigation 
 
 IV. Minerals 
 
 B. Early unfavorable reports 367 
 
 I. Influence of Indians and trappers 
 
 II. Abandonment of the military post at Saginaw 
 
 III. Misrepresentations by speculators 
 
 IV. Later prejudices 
 
 C. Counter reports 370 
 
 I. Report by Captain Price 
 
 II. Reports from the Cass Expedition to Saginaw 
 
 III. Journal of the "Sciawassee Exploring Company" 
 
 IV. Reports in eastern newspapers 
 
 D. Relations of the furtraders to the early settlements 374 
 
 E. The founding of villages 375 
 
 I. On the Saginaw River 
 
 II. On the Flint 
 
 III. On the Shiawassee 
 
 IV. On the Grand River Trail 
 
 F. Transportation 394 
 
 I. The Saginaw Trail and Road 
 
 II. The Grand River Trail and Road 
 
 III. River navigation 
 
 G. Early mills and milling 398 
 
 H. The trade relations of the settlements 399 
 
 I. Speculation and the panic of 1837 400 
 
 J. Areal distribution of population 400 
 
 I. The formation of counties and townships 
 
 II. The censuses of 1834 and 1837 
 
xxxvi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Grand River Region 
 
 A. Extent of settlement by 1837 '. 407 
 
 B. Physical environment 407 
 
 I. Surface 
 
 XL Soil 
 
 III. Drainage 
 
 IV. Water power 
 
 V. Timber 
 
 VI. Openings and small prairies 
 
 VII. Sites of early trading posts and settlements 
 
 C. Early reports about the region 411 
 
 I. United States surveyors 
 
 II. Missionaries and fur traders 
 
 III. Notices in gazetteers 
 
 IV. Misrepresentation and neglect 
 
 V. Newspaper reports revive interest 
 
 VI. First serious investigations looking to the founding 
 
 of villages and agricultural settlement 
 
 D. Trails and roads 415 
 
 I. Northern Trail and Northern Wagon Road 
 
 II. Grand River Trail and Road 
 
 III. Territorial Road 
 
 IV. Great Lakes and the Grand River 
 
 E. The Rapids of the Grand 421 
 
 I. Grand Rapids 
 
 1. Indian mission and the traders 
 
 2. New impulse of 1833 
 
 3. Growth from 1835 to 1837 
 
 a. Newspaper accounts 
 
 b. Development of water power and be- 
 
 ginnings of manufacture 
 
 c. Trade 
 
 d. Speculation in village lots and neigh- 
 
 boring lands 
 
 e. Effects of the panic of 1837 
 
CONTENTS xxxvii 
 
 f. Population in 1837 
 
 g. Early religious and educational institu- 
 
 tions 
 II. Settlements outside of Grand Rapids 
 
 1 . Grandville 
 
 2. Ada 
 
 3. Lowell 
 
 F. The Ionia colonies 431 
 
 I. The Dexter colony from Rochester, N. Y., 1833 
 
 a. The founding of Ionia 
 
 b. Early growth of the colony 
 
 II. The new land office and the speculations of 1836-37 
 
 III. Lyons and Portland 
 
 IV. Sources of first settlers 
 
 G. The mouth of the Grand 436 
 
 I. First traders 
 
 II. Activities of 1834-35 
 
 1. W. M. Ferry 
 
 2. Grand Haven Company 
 
 III. The "starving time" 
 
 IV. Status of Grand Haven in 1837 
 
 V. River settlements above Grand Haven 
 
 VI. The speculations of 1836-37 
 
 1. Port Sheldon Company 
 
 2. Land buying along the Grand 
 
 3. Scantiness of settlement away from the river 
 
 VII. Slight beginnings of Muskegon 
 
 VIII. Sources of early settlers 
 
 H. Settlements in heavily timbered land between Ionia and 
 
 Territorial Road 442 
 
 I. Bellevue: openings and water power 
 
 II. Charlotte: prairie 
 
 III. Vermont ville colony 
 
 1. Exceptional characteristics 
 
 2. "Rules and Regulations of the Union Colony" 
 
 3. Stimulus of moral purpose 
 
 4. Sources of the settlers 
 
 5. Occupations represented 
 
 6. Obstacles to growth 
 
 7. Effects of panic of 1837 
 
 IV. Eaton Rapids : water power and heavy timber 
 
 V. River settlements above Eaton Rapids 
 
xxxviii CONTENTS 
 
 VI. Distributionof population in Eaton Comity in 1837 
 
 VII. Sources of early settlers 
 
 I. Settlements between Grand Rapids and the Territorial 
 
 Road 451 
 
 I. Comparative scantiness of settlement 
 
 II. Distribution of settlement in 1837 
 
 III. Beginnings of settlement in 1836 
 
 1. The hostelry of "Yankee Lewis" 
 
 2. "The Barry County Seat Purchase," and the 
 
 Hastings Company 
 
 3. Early growth of Hastings, and relations with 
 
 Marshall and Kalamazoo 
 
 J. Settlements on the Lookingglass and Maple rivers 460 
 
 I. Retarding influences 
 
 1. Extensive speculation 
 
 2. Active hostility of trappers and traders 
 
 II. Speculations at the junction of the Lookingglass 
 
 and the Prairie Rivers ; Dewitt 
 
 III. Wacousta and other water power settlements on 
 
 the Lookingglass 
 
 IV. The "Rochester Colony" at Duplain on the Maple 
 
 River 
 
 1. Comparisons with the Ionia and Vermont- 
 
 ville colonies 
 
 2. Articles of association 
 
 3. Influences inducing settlement 
 
 V. Maple Rapids 
 
 VI. German Catholics in Westphalia Township 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 Sources and Character of Population 
 
 A. Nature and importance of the subject 468 
 
 B. Washtenaw County as typical of most of southern Michi- 
 
 gan 468 
 
 C. Proportion of population from various sources based upon 
 
 land patents to original purchasers 469 
 
CONTENTS xxxix 
 
 D. Proportions of population from various sources based upon 
 
 birthplaces of settlers 475 
 
 E. Comparisons and results 476 
 
 F. Proportion of population based on representative citizen- 
 
 ship 478 
 
 G. Qualities and ideals of the early settlers 482 
 
 I. Exaltation of the individual 
 
 II. Hardiness 
 
 III. Hopefulness 
 
 IV. Self-confidence and self-assertiveness 
 
 V. Originality and versatility 
 
 VI. Initiative and leadership 
 
 VIII. Domestic virtues 
 
 IX. Sense of social responsibility 
 
 X. Largeness of outlook 
 
 XL Eastern traditions in society; education and reli- 
 irion 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 A. Preliminaries to American settlement in Michigan 489 
 
 I. Causes of emigration from the East 
 
 II. Michigan's invitation to settlers 
 
 III. Government aids to settlement 
 
 IV. Relations with the French habitans 
 
 V. Checks and stimuli to settlement 
 
 B. Chief causes influencing the rate of settlement 493 
 
 I. Michigan's invitation to settlers 
 
 L Surface 
 
 2. SoU 
 
 3. Water power and drainage 
 
 4. Springs 
 
 5. Variety and relative density of timljcr 
 
 6. Openings, plains and prairies 
 
 7. Natural aids to communication and trans- ■ 
 
 portation 
 
xl CONTENTS 
 
 II. Checks and stimuli other than physical environ- 
 ment 
 
 1. Extinction of Indian titles 
 
 2. Rate at which lands came upon the market 
 
 3. Laws regulating land sales 
 
 4. The operations of speculators 
 
 5. The scarcity of a medium of exchange : banks 
 
 6. Early reports about Michigan lands and cli- 
 
 mate 
 
 7. Improvements in roads and means of trans- 
 
 portation 
 
 8. Malarious diseases and the cholera epi- 
 
 mics 
 
 9. The Black Hawk War 
 
 10. Character of the population 
 
 C. The population 496 
 
 I. Sources 
 
 1. The French habitans 
 
 2. Settlers from the East and South 
 
 3. The English, Irish and Scotch 
 
 4. The Germans 
 
 II. Chief agents determining the sources of this popula- 
 
 tion 
 
 1. Position of the Territory 
 
 2. Its greater accessibility for certain elements 
 
 3. Its economic appeal 
 
 4. The economic pressure at home and abroad 
 
 5. The southern barrier of competing lands in 
 
 Ohio, Indiana and Illinois 
 
 III. Characteristics of the several elements 
 
 1 . French hospitality and conservatism 
 
 2. Energy and enterprise of settlers from East- 
 
 em states 
 
 3. General high moral tone 
 
 4. Absence of eccentric elements 
 
 5. The Indians as an aid and a hindrance 
 
 D. The process of settlement 498 
 
 I. Motives influencing particular elements of the 
 
 population in their choice of location ^ 
 
 1. Ease of communication, defence and trade 
 
 2. Race affiliation 
 
 3. Influence of centers of population 
 
CONTENTS xli 
 
 4. Environment similar to that of the old home 
 
 5. Occupation 
 
 II. General location of settlers from different sources 
 
 where strikingly preponderant 
 
 III. Chief agents influencing distribution of population 
 
 E. The rate, distribution and amomit of areal settlement .... 499 
 
 I. Illustrated by the organization of counties 
 
 1. Comparison of counties east and west of the 
 
 dividing ridge 
 
 2. The shore counties vs. the first inland coun- 
 
 ties 
 
 3. The Chicago Road vs. the Territorial Road 
 
 4. The Grand and Saginaw Valleys 
 
 5. The county leading in population 
 
 6. The county leading in rural population 
 
 7. The leading count}^ on the Chicago Road 
 
 8. The leading county on the Territorial Road 
 
 9. The most backward counties 
 
 II. Illustrated by population for 1834 
 
 F. The centralization of population 503 
 
 I. The Territorial capital 
 
 II. Counties and villages 
 
 III. Incorporated villages 
 
 IV. Other villages platted 
 
 G. Individuality of centers of population 503 
 
 H. Economic classes 504 
 
PLATES 
 
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 OAKLAND COUNTY 
 1827 1833 
 
 Pontiac 
 
 Oakland 
 
 Bloomfield 
 Farmingfon 
 
 Troy 
 
 1835 
 
 Groveland 
 
 Pontiac 
 
 Highland 
 
 Waterford 
 
 Milford 
 
 Lvon 
 
 Commerce 
 
 ^ST 
 
 West 
 Bloom- 
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 Farrnington 
 
 Oakland 
 
 Orion 
 
 Pontiac 
 
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 Soutfi- 
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 Avon 
 
 Troy 
 
 
 
 Oak 
 
 and 
 
 Ponti a c 
 
 
 
 Farrnington 
 
 West 
 Bloomfield 
 
 Bloom 
 _field 
 
 Troy 
 
 
 Soutti- 
 field 
 
 1837 
 
 Groveland 
 664 
 
 Brandon 
 263 
 
 Oxford 
 384 
 
 Addison 
 343 
 
 Rose 
 202 
 
 Pdinsvllle 
 403 
 
 Indepen 
 dence 
 668 
 
 'Orion 
 593 
 
 Oakland 
 803 
 
 Highland 
 440 
 
 White 
 Lake 
 363 
 
 Water- 
 Ford 
 828 
 
 Pontiac 
 1700 
 
 Avon 
 1289 
 
 Milford 
 667 
 
 Commerce 
 747 
 
 West 
 
 Bloomfield 
 1004 
 
 Bloomfield 
 1485 
 
 Troy 
 1439 
 
 Lyon 
 
 105! 
 
 Nov! 
 1335 
 
 farming- 
 ton 
 1724 
 
 South- 
 field 
 956 
 
 Royal 
 0al< 
 825 
 
xlvll 
 
 WASHTENAW COUNTY 
 
 1827 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dexter 
 
 Ypsilanti 
 
 
 Ann /i 
 
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 1834- 
 
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 Sylvan 
 
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 Lodi 
 
 Saline 
 
 lorthfield 
 
 Ann 
 Arhor 
 
 Pitt 
 
 York- 
 
 Salem 
 
 Superior 
 
 Ypsilanti 
 
 1837 
 
 Lyndon 
 361 
 
 Dexter 
 595 
 
 Webster 
 832 
 
 .Vorthfield 
 793 
 
 Salem 
 1354 
 
 Sylvan 
 480 
 
 Lima 
 895 
 
 Scio 
 1442 
 
 AnnArbor 
 29144 
 
 Superior 
 1378 
 
 Sharon 
 782 
 
 Freedcm 
 795 
 
 Lodi 
 1063 
 
 Pitt 
 1208 
 
 Ypsilanti 
 2280 
 
 Mancheibr 
 805 *" 
 
 Bridgewatsr 
 "923 
 
 Saline 
 1130 
 
 York 
 1197 
 
 Augusta 
 559 
 
xlviil 
 
 LENAWEE COUNTY 
 
 1827 
 
 Tecumseh 
 
 Logan 
 
 BlissPield 
 
 1333 
 
 Franklin 
 
 h- 
 
 Tecumseh 
 
 Logan 
 
 BlissField 
 
 1835 
 
 1837 
 
 Franklin 
 
 Tecumseh 
 
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 Batavia 
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 367 
 
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 490 
 
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 404 
 
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 SHIAWASSEE COUNTY 
 
Ivi 
 
 TOWNSHIPS ORGANIZED IN 1827 
 
 Previous to the general organization of townships in 1827 (Territorial Laws, II, 479, 
 .587), townships were "set off" by proclamation of Governor Cass in Monroe County in 
 1817 (Territorial Laws, I, 323), and in Wayne County in 1818 (Territorial Laivs, II, 793). 
 As organized in 1827, Pontiac Township in Oakland County included also territory now 
 in Shiawassee, Saginaw and Lapeer counties (Territorial Laws, II, 477). Dexter Town- 
 ship, in Washtenaw County, included also a large area westward, until the organization 
 of townships in Jackson County (.Territorial Laws, II, 479). 
 
Ivii 
 
 TOWNSHIPS ORGANIZED IN 1829, DATA: 
 
 Berrien County, Territorial Laws, II, 786. 
 
 Cass County, Ibid., II, 786. Penn township included the county of Van Buren and all 
 that territory lying north which, with Van Buren, was attached to Cass 
 County for judicial purposes. 
 Hillsdale County, Ibid., II, 787. 
 Monroe County, Ibid., II, 720. The name of "Flumen" township was changed to 
 
 Summerfield the same year (Territorial Laws, II, 763). 
 St. Joseph County, Ibid., II, 786-787. 
 Washtenaw County, Ibid., II, 712. 
 
 Wayne County, Ibid., II, 737. A slight change in the boundary between Hamtramck 
 and Springwells affecting the "Ten Thousand Acre Tract" was made 
 in 1831 {Ihid., Ill, 900). 
 
Iviil 
 
 liii 
 
 
 pHljiHijjl 
 
 TOWNSHIPS ORGANIZED IN 1830. DATA: 
 
 Jackson County, Territorial Laws, III, 839 
 
 Kalamazoo County, Ibid., Ill, 839, 840 
 
 Monroe County, Ibid., Ill, 843. Apparently there was some difficulty with this Act, 
 
 which was confirmed by an Act of March 4, 1831 (T. L. Ill, 907). 
 Oakland County, Ibid., Ill, 818, 833 
 Saginaw County, Ibid., Ill, 818. This township was made co-extensive with the 
 
 county as laid out Sept. 10, 1822 (T. L., I, 334). The area was 
 
 diminished March 2, 1831, by excluding the two northwest townships 
 
 (T. L., Ill, 872) 
 St. Joseph County, Ibid., Ill, 826 
 
lix 
 
 TOWNSHIPS ORGANIZED IN 1832 
 
 Berrien County, Territorial Laics, III, 920. The middle township, Berrien, contained 
 a tier of surveyed towns plus two tiers of sections above. The error 
 in the Act organizing the northern township, St. Joseph, i.s corrected in 
 Ibid., Ill, 1249 
 
 Branch County, Ibid., Ill, 949. The name of the western township, Prairie River, was 
 changed to "Green" in 1833 (Ibid,, III, 1260) 
 
 Calhoun County, Ibid., Ill, 972 
 
 Jackson County, Ibid., Ill, 948, 957. In 1831 the name of the middle township, 
 Jacksonopolis, was changed to "Jacksonburg" (Ibid., Ill, 866). 
 
 Kalamazoo County, Ibid., Ill, 972 
 
 Macomb County, Ibid., Ill, 926 
 
 Monroe County, Ibid., Ill, 921. It was apparently the intention of the framers of this 
 Act to include in London Township at the north the small strip which 
 cuts it in two — a tier of sections in T5S, R8E. See Ibid., Ill, 1276 
 
 Washtenaw County, Ibid., Ill, 925, 928 
 
Ix 
 
 The outlines of the Lower Peninsula and of thedcounty boundaries are taken from The 
 Tourist's Poclcet Map of Michigan (Phila. 1835), and upon this map are projected the 
 township boundaries as they were in 1835. The townships of 1835, without exception, 
 were made not later than March, and hence do not represent any considerable immigra- 
 tion beyond 1834. Approximately therefore the map may be taken to represent the 
 relative distribution of population at the end of 1834, with allowance particularly for in- 
 crease in Jackson and St. Joseph counties. 
 Data for township organization in 1835: 
 
 Berrien County, Territorial Laivs, III, 1368 
 
 Calhoun County, Ibid., Ill, 1368 
 
 Cass County, Ibid., Ill, 1368 
 
 Eaton County, Ibid., Ill, 1368 
 
 HiUsdale County, Ibid., Ill, 1367 
 
 Lenawee County, Ibid., Ill, 1367 
 
 Livingston County, Ibid., Ill, 1368, 1404. The southwestern township, Unadilla, in- 
 . eluded one government township in Washtenaw County. 
 
 Macomb County, Ibid., Ill, 1368 
 
 Oakland County, Ibid., Ill, 1368, 1369, 1404, 1420 
 
 St. Clair Countv, Ibid., Ill, 1368 
 
 Van Buren County, Ibid., III. 1403 
 
 Washtenaw County, Ibid., Ill, 1404 
 
 Wayne Couitty, Ibid., Ill, 1359, 1368 
 
Ixi 
 
 CENSUS OF ORGANIZED TOWNSHIPS OF SOUTHERN MICHIGAN WHEN THE 
 STATE WAS ADMITTED TO THE UNION (1837) 
 
Ixli 
 
 St Joseph R, 
 
 S^.^. 
 
 Unusn 
 
 Cfrard 
 
 Buller 
 
 nsii 
 
 BaUv.s 
 
 Cdd 
 
 
 Bronwr 
 
 Belhel C.d 
 
 Noble 
 
 C,i,,d «i«de..|C«li. 1 
 
 ,j^ Showing the influence of Chicago road on selHemenl in Branch Co. 
 
 Ke^ \o townships 
 
 The outline and drainage shown on this map are taken from Tackabury's Atlas of 
 Michigan, p. 112. The courses of roads and trails are taken from Collin's FJistonj of 
 Branch County, as are also the data for settlement. It will be observed that nearly all 
 settlements which were made previous to 18.3.5 were made^on or very near the Chicago 
 Road. The exceptions in the north illustrate the influence"of Dry and Cocoosh prairies, 
 and in the south that of the oak openings. AVhere obtainable, the sources of the settlers 
 are given. 
 
Ixili 
 
 SMALL PRAIRIES IN SOUTHWESTERN MICHIGAN 
 
 Cass County. 
 
 1. Beardsley's prairie — Edwardsburg (Hist. Cass County, 45, 120) 
 
 2. Baldwin's prairie — Union (Ibid., 125) 
 
 3. Pokagon prairie— Pokagon (Ibid., 40) 
 
 4. La Grange prairie — La Grange (Ibid., 46) 
 
 5. Little Prairie Ronde — (Ibid., 51) 
 St. Joseph County. 
 
 6. Sturgis prairie — Sturgis (Hist. St. Joseph County) 
 
 7. White Pigeon prairie— White Pigeon (Ibid., 61; M. H. C, XVIII, 22.3) 
 
 8. Nottawa prairie (M. H. C, VI, 424) 
 Kalamazoo County. 
 
 9. Big Prairie Ronde— Schoolcraft (M. H. C III, 360) 
 Gourd-neck prairie — Vicksburg. 
 Genesee prairie (M. H. C, XVIII, 598) 
 Grand prairie (M. H. C, XVIII, 596; Hist. Kal. Co., 407) 
 Gull prairie (M. H. C, I, 207) 
 
 Toland's prairie (M. H. C, V, 3.59, 360; II, 159; Hist. Kal. Co., 351) 
 Climax prairie (Hist. Kal. Co., 324-5) 
 Dry prairie 
 
 Calhoun County. 
 
 17. Goguac prairie (M. H. C, III, 347; Hist. Cal. Co., 80) 
 
 18. Dry prairie (M. H. C, II. 209; Hist. Cal. Co., 116) 
 
 19. Cook's prairie (Hist. Cal. Co., 134) 
 Berrien County. 
 
 20. Portage prairie (Hist. Berrien Co., 208) 
 
 21. Wolf's prairie (Ibid., 198) 
 Branch County. 
 
 22. Bronson's prairie (.1/. //. C, VI, 217; XVIII, 609) 
 
 23. Cocoosh prairie (M. H. C, VI, 219; Hist. Branch County, 74) 
 
 24. Coldwater prairie (Hist. Branch County, 26) 
 
 10. 
 11. 
 12. 
 13. 
 14. 
 15. 
 16. 
 
Ixiv 
 
 INDIAN LAND CESSIONS, 1795-1837 
 See Appendix for description of cessions: 
 
 I— (1795), p. 520 
 II— (1807), p. 520 
 III~(1819), p. 522 
 IV— (1821), p. 524 
 V— (1836), p. 527 
 
 2.— (1817), p. 522; (1827), p. 525 
 
 3.— (1827), p. 525 
 
 4.— (1827), p. 525 
 
 5.— (1836), p. 529 
 
 6.— (1836), p. 529 
 
 7. — (1836), p. 529 
 
 8.— (1836), p. 529 
 
 9.— (1809), p. 521; (1818), p. 522 
 10.— (1809), p. 521; (1818), p. 522 
 11.— p. 523 
 12.— p. 523 
 13.— p. 523 
 14.— p. 523 
 •15.— p. 523 
 16.— p. 523 
 
 17 
 18 
 19. 
 20. 
 21. 
 22. 
 23. 
 24 
 25 
 26. 
 27. 
 
 28. 
 29. 
 30. 
 31. 
 32. 
 34. 
 35. 
 36. 
 
 —p. 523 
 p. 523 
 
 -p. 523 
 —p. 523 
 —p. 523 
 —p. 524 
 —p. 524 
 
 -p. 524 
 
 -p. 524 
 
 -(1821), p. 525, 526 
 
 -(1821), p. 525; (1828), p. 
 p. 527 
 
 -(1821), p. 526 
 
 -(1821), p. 526 
 
 -(1827), p. 526; (1833), p. 527 
 (1828), p. 526 
 
 -(1832), p. 526; (1833), p. 527 
 
 -(1836), p. 528 
 (1836), p. 528 
 
 -(1817), p. 521 
 
 527; (1833), 
 
Ixv 
 
 St.Joseph 
 
 TRANS-TERRITORIAL ROUTES OF TRAVEL 
 
 The solid lines indicate the stage routes, probably of 1834, as mapped in The Tourist's 
 Pocket Map (Phila., 1835). Deviations from the roads as the roads appear to have 
 been authorized by statutes, or as they were actually surveyed, are marked by dotted 
 lines. At intervals the first settlements are indicated. 
 
 The line farthest south shows the Chicago Road, authorized in 1825 (Stat, at Large, 
 IV, 135). As surveyed, it did not pass through Tecumseh (See plate cxxxviii in the 
 Bureau of American Ethnology, ISth ami. report, pt. 2). The settlements given are 
 those first made along its route. 
 
 The middle line shows the stage route through the Kalamazoo Valley, deviating in 
 its western course from the route apparently intended for the Territorial Road authorized 
 in 1829 (Territorial Laws, II, 744). 
 
 The northern line shows the Grand River stage route. According to statute the Grand 
 River Road, authorized in 1832 (Slat, at Large, IV, 560) was to be surveyed through 
 "Sciawasee." The Ionia colony seems to have used a route that far north in 1833 
 (M. H. C, XXVIII, 145) apparently the one shown. 
 
Ixvi 
 
 DETROIT IN 1796 
 
 (Burton's Building of Detriol, 21) 
 
 This wood cut was published in the Detroit Adrcrliser and Tribune for Sept. 11, 
 1871 The sl<etch from which it was made is said to have been originally drafted from 
 "an old map of the city" by Thomas Smith, a Detroit surveyor, and engraved for Rahjh 
 Smith, a real estate dealer of Detroit. The original appears to have been lost, bee 
 pp. 120-123. 
 
Ixvli 
 
 $ ILA.v 
 
 
 Jt^flHSON ^w 
 
 IHffl lEEEEB fij^mi^^iOl 
 
 ffpSi|i|. il }W^ IS 
 
 
 GOVERNOR AND JUDGES PLAN OF DETROIT, 1830 
 
 (Burton's Building of Detroit, 31) 
 
 This map was drafted by^John MuUett and engravediby J. O. Lewis of Detroit. An original 
 copy is in the Detroit Public Library. See p. 136. 
 
Ixviii 
 
Ixlx 
 
Ixx 
 
 SEAL OF DETROIT 
 {Mich. Hist. Colls., XXX, 337) 
 
Ixxi 
 
 SEAL OF NORTH WEST TERRITORY 
 (Mich. Hist. Colls., XXX, 323) 
 
Ixxil 
 
 GREAT SEAL OF THE TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN 
 
 (sMich. Hist. Colls., XXX, 326) 
 
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 OF MICHIGAN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 
 
 ^HE close relation between history and geography 
 can hardly be better stated than in. the words of a 
 well-known writer, that "all historical problems ought 
 to be studied geographically and all geographic prob- 
 lems must be studied historically."^ In an account 
 of the settlement of Michigan, therefore, some atten- 
 tion must be given to those geographic and geologic 
 forces by which the process has been partially condi- 
 tioned. 
 
 In geographic location, the most important single 
 geographic condition, ^ Michigan is specially favored. 
 On the south the lower peninsula reaches to latitude 
 41°69', on the east to longitude 82°40' ;' it is therefore a 
 little southeast of the geographic center of the con- 
 tinent and within range of glaciation; to this is due 
 
 1. Semple, Inflttett'ces of Geographic Environment, 11. 
 
 2. Ibid., 129. 
 
 3. Walling, Atlcis of Michigan (Detroit, 1873), cited infra as 
 
 Tackabavy's Atlas. The latitude of Detroit is about 
 the s.amrj as that of Albany and Boston. 
 
2 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 very largely its topography, drainage and soil. Its 
 latitude favors a climate somewhat like that of New 
 York and New England, but so modified by the Great 
 Lakes as to present some striking differences. Posi- 
 tion, moreover, has been a factor in determining the 
 fauna and flora. The population and institutions of 
 Michigan would have been other than they are had 
 the land been differently situated. Midway on the 
 northern boundary of the United States, Michigan was 
 easily reached from Canada, New York and New Eng- 
 land, and on the south from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky 
 and Tennessee. The tendency of population in the 
 United States to move westward along parallels of 
 latitude, early strengthened in this region by Lake 
 Erie and later by the Erie Canal, conspired to trans- 
 plant to Michigan the traditions, institutions and ideals 
 of New York and New England.^ Michigan's situa- 
 tion within the arms of great fresh-water seas aided 
 settlement by facilitating transportation and laying the 
 foundations of the fishing industry, of ship building and 
 of lake commerce. 
 
 The effect of Michigan's position upon its climate is 
 modified by the Great Lakes through the agency of the 
 prevailing westerly winds, which equalize the tempera- 
 ture and provide an amount of rain and snow that 
 help to give variety to the fauna and flora, to lengthen 
 the growing period for vegetation, and to protect the 
 tenderer flora from the extremes of heat and cold. The 
 resulting healthfulness, with respect to those diseases 
 
 4. An interesting result in institutional life is the Michigan 
 town-meeting, which has the powers of the New Eng- 
 land town-meeting, but the organization of the New 
 York county board. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 3 
 
 which accompany extremes of temperature, has been 
 of much consequence to settlement. It was pointed 
 out by Alexander Winchell that these characteristics of 
 southern Michigan climate were the distinctive features 
 of superiority possessed by Michigan in comparison 
 with her neighbors.^ 
 
 The relation of Lake Michigan and the westerly 
 winds to this climate is easily understood. The lake 
 contains about 3,400 cubic miles of water, extending 
 along the entire western side of the lower peninsula, 
 with an average width of about sixty miles and 
 a maximum depth of about a thousand feet. This 
 great volume of water becomes a reservoir of 
 heat comparatively constant in amount, since the 
 water, not being as good a conductor of heat as the 
 land, acquires its warmth slowly and slowly gives it 
 forth. The air over the peninsula is made compara- 
 tively uniform in temperature through the medium of 
 evaporation into the westerly winds which blow over 
 the lake in all seasons modifying their temperature 
 from its waters. 
 
 How great is this influence may be seen from a com- 
 parative statement." Milwaukee and Grand Haven 
 have approximately the same latitude: on November 
 18, 1880, when the temperature was 5 degrees Fahr. 
 
 5. Tenth Anmial Report of the State Horticultural Soc. of Mich- 
 
 igan (1880), 155. 
 
 6. The modifying effect of the Great Lakes is discussed by 
 
 C. F. Schneider in a report on Surface Geology and Agri- 
 cultural Conditions of the Soiithern Peninsula of Michigan 
 made by Frank Leverett, Mich. Geol. and Biol. Survey, 
 PubHcation 9, Geological Series 7 (1912), 28-32. Two 
 plates (pp. 30, 31) show January and July mean tem- 
 peratures from 1886 to 1911. 
 
4 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 above freezing at Milwaukee it was 18 degrees at 
 Grand Haven on the Michigan shore. ^ It was found 
 that extreme cold at Grand Haven for a series of win- 
 ters was fourteen degrees less than at Milwaukee.^ In 
 the number of days of growing weather, a factor very 
 significant for the tenderer vegetation, Grand Haven 
 has been found to gain over Milwaukee thirteen days 
 in spring and five in autumn, a condition that is chiefly 
 responsible for the Michigan fruit belt.^ The entire 
 western shore of the peninsula shares in varying de- 
 gree this comparative mildness of temperature and 
 freedom from early frosts for a distance of from five 
 to ten miles inland. On May 16, 1868, a frost which 
 was destructive in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio did no 
 damage in the Michigan fruit belt as far north as 
 Grand Traverse Bay.^" Extreme winter weather on 
 the southern shore of the lake at New Buft'alo, Berrien 
 County, averages about twelve degrees higher than a 
 
 7. Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep. (1880), 158. 
 
 8. Ihid., 163. 
 
 9. Ibid., 161. See Leverett, op. cit., 39-41, for plates giving 
 
 the average date of the last killing-frost in spring and the 
 first killing-frost in autumn for a series of years, also the 
 average length of the crop-growing season. The Detroit 
 Gazette, March 27, 1818, comments on the very cold 
 summer of 1816 and resultant destruction of crops; kill- 
 ing-frosts are said to have occurred every month during 
 the summer. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 358. The re- 
 lation of the climate and soil of the western shore to fruit 
 growing is well considered in the History of Berrien and 
 Van Buren Counties, 118-126, with references. 
 10. Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep., (1880), 160. The Detroit 
 Free Press, in an editorial of May 6, 1836, directed the 
 attention of immigrants to the northern part of the State, 
 affirming that the climate was not colder at Mackinac 
 than in New York. 
 
. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 5 
 
 little way around the shore at Chicago. '^ These con- 
 ditions are illustrated by the isotherms of extreme 
 minimum and extreme maximtun temperatures, which 
 run almost north and south along nearly the whole 
 western shore of the peninsula. ^^ 
 
 These contrasts hold, though to a less marked de- 
 gree, for the interior of the peninsula. A series of 
 records taken when the average July temperature was 
 68.8 degrees Fahr. at Grand Haven shows the ther- 
 mometer averaging 72 degrees for Grand Rapids and 
 72.3 degrees for Ionia. ^^ The eastern shores of Michi- 
 gan were influenced in a similar manner. ^^ Flora 
 native to Ohio and central Illinois are found liberally 
 distributed over the southern half of the peninsula. ^^ 
 It was Winchell's judgment that the seasonal tempera- 
 tures of Michigan, if carefully regarded, would permit 
 its people to raise all of the products suited to the 
 climate of Kentucky, Missouri and Northern Texas. ^^ 
 
 11. Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep., (1880), 163. 
 
 12. Tackabury's Atlas, 46. 
 
 13. See Mich. Geological Survey Rep., (1901), 83-84, for average 
 
 temperatures by months for west-central Michigan be- 
 tween the latitudes of White Cloud and Allegan. 
 
 14. See charts of seasonal isotherms of Michigan in Tacka- 
 
 bury's Atlas, 45-46, and in the sixth annual report of the 
 State Board of Health (1878), and in the Sixth Annual 
 Report of the State Board of Health (1878), 194, 197. 
 Mich. Geological Rep. (1900), Part I, 101-105, gives de- 
 tailed climatic data for Monroe County. In "The Cli- 
 mate of Detroit" {Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 367-383) Bela 
 Hubbard gives an excellent description of climatic condi- 
 tions in southern Michigan, and compares them with 
 those of New York and New England. 
 
 15. Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep. {l^m), ^29. 
 
 16. Ibid., 163. See Winchell, Sparks from a Geologist's Ham- 
 
 mer, 200-233, for general climatic conditions in the region 
 of the Great Lakes; also Mark S. W. Jefferson, Geography 
 of Michigan, 29-39. 
 
6 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Among the additional influences affecting Michigan's 
 cHmate are topography, rainfall and the forests. The 
 undulating surface, presenting slightly unequal eleva- 
 tions, operates to prevent frosts by keeping the air in 
 motion on hillsides. A difference of a hundred feet in 
 elevation may make a difference on a clear cold night 
 of many degrees in temperature." If this had been 
 understood by the early settlers of Michigan it would 
 have led them to choose the hillsides for their orchards 
 instead of the lower level lands, and would have saved 
 them many a crop of fruit. Evaporation from the sur- 
 face of interior lakes and streams has tended to moder- 
 ate temperature, and the forests have affected the sup- 
 ply of moisture. The average precipitation in Michi- 
 gan, including both rain and snow, is about thirty 
 inches;'^ less snow than falls in the same latitude of 
 New York and New England but more rainfall, owing 
 to the shorter winter and longer summer.'^ 
 
 These are climatic conditions that favor health. 
 Michigan's average mean annual temperature of 46 
 degrees Fahr. falls within the zone of greatest health, 
 which ranges from 45 degrees to 60 degrees. The 
 moderate lake winds, tempering the winters,"*^ are 
 
 1 7 . Resources of Michigan ( 1 893) , 42 . 
 
 18. Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep. (1880), 429. 
 
 19. See for winter, summer and annual precipitation, Tacka- 
 
 bury's Atlas, 49; Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1901), 83-84; 
 Mich. State Board of Health Rep. (1878), 194; Schneider, 
 in Michigan Geological and Biol. Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. 
 Series 7, pp. 35, 38, 42, 43, 47. 
 
 20. There have been, of course, many exceptions to the general 
 
 moderation of winter and summer. One exceedingly cold 
 winter, with deep snows, occurred in 1842-43, when there 
 was much suffering; roads were impassable, stock was 
 lost, and game perished. History of Berrien and Van 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 7 
 
 unfavorable to all diseases of the lungs and mu- 
 cous linings of throat and nose; while the same 
 agencies, cooling the summer's heat, are unfa- 
 vorable to all diseases common to high tempera- 
 tures. The configuration of the surface favored 
 the health of settlers, by insuring a complete system 
 of lively streams flowing to the Great Lakes. Good 
 drainage, combined with porous drift formations, in- 
 sured an abundance of pure drinking water in numer- 
 ous springs and wells. Michigan's pine forests, pro- 
 ducing ozone and favoring greater purity of air by 
 decomposing the products of decay, were early re- 
 garded as "the western haven for consumptives," -^ 
 Blois says in his Gazetteer (1838), that Michigan was 
 reported by immigrants to be healthier than central 
 Ohio, Indiana and Illinois,-- and adduces evidence from 
 animals slaughtered for the Detroit market to show 
 that animal life in Michigan was less subject to liver 
 complaints than in Ohio by chances of seven to one.-^ 
 He found no evidence of an original case of consump- 
 tion among the white settlers of Michigan, but many 
 instances of relief obtained by immigrants.-^ 
 
 21. A. C. McLaughlin, History of Higher Education in Michigan, 
 
 (Washington, 1891), 12; Mich. State Board of Health Rep. 
 (1878), 208. 
 
 22. Blois, Gazdtteer of Michigan, (New York, 1838), 126. 
 
 23. Ibid., ni. 
 
 24. Ibid., 126. The United States statistics of 1870, however, 
 
 show about the same per cent of pulmonary consumption 
 
 Buren Counties (Phila., 1880), 345; Mich. Joint Docu- 
 ments (1844), No. 52, p. 6. Curiously enough, that 
 severe winter was preceded by three winters whose mild- 
 ness is said to have caused much favorable comment 
 when comparing weather conditions in Michigan with 
 those in New England. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXI, 211. 
 
8 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Yet in the days of early settlement, the idea was 
 prevalent in the East that Michigan's climate was not 
 healthful."" This idea was probably due, partly, to 
 the tradition that the interior of Michigan was very 
 swampy; but it was due more largely to reports of the 
 actual sickness among the early settlers from malarial 
 diseases. The pioneers themselves explained the "fever 
 and ague" as consequent upon the natural conditions 
 of pioneering. 26 According to their theory, the plow- 
 ing of the land, which turned up decayed vegetation 
 to the direct rays of the sun poisoned the air, and they 
 noted that up to a certain point "fever and ague" 
 spread in proportion as settlement advanced. On the 
 other hand, as the whole of a large area became cleared 
 up the disease tended to disappear. The disease was 
 more often annoying than fatal, attacking settlers in 
 the season when they most needed to be well. It was 
 observed to come on with the spring plowing and to 
 last until the first frost in the fall, and there were few 
 who were not troubled with "fever and ague" at some 
 time during that period. In 1840 in the township of 
 Commerce, one of the best settled townships in Oak- 
 land County, "the various dwellings within the bounds 
 of the afflicted region were one vast series of hospi- 
 tals"" — the white population of the county was then 
 
 25. Ibid., 125. 
 
 26. vSee end of this chapter for notice of the mosquito as a car- 
 
 rier of disease. 
 
 27. Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 427. 
 
 in Michigan as in central Ohio, southern New York, 
 southern Vermont, western Massachusetts and Connec- 
 ticut, Maryland, eastern Virginia and northern Indiana, 
 which caused between fourteen and twenty per cent of 
 all deaths in Michigan. 
 
• PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 9 
 
 23,590, and this township, then of its present size, had 
 nearly a thousand people. ^^ Weight seemed to be 
 given to this pioneer theory by the fact that the good 
 natural drainage of the county favored the rapid de- 
 crease of the disease as the county grew older and as 
 drainage came to receive more attention from public 
 law. 
 
 Hoffman, a traveler visiting Michigan in 1833 from 
 New York, expresses this theory. He regarded it as 
 a wonder that a majority of the settlers should escape 
 with their lives. He deplored the fact that the anxiety 
 of new settlers to have a crop the first year should in- 
 duce them to plow up in June a soil "reeking with 
 vegetable decomposition," and allow it ''to steam up 
 for months under their very nostrils." He mentions 
 others settling near marshes for the sake of the wild 
 hay and drinking the water from the marsh streams or 
 from wells into which marsh-water percolated. A law 
 of the Territory forbade the flooding of green timber 
 when constructing mill ponds, because it was held so 
 pernicious to health as to affect the value of property 
 near the pond.^^ Hoffman observes that settlers re- 
 peatedly violated this law in their anxiety to have 
 mills at once. 
 
 The position, climate and local environment of Mich- 
 igan influenced vitally the extent, variety and distri- 
 bution of the forests, fruits, grasses and wild animals 
 
 28. Michigan Territorial Laws, III, 1275; U. S. Census (1840), 
 
 445. 
 
 29. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 193. For material bear- 
 
 ing on the early theory of malarious diseases, see Mich. 
 State Board of Health Rep. (1878), 209. The law re- 
 ferred to is found in Territorial Laws, II, 690. 
 
10 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 useful to the settlers. These were results closely 
 bound up also with topography, drainage and soil; to 
 present them intelligibly involves a reference to at 
 least the larger aspects of the formation and structure 
 of the peninsula. In Michigan's geological history the 
 three great facts are the deposition of the pre-pleisto- 
 cene rocks in the preglacial seas, the erosion of these 
 and covering with the glacial drift of rock and soil, 
 and the subsequent erosion, weathering and mixture of 
 these materials with decayed vegetation. The bed- 
 rocks have their most obvious significance for settle- 
 ment in their arrangement and .elevation; they govern 
 the distribution of minerals throughout the peninsula 
 and materially affect its topography and soil. 
 
 The arrangement of the bedrocks of the southern 
 peninsula is simple. They have been often compared 
 to a series of basins lying one within the other, succes- 
 sively shallower towards the one at the center.^" At 
 the center of the peninsula lie the "fossil swamp- 
 lands" of the coal basin, covering nearly a fifth of its 
 area;^' and circling about this lie the rims of other 
 basins varying in width and cropping out in places 
 through the overlying soil.'*^ j^ most of the peninsula 
 these rocks average in elevation not more than two 
 hundred feet above the level of the surrounding lakes, 
 reaching their highest elevation in the southern part 
 
 30. See the geological map of the lower peninsula in Mich. Geol. 
 
 Survey. Rep., Ill, Part I, and in Tackabury's Atlas, 
 38-39. See for discussion also the fourth report of the 
 State Geologist in Senate Doctinient (1841), No. 16, 137. 
 
 31. Mich. Geol. Survey, Rep., VIII, 234. 
 
 32. For rock contours, see plate II, in Mich. Geol. and Biol. 
 
 Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. Scries 7, opposite p. 18. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 11 
 
 of the peninsula at the northern and southern ex- 
 tremities of the southeastern divide, in the counties 
 of Oakland and Hillsdale. ^^ 
 
 Their minerals are various and widely distributed.^* 
 Those most important for early settlement were salt 
 and materials for buildings and roads. The use of 
 salt in the chemical industries, for soda-ash, bitterns, 
 etc., was not significant tmtil a later period of settle- 
 ment, but its common household and farm use was 
 important, almost imperative. The necessity of salt 
 for comfortable living is emphasized in the salt taxes of 
 many governments, and its economic importance and 
 supposed abundance in Michigan appears to have been 
 a very strong influence in motivating the first Michigan 
 geological survey expedition.'''^ Salt is commonly found 
 in Michigan in brine wells and springs contained in 
 the argillaceous strata, depending on the degree of 
 subdivision; it appears in great abundance in the 
 Saginaw country. Salt streams and salt licks were 
 
 33. Sixth Rep. Mich. Acad, of Science, 104. 
 
 34. There is a good brief discussion of the several formations 
 
 with reference to their economic products in Mich. Geol. 
 Survey Rep., IX, Part II, 13-36. 
 
 35. The first geological expedition (1837) was made into the 
 
 Saginaw region to examine the salt springs, an account 
 of which is given in Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 189-201. 
 The larger part of Houghton's report on the brine springs 
 of this region (1838) is in Lanman's History of Michigan, 
 354-363. Note the emphasis upon salt in the early State 
 Geological reports in House Document (1839), No. 2, 
 39-45; House Document (1840), No. 2, (I), 18-23; Joint 
 Document (1841), No. 5, 235-254; House Document (1842), 
 No. 2, 15-21; Senate Document (1843), No. 9, 402-408; 
 see Mich. Geol. Survey Rep., Mineral Resources (1912), 
 pp. 315-336, for bibliography of the Michigan salt in- 
 dustry. 
 
12 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 not uncommon, and in some cases they appear to have 
 influenced settlement directly; a French settlement in 
 southern Macomb County is said to have been induced 
 by the ease of obtaining salt at the mouth of Saline 
 creek ;3s the site of Saline in Washtenaw, on Saline 
 River, was the site of an extensive deer-lick," Salt 
 was not manufactured on a commercial scale in Mich- 
 igan until much later than this period. ^^ 
 
 Clay, sand and gravel, though formed and distrib- 
 uted by glacial action, have their sources in the bed- 
 rock. They make excellent building and road ma- 
 terials and are almost everywhere abundant. A pure 
 clay surface, or one in which clay is largely predom- 
 inant, is likely to produce muddy roads and streets. 
 Of this character were the roads leading from the 
 eastern shore to the interior and the impediment they 
 offered to settlement was one of the strong influences 
 that led to the early introduction of the railway. ^^ 
 The report that the citizens of Detroit commonly had 
 to cross the streets in the wet season on horseback is 
 probably no great exaggeration.*^ Heavy roads of 
 clear sand were the opposite extreme on the western 
 shore. The prevailing condition in the interior, how- 
 ever, is a mixture of clay and sand, which the settlers 
 by aid of abundant gravel could fashion into excellent 
 thoroughfares. Sand was early used for glass manu- 
 
 36. History of Macomb County (Chicago, 1882), 142. 
 
 37. History of Washtenaw County (Chicago, 1881), 1369, 1373. 
 38'. Not until 1860, and not profitably until much later; but in 
 
 these deposits there was the possibility, now realized, of 
 supplying one-fourth of the sale in the United States. 
 Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1901), 135. 
 
 39. See Lenawee County, in chapter IV, this voliune. 
 
 40. See Detroit, in chapter III, this volume. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 13 
 
 facture at Monroe and Mt. Clemens; and brick, though 
 apparently not of the best quality, was early made at 
 Detroit. 
 
 Sandstone, from which the clays, sands and gravels 
 are mainly derived is distributed in two wide rims, one 
 immediately about the coal measures, the source of 
 the beds along Sandstone creek in Jackson County;'*^ 
 a second in a much wider circle furnished the quarries 
 at Jonesville, Napoleon, Battle Creek and Marshall.*^ 
 A thin rim of carbonaceous limestone circles between 
 these sandstone areas, but its outcrops are very 
 limited. Ledges of this rock form the rapids at 
 Grand Rapids.^'* The principal limestone area is the 
 wide rim outcropping in Monroe and Wayne counties; 
 it forms the rapids in the Raisin at Monroe and the 
 beds of many rivers. ^^ The boulders, of glacial origin, 
 have in late years been much used for building. 
 
 Coal and gypsum were but slightly exploited in the 
 early period of settlement and hence, though today 
 they are of very great importance, they can properly 
 receive here only passing notice. Lying under a cloak 
 of glacial and lake deposits, the coal basin covers a 
 central area of about seven thousand square miles, 
 estimated to contain some eight billion tons of coal." 
 The extensive gypsum beds of Kent County form the 
 
 41. Lanman, History of Michigan, 348-351. 
 
 42. Blois, Gazetteer (New York, 1839), 39. 
 
 44. Blois, Gazetteer, 292; Mich. House Doc. (1840), No. 5, p. 42. 
 
 45. Blois, 349. 
 
 46. Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1901), 127. For the mode of 
 
 occun^ence and quality of Michigan coal, see Ibid., VIII, 
 Part II, (nine plates and colored map showing area of 
 deposit); also Smith, Mineral Resources (1912), 257-303. 
 
14 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 important plaster industry near Grand Rapids. ^^ 
 Mineral springs were early observed; one of snlphu- 
 reted hydrogen in Monroe County is said to have fur- 
 nished enough power to run a small mill/« 
 
 The three principal soil types of the peninsula are 
 determined by the relative predominance of sand, clay, 
 and lime/^ The rims of bedrock have by various 
 agencies, principally those of glacial and water action, 
 given their own character to the soils immediately 
 above them, especially where they have come com- 
 paratively close to the surface. The outer rim of 
 limestone underlying the eastern shore lands helps to 
 give a distinctly calcareous soil to Wayne and Monroe 
 counties. ^'^ The sandstone under the southeastern 
 watershed and the western shore may be partly re- 
 sponsible for the sandy pine-bearing soil of Oakland, 
 also of Saginaw and Ottawa counties, and of the 
 northern part of the peninsula. ^^^ Corresponding to 
 the mixed rocks of the coal measures there is a cor- 
 responding variety in the soil.". 
 
 The composition of the soil may be regarded from 
 the point of view either of its mechanical or its chemi- 
 cal composition. Its mechanical composition is due 
 largely to forces released by glacial action. In its 
 chemical composition the bed rocks have a large share. 
 
 47. See "Michigan and the Plaster Industry," in Mich. Geol. 
 
 Survey Rep. IX, Part II, (twenty-nine plates). 
 
 48. Blois, Gazetteer, 45, 232; Houghton's report, in Lanman's 
 
 Michigan, 364-365. 
 
 49. Winchell, Soils and Sub-soils, 75. 
 
 50. Lanman, Michigan, 351; Winchell, Soils and Sub-soils, 79. 
 
 51. Winchell, Soils and Sub-soils, 78. 
 
 52. Ibid., 76. The counties affected by each of these forma- 
 
 tions can be seen on the map in Tackabury's Atlas, 38-39. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS If, 
 
 The requisites to the fertihty of the soil, while partly 
 organic, are largely inorganic. The great bulk of it is 
 composed of mineral substances derived from rock 
 formations, ^^ Q^^id of these the rocks of the southern 
 peninsula furnished a large proprotion of all but the 
 alumina and potash,^-* which were derived from the 
 mica and feldspar in the pre-Cambrian formations. 
 Much of the sand came from the latter source — the 
 quartzites, granites, syenites, and gneissoid rocks of re- 
 gions north of the peninsula — traceable even to rocks 
 as far north as Hudson Bay. 
 
 The transporting agents were the ancient continental 
 glaciers. While there appears to be little agreement 
 as to the cause, advance and retreat of these great ice 
 masses, geologists concur as to the fact of the pheno- 
 menon, and that it affected in varying degree all of 
 the northern continents. ^^ As they advanced, scouring 
 and grinding the rocks of the lower peninsula, the soil 
 products were thoroughly mixed and spread in vary- 
 ing thickness over a surface worn down and smoothed. 
 
 The thickness of these glacial deposits average about 
 three hundred feet. The greatest depth is not known. 
 
 53. Silica, alumina, lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, oxide of 
 
 magnesia, potash, soda, chlorine, sulphuric acid, car- 
 bonic acid. 
 
 54. Resources of Michigan (Lansing, 1893), 40. 
 
 55. For theories of the advance and cause of the ice age, see 
 
 Lane, "The Surface Geology of Michigan," in Mich. 
 Geol. Survey Rep. (1907), 98-101. There is a good out- 
 line for the southern part of the peninsula in Leverett, 
 "Glacial Geology of Southeastern Michigan," in U. S. 
 Geol. Survey (1899), Monograph XXXVIII, 339-379, 
 386-406, 432-450. A good brief bibliography of the 
 glacial history and deposits of Michigan is given by 
 Leverett in the Sixth Rep. Mich. Acad, oj Science (1904), 
 100-110. 
 
16 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Deep well borings have penetrated sixteen hundred feet 
 and it is thought probable that they may reach an ex- 
 treme depth of two thousand feet.^'^ It would be expect- 
 ed from what has been said of the greatest elevation of 
 the bed rocks, the soil would be thinnest on the glacial 
 moraines, and that is found to be true; for example, in 
 parts of Jackson and Hillsdale counties." 
 ^ The fineness of these soils, their mechanical composi- 
 tion, is due obviously to forces introduced by glacial 
 action, varying with the degree to which the rocks 
 were broken up; and to the same agencies is due their 
 mechanical distribution. The United States Bureau of 
 Soil's scheme of soil classification for Michigan, based 
 on mechanical composition, shows twenty varieties of 
 soil varying from fine clay to the coarsest gravel, and 
 the Michigan geological survey for 1907 has mapped 
 the distribution of these under six principal groups. ^'^ 
 
 56. Mich Geol. Survey Rep. (1907), 101. 
 
 57. Sio^th Rep. Mich. Acad, of Science, 103, 104. A special study 
 
 has been made of soil depths in Monroe County, in Mich. 
 Geol. Survey Rep., VII, 192 (Contains contour map of 
 various depths). The average thickness of the drift in 
 the lower peninsula is about 300 feet. See Leverett's 
 discussion in Mich. Geol. and Biol. Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. 
 Series 7 (1912), 19-20. 
 
 58. For brief description of the soils of the State and their 
 
 adaptibility to agriculture, see Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. 
 (1907), 115-119. Accompanying this is a soil map of 
 the State prepared by J. F. NelHst (in pocket), based 
 upon the twenty fine-soil divisions made by the U. S. 
 Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils. The latter ser- 
 vice has prepared soil maps of the vicinities of Owosso, 
 Allegan, Alma, Pontiac, Saginaw and Cass counties. On 
 this map, the glacial outwash aprons (represented by 
 bright yellow) indicate the better class of sandy lands, 
 fine sandy soils resulting directly from glacial over-wash 
 or deposited in glacial lakes. They are widely distrib- 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 17 
 
 The general advantages of these soils are many and 
 important. Some of them will be already apparent. 
 Their great variety in both chemical amd mechanical 
 composition and the comparatively wide distribution 
 of most of them, laid the basis for a wide range of 
 flora and of rural industries. The wide distribution 
 
 uted but are most extensive in the south and west of 
 the peninsula and along the crest of the southeastern 
 divide above the bed-rock sandstone. The poorer sandy 
 lands (light yellow), due mainly to glacial drainage, are 
 found over the sandstone beds along the shore of Lake 
 Michigan, also in narrow bands through the heavy clay 
 along the eastern shore and around the head of Saginaw 
 Bay. The soils of greatest extent are those of morainal 
 origin. Both of the morainal soils cover a somewhat 
 rolling and stony surface. That in which clay pre- 
 dominates (solid red) is distributed mainly in wide 
 bands which mark the successive projections of the Sag- 
 inaw and Huron ice lobes into the interior. The soil of 
 similar character (stippled red) in which sand predom- 
 inates is of looser texture and covers wide areas over the 
 southern and central portions of the peninsula. The 
 till plains (blue) have more clay than the morainal soils 
 and cover a less hilly, or even level, surface, lying be- 
 tween the moraines. They are a fine sandy clay and 
 cover portions of the southern limestone areas, but they 
 are most abundant between the moraines southwest of 
 Saginaw Bay. Along the eastern shore, covering a large 
 part of Monroe, Wayne, Macomb and St. Clair counties 
 and reaching inland from Saginaw Bay far south into 
 Sliiawassee County, is a stiff lake clay (green) represent- 
 ing the ancient glacial lake bottom over limestone areas. 
 This is one of the most fertile soils of the peninsula, and 
 was the first with which settlers from the East came in 
 contact. Its heavy forests of ash and elm seriously 
 checked its settlement. See also map (new edition of 
 Lane's map of 1907) of a somewhat more minute classi- 
 fication, in Mich. Geol. and Biol. Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. 
 Series 7 (1912), opposite p. 12. Detailed data is given 
 in the same volume (pp. 87-140), by counties, arranged 
 alphabetically, showing area, swamp and lake sections, 
 and the predominant soils in each township. 
 3 
 
18 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 and abundant proportions of sand, which gains heat 
 rapidly, gives warmth to the soil, moderated by the 
 presence of clay. Mositure is well proportioned. The 
 porosity of the sand prevents the drowning of crops, 
 and the depth of the soil together with the clay keeps it 
 from drying out. There is little irreclaimable marsh- 
 land. In general the soil is easy to work, for the 
 assorting action of glacial lakes left the finer materials 
 on the surface. With a few exceptions it is not stony 
 like New England soil, and there are few barrens due 
 to outcrops. The mixture of clay and sand makes a 
 soil not too adhesive for the plow, and one not easily 
 washed full of gullies. The limestone areas are spe- 
 cially fortified against deterioration through wasteful 
 farming, and in many places there is an abundance of 
 natural fertilizers. 
 
 Important to these soils is their drainage and their 
 water supply, which depends largely upon the topog- 
 raphy of the peninsula. The striking similarity be- 
 tween certain topographic features of the whole of the 
 surrounding region suggests a common origin in some 
 force that operated more widely than in Michigan 
 only. A common feature is seen, for instance, in the 
 general direction of the axis of the Saginaw River and 
 Bay, the St. Lawrence River and Gulf, the Maumee 
 River and the Bay and the Fox River and Green Bay. 
 This long ago observed by Alexander Winchell was 
 designated by him the "diagonal system" in the topog- 
 raphy of this region. The axes appear to have been 
 determined by the direction in which the ice lobes were 
 projected, in combination with the strike, or angle, of 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 19 
 
 the strata over which they passed. ^^ Where the bed- 
 rocks were sufficiently consolidated to offer effective 
 resistance to the force of the ice, the diagonal direc- 
 tion of the surface features suffered modification; for 
 example, the Michigan shore of Lake Michigan now 
 runs approximately north and south. Along part of 
 the eastern shore the underlying trend caused con- 
 jointly by these forces has been concealed by post- 
 glacial deposits; the St. Clair and Detroit rivers run- 
 ning over these southward cause the peninsula in this 
 part to have a nearly uniform width. 
 
 By the original position of the ice lobes, by the depth 
 of the great lake basins and by the gradual recession 
 of the glacial waters, the peninsula was left with an 
 area large enough to insure a variety of settlement and 
 a pioneer period of long duration. Roughly, the pen- 
 insula has an area of two hundred by three hundred 
 miles, with the longer axis north and south. '^'^ That 
 portion of it which lies south of the latitude of the head 
 of Saginaw Bay, which alone received settlers by 1837, 
 about equals the combined areas of Vermont, Massa- 
 chusetts and Connecticut." The average width of this 
 part of the peninsula is about one hundred and ninety 
 
 59. See Winchell's formula for the relation of the glacial and 
 
 stratigraphic forces in the topography of the region, in 
 Tackabury's Atlas, 14, and a more extended discussion 
 in Amer. Jour, of Science, 3rd ser., VI, 36-40. The 
 "diagonal system" in Monroe County is discussed in 
 Mich. Geol. Survey Rep., VII, 118. 
 
 60. The extreme length of the lower peninsula is 111 .09 miles; 
 
 the extreme width is 197.057 miles. (Tackabury's 
 Atlas, 9). 
 
 61. Montcalm County was organized in 1850 {Session Laws, 
 
 121), with a population of about nine hundred {U. S. 
 Census, 1850, 893). 
 
20 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 miles, and the relation of this wide area to settlement 
 is seen in the comparatively late organization of county 
 and township government on the western shore. 
 
 The character of the shore lands is such as to have 
 given countenance to unfavorable reports about the 
 interior; at least in that respect they were a retarding 
 influence upon settlement.''^ These lands present three 
 well marked differences. The southeastern shore is 
 low, and comparatively level for a distance inland of 
 from five to twenty-five miles ; on the north and north- 
 east of the peninsula outcrops of bedrock give the coast 
 an abrupt and forbidding appearance; on the western 
 shores, low lines of wind-blown sand dunes rising in 
 places two and three hundred feet high suggest a 
 sterile back country. •'^ 
 
 The surface of the peninsula, especially of the south- 
 ern part, lends itself easily to agriculture, grazing, 
 lumbering and manufacture. This again is due to the 
 action of the waters of the melting ice lobes, eroding 
 and distributing the drift materials, determining the 
 undulations of the surface and the courses of the prin- 
 cipal streams. The topographical result for agricul- 
 ture is the almost total absence of the inconveniently 
 steep hillsides so characteristic of portions of . New 
 England and eastern New York. Yet the surface has 
 
 62. Oakland County was organized in 1820, Van Buren in 1837. 
 
 63. Blois, Gazetteer, '^49; Detroit Gazette, June 23, 1820. 
 
 64. Lanman, Michigan, 363. The conical cliff of white sand 
 
 south of Grand Traverse Bay, known as Sleeping Bear, 
 has a height of over three hundred feet. Blois, Gazetteer, 
 363. See also Jefferson, Geography of Michigan, p. 23, 
 fig. 11, showing the dunes on Lake Michigan. Mention 
 will be made of the encroachments of these sands in con- 
 nection with deforestation. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 21 
 
 sufificient elevations to insure lively streams for drain- 
 age and water power, and among them intervene large 
 areas of level or slightly undulating land.'^^ 
 
 The largest plain of the peninsula, the Grand-Maple- 
 Saginaw valley, extending across it diagonally from 
 the head of Saginaw Bay to Lake Michigan may have 
 been scoured out, if not produced, by the ice mass of 
 the Saginaw lobe." One of the early state improve- 
 ment schemes was to re-connect the two lakes across 
 this depression by a canal. "^ 
 
 The portion of the peninsula south of this central 
 plain is divided also into two watersheds by the south- 
 eastern morainal elevation noted above. ^^ This reaches 
 its greatest height, over seven hundred feet above lake 
 level, in Oakland and Hillsdale cotmties ;^° from this prin- 
 cipal ridge irregular lines of small rounded hills run west- 
 ward, in the intervals of which lie valleys with small 
 
 66. A map of contour lines is given in Tackabury's Atlas, 
 
 opposite p. 10, which was prepared from some six thou- 
 sand elevations measured in running levels for railroad 
 and canal surveys. A line is drawn for every fifty feet 
 of elevation. Few differences appear in the more recent 
 map accompanying the Mich. Geol. Survey Rep., for 1907. 
 See also plate V, opposite p. 24, in Mich. Geol. and Biol. 
 Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. Series 7. 
 
 67. See for history of the Great Lakes, American Geologist, XIV, 
 
 289-301. Diagrams of the retiring ice lobes, and of the 
 lakes in front of them are given in Mich. Geol. Survey 
 Rep. (1907), 124-131. 
 
 68. Blois, Gazetteer, 83. The highest point of the plain, a 
 
 moraine in Gratiot County, was only seventy-two feet 
 above lake level. 
 
 69. For fuller discussion, see chapter IV on the first inland 
 
 counties, and Leverett, in Mich. Geol. and Biol. Survey, 
 Pub. 9, Geol. Series 7 (1912), p. 18. 
 
 70. Sixth Rep. Mich. Acad, of Science, 104. 
 
22 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 streams. ^1 The position of this ridge so near to the 
 eastern shore makes the eastern watershed somewhat 
 abrupt, and its streams in parts of their courses are 
 correspondingly short and rapid. The current of the 
 Raisin, for example, while profiting by this for water 
 power, is said to have been early considered too rapid 
 for navigation.'- On the other hand, the long gentle 
 western watershed had sufficient incline for good water 
 power, and all of its principal streams were originally 
 navigated by small craft." 
 
 Northward from the central plain lies a second prin- 
 cipal elevation conforming to the general diagonal sys- 
 tem of the peninsula. This is higher than the southern 
 one, averaging about seven hundred feet, reaching its 
 extreme height of 1120 feet above lake level in Osceola 
 county." 
 
 The topography and soil of the peninsula and the 
 manner of their formation caused the general char- 
 
 71. A table of elevations for these summits is given in Tacka- 
 
 bur^^'s Atlas, 12. 
 
 72. A contour map of Monroe County, giving a line for every 
 
 ten feet of elevation, forms the frontispiece in Mich. 
 Geol. Survey Rep., VII. 
 
 73. A graphic comparison of elevations in the southern part of 
 
 the peninsula is seen in profiles of several railway beds 
 shown in the Mich. State Board of Health Rep. (1878) — 
 Det. & Mil. R. R., 179; Mich. Cent. R. R., 181; Lake 
 Shore and Mich. Southern R. R., 185. 
 
 74. Sixth Rep. Mich. Acad, of Science, 103. The relation be- 
 
 tween the northern and southern divides and the central 
 depression is shown clearly by the profile of the bed of 
 the old Saginaw and Mackinac division of the Mich. 
 Cent. R. R., lying through Jackson, Ingham, Clinton, 
 Shiawassee, Saginaw, Bay, Roscommon and Otsego 
 counties, in Mich. State Board of Health Rep. (1878), 181. 
 See also profile of the Flint and Pere Marquette, Ibid., 
 179. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 23 
 
 acter of the rivers and streams." Compared with other 
 rivers of the United States they are small, but they are 
 numerous, and measured by the windings of their 
 courses they are of great length. They have numer- 
 ous branches, and the branchlets of these in turn make 
 a network of small water courses of great value for 
 drainage, stock and distribution of water power. The 
 abundant supply of water to these streams is due to 
 generous rainfall, porosity of soil, and the many in- 
 terior lakes. The sinuosity of courses, the gentleness 
 of current and the evenness of volume are due to the 
 same causes combined with an undulating surface. At 
 many points ledges of bedrock cause rapids, though 
 these in general do not occur near enough to the lakes 
 to prevent navigation inland for small boats up to the 
 settlements made at the power sites, as at Grand 
 Rapids and Allegan. The mouths of many of the 
 rivers furnished to settlers good natural harbors. 
 
 The principal rivers of the eastern watershed are the 
 Raisin, the Huron, the Clinton, and the Saginaw, and 
 their branches. Raisin River, though one of the most 
 rapid streams of the peninsula, has the most winding 
 course of all. In a direct line from its source in the 
 moraine in Hillsdale County to its mouth in Lake 
 Erie it is but sixty miles; by its windings it measures 
 one hundred and thirty miles. The rapidity of its 
 descent and its long meanderings distribute widely 
 many excellent power sites, while its high banks and 
 
 75. For a good brief description of the leading features of the 
 drainage system of the lower peninsula, see Leverett. 
 in Mich. Geol. and Biol. Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. Series 7, 
 pp. 24-27. 
 
24 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 limestone bed make for both beauty and utility. '^^ 
 Huron River has a less rapid descent and hence a 
 more moderate current than the Raisin. The com- 
 parative sinuosity of its course may be judged from its 
 ninety miles of windings over a direct distance about 
 the same as that measured by the Raisin. It shares 
 two characteristics of the rivers rising in the southern 
 divide — the presence of numerous small lakes and 
 creeks at and near their heads, and the receipt of the 
 bulk of their waters in the upper part of their courses, 
 characteristics which make strongly icr an even supply 
 of water power." 
 
 Clinton River rises in the numerous small lakes of 
 the Oakland County moraine, and though only fifty 
 miles long it gives valuable power at many sites. 
 Twenty miles of the lower course, from Mt. Clemens 
 to Rochester, was originally navigable for small boats ;^^ 
 the removal of the bars at this river mouth, as well as 
 at the mouth of the Raisin, was the earliest harbor 
 improvement, opening these rivers for large boats to 
 Mt. Clemens and Monroe. 
 
 The thirty miles of Saginaw River is really a drowned 
 valley. This river is therefore comparatively sluggish, 
 and though navigable, having a depth of from twenty 
 to thirty feet, it gives little power. ^^ But its many 
 branches — the Cass, the Tittabawassee, the Chippewa, 
 the Flint, and the Thread — are lively streams furnish- 
 
 76. Blois, Gazetteer, 349. 
 
 77. Ibid., 303. 
 
 78. Ibid., 264. 
 
 79. Ibid., 355-356. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 25 
 
 ing power in abundance. On the latter branch were 
 built the first mills of this region.^" 
 
 The rivers of the western watershed that were most 
 important to settlement in this period were the St. 
 Joseph, the Kalamazoo and the Grand. ^^ These have 
 much in common. The sources of their main branches 
 lie close together, in that portion of the southeastern 
 moraine which gives rise to the Raisin and the Huron. 
 From here their courses rapidly diverge, enclosing two 
 pieces of land roughly triangular in shape, which have 
 their bases abutting on Lake Michigan. Their mouths 
 on that shore are a considerable distance apart. That 
 of the Kalamazoo is forty-one miles north of the mouth 
 of the St. Joseph, and twenty-nine miles south of that 
 of the Grand. All are serpentine, measuring along 
 their windings more than double the direct distance 
 from source to mouth, and their branches minutely 
 sub-divide over wide basins. The Grand drains in the 
 central plain an area co-extensive with the larger por- 
 tion of the coal measures. They have comparatively 
 uniform currents, though in the wet season they gen- 
 erally increase in volume; the St. Joseph rises in places 
 from four to six feet. The increase of power at these 
 times causes them to erode their banks at the turnings, 
 and often to deposit, as at Niles, sufficient debris to 
 
 80. Attention will be given later to St. Clair River and its 
 
 branches, and to the smaller streams lElowing into the 
 eastern shore water, which were many and very im- 
 portant to settlement. See the study of St. Clair River 
 and delta in Mich. Geol. Survey Rep., IX, 1-25, (Maps 
 and diagrams). 
 
 81. Blois, Gazetteer, 294, 306, 367. There is a good brief out- 
 
 line of the river system of western Michigan in the 
 American Geologist, I, 143-146. 
 
. 26 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 obstruct navigation. ^2 Except in a few places erosion 
 has worn deep their beds, making high banks which 
 protect the neighboring lands from freshets. Mill 
 sites are plentiful and navigation is possible for a con- 
 siderable distance inland. Excepting for sand-bars, 
 the width and depth made these river mouths originally 
 excellent harbors. The mouth of the St. Joseph, for 
 instance, was originally a quarter of a mile wide and 
 from nine to fourteen feet deep. 
 
 The advantages of these waterways to early settle- 
 ment were many and obvious. Except at Detroit, the 
 early French settlements were at the river mouths and 
 along the lower courses of the rivers and streams flow- 
 ing into the eastern water front. The American set- 
 tlers, going up these streams in search of open land 
 and mill sites, were aided in their search by the Indian 
 trails along the banks of the largest streams. The aid 
 of water power in cutting lumber was much needed in 
 the early days when it was costly and difficult to trans- 
 port steam machinery inland, and when sawed lumber 
 was much in demand by an ever increasing number of 
 home-builders. The "saw-mill town" was likely to 
 have at an early time its grist mill, distillery and tan- 
 nery because of the same supply of cheap power. 
 Water power was often most easily obtained at the 
 junction of a creek with the main stream, or at a bend 
 in the river where a dam could be easily made and a 
 rapid fall be secured by cutting across the neck of the 
 projecting land — as at Dexter, Tecumseh or Adrian. 
 A ford in the river, marked often by the crossing of an 
 Indian trail, or by a junction of such trails, offered ad- 
 
 82. Lanman, Michigan, 375. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 27 
 
 vantages for transportation in addition to power — as 
 at Jackson, Kalamazoo and Pontiac. Ledges of rocks 
 in the river formed rapids and made excellent power 
 sites — as at Grand Rapids, Allegan and Monroe. 
 
 It will be observed that east of the southeastern 
 divide, settlements were very early made at Rochester, 
 Pontiac, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Tecumseh and Adrian. ^^^ 
 The situation of these in a line almost parallel with the 
 shore and about half way between the shore and the 
 crest of the divide was not fortuitous, but marked the 
 presence of a water power belt.^^ Some emphasis 
 should be placed upon the extent to which the small 
 creeks gave water power, a distinct factor in the ex- 
 tension of the frontier away from the principal streams. 
 They were especially useful in the vicinity of the eastern 
 highland, since their power, which depended upon their 
 fall, was there in many cases very great; for example, 
 Pettibone Creek, a diminutive stream in Oakland 
 County with a fall of about a hundred feet in eight 
 miles, furnishes at various village sites a total of two 
 hundred horsepower. ^'^ Their utility for drainage and 
 the watering of stock gains importance from their 
 minute subdivision — like the Rouge, a small branch of 
 the Detroit river which drains an estimated area of 
 three hundred and sixty square miles. ^'^ Most of these 
 
 83. There is a good brief statement of the water power of 
 
 southern Michigan in the Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1901), 
 126. A more detailed study is contained in the Water 
 Supply Papers, Nos. 30, 48, 49 of the U.S. Geol. Survey. 
 See also the discussion for the southern tier of counties 
 in Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1903), 73-83 (Maps). 
 
 84. Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1901), 126. 
 
 85. Resources of Michigan (1893), 90. 
 
 86. Ibid., 90. 
 
28 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 streams are fed by springs and lakes which regulate 
 their volume and hence their efficiency. Clinton River 
 in Oakland County is fed by a chain of lakes." 
 
 The economical transportation of logs and lumber by 
 water has always been an item of great value in the 
 settlement of Michigan. It was specially so in the 
 early days when economy in all things was a necessity. 
 Easy transportation extended the service of one mill 
 on a stream to all the settlements below, and the 
 tributaries above a mill extended the availability of 
 timber to their farthest reach. The cost of hauling 
 logs overland confined early lumbering to their banks, 
 leaving the intervening tracts to the day of the rail- 
 road; yet the amount of timber that could be easily 
 reached by water was large, and much lumber was 
 exported. At Allegan four million feet of lumber was 
 cut in 1839 and rafted to Lake Michigan down the 
 Kalamazoo River. ^^ In the same year three million 
 feet of lumber was rafted for shipment from Grand 
 Rapids to Grand Haven. ^^ Even after the railroad 
 appeared, river transportation was used wherever pos- 
 sible and saved many millions of dollars to the Itunber 
 industry. 
 
 River navigation and canal building naturally re- 
 ceived much attention in the days when overland travel 
 meant principally the wagon and the stagecoach. It 
 
 87. Ibid., 91. Artesian wells have been used for power to nin 
 
 hydraulic rams, and like the springs, furnish a perpetual 
 supply of drinking water for house and stock. For 
 artesian well areas, springs and non-flowing wells, see 
 Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1903), 47-72; also the Ann 
 Arbor Folio, prepared by the U. S. Geol. Survey. 
 
 88. Lanman, Michigan, 368. 
 
 89. Ibid., 367. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 29 
 
 has been noted that several of the rivers of Michigan 
 were by nature fitted for navigation to some distance 
 inland, but little success was met in trying to navigate 
 the eastern rivers. The current of the Raisin appears 
 to have been considered too rapid, except near the 
 mouth. The Huron was used by the first settlers of 
 Washtenaw county for poleboats, and at one time the 
 citizens of Ypsilanti made an unsuccessful experiment 
 with a large boat of that type to run between there and 
 the lake.^"^ The Clinton was navigable for small boats 
 from Mt. Clemens to Rochester; the vicinity of this 
 river was the site of the most active attempt to build 
 state canals. 31 
 
 Of the western rivers the Grand was the most promis- 
 ing for navigation. 32 The Kalamazoo had a gentle cur- 
 rent, but enough volume to enable large boats to reach 
 Allegan; in the wet season they could go up as far as 
 Kalamazoo. 33 The St. Joseph was ordinarily navig- 
 able for small steamboats to Niles, and by poleboats 
 from there to Three Rivers. ^^ The Grand is said to 
 have been navigable for small boats two hundred and 
 forty of its two hundred and seventy miles of length ;35 
 in the season of 1836 there were on the Grand River 
 four boats of the tonnage and construction of the Erie 
 Canal boats, in addition to a class of smaller boats of 
 
 90. See chapter IV, on the First Inland Counties. 
 
 91. Blois, Gazetteer, 82. 
 
 92. For water power and navigability of the Grand, the Kala- 
 
 mazoo and the St. Joseph rivers, see the reports of 
 surveyors to the State Commissioners of Internal Im- 
 provement, in Lanman's Michigan, 366-383. 
 
 93. Ihid., 368. 
 
 94. Ihid., 372. 
 
 95 . History oj Washtenaw County (1881), 121. 
 
30 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BECmNINGS 
 
 from ten to fifteen tons burden;^*' in 1839 a steamboat 
 of three and one-half feet draft made daily trips be- 
 tween Grand Haven and Grand Rapids, and two more 
 boats of the same class were added before 1840." 
 
 The Great Lakes were valuable complements of the 
 river system of Michigan for transportation, commerce 
 and fisheries. These great basins, comprising together 
 more than one-half of the fresh water of the globe were, 
 if not entirely produced, widened, deepened and filled 
 by glacial action. *"* It was most significant for the 
 later settlement of Michigan that the position of 
 the head of Lake Michigan should have brought 
 within such easy reach from Michigan a point 
 fitted to become the great central market of the 
 Middle West — the site of Chicago. The combined 
 action of lake and river made possible very good 
 harbors in the drowned valleys of the river mouths, 
 some of which needed but little improvement to make 
 them immediately effective for settlement ; the mouth 
 of Grand River originally admitted vessels of twelve 
 feet draft. 9^ The small lakes along the western shore 
 at river mouths are drowned valleys and many of them 
 have been made into good harbors by cutting through 
 the sandbars that hem them in from the lake.^*'" Har- 
 bor improvements were early made at the mouths of 
 
 96. Lanman, Michigan, 367. 
 
 97. Ibid., 367. 
 
 98. The origin of the basins is discussed in the Quart. Jour. Geol. 
 
 Soc. Lond., XLVI, 523-533. See for a bibliography of 
 the Great Lakes, G. C. Russell, Lakes of North America, 
 96-104. 
 
 99. Blois, Gazetteer, 294. 
 100. Lanman, Michigan, 370. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 31 
 
 the Clinton and the Raisin. ^"^ As early as 1818 steam 
 transportation began on Lake Erie from Buffalo to 
 Detroit; in 1834 a boat built and launched at Monroe 
 is said to have begun regular trips to Buffalo. ^^^ jj^- 
 migrants are said to have been brought to the western 
 shore of Michigan by way of the lakes as early as 1830 
 and this route became the common way of transport- 
 ing goods to the western part of the peninsula. ^^^ 
 Shipbuilding was fostered by the needs of growing 
 settlement and became early an important industry at 
 Detroit, Monroe, Mt. Clemens and St. Clair. 'O'* 
 
 While the fish of the Great Lakes did not become 
 of commercial importance until the decade 1830-40, 
 the early settlers placed a high vakie upon them.^"^ 
 The Jesuits and travelers of very early days noted the 
 abundance and variety of these fish, and they are 
 mentioned with emphasis in an English emigrant's 
 guidebook of 1820.ios The most favored fish seem to 
 have been the whitefish, the sturgeon, the lake trout, 
 the bass, the pickerel and the herring. ^"^ Among the 
 French the autumn fishing season for whitefish was one 
 of much pleasure and excitement, the whitefish being 
 specially valued for its fine flavor. ^''^ Not least im- 
 
 101. See chapter III, on Monroe. 
 
 102. Ibid. 
 
 103. See chapters V and VI on the St. Joseph and Kalamazoo 
 
 valleys. 
 
 104. See chapter III, this volume. 
 
 105. Resources of Michigan (1893), 176. 
 
 106. A Geographical, Historical, Commercial and Agricultural 
 
 View of the United States, etc., Lond., 1820, p. 695. 
 
 107. The varieties most commonly known to the early settlers 
 
 were the sturgeon, whitefish, trout, pickerel, pike, perch, 
 herring, bass, etc., (Blois, Gazetteer, 55). 
 
 108. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 361. 
 
32 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 portant for settlement was the distribution of many 
 varieties of lake fish inland by means of the rivers and 
 streams. The sturgeon, which came up the rivers to 
 spawn in the early spring, were caught in large num- 
 bers i^"^ they were no small addition to a settler's 
 larder, averaging in weight about seventy pounds i^^" 
 of the smaller fish, the lake-trout averaged from ten to 
 twenty pounds. The rapid increase in settlement be- 
 ginning about 1830, and the demand for fish by neigh- 
 boring states, attracted the attention of capitalists to 
 the Great Lakes fisheries, among others the American 
 Fur Company, who employed chiefly the French-Can- 
 adians.^" It is estimated that in 1830 eight thousand 
 barrels of fish, valued at forty thousand dollars, were 
 put on the market."- The rapid growth of the indus- 
 try is seen in the thirteen thousand five hundred 
 barrels, valued at one hundred and twenty-five thou- 
 sand dollars, marketed in 1837. Three-fourths of the 
 entire amount was shipped to Ohio, New York, and 
 Pennsylvania."^ 
 
 The inland lakes, so characteristic of Michigan 
 topography except on the eastern shore lands, were 
 useful to settlers for their fish and game. In some 
 places they furnished water for stock, and facilities for 
 transportation and lumbering. Like the Great Lakes, 
 these were of glacial origin, being depressions in the 
 surface filled with water from the melting ice. The 
 
 109. Lanman, Michigan, 264. 
 
 110. Blois, Gazetteer, 56. 
 
 111-. Lanman, Michigan, 264; Blois, Gazetteer, 57. 
 
 112. Blois, Gazetteer, 56; Detroit Journal and Michigan Adver- 
 
 tiser, December 15, 1830. 
 
 113. Blois, Gazetteer, 57. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 33 
 
 extent and wide distribution of these bodies of water 
 in Michigan has given rise to the idea of reclaiming the 
 fertile soils which they cover. They vary in size from 
 one acre to a thousand acres, and in some places they 
 are so close together that several can be seen from one 
 point of view. They are most numerous where the 
 surface is most irregular, as along the southeastern 
 divide; in Oakland County there are some four hun- 
 dred of them. Numbering in the peninsula about five 
 thousand, they cover several thousand square miles. 
 In general they are quite deep and have gravelly bot- 
 toms; where they are fed by springs their waters are 
 cool and transparent. Bass, pike, pickerel, perch, sun- 
 fish and blue gills are common to most of them,^i^ and 
 they are the resort of a variety of aquatic fowls. Rem- 
 iniscenses of settlers abound in descriptions of their 
 beauty. With these advantages, besides affording in- 
 exhaustible pure water for stock, one of these lakes 
 made a valuable appendage to a settler's farm. To 
 quote an extract from a settler's letter i"^ "No part of 
 the country is more healthy than the vicinity of these 
 lakes, and emigrants who are not haunted with vain 
 fears and prejudices respecting their tendency to pro- 
 duce ague and fever always seek to locate by the side 
 of them." However, it is commonly reported by 
 travelers in the early days that comparatively few 
 people settled on their banks, finding location sites of 
 greater economic advantage on a stream, a traveled 
 highway or on open land. 
 
 114. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXI, 265. 
 
 115. Detroit Free Press, October 6, 1831, 
 
 5 
 
34 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 These lakes are by many thousands less numerous 
 now than in the period when they were formed. Na- 
 tural drainage, evaporation, wave action and vegetation 
 have filled in many of them, which survive as marshes, 
 peat bogs, meadows and small prairies. The lake de- 
 posits are economically very important for settlement. 
 Marl has many uses, among others that of a natural 
 fertilizer. Peat, which "represents an advanced stage 
 of swamp with drainage partly established,""" was 
 not significant for settlement when timber was abun- 
 dant. Muck land, a preliminary stage of peat, ex- 
 emplified in the original state of the present celery beds 
 near Kalamazoo, makes very productive land when 
 drained; meadow land, like that originally in south- 
 eastern Jackson County, represents a condition of poor 
 drainage rather than a soil composition. 
 
 In the small prairies, most of which are in south- 
 western Michigan, settlers found many attractions, and 
 these lands exercised in that region a very decided in- 
 fluence upon early settlement. In origin and nature 
 these little islets in the original forest were the same 
 with the great prairies south and west of them. Their 
 soil represents the deposits of glacial lakes which were 
 drained perhaps as early as the recession of the glacial 
 waters. Their lake origin is witnessed by abundant 
 shells, and by the thickness of decayed vegetation. 
 The treeless character of these areas was due partly to 
 natural causes, and partly to the Indians. The grass 
 early got the start of trees because of the agencies which 
 supplied its first seeds — birds, wind and water, which 
 
 116. Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1907), 112. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 35 
 
 could convey only the lighter seeds i^^^ later, the Indians 
 fired these grass-lands annually, as well as the forests, 
 to improve their hunting-grounds by decoying the deer 
 to the tender new growths. ^^^ 
 
 In marked contrast to these open prairies were the 
 forest lands, whose relation to settlement was definite 
 both in respect of their timber and their soils. In some 
 places the removal of the forest has made very em- 
 phatic its value as a protection to the soil ; as at Grand 
 Haven, where the encroachment of the sand, made 
 incoherent by deforestation, has in late years become 
 a serious menace. The wind, given a free passage, 
 carries the loose sand far inland and overlays the pro- 
 ductive soils with it. The results of this show plainly 
 in the slower settlement of western Ottawa County as 
 compared with that of portions of the western shore 
 where the dunes are less prominent. ^^^ On the other 
 hand, settlement was in places variously impeded by 
 the density of the forest. Washing away of the soil, 
 which in mountainous countries has frequently fol- 
 lowed deforestation, is provided against in this pen- 
 insula by the comparatively level surface. In past 
 times the forest has been the most important source of 
 the organic properties of the soil, for a great majority 
 of Michigan trees are deciduous. The effect of the 
 forest upon the supply of moisture and hence upon 
 climate, drainage and health, has been remarked fre- 
 
 117. Winchell, Soils and Sub-soils, 85. 
 
 118. Blois, Gazetteer, 26; Detroit Gazette, Nov. 8, 1825. 
 
 119. See a discussion of this difficulty in Mich. Pomological Soc. 
 
 Rep. (1875). 
 
36 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 quently;^2o directly, the lumber industry has affected 
 population by drawing to Michigan capital and men 
 from lumbering states in the East; in later settlement, 
 lumbering in the softwood belt was chiefly responsible 
 for the large accessions of Canadians. Lumbering on 
 this scale, however, was not an influence upon settle- 
 ment before 1850, at about which time there began 
 that systematic exploitation of timber in the Grand 
 and Saginaw valleys that has been a strong influence 
 in building up larger centers of population and in- 
 dustry there. Lumbering and manufacturing in Mich- 
 igan have been externally influenced by the position of 
 Michigan near to the great grain producing section 
 with its wide markets for agricultural machinery and 
 furniture. The extent of this market may be meas- 
 ured by the reported production in 1881 of enough 
 lumber to build handsome dwellings for a city of a 
 million people. 
 
 The variety of Michigan trees was almost as great a 
 stimulus to settlement as their abundance. It has 
 been estimated that the trees native to Michigan's 
 soils have a variety nine times greater than those 
 native to the soils of Great Britain ;^-i no part of the 
 United States was originally more favored. This 
 wealth of forest was due mainly to superior range in 
 climate and soils. ^22 Roughly, the forests appear to 
 
 120. Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions 
 
 (Boston, 1903), 331, 354. Resources of Michigan (1883), 
 17. 
 
 121. Mich. Pomological Soc. Rep. (1875), 244. See Ibid., p. 238, 
 
 for a list of the most common trees. A more complete 
 list is given in Resources of Michigan (1883), 67. 
 
 122. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXII, 354. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 37 
 
 have presented but two strongly marked divisions, one 
 north and another south of the parallel of 43° of lati- 
 tude. The pine and soft woods were north, the hard 
 woods south. 1-3 Within these limits the minor dif- 
 ferentia were the river valleys, the streams and swamps, 
 and the uplands, which were chiefly a matter of the 
 kinds of soil. 
 
 There appears to be a quite definite relation between 
 variety of timber and the kinds of soil supporting it. 
 As above observed, the hard wood belt lies largely 
 south of the latitude of 43°; that is, in the region dis- 
 tinctly characterized by glacial moraines. North of 
 that parallel there are great areas of sandy lands, and 
 there the pine and soft woods predominate. There are 
 a few exceptions to the occurrence of pine south of that 
 line, but these are mainly on sandy lands, as in Oakland 
 County, and in southwestern Michigan where pine ex- 
 tends down quite to the Indiana line. 1^4 Of the hard 
 woods, while originally a given variety was found fairly 
 well distributed it was of course likely to be specially 
 abundant on the soil most favorable to it. Beech, oak, 
 hickory and sugar-maple were found most abundant 
 on soils containing much lime and clay.^-^ The me- 
 chanical composition of the soil also affected forest dis- 
 tribution. The oaks were originally the most abundant 
 hard woods, corresponding to the most common soils. 
 The burr-oak plains were largely glacial outwash 
 aprons, with much lime in their composition, more 
 gravelly and sandy than the oak-openings. Scrub-oak 
 
 123. Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep. (1880), 429-430. 
 
 124. Ihid., 429; Tackabury's Atlas, 19. 
 
 125. Winchell, Soils and Sub-soils, 80. 
 
38 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 was most abundant over the poorer quality of sands; 
 as the lake sands, or those from glacial drainage. Oak 
 flourished, in general, over the gravelly or sandy loams 
 and clays, the typical soils of the hardwood belt. 
 Beech and maple were plentiful on the more clayey 
 portions of these soils, and on the till plains. Ash and 
 elm abounded on the stiff lake clay of the shore lands. 
 The relation of timber to soil furnished the settler 
 with an additional and fairly reliable index to the 
 character of lands. ^^s jj^g experience with similar soils 
 in his old home enabled him to judge fairly well of their 
 adaptation to crops. Burr-oak was early held to in- 
 dicate one of the best of soils for wheat, and the burr- 
 oak plains were next in favor after the prairies. Oc- 
 casionally a mistake was made, as with the highly pro- 
 ductive bright yellow loam of the openings covered with 
 hickory, which had the appearance of being sterile. i" 
 Lanman says this soil was excellent for wheat. ^^s gg^. 
 tiers looked also askance at the sandy soil of the pine 
 land.^^' In general, the heavily timbered land was 
 held not to be so congenial to wheat, and was not warm 
 
 126. The relation of soil to timber as here given is from personal 
 
 information from Professor Leverett. 
 
 127. Blois, 6"a2:^/te^r, 24. There appears to have been some prej- 
 
 udice against the oak-openings; for example, see Detroit 
 Gazette for September 1, 1820. An editorial in the 
 Gazette for August 2, 1822, says that "Oak-openings are 
 supposed by some to be destitute of a thick growth of 
 timber by reason of the poverty or of some peculiar 
 properties of the soil," and the editor corrects this view. 
 But the Detroit Free Press of September 22, 1831, says 
 of the burr-oak openings that they are preferred to 
 prairies, being like those in the Genesee country in 
 western New York. 
 
 128. Lanman, Michigan, 323. 
 
 129. Blois, Gazetteer, 23. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 39 
 
 enough for corn, but was known to produce excellent 
 crops of hay, oats and potatoes. ^^o These limitations 
 combined with the obstacles to clearing, caused this 
 land to be settled slowly. The best soils were supposed 
 to lie under a covering of black-walnut, whitewood, ash, 
 buckeye, and sugar-maple; while the poorer land, char- 
 acterized by a grayish sand over blue clay, was indexed 
 by much soft-maple and some varieties of beech. ^^^ 
 
 The relative density of the forest was to the early 
 settler a matter to consider seriously, if only from the 
 point of view of the relative difficulties of getting a 
 paying first crop. Blois in his Gazetteer, which bears 
 marks of being intended largely for the use of immi- 
 grants, makes this the basis of his soil classification, — 
 pine lands, timbered lands, openings, plains and 
 prairies, 1^2 ^nd the more legitimately in that, as just 
 observed, the qualities, of soil did vary with the den- 
 sity of timber. 
 
 Density of growth in the hardwood belt appears to 
 have been governed by the amount of moisture. The 
 heavily timbered lands lay along the rivers and streams, 
 especially where the ground was low and wet ; while the 
 openings, which covered the greater part of the hard- 
 wood belt, lay along the elevations between the water- 
 courses. One explan'ation of this distribution appears 
 to be the protection which the greater moisture af- 
 forded against the annual fires set by the Indians to 
 burn the underbrush. ^33 
 
 130. Ibid., 24. 
 
 131. Lanman, Michigan, 322. 
 
 132. Blois, Gazetteer, 22. 
 
 133. Ibid., 130. 
 
40 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 The soils which favored greatest density among the 
 hardwoods were the clays on the till plains and along 
 the lake shores. Some areas of till plain very defi- 
 nitely affected settlement through their density of 
 forest, as in the southern parts of Lenawee and Hills- 
 dale Cotmties.^^^ Heavy forests of ash and elm orig- 
 inally skirted the eastern shores for many miles in- 
 land, ^^^ and in Wayne and Monroe counties formed a 
 decided barrier to immigration. It has been observed 
 that the parallel of 43° dividing the hardwood from the 
 softwood belt, marked an increase in density of forest 
 that seriously impeded the northward extension of the 
 frontier ;^^*' and it seems certain that in 1838 little was 
 known of the region north of the Grand River, i" 
 
 The relation of settlement to density of forest and to 
 the soils thus indicated, may be seen in the actual pro- 
 cess of getting a first crop. One of the chief obstacles 
 on the heavily timbered land was the necessity of first 
 cutting off the timber, which was not only hard to cut, 
 but according to reports some of it, like the giant white- 
 wood, "positively refused to burn";i^« and after it was 
 cut and burned the stumps remained, with roots deep 
 down in the porous soil. In the openings the timber 
 and stump problem was reduced. There the trees were 
 often so far apart as to permit teams to drive easily 
 miles in any direction. A characteristic of Michigan 
 
 134. See infra chapters on the "First Inland Counties" and 
 
 "The St. Joseph Valley." 
 
 135. Blois, Gazetteer, 39. 
 
 136. SevLi^le, Amer. Hist., \S3. See map showing relative den- 
 
 sity of forest in Sixth Ann. Rep. State Board of Health 
 (1878), 190. 
 
 137. Blois, Gazetteer, 22. 
 
 138. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 148-150. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 41 
 
 forests due to porosity of soil was the absence of fallen 
 trees, which greatly aided the settlement of the open- 
 ings. But there was the grub problem, especially 
 where the openings, as was often the case, bordered on 
 dense forest. This was due probably to the cessation 
 of the annual Indian fires. Whereas it took ordinarily 
 three yokes of oxen to break the soil of the openings, 
 these "grub lots" required six yokes, and sometimes it 
 was necessary to hitch a yoke to the back of the plow 
 to pull it out of difficulty. ^3^ The burr-oak plains could 
 be easily broken when there were no grubs, but they 
 often had the disadvantage of too little timber 
 for fencing and building. These plains were of great 
 beauty and appealed strongly to the early settlers, 
 whose reminiscences abound with praises of them ; they 
 are frequently described as looking like cultivated 
 orchards. i^*' The great difficulty with the prairies was 
 the total absence of timber; sometimes there was a 
 scarcity of good water; and the network of wire-like 
 grass roots made the soil very difficult to break. With 
 these disadvantages it should be mentioned that the 
 soil was sometimes too adhesive to scour the plow, and 
 that it was known to produce smut in the wheat; 
 moreover, the winter crops were unprotected from 
 bleak winds. But despite these disadvantages, which 
 seem material, the prairies were preferred by the set- 
 tlers who came in from Indiana and Ohio where they 
 were used to similar conditions. The timber problem 
 was partially solved by building on the forested 
 
 139. Lanman, Michigan, 254, 324. 
 
 140. C. F. Hoffman, A Winter in the West (New York, 1835), I, 
 
 183. 
 
42 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 margin. The exceeding richness of the soil and its 
 freedom from grubs and stones was held to compensate 
 for the initial difficulty of breaking it, and the first 
 crops raised could usually find a market in the settle- 
 ments on the neighboring plains and openings. 
 
 The methods of preparing for the first crop are in- 
 volved in what has been said of the initial difficulties. 
 Cutting and burning in the thick timber, girdling in 
 the openings and plains, formed the first step. Timber 
 for fencing and building was of course reserved. The 
 usual breaking time was in June and July. On the 
 prairies, little or no cultivation was required after the 
 seed was planted in the turned soil. But the easiest 
 first crop was to be gotten in the timbered land, where 
 it was not too dense. This was generally considered 
 the best adventure for the settler with bare ax and 
 hoe; he had only to scratch the ground with the hoe 
 for either corn or wheat, though the yield of both was 
 somewhat slighter than in the other soils. ''*^ 
 
 The yield of first crops varied considerably. Corn 
 produced forty bushels to the acre for the first crop 
 from timbered land, the prairies yielding fifty bushels. ^^^ 
 The bottom lands along the streams produced a greater 
 yield of corn than the timbered uplands. ^^^ On the 
 openings, the first season would yield twelve bushels of 
 wheat to the acre.^^^ The comparative increase was 
 marked in the yields of successive crops. The prairies 
 yielded as high as eighty bushels of corn, and on the 
 whole they produced the largest average crops of any 
 
 in. Lanman, Michigan, 322; Blois, Gazetteer, 27. 
 
 1 1-2. Lanman, Michigan, 322; Blois, Gazetteer, 25. 
 
 1 13. Lanman, Michigan, 323. 
 
 111. Ibid., 323. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 43 
 
 of the soils. ^*5 The calcareous soil of the openings in- 
 creased its crops as it was cultivated.^'**' In compara- 
 tive quickness of yield the timbered land was nearly 
 two weeks earlier than the openings. ^^^ 
 
 The cost of getting the first crop if a settler wished 
 to pay for it, naturally varied with the difficulties of 
 clearing, fencing and cultivating. Reports vary. To 
 clear and fence timbered land is said to have cost from 
 ten to fifteen dollars per acre; of openings, from ten to 
 twelve dollars to clear and plant. "^ Burr-oak plains and 
 prairies, if timber were near, cost about ten dollars per 
 acre to break and fence, i" Another report places the 
 cost of clearing, fencing, plowing, harrowing and seed- 
 ing the plains at eight dollars per acre.^^" The same 
 authority reports that "every first crop paid the entire 
 expense of each improvement" on these plains, and 
 ventures the advice to settlers that it were better to 
 pay ten dollars per acre for plains if timber is plentiful 
 than one dollar per acre for timbered land. Blois says 
 that most crops, especially corn, could be raised to 
 perfection in Michigan with often one-half of the labor 
 and expense necessary in the East, especially in New 
 England. 1^1 In favor of Michigan forest lands, after 
 the country became known, it was commonly held that 
 they had an advantage over similar New York lands in 
 
 145. Blois, Gazetteer, 25. 
 
 146. Ibid., 24. 
 
 147. Lanman, Michigan, 322. 
 
 148. Lanman, Michigan, 254, 322, 323; Blois, Gazetteer, 27. 
 
 149. Lanman, Michigan, 325. 
 
 150. Blois, Gazetteer, 418. This report came from Jackson 
 
 County, apparently about 1837-38. 
 
 151. Blois, Gazetteer, 37. 
 
44 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 that they did not wear out one generation of settlers 
 in becoming subdued to cultivation. 
 
 The cost of subduing the land was often largely re- 
 paid by the natural products useful to the settlers. 
 The forests yielded timber for fencing and building, 
 and later for manufacturing. Potash was a valuable 
 by-product from the clearing. ^^^ 'pj^g luxurious wild 
 grasses — ^blue joint, equal to timothy, redtop and wild 
 rye — furnished abundant feed for stock. ^^^ Fruits, ber- 
 ries, and nuts grew wild in profusion. There were wild 
 cherries, apples, plums and pears, cranberries, currents, 
 gooseberries, huckleberries, blackberries, raspberries, 
 strawberries and wild grapes j^^* strawberries are said to 
 have been so plentiful in some parts of the openings 
 that the cows came home with their hoofs bespattered 
 with the juice of the berry, ^^s The luxurious growths 
 of wild grapes along the banks of the Raisin gave that 
 river its name. Hickorynuts, walnuts, butternuts and 
 hazelnuts may be mentioned, though minor luxuries. 
 Sugar was furnished by the sugar-maple, and honey by 
 the wild bees; swarms of wild bees were so numerous 
 that bee-hunting was made a business by some at the 
 proper season, i^*' In 1835 there was taken from one 
 
 152. Lanman Michigan, 322; Detroit Gazette, May 17, 1822. 
 
 153. Lanman, Michigan, 324; Blois, Gazetteer, 26; Rep. State 
 
 Board of Agriculture (1875), 287-300, gives an account of 
 grass and forage plants. There are 139 species of 
 grasses and 176 species of sedges indigenous to Michigan. 
 Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep. (1880), 432. 
 
 154. Blois, Gazetteer, 36. 
 
 155. See Branch County in chapter IV, on the St. Joseph Valley; 
 
 also Swan, Journal of a Trip to Michigan in 1841 (Roches- 
 ter, 1904), '16, 19, 27, 28, 30; Harriet Martineau, Society 
 in America (London, 1837), I, 320-327. 
 
 156. Blois, Gazetteer, 35. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 45 
 
 tree, a large whitewood, a hundred pounds of honey ;i" 
 a stimulating drink was made from honey, well-known 
 to pioneers. 1^8 
 
 The animals helpful to settlers were many. Wild 
 game abounded almost at the settler's door. The deer, 
 the bear, the rabbit, the hare and the squirrel were 
 very numerous. Deerskin and bearskin afforded ma- 
 terial for clothing, along with the fur of the beaver, the 
 otter, the muskrat, the mink, the martin, the fisher and 
 the raccoon. All these were saleable; martin furs early 
 sold on the market for from one to two dollars apiece. ^^^ 
 Of the forest game fowls, there were the partridge, quail, 
 woodcock, grouse, pigeon and wild turkey. ^^^ Aquatic 
 game fowls are said to have literally covered the in- 
 land lakes at certain seasons, the duck and the goose 
 being most prized. Migratory song birds gave charm 
 to life in the forest. 
 
 It is true that some species of flora and fauna were 
 drawbacks to the settlers. This was specially true of 
 some of the fauna. Some animals were a serious men- 
 ace to stock, poultry and crops. The squeal of a pig 
 frequently meant the presence of the black bear, whose 
 capture gave rise to favorite pioneer stories. The howl- 
 ing of the wolf dismayed many a newly arrived immi- 
 grant belated in the forest. Wildcats were not pleasant 
 acquaintances, but they were less numerous in the 
 southern than in the northern part of the peninsula. 
 
 157. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 507. 
 
 158. Ibid., 507. 
 
 159. Ibid., VIII, 258; see D. Goss, History of Grand Rapids (Chi- 
 
 cago, 1906), I, 56-57, for the early prices of furs there. 
 
 160. Blois, Gazetteer, 34. 
 
46 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Crops, especially corn, frequently suffered from the 
 cutworm, the squirrel and the blackbird. ^"^^ 
 
 The mosquito was a lively pest, and the carrier of 
 disease. Rare stories are told about them by pioneers, 
 almost equaling the bear stories in number and size. 
 One settler after describing the Indians records his 
 memory of the mosquito. He says: 
 
 "Another native of the woods was the blood-thirsty 
 savages — the mosquitoes. They were the most trouble- 
 some of all the animals that infested the woods . . . 
 They would light upon your nose and suffer you to 
 kill them; while they died like a martyr at the stake. 
 Their attacks were heralded by a flourish of trumpets 
 or long trombones, when they would come down upon 
 you in squads and hordes, ad infinitum. A settler re- 
 lates his attempt to go through a belt of heavy tim- 
 bered land, but ere he had advanced twenty rods, he 
 was so beset with these bloodthirsty imps that after 
 giving them battle with a bush for a while, he was com- 
 pelled to beat a retreat, badly demoralized. "^^^ 
 
 Mosquitoes infested especially low wet places, the 
 vicinity of marshes and streams, the moist forest and 
 newly plowed land. It is as the carrier of disease that 
 the mosquito has its main significance for settlement, 
 and the accounts left by settlers, even by pioneer 
 doctors, show that its function in this respect was not 
 understood. As above explained, malaria was univer- 
 sally attributed to the decay of vegetation caused by 
 turning the soil. The greater assurance was felt in 
 this as the correct cavise on account of the greater pre- 
 
 161. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 365; IX, 126. 
 
 162. Ibid., V, 251. 
 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 47 
 
 valence of the disease in the plowing season and its 
 gradual disappearance as the country became settled. 
 Very probably, the turning of the cool moist soil to the 
 surface especially in the vicinity of the marshes, was 
 one of the conditions of the increase of mosquitoes in 
 the neighborhood. 
 
 Michigan afforded conditions for all types of settlers. 
 There was abundant opportunity for capital, but there 
 was opportunity for the poor man. It was this opportu- 
 nity that made Michigan appeal especially to the small 
 farmers and the "hired hands" in New York and New 
 England, who with gun, ax and team, driving with their 
 families overland, making their clearings in the forest 
 or the openings, were ultimately to give to Michigan 
 its strong prosperous middle-class of farmers. The gen- 
 eral spirit of settlement was one of satisfaction, as re- 
 flected in a toast given at Ann Arbor in 1831 at a 
 Fourth of July celebration, "The Territory of Michigan, 
 the Yankee's land of promise, flowing with milk and 
 honey. "^^' 
 
 Yet undoubtedly this picture could be too easily 
 colored. Hardships were many, even with all the ad- 
 vantages provided by nature ; and to each rule of the 
 general beneficence there were many exceptions. As 
 one pioneer records: 
 
 "There was the failure of seed corn, and messengers 
 sent the long journey to Ohio to obtain a further supply; 
 there were late spring frosts cutting down the corn flat 
 with the ground; there were excessive cold and snow 
 in winter, floods and heat in the summer, a want of the 
 
 163. Michigan Political Science Association, Publications, IV, 
 523. 
 
48 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 simplest medicines, of mills to grind grain for food, of 
 salt to preserve their meat, while there was an abun- 
 dance of malarial diseases to break down their strength, 
 of pestiferous wild animals to destroy their flocks, and 
 rumors of Indian horrors and Indian wars, to keep 
 them fearful in daytime and awake at night. One who 
 truly weighs the courage and fortitude with which these 
 men, women and children met the dangers and hard- 
 ships of their pioneer life will hardly after attribute to 
 the soldier a monoply of those qualities, "i*'^ 
 
 164. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 630. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 General Influences 
 
 /^NE of the most important influences in the settle- 
 ment of Michigan Territory was the war of 1812. 
 Its effects were both good and ill ; temporarily it was a 
 serious drawback. Fear of the Indians practically de- 
 populated the territory during the war, and the settlers 
 returning found their homes in ruins. ^ The scarcity of 
 money was a serious embarrassment both to business 
 and to intending settlers ; the general stagnation of 
 business is said to have resembled that which followed 
 the crisis of 1837 ;2 the Detroit Gazette of August 9, 
 1822, contains a typical example of thie many com- 
 plaints against the continued scarcity of money and the 
 low price of grain. On the other hand, one good effect 
 of the war was to attract attention to Michigan through 
 the prominent part taken by Detroit. It made evident 
 the military need of better roads, ^ and led directly to 
 the first improvements connecting Detroit with the 
 Ohio valley. Again, many soldiers from Ohio, Ken- 
 
 1. W. L. G. Smith, Life and times of Lewis Cass, 107 ; Journal of 
 
 the Legislative Council, 1826, p. 6; American State Papers: 
 Military Affairs, I, 510; Detroit Journal and Michigan 
 Advertiser, April 4, 1832, giving a report of a select com- 
 mittee of Congress on the losses of Michigan during the 
 war. 
 
 2. Mich. Hist. Colls., I., 381. 
 
 3. News of the Battle of Tippecanoe on the Wabash just before 
 
 the outbreak of the war, November 7, 1811, was not re- 
 ceived at Detroit until a month later. American State 
 Papers: Indian Affairs, I, 780. 
 
 7 
 
50 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 tucky, Pennsylvania, and Virginia who had fought on 
 the Michigan frontier remained in the Territory as set- 
 tlers and wrote to friends in the East about the oppor- 
 tunities afforded;* one of these was Lewis Cass, who as 
 governor of Michigan Territory from 1813 to 1831 used 
 his great energies to promote its settlement.^ 
 
 An indirect result of the War of 1812 was the un- 
 favorable report, widely circulated, about Michigan 
 lands. In 1815 Edward Tiffin, surveyor general for the 
 Northwest, reported to the National Government that 
 there "would not be more than one acre out of a hun- 
 dred, if there would be one out of a thousand that 
 would, in any case, admit of cultivation;" for, he said, 
 ' 'the intermediate space between the swamps and lakes, 
 which is probably nearly one half of the country, is, 
 with a very few exceptions, a poor barren, sandy land, 
 on which scarcely any vegetation grows, except very 
 small scrubby oaks."'' The purpose of the survey upon 
 which this report was based was to promote the early 
 disposition of the Michigan bounty lands authorized by 
 Congress for compensation to the soldiers of the war.'' 
 The surveyors may have been influenced, at least in- 
 
 4. F. J. Turner, "The colonization of the West, 1820-1830," in 
 
 American Historical Review, XI, 307; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXIII, 482. 
 
 5. A. C. McLaughHn, Leivis Cass (Boston, 1891), 127-129; J. 
 
 H. Lanman, Michigan, 236. 
 
 6. American State Papers: Public Lands, III, 164-165. 
 
 7. Statutes at Large, I, 728-730. For the relation of Cass to 
 
 this survey, see McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 94-95; A. C. 
 McLaughlin, "The Influence of Governor Cass on the 
 Development of the Northwest" in American Historical 
 Association, Pape'r5, III, 315; T. M. Cooley, Michigan 
 (Boston, 1885), 193. For newspaper characterization of 
 the Tiffin report, see an editorial in the Detroit Gazette for 
 July 24, 1818. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 51 
 
 directly, by the unfavorable report made by Monroe to 
 Jefferson prior to the organization of the Northwest 
 Territory, who after reconnoitering in parts of the 
 Northwest wrote: "A great part of the Territory is 
 miserably poor, especially that near the Lakes Michi- 
 gan and Erie. . . The districts, therefore, within 
 which these fall will never contain a sufficient number 
 of inhabitants to entitle them to membership in the 
 confederacy. "8 
 
 As a result of the Tiffin report President Madison re- 
 commended to Congress, that since the lands in Michi- 
 gan were covered with swamps and lakes or were other- 
 wise so unfit for cultivation that only a small propor- 
 tion could be applied to the intended grants, other 
 lands should be designated to take the place of Michi- 
 gan's proportion of the military bounty lands ;^ accord- 
 ingly, three-fourths of that amount were ordered to be 
 surveyed in the rival state of Illinois.^" The Govern- 
 ment's disfavor towards Michigan lands doubtless be- 
 came widely known, as the newspapers of the day em- 
 phasized the doings of Congress, and many eastern 
 people were then specially anxious to know about the 
 West. School geographies contained maps with the 
 words "Interminable Swamp" across the interior of 
 Michigan. 1^ Morse's Geography, which was considered 
 an authority and was widely used, featured this idea 
 until a late period. ^^ Morse's Traveller' s Guide repre- 
 
 8. J. Monroe, Writings (vS. M. Hamilton, ed.— New York, 1898) 
 
 I, 117. 
 
 9. Special message of February 6, 1816. 
 
 10. Statutes at Large, III, 332. 
 
 11. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 381; XXII, 542. 
 
 12. Cooley, Michigan, 192-193. 
 
52 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 sented sand hills "extending into the interior as far as 
 the dividing ridge . . . sometimes crowned with a 
 few stunted trees, and a scanty vegetation, but gen- 
 erally bare, and thrown by the wind into a thousand 
 fantastic shapes. "^^ 
 
 The immediate effects upon settlement were of course 
 unfavorable. The traveler William Darby, writing 
 from Detroit in August, 1818, says that during more 
 than a month in which he had been traveling between 
 Geneva (New York) and Detroit, he had seen hundreds 
 going west, but "not one in fifty with the intention of 
 settling in Michigan Territory. "^^ For the time being 
 the tide of immigration turned aside from Michigan 
 with its "interminable swamp" and "sand hills" and 
 favored Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. 
 
 One of the earliest and strongest influences to coun- 
 teract these reports was the Lewis Cass expeditioji of 
 1820. Cass warmly critised the Tiffin report, writing to 
 the Government that the lands of Michigan had been 
 "grossly misrepresented" 1^ Upon his motion new sur- 
 veys were begun in the vicinity of Detroit in 1816 and 
 public sales were opened for the surveyed portion in 
 1818. In the same year an exploring party apparently 
 under his auspices dispelled illusions about the country 
 back of Detroit. 1^ In 1819 national aid was secured for 
 an extended examination of the soil, minerals, and In- 
 
 13. J. Morse, Traveller's Guide (New Haven, 1826), 169. 
 
 14. W. Darby, A Tour from the City of New-York to Detroit in the 
 
 Michigan Territory. . . 1818 (New York, 1819), 200. 
 
 15. McLaughlin, "Influence of Cass on the Development of the 
 
 Northwest," 347. 
 
 16. See an article in the Detroit Gazette for July 18, 1823, refer- 
 
 ring to the exploration of 1818 in the rear of Detroit, at- 
 tributing the enterprise largely to the interest of Cass. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 53 
 
 dian conditions over a route of some five thousand 
 miles through the interior, accomplished in 1820.^^ 
 The result gave to men vitally connected with the 
 government of the Territory and influential with the 
 National Government a first-hand knowledge of the 
 region where the Tiffin surveyors were supposed to 
 have worked, and impressed upon them more firmly a 
 lesson of the War of 1812, the need of a national mili- 
 tary road between Detroit and Chicago. Since the ex- 
 pedition was made partly under national auspices, its 
 report had a semiofficial character; the interest which 
 it excited is indicated by the sale within thirty days of 
 the entire edition of Schoolcraft's Summary Narrative 
 published in 1821 at Albany, which is said to have 
 found its way to Europe. '^^ 
 
 Accounts of travel through Michigan preceding 
 Cass's expedition were on the whole too general to have 
 much influence with settlers, yet there were some 
 exceptions. Estwick Evans wrote in his Pedestrious 
 Tour in 1818: "In travelling more than four thousand 
 
 17. Smith, Life and Times of Lewis Cass, contains much of the 
 
 preliminary correspondence with Calhoun, then secretary 
 of war, about the expedition. The official journal of the 
 expedition kept by James Duane Doty, secretary of the 
 Territorial legislature of Michigan, is contained in Wis- 
 consin Historical Collections, XIII, 163 et seq. See also 
 Henry R. Schoolcraft's Summary Narrative of an Explora- 
 tory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River in 
 1820 (Albany, 1821). Good brief accounts may be found 
 in McLaughlin's Lewis Cass, 115-119; J. V. Campbell, 
 Outlines of the Political History of Michigan (Detroit, 
 1876), 400-404; W. T. Young, Sketch of the Life and Public 
 Services of General Leuris Cass (Detroit, 1852), 85-88; 
 Detroit Gazette, May 26, 1820. 
 
 18. Outlines of the Life and Character of General Lewis Cass 
 
 (Albany; 1848), 24. 
 
54 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 miles, in the western parts of the United States, I met 
 no tract of country which, upon the whole, impressed 
 my mind so favorably as the Michigan Territory. . . 
 The soil of the territory is generally fertile, and a con- 
 siderable proportion of it is very rich.''^^ Of "Travels" 
 before 1837 the most important for the correction of 
 false impressions about Michigan were those of Mc- 
 Kenney, Hoffman, and Martineau. Some of the early 
 guidebooks for travelers and settlers were very favor- 
 able to Michigan. An important one of these was by 
 Samuel R. Brown, published at Auburn, New York, in 
 1817; in 1820 there appeared in London an anonymous 
 Guide for English emigrants to America obviously based 
 upon it. 2" 
 
 Newspaper articles favorable to Michigan early found 
 their way through the eastern press. For example, the 
 
 19. E. Evans, Pedcstrions Tour, 119, quoted from R. G. 
 
 Thwaites, Early Western Travels (Cleveland, 1904-1907), 
 VIII, 220. Evans' work was published at Concord, New 
 Hampshire, in 1819. 
 
 20. The English Guide gives to Ohio thirty-five pages, to Indiana 
 
 nineteen, to Michigan ten, and to Illinois nine. Com- 
 pare pages 688, 689, 694 respectively with pages 155, 
 156-157, and 165 in S. R. Brown, The Western Gazetteer 
 (Auburn, 1817). See also J. Melish's A Geographical 
 description of the United States (Philadelphia, 1818), 137, 
 where the climate is described as "temperate and healthy" 
 and the soil "generally rich and fertile." The ignorance 
 of the interior is revealed by the statement that "in the 
 center, the land is high, from whence there is a descent 
 in all directions;" and an equal poverty of knowledge is 
 revealed in the articles in the Detroit Gazette prior to 
 1820, which, while they try to favor the lands, are limited 
 in descriptive matter to those close to the eastern shore. 
 See for another instance the numbers of November 21, 
 1817, May 7 and 14, November 26, and December 3, 
 1819. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 55 
 
 New York Spectator is quoted in the Detroit Gazette of 
 March 21, 1823, as saying in regard to the belief that 
 Michigan offered favorable opportunities to emigrants: 
 "Perhaps no stronger argument can be urged in support 
 of this belief than merely to state the fact that a barrel 
 of potashes, flour, or other produce can be transported 
 from Detroit to Buffalo with as little expense through 
 Lake Erie as a like quantity can be transported by land 
 in the western part of this state to the canal from 
 places which He twenty-five or thirty miles from the 
 canal route." ^"^ The motive which actuated at least 
 some New York papers is seen in the following quota- 
 tion from the Buffalo Journal (1825) : When it is con- 
 sidered that all the fruits of that vast region are to 
 reach the sea coast by Lake Erie and the New York 
 Canal (the junction of whose waters is formed in our 
 village) and that the corresponding returns of goods are 
 to reach their destination by the same route, we may 
 naturally be supposed to look with some degree of 
 rapture on the present growth and increasing popula- 
 tion of Michigan." 22 
 
 By about 1825 the effects of the Tiffin report in the 
 East had begun to wane. That year is marked by the 
 appearance of John Farmer's maps and gazetteers of 
 Michigan, published at Detroit, which it is said had by 
 1830 reached a demand in the local markets of Boston, 
 Providence, Hartford, New York, Baltimore, Phila- 
 delphia, Washington, Albany, Rochester, Buffalo, 
 
 21. See other quotations in the Detroit Gazette for May 4, 1821 ; 
 
 June 7, 1822; July 18, 1823; and September 19, 1823. 
 
 22. Quoted in the Detroit Gazette, September 20, 1825. 
 
56 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Cleveland, and Erie, that could hardly be supplied. ^^ 
 Many copies of the Detroit Gazette, founded at De- 
 troit in 1817, had found their way to the East.^* Other 
 counter-influences were letters from successful pioneers, 
 published in eastern papers, reports made by settlers 
 revisiting their old homes in the East, the circulars of 
 land speculators, and not least the later reports of the 
 United States surveyors and their personal interest in 
 promoting settlement. New editions of Morse's Geog- 
 raphy were favorable to Michigan.-'^ There is evidence 
 in shipments of flour from Michigan to the East as early 
 as 1833 and in the increase of population shown by the 
 censuses of 1830, 1834, and 1837 that by the date of 
 Michigan's admission to the Union the popular opinion 
 about her lands had been fairly reversed. 
 
 23. S. Farmer, History of Detroit and Michigan (Detroit, 1890), 
 
 I, 335, 698. There is a photograph of the John Farmer 
 map of 1826 in Mich. Hist. Colls., vol. XXXVIII, op- 
 posite p. 636. A little while before appeared Orange 
 Risdon's map, a copy of which is in the same volume, 
 opposite p. 635. Risdon published much of his data, 
 oljtained by travel in the Territory in 1823, in several 
 eastern newspapers, according to the Detroit Gazette, 
 January 16, 1824. Another map of about this time was 
 made by Philu E. Judd, of which a copy is in the same 
 volume opposite p. 634. The making of these maps is 
 indicative of the new impulse to immigration which came 
 about the time of the opening of the Erie Canal. 
 
 24. Other Detroit newspapers of the period were the Michigan 
 
 Herald, the Courier, the Journal and Courier, the North- 
 western Journal, the Free Press, the Daily Advertiser, and 
 the Journal and Michigan Advertiser. For a list of Mich- 
 igan newspapers for this period with critical comment see 
 Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 670-677. An account of 
 the Detroit Gazette is given on pp. 671-672. The issue of 
 the Detroit Gazette for November 21, 1823, states that 
 six copies are sent weekly to subscribers in Washington. 
 
 25. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 480-481. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 57 
 
 Along with the unfavorable reports about lands had 
 gone ill-tidings of the continued Indian depredations. 
 The massacres at the River Raisin and at Fort Dearborn 
 had impressed especially the minds of women and child- 
 ren, and in 1832 the Black Hawk war caused rumors of 
 a possible invasion of Michigan and of a rising of the 
 Indians. 26 It would be true to human nature to sup- 
 pose that these fears and desires would often cause the 
 head of a family to hesitate about emigrating to 
 Michigan; but in reality the spirit of the Michigan In- 
 dians was cowed by the American success in the recent 
 war, and their ferocity had largely burned out. The 
 Detroit Gazette attempted to allay fears by setting forth 
 the groundlessness of the prevalent anticipations of re- 
 newed Indian hostilities. ^^ 
 
 The relation of the National Government with the 
 Michigan Indians was complicated by several things: 
 by their dissatisfaction with the treaty of 1807, by their 
 recent alliance with the British against the Americans, 
 and by the belief of the Indians in the power and gen- 
 erosity of the British because of the continued distribu- 
 
 26. Ibid. 
 
 27. See editorial for April 3, 1818; also a good general descrip- 
 
 tion of the character and condition of the Indians of 
 eastern Michigan, by a comtemporary, in the Gazette, 
 February 8, 1822. For relations of the settlers and the 
 Indians, see Harriet Martineau, Society in America, I, 329; 
 II, 25. Detroit Gazette, May 29, 1818, June 11, 1819; 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 655-658; report of the sur- 
 veyors of the Chicago Road, Detroit Gazette, March 18 
 and 25, 1825. For the civil status of the Indian and his 
 relation to the states of the Union, see decisions cited in 
 T. Donaldson's Ptihlic Domain (Washington, 1881), 240. 
 
58 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 tion of large quantities of presents among them;^^ in 
 1829 sixty tons of presents were distributed in which 
 the Michigan Indians shared. ^^ This pohcy appears to 
 have been followed as late as 1839, in attempts to de- 
 feat the American treaties with the Indians. 3° The sit- 
 uation required a government agent of great patience 
 and tact who thoroughly understood the Indian char- 
 acter and who should have a genuine sympathetic in- 
 terest. Lewis Cass possessed these qualifications in a 
 marked degree, and in his capacity as Indian agent he 
 rendered exceptional services to the settlement of Mich- 
 igan, negotiating a score of treaties. ^^ 
 
 The Indian title to the lower peninsula was with 
 slight exceptions extinguished by four treaties, those of 
 1807, 1819, 1821, and 1836. The so-called treaty of 
 Detroit (1807) ceded southeastern Michigan, west as 
 far as the principal meridian and north as far as a line 
 running from a point on the western boundary of the 
 present Shiawassee County northeasterly to White 
 
 28. See a statement by Cass to the Secretary of War, October 
 
 21, 1820, in Schoolcraft's Stimmary Narrative, 280. The 
 Indians are represented as generally friendly, but less so as 
 the point of contact with the British is approached. See 
 accounts of their visits to Maiden in the Detroit Gazette, 
 November 21, 1823; August 2, 1825. The latter con- 
 tains a long editorial on the policy of the British. 
 
 29. McLaughlin, "Influence of Cass on the Development of the 
 
 Northwest", 323. 
 
 30. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 108, 110. 
 
 31. Smith, Life and times of Lewis Cass, 128-130; American Stat9 
 
 Papers: Indian A fairs, II, 224; Schoolcraft, Summary 
 Narrative, 79-80; R. B. Ross and G. B. Catlin, Landmarks 
 of Detroit (Detroit, 1898); L. M. Mathews, Expansion of 
 New England {Boston, 1909), 231; Bureau of American 
 Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, pt. 2, passim. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 59 
 
 Rock on Lake Huron. ^ 2 In 1819 the treaty of Saginaw 
 ceded a large part of central Michigan including the re- 
 mainder of the Saginaw region and extending as far 
 north as the headwaters of the Thunder Bay River. ^^ 
 Practically all the land still remaining south of Grand 
 River was ceded by the treaty of Chicago in 1821,^^ 
 and nearly all remaining north of it by the treaty of 
 Washington in 1836.^5 j^ these treaties numerous 
 small pieces of land were reserved to the Indian tribes 
 and some grants were made to individuals of Indian 
 descent. 3^ The reservations were ceded as settlement 
 pressed upon them, and the tribal Indians were re- 
 moved to western reservations about 1840." 
 
 32. Ibid., 674. Prior to this time there had been in the hands of 
 
 the Government only a narrow strip six miles wide along 
 the water front, extending from the Raisin to the vicinity 
 of Lake St. Clair, which was ceded in 1795. Ibid. 654. 
 
 33. The southern boundary of the cession extended west from 
 
 the prime meridian to the vicinity of Kalamazoo. Bur- 
 eau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, 
 pt. 2, 698. 
 
 34. lUd., 702. 
 
 35. Ibid., 756. For the principal minor treaties affecting the 
 
 lower peninsula, see ibid., 699, 740, 764, and the Ameri- 
 can State Papers: Indian Affairs, II, 72, 131, 677. The 
 former contains colored plates showing the areas of the 
 different cessions. There is a fairly accurate map show- 
 ing the four larger cessions in Mich. Hist. Colls., vol. 
 XXVI, opposite p. 275. 
 
 36. Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, 
 
 pt. 2, 702; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 291. 
 
 37. See report of Henry R. Schoolcraft, Acting Superintendent 
 
 of Indian Affairs, on the removal of the Indians from 
 Michigan, in Michigan Joint Document (1841), No. 1, pp. 
 61-86. The question of removal was advocated by Isaac 
 McCoy, of the Baptist mission near Niles, from the time 
 white settlement began to encroach upon the mission. 
 See his statement of the motives of removal in his History 
 of the Baptist Indian Missions (Washington, 1840), 265, 
 
60 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 The most serious check upon settlement .due to the 
 Indians since the War of 1812 came from an uprising of 
 the Sacs and Foxes under Black Hawk in 1832. ^^ The 
 Indians had just passed over the Chicago Trail home- 
 ward bound from Maiden, where they had received 
 their annual presents from the British, among other 
 things arms and ammtmition. The circumstances sug- 
 gested to Michigan settlers that as a natural maneviver 
 the Indians would retreat along the Chicago Road into 
 Canada for a safer base of operations, in which case 
 there might be expected depredations along the road, 
 and possibly an uprising of the Potawatomi. Memories 
 of Indian horrors spread panic, especially among the 
 women and children. Travel on the road fell off 
 rapidly and intending settlers turned to Ohio.-"'^ A let- 
 ter from a militia leader written in 18v32 from White 
 Pigeon in St. Joseph Cotmty, says: "The injury done 
 to this part of the Territory by the exaggerated reports 
 of danger from the hostile bands of Indians will not be 
 cured for two years to come, and the unnecessary 
 movements of our militia are calculated to spread far 
 and near this alarm." Michigan militia were mustered 
 at Niles but they did not leave Michigan ; Black Hawk 
 was defeated and captured by the United States troops 
 
 38. There is a brief, judicial account of the Black Hawk war in 
 
 Magazine of Western History, 5. 
 
 39. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI 239; XVIII, 606; XXX, 456. H. P. 
 
 Collin, A Twentieth Century History and Biographical 
 Record of Branch County, Michigan (Chicago, 1906), 
 27, 29. 
 
 321, 323. See also an article by Lewis Cass on removal 
 of Indians, in the North American Review for January, 
 1830 (XXX, 62-121). 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 61 
 
 before he reached Chicago, when the resistance of his 
 followers collapsed.^" 
 
 But the results of this outbreak for the settlement of 
 Michigan were not wholly bad. Accounts of the "war" 
 in newspapers, pamphlets, and books called attention 
 to the country occupied by the Sac and Fox Indians 
 westward from Michigan, and the summary way in 
 which the National Government demonstrated its con- 
 trol of the Indians gave to intending settlers, renewed 
 assurance — especially to foreigners, whose imaginations 
 had exaggerated the danger from the Indians. ^^ 
 
 The influence of the Black Hawk war is not easy to 
 separate from that of the cholera epidemic of the same 
 year. It was probably the cholera as much as fear of 
 the Indians that checked travel on the Chicago Road.^^ 
 A large part of the troops under Scott which were sent 
 against Black Hawk died of cholera in and about De- 
 troit; others, panic stricken, deserted; it is estimated 
 that half of the entire force died.*^ The ravages else- 
 where in Michigan seem to have been equally severe. 
 Many settlements established armed guards, allowing 
 no one to pass in or out; fences were built across the 
 roads from Detroit and travelers were halted at the 
 point of the gun.*^ 
 
 40. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 234, 235. 
 
 41. H. F. Thomas, History of Allegan County (Chicago, 1907), 31. 
 
 42. Collin, History of Branch County, 30. There was a repeti- 
 
 tion of the epidemic in 1834, making a combination of 
 influences that was felt even after 1835. These epidemics 
 spread westward from Asia, reaching Michigan through 
 Canada. 
 
 43. Campbell, Political History of Michigan, 440. 
 
 44. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 169; Farmer, History of Detroit, 
 
 I, 49; Ross and Catlin, Landmarks of Detroit, 380-382; 
 Detroit Free Press, July 19, 1832. 
 
62 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 A very important task of the National Government 
 in the interests of settlement, for which the extinction 
 of Indian titles and the military protection of the fron- 
 tier were preliminary, was the survey and sale of lands. 
 Cass had accompanied his criticism of the Tifhn survey 
 with urgent advice to the Government for an immediate 
 surveying of lands in the vicinity of Detroit and the 
 establishing of a land office as soon as the surveys 
 should advance far enough. A petition, circulated at 
 his instance and signed by prominent men in the Terri- 
 tory in 1818, secured the Government's attention, and 
 public sales were opened in that year.^^ By 1818 two 
 years of work on the new surveys had made practically 
 all the land in the present eastern shore counties ready 
 for the market;*^ by 1821 more than two and a quarter 
 millions of acres had been surveyed ; and a decade later 
 the survey was completed for about ten million acres 
 
 45 Smith, Life and times of Lewis Cass, 113; McLaughlin, "In- 
 fluence of Cass on the Development of the Northwest," 
 318; McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 96. For phases of the 
 land question prior to 1818, see American State Papers: 
 Public Lands, I, 248, 267-269, 282. 
 
 46. For brief descriptions of the rectangular system of survey in 
 Michigan, see Tackabury's Atlas, 6-7; Blois, Gazetteer, 
 65-70. Besides its obvious importance in enabhng set- 
 tlers to 'ocate their lands, this system had significance for 
 local government. The base line in Michigan follows 
 along the northern boundary of Wayne County due west 
 and forms the boundary between counties throughout its 
 entire length. At distances of twenty-four miles on each 
 side, other parallels form similar boundaries throughout 
 most of their length. Eastern and western county 
 boundaries are formed by meridians running at right 
 angles, in many cases making counties almost exact 
 squares. Similarly, parallels and meridians divide the 
 counties into squares of six miles on a side, forming 
 "Government townships," which in most cases have be- 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 63 
 
 of the seventeen and a half ixiillion that had been ceded 
 to the Government.'*^ 
 
 As the surveys advanced and more land was ready 
 for the market, new land offices were established; at 
 Monroe in 1823, at White Pigeon in 1831, at Kalama- 
 zoo in 1834, and at Flint and Ionia in 1836. The first 
 represents a movement of population into the country 
 of the Raisin River Valley, the second out along the 
 Chicago Road, the third along the Territorial Road, 
 the fourth into the Saginaw Valley, the fifth into the 
 Grand River region. ^^ The opening of the land office 
 at Kalamazoo in 1834 marks the beginning of a new 
 period in the settlement of western Michigan. ^^ 
 
 The laws regulating the sales of land in Michigan be- 
 fore 1820 were not conducive to the best interests of 
 settlement. The claims of the squatter were not only 
 not recognized, but his land and improvements were 
 legally liable to forfeiture.^" The settler of small means 
 was at a decided disadvantage, since the lands were sold 
 only in comparatively large parcels and at auction to 
 
 47. American State Papers: Public Lands, III, 533 ; Historical and 
 
 Scientific Sketches of Michigan (Detroit, 1834), 165. The 
 field notes of the surveyors, deposited at Lansing in 1857 
 upon the completion of the survey of Michigan, are of 
 first importance for early physiographic conditions. 
 
 48. For jurisdiction see Blois, Gazetteer, 71-73; Detroit Gazette, 
 
 July 18, 1823; Risdon's map of Michigan (1825). 
 
 49. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 612. 
 
 50. Magazine of Western History, VI, 397. 
 
 come units for township governments. This result was 
 secured by the policy of following the township lines in 
 establishing the original areas for township government, 
 however unequal these areas, which makes easier the use 
 of the organization of township government to measure, 
 in a general way, comparative rates of settlement in 
 different areas. 
 
64 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the highest bidder. The fact that land could be 
 bought on credit encouraged speculation, and the best 
 land would tend to go into the hands of a few men of 
 large actual or prospective means. The family man of 
 small means with intention to settle was not likely to 
 speculate even on credit, since his death or the defer- 
 ment of payments for other reasons would forfeit both 
 lands and improvements. He was more likely to wait 
 his chance at the expiration of the given term of sale 
 when the unsold lands would be put on the market at 
 two dollars an acre, fifty cents at the time of entry and 
 the balance in one, two, and three years, with interest. ^^ 
 In order to avoid the cost and difficulties of collecting 
 arrears, to check speculation, to open the best land on 
 equal terms to all, to avoid the poor man's having to 
 forfeit lands for deferred payments and to enable him 
 to buy in small parcels, the credit system was by act of 
 Congress (1820) to be discontinued;" all lands were to 
 
 51. Donaldson, Public Domain, 203-205; History of Oakland 
 
 County (Philadelphia, 1876), 130; Detroit Gazette, May 8, 
 1818. 
 
 52. Statutes at Large, III, 566. Sec a monograph by Emerich, 
 
 on "The Credit System and the Public Domain," in 
 Vanderbilt Southern Historical Society, Publications, No. 
 3, quoted by Mr. Turner in "The Colonization of the 
 West," in American Historical Review, XI, 313, n. 2. 
 The Detroit Gazette of September 24, 1819, hints at a 
 condition which may have stimulated the repeal of the 
 credit system. A writer, signing himself "Franklin" sug- 
 gests that the immense indebtedness of the people of the 
 West to the Government for the land, due to the credit 
 system, may form cause for separation from the Union 
 to escape the debt ; especially if the people are shown that 
 the original states had no right to the land, and that the 
 West is eininently fitted for independence. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 65 
 
 be sold at $1,25 the acre, and in parcels as small as 
 eighty acres. 
 
 It still remained to give legal protection to the squat- 
 ter. The squatter was the extreme advance guard of set- 
 tlement whose services often took the keen edge from 
 the hardships of later comers accustomed to the settled 
 life of an old community. In a rude way, by a custom 
 that had the effect of law, the squatters instituted a 
 degree of self -protect ion. A settler who would dis- 
 regard the right of a squatter to purchase his claim 
 when it came on the market would soon find it un- 
 pleasant to stay in the community. ^^ But the specu- 
 lator was not easily made amendable to this custom 
 and often took advantage of his immunity to beat the 
 squatter out of a home. Congressional attention to 
 this abuse began effectively with the preemption act of 
 
 It would be expected, under the influence of the Erie 
 Canal, the acceleration of steam navigation on Lake 
 Erie, and the survey of the Chicago Road, that sales 
 would rapidly increase from 1825 to 1830. What took 
 place was quite the opposite ;^^ the sales at the Detroit 
 
 53. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 424; L. H. Glover, A Twentieth Cen- 
 
 tury History of Cass County, Michigan (Chicago, 1906), 
 107. 
 
 54. Donaldson, Public Domain, 214, 215. There is a brief treat- 
 
 ment of "The national preemption system," m Magazine 
 of Western History, VI, 396-399. 
 
 55. The amounts of sale for the whole Territory from 1830-1834 
 
 were: 1831: 252,211.44 acres; 1832: 316,081.89 acres; 
 1833: 447,780.17 acres; 1834: 351,951.32 acres. {Ameri- 
 can State Papers: Public Lands, VI, 628; VII, 329-330.) 
 The Detroit Gazette of June 20, 1826, attributes the fall- 
 ing off in amount of purchases in 1826 to hard times in 
 9 
 
66 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 land office may be taken as typical. In 1820 there 
 were sold at that office 2,860 acres; sales ran rapidly up 
 from 7,444 acres in 1821 to 20,068 in 1822; the increase 
 continued until in 1825 they reached 92,332 acres. 
 From this point there was a steady falling off until 
 1830, when 70,441 acres were sold. But with a sud- 
 den impulse sales mounted in the following year to 
 217,943 acres. Then, probably under the influence of 
 the Black Hawk war and the epidemics of cholera in 
 1832 and 1834, there was a gradual decline. But again, 
 in 1835 sales suddenly leaped to 405,331 acres, and in 
 1836 to nearly one and a half million acres. '^'^ In the 
 year 1835-36 Michigan shared in a phenomenon of 
 increased land sales that was national in extent. The 
 largest total of sales was made in Michigan." This 
 seems plausibly explained by the comparatively small 
 amount of land remaining unsold in the older areas, 
 and by the comparatively slight knowledge of lands 
 farther west; also by the stage of Michigan's settlement, 
 her lands being accessible with comparative ease and 
 well enough known to be properly valued. ^^ 
 
 There was undoubtedly a large element of specula- 
 tion in these purchases even before 1835. According to 
 
 56. Blois, Gazetteer, 74; J. P. MacCabe, Directory of the City of 
 
 Detroit (Detroit, 1837), 86. The amount of sales given 
 by Blois for 1833 is obviously a typographical en*or. 
 
 57. Donaldson, Public Domain, 215, 216; R. Adams, "Agricul- 
 
 ture in Michigan," in Michigan Political Science Associa- 
 tion, Publications, III, 173. 
 
 58. Ibid. 
 
 55. Con. the East, which made it difficult for intending emigrants 
 to convert their produce and property into ready money. 
 A retardation of immigration due to this cause was antic- 
 ipated in the same paper May 23, 1826. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 67 
 
 an apparently authoritative account speculation had 
 reached only "a gentle breeze" in 1834, but increased 
 "to a gale in 1835, to a storm in 1836, to a change of 
 wind and an adverse tornado in 1837."^^ A serious 
 financial crisis as a result of Jackson's financial policy 
 appears to have been anticipated in Michigan as early 
 as 1833. "We regret to find," says the editor of the 
 Detroit Journal and Michigaii Advertiser, November 27, 
 "that a general feeling of apprehension is felt and ex- 
 pressed by the city papers, of serious embarrassment 
 in the money market." Other editorial protests and 
 prophecies followed. •''' But money, in bank notes," be- 
 came as plentiful as "strawberries in June"''^ and every- 
 body continued to seem prosperous. Banks were 
 chartered at all the principal centers of settlement and 
 increased in number rapidly after the general banking 
 law of 1837.''' Under this law, which among other 
 things provided "that whenever any person or persons, 
 resident of this State, shall be desirous of establishing 
 a bank, such person or persons shall be at liberty to 
 meet without interruption, open books and subscribe 
 to the capital stock of such bank," much unscrupulous 
 swindling appears to have taken place. Many banks 
 whose promoters had little or no intention of redeem- 
 
 59. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 174. 
 
 60. For example, the Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, 
 
 April 9, 1834; the Detroit Journal and Courier, Septem- 
 ber 12, 1835. 
 
 61. See description of the "financial zoology" of the time — wild 
 
 cat, red dog, etc. — ^in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 190; and His- 
 tory of Hillsdale County (Philadelphia, 1880), 41. 
 
 62. See Harriet Martineau's experience, June, 1836, in Society 
 
 in America, I, 327. 
 
 63. Session Laws, 1838, p. 24. 
 
68 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 ing their notes were set up at points difficult to reach 
 or to find; capital was often not paid in; notes were 
 issued in gross excess; security was frequently poor, or 
 not furnished; and the bank inspectors were imposed 
 upon by all sorts of trickery. '^'^ 
 
 The crisis was precipitated in the East by the issue of 
 Jackson's specie circular on July 11, 1836, and the effect 
 was not long in reaching Michigan. The Detroit Daily 
 Advertiser of October 15 observes that "the banks of 
 Detroit do not discount the best paper which is oft'ered. 
 This has been the case for several months past." Pub- 
 lic officers were authorized by the circular to receive 
 only coin ; bank notes therefore would not buy Govern- 
 ment land. But the real crisis came when Michigan 
 banks in 1837 began to suspend specie payments''^ and 
 rapidly to fail. Bank notes became so valueless that in 
 grim humor some investors who but a little while be- 
 fore were supposedly rich used them for wall paper.*''' 
 Land became a drug on the market and panic prices 
 prevailed." The laboring and farming classes appear 
 to have been the heaviest losers, not having the means 
 to keep abreast of news regarding the condition of the 
 
 64. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 160. See also ihid., XXXII, 
 
 254; Magazine of Western History, III, 202; Cooley, Mich- 
 igan, 268-269; Ross and Catlin, Landmarks of Detroit, 439. 
 
 65. H. M. Utley and B. M. Cutcheon, Michigan as Province, 
 
 Territory and State (New York, 1906), III, 88. 
 
 66. According to tradition, Louis Campau of Grand Rapids 
 
 papered the cupola of his house with them saying: "If 
 you won't circulate, you shall stay still." Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., XXX, 294. See also ibid., XXII, 547. 
 
 67. Ibid., XXXVIII, 368-369; History of Hillsdale County 
 
 (Phila., 1879), 42. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 69 
 
 banks. ^8 But the crisis was not an unmixed evil for 
 settlement. The immense speculations and immigra- 
 tions of the period, stimulated by easy money, had 
 brought great numbers of settlers before the crash 
 came who still remained to aid the new State to recover 
 from disaster, and to help build a prosperous common- 
 wealth. 
 
 Even more striking than land sales as illustrating the 
 rate of settlement in Michigan are the very rapid 
 changes that were made in the means of transporta- 
 tion, both from the East to Michigan and from the lake 
 shores to the interior. A period within a dozen years 
 witnessed a transformation from the birchbark canoe 
 to steam navigation on the Great lakes, and from the 
 Indian trail to the railroad."^ While such changes were 
 partly a cause of settlement they were largely the re- 
 sult of the demands of settlement, actual as well as 
 prospective.^'' 
 
 68. Michigan as Province, Territory and State, III, 105; Cooley, 
 
 Michigan, 21 2-21 Z. 
 
 69. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 165. 
 
 70. There is a good general survey of the early improvements of 
 
 transportation in Michigan in R. Adams, "Agriculture in 
 Michigan," in Michigan Political Science Association, 
 Publications, III, 177-183. The Detroit Gazette of April 
 9, 1824, laments the small interest in road building, 
 affirming that roads are improved only where absolutely 
 necessary, and only enough there to make them barely 
 passable. For use of the canoe on Michigan waters see 
 Magazine of Western History, XI, 389, 390; Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., Ill, 125. See J. L. Ringwalt, Development of 
 transportation Systems in the United States (Philadelphia, 
 1888), 5-15 for the early systems of water transportation. 
 For the French Canadian pony cart and ox team see 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 383-384; XXII, 487; Magazine of 
 Western History, VI, 391. 
 
