USA > Michigan > Ionia County > History of Ionia County, Michigan : her people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 48
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"It was a common thing to hear the baying of a pack of bloodhounds in the night. as they circled around the prison pen and finally struck off in some one direction. the sound dying away in the distance. This told us that more of our poor boys had been trying to get away. Those that were brought back were severely punished. Men were fastened into the stocks by the wrists and ankles between heavy planks for hours. The stocks were in plain sight of all, and it was a common sight to see our comrades thus tortured. Had it not been for the horrors of the situation few would have run such fearful risks to get away.
"Wells were dug to a great depth in an effort to get pure water, but not much could be obtained in that way, and suffering for it was great, until the Providence spring broke out. This spring was so named because it was looked upon by many as a direct gift from God. 1 have drunk from many a fountain of living water, but I never found one so sweet and so pure. How eagerly we crowded up to get a draught from that pure foun- tain, and how we hastened with a cup of it to helpless comrades, racked with pain and burning with fever. How thankful the sufferer received it. Yes, we remember the last gift to a brother was a drink of that pure water. 1 have no doubt that many of us live today that would not have survived without it. I have read of a party of our men visiting the old prison, who, when they came to the old spring, were completely overcome by their feel- ings, when they remembered what they had passed through.
"We had but little reading matter, and a newspaper hardly ever found its way inside the prison. We would try and sing, but our hearts were too heavy for that, only as we would make a forlorn effort to cheer each other. I had a Bible, which was not taken from me in all the searching through which we passed. This was often called for by the boys and read care- fully. We talked of home and the bountiful tables that would be spread for us, if we were so fortunate as to reach home again. This was a favorite theme, and many times I have actually seen those who were listening moving (33)
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their lips as if they were tasting of mother's cooking. A poor fellow who passed me one day, stooped and picked up an old bone that had been thrown out and gnawed it just as a hungry dog would do. We tried to study up ways of cheering and amusing each other that we might not yield to despair.
"Days and weeks passed slowly away, and October found us hungry and cokl, waiting and hoping for release. The prison had been enlarged. hundreds had been added to our numbers, the death rate had increased, but still we hoped on, hoping against hope. To walk about from point to point of our allotted space was not an agreeable mode of pastime. One needed a stout heart to walk down by the old prison gate in the morning, and look at the long row of our dead comrades as they lay there with thin, white, ghastly faces, awaiting the dead wagon. We wondered why our govern- ment had left us thus to suffer and die. Those in authority were exulting over us, while each hour in the night Rebel guards would call out 'all is well.' Our rations were withheld for three days from the whole prison, because a few had been caught planning to escape, and this at a time when we were almost reduced to absolite starvation.
"Well, those years have passed away, but as we look to our days in Rebel prisons, it seems but as yesterday, when-
"'Within the prison walls, we were waiting for the day, That should come and open wide the iron doors.
And the hollow eye grew bright. and the poor heart almost gay. As we talked of seeing home and friends once more.
"At Andersonville, alone, our government has placed nearly thirteen thousand tombstones, to mark the graves where our loved ones were laid away, and the dear old flag floats each day over their graves. In con- clusion, I would say that God has been good in giving us peace and a flag that represents the very best country that has ever had an existence. May our Heavenly Father grant that our beloved tlag, the Star Spangled Banner. intermingled with the Banner of the Cross, float over our fair land forever."
DATES OF INCORPORATION.
The following shows the dates of incorporation of the cities and vil- lages of lonia county, and their population in 1904. Belding. 3.654: incor- porated as a town in 1803 (never incorporated as a village). lonia. 5.222: incorporated as a village in 1865. as a city in 1873. Hubbardston ( in Ionia
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and Clinton counties ). 413: incorporated in 1867. Lake Odessa, 1.305: incorporated in 1889. Lyons, 723 : incorporated by the supervisors in 1859 and legalized the same year. Muir, 522: incorporated in 1871. Pewamo, 353: incorporated in 18;1. Portland, 1.833; incorporated in 1869. Sara- nac. 777: incorporated in 1869.
POPULATION OF IONIA COUNTY.
