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The society proceeded to the election of a Treasurer, Moses F. Carleton being chosen. The Chairman then introduced Hon. William T. Mitchell, who delivered the following

address:

It is one of the usages and no doubt the right and prerogative of old age to be garrulous—we are inclined to be over talkative. The earliest history of the world is that given and recited by the old to the young—the old and young alike indulging the proclivity of garrulousness. Written history is of comparatively recent date, not exceeding 4,000 years, except that given by the Bible. With that exception all knowledge of what had transpired before was and is a mere legend, a transcript of the stories told by the old to the young and thus transmitted from generation to generation, until the arts of writing and printing gave the means of perpetuating what before depended alone upon the uncertainties of memory. The greater part of the accredited histories of Rome and Greece are derived from legendary recitations, and have come to be regarded to a great extent as mythical. Even in these later days when pen and type are in the control of all, men are disposed to let passing events go into memory only without note or record. The history of large districts of our country full of incident and interest has been permitted to pass out of mind and memory because no one had the interest or would take the pains to preserve them in written form.

Even the Assyrians and Egyptians, whose early records were supposed to be lost, have excelled us by engraving on tablets of stone in characters, until recently unknown, the events worth memory, and the skilled now read in those eternal records confirmation of some, if not all, of the sacred writings. God himself directed such a history of His chosen people, without which and the tablets of stone the greater part of the history of the world would have been lost. Even with these the story of the struggles and wondrous works of the greater part of mankind have been lost in the ages. All we can know of them is that there were people, that men and women lived, had their loves and hates; were born and died through numberless centuries, and left no evidence of their existence, except in the ruins of temples and cities, which they must have erected, worshiped and dwelt in.

In these, our days, it has become a pleasant and agreeable pastime for the old to associate together, to exchange memories and thoughts, and by associations to perpetuate the legends of their several localities, and so transcribe them into history.

Events apparently unimportant are called to mind and written, and afterward prove to be the true elements of the history of our country. Hence the formation of such associations as this, and it is to be hoped this will be conspicuous as having so many things worthy of perpetuity.

I can hardly claim to be one of the early pioneers of St. Clair County. I see around me many, and know of many others, who justly look upon my years in your midst as not entitling me to be one of their number; but Mr. Truesdail, one of your committee, having favored me with a flattering invitation to address you. I could not decline the honor.

I suppose your greatest interest will not be in an address of generalities, but in calling your attention to such of the early history and the men of this county as will most readily occur and may form for others the nucleus of more extended history.

My earliest visit to this State was in 1839. Detroit then had a population of 9,000 and St. Clair County not over 3,000. In 1845, the census of this county, then embracing Sanilac and Huron, showed a population of 7,640. In September, 1847, when I moved to Port Huron, the entire population of the county of St. Clair (the present counties of St. Clair. Sanilac and Huron) could not have exceeded 9,000.

The body of the population was confined to Clay, Cottrelville, China, St. Clair and Port Huron. All west and north of the river towns was a comparative wilderness. Supplies for the lumber woods and even those of the villages were imported from Detroit or the older portions of the State. Every barrel of flour and bushel of corn had to be brought from abroad to supply the wants of the entire people except the more favored residents of the southern part of the county lying south of St. Clair.

Lumber was the ruling interest, and wherever that interest prevails, the people are poor. So long as there is a pine tree on a settler's land capable of making a thousand of shingles, he will not raise corn nor wheat, though he could earn twice the money with half the labor. At that time there were so many pine trees that there was no agriculture, and while a few reaped large profits from labor expended in the pine woods, the great mass of the people remained poor. A few like the Cottrells, Carletons, Barrons, Clarks, Robertsons, Recors, Browns, Westbrooks and Smiths, who happened to own lands not cursed with pine or hemlock, were the only exceptions. They knew enough to reap abundant harvests, by tillage and ready markets, while the others were content to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water" to those who were stripping the forests of their evergreens and hoarding riches to be expended in more fortunate communities. It was a fortunate day for us when pine and lumbermen ceased to predominate, and when farmers commenced to till instead of robbing their lands.

