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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37772-h.zip b/37772-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..877d2f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/37772-h.zip diff --git a/37772-h/37772-h.htm b/37772-h/37772-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c1258a --- /dev/null +++ b/37772-h/37772-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1573 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pioneer Day Exercises, by Ladies' Library Association of Schoolcraft, Michigan. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + +p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + +hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + +table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + +a {text-decoration: none;} + +a.boxpopup3 {position:relative; + z-index:24; + color:#046; + border-bottom:thin dotted #046; + text-decoration:none} +a.boxpopup3:hover {z-index:25; background-color:#FF0} +a.boxpopup3 span {display: none} +a.boxpopup3:hover span { + display:block; + position:absolute; + top:2em; left:0; width:12em; + padding:.3em; + border:2px outset #BBB; + color:#000; background:#FF9; + text-align:center;} + +.big {font-size: 125%;} +.huge {font-size: 150%;} +.giant {font-size: 200%;} + +.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pioneer Day Exercises, by +(Schoolcraft, Michigan) Ladies' Library Association + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pioneer Day Exercises + +Author: (Schoolcraft, Michigan) Ladies' Library Association + +Release Date: October 17, 2011 [EBook #37772] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIONEER DAY EXERCISES *** + + + + +Produced by K Nordquist, David E. Brown and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from images made available by the +HathiTrust Digital Library.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<p class="center"><span class="giant">PIONEER DAY EXERCISES.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" summary="table"> +<tr><td><span class="giant">Ladies'</span></td><td align="center"><div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i-001.png" alt="" /></div></td><td><span class="giant">Library</span></td><td><div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i-001.png" alt="" /></div> </td><td><span class="giant">Association.</span></td></tr></table> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">SCHOOLCRAFT, MICH.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">April 26, 1898.</span></p> + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="giant">L. L. A. PIONEER DAY.</span></p> + +<p> </p> +<p>At the meeting of the Ladies' Library Association on April 26, the +following program was carried out, the papers having been prepared for +the occasion by some of the survivors of the early settlers of +Schoolcraft and Prairie Ronde:</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="big">PROGRAM:</span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" summary="table"> +<tr><td><a href="#THANKSGIVING_HYMN">Thanksgiving Hymn</a></td><td align="right">L. L. A. Quartette.</td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#THE_BEGINNING_of_SCHOOLCRAFT">Paper, "The Beginning of Schoolcraft"</a></td><td align="right">E. Lakin Brown.</td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#PERSONAL_RECOLLECTIONS_OF_THE_EARLY_PUBLIC_SCHOOLS_OF_SCHOOLCRAFT">Paper, "Personal Recollections of the Early Public Schools of Schoolcraft" </a></td><td align="right">Mrs. P. S. Thomas.</td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#THE_YOUNG_PIONEER">Song, "The Young Pioneer"</a></td><td align="right">L. L. A. Quartette.</td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#THE_TRANSPLANTING_OF_A_BOY">Paper, "The Transplanting of a Boy"</a></td><td align="right">J. H. Bates.</td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#REMINISCENCES_OF_THE_LIFE_OF_A_YOUNG_PIONEER">Paper, "Reminiscences of the Life of a Young Pioneer"</a></td><td align="right">H. P. Smith.</td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#EARLY_DAYS_IN_PRAIRIE_RONDE">Paper, "Early Days in Prairie Ronde"</a></td><td align="right">O. H. Fellows.</td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#MICHIGAN_MY_MICHIGAN">Song, "Michigan, My Michigan"</a></td><td align="right">L. L. A. Quartette.</td></tr></table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge"><a name="THANKSGIVING_HYMN" id="THANKSGIVING_HYMN"></a>THANKSGIVING HYMN.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">WRITTEN BY E. LAKIN BROWN,</span></p> + +<p class="center">And sung at a Thanksgiving dinner given by James Smith, at his home in +Schoolcraft, November, 1835.</p> +<p> </p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" summary="table"> +<tr><td> +Again the joyful seasons<br /> +Have run their destined course,<br /> +And borne ten thousand reasons<br /> +Of more than reason's force.<br /> +Why, man, the chief receiver<br /> +Of all their countless joys<br /> +Should raise unto the giver<br /> +A glad and thankful voice.<br /> +<br /> +Yea, every land and nation<br /> +That owns the gladdening sun<br /> +Should render adoration<br /> +To Him, the Holy One:<br /> +To Him, to sing whose praises<br /> +Angelic choirs unite;<br /> +To Him whose goodness raises<br /> +From darkness into light.<br /> +<br /> +But chiefly with thanksgiving<br /> +And songs of honor new,<br /> +As most of all receiving,<br /> +Should we the homage due<br /> +Repay to Him whose bounty<br /> +With overflowing hand,<br /> +Has sent us smiling plenty<br /> +Far from our fatherland.<br /> +<br /> +And when with rich profusion<br /> +We crown the festal board,<br /> +And mirth and gay confusion<br /> +With cheerful health accord,<br /> +Be mindful of His mercies<br /> +Who rules the rolling year,<br /> +Who every doubt disperses<br /> +And dries the falling tear.</td></tr></table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge"><a name="THE_BEGINNING_of_SCHOOLCRAFT" id="THE_BEGINNING_of_SCHOOLCRAFT"></a>THE BEGINNING of SCHOOLCRAFT</span></p> + +<p class="center">Written and read by E. Lakin Brown.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p><i>Ladies of the Association</i>:</p> + +<p>At the urgent request of your committee, but with much fear of failure +of any good result, I have consented to write a brief article upon the +early history of Schoolcraft, and the character and peculiarities of its +first settlers; and by Schoolcraft, I mean not merely the village, but +the township; or rather, Prairie Ronde and Gourdneck prairies. And +first, of who constituted the Vermont colony, who first came to +Schoolcraft, and how they happened to come here; and I fear this will +necessarily be too brief and sketchy to be interesting, and too long for +the occasion.</p> + +<p>In the winter of 1829-30, I was teaching the district school in +Cavendish, Vt., where my brother-in-law, James Smith, Jr., resided. I +was to be 21 years old in the spring, and a life to be spent upon a +hard, rough farm in the mountainous town of Plymouth, where my father +lived, with a large family of boys and girls, did not seem to me to +offer very attractive prospects.</p> + +<p>My father's brother, Daniel Brown, had removed with his family to the +state of New York when I was about four years old, and after various +chances and changes, had finally settled at Ann Arbor, Mich., one of the +very earliest settlers of that place. Occasional letters from him had +set forth in glowing colors the beauty and advantages of that place and +vicinity, and in casting about as to what I should do when "of age," I +decided that I would go to Michigan as soon as the Erie canal should be +open in the spring. I communicated my intention to Smith, and before my +school was finished he too, declared his intention of going. When I went +home in the spring, I met Hosea B. Huston, a young man who had grown up, +a near neighbor of ours, in the family of one John Lakin, and who had +not, so far as I know, a living relative in the world. He too, had just +finished teaching a winter's school, and learning my intentions, decided +at once to become a third member of the party to Michigan. We left on +the 18th of April, 1830, our destination Ann Arbor, Michigan. Anything +beyond that was an unknown land. Of the incidents of our journey, though +tedious and somewhat eventful, this is not the time nor the occasion to +relate them. It is only important to say that on arriving at Buffalo, +where we were aware that Mr. Thaddeus Smith was then living, we stopped +and looked him up, and remained with him and family two days. Thaddeus +Smith was not a relative of the Smith family of Cavendish, Vt., but a +neighbor and intimate friend of theirs, and his wife was a cousin of +mine, and of course, of my sister Mrs. James Smith. The year before, in +1829, Thaddeus had made a trip to Michigan, looking for a place to +locate, and had come to Prairie Ronde, where he found a few settlers, +Bazel Harrison and family, who had come to the prairie in the fall of +1828, and several who had come the next year. He described Prairie Ronde +in glowing terms, said it was the garden of the world, and we must on no +account fail to go there. We arrived at Ann Arbor about the 12th of May, +and after a stay of a few days, Smith and Huston started for Prairie +Ronde, by way of Tecumseh and White Pigeon, known as the Chicago Trail, +the more direct route through Jackson and Calhoun counties not having +yet been opened. They bought a pony and "rode and tied," that is, one +rode on ahead as far as he thought proper, then dismounted and tied the +horse to a tree to be taken in turn by the man on foot when he came up. +Arriving at Prairie Ronde, they came to the east side of the "Big +Island" as the settlers called it. There the only settler was a man by +the name of LaRue, who had squatted and made a pre-emption claim on the +80 acre lot which was afterwards laid out as the village of Schoolcraft. +He had built and lived in a little cabin which stood for some years just +west of the dwelling built and occupied by Col. Daniels, and afterwards +by Judge Dyckman. Smith at once decided that the land on the east side +of the Island, being a central point on the prairie was the best point +for locating a business establishment, and determined to start a store +there. So he bargained with LaRue for his claim, and further, for the +erection of a log cabin that would serve for a store, to be done by the +time he could go to New York, buy goods and get them here. He paid him +ten dollars, and was to pay him fifty more when he took possession. +Smith and Huston then returned to Ann Arbor; Smith was to go to New York +and buy a few goods, and Huston to remain a while at Ann Arbor and then +come back to Prairie Ronde and take charge of the trade under the firm +name of Smith & Huston. Smith started for New York, and I for Vermont. +On arriving at Buffalo we again called on Thaddeus Smith, and it was +agreed upon that when the goods arrived at Buffalo, he and his family +should go on the vessel with them as far as Detroit, and thence across +the country to Prairie Ronde, Thaddeus to be a partner in the concern.</p> + +<p>I went to Vermont and remained until October 1831, when I again started +for Michigan. Arriving at Ann Arbor, there was no public conveyance +farther west; and my uncle said that he wished to see the western part +of the territory, and he would go out with me. With an old Indian pony +and a light wagon, and a box of provisions we started, only one of us +riding at a time, by way of Jackson, Marshall and Battle Creek, in each +of which places there was a log cabin or two, the road being a mere +trail from Ann Arbor to Bronson, now Kalamazoo, and not a bridge in the +whole distance. At Bronson where we arrived just at sunset on November +5, having left Ann Arbor on the last day of October, there were four log +cabins, one of which was occupied by Titus Bronson, the proprietor of +the future village, where the county seat had already been located. +There was also a small two story framed store, which Smith, Huston & Co. +had built in the summer of that year and supplied with goods from the +store at Schoolcraft, Huston taking charge of the same. Leaving my uncle +at Bronson's where Huston boarded, Huston and I took horses and rode to +Prairie Ronde where we arrived about 9 o'clock at night, at the log +cabin which served as both store and dwelling for the Big Island branch +of the business. My uncle came the next day, and on the day after left +for his home. In giving this detail of my own story till my return to +Michigan, I have necessarily delayed giving the fortunes of the Big +Island venture. The goods sent by James Smith, arrived in due time by +canal at Buffalo, and were there transferred to a schooner for St. +Joseph. Thaddeus Smith, his wife and son Henry P. took the same schooner +as far as Detroit, and from there took the Southern or Chicago road to +White Pigeon, and thence to Prairie Ronde. Huston reached Prairie Ronde +about the same time from Ann Arbor. There they learned that LaRue, +instead of building a cabin on his claim as he had agreed, had re-sold +his claim to a man named Bond, and run away; so there was no place to +store the goods when they should arrive nor a place for the family to +live. It was finally arranged that they should have the occupancy of +one-half the little cabin of Abner Calhoon, on the west side of the +Prairie for the winter and put up one of their own on the east side of +the Island in the spring. Early in the spring this was done. A pretty +large log building was erected just west of where my son Addison now +lives, and the family and goods were removed to it. In May, James Smith +again came from Vermont, accompanied by his brother Addison, who had +some cash capital which he invested in the concern, and became a member +of the firm of Smith, Huston & Co. and was to remain in charge of the +business, while Huston was to go to Bronson, and build a store there—a +branch of the business at the Big Island; James Smith going immediately +to New York to purchase a stock of goods to supply both stores. This was +the condition of things when I arrived at the Big Island store November +5, of that year as I have already related. And from that very day the +terms Prairie Ronde and Big Island were dropped as signifying the place +of business here, and the name Schoolcraft was used.</p> + +<p>Lucius Lyon, a well known government land surveyor, and afterwards one +of the first two senators elected to the U. S. senate from the new state +of Michigan, had purchased of Mr. Christopher Bair, one of the early +settlers on the west side of the prairie, the E. ½ of the N. W. ¼ of +Sec. 19, and had also become the owner of the E. ½ of the S. W. ¼ of +Sec. 18. in this township, and through his agent, Dr. David E. Brown, +proceeded to lay out a village, embracing the whole of the last +description, and a tier of lots on the north end of the first one. +Stephen Vickery, surveyor, Dr. Brown, in honor of the Indian agent and +explorer in the north-west, Henry R. Schoolcraft, a friend of Lyon's +named it Schoolcraft. The survey of the village was finished on the day +I arrived here. The inhabitants of the village on that day consisted of +the inmates of the log store and dwelling above mentioned, namely, +Thaddeus and Eliza Smith and their children Henry P., aged 5 years, and +Helen, aged six weeks; Mary A. Parker, sister of Mrs. Smith, who came in +the summer preceding, J. A. Smith, and a young man from New Hampshire, +Edwin M. Fogg, a cabinet maker, who built a shop, occupied for many +years for the purpose for which it was built, and afterwards for a +dwelling, and recently known as the Strew house. The frame of this shop +was also raised the day I arrived. Such was the genesis, birth, and +first year of the village of Schoolcraft. It is said that the postscript +of a lady's letter is usually longer than the body of it. On the +contrary, the preface of this article has been longer than all that will +follow it. I could not make it shorter and tell you clearly how the +village got born. And here I am strongly tempted to leave it. The +program which I indicated at starting frightens me. In a brief +continuation, however, I will say that in the following winter I +purchased the interest of Thaddeus Smith in the concern and took his +place as a member of the firm of Smith, Huston & Co.