ten or twelve years, the Each letter cost the re tance by a man on foot, and afterward on horse-back for mail carrier always remaining at Washington over night. ceiver twenty-five cents, and such was the scarcity of money that a young man living there (now a wealthy resident of Oakland County) was obliged to leave a letter in the office for three months before he could by any means obtain the required amount. In 1836, Dr. Dennis Cooley was appointed post-master, which position he held for twenty-three consecutive years, his own residence being the post-office for the greater part of that time. Shortly after his appointment, the mail was brought by stage from Detroit via Royal Oak and so continued until the completion of the G. T. R. R., when it was transferred to that road stopping off at Utica Station, and a regular line of easy coaches, lumbering stages, or dilapidated buggies, were alternately the means of transit, the same being controlled by Ira Pearsall for very many years. This arrangement remained until the D. & B. C. R. R. was in running order when the mail-bags and numerous passengers to and from Utica were accommodated by S. L. DeKay, his stages making regular trips between Utica and Romeo four times daily; and through all these variations and the conditions of wind and weather we have known no such thing as a failure of first-class mail arrangements until July 18, 1879, when, for some unexplained reason, the route ceased altogether, and the large amount of mail matter for this place and Davis was left to the tender mercies of a chance carrier. The mail for Brooklyn was always received at Washington, they having had no separate office until 1876, when a tri-weekly route was established between that village and Washington, and an office established at Brooklyn under the name of Davis. TEMPERANCE AND HOUSE RAISING. The following paper on the rise and progress of the temperance cause in Malcomb County, not only contains a moral, but also much interesting and historical subject matter. The writer is secretary of the County Pioneer Society, a man wedded to the cause of temperance, and thoroughly conversant with men and events connected with the county. He says: "At the date of settlement of the central and northern township of Macomb, the use of intoxicants upon all noted occasions, and indeed upon the most common events of pioneer life, was held to be a necessity. Liquor was used as a cure for all diseases that assailed the system. At births, weddings, and deaths, its inspiring aid was sought. Prominent in the history of each new settlement were the bees, for the progress of work which one alone could not very well accomplish, such as loggings and raisings. At those bees whisky was free, and was to many the secret loadstone which attracted them to the place. Arriving at the place, if it were a logging, two expert hands chose sides, and selecting the site and arranging the position of the heap, each led his men to the work. At the close of this work results were noted, and one side or other declared victors, not in the amount of whisky each had consumed, but in the number of log heaps each had erected. If it were a raising, for which they were called together, sides were chosen in the same way. Each party would take one end and a side of the structure, and proceed to roll the logs together in a lively fashion. At each corner a man was stationed, whose business it was to saw, trim, and shape the ends of the logs, so as to form the corner, and upon their skill and activity, depended largely the appearance of the house when completed. A man who could make a square. plum corner in the least time was in demand. Occasionally a frame was to be raised, and men were invited from far and near, with the tacit understanding that whisky was to be an adjunct of the occasion. The timber used in construction was much larger than is used in similar structures now, and as no mechanical appliances were brought together in elevating it, a larger force was called together. Refreshments might be served or not at the option of the proprietor, but the liquor should be in sight, and near at hand. After the frame was erected, the men gathered in file upon the beam, and if a few drops of the contents of the jug remained, they were swallowed, and a name was called for. If a barn, it might be named the settlers' pride or the Queen of the settlement, if a house, the ladies' pride, or family pride, and then the jug was hurled into the air, when the company dispersed. It soon came about that a feeling of antagonism to the use of whisky strengthened by the occurrence of sundry accidents, the results of whisky, began to prevail, and very naturally as the sides were chosen, whisky was made the dividing point, and its friends, and the friends of temperance, were arrayed against each other. At a raising of a frame house, the two parties went up to put the plates in position, and in the zeal of the former not to be beaten by the temperance party, they lifted the plate over the posts, and let it drop on the ground below. One man whose hat was caved in, seized the jug and cast it into a well close by. At another time, a man whose leg was broken, was carried home two miles upon a door. Among the first raisings in the northern townships was that of Nathaniel Bennett's barn. The mechanic who worked upon the frame was a staunch temperance man, and wished that the raising of this barn should be accomplished without the aid of whisky. Bennett, although favorable to the cause of temperance, was fearful it would be a failure. The mechanic was so confident, however, that Bennett's objections were overruled, and it was bruited round that the affair was to be of a temperate character. Both sides resolved to make this a test case, and men gathered from far and near to view the strife and see the fun. As fast as the forces reached the premises, they naturally divided into two armies. The temperance men soon went to work, and the liquor men sat upon the timbers, and stood in the way, offering obstacles. There was no scarcity of timber in those early days, and the great beams and plates of green timber sorely taxed the muscles as well as the patience of the workers. When, at length, the sills were in their places, and the bents put together, the liquor party came in a body and sat down upon the timbers directly in the way of further progress. It required the use of some threats, and a good deal of persuasive eloquence to move them, and a portion went off in a huff, while the remainder helped to put up the frame. A similar test case was held at Utica about the same time. A large store house was to be raised, and the mechanic was very fearful that it could not be done without whisky, but upon the promise of Payne K. Leach to assist with his mill hands and tackle box, the attempt was made and success won. In the township of Lenox, a like test was made some years later, resulting in favor of temperance. If the case were that of a man, who was himself temperate, and who discouraged the use of spirits on principle, little was said; but if stinginess was the cause of it being withheld, sad work was often made of both timber and frames. Sometimes timber was carried back to the woods; at other times a single bent would be set up, and all hands either go away or refuse to do more. At other times timbers would be united in all ways but the right one, and in each case the whisky should appear before the work would be completed. After those test cases had been tried, trial bees of all kinds without the use of liquors were of frequent occurrence, and public sentiment in favor of abstinence grew in favor and strength. In the year Organized action against intemperance was first taken at Romeo. 