USA > Michigan > Mecosta County > Portrait and biographical album, Mecosta county, Mich., containing portraits and biographical sketches > Part 60
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The surface of the county is slightly rolling, and the soil rich and productive for all kinds of crops. l'ortions of the county are sandy, especially among the pine woods, but not so much so as to make the soil unproductive. The timber is largely beech and maple, mixed with valuable pine.
Mecosta is already well supplied with railroads, and others now proposed will doubtless be built in the course of a few years. The Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad runs north and south through the
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western part of the county, passing through l'aris, Big Rapids, Byers, Rustford, Stanwood, Bell's Cross- ing and Morley. The Chicago & West Michi- gan railroad has about four miles and a half of track east and west in Big Rapids Township, with its terminus at Big Rapids. The present terminus of the Detroit, Lansing & Northern railroad is also at Big Rapids, the road having been but recently built into the county. It runs from Big Rapids east and south- east through Colfax, Martiny, Morton, Wheatland and Millbrook Townships, leaving the county at a point south of the village of Millbrook. A branch of " this road runs to Chippewa Lake, in Chippewa Township.
The county contains one city and two incorporated villages, besides a number of other platted villages, which, with the three railroads already in operation, afford good markets for all produce raised.
GEOLOGY.
EOLOGY teaches that the continents of this world were once beneath the ocean. It is natural, therefore, to suppose that there are inequalities in the bottom of the ocean like those on the land. The recent deep-sea soundings confirm this opinion, and reveal mountains and hills, valleys and table-lands. The greatest depth reached in sounding is 29,000 feet, which exceeds the height of the loftiest moun- tain of the Himalayas. Some of the mountains of the sea are steeper and more abrupt than any on the land. In the British channel the depth changes within ten miles from Goo to 12,000 feet; and it is very common, within a few miles of the coast of continents and islands, for the depth to change sud- denly from a few hundred feet to many thousand. In other cases, as in a large part of the bed of the Atlantic, between Europe and the United States, there are plateaus extending hundreds of mites with very slight undulations. The mysterious race that once occupied this continent may have sailed in their galleons over the Peninsula, and sounded the depth of the waters which rose above it in precisely the same manner as the mariner of to-day casts out
the sounding line. At the close of the Corniferous epoch a great upheaval of sea bottom formed a line of land across the southern counties of Michigan, which extended to an older and wider formation in the southern part of Ohio.
The land now within the boundaries of Mecosta was still submerged, but by degrees the southern belt rose higher, spread out towards the northern continent, and was actually approaching the state of dry land at the beginning of the coal-deposit era. At its close Mecosta and the counties bordering formed the high lands of the Lower Peninsula. It is stated that Lakes Michigan, Huron, Erie and On- tario were not in existence then, their places being represented by a swift running river, with expansions. The great geological age, the Mesozoic, dates from this time. It was marked by activity in the animal and vegetable kingdom, mild climates and the my ri- ads of reptiles which swarmed in rivers and over land. Save in the fossils there is no record of the progress of this age to be found within the bounda- ries of Mecosta. The Tertiary period succeeded the Mesozoic. It was an age of beautiful climates and high development of mammals. Animals greater than the mastodon roamed over the land through verdant forests, meeting their enemy, man, and ulti- mately disappearing under his continued attacks.
The scene was changed; the snow and ice came on, burying all nature in its whiteness, and robbing the land of life. It was the beginning of the Glacial period. The duration of this age is lost in mystery. Were it possible to ignore the work of a God in the formation of the world, the continuance of the ice age might be set down at two thousand years ; ac- knowledging a divine economy in the handiwork of the world, the period of its duration might have been an incredibly short time. Spring time came, and with it the sea of ice, which covered the land and water to a depth of over 5,000 feet, began to break up and dissolve, and the solids held within its grasp fell down and formed a bed of rocky fragments or boul- der drift. The countless currents which sprang into existence and formed for themselves ten thousand channels, were the principal agents in the conforma- tion of that peculiar stratum known as the " Modified Drift."
