THE VESSEL INTEREST.

According to the tonnage statistics of the United States for the date of June 30, 1880 (as given in the American almanac for 1881), not one of the States located away from the ocean coast equals Michigan in the number of vessels owned by its citizens or in their aggregate tonnage. The exact figures are given in this table:

Michigan also surpasses, in this respect, the seaboard States of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Oregon, and all the cotton and gulf States, while it far outstrips in tonnage both Virginia and Maryland, although surpassed by them in the number of vessels. It exceeds California in the number of its vessels, but not in the tonnage total. The coast line of Michigan is only surpassed by that of Florida, and it has ports upon four of the great lakes. Its coasting traides exceedingly valuable, and its vessel interest represents much capital and nterprise, and deserves an important place in a catalogue of its sources of employment for labor. In this connection the fact should be mentioned that ship yards are located at Detroit, Wyandotte, Port Huron, Bay City, Marine City, St. Clair, Grand Haven and other shore towns and ports.

THE GROWTH OF FORTY YEARS.

A subject of such vital interest demands the first attention of every agricultural society and every agriculturist in the State, and to present at a glance the growth and magnitude of the industry, we have prepared from authentic sources, a little table showing the acreage, the yield per acre, when possible, and the aggregate bushels grown at intervals for the last forty years:

LEADING THE VAN.

Out of the nine wheat States which outranked Michigan in 1840, she has outstripped all but Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, while Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and California have, within the last few years, shot forward into the front rank. Compared with these great States, the Lower Peninsula surpasses them all save Indiana, area for area,.in wheat production, and were it possible to compare the proportion of land under cultivation in the two States, there can be no doubt but it would surpass Indiana, also. The State motto might well read: "If you seek the American wheat peninsula, look around you."

The table also reveals the surprising fact that while the aggregate product of wheat in Michigan has doubled about every ten years, the average yield per acre has increased from ten bushels, in 1849, to eighteen bushels, in 1877. The causes for this most gratifying result are not far to seek. It is due to the greater care of farmers in selecting seed; to the introduction of new varieties, such as the Clawson, which yields better than its predecessors; to improved machinery and methods of drilling and harvesting; and to an increase of live stock, and consequent increase of fertilization. The increase in the aggregate is due mainly, to the rapid settlement and clearing up of the country, and there is no reason to suppose that the increase will be seriously checked until the millions of acres of wild lands are finally brought under cultivation. What the limit will be, must be left to conjec

HISTORY OF MACOMB COUNTY.

CHAPTER X.

INTRODUCTION.

He who would deserve a place in the memory of posterity, must collate and preserve the history of the acts and times of his ancestors. It is the duty of Justice to hand down the Past and Present to the people of the Future. It is the duty of the Present to commemorate the Past, to perpetuate the names of the pioneers, to furnish a record of their early settlement,-to relate the story of their progress. The civilization of our day, the enlightenment of the age, and the solemn bond which binds us to our ancestry, demand that a record of their lives and deeds should be made. In local history is found a power to instruct man by precedent, to enliven the mental faculties, and to waft down the river of time, a safe vessel, in which the names and actions of the people, who contributed to raise this country from its primitive state, may be preserved. Surely and rapidly. the great old men, who in their prime entered the wildernesses of this Peninsula, and claimed the virgin soil as their heritage, are passing to their graves. The number remaining, who can relate the history of the first days of settlement, is becoming small indeed, so that an actual necessity exists for the collection and preservation of historical matter without delay. Not only is it of the greatest importance to render the history of the pioneer times full and accurate; but it is almost equally essential that the history of the county from the earliest times, down to our own day, should be treated through its various phases, so that a record, complete and impartial, may be handed down to the future. If this information. is not now collated and compiled in historical form, the generations of the future will be called upon to expend large sums of money in research and exploration. The present the iron age of progress-is reviewed, standing out in bold relief over the quiet, unostentatious olden times; it is a brilliant record which shall live as long as language lives.

The good works of men, their magnificent enterprises, their lives, whether commercial or military, do not sink into oblivion; but, on the contrary, grow brighter with age, and contribute to build up a record, destined to carry with it precedents and principles, that will be advanced and observed, when the acts of soulless men shall be forgotten, and their names like themselves end in their graves. History

entwines itself with the names of the notorious as well as with those of the illustrious, whenever the former are held up for the scorn, and the latter for the admiration of men,—there, the pen of impartiality may be traced; for never yet was the writer true to his conscience or to his country who clothed the wolf in the fleece of the lamb, or who, by sophistry, painted a coward as a hero.

In the pages devoted to the history of Macomb County, the useful man and his work will have that prominence, to which his physical and moral courage entitle him. It is a necessity that the names of such men should be transmitted; because many of them, whose lives made material for this work, have passed into eternity; others stand on the brink of the grave. Those who have joined the majority, as well as these who are soon to visit the Better Land, have done good service, claiming as their reward here, the only boon, that their children and children's children should be reminded of their fidelity, and profit by their examples.

To give effect to this laudable desire is the aim of the writer. Turning over the records of the county, nothing of moment has been left unnoticed. Beyond the period, over which the records extend, all that is legendary has been examined and utilized. Although the Old Settlers and their children extended a full cooperation, the work necessitated the most earnest labor on the part of the writer and his assistants. Success waited on such labor, with the result of bringing forth from their hiding-places many valuable papers, upon which to base a just account of early times. Many of the surviving old settlers were interviewed, and from their reminiscences of olden times, a good deal of all that is historically valuable, in these pages, was selected.

The reader must remember that the general history of the county does not embrace every historical event. Nothing has found a place in this very important section of the work, which did not possess a character of generalization. Beginning with the history of geological formations, archæological discoveries, meteorological phenomena, zoölogical representatives, and physical characteristics, this chapter is succeeded by a full account of Indian and pioneer days, American settlement, together with a number of chapters, each one complete and most important in itself.

The general history is followed by the chapters devoted to township and village history, each chapter forming a complete historical and historia-biographical sketch of a township, city or village. No effort has been spared to render this portion

of the work reliable as well as interesting.

Unlike the history of the State, County, Townships and Villages, biography is the work of many men, whose notes were transcribed, retranscribed, and very generally submitted to the persons concerned, for revision or correction; so that if