Pioneer Day Exercises

by Ladies' Library Association (Schoolcraft Mich.)

WRITTEN BY E. LAKIN BROWN,

And sung at a Thanksgiving dinner given by James Smith, at his home in Schoolcraft, November, 1835.

Again the joyful seasons
Have run their destined course,
And borne ten thousand reasons
Of more than reason's force.
Why, man, the chief receiver
Of all their countless joys
Should raise unto the giver
A glad and thankful voice.
Yea, every land and nation
That owns the gladdening sun
Should render adoration
To Him, the Holy One:
To Him, to sing whose praises
Angelic choirs unite;
To Him whose goodness raises
From darkness into light.
But chiefly with thanksgiving
And songs of honor new,
As most of all receiving,
Should we the homage due
Repay to Him whose bounty
With overflowing hand,
Has sent us smiling plenty
Far from our fatherland.
And when with rich profusion
We crown the festal board,
And mirth and gay confusion
With cheerful health accord,
Be mindful of His mercies
Who rules the rolling year,
Who every doubt disperses
And dries the falling tear.

THE BEGINNING of SCHOOLCRAFT

Written and read by E. Lakin Brown.

Ladies of the Association:

At the urgent request of your committee, but with much fear of failure of any good result, I have consented to write a brief article upon the early history of Schoolcraft, and the character and peculiarities of its first settlers; and by Schoolcraft, I mean not merely the village, but the township; or rather, Prairie Ronde and Gourdneck prairies. And first, of who constituted the Vermont colony, who first came to Schoolcraft, and how they happened to come here; and I fear this will necessarily be too brief and sketchy to be interesting, and too long for the occasion.

In the winter of 1829-30, I was teaching the district school in Cavendish, Vt., where my brother-in-law, James Smith, Jr., resided. I was to be 21 years old in the spring, and a life to be spent upon a hard, rough farm in the mountainous town of Plymouth, where my father lived, with a large family of boys and girls, did not seem to me to offer very attractive prospects.

My father's brother, Daniel Brown, had removed with his family to the state of New York when I was about four years old, and after various chances and changes, had finally settled at Ann Arbor, Mich., one of the very earliest settlers of that place. Occasional letters from him had set forth in glowing colors the beauty and advantages of that place and vicinity, and in casting about as to what I should do when "of age," I decided that I would go to Michigan as soon as the Erie canal should be open in the spring. I communicated my intention to Smith, and before my school was finished he too, declared his intention of going. When I went home in the spring, I met Hosea B. Huston, a young man who had grown up, a near neighbor of ours, in the family of one John Lakin, and who had not, so far as I know, a living relative in the world. He too, had just finished teaching a winter's school, and learning my intentions, decided at once to become a third member of the party to Michigan. We left on the 18th of April, 1830, our destination Ann Arbor, Michigan. Anything beyond that was an unknown land. Of the incidents of our journey, though tedious and somewhat eventful, this is not the time nor the occasion to relate them. It is only important to say that on arriving at Buffalo, where we were aware that Mr. Thaddeus Smith was then living, we stopped and looked him up, and remained with him and family two days. Thaddeus Smith was not a relative of the Smith family of Cavendish, Vt., but a neighbor and intimate friend of theirs, and his wife was a cousin of mine, and of course, of my sister Mrs. James Smith. The year before, in 1829, Thaddeus had made a trip to Michigan, looking for a place to locate, and had come to Prairie Ronde, where he found a few settlers, Bazel Harrison and family, who had come to the prairie in the fall of 1828, and several who had come the next year. He described Prairie Ronde in glowing terms, said it was the garden of the world, and we must on no account fail to go there. We arrived at Ann Arbor about the 12th of May, and after a stay of a few days, Smith and Huston started for Prairie Ronde, by way of Tecumseh and White Pigeon, known as the Chicago Trail, the more direct route through Jackson and Calhoun counties not having yet been opened. They bought a pony and "rode and tied," that is, one rode on ahead as far as he thought proper, then dismounted and tied the horse to a tree to be taken in turn by the man on foot when he came up. Arriving at Prairie Ronde, they came to the east side of the "Big Island" as the settlers called it. There the only settler was a man by the name of LaRue, who had squatted and made a pre-emption claim on the 80 acre lot which was afterwards laid out as the village of Schoolcraft. He had built and lived in a little cabin which stood for some years just west of the dwelling built and occupied by Col. Daniels, and afterwards by Judge Dyckman. Smith at once decided that the land on the east side of the Island, being a central point on the prairie was the best point for locating a business establishment, and determined to start a store there. So he bargained with LaRue for his claim, and further, for the erection of a log cabin that would serve for a store, to be done by the time he could go to New York, buy goods and get them here. He paid him ten dollars, and was to pay him fifty more when he took possession. Smith and Huston then returned to Ann Arbor; Smith was to go to New York and buy a few goods, and Huston to remain a while at Ann Arbor and then come back to Prairie Ronde and take charge of the trade under the firm name of Smith & Huston. Smith started for New York, and I for Vermont. On arriving at Buffalo we again called on Thaddeus Smith, and it was agreed upon that when the goods arrived at Buffalo, he and his family should go on the vessel with them as far as Detroit, and thence across the country to Prairie Ronde, Thaddeus to be a partner in the concern.

