69-20,911

PETERS, Bernard Chauncey, 1933- EARLY AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS AND EVALUATIONS OF THE LANDSCAPE OF INNER MICHIGAN WITH EMPHASIS ON KALAMAZOO COUNTY.

Michigan State University, Ph.D., 1969 Geography University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan

©Copyright by BERNARD CHAUNCEY PETERS

1969 EARLY AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS AND EVALUATIONS OF

THE LANDSCAPE OF INNER MICHIGAN

WITH EMPHASIS ON KALAMAZOO COUNTY

By

.A'1 Bernard C. Peters

A THESIS

Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Geography

1969 ABSTRACT

EARLY AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS AND EVALUATIONS OF THE LANDSCAPE OF INNER MICHIGAN WITH EMPHASIS ON KALAMAZOO COUNTY

By

Bernard C. Peters

The central theme of this study was expressed by Carl

Sauer when, in 19^1, he wrote that in a newly occupied area

the "habitat must be viewed in terms of the occupying group."1

The fundamental question being asked is — How did the

American pioneer (the occupying group) view the landscape

(the habitat) of Inner Michigan?

The American frontier was a zone where one cultural

group dispossessed another. As the pioneer pushed the

Indian off the land, he opened it for his own occupation.

The landscape taken over was one which had essentially no

impress of the American culture (i.e., roads, towns, etc.)

and was covered by several vegetative associations. Any

J attempt to explain the settlement patterns of these early

arrivals must take into consideration their concepts of land­

scape evaluation. And, during the early l800's, when the

southern part of Michigan Territory was being occupied, most

settlers based their appraisal of land on the vegetative

growth the soil produced. Thus, a major part of this study

is concerned with the early impressions and evaluations of the vegetative landscapes encountered in Inner Michigan.

A vegetation found covering a large part of Inner

Michigan was differently perceived by some early visitors.

This was the landscape variously described as "barrens,"

"oak barrens," or "oak openings." The study shows that the land type the surveyors had called "barrens," and reckoned to have poor soil, the emigrants from New England and west­ ern New York knew as "oak openings," and thought excellent wheat land. The advantages of settling in this open oak woodland were the main ones stressed by persons at Detroit attempting to attract settlers to Inner Michigan.

Kalamazoo County was selected for detailed investigation because it possessed, at the time of settlement, extensive acreages of the three main vegetative landscapes found in western Inner Michigan, namely, beech-maple heavy timber, oak openings, and prairie . The study of the county is based on a map of pioneer landscapes constructed from close examination of such primary sources as the surveyors' notes, pioneer accounts in letters, diaries, newspapers and other early writings, and some maps of the county made about 1839 by C. C. Douglass, the assistant state geologist. Extensive use was made of these primary documents to produce, in addi­ tion, several large scale maps of the land types found at the time of initial settlement.

It is shown by the research that most of the surveyors who worked in the county used the term "barrens" for the open oak woodland, although some used "oak openings" for this landscape. By this time (late 1820*s), however,

"barrens" had lost its meaning as an indicator of soil

fertility, and was purely a descriptive term for a special

vegetative association. In fact, most of the surveyors

said the barrens had good soil. Also discussed is the ques­ tion of the nature of the dry prairies. Evidence is offered to show that these were essentially treeless; not covered with burr oaks, and, hence, should not be called "oak openings"

or "burr-oak openings," as some writers have suggested.

By references to contemporary documents, and a series

of maps produced from them, the settlers' location pre­

ference is revealed. It is demonstrated that they sought

out the prairie landscape first and the heavy timber last.

The choices of seven representative settlers are examined

in detail.

Speculation was an important part of the frontier

activity in any newly opened area. Since speculators initally

acquired a large percentage of the land in Kalamazoo County,

their evaluation of the different landscapes is included in

thi: study. There were two distinct periods of speculation:

1830-1831, and 1835-1837. During the earlier one most specu­

lators purchased either land desired by farmers or areas where

towns might be founded. The latter included three type

locations: 1) the potential county seat near the center of

the county, 2) a waterpower site, and 3) the center of a

dense farming population on a large prairie. The second

cycle of speculation was a mad scramble for land. Generalizations about this period include: 1) the investors preferred land near to the county seat and along the Kalamazoo

River line, and 2) the heavily timbered areas were taken up last. The land selections of seven representative speculators are presented.

^Carl 0. Sauer, "Foreword to Historical Geography," Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Vol. 31 TT5TO17, P . B.------ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to express my gratitude to my major professor,

Dr. Paul C. Morrison, who went beyond the call of duty in advising and criticizing this work, and, without whose help, this dissertation probably would never have been completed.

Appreciation is also expressed to Mrs. Paul C. Morrison who translated my penciled draft into the first typed draft, and to Dr. Fillmore C. Earney for his aid in proofreading. Two archivists, Miss Geneva Kebler of the Michigan Historical Com­ mission Archives, and Mr. Wayne C. Mann of the Western Michi­ gan University Archives, gave me much assistance in discover­ ing primary documents relating to my work. And finally, for her long years of support, I express my thanks to Mildred.

ii TABLE OP CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... ii

LIST OP M A P S ...... vi

LIST OP F I G U R E S ...... viii

LIST OP T A B L E S ...... ix

Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

Research Methods

II. EARLY AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS OP INNER MICHIGAN LANDSCAPE...... 10

Initial Impressions Early Surveyors’ Impressions

III. INNER MICHIGAN REVEALED...... 31

The Interior Plateau (Inner Michigan) Discovered by Settlers Early Impressions of the Oak Openings Early Ideas Concerning Origin of the Oak Openings Evaluation of Michigan’s Oak Openings by the Press Evaluation of Michigan’s Oak Openings by Settlers and Travellers Heavy Timber or Oak Openings?

IV. PRE-SETTLEMENT IMPRESSIONS OP THE KALAMAZOO COUNTY L A N D S C A P E ...... 62

The Prairie Landscape Pre-Survey Impressions Surveyors' Impressions of Kalamazoo County The Wet Lands Surveyors' Evaluation of the Wet Lands The Beech-Maple Heavy Timber Surveyors' Evaluation of the Beech-Maple Heavy Timber

iii Chapter Page

The Oak Openings (Barrens) Surveyors' Evaluation of the Oak Openings The Dry Prairies Other Landscape Features Noted by the Surveyors

V. EARLY SETTLERS AND TRAVELLERS' IMPRESSIONS OF THE KALAMAZOO COUNTY LANDSCAPE ...... 99

Wet Lands Beech-Maple Heavy Timber Oak Openings Burr-Oak Openings or Burr-Oak Plains Oak Openings Landscape Altered by Settlement Prairies Pioneer Theories Regarding the Origin of the Prairies

VI. PIONEER EVALUATION OF THE KALAMAZOO COUNTY LANDSCAPE...... 128

Evaluation by Agricultural Settlers: 1828-31 Map of Land Settlers Purchased by Pre-emption and Regularly, June 18 and 20, 1831 Pioneer Accounts of Initial Settlement Patterns Importance of Prairie Settlements Settlers' Evaluation as Revealed by Prices Paid for Public School and University Land Landscape Evaluation in Relation to Settlers Origin Farming Practices Among Initial Settlers Seven Settlers as Examples Bazel Harrison Abram I. Shaver Edwin H. Lothrop Caleb Eldred Isaac (William) Toland Benjamin Drake William Giddings Agricultural Settlement 1832-183^

VII. SPECULATORS' EVALUATION OF THE KALAMAZOO COUNTY LANDSCAPE ...... 176

Patterns, Methods, and Effects of Speculation The First Period of Speculation: l830-l83'l The Fever Period of Speculation: 1835-1837

iv Chapter Page

Seven Speculators as Examples Titus Bronson Horace H. Comstock Lucius Lyon John P. Gilkey Samjuel Hubbard Joseph Beers and Samuel Sherwood William Baker and Henry Hervey

VIII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS...... 221

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 227

MAP SOURCE A P P E N D I X ...... 242

v LIST OP MAPS

Map Page

1. Location of Inner Michigan ...... 5

2. Portion of the Charlevoix-Bellin Map "Carte Des Lacs Du Canada," Paris, 1 7 4 4 ...... 11

3. Portion of "Map of the Great Lakes and the Five States of the Ordinance of 1789," from Morse Gazetteer, London, 1798 12

4. Portion of the Carey and Warner Map of "The Northwestern Territories of the United States," from their General Atlas..., Philadelphia, l8l6 14

5. Bounty Lands and Routes of the l8l8 Exploratory Expeditions ...... 20

6. Bloomfield Township, Oakland County from Bela Hubbard’s, -^Michigan Maps, 1 8 3 8 - 1 8 4 1 " ...... 37

7. The Prairie Peninsula with O u t l i e r s ...... 63

8. Map of Kalamazoo County, Michigan, 1880 „ . . . . 67

9. Kalamazoo County: Names of Surveyors and Dates of Survey of Interior Lines of the Townships .... 70

10. Pioneer Landscapes of Kalamazoo County ...... 76

11. Surveyor’s Notes and Section Corner Bearing Trees for a Portion of Climax Township ..... 78

12. Glacial Landforms of Kalamazoo County ...... 80

13. A Portion of John Parmer's 1836, Improved Map of the Territories of Michigan and Oulsconsln . 7 . 83

14. Surveyor's Notes and Section Corner Bearing Trees for a Portion of Schoolcraft Township ...... 87

15. Surveyor's Notes and Section Corner Bearing Trees for a Portion of Texas T o w n s h i p ...... 89

vi Map Page

16. Reference Trees Along Western Borders of Prairie Ronde and Grand P rairie...... 94

17. Surveyor’s Map of Richland Township ...... 96

18. Comstock Township, Kalamazoo County, from Bela Hubbard’s, "Michigan Maps, 1838-1841" ..... 115

19. Kalamazoo County: Federal Land Purchased by Settlers Under the 1830 Pre-Emption Law and on the First Day of Regular Land Sale (June 18 and 20, 1 8 3 1 ) ...... 133

20. Kalamazoo County: Federal Land Purchased in 1830 and 1831 by Seven Selected Settlers...... 156

21. Kalamazoo County: Distribution of Initial Pur­ chases by Settlers Who Purchased Federal Lands from 1832-1834 (Excluding Villages) ...... 171

22. Kalamazoo County: Purchases of Federal Land 1830-1837 ...... 178

23. Portion of a Speculator’s Map of Kalamazoo County 191

24. Kalamazoo County: Federal Land Purchased by Seven Selected Speculators Within Fifteen Months of First E n t r y ...... 199

vii LIST OP FIGURES

Figure Page

1. Marsh and Heavy Timber in Southwestern Prairie Ronde Tow nship...... 73

2. Present Day Landscape in Wakeshma Township Near F u l t o n ...... 73

3. Pioneer Cemetery Park, Corner of South Westnedge and Park Place, Kalamazoo, Michigan ...... Ill

4. View Across Prairie Ronde toward the "Big I s l a n d " ...... 122

5. Looking North Across Prairie Ronde from the Eastern Edge of the "Big Island" ...... 122

6. View Looking Southeastward Across Prairie Ronde from the Site of Bazel Harrison’s Initial Purchase...... 157

7. Abram I. Shaver’s Pre-emption Deed to the E 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of Section 15, Prairie Ronde Town­ ship ...... 161

8. Waterpower Site on Comstock Creek ...... 209

9. The Kalamazoo River at C o m s t o c k ...... 209

viii LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1. Surveyors' Typical Descriptions of the Wet Lands 74

2. Land Purchases from the White Pigeon and Kala­ mazoo Land Offices: 1831-1837 ...... 184

3. Land Sales at the Bronson Land Office for 1835 . 186

4. Monthly Land Sales at the Bronson (Kalamazoo) Land Office in 1 8 3 6 ...... 187

ix CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

"Habit and habitat," said Carl Sauer in 1941, are basic

\ factors that must be taken into consideration when analyzing a culture's perception and utilization of the landscape it occupies. He further suggested that "environment is a term of cultural appraisal," and the "habitat must be viewed in terms of the occupying group."1 This is the theme around which this dissertation is built. The basic question being asked in this paper is - How did the American pioneer (the occupying group) view the landscape (the habitat) of Inner

Michigan?2

"^Carl Sauer, "Foreword to Historical Geography," Annals of the Association of American Geographers. vol. 31 (i m r r p p . 7-8. 2 Until the exploratory expeditions of late 1818 no dis­ tinction was made by the Americans at Detroit between the low lands around Detroit and the "interior." After the 1818 dis­ covery of the higher, drier, and more open landscape west of the heavily timbered lowlands near the eastern shore, a dis­ tinction arose between these two areas. From then on when the term "interior" was used it referred to the newly discov­ ered higher and more open landscape to the west of the east­ ern lowlands. See the Detroit Gazette, October 30, 1818; November 13. 1818; January~?9T^^19T^eptember 1, 1820; May 4, 1821; July 27, 1821; October 5, 1821; also J. H. Lanman, History of Michigan (New York: E. French, 1839), pp. 47, 12!?, 229; and Douglass Houghton, in George N.' Fuller* Geological Reports of Douglass Houghton (Lansing: The

1 The American frontier was a zone where one cultural group dispossessed another. As the pioneer pushed the Indian off the land, it was opened to occupation by him. During the initial years of settlement, patterns were established which tended to maintain themselves on the landscape. The distri­ bution of settlements, both agricultural and urban, which was established at this time, for the most part, perpetuated it­ self. Any attempt to explain the present landscape must take into consideration the conceptions of "environment appraisal"

(landscape evaluation) held at the time of the initial settlement.

During the first thrust of occupance onto the new land­ scape, the settlers' decisions on where to locate were largely based on an evaluation of the physical environment, for at that time, there were essentially no elements of their own culture (i.e. — roads, towns, other settlers) present to

Michigan Historical Commission, 1928), p. 96. Some early writers refer to this higher, more open interior area as the "table land," or the "high plateau." See John T. Blois, Gazetteer of the State of Michigan in Three Parts (Detroit: Sydney L. Rood and Co., 1838), p. 21; William Darby, A Tour From the City of* New York to Detroit...I818 (Chicago: Quad- rangle fiooks, 1962), p. 199; and Karl Neidhard, Michigan History, Vol. 35 (1951), p. ^6 . For this interior "high pla- teau" area,recognized by the early settlers as being quite different from the eastern lowlands, Goodrich's term "Inner Michigan" will here be used. See Calvin Goodrich, The First Michigan Frontier (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1940), p. 39. The boundaries of that area designated as "Inner Michigan" follow the line of the Defiance Moraine- Portland Moraine-Grand Rlver-Valparaiso Moraine (Map 1). See Helen Martin, Map of the Surface Formations of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan (Lansing: Department of Conservation, Geological Survey Division, 1955). 3 influence their decisions. It was they who would initiate the features of their cultural landscape, the location of which would influence those who came later.

I am suggesting that a newly opened territory is not settled in an unsystematic way. Rather, the settlers evalu­ ate the landscape with ideas, opinions, and terminology which they had previously acquired. Those who were desirous of becoming farmers sought out that land which they had learned was the most productive. During the early l800's, when the

Michigan Territory was being occupied, most farmers based their appraisal of the land on the vegetative growth the soil produced. This explains the importance placed on the vege­ tative cover in the early accounts of travellers into newly 3 opened regions. If the landscape encountered was different from any experienced previously, the emigrants had to evalu­ ate it without the aid of already learned attitudes and skills; that is to say, they had acquired no "habits" to aid them in appraising the new "habitat."

As with farmers, so with potential town builders. They, too, had preconceived ideas about what they wanted for a

^The slopes in the southern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan were not generally steep enough to be a signif­ icant factor in influencing a settler's site selection, and this aspect of the land received only secondary mention in the pioneer literature. The environmental factor alloted the most space in the literature which was attempting to extol Inner Michigan was the vegetative cover. Therefore, in this dissertation when the term "landscape" is used, what is being referred to is the vegetative landscape. town site. For a speculator seeking to found a town in the wilderness, in addition to the agricultural productivenes of the surrounding land, other factors such as water power, transportation, and location within the county were perceived to be important.

In attracting settlers to it, the image which a newly opened territory had in the mind of the potential emigrants was of critical importance. If the image was unfavorable, as I will suggest Michigan’s was, emigrants would not come.

Only by changing this image and attracting settlers to its hinterland could a town, like Detroit, hope to grow into a city. The major theme of the propaganda put forth by the

Detroiters attempting to attract people stressed the advan­ tages of the landscapes found in the interior.

In eastern Inner Michigan (Map 1) there were two basic landscape types for agricultural emigrants to appraise, these being beech-maple heavy timber and oak openings. In western Inner Michigan, in addition to the above two, a third prairie, was present. This dissertation will investigate the following questions: 1) what was the nature of the land­ scapes present in the interior of the southern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan (Inner Michigan) at the time of the initial settlement there ; and 2) what were the impres­ sions and evaluations of these landscapes by the early settlers and travellers in the area? The study approaches the problem in two steps: 1) an investigation of the early impressions and evaluations of eastern Inner Michigan in LOCATION OF INNER MICHIGAN

for S m r h at All Map* Saa Map AppaadU

Mop 1 6 general, and 2) a study In depth of the early impressions and evaluations of the Kalamazoo County pioneer landscape.

Kalamazoo County was selected for detailed study for two reasons: 1) in addition to having extensive areas of beech- maple heavy timber and oak openings, it contained more prairie acreage than any other county, including the largest prairie in the territory, Prairie Ronde, and 2) it well illustrates the coming together of the two major streams of settlement penetrating Michigan at the time, namely, the southern stream coming north across Indiana, and the New

England stream spreading westward from Detroit.

Chapters II and III are concerned with the early ideas concerning the nature of the "interior plateau" (Inner

Michigan). During the years immediately following the War of 1812, although the territory in the interior west of

Detroit became available for purchase, few settlers actually came. One reason for this, I will suggest in chapter II, was the unfavorable perception of that interior land held by those who had seen it in 1815, namely, the surveyors. A few years later some exploring parties travelled to the interior because they wanted to see the land for themselves. And, seeing it, they perceived it differently than had the sur­ veyors. They literally "discovered" the interior. The problem then was one of publicizing the advantages of the newly discovered Inner Michigan. Chapter III traces the

changing cohceptions about the land of Inner Michigan, em­ phasizing the landscape which stimulated the most interest, 7 the oak openings.

Chapters IV through VII deal with Kalamazoo County. We are first concerned with reconstructing the nature and extent of the landscapes encountered by the first settlers there.

We are then interested in the evaluation of these landscapes by those who first viewed them. This analysis is divided into two parts: 1) evaluation by agricultural settlers, and,

2) evaluation by speculators, including those interested in the founding of towns.

Research Methods

Pour major steps took place in the researching of this dissertation. The first consisted of a period of general readings about the settlement of southern Michigan. This began with study of the excellent survey by George N, Puller of the settlement during the territorial period. Prom this book, and largely guided by its detailed footnotes, I then proceeded to the accounts by actual settlers contained 5 in the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections. From these sources and many others I accumulated considerable in­ formation about pioneer landscape terminology and pioneer

4 George N. Puller, Economic and Social Beginnings of Michigan (Lansing: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Company. T 5TB 5 T .. c •'Hereafter cited as Michigan Pioneer Collections in footnotes. This series consists of 40 volumes published in Lansing by the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, 1874-1929. 8 settlement.

Step two Involved the reconstruction of the landscape of Kalamazoo County as recognized by the original settlers, who classified the landscapes of Inner Michigan by the type and density of vegetation found there. This was done by plotting on a map all the index and line trees recorded in the original survey notes. The pioneer terms for these land­ scapes, and information about their distribution, was obtained from the survey notes, county histories, published accounts by early travellers, unpublished pioneer documents included in several manuscript collections, and finally, by comparing the result with the manuscript maps contained in Bela 6 Hubbard’s, Michigan Maps: 1838-1841. During this operation

I discovered that several modern writers have incorrectly used pioneer landscape terms.

Step three consisted of compiling maps of the distri­ bution of the initial land purchases in Kalamazoo County.

By comparing these maps with the one of the pioneer landscape of the county, it was hoped that some patterns could be perceived. The data used for making" the maps was obtained from the Kalamazoo County Tract Book located in the office of the Register of Deeds in the county court house. In this book are recorded for each piece of land entered, the legal

This manuscript map collection is located in the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library.. The maps were made by the assistant state geologists, Bela Hubbard and C. C. Douglass. The Kalamazoo County maps were made by C. C. Douglass and are found in Volume 6 of the collection. 9 description of the land, the date of acquisition, and the name and home of the buyer. This information was noted for each purchase on individual township maps.

The fourth step in the research was the most time con­ suming, this being the quest for original documents to help explain the pioneers' evaluation of the Kalamazoo County land scape. I felt that because many of the secondary sources on the settlement of Inner Michigan incorrectly use pioneer landscape terms, it was necessary to base my conclusions as much as possible on primary sources. The best collection of writings by early settlers and travellers in Inner Michigan is the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections. Several valuable primary sources were also found in the Michigan

History magazine. The county histories written in the l870's and 1880's, when some original settlers were still alive, often contain much reliable information. Old newspapers and maps and such documents as letters, diaries, notebooks and land deeds were found in the manuscript collections of the

Western Michigan University Archives and the Kalamazoo County

Library and Museum, both in Kalamazoo, the Michigan Histori­ cal Commission Archives in Lansing, the Michigan History

Collections at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and the Burton Historical Collections in the Detroit Public

Library. The federal surveyor's notes utilized were those located in the Lands Division office of the Michigan Depart­ ment of Conservation, Lansing. CHAPTER II

EARLY AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS OP INNER MICHIGAN LANDSCAPE

The French and British who preceded the Americans were primarily interested in Inner Michigan as a producer of furs. Their impressions of the landscape were made while they were engaged in the fur trade and any evaluation of the land for agricultural purposes was made offhand and was secondary to their major objective. American interest in Inner

Michigan after the War of 1812, on the other hand, was mainly

In its potential as farm land. The Americans, therefore, were heedful of such factors as the quality of the soil, its drainage, the type and density of vegetation the soil pro­ duced, the quality of the water, the healthfulness of the area, and access to a market; and paid only passing attention to the value of the land for fur production. Consequently, information on the potential of Inner Michigan for agricul­ tural settlement now became the important consideration.

This potential was under dispute during the early years of American occupation. The area had for a long time been the haunt of hunters and trappers, and they desired to con­ tinue this use of the land. As long as it was believed that

Inner Michigan was suited only for this way of life, few farmers could be attracted. Consequently, when Americans with an agricultural tradition came to Detroit, the image of the

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MAP 2

Portion of the Charlevolx-Bellln Map "Carte Des Lacs Du Canada," Paris, 17^• 12

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MAP 3

Portion of "Map of the Great Lakes and the Five States of the Ordinance of 1789," from Morse Gazetteer, London, 1798. 13 interior became a subject of great importance. Only by overthrowing unfavorable conceptions could rapid agricultural settlement occur. Only by attracting settlers could the territory advance to statehood. And only by attracting settlers to Inner Michigan could its natural outlet,

Detroit, make economic progress. Thus, the struggle over an image.

Initial Impressions

Between the time the British gave up their hold on

Michigan and the time the Americans began to effectively settle there, knowledge of Inner Michigan seemed to decline.

Whereas the maps produced by the French and British indicate, by their inclusion of a ’’High Plain" inland from Detroit

(see Maps 2 and 3), that they realized the land near Detroit was not typical for the entire inland area, the maps made in the United States between 1796 and 1816 show, with the excep­ tion of an 1814 map, the central high plain confined to the latitude north of the Grand River^ (Map 4). Even on the 1814 map, the central high plain does not reach south to the 2 latitude of Detroit. No United States map made after l8l6 shows any higher region inland from Detroit. The conclusion to be drawn from this fact is that those Americans who were

Louis Karpinski, Historical Atlas of the Great Lakes and Michigan: ToAccompany the bibliography of the Printed Maps of Michigan (Lansing: Michigan historical Commission, m i ) , pp. ?B—86.

2 Ibid., p. 8 3 . 14

h/trts 7 II Am* •»iw< j ^Ui«lhi»adui**c * fythtrr /nr/tf / > , / /? 7 n if n o j v B iiryfM ^

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MAP 4

Portion of the Carey and Warner Map of "The Northwestern Territories of the United States," from their General Atlas..., Philadelphia, 1816. 15 in a position to know the landscape of Inner Michigan, that is, those who lived in or travelled to Michigan Territory, knew either more than the French and British, or knew very little about the interior.

That Inner Michigan was little known by those living at Detroit immediately after the War of 1812 is obvious from an examination of an early Detroit newspaper. In the first edition of the Detroit Gazette the editors asked their readers to submit information on the soil, productions, and climate of the area, so that it might be printed in the paper and 3 thus satisfy eastern interests about Michigan. There were no takers. The next year the Gazette reported that "The interior of Michigan, as respects that kind of information which is useful to the actual settler, is perhaps less known than any other portion of our country, so near to settlements which have been made many years."

Even after several expeditions had been made into the interior and settlement had begun there, many at Detroit still knew little about the area. A traveller to that city

In 1820 was astonished "that many of the citizens of Detroit who have resided here for forty years and upwards, should be profoundly Ignorant of the country twenty miles back from the c river." The extent of the ignorance about Inner Michigan is

^Detroit Gazette. July 25, 1817. ll Ibid., October 30, 1818. 5 Ibid., September 1, 1820. 16 fully revealed by the fact that when, in 1821, a prospective settler from the east wrote to one of the most knowledgeable men on Michigan, Henry R. Schoolcraft, asking for information about the interior, Schoolcraft could give him none.^

In place of actual knowledge of the interior, early con­ clusions about Inner Michigan were based on observations of the landscape near Detroit and the reports of traders and trappers. Jacob Lindley was one of the first American visi­ tors to record his impressions of Michigan, and he left with the belief that the conditions near Detroit were typical for the interior as well. Lindley came to Detroit in 1793 as an observer at a meeting between the Indians and the government to be held at Sandusky. While travelling up the strait towards Detroit he noticed that "the whole country is level to a fault" and was "too wet for corn."? During his stay at Detroit in June and July of 1793, he made an attempt to walk into the woods back of the town, but after a mile and a half he reported that "my further excursion was prevented by swamps, bogs, and marshes.... The land in general is almost sunk under water." Following this experience he concluded that "the progress of the population...is obstructed...by the wet, unhealthy state of the country...."® He later tried again

^Harvey Parke, "Reminiscences," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 (1881), p. 573.

^Jacob Lindley, "Expedition to Detroit in 1793," ibid., Vol. 17 (1890), p. 59^.

8Ibid., p. 609. 17 to penetrate into the woods, but found them "marshy and flat In every place I can find...the inland parts of the country 9 abounding with extensive swamps...."

The Indians and traders who had first-hand knowledge of

Inner Michigan, in an attempt to prolong their way of life, sought to perpetuate the idea that it was a swamp unfit for any other use but theirs. A traveller to Michigan in 1820 who saw the interior for himself, in commenting on this misrepresentation, said, "We should not be surprised that the policy of the Indian traders led them to traduce the interior - they were reaping a rich harvest, and wished still to enjoy it alone.Lanman in his 1839 History of Michigan concluded that these reports by the Indians and traders, coupled with the fact that when "an occasional party adventured into the forest, their horses sunk deep in the mire which abounds along the frontier...," led to a confirmation of the reports based on personal experience.^ Thus were the initial American impressions about Inner Michigan formed.

That this unfavorable opinion of Inner Michigan was quite prevalent at Detroit immediately following the War of

1812 is evidenced by the reports of government officials and

9Ibld., p. 622.

•^Detroit Gazette, September 1, 1820.

^J. H. Lanman, History of Michigan (New York: E. French, 1839), p. 3^0. prospective settlers of the period. After the war some

Americans who had gathered at Detroit for the purpose of settling became disheartened and left because the marshland near that city was represented as typical also for the in- 12 terior. In a letter written in November, 1814, General

Duncan McArthur, stationed at Detroit, informed a newly ap­ pointed government official that "the Territory appears to me not worth defending and mearly a den for Indians and traitors

....The banks of the Detroit river are hansom, but 9/10 of 13 the land in the territory is unfit for cultivation." A letter of 1815 referring to the land west of Detroit sum­ marizes well the American impressions of Inner Michigan prior to the beginning of the federal surveys:

So far as I can learn this Country is of little value save only from its locality which renders it very important to us as a cover for this Place. There must be some good Land in it, tho I fear that much the larger portion is either very poor, or too wet for cultivation. If this is the fact I should suppose the Soldiers Lands will be selected and not laid off in a b o d y . -*-5

12 Thomas J. Drake, "History of Oakland County," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 (l88l), p. 565. 13 Letter, "Duncan McArthur to William Woodbridge," November 17, l8l4, Woodbridge Papers, Burton Historical Collections, Detroit Public Library. 14 In this dissertation [sic] will not be used in connection with quotes unless needed to identify the word. 15 Letter, "John Graham to George Graham," August 22, 1815, in Clarence E. Carter, Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. X, Michigan Territory, 1805-1820 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1942), p. 591. Early Surveyors* Impressions

The "Soldiers Lands" referred to in the above letter were in fact not laid off at all due to the unfavorable judgments that the early government surveyors made of Inner

Michigan. A portion of the bounty lands for the veterans of the War of 1812 were to be in Michigan Territory. Edward

Tiffin, the surveyor general for the Northwest Territory, in

October, 1815, sent his men to establish the Meridian and

Base Line of Michigan, and to lay out the bounty lands. These

latter were to include six townships north and six townships

south of the Base Line and to extend east from the Meridian

for eight ranges*^ (see Map 5).

At Detroit there was some apprehension about the impres­

sion the surveyors would get of the land in the fall of the

year. In August of 1815, Governor Lewis Cass, in a letter to

Tiffin, claimed that by the time his men could get into the

field it would be "too late to survey in this country," and 17 suggested he delay the project until spring. Not being

successful in having the survey postponed, and anxious to have

the surveyors get into the field before cold and wet weather

came, Cass in early September urged Tiffin to send them out

Surveyors Contracts: 1797-1848, Records of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Lands Division, Vol. 1, pp. 2737 i?77, Michigan Historical Commission Archives, Lansing, Michigan.

■^Letter, "Lewis Cass to Edward Tiffin," August 23, 1815, in Carter, pp. 591-592. BOUNTY LANDS AND ROUTES OF THE 1818 EXPLORATORY EXPEDITIONS

D etro it

. m m m

Innor M ichigan □ w Waterford Township Approximate Route of the Pontiac Township William's September Expedition □ Approximate Route ef the Bloomfield Township October Expedition □

M ap S immediately, and suggested that due to the lateness of the season it would be impractical to run any but the exterior l8 lines of the townships. Tiffin, at Chillicothe, Ohio, on

September 12, 1815, wrote to Cass that he had sent out two parties to the mouth of the Au Glaize River to begin running 19 the Meridian Line northward from that point. But the sur­ veyors did not actually set out for the mouth of the Au Glaize 20 until September 19, 1815, and did not reach there until 21 September 29. The field notes, of the surveyors reveal their observations regarding that part of Michigan Territory with which they came into contact. Benjamin Hough and Alexander Holmes were the senior surveyors and some of their impressions are given below.

In surveying the west line of Township 6 South, Range 1 East,

Benjamin Hough summarized the landscape of each mile as follows

[North on West Side Wet lowland, last mile, of Section 31]

[North on West Side Set corner post in a cran- of Section 30] berry swamp...land low and wet, timber maple, beech, tamirack, etc.

18 Letter, "Lewis Cass to Edward Tiffin," September 4, 1815, Cass Letter Book, located in Michigan Historical Commission Archives, Lansing, Michigan, pp. 49-50. 19 Letter, "Edward Tiffin to Lewis Cass," September 12, 1815, ibid., pp. 64-65. 20 Letter, "Benjamin Hough to Lewis Cass," September 19, 1815, ibid., pp. 67-6 8 . 21 Letter, "Benjamin Hough to Edward Tiffin," October 12, 1815, in Carter, p. 604. 22

[North on West Side Land generally low and of Section 19] swampy timber oak, ash, beech, tamirack, etc.

[North on West Side Land low and wet. Timber of Section 18] ash, sugar tree, elm, etc.

[North on West Side Land generally low, wet and of Section 7] swampy, timber ash, beech, oak, etc.

[North on West Side Land flat + wet, timber 22 of Section 6] elm, maple, willow, etc.

In surveying the east line of Township 4 South, Range 1 East, Hough wrote:

[South on East Side Land level + very poor + of Section 1] barren - covered with scrubby oak timber.

[South on East Side Land a little uneven and of Section 12] extremely poor + barren covered with small scrubby oak bushes.

[South on East Side Land level, first half mile of Section 13] swamp + marshy prairie, last half mile poor barren sandy soil - - Timber W. oak and black oak, very thinly scattered.

[South on East Side Land generally level + poor of Section 24] or marshy. Timber W.O. and B.O.

[South on East Side Land level and either of Section 25] marshy prairie, or poor + barren - Timber short white oak + black oak.

[South on East Side Level land + poor + of Section 36] marshy - Timb. B.O., W.O. etc.23

One of the lines surveyed by Alexander Holmes was the

22 United States Survey Field Notes, in office of Michigan Department of Conservation, Lands Division, Lansing, Michigan, Book 1, pp. 227-229.

23Ibid., Book 1, pp. 131-134. 23

south line of Township 2 South, Range 4 East; he recorded what he saw as:

[East first mile] over poor barrens.

[East second mile] poor barren land.

[East third mile] [no comment on landscape: trees white and black oaks.]

[East fourth mile] good oak land.

[East fifth mile] swampy land, willow bushes. 24 [East sixth mile] pretty good oak land.

The correspondence of the surveyors during October and

November, 1815, further reveals their impressions of the land­

scape of Inner Michigan. In early October Thomas W. Evans,

one of the surveyors hired to subdivide the townships, wrote

to Tiffin that the bounty lands were "very swampy + tedious

to survey. I shall proseed to my district in a few days +

shood it be as bad as this I shall not be able to finish it 25 this season." In a letter to Tiffin on October 12, Hough

said, "Prom what I have seen this country is no ways inviting -

It is true there is some good spots, but a large proportion .,26 is either useless swamps, or poor and barren." Holmes

went to Detroit for supplies in October and there in a conver­

sation with Cass reported that "the line from the mouth of the

Au Glaize north proceeds through a very bad swampy

24 Ibid., Book 2, pp. 519-520. 25 Letter, "Thomas W. Evans to Edward Tiffin," October 11, 1815, in Carter, p. 603. 2 6 Letter, "Benjamin Hough to Edward Tiffin," October 12, 1815, ibid., pp. 604-605. 27 country....” In November Holmes complained to Tiffin that they had "suffered almost every hardship, and encountered al­ most every difficulty that could be expected of mortals to 2 8 endure...." Not all reports, however, were so pessimis­ tic; Joseph Wampler wrote to Tiffin in November that his work was going well, that he "delights in~surveying," and re- 29 quested that he be assigned more land in the territory.

Other opinions than Wampler's were to hold sway, however.

Led by their senior men, Holmes and Hough, most of the

surveyors suspended their work and returned to Chillicothe the last week in November. They submitted a report to Tiffin which described the Michigan bounty lands as full of "tamirack"

swamps and marsh edged lakes; the land that was not swamps and

lakes was poor, barren, sandy land, where little grew except

small scrubby oaks. They concluded that "taking the country

altogether, so far as has been explored, and to all appear­

ance, together with the information received concurring, the

balance is as bad, there would not be more than one acre out

of a hundred, if there were one out of a thousand, that would,

2^Letter, "Lewis Cass to Edward Tiffin," October 26, 1815, ibid., p. 606.

2®Letter, "Alexander Holmes to Edward Tiffin," November 23, 1815, ibid., p. 609. These reports seem to contradict the assertion that "Tiffin's men enjoyed the winter survey," in Madison Kuhn, "Tiffin, Morse, and the Reluctant Pioneer," Michigan History, Vol. 50 (1966), p. 116.

2 ^Letter, "Joseph Wampler to Edward Tiffin," November 24, 1815, in Carter, p. 610. 25 30 in any case, admit of cultivation." This report Tiffin immediately forwarded to Washington with a suggestion that

Congress appropriate other lands to be awarded to the soldiers.

His suggestion was followed.

Although it has been argued that in these early years of settlement "easterners thought well of Michigan," and that prospective emigrants had no knowledge of the Holmes-Hough re- 31 port and therefore could not have been discouraged by it, an examination of contemporary writings leaves one with the notion that the surveyors’ early impressions of Inner

Michigan were known not only at Detroit, but in the east as well. The Holmes-Hough report was known to Governor Cass by the early spring of l8l6 . In a letter to the Commissioner of the General Lands Office dated March 11, 1816, Cass con­ tended that,"The quality of the lands in this territory, I 32 have reason to believe has been grossly misrepresented."

Since the proposition for transferring the bounty lands was then before Congress, Cass obviously was referring to the

Holmes-Hough report. In another letter to Meigs in May of

1816, Cass names Holmes and Hough as the instigators of the 33 "gross misrepresentation."

^Letter, "Edward Tiffin to Josiah Meigs," November 30, 1815, American State Papers: Public Lands (Washington, D.C., 183*0,"Vol. 3, PP. 164-165.

