Page images
PDF
EPUB

chase from the Government was that at the present Maple Rapids. As early as 1832 this site was bought by George Campau who is said to have established a trading post there in the same year that his brother Louis established the one at Grand Rapids (1826).241 By 1837 the lands in this vicinity had been mainly taken up by speculators.242

In 1836 a colony of German Catholics began to gather in the township of Westphalia. 243 This appears to have resulted from their failure to find suitable lands on the lower Grand River whither they are said to have been directed by a Catholic priest whom they consulted on their arrival at Detroit; only land at speculators' prices seems to have been available there and they turned northward to lands of which they had heard while at Lyons. The sterling character of these immigrants is evidenced by the early transformation wrought in this township, which is said to have contained originally much swamp and to have been considered by speculators as not worth attention. 244

241. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 338, 446. 242. Ibid., 444-446.

243. Ibid., 533, 535. This volume reports the township as populated (1880) almost exclusively by German Catholics. The original colony is said to have purchased almost a section of contiguous land.

244. The township was organized with the area of a surveyed township in 1839. Session Laws (1839), 21.

IT

CHAPTER IX

SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION

is almost a truism that the habits and ideals of a new country are determined largely by the environment from which the people come. Their inheritance -social, economic, political, religious-is transplanted with them and forms the matrix from which their life in the new environment is to grow, and in turn the new environment, as the medium through which their life seeks to express itself, tends to modify the inheritance. The study of settlement finds a large part of its value in the aid it can give to explain how the life of a people has come to be what it is, and hence the question of the sources of population and of their relative contributions to different areas is one of its important problems.

In this respect a typical Michigan county is Washtenaw.1 The chief areas from which settlers came 1. There are two reasons for basing this chapter upon a study of the population of Washtenaw County; first, the settlement areas treated in the preceding chapters are too large to admit within the scope of this study either of the necessary detail or of some degree of control of the materials. Data for other Michigan counties have been given to some extent in connection with chapters dealing with the several settlement areas, and the results substantially agree with those here obtained. Again, Washtenaw is a typical county in a typical group of counties. In surface, soil, drainage, timber, waterpower, ease of communication and proximity to adequate

immediately to this county is suggested by the relative number of original land purchasers who registered from different places. Five hundred and eighteen patents give places of registration in the following proportions:

[blocks in formation]

1. Con. markets and supply depots it closely resembles Oakland and Lenawee counties, and this area appears to be fairly representative in population, if we except the southwestern counties where there was a much larger proportion of settlers from states outside of New York and New EngThe chief limitation upon results is imposed by the extent, accessibility and nature of the materials. It hardly needs saying that satisfying results can be obtained only as they are obtained by the census bureau, by counting individuals, and one may well ask what is to be understood by a source of population for the individual. It was exceptional for a settler to emigrate directly from his place of birth to Michigan. He was much more likely to have a number of intermediate stopping places; for example, he might be born in England, migrate with his parents to Connecticut, be educated in Vermont, engage in business in New York, and then spend some years on the frontier in Ohio and perhaps return to New York for some years before settling finally in Michigan. It is pertinent to ask, Where did he "come from" and to which environment was he most indebted for his qualities and ideals? The relative efficiency of

By far the largest number of New York purchasers registered from Genesee, Monroe, Ontario and Seneca counties; Cayuga, Livingston, Steuben and Wayne counties made up the next largest number; these eight counties, which made a fairly compact area, were in the northern and central parts of western New York. 1. Con. different environments in these respects is doubtful, and it might vary with individuals. The relative lengths and dates of sojourn would introduce variations that could hardly be calculated. The influence of birthplace in the case above given would probably be slight, but if the birthplace were Connecticut, and especially if there were a background of eminent colonial antecedents and family traditions, its influence would tend to be considerable. It would matter much if the sojourn were made, say, at Albany between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five in the period of the canal projects. Undoubtedly the web of influences would be very difficult for even the person concerned to disentangle.

The factors chosen here are birthplace and the place of residence at the time of making the first purchase of land in the county. This selection is as likely to prove rational as another, and it is practicable. Some compensation is sought by individualizing representative citizenship. The material is definite and easily accesssible, consisting of land patents and biographical sketches. The originals of the United States land patents issued to the first purchasers of land in the county are on file at Washington. There are duplicates of about one-half of them in the Register of Deeds' office in Ann Arbor, and these are used here. Of those consulted, there were five hundred and eighteen that were useful for the present purpose, which were issued between 1824 and 1839. Of these buyers two hundred and fifty-three registered from Michigan, reducing the number on which to calculate outside sources to two hundred and sixty-five. This number however ought to be fairly representative of the early period. Undoubtedly some of these purchasers were not actual settlers. Yet the size of single purchases does not in general indicate the professional speculator. Comparatively few of the names recur fre

Four-fifths of these patents (183) name counties lying west of the meridian of Stony Point, which passes through the eastern end of Lake Ontario; and of these, seven-tenths (129) name these eight counties. Less than two-fifths of the whole number (89) mention counties bordering on Lake Erie and Pennsylvania, and purchasers were fewest in the latter. In both western and eastern New York they were most numerous in the area which was influenced directly by the Erie Canal.2

1. Con. quently in other United States patents of the period, and of such as do recur often the second registration is usually from Washtenaw County, very probably indicating settlement there. Early local deeds of sale bearing these names are almost uniformly from persons giving Washtenaw County as their place of residence. The material used for determining birthplaces is taken almost entirely from the biographical sketches in the back of the History of Washtenaw County. If compromises are sometimes permissible when the ideal is unattainable, clearly one must be made here. It would be quite inexpedient to try to check up this material except by sketches of a similar nature, as for example those in the volumes of the Mich. Hist. Colls., and it is not always certain that these are independent sources. A fair number of test cases have given results entirely favorable to sketches in the History of Washtenaw County.

2. Counties in western New York contributing:

48-50-a Cayuga......12 59-68-a Onondaga.... 7 35-48 Chautauqua.. 3

[blocks in formation]

40-43-b Ontario.

. 19

7

21-25-b Seneca.

.22

24

34-46 Steuben.

.11

2

20 37-38 Tompkins. ..3 7 34-42-a Wayne.

18

6 19-20-b Yates..

8

Counties in eastern New York contributing:

37-41 Chenango.... 1 27-44

40-43 c Columbia..... 2 51-50-b Otsego..

Oswego.

13

« PreviousContinue »