1830, Deacon Roger's Pledge was circulated and gained a few names. agreed to abstain from the use of wine and beer, and other alcoholic beverages, had a capital T prefixed to their names on the pledges, and were called T-T's or teetotalers. At least one who signed Deacon Roger's Pledge has kept it for fifty-two years-Dr. Hollister, of Chicago. The effects of this pledge was soon visible in the community. One after another, old and young, spoke against the use of spirits, and arrayed themselves on the side of temperance. A farmer who had thought that haying could not be prosecuted without liquor, sent his boy to the store at the corners with the little brown jug to get it filled. This was accomplished, the jug emptied, and sent to be refilled. Soon after a storm came up, and the father and the son left the field after hiding the jug. Upon their return the old man took up the pitcher to drink; but before doing so, he paused and set it down. After a few minutes thought he emptied it upon the ground, and said. My son let us never touch this stuff again as long as we live." The father kept this resolution, but the son is a drunkard to this day. And thus the leaven was at work. 66 "Men thought, spoke, and acted." In a letter from Dexter Mussey to the Secretary of the Pioneer Society, under date April 7, 1881, that old settler states: There was a Washingtonian Temperance society formed here as early as 1844, but accomplished but little. At a subsequent date the Sons of Temperance seemed to take the lead in some parts of this State and the west shore concluded to imitate the Sons of Temperance by holding weekly meetings, or at least once in two weeks. This we did during one winter, 1848-9, but failed to keep up an interest or accomplish much good. We then concluded to try the laws, and organized a division of eleven members, and after working hard for one year found ourselves with thirteen members, had received three, expelled one, dismissed one to join elsewhere. Then we commenced an aggressive course and soon had one hundred names and then for three or four years succeeded well, prosecuted the rum-sellers and all went on well until the Prohibitory law passed, and then all seemed to think the work completed and the Division dissolved and very little was done for the cause of temperance. After a time there was a lodge of Good Templars organized and went very well and with tolerable success for a time until it was turned into a political organization, when it shared the fate of all its predecessors. (Died.) At still a subsequent date a Division of the Sons of Temperance was organized with tolerable success as to members, but not with much success in staying the tide of intemperance. This last organization is still in existence and is the only organization here which proposes to amend solely against the liquor business, and it is doing very little to what it ought to accomplish, the work it professes to have in hand. The present law has been enforced to a considerable extent, but not by the Sons of Temperance. There were fourteen prosecutions for violations of the law, and in every case with success. A RETROSPECT. My home! the spirit of its love is breathing What a change has come over the land since they first saw it? The metamorphosis from the sickle and the cradle to the modern harvester is not more wonderful than other changes which have been wrought; and he who brings up sad remembrances of a hard day's work, and a lumbago caused by the swinging of his cradle or scythe, smiles, when he thinks of that semi-barbarous period that could neither produce a harvester nor a mower, nor a sulky plow, nor any of these new machines, which make the practice of agriculture a luxury. To-day he mounts into the seat of one of these farm implements, as he would into his buggy, and with the assurance that, no matter what the condition of the grain or meadow, whether tangled, lodged, or leaning, he can master a quarter section of land more thoroughly and with greater economy than he could have managed a five acre field a quarter of a century ago. The change is certainly material! The old settlers realize it; but yet they look back to the never forgotten past, when contentment waited upon the work of the old cradle, plow and spade,-to that time when the primitive character of all things insured primitive happiness. Then contentment reigned supreme, and continued so to do until knowledge created ambitions, and those ambitions brought in their train, their numerous proverbial little troubles. CHAPTER XVI. ORGANIZATION. The third decade of the Nineteenth Century will ever be memorable as the era of emigration from the Eastern States, and the hunt after Western homes. During those years the people of the Original States rose to a full conception of the worth of the land, and the almost unbounded country which the toilers of the Revolution won for them. They resolved to direct their steps westward. Michigan was not forgotten. The country from the St. Joseph to the Grand River, along the valley of the southern Huron, and northwards still to the Saginaw-the home of the Otchipwes-was explored by them and settlements effected. Years before this, however, Macomb County was not only explored, settled; but also organized. In 1818, three years after the organization of Wayne, and one year after the organization of Monroe, Macomb County was erected by an act of the Territorial Legisative Council. For some years previous to 1818, the American and French pioneers built their log huts, and transformed portions of the forest into spots of pastoral beauty. Many acres were then fenced round, and the stacked harvest of the preceding year could be seen by the traveler. The country was then replete in beauty; the singularly attractive monotony of the wild woods was varied by tracts of cultivated land, the homes of the settlers, and the villages of the aborigines. Solidarity of interests joined the pioneers in a bond of fraternity, the strength of which tended to render their loves and friendships lasting. Solidarity of interests taught the pioneers to offer the hand of fellowship to their savage neighbors— the Otchipwes; and solidarity of interests pointed out to them the results of seeking for the organization of the districts in which they lived into a little Republic. On the completion of the farm labors of 1817, those white inhabitants—those true foresters-did not seek repose; but turning their attention away from manual labor, embraced mental work, to the end that their political condition might advance hand-in-hand with their social status. |