From Saginaw Bay to Lake Michigan, via the valleys of the Shiawassee and Muskegon Rivers, a
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great channel, deep and wide, extended. South of this line barriers existed that checked the flow of the waters south and from hundreds of reservoirs. This accumulation of ice-water and the second season of ice resulted in the formation of another glacial field, differing from the great glacier in its depth and dur- ation, being not over four feet in thickness. Along the borders of those reservoirs the ice became an in- tegral part of the shore soil, of course including the limestone; and when the second geological spring time arrived, millions of cubic feet of water were added to these lakes, resulting in bursting asnnder their green covering of ice, which, in ascending, carried with it the limestone tables, and as the waters fell, deposited them in the positions which they hold to-day. As the Niagara rock was worn down, the rushing waters made for themselves deeper channels, and the inland lakes lowered just in proportion as the great lakes. The present river system was laid out by nature.
There are few special features in the geological character of Mecosta County. There have been valuable deposits of gypsum discovered, and both coal and petroleum are supposed to abound beneath the surface. The future geologist will doubtless find much of value and interest not at present known in regard to this region.
BOTANICAL.
T is unnecessary to name the flora of Mc- costa County since the species are so nu- merous and well-known. Dr. Gray, in his treatise on the Botany of the Northern States East of the Mississippi, gives 130 orders of flowering plants. In 1860 a botanical survey of the State was made, under N. H. Winchell. His report regarded every flower, plant, shrub, tree and grass to be found in Michigan, then numbering 1,205 species, as all native with 85 exceptions. In 1880 Messrs. Wheeler and Smith, of Hubbardston, Mich., compiled and published a complete flora of this State, with corrections to date. Of this great num- ber there are at present found within the confines of Mecosta County nearly 400 genera, embracing pos- sibly 1,000 species. A large number of species con- sidered in the report of 1860 have disappeared, while perhaps 25 species have been introduced within the last 20 years. The flowers, etc., are as rich generally as may be found in any of the North- ern States; in a few instances the brilliancy of hue is unequaled by any. All appear to reach perfection in this portion of the Peninsular State.
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INDIANS.
HE Indians visited by the earliest white explorers of this continent were without culti- vation, refinement or litera- ture, and far behind the Mound-Builders in the knowl- edge of the arts. The question of their origin has long interested .archaeologists, and is the most difficult one they have been call- ed upon to answer.
Of their predecessors the Indian tribes knew nothing; they even had no traditions respecting them. It is quite certain that they were the suc- cessors of a race which had entirely passed away ages before the dis- covery of the New World. One hypothesis is that the American In- (lians are an original race indigen- ous to the Western Hemisphere. Those who entertain this view think their peculiarities of physical structure preclude the possibility of a common parentage with the rest of mankind. Prominent among those distinctive traits is the hair, which in the red man is round, in the white man oval, and in the black man flat.
Among common suppositions, however, is that they are a derivative race, and sprang from one or more of the ancient peoples of Asia. In the absence of all authentic history, and when even tradition is wanting, any attempt to point out the particular loca-
tion of their origin must prove unsatisfactory Though the exact place of origin may never be known, yet the striking coincidence of physical or- ganization between the oriental type of mankind and the Indians points unmistakably to some parts of Asia as the place whence they emigrated, which was originally peopled to a great extent by the children of Shem. In this connection it has been claimed that the meeting of the Europeans, Indians and Africans on the continent of America, is the fulfill- ment of a prophecy as recorded in Genesis ix, 27 : "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant." Assuming the theory to be true that the Indian tribes are of Shemitic origin, they were met on this conti- nent in the fifteenth century by the Japhetie race, after the two stocks had passed around the globe by directly opposite routes. A few years after this the Hamitic branch of the human family was brought from the coast of Africa. During the occupancy of the continent by the three distinct races, the children of Japheth have grown and prospered, while the called and not voluntary sons of Ham have endured a servitude in the wider stretching valleys of the tents of Shem.
