1~avibl




ve




THE STORY OF
GRAND RAPIDS










I




s - - -


Grand Rapids in 1831, showing Baptist Mission buildings and Noon-Day's house on west side, and Mr. Campau's
trading post on the east side of the river. X shows where the Pantlind Hotel now stands.




By
CAROL MARY H-OLT
INTRODUCTION
By
CHARLES W. GARFIELD


GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
1915




Copyright 1915
by
CAROL M. HOLT




CONTENTS


PAGE
7


INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I.
"    II.
"    III.
c"   IV.
cc   V.
"    VI.
"    VII.
"    VIII.
"    IX.
X.
C" XI.
"    XII.
"    XIII.
"    XIV.
"    XV.




THE INDIANS --- —-—. — ------ 11
THE COMING OF THE WHITE MEN 22
THE FUR TRADERS-...-.. --- —-.... -   26
THE ENGLISH. ---   ------- 28
RIX ROBINSON ---     --- 32
THE MISSION AT GRAND RAPIDS.- 38
LOUIS CAMPAU ---     ------ 43
THE INDIAN PAYMENT DAY ---.. 4 54
JOHN BALL AND THE LIFE OF THE
EARLY SETTLERS. ----. ----. —...- 57
THE TOWN ----------—.......-.... ----   63
THE STREETS ---....... 65
THE BRIDGES -...... —.................- 68
THE WATER SUPPLY --—........: --- 7 70
THE SCHOOLS --..-.... -   72
THE CITY AND ITS INDUSTRIES..-..- 74




ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Grateful acknowledgement is here made of the assistance received from Baxter's "History of Grand Rapids,"
"History of Kent County," published by Chapman and
Company, "When Michigan Was New" by Hulda Hollands,
"De Soto, Marquette and La Salle" by Mara L. Pratt, the
daily newspapers, the Association of Commerce, and
several individuals, including Mr. George Fitch, who
kindly loaned the pictures which are here reproduced.
C. M. H.




INTRODUCTION


A little girl sat at the Thanksgiving dinner
with a lot of grown-ups. The host waited upon
all, leaving his little daughter for the last. She
watched every movement with anxious interest,
but kept herself under pretty good control.
Toward the last she became uneasy, wriggled in
her chair and heaved long sighs. So when her
papa said, "Now what will my precious daughter have?" she threw up her arms, nodded her
head with vigor and said, "Oh, I want things
and things and things!" This is the attitude of
childhood toward the world of information
about it. It is the period of easy and wonderful
acquirement. Children want to know things
and things and things. The problem of the educator is to maintain this as a period of joy rather
than of tasks; to keep up the eager desire for
knowledge and satisfy it without awakening the
feeling that the school period is one to be endured with such fortitude as one can muster.
To this end the gaining of knowledge of the
things nearest at hand and reaching towards
wider fields is the natural method.
Charles Wagner somewhere in "The Simple
Life" says: "First, then, be of your own country, your own city, your own home, your own




8


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


church, your own workshop. Then if you can,
set out from this to go beyond it."
This is the spirit which should inspire our
school methods, and as I have read this contribution by Miss Carol Holt to our school literature, I have been impressed with its value in
awakening a joy in historical research which
will open the vision of boys and girls to the
value of history as a part of their equipment
for a life of service.
The known life of the Grand River Valley
extends over so brief a period that there is still
opportunity for research at original sources and
this attractive, even though condensed record,
should stimulate the school children to inquiry
which will bring out many other interesting
facts and incidents not generally known.
I recall with vividness my boyhood talks with
"Uncle" Louis Campau, and the exquisite joy of
telling my parents and teachers things they did
not know which I had found out.
There is nothing quite like the joy of what we
think is original discovery in any field of investigation.
A chamber in my house is finished in black
walnut which has grown darker with the years
until it has reached almost an ebony in color.
The lumber was sawed from a walnut tree on
the highest ground of the first farmstead in
Kent County, occupied by Barney and Harriet
Burton. The tree had over two hundred rings
of growth, thus recording its two centuries from




INTRODUCTION


9


the sprouting seed to the harvest. It was a
great wonder to the early settlers that this lone
walnut should have grown on this high land
when no others were to be found except on the
river bottom. An aged Indian who came each
year to receive his stipend from the Government
explained to me when a young lad, that this
high ground was chosen by a band of Ottawas
from time immemorial as a winter camp, and
the underbrush was regularly burned for miles
in each direction so an enemy could not approach without being detected. Here children
brought walnuts from the river bottom and
cracked them to eat with their parched corn
during the long winters. It was natural that an
occasional nut should slip from the little fingers
and become imbedded in the soil. One evidently
survived the rough treatment given to most
saplings and grew into the tree which marked
the camp ground of the savages.
I predict for the children of our schools many
happy experiences of this kind as a result of
studying this booklet of local history.
How appropriate that a granddaughter of
Henry Holt, one of the best known and loved of
our pioneers, should have assumed the pleasant
task of preparing this history. I recall his selfsacrificing efforts in bringing before the country
the advantages of the Grand River Valley as a
fruit-growing section, the reward of which we
are now reaping in full measure.
The record of the pioneer efforts with its pri



10         STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS
vations and sacrifices, threaded with kindly
service, all devoted to the development of a wilderness into a beautiful and productive domain
is an inspiring one, and must arouse in the boys
and girls of today a desire to carry on the early
effort to even a more pronounced fruition.
Charles W. Garfield.
Pasadena, California,
March 15, 1915.




THE INDIANS


11


CHAPTER I
THE INDIANS
ON THE western bank of the O-wash-ta-nong,
near the rapids of the river were two Indian
villages, a short distance apart. Around them
were hills and valleys, and the land was covered
with trees.
Many kinds of wild animals roamed in the
forests, making excellent hunting grounds.
There were fish in the river, and wild berries in
the woods, so, with the corn which they raised,
the Indians had plenty of food. They used a
great deal of maple sugar, as they knew how to
boil down the sap before the white men came.
In the river just below the rapids, was a chain
of four islands, the largest containing nine acres.
The Indians liked this country, as they could
go a long distance up or down the river in their
canoes, which they made of logs or birch bark,
usually of birch bark.
They lived in wigwams made of skins and
bark fastened on long straight poles. Some of
them were made large enough to hold fifteen or
sixteen people. These were long and narrow.
The sides were poles, or sometimes young trees,
in two rows, and the roofs were made of brush,
skins and bark carefully put together so as to
make the wigwam comfortable. An opening




12


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


was left in the top, so that the smoke from the
fire built on the ground below might pass out.
If several families lived together, they made
one long opening in the top of the large wigwam
for a chimney, and then built several fires in a
row, as one fire would not be enough for more
than two families.
Their beds were made of poles and twigs
covered with grass, reeds, and skins of animals.
In the winter they slept close to the fires.
They hung their clothes, moccasins, weapons,
and any fancy trinkets they might happen to
have, on long slender poles which were fastened
near the tops of the wigwams. There they hung
also skins and meat to dry.
In the fall when they harvested the corn, they
hung the ears on the poles until they were thoroughly dry. Then they took off the kernels and
placed them in matting sacks. They put the
sacks in boxes made of bark and buried them in
the ground. In that way they were able to keep
the corn until the next summer, unless they
needed to use it before that time.
The braves did the hunting, fishing, and fighting, and left all the other work for the squaws
who had to build the wigwams, plant the corn,
cure the skins, make the clothing, gather the
berries, and make the maple sugar.
When they moved from one place to another
the squaws had to carry all of the goods so that
the braves might be ready to fight. They moved
their wigwams with them because with only




THE INDIANS


13


stone hatchets and rude copper knives, it was
hard to cut new poles.
The first Indian settlers of whom we know
were the Sauk or Prairie Indians, a mighty tribe
who occupied nearly all of the lower part of
Michigan. Then three tribes-the Chippewas,
Ottawas and Pottawatomies, came down from
the north and attacked them. Many battles
were fought, one of them near the place where
Grand Rapids now stands, and the Prairie
braves were so badly defeated that they disappeared. The country thus gained, of which the
Grand River Valley was a part, was then used
by the victors as a common hunting ground. A
great many who came here to hunt were never
seen or heard from again. So it became the
general belief among the Indians that the spirits
of the dead Sauks were dwelling in their hunting grounds and were killing off their hunters,
while really it was a few Sauks who had
escaped being killed and still lingered around
the place, watching for their enemies and killing them whenever they had an opportunity.
Soon, according to the stories told by the old
Indians, this land was thought to be haunted,
and though there was plenty of game, nobody
cared to come here to hunt. Then, it was used
as a punishment colony. Every Indian who
committed a serious wrong would be sent to the
haunted ground or else go of his own accord to
escape punishment, as the Indian laws were
very strict and their punishments severe.