3^See Kuhn, Michigan History, Vol. 50 (1966), pp. 121, 133*

32Letter, "Lewis Cass to Josiah Meigs," March H i 1816, Cass Letter Book, pp. 106-107.

^Letter, "Lewis Cass to Josiah Meigs," May 11, l8l6, in Carter, pp. 635-636. 26

One of the best indicators of what was thought of an

area Just being settled are discussions in the early news­ paper of the locality. An important function of the pioneer newspaper was to "boom" the area by publicizing its attrac­

tions, and, if disparaging remarks had been made, to over­ whelm these by descriptions of its superior advantages to

the settler. That the surveyors’ unfavorable early impres­

sions of Inner Michigan had wide circulation is evident by

the numerous references found in the early Detroit Gazette

concerning the previous "misrepresentations" and "erroneous

statements" about conditions there. In an editorial in July,

1818, the Gazette complained that, "Unfortunately this section

of the Union has suffered much in the public opinion, from

its misrepresentation and ignorance. The system of

manoeuvre upon this subject commenced in 1815, with the 34 surveys...." This is an obvious reference to the Holmes-

Hough report; the editors go on to suggest that these men

had "motives" which induced them to make an unfavorable report.

Several other references to early adverse statements

regarding Inner Michigan were carried in the Gazette in 1818

and 1819. In October, 1818, the paper noted that although

the settlers were grouped along the eastern shore, "this

preference of the water site is not, as has been erroneously 35 stated, for the want of good land in the rear...." In

^ Detroit Gazette, July 2 k , I8l8.

35Ibid., October 30, 1818. 27

November, I8l8, the account of an expedition'into the inte­ rior was printed which was prefaced by the statement, "Since previously unfavorable reports have been circulated about the soil...." The text of the account contends that the unfavor­ able reports "have furnished interested and designing persons 3 6 with the means of defaming the country." In the Gazette of January 29, 1819, the editors again complained that

"persons of poor character have wrongly misrepresented the country...," and that the interior by actual investigation 37 was found not to be "an interminable swamp."

Even as late as the 1820’s the Gazette carried articles to refute the earlier "misrepresentations" of the interior.

In a letter to the editor printed in the September 1, 1820,

Gazette, a "Stranger" from the east says that he experienced

"agreeable dissapointment" upon visiting the interior, since, prior to his actual inspection, the only information he could get on the interior from travellers was "that they understood it was made up of dismal swamps, with here and there strips of barren oak ridges, upon which the natives had formed their 38 trails." In the report of another exploration party into the interior carried in a February, 1822, Gazette, "W" refers to the untruthfulness of the previous representation of Michi- 39 gan "as low, marshy and barren...." And in a letter printed

38Ibld., November 13, 1818.

37Ibid., January 29, 1819.

38Ibld., September 1, 1820.

39Ibid., February 22, 1822. in the Gazette in 182 3 a settler remarked that "the old tra­ ditional legend that all was an impassable morass beyond 40 Cranberry Marsh.. had vanished.

If easterners "thought well of Michigan," it seems a little unusual that the people living at Detroit were so concerned about the previous "misrepresentations." It seems more logical to assume that all the protests, disclaimers, and reports of exploration expeditions carried by the Gazette were specifically designed to counter the unfavorable early impressions which had been carried to the ears of prospective eastern emigrants. That easterners had heard of the surveyors impressions is evidenced by the statements of some early emigrants. One of 1821, although he had not heard of the

Holmes-Hough "report," had talked to a neighbor that had been to Detroit and saw one of the surveyors who reported to him that Michigan "was a poor, miserable country, filled with

2i i swamps and marshes...." Another emigrant of the early

1820fs, in writing to an acquaintance in Vermont, assured him 42 that Michigan was not a waste land as previously believed.

As late as the 1830's a New York paper carried an article ex­ plaining to its readers that the true nature of interior

40 Ibid., June 27, 1823. 41 Parke, Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 (1880), P. 573. 42 Lucius Lyon, "Letters of Lucius Lyon," ibid., Vol. 27 (1896), p. 437. Michigan had been misunderstood. And Alexander Holmes, who later became a Judge in Newark, Ohio, indicated that the unfavorable impressions of Inner Michigan were widspread when he reported that before the 1820's all back of Detroit was con­ sidered a swamp. He knew, he said, "for I was one of the government surveyors, and could not survey it except in winter on the ice."

Examination of contemporary news items on the first public

land sales in Michigan Territory gives support to the conclu­ sion that easterners had heard of unfavorable early impressions of Inner Michigan. A portion of the land surveyed since 1816 was brought onto the market at the Detroit Land Office on 45 June 6 , 1818, but few purchasers made their appearance. At the close of the land sales the Gazette t after lamenting that

in 1815 the surveyors had, because of "motives," misrepresented

the country, went on to say, "The current of emigration has not yet been turned towards this territory, and scarcely any 46 persons from a distance attended the sales of land." It

seems obvious that the Gazette attached a cause and effect relationship between lack of emigration and the early

43 (White Pigeon) Michigan Statesman and St. Joseph Chron­ icle » June 28, 1834. Reprint of an article from the New~York American. 44 A. D. P. VanBuren, in Samuel W. Durant, History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan (Philadelphia: Everts and Abbott, Tmv, p.' 85. ------Iir Detroit Gazette, July 10, I818. 46 Ibid., July 24, 1818. unfavorable reports.

In August of the year of the first land sales William

Darby arrived at Detroit and his writing gives added credence to the conclusion that there was a relationship between the early unfavorable reports and the scarcity of emigrants noted by the Gazette. He explained that even though land sales in

Michigan Territory had begun, and there was some good land to be had:

...they [the land sales] did not operate to add much to the population of the country....[because] some causes have hitherto operated to prevent any serious emigration to the Michigan territory. For upwards of a month that I have been travelling be­ tween this city and Geneva, in the state of New- York, I have seen hundreds removing to the west, and not one in fifty with an intention to settle in Michigan Territory. '

He then proceeded to report for his readers "hitherto unknown"

information about the territory by describing good timber and

rich soils along several rapid streams near Detroit. His in­

formation was accurate, he said, because it came from an 48 official United States surveyor’s map. It is apparent that

Darby thought the early unfavorable reports had retarded emi­

gration to Michigan; and he apparently felt he could help

counter the early impressions by presenting the new "hitherto

unknown" information.

^William Darby, A Tour from the City of New York, to Detroit... 1818 (Chicago: American Classics Quadrangle Books, T?STJ71>T'T9?-200.

i48Ibld. , pp. 200-202. CHAPTER III

INNER MICHIGAN REVEALED

The period from late 1818 into the early 1820's was one of planned exploratory expeditions into the interior plateau country. Although some favorable information concerning the land beyond the level tract back of Detroit had leaked out before 1818, the common evaluation of this far interior landscape held at that city still reflected the ideas of

1815.

The Interior Plateau (Inner Michigan) Discovered by Settlers

Some reports about the interior plateau were available before the exploratory expeditions of 1818. A gazetteer of

1817 listed the lands along the Grand River as "wo.od lands and prairies," and claimed that, in addition to good timbered uplands, "high prairies," existed from the St. Joseph River eastward which were as good .as those of Indiana.1 A soldier who travelled from Michilimackinac to Detroit in

March, 1816, by way of an overland route from the "Saganaum"

River to Detroit, reported that the landscape from the Flint

■^Samuel R. Brown, The Western Gazetteer or Emigrants Directory (Auburn: H. C~ Southwick, l8l7), p. 163•

31 32

River to the Huron of St. Clair (Clinton River) "much resem­ bles that of the county of Cayuga, in New York, principally clothed with oak, a very open country and no underwood, interspersed with small beautiful lakes...." Prom the

Huron of St. Clair to Detroit the landscape was described as "generally low flat country, susceptible of being drained 2 and cultivated, the soil deep and rich."

By 1817 the surveyors were again working on the interior plateau. Some swamps and marshes were reported. A more common landscape seen by the surveyors was rolling,heavily timbered land, timbered mainly with beech and maple. But the most typical descriptions for the land upon the interior plateau reported a more open landscape on which the reference trees were primarily white and black oak. Following are some typical surveyors' descriptions for this landscape.

Subdividing T3N, R1QE (Pontiac Township, Oakland County)

[North between sections 23-24] "poor hilly oak land"

[North between sections 13-14] "poor level oak land thinly timbered" O [East between sections 16-21] "levil good oak land"J

Exterior of T3N, R9E (Waterford Township, Oakland County)

[West on south line of section 31] "Land poor & barren tim. oak"

[North on east line of section 12] "Poor hilly oak land"

^Ibid., p . 166. o United States Survey Field Notes, Book 14, pp.’154- TW. 33

[North on west line of section 7] "over very broken poor barren land very thinl; timbered with oaks."4

In spite of the increasing evidence to the contrary, the evaluation of the interior plateau Just prior to the explor­ atory expeditions of late l8l8 still reflected the impres­

sions of 1815. The evaluation of the interior plateau held at Detroit in August, 1818, and of the land between it

and the eastern shore, was summarized by William Darby. He had consulted with Governor Cass and other territorial

officials, and had examined the surveyors’ maps and notes at

the Detroit Land Office.

It appears also that at the distance of twenty or twenty-five miles from the exterior depression of the valley of St. Clair and Erie, that the table land of Michigan becomes flat, and covered with innumerable ponds and interlocking water courses. The rivers have their sources upon this extensive flat, and flow south-east into St. Clair and Erie, and north-west into Michigan, passing over an arable border of about twenty-five miles wide, which skirt the lakes and straits from Maumee to Calumet. Some of the interior plateau is described as good land, but the face of the country is generally too level, and of course subject to immersion in wet seasons.5

When, in the summer of 1818, a portion of the public

domain in Michigan was brought onto the market, it included

not only land on the lowland near Detroit, but also some on

4Ibld., Book 13, pp. 228, 230, 2 36.

^William Darby, A Tour From the City of New York, to Detroit...I8l8 (Chicago: American Classics Quadrangle Books, 1962), PP. 198-199. the interior plateau in present-day Oakland County. Most of that purchased during the first land sale was near the eastern shore, and, since few emigrants were present, it was taken up primarily by residents of Detroit who seemed to be more interested in speculation than in farming.^ No one seemed interested in the land on the interior plateau— the land reported to be swamps and barrens. Some wanted to see it for themselves, however.

Oliver Williams had come to Detroit from Massachusetts in 1807. Between 1807 and 1818 he had engaged in the 7 mercantile business at Detroit. In 1818 he decided to purchase a piece of the public domain for his future home.

Apparently not liking the lands in the low country near the eastern shore, he and a group of other citizens of Detroit set out in September, 1818, to have a first-hand look at g the land on the interior plateau. Their explorations brought them to Township 3 North, Range 10 East, and Town­ ship 3 North, Range 9 East (Pontiac and Waterford Townships,

Oakland County, shown on Map 5), the same landscape that the surveyors had characterized as "poor hilly oak land" and "poor barren land very thinly timbered with oaks."

^Detroit Gazette, September 25, 1818.

"^George Hodges, "Major Oliver Williams," in Lillian Drake Avery, Collections of the Oakland County Pioneer and Hlstor- ical Society (Pontiac: Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society, 1934), Vol. 2, p. 122. Q One writer claims Governor Cass accompanied the party. See Bela Hubbard, "A Michigan Geological Expedition in 1837," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 (1881), p. 190. The evaluation of this landscape by the Williams party,

however, was considerably different from that of the survey^

ors. The same landscape the surveyors had described as

poor barren oak land was perceived by the Williams party as

"splendid open forests free from underbrush, abounding with

deer and birds, the lakes alive with fish, and covered with waterfowl...."^ After gathering flowers and shrubs as evi­

dence of the fertility of the soil, the party returned to

Detroit. Their favorable report about the land on the pla­

teau "electrified the hearts of the Americans in Detroit, and ..10 utterly astounded the Frenchmen."

Stirred undoubtedly by the reports of the Williams party,

and also by the desire to counter the previous unfavorable

Impressions about the interior, another exploring expedition

went onto the interior plateau in October, l8l8. In light of

the adverse statements that had been circulated earlier about

the soil of Inner Michigan, "it was a principal object of

the party to ascertain by their own observations how far

those reports were founded on truth, that we might give sat­

isfactory information to our friends and to emigrants."'1"3'

The Detroit Gazette of November 13, 1818, carried the

. 0. Williams, "Early Michigan, Sketch of the Life of Oliver Williams," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 2 (1877-78), p. 39.

"^Thomas J. Drake, "History of Oakland County," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 (1881), pp. 555-556.

^Detroit Gazette. November 13, 1818. lengthy account of the findings of this expedition as, "A

View of Some of the Lands in the Interior of the Territory of Michigan.1’ The explorers’ route took them northwest from

Detroit over the level land between that town and the pla­ teau. The heavily forested land near Detroit, which had previously been called a swamp, was perceived by this party as, "rich land, covered with large timber and though in certain seasons it is wet, it is now perfectly dry." About eight or ten miles northwest of Detroit they encountered some ridges of thinly timbered oak land.

After passing through the heavily timbered land of the eastern lowland, the group began exploring the interior pla­ teau in present-day Oakland County (Map 5). Their report on the landscape of the plateau contained no reference to interminable swamps or poor, barren oak land. Instead, after leaving the heavy timber, in the southeast corner of Township

2 North, Range 10 East (Bloomfield Township, Oakland County) they saw "ridgy oak land which exhibited a beautiful ap­ pearance. You can see generally the distance of half a mile....It is covered with grass and other herbage." (see

Map 6.) The first lake encountered in this new landscape they named "Wing Lake" after a~member of the exploring party

(Map 6). They also noted some "rich bottoms" along the streams, but mostly the landscape found on the plateau was the open oak land.

Thus, the potential settlers, speculators, and interested observers who now went to view the land on the interior 37

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, OAKLAND COUNTY FROM BELA HUBBARD'* "MICHIGAN MAP* 1838-1841"

UikltHdC' Ttmm

fitf *

Mop 6 plateau (Inner Michigan) for themselves disagreed with the trader-trappers' and surveyors’ poor evaluation of the area.

Swamps and marshes there were, but not nearly as extensive as they had been led to believe. And they perceived the open oak woodland in a completely different way. While the fur traders and surveyors saw these open woods aB "poor oak land,” or ’’poor barren land,” the members of the exploratory expeditions and most of those who followed considered them

"splendid open forests" and "beautiful oak land." This type landscape came to be called "openings" or "oak open­ ings" by the settlers.

The conflicting evaluations of the open oak woodland by the early surveyors on the one hand, and the settlers on the other, are an example of a difference in landscape per­ ception stemming, I suggest, from the background of the two 12 groups. Whereas most of the early surveyors had come to I? Michigan from southern Ohio, J most of the settlers came

12 For a discussion on geographic perception see David Lowenthal, "Geography, Experience, and Imagination: Towards a Geographical Epistemology," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 51 (1961), pp. £*Jl-£60; also his Environmental Perception and Behavior, (Chicago: Uni­ versity of Chicago, 196/5, Department of* Geography Research Paper No. 109. Sauer, in 19**lf used the phrase "habit and habitat" to describe the environmental response of dif­ fering cultural groups. See Carl Sauer, "Foreword to Historical Geography," Annals of the Association of Amer­ ican Geographers, Vol. 3l (19^1), pp. l-£4. 13 Alexander Holmes and Benjamin Hough had the contract to lay out the base and meridian lines and the township lines in the Michigan Bounty Lands. Holmes was from Fairfield County, Ohio; Hough from Ross County, Ohio. The surveyors contracted to subdivide the Bounty Lands were Joseph Wampler from New England and western New York. "Barrens"(and its value connotations) was a term brought to Michigan by the

Ohio surveyors who had contact with the settlers from Ken­ tucky, where the word was often used to indicate infertile soil.1* "Oak openings" and its value connotations was a term that came to Michigan with the settlers from New IS England and western New York.

from Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Joseph Fletcher from Gallia County, Ohio, Thomas Scott from Ross County, Ohio, and Amos Wheeler from New London County, Connecticut. See Clarence E. Carter, Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. X, Michigan Territory, lB05-1820 (Washington, D.C, : Government Printing Office, 19^2), p. 530» and Surveyors Contracts: 1797-1848, Records of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Lands Division, in Michigan Historical Commission Archives, Lansing, Michigan.

1*Ray A. Billington, Westward Expansion (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1960),"'p"! 293; Solon J. Buck (ed.), "Pioneer Letters of Gershom Flagg," Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 15 (1910), p. 153; TT C. Buley, The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period 1815-1840 (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Press, 1950), Vol, 1, p. 19; Samuel N. Dicken, "The Kentucky Barrens," The Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 33 (1935), ppl 42-43; Everett E. Edwards, ,kThe Settlement of the Grass­ lands," Grass: The Yearbook of Agriculture, 1948 (Wash­ ington, .D.C.: Government Printing Office, 18^8), p. 20; Timothy Flint, Condensed Geography and History of the West­ ern States (Cincinnati: E. h7 Flint, 1828), Vol. 60, p. 38”; George Flower, History of English Settlements in Edwards County, Illinois (Chicago: Fergus Printing Company, 1882), p"! 60; Francois Andre Michaux, "Travels to the West of the Alleghany Mountains... in 1802," in Reuben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1904), Vol.' 3, pp. 218, 228-229; N. S. Shaler, Kentucky: A Pioneer Commonwealth (Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1885), pp. £8-29.

■^Timothy Dwight, Travels; in New-England and New York (New Haven: Published by Author, l8£l), Vol. 4, pp. 5l- 63. Occupation of Inner Michigan proceeded rapidly after the exploratory expeditions registered a favorable impression of the area. In the 1820's, as settlement spread across the eastern part of the interior plateau, the major land types recognized were 1) oak openings, 2) heavily timbered land, and 3) wet land (swamps and marshes). Of the three, the open oak land was a significant addition to the landscapes the American pioneers perceived in Inner Michigan. In view of the Importance they attached to the vegetation cover as an Indicator of soil fertility, it will be the object of the remainder of this chapter to investigate the early Impres­

sions and evaluations of the open oak larjds of Inner

Michigan.

Early Impressions of the Oak Openings

Prom the first French descriptions to those of the

American settlers on the interior plateau, the open oak land

was recognized as a special landscape. Although the terms

applied differed, that the open oak landscape was recognized

as a distinct type is apparent from a perusal of a sequence

of early descriptions of Inner Michigan landscapes.

1680 La Salle "open woods''1^

Francis Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West; LaSallet Ed. William R. fatlor (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1956), p. 143. 1776 Outline of land ’’...the road after you pass the route from River Huron is very good being Detroit to St. mostly on a small height of Joseph land and little wood...”1 '

1790 British fur ’’...barren for culture abounding trader principally with Black Oak.... Land dry and barren abounding with Black Oak and fern...."ltt

1818 Williams’ Sept. ’’Splendid open forests free exploratory from underbrush."19 expedition

1818 Oct. explora­ "...ridgy oak land which exhibits tory expedition a beautiful appearance. You can see generally the distance of a half mile....It is covered with grass and other herbs."20

1820 Detroit Gazette, Introduces the term "oak open­ April 28, 182b ings" for the open oak land.

17”The Haldimand Papers," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 10 (1888), p. 248.

^ Hugh Heward, "Journal from Detroit to the Illinois," John Askin Papers (Detroit: Detroit Library Commission, 1$28), Vol. 1, pp. 341-350.

•^Williams, p. 39.

^Detroit Gazette, November 13, 1818. 1833 A traveller After riding through the dense from the east woods in Monroe County, he suddenly struck the"oak open­ ings ." "... like coming from a swamp into a park.... Clumps of the noblest oaks, with not a twig of underwood, extending over a gently undulating grassy surface as far as the eye could see....The feeling of solitude I had while in the deep woods deserted me the moment I came upon this beautiful scene and I rode for hours unable without effort to divest myself of the idea that I was in a cultivated country."2^

1834 A traveller "The monotonous landscape ceases from Germany near Ann Arbor; and here the country became more interesting as one approaches the high pla­ teau. The dense forests dis­ appear and lakes surrounded by pretty hills and park like woods, which the Americans call ’oak openings,1 meet the trav­ ellers’s eye....where the trees stand a few paces apart and where the ground is overgrown with luxurious grasses. Pas­ sage is obstructed neither bv bushes nor by fallen trees."22

21 Charles Penno Hoffman, "Winter Scenes in Early Michigan," Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), p. 222. 22 Karl Neidhard, "Reise Nach Michigan...in Sommer 183^," Michigan History, Vol. 35 (1951), pp. 45, 49. 43

1836 A traveller Six miles from Plymouth "we left from the east the heavy timber and passed in­ to a sandy soil with light oak woods....The trees grow at in­ tervals of, say 30 feet apart.... [you] may at almost every point drive a coach and four for miles through them in every direction."23

Although there was no lack of agreement as to the nature of the landscape, during the early years of settle­ ment of Inner Michigan there was considerable disagreement among the surveyors over the value of the oak openings.

This difference of opinion is clearly revealed by the terms used by them in describing the oak openings landscape.

Date Location Surveyors description

1815 Bounty Lands "...a poor barren sandy land, on which scarcely any vegetation grows except very small scrubby oaks."24

1817 T3N, R9E "Over very broken poor barren ?c; land thinly timbered with oaks."

1824 T2S, R4E "Rolling oak land."2^

1824 T3S, R3E "Land second rate, oak open- ings."27

23john M. Gordon, "Michigan Journal, 1836," Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), pp. 259, 275.

2^Holmes-Hough Report, included in the letter, "Edward Tiffin to Josiah Meigs," November 30, 1815, American State Papers: Public Lands (Washington, D. C., 1834), Vol. 3, pp. 164-1615.------

2^Unlted States Survey Field Notes, Book 13, p. 236.

26Ibid., Book 2, p. 529.

27Ibid., Book 2, p. 279. 1824 T3S, R2E "Land poor and barren,— timber oak....Land open oak barren, poor."28

1825 T5S., R4W "Rolling barren and 2nd rate soil well timbered with R.W. +Y~oaks."29

1826 T3S, R10W "Land east of last swamp barrens, good soil thinly timbered oak."30

1826 T3S, R12W "Land dry + rolling. Timber W. +B1. Oak— no undergrowth."31 "Land level 2nd rate oak open­ ings . "32

1829 T5S, R12W "Level 2nd rate land-oak open­ ings . "33

From the above it is obvious that between the time of the early surveys and those of the late l820’s, the sur­ veyors' perception of the open oak landscape had changed considerably. What to the early surveyors was "poor barren • land thinly timbered with oaks," was seen by later ones as

"barrens, good soil thinly timbered oaks"; by the later period some were even using the term "oak openings." Thus, by the late l820's, the Yankee evaluation of the landscape

28Ibid., Book 1, p. 38.9.

29Ibid., Book 20, p. 356.

3°Ibld., Book 24, p. 301.

31Ibid., Book 25, p. 385.

32Ibld., Book 25, p. 388.

33Ibid., Book 25, p. 468. had become the dominant one, but southern terminology contin­ ued to be used by some of the surveyors.

Early Ideas Concerning Originof the Oak Openings

The Yankee exodus from New England moved into New York just before coming to Michigan. In the western part of

New York, known as the "Genesee country," the emigrants came into contact with the "oak plains" or "openings." This type of landscape was new to them. They had a theory, how­ ever, about its origin.

A scholar and keen observer of the landscape, who saw the openings of western New York in 1803, when settlements were just beginning in the area, summarized the theory then current. This traveller noticed that the vegetable mould on the dry sandy soil of the openings was only about an inch thick, while that on the moist clay soil in the maple and beech land was from six inchesto afoot thick. He also

saw that the trunks of many of the oaks were marked by fire, and perceived that If the forests were set on fire the vegetation on the dry soil would burn, while that on the wet

soil would not. Being familiar with the customs of the

Indians, he concluded that "the Indians annually, and some­

times oftener, burned such parts of the... forests, as they

found sufficiently dry." The object of the burning was, he thought, to produce "fresh sweet pasture" to attract

deer. This burning, he believed, slowly killed off the ma­

jority of the trees and allowed grass to cover most of the

surface, destroyed the vegetable mould, and prevented 46 Oil undergrowth from maturing."-'

The theories about the origin of the openings held in

Michigan during the early years of settlement were identical to those of the Genesee country. The Detroit Gazette in

February, 1822, carried a report by "W" on the findings of the "Sciawassa Exploring Party," which suggests that the reason for the thin timber on the openings was because they had been "kindled by the savages. . . . The same year a visitor from New York remarked that the openings in western

Macomb County were "apparently produced by Indian fires in some dry season spreading over the country and destroying the timber, which in those parts seems to have consisted mostly of oak.Later, in 1822, in an editorial aimed at potential emigrants, the Gazette pointed out that the scant growth of timber on the openings was due to Indian burning.

This is evidenced, said the paper, from looking at the land­ scape near Pontiac, which in l8l8 was beautifully clear, but since settlement had stopped the annual fires, young timber was everywhere springing up.37

The rapid reforestation which occurred on the openings after settlement did not result from seeds dropped by the

Dwight, Vol. 4, pp. 60-63.

^ Detroit Gazette, February 15, 1822.

36Ibid., March 1, 1822.

37Ibid., August 2, 1822. oak trees, but from what were called "grubs." These were root systems which spread Just beneath the surface between the scattered oak trees.It was generally thought that such a root system was "formed by the fires which annually run through the woods, and burn the top of the vegetation, leaving a root which spreads over the ground sometimes three feet square, and is firmly imbedded in the soil."^ When the fires were stopped a forest of young oak trees quickly grew up in the openings. Areas which developed a thick understory of young oaks were called "timbered openings."

When a geological survey was made of the southern peninsula in the late 1830’s, the vegetation was also mapped. Many former oak openings had by that time developed an under­ story of young oaks and were consequently mapped as "tim­ bered openings" (see Map 6 ).

Evaluation of Michigan’s Oak Openings by the Press

Since a large percentage of the surface of Inner

Michigan was oak openings,^ it was important that the early surveyors' evaluation of it as "poor barren land" be

3®Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p. 446.

blames h . Lanman, History of Michigan (New York: E. French, 1839), p. 324.

^^The Detroit Gazette of August 2, 1822, says oak open­ ings "constitute a very considerable portion of this penin­ sula...." In his 1838 Gazetteer of Michigan. Blois stated that a "major part" of the peninsula was openings "(p. 24), and in his descriptions of the counties, several, he pointed out, have 2/3 or more of their surface in openings -(pp. 214- 243). 48 overwhelmed by favorable publicity. The main propaganda media for Inner Michigan at the time were the Detroit

Gazette and several books written by Michigan residents.

That there were doubts in some peoples minds about the advisability of settling on the oak openings is evident from an 1820 Detroit Gazette account which was prefaced by the statement, "notwithstanding the prejudice which so generally 41 exists against them [the openings]...." The Gazette, soon after it was realized that a portion of Inner Michigan con­ sisted of the open oak land, began to play up that aspect of the landscape. Its report of the October, 1818, exploratory expedition commented that on this land:

Many farms may be selected on which there will be from 50 to 100 acres of good upland where the plow may be put in immediately, and a good crop of wheat raised without any expense of clearing, except girdling the trees.^2

The idea that the land on the oak openings could be brought into production immediately, without spending many years chopping out heavy timber, was continually given high priority in the attempts to publicize Inner Michigan. In

December, 1818, the Gazette again hit hard at this theme.

Every one who has visited the portion of the coun­ try referred to [the oak openings], asserts that there is a great portion of it that would not re­ quire a fifth part of the labor to get in a crop, that is required by the wild lands in the northern and middle states. 3

41 Detroit Gazette, September 1, 1820. ho Ibid., November 13* 1818. 4? Ibid., December 4, 1818. This advantage of the oak openings was again referred to by the Gazette on April 28, 1820, September 1, 1820, February

.15, 1822, and June 28, 1822. Other writings emanating from

Michigan during this period also pointed out this superior- 44 ity of the oak openings over the timbered land. But the ease in clearing the land was not the only advantage of the oak openings.

Not only did the oak openings require little labor in clearing the land, but, said those attempting to publicize

Inner Michigan, contrary to what one might conclude from the sparse timber and thin vegetable mould, they were also fertile. One of the major advantages of the oak openings pointed out by the October, 1818, exploratory expedition was 4*5 that, "the soil is good and will be excellent wheat land.”

And the Gazettet in February, 1819, brought to the attention of the potential emigrants that the oak openings near the new village of Pontiac were "first quality wheat land,

[which] resembles very much the celebrated wheat land in the western part of the state of New York, commonly called the

Genesee country.

The thinness of the vegetable mould and sparseness

John Farmer, Emigrants Guide or Pocket Gazetteer of the Surveyed Part of Michigan (Albany: B. D. Packard and Co., 1830), p. 4; Blois, ppT 37-38; Lanman, p. 254.

^Detroit Gazette, November 13# 1818.

^Ibld., February 26, 1819. 50 of the timber, emigrants were assured, was no indication of infertile soil. The Gazette in August, 1822, sought to set the matter straight, stating:

'Oak openings' are supposed, by some, to be desti­ tute of a thick growth of timber, by reason of the poverty, or of some peculiar properties of the soil. This opinion is incorrect. It is well known to those acquainted with the customs of the Indians that they set fire to their hunting grounds every fall, to keep them clear of under­ brush. This is the true reason why these plains have not the quantity and variety of timber, which are found on other lands, immediately around them.^7

Blois, also, in his 1838 Gazetteer pointed out that the sterile appearance of the soil of the oak openings must be disregarded. "This soil," he said, "is a yellow sand loam, and has the appearance of perfect sterility, but when cultivated, it is exceedingly fertile and produces excellent h g crops of wheat and oats." In fact, It was claimed that the reddish or yellow sandy soil typical of the oak open­ ings, which the casual observer might think sterile, was 49 rich in lime, which caused It to turn blacker with use. *

This property, it was believed, accounted for the superior quality of the oak openings for wheat.

, The utility of the oak openings for the settler was early summarized in the Gazette in 1820 by "A Stranger"

^7petrolt Gazette, August 1, 1822.

^®John T. Blois, Gazetteer of the State of Michigan In Three Parts, (Detroit: Sydney L. Rood and Co., l83b>7 P* ?15.

^9ibid., p. 24-25; Lanman, p. 251. 51 who wrote:

I think a farm of at least one half openings is far preferable to all heavy timbered rich bottoms. In the first place, they have been proved to pro­ duce the best wheat.... Secondly, emigrants into a new country are usually destitute of labor, as their families are young, and they very properly wish to vest their cash in land while it is low, rather than hire laborers to clear up their farms;— by taking up lots that have openings, they are obliged to cut no more timber than will make their fences, the remainder they can girdle and put in their crops at once. The land only costs them one dollar and twenty-five cents the acre, whereas the. clearing off alone, of the heavy timber, will cost them from five to eight dollars the a c r e . 50

But, in addition to the advantages, the settlers no doubt heard that there might also be drawbacks to occupying the oak openings. They probably had heard rumors that there might riot be enough timber for fencing, buildings and fuel; that the poor water in sluggish streams was a aause of sickness; and that the sod on the openings was difficult to break.

The lack of timber received little mention in the propaganda media of the period. The Gazette suggested in

1820 that the farmers who took up land on the oak openings 51 also include "a convenient portion of timbered land...."

And an 1830 gazetteer admits that the oak openings are

"often rather deficient in timber..." but assures the emi­ grant that there are plenty of scattered woodlands where an

^ Detroit Gazette, September 1, 1820.

51Ibld., April 28, 1820. 52

"ample supply may be obtained, not only for fuel, but for building, fencing, and all other farming purposes, if used with economy."^2

On the other hand, the quality of water on the oak openings received frequent notice in the Detroit Gazette.

The account of the October, 1818, exploratory expedition repeats many times the phrase "good water" while describing 53 the open oak land in Oakland County. On January 29, 1819, an article in the paper reported the interior to be "well watered." And in an article on the advantages of the land near Pontiac, the paper notes the "springs of good water" and many "gravel bottomed streams."-^ In the next feto years the Gazette carried commentaries which pointed out, among other advantages of the oak openings, that they had

"water better... than on the bottoms," "purest spring 55 56 water," and "numerous lakes"; were "beautifully watered";5 contained "many springs";^7 and had "good and plentiful springs" and "many small streams."^® An 1839 gazetteer also

^2Parmer, Emigrants Guide..., p. 4. 53 Detroit Gazette, November 13, l8l8.

54Ibid., February 26, 1819.

55Ibid., September 1, 1820. 56 Ibid., November 23, 1821.

57Ibid., February 15, 1822. 58 J Ibid.» March 1, 1822. 53 mentions the "wholesome water in lively channels" of Inner

Michigan, and assures the New England emigrant that Michigan

is not sickly as rumored. *

The problems inherent in breaking the sod on the oak

openings received no mention in the Detroit Gazette. How­ ever, a gazetteer of 1830 pointed out that three or four oxen were needed to break the ground the first time, but after

that it could be cultivated with the same ease as much-tilled

land.^° An 1839 History of Michigan went into more detail.

It indicated that the cost of clearing heavy timber was fif­

teen dollars an acre, and that the "grubs and matted grass"

of the openings made it necessary to use five or six yoke of

oxen to break it up, which cost an average of about twelve

dollars an acre.^1

The propaganda aimed at the prospective emigrant by the

Detroit Gazette and the early books written in Michigan painted a glowing picture of Inner Michigan in general and

of the oak openings in particular. But these were biased

views. How did the settlers and unpredjudiced travellers

perceive the oak openings of Inner Michigan?

Evaluation of Michigan’s Oak Openings by Settlers and Travellers

The two main advantages of the oak openings emphasized

by the propaganda media— ease of bringing the openings land

59Blois, p. 125.

^Farmer, Emigrants Guide..., p. 4.

^Lanman, pp. 254, 324. 54 into production and its fertility for wheat— were, indeed, also those most praised by the settlers and travellers in

Inner Michigan. An Englishman who settled in Lenawee county in 1830, and had had no previous experience with chopping timber, was especially appreciative of the lack of labor nec­ essary to bring the oak openings into production. He wrote:

I arrived in July 1830. I bought one farm 80 acres and went to work on it but finding it had too much timber on it and I could not chop very well I bought 80 acres more clear openings.... The first I bought is worth nearly double the money I gave for it. The last which I farm my- — self is worth 5 times what it cost....62

Settlers in the vicinity of Marshall in Calhoun County point­ ed out to an 1833 visitor that oak openings could be brought into production at once and not, as in the eastern states, Co "wear out one generation in subduing it...."

Nor could the settlers say enough about the productiv­ ity of the oak openings. A settler from Pennsylvania, for example, remarked that he had never seen better wheat or 64 corn than on the oak openings near Ann Arbor. Another in

St. Joseph County, in 1837, wrote to his brother in New York urging him to come to Michigan because on the oak openings could be produced finer wheat than in "York State.

62Louis L. Tucker, "The Correspondence of John Fisher," Michigan History, Vol. 45 (1961), p. 225.

^^Hoffman, Michigan History. Vol. 9 (1925), p- 414.

62*Helen Everett, "Solomon Keeney's Visit to Michigan in 1827," Michigan History, Vol. 40 (1956), p. 441.

^Letter, "J. 0. Bragman to Daniel Bragman," June 12, 1837, in Western Michigan University Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Most of the travellers who saw Inner Michigan during the period of settlement also praised the oak openings. An

1834 visitor from Germany who came to see a fellow country­ man's livestock farm in Lenawee County was very impressed with the ease with which a farm could be established on the openings. He could see no other labor necessary to bring a livestock farm into production on openings than the mowing of the grass for winter feeding.^

Two travellers who viewed Inner Michigan in the mid-

1830's registered nearly identical impressions of the oak openings. Both noted the peculiar property of the soil of the openings to turn blacker and richer with cultivation; this was due, one pointed out, to the slaking of the lime when the sod was turned. ^ They, too, highly praised the fact' that on the oak openings "a man can run his plough with out felling a tree; and, planting a hundred acres, where he would clear but ten in the unsettled districts of New York, raise his twenty-five bushels of wheat to the acre in the 68 first season." Also put forth as an exceptional attribute of the oak openings was the fact that farmers on this type land were able in a very few years to accumulate great

66 Neidhard, Michigan History, Vol. 35 (1951), p. 51. 6 7 Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), pp. 269, 271 Hoffman, Michigan History, Vol. 9, (1925), p. 230. 68 Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959). p. 265; Hoffman, Michigan History. Vol. 9 (1925), p. 247. wealth. One of the travellers noted that the farmers on the openings of Calhoun County had been able to Increase their wealth at a very rapid rate; so good, In fact, were the op­ portunities of becoming rich on the openings, that many a professional man had "abondon their former pursuits and be­ come tillers of the soil."^ Speaking of the farmers on the oak openings In the same area, the other traveller noted that "many persons round about are now worth from $5000 to 70 $10,000 who came here with almost nothing."'

Not all words by the settlers and travellers, however, were in praise of the oak openings. A settler in 1837 noted that large and heavy plows were necessary on the openings, and plowing them the first time cost as much as three dollars per acre.^1 An 1836 land looker who was viewing Inner

Michigan with an eye for speculation, although he saw the great prosperity of the farmers on the openings, still fa­ vored heavily timbered land. He believed that due to the grubs, plowing was sometimes more difficult than clearing the heavy timber, where, once cleared, by just scratching the surface of the vegetable mould, corn and potatoes could be planted."^2 After seeing a well eighty feet deep on the openings, he also perceived them to be lacking in water. As a

^Hoffman, Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925)* pp. 415-416.

