USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories > Part 94
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The women in Detroit were loath to leave comfortable homes and venture into the sickly, inhospitable wilderness.
In the fall of 1819, Mrs. Alpheus Williams came out from Grosse point, ten miles above Detroit, and brought a woman with her ; and they found plenty to do. They brought some fresh beef with them and made broth for the poor, sickly, half-starved people; and then they went to work and washed up the wearing ap- parel which had been accumulating for months, there not being a man or a woman able to wash. with the exception of Major Williams, and he could not get time among his multifarious duties. The Indians were very kind, but they could not at- tend to household duties. The major did everything, even to making bread. but he finally got discouraged and made up his mind to leave the place,-at least long enough for his family to recover their usual health,-but his wife said no; they had got over the worst of it, and she did not want to take her boys back to De- troit. She would rather stay with the Indians, for they would at least learn no immorality from them.
As the cool weather came on in the autumn the disease gradually abated, and the winter was passed very pleasantly. Game was very plenty, deer being fre- quently shot from the door, and the lakes swarmed with wild fowl. Snakes were a great annoyance, the blue racers in particular, which species grew to an enormous size. Major Williams sent quite a number of their skins, stuffed, to Boston and Ann Arbor museums.
Annually the British and American governments paid the Indians their annui- ties, which consisted, to a considerable extent, of silver coin, which they exchanged for their winter supply of clothing. Theft was unknown among the Indians, and their silver could hang in pails or buckets for months from the rafters of their cabins, and not be disturbed. The only things the Indians purloined were pro- visions. They evidently looked upon the taking of a few potatoes or roasting-ears as a matter of no moment; but they never entered a house to steal anything. They used often to come and dance the fearful war-dance around the white chil- dren, who became familiar with them and rapidly learned their language.
There were no cooking-stoves in those days, all the cooking being frequently done out of doors by a log fire. Turkeys were roasted by hanging them on a string before the fire, and bread was baked in iron bake-kettles, and pies and cakes in the same way. Afterwards, ovens built of clay were substituted, and it is doubtful if the most elaborate cuisine of the present day can produce more tempting cook- ing than that turned out from these primitive kitchens. Everybody, unless sick, had an appetite which relished whatever was eatable, and the plain but substan- tial and nutritive food of pioneer days was conducive to a vigorous and robust life. The thousand-and-one luxuries and little conveniences of the present day were almost unknown.
A single darning-needle frequently did the mending for an entire neighborhood, and the children often went a mile to bring one home which had been loaned to a neighbor.
There was often a great scarcity of pins for household purposes, and when this was the case recourse was had to the wild thorns which seem to have been found plentifully in all the northern States. A single veteran thorn-apple tree would supply a neighborhood with a no mean substitute for the universal pin now in use.
" Yon aged thorn, would he could tell The wonders of his parent dell."
Major Williams kept a sort of trading-post, where the Indians could find the various kinds of goods which best suited their fancy,-broadcloths, blue, red, and green shawls, thread, needles, beads, gay and fancy-colored calicoes, ribbons of all shades, etc. The squaws were quite ingenious, and trimmed blankets, leggings, moccasins, and other apparel with much taste, expending a great amount of labor upon them.
INDIAN COURTSHIP.
We give an extract from Mrs. Hodges' recollections of an Indian courtship, as something which will no doubt be interesting to the young people, at least, and especially to young ladies contemplating matrimony. She says,-
" I first noticed a young Indian, about twenty years of age, visiting a camp near our house. He came every morning about ten o'clock, sat on a log, or leaned against a tree, and played a sort of flute of his own making, constructed from red cedar. I noticed his tune was ever the same,-wild and plaintive,
well calculated to captivate the modest but savage maiden, as time proved. I went to the camp one day and inquired for Mash-quett. They told me he had gone away. I had missed him for several days. While we were talking the young man made his appearance with a deer on his back, which he laid down a little way from the door of the camp. Not a word was spoken for several minutes, when the mother of the girl went to the door and commenced dressing it. The young man then came to the camp-door, and handed the father a package contain- ing a variety of muskrat, sable, and mink skins. At first I supposed they were making a trade, but soon comprehended that the dusky wooer was simply endeavor- ing to prove his ability to support a family in a manner becoming the customs and usages of his nation.