14


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


At last the Grand River Valley became the
home of the Ottawas, and several settlements
were begun near here. The Chippewas, or
Ojibways, as they were sometimes called, settled in the Muskegon Valley and the Pottawatomies in the valley of the Kalamazoo River.
As there were more Indians in the Chippewa
tribe, their language became the common one,
though after a few years it had become so
changed that it was not the same in all parts of
Michigan.
The Indians loved their life in the wild woods,
even in the winter when it was cold and the
snow was deep. They loved to gather around
their fires at night and tell stories, sing and
dance. They often spent the summer around
the Grand and Little Traverse Bays in the
North. They were usually kind to each other
and to the white people as long as the white
people were good to them.
Before there were many white settlers here, a
Mr. Osborne was once traveling through the
forest looking for a good place for a settlement,
when he found he had lost his way, and began
to feel ill. As he was miles from any white
man's cabin, the only thing for him to do was to
tie his horse to a tree and lie down in the woods.
He took his saddle for a pillow, and wrapped
himself up in his blankets as best he could. He
was unable to sleep on account of the many
noises in the woods. Before long he heard footsteps which seemed to come nearer and nearer,




THE INDIANS             1


15


but he was by that time too ill to be afraid and
so lay still. Soon a large Indian was standing
by his side making signs and trying to tell him
something. He decided that the brave wanted
to take him to his village, and so, with the big
man's help, he got up and went with him to his
wigwam. There the Indian fixed him a bed,
built a fire at his feet, and stewed some herbs to
make a medicine for him. He was as gentle
and careful as anybody could be, and before
very long Mr. Osborne felt much better and
thought best to continue his journey.  The
Indian, however, insisted that he stay two or
three days, then sent a guide with him so that
he could not again lose his way. That camp
was in what is now Grand Rapids.
Many mounds have been found containing
drinking cups, glass arrow heads, copper
needles, pipe stems, bracelets and other ornaments, besides implements made of stone, copper and bone. The Indians told the early settlers that they did not know where these things
had come from, but they seemed to regard them
with reverence and wished to be buried near
them. So there must have been a race of people
dwelling here hundreds of years before the
white men came.
The Red Men had many beautiful legends
and some funny ones. They thought that rattlesnakes were the returned spirits of their dead
grandfathers and so no Indian would ever harm
one, even if it crawled right into his camp, lest




16


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


some dreadful punishment should come to him
for being disrespectful.
They believed that the Evil Spirit Mitche
Manitou caused bad storms and other misfortunes, and that the good spirit Gitche Manitou
sent them many of the good things that they
enjoyed in life.
They believed that after death they would all
go to the Happy Hunting Ground, and that the
flowers, when they withered, went to a place
where their petals were made into beautiful
rainbows so that people might still see and love
them.
They thought that the souls of their departed
friends often returned as guardian spirits, in the
forms of birds, sometimes doves, sometimes
eagles, more often night birds. The kind of
bird depended on the nature of the person who
had died. If a fearless, untamed warrior died,
his spirit-bird would be the eagle; a bloodthirsty chieftain's spirit would appear in the
form of a hawk. When a gentle maiden died,
her friends would know that her spirit was near
them when they heard the mournful music of
the turtle-dove at dawn or at twilight.
On the west side of the river stood a lone tree,
far from its brothers, wonderful in its loneliness. It seemed to take pride in being apart
from the other trees, and to be perfectly happy
in the company of its one friend, the white owl,
who lived in its branches and awakened the ear
of night with its mournful cry.




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THE LONE TREE


17


The Indians reverenced the tree and the owl
and loved to tell this legend about them.
THE LONE TREE
Many, many years ago, before the white men
came to this land, Ke-wah-ke-won was the ruler
of the people. He was greatly beloved for his
kindness and the fairness of his government.
In his day he had been a great warrior, but
now he was no longer young and his friends
could plainly see that he would soon be roaming
in the hunting grounds of the Great Spirit.
He also knew that he could not remain long
on earth, so he called all of his people together
to give them his blessing and some words of
friendly advice. As he lay on his death-bed, his
tribe stood around him, eagerly listening for
any word he might speak. Suddenly his dim
eyes brightened, his faint voice became clear
and he spoke.
"My children," he said, "the Great Spirit is
calling me and I must obey; his hand is ready
to cut the cord which binds me to this earth;
my guide is ready to lead me to my fathers in
the land of spirits. Mourn not for me, my children, for though I shall go from you, my spiritbird will guard you. The evening breeze will
bear my messages to you, and the morning light
will tell you that I have been with you through
the night. Lay my body in a quiet spot on the
prairie with my tomahawk and pipe by my side.
The wild creatures will not disturb me, for the
Great Spirit, I know, will guard me. Come to




18


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


me in the spirit-land, my children. Farewell!"
As he finished speaking, he fell asleep, and
those at his bedside knew that he had gone on
the long journey.
They buried his body in a quiet spot in the
prairie near the river, with his face toward the
rising sun.
As time passed on, a tree arose from the
grave and spread out its branches, and a beautiful white owl went there to dwell.
The red men said that the "lone tree" marked
the last resting place of the great chief, and that
the white owl was the spirit-bird watching over
it.
Long after the lone tree had been cut down,
the Indians looked with reverence at the spot
where it had stood and pointed to the place
where slept Ke-wah-ke-won, the beloved of his
people.
A large number of their legends were about
a trickster known through the generations as
Nenabooshoo.
This Nenabooshoo had great power and was
able to perform almost any miracle. He was
loved and at the same time feared by both old
and young. Even the wild things of the forest
had great respect for him, and either shunned
him or called upon him for his aid, according to
the mood in which the trickster happened to be
when they met. Many of the queer things in
Nature were said to have been done by him.
He it was who made the sap thin so that people




THE LEGEND OF AUTUMN


19


would have to boil it to make sugar, when originally sugar came from the trees ready for use.
He placed the stripes on the tail of the raccoon,
and even changed the geography of Michigan
whenever it did not suit his particular mood.
He was very sly and if anyone tried to find him
or watch him do his work he was apt to play
some rather unpleasant trick.
THE LEGEND OF AUTUMN
Long, long ago all the woods were greengreen. There was no color in the trees but
green, until the leaves fell off and made a blanket for the ground. Nenabooshoo grew very
tired of so much green, and went down to Lake
Michigan to think how he might fix it. He
always liked to sit near the big water when he
wanted to think, for the waves told him so many
things.
For a long time he thought about changing
the leaves, then, like a flash, it came to him how
he could make the woods wear pretty dresses in
the fall.
Going down into the village he took the largest kettle from the chief's wigwam and carried
it to the lake. Then he went out into the
meadows to the golden rod, and, carrying the
yellow flowers to the lake, he shook dew from
them into the caldron until it was full.
Nenabooshoo then built up a great fire and all
night long he boiled, boiled, boiled the dew. In
the morning the kettle was half full of beautiful
yellow paint.




20


STORY OF GRAND RAJIDS


Carrying the caldron into the woods, he
broke off a branch of balsam which he used for
a brush. First he tried leaves of poplar, and
painted them, oh, such a beautiful gold! All
through the forest he went, painting the poplars
shades of yellow. When the sun arose, every
poplar in the woods twinkled and shook its
golden curls in the morning breeze.
But Trickster was not satisfied. He wanted
other colors. Over in the eastern sky where the
sun came up, the clouds were rosy, rosy red.
Trickster reached out his right arm and scooped
a large handful of the color of morning sky and
put it into the caldron.
Again he went into the forest, this time painting the maples the color of dying embers. Some
he touched but lightly, while others-my! they
were like the campfire flames.
Still Trickster wanted more colors. So he
took yellow leaves of poplars and red leaves of
maples and boiled them all night long. Next
morning he took more color from the eastern
sky and put it in the caldron, making the color
not red, or yellow, or orange, but some of each,
and oh! so beautiful! With this he touched
here and there the leaves of beech, elm and
basswood, and colored vines and creepers along
the borders of the forest.
But the oak leaves were very stubborn. Not
one leaf showed a touch of color. So he took
leaves from all the other trees and brewed them
together. Again he mixed in some of the east



THE LEGEND OF AUTUMN


21


ern sky, and when the paint was very bright,
he covered the leaves of the oak trees till they
looked like Indian princesses in brilliant coloring.
Trickster then thought his work was done.
But when the sun shone on the flame colored
forest, he found it not good for his eyes, and he
knew that he must do something more.
So out into the Lake where the color was the
deepest blue he went, and dipped the caldron
full of blue water. Then he went into the
meadows and said to the little purple flowers:
"Gather the dew for me tonight, please."
All night long Trickster boiled the blue water,
and in the morning he gathered the dew from
the caps of the purple flowers. This he poured
into the boiling water, and when the steam
arose, he waved his balsam branch through it,
scattering vapor on the breezes. Like a haze it
hung over the forest, softening and blending the
brilliant colors of autumn.
This was many, many years ago, and Trickster no longer lives as we do. Yet every autumn
he comes to change the color of leaves, gathering dew from the flowers and scooping color
from the morning sky.
Sometimes, if you go into the woods at night,
you can see him stirring paint in his caldron, or
painting-leaves with his branch of balsam.




