USA > Michigan > Lapeer County > History of Lapeer County, Michigan : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 4
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These were months of the hardest toil, but this was not a con-
sideration with them, and they performed it with a relish. Every tree that fell crashing to the ground echoing and re-echoing among the pillars of God's temple, saluted their ears with music; every log heap, which, in the shades of night, sent a gleam of light through the dark forest, sent also a bright ray of hope to their hearts, and every clearing large enough to admit God's sunlight through to bathe the original soil gave to them an earnest of the harvest that, in time to come, should gladden their hearts and richly reward them for their labors.
And so the clearing widened and bloomed; vines crept up and covered the cabin; flowers blossomed here and there, and slowly but surely the picture of their dreams was being brought out in more lasting colors, by these sturdy artists of the wilds.
As farms multiplied the neighborhood grew smaller, aud com- munities formed. Along the forest paths came the itinerant preacher and religious worship was established. Some morning the chorus of children's voices about an abandoned shanty an- nounced the opening of the first school. Interests and duties mul- tiplied, the wilderness is pushed into the distance, and pioneer life has become a reminiscence of the past.
GOVERNOR BAGLEY ON PIONEER LIFE.
The late Governor Bagley, who was himself a pioneer, once drew the following excellent picture of pioneer life: "We find in the dictionary the word pioneer means to go before-prepare the way for. The noun pioneer meant originally a foot soldier or a foot passenger-one who goes before to remove obstructions or prepare the way for others. How fully we who have been pioneers appre- ciate and understand these technical definitions of the word, and yet how incomplete and imperfect they are. Foot passengers, indeed, we were. It was easier to walk than to ride; but whether it was or not, we walked. The few household goods we owned- the spinning wheel and the oven-filled the wagon, and mother and the children chinked into the spare places, and we and the dog walked. Preparers of the way, indeed, were we. The roads we built, the log bridges we threw across the streams we did not destroy, but left for those who were to come after us. The pioneer was unselfish. He cared not whether friend or foe was behind him; if he could make his way any more easy he was glad of it .- He felt he was in partnership with the world-'a fellow feeling made him wondrous kind.' He was the advance guard of an army-countless in numbers, irresistible in its power,-an army that knew no such word as fail, and listened to no order for retreat.
The pioneer was the child of progress. He looked up, and not down; forward, and not back. Behind was the past; before him the future. He felt that the wise men came from the East, and took courage. The needle of his compass always pointed westward, and he followed it.
Our pioneer dreamed dreams and saw visions. He dreamed of the old home on the hillsides of New England, or the quiet valleys of New York; of gray-haired father and mother, watching from the low doorway the departing children, or, perchance, sleeping in the village church-yard; perhaps of smaller green mounds covering his John or Kate; or of the country church, where theologic dust, knocked from the pulpit cushion in the good old orthodox way, had so often closed his eyes and ears on drowsy Sunday afternoons; or of the spelling-bee or singing school, where he first met the country lass,
'Who, tying her bonnet under her chin, Had tied the young man's heart within,' and kept it tied forever after.
"His dreams were of the yesterdays -his visions were of to- morrow. He foresaw hard work and hard times, back-ache and heart-ache, blue days and weary nights; but he saw, too, in the
L. J. Haddrill.
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HISTORY OF LAPEER COUNTY.
dim future, the town, the village, the city, the county, the State, an empire of itself; he saw schools and churches, factories and fertile fields, institutions of science and learning; he saw capital and labor, brain and body, mind and muscle, all employed in the advancement of civilization and the permanent improvement of mankind. And of all this he was to be a part and parcel. What visions were these! Do you wonder that the pioneer was brave, cheerful and faithful?
"Though his visions were grand, the realization is grander still. He builded better than he knew, but with abundant faith in the future, adopted as the motto of the State, 'Si queris peninsu- lam, amonam circumspice-(If thou seekest a beautiful peninsula, behold it here),'-and, thanks to his right arm and courageous heart, we do behold it, covered with quiet villages, thriving cities, fruitful fields, and blooming orchards, dotted all over with schools and colleges, churches and public institutions, that tell the story of a civilization, grand in its conception and mighty in its progress. This is the handiwork of the pioneer, the ripened crop of the white- covered wagon.
"We look back to the old times as hard times, and so they were; full hearts and empty purses, hard work and plenty of it, shivering ague and wasting fever, were the common lot of our early settlers, yet they had their share of good times too, and were free from many a plague that annoys their children.
