and villages, with the advantages of modern improvements, and we truly can sit under our own vine and fig tree.

REMINISCENCES OF W. W. WOLCOTT.

South and west from the little village of Onondaga the land gradually rises until you reach the county line, about a mile and one-half directly west; then turning south about half a mile you find yourself traveling along a summit level which divides the waters that flow into Grand river on the one hand, from those that flow into Spring brook on the other. Without being hilly, the land has those long undulations that make it not only easy of drainage and cultivation, but attractive to the lover of rural scenery. To the east and north the view is extensive, as the eye ranges across the valley of the river. Here, on the corner, where the east and west roads meet, the county line road at right angles, is situated the residence of Wm. W. Wolcott, the first settler in this part of the county. The house is attractive, being built in the Italian style and having a tower, and is situated on a natural building spot, well back from the road, in a handsome grove of oaks. Just back of the house Mr. Wolcott has a fine grapery, and one of the finest peach orchards in this part of the country, and when we were there tree and vine were laden with luscious fruit. The barns are across the way from the house, and near by there is a water-hole with no source of supply but the rainfall, yet which furnishes water for his stock throughout the year. The farm consists of 174 acres, all but 30 acres of which are under improvements. It is one of the finest in this part of the country. He owns besides 150 acres in Jackson county, about one mile south.

Mr. Wolcott's forefathers lived at Weathersfield, Conn. The old building is still standing in which his great-grandfather used to do business, and it may be that some of his relatives took part in the celebrated Union war, so graphically narrated by that prince of historians, Dedrich Knickerbocker.

Wm. W. Wolcott was born in Austerlitz, Columbia Co., N. Y., 1807. He lived there until 1823, when his father moved to Genesee county, and it was on the hunting ground of the Senecas that he acquired that love for hunting which has been one of his diversions through life. June 29, 1832, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Baldwin, who was born Nov. 4, 1808, at Dorrest, Bennington Co., Vt.

He first came to Michigan in 1834, and having formed a traveling acquaintance with an old gentleman by the name of Daniels, they footed it out from Detroit to Ann Arbor. The cholera was raging in Detroit at that time.

On arriving at Ann Arbor, the old gentlemen found themselves so foot-sore that they concluded to try the stage, which proved to be a peddler's wagon "altered over" for the accommodation of travelers. They came in by the way of the Washtenaw trail, the

A

road along which was laid out by Firmferin in 1834, and extended west to St. Joseph. This trail entered and crossed the river not far from where the State's prison now stands, and Dr. Russell's brother kept tavern there on or near the site of that popular boarding establishment. The land now occupied for that purpose could then be bought for $300.

Since then it is safe to say that Jacksonburgh has grown. John M. Dwight was then the only dealer in goods and notions; Bill Bothwell kept the Thompson House, which sported Indian blankets at the windows in lieu of a more transparent medium. Blackman kept the rival establishment across the street. The Hamlins, since of Eaton Rapids, lived there then. Bailey was justice of the peace. There were Moody, Durand, Russey and Allen, the last of whom was the first dealer, aspiring to dispense groceries and provisions to his fellow sojourners; and this constituted about the entire nucleus, around which has grown up one of the most promising inland cities of Michigan.

The surveyors were at that time employed in running out the line of the old Clinton road. Their contract specified that they were to lay out a road, following generally a northwest course between the villages of Clinton and Grand Rapids. In those days it would seem that Clinton was one of the prospective points in the territory. In looking out the line of road, the surveyors sent out two men, who, taking opposite directions, prospected for the most eligible lines of communication and worried their way around swamps, or plunged through them according to circumstances. Mr. Wolcott and his friend, Geo. Woodworth, were the first men, after the surveyors, over the newly laid out road west of Jackson. When he came there the surveyors were encamped on the hill not far from the site of ex-Gov. Blair's residence. The friends resolved to take time by the forelock, and having procured some ponies they started out but a day behind the gentlemen of the compass and chain. They followed the line to where it struck Sandstone creek, near where the bridge now spans the stream at the head of the pond at Tompkin's Center. Not being able to cross at that point, they went down the creek and felled a tree to serve as a bridge. They spent a part of the day on the section of land where Marcus Wade now lives, and returned the same night to Jackson. The next morning, starting before daylight, they set out for Tompkin's again, and when about two miles on the route it began to snow, and kept it up until 12 o'clock the following night. On the way up they crossed a number of fresh bear tracks in the snow; plenty of deer, but got nothing, as their guns were

wet.