22


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


CHAPTER II
THE COMING OF THE WHITE MEN
ACROSS the Atlantic Ocean is a country called
France. Many French travelers used to go
to Canada, which is north of us, to see the beautiful country, and while there, bought furs from
the Indians.
When they returned to their homes, they told
stories of the wonderful land and the friendly
Indians they had seen.  Many others then
wanted to make the trip.
One of these was a young boy named James
Marquette. He was born in an old and famous
castle near the City of Lyons, France, in the
year 1637. He was carefully taught by his
Mother until he was seventeen years old. Then
he entered a Monastery to finish his studies. He
made up his mind that he would like to go to
Canada to teach these good Indians. So he
studied hard, and in a few years was ready to
start as a missionary.
He crossed the Ocean and spent a few years
with the Indians in Canada. They treated him
kindly and were glad to learn what he had to
teach them. He heard them speak of a group
of Indians near St. Mary's Falls, and decided to
visit them.
He found these Indians also kind and worked




THE COMING OF THE WHITE MEN


23


with them three years, gaining at once their love
and respect. They told him of a mighty river
which they called the Father of Waters. They
had never seen it, but they knew it was somewhere southwest of them and not far away. He
longed to find the river and teach the tribes
there who were said to be very fierce.
"O Father," said the Indians, "do not go from
us. There are fierce tribes who will steal from
you and scalp you." But Father Marquette was
not afraid, and so he, Father Joliet, and five
boatmen, set out in little birch canoes from
Green Bay, which is an arm of Lake Michigan,
to find the great Mississippi River. Sometimes
they had to carry their canoes over short
stretches of land. When they reached the river
they at once started on their trip down toward
the mouth.
The first tribes that they met were friendly,
and prepared great feasts in honor of their
guests. They urged Marquette and his men to
stay with them.
"O Blackgown!" they said, "there are fierce
tribes down the river ready to scalp you. There
are great birds that will swallow you, canoe and
all. There are whirlpools that will suck your
canoes under."
But still Marquette was not afraid, and after
staying some time with the different tribes, he
went down the river. He held his peace pipe in
his hand to show that he was a friend.
After a time, however, he reached savages




24


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


who had been treated so cruelly by De Soto and
the Spaniards that they believed all strangers
were enemies. He tried to make friends with
them but found it was of no use. He saw that
unless they turned back they would be killed
and could do no more missionary work.
So they turned around, and, after having
many hard times on account of savages, rough
waters, and great swarms of mosquitos, they
reached some of their old friends. They had
traveled three thousand miles.
Father Marquette spent the rest of his life
working among the Indians, who did all in their
power to make the last years of his life comfortable. He started several missions, some of
which were in northern Michigan. He died in
1675 and was buried in the sand near the mouth
of the Pere Marquette River. A little later some
Ottawa Indians found the grave, which was
marked by a wooden cross. They took up the
body and prepared it for burial according to
the custom of their tribe. Then they sang the
Indian death chant, and, followed by a large
number of canoes, took the "little white father"
to St. Ignace and buried him near his old mission.
The county and city, Marquette, were named
for him; also the Pere Marquette Railroad, Pere
being the French word for Father.
Early in the 17th century, the French Jesuits
went to Mackinac and made headquarters




THlE COMING OF THE WHITE MEN   2


25


there. They sent out missionaries every little
while to visit all of the Indian villages.
On returning, each missionary made a careful
report of his trip, telling where he had been,
what he had done, and how he had been received by the Indians. These reports were kept
at the headquarters, as the missionaries planned
to have each village visited as often as possible.
It is supposed that both French and English
missionaries had stations along the Grand River
two centuries before the valley was settled.
In the latter part of the 17th century, French
traders, trappers and explorers, as well as missionaries, visited the Michigan Indians and did
a great deal to improve their habits. They often
stayed with the red men in their wigwams,
learned their language and some of their ways,
and at the same time, taught them many new
ways that helped to change their savage nature.
They usually found it easy to win the friendship
and respect of the Indians.




26


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


CHAPTER III
THE FUR TRADERS
ANOTHER boy in France who wished to go
to Canada was Robert LaSalle. His parents
were wealthy and gave him a good education.
When he was twenty-five years old, he went to
Canada expecting to be a fur-trader. He started
several trading-posts there, and then came to
Michigan, building a trading-post at Mackinaw
and a fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph River.
When LaSalle heard of Father Marquette's
journey down the Mississippi, he planned to
build trading stations all the way down the
river. So he went back to France to get the
King's permission to build French forts.
When he returned to this country, after going
twice to France, he decided to build a boat in
which to send his furs around the Great Lakes.
So in a grove near the Niagara River, he and his
men built one which they called the Griffin.
The Indians watched with wonder, some of
them friendly, but others afraid and unkind.
When the boat was finished and launched
and its white sails were flying in the breeze, the
Indians feared that it was some great spirit with
monstrous wings. Naturally they dared not do
it any harm, especially when they heard the
guns which LaSalle put on it.




THE FUR TRADERS


27


The party started on a journey in this boat,
and after a long time reached an island where
Marquette had stopped years before. The Indians were glad to see the white men and loved
to watch the Great White Bird floating on the
water.
LaSalle bought enough furs to fill the boat
and sent it back toward his fort. It must have
been wrecked for nothing was ever heard of it
again. This was a great loss and grief to him
and his men.
After that LaSalle spent the rest of his life
exploring the country. His last years were hard
ones, full of disappointments, and after all of
his struggles he was finally shot by one of his
own men. He will always be remembered as a
great explorer because he dared to go where no
white people had been before.
After his journeys, many other fur-traders
came to this part of the country and several
trading-posts were started in Michigan.
During the long cold winter, the Indians gathered and cured a great many furs to sell in the
spring. Then as soon as the ice melted, they
put them in their canoes and took them to the
mouths of the rivers. There the fur-traders
bought them. They paid beads, bright pieces
of cloth, knives and eatables for the furs at first.
Later, when little stores were started, the Indians received money instead of other things.




28


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


CHAPTER IV
THE ENGLISH
P to this time the Indians had been taught
U by the French missionaries and had been
dealing with French traders. These people had
been very good to them, had treated them
fairly, had sometimes lived with them in their
wigwams, and had taught them how to do many
things. But many English people had also come
to this country and soon the two nations began
to dispute about their rights.
About the year 1754 the French and Indian
war began, and though a great many Indians
helped the French, the English won. That
meant that the Indians would have to deal in
the future with the English. This troubled them,
for they had heard many unkind stories about
the English-that they were proud, dishonest
and cruel, and that life with them would be
anything but happy.
So one great chief, Pontiac, a tall, dignified
man fifty years old, made up his mind to drive
the Englishmen from Michigan. In 1761 he
went from village to village asking the Indians
to gather for a council in April at the rapids of
the Grand or "O-wash-ta-nong" as they called
it, to make plans for a great war.
At this gathering, which was attended by
three thousand warriors, he made a long speech
telling of the trouble that would come to his
people if the English were allowed to remain in




THE ENGLISH            2


29


the land. He said that they had driven away
the French and would soon turn upon the In-.
dians. He then showed them a large piece of'
wampum, saying that he had received it from
their great father, the King of France, who
would soon come to help them.
He found the Indians eager to make war, and
two years later when he was ready to attack
Detroit, his camp was filled with the red men.
The army was divided into groups as there was
to be fighting in several places at once.
Pontiac kept the largest part of his army to
help him surprise and capture Detroit. He
chose sixty chiefs and had each one file off his
gun short enough so it could be hidden under
his blanket. He told them that when all was
ready, they should go with him to the English
general, and there he 'Would demand a council,
make a speech and hand the general a wampum
peace-belt, holding it upside down. At this
signal the chiefs should attack the English officers, and the large number of Indians left outside should rush in and kill every Englishman,
but spare the French.
All happened as Pontiac had planned until
he was ready to make his speech. Then the
English general stepped up to one of the chiefs,
suddenly drew aside his blanket and showed
the hidden weapon. For on the night before, an
Indian woman, or perhaps as the legends say,
a beautiful Chippewa maiden, had overheard
the plans and gone at once to tell the English.




30


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


Pontiac, the big brave chief, looked at the
general, turned pale and trembled. He saw
that his plan was known and that his battle was
lost. He tried to explain, but there was nothing
for him to say. He and his men were told to
leave at once and to never again be seen at the
post.
Pontiac continued to disturb the fort, however, until the treaty of peace between the English and the Western Indians was signed in
1764. After that he gave up all hope of saving
his people, and went south where he was killed
in a quarrel with one of the southern Indians.
After the war, life in this valley was almost
unchanged for many years. The English dealt
with the red men just as the French had done.
They used the same trading-posts and helped
the Indians in many ways. New companies
were formed and each trader did his best to
please the Indians.
Then, instead of meeting them at the river
mouths, the traders, with the help of guides and
ponies, went far into the woods to meet the
Indians and buy the furs before the best ones
could be chosen by some other trader.
After the war of 1812, which was between
the English and the Americans, a great many
Americans came to Michigan. Many wanted to
buy land as they thought it would become more
valuable.
Others who planned to settle here wanted to
own the land without paying for it. They said




THE ENGLISH


31


that the Indians had made themselves owners of
the land by killing another tribe, so that it did
not really belong to them. and that the land
should by rights belong to those who would till
the soil.
The United States Government was anxious
to have all dealings just and honest, so appointed the old favorite Governor Cass and his
assistant, Solomon Sibley, to make a treaty with
the Chippewas (Ojibways), Ottawas, and Pottawatomies. They met in Chicago August 29th,
1821, and decided that the United States should
have all the land south of the Grand River excepting small tracts which were reserved for individual Indians, half-breeds and tribes.
These tracts were never to be given or leased
by the owners or their heirs to any person without the permission of the President of the
United States. The Government promised to
pay the Indians for the land, a large sum of
money each year, and to pay for a blacksmith,
a school teacher, and a person to teach the Indians how to manage their farms and to buy
cattle and farming tools. The blacksmith and
the teachers were to live on a square mile of
land north of the river which was saved for that
purpose.
The Treaty, which was a long one, was signed
by the two white men and a large number of
Indians. The land north of the river was given
to the United States by the Treaty of Washington, in 1833.




"I


32         STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS
CHAPTER V
RIX ROBINSON
EARLY in the nineteenth century the American Fur Company started a trading post in
the Grand River Valley. It was in charge of
a French woman, Madame La Framboise, and
was located on the banks of the river about two
miles west of what is now Lowell. Madame
La Framboise stayed there and carried on a successful business with the Indians until the year
1821, when she sold out to Rix Robinson, the
first American pioneer in the valley.
That year Mr. Robinson made his way
through the trackless forests to the place where
the Thornapple River poins the Grand. He was
the first white man to settle on what is now Kent
County. He was both fur-trader and explorer
and established several trading-posts in this
valley.
Before coming to Michigan he had tradingposts in Wisconsin and Illinois, and he came
across Lake Michigan from what is now Chicago
in a canoe, keeping rather close to the shore of
the Lake. He stopped first at the Kalamazoo
River and built a fort, but being not quite satisfied there, went farther north until he reached
the mouth of the Grand. He went up the river
and liked the valley so well that he decided to
settle here.




