would be happy, peaceful and properous as a nation, let them maintain it in its true spirit inviolate forever.

DISPUTED QUESTIONS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

BY HON. EDWARD W. PECK, OF PONTIAC.

I was at the annual meeting of your society in June, 1886, and became a member. I listened with pleasure to the remarks of the members, the history of their experiences, their labor, trials, disappointments, and, as well, their successes. During your sessions, your then president extended an invitation to the members to write up and forward to the secretary any incidents of their personal history, or of the locality where they first settled in the state, or any other matters of history, either of local or general interest. I signed my name to a paper accepting the invitation of the president, without a moment's consideration, and probably unwisely; but now I think you will have to bear the infliction, and that you may take comfort and consolation in the thought that the invitation will not be repeated.

First, I must give you a few words of personal history. I am a descendant of William Peck, who was born in London, England, in 1601, and with his wife, and son Jeremiah came to America in 1637, settling in New Haven, Connecticut. The descendants of said William, brought down to 1877, the date of the publication of his book, numbered nearly 3,000, and are scattered over the United States, and some in foreign countries.

My grandfather with six sons and four daughters, emigrated from Lyme, Connecticut, and settled in West Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, in 1800. I was born March 19, 1807, and being the oldest son of the family, was early initiated into the mysteries and labors of farming. The labors of the farmer at that early day were vastly more severe than at the present. We had none of the labor saving machinery now in use. The mower, the reaper and binder, the cultivators, the threshing machine, were not then known, and the tools and implements of husbandry were of the roughest

kind, and it is doubtful if any of the pioneers of the present day, have followed the wooden plow, which had a small point of iron or steel, or have threshed their wheat and other grain with a flail, and cleaned it in the wind.

My education was such as could be acquired in the common district school and commenced in the little log school house on the corner, with slab benches for the scholars to sit on, and a cross legged table for the use of the school mistress. The school books in general use were Webster's spelling book, the English reader. Lindley Murray's English grammer, Daboll's arithmetic, and Morse's geography; and the books were not changed, as is the modern custom, in the interest of the book makers, but not unfrequently lasted through the family. Continuing to work on my father's farm until I was twenty one, he then having sufficient help from younger brothers, I hired out for two seasons to neighboring farmers for thirteen dollars a month, and taught district schools for two winters at thirteen and fifteen dollars a month.

In May, 1830, in company with some friends, I came to Michigan on a tour of observation. We spent some weeks in Detroit, in Washtenaw and Oakland counties, and at Pontiac, then a small town with fair prospects. We returned to Detroit and waited several days for the arrival of the steamboat, Henry Clay (which was thougt to be a marvel), in order to take passage to Buffalo. The population of Michigan according to the United States census of that year was 31,649, and of Detroit, 2,200. The Detroit and Saginaw turnpike was then in course of construction, six or seven miles having been completed, by laying the logs across the road, and partially covering them with earth, and many of us know what sort of a road we had.

I returned home and worked on my father's farm until Oct. 1, 1831, when having decided to become a citizen of Michigan, I left my native town and came to Michigan, expecting to attack the forest. I was the owner of some timbered land in Washtenaw county. I had some axes secured in the bottom of my chest, which contained my clothing suitable for farmers' use. Coming up Lake Erie on a steamboat, my purpose was changed, and I settled in Troy, Oakland county, and engaged in merchandising, which business I continued for some sixteen years. Troy was one of the earliest settled towns in Oakland county, in the east and southeast part of Oakland county adjoining Macomb county on the east. The first land bought in the township was Feb. 12, 1819, under the two dollar act, and from that date up 1830, the lands were rapidly taken under the ten shilling act, and at that date a large proportion, probably three fourths of the whole was taken, and on February 17, 1836, the last description in the township was taken.

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The pioneer society of Oakland county has on its records the names of those making the entries, the date of entries, and the descriptions of all the

lands in the township, a valuable paper, obtained at the United States land office at Detroit, by the Hon vice president, O. Poppleton, and from the same paper I have gathered some thoughts, facts and statistics which I am at liberty to use. The rapidity with which the lands in Troy were taken is remarkable, when we take this fact into consideration, that they were nearly all heavily timbered with oak, some beech and maple, white wood, black walnut, hickory and many others varieties, requiring not only physical strength, but perseVerance, indomitable courage and energy. To the character of the early pioneer, does the township of Troy owe her unparalleled development and the prosperity which gave her rank with the first townships in the county. Most of the early settlers were from the pioneer families of western New York, and were well fitted by discipline and experience to enter upon a new life in the forests of the township. It required a strong will, energy and physical power to fell the heavy timber that encumbered the land, to clear and fence it to erect their log houses and barns, improve their lands, build their roads and bridges, yet they were equal to the occasion, and well did they perform the task, and I may venture the remark that there are no more beautiful farms, farm houses and landscapes in the state; and while I would not unduly exalt the character of the early settlers of Troy and thereby by inference detract from the just praise due those of other localities, I will say that they were in everything that helps to make up a first class commnnity, far above the average of those usually settling in new countries.