The population of lonia county was greatest in 1894. The figures follow: 1837, 1,028: 1840, 1.923: 1845. 5.102: 1850. 7.597; 1854, 10,714; 1850. 16.682 : 1864. 17.984 : 1870, 27.681 : 1874. 28.376: 1880, 33,872: 1884. 32.559: 1800. 32,801: 1804. 34,820; 1900. 34.320: 1904. 34.627: 1910, 33.550.
VOTE FOR GOVERNOR.
The following table shows the vote cast for governor in Ionia county, in the various years and according to party :
1912
1910
1908
1906
1904
1902
1900
Republican
2,740
2,894
3.544
3.599
4.046
3.697
4,969
Democratic
3.565
3.110
4,379
2,505
4,293
3,291
4,241
Prohibition
136
+39
402
384
181
253
188
Socialist
142
40
63
57
56
116
7
Soc .- Labor
1
7
5
4
12
1
Independent
10
Soc .- Democrat
25
Progressive
1.133
NOTABLE CITIZENS OF IONIA COUNTY.
lonia county, proper, was not represented by a resident delegate in the first state constitutional convention of 1835. This convention met at Detroit, May 11, 1835, and finished its work and adjourned on June 24, 1835. The Constitution was submitted to the people and adopted in the fall of 1835, by a vote of 6,299 to 1.359. While this Constitution was, in a way, suspended by the failure of the people to ratify an act of Congress of June 15, 1836, detaching the territory in the vicinity of Toledo from the state, this act of Congress was subsequently ratitied at what is known as the second conven- tion of assent held on December 14-15, 1836 at Ann Arbor, and the Con-
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stitution of 1835 remained in force until the adoption of the Constitution of 1850.
In the constitutional convention which convened on June 3. 1850, at Lansing, and adjourned on August 15, 1850, lonia county was represented by Henry Bartow and Cyrus Lovell. In the adoption of the Constitution of 1835, the vote of Ionia county had been returned with that of Clinton. Kent and Ottawa counties, so that the vote of 1850 discloses the first actual expression of the people on fundamental law. lonia county cast 842 votes in favor of the Constitution of 1850 and 144 votes against the Constitution. This charter of the people of Michigan was adopted by a total majority of 26,736 votes and remained in force until the Constitution of 1909 went into effect.
In 1867 an effort was made to adopt a new Constitution, but without success. The convention of 1867 was held at Lansing and convened on May 15 and adjourned on August 22. Tonia county was represented in this convention by George W. Germain and Sanford A. Yeomans. When the vote on this proposed charter was taken, April 6. 1868. it not only was rejected by the state at large, but Ionia county well reflected the gen- eral verdict by casting 1,999 votes for the instrument and 2,677 votes against it.
In 1873 another unsuccessful effort was made to adopt a new Constitu- tion. In this instance the proposed new charter was drafted by a constitu- tional commission which convened at Lansing on August 27 and adjourned on October 16, 1873. Tonia county cast a tremendous majority against the new charter, the vote being 525 for and 3,886 against.
No successful effort to change the Constitution was made until the convention of 1907-08. which met at Lansing on October 22. 1907, and adjourned on March 3, 1908. Jonia county was represented in this constitu- tional convention by Herbert E. Powell, of Tonia, and Justin L. Suther- land. of Portland, although the representation was by senatorial districts. The new Constitution was submitted to the people on November 3. 1908. pursnant to a writ of mandamus issued by the supreme court on March 6. 1008, and adopted by a vote of 244.705 to 130.783. lonia county cast 3.321 votes in favor of the present Constitution and 2,149 votes against it.
Between 1873 and 1907 six different attempts were made to have a constitutional convention called, namely: In 1882, 1800, 1892, 1898. 1904 and 1906, but in each case the attempts were defeated by the people.