Rix ROBINSON


33


He at once won the friendship of the chiefs of
the Ojibways, Ottawas and Pottawatomies and
most of the men and women of the three tribes.
However, there were a few savages who did not
seem to care for the white man and wanted him
sent away. So they secretly planned to make
his life so unpleasant that he would not want to
stay here. If their schemes failed they would
ask Nin Mindid, the most powerful Indian in
the valley, to enter a contract with the trader,
conquer him, and so ruin his reputation among
the Indians.
After a three months' trial they saw that Mr.
Robinson intended to stay, so they sent for Nin
Mindid to come and give him a good beating.
The savage was delighted with the idea, but,
before beginning his task, he came often to take
a good look at his future enemy. Each time he
came he made as much noise and bustle as he
could, to show the trader how great a man he
was.
Mr. Robinson, who had lived long enough at
Mackinaw to understand Indian nature, saw at
once what they had planned, but seemed very
calm during the first and second visits of the
savage.
After this the warriors went to their hunting
grounds and were gone for weeks. When they
returned they camped below the trading post,
built their great fires and ate their dinner.
Uncle Rix, as Mr. Robinson was called, enjoyed
watching them until he saw Nin Mindid and a




34


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


group of warriors passing a whisky bottle.
Then he knew what was about to happen, so he
entered his little store, cleared up the floor in
front of the counter, put plenty of small pieces
of wood on the fire which burned on the old
time hearth-stone, and waited for the Indians to
come in. Several old men, squaws and warriors
walked in, followed by Nin Mindid, who was
rough and noisy.
Mr. Robinson saw that there was no time to
lose, so he stepped quietly into the center of the
room, asked the men and women to stand back,
and told Nin Mindid to leave at once. The Indian grunted and roughly declared that he
would not do it. In another moment Uncle Rix
seized him, and placed him across the fire. The
squaws screamed, the old men grunted and the
young men began to laugh at the savage who, a
few minutes before, was expecting to have such
a merry time beating the trader. Nin Mindid
crawled from the fire, looked angrily around,
screamed with terror and disappeared. Mr.
Robinson had won the day and Nin Mindid was
in disgrace.
One day, years afterwards, as Mr. Robinson
was paddling his birch bark canoe down the
river on his way to Grand Haven he saw what
appeared to be an Indian standing on a point of
land some distance ahead of him. As he drew
nearer he saw that the savage had a gun. In a
moment he recognized Nin Mindid, and made
up his mind to meet him and fight if he must.




Rix ROBINSON


35


However, as he reached the point, the big Indian threw aside his gun and ran toward his
conqueror and greeted him joyfully. This was
the last time the savage was seen in the district.
Even after Mr. Robinson's victory over Nin
Mindid, some of the savages were not ready to
be his friends as they were afraid that he did
not know much about hunting. So, to satisfy
them, Uncle Rix said that he would enter a contest with as many of them as cared to race.
Several of the best Indian hunters were chosen
and Mr. Robinson and each of these braves put
aside some valuable goods to be given to the
one in the contest who could bring back the
greatest number of deer at the end of seven
days. They parted and each man did his best
to make the greatest showing. At the end of
the week when they met, Mr. Robinson had
forty-nine deer, and the highest Indian score
was only forty-two. So he won, not only the
prize, but also the respect of all the braves.
For more than ten years he lived peacefully
with the red men, traded with them, gave them
advice, and made himself a part of their lives.
He was honest and just always, and the tribes
learned to have the greatest respect for him.
All through Western Michigan he was known as
the friend of the Indians.
Mr. Robinson married a Grand River Indian
woman, Miss-a-quot-o-quay, and had one son,
John, who became an Indian missionary. After
the death of Miss-a-quot-o-quay, he married




36


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


Sippi-quay-daw-ba, the grand-daughter of the
great chief, who gave Mr. Robinson a rich hunting ground for his own.
After that he became a settler and bought
land until he had seven hundred twenty-one
acres of the best farming land in Kent County.
He built a frame house in what is now Ada, and
in those days it seemed like a palace, for most
of the houses then were wigwams or log huts.
People traveled miles to see it.
Mr. Robinson was loved by the white people
as well as by the Indians, and many young children were named after him.
When he became old, though he was not
much of a talker, once in a great while he would
tell of the many experiences of his life; of the
nights he was alone in the forests far from
people and buildings; of fording streams in
winter; of fights with wolves and other animals;
of his little house; and of sickness and death in
the family, with no doctor near. His memory
was filled with true stories, both pleasant and
sad, but only to his closest friends did he care to
tell them.
When he was eighty years old he went on his
last hunt. He had to take a boy along to shoot
for him, for although he still knew how to find
the deer, he could no longer see to take aim.
That night as he sat around his camp fire
with a few of his friends, he talked and told
stories until midnight.
One man asked him why he did not write a




Rix ROBINSON             37
book telling of his life in the new settlement.
He replied that he had started one once and had
written several chapters, but when he read
them over, there were so many "I's" in them
that he was ashamed to think he had said so
much about himself, and so destroyed them.
After the little group had broken up, his son
John told one of his friends that he had heard
more of his father's early life that night than he
had ever heard before.
Mr. Robinson died in the early 70's, leaving
a record that made him one of the greatest
pioneers of the Grand River Valley.




38


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


CHAPTER VI
THE MISSION AT GRAND RAPIDS
pHAPTER IV told of a Treaty which the
United States made with the Indians. A
year or two after that treaty, Rev. Isaac McCoy
was appointed superintendent of officers chosen
to see that the terms of the treaty were carried
out.
At that time most of Michigan was a wilderness with here and there a trading post. There
were few settlers excepting on the eastern borders, and Detroit was only a fort, the home of
the Governor and a few hundred other people.
One of the Indian villages at the rapids of the
Grand River contained fifty or sixty huts and
was ruled over by Kewi-coosh-cum, or Key-waycoosh-cum, the village chief.  No roads but
well-worn trails led to this little group and
there were so few people that an Indian might
walk for hours through the forest without meeting a neighbor. Noon-Day, a friendly and industrious Indian, was chief of all the Ottawas.
When Mr. McCoy arrived he found the Indians dissatisfied with the treaty. Kewi-cooshcum was away and nearly all the villagers were
drunk, having secured liquor from some white
traders. He spent some time looking for the
place which was to be used for a mission. He
went down the river nine miles and the next




THE MISSION AT GRAND RAPIDS


39


day returned to the village to find the inhabitants still stupid from their drunkenness, and
the village chief still absent. The third day, the
sub-chief told him that Kewi-coosh-cum had
sent a message asking Mr. McCoy to remain a
few days until he should come. This he did not
wish to do, because he had work awaiting him
at another mission, also because he saw that
the Ottawas did not appear to be friendly toward him. They seemed to feel that the white
men wanted to deceive them and that the offer
of furnishing them with schools, blacksmiths,
teachers and tools was just a trick. So Mr.
McCoy and his teacher and blacksmith, whom
he had brought with him, went away.
In November, 1824, he with three other men
again set out for the Ottawas' country, passing
through Kalamazoo. There they found that the
smithy they had built the year before had been
burned by the Indians. One day they camped
at Gun Lake and met Noon-Day of Grand
Rapids, who was camping there with some
members of his tribe.
The next day Mr. McCoy and his party raised
camp and traveled on the Grand Rapids trail
with Noon-Day and his Indians. They crossed
the river in small canoes belonging to the chief,
and after deciding on a site for the Baptist mission, began their return journey. Noon-Day
went part of the way with them and showed
them a salt spring and a bed of gypsum. A
small stream of water had washed the bed and




40


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


had made a roughness like that made on saltbanks by animals. The guide said that the
Indians believed that spirits fed there. Probably this was the gypsum bed afterwards
worked at the old plaster-mill where the Grandville Road crosses Plaster Creek.
A short time after that the teacher, blacksmith, and several others started, full of hope,
for this new mission, to be named "The
Thomas," after a Burmese missionary. But they
were disappointed, for, though a few Indians
were glad to see them, the greater number were
not, and were maddened by their coming. They
left in the spring of 1825.
In the fall of the same year Mr. McCoy and a
large number of assistants made another trip to
the Rapids, bringing with them plows, yokes,
chains, farming implements, tools, and cattle,
besides hundreds of little things. But even all
of the trouble made no impression on the Indians and Mr. McCoy was obliged to give way.
In 1826 he came again and this time a council
was held. Noon-Day, speaking to Mr. McCoy,
said, "My brother, when you promised to favor
us, because our heads might forget, you put
your words on paper which could not forget
them. Look at this paper and see if it is the
same you gave me; notice if you have forgotten
anything you promised us."
Mr. McCoy said that he had written that
paper and had now come to do as he had promised. He said, "There is the blacksmith, there




THE MISSION AT GRAND RAPIDS


41


are the laborers, there are the cattle, the oxen,
plows, chains and other farming and mechanical tools. The school will be opened in a short
time and I am here ready to preach to you."
The school was opened Christmas Day, 1826,
with five Indian pupils who were fed and
clothed by the mission. In four months there
were fifteen pupils. When the school was well
started Mr. McCoy went back to his other mission, leaving Mr. Leonard Slater, who came to
the village early in 1827, and his assistant to
take charge of the Thomas Mission. This was
located on the West side of the river near what
is now the corner of Bridge Street and Front
Avenue, where the West side car barns now
stand. There were two log houses built by
Mr. Slater and his helpers, which were the first
buildings ever erected by civilized people on
the west banks of the river, excepting a small
store house which had been built two miles
farther up the river by the American Fur Company before 1777.
Mr. Slater taught school and preached in one
of the houses, and lived in the other. He worked
hard and did a great deal of good among the
Indians. Chief Noon-Day was the first convert
and about one hundred fifty Indian families
were for a time interested in the mission. However, so many of the red men were bitter, and
so many who had been friendly for awhile had
become scornful, that in 1835 the mission was
abandoned.