Mr. Wolcott resolved to locate a mill-site at Tompkins, and visited the land office at Monroe with that intention, but found that the land had long been taken. Becoming discouraged, he concluded that the whole country was a succession of tamarack swamps, and returned to the East. In the fall of 1835, he returned to Michigan and located on the land where he now lives.

At that time a man by the name of Booth, living near Onondaga, was said to be the only white man in Ingham county.

This time he visited the land office at Kalamazoo, and he gives a graphic account of the journey through the wilderness at that date. A party of 14 set out from Jackson on foot; but when they reached Graham's Tavern, a little west of Albion, they concluded to wait for the stage, and they changed conveyances six times between there and Kalamazoo. Then, if there was a settler along the route, the stage went to his door, and every shanty was a public house. In taking passengers it was part of the contract that they should walk up hill, and even push a little at times, and the party had more than one laugh over paying fares and going a-foot. At Searles' Tavern, eight miles this side of Kalamazoo, while the party was there, the landlord's son went out and shot two noble bucks, which had got their horns clinched in fighting. On the way back Mr. Wolcott put up at Birneg's Tavern, at Battle Creek, and was strongly urged by that gentleman to invest in town lots at $25 each; but Mr. Wolcott had no faith, and responded that he would not give 25 cents.

Returning to Detroit, he visited a cider mill on the river Rouge, and washed out a bushel of apple-seeds, with which to start a nursery near Jackson. This was done in company with his friend Woodworth; but from a variety of reasons the project was not a success, though it furnished the new county with many trees. The large and thrifty trees in Mr. Wolcott's orchard are from those seeds. The grafts were brought by Thomas Baldwin from Ohio.

In the fall of 1835 he returned to New York State, stopping over winter in Ohio, and in the spring of 1837 he came back to Michigan to build a house and get ready for his family. While doing so he boarded at Lyon's Tavern, then located where Mr. Ford now lives. It was three or four miles away, yet he went to and from his labors night and morning, and paid $5 per week for board. This, in the new country, was something scanty; but the hungry could always find two essentials at every public house, however poor, milk and whisky. Returning again to New York State he worked through harvest for 10 shillings per day,-75 cents for haying.

In the fall of the same year he purchased the best horses and wagon he could find, to please his wife, who dreaded the journey by water, and they started for their home, through Canada; but, after 17 days in the mud, they were glad to embark at Chatham. Having arrived, he was not able to keep his team and wagon, and they were sold at Jackson, to Paul B. King, for $377. They were, perhaps, at that time, the best span of horses ever driven into the place, and were purchased for the use of Dan Hibbard in carrying the mail. At home in the wilderness, the question of provisions made itself felt, and Mr. W. started to spy out the fatness of the land, and, if possible, bring some of it home with him. He visited Spring Arbor, but the farmers wanted 25

cents per pound for pork. Mr. W. contented himself with flour and a somewhat antiquated ox, which he purchased for beef. Being out of meat, in the spring he purchased 12 hens from Gartner Gould, for three shillings apiece, and carried them home on his back. Fortytwo years have passed since then, and Mr. W. has still the same breed of fowls, and has never been out of eggs or fat chickens. Yet it would not do to begin too rashly on the poultry; and, after getting terribly hungry, Mr. W. started out with a pillow-case, in pursuit of pork and butter. He purchased a small hog at $15.00 per hundred, but butter was not to be had, though he visited all the farmers in the vicinity of Parma. Strong in his determination to have some butter, he returned to Jackson, but was dismayed, on arriving, by the intelligence that there was none in the city. However, the dealer said that he had sent his team for some, and that he expected it in that night. The team came, with butter from Ohio. Peace was restored to the households of Jackson, and Mr. W. turned his steps homeward with gladness in his heart and 25 pounds of butter in his pillow-case; and after his 20 miles march through slush and mud, he felt no disposition to accuse that grocery man of light weight.