STATE SENATORS FROM IONIA COUNTY.
lonia county has had thirteen different citizens who have represented
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the senatorial district of which Jonia county is a part in the Michigan state Senate. The hrst man to be elected to the state Senate from Ionia county was Adam L. Roof, of Lyons, who represented the seventh district and served during the sessions of 1840-1850. Jefferson H. Beckwith, of Lyons, represented the twenty-fitth district and served during the session of 1855. Osmond Tower, of lonia county, represented the thirtieth district and served during the sessions of 1859. 1861 and 1862. Hampton Rich, of Ionia, served in the state Senate, during the sessions of 1867, 1869 and 1870. He represented the twenty-eighth district. John C. Dexter, of Ionia, was the next man to serve in the senate from fonia county. He represented the twenty-eighth district during the sessions of 1871 and 1872. Allen B. Morse, of Ionia. served as a representative of the twenty-seventh senatorial district in the session of 1875. During the session of 1877, Franklin S. Freeman. of lonia. represented the twenty-fourth district. Erastus Il. Stanton, of lonia, served in the session of 1881 and 1882, from the twenty- fourth district. Albert K. Roof, of Lyons, served in the session of 1887, from the nineteenth senatorial district. William Toan, of Portland, also represented the nineteenth district and served during the sessions of 1889, 1891 and 1892. George E. Nichols, of Jonia, represented the eighteenth district during the session of 1908, and the next lonia county citizen in the state Senate was Walter Yeomans, of lonia, who served from the eighteenth district during the sessions of 1905 and 1907. Herbert E. Powell repre- sented the eighteenth district in the session of 1913. Mr. Powell lives at Ionia.
REPRESENTATIVES FOR IONIA COUNTY.
Digby V. Bell, lonia, fonia county, 1840: George W. Dexter, Ionia, lonia, Kent and Ottawa counties, 1842; Simeon N. Johnson, Grand Rapids, lonia, Kent and Ottawa counties, 1843; Adam L. Roof, Lyons, lonia. Kent and Ottawa counties, 1845; John L. Morse, Otisco, Ionia and Kent counties, 1846; Alexander F. Bell. Jonia, fonia county, 1847; Ananias Wor- den. Montcalm. lonia county, 1848; Cyrus Lovell. Jonia, lonia county, 1849; Frederick Hall. lonia. lonia county, 1850: Daniel L. Case, Portland, Jonia county, 1851 : Cyrus Lovell, fonia. lonia county, 1855; George W. Germain, North Plains, first district, :857-58; Mmeron Newman, Portland, first dis- trict. 1850-62: Milo S. Baker. Portland, first district. 1862; Alonzo Sessions, lonia, second district, 1857-62: Asa Spencer, Smyrna, second district, 1863-64: John B. Welch, lonia, first district. 1863-65 : Myron Tupper, South Cass, second district, 1865 : Robert B. Smith, Portland, first district, 1867-70;
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Abiel S. Stannard, South Boston, second district, 1867-70; Albert K. Roof, Lyons, first district, 1871-72: Shiverick Kellogg, Ionia, second district, 1871-74: William Sessions, lonia, first district, 1873-74: Jacob M. Benedict, Portland, first district, 1875: William Mercer, Saranac, second district. 1875: Nathan B Hayes, Muir, first district, 1877: Sanford A. Yeomans. Ionia, second district. 1877-70: George Pray, Wood's Corner, first district, 1879; Adoniram J. Gibbs, Portland, second district, 1881-82: A. Milan Willett, Muir, first district, 1881-83; Frederick Pitt, Ionia, second district, 1883: Edwin R. Williams, Ionia, second district, 1885: Andrew J. Webber, Ionia, first district, 1885-87: Amaziah D. Pardee, Saranac, second district. 1887: Henry W. Browne, Hubbardston, first district, 1889: Willard Haw- ley, Saranac, second district, 1889-01; Frank Doremus, Portland, first dis- trict. 1801-02: William D. Place, lonia, first district, 1893-95: Joseph D. Morse, Otisco, second district, 1893-95: James Scully. Ionia, first district, 1897-1900: Willis F. Bricker, Belding, second district, 1897-1913: Joseph A. Locher, Saranac, second district, 1899-1900; John Mick. Clarksville, second district, 1001 ; Herbert E. Powell, Ionia, first district, 1901 ; Herbert E. Powell, Ionia, Ionia county, 1903: Clyde J. Watt, Saranac, lonia county. 1005-07: Frank C. Miller, Ionia, Ionia county, 1900.
IMPORTANT OFFICES.