—that on the +arrival for permanent settlement here of James Smith, a settlement and +dissolution of the firm was made, Huston taking the property at Bronson, +and a new firm formed at Schoolcraft, consisting of James and J. A. +Smith and myself, under the firm name of J. and J. A. Smith & Co., which +continued in business until January 1, 1836. When I arrived in +Schoolcraft, the old firm had commenced the framing of the timbers for a +large hotel, which was finished the next summer by the new firm, and Mr. +Johnson Patrick was installed as landlord. His administration of affairs +was not a success. After about two years occupancy he left the hotel, +which was soon after taken by Mr. John Dix, from Cavendish, Vt., and it +became a popular and profitable hostelry till he left it at the close of +the year 1837. In the summer of 1833, J. and J. A. Smith & Co. built and +occupied a very convenient store-house on the south-west corner of +Center and Eliza streets which was occupied by James Smith after the +dissolution of the firm. So far I have related, briefly as I could, the +history of the transactions of these parties, because I could not give +an account of the origin and early history of the village otherwise, as +they were the origin and main factors in most that was done in the +village for some years. I had intended to go farther, and give some of +the leading events in the history of the village, mentioning some of the +most noted persons who settled not only in the village, but on the +prairies—Prairie Ronde and Gourdneck—with some of their +characteristics, enlivened with anecdote and story. But this article is +already too long for the occasion, and I am appalled at the difficulties +of what I had undertaken. At the great age of 89 years, with many +infirmities, I find it difficult and painful to remember and compose and +write for any considerable time. With the exception of my three sisters, +Mrs. Pamela S. Thomas, who came in 1833, Mrs. Lephia O. Brown who came +in 1834, and Mrs. Sally E. Dix, who came in 1835, I know of but a single +person, man or woman who came to the village or either prairie as early +as the latter date, and who had reached maturity at that time, who is +now living. The exception is Abner Burson. And the exceptions are very +few of those who came before 1840. I know of but one or two, Justin +Cooper, of this village being one.</p> + +<p>Ladies, excuse me for what I have so imperfectly done as well as for +what I have not done at all.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge"><a name="PERSONAL_RECOLLECTIONS_OF_THE_EARLY_PUBLIC_SCHOOLS_OF_SCHOOLCRAFT" id="PERSONAL_RECOLLECTIONS_OF_THE_EARLY_PUBLIC_SCHOOLS_OF_SCHOOLCRAFT"></a>PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF THE EARLY PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF SCHOOLCRAFT.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">BY PAMELA S. THOMAS.</span></p> + +<p class="center">Read by Miss Ella Thomas.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>I have been asked to tell something of the pioneer schools in +Schoolcraft; not that I can relate anything of much interest, or of +great importance; but because I taught the first public school in this +village, in the year 1834, in a small building erected for that purpose +on "The public square," now "The park." I had some 25 or 30 pupils. +Those recently from New England were well advanced in the studies then +taught in district schools, while others, whose parents had lived on the +frontier, had never seen the inside of a school room and were unable to +read at 10 and 12 years of age; yet their progress was astonishingly +rapid.</p> + +<p>Sickness in the autumn was so general that it necessitated the closing +of the school. As I returned to my home in Vermont in November and was +not again in Schoolcraft until the fall of 1839, I can say little of the +schools during those five years. I was told of the small school house on +"The Common," having been moved off and used for other purposes, that +schools had been taught in different rooms, sometimes as private +schools; for the Yankee settlers appreciated the advantage of education +for their children. Many new settlers had moved here, and some of the +frontiersmen had gone farther west.</p> + +<p>There were more than 100 scholars in this district at that time, 1839, +and a two-story school house had been built on the corner of Grand and +Eliza streets, containing two rooms, one on each floor. This was the +district schoolhouse, that we all remember and is now used as a barn by +Mr. Buss.</p> + +<p>On my arrival I was hired to teach in the lower room, and a Mr. Towers +in the upper. It is scarcely necessary to say, the present admirable +plan of grading schools was then unknown, and these rooms were to be +filled, pupils going to the teacher preferred. However, it was expected +the gentleman would teach the older scholars in the upper room, while I +took the little folks; yet several young ladies chose to go in the lower +room. As it was the custom for pupils to study independently, going +through the arithmetic, etc., by themselves, it made little difference +in which room their studies were pursued, provided their teacher was +competent to render assistance when asked for. My room soon became too +full for the pupils to be accommodated, and the director obliged several +to go into the upper room.</p> + +<p>But few of the scholars of 1834 were among the 60 or 70 in attendance. A +few were in Mr. Towers' room. Others, in whom I had felt an interest, +had moved to newer regions, <a class="boxpopup3" href="#TYPO">probably<span>changed from propably in original</span></a> growing up with little schooling, +although endowed with bright intellects. H. P. Smith is the only one, of +those earlier pupils, now living in this village. And, indeed, I know of +but one or two left on this side of "The Better Land." I can name +several of the scholars of 1839, James H. Bates and his three +brothers—all passed from earth but himself; six children of James +Smith, only two of whom are living, Hannah Kirby, her brother and +sisters; H. P. Smith and sister, Helen, etc.</p> + +<p>The late Mr. Willis Judson has frequently joked about his fear of +chastisement, when, Mr. Towers being sick, I assumed authority in his +room for a few days, while another young lady filled my place. Only a +few months since, Mr. Archibald Finlay told his recollections of the +time I was his teacher. And the year of "The Columbian Exposition" Mr. +Oscar Forsythe, who has been a hardware merchant in Bay City for many +years, stopped in this place, when returning from the world's fair. He +called on me saying: "You may not know me, but I went to school to you +54 years ago." He had not been here for more than 40 years. Therefore it +was not to be expected I should recognize the young lad in the +prosperous elderly gentleman.</p> + +<p>Two young ladies, nieces of Mrs. L. H. Stone, followed Mr. Towers and +myself in this school. They were good teachers. Later a few years, our +schools were taught, sometimes by competent teachers, and sometimes by +those less so. About 1843, Mr. Eaton, a Baptist minister, opened a +private school, in one of the school rooms, by permission of the school +board. He was a college graduate, and his school was of great benefit to +our village. When he left, Mr. Dwinell, a graduate of Yale, took his +place, filling it with satisfaction to his pupils.</p> + +<p>In 1846, through the generosity of Rev. William Taylor, "Cedar Park +Seminary" was opened. For some years that was one of the most popular +schools in western Michigan. The rapid growth of Kalamazoo enabled her +citizens to establish schools with superior advantages, and Cedar Park +Seminary was sold to this district.</p> + +<p>The worth of the present high school and of the lower departments are +too well known to render any remarks concerning them necessary.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge"><a name="THE_YOUNG_PIONEER" id="THE_YOUNG_PIONEER"></a>THE YOUNG PIONEER.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">BY E. LAKIN BROWN.</span></p> + +<p class="center">Written to be sung at the Pioneer meeting at Kalamazoo, August 31, 1876.</p> + +<p class="center">Set to music by Jonas Allen.</p> +<p> </p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" summary="table"> +<tr><td> +Oh, bright were the hopes of the young pioneer,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And sweet was the joy that came o'er him.</span><br /> +For his heart it was brave, and strong was his arm,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And a broad, fertile land lay before him.</span><br /> +<br /> +And there by his side was his heart's chosen bride,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who want and privation knew never;</span><br /> +From kindred and home he had borne her away.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To be guarded and cherished for ever.</span><br /> +<br /> +A drear home for a bride is the wilderness wide,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her heart to old memories turning,</span><br /> +And lonely and sad and o'er burdened with care,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For kindred and sympathy yearning.</span><br /> +<br /> +Then stern was the task, and long was the toil,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vain longing for all that was needed,</span><br /> +Yet bravely their toils and privations were borne,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As the wilderness slowly receded.</span><br /> +<br /> +But the years rolled away and prosperity came,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wealth and ease on frugality founded:</span><br /> +Now the husband and wife tread the down hill of life<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By brave sons and fair daughters surrounded</span><br /> +<br /> +And the young pioneer has grown stooping and gray,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And he marvels his limbs are no stronger:</span><br /> +And the cheek of the bride is now sallow and thin.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And her eye beams with brightness no longer.</span><br /> +<br /> +All honor and praise to the old pioneers:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">You never may know all their story:</span><br /> +What they found but a desert a garden became,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And their toil, and success is their glory.</span></td></tr></table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge"><a name="THE_TRANSPLANTING_OF_A_BOY" id="THE_TRANSPLANTING_OF_A_BOY"></a>THE TRANSPLANTING OF A BOY.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">BY J. H. BATES.</span></p> + +<p class="center">Read by Addison M. Brown.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>When I was a few weeks turned of eleven years old, my father, then +forty-four years of age, became infected with the western fever then +well on its way of depopulating New England, and, selling his rough +Vermont farm at a better price than it would fetch now in the same +extent and condition, entered upon what at the time was thought not +unfairly to be the serious journey to the wilds of Michigan. Accordingly +early in September, 1837, we set forth, making altogether an emigration +of nineteen persons, one being Miss Julia Hatch, who became Mrs. +Hamilton Scott a little later on. Following advice, we took with us our +entire household effects, including a large cook-stove of the Woolson +patent, one of the very earliest to succeed the huge fire-places over +which our mothers and grandmothers back to the Mayflower in unbroken +line roasted, baked and stewed themselves along with the meals they +prepared. There must have been a Puritan toughness of texture in this +stove, for it served right on unremittingly for not less than thirty +years, as valiant, irascible and friendly a creature as ever woman had +at need. All effects were packed in boxes, and the ingenuity of the +Twenty-mile Stream valley was sorely taxed to fit boxes to the +furniture, or, more properly, the furniture to the boxes, since there +must be a limit to the dimensions of the latter. This difficulty was met +by sawing off any contumacious limb or projection from articles of +unreasonable size, such as tables and bedsteads,—a rough surgery from +which no subsequent care ever quite restored the afflicted members, +<a class="boxpopup3" href="#TYPO">leaving<span>changed from leav1ng in original</span></a> them rickety and rheumatic ever after.</p> + +<p>Conveyance through New England was then by wheel, and so we moved over +the Green Mountains to Troy, my uncle Zaccheus Bates driving the wagon +wherein jolted my three brothers and myself, a cargo of youngsters +irrepressible and volatile to such a degree that when he handed us back +to the parental care after two trying days, my uncle must have thanked +God and breathed freer.</p> + +<p>The passage from Troy to Buffalo was by the Erie Canal, then the great +thoroughfare from tide-water to the lakes. It swarmed with two kinds of +boats, distinguished as line and packet, the latter drawn by three +horses moving at a trot and conveying passengers exclusively, with light +luggage. These were for the more exalted and wealthy travelers, who +desired speedier transit and better accommodations, while boats of the +line, moved by two horses at a walking pace, were suitable for emigrants +like ourselves, and crowded to an over fullness with a miscellany of +men, women, children and household freight. My recollections of this +portion of the journey are of exceeding roughness and discomfort. The +youngsters were not greatly regarded in the general disarray and +scramble. I remember the coarse, scanty fare of the second table, to +which the children were relegated, wherein vile smelling boiled cabbage +figured as a steady quantity, and oppressive nights in a stifling berth +at the very end of the crowded cabin, the horror of it augmented to my +sensitive olfactories by the foul broom which the cabin-maid +persistently kept hanging on the partition at the head of my bunk. Among +the seniors there was more disregard of annoyances, an heroic +determination to make the best of everything, a spirit of good +fellowship and kindly mutual helpfulness, and a hearty open air freedom +of speech and action. Songs were sung and stories told which infringed +the delicacy of the politest circles but were not really offensive to +healthy minds, inconveniences were ignored and pleasant trifles +magnified, a small joke created large merriment, and the hearty and +robust expansiveness of frontier life, in which resides a peculiar charm +unceasingly felt by all who have ever fairly come under it, was +beginning at the very entrance of a new world of nature and of man. +Absurdly prominent stands out my wonder at being called Bub for the +first time, followed by conjecture what the word could mean and where it +came from. But all light, momentary afflictions passed like distempered +dreams when once we were afloat on the blue waters of Lake Erie, in the +steamboat Daniel Webster, bound for Toledo. I had not thought there +could be anything so grand in all the world as this little, fussy, +splashing side-wheeler, to me a veritable floating palace. An event of +moment occurred on the passage. On the wide divan under the cabin +windows of the stern I noticed a delicate man of refined features, much +in contrast with the body of the voyagers. He had several books lying +beside him, and, as I approached in shy curiosity, asked me in kindly +wise, would I like a book, and tossed apart on the divan a copy of +Irving's Sketch Book. I lay there stretched at length, absorbed and +lost, until the waning light dulled the bright page of this delightful +author. Who can explain why the generation succeeding his own so +neglects him?