"^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p. 276.

"^Everett, Michigan History, Vol. 40 (1956), p. -442.

?2Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p. 271. speculative investment he much preferred heavily timbered land because, "They are better watered than oak openings and are safe against future scarcity of wood, for fire, building, enclosure etc, etc, for ever."73

As a general rule, then, both settlers and travellers spoke mostly in praise of the oak openings. However, at least one traveller had no favorable words to say about the openings. An English farmer who was looking for land to buy in the west in 1835 agreed that the oak openings presented a beautiful landscape, and could be easily brought into pro­ duction. But he thought the New Englander, who had resided all his life on poor soil, heavily covered with forest, when seeing the openings, had been fooled into thinking it a rich 7J1 land. He considered himself not so easily misled.

...I experienced considerable disappointment at the general aspect of the country, which, with the exception of about twenty-five miles next to Detroit, was found to consist of oak openings. The soil is chiefly sand, and exhibits few marks of fertility.75

Heavy Timber or Oak Openings?

What kind of land should the emigrant seeking land in the eastern counties of Inner Michigan take up, heavy timber or oak openings? That was the question. The heavy timber

73Ibid., p. 288.

^Patrick Shirreff, A Tour Through North America (Edin­ burgh: Oliver and Boyd, lB33), p. 303-

75Ibid., p. 218. was known to be fertile by its thick maple-beech forest and deep layer of vegetable mould, but several years of heavy chopping were required to bring a farm into full production on this type land. The oak openings had thin timber, so little in some places that the wood necessary for fences, buildings, and fuel had to be hauled in, but because of this sparsity they could be quickly brought into production. It was also known to be excellent wheat land. The writer of an

1838 gazetteer advised the poor man who had only an axe and a single team, and Just enough money to buy the land, to take up heavy timbered land where he could, by his own labor, eventually chop out his farm. But for the man with capital,

said the gazetteer, the openings was the land on which ad- 7 6 vancement could be most rapidly made.

Prom the contemporary evidence it appears that more

emigrants came to Michigan Territory with capital than with­

out. Those who settled in the eastern counties of Inner

Michigan were apparently little interested in chopping small

subsistence farms out of the heavy timber; rather, they were

desirous of improving their lot as rapidly as possible— in

making money. During the early l800’s the money crop for

the northern farmer was wheat. A traveller to Inner Michigan

in 1834 reported that the American settler was "chiefly in­

terested in big wheat crops, which bring the greatest finan­

cial returns since wheat prices are high as a result of the

76Blois, pp. 27-28. 59

increased demand by emigration.Another visitor to the

interior in 1836 noted that the farmers were making much money selling wheat to the new emigrants who were "like an

army of Locusts - eating everything before them."^8

Most of the early settlers in the eastern counties of 70 Inner Michigan were from New England and western New York. *

Most came with money to invest not only in the land, but on

improvements as well. Since land could no longer be pur­

chased on credit, it was necessary that the emigrant have

cash in hand. This, according to one writer of the period,

caused the majority of settlers to be "enterprising indus­

trious f a r m e r s . . . . And a traveller to Inner Michigan in

1833 noticed that the necessity of having the cash in hand

in order to buy land had effectively eliminated the lower 81 class settler.

Contemporary observers of Michigan settlement recorded

the type of land selected by the Yankee emigrants. A visitor

in 1833 observed that near the village of Dexter, in

Washtenaw County, emigrants settled almost altogether in the Op oak openings. Another, in 1836, reported that near

^Neidhard, Michigan History, Vol. 35 (1951), p. 52.

^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p. 275-

^ Ibld.t p, 270; Blois, p. 158; Parmer, Emigrants Guide..., p"! S ’. 8 0 Parmer, Emigrants Guide..., p. 6. 8lHoffman, Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), p. 4l6. 82Ibid., p. 2 3 0 . Ann Arbor and Jackson the settlers were mostly on the 8 ^ openings. When, in 1836, a religious group came looking for oak openings land on which to establish a colony, they could find none not already taken up, and had to accept heavy Oh timber. In 1840 a settler and historian in writing for an eastern magazine said that the greater part of the "settled 85 portion of Michigan" consisted of openings. And a resi­ dent in northwestern Wayne County, writing to the federal

government in 1847 concerning wheat production in the state,

reported that the openings constituted the great majority of 86 the land then in cultivation.

Even on the oak openings there were different levels of

preference. In the general usage of the period, "oak open­

ings" meant land on which there grew scattered oaks with

little undergrowth except grass. Most of this land was gen­

tly undulating, some was hilly, and a small part was level. Q y The level openings were often given the name of "plains,"

^ G o r d o n , Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), pp. 264, 270. Oh Edward W. Barber, "The Vermontville Colony: Its Gen­ esis and History, with Personal Sketches of the Colonists," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 28, (1897-98), p. 209*

®^James H. Lanman, "The Progress of the Northwest," Hunts Merchants Magazine, Vol. 3 (1840), p. 36. 86 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1847 (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, T84b), p. 405.

^Blois, p. 25; Parmer, Emigrants Guide...» p. 4. 6l 8; or, from the dominant tree found on them, "burr oak plains,1' or "burr oak openings.

The burr oak openings differed from the regular oak open­ ings in that the surface was level, and the burr oaks so on evenly spaced that they resembled a planted orchard.^

They were thought to be more valuable than either the regular openings or the heavy timber. A traveller's report of 1836 well represents the appearance and the settlers' evaluation of this type of oak opening.

[The burr oak] when constituting the sole growth is an infallible indication of the very best quality of soil. They are preferred to any other species of land and are hard to be obtained now, having been generally taken up. The trees in a Burr Oak opening grow at wide intervals, like a regularly planted orchard; they generally have no undergrowth, except grass....9±

In eastern Inner Michigan there were two settleable land types, namely beech-maple heavy timber and oak openings.

This chapter has been concerned with the early impressions and evaluations of these landscapes. In western Inner

Michigan another land type was present— prairies. The fol­ lowing chapters will deal with the early impressions and evaluations of Kalamazoo County; a county in which the sur­ veyors, travellers, settlers, and speculators had three basic landscapes to appraise.

®®Lanman, History of Michigan, p. 253* ^ H o f f m a n , Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), p. 247; Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p. 271. ^Farmer, Emigrants Guide..., p. 4; Blois, p. 25; Lanman, History of Michigan, p. 2^3; Hoffman, Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), pT 247. ^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p. 264. CHAPTER IV

PRE-SETTLEMENT IMPRESSIONS OP THE KALAMAZOO COUNTY LANDSCAPE

A traveller to Inner Michigan in 1833 asked the owner of a well tilled, burr-oak opening farm in Calhoun County,

"How is the soil here, sir?" The farmer answered, "A pretty good gravelly loam of eighteen inches; but I think some of moving off to Kalamazoo, where they have it four feet deep, and so fat that it will grease your fingers.The soil he was referring to was that of the prairies of southwestern

Michigan.

The Prairie Landscape

Kalamazoo County was in that portion of Inner Michigan which, when the pioneers came, had small prairies scattered over its surface; southwestern Michigan being the eastern end of what one scholar has called the "prairie peninsula."

(Map 7). Thus, with the addition of the prairies, the set­ tlers in western Inner Michigan had three major land types 4 to choose from: 1) beech-maple heavy timber, 2) oak openings

(including "burr-oak plains" or "burr-oak openings"), and

1Charles Penno Hoffman, "Winter Scenes in Early Michigan,” Michigan History. Vol. 9 (1925), p. 247. 2 Edgar Nelson Transeau, "The Prairie Peninsula," Ecology. Vol. 16 (1935), pp. 42-3-437.

62 THE PRAIRIE PENINSULA WITH OUTLIERS

Map 7 64

3) prairies.^

The nature of the landscape of the prairies and of the oak openings of southwestern Michigan has been confused by many writers. Most of the misunderstanding is the result of improper present-day usage of the pioneer terms "oak open­ ings," "burr-oak openings," and "prairies." Several writers have interpreted the terms to be different names for the same landscape in Michigan. In a currently used collection of readings on the geography of Michigan, for example, is the statement: "In the southwestern part of the state the early settlers found large unforested, very fertile, areas which they called 'oak openings' or prairies."^ A soils publica­ tion of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Michigan

State University makes essentially the same assertion.

■^This is the Michigan soil classification presented by John Farmer, Emigrants Guide or Pocket Gazetteer of the Sur­ veyed Part of~~Michlgan (Albany: B. D. Packard and Co., lb30), p. 4; John f. BlolsT Gazetteer of the State of Michigan In Three Parts (Detroit: Sydney L. Rood and Co., 1838), p. 22; by a pioneer settler in Kalamazoo County in Frank Little, "Early Recollections of the Indians About Gull Prairie," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 27 (1896), p. 333; and in a ’'Michigan Emigrant Songh of 1833 reproduced in Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 (1881), p. 265, which reads: We have here soil of various kinds To suit men who have different minds; Pariries, openings, timbered land And burr oak plains, in Michigan.

^Helen M. Martin, "The First Four Billion Years," in Charles M. Davis, Readings in the Geography of Michigan (Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor Publishers, 196*0, P • 24.

E . P. Whiteside, I. F. Schneider, and R. L. Cook, Soils of Michigan. Spec. Bull. 402, Agricultural Experiment Station, Michigan State University, 1959, p. 10. 65

An historian, in editing the Journal of an 183^ travel­ ler to Michigan, refers the reader to an article on Michigan prairies when the account introduces the term "oak openings."^

And a well known geographer, discussing the settlement of southwestern Michigan, clearly reveals that he thought the prairies were the "oak openings" of the pioneers when he wrote: "A similar process occurred in other Kalamazoo

County oak openings...," and then goes on to list several prairies in Kalamazoo County and an adjacent county.' That such interpretations are incorrect will be brought out in the following discussion.

The object of this chapter is to establish the nature of the Kalamazoo County landscape Just prior to settlement.

After a brief review of the pre-survey impressions of the area, we will be concerned with the surveyors’ impressions and evaluation of the basic landscape types which they found when they worked in the county.

Pre-Survey Impressions

Some aspects of the landscape of western Inner Michigan had been reported on prior to the federal surveys. In 1679

LaSalle had seen in this part of Michigan "prairies" and o "open woods"; and the largest prairie in Michigan, Prairie

^Karl Neidhard, "Reise Nach Michigan...in Sommer 183^," Michigan History, Vol. 35 (1951), pp. A5 , M9 . ^Ralph H. Brown. Historical Geography of the United States (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 19^*8), pp. 286-28?. Q Francis Parkman, The Discovery of the Great West: La­ Salle, ed. William R. Tatlor (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston,1956), p. 143. 66

Ronde, was obviously so named by the French. The British overland route between Detroit and St. Joseph passed through lands of "little woods," the "Prairieroude," and "[thick woods(?)]."^ During the War of 1812 the Potawatomi Indians are reported to have kept some American prisoners on a small prairie in Kalamazoo County.10

There were white men, the fur traders, living in

Kalamazoo County when the surveyors arrived. On the north side of the Kalamazoo River, within the present day city of

Kalamazoo (Map 8), a trading post had been established, ac­

cording to one account soon after the War of 1812, and ac­

cording to another, in the early 1820’s. The traders who established the post probably selected this location because

it was centrally situated between Indian villages on Prairie

Ronde, Gull Prairie, and at the site where Kalamazoo was later

founded; because the Indian trails converged nearby to cross the river; and because it was on a waterway which could be used to move their furs to Lake Michigan. The traders worked

^"The Haldimand Papers," Michigan Pioneer Collectionst Vol. 10 (18 88), p. 248. The summary description of this route, probably written in the late 1700’s reads: To Fort St Josephe...... N.B. There is a few Puttawattamees near the Fort the road after you pass the River Huron is very good being mostly on a small height of land and little wood till you come to St Joseph’s where you pass through [thick woods?] about a mile long and another about six miles long.

10Charles A. Weissert. Southwestern Michigan (Kalamazoo: Athena Book Shop, no date), Vol. 3, p t. 3 of George N. Ful­ ler’s Historic Michigan, p. 137. 67

ICATOF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

MX to 20 so

S3

rr -rg- -re- 20

SO

) f /

n ss

27 27 £ 7 J

f.

Mlt Hi * > * * # # m war

m m • 68 for the American Pur Company, and each spring, after trading through the winter, took the furs obtained from the Indians to Mackinac Island.^ The records left by these traders of their life in the area deal with such things as their trading activities, Indians, and canoeing on the river. No descrip­ tions of the landscape which give an indication of its agri­ cultural productivity were included. Their interests lay in other things.

However, some descriptive material had been written by

Americans about this part of Inner Michigan before the sur­ veyors reached it. A gazetteer of 1817 reported that from the St. Joseph River eastward prairies were to be found, some as rich as those of Indiana, and some wet and sterile.

Also to be found, according to the gazetteer, Were extensive forests of lofty oak, sugar maple, beech, ash, and other trees.i._.00 12 In 1826 the Detroit Gazette, continuing its propaganda campaign about Inner Michigan, published the following in­ formation it had obtained from a surveyor who had been working on the land between the St. Joseph and the "Canamazoo1* rivers. There are some large dry grass prairies in that country, equal in value to any in the south having all the advantages of a pure atmosphere and healthy climate. The lands are generally rolling, well wa­ tered; timbered sufficient for the use of the farmer and nearly all fit lor cultivation.13

^Samuel W. Durant, History of Kalamazoo County. Michigan (Philadelphia: Everts and Abbott, 18^0), pp. 81-84. 12Samuel R. Brown, The Western Gazetteer or Emigrants Directory (Auburn: H. C. Southwick, 1817), p. 1&3* ^ Detroit Gazette, February 7, 1826. (The Surveyor was John Mullett). 69

Surveyors* Impressions of Kalamazoo County

Kalamazoo County was surveyed between 1825 and 1830; the western tier of townships being surveyed last (Map 9). Al­ though the surveyors' names are extant in the records, the location of their homes before coming to Michigan is, except in the cases of two individuals, unavailable. John Mullett and Orange Risdon were both from Vermont. The descriptive terms used by the surveyors, and their evaluations of the various landscapes, however, reveal both a carry-over of us­ age from the earlier southern Ohio and Indiana survey period, and the changes being introduced from New England and New

York.

The Wet Landsll*

The land which was very close to the water table and therefore wet for a large part of the year, had, when the sur veyors viewed it, a variety of vegetation. To describe these wet landscapes, they used mainly four terms or phrases:

"swamp," "level and wet with heavy timber," "marsh," and

"wet prairie" (Pig. 1). From the surveyors' notes it appears that the term "swamp" was used to indicate wet lands covered with timber, because in nearly all instances where "swamp" is used the surveyor goes on to name one or more species of trees found in the swamp (see descriptions 1-5, Table 1).

1 Although the wet lands were not normally selected for settlement by the pioneers of Kalamazoo County, since they made up a considerable portion of the county (in i860 an estimated 15,000 acres according to Durant, p. 59), their descriptions are included here. 70

KALAMAZOO COUNTY

NAMES OF SURVEYORS AND DATES OF SURVEY OF INTERIOR LINES OF THE TOWNSHIPS

A L AMO COOPER RICHLAND ROSS

Robort Clark Jr. John Mullott John Mullott John Mullott

1830 1826-1827 1827 1827

OSH T E MO KALAMAZOO COMSTOCK CHARLESTON

i i i i Goorgo Harrison ■Orange Ritdan i Robort Clark Jr. John Mullott • t • i 1829 1R2* i 1827 1826 • i t i i i Robert Clark Jr. 1127

TEXAS PORT AGE PAVILION CLI MAX

Edward H. Lytlo Robort Clark Jr. Robort Clark Jr. Robort Clark Jr.

1829 1827 1826-1827 1826

PRAIRIE RONDE SCHOOLCRAFT BRADY WAKESHMA

Edward H. Lytlo Robort Clark Jr. Robort Clark Jr. John Mullott

1829 1826 1826 1826—1826

BC P

Mop 9 71

Some, Instead of using the term ’’swamp,1’ used "land level and wet," and then described the trees typical for the swamps.

The kinds commonly found on the timbered wet land were tama­ rack, ash, elm, sycamore, and, in the northwest part of the county, pine.1-* That "swamp" had a meaning distinct from

"marsh" is apparent from descriptions number 7 and 8 in

Table 1.

A consistent usage of the terms "marsh" and "wet prai­ rie" is difficult to ascertain from the survey notes (see descriptions 9-12, Table 1). Apparently, these words were used for wet areas covered with a long coarse grass. Orange

Risdon regularly used "wet prairie," while John Mullett and

Robert Clark Jr. preferred "marsh." That the two names re­ ferred to the same landscape is evident when Clark, in de­ scribing the line east between sections 1 and 12 in Climax

Township, wrote, "70.50 [chains] marsh or wet prairie.’’1^

"Wet prairie" seems to be a French description for a landscape the New Englanders called "marsh." Further evidence for this conclusion is to be found in the writing of a New Englander

^For a more detailed handling of the plant species found in the various landscapes see Marjorie T. Bingham, The Flora of Oakland County, Michigan (Bloomf'eld Hills: Cranbrook In- stltute of Science PressJ 1945); Clarence R. and Florence N. Hanes, Flora of Kalamazoo County, Michigan: Vascular Plants (Portland: The Anthoensen Press, 19uf); Clarence R. Hanes, "Cooper's Island from a Botanist's Viewpoint," Michigan His­ tory. Vol. 28 (194*0, pp. 415-419; and Clarence R. Hanes, "Floral History and Geography of Kalamazoo County," Michigan History. Vol. 29 (1945), pp. 224-233.

•^United States Survey Field Notes. Book 23, p. 458. 72 who moved to Michigan in the 1830's. "The wet prairies are marshes, and seem to have been once the beds of lakes....They

are usually covered in summer by a long coarse grass....

Surveyors' Evaluation of the Wet Lands

Pew remarks were made by the surveyors relative to their

evaluation of the wet lands. They normally simply stated

that the land was "low and wet and heavily timbered," a

"swamp," or a "marsh" or "wet prairie." There were, however,

some notations of their ideas concerning the agricultural

potential of these lands. If water was standing in the low­

land heavy timber at the time of survey, a typical notation

would be, "Land low and wet, timber B. Ash, Beech, Elm, Lynn,

etc.,"^® or simply, "swamp 3rd rate...."^ In at least one

instance, when water apparently was not present, some low­

land heavy timber was viewed as, "Land level and rich, 20 Beech, poplar, Elm, W. Ash." The inference that the low,

wet, heavily timbered land had a rich soil was, on the Kala­

mazoo River flood plain, sometimes conveyed by the use of the

term "bottoms," as in the following notation: "First 18 and

1^James H. Lanman, History of Michigan (New York: E. French, 1839), p. 252.

•^United States Survey Field Notes, Book 24, p. 536. (East between sections 10 and 15, Cooper Township.)

^ Ibld. . Book 25, p. 435. (North between sections 21 and 22, Prairie Ronde Township.)

2®Ibid., Book 25, p. 302. (West on north line, of section 1, Alamo Township.) I D

Figure 1. Marsh and heavy timber in south­ western Prairie Ronde Township. The beech- maple heavy timber in this area at the time of settlement was (and still is) much inter­ rupted by wet land.

Figure 2. Present day landscape in Wakeshma Township near Fulton. This rolling, clay till plain was covered with a heavy beech-maple forest at the time of settlement. Many woOd- lots of this type still occupy the steeper slopes. 74 last 21 chains same [oak barrens] remainder— bottoms of river, 21 good soil...." And at times the term "bottoms" was used to describe the heavily timbered alluvial soil along a small stream as well; for example, "Land rolling— good soil, bot- 22 toms of creek, large and very rich timber."

Only one notation was made to the effect that the marsh or wet prairie had any agricultural potential. William

Brookfield, while surveying the north line of section 3, Prai­ rie Ronde Township, encountered some "wet prairie" and com­ mented that it was "level and wet, but excellent meadow.

He was referring to the common pioneer practice of using the 2 grass of the wet prairies for hay.

TABLE I

SURVEYORS’ TYPICAL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE WET LANDS25

1. "This mile all swamp, B. Ash, Elm, Alder, Rose, etc., etc." (North between sections 27-28, Pavilion Township).

2. "Upland similar, swamp timbered with B. Ash, Tamarack, Pine, Elm, etc." (West between sections 18-19, Alamo Township).

21 Ibid.t Book 24, p. 242. (West between sections 18 and 19, Comstock Township.)

22 Ibid., Book 24, p. 326. (East between sections 14 and 23, Brady Township.)

23Ibid., Book 25, p. 421. 2 4 See John Farmer, Emigrants Guide..., pp. 4-5. 25 United States Survey Field Notes, Notes on Kalamazoo County, Books 23, 24, and 25. 3. ’’Land mostly swamp, Timber Tamk, Elm.” (North between sections 3-4, Kalamazoo Township).

4. "14.00 [chains] leave barrens and enter low swampy heavily timbered land." (North between sections 21-22, Alamo Township).

5. "Land level and wet, Black Ash, Elm and Tamk." (West line of section 31* Alamo Township).

6. "Land low bottoms, Elm, B. Ash, Beech, Lynn, Hackberry, Butternut...." (East between sections 22-27, Comstock Township).

7. "[lowland is] Swamp and marsh, willow and tamerick." (East between sections 11-14, Alamo Township).

8. "To marsh, land low and heavy timber. Prom marsh land rolling barrens." (North between sections 33-34, Brady Township).

9. "Set post 1/4 section in marsh, no bearing trees, too wet to raise a mound." (1/4 section post on east line of section 24, Prairie Ronde Township).

10. "30.00 [chains] Enter wet prairie .... Land level and wet, but excellent meadow." (West on north line of section 3, Prairie Ronde Town­ ship).

11. "Wet prairie and low timbered bottoms." (East between sections 10-15, Kalamazoo Township).

12. "70.50 [chains] marsh or wet prairie." (East between sections 1-12, Climax Township).

The Beech-Maple Heavy Timber

The beech-maple heavy timber of Kalamazoo County, at the time of survey, was mainly located in four parts of the coun­ ty. The largest area was in the southeastern corner covering most of Wakeshma Township (Pig. 2) and parts of Brady and

Climax Townships (Map 10). Smaller areas of beech-maple heavy timber were located south of the Kalamazoo River, es­ pecially in Comstock Township, west of the Kalamazoo River in 76

PIONEER LANDSCAPES OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY

w ,

f t m k

/ ,ik ftv*

v t a i i:rr

•CP LEGEND □ #£ T LANDS PRAIRIE

PR-PRAIRIE RONOE Li A» OPENINGS GN-GOIIRD NECK p r a ir ie Gu-GULL PRAIRIE G-GRAND PRAIRIE Hf i cm - mapl e G t- GENE SEE PRAIRIE "I 4v r TlMRER ’ -TO LA N D S PRAIRIE C -C LIM AX PRAIRIE J 4 S ’ HE AMS C -D R r PR AIRlE j i ~ IE - iND'AN EIE^DS MILIS

M o p 10

Compiled by the writer from primary sources. See Map Appendix, page 2^3. 77

Cooper and adjoining townships, and in southwestern Prairie

Ronde Township (Pig. 1).

The beech-maple heavy timber differed from the lowland heavy timber because it was located in upland areas not sub­ ject to saturation during seasonal flooding by a stream or by fluctuations in the water table. The trees in these areas were primarily species with moderate moisture requirements such as beech, sugar maple, lynn, and white wood (Map 11),

although near wet lands which traversed this landscape, some kinds typical of wet environments were found. The upland p c heavy timber was sometimes called "timbered land," or,

due to the dominance of beech and maple, "beech and maple 27 grounds," or simply "maple lands." ' This "beech and maple ground" was typically found in

the type environment pointed out by an early gazetteer of

Michigan, which stated that heavy timber in Michigan "gen­

erally consists of such tracts as have either too moist a

soil to admit fire to overrun them or of a dry soil, other- 2 8 wise protected from its ravages." This corresponds to

what an early traveller in New York wrote about the location 29 of the "maple lands" in the western part of that state.

^Farmer, Emigrants Guide..., p. 62.

2 "^Timothy Dwight, Travels: In New England and New York (New Haven: Published by the author, lb£l;, Vol. 4, pp . 66-106.

28Blois, p. 23.

2^Dwight, Vol. 4, p. 106. 77

Cooper and adjoining townships, and in southwestern Prairie

Ronde Township (Pig. 1).

The beech-maple heavy timber differed from the lowland heavy timber because it was located in upland areas not sub­ ject to saturation during seasonal flooding by a stream or by fluctuations in the water table. The trees in these areas were primarily species with moderate moisture requirements such as beech, sugar maple, lynn, and white wood (Map 11), although near wet lands which traversed this landscape, some kinds typical of wet environments were found. The upland ?6 heavy timber was sometimes called "timbered land," or, due to the dominance of beech and maple, "beech and maple 27 grounds," or simply "maple lands." '

This "beech and maple ground" was typically found in the type environment pointed out by an early gazetteer of

Michigan, which stated that heavy timber in Michigan "gen­ erally consists of such tracts as have either too moist a soil to admit fire to overrun them or of a dry soil, other- 28 wise protected from its ravages." This corresponds to what an early traveller in New York wrote about the location 29 of the "maple lands" in the western part of that state.

^ F a r m e r , Emigrants Guide. . . , p. 62.

2 "^Timothy Dwight, Travels: In New England and New York (New Haven: Published by the author, 1821;, Vol. 4, pp. 66-106.

28Blois, p. 23.

29Dwight, Vol. 4, p. 106. I V

SURVEYOR'S NOTES* AND SECTION CORNER REARING

TREES FOR A PORTION OF CLIMAX TOWNSHIP

# * i* WW- -WW — -v-»- 1 fi'rttifcVems ttme.*■ I t t f l t / • te w + W t, rmm- emJe r rw lliaf ker~r*n*-

Suffr If "Uni soil, h'mbrr t»m* i»me Imm c l t t c i . “ *1 n ^ | 22 9 iq q o

„ , r VfMs*rne[*,lemt r**..,- , 2? “2 **•“* o V,«f /«<**... /— e

M S f f c

chains 4# BEARING TREES »

Map 11 79

The beech-maple heavy timber in southeastern Kalamazoo

County was located on till plain soils with a high clay con- OQ tent (Map 12). The area was separated from the oak openings to the west and north, the direction from which fires would approach, by an almost continuous line of wet land (see Maps

10 and 11). The other concentrations of beech-maple heavy timber were on more sandy soils, but in protected sites.

The one to the south of the Kalamazoo River in Comstock Town­ ship had wet land on its north and west, while that in Prai­ rie Ronde Township was extensively cut up by wet land. The

fourth area, to the west of the Kalamazoo River, was on the steeply sloping land at the edge of the valley, or where tributary streams had cut into the higher ground.

The surveyors’ notations about the beech-maple heavy timber were monotonously consistent. John Mullett, for ex­

ample, in surveying Wakeshma Township, made his standard

entry for this landscape— "Land 1st rate, Sugar, Beech, Lynn,

Elm, Cherry, W. Wood, Aspen, Hickory, Ash, etc."^ — for

the line north between the first sections at the southern

on J S. 0. Perkins and James Tyson, Soil Survey of Kala­ mazoo County. Michigan (Washington: Government Printing Office, l9£t>5, see soil map. oi This protected site would seem to correspond to Sauer’s idea that fires "will not descend a steep valley." See "The Barrens of Kentucky," in Carl Sauer, Land and Life, ed. John Leighly (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Cali­ fornia Press, 1963)* p. 28.

^ United States Survey Field Notes, Book 23, p. 506. (North between sections 3*-33, Wakeshma Township.) v H D i Q i t COUNTY KALAMAZOO OF LANDFORMS GLACIAL ODD WATERS PONDED MORAINES s e k a l Y A # L °tL S OUTWASH OUTWASH S IN LA P L IL T a s m a e r t s p 12 op M 80 81 end of the township, then simply used "land same" for the remaining descriptions to the northern edge of the township.

Where there were no significant changes in the landscape, the other surveyors also followed this practice.

Prom the relative frequency of the species used by the

surveyors for the bearing and line trees, J one is led to perhaps an incorrect conclusion about the proportion of the different species present. Beech and maple were obviously

dominant for they made up over 90 per cent of the reference trees recorded, but beech was used four to five times as often as maple. It seems logical to conclude, therefore, that beech was by far the dominant tree in the beech-maple heavy ■all timber. This may be incorrect. It appears that, contrary

to their instructions to select the nearest markable tree to the stake, surveyors often selected beech over other species 35 if the choice presented itself. This was probably because

33 Trees located as to their "bearing" from the section or 1/4 section post and marked with the marking iron to indicate section, township, and range, were called "bearing trees." Trees which the section lines intersected, or which were lo­ cated near the line were called "line trees" and were marked with a "blaze." The term "reference trees" is often used when wanting to include both types. See "Instructions to Survey­ ors, 1804-1901," (60-8-A, Lot 9, Box 31, Polder 2), in Records of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Lands Division, at Michigan Historical Commission Archives, Lansing. 34 Leslie A. Kenoyer, "Ecological Notes on Kalamazoo County, Michigan, Based on the Original Land Survey," Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, Vol. 11 (19^9), p. 215.

^Eric Albert Bourdo, "A Validation of Methods Used in Analyzing Original Forest Cover," (unpublished Ph.D. disserta­ tion, Forestry Department, University of Michigan, 1954), P P ’ 88-90. 82

beech was then of little value for lumber and would, there­

fore, remain uncut longer than other trees; because the nature

of its bark made it the most easily marked; and because it was a conspicuous tree easily distinguished at all seasons

of the year. The beech bearing trees averaged about 19

feet from the corner stakes. This compares with approximately

50 feet for the white oaks in the oak openings. From these

figures it is apparent that the trees in the upland heavy

timber were several times as dense as those in the oak open- 37 ings.J '

Surveyors' Evaluation of the Beech-Maple Heavy Timber

The surveyors all held a high opinion of the beech-maple

"timbered land." If the surface was level or "rolling," as

in the southeastern corner of the county, they would normally

use the notations "1st rate" and "good soil" (Map 11). Their

consistent reference to the heavy timber in the southeastern

corner of Kalamazoo County as "1st rate" prompted a map

maker of the l830's to indicate, "Excellent Tract of Sugar

Maple," for that area on his 1836 map of Michigan (see Map

13). Robert Clark in Alamo Township clearly revealed his

opinion about the beech-maple heavy timber when he wrote,

"35.00 [chains] leave barrens and enter fine rolling sugar

^Robert 3 . Gordon, "The Primeval Forest Types of South­ western New York," New York State Museum Bulletin, No. 321 (1940), p. 25.

^Kenoyer, Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, Vol. 11 (1929), p. . 83

iij^0[i_f jjj§jjLft jjffi ^

MAP 13

A Portion of John Parmer's 1836, Improved Map of the Territories of Michigan and Oulsconsln. The map shows an ''Excellent tfract of Sugar Maple" in the southeastern corner of the county, with an area of "Oak Openings" to the north­ west. It also indicates the location and names of Prairie Ronde, Gourd-Neck Prairie (called "E [ast] Prairie" by Par­ mer), Dry Prairie, Grand Prairie, and Gull Prairie. Toland's Prairie is incorrectly labled "Dry Prairie" and Is a mile too far north. Climax Prairie is shown, but seems to be an extension of the "Tamerack Swp." Genesee Prairie is shown, but not named. Coguagiack Prairie is incorrectly ‘placed In Kalamazoo County; it was actually in Battle Creek Township, Calhoun County. 84 lands.If, on the other hand, the surface was broken and hilly, as was the case on those "timbered lands" at the edge of the Kalamazoo River valley, the typical notation was "land hilly, second rate-timber Sugar, Beech, Ash, L y n n . "39

The Oak Openings (Barrens)

The open oak woodland in Kalamazoo County which the set­ tlers a few years later knew as "oak openings," was called by most of the surveyors by some other name. The most com­ mon one used before 1829 was "barrens"; sometimes this land­ scape was called "land rolling, timber B.W. and Y. oak," or simply "rolling land thinly timbered with oak." In 1829 two surveyors began using the term "oak openings," although another, working in 1830, still used "barrens."

Usage of different terms by the surveyors did not mean that different landscapes were being described. A comparison of the areas described as "barrens," "oak openings," or

"thinlytimbered with oak," reveals no differences in tree species, size, or average distance from the stake. Rather, each man had his own terminology for the open oak woods, and tended to use it to the exclusion of the others. Robert Clark «• Jr. used "barrens," but never "oak openings"; John Mullett used neither and simply described the timber; George Harrison

^ United States Survey Field Notes, Book 25, p. 317* (East between sections 27-34, Alamo township.)

^^Ibid.t Book 24, p. 538. (North between sections 32-33, Cooper township.) usually described the timber, but once used the term "oak barrens"; and E. H. Lytle and Orange Risdon, surveying in

1829, either described the timber, or used "oak openings."

As pointed out in a previous section, "barrens" was the de­

scriptive name for the open oak woodland typically used by

those early Michigan surveyors who had had experience in

southern Ohio and Indiana, and the term came to be used also

by many later surveyors in Michigan. The term "oak openings"

came to Michigan with the emigrants from New England and

western New York, and it, too, began to be used by some of

the surveyors.

The location of the oak openings in Kalamazoo County,

when the surveyors saw it, corresponded very closely to the

more sandy soils of the outwash plains and moraines of the

county^® (Compare Maps 10 and 12). This distribution agrees

with the opinion among the pioneers that the oak openings

were fire-formed and occurred on those soils which dried out

enough so burning could take place. Further evidence for

fire origin is found in the survey notes for the county. The

surveyor of the north line of Oshtemo Township saw, in the

oak openings landscape in section 4, evidence of a recent ii 1 fire. On the other hand, in a tract of oak openings in

Alamo Township surrounded by wet lands, and therefore not as

likely to be as regularly burned as more exposed areas, the

il r» See Perkins and Tyson, Soil Survey of Kalamazoo County.

^ United States Survey Field Notes, Book 25, p. 341. 86 surveyors noted that the oak woodland had a thick, bushy 4 p undergrowth. And, on an island of sandy land bounded on one side by a lake, and on the other sides by wet land, the surveyor reported, "Land to marsh same [rolling barrens], 43 from do heavily timbered, principally oak" The fire pro­ tection afforded by the marsh and lake apparently allowed the oak cover on the island to develop into a heavy oak timber, unlike the unprotected landscape which was periodically burned over.

The tree species typical of the oak openings of Kala­ mazoo County were oaks of several types, with a scattering of hickories. By far the dominant tree was the white oak; it along with the black, red, and yellow oaks, were common throughout this landscape (see Maps 11, 14, and 15). Burr oaks were found primarily near the edge of the prairies (see

Maps 1^, 15, and 16). The diameter of the oaks ranged from

5 to 30 inches, with an average of about 15 inches. They, excluding the burr oaks, averaged about 33 feet distance from the surveyors'stakes. The burr oaks on the prairie edges and in the few burr-oak plains of the county, were less dense than the oaks in the regular oak openings.^

4 ? Ibid., Book 25, pp. 316, 319. (Northbetween sections 10-11, and 9-10, Alamo Township )• ^ Ibid.„ Book 25, p. 76. (North between sections 27-28, Portage Township). (See my Map 10). **^Any average distance from the stake calculated for the burr oaks would be misleading because, when working on the prairies, the surveyors at times would go over 1,000 feet to obtain a reference tree (usually burr oak) at the edge of the prairie (see Map 16). 87

SURVEYOR'S NOTES* AND SECTION CORNER BEARING

TREES FOR A PORTION OF SCHOOLCRAFT TOWNSHIP

f * V S

| "Pri'tri* u«e rfm«M*der Fm* pntrio lo*4 1 ^ »’•' • » ' 7 rolling 0«rr'*r rolling itrr«ni 9 \ L«n4 tlmni Soil W. *bm rr o « K .“ **«/ twrr ♦ T. M k , 7#e4 toil, W- Y. §.*■ •J, *« r r «*k * h««k*r r."

L«nd _ „ ,n, • • Prtirie lit rifle *7 priirtttlnr ,if. - "" ''(* Sni

\ , K ' >X, f a | ^ | ,,

, *. V * / ,

L*nJ tome [’P-f „ T*,imi/e * // hoir-te4rf." p j-jii P»*> kurr «kl /{Jj 19 PMJ.i. /it r.f* 20 m i L ” " ' - ’ * ' *t fMtVi* *4fej/f-'.':

‘ I

c h a in •

BEARING TREES * Mi

W Whit* Ook Milo ^ Barronc/Oak Oponing* b Burr Ook -I, P rairio

H Hickory StroaM and Wot Lands

X Mound Roisod on Prairio L ak*

0 Mound Roitod in March *Road Survoyor'* Not** from South to North

Map 14 88

The undergrowth of the oak openings was in various stages of openness, apparently depending on how close in time the surveyors were to the last burning. The undergrowth was not normally mentioned by the surveyors when they described the oak openings landscape, but when it Was, it was usually pictured as grass; but sometimes weeds, vines, briars, scrub oaks, and "grubs" were also included.