When Christopher Columbus had finally suc- ceeded in demonstrating the truth of his theory that by sailing westward from Europe land would be discovered, disembarking on the island of San Saly :- dor he supposed he had reached the East Indies. This was an error, but it led to the adoption of the name " Indians " for the inhabitants of the island and the main land of America, by which name the red men
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of America have ever since been known. Of the several great branches of North American Indians the only ones entitled to consideration in Michigan history are the Algonquins and Iroquois. At the time of the discovery of America the former occupied the Atlantic seaboard, while the home of the Iroquois was an island in this vast Algonquin population.
An almost continuous warfare was carried on be- tween tribes; but later, on the entrance of the white man into their beloved homes, every foot of territory was fiercely disputed by the confederacy of many neighboring tribes. The Algonquins formed the most extensive alliances to resist the enroachment of the whites, especially the English. Such was the nature of King Phillip's war. This king, with his Algonquin braves, spread terror and desolation throughout New England. With the Algonquins as the controlling spirits, a confederacy of continental proportions was the result, embracing in its alliance the tribes of every name and lineage from the North- ern lakes to the gulf. Pontiac, having breathed into them his implacable hate of the English intruders, ordered the conflict to commence.
The Indians had not only their "manitous, " but also their evil spirits; and the wild features of the lake scenery appears to have impressed their savage minds with superstition. They believed that all the prominent points of this wide region were created and guarded by monsters; and the images of these they sculptured on stone, painted upon the rocks, or carved upon the trees. Those who "obeyed " these supernatural beings they thought would after death range among flowery fields filled with the choicest game, while those who neglected their counsels would wander amid dreary solitudes, stung by gnats as large as pigeons.
INDIAN LIFE.
HE art of hunting not only supplied the Indian with food, but, like that of war, was a means of gratifying his love of destinc- tion. The male children, as soon as they acquired sufficient age and strength, were fur- nished with a bow and arrow, and taught to shoot birds and other small game. Success in killing
large animals required years of careful study and practice, and the art was as sedulously inculcated in the minds of the rising generation as are the ele- ments of reading, writing and arithmetic in the com- mon schools of civilized communities. The mazes of the forest and the dense tall grass of the prairies were the objects of the most searching scrutiny, and revealed at a glance the animal that made any visi- ble traces, the direction it was pursuing, and the time that had elapsed since it had passed. In a for- est country he selected the valleys, because they were most frequently the resort of game. The most easily taken, perhaps, of all the animals of the chase was the deer. It is endowed with a curiosity which prompts it to stop in its flight and look back at the approaching hunter, who always avails himself of this opportunity to let fly the fatal arrow.
Their general councils were composed of the chiefs and old men. When in council they usually sat in concentric circles around the speaker, and each indi- vidual, notwithstanding the fiery passions that burned within, preserved an exterior as immovable as though cast in bronze. Before commencing business a per- son appeared with the sacred pipe, and another with fire to kindle it. After being lighted it was first presented to heaven, then to the earth, then to the presiding spirit, and lastly to the several councilors, each of whom took a whiff. These formalities were observed with as close exactness as state etiquette in civilized courts.
The dwellings of the Indians were of the simplest and rudest character. On some pleasant spot by the bank of a river, or near an ever running spring, they raised their groups of wigwams, constructed of the bark of trees, and easily taken down and removed to another spot. The dwelling-places of the chiefs were sometimes more spacious, and constructed with greater care, but of the same materials. Skins taken in the chase served them for repose.