I shall be allowed to extend my remarks to cover more ground than the township of Troy, where I first settled, or the county of Oakland where I have been a resident for more than fifty five years. I would like to take a wider range and give a few thoughts in regard to the admission of our state into the Union. I am aware that much has been said on the subject, and at the semi-centennial last June, there were additions to that history, but I will hazard the opinion, that some facts in relation to our admission have not been well understood, and if ever understood will bear a repetition or emphasizing. It is with the view of placing upon the records of this "State Pioneer Society" some additional facts, trials and incidents, without which the true history of our admission would be in my opinion quite incomplete, that I refer to the subject. About the year 1834 the pioneers (we were all pioneers then), perhaps I should say the politicians, became ambitious to become a state, and as the ordinance of 1787, the charter of our rights, authorized Michigan when she had a population of 60,000 free inhabitants to become a state, and having by a census of the territory found that we had a population of 87,000 and over, and so declared by the legislative council of the territory, early in 1835 the legislative council passed an act providing for a convention to be held in May of that year. Delegates

were accordingly elected and met in Detroit, and numbered 89, and continued in session until June 24, when having completed their labors by adopting a constitution, the same was submitted to the people in the fall of that year, and adopted by the people with little opposition. The southern boundary of the state was in accord with the ordinance of 1787, being an east and west line drawn through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan until it intersected Lake Erie. As early as 1802 congress passed an act to enable the people of Ohio to organize a state government, in which it is declared that the northern boundary should be established by an east and west line drawn through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan until it intersected Lake Erie and thence through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line.

Ohio, in framing her constitution, adopted this line with a variation, so as to include the site of Toledo; the constitution was referred to a committee in Congress who reported that it was not necessary or expedient to act upon it at all, and thus it remained until 1805, when congress passed an act in accordance with the ordinance of 1787 to divide what was known as the Indian Territory into separate governments, erected Michigan into a separate territory, defining her southern boundary to be a line drawn east from the southerly bend of Lake Michigan until it intersects Lake Erie. This left the strip of land that Ohio wanted within the boundaries of Michigan, and it was conclusive of the justice of her claims; and right here I may properly refer to the extreme selfishness of the great state of Ohio. She had a front on Lake Erie of one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles, with at least half a dozen ports of entry on the lake, and did not need Toledo. Michigan had only one Toledo, and might most reasonably have expected to enjoy her own in peace, but this would not satisfy the greed of Ohio; Toledo he would have, and having failed to show any legal or equitable right to it, she would take it by the strong arm of her boasted "million of freemen."

Early in 1835 the legislature of Ohio passed an act extending the jurisdiction of the state over the tract which she wanted. Gov. Mason, of Michigan, ever watchful of her interests, called the legislative council together, and on February 12, 1835, the council passed an act making it a criminal offense for any person to attempt to exercise any official act, duty or office within the jurisdiction of Michigan, under any authority not derived from Michigan or the United States. The governor of Ohio still persisting in his determination to rob Michigan of her vested rights, called out a volunteer force of 600 men, and proceeded with his commissioners to Perrrysburg, near the line, with the avowed purpose of surveying and marking the line of the tract he proposed to take. Gov. Mason of Michigan having watched the action of the governor of Ohio, was not in the least inclined to submit to be shorn of our

War

territory, and the pioneers, generally, sympathized with the governor. seemed inevitable, and in the emergency our ambitious, young and patriotic governor called out the military to the number of twelve to fifteen hundred. Oakland county had a regiment of riflemen, in which I held a commission, and some small companies of cavalry, and the ununiformed troops were drafted. Our regiment was called to Pontiac by the proper officers for organization, and having effected that object we were ordered to rendezvous at Plymouth for further organization on a given day, and on the day named we left our wives and little ones to engage in a struggle for our rights. There were some incidents of that campaign which I take the liberty of presenting. After leaving Plymouth, having completed our organization, we proceeded immediately on our way to the seat of war at Toledo, and by a forced march on a sultry day in September, we reached the River Raisin, a few miles above Monroe, on Saturday evening. A large and commodious farm house, with large and convenient barns and other buildings, promised comfortable protection and shelter for the troops. That evening before it was quite dark, an uproar was raised; the owner of the premises missed a fine hive of honey, but the pursuit of the thieves was so prompt that the honey was found on the grass near the river, and the empty hive in the river. The man who carried the hive upon his shoulder, found that the bees were quite as unwilling as the Michigan men to be robbed of their rightful property, and resented it by stinging him upon his neck so powerfully as to paralyze him. In this emergency the boys were in a strait what to do, and avoid detection, but one, more suggestive than the rest, proposed to apply mud from the clay bank of the river, which had a good effect, and he recovered. There was plenty of honey in the house that night, and General Hascall, the senior officer, partook of it so freely, that at an early hour the next morning I saw him bending over the fence in the rear of the house, with positive indications that he had taken more honey than he could carry. A court martial was ordered in the morning, to which all the commissioned officers were invited, but no witnesses could be found that knew anything about it, and the court martial adjourned, subject to the call of the president, but nothing was heard of it afterward.

The troops marched on to Monroe that Sabbath morning. The officers obtained quarters in a large room in a hotel, and the men in the court house. About midnight a messenger from General Brown, who was in command of the forces at Toledo, was announced, and coming into the room where the officers were sleeping, the dispatch of General Brown was read, requiring the troops to proceed to headquarters immediately, and ending with the announcement, "The enemy are in force." Early in the morning steamboats were