his elder brother. Michigan at this time was a Terrritory, and but a very small part of it settled. Its entire population was about 30,000. The city of Detroit was at that time an old, dilapidated looking town, with a population of 2,220. The Chicago road had just been built at the expense of the United States Government, opening an avenue of travel through the southern part of the Territory, and along this route a few small settlements were beginning to emerge from the wilderness. Ann Arbor at this time was the extreme frontier settlement west of Detroit. It was a small village, containing three or four stores, two public houses and some 500 inhabitants. Here was the end of the road going west.

Blackman came on as far as this place to visit some friends who resided here. From these and some others, he learned what he could regarding the country lying west of Washtenaw; also from the map of survey of the United States Government which had recently been completed. Possessed of a spirit of enterprise and indomitable energy, and led on by a pioneer impulse, he was determined to strike for the wilderness. In accordance with this determination he made up his mind to explore the country as far as the valley of Grand river, which would carry him forward near the heart of the country. Accordingly he set out on his journey of exploration July 2, 1829, accompanied by Capt. Alex. Laverty, an experienced pioneer and excellent woodsman, and an Indian guide named Pee-wy-tum, who was well acquainted with the country and a great friend of the of the Gem-o-Komon, as he called the white settlers. With varying success they pursued their way under the scorching rays of a July sun, sometimes fording a river and sometimes wading a wet and quaggy marsh, following the great Indian trail leading through the central part of the Territory, from Detroit to the mouth of the St. Joseph river. The first day of their journey they arrived at the foot of the Short Hills where they encamped for the night. The next they pursued their journey with renewed ardor over hill and plain, and long vistas of oak openings covered with rich and luxurious grass and herbage, and interspersed with many varieties of beautiful flowers. When faint and weary with traveling they would sit down and rest their locomotive muscles. Pee-wy-tum would use all his powers of persuasion to cheer them on. Pointing west he would assure them that they would soon find better corn-fields, purer and brighter rivers and more sunny spots for wigwams, when they arrived at the great valley of the Washtenong Sepee, as he called the Grand river. Washtenaw, or Washtenong, means in the Pottawatomie language, a clear, swift stream, running over a bed of pebble stones, and was the Indian name for this place and vicinity.

Near the close of the second day's journey our travelers began to approach their long-wished-for goal, and about sunset they arrived on the last bank of the river, with hearts gladdened at the prospects before them. Pee-wy-tum was frantic with joy at the

sight of this familiar stream, on whose waters his canoe had so often swiftly glided in pursuit of fish, with which it abounded.

THE PIONEERS' FIRST SURVEY OF THE POSITION.

On the eastern bank was a heavy belt of timber extending from the river back to the rising ground in the rear. On the west side of the river the land was more elevated and open, with a large Indian corn-field a little to the right. Having refreshed themselves with the pure water of the river, for the first time drank by the Anglo-Saxon, our travelers crossed the ford-way on the trail, where Trail street bridge now stands, and encamped for the night on the ground near the intersection of Jackson and Trail streets. Here was an old Indian camping ground, which formed a very convenient resting place for their caravan, as they traveled through the country. Here also were fine fishing grounds on the river, and hunting grounds in the surrounding openings, and the spot where Jackson now stands was considered a point of great importance by the aborigines. At this point was a concentration of all the leading trails of the Peninsula, and from this fact the first settlers were lead to believe that it would become a central and important place of business.

THE FOURTH OF JULY.

After enjoying a quiet and refreshing repose, our travelers awoke next morning to behold the rising of a beautiful July sun,— it being the morning of the 53d anniversary of American Independence, their bodies rested and invigorated with sleep, their minds flushed with the bright hopes of the future,-to think they were about to establish a new home, to found a new city whose fame might outrival Rome itself in the future. Thirty-six years ago these pioneers of the wilderness, standing on the bank of this beautiful river, beheld the placid morn which ushered in the birthday of our nation's freedom, and although remote from friends and home, and isolated from the masses of populous town and city, they felt the spirit of liberty and patriotism burning in their bosoms, and resolved to celebrate the day in as solemn and as appropriate a manner as circumstances would admit. A dinner was prepared of fish and game, and with some other fixings constituted the delicacies of their banquet-table. After a brief oration in Pottawatomie by Laverty, the dinner was soon dispatched, and with plenteous libations of wauboo from the river, several patriotic toasts were drank under the crack of Pee-wy-tum's rifle, which reverberated long and long through the answering forest. A more heartfelt and joyous celebration of our nation's freedom was, perhaps, never enjoyed, the recital of which, by Blackman and Laverty, to the early settlers was the cause of much amusement.

HORACE BLACKMAN'S STORY.

Laverty had been fishing that morning, and had left his fishing pole standing by a stump, the line hanging over with a piece of pork on the hook; Pee-wy-tum's dog had eyed this closely for some time, and just as they had finished the celebration, concluded to seize it. It swung some four feet from the ground, and the dog making a sudden leap, seized the pork, and hung suspended in the air, a noble specimen of the dog fish," as the Captain had it. A few kicks, the line broke, and the dog ran away with the hook sticking in his jaws, keeping up a continual kiyi, ki-yi, rubbing first one paw and then the other over his jaws, which the hook had so cruelly lacerated. As the dog disappeared, Horace quietly remarked that it was the first dog he ever saw playing the Jew's harp. The Captain said he believed him to be a good patriotic dog, and that he was probably playing Hail Columbia, or some other national air, set to the peculiar measure of canine music.

MAKING A LOCATION.

The festivities of the day being ended, our explorers began to look about to ascertain their position and examine the face of the surrounding country, in order to fix a site for laying out the plot of a village, embracing as many local and other advantages as possible. This was no ordinary undertaking, requiring a thorough geographical knowledge of the country, and a sound, discriminating judgment as to all the advantages and facilities that a single point might possess.