" When the deer was cut up the mother made a soup, and invited the young man into her wigwam to partake with them, by which act, according to Indian customs, he was acknowledged as their son. A few days thereafter the young couple left for their home near Grand Blanc."
FIRST FRAME BARN IN OAKLAND COUNTY.
" In 1820 my father built a frame barn on his farm at Silver lake,-the first one in the county, -- and it is still standing in a good state of preservation. The boards with which it was inclosed were all sawed from the log by hand. At the time of the ' raising' men came from long distances,-from Mt. Clemens, Detroit, Royal Oak, Rochester, and Pontiac. The barn was a large one for those days, and the fifty men who were present worked for three days in putting up the frame, and had a grand time. Pork and beans, bread, cheese, and doughnuts, tea, and coffee, with occasionally something a little stronger, were liberally served, and a more jolly or happier set of men I do not remember of ever seeing. For once there was perfect equality ; judges, lawyers, physicians, merchants, mechanics, and farmers, all met on a common level, worked, ate, and slept together, and together rejoiced over the work which their hands had accomplished.
" With the breaking of a few bottles of choice cider, they departed, each for his own fireside, never to forget the first frame-barn raising in Oakland County." *
Horses fared badly in the new country. The wild hay did not seem to agree with them, and tame hay had to be brought from Ohio, or still farther away, in bales to Detroit, and from thence transported in wagons or carts inland over the worst roads in the country. Flies of various kinds, from the small but intolerable gnat- to those aptly denominated " horse-flies," the size of a " bumble-bee," tormented all domestic animals terribly. In addition, the most common pest of all-the . bloody mosquito-" put in his bill," and helped to literally bleed the poor brutes to death. The tough little Canadian ponies were the only animals of the horse kind that could withstand these pests and thrive on the wild herbage of the country, and gradually they took the place of the larger and finer animals from the eastern States.
Another terrible pest was the squirrel, who ate up all the corn as fast as planted ; or if any chanced to escape his cunning eyes and paws, innumerable swarms of blackbirds gathered it as it ripened in the fall. All small grains shared the same fate. Everybody, even to the women and children, were taught to use firearms as a means of defense against wild animals and pestiferous birds. When the people finally succeeded in raising a little corn, it became necessary to have some means of turn- ing. it into meal, and Major Williams at length procured a "Virginia corn- mill," which was simply a huge coffee-mill fastened to a stake or a tree, and turned by means of two cranks, one on each side. The hopper held about a bushel of corn. This mill was free to all the settlers, and answered a very good purpose, in the absence of something better. Wild honey-bees were very plenty, and the products of their industry were eagerly sought after in the hollow trees of the forest. They were greatly bewildered when flying by the discharge of fire- arms, and often came to the ground, and were easily captured and housed.
A SLEIGH-RIDE.
In 1823 the oldest daughter of Major Williams married Rufus Stevens, and in June of the same year the couple emigrated to Grand Blanc, and became the first settlers in Genesee county. In the fall of the same year Mr. Jacob Stevens also removed with his family to Genesee county. In the month of January, 1826, the young people of Pontiac organized a sleighing party, for the purpose of visit - ing the Stevenses in their new home. The party consisted of fourteen, and made the trip in one double sleigh, two cutters, and two jumpers. They left Silver Lake about seven A.M., and took dinner from their own lunch-baskets at the Big springs, about midway between Silver Lake and Grand Blanc.
They arrived at Mr. Stevens' about sundown, after a pleasant ride of thirty-five miles. On their arrival the company divided, and filled both the dwellings occu- pied by the Stevens families, which were about a half-mile apart. After a hearty supper, the entire company repaired to the house of Rufus Stevens, which was-
* From Mrs. Hodges' recollections.
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
only fourteen by twenty feet in size, yet they managed to all get inside, and a more enjoyable evening was probably never spent by any of the party. The chief orator and story-teller seems to have been Colonel David Stanard, who had a rich fund of anecdotes and amusing stories.
The next day was spent in social visiting, and the second evening the party as- sembled at the house of Jacob Stevens, where they were joined by all the young people of the vicinity,-in all two couples,-and after a pleasant evening a grand supper was spread, and enjoyed with that keen relish which only the backwoods settler knows.