</p> + +<p>The red-painted warehouse at the steamboat wharf in Toledo was also a +terminal station of a strip of steam railway to Adrian, now a part of +the Michigan Southern system. We were transferred directly to the cars, +and, while this magical sort of locomotion must have impressed my boyish +fancy, I am unable to recall a single incident until we were undergoing +the discomfort of crowded and wretched quarters in Adrian, waiting to +engage wagons to transport our party and its effects the remaining +distance.</p> + +<p>I recall being taken into a room to see a stalwart man undergoing an +ague fit. He was fully dressed and seated in an arm-chair, convulsively +shivering and writhing. The door of the room stood open, and people came +and stared and commented, and went away to make room for fresh arrivals. +The scene was so grotesque, and the spectators seemed so amused, that I +was not certain the victim was not acting a part for the general +entertainment, until he informed us with clattering teeth that we saw +what we were all coming to, when a kind of mysterious dread possessed me +of what lay in wait in the <i>terra incognita</i> before us.</p> + +<p>At length, after much searching and haggling, an insufficient caravan +was provided, the household goods bestowed, and, the women folk sitting +on them as did Rachel in the Old Testament story, we set forth through +the oak openings, over the unvarying level, to the music of two or three +rifles in the hands of the adventurers attached to our party, who found +good and unaccustomed sport in the small game frequent among the glades +of the vast continuous forest. We moved slowly, and on the second day +were overtaken by Mr. Edwin H. Lathrop, riding alone in a buggy drawn by +a pair of free-going horses, on his return from Adrian, where he had +left his wife so far on her way to visit eastern friends. Our numerous +colony naturally drew his attention, and after much exchange of speech +he urged me to ride with him and go on before our party, promising to +have me at his house the next morning, and to see that I reached +Schoolcraft in good condition. This request was referred to my mother, +who felt much misgiving and was disposed to see in the honorable +gentleman a sort of brigand on wheels, plotting to carry off the +firstling of her flock to his fastness, and there either torture or hold +him for ransom; but the <a class="boxpopup3" href="#TYPO">object<span>changed from objct in original</span></a> of her distrust having established his +claim to be a civil sort of person, and nowise associated with any band +of robbers, drove away with me, somewhat to the terror of my brothers +and after much excellent advice from my mother, quite as if leaving her +for an indefinite period on a risky adventure. Indeed, after getting +into the great solitude of the woods, quite out of sight and hearing of +the cheerful stir of the caravan, I began to feel not quite at ease as I +glanced from time to time at the countenance which all who knew Mr. +Lathrop will recall as one in its steady seriousness unprovocative of +glee in the heart of childhood; but all discomfort of feeling wore away +under the kindness of my host, and there has always remained with me a +sense of enjoyment in that long drive over a road unobstructed by rocks +and bordered by virgin forests. We lay that night in a room of the +unfinished house of Mr. John Smith of Three Rivers, then an exceedingly +crude, confused and unfinished hamlet wrapped in malarial airs, where +Mr. Smith was engaged in building a flour-mill or saw-mill, I am +uncertain which. We were up with the dawn and drove swiftly to the +residence of Mr. Lathrop, where we breakfasted, and at my urgent request +I was allowed to make my way to Schoolcraft on foot. And so I set out +from the southern border of the prairie, with elastic step and quick +beating heart, eager for the goal of this long pilgrimage.</p> + +<p>The east was flushed with the glory of a perfect Sunday morning, the air +crisp and clear, the green of the native grass still lingered in an +autumn of unusual mildness, and many flowers still bloomed. A flag +flying from the frame-work of the belfry of the recently raised +schoolhouse soon became a guide to my course, but I could not then +understand why my rapid pace did not consume the distance at a greater +rate, so near appeared remote objects in that transparent atmosphere +over the level plain. I suppose I am not correct in saying that I did +not pass an enclosed spot, nor step on ground ever cultivated by man, +but such is my recollection.</p> + +<p>The longest way comes to its ending to the most impatient, and well +before the sun attained its meridian I stood upon the black road before +the village tavern. I had heard that the younger James Smith had the +extraordinary habit of throwing up his head and staring upward at quite +regular intervals, and there, like a weatherwise little sea-man, +actually stood a grave lad winking familiarly at the sun. Making myself +known to him I was soon among the friendly faces of his family, where I +waited for the slow caravan which arrived the following day. The journey +from Vermont occupied fifteen days.</p> + +<p>Thus was I transplanted to the soil where I grew to my appointed +stature;—a kindly soil and habitat wherein not a few fibers of my +affections are left infixed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge"><a name="REMINISCENCES_OF_THE_LIFE_OF_A_YOUNG_PIONEER" id="REMINISCENCES_OF_THE_LIFE_OF_A_YOUNG_PIONEER"></a>REMINISCENCES OF THE LIFE OF A YOUNG PIONEER</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">BY H. P. SMITH.</span></p> + +<p class="center">Read by Miss Isa Smith.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>My earliest recollections of Prairie Ronde date back to the spring of +1830, when, one evening, I was lifted out of a covered wagon and set +down upon my short legs, in front of Esquire Duncan's log house. It +stood upon a rise of ground, among stately trees; a little stream, with +white sand and clear water, running close by, making it a cheerful +place, even with no fences or other evidences of civilization. Years +afterward, a saw-mill was built a few feet from the site of this log +house, known as Duncan's saw mill. There is no vestige now of log cabin +or mill, and very little evidence that a tree ever stood there.</p> + +<p>I was tired, hungry and sleepy, and perhaps cross, for this was the end +of a long, toilsome journey through swamps and dense forests. While I +stood there, scratching my mosquito bites, with no very pleasant +countenance, father and mother crawled out and stretched their weary +limbs. Mr. Duncan's people welcomed us, as they did all emigrants and +travelers, no matter when or how they came. Very soon after, we were +gathered into the one square room of the house and I was allowed to +absorb a bowl of bread and milk. Father and mother and the teamster also +had their supper of corn bread and butter, washed down with sage tea, +eating with an appetite, which everybody carried about in those days of +scanty fare and hardship. As soon as the sun disappeared, mother +prepared to put me to bed, at which I kicked up a small row, because I +did not wish to be thus disposed of without my supper, and I dimly +remember that, at last, she managed to convince me that bread and milk +was supper in that house, after which, very little force was necessary +to put my tired frame to rest for the night. Late next morning, when the +woods were alive with the songs of birds, mother succeeded in getting my +eyes open again, and took me directly from the bed out into the +sunshine, sat me down in the middle of the brook, where the sparkling +water was hardly knee deep, and then I had a good time, kicking and +splashing and allowing the minnows to nibble my toes. Then I was +considered washed and ready for dressing and breakfast. I am told we +were at Esquire Duncan's about a week, of which I remember nothing +further, but afterwards can recall another log house, about two miles +north of Mr. Duncan's, in the edge of the prairie, with its vast, open +green expanse on the east, and an impenetrable forest on the west. Abner +Calhoun, who was the owner of the house, had come, from Ohio, in advance +of us a few weeks, and had just completed it, and nearly built a log +stable, all but the door and the "chinking." Mr. Calhoun being a very +hospitable settler, allowed us, (who were of the tender-foot class,) to +occupy his house, while he, with a family of wife and three children, +moved into the unfinished barn. Of the Calhoun's, there was one boy +about my own age, one younger and one older. Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun were +just plowing up a bit of the prairie near the house, for immediate +cultivation. The long, wooden mold board plow, with the end of its beam +resting upon the axle of a lumber wagon, or rather the front wheels, +drawn by two pairs of small oxen and one pair of young heifers, I well +remember. In the morning, while Mrs. Calhoun busied herself in washing +up the scanty assortment of breakfast dishes, and putting the house in +order for the day, Mr. Calhoun would gather his miscellaneous team and +hitch them to the plow. By that time his wife was ready for work, and +placing herself between the plow handles, the business of the day +commenced. I presume our modern plow-men would criticise their work, but +it was sufficient to raise mammoth corn and splendid potatoes with which +to feed everybody another season. Not long after we were settled, an +event occurred, which suspended the plowing for two and a half days. +Preparatory to that event, I was turned loose to run with the other +children, hedged in by many earnest warnings to keep from the woods and +snakes. Mr. Calhoun went to work chinking his stable, and the cattle +revelled in the fresh prairie grass and rested. Mother was very busy, +both at home and across the way, all the first day. The next day she +invited me to go to the other house and see a new baby, probably the +first one I was ever introduced to. This was Calhoun No. 4. On the third +day Mr. C. gathered up his team again and made an addition of an oblong +box, fastened between the wheels of the plow, and at noon the newcomer +was neatly packed away in said box, amid a pile of blankets, and +business was once more resumed, very carefully and slowly, however. I +can remember Mrs. Calhoun's resting, the picture of contentment, while +seated upon a stump, nursing No. 4. Soon other experiences were +impressed upon my mind, such as the serenades of prairie wolves, who +would gather about our doors and make night hideous with their dismal +howls and barks. We kept the chickens in a box in the house, otherwise +they would have been snatched up in short order by these hungry demons. +These concerts were arranged upon a regular program, like our modern +entertainments.</p> + +<p>As soon as it was dark and the lights extinguished, some old veteran +would begin with an opening solo in a minor key, with very little +variation, then another would join in, and another and soon the entire +pack would make the air tremble with the chorus of from twenty-five to +fifty voices. These entertainments scared me, and, at first, kept the +old folks awake, but they soon became used to them and could sleep on +undisturbed. Occasionally we had other concerts, performed by big grey +wolves, which were of a more serious nature. When the "sable curtain of +night" closed on one of these celebrations, they savored more of +business and sleep was not enjoyable. Men thought of their calves and +pigs shut up in log stables, perhaps exposed to the depredations of +those bloodthirsty, but cowardly brutes. Generally a rifle ball, shot in +their midst, would disperse the pack. One night, before Mr. Calhoun had +made his door, and still had a quilt hung up as a substitute, he was +aroused from sleep by a scuffle between a grey wolf and his dog, who +remonstrated against this invasion of the house. He sat up in bed and +shivered (with cold of course,) while the wolf flogged his dog, went +into the house, under the bed and ate up all his precious stock of soap +grease. He never thought of the loaded rifle hanging within reach. In +this case the wolf was probably the greater coward of the two, but poor +Abner did not know it.</p> + +<p>The Duncans and Calhouns were not our only neighbors. Within a radius of +a few miles were other settlers; the Harrisons, Clarks, Barbers, +Nesbitts, Hoyts, Knights, Shavers, Wygants, Bairs, Armstrongs and +others, all hunters, each and everyone possessing peculiarities of +character belonging to himself. Distributed all over the south half of +Kalamazoo county, then called Brady, were 100 or more people from almost +every state in the union. Hunting and trapping were the chief +occupations of the times, with a liberal division of work, farming and +house building, thus combining business and fun. Saturdays were always +devoted to fun, such as horse-racing, wrestling and jumping, target +shooting, etc. Sunday was the visiting day. Game was as common in the +woods and on the prairie as cattle, horses and sheep are now. Whisky was +the only luxury and cheaper even and better than it is said to be now. +Everyone drank it to keep out cold, heat, pain of every kind; as an +antidote against ague and a bond of sociability. And yet in those early +days there was apparently less drunkenness than now.</p> + +<p>Father received a small stock of goods about this time, belonging to +Smith, Huston & Co. How he got them, I do not know, but probably in +about the same way the Klondike miners receive their supplies. Some one +also lent him a few barrels of whisky to sell on commission. Our one +room was then divided in the center by a board partition, leaving the +stove-pipe and back part of an ancient cook stove in our living room. +Subsequently the stove, in our next and more pretentious house, gave +place to a capacious fire place and brick oven. With the advent of this +whisky, we became at once the center of attraction for 15 or 20 miles +around. The Indians were our most numerous customers and neighbors.</p> + +<p>They went once a year to Detroit or some point in that region to receive +pay for lands relinquished to the state. When they came back, money was +plenty to pay for powder and lead and calicos, and when that was +exhausted they obtained their goods by exchanging for them venison and +skins. Mother soon became a favorite. They called her "the good white +squaw," and took great pains to teach her their language, in which she +soon became quite proficient. She could control them as well as their +old chief, Sagamaw. They had not taken to whisky then as they did soon +afterwards, and, as a rule, were honest and reliable. The chief was a +personal friend of the Smith family and used to make its weekly visits +with his family, staying from one to two days. He was very strict with +his tribe as to any violation of our rights or social privileges. Once +mother lost a silver thimble, and, suspecting it was stolen, stated her +case to old Sagamaw. He promised to attend to it, and if her suspicions +were correct he would know. A few days after a knock was heard at our +door, and mother admitted a pretty, meek looking young squaw, with a +long tough buck whip in one hand and the missing thimble in the other. +The thimble had a hole in it where she had strung it to wear around her +neck. She gave it to mother, then the whip, and said. "Sagamaw say, you +whip squaw," but being so pretty and amiable, mother relented, thinking +she was almost justified in helping herself to ornaments for her comely +person, and so the girl went her way rejoicing. One day the chief, very +delicately suggested to father that it would be proper for such good +friends as they were to exchange wives, and even offered father two of +his prettiest squaws for a bona-fide bill of sale of my mother, but +somehow the trade was never consummated. I presume, in that event, I +would have been thrown in to make a complete exchange of goods, and thus +I failed to become an Indian chief, and Sagamaw never owned a white +squaw. They were constantly bringing me presents of live birds, fawns, +young foxes and wolves, and once when I was on a sick bed, with a high +fever, an Indian brought me the half of a dressed deer, to tempt my +appetite. They were very kind in sickness, but of little use about a +sick bed. There were no wise Indian doctors in those days, such as now +come to cure us of every imaginable disease. This first year we had to +go 60 miles to a flour mill, consequently had to subsist upon corn, in +lieu of wheat bread, and this sometimes made from pounded corn at that. +One day Mrs. Calhoun sent mother a pan of flour as a rare treat, but +when she learned that it was all she had of the precious stuff, she +objected to taking it. Mrs. C. insisted that she must not refuse it, for +mother was not used to going without, and she was. We had very little +pork or beef, but so much venison and wild game that they soon became a +drug. Vegetables and wild fruit being so plenty, we lived as well as we +do now taking our healthy, keen appetites into consideration. Small +game, such as turkeys, partridges, quail, pigeons, rabbits, squirrels, +also fresh fish, were the favorite meat diet of our family.