70 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 The navigation of the Great Lakes by steam marked 
 a new era in the settlement of Michigan. Significant 
 was it that the first steamboat from Buffalo arrived at 
 Detroit in 1818, in the year of opening public land sales 
 there. According to the Detroit Gazette for June 2 and 
 23, 1820, the usual time from Buffalo to Detroit was 
 two and a half days and the fare fifteen dollars; the 
 fare from Detroit to Mackinac was twenty dollars. 
 The trip could be made from Boston to Detroit in 
 fifteen days. The Gazette of May 8, 1818, states the 
 cost of transporting goods from Albany to Detroit as 
 four dollars and a half per hundred weight. In 1825-26 
 there came a sudden impulse apparently due to the 
 opening of the Erie Canal, when the number of steam- 
 ers on Lake Erie increased from one to six." In 1836 
 ninety steamers are said to have arrived at Detroit in 
 May bearing settlers to Michigan and the West.^- 
 
 The growth of steamboat travel may be measured by 
 the number of passengers. The first trip of Walk-in-the 
 Water in 1818 brought to Detroit twenty-nine passeng- 
 ers ; the Superior, which took her place after she was 
 wrecked in 1821, brought ninety-four passengers in 
 1822 ;^3 in 1830 from April 1 to May 12 twenty-four 
 hundred intending settlers were landed at Detroit ;^^ in 
 the following year in one week in May steamboat ar- 
 
 71. Farmer, History of Detroit, 1, 909. Another account gives 
 
 three for 1827. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, 273. There 
 is a good treatment of navigation on Lake Erie before 
 1829 in ibid., IV, 79. 
 
 72. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 909. 
 
 73. Ibid. 
 
 74. Detroit Journal, May 12, 1830, quoted in Michigan Political 
 
 Science Association, Publications, IV, 521. 
 
— ~ a J 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 71 
 
 rivals numbered about two thousand." In 1834, in 
 one day, October 7, there arrived at the same port 
 nine hundred passengers. '^'^ 
 
 The growing importance of the region of the Great 
 Lakes is reflected in tourist's guidebooks. It was 
 about 1830 apparently when the trip on the Great 
 Lakes began to be considered worth while by tourists, 
 but not until about 1837 do we find it very heartily 
 recommended." Lake navigation was considerably 
 hampered by the necessity of closing down for some 
 four or five months in the winter. ^» Usually boats be- 
 gan to arrive at Detroit from Buffalo the last of April 
 or the first of May^^ and continued to arrive until late 
 in November. 
 
 The settlement of the western part of Michigan was 
 much aided by the comparative ease of transportation 
 afforded by lakes Huron and Michigan especially for 
 household goods and heavy merchandise. Goods were 
 landed at the river mouths and thence transported in 
 canoes, pole boats, or small steamers up the rivers. 
 Walk-in-the-Water in 1819 took freight and passengers 
 to Mackinac,^'* a trip widely anticipated with much 
 curiosity; the Gazette of May 14, 1819, quotes from a 
 New York paper: "The swift steamboat Walk-in-the 
 Water is intended to make a voyage, early in the sum- 
 
 75. Detroit Free Press, May 19, 1831, quoted in Farmer, History 
 
 of Detroit, I, 335. 
 
 76. Ihid. 
 
 77. E. Charming and M. T. Lansing, Story of the Great Lakes 
 
 (New York, 1909), 268. 
 
 78. Ihid., 268, 271 ; Detroit Daily Advertiser, December 20, 1836. 
 
 79. Detroit Gazette, May 12, 1820; May 18, 1821; April 4, 1823; 
 
 April 2, 1824. 
 
 80. Campbell, Political History oj Michigan, 400. 
 
72 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 mer, from Buffalo, on Lake Erie, to Michilimackinac 
 on Lake Huron, for the conveyance of company. The 
 trip has so near a resemblance to the famous Argo- 
 nautic expedition in the heroic ages of Greece, that ex- 
 pectation is quite alive on the subject. Many of our 
 most distinguished citizens are said to have already 
 engaged their passage for this splendid adventure." 
 There was subsequently a considerable commerce by 
 steam on the upper lakes. ^^ According to an editorial 
 in the Detroit Journal and Courier of July 1, 1835, "a 
 trip on the upper lakes at this season has become quite 
 fashionable. The establishment of a regular line of 
 first rate Steam Boats between Buffalo and Chicago 
 affords a fine opportunity for travellers to visit the 
 rich scenery so beautifully described by Cass, School- 
 craft and others. "82 
 
 The opening of the Erie Canal, completing an all- 
 water route between Michigan and the Atlantic Ocean, 
 
 ■ 81. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXI, 336. For boats on Lake Michigan 
 see the Detroit Gazette of August 29, 1817, which an- 
 nounces the intended departure of the schooner Hercules 
 for Mackinac and Chicago. The same paper for May 18, 
 1821, says that fourteen schooners recently left Detroit 
 laden with merchandise and produce for Michilimack- 
 inac and ports on Lake Michigan. The Northwestern 
 Journal, December 2, 1829, records a trip made by the 
 schooner Detroit from Chicago to Detroit in twenty- 
 three days. The first steamboat trip on Lake Michigan 
 was one to Green Bay in 1830, mentioned in the North- 
 western Journal for July 14, 1830. See also Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., XII, 317; XXX, 573 et. seq.; Collin, History oj 
 Branch County, 34; Turner, "The colonization of the 
 West," in American Historical Review, XI, 312. 
 82. Harriet Martineau, however, made the trip from Chicago to 
 Buffalo in June, 1836, in the sailing vessel, Milwaukee, 
 which she says was the only sailing vessel available. 
 Society in America, II, 2. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 73 
 
 gave to lake navigation and to western settlement a 
 new impulse. This canal was begun about the time 
 that Walk-in-the- Water arrived at Detroit and opened 
 to traffic seven years later J^ It is very probable that 
 settlement was largely stimulated by anticipation of 
 what this would meanJ^ The significance of it for the 
 settlement of Michigan was that it changed the direc- 
 tion of western emigration from the Ohio Valley to the 
 line of the Canal and the Great Lakes. ^^ Michigan 
 would therefore profit directly from the interception of 
 many settlers who had originall}^ planned to go farther 
 west. Especially would this interception be favored by 
 the national survey of the Chicago Road about the 
 same time. Transportation on the Canal was com- 
 paratively cheap 8^ and great numbers of New England 
 and New York pioneers who came to Michigan after 
 1825 speak of having used the canal boat to Buffalo. 
 
 The favorite route overland from the East to Lake 
 Erie was by way of the Mohawk and Genesee Turn- 
 
 83. Channing and Lansing, Story of the Great Lakes, 251-265. 
 
 The Detroit Gazette for August 16, 1817, quoting from 
 the Albany Daily Advertiser, notes that work is progress- 
 ing on the Erie Canal — "The Grand Western Canal." 
 Five hundred men are reported at work. 
 
 84. T. E. Wing, History of Monroe County, Michigan (New 
 
 York, 1890), 200. 
 
 85. Collin, History of Branch County, 33. The effect of the 
 
 greater capacity of the canal and lake transportation was 
 such that the northern route had taken precedence over 
 the southern by about 1832, as shown by the transporta- 
 tion of troops for the Black Hawk war. Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., XXXVIII, 145. 
 
 86. Turner "The Colonization of the West," in American His- 
 
 torical Review, XI, 312. 
 
74 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 pike," from the terminus of which the traveler might 
 take his choice of routes along either the northern or 
 southern shores of Lake Erie. In both cases he would 
 have to cross the many streams flowing into the lake 
 from either side, and would be aided little by bridges. ^^ 
 Swamps, if not numerous, were not scarce. Little im- 
 provement seems to have been made in the Canadian 
 route since Sir William Johnson required in 1761 thirty- 
 nine full days to move a small body of troops in the 
 most favorable season from Niagara to Detroit. ^^ 
 General Hull, approaching from the other direction in 
 1812, moved his troops but an average of four miles a 
 day from the rapids of the Miami to Detroit. ^^^ 
 
 In the improvement of Michigan rivers and in at- 
 tempts to build canals not very much was done before 
 1837, but in the years immediately following, a very 
 great number of such improvements were undertaken 
 by the Territorial and State governments of Michigan. 
 That such elaborate attention should be given to canal 
 and river navigation can be understood best in the 
 light of the success of the Erie Canal and of the diffi- 
 culties attending land transportation before the days of 
 the railroad. ^1 
 
 87. Ihid., XI, 311. In Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 591-592, is 
 
 given a good brief discussion of early routes from the 
 East to the Central West. See also ilnd. , XXXVIII, 142. 
 
 88. Magazine of Western History, II, 578-580. 
 
 89. Ibid., 579. Compare a trip made by lumber wagon in 1835. 
 
 F. Ellis, History of Livingston County (Philadelphia, 
 1880), 138. 
 
 90. Magazine of Western History, II, 580. 
 
 91. The completion of the Erie Canal set other states to making 
 
 canals often when there was little chance of successful 
 operation. (Ringwalt, Early Transportation, 45, 46.) 
 The Detroit Gazette of February 4, 1835, gives an account 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 75 
 
 The first improvements of roads in Michigan were 
 made by the National Government for mihtary pur- 
 poses. The earhest of these naturally were made where 
 the greatest need was felt. The War of 1812 had 
 taught the strategic importance of connecting Detroit 
 with the Ohio Valley; the first road established there- 
 fore, in 1818, extended from Detroit through Monroe 
 to the rapids of the Miami. The first line of stages be- 
 gan to run over this road shortly after the Erie Canal 
 was opened. ^2 By 1830 there was a continuous road, 
 
 92. Wing, History of Monroe County, 137. See Cass's letter to 
 the War Department in American State Papers: Miscel- 
 laneous, II, 596; also the Detroit Gazette of January 30, 
 1818, urging a National road between Detroit and San- 
 dusky. The condition of travel on that route in 1818 is 
 described from personal observation, by Estwick Evans, 
 in Thwaites, Early Western Travels, VIII, 209. The 
 position of the first road is shown on the Risdon map of 
 1825 as running from one to three miles from the shore. 
 Apparently its improvement was very slow; Monroe citi- 
 zens complained in 1822 that it was almost impassable for 
 wagons even in good weather on account of logs, stumps, 
 and deep holes, and in fall and spring almost impassable 
 on horseback. (Detroit Gazette, April 19, 1822). See 
 Cass's description of its condition in 1826; (^'6^(i. , January 
 31, 1826). The stage line started that year appears to 
 have been soon obliged to discontinue (ibid., August 
 
 91. Con. of a public meeting in Detroit to consider the project of 
 a canal "from Cranberry Marsh or some other eligible 
 point." The same paper for June 12, 1827, gives a long 
 report of a town meeting held at Dexter, in Washtenaw 
 County, to consider the prospect for a canal from De- 
 troit to Lake Michigan. The attention of Congress was 
 called to that project in 1830 by Hon. John Biddle, ac- 
 cording to the Northwestern Journal of February 10, 
 1830. See Governor Mason's message in Michigan House 
 Journal, 1837, p. 12, for routes recommended for canals 
 in Michigan; for the Saginaw Canal, Michigan House 
 Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 17; for the Clinton and Kal- 
 amazoo Canal, ibid., (G), 68. 
 
76 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 though of very primitive character, along the entire 
 water front south of Lake Huron. ^^ 
 
 The earHest road inland was that built over the Sag- 
 inaw Trail to connect Detroit with a point favorable 
 for a military post among the Indians near the head 
 of Saginaw Bay. A road over this route was contem- 
 plated by Cass as early as 1815;^^ A stage line seems to 
 have begun regular trips over it from Pontiac to De- 
 troit in 1826.95 
 
 The most important of the inland routes in this 
 period was the Chicago Road, which grew out of the 
 military need of connecting the forts at Detroit and 
 Chicago. This road in its service to settlement was 
 practically an extension of the Erie Canal and was to 
 become a great axis of settlement in southern Mich- 
 igan. ^^ The route chosen was marked out by the old trail 
 
 93. Northwestern Journal, January 6, 1830. Three stages a 
 
 week appear to have been lamning between Detroit and 
 Mt. Clemens by 1834. Detroit Journal and Michigan 
 Advertiser, March 26. 
 
 94. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 925. 
 
 95. Michigan Herald, April 5, 1826. A number of stage lines 
 
 were started that year, apparently indicating the im- 
 pulse to immigration given by the Erie Canal. See the 
 Detroit Gazette of that year for February 7, April 4, and 
 May 23. 
 
 96. Collin, History of Branch County, 25, 42. For the services 
 
 of Lewis Cass and Father Gabriel Richard in behalf of 
 this improvement, see Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 37; VI, 238; 
 XXI, 440; Statutes at Large, IV, 135; editorial comment 
 in the Detroit Gazette of May 14, 1824. 
 
 92. Con. 15, 1826). It had carried passengers from Detroit to 
 Ohio since February apparently at the rate of four cents 
 a mile {ibid., February 7, 1826). Another stage line, 
 carrying passengers at six and a fourth cents a mile, be- 
 tween Detroit and Monroe, seems to have begun im- 
 mediately on the failure of the old one {ibid., August 
 22, 1826). 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 77 
 
 which the Indians had beaten hard in their annual visits 
 from the west to receive British presents at Maiden." 
 The road ran from Detroit in almost a direct line to 
 Ypsilanti, and entering Lenawee and bending there due 
 west, passed through Hillsdale and Branch in a south- 
 westerly direction to St. Joseph County, threaded the 
 southern part of St. Joseph and Cass and left the Ter- 
 ritory through the southwestern corner of Berrien. ^^ 
 The stage companies improved the roads enough to get 
 their coaches through but it was not until after the 
 Black Hawk war that serious work was done on it by 
 the Government as far west as Cass County. ^^ Harriet 
 Martineau says of the road between Detroit and Ypsi- 
 lanti in 1836: "Juggernaut's car would have been 
 'broke to bits' on such a road"; beyond Jonesville in 
 Hillsdale County it was "more deplorable than ever" ;^o" 
 occasionally all had to dismount and walk, and then 
 "such hopping and jumping; such slipping and sliding; 
 such looks of despair from the middle of a pond; such 
 shifting of logs, and carrying of planks, and handing 
 along the fallen trunks of trees." A writer in the 
 
 97. Mich. Hist. Colls., VIII, 195; Collin, History of Branch 
 
 County, 35. 
 
 98. Michigan Herald, June 14, 1825; Detroit Gazette, December 
 
 13, 1825; Risdon's map of Michigan (1825); Farmer's 
 map of Michigan (1835). For the condition of the road 
 at different times see Northwestern Journal, January 6, 
 May 20, 1830; Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, 
 March 30, 1831, October 26, 1831; Detroit Free Press, 
 November 3, 1831; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 48; II, 389. 
 See also items and advertisements in the Detroit Journal 
 and Michigan Advertiser for March 30, May 11, and 
 June 1, 1831. The rate of passenger transportation ap- 
 pears to have been four cents a mile. 
 
 99. Glover, History of Cass County, 166. 
 100. Society in America, I, 318, 322, 325, 326. 
 
78 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Detroit Daily Advertiser of December 24, 1836, says of 
 the Detroit end of the road: "The road from this to 
 Ypsilanti looks at certain times as if it had been the 
 route of a retreating army, so great is the number of 
 wrecks of different kinds which it exhibits." 
 
 The Territorial government authorized several roads 
 in this period, the most important of which was the 
 "Territorial Road," a name apparently given to dis- 
 tinguish it from the National turnpike. This was also 
 early known as the St. Joseph's Road, from the Indian 
 trail through the Kalamazoo Valley whose line it fol- 
 lowed approximately. 1"! It was authorized in 1829.1"'^ 
 Its supposed importance for settlement is indicated in 
 a report made to Governor Cass by the commissioners 
 who laid out its course in 1830: "To show that this 
 must be the most important road in the Territory, it is 
 only necessary to state its course is direct from Detroit 
 to the mouth of the St. Joseph, and the distance thirty 
 miles less than 'by the Chicago Road — that it passes 
 near the center of the peninsula, through a rich tract of 
 country, and no less than seven county centers, while 
 the Chicago Road takes a more circuitous route near 
 the Indiana line, studiously avoiding county centers. "^^s 
 A stage line appears to have been established in 1834 
 to connect with steamboats about to begin running 
 from St. Joseph to Chicago; it was proposed to make 
 
 101. vSee Risdon's map (1825). 
 
 102. Territorial Laws, 11,1 '^'^1. 
 
 103. The Northwestern Journal, April 21, 1830. See also a de- 
 
 scription of the advantages along its route, in the same 
 paper for May 5, 1830. These notices undoubtedly 
 helped to attract attention to the settlement of the Kala- 
 mazoo Valley. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 79 
 
 the entire distance from Detroit to Chicago in five 
 days.i"' The condition of the road at the close of this 
 period apparently was not as good as that of the Chi- 
 cago Road, and apparently not as much traveled. 
 Harriet Martineau who passed along the Chicago Road 
 in going west from Detroit in June, 1836, intended to 
 take the "upper road" returning, but received news at 
 Chicago that it had been made impassable by the 
 rains; she returned by the Lakes, the rest of the party 
 by the Chicago Road.^"^ 
 
 The agitation in Michigan for railroads began sur- 
 prisingly early and a number were chartered by the 
 Territorial government, a significant comment on the 
 rate of settlement and the enterprise of the settlers. 
 Stephenson's Rocket was still in the experimental stage 
 in England, 1"*^ and only a few miles of railroad had 
 been built in the most enterprising sections of the 
 eastern states. Articles on these railroads began to 
 appear in the Detroit papers in 1830 and charters were 
 from that time sought from the Territorial Govern- 
 ment, in some instances doubtless by speculators for 
 the purpose of encouraging the sale of lands along a 
 proposed route or at a proposed terminal. The char- 
 ter of 1830 to the Pontiac and Detroit Railway Com- 
 pany is the oldest in the Northwest Territory. ^"^ "We 
 
 104. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, June 4, 1834. 
 
 105. Society in America, II, 2. Mr. Lew Allen Chase has made 
 
 a judicious selection of material to illustrate the larger 
 features of the roads, travel, and traffic in Michigan dur- 
 ing the Territorial period in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 
 593. See Session Laws, 1835-1836, pp. 90-102, for some 
 sixty roads authorized by the legislature. 
 
 106. Mich. Hist. Colls., 1, 132. 
 
 107. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 893; Mich. Territorial Laws, 
 
 III, 844. 
 
80 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 advise those capitalists," says the Detroit Courier of 
 August 7, 1833, "who have been so grievously disap- 
 pointed in consequence of not obtaining stock in the 
 Utica and Schenectady Railroad to bring hither their 
 funds and forthwith take preliminary steps to invest 
 the same in a railroad from Detroit to Chicago." An 
 editorial in the same paper for October 30 comments on 
 the rapidly increasing travel between Detroit and 
 Ypsilanti and the bad condition of the wagon road as 
 cogent reasons for a railway between those points. 
 
 But before much had been done on that line, enter- 
 prising men of Adrian and Port Lawrence (Toledo) be- 
 gan active preparation for rail connections between 
 Lake Erie and the navigable waters of Kalamazoo 
 River. Immigration through Port Lawrence was in- 
 creasing, and the idea of directing its course through 
 Lenawee Covmty as well as reducing the price of im- 
 ports and giving an easier outlet for farm products, 
 formed a powerful incentive to action. So bad was the 
 road then existing between these points, it was said, 
 that wagons would often plow to the box in the mud, 
 from which the oxen could scarcely extricate them.^*^^ 
 The first cars over this first railroad in Michigan were 
 operated in 1836, by horse power; but the effect on the 
 price of commodities was immediate; for example, 
 Syracuse salt fell from fifteen dollars to nine dollars 
 per barrel and other heavy supplies in proportion. ^^^ 
 
 In 1834 was surveyed the line of the Detroit and St. 
 Joseph Railroad, approximately along the line of the 
 
 108. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 493, 499. 
 
 109. Ibid., 492. The financial stress following 1837 hopelessly 
 
 bankrupted the road, and in 1848 it was leased in per- 
 petuity to the Michigan Southern Railroad Company. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 81 
 
 Territorial Road.^^" Undoubtedly the success of the 
 Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad from Adrian to Toledo, 
 giving the interior an outlet in that direction and ap- 
 pearing to endanger the commercial interests of De- 
 troit, did much to hasten the work on the St. Joseph 
 Road. ^11 When it was taken over by the State in 1837, 
 nearly one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars had 
 been expended on it; for which there had been done 
 thirteen miles of grading and most of the clearing and 
 grubbing between Detroit and Ypsilanti.^i^ Contem- 
 porary appreciation of the importance of this road is 
 shown by its completion to Ypsilanti in 1836.^1=^ 
 
 To be sure, these first roads in Michigan were very 
 primitive — strap -railed and operated by horse power. 
 The first locomotive in 1837 on the Erie and Kalama- 
 zoo road between Adrian and Toledo was compara- 
 
 110. Michigan House Documents, 1837, No. 9, p. 2; and No. 9 
 
 (B), 29, 31. See description of the route in the Detroit 
 Journal and Courier, July 8, 1835. This was the be- 
 ginning of the later Michigan Central Railroad. 
 
 111. See editorials in the Detroit Daily Advertiser of Jvtly 26, 
 
 August 12, and November 28, 1836. 
 
 112. Michigan House Documents, 1837, No. 9, p. 9. See for the 
 
 projected system of internal improvements, Session Laws, 
 1837, pp. 130-133; House Journal, 1837, pp. 11-14, 114; 
 House Documents, 1837, No. 9, p. 1. For an expression 
 of the popular sentiment see constitutional sanction in 
 Michigan Legislative Manual, 1837, p. 45, art. 13, sec. 3. 
 
 113. For an account of the festivities celebrating the arrival of 
 
 the first train at Ypsilanti, see Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, 
 394. A copy of the invitation issued by the commission 
 of internal improvements .to Mr. Ball to "take a seat in 
 the cars" on this first trip is contained in ibid., XXXVIII, 
 101. For the Southern Railroad from Monroe west- 
 ward on the line of the later Michigan Southern Rail- 
 road, see Michigan House Documents, 1837, No. 9, pp. 
 4-7; for the Northern Railroad, see ibid., 13-16. 
 11 
 
82 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 lively a toy;"^ the train on this Hne appears to have 
 been fairly typical. The first passenger coach, called the 
 "Pleasure Car," was top-heavy and always jumping the 
 track. Passenger trains had an engine and one coach, 
 which carried about twenty persons. The seats were 
 benches along the sides of the coach; the door was on 
 the side; there were no steps, the coaches being low 
 and accessible from the ground. Later on, double- 
 decker coaches were introduced; the upper deck, for 
 women, was furnished with sheepskin-covered seats 
 while the lower deck, for the men, had only wooden 
 sea.ts; these cars could carry sixteen passengers on each 
 deck. The first engines were about twenty horse 
 power, and six cars made a good-sized freight train; the 
 freight cars held only about two tons. The first train 
 crews consisted of a fireman and an engineer; the fuel 
 was wood taken from the forests en route; water for the 
 engine was procured from the ditches. ^^^ 
 
 A word should be said about the government of the 
 Territory as an influence on settlement, though not 
 much can be said of it as an asset in this relation. The 
 opportunity for abuses, practically with immunity, were 
 abundant, the powers of the government being ill- 
 defined and the officials distant from Washington with 
 
 114. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 232, 236; Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 
 
 893. 
 
 115. Descriptions adapted from Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 
 
 495-496. See Michigan House Documents, 1837, No. 9 
 (A), 14-15, for a description of the process of building 
 one of these primitive 'roads. A picture of the first train 
 over the road from Detroit to Dearborn is given in Mich. 
 Hist. Colls., IV, 516, and of the Erie and Kalamazoo 
 train in ibid., XXXVIII, opposite p. 494. 
 
FIRST RAILROAD TRAIN IN THE WE8T 
 {Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 494) 
 
 ^^f^K^ Nov. 2, 1836, over the Erie 
 
 pleted in 1836. See p. 81. "^hich was commenced in 1833 and com- 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 83 
 
 only themselves to report their conduct. Legislative, 
 executive, and judicial powers were vested practically 
 in the same persons, a small junto of four composed of 
 the governor and three judges; rarely were they in 
 agreement ; many are the accounts of their frequent and 
 bitter broils. Many were the protests from the peo- 
 ple ;^^^ it is said that the citizens of Detroit were so 
 disgusted with this misrule that they refused to vote 
 for councilmen after the first election in 1806. Fre- 
 quently the people expressed their indignation through 
 grand juries."^ In 1809 by this means they petitioned 
 Congress for a change in the form of government, asking 
 for an elective legislature and a delegate to Congress; 
 but that body busily engaged with the foreign affairs 
 preceding the War of 1812, gave little heed; not until 
 the close of that conflict was a larger share in local 
 government secured. ^^^ 
 
 The movement for a change in the form of the Terri- 
 torial government was strongly advocated in the De- 
 troit Gazette with the purpose of "encouraging immi- 
 gration, inducing settlement and developing the re- 
 sources of the Territory." The increased expense 
 would be an investment sure of rich returns, argued 
 "Cincinnatus" in that paper for November 21, 1817, 
 advocating change to a form "more congenial to the 
 principles and feeling of the American people." "The 
 government of this Territory, in its formation, is des- 
 potic — as it exists at present, it is anarchy," declared 
 
 116. Ross and Catlin, Landmarks of Detroit, 283. 
 
 117. Ibid., 288, 290-291. 
 
 118. Ibid., -289. 
 
84 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 another. 1^^ Governor Cass, thoroughly democratic, de- 
 sired complete popular rule to be consummated for the 
 Territory as rapidly as the will of the people should 
 permit ;i2o ^3^^ h^q French, suffering from the ravages 
 of war, hated nothing so much as taxes and had not the 
 feeling for popular government characteristic of the 
 "Yankee" immigrants. It was apparently the strength 
 of their vote in 1818 that defeated the attempt to 
 
 effect a change to the second grade of Territorial 
 government. ^21 
 
 The Territory first elected a delegate to Congress in 
 1819, when it was provided that all white males who 
 had resided in Michigan one year prior to the date of 
 election and who paid a Territorial or county tax might 
 vote at the election.^22 f j^g second important change 
 was in 1823 when the Legislative Council was estab- 
 lished, in the election of whose members the people 
 were given a partial voice. ^^3 'pj^g complaints against 
 the Territorial officials published in the Detroit Gazette 
 preceding this change make an almost continuous series 
 
 119. October 28. See also the Detroit Gazette of 1817 for Octo- 
 
 ber 10, November 28, December 5, 12, 26, and January 2, 
 1818, for a series of articles on the misrule of the Gover- 
 nor and Judges, signed "Rousseau." A writer in the 
 issue of December 19, 1817, regrets the influence such 
 writings must have on immigration. In the issue for 
 January 13, 1818, a strong editorial sets forth the ad- 
 vantages of the second grade of Territorial government. 
 
 120. Journal of the Legislative Council, 1824, p. 8; ibid., 1826, 
 
 pp. 5-6. 
 
 121. Detroit Gazette, October 2, 1818; Campbell, Political History 
 
 of Michigan, 391 ; Smith, Life and Times of Lewis Cass, 
 113. 
 
 122. Statutes at Large, III, 482; Detroit Gazette, May 28, 1819. 
 
 123. Statutes at Large, III, 769. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 85 
 
 of articles and editorials. ^ 24 j^ fact, they are con- 
 tinuous from its founding in 1817. These writings 
 quoted in the eastern papers were detrimental, to the 
 immigration at least of those who were particular about 
 living under good government. The New York Com- 
 mercial Advertiser, quoted in the Detroit Gazette of De- 
 cember 27, 1822, declares that "Michigan is the worst 
 governed State or Territory in the Union if half is true 
 that has been published in the last three or four years 
 and never contradicted. "^ 25 j^ 1827 Congress provided 
 for the complete popular election of the Legislative 
 Council, subject to a check by the governor's veto and 
 to congressional approval. ^^^ The Territorial govern- 
 ment thus inaugurated continued until the election of 
 State officers in 1836. 
 
 The agitation for a change to State government be- 
 gan actively about 1831. An editorial in the Detroit 
 Gazette for October 8, 1824, had prophesied that in 
 view of the present progress of settlement, Michigan 
 
 124. The editorials first became trencliant in 1820. See a criti- 
 
 cism of the editorial silence on abuses, in the Gazette for 
 August 11, 1820, followed August 25 by an editorial de- 
 mand that an account be made by the treasurer of the 
 Territory, of the expenditure of public money during the 
 last five years. 
 
 125. Judge Woodward was the center of the attack on the Judges ; 
 
 see the severe and specific arraignment in the Gazette for 
 November 1 and 8, 1822; he published his defense in 
 eastern papers, which led the Gazette to say that he ap- 
 peared more desirous of being thought clean at Washing- 
 ton than in Michigan. 
 
 126. Statutes at Large, 4, 200. The Detroit Gazette of June 18, 
 
 1824, contains very favorable comment on the recent 
 work of the Legislative Council, publishing from this time 
 forth the proceedings and laws of the Council and the 
 speeches of the Governor. 
 
86 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 would be eligible for statehood in 1826. But progress 
 was not quite so rapid. The Detroit Free Press of 
 September 8, 1831, forcast a sufficient population "in 
 a year or so"; in 1832 a vote taken on the issue though 
 favorable was small, and Congress declined to consider 
 it.i" As in 1818 and 1823 the French-Canadians' fear 
 of increase in taxes again furnished the strength of the 
 negative vote.^^s The small size of the favorable ma- 
 jority indicated probably less a lack of interest on the 
 part of eastern settlers than the distraction of atten- 
 tion from it by the cholera epidemic and the rumors of 
 Indian uprisings. Regarding the franchise it is worthy 
 of note that for this occasion it was extended beyond 
 the qualified electors to all males of age excepting In- 
 dians and Negroes. 129 
 
 Increasing numbers in 1833-34 again revived the 
 agitation for statehood and symptoms appeared of the 
 attitude Michigan was to take in the later conflict over 
 admission. ''Even if congress omits to act in the 
 case," says the editor of the Detroit Journal and Michi- 
 gan Advertiser, October 29, 1834, "and appear to de- 
 cline admitting her into the Union as a boon, we shall 
 probably soon have proof that she may demand it as 
 a right." 1^'' A census taken in 1834 revealed a popula- 
 
 127. Detroit Free Press, October 18, 1832; Detroit Courier, March 
 
 13, 1833; Ross and Catlin, Landmarks of Detroit, 376. 
 
 128. Detroit Free Press, October 11, 1832; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 XXII, 484; XXVIII, 171. 
 
 129. Campbell, Political History of Michigan, 435. 
 
 130. See other editorial discussions in the same paper for Novem- 
 
 ber 5, 12, 19, 26, December 4., etc., 1834, and frequently 
 from then forward. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 87 
 
 tion of 87,278.^^^ In 1835 a State constitution was 
 adopted, a complete State government was elected, 
 and Michigan claimed under the Ordinance of 1787 to 
 be a State, awaiting only congressional action on its 
 right to admission into the Union. The popular senti- 
 ment in favor of State government is reflected in the 
 vote of six to one for the adoption of the new constitu- 
 tion in 1835, and as settlement increased in 1835-36 
 mainly from New York and New England the sentiment 
 for statehood brought from the older states grew 
 stronger in Michigan. For over a year, however, 
 Michigan continued to be technically a Territory, at 
 least not a State in the Union, though its people lived 
 under the new constitution. ^^^^ The . constitution ad- 
 opted may fairly be taken to express the general feel- 
 ing of the people regarding popular rights. Among 
 other things it required that a voter must be a white 
 male above twenty-one years of age, a citizen or resi- 
 dent in Michigan at the time of the adoption of the 
 constitution and a resident of the State six months 
 preceding the election. ^^^ The franchise was extended 
 
 131. Blois, Gazetteer, 150. 
 
 132. There is a good brief analysis of the constitution of 1835 in 
 
 Cooley's Michigan, 299-303; also in Michigan as Province, 
 Territory and State, III, 43-53. The issue of the admission 
 of Michigan afforded an instructive expression of state 
 rights in the West, taking some time to settle because of 
 being compromised with the slavery question, the ad- 
 mission of Arkansas, and the boundary controversy with 
 Ohio. 
 A good brief digest of the legislation of 1835-37 bearing 
 upon the settlement and development of Michigan, is 
 contained in ibid.. Ill, 69, 77-89. See also the two 
 volumes of Session Laws, 1835-1836, and 1837. 
 
 133. Michigan Legislative Manual, 1837, p. 30. 
 
88 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 to all aliens then in Michigan, but a residence of five 
 years was required of newcomers. ^^^ Alpheus White, 
 a native of Ireland, appears to have been largely in- 
 strumental in getting an extension of the suffrage to 
 aliens then residing in the Territory. ^^^ 
 
 Settlers coming from the East to Michigan must have 
 recognized in the laws of the Territory much with 
 which they were familiar, since by reason of the origin 
 the laws they reflected as a whole the spirit of the 
 East. 136 A writer who has made a special study of this 
 feature finds that they were derived in about equal 
 proportions from Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and 
 Virginia. 1" Punishment at the whipping post was de- 
 rived from the laws of Vermont ;^^^ as late as 1832 a 
 public whipping of fifteen lashes on the bare back ap- 
 pears to have been administered in the public square 
 of Monroe village. ^^^ At the close of the period a 
 
 134. Michigan Political Association, Publications, I, 130; a num- 
 
 ber of newspaper articles appeared in 1836 bearing on 
 the right of foreign immigrants to vote. See the Detroit 
 Journal and Courier, July 1, 1835. 
 
 135. Michigan Biographies (Lansing, 1888), 685. 
 
 136. In some cases the intent of Congress to restrict the legisla- 
 
 tion of the Governor and Judges to such as could be 
 found on the statute books of the states, was frustrated 
 by an ingenious patchwork method of piecing together 
 sentences and phrases from those laws; this was one of 
 the abuses complained of. 
 
 137. E. W. Bemis, Local Government in Michigan and the North- 
 
 west (John Hopkins University studies, 1st ser., 5 — 
 Baltimore, 1883), 10. At the close of most of the Terri- 
 torial laws is a statement of the source from which they 
 are derived, usually naming merely the State. 
 
 138. Mathews, Expansion of New England, 223. 
 
 139. Wing, History of Monroe County, 140; punishment by whip- 
 
 ping was abolished in the Territory by statute in 1831. 
 Territorial laws, III, 904. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 89 
 
 movement for the abolition of imprisonment for debt 
 had gained headway, of which the pubhcation of Whit- 
 tier's poem "The Prisoner for Debt" in a Detroit 
 paper is a reflection; in 1837 this relic was abolished by 
 law. 1^0 
 
 Of first rate importance to settlement were the pro- 
 visions for county, township, and village government. 
 The establishment of counties ran far ahead of settle- 
 ment, it being the intention apparently to invite settle- 
 ment and to avoid the difficulties that would attend 
 the running of county lines after settlers should have 
 located farms. ^'*i In a rough way the rate of county 
 organization may be taken to indicate the rate of set- 
 tlement.^'*- Popular participation in county govern- 
 ment was granted by Congress in 1825 when the quali- 
 fied electors were authorized to choose all county officers 
 except judges. 1^' 
 
 140. Session Laws, 1837, p. 299. However, Chief Justice Fletcher, 
 
 in the work known from its compiler as "Fletcher's 
 Code," embodied the old law, and the new one was re- 
 enacted in 1839. Session Laws, 1839, p. 76. 
 
 141. Territorial Laws, II, 798-800; Detroit Gazette, editorial of 
 
 September 13, 1822. 
 
 142. A very good brief study of the expansion of Michigan based 
 
 on county organization has been made by Mr Mark W. 
 Jefferson in Report of the Michigan Academy of Science, 
 1902, pp. 88-9i. See plates in Farmer's History of De- 
 troit, I, 119, 120. Another and more extended study of 
 this subject has been made by Mr. William Henry 
 Hathaway, in The Evolution of the Counties of Michigan, 
 soon to be published by the Michigan Historical Com- 
 mission. For the establishment of the first cotmties, and 
 their unequal areas, see W. L. Jenks, in Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXXVIII, 447; also Territorial Laws, I, 121, 122, 323, 
 325, 327, 328; II, 295. 
 
 143. Statutes at Large, IV, 80; for legislation affecting the estab- 
 
 lishment of county seats, see Territorial Laws, III, 840; 
 Session Laws, 1835-36, p. 81; ibid., 1837, pp. 268, 287. 
 
90 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 The democratic character of local government was no 
 small inducement to settlers, especially to the freedom- 
 loving foreigner who came hither to enjoy what he 
 could not obtain in the Fatherland. In 1825 Con- 
 gress gave to the Governor and Council of the Terri- 
 tory the power to divide the counties into townships, i-** 
 and in the year 1827 this power was extensively used.^^^ 
 Township government sometimes preceded county gov- 
 ernment by a number of years, as in Grand Blanc 
 Township in Genesee County, ^^^ and Allegan Township 
 in Allegan County."^ The Michigan town meeting 
 combined with the powers of the New England town 
 meeting the organization of the New York county 
 board. 148 
 
 The successive variations in the areas of the political 
 townships has naturally much significance as an indi- 
 
 144. Lanman, Michigan, 228. 
 
 145. Territorial Laws, II, 477. See comments of the Detroit 
 
 Gazette of March 6, 1827, on the proceedings of the Legis- 
 lative Council regarding township government. Their 
 opinion of the importance of the stibject is attested by 
 the time given to it, greater than to any other measure 
 since the organization of the CoimciL Mick. Hist. Colls., 
 Ill, 434. 
 
 146. Ibid., Ill, 434. 
 
 147. Ibid., XVII, 558. 
 
 148. Mathews, Expansion of New England, 236, quoting E. W. 
 
 Bemis, Local Government in Michigan and the Northwest, 
 14-17; cf. Territorial Laws, II, 317, 640. See the discus- 
 sion in the Detroit Gazette, February 27, 1827, for con- 
 temporary opinion as to the respective merits of the New 
 England and New York plans of township government. 
 The Michigan Herald of January 17, 1827, states that a 
 majority of citizens prefer the New York system of town- 
 ship government because cheaper and more convenient; 
 the same paper for February 28, 1827, contains an article 
 against the New York plan. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 91 
 
 cation of settlement. The earliest of these townships 
 were sometimes of great extent. Some of them in- 
 cluded several counties, as the township of Greene, 
 humorously famous among pioneers for its size.^'*^ Fre- 
 quently the first political township in a county was 
 coterminous with the county, and this large township 
 would be later subdivided along the lines of the govern- 
 ment townships into political townships of varying 
 areas. ^^^ 
 
 In the educational and cultural advantages offered 
 by Michigan Territory there was not much to invite 
 
 149. Mich. Hist. Colls., X, 63; Territorial Laws, II, 787. For the 
 
 very large townships in northern counties see ibid., II, 
 480-481. 
 
 150. As a small political area organized on petition of the people 
 
 for township government, the township indexes popula- 
 tion on a smaller scale than does the county; hence it is 
 supplementary as a measure of settlement within the 
 counties. The name, date, position, size, and boundaries 
 of a township may tell much. The date and position of 
 the first townships organized in a county are quite cer- 
 tain evidence of how the population was distributed ; and 
 the rate of township organization is fairly dependable as 
 a means of contrasting the larger features of settlement 
 within the counties. The names and boundaries of 
 townships may often give a clue to the motive of settle- 
 ment, and to the sources of the population; but caution 
 must be used in basing judgments upon the relative 
 areas of townships; relative size, area for area, is likely 
 to be very misleading, and should be compared with other 
 evidence. Small townships naturally give the impression 
 of density of population; and the large ones, of sparse- 
 ness; but a township diagram of any county for any 
 census will invariably give evidence that this relativity 
 of area is not of itself a safe guide to relative density of 
 population. Townships have varied in size for sundry 
 reasons — physiographic, ethnic, economic, social; various 
 other conditions have influenced feeling about who 
 should be included in the townships. 
 
92 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 settlers. ^51 The importance of this element as an in- 
 ducement to settlers, however, should be duly ap- 
 preciated. Many of the leading pioneers had been 
 educated in eastern schools and colleges; and the uni- 
 versal respect for education is shown by the social 
 status of the teacher, which was equal to that of the 
 minister or physician. The influence of the devoted 
 pioneer priests and preachers, like Father Gabriel 
 Richard, John Monteith, and John D. Pierce, in ele- 
 vating the general tone of social life must have been 
 considerable. ^^2 It was probably a general sentiment 
 among intending emigrants that was reflected in an 
 editorial of the Northwestern Journal of January 13, 
 1830, commenting on the "multiplication of schools, of 
 places of worship, of religious teachers, and the im- 
 provement of the moral habits of the people:" that 
 "there are very many by whom a satisfactory answer 
 to the questions 'can we educate our children there, 
 and enjoy ourselves and secure to them the blessings 
 of Sabbath instruction,' would be demanded before 
 they would determine to emigrate." 
 
 Though the foundations of Michi;; n's public school 
 system, at least in practice, were laid after Michigan 
 became a State, something was done by legislation in 
 the earlier period. National land grants for schools 
 provided a part of the financial basis both for primary 
 and higher education. ^^^^ Governor Cass had the 
 thorough -going New England sense of the importance 
 
 151. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 36-51. 
 
 152. J. D. Hoyt and R. C. Ford, John D. Pierce, Founder of the 
 
 Michigan School System (Ypsilanti, 1905), 40-41, 44-46. 
 
 153. A. C. McLaughlin, History of Higher Education in Michigan, 
 
 17, 18; Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 19. 
 
GENERAL INFLUENCES 93 
 
 of educating the masses as a basis for citizenship and 
 did his utmost to promote schools, i^'* It is probable 
 that his inspiration was back of the apparent awaken- 
 ing of interest in public education reflected in the legis- 
 lation of 1827 providing for common schools in the 
 townships. 1" 
 
 However, the log schoolhouses built by the settlers, 
 meagerly equipped, and probably frequently officered 
 by schoolmasters of the type of Ichabod Crane, re- 
 mained throughout this period the sole public educa- 
 tional advantage within reach of the vast majority of 
 children. 1^® Academies appeared at Pontiac, Ann Ar- 
 bor, and a few other centers of settlement.^" The Ann 
 Arbor Academy had a considerable reputation, draw- 
 ing pupils from prominent families in Detroit. ^^^ Some 
 slight beginnings that looked towards a university made 
 
 154. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 123, citing Journal of the Legisla- 
 
 tive Council, 1826, pp. 5-6. 
 
 155. Territorial Laws, II, 472; see also ^'6?'^., Ill, 1012, 1377. A 
 
 brief review of Territorial school legislation in Michigan 
 is given in Michigan Joint Documents, 1880, pp. 307-309; 
 and of the organization of the Territorial school system 
 in Hoj^t and Ford, John D. Pierce, 47-52. 
 
 156. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 429. See the sketch of a typical pio- 
 
 neer school of about this time at Ypsilanti, probably of 
 the better type, "Annual report of the Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction, 1880," in Michigan Joint Documents, 
 1880, pp. 306-307. The visitation was made in 1839 by 
 the editor of an eastern school paper, The Common School 
 Assistant, in whose columns for September of that year 
 appeared his report — good teachers, but poor ventilation, 
 bad desks and seats, windows poor, ceilings low, and the 
 settlers unwilHng to have any change made. 
 
 157. Territorial Laws, III, 849, 879, 881, 975, 992, 1069, 1120, 
 
 1205, 1379. 
 
 158. Mich. Hist. Colls., I. 400. 
 
94 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 their appearance. ^^^ Toward the end of the period 
 there were formulated those plans of Isaac E. Crary 
 and John D. Pierce which appearing first in spirit in 
 the State constitution of 1835 were brought to practi- 
 cal realization by the earliest State legislation i''" and 
 were to mean much for later settlement. 
 
 159. Territorial Laws, I, 879; II, 104; McLaughlin, Higher Ed- 
 
 ucation in Michigan, 29-31; Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 37; 
 B. A. Hinsdale and I. N. Demmon, History of the Uni- 
 versity of Michigan, passim; Michigan Joint Documents, 
 1880, pp. 353-355, 358, 360-363. 
 
 160. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 38; V, 184-187; McLaughlin, //zg/zer. 
 
 Education in Michigan, 34-35; Michigan Legislative Man- 
 ual, 1837, pp. 43, 44, art. 10, sec. 2, 3. Hoyt and Ford, 
 John D. Pierce, 79-87 ; Michigan Joint Documents, 1880, 
 pp. 309-313. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 The Eastern Shore 
 
 T^HE lands now in Monroe, Wayne, Macomb and 
 St. Clair counties were the earliest portion of the 
 southern peninsula to receive Canadian-French settlers, 
 and they contained always a larger proportion of that 
 element of population than did any other part of 
 Michigan Territory. They were also the first counties 
 to receive American settlers, for they had a common 
 shore Hne facing Canada and the eastern states. A 
 continuous network of streams afforded drainage, a 
 degree of navigation, and well distributed water power. 
 In view of the initial advantages which these counties 
 shared they had a slower rate of settlement than might 
 have been expected. This was due partly to peculiar- 
 ities of soil, timber and position. 
 
 The surface soil in much of Monroe and Wayne 
 counties was a stiff clay which, as a recent map of the 
 surface geology indicates, was probably the bottom of 
 an ancient lake.^ At the time of the first settlement this 
 soil was covered densely with forests of ash and elm. 
 The difficulty of clearing it was a serious discouragement 
 to farmers and this accounts partly for the slowness with 
 which these lands received actual settlers as compared 
 
 1. Soil map in pocket of the Mich. Geological Survey Report, 
 1907. 
 
96 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 with the more open counties farther inland. In Macomb 
 and St. Clair counties settlers met, besides the heavy 
 clay lands, the lighter soils on the rolling clay drift. 
 These had lighter forests, mainly of maple and oak 
 with the characteristic "openings" and offered much 
 less difficulty to the beginnings of agriculture. On 
 the sandy land in St. Clair County there was much 
 pine, inviting to settlers interested in lumbering; 
 apparently many Maine lumbermen came early to this 
 region.^ But the position of the northern counties 
 of the section was somewhat aside from the general 
 current of immigration from the eastern states. In 
 many portions the forest was heavy and the abundance 
 of pine was held to indicate inferior soil. 
 
 The lands of this section had a common watershed 
 which drained their waters to the eastern shore in a 
 current strong enough to give abundant water power. 
 The numerous branches of the streams forming a 
 network of irrigation and water for stock insured also 
 a minimum waste of land. Enumerating northward, 
 the inland streams that meant most to the American 
 settlement of this section where the Raisin, the Huron, 
 the Rouge, the Clinton, the Belle, the Pine and the 
 Black. ^ The French-Canadians, who were the first 
 to come, settled also on the smaller streams and on the 
 intervening dry land between the mouths along the 
 shore. They cared less for water power than for 
 conditions favoring compactness and ease of com- 
 
 2. For example, a party of four are said to have purchased, in 
 
 1835, 25,000 acres of pine land. Hist, of St. Clair County 
 (1883), 305. 
 
 3. The Detroit and St. Clair rivers were regarded as straits. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 97 
 
 munication. Any stream that could float a canoe 
 and could afford enough water for the household and 
 a few heads of stock was considered by them satis- 
 factory for a settlement. At the time Michigan became 
 a Territory, French-Canadians were to be found along 
 such inconsiderable streams as Otter Creek, Sandy 
 Creek, Stony Creek and the Ecorse. The land about 
 the mouths of almost all the eastern streams was low 
 and marshy, but a little distance back from the shore 
 there were usually large patches of fertile open meadow 
 land which afforded ample homes for these settlers.^ 
 Almost every stream of this section that emptied 
 into the shore waters had French farmers upon its 
 banks; no French settlement was away from either 
 shore or stream. Jouett, Indian Agent at Detroit, 
 assigns as one motive for this the scarcity of springs 
 in these heavy clay lands. ^ An early writer adds as 
 motives the good canoeing and fishing.^ The 
 
 4. It is almost needless to say that the local conditions of 
 
 topography, soil and navigation along these streams have 
 been so changed by artificial drainage, deforestation, 
 drying of streams, harbor improvements and cultivation 
 of the land, that conclusions cannot be safely based alone 
 upon present-day observations. One can best study the 
 French settlements in the light of contemporary de- 
 scriptions, like that given by Indian Agent Jouett, writ- 
 ten for the information of Congress at about the begin- 
 ning of Michigan's history as a Territory. His careftd 
 visitation of the settlements extended almost the entire 
 length of the shore, from the Ohio boundary to Lake 
 Huron. He informs the Secretary of War that he has 
 "avoided neither trouble nor fatigue" to make the record 
 accurate, "by minute investigation." The report is 
 printed in Amer. State Papers., Public Lands, I, 190-193, 
 and in the same series, Indian Affairs, I, 758-760. 
 
 5. A. S. P., Public Lands, 1, 191. 
 
 6. Detroit Gazette, Oct. 30, 1818. 
 
 13 
 
98 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 mouths of the streams, separated by intervals of 
 shore Hne, were from three to ten miles or more 
 apart and in longer intervals there were settle- 
 ments along the shore. An example is seen in the 
 interval between the Rouge and the Clinton which 
 included Detroit.'^ The river settlements were always 
 on the lower courses of the streams and as near 
 to the shore waters as the marshy lands about their 
 mouths would permit.^ 
 
 The desire of the French to be near the shore ap- 
 parently led them in some instances to submit to very 
 tinhealthful environments. In the Western Gazetteer 
 (1817) Brown mentions a settlement on Swan Creek, 
 "the worst looking stream tributary to Lake Erie," 
 where the water, choked with aquatic plants, was so 
 putrid that it would "rope in summer like molasses;" 
 yet, says the author, "the inhabitants make free use 
 of it for cooking and drinking" and "their children 
 near the shore look miserably."^ The French seem 
 to have preferred this despite the fact that the water 
 four miles from the mouth was brisk enough to run 
 * ' water machinery. ' ' Jouett reports that at the Rouge, 
 whose sluggish current made its mouth like a pool, 
 
 7. Originally there were small streams running through the 
 
 settlement at Detroit. See plate in Farmer's History of 
 Detroit, I, 9. The course of the River Savoyard became 
 the line of the first underground sewer of the city. 
 
 8. On Otter Creek the settlements extended, according to 
 
 Jouett, to the shore of Lake Erie. In the Western 
 Gazetteer (p. 160) Brown reports settlements on the 
 Raisin within two miles of its mouth. 
 
 9. Brown, Western Gazetteer, 160. This seems to be the creek 
 
 called by the French "La Riviere aux Cignes." The 
 settlement is not mentioned by Jouett. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 99 
 
 "fevers of malignant nature confine whole families 
 for weeks together. "^° Along the shore south of the 
 Clinton were obstacles to good health "which neither 
 the industry nor the perseverance of the agriculturist 
 would be able to surmount," a place "less calculated 
 for a settlement than any other I have ever seen in 
 this country;" yet it was occupied by a fairly large 
 colony. ^^ 
 
 It appears that the distance to which the French 
 settlements extended inland bore some relation to 
 canoe navigation. The largest groups of farms were 
 on the largest streams. A group was rarely longer 
 than ten miles. There was one of that length on the 
 St. Clair above the mouth of Belle River, one a little 
 longer on the Raisin and one of nine miles on the 
 Clinton. ^^ A line of stetlement north and south of 
 Detroit forming the center of the frontier extended 
 from near the Rouge to some distance above Grosse 
 Pointe. On the smaller streams the size of the settle- 
 ments was quite disproportionate to the size of the 
 streams. For instance, on the Rouge an almost 
 continuous line of farms reached inland for eight 
 miles, only a mile shorter than the group along the 
 Clinton; this is the distance reported by Jouett to 
 which this stream was navigable for "small boats." 
 On the little streams Otter and Sandy creeks, settle- 
 ment extended inland for three miles. Rocky River, 
 which according to Jouett was not navigable for 
 "even the smallest boats," but which had pure water 
 
 10. A. 5. P., Public Lands, I, 191. 
 
 11. Ibid., I, 192. 
 
 12. Ibid., I, 190, 192, 193. 
 
100 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 and excellent soil, is reported to have had no French 
 farmers. ^^ 
 
 The one exception to settlement on an available 
 stream of good size was furnished by Huron River. 
 The soil was good — "None is superior to the lands 
 on this river," says Jouett — and they were apparently 
 known to the French to be fertile. In 1794 something 
 like speculation took place when the trader Gabriel 
 Godfroy bought from the Indians four thousand acres 
 on the lower Huron. Apparently he made no effort 
 to people the land; in 1803 Jouett found one tenant 
 there living near the mouth of the river as a ferryman. 
 Fertility of soil seems not to have been an inducement 
 to French settlers if other things were lacking. The 
 want appears to have been in this case a suitable 
 relation to the large settlements at Detroit and on 
 the Raisin. The obscure Ecorse, ten miles nearer to 
 Detroit seems to have been preferred ; the lower Huron 
 lay directly on the usual trail over which the Indians 
 passed in reaching the British in Canada; Detroit 
 offered the protection of the fort. Moreover, a posi- 
 tion on the trail would favor Godfroy 's trading interests 
 with the Indians, which would not be improved by the 
 presence of French settlers. It does not seem certain 
 that he had a post on his land on the lower Huron 
 
 13. Ibid., I, 190. Land was purchased early there (to the 
 amount of 600 French acres, 1786-1788) by two French 
 Canadians, apparently for speculation. A portion of it 
 was later acquired by the Detroit firm of Meldrum & 
 Park. Improvements were made, including a distillery 
 and a flouring mill, said to have been worth $10,000, but 
 the French seem not to have been attracted. In 1803 
 Jouett reports but two families as being then on the 
 river, engaged in managing the distillery and mill. 
 Ibid., I, 190. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 101 
 
 but he appears to be the same with the Gabriel Godfrey 
 who was given title by the Government (1811) to land 
 on this trail at the site of Ypsilanti, and who had a 
 post there as early as 1809.^^ 
 
 The amounts of population at the several points had 
 apparently little relation to the relative extensions 
 of settlement inland. The most populous settlement 
 along the shore of the Detroit River above and below 
 the village extended inland only the length of the 
 farms. The Raisin River settlement, whose families 
 numbered upward of one hundred and twenty, made 
 a group almost four times as. large as that on the 
 Clint on. ^^ The settlement on the Rouge, a mile 
 shorter than that on the Clinton, exceeded the latter 
 in number of farms by about a dozen. ^'^ 
 
 14. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 1092-1093; Ann Arbor 
 
 Folio, p. 1. See also the Greeley survey of French claims 
 (1810). Jouett's report apparently aims to present the 
 advantages of the lower Huron to eastern settlers. He 
 speaks of "the deep and gentle current" of the river, 
 navigable for boats twenty miles; of the "extensive 
 prairies" and "beautiful sceneries," — and even of the 
 hazel brush, as affording "a pleasant shade to the de- 
 lighted traveler." To a title, he says, Godfroy could 
 have "no pretensions," the deed being signed by only one 
 Indian chief, without a witness. 
 Another early purchase made by Godfroy (3000 French 
 acres) was on the Rocky River. Francis Pepin, the 
 second of the trio who established the post at the 
 site of Ypsilanti, bought the same amoiuit at about the 
 same time (1786-1788) on the opposite bank. 
 
 15. A. S.P., Public Lands, I, 190, 192. This is approximately 
 
 the relative proportion of claim.s shown in the Greeley 
 survey of 1810. Jouett's usage in the employment of 
 "occupants" and "inhabitants" is loose. He seems 
 sometimes to mean heads of families. Occasionally he 
 uses "farms" and "families." 
 
 16. Ibid., I, 191. 
 
102 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 The desire of the French to be as near Detroit as 
 possible and still be near the shore is illustrated by 
 the almost unbroken continuity of the shore settlements 
 about Detroit with those on neighboring streams. 
 The influence of Detroit is apparent in the grouping 
 of so large a colony on the Rouge /^ which really was 
 an expansion up that stream of the shore settlements 
 south of Detroit. Jouett reports a gap some two 
 miles in extent between these groups, due to the marshy 
 shore immediately north of the mouth of the Rouge; 
 but the Greeley map (1810) shows no break in the 
 continuity of the French claims. The group included 
 by Greeley under "Detroit Settlement" begins with 
 a claim fronting entirely on the Rouge. ^^ Associated 
 closely on his map with the Rouge claims are those 
 on the Ecorse. The claims which face the southern 
 bank of the Rouge extend across one branch of the 
 Ecorse; the Rouge claims nearest the shore abut on 
 the northernmost Ecorse claim. A similar continuity 
 is observed north of Detroit. Jouett records upward 
 of a hundred farms grouped along the shore north of 
 Detroit, and on the Greeley map the only break in 
 their continuity with those on the Clinton is for a 
 distance of about four miles above Grosse Pointe. 
 On Greeley's map a marsh is shown there, apparently 
 indicating a part of the unhealthful shore region 
 mentioned by Jouett. 
 
 This break in the line of shore settlements, however, 
 marks properly the northern limits of the Detroit 
 group. The environment of the Clinton River and 
 
 17. The Greeley map shows seventy-five claims on the Rouge. 
 
 18. Claim No. 718. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 103 
 
 of the shore of Lake St. Clair, as well as the character 
 of the settlements, gives a distict individuality to the 
 group beyond. The characteristic of this group was 
 the comparative sparseness of settlement. Jouett 
 states that he met but two settlers in the whole distance 
 from the Clinton to the St. Clair River, and the number 
 of families on the Clinton are reported as less than on 
 the Rouge. ^^ The Clinton River, in general, appears 
 to have offered excellent advantages for farming, but 
 the lower course was marshy for some miles and the 
 American shore of Lake St. Clair seems to have been 
 regarded by the French as a. succession of marshes 
 and sand.-° 
 
 A third area of settlement was along the St. Clair 
 River. This had two groups of fair size, one of twelve 
 farms fronting on the last six miles of the river's course, 
 and a second of twenty-four farms near its junction 
 with the Pine.-^ 
 
 South of Detroit beyond the Ecorse the shore lands, 
 though offering prime advantage for farming, were 
 practically destitute of settlements for a distance of 
 some twenty miles, to the Raisin River. ''"-^ Some three 
 miles from the Raisin on either side of its mouth were 
 
 19. On the Clinton there were, according to Jouett, thirty-four 
 
 families, a number corresponding approximately with the 
 number of claims shown on the Greeley map. 
 
 20. On the Greeley map, the shore of Anchor Bay contains a 
 
 Chippewa Reservation of 5760 acres, — apparent evidence 
 that the land was not poor there, as the Indians rarely 
 chose poor soil for their villages. The same map shows 
 five large French claims just above the Clinton at the 
 mouths of small streams. 
 
 21. A.S.P., Public Lands, I, 192, 193. 
 
 22. The Greeley map shows six claims at Brownstown Creek; 
 
 four of them were apparently not French, bearing the 
 names of Adam Brown and William Walker. 
 
104 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 settlements on Sandy and Otter creeks which num- 
 bered together not over forty farms, overshadowed 
 by the larger group on the Raisin. The Raisin River 
 group was by far the largest inland group of French 
 farms in the Territory, numbering upward of one 
 hundred and twenty. ^^ 
 
 These four areas of French settlement, on the Raisin, 
 the Detroit, the Clinton and the St. Clair rivers, fore- 
 shadowed the division of this shore line among the 
 present counties of Monroe, Wayne, Macomb and 
 St. Clair. 
 
 The French-Canadian farms in Michigan differed 
 from the usual "Yankee" farms in shape and size. 
 With few exceptions they formed regular parallelo- 
 grams ; and in area there appear to have been mainly 
 four classes, respectively of 80, 120, 160 and 200 French 
 acres'-'^- — according to the extent of water frontage. 
 
 23. In a communication made in January, 1806, a newly ap- 
 pointed associate judge of Michigan Territory (A. B. 
 Woodward) reported to the Government the whole num- 
 ber of French farms in the Territory to be 442. A. S. P., 
 Public Lands, I, 266. His figures, which agree sub- 
 stantially with those of Jouett, were probably not made 
 from personal investigation of the settlements, since he 
 had been less than a year in the Territory and ap- 
 parently most of that time in Detroit. Probably he had 
 access to Jouett's information, as the latter was then the 
 Indian Agent at Detroit. Woodward's materials, ar- 
 ranged differently from those in Jouett's report, fomi a 
 chronological table showing the date of every addition of 
 settlers to each site, the number of farms at each, and 
 whether within the American title. The number of 
 farms indicated by Jouett and Woodward is approxi- 
 mately the same as the number of claims in the survey of 
 1810 shown on the Greeley map. 
 24. The French acre was a square, with a side of about eleven 
 and two-thirds rods, equal to about four-fifths of an 
 American acre. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 105 
 
 In frontage they varied from about 23 to 58 rods; but 
 almost uniformly they reached forty French acres ^^ 
 back from the water. There were some farms of 400 
 acres, but this large area appears to have resulted from 
 duplication of the 200 acre farm by adding an equal 
 parallelogram onto the rear of the one in front. ""^ This 
 added part is what is referred to after the survey as 
 "the second concession," usually a wooded area useful 
 for timber and firewood ; as will be seen later it explains 
 the jagged rear boundary lines observable on the maps 
 of the French claims. On the Raisin and Clinton 
 rivers these irregularities were partly due to bogs 
 extending along the rivers on either side and forming 
 a natural rear boundary for the farms." Of the French 
 farms, most however fall into the second class, of 120 
 French acres (96 American acres), with a frontage of 
 about 23 rods and a depth of about 467 rods. 
 
 Another characteristic of the French settlement was 
 its compactness. These farms all fronting on the water 
 were with few exceptions close together, so that the 
 side boundary of one farm made one boundary of a 
 neighboring farm. This is the feature which gives 
 to the maps of the French claims their well-known 
 "gridiron" appearance. In this arrangement a domi- 
 
 25. About 467 rods. The early accounts appear to make the 
 
 acre a linear measure. Thus a farm is designated as 
 "two acres front and forty acres deep." In Jouett's 
 report, a few illustrations are given of variations between 
 25 and 180 acres in depth. 
 
 26. On the Raisin, the E corse and the Rouge, farms of this size 
 
 were reported by Jouett. See Woodward's explanation 
 of this area in the report referred to in note 23. 
 
 27. A.S.P., Public Lands, I, 190, 192. The Greeley map shows 
 
 the farms on the Clinton farthest inland as having a very 
 large frontage but as extending only a little way from 
 the river. 
 
106 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 nant trait in the character of the French-Canadians 
 appears, a fondness for close neighbors. Besides 
 facihtating sociabihty, it enabled them to unite quickly 
 against enemies. On the rivers it enabled the settlers 
 up stream to get closer to the lake shore. 
 
 The small size of the average Canadian-French farm 
 corresponded with the general character of Canadian- 
 French farming. Its small scale fostered little desire 
 to acquire land; the whole of a French farm, small as 
 it was, was rarely cultivated,"^ and this was especially 
 true of the larger ones. The improvements were 
 correspondingly meager. On the typical farm there 
 was a small dwelling on the river bank, a garden near 
 it, with usually an orchard, and back of this a field 
 of wheat or corn. In the rear, covering the larger part 
 of the land, was a stretch of forest, principally for 
 firewood. 
 
 The part of the farm to which the French settler 
 seems to have given the most care was the orchard. 
 Referring to the farms south of Detroit, Jouett says 
 their owners were ' ' assiduously careful ' ' of their orchards 
 and produced a surplus of fruit and cider for exporta- 
 tion to the settlements on the Canada shore. Pears 
 and apples of first quality were raised in great abund- 
 ance, and peaches and cherries were only second in 
 importance. ^^ "Almost every farm has an orchard 
 
 28. A.S.P., Public Lands, I, 264. 
 
 29. "The crowning glory of the French orchard was the pear 
 
 tree," says Bela Hubbard, Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 356. 
 Brown speaks of cider and peach brandy made on the 
 Raisin for exportation. Western Gazetteer, 161. Evans 
 remarks (1818) that Michigan promised to be "a great 
 cider country." Thwaites, Early Western Travels, VIII, 
 221. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 107 
 
 of old but beautiful apple trees," says the Gazette 
 of July 30, 1819, "the produce of which furnishes, 
 generally, the greatest share of the owner's gains;" 
 yet it speaks of the orchards as ''almost totally 
 neglected. "^"^ McKenney in his Tour to the Lakes 
 (1826), speaking of the French between Detroit and 
 Grosse Pointe, records that they "appear reconciled 
 to let the earth rest and the houses go to decay 
 around them; and the orchards to decline and die.""^^ 
 Granting that the French took some care of their 
 orchards, their farming must have appeared to the 
 enterprising Yankee in other respects exceedingly 
 shiftless. A typical illustration is the lack of care of 
 the soil. Jouett reports that he found in many places 
 an exhausted soil where apparently it had once been 
 fertile. It appears to have been a general custom in 
 the settlement to haul the manure out onto the ice 
 in the winter so that it might float away in the spring. ^^ 
 To quote a contemporary number of the Gazette, 
 "The farms in this Territory are very old, and as the 
 proprietors of them seldom or never have strengthened 
 the soil by manure, they are in a great measure ex- 
 hausted."^^ Bela Hubbard declares that "in some 
 cases even the barns were removed to avoid the piles 
 that had accumulated."^^ Soap-making was a 
 
 30. See, for other examples, the issues of Sept. 19 and Nov. 7, 
 
 1817; also Nov. 5, 1819. 
 
 31. McKenney, Tour to the Lakes, 126. 
 
 32. Amer. Hist. Assoc, Papers, III, 314. 
 3Z. July 30, 1819. 
 
 34. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 352. Landmarks of Detroit (p. 145) 
 takes exception to Hubbard's statement, but without 
 convincing evidence to the contrary. 
 
108 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 "Yankee novelty. "^^ These reports are in keeping 
 with the alleged ignorance of spinning and weaving 
 which led settlers to throw away the wool when 
 shearing their sheep. ^"^ 
 
 The average French farmer used much the same 
 implements and worked the soil in much the same 
 manner as did the Indians." A crude wooden plow 
 was pushed, instead of pulled, by oxen attached to it 
 with a rawhide thong passed about their horns. Corn 
 was planted with no regard to regularity of rows. 
 Wagons were not known; the universal vehicle was a 
 two-wheeled cart. Stock was confined, usually, to 
 one pony which was turned into the neighboring woods 
 for such living as it could find, and was caught when 
 wanted. ^^ 
 
 The common note struck in Jouett's report for almost 
 all of the settlements is that of indolence and wretched- 
 ness. Conditions appear not to have improved greatly 
 over those witnessed at Detroit by Croghan in 1765, 
 who says, "All the people here are generally poor 
 wretches, a lazy, idle people, depending chiefly upon 
 
 35. Amer. Hist. Assoc, Papers, III, 314. 
 
 36. This, if true, was probably so only of the lowest classes. 
 
 Says a writer in the Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 74: "The 
 spinning wheel was constantly used by the women; they 
 made a sort of linsey-woolsey which was the principal 
 cloth used by the habiians for their dress." Hubbard 
 says (Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 364), that knitting, sewing 
 and spinning were taught along with reading, writing and 
 arithmetic at the Academy in Detroit. 
 
 37. Hubbard, in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 353, 354. 
 
 38. See the description of the Friench farms and farming in 
 
 Mich. Pol. Science Assoc, Publications, III, 168-169; 
 also James V. Campbell in the Western Magazine of 
 History, IV, 375, and Cooley's Michigan, 232-237. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 109 
 
 the savages for their subsistence; though the land, 
 with Httle labor, produces plenty of grain, they scarcely 
 raise as much as will supply their wants, in imitation 
 of the Indians, whose manners and customs they have 
 adopted, and cannot subsist without them."^^ The 
 Gazette of January 22, 1819, comments editorially that 
 the farmers near Detroit, with two hundred acres of 
 land, buy bread of the baker and vegetables of their 
 more enterprizing neighbors. A report from the 
 Detroit Land Office (1805) charges that "they never 
 do that today which can be delayed until tomorrow. "^° 
 Alluding to the settlement on the Clinton, Jouett refers 
 the poverty there to "that indolence and want of 
 skill in agriculture which so conspicuously marks the 
 Canadian character"^^ in this country." Of the one 
 on the Ecorse he says that though "grass and wheat 
 are astonishingly luxuriant and nature requires to be 
 but little aided to produce in abundance all the neces- 
 saries of life, yet the people are poor beyond conception, 
 and no description could give an adequate idea of their 
 servile and degraded situation. "^^ The contempt of 
 the "Yankee" for this condition is preserved in the 
 epithet "muskrat Frenchman," in allusion to the hut- 
 like dwellings of the poorer classes. ^^ 
 
 On the whole, the largest settlements were the most 
 prosperous, especially those on the Detroit and Raisin 
 
 39. Croghan's Journal, in Thwaites' Early Western Travels, I, 
 
 152. 
 
 40. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 267. 
 
 41. Ibid., I, 192. 
 
 42. Ibid., I, 191. 
 
 43. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 352. See Jouett's description of those 
 
 on Otter and Sandy creeks. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 
 190. 
 
110 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 rivers. In the large settlement on the shore im- 
 mediately north of Detroit, says Jouett, the houses 
 were "once comparatively of the better kind," though 
 rapidly decaying. Below Detroit he found the houses 
 "tolerably good." Judge Campbell and Bela Hubbard 
 recall what in the early days was a picturesque witness 
 of French husbandry there, the many windmills and 
 watermills, "most of which were grist mills "'^'^ for which 
 grain was furnished by the neighboring lands. The 
 farms on the middle St. Clair are described by Jouett 
 as "fertile and well improved,"''^ and some of the 
 settlers on the Clinton were "agreeably situated." 
 On the Raisin he found "tolerably well improved" 
 farms with comfortable houses of hewn logs and 
 generally the necessary outbuildings. McLaughlin 
 says that the French on the Raisin were on the whole 
 more ignorant and less thrifty than those about 
 Detroit — referring apparently to conditions after the 
 War of 1812.4*^ 
 
 The industrial and economic conditions in the 
 French settlements reveal a people of primitive life 
 
 44. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 359; II, 103. 
 
 45. This was doubtless partly due to the enterprise of the De- 
 
 troit firm of Meldrum & Park, which made improve- 
 ments there. 
 
 46. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 88. The proportion of British or 
 
 other than Canadian-French inhabitants in these set- 
 tlements, appears to have been very small. Jouett 
 specifically mentions three exceptions on the Raisin 
 River, and four on the Clinton. The latter, he says, 
 were "Englishmen of industry and enterprise." On the 
 St. Clair, he reports all as "Canadians." There seem to 
 have been a larger number of exceptions in the Ecorse 
 and Rouge settlements, if we may judge from his men- 
 tioning that the "majority were Canadian French." 
 
I lilM|,I^^Mt3i; 
 
 
 
 
 |:-/srTmiii 
 
 ipn; 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 111 
 
 and habits. In the words of a contemporary com- 
 menting on the French of the lower Raisin in 1819, 
 "The old inhabitants are a very indolent set of people, 
 the lower class of which depend almost wholly on 
 hunting for their living. Those of a higher class make 
 good dependence on the fur trade with the Indians 
 which is tolerable good at present. "^^ Their skill in 
 hunting and trapping and their usually pleasant 
 relations with the Indians formed a large asset of the 
 fur companies, and in these pursuits the French often 
 showed much force of character. ^^ Contact with wild 
 life in the forests of Canada and. the Northwest through 
 many generations could not but give a decided bent 
 to their thought, character and habits. And this 
 bent was strengthened by restrictions of the French 
 Government, intended apparently to insure their servi- 
 tude to the interests of the seigneurs in the fur trade. "^^ 
 The British Government seems to have had quite as 
 little interest in these settlements so far as concerned 
 their agricultural development. It allowed no new 
 lands to be taken up without in each case express 
 permission from the king.^*^ A statement made by 
 Mr. Lymbruner, agent of the Province of Canada, 
 seems to represent the early sentiment of the British 
 
 47. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 485. 
 
 48. Ibid., II, 104. 
 
 49. See a list of conditions imposed in French grants to Detroit 
 
 settlers in 1707. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 182; also 
 Lanman, History oj Michigan, 66, 318-319; and the 
 Magazine of Western History, IV, 375. But Judge Camp- 
 bell believes these restrictions were so little insisted upon 
 as never to have been burdensome in practice. Mich. 
 Hist. Colls., II, 101. 
 
 50. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 269. Royal proclamation of Oct. 
 
 7, 1763. 
 
112 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Government towards the whole region environing 
 Detroit, who in 1793 before the House of Commons 
 declared it his opinion that the obstacles to Detroit's 
 growth were so great that they "must greatly impede 
 the progress of settlement and cultivation for ages 
 to come."^^ 
 
 A contemporary, Judge Woodward, has left a pleasing 
 description of the Canadian-French settlers in Mich- 
 igan. According to his sketch we see them habitually 
 gay and lighthearted, yet pious; honest beyond com- 
 parison; generous, hospitable and often refined; and 
 with no cares from "ambition or science."^" The 
 apparent lack of ambition in the Michigan Canadians 
 was owing largely to the paternalistic regime under 
 which they and their ancestors had so long lived 
 which accustomed them to look for everything to be 
 done for them or to be imposed upon them by some 
 authority from without. It would therefore require 
 some time to adjust themselves to the "Yankee" 
 idea of paying taxes to support schools and govern- 
 ment, and it was to be expected that they would not 
 take kindly to those successive stages of government 
 which should entail upon them additional expense. 
 The Frenchman's contentment with the slow-going 
 ways of his ancestors was doubtless due to his setting 
 no great value on time, of which he had an abundance. 
 He could not well understand the spirit of hurry that 
 characterized the "practical, hard-working, money- 
 
 51. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 336. The particular obstacle 
 
 was the obstruction offered by Niagara Falls to eastward 
 transportation. 
 
 52. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 264. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 113 
 
 getting Yankee, " which disturbed him.^^ His "conser- 
 vatism," his opposition to change, was an expression 
 of this satisfaction with things as they were. These 
 settlers were apparently unconscious of their poverty 
 and consequently would not sell their meager improve- 
 ments for several times the real value. ^* This 
 was in some degree a real hindrance to settlement, 
 as when they refused to allow their farms to be 
 disturbed by the needed widening or extending of 
 streets in Detroit. Again, they naturally adhered to 
 their mother tongue, necessarily somewhat of a barrier 
 between them and the eastern iramigrants,^^ as were 
 also their manners and customs, which are said to 
 have been those of a hundred years before. ^"^ Class 
 
 53. See Mr. Campau's comparison of the French Canadian and 
 
 the American or EngHshman in this respect, as quoted in 
 the Magazine of Western History, X, 395. 
 
 54. McLaughlin, Higher Education in Michigan, 10. 
 
 55. "Their so-called patois is the old French tongue continued 
 
 almost unchanged, Hke the manners and habits of those 
 who use it." Mich. Hist. Colls., 1, 364. The Gazette 
 published several columns in French in its earlier issues, 
 and reprinted important notices or documents often in 
 parallel French and English columns. In that paper for 
 November 1, 1825, the "French Gazette" is advertised, 
 subscriptions to be received at the office of the Gazette, 
 but so far as the writer knows this was not published. 
 In 1805 when the commissioners of the Land Office 
 wished to employ someone, other than the clerk of the 
 Board, to translate the French deeds, it is stated that 
 they could find no one .sufficiently qualified in whom 
 confidence could be placed. A. S. P., Public Lands, 
 I, 267. 
 
 56. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 359. Bela Hubbard says that "the 
 
 Canadians were speedy to adopt the superior imple- 
 ments and modes of cultivation used by the Anglo- 
 Saxon settlers." Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 353. The editor- 
 15 
 
114 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 consciousness was in some measure fostered by the 
 traditions and services of the CathoHc Church. 
 
 Though the accounts lay emphasis on the indolence 
 of the French-Canadians in Michigan as farmers, these 
 settlers appear to have been anything but spiritless 
 or heavy. These scions of the "careless, laughter- 
 loving Frenchman" seem to have enjoyed life keenly. 
 Bela Hubbard says that in the gloom following the 
 speculation of 1835-37 "there was no lack of French 
 gaiety, which arose to an unusual degree when times 
 were at their worst, in the winter of 1841."" The 
 keynote of their life even among the poorer classes 
 appears to have been social enjoyment. The socia- 
 bility of the French-Canadians has become proverbial 
 and many are the tributes to their hospitality even 
 to strangers. The sharp contrast between the early 
 French and English relations with the Indians is 
 instructive. In the words of Judge Campbell, "The 
 people though pious were not bigoted, and their 
 associations with men of a different race and belief 
 led to no difficulties."'^^ This promised well for happy 
 social relations between the French and American 
 settlers of Michigan, 
 
 At least, among the better classes of the French 
 settlers there was a considerable degree of refinement. 
 
 56. Con. ials of the Gazette were continually admonishing the 
 
 French to improve their time and opportunities in agri- 
 culture. 
 
 57. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 360. 
 
 58. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 104. For the social conditions and 
 
 customs, particularly of the poorer classes of the French 
 Canadians in Michigan, see Lannian, Michigan, 55-56; 
 Wing, History of Monroe County, 44-45. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 115 
 
 The Catholic priests, men of broad culture, refinement 
 and learning, had much influence over the lives of 
 their charges. As a whole the French were ingorant 
 of books, but they were neither boorish nor unintel- 
 ligent, and they appear to have had as high a 
 standard of morality as is usually found on the 
 frontier. 
 
 In keeping with the personal honesty of the French 
 was their loyalty to the governments under which 
 they successively lived. Judge Campbell says of 
 their loyalty to England, "It was the recognition by 
 the French of their new allegiance that disconcerted 
 Pontiac and destroyed his plans. "^^ He finds no 
 evidence of their alleged disaffection towards the 
 United States later, and Bela Hubbard recalls that 
 their indignation over Hull's surrender was still warm 
 when he came to Detroit in the early twenties. ^° 
 
 The French were devout Catholics. One of the 
 strongest influences in the early days of the American 
 occupation of Michigan was that of Father Gabriel 
 Richard, whose life in the settlements was one of 
 unselfish sacrifice in the interests of both Protestants 
 and Catholics. "^^ It has been unjustly alleged that 
 
 59. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 103. 
 
 60. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 361, 363, and Bela Hubbard, Memorials 
 
 of a Half Century (N. Y. and Lond., 1887), 142. 
 
 61. Elliott, "Sketch of the Life and Times of Rev. Gabriel 
 
 Richard of Detroit, Michigan," in the American Catholic 
 Historical Researches, XVI, No. 4, (October, 1899); 
 Girardin, "Life and Times of Rev. Gabriel Richard," 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 481. The Free Press for September 
 27, 1832, contains a biographical sketch and notice of his 
 death. His portrait is in Sheldon's Early History of 
 Michigan (N. Y., 1856), opposite p. 205. Gabriel 
 Richard was a native of Saintes, France, on his mother's 
 
116 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Father Richard was not interested in the education 
 of the French; his report in 1808 on the condition of 
 education in Detroit and the other settlements made 
 for the information of the ' Territorial officials shows 
 that he deplored the low state of education and 
 earnestly desired its betterment.*^^ At Spring Hill 
 below Detroit he fostered an academy which gained 
 much reputation in that day for its liberal curric- 
 ulum;*^^ he fostered Catholic schools at Detroit, 
 Springwells and on the Clinton River. ^"^ ^ 
 
 Excepting Detroit the founding of these settlements 
 does not reach back much beyond the period of the 
 American Revolution.''^ The first French settlements 
 
 61. Con. side a descendant of Bishop Bossuet. He came to 
 
 Detroit as priest and teacher in 1798, building St. Anne's 
 Church after the fire of 1805. He was a delegate to 
 Congress from Michigan in 1823, and gave his life in the 
 service of the cholera sufferers during the epidemic of 
 1832. 
 
 62. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 485-486, and McLauglilin, Higher 
 
 Education in Michigan, 15. 
 
 63. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 364. 
 
 64. The general condition of education among the French is 
 
 reflected in the often quoted extract from an article in 
 the Gazette, August 8, 1817, purporting to be confidential 
 advice from one of their ntmiber ; it reads in part : "Fran- 
 cais du Territoire de Michigan: Vous devriez com- 
 mencer immediatement a donner une education a vos 
 enfans. Dans peu de tems il y aura dans ce territoire 
 autant de yankees que de Francais, et si vous ne faites 
 pas instruire vos enfans, tons les emplois seront donner 
 aux yankees." But the fact that the French were sup- 
 posed to be able to read this has some significance. 
 
 65. The British post on the St. Clair River held by Patrick 
 
 Sinclair from 1765, seems an exception. He is said to 
 have secured from the Indians 3759 acres of land, from 
 which he cut much pine timber. In 1782, on leaving 
 the country, he deeded his land to a Canadian, Votieur, 
 from whom it was sectired at an auction sale by the firm 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 117 
 
 in Michigan outside of Detroit seem to have been 
 made immediately above and below that point. In 
 the years during the Revolutionary War from 1776 to 
 1783 settlements were made at Grosse Isle and on the 
 Ecorse and the Rouge, and large purchases of a specu- 
 lative nature were made in the vicinity of the Raisin. *^^ 
 
 65. Con. of Meldrum & Park at Detroit; they held it at the time 
 
 of Jouett's report. For Patrick Sinclair, and the post 
 at this place, see Jenks' History of St. Clair County, I, 
 92 et seq. 
 
 66. In 1776, Pierre Francois Combe bought about 4000 acres on 
 
 the Ecorse, and placed his settlers on it very soon after- 
 ward. In the same year William McComb bought the 
 same amount on Grosse Isle and Stony Island. In 1779, 
 8000 acres were purchased on Otter Creek. In the fol- 
 lowing year Joseph Benac secured about 6000 acres on 
 Sandy Creek, and Francois Navarre secured a similar 
 title to between 1200 and 1500 acres on the lower Raisin. 
 These purchases are mentioned in A. S. P., P. L., I, 265, 
 and Wing's History of Monroe County, 93. For an 
 account of the settlements on Grosse Isle and on the 
 Ecorse and the Rouge see Ihid., I, 191, as given by Jouett. 
 The titles to the lands purchased on these shores were 
 various; many of them were of such doubtful validity as 
 to cause their claimants much anxiety. It was one of 
 Jouett's principal duties to investigate and report 
 upon them. {A. S. P., P. L., I, 266.) There were 
 principally four classes of titles obtained under 
 the French. {A. S. P., P. L., I, 264-268; Lanman's 
 History of Michigan, 59-61). Of these some were 
 based on grants made by the French governors, with 
 or without confirmation by the King of France. 
 Others were based on assent of the French officers com- 
 manding at the forts. A fourth had only long and 
 peaceable possession in their favor, accompanied in 
 some cases by improvements. In A. S. P., P. L., I, 
 270-273, are given lengthy illustrations of these titles 
 claimed under the French. There appear to have 
 been no French titles to land in Michigan except 
 at and near Detroit. {Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 102.) 
 Many titles were based on purchase from the Indians. 
 
118 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 In 1784, immediately following the treaty of peace 
 with Great Britain, a large colony under the auspices 
 of Francis Navarre settled upon his land on the Raisin." 
 
 66. Con. These seem to have been generally of a few hun- 
 
 dred acres, though there were several varying 
 from 5000 to 100,000 acres {A. S. P., P. L., I, 
 269). See for ilkistration of these Indian titles, Ibid., I, 
 273, 279. vSome lands had in favor of their owners 
 some actual improvements; for example, the Meldrum 
 & Park pinery, on the St. Clair River, where there 
 was a dwelling house, two saw mills, a grist mill and 
 a few acres enclosed and cultivated. (A. S. P., P. L., I, 
 280). The nmnber of claims in each of the several 
 classes varied. The amount of land claimed by actual 
 settlement was estimated by the United States land 
 commissioners at about 150,000 acres, and about the 
 same amount was estimated to be claimed by non- 
 resident British subjects. {A. S. P., P. L., I, 280). 
 About a hundred claims were alleged to be derived from 
 the British Government. (For discussion at length see 
 A. S. P., P. L., I, 268). Judge Woodward, in a report 
 made in 1806, expressed the opinion that there were 
 but eight legal titles to land in the whole of Michigan 
 Territory. {A. S. P., P. L., I, 283). The attitude of 
 the United States Government, however, proved favor- 
 able to claims based upon actual improvement. In 
 January, 1805, before Michigan became a separate Ter- 
 ritory, a petition had been sent to Congress, emanating 
 from leading families among the Canadian-French set- 
 tlers in Michigan, for confirmation of title to the land 
 that had been improved. {A. S. P., P. L., I, 214-215). 
 Judge Woodward strongly recommended these claims to 
 the Government for confirmation. In 1807 Congress 
 
 67. Francis Navarre was a native of Detroit, born in 1767. It is 
 
 said that his ancestry could be traced to Henry IV of 
 France. He appears to have been a personal friend of 
 Wayne, Woodward and Cass, the latter appointing him 
 an associate justice of the county court in Monroe 
 County in 1817. Wing's History of Monroe County, 
 93-95, 106. See Ibid., 115, for the inducements which 
 Navarre offered to the French Canadians to settle upon 
 his land; also Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 318, and VI, 362. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 119 
 
 Settlers now began to come to the St. Clair River, 
 but with this exception and that of the first consider- 
 able accession of colonists to the Clinton in 1788, 
 settlement was sporadic and small from 1784 to the 
 period of Wayne's victory over the Indians and the 
 Indian treaty at Greenville in 1795."^ The interest 
 of the Government is evident in the two last events 
 and had been earlier vshown in the organization of the 
 Northwest Territory (1787). '^•' From 1792 to 1797 
 immigration was comparatively large, new settlements 
 
 66. Con. made it jDOSsible for every claimant to get 640 acres of 
 land who could show his claim to have been occupied 
 and partly improved prior to July 1, 1796. The claimant 
 was to pay the cost of surveying it; the narrow frontage 
 would extend each farm many miles from the water 
 front, giving him a hinterland of timber for which he 
 had little present need, but adding much to the expense 
 of the survey ; hence about two iniles from the water was 
 the usual liinitation placed by the Frenchman upon the 
 rear extension of his land. When later these lands were 
 surveyed by the United States, much land was treated 
 as if belonging to the farms fronting the water ; this gave 
 rise to what is known as the "lost lands," amounting to 
 several thousand acres. It is said that on the Raisin 
 only about one in twenty Frenchmen had secured title 
 to the whole 640 acres originally offered by the Govern- 
 ment. A case frequently cited which became the basis 
 of later decisions in these litigations, is that of Bruckner's 
 Lessee vs. Lawrence, I Doug. 19. See Wing's History 
 of Monroe County for a clear description of the origin of 
 the disputed claims; also Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 363-364. 
 
 68. Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual RepoH, 
 
 Part 2, pp. 654-655. This treaty gave the United 
 States a title to a strip of shore lard about six miles wide, 
 including the Raisin settlement and land northward to a 
 point between Detroit and the Clinton River. The 
 limits of this treaty cession are indicated by the dotted 
 black line in Ibid., plate CXXXVIII. 
 
 69. Indeed this had been shown in 1784; see Jefferson's plan for 
 
 its government. 
 
120 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 beginning on Otter and Sandy jcreeks ,and |new acces- 
 sions accruing to the Raisin settlement.'^'' Shortly 
 after the Jay Treaty with England in 1 796 the American 
 flag was raised on the Raisin, and then came the first 
 American settlers ;^^ but between that time and the 
 organization of Michigan as a separate Territory 
 no new settlements appear to have been made. By 
 far the largest immigration appears to have come after 
 the peace of 1783 in the period of American rule.^^ 
 
 Three-quarters of a century before these settlements 
 (1701) Detroit was founded by La Motte Cadillac. ^^ 
 
 70. Jouett, in A. S. P., P. L., I, 190. 
 
 71. Wing, History of Monroe County, 38. 
 
 72. A. S. P., P. L., I, 281. According to this report, about 
 
 three-fifths of the French came after 1783. 
 
 73. For the founding of Detroit, see C. M. Burton, Cadillac's 
 
 Village (Detroit, 1896). A very good popular treatment 
 of the life of Cadillac, with some criticism of the sources, 
 is given in Landmarks of Detroit and Michigan, pp. 21-26. 
 The Jesuit Relations (Thwaites Ed.), LXIX, 306-310, con- 
 tains brief biographical sketches of the most important 
 of the first French settlers at Detroit. The early history 
 of the settlement is sketched by Richard R. Elliott in 
 the United States Catholic Magazine, I, 345-365; III, 
 264-273; IV, 113-124. See also Charles Whittlesey's 
 "Indian Affairs around Detroit in 1706," in the Western 
 Reserve Historical Society, Tracts, I, No. 8. The Jesuit 
 Relations contains numerous references to Detroit, prin- 
 cipally in volumes 68, 69, 70, and 71; see Index volume 
 LXXII, p. 198, under "Detroit." Landmarks, I, 193, 
 gives a good summary of the French period. In this 
 work, the early promoters of the village are said to have 
 met substantial opposition from the Jesuits at Mackinac 
 and from the Montreal merchants, the latter acting out 
 of fear of Detroit's future rivalry (pp. 58-67). The large 
 essentials of the British period (1763-1783) are stirveyed 
 in pp. 194-244. The neglect of Detroit by the British is 
 attributed largely to the selfishness of British tradesmen 
 (pp. 194-200). A vivid description is given of shocking 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 121 
 
 In 1803 its actual settlement seems to have covered 
 about four acres. Jouett's picture of it is one of general 
 decay, not excepting the stockade which enclosed the 
 village and fort, supposedly its protection against 
 the Indians. The houses, fronting on narrow straight 
 streets are with few exceptions described as low, 
 inelegant and in a state of decay. ^^ In 1805 fire 
 
 73. Con. barbarities of the Indian allies of the British (pp. 227- 
 
 237) ; see especially the copy of an intercepted letter 
 from a British officer to Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, 
 invoicing a consignment of scalps (p. 227). A descrip- 
 tion of the Detroit of 1780 is given at p. 220. It is said 
 that in 1782, with the approach, of peace, some British 
 sympathizers, mainly people of superior birth and edu- 
 cation, removed to Canada and settled along the Thames, 
 the Detroit and the St. Clair Rivers; btit many stayed, 
 in the belief that Great Britain would hold the North- 
 west. The population in 1782 is given as 2,190, which 
 is said to have fallen off to 500 after the Jay Treaty in 
 1796 (pp. 253-254). British activities at Detroit be- 
 tween these dates are sketched in pp. 238-251. On 
 pages 255-257, Detroit is described as it appeared in 
 1796 to Isaac Weld, an Irishman who visited the 
 post in October, and whose book, from which the de- 
 scription is taken, appeared in 1799. According to him, 
 two-thirds of the inhabitants of Detroit then were 
 French, and there were about three hundred dwellings 
 in the village. See also Campbell's Outlines, p. 213, and 
 compare the description of Detroit in 1793 given by 
 Rev. O. M. Spencer as recorded in Sheldon's Michigan, 
 pp. 361-363. It is stated in Landmarks (pp. 269-271) 
 that when it was seen that Great Britain would lose 
 Michigan, British land speculators tried to get posession 
 of vast estates by purchase from the Indians and con- 
 firmation of the purchases through bribery in Congress. 
 The example of the John Askin purchase of 1795 is 
 cited. For the chief events at Detroit immediately pre- 
 ceding the organization of Michigan Territor3% see the 
 same work, pp. 251-268, and compare Sheldon's Mich- 
 igan, 367-374. 
 
 74. A.S.P., P.L.,l, 191. 
 
122 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 destroyed all the buildings and most of the personal 
 property of the inhabitants.^^ The population at 
 that time has been estimated variously. The Terri- 
 torial census of 1805^*^ gives 525 heads of families; 
 Ross and Catlin appear to place the total population 
 at about 600.^^ 
 
 All of Detroit that was material was swept away in 
 the fire of 1805, audit began life anew practically with 
 the beginning of Michigan as a Territory; indeed, the 
 coming of the new Territorial officials in that year 
 marked the dawn of American settlement in Mich- 
 igan. '^^ From 1812 to 1815 the growth of the village 
 was seriously interrupted by w^ar,^^ and thereafter it 
 
 75. Official report of Governor Hiill, Ibid., I, 247. 
 
 76. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 335. See also the names 
 
 (about forty) signed to the losses sustained by the in- 
 habitants of the village in the fire of 1805, Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., I, 347. Compare Judge Witherell's "Inhabi- 
 tants of Detroit in 1806" in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 344B- 
 345. 
 
 77. Landmarks, 278. 
 
 78. The new government began on the second day of July, 
 
 1805, A. 5. P., P. L., I, 247. 
 
 79. A muster roll of 1812 {Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 553), and a tax- 
 
 roll for the same year (Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 409), shows 
 the population to have been still mainly French, and the 
 figures in the enumeration for 1818, 1110, probably 
 represent mainly the same element (Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 I, 346). The United States census figures for 1810 giving 
 Detroit a population of 2,227 are said {Cazette, January 
 29, 1819), to have represented the "District of Detroit," 
 a district greater than the area of Wayne County in 
 1819. See extracts from articles by B. F. H. Witherell 
 about conditions in Detroit at the close of the war, in 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., XIII, 503-507. The Journal and 
 Michigan Advertiser for August 6, 1834, has an article 
 on "Detroit in 1815-1816," giving a minute description 
 of the situation and character of individual houses and 
 stores. The Fort and its surroundings are described in 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 368-371. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 123 
 
 grew slowly until the land sales of 1818 attracted the 
 settlers who were to bring the needed stimulus to 
 agriculture, trade, commerce and manufacture. 
 
 For the future convenience and appearance of Detroit 
 the fire of 1805 was doubtless fortunate. ^° Acting 
 upon advice from Congress, the Governor and Judges^^ 
 planned a new city in which the narrow streets of the 
 old French village were superseded by wide avenues. ^'^ 
 As a result, though the plan was later somewhat 
 modified, ^^ few cities in the United States have fairer 
 streets than those of Detroit today. Thomas 
 McKenney, author of Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes, 
 
 80. C. M. Burton, "Some Benefits that accrued to Detroit from 
 
 the devastating fire of 1805," Mich. Hist. Colls., XXII, 
 431-436. The new Governor, William Hull, immed- 
 iately upon his arrival opened a sale of land to the former 
 inhabitants of the village. The sales which were made 
 by auction with no pa3a'nents required down, are said 
 to have brought an average of four cents per square foot. 
 A. S. P., P. L., I, 248. See Farmer's History of Detroit, 
 I, 26-31, for a detailed discussion of the functioning of 
 the Governor and Judges as a land board. 
 
 81. The official title of the new government. 
 
 82. Territorial Laws, 1, 283, September 13, 1806. It is said to 
 
 have been modelled upon that of the city of Washington 
 whither the seat of government had been recently re- 
 moved, and for which the real author of the new plan. 
 Judge Woodward, had a great admiration. Two of the 
 principal avenues of the present city are reminiscent of 
 Judge Woodward and of President Jefferson, his patron, 
 both of whom were Virginians. Woodward had prac- 
 ticed law in Washington since 1795, and was there when 
 that city was laid out. The plan of Washington is 
 said to be reminiscent of ovir early friendly relations with 
 France, being patterned after the "spider-web" plan of 
 Versailles. Landmarks, 273. An article in the Gazette 
 for July 18, 1823, speaks of the city as having been laid 
 out on the plan of Philadelphia. 
 
 83. By Abijah Hull, a surveyor, and relative of Governor Hull. 
 
 Landmarks, 273. 
 
124 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 who visited Detroit in 1826, apparently -did not wholly 
 approve of the plan. "It looks pretty on paper," 
 he admits, "btit is fanciful; and resembles one of those 
 octagonal spider webs which you have seen in a dewey 
 morning. ^^ The citizens of Detroit would do well, in 
 my opinion, and their posterity would thank them for 
 it, were they to reduce the network of that plan to 
 something more practical and regular. ' ' ^^ And his view 
 seems to have been shared by the editor of the Gazette, 
 who says that "everyone regretted the plan of our 
 city ' ' which none but ' ' a wild and eccentric mind ' ' could 
 have evolved. ^"^ One objection urged seems to reflect 
 the spirit of utilitarianism accompanying the tide of 
 immigration; the plan involved "a great waste of 
 ground," and it could not be enjoyed "by the present 
 generation" because the beauty of the plan depended 
 on compactness of buildings. A more serious objec- 
 tion was urged in the memorial of Detroit citizens 
 to Congress in 1829 which recited the confusion of 
 titles resulting from deeds granted by the Governor 
 and Judges covering the original streets. ^^ 
 
 In connection with this factor in the settlement of 
 the city there should be mentioned a serious drawback 
 due to the composition of the streets. The soil was 
 formed of a finely divided clay which was mixed with 
 a black loam, and when it was saturated, as it usually 
 
 84. The Greeley map (1810) shows eight principal streets 
 
 radiating at regular angles from a central square. The 
 three streets leading west from the square are crossed at 
 a little distance from the shore by a street parallel to it. 
 
 85. McKenney, Tour to the Lakes, 141. 
 
 86. Gazette, August 22, 1826. 
 
 87. Journal of the Proceedings of the Common Council (1824- 
 
 1843), 190, 404. 
 
PLAN OF DETROIT, 1807 
 
 (Burton's Building of Detroit, 26) 
 
 The original "spider-web plan" of Detroit commonly bearing the name of Augustiis 
 B. Woodward, one of the first Territorial judges of Michigan, was drafted m 1806 by 
 the Detroit surveyor Abijah Hull. In 1807 it was made part of a report to Congress, 
 was mislaid, and hot found till 1909, when a copy was secured by Mr. C. M. Burton or 
 Detroit from which the above was photographed. An original copy is in the Library of 
 Congress. See p. 123. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 125 
 
 was in the spring and autumn, it made a mud so 
 adhesive and deep as to put the streets almost out of 
 service. The mud was so bad that it is said to have 
 been often necessary to use a horse to get from one 
 side of the street to the other ;^^ there were neither 
 pavements nor crosswalks in this period. 
 
 The only means of ingress or egress to Detroit by 
 land was along a road passing near the shore, which 
 for a large part of the year was scarcely less muddy 
 than the city streets. By this road in 1818 the mail 
 was supposed to arrive once a week, but it was often 
 delayed. The importance of the mails was one of 
 the chief incentives to the improvement not only of 
 this, but of all roads in the Territory. Prompt mail 
 service was a source of great concern to the local 
 newspapers, which depended upon it for eastern and 
 foreign news ; and when the issue of the papers was held 
 over, as it often was, an editorial explanation was 
 pretty sure to appear expressing disappointment and 
 urging the need of better roads for the mail service. 
 It was more than a decade, however, before there was 
 much improvement.^^ 
 
 The frontier character of life in Detroit in 1818 is 
 reflected in primitive conditions on every hand. 
 
 88. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 471. For street legislation by the 
 
 Governor and Judges see Territorial Laws, I, 286, 289. 
 See also Proceedings of the Board of Trustees of the City 
 of Detroit, 11-12. 
 
 89. For example of later complaints see the Gazette, March 12, 
 
 1824. For the state of this road at that time see Mich. 
 Hist. Colls., I, 412, 496, 501. Cf. Brown, Western Gazet- 
 teer, 166-168. The isolation of Detroit in the winter is 
 reflected in an advertisement by Joseph Fairbanks 
 (Gazette, January 1, 1819) who "will keep in the winter 
 a good span of horses and sleigh which he will hire to 
 
126 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Detroit was the center of a flourishing frontier fur trade ; 
 in ordinary merchant trade the common method of 
 exchange was barter, and the unit of value was generally 
 a pound weight of prime beaver-skin; accounts were 
 kept in that currency, ^° largely owing to the fact that 
 the war had made money scarce. Prices were on the 
 whole high, especially on articles imported from the 
 eastern states. In a local paper we read, "Since the 
 last war, a greater price has been continually paid in 
 Detroit for flour, beef, pork, corn, etc., than is paid 
 in any market in the United States. "^^ Tea is said 
 to have been $3 a pound. ^^ The Gazette for January 
 22, 1820, says: "As prices are in our market, a New 
 England farmer of common industry and enterprise 
 could purchase one or two good farms with the avails 
 of his barnyard and vegetable patch for one year."^^ 
 
 89. Con. parties on reasonable terms. He intends to make two 
 
 or three journeys to Buffalo this winter if a sufficient 
 number of passengers can be obtained to remunerate 
 him." 
 
 90. Landmarks, 431. 
 
 91. Gazette, July 30, 1819. July 17, the best flour is quoted at 
 
 $8 per barrel, and prime pork at from $21 to $24 per 
 barrel. Winter quotations in 1832 {Gazette, December 
 19), placed best flour at from $5 to to $5.25 per barrel, 
 and prime pork at from $8 to $9 per barrel. Schedules 
 of prices appear in the Gazette, corrected weekly, for a 
 great variety of articles. 
 
 92. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 800. 
 
 93. One turkey would buy one acre of land. Other items are 
 
 given. An "Act regulating the Assize of Bread" {Pro- 
 ceedings of the Board of Trustees of the City of Detroit, 
 March 25, 1816), appears to have been still in force, fixing 
 the price of bread according to a sliding scale based on 
 the price of flour. The maximum and minimum prices 
 of flour per hundred weight are assumed at $8 and $3; 
 when at $8, the weight of the loaf is to be 3 lbs., 6 oz., 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 127 
 
 There was as little manufacture as mercantile trade. 
 The French way of living created little need for manu- 
 factures aside from a few simple articles of domestic 
 use. A small quantity of leather was tanned, which 
 was marketed mainly at Montreal; the Indians 
 furnished mats, dressed deerskins, moccasins, baskets, 
 brooms, and some 150,000 pounds of maple sugar 
 annually. ^^ A few artisans made trinkets for the 
 Indian trade. ^^ 
 
 The lake commerce of Detroit in 1818 may be 
 measured by the shipping belonging to that port, 
 which amounted to nearly a third of all the Lake Erie 
 shipping owned in the United States. ^"^ The exports 
 for that year were sixfold greater than the imports. 
 Together they amounted to less than $85,000. Im- 
 ports amounted to about $15,000. The relatively 
 large export trade probably represents furs." 
 
 93. Co7i. for 25 cents; when at $3, the price is to be 12| cents for 
 
 a loaf of 3 lbs., 10 oz. See also a long act regulating the 
 markets, Ibid., November 20, 1816. 
 
 94. Estwich Evans, an eye witness of trade conditions at 
 
 Detroit in 1818, gives a very good description of them in 
 Thwaites' Early Western Travels, VIII, 221. The 
 gradual increase of early trade may be estimated by fol- 
 lowing the additions to the advertising pages in the 
 Gazette (1817-1830), where detailed price lists of articles 
 for sale are given by leading stores. 
 
 95. Gazette, July 30, 1819^ The same paper for April 3, 1818, 
 
 advertises that a mill is ready for the manufacture of 
 flour and lumber on Tremble's Creek five miles above 
 Detroit. 
 
 96. This was 849 tons out of a total of 2,334 tons. Gazette, 
 
 January 29, 1819. 
 
 97. Most of the exports, excepting cider, apples, salt and fish, 
 
 appear to have been sent principally to the garrisons at 
 Mackinac, Green Bay and Chicago. The imports of 
 were derived mainly from Ohio and New York. The 
 
128 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Of public utilities there were few or^none. Drinking- 
 water was carried from the river in pails and kept at 
 the houses in barrels; these barrels of water were the 
 sole protection against fire, and were supplied with 
 handles to expedite their use against fire in case of 
 need.^^ By an ordinance of the board of trustees 
 in 1815 each householder or renter was to provide 
 himself with a "wooden vessel" which should hold 
 about twenty-five gallons of water, together with a 
 pole strong enough to sustain it;^^ but even this amount 
 of protection seems not to have been taken seriously, 
 if we may judge from the fact that Governor Cass 
 was fined for violating the ordinance. ^^"^ The 
 agitation for public water works reached the stage of 
 first experiments about 1820.^°^ The health of the 
 city was endangered by public nuisances which do not 
 
 97. Con. elementary nature of this commerce may be judged from 
 
 an abstract of the principal articles of domestic produce 
 entered and cleared, coastwise, at the port during 1818. 
 Gazette, January 29, 1819. See also the 'Tort of De- 
 troit" in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 470; also a sketch of 
 Detroit's marine interests prior to 1837 in Landmarks, 
 560-563. 
 
 98. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 466; XVIII, 462. 
 
 99. Proceedings of the Board of Trustees, December 4, 1815, 
 
 p. 4. A supplementary act, February 25, 1819, pro- 
 vided a primitive fire company, Ibid., 40. See other 
 Territorial fire legislation in Territorial Laws, II, 348, 
 349; III, 842. 
 
 100. Ibid., 16. See also lists of fines, Ibid., 43, 49, 58, 64, etc., 
 
 also "History of the Old Fire Department" in Mich. 
 Hist. Colls., IV, 410-419. 
 
 101. Landmarks, 446-448; and "The Detroit Water Works" in 
 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 466-471. The latter is an anony- 
 mous contribution to the Detroit Post and Tribune for 
 December 15, 1877, but, if accurate, it is a very clear 
 statement of early conditions. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 129 
 
 seem to have been early removed. In contemporary- 
 opinion they were associated with the excessive 
 mortahty of the epidemics of cholera in 1832 and 1834. 
 The "intolerable stench" from the "green stagnant 
 pools ' ' and ' ' masses of putridity ' ' dangerous to health 
 is deplored by the Gazette of June 22, 1821 1^"^ however, 
 not much public service could be expected from an 
 annual city revenue of only a little over $250.^^^ 
 
 Despite these primitive conditions William Darby, 
 who had traveled extensively, perceived in Detroit 
 in 1818 "all the attributes of a seaport" with "all 
 the interior features of a flourishing and cultivated 
 community, as much so, equivalent to numbers, as 
 any city in the United States ;"^°^ and in the same year 
 the traveler Estwich Evans conceived the situation 
 promising for a "large and elegant city."^°^ Leaders 
 of public opinion at Detroit seem to have been con- 
 scious that the year 1818 was opening a new era for 
 the city and the Territory, as appears in the articles 
 commenting on the rapid settlement during that year.^"*^ 
 It is significant that a census was taken for that year 
 by the Detroit Lyceum, whose members were leaders 
 in the city; it was found that Detroit contained a 
 
 102. In 1820 a tax of 500 days labor was levied "for the purpose 
 
 of removing the nuisance on the border of the Detroit 
 River," a nuisance which apparently polluted tlie drink- 
 ing-water. Proceedings of the Board of Trustees, 54. 
 See Territorial Laws, III, 901, 902, 940, for other legisla- 
 tion regarding public nuisances. 
 
 103. Report of the treasurer of the corporation of the city for 
 
 the year ending May 10, 1819,- as given in the Gazette 
 for May 21, 1819. 
 
 104. Darby, Tour of the West. 190. 
 
 105. Thwaites, Early Western Travels, VIII, 215. 
 
 106. For example, Gazette, October 16, 1818. 
 
 17 
 
130 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 i ' ' ■ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 population, not including the garrison," of 1,040, with 
 142 dwelling houses. ^°^ According to the same auth- 
 ority, fifty-one buildings were erected during 1818. 
 Significant of the new spirit is a mere list of the organ- 
 izations formed in 1817-18, mainly 'n the latter year.^"^ 
 The new spirit of enterprise was an invitation to 
 eastern laborers and mechanics. In the autumn of 
 1819 masons and carpenters received from twelve 
 shillings to $2.25 a day, and common laborers $1 a 
 day.^*^^ In Philadelphia men were working on turn- 
 pikes for a shilling a day, while four or five thousand 
 people were out of regular employment; harvest 
 laborers were working for half of their former wages. 
 In Detroit (1821) masons are said to have been obliged 
 to discontinue work for lack of brickmakers.^^° At 
 least a beginning was being made by organized labor; 
 
 107. Report of a committee of members of the Detroit Lyceimi 
 
 to that body, in the Gazette for January 29, 1819. The 
 figures are said to be for an area of three-fourths of a 
 square mile. The public buildings, about ten, were all 
 of brick or stone, the Government storehouse was a 
 three-story building. Stores, shops and public buildings 
 together numbered 131. 
 
 108. The Protestant Society, Bible Society, Moral and Humane 
 
 Society, Sunday School Association, Library Company 
 of the City of E)etroit, Mechanical Society, Agricultural 
 Society, The Lyceum, Bank of Michigan. 
 
 109. Gazette, September 17, 1819. Women received for house- 
 
 work from $6 to $8 per month. 
 
 110. Ibid., October 12, 1821. According to a report unani- 
 
 mously adopted by a committee of the common council 
 in February, 1827, the winter season afforded little em- 
 ployment. It was recommended that the city provide 
 work on public improvements until the opening of naviga- 
 ■ tion should bring a return of the usual business activity. 
 Journal of the Proceedings of the Common Council (1824- 
 43), 49. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 131 
 
 the Detroit Mechanics' Society, ncorporated in 1820, 
 appears to have come into existence at least informally 
 in 1818.111 
 
 The tendency of the French -Canadians to regard 
 all "Yankee innovations" with suspicion stood not 
 a little in the way of Detroit's material progress. 
 The elder Antoine Beaubien, it is said, forcibly resisted 
 the surveyors who outlined the opening of the city's 
 main thoroughfare, Jefferson Avenue, through his 
 property. 11^ In 1832 a committee of the common 
 council reported that Joseph Campau refused to 
 receive the sum assessed to him for damages due to 
 the enlarging of Griswold Street. ^^ A New York 
 visitor who passed through Detroit in 1834 says that 
 the French were not disposed either to sell or improve 
 their property. To quote his comment: "Many of 
 the farms now cross the streets of Detroit at right 
 angles at the upper end of the town, and of course, 
 offer on either side a dozen building lots of great value. 
 The original owners, however, persist in occupying 
 them with their frail wood tenements and almost 
 valueless improvements, notwithstanding large sums 
 are continually offered for the merest slice in the world 
 off the end of their long-tailed patrimonies. ""^ Recent 
 writers offer the apology that the French had great 
 provocation, in the manner in which their wishes were 
 
 111. Territorial Laws, I, 794. The names of members are there 
 
 given. See a notice of the society's meeting in the 
 Gazette, July 17, 1818. 
 
 112. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXI, 500. 
 
 113. Journal of the Proceedings of the Common Council (1824- 
 
 43), 219. The damages were assessed at $2,160. 
 
 114. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 120-121. 
 
132 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 overridden ;^^^ a contemporary accounts for their cau- 
 tion by their experience in having been so many 
 times cheated. ^^^ 
 
 The city profited much by its position at the very 
 door of the new Territory. It became a rendezvous 
 for settlers and a clearing-house of ideas about the 
 interior. Frequently settlers who intended to go to 
 the interior or further west to Wisconsin and Illinois 
 made only tentative plans until they should reach 
 Detroit, where many were induced to settle within 
 its limits or in its vicinity. The reaction of the 
 agricultural settlements was soon to become a positive 
 and strong stimulus to settlement in the city, which 
 in turn would put new life currents circulating through 
 the rural districts. ^^'^ 
 
 Compared with the earlier days the period beginning 
 with the land sales and the opening of steam naviga- 
 tion on Lake Erie showed rapid progress; but imagina- 
 tion could easily overdraw the picture. It was not 
 until 1822 that a second steamboat appeared on the 
 Lakes, which on its first arrival at Detroit brought 
 only ninety-four passengers. The land sales attracted 
 a considerable number of settlers; but there appears 
 
 115. Landmarks, 284. 
 
 116. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 485. 
 
 117. As quoted above, high prices were used as an argument to 
 
 encourage the immigration of farmers. It was urged 
 that Ohio farmers made a good profit on stock even after 
 paying the cost of transportation. In 1818 1,042 beef 
 cattle and 1,435 hogs were supplied to Detroit from 
 Ohio. Gazette, January 29, 1819. See also an editorial 
 of January 22, 1819. Efforts were made also to stimulate 
 the French farmers; see, for instance, the French portion 
 of the Gazette for August 22, 1817. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 133 
 
 to be no proof for the frequent statement that there 
 was a great inrush of settlers from the very beginning. 
 There were many signs of an eastern element in the 
 population, among which was the formation of the 
 First Protestant Society in Detroit, with about a 
 dozen members. ^^^ City lots near the Capitol build- 
 ing were quoted in Janaury 1824 as selling at $100, 
 and an advance of a hundred per cent was anticipated 
 during the next season. ^^^ The city boundaries were 
 extended^ ^° and apparently a new interest in local 
 government is expressed in the new city charter of 
 1824 creating a common council. ^"^ By a census 
 
 118. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 420-422. The constitution of this 
 
 society is there given, with about twenty signatures. 
 By 1825 it seems to have had forty-nine members. 
 Ibid., I, 423. 
 
 119. Gazette, January 2, 1824. 
 
 120. Territorial Laws, II, 221. For other extensions of the 
 
 boundary in the Territorial period see Ibid., I, 283, 535, 
 875; II, 339,480,913. 
 
 121. Territorial Laws, II, 221. Interesting features to settlers 
 
 were the provisions regarding the franchise and the 
 powers of the council, especially over taxation. Voters 
 must be freemen of the city having the qualification of 
 electors of members of the Territorial legislature; they 
 must have resided in the city one year next preceding 
 the election, and be residents of the city at the time of 
 the election. For provisions existing since the establish- 
 ment of the government under the board of trustees in 
 1815, see Proceedings of the Board of Trustees, Acts of 
 October 24, sec. 6, and May 3, 1821, sec. 1; also Terri- 
 torial Laws, I, 314. The freemen of the city had direct 
 control over taxation. A tax on the real and personal 
 estate of all freemen within the city could be levied by 
 the majority vote of the freemen assembled at a meeting 
 called pursuant to notice by the mayor or recorder with 
 the advice and consent of any two of the aldermen. 
 Ibid., II, 226. For later additions and modifications see 
 Ibid., II, 347, 349, 640; III, 1048, 1122. Apparently 
 nonresidents could not be so taxed. The question of 
 
134 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 "recently taken" which appeared in the Gazette for 
 January 2, 1824, Detroit had a population of 1,325, 
 exclusive of the garrison. Some five hundred people 
 were living outside in the immediate vicinity. ^^^ 
 
 With the opening of the Erie Canal evidence of new 
 life in the city increased more rapidly and a growing 
 consciousness of competition with other lake ports, 
 especially with Cleveland, appears. ^-^ Fifty-eight new 
 
 121. Con. the legality of taxing their property caine up in 1832 
 
 over the raising of money to defray expenses incurred 
 by the city during the epidemic of cholera. Journal of 
 the Proceedings of the Common Council (1824-43), 223. 
 Other powers granted to the Council by the Act of 1824 
 are specified in Territorial Laws, II, 223, and supple- 
 mentary powers in Ibid., II, 342, 345, 348, 570; III, 935, 
 938, 939, 1123, 1269, 1422. The mayor, recorder and 
 the five aldemien were required to be freehoklcrs. Ibid., 
 II, 221. The recorder, clerk and treasurer were to be 
 appointed by the mayor and five aldennen or by a 
 majority of them. By an act of 1827 seven aldermen 
 were to be elected and all ministerial officers were to be 
 appointed and removed only by the common council. 
 Ibid., II, 571. For charcteristics of the government es- 
 tablished in 1806, see Ibid., IV, 3. The first city charter 
 was granted in 1802. The civil history of Detroit as 
 viewed by a competent contemporary (Major John 
 Biddle) is printed in a series of articles in the Detroit 
 Daily Advertiser, 1836, for June 14, 16, 18 and 23. 
 
 122. The article is entitled "A View of Detroit." According to 
 
 this, there were 300 buildings, of which 155 were dwell- 
 ings. Nearly half were two stories high, and some 
 three stories. A number were of brick and stone. See 
 an interesting note on the Detroit of 1824 in "Inci- 
 dents of Pioneer Life in Clinton County." Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., I, 149. 
 
 123. For example, the editor of the Michigan Herald (November 
 
 22, 1825), undertakes to correct alleged misrepresenta- 
 tions of Detroit made by the editor of the Cleveland 
 Herald. The issue of the same paper for October 18, 
 1825, compares conditions at Detroit with those at 
 Buffalo, and Portland on Sandusky Bay. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 135 
 
 buildings were erected in 1825, of which nearly one- 
 half were two stories high.^^"* McKenney, whose brief 
 epitome of Detroit for 1826 has the authority of a 
 competent eye witness, says that "Jefferson Street" 
 was pretty well built up in that year, also the first 
 street from the river, and the three or four cross streets, 
 but that houses were comparatively few and scattering 
 back of Jefferson. ^-^ He mentions thirty stores. Mail 
 came three times a week.^^*^ The Territorial census 
 of 1827 records 380 heads of families in the city, of 
 whose names at least half appear to be other than 
 French. ^^'^ In that year a growing civic consciousness 
 appears in the report of the committee of the common 
 council to investigate and suggest improvements of 
 the city, and their report probably furnishes a fair esti- 
 mate of the most pressing needs at that time ; of some 
 dozen suggestions the first four, considered apparently 
 the most important, concerned the removal of disease- 
 breeding refuse from the margin of the river, a sewer, 
 a new fire engine, and pavement for the principal 
 
 124. Lanman, History of Michigan, 231. A summary of condi- 
 
 tions in the city in 1825 is given in a memorial of the 
 citizens to the Territorial legislature; see the Michigan 
 Herald, August 9, 1825. At the election of city officers 
 April 4, 1825, 115 votes were cast, but the number of 
 votes at succeeding elections makes it appear hardly 
 representative of the voting population. Journal of the 
 Proceedings of the Common Council (1824-1843), 18-19; 
 217 votes were cast the next year. Ibid., 28-29. The 
 names are given in each; a large proportion are French. 
 
 125. McKenney, Tour to the Lakes, 141. See also Mich. Hist. 
 
 Colls., IV, 89-94. 
 
 126. Gazette, February 7, 1826. 
 
 127. Census of Michigan, 1884, I, xlviii. Mich. Hist. Colls. 
 
 XII, next to page 461. See also for this period "Detroit 
 in 1827 and Later on," in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, 
 272-283. 
 
136 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 streets. ^-^ The stimulus to this action appears to have 
 been a desire to utihze the recent Federal grant of 
 ten thousand acres of land from the adjacent military 
 reservation, which is mentioned as making unnecessary 
 a tax to carry out the proposed improvements. Still 
 one gathers the impression of a rural, though thriving, 
 waterside village. In the statement of occupations 
 in the census of 1827, 451 people were engaged in agri- 
 culture, 46 in manufacture and 5 in commerce. It is 
 said that in 1829 a little way up Jefferson Avenue a 
 common rail fence enclosed a fine clover field. Many 
 of the houses on this principal street appear to have 
 been still the little whitewashed tenements of the 
 Canadian-French, palisaded as they originally were for 
 defense against the Indians. ^^^ 
 
 Detroit felt the full force of the rising wave of 
 immigration in 1831. A contemporary says, "The 
 demand for stores and dwelling houses is unprecedented. 
 We have not been prepared to meet the exigencies 
 arising from so rapid an increase of our numbers, 
 and almost every building that can be made to answer 
 for a shelter is occupied and filled. "^^° Buildings were 
 in process of erection in various parts of the city. 
 This prosperity was somewhat checked in 1832 by 
 
 128. March 12, 1827. Journal of the Proceedings of the Common 
 
 Council, (1824-43), 50-52. 
 
 129. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXX, 448. 
 
 130. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, June 15, 1831. 
 
 The same paper for July 13, 1831, copies from BicknelVs 
 Philadelphia Register long extracts from a letter dated 
 June 2 describing Detroit in that year. See the reminis- 
 cent sketch by an eye witness of conditions in 1831 in 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 395-398; XXI, 496. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 137 
 
 the Black Hawk War^''^ and an epidemic of cholera, 
 but the check proved temporary. ^''^- An editorial in 
 the Detroit Courier for August 7 of the following year 
 congratulates the city on its freedom from cholera 
 when so many places in the West were suffering. A 
 much severer visitation afflicted the city in 1834 
 when it is said to have lost a seventh of its popula- 
 tion ;^^^ yet the new buildings erected that year were 
 of such number and quality "as to give the city an 
 air of elegance which could hardly have been antici- 
 pated a year ago."^^'^ It is recorded that the new 
 white buildings on avenues twenty-five yards wide 
 gave the place the appearance of a "city of yester- 
 day. "^^^ Detroit is said to have had in 1834, 477 
 dwellings and 64 stores and warehouses some of which 
 were four-story buildings. ^^*^ By the official census of 
 1834 the population was then a little less than five 
 thousand.^" Mail came from the East daily by 
 steamboat and daily mails were received from various 
 
 131. Magazine of Western History, V, 33, 36; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 VI, 239; XVIII, 606. 
 
 132. It is said that of the two hundred persons attacked, about 
 
 one-half died. Landmarks, 380. For general conditions 
 in that year see "Detroit in the year 1832," Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., XXVIII, 163-171. 
 
 133. Ibid., 382. It is said that for some time the city was 
 
 quarantined and a rigid guard kept to prevent anyone 
 from entering or leaving. Deaths became so frequent 
 that the tolling of the church bells was discontinued in 
 order that the hving might get sleep. Landmarks, 381. 
 
 134. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, October 1, 1834. 
 
 135. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 111-113. 
 
 136. MacCabe's Directory of Detroit (1837), 37, reporting the 
 
 census of 1834. 
 
 137. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, April 9, 1834. 
 
138 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 points in the interior.^^^ A further awakening to 
 consciousness of the needs of the growing city is shown 
 in a report of the finance committee of the common 
 council in which an effort is made to introduce some 
 order into the corporation's financial affairs. ^^^ 
 
 Detroit shared fully in the extraordinarily rapid 
 growth of the Territory in 1835-37.^^° Early in 1835 
 the land office was thronged with speculators and home 
 seekers, and more land was bought at the Detroit 
 office in that year than in any year -of the Territorial 
 period. ^^^ The hotels and lodging places of the city 
 were not sufficient to accommodate the press of immi- 
 grants. In 1836 when lake navigation had yet scarce- 
 ly opened, a city paper comments on the necessity of 
 many immigrants' having to stay for a time on board 
 the boats for lack of suitable qtiarters in the city.^"*- 
 It was estimated by contemporaries that for the seven 
 
 138. Ibid., June 18, 1834, contains an official notice of the arrival 
 
 and departure of mails. Mails were received daily from 
 points on the Chicago Road, and weekly from Oakland, 
 Macomb and St. Clair counties. A southern mail was 
 received triweeldy. 
 
 139. Journal of the Proceedings of the Common Council (1824-43), 
 
 258. This contains an abstract of the receipts and ex- 
 penditures of the corporation between January 1, 1825 
 and March 1834. 
 
 140. For useful illustrative reminiscent sketches of Detroit in 
 
 these years see Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 459-465; X, 97-101 ; 
 XXXI, 490-509. Brief biographical sketches giving a 
 fair view of the personal element in Detroit's growth at 
 this time appear in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 585-638. 
 
 141. The amount of land sold at the Detroit Land Office from the 
 
 beginning of the cash system in 1820 to November 1836 
 is given in MacCabe's Directory cf Detroit (1837). 
 The climax of big sales came after 1820 periodically, in 
 1825, 1830 and 1835. 
 
 142. Detroit Daily Free Press, March 23, 1836. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 139 
 
 months of open navigation, with an average of six 
 boats arriving daily, some 200,000 people came and 
 went through the port."'' The ofhcial' census of 1837 
 gives the city a permanent population of nearly ten 
 thousand, with upwards of thirteen hundred dwellings 
 and stores."'* Woodward Avenue was beginning to 
 rank among the first business streets. The city was 
 more or less densely settled for a distance of about 
 three-quarters of a mile back from the river and for 
 a mile along the river front. "^ 
 
 The new immigration gave a strong stimulus to the 
 business of the city. A Detroit paper says, "Our 
 city has never evinced such decided proofs of pros- 
 perity and rapid growth as it has shown the present 
 summer and autumn;""*^ and says another, "Such 
 is the ordinary bustle of business that we forget how 
 much we are really bound by the cold and ice of 
 winter.""^ In the autumn of 1836 the amount of 
 business seems to have been about double that of the 
 same season the year before."^ Business conditions 
 at the beginning of 1837 may be judged from nearly 
 
 143. MacCabe, Directory of Detroit (1837), 36; Blois' Gazetteer, 
 
 278. 
 
 144. 9, 763. MacCabe, Directory of Detroit (1837), 37. He gives 
 
 in a list of "streets, lanes and allies" (pp. 40-42) some 
 eighty streets. Blois gives only eight principal streets. 
 
 145. Blois, Gazetteer, 271. 
 
 146. Detroit Journal and Courier, September 19, 1835. 
 
 147. Detroit Daily Free Press, Januar^^ 20, 1836. 
 
 148. Detroit Daily Advertiser, September 6, 1836. The 27 new 
 
 stores opened that spring all appeared to be doing a 
 prosperous business; see business directory of the city 
 in the same paper for June 11, 1836, apparently confined 
 to the subscribers of the paper. 
 
140 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 four pages of advertisements in the Detroit Daily 
 Advertiser for the second day of the new year. 
 
 A complement to this was an increase in the price 
 of city lots and the value of adjacent property. Lots 
 at the lower end of Jefferson Avenue are said to have 
 sold in the winter of 1835 at $150 a foot,^^^ while in 
 the following summer five lots fronting on Jefferson 
 Avenue sold at auction for between $285 and $292 per 
 foot; a corner lot on Jefferson and Cass sold for $450 
 a foot.^^° The rising value of property in the out- 
 skirts of the city is illustrated in the prices brought 
 by the farms of Lewis Cass and Governor Porter. 
 The Cass farm of about 500 acres bought nineteen 
 years before for $12,000, and which when offered in 
 1831 for $36,000 found no buyer, is said to have sold 
 for $168,000 in 1835.^^1 Two miles below the city 
 on the Porter farm about seventy-five acres apparently 
 brought nearly $20,000, though only $6,000 is said to 
 have been paid two years before for the whole farm 
 of 350 acres. ^^- 
 
 The business of the city was temporarily somewhat 
 checked by the flow of money to the interior for 
 investment, but many buyers were able to take the 
 larger outlook for the future of the city. It was 
 emphasized by the press. "The rage for buying land 
 subtracts from the business of the city," admits the 
 Detroit Daily Advertiser, ^^^ "but accelerates the settle- 
 
 149. Detroit Daily Free Press, December 25, 1835. 
 
 150. Michigan Political vScience Association, Publications , IV, 
 
 523. Detroit Free Press, June 17, 1836. 
 
 151. Detroit Journal and Courier, July 15, 1835. 
 
 152. Ibid. 
 
 153. June 11, 1836. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 141 
 
 ment of the country — for the buying mania drives 
 on the tide of immigration. When the retarding causes 
 we have referred to shall be removed, our city must of 
 necessity expand all its business operations with a 
 rapidity which we have not yet witnessed." By the 
 close of the Territorial period, from one-half to two- 
 thirds of Detroit's trade is said to have been with the 
 interior.^'""* Many merchants in the new settlement 
 made all their purchases in the city. Ten extensive 
 forwarding and commission houses are mentioned by 
 Blois and MacCabe. Prices, especially of flour, appear 
 to have risen steadily from 1835 to 1837, but a falling 
 off ensued then owing partly to the abundant harvests 
 on the newly settled farms of the interior. ^^^ As to the 
 financial panic of 1837 and its disastrous effects upon 
 Detroit, these have been described elsewhere in their 
 relation to the Territory as a whole. ^^^ 
 
 The relation of Detroit to the interior appears in 
 the fact that all of the principal roads of the Territory 
 led to it, from St. Joseph, Niles, Kalamazoo, from 
 Grand Rapids and Saginaw, and from beyond Michigan 
 in Illinois and Ohio. Stages were running on all these 
 routes by 1837; daily for Sandusky, Chicago, Flint 
 and Fort Gratiot, and triweekly for St. Joseph by 
 
 154. Blois' Gazetteer, 211 . Cf. MacCabe, Directory of Detroit, 
 
 35-36. The city was well situated for this trade, being 
 the capital and chief port of the Territory for commerce 
 with the eastern states. The fur^trade declined as the 
 Territory became settled, and was comparatively unim- 
 portant by the close of this period. Blois' Gazetteer, 21 S. 
 
 155. Free Press, December 23, 1835, quotes flour at $6,25 per 
 
 bbl. In Farmer's History of Detroit, I, 800, the price of 
 flour is given for 1837 as $11 and $16; for 1838, $8; for 
 1842, $2.25. 
 
 156. See above, Chapter II , 
 
142 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the Territorial Road. But the roads were tortuous, 
 muddy, and full of the stumps of newly fallen trees. 
 Their condition in the vicinity of Detroit appears 
 in the following newspaper comment on the price of 
 wood, "What a strange fact that in a city surrounded 
 by forests the price of wood should be five, six and 
 seven dollars a cord."^^'^ Greater facility of trans- 
 portation was beginning to be sought in railroads. 
 By the close of the period charters had been granted 
 to many railroad companies and strap -railroads were 
 approaching completion from Detroit to Ypsilanti 
 and Pontiac;^^^ but the day of tolerably efficient serv- 
 ice from railroads was at least a decade away. The 
 press of immigration emphasized the need of better 
 ferry service between Detroit and the Canada shore. ^^^ 
 Many immigrants and their families were obliged to 
 remain on the Canada side for days and at great 
 expense before they could get passage across the 
 river. ^"^^ 
 
 A natural accompaniment of the increase of trade 
 was the new demand for labor, especially in activities 
 related to building. The demand for mechanics in 
 
 157. Daily Advertiser, December 24, 1836. 
 
 158. MacCabe, Directory of Detroit (1837), 36; Blois, Gazetteer, 
 
 278. 
 
 159. A ferry-boat propelled by horse-power was introduced in 
 
 1825, and a steam ferry in 1830, but they fell short of the 
 need. 
 
 160. Free Press, March 24, 1836. That paper says a new ferry 
 
 was then buildmg. The issue of March 28 hails the 
 "glorious news for Detroit" that apparent progress is 
 being made on the Canadian bill to incorporate a rail- 
 road company to build from some Canadian point west 
 to the Detroit River. The issue for April 2 gives the 
 debates on the bill in the Canadian Legislatirre. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 143 
 
 1835 was greater than could be met.^" A daily paper 
 notices the recent organization of the House Carpenters 
 and Joiners' Beneficiary Society "to promote a good 
 understanding between the employers and employed, 
 to prevent and adjust disputes, to promote mechanical 
 knowledge and to provide for those members and 
 their families who may be reduced to want by sickness, 
 accident or other unavoidable calamity. "^^^ 
 
 The new impulse to settlement is reflected also in 
 the growth of manufacture and commerce. Nine 
 "extensive" factories are mentioned by Blois, the 
 largest of which employed each about twenty men; 
 he mentions also two breweries, of which one is credited 
 with being the largest west of Albany. ^"^^ The increase 
 of lake navigation and commerce in these closing years 
 of the period impressed a contemporary as "un- 
 paralled in the history of nations. "^"^^ The lake 
 commerce, which in 1820 was accommodated by one 
 side-wheeler, employed in 1836 thirty steamboats, 
 some of them running to Milwaukee and Chicago; 
 four hundred tons of freight are said to have been 
 carried daily. ^"^^ 
 
 The material prosperity of Detroit was not without 
 some influence on civic improvements. Following the 
 immigrations of 1826 a loan of $50,000 was made by 
 
 161. Free Press, December 23. 1835. 
 
 162. Ihid., April 26, 1836. The society appears to have been 
 
 incorporated in 1838. Session Laws (1838), 242. The 
 Detroit Union Society of Carpenters and Joiners was 
 incorporated in 1848. Session Laws (1848), 234. 
 
 163. Blois, Gazetteer, 275. 
 
 164. MacCabe, Directory of Detroit, 35. 
 
 165. Ibid., 36. 
 
144 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the city council for that purpose. ^"^"^ Their attention 
 was given first to a plan for the sewerage of the city;^" 
 in this year the "Grand Sewer" was built. ^"^^ Next, at- 
 tention was turned to the water supply. In the spring 
 of the same year a wag appealing to the members of 
 the temperance society proclaims that "those whose 
 principles forbid disguising water with brandy will 
 be constrained to drink beer," unless something be 
 done.^'^^ A contemporary writer attributes the 
 epidemic of 1834 to polkition of the supply of drinking 
 water through mismanagement by the hydraulic 
 company ;^^° after some agitation the question of 
 public ownership of the water supply was decided fa- 
 vorably and the works of that company were purchased 
 by the city for $25,500.^'^ A fire in 1837 which is 
 said to have destroyed fifty-six buildings led to the 
 improvement of the fire department. ^^'■^ 
 
 166. Detroit Jcurnal and Courier, November 17, 1835. 
 
 167. Proceedings of the Common Council, March 9, 1836. 
 
 168. Landmarks, 485. Before this the creek known as the 
 
 Savoyard had been used as an open drain, and is said to 
 have been usually so full of filth as to be a menace to 
 health. The new sewer following the line of this creek 
 was built underground at a cost of $22,607. Farmer, 
 History of Detroit, I, 8-9, 60. 
 
 169. Free Press, March 26, 1836. The Detroit Journal and 
 
 Courier, July 22, 1835, reccids that there is hardly a 
 case of sickness, which is attiibuted to the cool weather 
 and the effoits of the city to remove nuisances Harriet 
 Martineau saw at breakfast in Detroit on a June morn- 
 ing in 1836 "the healthiest set of faces that I had beheld 
 since I left England." Society in America, I, 312. 
 
 170. Free Press, April 28, 1836. 
 
 171. Ihid., May 23, Blois mentions a new "hydraulic estabHsh- 
 
 ment" in process of construction, to cost $100,000. 
 Gazetteer, 272. 
 
 172. Mick. Hist. Colls., IV, 413. A city fire department was in- 
 
 corporated in 1840. Session Laws (1840), 13. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 145 
 
 The streets were poorly lighted and came in for much 
 criticism by the press. The editor of the Detroit 
 Journal and Courier ventured that a few more street 
 lights such as the city had would produce total dark- 
 ness, ^^^ but little seems to have been done to improve 
 them and the mud was as deep as ever; from a pioneer's 
 diary it is learned that ''the middle of the street is so 
 constantly stirred up by the carts that it is a sea of 
 mud so deep that the little French ponies often get 
 set with almost an empty cart."^"'* Mr. farmer says 
 that one day in 1851 he counted fourteen teams 
 stalled in the mud at one time. There were still few 
 if any pavements or crosswalks; the growing needs of 
 street traffic secured some attention from the council 
 to the question of pavement. ^'^^ 
 
 The presence of a new population is seen in the 
 character of the city's buildings. The low, frail 
 
 173. July 29, 1835. The character of the lamps used appears in 
 
 an ordinance of Apiil 29, 1835. Journal of the Proceed- 
 ings of the Commcr, Council (1824-43), 322. The City 
 of Detroit Gas Company was incorporated in 1849. 
 Session Laws (1849), 82." 
 
 174. Mich. Hist. Cells., I, 191. For the universal use long made 
 
 of the Canadian pony cart, see the Magazine of Western 
 History, IV, 745-747, and Campbell's Outlines, 420-421. 
 They are said to have gone out of general use when the 
 streets began to be paved. Mich. Hist. Colls., XIII, 492. 
 For street legislation by the Governor and Judges, see 
 Territorial Laws, I, 286, 289. See also Proceedings of the 
 Board of Trustees of the City of Detroit, 11-12. 
 
 175. Hariiet Martineau, who was in Detroit in 1836, speaks of 
 
 wooden planks laid on the grass to "form the pavement" 
 in the outskirts of the city, and says that plans were 
 being made to try the "block-wood" pavement, of which 
 trial had been made in a part of Broadway, New York. 
 Curiously enough, she makes no mention of Detroit's 
 mud. Society in America, I, 313. 
 19 
 
146 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 French -Canadian tenements with their unpainted fronts 
 and moss covered roofs were quite lost among the 
 larger dwellings and shops of the eastern settlers. 
 "In the principal street, called the Jefferson avenue," 
 writes the English author Mrs. Jameson about 1837, 
 "there are rows of large and handsome brick houses; 
 the others are generally wood, painted white, with 
 bright green doors and windows. . . . There are 
 some excellent shops in the town, a theatre, and a great 
 number of taverns and gaming houses. "^^^ The shift- 
 ing and unsettled character of the new population is 
 reflected in Blois' description of stores and dwellings 
 built on leased land in such a way that they could be 
 easily moved. It was a common vsight, he says, to 
 see one or more buildings removing from one part of 
 the city to another.^" But the number of permanent 
 buildings appears to have been fairly proportionate 
 to the resident population. 
 
 The American population of Detroit in 1837 was 
 principally from New York and New England, as 
 was also a large majority of the officials of both the 
 city and Territory throughout the Territorial period. ^''^ 
 There were a few from Virginia, of whom Judge 
 Woodward was a strong influence in the early settle- 
 ment of both city and Territory. ^^^ Of the states 
 south of Michigan, Ohio furnished the larger number; 
 many prominent citizens of eastern birth came to 
 Michigan from Marietta, Ohio. 
 
 176. Mrs. Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles, (Lond., 
 
 1837), II, 82-83. 
 
 177. Gazetteer, 273. 
 
 178. Farmer, History of Detroit, 11; Michigan Biographies, and 
 
 Representative Men, passim. 
 
 179. 1805-23. Landmarks, 273. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 147 
 
 The Negro element in the population of the city 
 was relatively small. In 1827 it comprised sixty-six 
 free Negroes. ^^° The 126 Negroes given in the census 
 of 1830 were about half of the whole number in the 
 Territory.^ ^^ The census figures of 1834 give 138 
 "colored persons," but these figures were apparently 
 affected by the Negro riot in Detroit in 1833 over the 
 attempt to enforce the fugitive slave law, which 
 caused many of the persecuted race to flee to Canada. ^^^ 
 There appear to have been no slaves owned by citizens 
 at these dates, though the earlier census of 1810 shows 
 seventeen in the Territory. ^^^ Since the Ordinance of 
 1787 was opposed to slavery in the Territory, im- 
 migration formed a strong antisalvery sentiment in 
 Detroit, which as a molder of public opinion in Mich- 
 igan became a strong force in preparing for the crisis 
 of 1860. 
 
 The proportion of foreign born citizens in the popula- 
 tion was small; the Germans apparently composed 
 the largest Etiropean element. Among the eight 
 churches of the city Blois mentions a Protestant 
 Church for Germans and a Catholic Church for English, 
 Irish and Germans. ^^^ MacCabe mentions a German 
 
 180. Census of Michigan, 1884, I, xlviii. The semi-official re- 
 
 port of the committee of the Detroit Lyceum in 1819 
 gives seventy "free people of color" for that 3^ear. 
 Gazette, January 29, 1819. 
 
 181. United States Census (1830), 153. 
 
 182. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, September 10, 
 
 1834. Blois mentions a church for "colored persons," 
 Gazetteer, 274. 
 
 183. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 345. See also Mich. Hist. 
 
 Colls., I, 415-417. 
 
 184. Gazetteer, 274. 
 
148 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Church built by subscriptions from citizens of Detroit 
 of all denominations. ^^^ As early as 1853 the Germans 
 appear to have been numerous enough to form a 
 separate religious organization, said to have been 
 ministered to by Pastor Schmidt of Ann Arbor, and it 
 is probable that these earliest Detroit Germans came 
 with the wave following the European revolutions of 
 1830 which brought the first Germans to Washtenaw 
 County. ^^"^ By 1835 their voting strength seems to 
 have been sufficient to attract the attention of politi- 
 cians ; at least a city newspaper announces its intention 
 ' ' to detail to the public the manoeuvres of the Central 
 Committee to buy up our German fellow citizens. "^^^ 
 The French-Canadians appear to have been still a 
 numerous class, and their language seems to have 
 been spoken in Detroit to a considerable extent in 
 1837. Yet they are said to have been fast amalgamat- 
 ing with the predominant immigrant population. ^^^ 
 In 1834 they apparently numbered less than one-sixth 
 of the population of the city, "which was a much less 
 proportion to the whole than we had anticipated," 
 comments a city paper.^^^ Their voting strength 
 was sufficient in 1823 to elect their candidate for 
 
 185. Directcty of Dei7oit, 1837. A wooden building 50 x 35 feet. 
 
 186. See "Our Gemian Immigrations," Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 
 
 255. 
 
 187. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, January 14, 1835. 
 
 188. Gazetteer, 279. 
 
 189. Detroit Jouinal and Michigan Advertiser, April 9, 1834. In 
 
 a population of 4,973, the French nmnbered 801. Some 
 accounts of the large French landowners about 1837 is 
 given by a contemporary in "The Last of the Barons," 
 Mich Hist. Colls., XXI, 499. Some forty-seven are 
 mentioned. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 149 
 
 delegate to Congress, Father Richard, against the 
 combination of two eager and experienced poHtic- 
 ians.^^° 
 
 Though in general the culture of the city had to 
 wait vipon the task of subduing nature, it was not 
 lacking in some circles at least even at an early day. 
 Detroit gained socially from being the capital city of 
 the Territory; the leaders of its society were born and 
 edvicated in cultured sections of the eastern states. 
 On his visit to Detroit in 1826 McKenney wrote, 
 "The company at Major Biddle's last night was 
 sufficient to satisfy me that although I have reached 
 the confines of our population in this direction, I am 
 yet in the circle of hospitable and polished life."^^^ 
 Hoffman in 1833 found the city "remarkable for 
 agreeableness and elegant hospitality. "^^^ The society 
 of Detroit appealed to Harriet Martineau on her visit 
 in 1836 as "very choice," and she ventures to say that 
 it had been so since the old colonial days. She found 
 every reason to think that "under its new dignities 
 Detroit will become a more and more desirable place 
 to live." "Some of its inferior society," she says, "is 
 
 190. Landmarks, 361-362. See coniment on the election by a 
 
 writer in the Gazette for October 17, 1823, to the effect 
 that the election was no evidence of "religious toleration 
 in Michigan," since Father Richard was supported only 
 by his own sect. The Patriot War of 1837 is said to 
 have caused the immigration of Canadians to Detroit, 
 but apparently not in large numbers. For this event in 
 relation to Detroit, see Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 573-579. 
 It does nor appear that distinctively French or English 
 ideas made any permanent impression upon the funda- 
 mental laws of either city or Territory. 
 
 191. Tour to the Lakes, 113. 
 
 192. A Winter in the West, I, 120. 
 
150 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 still very youthful, ^^^ — but the most enlightened soci- 
 ety is, I believe, equal to any which is to be found 
 in the United States.''^^^ 
 
 This culture was reflected institutionally in many 
 ways, as seen for example in the works of Blois and 
 MacCabe, where much space is given to the theatre, 
 museum, public garden, newspapers, schools, churches, 
 orphan asylums, and to societies of a literary, historical, 
 scientific and moral character. ^^^ Blois mentions a 
 public library containing 4,100 volumes. ^^'' Of "chief 
 interest to those who regard the diffusion of useful 
 knowledge as important to the preservation of good 
 morals and of liberty," is a newspaper-mention of the 
 lyceum and a course of lectures given by Mr. Hough- 
 ton. ^^'^ The lyceum, founded in 1818, was the forum 
 of Detroit where the leading men of the city as well as 
 amateurs discussed and debated topics of national 
 interest not alone for the sharpening of wits but for 
 the edification of the people. The programs and 
 
 193. Traits of this youtMuhiess appear in a contemporary's 
 
 description of scenes on an election day of about that 
 time. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 190-191. 
 