Although the settlers later counted two burr-oak plains in the county, the surveyors made note of only one. In run­ ning the line north between sections 21 and 22, Kalamazoo

Township, the surveyor recorded, "21.00 [chains] Enter burr oak plains...Land 2nd rate part rolling and part Burr oak plains.

Surveyors1 Evaluation of the Oak Openings

A consistent evaluation of the oak openings of Kala­ mazoo County by the surveyors is difficult to discover.

Each one seemed to have his own opinion of their agricul­ tural potential, but the most used rank was "2nd rate." One

surveyor seemed to distinguish between "2nd rate" and "3rd

rate" oak openings by the thickness of the undergrowth, the more open landscape being considered the better one (Map 15).

Level land, of course, received a higher rating than hilly

land. That the term "barrens" used by some surveyors for

this landscape, was not meant to imply infertility is evident when they used again and again such statements as "Land

*45 United States Survey Field Notes, Book 25, p. *41. SURVEYOR'S NOTES* AND SECTION CORNER BEARING

TREES FOR A PORTION OF TEXAS TOWNSHIP 1 J6 I 14 * 15 * I ! * |------WBWB------

* ! if * i * if i f- i "Ltnd level 1*4 rate *L»n4 /ere/ Inirtfc, 21 * 22 timher oak with fh«h 23 nmc at lest 2 4 Unitp^iwarft 11 h»rthi»^.M * ! i if ! if i i f i |------BW ------BB i f % i if i if if | ! L«*iJ level ♦ ! W L jn J M rc l 4 3 »■J r i ^ thinly KmkereJ witl, 28 27 *

1 ^ * ! i f if ! if 1 I v w ------ww — if ! I L«»d level — preine l_ 4 nj roll inf Irt Lar,4 level Zni (•» rilf, #»«ni(i«« « r*4t, fimtfr *W. r. ope*,*js. in4 rate.' t$»rr / ,n.

* 4

i ,n.

c h a i n» 20 40 *0 00 BEARING TREES V4 Vl 1 W Whit* Oak lilt T Barront/Oak Openings -4. B Black Oak P rairie Distaaca (in chains) a«4 Y Yollow Oak Oiraction at IOoarinf Traat Stream and Wat Lands **20 tram Sactlan Caraar fast b Burr O ak (I chains00 faat) ^ Laka

*Baad Surveyor's Notas front South to North 90 rolling barrens, good soil, W.B. and Y. oak.” (Maps 11 and

14). The only oak openings land that the surveyors were in agreement on was that which had burr oaks on it. This was normally near the edge of a prairie and always received a high rating (Maps 14 and 15). One reason the oak openings of Kalamazoo County were often graded "2nd rate” was be­

cause the thin humus layer was undoubtedly being compared, not only with the thick "vegetable mould" of the beech- maple land, but also with the deep black humus layer of the dry prairies, which was described as being "so fat it will

grease your fingers."

The Dry Prairies

The one landscape in Kalamazoo County which was always

highly rated by the surveyors was the dry prairies. These

received such comments as "first rate," "rich dry prairie,"

or "level rich prairie, soil first rate," from all the sur­

veyors. No unfavorable annotations were recorded about the

prairie landscape.

All the dry prairies of Kalamazoo County were located 46 on coarse-textured glacial outwash or drainage-way fillings

(Maps 10 and 12). The prairie surface, as described by the

surveyors, was level or gently rolling, and was often noted

to be the highest ground in the vicinity. The surveyor of

Oshtemo Township noted that the surface of the prairie along

^Jethro Otto Veatch, "The Dry Prairies of Michigan," Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science Arts and Letters, V3T. 8 (W2777TT2fe:------91 the east line of section 24 was "rolling and elevated nearly

100 feet above surrounding country."^ And, an 1833 visitor to Prairie Ronde reported that the surface became "higher and 48 firmer?’ as he approached the "table-land." These observa­ tions are confirmed by an Inspection of the United States 4 Geological Survey topographic maps covering Kalamazoo County.

As pointed out previously, some confusion has existed about the original vegetation on Michigan’s dry prairies.

This can be traced to a belief among certain twentieth century writers that prairies were actually grassy areas with burr oaks scattered over their surface; in other words, that the prairies were the "burr-oak openings" of the pioneers. Hence, some recent writers have mistakenly used the terms "prairie" and "oak openings" to mean the same landscape in Michigan.

The confusion about the original vegetation of Michigan's prairies may, I suggest, be traced to papers published in 50 51 1927^ and 1929, and a book by one of the writers appearing in 1 9 5 3 . Veatch in his 1927 article states that "there were a few burr oaks on nearly all the prairies...," while

^ United States Survey Field Notes, Book 25, p. 338.

^®Hoffman, Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), p. 432. 4q ^See Kalamazoo, Leonidas, Schoolcraft, and Galesburg, 1/62,500 quadrangles.

^Veatch, "The Dry Prairies of Michigan."

^1Kenoyer, "Ecological Notes on Kalamazoo County, Michigan, Based on the Original Land Survey." ■^Jethro Otto Veatch, Soils and Land of Michigan (East Lansing: The Michigan State College Press, l£5$). the caption to a picutre of some burr oaks on a prairie near

Athens, Michigan, reads, "Burr oaks were present on the vir­ gin land."53 Although in the 1927 article he says the prai­ ries were "naturally treeless," that Veatch thought burr oaks were scattered over their surface is shown by his 1953 c li term for the prairies — "burr oak prairies."-^

In 1929 Kenoyer, from a copy of the surveyors' field notes, used the bearing trees to reconstruct the original vegetation of Kalamazoo County. Seeing the close correlation between the prairies and the distribution of burr oaks, he concluded that he could accurately map the prairies by using, in addition to the mounds raised on the prairies by the sur­ veyors, the presence of burr oaks. On his map he calls the 55 prairies "grasslands, with scattered bur oak."

The writings noted above easily lead one to conclude that Michigan prairies had burr oaks scattered over their entire surface. That such was not the case in Kalamazoo

County is revealed by a close study of the surveyors' notes

and maps for the county. Both Veatch and Kenoyer were cor­

rect when they concluded that burr oaks and prairies went to­

gether. In fact, although the very small prairie in Portage

Township, called by the settlers "Indian fields," was

^Veatch, "The Dry Prairies...," pp. 2.71, 279* 54 Veatch, Soils and Land..., Soil description for Warsaw- Pox Soil on Lower Peninsula map. 55 Kenoyer, p. 213. described by the surveyor three times as "prairie," he once described it as "dry prairie with some scattered burr oaks and good soil."^ On the larger prairies, however, the burr oaks were essentially confined to the prairie edge.

Instructions from Edward Tiffin to surveyors in Michi­ gan were, "Whenever any corner may fall in a prairie, or in any place where there may be no trees for bearings within a convenient distance, you will as the mark of such corner, raise a mound of earth or sod..,."*^ That there were no trees within a "convenient distance" at many of the 1/4 section and section corner posts on the prairies of Kalamazoo

County is evident from the many mounds raised by the sur­ veyors (Maps 14 and 16). But what was a "convenient dis­ tance"? In numerous instances the surveyors reached out over 10 chains (660 feet) for a bearing tree. One surveyor went 26.30 chains (1735 feet)! And, in all cases, the di­ rection the surveyor took to reach the distant bearing tree

(usually a burr oak) was toward the edge of the prairie (see

Map 16). If there were burr oaks scattered over the entire prairie, it seems logical to expect that the surveyors would have selected some for bearing trees in a direction other than towards the edge. It is thus apparent that burr oaks

^ United States Survey Field Notes, Book 25, pp. 69-71. (North between sections 11-12, east between sections 1-12, and north between sections 1-2, Portage Township.)

•^Instructions to Surveyorsr 1804-1901 (see instructions to Joseph Fletcher). REFERENCE TREES ALONG WESTERN BORDERS OF PRAIRIE RONDE AND GRAND PRAIRIE

OSHTEMO KALAMAZOO TOWNSHIP

in in

WY f.\v>

GRAND

PRAIRIE I N DE­ REFERENCE TREES BEECH-MAPI! HEAVY TIMBEB v*:'-V*V/-/ i f y !•. Boach Mopla © lynn Wat lan d Vagatotion Whitawaad Mound Baitad on Prai/ia ® A th ® Hockbarry iliM * and Wat landi 0 Iranwaad OAK OPENINOS la k a

b Burr Oak w Whita Oak 3CR55 Didoncc (in chaint) and B Black Oak b» s ^ Diradian al (taring Traat N Bad Oak bk-ta (ram Sactian Carnar Pad Y V allaa Oak (I chain = 66 (aat) H Mickary c h a in s ■NW-- N — W « V ( f ) ( i 3 H N *Z#i i aJ«......

Mop 16 95 were found in conjunction with the prairies of Kalamazoo

County, but, except for one small tract, they were largely confined to the borders, and the prairies themselves were essentially treeless grassy plains.-'

That the prairies had clearly recognizable margins, except in the case of the "Indian fields," is evident from the survey notes and maps. For example, John Mullett, in running the line north between sections 10 and 11, Richland

Township, wrote: "5.00 [chains] Enter Prairie...27.00

[chains] Leave P r a i r i e . "59 Similarly, E. H. Lytle, extend­ ing the line east between sections 25 and 36 in Texas Town­ ship, wrote: "22.00 [chains] to prairie...70.00 [chains]

Left Prairie."^0 In addition to recording the location of the prairie border in their notes, the surveyors usually marked it on the maps which accompanied the notes (see Map

17).61

5 8 It is likely that burr oaks had at one time invaded, or were at the time of survey invading, the prairies, and that the "burr oak plains" were prairies that had been thus in­ vaded. See J. E. Weaver and Joseph Kramer, "The Root System of the Quercus Macrocarpa in Relation to Invasion of Prairie," Botanical Gazette, Vol. 94 (1932-1933)* pp. 51-85.

•^United States Survey Field Notes*, Book 24, p. 190.

60Ibid., Book 25, p. 383.

^1The maps which accompany the survey notes, preserved in the office of the Lands Division of the Michigan Department of Conservation, do not locate the boundaries of all the prairies in the interior of the sections, while those kept at the Michigan Historical Commission Archives do. These in­ terior lines were drawn in later, and are interpolations from the surveyed boundaries at the section lines. Because the symbols used by some surveyors for dry prairies on the one 96

t ’f / # , M a m g r

a•>//

+»--& dt- — wj^- X • ^JH*L ... b-S- (M

4t*. ^ ^ ittr,H L j>m«

. W » W a /<<#. > r J tJktt Jtt n th a , Df*r * n i w J i,iti/m«tUt M> m/rr, t, a /nv a A i >/ ijfr »yy*»* » r, ■%»!>■><. ///.„ , t£i Wu «//, , , 1/ i w .,.„'

MAP 17

Surveyor’s map of Richland Township, Kalamazoo County. Gull Prairie is clearly shown on this map. Other Landscape Features Noted by the Surveyors

The surveyors also recorded landscape features of

Kalamazoo County other than the vegetation and surface con­ formation. Potential land use other than farming was also taken into consideration. Knowing that where agricultural settlement occurred, villages were sure to spring up, the

Surveyor General instructed his men to record in their notes the location of such potentially useful things as springs, salt licks, salt springs, stone outcrops, coal beds, and, 6 2 most important of all for village establishment, mill seats.

The surveyors in Kalamazoo County followed their in­ structions by noting the location of some springs, and several potential mill seats. Working east on the line be­ tween sections 24 and 25, Comstock Township, one noted,

"First 30.00 [chains] barrens, thin soil— remainder heavy timber, good soil all hilly and springy."^ on the north line of section 6, Oshtemo Township, another saw "an

hand, and marsh on the other, were so similar (see my Map 17), some errors appear to have occurred when the lines were drawn. I have found two instances where a prairie margin in dicated on the map does not correspond to the notations made in the field notes; these are in sections 2 and 3 of Climax Township, and in sections 5 and 8 in Schoolcraft Township. In both cases the prairie boundaries used on my map 10 are those which are indicated in the field notes.

^Instructions to Surveyors, 1804-1901 (60-8-A, B3i, f ? t :------— 2------

^United States Survey Field Notes. Book 2^, p. 223. elegant spring."^1* And the surveyors saw potential mill seats on the line between sections 3 and 4, Portage Town 65 ship, J and on the west line of section 31, Texas Town­ ship . ^

64Ibid., Book 25, p. 3^1.

65Ibid., Book 25, p. 79.

66Ibld., Book 25, p. 381. CHAPTER V

EARLY SETTLERS' AND TRAVELLERS’ IMPRESSIONS OF THE LANDSCAPE OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY

"The first farmers of the state had the option of taking possession of land on one of the rather numerous small prai­

ries, or 'oak openings' which were characteristic features

of the south Michigan landscape...."1 Wrongl "In the

southwestern part of the state the early settlers found a

number of treeless, or nearly treeless, tracts which they

named prairies or 'oak openings'." Incorrect I The pioneers

never called prairies oak openings! How the first writer

came to that conclusion is difficult, at this time, to

ascertain. Veatch must have been influenced by him, and be­

lieved, because of his research, that when the pioneers

spoke of "burr-oak openings," "burr-oak plains," or simply

"oak openings," they meant the prairies. Other writers who

have claimed that Michigan's "oak openings" were the "prai­

ries" of the pioneers probably used the two above statements

as their sources. They shouldn't have. A study of primary

Lew Allen Chase, "Michigan Agriculture," in George N. Fuller, Historic Michigan, Vol. 2 (Dayton: National Historical Association, Inc., 192*0, p. 5**1«

^Jethro Otto Veatch, Soils and Land of Michigan (East Lan­ sing: The Michigan State College Press, 1953)» PP* 43-44.

99 sources will set the record straight.

The object of this chapter is to record the impressions of early settlers and travellers about the contemporary

Kalamazoo County landscape. We will be concerned with their ideas about the nature of the various land types, the dis­ tribution of each, and the terms used to describe them.

Along with the surveyors’records, these pioneer accounts form the basis for the terminology and distributions shown on Map 10 *

Wet Lands

With lands such as the prairies and oak openings to ex­ tol, the pioneers made little mention of the swamps and marshes of Kalamazoo County. The propaganda books and arti­ cles of the l830’s, when discussing the county, divided its land into heavy timber, oak openings, and prairie, with no mention of the swamps and marshes. However, an 1855 account about the city of Kalamazoo does disclose that there was a 3 "great marsh" located north of the city. And a history written in 1880 admits that there were then about 15,000 acres of marshland in the county.

An early resident of Climax Township, however, related considerable detail about that township's wet lands. The

3 Ladies Library Association, Quarter Centennial Cele­ bration of the Settlement of Kalamazoo, 1855 (Kalamazoo: Kalamazoo Gazette Print, 1B$5), P* 16. 4 Samuel W. Durant, History of Kalamazoo County. Michigan (Philadelphia: Everts and Abbott, 1880), p. ^T. swamps, he wrote, contained tamarack, elm, black ash, soft maple, swamp oak, and willows; the marshes produced wide­ leaved sedges, large ferns, reeds and flags. These wet lands were located mainly in the southeast part of the town­ ship and still, in the 1870's (the time of the writing), occupied considerable portions of sections 12, 13, 14, 15,

22, 23, 26, 27, 34, and 35.5

An 1836 traveller to Kalamazoo County reported that he passed many "wet prairies" of tall coarse grass which often had a small lake in the middle. The soil of these natural meadows, according to his account, was:

...spungy and springy as black as lamp black and has somewhat the appearance of a fungus. The sod is tough and will bear a horse or wagon for some time, but when broken through you sink almost be­ yond extrication. They are composed probably for the most part of.vegitable matter and a natural loam with the deposit from lakes of which they are the bottoms, or which, in many instances, may have been filled up by Beaver Dams.°

Several early accounts mention the lowland heavy timber along the Kalamazoo River. An 1833 traveller reported that on his way to Bronson (until 1836, the name for present-day

Kalamazoo) he travelled through a 12 to 14 mile strip of dense forest with heavy underbrush, in which flowed the

"Kekalamazoo.An 1869 county directory and history, and

'’Francis Hodgman, in Durant, p. 324. ^John M. Gordon, "Michigan Journal, 1836," Michigan His­ tory. Vol. 43 (1959), pp. 271-272. (The soil being described j-s muck). ?Charles Fenno Hoffman, "Michigan as Seen by an Early Traveller," Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), p. 431. the 1880 county history both mention that the "bottoms" along the Kalamazoo River were covered with a dense growth of elm, o black ash, soft maple and sycamore.

The "Big Island," or as it was sometimes called, "the grove," in the center of Prairie Ronde, received numerous mention by the pioneers * because it was such a conspicuous feature of the landscape. Some disagreement, however, existed as to its size. An 1831 settler on Prairie Ronde said "the grove" had 300 acres in it;^ Lucius Lyon, the founder of the village of Schoolcraft, on the eastern edge of the "Big * l3land," claimed it had 700 acres;'1'0 while a traveller who visited it in 1833 said it had 500-600 acres."The grove" was an area of lowland heavy timber and had a marshy area in its center.'1'2 Its vegetation was well described in a poem

o James M. Thomas, Kalamazoo County Directory with a History of the County From its Earliest Settlement, 1869~~and IB70 (Kalamazoo: Stone Brothers Book and Job Printers, 1869), p. 124; Durant, pp. 59, 209, 313, 351.

^E. Lakin Brown, (Speech at the) "Ninth Annual Renunion of the Pioneers of Kalamazoo County, August 14, 1879," Michi­ gan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 (1881), p. 523.

10Lucius Lyon, "Letters of Lucius Lyon," Michigan Pio­ neer Collections, Vol. 27 (1896), p. 449.

11Hoffman, Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), p. ^32.

12Ibid., p. 432; Durant, p. 502. by a pioneer settler:

And in the midst a noble grove The wondering eye did please, Maple and ash and oak and elm And huge black walnut trees.13

Beech-Maple Heavy Timber

The accounts of early settlers and travellers in Kala­ mazoo County which mention the beech-maple forest reveal that its distribution at the time of settlement corresponded to that found by the surveyors a few years before. An 1832 visitor, while walking from Prairie Ronde southwestward into

Cass County, reported that after leaving the prairie he passed through four miles of "thick sugar + beech woods" before 14 reaching the open oak woods. The settlers' impression of the western part of Prairie Ronde Township is revealed by one early resident on the prairie who said that the area was known to them as the "west woods."^5

The general location of the beech-maple lands south, and west of the Kalamazoo River, and in the southeast corner of the county is confirmed by the early histories of the

1^ E. Lakin Brown, A Poem for the Dedication of the Ladles Library Building at Schoolcraft, Michigan (Schoolcraft: Ex- press Printing House, 1896), in the Western Michigan Univer­ sity Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan. 114 Alexander Copley, "Diary of Alexander Copley (1832)," in Alexander B. Copley Papers, Michigan Historical Collec- tions, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 15 E, Lakin Brown, "Autobiographical Notes," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 30 (1905), p. 467. county, parts of which were written by men who grew up in the area. An historian, whose family settled in Calhoun

County in 1836, near the eastern line of Charleston Township,

Kalamazoo County, who knew well the early landscape between

Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, is our best pioneer authority on that area. He reported that, except for about 400 acres of oak openings in the southeast corner, the uplands of Comstock

Township, south of the river, were covered with a dense hard­ wood forest.1® And, says another early settler, Cooper Town­ ship, west of the river, was covered by heavy timber and oak openings.^

A second generation pioneer, born on Climax Prairie in the 1830's, is our best source of information regarding the heavy timber in the southeastern corner of the county. He reported that this area, lying south of Beaver Creek, was known to the early settlers of Climax Township as the "south woods." The soil there, he said, was a heavy clay loam and supported a very heavy growth of beech, maple, white wood, etc.1® Brady Township, wrote the author of the 1869 Kalamazoo

County Directory, had heavy.timber on the eastern part, and oak openings on the west.1^ And Wakeshma Township, according

^A. D. P. Van Buren, "History of the First Settlement of the Township of Comstock," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 7 (1884), p. 479; A. D. P. Van feuren, in Durant, p. 3$1.

■^John Walker, "Pioneer History of Cooper," Michigan Pio­ neer Collections, Vol. 5 (1882), p. 403*

•^Hodgman, in Durant, p. 324.

1^James M. Thomas, p. 113* to the 1880 Kalamazoo County History was, at the time of settlement, covered by a thick growth of beech-maple. Be­ cause of the abundance of maple trees in the township, the early settlers of Wakeshma once had the idea to name the township "Maple."20

Oak Openings

Although the most common term used by the surveyors for the open oak woodland of Kalamazoo County was "barrens," the settlers, or at least those who left us their written impres sions, never used the word.^l The name employed in all the accounts written by actual settlers and in the pioneer writ­ ings included in the county histories, was "oak openings."

All travellers’ accounts, except one, also used "oak open­ ings." This may be explained by the fact that most of the settlers and travellers who viewed Kalamazoo County, and left us their observations, were from New York and New

England. The only recorded instance of the term "barrens" being applied by an observer other than the surveyors, was by a traveller from Dayton, Ohio, as will be noted later.

The general location of the areas in the county covered by oak openings at the time of settlement is given in the

1869 Kalamazoo County Directory and the 1880 Kalamazoo

20Durant, pp. 5M-5^5. p i Apparently the settlers from New England and New York had a higher literacy rate than those who came from the south, for most of the written accounts are by the former. County History, both written when many original settlers were still available for consultation; also in several sepa rate township histories written by early residents. Accord ing to these sources Ross Township was covered principally 22 with oak openings, as was Richland Township outside of

Gull Prairie,2^ Charleston Township except along the Kala- 24 mazoo River, and Pavilion Township other than the wet areas and the beech-maple heavy timber along its northern 25 line. ^ Oak openings were also the dominant landscape of

Texas2** and Oshtemo2? townships, and covered Comstock Town­ ship north of the Kalamazoo River, except for Toland's 2 8 Prairie, as well as a 400 acre section south of the river 20 in the southeast corner of the township. 7 Cooper Township west of the Kalamazoo River, was heavy timber and oak open­ ings. 3D The northwestern part of Climax Township was,

22James M. Thomas, pp. 145-146; Durant, p. 486.

2^Durant, p. 457 ?4 James M. Thomas, p. 123; Durant, p. 312.

2^James M. Thomas, p. 135; Durant, p. 417.

James M. Thomas, p. 149.

2^Durant, p. 407. ? R Van Buren, Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol 7 (1884), p. 479.

2^Van Buren, in Durant, p. 351.

3®Walker, Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 5 (1882), p. 403. outside of Climax Prairie, mainly oak openings. And, according to these authorities, Brady Township had heavy tim op ber on the east and oak openings on the west.-*

Kalamazoo County was visited by many travellers during the first decade of settlement, and some recorded their ob­ servations of the landscape. In their journals and diaries are found several specific references to the location of oak openings in the county. In 1832, a Mr. Copley from Dayton,

Ohio, looking for land in which to invest, came to Kalamazoo

County by way of the "Port Wain" route. Using the southern

Ohio term, he reported that between White Pigeon and Prairie

Ronde he travelled through " b a r r e n s . "33 And an 1833 visitor from the east described the landscape between the village of

Comstock and the northeastern edge of Prairie Ronde as •34 mostly oak openings with some burr-oak plains.

An 1836 speculator who travelled widely in Kalamazoo

County, made frequent notations on the landscape. Entering the county from the east, he related that after leaving

"GoGwack" prairie, in Battle Creek Township, Calhoun County,

"we passed into oak openings again of the most beautiful growth and finest quality of soil which continued to this

•^Hodgman, in Durant, p. 324.

^James M. Thomas, p. 113; Durant, p. 302.

^Copley, no pagination.

^Hoffman, Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), p. 432. (He probably passed near "'Indian Fields," which was surrounded by burr oaks.) place"3'* (section 17, Charleston Township); the oak openings

continued from there to the Kalamazoo River crossing opposite

Toland's P rairie. 36 During his travels west of Bronson he

observed thin oak openings in sections 21, 26, 27, 28, 29,

30, 31, 32, 33, and 34 of Oshtemo Township.3>7 He also noted, that the route from Bronson to Gull Prairie was through oak

openings, as was the route from that prairie northward to n Q Yankee Springs in Barry County.

Burr-Oak Openings or Burr-Oak Plains

Considerable disagreement is found in the early liter­

ature about the extent and nature of the burr-oak plains of

Kalamazoo County. Some of this may be traced to an incorrect

statement by John Farmer in his 1830 gazetteer, which was

copied by J. H. Lanman in his history of 1839, and then given wide circulation by James Fenimore Cooper in his 1848 novel,

The Oak Openings or the Bee Hunter, the locale of which was

Kalamazoo County. In the writings of Farmer, Lanman, and

Cooper, Kalamazoo County was described as being largely OQ covered with burr-oak openings. ^ That is to say, according

^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), P» 278.

36Ibid,, p. 2 80.

37Ibid., pp. 284, 446-447.

38Ibid., p. 449.

3^John Farmer, Emigrants Guide or Pocket Gazetteer of the Surveyed Part of Mlchilgan (Albany: B. D. Packard and Co., 1830), p. 23: James H. Lanman, History of Michigan (New York: E. French, 1839), P» 288; James Fenimore CooperJ. The Oak Openings or the Bee Hunter (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Io9b edition), p. 2T 109 to these authors, the oak openings of the county were burr- oak openings, or as they were often called, "burr-oak plains." Samuel W. Durant, the author of the principal pio­ neer history of the county, was apparently confused by the conflicting statements of Cooper and some early settlers who contributed to his history. This condition was revealed when he wrote that "the lands known as 'oak openings' were principally level tracts sparsely timbered with burr-oak, though, in some cases lands covered with a scattering growth ii Q of other varieties may have been so described." The fact of the matter is, as was pointed out in the preceding chapter, and as Durant could have ascertained by careful reading of those sections of his history written by actual settlers, the burr oaks were found mainly at the edge of the prairies and in a few scattered burr-oak plains, while the white oak was the main tree in the oak openings.

Definite references to two Kalamazoo County burr-oak plains are found in the early literature. Although the sur­ veyors made no special note of it, other than mentioning that, along with other oaks, burr oaks were present, the settlers perceived that a burr-oak plain existed in sections 3 and 4 ii i of Charleston Township. Another such plain was said ho to have occupied the site of Bronson. A settler who

^°Durant, p. 58. ii 1 James M. Thomas, p. 123; Durant, p. 313. ho The surveyor had recognized this burr-oak plain. See Chapter IV, p. 88. 110 viewed it In 1831 reported that "the whole plain was carpeted with a bright green grass, much resembling an old meadow.

There were no small shrubs, nor underbrush. Small burr-oak trees, here and there, dotted the landscape, giving it some­ thing of the appearance of an old apple orchard...."**3

(see Pig. 3).

Most other early writings agree that the site of Bronson 4li _ _ was a burr-oak plain. An 1836 Kalamazoo paper gave a pano­ rama of the area around the town from a hill to the west, near

Grand Prairie. Prom this vantage point, said the paper,

"At one fell swoop can be seen the Prairie [Grand Prairie], the natural meadow land [marsh north of Kalamazoo], the timbered lands [beech-maple land to the north], the white oak openings, and the plains [burr-oak plain around the vil­ lage site]."1*'’ (Map 10).

At least one pioneer, however, disagreed about the nature of the landscape of the "plain" at Bronson. This settler viewed the village area in 1832, and claimed that it was not, as the observer of 1831 reported, "a grassy plain with scattering burr oaks; but it was a plain covered with thick and tall hazel brush...and the burr oaks were very

^ Kalamazoo Telegraph., February 12, 187^.

1*1*(Kalamazoo) Michigan Statesman, April 2, 1836, and June 11, 1836; Ladies Library Association, Quarter Centennial Cele­ bration. .., p. 5; A. T. Atlee, Kalamazoo in 1835 and 1B$51 in' Michigan History Collections, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, no pagination; James M. Thomas, p. 29; Durant, p. 210. **5(Kalamazoo) Michigan Statesman, June 11, 1 8 3 6 . Ill

Figure 3. Pioneer Cemetery Park, comer of South Westnedge and Park Place, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Since this cemetery was set aside in 1833* these burr oaks may be those that were present on the site at that time. Their distribution gives some indication of the spacing of the burr oaks on the "burr-oak plain" on which the village of Bronson was located. In 1831* because the burr oaks were then very small, and there was little under­ growth, the site of Bronson was said to re­ semble an "old apple orchard." 112 jig small, little more than grubs." Apparently the grassy plain of 1831 with Its conspicuous burr oaks, which gave It the look of an apple orchard, had, by 1832, due to the stopp­ ing of the annual fires, grown up with a thick undergrowth.

And, due to the change in the understory in relation to the size of the burr oaks, the two observers perceived different landscapes.

Oak Openings Landscape Altered by Settlement

The theory of the Kalamazoo County pioneers about the origin of the oak openings was the one typical of the period.

The idea that the open oak woodland was the result of fire J47 is found throughout the county writings of the time.

Typical of these is the following by a pioneer observer of the Kalamazoo County scene which describes the oak openings landscape and the reason for its openness.

The annual fires burnt up the underwood, decayed trees, vegetation, and debris in the oak openings, leaving them clear of obstructions. You could see through the trees in any direction, save where the irregularity of the surface intervened, for miles around you; and you could walk, ride on horseback, or drive in a wagon wherever you pleased in these woods, as freely as you could in a neat and beauti­ ful park.48

lig Jesse Turner,"Reminiscences of Kalamazoo," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 18 (1891), p. 582. ^7por example, see Hodgman, in Durant, p. 325; A. C. Glidden, "Pioneer Farming," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 18 (1891), p. 420; Francis Hodgman, "Pre-Historic Fort at Cli­ max," Michigan Pioneer Collections. Vol. 32 (1902), p. 384; Mary V. Gibbs, "Glimpses of fcarly Michigan Life In and About Kalamazoo," Magazine of American History, Vol. 24 (1890), pp. 457-458; Van feuren, in Durant, p. $1; and Henry Little, "Flow­ ers, Fruit and Nuts in and About Kalamazoo and Elsewhere in the Olden Times," in Durant, pp. 94-95. 48 Van Buren, in Durant, p. 91. 113

But, as occurred elsewhere in Michigan, the landscape of the open oak woods of Kalamazoo County changed as settle­ ment occurred. When a culture in which agriculture was the dominant activity took over the area, the annual fires were stopped. The previous occupants practiced mainly a hunting culture, and fire was apparently one of their hunting tools.

The open woodland of the oak openings was a landscape associ­ ated with that culture. When the Americans came, their methods of obtaining a living from the land differed, and the landscape took.on an altered aspect because of this. With the stopping of the fires, the "grubs," that is, the root systems of the burned off young oak sprouts, quickly grew up into a forest of young oaks.1^ And the underbrush, no longer periodically burned off by the fires, also rapidly developed and thickened.

The changing landscape of the oak openings is a consis­ tent theme running through the pioneer literature. Where an observer of the site of Bronson in 1831 saw a grassy land­ scape with scattered burr oaks, another in 1832 saw a thick understory of hazelbrush. A member of a pioneer family on

Climax Prairie saw, during his boyhood, the transformation in the oak openings of that area. He reported that between the first settlement of the area in 1831, and 1844, the oak openings near the prairie had developed a "thick undergrowth

^Glidden, Michigan Pioneer Collectionst Vol. 18 (1891)» p. 420. of hazels, oaks, and hickories, which has sprung up In the dozen years since the annual fires had been stopped.By the late 1830*s, the secondary growth had grown up so thickly

In those openings that were not being fanned, that a mapping program carried on by the state geologist used the terms,

"Timbered Openings," or "Heavily Timbered Openings," for most of the landscape that had been called "oak openings" by the first settlers and "barrens" by the original surveyors. The distribution of oak openings, heavily timbered land, and prairie, as shown on Map 18 and the other Kalamazoo County maps made by the assistant state geologist, C. C. Douglass, was used to verify the distribution of pioneer landscapes shown on Map 10.

One of the original settlers on Gull Prairie noticed the changes taking place in the oak openings from a botani­

cal point of view. This keen observer perceived that there was available to the initial settlers a group of flowers,

fruits, and nuts which had been able to mature between the

time of the annual fires; these he called products of the

"first period." With American settlement the make-up of this

vegetation changed. In the writer's words:

The dawning of the second fruit period brought large additions to our former liberal supplies of indigenous edible fruits. That great change is due entirely to the greater number of inhabitants

5°Hodgman, "Pre-Historic Port...," Michigan Pioneer Collections. Vol. 32 (1902), p. 385. 115

COMSTOCK TOWNSHIP, KALAMAZOO COUNTY PROM BELA HUBBARD'S *MtCHIGAN MAPS, 1 8 3 8 -1 8 4 1 ' j § S cs yeft r *

4 * •

:■■■•■ ... . ft i-.

JfclwMRf

r v ~ “f 1 /U

) % iS~ ith d

Mop 18 116

and the increased quantity of cultivated land, which prevented the ravages of the annual fires of the Indians.51 52 Prairies^

The pioneer literature generally agrees on the distribu­ tion and number of the prairies in Kalamazoo County. One account, however, reveals that the reporters were uncertain of the relative location of the prairies, when they wrote that Grand Prairie was nearly in a direct line between Gull * Prairie and Prairie Ronde. J Most sources list eight prai- ries in Kalamazoo County;^ one, however, claims that there 55 were ten. ^

Considerable disagreement is found in the literature in regard to the size of these prairies. The acreages given for

Prairie Ronde illustrate this fact. The commissioners ap­ pointed to locate the county seat stated that Prairie Ronde contained 20,000 acres, but did not make clear whether this figure included Gourd-Neck Prairie.An 1836 traveller to

•^Little, in Durant, p. 9^* 52The settlers of Kalamazoo County did not use the term "wet prairie," but always "marsh." When they said "prairie" they meant the "dry prairie" of the surveyors. Prom this point on, therefore, the usage of the Kalamazoo County pioneers will hold. •^"Report of the Commissioners to Locate the County Seat," in James M. Thomas, p. 32. -^John T. Blois, Gazetteer of the State of Michigan in Three Parts (Detroit: Sydney t. Rood and Co., l83d), p. 225; £>urant, p. 58;

•^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p. 277* 56 "Report of the Commissioners to Locate the County Seat," in James M. Thomas, p. 32. 117 the county, who never saw Prairie Ronde, and must, therefore, have been repeating a figure given him, said the prairie had

10,000 acres. ^ An early settler on the prairie claimed it, 58 plus Gourd-Neck, included 27,000 acres. Lucius Lyon, a prominent state politician, large landowner, and founder of the village of Schoolcraft at ’’the grove,” reported that Prai­ rie Ronde inclosed 20,000 acres. ^ And the 1880 county history recorded that Prairie Ronde had 13,000 acres and

Gourd-Neck Prairie, 2,500.^

The acreage of the other prairies was likewise in dis- « 61 pute. The size given for Gull Prairie ranges from 2,800 6 2 to 4,000 acres. A writer who grew up on Climax Prairie in the 1830's and l840's stated that Climax Township had 300 acres of that prairie.^ The 1880 history which contains this account indicates that Climax Prairie covered 800 acres, some being in Charleston Townshipthus, according to this source, 500 acres were in Charleston Township. But an 1869

“^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959)» p. 278. e g J E. Lakin Brown, in James M. Thomas, p. 75*

-^Lucius Lyon, "Letters of Lucius Lyon,” Michigan Pioneer Collections. Vol 27 (1896), p. 449.

^°Durant, p- 58. 6libid. fi? James M. Thomas, p. 139.

^Hodgman, in Durant, p. 324.

^Durant, pp. 5 8 , 313* 118 county directory and history claimed that Climax Prairie had an area of 4,000 acres* 900 of these being in Charleston

Township. J The estimates for Toland's Prairie range from

500 to 1000 acres, while Genesee Prairie was said by one 68 69 writer to have 400 acres, and by another, 800.

The early accounts also give some indication of the shape of the prairies (Map 10) . Prom the name given it, Gourd-

Neck Prairie must have reminded some of the early settlers of a gourd. Prairie Ronde, which was almost split by the township line between Prairie Ronde and Schoolcraft Town- 70 71 ships, had a "northeastern neck," and a northern exten­ sion into Texas Township.Toland's Prairie was said to be 73 nearly oval in shape (see Map 18). And Gull Prairie, when the settlers first viewed it, resembled very nearly a

^James M. Thomas, p. 127.

^Durant, p. 58; Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959)• p. 279.

^7James M. Thomas, p. 100.

^®Durant, p. 58.

^Lansing b. Swan, Journal of a Trip to Michigan In 1841 (Rochester, New York: Two Hundred copies printed for George P. Humphrey, 1904), p. 22.

"^Durant, p. 502.

7^H. G. Wells (Speech given at) "Ninth Annual Renunion of the Pioneers of Kalamazoo County, August 14, 1879," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 (l88l), p. 521.

"^Durant, p. 537.

73Ibld., p. 351. 119 physician’s old-fashioned saddle-bags, with the top point­ ing towards Gull Lake. Portions of sections 9, 10, 11, 12,

14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, and 27, all in Richland Town­ ship, were included in the prairie. The narrow, connecting part of the prairie, was in the southwest corner of section 74 11 and the northwest corner of section 14 (Map 17).

