USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests Volume I > Part 63
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The geological features in this neighborhood center in the limestone quarries, which at this point are rich in building stone, lime and road metal. A large stone crusher was operated here for many years. The supervisor of the township is Frank W. Partlan of Newport.
The first settlers in the township were William White and Louis Le Duc. The former settled on a farm one mile east of the present village of Newport, and for many years was the enterprising and somewhat eccentric proprietor of a hotel and general store. When the Detroit, Monroe and Toledo Railroad was built the line passed Mr. White by,- choosing a route westerly, where a village sprung up and the station named Newport also. To avoid confusion the name of the first town was changed to Old Port and so remains. One of the largest Catholic churches in the county is located here.
TOWNSHIP OF ERIE
This was one of the first five organized in Monroe county under the act of Congress in 1827, which by act of the legislative council, com- prised all that part of the county of Monroe south of the south line of Monroe township and east of the east line of the township of Raisin- ville, bounded on the south by township No. 8, south of the base line, and including ranges 6, 7 and 8 east of the meridian. It was provided that the first election should be held at the house of Francis Cousineau. Thus the township included within its specified boundaries all of the present townships of Erie, Bedford, La Salle, except a strip of about a half mile in width lying between the present Ohio line and the south line of township No. 8; this by the same act was to constitute the town- ship of Port Lawrence; as before stated was in the "disputed terri- tory;"-in this position the geographical lines remained until after the "Toledo War," after which this strip was attached to the town- ships lying north of it in Michigan. Father Gabriel Richard was a power politically as well as religiously at that time, and his nomination to any office was equivalent to his election, and it so occurred that the election for delegate to Congress, being held in the territory on July 9, Father Richard received one hundred and fourteen votes. in the town- ship, while his opponents, Austin E. Wing of Monroe, received five, and John Biddle one. This remarkable result is explained by the fact that the population was French Catholic and Richard was the priest.
The township was largely French Canadian at that time, and their
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descendants are among the most industrious farmers and merchants of the township. Intermarriage with American families and the establish- ment of public schools has changed the former characteristics of the inhabitants very much, and the French language is seldom heard.
The first supervisor, elected in the spring of 1827, was Levi Collier, who died during the year, and Antoine La Fountain was elected to fill the vacancy. John Mulks was elected for the year 1828; James Cornell for 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833, 1834 and 1835. July 21, 1828, some of the inhabitants of Erie appeared before the board and represented that in consequence of a freshet in the spring, their crops were so nearly destroyed that they could not pay eighty dollars, ordered to be raised for roads and bridges, and the board repealed the order. From 1838 to 1842 there were no supervisors, their duties being performed by county commissioners. The township of Erie elected James Mulhollen super- visor in 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845 and 1846; Lewis E. Bailey in 1847, 1848 and 1849; Samuel Mulhollen in 1850.
TOWNSHIP SUPERVISORS (1912)
Following are the supervisors from townships of Monroe county in 1912 with their post office addresses :
Ash-Henry C. Hood, Carleton, Mich.
Bedford-Ira B. Osborn, Samaria, R. F. D. 1.
Berlin-Frank W. Partlue, Newport.
Dundee-V. C. Brewer, Dundee.
Erie-S. S. La Pointe, Erie.
Exeter-Win. H. Heiss, Monroe, R. F. D. 5.
Frenchtown-Paul Laduke, Steiner.
Ida-Jas. H. Todd, Ida.
La Salle- Alfred H. Gilday, La Salle.
London-T. C. Howard, Milan, R. F. D. 5.
Milan-Sayre W. Reeves, Milan.
Monroetown-Herman Roeder, Monroe.
Raisinville-F. W. Gerweck, Monroe, R. F. D. 1.
Summerfield-Jas. R. Faunce, Petersburg.
Whiteford-Henry J. Beck, Ottawa Lake.
CHAPTER XXXIX PIONEER DOMESTIC LIFE
SUGAR MAKING BY INDIANS AND PIONEERS-OLD-TIME DOMESTIC HEARTH -COOK STOVE AS A CURIO-LIGHTS-WIVES MAKING THEIR OWN CANDLES-TIN LAMPS EVOLVED-MAKING SOFT SOAP-BASKET MAK- ING BY THE INDIANS-TRUE MEDICINE MEN-WOOL AND HOMESPUN CLOTH-NEW YEAR'S CALLS IN 1836.