42


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


The next year Mr. Slater went to Prairieville
and founded a mission for the Indians who had
remained faithful, and did not want to move to
the new reservations west of the Mississippi
River. Some of the assistants went with him
and together they worked among the red men
for several years.
At the foot of the rapids, in a second Indian
village, stood a Catholic Mission started by
Bishop Baraga in 1833.
When it seemed best to sell the land belonging to the Government Missions, about one hundred sixty acres in all, there was trouble deciding how the proceeds should be divided between
the Baptist and the Catholic Societies, as the
territory lay between the two stations. Chief
Noon-Day, who had moved away when the Baptist Mission was closed, favored the Baptists and
worked long and hard to persuade the government that they should be given more than threefourths of the money. He and his followers
had been so helped by the Baptist missionaries
that they seemed to overlook the good work
which had been done by the Catholics. But the
government officers studied the matter carefully
and when the property was finally sold in 1845
for $20,000, gave $12,000 to the Baptists and
$8,000 to the Catholics.
By that time the two societies were able to
carry on their church work independently, so
the reign of the government schools, shops and
smithies in this valley ended forever.




Louis CAMPAU


43


CHAPTER VII
1, ( 1 I S C Al P PAU
N 1826, Louis Campau came to Grand Rapids
to engage in the fur-trading business. He
was the first white settler in Grand Rapids and
the third pioneer in Kent County. He was born
in Detroit in 1791, and from the time he was
eight years old, was brought up by his uncle,
who treated him as a servant and gave him just
enough education to enable him to read and
write the French language. He was always
sorry that he was not able, when young, to take
a more thorough course in school, for, as a man,
he had little or no time for study and he felt the
need of an education.
He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and after
that was hired by a Detroit company to sell
remnants of goods to Indians in the Saginaw
Valley. Then he worked there as a trader on
his own account until 1826, when the Indians
urged him to come to the Grand River Valley as
their trader. He came in November, bringing
some hired men and several ponies loaded with
supplies for the Indians.
Before he came he got a license from the government, as it had become necessary to have
one in order to trade in this state. In this license
were eight laws which the traders had to obey.
They were:
1. You must trade in your own district
only.




44


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


2. Your dealings with the Indians must be
fair and friendly.
3. You shall attend no Indian councils
and send them no messages with wampum.
4. You shall not take liquor of any kind
into the Indian country; and you are
not to give or sell any to the Indians.
5. If you disobey any of the above laws,
the Indians shall have the right to take
any of your possessions that they want,
and keep them.
6. If you learn that any fur-trader is in
business without a license, you shall
report him to some Indian agent.
7. You shall tell the Indians Rule V.
8. You shall try to teach the Indians to
live in peace, and to pay no attention
to any wild stories they may happen to
hear.
With two helpers, Mr. Campau spent the winter of 1826 among the Indians of the Grand
River Valley. The next year he built two log
cabins, one for a home and the other to be used
for trading purposes. These were on the river
bank at or near what is now Huron Street, at
the foot of the east side canal. He built also a
small shop for a smithy and tool-shed, partly of
hewn timber, near the site where the Pantlind
hotel now stands. Close to the river's edge over
a spring he built a little house in which to keep
butter, milk and meat. For six years these




dl


MR. ANID MRS. LOUlS CAMPAl








Louis CAMPAU


45


were the only buildings on the east side of the
river.
Mr. Campau and his wife, Sophie de Marsac
Campau, for whom the local chapter of the
Daughters of 'the American Revolution was
named, made this their home and lived here for
a long time. They were always on friendly
terms with the Indians and did a large business.
Mr. Campau enjoyed telling one story which
showed how honest the Indians were before
they had associated long with the white men.
Once while he was traveling near the Rapids
his pony died, and as he wanted to go to Detroit
for a new pony and more supplies, he hung his
trading pack on the limb of a tree near the trail.
When he returned he. saw that the pack still
hung on the limb, but that it was nearly empty.
He looked in and found for each article that
was gone, a little chip with the totem of the
buyer.
As he stood there wondering just what to do,
a chief came to him and asked him to enter his
village and receive the amount that was due
him. He went with the chief and was paid
according to the marks on the chips.
As the white men came, there was more and
more trouble, until stealing became common..One of the laws that the Indians faithfully
enforced was "A life for a life." At one time an
American mother engaged a little Indian girl to
care for her baby. At first the girl treated the
baby as she would have cared for a papoose,




46


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


allowed it to crawl and roll around, and sometimes tossed it in the air and caught it. She had
no idea that a white baby could not stand the
same treatment that a papoose enjoyed. The
mother asked her to be more careful and she
willingly obeyed, but through carelessness,
dropped the baby on the floor, killing it at once.
Immediately the death song was sung by the
savages, the girl was bound a prisoner in the
black wigwam and the savages were about to
enforce their law when Louis Campau, his relatives and several old settlers went to the Indian
village and begged the savages to spare the
girl's life. Finally they consented but declared
that they would be ready to kill her if the white
people should change their minds.
In 1833 Rev. Frederick Baraga, well known
as an Indian scholar, settled in Grand Rapids as
a resident priest. He had a frame church building erected on the west side of the river. Mr.
Campau felt that having the Catholic church on
the west side would interfere with the plans for
building up the village on the east bank. So the
next year the building was carried across the
river on the ice, and stood for a long time on
Ottawa Street.
After that there were always unpleasant feelings between Mr. Campau and Rev. Baraga, so
the latter after a time moved away and the
Catholic mission was disorganized until 1835,
when Rev. Andrew Voszocsky came and took
up the work with great success.




Louis CAMPAU


47


Some time after Mr. Campau's coming, his
three brothers came and settled here. Campau
Square, formerly known as Grab Corners, Campau Street, and Antoine Campau Park were
named after the family. The Ryerson Library
building was given to the city by Mr. Martin
Ryerson, a grandson of Antoine Campau.
All of the Campaus were kind, generous and
public-spirited. Mr. and Mrs. Louis Campau
always had a hearty welcome for any who came
to their house, either strangers or friends. They
never stopped to count the cost of anything they
did for others.
In 1832 a group of people called the Dexter
Colony, left New York and came to Michigan.
They had a long hard journey, as they had to
make their roads through forests and camp at
night wherever they happened to be. They had
to cut through brush, go around swamps and
marshes and ford streams. Many times the
men had to lift the wagons over stumps while
the women prepared the meals, and the chiIdren scampered about joyfully.
When they reached Detroit, they took with
them such things as could be carried over land
and left the rest to be taken by boat around the
lakes to the mouth of the Grand River. They
bought oxen, cows and supplies in Detroit.
In the party were sixty-three people in six
families, each family having its own wagon,
tents and cows. The nights when they were far
from any building, they pitched the tents to



48


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


gether, making one long one, then made twentythree beds on the ground.
After sixteen days of hard traveling, during
which one little boy died of scarlet fever, they
reached the Grand River at Lyons. They were
hungry as nearly all of their food had given out
and they had had no place to get more.
Some of the people stopped at Lyons while
others went on to Ionia. After a few days two
men, Joel Guild and Samuel Dexter, started
from Ionia for the land office at White Pigeon,
passing through Grand Rapids. They happened
to meet Louis Campau, who urged them to bring
their families here, as much of the land was
then for sale. He had bought a large piece of
land and was dividing it into lots. As he was a
Frenchman, he did not speak the Yankee language very well and he was anxious to have a
Yankee settlement here. So Mr. Guild bought
lots near what is now Monroe Avenue for
twenty-five dollars each, or forty-five dollars
for two lots.
Mr. Campau and some of his hired men then
went to Ionia with bateaux to bring the rest of
the Guild family, Mrs. Guild, six daughters and
one son. Bateaux were light boats which were
much longer than they were wide, and wider at
the center than at the ends. The party made
several stops on the way back, once at Rix
Robinson's home. They saw a great many Indians on the way and as Mr. Campau could talk
to them in their own lauguage, he was a help to
the party.






W 0
"' i
niri*


(ld Itltll)iun lloulse, oi (oriler where the WViddicomi
Buildinl. lonw stanlds.








