My father met us at Monroe, and I recall that in Saline township he purchased thirty bushels of wheat the entire output of a small stack, and left it to be ground into flour. Later we had numerous calls for a little wheat flour to make a wedding cake, which was always freely given.
At Strongs Ridge, Ohio, where we staid one night we were told we would see no more peaches after we left there—a strange condition of things I thought—so we bought a goodly supply and saved the stones and on reaching Prairie Ronde planted them in Mr. Guilford's garden, the first garden cultivated by a white man on the prairie. Mr. Guilford had apple trees growing from the seed in this garden. The peach trees grew and thrived and were transplanted to many claims in the county.
The south-west part of Kalamazoo county was first settled and John Bair, brother to William Bair, of Vicksburg, drove the first stake, or rather blazed the first tree near Harrison's lake June, 1828.
It was in Prairie Ronde that the first school district in the county was organized, and the first school taught in the winter of '30 and '31 by Thomas W. Merrill, founder of what is now Kalamazoo college. Mr. Merrill, my first teacher in Michigan, was followed by Stephen Vickery, and Mr. Vickery by Richard Huyck. The school house was built of split logs and was 20 by 26 feet. It stood near the home of Judson Edmunds, recently sold to Joseph Davis.
The first post-office in the county was in Prairie Ronde, and my father was post-master, receiving his commission from General Jackson. The first frame building in the county, a small barn, was built by Delamore Duncan in 1830. The first grist-mill was built in 1830 by John Vickers on Rocky Creek. Corn only was ground in this primitive mill of small dimensions. In the fall of the same year Mr. Vickers sold the mill to Col. Fellows, who built during the winter the first saw-mill in the county, near where William Maile now lives. In this mill was sawed the lumber to build the first store at Bronson, now Kalamazoo. One other claim I must enter. Prairie Ronde furnished for Cooper the character of "Bee-Hunter" in his novel, "Oak Openings." One Towner Savage disputes the honor with Mr. Harrison. Mr. Beadle, of dime novel fame, told me he helped Cooper lay the plot of the story, and that Mr. Towner Savage was the original "Ben Boden."
One event that occurred during the Black Hawk war excitement took great prominence in my boyish mind, because to me it demonstrated the fearlessness and bravery of my father. It was in the spring of 1832, and Col. Lyman Daniels, whose regiment had been ordered to the front, had important papers and money he wished taken to Detroit. It was thought to be a perilous journey at that time. I distinctly remember Mr. Daniels asking Col. Fellows if he would carry them, saying he had been unable to find a man who dared undertake it. My father, then a man nearly 70 years of age, said he would take them, and the papers and money were transferred to his saddle bags and the trip made in six days. In 1830 he had visited Detroit and purchased apple trees, and some of them are still standing, and promise to bloom in a few weeks in all their pristine glory. While in Detroit he enjoyed the hospitality of Gen. Cases. The hero of the war of 1812 and the whilom boy soldier of the revolution were both members of the ancient order of Masons.
Of the real privations and sufferings of pioneer life that many experienced, I know nothing. With horses the journey to Detroit for supplies was not such an impossible undertaking as it would seem to-day. But inconveniences were abundant. The post-office was a basket and the basket was kept under the bed. There was a bushel and a half of the first mail Col. Fellows, brought from White Pigeon, and for each letter the post-master paid 25 cents. But I suppose the worth of the news from home and from "the girl I left behind me," could not be computed in dollars and cents. It seems but yesterday that a citizen of Schoolcraft would walk in and say, "Is there airry letter here for airry one of the Bonds?" The manner of sending money by mail at that time differed somewhat from the present check, draft and order system. A fifty or one hundred dollar bill would be cut in two and one-half sent at a time.
That necessity is truly the mother of invention was often demonstrated in pioneer days. I recall a novel arrangement for grinding or pounding corn, constructed by Delamore Duncan. A large stump near the house was hollowed out at the top and a spring-board set in place projecting over the top of the house and a pestle at the end completed the mill or stump mortar. With this the meal for bread for the family was prepared.
The Indian burying ground in the north-west part of the township had great interest for the new-comers. I remember visiting it when there were three "cribs" with their occupants, still standing.
My knowledge of farming when I came to Michigan was necessarily limited. But the season following our arrival I was introduced to a pair of oxen and a harrow. With my ball in my pocket I started out to prepare a few acres for the sowing of wheat. But no wheat was sown in that field that season. The oxen were slow and my ball required so much attention that by the time I finished harrowing the volunteer wheat had made such a growth sowing was unnecessary. The yield from the field was forty bushels per acre.