In 1847 St. Clair Township, including the city, had a population of 1,150, and Port Huron Township in cluding Gratiot and the city, about the same, and not exceeding that number.

The lawyers in the county were L. M. Mason, True P. Tucker, M. K. Ames. B. C. Farrand and John McNeil, of whom B. C. Farrand and John McNeil are the sole survivors. John J. Falkenbury was admitted soon afterward and is since dead, and Mr. Grace and myself came into the county that year. The Hon. O. D. Conger, afterward a lawyer of worthy note and renown, and now your honored Representative in Congress, though he had been admitted, was ruralizing in a water saw mill at the then city of New Milwaukee, now the flourishing town of Lakeport, and being both head and tail sawyer in the old flutter-wheel mill, had hard work to make both ends meet; a fair example of the ill condition of laboring lumbermen. But his better genius found him, lifted him worthily upon the legal rostrum and introduced him to that honorable career that none but political opponents can ever wish to see checked. But peace to his ashes as a lawyer! His future life is elsewhere.

A passing word to the memory of the dead of that little band of lawyers.

True P. Tucker, a man of queer as well as brilliant parts, then held a foremost position, and by his friends was esteemed as a successful advocate. His memory is cherished by numbers of the old pioneers.

M. E. Ames soon left the county, and it is said after taking a prominent political position in Minnesota, died and was buried among strangers. It is proper and right to mourn the dead, but I have never known of any one that regretted his removal from this county.

Of L. M. Mason, there is not one of the old pioneers who was not stricken with grief at the announcement of his death. A man of iron frame, and heart, head and hand to match, full of generous and kindly impulses. The friend of the poor and helper of the needy, we may all arise and call his memory blessed.

Of those who were practicing law in this county in 1848, Mr. Conger, Mr. Grace, Mr. Farrand, Mr. Mc Neil and myself are the only survivors so far as I know.

There were then actively engaged in business in this county but a few who are still living. I can call to mind of the then business men not a full list, but a mournful one, when we see how busy death has been in thinning their number. J. K. Smith, of Algonac, long since gone to an honored grave and better home, leav ing among us his worthy sons Abram and 8. 8. Smith. Drs. John Chamberlain and Harmon Chamberlain, whose memories we all respect. John Wells, a man of worth and a time-honored citizen. N. W. Brooks, the partner of William M. St. Clair, left our midst and died, honored and respected in Detroit. It would be impossible in this brief sketch to name all the Carletons. Browns. Saint Bernards and Barrons who have left us for a better laud.

Nor can I call back to memory all the Wards, Browns, Robertsons and Gallaghers and others who were the business and active men of Newport, now Marine City, some alive, mostly dead; and who, some of them, were such men of enterprise that their wills and estates are still the subject of litigation and world-wide

comment.

M. S. Gillett. James W. Sanborn, Alvah Sweetser, V. S. Horton, E. B. Clark, Col. Davis, Esq. Hamilton and a long list of others of Port Huron should not pass without comment. They left honored and honorable memories, and none of us let them pass to the tomb without tears and sorrow.

I cannot pass without calling some of them and perhaps others to your especial memory on this occasion. Who of the old pioneers cannot recall some pleasant memory of Dr. Harmon Chamberlain, the good physician and true friend, of Dr. John, the witty and sarcastic, who joked friends and enemies alike? Who will not gratefully remember J. K. Smith, one of, if not the earliest, settlers of Algonac, whose common sen: e and upright conduct made him the adviser and helper of all in distress and need.

Of M. S. Gillet, the strong and sturdy, who believed in and lived up to the doctrine of total depravitv, who is there, among his old associates, but has a kindly memory?

E. B. Clark, the frank and free, and always well dressed; Col. W. Davis, the bold and ready and ever brave; Elijah Burtch, the outspoken and enduring, whose ripe years defied the ordinary rules and habits of life as now accepted. The "Old Count." Reuben Hamilton, whose eccentricities and queer decisiveness during a long life has been a fund of humor for half a century.

Judge B. F. Cox, the mixture of the civic and the military, well reputed as General and Probate Judge. Cummings Sanborn, commanding in stature and form, and amiable in all polite circles.