The prairie landscape that the early settlers and travel­ lers described in Kalamazoo County was the same as that pictured by the surveyors— primarily treeless plains. Burr oaks were not reported to be scattered over the prairies, but instead as being found on their fringes. In the case of

"Indian Fields," the tiny prairie almost completely pinched out by the invading burr oaks, the settlers were not sure what to call it, and simply gave it the name "Indian Fields" or "Indian Improvements," after the Indian cornfields found there. The 1880 county history offers no help, when in list­ ing the county’s prairies and their acreages, it makes the comment in a footnote that "The 'Indian Fields,' a tract of land of about 100 acres, cultivated by the Indians, located in

Portage Township, will be found described in the history of that town. It is not strictly prairie.

Prairie Ronde, the largest prairie in the county, was

7l|Ibid., p. 457.

7^Ibld., p. 58. (Since the surveyor called "Indian Fields" a prairie, and since it, according to pioneer accounts and the county soil map, had a deep black prairie soil, I have in­ cluded it on Map 10 as a prairie). 120 the one most frequently characterized by the early settlers and travellers. No account Indicates the prairie to have been 76 "studded with burr oak trees." The only trees reported on it were in the "Big Island" and on one other small wet area, probably the wet land in sections 17 and 20, Schoolcraft Town­ ship (Map 10). An 1831 settler on the prairie, who first visited it in 1829, wrote in a letter to his wife that "some of the prairies on the highest ground resemble gentle swells of the sea,others are dead level as far as the eye can see, without a tree or bush...."^ Another early settler on Prai­ rie Ronde, who recorded many of his pioneer-period observa­ tions in verse, related in one poem that the prairie was:

By gay greenwood surrounded, 7g By leafy rim adorned and bounded.'

He thus indicates that the treeless prairie had a definite timbered border. In another poem he comments that after the prairie was burned:

No tree, no shrub, no living thing is seen; No blade of russet grass or springing green. Black desolution broods o ’er all the plain, ...[except] ...... The grove in beauty looms upon the view, Seeming ’an island in an inland sea,’....'°

^Charles A. Weissert, Southwestern Michigan (Kalamazoo: Athena Book Shop, no date), Vol. 3, pt. 3 of George N. Pul­ ler’s Historic Michigan, p. 142.

^Letter, "Thaddeus Smith to his wife," June 14, 1829, in Durant, pp. 517-518.

^®E. Lakin Brown, (Poem) "Prairie Ronde at Harvest Time," in Durant, p. 155*

^E. Lakin Brown, (Poem) "Wa-We-Os-Co-Tang," in Durant, p. 154. 121

This same man again stated his Impressions of Prairie Ronde when he spoke before the 1879 Kalamazoo County pioneer re­ union. In that speech he noted that when he first viewed the prairie, on November 6 , 1831, it had "no tree, except the 8 0 Big Island grove and one or two other small groves...."

(see Pigs. 4 and 5).

The accounts of other settlers who viewed Prairie Ronde during the early years of settlement agree with its essen­ tially treeless nature reported above. A youthful settler, whose family brought him to the western edge of the prairie in 1830 recalled that the log cabin they stayed in was "in the edge of the prairie, with a great open green meadow on 8l the east and an inpenitrable forest on the west." This statement confirms the observation that the prairie had a definite rim and was treeless. The same individual remem­ bered that the "Big Island" had "prairie all around it."®2

And Lucius Lyon, founder of the village of Schoolcraft on the on the eastern edge of the "Big Island," made no mention of

®^E. Lakin Brown, (1879 Speech), Michigan Pioneer Col­ lections, Vol. 3 (1881), p. 523. 0-1 Henry Parker Smith (?), "Reminiscences of a Young Pio­ neer," manuscript written on the back of five 1893 (?) Kala­ mazoo County ballots, in Henry Parker Smith Papers, Michigan History Collections, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. (Henry Parker Smith was the son of Thaddeus Smith who in 1831 opened a store on the east side of the "Big Island." The family stayed with Abner Calhoun who had his cabin on section 1^, Prairie Ronde Township, on the western edge of the prairie).

82Ibid. 122

Figure 4. View across Prairie Ronde toward the ”Big Island” from 1/2 mile south of the Pioneer Cemetery on 10th Street, Prairie Ronde Township. Picture taken In August 1968.

Figure 5. Looking north across Prairie Ronde from the eastern edge of the ”Big Island.” Picture taken near the corner of W Avenue and l H h Street In August 1968. scattered burr oaks when he pictured the prairie as "a high and fine, rich and beautiful prairie...."®3 Nor did the traveller who saw Prairie Ronde in 1833 note any scattered burr oaks. Describing his first view of the prairie, he wrote, "I came suddenly upon an immense piece of cleared table^-land...." He observed the island of timber in the cen­ ter with the range of six or seven miles of prairie on either side, and rode across the "waste" to the hotel at School­ craft .

The pioneer accounts of the other prairies of the county show that they were similar to Prairie Ronde. One early set­ tler expressed his perception of the county's prairies in a poem when he wrote:

Perchance these prairies, where no sign of tree or shrub is seen, were [during the mound builders time] covered with oak and pine....°5

Two of the accounts do give us some indication of the relationship between the prairies and the burr oaks. A trav­ eller of 1836, who saw several prairies in Calhoun and Kala­ mazoo Counties, made no mention of burr oaks out on the prairies, but when he viewed his first prairie, he described

^Lucius Lyon, Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 27 (1896), p. 449.

®^Hoffman, Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), p. 432.

^George Torrey, (Poem) "The Aborigines," in Durant, P. 157. it as being "dead level and fringed with beautiful oak 86 openings." Another writer, a pioneer Who settled on Gull

Prairie in 1832, revealed the distribution of burr oaks around the prairies of Kalamazoo County when he wrote that straw­ berries were found particularly in the "burr-oak openings, near the borders of the prairies, where they were larger and more plenty than in the other openings."®?

Pioneer Theories Regarding the Origin of the Prairies

All Kalamazoo County pioneers who concerned themselves with it, attributed the origin of the prairies to the same cause. They believed the region, including the prairies and oak openings, had once been covered with forest,®® but, due to burning by the Indians, most of the trees in the oak openings, and all of them on the prairies, had been destroyed and kept down by the annual fires. Based upon personal observation they held as a joke the theory sometimes expres- 89 sed that the prairies were uplifted lakes or bogs.

An early resident on Prairie Ronde, who viewed the land­ scape before it had been much altered by whites, is one of our best authorities on the contemporary ideas about the prairies. His theory on the origin of the prairie and oak openings landscape is well expressed in one of his poems.

^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. M3 (1959), p. 277 •

®^Henry Little, in Durant, p. 95. 88 George Torrey, in Durant, p. 157*

®^Blois, p. 26. 125

In It he proclaims that the "scientific prigs," who by putting forth the theory that the prairies are uplifted lakes or bogs:

The matter in a fog ye more involve itj The land was fashioned— never doubt it— Just like the land around it. A grand old forest raised its branches proudly o ’er itj How the forest passed away, Never to bourgeon here again Leaving open to the day This broad and level plain,— Need we seek for causes higher q Q Than the whirlwind and the fire?

The pioneers’ idea that the Indians annually burned the prairie grass seemed to be verified by the Pottawattomie name for Prairie Ronde. The Indians called it "Wa-we-os-co- 91 tang," which meant in their language, "Round Fire Plain.

A traveller to Kalamazoo County in 1836 also thought that 92 Indian burnings explained the prairies.

But the first settlers did not have to base their theories entirely on past happenings. During the first years of settlement on Prairie Ronde, before people were numerous, they saw the prairie burn. In March of 1832 our pioneer poet was among those who saw "Wa-we-os-co-tang" aflame.

90 E. Lakin Brown, (Poem) "Prairie Ronde at Harvest Time," in Durant, p. 155. 91 E. Lakin Brown, in Thomas, p. 75.

^Gordon, Michigan History. Vol. ^3 (1959), p. 277. 126

He wrote:

I, too, beheld, what well might awe inspire, Pass o ’er thy face the annual scourge of fire! In early spring, when the returning sun To dry the storm-drenched earth had now begun, And the light winds had lifted, dry and sere. The faded produce of the former year,....93

The fire burned the entire grassy surface of the prai­ rie, but left ’’the grove" untouched. This convinced the writer that he had just witnessed the process that for a

thousand years had maintained the prairie in its treeless

state.^

It has been the object of the last two chapters to, so

to speak, set the stage for the coming of the settlers to

E. Lakin Brown, (Poem) "Wa-We-Os-Co-Tang," in Durant, p. 15^. 94 The literature on the origin of prairies is extensive. For a review of some of the theories of writers who were con­ temporary with the settlement of southern Michigan see Douglas R. McManis, The Initial Evaluation and Utilization of the Illinois Prairies. 1815-l84o (Chicago: University of Chicago» Department of Geography Research Paper No. 94, 1964); McManis also includes references to more recent theories. Michigan’s prairies are specifically dealt with in Jethro Otto Veatch, "The Dry Prairies of Michigan," Papers of the Michigan Acad­ emy of Science. Arts and Letters. Vol. 8 (1927). PP. 269-277; Veatch, "Pedologic Evidence of Changes of Climate in Michigan," Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science. Arts and Letters, Vol. 23 (1937), pp. 385—390; and Richard S. Hauser, HAn Ecological Analysis of Isolated Prairies of Newaygo County, Michigan," (unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Michigan State University, 1953)* Veatch says the pioneer prairies of Michigan were relics of earlier, more extensive prairies, and were evidence of a post­ glacial dry period. Hauser reviews the literature on the "prairie peninsula," of which the prairies of Michigan were a part, and infers that the prairies were climatically in­ duced, but fire maintained. The same conclusion is reached by H. Thompson Straw in "Battle Creek: A Study in Urban Ge­ ography. Part 1. Present Day City and Fundament," Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science. Arts and Letters. Vol. 23 (1937), pp. 382-383. 127

Kalamazoo County. Chapter four presented the surveyors'

Impressions of the county's pre-settlement landscape; this

chapter has shown what the early pioneers and travellers saw when they first arrived. It has been pointed out that there has been some misunderstanding among recent writers concerning the nature of the western Inner Michigan landscape just prior to its occupation by Americans; this confusion has been re­ solved. It has been shown that in this area, outside the wet lands, there existed three distinct and commonly recog­ nized land types, namely beech-maple heavy timber, oak open^

ings, and prairie. The following two chapters will deal with

the settlers and speculators' evaluation of these landscapes. CHAPTER VI

PIONEER EVALUATION OF THE KALAMAZOO COUNTY LANDSCAPE

And you that talk of Varmount; Why, what a place is that? Be sure that gals are pritty, And cattle very fat; But who among the mountains, ’Mid clouds and snow would stay, When he could buy a prairie In Michigania?! If the landscape of Kalamazoo County, at the time of ! settlement, had been a homogeneous "primeval forest," and if this wilderness had been penetrated by the same lines of settler expansion used In Inner Michigan in the late l820’s and early 1830's— westward from Detroit and northward from 2 Ohio and Indiana by way of the Fort Wayne route — the peopl­ ing of the county probably would have begun in the south and east and progressed toward the north and west. But such was not the case. Kalamazoo County was not covered by a "prime­ val forest," but by three major habitable landscapes, namely beech-maple heavy timber, oak openings, and prairie.

With these three available for settlement, it seems

"The Emigrants Campaign Song," (1837), in Samuel W. Durant, History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan (Philadelphia: Everts and Abbott, l8db), p. 161.

2A. B. Copley, "Early Settlement of Southwestern Michi­ gan," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 5 (1882), p. 149.

128 129 logical to expect that the pioneers would value one more highly than the others. In eastern Inner Michigan, when the new arrivals had the choice of oak openings, or beech-maple heavy timber, the land of well-known fertility, the rich

"maple land" with Its thick layer of "vegetable mould," was bypassed by most In favor of the more easily brought-into- productlon oak openings, which, due to experience gained in western New York, had recently come to be highly esteemed as wheat land by the Yankee settlers. But the prairies were something else again. The Yankees had no previous experience with prairies, and of the immigrants from the south, several scholars have written that they were prejudiced against the treeless landscape and tended to avoid it.^ That some reser­ vations toward this kind of land existed among American pio­ neers in 1821 was revealed when an English colonist on an

Illinois prairie wrote: "The inhabitants of the old states are profoundly and resolutely ignorant of the advantages of our prairie country."^ Was this the case in the late l820's

^Harlan H. Barrows, "Geography of the Middle Illinois Valley," Illinois State Geological Survey Bulletin No. 15 (1910), p" 77; Frederick Jackson Turner, The Frontier in Amer­ ican History (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962), pp. 134-135; Ray Allen Billington, Westward Expansion (New York: The MacMillan Company, i960), pi 294; Carl 0. Sauer, "Geogra­ phy of the Upper Illinois Valley and History of Development," Illinois State Geological Survey Bulletin No. 27 (1916), pp. 154-155. For a discussion of the prairie prejudice ideas see Terry G. Jordan, "Between the Forest and the Prairie," Agri­ cultural History, Vol. 38 (1964), pp. 205-216.

^Richard Flower, "Letters from the Illinois, 1820, 1821...," in Ruben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748- 1846 (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1904), Vol. 16, p.. 150. 130 and early 1830's? How did the agricultural settlers looking over the land of Kalamazoo County evaluate the various land­ scapes to be found there? Did they avoid the prairies?

The object of this chapter, then, is to investigate the evaluation of the Kalamazoo County landscapes by those seek­ ing to occupy and farm the area during the initial years of settlement. Only during these first years, when all of the

land could be purchased at $1.25 an acre, would the choice

of a location by the newcomers directly reflect their appraisal of the landscape. We will first be concerned with the pattern of initial settler location as an indication of

landscape preference. Other aspects of initial settlement will be discussed as they apply to pioneer landscape evalua­ tion and utilization. Brief investigations of the choices of

seven representative first occupants will also be made.

Evaluation by Agricultural Settlers: 1828-31

The earliest immigrants to Kalamazoo County were farmers

seeking land on which to settle. The first family arrived in

November, 1828, and was followed by several more during the

winter of 1828-29. The rate of settlement accelerated through

1829, 1830, and 1831, so that by the spring of 1831 there were c probably about one hundred families in the county. Prior

^The exact number of settlers in the county in 1831 is difficult to ascertain. The commissioners who located the county seat reported 200 families on Prairie Ronde in January of 1831 (James M. Thomas, Kalamazoo County Directory with a History of the County From its Earliest Settlement, 186$ and T870 LKalamazoo: Stone Brothers feook and Job Printers, l8b^J, p . 32). But an actual settler reported that in November, 1831, 131 to 1830 these people were squatters on the public domain. On

May 29 of that year a pre-emption law was passed under which those settlers who had planted a crop and lived on their land the previous year could purchase, at the Monroe Land

Office, 160 acres at $1.25 per acre.^ Those who had not arrived in time to qualify under this law had to wait for the regular land sale in June, 1831, at the White Pigeon Land

Office.7

Prairie Ronde had only 40 or 50 families (E. Lakin Brown, "Paper Read Before the Annual Pioneer Picnic at Long Lake [1890]," in Stanley Barney Smith Papers. Western Michigan Uni­ versity Archives, Kalamazoo). Perhaps the commissioners meant to say that there were 200 families in the county as a whole. But this figure seems too large. If 40 or 50 families were on Prairie Ronde in 1831, the remainder of the county probably had 40 or 50 more.

^Section 1 of the 1830 pre-emption act reads: "That every settler or occupant of the public lands, prior to the passage of this act, who is now in possession and cultivated any part thereof in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to enter, with the register of the land office, for the district in which such lands may lie, by legal subdivisions, any number of acres, not more than one hundred and sixty or a quarter section, to include his improvement, upon paying to the United States the then minimum price of said land...," Richard Peters (ed.), United States Statutes at Large, Vol. 4 (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, ld60), pp. 420-421.

^According to the 1831 Register of Deeds at the White Pigeon Land Office, the sale of southwestern Michigan lands began June 6, 1831 (Abraham Edwards, "A Sketch of Pioneer Life," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 [1881], p. 151). Apparently the sale of Kalamazoo County land was begun on June 18, 1831, because, with one exception, that is the earliest date of regular sale to actual settlers recorded in the Kalamazoo County Tract Book. The exception was Lucius LyonT Although not a settler, somehow he was able to pur­ chase some Kalamazoo County land on June 6, twelve days be­ fore any real resident was able to buy land. 132

Map of Land Settlers Purchased by Pre-emption and Regularly, June IB and 20. 1B31------

A map of the land taken up by settlers under the 1830 pre-emption act and during the first day of the regular land sale® should reveal which land was most valued by them. And by comparing these locations with the county pioneer-landscape map it should be possible to discover if any landscape type was more highly prized by the settlers than others. Only during the first few years of settlement, when their selec­ tion was unhindered by extensive prior alienation, could the occupiers freely select the land they thought most desirable.

Map 19 clearly reveals that one landscape was rated more highly by the initial settlers than the others. It shows that nearly all the land acquisitions made in the county by agri­ cultural settlers as of June 20, 1831, included prairie q land. The smaller prairies, where timber and open land could be easily incorporated by one purchase, if not reserved as public school or university lands, or Indian Reservation, were most rapidly acquired. Prairie Ronde, with considerable grassland at some distance from timber, was taken up first

o The eastern two tiers of townships were first put on the market on June 18, 1831; the western two tiers on June 20, 1831.

^This is contrary to the recent assertion in Charles P. Heller, "The Role of Wheat in the 19th Century-Middle Lati­ tude Settlements: Examples Prom Canterbury and Michigan,11 Australian Geographical Studies, Vol. M (1966), pp. 109-110, that in the initial settlement of Kalamazoo County ”it seems likely that the oak openings were the most preferable sites in the eyes of most farmers, since they combined some of the advantages of both timbered land and prairies." 133

KALAMAZOO COUNTY

FEDERAL LAND PURCHASED BY SETTLERS UNDER THE 1830 PRE-EMPTION LAW AND ON THE FIRST DAY OF REGULAR LAND SALE (JUNE 18 AND 20, 1831)

COOPCft

OS nTCMO

ftdml land Nrtbaiad by Idlltfi (Ml, Hw 1110 Pra-waptian law and an Hia Jk*l Day d Itylar Lok« land Sal* (aattam l«a liart a( t itmntiip« an Jana II, til); wilan N toe tian at >aanwbi|M an Jana 20. 1111} o Proiri* Pablk fcliaat and Onw«f»ky lond mi Ibi

Map 19 134 around Its margin. That this settlement pattern revealed by the map study, was, in fact, the actual pattern is supported by the contemporary literature.

Pioneer Accounts of Initial Settlement Patterns

In the fall of 1828 the first settlers in Kalamazoo

County selected locations along the western border of Prai­ rie Ronde, where both heavy timber and prairie could be in­ corporated in one holding. As this preferred heavy timber- prairie edge was quickly taken up in 1828-29, settlement soon spread to other borders of Prairie Ronde and to nearby Gourd-

Neck Prairie. Viewers of the Prairie Ronde landscape during these initial years of occupation usually commented on this encirclement of the prairie by the settlers. An early resi­ dent reported that when he arrived, in May of 1830, "nearly all of Prairie Ronde, except the west and south sides, was unoccupied."10 Later in 1830, two Yankees looking over Prai- rie Ronde as a potential site for a store said they found

"about sixty families settled on the border, between prairie and timber on the Big Prairie and Gourdneck Prairie."11 The son of one of these men recalled that in 1830 he stayed in the log cabin of Abner Calhoun on the west side of Prairie

Ronde (SW 1/4 of section 14, Prairie Ronde Township) which was "in the edge of the prairie, with a great open green

10N. M. Thomas, "Reminiscences," Michigan Pioneer Col lections. Vol 28 (1897-98), p. 533-

11E. Lakin Brown, "Autobiographical Notes," Michigan Pioneer Collections. Vol. 30 (1905), p. 449. 135 „12 meadow on the east and an impenitrable forest on the west."

In January of 1831 the commissioners for locating the county seat reported that the settlers on Prairie Ronde "reside on the borders of this lake of land; Where they have heavy tim­ ber on one side of their houses, and an immense open Prairie on the other.nl3 And another early arrival recollected that in November, 1831, the landscape of Prairie Ronde had "no tree except the Big Island grove and one or two other small groves; no roads, no fences, no houses; for the log cabins of the settlers were all at the edge of the timber, and I think not one of them could be seen from the old store at School­ craft."14

The location of the first roads in Prairie Ronde Town­ ship was a good indicator of the distribution of population at the time. In compliance with a January, 1831, request by the settlers on Prairie Ronde, the county road commissioners laid out a road:

beginning at a stake 64 rods east of quarter stake in section 36 on the south line of township 4S, R 12 W [Prairie Ronde Township], thence N 10° W 202

1 2 Henry Parker Smith (?), "Reminiscences of a Young Pio­ neer," manuscript written on the back of five 1893 (?) Kala­ mazoo County ballots, in Henry Parker Smith Papers, Michigan History Collections, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

•^"Report of the Commissioners to Locate the County Seat," in James M. Thomas, p. 32. The commissioners apparently visited only the west side of Prairie Ronde where there was heavy timber at the prairie edge; oak openings bordered the prairie in other places. 1 E. Lakin Brown, (Speech at the) "Ninth Annual Renunion of the Pioneers of Kalamazoo County, August 14, 1879," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 (1881), p. 523. 136

rods, thence N 35° 45' W 467 rods 11 links to the section line between sections 25 and 26, thence north on the section line....15

The first part of this route, which still exists today as

11th street and the southern end of 10th street in Prairie

Ronde Township, followed the prairie’s edge. Another peti­ tion for a prairie-edge road was made in March of 1831. The settlers wanted this one laid out:

beginning at the mill now building by Abial Fellows and W. Bacon, thence north on the quarter line be­ tween Stephen Hoit [Hoyt] and David Brown [through the center of the SW 1/4 of section 23, Prairie Ronde Township] until it comes to the northwest corner of Stephen Holt's land, thence northwesterly near the edge of the timbered land to the south­ westerly corner of sections 11 or near said corner. Thence north on the line between sections 10 and 11 16

Even as late as 1833 a traveller observed that the houses on

Prairie Ronde were scattered around its borders. ^

The prairie edge location selected by the early settlers was obviously an attempt to combine the advantage of having timber for buildings, fences, and fire, with that of having rich land which could be immediately cultivated. That the pioneers thought the prairie soil fertile is shown by the re­ marks about the settlement of Kalamazoo County by an 1836 traveller. He reported that the prairies "are the first lands

•^Record Book of the Township of Schoolcraft, in Western Michigan University Archives, Kalamazoo, p. Y

l6Ibid., p. 3.

^Charles Fenno Hoffman, "Michigan as Seen by an Early Traveller," Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), p. 432. 137 taken up from the facility with which they are cultivated 18 and their great fertility...." But since they also needed timber, none of the initial settlers on Prairie Ronde selected prairie alone. Because of this early affinity for the prai­ rie’s edge, the store at the "Big Island" in 1831 had several IQ miles of open grassland between it and the settlers. Only after its edge was taken up did settlement take place out on the prairie away from the timbered margins. Timber was so important for the functioning of a pioneer farm that on Prairie

Ronde many who settled along the prairie border, and especially those who had to take up prairie land entirely, purchased 20 additional acreage back in the timber. The desire to obtain a location which combined prairie and timber caused some individuals to occupy land where they had no legal right; where they could not hope to secure title unless conditions changed. All of Brady Township, and most of the adjoining two tiers of sections in Wakeshma and School­ craft townships had been set aside as an Indian Reservation by the 1821 Treaty of Chicago (see Map 19).21 Thus, the

■^John M. Gordon, "Michigan Journal, 1836," Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p. 277.

^ e . Lakin Brown, A Poem for the Dedication of the Ladles Library Building At Schoolcraft, Michigan (Schoolcraft: .Ex­ press Printing House, 189b), in the Western Michigan Universi ty Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan. 20 See, for example, the purchases by Delamore Duncan, John Insley, Joseph Bair, Ransford C. Hoyt, John and Robert Nesbitt and others along the western edge of Prairie Ronde, in the Kalamazoo County Tract Book.

21Durant, p. 302. eastern half of Gourd-Neck Prairie was Indian property and not open to settlement. But this did not deter the settlers from taking possession. Although the Indians were not removed, and the land was not available for settlement until 18^0, squatters were along the eastern edge of Gourd-Neck Prairie in 1830. Not only did they illegally take up Indian land, 22 but they had the audacity to whip the Indians for protestingl

The settlement pattern that appeared on Prairie Ronde and Gourd-Neck Prairie was also found on the other prairies of the county. The townships which had prairies were the first settled, and in those townships nearly all the initial settlers took up a prairie-timber location. The first set­ tlers in Texas Township located on the northwest arm of Prai­ rie Ronde, and the first in Richland Township located around

Gull Prairie. Climax Prairie attracted those who came to

Climax and Charleston townships. The earliest arrivals in

Comstock Township located on Toland’s Prairie; in Oshtemo

Township on Grand and Genesee Prairies; and in Portage Town­ ship on Dry Prairie and Indian Fields. The first to take up

land in Kalamazoo Township, except for the county seat specu­

lation, were on that part of Genesee Prairie which extended

here from Oshtemo Township. Most of the Kalamazoo Township

portion of Grand Prairie had been reserved as university land.

Not only were the prairies the choice of the original

settlers, but quite often the most desirable prairie locations 139 were, when those who desired to permanently settle on them arrived, already occupied by transient squatters. Such an individual would plant a crop and erect a log cabin, thus qualifying for a pre-emption claim. In many cases they ap­ parently had no intention of actually buying the land from the government, but simply wanted to sell their "claim" to an immigrant desiring the location for his farm. Sometimes a squatter would sell the same "claim" to several different new­ comers before moving on. Abram I. Shaver, one of the origi­ nal settlers on the west side of Prairie Ronde, bought out 23 the "claim" of a squatter, as did also Benjamin Drake, the 2 4 first settler on Grand Prairie, and Caleb Sweetwater, one 25 of the first on Dry Prairie. Squatters were likewise al­ ready on Genesee Prairie when the initial permanent settlers arrived.

Sometimes heated arguments took place over choice prai­ rie locations before it was finally decided who would actu­ ally obtain title to the land by purchase from the government.

That portion of section 18, Schoolcraft Township, on the east side of the "Big Island" in the center of Prairie Ronde, was sin example of a highly contested-for location. A squatter who had established himself there sold his "claim" to some

New York emigrants, but while they were back east collecting

23Ibid., p. 441. 24 James M. Thomas, p. 129.

2^Durant, p. 42 8. 140 their families for the final move, he again sold it to another land seeker. When the original buyers returned they found all of section 18 had a furrow plowed around it and was, thus, firmly claimed by the second buyer.2^ This man, too, must have sold his rights to the land, for his name does not appear in the records as having purchased the acreage from the .govern­ ment. Likewise, considerable debate took place among the early arrivals on Toland's Prairie before the final division 27 was agreed upon.

Importance of Prairie Settlements

The significance of the prairies in the early settlement of Kalamazoo County is further revealed by the fact that they were, for several years, the most prominent geographical locations in the county. Until the towns grew to consequence, the prairies were the only well known place names in the 2 fi county. For example, the position of Prairie Ronde as a place name in southwestern Michigan is revealed by an ad­ vertisement in an 1834 newspaper of the area which gives the

location of the "Big Island Hotel" as "in the Village of

Schoolcraft, Prairie Ronde"; the county name was apparently

2^E. Lakin Brown, Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 30 (1905), pp. 449-450.

2^Durant, p. 353.

2®Albert F. Butler, "Rediscovering Michigan's Prairies," Michigan History, Vol. 31 (1947), p. 275. 141 29 thought unnecessary. ^ And in an advertisement for a strayed horse in 1834, a settler felt it sufficient to give his address as simply "Grand Prairie, Kalamazoo C o u n t y . " ^

The origin and destination of the early roads in the county show the important place held by the prairie settle­ ments. These roads ran between the prairies and generally pre-dated those along the section lines. In March of 1831* the settlers on Prairie Ronde petitioned for a road to be established between Prairie Ronde and Grand Prairie. In May of 1832, one was built between Climax Prairie and "East Prai­ rie" (Gourd-Neck Prairie). In March of 1833 others were opened from Gourd-Neck Prairie to the "Indian Improvements," and from the "Indian Improvements" toward Prairie Ronde to a point on the road from the northeast arm of Prairie Ronde to the county seat. And, in 1834, roads were laid out from

Indian Fields to Climax Prairie, from Comstock to Gourd-Neck

Prairie, and from Prairie Ronde to Genesee P r a i r i e . 31

Settlers Evaluation as Revealed by Prices Paid for Public School and University Land

The relative cash value of the county's landscape types in the eyes of the settlers is shown by the time of purchase and prices paid for tracts of public school land (section 16

29 (White Pigeon) Michigan Statesman and St. Joseph Chronicle, August 9, 1834.

^ Ibld. , September 6, 1834. Q T Record Book of the Township of Schoolcraft, pp. 3, 26, 28, 297"lny:------— ------142

In each township) and land set aside to finance the state university. The public school land in Kalamazoo County was first brought onto the market in 1837 at a minimum price of

$4.00 per acre. Those section sixteens which were oak open­ ings (excluding section 16, Kalamazoo Township, which had a higher value due to its location near the county seat) were purchased mainly in the 1840fs at prices ranging from $4.00 to $8.00 an acre. The school lands in Wakeshma and Prairie

Ronde townships were located in the beech-maple heavy timber.

The first purchase in section 16, Prairie Ronde Township, took place in 1842 at $5.00 per acre, while the first pur­ chase in section 16, Wakeshma Township, did not take place until i860, at the minimum price. The nearby prairie market for timber may account for the earlier sale of the Prairie

Ronde school land.

Contrasted to this rather late sale and relatively low value attached to the oak openings and beech-maple heavy timbered school land was the time of sale and price paid for school land which included prairie. Such land in Richland

Township, was purchased in 1837, the first year of sale, at prices up to $8.50 per acre. The school land in Schoolcraft

Township, being mostly prairie, was immediately taken up when brought onto the market at prices up to $18.50 per acre.^2

32"Plat and Sales Records of Primary and University Lands: l837“l871,u Records of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Lands Division, pp. ll4-£o8, located in the Michigan Histori­ cal Commission Archives, Lansing, Michigan. The dates of purchase and selling prices of the universi­ ty land in Kalamazoo County tell the same story. The only university land in the county valued highly enough to be purchased in 1837 at $20.00 per acre, the 1837 minimum price, was the prairie land. Section 22, Richland Township, sections

7, 18, and 19, Kalamazoo Township, and sections 28 and 30,

Schoolcraft Township, being all or part prairie land, had purchases made on them in 1837 at $20.00 per acre. On the other hand, that part of section 13, Brady Township which was assigned to the university after the Indian title was ex­ tinguished, being beech-maple heavy timber, was first entered in 1855 at $12.00 per acre; and section 19, Brady Township, also assigned to the university, and which was originally oak openings, but when purchased was undoubtedly grown up into timbered openings, was first entered in 1852 at the

$12.00 per acre minimum price.^3

The location of the university lands in the county is in itself revealing of the different values placed on the coun­ ty's landscapes. Whereas the land set aside for the public schools was automatically section 16 in each township, the university land was selected by commissioners who actually viewed the landscape. These men for obvious reasons sought to select land that would sell early and bring a high price.

Map 19 shows that the parcels in Kalamazoo County originally set aside to finance the state university were located on or 144 at the edge of prairies.

Landscape Evaluation In Relation to Settlers Origin

Most of the settlers who came to Kalamazoo County In

1828 and 1829 were from the south and entered the state by the Port Wayne route. If these southerners ever held any prejudice against prairie land, their views had certainly changed by 1828, for the Kalamazoo County landscape they then preferred was the prairie-forest boundary. A pioneer from

New England who came to Prairie Ronde in 1830 reported that when he arrived he found a few people there Who had come in from Kentucky the previous year and settled along the west- 34 ern edge of the prairie. Because of the dominance of southerners, a community on the northeastern part of Prairie 35 Ronde was for many years known as "Virginia Corners."

Even as late as 1836 the southern element was still conspicu­ ous in the county, as was brought out by a traveller of that year who saw many Virginians squatted on Grand Prairie.36

Most of those early squatters who sold out their "claims" to incoming Yankees were probably of a southern background.

During the early years of settlement of Prairie Ronde, due to the large proportion of southerners, southern cultural

V. N. Lothrop, "Edwin Howard Lothrop," Michigan Pio­ neer Collections, Vol. 11 (1887), p. 234.

G . Wells, (Speech at the) "Ninth Annual Renunion of the Pioneers of Kalamazoo County, August 14, 1879," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 (l88l), p. 521.

^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p* 448. li*5 traits were much in evidence, and thus, because different, attracted the notice of the Yankee emigrants. A young east­ erner who arrived on the west side of Prairie Ronde in the spring of 1830 noted that the settlers there combined farm­ ing with hunting and trapping, and that the chief entertain­ ments among the southerners were horse racing, wrestling, jumping, and shooting at a mark. He also reported that whis­ key was their main luxury. "Every one drank it to keep out

cold, heat, pain of every kind, as an antidote against ague 37 and as a bond of sociability." As late as 1833 the south­ ern cultural influence was still strong on Prairie Ronde. A traveller of that year was impressed with the prevalence on

the prairie of such southern recreations as fox hunting and bear baiting. In a conversation with this visitor, a son

of Kentucky compared the land near Detroit with Prairie Ronde

in these words: "Prom the eastern side stranger? I am told

its tolerable frog pasture. Now here the soil’s so deep one

can’t raise any long sarce — they all get pulled through

the other side."^

Nor did the Yankees avoid the prairies. They, too,

were attracted to Kalamazoo County by these grassy landscapes.

The New York and New England settlers began arriving in force

in 1830, and soon had taken up the remainder of the prairie

37 Henry Parker Smith (?), no pagination.

^Hoffman, Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), pp. 430-432. 146

land In the county. Some entered the county from the south by way of the Chicago Road from Detroit. Many others, how­ ever, came In from Calhoun County through the oak openings.

Several had first settled in Ohio before removing to Kalama­

zoo County, but many others came directly from New England

and New York. One of the first arrivals on the Schoolcraft

Township portion of Prairie Ronde came straight from Massa­

chusetts in June of 1830, being drawn to western Inner Michi­

gan by the tales of the fertile soil and cleared land of its 39 prairies. The first settler on Climax Prairie was from 40 Vermont; the initial settlers on Gull Prairie were New 41 Englanders who had first settled near Cleveland, Ohio. 42 Much of Toland's Prairie was occupied by Vermonters, and

Genesee Prairie received its name from Genesee County, New

York, the original home of some of its initial residents.1^

The changing composition of the occupants on Prairie

Ronde was in evidence by the early 1830's. A November, 1831

arrival on the prairie noticed that the settlers who then

fringed the prairie "were mostly plain uneducated men from

Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia, five or six from Vermont, about

^Lothrop, Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 11 (1887), p. 234. 4 0 Hodgman, in Durant, p. 345.

^Durant, p. 457.

42Ibid., p. 355. 4 3 -’James M. Thomas, p. 129. 147 as many from Massachusetts, one or two families from Connecti- 44 cut, and at least one young man from New Hampshire." A southern settler on Prairie Ronde revealed the changing cul­ tural make-up of the prairie when he told an 1833 traveller that "we can winter our cows...on wooden clocks, there's so many Yankees among us."^5

But not all of the easterners preferred prairie land.

Some who arrived early enough to obtain this took up oak openings instead. Several such individuals in Richland Town­ ship, for example, who entered their land on the first day of land sale in the county, and thus, it would appear, were on the scene soon enough to obtain prairie land, had instead 46 selected oak openings near Gull Prairie. One of these settlers, who lived on the road from Bronson to Gull Prai­ rie, told an 1836 traveller the reason he had not taken up prairie land. According to the traveller's account:

A settler near the edge [of Gull Prairie] at whose house we dined, stated to me that from his own experience he preferred openings to prairie, that the old farmers on the latter think they begin to perceive a slight deterioration of soil by culti­ vation, whereas in Washtenaw Co: for instance,

^E. Lakin Brown, Michigan Pioneer Collections. Vol. 3 (1881), p. 524.

^Hoffman, Michigan History. Vol. 9 (1925), p. 430.

^ S e e for instance the purchases of Seldon Norton, William Logan, and Samuel Boyles, in the Kalamazoo County Tract Book. 148

some parts of which have been settled 12 years the openings have continued to Improve with every crop to the present time.47

Farming Practices Among Initial Settlers

It is often assumed that Interior Michigan settlers who were first in an area were by necessity subsistence farmers for many years. Such an assertion, based on secondary sources, has recently been made about the pioneers of Kala­ mazoo County. The writer stated, "The early pioneers of

Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties are accurately described as subsistence farmers....In the earliest years, there was not enough production of crops or livestock from farms to result in surpluses, mostly due to the small proportions of farms 48 under cultivation." On the contrary! Since, as the above quoted writer did not recognize, the early farmers of Kala­ mazoo County were on the prairies, and could, therefore, immediately bring under cultivation large acreages, sur­ pluses were soon available. And, as pointed out in a pre­ vious section, a market was available for these surpluses 4Q in the multitude of incoming settlers. ^

The pioneers believed the best way to prepare the prai­ rie land for wheat, the money crop of the period, was to

^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p. 449. This settler may have been Samuel Boyles who purchased an oak openings farm on June 18, 1831, in the SE 1/4 of section 28, Richland Township, through which passed the road from Bronson to Gull Prairie. Jl o Heller, Australian Geographical Studies, Vol. '4 (1966), p. 110. ^ S e e Chapter III, p. 59. 149 precede it by corn in order to speed up the decay of the root system of the prairie grass. The ideal planting se­ quence has been described by an early arrival on Prairie

Ronde who saw prairie farming in southwestern Michigan in

1829.