</p> + +<p>In the winter and spring of 1831, father built a log house on the +south-east side of the Big Island, as it was called, a circular forest, +of about a mile in diameter, with prairie all around it. This was known +far and wide, and had been, for hundreds of years, the camping ground of +Indians, traveling east and west. It was almost impassable from the +thickets and windfalls of great trees, and filled with game of all +kinds. So, in the spring, we bade adieu to our good host, Calhoun, and +moved into a house of our own. This place soon became known as +Schoolcraft, and a village plat was surveyed, with streets and a park. +It was many years, though, before we knew just where these luxuries were +located, without looking on the map. One street, Eliza street, was named +after my mother. We soon had neighbors, however, and Schoolcraft and Big +Prairie Ronde were known as the garden and grain supply of the state of +Michigan.</p> + +<p>I must have been about six years old when I attended my first school, +which was taught by my aunt, Miss Mary A. Parker, in a log house on the +bank of E. L. Brown's marsh; then later in a little frame building near +where Thos. Westveer now lives. I became acquainted, as a pupil, with +Miss Pamela Brown, now the widow of Dr. N. M. Thomas, and my respect and +reverence for her was dated from the time of her flogging a certain bad +boy, Archibald Finlay, by name. It was over his shoulders, with nothing +but a shirt between and administered with such good effect that, in +spite of his determined obstinacy and combativeness, he promised +reformation. I was also a bad boy, but was so impressed by this example +of thoroughness that my good resolutions were effectually strengthened.</p> + +<p>One more Indian story and I am done. In the summer of 1829, father +traveled over the southern prairies of the state on foot and alone, to +look for a new home. At Ann Arbor, on his way west, he heard of a +notorious Indian robber, Shavehead, known as a dangerous customer to +lone travelers. Not wishing, just then, to part with his scalp, he made +a circuit of 30 miles or more to avoid meeting him. He was reported to +have killed and scalped 90 or more white persons, and as being in his +war paint, and wearing these scalps, at all times. Father was tired ere +noon, and, secure in the thought that all danger was passed, seated +himself on a fallen log and proceeded to eat his dinner of bread and +cheese, and make himself comfortable for a noon-tide rest. He was +delighted with the fresh woods and prairies, and gave himself up to +air-castles, when he could make his home in this western paradise and +have his family about him. Suddenly, in the midst of these reveries, a +light hand was laid upon his shoulder, and looking up he was confronted +by a tall, brawny, fierce looking Indian, in scalp-lock and paint, +sharp, keen eyes, divided by a prominent, hawk's beak nose, looked down +upon him in stern silence. Father, in describing it afterwards, never +said he was scared, but admitted it was a "surprise party" to him, and +that he instinctively thrust his hand into his pocket and grasped an old +pistol, which would hardly kill at three paces under any circumstances. +However it also flashed through his mind that if this bronzed old +warrior had intended murder he could have committed it as easily with +his wicked looking tomahawk as thus to have laid his hand upon his +shoulder, so he smiled on Shavehead and offered his hand, and they +shook, but with unbending sternness on the part of Shavehead. Then they +sat down together on a log and proceeded to get acquainted as best they +could, mostly by signs. Father took out his pipe and tobacco, divided +the plug with Mr. Red-man, which pleased him very much, and thus they +talked in pantomime with each other for an hour or more, when the +interview ended by mutual consent. They again shook hands, this time +more cordially, but yet no smile softened the face of old Shavehead. And +they parted, the Indian silently melting into the forest, and father +sturdily trudging along his trail towards the west, now and then +glancing backward at the vacancy made by his strange visitor.</p> + +<p>In 1831, a few weeks after we were settled at Big Island, father came +into the house, from his work, one day, and there, seated complacently +by the stove, watching mother about her cooking, was the veritable +Shavehead, still with his head shaved, save the scalp-lock. This time +they shook hands as friends indeed, but the stolid face wore no smile as +before. From that time he was a frequent visitor and we all learned to +like him and respect him. He belonged to no tribe about us; did not +associate with other Indians. If he happened to be in the house, with +them, when mother was distributing food, as was often the case, they +would divide it among themselves, leaving out Shavehead, who received +his portion direct from mother, and ate it in stern silence, amid the +sociable chattering of the others. Shavehead was very peculiar. He never +carried a gun, but was always armed with a powerful bow and arrows and a +murderous looking tomahawk and knife, but the 90 scalps at his belt we +never saw. He never rode a pony, like the others, and never got drunk, +as the others surely did, whenever they could get the fire water of the +whites.</p> + +<p>So far as we could know, he was without an Indian fault or foible. Long +afterwards, when the Potawatomies were gathered up by the government and +taken away to a new reservation, in the west, there was one Indian they +could never find. They searched the woods diligently for months, but +Shavehead mysteriously melted out of all knowledge, leaving only kindly +memories of a brave old chief and a steadfast, though silent friend.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge"><a name="EARLY_DAYS_IN_PRAIRIE_RONDE" id="EARLY_DAYS_IN_PRAIRIE_RONDE"></a>EARLY DAYS IN PRAIRIE RONDE.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="big">BY O. H. FELLOWS.</span></p> + +<p class="center">Read by Miss Anna Fellows.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>This old story that has been so often told and with so many variations +had its beginning for me nearly seventy years ago.</p> + +<p>It was October 24, 1829 that I, a lad nine years old, reached what is +now Prairie Ronde township. We—my mother, brothers and sisters—were +about twenty days on the road not-with-standing we drove horses, three +on one wagon and two on another. My father, Col. Abiel Fellows, and two +oldest brothers had preceded us and had a home built ready to receive +us. The transition though slow from a roomy home of plenty to a +temporary house of one room, where six wayfarers had found shelter +previous to our arrival, naturally filled the mind of a small boy with +consternation, his heart with homesickness. Where was the school-room, +the clock-room with its glowing coal grate? Where was the square-room, +the bed-rooms, the cheerful kitchen? And where, Oh where, was the +buttery? Thoughts of the contents of the one left behind increased in +size the big lump in my throat. And the mountains, the hills, the cool +spring bubbling from the rocks, where were they? But an extenuating +fact, did we not have in this new land the Indian? He lurked in every +dark corner, was behind every tree and bush, I fancied. The strangers +our humble home already sheltered were William Duncan, two sons and one +daughter—William, Delamore, and Eliza Ann—, Lydia Wood and Samuel +Hackett.</p> + +<p>My father met us at Monroe, and I recall that in Saline township he +purchased thirty bushels of wheat the entire output of a small stack, +and left it to be ground into flour. Later we had numerous calls for a +little wheat flour to make a wedding cake, which was always freely +given.</p> + +<p>At Strongs Ridge, Ohio, where we staid one night we were told we would +see no more peaches after we left there—a strange condition of things I +thought—so we bought a goodly supply and saved the stones and on +reaching Prairie Ronde planted them in Mr. Guilford's garden, the first +garden cultivated by a white man on the prairie. Mr. Guilford had apple +trees growing from the seed in this garden. The peach trees grew and +thrived and were transplanted to many claims in the county.</p> + +<p>The south-west part of Kalamazoo county was first settled and John Bair, +brother to William Bair, of Vicksburg, drove the first stake, or rather +blazed the first tree near Harrison's lake June, 1828.</p> + +<p>It was in Prairie Ronde that the first school district in the county was +organized, and the first school taught in the winter of '30 and '31 by +Thomas W. Merrill, founder of what is now Kalamazoo college. Mr. +Merrill, my first teacher in Michigan, was followed by Stephen Vickery, +and Mr. Vickery by Richard Huyck. The school house was built of split +logs and was 20 by 26 feet. It stood near the home of Judson Edmunds, +recently sold to Joseph Davis.</p> + +<p>The first post-office in the county was in Prairie Ronde, and my father +was post-master, receiving his commission from General Jackson. The +first frame building in the county, a small barn, was built by Delamore +Duncan in 1830. The first grist-mill was built in 1830 by John Vickers +on Rocky Creek. Corn only was ground in this primitive mill of small +dimensions. In the fall of the same year Mr. Vickers sold the mill to +Col. Fellows, who built during the winter the first saw-mill in the +county, near where William Maile now lives. In this mill was sawed the +lumber to build the first store at Bronson, now Kalamazoo. One other +claim I must enter. Prairie Ronde furnished for Cooper the character of +"Bee-Hunter" in his novel, "Oak Openings." One Towner Savage disputes +the honor with Mr. Harrison. Mr. Beadle, of dime novel fame, told me he +helped Cooper lay the plot of the story, and that Mr. Towner Savage was +the original "Ben Boden."</p> + +<p>One event that occurred during the Black Hawk war excitement took great +prominence in my boyish mind, because to me it demonstrated the +fearlessness and bravery of my father. It was in the spring of 1832, and +Col. Lyman Daniels, whose regiment had been ordered to the front, had +important papers and money he wished taken to Detroit. It was thought to +be a perilous journey at that time. I distinctly remember Mr. Daniels +asking Col. Fellows if he would carry them, saying he had been unable to +find a man who dared undertake it. My father, then a man nearly 70 years +of age, said he would take them, and the papers and money were +transferred to his saddle bags and the trip made in six days. In 1830 he +had visited Detroit and purchased apple trees, and some of them are +still standing, and promise to bloom in a few weeks in all their +pristine glory. While in Detroit he enjoyed the hospitality of Gen. +Cases. The hero of the war of 1812 and the whilom boy soldier of the +revolution were both members of the ancient order of Masons.</p> + +<p>Of the real privations and sufferings of pioneer life that many +experienced, I know nothing. With horses the journey to Detroit for +supplies was not such an impossible undertaking as it would seem to-day. +But inconveniences were abundant. The post-office was a basket and the +basket was kept under the bed. There was a bushel and a half of the +first mail Col. Fellows, brought from White Pigeon, and for each letter +the post-master paid 25 cents. But I suppose the worth of the news from +home and from "the girl I left behind me," could not be computed in +dollars and cents. It seems but yesterday that a citizen of Schoolcraft +would walk in and say, "Is there airry letter here for airry one of the +Bonds?" The manner of sending money by mail at that time differed +somewhat from the present check, draft and order system. A fifty or one +hundred dollar bill would be cut in two and one-half sent at a time.</p> + +<p>That necessity is truly the mother of invention was often demonstrated +in pioneer days. I recall a novel arrangement for grinding or pounding +corn, constructed by Delamore Duncan. A large stump near the house was +hollowed out at the top and a spring-board set in place projecting over +the top of the house and a pestle at the end completed the mill or stump +mortar. With this the meal for bread for the family was prepared.</p> + +<p>The Indian burying ground in the north-west part of the township had +great interest for the new-comers. I remember visiting it when there +were three "cribs" with their occupants, still standing.</p> + +<p>My knowledge of farming when I came to Michigan was necessarily limited. +But the season following our arrival I was introduced to a pair of oxen +and a harrow. With my ball in my pocket I started out to prepare a few +acres for the sowing of wheat. But no wheat was sown in that field that +season. The oxen were slow and my ball required so much attention that +by the time I finished harrowing the volunteer wheat had made such a +growth sowing was unnecessary. The yield from the field was forty +bushels per acre.</p> + +<p>One memorable night November 13, 1833, our household was awakened by Dr. +Nathan Thomas who was on a professional visit to the neighborhood and we +all left our beds and went out to witness the great meteoric shower +never to be forgotten.</p> + +<p>The meat supply in the neighborhood sometimes ran low, and thereby hangs +a tale. One Harry Smith, came to our home one day to borrow a horse and +wagon to drive to Mr. Bishop's, who lived on the north-west side of the +prairie. Mr. Smith had a large family, and they were out of meat, and he +had heard Mr. Bishop had some to spare. But on reaching there he was +told they had no more than would be needed for the family. Mr. Smith, +rather crest-fallen, started to return home, but on second thought went +back to the house and told Mr. Bishop if he would lend him a bone he +would take it home and season some beans and return it. This so greatly +pleased Mr. Bishop that he told Mr. Smith he would divide his meat with +him, and one meat-hungry family rejoiced that day.</p> + +<p>Improved roads, the railway, the telegraph, the telephone, and other +Edisonian inventions, have shortened distances since those early days. +And yet I fancy were I to walk from the site of the Old Branch in +Kalamazoo, to Prairie Ronde, the distance would seem much greater than +it did sixty years ago, when I sometimes walked home from school +Saturday afternoon.