 194. Society in America, I, 314-315. 
 
 195. Gazetteer, 274-276; MacCabe, Directory of Detroit, 30-32. 
 
 An act for the encouragement of literature and the im- 
 provement of the city of Detroit was one of the first acts 
 of the Governor and Judges, September 9, 1805. Terri- 
 torial Laws, I, 67. The sum of $20,000 for the purpose 
 was to be raised by four successive lotteries. 
 
 196. Gazetteer, 277. See lists of books for sale by Sheldon and 
 
 Reed (publishers of the Gazette), at the Gazette ofhce at 
 various times, the first appearing July 25 and September 
 26, 1817. The Library of the City of Detroit was 
 incorporated in 1817. Territorial Laws, I, 310. Its 
 meetings are frequently mentioned in the Gazette. 
 
 197. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, December 29, 
 
 1830. 
 
OLD CAPITOL AT DETROIT 
 
 (Mich. T/iV. Colls., XXX, frontispiece) 
 
 This building, 60x90 feet, was built in 1S2.3-28 at a cost of $24, .500. It was first 
 used by the Let^islative Council of the Territory May 5, 1828, and last used by 
 the State Legislature in the session which clo.sed March 17, 1847. After 1848 it 
 was used by the Detroit Board of Education for school purposes. Its classical 
 design reflects a characteristic influence of the period. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 151 
 
 reports of these weekly occasions show a sense for the 
 niceties of national questions that would surprise one 
 who should expect to find the "back-woods" giving 
 the predominant tone to the intellectual life of the 
 city.^^^ Often the newspapers^ ^^ of the city contained 
 verbatim copies of important congressional speeches 
 and presidential papers. Some historical interest was 
 shown by the formation (1829) of a historical society 
 the character of whose work is indicated by the volume 
 of Historical and Scientific Sketches of Michigan pub- 
 lished in 1834 at Detroit. ^°° Governor Cass was long 
 the president and chief promoter of this society. ^°^ 
 The schools, though on the whole they reflected the 
 traditions of the eastern states, had obvious frontier 
 
 198. See, for instance, an early account of debates and a forecast 
 
 of speakers for a month in the Gazette of February 27, 
 1818. The constitution of the lyceum is given serially 
 in the Gazette for May 8, May 22, Jvine 5, and July 31, 
 1818. A literary association known as The Young 
 Men's Society, formed in 1833, supplemented the 
 lyceum. See Detroit Yotmg Men's Society, Reports 
 (Detroit, 1876). The Detroit Courier for February 20, 
 1833, contains the introductory address of the president 
 (F. Sawyer, Jr.) stating purposes and plans, also the 
 by-laws and standing rules which help to explain its 
 scope and character. The same paper (November 20, 
 1833) laments the "inactivity" and "deplorable condi- 
 tion" of the society. Apparently it took on new life in 
 1836, when it was incorporated. Session Laws (1835- 
 36), 165. See also Mich. Hist. Colls., XII, 361-375. 
 
 199. Blois mentions three dailies, four weeklies, one religious 
 
 weekly, and one monthly devoted to education. Gazet- 
 teer, 274. 
 
 200. The preface of the volume gives an account of the intended 
 
 work of the society. The contributions are addresses de- 
 livered at its meetings. 
 
 201. MacCabe's Directory of Detroit (1837), on p. 32, says, "We 
 
 are not apprized of much activity among its members at 
 present." This was after Cass' removal to Washington. 
 
152 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 limitations. The classical tradition was strong , but its 
 expression was somewhat amusing, as represented by 
 Judge Woodward, who is said to have been chiefly 
 responsible for the system laid down and enacted into 
 law in 1821 for the "Catholepistemiad."2o- Yet this 
 institution was at least a glance in the direction of 
 the future University of Michigan; it was significant 
 for the future that its first professors were a Scotch 
 minister and a Catholic priest. ^°^ The classical tradi- 
 tion is reflected also in the English Classical School 
 which was started in 1832. In 1834 an interest in 
 female education resulted in the founding of the 
 Ladies' Seminary. Common-school education in 
 Detroit was distinctly frontier in character until the 
 period of statehood. The Catholic schools have been 
 mentioned above; the Protestant schools were quite 
 as meager, and not free as were the Catholic schools. -°^ 
 Agitation for free schools is reflected in the city papers 
 beginning abotit 1833, which is the date of a number 
 of revivals due apparently to the stimulus of immigra- 
 tion. -°^ But it was not until Michigan adopted her 
 
 202. Territorial Laws, I, 879-882. The initial project was 
 
 launched in 1817. 
 
 203. John Monteith and Father Richard. The Gazette for Jan- 
 
 uary 29, 1818, contams the advertisement of a Classical 
 Academy to be opened on Febmary 2 next, signed by 
 "John Monteith, President of the University." 
 
 204. See an article by a former superintendent of public instruc- 
 
 tion on "Traditions and Reminiscences of the Public 
 Schools of Detroit," in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 450. The 
 Gazette, April 30, 1819, gives a report on the condition of 
 education in the "primary school" at Detroit. There 
 were 170 children in school in the city in 1818, according 
 to the Gazette of January 29, 1819. 
 
 205. In 1834, out of 1,496 children between 5 and 20 years of 
 
 age, 801 were in school. An editorial in the Detroit 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 153 
 
 first constitution ttiat the sure foundation was laid 
 for the practical application of the famous declaration 
 in the Ordinance of 1787, that "Religion, morality 
 and knowledge being necessary to good government 
 and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means 
 of education shall forever be encouraged. "^^"^ 
 
 Scarcely second to Detroit as a center of French - 
 Canadian influence and American settlement was 
 Monroe, situated about three miles and a half up 
 the Raisin on the south bank of the river across 
 from the old village of Frenchtown. The latter had 
 been a depot of the old Northwest Fur Company, and 
 had never contained more than a few dwellings and 
 stores, which were ruined in 1813. The site was 
 favored for a village, by the Americans but it was 
 difficult to get the French, who held the title, to grant 
 enough land for the public purposes of a county 
 seat.^°^ When the county of Monroe was established 
 in 1817, the seat of its public business was located, there- 
 fore, in a new village, across the river, promoted by 
 Americans, and named like the county for the new 
 president of the United States.""^ 
 
 The location of a county seat usually so influenced 
 
 205. Con. Courier, April 9, attributes this to the lack of free schools, 
 
 and urges a change. See also an editorial in the same 
 paper for August 19, 1835. Detroit was early excepted 
 from the operation of the general school laws. Terri- 
 torial Laws, II, 776; see also Territorial Laws, III, 1238. 
 
 206. The religious life of Detroit in the Territorial period is 
 
 sketched in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 417-429; III, 225-243; 
 XIII, 424-483. 
 
 207. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 362, 374. 
 
 208. An account of President Monroe's visit to Detroit that year 
 
 is given in the Gazette for August 16 and 22, 1817. 
 
154 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the popular mind as to give a special imptilse to the 
 settlement of a village thus favored. Despite this 
 advantage, however, Monroe grew very slowly for a 
 decade. Its slowness of growth was in common with 
 that of the rest of the county, as well as that of the 
 section as a whole. ^°^ It seems to have felt its first 
 strong impulse about the time of the opening of the 
 Erie Canal. The Michigan Herald of April 26, 1826, 
 reports that its population increased more than 
 one-third in the past year.^^° Another step forward 
 was taken in 1827, in keeping with the general new life 
 around it, when the village polled sixty-two votes on 
 the issue of incorporating, measuring its progressive- 
 ness by a favorable vote of forty-three to nineteen. -^\ 
 The population had grown in 1830 to 478; for the year 
 1834 estimates vary from 1,200 to 1,600, which was 
 about one-seventh of the population of the county. 
 Hoffman says that in 1833 the village had about one 
 hundred and fifty houses, of which twenty or thirty 
 
 209. The presence of Americans at Monroe is signalized by the 
 
 advertisement in the Gazette for July 25, 1817, of a 
 "new wholesale and retail store" opened by H. Pierce 
 and Company. The extent of their anticipated trade is 
 seen in a fairly good assortment of dry goods, groceries 
 and hardware. Special inducements are offered to 
 traders; furs will be received in payment. The Gazette 
 for July 3, 1818, has a favorable editorial on the "new 
 village of Monroe." According to a letter from Monroe 
 dated February 7, 1819, quoted in Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXXVIII, 484, many "English people" (Americans?) 
 are moving in daily. 
 
 210. See also the Gazette for December 13, 1825. The opening of 
 
 the land office in 1824 made the village a center of atten- 
 tion. 
 
 211. Wing, History of Monroe County, 138, 141; Hoffman, A 
 
 Winter in the West. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 155 
 
 were of stone. He mentions two gristmills, a woolen 
 factory, an iron foundry, several sawmills, a chair 
 factory and a tannery. These were undoubtedly all 
 on a very small scale, but they reflect the environ- 
 ment and resources of the village and indicate the 
 trend of activities. The village, says Hoffman, was 
 "the fussiest little town in the world;" to him it 
 looked "as if the buildings had all been tossed from 
 the other side of the river and left to settle just where 
 they might fall upon this." Touching the progress 
 of the village he adds, "if the place continues to in- 
 crease as rapidly, however, as it has during the last 
 year — the population having doubled in that time — 
 the inhabitants can afford to burn down the river 
 side of the village, and arrange it to more advantage. ".^^^ 
 The awakening of the village in 1826-27 is reflected in 
 the preparations for making the mouth of the Raisin 
 suitable for a harbor, for which the National Govern- 
 ment had made an appropriation. ^^^ In 1834 a steam- 
 boat built there is said to have been ready to begin its 
 trips to Buffalo. '^^-^ 
 
 In contemporary opinion Monroe seemed to have 
 the promise of becoming a great city. Men of prom- 
 inence who were apparently competent judges made 
 it their home, and in 1835-36 a group of men known 
 as the Cass Company — named for Lewis Cass who 
 was the leading spirit — are said to have speculated 
 heavily in neighboring lands. -^^ Rivalry with Toledo 
 
 212. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 127-128. 
 
 213. Statutes at Large, IV, 229; Hoffman, A Winter in the West, 
 
 1,45, 169. 
 
 214. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, September 24, 
 
 1834; Wing, History of Monroe County, 139. 
 
 215. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 369. 
 
156 ECONOMIC aND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 stimulated the city to make large appropriations to 
 supplement those of the National Government for a 
 ship-way direct to the waters of Lake Erie.^^^ Its 
 prospects were considered superior to those of Chicago, 
 whose population and business it fully equalled at 
 that time, and whose position near Lake Erie was 
 nearer to the East by the whole length of the Lakes. 
 It was a natural port for southeastern Michigan. 
 The daily stages between Detroit and Buffalo carried 
 its passengers and mail, and railroads were chartered 
 to connect it with the interior. The amount of grain 
 from the interior seems to have been sufficient to 
 support two flouring mills there in 1838. Apparently 
 the first shipment of flour from Michigan was the two 
 hundred barrels made in Monroe and sent to New 
 York in 1827. Its abundant water power and neighbor- 
 ing timber afforded great facilities for manufacture. 
 According to Blois it had in 1838 three sawmills and 
 numerous factories. Besides timber there was a 
 great quantity of limestone for building material. ^^^ 
 Among its cultural institutions Blois mentions a 
 branch of the University, two female seminaries and 
 six churches. By the census of 1837 the village and 
 township had a population of something under three 
 thousand people, of whom about one-half appear to 
 have been French-Canadians.^^^ 
 
 216. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 369, 382; Wing, History of Monroe 
 
 County, 170-176. 
 
 217. Blois mentions a courthouse of hewn stone which cost 
 
 upward of $35,000. Gazetteer, 327. 
 
 218. Ibid.,_ 328; Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 371-372. The latter 
 
 writer says that not one-fourth of the Canadians could 
 speak English, and that not more than one in twenty 
 could write it correctly. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 157 
 
 There were several shore settlements between Monroe 
 and Detroit which in 1837 gave promise of becoming 
 centers of population: Brest, Gibraltar, Flat Rock, 
 Brownstown and Wyandotte. In the view of its 
 founders Brest was to become "the great commercial 
 center of the West," but its population in 1860 was 
 less than 100.^^^ Even more pretentious in 1837 were 
 the activities of the company at Gibraltar, which had 
 the typical outfit of the ' ' paper town ' ' and was similar 
 in nature and fate to Port Sheldon opposite to it across 
 the Territory on the shore of Lake Michigan. -''° In 
 1837 a canal is said to have been half completed be- 
 tween Gibraltar and Flat Rock, a village about a 
 half dozen miles up the Huron River where there had 
 gathered an estimated population of about 250 
 people .-^^ Brownstown and Wyandotte were old 
 Indian villages, and the inhabitants in 1837 were 
 chiefly Indians.-'^- 
 
 Beyond Detroit in Macomb County on the lower 
 Clinton lay Mt. Clemens, which up to 1818 had been 
 a trading post and mission station rather than a true 
 settlement. ^^^ American settlers began to come to 
 Mt. Clemens at about the same time as to Monroe. 
 Like Monroe it was located at some distance from the 
 
 219. Blois, Gazetteer, 258; Clark, Gazetteer (1863), 205. It was 
 
 about six miles north of Monroe, owned by a company 
 which in 1837 was busy constructing piers for the 
 harbor. 
 
 220. Blois, Gazetteer, 290. It was on the Wayne shore about 
 
 twenty miles south of Detroit. 
 
 221. Ibid., 286. See also the Detroit Courier for March 6, 1833. 
 
 222. Mich. Hist Colls., XVIII, 518; XIII, 310; Detroit Courier, 
 
 March 6, 1833; Bureau of American Ethnology, Eight- 
 eenth Annual Report, Part 2, p. 690. 
 
 223. History oj Macomb County, 181-186. 
 
158 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 mouth of a considerable river, ^^'^ had an important 
 nucleus of settlement in its vicinity-^ and had similar 
 relations with Detroit as a market and supply station. 
 Like Monroe also it received its first impulse with 
 the opening of the public land sales and became a 
 county seat; but unlike Monroe, it was not in the 
 direct line of immigration from the East, and this was 
 an important differential in its early growth. 
 
 The village was platted in 1818, when it numbered 
 about fifteen families. ^"'^ in the same year a post- 
 office was authorized. -^^ An advertisement of that 
 year in the Gazette represented the village as eligibly 
 situated about four miles from the shore in an excellent 
 farming district, and the river as navigable to the 
 village for "large boats," springs of excellent water 
 as abundant, and the village as the county seat.-^^ 
 Its most public spirited citizen, and perhaps the 
 strongest single personal influence in the early settle- 
 ment of the county, was Christian Clemens, who 
 came originally from Pennsylvania. He became the 
 founder and namesake of the village, and it was through 
 his public gifts that the county seat was secured. ^^^ 
 About 1822-23 came the first signs of a real awakening 
 with the arrival of the first merchant, physician and 
 mill.-3o 
 
 224. Ibid., 889, describes the mouth of the river as flat and 
 
 marshy. 
 
 225. Brown, Western Gazetteer, 158. 
 
 226. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 358. 
 
 227. History of Macomb County (1882), 523. 
 
 228. Gazette, September 25, 1818. The sand bar and the marshy 
 
 district near the mouth of the river were not mentioned. 
 
 229. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 490; History of Macomb County 
 
 (1882), 524. 
 
 230. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 312; V, 462. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 159 
 
 The date of the second Gazette advertisement of the 
 advantages of Mt. Clemens appears to reflect the 
 impulse given to the settlement of the Territory by 
 the opening of the Erie Canal. Emphasis is laid 
 upon the situation of the village as high and healthful. 
 Its one physician, who was planting potatoes when the 
 writer called, is quoted as saying that the place was 
 so universally healthful that he had quite too much 
 leisure. At about that time an impulse to building 
 seems to be indicated by the starting of a brickyard, 
 and the beginnings of shipbuilding appear in a 120- 
 ton schooner then under construction. In 1834, the 
 same year in which the first large boat appears to have 
 been launched at Monroe, another paper announces 
 the readiness of "two large ships "at Mt. Clemens. ^^^ 
 By the close of the period the abundant sand for glass 
 was being used; in the Free Press of January 7, 1836, 
 there is mentioned a glass factory just put in operation 
 which employed sixty hands from eastern factories. ^^^ 
 
 The growth of Mt. Clemens in this period was ap- 
 parently somewhat slower than that of Monroe. Its 
 population in 1836 is said to have been between 800 
 and 1,000.^^^ It was incorporated a decade later 
 than the more southerly village. ^^"^ This slowness 
 seems to have been due partly to the speculation in 
 village lots and in neighboring lands. The village 
 
 231. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, April 9, 1834. 
 
 They were of 130 and 150 tons respectively, and smaller 
 ones appear to have been built about the same time. 
 
 232. This was for the manufacture principally of window glass. 
 
 See also the same paper for January 1 1 . 
 
 233. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 53. 
 
 234. Ibid., VI, 359. 
 
160 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 was surrounded by a, "cordon of paper cities "-'^^ and 
 the high prices of s'litable locations drove intending 
 settlers to choose the 'cheaper Government land else- 
 where. Again, the influence of Detroit overshadowed 
 the village, which had to share also with Pontiac, 
 Rochester, Utica, Romeo and other places, the interest 
 that was being directed northward from Detroit. 
 Monroe was in the direct line of immigration, at least 
 after 1826, and had no near competing rivals excepting 
 Detroit. -^"^ The road^" and harbor improvements at 
 Mt. Clemens compare unfavorably with those at 
 Monroe, although much money was expended later to 
 connect the village with the interior by canal. ^^^ In 
 1833 eight stores were sufficient to meet the needs of 
 its trade. ^^^ 
 
 The oldest center of population in the region of the 
 St. Clair River is St. Clair, which has a British 
 military tradition that dates from 1765. A small 
 
 235. Ihid., V, 53; History of Macomb County (1882), 432. 
 
 236. The areas of the townships containing the two village cen- 
 
 ters were about equal in 1834, but Harrison Township 
 received this area only that year, while the boundaries 
 of Monroe Township date from 1827. Territorial Laws, 
 II, 477; III, 1275; History of Macomb County, 142. 
 
 237. Mt. Clemens was at the junction of the Clinton River and 
 
 the Fort Gratiot Road, but the ice appears to have been 
 more frequently used in the winter. History of Macomb 
 County (1882), 262-263. 
 
 238. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 469 quotes from the Detroit Journal 
 
 and Courier for July 20, 1838, an account of the celebra- 
 tion at "the Queen village," of the Clinton and Kalama- 
 zoo Canal. One speaker, in a burst of optimism, lauds 
 the day "which will be recollected by the people of 
 Michigan as the proudest that ever happened, or can 
 again transpire while her soil remains a component part 
 of terra firma." 
 
 239. Blois, Gazetteer, 329. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 161 
 
 colony of French-Canadians^'^° which had survived 
 the War of 1812 made their home there, and on one 
 of the French farms parties from Detroit laid out in 
 1818 at the junction of the Pine and St. Clair rivers 
 the "Town of St. Clair," which was to become the 
 county seat of St. Clair County. ^'^^ Its growth was 
 very slow. Blois mentions but three stores there in 
 1838.^^^ Its chief industry was lumbering; five saw 
 mills were operating in its vicinity in that year and it 
 had one steam flourmill. Blois mentions also a good 
 harbor, -^^ 
 
 Elsewhere along the St. Clair, principally at junc- 
 tions with its branches, sufficient beginnings were made 
 in this period to indicate centers of later growth. At 
 these points swift currents ran between high banks 
 and the supporting industry was lumbering. The 
 future Marine City and Port Huron were then in 
 embryo. The former, at the mouth of the Belle River, 
 was laid out into village lots in 1831.-"^^ In the period 
 of greatest speculation, 1835-36, its site appears to 
 have been bought by Ohio speculators and replatted 
 as "New Port."-'*^ Except for the county buildings 
 
 240. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 172; History of St. Clair County 
 
 (1883), 254. 
 
 241. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 356. See advertisements of lots for 
 
 sale, signed by C. McDougall, in the Gazette for August 
 7, 1818. Emphasis is laid on the harbor, which "will 
 admit the largest vessels at all seasons." The place was 
 long known as Palmer. 
 242 Gazetteer, 237, under "Palmer." 
 
 243. For the village of St. Clair see Jenks, History oj St. Clair 
 
 County, I, 137, 157, 251, 257, 281, 369. 
 
 244. History of St. Clair County (1883). There appears to have 
 
 been some shipbuilding there as early as 1825. 
 
 245. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 413; XXI, 339. 
 
 21 
 
162 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 it quite equalled in appearance the enterprise of St. 
 Clair. 246 Port Huron, laid out in 1835-^^ at the junc- 
 tion of the Black River with the St. Clair, became the 
 center of the lumbering industry in the St. Clair 
 region. A "thriving village," says Blois, "and being 
 the central point for the lumber business, it is con- 
 sidered the most flourishing of any in the county. "^^^ 
 Measured by its twelve stores it had three or four 
 times the trade of St. Clair and Marine City. Its 
 exports for 1837 amounted to about $150, 000, ^^^ and 
 its importance in contemporary opinion is shown by 
 its selection in 1837 as the eastern terminal for the 
 Northern Railroad. ^^^ A fourth village was platted 
 on the St. Clair in 1836 at Algonac, which Blois men- 
 tions as small but doing considerable business. ^^^ 
 
 To Harriet Martineau in 1836, "there seemed to 
 be no intermission of settlers' houses all at regular 
 
 246. Blois, Gazetteer, 332, credits it with four stores in 1838, and 
 
 it appears to have had also a sawmill and a gristmill. 
 There had been some shipbuilding as early as 1825, 
 when the place was known as Ward's Landing. Mich. 
 Hist. Colls., VI, 413. See for general discussion, Jenks, 
 History of St. Clair County, I, 144, 259. 
 
 247. Lumbering in the Port Huron region seems to have started 
 
 on the Black River about 1827. The village was started 
 first at the mill six miles from the St. Clair, but mis- 
 calculation of waterpower brought it do\\^l to the junc- 
 tion, hi 1833 there are said to have been some eighteen 
 buildings there. History of St. Clair County (1883), 496. 
 
 248. Blois, Gazetteer, 346. 
 
 249. Ibid., 240. 
 
 250. See Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, 13-14, for 
 
 reasons favoring the mouth of the Black River as the 
 terminal. For Port Huron see Jenks, History of St. 
 Clair County, I, 143, 153, 253, 366, 368. 
 
 251. History of St. Clair County (1883), 256; Gazetteer, 317. See 
 
 also Jenks, History of St. Clair County, I, 264. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 163 
 
 distances along the bank," and about the same time 
 Mrs. Jameson was impressed with the contrast be- 
 tween the settlement of the American and British 
 shores of the St. Clair River. "As usual," she says, 
 "the British coast is here the most beautiful and 
 fertile, and the American coast the best settled and 
 cleared. Along the former I see a few isolated log 
 shanties, and groups of Indian lodges; along the latter 
 several extensive clearings, and some hamlets and 
 rising villages; "^^- she thought this might be due to 
 the better accommodations for transportation on the 
 American shore. 
 
 Aside from these four river centers of settlement 
 and a narrow strip of open land along the banks 
 threaded by the Fort Gratiot Road from one settlement 
 to another, there was scarcely a settler in the re- 
 gion at the end of this period. St. Clair County had 
 then less population than any other county in the 
 section. Significant were the positions and areas of 
 the four townships of the county in 1834, w^hich 
 changed but slightly from 1827 to that date.^^s Their 
 long axes, extending parallel from the St. Clair River 
 to the western boundaries of the county, suggest that 
 in relation to the settlers there was little choice of 
 stopping places between the river and that boundary. 
 The gradually increasing width of the townships from 
 south to north suggests the gradual thinning out of 
 population northward, and there is some significance 
 
 252. Winter Studies and Summer Rambles, II, 107. Lanman 
 
 gives a picturesque description of settlement along the 
 St. Clair River in his History of Michigan, 266. 
 
 253. Territorial Laws, II, 478. 
 
164 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 in the correspondence between their positions '^and the 
 courses of the Belle, Pine and Black rivers. ^^'^ 
 
 The relatively slow settlement of the St, Clair 
 region was due partly to misrepresentations, partly 
 to its dense forests, but mainly to its distance from the 
 direct route of immigration which led settlers to the 
 more open country in southwestern Michigan. In 
 1836 the relative importance of the settlements along 
 the St. Clair with those in the interior is shown by the 
 inclusion of the whole of the northern part of the 
 county in the large township of Clyde and the forma- 
 tion of the two narrow river townships of Sinclair 
 and Desmond. ^^® But there was some inland settle- 
 ment by 1837. The census for that year shows some 
 six hundred settlers in the area formerly covered by the 
 township of Clyde as compared with over thirteen 
 hundred in the two river townships immediately east 
 of it. 256 
 
 "The query may be suggested, Why has not this 
 country been settled sooner?" says "Philo Veritas, "^^ 
 and adds, "I will briefly answer ; a detail of satisfactory 
 reasons might be assigned, but the principal one is, 
 that those who have given the chief direction to 
 emigration have not deemed it consistent with their 
 local interests to settle the county of St. Clair, and 
 the reasons may be readily discovered by reflecting 
 on the relative situation St. Clair and Wayne county 
 
 254. Blois says the settlements in 1838 were mainly in the south- 
 
 em half of the county and on the St. Clair River. Gazet- 
 teer, 241. 
 
 255. Session Laws (1836), 80. 
 
 256. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 73. 
 
 257. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, May 4, 1831. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 165 
 
 hold to one another, and the other parts of the 
 peninsula; consequently St. Clair has been represented 
 a swamp, a sink of pestilential vapors breeding disease 
 and death." 
 
 But apparently the St. Clair region felt with the rest 
 of the Territory the common impulse to settlement 
 that came with the first land sales, the opening of the 
 Erie Canal, and the era of speculation in the early 
 thirties. The platting of the "Town of St. Clair" 
 in 1818 has been noted. The first report in the Gazette 
 of an exploration into the interior back from the St. 
 Clair River, in 1822, was very favorable to settle- 
 ment, ^^^ and just after the opening of the Erie Canal 
 there appeared a second favorable description. ^^^ 
 Others followed in 1831-32. These were written 
 obviously by persons desiring to promote the settle- 
 ment of the county, yet they did not overdraw its 
 advantages. ^^° The advantages for shipbuilding and 
 pine lumbering were specially dwelt upon. The growth 
 of lake commerce and the approaching completion of 
 the Erie Canal stimulated interest in these industries. 
 As above noted, boats were being built at the sites of 
 Marine City and St. Clair in the early twenties, as 
 also at the upper end of the St. Clair near Lake Huron. 
 "Boats, calculated to pass through the lakes St. Clair 
 and Erie, and the New York Canal are now building 
 
 258. Gazette, September 6, 1822. It reports a rich soil, an un- 
 dulating surface, pure streams of water, mill sites rich in 
 timber, and less waste land than elsewhere. 
 
 259 Ibid., July 18 and August 1. 
 
 260. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, May 4, 1831. 
 
166 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 near the foot of Lake Huron," says the Gazette'^^^ in 
 1824, "for the purpose of taking cargoes of produce 
 to the city of New York." According to "Philo 
 Veritas" above quoted, St. Clair County furnished 
 by 1831 almost all the pine lumber (spars, boards, 
 shingles, etc.) used in the eastern part of Michigan 
 and in the northern part of Ohio.^^^ Settlement was 
 somewhat aided by the Government's interest in 
 Fort Gratiot-'^^ at the upper end of the St. Clair River, 
 which drew the military road northward from Detroit 
 through the sites available for settlement along the 
 river; but it was long before this route was much more 
 than a rude wagon road.-^^ From 1834 to 1837 the 
 population of the county grew from about two 
 thousand to six thousand. -"^^ 
 
 The central physiographic influences which affected 
 settlement in the interior immediately south of the 
 St. Clair country were the Clinton River, the presence 
 of the village of Mt. Clemens as a supporting basis 
 from which settlement might radiate, and the openings, 
 
 261. Gazette, July 16, 1824. For early shipbuilding in St. Clair 
 
 County see Jenks, History of St. Clair County, 1, 403, 
 et seq. 
 
 262. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, May 4, 1831. 
 
 Nine sawmills were reported running on Black and 
 Belle rivers.; 
 
 263. See description of the advantages of Fort Gratiot for a 
 
 military post in the Gazette for August 29, 1826. Fort 
 Gratiot was established near the close of the War of 
 1812 on the site of an early French fort. (St. Joseph, 
 abandoned 1688). See also Jenks, History of St. Clair 
 County, I, 95 and 262, et seq. 
 
 264. See Jenks, History of St. Clair County, I, 384, et seq. 
 
 265. Blois, Gazetteer, 151 ; Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 73. 
 
 The effect of the panic of 1837 is seen in a decrease of 
 population to 4,606 in 1840. U. S. Census (1840), 447. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 167 
 
 plains and prairies in the western portion of Macomb 
 County. The strong current of the Chnton furnished 
 adequate power for mills, and the openness of the 
 country in the upper course of the river gave good 
 promise of quick returns in farm, stock and dairy 
 produce. Settlers found their chief market, shipping 
 point and source of supplies in Mt. Clemens, but in 
 the western part of the county, in the days before 
 mills, settlers at Romeo and Utica usually went for 
 grist to Rochester and Pontiac. Timber abounded in 
 all parts of the county. In the northeastern portion, 
 a region destined to be the supply center for the future 
 shipbuilding of Mt. Clemens, the comparative density 
 of timber made settlement slow. 
 
 Land-buying took place in the interior of Macomb 
 county about as early and energetically as in either 
 Wayne or Monroe counties. By 1821 land had been 
 bought in all of the western townships excepting 
 Warren, -^'^ where no purchases were made until 1830. 
 Buyers specially favored the southern part of Wash- 
 ington Township. About 1830 sales became rapid in 
 the extreme northwest and apparently many of the 
 purchasers became actual settlers. Twenty -four pur- 
 chases were made that year in the present Bruce 
 Township, but no purchases were made in the northeast 
 of the county until after 1830. The lands of this 
 county seem to have suffered from the same mis- 
 representations that were noted above of St. Clair 
 
 266. History of Macomb County (1882), 470-471 ; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXVi, 548; XXVIII, 423. The Gazette observes, No- 
 vember 1, 1825, that though Macomb County is not 
 settling as fast as Oakland and Washtenaw, "it will have 
 its turn." 
 
168 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 County. According to a writer in a Detroit paper, 
 because of "local jealousies and a narrow-minded 
 policy pursued by interested speculators and their 
 numerous agents" Macomb County had been more 
 grossly misrepresented than any other section of the 
 Territory.2" 
 
 The date 1830 marks about the beginning of active 
 settlement in the interior of Macomb County. In 
 agreement with this date is the evidence of township 
 organization as to the massing of population at this 
 time in the western part of the county, -'^^ Apparently 
 this is the meaning of the longer north and south axes 
 of the townships there, which comports with the fact 
 that the largest township in the cotmty remained in 
 the center undivided until 1834.-'^^ The comparative 
 openness of the west is probably reflected in the fact 
 that the northwestern townships received in 1833 the 
 areas they have today, "° while the northeastern town- 
 ships remained relatively large. "^^ The relative back- 
 wardness of settlement in the central and southern 
 parts of the county are shown by the censuses of 1830 
 and 1837. At each date the bulk of the population 
 appears in the west, away from the shore, although by 
 1837 the figures show the influence of the Clinton River 
 in massing population along its course. In 1837 the 
 
 267. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, June 8, 1831. In 
 
 the Gazette for October 11, 1822, appears a vigorous denial 
 that sickness was prevalent in Macomb County. 
 
 268. Territorial Laws, II, 478. 
 
 269. Ibid., Ill, 1275. 
 
 270. Ibid., Ill, 985. See the Detroit Journal and Michigan Ad- 
 
 vertiser, June 8, 1832, for a description of settlement in 
 the county in that year. 
 
 271. Ibid., Ill, 1124, 1275. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 169 
 
 western range of townships stood to the eastern in 
 population as 3 to 1.-'- From 1830 to 1834 the popu- 
 lation of the county increased from about 2,500-^^ to 
 about 6,000,"^^ and in the following three years the 
 total ran nearly to 9,000.-'^ This is evidence of fairly 
 steady growth."^ 
 
 Centers of population were developed in Macomb 
 County at Romeo and Utica. It is probable that 
 some slight beginnings of the trading post nature were 
 made at these sites as early as 1817. Romeo had a 
 good situation for the trader, being a point where 
 numerous trails crossed and where the Indians had a 
 village ; -'^'^ the village of Romeo is typical of that class 
 of settlements in which the Indian village and the 
 French trader marked out a site of promise. Its im- 
 mediate antecedent w^as the "Hoxey settlement," a 
 name acquired from one of Governor Cass' employees, 
 a Canadian lumberman who settled there with his 
 family about 1822. This settlement was brought to 
 public attention before 1830 both by the Detroit press 
 and by notice on Risdon's map of 1825."^ The Gazette 
 noticed the environment favorably in 1824 and again 
 
 272. In 1850 the proportion was 2 to 1, and in 1860 as 1^ to \, 
 
 showing the gradual fiUing in at the east. 
 
 273. U. S. Census (1830), 153. 
 
 274. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 
 
 275. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 72. 
 
 276. One new township was organized in 1835. Territorial Laws, 
 
 III, 1368; and three in 1837 in the south and northeast. 
 Session Laws (1837), 41, 140. 
 
 277. The first name of the postoffice at Romeo was "Indian 
 
 Village." Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, Jan- 
 uary 5, 1831. 
 
 278. The Risdon map shows Tremble's sawmill just above a 
 
 small branch of the Clinton. 
 
170 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 editorially in 1826.-^^ By the census of 1830 there 
 appear to have been nearly a thousand settlers within 
 a radius of half a dozen miles. ^^° 
 
 The village received its first strong impulse from 
 New Englanders about 1827 when it is said that a 
 colony of about sixty people made it their home."^^ 
 We are told that it was not alone for the advantage of 
 the trails at this point nor for the openness of the 
 country nor for the richness of the soil that these set- 
 tlers chose the spot, but because its environment re- 
 sembled New England scenery; and pioneer reminis- 
 cences show that usually, other things equal, this sen- 
 timent was a strong influence in early settlement. ^^^ 
 The characteristic New England Congregational so- 
 ciety was formed at once in Romeo and held meetings 
 in a log schoolhouse in 1828. By 1830 the character 
 of the village had been fairly determined. In that 
 year, or in the following, it was regularly laid out into 
 village lots.^^^ In 1836 it is said to have had thirty 
 frame buildings; but stumps still remained in the 
 streets, and there appear to have been yet no regular 
 stages to connect it with the older settlements. ^^^ The 
 New England element in Romeo's population gave it 
 
 279. Gazette, May 14, 1824, and May 30, 1826. 
 
 280. U. S. Census (1830), 153, under Washington Township. 
 
 281. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 314; History of Macomb County (1882), 
 
 621. 
 
 282. For the beauty of this location see an article in the Detroit 
 
 Daily Advertiser for January 30, 1837, describing the site 
 as a beautiful elevation of one or two hundred feet slop- 
 ing gently to a broad and extensive country about it. 
 
 283. History of Macomb County, 613. It was not incorporated 
 
 until 1838. 
 
 284. Ibid., 626. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 171 
 
 early a reputation for culture and education which was 
 a strong inducement for further settlement there. ^^^ 
 
 Utica's growth was slower than that of Romeo until 
 1831, when the large share it received of the immigra- 
 tion of that year led it to dream of becoming the 
 metropolis of the county. It had in the Clinton River 
 a great source of natural power which attracted to it 
 considerable capital for investment in manufacture. ^^^ 
 It seemed to have much to hope from the canal which 
 was projected to connect it with Rochester and the 
 country farther west, as well as from the railway which 
 was to be built from Detroit. Shops, mills and banks 
 were started. This promise w^as destined to vanish in 
 the hard times soon to follow, but these early begin- 
 nings left many substantial foundations for a thriving 
 settlement. ^^^ 
 
 The relation of inland to shore settlement in the 
 Raisin River country in 1837 was quite the opposite 
 of that on the Clinton River. It resembled in relative 
 importance rather the settlement along the St. Clair. 
 
 285. Academic teaching seems to have been afforded there as 
 
 early as 1835, by a graduate of Williams College who was 
 formerly the principal of a seminary in Utica, New York. 
 History of Macomb County (1882), 629-630. See also the 
 communication signed "A Southerner," in the Detroit 
 Daily Advertiser for January 30, 1837. Blois mentions 
 an academy with an attendance of fifty pupils in 1838. 
 Gazetteer, 353. 
 
 286. There is said to haA' e been, a sawmill and a distillery at this 
 
 site in 1828, and a second distillery was built in 1831. 
 History of Macomb County (1882), 719. Utica appears 
 to be the village of "Harlow" mentioned in an article in 
 the Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser for June 8, 
 1831, as the second village of the count v. 
 
 287. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 313. 
 
172 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 In one respect it was^similar — the key to it was the 
 central stream of the region. Monroe County, al- 
 though it was apparently in a direct line with immi- 
 gration, received its settlers for many years by way of 
 Detroit, and many were the complaints of bad roads 
 by which settlers had to reach the county from that 
 point. "^^ Misrepresentations of its lands had also to 
 be met as in the northern counties. "We regret," says a 
 Monroe paper, "that any attempt should be made eith- 
 er from ignorance or prejudice to excite unfavorable im- 
 pressions against us."-^^ But the greatest obstacle to 
 inland settlement in that county was the heavy forest. 
 Principally for this reason the interior lands of Monroe 
 County lagged at first far behind those of Lenawee 
 County, which were still farther inland but more 
 Open."-'" 
 
 Although favorable reports of these interior lands 
 along the Raisin were made early, little attention seems 
 to have been given to them by settlers until about 
 1822. In 1819 the United States surveyor declared 
 that they were the best tract of country he had ever 
 surveyed. "^^ In 1822 a party of men from Detroit ex- 
 plored the Raisin nearly to its sources, reporting numer- 
 ous mill sites, uplands of rich sandy soil, and pure water, 
 also that the river might be navigated for seventy or 
 eighty miles by "perogues" of a size sufficient to enable 
 
 288. For instance, the Gazette, April 19, 1822. 
 
 289. The Michigal Sentinel, quoted in the Gazette, December 13, 
 
 1825. 
 
 290. History of Monroe County (1882), 285-286. 
 
 291. Gazette, August 6, 1819. See also the same paper for 
 
 August 4, 1820, caUing the attention of emigrants to the 
 Raisin River lands. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 173 
 
 them to bear produce down to Monroe. ^^- In the lat- 
 ter year the attention of intending New York emi- 
 grants was called to these interior lands by the Onon- 
 daga Journal. "^^ The desire to encourage immigration 
 to them, as well as the difficulty of reaching the Raisin 
 by land, is reflected in the public notice to emigrants 
 in 1822 that free boats to Monroe would meet every 
 steamboat arriving at Detroit. -^^ A little later the 
 growing demand for these lands led to a division of the 
 labor of the Detroit Land Office, by establishing the 
 Monroe Land District and the new land office at Mon- 
 roe. The reaction of these activities upon the growth 
 of Monroe has been noted above. 
 
 The most important centers of inland settlement in 
 this county were Dundee and Petersborough. Both 
 were good mill sites on the Raisin, respectively about 
 eighteen and twenty-five miles from the river's mouth, 
 and near the old Indian trail which led out of Lenawee 
 County along the river towards Monroe. Their posi- 
 tion placed them on the shortest practicable route from 
 the southwest to Lake Erie. Travel over this route 
 was much increased after the opening of the land office 
 at Monroe in 1824, and many people then gained their 
 first knowledge of this region as they passed to lands 
 which they had bought or intended to buy further 
 west. A tavern to accommodate this travel is said to 
 
 292. Gazette, August 2, 1822. This exploration probably had 
 
 some relation to the founding of Tecumseh on the upper 
 Raisin in 1824. 
 
 293. Quoted in the Gazette for June 28, 1822. See also that paper 
 
 for July 12, 1822, declaring this to be the first year of 
 general attention to the Raisin River country. 
 
 294. Ibid., July 12, 1822. 
 
174 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 have been located at Dundee as early as 1831-^^ — prob- 
 ably a settler's house vv^hich was regularly shared with 
 the stranger. In 1838 there were at Dundee four saw 
 mills, several factories and a flouring mill.^^'^ A tem- 
 porary base of supplies for this back country was found 
 in the French farms some miles up the Raisin. -^'^ 
 
 An inland point of vantage in Monroe County de- 
 serving of mention was the Indian reservation at the 
 junction of the Macon River with the Raisin. These 
 small Indian reservations were usually spots of choice 
 land. The Indian village was surrounded by some sec- 
 tions of land reserved by the treaty of 1807, six of 
 which were ceded to the Government in 1817. Even 
 before that year the advantage of this point was seen 
 by a colony of people from Royalston, Massachusetts,-^^ 
 who supposed it was Government land, and who in- 
 tended to buy when the land should come onto the 
 market. They suffered the usual inconvenience which 
 attended these mistakes, being obliged to break up 
 their settlement and move away.''^^ 
 
 In Monroe County in 1827 township organization 
 apparently indicates that the area of greatest density 
 
 295. Wing, History of Monroe County, 215. 
 
 296. Blois, Gazetteer, 282. This point was at the junction of the 
 
 river with the La Plaisance Bay Turnpike and the Lake 
 Erie and Raisin River Railroad. The villages of Oakville 
 and Lisbon, near the northern boundary of the county, 
 are the only other village centers mentioned by Blois 
 (pp. 312, 334). They were very small and of no later 
 significance. 
 
 297. Brown, Western Gazetteer, 160-161. 
 
 298. Wing, History of Monroe County, ^dAl, 127; Mich. Hist. 
 
 Colls., VI, 364. 
 
 299. It is noteworthy that to this day not even a village has 
 
 grown up there. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 175 
 
 of population was on the lower Raisin, and this agrees 
 with other data showing that the area of least density 
 was in the interior of the county towards the north- 
 west. The shore townships away from the Raisin were 
 large; the southernmost extended across the county to 
 the western boundary. ^°° Frenchtown preserves in its 
 name that of the old French village on the Raisin and 
 commemorates the source of the earliest population; 
 the area of this township remained constant through- 
 out this period. In the interior the large northwestern 
 township of Raisinville testifies to the slight settlement 
 fnade there; it was altogether too large to be practi- 
 cable for any but a very sparce population. The 
 name suggests that settlers regarded the Raisin River 
 as a chief factor in its possibilities. The division of 
 the township by a north and south line two years later 
 shows that the probable trend of immigration was 
 along the Raisin, and the first name of the new town- 
 ship, Flumen,^°^ seems to point again to the river as 
 being uppermost in the motives of the settlers. The 
 next year the creation of La Salle Township, ^°^ from 
 Erie, points to the increase of shore settlement about 
 Otter Creek. The year of the survey of the military 
 road^°^ through the northwestern part of the county 
 (1832) saw a further subdivision of the old township of 
 Raisinville in the creation of the new township of 
 London, ^^'^ which was so formed as to hint at the pre- 
 
 300. Territorial Laws, II, 477. 
 
 301. Ibid., II, 720. Name changed to vSummerfield, Territorial 
 
 Laws, II, 763. 
 
 302. Territorial Laws, III, 843. This act, for some reason, was 
 
 confirmed by a later act, Territorial Laws, III, 907. 
 
 303. Statutes at Large, IV, 561; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 222. • 
 
 304. Territorial Laws, III, 921. 
 
176 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 sence of settlers along the Saline and Macon rivers. 
 Southwestern settlement is indicated in the creation 
 of Whiteford Townships °° in 1834. To the south of 
 Whitefordwas Port Lawrence Township, which though 
 not today a part of Monroe County deserves mention 
 because it w^as a part of it during this period; it 
 contained the future Toledo. ^^'^ 
 
 The position of the Monroe townships formed in 
 1836-37 indicates the filling in of population in the 
 northern and central parts of the county. ^"'^ The same 
 is shown by the census of 1837. The northern and 
 southern inland townships, for equal areas, show 
 about an equal population, while the larger figures for 
 Summerfield and Raisinville show the central east and 
 west influence of the river. Viewing the inland town- 
 ships from north to south the central range in 1837 
 numbered but a few more people than the western; 
 and all of the inland counties together, about two- 
 thirds of the county, numbered about one-half as 
 many as the shore townships. This showed a strong 
 preference for the lands about the old French centers 
 on the eastern streams. From 1834 to 1837 the popu- 
 lation of the whole county increased about 2,000.^°^ 
 
 305. Ibid., Ill, 1276. 
 
 306. Ibid., II, 478. Port Lawrence Township covered practically 
 
 that area in Monroe County which was lost to the Terri- 
 tory by the adjustment in 1837 of the Ohio boundary 
 dispute. See the Gazette for August 29, 1817, for the 
 estabhshment of a village at the head of Miami Bay; 
 also Risdon's map (1825) for the "Bay Settlement." 
 
 307. Session Laws (1835-36), 69, 79; (1837), 43. 
 
 308. Population in 1834, 8,542. Blois, Gazetteer, 151; in 1837, 
 
 • 10,646. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 72. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 177 
 
 As a result of having a similar soil, heavy timber and 
 little water power, the interior lands of Wayne County 
 were quite as slow in settling as were those of Monroe. 
 The soil varied from a heavy clay to a sandy loam, the 
 latter being mainly in the south and west. The heavy 
 timber in the western part of the county was broken 
 by few openings, but when cleared, that portion was 
 destined to be unexcelled for cereals.^°^ For building 
 and manufacture there were in addition to the timber 
 large quantities of limestone, as in Monroe County. 
 The sluggishness of the streams, due to the generally 
 flat surface of Wayne County, deprived it of the good 
 water power found so plentifully in Monroe. The 
 nearest approach to the strong central current of 
 the Raisin was the Rouge, which with its branches gave 
 some power in the part of its course that lay through 
 the undulating portions of the west; excepting at 
 Flat Rock, the Huron does not appear to have induced 
 mill use in this county. The chief impediment to set- 
 tlement seems to have been the heavy timber. Says 
 the editor of a Detroit newspaper in 1832, reflecting 
 the results of these physiographic conditions for settle- 
 ment, "It has long been the subject of remark and 
 surprise that whilst the new counties in our Territory 
 are rapidly filling up, the county of Wayne seems to 
 be overlooked. We can conceive of no other reason 
 for this than the fact that the greater portion of this 
 county consists of heavily timbered land and that 
 settlers prefer to go farther for the sake of getting land 
 which can be cleared with less expense. "^^° 
 
 309. Blois, Gazetteer, 244. 
 
 310. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, November 7, 1832. 
 
 23 
 
178 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 The two decisive advantages which Wayne County 
 had for rapidity of settlement were nearness to De- 
 troit, and the presence, in its northern and central parts, 
 of the two national turnpikes. In 1824, the year be- 
 fore the survey of the Chicago Road was begun, land 
 was purchased in the extreme west of the county in 
 Plymouth Township, in the selection of which some typ- 
 ical motives of settlement appear, the choice being in 
 an opening, on the highest elevation in the county, at 
 the confluence of two streams forming the main branch 
 of the Rouge, not far from the Saginaw Turnpike and 
 near the old Indian trail which was soon to become a 
 national turnpike to Chicago. ^^^ About this center 
 actual settlement and speculation went hand in hand. 
 It seems that in 1827 the resident and nonresident 
 owners of land in the township were about equal in 
 number. Plymouth Township was organized in that 
 year, and its comparatively small area, suggesting 
 closeness of settlement, seems to confirm the impres- 
 sion that the high land of the region near the water 
 power of the Rouge, together with promising trans- 
 portation facilities, mainly determined its early selec- 
 tion. The votes polled in 1827 in an election which 
 was likely to bring out the total voting strength of the 
 township were only thirty ;^^'^ four years later, how- 
 ever, all the land there had passed from the hands of 
 the Government. ^^^ Considerable settlement must have 
 
 311. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 470. The difficulty of getting to the 
 
 place through thick undergrowths and deep quagmires, 
 is told in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 444. 
 
 312. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 509. See the first tax-roll of Plymouth 
 
 Township. Ibid., II, 581. 
 
 313. Territorial Laws, II, 479. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 179 
 
 taken place in the township to allow of its taking its 
 present area in 1834.^^"* Of equal area, two other town- 
 ships were organized just eastward from it on the 
 Chicago Road two years after the organization of 
 Plymouth Township, ^^^ and from the easternmost of 
 these were formed in 1833 two more,^^*^ each equal to 
 the area that Plymouth took in the year following. 
 Immediately southward, and occupying the whole 
 southwestern part of the county, the large township 
 of Huron on the river of that name was not disturbed 
 in its area from the time of its organization (1827) 
 until 1S35}'' 
 
 The distribution of population shown by the census 
 of 1837 conveys the same idea as to the motives of 
 settlement. The population was lightest in the south- 
 west and along the shore. The bulk of the inland 
 population was in the six northwestern townships, and 
 of these the population of Plymouth Township w^as 
 double that of any other ; it equalled half of the popula- 
 tion of the shore townships exclusive of Detroit. The 
 total inland population of the county was more than 
 four times as large as that of the shore townships ex- 
 clusive of Detroit; including Detroit, the proportion was 
 about equal. Again, the village centers of the county 
 mentioned by Blois, though small, were all in the 
 northern townships and on either the Saginaw or 
 
 314. Ibid., Ill, 1277. 
 
 315. Ibid., II, 737. Cf. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 57, for the first 
 
 settlers of Nankin Township. 
 
 316. Ibid., Ill, 985. 
 
 317. Territorial Laws, II, 479; III, 1359. For the organization 
 
 of townships in 1835-36 see Ibid., Ill, 1368, and Session 
 Laws (1835-36), 80. 
 
180 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the Chicago Road.^^^^ From 1834 to 1837 the whole 
 county gained about 7,000 people.^^^ 
 
 The figures of the censuses of 1820, 1830, 1834 and 
 1837 afford direct means by which to compare the 
 growth of different parts of the section in white popula- 
 tion. If we take Detroit's population in 1820 as a 
 unit, and consider the three areas which are represented 
 by (1) Monroe County, (2) Wayne County exclusive 
 of Detroit and (3) all the country north of Wayne to 
 Saginaw Bay, they ranked from south to north as 6, 
 7 and 8. Their total white population was 6,303, 
 which was fully ninety per cent of the 7,500 white 
 people in the Lower Peninsula.^^° 
 
 St. Clair County appeared for the first time in the 
 census of 1830, with a population of 1,114. Detroit's 
 population at that time was about twice as much, and 
 about equalled that of Macomb County; it was about 
 one -half that of Wayne. From this it appears that 
 the rural and village population of Wayne County 
 was considerably larger than the total white popula- 
 tion of the two northern counties together. It much 
 exceeded the total population of Monroe County, 
 which was then about 3,000. That is, the people 
 above Wayne in this section about equalled in 
 number those below, and the sum of the population 
 of the two was about that of Wayne County inclusive 
 of Detroit. ^''^ The population of the whole section in 
 1830 was about a third of that in the whole Territory. 
 
 318. Gazetteer, 269, 333, 342, 351. 
 
 319. Population in 1834, 16,638. Blois, Gazetteer, 151; in 1837, 
 
 23,400. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 73. 
 
 320. U. S. Census (1820), 41. 
 
 321. Ibid. (1830), 153. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 181 
 
 But this statement results in an impression that must 
 be modified somewhat when we consider percentages 
 of gain. From the point of view of gains in percent- 
 age, Wayne County inclusive of Detroit ranked low- 
 est, about sixty-one per cent. The counties to the 
 north of Wayne, which were the lowest numerically in 
 proportion to area, showed the largest gain in per- 
 centage; their population nearly trebled during the 
 period. Monroe County slightly exceeded Wayne 
 County with a gain of seventy-four per cent. 
 
 In the four years following 1830, both numerical and 
 percentage gains very much favored the southern 
 counties. The totals in 1834 were :^^^ Wayne, 16,638; 
 Monroe, 8,542; Macomb, 6,055; St. Clair, 2,244. 
 Wayne's quota was about eight times that of St. Clair, 
 nearly three times that of Macomb and twice that of 
 Monroe. It is significant that the numerical propor- 
 tions of 1830 between Wayne County and the areas 
 above and below it, remained about the same. The 
 total population of the section was considerably more 
 than one-third of the white population of Michigan. 
 The percentages of gain were: Monroe, 168; Wayne, 
 144; Macomb and St. Clair together, 135. Allowing 
 for difference in areas, ^-^ the numerical gain since 
 1820 was very much in favor of Wayne, the percentage 
 of gain slightly in favor of Monroe, while both were 
 unfavorable to the counties north of Wayne. In these 
 figures the predominant factors were very probably 
 
 322. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 
 
 323. Wayne, 600 sq. m. ; Monroe, 532; Macomb, 458; St. Clair, 
 
 935. St. Clair extended at that time northward to Lake 
 Huron and included the "Thumb." 
 
182 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the tendency of Detroit to mass population in its 
 vicinity, the influence of the national turnpikes through 
 Wayne County, and the influence of Monroe's position 
 on Lake Erie directly west of the chief sources of im- 
 migration and in line with the much sought lands of 
 the southern tier of counties. With these were com- 
 bined the relatively side position of Macomb and St. 
 Clair counties and a prejudice due to early misrepre- 
 sentations. 
 
 The amount and distribution of population in 1837 
 showed some changes since 1834, resulting apparently 
 from the diminished quantity of lands to be had at 
 Government prices near the older centers and a reversal 
 of opinion about lands before neglected through ill re- 
 port. The totals for each county in 1837 were: Mon- 
 roe 10,646; Wayne 23,400; Macomb 8,892; St. Clair 
 6,337.^^^ The relative numerical proportions remained 
 about the same as in 1834, excepting at the north, 
 where vSt. Clair County showed the rapid rate of in- 
 crease of over 300 per cent. This far exceeded the rate 
 of gain in the other counties, and the numerical gain 
 apparently would not have been exceeded by any if 
 the population of Detroit were not counted. Macomb 
 County exceeded both in numerical and percentage 
 gains those of Monroe County. The combined gains 
 of population in Macomb and St. Clair counties fully 
 equalled those of Wayne and Monroe exclusive of 
 Detroit. These figures show a decided turning of at- 
 tention northward, of which another phase was the 
 drift of population towards the Flint and Saginaw val- 
 leys. In the whole section from Lake Huron to the 
 
 324. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838) 72, 73. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 183 
 
 Ohio boundary there were about 50,000 souls, amount- 
 ing to twQ-sevenths of the 175,000 then in Michigan 
 Territory.'^ -^ 
 
 The main sources of the population of this section 
 have several times been hinted. The common im- 
 pression that the bulk of it came from New York and 
 New England is undoubtedly correct. There are no 
 census figures to demonstrate this, yet every old pio- 
 neer insists upon its truth, and an actual count of birth 
 places given in the county histories and pioneer remi- 
 niscences obviously would confirm it. A bit of such 
 data may be given for illustration. Lewis Cass was 
 born in Exeter, New Hampshire.^ -"^ Solomon Sibley, 
 the first American settler in Detroit and its first mayor, 
 was a native of Massachusetts.^" William Wood- 
 bridge, secretary of Michigan Territory after 1815, was 
 born in Norwich, Connecticut.^-^ Austin E. Wing and 
 Diodattis Noble, born in Massachusetts, and graduates 
 of Williams College, were early settlers of Monroe. ^^^ 
 From Pittsfield came Alcott C. Chapman, who at the 
 start was probably Monroe's strongest personal in- 
 fluence. ^^° A Connecticut settler of great influence, 
 Jeremiah Lawrence, ^'^^ was one of the founders of 
 Monroe. Other Connecticut settlers of prominence 
 were Dr. Harry Conant from Mansfield, attendant 
 physician of Lewis Cass in the expedition of 1820, who 
 
 325. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 
 
 326. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass. 
 
 327. Farmer, History of Detroit, II, 1032. 
 
 328. Mathews, Expansion of New England, 231. 
 
 329. Wing, History of Monroe County, 151. 
 
 330. Ibid., 140. 
 
 331. Ibid., 140. 
 
184 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 was an early settler in Monroe ;^^^ Thomas Ashley of 
 Windham, the first lawyer admitted to the bar in the 
 Northwest Territory, and who built the first frame 
 house in Mt. Clemens in lS23f^^ and Judge Bunce of 
 Hartford, well known in the early history of St. Clair 
 County.^^"^ 
 
 The biographical sketches of these men show that 
 many of them did not come directly to Michigan from 
 their native towns. They were men in search of the 
 best opportunities, and many of them sojourned in 
 New York or on the Ohio frontier. A good example 
 of these places of temporary residence in Ohio is 
 Marietta, ^^^ whence came many of Detroit's most 
 prominent early settlers. The great number of set- 
 tlers "from New York State" would be much reduced 
 if those were subtracted who were born in New Eng- 
 land. But there were very many prominent Mich- 
 igan settlers of New York birth; typical of these was 
 Edward D. Ellis, born in Niles, editor of the first 
 newspaper published in Michigan south of Detroit 
 (1825), at Monroe, ^^"^ and Aura P. Stewart, born in 
 Canandaigua, a prominent promoter of settlement in 
 St. Clair County.^" 
 
 Other eastern states, particularly Pennsylvania and 
 New Jersey, contributed a fair share of the early set- 
 tlers. The foreign born, aside from those coming from 
 
 332. Ibid., 160. 
 
 333. History of Macomb County (1882), 239; Mick. Hist. Colls., 
 
 VI, 358. 
 
 334. History of St. Clair County (1883), 265. 
 
 335. Campbell, Outlines, 217. 
 
 336. Wing, History of Monroe County, 136, 491. 
 
 337. History of St. Clair County (1883), 272. 
 
THE EASTERN SHORE 185 
 
 Canada, made a small proportion of the total popula- 
 tion. A considerable Scotch settlement formed in the 
 early thirties in northwestern Macomb County in 
 Bruce Township. ^^^ In 1834 a colony of Germans set- 
 tled on the Clinton River in Macomb County about 
 five miles southwest of Mt. Clemens,^^^ and by the end 
 of the period Germans were coming to Wayne and 
 Monroe counties.^^° 
 
 338. History of Macomb County (1882), 622, 742. 
 
 339. Ibid., 569. 
 
 340. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 255. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 The First Inland Counties 
 
 TT might be expected that because of the position 
 of the first inland counties that they, next after 
 the shore counties, would be affected by the rising 
 tide of immigration from the eastern states. As a 
 matter of fact the earliest settlers reached this area 
 quite as early as the first important accession of 
 Americans came to the counties along the shore. 
 The misleading reports of the early surveyors created 
 a strong prejudice against its lands, but this mis- 
 information insured that they would escape at least 
 being apportioned as military botmty lands, which 
 would leave them open to settlers after the completion 
 of the Government survey and the opening of public 
 sales. 
 
 The first settlements in this section were made be- 
 tween the years 1817 and 1826. This was the be- 
 ginning of activity in the settling of Michigan Territory, 
 a period extending from the beginning of the public 
 land sales to the opening of important traffic on the 
 Erie Canal, on Lake Erie and on the Chicago Road. 
 Detroit had become a city of over two thousand 
 people by this time, and inland settlement was just 
 getting a foothold in the rear of the earlier settlements 
 along the shore. The openness of the new inland 
 counties and the central position of the Chicago 
 Road, which passed through their territory, made 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 187 
 
 migration in that direction easy. Moreover, rich 
 soil, good water power, and abundant timber, gave these 
 counties an opportunity to intercept immigration 
 bound toward the southwestern counties. There was 
 promise that this section might soon overtake the older 
 one in population and development. 
 
 The first county of the section which received 
 permanent settlers was Oakland. Excepting the 
 French communities on the shore and the few 
 Americans at Detroit, this Oakland settlement was as 
 early as any, antedating by some years any important 
 beginning eastward in the interior of Macomb, despite 
 the fact that the first settlers of Oakland came thither 
 across it. Pontiac was founded about the same time 
 eastern settlers began the active settlement of Monroe 
 and Mt. Clemens. Beginnings were made at Rochester 
 in 1817, at Pontiac in 1818, at Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor 
 and Tecumseh in 1824, and at Adrian in 1826. In 
 these dates of first settlement in the section, three 
 features are of special interest : their order of prece- 
 dence from north to south ; the fact that those in 
 the north antedate considerably those in the south; 
 and that all are fully as early as the dates of inland 
 settlements in the shore section. 
 
 This order of settlement can hardly find a sufficient 
 explanation in differences of environment. The ad- 
 vantages of w^ater power, timber, soil, and natural 
 beauty, were quite eA7"enly distributed. The presence 
 of water power so uniformly throughout the section 
 was due in part to the fact that the three principal 
 streams and their branches which formed a network 
 of waterways, had common influences bearing upon 
 
188 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 their rate of descent and upon the amount, regulation, 
 and position of the water supply. In the western part 
 of the section, roughly paralleling the eastern shore, 
 lay a common watershed, which began its arc-like 
 course just westward of Lenawee in Hillsdale County 
 and extended northeastward through Washtenaw and 
 Oakland. As a consequence the principal streams ran 
 approximately eastward, and offered access to their 
 mill sites either by small boats or by the Indian trails 
 which led along their banks. The power of these 
 streams — the Clinton, the Huron and the Raisin — 
 received its head principally in the four large elevations 
 of the watershed. The elevation in Oakland County, 
 at the source of the Clinton, reached a height of over 
 five hundred feet, and the inclination of the surface, 
 dropping over three hundred feet to the eastern border 
 of the county, gave the Clinton a fairly rapid rate of 
 descent.^ The Huron had an inclination which tended 
 to give a similar rate. Its head was partly in the Oak- 
 land peak but mainly in that on the borders of Washte- 
 naw and Jackson counties; and though the latter was 
 about a hundred feet lower, this was compensated 
 by the fact that the eastern border of Washtenaw 
 at the point where the Huron crossed was about a 
 hundred feet lower than Oakland County at the 
 crossing of the Clinton.^ The current of the Raisin 
 
 1. Tackabury, Atlas, 10-11; see also contour map opposite p. 
 
 10 in Tackabury, and the plate "Topography" in the 
 Ann Arbor Folio. The Gazette, May 23, 1826, speaks 
 editorially of the water power in the eastern part of Oak- 
 land County as more ample than in any other part of the 
 Territory. 
 
 2. Tackabury, Atlas, contour map opposite p. 10. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 189 
 
 was more rapid than either, and its long sinuous course 
 cutting between high banks gave many excellent mill 
 sites. It took its head from the southern peak, which 
 exceeded the height of that in Oakland County by a 
 hundred feet, and allowed a drop of five hundred feet 
 to that portion of the Raisin which was within this 
 section. 
 
 The volume of water in these streams was large, 
 constant, and little subject to variation through seasonal 
 changes; therefore the pioneer mill could operate 
 throughout the year without serious intermission from 
 droughts. These features were partly due to the 
 great number of small lakes at the headwaters of the 
 streams, which acted as natural reservoirs. There 
 were some four hundred lakes in Oakland County of a 
 considerable size, covering a total surface of six htmdred 
 acres. '^ There were not so many in Washtenaw,"* 
 and there were comparatively few in Lenawee; but 
 they were plentiful west of Lenawee and Washtenaw 
 in eastern Hillsdale and Jackson counties, affecting the 
 water supply of the Raisin and the Huron. The 
 position and distribution of these lakes suggest their 
 origin and their relation to the drainage of the section. 
 They filled depressions in the glacial drift along the 
 crest of the watershed, and their number was ap- 
 parently greatest in proportion to the irregularity of 
 the surface. They received and conserved the rain- 
 fall both directly and through sources of supply from 
 under ground. Springs were very common in the 
 
 3. History of Oakland County (1876), 117. 
 
 4. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 146; plate "Topogra- 
 
 phy" in the Ann Arbor Folio. 
 
190 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 section owing to the loose texture of the soil, and 
 many of these reservoirs were "spring lakes. "^ An- 
 other cause which increased and regulated the sup- 
 ply of power in the parts of these streams which lay 
 in this section, was the fact that so many of the tribu- 
 taries were received near their headwaters, owing to 
 which, as well as because of the lakelets, there was 
 exercised so constant a control that the dry season had 
 little effect upon the power of the main streams. 
 
 Abundant and excellent timber awaited the settler in 
 all parts of these counties. They afforded a great 
 variety of oak, beech, maple, elm, black-walnut and 
 whitewood. Quantities of pine grew on the better 
 sandy land, a soil which was fairly common in the lake 
 region of Oakland County. Pioneers speak of the 
 "Big Pinery" in Orion Township,^ and the presence of 
 pine elsewhere in the county is frequently mentioned 
 in reminiscences. Variations in density of forest were 
 due partly to differences of soil and partly to the fires 
 which the Indians had been wont to set annually; the 
 Indian namenieaning "burnt district" for the region 
 about the Htiron is said to be a reminiscence of this 
 custom.^ Heavily timbered land could be found in all 
 the counties, but usually only in patches, which alter- 
 
 5. The A-nn Arbor Folio, 14. 
 
 6. History of Oakland County (1876), 255; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 Ill, 568. It is said that the best pine land in the county 
 was. first visited in the winter of 1820-21 by settlers 
 near Silver Lake. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 167-168. 
 
 7. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 394. Firing and girdling were the 
 
 means used by the Indians to clear the forest for agricul- 
 ture and pursuit of game. Hoffman describes a similar 
 practice of the white settlers. A Winter in the West, I, 
 175. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 191 
 
 nated with "openings," plains, and small prairies, 
 sometimes all to be found within the area of a single 
 Government township.^ A chief characteristic of the 
 section was its "oak-openings;" the name of Oakland 
 for the northern county commemorates the forests of 
 these trees. ^ The "openings" often covered wide 
 stretches of land which were comparatively free from 
 underbrush and in which the trees were far enough 
 apart to permit an oxteam to go miles in any direc- 
 tion. ^° These lands, tree-covered yet comparatively 
 open, were specially prized by the pioneer. The trees 
 were taken to indicate a fertile soil, and the openness 
 insured cultivation and transportation with compara- 
 tive ease. This, in part, explains the position of the 
 line of settlements which were early made just west- 
 ward of the m^argin of the heavily timbered clay soil of 
 the shore area. 
 
 Whether or not it is a mere coincidence that the 
 order of these first settlements in this section follows 
 the order of the density of timber, it is certain that 
 Oakland and Lenawee counties originally presented in 
 this particular the widest contrast in the section. 
 Lenawee contained in its eastern and southern parts the 
 only considerable, continuous, heavy timber of the sec- 
 tion, ^^ and there settlement began latest. These first 
 
 8. Blois, Gazetteer, 228, 234, 243; Combination Atlas Map of 
 
 Lenawee County, 15; Historical and Biographical Record 
 of Lenawee County, 15, 54. 
 
 9. A very pleasing description of the oak openings and lakes of 
 
 Oakland County is given by a contemporary in the Ga- 
 zette for September 1, 1820. 
 
 10. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 225. 
 
 11. Lanman, Michigan, 285; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 225. 
 
192 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 settlements in the section were primarily farming com- 
 munities; the food supply was the most pressing need. 
 Timber more than enough for building and fencing ap- 
 pears to have been looked upon as an encumbrance, or 
 at least as a secondary advantage. Pontiac, Tecumseh 
 and Adrian had the character of "lumbering towns," in 
 whose settlement limibering in the modern sense appears 
 to have been one of the underlying motives. It was a 
 great advantage to have lumber cut near at hand, for 
 it was expensive and difficult to import, and it was 
 seen that with the growth of the settlement the de- 
 mand for building-material would increase. The desire 
 to have a gristmill was quite as strong a motive in the 
 choice of power sites for first settlement. The alter- 
 native to having such a convenience was to pound the 
 grain on a block, grind it in a hand mill, or make a 
 journey of several days to a distant mill, perhaps only 
 to find the miller sick or absent, or the mill out of repair. 
 Though the relatively greater density of the forest in 
 Lenawee County undoubtedly affected the rate and 
 direction of the extension of the frontier as well as the 
 areal growth in population, it probably did not ma- 
 terially affect the founding of Tecumseh and Adrian. 
 
 Like the timber, the soil in this section was of good 
 quality throughout, and of great variety. There are 
 six different kinds of soil formation, and very sugges- 
 tive are their positions. ^^'^ Their general position, in 
 long belts approximately parallel with the watershed 
 and with the eastern shore, suggests that they were 
 deposited in succession under the retreating waters of 
 
 11a. Michigan Geological Survey, Map, 1907. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 193 
 
 an ancient lake, which determined that the bottoms 
 of the main streams of the drainage system should 
 cross them nearly at right angles. It also gave them 
 those common features which tended toward uniformity 
 in the power of the currents. We have seen that the 
 settler encountered along the whole of the shore sec- 
 tion a dense forest of which the soil determinant was 
 the stiff lake clay, and this clay formation extended 
 over into these counties; it made the soil of nearly the 
 entire southeastern half of Lenawee, of the larger part 
 of Washtenaw southward from Ypsilanti and east of 
 Saline, and of a large portion of southeastern Oakland. 
 
 The extensive burr-oak plains which stretched along 
 the eastern slope of the watershed had for a soil de- 
 terminant a very good quality of sandy land. This soil 
 formed a large area through the lake region, and was 
 a characteristic soil of Oakland County; it was one of 
 the chief conditions of its pine forests. Southward from 
 Oakland County the bulk of the sandy land lay west 
 of this section, covering only the western part of 
 Washtenaw, and in Lenawee County the northwestern 
 townships. 
 
 Between these two border areas there lay through 
 the heart of the section three soil belts, very irregular 
 in shape yet approximately parallel, which contained 
 the most fertile land in these counties. In the back- 
 ground, as it were, of wider extent than the two other 
 soils and displacing them in large irregular patches, 
 was a loose-textured drift covered with oak openings. 
 On the east of this there was a rolling clay drift which 
 bore mainly beech, maple and oak and at the west lay a 
 
 25 
 
194 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 level clay area densely forested with beech and 
 maple. 
 
 The general position of these soils and their mutual 
 relations, favored some variety in their distribution. 
 There was in each county some soil of each variety, 
 but the counties varied in the proportions of a particu- 
 lar soil. Of the level clay soil, for example, there was 
 as much in Lenawee County as in the two other 
 counties together. The two heavy clay soils pre- 
 dominated in this portion,^- with their heavy forests 
 and the accompanying unfavorable effect upon initial 
 settlement. The soils of Washtenaw were distributed 
 in fairly equal proportions, and the land was fairly open 
 except in the extreme eastern part. In Oakland the 
 predominant soils were a loose-textured drift and the 
 better class of sandy land, making this northern end 
 of the section very open and attractive to the settler, 
 promising immediate returns for his efforts. The rela- 
 tive openness of the country appears to have depended 
 in some measure upon the nature and distribution of 
 its soils, and it was the openness of the land rather 
 than its quality that appears to have been the stronger 
 motive in inducing the initial settlements. There is 
 small evidence that when even the later settler chose 
 his farm he consulted the particular constituents of the 
 soil. Instead, he judged from the general indications 
 
 12. Mich. Geol. Survey, Report. 1907, map in pocket; Blois, 
 Gazetteer, 228, 234, lA?)-, Combination Atlas Map of Len- 
 awee County, 12, 15, 16; Hist, and Biog. Record of Len- 
 awee County, 11, 15, 54, 56; Ann Arbor Folio, p. 1, and 
 plate "Areal Geology;" History of Washtenaw County 
 (1881), 141-146. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 195 
 
 of its fertility, ^^ satisfied if in addition it were easy to 
 clear and to cultivate. Much less, apparently, did the 
 finer differences determine the order of the founding of 
 the first settlements. They were all in the "openings" ; 
 but whereas Pontiac, Ann Arbor and Adrian were 
 founded on different soils, the first settlements made 
 respectively in the three counties — Rochester, Ypsi- 
 lanti and Tecumseh — were settled on the same quality 
 of soil,^^ at points furnishing good water power and 
 near plenty of timber. The reason why the site at 
 the north should have been chosen nine years before 
 that at the south, must be sought elsewhere. 
 
 Aesthetic motives probably weighed less with the 
 practical Yankee than economic motives; yet other 
 things equal, his choice of a location would undoubtedly 
 tend to be influenced by that sense for natural beauty 
 which was bred into him by his native hills. He would 
 welcome a spot that should remind him of his old home. 
 It may be recalled that there was in the air at this pe- 
 riod a romantic sentimentalism about nature, which 
 preceded and accompanied the rise of natural religion; 
 something of the presence of this was felt by travelers. 
 DeToqueville, who visited the northern part of this 
 section in 1833, wrote in a vein in which this spirit 
 seems to be reflected ; he says : 
 
 "After we left Mr. Williams, we pursued our road 
 through the woods. From time to time a little lake 
 (this district is full of them) shines like a white table- 
 cloth under the green branches. The charm of these 
 
 13. See, for example, the long neglect of the fertile plains in 
 
 Oxford Township, Oakland County. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 III. 568. 
 
 14. According to the Geological Survey map (1907). 
 
196 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 lovely spots, as yet untenanted by man, and where 
 peace and silence remain undisturbed, can hardly be 
 imagined. I have clim.bed the wild and solitary passes 
 of the Alps, where nattire refuses to obey the hand of 
 man, and displaying ail her terrors, fills the mind with 
 an exciting and overwhelming sensation of greatness. 
 The solitude here is equally deep, but the emotions 
 it excites are different. In this flowery wilderness, 
 where, as in Milton's Paradise, all seems prepared for 
 the reception of man, the feelings produced are tran- 
 quil admiration, a soft melancholy, a vague aversion to 
 civilized life, and a sort of savage instinct, which cause 
 yoti to regret that soon this enchanting solitude will be 
 no more."^^ 
 
 Great natural beauty characterized the whole section, 
 but the surface configuration, the distribution of lakes 
 and streams, and the relative density of the forest, 
 caused some degree of difference. Where there was the 
 least variety in soil and surface, there was the least 
 variety in general. At the south the clay formation of 
 southern and eastern Lenawee was comparatively flat 
 and accompanied by the monotony of heavy forest. 
 In the northern part of the county where it was rolling 
 and in places hilly there were small lakes and forest 
 openings; it was this part, in the vicinity of the 
 lakes along the Chicago Road, that first received the 
 attention of settlers after the founding of' Tecumseh 
 and Adrian. ^"^ The choice of Tecumseh for a settle- 
 
 15. De Tocqueville, in A Fortnight in the Wilderness, as quoted 
 
 in Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 39. 
 
 16. Tackabury, Atlas, 114; Historical and Biographical Record 
 
 of Lenawee County, II, 11, 15, 18; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 VIII, 198. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 197 
 
 ment is said to have been owing partly to the beauty 
 of the environment.^^ Blois speaks of the "high and 
 beautiful banks" of the Raisin. ^^ The tradition that 
 Washtenaw County bears in its name^^ an Indian 
 memorial of the pristine beauty of its landscape may 
 have little truth; but Blois records that its pleasantly 
 alternating prairies, oak openings, and heavily timbered 
 lands, presented to the settler "a very beautiful and 
 picturesque aspect." Of the openness of the country 
 and its pleasing contrast with the lands farther east, the 
 traveler Hoffman writes in 1833: 
 
 "They build almost altogether in the oak-openings; 
 and as the country is now undulating, I have seen some 
 cabins very prettily situated in clumps of oaks, a gun- 
 shot from the road, with fields of young wheat extend- 
 ing in every direction around them I 
 
 have now got among the rolling land in a region full of 
 lakes and oak-openings, of which I had hitherto had 
 only a taste. I need hardly say how much more grate- 
 ful such a country is to my eye than the level thickly 
 timbered lands about Detroit and Monroe. "^° 
 
 17. Millard, Early History of Lenawee County, 7; Mich Hist. 
 
 Colls., XXXVIII, 479. 
 
 18. Blois, Gazetteer, 349. 
 
 19. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 120; Beakes, Past and 
 
 Present of Washtenaw County (Chicago, 1906), 582-583; 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 393-394; XXXVIII, 453. The 
 name was given by the Indians to the whole region west 
 of Wayne County, and was given to the county as the 
 first to be organized from it. 
 
 20. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 156. Hoffman had come 
 
 from Detroit via Monroe and Tecumseh. See also a con- 
 temporary description (1829) by a traveler from Upper 
 Canada, as quoted in Beakes, Past and Present of Wash- 
 tenaw County, 537; and Lansing Swan's Journal (1841), 
 18-19. 
 
198 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 The irregularity of the surface was greatest in Oak- 
 land County, where the numerous elevations gave fine 
 prospects over a wide area of lake country. A pioneer 
 explorer of the region wrote in his diary in 1822: 
 
 "We also saw several of the celebrated lakes spoken 
 of by former exploring parties into the interior. One 
 of these, immediately in the rear of Mr. WilHams' 
 house, is in the highest degree romantic and beautiful. 
 
 . . . Before supper, at the instance of Judge 
 Sprague, we ascended a conical elevation of land very 
 precipitous and lofty, from the summit of which, for 
 many miles in circiunference, we were presented with a 
 view of a most picturesque and beautifully diversified 
 country. Lakes, valleys, uplands and groves of pine 
 and other timbers here met the eye to an extent that 
 occasioned an equal degree of surprise and pleasure. "^^ 
 
 A peak near Pontiac, called by the settlers "Bald 
 Mountain," rose to the height of some hundred feet 
 above the surrounding country, and the beauty of the 
 view from its summit is mentioned by many pioneers. ^"^ 
 One of them, describing the trip of the first exploring 
 party into the region, speaks of the "shouts of joy 
 which again and again burst from their lips as they 
 looked upon the lovely landscapes."-''^ This great 
 beauty very probably stimulated the desire of these 
 early visitors to make the county their home; yet it is 
 doubtful whether the superior beauty of Oakland 
 County would have weighed against the practical ad- 
 vantages of either of the other two if the latter had 
 been the first to come to their notice. 
 
 21. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 471. 
 
 22. History of Oakland County (1876), 117. 
 
 23. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 565. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 199 
 
 At Detroit there had been knowledge of the central 
 part of this section at least as early as 1809, when 
 French traders established a post near the site of 
 Ypsilanti.-^ But the early knowledge that these men 
 had they probably took pa'ns not to share with in- 
 tending agricultural settlers, who would have inter- 
 fered with their trading operations by dispersing the 
 Indians, clearing the forests, and driving away the 
 fur-bearing animals. It is said that these traders 
 helped to create the tradition that the interior was 
 worthless for agriculture, yet the first settlement in 
 the section was made not there, but in that part which 
 had the greatest ill repute, and it was made very soon 
 after that reputation had been reasserted by the false 
 reports of the first surveyors. 
 
 It will be observed that the order of precedence in 
 the dates of the first settlements, is that of their direct 
 distance from the shore and from Detroit. Detroit was 
 even at this early date the permanent home of busi- 
 ness men who, as soon as the public land sales opened 
 there, were on the lookout for good opportunities. 
 Moreover, the asset which they naturally agreed upon 
 as having the greatest value for a new center of settle- 
 ment was nearness to Detroit. These two factors, 
 nearness to the shore and to Detroit, helped to deter- 
 mine the order of progress in the new United States 
 survey, and were consequently decisive influences in 
 
 24. Ann Arbor Folio, 1; History of Washtenaw County (1881), 
 1108. The boundaries of the "four French claims, 
 patented to them by authority of Congress in 1811, may 
 still be seen in place of section lines on the map of the 
 county at that point. See also Risdon's map (1825); 
 Ann Arbor Folio, plate "Topography;" and Beakes, 
 Past and Present of Washtenaiv County, 540-542. 
 
200 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 securing priority of settlement for Oakland. The im- 
 mediate cause of the first settlement in Oakland 
 County was an unofficial report to friends made by 
 Benjamin Graham, an assistant surveyor who was 
 working in the eastern part of that county in 1816, 
 which led to the sending forth of an exploring party 
 that year;^^ in the following March three families 
 from Mt. Clemens, one of them that of Mr. Graham's 
 father, settled at the site of Rochester in the township 
 of Avon.^*^ The second impulse to settlement issued 
 directly from Detroit; it seems to have been indepen- 
 dent of the Avon colony, though news from there, as 
 well as reports directly from the national surveyors, 
 could have reached Detroit easily. It is apparent that 
 the new interest at Detroit was stimulated by the 
 opening of the newly surveyed lands of the county to 
 public sale. As in the case of the Avon colony, set- 
 tlement was preceded by an investigation. A small 
 party setting out from Detroit in the autumn of 1818 
 followed the Saginaw Trail well beyond the site of 
 Pontiac, as far as the vicinity of Waterford. The re- 
 ports they made are said to have been so encouraging 
 as to have "electified the hearts of the Americans at 
 Detroit, and to have utterly astounded the French- 
 men."^'^ A second party in the same autumn, accom- 
 panied by women, went as far as Little Springs in 
 Springfield Township. ^^ The sum of these investiga- 
 
 25. 
 26. 
 
 History of Oakland County (1876), 26. 
 
 Mick. Hist. Colls., Ill, 569; VII, 561; XXII, 405; XXXI, 
 
 152. 
 Ihid., Ill, 565. 
 Ibid., Ill, 566. 
 
 27. 
 28. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 201 
 
 tions formed the basis tipon which was organized in 
 November, 1818, the Pontiac Company, a speculative 
 venture directed mainly by Detroit people who pro- 
 posed to acquire lands on the Clinton and to foster a 
 village as a means of exploiting them,-^ and Pontiac 
 was founded. ^° 
 
 The United States surveyors proceeded southward 
 and were making reports on Washtenaw and Lenawee 
 counties in 1819. In that year the Saginaw Indian 
 treaty led the French traders to abandon their post at 
 the site of Ypsilanti, and wishing to increase the value 
 of the lands granted to them by. the Government in 
 1811, they now had a motive for making the advan- 
 tages of the section known. ^^ Attention was also 
 strongly directed to the southern part of the section 
 by Governor Cass's expedition,^- members of which, 
 including Governor Cass, passed through there over 
 the Chicago Trail in 1820. This expedition, under the 
 auspices of the National Government, had for one of 
 its special objects the gaining of information about the 
 interior of Michigan for the purpose of advancing its 
 settlement. Its results were published officially, and 
 Governor Cass made a special effort to distribute the 
 reports widely; as governor of the Territory, he had 
 for one of his main interests in the expedition the 
 refutation of ill reports about the interior, in order to 
 
 29. Ibid., Ill, 560; History of Oakland County (1876), 68. 
 
 30. See Ross and Catlin, Landmarks oj Detroit, 356-358, for a 
 
 characteristic "celebration" at the site of Pontiac on the 
 occasion of the founding of the village. 
 
 31. The "north claim" was bought in 1824 by a New York 
 
 settler and became the site of Ypsilanti village. 
 
 32. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 119. 
 
202 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 encourage immigration. It is apparently impossible 
 now to single out the direct effects vipon settlement 
 from these reports, but soon afterward, in 1822, two 
 purchases of land were made near the site of Ypsilanti 
 amounting to about two hundred acres. One of these 
 parcels was bought, apparently for speculation, by 
 Judge Woodward, of Detroit^^, who undoubtedly be- 
 came well acquainted with the results of the expedi- 
 tion through Governor Cass. Fifteen purchases by 
 Detroit parties are said to have been made in 1823 
 near Ypsilanti and in Superior and Ann Arbor town- 
 ships; these were also apparently for speculative pur- 
 poses, in anticipation of the Chicago Road which was 
 then being talked about. 
 
 The first reports that are known directly to have in- 
 duced settlement in Washtenaw County came in 1823 
 from Monroe fishermen whose operations extended up 
 the Huron River as far as the French claims. ^'^ These 
 men, leading thither a party of former Ohio neighbors 
 who had come to Michigan by way of Monroe village 
 in search of good farms, settled with them on the 
 banks of the Huron near a grove about a mile south- 
 east of the present site of Ypsilanti, and in honor of a 
 leading member of the group, Benjamin Woodruff, the 
 settlement was named "Woodruff's Grove." These 
 were the first permanent settlers in the county. It was 
 to their interest to make immediate connections with 
 Detroit, and the colony received a slight accession from 
 there the first year. The constant interchange of in- 
 
 33. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 401; Beakes, Past and Present of 
 
 Washtenaw County. 545. 
 
 34. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 1099. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 203 
 
 formation at the chief port of the Territory, where men 
 came together from all parts and at a time when land- 
 looking was becoming a principal interest, tended to 
 make all that was known about the interior a common 
 possession. There may well have been direct relation 
 between this settlement and the one made in the fol- 
 lowing year at Ypsilanti, and as well between these and 
 that at Ann Arbor nine miles further up the river; 
 the first settlers of Ann Arbor, John Allen and Elisha 
 W. Rumsey, are said to have met by chance in De- 
 troit and to have come together into the county with 
 their families. 
 
 In 1823 Austin E. Wing, a prominent citizen of 
 Monroe, directed the attention of an intending settler 
 to the lands on the upper portion of the Raisin River, 
 with the result that an exploring expedition was 
 made the same year, and a settlement in 1824.^^ 
 It is significant that this impulse was about contem- 
 porary with the establishment of the Monroe Land 
 Office, for the purpose of selling the southern lands 
 opened by the Indian treaties of Saginaw and Chi- 
 cago. Wing had been a member of the Pontiac Com- 
 pany in 1818,^'^ and one of the early promoters of 
 Monroe village." He now became a member of a part- 
 nership whose aim was to found a village at the site of 
 Tecumseh. The other partners were two New York 
 settlers, Musgrove Evans and Joseph Brown, brothers- 
 in-law; the former, who came to Michigan in 1823 
 and met Wing in Detroit, acted upon his advice, ex- 
 
 35. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, I, 40. 
 
 36. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 560. 
 
 37. Michigan Biographies, 704. 
 
204 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 plored the northern part of Lenawee County, and chose 
 the site of Tecumseh for a settlement.'^ Apparently 
 independent of this colony, except in so far as the 
 colony may have attracted attention to the region, 
 a settlement was made two years later at the site of 
 Adrian. ^^ 
 
 To cast a glance back over the preceding pages: 
 there appear as the essential factors in the priority of 
 Oakland County's settlement (1) its nearness to De- 
 troit and consequent priority in the survey of its lands, 
 (2) the personal influence and interest of one of the 
 surveyors of that county, (3) the opening of the public 
 lands to sale at Detroit, leading to explorations into 
 the country nearest to the city, (4) the superior nat- 
 ural advantages of the county in openings, water 
 power, timber, variety of soil, and beauty of scenery, 
 which enabled the county to hold attention, and (5) 
 the enterprise of Detroit men who were willing to risk 
 money to make a beginning so near to that city. Far- 
 ther south, the granting of the French claims at Ypsi- 
 lanti probably drew some notice, and Cass's expedition 
 emphasized the advantages of that part of the section, 
 giving strength to the agitation for a military road 
 through it to connect the forts at Detroit and Chicago. 
 A new impulse was given to this agitation by the 
 progress of work on the Erie Canal. Settlement was 
 precipitated by the direct influence of the Huron 
 River fishermen and of Evans' exploration on the upper 
 Raisin. It is significant that the dates of first settle- 
 ment in the upper and lower parts of the section cor- 
 
 38. Mich. Hist. Colls., 1, 225, 226. 
 
 39. Ibid., 1, 229. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 205 
 
 respond approximately with those of the opening of 
 land offices at Detroit and Monroe. "*° Apparently the 
 causes of delay in settling the lower part of the section 
 were principally (1) its relative distance from Detroit 
 and from the shore, making it harder to reach and 
 further from a base of supplies, (2) the absorption of 
 interest in the lands of Oakland, whose settlement was 
 promoted by a strong commercial company back of its 
 main nucleus of settlement at Pontiac, and (3) the 
 availability of open land in the older section, especially 
 in Macomb County, and of river lands in Monroe, 
 Wayne and St. Clair. 
 
 A serious check to the settlement of this section 
 was the difficulty attending the transportation of 
 both persons and goods. The natural avenues of 
 approach were by river and trail. At the north was 
 the Clinton River and the Saginaw Trail, at the south 
 the Huron River and the trails leading from Detroit 
 and Monroe. The most direct route from Detroit to 
 Oakland County was the trail leading northwest into 
 the Saginaw country, but in the wet season the 
 long marsh which crossed it near Detroit offered a seri- 
 ous barrier. One settler writes of his experience in 
 the spring of 1818,^^ that he started for Pontiac (from 
 Detroit) with a number of men employed by the com- 
 pany, three oxen, a cart, and one woman as passenger, 
 and that he had to cross a swamp about six miles wide 
 which was like a sea of mud, where the team got stuck 
 and the woman was obHged to wade out. Until about 
 1830 this route is said to have been almost impassable 
 
 40. Ibid., II, 367. 
 
 41. Ibid., VI, 385. 
 
206 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 between Detroit and Royal Oak in the wet season, ex- 
 cepting by oxsleds and similar conveyances.^^ Before 
 it was improved, many Pontiac settlers preferred the 
 trail along the banks of the Clinton to Mt. Clemens; 
 and in the first days of Pontiac, goods and even shingles 
 for the mill were brought by that route on pack horses.''^ 
 The founders of the Avon colony came to the county 
 by the same route,^'^ and if one may judge from the 
 fact that they settled just below the first rapids in the 
 river,^^ the possibility of navigating the river at least 
 by small craft was in their minds, as well as the 
 desire for water power. Later settlers had better 
 roads. The Government began early the construc- 
 tion of a military turnpike over the Saginaw Trail 
 between Detroit and PontiaC^*^ The impulse from im- 
 migration after 1830 caused several new roads to be 
 projected the location of which helps to explain the 
 relationships of the new settlements one with another 
 and with neighboring counties.^^ Agitation for a rail- 
 
 42. Ibid., I, 380, 381; XXII, 407; History of Oakland County 
 
 (1876), 132, 166. 
 
 43. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 380; XXII, 407. See an editorial in 
 
 the Detroit Gazette for May 23, 1826, for the good condi- 
 tion of this route. 
 
 44. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 569; History of Oakland County 
 
 (1876), 26, 130. 
 
 45. In 1827 The Chnton River Navigation Company was 
 
 incorporated, which partly succeeded in inaking the river 
 navigable from Mt. Clemens to Rochester; but its opera- 
 tions were soon abandoned, apparently proving un- 
 profitable. History of Oakland County (1876), 2>2>. 
 
 46. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 280; III, 568; History of Oakland 
 
 County, 23. A stage line is said to have been begun be- 
 tween Detroit and Pontiac as early as 1826. Detroit 
 Gazette, April 4, 1826. 
 
 47. History of Oakland County, 25; The Detroit fournal and 
 
 Michigan Advertiser, May 18, 1831. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 207 
 
 road from Pontiac to Detroit which began about 1830 
 culminated in active beginnings in 1834.'^^ 
 
 The way into Washtenaw County was by two trails, 
 and the Huron River ; the first settlers took the Indian 
 trail from Flat Rock, along that stream.'^^ At that 
 time the river appears to have been of sufficient depth 
 to permit of poling large flat-boats up to within four 
 miles of the site of Ypsilanti, and this means of trans- 
 porting goods, though slow, appears to have been much 
 used even by later settlers. ^° The Chicago Trail was 
 not more expeditious; in 1823 it is said to have taken 
 four days for an ox team to cut its way through by 
 that route from Detroit to Woodruff's Grove, ^^ and an 
 equal time was taken by a family traversing the same 
 in 1826.^- The Detroit GazeMe of May 9, 1826, adver- 
 tises a "Stage to Washtenaw — ^A stage will run here- 
 after (or walk, if the roads are bad) between this place 
 and Ann Arbor. ... It leaves Detroit three times 
 a week." The military road was surveyed in 1825, but 
 actual work on it was slow until after 1830.^^ In 1830 
 a team of horses with a family and load of goods could 
 make the trip from Detroit to Ann Arbor in three 
 days,^^ and at the close of this period the road is said to 
 
 48. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXII, 407; History of Oakland Cotmty 
 
 (1881), 33; Territorial Laws, III, 844, 1287. The rail- 
 road did not reach Pontiac until 1844. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 IX 273 
 
 49. Ibid.,' IV, 399. 
 
 50. Ibid. ,1,334; IV, 403 ; XXXVIII, 365 ; History of Washtenaw 
 
 County (1881), 1114. The Detroit Gazette for May 30, 
 1826, mentions "two or three fine boats" plying between 
 Detroit, Woodruff's Grove and Ann Arbor. 
 
 51. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 404. 
 
 52. History of Oakland County (1876), 222. 
 
 53. History of Washtenaw County (1S81), 125. 
 
 54. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 250. 
 
208 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 have been a continuous causeway over mud until 
 within a few miles of Ypsilanti.^^ The need for river 
 transportation to supplement the Chicago Road is re- 
 flected in the action of Ypsilanti citizens, who in 1833 
 built by subscription a large pole-boat at a cost of 
 about $1 ,300 f^ and it is apparently this boat the arrival 
 of which at Detroit is noted by the Detroit Journal and 
 Michigan Advertiser of May 21, 1834, and which car- 
 ried one hundred and twenty-five pounds of flour for 
 thirty-eight cents per barrel, while the usual price by 
 land was from sixty-three to seventy-five cents." Still 
 earlier, in the Detroit Gase//^ for April 25, 1826, is men- 
 tioned the boat of Colonel Allen, of Ann Arbor, just 
 arrived at Detroit, apparently a flat -bottomed boat 
 built on the plan of the James River boats in Virginia, 
 of which State Allen was a native ; the boat carried one 
 hundred barrels of flour. The Territorial Road, author- 
 ized in 1829 and surveyed in 1830, indicates a demand 
 for a more direct route into the counties lying directly 
 west of Washtenaw, and appears to have been due in 
 part to the purpose of land owners in those counties 
 to compete for immigration with the southern tier of 
 counties. ^^ 
 
 The early settler who wished to get to Lenawee 
 County could choose, besides the Chicago Trail from 
 Detroit, either of two others which led from the vicin- 
 ity of Monroe. The main trail from Monroe' branched 
 
 55. Ibid., XXII, 529. 
 
 56. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 125-126; Beakes, Past 
 
 and Present of Washtenaw County, 595. 
 
 57. See also the Detroit Courier for March 6, 1833. 
 
 58. Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 597-598; 
 
 History of Washtenaw County (1881), 125-126. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 209 
 
 at the Macon reservation, the southern branch fol- 
 lowing the Raisin past Adrian to near Tecumseh, 
 the northern the Macon River.^^ If the point of de- 
 parture were Monroe, the earliest settlers would take 
 one or the other of these two routes f ^ settlers who left 
 from Detroit went either by way of Monroe along these 
 trails or by the Chicago Trail. "^^ The time required 
 varied with circvimstances. In 1824 the party which 
 founded Tecumseh required a week to make their way 
 through from Monroe ;•"'- in 1834 a settler walked in 
 twenty-four hours from Adrian to Monroe, a distance 
 of thirty miles. "^'^ There was a slight improvement 
 made in the southern route about 1827 by cutting a 
 road through from Blissfield to Petersborough.^"* The 
 northern trail was the line, approximately, over which 
 the La Plaisance Bay Road was surveyed in 1832. 
 The position of the Chicago Road through Lenawee 
 County is reflected in a description (1834) by a pioneer, 
 who represents it as "stretching itself by devious and 
 irregular windings east and west like a huge serpent 
 lazily pursuing its onward course, utterly unconcerned 
 
 59. Bureau of American Ethnology, 18th Annual Report, plate 
 
 CXXXVIII. 
 
 60. Mich. Hist. Colls., XII, 407; Historical and Biographical 
 
 Record of Lenawee County, I, 63, 64; II, 9, 24; Hogaboam, 
 The Bean Creek Valley, 13. 
 
 61. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, I, 40; 
 
 II, 31; Wing, History of Monroe County, 149. Both the 
 Risdon map (1825) and the Farmer map (1826) show a 
 road running from the Chicago Road from a point a little 
 west of Ypsilanti to Tecumseh. 
 
 62. Mich. Hist. Colls., XII, 407. 
 
 63. Ibid., XVII, 512. However, it does not appear that these 
 
 trips were made by the same trails. 
 
 64. Combination Atlas Map of Lenawee County, 15. 
 
 27 
 
210 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 as to its destination."*^^ Active preparations for the 
 construction of a railroad from Adrian to Port Law- 
 rence (Toledo) began in ISSS.*^*^ 
 
 The interrelations of transportation improvement 
 with the general physical influences of settlement in 
 this section are illustrated by the manner in which the 
 frontier was extended. In determining the location of 
 the first settlements, which were to be points of de- 
 parture for settlement in each county, no causes were 
 more influential than the relative position of river and 
 trail. The general directions in which settlement 
 spread out from these centers, and the rate of its move- 
 ment, varied somewhat in different parts of the sec- 
 tion, but in general the movement of the frontier was 
 westward, with a northwest and southwest trend re- 
 spectively at the two extremities. Although settle- 
 ment received an earlier start at the north, the rate of 
 frontier extension was more rapid at the south, partly 
 because it began about the time of the rapid increase 
 of immigration to the Territory as a whole. In all of 
 the counties the frontier reached the western boundary 
 of the section at about the same time, and at those 
 points which were most easily reached — near the great 
 western trails. ^^ 
 
 Southwest was the direction in which the frontier ex- 
 tended the most rapidly in Oakland up to the time 
 when the first settlements were made in Washtenaw 
 and Lenawee. By 1825 all of the townships in the 
 
 65. Historical and Bios^raphical Record of Lenawee County, II, 21. 
 
 66. Mich. Hist. Colls., ^l, 231. 
 
 67. History of Oakland County (1876) , 106, 193 ; History of Wash- 
 
 tenaw County (1881), 752, 1296; Hist, and Biog. Rec. of 
 Lenawee County, II, 9, 22, 39. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 211 
 
 two southern tiers in Oakland, excepting the western- 
 most, had received their first settlers.^^ A few settle- 
 ments had by that time been made in Waterford 
 Township west of Pontiac, and a few north of the 
 Clinton River in the eastern part of the county; also 
 land had been purchased in all of the townships east of 
 a northeast -to-southwest''^ diagonal line drawn through 
 the center of the county, comprising fifteen of its thirty- 
 six surveyed townships. For five years following 1825 
 there was a pause in the extension of the frontier. In 
 this interval land had been purchased in all of the re- 
 maining townships except Brandon in the extreme 
 north and Highland and Rose in the extreme west. 
 The time which elapsed between the dates of first pur- 
 chase and first settlement in the north-central and 
 northeastern townships varied from four to eight years ; 
 but it was shorter in the northwest, where though the 
 buying began from three to seven years later, the first 
 settlements followed the first purchases within a year. 
 In the southern tier of townships settlement generally 
 began within two years after the first purchase, and in 
 the central townships within a year. By 1830 only 
 seven townships had not yet received their first set- 
 tlers, all in the extreme north and west except White 
 Lake;'^° Brandon and Rose had no settlers until 1835."^ 
 The dominating influence which checked the exten- 
 sion of the frontier, especially in the period before 
 
 68. History of Oakland County (1876), 106, 158, 166, 221, 231, 
 
 237, 267, 285, 312, 320. 
 
 69. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 565-570. 
 
 70. History of Oakland County (1876), 105, 106, 124, 153, 175, 
 
 183, 193, 201, 221, 243, 261, 250, 275. 
 
 71. Ibid., 243, 261. 
 
212 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 1830, was desire to be near the older settlements. The 
 townships first settled were those bordering on the 
 townships of Pontiac and Avon, and the first settle- 
 ments made above the Clinton were in the very southern 
 parts, near Pontiac and Rochester, and made from six to 
 nine years afterward.^'' Though Waterford, which was 
 just west of Pontiac, was first settled in 1819 the town- 
 ships adjoining it north and west had no settlers for a 
 decade. '^^ The position of the first land purchases re- 
 flect the same desire. In the south and southwest the 
 settlements came apparently from the same impulse 
 which brought immigration to the interior and northern 
 parts of Wayne County upon which they bordered ; but 
 the impulse seems to have spent itself in the fiUing-in 
 process before settlers reached the extreme southwest. 
 There seem to have been no unfavorable physical con- 
 trasts between the southwestern townships and their 
 eastern neighbors sufficient to warrant the difi^erence of 
 from five to seven years in the dates of settlement;"'* 
 the contrasts of environment were greater in the town- 
 ships north and west of Waterford. '^^ In White Lake 
 Township directly west of Waterford there was little 
 water power, and much swamp and inferior soil. The 
 availability of land near the older settlements, appears 
 sufficient reason for the pause in the extension of the 
 frontier from 1825 to 1830. 
 
 The strength of the impulse of 1830 extended settle- 
 ment during that and the following year into the 
 farthest corners of the county. Speculation had an 
 
 72. Ibid., 70, 130. 
 
 73. Ibid., 105, 175, 183. 
 
 74. Ibid., 158, 214, 221, 230. 
 
 75. Ibid., 183, 207, 274, 299. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 213 
 
 important function in helping to determine its rate 
 and direction, tending to hasten its extension by 
 making less available at Government prices the 
 land near the older settlements. Speculation called 
 the attention of intending settlers to places where 
 speculators were taking up new land. It has been 
 noted that the buying of land was usually much 
 in advance of settlement, and the degree of dis- 
 crepancy in time may in general be taken as a fair 
 index to the amount of speculation. Judging by this 
 rule, speculators preferred the northeastern part of the 
 county to the northwestern, apparently because nearer 
 to the older settlements , but settlement reached both of 
 the northern comers of Oakland County at about the 
 same time. An aid to the extension of settlement to 
 the northwest was the Saginaw Trail, over which the 
 Government was building a road in the early thirties. 
 The Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser of May 
 18, 1831, says, "The turnpike from Detroit to Saginaw 
 passes through the most populous part of the county. 
 . This road is intersected in every direction by 
 roads accommodating the settlements in different parts 
 of the county." It appears to have been the -chief axis 
 of settlement. The effect of very unfavorable condi- 
 tions of surface, soil, timber distribution, and of water 
 power, are seen in the backwardness of three of the 
 northwestern townships : Brandon was broken, densely 
 forested and had mediocre water power ;'^'^ Highland 
 and Rose, though more open, were high and hilly with 
 only mediocre soil and water power, '^^ and combined 
 
 76. Ihid., 152. 
 
 77. Ihid., 201, 261. 
 
214 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 with these defects was their distance from the older 
 centers of settlement. 
 
 The frontier in Washtenaw County included by 1824 
 settlements in seven surveyed townships: Webster 
 and Northfield in the north/^ Saline and York in the 
 south J ^ and Ann Arbor, Superior and Pittsfield in the 
 middle tiers. ^° In 1825 settlements were made at the 
 north in the townships of Salem and Dexter, ^^ also in 
 Scio, Lima and Lodi west and southwest of Ann 
 Arbor. ^- From 1825 to 1829 no new settlements were 
 made, but in the latter year Augusta and Bridgewater, 
 at the south, received their first settlers. In 1830-31 
 the townships of Sylvan and Sharon, in the extreme 
 western part of the county, were first settled. ^^ Man- 
 chester, in the extreme southwest, received no settlers 
 until 1832,^^* and Lyndon, in the extreme northwest, had 
 none until 1834.^^ 
 
 These facts point to four specific determinants in the 
 early extension of the Washtenaw frontier — the Huron 
 and Saline rivers, and the Chicago and Washtenaw 
 trails. From 1825 to 1829 they ceased to extend the 
 frontier, a period coincident with that observed in 
 Oakland County; but they were undoubtedly active 
 in filling in population about the older settlements. At 
 the beginning of this pause settlements had already 
 extended over about three-fourths of the county, an 
 
 78. 
 
 History of Washtenaw County (1881), 636, 668 
 
 79. 
 
 Ihid., 669, 1378. 
 
 80. 
 
 Ibid., 873, 1066, 1254. 
 
 81. 
 
 Ibid., 599, 717. 
 
 82. 
 
 Ibid., 805, 820, 1277. 
 
 83. 
 
 Ibid., 752, 1296. 
 
 84. 
 
 Ibid., 1315. 
 
 85. 
 
 Ibid., 739. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 215 
 
 area including all but one surveyed township in the 
 three eastern ranges and lapping over upon the north 
 end of the fourth range. The exception to settlement 
 in the eastern ranges was the township of Augusta, in 
 the extreme southeast, neglected probably because of 
 an unfavorable environment; the surface was low, and 
 over the stiff clay soil marshes alternated with heavily 
 timbered land.^*^ But into Augusta and Bridgewater 
 the growth of population along the Chicago Road 
 pushed the frontier in 1829; and closely following in 
 1830-31, the first settlements in Sylvan and Sharon 
 townships reflect the influence of the recently surveyed 
 road over the Washtenaw Trail. Below the latter in 
 the extreme southwestern township of Manchester, the 
 water power on the Raisin was the immediate motive 
 of settlement. Above them in the extreme northwest, 
 the township of Lyndon was the last to be favored; 
 but this does not appear to have been due to defects 
 in its physical environment;^'^ while it had many lakes 
 and ponds the approaches to them were comparatively 
 clear, and though there were some tamarack swamps, 
 it contained no extensive swamp areas like those in 
 Augusta, Pittsfield and Sylvan townships. Very favor- 
 able to its settlement was the soil of sandy loam, also 
 the numerous hickory and oak openings; but it lacked 
 good water power, and this in combination with the 
 natural engrossment of interest in the lands near the 
 older settlements along the Huron River and the Terri- 
 
 86. Ibid., 148, 1439; Michigan Geological Survey, Aw^^^a/ Re- 
 
 port (1907), map in pocket; Afm Arbor Folio, plate 
 "Topography." 
 
 87. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 148. 
 
216 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 torial and Chicago roads was sufficient to delay its 
 settlement. 
 
 The only settlement in Lenawee County in 1824 was 
 Tecumseh. From 1825 to 1828 all the east-central 
 townships of Lenawee received their first settlers, ^^ and 
 by 1830 the same could 'be said of all in the county 
 except those in the extreme west and south. With 
 the exception of Riga, which was first settled in 1836,^^ 
 all of the townships contained settlers by 1834,^° 
 
 In this county, the heavy forests at the south, the 
 Raisin River, the Chicago Road, and Bean Creek, were 
 the strongest physical factors in determining the posi- 
 tion of the early settlements. From Tecumseh and 
 Adrian, on the line of the Raisin, the frontier spread 
 out to the east, west and south, ^^ but denseness of 
 forest at the south and east caused slow movement in 
 those directions.^- The line of the Chicago Road and 
 that of the Indian trail from Ohio east of Bean Cieek 
 tended to carry the earliest settlers to the more open 
 country in the north ;^'^ the later impulse to immi- 
 gration which was strongly felt about 1833 carried the 
 frontier to the west and south in that and the following 
 years. 
 
 88. Hist, and Biog. Record of Lenawee County, II, 48, 54; Mich. 
 
 Hiit. Colls., I, 230; II, 373; Comb. Atlas Map of Lenawee 
 County, 15. 
 
 89. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 374. The old maps represent Riga as 
 
 covered with swamps. Combination Atlas Map of Lena- 
 wee Coiinty, 16. 
 
 90. H. B. R., II, 9, 22, 35, 39; Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 372, 374. 
 
 Hogaboam, Bean Creek Valley, 21, 23, 24, 39; Comb. 
 Atlas Map, 12, 16. 
 
 91. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 372, 374; H. B. R., I, 65; II, 9, 22, 49. 
 
 Hogaboam, Bean Creek Valley, 22, 23, 25, 32, 40, 51. 
 
 92. Combination Atlas Map, 16. 
 
 93. Hogaboam, Bean Creek Valley, 21. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 217 
 
 It has been observed that while the frontier was 
 extending, there was intensive as well as extensive 
 growth, and that both were subject to the same gen- 
 eral controlling factors; in general, the rate and direc- 
 tion of frontier extension was a measure of areal 
 growth. 
 
 In 1820 Oakland County had a population of three 
 hundred and thirty people, ^'^ and the position of the 
 frontier indicates that the bulk of the people were near 
 the two oldest colonies. In the year of the opening of 
 the Erie Canal (1825) the sheriff's assessment showed 
 that within the present boundaries of the county there 
 were two hundred and eighty-two houses, forty-seven 
 barns and two thousand six hundred and twenty-one 
 acres of improved land.^^ Within one year, according 
 to a census taken by assessors and reported in the 
 Michigan Herald for June 7, 1826, the rapid settlement 
 of the county had brought the number of dwellings up 
 to three hundred and forty-one and the number of 
 acres of improved land to four thousand and sixty- 
 nine, while the population numbered something over 
 two thousand. In 1827 the population seemed large 
 enough to w^arrant the division of the county into five 
 townships, and the evidence drawn from the number, 
 size and position of these townships supplements that 
 drawn from the position of the frontier line in showing 
 that the population was distributed mainly in the 
 southeast. ^"^ In 1830 the settlers of the county num- 
 
 94. U. S. Census (1820), 41. 
 
 95. Aiich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 571. The present boundaries of 
 
 Oakland County were established in 1822. Territorial 
 Laws, I, 332. 
 
 96. Territorial Laws, II, 477. 
 
218 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 bered 4911," and a new township (Southfield) was 
 created in the southeast — the first in the county to 
 have the small area of a Government township, ^^ im- 
 plying a considerable density of population. Frontier 
 extension reflects rapid growth in 1830-31. The De- 
 troit Journal and Michigan Advertiser ior May 18, 1831, 
 records an estimation of from eight hundred to a thou- 
 sand people who arrived in the county since the taking 
 of the census of 1830. The same paper credits the 
 county with thirteen stores, eight good flouring mills 
 favorably situated to accommodate the settlers, about 
 twenty first rate sawmills, and four or five carding 
 and fulling mills equipped with looms for weaving; all 
 this indicates enterprising industrial growth. There 
 were no new townships until 1833, when six were 
 created in that and the year following, ^^ all of them 
 excepting Waterford in the two southern tiers. The 
 order of their formation reflects the call for town- 
 ship government, as the people moved westward. In 
 the westernmost townships, Lyon and Milford, the 
 population was probably sparse, since they received 
 their first settlers within three years of the time of their 
 creation. ^°° In the four years from 1830 to 1834 the 
 population of the county almost trebled, reaching in 
 the latter year 13,844.^°^ In 1835-36, years of heavy 
 
 97. U. S. Census (1830), 153. 
 
 98. Territorial Laws, II, 818, 833. 
 
 99. Ibid., Ill, 1124, 1275. 1839. 
 
 100. Territorial Laws, III, 1275. In the division of Farm- 
 
 ington Township, the fact that it was the western rath- 
 er than the eastern portion of it that was made equal 
 to a surveyed township (Lyon), seems deceptive as an 
 indication of relative density of population. 
 
 101. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 219 
 
 land speculation and rapid settlement, township organi- 
 zation advanced rapidly northward beyond the center 
 of the county/^" and by 1837 the entire county ex- 
 cepting its northwest corner was divided into a checker- 
 board of six-mile squares. ^°^ According to the census 
 of 1837 the county contained 20,176 people, of whom 
 only about one-fourth had settled beyond a diagonal 
 line from northeast to southwest . ^ ^'^ The other diagonal , 
 approximately the line of the Saginaw Turnpike, divided 
 the population somewhat equally; settlers favored de- 
 cidedly, however, the eastern side, which contained the 
 first centers of settlement, at Pontiac and Rochester. 
 The only township which exceeded the population of 
 Pontiac was Farmington, about the middle of the 
 southern tier, each having about seventeen hundred 
 people. Only a half dozen townships, in the immediate 
 vicinity of these, exceeded one thousand, and the 
 northwestern tow^nships fell considerably below five 
 hundred. 
 
 There was no marked tendency in Oakland County 
 toward centralization in this period, the only promising 
 village centers being the settlements on the Clinton 
 River at Pontiac, Auburn, and Rochester. The Pon- 
 tiac Company was the power back of all the public 
 improvements at Pontiac. It was at once made the 
 county seat, and a description of its advantages and of 
 the surrounding country appeared in the Detroit 
 Gazette almost before a dwelling had been built there. ^°^ 
 
 102. Territorial Laws, III, 1368, 1369, 1404, 1420; Session Laws 
 
 (1835-36), 68, 69. 
 
 103. Session Laws (1837), 36, 40, 43. 
 
 104. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 72. 
 
 105. Detroit Gazette, Feb. 26, 1819. See also the same for Feb. 
 
 15. 1822. 
 
220 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Immigration was vigorously solicited, and Pbntiac soon 
 became an objective point for settlers from the eastern 
 states. A letter from the western part of New York 
 in 1820 to one of the editors of the Detroit Gazette 
 says, ''Our Emigrating Company is rapidly gaining 
 recruits; and in the Spring we shall move in a body 
 for Pontiac."^'^'^ Though it was still regarded by many 
 in 1821 as a "paper town," the confidence of set- 
 tlers and prospectors was shown by the recent sale 
 of more than fifty village lots at from $20 to $70 
 apiece, ^°^ The village in that year contained appar- 
 ently not more than a half dozen dwellings, ^°^ but a 
 substantial improvement had been made by the erec- 
 tion of a sawmill and gristmill. ^"^ The importance 
 of this for the village and for the settlement of 
 the county is reflected in a statement made by the 
 Detroit Gazette of February 2, 1821, that within a week 
 recently sixty-three sleighs, each loaded with from 
 thirty to forty-eight bushels of grain, had arrived at 
 the Pontiac mill, and all from a distance of more than 
 twenty-five miles. The same paper in an editorial for 
 December 13, 1825, mentions as "a singular fact and 
 entirely new in this territory," that a wagon load of 
 flour arrived in Detroit the week before from the in- 
 terior, made at Col. Mack's mills in Pontiac, and it 
 was understood that there were several hundred barrels 
 there. It was further stated that this was the first 
 
 106. Detroit Gazette, Feb. 11, 1820. 
 
 107. Ihid., July 20, 1821. It also had to contend with willful 
 
 misrepresentations. See, for example, the Detroit Ga- 
 zette, Aug. 30, 1822. 
 
 108. Mich. Hist. Galls., Ill, 574. 
 
 109. Ihid., II, 471. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 221 
 
 season in which the farmers of Oakland County had 
 been able to raise grain enough to supply themselves 
 and the new settlers. By 1830 the growth of the sup- 
 porting agriculttiral interests is indicated by the forma- 
 tion of a county agricultural society. ^^° The prevalence 
 of wolves made sheep-raising precarious, but a woolen 
 mill is said to have been "in full operation" in Pontiac 
 in 1825.^^^ The outlook for a stirplus of produce 
 started an agitation about 1830 for a railroad from 
 Pontiac to Detroit. It is said that by 1830 the reputa- 
 tion of Pontiac as an industrial and trade center was 
 well established among business .men in the eastern 
 states. In its issue of April 21, 1830, the Northwestern 
 Journal credits the village with "three merchant trad- 
 ers," a sawmill, a flourmill, a woolen mill, an ashery, 
 seventy-five buildings, and two hundred and fifty in- 
 habitants. The new impulse to its settlement that 
 came about 1830 is signalized by the establishment of 
 a weekly newspaper, the Oakland Chronicle, which how- 
 ever was soon moved to Detroit. ^^'' An academy was 
 chartered in 1833,^^^ and a branch of the University 
 is mentioned by Blois. The settlement of the village 
 
 110. History of Oakland County (1876), ?>3. 
 
 111. Detroit Gazette, July 26, 1825. It was advertised to manu- 
 
 facture cloth three-fourths of a yard wide at 62 1 cents 
 per yard. 
 
 112. The paper ran for about a year, and its files, if they could be 
 
 found, would give probably the best account of activities 
 in the village and county in 1830-31; see Detroit Journal 
 and Michigan Advertiser, April 27, 1831. The first num- 
 ber of the Oakland Chronicle is said to have appeared 
 May 31, 1830, its editor having been connected with the 
 ■ Western Emigrant at Ann Arbor. See Northwestern 
 Journal of June 2, 1830. 
 
 113. History oj Oakland County (1876), 92. 
 
222 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 was very rapid from 1835 to 1837. It was incorporated 
 in 1837, when Blois estimates the population at about 
 one thousand souls. ^^'^ 
 
 The site of the village of Rochester, about ten miles 
 east of Pontiac where the Clinton River receives Paint 
 Creek, was in the vicinity of excellent water power, 
 which explains its early growth. Within eight years 
 after its settlement four mills had been built near the 
 site on the Clinton and tributary streams — shown on 
 Risdon's map (1825). The Detroit Gazette of April 10, 
 1827, advertised a sale of village lots, and population in- 
 creased during the following decade sufficiently to 
 require four stores to supply the needs of trade. ^^^ 
 
 About half way between Rochester and Pontiac a 
 village was laid out at Auburn, in 1826, which early 
 attracted a number of well-to-do settlers and became a 
 vigorous rival. ^^''^ Like Rochester and Pontiac, it was 
 located on a good power site, and like them also it re- 
 ceived its first vigorous impulse from the new spirit of 
 immigration which followed the opening of the Erie 
 
 114. Ihid., 73, 117; Blois, Gazetteer, 344. The progress of settle- 
 
 ment in these latter years was not on a sound basis, as 
 illustrated by the shrinking of credit and hard times when 
 the financial crash of 1837 came. History of Oakland 
 County, 34, 36, 84. 
 
 115. Blois, Gazetteer, 352. Pontiac had fourteen stores. Ibid., 
 
 344. The populations of the respective townships were 
 approximately equal, but Pontiac's trade probably 
 reached a much wider area than that of Rochester. 
 
 116. One of the chief promoters of the village was a native of 
 
 Middlebury, New York (Milton Hyde). The village was 
 named from Auburn, New York. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXXVIII, 344-345. In the year ending March 31, 1827, 
 the net receipt of postage at Pontiac was $79.86, at 
 Auburn $8.46, while Rochester is not mentioned. Ameri- 
 can State Papers, Fast Office, 179-180. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 223 
 
 Canal. The editor of the Detroit Gazette speaks of it 
 in 1826 as the site of Smith's mills, "a business-like little 
 place, where there is erected an excellent fiourmill and 
 sawmill. "^^^ Apparently, as in many other places, the 
 mills preceded and attracted the promoters of the vil- 
 lage. Its aspiration to be the chief village of the 
 county was eclipsed by the choice of Pontiac as the 
 terminal of the railroad, ^^^ and in 1837 it is said to have 
 been nearly destroyed by fire.^^^ Its great expecta- 
 tions, added to its signal failure, gave it first rank 
 among the "paper towns" of the county. 
 
 Other village centers of farming population were 
 platted in 1835 and 1836 as speculations, many of 
 which, like Auburn, were reduced by the succeeding 
 hard times to the fate of "paper towns." One of the 
 earliest points on the Saginaw Trail mentioned in pio- 
 neer reminiscences was Royal Oak, which appears to 
 have had little to recommend it for a village site ex- 
 cepting its position on the trail, but was later threaded 
 by the road and the railroad and became the center of 
 a considerable population. It was platted by the rail- 
 road company in 1836, and a steam sawmill was put 
 in operation under the same auspices. ^-° Under the 
 impulse of the anticipated railroad, Birmingham was 
 platted in the same year, and owed its early growth to 
 being for many years the railroad terminal. ^^^ In 1837 
 it was the second place in the county in point of busi- 
 
 117. Detroit Gazette, May 23, 1826. 
 
 118. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXNlll,2,4:A:. 
 
 119. Detroit Daily Advertiser, Feb. 4, 1837. Blois credits it with 
 
 two stores in 1838. Gazetteer of Michigan, 249. 
 
 120. History of Oakland County (1876), 239. 
 
 121. 1840-44. Ibid., 323. 
 
224 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 ness, having entirely eclipsed its neighbor, which began 
 the same year only two railes away.^^- The explana- 
 tion seems to lie in the better soil, which attracted a 
 larger farming population, and the advantages of water 
 power on one of the head branches of the Rouge. An- 
 other village of this period deserving mention is 
 Farmington, directly west of Royal Oak and Birming- 
 ham in the southern part of the county on a branch of 
 the Rouge, the original nucleus of which was a colony 
 of Quakers. ^-^ It appears to have had at the end of this 
 period a number of mills, a couple of stores and about 
 a score of families. ^-^ In the southwestern part of the 
 county, similarly situated on mill sites, were the vil- 
 lages of Kensington^^^ and Milford,^^*^ the former of 
 which gained an unsavory reputation in the days of 
 "wild-cat" banking. ^"^ 
 
 The first newspaper mention of settlement in Wash- 
 tenaw County was in connection with the location of 
 the county seat in 1824, when the Detroit Gazette ob- 
 served that "emigration is taking a direction that 
 way."^-^ In the issue of July, 30, 1824, the same paper 
 notes, that whereas on the fourth of July in the year 
 previous there were but nine persons in the county, in 
 1824 "the anniversary of Independence was celebrated 
 by 79 persons — at the upper settlement about 50 at- 
 
 122. Blois, Gazetteer, 255, 354. 
 
 123. See articles in the Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser 
 
 for May 25, 1831, July 13, 1831, and May 25, 1832. 
 
 124. Blois, Gazetteer, 285. 
 
 125. Ibid., 307. 
 
 126. Ibid., 325 ; History of Oakland County (1876), 223. 
 
 127. See also the villages of Franklin, Mon-is' Mills, Niles and 
 
 Stony Creek, in Blois, Gazetteer, 288, 328, 332, 365, 
 
 128. Detroit Gazette, Feb. 1, 1824. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 225 
 
 tended;" adding, "The increase of population in this 
 county has been about as rapid as that of Oakland dur- 
 ing the two first years after the settlement commenced." 
 Early in 1824 emigrants could have had before them a 
 very favorable description of the county in the report 
 of the commissioners appointed to locate the county 
 seat, which was addressed to Governor Cass and pub- 
 Hshed in the Detroit Gazette ^^^ The year 1827 wit- 
 nessed formal steps to encourage immigration, in the 
 organization of the ' 'Washtenaw County Society for the 
 Information of Emigrants. "^^° 
 
 The growth of population in the county for the 
 period from 1827 is reflected in the census figures and 
 in the votes cast at different times for delegates to 
 Congress. The votes at the Territorial election in the 
 year 1827 and in every second year thereafter to 1835 
 increase almost in arithmetical progression, ^^^ but the 
 figures probably represent only approximately the 
 actual increase. The United States census shows for 
 the period 1824 to 1830 a population of 4,042,^32 
 
 129. Detroit Gazette, March 26, 1824. The land was declared as 
 
 good as any yet explored ; the Huron River was navigable 
 and abounded in millsites; springs of pure water were 
 numerous; timbered land, openings and prairies would 
 accommodate all varieties of immigrants. It is interest- 
 ing that the first signature to the report was that of 
 Austin E. Wing, who became a partner in the founding 
 of Tecumseh in Lenawee County instead of operating in 
 Washtenaw. 
 
 130. Detroit Gazette, March 20, 1827. It was organized at a 
 
 meeting held at Mill Creek (Dexter), and the newspaper 
 notice is signed by R. Crossman and S. W. Dexter. 
 
 131. 244, 444, 648, 952, and in 1835, 1075; History of Washtenaw 
 
 County (1881), 250-251. 
 
 132. U. S. Census {\^m), 153. 
 
 29 
 
226 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 while the Territorial census for 1834 gives 14,920. ^'^•^ 
 An important hint as to the distribution of the early 
 population of the county is contained in an act of the 
 Territorial legislature in 1827, which divided the 
 county into three townships ;^^^ in names and posi- 
 tions are reflected the four main centers of population : 
 Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Saline and Dexter. In the sub- 
 division of these townships the population is seen reach- 
 ing out in 1828 to the north of Ypsilanti, ^'^^ in 1829 to 
 the south of Ann Arbor, ^^^ in 1832 to the north of Ann 
 Arbor, ^" in 1833 to the west and northwest of Ann 
 Arbor, "^ and in 1834 to the farthest western and south- 
 western parts of the county. ^^^ The backwardness of the 
 western and southern corners of the county is suggested 
 by the absence of independent townships. Here were sit- 
 uated the last townships to be organized. ^'*° By 1837 the 
 entire area of the county had been divided like Oak- 
 land into townships six miles sqtiare. The population 
 had increased to over twenty thousand. ^^^ Its distribu- 
 tion, combined with the evidence from township organ- 
 ization, gives the same general impression as that al- 
 ready noted in the advance of the frontier, and sug- 
 gests the forces already mentioned as governing the 
 settlement of the county. The most populous town- 
 ships lay along the Chicago and Territorial roads, ex- 
 
 133. 
 
 Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 
 
 134. 
 
 Territorial Laws, II, 479. 
 
 135. 
 
 Ihid., II, 687. 
 
 136. 
 
 Ihid., II, 712. 
 
 137. 
 
 Ihid., Ill, 925. 
 
 138. 
 
 Ihid., Ill, 996. 
 
 139. 
 
 Ihid., Ill, ni6. 
 
 140. 
 
 Ihid., Ill, 1404; Session Laws (1835-36), 68; Ihid. (1837), 41 
 
 141. 
 
 21,817. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 73. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 227 
 
 cepting Salem in the northeastern corner. Ann Arbor 
 was approximately the center of population. The drift 
 of settlement was quite evenly westward. The popula- 
 tions of the northern and southern tiers of townships 
 were as six to five, while those of the eastern and western 
 ranges were as seven to three. 
 
 The promising village centers in Washtenaw County 
 were Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Saline, Dexter and Man- 
 chester. Besides having excellent farming country in 
 the vicinity, the foundations of the growth of Ypsilanti 
 were its water power, comparative nearness to De- 
 troit, and its position at the junction of the Huron 
 with the main thoroughfare along which settlers trav- 
 eled from Detroit to southwestern Michigan and be- 
 yond. Its convenience as a resting place for travelers 
 was early seen; among others who became successful 
 inn-keepers was Benjamin Woodruff, who moved up 
 from Woodruff's Grove^'^- when the failure of that 
 settlement to be included on the Chicago Road de- 
 stroyed it.^"^^ 
 
 Ypsilanti is said to have received its first permanent 
 settler from Romulus, Seneca County, New York;^^^ 
 
 142. On Risdon's map (1825) Woodruff's Grove looks more prom- 
 
 ising than Pontiac, as indicated by six dots to Pontiac's 
 five. For its first settlement and early fate see Beakes, 
 ■ Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 54-8. The account 
 is said to be based upon that of a person who lived in the 
 home of one of the settlers near the date of settlement. 
 
 143. The efifect of the Chicago Road appears to be reflected in 
 
 the postoffice receipts at the two places for 1827 and 
 1828: in 1827 at Woodruff's Grove, $27.67, at Ypsilanti, 
 $8.93; in 1828 at the former, $23.36, at the latter, $22.95. 
 American State Papers, Post Offi.ce, 180, 210 
 
 144. Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 564. John 
 
 Stewart, who bought the north French claim. 
 
228 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 and among the first owners of the village plat (1825) 
 was the Virginian and friend of Jefferson, Judge Wood- 
 ward of Detroit, whose classical sympathies above 
 ment'oned are again reflected in the naming of Ypsi- 
 lanti for the hero of the Greek war for independence.^'*^ 
 The prevalent faith in the prospects of the village is 
 illustrated by an entry in a settler's diary for 1827, that 
 "Nature and art have combined to make it a place for 
 business. ' ' ^'^^ Boats of twenty tons burden plied between 
 the landing fotir miles below, and Lake Erie ; property 
 was valued "very high;" the author of the diary bought 
 two village lots (half an acre) for $100. By 1830 the 
 population of the village reached two hundred and 
 forty.^*^ It is said to have doubled by 1834,^"*^ and 
 Blois (1838) credits it- with one thousand people. ^^^ 
 Illustrative of frontier conditions, it is recorded by 
 Harriet Martineau in 1836 that there was as yet no 
 bridge at the village for foot passengers, vehicles hav- 
 ing to go a mile down the river to the ferry, but a 
 bridge was being built. ^^° 
 
 Ann Arbor was incorporated a year later than Ypsi- 
 lanti, (1833), but its settlement was on the whole 
 
 145. Ibid., 565. For the early development of Ypsilanti from 
 
 1825 to 1837 the same work gives a well digested and 
 apparently accurate account in pages 732-737. 
 
 146. The diary of Mark Norris, cited in History of Washtenaw 
 
 County (1881), 1114. 
 
 147. The Northwestern Journal, August 25, 1830, quoting the 
 
 U. S. Census schedules. 
 
 148. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 337. 
 
 149. Blois, Gazetteer, 383. 
 
 150. Society in America, I, 319. The Northwestern Journal of 
 
 Oct. 27, 1830, records that a Working Men's Society was 
 organized, a local illustration of the wide-reaching move- 
 ment of the time for labor organization. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 229 
 
 more rapid. Being somewhat removed from the Chi- 
 cago Road it missed the early advertisement which 
 position on that thoroughfare gave to its rival. This 
 was partly offset by its position on the Territorial Road 
 nearer the center of the county, and by the ac- 
 quisition of the county seat in the very year it received 
 its first settlers (1824).^" This made it a center of at- 
 traction, as the place where justice was administered 
 and as headquarters for "landlookers." The author of 
 the diary above quoted stayed at Ann Arbor while 
 "looking" land in the county, but he was more im- 
 pressed with Ypsilanti as a place of business. Ann 
 Arbor seemed to him rather a ''place for lounging and 
 gossip." The three or four inns^^^ in 1827 appear to 
 be evidence of a considerable transient population ;^^^ 
 the resident population is said to have been housed in 
 some twenty or thirty dwellings. ^^^ 
 
 Ann Arbor's advantages of water power and sur- 
 rounding agricultural lands were fully equal to those 
 at Ypsilanti, and were early advertised by the pro- 
 prietors of the village plat. The water power at the 
 mouth of "Allen's Creek" is mentioned in the report of 
 the commissioners who located the county seat,^^^ and 
 
 151. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 335. 
 
 152. Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 556; Mich. 
 
 Hist. Colls., I, 334. 
 
 153. The postoffice receipts for the year ending March 31, 1827, 
 
 were at Ann Arbor $151.47, at Ypsilanti $8.93. American 
 State Papers, Post Office, 179, 180. 
 
 154. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 334. 
 
 155. Detroit Gazette, March 26, 1824. The Northwestern Journal 
 
 (Detroit) for May 5, 1830, points out Ann Arbor as an 
 "especially fine place for capital to invest in a flouring 
 mill.". See also Beakes, Past and Present oj Washtenaw 
 County, 627-629, for power development on the Huron 
 River. 
 
230 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 a mill is indicated there on Risdon's map. In the De- 
 troit Gazette for June 4, 1824, a public notice signed by 
 John Allen and Elisha Vv". Rumsey as proprietors of 
 the village, invites the attention of emigrants to Ann 
 Arbor, "particularly of Mechanics and Artisans." 
 By 1830 the population of the village had reached 
 three hundred and fifty. Hoffman, visiting the vil- 
 lage late in 1833, estimated its population at seven or 
 eight hundred, ^^^ and between that time and the close of 
 the period it appears to have more than doubled, reach- 
 ing about two thousand.^" 
 
 The impulse to the settlement of the village and 
 county at the beginning of the thirties is illustrated by 
 the choice of Ann Arbor for the first newspaper venture, 
 which unlike that in Oakland County proved success- 
 ful, and did much to advertise the advantages of the 
 village to settlers. It was first known as The Western 
 Emigrant, ^^^ and appears to be the one mentioned by 
 Harriet Martineau in an interesting comment in 1836: 
 "At Ypsilanti," she says, "I picked up an Ann Arbor 
 newspaper. It was badly printed; but its contents 
 were pretty good; and it could happen nowhere out of 
 America, that so raw a settlement as that at Ann 
 
 156. The Northwestern Journal of August 25, 1830, quoting from 
 
 the schedules of the census. Hoffman, A Winter in the 
 West, I, 156-157. As elsewhere stated, he entered the 
 county by way of Monroe and Tecumseh. 
 
 157. Blois, Gazetteer, 249. The settlement of Ann Arbor from 
 
 1824 to 1837 is well sketched by Beakes, in Past and 
 Present of Washtenaw County, 700-702. 
 
 158. The first number appeared Oct. 18, 1829. The name was 
 
 changed several times. The Ann Arbor Argus, first 
 issued February 5, 1835, may have been the paper re- 
 ferred to by Harriet Martineau. See Beakes, Past and 
 Present of Washtenaiv County, 616-619. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 231 
 
 Arbor, where there is difficulty in procuring decent 
 accommodations, should have a newspaper. "^^^ Con- 
 ditions improved much within the next five years, 
 according to Lansing Swan, who in 1841 found "an 
 excellent hotel," having come up from Ypsilanti, "not 
 liking our quarters to stay over the Sabbath." In his 
 Journal he says,^*^" "Ann Arbor is a delightful place of 
 about two or three thousand inhabitants and is in 
 every respect a much neater and more thriving place 
 than any of its size in our own state [New York]. 
 There are five churches and a state university now 
 building on a scale of magnificence far beyond Union 
 College at Schenectady, besides many other very fine 
 public and private buildings. ^^^ I do not wonder that 
 people are made crazy by coming to Michigan if what 
 I have seen is a specimen of the country." 
 
 The site of Saline is said to have been chosen (1824), 
 by the surveyor of the Chicago Road, for a city; but 
 the tradition does nor seem consistent with the delay 
 of eight years before platting a village. ^'^" Its ad- 
 
 159. Martineau, Society in America, I, 319. She apparently did 
 
 not visit Ann Arbor. The first newspaper at Ypsilanti 
 appears to have been the Ypsilanti Republican, in 1837. 
 Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 624. 
 
 160. Swan, Journal of a Tour to Michigan. The closing state- 
 
 ment refers to his observations of the Territory as a 
 whole, including the settlements along the Territorial and 
 Chicago roads. 
 
 161. In 1832 the academy had an attendence of one hundred 
 
 students, and its principal of that year suggests that this 
 institution marked the beginning of that reputation for 
 school privileges which later secured for the city the 
 State University. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 400. See also 
 McLaughHn, Higher Education in Michigan, 39. 
 
 162. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 1378; Beakes, Past and 
 
 Present of Washtenaw County, 576. 
 
232 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 vantages were promising: position on the Chicago 
 Road, power from the SaHne River, fertile openings, and 
 plentiful timber; it was also near an extensive deer- 
 lick and salt spring, and had early been favored as 
 the site of an Indian village. ^"^^ The Detroit Gazette for 
 December 13, 1825, announces that a sawmill will be 
 built soon by Risdon near the salt springs on the Chi- 
 cago Road. Blois mentions a flourmill and sawmill 
 near the village, and the presence of three stores in 
 1837 indicates that village life was beginning i^*^^ its 
 growth was restrained by that of Ypsilanti and Ann 
 Arbor above, and by Tecumseh and Adrian on the 
 south. 
 
 Dexter and Manchester were quite as rudimentary 
 as Saline. Six years elapsed between the platting of 
 Dexter and the purchase of the site by Samuel W. 
 Dexter^*^^ in 1824, although this site, ''Mill Creek," 
 was one of the earliest centers of settlement to receive 
 newspaper mention. Dexter was located on a "pla- 
 teau" near the junction of Mill Creek with the Huron, 
 water power being the principal motive to settlement. 
 Its first actual settlers are said to have come from 
 Ann Arbor. In 1830, the year in which the village was 
 platted, its distinction from the surrounding country 
 consisted in a small cluster of log dwellings, a grist 
 mill, a sawmill, a store, and an inn, apparently the 
 only one existing at that time west of Ann Arbor. ^"^ 
 
 163. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 1369, 1373. On the 
 
 Risdon map (1825) salt sprirgs are shown at Saline on 
 the Chicago Road. 
 
 164. Blois, Gazetteer, 357. 
 
 165. For Samuel W. Dexter and his land speculations, see Beakes, 
 
 Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 567, 680. 
 
 166. History cf Washtenaw County (1881), 828-829. 
 
SOUTHEAriTERX MICHIGAN IX 1825 
 
 {Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 634) 
 
 This map was drawn by Orange Risdon of Detroit, surveyor of the Chicago Road. The 
 scale is four miles to an inch. An original copy is in the office of the Historical Commission 
 at Lansing. See pp. 9.5-243. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 233 
 
 Though it had five stores in 1838 its settlement was 
 apparently not much, if any, in advance of that at 
 Saline, being, as there, overshadowed by the larger vil- 
 lages.^" 
 
 Manchester was located on the Raisin, at a point 
 where that river crossed one of the largest burr- 
 oak plains of the county. ^''^ In 1832 an inn and a 
 sawmill were built there by a prominent settler of 
 Ypsilanti, and from that tiine it began to be a nucleus 
 of settlement. By 1834 enough settlers had 'gathered 
 in the neighborhood to warrant the building of a 
 schoolhouse.^^^ Blois does not mention the village. 
 
 In Lenawee County, population increased slowly be- 
 fore 1830. According to General Brown, one of the 
 founders of Tecumseh, thee were in January of 1827 
 six hundred people in the county. ^^° By 1830 the popu- 
 lation had grown to 1491,^^1 and to 7,91 P^^ ^y 1334^ 
 There as elsewhere in the section the increase was the 
 most rapid in the years beginning with 1833. It is 
 reflected in the increase of the number of townships 
 from four in 1833 to nine in 1834."'^ The bulk of this 
 
 167. Blois, Gazetteer, 281. 
 
 168. Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaiv County, 1313. 
 
 169. Ibid., 1315. Risdon's map (1825) shows a village of Dix- 
 
 boro, above Ypsilanti. This settlement was promoted 
 by a speculator from Boston, who appears to have won 
 the disfavor of settlers, and early gave up the experi- 
 ment. See Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaw 
 County, 568. 
 
 170. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 229-230; Territorial Lews, II, 292. 
 
 171. U. S. Census (1830), 153. 
 
 172. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. The figures for 1830 and 1834 prob- 
 
 ably include Hillsdale County, as Hillsdale was attached 
 to Lenawee until its organization in 1835, and the sepa- 
 rate figures do not appear for it in the censuses. 
 
 173. Territorial Laws, II, 478, 587; III, 998, 1275. 
 
234 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 population was in the northeast, in the vicinity of 
 Tecumseh and Adrian. These were the start 'ng points 
 for the numerous "land-lookers" that followed closely 
 in the wake of the first settlers, where the houses of 
 settlers served temporarily as inns, and where guides 
 could be obtained to show the way to the best Govern- 
 ment lands. In 1835-36 settlement went hand in hand 
 with speculation in the lands of this county, and is 
 marked by the organization of new townships. ^^'^ By 
 1837 the 'checker-board appearance of townships pre- 
 vailed in all parts of the county excepting the eastern 
 range, where Ridgeway and Riga had not yet been 
 separated from Macon and Blissfield, a region of heavy 
 timber. ^^^ The sparseness of population in the south- 
 ern townships, shown in the census of 1837, also indi- 
 cates this impediment to settlement. The filling-in 
 process about the older settlements and the very 
 gradual extension of the frontier is reflected in the 
 large numbers in the townships about Tecumseh and 
 Adrian and the decreasing population towards the 
 west. There were in the entire county in 1837 less 
 than fifteen thoiisand people. ^^''' 
 
 Tecumseh owed its early rapid growth largely 
 to the enterprise of its founders, who were able busi- 
 ness men of means, but appear to have had ulterior 
 motives. Austin E. Wing is quoted as saying to Mus- 
 
 174. Territorial Laws, III, 1367; Session Laws (1835-36), 69, 70. 
 
 175. Session Laws (1837), 44. The townships in the southern 
 
 tier were not quite square, because of the addition of a 
 narrow strip on the south to each by the adjustment of 
 the Ohio boundary dispute. 
 
 176. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 72. Hudson township 
 
 appears not to have been returned. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 235 
 
 grove Evans: "If we go into milling and farming, and 
 establish a mill, settlers will know that I am interested, 
 and will vote to send me to Congress. If I am elected, 
 with the aid of Gen. Jacob Brown, you can be ap- 
 pointed government surveyor.""'^ The fruition of 
 these hopes appeared to require the cooperation of 
 Joseph W. Brown, who was a brother of Gen. Brown, 
 and happily also a miller as well as a practical farmer. 
 These men provided very early all that they could of 
 the essential institutions of village life on the frontier. 
 In the first year they platted the village and secured 
 for it recognition as a post village and county seat.^'^^ 
 A sawmill, a gristmill, and a store soon followed. ^''^ 
 Lumber sawed there was used to build the first frame 
 house in 1825. A contemporary writer in the Detroit 
 Journal and Michigan Advertiser, over the signature 
 "Truth," reflects the impulse to growth received by the 
 village in the early thirties, crediting the village in 
 1832 with two schoolhouses, a gristmill, a sawmill, a 
 tannery and a furniture factory. ^^° The latter indus- 
 try appears to have become early somewhat of a speci- 
 alty, according to Harriet Martineau, who observed in 
 1836, "We reached Tecumseh at half -past nine, and 
 perceived that its characteristic was chair-making. 
 Every other house seemed to be a chair manufactory. "^^^ 
 
 177. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 479. 
 
 178. Ibid., I, 227. 
 
 179. Ibid., I, 222, 228; Historical and Biographical Record of 
 
 Lenawee County, I, 41, 43. See early mention of the 
 progress of the village and its advantages in the Detroit 
 Ca^^Z/g for August 6, 1824; Oct. 1, 1824; Dec. 13, 1825. 
 
 180. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, Jan. 4, 1832. 
 
 181. Society in America, I, 320. 
 
236 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 It was "a pretty village laid out with broad streets and 
 having an excellent tavern on a public square in the 
 center," says Hoffman, writing late in 1833.^^- A large 
 factor in its early settlement was the possession of the 
 county seat, but its position not being sufficiently cen- 
 tral to the county, it lost this advantage about the 
 close of this period in favor of the rival village of 
 Adrian. ^^^ It had then a population of about one 
 thousand. ^^'^ 
 
 Adrian, unlike Tecumseh, was founded originally by 
 the enterprise of one individual, but it early drew to 
 itself many settlers of means. Though it was platted 
 four years later than Tecumseh, its more central posi- 
 tion, making it the logical place for the county seat, 
 induced its citizens early to begin an agitation to have 
 the county seat removed thither from Tecumseh, and 
 the prospect served to attract settlers to it. A saw 
 mill was built before the village was platted, and a 
 gristmill, a store and a frame schoolhouse had been 
 added by 1829.^^^ In 1830 the population in the vicin- 
 
 182. A Winter in the West, I, 149. 
 
 183. The county-seat contest was vigorous. Tecumseh 's side of 
 
 the issue is presented in the Detroit Daily Free Press for 
 March 17, 1836. The act for its removal is in Session 
 Laws (1835-36), 83, dated March 21, 1836, but it was 
 rot to take effect until 1838. See also Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., II, 364; XXXVIII, 483. 
 