Louis CAMPAU


49


They reached Grand Rapids Sunday, June 23,
1833, and landed on the east side of the river
near Mr. Canpau's house.    Mrs. Campau
greeted them in a most friendly way and made
them like their new home land.
They lived in Mr. Campau's fur-packing
house while they built a house for themselves.
They did their baking and cooking in an open
kitchen near the spring house. An oak log was
the background for the fireplace, and a wooden
crane, a large tin baker and some hooks for
kettles, were in the foreground.
The Guild house, which was the first frame
house ever built in Grand Rapids, was finished
in September. It was on Monroe Avenue where
it is crossed by Pearl Street, at the foot of Prospect Hill, which has since been cut away. It
was built of lumber bought at an Indian saw
mill. It was one and a half stories and had
seven windows and two doors, but no porches.
Travelers often visited Grand Rapids as it
began to be known, so the Guild home became
something like a hotel.
In this house were held the first township election in 1834, and the first white wedding, when
Mr. Guild's daughter, Harriet, was married to
Barney Burton, the same year.
On the site where the Widdicomb building
now stands, Mr. Campau built a store house for
furs and Indian goods. Soon after it was finished he moved from his little log house to this
new building.




so


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


Then he cleared a piece of land extending
south to where the Eagle Hotel now stands and
west as far as the river. Here he made a
vegetable and flower garden, with shrubbery
and trees scattered through it and a few fruits.
It was a favorite stopping place for both white
people and Indians. The latter, attracted by
the flowers, would land from their canoes and
go up a well-trodden path to Mr. Campau's
house. An old canoe was used for a box in
which to plant the seeds and keep the young
plants until they were ready to be placed in the
garden. The house was afterwards enlarged
and made into a four-story building, called the
Rathbun House.
From 1833 until 1837 the town grew very
fast. Mr. Campau bought up a great deal of
land and was for a time wealthy.
He built a good Catholic church on the corner
of Monroe and Division Avenues for the use of
the St. Andrew's society, which had been
formed some years before. The Catholics used
that building until 1841. Then there was a
misunderstanding about some money matters,
so Mr. Campau sold the church, excepting the
cross on the spire, to the Congregationalists,
and the Catholics met wherever they could until
they built their church in 1849.
After the government mission property was
sold, the Catholics bought land at the southeast
corner of Monroe and Ottawa Streets and there
built a stone church.




Louis CAMPAU


51


This building was somewhat damaged by fire
in 1850 when the priest's house next door, containing a thousand valuable church papers was
destroyed. The priest's mother and sister were
burned to death, while he, thinking they were
safe, escaped by jumping from a second story
window. The property was finally sold for
business purposes.
Mr. Campau built himself a beautiful home
on Fulton Street where the Gay house now
stands.
In 1837 there came a business panic when
many prosperous people lost all or a large part
of their money. Mr. Campau was one of the
unfortunate men who lost a great deal and was
almost on the verge of poverty.
When his bank, which had been started a
short time before, failed, he took home an armful of worthless paper money called "wild-cat
bills" which he used to paper the cupola in his
house. He said, "There, if you will not circulate, you will at least stand still." For a few
years he was able to do some business and sell
enough lots so that he was comfortable.
At the time of the Civil War, there were some
camping grounds in this city.  Cantonment
Anderson was at the corner of Hall Street and
Jefferson Avenue where the new South High
School now stands. The soldiers were mustered
into service in May, 1861, and stayed in the city
until June 13th. Early in June, thirty-four
young ladies, representing the thirty-four states,




52


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


marched into the camp and gave the soldiers a
beautiful silk banner which said, "Presented by
the ladies of Grand Rapids to the Third Michigan Infantry."
After 1861, Cantonment Anderson was abandoned and the soldiers used a camp called at
different times "Camp Kellogg" and "Camp
Lee." This ground extended from what is now
the site of the Central High School as far north
as Michigan Avenue.
While the soldiers were camping there, Mr.
Campau invited them one day to come and feast
on the apples in his orchard. He told them to
bring sacks so they could take some apples back
to the camp.
So, headed by their band, the younger soldiers with sacks over their shoulders, marched
down to the orchard. Mr. Campau stood on the
porch, and as they passed him, they cheered and
the band began to play.
Mr. Campau, generally known as Uncle
Louis, loved children, both Indian and white
ones, and when at home he was always willing
and glad to stop work and wind his musical
clock so they could dance.
During the last years of his life he had but
little money, as he had paid the debts of his
bank with his own cash, so he was helped by
his friends, who loved and respected him so
much that they could not bear to think of him
as being in need of anything they could supply.
They raised money and put it in the bank for




Louis CAMPAU            53
him, and he was allowed to draw ten dollars a
week.
He gave up his beautiful Fulton Street house
and spent his last years in a house which now
stands on Sheldon Avenue and is the home of
Dr. Rutherford.
After the death of his wife, Mr. Campau was
a different man. His love for life was gone and
he no longer enjoyed the things that had always
given him so much pleasure.
He died in 1871 and was buried beside Mrs.
Campau in the Catholic cemetery.




54


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


CHAPTER VIII
THE INDIAN PAYMENT DAY
IN THE days of the early settlers, most of the
Indians were busy gathering the furs of the
beaver, mink, martin, lynx, muskrat, wolf and
bear. They also gathered huckleberries, cranberries, and other wild berries to sell to the
white settlers.
The squaws and Indian maidens filled birchbark baskets, called mokirks, with maple sugar,
loaded these on their ponies, one on each side
of the saddle, and drove through the village
selling the sugar. They spent much time making fancy moccasins, which they sold for fifty
cents or a dollar a pair.
The Indians liked to share fresh meat with
their white neighbors, and would often knock at
some white man's door and hand him a large
piece of venison.
They liked to trade meat, berries, furs and
moccasins for flour, salt, tobacco, sugar, gunpowder, blankets and whiskey, which they
called "fire-water."
The old time Indian payment day was the
time for a great jubilee. About a thousand Indians of all sizes, from the wee papoose to the
old brave, gathered on the lawn in front of the
council house near the rapids. There assembled
also Frenchmen, Irishmen, Dutchmen and Yan



THE INDIAN PAYMENT DAY


55


kees, each trying to make more noise than his
neighbor. The young boys busied themselves
playing with their bows and arrows, wrestling,
jumping and shouting, while the dusky maidens
sat quietly in their canoes in the river watching
the men.
The Indian Superintendent took a list of all
the names of the chiefs and heads of Indian
families, ready to give each brave the amount
due him. The money to be paid was placed
upon a table in the large room in piles of American half dollars, each pile amounting to ten or
twenty dollars.
Around the table sat the Indian Superintendent, the clerks and an interpreter. Beginning
at the top of the list, a crier called off the names,
the parties came forward, received their
money, and stepped back to make room for
others.
After an Indian received his money, a group
of men pretending to be his friends, gathered
around him, hoping to get something, at least a
drink of "fire-water."
In the evening while the drinking Indians
were celebrating in the town, the converted
natives were encamped upon the opposite side
of the river, and the forest echoed with their
loud praying, talking and singing. Above all
this noise could be heard the fiddle and the
"tum tum" of the Indians. After whiskey was
forbidden in the Indian districts, the pay-days
were as orderly as other days.




56         STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS
Different kinds of provisions were kept at the
trading posts. The Indians could go there and
buy, and often they could have their goods
charged. Very seldom was an Indian dishonest.
They often begged from the white women, but
were seldom given anything excepting on New
Year's Day. No matter how much food was
given to the Indian, he either ate it all, or else
ate part of it and carried the rest away in his
sack.








I '-" *14
iLlj ",, " x,


JOHN BALL




JOHN BALL AND THE EARLY LIFE


57


CHAPTER IX
JOHN BALL AND THE EARLY LIFE
S the roads in the early days were poor and
the villages far apart, it was hard for the
early settlers to get the provisions which they
needed. Often their main food for days at a
time was rice and milk, or potatoes and codfish,
or even potatoes and salt. Sometimes they had
nothing but bread, butter and onions to serve
when they had company.
When they had corn they made their bread
for every day use of corn meal ground by
hand in a hollow stump or stone with a huge
pounder. If they had white flour they saved it
for such occasions as quiltings, weddings, ministers' visits, Thanksgiving and other holidays.
Although their food was simple, very few were
ever really hungry, and their great hardships
seemed to give them courage.
In many houses were attics, reached by ladders from below, where travelers could stop for
the night, or for a few days. Often several
strangers were sleeping in the same attic, and
though many of them had large sums of money
with them, few, if any of them, were robbed.
In 1836 John Ball, an eastern lawyer, who
had spent much time in traveling and exploring
in the west, came to Michigan with $10,000 to
invest for a New York company. He went to
Detroit and there learned that Government land




58


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


was the only safe investment, and that the
Grand River country was the best place to go.
So he visited the land office at Ionia and then
spent the fall and winter selecting and buying
large tracts of land in this valley.
In the spring of 1837 he came to Grand
Rapids to live, and at once became a most helpful citizen. He went to the State Legislature,
practiced law, helped in the banking business
and looked after property for eastern land owners.
In 1843 the legislature put a large amount of
new land on the market at the rate of about fifty
cents an acre. Hearing of this, great numbers
of people came to this state hoping to buy fine
farms for little money. Many went to Mr. Ball
for advice and aid, and found him a great help,
as he spent much time looking over the land
with them, and also supplied them with funds
when necessary. Though most of the new settlers were poor at that time, it meant rapid
growth for Kent County.
Most of the white colonists came from the
New England states, New York and Ohio, but
there were a few who once lived in British
America, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland,
Germany, Holland, Norway and Sweden. The
Irish came to this village from places not far
away, to help dig the canal or mill race. Crops
were poor in Norway and Sweden, so many
came to America from those countries, hoping
to make a better living here. Hearing of the