The next day at sunrise everybody was astir, and, after an early breakfast, the party bade farewell to their friends and turned their faces homeward, arriving at Waterford about five P.M., where they stopped for the night. After a warm supper, the evening was pleasantly passed in games of whist and other amusements, and after one more night "abroad" the company were again under way, and arrived at Silver Lake about nine o'clock A.M., where they were refreshed with a hot mug of "flip," after which they separated for their respective homes, somewhat tired, but all satisfied with their four days' experience and enjoyment. Thus ended the great sleigh-ride of 1826. As a matter of interest to many, we append a list of the members composing this famous party.
Colonel David Stanard, Miss Sylvina Stanard, Origen D. Richardson, Miss Lavina Beach, Gideon O. Whittemore, Miss Sarah Comstock, Elias Comstock, Miss Lucy Sampson, Schuyler Hodges, Miss Mary A. Williams, Ephraim S. Williams, Miss Eunice Stevens, Gardner D. Williams, Miss Martha Stevens.
According to Mrs. Hodges' recollection, the first celebration of New Year's day was on the first day of January, 1823, at the house of Judge Davis, in Rochester, with music and a grand New Year's ball and supper in the evening.
The parties from Waterford, Silver Lake, and Pontiac started for the grand rendezvous very early in the morning, and rode for hours in a snow-storm, but in spite of storm and obscure roads, they succeeded in getting together about all the young people in the county, amounting to about sixty. A part of the company did not arrive until the regular supper was over, but they joined in the dance in a crowded room until about twelve o'clock, when hot whisky-punch and cake were passed around for refreshment, and then " the night drave on wi' sangs and clat- ter" until daylight, when the party broke up. The horses were obliged to stand out all night, on the leeward side of the house, sheltered as much as possible by robes and blankets. Several of the party came with ox-teams, and these fared no better than the horses. The bill was twenty-five cents per couple, and was paid without a murmur.
The next New Year's found the same fun-loving party at the house of Judge Bagley, at Bloomfield Centre, where he kept tavern in a large frame house con- taining a bar-room, dining-room, and commodious sleeping-rooms in the upper story. The bar-room was used for the dancing-hall, and after supper the dining- room was cleared, and both occupied by the "gay and festive" party, who "made a night of it," all ages joining, and enjoying themselves in the highest degree.
These pleasure-parties, together with Fourth of July celebrations and "general trainings," constituted the holidays of the time. A dance once a year was con- sidered about the proper thing. In the warm months the pastimes consisted of . logging-bees, house-raisings, and fighting the forest-fires, which oftentimes became quite destructive, burning the cheap brush-fences, improvised until they could build better ones of rails, and sometimes destroying an out-building.
The young men of those days came to Oakland, many of them on foot, with an axe and knapsack, and commenced making a home by cutting down the forest, chip by chip, and at first putting up a small shanty to keep "bachelor's hall" in, then burning all the timber for the ashes, which they sold to the "ashery men," who came in and put up buildings for the manufacture of pot- and pearl-ashes. This was the first product of their lands, and enabled them to purchase groceries and oftentimes their breadstuffs. Inferior and discouraging as these beginnings were, many of those young men are now wealthy farmers, and their sons are fill- ing positions of honor and trust, the gift of the people. Well may the pioneers, and especially the farmers, of Oakland County indulge in a just and noble pride when they behold the progress of two generations.
Many a home on the far-off Pacific coast has been planted by an Oakland boy, whose spirit of energy and enterprise gives abundant evidence that he is indeed a " true son of a noble sire."
Sickness was the greatest obstacle which the settlers had to encounter. Mrs. Hodges says that before she was sixteen years of age she has walked miles to take care of the sick, and sat up many a night watching with the dying and the dead in Pontiac when the only sound to break the stillness of the night was the chirp of the August "cricket upon the hearth." Many families in Pontiac and Auburn buried all their children with the dreadful fevers that desolated the whole coun- try, and many children lost both parents, and had to be sent to their friends in the east for care and protection.
The dead were frequently buried with few words and little ceremony,-a chap- ter in the Bible and a hymn read, with a few simple words,-and the cold earth covered those who had ended their earthly toils.