The winter of 1836 was remarkable in the annals of the county. A snow fell 18 inches deep and crusted. The wolves, driven by hunger, came up from the northern wilderness and killed the deer in droves. Mr. W. saw 20 or 25 lying dead together where they had been pulled down by their ravenous enemies. They even killed young stock. The cold was something terrible. Quails and prairiechickens were almost exterminated. From November 15 to January 1 it did not thaw, and it thawed then but little. From February 20 to April 20 the sky was without a cloud, and the cold was steady and intense. However, April 1, Mr. W., being in Jackson, observed that it thawed a little on the north side of the street. April 20 the snow went off, and the long, hard winter was at an end. The wolves went back to their northern haunts, and none have been heard of in the county since.

When Mr. Wolcott was here in 1835 he hired ten acres broken up, and let out five of them to Daniel Dunn, and has never been out of wheat since. For meat Mr. W. depended more on his gun than his pocket. He became an adept in bagging wild turkeys, and through the fall and winter the family was seldom without a fat turkey in the larder. He used to delight in getting in the friends, and with a big fire in the old fireplace, and the children at home, have a feast on baked turkey.

He used to hunt through the woods to Jackson, get his mail, and hunt back again, without thinking it much of an undertaking. On one occasion, having business to do at Mason, he set out on a trail through the woods with dog and gun. On his return, when he was north of Leslie, night fell; it clouded up and became fearfully dark, and he lost his trail. After groping on the ground for some time he found it again, but without being sure which way he was facing. However, it must bring him somewhere, and finally

*

He

he came out to the house of Mr. Phillips, on the right track. awoke the inmates to learn where he was, and they were surprised that any human being should undertake to traverse these woods in the night. Arriving at the river it was necessary to halloo out the ferryman, Mr. Allen, who, with the generosity of a frontiers man, refused to receive pay from a new settler.

He killed one bear a large one-famous in the country for killing hogs. The bear was easily recognized from the fact that he had lost one of his feet in a trap. It had recently killed one of Mr. Sibley's hogs, and Mr. W. went for Rue. Perrine's bear-trap; but bruin was posted on traps. Finally Mr. Sibley saw the animal while looking after his cow, and with Perrine and Wolcott turned out to hunt him. The bear first undertook to pass Messrs. Sibley and Perrine, who shot at him and turned him back. drove him toward Wolcott, who saw him coming along the path in which he was standing; feeling sure that he must kill him at the first shot or have an encounter, Wolcott aimed for his eye, and with the crack of his rifle bruin went down. He proved to be very large and fat.

This

Mr. Wolcott had six children, all of whom are living but one. Grove H. Wolcott is a lawyer in Jackson; William V. Wolcott is one of the publishers of the Times-Herald, St. Louis; Mark S. is a lawyer in Jackson; Thomas C. now takes charge of the farm; Charles C. is a hotel proprietor and hardware dealer in Nashville, Mich.; his only daughter, Josephine, he buried in

1861.

WILLIAM D. THOMPSON, OF JACKSON.

BY COL. M. SHOEMAKER.

William Doliville Thompson was born Feb. 24, 1815, and is a native of Shenango county, N. Y. He removed to Le Roy, in Genesee county, when quite young, and continued to reside there until 1831.

The great stream of emigration from New England and New York to Michigan and the then far West, which set in about 1830, caught in its flow many of the most enterprising and industrious of the young men of those States, who sought in these then unoccupied fields a proper sphere for their labors, and for the expansion of that spirit of enterprise which was denied to them in the more densely populated regions of the East. This was more especially the case with those young men who had only their willing hands and strong hearts with which to carve their way in the world to wealth and fame.

Among those who determined at an early day to strike out and try his chances in a new country, where he could "grow with its growth and strengthen with its strength," was young Mr. Thompson. He came to Jacksonburgh, as the infant settlement was then called, in 1831, and was among the first to make it his

home.