History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 25

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761

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yelp I told him the folks had just gone, and he could soon overtake them. He said he guessed he would go to meeting also, and went off laughing at my chicken-pie. He gone, I hastily turned to the spider, seized that chicken by the neck and jerked him out of my short-cake, the middle part of it coming up with his feet. I pushed this down with one hand, and pulling him out, ran to the door, wringing him by the neck by way of revenge, threw him to the ground, and went back to my poor short-cake. I took a case-knife and cut out the middle part, smoothed the rest into shape, and put it to baking again. As I went to the door to throw out the rejected dough, there was another act in this drama going on. The entire brood of hens and chickens were crowding around and over that rooster, picking the dough off his feet and legs. They had nearly gobbled him up. I drove them away in sheer pity for the poor thing. His feet and legs were bleeding, and as he got up to walk he hobbled awfully on his clumsy, half-baked feet. As I returned to the house the greedy, hungry brood imme- diately ran to him again, and chased him about the door-yard, pick- ing at his legs and feet.

"Once more by the fireside, I watched the baking of the cake. The bottom done, I set up the spider for the top to bake. This done I made a square meal on that short-cake. Appetite always keen, but now heightened, as stolen apples are sweetest, I relished the cake ex- ceedingly. There was none of it left to turn evidence against me. This adventure remained a secret for a long time. It finally got out. Uriah, no doubt, found it too good to keep, and related it to some friend. I then gave to our family my entire transactions that Sunday morning,-mixing up feed for the chickens.

"FLOWERS, FRUIT, AND NUTS IN AND ABOUT KALAMA- ZOO AND ELSEWHERE IN THE OLDEN TIMES .*

"It is not my purpose in any way to encroach upon the ground that was recently so well and satisfactorily occupied by the members of the Pomological Society at this place. It will be enough for me to have occupied a more obscure field, at a remote period in our history. Nor will I attempt to reach or imitate that high order of intelligence, skill, and fitness, which was so conspicuously manifest in the produc- tion of those very interesting and instructive essays and lectures which were read by those gentlemen.

"There are very many persons who never saw a prairie before it had been invaded by the ruthless plowshare, when it was arrayed in all its primeval beauty and splendor. For novelty and variety in landscape scenery, it is hard to conceive of anything so enchanting as a prairie when bedecked with every conceivable size, form, and color of flowers, from the modest little blushing violet of early spring through all the rapid successive changing gradations until the frosts of autumn. As the traveler passed on, mile after mile, his delighted vision would be greeted by endless kaleidoscopic alternations of spark- ling gems, in colors of white, yellow, pink, orange, blue, violet, mottled, etc. There was loveliness and magnificence and fragrance in nature's teeming, quiet laboratory. This imperfectly represents the state of all our prairies, when the early pioneers arrived here.

" A few years after the first settlement of the country, when there were more inhabitants and enough cultivated land to prevent the de- vastation by the annual fires, two varieties of roses spontaneously appeared,-one, a small single rose, growing on a small delicate shrub about two and one-half feet high, and not very fragrant; the other, sometimes called the Michigan rose, was a climbing vine, and could be so trained as to perform astonishing feats of climbing to great heights. It is a single rose, and is almost entirely destitute of fra- grance, even when in full bloom, but if tastefully arranged is a splendid sight. The Michigan rose has obtained an extensive notoriety, and gained many admirers. When I was in New England, twenty years ago, a gentleman there, who had previously heard of it, expressed strong desires to obtain it.

" When the pioneers arrived here, more than forty years ago, they found growing here the black walnut, butternut, hickory-nut, and beech-nut. There were, in some localities, great numbers of small, young hazel-bushes, which, having perennial roots, had maintained a show of life; but there were but few, if any of them, that had been allowed sufficient time between the fires to grow to a bearing size and age, which they did as soon as the fires were prevented from running.

" In and about Kalamazoo County, nature was very liberal in the bestowment and diffusion of many rich fruits and delicious berries.

* By Henry Little.

OCCUPATION BY THE WHITES.