"Hard money and soft money were not debatable questions. You may remember the story of the man who, when he heard that the bank of Constantine had failed, said his heart came into his mouth when he heard of it, and he rushed home and to the bureau drawer, when he found he hadn't any Constantine money, or any other sort. He was a pioneer.
"Butter and eggs were pin-money; wheat paid the store-keeper; sled length, knotty wood, that wouldn't make fence rails, paid the minister, while an occasional pig, or a grist of corn or wheat paid the doctor. Trade was the order of the day,-the necessity of the time. And so we traded, and dickered, and swapped, exchanging products and helping one another; and while in the outside world bankers talked of stocks and values, politicians quarreled over tariffs and free trade, and statesmen wrote of the laws of trade, of corporations, monopolies, finances, etc., somehow or other, in our trading and dickering, we managed to grow a little better off from year to year.
"Quarrelsome school meetings were unknown in those days. We never fought over the question of whether we should build a three-story school-house with a basement, or a four-story one with- out; or whether we should put a cupola or a mortgage upon it. We built our log school-house, set the teacher at work, and boarded him round the neighborhood. The religious life of the pioneer was free of sectarianism. The itinerant minister doing his Master's work was always welcome to home and hearth-stone. The school- house was open to him, regardless of his creed. He baptized, and buried, and married, and asked no questions, and got but few fees.
"The different schools of medicine let the pioneer kindly alone. The boneset and wormwood, pennyroyal and catnip that hung on the chimney-breast, or on the rafters in the roof, were commonly enough; but if not, when we called in the hard-worked, poorly-clad, yet patient and jolly doctor, we did not question his "pathy" or his diploma. It may have been parchment or paper, from a college on earth, or in no-man's land, but we were sure his pills would be big enough, and that we could safely trust his jalap and cream of tarter, his calomel and quinine.
"Questions of domestic economy and home discipline, that do worry the best of us nowadays, gave the pioneer but little trouble.
No dispute could be gotten up over the pattern of the parlor carpet, for they hadn't any, or, if they had, it was of rags.
"The fashion plates did not reach the woods in those days, and Jane's bonnet and Charlie's coat were worn, regardless of style, till they were worn out, and then they were made over for the younger children. Who called first, and who called last, and who owed calls, were not debatable questions with our mothers; they visited when they had time and wanted to, and when they didn't they stayed at home.
"Insurance agents did not worry the pioneer,-his log house was fire proof. Patent-right peddlers haunted him not, for necessity made him his own inventor. Lightning-rod agents, smooth-tongued and oily, let him alone, as lightning had no terrors for him. The jaunty, affable sewing machine man had not been born to trouble the soul of our mothers.
"Mellifluous melodeons were not set up in the parlor on trial. The robins and frogs, the orioles and the owls made music enough for him.
"The height and color, the architecture and structure of the first house gave us no uneasiness. It was built of logs any way. If we were inclined to be extravagant, we painted the door and window-casings red, making the paint of buttermilk and brick dust. The pathway to the gate was lined with pinks and four- o'clocks, sweet-williams, and larkspur,-Latin names for American flowers had not been invented then. Hollyhocks and sunflowers lifted their stately heads at either end of the house; morning-glories climbed gracefully over the two front windows, and the liop vine, with its drooping bells, crept quietly over the door.
"The patent pump or rattling wind-mill were as yet unknown; the well-sweep lifted its awkward hand as if beckoning one to quench his thirst from 'the old oaken bucket that hung in the well.'
"On questions of public policy the pioneer had decided opinions. His New England or New York education had fixed these firm and unchangeable, and the partisans of Jackson and Clay, Van Buren and Harrison, argued their respective merits and demerits as warmly as we do to-day. But office-seekers were scarce and office-holders scarcer, though they existed then, as now, a sort of necessary evil.
"One of the most prominent characteristics of the old time was the universal hospitality and helpfulness that abounded every- where. The latch-string ran through the door. The belated traveler was sure of rest at the first house. Everybody was ready to help in case of accident to wagon or cattle. 'Lend a hand' was the motto of the pioneer. Teams were hitched together for break- ing up; in harvest time, the neighbors cradled and raked and bound for each other; when one went to the mill he went for the neighbor- hood; logging-bees and husking-bees, quilting-bees and raisings were play-spells. We boast, and very justly, too, of all that machinery has done for us, and especially in the field of agriculture; but has it ever occurred to you how much it has done to make machines of us? We have no need to call upon our neighbor for help in the harvest field, -the reaper takes his place. The old-fashioned quilting, with its gos- sip and talk, its evening frolic and games, has departed. The sewing machine does the work of willing hands in the long ago. We are not as dependent or as generous in these days as in the old ones. We ask less, and of course give less.