As an evidence of the hardships endured, and the horrors with which the early settlers were environed, the following incident, related by Mrs. Hodges, is given : "One night about eleven o'clock I heard voices and horses' footsteps at the door, and as I opened it a young Frenchman stood before me, who asked for Major Williams. I told him he had retired, when he said, ' I have a corpse at the gate, and I wish to stay all night.' My whole frame trembled with fear. I called my father, and the matter was arranged that they should stay in the barn with the corpse, which they had brought from Shiawassee county, some seventy miles, packed and lashed on the back of an Indian pony, and were going to Detroit, twenty-eight miles farther, to give it a Christian burial with the rites of the Catholic church."
"DANIEL S. JUDD,*
an early pioneer, was born in Watertown, Litchfield county, Connecticut, May 11, 1778, and was the oldest son of Thomas and Mercy Judd. The family moved from Watertown to Harpersfield, New York, when Daniel was but seven years old. They afterwards moved into Otsego county, thence to Chenango county, thence to Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, thence back to Ontario county, New York, and lastly into Mayfield, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, where the head of the family died in August, 1820, aged seventy-six years. The widow died at Wil- loughby, Lake county, Ohio, in 1840, at the advanced age of ninety years.
" In the spring of 1799 or 1800, Daniel S. Judd, accompanied by his brother Thomas, left Ontario county, New York, to visit the ' Connecticut Western Re- serve,' traveling on foot, and depending mainly upon their skill as hunters to fur- nish them with necessary supplies. They visited Cleveland, with its then three log houses,-one a tavern, kept by a man named Carter, and the other two occu- pied for dwelling purposes. At that time they could have bought the site of the present city as cheaply as they afterwards purchased in the town of Mayfield, in the same county.
" They traced the shore of Lake Erie as far as Cleveland, from which point they turned southward, and struck the head-waters of the Muskingum river, fol- lowing it down until it became large enough to float a canoe, when they stopped and made a craft of that description, and floated down the stream as far as Coshoc- ton. Here Thomas Judd was taken sick, and did not recover till some time in September, having neither doctor nor medicine. By the time he became able to walk five miles they started on the return trip. As the convalescent's strength increased, the distance traveled daily proportionately lengthened, and they finally reached their home on the west bank of Seneca lake late in the fall, making fifty- four miles the last day of their journey. During their absence they had worn out their clothes and had improvised suits of deer-skin.
"Deer were extremely abundant along the Muskingum, and by placing a torch in the bow of their canoe, and floating down the river in the night, they could kill all they cared to, the animals keeping in the water to get rid of the mosqui- toes, which were very large and abounded in swarms.
" The stay of the brothers at home was short. The abundance and variety of game on the reserve, together with good soil and fine timber, had determined them to make it their home. The next spring (1800 or 1801) they again left home, and on reaching the reserve Daniel purchased a farm nine miles above Cha- grin (now Willoughby), and Thomas two miles above, both on the Chagrin river, and about sixteen miles east of Cleveland. As soon as they erected their log houses the family moved in from Ontario county, New York.
" After game began to get a little scarce about the settlement on the Chagrin river, the two Judds and another hunter by the name of Holmes planned a hunt over on the head-waters of the Cuyahoga river, at an old trading-post. Daniel led the way a day or two before the others. Thomas and Holmes, in going over, came across a new settler who had cut his foot very severely, and they tarried with him a few days, so that Daniel had been on the ground a week when they reached the post. The log house was unoccupied, save by eighteen deer hung up on its sides ; he had killed twenty-one deer and brought them all in but three. A good tracking-snow lay on the ground. Holmes thought there must be a dozen Indians hunting in the neighborhood, but Thomas examined the tracks about the old house and said there was no one there but Dan, as he made a peculiar track, having a short, thick foot. When Daniel came in, one of the number was sent home after a team. The saddles and skins were taken home, the surplus meat dried, and some of it salted for future use. The neighbors sent out a team and brought in the rest for their own use.
" During the first trip of the brothers to the reserve they formed the acquaint- ance of a reckless, venturesome man named John Salter. He had been down the
# From an article furnished by D. M. Judd, of Waterford.
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HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Mississippi for the purpose of joining with a bandit crew then operating in the Gulf of Mexico, but before reaching them he was afflicted with a white swelling on his leg, which a Spaniard, with characteristics like himself, cured by cutting to the bone with his knife and scraping it. When Salter had recovered, the ban- dits had been captured and dispersed, and he, charmed with the freedom of a life in the wilds of the west, ever afterwards encamped with his family in the woods, or roved about in a canoe on the rivers and lakes, hunting and fishing as a sole means of subsistence.