Though principally dependent upon hunting and fishing, the uncertain supply from these sources led them to cultivate small patches of corn. Every family did everything necessary within itself, commerce, or an exchange of articles, being almost unknown to them. In case of dispute and dissension, each Indian relied upon himself for retali- ation ; blood for blood was the rule, and the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter
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of course, to innumerable and bitter feuds, and wars of extermination, when such were possible. War, indeed, rather than peace, was the Indian's glory and delight-war, not conducted as in civilization, but where individual skill, endurance, gallantry and cruelty were prime requisites. For such a purpose as revenge the Indian would make great sacrifices, and display a patience and perseverance truly heroic ; but when the excitement was over he sank back into a listless, unoccupied, well-nigh useless savage. Dur- ing the intervals of his more exciting pursuits, the Indian employed his time in decorating his person with all the refinement of paint and feathers, and in the manufacture of his arms and canoes. These were constructed of bark, and so light that they could easily be carried on the shoulder from stream to stream. Ilis amusements were the war dance, athletic games, the narration of his exploits and lis- tening to the oratory of the chiefs; but during long periods of such existence he remained in a state of torpor, gazing listlessly upon the trees of the forest and the clouds that sailed above them; and this vacancy imprinted habitual gravity, and even melan- choly, upon his general deportment.
The main labor and drudgery of Indian communi- ties fell upon the women. The planting, tending and gathering of the crops, making mats and baskets, carrying burdens,-in fact, all things of the kind were performed by them, thus making their condition but little better than slaves. Marriage was merely a matter of bargain and sale, the husband giving pres- ents to the father of the bride. In general they had but few children. They were subjected to many and severe attacks of sickness, and at times famine and pestilence swept away whole tribes.
THE INDIAN DEAD.
HIE nature of their funeral rites is thus de- scribed: A few days after the burial the chikl, the father or mother or near relative of the deceased gave a feast. The food was prepared and carried to the grave, to which all sympathizing friends repaired. If the feast was prepared by a man, none but men attended ; and
the same rule applied to women, as in the case under notice. When assembled, the ruler of the feast dis- tributed to each one present a portion of the food prepared ; and each one, before partaking, put a small quantity on the head of the grave, so that it might fall through an aperture and reach the body of the dead. In such a female gathering, if one of the company were deemed profigate, she was not per- mitted to make this offering to the dead through her own hands; but another received it from her, and of- fered it on her behalf. After the offerings were made to the deceased, the remainder of the food was eaten by the company. Similar feasts were held in honor of deceased men and women. When the party consisted of warriors, addresses were made, and the virtues of the dead chanted. The festivals are repeated every year, and when returning from their wintering grounds to their villages in the spring they were accustomed to clear away the grass and weeds from each grave, and keep them cleared dur- ing the summer. Among the Ottawas it was custom - ary to place a post, proportioned in height to the age and size of the deceased, at the head of the grave. On one side of this post appeared the pic- ture of an animal, the name of which was the pre- vailing name in the family. On the other side was a clumsy drawing, slightly resembling a man minus a head, representing a person whom the deceased had slain in war; or, if it were a chikl, the victim of one of its relatives was painted. A man with a head signified a person wounded. Such hieroglyph- ies were multiplied in just such measure as circum- stances pointed out. Near the grave post was placed a cane, about two feet in length, so that when the passing Indian or visitor anived at the grave he strikes the post two or three times to announce his arrival. Posts eight or ten feet high were frequently placed by the side of a hut, and always near the wig- wam or hut wherein the conjurers met to consult on the cause of severe illness. On the upper end of this post was cut the figure of the human face. Mr. Ly kins, afterwards associated with McCoy, discovered one on Grand River, on which was carved with say- age exquisiteness a bust of some Indian chief. In the village was seen a tall pole, neatly pealed, streaked in vermilion and surmounted with a bunch of green boughs, probably representing the victory of some savage political party.
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THE INDIANS' FUTURE.