From the United States survey previously made, he traced townships and section lines, whose markings and boundaries were very plain and visible. Blackman soon ascertained that he was then resting on the southeast quarter of section 34, town 2 south, of range 1 west, two miles west of the meridian and 12 miles south of the base line, the two great quartorial lines drawn north and south, and east and west through the Territory, on which the United States survey is based in regard to its descriptions. He found that this quarter section embraced a good water-power on the river, was on the direct route of the St. Joseph trail, the most important and heavily traveled trail of the country; that it would in all probability become the county-seat of the next county west of Washtenaw, and also that it might become the future capital of the State. Under all those circumstances he concluded to make it his location, and time has shown us with what accurate judgment and calculation his choice was made. Most of his expectations have been realized, and all would have been, had justice been done us.

Here then, in the midst of a vast wilderness, was the standard of civilization planted by a humble individual, and the first initiatory step taken in the march of a vast improvement. Fifty-one years ago the spot on which this beautiful and populous city now

stands was naught but the wild and desolate abode of the savage. Now, instead of being on the extreme frontier, we are scarcely midway, and looking back to the hills of the olden States and forward to the peaks of the Rocky mountains, we find ourselves in the midst of a vast nation, which has spread the light of science and civilization, and the arts and improvements of agriculture and domestic husbandry from ocean to ocean.

The site which Mr. Blackman fixed upon for his log cabin was the same where the dwelling-house of John F. Durand now stands, --a spot consecrated in the memory of the early settlers.

OFF TO MONROE.

Blackman and Laverty returned to Ann Arbor, and thence went to the land office at Monroe to obtain the duplicate. Being soon joined by his brother, Russell, who had come on from New York with some hands they hired at Ann Arbor, came out to Grand river (then called Blackman's location), put up a log house, and covered it preparatory to their reception the following spring. This was the first log house built in Jackson county. Blackman now returned to New York, leaving Russell at Ann Arbor to watch the course of events and take charge of his new possessions during his absence, calculating to return the next spring, with his family and a colony of other settlers.

LEGISLATIVE WATCHFULNESS.

At the session of the council of the Territory (then consisting of only 13 members) an act was passed setting off a new tier of counties, from the county of Washtenaw west to Lake Michigan. The county of Jackson was to contain 20 surveyed townships, thus giving it an area of 720 square miles, being 24 miles north and south by 30 east and west. This establishment of the county limits brought Blackman's location within half a mile of the geographical center of the county, and within 12 miles of the geographical center of Michigan Territory, according to the United States survey, and in all probability the most eligible point for the State capital.

Another and important act of the Legislature was the laying out of the Territorial or State road, running through the tier of new counties, thus opening a new route for the immigrant north of and parallel with the Chicago road. This road was to commence at a point near Sheldon's Corners, in Wayne county, and running in a westerly direction, terminating at the mouth of the St. Joseph, along the route of the great Indian trail, called the "Detroit and St. Joe trail." The principal points named in the act to be on the line of this road comprised among others Ann Arbor and Blackman's location. The location of this road was suggested to the minds of our wise legislators by the fact that it was the great thoroughfare of Indian travel through the Peninsula from time im

memorial. The survey and the opening of this road was a great benefit to the Territory, as it gave a new impulse to immigration, and opened a wide field for settlement along the whole route on the rich and fertile lands of which those new counties were composed. The commissioners appointed to locate those roads were Col. Orrin White, Jonathan F. Stratton and Seeley Neale, of Washtenaw. Stratton was also appointed surveyor. They immediately proceeded to discharge the duty devolving upon them, rightly judging that the winter season would be most favorable for a survey, as the marshes and streams would then be frozen over, and the chaining performed more accurately. Having made the necessary arrangements for a winter campaign, they commenced the survey about Jan. 1, 1830, and proceeded as far as the village of Ann Arbor. Mr. E. Clark, in referring to the subject of the road, and to the settlement of Ann Arbor and Jacksonburgh, says: "In the early settlement of Washtenaw, before we had facilities for transporting produce to market, and indeed before we had much to send off, it was the object to induce emigrants to come among us to settle. They made a home market for the surplus provisions and stock we had to spare. They brought all the money, so that the success of the farmer, mechanic or merchant depended as much upon a good season of immigration as upon good crops.' Up to the year 1829 there was no road leading west beyond Clement's farm, on Mill creek, seven miles from the court-house. The Chicago road was only traveled then by immigrants in search of homes. Mr. Clark was on the Chicago road and noticed the travel, and the idea suggested itself that a road might be opened through the central part of the Territory, and thus open to the new-comer a rich district in which to make a home. A few days after this a proposition was made to the late Elnathan Botsford, that they would call a meeting of all interested, and if the project was deemed feasible, to petition the Legislative Council, praying authority to lay out a road from some point on the Chicago road, in the county of Wayne, west to St. Joseph river. Notices were written (they had no printing press in those days at Ann Arbor), and Botsford volunteered to post them along the line. The meeting was duly held, and the plan adopted. A petition, bearing numerous influential names, was presented to the council, and at its first session an act was passed in accordance with the prayer of the petitioners.

The commissioners began their work Jan. 1, 1830, on the farm of T. Sheldon, in Wayne county. On the evening of the 7th they reached Ann Arbor. The next morning they were joined by eight persons, citizens of the village, namely, Henry Rumsey, Samuel Van Fossen, Zenas Nash, Jr., Wm. Hunt, Edward Clark, Alex. Laverty, Jerry McCarthy and Isaiah W. Bennett, who volunteered to accompany them as far as Grand river, and open and work the road by removing obstructions. The first night after leaving Ann Arbor they lodged at Mr. Clement's house, on Mill creek. Here they were at the remotest point of their set