The Indians manufactured maple sugar in a very crude way, and it may be readily conceived that their product was not taken with avidity by those who were familiar with their disregard of cleanliness. Nevertheless, they managed to dispose of quantities of the question- able sweet. The favorite form for marketing the sugar was in small containers of birch bark, ornamented with colored porcupine quills, which caught the eye of white children and found a ready sale in the settlements. These packages were called "mococks" and contained about a quarter or half a pound of sugar, which were peddled from house to house by the squaws and their children. It is not known whether the early white inhabitants learned the process of sugar mak- ing from the Indians, or the Indians from them. Probably the white men took the hint from their red brothers, and evolved their own proc- ess. In pioneer days maple sugar was manufactured as a necessity rather than as an article of luxury. "Boughten" sugar was not used commonly, as it was expensive and not always easy to obtain, so the maple tree was made to furnish the domestic sweetening. The appli- ances in the early days for the manufacture of maple sugar were very different from those employed at the present day, and the product itself as much so, dark in color, gritty and uninviting. It is said that when the first evaporated maple sugar was put on the market certain western dealers refused to buy it on the ground that it was not genuine, but were fully satisfied with the blackjack or "settlings" that were boiled down and sent to them.
SUGAR MAKING BY INDIANS AND PIONEERS
The Indians tapped the trees by cutting a V-shaped notch in each tree with their hatchets and inserting a hollow chip to conduct the sap into some vessel below. In time this notching process killed the tree, which the more intelligent early settler observed, and obtained better results by boring holes in the trees with an augur, inserting elder wood spiles, upon which were hung the pails for receiving the flowing sap. They also made troughs by cutting logs three or four feet long, split- ting them in half, and hollowing them out with an ax, which would hold three or four gallons. The sap was conveyed to the boiling places in buckets, which were made to taper upwards from the bottom, instead of the opposite form. These were obtained from the country cooper
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shop. They were sometimes carried in pairs suspended from a "yoke" placed across the shoulders.
The whole procedure was crude and laborious; much sap was wasted and almost all of it was liberally mixed with dirt and leaves. The boil- ing down was accomplished in large iron kettles, holding from twenty to forty gallons each. A crotched stick was driven solidly into the ground, projecting three or four feet above it; into the crotch was laid a long hickory sapling, one end projecting a few feet beyond its sup- port; upon this, at the short end, was hung by a chain the huge kettle, resembling on a smaller scale the old-fashioned well-sweep and "moss- covered bucket that hung in the well."
The long arm of the hickory sapling being used for swinging the kettle on and off the fire. Into this kettle was poured the sap, with its accumulation of leaves, twigs and dirt of various kinds, some of which was removed by shallow gourds, when the sap had reached the boiling point. At the proper time the kettles of molasses were removed to a nearby shed, where they were hung on poles resting at each end on crotched sticks.
In some instances a crude stone arch would be constructed in the hillside for the boiling process, but this was far more awkward than the other, when the long stout sapling was made to save the painful labor of moving the large kettles. The modern "maple sugar bush" and its convenient, sanitary and scientific method of making sugar is a most interesting and pleasant place to visit where the business is car- ried on on a very extensive scale and free from the objectionable fea- tures of the early days.
OLD-TIME DOMESTIC HEARTH
The household arrangements and the conveniences for dispatching the domestic duties of the housewife were, as may be supposed, of the most simple form and crude design for the purpose. It must be re- membered that heat and light were to be provided only in the most primitive way, and many of the articles of domestic use improvised from materials most easily obtained. These were bought in the village shop or of the peddler who made his infrequent visits to the settlements and were treasured with great care.
Perhaps the most prized of all the outfitting of the pioneers' kitchen were the great iron pots and the copper kettles, because they were the most used and the most difficult to obtain. The great iron pots would sometimes reach a capacity of ten to twenty gallons each and a weight of forty or fifty pounds. These were usually kept hanging in the fire- place, suspended by chains from the heavy iron "cranes" that swung from the side.