TORM and flood and disease have created sad havoc in the ranks of the aborigines since the occupation of the country by the white man. Inherent canses have led to the decimation of the race even more than the ad- vance of civilization, which seems not to affect it materially. In the maintenance of the same num- ber of representatives during three centuries, and its existence in the very face of a most unceremonious, and, whenever necessary, cruel, conquest, the grand dispensations of the Unseen Ruler are demonstrated ; for, without the aborigines, savage and treacherous as they were, it is possible that the explorers of for- mer times would have so many natural difficulties to
contend with that their work would be surrendered in despair, and the most fertile regions of the continent reserved for the plowshares of the coming generations. It is very questionable whether the ultimate resolve of Columbus was not strengthened by the appear- ance of the bodies of Indians on the coast of Europe, even as the fact of the existence of a people in the interior led the French explorers in the very heart of the continent in later days. From this standpoint their services can not be over-estimated. Their ex- istence is embraced in the plan of the Divinity for his government of the world; and it will not be a matter of surprise to learn that the same intelligence which sent a thrill of liberty through every nerve of the Republic will, in the near future, devise some method under which the remnant of a great and ancient race may taste the sweets of publie sympathy, and feel that, after a long season of suffering, they have at last found a shelter amid a sympathizing people.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
HOUGH less than a third of a century has passed since the first pioneers began im- ............. provements in this region, they have converted the dense wilderness into a culti- vated, productive country, fit for the home of an intelligent peo- ple, and affording all the con- veniencies and comforts of an advanced civilization. The first white settlers within the limits of what is now Mecosta County were John Davis and family and John Parish, the former of whom are still living, and residents of this county. Mr. Davis located on what is now section 27, in the township of
Mecosta, in 1851, where he and his family still reside. Mr. Parish, who was a bachelor, located about the same time on a point of land in a bend of Muskegon River, about a mile below where the lower bridge in the city of Big Rapids now spans the stream. He built a log cabin and cleared three or four acres, which was afterwards known to all the early settlers as the "Parish lot." A short distance up stream from that point the current of the water is very swift, and the place was known among lumbermen as the "Big Rapids." When the village was founded, which has since grown to be one of the promising cities of Michigan, the lumbermen's name was re- tained. Mr. Parish continued to reside on his first claim (which was within the present limits of the First Ward of Big Rapids) for three or four years, and then removed to the township of Green, locating
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where the village of Paris now stands. He laid out that village some years before his death in :86. A year after these first settlers, came William Brockway, who, July 20, 1852, moved his family into a "logging shanty," which stood on the south bank of Mitchell ('reek, near where the dwelling of Jesse Varney, in the Fourth Ward, was afterwards built. Mr. Brock- way was engaged in Jumbering, residing in the shanty mentioned till the spring or summer of 1853. Feb. 12, 1853, his wife, Margaret Brockway, gave birth to a daughter, who was named Alice, and who was the first white child born in the county. Mr. Brockway is still living, being a resident of Hinton Township, in this county. Early in March, 1854. Zerah French and family, and George French, with his mother and sisters, removed to Big Rapids, and were the first white families permanently located in the vicinity of this flourishing place. Their nearest neighbors were the family of John Davis, about ten miles distant, and the nearest settlement was at Big Rapids, up- wards of twenty miles away.
'The first settlers of the various townships are mentioned in the township sketches, and in the his- tory of Big Rapids is given a full account of the settlement of that place.
HOW OUR FATHERS LIVED.
HE young men and women of to-day have & little conception of the mode of life among the early settlers of Mecosta County. In but few respects are the manners of the present time similar to those of a quarter of a century ago. The clothing, the dwellings, the diet, the social customs, etc., have undergone a total revolution, as though a new race had taken possession of the land. Pioneer life in Mecosta County finds its parallel in almost every county in the State, and throughout the State, and throughout the entire Northwest. The land was to be cleared of forests, and the skill of human art used to transplant to this fertile region the civilization of the East. Cabins were to be erected, wells dug, and the rivers and creeks made to labor for the benefit of mankind.
As many living citizens can well remember, the pioneers had many difficulties to contend with, not the least of which was the journey from civilization to their forest homes. The route lay through a wild and rough country; swamps and marshes were crossed with great exertion and fatigue; rivers were forded with difficulty and danger; nights were passed in the dense forests, with mother earth for a couch and the trees and foliage for a shelter; long, weary days and weeks of travel were endured, but finally their eyes were gladdened, and their hearts beat faster, when a vision of their future home burst upon them.
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