I went to Vermont and remained until October 1831, when I again started for Michigan. Arriving at Ann Arbor, there was no public conveyance farther west; and my uncle said that he wished to see the western part of the territory, and he would go out with me. With an old Indian pony and a light wagon, and a box of provisions we started, only one of us riding at a time, by way of Jackson, Marshall and Battle Creek, in each of which places there was a log cabin or two, the road being a mere trail from Ann Arbor to Bronson, now Kalamazoo, and not a bridge in the whole distance. At Bronson where we arrived just at sunset on November 5, having left Ann Arbor on the last day of October, there were four log cabins, one of which was occupied by Titus Bronson, the proprietor of the future village, where the county seat had already been located. There was also a small two story framed store, which Smith, Huston & Co. had built in the summer of that year and supplied with goods from the store at Schoolcraft, Huston taking charge of the same. Leaving my uncle at Bronson's where Huston boarded, Huston and I took horses and rode to Prairie Ronde where we arrived about 9 o'clock at night, at the log cabin which served as both store and dwelling for the Big Island branch of the business. My uncle came the next day, and on the day after left for his home. In giving this detail of my own story till my return to Michigan, I have necessarily delayed giving the fortunes of the Big Island venture. The goods sent by James Smith, arrived in due time by canal at Buffalo, and were there transferred to a schooner for St. Joseph. Thaddeus Smith, his wife and son Henry P. took the same schooner as far as Detroit, and from there took the Southern or Chicago road to White Pigeon, and thence to Prairie Ronde. Huston reached Prairie Ronde about the same time from Ann Arbor. There they learned that LaRue, instead of building a cabin on his claim as he had agreed, had re-sold his claim to a man named Bond, and run away; so there was no place to store the goods when they should arrive nor a place for the family to live. It was finally arranged that they should have the occupancy of one-half the little cabin of Abner Calhoon, on the west side of the Prairie for the winter and put up one of their own on the east side of the Island in the spring. Early in the spring this was done. A pretty large log building was erected just west of where my son Addison now lives, and the family and goods were removed to it. In May, James Smith again came from Vermont, accompanied by his brother Addison, who had some cash capital which he invested in the concern, and became a member of the firm of Smith, Huston & Co. and was to remain in charge of the business, while Huston was to go to Bronson, and build a store there—a branch of the business at the Big Island; James Smith going immediately to New York to purchase a stock of goods to supply both stores. This was the condition of things when I arrived at the Big Island store November 5, of that year as I have already related. And from that very day the terms Prairie Ronde and Big Island were dropped as signifying the place of business here, and the name Schoolcraft was used.