...and what caps the climax is they plow with a six-horse team, and drop the corn in every third furrow, turn the next on it, and never touch a plow to it afterward, and get from 30 to 50 bushels per acre; the year after 40 bushels of wheat.50

Although the prairie sod presented some difficulty to the initial settlers of Kalamazoo County, since, prior to

June, 1831, it was necessary to grow a crop in order to establish their "claim,” the prairie portion of their farms was immediately brought into production. If the settler ar­ rived in the spring, the above described sequence was fol­ lowed, but if he arrived too late for corn, under the pres­ sure to grow a crop on his claim, the settler would plant wheat on the newly broken prairie sod.

Numerous examples of both sequences may be pointed out.

The first settler on Prairie Ronde arrived too late to plant a crop in 1828, but in the spring of 1829 he planted some of his prairie land to corn and buckwheat, followed by wheat in the fall.*^ Another farmer on Prairie Ronde, who arrived

^Letter, "Thaddeus Smith to his wife," June 14, 1829, in Durant, pp. 517-518.

51-Durant, p. 439; E. Lakin Brown, "Paper Read Before the Pioneer Reunion at Vicksburg, August, 1875," in Stanley Barney Smith Papers. Western Michigan University Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan. 150 in April, 1829, planted corn and potatoes on his prairie cp land a few weeks after his arrival. a young pioneer who stayed with a settler on the west side of Prairie Ronde re­ ported that in the spring of 1830, "Mr. and Mrs. C. were just then plowing up a bit of the prairie near the house for immediate cultivation." The plow beam, he recalled,

"rested on the axel trees of a lumber wagon," and two teams of oxen and one team of young heifers pulled the wooden mold plow. On this prairie land Mr. C. raised "mamoth corn" and "splendid potatoes."53 The first resident on Climax

Prairie arrived there in May of 1831, and to establish his claim he plowed twenty acres of the prairie and planted corn 54 with an axe in the newly turned sod. The first on Toland's

Prairie reached there too late to plant corn, so he planted 55 wheat to insure his claim.

Thus, by the year following the initial settlement of

a prairie, a wheat crop should have been ready for harvest.

Prairie Ronde received its first settlers in the late fall

and winter of 1828-29; the first crops were planted in 1829, therefore, the first wheat crop should have been harvested

•^Durant, p. 452.

53Henry Parker Smith (?), no pagination. (Mr. C. was Abner Calhoun).

5^A. D. P. Van Buren, "Biographical Sketches - Caleb Eldred," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 5 (1882), p. 389.

55a . D. P. Van Buren, "History of the First Settlement of Comstock," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 7 (1884), p. 479. 151 in the summer of 1830. This supposition is substantiated by the observation of a settler who came to the prairie in the summer of 1830. He reported, "when I arrived, in June,

1830, the crops presented a fine appearance. Some of them yielded very heavily, and the wheat crop of that year was well remembered by many old settlers as being the first harvested on the prairie."^6 Since the other prairies of the county were settled mainly in the years 1830 and 1831,

Prairie Ronde had a one or two year head start in the growing of crops. This fact, combined with its large area of im­ mediately usable cropland, meant that Prairie Ronde was in a position to become, as it did in fact, the "granary of the whole country for many miles about.

That the prairies in general, and Prairie Ronde in particular, very early produced surpluses which were sold is indisputable if the contemporary literature is to be believed.

An early settler on Gull Prairie reported that in 1831 he drove a wagon to Prairie Ronde to buy wheat and corn. He purchased wheat from Daniel Bacon on the north side of the prairie, which he had ground at the new grist mill at Vicks­ burg. He obtained corn from the Duncans on the south side, and had it milled at Flowerfield, across the county line in

St. Joseph County. Nor was he the only buyer of grain on

56 J N. M. Thomas, "Reminiscences," Michigan Pioneer Col­ lections, Vol. 28 (1897-98), p. 535; N. M. Thomas, J,Remi- nisces and Incidents," in Durant, p. 508.

E . Lakin Brown, in James M. Thomas, p. 82. 152

on Prairie Ronde at that time, for he encountered Caleb

Eldred, the first settler on Climax Prairie, who was also eg there on a wheat purchasing trip. Another source indicates

that the early occupants of Toland’s Prairie also went to 59 Prairie Ronde in 1831 to buy wheat. The extent of the

grain surpluses on Prairie Ronde is further revealed by the

fact that as early as 1833 its wheat was being exported to

eastern markets by way of Three Rivers and the St. Joseph

River.60

Nor were wheat and corn the only crops raised on Prai­

rie Ronde for sale during the initial settlement years. This

is shown by the report that settlers at Marshall, Calhoun

County, went to Bronson (Kalamazoo) in 1831 to buy potatoes

from Titus Bronson^1 who had the previous year raised them 6 p on his land on Prairie Ronde. Early settlers near Battle

Creek also purchased Prairie Ronde potatoes their first f) O year. The diversity of the contemporary commercial activity

^^Henry Little, "Reminiscences of Kalamazoo Forty Years Ago," in Western Michigan University Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

59van Buren, Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 7 (1884), p. 480. ^°E. Lakln Brown, "Paper Read Before the Annual Picnic at Long Lake (1890)," in Stanley Barney Smith Papers, in West­ ern Michigan University Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan, no pagination. ^ E . G. Rust, Calhoun County Business Directory for 1869- 1870.... (Battle Creek, 1869), p. lB6 . ^ Quarter Centennial Celebration of the Settlement of Kalamazoo (1B5^)» P« 6 ^ Van Buren, in Durant, p. 86. 153 on Prairie Ronde is revealed by an 1835 newspaper advertise­ ment by a farmer of the prairie. The offer to sell "Mulberry

Trees...of two years growth" was obviously not made by a subsistence farmer.^

It is, therefore, apparent that the commercial activity of many of the pioneers of Kalamazoo County was much too ex­ tensive and varied to classify them as subsistence farmers.

Surpluses of wheat, corn and potatoes were being sold within two years of the first planting of crops on Prairie Ronde.

And, since the wheat crop of 1830 "presented a fine appear­ ance” and "yielded heavily," it is probable that wheat was being sold in 1830— only one year after the first crops were planted. The same pattern was undoubtedly likewise true for the other prairies of the county. These surpluses were not only sold to the incoming settlers, but, as early as 1833, were also being exported to eastern markets.

Seven Settlers as Examples

In this section a brief look will be taken at seven early settlers who typify the initial agricultural occupancy of Kalamazoo County. In this way it is possible to show how some of the generalizations previously made apply to indi­ vidual immigrants. These men were among the earliest ar­ rivals in their locale and, therefore, had an unhindered

choice of the land. We are primarily Interested in the

^(White Pigeon) Michigan Statesman and St. Joseph Chronicle, May 1 6 , 1831T 154 location and type of lands taken up and only secondarily In biography. 6b Bazel Harrison ^

Bazel Harrison was the first settler in Kalamazoo Coun­ ty and, therefore, had the opportunity to select whatever location most pleased him. He was born in Maryland, raised in Virginia and Pennsylvania, and had been a farmer in Ken­ tucky and Ohio before emigrating to Michigan. He decided to come to Michigan when a title dispute arose over the land near Cincinnati which he thought he owned. Thus, in the fall of 1828, Harrison and his family, several neighbors and their families, driving a miscellany of horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, set out to locate new land. One of Harrison's sons had lived a year in the oak openings— prairie county near

Michigan's southern border and had brought back glowing re­ ports of that area. The migrants followed a route that led them, by way of Fort Wayne and Elkhart Prairie, into west­ ern Inner Michigan.

Harrison had definite ideas about the physical and so­ cial environment he desired. His companions urged him to stop and settle on some of the inviting and sparsely occupied land in northern Indiana, but Harrison, perhaps due to his previous land problems, wanted to locate in an area where he would be the first arrival. Stopping the group just south of the Michigan Territory line, Harrison and a few others

65primarily from the Kalamazoo Telegraph, August 31, 1874. 155 set forth to spy out the land to the north. They had heard of a large unoccupied prairie (Prairie Ronde) forty miles to the north and decided to look it over. After viewing its southern end, they, on November 5, 1828, brought up their families, determined this prairie was to be their new home.

But where? The site selected by Harrison reveals that he wanted grassland for farming, timber for his fire, fences and buildings, water for his household and animals, and pos­ sibly also protection from the cold north and northwest win­ ter winds. An Indian, after some questioning, led Harrison to the type location he sought.

Harrison picked out for himself and his sons land on the northwestern edge of Prairie Ronde (see Map 20 and Pig. 6).

The location had a sufficient amount of the prairie for farming, and there was also oak openings and some lowland heavy timber to supply the needed timber. But these condi­ tions could have been had in many places along the border of the prairie. The factor which finally determined his choice was apparently the presence of the above advantages in con­ junction with a supply of water from a small lake near the prairie edge.

The value of Harrison's selection to pioneers desiring to settle on Prairie Ronde is attested to by the fact that others had previously noted its advantages and wanted the location. An 1829 settler on Prairie Ronde claimed that, earlier in 1828, he and his father had "picked out the place where Judge Harrison resides," but while they were on their 156

KALAMAZOO COUNTY

FEDERAL LAND PURCHASED IN 1830 AND 1831 8Y SEVEN SELECTED SETTLERS

COOPER

THAI

3

THt illTHM p Soiol Horrito«i j j ioniom in Drofco

| Abrom I. Shovor William Ciddingi tN | Cdwin H Lothrop

| Colob fldrod Public School ond Uniwftiljr load

I Ii h k Tolond £ toko o Promo o»i I O l

Mop 20 157

Figure 6. View looking southeastward across Prairie Ronde from the site of Bazel Harri­ son's Initial purchase. The tree line about two miles In the distance Is the "Big Island." way back to Ohio, Harrison settled the spot. And another eventual settler on the prairie claimed that at the site taken up by Harrison, he had, in 1828, cut a blaze on a burr oak tree and written his name on the blaze, hoping that when he returned he could claim the location.®7

On November 19, 1830, to protect his selection, Harrison, under one of his son's name, purchased by the right of a pre-emption claim, the SE 1/4 of section 2, Prairie Ronde

Township (Map 2 0).®® By doing this he obtained about 80 acres of prairie, some oak openings, some lowland heavy tim­ ber near the lake, and part of the lake itself. In the sum­ mer of 1831, after the land came onto the market, Harrison also purchased the W 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of section 11, and the

N 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of section 2, both in Prairie Ronde Town- 69 ship. ^ Thus, he obtained additional prairie and timber for his farm. Also in the summer of 1831, probably as a specula­

tive venture, he acquired the S 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of section

4, Prairie Ronde Township, oak openings land, and E 1/2 of

the NW 1/4 of section 18, Schoolcraft Township, prairie

land.7^ Both of these areas were about two miles from his

original purchase.

^Durant, p. 444.

67Ibid., pp. 443-444. C Q Kalamazoo County Tract Book.

69ibid.

7°Ibid. The house was built near the southern end of the lake

(Harrison Lake) near the section line between his land in 71 sections 2 and 11. The following spring Harrison plowed a portion of his prairie acreage and planted it to corn and buckwheat. In the fall of 1829 this land was planted to 7 2 wheat, which was harvested in the summer of 1830.' His stock consisted of cows, horses, and sheep.

Abram I. Shaver?3

Another of the first settlers on Prairie Ronde was

Abram I. Shaver. He, too, arrived early enough to have his choice of a location. Shaver was originally from New York, but had moved to Ohio in the 1820’s prior to his coming to

Michigan. He arrived at Prairie Ronde on December 25, 1828, and selected land on the west side of the prairie. He thought highly of the prairie land, but at first had a

"mighty mean idea of the oak openings...would not have given a cent for as many acres of it as the moon could shine on in an entire clear night."

The land Shaver thought best suited for his needs con­ sisted of part prairie and part heavy timber, probably

?!a commemorative plaque now marks the spot.

?2Durant, p. 439; E. Lakin Brown, "Paper Read Before the Pioneers Reunion at Vicksburg, August, 1875," in Stanley Barney Smith Papers, in Western Michigan University Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan, no pagination. 7 ^ Mainly from Durant, pp. 439—443i and Stevens Biographi­ cal File, in the Kalamazoo County Museum, Kalamazoo, Michigan. separated by a small tract of oak openings (Maps 10 and 20).

Since this site was already occupied by a squatter, to obtain the location Shaver had to buy the squatter's "claim." Tak­ ing advantage of the pre-emption law of 1830, he, on October

11 of that year, purchased the E 1/2 of the SE 1/4 of sec­ tion 10, and the E 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of section 15, Prairie

Ronde Township (see Pig. 7).7**

Having secured the desired site for his farm, the prai­

rie-heavy timber border, Shaver began some small-scale land

speculation. Probably realizing that since the prairie-

heavy timber border locations were rapidly being taken up,

and that the later settlers who would occupy the open prai­

rie would be in need of wood, he purchased the E 1/2 of the

SW 1/4 and the W 1/2 of the SE 1/4 of section 9, Praire Ronde 75 Township, all heavy timber, in December 1831. That he was

willing to sell his heavily timbered land, if he could make

a sufficient profit, is evidenced by the fact that in 1831

he sold 80 such acres in section 15 for $250, making a profit

of $150. It may have been this transaction that enabled him

to buy the timbered land in section 9 in December of the

same year.

Shaver built his cabin at the edge of the prairie and

in April of 1829 plowed a portion of his prairie land and

planted corn, which was no doubt followed by wheat in the

74 Kalamazoo County Tract Book.

75Ibid. Fig. 7

Abram L Shaver's pre-emption deed to the e Vj of the NEVs of Section 15 Prairie tonde Township. D ate of issue-A pril 1, 1831. fall. His first wheat crop, probably harvested in the summer of 1830, yielded 42 bushels to the acre. Since his farm had no surface water on It, Shaver certainly dug a well. The water table on the west side of Prairie Ronde could then be 7 6 reached at a depth of about 18 feet.

Edwin H. Lothrop??

One of the first settlers on the Schoolcraft Township portion of Prairie Ronde was Edwin H. Lothrop, a native of

Massachusetts. He was a farmer who had been drawn to Kala­ mazoo County by the favorable reports about its prairies.

He arrived on Prairie Ronde in June of 1830 and must have im­ mediately selected his land and begun to plow and plant a crop, because in October and November of 1830 he purchased

320 acres under the 1830 pre-emption law.^® This conclusion is borne out by his brother’s statement that Edwin "began at once to enclose and cultivate his farm."

Lothrop's pre-emption choice reveals his evaluation of

f^On the Prairie Ronde Township map in the Michigan Maps: 1838-1841, (Vol. 6), made by the assistant state geologists Bela Hubbard and C. C. Douglass, two wells are shown along the west side of the prairie: one is 18 feet deep, and the other 20 feet deep.

77Mainly from Durant, pp. 504-510; and G. V. N. Lothrop, "Edwin H. Lothrop," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 11 (1887), pp. 235-237.

7®The 1830 pre-emption allowance was 160 acres per set­ tler. Lothrop appears to be one of many who was able to evade the letter of the law. Not only was he somehow able to pre-empt more land than the law allowed, but since he hadnot cultivated and lived on the land in 1829, as the 1830 law specificed, he was not legally qualified to a pre-emption claim. the Kalamazoo County landscape. According to his brother,

Edwin "selected a spot on the southern margin of the prairie, and there in the shelter of a projecting tongue of the for­ est, he built a log cabin....The greater part of it was prairie, but its value was much enhanced by some fine timber.

It was also well watered...." The Kalamazoo County Tract

Book shows that the land Lothrop pre-empted in 1830 con­ sisted of the E 1/2 of the NE 1/4 and the W 1/2 of the SW 1/4 of section 32, and the E 1/2 of the SE 1/4 and the E 1/2 of the SW 1/4 of section 29, all in Schoolcraft Township (Map

20). When the land in Kalamazoo County came onto the market he also purchased the W 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of section 27. He thus had in one contiguous piece of land approximately 100 acres of prairie and 60 acres of oak openings. Within a mile of this central location he also had another 90 acres of prairie, some more openings, and 50 to 60 acres of lowland heavy timber. His 160 acre home farm was within a quarter mile of a stream and his property on section 27 had a stream

running through its northeastern corner. Thus Lothrop pos­

sessed all the requirements for successful farming— prairie

land that could be tilled with no clearing necessary, timber

for fire, fences and buildings, and water.

Caleb Eldred^

Among the first residents on Climax Prairie were Caleb

Eldred and his sons, from New York. Eldred came to Kalamazoo

^Mainly from A. D. P. Van Buren, "Biographical Sketches - Caleb Eldred," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 5 (1882), pp. 387-390; and Durant, pp. 326-328. County in the summer of 1830 and becoming involved with the development of the waterpower at the site of present day Corn- stock, eventually purchased land along Comstock Creek. But in May of 1831 he heard of a beautiful unsettled prairie to the southeast and decided to look it over. Doing so, and liking what he saw, Eldred determined to stake a claim to a portion of the prairie. He attempted to establish a claim for himself and his sons to all of section 2, Climax Township, by plowing and planting corn on a 20 acre tract in its center in such a way that he could assert that he had cultivated a portion of all four quarter sections.

Eldred’s attempt at reserving all of section 2 failed, but he was able to eventually obtain a sizable portion of

Climax Prairie. If he had been successful in getting all of the section, he would have had about 400 acres of prairie and 240 acres of oak openings. Apparently he was not able to claim pre-emption because he had not actually occupied the land and raised a crop. He, therefore, had to wait un­ til the next month (June, 1831) to buy the land at the regu­ lar Land Sale at White Pigeon. On June 18, 1831, Eldred was able to purchase, under his son’s names, the SE 1/4 and the

NW 1/4 of section 2, and the SE 1/4 of section 3> Climax 80 Township (Map 20). This acquisition gave him approximate- 81 ly 280 acres of prairie and 200 acres of oak openings.

80 Kalamazoo County Tract Book.

Q -1 Some doubts exists about the prairie boundary in section 3. See footnote 61, Chapter IV. Thus, with the digging of a shallow well, Eldred had the necessities for successful farming.

Isaac (William) Toland^2

Although he was not a permanent dweller in Comstock

Township, Mr. Toland was the township's first settler, and was there ]ong enough to give his name to the site of his lo­ cation— Toland’s Prairie. The historical accounts give

Toland’s home prior to his coming to Michigan as upper Cana­ da. He settled first at Ypsilanti, and came to Kalamazoo

County from there in the late summer of 1829.

According to the records, Toland came to the prairie in

August or September of 1829, broke up 18 acres, planted wheat, and built a log cabin. The land he thus staked his claim to was said to be the W 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of section

23. This may have been a speculative venture because he re­ turned to Ypsilanti to spend the winter, and, therefore, did not actually live on his claim. Other immigrants, however,

could not dispute his right to the land for he had as evi­

dence a crop and a cabin. Thus, if one of the others ob­

tained the location, he would have to buy out Toland’s

’’claim."

There is some disagreement in the records about exactly

what land Toland laid claim to and what happened to it.

^Mainly from A. D. P. Van Buren, "History of the First Settlement of the Township of Comstock," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 7 (1884), pp. 479-484; and Durant, pp. 352- 553. Van £uren calls him "William," Durant uses the name "Isaac." 166

The 1880 History of Kalamazoo County indicates that Toland did not enter his claim himself, but had it done for him by

Calvin White. It also states that he sold out to Moore and

Lovell in the spring of 1831. This account is not verified by the land entries recorded in the Kalamazoo County Tract

Book. The land entered by Calvin White was the E 1/2 of the

NE 1/4 of section 23, not the W 1/2. Toland probably had selected the W 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of section 23, as the histo­ ry says, but must have sold out his rights to Moore and

Lovell without ever having purchased the land from the govern­ ment .

This procedure of establishing a "claim" to a desirable piece of land and then selling out was a common way to make money without expending any. An early arrival, like Toland, would simply squat on a desirable location, plant a crop and build a cabin to prove that he had "lived on" and "cultivated" the land, and therefore, was fully qualified to the pre-emp­ tion claim. He would then sell out his "rights" and "improve­ ments" to a later arrival with cash who wanted the land.

Benjamin Prake^3

The first settler in Oshtemo Township was Benjamin

Drake, who arrived on September 1, 1830. He was a native of

New York, had moved to Ohio in 1820, then to St. Clair Coun­ ty, Michigan, before coming to Kalamazoo County. The location

^Mainly from Durant, pp. 409-410; James M. Thomas, p. 129; and George Torrey, "Kalamazoo County," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 1(1876), pp. 202-211. 167 on which Drake desired to settle was, when he arrived, already occupied by a squatter. After some argument over the validity of the squatter’s rights, Drake was able to establish his claim to the land and buy it at the land sale on June 20,

1831.

The type landscape being contested? Again prairie! At the June sale at White Pigeon, Drake purchased from the government the E 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of section 13, Oshtemo 84 Township, and in October of the same year he similarly acquired the W 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of section 13 (Map 20). In all, he obtained about 80 acres of prairie, the remainder Re: being oak openings and heavy timber. J He thus assured him­ self of readily usable crop land and timber. Water, however, was more of a problem. Until a well was dug, Drake probably had to haul water from the nearest lake. And digging the well was no small task. In this higher area of the county, the water table was at a considerable depth below the sur­ face. He probably had to sink his well 70 or 80 feet to

84 Kalamazoo County Tract Book. Durant and Thomas disagree about How Drake obtained the land. Durant is incorrect in stating that Drake at this time purchased some of Grand Prai­ rie in Kalamazoo Township, for that portion of Grand Prairie in Kalamazoo Township was reserved as university land and did not come onto the market until 1837.

^The surveyor had described the land along the line east between sections 12 and 13, Oshtemo Township, as: "35.00 [chains] thick woods...69.00 [chains] Indian village in edge of prairie...1st 1/2 mile as before [oak openings] 2nd do 1st rate thick woods and prairie." (United States Sur­ vey Field Notes, Book 25, p. 347). 168 strike water.

Drake’s initial utilization of his land is in doubt.

One account indicates he planted a crop soon after arriving.

If he did, it was wheat. He may have, on the other hand, planted corn the following spring, followed in the fall by wheat. The 40 head of cattle he brought with him were win­ tered on hay cut from the prairie grass. His log cabin was at the prairie’s edge.®^

William Giddings^

Although not the first to arrive in Richland Township,

William Giddings reached there within a month of the initial

settlers, and thus, had a wide selection of locations from which to choose. Giddings came to Detroit from Connecticut

in the summer of 1830, and travelled along the Chicago Road

Into western Inner Michigan seeking prairie land on which to

or °An 1836 traveller reported that on Grand Prairie, "Having no water, the farmers use wells entirely, which re­ quire to be sunk some 80 feet." (Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 [1959], p. 448).

®?The United States Geological Survey 1/62,500 Kalamazoo quadrangle,printed in 1918, shows a farmstead located in the center of the NE 1/4 of section 13, Oshtemo Township, which is connected to the section-line road by a quarter mile long lane. This farmstead was probably the site of Drake's origi­ nal one and marks the prairie's edge in that section. An­ other farmstead with a quarter mile lane to the section-line road is shown on the map on the line between sections 12 and 13. This farmstead was, undoubtedly, also originally located at the edge of the prairie. 88 °Mainly from Durant, p. 458; a letter from Marsh Giddings (son of William Giddings) to the editor of the Kalamazoo Gazette, September 12, 1872, printed in Durant, p. 458; and James M. Thomas, p. 139. settle. But all the prairie land in the southern tier of counties had by this time been taken up. It, however, was still to be had in Kalamazoo County.

Giddings and family arrived on Gull Prairie in June of

1830 and he proceeded at once to select lots on its west side. However, this portion of the prairie was designated as university land and he had to take a smaller quantity on the east side. Since William Giddings died in January 1831, when the land was purchased at the June 18 sale that year, it was under his wife’s name. The land selected was the

NE 1/4 of section 23, and the W 1/2 of the SW 1/4 of section 89 24 (Map 20). By this purchase Jane Giddings obtained about 120 acres of prairie and an equal amount of oak open­ ings.

Agricultural Settlement 1832-1834

Although the most desirable farm land, the prairies, had been largely taken up by settlers or speculators by the end of 1831, the oak openings and beech-maple heavy timber remained essentially unoccupied and unpurchased at that time

(see Map 22). A brief look at the land selected by the agricultural settlers who arrived in the period 1832 through

1834 should reveal which of the remaining landscapes they preferred.

As shown on the preceding pages, the choice was already being made in 1831. In that year several early settlers in

8q ^Kalamazoo County Tract Book. 170

Richland Township showed that they favored oak openings over both prairie and heavy timber.That the oak openings were preferred to the heavy timber was again revealed by the fact

that the oak openings parts of public school and university

lands were purchased earlier than the beech-maple heavy tim­ ber parts.91 A comparison of Maps 10 and 21 further reveals

that the oak openings were more highly esteemed by the early

settlers of Kalamazoo County than were the areas of beech- maple heavy timber. The maps show that the two largest ex­ panses of beech-maple heavy timber, in the southeastern and

southwestern corners of the county, were essentially without

occupants in 1834, and that most of the agricultural settlers who purchased government land from 1832 through 1834 located

on the oak openings.

Although the settler's preference for the oak openings

is evident from Map 21, also apparent is their need for tim­

ber. Since the oak openings often did not supply the wood

they required, some settlers selected a location which in­

cluded some heavy timber as well. This pattern is especially

evident in sections 8, 21, and 29 of Cooper Township, and is

similarly discernible in sections 25 and 26 of Comstock

Township.

The contemporary literature supports the conclusion that

the Kalamazoo County oak openings were favored by the set­

tlers over the beech-maple heavy timbered land. The first

9°See pp. 147-1*48.

91See pp. 141-143. 171

KALAMAZOO COUNTY

DISTRIBUTION OF INITIAL PURCHASES BY SETTLERS WHO PURCHASED FEDERAL LAND FROM 1832-1834 (EXCLUDING VILLAGES)

£ -

E 5 6M8 as62 asi

Initial Cnfry by $*H(#n Who ^ckow d ftdtrol Loud from lo lio t 1832 Through 1834 0 N

Public School ond Umvornty lond

o mi I Or o

Mo p 21 settlements in those townships which had an oak openings landscape generally occurred as soon as the prairie land of the county was all taken up. For example, the first settler in Ross Township occupied oak openings land in section 18 in

1832. ^ The first settler in Cooper Township, in 1833 selected oak openings land in sections 2 and 11 through which ran a small stream;^ at the same time he purchased, probably for its timber, lowland heavy timber in section 10. And the initial settler in Pavilion Township in 1834 took up oak openings on section 2.9^ That the settlement of the county spread from the prairies into the oak openings was recognized by an early historian who reported that in Oshtemo Township by 1836, the settlements were being "pushed" into the oak openings west of Grand Prairie.

If they had the money, the settlers preferred to buy prairie or oak openings land from speculators, rather than purchase the beech-maple heavy timbered land still available, especially in Wakeshma Township, from the government. This was the case, even though in 1836 the prairie land was sel­ ling at prices of $10 to $15 per acre and the oak openings

^2Durant, pp. 488-489.

^Author Unknown,"A Brief History of the Life of D. E. Deming," manuscript in Western Michigan University Archives, Kalamazoo Michigan; Durant, p. 397-

^Durant, p. 420. qc -^James M. Thomas, p. 131. at about $5 per acre,^ while the heavy timbered government land sold for $1.25 per acre. For example, Darius Finch in

1836 preferred to purchase oak openings in Ross Township from a speculator rather than take up the cheaper heavy timbered government land elsewhere in the county. ^ But those who could not afford to purchase the prairie or oak openings land from the speculators had to be satisfied with the beech- maple heavy timber. An 1834 settler in Prairie Ronde Town­ ship who had little money found himself forced to take up heavy timbered acreage in section 5.^® And an 1841 arrival in Comstock Township, who apparently also could not afford the higher priced prairie or oak openings, had to locate in the heavy timber in section 32 and "reclaim" it from its QQ wilderness state.•7*7

The lack of interest in settling in the beech-maple heavy timber is revealed by the general absence of early in­ formation about Wakeshma Township. The 1869-70 Kalamazoo

County Directory reported that Wakeshma Township "has been looked upon as a wilderness and forsaken place umbrageous and ambiguous with here and there a squatter," and was "just

^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), pp. 270, 273, 285, 449.

^Durant, p. 489.

^Author Unknown, "Biographic Notes - Russell Munger," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 14 (1889), p. 129.

^Durant, p. 358. 174 now [1869] getting Itself out of the woods."1®® Wakeshma

Township did not receive its first settler until 1842, four­ teen years after the first in the county, and he probably would have taken up prairie or oak openings if he could have afforded them. The reluctance of the settlers to locate in the heavy timbered land in Wakeshma Township is understood in the light of the fact that it took this first settler five or six months of hard labor to clear a 20 acre plot for his first crop.101 At this time Prairie Ronde had been ex­ porting wheat for eleven years, and a farmer on Genesee Prai­ rie was producing 1000 bushels of wheat a year on his prairie land!102

It does not appear that the early pioneers of Kalamazoo

County were any more willing to spend five or ten years chop­ ping out a farm from heavy timber, than was the Englishman who summarized his impressions about Inner Michigan in these words:

[The interior of Michigan is] for the most part, a thinly timbered country interspersed with for­ ests and prairie, thereby saving a great part of the immense labor and expense of clearing, which is felt to be a serious obstacle to the English settler in America; whilst at the same time, there is an ample sufficiency of wood for all useful purposes, as building, fuel, etc. The ap­ pearance it presents to the eye is very similar

100James M. Thomas, p. 150.

101Durant, p. 544.

102Lansing B. Swan, Journal of a Trip to Michigan in 1841 (Rochester, New York: Two Hundred Copies Printed for George P. Humphrey, 1904), p. 23. 175

to that of a gentleman's park In this country [England], there being no underwood. The prai­ ries are of a rich and excellent soil, and being covered with long grass and ready for the recep­ tion of stock; and the uplands are well adapted to the production of most kinds of grain, and particularly of wheat and fruit.103

The preference for prairie or oak openings over heavy timber by the settlers coming to western Inner Michigan is further evidenced by the fact that in 1836 the Vermontville Colony had to take up heavy timber in Eaton County because all the prairies and oak openings had alrady been purchased by settlers

or speculators.^2*

This chapter has been concerned with the evaluation of

the Kalamazoo County landscape by those early arrivals who wanted to farm the land. The contemporary literature and the maps of land purchases reveal that for these men the more

open the land the more highly it was valued. The next chapter

will deal with the evaluation of the county by those who

sought to make a quick profit from buying and selling land—

the speculators.

10^(Detroit) Northwestern Journal, October 13, 1830. i nu Edward W. Barber, "The Vermontville Colony: Its Genesis and History, with Personal Sketches of the -Colonists," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 28 (1897-98), p. 209. CHAPTER VII

SPECULATORS' EVALUATION OP THE KALAMAZOO COUNTY LANDSCAPE

Not all of the purchasers of government land In Kala­ mazoo County were Interested In becoming farmers. Many were land speculators1 who sought to make money by buying the cheap government land with the expectation of selling it at a profit in a few years. Most were non-residents who never intended to make "improvements" on their land, hoping, rather, to harvest the unearned increment as the value of land increased. Although it is difficult to ascertain ex­ actly how much of the federal land in the county was origi­ nally purchased by these men, I think it a safe guess that this amounted to over half, and possibly as much as 75 per cent of the total area. Much land that settlers were not interested in occupying until the l8^0's (e.g., Wakeshma

Township) had been purchased by speculators during the flush of speculative activity in 1835, 1836, and 1837. In 1837, outside of the villages, most of the actual residents were

A speculator is here defined as one who purchased at least four pieces of non-contiguous federal land within fifteen months of his original purchase. Some actual set­ tlers would purchase a plot or two of land near their farms; the speculators, on the other hand, purchased hundreds, or even thousands of acres of non-contiguous land.

176 on the prairies, with a beginning of settlement in the oak openings, and hardly anyone yet in the heavy timber. Never­ theless, by the end of 1837, almost all the federal land in the county had been purchased (Map 22).

Patterns, Methods, and Effects of Speculation

The speculative activity in Kalamazoo County may be divided into two distinct periods. The years of 1830-1831 form the first, and those of 1835-1837 the second (Table 2).

The interim period of less speculation, 1832-1834, was caused by the combined scares of the Black Hawk War of 1832 2 and the cholera epidemic of the same year. During the early period, the speculators, like the settlers, had a wide choice of land types from which to choose. Those of the later period had to take what land was left. The purpose of this chapter, then, is to investigate the evaluation of the Kala­ mazoo County landscape by speculators seeking to invest in land that would return them a profit when resold. The loca­ tion of their purchases reveals their evaluation of the county's landscapes. We shall first make some generalizations about the patterns, methods, and effects upon settlement, of the speculation; and then, by examining the activities of several speculators, show how these generalizations apply to individual cases.

E. Lakin Brown, (Speech at the) "Ninth Annual Renunion of Kalamazoo County Pioneers, August 14, 1879," Michigan Pio­ neer Collections, Vol. 3 (1881), p. 524; George N. Fuller, Economic and Social Beginnings of Michigan, (Lansing: Wynkoop Hailenbeck Crawford Company, l£lb), pp. 06-61, 358. 178

KALAMAZOO COUNTY

PURCHASES OF FEDERAL LAND 1830-1837

r ~ - t y i f f f l

r- H i U S S UOI9IIH

f*d*rol lond fn(*rtd i 11)0 — liJI f«d*rol load Kntorod Aflor 1137

<‘**d*ral load Cnttrtdt 11)3->10)4 Pvblic ScKooi and U m w iity lend TN 1«d«rol Land (nltrtdi II)) — 1137 □ P r o in * 0 lo l i* 0 t t mi Mop 22 179

The First Period of Speculation: 1830-1831

Some speculators were active during the first few years of settlement. The county seat speculation was a pre-emption claim, and considerable land was entered by speculators at the June, 1831, land sale. Among these early speculators who had a wide range of landscapes from which to choose, two type locations were generally selected: 1) land most suit­ able for agricultural use, and 2) sites where towns might be developed, i.e., the county seat location, waterpower sites, and a central position in a developing farming area.

The speculators desired land from which they could make a profit with little or no effort on their part. The safest course was to obtain land that was desired for farming and where some settlers were already present. It was generally held that land not situated among actual settlers would in­ crease in value at a slow rate, while that surrounded by settlers would double in value in a year.^ In Kalamazoo

County in the early years this meant the prairies. Thus, the prairie land not taken up through pre-emption in 1830, or acquired by actual settlers during the first few months of the 1831 land sale, was likely to be purchased by specu­ lators. Prairie Ronde, for instance, although occupied mainly around its edge, was entirely in private hands by

^John T. Blois, Gazetteer of the State of Michigan In Three Parts (Detroit: Sydney L. Rood and Co., 1838), p. l5T^; John Gordon, "Michigan Journal, 1836," Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p. 265. 1832 (Map 22), Although some of the prairie land away from the edge was purchased by the settlers, a large portion of it h was obtained by speculators.

Although considerable profit could be made by investing

in farm land, even larger gains were possible in town-site

speculation. The most sought after town site was that of the

county seat. Here would be the economic, political, and

social focus of the county. Here would usually grow its

largest city. Here the sale of town lots would bring high prices and great profit to the speculator lucky enough to ob­

tain the prize. According to an 1817 policy set forth by

Lewis Cass, the territorial governor, the seat of justice of

a county should be a compromise between its geographical cen-

ter and the distribution of its population.

Combined with the compromise, Cass believed another

factor should be considered. He thought the county seat such

a prize to the owner of the site selected, that the county

should be given something in return. Thus, an important pre­

cedent was set by Cass when he wrote, concerning the location

of the county seat of Monroe County, that:

It is proper that the community should receive some compensation from the person who will be benifitted by this location. This compensation

^The largest block of Prairie Ronde was purchased by Lucius Lyon. See the section on him later in this chapter.

^Lewis Cass, Letter, "Lewis Cass to Major John Anderson," June 24, 1817, Lewis Cass Letter Book, located in Michigan Historical Commission Archives, Lansing, Michigan, pp. 135- 137. 181

may be In town lots, in money, labor, or materials for the public buildings. The first, namely town lots are indespensible, others are desirable.6

The presence of some population attracting factor near the center of a county, such as a waterpower site, a navigable stream, or a prairie, would greatly enhance the chances of a particular location being chosen.

