Michigan Trailmakers

MICHIGAN TRAILMAKERS BY HENRY OEMAL SEVERANCE, Litt. D., LIBRARIAN UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI Author of History of the Library University of Missouri. FOREWORD by FREDERICK BLACKMAR MUMFORD, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Missouri ANN ARBOR GEORGE WAHR, Publisher 1930 Copyright 1930 By GEORGE WAHR MADE IN U. S. A. FRANKLIN DEKLEINE COMPANY PRINTER AND BINDERS LANSING, MICHIGAN DEDICATION THIS WORK IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THE PIONEERS AND TRAILMAKERS WHOSE LIVES AND DEEDS HAVE HELPED TO MAKE MICHIGAN A GREAT STATE. FOREWORD THE historian who can accurately record the ideals, ambitions, and achievements of the pioneers is rendering a distinct public service. The second and third generations following the original settlers have builded upon the character foundations of the pioneers. The remarkable development of the United States and the sweep of its population from the Atlantic to the Pacific is one of the most romantic and moving pages in all history. The fundamental causes of the peaceful occupation of a continent are to be found in the rugged characters, integrity and tireless industry of a pioneer race. The author of Michigan Trailmakers has made a real contribution to our knowledge of this era. The account is the more valuable in that it places before us the intimate, daily lives of the early settlers. Their enthusiasms, their labors, their pleasures, their devotion to religious ideals are very clearly recorded in this interesting record. FREDERICK BIACKMAR MUMFORD, Dean of the faculty of Agriculture, and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Missouri. PREFACE THE purpose of this story is to put into perma nent form a picture of the earlysettlement of south ern Michigan, particularly the section embraced in the limits of Oakland County. Charles is a repre sentative of this period and section. The story of his settling in Commerce township, the clearing of the land, the erection of the log house and barns, the raising of crops with primitive tools such as the cradle, scythe and the three cornered harrow, are typical of all the others. The story includes an account of how the early settlers lived, what they ate and what they w ore, the rearing of children, the organization of the district schools and the church relations and the social activities such as sports and games and bees, courtship, marriage and the like. After the settlers became established on their farms, they gave attention to fertilization of their soil the use of new and improved machinery the importation and breeding of the best grades of live stock. In the later period Charles L. is the representative farmer and villager. We are and should be inter ested in how any man solves his problems and acquits himself in his battles wrote F. L. Mott in his Rewards of Reading. He was one of the thou sands of farmers who, after the Civil War, trekked west over the western frontiers and made homes on the prairies. They went with little or no capital, with few tools and without comforts, built log and sod houses, cleared and cultivated large acreages. They were subject to conditions and circumstances over which, individually, they had no control. The enormous over-production of wheat and other grains from 1868 to 1873 forced prices to such low levels that hundreds of farmers couldnt pay their taxes and interest on their mortgages. The result was that farmers were soldout for the face of the mortgages, losing all their improvements and buildings. Many of them faced about, trekked back east as Charles L. did. Then followed the organization of farmers into alliances, granges and Patrons of Husbandry for their better protection against the predatory inter ests of the country. The sources of information for this work are books, especially the collection of the Michigm Pioneer and Historical Society men and women whose lives spanned the period of 1835 to date and from my personal recollections...