"We are richer, and the world is richer for its inventions, though I cannot help think that the swelling of our pocket-books is accompanied by a shrinking of our hearts. Whether this be so or not, the hospitality, the generosity, the helping hand and kindly heart that made 'the whole world kin' when we were young, are worth remembering and imitating as we grow old.
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HISTORY OF LAPEER COUNTY.
"The pioneer was a worker.
'From toil he wins his spirits light, From busy day the peaceful night; Rich, from the very want of wealth, In Heaven's best treasures, peace and health.'
I don't know that he loved work any better than we do; but he had to do it, and everybody around him, wife and children, worked too. 'God and the angels were the only lookers on' in the old time.
"The boys held the plough and the girls held the baby. The wife rocked the cradle and ran the spinning-wheel at the same time, and to the same tune. To get the trees out and the crops in was the ambition of the family, and they all helpel.
"The one grand impelling power that directed the pioneer was the idea of home. He left the home of his boyhood, not to float idly on the world's surface, not to tarry here a while and there a while, but with a fixed, firm purpose of founding a home of his own. He knew that States and communities, cities and villages, would follow his footsteps, but the goal he strove for was home. For him, 'East or West, home's best.' The love of home we bear to-day is, our inheritance from the fathers, 'more to be desired than gold yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honey comb.' Let us cherish it, increase it with watchful care, and as new swarms go out from the parent hive, let them settle in a hive of their own, remembering that
"There is a spot of earth supremely blest,
A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest,
Where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside
His sword and scepter, pageantry and pride,
While in his looks benignly blend
Tlte sire, the son, husband, brother, friend; Here woman reigns, the mother, daughter, wife, Strew with fresh flowers the narrow way of life. In the clear heaven of her delightful eye, An angel guard of love and graces lie; Around her knees domestic duties meet, And fireside pleasures gambol at her feet. Where shall that land, that spot of earth, be found? Art thou a man,-a patriot,-look around;
O! thou shalt find, where'er thy footsteps roam, That land thy country, and that spot thy home.'
"The spirit of unrest, of conquest, and of progress that has animated the Anglo-Saxon for so many centuries is the spirit of pioneership. The men and women of the Mayflower, when they cast anchor in Plymouth Bay, saw in the land that gladdened their eyes a home free from persecution,-a land where they could wor- ship God with freedom and according to the dictates of their own conscience, and that was all. They knew not that the hand that guided them in pursuit of religious freedom had chosen them as the founders of a nation. They felt not the power of the spirit of civili- zation impelling them. They did not realize that in the wake of their little craft there followed the steamship, the locomotive, and the telegraph. In the cabin of that vessel the arts and sciences, invention and discovery, commerce and trade, were unseen passen- gers. At its masthead floated the simple banner of the cross, and though the red, white and blue of the December sky hung over them, they did not see in it the flag of a nation of forty millions of people. All this they knew not, for in the small compass of their ken they only saw the immediate present. They forgot that the blood of the centuries that flowed in their veins was that of the pioneer.
"Our own pioneers, and we too, have not recognized this in our rovings and migrations. They and we set out on our pilgri - mage to find a home for ourselves, and have established empires and builded states. The divine purposes of the Great Ruler have been entrusted to the pioneer. He has been the instrument in sub- duing the waste places, in civilizing and humanizing the world.
The pathway he carved out has become the highway upon which the world is traveling, bearing in its train the civilization of the nineteenth century, laden with the love of liberty and freedom, freighted with the noblest, highest hopes of humanity. The great procession is still in motion; it cannot pause or stop; still there are. worlds to conquer, still there is work for the pioneer. The Pilgrim Fathers founded the nation, their sons saved it, and it is ours to preserve and perpetuate. Let us then, in this birthyear, highly resolve to be true to the blood of the pilgrim and pioneer that courses through our veins. They laid the foundation strong and sure. It is for us to complete the structure. Let us see to it, then, that our work be well done, so that with us education and morality, religion and liberty, free thought and free speech shall abide forever.
'For the structure that we raise, Time is with material filled; Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build.