What became the county seat of Kalamazoo County, the

SW 1/4 of section 15, Kalamazoo Township, was pre-empted in

1830 by a settler who had in mind when he selected the spot, that it might be able to gain this distinction. When, in

January of 1831, the commissioners appointed by Cass to lo­ cate the county seat of Kalamazoo County arrived, there were no other locations in serious competition for the seat of justice. Thus, it was established on the pre-emption claim in section 15, Kalamazoo Township.?

Another favorable type location for a town-site specu­ lation was one which had waterpower development possibilities.

Among the first services wanted by the Yankee settlers were the milling of wheat and the sawing of lumber. Although many romantic words have been written about the pioneer corn bread called "Johnny-cake" which seems to indicate that the pioneers were reluctant to give it up, this was not the case in Michigan. The Yankee settlers desired, as soon as possible,

6Ibid.

^For a more detailed discussion of the location of the county seat see the section in this chapter on Titus Bron­ son . to exchange it for wheat bread, as the following dialog re­ called by a pioneer reveals.

'How are you getting along, Mr. Olds?' said my mother to our neighbor, as he called at our house. 'Oh, we ain't getting along, we are only staying; it's mighty hard living on Johnny-cake. I shall thank God if we ever live to see the day when we g can have wheat-bread in our family the year round.'

The log cabin was also given up as soon as possible for a better one of sawed lumber. These services, grinding flour and sawing lumber, so highly desired by the Yankee set­ tlers at the time of their settlement in Kalamazoo County, could be supplied only where the force of falling water could be harnessed to supply the power for the grist and saw mill.

Thus, waterpower sites were one of the most important foci around which settlers gathered.

Nearly all accounts about Inner Michigan during the period of initial settlement emphasized the plentiful "water privileges" to be found there.9 One of these noted the im­ portance of mill-sites as potential town locations when it said, "Mills, which may be considered as the buds which bloom into villages in new counties, can be soon erected...."10

®A. D. P. Van Buren, in Samuel W. Durant, History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan (Philadelphia: Everts and Abbott, iron, p. h i . ------

^See for instance the Detroit Gazette for February 26, 1819; July 27, 1821; February 15, l8£2; and February 7, 1826. Also, Helen Everett, "Salmon Keeney's Visit to Michigan in 1827," Michigan History, Vol. 40 (1956), p. 441; and Gordon, Michigan history, Vol. 43 (1959), pp. 265, 276, 280.

10Detroit Gazette, February 26, 1819. And in its continuing effort to publicize the advantages of

Inner Michigan, the Detroit Gazette in 1826 reported that on the tributary streams of the "Canamazoo River” were many excellent mill-sites.^

The importance of the Kalamazoo and its tributaries in attracting early speculators is clearly evident from an exami­ nation of Map 22. Outside of the prairies and the county-seat speculation, the main zone of early land purchases in the county lay along the Kalamazoo River and its tributaries.

It was no random occurrence that, outside of the county seat and Schoolcraft, in the center of the Prairie Ronde farming area, the early successful villages of the county, namely

Comstock and Vicksburg, developed on streams. Thus, the

1837 traveller to western Inner Michigan only stated the ob­ vious when he reported that, "There are quite a number of small villages in this section, consisting of a few houses, 12 stors and so forth collected around mills.”

The other logical location for a town-site speculation during the initial years of settlement was in the center of a dense agricultural settlement— like Prairie Ronde. The farming population, as it grew, would require the services which a village could offer: thus, the rational for the

•^Ibid., February 7, 1826.

12J. 0. Bragman, Letter, "J. 0. Bragman to Daniel Bragman, June 12, 1837, located in Western Michigan University Archives Kalamazoo, Michigan. 13 founding of the village of Schoolcraft at the "Big Island."

The Fever Period of Speculation: 1835-1837

What had been, in 1831, a mild rush by speculators for the favored prairie and potential town-site locations, became,

after the interruption due to the combined 1832 scares of the

Black Hawk War and the cholera epidemic, a wild stampede for

land. Table 2 reveals the magnitude of the speculative fever

of the 1835-1837 period in western Inner Michigan.

TABLE 2

LAND PURCHASES PROM THE WHITE PIGEON AND KALAMAZOO LAND OFFICES14: 1831-183715

Years Acres Dollars

1831 93,179 117,128 1832 74,696 98,060 1833 95,980 123,465 I834 128,244 160,321 1835 745,661 932,076 1836 1,634,511 2,043,866 1837 313,855 394,315 Total 3,086,128 3,869,235

Generalizations which can be made about the lands taken

up during this wild scramble, include the following: 1) lands near the county seat and along the Kalamazoo River were taken

13 JFor a more detailed account of the founding of the village of Schoolcraft see the section in this chapter on Lucius Lyon. i h The land office for the Southwestern Michigan Land District was moved from White Pigeon to Bronson (Kalamazoo) in I834. The Kalamazoo Land District included the land in the counties of Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph, Branch, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, Van Buren, and all except the northern tier of townships in Barry and Allegan.

■^Blois, p. 75. up first, an indication that the astute Yankee speculators realized that their lands would increase in value most rapidly if near the focus of economic activity in the county; 2 ) the oak openings were generally taken up before the heavy timber; thus, the speculators paralleled the agricultural settlers in their evaluation of these two landscapes, which was only natural because land increased in value only if it was in demand by actual settlers (see Map 22).

In 183^ the land office for the Southwestern Michigan

Land District was moved from White Pigeon to Bronson (Kala­ mazoo) . With it came the horde of land speculators and a bank to handle the money. In 1835, the White Pigeon news­ paper, wanting "to expand our subscription list,"1^ followed.

Thus, the village of Bronson became the center of the buying and selling activities for the land district, and the news­ paper was on hand to record the activities.

In January of 1836 the (Bronson) Michigan Statesman published the sales of the land office for 1835 (Table 3), accompanied by the comment (largely untrue, I suggest) that,

"The sales have generally been made to actual settlers and to agriculturalists."^ But the increase in land sales in 1835 was just a hint of things to come in 1836.

■^(White Pigeon) Michigan Statesman, September 10, 1835. 17 (Bronson) Michigan Statesman, January 16, 1836. Since agricultural settlers were reluctant to settle in an area in which speculators owned much of the land, thereby limiting their future farm expansion, the local pioneer newspapers attempted to play down the speculative activity. 186

TABLE 3

LAND SALES AT THE BRONSON LAND OFFICE FOR 1835

Quarter______Dollars

1st quarter $ 16,895

2nd quarter 193,066

3rd quarter 290,940

4th quarter 430,922

In 1836 the purchase of federal land was on such a large scale that the Bronson Land Office had to twice shut its doors for several weeks time so the clerks could bring the books up-to-date. The office remained closed through most of June, "L 8 and again from early August to early November. These periods are reflected in Table 4 by the greatly reduced, or the absence of, land sales during the months named. Except

for these times, the Bronson Land Office did a truly "land office business" during 1836. The rush for land, any kind of land, was so frantic that as much as $87,000 was taken in at the office in one day.1^

John M. Gordon, an 1836 speculator in the Kalamazoo Land District, mentions that the land office was scheduled to open again on November 10. (see Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 [1959], p. 447).

■ ^ A b r a h a m Edwards, "A Sketch of Pioneer Life," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 3 (1881), p. 151. EdWards was the register of deeds lit the Kalamazoo Land Office in 1836. TABLE 4

MONTHLY LAND SALES AT THE BRONSON (KALAMAZOO) LAND OFFICE IN I83620

Acres Dollars Acres Dollars

January 107,221 134,026 July 448,025 560,031

February 117,901 147,376 August 160 200

March 149,157 186,446 September - -

April 202,328 252,910 October --

May 382,218 477,773 November 70,280 88,085

June 55,096 68,871 December 102,600 128,746

The tidal wave of speculators nearly swamped the vil-

lage of :Bronson. A firsthand account by one of the land of-

fice clerks, T. S. Atlee, gives us an indication of the effect

of the speculative fever. He reported that in 1835 and 1836

speculators went around:

with plethoric purses and empty stomachs; and paid two shillings for a 'smell of something good to eat!,' and for the 'privilege' of leaning against a door-post to sleep or 'bunking' on the old Kala­ mazoo House floor!— The glorious days of paper cities with 'desirable waterlots!'— When 'Port Sheldon' flourished, and the 'proprietors' flourished over the port!— When a 'fraction' entered for $50 at the Land Office in the morning, sold for $5000 at night!— When everybody was 'crazy for land,' and felt 'rich' and wanted to be crazier and richer!- When pork was $20 a barrel, and too poor at that to 'worry its way down!'— When pies and gingerbread were divided into 'quarter sections;' and sold for a 'short-shilling' or 'bit'— When a man was afraid to be seen using a tooth-pick after dinner for fear of being mobed and murdered for the desert!!!—

20 These figures were published in the July 30, 1836, and February 4, 1837, (Kalamazoo) Michigan Statesman. 188 in short, when everything and everybody was turned 'topsy-turvy,’ and an overwhelming torrent of specu­ lation deluged the land.21

During this "topsy-turvy" period the Michigan Statesman noted that many "nefarious transactions" were occurring. The paper reported that some persons with no money would enter large blocks of land without the intention of completing the purchase, and then try to sell someone their "rights." The paper thought that these individuals did much harm because:

Many instances have occurred where these persons have both failed to complete their purchase and to dispose of their rights, thus leaving the land marked in the office plat with the pencilled in­ dication of sale thus, (S) while it is actually in the market; nor can this fraud be detected until the business of the office has been brought up.22

So pressing was the desire to buy, that many eastern capital­ ists purchased land without seeing it, for fear that it was truly a choice lot and that if they did not get it, someone 2 3 else would. J

The diary of an 1836 speculator who was active in buying lands in southwestern Michigan, and who centered his activi­ ties around the Kalamazoo Land Office, gives some insight in­ to the methods he employed. The speculator, John M. Gordon,

T. S. Atlee, "Kalamazoo in 1835 and 1855," manuscript in Michigan History Collections, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, no pagination.

22(Kalamazoo), Michigan Statesman, June 11, 1836. Ap­ parently the records of the lands entered, and money paid, were kept separately; and thus, when the land office was swamped with business, a person could enter land without im­ mediately paying for it.

23Ibid. 189 from Baltimore, came to western Inner Michigan in September of .1836 with the intent to invest about $4,000 in federal land. On his way across southern Michigan he noted that land in the vicinity of Jacksonville (Jackson) and Marshall, which had been purchased only a few years before, was then worth from $20 to $25 improved, and from $5 to $10 in woods.^

He was assured by all he met that a 100 per cent profit was the lowest return to be expected on an investment in land; that "no one is known to ever have lost anything by a pur­ chase and sale of real estate, nor are sales of land made at second hand under $2.50 cts. per acre." 2^ With the prospects so good for a rapid profit, Gordon felt a "strong inclination to go for $20,000, but will determine only when I have seen

P fi and heard every thing." At Kalamazoo the "receiver" of the money at the land office, Thomas C. Sheldon, added to

Gordon’s eagerness to invest in land. Sheldon told him that

"things are in the full tide to fortune and investments in

Public Land certain in a few years for 300 or 400 per: ct.

[profit].”27 Sheldon could speak with authority for he had himself made a "large 'fortune" from his Investments in Public

Land.

The method of selecting land with the use of specially

^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), pp. 270, 273-

25Ibld., pp. 279-280.

26Ibid., p. 280.

27Ibid. p. 2 8 3. 190 prepared maps Is revealed by Gordon In the following extract

from his diary (see Map 23).

I have provided myself with a set of maps for Kala­ mazoo, Jackson, Van Buren, Berrien and Allegan Counties. These maps are printed on a large scale being copies of the actual surveys of the counties, and shew the sections, small runs, lakes, ponds &c; so that by knowing your position in the woods, you can readily ascertain by an inspection of them what obstacles you are to encounter or what land marks you are to meet in any one direction....In the after­ noon, I went to the registers office to get the clerk to mark off, as he is in the habit of doing, all sections or parts of sections which are located, that I may examine such only as are not taken up. This he does in red ink with the letter S for sold....My maps enable me to see at a glance what lands are vacant and we have only to ride over such and choose those which please us.28

Gordon, in addition to his maps, had the clerk copy the sur­

veyor's notes on all the unlocated sections so as to gain

their observations on the quality of the soil, tree growth,

surface configuration, and availability of water.

Gordon gave no indication in his diary that he was

interested in town-site speculation. He was apparently con­

tent with the relatively modest returns to be gained from

investing in farm land. That he appreciated the opportunities

for speculators in town-site development in western Inner

Michigan, however, is indicated by the following comments re- 2Q garding Bronson. 7

? ft Ibid., pp. 281-283. 2g Although the name had been changed to "Kalamazoo" on March 31, 1836, Gordon, probably following local usage, con­ tinued to call it "Bronson." M ap 23 Portion of a speculator's map of Kalamazoo County of the type used by John Gordon. Probable date is between July and December, 1836. S = sold. The site was taken up a few years since at $1 1/4 per acre and this price would seem like wild specu­ lation. The point however is an important one, on the head of boat navigation of the Kekalmazoo. It is the land office,, central in its position, and the county seat of a very rich & thriving county, where population has some thousand souls added to it annually. If one considers that Michg. has now none or few towns, that its population is pour­ ing in at the rate of 50 thousand a year, that they have been accustomed to and must have their villages, that the soil is of excellent quality generally, it will be perceived that these town speculations have a real basis of intrinsic value & are not like investment in town plats in old states, where the wants of the people have been supplied in this particular gradually with their slow growth. Suppose New York without towns & villages tomorrow, that all are sunk by an earth quake. The wants of the people would soon build them up again with great rapidity— such, on a smaller scale, is the process in town manufacture now going on in Michg. However I shall invest nothing in Lots.30

Gordon looked over some of the unpurchased oak openings land in Oshtemo Township, but did not buy any. Although this land was close to settlements, it was his opinion that

"the want of wood and water are great objections, and give the heavy timbered lands a decided preference over them."-^

He was "partial to heavy timber" and purchased several thous and acres of that type landscape in Berrien and Van Buren •a? counties.J

3®Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), pp. 448-449.

31Ibid., p. 447.

32Ibld., p. 444. Settlers and speculators alike generally favored the oak openings over the heavy timber. The oak openings Gordon was speaking of had a severe water problem, however; wells of at least 80 feet were necessary tb reach the water table in the area. (see Gordon, p. 448). An announcement in the Michigan Statesman in July,

1836, foretold the end of the period of wild speculation. It warned all potential land purchasers that after the 15th of

August, except for actual settlers and bonifide residents, the Land Office would take only Gold and Silver in payment for the public lands.33 The effect this "Specie Circular" had in reducing the speculation at the Kalamazoo Land Office is evident from Tables 2 and 4.

The impact the period of wild speculation had on actual settlement of western lands was in dispute. The people of the west thought it was an impediment to settlement and the development of agriculture. In the east, on the other hand, they believed the speculative activities actually aided the settlement of the western lands.^ The Kalamazoo Michigan

Statesman was of the opinion that the speculation was a detriment to actual settlement and the development of agricul­ ture. It contended that:

Until all the public land is sold, we despair of seeing even a beginning to a regular system of cultivation....[because] the minds of all are too much occupied in dreams of gathering wealth in handfuls of dollars, by speculation, instead of aiding dame nature in her throes to yield a slow, but sure, reward to her votaries.35

Consequently, the paper welcomed the issuance of the Specie

(Kalamazoo) Michigan Statesman, July 23, 1836.

? 2i Benjamin Horace Hibbard, A History of the Public Land Policies (Madison and Milwaukee: The University of Wisconsin Press, I965), pp. 215-220.

^(Kalamazoo) Michigan Statesman, September 17, 1836. Circular as a boon to the settlement of the area. In an editorial in August of 1836 the editor strongly stated his ideas on the subject.

We have hailed this new regulation in the sale of public lands with exceeding pleasure, and have noticed with astonishment the railing of the op­ position press against so righteous a measure. Nothing but the most reckless malice could suggest a word against the government for an act so imperi­ ously demanded for the good of the country. We who are on the ground can vouch for the outrageous speculations in the public domains by monopolies and banks. The great moneyed associations of the east have been sending out their agents amongst us like a legion of evil spirits and their coming has every where brought a curse. They will seize a tract of miles in extent and refuse to sell an acre of it until time may so enhance the value that a section will be the equivalent to thousands of dollars. What benefit are such settlers to a young state? None— The President of a bank lately* came to our village with quires of unsigned bank notes of his own bank, and plunged deeply into speculations on public lands. His capital was boundless for he filled up his own notes as he wanted them! Did not such a system of opression on the people call loudly for redress? And has not our glorious old President redressed it?36

T. S. Atlee, then a clerk at the Kalamazoo Land Office was of the same opinion as the editor quoted above. He, too thought that the actual settlement, and the development of a sound agriculture in the area could not take place while the speculation fever raged. His language is somewhat more flowery than that used in the newspaper, but the idea is the same.

The 'Specie-Circular' killed the bastard progeny of irresponsible Bankers, while the ink upon their lying 'promises’ to pay 'was yet moist’ on

-^(Kalamazoo) Michigan Statesman, August 20, 1 8 3 6 . 195

the faces of their trecherous ’issue*; and the ’sober second thought of the people,' came at last, like rain upon the dry and barren earth; to refresh the vast places, and make the desert and solitary wilderness bloom and blossom like the rose.37

Seven Speculators as Examples

In this section a brief look will be taken at seven

land speculators who typify the activity in Kalamazoo County. « Four are from the first speculative period (1830-1831) and

three from the second (1835-1837). In this way it is pos­

sible to show how some of the generalizations previously made apply to individual operators. Considerable information

is available about the speculators of the first period, but

very little about those of the second one. Many of the early

group were involved in the founding of the county's towns

and many were actual residents of the county; hence, they

were well remembered when the pioneer recollections were being

written. The speculators of the second period were mostly

transients, just part of the stampede, and therefore did not

individually receive much notice by the actual settlers.

Consequently, little is known about them other than the few

facts they placed with the land office when they purchased

their land. This scant information, recorded in the Kala­

mazoo County Tract Book, is sufficient for accomplishing the

purposes of this study, however, for we are primarily inter­

ested in the location and type of land taken up by the

^T. S. Atlee, "Kalamazoo in 1835 and 1855," no pagina­ tion. speculators, and only secondarily In biography.

Titus Bronson^S

The first true speculator to take up land in Kalamazoo

County was Titus Bronson, the founder of the county seat.

Bronson was born in Connecticut, had moved to Ohio in the early 1820's, and had lived in Oakland and Washtenaw coun­ ties before coming to Kalamazoo County in 1829. He appar­ ently had developed two activities since coming west which he practiced wherever he went. These were raising potatoes and speculating in land. He had begun the first in Ohio, and had practiced both in Washtenaw County. These interests influenced his location of land in Kalamazoo County.

Although there is disagreement as to the exact date that Bronson arrived in Kalamazoo County, there is agreement that he came west from Ann Arbor in 1829 and entered the county along the line of the Kalamazoo River. He apparently had it in his mind, from the first, to try for the county seat location. If he had only been interested in obtaining a farm on which to raise potatoes, he could have taken up prairie land, for he was on the scene early enough to get some, which, in fact, he did, after securing the county seat location. Bronson first tarried at Toland's Prairie, but thinking it not central enough for the county seat, he fol­ lowed the river westward until he came to the burr-oak

3 Mainly from A. D. P. Van Buren, ''Biographical'Sketches Titus Bronson, The Pounder of Kalamazoo," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 5 (1882), pp. 363-373; and Durant, pp. £09 211. 197 opening In section 15, Kalamazoo Township (Fig. 3). Here, he decided, was a location that might be able to win the county seat. It was centrally situated, near what he thought to be the head of navigation on the Kalamazoo River, had waterpower sites nearby, and was on a beautiful burr-oak plain.39

Having found the most likely spot for his county seat speculation, Bronson set about establishing his pre-emption claim. On the SW 1/4 of section 15, Kalamazoo Township, 40 he erected a "claim shanty" and enclosed a few acres. The winter of 1829-1830 he spent at the settlement on Prairie 4l Ronde. There, the following spring, he planted potatoes on some prairie land he also intended to claim under the anticipated pre-emption law. In the summer of 1830 he re­ turned to Ohio for his family; his brother-in-law, Stephen

Richardson, also came back to Kalamazoo County with him.

39it was also on the line of the future Territorial Road which was authorized in 1829 and laid out in 1830 (see Fuller, pp. lxv, 208). There is no evidence, however, that Bronson knew of the route when he selected his potential county seat site.

^Durant doubts that Bronson planted any crops at the site in 1829. It does not seem likely, however, that he would neglect to confirm his rights by making at least a show at cultivating his claim. That this had been made by the spring of 1830 (if not before) was revealed when Cryus Lovell, who visited Bronson in May of 1830, "saw the Tamarack hut and a few acres fenced." (see Lovell’s letter in Durant, p. 210).

L^A Calhoun County historian reported that in 1830 some settlers at Marshall went to the village of Bronson and pur­ chased potatoes from Mr. Bronson who had raised them to sell (see E. G. Rust, Calhoun County Business Directory for 1869-1870.... [Battle Creek: 1869], p . l80). 198

In the fall of 1830, hearing that a pre-emption law had been passed in May of that year, Bronson and Richardson filed and paid for Bronson’s pre-emption claims. As anticipated by Bronson, a provision of the act stated that "if two or more persons be settled upon the same quarter section, the same may be divided between the two first actual settlers,... and in such case the said settlers shall each be entitled to a pre-emption of eighty acres of land elsewhere in said land 42 district...." Using this provision, Bronson, by asserting that Richardson had also "occupied" and "cultivated" land on Bronson’s first pre-emption claim, was able to assert a

"floating claim" right to the land on Prairie Ronde. That

Bronson had evaded the intent of the law, and manipulated the "floating claim" provision to his advantage, is evident by the fact that he and Richardson split ownership of both the 1/4 section at the county seat site and the 1/4 section on Prairie Ronde. The Kalamazoo County Tract Book records that on November 1, 1830, Bronson purchased the E 1/2, and

Richardson the W 1/2, of the SW 1/4 of section 15, Kalamazoo

Township. At the same time they each purchased half of the

NE 1/4 of section 14, Prairie Ronde Township (see Map 24).

Richard Peters (ed.), United States Statutes at Large (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1860), p. 421. These 86 acre claims were called "floating claims" by the pioneers, and were often sold. (see E. G. Rust, pp. 28-29; and Charles Dickey, "Sketch of What Judge Charles Dickey Should Say if Called Upon to Speak at the Annual Pioneers Meeting at Gales­ burg, September 1, 1874," manuscript in Michigan Historical Collection, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, no pagination). 199

KALAMAZOO COUNTY

FEDERAL LAND PURCHASED BY SEVEN SELECTED SPECULATORS WITHIN FIFTEEN MONTHS OF FIRST ENTRY

COOPC*

th i sncut»ro«i U Tit** irwitoA l*tn o*d $k#fwe#i

□ Hafocc H. C«*»»tacfc ftafcar and Marvay tN a Imciwb lyan m jobn f Gilkof ^ bvblk Sclwol «*4 Uniwtity land

^ ^ 1 SoWfl Hvbbord Mlltl # — o Ptoiti9

Map 24 200

That the letter of the 1830 pre-emption law was evaded in this transaction is obvious. Richardson had not been

"settled" on either of the claims in 1829, as the law required, and thus, was not legally entitled to claim any land. And it follows that Bronson was, therefore, not entitled to uti­

lize the "floating claim" provision. It appears that Bronson had planned the land manipulation to enable his acquiring

land in two favorable locations, thus escaping having to en­ tirely depend on one pre-emption speculation.

The value of Bronson’s location in Kalamazoo Township was appreciated by other speculators. During 1830 several town-site seekers were scouting the Kalamazoo River for

likely locations. One of these was Sidney Ketchum, who eventually founded Marshall at a waterpower site in Calhoun

County. Ketchum must have realized that Bronson’s selection was a good one and had an excellent chance to gain the county seat, for he attempted to buy it from Bronson for $100 and a gun. Failing this, he proceeded to Prairie Ronde where he bought two "floating claims" which he laid on the waterpower site at what later became the village of Marshall. J

Bronson's intentions were apparently not revealed to the other settlers of the county until after his claim in

Kalamazoo Township had been selected as the county seat.

They probably thought it quite logical for a man interested in farming to select land on a rich burr-oak plain through

h q -’Dickey, no pagination. 201 which flowed a small stream, because it was known that some settlers esteemed the burr-oak plains as highly as the prai­ ries. It probably also seemed logical that Bronson, in order to obtain food, would want to spend his first winter with the settlers on Prairie Ronde. His motive for keeping to himself his intentions of attempting to secure the county seat for his land near the Kalamazoo River was undoubtedly to lessen competition for the prize. Thus, when the commis­ sioners assigned by Cass to locate the county seat of Kala­ mazoo County arrived, in early January, 1831, Bronson's site, being the only serious contender, was selected.

Actually, only three locations were considered. The settlers on Prairie Ronde thought the county seat should be

"on the Portage stream, near the geographical center of the li 2i county...." But no individual had pre-empted such a loca­ tion, and, therefore, there was no one present to press the claim for a specific site. Consequently, the commissioners decided that the advantages of such a site, "although of some magnitude, were not considered to take the site from the benefits to be derived from the navigation of the [Kalamazoo]

River.

It is probable that the waterpower site where Comstock

"Report of the Commissioners to Locate the County Seat," in James M. Thomas, Kalamazoo County Directory with a History of the County From its Earliest Settlement. 10b9 and 1070 (Kalamazoo: Stone Brothers Book and .Job Printers, lbbj-)), p. 33.

=45Ibid. 202 46 Creek entered the Kalamazoo River received some considera­ tion by the commissioners. In addition to Bronson's site in

Kalamazoo Township, I suggest that this Comstock Creek loca­ tion was the other one under consideration by the commission­ ers when they wrote that, "Two places upon the river, about the same distance from the center of the county, presented their claims for the site. These were examined with care

and not without anxiety.But the "claims" of the "Creek"

could not be presented very forceably because all that was

there when the commissioners viewed the place was a shack erected

by Caleb Eldred who, at the time, was back east gathering

his family for the final move. And, although some settlers D from Toland's Prairie met the commissioners at the "Creek,"

there was no land owner present who could bargain for the

county seat. Thus, Titus Bronson's holding was the only seri­

ous contender for the seat of justice, and he was on hand to

negotiate for the prize.

The commissioners selected Bronson's land in section 15,

Kalamazoo Township, as the location for the county seat.

Their report indicates that they were trying to closely adhere

"Comstock Creek" was not then known by that name. It was known by the early settlers on Toland's Prairie simply as the "Creek." (see Durant, p. 356). 47 "Report of the Commissioners to Locate the County Seat," in James M. Thomas, p. 33. 48 A. D. P. Van Buren, "General Horace H. Comstock, The Founder of the Village of Comstock," Michigan Pioneer Collec­ tions , Vol. 5 (1882), p. 361. 203 to the policy set forth by Cass in 1817. After examining the three potential sites, they wrote:

A spot was at length selected on an eminence near the center of the south-west quarter of sec­ tion fifteen, town two, south, of range eleven, west, owned by Titus Bronson Esq. Mr. Bronson has agreed to lay out a village, and place upon the proper records a plan or map thereof, duly acknowl­ edged, with the following pieces of land, properly marked and set apart in said map or plan for public use: One square of sixteen rods for the Court House; one square of sixteen rods for a Jail; one square of sixteen rods for an academy; one square of eight rods for Common Schools; one square of two acres for a public burial ground; four squares, of eight rods each, for the four first religious denominations that become incorporated in said village, agreeably to the statute of the Territory. This place is situated at the great bend of the Kalamazoo River, on the south-western bank, im­ mediately below the Portage stream. The reasons which influenced the location of the county seat at this place, are: 1st. It is on the bank of the river, which at that place is navigable, most of the year, for keel boats of several tons burthen. 2nd. It is in the direct line between the two largest prairies in the county, viz: Prairie Round and Gull Prairie; about nine miles from the latter, and about ten from the former place, and Grand Prairie two miles on its west. 3d. Good roads may with facility be made from it into any part of the county. Pour or five large trails set out from this place, lead­ ing to as many different places of importance on the St. Joseph and Grand Rivers. 4th. The great Territorial road passes through it. Your Excellency is therefore respectfully recom­ mended to establish, permanently, the county seat at the place above mentioned.49

The report was submitted on the 15th of January and approved by Cass on April 2, 1831.^°

4 Q ^"Report of the Commissioners to Locate the County Seat,” in James M. Thomas, pp. 33-34.

^The date of approval is misprinted in James M.’ Thomas as "April 2nd, 1851." 204

Thus, by being in the right place at the right time,

Titus Bronson was able to secure the prize. And, although much money, and considerable influence was brought to bear to have the county seat moved from the village of Bronson,51 there it remained.

Although Titus Bronson was primarily interested in his county seat speculation, the distribution of his other pur­ chases in the county gives us some indication of the type of land which he thought would be valuable as the county was settled (see Map 24). His pre-emption of an 80 acre "float­ ing claim" on Prairie Ronde has already been mentioned. The double pre-emption location manipulated by Bronson was, I suggest, a stratagem that enabled him to speculate in two desirable locations with one claim. After succeeding in se­ curing the county seat for his land in section 15, Kalamazoo

Township, he took steps to regain complete ownership of the

1/4 section. In 1832 he sold to Richardson his 80 acres in the NE 1/4 of section 14, Prairie Ronde Township, for a con­ sideration of $1000; and in 1833 Richardson sold his 80 acres in the SW 1/4 of section 15, Kalamazoo Township, to Sally

Bronson, the wife of Titus Bronson,— for a consideration of

$10001 Thus, by this trade, Bronson gained complete owner­ ship of the highly valuable land in section 15, Kalamazoo

Township.

Si Bronson and Richardson laid out the village in March of 1831 and named it "Bronson." (see Duranc, p. 211). 205

In addition to his pre-emption purchases, Bronson, at the regular land sale in June, 1831, purchased other land in the county. Probably realizing the value of timber to the later settlers on Prairie Ronde, he purchased the E 1/2 of the SE 1/H of section 15, Prairie Ronde Township, all heavy timber. And, realizing that a power site near the county seat would be a highly valuable possession, in July of 1831, he purchased 80 acres along Portage Creek, only about one- half mile from the village of Bronson. By 1832 he had a saw mill operating on the property.

Two locations purchased by Bronson and his wife, in late 1831 and 1832, are difficult to explain. In November,

1831, he purchased 160 acres in section 1, Climax Township, in the oak openings about three quarters of a mile from Cli­ max Prairie. Since the land between his purchases and the prairie was not entered until 183*1, he could probably have obtained land closer to the prairie. And, in November, 1831 and September, 1832, he and his wife purchased land in sec­ tions 8 and 9, Kalamazoo Township. If, by these purchases,

Bronson had jn mind obtaining acreage which would increase in value because of its proximity to the county seat, he could, at the time, have obtained land closer to the village of

Bronson.

^2Durant, p. 288. 206

Horace H. Comstock^

Whereas Titus Bronson’s major activity during the early days of land speculation in Kalamazoo County was his success­ ful gamble on the county seat location, Horace H. Comstock’s main objective was trying to win the county seat away from the village of Bronson. What Titus Bronson had won by luck, good timing, and a pre-emption claim, H. H. Comstock tried to undo with his extensive financial resources. And, had

H. H. Comstock been at the waterpower site on the "Creek" to meet the selection commissioners in January, 1831, he probably would have been in a stronger position, financially at least, to bargain for the county seat than was Titus

Bronson, and may have won the prize. But he was not there at the critical time and Bronson’s site was selected.

H. H. Comstock came to Kalamazoo County from Otsego

County, New York in the spring of 1831 with $5,000 to invest.

At the June, 1831, land sale, and in the following thirteen months, he purchased about 1700 acres of government land.5^

The distribution of these early purchases indicates which locations he believed would become most valuable as the

-^Mainly from A. D. P. Van Buren, "General Horace H. Comstock, The Pounder of the Village of Comstock," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 5 (1882), pp. 359-363; A. D. PT Van Buren, tvHistory of the First Settlement of the Township of Comstock," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 7 (1884), pp. 479-484; James M. (Thomas, pp. l(5i-l()2; and Wyllys C. Ran­ som, "Historical Address at Kalamazoo, Michigan, July 4, 1884," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 7 (1884), pp. 469-478. 54 Kal&roazoo County Tract Book. 207 county was settled (Map 24). His success In land speculation

Is attested to by the 1836 report that he was then worth

$500,000.55

On June 18, 1831, the land in the two eastern tiers of townships in Kalamazoo County was brought onto the market.

At that time Comstock purchased hundreds of acres along the

Kalamazoo River, and also land on Toland's Prairie and Gull

Prairie. The river orientation of these purchases indicates that he was interested in possible town sites. His purchase at the waterpower site on Comstock Creek and his later activities associated with the development of the village of

Comstock confirm this. That he also realized that prairie land would increase in value is shown by his acquisitions on

Toland's Prairie and Gull Prairie.

H. H. Comstock's ideas on which type locations were most valuable in a developing, newly settled area, were fur­ ther revealed by his early acquisitions in the western part of Kalamazoo County. On June 20, 1831, the land in the west­ ern two tiers of townships was offered for sale. At that time, in addition to obtaining part of Dry Prairie, he pur­ chased extensive acreage along the other favorable waterpower source near the center of the county, Portage Creek. Proba­ bly as a hedge, he also bought 80 acres in section 22, Kala­ mazoo Township, as close as possible to the already estab­ lished county seat. But, being himself in possession of what

-^Gordon, Michigan History, Vol. 43 (1959), p. 280. 208

he believed to be an excellent town site near the center of

the county, Comstock felt he was in a position to offer seri­

ous competition to the village of Bronson.

H. H. Comstock's energies, and a large amount of his

fortune, for the next several years were devoted to wresting

the county seat from the village of Bronson and securing it

for the community which he developed at the "Creek" and named

"Comstock." His attack on the established county seat was

based on three arguments. 1) He contended that his village

was as close to the geographical center of the county as was

Bronson. 2) He claimed it had waterpower facilities superior

to those at the established county seat. (By 1832 H. H.

Comstock had a grist mill in operation at his power site [see

Pig. 8 and Map 18]). And 3) he insisted that Comstock, not

Bronson, was the actual head of navigation on the Kalamazoo

River (Pig. 9).

To add substance to his contention that hislocation

was the better one for the county seat, Comstock was prepared

to invest a considerable amount of money. In 1832, in addi­

tion to his grist mill, he built a warehouse and a landing

on the Kalamazoo River at Comstock and erected a storehouse

at the mouth of the Kalamazoo for the protection of the goods

that were to be shipped to and from the village. He also,

It in 1833, opened a store at his village.

But all of H. H. Comstock's efforts and money were to

no avail. In 1832, in response to his activities, a meeting

of the settlers of Kalamazoo County was held to see if they Figure 8. Waterpower site on Comstock Creek. H. H. Comstock had his grist mill operating here in 1832.

Figure 9. The Kalamazoo River at Comstock.- H. H. Comstock claimed the village of Comstock was the actual head of navigation on the river. 210

wanted to move the county seat. The vote was to keep It

at Bronson, thus sealing the fate of the village of Comstock.

Although Comstock was a serious economic rival for a brief

period afterward, the natural focus inh-erent in a seat of

Justice soon caused Bronson to gain the lead. Bronson, be­

cause it was the county seat, got the land office, the bank,

the newspaper, the hotel, and the economic growth. And the

village of Comstock became, as one writer put it, "a mere

dependency upon its more fortunate rival.Admitting de­

feat, H. H. Comstock in 1837 purchased a quarter interest

in the Bronson (by now called Kalamazoo) village plat for

$17,000, and finally moved there in 1844. Comstock is still

a small village, little larger than it was in the 1830*s.

It is, in fact, rapidly being surrounded by the urban expan­

sion of its former rival, Kalamazoo. But H. H. Comstock

did not rely alone on his town-site speculation. Throughout

the period under discussion he continued to accumulate land.

His purchases of government land in Kalamazoo County from

1831 to 1836 totaled 5,525 acres; making him by far the

largest landowner in the county.

^Ransom, Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol 7 (1884), p. 473. 211 *5 7 Lucius Lyorr '

Of the early group of Kalamazoo County speculators, the purchases of Lucius Lyon were among the most extensive.

He was among the first non-residents to have invested heavily here. Lyon was born on a farm in Vermont, received training in surveying, and, when he came to Michigan in the early

1830’s, sought to be hired as a government surveyor. As he had hoped, he was appointed such in 1823, and until 1832 was engaged in surveying federal lands in southern Michigan,

Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. His home during this period was Detroit.

But his government job did not supply his entire income during these years. Surveying, in fact, was only the base upon which he built his fortune. His major economic activity was speculating in land. Probably because of his farming and surveying backgrounds, Lyon was an astute observer of the landscape, and recognized a good investment in land when he saw it. He quickly realized that the interior of Michigan had earlier been improperly described and was not a waste as previously believed, but, in his opinion, had better soil than Ohio. He understood that this fact would soon be

^Mainly from Lucius Lyon, "Letters of Lucius Lyon," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 27 (1896), pp. 330-338; George h. White, "A Sketch of Lucius Lyon, One of the First Senators from Michigan," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 13 (1888), pp. 325-333; George W. ■thayer, "Life of Lucius Lyon," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 27 (1896), pp. 404- 412; Stevens Biographical File. ln"~Kalamazoo County Museum, Kalamazoo, Michigan; and fc. Eakin Brown, "Autobiographical Notes," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 30 (1905). pp. 424-494. 212

discovered by settlers, and acted on the opportunities for making money by purchasing choice locations of the cheap government land before the flood of land-seekers arrived.