James W. Sanborn, a remarkable contrast to Cummings, but whose life, though short, was successful. Col. Andrew Mack, the true gentleman of the old school, of whom his friend and equal in all the amenities of life. Judge Zephaniah Bunce, still survives to remind the young of what his youth must have been, and of the beautiful graces of old age that succeed to a well-spent and honorable life.

Of all these, what can we say except that the most laudatory tombs erected over their earthly remains do not bespeak all their worth and virtues. And in speaking of them, we can only regret that time (especially the time of such an occasion) will not give us space to mention others equally worthy, and whose memories should not be overlooked.

Of the living early pioneers of St. Clair County, I shall want the aid of all present to even name them, much more to give them the worthy mention to which they are entitled. I do not expect to name a tithe, and will only speak of the few that readily occur to my mind.

The venerable Judge Zephaniah Bunce, whom I have mentioned as a compatriot with Col. Mack, by his nearly ninety years, whom I hoped to see in our midst, still stays with us, the type of an honorable life, and a worthy example to the young who look for long life.

Old Uncle Jonathan Burtch, who has passed his fourscore, one of our earliest settlers, whose long life proves the hardy stock from which he sprang, and the struggles and hardships that such a nature outlives.

Ralph Wadhams, the good-natured and genial, as well as successful, whose delight is now in his famous stock and herds, after nearly eighty years, still shows us that a life of single blessedness is not incompatible with old age. and makes us all regret that, while introducing such fine herds and stock in animals, he had

not thought and acted on the thought that his own superior qualities should have been perpetuated in children, who sixty years hence could with pride have recited the incidents in the life 01 such a sturdy

ancestor.

John Howard, of Port Huron, whose long life has seen so many of the incidents of our early history, first visiting this county in 1833, and still a man of vigor and active enterprise, should he not come forward with his fund of knowledge and experience? Ira. B. Kendrick, whose eighty years are carried with the apparent vigor of youth. Eliha Granger, of Berlin, with more than threescore and ten, is vigorous in tillage, and interested in all the proper movements of the day. William M. St. Clair, who, though not an octogenarian, has known the county from an early day, and in worthy ways helped to develop its resources. Gen. S. B. Brown, an early settler, but not too old to gain an honorable renown by active campaigns and daring deeds in the struggle for the Union. W. B. Barron. the active and successful merchant and business man. Capt. John Clark, of China, long since passed his threescore and ten, but whose life must have left to him many pleasant memories, and has been crowned with more than the usual honors allotted to citizens. May he long continue in health and vigor !

Daniel B. Harrington, your honored President, whose early memories must be full of incidents of interest, and whose pen or voice could not fail to relate a wondrous history.

Samuel Russell, of Algonac, whose experiences must have been varied and large.

John E. Kitton, the enterprising citizen of St. Clair, whose hopes and wishes have excited him to such extraordinary efforts for his adopted city, could tell us some of the marvels of his long residence.

"Judge" F. Saunders, who don't know how he acquired, but who has always worthily worn, the title. Amos James, whose ancestors in this county are proudly sustained by their sons.

W. L. Bancroft, so early connected with the press of this county, and whose experiences he can relate better than any one else.

Daniel Follansbee, who asks no honors, but has been the worthy recipient of county offices.

Wesley Truesdail, associated from an early day with our earliest and most venerated pioneers, who has ever been active in promoting the welfare of his beloved St. Clair, and whose years, though not as ripe as some I have mentioned, have brought to him many wise experiences and happy memories, and with whom I must close, for if I should call to mind all your worthy members, time would not permit the recital of their names, much less an enumeration of their good deeds.

And, more than all, I am compelled to omit the names of the true women, mothers and wives, who have borne their full share of the burdens and cares of their husbands, sons and brothers, in their early pioneer life. But why should a retiring and modest man like myself be expected to name or call to your minds these loved and worthy companions? They are known by their goodness and true bearing, and while like soldiers in the battle of life they live and die without record, fighting the worst part of life's conflicts, all must recognize the fact that their husbands without them could not any more than Generals without soldiers have won the victories or crowned their brows with the symbols of success.