In some localities the pioneers found a few wild plum-trees in a bear- ing condition. When the fires were stopped, the plum-trees sprang up in great numbers, and in a few years came into bearing, when a great variety of plums were produced. Among the many kinds of whortleberry, there was found growing in the lagoons a medium-sized kind. This blueberry, as it is sometimes called, is about half as large as a whortleberry of the same color that grew in New England, while it is twice as large as another whortleberry of that country, which is as black as jet and of delicious flavor. In later years they also found a blueberry which was about half as large as the first one named, which grew on dry, sandy land, and upon a small, slender, low bush, but they were very seldom met with, except in the Yankee Springs region.

"The pioneers found growing in the lagoons a cranberry which was peculiar to this country. It is a very good fruit, but the pulp is so soft and juicy it is difficult to keep it until the next spring.

"The Eastern cranberry, of a similar variety, is smaller in diameter, and more conical in form, and the pulp being more firm, it may easily be kept nine or ten months after picking. There was another kind of cranberry here that was found on dry land, growing upon shrubs or small trees about eight feet high, the berry being of the size of a large pea, of a bright red color when ripe, having one seed or stone as large in diameter as the berry could contain, but quite thin, with sides somewhat convex, and the pulp soft and extremely acid. I have met with but two or three of these trees in this county, although they are somewhat plenty in New England. At that period in our fruit history several varieties of strawberries abounded in great profusion. They were confined mostly to the oak openings, more particularly to the burr-oak openings, near the borders of the prairies, where they were larger and more plenty than in other openings. The strawberry being an annual, could grow and mature its fruit at that early period, between the time of the annual fires, without the help of man. The checkerberry,* although being the most lowly and humble member of the berry family, yet it being an annual, it could maintain its ground and mature its berries, which remained through the winter on the vines, and came out the next spring in a bright red color. The chief value of the checkerberry is found in the well-known flavoring ex- tract from the leaves. At that time we also found the small wild black cherry and the choke cherry, but the latter not in plenty. All the above-described fruits grew to perfection here in and during a few of the first years after the settlement of the country, which may be called the first fruit period.

" The dawning of the second fruit period brought large additions to our former liberal supplies of indigenous edible fruits. That great change is due entirely to the greater number of the inhabitants and the increased quantity of cultivated land, which prevented the rav- ages of the annual fires of the Indians. The frequent recurrence of the fires and the firm, compact, unyielding nature of the prairie sward was so unfavorable to the growth of fruit that none were found there except a few plums, and in after-years a very few strawberries in half-cultivated fields, so that all the fruit that I am to write about was found on opening lands. I first noticed great numbers of young crab-apple trees, from one to three feet high, which came on rapidly, and in a few years were bearing.

" The next in order are the plum-trees, noticed above. The grape- vines had been cut down by the fires every year, except in a very few favored localities. I saw two or three vines at that early day, which vines were several inches in diameter, and reached to the top of the tallest forest-trees. As the grape-roots were perennial, as soon as the vines had sufficient time they shot forth with great rapidity, and soon came into bearing. As there were none but wild grapes in the country, some of them which were cultivated were considered very good. The honeysuckle-vines were there, but I have looked in vain for their de- licious fruit. There was also the mandrake (mandragora), sometimes called May-apple, the fruit of which some people are extravagantly fond. In size and appearance it resembles the small kind of tomato. The ground-cherry ( Physalis viscosa) was there,-an excellent fruit, about the size of a large cherry, and grows in a calyx. In fallow fields and in fence corners, and nearly everywhere they were allowed, the strawberries appeared with renewed vigor and increased size. There were two kinds of gooseberries,-the prickly and the smooth ; the latter were not plenty.

"There were three varieties of raspberries,-the black, yellow, and

red ; very few of the latter, but the first quite plenty. There were three varieties of blackberries, one the small, well-known, common kind. In favorable places they are very prolific, the bushes some- times growing six or seven feet high. In early times wild fruit was free plunder, and one year there were carried away from my place, by men, women, and children, many bushels of blackberries; the people went there from Kalamazoo and Cooper and the region round about those attractive acres. There was also the low-bush blackberry, sup- posed to be the Rubus trivialis, the bush being two or three feet high; the berries were larger and more globular in form than the first de- scribed. As both these blackberries were biennials, of course they could produce no fruit unless there were two consecutive years without the fires. There was also the ground or running blackberry, supposed to be the Rubus villosus, the vines running on the ground like the strawberry ; the berries were globular in form, having but a few seeds; the vines were annuals, but the roots were perennial, and as difficult to exterminate as the Canada thistle; they were found mostly in cultivated lands.