</p> + +<p>Although their pioneer experiences retain great interest for those who +participated in them, they are not supposed to hold the same interest +for these sons and daughters of younger generations that I see before +me. Many of you will enter the next century in the prime of life and +help solve problems we wot not of. But those who were born in the early +morning of the present century and are still living should be content, +for in the words of John S. Ingalls, greater progress has been made +during their life time than in sixty centuries previous.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—Mrs. Mary Frasier and Lyman Guilford, of Schoolcraft, William +Bair, of Vicksburg, and O. H. Fellows, of Prairie Ronde, are all who are +living who came to Kalamazoo county in 1829.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge"><a name="MICHIGAN_MY_MICHIGAN" id="MICHIGAN_MY_MICHIGAN"></a>MICHIGAN MY MICHIGAN.</span></p> + +<p class="center">This song was written by Addison M. Brown in 1893, to be sung at the +annual meeting and picnic of the Kalamazoo County Pioneer society, held +at Long Lake.</p> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" summary="table"> +<tr><td> +Bride of my youth, I sing of thee,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span><br /> +Thy wave-washed shores, how dear to me,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span><br /> +Thee fondly chose I for my own,<br /> +With thee I built my cabin home,<br /> +And from thee ne'er had wish to roam,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span><br /> +<br /> +Ne'er brought a bride such dower as thine,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span><br /> +Such wealth in forest, field and mine,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span><br /> +Thy youthful form how fair to see<br /> +Ere thy tall forests spared a tree<br /> +Or plow-share harsh had fretted thee,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span><br /> +<br /> +My heart turns fondly to the day,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span><br /> +When, turning from my weary way,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span><br /> +I gently laid my tired head<br /> +On thy soft bosom wide outspread,<br /> +With naught but Heaven over head,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span><br /> +<br /> +Swiftly, since then, the years have run,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span><br /> +The fateful thread is nearly spun,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span><br /> +Again my head shall soon be pressed<br /> +Upon the pillow of thy breast<br /> +To find with thee unending rest,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michigan, my Michigan.</span></td></tr></table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:</span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Punctuation has been corrected without note.<br /> +<br /> +Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been retained from the original.<br /> +<br /> +<a name="TYPO" id="TYPO">Obvious typographical errors have been corrected and are indicated in the text in color and underlined. The correction can be viewed by hovering the mouse over the word.</a></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pioneer Day Exercises, by +(Schoolcraft, Michigan) Ladies' Library Association + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIONEER DAY EXERCISES *** + +***** This file should be named 37772-h.htm or 37772-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/7/7/37772/ + +Produced by K Nordquist, David E. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/37772-h/images/i-001.png b/37772-h/images/i-001.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..934d592 --- /dev/null +++ b/37772-h/images/i-001.png diff --git a/37772.txt b/37772.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7e0beb --- /dev/null +++ b/37772.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1492 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pioneer Day Exercises, by +(Schoolcraft, Michigan) Ladies' Library Association + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pioneer Day Exercises + +Author: (Schoolcraft, Michigan) Ladies' Library Association + +Release Date: October 17, 2011 [EBook #37772] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIONEER DAY EXERCISES *** + + + + +Produced by K Nordquist, David E. Brown and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from images made available by the +HathiTrust Digital Library.) + + + + + + + + + + PIONEER DAY EXERCISES. + + Ladies' Library Association. + + SCHOOLCRAFT, MICH. + + April 26, 1898. + + + + +L. L. A. PIONEER DAY. + + +At the meeting of the Ladies' Library Association on April 26, the +following program was carried out, the papers having been prepared for +the occasion by some of the survivors of the early settlers of +Schoolcraft and Prairie Ronde: + + +PROGRAM: + +Thanksgiving Hymn L. L. A. Quartette. + +Paper, "The Beginning of Schoolcraft" E. Lakin Brown. + +Paper, "Personal Recollections of the + Early Public Schools of Schoolcraft" Mrs. P. S. Thomas. + +Song, "The Young Pioneer" L. L. A. Quartette. + +Paper, "The Transplanting of a Boy" J. H. Bates. + +Paper, "Reminiscences of the Life of a Young Pioneer" H. P. Smith. + +Paper, "Early Days in Prairie Ronde" O. H. Fellows. + +Song, "Michigan, My Michigan" L. L. A. Quartette. + + + + +THANKSGIVING HYMN. + +WRITTEN BY E. LAKIN BROWN, + +And sung at a Thanksgiving dinner given by James Smith, at his home in +Schoolcraft, November, 1835. + + + Again the joyful seasons + Have run their destined course, + And borne ten thousand reasons + Of more than reason's force. + Why, man, the chief receiver + Of all their countless joys + Should raise unto the giver + A glad and thankful voice. + + Yea, every land and nation + That owns the gladdening sun + Should render adoration + To Him, the Holy One: + To Him, to sing whose praises + Angelic choirs unite; + To Him whose goodness raises + From darkness into light. + + But chiefly with thanksgiving + And songs of honor new, + As most of all receiving, + Should we the homage due + Repay to Him whose bounty + With overflowing hand, + Has sent us smiling plenty + Far from our fatherland. + + And when with rich profusion + We crown the festal board, + And mirth and gay confusion + With cheerful health accord, + Be mindful of His mercies + Who rules the rolling year, + Who every doubt disperses + And dries the falling tear. + + + + +THE BEGINNING of SCHOOLCRAFT + +Written and read by E. Lakin Brown. + + +_Ladies of the Association_: + +At the urgent request of your committee, but with much fear of failure +of any good result, I have consented to write a brief article upon the +early history of Schoolcraft, and the character and peculiarities of its +first settlers; and by Schoolcraft, I mean not merely the village, but +the township; or rather, Prairie Ronde and Gourdneck prairies. And +first, of who constituted the Vermont colony, who first came to +Schoolcraft, and how they happened to come here; and I fear this will +necessarily be too brief and sketchy to be interesting, and too long for +the occasion. + +In the winter of 1829-30, I was teaching the district school in +Cavendish, Vt., where my brother-in-law, James Smith, Jr., resided. I +was to be 21 years old in the spring, and a life to be spent upon a +hard, rough farm in the mountainous town of Plymouth, where my father +lived, with a large family of boys and girls, did not seem to me to +offer very attractive prospects. + +My father's brother, Daniel Brown, had removed with his family to the +state of New York when I was about four years old, and after various +chances and changes, had finally settled at Ann Arbor, Mich., one of the +very earliest settlers of that place. Occasional letters from him had +set forth in glowing colors the beauty and advantages of that place and +vicinity, and in casting about as to what I should do when "of age," I +decided that I would go to Michigan as soon as the Erie canal should be +open in the spring. I communicated my intention to Smith, and before my +school was finished he too, declared his intention of going. When I went +home in the spring, I met Hosea B. Huston, a young man who had grown up, +a near neighbor of ours, in the family of one John Lakin, and who had +not, so far as I know, a living relative in the world. He too, had just +finished teaching a winter's school, and learning my intentions, decided +at once to become a third member of the party to Michigan. We left on +the 18th of April, 1830, our destination Ann Arbor, Michigan. Anything +beyond that was an unknown land. Of the incidents of our journey, though +tedious and somewhat eventful, this is not the time nor the occasion to +relate them. It is only important to say that on arriving at Buffalo, +where we were aware that Mr. Thaddeus Smith was then living, we stopped +and looked him up, and remained with him and family two days. Thaddeus +Smith was not a relative of the Smith family of Cavendish, Vt., but a +neighbor and intimate friend of theirs, and his wife was a cousin of +mine, and of course, of my sister Mrs. James Smith. The year before, in +1829, Thaddeus had made a trip to Michigan, looking for a place to +locate, and had come to Prairie Ronde, where he found a few settlers, +Bazel Harrison and family, who had come to the prairie in the fall of +1828, and several who had come the next year. He described Prairie Ronde +in glowing terms, said it was the garden of the world, and we must on no +account fail to go there. We arrived at Ann Arbor about the 12th of May, +and after a stay of a few days, Smith and Huston started for Prairie +Ronde, by way of Tecumseh and White Pigeon, known as the Chicago Trail, +the more direct route through Jackson and Calhoun counties not having +yet been opened. They bought a pony and "rode and tied," that is, one +rode on ahead as far as he thought proper, then dismounted and tied the +horse to a tree to be taken in turn by the man on foot when he came up. +Arriving at Prairie Ronde, they came to the east side of the "Big +Island" as the settlers called it. There the only settler was a man by +the name of LaRue, who had squatted and made a pre-emption claim on the +80 acre lot which was afterwards laid out as the village of Schoolcraft. +He had built and lived in a little cabin which stood for some years just +west of the dwelling built and occupied by Col. Daniels, and afterwards +by Judge Dyckman. Smith at once decided that the land on the east side +of the Island, being a central point on the prairie was the best point +for locating a business establishment, and determined to start a store +there. So he bargained with LaRue for his claim, and further, for the +erection of a log cabin that would serve for a store, to be done by the +time he could go to New York, buy goods and get them here. He paid him +ten dollars, and was to pay him fifty more when he took possession. +Smith and Huston then returned to Ann Arbor; Smith was to go to New York +and buy a few goods, and Huston to remain a while at Ann Arbor and then +come back to Prairie Ronde and take charge of the trade under the firm +name of Smith & Huston. Smith started for New York, and I for Vermont. +On arriving at Buffalo we again called on Thaddeus Smith, and it was +agreed upon that when the goods arrived at Buffalo, he and his family +should go on the vessel with them as far as Detroit, and thence across +the country to Prairie Ronde, Thaddeus to be a partner in the concern. + +I went to Vermont and remained until October 1831, when I again started +for Michigan. Arriving at Ann Arbor, there was no public conveyance +farther west; and my uncle said that he wished to see the western part +of the territory, and he would go out with me. With an old Indian pony +and a light wagon, and a box of provisions we started, only one of us +riding at a time, by way of Jackson, Marshall and Battle Creek, in each +of which places there was a log cabin or two, the road being a mere +trail from Ann Arbor to Bronson, now Kalamazoo, and not a bridge in the +whole distance. At Bronson where we arrived just at sunset on November +5, having left Ann Arbor on the last day of October, there were four log +cabins, one of which was occupied by Titus Bronson, the proprietor of +the future village, where the county seat had already been located. +There was also a small two story framed store, which Smith, Huston & Co. +had built in the summer of that year and supplied with goods from the +store at Schoolcraft, Huston taking charge of the same. Leaving my uncle +at Bronson's where Huston boarded, Huston and I took horses and rode to +Prairie Ronde where we arrived about 9 o'clock at night, at the log +cabin which served as both store and dwelling for the Big Island branch +of the business. My uncle came the next day, and on the day after left +for his home. In giving this detail of my own story till my return to +Michigan, I have necessarily delayed giving the fortunes of the Big +Island venture. The goods sent by James Smith, arrived in due time by +canal at Buffalo, and were there transferred to a schooner for St. +Joseph. Thaddeus Smith, his wife and son Henry P. took the same schooner +as far as Detroit, and from there took the Southern or Chicago road to +White Pigeon, and thence to Prairie Ronde. Huston reached Prairie Ronde +about the same time from Ann Arbor. There they learned that LaRue, +instead of building a cabin on his claim as he had agreed, had re-sold +his claim to a man named Bond, and run away; so there was no place to +store the goods when they should arrive nor a place for the family to +live. It was finally arranged that they should have the occupancy of +one-half the little cabin of Abner Calhoon, on the west side of the +Prairie for the winter and put up one of their own on the east side of +the Island in the spring. Early in the spring this was done. A pretty +large log building was erected just west of where my son Addison now +lives, and the family and goods were removed to it. In May, James Smith +again came from Vermont, accompanied by his brother Addison, who had +some cash capital which he invested in the concern, and became a member +of the firm of Smith, Huston & Co. and was to remain in charge of the +business, while Huston was to go to Bronson, and build a store there--a +branch of the business at the Big Island; James Smith going immediately +to New York to purchase a stock of goods to supply both stores. This was +the condition of things when I arrived at the Big Island store November +5, of that year as I have already related. And from that very day the +terms Prairie Ronde and Big Island were dropped as signifying the place +of business here, and the name Schoolcraft was used. + +Lucius Lyon, a well known government land surveyor, and afterwards one +of the first two senators elected to the U. S. senate from the new state +of Michigan, had purchased of Mr. Christopher Bair, one of the early +settlers on the west side of the prairie, the E. 1/2 of the N. W. 1/4 of +Sec. 19, and had also become the owner of the E. 1/2 of the S. W. 1/4 of +Sec. 18. in this township, and through his agent, Dr. David E. Brown, +proceeded to lay out a village, embracing the whole of the last +description, and a tier of lots on the north end of the first one. +Stephen Vickery, surveyor, Dr. Brown, in honor of the Indian agent and +explorer in the north-west, Henry R. Schoolcraft, a friend of Lyon's +named it Schoolcraft. The survey of the village was finished on the day +I arrived here. The inhabitants of the village on that day consisted of +the inmates of the log store and dwelling above mentioned, namely, +Thaddeus and Eliza Smith and their children Henry P., aged 5 years, and +Helen, aged six weeks; Mary A. Parker, sister of Mrs. Smith, who came in +the summer preceding, J. A. Smith, and a young man from New Hampshire, +Edwin M. Fogg, a cabinet maker, who built a shop, occupied for many +years for the purpose for which it was built, and afterwards for a +dwelling, and recently known as the Strew house. The frame of this shop +was also raised the day I arrived. Such was the genesis, birth, and +first year of the village of Schoolcraft. It is said that the postscript +of a lady's letter is usually longer than the body of it. On the +contrary, the preface of this article has been longer than all that will +follow it. I could not make it shorter and tell you clearly how the +village got born. And here I am strongly tempted to leave it. The +program which I indicated at starting frightens me. In a brief +continuation, however, I will say that in the following winter I +purchased the interest of Thaddeus Smith in the concern and took his +place as a member of the firm of Smith, Huston & Co.