'Truly shape and fashion these, Leave no yawning gaps between ; Think not because no man sees, Such things will remain unseen."
PIONEER WOMANHOOD.
Local history, as a general rule, does not award to pioneer women the recognition they deserve. One might almost infer that the early settlers were a race of old bachelors, and that the light of woman's presence never illuminated their rude cabins. Had this been true, civilization would have halted at the border, for without the wife and mother there is no home, and without home the structure of our civil liberty is without foundation. But pioneer women have done more than to illuminate cabins or influence society; in many a clearing she worked by her husband's side, chopping and clearing, and in other ways she was a helpmeet in the fullest sense.
A wife and mother refers to pioneer women as follows: "In the days of the Revolution, many a man had occasion to remark : 'God bless America's women;' and to-day many a pioneer farmer has reason to cherish his wife in her noble support of him in the most trying period of his life-breaking up a new farm with the traditional wolf howling at the door for admission. And to go into one of these homes to-day you will hardly realize from the personal appearance of the comely matron that her life has had as much of the shadow as of the sunshine cast upon it; converse with her upon the subject and in nine cases out of ten, she will tell you that the years have slipped by so rapidly and so smoothly that she can hardly realize that these big sons and daughters are hers, or that she has seen the broad acres that surround the residence brought to a state of tillage. I know a woman, of sweet and motherly dispo- sition, who now rides in her carriage and could dress in silks and satins if she chose to; who lives in a fine large house, and whose husband and three stalwart 'boys' till 170 acres of splendid land, who told me, as she smoothed the silvered hair that crowns her shapely head, that for years of her pioneer life she never wore a shoe, and had but two calico dresses; for foot covering in the winter she was dependent upon old rags and deer skins, and went bare- foot in the summer. For two years their log cabin had for furni- ture a common bedstead, a pine table, one rocking chair and three stools, a cook stove and some shelves in the corner for dishes. Her household duties were simple enough-no dainty pastry or tooth- some cake ever graced that deal table-and when not sewing she went into the logging field or burned brush. Her husband was strong and energetic, and used to work away from home whenever op- portunity offered, and come home and swing his ax by moonlight until 2 o'clock in the morning. On such occasions she used to 'top' and trim the trees for him, and make his work lighter and more
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cheerful by her presence. Do you wonder that her husband's deep voice softens into love cadences when he speaks of or to 'mother,' or that manly sons and womanly daughters worship the woman that gave them birth? There is in that home an atmosphere of love and veneration that the memory of toil and tribulation cannot banish, and who will deny that wifely tenderness and motherly love has produced it?
"I know another woman whose husband was so deep in the mire of poverty, that he had to go into the lumber woods to work, leaving her to care for the oxen, the cow and the pig, which com- posed their stock. She had a babe at the breast, and through that long, dreary winter, was forced to chop her own wood, do all the chores, and walk eleven miles, at frequent intervals, with her babe in her arms, to obtain what few groceries she required. The howl- ing of wolves at eventide mingled with her lullaby song, and often she was kept awake all night by the noises made by the frightened cattle and hog. On one occasion she found that a huge bear had gained access to the pen, and seizing an ax she determined that the killing of the hog should be a dear conquest for him. On her approach the bear stuck his head over the pen, and was brained by a single blow. Finding that the terrible animal was dead, the brave woman returned to the house to rest; in the morning she skinned and dressed the monster, and had bear meat all the rest of the winter.
"I know another woman whose husband was prostrated by a severe sickness two years after he commenced to clear his farm, and for nine weeks she made weekly trips to a village, ten miles distant, for groceries and medicines, chopped the wood, took care of the stock, and nursed her husband almost day and night. And, all this, her husband says, without a single murmur. Was she not a heroine?
"I know another woman, now forty years of age and sur- rounded with every comfort, who tells some soul-stirring stories of personal experience. She came to the county many years ago, a bride of a month, and they were dreadfully poor. During the first six months they had nothing to eat but potatoes and corn bread, (wheat bread was a rarity then), and were very glad to get enough of such food to satisfy hunger. She has plowed, hoed and dug po- tatoes, raked hay, cut corn-in fact, done all manner of farm work except cradle grain and mow hay. Notwithstanding her hard- working life, she is to-day a fresh looking, healthy matron, and the mother of ten children, all living.