JOHN BALL AND THE EARLY LIFE


59


new town, they came here, and as they liked the
place, decided to stay.
All people who came wrote to their friends at
home, telling them of the splendid country they
had found, and sometimes sent money to help
them pay traveling expenses, so they could also
come.
The Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad Company sent a man over the country to advertise
Michigan, and in that way brought many new
settlers to the state. A large number of them
came to Kent County.
Mr. Ball's home was on Fulton Street in the
house which was afterwards remodeled and
owned by Mr. C. H. Leonard and at present belongs to Mr. Covode. He gave to the city much
of the valuable land which is now John Ball
Park.
When he first came to Grand Rapids, there
were a few stores, two taverns, and three saw
mills. Banks were opened about that time.
There were no bridges across the river, as
people drove through when the water was not
too high, and used a ferry at other times.
To get from one settlement to another, people
often had to make trails on which to travel. The
government gave money to pay for the building
of a road from Detroit to Grand Rapids, and
many other roads were cut. Stage coaches ran
over these roads when they could, but for a long
time it was impossible to have a set time for
starting or returning. Passengers and goods
were carried usually in heavy old-fashioned




60


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


lumber wagons or little two-wheeled carts
drawn by horses or oxen.
When people started on journeys, they could
not tell how long they would be riding, for it
depended on the weather and roads. After
heavy rains, the roads would be so muddy that
the holes in them could not be seen. Then if
the driver was not very careful, the wagon
would tip over and perhaps somebody would be
hurt or the wagon would be broken.
One dark stormy night when a stage was several miles from Ada, an axletree broke and the
five or six passengers had to wade through the
mud and snow to the village.
Another time Mrs. Thomas B. Church, who
was for fifty years organist at St. Mark's
church, her baby Fred, now a well-known artist,
John Ball, and a few others were riding on one
of the bad roads when the stage tipped over,
throwing them all into a pond of mud. As it
was dark, it was some time before they found
the baby, who would soon have been drowned.
Mails were carried on horseback or by stage
once or twice a week to other towns not far
away, when the weather was not too bad.
Rev. Leonard Slater was the first one chosen
as keeper of the mail, and Joel Guild was the
second.
The first regular Post Office was opened on
Monroe Avenue, opposite what is now the Widdicomb Building, in 1836, with Darius Winsor
as postmaster. At that time there was so little
mail that it would have been an easy matter for




I
- >
f''. /








JOHN BALL AND THE EARLY LIFE


61


the postmaster to keep it in his pocket. In 1840
the cost of sending a single letter was twentyfive cents.
The first stages were called "mud-wagons."
These were square-box farm wagons with
wooden springs inside on which the seats rested.
Sometimes they had canvas coverings which
were stretched over arched frames, and painted
white or yellow to keep the inside of the stage
dry.
The next stage was called the "Concord."
This ran several times a day after the finishing
of the plank road between Grand Rapids and
Kalamazoo, of which the present Division
Avenue was a part. It was better built and
was much more comfortable than the mudwagon. The body rested upon leather supports
or thorough-braces, which gave it a rolling motion. It was supposed to carry six or eight passengers but often carried many more than that.
The driver's seat was at the top of the body in
front, and at the back was a "boot" to hold
trunks and baggage. A light iron rail around
the top, made an extra place for storing baggage when necessary.
The drivers became master hands, and
though the roads were bad, usually brought
their passengers safely to their homes.
The people in those days were especially kind
to each other and tried to get fun out of their
work. They had quilting bees, husking bees,
barn raisings, bees for drying apples and other
gatherings. In this way they did a great deal




62


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


of work, and had happy times with their neighbors at the same time.
In the winter the young people loved to get in
the bottom of a big sleigh and then go for a ride.
Sometimes when they got to a large deep drift,
the driver would tip the sleigh over just for a
joke and throw them all out in the deep snow.
They thought that great fun and nobody was
ever cross about it.
For a long time boats ran between the Rapids
and Grand Haven and the young people made a
special effort to be on some porch on Prospect
Hill in time to see them coming in to the landing, especially if the little band happened to be
playing.
The men and boys often played baseball in
the square which is now Fulton Street Park. It
was surrounded by a fence which was just high
enough to make a good seat for those who
wanted to watch the games.
In the same square were held celebrations of
many kinds. One Fourth of July, when the
people were enjoying fireworks, a sky rocket
went off sooner than was expected, and the
stick went right through the window of the low
house which is now the home of Miss May
Godfrey.
One Decoration day soon after the war, the
school children met in the park to sing songs in
memory of the soldiers who had been killed.
After this service, they were taken in carryalls
decorated with red, white, and blue, to the
cemeteries to scatter flowers over the graves.




THE TOWN


63


CHAPTER X
THE TOWN
WHEN the state was divided into counties in
the early 30's, the name Kent was chosen
for this county in honor of Chancellor Kent, a
lawyer of New York. Though Mr. Kent had
died nineteen years before, his name was still
held in the memories of the inhabitants.
As soon as there were enough people in the
settlement to make schools necessary, the town
was organized. It was also called Kent until
1842, when the name was changed to Grand
Rapids. The rapids of the river, for which the
town was then named, are a mile long and have
a fall of eighteen feet in that distance. So the
slope is gradual and scarcely noticeable.
The officers of the new organization were
given charge of the schools, public highways
and the granting of licenses.  They were
allowed to buy and sell land for village purposes, and were given control over the police
and fire department. The town grew fast because there was good soil, plenty of lumber,
good water-power, also limestone and gypsum.
Factories of different kinds were built, giving work to many men. Then doctors, lawyers,
merchants, tailors, teachers, ministers, carpenters, plumbers, engineers, street men, dealers in
ice, coal and wood, and livery men came with




64


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


their families to live here. The city charter was
granted in May, 1850.
In the year 1845, when the town was still
young, the people began to petition for a railroad. In 1858 trains began to run over the
Detroit & Milwaukee Road, which was an addition to the Detroit & Pontiac Road begun several years before. The rails were of wood and
the train was run by horse-power, so traveling
was slow and tiresome. The first train came to
the city in July, 1858, and there was a great
celebration.
Later other railroads were built and many
improvements were made in the roads and
trains, and Grand Rapids became quite a railroad center. Other roads going through the
city now are: Lake Shore & Michigan Southern,
Grand Rapids & Indiana, Michigan Central,
and Pere Marquette, besides three interurban
lines.
At first there were but one or two trains a
day. Now there are trains going and coming
all day and all night.




THE STREETS


65


CHAPTER XI
THE STREETS
THE first wagon roads to the village followed
the paths which the Indians had made, and
were crooked. For several years scarcely anything was done by the town to straighten or
improve them. One trail came in from the
southeast past Reed's Lake to the place where
Lake Drive now joins Fulton Street. Another
lay where State Street now is, winding around
Prospect Hill and then turning toward the little
trading station at the foot of Huron Street. One
came from Grandville also to the same point.
Another one came from the north through the
Mill Creek valley, and a lighter trail came in at
Coldbrook. On the west side of the river, trails
came in from Muskegon and Grand Haven and
other hunting grounds lying in that direction.
Very early streets were laid out and the
width planned about as they are now, but it was
a long time before they were improved. In the
meantime they were made passable with pieces
of narrow plank sidewalks and little board or
log bridges across streams and mud-holes.
As late as 1845 it was almost impossible to
travel on Monroe and Canal Streets, now called
Monroe Avenue, in wet weather on account of
mud and clay. A small brook ran across Canal




66


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


Street at Lyon Street and over it was a narrow
plank bridge.
Since that time a large amount of money and
a great deal of time have been spent in grading
the streets, cutting down the high hills and filling in the low places. Canal Street was raised
several feet at its lower end; the eastern channel of the river was filled in partly by nature
and partly by men, making the four islands
which were south from what is now Pearl
Street, a part of the mainland. The city market
and the baseball grounds are now located on
what was once known as Island Number Four.
Many of the hills on the eastern bluff of the
valley have been graded down, and some of the
west side has been raised. Part of the early
work on the streets was done on the countryroad plan, men working to pay their taxes.
Old Monroe Street was a trail over Prospect
Hill, and as the town grew, became the main
street.
The first pavements were poor and lasted but
a short time. At first a thin layer of sand and
gravel covered with limestone, was put on the
soft deep mud. This was good for a time, but
soon began to have holes, so was worse than no
pavement at all.
After that at different times planks, cobblestones, pine blocks, and cedar blocks were tried,
but none of them were found satisfactory. Now
cement, macadam, asphalt and brick are most
commonly used.




THE STREETS


67


Barclay, Bridge, Lyon, Butterworth, Coit,
Campau, Jefferson, Wealthy, Turner, Stocking
and some other streets were named after people
who did a good deal for Grand Rapids. Cherry
Street was named for the black cherry trees
that stood near it. Coldbrook Street was named
after Coldbrook Creek which runs through the
city. Canal Street was so called because it was
near the east side canal. Division was the dividing line between two ranges of hills. Fountain
Street when so named began at Ransom, where
there was a good spring of clear water. Island
Street extended from the east side to the river
near one of the islands. Ottawa Avenue was
named for the tribe of Indians that lived here.
State Street lies where the old State road entered the village. A college was to have been
built on what is now College Avenue, but
though the street was named for it, the college
was never built. Prospect Avenue ran across
the top of Prospect Hill, which gave a good view
of the city. Spring Street was named for the
springs near by. Several streets were named
after Presidents of the United States. Recently
many names have been changed, and they are
now so arranged that all of the avenues extend
north and south, and the streets east and west.