"In the winter of 1831 I planted one pint of apple-seed in a box of dirt, which was kept out of doors until the next spring, when I carefully planted them on my land on Gull Prairie. I very much regret to be compelled to say that not one of those seeds ever germi- nated, for the supposed reason that they were two or three years old when planted. At the same time, likewise, I planted about the same quantity of dried currants, with the same results. I knew before, and since I planted the currants, that it was the popular belief that cur- rants could be propagated in no way but by the roots or the cuttings. I was not a farmer nor a botanist at that time, but I had learned that some kinds of seeds had germinated, and why should not currant- seed ? I therefore did not know any better than to hope for success. I do not suppose that it was public belief nor any natural law that prevented these seeds sprouting, but simply because they were two or three years old. I have since learned that currant-seeds, and straw- berry-seeds, and blackberry-seeds will germinate very readily. I do not know but there are inherent in all seeds, that are properly de- veloped and fully matured, the principles of vitality, which, through and by their organic germinal functions, will fulfill the great laws of reproduction, if we knew how to treat them. The bulbous and tu- berous plants are a law unto themselves, their bulbs and tubers being their seeds. I know of no better way, with certain kinds of fruit, than to plant the seeds direct from or soon after they are removed from the ripe fruit, before they lose their vitality by age and drying up.

" In the spring of 1833 I planted some love-apple seeds, which were obtained at the Carey missionary establishment, on the St. Joseph River. The seeds germinated and grew finely, and in due time the fruit was fully developed, but as yet no one was found who knew anything about the strange, curious fruit, or supposed it to be of any value beyond being an ornamental curiosity. At length a gentleman from Savannah, Ga., was at my place, who, seeing my mysterious fruit, with great delight exclaimed, 'Why, you have the tomatoes here, and they are excellent for eating, and held in high estimation by the people of Savannah.' He did not inform us how they were to be used, but we looked forward with the most flattering anticipations to the time of enjoying a rare feast. When the fruit was fully ripe we proceeded to make a trial of its virtues, in the same way that we would with a ripe peach or plum, but one or two nips were enough to prove that it was an extremely disgusting, repugnant, abhorrent, de- testable thing,-and I might go on multiplying revolting terms, and then utterly fail of conveying any adequate conception of its hate- fulness. We thought there was some mistake about that thing. When I found the botanical name (hycopersicum), that offered no ex- planation. Before long, however, we became better informed. We learned that it should be used while in its green state, when, if sliced thin and fried after pork, or baked in a pie, that it was a good sub- stitute for green apples.

" As there were no apples in the county at that time, the tomato soon became very popular. One man on the prairie, who had great quantities of tomatoes, and there being no market for them, and being unable to use the whole of them in his own family before they became ripe and consequently worthless, gave them away by the bushel to his neighbors. In these modern times I have learned with profound as- tonishment that there are a few people with such perverted tastes that they even eat ripe tomatoes.

" In 1834, Elihu Mills, of Ann Arbor, brought to Gull Prairie a quantity of apple-trees for sale, of which he sold more or less to dif-

* Wintergreen.

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

ferent parties on the prairie. Among the pioneers of Gull Prairie there were several from New England, where it was supposed by many that stony or rocky land was as good as, if not preferable to, any other for apple-trees; even the steep side-hills and their summits were graced by the apple-trees, provided they had the everlasting rocks. About the beginning of the present century, one of my neigh- bors being about to set out an apple-orchard, and having none but sandy land to put it on, in his great wisdom conceived of the brilliant idea of carting from abroad large flat stones, and placing one at the bottom of each hole for the roots of the tree to rest on. It so hap- pened that there were not stones enough, and the last tree was set with- out any. The fate of that tree was commented upon and watched by all the neighbors with profound interest. Notwithstanding all the adverse predictions put forth, that tree flourished as well as the others .*

"Now when those men came here and had turned their wistful eyes abroad over the land and could discover no suitable land for apple- trees, we need not wonder that their sensibilities were stirred to their inmost depths. When Elihu Mills was selling his trees on the prairie (as referred to above), he went to the house of Mr. - , but he was away from home; when, therefore, Mr. - returned home and found that his son had bought some of Mills' trees, and set them out, he expressed great sorrow.