Coming to the consideration of the existing systems of government, and the recognition which lonians have received thereunder, first in rank was the election of llon. George W. Webber as a member of the forty- seventh Congress from the fifth Michigan district. Not more highly did the district honor the esteemed lonian than he his home and the district by his eminent services. No lonian ever did more for the advancement of the city.
llon. Monzo Sessions was appointed assessor of internal revenue for the fourth district of Michigan in 1861 and served until 1865. In 1872 he was elected a presidential elector from the eighth district. Osmond Tower was appointed by President Lincoln as the first United States marshal for the western district of Michigan and filled the office for three years. Edgar M. Marble was appointed from Ionia as commissioner of patents by President Grant.
The United States land office was removed from White Pigeon to Tonia about 1836, and from that time until several years after its removal to Reed City the appointments thereto were largely from lonia and included
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the names of Samuel Dexter. Louis S. Lovell, Stephen F. Page, Frederick Hall. Alex F. Bell, Henry J. Wilson, John C. Blanchard, James H. Kidd, James L. Jennings and Edward Stevenson.
In the councils of the state, lonians have borne a prominent part and have been accorded many high honors. Hon. Allen B. Morse, having been elected an associate justice of the supreme court in 1885, was appointed chief justice by Governor Alger to fill the unexpired term of Chief Justice Cooley, resigned. The following year he entered upon the full term for which he was elected and which expired on December 31, 1893.
Alonzo Sessions was lieutenant-governor two years, from 1877 to 1880; Digby V. Bell was auditor-general from 1846 to 1848, and commissioner of the state land office, 1844-46.
The office of attorney-general has been filled by the following Ionia citizens: Hon. Albert Williams gave the state distinguished services from 1863 to 1866, inclusive, having been re-elected to a second term. S. V. R. Trowbridge filled the office from January 1, 1889, to March 25, 1890, when ill health compelled him to resign. Hon. A. A. Ellis was elected in 1800 by a vote of 196.308 to 177.822 for his principal competitor and 25,416 for other candidates.
Among the important offices in the gift of the governor for which Tonians have been preferred, was the appointment of Gen. F. S. Hutchinson as inspector-general, by Governor Begole, 1883-85: Gen. J. H. Kidd as inspector-general. by Governor .Alger. 1885-87: Alfred H. Heath as com- missioner of labor statistics, by Governor Luce, 1887-89; Hon. Hampton Rich as member of the board of managers of the state house of correction and reformatory and of the asylum for insane criminals for successive terms, and the selection of Capt. John H. Mitchell, of the lonia Light Guard. by Governor Winans as a colonel upon his staff.
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.
To Alden Sessions properly belongs the credit for setting in motion the chain of events which led up to the organizing of the lonia County Young Men's Christian Association. In the fall of toro an announcement of the State Boy's Conference, to be held that year in Charlotte, came to him. and aroused his interest. fle attended and became so enthused that the following year. he persuaded fifteen others to go with him. An adult leader being necessary they chose Mr. Branch, who readily consented to make the trip with them. The conference was held in Detroit and a special
520
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coach was furnished by the Pere Marquette railroad to take the Ionia dele- gation. Those who attended were: Alden and Douglass Sessions, Otto Phillips, William McKendry. Jackson Fleckenstein, Harold Foote, Harold Smith, Charles Van Sickle, Dean LaDow. Roland Humens, Delmar Wood. Charles Hall, Ernest Hicks, Frank Edwards, William Bergy, and Mr. Branch.
During the trip it was decided to form an organization and appeal to the business men of the city for support. Accordingly, about two weeks later, a meeting was called in the basement of the Baptist church. to which about a dozen of the leading business men were invited. C. L. Rowe, of Jackson, state secretary of county Young Men's Christian Association work, had promised to attend, but a snow blockade prevented. Another meeting was called a little later, in the law office of F. C. Miller. Besides Mr. Miller, there were present at this meeting, T. B. Preston, Charles M. Steven- son, R. A. Hawley, E. E. Branch and Gen. Fred W. Green. C. L. Rowe, of Jackson, and J. A. Van Dis; of Kalamazoo, state secretary of boys' work, were present and urged the need of organizing a county Young Men's Chris- tian Association. A committee of business men took the matter under con- sideration, and in March, 1913, gave a banquet in Odd Fellows Hall, at which about two hundred men were present, among them Mr. Roberts, of New York, Mr. Rowe and Mr. Van Dis. A county organization was effected before the meeting adjourned, and on June, I. 1913, C. F. Angell began work as county secretary.