--that on the +arrival for permanent settlement here of James Smith, a settlement and +dissolution of the firm was made, Huston taking the property at Bronson, +and a new firm formed at Schoolcraft, consisting of James and J. A. +Smith and myself, under the firm name of J. and J. A. Smith & Co., which +continued in business until January 1, 1836. When I arrived in +Schoolcraft, the old firm had commenced the framing of the timbers for a +large hotel, which was finished the next summer by the new firm, and Mr. +Johnson Patrick was installed as landlord. His administration of affairs +was not a success. After about two years occupancy he left the hotel, +which was soon after taken by Mr. John Dix, from Cavendish, Vt., and it +became a popular and profitable hostelry till he left it at the close of +the year 1837. In the summer of 1833, J. and J. A. Smith & Co. built and +occupied a very convenient store-house on the south-west corner of +Center and Eliza streets which was occupied by James Smith after the +dissolution of the firm. So far I have related, briefly as I could, the +history of the transactions of these parties, because I could not give +an account of the origin and early history of the village otherwise, as +they were the origin and main factors in most that was done in the +village for some years. I had intended to go farther, and give some of +the leading events in the history of the village, mentioning some of the +most noted persons who settled not only in the village, but on the +prairies--Prairie Ronde and Gourdneck--with some of their +characteristics, enlivened with anecdote and story. But this article is +already too long for the occasion, and I am appalled at the difficulties +of what I had undertaken. At the great age of 89 years, with many +infirmities, I find it difficult and painful to remember and compose and +write for any considerable time. With the exception of my three sisters, +Mrs. Pamela S. Thomas, who came in 1833, Mrs. Lephia O. Brown who came +in 1834, and Mrs. Sally E. Dix, who came in 1835, I know of but a single +person, man or woman who came to the village or either prairie as early +as the latter date, and who had reached maturity at that time, who is +now living. The exception is Abner Burson. And the exceptions are very +few of those who came before 1840. I know of but one or two, Justin +Cooper, of this village being one. + +Ladies, excuse me for what I have so imperfectly done as well as for +what I have not done at all. + + + + +PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF THE EARLY PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF SCHOOLCRAFT. + +BY PAMELA S. THOMAS. + +Read by Miss Ella Thomas. + + +I have been asked to tell something of the pioneer schools in +Schoolcraft; not that I can relate anything of much interest, or of +great importance; but because I taught the first public school in this +village, in the year 1834, in a small building erected for that purpose +on "The public square," now "The park." I had some 25 or 30 pupils. +Those recently from New England were well advanced in the studies then +taught in district schools, while others, whose parents had lived on the +frontier, had never seen the inside of a school room and were unable to +read at 10 and 12 years of age; yet their progress was astonishingly +rapid. + +Sickness in the autumn was so general that it necessitated the closing +of the school. As I returned to my home in Vermont in November and was +not again in Schoolcraft until the fall of 1839, I can say little of the +schools during those five years. I was told of the small school house on +"The Common," having been moved off and used for other purposes, that +schools had been taught in different rooms, sometimes as private +schools; for the Yankee settlers appreciated the advantage of education +for their children. Many new settlers had moved here, and some of the +frontiersmen had gone farther west. + +There were more than 100 scholars in this district at that time, 1839, +and a two-story school house had been built on the corner of Grand and +Eliza streets, containing two rooms, one on each floor. This was the +district schoolhouse, that we all remember and is now used as a barn by +Mr. Buss. + +On my arrival I was hired to teach in the lower room, and a Mr. Towers +in the upper. It is scarcely necessary to say, the present admirable +plan of grading schools was then unknown, and these rooms were to be +filled, pupils going to the teacher preferred. However, it was expected +the gentleman would teach the older scholars in the upper room, while I +took the little folks; yet several young ladies chose to go in the lower +room. As it was the custom for pupils to study independently, going +through the arithmetic, etc., by themselves, it made little difference +in which room their studies were pursued, provided their teacher was +competent to render assistance when asked for. My room soon became too +full for the pupils to be accommodated, and the director obliged several +to go into the upper room. + +But few of the scholars of 1834 were among the 60 or 70 in attendance. A +few were in Mr. Towers' room. Others, in whom I had felt an interest, +had moved to newer regions, probably growing up with little schooling, +although endowed with bright intellects. H. P. Smith is the only one, of +those earlier pupils, now living in this village. And, indeed, I know of +but one or two left on this side of "The Better Land." I can name +several of the scholars of 1839, James H. Bates and his three +brothers--all passed from earth but himself; six children of James +Smith, only two of whom are living, Hannah Kirby, her brother and +sisters; H. P. Smith and sister, Helen, etc. + +The late Mr. Willis Judson has frequently joked about his fear of +chastisement, when, Mr. Towers being sick, I assumed authority in his +room for a few days, while another young lady filled my place. Only a +few months since, Mr. Archibald Finlay told his recollections of the +time I was his teacher. And the year of "The Columbian Exposition" Mr. +Oscar Forsythe, who has been a hardware merchant in Bay City for many +years, stopped in this place, when returning from the world's fair. He +called on me saying: "You may not know me, but I went to school to you +54 years ago." He had not been here for more than 40 years. Therefore it +was not to be expected I should recognize the young lad in the +prosperous elderly gentleman. + +Two young ladies, nieces of Mrs. L. H. Stone, followed Mr. Towers and +myself in this school. They were good teachers. Later a few years, our +schools were taught, sometimes by competent teachers, and sometimes by +those less so. About 1843, Mr. Eaton, a Baptist minister, opened a +private school, in one of the school rooms, by permission of the school +board. He was a college graduate, and his school was of great benefit to +our village. When he left, Mr. Dwinell, a graduate of Yale, took his +place, filling it with satisfaction to his pupils. + +In 1846, through the generosity of Rev. William Taylor, "Cedar Park +Seminary" was opened. For some years that was one of the most popular +schools in western Michigan. The rapid growth of Kalamazoo enabled her +citizens to establish schools with superior advantages, and Cedar Park +Seminary was sold to this district. + +The worth of the present high school and of the lower departments are +too well known to render any remarks concerning them necessary. + + + + +THE YOUNG PIONEER. + +BY E. LAKIN BROWN. + +Written to be sung at the Pioneer meeting at Kalamazoo, August 31, 1876. + +Set to music by Jonas Allen. + + + Oh, bright were the hopes of the young pioneer, + And sweet was the joy that came o'er him. + For his heart it was brave, and strong was his arm, + And a broad, fertile land lay before him. + + And there by his side was his heart's chosen bride, + Who want and privation knew never; + From kindred and home he had borne her away. + To be guarded and cherished for ever. + + A drear home for a bride is the wilderness wide, + Her heart to old memories turning, + And lonely and sad and o'er burdened with care, + For kindred and sympathy yearning. + + Then stern was the task, and long was the toil, + Vain longing for all that was needed, + Yet bravely their toils and privations were borne, + As the wilderness slowly receded. + + But the years rolled away and prosperity came, + Wealth and ease on frugality founded: + Now the husband and wife tread the down hill of life + By brave sons and fair daughters surrounded + + And the young pioneer has grown stooping and gray, + And he marvels his limbs are no stronger: + And the cheek of the bride is now sallow and thin. + And her eye beams with brightness no longer. + + All honor and praise to the old pioneers: + You never may know all their story: + What they found but a desert a garden became, + And their toil, and success is their glory. + + + + +THE TRANSPLANTING OF A BOY. + +BY J. H. BATES. + +Read by Addison M. Brown. + + +When I was a few weeks turned of eleven years old, my father, then +forty-four years of age, became infected with the western fever then +well on its way of depopulating New England, and, selling his rough +Vermont farm at a better price than it would fetch now in the same +extent and condition, entered upon what at the time was thought not +unfairly to be the serious journey to the wilds of Michigan. Accordingly +early in September, 1837, we set forth, making altogether an emigration +of nineteen persons, one being Miss Julia Hatch, who became Mrs. +Hamilton Scott a little later on. Following advice, we took with us our +entire household effects, including a large cook-stove of the Woolson +patent, one of the very earliest to succeed the huge fire-places over +which our mothers and grandmothers back to the Mayflower in unbroken +line roasted, baked and stewed themselves along with the meals they +prepared. There must have been a Puritan toughness of texture in this +stove, for it served right on unremittingly for not less than thirty +years, as valiant, irascible and friendly a creature as ever woman had +at need. All effects were packed in boxes, and the ingenuity of the +Twenty-mile Stream valley was sorely taxed to fit boxes to the +furniture, or, more properly, the furniture to the boxes, since there +must be a limit to the dimensions of the latter. This difficulty was met +by sawing off any contumacious limb or projection from articles of +unreasonable size, such as tables and bedsteads,--a rough surgery from +which no subsequent care ever quite restored the afflicted members, +leaving them rickety and rheumatic ever after. + +Conveyance through New England was then by wheel, and so we moved over +the Green Mountains to Troy, my uncle Zaccheus Bates driving the wagon +wherein jolted my three brothers and myself, a cargo of youngsters +irrepressible and volatile to such a degree that when he handed us back +to the parental care after two trying days, my uncle must have thanked +God and breathed freer. + +The passage from Troy to Buffalo was by the Erie Canal, then the great +thoroughfare from tide-water to the lakes. It swarmed with two kinds of +boats, distinguished as line and packet, the latter drawn by three +horses moving at a trot and conveying passengers exclusively, with light +luggage. These were for the more exalted and wealthy travelers, who +desired speedier transit and better accommodations, while boats of the +line, moved by two horses at a walking pace, were suitable for emigrants +like ourselves, and crowded to an over fullness with a miscellany of +men, women, children and household freight. My recollections of this +portion of the journey are of exceeding roughness and discomfort. The +youngsters were not greatly regarded in the general disarray and +scramble. I remember the coarse, scanty fare of the second table, to +which the children were relegated, wherein vile smelling boiled cabbage +figured as a steady quantity, and oppressive nights in a stifling berth +at the very end of the crowded cabin, the horror of it augmented to my +sensitive olfactories by the foul broom which the cabin-maid +persistently kept hanging on the partition at the head of my bunk. Among +the seniors there was more disregard of annoyances, an heroic +determination to make the best of everything, a spirit of good +fellowship and kindly mutual helpfulness, and a hearty open air freedom +of speech and action. Songs were sung and stories told which infringed +the delicacy of the politest circles but were not really offensive to +healthy minds, inconveniences were ignored and pleasant trifles +magnified, a small joke created large merriment, and the hearty and +robust expansiveness of frontier life, in which resides a peculiar charm +unceasingly felt by all who have ever fairly come under it, was +beginning at the very entrance of a new world of nature and of man. +Absurdly prominent stands out my wonder at being called Bub for the +first time, followed by conjecture what the word could mean and where it +came from. But all light, momentary afflictions passed like distempered +dreams when once we were afloat on the blue waters of Lake Erie, in the +steamboat Daniel Webster, bound for Toledo. I had not thought there +could be anything so grand in all the world as this little, fussy, +splashing side-wheeler, to me a veritable floating palace. An event of +moment occurred on the passage. On the wide divan under the cabin +windows of the stern I noticed a delicate man of refined features, much +in contrast with the body of the voyagers. He had several books lying +beside him, and, as I approached in shy curiosity, asked me in kindly +wise, would I like a book, and tossed apart on the divan a copy of +Irving's Sketch Book. I lay there stretched at length, absorbed and +lost, until the waning light dulled the bright page of this delightful +author. Who can explain why the generation succeeding his own so +neglects him? + +The red-painted warehouse at the steamboat wharf in Toledo was also a +terminal station of a strip of steam railway to Adrian, now a part of +the Michigan Southern system. We were transferred directly to the cars, +and, while this magical sort of locomotion must have impressed my boyish +fancy, I am unable to recall a single incident until we were undergoing +the discomfort of crowded and wretched quarters in Adrian, waiting to +engage wagons to transport our party and its effects the remaining +distance. + +I recall being taken into a room to see a stalwart man undergoing an +ague fit. He was fully dressed and seated in an arm-chair, convulsively +shivering and writhing. The door of the room stood open, and people came +and stared and commented, and went away to make room for fresh arrivals. +The scene was so grotesque, and the spectators seemed so amused, that I +was not certain the victim was not acting a part for the general +entertainment, until he informed us with clattering teeth that we saw +what we were all coming to, when a kind of mysterious dread possessed me +of what lay in wait in the _terra incognita_ before us. + +At length, after much searching and haggling, an insufficient caravan +was provided, the household goods bestowed, and, the women folk sitting +on them as did Rachel in the Old Testament story, we set forth through +the oak openings, over the unvarying level, to the music of two or three +rifles in the hands of the adventurers attached to our party, who found +good and unaccustomed sport in the small game frequent among the glades +of the vast continuous forest. We