"In the autumn of the same year (1835), Mr. J. F. Gilkey brought from Indiana or Ohio about one hundred apple-trees, one-half of which he set out south of his house; but, inasmuch as the cattle had access to them, a few years thereafter not a vestige of the trees remained. The other half of the aforesaid trees Judge Hinsdell set out west of his barn, among the standing girdled forest-trees. These girdled trees were afterwards felled and burned up without in- jury to the apple-trees. Those good old trees have faithfully served their day and generation, and now, after a lapse of thirty-eight years, still remain as enduring monuments of the genius, thrift, and remarkable enterprise of that wonderful, active, and successful man. "In 1835, John Barnes and Loyal Jones each set out eight or ten peach-trees, which were two years old at the time of setting, and were, I believe, the first peach-trees that were set out upon Gull Prairie.

" At an early period of the settlement of the prairie, Augustus Mills set out a goodly number of the common red, sour cherry-trees. In the year 1844 they were nice great trees, and had borne fruit several years. At that time there were many young sprouts or offshoots, which were one or two feet high, that had sprung from the roots of the large trees, a few feet from the trunks. I obtained a quantity of these offshoots, and planted them out for myself. At the time of planting my cherry-trees, and after, I was told by the wise ones that my trees would never bear, because they were sprouts or offshoots. I was so green at that time that I did not know any better than to sup- pose that such sprouts would bear. True, I had previously had a similar experience, but that was more than twenty years before, and had passed from my recollection, and so could not benefit me in that time of need, and, being ignorant, I was all the while liable to make grave mistakes in something.

"That little experience, or episode, in my experiments with fruit- trees (already alluded to) occurred while I was residing in New Eng- land. There I had a neighbor who had a goodly number of large, bearing apple-trees ; from the roots of those trees, a few feet from their trunks, there had sprung many sprouts or offshoots, which were four or five feet high, and very straight and thrifty. The owner of the trees was truly a very learned and intelligent man. He told me that I might have in welcome as many of his sprouts as I desired, but at the same time advised me not to take them on any account, 'for sprouts,' said he, 'will either never bear, or bear fruit that will be unlike the original, and be absolutely worthless.' Those few words embraced valuable information and friendly advice, which, emanating from so high a source, should (as many people would say) deter me from the commission of such a rash and foolish act as the one I was about to perpetrate. But I was so green and unlearned in those days that I knew but little about philosophy or the laws which govern the vegetable kingdom ; consequently, I did not know why a sprout taken from the roots of an apple-tree, or a scion from its branches, and the one planted in the ground elsewhere, and the other ingrafted into an-

other tree, should at once degenerate and lose all respect for their noble parentage, and either not bear at all, or bear that which would be a shame and disgrace to their family.

" But that mysterious theory did not originate with my much-es- teemed friend. It was a relic of past ages, which had been carefully preserved and as carefully handed down through succeeding genera- tions for the protection of their children's children. Notwithstanding all that, and the increased light of the nineteenth century, I carried the sprouts home and set them out, and as they were from large, ma- ture trees, they came forward with astonishing rapidity, and made beautiful trees, began to bear very early, and continued to bear excel- lent apples. The reader, long before this, will have anticipated the results of my experiments with my cherry-trees. I suppose it is unnecessary for me to say that I met with perfect success in every particular. The trees have not only borne great quantities of good cherries year after year, but still continue to do so.

" KALAMAZOO, July 18, 1873."

PIONEER MONEY-"DICKER."