I have purposely so far omitted to mention the much-esteemed old pioneer, Aura P. Stewart, because he has already commenced the good work so much desired from others. His early reminiscences will be read by all with interest, and prove a fund of valuable information.

Will not others follow his good example and furnish to this society their individual histories, experiences and adventures? This has been my object in calling to mind so many as I have, and with the hope that they and all others will so help to fill and adorn the archives of this association. They should not be mere mention of names as I have done, but such as will leave for the future useful memorials. If not ready writers, or if fearful of the rules of grammar or syntax, make such memorandums that some one more skilled will be anxious and glad to put them in a readable form.

Each meeting of this association, after it is fully organized, should be favored with such biographies and tales of early adventures. The early settlement and the growth of the county, its improvements and changes, are themes that should not be forgotten.

Some of the old pioneers have seen the county grow from the time when there were no highways or roads, and when canoes were the only vessels navigating the beautiful and glorious St. Clair. Why not, gentlemen, tell us the story?

This society should be not only a re-union of the old, but a gathering and perpetuation of our early history, that will soon pass from memory without some such means.

It is for you, gentlemen, to make this association one affording great pleasure to you all, and that will afford to your children not only pleasure, but desirable information.

8UMMKK MEETING OF 1882.

The society met again May 10, 1882. The object of the meeting was to re-organize, and fill offices made vacant by the decease of Daniel B. Harrington, President, and Samuel Russell, Sɔlɔman Kingsley, Jonathan Burtch, Samuel Carleton, John S. Kimball, Joshua Tompkins, and Oal Rix, Vice Presidents. The Presidents and several Vice Presidents had passed away since the list msstin*. Some interesting facts in the history of several prominent individuals, recently deceased, were obtained by the Treasurer, Moses F. Carleton, and enrolled in the records of th? sosiaty. An historical committee of six was appointed at the request of the Western Histjricil Gompaay to revise the history of St. Clair County when the manuscript is completed. Tha cjmmittea consists of the President and Executive Committee, and Mr. Horace Baker. Rev.

A. H. Boss addressed the society, and urged the necessity of gathering and preserving all that can be learned of the early affairs of the county, as they would be very valuable fifty years hence. The officers elected were: Hon. W. T. Mitchell, President; Mrs. B. C. Farrand, Secretary, and Moses F. Carleton, Treasurer; Executive Committee, B. C. Farrand, E. W. Harris, Moses F. Carleton and Henry Harrington. John M. Hart was elected a Vice President in place of Samuel Carleton, deceased. Eight new members were enrolled. The society will meet

at the call of the Executive Committee.

The Executive Committee of the Pioneer Society met at the County Court House November 28, 1882, for the purpose of revising the history of the county. The manuscript was submitted to this committee and approved.

RETROSPECT.

Could we evoke the genius of memory, and draw from those who are passing away so rapidly now the reminiscences of that time, how many stories we should glean of hair-breadth escapes in the wilds or in the waters—how the hunters returned from the hunt laden with spoils, or of the adventures of the land-hunters who had found some new paradise in their wanderings over the pathless prairies. We can imagine how, after the long days had passed in toil, and the semi-occasional mail had come in, that those few old settlers would gather around their respective hearthstones and, with their pipes in their mouths, and after carefully perusing the papers, not more than a month old, review the events of the times, and compare notes as to progress in breaking and clearing the lands; and especially when the shorter days of winter came, and alone in the wilderness a month at a time, removed from communication with friends or relatives at their Eastern homes, how the ties of Western friendship would seem to draw closer, and the gatherings come oftener, and when the shades of evening came the ox-sled would be hauled up, the box filled with a generous supply of hay, and the whole family take seats in the bottom and hasten to visit their neighbors, half a dozen miles away. And then the sorrow, when some loved one was nearing the grave, and the doctor, hastily summoned from a score of miles, gave no hope; how the sympathy of all the country round was shown in kindly offers—watchers coming a long distance to give their aid; and the funeral gatherings, comprising the neighbors for miles around. There were many bitter trials and hardships not conceivable in these days; but they had their compensation, too, in the enlargement of the love of humanity, in the earnest and true-hearted sympathy, and in the unbounded hospitality. Every house was a hotel, but it was a hotel without money and without price. Every traveler was welcome to come and go at free will, and the thought of compensation never entered the minds of those free-hearted dwellers in the wilds. And what was true of the eastern portion of the county from 1784 to 1835, was equally true of the western portion, until within a few years. All the change that would be made in the picture is of dates. It seems as if there was something in the partial isolation of mankind that develops the kindlier feelings of the human soul, enlarges its better impulses, and re-creates mankind into more nearly the image of the true man. And this is true even of these men, many of whom led wild lives, and this was but the excrescent growth of the circumstances in which they were placed, and in no way affected the manliness of character which developed itself. It seems, indeed, as if it were a wise provision of nature that the opening of new countries should be attended with a renewal of the simpler life of man, and thus introduce new blood into the world of civilization.