moved slowly, and on the second day +were overtaken by Mr. Edwin H. Lathrop, riding alone in a buggy drawn by +a pair of free-going horses, on his return from Adrian, where he had +left his wife so far on her way to visit eastern friends. Our numerous +colony naturally drew his attention, and after much exchange of speech +he urged me to ride with him and go on before our party, promising to +have me at his house the next morning, and to see that I reached +Schoolcraft in good condition. This request was referred to my mother, +who felt much misgiving and was disposed to see in the honorable +gentleman a sort of brigand on wheels, plotting to carry off the +firstling of her flock to his fastness, and there either torture or hold +him for ransom; but the object of her distrust having established his +claim to be a civil sort of person, and nowise associated with any band +of robbers, drove away with me, somewhat to the terror of my brothers +and after much excellent advice from my mother, quite as if leaving her +for an indefinite period on a risky adventure. Indeed, after getting +into the great solitude of the woods, quite out of sight and hearing of +the cheerful stir of the caravan, I began to feel not quite at ease as I +glanced from time to time at the countenance which all who knew Mr. +Lathrop will recall as one in its steady seriousness unprovocative of +glee in the heart of childhood; but all discomfort of feeling wore away +under the kindness of my host, and there has always remained with me a +sense of enjoyment in that long drive over a road unobstructed by rocks +and bordered by virgin forests. We lay that night in a room of the +unfinished house of Mr. John Smith of Three Rivers, then an exceedingly +crude, confused and unfinished hamlet wrapped in malarial airs, where +Mr. Smith was engaged in building a flour-mill or saw-mill, I am +uncertain which. We were up with the dawn and drove swiftly to the +residence of Mr. Lathrop, where we breakfasted, and at my urgent request +I was allowed to make my way to Schoolcraft on foot. And so I set out +from the southern border of the prairie, with elastic step and quick +beating heart, eager for the goal of this long pilgrimage. + +The east was flushed with the glory of a perfect Sunday morning, the air +crisp and clear, the green of the native grass still lingered in an +autumn of unusual mildness, and many flowers still bloomed. A flag +flying from the frame-work of the belfry of the recently raised +schoolhouse soon became a guide to my course, but I could not then +understand why my rapid pace did not consume the distance at a greater +rate, so near appeared remote objects in that transparent atmosphere +over the level plain. I suppose I am not correct in saying that I did +not pass an enclosed spot, nor step on ground ever cultivated by man, +but such is my recollection. + +The longest way comes to its ending to the most impatient, and well +before the sun attained its meridian I stood upon the black road before +the village tavern. I had heard that the younger James Smith had the +extraordinary habit of throwing up his head and staring upward at quite +regular intervals, and there, like a weatherwise little sea-man, +actually stood a grave lad winking familiarly at the sun. Making myself +known to him I was soon among the friendly faces of his family, where I +waited for the slow caravan which arrived the following day. The journey +from Vermont occupied fifteen days. + +Thus was I transplanted to the soil where I grew to my appointed +stature;--a kindly soil and habitat wherein not a few fibers of my +affections are left infixed. + + + + +REMINISCENCES OF THE LIFE OF A YOUNG PIONEER + +BY H. P. SMITH. + +Read by Miss Isa Smith. + + +My earliest recollections of Prairie Ronde date back to the spring of +1830, when, one evening, I was lifted out of a covered wagon and set +down upon my short legs, in front of Esquire Duncan's log house. It +stood upon a rise of ground, among stately trees; a little stream, with +white sand and clear water, running close by, making it a cheerful +place, even with no fences or other evidences of civilization. Years +afterward, a saw-mill was built a few feet from the site of this log +house, known as Duncan's saw mill. There is no vestige now of log cabin +or mill, and very little evidence that a tree ever stood there. + +I was tired, hungry and sleepy, and perhaps cross, for this was the end +of a long, toilsome journey through swamps and dense forests. While I +stood there, scratching my mosquito bites, with no very pleasant +countenance, father and mother crawled out and stretched their weary +limbs. Mr. Duncan's people welcomed us, as they did all emigrants and +travelers, no matter when or how they came. Very soon after, we were +gathered into the one square room of the house and I was allowed to +absorb a bowl of bread and milk. Father and mother and the teamster also +had their supper of corn bread and butter, washed down with sage tea, +eating with an appetite, which everybody carried about in those days of +scanty fare and hardship. As soon as the sun disappeared, mother +prepared to put me to bed, at which I kicked up a small row, because I +did not wish to be thus disposed of without my supper, and I dimly +remember that, at last, she managed to convince me that bread and milk +was supper in that house, after which, very little force was necessary +to put my tired frame to rest for the night. Late next morning, when the +woods were alive with the songs of birds, mother succeeded in getting my +eyes open again, and took me directly from the bed out into the +sunshine, sat me down in the middle of the brook, where the sparkling +water was hardly knee deep, and then I had a good time, kicking and +splashing and allowing the minnows to nibble my toes. Then I was +considered washed and ready for dressing and breakfast. I am told we +were at Esquire Duncan's about a week, of which I remember nothing +further, but afterwards can recall another log house, about two miles +north of Mr. Duncan's, in the edge of the prairie, with its vast, open +green expanse on the east, and an impenetrable forest on the west. Abner +Calhoun, who was the owner of the house, had come, from Ohio, in advance +of us a few weeks, and had just completed it, and nearly built a log +stable, all but the door and the "chinking." Mr. Calhoun being a very +hospitable settler, allowed us, (who were of the tender-foot class,) to +occupy his house, while he, with a family of wife and three children, +moved into the unfinished barn. Of the Calhoun's, there was one boy +about my own age, one younger and one older. Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun were +just plowing up a bit of the prairie near the house, for immediate +cultivation. The long, wooden mold board plow, with the end of its beam +resting upon the axle of a lumber wagon, or rather the front wheels, +drawn by two pairs of small oxen and one pair of young heifers, I well +remember. In the morning, while Mrs. Calhoun busied herself in washing +up the scanty assortment of breakfast dishes, and putting the house in +order for the day, Mr. Calhoun would gather his miscellaneous team and +hitch them to the plow. By that time his wife was ready for work, and +placing herself between the plow handles, the business of the day +commenced. I presume our modern plow-men would criticise their work, but +it was sufficient to raise mammoth corn and splendid potatoes with which +to feed everybody another season. Not long after we were settled, an +event occurred, which suspended the plowing for two and a half days. +Preparatory to that event, I was turned loose to run with the other +children, hedged in by many earnest warnings to keep from the woods and +snakes. Mr. Calhoun went to work chinking his stable, and the cattle +revelled in the fresh prairie grass and rested. Mother was very busy, +both at home and across the way, all the first day. The next day she +invited me to go to the other house and see a new baby, probably the +first one I was ever introduced to. This was Calhoun No. 4. On the third +day Mr. C. gathered up his team again and made an addition of an oblong +box, fastened between the wheels of the plow, and at noon the newcomer +was neatly packed away in said box, amid a pile of blankets, and +business was once more resumed, very carefully and slowly, however. I +can remember Mrs. Calhoun's resting, the picture of contentment, while +seated upon a stump, nursing No. 4. Soon other experiences were +impressed upon my mind, such as the serenades of prairie wolves, who +would gather about our doors and make night hideous with their dismal +howls and barks. We kept the chickens in a box in the house, otherwise +they would have been snatched up in short order by these hungry demons. +These concerts were arranged upon a regular program, like our modern +entertainments. + +As soon as it was dark and the lights extinguished, some old veteran +would begin with an opening solo in a minor key, with very little +variation, then another would join in, and another and soon the entire +pack would make the air tremble with the chorus of from twenty-five to +fifty voices. These entertainments scared me, and, at first, kept the +old folks awake, but they soon became used to them and could sleep on +undisturbed. Occasionally we had other concerts, performed by big grey +wolves, which were of a more serious nature. When the "sable curtain of +night" closed on one of these celebrations, they savored more of +business and sleep was not enjoyable. Men thought of their calves and +pigs shut up in log stables, perhaps exposed to the depredations of +those bloodthirsty, but cowardly brutes. Generally a rifle ball, shot in +their midst, would disperse the pack. One night, before Mr. Calhoun had +made his door, and still had a quilt hung up as a substitute, he was +aroused from sleep by a scuffle between a grey wolf and his dog, who +remonstrated against this invasion of the house. He sat up in bed and +shivered (with cold of course,) while the wolf flogged his dog, went +into the house, under the bed and ate up all his precious stock of soap +grease. He never thought of the loaded rifle hanging within reach. In +this case the wolf was probably the greater coward of the two, but poor +Abner did not know it. + +The Duncans and Calhouns were not our only neighbors. Within a radius of +a few miles were other settlers; the Harrisons, Clarks, Barbers, +Nesbitts, Hoyts, Knights, Shavers, Wygants, Bairs, Armstrongs and +others, all hunters, each and everyone possessing peculiarities of +character belonging to himself. Distributed all over the south half of +Kalamazoo county, then called Brady, were 100 or more people from almost +every state in the union. Hunting and trapping were the chief +occupations of the times, with a liberal division of work, farming and +house building, thus combining business and fun. Saturdays were always +devoted to fun, such as horse-racing, wrestling and jumping, target +shooting, etc. Sunday was the visiting day. Game was as common in the +woods and on the prairie as cattle, horses and sheep are now. Whisky was +the only luxury and cheaper even and better than it is said to be now. +Everyone drank it to keep out cold, heat, pain of every kind; as an +antidote against ague and a bond of sociability. And yet in those early +days there was apparently less drunkenness than now. + +Father received a small stock of goods about this time, belonging to +Smith, Huston & Co. How he got them, I do not know, but probably in +about the same way the Klondike miners receive their supplies. Some one +also lent him a few barrels of whisky to sell on commission. Our one +room was then divided in the center by a board partition, leaving the +stove-pipe and back part of an ancient cook stove in our living room. +Subsequently the stove, in our next and more pretentious house, gave +place to a capacious fire place and brick oven. With the advent of this +whisky, we became at once the center of attraction for 15 or 20 miles +around. The Indians were our most numerous customers and neighbors. + +They went once a year to Detroit or some point in that region to receive +pay for lands relinquished to the state. When they came back, money was +plenty to pay for powder and lead and calicos, and when that was +exhausted they obtained their goods by exchanging for them venison and +skins. Mother soon became a favorite. They called her "the good white +squaw," and took great pains to teach her their language, in which she +soon became quite proficient. She could control them as well as their +old chief, Sagamaw. They had not taken to whisky then as they did soon +afterwards, and, as a rule, were honest and reliable. The chief was a +personal friend of the Smith family and used to make its weekly visits +with his family, staying from one to two days. He was very strict with +his tribe as to any violation of our rights or social privileges. Once +mother lost a silver thimble, and, suspecting it was stolen, stated her +case to old Sagamaw. He promised to attend to it, and if her suspicions +were correct he would know. A few days after a knock was heard at our +door, and mother admitted a pretty, meek looking young squaw, with a +long tough buck whip in one hand and the missing thimble in the other. +The thimble had a hole in it where she had strung it to wear around her +neck. She gave it to mother, then the whip, and said. "Sagamaw say, you +whip squaw," but being so pretty and amiable, mother relented, thinking +she was almost justified in helping herself to ornaments for her comely +person, and so the girl went her way rejoicing. One day the chief, very +delicately suggested to father that it would be proper for such good +friends as they were to exchange wives, and even offered father two of +his prettiest squaws for a bona-fide bill of sale of my mother, but +somehow the trade was never consummated. I presume, in that event, I +would have been thrown in to make a complete exchange of goods, and thus +I failed to become an Indian chief, and Sagamaw never owned a white +squaw. They were constantly bringing me presents of live birds, fawns, +young foxes and wolves, and once when I was on a sick bed, with a high +fever, an Indian brought me the half of a dressed deer, to tempt my +appetite. They were very kind in sickness, but of little use about a +sick bed. There were no wise Indian doctors in those days, such as now +come to cure us of every imaginable disease. This first year we had to +go 60 miles to a flour mill, consequently had to subsist upon corn, in +lieu of wheat bread, and this sometimes made from pounded corn at that. +One day Mrs. Calhoun sent mother a pan of flour as a rare treat, but +when she learned that it was all she had of the precious stuff, she +objected to taking it. Mrs. C. insisted that she must not refuse it, for +mother was not used to going without, and she was. We had very little +pork or beef, but so much venison and wild game that they soon became a +drug. Vegetables and wild fruit being so plenty, we lived as well as we +do now taking our healthy, keen appetites into consideration. Small +game, such as turkeys, partridges, quail, pigeons, rabbits, squirrels, +also fresh fish, were the favorite meat diet of our family. + +In the winter and spring of 1831, father built a log house on the +south-east side of the Big Island, as it was called, a circular forest, +of about a mile in diameter, with prairie all around it. This was known +far and wide, and had been, for hundreds of years, the camping ground of +Indians, traveling east and west. It was almost impassable from the +thickets and windfalls of great trees, and filled with game of all +kinds. So, in the spring, we bade adieu to our good host, Calhoun, and +moved into a house of our own. This place soon became known as +Schoolcraft, and a village plat was surveyed, with streets and a park. +It was many years, though, before we knew just where these luxuries were +located, without looking on the map. One street, Eliza street, was named +after my mother. We