All the vegetables were boiled together in these huge pots, unless some fastidious housewife had provided a potato boiler of wire, whereby any single vegetable could be cooked within the vast general receptacle. Over the fireplace and across the joists of the ceiling were long poles, on which hung strings of peppers, drying apples and rings of boiled pumpkin, and the favorite resting place for the old musket or rifle was on the hooks over the kitchen fireplace. Tin utensils were rare and seldom seen. Dutch ovens, however, had a place in the culinary proc- esses, in which were roasted great rounds of beef or fowls; this con- trivance was a tin or sheet iron box-like affair, with one side open, which was set upon the hearth before the great pile of glowing coals and watched with care, while the cooking process proceeded, which is still considered by old experienced chefs the really perfect method of roasting meats and poultry, especially large turkeys and geese.
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COOK STOVE AS A CURIO
The first stoves seen in the west were of various patterns. One of these, a cook stove, has lately been exhibited as a curio. It sat upon high legs and the top, separate from the body of the stove, had the usual complement of pot holes and was made to revolve horizontally by means of a crank, thereby bringing the pots and kettles alternately over the firebox of the stove. Although it saved the back-breaking efforts of removing the kettles from one place on the stove to another, the thing was not popular and soon disappeared. The kitchen, with its huge fireplace, was the most comfortable room in the house during the long winters, because it was the only one where a fire was made and kept continually burning and the deep recesses at each side of the fire- places were the favorite seats of the children of the household.
In Whittier's "Snow Bound" is to be found the truest picture of the old-time fireside :
"Shut in from all the world without, We sat the clean swept hearth about, Content to let the north wind roar In baffled rage at pane and door, While the red logs before us beat The frost line back with tropic heat; And even when a louder blast Shook beam and rafter as it passed, The merrier up its roaring draught,
The great throat of the chimney laughed,
The house dog on his paws outspread
Laid to the fire his drowsy head, And for the winter fireside meet
Between the andirons straddling feet The mug of cider simmered slow, And apples sputtered in a row. And, close at hand, the basket stood With nuts from brown October's wood. What matter how the night behaved ! What matter how the north wind raved !
Blow high, blow low, not all the snow Could quench the hearth fire's ruddy glow."
Nor can the passing of years dim the ruddy glow of that hearth fire, nor the charm of the poem.
LIGHTS
The question of artificial light after darkness had settled down upon the wilderness country was an important consideration of comfort as well as of expense, when "every penny counted." The single tallow dip was frugally extinguished long before bedtime and the family de- pended upon the blazing fire in the big fireplace. Where pine knots of the fat pitch-pine could be had, they were hoarded for the evening illumination of the common room of the settler, and a very charming illumination it was.
Tallow dips were the alternative. The making of the winter's stock of candles was one of the special household duties of the autumn months and no light one at that; for the great iron kettles in which the tallow was "tried out" were heavy to handle.
Vol. 1-32
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WIVES MAKING THEIR OWN CANDLES
In an ancient volume of the sixteenth century, entitled "Directions to Housewives," Thomas Tusser, the author, enjoins :
"Wife, make thine own candle Spare penny to handle. Provide for thy tallow ere frost cometh in, And make thine own candles ere winter begin."
The process of preparing the tallow candle of our ancestors is described as follows: "An early hour found the work under way. A good fire was started in the kitchen fireplace, under two large kettles, which hung on trammels from the long iron crane and half filled with boiling water and melting tallow, which had had two scaldings and skimmings. At the end of the kitchen, or in an adjoining or cooler room, sometimes in the lean-to, two long poles were laid from chair to chair, or bench to bench; across these poles were placed at regular intervals, like the rounds of a ladder, smaller sticks about fifteen or eighteen inches long, called candle rods. These poles and rods were kept from year to year, stored away in garret or on the kitchen beams. To each candle rod was attached about a dozen or less carefully straight- ened candle wicks; these were made by twisting the strands of wick- ing strongly one way, then doubled; then the loop was slipped over the candle rod, where the two ends, of course, twisted both ways, forming a firm wick for the candle. A rod, with its row of suspended wicks, would be then dipped into the melted tallow, absorb as much tallow as it would, then returned to its place on the poles. Each row would be put through these motions and allowed time to cool or harden, between dips, and gradually grow in size by the adhesion of the tallow until a candle of the proper size was formed. If allowed to cool quickly they grew more rapidly, but this produced a tendency to become brittle and crack. Hence a good worker dipped slowly to avoid these faults. With circum- stances favorable, two hundred candles could be dipped in a day. Some deft handlers could dip two rods at a time. Of course, during this occu- pation the white snowy floors were covered by large sheets of paper to protect them from the dripping tallow."