 184. Blois, Gazetteer, 372. Adrian's population contained a large 
 
 number of Quakers, which is said to have had much 
 to do with its early exemplary government, and with 
 making it a prominent station on the "Underground 
 Raih'oad" in ante-bellum days. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXXVIII, 279. There were members of the Society 
 of Friends also in Tecumseh, and in other parts of the 
 county, particularly in Rollin Township. 
 
 185. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, I, 50, 
 
 53. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 237 
 
 ity of Adrian appears to have been nearly five hundred 
 people. ^^^ It is significant of its prospects that in 1834 
 the first newspaper in the county was started at Adrian, 
 and not at Tecumseh.^^^ This may have been in part 
 owing to the prospect of the completion of the rail- 
 road then being built from Toledo, of which Adrian 
 seemed likely to be for some time the northern ter- 
 minal.^ ^^ The enterprise of the villagers is shown by 
 the fact that the capital to build this road was sub- 
 scribed mainly by Adrian citizens. The central posi- 
 tion of the village, its acquisition of the county seat, 
 its relation to the new railroad, and the enterprise of 
 its citizens, were main agents in its successful struggle 
 with Tecumseh for the line of the later Southern Rail- 
 road from Monroe. By the close of the period it ap- 
 pears to have had a population slightly greater than 
 that of Tecumseh. ^^^ 
 
 A nucleus of settlement was forming at the junction 
 of the Chicago Road with a branch of the Raisin, just 
 above Tecumseh, which was destined to develop into 
 the village of Clinton. Its first settlers came in 1829-30, 
 and a pioneer reports it to have had in 1831 about a 
 dozen dwellings and two taverns, one of the latter a 
 two-story frame structure. ^^'^ Though overshadowed 
 by Tecumseh, it profited by its position on the Chicago 
 Road and awaited the agricultural development of 
 
 186. Ibid., I, 54; Territorial Laws, II, 587. This estimate is based 
 
 on the population of Logan Township. The postoffice 
 receipts in 1830 at Adrian were $58.57, at Tecumseh 
 $99.99. 
 
 187. Mich. Hist. Cells., I, 231. 
 
 188. Ibid., II, 364. 
 
 189. Blois, Gazetteer, 246. 
 
 190. Mich. Hist. Colls.. II, 384. 
 
238 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the vicinity. By the close of the period its popula- 
 tion had reached about half that of Tecumseh or 
 Adrian. ^^^ 
 
 The states from which came the founders of these 
 first settlements of the section, ranged from Virginia 
 and Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, New York, and 
 Ohio. The leader of the first colony in Oakland County 
 (Avon Township) was of Irish stock, who had lived in 
 early life at Tioga Point, Pennsylvania; he had mi- 
 grated from there first, abotit the year 1800, to Oxford 
 in Upper Canada, and in 1816 to Mt. Clemens.^ ^^ The 
 members of the Pontiac Company were mainly natives 
 or emigrants from Massachusetts, Vermont, Connec- 
 ticut and New York.^^^ The Woodruff's Grove set- 
 tlers in Washtenaw were originally from Ohio;^^^ their 
 first accession was from Genesee, New York,^^^ and the 
 first permanent settler of Ypsilanti was a native of 
 Romulus in the same State. ^^'^ Of Ann Arbor's first 
 two families, one came from Augusta County, Vir- 
 
 191. Blois, Gazetteer, 265. Lenawee County was prolific in vil- 
 
 lages. See Ibid., 257, 261, 299, 302, 309, 311, 315, 337, 
 352, 364. Many mere are mentioned, founded mainly 
 in 1835-36 as speculations. One in Cambridge Town- 
 ship, for instance, was started on Wolf Creek, a stream 
 said to have been advertised as navigable for the largest 
 class of steamboats, where city lots were sold for fabulous 
 prices, and wild-cat bank-notes circulated by the uncut 
 ream. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee 
 County, II, 17. 
 
 192. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 569. History of Oakland County 
 
 (1876), 138. 
 
 193. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 560, for Hst of these members. 
 
 194. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 1099. 
 
 195. Ibid., 118. 
 
 196. Ibid., 1109. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 239 
 
 ginia,^^'^ the other from Genesee County, New York. In 
 the Tecumseh colony, Austin E. Wing, who, though he 
 was a partner in the enterprise of founding the village, 
 did not reside there, was a native of Berkshire County, 
 Massachusetts ;^^^^ the other partners, Evans and 
 Brown, were both natives of Bucks County, Pennsyl- 
 vania, ^^^ but had lived for some time in New York, 
 principally at Brownsville in Jefferson County, from 
 the vie' nit y of which they brought a company of about 
 twenty persons in 1824.^°° The founder of Adrian 
 came from Palmyra, New York.""^ There is no doubt 
 that the bulk of the early population of this section 
 came from New York and the New England states. 
 
 With scarcely an exception, people from widely 
 separated localities were to be found in any of the 
 early settlements. For example, in Avon Township 
 there were between 1817 and 1825 settlers from Massa- 
 chusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New York and Penn- 
 sylvania. "°^ But in some places settlers from a partic- 
 ular source strongly predominated, frequently those 
 from New York. The principal source often appears 
 to be indicated by the names of villages or townships, 
 for it was very natural that m.en and women who had 
 separated themselves from the old home should wish 
 to perpetuate its memory in the name of the new 
 
 197. Ibid., 884; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, d>2>2,. 
 
 198. Michigan Bic graphics, 704. 
 
 199. Histcrical and Biographical Reccid of Lenawee County, I, 41, 
 
 67; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 111. 
 
 200. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, I, 40; 
 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., 1, 111. 
 
 201. Michigan Biographies, 186. 
 
 202. History of Oakland County (1876), 130-139. 
 
240 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 center of village life; moreover, such names would 
 naturally tend to encourage immigration from the 
 source which they indicated and in some cases seem 
 to have been deliberately chosen with that end in 
 view, Btit it would be very misleading to take these 
 names alone as evidence of a numerical superiority in 
 any settlement. Townships were usually named in the 
 legislative act which organized them, and while atten- 
 tion would be paid to a preference expressed by the 
 settlers themselves, the legislature often named town- 
 ships arbitrarily; often a prominent settler had suffi- 
 cient influence to cause his choice to prevail either with 
 or against the other members of the community. 
 Many examples might be given of names which seem 
 significant for the sources of population: in Lenawee 
 County, Woodstock and Cambridge, Seneca, Palmyra, 
 Madison, Rome; in Washtenaw County, Bridgewater, 
 Manchester and Salem, Scio, Sharon and Augusta; in 
 Oakland County, Oxford, Addison, Orion, Avon and 
 Milford, Commerce, Farmington, Lyon and Troy. 
 These names in the main seem to point to New York, 
 but a caution is suggested by a glance at the gazeteer, 
 which shows their numerous prototypes in the states 
 farther east.^°^ 
 
 The foreign elements of the population of the section 
 in this period were mainly English, Irish, Scotch and 
 German. In 1830 the total number of foreigners in 
 
 203. It is wcith a passing notice that the names of the larger 
 centers of population are of a different type. Pontiac 
 and Tecumseh bear the names of Indian chiefs; Ypsilanti 
 bears the name of a Greek hero, and Adrian that of a 
 Roman emperor; the name of Ann Arbor has a personal 
 significance. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 333. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 241 
 
 the three counties who were not naturaHzed amounted 
 to 128,"°^ but this probably represents only a small pro- 
 portion of the settlers who were born in foreign lands. 
 They were distributed as follows: in Oakland 84; in 
 Washtenaw 27 ; in Lenawee 17. The Germans were more 
 ntmierous in Washtenaw County, and settled mainly in 
 the townships of Ann Arbor and Freedom. ^"^ The center 
 of their settlement in Washtenaw County in 1833 
 seems to be indicated by the situation of their first 
 Church, two miles west of Ann Arbor.-^'^ Hoffman, in 
 the account of his visit to the village of Ann Arbor in 
 1833, does not mention .Germans, but Englishmen ;^°'' 
 and a nucleus of Englishmen seems to have formed 
 about 1830 in Independence Township in Oakland 
 County. "°^ In 1831 a small colony of English and 
 Irish distinguished for learning and culture, settled in 
 Lenawee County on the shore of Sand Lake, Cam- 
 bridge Township. Irish settlers are mentioned fre- 
 quently, and also the fact that they showed a prefer- 
 ence for the lake district. ^°^ Two Scotch centers of 
 settlement in that county seem to have formed in West 
 Bloomfield and Highland townships. -^° In 1825 a 
 company of thirty Canadians from South Yarmouth 
 are said to have settled in Avon Township. -^^ 
 
 2m. U. S. Census (1830), 115. 
 
 205. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 249, 250, 254; History of Wash- 
 
 tenaw County (1881), 1292; Beakes, Past and Present of 
 Washtenaw County, 651-658. 
 
 206. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 255. 
 
 207. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 157. The reference-to 
 
 Englishmen is possibly a typographical error. 
 
 208. History of Oakland County (1876), 207. 
 
 209. Ibid., 138, 184, 193, 207, 275, and passim. 
 
 210. Ibid., 201, 314. 
 
 211. Ibid.. 132. 
 
 31 
 
242 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 While the colonies were usually founded by individ- 
 ual initiative and enterprise, frequently a number of 
 families migrated from the old home together, as is 
 reported in the case of the Canadians from Yarmouth 
 and the settlers of Farmington.^^^ Organized business 
 effort founded Pontiac and Tecumseh. In some colo- 
 nies a religious bond furnished one of the motives for 
 group settlement and encouraged the addition of simi- 
 larly minded immigrants. Such were the Quaker set- 
 tlements in Tecumseh, Adrian, and Farmington, and 
 the Free Church settlement in Superior Township in 
 Washtenaw County. -^'^ Apparently the only social ex- 
 periment in colonization was that tried from England 
 by a wealthy disciple of Robert Owen, who purchased 
 and planned to colonize thirteen eighty-acre tracts in 
 Bloomfield and West Bloomfield townships in Oakland 
 County. The scheme failed, "^'^ it is said, through lack 
 of enterprise on the part of its promoter. 
 
 The section was as yet too young and the struggle 
 with nature too severe to permit of much development 
 
 212. Ibid., 166. 
 
 213. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 528; Historical and Biographical 
 
 Record of Lenawee County, II, 48; History of Oakland 
 County (1876), 166; History of Washtenaw County (1881), 
 1066. There were few religious eccentrics among the set- 
 tlers of this section, like the Momions in Illinois of about 
 the same time, though it is interesting to note an edi- 
 torial in the Detroit Courier for May 8, 1833, quoting a 
 letter written from Auburn, Oakland Cotmty, published 
 in the Rochester Revivalist, saying that two "Mormonite 
 preachers" had recently made their appearance in the 
 vicinity, and had made several converts. A small settle- 
 ment of Mormons in Highland Township is mentioned in 
 the History of Oakland County (1876), p. 201. They 
 appear to have left the county, however, before 1836. 
 
 214. Ibid., 312. 
 
THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 243 
 
 in the institutions of culture. Embryo newspapers 
 struggled for patronage at the county seats. ^^^ Primi- 
 tive schools existed in every township, ^^"^ and there 
 were small academies in Pontiac and Ann Arbor. ^^'^ 
 Church organizations were established side by side 
 with the schools, and in the larger centers separate 
 church buildings were erected. Good government and 
 good morals prevailed generally, though there were 
 some sharp contrasts. ^^^ 
 
 215. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 231, 336; VI, 96; VII, 232. 
 
 216. The settled townships in Oakland County are said to have 
 
 had in 1831 an average of three schools. Detroit Journal 
 and Michigan Advertiser, May 18, 1831. 
 
 217. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 611 ; History of Oakland 
 
 County (1876), 92; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 400. 
 
 218. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 223; XXVIII, 146; History of Oakland 
 
 County (1876), 110. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 St. Joseph Valley and Chicago Road 
 
 nPHE section of Michigan Territory which was set- 
 tied next after Oakland, Washtenaw, and Lenawee 
 counties, is comprised in the five counties westward 
 from Lenawee — -Hillsdale, Branch, Cass, St. Joseph, 
 and Berrien. Reaching from Lenawee County to Lake 
 Michigan, this area borders at the south upon the 
 states of Ohio and Indiana, and at the north upon the 
 counties of Jackson, Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Allegan. 
 f* The characteristic features of this section were in the 
 early days of settlement, as they are now, similar to 
 those of Oakland, Washtenaw, and Lenawee cotmties, 
 having a common origin in glacial action. The surface 
 varies from gently undulating to rolling and slightly 
 hilly, being lowest in the western portion near Lake 
 Michigan, where it reaches an elevation of about one 
 hundred and fifty feet, and it rises to an altitude of over 
 six hundred feet above lake level in Hillsdale County, 
 at the eastern end of the section.^ The surface of Cass 
 County is fairly level, that of St. Joseph moderately 
 undulating, while the westernmost county, Berrien^, 
 more nearly resembles, excepting in general elevation, 
 the counties of Branch and Hillsdale.^ Hillsdale is 
 
 1. Tackabury, Atlas, 11. 
 
 2. History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties, 127. 
 
 3. See Prof. C. A. Davis's description of the surface geology 
 
 of the region of Cass County in Glover's History of Cass 
 County; Blois, Gazetteer, 241. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 245 
 
 preeminently a county of hills and dales,"* and from 
 its varied surface it receives a natural beauty quite 
 equal to that found in parts of Oakland. This crest 
 of the ancient glacial moraine is the highest table-land 
 in the southern peninsula, forming a principal part of 
 the watershed between lakes Erie and Michigan, and 
 the springs and small lakes which dot its slopes give 
 rise to four important rivers — the Raisin, the Grand, 
 the Kalamazoo and the St. Joseph.^ 
 
 The trend of the surface carries the waters of this 
 section towards Lake Michigan, through its single river 
 system, the St. Joseph,^ which unifies the section by 
 affording uniformly excellent power and drainage, and a 
 current sufficiently gentle, deep and wide to permit of 
 navigation by small boats throughout the entire course 
 of the main stream. At a very early date sawmills 
 
 4. The county appears to have been named from this physical 
 
 feature, though the name is borne by places in the East 
 — for example, in Columbia County, New York, in In- 
 diana County, Pennsylvania, and Bergen County, New 
 Jersey— from whence settlers might have brought it to 
 Michigan. 
 
 5. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 19, 28; Collin, His- 
 
 tory of Branch County, 16; Blois, Gazetteer, 220-221; Mich. 
 Hist. Colls., I, 168, 171. 
 
 6. According to a description said to be quoted from the St. 
 
 Joseph Beacon but based largely on Farmer's Emigrant's 
 Guide, appearing in the Detroit Free Press for Oct. 11, 
 1832, "the St. Joseph country" seems not to have in- 
 cluded Hillsdale County, and to have covered, besides 
 the rest of the southern tier of counties, Calhoun and 
 Kalamazoo counties in Michigan and what were then 
 La Grange, Elkhart, St. Joseph and LaPorte counties in 
 Indiana. This was justified by the position of northern 
 branches of the river and by its southern bend through 
 northern Indiana. The usage is well to remember in 
 reading estimations of population for "the St. Joseph 
 country." 
 
246 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 began to appear at numerous points, and gristmills 
 very soon followed. A carding mill is said to have 
 been started on a branch of the St Joseph in Cass 
 County as early as 1830.^ 
 
 Small lakes similar to those in Oakland and Wash- 
 tenaw were very numerous in this section, especially in 
 the eastern part, and the excellent fish which came up 
 the streams from the Great Lakes were a welcome ad- 
 dition to the food supply of the early settlers.^ Again, 
 the beauty of the environment is said frequently to 
 have been one of the motives of settlement, as at Lake 
 Gilead in Branch County ® There were a few extensive 
 marshes, the largest of which were in southern Branch 
 County east of Lake Gilead, and in St Joseph County 
 above Middle Lake, also along Dowagiac Creek in Cass 
 County and in the western part of Berrien. ^° 
 
 The soil, with very few exceptions, was uniformly 
 fertile. There was one extensive tract of comparatively 
 poor sandy land along the shore of Lake Michigan in 
 the northwestern part of Berrien, and narrow bands of 
 heavy lake clay along the shore south of this sandy 
 tract made a soil like that so characteristic of Monroe 
 and Wayne counties. The level clay loam, of the kind 
 predominating in western Lenawee, formed the soil of 
 large areas in parts of Berrien, and in Branch and 
 Hillsdale, but the prevailing soil of the section was a 
 rich gravelly or sandy loam, comparatively open and 
 easy to cultivate. The early settlers seem to have 
 considered the yellow sandy loam of the white and 
 
 7. Glover, History oj Cass County, 154. 
 
 8. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 20. 
 
 9. Collin, History of Branch County, 70. 
 
 10. Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1907), map in pocket. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 247 
 
 yellow oak-openings sterile. ^^ Doubtless their prefer- 
 ence for the darker loam of the prairies was partly 
 due to greater familiarity with that kind of soil in 
 Ohio and Indiana.^- In 1838 Blois reported for Berrien 
 County "exuberant crops, "^"^ which appear to have 
 grown mainly on the prairies. He says that the soil 
 of St. Joseph County, where the first settlements were 
 largely upon the prairies, was "formerly considered 
 the best in the State. "^^ 
 
 Large portions of the section were unusually free 
 from dense forest. The only large continuous areas 
 presenting this obstruction to settlement were on the 
 clay land in southern Hillsda'e and Branch counties, 
 and in the southwestern part of Berrien. The northern 
 part of Hillsdale is said to have been like a succession 
 of orchards, and it was probably in these openings the 
 "strawberries were so plentiful that the cows often 
 came home with their feet stained with the juice of 
 the delicious fruit. "^^ Northern Branch County, ex- 
 cepting in small areas, as in Union Township, was 
 equally inviting to the early settler. Estimates of the 
 amount of heavily timbered land in Branch vary from 
 one-half to one-third of the county's area.^*^ There 
 
 11. Blois, Gazetteer, 215. 
 
 12. Glover, History of Cass County, 113. 
 
 13. Blois, Gazetteer, 214. 
 
 14. Ibid., 241. 
 
 15. Collin, History of Branch County, 19, 22; Blois, Gazetteer, 
 
 220-221; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 181. 
 
 16. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 216; Blois, Gazetteer, 214. The first 
 
 articles appearing in the newspapers calling attention 
 to Branch County mention the "extensive forests of fine 
 maple" in the southeast, and the open lands and prairies 
 of the north and northwest. See for example the De- 
 troit Journal and Michigan Advertiser for June 1, 1831, 
 and May 2, 1832. 
 
248 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 were scattered openings in Berrien, and some prairie 
 land, but dense forest covered the greater portion of 
 its area.^^ In fact the larger portion of the entire sec- 
 tion was covered with oak openings, burr-oak plains, 
 and small prairies, the former being specially valued 
 by settlers from the East, the latter by settlers from 
 the South. Cass and St. Joseph counties were the 
 most open of all in the section, having the most numer- 
 ous and the largest prairies, and it was these counties 
 that early gained most rapidly in population ^^ Of the 
 prairie land, there were two important areas in Berrien, 
 one south of Niles and one about Berrien Springs. -^^ 
 Branch County had several small prairies, in the vicin- 
 ity of Bronson, Girard and Coldwater. Hillsdale was 
 the least favored with prairie land, and the fact that 
 its first settlements were made upon what it contained 
 of this land shows that it was a natural advantage 
 strongly preferred by settlers. 
 
 The general effect of the relative position of the open 
 and forested lands in the section can easily be made 
 to appear. The belt of dense forest observed in Lena- 
 wee County to have been unfavorable to the rapid ex- 
 tension of the frontier, continued its northern border 
 in a southwesterly direction across Hillsdale and 
 Branch, and passed into Indiana before reaching St. 
 Joseph County. On the north of this line, oak open- 
 
 17. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 166, 192; Blois, Gazet- 
 
 teer, 214. 
 
 18. The relative slowness with which the more heavily forested 
 
 lands in these counties were settled, is illustrated by the 
 vicinity of Marcellus in Cass County. Glover, History 
 of Cass County, 117. It received its first settlers in 1836, 
 and had in 1843 but eighteen voters. 
 
 19. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 198, 208. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 249 
 
 ings and burr-oak plains interspersed with patches of 
 heavy timber and fertile prairie land extended west- 
 ward to Lake Michigan, The relation of these two 
 areas helped to determine the position of the Chicago 
 Trail and hence of the national turnpike, which was 
 the main axis of settlement in the section. Approach- 
 ing the section in a westerly direction from northern 
 Lenawee, this trail entered Hillsdale County near the 
 northeast corner, continued its direction across the 
 north of Hillsdale, whence, proceeding south westward 
 across Branch, it entered St. Joseph County near the 
 southeast corner; from there it continued almost 
 straight west across the southern part of St. Joseph 
 and Cass counties, passing out of the Territory across 
 the southeast corner of Berrien.-'' Its general course 
 suggests that the Indians sought to avoid the heavy 
 timber of Branch, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe 
 counties ; its minor windings seem to have been partly 
 determined by the prairies, which the Indians crossed 
 where convenient, and on the edges of whose fertile 
 open areas they established their villages. The sur- 
 veyors of the national turnpike, the eaf.y exploring 
 parties, and the first settlers, were thus at once brought 
 into direct contact with these prairies and their natural 
 advantages for transportation and agriculture. 
 
 The direct effect of the prairies on settlement is 
 abundantly attested in every county of the section, 
 but especially in the southwest. It was to be ex- 
 pected that immigration, seeking the lines of least re- 
 sistance, would early move along the Chicago Road, but 
 the first settlements in the section were not made from 
 
 20. Lanman, Michigan, map in front. 
 
250 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the east; they were made from Ohio and Indiana, and 
 by settlers who reached the Territory over a branch of 
 the Chicago Trail leading from Fort Wayne who had 
 heard of the prairie lands in St. Joseph and Cass 
 counties and had come to occupy them. The early 
 settlement of the section was the result of a com- 
 bined movement of population, of which before 1830 
 the immigration from the south to the southwestern 
 prairies was by far the more important. 
 
 This southwestern settlement undoubtedly was one 
 factor in determining the general relative rate of settle- 
 ment of different parts of this section throughout this 
 period. It appears to explain, in part, why the coun- 
 ties of Hi Isdale and Branch, which were farthest east, 
 and whose lands came onto the market first, were settled 
 latest and least rapidly. The population of Cass and 
 St. Joseph had each passed the three thousand mark 
 by 1834, and Berrien was approaching eighteen hun- 
 dred;"'^ Branch county had not at that time reached a 
 population of eight hundred, and Hillsdale numbered 
 but a little over five hundred. ^^ The comparative 
 backwardness of Hillsdale and Branch counties had 
 three principal causes. There was first the tendency 
 of Tecumseh, Adrian and the other older settlements in 
 the eastern part of the Territory to assimilate those 
 immigrants, who, while wishing to get good lands, pre- 
 ferred a comparatively close neighborhood; secondly, 
 there was the forest barrier against immigration from 
 the south into the lower parts of these counties, com- 
 bined with the presence of inviting prairies in the open 
 
 21. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 
 
 22. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 28. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 251 
 
 CQuntry to the west, which gave St. Joseph and Cass 
 counties a good start before the pubUc land sales and 
 the improvement of the Chicago Road facilitated the 
 influx of settlers from the eastern states; again, there 
 was the power of concentration enjoyed by the thriv- 
 ing southwestern settlements, attracting such eastern 
 settlers as might be willing to leave the vicinity of the 
 older settlements. 
 
 At the time of the Cass expedition over the Chicago 
 Trail in 1820, this whole section was a primitive 
 wilderness, save for the Indians and a few French 
 traders at the Indian villages and on the prairies 
 and the banks of the St. Joseph. The Indian 
 claims to the region were ceded by a succession 
 of treaties from 1821 to 1833.-^ The Indians 
 retained a few reservations the total area of which 
 was not great; but since they occupied some of 
 the most attractive prairie land in the section, and 
 since the character of the Indians was generally such 
 that newcomers tended to avoid their neighbor- 
 hood, these reservations were temporarily a retard- 
 ing influence upon the spread of settlement in their 
 vicinity. They were found chiefly at Coldwater in 
 Branch County, in the northern part of St. Joseph, and 
 in the southeastern part of Berrien. The entire area 
 of Berrien south of the St. Joseph River and west of 
 the Pare aux Vaches, was not ceded until 1833;-"^ as it 
 was in the main heavily forested, there was little pres- 
 sure for its cession, except from speculators in timber. 
 While the presence of the Indians on the prairies was 
 
 23. Bureau of American Ethnology, 18th Annual Report, Part 
 
 2, pp. 702, 718, 740, 750. 
 
 24. Ibid., pp. 702, 750. 
 
252 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 by virtue of their occupation of the land a retarding 
 influence, their personal relations with the white set- 
 tlers do not seem to have been hostile. There was in 
 1832 some anxiety that the Indians of the section 
 might rise to join Black Hawk, and though the fear 
 seems to have been groundless from the Indians' point 
 of view, the effect was temporarily quite material up- 
 on settlement.-^ On the passing of this trouble the 
 early fear of them appears to have softened into a feel- 
 ing of pity for their approaching fate, which seems to 
 be the meaning of the general indifference of settlers 
 to staying after they had ceded their lands. Ap- 
 parently however, throughout this period, the life es- 
 pecially of the women was materially influenced by 
 suspicions of their intentions and by the grossness of 
 their habits when influenced by liquor. ^"^ 
 
 The peopling of the section received its first ap- 
 preciable impulse from the establishment of the Carey 
 Mission in Berrien County, and from the survey of 
 the Chicago Road. The Carey Mission, founded from 
 Fort Wayne, Indiana, under the auspices of the Terri- 
 torial government of Michigan, attracted attention es- 
 pecially from Indiana and Ohio, and the reports about 
 
 25. Glover, History of Cass Covmty, 103; Collin, History of 
 
 Branch County, 27; Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 498-499. 
 
 26. An illustration of the better class among the Indians of this 
 
 vicinity is furnished by the Indian settlement in 
 Silver Creek Township in Cass County, under the Pota- 
 watomi Chief Pokagon, which became a center of Catho- 
 lic influence. Glover, History of Cass County, 285 ; Mich. 
 Hist. Colls., XIV, 260. See also Mrs. Hulst's graceful 
 tribute to the character of these Indians, in her Indian 
 Sketches, 40-111. Pokagon, on Pokagon Prairie, the 
 earliest of the settlements in Cass County, still preserves 
 the name of Chief Pokagon. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 253 
 
 the fertile prairies with their marginal forests led to a 
 considerable immigration from below Michigan. At 
 first the mission was a point of radiation for the exten- 
 sion of the frontier, but as settlement struck root firm- 
 ly in the lands to the eastward, immigration to them 
 became direct. The survey of the Chicago Road at- 
 tracted attention particularly in the East, and in the 
 wake of the surveyors came parties of himters, pros- 
 pectors and homeseekers. These early settlers were 
 squatters, still few in number when the first lands of 
 the section came into market in 1829. There were at 
 that date less than two thousand people in the whole 
 section. ^^ The year 1829 marked a distinct advance 
 in the western settlement of Michigan. Many coun- 
 ties were then established, and Cass and St. Joseph 
 were organized. The formation of local government 
 by the Territorial legislature and the possibility of 
 securing valid titles to land were strong inducements 
 to settlement. 
 
 The difficulties which attended a journey to the 
 western part of this section n the early days were 
 very great and retarded settlement materially. 
 A pioneer of 1828, starting on horseback from 
 Sandusky, Ohio, waded knee-deep for miles through 
 Cottonwood Swamp, breaking the ice for his horse 
 as he went, and reached the mission after two 
 weeks of travel without meeting the sign of a 
 habitation. ^^ The trail from Fort Wayne to the 
 mission was rough and dangerous, crossed by many 
 
 27. U. 5. Census (1830), 153. 
 
 28. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 123-124. 
 
254 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 streams."^ The Chicago Road was not surveyed 
 until about the time the southwestern counties re- 
 ceived their first settlers from Ohio and Indiana; in a 
 sense it may be said to have followed the first immigra- 
 tion from the East, being practically only a ''paper 
 road" until actual travel made a real highway out of 
 the old Indian trail. The first immigrants over it 
 threaded the primitive wilderness, fording streams, 
 wading swamps, and sleeping in the forest.^" Some use 
 was early made of water transportation, especially for 
 goods, by way of the Straits of Mackinac and then 
 inland by small boats up the St. Joseph River.^^ About 
 1830 mill-irons which were destined for a point in 
 Branch County were brought from Detroit in this 
 way.^^ 
 
 The line of the Chicago Road was the great axis of 
 settlement in this section, and from settlements made 
 there the frontier extended to neighboring prairies, oak 
 openings and timbered land. Settlers along the road 
 opened their log cabins as taverns to accommodate the 
 traveler, and these spots became centers of informa- 
 
 29. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 20, 37. ■ 
 
 30. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 222. 
 
 31. Ibid., I, 124; Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 176-177. 
 
 32. Collin, History of Branch County, 43. The all-water route, 
 
 however, was expensive and open only part of the year. 
 Transportation by the Chicago Road seems not to have 
 been considered sufficient in 1833 to take care of the in- 
 creasing production in the St. Joseph country. In the 
 Detroit Cotirier for Nov. 27, 1833, is reported a meeting 
 of settlers in the vicinity of White Pigeon to petition for 
 a railroad between Lake Erie and Lake Michigan, one of 
 the first movements culminating in the later Southern 
 Railroad. This was a project not to be realized for this 
 part of the section, however, for two decades. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 255 
 
 tion about^the surrounding^ country. •'^''^ The following 
 illustration of one of these taverns and of life on the 
 Chicago Road in the early thirties is typical :^'^ 
 
 "Immediately after the opening of the Chicago Road 
 Jonesville presented daily the appearance of a pioneer 
 camp. All around the little log house of entertain- 
 ment, where Beniah and Lois Jones made so comfort- 
 ing a welcome as to cause the wayworn travelers often 
 to forget the discomforts they had experienced in the 
 tangled undergrowth and deep mires of the Cotton- 
 wood and Black swamps, which their wearisome jour- 
 ney from the east had compelled them to cross, white- 
 topped wagons were thickly packed together, and men, 
 women and children engaged in earnest conversation. 
 . Emerging from the forest, coming from the 
 east, would appear a hardy and stalwart pioneer in 
 the prime of life, guiding the ox-team, or teams, that 
 bore along all of the family's persona effects. His 
 boys followed, driving perhaps a cow or two, and a few 
 pigs and sheep. His wife and daughters, tired of their 
 long tramp of many weary miles through the woods 
 and swamps and over rough roads, trudged scatteringly 
 behind. Sometimes a hale, white-haired patriarch, 
 staff in hand, with head erect and firm step, would 
 march at the head of the teams or among the grown-up 
 and" married sons and daughters, undaunted by^the 
 privations and hardships that he knew so well from 
 former experiences, must be their lot in their new 
 
 33. Thirty-three taverns in one county (Branch) on the Chicago 
 
 Road are said to have been noted by a passing settler in 
 1837. ColHn, History of Branch County, 30. 
 
 34. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 32. 
 
256 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 homes. . . . Following these might be seen others, 
 and more favored immigrants, who had passed less 
 time on the way, for they rode in covered wagons 
 drawn by sleek well-groomed horses, indicating owners 
 in prosperous circumstances." 
 
 By 1830 two stages weekly were running from Detroit 
 to the southwest over the Chicago Road. Postoffices 
 were established along the road at intervals. Enter- 
 prising settlers introduced stocks of goods at these most 
 frequented points, which became distributing centers, 
 markets, and nuclei of village life. Active improve- 
 ment of the Chicago Road by the Government began 
 in 1831-32; stages were increased to three a week in 
 the early part of 1832 and were coming daily by 
 1835.^^ The year 1831 was a significant year for the 
 platting of villages and the establishment of county 
 seats. 
 
 This section experienced, in common with the rest of 
 the Territory, a temporary check to immigration from 
 the Black Hawk War and the cholera epidemics of 
 1832 and 1834. It has been asserted that stages were 
 in 1832 withdrawn from the Chicago Road for want of 
 passengers;^'' but the year 1833 witnessed a renewal 
 of immigration. Hillsdale County, a' so Branch, which 
 was organized in that year, began to feel the effects of 
 the new tide from New York.^^ For the total popula- 
 
 35. Glover, History of Cass County, 170; History of Berrien and 
 
 Van Bur en Counties, 51. 
 
 36. Collin, History of Branch County, 30; Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 
 
 239. 
 
 37. Territorial Laws, III, 1362. The dates of county organiza- 
 
 tion in the section — 1829, 1831, 1833, 1835 — correspond 
 approximate!}^ to the four great impulses to its settle- 
 ment. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 257 
 
 tion of the counties of this section at the beginning of 
 1833 there are no statistics, but if a judgment may be 
 made from the number of new settlements and the 
 rapidity with which the frontier was extended, more 
 people were received in the two years 1833-34 than in 
 all the time preceding. Before the close of 1834 there 
 were over nine thousand people in the section; by 
 1837 the number had increased to more than twenty- 
 five thousand. 
 
 The stages of immigration to this section are re- 
 flected in a comparison of populations. The whole sec- 
 tion numbered in 1834 but little more than the popula- 
 tion of the single county of Monroe, in the same tier of 
 counties. It was far surpassed by each of the counties 
 of Washtenaw and Oakland,^^ and was nearly doubled 
 by the population of Wayne. Detroit alone contained 
 almost one-half as many people as this whole south- 
 western section.^^ By 1837 the section had much more 
 than doubled the population of Monroe County, and 
 considerably exceeded that of either Washtenaw or 
 Oakland, having about one-half the population of those 
 counties combined with Lenawee, and a little more 
 than that of Wayne County including Detroit. 
 
 People came to this section by two great movements 
 of immigration, and the early population of the sec- 
 tion is therefore varied. The settlers of St. Joseph, 
 Cass and Berrien appear to have come intermediately 
 from Ohio and Indiana, and in less ntunbers from 
 Kentucky and Tennessee; a majority, either by birth 
 
 38. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 
 
 39. Mich. Hist. Colls., 1, 336. 
 
 33 
 
258 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 or descent, were traceable to the South Atlantic states, 
 in particular Virginia and North Carolina. 
 F At first the two western counties of St. Joseph and 
 Cass were favorites. They had the least dense forest, 
 the greatest number of prairies which appealed especi- 
 ally to Southern immigrants, and an approach that was 
 comparatively easy. Berrien County occupied in rate 
 of settlement a middle position up to 1834, for several 
 reasons — its greater distance west, its smaller amount 
 of prairie land, the small proportion of its area that was 
 within easy reach of the Chicago Road, and the late 
 date at which its lands came upon the market. Yet it 
 was in Berrien County that settlement was first begun. 
 The French were early there, though their occupation 
 of southwestern Michigan left little but traditions and 
 a few geographical names, ^° and a small number of 
 French traders gave a little aid to the first settlers.^^ 
 But the earliest real impulse to agricultural settlement 
 in this region came from the Carey Indian Mission, 
 
 40. For example, St. Joseph, Prairie Ronde, La Grange, Pare 
 
 aux Vaehes and Bertrand. See also, Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXVII, 179-186, for activities south of Niles about Fort 
 St. Joseph. The History of Berrien and Van Bur en 
 Counties, 127-130, gives some account of the early French 
 at the site of the present city of St. Joseph. 
 
 41. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 19, 20, 171-172, 206; 
 
 Glover, History of Cass County, 38-39; History of St. 
 Joseph Cotmty (1877), 220; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 332; II, 
 490; VI, 423. A French trading post appears to have 
 been established in 1833 at the site of the present village 
 of Mendon in St. Joseph County, whose founder is said 
 to have given much aid to the first settlers of that neigh- 
 borhood. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 404-406. 
 Though the place received its first settler in 1834, ap- 
 parently the village was not platted until 1845. History 
 of St. Joseph County {\^11), 220, 223. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 259 
 
 whose official nature and reputation made it the head- 
 quarters for settlers and a point from which the frontier 
 was extended. 
 
 The Carey Mission was established in 1822-23, under 
 the auspices of Governor Cass, whose interest in the 
 project appears to have been a direct result of his ex- 
 pedition to this region in 1820. At the head of this 
 enterprise Cass appointed the Reverend Isaac McCoy, 
 a native of Pennsylvania, who as a Baptist missionary 
 had conducted a French and Indian mission at Fort 
 Wayne, Indiana. The result was the emigration of 
 about fifty persons, in 1822, from the vicinity of Fort 
 Wayne to a point about a mile west of the present city 
 of Niles, where within the following 3^ear they built 
 six mission houses.^^ In 1824 the report of the Indian 
 agent called the Carey Mission "a, colony firmly settled, 
 numerous, civilized and happy," having fifty acres 
 cleared and fenced, on which had been raised sixteen 
 hundred bushels of corn, one hundred and fifty bushels 
 
 42. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 12; V, 146. A general secondary ac- 
 count of the founding of the mission, together with much 
 data for the sources of early settlers near it, is given in 
 the History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties (1880), 
 153-163,260-264. McCoy tells of the beginnings of his 
 relations with Cass in connection with the Fort Wayne 
 Mission in his Baptist Indian Missions, 90. See Ibid., 
 71-89, for an account of McCoy's work at the Fort Wayne 
 Mission. Cass' letter of instructions to McCoy, dated 
 July 16, 1822, appears in the same work, 145-154; among 
 other requirements McCoy was to report twice a year to 
 the governor of Michigan Territory and to the Indian 
 agent at Chicago. A summary of McCoy's first report 
 from the Carey Mission is given at p. 201, and an ac- 
 count of the mission in the same year (1823) by Air. 
 Keating is quoted on pp. 197-198 from Vol. I, of Major 
 Long's Expedition to the Sources oj the St. Peter's. 
 
260 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 of oats, and four hundred bushels of potatoes.^^ In 
 1826 another report made to Cass credits the mission 
 with over two htmdred acres of land fenced, fifty 
 planted to corn, and eight acres to potatoes and other 
 vegetables. ^"^ The next year Cass personally visited the 
 mission to treat with the Potawatomis, having been, 
 as McCoy says, a sort of patron of the mission. ^^ 
 
 Settlement began early to spread out from the Carey 
 Mission, but McCoy apparently did not favor the set- 
 tlement of the neighboring lands by whites. He says 
 he was continually haunted by the painful reflection 
 that the Indians would soon be displaced by them; he 
 writes, ''Our location was so remote from the settle- 
 ments of white people when we first made it, and the 
 inconveniences of reaching and residing at it so great, 
 that we hoped, at that time, to be able to push forward 
 the work of civilization to a state not much liable to 
 injury by the proximity of white population, before 
 we should be crowded out."'^® Of the sort of influence 
 that made the missionary in general unfriendly to the 
 advance of the white man's frontier, he gives an ex- 
 ample that is typical — a man from Indiana came in 
 
 43. McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, 241, Report of Mr. Leib 
 
 to Lewis Cass. This report, dated Nov. 20, 1824, was 
 transmitted to the Secretary of War and published in an 
 eastern paper, the Columbia Star, from which it was 
 quoted in toto by the Detroit Gazette of vSept. 26, 1826. 
 The editor of the Gazette says it is the first time he has 
 read it, showing that it was probably not known at 
 Detroit before its appearance in the Gazette in 1826. 
 
 44. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 17. In 1827 Cass per- 
 
 sonally visited the Carey Mission to treat with the Pota- 
 watomis. McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, 319'. 
 
 45. McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, 319. 
 
 46. Ibid., 264. 
 
LEWIS CASS 
 
 (Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXIX, 272) 
 
 ,.?l°"^ the oil painting in Representative Hall at Lansing.— Lewis Cass as Governor of 
 Michigan Territory from 1813 to 1831 was the greatest single personal influence in the 
 settlement of the Territory. He was a native of New Hampshire and came to Mich- 
 igan from Ohio to serve in the War of 1812. He was made Brigadier General in 1813 
 Jrorn 1831 to 1836 he was Secretary of War under President Jackson; from 1836 to 1842 
 Minister to France; from 184.5 to 1848 and again from 1849 to 1857, Vnited States Sena- 
 tor from Michigan; and from 18.57 to 1860, Secretary of State under President Buchanan 
 His life_ spanned the formative period in the national life, extending from 1782 to 1866 
 See p. .50. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 261 
 
 the Spring of 1825 afoot and alone to the mission and 
 made a settlement on the St. Joseph River as near to 
 the mission as he could without trespassing on the 
 claims of the Indians; notwithstanding that he was 
 dependent on the mission for subsistence, and regard- 
 less of protest, he procured a barrel of whiskey and 
 began selling it to the Indians. It appears that in 
 1829 McCoy and his family left the mission for the 
 West.4^ 
 
 Outside of the mission and west of Tecumseh there 
 were, in 1825, only nine white families — seven in Berrien 
 County and two in Cass.^^ One of the most prominent 
 settlers in Cass county was a mission teacher, Bald- 
 win Jenkins, born at Fort Jenkins in Green County, 
 Pennsylvania, who had early emigrated to Tennessee 
 but had left to avoid the presence of slavery."^ ^ He 
 came to the mission from Green County, Ohio.^*^ Two 
 days earlier than Jenkins came Uzziel Putnam, also 
 from Ohio, a native of Wardsboro, Vermont. ^^ Put- 
 nam had formerly lived in Massachusetts and New 
 York, and came to Cass from Erie County, Ohio, by 
 way of Fort Wayne and the mission.^- These settlers 
 with their families founded on Pokagon Prairie the nu- 
 cleus of Pokagon village. As illustrating the impor- 
 tance attaching to the first settlers of a region, it 
 should be mentioned that Jenkins was appointed by 
 Governor Cass justice of the peace for St. Joseph 
 
 47. Ibid., 386. 
 
 48. Glover, History oj Cass County, 43 ; Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 149. 
 
 49. Glover, History of Cass County, 45, 143. 
 
 50. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 150. 
 
 51. Ibid., XVIII, 347. 
 
 52. Glover, History of Cass County, 40, 41. 
 
262 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Township, which included then all the country west 
 of Lenawee County, was one of the first associate 
 judges under the Territorial government, and became 
 a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1835.^^ 
 
 The mission, the prairies, the Chicago Trail, and 
 water power, made the combination of influences that 
 determined the location of the first settlements in Cass 
 County. The influence of the mission is seen in the 
 location of the first settlements of Cass, in the western 
 part of the county. The settlement of Pokagon Prairie 
 in 1825 was followed by the settlement at Edwards- 
 burg, on Beardsley's Prairie, in 1826.^^ The first, 
 unlike the second, was not on the Chicago Trail, but 
 considerably north of the mission, just to the east of 
 Dowagiac Creek and near where the carding mill was 
 started in 1830. Water power was a chief motive of 
 the settlement at Adamsville, at the junction of the 
 Chicago Road with Christian Creek .-^^ Settlement first 
 reached the eastern part of the comity on a prairie 
 crossed by the Chicago Road at Union. ^'^ In 1829 the 
 northern part of the county was reached at Little 
 Prairie Ronde, by natives of New Jersey, who are said 
 to have emigrated from Union County, Indiana. ^^ 
 
 The first settlements in St. Joseph County appear to 
 have had no special connection with the mission. Im- 
 migration from the South began to blend very early 
 there with that from the East, though the former was 
 
 53. Glover, History of Cass County, 43; Michigan Biographies, 
 
 375. 
 
 54. Glover, History of Cass County, 45, 120. 
 
 55. Ibid., 124. 
 
 56. Ibid., 125. 
 
 57. Ibid., 51. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 263 
 
 until the end of this period strongly preponderant. 
 The survey of the Chicago Road tended to dispel the 
 false ideas of the interior which had been held in the 
 East, and parties of prospectors, hunters and home- 
 seekers were led to follow its "blazes" to the south- 
 west.^^ In the spring of 1825 the Detroit Gazette, on 
 the basis of information received from the surveyors, 
 called attention to the excellent lands on the head- 
 waters of the St. Joseph,^^ and soon afterward the 
 Michigan Herald commented on the progress of the 
 land surveys upon "the St. Joseph and the Canama- 
 zoo."^° Within two years natives of Maine and Ver- 
 mont, from Brownstown in Wayne County, Michigan, 
 and from Jennings County, Indiana, settled on White 
 Pigeon and Sturgis prairies, arriving by way of 
 Monroe and Tecumseh; the trip was made in about 
 twenty days.^^ In 1827 at the first election held in 
 White Pigeon, the coimty polled fourteen votes,^^ rep- 
 resenting probably the strength of the voting popula- 
 tion on the two prairies. Settlement on other prairies 
 soon followed. ^'"^ The site of Mottville on the St. 
 Joseph River was in 1827 selected for a mill site by a 
 settler from Crawford County, Ohio. Many settlers 
 followed from that county,''^ and in the next year a 
 
 58. History of St. Joseph County (1877), 14; Reynolds, History 
 
 of Hillsdale County, 24. 
 
 59. Detroit Gazette, March 18, 1825. 
 
 60. Michigan Herald, Feb. 14, 1826. 
 
 61. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 489, 493; XVIII, 223, 373, 517; His- 
 
 tory of St. Joseph County (1877), 14, 61, 62, 71. 
 
 62. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 513. 
 
 63. Ibid, I, 123; II, 489; IV, 217, 219, 424; XVIII, 349, 353, 
 
 609. 
 
 64. History of St. Joseph Coimty (1877), 86, 137, 212. 
 
264 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 typical pioneer "first store" was established of which 
 the stock was "codfish, a keg of tobacco and five 
 barrels of whiskey. ""^^ By 1829 the frontier had 
 reached the northern part of the county on Nottawa 
 sepe Prairie, near the Indian reservation.^^ 
 
 Despite the mission, the early settlement of Berrien 
 County suft'ered from competition with Cass and St. 
 Joseph. Settlers who were attracted to its vicinity 
 from the South by the fame of the mission, soon moved 
 away to the prairies eastward, which fast gathered 
 population. Settlement in Berrien struck root firmly 
 in 1829, when Niles village was platted by a colony of 
 three Southern families who had come thither the pre- 
 vious year" from Richmond, Indiana; one of the most 
 influential of the families was native to Virginia ;^^ they 
 established a store and their account books for 1828 
 register for that year the names of seventeen custom- 
 ers.^^ The success of this colony was due not a little 
 to the charming site they chose on the banks of the 
 St. Joseph near where it crossed the Chicago Trail. 
 Settlement soon followed elsewhere in the county. In 
 the year in which Niles was platted a family of Poles 
 from Preble County, Ohio , settled about a mile down 
 the river from Niles, followed by a family of North 
 Carolinians who had sojourned in Indiana. ^° The 
 same year saw the beginning on Portage Prairie, from 
 Wayne County, Indiana ;'^^ at Berrien Springs on Wolf's 
 
 65. 
 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 514. 
 
 66. 
 
 Ibid., II, 493; VI, 424. 
 
 67. 
 
 Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 22-23 
 
 68. 
 
 Ibid., 142. 
 
 69. 
 
 Ibid., 141. 
 
 70. 
 
 Ibid., 167-168. 
 
 71. 
 
 Ibid., 208. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 265 
 
 Prairie, from North Carolina;'^- and in 1828-29 at St. 
 Joseph, from Ohio, New Hampshire and New York.'^^ 
 The importance of the site of St. Joseph as a stra- 
 tegic and commercial point was recognized early both 
 by the French and the Americans. It had a position 
 at the mouth of one of the most important rivers of 
 southern Michigan and on elevated ground that added 
 to its security, healthfulness and beauty. "■* It appears 
 that La Salle and his party explored the lower part of 
 this river in 1679, and that shortly afterwards the 
 Jesuits founded at its mouth a mission and built a 
 fort there. ^^ When the American Government began 
 to see the need of a fort on Lake Michigan its com- 
 missioners chose the site of St. Joseph, but the opposi- 
 tion of the Indians, with whom at that time no treaty 
 of cession had been made, led the Government to 
 decide instead upon the site of Chicago, where in 1804 
 it built Fort Dearborn. '^^ In 1870 William Burnett, a 
 trader, native to New Jersey, established his post at 
 the site of the old French mission, and in his day there 
 seem to have been many French-Canadians there. ^^ 
 
 72. Ibid., 198; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 120. 
 
 73. Coolidge, History oj Berrien County, 171-172. 
 
 74. It occupied a peninsula formed by the lake and river on the 
 
 south side. On the point of the peninsula there was at 
 the time of its first settlement about half an acre of 
 cleared land, apparently made by the early mission, 
 which was of advantage to its first American settlers. 
 History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 315. 
 
 75. Mich. Hist. Colls., 1, 121. 
 
 76. Ibid., 1, 122. It is probably a far reach to conclude from 
 
 this, as has been done, that Michigan instead of Illinois 
 might have had the great metropolis of the Middle West; 
 yet the suggestion is a hint of the possibilities in the 
 very humblest beginnings of early settlement. 
 
 77. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 19, 171-172. 
 
266 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Extracts from the accomit books of Burnett, as quoted 
 in the History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties, "^^ 
 appear to show the place to have had much of the 
 nature of a true settlement. But the first strong im- 
 pulse to American settlement came from Calvin Bri- 
 tain, a native of Jefferson County, New York, who 
 came to Michigan in 1827 and engaged in teaching at 
 Carey Mission. '^^ He came to the site of St. Joseph 
 in 1829, the year in which McCoy left the mission, 
 and a little later laid out the village. His strong in- 
 fluence was exercised through a long period in that 
 community, with the result that many settlers were 
 attracted from his native county in New York.^° 
 
 The years from 1827 to 1829 mark the first really 
 active settlement in the southwestern counties. Sec- 
 tions were surveyed there from 1827 forward, and sales 
 began in those counties in 1829.^^ In that year a large 
 number of counties were established in the southwest; 
 the counties of Cass and St. Joseph were organized, 
 and local government was established on the township 
 system in Cass, St. Joseph and Berrien. ^^ Each of 
 these counties had received at several points their first 
 settlers. There is abundant testimony as to this. 
 
 78. The originals are now in the Burton library at Detroit. 
 
 79. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 171-172; History oj 
 
 Berrien and Van Bur en Counties (1880), 312. 
 
 80. Michigan Biographies, 123. He was a member of the Ter- 
 
 ritorial legislature from 1832 to 1835; a member of the 
 constitutional conventions of 1836 and 1850; a State 
 senator from 1835 to 1837; a representative in the State 
 legislature in 1847, 1850 and 1851; and lieutenant gov- 
 ernor in 1852. 
 
 81. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 179; II, 376; XVIII, 513; Coolidge, 
 
 History oJ Berrien County, 30. 
 
 82. Territorial Laws, II, 735, 744, 786. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 267 
 
 "One fact speaks more than a voliime of descrip- 
 tion and reasoning, (says the editor of the Northwestern 
 Jour7ial December 2, 18-29). Mr. Savary left this city 
 last spring with his wife, two children, one hired man 
 and a team of horses. He proceeded to Pigeon Prairie, 
 (St. Joseph Coimty), put up a block house, fenced in a 
 field of 75 acres, which he planted with corn, from 
 which he has gathered a crop of 3,000 bushels, and 
 another field of 29 acres which he has sowed with 
 wheat. With the proceeds of part of the corn and of 
 his live stock he has paid the first cost of the land and 
 all his expenses, and has money in his pocket. He has 
 also, remaining, nearly 100 hogs, and 2,000 bushels of 
 corn." About a month later the editor returns to the 
 theme: "We adverted some time since in general terms 
 to what would be deemed by a New England farmer, 
 the miraculous results accomplished by Mr. Savary 
 and one laborer. We now are able to add that the 
 statement we then made was, to say the least, a very 
 moderate one. In addition to the proceeds of his 
 crops, amounting at a low estimate to more than one 
 thousand dollars, his improvements have added one 
 thousand dollars to the value of his land. And this 
 in the brief interval between the first of March and 
 the first of November. In all this he has not done 
 more than others in that region." With such a glow- 
 ing and apparently disinterested statement before 
 prospective settlers the editor hardly needed to urge 
 "at least an exploring tour to the region of the St. 
 Joseph. "^^ 
 
 83. January 13, 1829. See also editorials in the same paper for 
 March 3 and July 7, 1830, and the Detroit Free Press for 
 
268 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 In the two eastern counties of Hillsdale and Branch, 
 settlement was barely beginning in 1829. In Hillsdale 
 Captain Moses Allen settled upon the prairie which 
 took his name, where he preempted land in 1827. He 
 had been a captain in the War of 1812 and had settled 
 after the war at Wyandotte in Wayne County, Mich- 
 igan. ^^ He is said to have accompanied the surveyors 
 of the Chicago Road in 1825, and in the following year 
 to have gone with a prospecting party through the 
 entire length of the St. Joseph Valley. In 1827 he 
 brought his family and goods to the prairie of his 
 choice. ^^ This was then the only settlement between 
 Tecumseh and White Pigeon and it became a nucleus for 
 further settlement. When the lands of the county 
 came into the market in 1829 five purchasers bought 
 four hundred and eighty acres there in that year.^*^ 
 On the representation of Captain Allen, Beniah Jones 
 came to Allen's Prairie in 1829, and choosing a site 
 for a village at the junction of the Chicago Road with 
 the St. Joseph River became the founder of Jones- 
 ville,^^ which for a long time was one of the most noted 
 stations on that thoroughfare. 
 
 In Branch County the first settlement was made, not 
 from the East, but from Ohio.'^^ The choice of a loca- 
 
 83. Cow. September 22, 1831, the latter quoting extracts from a 
 
 letter of a St. Joseph farmer showing the superior value 
 of the St. Joseph lands for wheat raising over those on 
 the Erie Canal, despite the greater distance from the 
 eastern market. 
 
 84. History of Hillsdale County (1879), 35. 
 
 85. Ibid., 35. 
 
 86. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 27. 
 
 87. Ibid., 60; History of Hillsdale County (1879), 36. 
 
 88. Mich. Hist. Colls., XII, 400. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 269 
 
 tion fell naturally upon prairie land, and the name of 
 the settler, Jabez Bronson, soon attaching to the 
 prairie, still remains in the southwestern township of 
 Bronson. This settlement was made in 1828.^^ The 
 previous year Bronson had raised a crop of corn on 
 White Pigeon Prairie in Cass County^° and it is curi- 
 ous that with such early knowledge of that region he 
 should have moved farther east. No sufficient reason, 
 apparently, has been assigned; none can be found in 
 his original occupation as a shipwright, ^^ nor was he 
 of the hunter type of pioneer wishing to get away 
 from^associates, for he located on the Chicago Road 
 where his log cabin early became known as "Bron- 
 son's hotel. "^- In the winter of 1829-30 there were 
 a half dozen families on the prairie, which became the 
 nucleus of Bronson village. ^^ 
 
 The logical choice for the first settlers in Branch 
 County would seem to have been the prairie about the 
 site of Coldwater. This lay eastward from Bronson 
 Prairie, also on the Chicago Road, and would meet 
 the first eastern immigration coming to the county. 
 But the first settlement from that direction was not 
 made there, and a reason appears apart from the fact 
 of Bronson's approach from the west and the attrac- 
 tion which his vicinity might have for newcomers. On 
 Coldwater Prairie, Indians were in possession of a large 
 reservation made by the Chicago treaty of 1821.^* 
 
 89. Ibid., VI, 217; XVIII, 609. 
 
 90. Collin, History of Branch County, 41. 
 
 91. Ibid., 41. He seems to have come from Connecticut. 
 
 92. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 218. 
 
 93. Collin, History of Branch County, 41. 
 
 94. Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, 
 
 Part 2, p. 704. 
 
270 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Several hundred Indians were gathered there, and 
 though this land was ceded to the Government in 
 1827, it was a considerable time before they were re- 
 moved. ^^ They were on the whole friendly, but their 
 selfishness, vagrancy, drunkenness, and thieving, made 
 them undesirable neighbors. ^^ A settlement was made 
 on Cocoosh Prairie at the extreme north of the county 
 in 1829.9^ 
 
 By the year 1830 the older settlements of this section 
 had gained considerable strength. Of the younger 
 comities. Branch had more settlers than Hillsdale, but 
 these probably did not number more than a htindred.^^ 
 In the national census for 1830 the population of Branch 
 fails to appear independently; it is included in that of 
 the township of Green, a large township comprising in 
 addition to Branch the counties of Calhoun and Eaton 
 and "all the country lying north of the county of 
 Eaton ;"^^ but the population of Green Township to- 
 gether with that of Flowerfield Township in St. Joseph 
 County with which it was included, numbered only one 
 hundred and ten people. ^°° The population of the re- 
 maining area within the present limits of St. Joseph 
 County was distributed between the two large equal 
 townships of White Pigeon and Sherman i^*^^ to the 
 
 95. Ibid., 718; Collin, History of Branch County, 50. 
 
 96. Collin, History of Branch County, 26, 50. 
 
 97. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 218, 219, 238; XVIII, 609. 
 
 98. In an article in the Detroit Journal and Michigan Adver- 
 
 tiser for May 2, 1832, signed, "An inhabitant of Branch," 
 the population of the county is estimated at about fifty 
 families. 
 
 99. Collin, History of Branch County, 28; Territorial Laws, 
 
 II, 787. 
 
 100. U. S. Census (1830), 153. 
 
 101. Territorial Laws, II, 786-787.. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 271 
 
 westernmost of these was credited six hundred and 
 seven people, to the eastern two hundred and five. 
 Thus White Pigeon was the center of a county popula- 
 tion of over eight hundred people. Cass County had 
 a total population of more than nine himdred, who 
 were distributed about equally in four townships. ^"^ 
 That of the middle-western townships of Pokagon and 
 LaGrange was slightly more than half, and this to- 
 gether with their smaller size points to the fact that 
 the bulk of the population of the cotmty was gather- 
 ed about Pokagon and La Grange prairies. Berrien. 
 County appears in the census as the township of 
 Niles^*^^ with a population of about three himdred, 
 which was mainly within a short radius of Carey 
 Mission. 
 
 From 1830 onward population increased steadily 
 until it was checked by the cholera epidemic^ ''^ and 
 fear of the Black Hawk War in 1832. In this period 
 the two movements of population to southwestern 
 Michigan blended and began to push up into Kalama- 
 zoo and Calhoim coimties. It was a marked recogni- 
 tion of the strength of the new impulse to immigra- 
 tion that a new land office was established at White 
 Pigeon in 1831 ;^°^ reco'gnition of the new tide of settlers 
 to the Kalamazoo Valley is reflected in the removal of 
 that office in 1834 from White Pigeon to Kalamazoo. 
 The only serious break in the continuity of the stream 
 
 102. Ihid., II, 786. 
 
 103. Ibid., II, 786. 
 
 104. CampbeU, Outlines, 437-440. 
 
 105. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 513. 
 
272 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 of immigration came in 1832, with effects that were 
 felt in the section for a year or more.-^°*^ 
 
 The choice of White Pigeon as the place for the new 
 land office indicates the central position it held in this 
 early settlement of the southwestern counties. The 
 village had been laid out in 1830.^°'' Its importance is 
 reflected in the words of the traveler Hoffman who 
 was there in the winter of 1833-34, who says, "At 
 White Pigeon, where I found quite a pretty village of 
 four years growth, I seemed in getting upon the post 
 route from Detroit to Chicago, to get back once more 
 to an old coimtry."^^^ The impression was doubtless 
 heightened by his recent experience — he had come 
 west over the Territorial Road and had just traveled 
 over fourteen miles direct from Prairie Ronde in Kala- 
 mazoo County without seeing "the sign of a habita- 
 tion" imtil he approached White Pigeon Prairie; but 
 in conveying the idea of a well settled locality which 
 had an aspect of permanence his words were probably 
 justified. In that year the Michigan Statesman and St. 
 Joseph Chronicle is mentioned as having been received 
 at Detroit from White Pigeon.^°^ In 1831, the year 
 the land office was opened there, the population of the 
 village was estimated by the* Detroit Journal and 
 Michigan Advertiser (June 15) at about six hundred 
 people. The presence of three sawmills and two 
 
 106. Collin, History of Branch County, 29-30; Glover, History of 
 
 Cass County, 103 ; Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 
 27; Mich. Hist. Colls., 11,498. 
 
 107. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 515. 
 
 108. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 219. 
 
 109. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, Nov. 27, 1833. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 273 
 
 gristmills at that date bespeaks considerable activity 
 in building and agriculttire.^^° 
 
 Other St. Joseph villages platted at this time were 
 Centerville, Mottville and Constantine. Slight begin- 
 nings had been made at Three Rivers and Burr Oak. 
 Centerville was platted (1831) on Nottawa-sepe 
 prairie, one of the largest and most fertile in the south- 
 west. A piece of land about one-half a township in 
 area was reserved in 1821 to the Potawatomi Indians/^^ 
 which was not open to settlement until two years after 
 the Indian treaty of 1833;^^- but south of the reserva- 
 tion a line of settlements began to form as early as 
 1828-29; one of these was Centerville. These settle- 
 ments were the first that were made in the northern 
 part of the county. ^^^ Among the first people to settle 
 here were Virginians, of whom the pioneer records make 
 a point of saying that the traditional Virginian hospi- 
 tality, freely extended, made the way easier for later 
 comers. ^^^ In the year of the founding of Centerville 
 there came to the vicinity a little colony of thirty- 
 two people from Ohio, led by a native of Vermont. ^^^ 
 The prevailing sources of the population — Vermont, 
 Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania 
 
 110. This issue contains a very full description of the condition 
 
 of settlement there at that date, emphasizing the ad- 
 vantages for emigrants. A lack of good mechanics is 
 mentioned, all turning farmers as soon as they arrive. 
 See also the same paper for July 27, 1831, and June 15, 
 1832. 
 
 111. Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, 
 
 Part 2, p. 704. 
 
 112. Ibid., 718. 
 
 113. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 489. 
 
 114. Ibid., VI, 424. 
 
 115. History of St. Joseph County (1877), 155. 
 
 35 
 
274 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 and Ohio — show the blending of the two movements 
 from the East and from below Michigan. ^^^ 
 
 In contrast with these prairie villages, Mottville and 
 Constantine represent the sawmill type of village. 
 The former was chosen as a mill site in 1827 by a 
 settler from Crawford County, Ohio; its early settlers 
 were largely Ohioans.^^^ Constantine was platted in 
 1831 at the junction of the St. Joseph with Fawn 
 River at which time three families had gathered there 
 from Ohio and Pennsylvania. ^^^ The first gristmill in 
 the county to run by water was built there in 1830.^^^ 
 From the same sources came the first settlers of Three 
 Rivers, a site chosen also for its water power, though 
 no village was laid out imtil 1836.^-° A considerable 
 immigration to the burr-oak plains which have given 
 the name to the village of Burr Oak took place in 
 1833.121. 
 
 Cass County shared with St. Joseph in rapidity of 
 settlement, but there was in the former, in this period, 
 a lesser tendency to village formation. In 1831 Ed- 
 wardsburg was laid out on Beardsley's Prairie, near 
 the junction of the St. Joseph River with the Chicago 
 Road where a settlement had been begun in 1826. 
 With three stages weekly running through that point^^^ 
 it had apparently superior advantages for concentrat- 
 ing population, and the progress of township organiza- 
 
 116. Ibid., 156. 
 
 117. Ibid., 86, 137, 212. 
 
 118. Ibid., 116. 
 
 119. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 514. 
 
 120. History of St. Joseph County (1877), 137, 138, 140; Clark, 
 
 Gazetteer of Michigan, 488. 
 
 121. History of St. Joseph County (1877), 181. 
 
 122. Glover, History of Cass County, 111, 170. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 275 
 
 tion reflects rapid rural growth there.^^^ The only 
 other village founded in the county in this period was 
 Cassopolis, started as a result of a struggle among 
 several neighboring settlements for possession of the 
 county seat. Although there was not a settler at Cass- 
 opolis when the village was platted in 1831,^^^ this 
 point was the geographical center of the county, a 
 fact which a local lawyer had the foresight to deter- 
 mine; whereupon he purchased sufficient land to cover 
 the site of a village and succeeded in having the county 
 seat removed thither from Geneva where the Terri- 
 torial legislattire had located it when the coimty was 
 organized. ^^^ Cassopolis was thus distinctly a county 
 seat hamlet, and though its growth was very slow the 
 presence of the county seat reacted immediately upon 
 neighboring rural settlement. 
 
 In Berrien County, villages were platted at several 
 important points, all on the St. Joseph River. Re- 
 ference has been made to the founding of Niles in 1829; 
 in 1831, the same year with the separate organization of 
 Berrien County, were laid out the villages of Berrien 
 Springs and St. Joseph. ^^*^ These villages were on the 
 only considerable open spaces between Bertrand and 
 the mouth of the river. Berrien Springs was on Wolf's 
 Prairie; in the year in which the village was platted a 
 sawmill was built there, and the year immediately 
 
 123. Territorial Laws, III, 997, 1276. 
 
 124. Glover, History of Cass County, 145. 
 
 125. Ibid., 143-144. 
 
 126. Coolidge, History oj Berrien County, 172, 199. The name of 
 
 Berrien Springs reflects a physical feature — sulphur and 
 other mineral springs situated on the east bank of the 
 St. Joseph River. History oj Berrien and Van Buren 
 Counties (1880), 280. 
 
276 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 following witnessed gradual incursions into the dense 
 forest which surrounded the edges of the prairie.^ -^ 
 At St. Joseph, which was laid out and fostered by the 
 Carey Mission teacher, Calvin Britain, village lots sold 
 rapidly and settlement flourished. ^-^ Thither the 
 county seat was removed from Niles in 1832, but in 
 1837 it was transferred to the more central position of 
 Berrien Springs. ^-^ St. Joseph appears to have had 
 about a score of families and some twenty dwellings in 
 1834.^^° A steam sawmill was in operation and two 
 small steamboats were running on the river, the latter 
 almost indispensable owing to the very bad condition 
 of the roads. ^^^ The Detroit Free Press of October 11, 
 1832, prophesies for Newburyport (the original name of 
 St. Joseph) great commercial importance as a port for 
 southwestern Michigan, comparing its relations with 
 those of Cincinnati to the Miami country. Northern 
 Indiana seems to have looked to St. Joseph as a natural 
 outlet for its products, if we may judge from the re- 
 port of a public meeting at St. Joseph in 1832 to peti- 
 tion Congress for a harbor appropriation."- 
 
 127. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 198, 202. 
 
 128. Ihid., 172. 
 
 129. Ihid., 31. It was moved back to St. Joseph in 1894. Ibid., 
 
 199. 
 
 130. The History oj Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 
 
 p. 316, credits the village with about twenty-five 
 dwellings at the time it was platted in 1831. 
 
 131. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 176. 
 
 132. Detroit Free Press, Jan. 19, 1832. Congress had appro- 
 
 priated $5000 in 1831 for a lighthouse at the mouth of 
 the river, and proposals for its building appear in the 
 Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser for April 27, 
 1831. See also the same paper for March 30 of that year. 
 For an account of the earliest steamboats on the river 
 see History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 
 281. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 277 
 
 Between St. Joseph and Berrien Springs perhaps half 
 a dozen famiUes had settled by 1834, at various points in 
 slight openings along the river. These river pioneers 
 seem to have been mainly boatmen, who worked on 
 the river boats while awaiting returns from their 
 crops. ^^^ Northward from St. Joseph up the Paw Paw 
 river above the present Coloma, a shingle-mill settle- 
 ment started in 1833 or 1834, promoted by New York- 
 ers, to supply the market at St. Joseph. ^^'^ 
 
 In some respects the most pretentious village project 
 of the section in this period was that at Bertrand, be- 
 low Niles, resembling somewhat the experiment made 
 a little earlier at Auburn in Oakland County. This 
 was a speculative venture on a large scale , initiated in 
 1833 by a joint stock association of persons from New 
 York and Indiana, together with the French trader 
 Joseph Bertrand. The author and chief promoter of 
 the project was a surveyor on the Chicago Road, and 
 it was probably his work which was just nearing com- 
 pletion in Berrien County that attracted his attention 
 to its possibilities. This village of twelve himdred lots 
 covered a plat nearly a mile square on Portage Prairie, 
 at the point where it is crossed by the St. Joseph 
 River. ^^^ The site was well chosen and the time was 
 propitious, but the fatal and common mistake was 
 made of liolding the lots at too high a figure, which 
 caused settlers to favor Niles. ^^"^ 
 
 133. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties, 330. 
 
 134. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 228. The settlement 
 
 was known as "Shingle Diggings." It appears to have 
 dechned after 1838, due it is said to the exhaustion of 
 material for shingles. History of Berrien and Van Buren 
 Counties (1880), 340-341. 
 
 135. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 206. 
 
 136. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 269. 
 
278 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 There was scarcely any settlement away from the 
 main stream of the St. Joseph by 1834, except in a few 
 cases where mill privileges were desired. In 1833 a 
 settler from Vermont came to the site of the village of 
 Buchanan to take advantage of the water power, and 
 several mills were built near by a little later. ^'" From 
 there westward to the site of New Buffalo extended a 
 large forest of valuable timber lands that were taken 
 up largely by mill proprietors living in other parts of 
 the county. The start at New Buffalo in 1834 appears 
 to have been made largely by accident. The story is 
 told of the wreck of a schooner which was driven 
 ashore at the site of Michigan City. Its commander 
 (Wessel Whitaker) in going from there to St. Joseph 
 on horseback along the beach noted the stiperior ad- 
 vantages for a harbor at the mouth of Galien River 
 and shortly afterward purchased the land there. The 
 site is said to have been visited by many the first year, 
 but the tide soon turned. ^^^ 
 
 It was not imtil 1834 that the movement of popula- 
 tion from the East along the Chicago Road began to 
 be felt to any great extent in Berrien. ^'^^ In that year 
 the coimty had a population of 1,787,^"*° distributed in 
 four townships. ^■^^ 
 
 The same year which saw so many villages laid out 
 in the southwestern counties witnessed the platting of 
 Branch, the first village in Branch County. The 
 
 137. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 213. 
 
 138. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 193; History of Berrien and Van 
 
 Bur en Counties (1880), 271. 
 
 139. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 20, 26. 
 
 140. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 
 
 141. Territorial Laws, II, 786; III, 1249, 1276. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 279 
 
 founding of this village was similar to that of Cass- 
 opolis. In 1831, two years before the county was 
 organized, the question of the probable location of the 
 county seat occurred to a native of Connecticut, who 
 turned it to his advantage promptly. Having de- 
 termined the geographical center of the county, he 
 purchased a tract covering three-quarters of a square 
 mile, platted a village upon it, and was successful in 
 securing for his village the coveted political importance 
 of the county seat.^^^ The site had some natural ad- 
 vantages aside from its central position in the coimty. 
 Though off the Chicago Road, it was situated pleasant- 
 ly on high ground which rose from the Coldwater River ; 
 the result was that village lots and the neighboring 
 farm land were bought up quickly, and a sawmill and 
 a gristmill were started. ^^^ These mills came to be 
 widely patronized and attracted much attention to 
 Branch village; but a struggle for the county seat 
 was at once precipitated by settlers who were interested 
 in the rival village of Coldwater, platted a year later 
 than Branch. ^^* 
 
 The effect of the Chicago Road in concentrating 
 population was strengthened no doubt by the fact that 
 its course lay through some of the choicest open lands 
 of the county."^ Along this highway lay Coldwater, 
 Snow, and Bronson prairies. On Snow Prairie three 
 miles east of Bronson was one of the oldest settlements 
 
 142. Collin, History of Branch County, 52-53. 
 
 143. Ihid., 51, 53, 54. 
 
 144. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 219, 239; History of Branch County 
 
 (1879), 114. 
 
 145. Collin, History of Branch County, 74-75. 
 
280 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 in the cotinty.^'^'^ On the whole, the data inchnes one 
 to beHeve that the prairies were preferred to the 
 openings. ^^^ In Quincy Township where the Chicago 
 Road passed through an opening which had heavy 
 timber within a few miles on each side, it was 1835 
 before land was entered beyond the openings; but set- 
 tlement even in the open strip was slow — only four 
 families had settled there by 1834.^^^ 
 
 The position of the Chicago Road through the cen- 
 tral prairies and openings and the location of the first 
 settlements and of the county seat there, accoimt 
 partly for the slowness with which settlement acknowl- 
 edged the surpassing natural advantages in the north- 
 ern part of Branch County. The settlement of that 
 part of the county appears to have been more closely 
 connected with Calhoun and Jackson counties than 
 with the rest of Branch. This connection was partly 
 topographical; for example, the northern tier of sec- 
 tions at the northwest corner was a part of Dry Prairie 
 in Calhoun County, which had a number of settlers on 
 the Calhoun side of the boundary in 1832. The early 
 settlement of Sherwood Township in Branch Coimty 
 was an expansion of this colony, ^^^ though its first set- 
 tler, after whom the township was named, is said to 
 have come directly from Sherwood Forest in England. ^^° 
 One of the reasons for a close relation with the northern 
 
 146. Ibid., 45. 
 
 147. See the Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser for June 1, 
 
 1831, and June 1, 1832. 
 
 148. Collin, History of Branch County, 65, 66; Mich. Hist. 
 
 Colls., VI, 241. 
 
 149. Collin, History of Branch County, 82. 
 
 150. Ibid., 81. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 281 
 
 counties lay in the ease of communication with them. 
 Settlers coming west over the Territorial Road could 
 reach Girard Township from Marshall over the road 
 established to connect the Territorial and Chicago 
 roads at Marshall and Coldwater.^^^ Branch Cotmty 
 was reached from the north at a point just west of 
 Girard by the Washtenaw Trail, which ran from Jack- 
 son to White Pigeon, and over which a road was laid 
 out in 1834.^^- The first land entered to the west of 
 Girard was bought in Union Township in 1831 by the 
 founder of the village of Jackson; the first immigra- 
 tion to that township came from Calhoun County. ^^^ 
 The dense forest there was for some years a retarding 
 influence, except in the southwestern corner. The 
 earliest settlements were of the sawmill type, forming 
 two early centers of influence, at the junction of the 
 Cold water River with Hog Creek and with the St. 
 Joseph River. At these points — the sites of Hodunk 
 and Union City^the first settlements were made in 
 1833, and their mills were widely patronized. ^^* The 
 northern part of the coimty received separate town- 
 ship organization in 1834 under the name of the oldest 
 settlement — Girard. ^^^ 
 
 The southern and especially the southeastern parts 
 of the coimty, having the heaviest forest, were the 
 most backward. Settlement was initiated there about 
 1832 by a noteworthy venture from Ohio. The leader 
 was the Right Reverend Philander Chase, bishop of 
 
 151. Ihid., 75. 
 
 152. Ibid., 78. 
 
 153. Ibid., 79. 
 
 154. Collin, History oj Branch County, 78, 80. 
 
 155. Territorial Laws, III, 1276. 
 
282 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Ohio, an uncle of the well known Ohio statesman of 
 the name.^^'' Bishop Chase was a native of Cornish, 
 New Hampshire, and a graduate of Dartmouth. A man 
 of high ideals and of missionary spirit, he had come 
 west at an early day, and had been one of the founders 
 of Kenyon College, Ohio, of which he was for many 
 years president. As bishop of Ohio, a disagreement 
 with his constituency caused him to look for a field of 
 work where his ideals could have a better chance. He 
 purposed to seek appointment to the bishopric of 
 Michigan and there to f oimd a new college ; his son had 
 settled on Prairie Ronde, in Kalamazoo County, and it 
 is probable that he also intended to try his fortunes 
 there, but while on the way for a visit his attention 
 was arrested by the lands of Branch Coimty. He had 
 taken, instead of the southern route by way of Fort 
 Wayne, the eastern route by way of Monroe, 
 Adrian and the Chicago Road, the route by which 
 the eastern counties gained most of their southern 
 immigration. Following advice which he had received 
 by the way, he branched off from the Chicago Road 
 at Bronson Prairie, and took the Indian trail leading 
 along the banks of Prairie River. The bishop's satis- 
 faction with the place of his choice is shown by the 
 name of Gilead which he gave to the picturesque lake- 
 let of that region and to the neighboring prairie. 
 Though he was disappointed in his hope of obtaining 
 the bishopric of Michigan and as a consequence 
 abandoned the idea of foimding a college in Michigan, 
 his temporary residence at Gilead aided the begin- 
 
 156. Collin, History of Branch County, 69-73; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 VI, 221. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 283 
 
 ning of settlement in the southern part of the cotmty. 
 Many settlers came in from Marion County, Ohio; 
 but the source most frequently mentioned in histories 
 of the county is Onondaga County, New York. In 
 1834 Branch County had a population of seven hun- 
 dred and sixty-four people, distributed in three town- 
 ships.^" 
 
 Progress in the settlement of Hillsdale County be- 
 tween the years 1830 and 1834 was somewhat less than 
 in Branch County. The village of Jonesville, which 
 was laid out in 1831 and made the coimty seat, was still 
 the sole village in the coimty^^^ and it was not until 1834 
 that the first stock of goods was put on sale there. ^^^ 
 Probably the log schoolhouse, twelve by fourteen 
 feet, which was then built, proved for some time a 
 sufficient educational equipment. Almost all the land 
 that was bought in the county lay along the Chicago 
 Road, excepting a little in the valley of Bean Creek 
 where entries were first made in 1833.^^° Considering 
 the small amount of land that was bought in the county 
 it seems hardly probable that the total population had 
 reached five hundred people. The population of the 
 county is not given separately in the Territorial census, 
 but it is probably included in the figures which appear 
 for Lenawee, to which it was attached for judicial pur- 
 
 157. Blois, Gazetteer, 151; Territorial Laws, III, 949, 1276. 
 
 158. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 178. 
 
 159. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 31 ; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 I. 179. 
 
 160. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, II, 
 
 23; Hogaboam, Bean Creek Valley, 22, 27; Mich, Hist. 
 Colls., I, 178, 179. 
 
284 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 poses until its organization in 1835. Until then the 
 whole county comprised but one township. ^'^^ 
 
 From 1834 to 1837 this section had a large share in 
 the rapid growth of the Territory. Nowhere was the 
 increase of settlement more pronounced than in the 
 counties of Hillsdale and Branch, where population 
 had been the least in the section up to 1835. In 1837 
 the population of either county equalled that of Ber- 
 rien, while together they contained about one-third of 
 all the people in the section. The population of St. 
 Joseph, the most populous county, at the western end, 
 exceeded that of Branch, the least populous, at the 
 east, by a little over two thousand. From the point of 
 view of population and of the section as a whole, set- 
 tlement was at the close of the period quite equally 
 distributed, but still slightly preponderant in the coun- 
 ties of St. Joseph and Cass.^*^- 
 
 The distribution of population within the counties 
 at the close of the period, as shown by township organ- 
 ization and by the census of 1837, accords with the 
 general trend described for the earlier time, and was 
 effected by the same agents. Hillsdale and Branch 
 counties showed clearly the influence of the open 
 country and the Chicago Road at the north. Both 
 had small townships with comparatively large popula- 
 tions. In Hillsdale, nearly the entire northern half 
 of the county was divided into townships^*^^ six miles 
 
 161. Territorial Laws, II, 787; III, 1367. 
 
 162. The areas of these counties varied, but not enough to affect 
 
 the purpose of this rough comparison. 
 
 163. Township organization, 1835-37; Territorial Laws, III, 
 
 1367; Session Laws (1835-36), 71; Ibid. (1837), 39, 40; 
 Census of 1837, Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 285 
 
 square, with an average population of four hundred 
 people, while the sotithern townships, averaging double 
 the size, had a population no greater. Very probably 
 the township of Fayette, with its long north and south 
 axis, had most of its residents in its northward exten- 
 sion, in the openings near the Chicago Road and about 
 the nascent village of Hillsdale — while Pittsford, in the 
 southeast, undoubtedly owed much to the ovei'flow 
 from Lenawee County into its Bean Creek lands; for 
 instance, between these two the township of Florida, 
 covering two government townships but having no 
 advantages in transportation, openings, or water power 
 to compensate for the difficulties of its heavy forest, 
 contained, all told, only one hundred and fifty-six peo- 
 ple, and the remaining southern township of Reading, 
 west of Fayette, affords a similar example. In Branch 
 County there was a more even distribution of small 
 township areas, ^'''^ btit the population of those at the 
 south, reflecting the influence of the Gilead settlement, 
 was small. "A country of lakes, but little settled," 
 reports the surveyor of the Southern Railroad in 
 1837.^*^^ The most populous townships were on the 
 Chicago Road. 
 
 The village population of these counties was slight. 
 Jonesville was still the only important village center in 
 Hillsdale County, but was one of the most important 
 
 164. Township organization (1835-37); Session Laws (1835- 
 
 36), 71, 72; Ibid., (1837), 42, 44; Census of 1837: 
 Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 
 
 165. Michigan House Documents, No. 9 (A), p. 5. He referred in 
 
 particular to settlement on the line between Hog Creek 
 and the center of Sherman Township in St. Joseph 
 County, and no doubt was speaking comparatively with 
 the eastern counties. 
 
286 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 points on the Chicago Road. Four mail routes cen- 
 tered there; from Detroit by the Chicago Road, from 
 Toledo (then called Maumee) by way of Canandaigua 
 in Lenawee County, from Adrian by way of RoUin, and 
 from Marshall by way of Homer. For a very wide 
 area of country it was a center for milling as well as 
 for mail.^^^ To judge from the number of its stores, 
 however, it appears not to have been very much larger 
 than Saline or Dexter, in Washtenaw.^" Its position 
 at some distance from the center of the coimty caused, 
 as in the case of Tecumseh, a forfeit of the county 
 
 seat, which was removed to the central village of 
 Hillsdale.1^8 
 
 Hillsdale village, like Cassopolis and Branch, was a 
 speculative county-seat venture. Though platted in 
 1835, there appears to have been little there at the close 
 of this period besides "bushes and scenery. "^"^^ The 
 first store, mill, and public inn, appear not to have been 
 built until 1838,^^° when a new impulse came, ap- 
 parently, from the selection of the village for a station 
 
 166. Its first gristmill was completed in 1835. History of Hills- 
 
 dale County (Everts), p. 39, and another in process of 
 building is reported by Blois (1838) in his Gazetteer, p. 
 305. 
 
 167. Blois credits it with two groceries and six dry -goods stores. 
 
 Gazetteer, 305. 
 
 168. Session Laws (1839), 65; (1840), 148; (1843), 10. The 
 
 possession of the county seat since 1830 added not a little 
 to the prestige of Jonesville. 
 
 169. The money for the project appears to have been furnished 
 
 by parties in Utica, New York, and the village to have 
 been platted by the "Hillsdale Company." History of 
 Hillsdale County (1879), 94. A house is said to have 
 been built on the site by a settler in 1834. 
 
 170. History oj Hillsdale County (1879), 95. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 287 
 
 on the Southern Railroad ;^^^ in making that point the 
 terminal of the road it was thought that "a better point 
 probably could not have been selected having in view 
 the future interests of the State, being situated on the 
 direct route to Branch, Coldwater, etc., possessing the 
 advantage of good roads at all times, and a central 
 location for business. "^'^'' Blois mentions its situation 
 on the State road from Adrian, and its good water 
 power on a branch of the St. Joseph. ^^^ 
 
 In Branch Cotmty there appears to have been a 
 somewhat stronger tendency to concentrate population 
 than in Hillsdale ; embryonic villages developed at four 
 or five points, the most noteworthy being Coldwater 
 and Branch. Coldwater shared in the rapid settle- 
 ment induced by the rich lands of Coldwater Prairie, 
 which lay directly on the Chicago Road. Surroimding 
 this center, an area of six miles square had gathered by 
 1837 nearly one-fourth of the population of the 
 county. ^^^ The settlement of the village had been 
 augmented especially by the arrival in 1835 of a con- 
 siderable colony, including enterprising eastern busi- 
 ness men.^"^ By 1837 it had quite eclipsed the rival 
 village of Branch and was increasing its efforts to de- 
 
 171. The years immediately following are marked by renewed 
 
 efforts to secure the county seat and the erection of a 
 new hotel. When the railroad reached Hillsdale, in 
 1843, the county seat was located there, and the Hills- 
 dale County Gazette, started at Jonesville in 1839, fol- 
 lowed the county seat. History of Hillsdale County 
 (1879), 45, 83, 95; Session Laws (1843), 10. 
 
 172. Michigan House Documents (1842), No. 3, p. 48. 
 
 173. Blois, Gazetteer, 301. 
 
 174. Population 960; population of the county, 4,096. Mich- 
 
 igan Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 
 
 175. History of Branch County (1879), 115. 
 
288 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 prive it of the county seat.^'^^ The price of land was 
 made low as an inducement to settlers, a newspaper 
 was started by subscription of citizens to compete with 
 the one established at Branch/" and the village was 
 incorporated. It is said that the new gristmill, of a 
 better type than that at Branch, absorbed the former 
 custom of the Branch mill and strengthened the power 
 of the village to concentrate population about it.^'^^ 
 
 Branch was at its height in 1836-37 after which it 
 rapidly declined and disappeared from the maps of the 
 county; as one writer puts it, "It contained the seeds 
 of death in its prosperity," which was alike true for 
 many aspiring villages of this period in all parts of 
 Michigan; we have seen a striking example in the 
 village of Bertrand in Berrien County, where the high 
 prices of village lots and neighboring lands drove capital 
 and settlers to Niles. It was this policy of speculation 
 in Branch, encouraged by a feeling of security in its 
 more central position and the possession of the county 
 seat, that was a chief influence in building up a rival at 
 Coldwater.^^^ The county seat was removed in 1840.^^° 
 
 176. See the reasons set forth for its removal in Michigan House 
 
 Documents, 1841, No. 1, pp. 60-61. The population of 
 the village is estimated at 800 or 1,000, as compared with 
 150 for Branch. 
 
 177. The Coldwater Observer; History of Branch County (1879), 
 
 100. 
 
 178. Collin, History of Branch County, 58; Blois mentions two 
 
 sawmills but not the gristmill. Gazetteer, 266. 
 
 179. Collin, History of Branch County, 53. 
 
 180. Session Laws (1840), 56. See reasons for retaining county 
 
 seat as presented in Michigan Joint Documents, 1841, No. 
 1, p. 58. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 289 
 
 Blois credits Branch with only a few families in 1838.^^^ 
 Another village center belonging to the Coldwater 
 group and illustrating the enterprise of promoters to 
 take advantage of a promising nucleus of population, 
 was the village of Mason, which hoped apparently to 
 profit by the name of the contemporary governor of 
 Michigan. It was about a mile and a half from Cold- 
 water on the Chicago Road, and of about two years 
 growth. Blois mentions two stores in 1838;^^- like 
 Branch its life was early assimilated by Coldwater. 
 
 Hardly to be included in this period was the original 
 village nucleus of the future Union City, which like 
 Branch, represents an attempt to foster a village away 
 from the Chicago Road. It was platted in 1837 by a 
 group of promoters operating from New York City 
 whose chief reliance seems to have been the water 
 power at the junction of the Coldwater and the St. 
 Joseph. ^^^ It was presumably upon their information 
 
 181. Gazetteer, 258. He places it three miles from Coldwater in 
 
 the same township. The files of The Michigan Star, its 
 newspaper, would if they could be found, probably illu- 
 minate further, from the angle of Branch settlers, the 
 causes of its decline. See History of Branch County 
 (1879), 99. 
 
 182. Blois, Gazetteer, 320. The vicinity of Quincy, which was 
 
 without a village in 1837, received its first impulse to 
 differentation from agricultural life by its choice as a 
 station on the Southern Railroad in 1853, when it is said 
 to have had about a dozen dwellings. History of Branch 
 County (1879), 182. But the site was occupied in 1835 
 by influential families originally from New Hampshire 
 and Vermont. The village is said to have received its 
 name from Quincy, Massachusetts, the home of an early 
 settler. Ibid., 178; Collin, History of Branch County, 67. 
 
 183. Collin, History of Branch County, 79. The advantages of 
 
 the site appear to have been recognized in 1835 by the 
 platting of the earlier village of Goodwinsville, History 
 of Branch County (1879), 207. 
 37 
 
290 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 that Blois confidently places the village "at the proper 
 head of navigation of the St. Joseph;" he mentions a 
 store, a sawmill and a few dwelling houses. ^^^ 
 
 In the counties of St. Joseph and Cass the earlier in- 
 fluence of the Chicago Road was still predominant. It 
 appears in the concentration of considerably more than 
 two-thirds of the population of these counties along 
 its course. A contributing influence of growing 
 strength, the prairie village, is suggested by the large 
 proportion of the population of each county in its 
 southwestern corner. In the former this is the village 
 of White Pigeon, in the latter, Edwardsburg. The 
 least settled parts of each county were at the north, and 
 township organization was the most backward in those 
 portions of the northern parts which were adjoining. ^^^ 
 
 In the township of White Pigeon, which contained 
 about twenty square miles, were gathered something 
 less than nine hundred people, about two hundred less 
 than were contained in the large township of Sherman, 
 of nearly six times the area, immediately east — this 
 despite its possession of Sturgis Prairie, which was as 
 fertile and almost as large as that about the village of 
 White Pigeon. Sturgis Prairie, if not the center of the 
 population of Sherman Township, probably was com- 
 paratively well peopled. ''Sturgis and White Pigeon 
 
 184. Gazetteer, 376. The population of the township (Sherwood), 
 
 containing the village, was a little over 200. Michigan 
 Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 
 
 185. Census of 1837 (for both counties), Michigan Legislative 
 
 Manual (1838), 70, 73; township organization in St. 
 Joseph County, 1835-37; Session Laws (1833-36), 75 
 and Ihid. (1837), 40, 41; township organization for Cass 
 County, 1835-37; Territorial Laws, III, 1368; Session 
 Laws (1835-36), 72, and Ihid. (1837), 141. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 291 
 
 prairies are highly cultivated," says Harriet Martineau, 
 who passed there in 1836, "and look just like any 
 other rich and perfectly level land."^^^ The postoffice 
 of the township is mentioned by Blois as being on the 
 northeastern border of the prairie, though he does not 
 speak of a village of Sturgis.^" To White Pigeon he 
 accredits five stores, and speaks of the surrounding 
 prairie as "very densely populated." It is significant 
 for the future industry of its vicinity that peppermint 
 and beet-sugar should have been among its products 
 as early as the close of this period, of the former of 
 v/hich it is said to furnish now a large part of the 
 world's supply.^^^ The mill village of Mottville, also 
 on White Pigeon Prairie, at the junction of the Chi- 
 cago Road with the St. Joseph River, had by the census 
 of 1837 a population^^^ in its vicinity, taking equal 
 areas, about half that surrounding White Pigeon; 
 
 which accords with Blois' mention of two stores in the 
 village.190 
 
 A little way up the St. Joseph from Mottville, the 
 township of Constantine showed a population in 1837 
 somewhat less than that of White Pigeon Township, 
 though its area was about a third greater. But the 
 village of Constantine was a very vigorous rival of 
 White Pigeon ;^^^ it is significant that in his Gazetteer 
 
 186. Society in America, I, 326. 
 
 187. Gazetteer, 365. 
 
 188. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 515. An act of 1839 {Session 
 
 Laws, 1839, 156) authorized a loan of $5,000 to the 
 White Pigeon Beet Sugar Company. See also Mich. 
 Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 130. 
 
 189. Population of the township of Mottville, 497; of White 
 
 Pigeon, 872. 
 
 190. Gazetteer, 329. 
 
 191. Ihid., 267. 
 
292 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Blois gives nearly three times the space to a description 
 of Constantine: "Much capital and enterprise," he 
 says, "are enlisted in its improvement." A weekly 
 paper was published, a symbol of great prosperity in a 
 pioneer village, which reports at this time, "Constan- 
 tine is one of the most flourishing villages in the 
 county, and does the greatest amount of business." 
 A steamboat is said to have plied between it and 
 Lake Michigan, and numbers of "keel boats" were 
 used to carry on trade with all points along the river. 
 Blois reports that a railroad was chartered to connect 
 the village with Niles. It quite overshadowed Mott- 
 ville directly below it on the river and the Chicago 
 Road. In a Michigan House Document of 1837 Con- 
 stantine is reported, apparently from direct observa- 
 tion, as probably much larger than the three villages 
 of Lockport, Geneva and Cassopolis combined. ^^^ Its 
 success appears to have been due, apart from its ex- 
 cellent physical advantages of water power, transpor- 
 tation facilities, and fertile farming lands, to the great 
 energy and practical wisdom of its inhabitants. 
 
 Still farther up the river, about half way to Center- 
 ville, the village of Three Rivers had made respectable 
 progress since its platting in 1835 or 1836.^^^ It was 
 closely associated in its activities with the village of 
 Lockport across the river, with which later on it be- 
 came imited. It is said that this was practically the 
 head of navigation for larger craft on the river and 
 
 192. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 8. 
 
 193. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 417; History of St. Joseph 
 
 County, 140. As platted in 1836 it appears to have 
 included Lockport, yet Blois speaks (1838) of intentions 
 to consolidate the two villages. Gazetteer, 313, 374. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 293 
 
 that steamboats came up to that point. ^^^ The rela- 
 tions of the two villages at this site speak well for the 
 desirability of its advantages, and according to Blois 
 considerable capital was being attracted to develop the 
 water power. The comparatively large populations of 
 the townships of Bucks and Nottawa, which in 1837 
 extended to the center of the county, probably reflect 
 the concentrating influence of Three Rivers and of the 
 county-seat village of Centerville. The Detroit Jour- 
 nal and Michigan Advertiser of June 18, 1836, reported 
 this village to be in a very flourishing condition. How- 
 ever, two stores seem to have been sufficient for its 
 trade in 1838, and its importance as the county seat 
 probably explains the location of a branch of the 
 University of Michigan there instead of at White 
 Pigeon. ^^^ Prairie River supplied power for a sawmill 
 and flourmill, which made it a convenient center for 
 milling over a large area. 
 
 In Cass County the comparatively large populations 
 for small areas in the townships of Ontwa, La Grange 
 and Pokagon suggest the influence of the prairies. In 
 the former, about Beardsley's Prairie and the village 
 of Edw^ardsburg, had gathered over a thousand persons, 
 all told, which was about four hundred less than on 
 the equal area similarly situated in St. Joseph County 
 about the villages of White Pigeon and Mottville.^^^ 
 Edwardsburg contained a population not quite equal- 
 ling that of White Pigeon — to judge from its stores^^^ — 
 while it had in its own county no near rivals as had 
 
 194. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 386-387. 
 
 195. Blois, Gazetteer, 262. 
 
 196. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 
 
 197. Blois, Gazetteer, 283. 
 
294 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 White Pigeon in Mottville and Constantine ; biit it was 
 near enough to feel the rivalry of Niles, for like White 
 Pigeon it had no water power and hence lacked the 
 attraction of mills. Its central reliance was the at- 
 traction of the prairie and its position on the Chicago 
 Road.198 
 
 The settlement about the county-seat village of 
 Cassopolis appears to have equalled that about Center- 
 ville in St. Joseph County, despite its lack of water 
 power. The village had three stores. The signifi- 
 cance of its lack of water power for future growth is 
 seen in the report given in 1837 by the surveyor of 
 the Southern Railroad against Cassopolis as a station, 
 that "people living on the line of the road would have 
 to carry their wheat away to be floured and retrans- 
 port it to the railroad before they could send it to 
 market. "^^° Quite as large as Cassopolis was the vil- 
 lage of Whitmanville, about three miles distant on 
 Dowagiac river, having four stores and a sawmill and 
 flouring mill.-'^° 
 
 West of Cassopolis about Pokagon Prairie there was 
 a population of about five hundred, though apparently 
 no village, while the population eastward about the 
 Quaker settlement in Penn Township, though less, was 
 larger than elsewhere in the immediate neighborhood. 
 The village of Geneva was situated there, with two 
 stores. ^''^ The least settled township was above Poka- 
 gon, being the northwest corner township of Silver 
 Creek which contained only about a hundred people. 
 
 198. Ibid., 252. 
 
 199. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 8. 
 
 200. Blois, Gazetteer, 381. 
 
 201. Ibid., 289. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 295 
 
 In the opposite comer of the county in Porter Town- 
 ship, on the Chicago Road and near the village of 
 Mottville, were over four hundred people, with a. very 
 small nucleus at Porter village. -°^ Somewhat larger 
 was the village of Adamsville between Porter village 
 and White Pigeon. ^°^ 
 
 The distribution of population in Berrien County, 
 as shown by the census of 1837, indicates the greatest 
 density to have been at two points on the St. Joseph 
 River — in the southeast about Niles and Bertrand, 
 which was the region of Carey Amission, and at the 
 mouth of the river in and around St. Joseph vil'age.^^'^ 
 
 The failure of the speculative venture at Bertrand, 
 owing to the high prices of land, has been alluded to; 
 there were many contributing causes, among which not 
 the least were the rivalry of Niles, the panic, and the 
 severe epidemic of sickness in 1837-38.^°^ Blois esti- 
 mates that the population was then about six hun- 
 dred. ^^"^ The census showed 1,262 in the township, 
 which apparently included the village. ^°'^ Niles pro- 
 fited by the misfortunes of Bertrand, but it was from 
 
 202. Blois, Gazetteer, 346. 
 
 203. Ihid., 245. 
 
 204. Census of 1837, in Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 75; 
 
 township organization, 1835-37; Territorial Laws, III, 
 1368; Session Laws (1835-36), 72; lUd. (1837), 38, 44, 
 141. 
 
 205. It is said that in these years there were not enough well ones 
 
 to nurse the sick, and that many became discouraged 
 and left. History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties 
 (1880), 229. 
 
 206. Blois, Gazetteer, 255. There were six stores. 
 
 207. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 75. For the early set- 
 
 tlement of the township, see History of Berrien and Van 
 Buren Counties (1880), 227-231. See also a sketch of 
 the village in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 129. 
 
296 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the beginning a village of much enterprise. It secured 
 a branch of the University, and it appears to have sup- 
 ported a newspaper as early as 1835.^°^ Speculators 
 and transients of all sorts as well as settlers seem to 
 have visited there. Harriet Martineau says that she 
 could not learn the exact amount of population "prob- 
 ably because the number is never the same two days 
 together. "^°^ It had eclipsed Bertrand in permanent 
 population by 1837,-^° and according to Blois was twice 
 as large as its rival. ^^^ In the fertile farming country 
 of the township containing it, the census records a few 
 less than fifteen himdred people, which, for equal areas, 
 seems to show that the rural population about Bert- 
 rand was slightly greater than that around Niles."^^ 
 
 It is said that the first lands in the county to be ex- 
 tensively exploited for agricultural purposes were those 
 of Berrien Township, just above Niles.-^^ Its popula- 
 tion was entirely rural at the close of this period, and 
 for equal areas it was about the same as that of Niles 
 
 208. The Niles Gazette and Advertiser. See for the early news- 
 
 papers of Niles, the History of Berrien and Van Buren 
 Counties (1880), 136-138. A newspaper celebrity of that 
 day appears to have been the namesake of the village, 
 namely the proprietor of Niks' Weekly Register, the well 
 known Whig paper published in Baltimore, the favorite 
 paper in the family of a prominent Virginian settler of 
 Niles who bestowed the name of the village. 
 
 209. Society in America, I, 326. 
 
 210. Report of Surveyor of the Southern Railroad in Michigan 
 
 House Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 8. 
 
 211. Gazetteer, Z?>?). 
 
 212. For the early settlement of Niles Township, see the History 
 
 of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 264. 
 
 213. For their settlement to 1837, see History oj Berrien and Van 
 
 Buren Counties, 204-208, and Colidge, History oj Berrien 
 County (1880), 196. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 297 
 
 and Bertrand. Its market and supply depot was just 
 to the west on the St. Joseph at Berrien Springs, 
 where surrounding farms belonged physiographically to 
 Berrien Township rather than to Oronoko,^^^ which was 
 in the main a region of dense forest. Apparently it 
 was the central position of Berrien Springs on the river 
 between St. Joseph and Niles that gained for it the 
 county seat in 1837,^^^ as it contained then only about 
 one hundred people.-^*' 
 
 The possession of the county seat from 1832 to 1837 
 doubtless added something to the attractiveness of St. 
 Joseph for settlers and capital, but the real cause of 
 its very rapid growth in wealth and population in the 
 last years of this period was its intrinsic advantages 
 for trade and commerce. According to Blois, it 
 doubled its population in 1836-37, which he estimates 
 at between twelve and fifteen hundred ;^^'^ though the 
 population of St. Joseph Township as given in the 
 census of 1837 was but 599.^^^ There, also, saguine ex- 
 pectations are said to have led to speculative prices for 
 village lots and neighboring land, diverting a large 
 number of settlers and a large amount of capital to 
 other places. ^^^ It was not really until after the close 
 of this period that traffic on the river began to assume 
 proportions beyond the capacity of keel boats, for 
 
 214. The poptdation of Oronoko, which extended from east of 
 
 the St. Joseph across the county to Lake Michigan, was 
 in 1837, 248. 
 
 215. Session Laws (1837), 16. 
 
 216. Gazetteer, 254. 
 
 217. Ibid., 369. 
 
 218. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 75. 
 
 219. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 317. 
 
298 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 while three steamboats were owned there and sought 
 employment, the shipping is reported by Blois as com- 
 paratively trifling. '^° The financial crisis of 1837-38 
 is said to have been especially disastrous to it, and 
 hence to the growth of the village. ^^^ 
 
 Its early promise, however, was to be worthily ful- 
 filled within a decade.--- The first shipment of fruit, 
 a small quantity, was made in 1839.^-^ Blois mentions 
 a national appropriation of $35,000 to improve the 
 harbor; two thousand feet of wharf had been already 
 built; a bridge was being built over the St. Joseph at a 
 cost of $15,000, and the village was made the terminal 
 of the Territorial Road and of the projected Central 
 Railroad where stages and trains were to connect with 
 steamboats for Chicago.-^ But population was for 
 some time confined very closely to the water-front, 
 away from which was dense forest. The neighboring 
 township of Benton made no returns either for the 
 
 220. Gazetteer, 368. Coolidge says that sixty keel-boats were 
 
 employed on the river by 1840. For the early river 
 traffic see his History of Berrien County, 182-184. 
 
 221. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 111. 
 
 222. See Michigan Joint Documents (1847), No. 4, p. 25, for the 
 
 amount of exports and imports at the port of St. Joseph 
 from Sept. 1, 1845, to Sept. 1, 1846; among the exports — 
 wheat, 263,645| bu.; flour, 129,338 bbls.; lumber, 
 1,500,000 ft.; among the imports — merchandise, 3,489,- 
 604 lbs; merchandise and furniture, 2,787 bbls. 
 
 223. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 315. The 
 
 first shipment of peaches from Bainbridge Township 
 (40 bu.) appears to have been made in 1843, grown from 
 trees brought from Livingston County, New York. 
 Ibid., 216. 
 
 224. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 8; Coolidge, 
 
 History of Berrien County, 38. 
 

 ^ 
 
 FATHER GABRIEL RICHARD 
 
 (Sheldon's Hist, of Mich.. 20.5) 
 
 Father Richard, Sulpitian priest, was descended from the elo- 
 quent Bisho[) Bossuet of France. From 1798 to 18.32 he was a 
 strong mfluence especially amon? the French-Canadians in the 
 settlement of Michigan Territory. He brought to Detroit the 
 first printing press used west of the Alleghanies. As Michigan's 
 delegate to Congre.ss in 182.3 he was instrumental in .securing 
 legislation authorizing the national turnpike between Detroit and 
 Chicago later known as the Chicago Road. He sacrificed his life 
 during the cholera epidemic of 1832, in service to the plague 
 stricken inhabitants of Detroit. See p. 11.5 (n. 161) 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 299 
 
 census of 1837 or 1840, and had a population of only 
 237 in 1845.2'^ 
 
 The few settlers along the river between St. Joseph 
 and Berrien Springs in 1837 are apparently represented 
 in the 175 given in the census for the forested town- 
 ship of Royalton extending from the western boundary 
 of Cass County to Lake Michigan. Blois mentions a 
 village of Royalton, apparently about the size of Ber- 
 rien Springs, three miles up the St. Joseph between 
 these two points.--'' In general, the lands along the 
 river appear to have received actual settlers several 
 years before the lands back from the river. --'^ 
 
 The attempt to build at New Buffalo a port which 
 should rival St. Joseph had little success until very 
 much later than this period. Blois credits New Buf- 
 falo with about four hundred inhabitants in 1838;^^^ 
 it is said that in the winter of 1841-42 (or 1842-43) it 
 had but two resident families.--^ Its hope lay, at the 
 beginning, in the capital and enterprise of the Virginia 
 Land Company, which platted a large addition to the 
 original village in 1837, but that was an inauspicious 
 year.^^° The selection of the village for a terminal of 
 
 225. Michigan Legislative Manual (1846), 43. The village of 
 
 Benton Harbor was laid out in 1860 at the time of the 
 building of the Benton Harbor Ship Canal to connect it 
 with St. Joseph and the lake. History oj Berrien and 
 Van Buren Counties (1880), 190. 
 
 226. Gazetteer, 354. 
 
 227. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 237, 307. 
 
 228. Gazetteer, 351. 
 
 229. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 272; 
 
 Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 223. 
 
 230. For the disastrous effect of the financial crisis of that 3^ear 
 
 upon Berrien County as a whole, see Coolidge, History of 
 Berrien County, 27-28. 
 
300 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the Southern Railroad was a good advertisement, ^^^ 
 and even before then the spirit of speculation had 
 brought a number of enterprising settlers to the site 
 in 1835-36, stimulated by the personal influence of 
 Captain Whitaker, who had platted the village in 
 1835.^''^" He is said to have come from Hamburg, in 
 western New York, and to have interested a number 
 of associates from that place. In 1836, it is said, 
 seventy -nine lots in different parts of the village were 
 valued at $29,520.^^^ In that year the village was 
 incorporated and in the following year residents of 
 LaPorte, Indiana, mainly natives of Virginia, brought 
 their capital in aid of the project.-^'* The site was 
 similar to that of St. Joseph, being on the lake shore 
 some twenty miles below that point, but it was not on 
 high land, like that which made for the health and 
 beauty of St. Joseph. The panic of 1837 brought its 
 depressing effects, and it was not until the building of 
 the railroads and the development of the back country 
 that real growth there began. 
 
 The effect of dense forest on settlement is well illus- 
 trated by the scantiness of population between New 
 Buffalo and the vicinity of Niles and Bertrand. The 
 three townships of New Buffalo, Weesaw and Bu- 
 chanan, covering that area, contained according to 
 the census of 1837 less than five hundred people. 
 Some twenty-seven families appear to be represented 
 in the 172 people given for Buchanan Township ^^° of 
 
 231. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 8. 
 
 232. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 125 ; II, 193 ; act to organize the village, 
 
 Session Laws (1835-36), 184. 
 
 233. History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties (1880), 272. 
 
 234. Ihid., 212, 275 ; Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 221, 225. 
 
 235. Ibid., 177. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 301 
 
 whom the large portion probably were in the neighbor- 
 hood of the mill at the site of Buchanan. Apparently 
 a village was not platted there, however, until 1842.^^^ 
 Westward from Buchanan extended the "Galien woods" 
 along the river of that name. The settlement of this 
 tract was very slow until after 1850, as the lands gen- 
 erally were not bought by farmers tmtil part of the 
 timber had been cut off. This was partly accom- 
 plished by the mills, but the market for cord wood and 
 lumber created by the building of the Central Railroad 
 hastened the process of clearing.''" Much of the land 
 in Weesaw Township seems originally to have been low 
 and marshy, and the timbered land is said to have 
 been mainly held by nonresidents until about 1850.^^^ 
 The surveyor of the line of the Southern Railroad re- 
 ported in 1837 that "the coimtry from New Buffalo 
 to St. Joseph on either the northern or southern route 
 is generally of a low, moist, alluvial soil, densely for- 
 ested and entirely unsettled except in the vicinity of 
 Niles."--^^ 
 
 Settlers came to this section by two different move- 
 ments of immigration, and its early population is there- 
 fore somewhat varied. The earliest accession of popula- 
 tion to St. Joseph, Cass and Berrien counties appears 
 to have come intermediately from Ohio and Indiana, 
 and in less numbers from Kentucky and Tennessee ; in 
 
 236. Ibid., 180; Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 216. The 
 
 village takes its name from James Buchanan, prominent 
 at the time of its platting. 
 
 237. History of^Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 333. 
 
 238. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 252-253. For the set- 
 
 tlement of the township in this period see the History of 
 Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 353-355. 
 
 239. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, (A), p. 8. 
 
302 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 many cases it seems to have been either by birth or 
 descent traceable to the South Atlantic States, particu- 
 larly Virginia and the Carolinas. "We find it stated 
 in a Southern paper," says an editorial on "The St. 
 Joseph" in the Northwestern Journal (Detroit) of De- 
 cember 2, 1829, "that not less than eight thousand 
 individuals have passed through Charleston, Kenawha 
 County, Virginia. They were principally from the 
 lower part of that State and South Carolina, bound for 
 Indiana, Illinois and Michigan." In June, 1836, Har- 
 riet Martineau saw in southeastern Berrien County 
 "a fine specimen of a settler's family," which "Hke 
 many others" were from the Southern states. "I was 
 not surprised," she adds, "to find all emigrants from 
 North and South Carolina well satisfied with the 
 change they had made."''^'^° 
 
 In some parts of the section there was a population 
 which tended to develop early an active antislavery 
 sentiment. This feature was specially marked in Cass 
 County. The name of Penn Township in that county 
 suggests the presence of Pennsylvania Quakers. In 
 1829 a settlement was made in that township on 
 Young's Prairie by Quakers from Butler and. Preble 
 counties, Ohio, destined to increase and become later 
 a prominent station on the "underground railroad. "-"^^ 
 The presence of the Quakers attracted fugitive slaves 
 later, and it was the Quakers who made Cass County 
 a favorite resort for free Negroes."^- 
 
 240. Society in America, I, 330. 
 
 241. Glover, History of Cass Cotmty, 48, 108; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 XXXVIII, 281, n. 5. Ibid., 287-289. 
 
 242. Cass early had the largest Negro population of any Michigan 
 
 county, which it has still. 
 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 303 
 
 Some Pennsylvania- Dutch appear in the section in 
 this period, though they came in greater numbers after 
 1840. A few of these families made a settlement near 
 the close of the period in what later became Noble 
 Township, Branch County. -^'^ Later they became much 
 more prominent in Berrien County, especially in 
 Bertrand and Oronoko townships. ^^•^ 
 
 Many of the Pennsylvanians and Virginians appear 
 to have been of Scotch-Irish descent, whose ancestors 
 began coming in the eighteenth century to America 
 owing to the English tariff on the linen industry, 
 which affected especially the north of Ireland. ^'^^ 
 
 The movement of population from the East, particu- 
 larly from New York, began to make itself felt in the 
 section about 1830. Western New York was the main 
 source of population of Branch and Hillsdale counties 
 in this period, though many of these New Yorkers were 
 natives of some eastern State. Collin, in his History of 
 Branch County, gives a number of apt illustrations of 
 these sources. ^"^"^ The blending of the two movements 
 in northern St. Joseph County about this time appears 
 in the many settlers from Vermont, Massachusetts, 
 Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.^^^ 
 Berrien County was not materially aft^ected by the 
 eastern sources until about 1834.^^^ 
 
 Of the foreign element, mention is made m the 
 Northwestern Journal of September 15, 1830, of an 
 
 243. Collin, History of Branch County, 89. 
 
 244. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 26, 210. 
 
 245. Ibid., 146. 
 
 246. p. 37. 
 
 247. History of St. Joseph County (1877), 156. 
 
 248. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 20, 26. 
 
304 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 accession of Englishmen to the St. Joseph region. 
 This nucleus may have comprised those foimd by Hoff- 
 man in 1833 at White Pigeon, who, he says, were of a 
 respectable class and quite popular with the Ameri- 
 cans.-" He notes as a national characteristic their 
 attempt to introduce live hedges in place of fences on 
 their prairie farms. A Canadian-French family is said 
 to have been the first which settled in Bainbridge 
 Township in the north of Berrien County. ^^° A num- 
 ber of French-Canadians from Lower Canada appear 
 to have been taken by a speculator to settle at the 
 mouth of the St. Joseph. ^^^ The large German immi- 
 gration to Berrien Cotmty, so conspicuous in Bain- 
 bridge Township and in Flowerfield Township in St. 
 Joseph County, did not come until considerably later 
 than this period. ^^" 
 
 249. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 219. 
 
 250. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 214. 
 
 251. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 200. 
 
 252. Beginning about 1840, but greatly augmented after 1848. 
 
 History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 220, 
 295; Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 27, 247; His- 
 tory of St. Joseph County (1877), 194. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Kalamazoo Valley and Territorial Road 
 
 HHHE priority of settlement in the St. Joseph Valley as 
 compared with that in the valley of the Kalama- 
 zoo is explained largely by the greater closeness of the 
 former section to Ohio and Indiana and by its position 
 on a trail whose course was deemed the more favorable 
 for a national military road. The difference in the re- 
 lation of the Chicago and Washtenaw trails respec- 
 tively to the St. Joseph and Kalamazoo rivers was 
 sufficient to affect settlement in some degree. The 
 Chicago Trail was in most of its course independent 
 of the main stream of the St. Joseph River, fixing 
 the position of a line of settlements somewhat apart 
 from it, while the Washtenaw Trail followed rather 
 closely the course of the Kalamazoo, combining with 
 it for much of its course and forming with it a single 
 line of influence upon settlement. 
 
 The physiographic factors which conditioned the set- 
 tlement of these sections were alike in nature and in 
 some respects in distribution. In each section an un- 
 dulating surface was drained by a large central stream ; 
 there was a rich soil covered with dense forest, open- 
 ings and prairies, and many lakelets, springs, marshes 
 and creeks. On the east a common watershed sep- 
 arated them from the first inland counties ; the sources 
 
 39 
 
306 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 of their principal streams were close together in the 
 morainal formation in Hillsdale County, and they shed 
 their water westward into Lake Michigan. The physi- 
 ographic unity of these sections lay in a common 
 glacial origin. The differences of environment, in so 
 far as they differentiated settlement at all, were in 
 surface irregularity, in marsh land and in forest. 
 
 The surface of the Kalamazoo section was sufficiently 
 undulating to give ample water power and drainage; 
 . however, it was nowhere so high and uneven as that of 
 Branch and Hillsdale coimties in the section below. 
 Scarcely any part of it could be said to be hilly. Cal- 
 houn and Kalamazoo counties, level like Cass and St. 
 Joseph — of which geologically they were a continua- 
 tion — were broken only by slight elevations such as 
 those in the townships of Sheridan and Texas. ^ No- 
 where in the Kalamazoo Valley was there a dense for- 
 est so continuous over a large area as that in southern 
 Branch and Hillsdale, though the section contained 
 much land of a marshy formation, in particular in 
 Jackson County. The marsh land and the lakelets 
 were practically the only waste surface. The marsh 
 land of the section was considerable, yet it covered in 
 the aggregate only a small portion of the entire area.^ 
 The land north of the city of Kalamazoo covered at 
 present by celery beds is said to have been in the days 
 
 1. History of Calhoun County (1877), 37, 142; History of Kala- 
 
 mazoo County (1880), 536; Blois, Gazetteer, 211, 223. 
 
 2. "In Kalamazoo Comity there were still in 1880 some fifteen 
 
 thousand acres of marsh land; but much of the original 
 marsh has now been reclaimed throughout the section." 
 History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 57. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 307 
 
 of the first settlers an impassable tamarack swamp. ^ 
 The marshy surface called the "wet prairie," a char- 
 acteristic feature of Jackson County, was generally 
 easy to drain. "^ On the whole, the marsh land was 
 distributed widely in small areas along the margins of 
 many of the lakes, and quite commonly along the 
 creeks.^ Their neighborhood was chosen sometimes 
 by settlers for the sake of the wild hay, to supply stock 
 through the first winters. Sickness frequently followed 
 in these places, which the pioneers referred to the 
 apparent fact that even running water, and the water 
 of the springs, was impregnated with malaria.^ There 
 were a few extensive swamps, and some of these, 
 hemmed in by dense forest, made areas that were 
 likely to be very slowly settled — for example, Lee 
 Township in Calhoun County, which had but fifty -nine 
 inhabitants as late as 1840.^ In places the swamps 
 were a serious obstacle to transportation, as along the 
 Territorial Road. In a letter of 1831 describing a trip 
 from Ann Arbor to Calhoun Coimty on that road, a 
 writer states that a party of nine immigrants had to 
 wade knee-deep through marsh a distance of eighty 
 rods with their goods on their backs, and then were 
 compelled to work two hours to extricate one of the 
 oxen from the mud.^ 
 
 3. Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 273. 
 
 4. Blois, Gazetteer, 224. 
 
 5. History of Kalamazoo Cotmty, 395, 417, 427; Mich. Hist. 
 
 Colls., II, 223. 
 
 6. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 193, 194. 
 
 7. U. S. Census (1840), 437; History of Calhoun County, 113; 
 
 History of Kalamazoo County, 292; Mich. Hist Colls., 
 II, 233. 
 
 8. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 195. 
 
308 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 On every hand there was the characteristic lakelet. 
 In one area six miles square there were seven of these 
 of considerable size, and this seems not to have been 
 exceptional.^ In Kalamazoo County the water sur- 
 face covered ten thousand acres. ^° The attractiveness 
 of the larger lakes in later times is shown by their hav- 
 ing become well known summer resorts/^ and the way 
 in which the settlers regarded them measures the rela- 
 tive strength of certain of their motives in choosing 
 their lands. For beauty and healthfulness many of 
 the lakes could not be surpassed. Often they were fed 
 by springs of pure water, which were very numerous 
 in the section. Their shores were often natural parks. 
 A letter written from Marshall in 1833 by a visitor 
 passing through Calhoun County contains excellent 
 testimony to their attractiveness, and it is somewhat 
 surprising to find that they were not stronger consider- 
 ations with settlers. The writer says that "for general 
 healthfulness of situation, I believe it is agreed that 
 the banks of the small lakes which so abound in the 
 peninsula are — when these transparent bodies of water 
 are surrounded by a sand beach, which is the case with 
 about a third of them — among the healthiest. They 
 are fed generally by the springs, and in many cases are 
 supposed to have a subterranean outlet; while so 
 beautifully transparent are their waters that the 
 canoe suspended on their bosom seems to float in mid- 
 air. These lakes abormd with fish; and in some of 
 
 9. In the present Pavilion Township, Kalamazoo County. 
 History of Kalamazoo County, 417. 
 
 10. Ibid., 57. .Only the present Wakeshma Township con- 
 
 tained no lakes. See Ibid., 544. 
 
 11. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 352. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 309 
 
 them, of only a few acres in extent, fish have been 
 taken of forty pounds weight. They generally lie im- 
 bosomed in the oak openings, and with their regular 
 and almost formal banks crowned with open groves 
 these silver pools might be readily taken for artificial 
 trout-ponds in a cultivated park. I need hardly add 
 that it is necessary to diverge, as I have, from the 
 route generally traveled, to see these scenic gems, so 
 numerous, lonely, and beautiful. Not one in a him- 
 dred has a settler on its banks. "^^ 
 
 Reported instances are not lacking of the direct in- 
 fluence of these lakes in inducing settlement, though 
 beauty of environment needed to be combined, usually, 
 with other advantages. Clark's Lake in southeastern 
 Jackson County, it is said, early attracted settlers for 
 its beauty. ^'^ The first settler in Kalamazoo County, 
 Basil Harrison, settled on the banks of Harrison Lake 
 on Prairie Ronde.^"* The letter above quoted bears 
 witness also to the sentiment of natural religion to 
 which the beauty of these lakes must have appealed in 
 those who beheld them in their original state. ^^ 
 
 There is much evidence, however, that the settler 
 did not allow aesthetic or religious sentiment, or even 
 proper care of health, to stand in the way of his im- 
 mediate material prosperity. The writer of the above 
 letter says, speaking of the prevailing causes of sick- 
 ness in Michigan, "As for the sickness which always 
 prevails more or less among the new settlers, to one 
 
 12. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 194. This was early in 
 
 the settlement of the section. 
 
 13. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 277; History of Jackson County, 778. 
 
 14. History of Kalamazoo County, 436. 
 
 15. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 195-196. 
 
310 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 who is aware of their imprudences the wonder is that 
 the majority of them escape with their Hves."^*^ He 
 gives several common examples — among them, settle- 
 ment in the vicinity of marshes. The settlement at 
 the boggy site of Jackson village illustrates the pre- 
 ponderant weight of economic motives. ^^ 
 
 The soil of this section was uniformly fertile, vary- 
 ing from a sandy to a clayey loam.^^ Along the Kala- 
 mazoo River the rich alluvium of the bottom lands in 
 places reached from a half mile to a mile in width on 
 each side of the river. ^^ The richness of the soil in 
 the neighborhood of Kalamazoo village became known 
 early and stimulated settlement there. In 1833 a 
 settler on the Washtenaw Trail in Calhoun County, on 
 being asked about the soil of his farm, characterized 
 it as "a pretty good gravelly loam of eighteen inches," 
 but he thought something of moving off to Kalama- 
 zoo, "where they have it four feet deep and so fat that 
 it will grease your fingers. "-° The clay in the soil in 
 some parts of the section was sufficient for the manu- 
 facture of bricks."^ Excellent building material was 
 furnished to the hand of the settler also in beds of 
 sandstone and limestone. -'- 
 
 The soil of the prairies is well represented by the 
 rich black loam of Prairie Ronde,-''^ or of Toland 
 
 16. IHd., I, 193. 
 
 17. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 274. 
 
 18. Blois, Gazetteer, 216, 224. 
 
 19. History of Kalamazoo County, 351, 486; Blois, Gazetteer, 211. 
 
 20. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 184. 
 
 21. History of Kalamazoo County, 351. 
 
 22. Blois, Gazetteer, 212, 216, 224. These resources were not 
 
 much used as early as this. 
 
 23. History of Kalamazoo County, 435. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 311 
 
 Prairie, consisting in the latter of a vegetable mould a 
 foot in thickness.^* From the point of view of timber 
 the prairies were little oases embowered in the forest, 
 which in their vicinity was usually not dense, and 
 whose margin furnished a convenient shelter for the 
 settler's cabin. ^^ 
 
 This marginal location was the characteristic way 
 of beginning settlement on the prairies. For instance, 
 a graduate of Amherst settled in 1830 at the southern 
 end of Prairie Ronde, of whose farm of seven hundred 
 and twenty acres the greater part was prairie and in- 
 cluded marginal timber, in the shelter of a projecting 
 tongue of which he built his cabin. ^^ On the edge of 
 a little island of timber near the center of Prairie 
 Ronde grew up the village of Schoolcraft.^^ The pre- 
 ference of settlers for prairie over timbered land is 
 shown by the early entries at Prairie Ronde, where 
 nearly all of the prairie land, amounting to thirteen 
 thousand acres, was taken up before the neighboring 
 timber, except along the margin. ^^ The same was true 
 on other prairies. ^^ This preference for prairie land 
 may be understood when it is considered, for example, 
 that on Prairie Ronde a straight furrow might be 
 plowed for eleven miles without striking stick or 
 stone. ^° Moreover, all of the prairies were well drained, 
 
 24. Ibid., 351. 
 
 25. Ibid., 324, 351, 457; Mich. Hist. Colls., XI, 234. 
 
 26. Mich. Hist. Colls., XI, 235. 
 
 27. History of Kalamazoo County, 702. 
 
 28. Ibid., 435. 
 
 29. History of Calhoun County (1877), 941; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 XVIII, 554. 
 
 30. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 578. 
 
312 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 some of them by streams which afforded very good 
 water power, as at Vicksburg and Homer. ^^ 
 
 Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties were preeminently 
 the prairie counties of this section. Their position was 
 midway in a prairie region which extended northeast- 
 erly from Indiana and Ohio and continued into Barry 
 and Eaton counties, a physiographic and geologic 
 unity which had its counterpart in imity of early 
 prairie settlement. 
 
 The mmiber, extent, and distribution of the prairies 
 in Kalamazoo County insured a strong foothold to 
 settlement there as soon as immigration should begin. 
 Its eight largest prairies covered together twenty-one 
 thousand acres, about one-eighth of the area of the 
 county. Two-thirds of this area lay just above the 
 southern boundaries, ^^ and it was an easy step from 
 Little Prairie Ronde and Nottawa-sepe, respectively in 
 Cass and St. Joseph; the distance was slight from Big 
 Prairie Ronde and Gourdneck Prairie in Kalamazoo 
 County to the other prairies, which were grouped 
 mainly near the Kalamazoo River.^^ This assured 
 easy interrelations of settlement. 
 
 As in the St. Joseph Valley so in this section, immi- 
 gration entered by two streams, one from the south 
 and another from the east. The first settlers, who 
 came in 1828-29, were a- part of that northward move- 
 
 31. Ihid., II, 209; History of Kalamazoo County, (1880), 435, 
 
 457, 502; History of Calhoun County, (1877), 121. 
 
 32. Blois, Gazetteer, 225; History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 
 
 502. An interesting description of Prairie Ronde is 
 given by Cooper in Oak-Openings, Chapter XIX. 
 
 33. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 287, 324, 351, 407, 457; 
 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., 479. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 313 
 
 ment of population which brought the first settlers to 
 St. Joseph and Cass counties; some of the earliest im- 
 migrants to the Kalamazoo had first settled in those 
 counties; the earliest settler on Gourdneck Prairie, 
 originally from Fairfield County, Ohio, is said to have 
 first settled on Young's Prairie in Cass County. ^^ 
 
 The impulse to move westward into Kalamazoo 
 Coimty appears to have been felt very early in the 
 eastern part of Michigan. In 1826, just after the 
 opening of the Erie Canal, there appeared in the De- 
 troit Gazette, the report of John Mullet, United States 
 surveyor, about the lands on "the rivers St. Joseph and 
 Canamazoo," in which he mentions the large prairies 
 and the numerous other advantages of soil, timber and 
 water in what was to be Kalamazoo County.^^ Set- 
 tlement was then pushing westward over Washtenaw 
 Coimty and in the following year began to find its 
 way along the Chicago Road into Hillsdale and Branch 
 counties. Among the first settlers of Prairie Ronde, 
 Grand, Climax, Gull, and Genesee prairies, there were 
 many from the eastern part of the Territory. ^"^ The 
 first white settler of Genesee Prairie, formerly of Huron 
 County, Ohio, had resided for some time in St. Clair 
 County, Michigan." 
 
 Former Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor settlers were the 
 first to locate on Toland Prairie.^ '^ Washtenaw appears 
 
 34. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 506. 
 
 35. Detroit Gazette, Feb. 14, 1826. 
 
 36. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 207; V, 375; VII, 483; XVIII, 596; 
 
 History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 409. 
 
 37. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 409; The earliest 
 
 settler there is said to have been a Negro named Harris. 
 Ibid., 410; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 209; XVIII, 598. 
 
 38. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 479. 
 
314 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 to have been more largely represented than any other 
 eastern Michigan county, partly because of its posi- 
 tion on the Territorial Road directly east of ''the Kala- 
 mazoo country;" but the earliest westward movement 
 of population to Kalamazoo County appears to have 
 been consequent rather upon the attention which set- 
 tlements in Cass and St. Joseph counties drew to this 
 region.^^ 
 
 A characteristic group of immigrants illustrating ele- 
 ments in the popu ation is described in a traveler's 
 letter written in 1833 from Prairie Ronde. Mention is 
 made of "a long-haired 'hooshier' from Indiana a 
 couple of smart looking 'suckers' from the southern 
 part of Illinois, a keen-eyed leather-belted 'badger' 
 from the mines of Wisconsin, and a sturdy yeoman- 
 like fellow, whose white capot, Indian moccasins, and 
 red sash proclaimed, while he boasted a three years' 
 residence, the genuine Wolverine, or naturalized Mich- 
 iganian. . . . The spokesman was evidently a 
 'red horse' from Kentucky, and nothing was wanting 
 but a 'buck-eye' from Ohio to render the assemblage 
 as complete as it was select. . . . 'From the east- 
 ern side, stranger?' said another to me, 'I am told it is 
 a tolerable frog pasture. Now here the soil's so deep 
 one can't raise any long sarce — they all get pulled 
 tjirough the other side. We can winter our cows, 
 however, on wooden clocks, there's so many Yankees 
 among us.' "^° 
 
 39. One of the earliest newspaper descriptions of the "burr oak 
 
 openings and beautiful rich prairies" of Kalamazoo 
 County is contained in the Detroit Free Press of Sept. 13, 
 1832, quoting the vSt. Joseph Beacon. 
 
 40. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 210, 212. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 316 
 
 The mingling of these two currents of immigration 
 in the first prairie settlements is illustrated by three 
 colonies founded in 1830. One in the southern part 
 of the county on Prairie Ronde, was known as "Vir- 
 ginia Corners;"*^ a second, on the same prairie, was 
 from Windsor, Vermont ;^'^ and in the northern part of 
 the county above Kalamazoo River an Ohio colony of 
 twenty-fotrr people settled on Gull Prairie.^^ In 1830-31 
 Genesee Prairie, just west from Kalamazoo village, 
 began to receive settlers from Genesee County, New 
 York, for which the prairie was named. By 1831 all 
 of the eight larger prairies of Kalamazoo County had 
 received their first settlers both from the East and 
 from the South, though the southern element was pre- 
 dominant. Many who had come from the South were 
 natives of eastern states, and many who came from 
 eastern Michigan had sojourned in Ohio. It is prob- 
 able that many of the latter immigrants to the coimty 
 were drawn thither either by information from friends 
 or relatives in Ohio or through direct knowledge of 
 the Ohio settlements in the "Kalamazoo country." 
 
 The several steps in migrating to the county from 
 New England and from states southward are typically 
 illustrated in the careers of two founders of the first 
 settlement on Prairie Ronde, Basil Harrison and 
 Erastus Guilford. Basil Harrison, who was born in 
 
 41. History of Kalamazoo County, (1S8>0), 504. 
 
 42. Ibid., 516, 5i7; Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 273. 
 
 43. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 207. This colony is mentioned in the 
 
 Northwestern Journal of June 30, 1830, as coming from 
 Hudson, Ohio, and their settlement is called Geloster. 
 This appears to be the original nucleus of the village of 
 Geloster in Richmond Township, mentioned in Blois' 
 Gazetteer, p. 289, as "commenced in 1833." 
 
316 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Frederick County, Maryland, and who in early life 
 was a resident of Virginia and later of Pennsylvania, 
 in 1810 migrated to Kentucky, thence to Clark County, 
 Ohio, and came to Michigan in 1828, by way of Fort 
 Wayne.'** Erastus Guilford was a native of Northamp- 
 ton, Massachusetts; he emigrated in early life to 
 Ohio, and thence to Ypsilanti; failing to operate a 
 distillery successfully there he returned to Ohio, but 
 he determined to try his fortunes again in Michigan, 
 and entering the Territory by way of Monroe and the 
 Chicago Road, he sett^.ed near Harrison on Prairie 
 Ronde, in 1829.*^ Illustrations could be multiplied. 
 The great majority of the early settlers of this county, 
 as of most Michigan counties, made several halts on 
 their way from their native towns. The New Eng- 
 landers very frequently settled for a time in New 
 York State; Southerners very often first settled in 
 Kentucky and Tennessee; settlers from Pennsylvania 
 and Maryland were most likely to stop for a time in 
 Ohio or Indiana, and often in Illinois. 
 
 Prairie settlement in Calhoun County varied in 
 several respects from that in Kalamazoo. The prairies 
 were smaller, less numerous, and not so well distributed ; 
 they attracted a comparatively small share of the 
 southern immigration and were settled later, mainly 
 from the East. The most of Calhoun's prairie land 
 was in the west, excepting Cook's Prairie, which 
 covered a considerable area in the southeast. In the 
 vicinity of Battle Creek was Goguac Prairie, of fair 
 size. Directly south across the county was Dry 
 
 44. History of Kalamazoo County (1880, 436-439; Mich. Hist. 
 
 Colls., I, 207; VII, 481; XVIII, 17. 
 
 45. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 441. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 317 
 
 Prairie, which extended into Branch. Their settle- 
 ment was begun in 1831-32.^'^ It was sHghtly pre- 
 ceded by several river settlements in 1830-31,'*^ one of 
 them at Marshall ; the land on these prairies, however, 
 was eagerly bought up. On Dry Prairie fourteen hun- 
 dred and forty acres were entered by actual settlers in 
 one day.^^ The land of Goguac Prairie was all bought 
 up before that on the river in the neighboring open- 
 ings. ^^ All of the prairies had early a considerable 
 number of settlers, ^° mainly from New York and Ver- 
 mont.^' In 1832 a settlement began near Homer vil- 
 lage which attracted Pennsylvanians." There were 
 many New Yorkers among them ; the village of Homer 
 was named from Homer in Cortland County, New 
 York,^^ and Clarendon Township containing a portion 
 of Cook's Prairie was named by settlers from Claren- 
 don. Orleans County, New York.^"* The first settler 
 on that prairie, though immediately from Washtenaw, 
 was formerly from Cayuga County, New York.^^ 
 
 Elsewhere in the section the prairies were too few 
 and too small to form an important factor in the be- 
 ginnings of settlement, but wherever prairie land was 
 found it was certain to be entered at an early date. 
 
 46. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 209; III, 347; History of Calhoun 
 
 County (1877), 80, 134, 186. 
 
 47. Ibid., I, 129; II, 235. 
 
 48. Ibid., II, 209. 
 
 49. History of Calhoun County (1877), 941. 
 
 50. Ibid., 94; Collin, History of Branch County, 81. 
 
 51. History of Calhoun County (1877), 116, 135, 186; Mich. 
 
 Hist. Colls., V, 272-293, passim. 
 
 52. History of Calhoun County (1877), 121. 
 
 53. Ibid., 121. 
 
 54. Ibid., 186. 
 
 55. Ibid., 186. 
 
318 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Allegan and Van Buren counties had practically no 
 prairie land excepting a corner of Little Prairie Ronde 
 in Van Buren just over the boundary from Cass 
 County.^^ Van Buren received its first settlers upon 
 this land in 1829, from Scioto County, Ohio." In 
 Jackson County the "wet prairie" land not infre- 
 quently attracted settlers who were interested in stock- 
 raising, its southwestern part being first settled largely 
 for the advantages of these natural meadows. ^^ 
 
 Next to the prairie land the oak openings and the 
 burr-oak plains were the settler's preference, not so 
 much for the sake of the soil as for their relative 
 openness as compared with much of the forested area, 
 which made for ease of travel and immediate cultiva- 
 tion. The plains covered about a quarter of Jackson 
 County, and the rest of its area was largely oak 
 openings, of a piece with those of northern Hillsdale. ^^ 
 The most of Calhoun was covered with burr- and 
 white-oak openings, "^^ as was also fully two-thirds of 
 Kalamazoo County.*^^ Cooper's Oak-Openings com- 
 memorates this feature of the timbered land in the 
 Kalamazoo Valley.®^ 
 
 56. Blois, Gazetteer, 224, 242. 
 
 57. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 630; V, 149; XXXVIII, 638. He 
 
 came by way of Pokagon Prairie in Cass County. 
 
 58. Ibid., IV, 277. A convenient secondary survey of the 
 
 topography and geology of Jackson County is given in 
 the History of Jackson County (1881), 117-128. 
 
 59. Blois, Gazetteer,' 224. 
 
 60. Ibid., 216. 
 
 61. Ibid., 225. 
 
 62. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 271, 307. Much of the action takes 
 
 place in Kalamazoo County. A characteristic song of 
 pioneer days, reprinted from the Centennial Record of 
 Michigan in the History of Allegan and Barry Counties 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORL^L ROAD 319 
 
 The beauty of these plains and openings in summer 
 must have been most pleasing to the settlers, whose 
 reminiscences describe them variously as being like "a 
 sea of grass and flowers," or like "a vast field of ripe 
 grain, with here and there an orchard. ""^^ Even in winter 
 these plains had their charms. A traveler in Calhoun 
 County writes: "But, lost as I was, I could not help 
 pausing frequently when I struck the first burr-oak 
 opening I had ever seen, to admire its novel beauty. 
 It looked more like a pear-orchard than anything else 
 to which I can assimilate it — the trees being some- 
 what of the shape and size of fullgrown pear trees, and 
 standing at regular intervals apart from each other on 
 the firm level soil, as if planted by some gardener. 
 Here, too, I first saw deer in herds; and half frozen 
 and weary as I was, the sight of these spirited-looking 
 creatures sweeping in troops through these intermin- 
 able groves, where any eye could follow them for miles 
 over the smooth snowy plain, actually warmed and 
 invigorated me, and I could hardly refrain from put- 
 ting the rowels into my tired horse, and launching after 
 the noble game."''^ 
 
 In the same letter, commenting upon the compara- 
 
 62. Con. (1880), p. 27, note, after eulogizing various parts of 
 
 Michigan adds about Kalamazoo: 
 
 But of all the darndest countries 
 
 Beneath the shining sun, 
 
 Old Kalamazoo can take the rag 
 
 When all the rest are done. 
 
 There in the burr-oak openings, 
 
 Big Matcheebeenashewish 
 
 Raised double crops of com and beans 
 
 And ate them with his fish. 
 
 63. Ibid., II, 194, 256. 
 
 64. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 183. 
 
320 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 tive ease of cultivating the plains and openings and 
 upon the general neglect of them for the prairies, the 
 writer exclaims: "What a cormtry this is. Into land 
 like this, which is comparatively undervalued by those 
 seeking to settle on the prairie a man can run his plow 
 without felling a tree; and, planting a hundred acres, 
 where he would clear but ten in the unsettled dis- 
 tricts of New York, raise his twenty-five bushels of 
 wheat to an acre in the very first season. "^^ To this 
 latter fact, among other reasons, is undoubtedly owing 
 the large immigration from the State of New York. 
 In the Detroit Courier for November 6, 1833, a cor- 
 respondent describing the environment of Calhoim 
 County extols its burr-oak plain above the prairies 
 westward on account of the greater nearness to plenti- 
 ful water power and timber. 
 
 The heavily timbered lands were settled much more 
 slowly, as for example Newton Township in Calhoun 
 County, which though it was just off the Territorial 
 Road had no buyers until 1833, when purchases were 
 still made only in small amounts i*^^ it did not have a 
 settler until 1834. The most important woods of the 
 section were oak, beech, maple, ash, basswood, white- 
 wood, butternut and black walnut. '^^ These varieties, 
 except the latter, were abtmdant in all parts of these 
 counties. Allegan and Van Buren had much valuable 
 pine, of which the names of Pine Creek and Pine 
 Grove Township are reminiscent. The 'Tine Creek 
 neighborhood," near the junction of that stream with 
 
 65. Ihid., I, 183. 
 
 66. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 244. 
 
 67. Blois, Gazetteer, 242; Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 407. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORL\L ROAD 321 
 
 the Kalamazoo, made its beginnings of settlement 
 about 1831, consisting mainly of preparations to cut off 
 the pine along the creek. Under the name of New 
 Rochester, or Sherwood's Mills, so-called from their 
 owner who came from Rochester, New York, the place 
 was for some time a vigorous rival of the villages on 
 the plains; but its fate was decreed by the financial 
 crisis of 18v37.*^^ In the pine lands of Van Buren 
 County, while the timber was a valuable asset to 
 settlement in the openings there was little agricul- 
 tural development for a decade after this period. Pine 
 Grove Township appears to have had but thirty voters 
 in 1849.'^9 
 
 Lumbering on a small scale for local consumption 
 was an important early industry. It was much facil- 
 itated by an abundance of water power, which was 
 well distributed throughout the section on the main 
 streams and tributaries of the Kalamazoo, the St. 
 Joseph, the Grand and the Paw Paw rivers.^'' 
 
 The water power of the Kalamazoo made that river 
 the great central agent of settlement for the entire 
 section. Where the power was especially good, as at 
 Albion, Marshall, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo and Alle- 
 gan, there early began that process of centralizing 
 population which has made cities at those points. The 
 
 68. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 36, 40, 42, 43; Blois, 
 
 Gazetteer, 36 L 
 
 69. History of Berrien and Van Btiren Counties (1880), 521, 522- 
 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 295. 
 
 70. Blois, Gazetteer, 216, 304; History of Calhoun County (1877), 
 
 105, 134; History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 351, 435, 
 
 486, 502, 523. 
 
 41 
 
322 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 river takes its rise in the springs and lakes of Hills- 
 dale.^^ Entering this section across the southwestern 
 corner of Jackson County it keeps westward some- 
 what above the center of the section until it reaches a 
 point a little west of Kalamazoo, where it bends 
 northward through Allegan County. In places its 
 channel is quite deep, as near Kalamazoo, where the 
 surface of the river is a hundred feet below the sur- 
 face of the surrounding country.^- The uniformity of 
 its volume is due to many feeding springs and equaliz- 
 ing lakes and marshes which prevent low water from 
 drought, or devastation of the neighboring country in 
 flood time.'^^ The power of its current being practi- 
 cally constant, settlements could with few exceptions 
 be made close to its banks without fear of floods. The 
 deep black alluvial soil, sometimes two miles in width, 
 characterizing much of the bottom lands, insured quick 
 and abundant returns for a minimum expenditure of 
 labor. ^* Only one prairie lay immediately on its banks, 
 but several were within a short distance, near enough 
 to help create and foster flourishing river settlements. 
 Its course was skirted with a great variety of lands, 
 open, marshy, or heavily timbered — a variety found 
 often within a small area.^^ Its lower course for fifty 
 miles inland from Lake Michigan was serviceable for 
 navigation by flat-boats, barges and canoes, and small 
 
 71. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 272. 
 
 72. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 287. 
 
 73. Ihid., S1. 
 
 74. Blois, Gazetteer, 211; History oj Kalamazoo County (1880), 
 
 351. 
 