MORAVIANS, MORMONS AND GERMANS.

N this little chapter we deal with four peoples who have been prominent in the history of Michigan and known to the citizens of this county. It is true that only representatives of these peoples made St. Clair County a home. The Moravians and Mormons were only temporary residents; but the Germans and Hollanders who found their way to the peninsula in 1845-48, contributed their quota to the settlement of this county. For these reasons their history is taken from the summary of State history, and given a place in that of St. Clair.

What would the Republic be without immigration? It would be less than a cranberry marsh. Our population is of such a confessedly heterogeneous character, that, naturally enough, it suggests the question. Has this intermingling of different nationalities sensibly affected our health conditions? Certainly not, as far as intermarriages between the nations of the Caucasian race are concerned. This opinion is given first upon the fact that our classes of diseases have neither changed nor increased in their intensity by reason of such admixture, so far as can be learned by the statistics or the history of disease in the Northwest. Imported cases of disease are, of course, excepted. Second, because all that we can gather from statistics and history, concerning such intermingling of blood, goes to prove that it is beneficial in every respect—physically, mentally and morally. Ireland and England, of all the countries, are said to form the best illustration of the good attending an intermingling of the blood of different nations; for the reason that their character is supposed to be, comparatively speaking, good, and that of all countries they have been, perhaps, more frequently invaded, and to a greater or less part more settled by foreign peoples than any other. From an acquain ance of nearly a quarter of a century with the people of the world, and from an adequate knowledge of the people, whose nationalities are so various and whose intermarriages are so common, it is at least presumable that we should have heard of or noted any peculiar or injurious results, had any such occurre 1. None such, however, have been observed. Some fears have been expressed concerning the influence of Celtic blood upon the American temperament, by figures or fact. Reasoning from analogy, it would seem safe to affirm that the general intermingling by intermarriage now going on in our population, confined to the Caucasian nationalities, will tend to improve the existing character, rather than to create any new character for our people. this view needed support or confirmation, it is to be found in some interesting truths in relation to it. Edwin Seguin, in his work on idiocy, lays special stress on the influences of races, in regard to idiocy and other infirmities, like deafness. He says that the crossing of races, which contributes to the elimination of some vices of the blood (as may be the case in the United States, where there are proportionally less deaf and dumb than in Europe), produces a favorable effect on the health of the population, and cites as an example Belgium, which has fewer deaf and dumb than any country in Europe, owing to the influence of the crossing of races in past ages from the crowds of northern tribes passing, mingling and partly settling there on the way to England. We are aware that it has been predicted that our future will give us a new type, distinct from all other peoples, and that with this type must come, not only new diseases, but modifications or aggravations of the present diseases, in particular, consumption and insanity. But so long as we are in a formative state as a nation, and this state seems likely to continue so long as the country has lands to be occupied and there are people in Europe to occupy them, such speculations can be but of little value.

If

Another subject of importance must always be, the effect which occupation, food, education and manners have upon public health. The two chief factors of the social and sanitary wellbeing of a people are, a proper education of the man and a proper cultivation of the soil. The two principal occupations are education and agriculture, the learners in the schools being in excess of the laborers on the soil. A happier combination could scarcely be desired, to form an

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