Candles were also made in molds by pouring into groups of metal cylinders of the right size the melted tallow, in the center of each of these small cylinders having been suspended a twisted wick. Candles made in this way were inferior to the dipped ones because the latter were more solid and would last nearly twice as long as those moulded. At one time itinerant candle-makers went from house to house taking charge of the candle-making in the household and carrying large candle moulds with them.
TIN LAMPS EVOLVED
Lamps of tin and pewter followed, in which was burned lard oil or fish oil. They were operated without chimneys and were a smoky, ill- smelling device. The evolution from these primitive lighting methods was slow, and experiments were many and disappointing in the effort to obtain something more satisfactory.
MAKING SOFT SOAP
Perhaps the most disagreeable and trying of the domestic duties that fell to the housewife was the burdensome task of making soap for home use.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
No old dame who passed through the trying scenes of pioneering can be found who will recall without a clouded brow and unrelished remem- brance the days when soap making was required. A brief description utterly fails to do justice to the subject.
All the refuse grease from the butchering, cooking, etc., was stored through the winter, as well as all the wood ashes from the great fire- places. The first operation was to make the lye, to "set the leach." This was a strong barrel, or a substitute made from a section of a hollow log, the bottom of which was bored with an inch augur, over which a layer of wheat straw would be laid on top of a few parallel sticks. The barrel was then placed on a stone or wood base a foot or two from the ground and then filled with the wood ashes; water would then be poured into the barrel until the resulting lye trickled out through a sufficient outlet into a small wooden tub or a bucket; when the lye grew too weak more fresh ashes were added to the leach. Much depended upon this condition. One of the old recipes cut from an 1836 almanac declares that :
"The great difficulty in making Soap 'come' is the want of judg- ment of the strength of the Lye. If your Lye will bear up an Egg or a Potato, so you can see a piece as big as a Ninepence on the Surface, it is just Strong enough."
The grease and lye were then boiled together in a great kettle over a fire out of doors. The general requirements of material for a barrel of soap were about six bushels of ashes and twenty-four pounds of grease. The soft soap made by this process looked like a clean jelly and showed no trace of the grease that helped to form it. This soap was used for all household purposes and answered well enough.
BASKET MAKING BY THE INDIANS
The Indians were not crazy for soap, and cared so little for it that they were never known to make any, or to use it. Their only vocation was basket making and to a limited extent manufacturing moccasins or other articles from buckskin, the deer skins being tanned by them with great skill, generally by the "smoke process," and the leather when finished was as soft and pliable as velvet, being in great demand by hunters for jackets, leggins and moccasins, which were deemed the most appropriate, useful and durable articles of apparel ever worn by men in active outdoor life. Basket weaving was the most picturesque occupation of the Indians, in which the squaws excelled in producing all manner and shapes and sizes, many of their productions being beau- tifully dyed and colored by vegetable dyes, the foundations of which they found in the forests. This occupation is still followed by tribes living in the northern part of the state, and in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario.
The men never troubled themselves to learn anything that savored of bodily exertion, hunting and trapping serving their purposes and inclinations. It is true that they would condescend occasionally to make a birch bark canoe, or a dug-out, in which they were very expert, but as one of these boats would last a lifetime, they were not known to devote much of their worthless time to this work. To make a dug-out of fair size they would devote three or four weeks.