 75. History oJ Kalamazoo County (1880), 351, 395, 396« 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 323 
 
 steamboats were tried in the early days with a degree 
 of success.^'' 
 
 Though the Kalamazoo and its branches formed 
 the main agent of drainage and water power in the 
 section, its influence was supplemented by other large 
 streams. In Van Buren County the Paw Paw River, 
 a large branch of the St. Joseph, gave good water 
 power, and the main stream was boatable for small 
 craft for a distance of seventy miles from its mouth, 
 about a mile above the village of St. Joseph. ^^ By the 
 close of this period many of its mill sites had been im- 
 proved. One of them explains partly the location of 
 Paw Paw village, which is said to have been platted in 
 1833 by speculators from Prairie Ronde and from the 
 Mohawk Valley in New York.''^ It was at the junc- 
 tion with the Territorial Road to St. Joseph, and pro- 
 fited by the travel; besides its mills, it had three stores 
 in 1838.'^^ Other nascent villages on the branches of 
 
 76. Ihid., 57, 168. For the early river traffic on the Kalamazoo 
 
 see also Thomas, History of Allegan County, 33, 34, 55, 57; 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 282; XVIII, 591; XXVII, 290; 
 Michigan House Documents, No. 9, (D), 43 and No. 9, 
 (G), 70. 
 
 77. Blois, Gazetteer, 242, 338. Before the Michigan Central 
 
 Railroad, flat-boating on the Paw Paw River was quite 
 extensive, but not profitable. It is said that in 1840 
 two large flat-boats built at Paw Paw were loaded with 
 flour for St. Joseph, but that the trip took so long and 
 met so many difficulties from shoals and snags as to be 
 hardly more profitable than wagon transportation. Early 
 efforts to make the river more navigable had little suc- 
 cess. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties, 505. 
 
 78. Ibid., 506. 
 
 79. Blois. Gazetteer, 338. The countv seat was located there in 
 
 1840. Session Laws (1840), 36. 
 
324 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the Paw Paw were at Van Buren,^° Lafayette, ^^ and 
 Lawrence. The latter was an interesting speculation, 
 made in 1835 by one of the founders of Ann Arbor 
 (John Allen) on Brush Creek, who built a mill there 
 in 1836; but it had less than a dozen families after 
 nearly a decade of growth.^- Other branches of the 
 St. Joseph drained no small portion of this section, as 
 much as three-eighths of Kalamazoo, illustrating again 
 the physiographic unity of the sections. The power 
 on the Black River seems not to have been used until 
 later than this period. The site of the village of Ban- 
 gor on that stream is said to have received its first set- 
 tler in 1837;^^ and the mouth of the stream, though 
 commercially favored, received little attention until 
 1852 when South Haven was platted. ^^ The larger 
 portion of Jackson County was drained by the source 
 streams of the Grand, the Huron and the Raisin. ^^ 
 
 Closely associated with the waterways as agents in 
 determining the location of the first settlements were 
 the Indian trails. The principal trail of the section 
 was the Washtenaw Trail, which lay westward from 
 
 80. Blois, Gazetteer, 377. 
 
 81. Ibid., 308. 
 
 82. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 494. It 
 
 was one of the several villages originally named Mason, 
 after the first governor of Michigan. 
 
 83. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 411. The 
 
 village was not platted until 1860. Ibid., 413. 
 
 84. Its advantages are said to have been appreciated in 1834, 
 
 when a house was built and a village platted. This was 
 by a native of Surrey, New Hampshire, an employee in 
 the fur trade, who in locating lands for Cass and Cam- 
 pau, passed there; but this beginning was not followed 
 up. Ibid., 534, 539. 
 
 85. Clark, Gazetteer of Michigan (1863), 99. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 325 
 
 Ann Arbor along the banks of the Kalamazoo, and 
 from which at various points local trails branched off 
 to the neighboring country. In the western part of 
 the section the site of Kalamazoo was a point upon 
 which local trails converged from various directions, 
 chiefly from the neighboring prairies, and became the 
 lines of the first recorded roads in the county. ^^ In 
 the eastern part of the section a similar point was the 
 site of Jackson, a favorite Indian camping ground ;^^ 
 its first white settler is said to have reached that point 
 by the aid of a Potaw^atomi Indian guide. ^^ These two 
 places, together with Saugatuck at the mouth of the 
 Kalamazoo, an Indian haunt commemorated by Coop- 
 er, were the first river sites in the section to be chosen 
 for white settlement. 
 
 The choice of these Indian sites and the close rela- 
 tion of the roads to the trails is evidence of the essential 
 agreement between the white man and the red man 
 on some of the conditions favoring primitive settle- 
 ment. The concentration of trails at a river indi- 
 cated usually a good fording place, sometimes caused 
 by shallows, often by rapids, the latter affording step- 
 ping stones for crossing. At the rapids fish were likely 
 to accumulate in passing up-stream. The soil in the 
 vicinity being usually a fertile alluvium and easy to cul- 
 tivate, an Indian village was likely to grow up there, 
 
 86. Mich. Hist Colls., XVIII, 580, 596, 606; History of Kala- 
 
 mazoo County (1880), 29 L The numerous garden beds 
 indicate that the vicinity of Kalamazoo was extensively 
 cultivated by a prehistoric people. History of Kalamazoo 
 County, 164. 
 
 87. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 274. 
 
 88. Ihid., II, 275. 
 
326.- ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 and with the interests of the Indian coincided those 
 of the fur trader in making this the chief point of 
 their trade. There is said to have been an Indian 
 trader at the site of Kalamazoo at the time of its first 
 white settlement, from whom the first settler obtained 
 supplies. It was an important coincidence that these 
 points on the rivers afforded usually the best water 
 power, which on the whole appears to have been the 
 most vital consideration to the white settler. 
 
 It would seem that the selection of these three river 
 sites was independent of the Territorial Road, which 
 was not then surveyed ; yet since they were all selected 
 in 1829, the year in which the road was authorized, 
 the choice of the sites of Jackson and Kalamazoo may 
 have been, if not directly influenced, hastened by anti- 
 cipation of the possibilities which the road would open 
 for villages at those sites. It should be observed that 
 as soon as Jackson village was located, efforts were put 
 forth at once by its founders to secure the survey of 
 the road through it.^^ The choice of the site of Sauga- 
 tuck at the mouth of the river, far removed from the 
 road, was undoubtedly made from motives indepen- 
 dent of it. 
 
 In view of the physiography of the site of Jackson, 
 however, it is natural to look for some more cogent 
 motive for choosing it so early for the site of a future 
 city. According to descriptions of primitive conditions 
 there, it was for that purpose a very unpromising place. 
 "A more forbidding site for a village or city than that 
 chosen for Jackson," says a reminiscent sketch, "could 
 not in all probability have been found in the State of 
 
 89. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 349. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORL\L ROAD 327 
 
 Michigan. "^° The ground was in places low and 
 swampy; the high ground is described as "a succession 
 of sand knolls . . . interspersed with springs and 
 bog-holes." The heavily timbered bottom land was so 
 low and wet that some thirty years elapsed after the 
 founding of the village before there was a good street 
 through it. It is said that workmen digging ditches tor 
 water pipes or other public utilities still find, several 
 feet under the present surface, the old log causeways. 
 The choice of the site of Jackson, apart from its water 
 power and its relation to the trails, is explained by 
 its position at the geographic center of the newly 
 created county of Jackson, which it was well known 
 would cause it to find favor as the county seat.^^ This 
 favor it secured in 1830, and so hopeful did the com- 
 missioners feel over the geographical importance of its 
 position, they predicted in their report to Governor 
 Cass that it would be the site of the future capital of 
 the State: "So sanguine were we, that we required 
 the proprietors to appropriate ten acres of land for 
 the State-house square."^- 
 
 Of an opposite character was the immediate site of 
 Kalamazoo, in the midst of a beautiful burr-oak plain 
 some hundred feet above the river. ^'^ Its first white 
 settler had seen several Michigan villages founded, 
 and fostered into successful financial ventures — among 
 them Ann Arbor; and the environment of these two 
 
 90. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 274. 
 
 91. Ibid., II, 275; V, 348. 
 
 92. Ibid., V, 280. 
 
 93. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 208. A writer in Mich. 
 
 Hist. Colls., V, 368, quotes Horace Greeley as saying, 
 with slight reservation, that " Kalamazoo is the most 
 beautiful place this side the base line of Paradise." 
 
328 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 sites were in some points similar. Without doubt a 
 city was contemplated from the very first. 
 
 The influences that bore upon this settler seem 
 clear. He could have been familiar with the agita- 
 tion that resulted in the Territorial Road, and he 
 could have known of the plans to foimd a village at 
 Jackson, since he resided at that time at Ann Arbor, 
 where the plan was matured. He had lived in Michi- 
 gan since 1823, in Oakland and Wayne counties prior 
 to his residence in Washtenaw. ^^ He came to Michi- 
 gan from Talmadge, Ohio, and in 1827 when he re- 
 visited that State he seems to have received informa- 
 tion from a pioneer of Medina County about the Kala- 
 mazoo country. ^^ He appears to have visited, in that 
 year, the site of the future city, and it is probable that 
 the project of 1829 was maturing in his mind during 
 those two years. The fact that the lands of Kalama- 
 zoo were not in the market until 1829 would probably 
 be sufficient to deter him. His hobby was cultivating 
 a new variety of potato — the Neshannock — which he 
 seems to have been the first to introduce into Michi- 
 gan and which gained for him the soubriquet "Potato 
 Bronson." The rich black soil at Kalamazoo would 
 be for this purpose a desideratum, but his main aim 
 seems to have been to found a city, which he platted 
 in 1831.96 
 
 94. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 365. He is said to have bought forty- 
 
 five acres in Section 15 of Ypsilanti Township, close to 
 the Huron River, in 1823. Beakes, Past and Present of 
 Washtenaw County, 546. 
 
 95. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 368, History of Kalamazoo County 
 
 (1880), 209, 210. 
 
 96. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 366. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 329 
 
 The first settler on the site of Saugatuck was a 
 native of Hartford, Connecticut, whose family came 
 to that site by way of the Great Lakes in 1830.^^ A 
 knowledge of the early history of the settlements along 
 the Connecticut River would naturally suggest to a 
 native of Hartford the value of a position at the 
 mouth of an important river. A harbor and lake port 
 would seem an obvious advantage in view of the 
 possibility of obtaining Government aid. It was only 
 a little while before this that a settlement had been 
 made at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, just below 
 Saugatuck, as a port for the St. Joseph Valley. The 
 activities of 1829-30 along the eastern portion of the 
 Kalamazoo, indicating the advance of the frontier, 
 would naturally suggest to him the agricultural de- 
 velopment of that region, which would erelong need 
 an outlet by river transportation. It appears that 
 some four miles up the river from Saugatuck the 
 American Fur Company had established a trading 
 post as early as 1825, and it is thought that he was 
 connected with it as a trader. ^^ In 1834, the year 
 in which the first strong impulse seems to have 
 been given to the settlement of Allegan County, this 
 settler, William Butler, platted a village on the site 
 of Saugatuck which he called Kalamazoo. ^^ In the 
 same year other settlers built a mill and a tannery 
 there. ^°° A postoffice was established in 1835. But 
 the trading, lumbering, shipping and fruit-growing, 
 
 97. Ibid., Ill, 301. 
 
 98. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 32. 
 
 99. Ibid., 125, See also the Detroit Daily Free Press for June 
 
 18, 1836. 
 100. Ibid., 33. 
 
330 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 which formed the basis of its development /°^ were 
 things far in the future. The place is apparently 
 mentioned by Blois as Newark, which he credits with 
 a warehotise and about a dozen dwellings. ^^" The 
 western third of the county, organized in 1836 into the 
 township of Newark, contained according to the census 
 of 1837 a population of 190.^°^ There is said to have 
 been no store iii Saugatuck until 1851.^°'^ 
 
 Otsego, Gun Plains and Allegan were the next set- 
 tlements made in Allegan County, all on the river, 
 and of course independent of the Territorial Road, 
 which bent its course southwestward through Van 
 Buren County towards the mouth of the St. Joseph. ^°^ 
 
 About the time of the first settlement at the mouth 
 of the river (1829-30) explorers are said to have visited 
 the eastern part of the county. One point inspected 
 was the rapids in the river at the site of Otsego. A 
 number of settlers appear to have located in the 
 neighborhood by the close of 1831 and made a settle- 
 ment on the site of the village. ^'^'^ But the year 1836 
 marks the first real impulse to the formation of a vil- 
 lage, when the first mill was built, an impulse which 
 
 101. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 124. 
 
 102. Blois, Gazetteer, 331. 
 
 103. Session Laws (1835-36), 76; Mich. Legislative Manual (1838), 
 
 70; Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 305-306. 
 
 104. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 125. One cause of the 
 
 slow growth of Saugatuck in the early days appears to 
 have been the rivalry of the village of Singapore, located 
 between the mouth of the river and Saugatuck. This 
 was a speculative village fotmded in 1836 by New York 
 parties. Ibid., 34; Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 306; XXXVIII, 
 159. 
 
 105. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVII, 557, 559. 
 
 106. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 40, 41. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 331 
 
 appears to have come from the wealthy founder of 
 Comstock village in Kalamazoo County. ^°^ It is sig- 
 nificant that this was the year in which the county 
 was organized into its first four townships. ^°^ Otsego 
 Township is said to have had in that year thirty-four 
 taxpayers Z*^^ and the census of 1837 credits it with a 
 population of 341.^^° The village contained then about 
 150 people. ^1^ 
 
 Gun Plains, about the junction of Gun River with 
 the Kalamazoo, was a burr-oak opening, the largest 
 continuous area of cleared land in the county and the 
 first to be extensively cultivated.^^- Its natural physio- 
 graphic relation with Gull Prairie in Kalamazoo County 
 is shown by the connecting Indian trail, destined to 
 become an axis of settlement in that region; from 
 this prairie, over this trail, came its early settlers. Ap- 
 parently the first comer was a member of the colony 
 which came to the prairie in 1830 from Hudson, Ohio 
 — a man of much influence, said to have been grad- 
 uated from a Vermont medical college; dissatisfied 
 with his prairie farm, he is said to have tried his for- 
 tunes first at the "Pine Creek settlement" before set- 
 tling in 1832 on the plains, though he purchased land 
 there in the preceding year.^^^ Plainfield Township, 
 
 107. Ibid., 48, 416. The first frame house, built in 1833, was 
 
 probably made from lumber obtained at the Pine Creek 
 settlement. 
 
 108. Session Laws (1835-36), 76. 
 
 109. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 51. 
 
 110. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 
 
 111. Blois, Gazetteer, 336. 
 
 112. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 38, 39, 49. 
 
 113. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 46. Plainwell village 
 
 appears not to have been platted until 1850. 
 
332 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 which included a strip six miles wide across the eastern 
 end of the county, had in 1837 a population of 317.^^^ 
 
 Like the sites of Kalamazoo and Jackson, that of 
 Allegan was also marked by the concentration of 
 numerous Indian trails at an important ford of the 
 Kalamazoo. ^^^ The physical advantages which prob- 
 ably most influenced the early settlement of the village 
 are those set forth in the prospectus accompanying the 
 "Plan of Allegan," which was apparently widely cir- 
 culated in 1837. "Allegan, from its various natural 
 and acquired advantages, will doubtless rank erelong 
 among the most populous towns of the West," declares 
 this document. ^^"^ Emphasis is laid upon the water 
 power at the rapids of the Kalamazoo, equal to that 
 at Rochester; on its situation at the head of steam- 
 boat navigation from Lake Michigan, on the high and 
 heathful position above the river, the superior farming 
 lands near, the abundant timber including extensive 
 tracts of pine, the beds of clay for brick, the marl beds 
 for lime, and the sand for glass. 
 
 The cause of the early and rapid start of the village 
 is to be found also in the manner of its founding and 
 in its strong personal element. A stock company of 
 Boston and New York capitalists, having purchased 
 there in 1833-34 twenty thousand acres of land, im- 
 mediately sent on their agents and workmen to begin 
 clearing the site for a city.^^'^ The county seat was 
 
 114. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70; Session Laws 
 
 (1835-36), 76. 
 
 115. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 271. 
 
 116. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 55. 
 
 117. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 97; 111,270, 279; IV, 173; XVII, 
 
 558, 559. Among the original promoters were men from 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 333 
 
 secured, a mill was built and buildings erected, and 
 the river was bridged. ^^^ 
 
 In the prospectus, the settlement of the village is 
 dated from 1835, but the first store appears to have 
 been built in 1836, the year in which the mill was 
 completed. There, as at Otsego, this year reflects a 
 strong impulse. The spirit of joy in the new enter- 
 prize characteristic of that year in all parts of Michi- 
 gan is reflected in a remark of one of the founders who 
 is said to have refused a hundred thousand dollars for 
 his one-third interest in the property, that he wanted 
 a home and "the luxury of helping build up a city."^^^ 
 In that year articles began to appear in the newspapers 
 of Detroit and the East about Allegan village, em- 
 phasizing especially the water power, the pine, and the 
 navigability of the river.^^" About fifty frame build- 
 ings are said to have been erected in that year, prob- 
 ably from lumber sawed there. ^^^ When in 1837 it 
 
 117. Con. Boston, Rochester, Detroit, Marshall, and Kalamazoo. 
 
 One of these was Samuel Hubbard, said to have been a 
 resident of Boston and judge of the supreme court of 
 Mass.; another was Charles C. Trowbridge, of Detroit, 
 whose name is preserved in Trowbridge Street. Both 
 of these men appear on the revised plat of the village as 
 the proprietors in 1837. Thomas, History of Allegan 
 County, 54, 57. The earliest name associated with the 
 site is that of Elisha Ely, of Rochester, New York. 
 Ihid., 53. 
 
 118. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 56. The village was 
 
 incorporated in 1838. 
 
 119. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 174. 
 
 120. For example the Detroit Daily Free Press, Feb. 8, 1836, 
 
 quoting from the Onondaga (N. Y.) Standard one of a 
 series of articles, and the Detroit Daily Advertiser, 
 Nov. 29, 1836, quoting from the Ann Arbor State 
 Journal. 
 
 121. Blois, Gazetteer, 247. 
 
334 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 was attempted to resurvey the village, because of the 
 irregularity of the streets as laid out in 1834, settle- 
 ment was found too much advanced on the old streets 
 to permit of it.^-^ Allegan Township in that year, 
 about twice the size of Otsego Township, contained a 
 population of 621, but as in the case of Otsego this 
 was probably in the main gathered about the village 
 center. ^^^ In that case it was the most populous vil- 
 lage center in the county, containing nearly half of the 
 county's people. Blois credits the village in 1838 
 with about 700.^24 
 
 The financial crisis of the period seems to have hit 
 this prosperity a hard blow. The village is said to 
 have had in 1850 but a few more people than were 
 claimed in 1838.^-^ Its permanence was assured, how- 
 ever, by the central industry of lumbering, by the 
 surrounding agricultural development, and by its cen- 
 tral position in the county which assured its possession 
 of the county seat. 
 
 The influence of the Territorial Road in Van Buren 
 County after its survey in 1836 and the water power 
 of the Paw Paw River, fostered a village at Paw Paw. 
 What little settlement there was in the county in the 
 period, outside of the prairie land in the southwest, 
 appears to have been mainly grouped, as at Paw Paw, 
 about the points where the road crossed streams 
 
 122. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 53. 
 
 123. Mich. Legislative Manual (1838), 70; Session Laws (1835- 
 
 36), 76. 
 
 124. Blois, Gazetteer, 247. 
 
 125. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 59. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 335 
 
 affording water power. ^-*^ A stage line seems to have 
 been put on the road through Paw Paw, Keeler, 
 Bainbridge and Benton in 1836, from Detroit to St. 
 Joseph.^" Most of the present important villages 
 and cities of the county received their start much 
 later, in the period of railroad development. ^^^ 
 
 In Calhoun County, though Albion, Marshall and 
 Battle Creek were also located after the survey of the 
 Territorial Road, the influence of that road on their 
 location was apparently only such as might attach to 
 "a blaze and a name." The dominant attraction was 
 water power. The site of Marshall was at the junc- 
 tion of Rice Creek with the Kalamazoo ; that of Battle 
 Creek, at the junction of the Kalamazoo with "the 
 Creek. "^^^ The water power of both places was 
 covered by purchase of neighboring lands in 1830,^^° 
 and it was so eagerly desired at Battle Creek that 
 when the neighboring lands came on the market in 
 
 126. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 394, 421, 
 
 456, 466, 477. One of the few small village centers out- 
 side of Paw Paw was Keelerville on the Territorial Road, 
 first settled in 1834. Ibid., 477; Blois, Gazetteer, 307. 
 
 127. Blois, Gazetteer, 51. Dodge's tavern is said to have been 
 
 built at Paw Paw in 1834 to accommodate travel on the 
 Territorial Road. History of Berrien and Van Buren 
 Counties (1880), 508. 
 
 128. For example, Decatur, Lawton, and Hartford. History of 
 
 Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 382, 442, 460; 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 363. 
 
 129. The "battle" has significance for the attitude of the Indians 
 
 towards the U. S. surveyors in 1825. See Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., VI, 248-251; History of Calhoun County (1877), 
 79, 88. 
 
 130. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 130; II, 235; XXX, 452; History of 
 
 Calhoun County, 15. 
 
336 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 1831 they were sought simultaneously by a half dozen 
 rival applicants and entered by a compromise.^^^ 
 
 The importance of mills to the progress of early set- 
 tlement in this section was very great. A pioneer in 
 the vicinity of Battle Creek accoimts for the slowness 
 of development there by "the simple fact that not- 
 withstanding the fertility of her soil and her abund- 
 ant water power, there were no accessible sawmills to 
 fui'nish building material, and no gristmills to furnish 
 flour for family consumption. "^^^ It is said that as 
 late as the winter of 1834-35 the lumber for a school- 
 house floor was floated down the "Creek" from Belle- 
 vue in Eaton County ;^^^ apparently lumber was not 
 sawed at Battle Creek imtil the following winter. ^^'^ 
 Foremost among these river villages in building mills 
 was Marshall where both a sawmill and a gristmill 
 were erected in 1831-32.^^^ In Kalamazoo County the 
 mills at Comstock and at Vicksburg preceded those at 
 Kalamazoo. 
 
 The presence of the Territorial Road, though only in 
 "blaze and name," had probably some influence upon 
 rural settlement along the river in this part of the 
 section, and to the influence of the road and the river 
 must be added the centralizing power of the county 
 
 131. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 213; III, 347. 
 
 132. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 213. 
 
 133. Ibid., II, 214. According to Thomas, History of Allegan 
 
 County, (p. 48), the first frame house at Battle Creek 
 was built from lumber sawed in the "Pine Creek Settle- 
 ment" in Allegan County. 
 
 134. Ibid., II, 221, History of Calhoun County (1877), 80. 
 
 135. Mich. Hist. Colls., 1, 131, History of Calhoun County (1877), 
 
 50, 55. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 337 
 
 seats^^^ at Jackson, Marshall, Kalamazoo and the other 
 prospective centers of population. In Jackson County 
 at the end of 1830 there were a few log cabins at in- 
 tervals of from six to fourteen miles on the trail be- 
 tween Jackson and Ann Arbor. ^" Outside of Jackson 
 the most important points on the road in that county- 
 were at Grass Lake and Spring Arbor ;^^^ three of the 
 four townships in which the people of the county were 
 distributed in 1834 took their names from these points 
 on the Territorial Road.^^^ A general index to the 
 distribution of population, if allowances be made for 
 speculation, is found in the land sales. The largest 
 number of land sales made prior to 1835 in Calhoun 
 County were in the immediate vicinity of Marshall, 
 Battle Creek and Albion, and between them along the 
 Territorial Road.^^° The presence of Goguac Prairie 
 accounts partly for the large number of sales near 
 Battle Creek. 
 
 The influence of the Territorial Road as an actual 
 convenience of travel in this period was probably not 
 very great. The authorization of that road in 1829 
 came from the same general impulse which led to the 
 increase of immigration to the Territory as a whole, 
 partly to the establishment of the numerous western 
 
 136. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 211; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 I, 128; Ibid., II, 280. 
 
 137. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 281 ; III, 510. 
 
 138. History of Jackson County (1881), 843, 1,059; Hoffman, 
 
 A Winter in the West, I, 179-180; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 V, 347. 
 
 139. Territorial Laws, III, 998; Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 347. 
 
 140. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 209-237, passim; History of Calhoun 
 
 County (1877), 150. 
 43 
 
338 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 counties in that year south of Grand River, "^ and 
 again to the new volume of westward moving popula- 
 tion along the Chicago Road. Settlers, perhaps stimu- 
 'ated by the authorization of the new road, pushed 
 westward into the newly established counties ahead 
 of its actual survey and urged that the survey be 
 made at once, but the wagon- tracks of pioneers were 
 long the only improvements. In response to the 
 urgent need of getting eastward "to mill," volunteer 
 parties of settlers built such bridges, as they could, 
 over creeks and bogs where they were most needed, 
 but these rude contrivances afforded even at the 
 creeks a doubtful security. ^■^- The numerous marshes 
 made traveling not only inconvenient, but dangerous. 
 There was an extensive marsh on the road near Grass 
 Lake in Jackson County which gave much trouble; 
 says a member of one party, "We had not made more 
 than half the distance across it when we were brought 
 up standing, or rather sticking in the mud. 
 Thinking to lighten our load we all got off and waded 
 through, and happily escaped the venomous fangs 
 of the massasaugas with which the swamps were then 
 so thickly infested." Four yokes of oxen failed to ex- 
 tricate the wagons from the mud "Totally uncon- 
 scious of how far we were from human habitation or 
 assistance, eight o'c ock in the evening found our 
 teams mud-bound, and ourselves perched upon high 
 ground with our garments wet and bedrabbled with the 
 soil of Michigan."^''' In the end relief was obtained, 
 
 141. Territorial Laws, II, 744. 
 
 142. History of Jackson County (1881), 170-174; Mich. Hist, 
 
 Colls., II, 276, 281; III, 510. 
 
 143. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 249. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 339 
 
 but seven yokes of oxen were required to free the 
 wagons. 
 
 Nevertheless, there seems to have been much travel 
 on the road. One pioneer says that from 1832 on- 
 ward "covered wagons literally whitened its entire 
 length. "^■'"' According to an advertisement in a De- 
 troit paper, a stage line was to begin making regular 
 trips over it from Detroit in 1834 to connect with 
 Chicago by steamboat at St. Joseph, and to travel the 
 entire distance in five days.^^^ In its own interest the 
 stage company would probably make some improve- 
 ments, but the road appears to have been still barely 
 passable in 1835.^^° 
 
 The condition of the Territorial Road, at least before 
 1835, is suggested by the fact that settlers frequently 
 showed a preference for other and longer routes. Many 
 settlers, especially those going into the section farther 
 west than Jackson County, preferred to take the 
 Chicago Road from Detroit to Coldwater, or to Bron- 
 son's Prairie in Branch County, and then go northward 
 along the section lines through the openings to points 
 on the Territorial Road.^^^ From Kalamazoo County 
 a frequent route east in this period was by way of 
 
 144. Ibid., II, 194. This does not quite equal the statement that 
 
 travel was so great in 1836-37 that at Paw Paw "travelers 
 offered as high as a dollar for the privilege of leaning 
 against a post." History of Berrien and Van Bur en 
 Counties (1880), 508. 
 
 145. Farmer, History of Detroit, ^^%. 
 
 146. History of Calhoun County (1877), 150; History of Berrien 
 
 and Van Buren Counties (1880), 375. The road appears 
 not to have been surveyed through Van Buren County 
 until 1836. Ibid., 51. 
 
 147. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 428; History of Calhoun 
 
 County (1877), 150. 
 
340 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 White Pigeon and the Chicago Road to Monroe.^"*^ 
 Frequently a traveler used one route in going and 
 another in returning. ^^^ 
 
 Village life in this part of the section naturally re- 
 ceived more development than farther west, and it 
 was the most vigorous directly on the Territorial Road 
 and the Kalamazoo River. This is perhaps best ex- 
 emplified in Marshall. Though Jackson, Marshall and 
 Kalamazoo were platted at about the same time 
 (1830-31), Marshall seems from the first to have taken 
 the lead; for while Jackson's immediate environment 
 was a severe handicap, Kalamazoo suffered from lack 
 of harmony among its proprietors. 
 
 Marshall was largely indebted for the vigor of its 
 early growth to the superior energy, foresight and 
 practical wisdom of its promoters. Three factors 
 in this personal element should be specially noted. 
 Sidney Ketchum, the first actual settler within the 
 limits of the present city, before coming to Michigan, 
 resided in western New York. In the words of one 
 apparently qualified to speak of him, his "command- 
 ing presence, air of confidence and honesty, and ready 
 command of most convincing language," together with 
 prime business ability, made him for this section 
 "the mighty moving power in all the financial matters 
 of that early period. "^^° Reverend John D. Pierce^^^ 
 and Isaac E. Crary,^^- were close friends and co-workers 
 
 148. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXX, 452; History of Kalamazoo County 
 
 (1880), 353. 
 
 149. History oj Kalamazoo County (1880), 94. 
 
 150. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 129; II, 236; IV, 173. 
 
 151. Michigan Biographies, 524; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 131; II, 
 
 235, 237. 
 
 152. Michigan Biographies, 204; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 131 ; II, 235. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRLFORL^L ROAD 341 
 
 throughout their long Hves in the interests of Marshall 
 and Michigan. Their chief services were rendered 
 after this period, but they serve to illustrate types of 
 Marshall men. 
 
 Mr. Pierce was a native of Chesterfield, New Hamp- 
 shire, the native State of Governor Cass. He spent 
 the most of his life before the age of twenty at Wor- 
 cester, one of the normal-school cities of Massachu- 
 setts. After graduating from Brown University and 
 holding several positions the last of which was a short 
 pastorate in Oneida County, New York, he came to 
 western Michigan as a missionary under the auspices 
 of the Home Missionary Board. ^^^ He made Marshall 
 his headquarters and for many years was the strongest 
 religious influence in Calhoun, Jackson and Eaton 
 coimties, the chief scene of his missionary labors. The 
 opportunity for influence in public affairs of the Ter- 
 ritory and State came through his appointment as the 
 first State Superintendent of Public Instruction; his 
 plans for education in Michigan were adopted almost 
 in their entirety by the legislature of 1837. Mr. Crary, 
 through whose advice to Governor Mason, Mr. Pierce 
 secured this office, was a native of Preston, Connecti- 
 cut, and was educated for the law.^^* He was a mem- 
 ber of the constitutional conventions of 1835 and 1850, 
 and from 1835 to 1841 was the sole representative from 
 Michigan in Congress; during this time he was largely 
 
 153. For the early life of Pierce, before coming to Michigan, see 
 
 Hoyt and Ford, Life and Times of John D. Pierce, 56-72, 
 and for his life and missionary work at Marshall and 
 vicinity, Ihid., 73-78. 
 
 154. For a hrief account of the relations of Crary and Pierce, see 
 
 Hoyt and Ford's Life and Times of John D. Pierce, 
 79-80. 
 
342 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 instrumental in securing the law giving the State con- 
 trol of the sixteenth section of every township for the 
 benefit of her common schools. 
 
 "One fact must ever give Calhoun the ascendency," 
 writes a visitor to Marshall in a communication to 
 the editor of the Detroit Courier for November 6, 1833, 
 "I mean the character of the people. They are all well 
 educated. . . . It is indeed almost incredible, but 
 so it is, that in this spot have gathered as if by com- 
 mon consent a body of men from the eastern states 
 who must have been the most prominent among their 
 former associates. . . . They are doubtless in- 
 duced to hazard the temporary inconvenience of a new 
 settlement that they may insure to their children that 
 independence which otherwise they could have hoped 
 to enjoy only during the life time of their parents." 
 
 A sincere faith in a great future for Marshall, and a 
 firm determination to achieve it, made these men an 
 inspiration to Marshall settlers, but actual conditions 
 in this period were far from realizing the ideal. Mar- 
 shall aspired to be the State capital. Beautifully 
 colored lithographs presented the village in neat well- 
 dressed lawns, with flags flying from the buildings and 
 from steamboats plying busily on the river. In 1832 
 the cholera took many of Marshall's citizens; the 
 number has been estimated at from one-seventh to 
 one-half of the entire population. ^°^ The fact that 
 several prominent citizens held each a number of town 
 offices in 1833 probably reflects the sparseness of a busy 
 population. ^°*^ 
 
 155. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 131; Clark, Gazetteer (1863), 393. 
 
 156. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 235. 
 
REV. JOHN DAVIS PIERCE 
 
 {70th Ann. Rep. of Supt. of Pub. Inslruction, 20) 
 
 ^hll^^l ^';!I'H""/''"'i''£^ ""^ ^.H^'-'^ Instruction, 1836-41. A native of cniesterfield New Hamn- 
 shire, a graduate of Brown ITmversit.v, and a champion of New England ideak From ISSl a^ 
 ^^L'^'n'^^T'^ resident at Marshall he conducted the first relSsneei^^s to be held in 
 
 SoTs^s^em of "\lic^>t?,f °'\Ti"'i;;[ ^^l'"*^'^ ^ -^^^"^ '"fl"^"^'^ "i s&ping the p rWic 
 
 tZ^u ^ysiemot. Michigan IIis bust of which the above is a copv was presented in IQlfi hv the 
 teachers of Michigan to the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Soc^tv and is placed near e 
 entrance to the Department of Public Instruction in the Capitol at Lansing. See p 34^ 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 343 
 
 In 1833 the village had a number of log dwellings, 
 a store, a hotel, a sawmill and a gristmill.^" "The 
 house was indeed not as yet plastered inside," says a 
 visitor, describing the new inn, "and the different bed- 
 rooms, though lathed, seemed divided from each other 
 by lines rather imaginary than real; but the bar-room 
 wore already the insignia of a long established inn in 
 an old community; and apprized me at once, by the 
 placarded sheriff's notices and advertisements for 
 stolen horses, grain to be sold, and labourers wanted, 
 which indicate the growth of business in country life, 
 that society was in a pretty mature state — at least 
 six months old — in the county town of Marshall. "^^^ 
 
 Even at this early date Marshall citizens were con- 
 sidering the possibility of a railroad through the Kala- 
 mazoo Valley. Among the notices at the inn was a 
 call for a railroad meeting which this traveler attended 
 in the evening and which he describes as growing 
 "unpleasantly warm" over the route to be recom- 
 mended to the legislature. Said one elderly pioneer, 
 "This pother reminds me of two trappers who, in plan- 
 ning a spearing expedition for the next day, quarrelled 
 about the manner in which a turtle, which they pro- 
 posed taking, should be cooked for their supper, after 
 the day's sport was over. An old Indian happily set- 
 tled the difficulty, by proposing that they should first 
 catch the turtle." "Now, sir, as to this railroad, the 
 case is not at all parallel," interrupted a still more 
 ancient speaker, "for Nature has already caught the 
 
 157. Clark, Gazetteer (1863), 393; Hist, of Calhoun County (1877), 
 
 50, 55. 
 
 158. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 187. 
 
344 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 turtle for us. She meant the railroad to pass right 
 along here and nowhere else."^^^ 
 
 It is significant of the alertness and enterprizing 
 character of these settlers that they should have been 
 seriously discussing the possibility of a railroad for 
 their village when only a few miles of road had yet 
 been laid even in the New England States. ^^° "One of 
 the most flourishing villages of the peninsula," is the 
 opinion expressed of Marshall by Blois in 1838.^^^ It 
 then had according to his account two hotels, two 
 weekly newspapers, a dozen stores, a handsome stone 
 church and about one thousand people. 
 
 Kalamazoo was a vigorous rival to Marshall. By 
 the removal of the land office thither from White 
 Pigeon in 1834, the village was visited from far and 
 near by settlers in central and western Michigan to 
 enter their lands. With the land office went the 
 newspaper published at White Pigeon, which was 
 issued in that year from its new quarters as the Kala- 
 mazoo Gazette, destined to be a strong medium of 
 publicity for the village. A branch of the Bank of 
 Michigan established there in that year greatly helped 
 settlement by facilitating exchange. -^^^ A contem- 
 
 159. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 190. 
 
 160. A communication from Marshall to the editor of the De- 
 
 troit Courier for November 13, 1833, points out the ad- 
 ■ vantages to Detroit and the interior to be derived from 
 a railroad through the Kalamazoo Valley. Apparently 
 from the same source appears in the same paper for De- 
 cember 11, 1833, an estimate of the resources of the in- 
 terior as a basis for the support of a railroad, based 
 upon a comparison with what has been done in wheat- 
 growing in eight years in western New York. 
 
 161. Blois, Gazetteer, 319. 
 
 162. Ross and Catlin, Landmarks of Detroit, 436. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 345 
 
 porary estimates that the village had in 1834 about a 
 dozen dwellings and a hundred permanent inhabi- 
 tants. ^^^ 
 
 A new impulse came to the village in 1836^^'* when 
 Titus Bronson sold out to a company of men among 
 whom was the enterprizing surveyor, speculator and 
 politician, Lucius Lyon. The nervous stir of business 
 in that year is reflected in the feeling of the visiting 
 agents of a Clinton County colony come to register 
 land, who were "glad to get away because it was like 
 town meeting here every day (Sundays excepted). "^^^ 
 The growth of trade at the close of the period is only 
 approximately indicated by the eight stores placed to 
 its credit by Blois, which puts it somewhat below 
 Marshall in this respect. ^*'^ 
 
 Schools and churches early received attention. The 
 Baptists appear to have been the most numerous and 
 active, making in 1835 those beginnings which were to 
 develop into Kalamazoo College.^" In the same year 
 
 163. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 150. 
 
 164. Ibid., XVIII, 599. Up to this time the village had borne 
 
 the name of Bronson. The new proprietors had it 
 legally changed to Kalamazoo. Bronson, said to have 
 been practically beaten out of his property, appears to 
 have emigrated at that time to Rock Island, 111., and 
 later to Davenport, Iowa, an illustration of the way in 
 which the lands further west often received settlers. 
 
 165. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties (1880), 424. 
 
 166. Gazetteer of Michigan, 307. 
 
 167. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 528, McLaughlin, Higher 
 
 Education in Michigan, 135. The Baptist school of this 
 period was known as the Michigan and Huron Insti- 
 tution. The Principal of its academic department in 
 1837 was a graduate of Middlebury College, Connecticut, 
 who was later succeeded by a graduate of Brown Univer- 
 sity. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII. 529-530. 
 
346 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 a branch of the University was estabhshed there, 
 which is said to have soon attracted attention from all 
 parts of the State and from neighboring states for its 
 superior educators. ^"^^ Blois mentions in his Gazetteer 
 of 1838,^*^^ a Presbyterian Church, but not one of the 
 Baptist denomination. 
 
 The unpropitious environment of the site of Jack- 
 son has been mentioned. The proprietors of the plat, 
 however, exerted themselves to make the village a 
 success. In the Northwestern Journal of May 5, 1830, 
 information appears, apparently from that source, that 
 unprecedented emigration to the village, considering 
 the season of the year, had already begun; the village 
 possessed the county seat, being at the center of the 
 county; it was sponsored by enterprizing and influen- 
 tial men; a sawmill was to be in operation by June, 
 and a gristmill as soon as possible; the place would 
 probably be the center of population in a few years; 
 eight Indian trails crossed there "each of which would 
 eventually be an important road leading to the capital 
 of Michigan." But six years later the Detroit Daily 
 Free Press of January 18, 1836, confesses that "the 
 operation of various causes, unconnected with its real 
 advantages, has heretofore restrained the growth of 
 this place." 
 
 The year 1836 appears to mark the first real impulse 
 to Jackson's settlement. The paper above quoted for 
 January 21 of that year .comments editorially on the 
 rapid sale of lots in Jackson, operated by the Michigan 
 Land Agency at Detroit. Aside from the pervading 
 
 168. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 418, 419; X, 26; XVII, 307. 
 
 169. Gazetteer of Michigan, 306. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 347 
 
 Spirit of speculation and the buying up of agricultural 
 lands in the neighborhood, it is probable that the pro- 
 jects of a canal to connect the Grand and the Huron 
 rivers and of the Central Railroad through the Kalama- 
 zoo Valley, -were large factors in encouraging immigra- 
 tion and investment. The first frame buildings appear 
 to have been erected at that time,^^° indicating the ac- 
 tivity of mills, and the slowness of previous growth 
 appears in the total of twenty-six buildings in 1837.^^^ 
 Not until the latter year was the first courthouse 
 built. ^^" The State prison was secured in the same 
 year by a liberal donation of land for its use.^'^ A 
 newspaper was started^"'* and a branch of the Uni- 
 versity was established there. The rapidity of the 
 growth of Jackson in that year appears in nearly 
 treble the number of buildings, and in a population of 
 about 400.^'^^ The financial panic seems to have borne 
 less hard on Jackson than on many neighboring vil- 
 lages, for the population is said to have nearly trebled 
 in the following two 3^ears; 1839 appears to have been 
 a year of strong impulse to its growth. ^^*' 
 
 The combined influence of the Territorial Road and 
 the Kalamazoo River led to the founding of several 
 other river villages of which some are today cities of 
 importance. Among these mention has already been 
 made of Battle Creek and Albion. Others of almost 
 
 170. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 297. 
 
 171. History of Jackson County (1881), 238. 
 
 172. Ibid., 578. 
 
 173. Ibid., 571. 
 
 174. Ibid., 421; quoting the Jacksonburg Sentinel; Mich. Hist. 
 
 Colls., II, 323. 
 
 175. Ibid., 495. 
 
 176. Ibid., 495. 
 
348 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 as much promise in this period were Comstock, Au- 
 gusta and Galesburg, Barry and Grass Lake. 
 
 Battle Creek, notwithstanding its excellent water 
 power and the early eager rivalry to secure control of 
 it, appears to have been slow in securing mills, and 
 its settlement in this period was correspondingly tardy. 
 A census of the male inhabitants said to have been 
 taken by a contemporary in 1835 numbered about 
 fifteen.^" The village was comparatively late in plat- 
 ting (1836) and it saw no frame house erected until 
 the last year of the period. ^^^ A curious lack of en- 
 terprize is shown so late as 1845 by the apparent 
 necessity, if true, of raising by subscription from the 
 citizens a sufficient fund to start a newspaper. ^^^ A 
 somewhat better impression is gained from the account 
 given by Blois for 1838, crediting the village with a 
 sawmill, two gristmills, two taverns, six stores, a 
 saddlery, a cabinet manufactory, two smitheries, 
 several machine shops and a banking association. ^^° It 
 is worthy of note in view of the prominent part taken 
 later by Battle Creek as a station on the "under- 
 ground railroad," that the Quakers appear to have 
 formed a considerable part of its population as early as 
 1836-37/«^ 
 
 177. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 221. 
 
 178. Ihid., Ill, 348. 
 
 179. Ihid., Ill, 350. 
 
 180. Gazetteer of Michigan, 251. 
 
 181. History of Calhoun County (1877), Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 XXXVIII, 284. They appear to have had a church 
 there in 1843. The State organ of the Michigan Aboli- 
 tionists was printed there, its editor being the resident 
 agent for the "underground railroad." The antislavery 
 sentiment was strong throughout the county. History 
 of Calhoun County, IS-IA. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 349 
 
 At Albion, though the lands covering the water 
 power were purchased early, mills and the accompany- 
 ing village beginnings apparently did not materialize 
 until 1836. The impulse of 1836 was due to the Albion 
 Company, whose leading spirit came from Oswego 
 County, New York.^^^ That year saw the first frame 
 house. ^^^ Mills were built, and in 1838 the village with 
 some forty dwellings appears to have been in about 
 the same stage of growth as Battle Creek. ^^^ Its posi- 
 tion a mile and a half south of the Territorial Road 
 was an initial handicap, but it was on the surveyed 
 road from Marshall to Monroe and also on the located 
 route of the Central Railroad. Albion College is said 
 to have had beginnings in neighboring settlements as 
 early as 1835 but seems not to have been a considerable 
 influence at Albion tmtil 1839 1'^^^ its establishment ap- 
 pears to have been largely due to the patronage of the 
 Albion Company. ^^^ 
 
 Comstock, on the river four miles east of Kalamazoo, 
 is a type of the village foimded and fostered by the 
 individual pioneer capitalist. It was platted as early 
 as 1831, and had high grade business management and 
 extensive capital in its service. Its founder, Gen. 
 Horace H. Comstock of Cooperstown, New York,^" 
 
 182. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 212. 
 
 183. Ihid., XXXVIII. 213. 
 
 184. Blois, Gazetteer, 247. 
 
 185. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 205; McLaughlin, Higher Education 
 
 in Michigan, 145. It appears not to have been opened 
 there until 1843. 
 
 186. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 212. 
 
 187. His wife was related closely to James Fenimore Cooper, 
 
 whose Oak-Openings is said to have resulted from an 
 interest in the Kalamazoo Valley initiated by the rela- 
 tionship. 
 
350 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 was interested financially in a number of enterprizes, 
 among them the settlements at Otsego and at the 
 mouth of the Kalamazoo. ^^^ Had the village been 
 successful in its struggles with Kalamazoo for the 
 county seat it might well have overshadowed that 
 village and become itself the present-day city.^^^ 
 Seven years of growth left it with little more than the 
 mills and the improvements made by its founder.^^*^ 
 
 Augusta and Galesburg were barely beginning in 
 1837. Augusta, twelve miles east of Kalamazoo, had 
 a tavern, two sawmills and several dwellings in 1838. 
 It received its initial impulse from the Augusta Com- 
 pany in 1836."^ Galesburg was platted in 1837.^^- 
 From six to nine miles on either side of Jackson at 
 power sites and on the Territorial Road were Leoni, or 
 Grass Lake postoihce, and Barry, each with a sawmill 
 and a couple of stores. ^^"^ 
 
 Several influences operated to deflect settlement from 
 this central Hne of the river and road. They were 
 principally, (1) the prairie settlements, (2) the still 
 unoccupied openings and plains, (3) the grazing lands 
 on the "wet prairies" and in the creek bottoms, (4) 
 
 188. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 47. 
 
 189. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 362. 
 
 190. Blois, Gazetteer, 266. 
 
 191. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 357, 386; History of Kalamazoo County 
 
 (1880), 492; Blois, Gazetteer, 249. The name is from 
 Augusta, Maine, the home of a leading member of the 
 company. 
 
 192. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 377. 
 
 193. Blois, Gazetteer, 250, 311; Mich. Hist Colls., V, 347. Grass 
 
 Lake was nearly as old as Jackson. The original settle- 
 ment was about a mile west of the present site, being 
 removed to its present place by the establishment of the 
 depot there on the Central Railroad in 1842. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRLrORL^L ROAD 351 
 
 power sites on tributary streams, (5) the Chicago 
 Road, and (6) the rising value and scarcity of good 
 land untaken along the Kalamazoo River. 
 
 In Kalamazoo County, newly arriving immigrants 
 chose first the best available land near the established 
 prairie centers of settlement. It is said that of the 
 places regularl}^ visited by a pioneer preacher in 1833 
 whose field included ten settlements in that county, 
 only two were not on the prairies, and those two were 
 on the river at Kalamazoo and Comstock.^^^ The 
 attraction of the settlements on Prairie Ronde and 
 Gourdneck prairies influenced immigration especially 
 from the states immediately south of Michigan, al- 
 though by 1835 there seem to have been a great many 
 Vermont immigrants. ^^^ As noted above, the settle- 
 ment on Prairie Ronde secured a strong foothold early. 
 The prairie is mentioned in the Detroit Free Press of 
 September 13, 1832, as "largely settled," and notice is 
 taken of the section of timber near its center. In 1833 
 the village of Schoolcraft forming on the eastern bor- 
 der of this woodland was the center of a neighboring 
 prairie population said to have numbered about three 
 hundred. ^^^ Schoolcraft was platted in 1831, at about 
 the same time as the larger river villages of this sec- 
 tion and those on the Chicago Road. Inside of two 
 years the land adjacent to the plat is said to have 
 readily found buyers at $12 an acre in cash.^^^ In 1838 
 Blois credits the village with three stores, and men- 
 tions what was apparently a rival village just starting 
 
 194. Mick. Hist. Colls., II, 159. 
 
 195. Ihid., XXX, 457. 
 
 196. Ibid., XXVII, 449. " . 
 
 197. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVII, 449; XXX, 453. 
 
352 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 near the same site, called Charleston. ^^^ The popula- 
 tion of the township of Prairie Ronde in 1837 was 665, 
 including an area equal to a Government township, 
 while immediately east and north for an area four 
 times as large, 1292 are recorded. ^^^ 
 
 Across the county northeast of Kalamazoo on Gull 
 Prairie there was a village center apparently quite as 
 large as that on Prairie Ronde. Blois mentions the 
 village as Geloster, crediting it with four stores. ^°'^ 
 The population of the civil township including it 
 (Richland), covering the tv/o northeastern government 
 townships, was in 1837, 720.-°^ The nucleus of this 
 settlement was made by the "Kalamazoo Emigration 
 Society of Michigan," which was formed in 1830 at 
 Hudson, Ohio, near the Ohio home of Titus Bronson, 
 founder of Kalamazoo. "°^ The resolutions adopted by 
 this society are worthy of note for the light they throw 
 on the nature of the original Gull Prairie colony and 
 as reflecting much the same educational, religious and 
 social spirit as the "Constitution" of the later Ver- 
 mont colony at Vermontville in Eaton County. Some 
 of the resolutions are as follows : 
 
 "3. Christian principles, and the injunctions of the 
 Gospel shall be adhered to generally; and as soon as a 
 sufficient number of professing Christians shall have 
 emigrated, a Congregational Church shall be organized 
 
 198. Gazetteer of Michigan, 262, 360. 
 
 199. Mich. Legislative Manual (1838), 71 ; Session Laws (1835-36), 
 
 75. This area contained the mill village of Vicksburg, 
 which was also a prairie settlement. History oj Kalama- 
 zoo County (1880), 523. 
 
 200. Gazetteer of Mich., 289. 
 
 201. Mich. Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 
 
 202. Northwestern Journal, March 31 and June 30, 1830. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 353 
 
 and a Gospel Minister procured and supported. — 4. 
 Common and Sabbath Schools shall early be estab- 
 lished and supported; and, if circimistances seem to re- 
 quire it, an Academical Institution. — -5. The use of 
 ardent spirits, either directly or indirectly, shall not be 
 allowed by this society, except as a medicine. — 6. Those 
 desirous of removing to the Kalamazoo, having the 
 good of their posterity, and of the community in gen- 
 eral, at heart; being wilHng to assist and alleviate a 
 fellow citizen in distress, which is also considered obli- 
 gatory; and to adhere to the rules of Christian morality 
 and temperance, as specified above, will receive the 
 encouragement and support of this Society." 
 
 The Gull Prairie settlement early became one of the 
 best known and most widely influential settlements in 
 the Kalamazoo Valley; indeed it seems to have been 
 more actively central to the region than Kalamazoo 
 village. 
 
 In a less degree a similar influence was exerted by 
 Cook's Prairie and Dry Prairie in the southern part of 
 Calhoun County. On Cook's Prairie in the southeast, 
 the village of Homer was platted by 1834, which ap- 
 pears to have been partly motivated by the water 
 power afforded there by a branch of the Kalamazoo. ^°^ 
 The first mills were built there by a stock company in 
 1837-38, until which time growth was relatively slow,^°^ 
 yet Homer Township, the same size as Richland, which 
 included Gull Prairie, is credited by the census of 1837 
 
 203. Homer and its Pioneers, 36; Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 232. 
 
 204. Ihid., 37. These mills are said to have cost $20,000, a 
 
 comparatively large outlay at that time. 
 45 
 
354 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 with a population one-sixth larger than the latter. ^''^ 
 The village had then a store and about two hundred 
 people. ""'^ Its initial impulse seems to have come from 
 Lyons, New York.^°^ The attraction of Dry Prairie, 
 whose settlement began at about the same time, ap- 
 pears to have been less^ — to judge from the rural popu- 
 lation and from no mention of a village by Blois. The 
 entire southwestern quarter of the county in which it 
 was located was in 1837 the least settled portion, con- 
 taining in its two townships of Athens and Burlington 
 only a few over six hundred people. ^°^ But the settle- 
 ment of this prairie was partly shared by northern 
 Branch County, and the neighboring Branch village of 
 Union City appears to have supplied its village 
 needs. 
 
 In the oak openings between Dry and Cook's prairies, 
 which were about half way between the Chicago and 
 Territorial roads, there were by 1834 several scattered 
 purchases. The center of the population there in 
 1836 was recognized by the organization of the small 
 township of Tekonsha, which in the following year 
 had 278 people. ^°^ A village of the same name at a 
 power site on a branch of the St. Joseph River formed 
 its nucleus in 1838 with a population of 150.^^° 
 
 A point early settled and very well known, illustrat- 
 ing settlement on the plains, was Spring Arbor at the 
 
 205. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70; Session Laws 
 
 (1835-36), 74; (1837), 39. 
 
 206. Gazetteer of Mich., 301. 
 
 207. Homer and its Pioneers, 36. 
 
 208. Mich. Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 
 
 209. Ibid., 70. 
 
 210. Blois, Gazetteer, 373. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRFFORIAL ROAD 355 
 
 site of an Indian village on an extensive burr-oak plain 
 about nine miles southwest of Jackson. ''^^ It appears 
 to have lacked water power and had in 1838 only a 
 store and a few dwellings, though the surroimding 
 township was among the few in the county which had 
 the small area of a Government township as early as 
 1836.-^" The existence of settlement on the meadow 
 lands in the southeastern part of Jackson County as 
 early as 1833 is obvious from the township of Napoleon 
 organized in that year,^^^ but township organization 
 there in this period proceeded more slowly than else- 
 where. Some of the motives of the first settlers of the 
 region are said to have been to secure from the settle- 
 ments on the Chicago Road patronage for their saw 
 mill, which was supplied with water power from a 
 head branch of the Grand River. ^^^ 
 
 A measure of light is shed upon the general progress 
 of settlement by the early interrelations of settle- 
 ments, especially by their dependence upon each other 
 for mills, mail and merchandise. For these conven- 
 iences the early settlements of Kalamazoo County de- 
 pended much upon those of St. Joseph and Cass. 
 White Pigeon was the early supply station for the 
 Prairie Ronde settlers; and White Pigeon and School- 
 craft became supporting points for the northern part 
 of Kalamazoo County. The early relations were close 
 between Prairie Ronde and Kalamazoo; the first set- 
 tler of Kalamazoo spent his first winter (1829-30) with 
 
 211. Ibid., 364. 
 
 212. Session Laws (1835-36), 72, 73. 
 
 213. Territorial Laws, III, 996; Mich. Hist. Coll., IV, 276-281. 
 
 214. History of Jackson County (1881), 776. Blois (p. 371) men- 
 
 tions the small village of S wains ville there. 
 
356 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the Prairie Ronde settlers, ^^^ and the owner of the 
 store at Schoolcraft established the first store at 
 Kalamazoo. -^'^ In 1834 the proprietor of Schoolcraft 
 village was also one of the four proprietors of Kala- 
 mazoo. ^^^ Vicksburg, settled from Prairie Ronde, fur- 
 nished the sole supply of grists to Kalamazoo and to 
 the entire county until the building of the mill at 
 Comstock in 1832.2^8 
 
 In Van Buren County the first settlement was close- 
 ly related with the older prairie settlements. In 1833 
 the water power at the site of Paw Paw began to be 
 improved by prospectors from Prairie Ronde, ^^^ and 
 pioneer trade relations naturally followed between 
 Prairie Ronde and Paw Paw.--*^ The first settlement 
 in the eastern part of Allegan County was made largely 
 from Gull Prairie ; indeed the settlement of the eastern 
 parts of Allegan and Van Buren counties may be re- 
 garded as extensions of the settlement in Kalamazoo 
 and Cass."^ 
 
 The early relations of the eastern portion of the sec- 
 tion appear to have been closest with Dexter and Ann 
 Arbor, in Washtenaw County.--" Though good har- 
 vests had made the river settlements self-sustaining by 
 1831, the lack of mills entailed the inconvenience of 
 long trips; for example, the nearest grist mill to Jack- 
 
 215. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 365-366. 
 
 216. Ibid., I, 210; XXX, 452. 
 
 217. m"d.,V, 365, 375; XIII, 325; XXVII, 449. 
 
 218. Ibid., V, 362. 
 
 219. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 506. 
 
 220. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 644. 
 
 221. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 38. 
 
 222. History of Jackson County (1881), 170-174; Mich. Hist. 
 
 Colls., II, 281, 283; V, 351; XVIII, 612. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORLAL ROAD 357 
 
 son was for several years at Dexter, the round trip 
 requiring nearly a week;-"'^ and Marshall sent to Dex- 
 ter for flour until 1832.--* The first mail route to con- 
 nect these settlements came from Ann Arbor through 
 Jackson in 1831, joining the Chicago Road at White 
 Pigeon. ^-^ The settlements in southeastern Jackson 
 County, which were but three miles from the Chicago 
 Road, had mail connections at Springville in Lenawee 
 County.--*^ Battle Creek's early dependence upon 
 Bellevue in Eaton County for lumber marks the be- 
 ginning of relationships with the settlements north of 
 this section.-" 
 
 The retarding influences of a general nature men- 
 tioned as affecting the Territory as a whole were of 
 course felt in this section. The most prominent were 
 the "fever and ague," the epidemic of cholera, and 
 the Black Hawk War. The first appears to be a con- 
 comitant of all early settlement in this part of Michi- 
 gan, due to the prevalence of the mosquito; though the 
 early pioneers and travelers referred it uniformly to 
 another cause: 
 
 "Think but of people," says an early visitor to this 
 section, "setting themselves down on a soil of twenty 
 inches in depth, and in the month of June, when the 
 weeds and wild flowers o'ertop the head of the tallest 
 man, turning over the rank soil immediately around 
 their dwellings, and allowing the accumulation of 
 vegetable decomposition to be acted upon by a ver- 
 
 223. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 285. 
 
 224. Ibid., I, 13 L 
 
 225. Ibid., II, 292. 
 
 226. Ibid., IV, 276; Blois, Gazetteer, 364. 
 
 227. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 221. 
 
358 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 tical sun, and steam up for months under their very 
 nostrils; and yet this, I am told, is continually prac- 
 tised by settlers who come late in the season, and are 
 anxious still to have a crop the first year. Here, as in 
 the case of those settlers who, for the sake of the wild 
 hay, locate themselves near the great marshes, im- 
 prudence alone is manifested ; but the charge of culpa- 
 bility will justly attach to some other cases, where 
 nuisances, not before existing, are created by the 
 owners of property. I allude to the practice, expressly 
 prohibited by the laws of Michigan, of flooding land 
 while constructing mill-ponds without removing the 
 green timber growing upon the spot. So pernicious is 
 this to the health of the neighborhood, that it affects 
 very sensibly the value of property near the new 
 pond; and yet, in their eagerness to have mills erected, 
 and aid the market of their overflowing granaries, the 
 new inhabitants overlook entirely the gross violation 
 of their laws, and the melancholy consequences which 
 ensue to their families. "^-^ 
 
 In 1832 the Black Hawk War caused in the whole 
 section a state of suspense and alarm, while from the 
 cholera the danger was real. It is said that as a re- 
 sult of it, spring work was largely abandoned by set- 
 tlers, and immigration almost ceased. -^^ In 1833 at a 
 congressional election which probably represented the 
 voting strength, the township of Marshall, which in- 
 cluded Marshall village and two-fifths of Calhoun 
 County, "^° polled only nineteen votes; on the same 
 
 228. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 193. 
 
 229. Mick. Hist. Colls., II, 294. 
 
 230. Territorial Laws, III, 1003. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORL^L ROAD 359 
 
 day only eight votes were cast in that township for a 
 representative in the Territorial legislature. ^^^ 
 
 The amount of growth in population by the end of 
 1834 presents striking similarities and differences in the 
 several counties of the section. Those which ranked 
 first and last in this respect were the adjacent counties 
 of Kalamazoo and Van Buren. Kalamazoo County re- 
 ceived its first settlers in 1828 and was organized but 
 two years later; by the census of 1834 it lacked but a 
 few hundred people to equal the combined population 
 of Calhoun and Jackson counties, having a population 
 of 3,124 to Jackson's 1,865 and Calhoun's 1,714.2^2 Of 
 the counties of this section none appeared in the na- 
 tional census of 1830, and Allegan and Van Buren 
 counties did not appear in the Territorial census of 
 1834. They were not yet organized at that time; Van 
 Buren was organized in 1837."^^ As a whole this sec- 
 tion lacked at least 2,500 people of equalling, in 1834, 
 the population of the St. Joseph Valley, and it had 
 considerably less than one half of the population of 
 the single county of Washtenaw. -^^ 
 
 The relative rate of settlement and the distribution 
 of population in the several counties of the section 
 before 1835 may be made clearer by the following 
 table, in which the large figures under the years denote 
 the number of townships existing in each year in a given 
 county; the double-dagger is placed under the year of 
 
 231. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 196. 
 
 232. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 
 
 233. Session Laws (1837), 97. 
 
 234. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 
 
360 
 
 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 county organization; the small numbers refer to the 
 foot note.-^^ 
 
 
 1830 
 
 1831 
 
 1832 
 
 1833 
 
 1834 
 
 1835 
 
 1836 
 
 1837 
 
 Kalamazoo 
 
 Jackson 
 
 Calhoun 
 
 12- 
 1* 
 
 
 3' 
 1' 
 
 46 
 
 :3« 
 
 110 
 
 43 
 
 
 516 
 10'« 
 
 8,4 
 
 420 
 
 8" 
 13" 
 
 49 
 
 5'^ 
 p. 
 
 IJ.B 
 
 Allegan 
 
 
 
 
 Van Buren 
 
 
 
 
 +7,2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The township organization of Kalamazoo suggests a 
 very even and gradual development there. Appar- 
 ently the first township organizations were serviceable 
 longer than elsewhere in the section, partly because of 
 the unusual openness of the country which made it 
 easy for settlers to get to town meeting from a con- 
 siderable distance. This appears to be one meaning 
 of the long life of the large township of Brady in the 
 southern part of the county. In Calhoun and Jackson 
 counties the similarity in township organization was 
 
 235. 1. Territorial Laws, III, 836, 839, 840—2. Ibid., Ill, 972— 
 3. Ibid., Ill, 1,277—4. Ibid., Ill, 839—5. Ibid., Ill, 
 929, 948, 957—6. Ibid., Ill, 998—7. Ibid., Ill, 972— 
 8. Ibid., Ill, 984, 1,003—9. Ibid., Ill, 1,277—10. Ibid., 
 Ill, 997—11. Ibid., IV, 136—12. Session Laws (1837), 
 97 — 13. Territorial Laws, III, 1,368 — 14. Session Laws 
 (1835-36), 74, 75—15. Ibid., (1837), 39—16. Ibid., (1835- 
 36), 75—17. Ibid., (1837), 35—18. Ibid., (1835-36), 72, 
 73, 74—19. Ibid., (1837), 35, 36, 40—20. Ibid., (1835- 
 36), 76—21. Territorial Laws, III, 1,403. 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 3G1 
 
 very close. The first three townships in each of these 
 counties centered about three important points in 
 each, all six of them on the Territorial Road and the 
 Kalamazoo River. In Jackson County these were 
 Grass Lake, Jackson village and Spring Arbor; in 
 Calhoun County, Albion, Marshall and Battle Creek. 
 In 1834 their four townships corresponded exactly in 
 position and area, the fourth township in each case 
 representing a strong deflecting influence in the south- 
 east. In Jackson county this influence was the graz- 
 ing lands, the power on the Grand River, and the 
 nearness to the Chicago Road; in Calhoun County, 
 the prairies and water power in the vicinity of Homer. 
 The comparatively rapid formation of townships in 
 Jackson and Calhoun counties reflects not only the 
 increase of population but the need of closer organiza- 
 tion in counties less easily traversed than Kala- 
 mazoo. 
 
 In the light of the conditions presented, the main 
 causes of differences in amount of population become 
 clear. The comparatively advanced state of settle- 
 ment in the west of the section was due to its early 
 start in Kalamazoo County, which by virtue of its 
 position and extensive prairie land, shared in the 
 tide of immigration coming northward from prairie 
 regions to Cass and St. Joseph counties. The position 
 of Jackson County, farthest east, close to the rapidly 
 settling lands of Washtenaw, and on the south close to 
 the Chicago Road, together with the opening of its 
 lands to sale before any others in this section, prob- 
 ably went far towards inducing early settlement. But 
 the tide of immigration did not flow strongly towards 
 
362 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 it from the east until 1833, while the intervention- of 
 available lands on the south shut it out practically 
 from the southern immigration. The middle position 
 of Calhoun County, together with much prairie land 
 on the side towards Kalamazoo, gave it a double ad- 
 vantage; but neighboring counties tended to intercept 
 population, the influence on the west being especially 
 strong. As a result its growth in population tended 
 to approximate that of Jackson County. Allegan 
 and Van Buren cotmties seem almost to belong to 
 a separate settlement area, to include Berrien on 
 the south and Ottawa on the north; yet the most 
 striking common physiographic feature of these coun- 
 ties, the lake shore, did not materially affect their 
 settlement until the period of commercial develop- 
 ment on Lake Michigan. The largest common factor 
 in the retardation of their settlement was their dis- 
 tance from the older settlements, due to several causes: 
 the general direction from which immigration came, the 
 intervention of lands eastward within comparatively 
 easy reach having equal physical advantages, and the 
 added increment of value due to nearness to large 
 markets and supply depots absorbing the attention and 
 interest of settlers. 
 
 Within three years the immigration from the East 
 coming by the Territorial Road had reversed the order 
 of relative numerical superiority due to the earlier 
 immigration from Ohio and Indiana. Instead of Kala- 
 mazoo County, Jackson County had first place. The 
 central cause, the direction of immigration, is seen in 
 the circumstance that the population grew less for each 
 succeeding county westward — 8702, 7960, 6367, 1469, 
 
KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 363 
 
 1262"^* — as also the number of townships in each,^^'^ 
 except in Allegan and Van Buren; Van Buren with six 
 hundred less people had nearly double the number of 
 townships. -^^ The combined population of these two 
 counties (3,731) made but little over half of that 
 in Kalamazoo (6,367), showing the relatively small 
 amount of settlement west of that county; while their 
 population, combined with that of Kalamazoo (9,098) 
 made but little more than that of Jackson County 
 (8,702) at the eastern end of the section. The popula- 
 tion of the whole section (25,758) was about equal to 
 that of the St. Joseph Valley in Michigan (25,321); in 
 the southern section, however, the greater density of 
 population was in the west, in the counties of St. 
 Joseph and Cass which lay directly south of Kala- 
 mazoo. In the northern section the eastern coimties 
 of Calhoun and Jackson had a much more rapid 
 growth than the eastern counties of Branch and Hills- 
 dale below them; this was in part due to a greater 
 amount of open land and to the nearer prospects of a 
 railroad, but mainly to their position directly west 
 from Wayne and Washtenaw. 
 
 236. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 75. 
 
 237. See table above. 
 
 238. As pointed out elsewhere, the number and size of town- 
 
 ships can not be taken alone as a positive indication of 
 relative density of population. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 The Saginaw Country 
 
 nPHE general physical features of the Saginaw 
 country as it was known to most of the actual 
 settlers when Michigan became a State are probably 
 reflected with fair accuracy by Blois in his Gazetteer of 
 Michigan,^ who describes the surface as undulating or 
 rolling, nearly level towards the bay, and the soil as 
 varying from a dry sandy loam in the oak openings 
 to a rich alluvial formation in the river bottoms. There 
 was much marsh land and some scattered patches of 
 the so-called "wet prairie," mainly along the lower 
 course of the Saginaw. The oak openings are said to 
 have been specially adapted to cereals,^ containing 
 many old Indian cornfields. The abundant wild hay 
 on the marshes, and the grass in the openings, enabled 
 
 1. History of Saginaw County (1881), p. 238; History of Genesee 
 
 County (IS79), p. 219; History of Shiawassee and Clinton 
 Counties (1880), p. 239; History of Lapeer County, p. 227; 
 History of Livingston County, p. 229. Livingston County 
 is associated physiographically with the Saginaw Valley 
 through branches of the Shiawassee River. Its actual 
 settlement was more closely related to that of Oakland 
 and Washtenaw counties. 
 
 2. The products of Genesee County in 1850 are said to have 
 
 been chiefly wheat, hay, cattle and sheep. History oj 
 Genesee County (1879), 113-115. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 365 
 
 the early settlers to bring their cattle without danger 
 of having them starve during the first winters.^ 
 
 While the oak openings covered a large proportion of 
 the southern counties of the region a very large part of 
 it was heavily forested. Blois estimates that about a 
 third of Saginaw County was covered with pine,"* and 
 mentions "pineries" along the Flint River and its 
 branches in Genesee and Lapeer counties.^ Pine Creek 
 in Lapeer County was the site of one of the earliest 
 mill settlements in the region. The presence of pine, 
 however, seems not to have been regarded by the early 
 seeker of farm lands as a favorable condition; sup- 
 posedly it indicated an inferior soil and there was the 
 obvious disadvantage of density of forest as compared 
 with the openings. On these lands lumbering must 
 needs precede agriculture. It was not until some years 
 after Michigan became a State that the idea of an 
 eastern market for Michigan lumber appealed suf- 
 ficiently to capital to bring the era of pine lumbering 
 to the Saginaw coimtry.^ 
 
 Water power for the early mills was furnished 
 abundantly by four large tributaries of the Saginaw, 
 each of which ramified widely. The Tittabawassee and 
 Cass rivers drained Saginaw County and the lands to 
 the east and west ; the Shiawassee and the Flint reached 
 far southward, and their mill sites and fords, crossed at 
 points by the chief trails, became the nuclei of the 
 earliest white settlements of the region. The Saginaw 
 
 3. History of Livingston County, 23, 121. 
 
 4. Blois, Gazetteer, 238. 
 
 5. Ibid., 219, 227. 
 
 6. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 241-242. 
 
366 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 River is in the nature of a drowned valley, and its 
 sluggish current formed by the junction of these four 
 rivers near the center of Saginaw County some thirty 
 miles from the head of the bay furnished less water 
 power but was more navigable than the other streams. 
 In the parts of this region bordering upon other sec- 
 tions excellent power sites were found by early settlers 
 on the Lookingglass, the Maple, the Huron, the Clinton 
 and the Belle. 
 
 Among the mineral products of the Saginaw country 
 which specially affected its settlement was salt, thotigh 
 it was not until late that the salt industry assumed 
 commercial importance.^ Its exploitation was contem- 
 porary with the real beginnings of pine lumbering, to 
 which it was economically related.^ The years before 
 1837 mark a period of exploration and experiment 
 in both industries.^ 
 
 Settlement in the Saginaw Valley in 1837 was a little 
 in advance of that in the Grand River Valley. The 
 former region was more easily reached from Detroit and 
 the movement of population up the Clinton River and 
 out along the Saginaw Trail had started emigration 
 thither as early as 1818. But for several serious re- 
 tarding influences its settlement would have been much 
 more rapid. 
 
 7. The first barrel of salt appears to have been made in the 
 
 Saginaw Valley in 1860. History of Saginaw County, 
 295. 
 
 8. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 499. 
 
 9. See Bela Hubbard's account of the geological expedition of 
 
 1837 to the Saginaw country to investigate the salt 
 springs. Mich, Hist. Colls., Ill, 189. In Volume IV, 
 13, is an analysis of Houghton's report of this ex- 
 pedition. See above. Chapter I, for further discussion 
 and references. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 367 
 
 The influence of the Indians, trappers and agents 
 of the American Fur Company has been mentioned 
 frequently. Many of the plats of the United States 
 surveyors were made, it is said, from their reports, so 
 misleading as to necessitate in many places a total 
 resurvey.^'' The same influence seems to have been at 
 least partly responsible for the gross errors in the re- 
 ports made after the War of 1812, that beyond a few 
 miles back from Detroit the country was unfit for any- 
 thing but wild beasts. ^^ The surveys made afterwards^^ 
 furnished abundant materials to correct this view, but 
 the legend once fastened on the East took long to 
 wear out. 
 
 Among other reports there was an early one that 
 the Saginaw Valley was unhealthful. The president 
 of the German pioneer society of Saginaw County 
 is quoted as saying in an address in 1881, "The 
 country had the name of being very unhealthy and 
 deserved it in some respects. "^^ The abandonment of 
 the military post at Saginaw by the United States in 
 1823, so soon after its occupation, tended to give this 
 
 10. History of Saginaw County, 166. 
 
 11. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXII, 542. See above, chapter I. In 
 
 the Detroit Gazette for June 7, 1822, a writer signing him- 
 self "A Traveller" protests against the misrepresentations 
 about the Saginaw region by Indian traders and other 
 interested persons. 
 
 12. The surveys were in progress in Shiawassee County in 1823, 
 
 Edward Tiffin still acting as surveyor general of the 
 United States. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Coun- 
 ties, 260. The geographer Melish, in the Geographical 
 Description of the United States (ed. 1822), p. 389, says, 
 "In the new settlement on the Saginaw River the soil is 
 also productive." 
 
 1 3 . History of Saginaw County, 227. 
 
368 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 report an official stamp which decisively checked the 
 plans of intending settlers.^'* Zina Pitcher, the surgeon 
 at the post, says that the commanding officer who 
 sympathized with his men in the sickness of that year 
 reported to the Government that "nothing but Indians, 
 muskrats and bullfrogs could possibly exist here."^^ 
 The Detroit Gazette of October 3, 1823, mentions the 
 Saginaw post as "the only place in the Territory which 
 appears now to be affiicted by the usual autumnal dis- 
 eases;" though previously it had reported the troops 
 to be in excellent health and spirits. ^^ The conditions 
 producing the sickness of that season appear to have 
 been exceptional. The event is said to have been 
 looked upon by even the Indians and traders as a re- 
 markable occurrence. Contemporary accounts ascribe 
 it to the long and heavy rains of the preceding sum- 
 mer which caused the waters of the Saginaw River to 
 overflow the thickly wooded level lands making them 
 stagnant and "loading the atmosphere with poisonous 
 vapors" during the succeeding warm season. ^^ 
 
 The misfortune appears to have been used by specu- 
 lators and promoters interested in the lands near De- 
 troit and in the older counties to prejudice settlers 
 against the whole region. "If I am correctly in- 
 
 14. History of Genesee County, 34; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 
 
 487. 
 
 15. History of Saginaw County, 165. 
 
 16. Detroit Gazette, September 13, 1822; October 11, 1822; 
 
 December 6, 1822. The issue for October 17, 1823, re- 
 ported that Major Baker, commandant at Saginaw, lost 
 his son and was determined to remove his troops despite 
 the fact that they were rapidly recovering. 
 
 17. Detroit Gazette, October 10, 1823; History of Saginaw 
 
 County, 165. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 369 
 
 formed," protests a writer in the Detroit Gazette for 
 June 27, 1823, "the emigrant no sooner sets his foot 
 in Detroit than he is beset by such a multitude of 
 counsellors that he is tempted to believe that there is 
 no safety in the country [Saginaw]. I know this was 
 the case with myself, as I was told that the counties 
 of Monroe, Oakland and Macomb were each respec- 
 tively superior to the garden of Eden. These stories 
 have operated peculiarly hard upon our section of the 
 country and have induced many emigrants to think 
 there would be but a loss of time in visiting us at this 
 season of the year, without being drowned by the 
 freshets, or eaten up by mosquitoes without the cere- 
 mony of barbecuing. We are not at all at a loss to 
 divine the reasons which induce many of our citizens 
 to use every argument to prevent the settlers from 
 penetrating into the country and if possible to coax 
 them to squat down near Detroit, without having 
 examined any part of this great and fertile region. 
 But the old traditional legend, that all was an im- 
 passable morass beyond Cranberry Marsh, has van- 
 ished — and so will the equally unfounded notions which 
 now prevail in relation to the beautiful and invaluable 
 alluvial districts which border the Saginaw and its 
 tributaries." 
 
 In July of 1831 the French writer De Tocqueville 
 made a trip on horseback into the Saginaw country 
 and on inquiring at Detroit from Major Biddle — for 
 many years connected with the United States Land 
 Office there — where he might find the least settled 
 parts of the Territory, he is said to have been told 
 that beyond Pontiac he would find the country "full 
 
 47 
 
370 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 of nothing but Indians and wild beasts;" arriving at 
 Pontiac and inquiring again, he was informed that 
 Saginaw was "the last inhabited spot towards the 
 Pacific."!^ 
 
 It is a luminous comment on human nature and the 
 persistence of bad reports that the exceedingly favor- 
 able information about the Saginaw country published 
 almost simultaneously should have been received so 
 tardily. In the Western Gazetteer,^^ published at Au- 
 burn, New York, in 1817, is recorded a description of 
 the region by Captain Price of the United States Army, 
 who crossed it in March of that year in traveling from 
 Mackinac to Detroit. He says that he found the lands 
 on the Saginaw River "of an excellent quality and 
 most beautifully situated," containing large prairies 
 "from four to six miles deep." From the Saginaw to 
 the Flint he observed that the lands were fertile and 
 well timbered; the country between the Flint and the 
 Clinton reminded him of Cayuga County, New York,^° 
 being "clothed with oak, a very open country, and no 
 underwood, interspersed with small beautiful lakes 
 abounding in fish of a superior quality. "^^ The ac- 
 count also contained a notice of the lands between the 
 site of Pontiac and Detroit as "generally a low flat 
 
 18. De Tocqueville, Fortnight in the Wilderness, as quoted in the 
 
 History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 337-338; 
 History of Saginaw County, 291. 
 
 19. Brown, Western Gazetteer, 166 n. 
 
 20. It is significant that this country is mentioned more fre- 
 
 quently than any other in the pioneer reminiscences and 
 the county histories as a source of immigration to the 
 Saginaw Valley. 
 
 21. Substantially the same account is contained in the Emi- 
 
 grant's Directory (p. 694), pubHshed in London, England, 
 in 1820, though the statement is absent that it was given 
 by a United States Army officer. . 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 371 
 
 country, susceptible of being drained and cultivated, 
 the soil deep and rich." Whether this had any con- 
 nection, it was in the year following that the explora- 
 tion was made from Detroit which resulted in the 
 founding of Pontiac and the establishment of Oakland 
 County." The Detroit Gazette of November 13, 1818, 
 contained "A view of some of the lands in the interior 
 of Michigan," exploding entirely the idea of its swampy 
 character, being apparently an authorized report of the 
 exploring party visiting the vicinity of Pontiac, among 
 the members of which was John Monteith, "President 
 of the University of Michigan." 
 
 There were numerous other favorable accounts. A 
 Detroit Gazette editorial for September 24, 1819, ac- 
 knowledges receipt of letters from persons with Gov- 
 ernor Cass at Saginaw describing the Saginaw country 
 as delightful and the soil as of first quality. In 1821 
 an extensive exploring expedition was made by the 
 "Sciawassee Company," with the specific purpose of 
 "determining the site of a county seat of a county to 
 be established beyond Oakland;"-^ the Detroit Gazette 
 for November 9, 1821, contains the first number of 
 their Journal, which gives a very flattering description 
 of the Saginaw country. In 1822 a description of the 
 region appeared in a series of articles in the Gazette^^ 
 
 22. See above, chapter IV. 
 
 23. See the Detroit Gazette, October 5, 1821, for announcement 
 
 of the plan giving the proposed itinerary, to include also 
 the Grand River country. 
 
 24. Detroit Gazette, February 15 and 22, and March 1. These 
 
 descriptions preceded the period of sickness at the fort. 
 See Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 470-475 for the "Journal of a 
 Pedestrian Tour from Detroit to Sagana River in 1822," 
 containing observations made between May 22 and 
 June 4. 
 
372 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 by a writer who had apparently followed the Saginaw 
 Indian trail. The Utica (N. Y.) Sentinel congratu- 
 lated the Territory on the establishment of the new 
 federal garrison at Saginaw in that year and spoke 
 high praise for Michigan lands. ^^ At Philadelphia ap- 
 peared a new edition of Melish's Geographical Descrip- 
 tion of the United States which spoke of the "produc- 
 tive soil in the new settlement on the Saginaw River. "-^ 
 The increase of immigration with the opening of the 
 Erie Canal led to renewed efforts by interested parties 
 to attract settlers to the Saginaw country. Early in 
 1826 appeared a notice to immigrants soliciting atten- 
 tion to the lands of Shiawassee County signed by 
 Samuel W. Dexter, founder of the village of Dexter in 
 Washtenaw County." A description of the Saginaw 
 country addressed to immigrants by Pontiac parties in 
 1830 reveals a consciousness that the region had a 
 strong competitor in southwestern Michigan. "The 
 St. Joseph country," says this circular, "has been 
 called 'the golden region.' We give no such attractive 
 name to the Saginaw. We tell you a plain and true 
 story, convinced that when you have read you will 
 determine to make Saginaw your home."-^ Finding 
 its way into the Boston Courier this circular prompted 
 inquiries of the editor of the Northwestern Journal (De- 
 
 25. As quoted in the Detroit Gazette, for August 2, 1822. 
 
 26. p. 389. 
 
 27. Detroit Gazette, May 9, 1826. 
 
 28. Northwestern Journal, April 21, 1830. The points em- 
 
 phasized were navigability of the river for "any lake 
 vessel," and the spontaneity of vegetation on the rich 
 prairies, emphasis probably thought needful in view of 
 the competing St. Joseph country. Fish, timber, salt 
 and building stone are also given prominence. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 373 
 
 troit) about the price of the best land, the price of 
 stock, the cost of clearing, the prevalence of "fever and 
 ague" and the best season for immigration. The edi- 
 tor made highly encouraging replies.-^ The price of 
 the best land was $1.25 per acre; a yoke of oxen could 
 be bought for between $45 and $55; cows were worth 
 from $10 to $15; land could be cleared for from $1 to 
 $5; fevers of any kind were uncommon; a journey from 
 Detroit to the Saginaw country could be made most 
 conveniently between October and February. 
 
 It is probable that the later prejudice against the 
 region was in no small degree a survival of that created 
 by early misrepresentations.^*^ In an address before a 
 farmer's institute in Saginaw County in 1877, it is said 
 that as late as 1860 the general impression of Saginaw 
 County was that it could never be even a moderately 
 productive farming district. The opinion is said to 
 have been shared also by many men identified with 
 the interests of that country. The climate was held 
 to be too unreliable, being subject to heavy frosts in 
 the growing season. It was said that at the date of 
 
 29. Ibid., May 26. The questions came apparently from an 
 
 intending settler. 
 
 30. There appear to have been no newspapers published in the 
 
 Saginaw country before 1837 to herald its attractions, 
 excepting the short lived Saginaw Journal, running from 
 1836 to 1838. History of Saginaw County, 606. The 
 North Star began with the business revival of 1842. 
 The Flint River Gazette was published at Flint from 1839 
 to 1841. But the first successful paper is said to have 
 begun in 1845 or 1850. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 439; 
 XXXV, 370. At Owosso a paper, probably shortUved, 
 appears to have begun in 1839. History of Clinton and 
 Shiawassee Counties, 130. At Howell the first paper was 
 pubHshed in 1846 (first pubHshed at Brighton in 1843). 
 History of Livingston County, 35; Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 
 86; XXXVIII, 180; Crittenden, History of Howell, 72. 
 
374 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 this address there were many people in the southern 
 counties who, uncertain of its situation, euphoniously 
 associated Saginaw with Mackinaw. The country was 
 believed to have a large proportion of swamp and 
 marsh land, and the surface was supposed to be too 
 flat to secure good drainage; nor did "pine barrens," 
 as the pine lands were called, sound inviting. ■'^^ 
 
 While the traders probably had a share in creating 
 and fostering this bad reputation, many of them 
 proved to be more than traders and gradually adjusted 
 themselves to the new order. As noted above, most 
 of them were agents of the American Fur Company. 
 Their operations had been interrupted by the War of 
 1812 but took on new energy with the conclusion of 
 peace; the Saginaw Indian treaty of 1819 and the 
 establishment of the garrison on the Saginaw aimed 
 to protect the fur trade as well as to invite and en- 
 courage agriculture.^^ When the troops were with- 
 drawn in 1824 the American Fur Company established 
 a post in the abandoned fort, and its agents became 
 the first promoters of the future city of Saginaw. 
 
 31. History of Saginaw County, 292, 298. 
 
 32. The Saginaw Indians are said to have been the least friendly 
 
 of all of the tribes. Detroit Gazette, November 30, 1821; 
 History of Saginaw County, 164. The passions engen- 
 dered by the War of 1812 still smoldered, and many 
 are the contemporary charges against the British for 
 fanning the embers. The traders, being more closely 
 identified with the life and interests of the Indians, 
 appear to have had on the whole little trouble with 
 them. It appears also that when the Indians were well 
 treated by the new settlers they were generally peaceable 
 towards them. See letter of the settler Stevens, written 
 in 1825 from Grand Blanc, quoted in the History of 
 Genesee County, 33; see also History of Shiawassee and 
 Clinton Counties, 281 and History of Livingston County, 14. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 375 
 
 These traders were widely affiliated both by birth 
 and education with Canada and the bordering states. 
 Some of them appear to have been men of no mean 
 ability. Louis Campau, whose services to white set- 
 tlement entitle him to be called the first real pioneer 
 of the Saginaw Valley, is described as "an intelligent, 
 shrewd, far-seeing operator. "^^ He was a native of 
 Detroit, one of a large family of French-Canadians em- 
 ployed chiefly in the fur trade. The History of Sagi- 
 naw County mentions a score of traders prominent in the 
 Saginaw region before 1820,^'^ some from the vicinity 
 of Montreal and Quebec, some of German descent; 
 one was the son of the postmaster at Schenectady, 
 New York.-'^^ 
 
 For traffic with the Indians the traders naturally 
 chose points of vantage on the principal trails, and 
 this choice frequently prefigured that of the agricul- 
 tural settler and the founder of villages. Good ex- 
 amples are Shiawassee, Owosso, Flint and Saginaw. 
 Not infrequently the traders purchased land at these 
 sites and made improvements, sometimes selling out at 
 a handsome profit to someone who aspired to found a 
 village ; in this way began the present city of Flint. A 
 post was established there apparently in 1819, by Jacob 
 Smith, a trader of German descent, born at Quebec; 
 he was the husband of a Chippewa squaw, a marriage 
 which sufficiently identified him with the interests 
 of the Indians to secure a large reservation in the 
 
 33. He founded the post at Grand Rapids in 1826 and became 
 
 a prominent settler of the Grand River Valley. 
 
 34. pp. 158-164. See also History of Genesee County, 14. 
 
 35. History of Genesee County, 13. 
 
376 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Indian treaty of that year f^ the land was to be held 
 for his children, and the subsequent litigation of 
 titles is said to have much retarded the settlement of 
 Flint on the north side of the river as late as 1860.^^ 
 The lands are shown on the Risdon map along both 
 sides of the Flint River at the crossing of the Saginaw 
 Trail. At the ford, known to the French as "Grand 
 Traverse," a ferry and tavern established in 1825 by 
 the successor of Smith, marks the transition from the 
 trading post to the embryo village. ^^ 
 
 A similar village antecedent was that at the site of 
 Shiawassee. The founders of this trading post were 
 two brothers who belonged to a family originally from 
 Concord, Massachusetts, which came to settle in De- 
 troit in 1815.^^ Prior to 1831 the brothers had been 
 in Oakland County as agents of the American Fur 
 Company, but in that year, cutting their way with 
 oxteam across the present township of Grand Blanc 
 in Genesee County they located at the future site of 
 Shiawassee. Though they continued their trading 
 operations they appear to have cultivated' the soil at 
 that point from the beginning, the post becoming a 
 permanent center of information and help to settlers.^" 
 The Dexter colonists on their way to found Ionia in 
 
 36. Ibid., 120. See diagram, Ibid., opposite p. 24, and Bureau 
 
 of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, pt. 
 2, p. 698. 
 
 37. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, 363. 
 
 38. From John Todd and his wife "Aunt Polly," famous among 
 
 early settlers for her cooking and hospitality. The place 
 appears in early records as "Todd's Tavern." Todd 
 came from Pontiac. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, 365. 
 
 39. Ibid., II, 477; Michigan Biographies, 697. 
 
 40. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 120, 281; 
 
 Hubbard, Memorials of a Half Century, 71. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 377 
 
 1833 passed through this point, and according to a 
 daughter of Mr. Dexter were piloted from there to the 
 site of Ionia by one of these brothers.^^ A similarly 
 well known post was "Knaggs' Place" on the Indian 
 clearing just below at "the great crossing" of the 
 Shiawassee*" 
 
 On the Saginaw was Louis Campau in the employ 
 of the American* Fur Company. He is said to have 
 platted in 1822 near the military lands reserved in the 
 treaty of 1819, the "Town of Sagana," and appears to 
 have built in the same year a large two-story log 
 house there. ^^ The impulse to this beginning of city 
 building was due to the coming of the garrison, but 
 growth at first was slow. It appears that of the 
 twenty lots of this plat only six were sold, the project 
 Suffering decline when the troops were removed in 
 1824. As agents of the American Fur Company there 
 arrived at Saginaw in 1827 Gardner D. Williams and 
 his brother, both apparently brothers of the traders at 
 Shiawassee. Gardner was destined to become the first 
 mayor of the future city and the first representative 
 of Saginaw County in the State legislature.^^ 
 
 41. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 146. 
 
 42. Ibid., XXXII, 249, History of Shiawassee and Clinton Coun- 
 
 ties, 25', 120. Whitmore Knaggs was succeeded by 
 Richard Godfrey, son-in-law of Gabriel Godfroy who 
 founded the post at the site of Ypsilanti. By the Indian 
 treaty of 1819 an Indian reservation of about 3,000 
 acres had been made at this point. 
 
 43. Mich. Hist. Colls.; VII, 240. Land is said to have been 
 
 entered in 1822 on the site of the present city by Rich- 
 ard Godfroy. History of Saginaw County, 598. 
 
 44. Michigan Biographies, 697; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 23; VII, 
 
 239. Other prominent early settlers came at about the 
 same time. Ibid., XXII, 448, 451. 
 
378 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 The period of vital beginnings in village founding in 
 the Saginaw country began in 1835-36, though some 
 life was given to the village project at Saginaw by a 
 considerable accession of settlers in 1832^^ — in that 
 year "Saginaw City" was laid out, on the lands of the 
 military reservation bought by Samuel 'Dexter of 
 Washtenaw County after the removal of the troops.'*'^ 
 In 1835-36 a strong revival of interest was effected by 
 the spirit of speculation. A sale is recorded in the 
 Detroit Daily Free Press of May 19, 1836, of twenty 
 lots to an eastern merchant for $18,000 — conditioned 
 on these lots being built upon at once. In 1837 a new 
 plat of the city was made with over four hundred 
 blocks, and a map of it is said to have been circulated 
 widely throughout the states.'*^ Heavy investments 
 appear to have been made by Detroit parties organ- 
 ized as a stock company; among others a hotel costing 
 $35,000, and a large four-story warehouse on the river 
 at a cost of $25,000.'*^ The inevitable bank of this 
 period was started, and Bela Hubbard records in the 
 notes of his visit in 1837 that there were "nearly fifty 
 frame houses, four stores — one a handsome dry goods 
 and grocery store, on a large scale — two warehouses, 
 and another in progress, a small church, two steam 
 sawmills, and in progress of erection a large edifice to be 
 called the "Webster House;" all were of wood."^^ The 
 description corresponds practically with that given by 
 
 45. History of Saginaw Count v, 604. 
 
 46. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 239-240. 
 
 47. History of Saginaw County, 599; Clark's Gazetteer (1863), 463. 
 
 48. History of Saginaw County, 224; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 
 
 494. 
 
 49. Memorials of a Half Century, 75. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 379 
 
 Blois.-'^" It is estimated that by the close of 1837 some 
 nine hundred people had gathered there, ^^ but the 
 financial crisis of that year apparently caused many 
 to leave. Blois records a population of four hun- 
 dred.^'- 
 
 The sources of the first settlers of Saginaw appear to 
 have foreshadowed those of later times, excepting the 
 Irish and the Germans. According to the president 
 of the German pioneer society of Saginaw County 
 (1881), the population of the neighborhood was made 
 up of "Americans, French-Canadians, a few Irish and 
 the Germans. "^^ Of American settlers mention is made 
 in particular of the states of New^ York, Massachu- 
 setts and New Hampshire. 
 
 Outside of Saginaw there appear to have been in 
 1837 no settlements on the river, excepting very 
 meager begixmings at the site of Bay City — probably 
 the village of ''Lower Saginaw" mentioned by Blois as 
 having been laid out in 1836, which he credits with a 
 dozen or fifteen families.^"' At the site of East Sagi- 
 naw there seems not to have been a permanent settler 
 
 50. Gazetteer of Michigan, 355. 
 
 51. History of Saginaw County, 6QQ. 
 
 52. Progress seems to have been very slow from 1838 to 1845, 
 
 when a general revival of business took place in the val- 
 ley. The city was not incorporated until 1857. His- 
 tory of Saginaw County, 600. 
 
 53. History of Saginaw County, 111 . For the first settlers in 
 
 and about Saginaw City see Mick. Hist. Colls., VII, 233, 
 239; XXVIII, 487, 497. Besides those mentioned, the 
 most prominent of the early settlers in this period were 
 Judge Albert Miller, Daniel Little, Norman Johnson, and 
 Har\^ey Williams. 
 
 54. According to the History of Saginaw County (p. 227), 
 
 "Lower Saginaw" had in 1849 a half dozen frame houses 
 and a dozen or more "shanties." 
 
380 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 until 1849.^^ There were very few settlers during the 
 Territorial period on any of the streams tributary to 
 the Saginaw within the present limits of Saginaw 
 County. A few transient settlers from northwestern 
 Ohio appear to have come to the lower Tittabawassee 
 in 1832, principally for fishing.^'^ A few permanent 
 settlers seem to have arrived directly from Edinburgh, 
 Scotland, in the following year." The Tittabawassee 
 settlement, it is said, was the first in the county after 
 that at Saginaw City, and most of the clearings and 
 settlements before 1849 seem to have been along that 
 river.^^ At the mouth of Cass River a single settler 
 is said to have located in 1833, but the lands of this 
 river did not receive their first important accession of 
 settlers until the coming of the Germans in 1845.^^ 
 
 Contemporary with the first village beginning on the 
 Saginaw River, agricultural settlement was taking root 
 on the Saginaw Trail, at points where it crossed the 
 Flint and its branches. One of the earliest of these 
 settlements was just above the present northern boun- 
 dary of Oakland County, which received its first set- 
 tlers in less than a half dozen years after the founding 
 of Pontiac. Parties from Livingston and Ontario 
 counties, New York, bought land there in 1824,*^° and 
 
 55. Charles W. Grant. History of Saginaw County, 476, 492. 
 
 56. These forty or fifty settlers, known as the Olmsteads, are 
 
 said to have moved later to Wisconsin. Mich. Hist. Colls. 
 VII, 251. 
 
 57. John and Edward Brown, father and son. Ibid., VII, 245. 
 
 58. History of Saginaw County, 227, 944. 
 
 59. These settlers came directly from Bavaria, settling within 
 
 the present township of Frankenmuth under the direc- 
 tion of Pastor Schmidt of Ann Arbor. History of Sag- 
 inaw County, 225. 
 
 60. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 431. 
 
|»tw=- 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 :^r:- ^ 
 
 '-'3.--^ ' 
 
 SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN IN 1836 
 
 (Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 636) 
 
 This map was drawn by John Farmer of Detroit, who published a map of tlie Terri- 
 tory as early as 1826. An original copy is in the office of the Michigan Historical Com- 
 mission. See pp. 95-406. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 381 
 
 actual settlers are said to have come two years later 
 from the same counties;" before 1830 settlers had ar- 
 rived from Vermont and Connecticut/'"' The point was 
 early known as the "Thread River settlement," being 
 on the Saginaw Trail where it crossed the Thread 
 River, a small branch of the Flint. In many early 
 records it is referred to as Grand Blanc, a name still 
 borne by the township/'^ The Northwestern Journal, 
 mentioning it by the latter name April 21, 1830, credits 
 it with "a hardy industrious and enterprizing popula- 
 tion on large well cultivated farms," and Blois de- 
 scribes the vicinity as "thickly settled. ""^^ Another set- 
 tlement, apparently on the Thread River, is mentioned 
 in the same issue of the Northwestern Journal as Le 
 Roy, credited with a store and a tavern. Blois lo- 
 cates Le Roy about one and a half miles from Flint, 
 and its sawmill and flouring mill seem to have super- 
 seded the mill built at the earlier site.*^^ 
 
 The trading operations of Smith, and of his successor 
 Todd, of Pontiac, have been noted as the direct antece- 
 
 61. History oj Genesee County, 34. The first settlers, Jacob 
 
 Stevens and his two sons, are said to have come in 1822. 
 lUd., 32,. 
 
 62. Ibid., 34. 
 
 63. The name is said to have been derived from a large half- 
 
 breed Indian associated with the settlement. 
 
 64. Gazetteer of Michigan, 291. See also Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 
 
 392, for rapid increase of population after 1830. 
 
 65. Ibid., VII, 242. The place had about fifteen families in 
 
 1838, Gazetteer of Michigan, 311. A small settlement is 
 said to have been made on the Flint River about 1833, 
 derisively called the "Cold Water settlement," because 
 , its members were opposed to the. use of intoxicating 
 liquor. Apparently it was independent of Grand Blanc 
 and Le Roy. 
 
382 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 dents of Flint village f^ yet while both men were some- 
 what more than traders, the real beginnings of village 
 life at that point came with the same impulse in 1835- 
 36 that marked a new era in the settlement of Saginaw. 
 In 1835 was recorded the first plat of Flint village, '^'^ 
 and the county seat was secured, located on land said 
 to have been recently purchased from John Todd;^^ 
 its availability was enhanced by its central position in 
 the recently establivshed county of Genesee. "^^ In 1836 
 a second impulse to the centralization of population 
 there was given by the acquisition of the land office 
 recently established for the new District of Saginaw. ^° 
 It was commonly known as the "Genesee Land Office." 
 Both its name and that of the county were significant 
 of the large early immigration from the "Genesee 
 country" in western New York. Much unhealthful 
 speculation in town lots ensued. Four additional' plats 
 are said to have been recorded on lands adjoining the 
 original one^^ before the close of 1837. Owners of real 
 
 66. The name was first given to the river, the "River of the Fire 
 
 Stone," called by the French "Riviere de la Pierre." 
 Though the river has a rocky bottom, it is not clear 
 what suggested Flint. The site of the Indian village 
 appears to have borne an Indian name meaning "open 
 plain, burned over," though the site is said to have been 
 originally heavily forested. History of Genesee County, 
 16, note 119. 
 
 67. History of Genesee County, 124. 
 
 68. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 163. Todd is said to have bought a 
 
 section of land there in 1830 for $800. History of Gene- 
 see County, 121. 
 
 69. Territorial Laws, III, 1,416. 
 
 70. It appears to have remained a center of land operations 
 
 until its removal to East Saginaw in 1837. Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., XXXV, 370. 
 
 71. History of Genesee County, 124. On one of them was laid 
 
 out the village of "Grand Traverse." . 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 383 
 
 estate on the north side of the river apparently held 
 prices so high as to drive settlers to the other side of 
 the river, and with them went the main part of the 
 settlement. ^^ 
 
 The relative importance of the village is indicated 
 by its early designation as "the Flint River settle- 
 ment;"^^ yet up to 1838 there are said to have been 
 only four houses in its neighborhood.'^** The first store 
 of consequence seems to have been built in that year." 
 In the same year an energetic influence came to its 
 settlement from Mount Morris, Livingston County, 
 New York, in the person of Mr. Todd's successor in 
 the village hotel. ^"^ In 1838 Flint had "a banking asso- 
 ciation, an edge tool manufactory, a sawmill, two dry 
 goods stores, two groceries, two physicians, a lawyer 
 and the land office for the Saginaw land district." An 
 estimated population of three hundred people is re- 
 corded, being a hundred less than for Saginaw. '^^ 
 
 72. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 441. 
 
 73. History of Genesee County, 120. 
 
 74. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 433. 
 
 75. Ibid., Ill, 436. 
 
 76. History of Genesee County, 122. 
 
 77. Gazetteer of Michigan, 287. The vicinity of Flint is favor- 
 
 ably mentioned in 1837 in Michigan House Documents, 
 No. 9 (E), 53. In 1845 there appear to have been about 
 170 resident tax-payers in the villages of Flint and Grand 
 Traverse. History of Genesee County, 126-127. In 1855 
 these rival settlements were organized together as the 
 city of Flint, neither having had village organization 
 separate from the government of the township. Mich. 
 Hist. Colls., I, 163; III, 438; History of Genesee County, 
 128-129. The population at that time is estimated at 
 about 2,000. Clark's Gazetteer (1863), p. 309, records 
 that the city is to be considered for beauty of location, 
 health, substantial wealth, educational facilities and good 
 society. 
 
384 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 On Kearsley Creek, a branch of the FHnt River east 
 of the Thread, a settlement worthy of special mention 
 was made in 1837 by a colony of nearly thirty families 
 from Clarence Township, Erie County, New York, who 
 located almost directly east of the Grand Blanc settle- 
 ment in what is now the township of Atlas. ^^ This 
 was apparently the nucleus of the later village of Good- 
 rich. Along the creek there was much speculation in 
 1835-36. It is said that of 113 land buyers within the 
 limits of the present Davidson Township prior to 1837 
 only fifteen became actual settlers. ^^ 
 
 On the upper course of the Flint River east of Flint 
 village an important settlement was located on the 
 excellent power site at Lapeer. A village was platted 
 there in 1831.^'^ The Detroit Free Press, May 31, 
 1832, mentions to its credit six families, a good saw 
 mill, the possession of the county seat,*^^ and the en- 
 vironment of an excellent farming country. According 
 to Blois the county buildings had not yet been built 
 in 1838. He mentions a sawmill and two stores, with 
 four more stores in process of construction.^- Appar- 
 ently the growth of Lapeer had been very slow from 
 1831 to 1837, if it may be measured by the statement 
 of Blois that its small group of settlers represented an 
 increase of "ten fold the past season."^'"' 
 
 78. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVII, 414. Atlas Township is said to 
 
 have had twentv-two voters in 1836. Ihid., XVII, 414. 
 
 79. Ihid., XXII, 543.' 
 
 80. Ihid., I, 219; III, 549; Michigan House Documents (1837), 
 
 No. 9, (E), p. 53. 
 
 81. Territorial Laws, II, 807. 
 
 82. Gazetteer of Michigan, 310. 
 
 83. He mentions also a village of Newbury, containing two 
 
 stores, on the north fork of the Clinton, about twenty 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 385 
 
 The first purchase of land on the Shiawassee River 
 was made in the same year as that on the Thread, and 
 the settlements at Byron and Grand Blanc on the 
 sites of these purchases were the earliest in that re- 
 gion. A relation to the older centers of settlement is 
 seen in that the date of the purchases, 1824, marked 
 also the beginnings at Ann Arbor and Dexter in Wash- 
 tenaw, and that the purchase on the Shiawassee was 
 made by the founder of Dexter. ^^ His purchase was 
 speculative, and like that at Dexter covered a power 
 site, at the junction of the east branch of the Shia- 
 wassee River with the main stream where it was 
 crossed by a fork of the Grand River Trail. While 
 there could have been little or no actual settlement 
 at Byron, by 1825, yet it appeared on Risdon's map 
 of that year as a village, probably because it had been 
 fixed upon as the site of the coimty seat of the recently 
 established coimty of Shiawassee. It was apparently a 
 county-seat village speculation. 
 
 The early prominence of Byron on the map, and its 
 possession of the county seat, as well as its position 
 on the Grand River Trail and its excellent water power, 
 made it a well-known point among early settlers; yet 
 its settlement seems to have been slow, even after the 
 wave of speculation in 1835-36. This was owing partly 
 to the rearrangement of the boundaries of the county 
 made by carving Genesee from its territory. It was 
 
 83. Con. miles from Flint. Gazetteer of Michigan, 332. This was 
 
 probably a "paper town," though there appear to have 
 been settlers in that vicinity early. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 Ill, 549. 
 
 84. Samuel Dexter of Boston. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 475; 
 
 Michigan Biographies, 227. 
 49 
 
386 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 by this means left in the southeastern corner, only a 
 mile from the boundary. This unfavorable position 
 is the reason assigned by the legislature for removing 
 the county seat (1836)^^ to. Corunna. A special effort 
 was made to promote its prospects in 1836-37 by the 
 Byron Company, whose leading men were from Wash- 
 tenaw;^^ but they appear to have got little farther than 
 recording the village plat. According to Bela Hub- 
 bard, who visited the place in the summer of 1837, it 
 had only a mill and two houses ;^^ and Blois gives it 
 but slight mention, mainly for its water power. ^^ 
 What promise it had was overshadowed by settlement 
 further down the river at the more central positions 
 in the county— at Shiawassee, Corunna and Owosso. 
 The failure of its early promoter is typical of many 
 similar failures due to miscalculation upon a prospec- 
 tive count^^ seat. 
 
 By 1837, according to Bela Hubbard's report of a 
 canoe trip made that summer down the Shiawassee 
 River, roads had been opened and settlement had 
 made rapid progress along the twenty miles of the 
 river's course from Byron to Owosso. ^^ At "Shia- 
 wassee town" he found a dozen log cabins and about 
 the same number of unfinished frame dwellings, but the 
 whole village was under mortgage and advertised to 
 be sold at auction, ^° The situation was apparently 
 
 85. Session Laws (1835-36), 82. 
 
 86. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 203-204. 
 
 87. Memorials of a Half Century, 68. 
 
 88. Gazetteer, 260. It is said that the place had but five fami- 
 
 lies in 1840. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 
 204. 
 
 89. Memorials of a Half Century, 68. 
 
 90. Ihid., 71. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 387 
 
 connected with the panic of that year and the opera- 
 tions of the locally famous "Exchange Bank of Shia- 
 wassee."^^ The founding of a village there seems to 
 have been first seriously undertaken in the preceding 
 year by parties from Huron County, Ohio, who 
 purchased an entire section of land covering the 
 water power. ^- With a fiourmill, a sawmill, two stores, 
 a physician, a lawyer and some mechanics it seems to 
 have been of good promise. ^^ The "Shiawassee Ex- 
 change" is said to have been in the closing years of 
 this period a prominent social and business center for 
 all of central Michigan.^"* 
 
 Neither Owosso nor Corunna, as described by Blois, 
 compared favorabl}^ in extent of settlement with Shia- 
 wassee. After the United States survey of the neigh- 
 borhood of Owosso in 1823 no further attention seems 
 to have been given to the site of the village for a 
 decade. In the summer of 1833 it was visited by one 
 of the Williams brothers while on a journey from their 
 post at Shiawassee to Saginaw, ^^ who saw the environ- 
 ment probably as described in the surveyor's field 
 notes: "Plains or Oak-openings. Land first-rate. 
 Good soil. No large timber. It was long ago burnt 
 off. Undergrowth white and prickly ash, poplar, 
 thorns and briars; all in abundance. "^"^ Wilhams is 
 
 91. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 286. 
 
 92. Ibid., 288. See above for the founding of the trading post 
 
 there by the WilHams brothers, 1831. 
 
 93. Gazetteer, 361. 
 
 94. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXII, 253. 
 
 95. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 140. It was 
 
 probably seen by the Ionia colonists in the same year, 
 being on the Grand River Trail. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 II, 483. 
 
 96. Ibid., 144. 
 
388 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 said to have been attracted to the place by the 
 Indian name for ' 'water power," and to have been ac- 
 companied thither by the Indian chief Wasso, or 
 Owasso.^^ Apparently he entered about two hundred 
 acres at that time, covering the power site; but the 
 first improvements were made two or three years later 
 by parties from Oakland County and from Rochester, 
 New York.^^ The accession of settlers from Rochester 
 constituted a considerable colony who came with the 
 purpose of founding a city at the Big Rapids, as the 
 place early came to be known ;^^ they platted it upon 
 land purchased by agents of the company from Wil- 
 liams the year before. These colonists meant much 
 for the settlement of the land on the Shiawassee, 
 comprising men of energy, foresight and ability. A 
 former mayor of Rochester was among their number, ^°° 
 and the family of their leader, Daniel Ball, appears 
 to have later gained distinction in State affairs.^°^ 
 
 The settlement of this vicinity would doubtless have 
 been much more rapid had it not been for extensive 
 speculation. A large proportion of the surrounding 
 lands were held at high prices by nonresidents ap- 
 parently as late as 1850.^°- The village appears not 
 
 97. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 484. The Indian name is said to have 
 
 meant "Big Rapids." 
 
 98. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 120, 145. 
 
 99. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 483. 
 
 100. John Lute. See Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 385, for the names of 
 
 these colonists. 
 
 101. Michigan Biographies, 64, gives the name of David Ball as 
 
 that of the founder of Owosso. 
 
 102. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 263. The vil- 
 
 lage and township are said to have had but seventy-six 
 dwellings by 1850. The city was not incorporated until 
 1859. Ibid., 149. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 389 
 
 to have been platted until 1838, though there seem to 
 have been a dozen log houses there in the previous 
 year. The sawmill, said to have been among the first 
 improvements, is not mentioned by Blois.^°^ Probably 
 some impetus was given to the river settlement about 
 this time by the project of the ''Northern Railroad" 
 the course of which was to lie through Owosso and 
 Corunna with terminals at Grand Rapids and Port 
 Huron."^ 
 
 At Corunna,, nothwithstanding the county seat was 
 located there in 1836, there seems to have been no 
 permanent resident until after Michigan became a 
 State. Blois speaks of the settlement as "entirely 
 new," a sawmill, a flourmill, a tavern and a store- 
 house being mentioned as in process of building. ^°^ 
 Bela Hubbard says he saw there in 1837 one log house 
 on the bank of the river and a steam mill which was 
 partly finished. ^°^ The village was not platted until 
 1837.10^ 
 
 The founding of Corunna came of an attempt to 
 exploit a village by a county-seat company and origi- 
 nated with the same wave of speculation that gave 
 birth to so many of these enterprizes. It is interest- 
 ing that the members of this company were mainly of 
 Scotch descent, resident in Detroit. Their leading 
 spirit seems to have been Andrew Mack,^°^ who is 
 thought by some to have used undue influence 
 
 103. Ibid., 71; Blois, Gazetteer, 336. 
 
 104. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 486. 
 
 105. Blois, Gazetteer, 268. 
 
 106. Memorials of a Half Century, 71. 
 
 107. The plat is said not to have been recorded until 1840. His- 
 
 tory oj Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 166. 
 
 108. McArthiir, Frazer, McDonald, Hurlbut and Davids are 
 
 names given in Clark's Gazetteer (1863), p. 233. 
 
390 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 to get the county seat on his land at the site of Cor- 
 unna.^"^ The enterprize had some features in com- 
 mon with that at Hastings and Mason, in Barry and 
 Ingham counties. ^^° 
 
 Apparently the village of Fentonville, on one of the 
 distant ramifications of the Shiawassee south of Grand 
 Blanc, could boast of a larger settlement in 1837 than 
 could Corunna. Bela Hubbard and Blois agree in 
 crediting it with a sawmill, several frame dwellings, a 
 tavern and a store. "^ It gained some distinction from 
 its founder, William M. Fenton, a native of Norwich, 
 New York, and a graduate of Hamilton College, who 
 became lieutenant governor of Michigan from 1848 to 
 1852.11- 
 
 As above suggested, the position of the early settle- 
 ments on the Shiawassee River was influenced by the 
 northern branch of the Grand River Trail. The 
 southern branch of that trail marked a line of settle- 
 ments extending in a northwesterly direction across 
 the present county of Livingston. Between 1833 and 
 1837 embryo village centers were established at Brigh- 
 ton, Howell and Livingston; the original streets of the 
 first two commemorate in their names the position of 
 the village on this old Indian highway."^ 
 
 109. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 483, 485. 
 
 110. Ibid., XII, 386-387 for a description of the original environ- 
 
 ment of Corunna. There appears to have been good 
 water power, though Hubbard mentioned a steam mill 
 in 1837. Building materials of limestone and sandstone 
 were near. See Ibid., 383 and Blois, 269. 
 
 111. Memorials of a Half Century, 68; Gazetteer of Michigan, 285. 
 
 112. Michigan Biographies, 263. 
 
 113. History of Livingston County, 140, 202. See Mich. Hist. 
 
 Colls., II, 483, for the position of the northern branch of 
 this trail. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 391 
 
 The first prospecting in this region appears to have 
 been due to the estabHshment of the new county of 
 Livingston;^" at least in the same year (1833) the first 
 prospector came to the site of Howell. He is said to 
 have been by trade a butcher, from Hughsonville, New 
 York, who had come to Michigan to visit his father 
 and brothers in Salem Township, in Washtenaw. Ap- 
 parently on advice obtained there he moved north- 
 ward by the Indian trail, ^^^ and was followed soon by 
 others, largely from the older neighboring counties, and 
 from New York.^^*^ The first proprietors of the village 
 plat of Howell were Detroit parties ;^^^ one of them is 
 said to have named the village from a friend of his 
 birthplace, Judge Thomas Howell, of Canandaigua, 
 New York.i^s 
 
 The prospecting of 1833-34 was succeeded by rapid 
 settlement in 1835-37. At "Livingston Center," as 
 Howell was for some time commonly known, the 
 prospective county seat was platted in 1835, on 120 
 acres of beautiful oak openings. ^^^ In tha-t year there 
 
 114. March 21, 1833. Territorial Laws, III, 993. 
 
 115. Crittenden, History of Howell, 11-12; History of Livingston 
 
 County, 136; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 176. The 
 prospector was John D. Pinckney. 
 
 116. The New York counties most frequently mentioned b}'- 
 
 Crittenden as sources of the first settlers are Ontario, 
 Herkimer, Cattaraugus and Livingston. The first tavern 
 keeper at Howell was from Geneseo, Livingston Cotmty, 
 New York. Crittenden, History of Howell, 18. A few 
 Scotch settlers are mentioned among the early arrivals 
 at Howell. History of Livingston County, 138, 141. 
 
 117. Ibid., 139; Michigan Biographies, 202. These are said to 
 
 have been Flavins Crane and Edward Brooks, the former 
 a native of Canandaigua, New York. 
 
 118. Crittenden, History of Howell, 17; History of Livingston 
 
 Cotmty, 140; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 177. 
 
 119. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 177. 
 
392 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 seems to have been but one log house on the site/^° 
 but in the fall of the next year the erection of a two- 
 story frame hotel indicated expectation of a decided 
 increase in settlers and prospectors. ^^^ By the close of 
 1837 some fifty families and single persons are said to 
 have settled there. -^"^ 
 
 Among the chief retarding influences in the early 
 settlement of Howell were the high prices at which 
 speculators held village lots, and the county-seat 
 contest with the rival village of Brighton. As an 
 index to speculation, there were one hundred and 
 thirty-seven village lots assessed to nonresidents in 
 1837^^^ at which time there were within the corporate 
 limits as they existed in 1880 only fifteen rCvSident tax- 
 payers. The struggle over the county seat is said to 
 have delayed the erection of suitable county build- 
 ings at Howell for a number of years and to have 
 decisively dampened the ardor of private enter- 
 prize. ^^^ 
 
 120. See Alvin L. Crittenden's account of his arrival in that year 
 
 and of the environment of the village site. History of 
 Livingston County, 139. There appear to have been 
 eighteen settlers in that year in the township. 
 
 121. Crittenden, History of Howell, 32; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXI, 
 
 372; XXXVIII, 177. The postoffice was established 
 there in January of that year. Crittenden, Hist, of 
 Howell, 21. At the town meeting of that year in April, 
 which included voters for many miles around, thirty-six 
 votes were cast. Ibid., 25. 
 
 122. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 188-189. 
 
 123. History of Livingston County, 143. Lots were assessed at 
 
 the uniform price of $25 each. 
 
 124. The county buildings were not erected until 1847. Critten- 
 
 den, History of Howell, 56-57; History of Livingston 
 County, 30-31; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 180. 
 Brighton first assumed the character of a village with 
 the opening of a log tavern in 1836, the village being 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 393 
 
 By 1837 Livingston County had developed a fair 
 quota of "mill towns." Brighton and Howell each are 
 credited by Blois with a flouring mill, a sawmill and 
 a store. ^'^ The village of Livingston about which 
 much less is heard in pioneer records, was according 
 to his description quite their equal in settlement, be- 
 ing five miles nearer to Detroit than either, and on 
 what appears to have been an excellent supply of 
 water power from a small branch of the Huron River 
 called Woodruff's Creek. ^"*^ In the same vicinity on 
 another power site and on the "state road" from Pon- 
 tiac to Ann Arbor is mentioned Green Oakville, a set- 
 tlement of twelve or fifteen families. ^^^ On Portage 
 River, another branch of the Huron, was the village 
 of Unadilla, with two sawmills^ ^^ — the only village 
 center in the southwestern party of the cormty. The 
 power for all of the mills at these vil ages was supplied 
 by branches of the Huron at short distances from the 
 main stream in Washtenaw County, which gave these 
 settlements a natural affiliation with the Washtenaw 
 villages of Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Dexter. ^^^ 
 
 The county seat and central position of Howell made 
 
 124. Con. platted in the following year. History of Livingston 
 
 County, 201. Its first settlers were from New York. 
 
 125. Gazetteer, 254, 302. "Benton" is probably Brighton. 
 
 126. Ibid., 313. 
 
 127. Ibid., 297. 
 
 128. Ibid., 375. A settlement appears to have been made there 
 
 as early as 1828. History of Livingston County, 19. 
 
 129. This land was part of Washtenaw County until the estab- 
 
 lishment of Livingston County in 1833. Territorial 
 Laws, I, 334. Many of the first settlers were from Wash- 
 tenaw County. The first store at Howell (1837) was 
 established from Ann Arbor. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXXVIII, 178. 
 
394 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 it not only the peer of its rivals in trade, but like 
 Shiawassee it appears to have early become for a wide 
 circle of country a favorite social center. Hon. Jerome 
 W. Turner is quoted as once saying, "Men from the 
 East. who had no design of settling here, staged it out 
 from Detroit, or over from Dexter, to spend a few 
 days in laughing." He tells of an acquaintance in 
 New York who said "he was accustomed to travel 
 through almost every town in the United States large 
 enough to hold a meeting house without finding one 
 that could equal Howell for fun." It was "a town 
 from the start with a grin on its coimtenance which 
 never relaxed but continually flowed into guffaws. "^^'^ 
 The practical isolation of a large part of the Saginaw 
 country because of the difficulties of communication 
 and transportation, was long a serious drawback to 
 its settlement In 1822 a party headed by Harvey 
 Williams, who is reported to have been a man of much 
 determination, is said to have required eight days to 
 transport foui' tons of supplies from Detroit to the 
 troops at Saginaw, and though at the time he was 
 strongly impressed with the possibilities of the region 
 it was twelve years (1834) before he saw enough to 
 induce him to live "in a wilderness forty miles from 
 civilization. "^'^^ In 1834 the national military turn- 
 pike over the old Indian trail reached the embryo vil- 
 lage of Flint. ^^^ A decade of work on it had not much 
 
 130. Crittenden, History of Howell, 44-45. 
 
 131. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 25. 
 
 132. This turnpike, later known as the Saginaw Road, was be- 
 
 gun by a detachment of United States troops in the year 
 of WilHams' trip. Mich. Hist. Coll., VII, 252; History of 
 Genesee County, 39. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 395 
 
 improved it, according to the experience of Judge 
 Albert Miller, who says that though he was offered 
 strong inducements to settle in Flint in the spring of 
 1831 he bought a farm in Grand Blanc rather than 
 continue the journey through the woods to that place. ^^^ 
 In the year in which the road reached Flint a bridge 
 was built over the river in line with the present Saginaw 
 Street, which is said to have been an important cir- 
 cumstance in helping to fix the center of the vil'age at 
 that point. ^•'^'^ The ]ast work done on the road by the 
 National Government (1835) extended it five miles 
 north of Flint, from which point the State completed 
 it to Saginaw in 1841.^^^ When Michigan became a 
 State there appears to have been between Saginaw 
 and Detroit a barely passable wagon road. 
 
 The most prominent wagon route west of the Sag- 
 inaw Turnpike was one branching off at Pontiac early 
 known as the "Pontiac and Grand River Road," 
 which led through the northeastern corner of Living- 
 
 133. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 139. In 1830 the journey of a settler 
 
 from Pontiac over the route to Flint is said to have 
 taken three days. History of Genesee County, 121. 
 
 134. Ibid., 120. Game and fish had attracted the Indians to 
 
 this ford, called by the French the "Grand Traverse." 
 Todd's ferry is mentioned above. See History of Genesee 
 County, 119, 122. For the project of the "Northern 
 Railroad" see Ibid., 43-44. The first locomotive ap- 
 pears not to have reached Flint until 1863. Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., Ill, 439. 
 
 135. About 1849-50 a new impulse was given to the improvement 
 
 of this road between Saginaw and Pontiac to make con- 
 nections with the railroad then completed from Pontiac 
 to Detroit. History of Genesee County, 132, 476. See 
 Session Laws (1849), 241 for act authorizing a road be- 
 tween the German settlements. This region also felt 
 the impulse to plank -road building as early as 1847. 
 History of Genesee County, 40-41. 
 
396 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 ston County and near there became one with the 
 northern fork of the Grand River Trail. ^^® Frequent 
 mention is found in pioneer records of a trail leading 
 from Owosso to Saginaw, apparently that traversed by 
 the trader Williams and Chief Wasso in 1833.^" The 
 State projects of the "Northern Railroad" and "North- 
 ern Wagon Road" marked the beginnings of an at- 
 tempt to secure direct travel between Flint and Cor- 
 unna.^^^ 
 
 The main line of the Grand River Trail ran north- 
 westward from Detroit almost diagonally through the 
 center of Livingston County. ^^^ Its northern fork, 
 above mentioned as meeting the trail from Pontiac, 
 branched off near Howell, while the main trail be- 
 came approximately the line of the national turnpike 
 known as the "Grand River Road," by which the 
 earliest settlers came to Livingston Cotmty from De- 
 troit. ^■*'' The last money appropriated by the National 
 Government to improve this line of travel was spent 
 just before the admission of the State in clearing its 
 course a little west of Howell. ^"^^ In 1838 a primitive 
 
 136. Apparently this was the route taken by the founders of 
 
 Ionia in 1833. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Coun- 
 ties, 25. 
 
 137. Ibid., 25, 140. 
 
 138. Ibid., 32. The State expended some $60,000 on this work, 
 
 which was suspended during the hard times following 
 the panic of 1837. 
 
 139. History of Livingston County, 51. 
 
 140. Crittenden, History of Howell, 9; History of Livingston 
 
 Cotmty, 19. 
 
 141. Ibid., 51. By 1840 little if any of it was graded west of 
 
 Brighton, but the abandonment of the "Northern Wagon 
 Road" about that time turned the aid of the State to- 
 wards it. Shortly afterwards a primitive stage line of 
 lumber wagons is said to have been started between 
 Howell and the vicinity of Lansing. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 397 
 
 stage line began to run between Howell and Detroit, 
 the trip one way apparently reqiiiring the better part 
 of a week.^"*- 
 
 The rivers of the Saginaw country furnished an 
 abundance of water power, and they aided in the raft- 
 ing of logs and lumber ; but excepting the main channel 
 of the Saginaw they appear to have been little help 
 to the settler in the transportation of goods and sup- 
 plies. There are many reports of early attempts to 
 use them. Efforts were made by the State and by 
 private companies to improve their navigability, but 
 without much success."^ The apparent prospect of 
 success undoubtedly helped to secure settlers in many 
 localities in days when resources seemed abundant and 
 the spirit of enterprize was at high tide, particularly 
 as much was hoped from the plan to tmite by canal 
 the main streams of the Saginaw and the Grand River 
 
 142. Crittenden, History of Howell, 50; History of Livingston 
 
 County, 22; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 179. A 
 plank road appears to have been completed between 
 Howell and Detroit in 1850. Crittenden, History of How- 
 ell, 79. Howell seems to have had early connections with 
 Kensington in Oakland County by a mail route (1836) 
 and by dependence upon the physician there. Later the 
 route by way of Lyon or Royal Oak seems to have been 
 commonly taken between Howell and Detroit. History 
 of Livingston County, 19, 138. 
 
 143. Several thousand dollars spent on the Shiawassee River 
 
 made it sufficiently navigable for a cargo of 200 bbls. of 
 flour to be floated at favorable stages of water from 
 Owosso to Saginaw about 1837-39. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 II, 486; History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 31; 
 Session Laws (1837), 171. Projects for navigating the 
 Flint began about 1839. History of Genesee County, 41. 
 A note {Ibid., 133) quotes from a Flint paper of March 
 27, 1852, "Port of Flint — Arrivals and Departures. — 
 Departed, scow, 'Kate Hayes,' Captain Charles Mather." 
 
398 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 valleys. ^'^^ In 1837 shipbuilding appears to have made 
 a slight beginning at Saginaw."^ 
 
 The accounts of the early mills of the Saginaw 
 country are as numerous as the mills were important 
 to the settlers. When transportation was so difficult 
 and flour and lumber were products of prime necessity 
 it was the desire of settlers to be near a mill, and the 
 founders of villages naturally chose mill sites that fur- 
 nished the most abundant and cheapest power. Es- 
 pecially was this true in a region where it was foreseen 
 that lumbering would be a chief future industry. The 
 nearest mills for the earliest settlers were in the vicin- 
 ity of Pontiac and Ann Arbor, but by 1837 mills had 
 been built at all of the chief villages. The first saw 
 mills in the region, on the Thread River in the Grand 
 Blanc settlement south of Flint, are said to have been 
 built as early as 1828 and 1830.^^6 j^ 1332 ten thou- 
 sand feet of pine lumber bought at one of these mills 
 is said to have been floated down the Flint River to 
 the vicinity of Saginaw to build a frame house, ap- 
 parently the first in that region. ^"'^ The first gristmill 
 of the region, also on the Thread (1834), appears to 
 have made that site for several years an objective 
 point for a wide circle of country."^ The first mill 
 built at Saginaw, about 1835, appears to have been 
 
 144. This project was abandoned in 1839 after an expenditure of 
 
 over $20,000, but its possibilities led a private company 
 to contemplate it a decade later. Session Laws (1849), 
 196. 
 
 145. History of Saginaw County, 451. 
 
 146. History of Genesee County; 117. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 242. 
 
 147. Ibid., 117, note. Purchased by Eleazer Jewett at Stev- 
 
 ens' mill. 
 
 148. Ibid., 132. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 399 
 
 run by steam. ^^'^ But the days of profitable lumber- 
 ing were distant; it is said that there were not by 
 1850 a half dozen sawmills in Saginaw County ;^^° 
 lumbering had perforce to await the era of the railroad 
 and an eastern market. 
 
 Besides "going to niill," there were other pioneer 
 trade relations between the larger and smaller settle- 
 ments. Naturally these relations were detennined 
 mainly by the easiest routes of travel. Saginaw and 
 Flint obtained supplies from Pontiac, though Saginaw 
 got them sometimes from Detroit directly by water. -^^^ 
 The settlements on the Shiawassee traded first with 
 Howell, Ann Arbor and Detroit and later with Pon- 
 tiac. ^^" Considering the difficulties of transportation, 
 prices were in general not high before the panic ;^°^ 
 stock had to be driven in from Ohio;^^'^ wheat sold in 
 Livingston Coimty before 1838 at $2 per bushel. ^^^ 
 But actual suffering existed in 1837 in that county, and 
 panic prices prevailed; according to the reminiscences 
 
 149. The "Emerson Mill,'' built by the Williams brothers. 
 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 25; VII, 243; see History of Saginaw 
 County, 383-85 for an accoimt of the early mills and 
 Imiibering of that county. See also History of Genesee 
 County, 132-133; History of Shiawassee and Clinton Coun- 
 ties, 151; History of Livingston County, 21, 141; Critten- 
 den, History of Howell, 28, 61. 
 
 150. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 498. 
 
 151. Ihid., II, 485; VII, 388, 393. 
 
 152. Ihid., II, 486. The supplies of the Rochester company at 
 
 Owosso (1837) were sent by the water route to Saginaw. 
 Ihid., II, 485. 
 
 153. A long list of store prices for 1831-32 at Saginaw is given 
 
 in the History of Saginaw County (p. 236). Flour was 
 $7.31 per bbl. 
 
 154. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 393. 
 
 155. History of Livingston County, 23. Conditions were changed 
 
 by the abundant harvest of 1838. 
 
400 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 of a contemporary there were families that lived for 
 days on boiled acorns and fish cooked and eaten with- 
 out salt or iat}^^ 
 
 The extravagant speculation and ''frenzied finance" 
 which heralded the panic of 1837 made almost all 
 conditions of life in the Saginaw country as elsewhere 
 in the Territory abnormal. Much of the most desirable 
 land was taken up by speculators without any inten- 
 tion to settle upon it. In the History of Shiawassee 
 and Clinton Counties examples are given of properties 
 which these "land sharks" would buy one day at the 
 Government price of $1.25 per acre and hold the next 
 day at $5.^" It is said that at Howell in Livingston 
 County the high-priced holdings of nonresident specu- 
 lators in 1847 were so extensive as to cause the new 
 courthouse to be built on an addition. ^^^ A counter- 
 part of the land speculations was the so called '"wild- 
 cat" banking, of which a typical description is given 
 in the History of Genesee County}^^ The panic is said 
 to have reduced the population of Saginaw from nine 
 hundred to about four hundred and fifty, and it was 
 1841 before a favorable reaction began to be felt in 
 that county. ^^° 
 
 The distribution of population in the Saginaw coun- 
 try bore undoubtedly some relation to the organiza- 
 
 156. Ibid., 22. 
 
 157. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 483; History of Shiawassee and Clinton 
 
 Counties, 121. 
 
 158. Crittenden, History of Howell, 58. It became the village 
 
 center and shifted the principal part of the village away 
 from the original site. 
 
 159. p. 137. See also Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 396-398. 
 
 160. History oj Saginaw County, 605, 607. See also Mich. Hist. 
 
 Colls., VII, 240. 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 401 
 
 tion of counties and townships there. In 1822 when 
 the garrison was estabhshed at Saginaw in consequence 
 of the Indian treaty of 1819, the whole of the Saginaw 
 region was divided into the counties of Lapeer, Shia- 
 wassee and Saginaw, all with extensive boundaries. -^"^^ 
 It has been estimated that in 1830 there were not more 
 than a hundred people in the three counties, ^'^"^ none 
 of which had sufficient population to call for separate 
 county government imtil 1835^*^^ — Shiawassee not until 
 1837.^'^^ The increase of population in the vicinity of 
 Flint and Grand Blanc is indicated by the establish- 
 ment and organization of Genesee County in 1835-36, 
 out of territory originally in the older coimties.^*^^ 
 Livingston County, established in 1833, was organized 
 but a few days later than Genesee. ^"° 
 
 The first township government organized in the 
 Saginaw country was significant of the beginning of 
 settlement at the future site of Saginaw City. This 
 was the township of Saginaw, coextensive with the 
 county as laid out in 1822.^" At the first township 
 
 161. By proclamation of Governor Cass, September 10, 1822. 
 
 Territorial Laws, I, 333-334. The boundaries of Saginaw 
 Cotmty were readjusted March 2, 1831. Territorial 
 Laws, III, 872. 
 
 162. Mainly in the neighborhood of Flint, and most of these were 
 
 probably French-Canadian trappers and traders. Mich. 
 Hist. Colls., I, 359; VII, 232, for the settlers along the 
 Saginaw trail north of Pontiac. The barest beginnings 
 had been made in the southern part of Livingston 
 County. History of Livingston County, 19-20. 
 
 163. Territorial Laws, III, 1348, 1349. 
 
 164. Session Laws (1837), 106. 
 
 165. Territorial Laws, III, 1416. Session Laws (1835-36), 66. 
 
 166. Territorial Laws, III, 993; Session Laws (1835-36), 65. 
 
 167. July 12, 1830. Territorial Laws, III, 818. 
 
 51 
 
402 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 meeting in the spring of 1831 there are said to have 
 been cast only a few over a dozen votes ;^^^ two years 
 later, the vicinity of Flint and Grand Blanc was recog- 
 nized as a growing center of settlement by the organiza- 
 tion of the first township south of Saginaw^^^ — the 
 name of Grand Blanc for the township points probably 
 to the settlement on Thread River as being in contem- 
 porary opinion more, important than the one at Flint. 
 In the following year (1834) the settlement in the 
 southeastern corner of Lapeer County secured organ- 
 ized government as Mia (Bristol) Township ;^^° and 
 there was apparently scattered settlement elsewhere 
 in Lapeer Coimty, as in the same year the remainder 
 was organized in the large township of Lapeer. ^"^ In 
 the meantime the population of Saginaw Township, as 
 recorded in the History of Saginaw County purporting 
 to give the census of 1834, had increased to 303."^ 
 
 The year of the cholera epidemic (1834) was not 
 auspicious for the beginning of the new settlements in 
 Livingston County, but in the spring of 1835 three 
 townships were organized in the county, which indicates 
 apparently that settlers had come in rapidly.^" The 
 
 168. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXII, 451, 453. The meeting took place 
 
 after the readjustment of the bomidaries in March, 1831. 
 See Territorial Laws, III, 872. 
 
 169. March 9, 1833. Territorial Laws, III, 985. 
 
 170. March 7, 1834. Ihid., Ill, 1277. The name was changed 
 
 to Bristol in December of that year, after its most promi- 
 nent settler. Ibid., Ill, 1333. 
 
 171. December 30, 1834. Territorial Laws, III, 1339. ^ The 
 
 southeastern corner was included in Grand Blanc Town- 
 ship the preceding year. 
 
 172. p. 457. 
 
 173. March 17 and 26. Territorial Laws, III, 1368, 1404. The 
 
 southwestern township of Unadilla included the present 
 northwestern township of Washtenaw County (Lyndon, 
 organized March 23, 1836). 
 
THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 403 
 
 position of these townships shows that the settlements 
 were mainly in the southern part of the county, though 
 settlers are said to have entered the northern part in 
 1834.^^^ In the following year (1836) along with ex- 
 tensive speculations, the population is said to have 
 increased more than five-fold ;^^^ and the spring of that 
 year, before the opening .of active immigration, saw 
 three new townships organized — two of them in the 
 south and east.^'^'^ 
 
 The organization of other townships in 1836 shows 
 an increase of settlement on the Flint and Shiawassee 
 rivers. In that spring was organized Shiawassee Town- 
 ship, coterminous with the county. ^^^ The settlement 
 at Flint became the center of a new township north of 
 Grand Blanc, ^^^ while south of the latter the settle- 
 ment at Fenton was recognized in the township of 
 Argentine.^ '^ The formation of Atlas and Hadley 
 townships shows increasing settlement in the south and 
 southwest of Lapeer County, which had apparently 
 spread eastward from Grand Blanc and northward 
 from Oakland, ^^'^ 
 
 By the spring of 1837 the growth of settlement called 
 for separate township government in several parts of 
 all of these counties, excepting Saginaw. In Lapeer 
 
 174. History of Livingston County, 20. 
 
 175. Ibid., 21. ^ ' 
 
 176. Session Laws (1835-36), 77. 
 
 177. March 23, 1836. Ibid., 78. A year before, the settle- 
 
 ments there had been attached for township purposes 
 to Grand Blanc (March 26, 1835). Territorial Laws, 
 III, 1404. 
 
 178. March 2, 1836. Session Laws (1835-36), 67. 
 
 179. July 26, 1836. Ibid., 80. 
 
 180. March 23, 1836, Ibid., 77. 
 
404 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 County the township of Lomond completed the row 
 of townships along the south bordering upon the north- 
 ern townships of Oakland County. -^^^ Another town- 
 ship, Richfield, was added next to the older settle- 
 ments of Genesee County.^^^ The central and north- 
 ern parts of Lapeer County seem still to have been 
 comparatively unsettled. According to the State cen- 
 sus of 1837 the county contained 2,602 people. ^^^ 
 
 On the Saginaw Road in Genesee County the large 
 townships of Flint and Grand Blanc were in 1837 sub- 
 divided, the latter taking the area of a surveyed town- 
 ship and containing by the census more than a fourth 
 of the population of the county, about half as many 
 people as the total of Shiawassee ;^^^ but a comparison 
 with the population of the Flint settlement is only 
 roughly possible on the basis of the census, since that 
 township had exactly six times the area of Grand 
 Blanc.^^^ The third important center of settlement in 
 Genesee County, with double the area of Grand Blanc, 
 
 181. March 11, 1837, Session Laws (1837), 39. 
 
 182. Ibid., 35. 
 
 183. Exclusive of the township of Richfield. The population is 
 
 not given by townships. Michigan Legislative Manual 
 (1838), 71. According to Michigan House Documents, 
 No. 9, (E), 52, the tract of country between Lapeer and 
 the St. Clair River was entirely unsettled. 
 
 184. Grand Blanc, population 691. Its area was reduced by the 
 
 formation of Mundy Township, March 11, 1837. Session 
 Laws (1837), 36. The population of the latter, con- 
 taining double the area of Grand Blanc, was 234. Mich- 
 igan Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 
 
 185. The large township of Flint occupied the center of the 
 
 coimty, having been reduced by the fomiation of Vienna 
 Township at the north. Session Laws (1837), 42. Their 
 populations were respectively 1,288 and 107. Michigan 
 Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 
 
TPIE SAGINAW COUNTRY 405 
 
 contained about two-thirds as many people. ^^'^ The 
 total population of the county was somewhat larger 
 than that of Lapeer on the east, which had double the 
 area; and it was about twice that of Shiawassee on the 
 west, whose area was about its equal. 
 
 If the creation of townships may be taken as an 
 indication, the population of Shiawassee County had 
 increased rapidly within a year, and the relative size 
 of the township suggests that the greater number of 
 people were in the southeast along the river. Two 
 settlements there were of the area of surveyed town- 
 ships.^^" The township of Burns in the southeastern 
 corner included the oldest settled lands in the county, 
 and the township of Vernon^ ^^ immediately above it 
 included the settlement about "Shiawassee town." 
 The remainder of the southern half of the county re- 
 tained the name of the original township, while the 
 northern half was organized as the new township of 
 Owosso.^^'' The population of Shiawassee County was 
 a little more than that of Saginaw, which still had but 
 one township for the whole county, with less than a 
 thousand people. ^^° 
 
 The population of Livingston County by the same 
 census was 5,029,^^^ more than one-half of which was 
 in the southeastern quarter. Settlement was sparsest 
 in the northwest, about equal in the northeast and 
 
 186. Argentine, population 434. Population of the county 2,754. 
 
 Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 
 
 187. Session Laws (1837), 38. 
 
 188. Ibid., 40. 
 
 189. Ibid., 36. 
 
 190. Shiawassee, population 1,184; Saginaw, population 920. 
 
 Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 75. 
 
 191. Ibid., 72. 
 
406 . ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 southwest; nearness to the older settlements in Oak- 
 land and Washtenaw apparently were the chief in- 
 fluences determining this distribution. Before the cen- 
 sus was taken there were formed four new townships ;^"^ 
 but the entire northwestern quarter of the county was 
 left as the township of Howell, which contained the 
 county seat; its population, 442, was probably mainly 
 gathered in its southeastern corner, about the county 
 seat village of Howell. 
 
 192. March 11, 18, 20. Session Laws (1837), 39. 42, 43, 141. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 The Grand River Region 
 
 n^HE first attention given to the Grand River re- 
 gion after the Indian treaty of 1821 looking to- 
 ward agricultural settlement, was in 1829, when Eaton, 
 Barry and Ingham counties were established by the 
 same act of the Territorial legislature as the south- 
 western counties along the Chicago and Territorial 
 roads. ^ Three years later the counties of Ottawa, Kent, 
 Ionia, Clinton, Montcalm and Gratiot received similar 
 attention,- but none of these counties had township 
 organization before 1835 except Kent, of which the 
 part south of the Grand River was organized as Kent 
 Township in 1834.^ The first counties of this section 
 were not organized until 1836-37.'^ 
 
 The original physical conditions of the section were 
 on the whole the same as now with a few changes of 
 consequence in the timbered lands and in the immedi- 
 ate vicinity of important centers of population. The 
 larger part of the soil of Kent County was of the class 
 found in the oak openings.^ About one-third of the 
 
 1. Territorial Laws II, 735. 
 
 2. Ibid., Ill, 871. 
 
 3. Ibid., Ill, 1275. 
 
 4. Kent, March 24, 1836, Session Laws, 65. The two present 
 
 northern tiers of townships were not a part of the county 
 until 1840, Session Laws, 196; Ionia, March 18, 1837, 
 Session Laws, 97; Eaton and Ottawa, December 29, 1837, 
 Session Laws, 9. 
 
 5. Blois, Gazetteer, 226. 
 
408 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 county, mainly the western part, appears to have 
 been heavily forested with black walnut, beech, sugar- 
 maple and white-wood.*^ North of Grand River there 
 was heavy pine which furnished the early supply of 
 tractable wood for the furniture industry at Grand 
 Rapids.^ The early kmibering industry and the slow- 
 ness of agricultural settlement there is seen in the 
 growth of the township of Nelson.^ There appear to 
 have been at least four large Indian clearings in this 
 cotmty, all of them on the Grand River; one at the 
 mouth of the Flat River (Lowell), another at the 
 mouth of the Thornapple (Ada), a third at the rapids 
 of the Grand (Grand Rapids), and a fourth at "Little 
 Prairie" ( Grand ville).° At these points there was early 
 to be found along with the Indian village the trading 
 post of the American Fur Company. 
 
 The primitive environment of Grand Rapids is quite 
 fully given in a well-known recent account. ^° The 
 place presented originally a view that must have been 
 very attractive to settlers ; a valley about a mile and a 
 half in width threaded by the waters of the Grand 
 River was surroimded by forest-clad hills ; the heaviest 
 timber was on the bottom lands; on the higher lands 
 lay the oak openings; pine was interspersed among 
 these timbers at intervals, and among bearers of wild 
 fruit flourished the wild plum tree and the grape 
 vine. 
 
 6. Ibid., 226. Cf. JLvevett, Memorials of the Grand River Val- 
 
 ley, (1878), 41. 
 
 7. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, II, 1036. 
 
 8. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 217. 
 
 9. Ibid., 40; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 215, 216. 
 10. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 18-24. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 409 
 
 Productive gardens have now been made of the 
 neighboring swamps. It is a striking illustration of 
 the marked changes often made in the local environ- 
 ment of large population centers that where the post 
 office now is in Grand Rapids, it is said originally 
 there was a swamp covering about an acre.^^ 
 
 The chief geological feature of the valley at the site 
 of Grand Rapids was the exposure of a large area of 
 subcarboniferous limestone, a ledge of which formed 
 the rapids in the river and created an immense water 
 power.^^ There is said to have been originally between 
 Pearl and Leonard streets about eighteen feet of de- 
 scent in these rapids. ^^ Besides the soil, this water 
 power and the neighboring forests appear to be the 
 strongest factors in the early rapid settlement of 
 Grand Rapids. 
 