Lyon’s knowledge, based on his surveying activities,

of the location of the best land and waterpower sites was a valuable commodity. .He offered it free to his father in

1825 when he advised him to sell his land in the east and

come to Michigan and invest in a millsite on the Huron River.

But this knowledge of the Michigan landscape was mainly sold

to incoming settlers and speculators who desired to have ad­

vanced information on favorable locations. Using money paid

him for such tips and other funds, Lyon purchased thousands

of acres of federal land in Michigan and Wisconsin and became

a wealthy man. His Kalamazoo County land was, therefore,

only a fraction of his extensive holdings.

Lyon was the first large-scale speculator to invest in

land in Kalamazoo County. His farming background undoubtedly

influenced his choice of lands in the county, for nearly all

his holdings here consisted of what was then considered the

best farm land— Prairie Ronde (Map 24). However, his pur­

chase of some acreage near the county seat shows that he ap­

preciated the growth potential of that site as well. Accord­

ing to the Kalamazoo County Tract Book, on June 6, 1831,

Lyon bought the W 1/2 of the NW 1/4, and the SW 1/4 of section

17; the NE 1/4, the E 1/2 of the NW 1/4, and the W 1/2 of the

SE 1/4 of section 20; all in Schoolcraft Township, and all

prairie land. This purchase by Lyon was made twelve days before anyone else In the county, other than the 1830 pre- emptors, was able to buy land. If the date Is correct, It reveals that Lucius Lyon was already a highly influencial man, and that the land deal was Irregular, to say the least.

Not only was Lyon interested In obtaining the best farm

land available in the county, but he undoubtedly also had in mind the possibilities the center of Prairie Ronde offered as a town site. Other towns in southwestern Michigan, such

as Sturgis, White Pigeon, and Centerville, had been success­

fully developed among dense farming populations on prairies.

Prairie Ronde was the biggest of the prairies and had the

largest agricultural settlement in the county. The center

of Prairie Ronde, on the east side of the "Big Island,”

seemed a natural focus for this farming community.

The possibilities of the location had been appreciated

by some Yankee businessmen as early as 1830, when they de­

cided that it would be an excellent place for a store. After

an unsuccessful initial attempt to obtain land there, they

finally, in the fall of 1831, were able to establish their

C Q store in the edge of the woods. It is evident that Lyon

also appreciated the potential of the location for at the

regular June, 1831, land sale, and for the next several

5 They bought from Nathan Harrison the W 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of section 19* For a good description of the founding of this store and the early history of the village of School craft see E. Lakin Brown, "Autobiographical Notes"; Durant, pp. 516-520; and Henry Parker Smith (?), "Reminiscences of a Young Pioneer." months, he continued to accumulate prairie land on the east

side of the "Big Island."

By the fall of 1831 Lyon was ready to lay out his vil­

lage. The exact site of the village of Schoolcraft,^^ the

E 1/2 of the SW 1/4 of section 18, and the E 1/2 of the

NW 1/4 of section 19, Schoolcraft Township, was probably purchased from John and Joseph Bair, who had obtained it

from the government. The village was laid out in early Novem

ber of 1831, and it gave promise of becoming a flourishing

trade center, since it was in the hub of the largest popula­

tion cluster in the county. But the attractive force of the

political center of the county outweighed Schoolcraft’s

location in the center of a rich agricultural area. As with

the village of Comstock, Schoolcraft, too, soon fell behind

Bronson which had attracted to it the land office, a bank,

a newspaper, and other centralizing economic activities. As

these and other economic endeavors located in the county seat

"trade was more than ever diverted to Kalamazoo, and the vil­

lage [Schoolcraft] wore that dilapidated and unthrifty ap­

pearance which always attends a state of stagnation in

business.

But Lyon had not "put all his eggs in one basket." He

soon realized, as H. H. Comstock later did, that Bronson

(Kalamazoo) was bound to be the focus of business, as well

59 Named for Lyon’s friend, Henry R. Schoolcraft.- 60 Durant, p. 519. as political activity in the county, and in 1833 he pur­ chased, as H. H. Comstock also eventually did, an interest in the county seat. In a letter to his sister in October,

1833, Lyon, after telling her that he owned one-third of the village plat of Bronson, described his other holdings in

Kalamazoo County. It Is evident from this letter why Lyon located Schoolcraft village in the center of Prairie Ronde.

I also own the village of Schoolcraft, on Big Prai­ rie Ronde, about twelve miles south of this, in the same county, one of the pleasantest and most beauti­ ful places in any county. It is situated on the east border of an island of about 700 acres of wood land, in the center of a high and fine, rich and beautiful prairie containing about 20,000 acres....It was laid out about two years ago and now contains two stores, a large public house and about a dozen private dwellings. On the prairie around it there are settled about 300 families. They purchased their land about three years ago for a dollar and a quarter an acre, and it now sells readily, without improvements, for four dol­ lars per acre. Besides the village plat, I own about 220 acres adjoining it* which would bring $12 per acre (cash) any day.ol

Although Lyon undoubtedly sold some of his prairie land adjoining the village of Schoolcraft, he retained a por tion of it for a farm. In a letter to his sister in October

1835, he reported to her that In that year he harvested 70 acres of wheat and 100 acres of oats from his "Schoolcraft

zT p farm." And In November of the same year he showed that heintended to bring more of his prairie land into cultiva­ tion when he made a contract to have 100 acres plowed at $3

^Lucius Lyon, "Letters of Lucius Lyon," p. 449'.

62Ibid., p. 450. per acre. This land was to be planted in oats and corn.^3

John F. Gilkey^

John F. Gilkey, unlike the speculators discussed thus far, was involved in no town-site venture, and, probably be­ cause of this, little information is available about him.

He was mainly a farmer, and the land he purchased for a home farm, and that which he speculated in, was, in his perception of the Kalamazoo County landscape, the most valuable agri­ cultural land available to him.

Gilkey was originally from Vermont, moving to Kalamazoo

County in 1831. An 1883 biographical article describes his activities upon arriving in the county.

John F., who was the operator for the family, with great care selected and entered of the government, some 1,300 acres of choice prairie and opening land on the north side of Gull Prairie, as a home farm, and immediately commenced clearing, plowing, fenc­ ing, and building; in the meantime exploring and entering desirable government lands....65

From Map 24, it is obvious what landscape type Gilkey thought was the most valuable farm land. For the "home

farm" he obtained, at the June 18, 1831, land sale, the

W 1/2 of section 10, Richland Township, being about half prairie and half oak openings. In September of 1831, he pur­

chased 160 additional acres of oak openings as near the home

63Ibld., p. 461. ^Mainly from E. R. Miller, "Proceedings of the 1883 Pio­ neer Picnic of Kalamazoo County — John F. Gilkey," Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 6 (1883), p. 313; Stevens Bio­ graphical File; and Durant, p. 458 and opposite p. 482.

^Miller. Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. 6 (1883)* p. 313. 217 farm as possible. The landscape speculated in was similar to that of the home farm. In Climax Township he acquired, In

June and September of 1831, acreage In sections 2 and 3, ob­ taining a portion of Climax Prairie in both sections. His purchase in section 14, Comstock Township, was as close to

Toland's Prairie as he could get. And, on the first day of sale of land in the western two tiers of townships, June 20,

1831, Gilkey bought a portion of Dry Prairie in section 6,

Portage Township.

Samuel Hubbard^

Samuel Hubbard was a speculator typical of the 1835-

1837 period. He was active in buying government land in Kala mazoo County in 1834, 1835, and 1836. Many of his purchases in 1835 and 1836 were made in partnership with Isaac Parker.

Both of these men were from Boston, Massachusetts. From the distribution of the land purchased, it is apparent that one landscape type was preferred by Hubbard.

Furthermore, the landscape type selected was a typical choice for the period in which the purchases were made. When

Hubbard began buying land in Kalamazoo County, late in 1834, all the prairie land and the favorable waterpower locations had already been taken up (see Map 22). He was left with the

Since Samuel Hubbard, and the other speculators from the 1835-1837 speculative period were not actual settlers or important town-site speculators, little information is avail­ able about them. The only source is the Kalamazoo County Tract Book. It gives the legal description of the land pur­ chased, the date of purchase, and the home address of the purchaser. choice between oak openings and beech-maple heavy timber. Re­ flecting the actual settlers landscape preference, he selected oak openings (Map 24). 67 Joseph Beers and Samuel Sherwood

When the editor of the (Kalamazoo) Michigan Statesman wrote, "The great moneyed associations of the east have been sending their agents amongst us like a legion of evil spirits

C Q and their coming has every where brought a curse," he probably had such speculators as Joseph Beers and Samuel

Sherwood in mind. They were from New York City and had a great deal of money to invest. Their eagerness to buy land is shown by the fact that in only eleven days, between the

18th and 29th of November, 1835, they purchased a total of

2386 acres in Kalamazoo County.

The distribution of their purchases tells us little of their evaluation of the Kalamazoo County landscape. Because of the high degree of speculative fever of the period, the only criterion they apparently used was to take whatever land they could get near the county seat (Map 24). Since they bought both oak openings land and heavy timber, and ac­ quired a very large acreage in a very short time, it is pos­ sible that they did not even look at all the land before pur­ chase .

6 7 Prom Kalamazoo County Tract Book. 68 (Kalamazoo) Michigan Statesman, August 20, lSS^. 69 William Baker and Henry Hervey

Also typical of the later period of speculation were the

Otsego County, New York, speculators, William Baker and Henry

Hervey. On their first day of purchase in Kalamazoo County,

June 6 , 1836, they acquired 1500 acres, adding another 640 acres in the next few weeks, for a total of 2140 acres in the

county. They were obviously interested in obtaining large blocks of land, for in one contiguous purchase they took up

1080 acres. By the time of their arrival the only place in

the county where such blocks of land remained unowned was in the beech-maple heavy timber in Wakeshma Township, and it was there that they made their acquisitions (Map 24).

Thus, Baker and Hervey, in their purchase of this land,

again show how closely the speculators' evaluation of the

landscape correlated with that of the actual settlers. The

last area available to the speculators, and the last settled, was the heavily timbered land in the southeastern corner of

the county. That the speculators were overly optimistic in buying this heavily timbered land is shown by the fact that,

although most of Wakeshma Township available for purchase had been taken up by the end of 1836, no actual settlers entered the township until 1842.

Thus it was that the title to the land in Kalamazoo

County was transferred from the Federal government to private

hands. Although much of the choice farming areas were obtained

69 Prom Kalamazoo County Tract Book. by men interested in tilling the soil, as this chapter shows, a large amount of that type land and most of the remainder of the county, including the most promising locations for "town manufacture," was taken up by speculators. And although many of the early "developers" of the county lived there and had a sincere interest in its improvement, many speculators, espe­ cially those of the 1835-1837 period were concerned only in making a big profit. CHAPTER VIII

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The central theme of this study has been what Carl Sauer has called "environment appraisal,"1 and I have termed "land­ scape evaluation." Immediately after the War of 1812 the interior of the southern peninsula of Michigan (Inner Michi­ gan) was, as far as any cultural Impress by Americans was concerned, an undisturbed land. It had been occupied by a primitive culture who lived mainly by hunting, fishing, and rudimentary agriculture. The landscape of this region had, of course, been somewhat altered by these people. They had built villages, made trails, and probably burned the vegeta­ tion. But the American pioneer had not yet attacked it.

And, therefore, when the Indians were pushed off the land, and the settler began to penetrate Inner Michigan, the land­ scapes that confronted him were virgin as far as his culture was concerned.

This period when a new group is occupying an area gives us an excellent opportunity to examine how they evaluate the landscapes encountered. A people moving onto a newly opened

•^-Carl Sauer, "Foreword to Historical Geographyi" Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 31 (19^1),

221 land will appraise the new habitat, as much as possible, ac­ cording to previously learned cultural habits. The land in the interior of the southern part of the lower peninsula was evaluated for its agricultural potential mainly by the vege­ tation it produced. This method of determining land worth was the common one of the early l800's.

Inner Michigan, immediately after the War of 1812, was little known to the Americans living at Detroit. It was a land of Indians, traders and trappers; and the latter, in seeking to extend their use of the area, led potential set­ tlers to believe it was unfit for any use but theirs. Nor did the 1815 surveyors spread any enlightenment. They, too,

(some claimed they had "motives") said most of the region was unfit for farming, being mostly swamps and sandy oak land.

Most of these early surveyors were from southern Ohio and called the open oak woods which abounded in the area "barrens," and perceived this type land to be infertile. Not so the

Yankee emigrants of 1818. These people, who had had experi­ ence with this open oak land in western New York, saw it as a beautiful and productive landscape, excellent for wheat.

They likened it to the famous "Genesee country" of western

New York.

Once "discovered," this "oak openings" landscape, as it came to be called, was the main force which attracted the

Yankee settlers to eastern Inner Michigan. The propagandists at Detroit, in their attempt to lure people to their hinter­ land, stressed the advantages of this type land. Their two main points were: 1) that it was excellent wheat land, and

2 ) the ease with which it could be brought into production.

The emigrants generally took their advice and settled the oak openings before they did the beech-maple heavy timbered land­ scape which was also found in the area.

In western Inner Michigan a third landscape, prairie, was present for the emigrants to appraise. Kalamazoo County was selected for detailed study because it had extensive acreages of beech-maple heavy timber, oak openings, and prai­ rie, including the largest prairie in the state, Prairie

Ronde. There has been some recent confusion over the pioneer terminology for, and indeed, the nature of the prairie and oak openings landscapes. Some writers have claimed that the prairies found in southwestern Michigan were called "oak openings" by the early settlers. Others have suggested that the prairies were actually covered with burr oaks. Both of these assertions are shown to be incorrect. The prairies were essentially treeless; burr oak, however, was the most common tree found at their edge, and may have been invading these grasslands when the settlers arrived. No evidence was found in the contemporary literature which indicated that they ever called the prairies oak' openings. These were viewed as separate and distinct landscapes.

Of the three basic landscapes which the pioneers had to choose from in Kalamazoo County, both settlers and specula­ tors valued the grassland over the beech-maple heavy timber and oak openings. There is no evidence of prairie avoidance by either the southern or the Yankee emigrants. Rather, both groups came to the county seeking out that type land.

Since timber was necessary for buildings, fences, and fire, the earliest arrivals selected locations which gave them both grass and wood.

When the prairie land was all taken up, the oak openings were generally selected next. And finally, because nothing else was available, the beech-maple heavy timber was pur­

chased. Thus, instead of the prairies, it was the heavy tim­ ber in Kalamazoo County which was avoided. This was not be­

cause this landscape was thought to be infertile; for its

soil was known to be rich because of the thick layer of vege­

table mould. The main drawback to settling heavy timber was

the time and effort needed to clear the land. Pew of the pioneers who could afford to do otherwise were willing to

spend ten years chopping out their farm.

Two periods of speculation took place in the purchase

of the federal land in Kalamazoo County. The first occurred

during the initial years of settlement in the county, 1830-

1831. Among these early investors who had a wide range of

situations from which to choose, two type locations were

generally favored: 1) land desired by agriculture settlers,

i.e. — prairie, and 2 ) sites where towns could be developed.

This was the period when many of the county’s towns were

founded. The main factors which these town-site speculators

perceived to be important included: 1) power sites (Com­

stock), 2) potential for water transportation (Comstock and Bronson), 3) location in the center of a large and growing farming population (Schoolcraft), and 4) location near the geographic center of the county as a potential county seat

(Bronson). The decision to locate the county seat at Bronson

(Kalamazoo) gave that village the impetus to become the_ largest city in the county, and caused competing villages to stagnate.

The second period of speculation, 1835-1837, was a time of frenzied buying. Following a decline in land purchases brought on by the combined scares of the 1832 Black Hawk War and the cholera epidemic of the same year, the land jobbers were by 1835 again taking up much property in Kalamazoo County.

By this time, however, the most favored locations, prairie and town sites, had already been alienated, and this group of buyers had to take what was left. Again reflecting the actual settlers' evaluations, most favored oak openings over the beech-maple heavy timber. But, during this period of almost hysterical buying, many seemed to be willing to purchase any kind of land, some apparently without even seeing it first.

By 1837 nearly all the federal land in the county, outside the wet lands, had been purchased. That the speculators who had obtained the heavily timbered land, hoping its value would increase as it was in demand by actual settlers, were overly optimistic, is shown by the fact that the beech- maple heavily timbered tract in the southeastern part of the county, although entirely taken up by 1836, received no set­ tlers until 1842.

It is difficult, if not Impossible, for a casual Z'db present-day observer to appreciate the conceptions that the early settlers, travellers, and speculators had concerning the landscapes they found in Inner Michigan. The scenes which they encountered, except for the lay of the land, have been altered almost beyond recognition. Equally important, perhaps, the cultural glasses through which we now view the land are significantly different from those of the early

1800's. It is only by immersing oneself in the writings of these pioneers that one can hope to achieve a perspective which will enable him to understand the cultural patterns they imposed on the land. This is what was attempted in this study. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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"Biographical Notes - Russell Munger," ibid., Vol. 14 £--1889), 129.

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______. "Autobiographical Notes," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 30 (l£05), 424-^94’.

______. (Poem) "Prairie Ronde at Harvest Time," in Samuel W. Durant, History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan (Philadelphia: Everts and A.bbott, 1880), 1$^.

______. (Poem) "Wa-We-Os-Co-Tang," ibid., 15^. 231

______. (Speech at the) "Ninth Annual Reunion of Pioneers of Kalamazoo County, August 14, 1 8 7 9 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections. Vol. 3 (l88l), 523-526.

Buck, Solon J. (ed.). "Pioneer Letters of Gershom Flagg," Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 1$ (191b), 139-1^3.

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"Cadillac Papers," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collec­ tions, Vol. 33 (1903), 36-702.

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Copley, A. B. "Early Settlement of Southwestern Michigan," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 5 TT 882T", 1T4-1T1:------

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Dicken, Samuel N. "The Kentucky Barrens," The Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 33 (1935)i 42-51.

Dodge, Stanley D. "Sequent Occupance of an Illinois Prairie," ibid., Vol. 29 (1931), 205-209.

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Edwards, Abraham. "A Sketch of Pioneer Life," ibid., Vol. 3 (l88l), 148-151.

Everett, Helen. "Solman Keeney’s Visit to Michigan in 1827," Michigan History, Vol. 40 (1956), 433-446.

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Flagg, Edmund. "The Far West or A Tour Beyond the Mountains (1833).” In Ruben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-lo46 (Cleveland: The Arthur H . Clark Co. , 19^4), . Vol. 26, 23-370.

Flint, James. "Letters from America - 1818-1822," Ibid., Vol. 9, 1-333.

Flower, Richard. "Letters from the Illinois, 1820, 1821...," Ibid., Vol. 10, 115-169.

Gibbs, Mary V. "Glimpses of Early Michigan Life in and About Kalamazoo," Magazine of American History, Vol. 24 (1890), 457-464.

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"Floral History and Geography of Kalamazoo County," Ibid., Vol. 29 (1945), 224-233.

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Heward, Hugh. "Journal from Detroit to the Illinois," in John Askin Papers (Detroit: Detroit Library Commission, 1928), Vol. 1, 339-360.

Hodges, George. "Major Oliver Williams," in Lillian Drake Avery,Collections of the Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society (Pontiac: Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society, 1834), Vol. 2, 122-127.

Hodgman, Francis. "Pre-Historic Fort at Climax," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 32 (1902)7 384-386.------Hoffman, Charles Fenno. "Michigan as Seen by an Early Traveller," Michigan History, Vol. 9 (1925), 413-437. (Hoffman’s book, A Winter in the West [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1835], is reproduced in Vol. 9 in four parts).

"Winter Scenes in Early Michigan," ibid., Vol. 9 CT525), 72-9^ and 221-248.

Hubbard, Bela. "A Michigan Geological Expedition in 1837," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 3 (1881), 189- 2&1 .

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Little, Frank. "Early Recollections of the Indians About Gull Prairie," ibid., Vol. 27 (1896), 330-338.

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Lothrop, G. V. N. "Edwin Howard Lothrop," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 11 (1887),234-237.

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Michaux, Francis Andre. "Travels to the West of the Alleghany Mountains... in 1802," ibid., Vol. 3, 111-306. . "Michigan Emigrant Song," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 3 (lbBl), ^5 .

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Parke, Harvey. "Reminiscences," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 3 (1881), 572-590.

Ransom, Wyllys C. "Historical Address at Kalamazoo, Michigan, July 4, 1884," ibid., Vol. 7 (1884), 469-478.

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Straw, H. Thompson. "Battle Creek: A Study in Urban Geog­ raphy. Present Day City and Fundament," Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science Arts and Letters, Vol. 23 (1937), 367-384.

Swan, Lansing. "Seeing Michigan in 1841: Pioneer Journal of a Trip to Michigan," Michigan History, Vols. 18-19 (1934-1935), 93-113.

Thayer, George W. "Life of Lucius Lyon," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 27 (1896), 404-412.

"The Haldimand Papers," ibid., Vol. 10 (1888), 216-672.

Thomas, N. M. "Reminiscences and Incidentc," in Samuel W. Durant, History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan, (Phila­ delphia :~EvertsaHd^bFotF7nr8WrT533^ "Reminiscences," Michigan Pioneer and Historical goTlections, Vol. 28 (1897-98), 533-536.

Torrey, George. "Kalamazoo County," ibid., Vol. 1 (1876), 202- 211.

x (Poem) "The Aborigines," in Samuel W. Durant, History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan, (Philadelphia: Everts and Abbott, i8BO),157.

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Tucker, Louis L. "The Correspondence of John Fisher," Michigan History, Vol. 45 (1961), 219-236. Turner, Jessee. "Reminiscences of Kalamazoo," Michigan Plo- neer and Historical Collections, Vol. 18 (1891)T 570- s b h :------

Van Buren, A. D. P. "Biographical Sketches-Caleb Eldred," ibid., Vol. 5 (1882), 387-390.

______. "Biographical Sketches-Titus Bronson, The Pounder of Kalamazoo," ibid., Vol. 5 (1882), 263-273.

______. "General Horace H. Comstock, The Pounder of the Village of Comstock," ibid., Vol. 5 (1882), 359-360.

"History of the First Settlement of the Township of Comstock," ibid., Vol. 7 (1884), 479-484.

Veatch, Jethro Otto. "Pedologic Evidence of Changes of Climate in Michigan," Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science Arts and Letters, Vol. 23 11937), 365-390.

"The Dry Prairies of Michigan," ibid., Vol. 8 (T927), 269-278.

Walker, John. "Pioneer History of Cooper," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 5 (1882), 403-405.

Weaver, J.E., and Kramer, Joseph. "The Root System of Querus Macrocarpa in Relation to Invasion of Prairie," Botanical Gazette, Vol. 94 (1932-1933), 51-85.

Wells, H. G. (Speech at the) "Ninth Annual Reunion of the Pioneers of Kalamazoo County, August 14, 1879," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 3 (l88l7^ 517- w r . ------

White, George H. "A Sketch of Lucius Lyon, One of the First Senators from Michigan," ibid., Vol. 13 (1888), 325-333.

Williams, B. 0. "Early Michigan, Sketch of the Life of Oliver Williams," ibid., Vol. 2 (1877-78), 36-40.

Wood, J. David. "The Woodland-Oak Plains Transition Zone in the Settlement of Western Upper Canada," The Canadian Geographer, Vol. 5 (1963), 43-47.

Woods, John. "Two Years Residence in the Settlement on the English Prairie in the Illinois Country (1822)." in Ruben Gold Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1904), Vol. it), 173-357. 236

Public Documents

Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year lB47. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, IMS.

Barrows, Harlan H. "Geography of the Middle Illinois Valley," Illinois State Geological Survey Bulletin, No. 15 (1910).

Edwards, Everett E. "The Settlement of the Grasslands," in Grass; The Yearbook of Agriculture, 1948. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1948, 16-25.

Instruction to Surveyors, 1804-1901. in Records of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Lands Division, at Michigan Historical Commission Archives, Lansing, Michigan (unpublished).

Kalamazoo County Tract Book. Located in the Office of the Kalamazoo County Register of Deeds, Kalamazoo County Court House (unpublished).

Perkins, S. 0., and Tyson, James. Soil Survey of Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1926.

Plat and Sales Records of Primary and University Lands; 1837-1671» In Records of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Lands Division, located in the Michigan Historical Commission Archives, Lansing, Michigan (un­ published) .

Sauer, Carl 0. "Geography of the Upper Illinois Valley and History of Development," Illinois State Geological Sur­ vey Bulletin, No. 27 (1916).

Surveyors Contracts; 1797-1848, Records of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Lands Division, Vol. 1. in Michigan Historical Commission Archives, Lansing, Michigan (unpublished).

United States Survey Field Notes. In Office of Michigan Department of Conservation, Lands Division, Lansing, Michigan (unpublished).

Whiteside, E. P., Schneider, I. F., and Cook, R. L. So IIb of Michigan. Special Bulletin 402 of the Agriculture Experiment Station, Michigan State University, 1959. Newspapers Detroit Gazette. July 15* 1817.

______. July 3, 1818.

______. July 10, 1818.

______. July 17, 1818.

______. July 24, 1818.

______. September 25, 1818.

______. October 30, 1818.

______. November 13, 1818.

______. December 4, 1818.

______. January 29, 1819.

______. February 26, 1819*

______. April 28, 1820.

______. September 1, 1820.

______. July 27, 1821.

______. November 23, 1821.

______. February 15, 1822.

______. February 22, 1822.

______. March 1, 1822.

______. August 1, 1822.

______. August 2, 1822.

______. June 27, 1823.

______. February 7, 1826.

(Detroit) Northwestern Journal. October 13, 1830.

Kalamazoo Telegraph. February 12, 1874.

______. August 31, 1874.

(White Pigeon) Michigan Statesman and St. Joseph Chronic June 28, 10347 238

(White Pigeon) Michigan Statesman and St. Joseph Chronicle. August 9, 1834.

______. September 6, 1834.

______. May 16, 1835.

(White Pigeon) Michigan Statesman. September 10, 1835.

(Bronson [Kalamazoo]) Michigan Statesman. January 16, 1836. The paper moved from White Pigeon to Bronson in October, 1835.

______. April 2, 1836.

(Kalamazoo) Michigan Statesman. June 11, 1836.

______. July 23, 1836.

______. July 30, 1836.

______. August 20, 1836.

_ . September 17, 1836.

___<_____. February 4, 1837.

Letters

Published _

Cass, Lewis. Letter to Edward Tiffin, August 23, 1815. In Clarence E. Carter, Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. X, Michigan Territory, l805-l82^ (Washing- ton, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1942), 591-592.

Letter to Edward Tiffin, October 26, 1815. ' IbTd., ---5W. ----

Letter to Josiah Meigs, May 11, 1816. Ibid., &3F-636.

. Letter to Henry Baldwin, December 5, 1817. In ^Territorial Records, Copies of Papers at Washington," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 36 m r o y r m . ------

Letter to Edward Tiffin, November 7, 1820. Ibid.,

m . — 239

Evans, Thomas W. Letter to Edward Tiffin, October 11, l8l5* In Clarence E. Carter, Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. X, Michigan Territory, 1805-1820. (Washing­ ton, t).C.: United State Government Printing Office, 1942), 603.

Graham, John. Letter to George Graham, August 22, 1815. Ibid., 590-591.

Holmes, Alexander. Letter to Edward Tiffin, November 23, 1815. Ibid., 609.

Hough, Benjamin. Letter to Edward Tiffin, October 12, 1815* Ibid., 604.

Lyon, Lucius. Letter to Garrad Burritt, November 10, 1822. In "Letters of Lucius Lyon," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 27 (lo96), 437.

Smith, Thaddeus. Letter to his wife, June 14, 1829. In Samuel W. Durant, History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan. (Philadelphia: Everts and Abbott, 1880), 517-518.

Tiffin, Edward. Letter to Josiah Meigs, November 30, 1815. In American State Papers: Public Lands. (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1834), Vol. 3, 164-165.

Wampler, Joseph. Letter to Edward Tiffin, November 24, 1815. In Clarence E. Carter, Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. X, Michigan Territory, 1805-1826. (Washing­ ton , D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1942), 610.

Letter to Edward Tiffin, March 21, 1817. Ibid.,

Letter to Edward Tiffin, November 27, 1817. Ibid., 711.

Unpublished

Bragman, J. 0. Letter to Daniel Bragman, June 12, 1837. In Western Michigan University Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Cass, Lewis. Letter to Edward Tiffin, September 4, 1815. In Cass Letter Book, located in Michigan Historical Com­ mission Archives, Lansing, Michigan, 49-50.

Letter to Josiah Meigs, March 11, 1816. Ibid., HJF-107.

Letter to Josiah Meigs, May 24, 1817. Ibid., 131- T 3TT----- Cass, Lewis, Letter to Major John Anderson, June 24, l8l7. Ibid., 135-137.

Hough, Benjamin. Letter to Lewis Cass, September 19, 1815. Ibid., 67-68.

McArthur. Duncan. Letter to William Woodbridge, November 17 l8l4. In Woodbridge Papers, Burton Historical Collec­ tions, Detroit Public Library, Detroit, Michigan.

Tiffin, Edward. Letter to Lewis Cass, September 12, 1815. In Cass Letter Book, located in Michigan Historical Commission Archives, Lansing, Michigan, 64-65.

Unpublished Material

"A Brief History of the Life of D. E. Deming,11 in Western Michigan University Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Atlee, A. T. "Kalamazoo in 1835 and 1855," in Michigan History Collections, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Bourdo, Eric Albert. "A Validation of Methods Used in Analyzing Original Forest Cover," Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Forestry Department, University of Michi­ gan, 1954.

Brown, E. Lakin. "Paper Read Before the Annual Pioneer Picnic (1890)," in Stanley Barney Smith Papers, Western Michigan University Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Copley, Alexander. "Diary of Alexander Copley (1832)," in Alexander B. Copley Papers, Michigan Historical Collec- tions, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Hauser, Richard S. "An Ecological Analysis of Isolated Prai ries of Newago County, Michigan," Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Michigan State University, 1953-

Little, Henry. "Reminiscences of Kalamazoo Forty Years Ago, in Western Michigan University Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Record Book of the Township of Schoolcraft, in Western Michi gan University Archives, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Smith, Henry Parker (?). "Reminiscences of a Young Pioneer, manuscript written on the back of five 1893 (?) Kala­ mazoo County ballots, in Henry Parker Smith Papers, Michigan History Collections, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Stevens Biographical File, located in the Kalamazoo County MuseumJ Kalamazoo, Michigan. MAP SOURCE APPENDIX

Map No. 1. "Location of Inner Michigan." Moraine location from Helen M. Martin, Map of the Surface Formations of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan, Publication No. 49 of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Geologi­ cal Survey Division, 1955.

Map No. 2. "Portion of the Charlevoix-Bellin Map ’Carte Des Lacs Du Canada,' Paris, 1744." Prom Lewis Karpinski, Historical Atlas of the Great Lakes and Michigan: to Accompany the Bibliography of the Printed Maps of Michigan (Lansing: Michigan Historical Commission, 1931), p. 437

Map No. 3* "Portion of Map of the Great Lakes and the Five Statesof the Ordinance of 1789, from Morse Gazetteer, London, 1798." Ibid., p. 78.

Map No. 4. "Portion of the Carey and Warner Map of ’The Northwestern Territories of the United States,' from their General Atlas..., Philadelphia, l8l6." Ibid., p . 86.

Map No. 5. "Bounty Lands and Routes of the l8l8 Exploratory Expeditions." Location of Bounty Lands from Surveyors Contracts: 1797-1848, Records of the Michigan Department of1 Conservation, Lands Division, in Michigan Historical Commission Archives, Lansing, Michigan. (The contracts of Alexander Holmes and Benjamin Hough are in Vol. 1, pp. 273 and 277 respectively). The route of the Williams exploratory expedition taken from B. 0. Williams, "Early Michigan, Sketch of the Life of Oliver Williams," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 2 (1877-78)7 P* tPhe route of the October, l8l8 expedition from the Detroit Gazette, November 13, l8l8.

Map No. 6. "Bloomfield Township, Oakland County...." Prom the Bela Hubbard Michigan Maps, 1838-1841, located in the Burton Historical Collections, Detroit Public Library.

Map No. 7* "The Prairie Peninsula with Outliers." Reproduced with permission of the editors from Edgar Nelson Transeau, "The Prairie Peninsula," Ecologyt Vol. 16 (1935), facing page 424.

242 243

Map No. 8. "Map of Kalamazoo County, 1880." Prom Samuel W. Durant, History of Kalamazoo County, Michigan (Philadelphia: Everts and Abbott, lBbO), opposite page 56.

Map No. 9- "Kalamazoo County: Names of Surveyors and Dates of Survey of the Interior Lines of the Townships." Prom the field notes covering Kalamazoo County In the United States Survey Field Notes located in the Lands Division Office of the Michigan Department of Conserva­ tion, Lansing, Michigan.

Map No. 10. "Pioneer Landscapes of Kalamazoo County." Mainly from the field notes covering Kalamazoo County in the United States Survey Field Notes, the soils map accompany­ ing S. 0. Perkins and James Tyson, Soil Survey of Kala­ mazoo County, Michigan (Washington, D.C,: Government Printing Office, 1926), the Bela Hubbard, Michigan Maps 1838-1841 of Kalamazoo County, and numerous accounts by pioneers and travellers describing the Kalamazoo County landscape in the 1830's (see Chapter 5 for many of these sources).

Map No. 11. "Surveyor's Notes and Section Corner Bearing Trees for a Portion of Climax Township." Mainly from the United States Survey Field Notes, located in the Lands Division Office of the Michigan Department of Con­ servation, Lansing, Michigan.

Map No. 12. "Glacial Landforms of Kalamazoo County." From Helen M. Martin, Map of the Surface Formations of the Southern Peninsula of Michigan, Publication No. 49 of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Geological Sur­ vey Division, 1955.

Map No. 13. From John Farmer,Improved Map of the Territories of Michigan and Ouisconsin (New York: J. H. Colton, 1836).

Map No. 14. "Surveyor's Notes and Section Corner Bearing Trees for a Portion of Schoolcraft Township." Mainly from the United States Survey Field Notes, located in the Lands Division Office of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Lansing, Michigan.

Map No. 15. "Surveyor's Notes and Section Corner Bearing Trees for a Portion of Texas Township." Ibid. 244

Map No. 16. "Reference Trees Along Western Borders of Prairie Ronde and Grand Prairie." Prom the field notes covering Kalamazoo County in the United States Survey Field Notes, located in the Lands Division Office of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Lansing, Michi­ gan.

Map No. 17. "Surveyor's Map of Richland Township, Kalamazoo County." From the Record Maps and Descriptive Notes from the Surveyor General's Office, Record Group 62-16, Records of the Lands Division of the Michigan Department of Conservation, located in the Michigan Historical Com­ mission Archives, Lansing, Michigan, Vol. 178,p. 78.

Map No. 18. "Comstock Township, Kalamazoo...." From Bela Hubbard's Michigan Maps, 1838-1841, located in the Burton Historical Collections, Detroit-Public Library.

Map No. 19. "Kalamazoo County: Federal Land Purchased by Settlers Under the 1830 Pre-Emption Law and on the First Day of Regular Land Sale (June 18 and 20, 1831)." Mainly from the Kalamazoo Countv Tract Book, located in the Register of Deeds Office in the Kalamazoo County court house, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Names of actual set­ tlers primarily from Samuel W. Durant, History of Kala­ mazoo County, Michigan (Philadelphia: Everts and Abbott, lBBO); .tames M. Thomas, Kalamazoo County Directory with a History of the County From its Earliest Settlement, T86^ and I87Q (Kalamazoo: Stone Brothers Book and Job Printers, 1869); George Torrey, "Kalamazoo County," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 1 (1S76), pp. 202-211; and John Walker, ’'Pioneer History of Cooper," Ibid., Vol. 5 (1882), pp. 403-405.

Map No. 20. "Kalamazoo County: Federal Land Purchased in 1830 and 1831 by Seven Selected Settlers." Ibid.

Map No. 21. "Kalamazoo County: Distribution of Initial Purchases by Settlers Who Purchased Federal Land From 1832-1834 (Excluding Villages)." Ibid.

Map No. 22. "Kalamazoo County: Purchases of Federal Land 1830-1837." From the Kalamazoo County Tract Book, located in the Register of Deeds Office in the Kalamazoo County court house, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Map No. 23. "Speculator's Map of a Portion of Kalamazoo County." The original of this map is located in the Kala mazoo County Library, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Map No. 24. "Kalamazoo County: Federal Land Purchased by Seven Selected Speculators within Fifteen Months of First Entry." Mainly from the Kalamazoo County Tract Book, located in the Register of Deeds Office in the Kalamazoo County court house, Kalamazoo, Michigan.