68


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


CHAPTER XII
THE BRIDGES
WHEN the water was low enough, the early
settlers drove through the river and at
other times used a ferry. This was a pole-boat
or a scow, crossing the river below the upper
islands, landing on the east bank about halfway
between Pearl and Fulton Streets. The west
side landing was almost directly opposite.
Many of the people had their own canoes and
skiffs, and in the winter they could often walk
or drive across on the ice.
A summer foot-bridge was made by using
wooden horses and planks, but until 1845 there
were no bridges for teams.
The first bridge in the county was built at
Ada, the expenses being paid by the state. The
first bridge in Grand Rapids was a plank and
timber bridge upon eight stone piers built at
Bridge Street. Nearly all of the material for it
was found in the Grand River Valley and the
people were proud of the fact. The bridge
lasted seven years. The next one built at Bridge
Street was a latticed one with a shingle roof.
This one stood for six years and was then destroyed by fire. It was a toll bridge owned by a
company, and all other people had to pay to go
over it.
Since that time three other bridges have been




THE BRIDGES              69
built across the river at Bridge Street, three at
Leonard Street, two at Pearl Street, one at Fulton Street and a few others. The two new
cement bridge at Bridge and Leonard Streets
are strong and beautiful and will probably last
for many years. All but the railroad bridges
are now owned by the city so they are free to
the public.




70


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


CHAPTER XIII
THE WATER SUPPLY
N THE days when few people lived here,
there was plenty of water for all their needs,
as there were several good springs of pure
water in different parts of the town. However,
as soon as they began to live close together, it
was no longer safe to use water from the surface. So the spring water was turned into log
pipes for the people down town and used by the
Grand Rapids Hydraulic Company. The pointing and fitting of the logs was done by a ship
builder.
Soon there were more customers than the
Hydraulic Company could supply with the
spring water, and after a few bad fires, the city
decided to have a water supply of its own, and
use the water from the river. So in 1874 the
City Water Works were begun.
A reservoir was built on the hill near Livingston Street, and a pumping station on the river
bank at the mouth of Coldbrook Creek. The
water was pumped directly into the mains, and
all that was not needed for use at once went
into the reservoir to be used when the pumps
were not running, or in case of special need. A
crib for filtering was put in the river, with a
pipe extending to the pumping house well.
The first pipes were wooden ones. The inside




THE WATER SUPPLY          71
was bored and all of the sap-wood was taken
out. Then the pipes were wound three times
with strong hoop iron, and finally covered with
asphalt in liquid form. They lasted about fourteen years, after which iron pipes were used.
After a time the city stopped using Coldbrook
and Carrier Creeks as the water was no longer
thought to be pure. For a long time people
drank either well water, or spring water which
they bought from one of the several water companies.
Recently some new pumps have been bought,
and a large filter plant built which purifies the
water before it goes to the mains, so by paying
a small water tax, people can get pure drinking
water by going to their own faucets.




72


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


CHAPTER XIV
THE SCHOOLS
THE early white settlers were anxious to have
their children educated, so for a time sent
them across the river to the Baptist Indian
Mission. After a short time schools were held
in barns and upstairs in private houses. The
first school house for white children was a little
log building built in 1837. Miss Bond, who had
taught in the Baptist Mission, was the teacher.
The first stone school house was built on Ransom Avenue, southwest of the place where the
old Central Grammar School stood later, near
the present Junior High School.
Most of the schools in the early days had long
desks on two sides of the room, and seats made
of slabs of wood, smooth side up, with sticks for
legs. The rooms were heated by large square
wood-stoves which stood in the center. The
children who sat near the stove were usually
too warm, and those at the ends of the room too
cold. The larger boys cut the wood which was
furnished by the parents.
School began at eight o'clock in the morning
and closed at five in the afternoon, having a
short recess at noon for lunch. It was in session
six days in the week and most of the year. The
only holiday on which it was closed was the
Fourth of July.




THE SCHOOLS             73
Since then the schools have improved and
grown until now there are night schools, ungraded schools, manual training schools, auxiliary schools for the exceptional children, schools
for the deaf, open air schools, and private and
parochial schools besides the regular public
schools.
Each school has a library for the children, the
books being furnished by the Grand Rapids Public Library. Eleven schools, Alexander, Buchanan, Coldbrook, Hall, E. Leonard, Palmer,
Sigsbee, Turner, Franklin, Lexington and South
High now have branch libraries for the public,
and plans are made for opening a library in the
Union School.




74


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


CHAPTER XV
rHE CITY AND ITS' INDUSTRIES
W   HEN Michigan was new and for years afterwards, there were many lumber camps in
different parts of the state. During the winter
the logs were cut and piled along the banks of
the rivers ready to be floated down to the mills
as soon as the ice went out in the spring. Grand
River played an important part in this business,
and as there was good water-power near the
Rapids, saw mills were located here at an early
date.
The first one was built on Indian Creek in
1833 for the Indians. Some granite stones were
put in this mill to be used for grinding corn and
other grain. Later these were taken by Mr.
John Ball to his home for a horse-block, and
now stand in front of the museum. Other saw
mills were built soon after.
Later, factories for manufacturing furniture
and many different articles were built along the
river banks. The first furniture factory was put
up in 1836 at the corner of Kent and Hastings
Streets, by Robert Hilton and Sylvester Granger.
That same year they also built the first turning
lathe, on the bank of the river, below the old
ship-yard at the foot of the rapids.
In 1837 Mr. Hilton and a Mr. Solomon built
the first chair factory, located on the corner of
Ionia Avenue and Fountain Street.




THE CITY AND ITS INDUSTRIES


75


In the days of the Baptist Mission, Chief
Noon-Day showed Mr. McCoy some crude gypsum lying on the west bank of Plaster Creek a
short distance from Grand River.
Later it was discovered that large beds of
gypsum near the surface of the ground, lay in
that part of the valley. So a small mill was
built and the work of quarrying, grinding, and
calcining was begun.
As the demand was greater than the supply,
many people decided to invest money in the new
business, so other and larger mills were built,
and the manufacture of stucco and calcined
plaster was begun. One of the early comers
had learned how to calcine gypsum before he
came here, so he took some of the rock, pounded
it into small pieces, had it ground at an Indian
mill, boiled it in a caldron kettle and made
stucco. At first it was not very good, but later
became most satisfactory.
The plaster and lime mortar made here were
first used in Mr. Campau's house, the lime being
burned in a kiln near the river.
Stucco was first used in 1834 as a finish for
the gable ends of a house built by Richard
Godfroy, one of the pioneers.
Some of the early settlers tried to use gypsum
stone as a facing in blocks and houses. It
looked beautiful, but was not at all satisfactory,
as it separated into parts when it became wet.
Alabastine was invented by Mr. Melvin




STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


Church in 1877 and has since become well
known as a wall finish.
Many ways of using gypsum have been found,
and as the products made here are the very best,
they are sent to all parts of the world.
In 1836 Mr. Richard Godfroy built the first
steamboat, the "Governor Mason," which made
her maiden trip the following Fourth of July.
At one time the boat was started for Ionia, and
when partly over the rapids, her engines
stopped. A messenger was sent to Rev. Slater,
who brought out two yokes of cattle and towed
the boat to the head of the rapids.
About that time Mr. John W. Pierce opened a
book store on the corner of Kent and Crescent
Streets. His was the first one in the valley and
he remained there in that business until 1844,
when he opened a general store on Canal Street.
That year he built the first brick store.
The first newspaper in the valley was "The
Grand River Times," published in 1837.
Mr. W. N. Cook built the first buggy that was
ever made in the valley in 1842.
From the time these industries were started
up to the present, progress has been almost continual. There are many manufacturing houses
putting out high class goods.
The Bissell Carpet Sweepers are sent to
nearly all parts of the world; the Sticky Fly
Paper made in Grand Rapids is the only kind
known; the knitting and printing companies do
much business outside of the city; the brass




THE CITY AND ITS INDUSTRIES


77


findings rank among the best: an immense
wholesale business is done here; there are several flour mills which pride themselves on the
quality of their products; brick making is an
important industry; the Clipper Belt Lacer
Company is the only one of the kind in the
world; the Elliott Machine Company is the only
one making shoe button fasteners.
Grand Rapids has the largest factories in the
world for making show cases, window sash pulleys, refrigerators and band instruments. It has
the largest factory in the United States for making manual training equipment.
Although furniture is made in large quantities in many cities, the best is made here, and
Grand Rapids has become known all over the
world as the Furniture City.
Twice a year dealers from all parts of the
United States come here to attend the furniture
exhibition, which is made up of samples of all
kinds of furniture made in many cities. Both
salesmen and buyers come and thousands of
dollars are spent in the deals.
The many railroads enable the manufacturers
to send out their goods easily, and our nearness
to the Great Lakes is a help to the city's trade.
The banks are well founded, for since the
city's incorporation in 1850, there have been no
failures. The Building and Loan Associations,
examined by the bank examiners, are safe and
profitable places in which to invest savings.
Grand Rapids has one of the lowest death




78


STORY OF GRAND RAPIDS


rates in the United States. The crusade against
impure milk, the baby clinics, the free dispensaries at the hospitals, the school nurses, and the
Anti-Tuberculosis Society are doing all in their
power to prevent illness and to teach the members of the rising generation to properly care
for themselves.
The tax, gas, water and insurance rates are
comparatively low.
The parks, several of which were given to the
city, are kept in good condition, and there is a
playground within one-half mile of every child
in the city.
The Social Welfare Association looks after
the needy people.
The city has a well organized police and fire
department which is ever ready to respond to
the calls of its citizens.
There is a large public library with branches
in several parts of the city.
The city government, the Association of Commerce, which is a large business men's organization, the churches, clubs, newspapers and a
large number of public spirited individuals have
spent a great deal of time and money building
up the city to make it not only a large business
center, but also an ideal place in which to live.
They ask the citizens to be loyal, to buy their
goods, whenever they can, from home stores,
and to help in every way possible to make the
city clean and beautiful.




I




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