 The topography and soil of Ottawa County was 
 formed by sand drifted in from Lake Michigan and by 
 deposits from the Grand River, ^'^ and this general char- 
 acter of the county seems to have been early known 
 in the East. "The country along the eastern branch 
 of Lake Michigan," says the geographer Melish, writ- 
 ing in 1822, "is generally sandy and barren. On the 
 bank of the Grand River, however, there are some of 
 
 11. Ibid., 23. One of the small lakes (Reed's Lake, named for 
 
 Ezra Reed, a settler of about 1834) is now a well-known 
 pleasure resort for the city. Ibid., 166. 
 
 12. Charles A. Whittemore, in Michigan Academy of Science, 
 
 First Report (1894-1899), 62-65. 
 
 13. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 21. 
 
 14. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 21; there is a fairly ac- 
 
 curate popular account of the geology, surface and soil 
 of Ottawa County in the History of Ottawa County, 16-17, 
 26. For a description of the sand dunes of this shore 
 see above. Chapter I. 
 
410 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the finest tracts of farming land in the Territory. "^^ 
 In another report it is observed that the high banks 
 of Grand River disappear a short distance below 
 Grand Rapids, where the country assumes a level sandy 
 surface of from twenty to fifty feet above the lake.^*^ 
 The same report notes also a rich growth of pine and 
 hemlock; extensive oak openings reached several miles 
 back from the river, favoring land transportation — 
 the trees were far enough apart for wagons or loads of 
 hay to pass among them easily. ^^ These descriptions 
 correspond to those given by Blois.^® The site of the 
 first important settlement in the county wotild be ex- 
 pected near the harbor at the mouth of the Grand 
 River. 
 
 The soil of Ionia County is described as a black 
 rich sandy loam, free from stones, naturally arable and 
 fitted for grazing. ^^ The points earliest to attract set- 
 tlers were naturally the Indian clearings at the junc- 
 tions of tributary streams with the Grand River. A 
 clearing near the motith of Prairie Creek was destined 
 to be the site of the city of Ionia^° about two miles 
 from the center of the county. ^^ Its selection seems to 
 have been partially determined by desire to secure the 
 county seat, for there was comparatively little water 
 power at that point; the first mill was built on Prairie 
 
 15. Melish, Geographical Description of the United States, (ed. 
 
 1822), p. 389. 
 
 16. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9 (E), p. 55. 
 
 17. History of Ottawa County, 20. 
 
 18. Blois, Gazetteer, 235. 
 
 19. Ibid., 111. 
 
 20. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 35, 40. 
 
 21. History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 137. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 411 
 
 Creek." Descriptions of the site of Lyons at the 
 mouth of the Maple River suggest that of Grand 
 Rapids, a fertile picturesque valley surrounded by 
 hills overlooking the river, which afforded a fine water 
 power. -'^ As at Grand Rapids, there appears to have 
 been an early trading post at this point. The lands 
 at the mouth of the Lookingglass River also seem to 
 have early attracted traders and settlers.-^ 
 
 The impression which prospective agricultural set- 
 tlers could have derived from Blois' description of 
 Eaton County was not wholly favorable. As to the 
 soil, it is described favorably as in the main a calcare- 
 ous sandy loam with a thick covering of vegetable 
 mould ;-^ but for the timber, he agrees with all early 
 reports of the prospective difficulties for the farmer, 
 that the land was heavily forested excepting a narrow 
 strip at the south. The county lay in a belt of heavy 
 forest which extended through Barry County on the 
 west and Ingham County on the east, and which ma- 
 terially retarded the settlement of those counties as 
 well. A pioneer writer who has told much about early 
 conditions in Eaton Cotmty quotes the report of the 
 commissioners who located the county seat in 1833 as 
 saying, that ''the major part of this county is of the 
 best quality of timbered land, possessing a great variety 
 of soil and timber, generally w^ell watered, and invit- 
 ing to the emigrant who prefers a timbered farm."-° 
 
 22. Ibid., 147. The later manufacturing there seems to have 
 
 received its first impulse with the introduction of steam 
 power about 1850. 
 
 23. Ibid., 237. 
 
 24. The site of the present village of Portland. 
 
 25. Blois, Gazetteer, 219. 
 
 26. Edward W. Barber, in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 344. 
 
412 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 A narrow strip of oak openings extended across the 
 southern end of the county below the heavily tim- 
 bered area. The site of Bellevue lay at its northern 
 edge on Battle Creek at a point favored with a degree 
 of water power, -^ A second opening into the timber 
 was in the southeast near the site of Eaton Rapids. ^^ 
 The few openings in the forest were among the first 
 spots to attract settlers. The site of Charlotte near 
 the center of the county was on a beautiful prairie of 
 nearly a section of land, a favorite planting ground of 
 the Indians where many trails crossed. ^^ Vermont ville 
 Township, where was founded an important New Eng- 
 land colony, is said to have resembled parts of the 
 Champlain Valley of Vermont, and its selection for a 
 Vermont settlement appears to have been influenced 
 by this circumstance. ^° Building material besides tim- 
 ber was furnished by a quarry of sandstone in the 
 northeastern part of the county and by an abundant 
 deposit of limestone in the vicinity of Bellevue. ^^ 
 
 Among the instructions to the agents of a colony 
 from Rochester, New York, which settled in Clinton 
 County in 1836 it is suggested, "Yotimay be stiited on 
 the Thorn Apple River. We learn that there is a 
 valuable tract of land near the center of Barry County ;" 
 the agents later reported, "Went to Barry County. 
 We went but soon returned. Got satisfied that it was 
 
 27. Ihid., Ill, 385; XXIX, 345. 
 
 28. Ihid., XXIX, 385. 
 
 29. Ibid., XXIX, 365. 
 
 30. Ihid., XXIX, 382. 
 
 31. In later days the mineral springs at Eaton Rapids gained 
 
 for that place a considerable reputation. Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., Ill, 427. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 413 
 
 too heavily timbered, and rough, broken land, for us."^^ 
 The heavy timber appears to have been as in Eaton 
 County mainly in the northern and eastern parts, the 
 west being quite open. The sites of Yankee Springs 
 and Middleville were in the oak openings^^ and the 
 name of the present southwestern township of Prairie- 
 ville bears witness to the original open character of 
 that neighborhood. Its openness is further shown by 
 the numerous lakelets of that region characteristic of 
 extensive oak openings. The principal source of water 
 power in Barry County was the Thornapple and its 
 branches, to which was due largely the comparatively 
 early dates of settlement at Middleville and Hastings. 
 
 The early physical environment of Clinton County 
 was characterized by a comparatively level surface, 
 good soil, extensive forests, and excellent water power 
 on the Grand, the Maple and the Lookingglass.^^ In 
 the water power is found the main explanation of the 
 first settlements made in the county. The landscape 
 at the junction of the Grand and the Prairie rivers, a 
 site of one of the earliest settlements, is said to have 
 been impressive in its beauty. Portions of the county, 
 especially the southeast, appear to have had originally 
 much swamp land. 
 
 Another heavily timbered area of this section was 
 Ingham County, which however had many plains and 
 openings. The water power was good, especially at 
 
 32. Ibid., V, 330; History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 
 
 424. 
 
 33. History of Allegan and Barry Counties (1880), 486, 514; 
 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 303. 
 
 34. Blois, Gazetteer, 218; History of Shiawassee and Clinton 
 
 Counties, 331, 403, 405. 
 
414 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the site of Lansing. Its soil was much Hke that of 
 the adjacent counties. Near Lansing the land was 
 comparatively level and the soil was a sandy and 
 clayey loam. In places there was clay enough for 
 making bricks; quantities of marl could be found in 
 the lowlands; sand and' gravel were plentiful; the 
 boulder drift furnished building stone and the soil was 
 excellent for cereals and fruits. But the heavy timber 
 caused the country to be long without actual settlers. 
 Probably the earliest accounts of the Grand River 
 region that gained the attention of intending agricul- 
 tural settlers in the East were those emanating from 
 the United States surveyors. ^^ A Detroit paper of 
 1826 mentions the return of Lucius Lyon from a four 
 months' surveying expedition through that region and 
 gives a brief description of the lands about the rapids 
 of the Grand River. Doubtless some vague reports 
 may have emanated from the Indian mission which 
 was located at these rapids, or from the furtraders. 
 The early gazeteers consulted in the East, especially 
 those of Melish, showed a general knowledge of the 
 region that was fairly accurate. Some accounts were 
 detrimentally misrepresentative of the whole of the in- 
 terior of Michigan. But the Grand River region seems 
 to have been thought distant and unpromising as com- 
 pared with lands on the south and east, which were 
 not only easier to reach but nearer to growing markets 
 and developing lines of transportation. 
 
 35. Michigan Herald, April 26, 1826. Antedating these reports 
 by some years the "vSciawassa Exploring Party" seems 
 to have visited the Grand River country. See their 
 proposed itinerary in the Detroit Gazette for October 5, 
 1821, and their Journal in the same paper for November 9, 
 1821, and subsequent issues. 
 
I ^ S 
 I .^ § 
 
 n_ g, I-; 
 
 CO 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 415 
 
 The earliest actual investigation made by a pros- 
 pector who contemplated settlement in the Grand 
 River region appears to be that reported in the De- 
 troit Journal and Michigan Advertiser for November 9, 
 1831. This practical farmer, purporting to have been 
 a resident some ten years in the Territory and well 
 acquainted with it, is quoted as follows: "The land 
 adjoining it [the Grand River] is exceedingly fertile, 
 abounding with prairies of the richest alluvial soil. 
 The largest corn I ever saw was that raised by the 
 Indians on these prairies. Many himdred farms might 
 be conducted here, all of the best kind, and there 
 would be but little choice. A gentleman who is now 
 surveying the country and who is extensively ac- 
 quainted in almost every part of the Territory accords 
 with me in the opinion that the Grand River country, 
 taking all its advantages into consideration, is the 
 finest portion of our new Territory." 
 
 The routes taken by pioneers to the Grand River 
 region were principally four; the so-called "Northern 
 Route," the Grand River Road, the Territorial Road 
 and the Great Lakes. The "Northern Route," ex- 
 tended from Pontiac westward across Shiawassee, Clin- 
 ton and Ionia counties. ^"^ Though its difficulties pre- 
 vented it from being the usual line of travel to and from 
 the Grand River region, it appears to have been the 
 earliest taken, a choice showing the closeness of rela- 
 tion between the Grand and the Saginaw valleys in the 
 minds of pioneers. The short portage between the trib- 
 utaries of the two river systems seems to have been 
 early known, as appears for example in the projected 
 
 36. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 34. 
 
416 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 itinerary of the "Sciawassa Exploring Company" in 
 1821." The exploration of 1831 reached the Grand 
 by way of the Lookingglass.^® The founder of the 
 Ionia colony probably took a route near to this in 
 1832. According to an account left by his daughter,^ ^ 
 he led his colonists from Detroit northward over the 
 Saginaw Road to Pontiac, thence to the present village 
 of Corunna; from which place, says another account, 
 they hewed the way for their oxteams through the 
 forest to the Grand.'^° John Ball, a prominent early 
 settler of Grand Rapids, is said to have passed over 
 this route in 1836, finding it a day's journey from 
 house to house between Ionia and Pontiac."*^ The 
 eastern part of this route was the natural one for the 
 early settlers of Clinton County,^ ^ though its first set- 
 tlers, who are said to have come from Ann Arbor, ap- 
 parently moved northward directly across the inter- 
 vening country. "^^ 
 
 The middle route, along the Indian trail through 
 Ingham and Livingston counties, appears to have been 
 used little by settlers in reaching the Grand River 
 
 37. Detroit Gazette, October 5, 1821. 
 
 38. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, November 9, 1831. 
 
 39. Mrs. Pmdence Tower, in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 146. 
 
 40. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 470, following the Detroit Post and 
 
 Tribune of June 1, 1878. An Indian trail passed through 
 the site of Lyons and the company was piloted by a 
 French trader, who, it might be supposed, would fol- 
 low it. 
 
 41. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 117. The line traveled by 
 
 these pioneers seeins to have been approximately that 
 surveyed in 1837 for the Northern Railroad {Michigan 
 House Documents (1837), No. 9 (E), 50-54), and now 
 traversed by the Grand Tnmk Railroad. 
 
 42. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 394, 424, 
 
 43. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVII, 410. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 417 
 
 region before 1837. It was the shortest route, but it 
 appears to have passed for much of its distance through 
 heavy forests. It is said that the first wagon to pass 
 through the region west of Howell was that of an 
 Eaton County settler of 1836 who apparently took the 
 line of this trail. ■^■^ A pioneer gives a reminiscence of a 
 trip from Detroit to White Oak, Ingham County, in 
 1836 that is not flattering to the conditions of travel at 
 that time in the vicinity of this road."*^ 
 
 The route which was by far the most commonly used 
 to reach the region of the Grand River was the Terri- 
 torial Road, extending westward from Ann Arbor 
 through the counties of Jackson, Calhoun and Kala- 
 mazoo. Settlers branched off at the principal settle- 
 ments on this road at Jackson, Marshall, Battle Creek 
 and Kalamazoo, and followed the Indian trails or 
 threaded the openings. The earliest settlers went west 
 as far as Gull and Goguac prairies before turning north- 
 ward. The men who came to work on the canal at 
 Grand Rapids in 1835 floated their families and sup- 
 plies thither from Jackson down the Grand River in 
 fiat bottomed scows; many settlers are said to have 
 come later that way.^*^ The first entrance into Eaton 
 County was apparently made through the openings 
 about the site of Bellevue.'*^ Later, settlers left the 
 
 44. Michigan Biographies, 58. 
 
 45. Past and Present of Lansing and Ingham County, 9-20; 
 
 from an article in the Ingham County News, April 5 and 
 12, 1872. The Temtorial Road was followed as far as 
 Ann Arbor. For a similar trip in 1838, see Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., I, 189-190. 
 
 46. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, II, 886. 
 
 47. History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 351; Mich, Hist. 
 
 Colls,, III, 385; XXXI, 187. 
 53 
 
418 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 road at Jackson and entered at the southeastern cor- 
 ner of the county through the more heavily wooded 
 lands near the site of Eaton Rapids. An Indian trail 
 led from Marshall through Bellevue and Vermontville 
 to lonia.'^^ For teams, the forest north of Bellevue was 
 almost impenetrable; in 1835 some forty settlers at 
 Bellevue and Marshall subscribed $150 to cut a road 
 over this trail; the work appears not to have gotten 
 at that time beyond the site of Vermontville. The set- 
 tlement of Vermontville in 1836 again emphasized the 
 need of this road and by combined efforts it was con- 
 tinued to Ionia. ■^^ It was over the southern part of 
 this road that the first post route in Eaton County 
 was CvStablished between Bellevue and Marshall. ^° The 
 earliest relations of Eaton Rapids and Charlotte with 
 the settlements southward seem to have been through 
 Jackson; those of Ionia, Vermontville and Bellevue 
 were apparently made through Marshall. ^^ 
 
 The site of Grand Rapids was reached first from the 
 south through the western part of Barry County. An 
 Indian trail from the Potawatomi village at- Kalama- 
 zoo led through Gull Prairie to the site of Yankee 
 Springs, thence to Indian Middle Village and down the 
 Thornapple River to its mouth at the site of Ada, where 
 it connected with the trail along the Grand River 
 through the sites of Ionia, Grand Rapids and Grand 
 
 48. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 20. 
 
 49. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 385. 
 
 50. Ibid., Ill, 384. John Ball, who returned from Detroit to 
 
 Ionia in 1836 by the northern route as stated above 
 made the going part of his journey over the southern 
 route. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 117. 
 
 51. Bellevue was first settled through the activities of Marshall 
 
 men. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 419 
 
 Haven. °- This route through the open country ap- 
 pears to have been the one that was usually taken by 
 settlers on leaving the Territorial Road at Battle 
 Creek or Kalamazoo for Grand Rapids. ^^ The first 
 team to arrive at Grand Rapids with immigrants seems 
 to have come over this route from Gull Prairie, '^^ and 
 the first stage line from Grand Rapids to the Terri- 
 torial Road appears to have followed the same to 
 Battle Creek. ^^ From Yankee Springs, lines of travel 
 branched off eastward to Hastings and westward to 
 Otsego and Allegan; the Indian trail to Grand Rapids 
 by way of Green Lake and Gaines was sometimes 
 followed. ""^ 
 
 The time consumed in traversing these several land 
 routes necessarily varied, depending on the season, the 
 condition of the roads, the means of conveyance and 
 
 52. History of Barry County, 33. 
 
 53. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 34, 37. 
 
 54. History of Kent County, 218. According to Goss, the first 
 
 teams to enter the Grand River Valley by way of Middle- 
 ville came in 1832 to Grand ville. History of Grand 
 Rapids, I, 611. It is not stated whether these settlers 
 came through Ada and Grand Rapids. In 1833 wagons 
 loaded with provisions were driven to Grand Rapids 
 across Gull Prairie by settlers of Sturgis in St. Joseph 
 County. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 520. The builder 
 of the first mill at Grand Rapids came in the same year 
 by that route. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 289. The Ionia 
 colony secured supplies from Gull Prairie, bringing them 
 by wagon to the site of Middleville and from there in 
 boats down the Thomapple and up the Grand River. 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 562. 
 
 55. History of Barry County, 514; Goss, History of Grand Rapids, 
 
 I, 615. 
 
 56. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 34; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 XXVI, 303. A trail led to Grand Rapids from Allegan 
 b}^ wav of Byron. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 
 34, 37. 
 
420 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 many individual circumstances. The colonists led by 
 Dexter over the northern route in 1833 are said to 
 have been sixteen days in going with oxteams from 
 Detroit to Ionia, but part of their time was consumed 
 in cutting a way through heavy timber.^'' To take 
 thirty days to go to Detroit and return seems not to 
 have been thought extraordinary in the winter of 
 1836,^^ though under favorable conditions the round 
 trip seems to have been possible in less than one-half 
 of that time.^^ 
 
 The water route around by the Great Lakes and the 
 Grand River was longer than any of the land routes 
 and seems to have been favored mainly for the trans- 
 portation of supplies. Yet settlers are said to have 
 come to the Grand River region by that way as late 
 as 1837.^° In 1833 the goods of the first settlers at 
 Ionia were sent around by the Lakes f^ the first print- 
 ing press reached Grand Rapids by that route, being 
 brought up from Grand Haven on the ice by dog 
 sleds. *'^ It is said that the early merchants of Ionia 
 used to figure that it cost less to get their goods over 
 the whole distance of the Lakes from New York to 
 the mouth of the Grand River than it did to bring 
 them from that point to lonia.^^ As settlement in- 
 
 57. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 370. 
 
 58. History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 141. 
 
 59. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 102; Memorials of the Grand 
 
 River Valley, 37. These accounts appear to refer to the 
 Territorial Road. 
 
 60. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 438; IX, 282. 
 
 61. Ibid., XIV, 560; XXVIII, 147. 
 
 62. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, II, 900. The load broke 
 
 through into the river but the press was later recovered. 
 
 63. History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 145. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 421 
 
 creased, the primitive means of transportation on the 
 river were succeeded by steamboats; in 1837, and for 
 several years afterwards, a single steamboat running 
 triweekly between Grand Rapids and Grand Haven 
 appears to have sufficed for the needs of trade and 
 passenger traffic.^'* 
 
 The beginning of settlement in the lower Grand 
 River Valley was in one respect like that in south- 
 western Michigan in that the first nucleus of civiliza- 
 tion there was a Baptist mission and a trading post; 
 these were located near the two Indian villages at the 
 rapids of the Grand River, ^^ The Carey Mission in 
 Berrien County and that on the Grand River were 
 both the direct results of the Chicago Indian treaty 
 of 1821.'^'' Their purpose in so far as it affected settle- 
 ment is expressed in the instructions given by Lewis 
 Cass to the missionary Isaac McCoy in 1822 — to make 
 the Indians friendly to the Government and to the set- 
 tlers and to protect them from the sale of whiskey." 
 In the same year in which preparations were made to 
 establish these missions John Scares, of New York City, 
 was appointed to visit the Grand River and select a 
 site for the mission; and between 1823 and 1826 Isaac 
 McCoy of the Carey Mission made several visits to 
 
 64. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, II, 893. 
 
 65. A Catholic mission was established there in 1833, by 
 
 Frederic Baraga. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 81, 
 90; II, 1240. In 1825, and later, provisions were 
 brought from the Carey mission by lake and river. 
 Goss, History of Grand Rapids, 1, 49. 
 
 66. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 47. 
 
 67. Ibid., I, 177. Scares seems to have selected a site some- 
 
 where above Grand Rapids on the river. 
 
422 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the region. ^^ The lack of immediate success on the 
 Grand River was owing to the attitude of the Indians, 
 who at times, influenced by whiskey which they prob- 
 ably secured from the traders, were unfriendly; they 
 are said to have burned the blacksmith shop in 1824.'^^ 
 In was not until 1827 when Leonard Slater and his 
 wife came to take charge of the mission that the en- 
 terprise can be regarded as firmly established. McCoy 
 reports that the mission was "in a state of dilapida- 
 tion" at the time of his visit in 1829.^° The presence 
 of Slater and his wife, however, who are said to have 
 been cultured people of strong character and whose 
 work there covered the remainder of the Territorial 
 period, could not but have been a wholesome influence 
 for the early settlement of the place. "^ 
 
 68. Ihid., I, 47, 48, 49, 77; McCoy, History of the Baptist Indian 
 
 Missions, 292. 
 
 69. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 48. 
 
 70. McCoy, Indian Missions, 390. 
 
 71. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, 1,81; the mission lands after 
 
 the Indian treaty of 1836 were sold and the proceeds 
 divided, the Baptists receiving $12,000 and the Catholics 
 $8,000. According to a writer in the Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXV, 142, Leonard Slater was bom in Worcester, Mass- 
 achusetts, being on his mother's side of Scotch parentage. 
 His father is said to have been a member of the Boston 
 Tea Party, and his uncle the Slater who established the 
 first cotton mill at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The 
 birthplace of his wife is given by this writer as Claremont, 
 New Hampshire. Goss gives it as Vermont. History of 
 Grand Rapids, I, 78. The family had come to the Carey 
 mission the year before their advent to the Grand River 
 mission, and removed with the latter after the Indian 
 treaty of 1836 to Barry County. See also Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., IV, 288 and Hist, of Kent County, \11 . In 1852 
 Slater removed to Kalamazoo. In the Civil War he 
 served as a hospital nurse, dying in 1866. Goss, History 
 of Grand Rapids, I, 80. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 423 
 
 The fur. trade seems to have been prosecuted in the 
 Grand River Valley at least as early as 1796; after the 
 War of 1812 the earliest of the traders were Rix Robin- 
 son and Louis Campau. The latter was a native of 
 Detroit, who established a post at the rapids on the 
 Grand at about the same time as the beginning of the 
 Baptist mission and became a permanent and influen- 
 tial settler of Grand Rapids. "- 
 
 Until the year 1833 the only white people who had 
 come to the site of Grand Rapids or to any part of the 
 lower Grand River Valley were the traders and the 
 missionaries. The first land entered from the Grand 
 River Valley appears to have been that taken up on 
 the site of Grand Rapids in 1831 by the trader Louis 
 Campau. '^^ A small mission sawmill was built there in 
 1832, and in the same year a postoffice was estab- 
 lished of which the missionary Slater was the first 
 postmaster. '^^ In 1832 there were nine log cabins in 
 the vicinity, built probabl}^ by the traders. ^^ 
 
 72. He had formerly been employed by Detroit merchants to 
 
 trade with the Indians in the Saginaw Valley. Goss, 
 History of Grand Rapids, I, 74. There is a portrait of 
 Campau as a frontispiece in Baxter's History of Grand 
 Rapids. The family name is borne b^- the present Cam- 
 pau Square in Grand Rapids. See History of Muskegon 
 and Ottawa Counties, 19-20, for a copy of Louis Campau's 
 license as an Indian trader, signed in 1822 by William 
 Woodbridge. An account of Campau's fur trading is 
 given on pp. 23f, of the same work. 
 
 73. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 82. 
 
 74. Ibid., I, 79, 564. 
 
 75. Ihid., I, 70. In Baxter's History of Grand Rapids (p. 52), 
 
 there is an apparently authentic sketch of the Indian 
 village, mission and trading post as they were in that 
 year. Goss' description in History of Grand Rapids, 
 606-607, is apparently made from this sketch. 
 
424 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 With the year 1833 there began a period of rapid 
 growth in the settlement of Grand Rapids which 
 lasted until the financial crisis of 1837.^^ In 1833 vil- 
 lage lots sold for $25 which brotight $560 two years 
 later. ^^ Two noteworthy impulses to settlement took 
 place in 1833, the platting of the rival villages of Grand 
 Rapids and Kent"^ and the accession of three families 
 from the group recently established at Ionia. ^^ In that 
 year there appear to have been at Grand Rapids rep- 
 resentatives of nine white families. ^° By the follow- 
 ing year a gristmill was built, a second sawmill, and 
 the first frame house. ^^ 
 
 In the years 1835-37 the population of Grand Rapids 
 is estimated to have increased from about 100 to 1,000 
 people. ^^ The Detroit Daily Free Press for June 3, 
 
 76. This new impulse to Grand Rapids' settlement was about 
 
 contemporary with that at Chicago and Milwaukee. 
 
 77. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 599. 
 
 78. By Loms Campau and Lucius Lyon, Government surveyors. 
 
 Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 2. 
 
 79. History of Kent County, 218. See letter of Joel Guild, dated 
 
 at Grand Rapids, December i3, 1833, to his brother and 
 sister. He was from West Winfield, Herkimer County, 
 New York. 
 
 80. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVHI, 520. At the first township meet- 
 
 ing April 4, 1834, nine votes were cast. Goss, History of 
 Grand Rapids, I, 244. 
 
 81. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, 564, 571; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 IV, 289. This house was built by Joel Guild, who came 
 in 1833. The lumber was sawed by the old mission mill. 
 This building served both as a dwelling and as the first 
 public inn. See Baxter's History of Grand Rapids, 
 (p. 761), for the style of frame houses in 1834. 
 
 82. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 11. Blois, Gazetteer, 
 
 294. Goss considers 1,000 people a great exaggeration. 
 History of Grand Rapids, I, 98. John Ball's estimate for 
 1837 is about 500. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 
 37. There seems to have been no careful census taken 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 426 
 
 1836, estimates the population at about 500. The 
 alleged advantages of the site were then rapidly gain- 
 ing publicity. In the first number of The Grand River 
 Times, which was published at Grand Rapids April 18, 
 
 1837, there appeared an article headed, "The Rochester 
 of Michigan, "^^ in which the following claims upon 
 the attention of settlers have significance. The site is 
 first mentioned as a favorite with the Indians and the 
 Indian traders; then comes a notice of the abundant 
 water power, then facilities for steam navigation on the 
 river, the prospect of a canal to connect lake naviga- 
 tion directly with Detroit, and easy connections with 
 Chicago and Milwaukee ; the excellence and abundance 
 of timber and stone for building, the many natural 
 springs, the purity of the water, and the fertility of 
 the soil, follow; a description of the village is given, 
 noting the extensive improvements already made, and 
 the rising value of property; the healthfulness of the 
 climate appears to have been regarded as a fitting 
 climax. A report to the State legislature in 1837 de- 
 clares, "This part of the country is being settled 
 rapidly. The village of Kent is already an important 
 point, and possesses many natural advantages, which 
 is an earnest of its future augmentation in business 
 
 82. Con. until 1845. The Constitution of 1835 gave one rep- 
 
 resentative to the counties of Ottawa, Kent, Ionia, and 
 CHnton. John Ball's estimate places the number of 
 voters in that district in the fall of 1837 at between 700 
 and 800. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 214. ^ 
 
 83. There is a copy of this number of the Grand River Times 
 
 in the Grand Rapids Public Library. The article men- 
 tioned is quoted in the Memorials of the Grand River 
 Valley, 12-13. See also a notice of Grand Rapids in the 
 Detroit Daily Free Press for June 3, 1836, which is 
 claimed to be quoted from the Adrian Watchtower. 
 
426 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 and population. "^^ Blois notes that the village is the 
 seat of justice for Kent County, with "a church for 
 Catholics, a printing ofhce that issues a weekly paper, 
 two banking associations, court house, twelve stores 
 erected or erecting, three commodious hotels, four 
 practicing physicians and six lawyers. "^^ 
 
 The improvement of the water power on the Grand 
 River at this point seems to have begun in ISSS.^*^ It 
 first received legislative attention in 1836.^'^ The com- 
 pilers of the House Document referred to, speak of the 
 extensive water power, the navigability of the river and 
 the fertile character of the lands, in view of which they 
 consider this a conspicuous location for "a very large 
 manufacturing town." Apparently a knowledge of the 
 water power on the Grand River had made a definite 
 impression on some minds at Rochester, New York; a 
 part of the instructions of the Ionia colony to their 
 agents in 1836 observes, "The Grand River is said 
 to embrace water privileges which must be of great 
 value. Look well to the village of Grand Rapids, 
 and the country south of it; for that place must be of 
 
 84. Michigan House Documents, 1837, No. 9 (E), 54. 
 
 85. Blois, Gazetteer, 292. Baxter's History of Grand Rapids 
 
 (pp. 762-763), contains pictures of residences of this 
 period, two of which were built by well-to-do citizens 
 in 1837. See John Ball's description of the houses and 
 people of this time, in Goss' History of Grand Rapids, I, 
 118. 
 
 86. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 608. The dam is said not 
 
 to have been finished until 1849, and the canal on the 
 east side not until 1850. 
 
 87. Session Laws (1835-36), 105. Act of March 4 to authorize 
 
 the building of a dam across the river. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 427 
 
 importance. "^^ The first mills at Grand Rapids were 
 built on neighboring creeks. In 1836-37 there was in 
 process of erection on the Grand River a mill known 
 as the "Mammoth Mill," which is said to have been 
 the largest and most expensive mill in the western 
 states. ^^ The manufacture of furniture appears to have 
 begun on a small scale at about this time.^° 
 
 The demands of trade were naturally miscellaneous 
 and small. Provisions were very high in 1836-37 ; from 
 a contemporary letter it appears that in the winter of 
 1836 fiour was $15 per barrel, oats $1, potatoes $1.25, 
 pork $14.00 per hundred pounds, butter $.37|, and 
 other things in proportion; board was $4.50 a week.^^ 
 Money was plentiful but most of it was spent for land. 
 The high prices of 1837 were owing partly to the dis- 
 tance of transporting the goods, but mainly they were 
 due to the scarcity of coin and the depreciation of 
 bank mediums of exchange that affected all parts of the 
 country. 
 
 In 1836 came the apparent opportunity of the ori- 
 
 88. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 330. It is added: "We have heard 
 
 that a railroad has been laid out from that place to 
 Monroe." 
 
 89. Blois, Gazetteer, 293. He says it was five stories high, the 
 
 first two stories being of stone. Both lumber and flour 
 were to be made by it. Blois states that it would cost 
 when completed about $50,000. Goss says that in 1837 
 eight sawmills were in operation within a circle of eight 
 miles around Grand Rapids, cutting an average of 
 3,000,000 feet of hnnber a year. History of Grand 
 Rapids, I, 565. 
 
 90. History of Kent County, 274. Before 1850, according to 
 
 Goss, there were only three important furniture factories 
 in Grand Rapids. Goss, Hist, of Grand Rapids, II, 
 1045. 
 
 91. Ibid., I, 137. 
 
428 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 ginal proprietors of the village to amass great wealth. 
 Lots are said to have sold at $50 a foot on Canal and 
 Kent streets.^- But recklessness of speculation in the 
 Grand River Valley brought profits to naught. A good 
 illustration is furnished by the experience of Antoine 
 Campau, which does not appear to have been unusual ; 
 for a piece of land which he had bought he was offered 
 successively $100, $300, $500, $800 and upward; he is 
 quoted as saying: ''I thought if it was worth so much 
 to them, it was worth so much to me. But finally I 
 offered to sell. Then the value dropped and every 
 offer was lower than before. Finally I was offered 
 $300, and thought I would go down and see the place. 
 When I got there I couldn't see it. I asked everybody 
 where it was, and hired a friend to look it up I 
 could not find it, he could not find it, the record could 
 not find it, nobody could find it — it was under more 
 than twenty feet of water. "^^ It appears to have been 
 located well out in Lake Michigan. Few of those who 
 received enormous sums for their Grand Rapids lands 
 got rich, because most of them reinvested their money 
 in other lands and in the following year land was a 
 drug on the market. 
 
 The financial panic, which began to be felt in De- 
 troit as early as June, 1837, was not long in affecting 
 
 92. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 95. According to Goss, all 
 
 the lands of the village east of the river were bought 
 before 1836, those on the west side not being for sale 
 until after the extinction of the Indian title and the 
 pubHc surveys. The earliest patent granted on the west 
 side was in 1839. History of Grand Rapids, I, 85. See 
 for plat of village in 1836, Baxter's History of Grand 
 Rapids, XIV. 
 
 93. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 98. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 429 
 
 conditions in the Grand River Valley. John Ball,^* 
 who was in Detroit just before and after the crash 
 came, reports that though in April all seemed to 
 promise well, by June "faces had so changed that one 
 could hardly recognize his acquaintances; and it was 
 taken as an insult for one to speak of land opera- 
 tions."^^ 
 
 The population of Grand Rapids in 1836-37 was 
 made up chiefly of mechanics, land speculators, and 
 the French who had come there through the influence 
 of Louis Campau.^*^ As sources of the American popu- 
 lation, mention is oftenest made of the states of New 
 
 94. John Ball's activities furnish a good illustration of land 
 
 buying at this time and in the years following. He came 
 to Michigan in 1836 as an agent of parties in Troy, New 
 York, though his contract permitted him to invest in 
 the lands of any nonslaveholding State in the West, 
 he to receive one-fourth of the profits. At Detroit he 
 was directed to the Grand River country. It seems to 
 be the unanimous testimony of writers on that region 
 that he did more for the early settlement of Grand 
 Rapids and vicinity than any other one man. See his 
 extensive narrative of early experiences in Memorials of 
 the Grand River Valley, 13ff. This narrative is incom- 
 pletely quoted in Goss' History of Grand Rapids, I, 113. 
 Baxter's History of Grand Rapids, (112, 113), contains 
 a biographical sketch and portrait of Mr. Ball. See also 
 Michigan Biographies, p. 64, for his public career in 
 Michigan. 
 
 95. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 23, 42, 43. There 
 
 appears to have been more speculation in the vicinity 
 of Grand Rapids than at Ionia. Ibid., 34. In a settler's 
 letter written from Grand Rapids in the winter of 1836, 
 qvioted by Goss, the writer says, "I have had more silver 
 and gold in my house this winter than a pair of horses 
 could draw." History of Grand Rapids, I. 137. 
 
 96. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 34; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 XXVIII, 95; Detroit Daily Free Press, June 3, 1836. 
 
430 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 York, Vermont and Connecticut.^^ About 1837 the 
 troubles which culminated in the so-called "Patriot 
 War" seem to have caused a considerable immigration 
 to the Grand River Valley. ^^ 
 
 Religious and cultural institutions were even at this 
 early day not neglected. A school district was organ- 
 ized for Grand Rapids and its vicinity in 1835, and in 
 that year was opened the first school that was ex- 
 clusively for white children."^ A branch of the Uni- 
 versity had been located there. In 1835 the Ohio con- 
 ference of the Methodist church indicated the chief 
 available centers for religious instruction at that time 
 in establishing preaching stations along the Grand 
 River at Grand Rapids, Ionia, Portland, Grandville and 
 Grand Haven. ^°^ New England traditions appear in 
 the establishment of a Congregational Society at Grand 
 Rapids in 1836.^°^ Despite the early Baptist mission 
 and the labors of the Methodists and the Presbyter- 
 
 97. See in particular Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 37. 
 
 The county was named for the jurist, Chancellor Kent, 
 of New York. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 214; Goss, History 
 of Grand Rapids, I, 486. 
 
 98. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 25. See for names of 
 
 prominent early settlers of Grand Rapids, Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., IV, 293; V, 438; XXXV, 87-106. 
 
 99. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 319-320. A frame school- 
 
 house was not built until 1839. Ibid., II, 1124. 
 
 100. At Grand Rapids the first Methodist Society was estab- 
 
 lished in 1835-36, but the first Church building, the 
 Division Street Methodist Church, was dedicated in 
 1843. Ibid., II, 1127. 
 
 101. Ibid., II, 1145. The property of the Park Congregational 
 
 Church was bought by that society in 1831. Ibid., II, 
 1147. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 431 
 
 ians, the Congregational element seems to have been 
 predominant in Grand Rapids in 1837 .^^"^ 
 
 There were in 1837 very few white settlers in Kent 
 County outside of Grand Rapids and its immediate 
 neighborhood. The most promising points for villages 
 seem to have been Grand ville, Ada, and Lowell. For 
 Grandville, which was located some miles below the 
 Rapids of the Grand, Blois records an estimation of 
 about 200 people, and from his account it must have 
 been considered a brisk rival of Grand Rapids. ^'^^ Ada, 
 at the junction of the Grand and the Thornapple, is 
 mentioned by Blois as containing a postoffice and a 
 few inhabitants. ^"^^ He does not mention Lowell, but 
 this place seems to have received settlers in 1835-36.^°^ 
 The first settlers in this vicinity came from Scipio, 
 New York, in ISSG}''"" 
 
 In 1833, the same year in which Grand Rapids re- 
 
 102. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 438; Blois mentions besides the 
 
 Catholic Church onl}^ the Presbyterians and the Epis- 
 copaHans as having "organized churches and settled 
 ministers." Gazetteer, 292. 
 
 103. Blois, Gazetteer, 296. He mentions a postoffice, seven saw 
 
 mills, three stores, one hotel, two smitheries, a sash 
 factory, a warehouse, several mechanic shops, two 
 lawyers, and a physician. The date of first settlement 
 is given as 1835. 
 
 104. Ibid., 245. He mentions also, under the name of Erie, 
 
 what appears to have been a rival village near the same 
 site. Ibid., 284. Ada was the site of a trading post 
 established in 1821 by Rix Robinson who became a 
 prominent pioneer of the Grand River Valley, and later 
 a State senator from Kent County. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 IV, 288; Memorials oj the Grand River Valley, 111. For 
 his public career see Michigan Biographies, 559. 
 
 105. See History of Lowell, in the appendix to Baxter's History 
 
 of Grand Rapids, 798. 
 105a. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 210. 
 
432 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 ceived its first marked stimulation to white settlement, 
 a colony of sixty-three persons settled at Ionia. ^°^ It 
 comprised six families, together with a few adult single 
 persons, under the leadership of Samuel Dexter. Dex- 
 ter was a native of Rhode Island, had served in the 
 legislature of his adopted State, New York, and was 
 destined to become a leading pioneer in the Grand 
 River Valley. ^"^ In 1832 by the aid of an Indian guide 
 from Detroit he located the site of Ionia, then a resort 
 of Indians and traders. It is said that Dexter would 
 have preferred the site where Lyons is had it not been 
 previously taken. ^°^ In the spirit of Roger Williams, 
 Dexter purchased the rights of the Indians in the crops 
 they had planted at the vsite of Ionia, and their five 
 bark wigwams made the first shelter of the colony. ^°^ 
 This appears not to have been a formally organized 
 colony lilve those at Vermontville in Eaton County and 
 Duplain in Clinton Coimty but simply a band of inde- 
 pendent settlers. They came to the site of Ionia on 
 the representations of Mr. Dexter, selecting indepen- 
 dently their own land after their arrival. ^^° The 
 nucleus of the band, starting from Frankfurt village in 
 Herkimer County, New York, gathered others on 
 their way to Michigan, particularly at Utica and at 
 Syracuse. ^^^ The hymn of thanksgiving which was 
 
 106. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 193; V, 326; IX, 234; XXVIII, 147. 
 
 107. Michigan Biographies, 227. This was not Samuel W. 
 
 Dexter for whom a village is named in Washtenaw 
 County. So far as the writer can learn there was no 
 relation between these two settlements. 
 
 108. History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 137. 
 
 109. Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 560; XXVIII, 146. 
 
 110. Ibid., XIV, 562. 
 
 111. Ibid., XXVIII, 145. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 433 
 
 composed and sung on their arrival at the site of Ionia 
 reflects the deep reHgious nature of these settlers. ^^^ 
 
 Settlement in this neighborhood increased gradually 
 during the years 1834-35. In 1836 as a result of the 
 Indian treaty the Kalamazoo land district was sub- 
 divided and a land office was opened at Ionia in view 
 of the need of a more convenient point for settlers to 
 enter land purchased in the Grand River Valley. ^^^ 
 The flow of land seekers and speculators to that center 
 is described as resembling the stir of a country village 
 in fair time. Many applicants are said to have waited 
 weeks for the chance to make their entry at the land 
 office. ^^^ Money was plentiful, trade flourished and 
 taverns did a profitable business."^ However, it is 
 commonly said that the establishment of the land 
 office at Ionia was in the long run unfortunate for 
 both the village and the county. On the tide of im- 
 migration came many poor men who were unprovided 
 with specie, but who if they could have obtained it 
 on favorable terms would soon have added to the 
 wealth of the county the products of industrious home 
 
 112. A copy of this hvmn appears in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 
 
 147. 
 
 113. Dexter had been obliged to go to White Pigeon in St. 
 
 Joseph County to enter his original purchase. History 
 of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 137. An item in the 
 Detroit Daily Advertiser of September 9, 1836, setting 
 the event for October, gave intending purchasers a 
 month's notice of this greater convenience, though the 
 lands recently acquired from the Indians were not on 
 sale until 1839. 
 
 114. History of Ionia anct Montcalm Counties, 141. 
 
 115. Supplies were brought from Detroit and Pontiac, and the 
 
 first goods for a store are said to have been poled up the 
 river from Grand Haven in that year. Ibid., 140, 141. 
 
 55 
 
434 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 builders. It is charged that the officials practiced 
 favoritism and that they were in collusion with a 
 broker's office which raked off twenty cents on the 
 dollar at the expense of the poorer settlers, who were 
 most in need of its services. Many settlers turned 
 away rather than be thus defrauded ; much of the best 
 land fell into the hands of speculators who held it out 
 of market for many years, awaiting higher prices. ^^^ 
 Those settlers who did stay seem not, as in Kent 
 county, to have had the platting of villages and the 
 sale of corner lots chiefly in view, but gave attention 
 at once to the planting of crops in preparation for an 
 independent living. ^^^ 
 
 It is significant that Blois should give a much less 
 extended notice of "Ionia Center" than he does of 
 Grandville in Kent County. Ionia contained accord- 
 ing to his account, besides the postoffice and land 
 office, a flouring mill, three sawmills in the vicinity, a 
 turning machine and sash factory, two stores, a 
 lawyer and a physician; and several fine buildings are 
 mentioned as having been built during 1837.^^^ 
 
 Besides Ionia, only two points in that county appear 
 to have been thought sufficiently central to the popula- 
 tion in 1837 to have postoffices; these were Lyons and 
 Portland. ^^^ The village of Lyons was founded in 1836 
 
 116. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 473; History of Ionia and Montcalm 
 
 Counties, 142. 
 
 117. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 34. 
 
 118. Blois, Gazetteer, 303-304. The village was incorporated in 
 
 1835 and became the county seat the following vear. 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 193; III, 474. 
 
 119. Lyons obtained a postoffice in 1836, and Portland in 1837. 
 
 The only other offices established before 1840 were at 
 Maple, Otisco, and Waterville (1838). History of Ionia 
 and Montcalm Counties, 125. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 435 
 
 by Lucius Lyon, a well-known United States surveyor 
 who owned part of the plat of Grand Rapids and had 
 an interest in many budding villages of the period. -^^^ 
 The village of Lyons is given fully as much space and 
 attention by Blois as Ionia ;^-^ at Portland there appear 
 to have been a half dozen families in 1837. Saranac 
 village, which Blois does not notice, is mentioned in 
 the Detroit Daily Free Press for January 16, 1836, as 
 having been platted at a power site on the Grand 
 River at the mouth of Lake Creek. Almost all of the 
 present townships of the county had received their 
 first settlers by 1837.^22 
 
 The early settlers of Ionia County came mainly from 
 New York.^^^ A settlement in Boston Township in 
 
 120. Ihid., 237; Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 65. Lucius 
 
 Lyon was also proprietor of the village of Schoolcraft 
 on Prairie Ronde in Kalamazoo County. His impor- 
 tance was sufficient to make him the first congressional 
 delegate to be elected west of Detroit (1832-35), and 
 also to make him a United States Senator in 1835. He 
 was a native of Shelbume, Vermont. Michigan Biog- 
 raphies, 426. It is said that a mill was started on 
 Libhart Creek about two miles west of Lyons in 1833 
 by New York parties. 
 
 121. Blois, Gazetteer, 315. Among other things Blois credited it 
 
 with two stores, "a fine hotel" and "several elegant pri- 
 vate dwellings," between twenty and thirty more being 
 contracted for. See Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 
 37, where this view is much modified. 
 
 122. The population of the two organized townships of the 
 
 county in 1837 was 1,028, Michigan Legislative Manual 
 (1838), 75; Session Laws, (1837), 36, 37. In the follow- 
 ing year the county was divided into six townships. 
 Session Laws (1838), 79, 80, 83. Kent County had in 
 1837 a population of 2,022, Michigan Legislative Manual 
 (1838), 71, 75. 
 
 123. History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 175, 223, 265, 278. 
 
 As noted above the members of the Ionia colony were 
 mainly from Herkimer County. New York, and the first 
 
436 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 1836-37 is said to have been made by a Vermont 
 family, followed by a number of others from that 
 State.^2^ q-j^g earHest settlers of Portland (1833) were 
 among the few Englishmen in the county at this 
 period. ^^^ 
 
 As in Ionia and Kent counties, the first entrance 
 of the white man to Ottawa County was marked 
 by the establishment of a trading post for traffic 
 with the Indians. ^-"^ The site of Grand Haven is 
 said to have been chosen in 1827 by the fur trader 
 Rix Robinson as headquarters for the operations of 
 the American Fur Company in western Michigan.^" 
 Robinson was the sole manager of some twenty trading 
 posts of that company, and the consequent importance 
 of the point as headquarters gave it a number of the 
 company's buildings and a certain preeminence in the 
 appearance of a settlement that was attractive to home 
 seekers. Apparently foreseeing the early settlement of 
 
 123. Co7i. settlers at Lyons were from that State. Probably some 
 
 of these were boi-n in New England states. Samuel 
 Dexter was a native of Rhode Island, and Lucius Lyons, 
 of Vermont. 
 
 124. Ibid., 192. 
 
 125. Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 622; XVII, 411; Memorials of the 
 
 Grand River Valley, 31. 
 
 126. The name of the county is derived from the Ottawa Indians, 
 
 and is said to mean "trader." An account of these 
 Indians in this county is given in the History of Ottawa 
 County, 18-19. 
 
 127. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 235. See History of Ottawa County, 
 
 20-21, for a recital of Robinson's trading operations at 
 this point. Robinson's headquarters are usually asso- 
 ciated with Ada, above Grand Rapids at the mouth of 
 the Thomapple. In 1857 a monirment was erected at 
 Ada to his memory. He was a State senator from Kent 
 County, 1846-49, and a delegate to the Constitutional 
 Convention of 1850. Michigan Biographies, 559. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 437 
 
 the place, in the early twenties Robinson preempted a 
 quarter section of land on the river front. ^-^ In 1833 
 a settler of Ionia came to Grand Haven as a clerk 
 in his employ. ^-^ 
 
 The first beginnings at Grand Haven that looked 
 toward interests other than the fur trade came with 
 two events of 1834, the arrival of William M. Ferry 
 and his family and the organization of the Grand 
 Haven Company. Ferry came to that place as the 
 agent of Robert Stuart, of Detroit, a Scotchman in 
 the employ of the American Fur Company, who had 
 bought a half interest in Rix Robinson's preemption 
 on the lower Grand. ^^° In 1835 the Grand Haven 
 Company in which he was concerned laid out the vil- 
 lage, built a mill and bought land there. They also 
 became owners of two mills at Grandville and built a 
 boat on the river. In the winter of 1835-36 the little 
 colony experienced what old settlers long remembered 
 
 128. History of Ottawa County, 38, 39. 
 
 129. Ibid., 38. 
 
 130. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 238-239; XXX, 572-573; History of 
 
 Ottawa County, 38, 39. As related in the History of 
 Ottawa County, William M. Ferry was born in Granby, 
 Mass., in 1796, of a poor family. He early taught 
 school, graduating from Union College at Schenectady, 
 New York, and he later studied theology in the seminary 
 at New Brunswick, New Jersey. He established a mis- 
 sion at Mackinac about 1822. Ill health is assigned as 
 the reason for his leaving the mission in 1834 and enter- 
 ing into business relations. He was for many years a 
 strong religious and cultural influence at Grand Haven, 
 dying there in 1876. His public bequests are said to 
 have amounted to $137,000. His family gained some 
 distinction in State and national affairs. Michigan 
 Biographies, 266. His wife was a native of Ashfield, 
 Mass. 
 
438 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 as "the starving time,"^'^^ and in 1836-37 shared with 
 the rest of the Grand River Valley in an era of specula- 
 tion and subsequent hard times. Dviring the period 
 of speculation Ferry and Robinson owned the village 
 plat, and lots are said to have been held at high prices. ^^^ 
 By 1837 the village contained "three steam sawmills, 
 two stores, a large grocery establishment, six spacious 
 warehouses, a druggist and two physicians." Blois 
 credits it further with "upward of 400 inhabitants" and 
 speaks optimistically of its advantages for trade and 
 commerce. ^^^ A vessel carrying lumber and passengers 
 is said to have begun to make regular trips between 
 Grand Haven and Chicago in 1836. 
 
 The first settlement of consequence in Ottawa County 
 outside of Grand Haven was made in 1836 by several 
 related families who settled up the Grand River in 
 what was later called froin their family name, Robin- 
 son Township. Their number is commonly given as 
 forty-two. They appear to have been relatives of 
 Rix Robinson. ^'^"^ At about the same time Dr. Timothy 
 Eastman, a native of Maine, settled up the river in 
 the pinery at the site of the village which bears his 
 name. 
 
 Besides Grand Haven, Blois mentions no village cen- 
 ters in this county that are known as such today. 
 There was a notable attempt however to foster a vil- 
 
 131. See Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 416, for an 
 
 account of Nathan White's expedition to Battle Creek 
 for food. 
 
 132. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 40. 
 
 133. Blois, Gazetteer, 291. Grand Haven secured the county 
 
 seat in 1838. 
 
 134. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 415; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 IX, 282. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 439 
 
 lage intended to outrival both Grand Haven and 
 Grand Rapids, which may serve as a typical illustration 
 of the so-called "paper town" of that day. As the story 
 is related in the History of Ottawa County, the village 
 was started by capitalists of New York and Philadel- 
 phia who formed for the purpose a joint stock arrange- 
 ment known as the Port Sheldon Company. The com- 
 pany had wished to build a village on the site of Grand 
 Haven, but the Grand Haven Company was first on 
 the ground, and satisfactory terms could not be made. 
 This was the feature apparently that led to the deter- 
 mination to crush out Grand Haven by getting the 
 start of it in development. A site was chosen on the 
 north side of what is now Pigeon Lake or Creek on the 
 lake shore south of Grand Haven. Operations were 
 begun in the fall of 1837. Lake vessels brought provi- 
 sions, together with a few small houses ready to set 
 up, and about forty men. Thereupon a city of 124 
 blocks was laid out. An elegantly engraved map was 
 made of the city and harbor and widely circulated. 
 Roads were cut, a charter was obtained for a railroad, 
 a lighthouse was built, and a hotel was erected at a 
 cost, it is said, of from thirty to forty thousand dol- 
 lars; $15,000 were expended on a mill; fifteen small 
 dwellings were built; it is said that in 1838 about 300 
 people were there, mainly the employees of the com- 
 pany. While the people on the Grand River "thanked 
 God for a steady supply of salt pork and flour," says 
 one writer, the people at Port Sheldon "revelled in 
 champagne and sumptuous suppers." But a harbor 
 was found impracticable. The financial crash obliter- 
 ated the "city." It is said that the hotel and thirty 
 
440 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 lots sold for less than the cost of the glass and paint, 
 and that the remainder of the land was bought for its 
 hemlock bark.^^^ 
 
 The only line of settlement in Ottawa Comity in 
 this period was the Grand River. It was practically 
 the only highway through the forest and hence the 
 best means of communication with the other settle- 
 ments of the valley. The first farms were on the south 
 side of the river, the lands on the other side not being 
 surveyed until after the Indian treaty of 1836. There 
 were a few settlers on the north side very early, but 
 they were "squatters." The land did not come on the 
 market until 1839. It appears to be true that the 
 number of these squatters was increased by the action 
 of speculators who rapidly bought up the lands on the 
 south side of the river and held them for a rise in 
 prices. ^^"^ Blois reports in 1838 'that settlement was 
 rapidly increasing on both sides of the river. ^" In 
 1837 there appears to have been a squatter at Lamont, 
 a point which became a center for the radiation of set- 
 tlement into the future townships of Polkton and 
 Talmadge.^^'^ The heavy pine land had little attrac- 
 tion for farmers and was held for its pine largely by 
 nonresidents. Robinson Township, two decades after 
 
 135. History of Ottawa County, 35-36; Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 
 
 227-228; Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 486-491. 
 Port Sheldon is not mentioned by Blois, but he men- 
 tions Charleston and Ottawa, both on the Grand at 
 the junction of small creeks, and obviously "paper 
 towns," (pp. 262, 336). 
 
 136. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 252, 255, 263, 280; History of Ottawa 
 
 County, 26. 
 
 137. Blois, Gazetteer, 236. 
 
 138. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 40, 503. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 441 
 
 it received the settlers above mentioned, mustered but 
 eighteen voters at the first township election."^ 
 
 The lands of the present Muskegon County were 
 included at that time in Ottawa. Only the Indian 
 traders, who were more or less transient, visited them 
 until 1836-37^^° when very slight beginnings of settle- 
 ment were made about Muskegon Lake near the 
 mouth of Muskegon River. ^" A steam mill was built 
 in 1837 by a stock company whose members lived 
 mainly at Detroit and Ann Arbor; but the financial 
 panic killed the enterprise, and the machinery was 
 moved to Grand Rapids. ^^- The village of Muskegon 
 was not platted until 1849.^^^ The county was not 
 established until a decade later. ^'^^ 
 
 The sources of the earliest settlers in Ottawa County 
 were much the same as in the other counties of the 
 lower Grand River Valley. Apparently a somewhat 
 larger proportion came directly from New England 
 states. ^•^^ The first owners of the village plat of Grand 
 
 139. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 495. For this reason, 
 
 after the first river locations, it was the lands away from 
 the river that were taken up and settled the most rapidly. 
 Ibid., 500. 
 
 140. History of Muskegon County, 49-50; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 
 
 291. 
 
 141. History of Muskegon County, 31, 51; Memorials of the Grand 
 
 River Valley, 436, 439. 
 
 142. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 432-434; History of 
 
 Muskegon County, 24.' 
 
 143. History of Muskegon County, 50. 
 
 144. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 473. 
 
 145. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 263 for a notice of the first farmers 
 
 of the county. Memorials of the Grand River Valley 
 (in the supplement, pp. 1-74), contains biographical 
 sketches of the pioneers of the Grand River Valley. 
 
442 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Haven are said to have been born in Granby, Massa- 
 chusetts, and Cayuga County, New York.^^*^ 
 
 The settlement of Eaton County differed in at least 
 one marked respect from that of the three counties on 
 the lower Grand River, in that its first important cen- 
 ters of population, with one exception, were not on 
 the main stream of that river. This was partly be- 
 cause of the heavy timber along the Grand in that 
 portion of its course, and partly because the Grand 
 was not so central to the county; and again, water 
 power was furnished elsewhere in more open land. In 
 1832 Isaac E. Crary, of Marshall, bought land upon 
 which in 1835 he platted the village of Bellevue.^^^ 
 With him was associated Reverend John D. Pierce, 
 also of Marshall, at whose solicitation the site is said 
 to have received its first settler in 1834, from Ithaca, 
 New York.^'*^ The site of Bellevue was chosen for 
 water power, openness and beauty. It was a burr-oak 
 plain on the banks of the Battle Creek, said to have 
 been the only valuable power site on that stream."^ 
 Its first settler, who arrived on a June day in 1834, 
 
 146. History of Ottawa County, 38; Michigan Biographies, 559. 
 
 147. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 387; XXIX, 349-350; see the History 
 
 of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 405-410, for the first land 
 entries and eariy settlement of the county. 
 
 148. This was the second settler in the county. The first settle- 
 
 ment was made in the preceding year in the openings a 
 little south of Bellevue by a native of Montgomery, 
 Maryland, who emigrated to Michigan from Palmj^ra, 
 Ontario County, New York, in 1833. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXIX, 352; History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 351. 
 The early settlers of Bellevue are said to have come 
 mainly from New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. 
 History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 407. 
 
 149. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 345. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 443 
 
 describes it with the exaggerated enthusiasm of the 
 satisfied pioneer as ''the most beautiful spot I have 
 ever seen;" the fragrance of its grass and flowers, he 
 declares, reminded him of the Garden of Eden.^^° 
 The pioneer luxury of sawed lumber was supplied by a 
 sawmill built there in 1834 or 1835, owned apparent- 
 ly by Mr. Pierce Bnd Mr. Crary of Marshall; it sup- 
 plied also the first lumber used at Battle Creek. ^^^ 
 The population of Bellevue in 1835 is said to have 
 comprised nine families and six single men, but such 
 was its growth that in 1838 Blois records an estimated 
 population of about 400.^^^ He says it then had three 
 sawmills and that preparations were being made for a 
 flouring mill. Enthusiastic imagination placed it "at 
 the head of navigation for boats" on Battle Creek. 
 Among the natural resources contributing largely to 
 its early development was a large area of limestone of 
 excellent quality which is said to have been worked 
 almost from the beginning of settlement there. The 
 desire to market the lime led to imsuccessful attempts 
 to navigate the Creek to Kalamazoo River as early as 
 1835.^^^ Blois reports six kilns in operation, which 
 supplied the country with lime for a distance of fifty 
 miles around. -^^^ As ''the jumping-off place into the 
 wilderness" northward from the Territorial Road, and 
 
 150. Ibid., Ill, 386. The name of Bellevue is suggestive of its 
 
 original beauty. 
 
 151. Ibid., Ill, 385, 389. The position of Bellevue on the Battle 
 
 Creek, a branch of the Kalamazoo River, classifies it 
 properly with the settlements of that river. 
 
 152. Blois, Gazetteer, 254; see Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 392, for the 
 
 early settlers of 1835-36. 
 
 153. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 385, 394. 
 
 154. Blois, Gazetteer, 254. 
 
444 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 "the coming-out place of the burrowing settler" the 
 site of Bel evue was early fixed upon for a hotel to 
 accommodate travelers; the first hotel was built in 
 1836.^^^ The village gained much early importance 
 from the sessions of the county court held there, it 
 being some time before the county buildings were 
 erected at Charlotte. 
 
 In the same year that Mr. Crary purchased the site 
 of Bellevue(1832) the United States surveyor of the 
 county bought the site of Charlotte ; and in the follow- 
 ing year, before there was a white settler in the county, 
 he secured for it the county seat.^^'^ Through his 
 efforts, it is said, Charlotte received its first family in 
 1836, by way of Bellevue.^" It seems to have been 
 not until 1837 that the village plat was recorded. ^^^ 
 This fertile central prairie would doubtless have been 
 settled more rapidly had it not been for the dense 
 forests characteristic of this part of the county, and 
 lack of water power. 
 
 One of the most notable of the early New England 
 settlements in Michigan was that at Vermontville, a 
 
 155. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 385. 
 
 156. The surveyor, George W. Barnes, appears to have settled at 
 
 Gull Prairie in Kalamazoo County, and did not become 
 a resident of Charlotte. History of Ingham and Eaton 
 Counties, 354, 380, 381, 518. The village was named for 
 the wife of one of the first settlers, who purchased the 
 site from Mr. Barnes. Ibid., 385, quoting a letter dated 
 1835. 
 
 157. Ibid., 380. Pages 381 and 457 of the same volume give 
 
 1835 as the date of the first settlers. The date 1837 is 
 given in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 366 
 
 158. History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 385; the names of 
 
 the four original proprietors of the village are given in 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 342. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 445 
 
 formally organized colony of Vermont settlers with 
 definitely expressed religious and educational pur- 
 poses. ^^^ It was not unlike a Puritan exodus from 
 England, or like that led by the Reverend Thomas 
 Hooker from Boston to the Connecticut Valley in 
 1636.^*'° The character of the colony appears in the 
 nature of the compact formed among its members — 
 the "Rules and Regulations of the Union Colony." 
 The essential principles were education and religion. In 
 the preamble, reference was made to material prosper- 
 ity and to the advantages of association, but these 
 were evidently regarded only as means to the end 
 upon which the founders laid all of the emphasis. ^^^ 
 
 A writer has observed that the records show the 
 Vermontville church to have played an important part 
 in the government of the early village. ^"^^ The propor- 
 
 159. It is given an extended notice in Mrs. Mathews' Expansion 
 
 of New England. The portion of Mrs. Mathews' work 
 that is devoted to Michigan is worthy of careful read- 
 ing. In choosing Vermontville, however, the author 
 took for illustration an exceptional settlement instead 
 of the prevailing type. 
 
 160. Indeed the portion of Vermont from which these settlers 
 
 came had been settled some fifty years before from Con- 
 necticut and Massachusetts. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII 
 218; XXXI, 183. 
 
 161. A copy of the "Rules" is printed in Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 XXVIII, 204, and in the History of Ingham and Eaton 
 Counties, 517. The third clause of the preamble reads. 
 "Whereas, we believe that a removal to the West may 
 be the means of promoting our temporal interests, and 
 we trust to be made subservient to Christ's kingdom." 
 Clause six is significant for education, "We also agree 
 that, for the benefit of our children, and the rising gen- 
 eration, we will endeavor, so far as possible, to carry 
 with and perpetuate among us the same literary privi- 
 leges that we are permitted here to enjoy." 
 
 162. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 256-257. 
 
446 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 tion of church members in the colony was large; it is 
 said that of the heads of families in the original colony 
 all but two were members of the Congregational 
 Church, or became so.^*^^ The principles of government 
 exercised directly by the people were thus trans- 
 planted to the new land both through church and 
 town-meeting. It was probably no small advantage 
 from the viewpoint of material prosperity that the vil- 
 lage early made, as at Romeo, a reputation for culture 
 and good government.^*^^ 
 
 These settlers are said to have come almost entirely 
 from the Vermont counties of Addison, Bennington and 
 Rutland, a region that was commonly referred to as 
 the Champlain Valley. ^'^^ The leader, the Reverend 
 Sylvester Cochrane, was a Congregational minister at 
 East Poultney; the "Rules" were signed at Castleton. 
 The native states of many of the settlers, however, 
 were probably Connecticut and Massachusetts. 
 
 There was a great variety of occupations represented, 
 comprising farmers, merchants and physicians ; a wheel 
 Wright, a cooper, a tanner and furrier; a cabinet 
 maker, a chair maker, a tailor, a printer, a black 
 smith, a machinist, a student and a surveyor; besides 
 the clergyman. Farmers^^*^ made up fully one-half of 
 the number. The great variety of others, one of each, 
 suggests that some sort of selection may have been 
 
 163. Ibid. . . 
 
 164. See interesting observations upon this phase of settlement 
 
 in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 390. 
 
 165. In the History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 518, are given 
 
 the name, residence and occupation of each of the forty- 
 two signers of the "rules," but only twenty-two of these 
 appear to have become settlers in the colony. 
 
 166. See note above. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 447 
 
 made, but it is quite probable that conditions in Ver- 
 mont did not aftect specially any particular class; 
 farmers were naturally the most numerous in the com- 
 munity; the "Michigan fever" was probably prevalent 
 there, emigration having been in process from that 
 region for some years to New York, Ohio, Illinois, 
 Wisconsin and Michigan. ^^^ 
 
 The character of the "promised land" as outlined by 
 the Rev. Sylvester Cochrane was not different from 
 what was usually desired by settlers emigrating to 
 Michigan. The site of this colony was to be health- 
 ful, with good water, and a rich and varied soil, in- 
 terspersed with wood and prairie; it should be if 
 possible on or near a waterfall, with prospect of speedy 
 settlement and good markets, and where a canal or 
 railroad might cross, or in the center of a county near 
 some navigable water ;^^^ in addition, the area of the 
 site should be at least three miles square. The agents 
 of the company, like those of the Rochester colony in 
 Clinton County, are said to have prospected without 
 success in Barry County and to have been attracted 
 to Eaton County by chance information from a sur- 
 veyor whom they met at Battle Creek. ^^^ On in- 
 vestigating they were disappointed to find that in the 
 openings all lands as large as the desired area were 
 taken. At length they found a place which resembled 
 closely the native Champlain Valley. It was on the 
 
 167. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 203; XXXI, 183. Vermont 
 
 settlers were among the earliest to settle in Michigan, 
 as the reminiscences, diaries, memoranda and papers in 
 the Michigan Historical Collections abundantly show. 
 
 168. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 206. 
 
 169. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 209. 
 
448 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Indian trail, hardly yet a road, from Marshall to 
 Ionia, but it lacked many of the advantages desired; 
 there was no waterfall, and there was no navigable 
 water except for very small boats; it was in dense 
 timber, removed from the center of the county and 
 distant from markets. ^^° The situation well illustrates 
 the amount and condition of settlement in the county 
 at that time. 
 
 The first settlers of this colony came in 1836, but 
 there was a larger immigration in 1837-38. It was not 
 an auspicious time to begin a colony, especially in dense 
 timber and with other handicaps; for the panic came 
 and the "Michigan fever" lost its grip on intending 
 settlers. The colony found itself the possessor of much 
 land and timber that would have to wait for a rise in 
 prices to be profitable. But the colony had the signal 
 advantage of moral purpose which enabled it to survive 
 the hard times. Helpful relations were early estab- 
 lished with Bellevue, Charlotte, Hastings, Ionia and 
 
 170. Ibid., XXVIII, 212. Apparently several entries of land 
 had been made there since 1829, though not by settlers. 
 History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 350. By one 
 Vermont settler of 1836 near this site the lands of this 
 township are said to have been preferred to a chance in 
 Chicago. He is qtioted as saying that he "did not want 
 any land in a mud hole." It is said that the land which 
 he then could have bought in Chicago for $500 has since 
 become the site of the city hall. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXXI, 182. See the diagram and original plat of the 
 village with the names of the settlers in Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXVIII, 211. It contained thirty-six lots of ten acres 
 each, arranged in the typical New England "square." 
 The farm lots were grouped about it. It is said that 
 a fund of $6,000 was made up by the original subscri- 
 bers. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 449 
 
 Battle Creek as the nearest markets and depots of 
 supply. ^^^ 
 
 On the site of Eaton Rapids there are said to have 
 been three houses in 1837, and a sawmill in process of 
 building. ^^'' As the name suggests, the place was 
 chosen for a mill site at the rapids on the Grand River, 
 and its first settlers were interested in the neighboring 
 timber. The movement to this part of the county was 
 apparently independent of that which entered at Belle- 
 vue, and the two streams of immigration did not meet 
 for a considerable time.^^'^ 
 
 While in 1835 a few acres of land were bought in 
 what became Eaton Rapids Township, it was not until 
 the next year that extensive buying took place there 
 as elsewhere in the county. ^^^ In that year the 
 ''Montgomery Plains," near Eaton Rapids, were set- 
 tled by four brothers of that name, one of whom later 
 became a member of the State legislature. ^^^ 
 
 Above Eaton Rapids, on the Grand River in Delta 
 Township a little west of Lansing, a power site became 
 the nucleus of settlement in the northeastern part of 
 the county. An unsuccessful attempt to found a col- 
 
 171. There appear to have been fifty-one resident tax-payers, in 
 
 the township in 1844. The colony was of enough con- 
 sequence to be noticed by Blois in 1838 in his Gazetteer, 
 377. 
 
 172. History of Ingham and Eaton Cotmties, 466. The sawmill 
 
 was being built by a firm that built the mill at Spicer- 
 ville in 1836. This firm founded the village. Eaton 
 Rapids had apparently not gained sufficient importance 
 by 1838 to be mentioned by Blois. 
 
 173. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 385. " 
 
 174. Ibid., Ill, 430. 
 
 175. Ibid., XXIX, 368, 370; Michigan Biographies, 468; History 
 
 of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 461, 475, 477. 
 57 
 
450 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 lege there on the model of Oberlin, by parties from 
 Ohio and Massachusetts, failed as a result of the hard 
 times that followed 1837.^^^ By 1837 considerable 
 groups of settlers had located at "Moetown" in Brook- 
 field Township and at the "Canada Settlement" in 
 Oneida Township. ^'^^ 
 
 The most rapid increase of population would natur- 
 ally have been in the vicinity of the original settle- 
 ments, but the influence of speculators in holding out 
 of market large areas which they early purchased in 
 these desirable localities made early settlement on the 
 whole quite as slow there as in less favored places. 
 This speculation was done mainly by parties who 
 never became residents and towards whom the actual 
 settlers had much bitterness of feeling. ^^^ 
 
 In 1835 there are said to have been but four voters 
 in the one township which comprised all of Eaton 
 County. In 1837 the county had three townships, 
 with a combined population of 1,913. Almost half of 
 the people were then in the neighborhood of Bellevue.^^^ 
 The sources of this population are various, but it was 
 
 176. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 159; XXIX, 363, 365; History of Ing- 
 
 ham and Eaton Counties, 451. 
 
 177. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 386; XXII, 502; XXIX, 356, 376; 
 
 History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 430. 
 
 178. A good illustration of this was in the vicinity of "Moe- 
 
 town," in connection with which a writer in Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., XXIX, 356, has given an account of the attitude 
 of the settlers towards these speculators, most of whom 
 were nonresident. See also Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 
 353, 355, 358, 360, 373, 380; History of Ingham and 
 Eaton Counties, 417-419, 486. 
 
 179. Session Laws (1837), 37, 40; Michigan Legislative Manual 
 
 (1838),|71. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 451 
 
 mainly from New York.^^° Vermont was largely rep- 
 resented in Vermontville and in a few others of the 
 present townships. ^^^ Massachusetts contributed a 
 small proportion. Some were from Ohio.^^^ There 
 were very few settlers of foreign origin, the Canada 
 settlement representing the most numerous groups ^^ 
 aside from a small number who came originally from 
 Ireland.i^^ 
 
 Barry County^ ^^ had at the time the State was ad- 
 mitted to the Union, a less degree of settlement than 
 any other county in Michigan. ^^^ It had about one- 
 half the population of Eaton County eastward of it, 
 or of Ionia County above it. To the west, Allegan 
 cotinty numbered three times its population, and north- 
 ward in Kent County there were over four times as 
 
 180. ■ Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 358, 365, 373. 375, 376, 380, 381, 
 
 384; History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 384, 451, 486, 
 494, 509, 528. 
 
 181. Windsor Township was settled largely from Windsor Coun- 
 
 ty, Vermont. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 387; History 
 of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 538. 
 
 182. The original Spicer\alle colony of ten persons were mainly 
 
 from Portage Coimty, Ohio. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 159; 
 III, 386; XXII, 502, 505; XXIX, 363, 367, 372. 
 
 183. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 376. 
 
 184. Ibid., XXIX, 370, 378; History of Ingham and Eaton Coun- 
 
 ties, 475, 477. For the names of the first settlers of the 
 county see Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 395-401. 
 
 185. The name is derived from William T. Barry who was Post- 
 
 master General in Jackson's cabinet at the time that the 
 county was laid out in 1829. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 
 111-112. 
 
 186. It was only slightly exceeded by the poptilation of Ingham 
 
 or Clinton County, 
 
452 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 many people. Immediately on the south were Cal- 
 houn and Kalamazoo counties, the lesser of which had 
 a population twelve times greater than that of Barry. ^^^ 
 It was not until two years after Michigan became a 
 State that the county government was organized, ^^^ 
 though its township government began with 1836. •^^'^ 
 The population of the county in 1837 was 512.^^° 
 
 This population was apparently not well distributed, 
 though all of the areas represented in the present 
 townships excepting three seem to have received their 
 first settlers by 1837.^^^ It is significant that in the 
 next year, before the organization of the county, the 
 legislature divided the township of Barry into four 
 equal townships — Barry, Thornapple, Hastings, and 
 Johnstown. ^^- But this cannot be taken to mean equal 
 distribution of population. The largest center of popu- 
 lation would seem by analogy with similar cases to be 
 
 187. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 75-76. 
 
 188. Prior to that time it had been attached for judicial pur- 
 
 poses to St. Joseph and Kalamazoo counties — to the 
 latter since 1830. The county was organized March 15, 
 1839. Session Laws (1835-36), 78. 
 
 189. March 23, 1836, an act was approved organizing the town- 
 
 ship of Barry, embracing the entire county. Session 
 Laws (1835-36), 78. 
 
 190. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 
 
 191. These seem to be Barry, Hope and Baltimore. The two 
 
 latter especially seem to have been originally handi- 
 capped with hills, lakes, swamps and heavy hardwood 
 timber, and to have been somewhat aside from the 
 beaten track of travel through Yankee Springs and 
 Middleville, as well as away from the river. History of 
 Barry County, 392, 435. 
 
 192. Session Laws (1837-38), 81-82, 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 453 
 
 indicated by the retention of the old name of Barry 
 for the southwestern township. ^^^ The northeastern 
 township of Hastings probably had a small popula- 
 tion, and the center of it appears to have been 
 Hastings, as the first township meeting was directed 
 to be held at the house of Slocum H. Bunker, who 
 then lived there. ^^^ But in 1837, if reports are trust- 
 worthy, there were on the immediate site of the future 
 county seat only Mr. Bunker's family and the men 
 building the sawmill. ^^^ Blois reports in the year fol- 
 lowing that "it contains a few families, and is improv- 
 jj^g_"i96 'pjj-^g township of Thornapple contained two of 
 the earliest settled points in the county, in its southern 
 part the site of Yankee Springs, and at the north on 
 the river below Hastings, the site of Middle ville.^^^ 
 
 193. The stage of development is indicated by the legislative 
 
 direction for the township of Barry in 1836, that the 
 first township meeting should be held at a private house, 
 that of Nicholas Campbell; after the subdivision the 
 meeting was directed to be held at the house of John 
 Mills. Session Laws (1835-36), 78, and (1839), 82. 
 
 194. Session Laws (1839), 81. 
 
 195. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 112; XXXVIII, 646. The second set- 
 
 tler, Willard Hays, from Mass., a brother of a member 
 of the Hastings Company, is said to have arrived in 
 1837. History of Barry County, 367. 
 
 196. Intending settlers who consulted Blois' Gazetteer, in 1838, 
 
 might have read in addition: "Hastings, a village on 
 the Thornapple River, near the center of the county of 
 Barry, is said to be beautifully situated, possessing ex- 
 cellent hydraulic power, which is improved to some 
 extent"; p. 299. See Clark's Gazetteer (1863), 83, for a 
 list of settlers in the county in 1836. 
 
 197. The name of this place, which seems to have been a favorite 
 
 spot with the Indians, is said to have been derived from 
 ' its position half way between Kalamazoo and Grand 
 
454 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 The line of the Indian trail through these points and 
 the western tier of townships from Kalamazoo and 
 Battle Creek to Ionia and Grand Rapids, probably 
 formed the axis of settlement in the county at that 
 date. A writer who seems to be familiar with the 
 pioneer records of the county reports that many New 
 York settlers came in 1837 to the southeastern part of 
 the county into what became Johnstown Township. ^^^ 
 The settlement of the county seems to have begun 
 practically with the great wave of speculation in the 
 lands of Michigan that came in full force in 1836. In 
 that year there was made one of the most widely 
 known of the early settlements of Michigan in the 
 openings near cool springs of water at a junction of 
 Indian trails in the western part of the county."^ 
 William Lewis, better known as ''Yankee Lewis," a 
 native of Weathersfield in western New York, chose 
 the site for an inn, which proved to give some promise 
 
 197. Con. Rapids. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 654. Land ap- 
 
 pears to have been purchased on this site by a New 
 York settler as early as 1834, who is said to have brought 
 his family there in the following year. History of Barry 
 County, 486. It appears to be a slightly older settle- 
 ment than either Yankee Springs or Hastings. 
 
 198. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 221. WiUiam P. Bristol is re- 
 
 ported to have been the most prominent of these. It 
 was at his house that the first township meeting in 
 Johnstown Township (1839) was directed to be held. 
 Session Laws (1839), 82. 
 
 199. This place for some reason became known as 'Yankee 
 
 Springs." One story relates that the name was carved 
 on the bark of a tree by some passers-by who happened 
 to eat their Itinch there, all from New England — "all 
 Yankees," as one remarked. History of Barry County, 33. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 455 
 
 early to this part of the county through the charm of 
 Lewis' hospitahty as a landlord. ^°° It is significant 
 that Lewis had been in Indiana and Illinois in 1835 
 and that so shrewd a ''Yankee" could see in Chicago 
 nothing but a "dirty French and Indian trading post," 
 as he is quoted to have characterized it. The site of 
 his famous hostelry never became even a considerable 
 village. 
 
 In the year 1836 beginnings were made at Hastings^°^ 
 by a company organized for the purpose of exploiting 
 the water power and neighboring timber lands through 
 the fostering of a county-seat village. The county 
 seat appears to have been already located there but 
 the site was yet without settlers in 1836.^*^^ It is said 
 that the price of $3,000 was paid for the plat covering 
 the village site, which became known as the "Barry 
 
 200. His popiilarity and ability was long an influence in this 
 
 section, making him a representative of Barry County 
 in the legislature of 1846. Michigan Biographies, 415. 
 It is not improbable that he drew to the county many 
 settlers from the region of his native place. The "Man- 
 sion House" which was ultimately a collection of six log 
 cabins, all on the ground, appears to be well known to 
 old pioneers of the county as "Lewis' six story building." 
 The extent of these accommodations illustrates the 
 amount of travel on this route. History of Barry County, 
 515. 
 
 201. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 303. 
 
 202. The name is derived from Eurotas P. Hastings, said to have 
 
 been a native of Washington, Litchfield County, Con- 
 necticut. He was then a resident of Detroit, and was 
 connected with the Bank of Michigan as president in 
 the period of "wild-cat banking." History of Barry 
 County, 367; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 645, note 3. 
 Michigan Biographies gives New York as the place of 
 his birth (p. 330). 
 
456 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 County Seat Purchase. "^°^ The three purchasers ap- 
 pear to have organized subsequently as the "Hastings 
 Company" to found the village, and it seems probable 
 that Eurotas P. Hastings, as president of the Bank of 
 Michigan, had something to do with financing the 
 project. The first improvement was a sawmill, 
 erected by this company on a small branch of the 
 Thornapple River at that place. The first frame house 
 is said to have been built in 1838 from lumber sawed 
 there. Apparently there was early a close connec- 
 tion between Hastings, Marshall, Battle Creek and 
 Kalamazoo, largely through the members of this com- 
 pany. The purchasers of the site of Hastings are said 
 to have been residents of Marshall j-^'^ which accords 
 with the enterprize of Marshall men we have seen in 
 the starting of the mill and village at Bellevue in 
 Eaton County. The first settlers of Hastings seem to 
 have gotten their mail by way of Gull Prairie in Kala- 
 mazoo County. ^'^^ Marshall and Battle Creek were for 
 some time the nearest considerable points of supply. 
 
 The same impulse to land and town-site speculation 
 that started the settlement of Barry County made the 
 first important -impression upon the forested lands of 
 Ingham. The settlement of that county, however, was 
 destined to be very slow for a decade after receiving 
 its first settlers. Before 1835 there were a few settlers 
 on the extreme edges of what later became the town- 
 
 203. History of Barry County, 367; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 
 
 645. 
 
 204. History of Barry County, 367. 
 
 205. Ibid., 373. Blois mentions a postoffice at Hastings. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 457 
 
 ships of Stockbridge, Onondaga and Williamstown.^"^ 
 Yet it is recorded that in 1845, on the occasion of a 
 Fourth of July celebration on the site of Lansing, the 
 available white men were so few that they had to 
 enlist the aid of the Indians to raise the liberty pole.^°^ 
 The first activity on the site of what was to become 
 the future capital of the State was the platting of a 
 "city" which afterwards was sold for taxes. As sug- 
 gested, this was a speculative ventin-e, and it was 
 similar to that which was made at Hastings in that 
 its purpose was to improve the water power and 
 through the mill and the founding of a city, to exploit 
 the neighboring timber and land.^°^ It was one of 
 many similar experiments in city building in this 
 period, but the natural advantages which the site 
 possessed raised it above the class to which Port 
 Sheldon belonged. Its connection with the site of the 
 later Lansing, together with its signal failure, has 
 caused it to be frequently cited as an example of the 
 * 'paper city . ' ' One signal advantage it lacked which the 
 project of the Hastings Company had, a close touch 
 with open country and with older settlements and 
 traveled highways ; this is illustrated by a comment of 
 Silas Beebe, a settler of Stockbridge Township in 1838 
 who is quoted as saying of the upper part of the county 
 that "things looked too new and the project too 
 
 206. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 448; History of Ingham and 
 
 Eaton Counties, 292, 297, 334. 
 
 207. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 642. 
 
 208. Detroit Daily Free Press, May 11, 1836; Cowles, The Past 
 
 and Present of Lansing and Ingham County, 54, 113; 
 History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 122. 
 
458 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 far off to suit my view."-°^ The desire to be near a 
 traveled highway appears in the report that he settled 
 in Stockbridge in the belief that the Michigan Central 
 Railroad would pass there. It was not until 1837 that 
 "Biddle City"^^° received its first settler, and few came 
 thereafter. ^^^ 
 
 The only prospective village site in Ingham County 
 in this period was that of Mason near the center of the 
 county."^" This was another mill-site and town-site 
 speculation, and was operated by a firm at Monroe. ^^^ 
 The mill rather than the village, however, seems there 
 to have been of first concern. In 1836 an agent of 
 the company began building the mill and clearing the 
 land; the following year a member of the company 
 became a permanent settler on the site.-^"* From lum- 
 ber cut at this first sawmill in the county a frame 
 
 209. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 190, 192. 
 
 210. The place is said to have been named for Major John 
 
 Biddle of Detroit. It was laid out with forty-eight 
 blocks and seventeen fractional ones. There was a 
 "pubHc square," a "Church square," an "academy 
 square," and the principal streets bore high-sounding 
 names. Quite a number of lots appear to have been 
 sold. There is said to be a plat of the city in Liber 6, 
 Deed Records, in the Register of Deeds' office at Mason. 
 History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 122. 
 
 211. This settler is said to have been a German tailor who met 
 
 some of the proprietors of "Biddle City" at Jackson. 
 History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 192. 
 
 212. Named for Stevens T. Mason, the first governor of Mich- 
 
 igan. 
 
 213. History of Ingham and Eaton Cottnties, 203, 205. 
 
 214. Ibid., 203. This member of the firm was Ephraim B. 
 
 Danforth, originally from Orange County, New York, 
 who afterwards became a State senator and a delegate 
 to the Constitutional Convention of 1850. Michigan 
 Biographies, 216. He named the village. 
 
GOVEltNOR STEVENS T. MASON 
 
 {Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, p. 240) 
 
 From the oil painting in the State Capitol, supposed to have been done l)y an English artist, 
 
 Alvni Smith, about 1836. — Mason became Acting-Governor of the Territory on the resigna- 
 
 t.'?,'^ of Lewis Cass in 1831. Being then only twenty years old he became known as the 
 
 Boy Governor" but he proved to be a man in thought and action. He was elected first 
 
 governor of the State and was the dominant figure of the transitional period 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 459 
 
 schoolhouse was built in 1837, where school is said 
 to have been held in the summer of that year with 
 eight pupils. ^^^ The village was not platted until 
 1838. ^^"^ In February of that year "a sawmill (frozen 
 up) , a few houses and surrounding forest is all it could 
 boast of."-^^ Blois credits it with "a store, tavern, saw 
 mill, and several buildings. "^^^ 
 
 Ingham County had in 1837 three organized town- 
 ships ^^^ and a population of 822 people. ^^° If the size 
 of a township were not often deceptive it would appear 
 that the greater number of settlers were in the ex- 
 treme southeastern corner, in the township of Stock- 
 bridge, which was at that early date but six miles 
 square. ^^^ The whole western half of the county con- 
 taining the sites of Lansing and Mason made the one 
 large township of Aurelius. 
 
 New York appears to have been the source of more 
 of the first settlers of this county than was the case 
 with many other counties in Michigan. One of the 
 influential proprietors of "Biddle City" is said to have 
 been a cousin of ex-Governor Horatio Seymour, of 
 Utica, and at the time of the purchase, president of a 
 
 215. History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 211. 
 
 216. Ibid., 205. 
 
 217. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 190. 
 
 218. Blois, Gazetteer, 222; Cowles' Lansing and Ingham County, 
 
 p. 34, mentions Vandercook's Past and Present Life of 
 Mason. 
 
 219. Session Laws (1835-1836), 79, and (1837), 35, 41. 
 
 220. Mich. Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 
 
 221. The area of Stockbridge was that of a surveyed township 
 
 from its organization in 1836, when it could have had 
 but a small population. It was obviously not necessary 
 to make it larger, since only the untenanted forest ex- 
 tended about it. Session Laws (1835-36), 79. 
 
460 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 bank at Rochester. ^^- The representative of the Mon- 
 roe Company who became the first promoter of Mason 
 seems to have come from Orange County, New York.^^^ 
 The township of Lansing is beHeved to have been 
 named for the Lansing in what was then Tompson 
 County, New York.^s^ 
 
 CHnton County, which lay at the north on the out- 
 skirts of the Grand and Saginaw Valleys had about 
 half as many settlers in 1837 as either of the counties 
 immediately west of it.^^^ Either of the counties south 
 of it had a population considerably more than one-half 
 larger. This population was distributed in two 
 equal townships whose longer axes extended north and 
 south,-" but the lines of natural association of settle- 
 ments apparently did not extend in that direction ; they 
 extended east and west-^at the south, along the Look- 
 ingglass River and at the north, on the Maple River. 
 In the interior between these two lines there does not 
 seem to have been many settlers until very much 
 later than 1837.-^^ There had been a goodly amount 
 
 222. History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 122. 
 
 223. Michigan Biographies, 216. 
 
 224. Cowles, Lansing and Ingham County, 113, 115. For a list 
 
 of the first settlers of the townships of the county see 
 Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 283; XII, 393; XVII, 633; XXVI, 
 643-644. 
 
 225. Shiawassee, population 1,184 
 Ionia, " 1,028 
 Eaton, " 913 
 Ingham, " 822 
 Clinton, " 529 
 
 227. Session Laws (1837), 140. The townships were Dewitt and 
 
 Watertown. 
 
 228. It is significant that the next subdivision took place in the 
 
 western half of the county, and in a way to separate the 
 northern from the southern settlements. Session Laws 
 (1837-38), 83. 
 
 Michigan Legislative Man- 
 ual (1838), 75-76. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 461 
 
 of land purchased, as is shown by the Tract Book; 
 but the bulk of these purchases appear to have been 
 for speculation. The county appears to have been gen- 
 erally less settled than many other counties where the 
 same quantity of public land was sold. Blois ^^^ men- 
 tions no villages in the county. There appear, how- 
 ever, to have been a number of nuclei of settlement 
 forming in 1837 which were to develop village life, 
 and there were a number of "paper towns" at promis- 
 ing power sites on the Lookingglass and Maple rivers, 
 principally at Dewitt in the south and in what was 
 to become Duplain Township in the northeast. 
 
 Speculative enterprizes in the cotmty began on a 
 large scale in 1836. Land was first bought in the 
 south along both sides of the Lookingglass River. A 
 specially favored spot on this river was at its jimction 
 with Prairie River, crossed by an Indian trail leading 
 from Pontiac to the lower Grand River, which it was 
 thought might develop into a highway of trade and 
 travel. The landscape is said to have possessed great 
 beauty and the soil and timber to have been excellent. 
 Water power in abundance was at hand to develop 
 these resources. In 1836 a cluster of villages began 
 there, platted mainly by New York parties — as the 
 names would suggest (Dewitt, Middletown, New Al- 
 bany) — and the usual means were adopted to attract 
 settlers; among others the streets were named from 
 principal eastern cities. Notwithstanding the promis- 
 ing outlook the financial crisis presently reduced these 
 embryo villages all to the same plane ; a few years later 
 
 229. Gazetteer, 218. 
 
462 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the sites were sold by the State for unpaid taxes. ^^"^ 
 A Httle further down the river, at Wacousta, an ex- 
 periment of a similar character but less extensive was 
 tried by a joint stock company in 1837. A sawmill 
 and gristmill were built, and a store was opened. -^^ 
 Though these village projects were failures, the per- 
 manent improvements made in mills and buildings, as 
 well as the attraction of settlers by the seeming pres- 
 ence of capital and enterprize, were of great value, 
 giving these lands a start toward agricultural settle- 
 ment. 
 
 Speculation was not confined to these favored places, 
 but spread widely over the country. In Bengal Town- 
 ship, a type of the heavily wooded township of the 
 interior — of which its first settler is quoted as saying 
 that from 1837 to 1850 it was considered the most 
 worthless township in the county — a goodly number 
 of acres are said to have been bought in 1836-37 on 
 almost every section. -^^ In many cases where the land 
 was long held out of market awaiting the rise in prices 
 which better times and the settlement of the county 
 would nattrrally bring, these nonresident investments 
 were a drag on the real interests of settlement. Very 
 early the actual settlers sought the less desirable lands 
 that were still left, rather than pay the high prices 
 
 230. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 405. 
 
 231. Ibid., 526. Illustrating the humorous side of land specula- 
 
 tion at this period, the volume referred to (p. 424) gives 
 an interesting account of a race between a speculator 
 and an agent of the Duplain colony to enter land at 
 Kalamazoo. 
 
 232. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 393-395. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 403 
 
 demanded by speculators; such was the case, for ex- 
 ample, with the first German colonists of Westphalia 
 Township. Yet the Tract Books show that compara- 
 tively few of the actual settlers of the county bought 
 their lands originally from the Government. 
 
 Another factor which deceived and discouraged many 
 intending settlers, at least in some parts of the coimty, 
 was the unfriendly attitude of the hunters and trap- 
 pers, who looked upon agricultural settlement as hos- 
 tile to their own interests. Among other means to 
 discourage settlers they are said to have posted on 
 trees numerous notices that no trespassing would be 
 allowed in the premises, signing fictitious names for 
 the proprietor. The natural conclusion would be that 
 the land had all been purchased there, and on inquir- 
 ing in the neighborhood the impression would be con- 
 firmed. Of one settler thus deceived it is related that 
 he went to the land office, caused a diagram to be 
 made out showing the actual condition of ownership 
 of certain lands, and sold copies of it to inquiring 
 settlers. He bought land, built a cabin and prepared 
 to stay; but threatening notices and continued petty 
 annoyances compelled him to sell out and leave. Such 
 a neighborhood gained a reputation that led settlers 
 to avoid it.^'^^ 
 
 There appear to have been a few actual settlers in 
 the county as early as 1833-34 who made sHght begin- 
 nings before 1835 on the Lookingglass River in the 
 
 233. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 386. This is 
 told of the township of Bath. It cannot be said upon 
 the evidence to have been a universal practice. 
 
464 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 present Dewitt and Eagle townships. These first set- 
 tlers are said to have come originally from Litchfield, 
 Connecticut and Shoreham, Vermont, but intermedi- 
 ately from Washington and Genesee counties in New 
 York, and from Oakland and Washtenaw counties, 
 Michigan. ^^"^ One of these settlements was made at 
 the site opposite Dewitt, which is mentioned above as 
 having been a chief point of speculative enterprize in 
 1836-37. At this point in 1833 settled Captain David 
 Scott, from Ann Arbor, after whom the place was long 
 known as "Scott's." It became a helpful center of in- 
 formation and inn accommodation for settlers passing 
 on the "Northern Route" to the Grand River coun- 
 ^j.y 235 j-j-g settlement was slow, but it was somewhat 
 accelerated by the mills which were established by 
 speculative enterprize on the river in 1837-38. The 
 location of the county seat there in 1835 and the 
 establishment of the township of Dewitt in that year 
 shows it to have been considered a prospective center 
 of early population in the county. ^^"^ It appears to 
 have been situated on the route from both Pontiac 
 and Howell to Grand Rapids, from the latter of which 
 
 234. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, AS3;V, 325, 32S;XVll, 410. History 
 of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 33S, 437. Lebanon 
 Township at the extreme northeast is said to have re- 
 ceived one settler from Washtenaw County in 1834, but 
 not to have received its second settler until 1837. His- 
 tory of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 338, 471. 
 
 235 History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 338, 406. 
 
 236. Ibid., 342; Mich. Hist. Colls., XVII, 413; Session Laws 
 (1835-36), 78. County buildings seem not to have been 
 occupied until 1843. The shifting of the center of popu- 
 lation with the increasing settlement of the county 
 caused the removal of the coimty seat to St. Johns in 
 1857. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 465 
 
 places there is said to have been a weekly mail in 
 1837.2" 
 
 In that year of enterprise, 1836, a notable settle- 
 ment took place in the northeastern corner of Clinton 
 County somewhat similar to that made three years 
 before at Ionia. It was somewhat larger, some twenty- 
 five families, and it differed from the Ionia colony in 
 having a formal organization. It was known in its 
 Articles of Association as "The Rochester Colony," and 
 in the particulars of association it had much in com- 
 mon with the colony at Vermontville. According to 
 the accoimt in the History of Shiawassee and Clinton 
 Counties, the right to a controlling interest in the com- 
 pany attached to one share of $125, $5 of which was 
 to be paid down and the balance on demand, each 
 member to receive eighty acres of farm land and one 
 or more lots in the contemplated village. The lands 
 were to be secured at Rochester by lot, but to insure 
 their actual improvement no deed in fee simple was 
 to be given until the subscriber had actually settled 
 or insured his settlement on his land with his family, 
 or in lieu of settlement had improved it to one-fourth 
 of the cost. The remainder of the company's lands 
 were to be sold at auction, and the proceeds were to 
 be equitably divided. Eighteen months were to be 
 allowed after the drawing either to settle or improve; 
 failure to do one or the other forfeited the land to the 
 company, to be sold at auction with certain provisions 
 
 237. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 329. Blois does not mention a settle- 
 ment there. For the first settlers, of the neighboring 
 river townships of Eagle and Watertown, see Mich. Hist. 
 Colls., V, 328; XIV, 622; XVII, 412. 
 59 
 
466 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 in favor of the subscriber. Agents were chosen to 
 locate the land and administer the company's financial 
 affairs, but the agents were not to purchase any lands 
 bordering on those of the company until after the 
 company's pvirchase had been completed and the agents 
 had returned to Rochester. ^^^ 
 
 Influences at Detroit led these agents to this region, 
 where they are reported to have found all of the im- 
 portant points taken "excepting one which lies on 
 the Maple River." In the present Duplain Township 
 they seem to have spent four days investigating and 
 weighing the relative advantages of the variotis places 
 they had visited, -^^ and their report shows that water 
 power, good soil, timber, and the prospect of a canal 
 near by weighed most in favor of that site. The den- 
 sity of the forest was mentioned as somewhat of a 
 drawback. The agents laid much stress on the pro- 
 posed State project of a canal to connect the Maple 
 and Shiawassee rivers, "which, if that takes place," 
 they are quoted as saying, "will cause a great drift of 
 business through this section of the country, as it will 
 save something like one thousand miles of water car- 
 riage around the Lakes. '"^^^ The settlement was made 
 in 1836, but is not mentioned by Blois. 
 
 Another prominent power site early covered by pur- 
 
 238. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 423; Mich. Hist. 
 
 Colls., V, 329. 
 
 239. They had been directed to go first to the neighborhood of 
 
 the Wabash and Erie Canal and the lower Maiimee 
 River in Ohio, thence to Fort Wayne and the northern 
 counties of Indiana, thence to Michigan along the Grand 
 River. They are said to have spent a month before their 
 return to Rochester. 
 
 240. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 331. 
 
THE GRAND RIVER REGION 467 
 
 chase from the Government was that at the present 
 Maple Rapids. As early as 1832 this site was bought 
 by George Campau who is said to have established a 
 trading post there in the same year that his brother 
 Louis established the one at Grand Rapids (1826).^'*^ 
 By 1837 the lands in this vicinity had been mainly 
 taken up by speculators. ^^^ 
 
 In 1836 a colony of German Catholics began to 
 gather in the township of Westphalia. "^^ This appears 
 to have resulted from their failure to find suitable 
 lands on the lower Grand River whither they are said 
 to have been directed by a Catholic priest whom they 
 consulted on their arrival at Detroit; only land at 
 speculators' prices seems to have been available there 
 and they turned northward to lands of which they 
 had heard while at Lyons. The sterling character of 
 these immigrants is evidenced by the early transfor- 
 mation wrought in this township, which is said to 
 have contained originally much swamp and to have 
 been considered by speculators as not worth atten- 
 tion. ^^4 
 
 241. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 338, 446. 
 
 242. Ibid., 444-446. 
 
 243. Ibid., 533, 535. This volume reports the township as 
 
 populated (1880) almost exclusively by German Catho- 
 lics. The original colony is said to have purchased 
 almost a section of contiguous land. 
 
 244. The township was organized with the area of a surveyed 
 
 township in 1839. Session Laws (1839), 21. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Sources and Character of Population 
 
 TT is almost a truism that the habits and ideals of a 
 new country are determined largely by the environ- 
 ment from which the people come. Their inheritance 
 — social, economic, political, religious — is transplanted 
 with them and forms the matrix from which their 
 life in the new environment is to grow, and in turn 
 the new environment, as the medium through which 
 their life seeks to express itself, tends to modify the 
 inheritance. The study of settlement finds a large 
 part of its value in the aid it can give to explain how 
 the life of a people has come to be what it is, and 
 hence the question of the sources of population and 
 of their relative contributions to different areas is one 
 of its important problems. 
 
 In this respect a typical Michigan county is Wash- 
 tenaw.^ The chief areas from which settlers came 
 
 1. There are two reasons for basing this chapter upon a study 
 of the population of Washtenaw County; first, the settle- 
 ment areas treated in the preceding chapters are too 
 large to admit within the scope of this study either of 
 the necessary detail or of some degree of control of the 
 materials. Data for other Michigan counties have been 
 given to some extent in connection with chapters deal- 
 ing with the several settlement areas, and the results 
 substantially agree with those here obtained. Again, 
 Washtenaw is a typical coimty in a typical group of 
 cotmties. In surface, soil, drainage, timber, water- 
 power, ease of communication and proximity to adequate 
 
SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 469 
 
 immediately to this county is suggested by the rela- 
 tive number of original land purchasers who registered 
 from different places. Five himdred and eighteen 
 patents give places of registration in the following 
 proportions : 
 
 New England 25 
 
 New York 228 
 
 Other Middle. Atlantic states 5 
 
 Southern states 
 
 Western states 3 
 
 Foreign 4 
 
 Washtenaw County, Michigan 212 
 
 Other Michigan counties 41 
 
 Total 518 
 
 1. Con. markets and supply depots it closely resembles Oakland 
 and Lenawee counties, and this area appears to be fairly 
 representative in popiilation, if we except the southwestern 
 counties where there was a much larger proportion of 
 settlers from states outside of New York and New Eng- 
 land. The chief limitation upon results is imposed by 
 the extent, accessibility and nature of the materials. It 
 hardly needs sa^nng that satisfying results can be ob- 
 tained only as they are obtained by the census bureau, 
 by counting individuals, and one may well ask what is 
 to be understood by a source of population for the indi- 
 vidual. It was exceptional for a settler to emigrate 
 directly from his place of birth to Michigan. He was 
 much more likely to have a number of intermediate stop- 
 ping places; for example, he might be bom in England, 
 migrate with his parents to Connecticut, be educated 
 in Vermont, engage in business in New York, and then 
 spend some years on the frontier in Ohio and perhaps 
 return to New York for some years before settling finally 
 in Michigan. It is pertinent to ask, Where did he "come 
 from" and to which environment was he most indebted 
 for his quahties and ideals? The relative efficiency of 
 
470 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 By far the largest number of New York purchasers 
 registered from Genesee, Monroe, Ontario and Seneca 
 counties; Cayuga, Livingston, Steuben and Wayne 
 counties made up the next largest number; these eight 
 coimties, which made a fairly compact area, were in 
 the northern and central parts of western New York. 
 
 1. Con. different environments in these respects is doubtful, and 
 it might vary with individuals. The relative lengths 
 and dates of sojourn would introduce variations that 
 could hardly be calculated. The influence of birthplace 
 in the case above given would probably be slight, but 
 if the birthplace were Connecticut, and especially if 
 there were a background of eminent colonial antecedents 
 and family traditions, its influence would tend to be 
 considerable. It would matter much if the sojourn were 
 made, say, at Albany between the ages of fifteen and 
 twenty-five in the period of the canal projects. Un- 
 doubtedly the web of influences would be very difficult 
 for even the person concerned to disentangle. 
 
 The factors chosen here are birthplace and the place 
 of residence at the time of making the first purchase of 
 land in the county. This selection is as likely to prove 
 rational as another, and it is practicable. Some com- 
 pensation is sought by individuaUzing representative 
 citizenship. The material is definite and easily access- 
 sible, consisting of land patents and biographical sketches. 
 The originals of the United States land patents issued to 
 the first purchasers of land in the county are on file at 
 Washington. There are duplicates of about one-half of 
 them in the Register of Deeds' office in Ann Arbor, and 
 these are used here. Of those consulted, there were five 
 hundred and eighteen that were useful for the present 
 purpose, which were issued between 1824 and 1839. Of 
 these buyers two himdred and fifty-three registered 
 from Michigan, reducing the number on which to cal- 
 culate outside sources to two hundred and sixty-five. 
 This number however ought to be fairly representative 
 of the early period. Undoubtedly some of these pur- 
 chasers were not actual settlers. Yet the size of single 
 purchases does not in general indicate the professional 
 speculator. Comparatively few of the names recur fre- 
 
SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 471 
 
 Four-fifths of these patents (183) name counties lying 
 west of the meridian of Stony Point, which passes 
 through the eastern end of Lake Ontario; and of these, 
 seven-tenths (129) name these eight counties. Less 
 than two-fifths of the whole number (89) mention 
 counties bordering on Lake Erie and Pennsylvania, and 
 purchasers were fewest in the latter. In both western 
 and eastern New York they were most numerous in 
 the area which was influenced directly by the Erie 
 Canal. ^ 
 
 1. Con. quently in other United States patents of the period, 
 
 and of such as do recur often the second registration is 
 usually from Washtenaw County, very probably indicat- 
 ing settlement there. Early local deeds of sale bearing 
 these names are almost uniformly from persons giving 
 Washtenaw County as their place of residence. The 
 material used for determining birthplaces is taken almost 
 entirely from the biographical sketches in the back of 
 the History of Washtenaw County. If compromises are 
 sometimes permissible when the ideal is unattainable, 
 clearly one must be made here. It woiild be qmte in- 
 expedient to try to check up this material except by 
 sketches of a similar nature, as for example those in the 
 volumes of the Mich. Hist. Colls., and it is not always 
 certain that these are independent sources. A fair nimi- 
 ber of test cases have given resiilts entirely favorable to 
 sketches in the History of Washtenaw County. 
 
 2. Counties in western New York contributing: 
 
 48-50— a Cayuga 12 59-68— a Onondaga 7 
 
 35-48 Chautauqua . . 3 40-43— b Ontario 19 
 
 36-62— b Erie 7 21-25— b Seneca 22 
 
 52-60— b Genesee 24 34-46 Steuben 11 
 
 28-35 — b Livingston. ... 13 28-21 Tioga 2 
 
 50-65— a Monroe 20 37-38 Tompkins 3 
 
 18-31— a Niagara 7 34-42— a Wayne 18 
 
 19-44— a Orleans 6 19-20— b Yates 8 
 
 Counties in eastern New York contributing : 
 
 37-41 Chenango. ... 1 27-44 Oswego 1 
 
 40-43— c Columbia 2 51-50— b Otsego 3 
 
472 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 A glance at this data reveals a relation between the 
 number of purchases made from a county and the rate 
 and amount of the county's growth. On the whole it 
 was from the counties of slow growth that the pur- 
 chases were most numerous, like Seneca. Though its 
 population was small, growing in ten years from 
 21,000 to 25,000, it gave next to the highest number of 
 purchasers. The largest number was given by Gene- 
 see County, which belonged to the group of slow 
 growth but of large or medium population; notable 
 examples of this group are Ontario and Wayne. An 
 
 2. Con. 51-52 — c Dutchess 4 13-12 — c Putnam 2 
 
 30-30 — c Greene 2 49-60 — be Renssalaer .... 3 
 
 36-37 — a Herkimer 1 39-41 — be Saratoga 4 
 
 49-61— Jefferson 1 12-16 Sullivan 1 
 
 39-40— a Madison 5 37-46— c Ulster 1 
 
 71-85— a Oneida 6 36-49— e Westchester.. . 1 
 
 45-51— c Orange 3 31 — c New York City 4 
 
 a — Counties crossed by the Erie Canal. 
 b — Counties within the Canal's immediate sphere of influ- 
 ence, 
 c — Hudson River counties. 
 
 The population for 1830 and 1840 appears at the left 
 of the counties; the unit is 1000. The number of pur- 
 chases appears at the right. Comparisons must take 
 account of relative density; relative numerical strength 
 may deceive, owing to. the varying size of the counties. 
 Of course the counties as they then existed are not the 
 present counties, and allowance must also be made for 
 changes in county boundaries between 1830 and 1840. 
 See plates 5, 6, 7, 8 of the United States Statistical Atlas, 
 1900. Plate 8 shows a considerable area on the Pennsyl- 
 vania border that was still sparsely populated in 1850. 
 For population in 1830 and 1840 see United States Census 
 (1830), 36-47, 50-53 and Ibid., (1840), 110, 123. Specific 
 references to the patents in the Libers are for reasons of 
 expediency omitted. 
 
SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 473 
 
 apparent exception was Monroe County, just west of 
 Wayne; it had a large population but its growth was 
 comparatively rapid; it ranked third. The small num- 
 ber of purchases from counties of small population and 
 rapid growth is seen in Orleans and Niagara counties 
 directly west of Wayne and Monroe, which had quite 
 as good soil and location; the same may be said in 
 large measure of Erie and Chautauqua. In these four 
 counties, still in the pioneer stage, land was plentiful 
 and there was no need of purchasing elsewhere. 
 
 Almost all of the New York purchasers registered 
 from Canal or Hudson River counties. There occurs 
 one striking gap in the former group, in the area 
 covered by southern Herkimer, Fulton, Montgomery, 
 Schenectady and Albany counties ; all of these appear 
 in the United States census of 1830 and of 1840 with 
 a fair population.^ 
 
 Outside of New York'* the greatest number of patents 
 
 3. Excepting Fulton County, in 1830, Plates 6 and 7, United 
 
 States Statistical Atlas, 1900, show the density of popula- 
 tion to have been comparatively small in the area east 
 of Utica, which agrees with this in part. 
 
 4. (Liber and page) 
 Maine 31.787. 
 
 New Hampshire.. . . D.413-38.593. 
 
 Vermont D.386-E. 292-1.275-31.800. 
 
 Massachusetts D.263-E.174-F.118-L.376-M.265-M. 
 
 337-N.23-X.90-X.293-39.113. 
 
 Rhode Island K. 18-0.428-32.783. 
 
 Connecticut B.375-M.356-U.25-U.572-28.561. 
 
 Pennsylvania H.391-M.350-N.334. 
 
 Virginia F.351. 
 
 New Jersey W.159. 
 
 Ohio P.300-S.139-U.282. 
 
 Upper Canada E.170-M.376. 
 
 England L.479. 
 
 Scotland 39.440. 
 
474 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 registered from any one State was ten from Massa- 
 chusetts. This was two-thirds of all that were regis- 
 tered from New England, and these purchases were 
 made mainly in the 20's, by persons from Berkshire, 
 Worcester and Franklin counties, and from Boston. 
 
 Connecticut and Vermont rank next among the New 
 England States. Four purchasers registered from Cale- 
 donia, Addison and Franklin counties, Vermont; and 
 five from Connecticut, from the counties of Litchfield 
 and New London, and from the city of New Haven. 
 From Rhode Island one registered from Providence, 
 one from Newport, and one from Washington County. 
 Pennsylvania and Ohio were next, furnishing each 
 three registrations, comparatively late; the Pennsyl- 
 vanians were from Bradford and Dauphin counties, the 
 Ohioans from the counties of Huron and Sandusky. 
 
 From each of the remaining sources Maine, New 
 Hampshire, Virginia, New Jersey, Upper Canada, Eng- 
 land and Scotland there were registered but one or 
 two purchasers. 
 
 Two hundred and twelve persons registered from 
 Washtenaw County, Michigan. Outside this county 
 the largest number of registrations was from Wayne 
 County (24), over one-half of which were from De- 
 Con. The earliest Libers use the alphabet, and are continued 
 numerically beginning with 27. The above are sample 
 references (those for New England, etc.)- 
 
 A thousand patents which might be obtained by fol- 
 lowing the later registrations would perhaps vary these 
 proportions somewhat, by including the later pur- 
 chases. As each patent gives also the location, date, 
 and extent of the particular purchase, these items cotdd 
 be made to reveal the distribution of the purchases in 
 different periods over the county. 
 
SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 475 
 
 troit. Lenawee County ranked next with nine. Oak- 
 land, Monroe, Livingston and Jackson counties fur- 
 nished together eight purchasers.^ 
 
 Turning now to the settlers: of 965 adult settlers 
 who came to Washtenaw County between 1815 and 
 1850, less than a third (277) were of foreign birth; of 
 these Ireland, England and Germany furnished the 
 greater number, respectively 91, 85, and 82. Scotland 
 sent 10, Canada 7 and Switzerland 2. 
 
 The native American settlers were born chiefly in 
 New York and New England. Of these New York 
 furnished alone more than one-half (374), which was 
 more than a third of the whole number. From the 
 other Middle Atlantic states came 89 ; 40 of them from 
 Pennsylvania, 44 from New Jersey and 5 from Virginia. 
 The absence of birthplaces in Delaware, Maryland and 
 the western and southern states is notable. 
 
 New England furnished considerably -less than a 
 third of the total (224). Of these the least number 
 came from Maine (2), while Rhode Island furnished 5 
 and New Hampshire 12. The near equality of rep- 
 resentation from the three largest contributors is note- 
 worthy — Massachusetts 70, Vermont 69, Connecticut 
 66.^ 
 
 Oakland, 3- 
 
 Monroe, 3. 
 
 Livingston, 1. 
 
 Jackson, 1. 
 
 Total outside Washtenaw County in State, 41. 
 
 Total in State, 253. 
 
 Maine 2 England 85 
 
 New Hampshire 12 Ireland 91 
 
 Vermont 69 Scotland 10 
 
 Massachusetts 70 Germany 82 
 
476 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 To summarize briefly: the Irish were the leading 
 foreign element, with the English and the Germans 
 close rivals. Scotch and Canadians were few. New 
 York led in the native element, with New England 
 close. The foreign. New York, New England and 
 other elements contributed in about the proportions of 
 27, 37, 21 and 8. Of the New England sources, Maine, 
 New Hampshire and Rhode Island contributed few; 
 Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut contributed 
 about equally and in considerable numbers. Pennsyl- 
 vania and New Jersey showed less, and in about equal 
 proportions. A few settlers were from Virginia. 
 
 Comparing the results obtained from the biographi- 
 cal sketches and the patents, large and general like- 
 nesses appear. In each group the New York element 
 was very much larger than that from any other source, 
 four times greater in the nativities and twenty-two 
 times greater in the places of first land purchases. 
 The New England, foreign, and Middle Atlantic con- 
 tributions stood next, while in both groups the western 
 and southern states were of but slight importance. 
 
 In each group. New England furnished a large per- 
 cent of the population, largest from Massachusetts. 
 Vermont and Connecticut ranked as contributors 
 
 6. Con. Rhode Island 5 Switzerland 2 
 
 Connecticut 66 New England 224 
 
 New York 374 New York 374 
 
 Pennsylvania 40 Foreign 277 
 
 New Jersey 44 Other Middle Atlantic 
 
 Virginia 5 states 89 
 
 Ohio Western states 
 
 Canada 7 
 
 Southern states 
 
SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 477 
 
 second and third; while Maine, New Hampshire and 
 Rhode Island contributed the least number. 
 
 In the Middle Atlantic states there were represented 
 the same contributors, in addition to New York; 
 namely, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia — the 
 latter being subordinate in each group. Neither group 
 included southern states; and it was the same with 
 western states, excepting a few patents to Ohioans. 
 
 The most marked differences between the two groups 
 appear in the foreign element. The differences in na- 
 tive population appear especially in the percentages, 
 differences which in their larger aspects would not be 
 materially affected if the birth figtires for the foreign 
 elements were omitted. The nativities show a very 
 much higher percent of New Englanders than do the 
 nativities. The former statement is true also for the 
 other Middle i\tlantic states. This is probably indica- 
 tive for the masses of what is so frequently found true 
 in particular families of old settlers in the county, 
 that the immigration to the county from New York 
 was largely by persons born in other states who in the 
 earlier days had settled in New York.''' 
 
 An interesting confirmation of the large New York 
 and New England elements in Michigan's population 
 is obtained by noting some of the county's prominent 
 public men of the period — although quite the reverse 
 
 7. 
 
 New England 24 percent 
 
 New York 38 
 
 Foreign 29 
 
 Other Middle Atlantic states. . . 9 
 
 Western states 
 
 Southern states 
 
 tivity Patent 
 
 rcent. 9 
 86 
 
 percent 
 
 u 
 
 " 2 
 
 u 
 
 2 
 
 ii 
 
 1 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 « 
 
478 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 of the proportions is found. In these the percentage 
 of New York nativities is greater than that for New 
 England. Forty-eight percent of those members of 
 the legislature^ whose nativities are given were born 
 in New York, thirty-seven percent in New England, 
 thirteen percent in the Middle Atlantic states outside 
 of New York, and two percent in New England. The 
 New England contributions were made mainly from 
 Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and in 
 nearly equal numbers. The same Middle Atlantic 
 states outside of New York were represented; namely. 
 New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the fomier 
 leading. Maine and Rhode Island did not contribute. 
 The only foreign element was one Englishman. 
 
 Examining the counties in which were born the 
 members of the Michigan Legislature from 1835 to 
 1850: one-half of the members who were bom in 
 New York came from the western part of that State, 
 Ontario and Cayuga counties alone furnishing seven 
 of these, the former four, the latter three; Wayne and 
 Niagara counties furnished each one. Excepting Niag- 
 ara, not any of the extreme western and southwestern 
 areas contributed. Of the southern and southeastern 
 counties only Chenango, Broome and Orange counties 
 were represented — each sent one. 'The remaining New 
 
 8. The volume of Michigan Biographies (1888), compiled mider 
 the auspices of the State of Michigan, gives sketches of 
 forty-six members from Washtenaw County in the Ter- 
 ritorial and State legislatures between 1835 and 1850. 
 On checking these up from the legislative manuals, the 
 volumes of the Mich. Hist. Colls., Representative Aden, the 
 histories of the county and other sources, scarcely an 
 error was found. The figures are based upon the ma- 
 terial in Michigan Biographies. 
 
SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 479 
 
 York members came from central and eastern counties ; 
 one each from Lewis, Madison, Otsego and Schoharie 
 counties, and three from east of the Hudson River; two 
 of these were bom in Columbia County, and the third 
 in Renssalaer County.^ 
 
 9. Members of Territorial and State legislatures from Wash- 
 tenaw Coiinty from 1835-59. References are to Mich- 
 igan Biographies, with page and the initials of members. 
 
 Counties in western New York contributing : nativities — 
 
 Cayuga (3)— N.S.583-B.W.W.662-E.L.F.279. 
 
 Livingston. . . (1)— W.F.268. 
 
 Niagara (1)— J.M.E.246. 
 
 Ontario (4)— W.B.139-J.R.550-D.P.524-H.T.W.666. 
 
 Wayne (1)— O.W.687. 
 
 Counties in eastern New York contributing — 
 
 Broome . . . 
 
 .(!)- 
 
 -H.C.186. 
 
 Chenango . 
 
 .(!)- 
 
 -T.W.712. 
 
 Columbia. . 
 
 .(2)- 
 
 -A.P.533-W.S.C.155 
 
 Lewis 
 
 .(!)- 
 
 -S.L.H.316. 
 
 Madison. . . 
 
 .(!)- 
 
 -J.G.L.413. 
 
 Otsego 
 
 .(!)- 
 
 -R.E.M.478. 
 
 Orange 
 
 .(!)- 
 
 -S.D.224. 
 
 Renssalaer. 
 
 .(!)- 
 
 -S.D.233. 
 
 Schoharie. . 
 
 .(!)- 
 
 -J.L.423. 
 
 Two members, not known what counties N.R.R.541-J.W.H. 
 
 343. 
 Members of the State legislature 1850-84 who settled in 
 
 Washtenaw County before 1850. 
 
 Counties in western New York contributing : nativities — 
 Alleghanv. . . (1)— G.P.536. 
 Cayuga.'. . . .(4)— C.J.383-J.D.W\698-W.B.65-C.S.G. 
 
 309. 
 
 Erie (D— D.P.522. 
 
 Genesee (2)— O.C.176-G.P.S.572. 
 
 Livingston. . . (2)— C.W.684-B.C.157. 
 
 Onondaga. . .(3)— E.L.B.121-J.D.C.199-A.H.C.201. 
 
 Ontario (8)— J.H.B.84-T.D.L.406-A.F.K.399-D.A. 
 
 W. 716-P.C.194-A.R.560-J.J.R.560- 
 
 J.W.M.464. 
 
480 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 From New England, the Connecticut members were 
 natives of Sharon and Litchfield^ ° in Litchfield County, 
 Norwich^^ in New London, Danbury^^ in Fairfield, Can- 
 terbury^^ in Windham, and Sterling^"^ in Tolland County. 
 Massachusetts members came from the comparatively 
 limited area of two counties, Berkshire and Norfolk. 
 Sandisfield,^^ West Stockbridge,^*^ Cheshire^ ^ and Great 
 Harrington, ^^ were nativities in the former; Wey- 
 mouth, ^^ in Norfolk. Members of Vermont birth came 
 from St. Johnsbury-° in Caledonia County, from 
 Rupert^^ in Bennington, from Rutland-^ in Rutland, 
 
 9. Con. Schuyler. . . . (1)— J.S.T.641. 
 
 Seneca (1)— C.Y.721. 
 
 Steuben (1)— L.J.W.684. 
 
 Wayne (2)— L.K.H.341-F.W.C.184. 
 
 Wyoming. . . . (1)— L.D.N. 494. 
 Yates (2)— L.C.213-N.W.676. 
 
 Counties in eastern New York contributing — 
 Cortland.... (1)—J.G.293. 
 
 Fulton (1)— D.M.450. 
 
 Oneida (1)— G.T.G.312. 
 
 Otsego (1)— S.P.510. 
 
 Renssalaer. . .(1)— E.B.W.669. 
 
 Unknown C.S.586-I.R.555-O.H.342. 
 
 10. O.K.388. 
 
 11. A.G.290. 
 
 12. A.W.696. 
 
 13. J.K.396. 
 
 14. H.H.318. 
 
 15. O.P.513. 
 
 16. G.S.602. 
 
 17. N.P.525. 
 
 18. G.S.575. 
 
 19. M.P.531. 
 
 20. A.C.208. 
 
 21. O.R.556. 
 
 22. A.M.463. 
 
SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 481 
 
 and from Newfane^^ in Windham; the birthplace of 
 one other member the writer has been unable to ascer- 
 tain with certainty.-^ New Hampshire contributed 
 from Petersboro-^ in Hillsborough County. 
 
 The first items in the Detroit Gazette that mention 
 the sources of immigration to Michigan emphasize 
 the '"Genesee country" of western New York, especi- 
 ally the counties of Monroe and Ontario, and the most 
 frequent comparison made of Michigan lands is with 
 those along the Genesee River. ^^ Says the Gazette of 
 September 13, 1825, "The emigration is still principally 
 from western (the richest) counties of New York. It 
 appears that a knowledge of this country has not yet 
 reached further east than the county of Onondaga." 
 The same for January 16, 1827, estimates that nearly 
 three-fourths of the immigration to Michigan is from 
 New York and on March 6 expresses the belief that 
 four-fifths of the new population desire to adopt the 
 New York system of township government in prefer- 
 ence to that of New England." 
 
 23. M.K.391. 
 
 24. W.A.B.135. 
 
 25. W.M.473. 
 
 26. Detroit Gazette, October 12, 1821 ; June 7 and August 2, 1822. 
 
 27. In an important contribution by W. V. Smith, entitled 
 
 "The Puritan Blood of Michigan," Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 XXXVIII, 355-61, it is pointed out that the practice of 
 the courts in Michigan, from Justice Court to Supreme 
 Court, is taken almost entirely from New York; that the 
 first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan 
 was a New Yorker; that the "Big Fotir" (Justices of the 
 Supreme Court), James V. Campbell, T. M. Cooley, I. P. 
 Christian cy and B. E. Graves were all New Yorkers; that 
 the Michigan real estate law was also adopted from 
 New York. 
 61 
 
482 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 A more conservative estimate, made for 1837 and 
 including the New England element, places the New 
 Englanders and New Yorkers at about two-thirds of 
 the total population. ^^ As early as 1822 the Gazette 
 mentions Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and 
 Ohio (in this order) along with New York as chief 
 sources. ^^ Virginia also should be mentioned especially 
 for the southwest, and men from that State were con- 
 spicuous leaders in shaping the earliest laws of Michi- 
 gan. ^"^ If New York may be called the second New 
 England, Michigan may justly claim to rank as the 
 third. Owing to the great foreign immigrations to New 
 England in later times, Michigan represents today more 
 truly the blood and the ideals of the Puritans than does 
 any one of the New England states. ^^ The foreign 
 immigrants who came after 1848, finding Michigan 
 already largely occupied, moved farther west to Wis- 
 consin, Minnesota and Iowa. As a result of the early 
 immigration from New York and New England, Mich- 
 igan probably has a larger percent of original New 
 England stock than has any other State in the Union. ^- 
 
 The qualities, habits and ideals of Michigan settlers 
 in this period were therefore essentially those of 
 New York and New England. A new society 
 
 28. Channing and Lansing, Story of the Great Lakes, 261 . See 
 
 also Farmer, Hist. Detroit, I, 335. 
 
 29. Detroit Gazette, June 7, 1822. 
 
 30. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 344; XIV, 285, Michigan Biographies, 
 
 77, 715. Southwestern Michigan drew also largely from 
 the Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana. 
 
 31. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 360. 
 
 32. McLaughlin, History of Higher Education in Michigan, 12; 
 
 see also O. C. Thompson's opinion in Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 1, 400: and United States Census, 1870, under Poptda- 
 ■tdon^ 
 
SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 483 
 
 was to be formed in the wilderness by a group 
 of hardy middle-class farmers, young, hopeful, 
 ambitious, and inbued with the traditions of in- 
 dividualism in church, state and society, cut 
 loose from conservative forces, and set down in 
 the midst of almost boundless natural resources. ^^ 
 The settlers had those qualities which are most sig- 
 nificant for ability to endure the severe and continued 
 hardships of pioneer life. The great majority of them 
 were young and had been schooled by the stress of 
 hard times to suffer privations; they had a firm faith 
 in the future grounded in a supreme self-confidence; 
 they had that vivid imagination born of the presence 
 of great resources that buoyed them up in many 
 times of distress. Many of them had large families. 
 The supreme desire to leave their families a compe- 
 tence is the burden of many a pioneer reminisence 
 and was a powerful stimulus, and the leaders among 
 them had thoughts for remoter posterity. 
 
 The selective process of economic pressure in the 
 East together with the Government's regulation of 
 land sales, especially the repeal of the credit system, 
 insured comparative economic equality. This meant 
 comparative equality of opportunity, for in a society 
 where every man could own a farm there was little 
 chance for any marked separation into economic or 
 social classes. This comparatively even chance and 
 practical social equality tended to induce comparative 
 
 33. Lanman, History of Michigan, 295-300; American Historical 
 Review, XI, 304-327; Magazine of Western History, IV, 
 389-393; Atlantic Monthly, LXXVIII, 291-293; LXLI, 
 87-90, 
 
484 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 contentedness and satisfaction with life, even under 
 the most trying ills — a bulwark of strength for a new 
 commonwealth . 
 
 Along with self-confidence there was a healthful 
 self-assertiveness, the sum of those fighting qualities 
 which sharp competition and the struggle with wild 
 nature tended to enhance. The absence of the ac- 
 customed aids fostered initiative and originality. The 
 demands of primitive conditions encouraged versatility 
 in both the individual and the community. In almost 
 any community of these pioneer farmers there were 
 men from various walks of life, men who were ready 
 to turn the hand to the old occupations, but whom 
 the comparative ease of supporting a family by farm- 
 ing in Michigan had induced to abandon, at least 
 temporarily, the old pursuits.^"* 
 
 Being mainly young people, naturally they lacked 
 the conservative elements which usually characterize 
 the older settled sections. They had the character- 
 istic venturesomeness of youth and radicalism, well 
 illustrated in the public improvement schemes of the 
 early days.^^ Their private enterprise is illustrated in 
 the building of the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad not a 
 half dozen years after the first successful road in Eng- 
 land.^'' On the other hand, their impetuosity and im- 
 patience of restraint were a fertile source of danger, 
 as seen in the results of land speculation and the early 
 banking laws. Filled with the traditions of the Dec- 
 laration of Independence, removed from conservative 
 
 34. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 191. 
 
 35. Campbell, Outlines of the Political History of Michigan 
 
 487-500. 
 
 36. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 231. 
 
SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 485 
 
 influences, and taking a new inspiration from the 
 freedom of the wilderness, this new society had as its 
 fundamental principle the exaltation of the individual. 
 In striking contrast were the "volatile, reckless, ami- 
 able" French-Canadians along the eastern shore waters, 
 reared under a paternalistic regime and reverencing the 
 traditions of the French monarchy. ^^ 
 
 Notwithstanding this spirit of individual indepen- 
 dence, these immigrants had a deep sense of social re- 
 sponsibility. Unlike the hunter type of pioneer, char- 
 acteristic of some parts of the southern states, these 
 people were a sociable, home-loving people, fond of 
 close neighbors. This was a social bond of great 
 value; a clearing in a Michigan forest might become 
 the nucleus of a village or city. Despite the sharp- 
 ness of competition among the settlements there was a 
 lively sympathy which made for coherence in the social 
 body, while the tendency to take the large outlook 
 kept them in touch with the world outside. It is said 
 to have been a characteristic desire of the New Eng- 
 lander at home to know "how things were going in 
 other parts;" and now, in the Michigan forest, it was 
 naturally emphasized by the desire to know what was 
 going on "back home." In their thought national 
 affairs loomed large, as is evident from the early Mich- 
 gan newspapers, which often gave verbatim reports of 
 the important speeches in Congress. 
 
 The attitude of the early settlers toward political 
 and governmental problems was intensely democratic. 
 They were themselves men of small means, many of 
 whom were not unfamiliar with the ills of debt. Their 
 
 37. Lanman, Michigan, preface, vii. 
 
486 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 sympathies were naturally with the debtor class; im- 
 prisonment for debt was abolished in Michigan about 
 the close of this period, hastened doubtless by the 
 experiences of land speculation and banking. ^^ The 
 so-called "wild-cat banking" was an experience grow- 
 ing naturally out of the popular demand for a "demo- 
 cratic" extension of what was regarded as a special 
 privilege. The democratic spirit found a typical gov- 
 ernmental expression in the town meeting, which is 
 said to have found in Michigan'"^^ its first home in the 
 West. 
 
 On the other hand these settlers were strictly con- 
 servative in their social, religious and educational in- 
 heritances from the East. Their intensified individ- 
 ualism tended in some respects to emphasize these; 
 slavery, for example, was abhorrent to them.^'' The 
 first State constitution prohibited slavery in much the 
 same language as that used in the Ordinance of 1787.'*^ 
 Many settlers came in from the states on the south 
 because of the greater security offered in Michigan 
 against slavery. The people of the southern Michigan 
 counties took a prominent part later in aiding the es- 
 cape of fugitive slaves from the South. "^^ 
 
 Essentially Puritan in spirit, the church and the 
 school were to be found among the earliest institu- 
 tions in every settlement. The presence of the Con- 
 gregational Church was a pretty certain indication of 
 
 38. Session Laws (1839), 76. 
 
 39. Johns Hopkins University Studies, I, No. 5, p. 10. 
 
 40. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 345-348; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
 
 VII, 523. 
 
 41. Michigan Manual, (1837), 45, Art. II. 
 
 42. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 26. 
 
SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 4S7 
 
 a New England settlement. A Baptist Church was 
 likely to be at the center of a distinctively New York 
 settlement. ^^ Church schools and colleges were inev- 
 itable. Kalamazoo, Albion, Olivet, Hillsdale and other 
 present-day Michigan colleges of the denominational 
 type are the fruit of this spirit. Religious leaders, in- 
 cluding men like Father Richard, were to be among 
 the strongest educational and political forces of the 
 commonwealt'i. The first professors in the enbryonic 
 university at Detroit were Father Richard and John 
 Monteith, a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister, 
 the former being one of the early delegates to Con- 
 gress. To the Reverend John D. Pierce, first State 
 Superintendent of Public Instruction, is due more than 
 to any other one man the shaping of Michigan's early 
 public school system. 
 
 For the masses of the people, despite the advantages 
 of church and school, which in truth in this period were 
 meager, there was an almost irresistible tendency to 
 revert to primitive conditions. Yet the domestic vir- 
 tues, the strength of will and the hard common sense 
 characteristic of the Yankee were qualities much more 
 important to the young life of the community than 
 the amenities of the East A New Yorker traveling 
 through Michigan in 1833-34 says:^'^ "I found myself 
 among the most intelligent population of the middle 
 class (the bone and sinew of every community), I ever 
 mixed with." On the moral side their sterling tradi- 
 
 43. The central point among the first churches and schools in a 
 
 community was a fair indication of the center of popula- 
 tion. 
 
 44. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 152. 
 
488 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 tions, the intensified individualism which placed a 
 premium upon character in the individual, and the 
 quick and generous recognition of personal merit, 
 acted as a powerful uplift. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 Conclusion 
 
 n^HE years beginning with the organization of Michi- 
 gan Territory (1805) mark the dawn of Michigan 
 settlement by immigrants from the eastern states. Be- 
 fore then practically the only white men in Michigan 
 were the French-Canadians, who occupied Detroit and 
 the shore lands above and below that point — prin- 
 cipally the lands near the mouth of the Raisin, the 
 Clinton and the St. Clair. There was no inland settle- 
 ment, and there was no re alagricultural development, 
 the fur trade being the chief dependence. Very few 
 improvements came with the early American period. 
 The hostile attitude of the Indians and the War of 
 1812 effectually checked any advance inland; for some 
 years after the war there was scarcely a farm culti- 
 vated by a white man ten miles from the Territorial 
 boundary. 
 
 The years from 1818 to 1823 may be taken as the 
 first period of agricultural settlement in Michigan. In 
 1818 came the first public land sales, the beginning of 
 navigation on the Great Lakes and the opening of 
 work on the Erie Canal. The impulse of the new 
 forces thus set in motion brought the first important 
 immigration from the eastern states, and by the fol- 
 lowing year the Territory had population enough to 
 
490 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 send a delegate to Congress. There took place in 1818 
 and 1820 two important exploring expeditions to the 
 interior which were of great importance in counteract- 
 ing the false reports that had been circulated about 
 the poor quality of Michigan lands, the former result- 
 ing in the immediate founding of the first inland vil- 
 lage, at Pontiac. In 1819 and 1821 two Indian 
 treaties opened to survey and settlement all of eastern 
 Michigan, and the years 1821-23 saw the founding of 
 two Indian missions — one in southwestern Michigan 
 near Niles, destined to be an important nucleus of 
 frontier settlement in that section, another at the site 
 of Grand Rapids. By the latter year explorations had 
 been made up the Raisin and the Huron river into 
 Lenawee and Washtenaw counties, and up the Clin- 
 ton. The general stir of the year 1823 is signalized 
 also by the authorization of the second grade of Terri- 
 torial government, offering to immigrants the induce- 
 ment of a larger participation in the public affairs of 
 the Territory. 
 
 A second period extends from 1823 to 1829. The 
 first strong impulse of the period came with the open- 
 ing of the Erie Canal in 1825, which had an immediate 
 effect on steam navigation of the Lakes. In the same 
 year began the survey of the Chicago Road, which at 
 once gave impetus to settlement along its route through 
 Wayne, Washtenaw, Lenawee and the southern tier of 
 counties. By 1826 inland village centers had been 
 established at Pontiac, Tecumseh, Adrian, Ann Arbor, 
 Ypsilanti, Utica and Romeo. In 1827 the need of 
 local government for the settlers was met by the 
 organization of a large number of townships. The first 
 
CONCLUSION 491 
 
 important common school legislation was passed by 
 the Territorial legislature in that year ; indeed this was 
 a prominent year in the government's recognition and 
 aid of settlement. 
 
 In 1829 began a period of greatly accelerated exten- 
 sion of the frontier and of rapid filling in about the 
 older settlements which continued until 1832. One of 
 the most marked signs of the new impulse was the 
 authorization and partial survey in 1829 of the Terri- 
 torial Road through the Kalamazoo Valley. In the 
 same year the so-called "Cabinet counties," named for 
 President Jackson and the members of his Cabinet, 
 were established in that region, and the first counties 
 in southwestern Michigan were organized (Cass and 
 St. Joseph). The year 1831 is specially memorable 
 for the planting of many villages along both the Chi- 
 cago Road and the Territorial Road, some of which 
 were soon to become county seat villages and are today 
 the principal cities of southwestern Michigan. It was 
 also notable for the extensive land sales, which ex- 
 ceeded those of any year prior to 1835. In 1830-31 
 the first important settlements of the Saginaw Valley 
 began to appear, at Grand Blanc, Flint, Lapeer and 
 Saginaw ; and in the former year the Territorial gov- 
 ernment granted a charter for a railway into that 
 region, the first railway charter granted within the 
 area of the Old Northwest. 
 
 The period of 1832-34 was one of intermittent 
 growth. The first year stands forth prominently as a 
 black-letter year. The fears excited by the Indian 
 uprising under Black Hawk, and the epidemic of 
 cholera, while not putting a stop to immigration, seri- 
 
492 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 ously retarded it in all parts of the Territory. A 
 degree of revival came with 1833. The most note- 
 worthy events were the beginning of shipments of 
 grain and breadstuffs to eastern markets and the 
 awakening of interest in the Grand River Valley; the 
 Grand River Road was surveyed from Detroit to the 
 mouth of the Grand River in that year; Ionia was 
 founded, beginnings were made at Grand Haven and 
 accelerated at Grand Rapids, and the first marked 
 land speculations in western Michigan began. In 1834 
 there was a revival of the cholera epidemic, with even 
 greater severity, which in the eastern part of the Ter- 
 ritory tended to deaden all activities. 
 
 The period before 1835 was a period of preparation, 
 the character and fulness of which are witnessed by 
 the great transformations of the following years which 
 ushered in statehood. These were the years of the 
 great land speculations; before 1835 there were sold 
 in Michigan a little over two million acres of land; 
 sales leaped to nearly two million acres in the one 
 year 1835, and nearly four million acres were sold in 
 1836. This is an index to activities in all fields. Coun- 
 ties and townships were rapidly organized in the re- 
 moter parts of the Grand and Saginaw valleys, a State 
 constitution was adopted, Congress was petitioned for 
 admission to the Union, a State government was 
 organized and an extensive scheme of internal im- 
 provements was projected. But the financial crisis of 
 1837 came like a sudden and severe frost in the grow- 
 ing season. It brought universal disaster and made 
 the years immediately following a period of slow and 
 painful recovery. 
 
CONCLUSION 493 
 
 The earl}^ settlers of Michigan came principally from 
 New York and New England. They were impelled on 
 the one hand by economic changes which affected 
 especially the cost of living in their old homes, and on 
 the other they were invited by cheap and fertile Gov- 
 ernment land where prosperity was promised by the 
 mere rise of land values from the development of the 
 new country. The Government helped them by pro- 
 tecting the frontier, extinguishing the Indian land 
 titles, surveying and selling the lands, aiding the 
 building of roads, establishing postoffices and provid- 
 ing for local government. The obstacles which these 
 settlers met and the conditions that helped their en- 
 deavors, the checks and stimuli which influenced the 
 amount and distribution of population in this period, 
 seem worthy of repeating together. 
 
 There were, first, those checks and stimuli which 
 were due to physical environment. The surface of 
 Michigan, in places level, slightly undulating, or roll- 
 ing, rarely inconveniently hilly, with a minimum of 
 stone, swamp or sandy and rocky barrens, insured a 
 plentiful and widely distributed water supply and 
 made farming easier. Its soil was in general highly 
 productive, durable and easy to cultivate. The wind- 
 ing courses of large streams distributed excellent mill 
 sites, forming as it were, axes of settlement. Springs 
 of pure water were plentiful, due to the porosity of the 
 soil and the impervious sub -strata of limestone and 
 clay Springs of mineral water were common, having 
 saline properties in the Saginaw region and elsewhere 
 in the eastern counties. Various kinds of hard and 
 soft timber suited to all kinds of manufacture were 
 
494 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 liberally distributed in varying density. In places, as 
 on the clay soils of Monroe and Wayne counties, the 
 density of heavy timber was a serious obstacle to set- 
 tlers; but adjacent to the heavily timbered areas there 
 was a variety of oak openings, burr-oak plains, and 
 small prairies, the latter offering a special inducement 
 to settlers from the states southward familiar with 
 prairie land; streams, shore water and the Indian 
 trails lay at hand to aid communication and trans- 
 portation. 
 
 Among the conditions other than physical environ- 
 ment affecting the settler's relations to land, were the 
 Indian land titles. These titles in the Lower Peninsula 
 were, with slight exceptions, extinguished by four great 
 treaties in 1807, 1819, 1821 and 1836; the first ceded 
 the southeastern part of Michigan, west as far as the 
 principal meridian and north well into the Saginaw 
 region; within two years near the beginning of this 
 period, by the treaties of Saginaw and Chicago in 1819 
 and 1821, the great belt of country comprising the 
 valleys of the Saginaw, the Grand, the Kalamazoo and 
 the St. Joseph River systems was transferred to the 
 Government. Excepting in the southwest these lands 
 came upon the market far in advance of the actual 
 needs of settlers, and the public land sales were regu- 
 lated by the Government in the true interests of settle- 
 ment. Specially noteworthy are the several acts of 
 Congress repealing the credit system, reducing the 
 size of parcels in which land could be purchased, and 
 recognizing the claims of squatters. Often the opera- 
 tions of speculators kept settlers from desired lands or 
 impeded the growth of a struggling village, but these 
 
CONCLUSION 495 
 
 laws tended to counteract them in the interests of the 
 actual settlers. The scarcity of a medium of exchange 
 for some years after the War of 1812, which was a 
 handicap on the transference of properties, was par- 
 tially remedied by the chartering of banks in the 
 Territory. 
 
 The early reports which reached the East about 
 Michigan were conflicting, but on the whole they re- 
 acted favorably. Edward Tiffin's report in 1815 
 created lasting prejudice in many minds; but the later 
 United States surveys did much to offset it, and travel- 
 ers like McKenney, Evans, and Hoffman gave through 
 the press favorable views of the new Territory. Makers 
 of schoolbooks and guidebooks revised their works in 
 the light of later knowledge. Settlers returning to the 
 East on business, or to visit, or to bring out their rel- 
 atives, gave their views. Letters increased in number 
 with the volume of immigration and the improvement 
 of post roads. _Many of these "letters from the West" 
 were published in eastern newspapers. Speculators 
 circulated by the many thousands glowing praises of 
 Michigan lands. Michigan newspapers, especially the 
 Detroit papers, beginning with the Detroit Gazette in 
 1817, set forth Michigan's advantages to settlers. 
 
 The improvements made in transportation in this 
 period, though they advanced little beyond the sta- 
 tutes authorizing them were, by anticipation, a stim- 
 ulus of first importance to settlement. The most im- 
 portant were the national military roads extending 
 along the entire water front southward from Fort 
 Gratiot and branching into the interior from all the 
 important centers of population on this shore road. 
 
496 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 The Chicago Road is the key to ,the earliest inland 
 settlements outside those in Oakland, which were in- 
 fluenced by the Saginaw Road. The most important 
 road authorized by the Territorial government in this 
 period was that through the Kalamazoo Valley, the 
 importance of which for settlement was only second 
 to that of the Chicago Road. There were small be- 
 ginnings in national harbor improvement, and prepara-- 
 tions were active for canals and railroads. Steam 
 navigation on the Great Lakes and the opening of the 
 Erie Canal were strong stimuli to immigration, though 
 the masses of immigrants in this period appear to have 
 come overland. 
 
 Of the external influences causing immigration none 
 were more potent than those causes which stimulated 
 foreign immigration, especially economic pressure in 
 Ireland and the European revolutions of 1830. 
 
 One constant disabling factor to settlers was the 
 prevalence of malarial diseases, especially the "ague 
 and fever," caused by the mosquitoes which infested 
 all parts of the Territory. The Black Hawk War of 
 1832 and the cholera epidemics of 1832 and 1834 
 affected settlement seriously and widely, but tem- 
 porarily. 
 
 In the character of the population there was both a 
 check and a stimulus. There were, besides the immi- 
 grants from the eastern states of the Union, the French- 
 Canadians and a sprinkling of English, Irish, Scotch 
 and Germans. The data is wanting with which to 
 determine the proportion of the foreign-bom in the 
 total population, but it was small. Excepting the 
 French-Canadians, it first became appreciable after 
 
CONCLUSION 497 
 
 the revolutions of 1830 in Europe. There was of 
 course a larger proportion who were of foreign descent. 
 Combining results from the study of Washtenaw 
 County with those obtained from the more general 
 data given for the several settlement areas, it is ap- 
 parently safe to say of the native element that ex- 
 cepting in the southwestern counties an overwhelming 
 majority had their last place of residence in western- 
 New York; also that of these a very large proportion 
 were born in the New England States, principally in 
 Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut. 
 