The program of the county Young Men's Christian Association is wide and varied. In the summer and fall there are many county-wide activities. such as summer camps, relay races, contests in corn and potato raising. supervised swimming, hiking trips, field and track meets for whole town- ships, and individual schools in the villages and cities.
The activities above described, given careful supervision and direction. give an opportunity for the boys to develop naturally. Appreciation of this kind of work is shown by the increasing number which take part every year. In 1915 nearly one thousand boys and men participated.
Very different indeed is the winter program of the County Young Men's Christian Association. Instead of athletics and contests, the atten- tion is turned to organizing the "gangs" into weekly Bible study groups. with an adult leader. These groups have educational work, social times, talks by professional and business men, parliamentary drill, impromptu speaking, as well as the religious activities. Conferences for older boys of the county are held, one each year, where vital questions are discussed by the boys themselves and higher ideals chosen. This type of work is
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unique in that no buildings are required or equipment demanded, but by volunteer supervised leadership results are obtained.
The county organization is maintained by a county committee of busi- ness and professional men, who authorize and assist in the soliciting of funds for developing the work throughout the entire county. The officers are: T. B. Preston, chairman: Lorenzo Webber, vice-president ; Fred W. Green, recording secretary: Royal A. Hawly and Fred L. Warner, men- bers of executive committee.
The County Young Men's Christian Association co-operates with and supplements the work of the home church and school. endeavoring at all times to discover. enlist and train young men and boys in service for Jesus Christ and their fellow men, thus making upright. useful citizens. Sixteen other counties in Michigan and seventeen other states have this type of Young Men's Christian Association work.
PIONEER DAYS.
The following is the address of Judge F. D. M. Davis which was delivered before the annual meeting of the lonia County Historical Society. This meeting was held in August, 1915, and this article appealed to the assembled pioneers and it was evident that they were well pleased with its contents. The address follows :
Pioneer means one who goes before to prepare the way for another. How many of us went before to prepare the way? I hardly think there are many left who were actual pioneers. Our venerable President Hayes was only a young man or boy at a time when the population of this county was large enough to send 2.464 young men into the Union army. This from his birth when the county was a forest. We are only keeping alive the memory of the pioneer. I like to feel that Iam one, that I have done some great work.
The pioneer that I think of is the one I can see way back in the dis- tance with a slow-going train of white covered wagons drawn by oxen, the men folks felling the trees and making their way westward. The patient oxen with swaying bodies and lagging footstep, men travel-stained and bronzed by exposure, women with hope and care depicted upon their faces, children peering from their uneasy abodes and wondering when they will be more comfortable. These are pioneers on their way to the promised land.
Moons wax and wane and still the weary march is kept up over hills
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and down valleys, fording streams and going around swamps, sometimes there are Indian scares, sometimes sickness and death overtake some of the band, sometimes a team gives out or a wagon breaks down. The lesson of patience and self-reliance is learned. Finally the march is ended, and they have reached the land of hope and they have found gloomy forests to greet them. They found no friends to entertain them except the wild ani- mals of the forest and the Indians for neighbors. They had nothing but the genial heavens and the generous earth to give them hope.
They formed an army of conquerors of Nature and leave a heritage for the future generations. They prepared the way. The pioneer and his children are the conquerors of Nature. No stone can be lifted above another to make the crudest wall or dwelling, but Nature, represented by her power of gravitation, strives at once to pull it down again. No structure is com- pleted before the elements are at work defacing it, preparing its slow but certain ruin. Summer heat expands and winter cold contracts materials of every kind. rain and wind wear, warp and twist, the oxygen of the air gnaws into stone and iron, alike, in a word the elements are at work undoing what man has accomplished. In the field of the agriculturist it is the same story. The earth which brings forth its crops of unwholesome weeds so freely resists man's approaches when he strives to bring it under cultivation, by careful attention only can useful grain be made to grow. Not only do wind and rain, blighting heat and withering cold, menace the crops, but weeds invade the fields, the germs of fungoid pests luirk everywhere, and myriad insects destroy orchard and meadow and grain fieldls in devasting legions. Similarly, the beasts so rugged and resistant while wild, become tender and susceptible to disease when made useful by being domesticated. Formerly they thrived when roaming at large in the face of all weather and exposure ; now, housed and fed by man, they are weakened. So the battle of life goes on in a bitter, anxious struggle.