"I know another woman, rising sixty years of age, the narra- tive of whose pioneer experience would make a very readable vol- ume. Her husband took up a farm and parted with every cent he had in the world in paying the regular fees. For several years she assisted her husband in the logging and harvest fields, sowed grain, hoed and dug potatoes, etc., in the meantime caring for a large family. It was pinching times with them for years, so close, in fact, that it seemed impossible for them to maintain life. It was nine miles from their home to a grist-mill, and this woman for several weeks traveled that distance daily to obtain from 15 to 30 cents worth of meal, to keep the family from starving. Her husband was a blacksmith, and almost daily did some odd job for a neighbor, and the few pennies earned in that way for months constituted the family's support. Her husband, her son-in-law and herself logged nine acres of heavily timbered land in eleven days, their labor often extending far into the night. On one occasion, when her husband was absent cooking on the drive, she laid twenty rods of rail fence in a day, in order to protect the growing corn. This woman for four years did not have a shoe on her feet, wearing shoe packs, made by her husband out of unfinished leather obtained at the tannery, and to her a calico dress seemed rich raiment. She was cheerful and
hopeful under the most discouraging circumstances, and now that they are comfortably situated, the old gentleman often says that if it had not been for 'mother's' pluck and words of cheer, he would have given way under the strain.
"Spartan womanhood pales in the light of that of the newly developed farming regions of the northwest, and the rising genera- tion should be given to understand that in the early lives of 'grandpa' and 'grandma' was more of want and trouble, than of plenty and comfort.
"All of the women of whom I have spoken are healthy and strong yet, despite their years, and though their girth may not be fashionable, or their raiment made by Worth, they are the best of wives and mothers, and companionable to a marked degree.
"Side by side, with the experience of a pioneer farmer, should be placed that of his hard-working, self-denying, never-complain- ing wife. The brightest jewel in a woman's crown is her all ab- sorbing affection for husband and children; and none shine brighter than those that have borne the test of rugged experience."
THE VILLAGE.
It lieth in the East, or in the West; it lieth in the South, or in the North; it is set upon a hill and is seen afar, or in a vale where silvery rivers glide by to the sea; it standeth on a plain amid mo- narchal groves, or it looketh out on waves that wrap the globe-the village whereof we write. It has two streets, or it has ten. It has 5,000 inhabitants, or it has 500. It has gilded vanes on snowy or rock-built spires, or it hath none of these. It has showy mansions or old-fashioned houses with great chimneys, or both. It is fast and alert, or it lags in the wake of time fifty years behind. The traveler comes to it on the rushing train, or in the stately vessel or lethargic stage. The morning papers reach it before the matutinal meal or in the middle of next week. Wherever on earth's wide floor you please, lieth this ubiquitous village. Its founders were solid and worthy men-tradition hath it ever thus. It existed in the "good old times," when frosty meeting-houses were without fires in December; when shirt-fronts were ruffled an ell deep; when silver shoe-buckles were in vogue; when whitewashed panels of the tavern door were indorsed "Rum, Brandy, Gin;" or the sun light and cloud-shade fall upon it where, a few years ago. was no human habitation. Arts fade, kingdoms fail, years come and go, but the habit of the village endures through all. In this village whereof we write, are many men of many minds, and women in like case. It has, one in a dozen, a person who makes other people's business a spe- cial study, going up and down and to and fro attending to the same. He is as silent as a clam on his own affairs, but he knows his neighbors' like a book. He does not read-too busy with some one's credentials. His gastronomic idol is No. 3 mackerel, which fosters poking inquisitiveness. He is great on "they say", a like nuisance. He thinks he is shrewd, but quiet people esteem him a bore, a social ferret, a miserable pump, a portable clack mill. Medicine cannot cure him, missions don't move him; he noses on, with just prudence enough to avoid a suit for slander through a spe- cific defect in the law. The keen old prophet of the Koran taught that in his paradise there was no place for such. It has persons emi- nently honest who are always taxed too high and haunt the board of assessors, but are scrupulous about taking oath. It hath traders who, when you wish to buy, are all suavity and sweetness, but if you have anything to sell, are quite the reverse; who, when they buy their goods, beat down and shop around fearfully. In this self- same village are many persons who don't like the minister; he isn't a big gun; he preaches politics, or he doesn't; prays for the govern- ment, or he doesn't; called here twice and there once; too energetic, or not enough so; quotes Shakspeare, keeps a good horse, wears turn-down collars-don't like him at all-won't go to church as
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