 The main agents determining the sources of popula- 
 tion were the position of the Territory almost directly 
 west of Canada, New York and New England, the 
 comparative ease of transportation from the East, the 
 appeal made by the physical and economic character 
 of Michigan to the East rather than to the South, 
 the economic and political pressure in the eastern 
 states and abroad, and the southern barrier of com- 
 peting lands in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. 
 
 Forces tending to amalgamate the native and foreign 
 elements were, in the first place, the great preponder- 
 ance of the Americans in number; but equally efficient 
 was the economic fact of the necessity of a common 
 struggle for a livelihood under conditions which 
 fostered a democratic appreciation of the worth of the 
 individual. 
 
 The presence of the Indians had its good and its 
 bad features. As agricultural settlers the Indians were 
 a negligible quantity in the population, but they were 
 a factor to be reckoned with in their relations with 
 settlers. The Indian could be helpful to the settler 
 
 63 
 
498 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 as a guide or temporary aid in getting supplies, or he 
 could be annoying; and he was more likely to be the 
 latter when in liquor or when influenced by hostile 
 traders. The Indian villages called attention to choice 
 spots, though the reservations were on the whole a 
 source of delay to the settler. 
 
 The hospitality of the Michigan French -Canadians 
 •was a welcome aid to the first American immigrants, 
 but the prejudices and the thriftlessness of these 
 original settlers held back from enterprising methods 
 much of the best land along the .streams near the 
 southeastern shore. The business ability of the young- 
 er settlers from New York and New England was a 
 strong stimulus. There was a notable absence of 
 social and religious eccentrics, and in general the moral 
 tone of the settlers was high, inviting desirable ele- 
 ments of population from the older centers. 
 
 The chief motives that guided settlers in choosing 
 locations for settlement are clear, bvit a very long and 
 careful scrutiny would be needed to determine except 
 roughly the physiographic preferences that influenced 
 people from particular vStates or countries. The com- 
 pact settlements of the French-Canadians were made 
 at the river mouths, for ease of communication, of 
 defense, of food supply and of trade. Race affiliation 
 doubtless played a part. These people kept quite 
 away from the interior. For their purposes there was 
 more land along shore than they needed. The only 
 Frenchmen in the interior were the occasional Indian 
 traders or the agents of the American Fur Company. 
 
 Foreign elements other than the Canadian-French 
 seem to have been most numerous in Detroit and the 
 
CONCLUSION 499 
 
 shore villages. Germans had begun to gather in the 
 vicinity of Ann Arbor, and in less numbers at other 
 points in the interior. English settlers appeared at 
 White Pigeon and at various points on the Chicago 
 Road. There were Scotch in northwestern Macomb 
 County. The high land of Bruce Township may have 
 had upon the Scotch settlers an influence similar to 
 that reported about the effect which the New England 
 aspect of Romeo and Vermontville had upon their New 
 England settlers. A Scotch settlement or other settle- 
 ment, as in the case of the Canadian-French, had a 
 natural affinity for settlers from the same nation, 
 section or State. The power of this influence to direct 
 later settlement appears not to have been strong in 
 places where superior economic advantages conflicted 
 with it. The influences of previous occupation are 
 obvious in farming and lumbering, and to some extent 
 in the village industries and trades; but men of great 
 diversity of previous occupations engaged in farming. 
 
 The main agents affecting distribution of population 
 were the relative position and excellence of the various 
 physical and economic advantages : water power, drain- 
 age, springs of mineral and drinking water, lakes, 
 trails, fertile soils, openings and forests. Later con- 
 ditions were the roads and the presence of older 
 settlements. Not least were the reports favorable or 
 unfavorable about lands, the healthfulness of the 
 climate, and the operations of speculators. 
 
 The rate and distribution of settlement is roughly 
 indicated by the organization of counties. Before the 
 beginning of public land sales in Detroit in 1818 only 
 three counties had sufficient people to warrant organiza- 
 
500 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 tion; these were Wayne, Monroe and Macomb. In 
 1821 the remaining shore county of St. Clair was 
 organized; and in the preceding year similar attention 
 was given Oakland, the first inland county. The 
 organizing of Washtenaw and Lenawee counties in 
 1826 showed an extension of settlement along the 
 Chicago Road, and in 1829-31 a further extension is 
 indicated in the prairie region of the southwest by 
 the organization of St. Joseph, Cass, Berrien and 
 Kalamazoo counties. Jackson and Calhoun counties 
 on the Territorial Road, and Branch on the Chicago 
 Road, were organized in 1832-33. This included all 
 of the two lower tiers of counties excepting Van Buren 
 and Hillsdale. No counties were organized before 
 1835 in either the Grand or Saginaw valleys, though a 
 few settlements had been made there ; the rapid growth 
 in 1835-37 is indicated by the organizing of all of the 
 present counties in those regions. 
 
 The direction of settlement is seen to have been 
 from the eastern shore along the larger rivers and 
 roads inland to the southeastern divide, moving 
 further west first along the Chicago Road, then along 
 the Territorial Road. In the southwest the organiz- 
 ing of Kalamazoo before Jackson and Calhoun counties 
 suggests another influence, which is found in the pro- 
 jection of settlement from Ohio and Indiana across 
 Cass and St. Joseph to the Kalamazoo prairies. The 
 backwardness of Branch and Hillsdale counties ap- 
 pears to have been due mainly to their dense forests 
 and to the attraction of the more desirable prairie 
 lands westward. 
 
CONCLUSION 501 
 
 The comparative growth of the several sections in 
 population was about such as these facts would sug- 
 gest. At the end of 1834 the counties east of the 
 dividing ridge were far ahead of those west of it, with 
 a population nearly five times as large. The section 
 having the most people was that comprising the first 
 inland counties — Oakland, Washtenaw and Lenawee — 
 which exceeded the population of the shore counties 
 by a few thousand. The counties along the Chicago 
 Road west of Lenawee County exceeded the popula- 
 tion of those on the Territorial Road west of Washtenaw 
 by about a third. The Grand and Saginaw valleys 
 had but a few hundred settlers. Of all the counties, 
 Wayne took the lead, having within a few hundred 
 as many people as the whole of the Territory west of 
 the dividing ridge; but a large part of this was urban 
 population; Detroit had nearly five thousand people. 
 In rural population the leadership went to Washtenaw ; 
 Oakland County, despite its earlier start and larger 
 area, was not, like Washtenaw, on the main line of 
 immigration in this period. On the Chicago Road, 
 in the St. Joseph Valley, the leading county was Cass, 
 closely followed by St. Joseph; on the Territorial 
 Road, Kalamazoo County had much more than 
 double the population of any other county west of 
 Washtenaw. Cass, St. Joseph and Kalamazoo coun- 
 ties had each slightly above three thousand people; 
 Berrien, Calhoun and Jackson had each a few hun- 
 dred less than two thousand; Branch and Hillsdale 
 counties together barely exceeded a thousand. 
 
 By 1837, owing to the advance of immigration to 
 the interior, notable changes had taken place in the 
 
502 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 relative proportions of population in all sections. The 
 total population of Michigan was then about 175,000, 
 of which considerably over a third was west of the 
 dividing ridge in the valleys of the St. Joseph, the 
 Kalamazoo, the Grand and the Saginaw rivers. A 
 similar proportion was contained in counties above the 
 northern boundaries of Wayne and Kalamazoo; that 
 is, above the two southern tiers. The center of popula- 
 tion was in the vicinity of Washtenaw. 
 
 Comparing sections, the four eastern shore counties 
 about equaled, within a few thousand, the population 
 of the first three inland counties of Oakland, Wash- 
 tenaw and Lenawee; and the counties of the St. Joseph 
 Valley on the Chicago Road had about a third more 
 people than those in the Kalamazoo Valley on the 
 Territorial Road. In the Grand River region, with 
 nearly double the area of the Kalamazoo Valley, there 
 was about a third as many settlers as in that section ; 
 while northeast, in the Saginaw country, in a much 
 smaller area (including Livingston County) there was 
 about one-half again as many settlers as in the Grand 
 River region. 
 
 The population of the Grand and Saginaw valleys 
 together about equalled the population of the single 
 county of Oakland, or Washtenaw, or Wayne. These 
 were the three most populous counties, containing each 
 a few over twenty thousand people, with Wayne 
 slightly in the lead owing to the population of De- 
 troit. 
 
 A contrast worthy of note was presented by the 
 three first inland counties — Oakland, Washtenaw and 
 Lenawee — with the neighboring counties; eliminating 
 
CONCLUSION 503 
 
 Detroit in the case of Wayne and Washtenaw, each 
 had a greater population than the county immediately 
 east or west of it. The difference was very marked in 
 the counties immediately west. In the St. Joseph 
 Valley the leading county was still Cass, followed 
 closely by St. Joseph; the population of Berrien about 
 equalled that of Branch or Hillsdale. The popu- 
 lations of the counties in the Kalamazoo Valley 
 decreased somewhat regularly in amount with the 
 distance westward, being greatest in Jackson County 
 and least in Van Buren and Allegan; the latter 
 two numbered together but a few over two thousand. 
 The most populous counties of the Grand River coun- 
 try were Kent, Ionia and Eaton, Kent nearly doubling 
 the population of either of the others. Clinton and 
 Barry were the least settled. In the Saginaw country 
 Livingston County ranked first, more than doubling 
 the population of either Genesee or Lapeer, which 
 numbered about two thousand each. The county of 
 Saginaw had less than a thousand people. 
 
 In capacity to centralize population, the county seat 
 villages had a decided advantage over all other vil- 
 lages. Detroit had the additional advantage of being 
 the capital of the Territory and was the only incor- 
 porated city in this period. Most of the county seats 
 were incorporated villages. 
 
 As social and political centers these communities, 
 with the exception of Detroit, had as yet scarcely de- 
 veloped a strongly marked individuality. Detroit 
 owed its prestige to its age, its French traditions and 
 population, its military prominence, and its being the 
 
504 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 capital city of the Territory. Its commencing ma- 
 terially anew after the fire of 1805 with a plan modelled 
 on the city of Washington gave it more of an American 
 air than it would probably have attained otherwise 
 for many years. While the spirit of the old French 
 regime remained a pennanent heritage the aversion of 
 the French to changes, their small appreciation of 
 popular education and civil institutions, and especially 
 their lack of enterprise, made them temporarily a 
 hindrance to settlement. But as Detroit was the 
 rendezvous for almost all settlers coming from the 
 East, and the point from which almost all travelers 
 out of the Territory took their departure for the East, 
 it shared in all the forces and activities that made for 
 or against the settlement of the Territory; the conser- 
 vative influence of the French thus tended to be 
 rapidly overborne. Although Detroit had in 1837 but 
 little over eight thousand inhabitants, it had acquired 
 as a result of being an epitome of the urban life of 
 the Territory a degree of cosmopolitanism character- 
 istic of a city of many times that number. 
 
 Economic classes were not sharply distinguished in 
 this period, indtistry differentiating so little in this 
 primitive society. The interaction of farm and village 
 was just beginning to be felt, and in the villages the de- 
 mand for carpenters, mechanics and laborers in shop 
 and factory was growing. All the industries were 
 new and reflected a rich but undeveloped environ- 
 ment; yet lumbering, agriculture and manufacturing 
 had grown sufficiently • to show the trend of the fu- 
 ture and its great possibilities. 
 
^ s 
 
 X a 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 A 
 
 PUBLIC ACTS RELATING TO MICHIGAN TERRITORY 
 
 An Ordinance, for the government of the territory of the United 
 States, Northwest of the river Ohio [1787]. 
 
 Be it ordained, by the United States, in Congress assembled. 
 That the said territory, for the purposes of temporary govern- 
 ment, be one district; subject, however, to be divided into two 
 districts, as future circumstances may, in the opinion of Congress, 
 make it expedient. 
 
 Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid. That the estates, 
 both of resident and non-resident proprietors in the said territory, 
 dying intestate, shall descend to and be distributed among their 
 children, and the descendants of a deceased child, in equal parts; 
 the descendants of a deceased child or grand child, to take a 
 share of their deceased parent in equal parts among them; and 
 where there shall be no children or descendants, then in equal 
 parts to the next of kin, in equal degree: and among collaterals, 
 the children of a deceased brother or sister of the intestate, shall 
 have, in equal parts among them, their deceased parent's share; 
 and there shall, in no case, be a distinction between kindred of 
 the whole and half blood; saving in all cases to the widow of the 
 intestate her third part of the real estate for life, and one-third 
 part of the personal estate; and this law relative to descents and 
 dower shall remain in full force until altered by the legislature of 
 the district. And until the governor and judges shall adopt laws, 
 as hereinafter mentioned, estates in the said temtory may be 
 devised or bequeathed by wills in writing, signed and sealed by 
 him or her, in whom the estate may be, (being of. full age,) and 
 attested by three witnesses; and real estates may be conveyed by 
 lease and release, or bargain and sale, signed, sealed and delivered 
 by the person, being of full age, in whom the estate may be, 
 and attested by two witnesses, provided such will be duly proved. 
 
608 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 such conveyances be acknowledged, or the execution thereof duly 
 proved, and be recorded within one year after proper magistrates, 
 courts, and registers shall be appointed for that purpose; and 
 personal property may be transferred by delivery; saving, how- 
 ever, to the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers 
 of the Kaskaskias, Saint Vincents, and the neighboring villages, 
 who have heretofore professed themselves citizens of Virginia, 
 their laws and customs now in force among them, relative to 
 the descent and conveyance of property. 
 
 Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid. That there shall be 
 aiDpointed, from time to time, by congress, a governor, whose 
 cornmission shall continue in force for the temi of three years, 
 unless sooner revoked by Congress; he shall reside in the district, 
 and have a freehold estate therein, in one thousand acres of land, 
 while in the exercise of his ofhce. 
 
 There shall be appointed from time to time, by congress, a 
 secretary, whose commission shall continue in force for four years, 
 unless sooner revoked; he shall reside in the district, and have a 
 freehold estate therein, in five hundred acres of land, while in the 
 exercise of his office. It shall be his duty to keep and preserve 
 the acts and laws passed by the legislature, and the public records 
 of the district, and the proceedings of the governor in his execu- 
 tive department; and transmit authentic copies of such acts and 
 proceedings every six months, to the secretary of congress. 
 There shall also be appointed a court, to consist of three judges, 
 any two of whom to form a court, who shall have a common law 
 jurisdiction, and reside in the district, and have each therein 
 a freehold estate in five hundred acres of land, while in the exer- 
 cise of their offices; and their commissions shall continue in force 
 during good behaviour. 
 
 The governor and judges, or a majority of them, shall adopt 
 and publish in the district such laws of the original states, crim- 
 inal and civil, as may be necessary and best suited to the cir- 
 cumstances of the district, and report them to congress from 
 time to time; which laws shall be in force in the district until 
 the organization of the general assembly therein, unless dis- 
 approved of by congress; but afterwards the legislature shall 
 have authority to alter them as they shall think fit. 
 
 The governor for the time being, shall be commander-in-chief 
 of the militia, appoint and commission all officers in the same, 
 below the rank of general officers; all general officers shall be 
 appointed and commissioned by congress. 
 
 Previous to the organization of the general assembly, the 
 governor shall appoint such magistrates and other civil officers, 
 in each county or township, as he shall find necessary for the 
 
APPENDIX 509 
 
 preservation of the peace and good order in the same. After 
 the general assembly shall be organized, the powers and duties 
 of the magistrates and other civil oflficers shall be regulated 
 and defined by the said assembly; but all magistrates and other 
 civil officers, not herein otherwise directed shall, during the 
 continuance of this temporary government, be appointed by 
 the governor. 
 
 For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws to be 
 adopted or made, shall have force in all parts of the district, 
 and for the execution of process, criminal and civil, the governor 
 shall make proper divisions thereof; and he shall proceed from 
 time to time, as circiunstances may require, to lay out the parts 
 of the district in which the Indian titles shall have been extin- 
 guished, into counties and townships, subject however, to such 
 alterations as may thereafter be made by the legislature. 
 
 So soon as there shall be five thousand free male inhabitants 
 of full age, in the district, upon giving proof thereof to the gov- 
 ernor, they shall receive authority, with time and place, to elect 
 representatives from their counties or townships, to represent 
 them in the general assembly : Provided, That for every five hun- 
 dred free male inhabitants, there shall be one representative, 
 and so on progressively with the number of free male inhabitants, 
 shall the right of representation increase, until the number of 
 representatives shall amount to twenty-five, after which, the 
 number and proportion of representatives shall be regulated by 
 the legislature: Provided, That no person be eligible or qualified 
 to act as a representative, unless he shall have been a citizen of 
 one of the United States three years, and be a resident in the 
 district, or unless he shall have resided in the district three years, 
 and in either case shall likewise hold in his own right, in fee 
 simple, two hundred acres of land within the same: Provided 
 also. That a freehold in fifty acres of land in the district, having 
 been a citizen of one of the States, and being resident in the 
 district, or the like freehold, and two years' residence in the 
 district, shall be necessary to qualify a man as an elector of a 
 representative. 
 
 The representative thus elected shall serve for the term of 
 two years; and in case of the death of a representative, or removal 
 from office, the governor shall issue a writ to the county or town- 
 ship for which he was a member, to elect another in his stead, 
 to serv^e for the residue of the term. 
 
 The general assembly, or legislature, shall consist of the gov- 
 ernor, legislative council, and a house of representatives. The 
 legislative council shall consist of five members, to continue in 
 office five years, unless sooner removed by congress; any three 
 
510 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 of whom to be a quorum. And the members of the council shall 
 be nominated and appointed in the following manner, to wit: 
 As soon as representatives shall be elected, the governor shall 
 appoint a time and place for them to meet together, and when 
 met, they shall nominate ten persons, residents in the district, 
 and each possessed of a freehold in five hundred acres of land, 
 and return their names to congress; five of whom congress shall 
 appoint and commission to serve as aforesaid; and whenever a 
 vacancy shall happen in the council, by death or removal from 
 office, the house of representatives shall nominate two persons, 
 qualified as aforesaid, for each vacancy, and return their names 
 to congress; one of whom congress shall appoint and commission 
 for the residue of the term. And every five years, four months 
 at least before the expiration of the time of service of the mem- 
 bers of council, the said house shall nominate ten persons, quali- 
 fied as aforesaid, and return their names to congress; five of 
 whom congress shall appoint and commission to serve as members 
 of the council five years, unless sooner removed. And the gov- 
 ernor, legislative council, and house of representatives, shall 
 have authority to make laws, in all cases, for the good govern- 
 ment of the district, not repugnant to the principles and articles 
 in this ordinance established and declared: And all bills, having 
 passed by a majority in the house, and by a majority in the 
 council, shall be referred to the governor for his assent; but no 
 bill or legislative act whatever, shall be of any force without 
 his assent. The governor shall have power to convene, prorogue, 
 and dissolve the general assembly, when in his opinion it shall 
 be expedient. 
 
 The governor, judges, legislative council, secretary, and such 
 other officers as congress shall appoint in the district, shall take 
 an oath or affirmation of fidelity and of office; the governor 
 before the president of congress, and all other officers before the 
 governor. As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district, 
 the council and house assembled, in one room, shall have author- 
 ity, by joint ballot, to elect a delegate to congress, who shall 
 have a seat in congress, with a right of debating, but not of 
 voting, during this temporary government. 
 
 And for extending the fundamental principles of civil and 
 religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, 
 their laws, and constitutions are erected; to fix and establish 
 those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions and govern- 
 ments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said terri- 
 tory; to provide also for the establishment of states, and permanent 
 governments therein, and for their admission to a share in the 
 
APPENDIX 511 
 
 federal councils, on an equal footing with the original states, 
 at as early periods as may be consistent with the general interest: 
 It is hereby ordained and declared, by the authority aforesaid, 
 That the following articles shall be considered as articles of 
 compact between the original states, and the people and states 
 in the said territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by 
 common consent, to wit: 
 
 ARTICLE I 
 
 No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly 
 manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship 
 or religious sentiments, in the said territory. 
 
 ARTICLE II 
 
 The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled 
 to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, and trial by jury; 
 of a proportionate representation of the people in the legislature, 
 and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common 
 law. All persons shall be bailable, unless for capital offences, 
 where the proof shall be evident, or the presumption great. All 
 fines shall be moderate; and no cruel or unusual punishments 
 shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or 
 property, but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the 
 land; and should the public exigencies make it necessary, for 
 the common preservation, to take any person's property, or to 
 demand his particular services, full compensation shall be made 
 for the same. And in the just preservation of rights and 
 property, it is understood and declared, that no law ought ever 
 to be made, or have force in the said territory, that shall in any 
 manner whatever interfere with or affect private contracts or 
 engagements, bona fide, and without fraud previously formed. 
 
 ARTICLE III 
 
 Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good 
 government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means 
 of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good 
 faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands 
 and property shall never be taken from them without their con- 
 sent, and in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never 
 be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawfrd wars, author- 
 ized by congress; but laws, founded in justice and humanity, 
 shall, from time to time, be made, for preventing wrongs being 
 done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them. 
 
512 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 ARTICLE IV 
 
 The said territory, and the states which may be formed therein, 
 shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United 
 States of America, subject to the articles of confederation, and 
 to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made; 
 and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in con- 
 gress assembled, conformable thereto. The inhabitants and 
 settlers in the said territory shall be subject to pay a part of the 
 federal debts, contracted or to be contracted, and a proportional 
 part of the expenses of government, to be apportioned on them 
 by congress, according to the same common rule and measure 
 by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other 
 states; and the taxes for paying their proportion shall be laid 
 and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of 
 the district or districts, or new states, as in the original states, 
 within the time agreed upon by the United States in congress 
 assembled. The legislatures of those districts or new states, 
 shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by 
 the United States in congress assembled, nor with any regula- 
 tions congress may find necessary for securing the title in such 
 soil to the bona fide purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on 
 lands, the property of the United States; and in no case shall 
 non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The 
 navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, 
 and the carrying places between the same, shall be common 
 highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the 
 said territory, as to the citizens of the United States, and those 
 of any other states that may be admitted into the confederacy, 
 without any tax, impost, or duty therefor. 
 
 ARTICLE v 
 
 There shall be formed in the said territory, not less than three, 
 nor more than five states; and the boundaries of the states, as 
 soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to 
 the same, shall become fixed and estab'ished as follows, to wit: 
 The western state in the said territory shall be bounded by the 
 Mississippi, the Ohio, and Wabash rivers; a direct line drawn 
 from the Wabash and Post Vincents, due north to the territorial 
 line between the United States and Canada; and by the said 
 territorial line to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The 
 middle state shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash 
 from Post Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line 
 drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the 
 
APPENDIX 513 
 
 said territorial line, and by the said territorial line. The eastern 
 state shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the 
 Ohio, Pennsylvania and the said territorial line: Provided, 
 however, and it is further understood and declared, That the 
 boundaries of these three states shall be subject so far to be 
 altered, that if congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they 
 shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of 
 the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn 
 through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. And 
 whenever any of the said states shall have sixty thousand free 
 inhabitants therein, such state shall be admitted, by the dele- 
 gates, into the congress of the United States, on an equal footing 
 with the original states, in all respects whatever; and shall be 
 at liberty to form a peraianent constitution and state govern- 
 ment. Provided, The constitution and government so to be 
 formed, shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles 
 contained in these articles; and, so far as it can be consistent 
 with the general interests of the confederacy, such admission 
 shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be 
 a less ntmiber of free inhabitants in the state than sixty thousand. 
 
 ARTICLE VI 
 
 There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the 
 said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, 
 whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided 
 always. That any person escaping into the same, from whom 
 labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original 
 states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to 
 the person claiming his or her labor or service, as aforesaid. 
 
 Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid. That the resolutions 
 of the twenty- third of April, one thousand seven hundred and 
 eighty-four, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be and the 
 same are hereby repealed, and declared null and void. 
 
 Done by the United States, in congress assembled, the 
 thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 seven hundred and eight^^-seven, and of their sovereignty and 
 independence the twelfth. 
 65 
 
514 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 An Act to divide the Indiana Territory into two separate 
 governments. 
 
 Ee it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from 
 c nd after the thirtieth day of June next, all that part of the 
 Indiana territory, which lies north of a line drawn east from 
 the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, until it shall 
 intersect Lake Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said south- 
 erly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern 
 extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of 
 the United States, shall, for the purpose of temporary govern- 
 ment, constitute a separate territory, and be called Michigan. 
 
 Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That there shall be estab- 
 lished within the said territory, a government in all respects 
 similar to that provided by the ordinance of Congress, passed on 
 the thirteenth day of July, one thousand seven himdred and 
 eighty-seven, for the government of the territory of the United 
 States, northwest of the river Ohio; and by an act passed on 
 the seventh day of August, one thousand seven hundred and 
 eighty-nine, entitled "An act to provide for the government of 
 the territory northwest of the river Ohio;" and the inhabitants 
 thereof shall be entitled to, and enjoy all and singular the rights, 
 privileges, and advantages granted and secured to the people of 
 the territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio, 
 by the said ordinance. 
 
 Sec. 3. And be it further enacted. That the officers for the 
 said territory, who by virtue of this act shall be appointed by 
 the President of the United States, by and with the advice and 
 consent of the Senate, shall respectively exercise the same powers, 
 perform the same duties and receive for their services the same 
 compensations, as by the ordinance aforesaid and the laws of 
 the United States, have been provided and established for similar 
 officers in the Indiana territory; and the duties and emoluments 
 of superintendent of Indian affairs, shall be united with those 
 of governor. 
 
 Sec. 4. And be it further enacted. That nothing in this act 
 contained shall be construed so as, in any manner, to affect the 
 government now in force in the Indiana territory, further than 
 to prohibit the exercise thereof within the said territory of Mich- 
 igan, from and after the aforesaid thirtieth day of June next. 
 
 Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That all suits, process, and 
 proceeding, which, on the thirtieth day of June next, shall be 
 pending in the court of any county, which shall be included 
 
APPENDIX 615 
 
 within the said territory of Michigan; and also all suits, process, 
 and proceedings, which on the said thirtieth day of June next, 
 shall be pending in the general court of the Indiana territory, in 
 consequence of any writ of removal, or order for trial at bar, and 
 which had been removed from any of the counties included within 
 the limits of the territory of Michigan aforesaid, shall, in all things 
 concerning the same, be proceeded on, and judgments and decrees 
 rendered thereon, in the same manner as if the said Indiana 
 territory had remained undivided. 
 
 Sec. 6. And be it further enacted. That Detroit shall be the 
 seat of government of the said territory, until Congress shall 
 otherwise direct. 
 
 Approved, January 11, 1805. 
 
 An Act authorizing the election of a delegate from the Michigan 
 territory to the Congress of the United States, and extending 
 the right of suffrage to the citizens of said territory. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the 
 citizens of the Michigan territory be, and they are hereby author- 
 ized to elect one delegate to the Congress of the United States, 
 who shall possess the qualifications, and exercise the privileges, 
 heretofore required of, and granted to, the delegates from the 
 several territories of the United States. 
 
 Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That every free white male 
 citizen of said territory, above the age of twenty -one 3^ears, who 
 shall have resided therein one year next preceding an election, 
 and who shall have paid a county or territorial tax, shall be 
 entitled to vote at such election for a delegate to the Congress of 
 the United States, in such manner, and at such times and places, 
 as shall be prescribed by the governor and judges of said territory. 
 
 Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the person, duly 
 qualified according to law, who shall receive the greatest nimiber 
 of votes at such election, shall be furnished, by the governor of 
 said territory, with a certificate, under his official seal, setting 
 forth that he is duly elected, by the quahfied electors, the dele- 
 gate from said territory to the Congress of the United States, 
 for the term of two 3'ears from the date of said certificate, which 
 shall entitle the person to whom the same shall be given to take 
 his seat in the House of Representatives in that capacity. 
 
 Approved, February 16, 1819. 
 
516 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 An Act to amend the ordinance and acts of Congress for the 
 government of the territory of Michigan, and for other purposes. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States of America, in Congress assembled. That all 
 citizens of the United States, having the qualifications pre- 
 scribed by the act, entitled "An act authorizing the election of 
 a delegate from the Michigan territory to the Congress of the 
 United States, and extending the right of suffrage to the citizens 
 of said territory," approved February the sixteenth, eighteen 
 hundred and nineteen, shall be entitled to vote at any public 
 election in the said territory, and shall be eligible to any office 
 therein. 
 
 Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the same powers which 
 were granted to the governor, legislative council, and House of 
 Representatives, of the North-western territory, by the ordinance 
 of Congress, passed on the thirteenth day of July, seventeen 
 hundred and eighty-seven, and which powers are transferred to 
 the territory of Michigan by the act entitled "An act to divide 
 the Indiana territory into two separate governments," approved 
 January the eleventh, eighteen hundred and five, are hereby 
 conferred upon, and shall be exercised by the governor and a 
 legislative council: which council shall consist of nine persons, 
 any five of whom shall be a quorum, and who shall serv^e for the 
 term of two years, and be appointed as follows, to wit: At the 
 next election of the delegate to Congress from the said territory 
 after the passing of this act, the qualified electors shall choose, 
 by ballot, eighteen persons, having the qualifications of electors; 
 and such election shall be conducted, certified, and the result 
 declared, agreeably to the territorial law prescribing the mode 
 of electing such delegate. But the time and manner of electing 
 the members of the legislative council shall, after the first elec- 
 tion, be prescribed by the legislature of the said territory; and 
 the names of the eighteen persons, having the greatest niunber 
 of votes, shall be transmitted by the governor of the said terri- 
 tory, to the President of the United States, who shall nominate, 
 and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint 
 therefrom, the said legislative council; and vacancies occurring in 
 the said council shall be filled in the same manner, from the list 
 transmitted as aforesaid; And the President shall have power, 
 in the recess of the Senate, to make the appointments author- 
 ized by this act; but all appointments, so made, shall be sub- 
 mitted to the Senate at their next session, for confirmation. The 
 first legislative council shall be assembled at such time and place 
 
APPENDIX 517 
 
 as the governor shall, by proclamation, designate. No session, in 
 any one year, shall exceed the temi of sixty days, nor shall any 
 act passed by the governor and legislative council be valid, after 
 the same shall have been disapproved by Congress. The mem- 
 bers of the legislative council shall receive two dollars each, per 
 day, during their attendance at the sessions thereof, and two 
 dollars for every twenty miles in going to, and returning there- 
 from, in full compensation for their services, and which shall be 
 paid by the United States: Provided, That nothing herein con- 
 tained shall be construed to affect the right of the citizens of 
 said territory to elect a delegate to Congress; and the duties 
 required of the govenor [governor] and judges by the act referred 
 to in the first section of this act, shall be performed by the 
 govenor [governor] and legislative council. 
 
 Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the powers and duties 
 of the judges of the said territory shall be regulated by such 
 laws as are, or may be, in force therein; and the said judges shall 
 possess a chancery, as w^ell as common law, jurisdiction. The 
 tenure of office of the said judges shall be limited to four years: 
 and on the first day of February, one thousand eight hiindred 
 and twenty-four, and every four years thereafter, the office of 
 each of the said judges shall become vacant: Provided, That 
 nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to deprive 
 the judges of the territory of the jurisdiction conferred upon 
 them by the laws of the United States. 
 
 Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the legislature shall 
 have power to submit, at any time, to the people of the said 
 territory, the question, whether a general assembly shall be 
 organized agreeably to the provisions of the ordinance aforesaid; 
 and, if a majority of the qualified electors shall be in favour of 
 such organization, then the powers vested by this act in the 
 legislative coimcil shall cease and determine, and a general 
 assembly shall be organized, in conformity with the said ordi- 
 nance, subject to the following provision: The govenor [governor] 
 of the said territory shall divide the same into five districts, 
 and the qualified voters in each district shall elect one member of 
 the legislative council, which shall possess the same powers 
 heretofore granted to the legislative council of the North-western 
 territory; and the members of the council shall hold their offices 
 four years; and until there shall be five thousand free white male 
 inhabitants, of twenty-one years and upwards, in said territory, 
 the whole nirmber of Representatives to the general assembly 
 shall not be less than seven, nor more than nine, to be appor- 
 tioned by the govenor [governor] to the several counties in the 
 said territory, agreeably to the nmnber of free white males above 
 
518 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 the age of twenty-one years, which they may contain: but after 
 the organization of the general assembly, the apportionment of 
 the representation shall be made by such assembly: Provided, 
 That there shall not be more than twelve, nor less than seven, 
 of the whole number of representatives, until there shall be six 
 thousand free white male inhabitants, above the age of twenty- 
 one years; after which, the number of representatives shall be 
 regulated agreeably to the ordinance aforesaid. 
 
 Sec. 5. And be it further enacted. That the govenor [governor] 
 of the said territory shall have power to grant pardons for offenses 
 against the laws of the said territory, and reprieves for those 
 against the United States, until the decision of the President 
 theron [thereon] shall be made known. 
 
 Sec. 6. And be it further enacted. That so much of the ordi- 
 nance aforesaid, and laws of the United States, as are inconsistent 
 with the provisions of this act, be, and the same are hereby, as 
 respects the territory of Michigan, repealed. 
 
 Sec. 7. And be it further enacted. That from and after the 
 first day of June next, there shall be but one clerk of the supreme 
 court of the territory of Michigan, who shall perform all the 
 duties of clerk of said court, whether sitting as a circuit and 
 district court, or as judges of the territorial court. 
 
 Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That the accounting officers 
 of the treasury shall settle and adjust the accounts of John J. 
 Deming, making him a reasonable allowance for his services as 
 clerk of said district and circuit court, up to the first day of June 
 next, and that the same be paid out of any money in the treasury, 
 not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 Approved, March 3, 1823. 
 
 An Act to allow the citizens of the territory of Michigan to elect 
 the members of their legislative council, and for other purposes. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States of America, in Congress assembled. That at 
 the next, and at each succeeding election of members of the 
 legislative council of the territory of Michigan, the qualified elec- 
 tors of the said territory may, instead of choosing twenty-six, as 
 heretofore directed, elect thirteen fit persons as their represent- 
 atives, in the manner, and with the qualifications now, or here- 
 after to be, prescribed by law; which said representatives, so 
 elected, shall be and constitute the said legislative council. And 
 
APPENDIX 519 
 
 for the purpose of securing an equal representation, the governor 
 and legislative coinicil of said territory, are hereby authorized 
 and required to apportion the representatives, so to be elected 
 as aforesaid, among the several counties or districts, in the said 
 territory, in proportion, as near as may be, to the whole number 
 of inhabitants in each county or district, exclusive of Indians 
 not taxed. 
 
 Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That the said governor and 
 legislative council be, and they are hereby, authorized to provide 
 by law for holding, annually, one or more courts, by one or more 
 of the judges of the supreme court of said territory, in each of 
 the counties in that part of the territory eastward of the Lake 
 Michigan ; and also for the appointment of a clerk in each county 
 to act as clerk to the said court therein; and further to prescribe 
 the jurisdiction of said courts, and the powers and duties of the 
 judge or judges holding the same. 
 
 Sec. 3. And be it further enacted. That the judges of the 
 supreme court of the territory of Michigan have, and may exer-. 
 cise, the right of appointing the clerk of the said court, and of 
 removing him at pleasure. 
 
 Sec. 4. And be it further enacted. That no member of the 
 legislative council shall be eligible to any ofhce created or the 
 fees of which were regulated by a law or laws passed whilst he 
 was a member, during the period for which he was elected, and 
 for one year thereafter. 
 
 Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That all laws, and parts 
 of laws, in so far as the same shall be inconsistent with the pro- 
 visions of this act, are hereby repealed; and, further, that Congress 
 have the right, at any time, to alter or repeal this act. 
 
 Approved, January 29, 1827. 
 
520 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 B 
 
 SCHEDULE OF INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IN THE LOWER PENINSULA 
 OF MICHIGAN, 1795-1837. 
 
 (Bureau of American Ethnology, 18th Annual Report, 
 pt. 2, pp. 654-764, passim). 
 
 1795, Aug. 3 — Greenville, Ohio — Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa. 
 
 Potawatomi — {Stat, at Large, VII, 49). 
 
 The post of Detroit and all land to the N. W., and S., of it 
 to which the Indian title had been extinguished by gifts 
 or grants to the French or English governments, and so 
 much more land to be annexed to the district of Detroit 
 as shall be comprehended between the river Rosine on the 
 S., Lake St. Clair on the N., and a line the general course 
 whereof shall be 6 miles distant from the W. end of Lake 
 Erie and Detroit river. The necessity for the establish- 
 ment of the boimdaries of this tract was superseded by 
 the conclusion of the treaty of Nov. 17, 1807, whereby 
 the Indians ceded to the U. S. a large extent of territory 
 surrounding and including within its general limits the 
 tract described. The approximate limits of this tract are, 
 however, shown on the map by a dotted line. 
 1807, Nov. 17 — Detroit, Michigan — Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa, 
 
 Potawatomi. — {Stat, at Large, VII, 105). 
 
 The foregoing tribes cede to the U. S. all claim to the follow- 
 ing described tract of country, viz: Beginning at the 
 mouth of the Miami river of the lakes and running thence 
 up the middle thereof to the mouth of the great Au Glaize 
 river; thence due N. until it intersects a parallel of latitude 
 to be drawn from the outlet of Lake Huron which forms 
 the river Sinclair; thence running NE. the course that may 
 be found will lead in a direct line to White Rock in Lake 
 Huron; thence due E. until it intersects the boundary line 
 between the U. S. and Upper Canada in said lake; thence 
 southwardly, following the said boundary line, down said 
 lake through the river Sinclair, Lake St. Clair, and the 
 river Detroit, into Lake Erie, to a point due E. of the 
 aforesaid Miami river; thence W. to the place of beginning. 
 
 Three miles square on the river Raizin at a place called 
 Macon, and where the river Macon falls into the river 
 Raizin, which place is about 14 miles from the mouth of 
 
APPENDIX 521 
 
 said river Raizin. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaties of Sept. 
 
 29, 1817, and Sept. 19, 1827. 
 Two sections of 1 square mile each on the river Rouge at 
 
 Seginsiwin's village. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of 
 
 Sept. 19, 1827. 
 Two sections of 1 mile square each at Tonquish's village, 
 
 near the river Rouge. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of 
 
 Sept. 19, 1827. 
 Three miles square on Lake St. Clair above the river Huron, 
 
 to include Machonce's village. 
 Six sections of 1 mile square each, within the cession afore- 
 said, in such situations as the said Indians shall elect, 
 
 subject to the approval of the President of the U. S. as 
 
 to the places of location. 
 
 General Note . — This three mile square tract and 3 of the 
 6 unlocated sections were surveyed and located by Aaron 
 Greely in 1810, under direction of Governor Hull, as 
 follows: One tract of 262.7 acres on Lake St. Clair at the 
 mouth of the Au Vaseau, which included the site of 
 Machonce's village; one tract of 534 acres on Lake St. 
 Clair above the mouth of Salt creek; one tract of 1,200 
 acres at the mouth of A. Dulude or Black river, and 5,760 
 acres at the mouth of Swan creek of Lake St. Clair. These 
 tracts were ceded to the U. S., May 9, 1836. The remain- 
 ing 3 (of the 6 unlocated sections) had not been specific- 
 ally located when they were ceded by treaty of Sept. 29, 
 1817, to the Catholic Church. 
 1809, Feb. 28— Act of Congress— Wyandot— (5to/. at Large, H 
 
 527). 
 
 The U.S. reserve for the Wyandots, two tracts, not exceeding 
 5,000 acres, at Brownstown and Maguagua, Michigan 
 territory, provided that if abandoned by them the tracts 
 should revert to the U. S. — These tracts were ceded to the 
 U. S. by treaty of Sept. 20, 1818. 
 1817, Sept. 29 — Foot of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie — 
 
 Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi — (Stat, at Large, 
 VII, 160). 
 
 The Potawatomy, Ottawa, and Chippewa tribes cede to the 
 U. S. the land within the following boundaries: Beginning 
 where the western line of the State of Ohio crosses the 
 river Miami of Lake Erie, which is about 21 miles above 
 the mouth of the Great Auglaize river; thence down the 
 middle of said Miami river to a point north of the mouth 
 of the Great Auglaize river; thence with the western line 
 
522 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 of the land ceded to the U. S. by the treaty of Detroit, 
 in 1807, N. 45 miles; then W. so far that a line S. will 
 strike the place of beginning; thence S. to the place of 
 beginning. 
 
 The Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potaw atomy tribes grant to 
 the rector of the Catholic church of St. Anne, of Detroit, 
 and to the corporations of the college at Detroit, to be 
 retained or sold as they see fit, each one-half of three 
 sections of land on the river Raisin, at a place called Macon; 
 also 
 
 Three sections of land not yet located, which tracts were 
 reserved for the use of said Indians by the treaty of Detroit 
 in 1807. — As shown by the language of the treaty, these 
 three sections had not been located, and it was a mere 
 transfer of the right to locate them from the Indians to 
 the Catholic Church. 
 
 1818, Sept. 20— St. Mary's, Ohio— Wyandot— (Sto/. at Large, 
 VII, 180). 
 
 The Wyandot tribe cede to the U. S. a tract of land in the 
 territory of Michigan, including the village called Browns- 
 town, reserved to them and their descendants for 50 years 
 by the provisions of an act of Congress passed Feb. 28, 
 1809. 
 
 The Wyandots also cede to the U. S. a tract of land in the 
 territory of Michigan, to include the village called Magua- 
 gua, reserved to them and their descendants for 50 years 
 by the provisions of an act of Congress passed Feb. 28, 
 1809. — This reserve was ceded by treaty of Mar. 17, 1842. 
 
 Note. — These two cessions contain in the whole not more 
 than 5,000 acres. 
 The U. S., in consideration of the foregoing cessions, agree 
 to reserve for the use of the Wyandot Indians sections 
 23, 24, 25, 26, 34, 35, 36, 27, and that part of section 22 
 which contains 8 acres and lies on the S. side of the river 
 Huron, being in Tp. 4 S., R. 9 E. of the first meridian in 
 the territory of Michigan and containing 4,996 acres. 
 
 1819, Sept. 24 — Saginaw, Michigan territory — Chippewa — {Stat. 
 at Large, VII, 203). 
 
 The Chippewa nation cede to the U. S. the land comprised 
 within the following described boundaries, viz: Beginning 
 at a point in the present Indian boundary line, which 
 runs due N. from the mouth of the great Auglaize river, 
 6 miles S. of the place where the base line so called inter- 
 sects the same; thence W. 60 miles; in a direct line to the 
 
APPENDIX 523 
 
 head of Thunder Bay river; thence down the same, fol- 
 lowing the courses thereof to the mouth; thence N. E. to 
 the boundary line between the U. S. and the British 
 Province of Upper Canada; thence with the same to the 
 line established by the treaty of Detroit in 1807; thence 
 with said line to the place of beginning. — This cession is 
 overlapped by the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi 
 cession of Aug. 29, 1821, and also by the Ottawa and 
 Chippewa cession of Mar. 28, 1836. 
 From the foregoing general cession the Chippewa nation 
 reserves for future use and occupancy the following de- 
 scribed tracts: 
 
 One tract of 8,000 acres on the E. side of the river Au 
 Sable, near where the Indians now live. — Ceded to 
 the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837; q. v. 
 One tract of 2,000 acres on the river Mesagwisk. — 
 
 Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
 One tract of 6,000 acres on the N. side of the river 
 Kawkawling at the Indian village. — Ceded to the 
 U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
 One tract of 5,760 acres upon the FHnt river, to include 
 Reaum's village and a place called Kishkawbawee. — 
 Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
 One tract of 8,000 acres on the head of the river Huron 
 which empties into the Saginaw river at the village 
 of Otusson. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 
 14, 1837. 
 One island in the Saginaw Bay. — Ceded to the U. S. 
 
 by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
 One tract of 2,000 acres where Nabobask formerly lived. 
 
 —Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
 One tract of 1,000 acres near the island in Saginaw 
 river. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
 One tract of 640 acres at the bend of the river Huron 
 which empties into the Saginaw river. — Ceded to the 
 U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
 One tract of 2,000 acres at the mouth of Point Augrais 
 river. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
 One tract of 1,000 acres on the river Huron, at Menoe- 
 quet's village. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 
 14, 1837. 
 One tract of 10,000 acres on the Shawassee river, at a 
 place called the Big Rock. — Ceded to the U. S. bv 
 treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
 
524 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 One tract of 3,000 acres on the Shawassee river at 
 Ketchewaundaugenink. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty 
 of Jan. 14, 1837. This tract was at the date of this 
 treaty supposed to He within the Hmits of the general 
 cession made by article 1, and was reserved on that 
 theory. It w^as subsequently ascertained, however, 
 that it was within the Hmits of the previous cession by 
 the treaty of Nov. 17, 1807. It is therefore considered 
 as a "grant" to the Indians from the U. S. 
 One tract of 6,000 acres at the Little Forks on the 
 Tetabawasink river. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of 
 Jan. 14, 1837. 
 One tract of 6,000 acres at the Black Bird's town on 
 the Tetabawasink river. — Ceded to the U. S. by 
 treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
 One tract of 40,000 acres on the W. side of Saginaw 
 river, to be hereafter located. — Ceded to the U. S. 
 by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
 1821, Aug. 29 — Chicago, Illinois — Ottawa, Chippewa, and Pota- 
 watami — (Stat, at Large, VII, 218). 
 
 The foregoing nations of Indians cede to the U. S. the land 
 comprehended within the following boundaries: Beginning 
 at a point on the S. bank of the river St. Joseph of Lake 
 Michigan near the Parcaux Vaches, due N. from Rum's 
 village, and running thence S. to a line drawn due E. from 
 the southern extreme of Lake Michigan; thence with the 
 said line E. to the tract ceded by the Pattiwatimies to the 
 U. S. by the treaty of Fort Meigs in 1817 if the said line 
 should strike said tract, but if the said line should pass N. 
 of the said tract, then such line shall be continued until 
 it strikes the western boundary of the tract ceded to the 
 U. S. by treaty of Detroit in 1807, and from the termina- 
 tion of the said line, following the botmdaries of former 
 cessions, to the main branch of the Grand river of Lake 
 Michigan, should any of the said lines cross the said river, 
 but if none of the said lines should cross the said river, 
 then to a point due E . of the source of the said main branch 
 of the said river, and from such point due W. to the source 
 of the said principal branch, and from the crossing of 
 the said river or from the source thereof, as the case may 
 be, down the said river on the N. bank thereof to the 
 mouth; thence following the shore of Lake Michigan to 
 the S. bank of the said river St. Joseph at the mouth 
 thereof and thence with the said S. bank to the place of 
 
APPENDIX 625 
 
 beginning. — This cession overlaps the tract ceded b}^ the 
 Chippewa by treaty of Sept. 24, 1819. 
 From the foregoing cession the said Indians reser\^e for their 
 use the following tracts, viz: 
 
 One tract at Mang-ach-qua village, on the river Peble, 
 of 6 miles square. — This reserve was ceded to the 
 U. S. by treaty of Sept. 19, 1827. The boundaries 
 were never ascertained. 
 One tract at Mick-ke-saw-be of 6 miles square. — This 
 reserve was ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Sept. 19, 
 1827. 
 One tract at the village of Na-to-wa-se-pe of 4 miles 
 square. — This reserve was ceded to the U. S. by treaty 
 of Sept. 27, 1833. 
 One tract at the village of Prairie Ronde of 3 miles 
 square. — This reserve was ceded to the U. S. bv treaty 
 of Sept. 19, 1827. 
 One tract at the village of Match-e-be-narh-she-wish, at 
 the head of the Kekalamazoo river. — This reserve was 
 ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Sept. 19, 1827. 
 The U. S. grants from above cession 26 sections of land to 
 individuals of Indian descent. 
 1827, Sept. 19 — St. Joseph, Michigan territory — Potawatomi — 
 {Stat, at Large, VII, 305). 
 ' ' In order to consolidate some of the dispersed bands of the 
 Pottawatamie tribe in the Territory of Michigan at a 
 point removed from the road leading from Detroit to 
 Chicago, and as far as practicable from the settlements 
 of the iyfhites, it is agreed that the following tracts of land 
 heretofore reserved for the use of said tribe shall be. ceded 
 to the U. S., viz: 
 
 Two sections on the river Rouge at Seginsaim's village. 
 — The Chippewa of Saginaw, by treaty of Jan. 14, 
 1837, ceded any claim they were supposed to have 
 in this reserve. 
 Two sections at Tonguish's village near the river Rouge. 
 — The Chippewa of Saginaw, by treaty of Jan. 14, 
 1837, ceded any claim they were supposed to have 
 in this reserve. 
 That part of the reservation at Macon on the river 
 Raisin, which yet belongs to the said tribe, containing 
 6 sections, excepting therefrom one-half section where 
 the Pottawatamie Chief Moran resides, which shall be 
 reserved for his use. 
 
626 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 A tract at Mang-ach-qua village on the river Peble, of 
 
 6 miles square. — Boundaries never ascertained. 
 A tract at Mickesawbe of 6 miles square. 
 A tract at the village of Prairie Ronde of 3 miles square. 
 A tract at the village of Match-e-be-nash-she-wish at 
 the head of the Kekalamazoo river of 3 miles square. 
 In consideration of the foregoing cessions the U. S. agree to 
 reserve for the use of said tribe a tract containing 99 
 sections, (Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Sept. 27, 1833), 
 as follows: 
 Sections 5, 6, 7, and 8 in T. 5 S., R. 9 W., in the territory 
 
 of Michigan. 
 All of T. 5 S., R. 10 W., not already included in the 
 
 Nottawa Sape reservation. 
 Sections 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25, 26, 35, and 36 in T. 
 
 5 S., R. 11 W. 
 All of T. 4 S., R. 9 W. 
 
 Sections 8, 17, 18, 19, 20, 29, 30, 31, and 32 in T. 4 S., R. 
 9 W. — This is given as R. 9 W. in the published treaty, 
 but it should be 10 W. 
 Sections 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25, 26, 35, and 36 in 
 T. 4 S., R. 11 W. 
 1828, Sept. 20 — Missionary establishments upon the St. Joseph 
 of Lake Michigan, in Michigan territory — Potawatomi — 
 {Stat, at Large, VII, 317). 
 
 The Potawatamie tribe of Indians cede to the U.S. the tracts 
 of land included within the following boundaries: 
 
 Beginning at the mouth of the St. Joseph of Lake Mich- 
 igan, and thence running up the said river to a point 
 on the said river half-way between La-vache-qui-pisse 
 and Macousin village; thence in a direct line to the 
 nineteenth-mile tree on the northern boundary line 
 of the State of Indiana; thence with the same west 
 to Lake Michigan; and thence with the shore of the 
 said lake to the place of beginning. 
 1832, Oct. 27 — Tippecanoe river, Indiana — Potawatomi of Indiana 
 and Michigan— (5to/. at Large, VII, 399). 
 The Potowatomies cede to the U. S. their title and interest 
 to lands in the States of Indiana and Illinois and in the 
 Territory of Michigan S. of Grand river. 
 From the foregoing cession the following reservations are 
 made, viz: 
 
 The reservation at Po-ca-gan's village for his band. — 
 Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Sept. 27, 1833. 
 
APPENDIX 527 
 
 A reservation for such of the Potowatomies as are resi- 
 dent at the village of Notta-we-sipa, agreeably to 
 the treaties of Sept. 19, 1827, and Sept. 20, 1828.— 
 Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Sept. 27, 1833. 
 1833, Sept. 27 — Chicago, Illinois — Chippewa, Ottawa and Pota- 
 
 watomi — {Stat, at Large, VII, 442). 
 
 The said Indians cede to the U. S. all their lands situate in 
 the territory of Michigan S. of Grand river, being the 
 reservation at Notawasepe, of 4 miles square, contained 
 in the third clause of the second article of the treaty made 
 at Chicago on Aug. 29, 1821. 
 
 The said Indians further cede the reservation of 99 sections 
 of land described in the treaty made at St. Joseph on Sept. 
 19, 1827. 
 
 The said Indians also cede to the U. S. the tract of land on 
 St. Joseph river opposite the town of Niles, and extending 
 to the line of the state of Indiana, on which the villages of 
 To-pe-ne-bee and Pokagon are situated, supposed to con- 
 tain about 49 sections. . 
 1836, Mar. 28 — ^Washington, D. C. — Ottawa and Chippewa — 
 
 {Stat, at Large, VII, 491). 
 
 The Ottawa and Chippewa nations of Indians cede to the 
 U. S. all the tract of coimtry within the following bound- 
 aries: Beginning at the mouth of Grand river of Lake 
 Michigan on the N. bank thereof and following up the 
 same to the line called for in the first article of the treaty 
 of Chicago of Aug. 29, 1821; thence in a direct line to the 
 head of Thunder Bay river; thence with the line established 
 by the treaty of Saganaw of Sept. 24, 1819, to the mouth 
 of said river; thence NE. to the boimdary line in Lake 
 Huron between the U. S. and the British province of 
 Upper Canada; thence northwestwardly following the said 
 line as established by the commissioners acting imder the 
 treaty of Ghent, through the straits, and liver St. Mary's 
 to a point in Lake Superior N. of the mouth of Gitchy 
 Seebing or Chocolate river; thence S. to the mouth of said 
 river and up its channel to the source thereof; thence in 
 a direct line to the head of the Skonawba river of Green 
 bay; thence down the S. bank of said river to its mouth; 
 thence in a direct line through the ship channel into Green 
 bay to the outer part thereof; thence S. to a point in Lake 
 Michigan W. of the North cape or entrance of Grand 
 river, and thence E. to the place of beginning at the cape 
 aforesaid, comprehending all the lands and islands within 
 
528 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 these limits not hereinafter reserved. — This cession over- 
 laps the Chippewa cession by treaty of Sept. 24, 1819. 
 From the foregoing cession said tribes reserve for their own 
 use, to be held in common, the following tracts for the 
 term of five years and no longer except by permission of 
 the U. S.: 
 
 One tract of 50,000 acres to be located on Little Traverse 
 bay. — The general note below applies to this reserve. 
 One tract of 20,000 acres to be located on the N. shore 
 of Grand Traverse bay. — Surveyed in 1840. It com- 
 prised fractional Tps. 28, 29, and 30 N., R. 10 W., 
 and continued to be occupied as an Indian reservation 
 until the reserves contemplated by treaty of July 31, 
 1855, were designated. 
 One tract of 70,000 acres to be located on or N. of the 
 Pieire Marquetta river. Surveyed in 1840 on Man- 
 istee river and occupied as a reservation until 1848, 
 when it was sold. 
 One tract of 1,000 acres to be located by Chingassanoo 
 
 or the Big Sail, on the Cheboigan. 
 One tract of 1,000 acres to be located by Mujeekewis, 
 on Thunder Bay river. 
 General Note. — After the selection by Mr. Schoolcraft of 
 the 20,000 and 70,000 acre reserves under this treaty, he 
 was advised that the U. S. might conclude to allow the 
 Indians to remain on the other reserves after the expira- 
 tion of the five years. He was therefore instructed, Nov. 
 5, 1840, that the boundaries of all the reserves under this 
 treaty ought to be marked. Aug. 23, 1844, the Indian 
 office advised the General Land Office that these reserves 
 ought not to be surveyed as public lands, the Indians 
 having been tacitly allowed to remain thereon since the 
 treaty. In 1845 the assent of the Indians was obtained 
 for the extension of the public surveys over these reserves, 
 but no definite boundaries were marked out for them. 
 As late as Jime 7, 1850, the Indian Office notified the 
 General Land Office that the Indians still occupied these 
 tracts and the latter must not be offered for sale as public 
 lands. This state of affairs, in fact, continued imtil other 
 provision was made by the treaty of 1855. 
 1836, May 9 — Washington D. C. — Swan creek and Black river 
 bands of the Chippewa nation residing in Michigan — {Stat, 
 at Large, VII, 503). 
 The Swan-creek and Black-river bands of Chippewas cede to 
 the U. S. the following tracts, reserved for them by treaty 
 of Nov. 17, 1807, viz: 
 
APPENDIX 529 
 
 One tract of 3 miles square, or .S,760 acres, on Swan 
 
 creek, of Lake St. Clair. 
 One tract of If sections near Salt creek of said lake. — 
 
 This tract really contained only 534 acres. See 
 
 remarks under treaty of Nov. 17, 1807. 
 One tract of one-fourth of a section at the mouth of the 
 
 river Au Vaseau, contiguous to the preceding cession. 
 
 This tract really contained 262.7 acres. See remarks 
 
 under treaty of Nov. .17, 1807. 
 One tract of 2 sections near the mouth of Black river, 
 
 of the River St. Clair. — This tract really contained 
 
 only 1,200 acres. See remarks under treaty of Nov. 
 
 17, 1807. 
 1837, Jan. 14— Detroit, Michigan — Saginaw tribe of the Chippewa 
 nation — (Stat, at Large, VII, 528). 
 
 The said tribe cede to the U. S. the following tracts of land 
 lying within the boundaries of Michigan, viz: 
 
 One tract of 8,000 acres on the river Au Sable. — ^When 
 
 the public surveys were extended over this region, 
 
 there were no Indians living on this tract, and, the 
 
 surveyors having no one to point out to them the 
 
 desired limits of the reserve, it was never surveyed as 
 
 an Indian reserve. 
 One tract of 2,000 acres on the Misho-wusk or Rifle river 
 
 The Indians reserved a right of residence on this tract 
 
 for five years. 
 One tract of 6,000 acres on the N. side of the river 
 
 Kawkawling. 
 One tract of 5,760 acres upon Flint river, including the 
 
 site of Reaiim's village and a place called Kishkaw- 
 
 bawee. 
 One tract of 8,000 acres on the head of the Cass (formerly 
 
 Huron) river, at the village of Otusson. 
 One island in the Saginaw bay, estimated at 1,000 acres, 
 
 being the island called Shaingwaukokaug, on which 
 
 Mulcokoosh formerly lived. 
 One tract of 2,000 acres at Nababish on the Saganaw river. 
 One tract of 1,000 acres on the E. side of the Saganaw 
 
 river. 
 One tract of 640 acres at Great Bend on Cass river. 
 One tract of 2,000 acres at the mouth of Point Augrais 
 
 river. — ^The Indians reser\^ed a right of residence on 
 
 this tract for five years. 
 67 
 
530 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 One tract of 1,000 acres on the Cass river at Menoquet's 
 
 village. 
 One tract of 10,000 acres on the Shiawassee river at 
 Ketchewaundaugumiiik or Big Lick. — See note con- 
 cerning this tract under treaty of Sept. 24, 1819. An 
 error was made in copying the treaty whereby this 
 reserve became confused with the one at Big Rock. 
 The intention was to cede both the 3,000 acre tract 
 at Ketchewaundaugumink or Big Lick and the 
 10,000 acre tract at Big Rock. The language of the 
 treaty cedes "10,000 acres on Shiawassee river, at 
 Ketchewaundaugmnink or Big Lick." To correct this 
 error a supplemental article to the treaty was con- 
 cluded Oct. 27, 1841. 
 One tract of 6,000 acres at the Little Forks on the 
 
 Tetabwasing river. 
 One tract of 6,000 acres at the Black Bird's town on the 
 
 Tetabwasing river. 
 One tract of 40,000 acres on the W. side of the Saganaw 
 
 river. 
 One tract of 10,000 acres at Big Rock on Shiawassee 
 river. — See note concerning this tract given in No. 12 
 or 3,000 acre reserve at Ketchewaundaugumink or 
 Big Lick. 
 The said Indians shall have the right of living upon the 
 tracts at the river Augrais and Musho-wusk or Rifle rivers 
 on the W. side of Saganaw bay, for the term of five years, 
 during which time no white man shall he allowed to settle 
 on said tracts under a penalty of $500. 
 The said tribe agrees to remove from the state of Michigan 
 as soon as a proper location can be obtained, either .W. 
 of lake Superior or at such place W. of the Mississippi and 
 S. W. of the Missouri river as the legislation of Congress 
 may indicate. — By treaty of Dec. 20, 1837, a reserve was 
 promised this tribe on Osage river, but they declined to 
 remove thereto, and no tract was therefore surveyed for 
 them. 
 The U. S. agree to pay to said tribe as one of the parties to 
 the treaty of Nov. 17, 1807, the sum of $1,000 to quiet 
 their claim to two reservations of land of 2 sections each, 
 lying in Oakland County, Mich., which were ceded to the 
 U. S. by the Pottowattomies of St. Joseph's on Sept. 19, 
 1827.— See treaty of Sept. 19, 1827. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 531 
 
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 A law of Nov. 5, 1829 (T. L. II, 
 7S7) provided that the "counties 
 of Branch, Calhoun and Eaton, 
 and all the country lying north of 
 the county of Eaton, which are 
 attached to and compose a part 
 of the county of St. Joseph, shall 
 form a township by the name of 
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534 
 
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APPENDIX 
 
 535 
 
 D 
 
 CENSUSES OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 
 
 United States Census of Michigan Territory, 1830 
 (Abstract in House Document No. 263, 1st sess. 22d Cong.) 
 
 County. 
 
 Aggregate. 
 
 Free. 
 
 Slaves. 
 
 Berrien 
 
 325 
 1,356 
 919 
 626 
 692 
 
 1,587 
 1,491 
 2,413 
 877 
 3,187 
 
 4,912 
 1,114 
 1,313 
 5 
 4,042 
 6,781 
 
 325 
 1,354 
 919 
 626 
 686 
 
 1,564 
 1,491 
 2,413 
 877 
 3,187 
 
 4,911 
 1,114 
 1,313 
 5 
 4,042 
 6,781 
 
 
 
 Brown 
 
 2 
 
 Cass 
 
 
 
 Chippewa 
 
 Crawford 
 
 Iowa 
 
 
 6 
 
 23 
 
 Lenawee 
 
 Macomb 
 
 Michilimackinac 
 
 Monroe 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oakland 
 
 St. Clair 
 
 St. Joseph 
 
 Van Buren 
 
 Washtenaw 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Wayne 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 31,640 
 
 31,608 
 
 32 
 
 
 
 Free — White males 
 
 18 
 
 168 
 
 White females. ... ... 
 
 13 
 
 178 
 
 
 
 
 Total whites 
 
 
 
 Colored males 
 
 
 1.59 
 
 Colored females 
 
 
 103 
 
 
 
 
 Total free colored 
 
 
 
 Total free 
 
 
 
 ??, 
 
 Females 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 Total slaves 
 
 
 
 31,346 
 
 262 
 31,608 
 
 32 
 
 Total population of Michigan Territory 31 ,640 
 
 Territorial Census of Michigan, 1834 
 (Blois, Gazeiteer of Michigan, p. 151) 
 
 Berrien 1 , 787 
 
 Branch 764 
 
 Calhoun 1,714 
 
 Cass 3 , 280 
 
 Chippewa 526 
 
536 
 
 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Jackson : 1 , 865 
 
 Kalamazoo 3 , 124 
 
 Lenawee 7,911 
 
 Mackinac 891 
 
 Macomb 6,055 
 
 Monroe : 8 , 542 
 
 Oakland •. 13,844 
 
 St. Clair 2,244 
 
 St. Joseph 3 , 168 
 
 Washtenaw 14 , 920 
 
 Wayne 16,638 
 
 State Census of Michigan, 1837 
 (Legislative Manual (1838), pp. 70-74) 
 
 Allegan: 
 Allegan. . 
 Newark . 
 
 621 
 190 
 
 Barry: 
 
 Barry 512 
 
 Total 512 
 
 Berrien: 
 
 Bainbridge 99 
 
 Berrien 496 
 
 Bertrand 1262 
 
 Buchanan 172 
 
 New Buffalo 199 
 
 Branch: 
 
 Batavia 357 
 
 Bronson 635 
 
 Coldwater 960 
 
 Ehzabeth 177 
 
 Gerard 448 
 
 Calhoun: 
 
 Albion 773 
 
 Athens 288 
 
 Burlington 378 
 
 Convis 170 
 
 Eckford 530 
 
 Homer 1019 
 
 Cass: 
 
 Calvin 201 
 
 Howard 366 
 
 Jefferson 395 
 
 Lagrange 699 
 
 Mason 224 
 
 Ontwa 1012 
 
 Otsego 341 
 
 Plainfleld : 317 
 
 Total 1469 
 
 Niles 1497 
 
 Oronoko 248 
 
 Royalton 175 
 
 St. Joseph 599 
 
 Weesaw 116 
 
 Total 4863 
 
 Gilead 184 
 
 Ovid 209 
 
 Quincv 569 
 
 Sherwood 217 
 
 Union 260 
 
 Total 4016 
 
 Marengo 737 
 
 MarshaU 1801 
 
 Milton 1632 
 
 Sheridan 353 
 
 Tekonsha 278 
 
 Total 7959 
 
 Penn 693 
 
 Pokagon 506 
 
 Porter 442 
 
 Silver Creek 108 
 
 Volinia 427 
 
 Wayne 223 
 
 Total 5296 
 
 Chippew.\: 
 Ste. Marie. 
 
 366 
 
 Total . 
 
 366 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 537 
 
 Clinton: 
 
 No returns for townships. 
 
 Total 529 
 
 Eaton: 
 
 Bellevue 438 
 
 Eaton 330 
 
 Genesee: 
 
 Argentine 434 
 
 Flint 1288 
 
 Grand Blanc 691 
 
 Hillsdale: 
 
 Adams 279 
 
 Allen 353 
 
 Fayette 685 
 
 Florida 156 
 
 Litchfield 314 
 
 Moscow 496 
 
 Ingham: 
 
 No returns for townships. 
 Total 
 
 Ionia: 
 Ionia. 
 
 Jackson: 
 
 No returns for townships. 
 
 Total 8702 
 
 Kalamazoo: 
 
 Brady 1292 
 
 Comstock 1383 
 
 Cooper 386 
 
 Kalamazoo 1373 
 
 Kent: 
 
 Byron' 362 
 
 Lapeer: 
 
 No returns for townships. 
 
 Total= 2602 
 
 Lenawee: 
 
 Blissfield 559 
 
 Cambridge 523 
 
 Dover 680 
 
 Fairfield 203 
 
 Franklin 989 
 
 Hudson 
 
 Lenawee ' 1151 
 
 Logan 1962 
 
 Macon 1111 
 
 Livingston: 
 
 Byron 317 
 
 Deerfield 369 
 
 Genoa 361 
 
 Green Oak 1435 
 
 Hamburg 490 
 
 Vermontville 145 
 
 Total 913 
 
 Mundy 234 
 
 Vienna 107 
 
 Total 2754 
 
 Pittsford 550 
 
 Reading 277 
 
 Scipio 469 
 
 Somerset 441 
 
 Wheatland 729 
 
 Total 4749 
 
 Maple. . 
 Total. 
 
 Pavilion 548 
 
 Prairie Ronde 665 
 
 Richland 720 
 
 Total 6367 
 
 Kent 1660 
 
 Total 2022 
 
 Medina 420 
 
 Ogden 198 
 
 Palmyra 898 
 
 Raisin 1076 
 
 Rollin 508 
 
 Rome 826 
 
 Seneca 431 
 
 Tecumseh 2464 
 
 Woodstock 541 
 
 TotaP 14540 
 
 Hartland 404 
 
 Howell 442 
 
 Marion 202 
 
 Putnam 367 
 
 Unadilla 642 
 
 Total 5029 
 
538 
 
 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Mackinac: 
 
 Holmes 664 
 
 Total 664 
 
 Macomb: 
 
 Armada 1001 
 
 Bruce 889 
 
 Clinton 1193 
 
 Harrison 502 
 
 Hickory 249 
 
 Jefferson 523 
 
 Monroe: 
 
 Ash 1011 
 
 Bedford 431 
 
 Erie 999 
 
 Exeter 166 
 
 Frenchtown 1503 
 
 Ida 200 
 
 Lasalle 826 
 
 Oakland: 
 
 Addison 343 
 
 Avon 1289 
 
 Bloomfleld 1485 
 
 Brandon 263 
 
 Commerce 747 
 
 Farmington 1724 
 
 Groveland 664 
 
 HigMand 440 
 
 Independence 668 
 
 Lyon 1051 
 
 Milford 667 
 
 Novi 1335 
 
 Ottawa: 
 
 No returns for townships. 
 
 Total 628 
 
 Saginaw: 
 
 Saginaw , 920 
 
 Total 920 
 
 St. Clair: 
 
 China -'. 603 
 
 Clay 394 
 
 Clyde 339 
 
 Columbus 85 
 
 Cottrelville 520 
 
 St. Joseph: 
 
 Bucks 782 
 
 Colon 368 
 
 Constantino 842 
 
 Florence 440 
 
 Plowerfleld 406 
 
 Shiawassee: 
 
 No returns for townships. 
 Total 
 
 Lenox 234 
 
 Macomb 736 
 
 Orange 297 
 
 Ray 786 
 
 Shelby 1153 
 
 Washmgton 1329 
 
 Total 8892 
 
 London 456 
 
 Milan 270 
 
 Monroe 2795 
 
 Raisinville 614 
 
 Summerfield 1 128 
 
 Whiteford 257 
 
 Total 10646 
 
 Oakland 803 
 
 Orion 593 
 
 Oxford 384 
 
 Pontiac 1700 
 
 Rose 202 
 
 Royal Oak 825 
 
 Southfield 956 
 
 Springfield 403 
 
 Troy 1439 
 
 Waterf ord 828 
 
 West Bloomfleld 1004 
 
 White Lake 363 
 
 Total 20176 
 
 Ira 202 
 
 Lexington 205 
 
 Port Huron 824 
 
 St. Clair 501 
 
 Total 3673 
 
 Leonidas 374 
 
 Mottville 497 
 
 Nottawa 713 
 
 Sherman 1043 
 
 White Pigeon 872 
 
 Total 6337 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 539 
 
 Van Buhen: 
 
 Antwerp 232 
 
 Clinch 108 
 
 Covington 183 
 
 Decatur 224 
 
 Washtenaw: 
 
 Ann Arbor 2944 
 
 Augusta 559 
 
 Bridgewater 923 
 
 Dexter 596 
 
 Freedom 795 
 
 Lima 895 
 
 Lodi 1063 
 
 Lyndon 361 
 
 Manchester 805 
 
 Northfield 793 
 
 Wayne: 
 
 Brownstown 846 
 
 Canton 1050 
 
 Dearborn 1317 
 
 Detroit 8273 
 
 Ecorse 709 
 
 Greenfield 897 
 
 Hamtramcl* 1772 
 
 Huron 481 
 
 Lafayette 248 
 
 Lawrence 202 
 
 South Haven 65 
 
 Total 1262 
 
 Pitt 1208 
 
 Salem ' 1354 
 
 Saline 1130 
 
 Scio 1442 
 
 Sharon 782 
 
 Superior 1378 
 
 Sylvan 480 
 
 York 1197 
 
 YpsQanti 2280 
 
 Webster 832 
 
 Total 21817 
 
 Livonia 1076 
 
 Monguagon 404 
 
 Nankin 1160 
 
 Plymouth 2246 
 
 Redford 1021 
 
 Romulus 389 
 
 Springwells 960 
 
 Van Buren 799 
 
 Total 23400 
 
 Colored Population. 
 
 Calhoun. . . 
 Chippewa. . 
 Mackinac. . . 
 St. Joseph . . 
 Washtenaw 
 
 24 
 3 
 1 
 4 
 
 62 
 
 Wayne. . 
 Jackson . 
 Monroe . 
 Oakland . 
 
 Total . 
 
 228 
 
 9 
 
 35 
 
 13 
 
 379 
 
 Cass 
 
 Chippewa . 
 
 Indians Taxed. 
 
 Genesee . 
 Total . 
 
 24 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 27 
 
 1. Part of this township was in Ottawa County. 
 
 2. Exclusive of the township of Richfield. 
 
 3. Exclusive of the township of Hudson. 
 
540 
 
 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 E 
 
 APPORTIONMENT OF TAXES TO BE RAISED FOR STATE PURPOSES FOR 
 
 THE YEAR 1837, CALCULATED FROM THE ASSESSMENT RETURNS 
 
 OF 1836 MADE BY THE SUPERVISORS AND TREASURERS OF 
 
 EIGHTEEN COUNTIES, AND THE RESIDUE FROM THE 
 
 RETURNS OF 1837. 
 
 {Senate Documents, 1838, pp. 141-142) 
 
 Counties. 
 
 Square 
 miles. 
 
 Apportion- 
 ment 
 of taxes. 
 
 *Allegan 
 
 840 
 578 
 528 
 528 
 720 
 
 504 
 576 
 576 
 720 
 576 
 
 576 
 828 
 735 
 576 
 27,684 
 
 458 
 532 
 900 
 1,021 
 544 
 
 935 
 528 
 720 
 600 
 
 $2,735 
 
 Berrien 
 
 2,356 
 
 Branch 
 
 534 
 
 Cass • 
 
 1,231 
 
 Calhoun 
 
 1,368 
 
 Genesee 
 
 482 
 
 Hillsdale 
 
 932 
 
 *Ionia 
 
 1,849 
 
 .lackson 
 
 944 
 
 Kalamazoo 
 
 1,537 
 
 Kent 
 
 1,374 
 
 Lapeer 
 
 150 
 
 *Lenawee 
 
 3,145 
 
 Livingston 
 
 325 
 
 *Mackinac 
 
 191 
 
 Macomb 
 
 1,065 
 
 ♦Monroe 
 
 4,304 
 
 Oakland 
 
 1,940 
 
 *Saginaw 
 
 2,279 
 
 ♦Shiawassee 
 
 2,076 
 
 St. Clair 
 
 808 
 
 St. Joseph 
 
 917 
 
 Washtenaw 
 
 2,532 
 
 Wayne 
 
 10,852 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 42,783 
 
 $45,926 
 
 
 
 * Taxes for the counties starred were calculated from tlie assessment returns for 
 1837. No taxes were assessed for counties not named. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AIDS 
 
 General 
 
 Channing, Edward. Giiide to the study and reading oj American 
 history, by Edward Channing, Albert Bushnell Hart and Fred- 
 erick Jackson Turner. Boston, 1912. 
 
 Griffin, A. P. C. Bibliography of Historical Societies of the United 
 States, in Annual Reports of the American Historical Association 
 for 1890, 1892, 1893, 1895. 
 
 Larned, J. N. The Literature of American History; a Bibliography. 
 Boston, 1899. The best avenue to the essential literature. 
 Pages 7-13 usefiil for State publications. Supplement issued for 
 1900-1901. 
 
 Sabin, Joseph. A Dictionary of Books relating to America from 
 the Discovery to the Present Time. 20 vols.. New York, 1868- 
 1892. 
 
 WiNsoR, Justin. Narrative and Critical History of America. 8 
 vols., Boston & New York, 1884-1889. Bibliographies anti- 
 quated, but valuable for criticisms of the sources. Vokmie 
 VIII, 493, contains a useful guide to travels in the United States 
 during this period. 
 
 A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress with 
 Bibliographical notes. 2 vols., Washington, 1909. A list of 
 maps and atlasses relating to Michigan is contained in I, 864-869. 
 
 Writings on American History . 1902, 1903, 1906-1908, 1912-1914. 
 
 Local History 
 
 BowKER, R. R. (Editor). State Publications. A Provisional List 
 of the Official Publications of the Several States of the United 
 States from their Organization. Four parts, New York, 1899- 
 1908. Vol. Ill contains a list of the Michigan publications. 
 
 Bradford, Thomas L. The Bibliographer' s Manual of American 
 History, Containing an Account of all State, Territory, Town and 
 County histories, relating to the United States of North America 
 [etc]. Edited and revised by S. V. Henkels. 5 vols., Philadel- 
 phia, S. V. Henkels & Co., 1907-1910. A work intended for 
 dealers in second hand books. Full and acciurate. 
 
544 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Government Publications 
 
 Ames, J. G. List of Congressional Documents from the Fifteenth to 
 the Fifty-first Congress (1817-1891). Washington, 1892. 
 
 Catalogue of Public Documents, ''Document Catalog,'" (1893-1907). 
 11 vols., Washington, 1896-1915. 
 
 Church, Alonzo W. and Smith, Henry H. Tables showing the 
 Contents of the several volumes comprising the Annals of Congress, 
 Congressional Debates, Congressional Globe, Sttpreme Court Re- 
 ports, etc., arranged by years and Congresses. Washington, 1892. 
 
 Crandall, Check List of Public Documents. 2nd ed., Washington, 
 1895. - 
 
 Ferrell, L. C. Public Documents of the United States. (In 
 Library fournal, XXVI, 671). 
 
 Greely, a. W. Public Documents of the first fourteen Congresses, 
 1789-1817. Wa.shington, 1900. 
 
 Index to the Executive Documents and Reports of Committees of the 
 House from the Twenty-second to the Twenty-fifth Congress. 
 (1831-1839). Washington (1839). 
 
 Lane, L. P. Aids in -the Use of Government Publications. (In Pub- 
 lications of the American Statistical Association, VII, 40-57). 
 
 Moore, B. P. Descriptive Catalogue of Government Publications, 
 1776-1881. Washington, 1885. 
 
 Ordway, Albert. General Index of the fournals of Congress, from 
 the Eleventh to Sixteenth Congress inclusive. Washington, 1883. 
 
 United States Superintendent of Docuinents, Tables of and An- 
 notated Index to Congressional Series of United States Public 
 Documents. Washington, 1902. 
 
 Newspapers and Periodicals 
 
 Annotated Catalogue of Newspaper Files in the Library of the Wis- 
 consin Historical Society. Madison, 1899. 
 
 Blair, E. H. Newspaper Files in the Library of the Wisconsin 
 Historical Society. Madison, 1898. 
 
 Braply, I. S. A bibliography of documentary and newspaper ma- 
 terial for the Old Northwest. (In Annual Report of the American 
 Historical Association for 1896, I, 296-319). 
 
 Cairns, W. B. Development of American Literature from 1815 to 
 1833, with especial Reference to Periodicals. (In Bulletin of the 
 University of Wisconsin, Literature Series, I, 1898). 
 
 Hudson, Frederic. Journalism in the United States, 1690-1872. 
 New York, 1873. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 545 
 
 List oj Serials in Public Libraries of Chicago and Evans ton. (Au- 
 spices of Chicago Library Club), Chicago, 1901. 
 
 North, S. N. D. History and Present Condition of Newspaper and 
 Periodical Press of the United States. Washington, 1884. Ap- 
 pendix C contains "Chronological History of the Newspaper Press 
 of the United States;" appendix D, "Bound Files in the American 
 Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. 
 
 Poole, W. F. (Editor). Index to Periodical Literature, rev. 
 ed. (1802-1881). Boston, 1882. Supplements for 1888, 1893, 
 1897, 1903, 1908. 
 
 Slauson, a. B. Check List of American Newspapers in the Library 
 of Congress. Washington, 1908. 
 
 Manuscripts 
 
 Manuscript Collection in the Burton Library, Detroit. 
 
 Manuscript Collections in the New York Public Library. (In Bul- 
 letin of New York Public Library. July, 1901). 
 
 Thwaites, R. G. Descriptive List of Manuscript Collections of the 
 State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Together with reports on 
 Other Collections of Manuscript Material for American History in 
 Adjacent States. Madison, 1906. 
 
 Van Tyne, C. H., and Leland, W. G. Guide to the Archives of the 
 Government of the United States in Washington. 2nd ed., Wash- 
 ington, 1907. 
 
 General Secondary Works 
 
 BiRNEY, William, fames G. Birney and his Times. The Genesis 
 of the Republican Party with Some Account of Abolition Move- 
 ments in the South before 1828. New York, 1890. Of value for 
 conditions leading to southern immigration into southwestern 
 Michigan. 
 
 Bishop, J. L. History of American Manufacturers, 1608-1860 
 [etc.], 3 vols., Philadelphia, 1868. Notice of relation of New 
 England maniifacturing industries to westward emigration. 
 
 BoLLES, A. S. Industrial History of the United States, from the 
 Earliest Settlement to the Present Time [etc.]. Norwich, Connec- 
 ticut, 1878. An excellent general view of the material advance- 
 ment of the United States. The best of the earlier works on the 
 subject. 
 
 Brackenridge, Henry Marie, Esq. History of the late War be- 
 tween the United States and Great Britain. Containing a Minute 
 69 
 
546 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Account of the various military and naval Operations. 2nd ed., 
 Baltimore, 1817. 
 
 Brannan, John (Editor). Official Letters of the military and 
 naval Officers of the United States, during the War with Great 
 Britain in the Years 1812, 13, 14 and 15, [etc.]. Washington, 
 1823. 
 
 Brigham, Albert Perry. From Trail to Railway through the 
 Appalachians. Boston, 1907. A good popular accotint of the 
 routes of emigration westward. 
 
 Bromwell, W. J. History of immigration to the United States, 
 [etc.]. ' 1819-1855. New York, 1856. 
 
 Brown, Charles R. The Old Northwest Territory: its Missions, 
 Forts, and Trading Posts. Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1875. Con- 
 tains a valuable annotated map showing locations of the prin- 
 cipal early settlements. 
 
 Channing, Edward and Lansing, M. F. The Story of the Great 
 Lakes. New York, 1909. A general accomit. Less suggestive 
 for the earlier period. Contains a useful bibliography, pp. 
 388-391, mainly of guides, gazeteers and travels. 
 
 Cutler, Julia Perkins. Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler. 
 Prepared from his Journals and Correspondence. Cincinnati, 
 1890. Useful for early conditions of travel. 
 
 Cutler, William Parker, and Cutler, Julia Perkins. Life, 
 Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D. 
 2 vols., Cincinnati, 1888. Shows eastern forces opposed to the 
 westward movement of population. 
 
 Dewey, D. R. Financial History of the United States. New 
 York, 1903. 
 
 Digested Summary of Private Claims. 3 vols., Washington, 1853. 
 A convenient aid in studying the French claims in southeastern 
 Michigan. 
 
 Donaldson, Thomas. The Public Domain, Its History, with Sta- 
 tistics, with references to the Natioyial Domain, Colonization, Ac- 
 quirement of Territory, the Survey, Administration and Several 
 Methods of Sale and Disposition of the Public Domain of the 
 United States, with Sketch of Legislative History of the Land, 
 States and Territories, and References to the Land System of the 
 Colonies, and also that of Several Foreign Governments . Wash- 
 ington, 1884. 
 
 Eggerling, H. W. E. Beschreihung der Vereinigten Staaten von 
 Nord-Amcrika. Second edition, Mannheim, 1833. A work of 
 much influence on emigration to the Middle West from South- 
 ern Germany. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 547 
 
 Fay, H. a. Collection of the official Accounts, in Detail, of all the 
 Battles fought by Sea and Land, between the Navy and Army of the 
 United States, and the Navy and Army of Great Britain, during 
 the years 1812, 13, 14 and 15. New York, 1817. 
 
 Goodrich, S. G. Recollections of a Life Time; or, Men and Things 
 I have Seen; in a Series of Letters to a Friend, historical, bio- 
 graphical, anecdotal, and descriptive. 2 vols.. New York, 1857. 
 Descriptive of the westward movement of population in 1816- 
 1817, in letter ?>?>. 
 
 Hall, B. F. The early History of the North Western States, em- 
 bracing New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and 
 Wisconsin [etc.]. Buffalo, 184-9. 
 
 Hesse, N. Das westliche Nordamerika [etc.]. Paderborn, 1838. 
 An influential summary of western conditions favorable to 
 German emigrants. 
 
 Hubbard, Bela. Memorials of a Half -Century . N. Y. and Lond., 
 1887. A collection of papers bearing upon early settlement. 
 Hubbard was a Michigan pioneer of prominence, and his writ- 
 ings have the authority of an intelligent eye witness. 
 
 KoERNER, GusTAV. Das deutsche Element in den Vereinigten 
 Staaten von Nordamerika, 1818-1848. Cincinnati, 1880. 
 
 LoEHER, Franz. Geschichte und Zustaende der Deutschen in 
 Amerika. Cincinnati, 1847. 
 
 Mathews, Lois Kimball. The Expansion of New England, the 
 spread of New England settlement and institutions to the Mississ- 
 ippi River, 1620-1865. Boston and New York, 1909. 
 
 M'Afee, Robert B. History of the late War in the Western Coun- 
 try, comprising a full Account of all the Transactions in that 
 Quarter, from the Commencement of Hostilities at Tippecanoe, to 
 the Termination of the Contest at New Orleans on the Return of 
 Peace. Lexington, Kentucky, 1816. 
 
 Macgregor, John. Progress of America [etc.]. 2 vols., London, 
 1847. 
 
 McMaster, John Bach. History of the People of the United 
 States. New York, 1883-1900. Vols. IV, ch. Z2>, and V, ch. 45, 
 contain useful general accounts of emigration to the West in 
 this period. 
 
 Meigs, William M. The Life of Thomas Hart Benton. Phila- 
 delphia and London, 1904. Important for national policies in 
 relation to western land questions. 
 
 Perkins, S. Historical Sketches of the United States, from the 
 Peace of 1815 to 1830. New York, 1830. An account by a 
 
548 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 contemporary who was well equipped for the task. Gives a 
 large national setting for the early settlement of Michigan. 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore. The Winning of the West. 4 vols., New 
 York, 1889-1896. 
 
 Semple, E. C. American History and its Geographic Conditions . 
 Boston, 1903. 
 
 Shea, John Gilmary. History of the Catholic Church in the United 
 States. 4 vols., New York, 1886-92. Vol. Ill covers 1808-1843. 
 
 Smith, Theodore Clarke. The Liberty and Free Soil Parties in 
 the Northwest. New York, 1897. The first two chapters give 
 a good general sun^ey of the negro problems in the Old North- 
 west. 
 
 Stevens, Abel. History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the 
 United States of America. 4 vols., New York, 1884. 
 
 Thomson, John Lewis. Historical Sketches of the late War be- 
 tween the United States and Great Britain. Philadelphia, 1816. 
 
 Tucker, George. Progress of the United States in Population 
 and Wealth in fifty Years, as exhibited by the decennial Census. 
 Boston, 1843. 
 
 Turner, F. J. Rise of the New West, 1819-1829. (American 
 Nation Series). New York and London, 1906. The most 
 scholarly brief account of these ten years. Contains a good 
 general bibliography. 
 
 Warden, David Baillie. A Statistical, political and historical 
 Account of the U. S.of N.A.; from the period of their first Coloniza- 
 tion to the Present Day. 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1819. 
 
 Williams, Samuel. Sketches of the War between the United States 
 and the British Isles: intended as a faith fid History of all material 
 Events from the Time of the Declaration in 1812 to and including 
 the Treaty of Peace in 1815. Rutland, Vermont, 1815. 
 
 WiNCHELL, Alexander. The Climate of Michigan. (In Tenth 
 Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Horticultural Society 
 of Michigan, 1880, pp. 155-163). Lansing, 1881. 
 
 WiNCHELL, Alexander. The Soils and. Subsoils of Michigan, 
 (In Three Lectures delivered before the Michigan State Agricul- 
 tural Society [etc.]). Lansing, 1865. 
 
 WiNCHELL, Alexander. Topography and Hydrography [of Mich- 
 igan]. In Tackabury's Atlas of Michigan, Detroit, 1873, pp. 
 9- 1.4, 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 549 
 
 BIOGRAPHIES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
 
 McLaughlin, Andrew C. Lewis Cass. Boston, 1891. Very 
 valuable for the whole period of Michigan Territory, but especi- 
 ally from 1813 to 1831. Cass was governor of the Territory in 
 those years, and zealously promoted settlement. 
 
 Smith, W. L. G. The Life and Times of Lewis Cass. New York, 
 1856. Contains original material for the Cass expedition of 
 1820. 
 
 Young, Wm. T. Sketch of the Life and Public Services of General 
 Lewis Cass [etc.]. Detroit, 1852. 
 
 Early History of Michigan with biographies of State officers, mem- 
 bers of congress, judges and legislators. Lansing, 1888. The 
 most useful list of biographies covering its period. Compiled 
 by authority of the legislature. The introduction gives items 
 of interest for early settlement. 
 
 Chapman Brothers, Chicago (publishers). Branch County, 
 1888; Genesee County, 1892; Hillsdale County, 1888; Ingham 
 and Livingston Counties, 1891; Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 
 1891; Jackson County, 1890; Kalamazoo, Allegan and Van 
 Buren Counties, 1892; Lenawee County, 1888; Oakland County, 
 1891. 
 
 Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago (publishers). Berrien 
 and Cass Counties, 1893; Muskegon and Ottawa Counties, 1893; 
 Oakland County, 1903; Saginaw and Bay Counties, 1892; 
 Washtenaw County, 1891. 
 
 A. W. BowEN AND Co., Logansport, Indiana (publishers). Kent 
 County, 1900. Emphasis on Grand Rapids. 
 
 Knapp, J. I. and Bonner, R. I. Illustrated History and Bio- 
 graphical Record of Lenawee County. Adrian, Michigan, 1903. 
 
 Whitney, W. A. and Bonner, I. A. Historical and Biographical 
 Record of Lenawee County. 2 vols., Adrian, Michigan, 1879- 
 1880. 
 
 histories of MICHIGAN 
 
 Campbell, James V. Outlines of the Political History of Michigan. 
 Detroit, 1876. 
 
 CooLEY, Thomas M. Michigan.a History of Governments. Boston- 
 and N. Y., 1905. The best general account of the history of 
 Michigan. Much general information about settlements given. 
 
 Farmer, Silas. The History of Detroit and Michigan [etc.]. 2 
 vols., Detroit, 1884. 2nd ed. 1890; sHghtly enlarged to include 
 events to date. A ver}^ full and accurate account of Michigan 
 
550 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Territory. The second volmne is entirely biographical. The 
 first volume contains in the text many references to the 
 sources, especially to contemporary newspapers. 
 
 Lanman, James H. History of Michigan, Civil and Topographical, 
 in a Compendiotis Form; with a View of the Surrounding Lakes. 
 With a Map. New York, 1839. The author was a Michigan 
 pioneer, contemporary with the latter part of this period. 
 Especially valualDle for contemporary physiographic conditions 
 of settlement. 
 
 Sheldon (Mrs.) E. M. The Early History of Michigan, from the 
 first Settlement to 1815. New York, 1856. Mainly on the 
 French period. Useful for settlement about Detroit from 1805 
 to 1815. 
 
 Utley, Henry M., Cutcheon, Byron M. and Burton, Clar- 
 ence M. Michigan as a Province, Territory and State, the 
 Twenty-Sixth Member of the Federal Union. New York, 1906. 
 
 COUNTY and other LOCAL HISTORIES 
 
 Interest in systematically collecting and publishing the records 
 of Michigan's local history appears to have begun about the time 
 of the centennial of 1876. The material for the first volume of 
 the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections was coinpiled in 
 1874-1876, and pubhshed in 1877. The opportunity for county 
 histories aft'orded by this iinpulse was seized by three Philadelphia 
 firms, L. H. Everts and Co., Everts and Abbott, and D. W. En- 
 sign and Co., and a little later by Chicago firms, principally C. C. 
 Chapman and Co. The wave of interest lasted from 1877 to 
 about 1882, and resvilted in the production of almost an even 
 score of voltmies for the counties south of Saginaw Bay. It is 
 noteworthy that among these the older counties of Wayne and 
 Monroe were not represented. The first county histories were 
 those of Oakland, Calhoun, and St. Joseph counties. They were 
 exceptionally full in pertinent details for early settlement, and the 
 same may be said of those for Branch, Genesee, Hillsdale and 
 Kalamazoo. These obviously furnished much of the data used 
 in the later and more carefully constructed county histories. 
 Some of the earlier histories, however, are especially poor. In 
 this class are those for Kent, Saginaw and Washtenaw counties 
 published by C. C. Chapman and Co. They give data of com- 
 paratively little value for settlement, garbling the papers furnished 
 by pioneers, and abounding in appealing generalities. 
 
 A second wave of interest in Michigan county history is shown 
 by volumes appearing in the years 1888-1892. These came from 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 551 
 
 two Chicago firms, Chapman Brothers and the Biographical Pub- 
 Hshing Co., and differed from the earlier output by being dis- 
 tinctly biographical in character. Many of them bore names 
 beginning "Portrait and Biographical Album." They are of 
 much value in tracing the sources of population. 
 
 Since 1905, two Chicago publishing companies have appeared 
 in this field, one of which, the Lewis Publishing Co., is sponsor- 
 ing work of a much higher grade than has been done hitherto. 
 The title of these volumes begins "The Twentieth Century His- 
 tory." They lay the chief emphasis upon recent years, and 
 hence are not so useful for data about early settlement as the 
 older histories. As a whole they do not contribute much new 
 data on the earlier period, but are better organized. 
 
 Almost without exception, the county histories give a large 
 section of their space to biographical sketches of pioneers and 
 present day business men. Since the volumes are sold by sub- 
 scription, the subjects of these sketches are in the main those 
 who can afford to buy the volume. It thus happens that promi- 
 nent early pioneers who happen not to have descendents living 
 in the county, get scant treatment. Without exception these 
 volumes are of the unwieldy folio or quarto size, with heavy 
 leather binding, thick paper, and very poor indexes. Their gen- 
 erally poor quality and exhorbitant prices have made them justly 
 the object of much ridicule and contempt among serious workers. 
 Yet for many phases of early settlement they contain the main 
 sources of information, poor as it may be. With proper checking 
 they may be made to yield light on some problems, such as the 
 founding of villages, routes of travel, prejudices of settlers, sources 
 of population and conditions of pioneer life. 
 
 For the present purpose it is thought most useful to arrange 
 these books chronologically under the names of their publishers. 
 Only those used by the author in this work are given . 
 
 L. H. Everts and Co., Philadelphia. 
 
 Calhoun County, 1877. 
 
 Oakland County, 1877. 
 
 St. Joseph County, 1877. 
 Everts and Abbott, Philadelphia. 
 
 Branch County, 1879. 
 
 Genesee County, 1879. 
 
 Hillsdale County, 1879. 
 
 Kalamazoo County, 1880. 
 D. W. Ensign and Co., Philadelphia. 
 
 Allegan and Barry Comities, 1880. 
 
552 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Berrien and Van Buren Counties, 1880. 
 
 Ingham and Eaton Counties, 1880. 
 
 Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 1881. 
 
 Shiawassee and CHnton Counties, 1880. 
 C. C. Chapman and Co., Chicago. 
 
 Kent County, 1881, 
 
 Saginaw County, 1881. 
 
 Washtenaw County, 1881. 
 Inter-State Publishing Co., Chicago. 
 
 Jackson County, 1881. 
 Waterman, Watkins and Co., Chicago. 
 
 Cass County, 1882. 
 M. A. Leeson and Co., Chicago. 
 
 Macomb County, 1882. 
 H. R. Page and Co., Chicago. 
 
 Muskegon and Ottawa Counties, 1882. 
 A. T. Andreas and Co., Chicago. 
 
 St. Clair County, 1883. 
 MuNSELL AND Co., Ncw York. 
 
 Monroe Cotmty, 1890. 
 S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago. 
 
 Macomb County, 1905. 
 
 Washtenaw County, 1906. 
 The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago. 
 
 Allegan County. 
 
 Berrien County. 
 
 Branch County. 
 
 Calhoun County. 
 
 Cass County. 
 
 Detroit. 
 
 Monroe County. 
 
 Oaldand County. 
 
 Saint Clair County. 
 
 Saint Joseph County. 
 
 Van Buren County. 
 
 The following histories of cities or sections of the State were 
 published mainly in Michigan : 
 
 Baxter, Albert. History of the City of Grand Rapids, Michi- 
 gan. New York, 1891. The Appendix contains a brief history 
 of Lowell, Kent County. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 553 
 
 Carlisle, Fred (Compiler). Chronography of Notable Events in 
 the History of the Northwest Territory and Wayne County. De- 
 troit, 1890. 
 
 CowLES, Albert E. Past and Present of the City of Lansing and 
 Ingham County, Michigan. Lansing, Michigan, 1904. 
 
 Everett, Franklin. Memorials of the Grand River Valley. 
 Chicago, 1878. This work was done under the auspices of the 
 Old Residents' Association of the Grand River Valley (see pre- 
 face), and is one of the chief sources for local history in that 
 region. 
 
 Goss, DwiGHT. History of Grand Rapids and its Industries. 2 
 vols., Chicago, 1906. 
 
 HoGABOAM, James J. The Bean Creek Valley. Incidents of its 
 early settlement. Collected from the memories of its earliest set- 
 tlers now living [etc.]. Hudson, Michigan, 1876. 
 
 Lane, William A. Homer and its Pioneers, and its Business Men 
 of Today. Homer, Michigan, 1883. 
 
 Rogers, Howard S. History of Cass County from 1825 to 1875. 
 Cassopolis, Michigan, 1875. 
 
 Ross, R. B. and Catlin, G. B. Landmarks of Wayne County and 
 Detroit. Revised by C. M. Burton, Detroit, 1898. 
 
 contemporary newspapers, magazines, etc. 
 
 American Annual Register. Philadelphia, 1825-1833. 
 
 Albany Argus. 1813 + . 
 
 Albany Cultivator. 1834+ . 
 
 American Quarterly Review. Philadelphia, 1827-1837. 
 
 Boston Daily Advertiser. 1813+ . 
 
 Boston Patriot. 1809+ . 
 
 Boston Weekly Messenger. 1 8 1 1 + . 
 
 Ch arleston Mercury . 1 82 2 + . 
 
 The Christian Examiner. Boston, 1824+ . 
 
 Christian Monthly Spectator. 1819-1828. 
 
 Cincinnati Gazette. 1806+ . 
 
 Columbian Centinel. Boston, 1790+ . 
 
 Connecticut Courant. Hartford, 1764+ . 
 
 Connecticut Journal and New Haven Post Boy. 1767-1835. 
 
 Gazette of the United States . New York and Philadelphia . 1 7 89 + . 
 
 Genesee Farmer. New York, 1831 + . 
 
554 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Historical Register of the United States. Philadelphia, 1814-16. 
 
 Independent Chronicle. Boston, 1789-1831. 
 
 National Gazette. Philadelphia, 1820 + . 
 
 National Intelligencer. Washington, 1800 + . 
 
 New England Palladium. Boston, 1801-1835. 
 
 New Hampshire Gazette.^ Portsmouth, 1756+ . 
 
 New York Evening Post. 1801 + . 
 
 New York Herald. 1 802 + . 
 
 Niles' Weekly Register. Baltimore, 1811 + . Especially valuable 
 
 for economic conditions as affected by the changing relations 
 
 between the East and the West. 
 North American Review. New York, 1815 + . 
 Providence Gazette and Daily Journal. 1762 + . 
 Pennsylvania Gazette. Philadelphia, 1728+ . 
 The Pittsburgh Commonwealth. 1805-1809. Special attention to 
 
 Michigan news in the first years of Michigan as a separate 
 
 Territory. 
 Salem Gazette. 1774+ . 
 
 EARLY MICHIGAN NEWSPAPERS 
 
 Detroit Courier. December 30, 1830 + . 
 
 Detroit Gazette. 1817-1830. The most valuable newspaper for 
 historical material on Michigan in this period. Democratic. 
 
 Detroit Journal. Published 1829-1830 as The Northwestern Journal 
 and from 1830-1833 as The Detroit Journal and Michigan Ad- 
 vertiser. Originated with friends of John Quincy Adams. 
 
 Emigrant. Ann Arbor, 1829. Name changed to The Western 
 Emigrant in 1830, and the paper became anti-Masonic. 
 
 Kalamazoo Gazette. Kalamazoo, 1834+ . Democratic. 
 
 Michigan Sentinel. Monroe, 1825 + . Democratic. 
 
 Michigan Statesman. White Pigeon, St. Joseph County, 1833+ , 
 Democratic. Shortly afterwards removed to Kalamazoo. 
 
 Lenawee County Republican and Adrian Gazette. Adrian, October 
 15,1834+. Name changed to r/z^ PFafc/ztow^r in 1835. A few 
 scattered copies of the first issues preserved in Adrian Public 
 Library. 
 
 Michigan Herald. Detroit, May 10, 1825 to April 30, 1829. 
 Whig organ. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 555 
 
 Monroe Journal and Michigan Inquirer. Monroe, 1834+ . Dis- 
 continued the following year. 
 
 Oakland County Chronicle. Pontiac, June 25, 1830 to May, 1831. 
 Removed to Detroit in 1831 and became The Detroit Free Press 
 and Michigan Intelligencer. First issued at Detroit May 5, 
 1831. Name "Michigan Intelligencer" dropped in 1832. 
 
 ARTICLES IN MAGAZINES 
 
 Mayo, A. D. "Western Emigration and Western Character," in 
 Christian Examiner, LXXXII, 265-282. New York, 1867. 
 
 Shea, John Gilmary. "The Canadian Element in the United 
 States," in the American Catholic Quarterly Review, October, 
 1879. 
 
 Turner, F J. "The Middle West," in International Monthly, 
 IV, 794-820. 
 
 Turner, F. J. "The Colonization of the West," in American His- 
 torical Review, XI, 303-327. An excellent general treatment of 
 pioneering in the Middle West. The foot notes contain valuable 
 bibliographical aid. 
 
 Turner, F. J. "The Problem of the West," in the Atlantic 
 Monthly, LXXVIII, 289-297. 
 
 Turner, F. J. "Contributions of the West to American De- 
 mocracy," in the Atlantic Monthly, XCI, 83-96. 
 
 "European Emigration to the United States," in Edinburgh Re- 
 view. July, 1854. 
 
 "German Emigration," in LittelVs Living Age, October, 1846. 
 
 "The Revolutions of Europe, 1830-1890," in the North American 
 Review, July, 1848. 
 
 "Ireland in 1834," in the Dublin University Magazine, Januarv, 
 1835. 
 
 TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION 
 
 Light is reflected upon specific conditions of localities by tra- 
 velers' accounts. Caution is needed to guard against exaggera- 
 tions, inaccuracies and prejudices. English travelers were prone 
 to speak slightingly of conditions in the West. (See the protest 
 of Robert Walsh, An Appeal from the Judgment of Great Britain 
 respecting the United States, Philadelphia, 1819; also McMaster, 
 History of the People of the United States, V, Ch. 48). Some 
 travels were made to gather information for emigrants, to serve 
 as a basis for gazetteers and guides. Accounts of travels published 
 abroad had influence on foreign immigration to the localities de- 
 scribed. These became very nimierous after about 1835. 
 
556 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Abdy, E. S. Journal of a Residence and Tour in the United States 
 of North America, 1833-1834. 3 vols., London, 1835. 
 
 Americans as they are; described in a Tour through the Valley of the 
 Mississippi. London, 1828. 
 
 BoARDMAN, J. America and the Americans [etc.]. London, 1833. 
 
 Candler, Isaac. A Summary View of America. London, 1824. 
 
 Chevalier, Michael. Society, Manners and Politics in the 
 United States, being a Series of Letters on North America. 
 [January, 1834 to October, 1835]. Boston, 1839. This was a 
 translation from the third Paris edition. Gives an excellent 
 summary of the social conditions as they were at the close of 
 this period. 
 
 CoRBETT, William. A Years Residence, in the United States of 
 America. 3rd ed., London, 1828. Unfavorable to emigration 
 to the United States. 
 
 Cuming, Fortescue. Sketch of a Toitr to the Western Country 
 . commenced at Philadelphia in the Winter of 1807 and con- 
 cluded in 1809. Pittsburg, 1810. 
 
 Darby, William. A Tour from the City of New York to Detroit, 
 in Michigan Territory, made between the 2nd of May and the 
 22nd of September, 1818. New York, 1819. 
 
 De Rocs, F. F. Personal Narrative of Travels in the United States 
 and Canada in 1826 [etc.]. London, 1827. 
 
 Duden, Gottfried. Bericht ueber eine Reise nach den westlichen 
 Staaten N ordamerikd' s und einen mehrjaehrigen Aufenthalt am 
 Missouri {in den Jahren, 1824-1827), in Bezug atif Aus wander tin g 
 und Uebervoelkerung. 2nd ed., Bonn, 1834. 
 
 Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Travels through North Amer- 
 ica during the Years 1825 and 1826 [etc.]. Philadelphia, 1828. 
 
 Evans, Estwick. A Pedestrians Tour of Four Thousand Miles 
 through the Western States and Territories, during the Winter 
 and Spring of 1818 [etc.]. Concord, New Hampshire, 1819. In 
 Thwaites' Early Western Travels, VIII, 90-364. Valuable for 
 specific knowledge of settlement along the southeastern shore 
 of Michigan at that date. The journey from Monroe to De- 
 troit was made on foot. 
 
 Faux, W. Memorable Days in America: being a Journal of a 
 Tour to the United States, principally undertaken to ascertain, by 
 positive Evidence, the Condition and probable Prospects of British 
 Emigrants [etc.]. London, 1823. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 557 
 
 Fearon, H. B. Sketches of America. A Narrative of a Journey 
 
 of five thousand Miles through the eastern and vuestern states of 
 
 America [etc.]. Third edition, London, 1819. 
 FiDLER, Isaac. Observations on Professions, Literature, Manners. 
 
 and Emigration in the United States and Canada. New York, 
 
 1833. 
 Finch, John. Travels in the United States of America and Canada 
 
 [etc.]. London, 1833. Canadians in the region of the Great 
 
 Lakes. 
 Fowler, J. Journal of a Tour in the State of New York in the 
 
 year 1830 [etc.]. London, 1831. 
 Hall, Basil. Travels in North America in the Years 1827 and 
 
 1828 [etc.]. 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1829. 
 Hall, James. Letters from the West: containing Sketches of 
 
 Scenery, Manners, and Customs; and Anecdotes connected with 
 
 the first Settlements of the Western Sections of the United States. 
 
 London, 1828. 
 Harding, Benj. Tours through the Western Country, A. D. 1818 
 
 and 1819. New London, 1819. 
 Harris, William Tell. Remarks made during a Tour through 
 
 the United States of America in the years 1817 , 1818 and 1819. 
 Hecke, J. Val. Reise durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Nord 
 
 Amerika in den Jahren 1818 and 1819 [etc.]. 2 vols., Berlin, 
 
 1820-21. 
 Hinsdale, Burke Aaron. The Old Northwest [etc.]. New York, 
 
 1888. Second edition, New York, 1899. Valuable introduc- 
 tion to the study of Michigan in this period. 
 Hodgson, Adam. Remarks during a Journey through North 
 
 America in the years 1819-21, in a Series of Letters; with an 
 
 Appendix, containing an Account of several of the Indian Tribes, 
 
 and the principal Missionary Stations [etc.]. New York, 1823. 
 Hoffman, C. F. A Winter in the West. 2 vols.. New York, 
 
 1835 . Acute observations by an apparently experienced traveler, 
 
 written very entertainingly in the form of letters from various 
 
 points in the West. Volume I is of much value for Michigan 
 
 in the years 1833-1834. 
 Holmes, Isaac. An account of the United States of America, 
 
 derived from actual Observation, during a Residence of four Years 
 
 in that Republic: including original Communications . London, 
 
 1823. 
 Latrobe, C. J. The Rambler in North America [etc.]. 2 vols., 
 
 New York, 1833. 
 
558 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Lindsay, W. View of America [etc.]. Hawick, 1824. 
 McKenney, Thomas L. Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes [etc.]. 
 
 Baltimore, 1827. Contains items of interest about Detroit and 
 
 the St. Clair settlements. 
 Martineau, Harriet. Society in America 1834-1836. 3 vols., 
 
 London, 1837. 
 Martineau, Harriet. Retrospect of Western Travel. 2 vols.. 
 
 New York, 1838. 
 Murat, Achille. America and the Americans. New York, 1849. 
 
 Apparently written about 1830. Good for a general survey 
 
 of social and economic conditions in the West. 
 Neilson, p. Recollections of a Six Year's Residence in the United 
 
 States of America. Glasgow, 1830. 
 Ogden, George W. Letters from the West. New Bedford, 1823. 
 
 Reprinted in Thwaites, Early Western Travels, XIX. 
 Palmer, John. Journal of Travels in the United States of North 
 
 America and in Lower Canada, performed in the year 1817. 
 
 London, 1818. 
 Rafinesque, C. S. Travels and Researches in North America 
 
 [etc.]. Philadelphia, 1836. 
 Schoolcraft, Henry R. Summary Narrative of an exploratory 
 
 Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820; 
 
 resumed and completed by the Discovery of its Origin in Itaska 
 
 Lake, in 1832. Philadelphia, 1855. 
 Shirreff, p. Totir through North America [etc.]. Edinburgh, 
 
 1835. 
 Stuart, J. Three Years in North America. 2 vols., New York, 
 
 1833. 
 Thwaites, R. G. (Editor). Early Western Travels, 1748-1846. 
 
 32 vols., Cleveland, Ohio, 1904-1907. 
 Wright, John S. Letters from the West; or a Caution to Emi- 
 grants. Salem, New York, 1819. 
 
 travelers' guides 
 
 Cobbett, William. The Emigrant's Guide [etc.]. London, 1830. 
 
 Collins, S. H. The Emigrant's Guide to and Description of the 
 United States of America. Hull, 1830. 
 
 Dana, E. Geographical Sketches of the Western Country: designed 
 for Emigrants and Settlers: being the Result of extensive Re- 
 searches and Remarks. To which is added a Stimmary of all the 
 most interesting Matters on the Subject [etc.]. Cincinnati, 1819. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 559 
 
 Darby, Wm. The Emigrant's Guide to the Western and South- 
 western States and Territories [etc.]. With map. N. Y., 1817. 
 
 Farmer, John. The Emigrants' Gtiide, or Pocket Gazetteer of the 
 Surveyed Part of Michigan. Albany, New York, 1830. An 
 accurate, and for that day quite complete, guide to the Terri- 
 tory. Sold with map and separately. A new edition appeared 
 in 1831, and a much enlarged edition in 1836. Very valuable. 
 
 Flint, James. Letters From America, containing Observations on 
 the Climate and Agriculture of the western States, the Manners 
 of the People, and the Prospects of Emigrants, etc., etc. Edin- 
 burgh, 1822. 
 
 Hewett, D. The American Traveller [etc.]. Washington, 1825. 
 
 Melish, John. Information and Advice to Emigrants to the 
 United States; and from the Eastern to the Western States: illus- 
 trated by a Map of the United States and a Chart of the Atlantic 
 Ocean. Philadelphia, 1819. Among the most favorable of the 
 early references to Michigan. 
 
 Melish, John. The Traveller's Directory through the United 
 States; containing a Description of all the Principal Roads through 
 the United States, with copious Remarks on the Rivers and other 
 Objects [etc.]. New York, 1825. Contains valuable maps and 
 diagrams of routes of travel, with valuable notes. Earlier edi- 
 tions appeared in 1815, 1819 and 1822. 
 
 Morse, Jedidiah and Morse, Richard C. The Traveller's Guide; 
 or, Pocket Gazetteer of the United States; extracted from the latest 
 Edition of Morse's Universal Gazetteer [etc.]. Second edition; 
 enlarged, revised and corrected. New Haven, 1826. Good map 
 of United States in colors. Favorable to the eastern part of 
 Michigan, but misrepresents the country west of the dividing 
 ridge. 
 
 Peck, Rev. John Mason. A Guide for Emigrants, containing 
 Sketches of Illinois, Missouri, and the adjacent parts. Boston, 
 1831. Acute observations, well written. 
 
 gazetteers, directories, geographical and statistical works 
 
 Amphlett, William. Emigrants' Directory of the Western States 
 of North America. London, 1819. 
 
 Blois, John T. Gazetteer of the State of Michigan, in Three parts, 
 containing a General View of the State, a Description of the Face 
 of the Country, Soil, Productions, Public Lands, Internal Im- 
 provements, Commerce, Government, Climate, Education, Religious 
 Denominations, Population, Antiquities, etc., etc, With a Succinct 
 
560 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 History of the State, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. 
 Also a particular description of the Counties, Towns, Villages, 
 Post Offices, Water Covirses, Lakes, Prairies, etc., alphabetically 
 arranged; with an Appendix, containing the Usual Statistical 
 Tables, and a Directory for Emigrants, etc. Detroit and New 
 York, 1839. A very valuable source for Michigan. Contains 
 the Territorial census of 1834. 
 
 Blowe, D. Geographical, Commerical and Agricultural View of 
 the United States. Liverpool, 1820. 
 
 Bristed, John. Resources of the United States of America. New 
 York, 1818. 
 
 Brown, Samuel R. The Western Gazetteer; or, Emigrant's Direc- 
 tory, containing a geographical Description of the Western States 
 and Territories [etc.]. Auburn, New York, 1817. Apparently 
 based upon first-hand knowledge. The eighteen pages devoted 
 to Michigan Territory are fairly accurate. 
 
 Clark, Charles F. (Compiler and pubHsher). Michigan State 
 Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1863-4, embracing Historical 
 and Descriptive Sketches of all the Cities, Towns and Villages 
 throughout the State, together with Classified Lists of all Profes- 
 sions, Trades and Pursuits, Names of all Organized Companies, 
 State and County Officers, and full information regarding the 
 Mercantile and Manufactviring Interests of the State. 2nd ed., 
 Detroit, 1863. 
 
 Daily Advertiser Directory for the City of Detroit for the year 1850. 
 Detroit, 1850. Contains items on early settlement. 
 
 Davenport, Bishop. A New Gazetteer or Geographical Dictionary 
 of North America and the West Indies [etc.]. Baltimore, 1832. 
 Interesting rather for what it does not say about Michigan, at 
 a date fairly well advanced. 
 
 Flint, Timothy. Condensed Geography and History of the Western 
 States. 2 vols., Cincinnati, 1828. 
 
 Flint, Timothy. The History and Geography of the Mississippi 
 Valley. 2nd ed., 2 vols., Cincinnati, 1832. Very imreHable for 
 Michigan. Flattering presentation of its advantages for the 
 immigrant, in I, 436-7. Main attention to the Great Lakes and 
 principal interior rivers. 
 
 Geographical, Historical, Commercial and Agricultural View of ^ the 
 United States of America; forming a complete Emigrant's Direc- 
 tory through every part of the Reptiblic [etc.]. London, 1820. 
 Apparently an expansion of Brown's Western Gazetteer. In- 
 tended to induce English emigrants to settle in the West. 
 
 Indiana Gazetteer. 2nd ed., Indianapolis, 1833. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 561 
 
 KiLBOURNE, John. Ohio Gazetteer. Columbus, 1819. 
 
 Kingdom, William, Jr. America and the British Colonies, an ab- 
 stract of all the most useful Information relative to the United 
 States of America [etc.]. London, 1820. Good advice to in- 
 tending emigrants. Not favorable to the West. 
 
 Mackenzie, E. An historical, topographical, and descriptive View 
 of the United States of America [etc.]. New-Castle-upon-T3Tie, 
 1819. 
 
 Mac Cabe, Julius P. Bolivar. Directory of the City of Detroit, 
 with its Environs, and Register of Michigan, for the Year 1837. 
 Containing an Epitomized History of Detroit; an Alphabetical 
 List of its Citizens; a Classification of Professions and Principal 
 Trades in the City; Every Information Relative to Offices and 
 Officers, to Churches, Associations and Institutions, to Shipping, 
 Steam Boats, Stages, etc. — also, a List of the Officers of the United 
 States Government; the Names of the Governor, and Members of 
 the Legislature of Michigan, and County Officers of the State. 
 etc., etc., etc. Detroit, 1845. Contains many items of in- 
 terest for settlement. 
 
 Melish, John. A geographical Description of the United States, 
 with the contiguous British and Spanish Possessions. Phila- 
 delphia, 1816. An expanded edition (1822) with slightly altered 
 title, contains 491 pages, and shows Michigan rising in impor- 
 tance. There were other editions of this work. 
 
 Melish, John. A Statistical View of the United States, containing 
 a geographical Description of the United States and of each State 
 and Territory; with topographical Tables of the Counties, Towns, 
 Population, etc. New York, 1825. Of value for population of 
 Michigan counties. 
 
 Spafford, Horatio Gates. A Gazetteer of the State of New York: 
 embracing an ample Survey and Description of its Counties, 
 Towns, Cities, Villages, Canals [etc.]. With a new Map, and 
 Profiles of the Canals. Albany, 1824. 
 
 Wellings, James H. Directory of the City of Detroit; and Register 
 of Michigan, for the year 1845. Containing An Epitomized 
 History of Detroit; an Alphabetical List of its Citizens; a List of 
 the officers of the Municipal Government, the officers of the 
 United States, and the State Officers and Members of the Legis- 
 lature of Michigan; also, every information relative to the time and 
 place at which the several Courts sit throughout the State; with a 
 List of Churches, Associations, Institutions, County Officers, etc., 
 etc., etc. Detroit, 1845. 
 71 
 
562 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 NATIONAL AND STATE PUBLICATIONS 
 
 American State Papers. Documents, legislative and executive. 38 
 vols., Washington, 1832-1861. Extend from 1789 to 1838 
 inclusive. 
 
 Annals of the Congress of the United States. 42 vols., Washington, 
 1834-1856. Extend from 1789 to 1824 inclusive. 
 
 Census of the State of Michigan, 1884. 2 vols., Lansing, 1886. 
 Contains an account of the early censuses taken under the 
 auspices of the Territory and State. 
 
 Curtis, B. R. Reports of Decisions in the Supreme Court of the 
 United States. With notes and a Digest. 23 vols., Boston, 1855. 
 Condensed reports, forming a convenient approach to the older 
 and complete reports. 
 
 Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 
 Part 2, containing Indian Land Cessions in the United States. 
 Washington, 1899, pp. 521-997. Valuable plates. Most con- 
 venient source f or i nformation on this subject. 
 
 Executive Documents. Washington, 1830 + • These include //om5^ 
 Documents from 1817 forward. 
 
 House Reports of Committees. Washington, 1819-|-. 
 
 Lauis of the Territory of Michigan. 4 vols., Lansing, 1871-1884. 
 I. Laws adopted by the Governors and Judges, comprising the 
 "Woodward Code" of 1805, the "Cass Code" of 1816, the code 
 of laws published in 1821, laws compiled by the Legislative 
 Board in 1824, laws published by the Legislative Council in 
 1825, Executive Acts, 1815-1822, and some Acts of Congress 
 affecting Michigan Territory. II. "Embracing all Laws en- 
 acted by the Legislative Authority of the Teiritor^^ from 1806 
 to 1830, which are not included in Vol. I." III. "Embracing 
 the Acts and Resolutions of the Legislative Council for the 
 Years 1830, '31, '32 '33, '34, '35." IV. "Supplemental, em- 
 bracing all Laws enacted by the Legislative Authority of the 
 Territory, not printed in Vols. I, II, and III, Territorial Laws, 
 being Acts from 1806 to 1811, and also those Passed at the 
 Special Session of the 6th Legislative Council, August 17th-25th, 
 1835." 
 
 McLaughlin, A. C. History of Higher Education in Michigan. 
 Bureau of Education Circular of Information, No. 4, 1891. 
 Washington, 1891. 
 
 North, S. N. D. A Century of Population and Growth. Wash- 
 ington, 1909. Useful for a general statement of comparative 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY - 563 
 
 growth of eastern and western sections based upon the federal 
 census. 
 
 Register oj Debates in Congress. 29 vols., Washington, 1825-1837. 
 Usually cited as Congressional Debates. 
 
 Senate Documents. Washington, 1817+ . 
 
 Statutes at Large of the United States of America. 11 vols., Wash- 
 ington, 1873-1895. 
 
 Twelfth Census, Statistical Atlas. 
 
 United States Census reports. 1810-1830. 
 
 PUBLICATIONS OF HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETIES 
 
 Adams, Romanzo. "Agriculture in Michigan. A Sketch," in 
 Publications of the Michigan Political Science Association, III, 
 163-202. 
 
 Allen, William Francis. "The Place of the Northwest in 
 general history," in Papers of the American Historical Associa- 
 tion, III, 329-348. 
 
 Ball, S. "Biiffalo in 1825." Bufalo Hist. Soc. Pub., I, 139-150. 
 Reprinted from a pamphlet published in that year. Useful 
 for comparison of Buffalo "and Detroit at that date. 
 
 Chaney, Henry A. "AHen Suffrage in Michigan," in Publica- 
 tions of the Michigan Political Science Association, IV, 130-139. 
 Of interest for the influence of the elective franchise upon for- 
 eign immigration to Michigan. Deals mainly with the later 
 period. 
 
 Haight, Walter C. "The Ordinance of 1787," in Publications of 
 the Michigan Political Science Association, II, 343-402. Im 
 portant for questions concerning the Negro in Michigan. 
 
 Historical and Scientific Sketches of Michigan, comprising a series 
 of discourses delivered before the historical society of Michigan, 
 and other interesting papers relative to the Territory. Detroit, 
 1834. 
 
 Hubbard, George D. "A Case of geographical Influence upon 
 human Affairs," in Bidletin of the American Geographical 
 Society, XXXVI, No. 3, 145-157. New York, 1904. Effects of 
 glaciation. 
 
 Keith, Hannah Emily. "An Historical Sketch of Internal Im- 
 provements in Michigan, 1836-1846," in Publications of the 
 Michigan Political Science Association, IV, 1-48. 
 
 Levi, Mrs. K. E. "Geographical Origin of German Immigration 
 to Wisconsin," in Wisconsin Historical Collections, XIV, 341-393. 
 
564 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 McLaughlin, A. C. "The Influence of Governor Cass on the 
 Development of the Northwest," in Papers of the American His- 
 torical Association, III, 311-327. 
 
 Storrow, Samuel A. "The Northwest in 1817," in Wisconsin 
 Historical Collections, VI, 154-187. A letter dated December 
 1, 1817, addressed to Major-General Brown. Suggestive for 
 general conditions in the Great Lakes region. 
 
 Thwaites, R. G. "Story of the Black Hawk War," in Wisconsin 
 Historical Collections, XII, 217-265. 
 
 Turner, Frederick Jackson. "The Significance of the Frontier 
 in American History," in Report of the American Historical 
 Association, 1893, pp. 199-227. 
 
 Walker, Captain A. "Early Days on the Lakes," in Buffalo 
 Historical Society Publications, V, 287-318. 
 
 pioneer diaries, reminiscences, papers, addresses, etc, 
 
 published in the MICHIGAN PIONEER AND HISTORICAL 
 collections, (38 vols. LANSING, MICHIGAN, 
 
 1874-1912) 
 
 These papers are so brief and their titles furnish such obvious 
 indications of their authority that only in particular cases is it 
 useful to add explanations. Very many of the articles are ex- 
 tracts from newspaper columns of comparatively recent date. 
 Many of them were prepared to be read before State or local 
 pioneer societies. The papers written by persons who partici- 
 pated in the events they narrate are of much value for the found- 
 ing of settlements, though it is to be regretted that reminiscences 
 rather than diaries of these events predominate. 
 
 Physiography, Climate, Fauna and Flora 
 
 Ball, Hon. John. Physical Geography of Kent County. M. P. 
 H. C, I, 214-217. By an early pioneer. Valuable for con- 
 temporary physical conditions of settlement. 
 
 TiBBiTS, J. S. Wild Animals of Wayne County. M. P. H. C, I, 
 403-406. "Read before the Detroit Pioneer Society, March 23, 
 1873." Account of animals contemporary with early settle- 
 ment. 
 
 Hubbard, Bela, Esq. The Climate of Detroit. M. P. H. C, III, 
 67-83. A summary of conclusions in pp. 82-83. 
 
 River Raisin. Anon. M. P. H. C, VII, 548-550. From the 
 Detroit Gazette, August 2, 1822. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 565 
 
 Wheeler, Charles S. The Early Flora and Fauna of Michigan. 
 M. P. H. C, XXXII, 354-360. 
 
 Health 
 
 \^AN BuREN, A. D. P. The Fever and Ague. "Michigan Rash." 
 Mosquitoes. The Old Pioneers' Foes. M. P. H. C, V, 300-304. 
 
 Boundaries 
 
 NoRVELL, Col. Freeman. The History and Times of the Hon. 
 
 fohn Norvell M. P. H. C, III, 140-148. Useful for the Ohio 
 
 boundary dispute. 
 Soule, Anna May, M. L. The Southern and Western Boundaries 
 
 of Michigan . M . P . H . C . , XXVI 1 , 346-390 . Best work on this 
 
 subject. 
 Stuart, L. G. Verdict for Michigan. How the Upper Peninsula 
 
 became a part of^ Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 390-403. 
 
 Ohio boundary dispute. 
 
 Indians of Michigan — Tribes, Missions, Treaties, and Relations 
 
 with Settlers 
 
 Heydenburk, Martin. Indian Missions. M. P. H. C, III, 
 154-156. Protestant missions, principally at Detroit and Mack- 
 inac. Suggests relations between the missions and agricultural 
 settlement. 
 
 Williams, Hon. Ephraim S. The Treaty of Saginaw in the year 
 1819. M. P. H. C, VII, 262-270. 
 
 Copley, Hon. A. B. The Pottawattomies. M. P. H. C, XIV, 
 256-267. An account of the Indians of Southwestern Michigan, 
 and their relations with settlers. 
 
 Felch, [Governor] Alpheus. The Indians of Michigan and the 
 Cession of their Lands to the United States by Treaties. M. P. 
 H. C, XXVI, 274-297. Contains colored map of Indian ces- 
 sions in Michigan, opposite p. 275. 
 
 Webber, William L. Indian Cession of 1819, made by the Treaty 
 of Saginaw. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 517-534. 
 
 Little, Frank. Early Recollections of the Indians about Gidl 
 Prairie. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 330-338. 
 
 Brunson, Mrs. Catherine Calkins. A Sketch of Pioneer Life 
 Among the Indians. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 161-163. 
 
 Thorpe, Calvin J. Pioneer and Aborigine. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 
 467-478. 
 
566 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. Story of the Baw Beese Indians. M. P. H. 
 
 C, XXVIII, 530-533. Hillsdale County. 
 OsBAND, Melvin D. The Michigan Indians. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXIX, 697-709. Relations with whites. 
 Goss, DwiGHT. The Indians of the Grand River Valley. M. P. 
 
 H. C, XXX, 172-190. 
 Goodyear, Henry A. Indians of Barry County. M. P. H. C., 
 
 XXXV, 637-643. 
 
 Black Hawk War 
 
 Little, Henry. A History of the Black Hawk War of 1832. 
 M. P. H. C., V, 152-178. Special reference to its effect on 
 Michigan settlement. 
 
 Buckner, Lieut. Col. E. A brief history of the war with the Sac 
 and Fox Indians in Illinois and Michigan, in 1832, with twenty- 
 one letters and orders. M. P. H. C, XII, 424-436. 
 
 The Black Hawk War. M. P. H. C, XXXI, 313-471. "Papers 
 of Gen. J. R. Williams, collected and arranged by C. M. Bur- 
 ton." Williams commanded the Michigan militia called out 
 at that time. 
 
 The French-Canadians in Michigan — Missions, Manners, Customs, 
 Settlements, Land Claims, and Relations with American 
 
 Settlers 
 
 WiTHERELL, JuDGE B. F. H. Sketches of Detroiters by Judge 
 Witherell— Inhabitants of Detroit in 1806. M. P. H. C., I, 
 344B-345. "From the Detroit Post of May 9th, 1876." 
 
 Hubbard, Bela. The Early Colonization of Detroit. M. P. H. C, 
 I, 347-368. Address, 1872. An excellent summary of early 
 conditions among the French at Detroit by an early pioneer. 
 
 Girardin, J. A. Life and Times of Father Gabriel Richard. M. 
 P. H. C, I, 481-495. 
 
 Campbell, James V. Early French Settlements in Michigan. M. 
 P. H. C, II, 95-104. Presents the French influence as un- 
 favorable to agricultural settlement. 
 
 Hamlin, Mrs. M. (Carrie W.). Old French Traditions. M. P. 
 H. C, IV, 70-78. Life of the Michigan Canadians. 
 
 Grossman, Hon. D. L. Early French Occupation of Michigan. 
 M. P. H. C, XIV, 651-668. 
 
 Weadock, Hon. Thomas A. E., M. C. A Catholic Priest in Con- 
 gress. Sketch of Rev. Gabriel Richard. M. P. H. C, XXI, 
 432-447. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 567 
 
 Elliott, Richard R. The Last of the Barons. M. P. H. C, XXI, 
 494-500. 
 
 Dudley, Rev. Thomas P. Battle and Massacre at Frenchtown, 
 Michigan, January, 1813. M. P. H. C, XXII, 436-443. Dud- 
 ley was one of the survivors. Useful for condition of the Mich- 
 igan Canadians at that time. 
 
 Beeson, L. H. Fort St. Joseph. The Mission, Trading Post and 
 Fort, located about one mile south of Niles, Michigan. M. P. 
 H. C, XXVIII, 179-186. 
 
 Day, John E. The Jesuits in Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXXII, 
 405-409. 
 
 McCoy, Daniel. Old Fort St. Joseph. M. P. H. C, XXXV, 
 545-552. 
 
 Survey and Sale of Michigan Lands 
 
 Cannon, George H. The Early Surveys of Michigan. M. P. 
 
 H. C, X, 60-63. Tiffin's report, extracted from American State 
 
 Papers, Public Lands, V. 
 First Sale of Michigan Lands. M. P. H. C, XIII, 483-484. At 
 
 Detroit, 1818. An article from the Salem (Mass.) Register, 
 
 June 10, 1818. 
 WooDARD, C. S. The Public Domain, its surveys and surveyors. 
 
 M. P. H. C, XXVII, 306-323. 
 
 Navigation, Transportation and Trade 
 
 ZuG, Samuel. The Port of Detroit. A History of the Custom 
 House [etc.]. M. P. H. C, I, 468-472. 
 
 Dewey, Francis A. A Sketch of the Marine of Lake Erie previous 
 to the year 1829. M. P. H. C, IV, 79-81. 
 
 Ingersoll, John N. The Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal Celebra- 
 tion. M. P. H. C, V, 469-471. Date, 1838. 
 
 HoYT, Wm. C. Notes from an Old Account Book. M. P. H. C. 
 V, 558-561. Kept by Mack and Conant. Detroit, 1819-f. 
 
 Bliss, A. N., A. M. Federal Land Grants for Internal Improve- 
 ments in the State of Michigan. M. P. H. C, VII, 52-68. 
 
 Massey, H. Traveling on the Great Lakes when Detroit was young. 
 M. P. H. C, VII, 131-133. 
 
 Navigation of the Lakes. Anon. M. P. H. C, VII, 153-154. 
 From the Detroit Gazette, Oct. 24, 1823. 
 
 Stevens, Sherman. The Btiilding of the Pontiac Railroad. 
 M. P. H. C, XIII, 484-486. 
 
568 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Steamboats on Lake Erie. M. P. H. C, XIV, 543-544. From the 
 
 White Pigeon Republican, May 15, 1839. 
 Bancroft, William L. Memoir of Capt. Samuel ]Vard, with a 
 
 sketch of the early commerce of the Upper Lakes. M. P. H. C. 
 
 XXI, 336-367. 
 
 Mitchell, C. T. Progress in Transportation and Mails in the 
 
 Last Fifty Years. M. P. H. C, XXII, 281-283. 
 Joy, James F. Railroad History of Michigan. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXII, 292-304. 
 
 Barber, Edward W. The Great Lakes. Interesting Data concern- 
 ing them: Michigan' s relation to them; Growth of Traffic on them. 
 M. P. H. C, XXIX, 515-526. 
 
 Roads and Travel 
 
 Thompson, Rev. O. C. Observations and Experiences in Michigan 
 
 Forty Years Ago. M. P. H. C, I, 395-402. "Read before the 
 
 Detroit Pioneer Society, January 13th, 1873." A very useful 
 
 account of travel and settlement in the Kalamazoo Valley about 
 
 1830 by a contemporary. 
 Williams, B. 0. Survey of the State Military Road from Saginaw 
 
 to Mackinaw. M. P. H. C, II, 462-470. By a contemporary. 
 Cole, J. L. Journal of a Pedestrian Tour from Detroit to Sagina 
 
 {Saginaw) River in 1822. M. P. H. C, II, 470-475. 
 The Early Modes of Transit at Detroit. The Original Ferry-Boat 
 
 and its successors. M. P. H. C, II, 579-581. 
 [Hubbard, Gurdon S.] Journey of Gurdon S. Hubbard . 
 
 from Montreal to Mackinac and Chicago'in 1818. M. P. H. C, 
 
 III, 125-127. 
 Edwards, Major Abraham. A Sketch of Pioneer Life. M. P. 
 
 H. C, III, 148-151. A letter written in 1851. Trip from 
 
 Detroit to southern Michigan in August, 1828, by the founder 
 
 of Edwardsburg, Cass County. 
 NoRTHRUP, Enos. First Trip to Michigan. M. P. H. C, V, 
 
 69-70. From Ohio to Detroit via Monroe in 1830. Extracts 
 
 from diary. 
 McCormick, Wm. R. a Trip from Detroit to the Saginaw Valley 
 
 [etc.]. M. P. H. C, VII, 271-277. Date, 1832. 
 Dye, Mrs. Richard. Coming to Michigan. M. P. H. C, VIII, 
 
 260-265. Trip from Herkimer, New York, to Ionia, in 1837. 
 Dewey, F. A. From Buffalo to Michigan in 1829. M. P. H. C, 
 
 IX, 161-166. Buffalo to Lenawee Cormty. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY ' 569 
 
 Williams, Ephraim S. Remembrances of Early Days. Indians 
 and an Indian Trail. A trip from Pontiac to Grand Blanc and 
 the Saginaws. M. P. H. C, X, 137-142. Date, 1833. 
 
 [Miller, Judge Albert]. My first trip to Lansing. M. P. H. C, 
 XIII, 367-369. Made in 1847, from the Saginaw Valley. 
 
 Haynes, Hon. Harvey. A Trip from Rome [N. Y.] to Mackinaw 
 in Territorial Days, with powder and clothing for Soldiers at the 
 Fort. M. P. H. C, XIII, 520-525. Date, 1833. 
 
 Williams, E. S. A Trip on April Fool's Day. M. P. H. C, XIV, 
 539-541. From Saginaw to Detroit, 1829 or 1830. 
 
 [Hubbard, Gurdon S.] A Voyageur of 1818. M. P. H. C, XIV, 
 544-546. Trips between various points in and near Michigan, 
 in 1818. 
 
 HiNMAN, John F. My first Journey to Michigan, with other 
 Reminiscences. M. P. H. C, XIV, 563-571. From Rutland 
 County, Vermont, to Charlotte, Eaton County, in 1838. 
 
 Expedition to Detroit, 1793. M. P. H. C, XVII, 565-671. A 
 journey of Quakers from Philadelphia, and their return. Re- 
 printed from the Friends' Miscellany, Vols. I, II and VI. 
 
 Goodrich, Enos. Across Michigan Territory Sixty Years Ago. 
 M. P. H. C, XXVI, 228-235. From Detroit to Chicago, via 
 the Chicago Road, in 1834. 
 
 Tower, Mrs. Prudence. The Journey of Ionia's First Settlers. 
 M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 145-148. Notes by the daughter of 
 Samuel Dexter, founder of Ionia. 
 
 Palmer, Friend. Ferry Service between Detroit and Windsor. 
 M. P. H. C, XXXII, 463-467. Date, 1825 -[-. 
 
 Sources of Population 
 
 Williams, Rev. Wolcott B. New England Influence in Michi- 
 gan. M. P. H. C, XVII, 311-319. 
 
 Ten Brook, Andrew. Our German Immigrations. M. P. H. C, 
 XXVI, 241-255. Date, 1825-^. 
 
 Banks and Banking 
 
 Felch, Alpheus. Early Banks and Banking in Michigan. M. P. 
 
 H. C. II, 111-124. From 1806 to 1839. 
 Randall, C. D. Early Banking in Branch County. M. P. H. C, 
 
 III. 339-347. 
 [Miller, L. M.] Early Banks and Bankers of Macomb County. 
 
 M. P. H. C, V, 471-484. 
 
570 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 HuGGiNS, Andrew. Exchange Bank of Shiawassee. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXVIII, 511-513. 
 Palmer, Friend. The Old Bank of Michigan [1818]. M.P.H.C, 
 
 XXX, 410-423. 
 
 Government 
 
 Establishment and Organization of Counties. M. P. H. C, I, 94 -f-. 
 Laws extracted from volumes of the Territorial Laws. 
 
 Campbell, Judge James V. Governors and Jttdges of Michigan. 
 From the first claim of jurisdiction by France under French 
 dominion. M. P. H. C, III, 114-117. 
 
 Jenney, Hon. William. ' Governors of Michigan Territory. M. P. 
 H. C, III, 119-120. 
 
 EvARTS, Wm. M. [A list of teiTitorial officers with terms of office.] 
 M. P. H. C, III, 121-122. 
 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. Michigan in her Pioneer Politics; Michigan 
 in our National Politics, and Michigan in the Presidential Cam- 
 paign of 1856. M. P. H. C, XVII, 238-295. 
 
 Miscellaneous papers bearing upon the relations between the United 
 States, the British and the Indians of the Northwest from 1790 to 
 1829. M. P. H. C, XXIII, 1-602. 
 
 Papers on the relation of the United States and the British in Canada 
 regarding the Northwest, 1805-1823. M. P. H. C, XXV, 217- 
 681. "Copies of papers on file in the Dominion Archives at 
 Ottawa, Canada, pertaining to Michigan, as found in the 
 Colonial Office Records." A continuation of the collection in 
 M. P. H. C, XXIV. 
 
 Copies of Papers on File in the Dominion Archives at Ottawa, 
 Canada, Pertaining to the Relations of the British Government 
 with the United States during the period of the War of 1812. M. 
 P. H. C, XV and XVI. A few papers in vol. XVI are useful for 
 immigration and settlement in Michigan, (pp. 414-706 passim), 
 dealing with subsequent relations, 1816-1820. 
 
 The Beginnings of Territorial Government in Michigan {1805- 
 1808). M. P. H. C, XXXI, 510-612. "Manuscripts in the 
 Department of State at Washington, D. C. Compiled with 
 an Introduction, by Charles Moore, Ph. D." 
 
 Territorial Records. M. P. H. C, XXXVI, 100-620. Extend 
 from 1805-1831. Many of the originals are in the Burton 
 Library, Detroit. vSome of them are transcripts from the Ameri- 
 can State Papers. Introduction and notes. Very valuable for 
 many phases of settlement in those years, but bear mainly 
 upon political and governmental affairs. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 571 
 
 Territorial Records. M. P. H. C, XXXVII, 17-507. Continuation 
 of papers published in Vol. XXXVI. Contain the Woodbridge 
 and Williams papers (pp. 17-31), and the Schoolcraft papers, 
 1831-1836 (pp. 221-4 19). 
 
 Pioneer Press 
 
 Holmes, J. C. Some Notes respecting the Pioneer Newspapers of 
 Michigan. M. P. H. C, I, 385-395. Address, December 16, 
 1873. 
 
 Applegate, Tom S. A History of the Press of Michigan. M. P. 
 H. C, VI, 62-98. Prepared for Centennial by order of Gov. 
 John J. Bagley. 
 
 Baxter. Benjamin L. History of the Tecumseh Press. M. P. 
 H. C, XXVIII, 536-539. 
 
 OuiNBY, Hon. William E. Reminiscences of Michigan Journal- 
 ism. M. P. H. C, XXX, 507-517. 
 
 Education 
 
 Tib BITS, J. S. Schools of Wayne County at an Early Day. M. P. 
 
 H. C, I, 429-431. "Read before the Wayne County Pioneer 
 
 Society, April 21, 1874." 
 WiLKiNS, William D. Traditions and Reminiscences of the Public 
 
 Schools of Detroit. M. P. H. C, I, 448-466. 
 Osband, Melvin D. Pioneer Schools and their Patrons of the Town 
 
 of Nankin, Wayne County, Michigan. M. P. H. C, IV, 57-62. 
 CoMSTOCK, Dr. O. C. Rev. John D. Pierce. M. P. H. C, V, 
 
 184-187. 
 Williams, B. O. My Recollections of the Early Schools of Detroit 
 
 that I attended from the Year 1816 to 1819. M. P. H. C, V, 
 
 547-550. 
 Knight, George W., Ph. D. History of the Land Grants for Edu- 
 cation in Michigan. M. P. H. C, VII, 17-35. 
 Salmon, Lucy M., A. M. Education in Michigan during the 
 
 Territorial Period. M. P. H. C, VII, 36-51. 
 CoMSTOCK, Dr. O. C. Hon. Isaac E. Crary. M. P. H. C, XIV, 
 
 280-283. Crary was a prominent early settler of Marshall, 
 
 Calhoun County, and closely associated with the beginnings of 
 
 Michigan's public school system. 
 Norton, J. M. Early Schools and Pioneer Life. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXVIII, 107-110. 
 
572 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Williams, Rev. Wolcott B. Two Early Efforts to found Colleges 
 
 in Michigan, at Delta and at Marshall. M. P. H. C, XXX, 
 
 524-549. 
 Ford, Clyde R., LL. D. The Life and Work of fohn D. Pierce- 
 
 M. P. H. C, XXXV, 295-308. 
 Pierce, John D. Origin and Progress of the Michigan School 
 
 System. M. P. H. C, I, 37-45. A paper read before the 
 
 Pioneer Society, February 3, 1875. 
 
 Slavery 
 
 GiRARDiN, J. A. Slavery in Detroit. M. P. H. C, I, 415-417. 
 [Backus, W. W.] Sale of Negro Man Pompey. M. P. H. C, I, 
 
 417. Date, 1794. Copy of deed furnished by W. W. Backus 
 
 of Detroit. 
 Relative to the subject of Slavery. M. P. H. C, XII, 511-522. 
 
 Opinion of Judge Woodward. 
 
 Pioneer Life — Food, Houses, Customs, Manners, Amusements and 
 
 Incidents. For Relations with the Indians see above, 
 
 "Indians." 
 
 NowLiN, William Esq. The Bark-covered House, or Pioneer 
 
 Life in Michigan. IV, 480-541. 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. What the Pioneers Ate and How they 
 
 Fared. Michigan Food and Cookery in the Early Days. M. P. 
 
 H. C, V, 293-296. 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. "Raisings" and "Bees" among the Early 
 
 Settlers. M. P. H. C, V, 296-300. 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. The Frolics of Forty-five Years Ago. M. P. 
 