soon had neighbors, however, and Schoolcraft and Big +Prairie Ronde were known as the garden and grain supply of the state of +Michigan. + +I must have been about six years old when I attended my first school, +which was taught by my aunt, Miss Mary A. Parker, in a log house on the +bank of E. L. Brown's marsh; then later in a little frame building near +where Thos. Westveer now lives. I became acquainted, as a pupil, with +Miss Pamela Brown, now the widow of Dr. N. M. Thomas, and my respect and +reverence for her was dated from the time of her flogging a certain bad +boy, Archibald Finlay, by name. It was over his shoulders, with nothing +but a shirt between and administered with such good effect that, in +spite of his determined obstinacy and combativeness, he promised +reformation. I was also a bad boy, but was so impressed by this example +of thoroughness that my good resolutions were effectually strengthened. + +One more Indian story and I am done. In the summer of 1829, father +traveled over the southern prairies of the state on foot and alone, to +look for a new home. At Ann Arbor, on his way west, he heard of a +notorious Indian robber, Shavehead, known as a dangerous customer to +lone travelers. Not wishing, just then, to part with his scalp, he made +a circuit of 30 miles or more to avoid meeting him. He was reported to +have killed and scalped 90 or more white persons, and as being in his +war paint, and wearing these scalps, at all times. Father was tired ere +noon, and, secure in the thought that all danger was passed, seated +himself on a fallen log and proceeded to eat his dinner of bread and +cheese, and make himself comfortable for a noon-tide rest. He was +delighted with the fresh woods and prairies, and gave himself up to +air-castles, when he could make his home in this western paradise and +have his family about him. Suddenly, in the midst of these reveries, a +light hand was laid upon his shoulder, and looking up he was confronted +by a tall, brawny, fierce looking Indian, in scalp-lock and paint, +sharp, keen eyes, divided by a prominent, hawk's beak nose, looked down +upon him in stern silence. Father, in describing it afterwards, never +said he was scared, but admitted it was a "surprise party" to him, and +that he instinctively thrust his hand into his pocket and grasped an old +pistol, which would hardly kill at three paces under any circumstances. +However it also flashed through his mind that if this bronzed old +warrior had intended murder he could have committed it as easily with +his wicked looking tomahawk as thus to have laid his hand upon his +shoulder, so he smiled on Shavehead and offered his hand, and they +shook, but with unbending sternness on the part of Shavehead. Then they +sat down together on a log and proceeded to get acquainted as best they +could, mostly by signs. Father took out his pipe and tobacco, divided +the plug with Mr. Red-man, which pleased him very much, and thus they +talked in pantomime with each other for an hour or more, when the +interview ended by mutual consent. They again shook hands, this time +more cordially, but yet no smile softened the face of old Shavehead. And +they parted, the Indian silently melting into the forest, and father +sturdily trudging along his trail towards the west, now and then +glancing backward at the vacancy made by his strange visitor. + +In 1831, a few weeks after we were settled at Big Island, father came +into the house, from his work, one day, and there, seated complacently +by the stove, watching mother about her cooking, was the veritable +Shavehead, still with his head shaved, save the scalp-lock. This time +they shook hands as friends indeed, but the stolid face wore no smile as +before. From that time he was a frequent visitor and we all learned to +like him and respect him. He belonged to no tribe about us; did not +associate with other Indians. If he happened to be in the house, with +them, when mother was distributing food, as was often the case, they +would divide it among themselves, leaving out Shavehead, who received +his portion direct from mother, and ate it in stern silence, amid the +sociable chattering of the others. Shavehead was very peculiar. He never +carried a gun, but was always armed with a powerful bow and arrows and a +murderous looking tomahawk and knife, but the 90 scalps at his belt we +never saw. He never rode a pony, like the others, and never got drunk, +as the others surely did, whenever they could get the fire water of the +whites. + +So far as we could know, he was without an Indian fault or foible. Long +afterwards, when the Potawatomies were gathered up by the government and +taken away to a new reservation, in the west, there was one Indian they +could never find. They searched the woods diligently for months, but +Shavehead mysteriously melted out of all knowledge, leaving only kindly +memories of a brave old chief and a steadfast, though silent friend. + + + + +EARLY DAYS IN PRAIRIE RONDE. + +BY O. H. FELLOWS. + +Read by Miss Anna Fellows. + + +This old story that has been so often told and with so many variations +had its beginning for me nearly seventy years ago. + +It was October 24, 1829 that I, a lad nine years old, reached what is +now Prairie Ronde township. We--my mother, brothers and sisters--were +about twenty days on the road not-with-standing we drove horses, three +on one wagon and two on another. My father, Col. Abiel Fellows, and two +oldest brothers had preceded us and had a home built ready to receive +us. The transition though slow from a roomy home of plenty to a +temporary house of one room, where six wayfarers had found shelter +previous to our arrival, naturally filled the mind of a small boy with +consternation, his heart with homesickness. Where was the school-room, +the clock-room with its glowing coal grate? Where was the square-room, +the bed-rooms, the cheerful kitchen? And where, Oh where, was the +buttery? Thoughts of the contents of the one left behind increased in +size the big lump in my throat. And the mountains, the hills, the cool +spring bubbling from the rocks, where were they? But an extenuating +fact, did we not have in this new land the Indian? He lurked in every +dark corner, was behind every tree and bush, I fancied. The strangers +our humble home already sheltered were William Duncan, two sons and one +daughter--William, Delamore, and Eliza Ann--, Lydia Wood and Samuel +Hackett. + +My father met us at Monroe, and I recall that in Saline township he +purchased thirty bushels of wheat the entire output of a small stack, +and left it to be ground into flour. Later we had numerous calls for a +little wheat flour to make a wedding cake, which was always freely +given. + +At Strongs Ridge, Ohio, where we staid one night we were told we would +see no more peaches after we left there--a strange condition of things I +thought--so we bought a goodly supply and saved the stones and on +reaching Prairie Ronde planted them in Mr. Guilford's garden, the first +garden cultivated by a white man on the prairie. Mr. Guilford had apple +trees growing from the seed in this garden. The peach trees grew and +thrived and were transplanted to many claims in the county. + +The south-west part of Kalamazoo county was first settled and John Bair, +brother to William Bair, of Vicksburg, drove the first stake, or rather +blazed the first tree near Harrison's lake June, 1828. + +It was in Prairie Ronde that the first school district in the county was +organized, and the first school taught in the winter of '30 and '31 by +Thomas W. Merrill, founder of what is now Kalamazoo college. Mr. +Merrill, my first teacher in Michigan, was followed by Stephen Vickery, +and Mr. Vickery by Richard Huyck. The school house was built of split +logs and was 20 by 26 feet. It stood near the home of Judson Edmunds, +recently sold to Joseph Davis. + +The first post-office in the county was in Prairie Ronde, and my father +was post-master, receiving his commission from General Jackson. The +first frame building in the county, a small barn, was built by Delamore +Duncan in 1830. The first grist-mill was built in 1830 by John Vickers +on Rocky Creek. Corn only was ground in this primitive mill of small +dimensions. In the fall of the same year Mr. Vickers sold the mill to +Col. Fellows, who built during the winter the first saw-mill in the +county, near where William Maile now lives. In this mill was sawed the +lumber to build the first store at Bronson, now Kalamazoo. One other +claim I must enter. Prairie Ronde furnished for Cooper the character of +"Bee-Hunter" in his novel, "Oak Openings." One Towner Savage disputes +the honor with Mr. Harrison. Mr. Beadle, of dime novel fame, told me he +helped Cooper lay the plot of the story, and that Mr. Towner Savage was +the original "Ben Boden." + +One event that occurred during the Black Hawk war excitement took great +prominence in my boyish mind, because to me it demonstrated the +fearlessness and bravery of my father. It was in the spring of 1832, and +Col. Lyman Daniels, whose regiment had been ordered to the front, had +important papers and money he wished taken to Detroit. It was thought to +be a perilous journey at that time. I distinctly remember Mr. Daniels +asking Col. Fellows if he would carry them, saying he had been unable to +find a man who dared undertake it. My father, then a man nearly 70 years +of age, said he would take them, and the papers and money were +transferred to his saddle bags and the trip made in six days. In 1830 he +had visited Detroit and purchased apple trees, and some of them are +still standing, and promise to bloom in a few weeks in all their +pristine glory. While in Detroit he enjoyed the hospitality of Gen. +Cases. The hero of the war of 1812 and the whilom boy soldier of the +revolution were both members of the ancient order of Masons. + +Of the real privations and sufferings of pioneer life that many +experienced, I know nothing. With horses the journey to Detroit for +supplies was not such an impossible undertaking as it would seem to-day. +But inconveniences were abundant. The post-office was a basket and the +basket was kept under the bed. There was a bushel and a half of the +first mail Col. Fellows, brought from White Pigeon, and for each letter +the post-master paid 25 cents. But I suppose the worth of the news from +home and from "the girl I left behind me," could not be computed in +dollars and cents. It seems but yesterday that a citizen of Schoolcraft +would walk in and say, "Is there airry letter here for airry one of the +Bonds?" The manner of sending money by mail at that time differed +somewhat from the present check, draft and order system. A fifty or one +hundred dollar bill would be cut in two and one-half sent at a time. + +That necessity is truly the mother of invention was often demonstrated +in pioneer days. I recall a novel arrangement for grinding or pounding +corn, constructed by Delamore Duncan. A large stump near the house was +hollowed out at the top and a spring-board set in place projecting over +the top of the house and a pestle at the end completed the mill or stump +mortar. With this the meal for bread for the family was prepared. + +The Indian burying ground in the north-west part of the township had +great interest for the new-comers. I remember visiting it when there +were three "cribs" with their occupants, still standing. + +My knowledge of farming when I came to Michigan was necessarily limited. +But the season following our arrival I was introduced to a pair of oxen +and a harrow. With my ball in my pocket I started out to prepare a few +acres for the sowing of wheat. But no wheat was sown in that field that +season. The oxen were slow and my ball required so much attention that +by the time I finished harrowing the volunteer wheat had made such a +growth sowing was unnecessary. The yield from the field was forty +bushels per acre. + +One memorable night November 13, 1833, our household was awakened by Dr. +Nathan Thomas who was on a professional visit to the neighborhood and we +all left our beds and went out to witness the great meteoric shower +never to be forgotten. + +The meat supply in the neighborhood sometimes ran low, and thereby hangs +a tale. One Harry Smith, came to our home one day to borrow a horse and +wagon to drive to Mr. Bishop's, who lived on the north-west side of the +prairie. Mr. Smith had a large family, and they were out of meat, and he +had heard Mr. Bishop had some to spare. But on reaching there he was +told they had no more than would be needed for the family. Mr. Smith, +rather crest-fallen, started to return home, but on second thought went +back to the house and told Mr. Bishop if he would lend him a bone he +would take it home and season some beans and return it. This so greatly +pleased Mr. Bishop that he told Mr. Smith he would divide his meat with +him, and one meat-hungry family rejoiced that day. + +Improved roads, the railway, the telegraph, the telephone, and other +Edisonian inventions, have shortened distances since those early days. +And yet I fancy were I to walk from the site of the Old Branch in +Kalamazoo, to Prairie Ronde, the distance would seem much greater than +it did sixty years ago, when I sometimes walked home from school +Saturday afternoon. + +Although their pioneer experiences retain great interest for those who +participated in them, they are not supposed to hold the same interest +for these sons and daughters of younger generations that I see before +me. Many of you will enter the next century in the prime of life and +help solve problems we wot not of. But those who were born in the early +morning of the present century and are still living should be content, +for in the words of John S. Ingalls, greater progress has been made +during their life time than in sixty centuries previous. + +NOTE.--Mrs. Mary Frasier and Lyman Guilford, of Schoolcraft, William +Bair, of Vicksburg, and O. H. Fellows, of Prairie Ronde, are all who are +living who came to Kalamazoo county in 1829. + + + + +MICHIGAN MY MICHIGAN. + +This song was written by Addison M. Brown in 1893, to be sung at the +annual meeting and picnic of the Kalamazoo County Pioneer society, held +at Long Lake. + + + Bride of my youth, I sing of thee, + Michigan, my Michigan. + Thy wave-washed shores, how dear to me, + Michigan, my Michigan. + Thee fondly chose I for my own, + With thee I built my cabin home, + And from thee ne'er had wish to roam, + Michigan, my Michigan. + + Ne'er brought a bride such dower as thine, + Michigan, my Michigan. + Such wealth in forest, field and mine, + Michigan, my Michigan. + Thy youthful form how fair to see + Ere thy tall forests spared a tree + Or plow-share harsh had fretted thee, + Michigan, my Michigan. + + My heart turns fondly to the day, + Michigan, my Michigan. + When, turning from my weary way, + Michigan, my Michigan. + I gently laid my tired head + On thy soft bosom wide outspread, + With naught but Heaven over head, + Michigan, my Michigan. + + Swiftly, since then, the years have run, + Michigan, my Michigan. + The fateful thread is nearly spun, + Michigan, my Michigan. + Again my head shall soon be pressed + Upon the pillow of thy breast + To find with thee unending rest, + Michigan, my Michigan. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + + Text in italics is surrounded with underscores: _italics_. + + Punctuation has been corrected without note. + + Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been retained from the original. + + Obvious typographical errors have been corrected as follows: + Page 12: propably changed to probably + Page 15: leav1ng changed to leaving + Page 18: objct changed to object + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pioneer Day Exercises, by +(Schoolcraft, Michigan) Ladies' Library Association + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIONEER DAY EXERCISES *** + +***** This file should be named 37772.txt or 37772.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/7/7/37772/ + +Produced by K Nordquist, David E. 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