In the early years of Michigan the people, as in all new countries and frontier settlements, were compelled to resort to primitive means for the exchange of products. Legalized money, or currency, was scarce, and what little was in circu- lation was looked upon with suspicion to a greater or less extent ; and partly from this, and partly from other causes, the settlers adopted, and continued for several years, a sys- tem of exchange called by the American people, at least by those inhabiting the Northern States, " dicker." This convenient word is defined in " Webster" as meaning to negotiate, to trade, to swap. In Latin it is written dacra, dacrum, decora, dicora, decara, from the word decuria, meaning a division of ten ; hence a dakir of skins, a dicker of furs, a dicker of gloves or moccasins, etc. Any exchange of products or goods was called " a dicker."

It was a provincialism transplanted from England and the continent of Europe to the shores of America, and made a part of the common idiom of the times ; generally in use on the borders and among the newer settlements.

It is probable that there was no one article of trade or exchange which was made the standard of values, as has been the case in some parts of the Union,-as, for instance, in Oregon, where wheat was for a time the recognized stand- ard by State or Territorial authority, we believe, at a fixed value per bushel, and a legal tender, as good as Mr. Chase's celebrated " greenbacks." Among the savages of the con- tinent, wampum, manufactured mostly from shells, was the standard of exchange, as well as the foundation or medium of all national and tribal records.

"'Dicker,' when properly defined, was money in a sense liberal and broad enough to have suited Sam. Carey or Ben. Butler in their most ultra greenback humor. Butler says, ' A piece of leather is good enough for money.' So thought the pioneer. He took leather of the shoemaker in exchange for potatoes ; he paid the merchant in wheat, the blacksmith in marsh hay, the carpenter in beef, the tailor in wood, the parson with a pig, and split rails for the postmaster to pay the twenty-five cents for his letter.

" It was a much less expensive currency than anything yet invented by the inflationist. It dispensed with even the necessity of coin or paper. Each pioneer possessed the power of the general government ; he had only to say ' fiat moneta,' and presto! everything at his dictum became current money. His ipse-dicit made it legal tender for all debts and dues, both (in a local sense) public and private.

"It is often said nowadays that 'the people are the government ;' then each man was the government, and, by his fiat, he made all the money necessary for his use during the first decade of the pioneer period. Labor was the ' gold basis' of this bank. It measured the value of everything which man produced by toil. It was really the

* This fully equals the pioneer in Illinois who cleared a few acres in a grove upon which to plant corn, thinking it would not grow on prairie land.

......

OCCUPATION BY THE WHITES.

primeval capital of the human race, and it must continue to give actual value to every commodity.

"A settler needed an ox-yoke, and he gave its value,-a day's work, or he gave its equivalent in a bushel of wheat, which usually had a recognized value of one dollar in currency. In the prosperous days of the Venetian Republic, among whose financiers the modern system of banking is said to have originated, labor was the basis not only of all exchangeable values, but also of citizenship. No idler could be a citizen in Venice; he must show his title to the nobility of labor or leave the commonwealth. Based upon this capital, the bank- ing system of the famous Italian Republic grew to wonderful dimen- sions, and flourished during a period of four centuries."#

The " dicker" period of Michigan continued until a new order of things was established by the invention and intro- duction of the famous " wild-cat" banks, which sprouted and flourished during the feverish days of land speculation, when every section had its city with " corner lots" held at fabulous prices by the crazy speculator. Hundreds of cities, on paper, were laid out and lots sold " by sample," as the traveling men say,-that is, a magnificent cut plat or map was made, showing a mile square beautifully laid out, with churches, colleges, opera-houses, parks, etc., together with coal-mines, water-power, stone-quarries and every conceiva- ble adjunct and accompaniment of a flourishing commercial point. Armed with these wonderful evidences of the vast advantages of the new country, agents repaired to the East, and sometimes opened real-estate offices and did a flourish- ing business in the sale of lands and lots. Then the " wild- cat" and "red dog" banks made their appearance. All that was necessary to commence banking operations with was a charter and a good supply of paper, and forthwith the won- derful currency came floating on the breeze " like leaves in Vallombrosa," and " everybody and his wife" had pockets full of money.

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 25

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott Number of Pages: 761

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761