TRUE MEDICINE MEN
All Indians, everywhere, on account of their wild life in the woods and familiarity with every sort of shrub, tree and herb, were expert
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in concocting remedies for all human ailments, and many of them through these discoveries by the Indians have come to have an important place in modern pharmacology. Black sage, wild sage and swamp bay are three of the wild plants from which the United States Bureau of Plant Industry has distilled aromatic oils of considerable importance. The kimiskinic of the Indians was early used as a substitute for tobacco or mixed with it for smoking, which was a universal habit with them. It has a not unpleasant aroma, and became popular with the French set- tlers along the River Raisin.
WOOL AND HOMESPUN CLOTH
Sheep raising was not by any means common, but the pioneers who came hither from the eastern provinces of Canada, along the St. Law- rence river, brought with them industrious habits and some love of agriculture, which in their former homes made them respected resi- dents; they raised sheep to some extent, and what wool they did not sell to the dealers they spun and wove into clothing for themselves and their families.
The homespun cloth of the habitants today is very popular, and is worn by people who wisely prefer it to the more showy fabrics from the modern factories.
NEW YEAR'S CALLS IN 1836
One of the pleasant customs of the old pioneer days and which, happily, continued for half a century, but are now obsolete, was that of celebrating the advent of a new year by making the day an occasion for exchanging civilities and the opportunity for paying visits to friends whom they seldom saw except on that festive day.
Nearly every home of the principal citizens of the cities and villages were hospitably thrown open to callers, who were welcomed with that genuine, hearty hospitality which certainly went far to promote a friendly intercourse among the people and the frequent arrivals from the east. In the proper observance of the customs of the day Monroe was celebrated for the most acceptable manner, and the lavish hospi- tality which characterized these annual periods of renewed good fellow- ship.
In many of the mansions of Monroe, it is remembered, great tables were laden with collations comprising everything that could tempt the appetite or appeal to the tastes of the guests, who were no doubt often lured beyond the bounds of prudence by the multitude of good things served by fair hands, repeated at frequent intervals, when the calls came close together. It was quite the proper and enjoyable thing for a party of four or five or less to make the rounds of their friends' homes in a fine roomy sleigh or cutter filled with robes and blankets and drawn by two or four fine horses, whose "sweet silvery bells" made unmatchable music in the sharp winter air. Usually the evening was devoted to the enjoyment of a public or private "dance" and many of these gay enter- tainments have been witnessed in the old "Exchange" or later at the "Humphry House," continuing along through later years to "Strong's Hotel," and still later to the present "Park Hotel," where the young people continue to resort not alone on New Year's, but on birthdays, reunions, and on all other occasions for which an excuse can be invented.
Private parties at the homes of many of our leaders where "fair femininity" shone with their accustomed brilliance, and made happy for a few hours at least the hearts of devoted admirers. The intercourse between Detroit and Monroe and Toledo and Monroe was at one period
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very close and delightful, so that it was seldom that at least half a dozen guests were present from the first swell social circles of those places.
It is very likely that New Year's calls had their origin in Continental Europe. It appears that the custom was brought to New York by the Dutch and the Huguenots, as one of their peculiar institutions. It was quickly "naturalized" and became in 1790 and 1800 universally fash- ionable, for the good people were not slow to recognize the "good points" of the innovation and immediately made it a part of their domestic life and fixed customs. We are informed that George Wash- ington and Mrs. Washington "received" on each New Year's day, and made their very numerous guests welcome with their characteristic Virginia hospitality. At one of the first of these popular functions Mrs. Washington afterwards remarked that none of the public proceed- ings of the day so pleased "the General," by which title she always designated her husband, "as the friendly greeting of those who called upon him." But there was another side to the pioneer's New Year's; an instance will suffice to emphasize this.
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In 1832 a family named Banting came from Vermont to the new territory of Michigan to settle on some of the $1.25 an acre land which was then being very freely entered at the land office in Monroe. This family finally decided upon a location some miles west of Monroe on a stream which is not named in the story which is being related, but prob- ably the Huron river. Early in the year they built a quite comfortable dwelling house and planted some crops on land which they partially cleared, and soon had neighbors from Ohio and New York state, with whom they became fast and warm friends and did not lack at times other visitors less welcome, the Pottowotamie Indians.
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