But the story has another side. Nature has opposed man at every stage of his attempted progress. Yet. at the same time, she has supplied him all the weapons for waging war upon her. Her great power of gravi- tation opposes every effort he makes, yet without that power he could do nothing. He could not walk or stay upon the earth even, and no structure that he builds wouldl hold in place for an instant. So, too. the wind that smites him and tears at his handiwork may be made to serve the purpose of turning his windmills and supplying him with power. The water will serve a like purpose in turning his mills, and changed to steam with the aid of Nature's store of coal, will make his steam engines and dynamos pos-
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sible. Even the lightning be harnesses and makes useful in sending his messages by phone, telegraph or wireless.
The grains that man struggles so arduously to produce are after all nothing of man's creating. They are only adopted products of Nature, which he has striven to make serve his purpose by growing them under artificial conditions. So, too, the beasts are creatures that belong in the wilds of distant lands. Man has brought them in defiance of nature to uncongenial climate, and made them serve as workers and as food suppliers where Nature alone could not supply them. Man, by care, helps these animals to overcome the dangers of change of climate and food. So everywhere and always it is the work of man with the aid of nature to oppose nature up to certain limits.
Barbaric man is called the child of Nature, he must accept what Nature offers. But civilized man is the child grown to adult stature, and able in a manner to control, to dominate, and if you please, to conquer the parent Nature. He had to have tools to do this, his brain must evolve these tools, his necessity compelled him to invent, his hope inspired to higher accom- plishments. From the use of stones as tools, the skins of animals for cloth- ing, the flesh of beasts for food. he constantly advanced until he was able to leave permanent records of his achievements. Every advance was dependent upon the invention of some other prior period. The question finally became how to labor more efficiently, more productively. how to pro- duce more of the necessaries and of the luxuries that man's physical and mental being demands with less expenditure of toil. That from first to last has been the ever insistent problem, and the answer has always been found through the development of some new mechanism, some new labor- saving device, some ingenious manipulations of the powers of Nature.
If we compare Egyptian and Babylonian civilization with our own we will find the differences are due to new and improved methods of perform- ing the world's work. The great men of those times were as children in accomplishment when compared with the ordinary man of today. AH great changes have been slow. The stream of progress and great achievement moved slowly for thousands of years. More material progress has been made tending to the comfort. education and liberty of man, within the last eighty years than in all the world's history prior to that time. It was the American pioncer that began this great awakening from the lethargy of the ages. There are men living today who lived when the first steam engine ran the first boat and the first railroad train. Many of us remember when the first commercial message was sent over wire. We of middle age remem-
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ber the laying of the Atlantic cable, thus uniting the old world to the land of the pioneer. And all these brought about by pioneers of this country.
The historian of the future will record the fact that the American pioneer and his children constitute the greatest race ever known to the world. Today as a result of pioneer effort and accomplishment the progress of the world is moving as a mighty Niagara current, and the names of these men will stand higher and grander than any warrior. The names Watt, Fulton, Morse and Edison will be brighter and brighter, while the names of Hannibal, Caesar, Alexander and Napoleon have passed into oblivion.