 H. C, V, 304-309. 
 Begole, Hon. Josiah W. Recollections of Pioneer Life. M. P. 
 
 H. C, V, 339-344. 
 NoRTHRUP, Enos. On Going to Mill. Traveling three hundred 
 
 miles to mill; or. What I know ahoiit going to mill. M. P. H. C, 
 
 V, 405-406. 
 
 Taylor, P. H. Christmas in Ionia Fifty Years Ago. M. P. H. C, 
 
 VI, 300. 
 
 Description of the birchen canoe. M. P. H. C, VII, 162-164. 
 
 From T. L. McKenney's Tour to the Lakes in 1826. 
 Busby, Joseph. Recollections of Pioneer Life in Michigan. M. P. 
 
 H. C, IX, 118-127. Date, 1831-}-. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 573 
 
 Williams, Ephraim. Incidents of Early Days in Michigan. 
 
 M. P. H. C, IX, 166-172. Date, 1820+ . 
 Papers on the relation of white settlers with the Indians in Kalamazoo 
 
 and Calhoun Counties. M. P. H. C, X, 147-172. 
 Old French Carts. M. P. H. C, XIII, 491-493. 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. The Log Schoolhouse Era in Michigan; or, 
 
 My Schools and My Schoolmasters during our first and Second 
 
 Pioneer Decades. M. P. H. C, XIV, 283-402. 
 Watkins, L. D. The Old Log House. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 
 
 644-646. 
 Goodrich, Enos. Trials of Pioneer Business Men. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXVIII, 122-128. 
 
 Beardsley, a. M. Reminiscences and Scenes of Backwoods and 
 
 Pioneer Life. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 137-141. About 1838, in 
 
 St. Joseph County. 
 Watkins, L. D. Destruction of the Forests of Southern Michigan. 
 
 M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 148-150. 
 HuTCHiNS, Mrs. Harrison. Pioneering. Gathering Sap and 
 
 Going to Mill. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 638-640. A poem by a 
 
 pioneer, reflecting the spirit of the early days. 
 CuTCHEON, B. M. Log Cabin Times and Log Cabin People. M. P. 
 
 H. C, XXIX, 609-624. 
 Osband, Melvin D. The Pioneer and his Work. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXIX, 709-717. 
 
 Barker, Edward W. Recollections and Lessons of Pioneer Boy- 
 hood. M. P. H. C, XXXI, 178-227. 
 
 Beal, W. J. Pioneer Life in Southern Michigan in the Thirties. 
 M. P. H. C, XXXII, 236-246. 
 
 Shettler, Mrs. Eliza M. Scott. Lights and Shadows from 
 Pioneer Life. M. P. H. C, XXXV, 184-198. 
 
 Potter, Theodore E. A Boy's Story of Pioneer Life in Michigan. 
 M. P. H. C, XXXV, 393-412. 
 
 General and Miscellaneous 
 
 Chase, Rev. Supply. Early History of the Baptist Church in 
 
 Michigan. M. P. H. C, I, 466-468. 
 Griffith, Rev. S. N. Sketch of the Early History of Methodism 
 
 in the Southwestern part of the State of Michigan. M. P. H. C, 
 
 II. 158-171. Date, 1829+. 
 
574 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Wells, Judge H. G. Law and the Legal Profession. M. P. H. C, 
 
 III, 129-139. Brief biographical sketches of leading lawyers in 
 
 the Territorial period. 
 CoMSTOCK, Dr. O. C. Biographical sketch of Martin Heydenburk. 
 
 M. P. H. C, III, 152-153. Southwestern Michigan, 1833-4. 
 Trowbridge, Hon. C. C. History of the Episcopal Church in 
 
 Michigan. M. P. H. C, III, 213-221. 
 A Michigan Emigrant Song. M. P. H. C, III, 265. From the 
 
 Detroit Post and Tribune of February 13th, 1881. Begins 
 
 "My Eastern Friends who wish to find." Said to have been 
 
 much used in 1833 and the years following. 
 Shearer, Jonathan. Wheat in New York and Michigan [1824- 
 
 1861]. M. P. H. C, IV, 82-83. 
 Ferry, Senator Thomas W. Tl-w Growth and Progress of Michi- 
 gan. M. P. H. C, V, 21-26. 
 Chase, Rev. Supply. A Pioneer Minister. M. P. H. C, V, 
 
 52-60. Reminiscences on general topics. 
 Hawley Gerrells in 1828. M. P. H. C, V, 77-79. Letter, 1874, 
 
 reminiscent of settlements in 5outheastem Michigan in 1828. 
 Pilcher, Rev. Elijah H. Forty Years Ago. M. P. H. C, V, 
 
 80-89. Observations on settlement by a contemporary, 1830 + . 
 Copley, A. B. Early Settlement of Southwestern Michigan. M. P. 
 
 H. C, V, 144-151. The best simimary of settlement in this 
 
 section. 
 [Colton, C] Lake St. Clair in 1830. M. P. H. C, VI, 418-420. 
 
 From C. Colton 's Tour of the Lakes in 1S30. 
 Several notes of some value for Michigan settlement in 1823-4. 
 
 M. P. H. C, VII, 74-77. 
 Pioneer Song. Begins "Know ye the land to the emigrant dear." 
 
 M. P. H. C, VII, 80-81. 
 HuRD, Rev. Philo R., D. D. An Historical Sketch of Congrega- 
 tionalism in Michigan brought down to the year 1884. M. P. 
 
 H. C, VII, 103-111. 
 Brief Notes and papers relating to the history of Detroit and Michigan 
 
 Territory from 1805 to the close of the War of 1812. M. P. H. C, 
 
 VIII, 548-659. 
 Peck, Hon. Edward W. Disputed Questions in the Early History 
 
 of Michigan. M. P. H. C, XI, 151-161. 
 Holmes, J. C. The Michigan State Historical Society. M. P. 
 
 H. C, XII, 316-350. An account of the work of the society 
 formed under the aupices of Lewis Cass and others in 1828. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 575 
 
 [Pierce, John D.]. Congregationalism in Michigan. M. P. H. 
 C, XII, 351. Date, 1831 + . 
 
 Letter from A. B. Woodward to James Madison, Sec. of State, dated 
 Detroit, July 18, 1807. M. P. H. C, XII, 505-507. General 
 conditions in Michigan Territory. 
 
 Dewey, F. A. Some Sketches of the Long Ago. M. P. H. C, 
 XIV, 528-531. Mainly about Detroit and Southwestern Mich- 
 igan after 1830. 
 
 WiLLARD, Hon. George. The Making of Michigan. M. P. H. C., 
 
 XVII, 295-310. 
 Gilbert, Thomas D. Development of Western Michigan. M. P. 
 
 H. C., XVII, 319-325. General, mainly on the later period, 
 
 but suggestive. 
 Crawford, Rev. R. C. Fifty-two Years of Itinerant Life in the 
 
 Michigan Conference of the M. E. Church. M. P. H. C., XXII, 
 
 266-281. Concerns mainly Southwestern Michigan. 
 CuTCHEON, Hon. Byron M. Fifty Years of Growth in Michigan. 
 
 M. P. H.C., XXII, 479-502. General, but suggestive. Mainly 
 
 from 1842+ . 
 
 Wing, J. Warner. Michigan as a Territory, and some of its 
 
 Inhabitants. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 255-259. 
 Warner, Wm. W. Early History of Michigan. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXVII, 289-304. 
 Letters of Lucius Lyon. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 412-604. Valuable. 
 
 Great variety of topics relating to Michigan settlement between 
 
 1822 and 1845. Lyon was one of the first two United States 
 
 Senators from Michigan, previous to which time he was a 
 
 pioneer in Southwestern Michigan. 
 Watkins, L. D. Seventy Years of Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXX, 
 
 63-68. 
 [Brown, E. Lakin]. Autobiographical Notes. M. P. H. C, XXX, 
 
 424-494. "Edited by his daughter, A. Ada Brown." 
 [Mason, Miss Emily V.] Chapters from the Autobiography of an 
 
 Octogenerian, 1830-1850. M. P. H. C, XXXV, 248-258. 
 Chamberlain, Henry. A Michigan Octogenerian. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXXV, 662-669. General. Deals largely with later period. 
 
 Allegan County 
 
 Henderson, Donald C. Allegan County. Its rise, progress and 
 growth in population, with a brief history of its press. M. P. 
 H. C, III, 270-276. 
 
576 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Morgan, G. A. The Township of Allegan, Its topography, pro- 
 ducts, early settlement, and history. M. P. H. C, III, 276-293. 
 From 1834+. . 
 
 Henderson, Donald C. Notes on Saugatuck. M. P. H. C, III, 
 301-310. Useful mainly for later period. 
 
 Trowbridge, C. C. [Eariy history of Allegan County]. M. P. 
 H. C, IV, 173-176. 
 
 Report of Memorial Committee, AJlegan County {1895). M. P. H. C, 
 XXVI, 330-333. Useful reminiscences. 
 
 Mix, Col. E. [The Pioneers of Allegan County]. M. P. H. C, 
 XVII, 557-564. 
 
 Morgan, G. A. Township of Pine Plains — A Historical Sketch. 
 M. P. H. C, III, 293-296. From the Allegan Journal of June 8, 
 1878. 
 
 Barry County 
 
 Goodyear, Henry A. Sketch of Barry County. M. P. H. C, I, 
 112-117. Historical address, July 4, 1876. One of the best of 
 the few sources for Barry County. 
 
 Cherry, Henry P. Early History of Johnstown, Barry County. 
 M. P. H. C, XXVI, 221-228. 
 
 White, George H. Yankee Lewis' Famous Hostelry in the Wil- 
 derness. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 302-307. 
 
 HoYT, Mrs. Mary M. Early Recollections of Pioneer Life in 
 Michigan and the founding of Yankee Springs. M. P. H. C, 
 XXX, 289-302. 
 
 Berrien County 
 
 WiNSLOW, Damon A. Early History of Berrien County. M. P. 
 
 H. C, I, 120-125. Address, Feb. 2, 1876. 
 Bishop, Henry. Settlement of New Buffalo, Berrien County. 
 
 M. P. H. C, I, 125-126. 
 WiNSLOW, Damon A. Bench and Bar of Berrien County, Michigan. 
 
 M. P. H. C, XVII, 391-409. Useful biographical sketches of 
 
 prominent pioneers. 
 Anon. History of the extinct village of Bertrand. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXVIII, 128-133. 
 
 Branch County 
 
 Haynes, Hon. Harvey. Sketches of the Early History of Branch 
 County. M. P. H. C, VI, 216-224. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 577 
 
 Fisher, Rev. J. Emory. Semi-centennial History [of Ouincy 
 township and village]. M. P. H. C, VI, 237-247. 
 
 Coldwater in 1831. M. P. H. C, VII, 346-348. A Letter to Dr. 
 I. P. Alger, by Enoch Chase, Esq., dated Jan. 19, 1884. 
 
 Cross, Wm. H. Early Michigan. M. P. H. C, X, 54-57. 
 
 Haynes, Harvey. Reminiscences of Early Days in Coldwater and 
 Vicinity. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 284-288. 
 
 Calhoun County 
 
 Dickey, Col. Charles. Early Settlement of Calhoun County. 
 
 M. P. H. C, I, 128-132. Address, Feb. 2, 1876. 
 [Perrine, Rev. W. H.]. Notes on the Settlement of townships in 
 
 Calhoun County. M. P. H. C, II, 208-262. Among the best 
 
 contributions for Calhoun County-. 
 [Anon.] The City of Battle Creek — Its early history, growth, and 
 
 present condition. M. P. H. C, III, 347-367. From the De- 
 troit Post and Tribune, June 16, 1878. 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. Pioneer Annals; containing the history of 
 
 the early settlement of Battle Creek city and township, with vivid 
 
 sketches of pioneer life and pen portraits of the early settlers. 
 
 M. P. H. C, V, 237-259. 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. Pen Pictures of our Pioneers. Heroic but 
 
 ineffectual struggle of Verona to outstrip Battle Creek. M. P. 
 
 H. C, V, 259-272. 
 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. The First Settlers in the Township of Battle 
 
 Creek. M. P. H. C, V, 272-293. 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. History of the Churches in Battle Creek. 
 
 M. P. H. C, V, 310-324. 
 Poppleton, O. How Battle Creek received its Name. M. P. H. C, 
 
 VI, 248-251. 
 Sketches, Reminiscences, and Anecdotes of the old Members of the 
 
 Calhoun and Kalamazoo County Bars. M. P. H. C, XI, 
 
 271-318. 
 
 Clinton County 
 
 Bronson, Wm. Pioneer History of Clinton County. M. P. H. C, 
 
 V, 325-333. 
 Pioneer Piety. M. P. H. C, XIII, 407-424. Articles on early 
 
 churches and preachers in the Saginaw and Flint districts. 
 NiLES, Mrs. M. J. Old Times in Clinton County. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XIV, 620-626. 1831 + . 
 73 
 
578 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Scott, David. Early History of Clinton County, Michigan. M. P. 
 H. C, XVII, 410-413. 
 
 Eaton County 
 
 Jngersoll, Mrs. E. S. Early Settlement of Delta. M. P. H. C, 
 
 I, 157-160. Reminiscences, 1834-^. 
 FooTE, Edward A., Esq. Historical Sketch of the early days of 
 
 Eaton County. M. P. H. C, III, 379-431. 
 Pioneer History of the Settlement of Eaton County. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXII, 502-526. A series of brief papers written by pioneers. 
 Barber, Edward W. The Vermontville Colony: Its Genesis and 
 
 History, with personal sketches of the colonists. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXVIII, 197-287. 
 Barber, Edward W. Beginnings in Eaton County: Its Earliest 
 
 Settlements and Settlers. M. P. H. C, XXIX, 337-397. 
 
 Genesee County 
 
 Thompson, Hon. E. H. The City of Flint. M. P. H. C, III, 
 
 431-468. 
 Stevens, Sherman. Sketch of Early Pioneer Life. M. P. H. C, 
 
 VII, 93-98. Reminiscences of early Genesee County. 
 Miller, Judge Albert. Reminiscences [1830-f ]. M. P. H. C, 
 
 VII, 388-394. 
 Stevens, Sherman. Early Days in Genesee County. M. P. H. C, 
 
 VII, 394-398. 
 
 Williams, Ephraim S. Personal Reminiscences. M. P. H. C, 
 
 VIII, 233-259. 
 
 Goodrich, Enos. Early Atlas. A Pioneer Sketch. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XVII, 413-416. 
 TowNSEND, GooDENOUGH. Early History of the Township of 
 
 Davison. [18354-]. M. P. H. C, XXII, 542-555. 
 Shout, Mary E. Reminiscences of the First Settlement at Owosso. 
 
 M. P. H. C, XXX, 344-352. 
 Bates, William R. The Development of Flint. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXXV, 359-387. Useful, but largely on the later period. 
 
 Hillsdale County 
 
 HoLLOWAY, F. M. Hillsdale County from 1829 to 1836 Inclusive. 
 M. P. H. C, I, 170-180. Mainly on the Ohio boundary dis- 
 pute. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 579 
 
 RiBLET, Samuel. Early History of Litchfield, Hillsdale County. 
 M. P. H. C, I, 180-181. Reminiscences, 1834+ . 
 
 Ingham County 
 
 Bishop, Hon. Levi. Recollections. M. P. H. C, I, 511-517. 
 Notes for 1835-1847. A reminiscence of the removal of the 
 State Capitol from Detroit to Lansing. 
 
 Goodrich, Enos. Locating the State Capitol at Lansing. M. P. 
 H. C, VIII, 121-130. One of the best papers on this sub- 
 ject. 
 
 Williams, A. L. Removal of the State Capitol from Detroit. M. P. 
 
 H. C, VIII, 130-135. 
 RoBSON, Frank, E., Esq. How Lansing became the Capital. M. 
 
 P. H. C, XI, 237-243. 
 
 Blades, F. A. Driving the First Stake for the Capitol at Lansing. 
 M. P. H. C, XXXIII, 10-22. 
 
 Ionia County 
 
 Lincoln, W. B. First Settlement of Ionia County. M. P. H. C, 
 I, 193-194. 
 
 [Anon.] The City of Ionia. Its first settlement and early history. 
 M. P. H. C, III, 470-490. 
 
 Taylor, P. H. The First Settlement of Ionia. M. P. H. C. 
 XIV, 560-562. 
 
 Tower, Mrs. Prudence. The Journey of Ionia's First Settlers. 
 M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 145-148. 
 
 Jackson County 
 
 Shoemaker, Michael. Historical Sketch of the City of Jackson, 
 Michigan. M. P. H. C, II, 272-348. Among the most useful 
 contributions for the settlement of Jackson County. 
 
 [Anon.] A brief Account of the Early Settlers of Blackman, Rives 
 and Henrietta townships. M. P. H. C, III, 503-504. 
 
 Little, Henry. Fifty Years Ago. facksonburg and fackson 
 County, 1829-1879. M. P. H. C, III, 509-512. 
 
 [Anon.] Brooklyn and Vicinity. M. P. H. C, IV, 271-275. 
 
 De Lamater, Hon. A. H. The Township of Columbia from 1832 
 to 1836. M. P. H. C, IV, 276-281. 
 
 A series of useful brief papers on the settlement of Jackson County, 
 M. P. H. C, V, 345-354. 
 
580 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Prescott, Samuel. Early Settlers of the Town of Blackman. 
 
 M. P. H. C, VII, 464. 
 Hodge, Hon. Hiram C. Bj-ief History of Pulaski, Jackson 
 
 County. M. P. H. C, XVII," 416-419. 
 McGee, Judge Melville. The Early Days of Concord, Jackson 
 
 County, Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXI, 418-431. 
 Griswold, Joseph M. Some Reminiscences of Early Times in 
 
 Brooklyn, Jackson County, Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 
 
 256-261. 
 
 Kalamazoo County 
 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. History of the Village of Comstock. M. P. 
 
 H. C, V, 360-363. 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. Titus Branson, the Founder of Kalamazoo 
 
 [and other pioneers of Kalamazoo]. M. P. H. C, V, 363-393. 
 Walker, Hon. John. Pioneer History of Cooper. M. P. H. C, 
 
 V, 403-405. 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. The Alphadelphia Association. Its history 
 
 in Comstock. M. P. H. C, V, 406-412. One of the few com- 
 munistic experiments in early Michigan, 1843-|-. 
 Ransom, Major Wyllys C. Historical Address at Kalamazoo, 
 
 Mich., July 4, 1884. M. P. H. C, VII, 469-478. 
 White, George H. A Sketch of Lucius Lyon, one of the first 
 
 senators from Michigan. M. P. H. C., XIII, 325-333. " 
 Van Buren, A. D. P. The Women of our Pioneer Epoch. M. P. 
 
 H. C., XIV, 517-528. 
 ToRREY, George. The Press of Kalamazoo. M. P. H. C., XVII, 
 
 369-391. Very brief on the early Press. 
 Wilson, Mrs. Etta Smith. Life and Work of the late Rev. George 
 
 N. Smith, a Pioneer Missionary [1833+]. M. P. H. C., XXX, 
 
 190-212. 
 
 Kent County 
 
 Ball, John. Physical Geography of Kent County. M. P. H. C, 
 
 I, 214-217. 
 Little, Henry. Grand Rapids History. M. P. H. C, IV, 
 
 286-293. 
 Withey, Mrs. S. L. Personal Recollections and Incidents of the 
 
 Early Days of Richland and Grand Rapids. M. P. H. C, V, 
 
 434-439. From 1833 + . 
 
Bibliography 58i 
 
 Baxter, Albert. Some Fragments of Beginnings in the Grand 
 River Valley. M. P. H. C, XVII, 325-331. Most of these 
 notes are incorporated in Baxter's History of Grand Rapids. 
 
 Baxter, Albert. First "Yankee" Family at Grand Rapids. 
 M. P. H. C, XXIX, 503-505. 
 
 HoYT, Mary M. Lewis. Life of Leonard Slater. M. P. H. C, 
 XXXV, 142-155. 
 
 Lapeer County 
 
 Hart, Capt. N. H. Pioneer Sketches. M. P. H. C, III, 548- 
 552. 
 
 Lenawee County 
 
 Dewey, F. A. Lenawee County. A Sketch of its Early Settlement. 
 M. P. H. C, I, 221-224. From 1824+. 
 
 Millard, Hon. A. L. Historical Sketch of Lenawee County. 
 M. P. H. C, I, 224-237. A Fourth of July address, 1876. 
 Carefully prepared statement of details of early settlement. 
 One of the best contributions for this county. 
 
 Kedzie, James 'T. Bliss field, Lenawee County. M. P. H. C, I, 
 238-241. "A Sketch of the first Presbyterian church, prepared 
 by James T. Kedzie for the executive committee of the Presby- 
 terian Historical Society." Pertinent items for early settle- 
 ment. Pages 241-251 contain some items of value, mainly by 
 the same writer. 
 
 Adam, John J. Early History of Lenawee Cotmty. M. P. H. C, 
 II, 357-387. One of the best papers on Lenawee County. 
 
 Brown, E. B. Early Recollections of the Village of Tectunseh. 
 Letter from E. B. Brown to Gen. Joseph Brown, Dated Hastings, 
 Ldg., ni., January 29th, 1878. "M. P. H. C, II, 387-390. A 
 reminiscence by a member of the party that founded Tecumseh. 
 
 Dewey, Francis A. Early Settlers in Lenawee County. M. P. 
 H. C, III, 552-556. 
 
 Dewey, F. A. [Brief outhne of the first settlement of Michigan, 
 with special reference to the township of Cambridge, Lenawee 
 County.] M. P. H. C, IV, 300-305. 
 
 Stacy, C. A. Lenawee's Pioneer Lawyers. M. P. H. C, V, 
 441-444. Good for sources of population. 
 
 Papers and addresses on the Early Settlement of Lenawee County. 
 M. P. H. C, VII, 516-542. 
 
 Lamb, Orsamus. Early History of Woodstock. M. P. H. C, 
 VIII, 194-201. 
 
h^2 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 [Brown, Gen. J. W.] Early History of Lenawee County. M. P. 
 
 H. C, XII, 407-409. 
 A group of papers useful for study of the settlement of townships 
 
 in Lenawee County. M. P. H. C, XVII, 508-538. 
 Two short papers on Lenawee County settlement, 1833 -|-. 
 
 M. P. H. C, XXII, 556-564. 
 
 Livingston County 
 
 Clark, Hon. William A. Lnnngston County Pioneers. M. P. 
 H. C, I, 25-2-258. 
 
 Macomb County 
 
 Day, John E. Sketches and Incidents concerning the Settlement of 
 
 Macomb County. M. P. H. C, IV, 307-315. 
 BissELL, Rev. H. N. The Early Settlement of Mt. Clemens and 
 
 Vicinity. M. P. H. C, V, 450-469. 
 Notes on the early settlement of Mt. Clemens, furnished by Gen. John 
 
 Stockton and Edward Tucker to Mrs. E. M. Sheldon Stewart. 
 
 M. P. H. C, VI, 357-361. 
 Campau, L. Early Farmers. M. P. H. C, VIII, 405-6. 
 Ford, Henry A. The Old Moravian Mission at Mt. Clemens. 
 
 [cir. 1781]. M. P. H. C, X, 107-115. 
 Cannon, Geo. H. History of the Township of Shelby, Macomb 
 
 County, Michigan. M. P. H. C, XVII, 419-429. 
 Parker, Hon. Warren. Early History of Macomb County. M. 
 
 P. H. C, XVIII, 485-502. 
 Cannon, Geo. H. A Sketch of Early History. The First Owners 
 
 of Washington Township, Macomb County. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 
 
 547-553. 
 Cannon, Geo. H. Early History of Ray Township [1816+], 
 
 Macomb County. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 276-284. 
 Bush, Mrs. The Moravians in Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 
 
 133-137. 
 Cannon, Geo. H. Notes of Early History of Bruce Township, 
 
 Macomb County. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 422-425. 
 Day, John E. The Moravians in Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXX, 
 
 44-51. 
 
 Monroe County 
 
 Wing, Talcott E. History of Monroe County, Michigan. M. P. 
 H. C, IV, 318-324. 
 
RmLIOGRAFHY 583 
 
 Wing, Talcott E. Continuation of the History of Monroe. M. P. 
 
 H. C, VI, 374-382. 
 Christiancy, Hon. I. P. Recollections of the Early History of 
 
 the City and County of Monroe. M. P. H. C, VI, 361-373. 
 
 Muskegon County 
 
 Holt, Hon. Henry H. The Centennial History of Muskegon. 
 
 M. P. H. C, I, 286-301. Concerns mainly the years after 
 
 1837. 
 Baxter, Albert. Muskegon Pioneer Remnants [1833-|-]. M. P. 
 
 H. C, XXVI, 272-274. 
 
 Oakland County 
 
 Williams, B. 0. Early Michigan. Sketch of the Life of Oliver 
 Williams and Family. M. P. H. C, II, 36-40. Deals prin- 
 cipally with Oakland County, 1818-1820. 
 
 Parke, Capt. Harvey. Reminiscences. M. P. H. C, III, 572- 
 593. Useful from 1821+ for Oakland County. 
 
 Drake, Hon. Thomas T- History of Oakland County. M. P. 
 H. C, III, 559-572. 
 
 The Settlement of Farmington. By one of its early settlers. M. P. 
 H. C, IV, 419-422. 
 
 Lamb, C. A. Reminiscences. M. P. H. C, V, 47-51. 
 
 Sketch of the First Settlement of Pontiac, as given by Mr. Orisson 
 Allen to Mrs. E. M. Sheldon Stewart in 1850. M. P. H. C, 
 
 VI, 384-386. 
 
 PoppLETON, O. Early History of Oakland County. M. P. H. C, 
 
 VII, 556-561. 
 
 Hoyt, Dr. Jas. M. History of the Town of Commerce. M. P. 
 
 H. C, XIV, 421-430. 
 Crawford, Rev. R. C. Address to the Pioneers of Oakland 
 
 County, 1883. M. P. H. C, XIV, 585-602. Reminiscences of 
 
 early settlement in Oakland County. 
 Fish, Mrs. Fannie E. Sketch of "Piety Hill," Oakland County. 
 
 M. P. H. C, XIV, 602-609. 
 McCracken, S. B. Fifty Years Ago and Now. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XIV, 609-620. 
 Norton, John M. A Picture of Memory. Settlement of Oakland 
 
 County. M. P. H. C, XXII, 404-426. 
 
584 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Norton, John M. Early Pioneer Life in Oakland County. M. P. 
 H. C, XXVI, 262-264. 
 
 Crawford, R. C. Reminiscences of Seventy Years in Michigan. 
 [1817+]. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 585-593. 
 
 Norton, Hon. John M. Early Influence of Oakland County in 
 the History of Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 632-634. 
 
 Baldwin, Augustus C. Oakland County. Its Bench and Bar 
 prior to 1840. M. P. H. C, XXXI, 152-172. 
 
 Extracts from old Letters. M. P. H. C, XXXV, 672-679. Con- 
 nected mainly with Pontiac. 
 
 Phipps, Mrs. Lucy O. Beach. Early Days in Pontiac. M. P. 
 H. C, XXXV. 679-680. 
 
 Ottawa County 
 
 Rev. William Montague Ferry. M. P. H. C, VI, 391-397. Early 
 settlement of Grand Haven. 
 
 Ottawa County. Papers read at the semi-centennial celebration of 
 its settlement, held at Grand Haven, Dec. 2, 1884. M. P. H. C, 
 IX, 222-342. Very useful for early settlement, though mainly 
 concerned with the progress of the county since the early 
 days. 
 
 Ferry, William M. Ottawa s Old Settlers. M. P. H. C, XXX, 
 572-582. 
 
 Saginaw County 
 
 Whiting, J. L. [A Sketch of the early military occupation of the 
 
 Saginaw Valley]. M. P. H. C, II, 460-462. Useful for 1822 -f. 
 
 Explains origin of the unfavorable reports about the Saginaw 
 
 Valley. 
 McCoRMicK, W. R. Pioneer Life in the Saginaw Valley. M. P. 
 
 H. C, III, 602-605. From 1834+ . 
 McCoRMiCK, Hon. W. R. [Sketch of early life in the Saginaw 
 
 Valley, 1832+]. M. P. H. C, IV, 364-373. 
 Jewett, Mrs. Azuhah L. Pioneer Life in 1830. M. P. H. C, 
 
 VI, 426-430. Reminiscences of the Saginaw County of that 
 
 date. 
 The Saginaw Country. M. P. H. C, VII, 270-271. An article in 
 
 the Detroit Gazette, June 27, 1823, signed A Saginaw Emigrant. 
 
 Protests against unfavorable reports of that region. 
 Williams, Ephraim S. Remembrances of Early Days in Saginaw 
 
 in 1833. M. P. H. C, X, 142-147. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 585 
 
 Miller, Judge Albert. Incidents in the Early History of the 
 
 Saginaw Valley. M. P. H. C, XIII, 351-383. 
 Jewett, Mrs. Azuhah. L. Pioneer Reminiscences [1831 -\-]. M. 
 
 P. H. C, XXII, 447-450. 
 Miller, Judge Albert. Recollections of a Pioneer of Early 
 
 Michigan [1831]. M. P. H. C, XXII, 461-463. 
 Sweet, Wm. H. Brief History of Saginaw County. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXVIII. 481-501. 
 
 Shiawassee County 
 
 Williams, B. O. First Settlement of Shiawassee County. M. P. 
 
 H. C, II, 475-488. From the Owosso Weekly Press, May, 1872. 
 
 By a contemporary. 
 Gould, Lucius E. Four papers on the Early history of Shiawassee 
 
 County. M. P. H. C, XXXII, 247-304. 
 
 St. Clair County 
 
 Thompson, Rev. O. C. History of Judge Zephaniah W. Bunce. 
 
 M. P. H. C, I, 434-444. 
 Stewart, Aura P. Recollections . . . of things relating to the 
 
 early settlement of Michigan. M. P. H. C, IV, 324-355. 
 [Chamberlain, Mrs. Dr. H.]. St. Clair River Settlement. M. P. 
 
 H. C, IV, 355-357. Notes written up by Mrs. E. M. Sheldon. 
 [Harrington, Daniel B.] Daniel B. Harrington. M. P. H. C, 
 
 V, 138-143. A reminiscence of early settlement in St. Clair 
 
 County. 
 Farrand, Mrs. B. C. Early History of St. Clair County. M. P. 
 
 H. C, V, 493-499. 
 Three brief papers on the early settlement of St. Clair County. 
 
 M. P. H. C, VI, 499-503. 
 Mitchell, Hon. Wm. T. History of St. Clair County. M. P. 
 
 H. C, VI, 403-416. 
 Farrand, Mrs. B. C. Reminiscences by Mrs. George Palmer. 
 
 M. P. H. C, VII, 564-566. 
 Farrand, Mrs. B. C. Early Days in Desmond and Vicinity 
 
 from Sources written and unwritten. M. P. H. C, XIII, 334- 
 
 342. 
 Farrand, Mrs. B. C. Early History of St. Clair County [etc.]. 
 
 M. P. H. C, XVII, 430-439. 
 
586 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 Kinney, Mrs. Jane M. Pioneers of St. Clair County. M. P. 
 
 H. C, XXIX, 170-184. 
 HoRTON, C. H. Port Huron's Name. Early History of the Place- 
 
 M. P. H. C, XXIX, 187-189. 
 
 St. Joseph County 
 
 CoFFiNBERRY, S. C. Incidents connected with the First Settlement 
 of N ottawa-Sippi Prairie in St. Joseph County. M. P. H, C.» 
 II, 489-501. Interesting notes on life in southwestern Michi- 
 gan, 1829+ . Mainly on relations with the Indians at the 
 reservation during the Black Hawk War. 
 
 Cross, Wm. H. Recollections of Early Occurrences about N Ottawa 
 Sepe. M. P. H. C, VI, 423-425. 
 
 Driggs, Alfred L. Early Days in Michigan. M. P. H. C, X, 
 57-60. 
 
 Kedzie, R. C. The St. Joes. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 412-417. 
 Settlement in St. Joseph County, 1826+ . 
 
 Van Buren County 
 
 Lawton, George W. Historical Sketch of Van Buren County. 
 M. P. H. C, III, 625-637. 
 
 Washtenaw County 
 
 [NoRRis, Hon. L. D. History of Washtenaw County.] M. P. 
 
 H. C, I, 327-333. Abstract of a Fourth of July address by 
 
 L. D. Norris, 1874. Contains notes for 1827, from a diary 
 
 kept by Mr. Norris. 
 Sessions, J. Q. A. Ann Arbor. A History of its Early Settlement. 
 
 M. P. H. C, I, 333-338. 
 [A sketch of the history of Washtenaw County]. M. P. H. C, 
 
 IV, 393-400. A useful compilation from various papers read 
 
 before the Washtenaw County Pioneer Society. 
 Geddes, John. Ypsilanti Township. Its Settlement, etc. M. P. 
 
 H. C, IV, 401-404. Useful for early land purchasers. 
 Early Settlement of Ann Arbor. Account given to Mrs. E. M. S. 
 
 Stewart in 1852 by Mr. Bethuel Farrand [etc.l. M. P. H. C, 
 
 VI, 443-446. 
 Williams, Jeremiah D. History of the Town of Webster. 
 
 [1833+]. M. P. H. C, XIII, 546-567. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 587 
 
 Lay, Ezra D. Condensed Early History; or Beginnings of the 
 
 Several Towns in Washtenaw County. M. P. H. C, XVII, 
 
 450-462. 
 Watkins, L. D. Settlement and Natural History of Manchester, 
 
 Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXII, 262-266. 
 Seymour, C. B. Early Days in Old Washtenaw County. M. P. 
 
 H. C, XXVIII, 391-399. 
 Watkins, L. D. Settlement of the Township of Bridgewater and 
 
 Vicinity, Washtenaw County. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 568-569. 
 
 Wayne County 
 
 Utley, H. M. Plymouth. The First Settlement — Reminiscences of 
 the Early History of the Place — Incidents and Anecdotes. M. P. 
 H. C, I, 444-448. 
 
 Clark, George. Recollections. M. P. H. C, I, 501-507. Use- 
 ful notes on settlement in Wayne County, about 1817. 
 
 DoRT, Titus. A Personal Reminiscence . M. P. H. C, I, 507- 
 509. Useful notes, 1815-1837. 
 
 Clarkson, D. Pioneer Sketches. M. P. H. C, I, 509-510. 
 Useful notes on the township of Plymouth, Wayne County, 
 1825-1831. 
 
 Christian, Dr. E. P. Historical Associations Connected with 
 Wyandotte and Vicinity. M. P. H. C, XIII, 308-324. An 
 excellent article, showing relation between settlement and 
 physiographic conditions. 
 
 OsBAND, Melvin D. My Recollections of Pioneers and Pioneer 
 Life in Nankin [1818+]. M. P. H. C.,"XIV, 431-483. 
 
 McMath, J. W. The Willow Run Settlement. M. P. H. C, XIV, 
 483-495. 
 
 OsBAND, M. D. History of the Pioneer Church of Nankin, Wayne 
 County, Michigan [1825]. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 150-160. 
 
 DETROIT 
 
 Lamb, Rev. C. A. Incidents in Pioneer Life in Clinton County. 
 
 M. P. H. C, I, 149-151. 
 [Desnoyers, Hon. Peter]. Old Detroit. M. P. H. C, I, 346- 
 
 347. From the Detroit Free Press, February 27, 1876. Brief 
 
 account of the fire of 1805. Statement of losses as presented 
 
 bv heads of fainilies. 
 
688 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 ZuG, Mrs. Samuel. Fort Shelby. M. P. H. C, I, 368-371. 
 Address, 1872. "Recollections of old Fort Shelby and its sur- 
 roundings." 
 
 Trowbridge, Charles C. Detroit, Past and Present: in Relation 
 to its Social and Physical Condition. M. P. H. C, I, 371-385. 
 Address, 1864. 
 
 Hubbard, Bela. Memoir of Luther Harvey. M. P. H. C, I, 
 406-414. "Read before the Detroit Pioneer Society, January, 
 1873." Useful notes on settlement, 1802-1821, mainly about 
 Detroit. 
 
 The First Presbyterian Church of Detroit. History of the Church 
 and Society. M. P. H. C, I, 417-429. PubHshed in the 
 Democrat and Inquirer of Detroit, September, 1855. Useful for 
 copies of original material. 
 
 Holmes, J. C. The American Hotel, Detroit. M. P. H. C, I, 
 431-432. "Read before the Detroit Pioneer Society, January 13, 
 1874." 
 
 ZuG, Samuel. Detroit in 1815-16. M. P. H. C, I, 496-501. 
 Bates, Hon. George C. By-Gones of Detroit. General Hugh 
 
 Brady. M. P. H. C, II, 573-579. Useful for the "Patriot War" 
 
 of 1837. 
 Arnold, Rev. J. M. A Sketch of the History of Methodism in 
 
 Detroit. M. P. H. C, III, 225-243. 
 [McKenney, Thomas L.]. Interesting Letters Written from and 
 
 about Detroit. Some predictions, and how they have been fulfilled. 
 
 M. P. H. C, IV, 89-94. Taken from McKenney's A Tour to 
 
 the Lakes, Baltimore, 1827. The first of the letters is dated 
 
 June 16, 1826. 
 Trowbridge, Hon. C. C. The first Saw-Mill in Detroit. M. P. 
 
 H. C, IV, 410. 
 History of the Old Fire Department in Detroit. M. P. H. C, IV. 
 
 410-419. 
 Phelps, Col. William. Reminiscences of Detroit. M. P. H. C, 
 
 IV, 459-465. Useful from 1835. 
 Roberts, Robert E. Detroit. M. P. H. C, IV, 465-466. 
 
 Census 1810-1880. 
 The Detroit Waterworks. M. P. H. C, IV, 466-471. An anony- 
 mous contribution to the Detroit Post and Tribune, December 15, 
 
 1877. 
 Trowbridge, C. C. Detroit in 1819. M. P. H. C, IV, 471-479. 
 Roberts, Robert E. Detroit. Sketches of its Early History and 
 
 leading Political Historical Events. M. P. H. C, V, 530-536, 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 589 
 
 Fitch, Rev. W., D. D. Reminiscences of Detroit. M. P. H. C, 
 
 V, 536-546. 
 A Muster Roll of 1812, with correspondence relating thereto. M. P. 
 
 H. C, V, 553-557. Shows predominance of French. 
 Williams, Ephraim S. Detroit Three Score Years ago [etc.]. 
 
 M. P. H. C, X, 84-87. 
 Ford, Henry A Historical Detroit. M. P. H. C, X, 88-97. 
 The Young Mens Society, [1832+]. M. P. H. C, XII, 361-375. 
 Territorial census of Detroit, 1827. M. P. H. C, XII, op. p. 461. 
 Pioneer Piety. M. P. H. C, XIII, 424-483. 
 Detroit in 1814. M. P. H. C, XIII, 503-507. "Extracts from 
 
 articles written in 1853 by Hon. B. F. H. Witherell. Written 
 
 for the Bay City Tribune, by Albert Miller, 1886." 
 A Visit with a Lady who knew Detroit as a Frontier Post. M. P. 
 
 H. C, XIV, 535-539. From the Detroit Free Press, March 10, 
 
 1889. 
 Bates, Hon. George C. By-Gones of Detroit [1833+]. M. P. 
 
 H. C, XXII, 305-404. 
 Burton, C. M. Some of the Benefits that accrued to Detroit from 
 
 the devastating Fire of 1805. M. P. H. C, XXII, 431-436. 
 Burton, C. M. Detroit in the Year 1832. M. P. H. C, XXVIII ■ 
 
 163-171. 
 Dickinson, Moses F. Detroit in 1837. What the City's oldest 
 
 Directory discloses. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 585-638. A series of 
 
 articles from the Detroit News-Tribune, 1895. 
 Burton, C. M. The Moravians at Detroit. M. P. H. C, XXX, 
 
 51-63. 
 Palmer, Friend. Detroit in 1827 and Later on. M. P. H. C, 
 
 XXXV, 272-283. 
 Smith, Mrs. Julia Talbot. Reminiscences of Detroit [1835 + ]. 
 
 M. P. H. C, XXXV, 682-683. 
 
 MAPS AND ATLASES 
 
 Of the maps and diagrams of Michigan published before 1835, 
 useful for the study of settlement, the following are to be found 
 in the General Library of the University of Michigan, the Detroit 
 Public Library, the State Library at Lansing and in the Library of 
 Congress. They are here chronologically arranged. 
 Darby, William. Emigrants' Guide [1817]. Contains a large map 
 
 of Michigan. Shows a fairlj^ good knowledge of the counties 
 
690 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 of the Lower Peninsula, but little knowledge of the Saginaw re- 
 gion or the relation of Illinois and Indiana with Lake Michigan. 
 
 Darby, William. A Tour from the City of New York [etc.]. 
 [1819]. Contains a map of Michigan apparently engraved for 
 this volume. Across the western portion appear the words, "This 
 part very imperfectly known." 
 
 FiNLAYSON, J. A. Map of Michigan Territory [1S22]. Map No. 36 
 in A complete Historical, Chronological, and Geographical Amer- 
 ican Atlas [etc.], by Carey, H. C. and Lea, I. Philadelphia, 
 1822. 
 
 BucKON, J. A. C. Atlas geographique, statistique, historique et 
 chronologique des deux Ameriques et des iles adjacentes [etc.]. 
 Paris, 1825. A translation, with a few additions, of the Finlay- 
 son Atlas published at Philadelphia in 1822. Map No. 40 is of 
 Michigan Territory. 
 
 Lucas, F. A map of Michigan. No. 75 in A General Atlas con- 
 taining Distinct Maps of all the Known Countries in the World 
 [etc.]. Baltimore, 1823. 
 
 Cary, J. A map of the Northwest, Michigan [etc.]. No. 57 in 
 Gary's New Universal Atlas [etc.]. London, 1824-1825. 
 
 Internal Improvements. A Collection of Maps and Drawings en- 
 graved by order of Congress [etc.]. Washington, 1825-1843. No. 
 27 shows the road from Monroe to the Miami River (cir. 1829). 
 Nos. 40-43 show a plat of the Detroit-Chicago turnpike in four 
 sheets, 1829. No. 81 shows the Fort Gratiot Road (Detroit to 
 Fort Gratiot), 1827. 
 
 RiSDON, Orange. A map of Michigan was published by him at 
 Albany, New York, shortly after 1825. This work appears to 
 have been limited to the country south of Saginaw Bay and 
 east of the principal meridian. The draft, four miles to an 
 inch, appears to have been made by John Farmer. Cf. Far- 
 mer, History of Detroit and Michigan (ed. 1884), I. 679-698, 
 and M. P. H. C, XXII, 457-460. The maps issued by Fanner 
 can be consulted in the Detroit Public Library. 
 
 Finley, a. a portion of Michigan Territory. [1826]. No. 11 
 in A new American Atlas. Philadelphia, 1826. 
 
 FiNLAYSON, J. Michigan Territory. No. 36 in A complete His- 
 torical, Chronological, and Geographical American Atlas [etc.]. 
 Philadelphia, Carey and Lea, 1827. 
 
 Weiland, C. F. Michigan. No. 28 in Atlas von America [etc.]. 
 Weimar, 1824-1828. The map of Michigan is for the year 
 1828. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 591 
 
 Von Schlieben, W. E. A. Gebiet Michigan. No. XIV in Atlas 
 von Amerika in 30 Charten [etc.]. Leipzig, 1830. 
 
 Tanner, Thomas R. A New and Authentic Map oj the State of 
 Michigan and the Territory of Wisconsin [1830]. No. 17 in 
 A New American Atlas containing Maps of the Several States of 
 the North American Union [etc.]. Philadelphia, H. S. Tanner, 
 1839. 
 
 Burr, D. H. Michigan, 1831. No. 44 in A New Universal Atlas 
 [etc.]. New York, D. S. Stone, [1835?]. 
 
 Young, J. H. The Tourists pocket map of Michigan, exhibiting its 
 Internal Improvements, Roads, Distances [etc.]. Philadelphia, 
 1835. Commonly cited as the "Mitchell Map." S. Augustus 
 Mitchell was the publisher. Shows the counties and the chief 
 settlements at this date. 
 
 ATLASES OF MICHIGAN 
 
 Walling, H. F. Atlas of the State of Michigan; including Statis- 
 tics and Descriptions of its Topography, Hydrography, Climate 
 natural and civil History, Railways, Educational Institutions, 
 material Resources, etc. Detroit, R. M. and S. T. Tackabury, 
 1873, pp. 162, maps 84, in folio. Very good maps of the counties. 
 The articles in the front of the atlas have merit as brief general 
 discussions. 
 
 Cram, G. F. Cram's Superior Reference Atlas of Michigan and 
 the World. New York and Chicago, G. F. Cram, 1908, pp. 160, 
 maps 68, in folio. 
 
 There have been published a large number of atlases of Michi- 
 gan counties, the first publishing house in this field being that of 
 C. O. Titus, Philadelphia, which published atlases of Branch and 
 Cass counties in 1872. A little later, the firms of Evarts and 
 Stewart, Chicago, and F. W. Beers & Co., New York, entered the 
 field, the latter publishing extensively, as late as 1897. Atlases 
 of nearly all the countries south of Saginaw Bay were issued 
 between 1872 and 1876. This is to be accounted for, probably, 
 by local interest in preparations for the centennial year. Begin- 
 ning about the World's Fair year, 1893, a new impulse is evident 
 in the appearance of new county atlases, published mainly by 
 the following firms: G. A. Ogle and Co., Chicago; American Atlas 
 Co., Chicago; E. P. Noll and Co., Philadelphia; National Pub- 
 lishing Co., Boston. Latterly, a few local firms have issued 
 atlases of their localities, such as R. L. Polk and Co., Grand 
 Rapids; W. C. Sauer, Detroit; and Treat Brothers, Adrian. 
 
592 
 
 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
 
 The maps in these atlases vary in quaUty, but on the. whole 
 they are reliable for purposes of historical study. Most of them 
 are made from the original United States surveys and field notes, 
 the originals of which can be consulted at the State Capitol at 
 Lansing, where they were deposited after the completion of the 
 surveys in 1857. The data furnished by them is of great value 
 in reconstructing contemporary topography and physical condi- 
 tions of early settlement. 
 
 Most of the atlases contain brief notes on early settlement of 
 the various townships, but these must be carefully compared 
 with other data if used. 
 
 Very many of these atlases can be consulted in the Detroit 
 Public Library and the State Library at Lansing. Almost in- 
 variably the atlas of a given county can be obtained from the 
 public library at the county seat. The Library of Congress has 
 many of them. (See A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library 
 of Congress (1909), I, 864-869). 
 
INDEX 
 
 75 
 
INDEX 
 
 Academy, at Ann Arbor, 231(n.l61), 243; at Pontiac, 221, 243; 
 at Romeo, 171(n.285) 
 
 Ada, 431; monument to Rix Robinson, 436(n.l27) 
 
 Adams, R., Agriculture in Michigan, 69 
 
 Adamsville, 262, 295 
 
 Adrian. 192; settlement, 204, 236-237; waterpower, 26 
 
 Agricultural Society, Detroit (1818), 130(n.l08) 
 
 Agriculture, 489; in Berrien County, 296; at Detroit (1827), 136 
 French-Canadian, 104 ff, 108(n.38), 132(n.ll7); in Michiga ; 
 compared with New York, 320; in Oakland County. 221; in 
 Ottawa County, 441 (n. 145); appeal to small farmer, 47; getting 
 the first crop, 42-44; agriculture in Michigan, 563(Adams)g 
 early farmers in Macomb County, 582(Campau); wheat in New', 
 York and Michigan, 5 74 (Shearer) ; see Soils, Oak openings 
 Prairies, and names of prairies 
 
 Albion, 349 
 
 Albion College, 349, 487 
 
 Algonac, 162 
 
 Aliens, 240, 469; in Detroit, 147; in eastern shore counties, 184; 
 franchise (1835), 88; inducement of democratic local govern- 
 ment to, 90; in Southwestern Michigan, 303 
 
 Allegan, waterpower, 27; lumber cut in 1839, 28; settlement, 332- 
 334 
 
 Allegan County, bibHography, 575; pine lands, 321; prairies, 318; 
 established and organized, 531; population. 359-363; censuses, 
 531, 536 
 
 Allen, John, 208, 230, 324 
 
 Allen, Captain Moses, 268 
 
 Allen's Creek (Washtenaw Co.), 229 
 
 Allen Prairie, settled, 268 
 
 Alphadelphia Association, sketch, 5 80 (Van Buren) 
 
 Amherst College, 311 
 
 American Fur Company, see Fur Trade 
 
 American Hotel, Detroit, article by Holmes, 588 
 Anchor Bay, Chippewa Reservation, 103 (n. 20) 
 
596 INDEX 
 
 Animals, wild, advantages and disadvantages to settlers, 45-46; 
 
 in Michigan, 565 (Wheeler); in Wayne County, 564(Tibbits) 
 Ann Arbor, 356, 393(n.l29), 398, 399, 416, 464; academy, 93; 
 
 Germans, 148; settlement, 228, 586; source of population, 238; 
 
 settlement, 5 86 (Sessions) 
 Antislavery, see Slavery 
 Apples, in French-Canadian orchards, 106 
 Artesian wells, 28(n.87) 
 Ash, see Forest 
 
 Ashley, Thomas, birthplace, 184 
 Assize of Bread, Detroit (1816), 126(n.93) 
 Athens, 354 
 
 Atlas (Genesee Co.), early history, 578(Goodrich) 
 Atlases, bibliography, 589, 591 
 Auburn (Oakland Co.), 222 
 Augusta, 350 
 Avon colony (Oakland Co.), 200, 206 
 
 Baker, Mayor, 368 
 
 "Bald Mountain" (Oakland Co.), 198 
 
 Ball, Daniel, 388 
 
 Ball, John, 416; sketch, 429(n.94) 
 
 Bangor, 324 
 
 Bank of Michigan (Detroit), 130(n.l08); Eurotas P. Hastings, 
 
 president, 456 
 Banking, bibliography, 569; "wild-cat," 486; in Genesee County, 
 
 400; a,t Kalamazoo, 344; in Shiawassee County, 387; law of 
 
 1837, 67; effect of Jackson's specie circular, 68; financial history 
 
 of U. S., 546(Dewey) 
 Baptists, 487; at Kalamazoo, 345; Carey Mission (Berrien Co.), 
 
 259; mission at Grand Rapids, 421; early history, 573(Chase) 
 Bar, see Bench 
 Baraga, Frederic, 421 
 Barnes, George W., surveyor, 444(n.l56) 
 Barry (Jackson Co.), 350 
 Barry, William T., 451 (n. 185) 
 Barry County, bibliography, 576; environment, 412-413; trails, 
 
 418-419; Indians of, 566 (Goodyear); Slater mission, 422(n.7l); 
 
 degree of settlement in 1837, 451-454; settlement (1836-38), 
 
 454-456; established and organized, 531; censuses, 531, 536; 
 
 Barry County Seat Purchase, 456 
 "Battle," at Battle Creek, 335(n.l29); article on, bv Poppleton, 
 
 577 ^ ' 
 
 Battle Creek, 335, 336, 348, 357; supplies food to Grand Haven, 
 
INDEX 597 
 
 438(n.l31); relations with Hastings, 456; sandstone at, 13; 
 trail through, 419; early history, 577 (Van Burcn) 
 
 Baw Beese Indians, 566 (Van Buren) 
 
 Bay City, 379 
 
 Bean Creek, 283, 285 
 
 Bear, see Animals 
 
 Beardsley's Prairie, 262, 274, 293 
 
 Beaubien, Antoine, opposed to widening street in Detroit, 131 
 
 Beebe, Silas, 457 
 
 Beech, see Forest 
 
 Beet sugar, 291 
 
 Belle River, 161, 164 
 
 Bellevue, 336, 357, 418; environment, 412; settlement, 442-444, 
 450 
 
 Bemis, E. W., Local Government in Michigan and the Northwest, 
 88(n.l37) 
 
 Benac, Joseph (1800), 117(n.65) 
 
 Bench and bar, sketch of early bar in Calhoun and Kalamazoo 
 counties 577; sketch of legal profession, 5 74 (Wells); early legal 
 profession, 576(Winslow); pioneer lawyers in Lenawee County, 
 581 (Stacy); bench and bar in Oakland County, 584(Baldwin) 
 
 Benton Harbor, 299 
 
 Berrien County, bibliography, 576; cold winter of 1842-436(n.20); 
 forest, 247; Fort St. Joseph (near Niles), 567(Beeson); 567 
 (McCoy) ; settlement, 258-262, 264-266, 275-278, 295-301; estab- 
 Hshed and organized, 531; population (1825), 261; (1830), 271; 
 (1834), 278; (1837), 536; source of, 303, 304; censuses, 531, 
 536; Pennsylvania- Dutch, 303; fruit growing, 4(n.9) 
 
 Berrien Springs, 297; founded, 264; platted, 275; county seat 
 removed to, 276 
 
 Bertrand, 295; settlement, 277; sketch of, 576 
 
 Bibliography, general aids, 543; local history, 543; Government 
 publications, 544; newspapers and periodicals, 544, 553; manu- 
 scripts, 545; general secondary works, 545; biographies, 549; 
 histories of Michigan, 549; county histories, 550; magazines, 
 555; travel and exploration, 555; travelers' guides, 558; gaze- 
 teers, directories, geographical and statistical works, 559; nat- 
 tional and State publications, 562; pubHcations of historical 
 and geographical societies, 563; pioneer diaries, reminiscences, 
 addresses, etc., 564; physiograph^^ climate, fauna and flora, 
 564; health, 565; boundaries, 565; Indians, 565; Black Hawk 
 War, 566; French Canadians, 566; survey and sale of lands, 
 567; navigation, transportation and trade, 567; roads and 
 travel, 568; sources of population, 569; banks and banking, 
 
598 INDEX 
 
 569; government, 570; pioneer press, 571; education, 571; 
 slavery, 572; pioneer life, 572; general and miscellaneous, 573; 
 counties, 575 ff 
 
 Biddle, Major, 149, 369, 458 (n.210); on earlv civil history of 
 Detroit, 134(n.l21) 
 
 "Biddle City," 457 
 
 Big Prairie Ronde, 312 
 
 Birmingham (Oakland Co.), 223 
 
 Black River, 162, 164, 324 
 
 Black Hawk War, bibliography, 566; general influence on settle- 
 ment, 57, 60-61; effect in Detroit, 137; effect in the Kalamazoo 
 Valley, 358; effect in the St. Joseph Valley, 252, 256, 271; 
 story of, 564(Thwaites) 
 
 Black-walnut, see Forest 
 
 Blissfield, road from, to Petersborough, 209; sketch of Presbyterian 
 Chvirch in, 581(Kedzie) 
 
 Blois, Gazetteer of Michigan, 559 
 
 Bossuet, Bishop, ancestor of Father Gabriel Richard, 115(n.61) 
 
 Boundaries, bibliography, 565; dispute with Ohio, 176(n.306); 
 dispute with Ohio, 578(Holloway) 
 
 Branch County, bibliography, 576; forest, 247; settlement, 268- 
 270, 278-283, 287-290; causes of slow settlement, 250; estab- 
 lished and organized, 531; population(1834), 283; censuses, 531, 
 536; Pennsylvania-Dutch, 303; early hanking, 569(Randall) 
 
 Brady, Gen. Hugh, article by Bates, 588 
 
 Brest, 157 
 
 Brighton, 390; newspaper, 373(n.30) 
 
 Bristol, Wilham P., 454(n.l98) 
 
 Britain, Calvin, 266 
 
 British, post on St. Clair River, 116(n.65), 160; influence of 
 presents to the Indians, 57; relations with Old Northwest{17 90- 
 1829), 570 
 
 Bronson, Jabez, 269 
 
 Bronson, Titus, 352; founds Kalamazoo, 345; founder of Kalamazoo, 
 5 80 (Van Buren) 
 
 Bronson Prairie, settled, 269 
 
 Brooldvn (Jackson Co.), sketch, anon., 579, and by Griswold, 579 
 
 Brooks, Edward, 391 (n. 11 7) 
 
 Brown, Edward, 380(n.57) 
 
 Brown, E. Lakin, autobiographical notes, SIS 
 
 Brown, General Jacob, 233 
 
 Brown, John, 380(n.57) 
 
 Brown, Joseph, 203, 235 
 
 Brown University, 341, 345 (n. 167) 
 
INDEX 599 
 
 Brown, S. R., Western Gazetteer, 560; characterizes Canadian- 
 French settlement, 98; general influence, 54. 
 Brownstown (Wa^^ne County), 157, 263 
 Brownstown Creek, land claims, 103(n.22) 
 Bruckner's Lessee vs. Lawrence, 119(n.66) 
 Brush Creek, 324 
 Buchanan, 300 
 Buffalo, in 1825, 563 (Ball) 
 
 Building materials, clay, sand and gravel, 12; sandstone, 13 
 Bunce, Zephaniah W., 184; sketch of, 585 (Thompson) 
 Burnett, William, at St. Joseph, 265, 266 
 Burr Oak, 273, 274 
 
 Burr-oak plains, getting first crop on, 41 ; soil, 193 
 Business, see Trade 
 Butler, Wilham, 329 
 
 Byron (Kent Co.), trail through, 419(n.54) 
 Byron (Shiawassee Co.), 385 
 Byron Company, 386 
 
 Cadillac, La Motte, 120 
 
 Calhoun County, bibliography, 577; inland lakes, 308; oak open- 
 ings, 318; settlement, 340-344, 348-349, 353-354; prairie settle- 
 ments, 316-317; relation of Indians and settlers, 573; estab- 
 lished and organized, 532; population, 359-363; censuses, 532, 
 536; Early days, 577 
 
 Campau, Antoine, 428 
 
 Campau, Joseph, opposes widening of street in Detroit, 131 
 
 Campau, Louis, 375, 377, 423; papered cupola with "wild-cat" 
 bills, 68(n.66) 
 
 Campbell, James V., 481(n.27); mentions French wind mills, 
 110; Outlines of the Political History of Michigan, 549 
 
 Canada, source of population, 185 
 
 "Canada settlement" (Eaton Co.), 451 
 
 Canadian-French, see French-Canadians 
 
 Canals, projected in Clinton County, 466; in Grand-Maple- 
 Saginaw Valley, 21; between Grand and Huron rivers, 347; 
 in Macomb County, 29; projected routes in Michigan, 75(n.91); 
 celebration at completion of Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal, 567 
 
 Canoe, description of birchen, 572 
 
 Capitol, removal of, from Detroit, 579(Bishop); 579(Blades); 
 5 79 (Goodrich); 579(Robson); 579(Williams) 
 
 Carey Indian Mission (Berrien Co.), founding, 252, 258-260; 
 teacher at, 266; influence on settlement of Cass County, 262; 
 relations with Grand Rapids mission, 421 
 
GOO INDEX 
 
 Carts, old French, 573 
 
 Cass, Lewis, birthplace, 183; influence on settlement, 50, 52(n.l6); 
 relation to Tiffin survey of 1815, 50(n.7), 62; obtains land 
 office for Detroit (1818), 62; qualifications as Indian agent, 58; 
 expedition to Saginaw country, 371; expedition of 1820, 52, 
 201, 251 ; letter respecting Monroe Road, 75(n.92) ; description of 
 road in 1822, ibid; plans for Saginaw Road, 76; services in behalf 
 of Chicago Road. 76(n.96); member of Cass Company(Monroe 
 Co. 1835-36), 155; farm sold (1835), 140; violates fire ordinance 
 at Detroit, 128; interest in Carey Mission, 259; instructions to 
 McCoy, 421; visits Carey Mission (1827), 260(n.44); on the 
 removal of the Indians to the West, 60(n.37) ; interest in popu- 
 lar education, 92, 93(n.l54); favors popular rule, 84; president 
 of historical society, 151; influence, 564(McLaughlin) ; life, 549 
 (McLaughlin), 549 (Smith), 549 (Young) 
 
 Cass County, surface geology, 245 (n. 3); established and organized; 
 253, 532; settlement, 262-264, 274, 293-295; first crops, 269; 
 population (1825), 261; censuses( 1834-37), 536; travel to, from 
 Detroit (1828), 568(Edwards); history, 553(Rogers) 
 
 Cassopolis, founding, 275, 294 
 
 Cass River, settlers on, 380 
 
 Catholepistemiad, 152 
 
 Catholics, in Detroit, 147; Shea on, 548; schools in Detroit, 152; 
 in Clinton County, 467; mission at Grand Rapids, 421; refining 
 influence of priests; see Richard (Father Gabriel) 
 
 Catlin, G. B., Landmarks of Detroit and Michigan, 553; see Ross 
 
 Censuses, of Michigan Territory (1830-34), 535; (1837), 536-539, 
 562; of counties (1834-40), 531-534; of Indians (not taxed) 
 1837, 539; of Negroes(1837), 539; see Population 
 
 Centerville, 273, 293 
 
 Central Railroad, 81(n.ll0); first cars over, 81(n.ll3); influence 
 on settlement in Berrien County, 301; discussed at Marshall 
 (1833), 343 
 
 Charleston (Kalamazoo Co.), 352 
 
 Charlotte, environment, 412; settlement, 418, 444 
 
 Chairman, Alcott E., birthplace, 183 
 
 Chase, Lew Allen, on roads, traffic and travel in Michigan Terri- 
 tory, 79(n.l05) 
 
 Chase, Philander, 281 
 
 Chase, Rev. Supply, A Pioneer Minister, 574 
 
 Chicago, early opinion of, 448(n.l70), 455; central market of 
 Middle West, 30; boat line to Grand Haven, 438; treatv of, 
 59, 269 ^ 
 
 Chicago Road, 76; plat of, in four sheets, in map listed under 
 Internal Improvements, 589; influence of survey, 263; early 
 
INDEX 601 
 
 travel, 207, 254; early travel in St. Joseph Valley, 255-256; 
 travel decreased in 1832, 60; influence in Branch County, 280; 
 in Hillsdale County, 285; in Washtenaw County, 202; descrip- 
 tion of, in Lenawee County, 209; preferred to Territorial Road, 
 339; travel (1828), 568(Edwards); travel (1834). 569(Goodrich) 
 
 Chicago Trail, 77, 249, 305 
 
 Cholera epidemic (1832), effect on Detroit, 137; death of Father 
 Richard, 116(n.61); in Kalamazoo Valley, 357; in St. Joseph 
 Valley, 271; effect on Territorial vote, 86; epidemic of, in 1834, 
 61(n.42); at Detroit, cause, 144; in the Saginaw country, 402 
 
 Christiancy, Isaac P., 481(n.27) 
 
 Christian Creek, 262 
 
 Christmas, in early Ionia, 5 72 (Taylor) 
 
 Church, articles on early churches in the Saginavu Valley, 577; 
 early history of churches in Battle Creek, 577 (Van Buren) ; pioneer 
 church of Nankin, Wayne County, 587(Osband) a pioneer min- 
 ister, 574(Chase); see names of denominations 
 
 "Cincinnatus." advocates change in Territorial government, 83 
 
 Claims, British, 118(n.66); French, 117(n.66); surveyed by U. S., 
 119(n.66), 101(n.l4); "gridiron" appearance, 105; at Ypsilanti, 
 201; in Genesee County, 376; digested summary, 546 
 
 Clemens, Christian, village named for, 158 
 
 Climate of southern Michigan, 2-9; discussion by Winchell, 548; 
 of Detroit, 564 (Hubbard) 
 
 Climax Prairie, 313 
 
 Clinton (Lenawee Co.), 237 
 
 Clinton County, bibliography, 577; environment, 413; established 
 and organized, 532; censuses, 532, 537; distribution of popula- 
 tion(1837), 460; speculation, 461; waterpower settlements on 
 the Lookingglass, 462; transportation, 416; hostility of traders 
 and trappers, 463; "paper towns" at site of Dewitt, 463-464; 
 colony at Duplain on Maple River, 465-466; Maple Rapids, 
 466; Catholic settlement in Westphalia Township, 467 
 
 Clinton River, description, 24; sources, 28; navigation, 29; Navi- 
 gation Company, 206(n.45) ; harbor improvement, 31; water 
 power, 188; French-Canadian settlements, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103, 
 105, 109,; German settlement, 185; canal, 567(Ingersoll) 
 
 Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal, projected, 75(n.91) 
 
 Coal basin, 10, 13 
 
 Cochrane, Sylvester, 446 
 
 Coldwater, settlement, 279; in 1831, 511; early days, 577(Haynes) 
 
 Coldwater Settlement (Genesee Co.), 381 (n. 65) 
 
 Colleges, see Education, Albion, Hillsdale, Kalam.azoo, Olivet 
 
 Colonies, methods of founding, 242 
 
 Combe, Pierre Francois (1776), 117(n.66) 
 
«i02 INDEX 
 
 Communism, in Kalamazoo County, 580(Van Buren) 
 Commerce, at Detroit, after War of 1812, 127; at Detroit(1827), 
 
 136; at Detroit (1837), 143; at St. Joseph, 276, 298; on Upper 
 
 Great Lakes, 72(n.81) 
 Common School Assistant, The, 93 
 Comstock, Horace H., 349 
 Comstock village, 331, 336, 349, 351, 356; early history, 580(Van 
 
 Buren) 
 Conant, Dr. Harry, birthplace, 183 
 Concord (Jackson Co.), early history, 580(McGee) 
 Congregationalists, 486; at Grand Rapids, 430; in Kalamazoo 
 
 County, 352; at Romeo, 170; at Vermontville, 445-446; work 
 
 of John D. Pierce, 341; sketch of Congregationalism, 575(Pierce), 
 
 574(Hurd) 
 
 Connecticut, settlers from, 183, 238, 273, 279, 329, 381, 464, 474fE 
 Constantine, platted, 273, 274; mentioned 291, 292 
 Constitution of 1835, adopted, 87; analysis, 87(n.l32) 
 Cook's Prairie, 316, 353 
 
 Cooley, Thomas M., 481(n.27); Michigan, 549 
 Cooper, James Fenimore, 318, 325, 349(n.l87) 
 Cooper (Kalamazoo Co.), early history, 580 (Walker) 
 Com, yield of first crop on different soils, 42, 43; first crops in 
 
 St. Joseph County, 267; first crop on White Pigeon Prairie, 269 
 Corunna, 386, 389 
 Cottonwood Swamp, 253 
 
 Counties, "Cabinet," established in southwestern Michigan, 266 
 County goveminent, 89 
 
 County seats, legislation affecting the establishment of, 89(n.l43) 
 Crane, Flavins, 391 (n. 11 7) 
 
 Crary, Isaac E., 94, 340, 341, 442; sketch, 571 (Comstock) 
 Creeks, see Bean, Christian, Hog, Otter, Pettibone, vSandy, 
 
 Woodruff's, Drainage, Waterpower 
 Croghan, on conditions near Detroit (1765), 108 
 
 Danforth, Ephraim B., 458 (n.214) 
 
 Darby, William, opinion of Detroit, (1818), 129; on immigration 
 
 in 1818, 52; Tour, 556; Emigrant's Guide, 559 
 Dartmouth College, 282 
 
 Davison (Genesee Co.), early history, 578(Townsend) 
 Dearborn, on route of Central Railroad, 82 (n. 115) 
 Delegate to Congress, first(1819), 84, 116(n.61), 149 
 Delta (Eaton Co.), 449; early settlement, 578 (Ingersoll); effort to 
 
 found college at, 572 (Williams) 
 De Tocqueville, inpressions of Oakland County (1833), 195; of 
 
 Saginaw country, 369 
 
INDEX cm 
 
 Detroit, biblioj^raphy, 587; climate, 5(n.l4); discussion of climate 
 by Hubbard, 564; settlement, 116-153; British opinion of 
 obstacles to settlement (1793), 111; conditions in 1803, 121; 
 effects of fire of 1805, \22;fire of 1805, 587(Dcsnoyers); benefits 
 frmn fire of 1805, 589(Burton); old fire department, 588; water- 
 works, 588; public improvements (1835-37), 144; prominence in 
 War of 1812, 49; effects of War of 1812, 122; Fort Shelby, 588 
 (Zug); growth of, from 1812 to 1815, 122; new city plan, 123; 
 streets, 124; roads, 125; frontier character of life in 1818, 125- 
 130; lands near, surveyed, 62; explorations near, in 1818, 52; 
 relation to the settlement of Oakland County, 199, 200; rela- 
 tion to settlement of Washtenaw County, 202; early politics, 
 588(Roberts) ; misrule of the Governor and Judges, S3, 85 
 (n.l24); Detroit Gazette publishes proceedings and laws of the 
 Legislative Council, beginning 1824, 85(n.l26); arrival of first 
 steamboat at, 70; American Hotel, 588(Holmes); port of, 567 
 (Zug); ferry service, (1825 + ), 569(Palmer); sources of popula- 
 tion, 146-149; education and culture, 149-153; shipbuilding, 31' 
 effects of land sales, and steam navigation on Lake Erie, 130- 
 134; trade with interior, 208, 220; Old Bank of Michigan (1818), 
 570(Palmer); Detroit and St. Joseph Railroad, 80; wind mills, 
 110; ^r5/ sawmill, 5 88 (Trowbridge) ; census (1827), 589; (1830), 
 180; growth from 1825 to 1837, 134, 146; cholera epidemic 
 (1832), 61; MacCabe's directory (1837), 561; early colonization, 
 566 (Hubbard); Moravians, 589(Burton); French-Canadian 
 settlements, 98, 101, 109; French-Canadian opposition to 
 widening streets, 113; sketch of French-Canadians (1806), 566 
 (Witherell) ; early schools, 57l(Wilkins) ; 57l(WilHams) ; academy, 
 subjects taught, 108(n.36); historical society, 574(Holmes); 
 Young Men's Society, (1833), 151(n.l98), 589; Detroit Gazette, 
 early influence, 55; Pioneer Piety 589; Methodism, 588(Amold); 
 First Presbyterian Church, 588; slavery, 572(Girardin); notes on 
 history (1805-1815), 574; old account book of Mack and Conant, 
 567(Hoyt) ; history, by Ross and Catlin, 553; sketches, by Dewey, 
 575 
 
 Dewitt, 461, 464 
 
 Dexter, Samuel W. (Washtenaw Co.), 225(n.l30), 232(n.l65), 
 372, 378 
 
 Dexter, Samuel (Ionia), 420, 432 
 
 Dexter village, 356; waterpower, 26; settlement, 232; town meet- 
 ing to consider canal project (1827), 75(n.91) 
 
 Diseases, due to imprudences of settlers, 310; in Kalamazoo 
 Valley, 357; in Saginaw country, 367; see Healthfulness 
 
 Dixboro (Washtenaw Co.), 233 
 
 Drainage, determinants, 193; creeks as distributors of, 27; springs 
 
004 INDEX 
 
 and lakes as regulators, 28, 189; relation to topography, 22-26; 
 23(n.75); of Eastern shore counties, 96; of the Kalamazoo 
 Valley, 321-324; of the vSt. Joseph Valley, 245; of Wayne 
 County, 177; general discussion, bv Winchell, 548 
 
 Dry Prairie, 317, 353, 354 
 
 Dundee, 173 
 
 Dunes, relation to settlement, 35 
 
 Dutch, from Pennsylvania, 303 
 
 Eaton County, bibliography, 578; physical environment, 411; 
 established and organized, 532; first entered, 417; transporta- 
 tion, 418; trip to, from Vermont (1838), 569(Hinman); censuses, 
 532, 537; Bellevue, 442; Charlotte, 444; VermontvUle, 444; 
 Eaton Rapids, 449; river settlements above Eaton Rapids, 449; 
 distribution of population (1837), 450; sources of early settlers, 
 450 
 
 Eaton Rapids, 418; mineral springs, 412(n.31); settlement, 449 
 
 Education, bibliography, 571; Father Richard's interest in, 115; 
 academy at Detroit, 108(n.36) ; conditions among French- 
 Canadians, 116(n.64); national land grants, 92, 342; legislation 
 of 1827, 93; The Log Schoolhouse Era, 573(Van Buren); educa- 
 tion at Grand Rapids, 430; in Vermontville colony, 445; Higher 
 Education, 562 (McLaughlin); see Academy, Colleges, University 
 
 Edwardsburg, settlement, 262, 274, 293 
 
 Elhs, Edward D., birthplace, 184 
 
 Elm, see Forest 
 
 Ely, Elisha, 333(n.ll7) 
 
 English, 474, 475, 476; in Branch County, 280; in Lenawee County, 
 241; in Oakland County, 241, 242; at Portland (Ionia Co.), 
 436; in the St. Joseph Valley, 304; in Washtenaw County, 241 
 
 Episcopalians, 431 (n. 102) history of the Episcopal Church in 
 Michigan, 5 74 (Trowbridge) 
 
 Erie, Lake, opening of steam navigation, 31, 70; early steamboats 
 on, 568; navigation on, before 1829, 70(n.71); marine of, 567 
 (Dewey) 
 
 Erie Canal, opening(1825), influence, 72; general influence, 
 56(n.23), 223, 372; on growth of Detroit, 134; on settlement 
 of Macomb County, 159; on growth of Monroe, 154; impulse 
 to stage lines, 76(n.95) 
 
 Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad, 80-82, 237 
 
 Ecorse River, French-Canadian settlement, 100, 102, 109, 117 
 
 Evans, Estwick, opinion of Michigan(1818), 53; opinion of Detroit 
 (1818), 129; describes travel on Monroe Road(1818), 75(n.92); 
 Pedestrians Tour, 556 
 
 Evans, Musgrove, 203, 235 
 
INDEX 605 
 
 Fanner, John, influence of his early maps of Michigan, 55; Emi- 
 grants' Guide, 559 
 
 Farmer, Silas, History of Detroit and Michigan, 549 
 
 Farmington (Oakland Co.), 224; settlement, 242, 583 
 
 Fauna, see Animals 
 
 Felch, Indians of Michigan, 565 
 
 Fenton, William M., 390 
 
 Fentonville, 390, 403 
 
 Ferries, at Detroit(1825, 1830, 1836), 142(n.l59, 160), 568 
 
 Ferry, Rev. William M., 437; sketch, 584 
 
 Ferry, Detroit to Windsor (1825 + ), 569(Palmer); at Flint, 376 
 
 "Fever and ague," early theory of malarious diseases, 8, 9(n.29); 
 theory of the traveler Hoffman, 9; Territorial law against flood- 
 ing green timber, 9; sickness in Kalamazoo Valley, 357; Fever 
 and Ague, 565 (Van Buren) 
 
 Finance, municipal (Detroit, 1834), 138; see Money, Banking 
 
 Fish, influence on settlement, 325 
 
 Fisheries, see Lakes, Great; and Lakes, inland 
 
 Flat Rock, 157, 177 
 
 Fletcher's "Code," 89(n.l40) 
 
 Flint, 376, 380, 382-383, 395, 402, 403, 404; trading post, 375; 
 "port of," 397(n.l43); Flint River Gazette, 373(n.30); early 
 history of Flint, 578(Thompson); development, 578(Bates) 
 
 Flint River, 398 
 
 Flora of southern Michigan, 5(n.l5); early flora, 565(Wheeler); 
 see names of genera and species 
 
 Flour, early shipments of, from Michigan, 56 
 
 Fords, inflvience on settlement, in Kalamazoo Valley, 325; at 
 "Grand Traverse," 376 
 
 Foreign-born, see Aliens 
 
 Forest, relation to settlement, 35, 43; variety of trees, 35; hard 
 and soft wood belts, 37; density of hardwood belt, 39; influence 
 on climate, 6-7; relation of variety of timber to kinds of soil, 
 37; to crops, 38; in Barry County, 413; in Eaton County, 411; 
 in Ingham County, 413; in Kent County, 408, 409; in Oakland, 
 Washtenaw and Lenawee counties, 190, 193, 216; in the St. 
 Joseph Valley, 247, 248; relation to settlement, 35-45; obstacle 
 to settlers in getting first crop, 40; destruction of, in Southern 
 Michigan, 573 
 Forest lands, settlement of, in Berrien County, 277, 300, 301; in 
 Branch County, 280; in Ingham County, 456; in the Kalamazoo 
 Valley, 320; in the Saginaw country, 365 
 Fort Dearborn, built, 265; massacre, influence of, 57 
 Fort Gratiot, 166 
 Fort Gratiot Road, 163, 166 
 
G06 INDEX 
 
 Fort St. Joseph, near Niles, 567(Beeson); 567 (McCoy) 
 
 Fort Shelby, 588(Zug) 
 
 Fort Wayne (Indiana), 282; trail from, 250, 253; settlers from, 259 
 
 Franchise (1819), 84; (1835), 87; mmiicipal (Detroit, 1824), 
 133(n.l21) 
 
 Franklin(Oakland Co.), 224(n.l27) 
 
 French-Canadians, 94, 174, 401 (n. 162); bibliography, 566; French- 
 Canadians in U. 5., 555 (Shea); in Berrien County, 258(n.40), 
 304; at Bertrand, 277; in Detroit, 148, 149(n.l90); number at 
 Detroit (1827), 135(n.l24); at Monroe, 156; at St. Clair, 161; 
 at St. Joseph (Berrien Co.), 265; in Saginaw County, 379; in 
 the Saginaw country, 375; at Ypsilanti(1809), 199, 201; in 
 eastern counties, 95-116; in the St. Joseph Valley, 251; opposed 
 to changes in old regime, 131; oppose changes in Territorial 
 government, 84, 86; whitefishing, 31-32 
 
 French Gazette, advertised at Detroit, 113(n.55) 
 
 Frenchtown, 153, 175; massacre at (1813), 567(Dudley) 
 
 Friends, Society of, see Quakers 
 
 Fruit belt, climatic conditions, 4 
 
 Fur trade, 326, 329, 376, 377; at Chicago, 455; at Detroit, 126; 
 at Grand Haven, 436, 437; at Grand Rapids, 421; in Grand 
 River Valley, 423; at Ionia, 432; in Muskegon County, 441; 
 at St. Joseph (Berrien Co.), 265; in the Saginaw country, 367, 
 374, 375 
 
 Gaines, trail, 419 
 
 Galesburg, 350 
 
 "Galien woods," 301 
 
 Geloster (Kalamazoo Co.), 352 
 
 Genesee County, bibliography, 578; established and organized, 
 
 532; settlement, 380-384, 401, 402; censuses, 532, 537 
 "Genesee country," in New York, 481 
 Genesee Prairie, 313, 315 
 Geneva, 292, 294 
 
 Geography, relation to settlement, 1 
 Geology, 10-22; of the Great Lakes, 21(n.67); first geological 
 
 expedition (1837), ll(n.35) 
 Germans, 475, 476; in Berrien County, 304; in Detroit, 147, 148; 
 
 in Macomb County, 185; in Monroe County, 185; in Saginaw 
 
 County, 379, 380; in the Saginaw country, 375; in Washtenaw 
 
 County, 241; in Wayne County, 185; immigration to U. S., 555; 
 
 immigration, 546(Eggerling), 547(Hesse), 547(Koerner), 547 
 
 (Loeher), 563(Levi), 569(Ten Brook) 
 Gibraltar, 157 
 Gilead, settlement, 282 
 
INDEX 607 
 
 Gilead, Lake, 282 
 
 Glacial action, effect on soil formation, 15; on topography, 19; 
 on drainage, 189; geographical influence, 563 (Hubbard); dia- 
 grams of ice lobes, 21(n.67); see Lakes, Great 
 
 Godfroy, Gabriel, on the lower Huron, 100, 101 (n. 14) 
 
 Godfroy, Richard, 377(n.42, 43) 
 
 Goguac Prairie, 316, 317, 337 
 
 Goodrich, 384 
 
 Goodwinsville (Branch Co.), 289(n.l83) 
 
 Gourdneck Prairie, 312, 313 
 
 Government, Territorial, bibhography, 570; public acts relating 
 to Michigan Territory, 507; Ordinance of 1787, 563(Haight); 
 Laws of the Territory of Michigan, 562; influence of Territorial 
 government on settlement, 82-90; comparison with New York 
 and Nev/ England, 481; county government, 89; township 
 organization, in the Kalamazoo Valley, 361 ; townships organized 
 in Southwestern Michigan, 266; municipal government (l3etroit, 
 1824), 134(n.l21) 
 
 Graham, Benjamin, surveyor, 200 
 
 Grand Blanc, 376, 381, 385, 395, 398, 402 
 
 Grand Haven, 430; comparison of temperatures with those at 
 Milwaukee, 3; at Grand Rapids, and Ionia, 5; trail to, 418; 
 fur trade, 436; Grand Haven Company, 437, 439; settlement, 584 
 
 Grand Prairie, 313 
 
 Grand Rapids, physical environment, 408; limestone at rapids, 13; 
 plaster industry, 14; waterpower, 27; trails to, 418, 419; mis- 
 sion, 421-422; ^r5/ ''Yankee' family, 581(Baxter); settlement, 
 421-431; fur trade, 423; new impulse of 1833, 424; early reports 
 of, 425; waterpower developed, 426; manufacture, 427; trade, 
 427; speculation in \dllage lots, 428; panic of 1837, 428; popu- 
 lation, (1837), 429; schools and churches, 430; early history, 
 580(Little) ; 580(Withey) ; Baxter's History of, 552; Goss' History 
 of, 553 
 
 Grand River, description, 25; harbor at mouth, 30; navigation, 
 29-30, 417, 433(n.ll5), 420-421; goods hauled on the ice, 420; 
 settlements on, in Ottawa County, 440 
 
 Grand River Region, physical environment, 407-414; first reports 
 of, 414-415; settlement, 407-467 
 
 Grand River Road, 395-396 
 
 Grand River Trail, 385, 390, 396, 415, 464 
 
 Grand River Valley, beginnings, 581 (Baxter); Indians of, 566 
 (Goss); travel to (1833), 569 (Tower) ; M^^wona/^- of, 553(Everett) 
 
 "Grand Traverse" (Genesee Co.), 376, 382(n.71), 383(n.77), 395 
 (n.l34) 
 
 Grandville, 419(n.54), 430, 431, 437 
 
608 INDEX 
 
 Grapes, wild, 44 
 
 Grass and forage plants, 44 (n.l53) 
 
 Grass Lake, 350; marsh near, impediment to travel, 338 
 
 Graves, B. E., 481(n.27) 
 
 Greeley, surveys French claims, 101 (n. 14) 
 
 Greeley, Horace, 32 7 (n. 93) 
 
 Green Lake, trail, 419 
 
 Green Oakville, 393 
 
 Green, township of, 91, 270 
 
 Greenville, Treaty of(1795), 119 
 
 Grosse Isle, French-Canadian settlement, 117 
 
 Grosse Pointe, French-Canadian settlements, 99 
 
 Guide books to the Great Lakes region, 71 ; guide for English Emi- 
 grants to y4wmca(1820), influence, 54(n.20) 
 
 Guilford, Erastus, 316 
 
 Gull Prairie, 313, 315, 331, 352, 418, 419, 444(n.l56); Indians of, 
 565 (Little) 
 
 Gun Plains, 331 
 
 Gypsum, 13 
 
 Hahitans, see French-Canadians 
 
 Hamilton College(N. Y.) 390 
 
 Harbors, at vSt. Joseph, 276, 298; at Monroe, 156; at Mt. Clemens, 
 
 160; see names of rivers 
 "Harlow," village of Utica, Macomb County, 17l(n.286) 
 Harrington, Daniel B., sketch, 585 (Harrington) 
 Harrison, Basil, 315 
 Hastings, Eurotas P., 455(n.202), 456 
 Hastings, settlement, 455 
 Hathaway, William H. Evolution of the Counties of Michigan, 
 
 89(n.l42) 
 Harvey, Luther, Memoirs of, 588(Hubbard) 
 Healthfulness of Michigan climate, 6-7; unfavorable rejDorts, 8 
 Heydenburk, Martin, sketch of, 574(Comstock) 
 Hickory, see Forest 
 
 Hillsdale, settlement, 286; countv seat removed to, 286 
 Hillsdale College, 487 
 Hillsdale County, bibliography, 578; topography, 244; height of 
 
 moraine, 21; oak openings, 247; established and organized, 
 
 532; settlement, 268-269, 283-287; cause of slowness of 
 
 settlement, 250; Baw Beese Indians, 566(Van Buren); censuses, 
 
 532, 537 
 Hinsdale, B. A., The Old Northwest, 557 
 Historical Society, in Detroit(1828), 151; Historical Society of 
 
 Michigan, 5 74 (Holmes) 
 
INDEX 609 
 
 Hodunk, 281 
 
 Hoffman, C. F., A Winter in the West, 557 ; impressions of Detroit, 
 
 149; impressions of Monroe village, 154, 155 
 Hogaboam, The Bean Creek Valley, 553 
 Hog Creek, 281 
 
 Homer, 312, 353; name, 317; history, 553(Lane) 
 Honey, wild, 44 
 
 Houghton, Douglass, report, 366 (n. 9) 
 House Carpenters and Joiners' Beneficiary Society, 143 
 Howell, Judge Thomas, 391 
 
 Howell, settlement, 390-394, 406; newspaper, 373(n.30) 
 "Hoxey Settlement" (Macomb Co.), 169 
 Hubbard, Bela, geological expedition to the Saginaw country, 366 
 
 (n.9), 378; on Canadian-French thriftlessness, 107; Memorials 
 
 of a Half-Century, 547 
 Hubbard, Gurdon S., Journey from Montreal to Mackinac and 
 
 Chicago (1818), 568; Reminiscences (1818), 569 
 Hubbard, Samuel, 333 (n. 117) 
 Hull, Abijah, survej'or, 123(n.83) 
 Hull, General Isaac, difficulties of, in transporting troops from 
 
 Miami to Detroit in 1812, 74 
 Huron River, 214; description, 24; waterpower, 188, 232; navi- 
 gation, 29, 207, 228; French-Canadian settlement, 100; relation 
 
 to settlement of Washtenaw County, 202 
 Hyde, Milton, 222 
 Illinois, immigration from, 52 
 
 Immigration, causes, 490-493; 545(Biniey), 545 (Bishop), 546 
 (Bromwell), 547(McMaster); checks and stimuli, 493-497; 
 effect on business in Detroit, 139; immigration to U. S., 555; revo- 
 lutions in Europe, 555; Ireland in 1834, 555; routes of, from 
 eastern States,- 546(Brigham), 547 (Goodrich); immigration to 
 West, 55S(]\Iayo); main movements to Southwestern Michigan, 
 257; German iwjnigraticv. . 569 (Ten Brook\ 563(L8*d'>: see 
 Dutch, English; Germans, Irish, Scotch 
 
 Iinpriscnmcnt for debt; abolished, 89 
 
 Indiana, settlers from, 52, 250, 257, 262, 263, 264, 300, 301, 314 
 
 Indians, bibliography, 565; original papers on relations with 
 British{1790-1829), 570; receive presents from the British, 57; 
 visits to Maiden for presents, 58(n.28); character and condi- 
 tion of, in Michigan, 57(n.27); Bureau of American Ethnology, 
 J8th Annual Report, 562; relations with National Government, 
 57; depredations of, 57; relations with settlers, 57-61, 325; 
 guide from Dexter to Ionia, 432; relations with settlers, 573, 
 5"65(Brunsbn), 565 (Thorpe); mission in Berrien County, 2-58; 
 77 
 
610 INDEX 
 
 clearings in Kent County, 408; early village at Saline (Wash- 
 tenaw Co.), 232; in the Saginaw country, 374(n.32); in Genesee 
 County, 375; in the St. Joseph Valley, 251; Ottawa Indians, 
 436(n.l26); census of Indians not taxed (1837), 539; treaties, 
 schedules of (1795-1837), 520; minor treaties, 59(n.35); map 
 showing main cessions(1807-36), 59(n.35); removal of, to West, 
 59; see Missions, Treaties, and names of treaties (Chicago, 
 Detroit, Greenville, Saginaw, Washington) 
 
 Indian Village (Romeo), 169 (n. 2 7 7) 
 
 Ingham County, bibliography, 579; environment, 413; established 
 and organized, 532; settlement, 456-460; censuses, 532, 537 
 
 Internal improvements, system of, projected 1837, 81 (n. 112); 
 historical sketch of, 563 (Keith); federal land grants for, 567 
 (Bliss); see Roads, Canals, Raihoads, and names of these 
 
 Ionia, 376, 410, 416, 418, 430, 431; journey of first settlers to, 569 
 (Tower); travel to, from Herkimer, N. Y., 568(D3''e); land-office, 
 433; settler of, goes to Grand Haven, 437; Christmas in, 572 
 (Taylor) 
 
 Ionia County, bibHography, 579; physical environment, 410-411; 
 established and organized, 532; settlement, 431-436; sources 
 of first settlers, 435; censuses, 532, 537 
 
 Irish, 475; in Detroit, 147; in Eaton County, 451; in Oaldand 
 County, 238; in Lenawee County, 241; in Saginaw County, 
 379 
 
 Isotherms of Michigan, 5 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, effect of financial policy, 67-69 
 
 Jackson, 326, 346, 418; ford in river, 27; settlement, 325; sketch of 
 
 city, 5 79 (Shoemaker), 579(Little) 
 Jackson County, 354; bibliography, 579; topography and geology, 
 
 318(n.58); sandstone along Sandstone Creek, 13; drainage, 324; 
 
 oak openings, 318; "wet prairies," 306, 307, 318; travel in, 
 
 338; estabHshed and organized, 532; settlement. 346, 350, 357; 
 
 population, 359-363, 532, 537 
 Jameson, Mrs., impressions of Detroit (183 7), 146; impressions of 
 
 St. Clair region, 163 
 Jay Treaty (1796), 120 
 Jefferson, Mark S. W., on expansion of Michigan, based on county 
 
 organization, 89(n.l42) 
 Jefferson, Thomas, commemorated in name of Jefferson Avenue, 
 
 Detroit, 123(n.83) 
 Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, conditions near(1827), 136; prices of 
 
 lots (1835), 140; appearance(1837), 146 
 Jenldns, Baldwin, 261 
 
INDEX 611 
 
 Jenks, W. L. History and Meaning of County A^ antes in Michigan, 
 89(11.142); History of St. Clair County, 161(n.243) 
 
 Jesuits, at St. Joseph, 265 
 
 Jewett, Eleazer, 398(n.l47) 
 
 Johnson, Norman, 379(n.53) 
 
 Johnson, Sir WilHam, transports troops from Niagara to Detroit 
 (1761), 74 
 
 Jones, Beniah, 255, 268 
 
 Jonesville, sandstone at, 13; founded, 268; pioneer scene, 255- 
 settlement, 283, 285 
 
 Jouett, Indian Agent at Detroit, 97(n.4) 
 
 Judd, Philu E., early map of Michigan, 56(n.23) 
 
 Kalamazoo, 27, 327, 344, 355, 418; land office, 271; settlement, 
 326; relations with Hastings, 456 
 
 Kalamazoo College, 345, 487 
 
 Kalamazoo County, bibliography. 580; topography, 306; prairies, 
 312; first notice of, 313; established and organized, 533; Kal- 
 amazoo Emigration Society of Michigan, 352; settlement, 344- 
 346, 349-353, 351, 355; relations of Indians and settlers, 573- 
 population, 359-363, 533, 537 
 
 Kalamazoo River, 25, 321-322; navigation, 29; influence on settle- 
 ment, 326-336, 347 
 
 Kalamazoo Valley, physiography, 305; drainage, 306; inland lakes, 
 308; sickness, 309; soil, 310; prairies, 310-312; sources of popu- 
 lation, 312; first notice of, 313, 315; settlement, 568 (Thompson) 
 
 Keating, report on Carey Mission, 259(n.42) 
 
 Kearsley Creek, 384 
 
 Keel er^alle (Van Buren Co.), 335 
 
 Kent, Chancellor, 430(n.97) 
 
 Kent County, bibhography, 580; physiography, 564(Ball) ; gypsimi 
 beds, 13; soil, 407; forest, 408; established and organized, 533; 
 settlement, 421-431; censuses, 532, 537 
 
 Kensington (Oakland Co.), 224, 397(n.l42) 
 
 Kentucky, soldiers in War of 1812, 49; settlers from, 257, 301, 
 314, 316 
 
 Kenyon College, Ohio. 282 
 
 Ketchum, Sidney, 340 
 
 Knaggs, Whitmore, 377 
 
 Knaggs' Place, 377 
 
 Labor, increasing demand for, at Detroit (1835), 142; wages, at 
 Dctroit(1819-21), 130; Workin- Men's Society, in Washtenaw 
 County, 228(n.l50) 
 
 Lafayette (Van Buren Co.), 324 
 
612 INDEX 
 
 La Grange, 293 
 
 La Grange Prairie, population (1830), 271 
 
 Lake Creek, 435 
 
 Lakes, Great, origin of basins, 30(n.98); bibliography of, ibid.; 
 general climatic conditions of region 5(n.l6); modifying effect 
 on climate, 3; relation to settlement, 30-32; beginning of steam 
 navigation, 70; early transportation on, 254; early navigation, 
 568(Barber); navigation of (1823), 567; (1830), 329; early com- 
 merce on, 568 (Bancroft); early days on, 564(Walker); early 
 traveling on, 567(Massey); Gurdon S. Hubbard's journey (1818), 
 568; fisheries, 31; history of, 21(n.67); story of, 546(Channing 
 and Lansing) 
 
 Lakes, inland, regulators of drainage and waterpower, 189; ad- 
 vantages for settlement, 32-34; influence on settlement, 196; 
 in Branch County, 285; in Kalamazoo Valley, 308; in the St. 
 Joseph Valley, 246 
 
 Lamont (Ottawa Co.), 440 
 
 Lands, early reports, 50-56; the Tiffin report of 1815, 50; Monroe's 
 report to Jefferson, 51; report from the Raisin River, 172; 
 conditions in Michigan before 1818, 62(n.45); survey of, in 
 1816, 52; early surveys, 567(Cannon), 567 (Wood ward); in south- 
 western Michigan, 266; rectangular system of survey described, 
 62(n.46); laws regulating sale of land, 63; credit system dis- 
 continued, 64; opening of land sales at I^etroit, 62; first land 
 sales, 567; public land sales, 62-69; sales at Detroit (1818), 133; 
 hampered by French, 131; reaction on city, 132 140; at De- 
 troit(1820-1836), 138(n.l41); at Detroit in 1835, 138; Detroit 
 city lots (1835), 140;' sales near Mt. Clemens, 160; amount 
 of sales 1825-37, 65-66; speculations, 66-67; prices of lots at 
 Ypsilanti, 228; prices of land at Schoolcr-aft, Kalamazoo Co., 
 (1833), 351; speculation in Eaton County, 450; speculation at 
 Grand Rapids, ■128; sjx-culation at Tonia, 433; speculation in 
 the Saginaw countr}', 400, speculators encourage laihoads m 
 order to sell land, 19. general discussion, public domain, 546 
 (Donaldson); I\Iichigan Land Agency (Detroit). 346; land 
 grants for common schools ; 342 ; federal grants for education. 
 571 (Knight) ; federal grants for internal improvements, 567 (Bliss) ; 
 land and national politics, 547 (Meigs); see Claims, Forest land, 
 Oak Openings, Prairies 
 
 Land office, race to, 462; at Detroit(1818), 62; at Monroe(1823), 
 63; at White Pigeon (1831), 63; at Kalamazoo (1834), 63; at 
 Flint (1836), 63; at Ionia (1836), 63 
 
 Jyanman, James H., History of Michigan, 550 
 
 Lansing, waterpower, 414; settlement, 457; travel to (1S47), 569 
 (Miller); Cowles' Pa5i awJ Pf^se-wi o/, 553; see Capitol . _ 
 
INDEX 613 
 
 Lapeer, 284 
 
 Lapeer County, 384, 401, 402, 403; bibliography, 581; established 
 and organized, 533; censuses, 533, 537 
 
 La Plaisance Bay Turnpike, 174(n.296) 
 
 La Plaisance Bay Road, 209 
 
 La Riviere aux Cignes, 98(n.9) 
 
 LaSalle, at St. Joseph, 265 
 
 Latitude and longitude of southern Michigan, 1 
 
 Law, see Bench and Bar 
 
 Lawrence, Jeremiah, birthplace, 183 
 
 Lawrence village, 324 
 
 Laws, of Michigan TeiTitor}^ reflect the spirit of eastern states, 88 
 
 Legislation, Territorial, (1835-37), brief digest of, 87(n.l32) 
 
 Leib, report on Carey Mission, 260 
 
 Lenawee County, bibliography, 581; topograph}-, 196; soil, 194; 
 established and organized, 533; settlement, 203, 233-238; 
 transportation to, 208; travel to, from Buffalo, N. Y. (1829), 
 568(Dewey); frontier extension (1823-37), 216-217; first rail- 
 road, 80-82; censuses, 533. 537; history, 549(Knapp and Bonner), 
 549(Whitney and Bonner); Bean Creek Valley, 553(Hogaboam) 
 
 Leverett, Frank, 3(n.6) 
 
 Le Roy, 381 
 
 Lewis, "Yankee," 454; hostelry at Yankee Springs, 576(White) 
 
 Libhart Creek, 435(n.l20) 
 
 Library, at Detroit(1837), 150 
 
 Library Company of the City of Detroit (1818), 130(n.l08) 
 
 Limestone, at BeUevue, 443 ; at Grand Rapids, 409 
 
 Litchfield (Hillsdale Co.), early history, 579(Riblet) 
 
 Little, Daniel, 379(n. 53) 
 
 Little Prairie Ronde, 262 
 
 Little Springs (Oakland Co.), 200 
 
 "Livingston Center," 391 
 
 Livingston County, 390-394, 401, 402, 405; bibliography, 582; 
 established and organized, 533; censuses, 533, 537 
 
 Lockport, 292 
 
 Long, Major, expedition to the source of the St. Peter's, 259(n.42) 
 
 Lookingglass River, 416 
 
 Lotteries, in Detroit, (1805), 150(n.l95) 
 
 Lowell, 431; in Baxter's History, 552 
 
 Lumbering, 192; impulse to settlement, 36; in Allegan County, 
 334; in Kent County, 408; in Kalamazoo Valley, 321 ; in Saginaw 
 country, 398; on the St. Clair River, 161, 162; river transporta- 
 tion of logs, 28 
 
 Lyceum, at Detroit(1818), 130(n.l08); (1837), 150 
 
614 INDEX 
 
 Lymbruner, agent of the Province of Canada, on Detroit settle- 
 ment, 111 
 
 Lyon, Lucius, 345, 397(n.l42), 414, 433; sketch, 580(White); 
 letters, 575 
 
 Lyons, 411, 434-435, 467 
 
 Mack, Andrew, 389 
 
 Mack and Conant, old account book, 567(Hoyt) 
 
 Mackinac, 370; climate compared with New York, 4(n.l0); to 
 
 Detroit by steamboat, 70; travel to, from Rome, N. Y., 569 
 
 (Haynes); Ferry mission, 437; Straits of, 254 
 Macomb County, bibliography, 569; soil, 71(n.58); established 
 
 and organized, 533; settlement, 157-160, 166-171; Saline Creek 
 
 settlement induced by presence of salt, 12; early banking, 569 
 
 (Miller); population (1830), 180; (1834), _181; (1837), 182; 
 
 censuses, 533, 537; sources of population, 185 
 McComb, William(1776), 117(n.66) 
 McDougall, C, advertises lots for sale in St. Clair(1818), 161 
 
 (n.241) 
 McLaughlin, Higher Education in Michigan, 562 
 Macon River, 174, 176 
 Madison, James, recommendation respecting Michigan bounty 
 
 lands, 51 
 Mails, transportation of, 568 (Mitchell) 
 Maine, settlers from, 263, 350(n.l91), 438, 474ff 
 Manchester (Washtenaw Co.), settlement, 233; settlement, 587 
 
 (Watkins) 
 Manufacture, at Detroit, after War of 1812, 127; at Detroit 
 
 (1827), 136; growth at Detroit(1837), 143; at Monroe, 156; 
 
 glass, at Mt. Clemens, 159 
 Manuscripts, bibliography, 545 
 Maps, bibliography, 589; contour of Monroe County, 22(n.72); 
 
 soils of Michigan, 16(n.58) 
 Maple, see Forest 
 Maple Rapids, 467 
 Maple River, 466 
 
 Maple village (Ionia Co.), 434(n.ll9) 
 
 Marietta(Ohio), settlers from, 184; source of Detroit's popula- 
 tion, 146 
 Marine City, 161, 162 
 Marshall, 335, 336, 340, 357, 358, 418; relations with Hastings, 
 
 456; sandstone, 13; effort to found College, 572(WilHams) 
 Martineau, Hamet, impressions of Detroit (1836), 144(n.l69), 145 
 
 (n.l75), 149; describes travel on Chicago Road(1836), 77; im- 
 
INDEX 615 
 
 pressions of Ypsilanti, 228; impressions of Ann Arbor, 230; 
 impressions of Tecumseh village, 235; impressions of Sturgis 
 and White Pigeon prairies, 291; impressions of Berrien County, 
 302; trip from Chicago to Buffalo(1836) in sailing vessel Mil- 
 waukee, 72(n.82); impressions of St. Clair region, 162; Society in 
 America, 558 
 
 Maryland, settlers from, 316, 442 (n. 148) 
 
 Mason, Emilv V., Chapters from the Autohiography of an Octoge- 
 narian (1830-50), 575 
 
 Mason, Governor Stevens T., message respecting canals, 75(n.91); 
 appoints Pierce first Supt. of Public Instruction, 341; village 
 named for, 458 
 
 Mason (Ingham Co.), settlement, 458 
 
 Mason village (Branch Co.), 289 
 
 Massachusetts, settlers from, 183, 238, 239, 261, 273, 316, 376, 
 379, 422(n.71), 437(n.l30), 442(n.l48), 482 
 
 Mathews, Lois Kimball, The Expansion of New England, 547 
 
 McCoy, Rev. Isaac, 259; visits Grand Rapids mission, 421, 422; 
 advocates removal of the Indians from Michigan, 59(n.37) 
 
 McKennev, on French farming(1826), 107; impressions of Detroit, 
 135, 149; Tour to the Lakes, 558 
 
 Mechanics' Society, Detroit (1818), 130(n.l08), 131 
 
 Meldrum and Park, Detroit firm,117(n.65) 
 
 Melish, Geographical Description, 561; Information and Advice, 
 559; Traveller's Directory, 559 
 
 Mendon(St. Joseph Co.), 258(n.41) 
 
 Methodists, 43(n.l00); 548(Stevens); at Grand Rapids, 430; 
 sketch of, in Detroit, 588(Amold); early history, 573(Griflfith); 
 sketch of itinerant preaching, 5 75 (Crawford) 
 
 Michigan, Lake, opening of steam navigation, 31; first steamboat 
 on, 72(n.81); early navigation, 254, 420, (1836) 438, (1837) 
 439; steamboat line projected between St. Joseph and Chicago, 
 339 
 
 Michigan Central Railroad, see Central Railroad 
 
 Michigan Southern Railroad Company, 80(n.l09); see Southern 
 Railroad 
 
 Middlebury College (Connecticut), 345 (n. 167) 
 
 Middletown (Clinton Co.), 413, 418, 461 
 
 Milford (Oakland Co.), 224 
 
 Mihtary, see Battles, Black Hawk War, Forts, War of 1812 
 
 Militia,' in Black Hawk War, 60 
 
 Miller, Judge Albert, 379(n.53), 395 
 
 Mills, relation to settlement, 192; at Grand Rapids, 427; in 
 Kalamazoo Valley, 336; in Saginaw country, 25, 398; on going 
 
616 INDEX 
 
 to mill, 572(Northrup), 573(Hutclims); see Manufactures, and 
 names of cities, villages and rivers 
 
 Mill Creek (Washtenaw Co.), 232 
 
 Minerals of Southern Michigan, distribution, 11; in the Saginaw 
 country, 366 
 
 Mineral Springs, 14; at Eaton Rapids, 412(n.31) 
 
 Missions, Indian, 490; article on, 565(Heydenburk); at Grand 
 Rapids, 421-422; work of John D. Pierce, 341; sketch of George 
 N. Smith, 580(Wilson); see Carey Mission, Ferry, and Slater 
 
 Moetown (Eaton Co.), 450 
 
 Mohawk and Genesee Turnpike, 73 
 
 Money, scarcity of, after War of 1812, 49, 126; "wild-cat" money, 
 67(n.61) 
 
 Monroe, James, report on Michigan lands to Jefferson, 51; village 
 named for, 153 
 
 Monroe, waterpower, 27; trail from, to Lenawee County, 208; 
 settlement (1813-37), 153-156; land office established (1824), 
 173; glass manufacture, 13; shipbuilding, 31; steamboat leaves 
 for Buffalo (1834), 155; first shipment of flour from Michigan, 
 156; whipping post used, 88 
 
 Monroe County, bibliography, 582; contour map, 22(n.72); soil, 
 17(n.58); depths of soil, 16(n.57); soil and forest, 95; limestone, 
 13, 14; mineral spring, 14; climate, 5(n.l4); forests, 40; estab- 
 blished and organized, 533; settlement, 153-157, 171-176; popu- 
 lation (1830), 180, 181; (1834), 181; (1837), 182; censuses, 533, 
 537; German settlers, 185 
 
 Monroe Company, 460 
 
 Monroe Road, Detroit to the rapids of the Miami (1818), 75 
 
 Monteith, John, president of first university, 152, 371 
 
 Montgomery Plains (Eaton Co.), 449 
 
 Moravians, in Detroit, 589(Burton); at Mt. Clemens, 582(Ford), 
 582 (Bush), 582 (Day) 
 
 Mormons, in Oaldand County, 242(n.213) 
 
 Morris' Mills (Oakland Co.), 224(n.l27) 
 
 Morse's Geography, influence on settlement, 51, 56; Traveller's 
 Guide, 559 
 
 Mosquito, pest to settlers, 47 ; article by Van Buren, 565 
 
 Mottville, 263, 273, 274, 291 
 
 Mt. Clemens, Moravians, 582(Ford); settlement (1818-37), 157- 
 160, 184; stage route to (1834), 76(n.93); early settlement, 582 
 (Bissell), 582 (Mrs. Stewart); glass manufacture, 13; shipbuild- 
 ing, 31; relation to the settlement of Oakland County, 200 
 
 Mullet, John, surveyor, 313 
 
 Municipal utilities, at Detroit (18 15), 128 
 
 Muskegon, 441 
 
INDEX 617 
 
 Muskegon County, 441 ; bibliography, 582 
 Muskegon Lake, 441 
 
 Napoleon, sandstone at, 13 
 
 Navarre, Francois (1800), 117(n.66); biographical sketch, 118(n.67) 
 
 Navigation, bibliography, 567; of rivers, 29; of Clinton River, 24, 
 206(n.45); of Kalamazoo River, 322; of Paw Paw River, 323 
 (n.77); in the Saginaw country, 397; see Harbor improvements, 
 Transportation, and names of lakes and rivers 
 
 Negroes, in Old Northwest, 548(Smith); in Cass County, 302; in 
 Detroit, 147; census(1837), 539; see Slavery 
 
 Nellist, J. F., soil map of Michigan, 16(n.58) 
 
 New Albany(Clinton Co.), 461 
 
 Newark (Allegan Co.), 330 
 
 New Buffalo, 299, 300; extreme winter temperature, 4; first 
 settled, 278; settlement, 576(Bishop) 
 
 Newbury (Lapeer Co.), 384(n.83) 
 
 Newburyport (St. Joseph), 276 
 
 New England, immigration from, to Michigan, 183; source of 
 Detroit's population, 146; settlers from, 238, 239, 314, 469 ff, 
 481 (n. 27), 482; settlers at Romeo, 170; influence in Michigan, 
 569 (Williams); expansion of, 547 (Mathews); see names of 
 states 
 
 New Hampshire, settlers from, 183, 265, 282, 289(n.l82), 341, 
 379; 474ff, 481 
 
 New Jersey, settlers from, 184, 262, 265 
 
 Newspapers, bibliography, 571; influence of reports on early con- 
 ditions in Michigan, 54; at Adrian, 237; in Allegan County, 575 
 (Henderson); in Detroit, 151; at Kalamazoo, 580(Torrey); in 
 Oakland, Washtenaw and Lenawee counties, 243; in the Saginaw 
 countr}^ 373(n.30); list of, contemporar}^ with Territorial 
 period, 553; list of, in early Michigan, 56(n.24); 554; Ann Arbor 
 State Journal, 333 (n. 120); Western Emigrant, 230; Ann Arbor 
 Argus, 230(n.l58); Coldwater Observer, 288(n.l77); Michigan 
 Star (Branch Co.), 289(n.l81) ; Jacksonburg Sentinel, 347(n.l74) ; 
 Kalamazoo Gazette, 344; Niles Gazette and Advertiser, 296(n.208); 
 Oakland Chronicle, 221; St. Joseph Beacon, 245, 314(n.39); 
 Michigan Statesman and St. Joseph Chronicle, 272 
 
 New York, immigration from, to Michigan, 183; source of De- 
 troit's population, 146; settlers from, 203, 222, 227, 238, 239, 
 240, 261, 265, 266, 273, 283, 300, 303, 315, 317, 320, 321, 323, 
 ?>3>?,, 340, 349, 354, 375, 379, 380, 383, 394, 388, 390, 391, 431, 
 432, 442, 451, 454, 464, 469ff, 479ff, 481, 482 
 
 Niles, 295, 300; name, 296(n.208); settlement, 264; competition 
 with Bertrand, 277; militia mustered at (1832), 60 
 
618 INDEX 
 
 Niles (Oakland Co.), 224(n.l27) 
 Noble, Diodatus, birthplace, 183 
 Norris, Mark, diary, 228(n.l46) 
 North Caroline, settlers from, 257, 264 
 
 Northern Railroad, 81(n.ll3), 389, 395(n.l34);terminal, 162 
 Northern Trail, travel over (1833), 569(Tower) 
 Northern Wagon Road, 396(n.l41) 
 Northwest, Old, 563 (Allen), 564(Storrow) 
 Norvell, Hon. John, times of, 565(Norvell) 
 
 Nottawa-sepe Prairie, first settlers, 273; settlement, 264; settle- 
 ment, 586(Coffinberry) 
 
 Oak, see Forest 
 
 Oakland County, bibHography, 583; topography, 198; height of 
 moraine, 21; soil, 194; pine-bearing soil, 14; transportation to, 
 206; established and organized, 533; settlement, 187, 199; 
 summar}^ of reasons for priority of settlement, 204; frontier 
 extension (1816-37), 210-214; population (1816-37), 217-224; 
 censuses, 533, 538; epidemic of "fever and ague" in Commerce 
 Township in 1840, 8 
 
 Oak openings, preferences and prejudices of settlers, 38(n.l27); 
 openings in Allegan County, 331; in Barry County, 413; in 
 Calhoun County, 354; in Eaton County, 412; in Hillsdale 
 County, 247; in Kalamazoo Vallc}', 318-320; in Oakland County, 
 190; in Ottawa County, 410; in vSaginaw country, 364; in 
 Washtenaw County, 197; getting first crop on, 40-41; Cooper's 
 Oak-Openings, 318 
 
 Oberlin College, branch attempted, in Eaton County, 450 
 
 Ohio boundary dispute, see Boundary 
 
 Ohio, immigration from, to Michigan, 52; source of Detroit's 
 population, 146; settlers from, 202, 238, 250, 257, 261, 263, 264, 
 265, 268, 273, 274, 281, 283, 301, 302, 313, 315, 316, 318, 328, 
 331, 380, 451, 474 ff, 482 
 
 Ohio, soldiers in War of 1812, 49; stock driven from, to the Sag- 
 inaw country, 399 
 
 Ohvet College, 487 
 
 Orchards, French-Canadian, 106 
 
 Ordinance of 1787, quoted, on education, 153 
 
 Otisco (Ionia Co.), 434(n.ll9) 
 
 Otsego, 330, 334 
 
 Ottawa County, bibliography, 584; physical environment, 409- 
 410; pine bearing soil, 14; established and organized, 533; 
 settlement, 436-442; cause of slow settlement in western part, 
 35; censuses, 533, 538 
 
INDEX 619 
 
 Otter Creek, 175; French-Canadian settlements, 99, 104, 109(n.43), 
 
 117(n.65), 120 
 Owosso, 3SS; first settlement of, 578(Shout); newspapers, 373(n.30) 
 
 Palmer, Mrs. George, reminiscences of, 585(Farrand) 
 
 Palmer (St. Clair Co.), 161(n.241, 242) 
 
 Panic of 1837, 67-69; influence in Allegan County, 334; in Berrien 
 
 County, 299(n.230); at Grand Rapids, 428; in the Saginaw 
 
 country, 399, 400 
 "Paper towns," between Monroe and Detroit, 157; near site of 
 
 Lansing, 457; type of (Port Sheldon), 439 
 Pare aux Vaches (Berrien Co.), 251 
 Park, Captain Harvey, reminiscences, 583 
 Patriot War(1837), effect on immigration, 149(n.l90) 
 Paw Paw, 323, 334 
 Paw Paw River, 323 
 
 Peaches, first shipments from Berrien County, 298(n.223) 
 Pear trees, in French-Canadian orchards, 106 
 Pennsylvania, settlers from, 158, 184, 238, 239, 259, 261, 273, 
 
 274, 303, 316, 317, 474 ft", 482; soldiers in War of 1812, 50; 
 
 trip from, to Michigan{\793), 569 
 Pepin, Francis, 101 (n. 14) 
 Peppermint, 291 
 
 Petersborough, 173; road to Blissfield, 209 
 "Philo Veritas," on misrepresentation of St. Clair region, 164 
 Physiography, Semple's Geographic Conditions, 548; of Kent 
 
 County, 5 80 (Ball) 
 Pierce, Rev. John D., 92, 94, 340, 341, 442, 443, 487, Origin and 
 
 Progress of the Michigan School System, 572; Congregationalism 
 
 in Michigan, 575, 571(Comstock), 5 72 (Ford) 
 Pigeon Lake, 439 
 Pigeon Prairie, settlement, 267 
 Pilcher, Rev. Elijah, Forty Years Ago, 574 
 Pinckney, John D., 391 
 Pine, in Berrien Cotmty, 277(n.l34); in Genesee County, 398; in 
 
 the Kalamazoo Valley, 320; in Kent County, 408; in Oakland 
 
 County, 190; in Ottawa County, 410; in the Saginaw Vallev, 
 
 365; in St. Clair County, 96, 166; cut on St. Clair River (1765'), 
 
 116(n.65), 118(n.66); see Forest, Lumbering 
 Pine land, prejudice against, 38, 374; settlement of, in Allegan 
 
 County, 331; in Ottawa County, 438. 440 
 Pine Plains (Allegan Co.) early history, 576(Morgan) 
 Pine River, "Town of St. Clair" laid out, 161 
 Pioneer life, bibliography, 572; sketch of, 568 (Edwards) ; article by 
 
 Norton, 571; hardships, 47-48 
 
620 INDEX 
 
 Pioneer songs, "Know ye the land to the emigrant dear," 574; 
 "My eastern friends who wish to find," 574 
 
 Pitcher, Zina, 368 
 
 Plainwell, 331 (n. 113) 
 
 Plank road, between Howell and Detroit, 397 (n. 142) 
 
 Plymouth, settlement, 587(Utley); 587(Clarkson) 
 
 Pokagon, Chief, 252 (n. 26) 
 
 Pokagon Prairie, 293, 294, 318; population (1830), 271 
 
 Pokagon village, founded, 261 
 
 Poles, near Niles (Berrien Co.), 264 
 
 Politics, pioneer, 570(Van Buren); in early Detroit, 588(Roberts) 
 
 Pompey, Negro sold at Detroit (1794), 572(Backus) 
 
 Pontiac, 192, 370, 398, 399, 416; ford in river, 27; settlement, 201, 
 219-222, 242; railroad reaches, 207(n.48); early days in, 584 
 (Phipps); early history, 583(Mrs. Stewart); old letters relating to, 
 584 
 
 Pontiac Company, 219, 238 
 
 Pontiac and Detroit Railway Company, 79 
 
 Pontiac and Grand River Road, see Grand River Road 
 
 Pontiac Railroad, 567 (Stevens) 
 
 Population, bibliography, 569; article by Tucker on, 548; popu- 
 lation(1834), 87; sources of, 468-482, 487-498; character of, 
 482-488; distribution, 499-503; centralization, 503; classes, 504; 
 process of settlement, 498-499; distribution and sources of 
 population in eastern shore counties, 179-185; in southeastern 
 Michigan( 1834-37), 284-301; in the Saginaw country, 400-406; 
 at Grand Rapids(1837), 429; sources of, in Kalamazoo Valley, 
 312-315, 359-363; population of Cass, St. Joseph, Branch, Hills- 
 dale, and Ben-ien counties in 1834, 250; sources of, in south- 
 western Michigan, 301; in St. Joseph Valley, 257; Century of 
 Growth in U. S., 562 (North); comparison of St. Joseph Valley 
 with eastern shore counties, 257; see Immigration, and names 
 of states, counties, cities and villages 
 
 Portage Prairie, settlement of, 264, 277 
 
 Portage River, 393 
 
 Porter, Governor, price of farm (1835), 140 
 
 Porter village, 295 
 
 Port Huron, 162; origin of name, 586(Horton) 
 
 Portland, 430; founding, 434-435 
 
 Port Lawrence (Toledo) 176(n.306); railroad to, 80 
 
 Port Sheldon (Ottawa Co.), 439 
 
 Postal service, at Detroit (1818), 125; (1826), 135; (1834), 137, 
 138(n.l38) 
 
 Potash, by-product of clearing land, 44 
 
 "Potato" Bronson, founder of Kalamazoo, 328 
 
INDEX 621 
 
 Potawatomis, 260(n.44), 273; Potawatomis, 565(Copley); village 
 at Kalamazoo, 418; see Indians 
 
 Prairie Creek, 410 
 
 Prairie River, 282, 461 
 
 Prairie Ronde, 282, 311, 313, 314, 315, 316, 352, 353, 355, 435 
 (n.l20) 
 
 Prairies, in Kalamazoo Valley, 310-312; in the St. Joseph Valley, 
 248-249; in Southwestern Michigan, advantages for settlement, 
 34; getting first crop on, 41, 42; see names of prairies, Baldwin, 
 Be'ardsley, Big Prairie Ronde, Bronson, Climax, Cocoosh, 
 Coldwater, Cook, Dry, Genesee, Goguac, Gourd-neck, Grand, 
 Gull, La Grange, Little Prairie Ronde, Nottawa, Pokagon, 
 Portage, Sturgis, Toland, White Pigeon, and Wolf 
 
 Prairieville, environment, 413 
 
 Preemption Act. see Squatter's rights 
 
 Presbyterians, in Detroit, 588; at Grand Rapids, 430; at Kalama- 
 zoo, 346; sketch of Church in Blissfield, Lenawee County, 581 
 (Kedzie) 
 
 Press, see Newspapers 
 
 Price, Captain, 370 
 
 Prices of city lots at Detroit (1824), 133; (1835), 140, 141(n.l55); 
 in Grand Rai)ids( 1836-37), 427; in the Saginaw country (1830), 
 373 
 
 Protestant Society, First, in Detroit, 130(n.l08), 133 
 
 Pulaski, early history, 5 80 (Hodge) 
 
 Puritans, see New England 
 
 Putnam, Uzziel, 261 
 
 Quakers, 242; at Battle Creek, 348; in Cass County, 294, 302; 
 ~'at Farmington, 224; at Tecumseh, 236(n.l84); trip from Phil- 
 adelphia to Detroit{1793), 569 
 Ouincv, settlement. 289(n.l82'): article by Fisher. 577 
 
 Railroads, first. 79: list of. authorized by the legislature(1835- 
 36), 79'(n.l05;; process of building, S2(n.n5)\ history of, in 
 Michigan, 568 (Joy); Detroit and Pontiac Railroad, 207 (n. 48), 
 567 (Stevens); see names of railroads: Central, Detroit and 
 St. Joseph, Erie and Kalamazoo, Northern, Southern, Raisin 
 River 
 
 Railway, Canadian, to Detroit (1836), 142(n.l60) 
 
 Rainfall, influence on climate, 6 
 
 Raisin River, 175; description, 23; beauty of, 197; waterpower, 
 188; massacre, influence, 57; exploring expedition(1823), 203; 
 navigation, 29, French-Canadian settlements, 100, 101,- 104, 
 
622 INDEX 
 
 105, 109, 110, 117, 119 (n.66), 120; Detroit Gazette article 
 (1822), 564; harbor improvement, v31 
 
 Raisin River Railroad, 174 
 
 Reed's Lake, 409 
 
 Religion, 486; see names of religious denominations 
 
 Rhode Island, settlers from, 432, 475 
 
 Rice Creek, 335 
 
 Richard, Father Gabriel, 92, 487; biographical sketch, 115(n.61); 
 delegate to Congress, 149; services in behalf of Chicago Road, 
 76(n.96); interest in education, 115; teacher in first university, 
 152(n.203); Life and Times of, 566(Girardin); .4 Catholic Priest 
 in Congress, 566(Weadock) 
 
 Richland (Kent Co.), early history, 580(Withey) 
 
 Risdon, Orange, map of Michigan(1825), 56(n.23), 590 
 
 Rivers, influence on French-Canadian settlement, 96ff; relation 
 to settlement, 23-30; rivers of the Saginaw country, 397; of 
 western Michigan, description, 25(n.81); see Drainage, Lum- 
 bering, and names of rivers 
 
 Roads, 206; bibliography, 568; materials for, 12; efifect of War of 
 1812 on, 49, 53; military Road, Saginaw to Mackinac, 568 
 (Williams); national miHtary Road, 75-78; Territorial Road, 
 78; condition of, between Adrian and Toledo! 1833), 80; roads 
 from Detroit (1837), 141; from Mt. Clemens, 160; along shores 
 of Lake Erie, 74; see Maps, and Atlases 
 
 Robinson, Rix, 438; at Ada, 431 (n. 104); at Grand Haven, 436; 
 monument at Ada, 436(n.l27) 
 
 Rochester (Oakland Co.), settlement, 200, 222 
 
 Rocky River, French-Canadian settlement, 99, 101 (n. 14) 
 
 Romeo, 169 
 
 Ross, R. B., Landmarks of Detroit and Michigan (see Catlin, 
 G. B.), 553 
 
 Rouge Ri'.'er. 177, 178; drainage area, 27; French-Canadian 
 settlements, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103, 117 
 
 Routes of travel, see Transportation 
 
 Royal Oak (Oakland Co.), 223, 397 (n. 142) 
 
 Royalston (Mass.), settlers from, 174 
 
 Rovalton (Berrien Co.), 299 
 
 Rumsey, Elisha W., 230 
 
 Sac and Fox Indians, in Black Hawk War, 60 
 
 Saginaw, 377, 378, 398, 399, 400, 401; military post(1823), 367; 
 early military occupation, 584(Whiting) ; trip from Detroit to 
 (1822), 568 (Cole); early days (ISoo), 584 (Williams) 
 
 Saginaw Canal, projected, 75 (n.91) 
 
INDEX 623 
 
 Saginaw County, 378-380, 401, 402-403, 405; bibliography, 584; 
 
 pine-bearing soil, 14; established and organized, 534; censuses, 
 
 534, 538 
 Saginaw country, 364-406; early reports of, 367-374; salt, 11 
 Saginaw River, drowned valley, 24; navigation, 372 (n. 28) 
 Saginaw Road, 76, 206(n.46), 213, 416; travel over{\S29 or 1830), 
 
 569 (Williams) ; (1832), 568(McCormick); (1833), 569(Haynes); 
 
 (1833), 569 (Williams); in Genesee County, 404 
 Saginaw Trail, 200, 372, 380, 394, 401(n.l62); difficulties of 
 
 travel, 205; travel over (1822), 568(Cole) 
 Saginaw, Treaty of (1819), 59 
 Saginaw Valley, physical environment, 364; pioneer life in, 584 
 
 (McCormick), 585 (Miller); Pioneer Piety, 577 
 St. Clair, settlement of(1765-1837), 160-166; shipbuilding, 31 
 St. Clair County, bibliography, 585; soil, I7(n.58); soil and forest 
 
 96; earlv exploration, 165; established and organized, 534 
 
 settlement, 160-166, 184; population(1830), 180; (1834), 181 
 
 (1837), 182; censuses, 534, 538 
 St. Clair, Lake, French-Canadian settlement, 103; Colton's des- 
 cription (1830), 574 
 St. Clair River, description, 25(n.80); British post(1765), 116 
 
 (n.65); French-Canadian settlements, 99, 103, 110; impressions 
 
 of settlement (Mrs. Jameson), 163; (Lanman), 163(n.252); 
 
 (Harriet Martineau), 163 
 St. Johns, 464 
 St. Joseph, 297; fort at, 265; settlement, 265, 266, 275, 276; 
 
 county seat removed to, 276(n.l29); steamboat line projected, 
 
 339; population (1834), 276 
 St. Joseph country, compared with Saginaw country, 372 
 St. Joseph County, bibliography, 586; established and organized, 
 
 253, 534; settlement, 262-264, 267, 272-274; population (1830). 
 
 270; censuses, 534, 538; source of population, 303 
 St. Joseph River, 305; description, 25; navigation, 29, 276, 292; 
 
 influence in Hillsdale County, 268; commerce in Berrien County, 
 
 298 
 St. Joseph Valley, first notice of, 263, 267 
 Saline (Washtenaw Co.), site of deer-lick, 12; settlement, 231 
 Saline Creek settlement in Macomb Countv, 12 
 Saline River, 176, 214, 232 
 Salmon, Lucy, Education in Michigan during the Territorial Period, 
 
 571 
 Salt, early importance, 11; bibliography of the Michigan salt 
 
 industry, ll(n.35); in the Saginaw country, 366; at Saline, .in 
 
 Washtenaw County, 232 
 Sand, along Lake Micliigan shore, 409 
 
624 INDEX 
 
 Sandy Creek, French-Canadian settlements, 99, 104, 109(n.43), 
 
 117(n.66), 120 
 Saranac, founding, 435 
 
 Saugatuck, 325, 329; notes on, 5 76 (Henderson) 
 Savoyard River, 98(n.7) 
 
 Sawyer, F., Jr., president Detroit Young Men's Society, 151 
 Schneider, C. F., 3(n.6) 
 
 Schmidt, Pastor, in Ann Arbor, 148, 380(n.59) 
 Schoolcraft, Henry R., 311, 351, 356; Summary Narrative, rapid 
 
 sale, 53, 558 
 Schoolcraft village, 435(n.l20) 
 
 Schools, see Education, Academies, Colleges, University 
 "Sciawassa Exploring Party," 414(n.35), 416 
 "Sciawassee Companv," 371 
 Scott, Captain David', 464; "Scott's," 464 
 Scotch, 474, 476; in Livingston County, 391 (n. 116); in Macomb 
 
 County, 185; in Oakland County, 241; in Saginaw County, 380 
 vScotch-Irish, in Southwestern Michigan, 303 
 Seares, John, 421 
 
 Semple, E. C, American History and its Geographic Conditions, 548 
 Settlement, extent of, in Michigan (1837), 19 
 vSeymour, ex-Governor Horatio, 459 
 Sheldon, (Mrs.) E. M., Early History of Michigan, 550 
 Shiawassee, 376, 386, 387, 405; Exchange Bank of, 569(Huggins) 
 Shiawassee County, 376, 401; bibliography, 585; soil, 17(n.58); 
 
 established and organized, 534; censuses, 534, 538; banking in, 
 
 569(Huggins) 
 Shiawassee River, 385, 386, 390; navigation, 397 (n. 142) 
 "Shingle Diggings" (Berrien Co.), 277 
 Shipbuilding, beginnings, 31; at Saginaw, 398; in St. Clair County 
 
 (1825), 161(n.244), 166(n.261) 
 Silolev, Solomon, birtliplac':\ 183 
 
 Sinclair, Patrick, at post on St, Clair Ri'"ei, 116fn.65j 
 ' Singacor& ( Alles^an Co.' 330 
 Slater /Leonard, hi., ui\ skstch, 5Sl(Hcyt) 
 Slavery; 486; bibliography, 572: relation of; to admission of 
 
 Michigan to the Union, 87 (n. 132); influence on settlement, 261; 
 
 in Berrien County, 302 ; absence of, in Detroit, 147 
 Smith, George N. Sketch of his missionary work, 580(Wilson) 
 Smith, Jacob, 375 
 Snow Prairie, settlement, 279 
 Soils, 14; classification adopted by Blois, 39; formation, 15; 
 
 tliickness, 15-16; fineness 16; advantages, 17; favor density in 
 
 hardw'o'od belt, 40; relation of variety of soils to timber, 37; 
 
INDEX 625 
 
 to crops, 38; in Kalamazoo Valley, 310; in Oakland, Washtenaw 
 and Lenawee counties, 192, 193; in the St. Joseph Valley, 246; 
 in Wayne County, 177; lectures by Winchell, 548 
 
 Soule, Anna May, Boundaries of Michigan, 565 
 
 South Carolina, settlers from, 302 
 
 South Haven, 324 
 
 Southern Railroad, 81(n.ll3), 237, 287; early movement for, in 
 St. Joseph Valley, 254(n.32) ; terminal at St. Joseph, 299 
 
 Speculation, see Lands 
 
 Spicerville Colony (Eaton Co.) , 45 1 (n. 182) 
 
 Spring Arbor, 354 
 
 Spring Hill, Catholic academy, 116 
 
 Springs, 189; scarcity in heavy clay lands, 97; see Drainage 
 
 Springville (Lenawee Co.), 357 
 
 Squatter's rights, 63; preemption Act of 1830, 65 
 
 Stages, see Transportation and travel 
 
 State government, agitation for, 85 
 
 State prison, 347 
 
 State rights, hinted, 86 
 
 Strawberries, abimdance, 44 
 
 Steamboats, on Lake Erie, 568; see Lakes, Great; and names of 
 boats 
 
 Stephenson, George, experiment with the "Rocket," 79 
 
 Stewart, Aura P., birthplace, 184 
 
 Stewart, John, 227(n.l44) 
 
 Stony Creek(Oakland Co.), 224(n.l27) 
 
 Stony Island, land purchased, 117(n.66) 
 
 Sturgis Prairie, settlement, 263, 290 
 
 Sturgis, trip from, to Grand Rapids, 419(n.54) 
 
 Suffrage, in Michigan, 563 (Chancy) 
 
 Sugar, maple, abundance, 44; making, 573(Hutchins) 
 
 Summer of 1816, cold, 4(n.9) 
 
 Sunday School Association, Detroit (1818), 130 
 
 Superior, first trip, 70 
 
 Sur^^ey, U. S., of Oakland County, 200; of Washtenaw and Lena- 
 wee counties, 201; of the Saginaw country, 367; see Claims, 
 French, Land, TifQn 
 
 Swamps, along shores of Lake Erie, 74; "Interminable Swamp," 
 on maps of Michigan, 51 
 
 Swan Creek, French-Canadian settlements, 98 
 
 Swiss, 475 
 
 Taxation, at Detroit(1824), 133(n.l21); apportionment of taxes 
 
 for 1837, 540 
 Tecumseh, 192; waterpower, 26; settlement, 173(n.292), 197, 203, 
 79 
 
626 INDEX 
 
 233-236, 242; letter on early history, 581 (Brown); history oj press, 
 571 (Baxter) 
 
 Tekonsha, 354 
 
 Tennessee, settlers from, 257, 301 
 
 "Ten Thousand Acre Tract," at Detroit, 136 
 
 Territorial Road, authorized and surveyed, 208, 78; description 
 of route, 81(n.llO); influence, 326, 347; in Kalamazoo Valley, 
 336; travel, 307, (1830-37), 337-339; travel to Grand River 
 region, 417 
 
 Thorn Apple River, environment, 412; trail, 418; navigation, 419 
 (n,54) 
 
 Thread River, 398, 402; settlements on, 381 
 
 Three Rivers, 273, 274, 292; branch of University, 293 
 
 Thunder Bay River, treaty boundary (1819), 59 
 
 Tiffin, Edward, report on Michigan lands, 50; effects of report 
 wane, 55 
 
 Timber, in Wayne County, 177; see Forest 
 
 Tittabawassee River, settlers on, 380 
 
 Todd, John, 376(n.38) 
 
 Toland Prairie, 313 
 
 Topography, influence on climate, 6-7; "diagonal system," 18; 
 shore lands, 20; advantages for agriculture, 20; dunes, 20; 
 relation to drainage, 22; relative elevation shown by profiles 
 of railway beds, 22(n.73 and 74); discussed by Winchell, 548; 
 of Kalamazoo Valley, 306; of Washtenaw County, 189(n. 4) 
 
 Township government, 90; as an index to settlement, 91 (n. 150) 
 
 Trade, bibhography, 567; at Detroit, after War of 1812, 127 
 • (n.94); at Detroit (1818), 126, 140-141; at Monroe(1817), 154 
 (n.209); relations of settlements in the Saginaw country, 398- 
 400; Trials of Pioneer Business Men, 5 73 (Goodrich) 
 
 Trails, 282, 331; at fording places, 26; along Huron River, 207; 
 along Clinton River, 206; through Ingham and Livingston 
 counties, 416; between Owosso and Saginaw, 396; from Monroe 
 to Lenawee County, 209; in the Kalamazoo Valley, 324-326; 
 between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, 418; between Allegan 
 and Grand Rapids, 419(n.54); throtigh Barry County, 418-419; 
 from Marshall to Ionia, 418; see names of trails 
 
 Transportation, 69-82; bibliography, 567; early routes from East 
 to West, 74(n.87); relative cost of, from Michigan, to East, 55; 
 changes in transportation, 69-82; in southeastern Michigan, 282; 
 in Monroe County(1822), 173; in Oakland, Washtenaw and 
 Lenawee counties, 205-210; on Territorial Road(1830-1837), 
 337-339; in the Kalamazoo Valley, 307; in the St. Joseph Valley, 
 253-256; to Hillsdale County, 285; in southwestern Michigan, 
 
INDEX 627 
 
 281; Dexter's route to Ionia, 377; transportation in the Grand 
 River region, 415-421; in Ottawa County, 410; in the Saginaw 
 country, 394-398; see Ferries, Navigation, Steamboats, Roads, 
 Railroads, and names of roads and railroads 
 
 Travel bibliographj^ 555, 568; Detroit to Buffalo in Winter 
 (1819), 125(n.89); Ohio to Detroit, via MonroeilSSO), 568(Nor- 
 thrup); in Kalamazoo Valley, 316; in Van Buren County(1836), 
 335; in southwestern Michigan, 263; early conditions, 546 
 (Cutler) ; see Evans, Hoffman, Jameson, Martineau, McKenney, 
 Swan, Roads and names of Roads 
 
 Treaties, Greenville(1795), 59(n.32); Detroit(1807), 58; Indians 
 dissatisfied with, 57; Saginaw(1819), 59; article on, by Williams, 
 565; by Weber, 565; Chicago(1821), 59, 251; result of Chicago 
 treaty for missions, 421; treaty of 1833, 251, 273; Washington 
 (1836), 59; general discussion of Michigan treaties, by Felch, 
 565 
 
 Trees, variety in Kalamazoo Valley, 320; see Forest 
 
 Tremble's Creek, mill(1818), 127(n.95) 
 
 Troops, U. S., victims of cholera epidemic, 61 
 
 Trowbridge, Charles C, 333(n.ll7); Detroit in 1819, 588; Detroit, 
 Past and Present, 588; The First Saw-Mill in Detroit, 588; 
 History of the Episcopal Church in Michigan, 574 
 
 Turner, Jerome W., 394 
 
 Turner, Middle West, 555 ; Colonization of the West, 555 ; Problem 
 of the West, 555 ; contrihutions of the West, 555 ; Significance of 
 the Frontier, 564 
 
 Unadilla, 393 
 
 Underground Railroad, 236(n.l84); at Battle Creek, 348 
 
 Union, (Cass Co.), founded, 262 
 
 Union City, 354; settlement, 281, 289 
 
 Union College, 437 (n. 130) 
 
 University of Michigan, 231 (n. 161); branch at Kalamazoo, 346; 
 
 branch at Monroe, 156; branch at Niles, 296; branch at Pontiac, 
 
 221; branch at White Pigeon, 293 
 Utica (Macomb Co.), 171 
 Utica and Schenectady Railroad, 80 
 Utley, Henry M. et al., Michigan as a Province Territory and State, 
 
 550 
 
 Van Buren, A. D. P., articles on pioneer life, 572 
 Van Buren County, bibliography, 586; pine lands, 321; prairies, 
 318; cold winter of 1842-43, 6(n.20); established and organized, 
 
62S INDEX 
 
 534; settlement, 356; population, 359-363; censuses, 534, 539; 
 
 fruit growing, 4(n.9) 
 Van Buren (Van Buren Co.), 324 
 Vermont, settlers from, 238, 261, 263, 273, 278, 289(n.l82), 3t5, 
 
 317, 331, 381, 435(n.l20), 442(n.l48), 446, 451, 474 ff, 482; 
 
 trip from, to Michigan, (1838), 569(Hinman) 
 Vermontville, 418; environment, 412; settlement, 444-449; early 
 
 history, 5 78 (Barber) 
 Verona (Calhoun Co.), rivalry with Battle Creek, 577(Van Buren) 
 Versailles, relation to early plan of Detroit, 123(n.82) 
 Vicksburg, 312, 336, 356 . 
 Virginia, settlers from, 208, 227, 238, 257, 264, 273, 300, 302, 315, 
 
 316, 474 ff, 482; source of Detroit's population, 146; soldiers 
 
 in War of 1812, 50 
 Virginia Land Company, 299 
 Votieur, buys land on St. Clair River from Patrick Sinclair, 
 
 116(n.65) 
 
 Wacousta (Clinton Co.), 462 
 
 Walk-in-the-Water, first trip (1818), 70; carries freight to Mack- 
 inac(1819), 71 
 
 Ward's Landing (St. Clair Co.), 162 
 
 War of 1812, muster roll, 589; original papers relating to, 570; 
 history of, 545(Brackenridge); official papers, 546(ed. by Bran- 
 nan); official accounts 547 (ed. by Fay); history of, 547(M'Afee), 
 548(Thomson), 548 (Williams); effect on prices at Detroit, 126; 
 on settlement, 49-50; on road building, 75; on Territorial 
 government, 83 
 
 Ward, Captain Samuel, Memoir of, 568 (Bancroft) 
 
 Washington, treaty of, 59 
 
 Washtenaw County, bibliography, 586; topography, 189-(n.4); 
 beauty of landscape, 197; soil, 194; name, 197; transportation 
 to, 207; established and organized, 534; settlement, 199, 201- 
 203, 224-233; population, 468(n.l); censuses, 534, 539; frontier 
 extension( 1823-37), 214-216; relation to settlement in Kalamazoo 
 Valley, 328; Society for the Information of Emigrants, 225; 
 Germans, 148 
 
 Washtenaw Trail, 214, 215, 281, 305, 310 
 
 Waterford (Oaldand Co.), 200 
 
 Watet power, 326; related to topography, 22, 23; motive of settle- 
 ment, 262; of southern Michigan, 27(n.83); eastern belt of 
 power sites, 27; on creeks, 27; in Oakland, Washtenaw and 
 Lenawee counties, 187-189, 193; on the Huron, 24, 229(n.l55); 
 at Monroe, 13; in the Kalamazoo Valley, 321; in Bany Comity, 
 
INDEX 629 
 
 413; in Clinton County, 413; in Van Buren County, 334; at 
 
 Grand Rapids, 13, 409; at Owosso, 388; in the Saginaw country, 
 
 365 ; see Rivers, names of rivers and villages 
 Water\411e (Ionia Co.), 434(n.ll9) 
 Wayne County, bibliography, 587; limestone, 13, 14; soil and 
 
 forest, 17(n.58), 40, 95; established and organized, 5v34; settle- 
 
 ment(1824-37), 177-179; population(1830), 180, 181; (1834), 
 
 181; (1837), 182; censuses, 534, 539; Gemian settlers, 185; 
 
 early schools, 57l(Tibbits) 
 Wheat, first crop, 320; prices (1837), 399; in New York and Mich 
 
 igan (1824-61), 574(Shearer) 
 Wildcat, see Animals 
 "Wild-cat" banking, sec Banking 
 Winter of 1842-43, cold, 6(n.20) 
 Whipping post, aboHshed, 88 
 
 Whiskey, 264, 421, 422; influence on settlement, 261 
 Whitaker, Captain Wessel, 278, 300 
 White, Nathan, 438(n.l31) 
 Whitefish, see Lakes, Great 
 White Oak (Ingham Co.), 417 
 White Pigeon, 355, 357, 433; settlement, 272; population(1827), 
 
 263; (1830), 271; land office, 271 
 White Pigeon Prairie, 263; settlement, 290, 291; first crops, 269 
 White Rock, boundary point in Indian cession of 1807, 58 
 Whitewood, see Forest 
 Whitmanville (Cass Co.), 294 
 
 Whittier, John G., poem, "The Prisoner for Debt." 
 Williams, Gardner D., 377 
 Williams, Harvey, 379(n.53), 394 
 Williams, Oliver, sketch, 583 
 Williams College, graduates, 183 
 Winchell, Alexander, judgment as to products suited to southern 
 
 Michigan, 5 
 Wing, Austin E., 225(n.l29), 234; birthplace, 183; biographical 
 
 sketch, 203(n.37) 
 Women, pioneers, 580(Van Buren); wages, at Detroit(1819), 
 
 130(n.l09) 
 Wolf's Prairie, 264, "275 
 Woodbridge, William, birthplace, 183 
 Woodruff, Benjamin, 202, 227 
 Woodruff's Creek, 393 
 Woodruff's Grove, 202, 227(n.l42), 238 
 Woodward, Judge, 228; letter to Madison(1807) on conditions of 
 
 settlement in Michigan, 575; report on French farms(1806), 
 
630 INDEX 
 
 104; characterization of French-Canadians, 112; opinion on 
 slavery, 572; buys land near site of Ypsilanti, 202; center of 
 attack for misrule of Judges, 85(n.l25); student of the classics, 
 152 
 Wyandotte, 157; settlement, 587(Christian) 
 
 "Yankee" contempt for thriftlessness of French-Canadians, 109 
 Yankee Springs, 418, 419; environment, 413; settlement, 454; 
 
 founding, 576(Ho5rt) 
 Young's Prairie, 302 
 YpsHanti, 227-228, 238; French trading post(1809), 101, 199, 
 
 201; transportation to, 207, 208; arrival of first train, 81 (n. 113); 
 
 typical pioneer school, 93(n.l56); settlement, 586(Geddes) 
 

 
 
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