" As early as 1808 the number of settlers on the reserve had increased consid- erably. Clearings were multiplying rapidly. Love of adventure and of the woods made the subject of this sketch restless, and, accompanied by his brother Freeman, he started that year with no determined destination, save some vast wilderness. They brought up at Frenchtown, on the river Raisin, in Michigan Territory. Here it would seem that his untamed nature had learned of some necessaries which the wilds did not afford,-some wants begotten of limited civilization and social life,-and to procure them he worked a little at blacksmithing for a man by the name of Carlin.
" In the spring of 1809 the brother-Freeman-suddenly sickened and died. A singularity about his death was that he had predicted the time some years pre- viously. This event seized upon the mind of Daniel Judd with wonderful effect. He regarded it as the great affliction of his life, and it determined him to return home, which he did, alone in a canoe, by going down the river Raisin and coast- ing along the lake-shore to the mouth of the Chagrin river, and up that to his home. From this time until 1812 he remained at home, improving his farm. War was declared, and his first discharge shows that he enlisted the day after that event was known, and went into camp at Cleveland.
"Truly a woodsman, inured to hardships and camp-life, he was a valuable re- cruit for those times. Here he came into contact with another character as rare as himself, named Jonathan Williams, a man who held fear in perfect contempt. Williams' first remark when he came into camp was, ' I am glad war is declared, for now all the Indians that are killed will not be laid to me.' He would kill an Indian whenever there was an opportunity to do so and escape detection. His parents had been murdered by them, and he nurtured an implacable hatred towards the red race, and lost no opportunity to wreak the vengeance of an outraged and irascible nature.
"The Indians soon made their appearance at Sandusky, and the inhabitants left that place and came to Cleveland. Scouting was an important duty, and Judd and Williams were regarded as the very best material for it in camp. They made several trips to Sandusky in that capacity. On one occasion reports came in that the British and Indians were at Sandusky, gathering the grain left by the settlers and carrying it away. Judd and Williams were sent out to ascertain the facts, and learned that a few Canadians and Indians had come over in boats, thrashed out a little wheat, and gone away. They found an Indian's bark canoe, tied with a piece of basswood bark, up the creek, and secreted themselves to watch for the return of the owner, but none came. At night they loaded it with apples and returned to Cleveland. The apples were a great treat to the officers and soldiers.
" A bark canoe is a light and frail craft, and must be fastened so as to float in the water, or taken out entirely. This one was tied to a stake in the river, and was an object of curiosity to all. A ruffled-shirted officer, of pompous mien, came down to see it, stepped into it and walked to the stern, and, while noting its construction, it skipped from under him, and plunged him in the muddy water of the stream, much to the amusement of the soldiers.
.. Mr. Judd's first enlistment expired at the end of six months. During this period there was no permanent occupation of Sandusky. He afterwards enlisted again as a substitute for his younger brother, Philo. During his second term of service Fort Stevenson was built at Sandusky, and he aided in its construction. Simon Perkins commanded the fort. At this time General Harrison was besieged in Fort Meigs, on the Maumee, and there was no communication between the two fortifications. From Fort Stevenson sundry parties had started with dispatches to General Harrison, but the farthest any of them had gone was the Portage river, half-way through. Some did not get more than ten miles away, and were either killed or driven back by the Indians. Matters were looking exceedingly serious, when some one said to Perkins that Judd could go through. Perkins went to Judd, and asked him his price to go to Fort Meigs. He replied that he could not be hired, but, if it were necessary, he would undertake to carry his dispatches to General Harrison. On being asked how many men he wanted, he said one was sufficient. He wanted Williams, but as he was not there, he selected Ephraim Rose, as the next best choice. They dressed in Indian style, with moccasins, Indian blankets carried in Indian fashion, and handkerchiefs tied on their heads, thus resembling Indians as much as possible. They left Fort Steven- son about midnight of the 3d of May, 1813. There were a road and a trail run-
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