The military conqueror had his day of surpassing grandeur, and departed leaving the world worse than he found it. But the pioneer inventor left a heritage that was to add day by day to the wealth and happi- ness of humanity, the lightening of toil, the dissemination of learning. the teaching of men to think. until the pioneer had, in fact, become the con- queror of Nature. The thorny cactus has become a blooming rose, the poison of its cup has become the nourishment of the domestic animal and sustains the life of man. No one can tell the end. Take it alone in agri- culture and witness the changes. Could we turn back to the time of our grandfather farming would be different work than that of today. Then, for the most, he operated only a few fields. Thirty or forty acres of plow land kept him quite busy. He plowed with oxen, if pretty well advanced. with horses: sowed grain by hand. Cultivated corn and potatoes with a hoe. Reaped his wheat and oats with a cradle, perhaps a sickle. Threshed his grain with a flail. Went to the nearest water-power mill to get his wheat traded into flour. leaving toll instead of cash with the miller. If he had a surplus it would be drawn by horses or oxen twenty or thirty miles to market. Each farmer raised a very little live stock just for his own use. If he had a surplus the local butcher would kill and distribute among those who did not raise it, but only locally. Each locality drew and gave out to a limited community.
Today the small farmer is almost obsolete. Eastern farms lie fallow. the owners not being able to compete with the rich soil of the West divided into large farms. The soil is turned by steam plows; seeders and planters put the grain into the ground. The harvester machine cuts the grain and ties into bundles. The steam thresher threshes it and puts it into bags. The anto truck takes it to a nearby market where it is elevated ready for the steam cars, which carries it whizzing off to the coast, there it is placed on shipboard for the people of other countries or ground up in sanitary mills where they wash the whiskers from each grain.
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Instead of having butchery days, as of old, the live stock is given a railroad ticket to Chicago or Buffalo. There every part of the critter, except the squeal, is made up into something and returned to us ready to eat. Veal in the manufacturing process becomes chicken. The farmer has no longer time to butcher. Ilis hogs he sells alive for eight cents and buys his bacon and hams for twenty-five. We can buy our breakfast steak from Buenos Aires as conveniently as from our home farmer. Bananas and pine- apples from the tropics are as plentiful as our own apples, and if it were not for the enterprise, energy and push of Luther Hall and N. B. Hayes, lonia county would not know what an apple looked like. Just think of all the changes in about eighty years.
In the world of manufactures, literature and science the advance and progress are just as great. There is one place where progress has not been fast enough, that is in the kitchen. The housewife canmot wash dishes nor cook a good dinner by wireless. Her work is the real stuff, but it is some better than in pioneer days. My grandmother cooked her meat over the coals of a great fireplace, She took care of her own poultry and eggs, sell- ing the eggs for three or four cents a dozen. That was before the time of high cost of living She looked after milk and cream of twenty to thirty cows. Spun and wave the flax for our summer clothes, and those slippery linen sheets that would not stay over us. Carded, spun and wove the wool for our winter clothes. Cooked, and with the help of her daughters, all for a family of fourteen.
The cream was not separated by a machine, but the milk put in pans upon a shelf in the milk house, and the cream taken off just at the right time, or the butter which was sent down to New York by canal might not be good when it got there, There was no machine to churn, but a churn with an up and down stroke dash, sometimes by grandma, sometimes some of her unwilling children. Economy prevailed. Even the wood ashes of the fireplace was saved, placed in a barrel and water put into same, resulting in a flow of lye. The scraps of fats, meats and rinds saved for months were boiled in the lye, and we then had soft soap, and its use would make us shine like an African's heel.
With all this accomplished, with Nature conquered, with intelligence has come security of title to property. This, with the home, is what creates love of country, a country worth having. And it is an incentive to work, not only with hands but brain, and those who think are those who reign. I cannot dwell longer on this subject, it would take days to cover the ground.
526
IONIA COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
We have so much to thank the pioneer for. We should keep alive their memories and great work by keeping up this annual meeting. We, as children of pioneers, must not rest content with the work of our fathers. We can't sit down and watch the cars go by filled with envy, nor be dis- couraged, but add to progress and the richness of the world by our energy and push. The world moves, and to be happy we must move with it. This is an age of automobiles, electric cars. telephones, wireless telegraphy- and if we don't get too lazy to walk, too tired to talk, but ever remain true to our best instincts given through education, pure religion, honest politics and sound and healthy government, then will we be truly with all our other works the conquerers of Nature.
கழல் நாதனுசம் ரைங்கு திருச் பீ ப்போல ـه حجم
நாத்தி
مرسييوم الرجل
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