GEORGE H. CANNON1

BY JOHN E. DAY

George H. Cannon was born at Day Township. Saratoga County, N. Y., December 26, 1826 and died in Macomb County, December 10, 1909. His early life was one of privation and hardship and as soon as he was old enough he started to help in the support of the family. Being early taught that education was of greater value than anything else, he was always studious both in the school and at home. Books were few, difficult and hard to obtain but he borrowed what he could and with the first money he earned as his own, which was seventy-five cents, he purchased a second-hand Goodrich's History of the United States. This he read and reread until it was mostly committed to memory, thus he found a taste and desire for the more useful class of reading. This was at the age of seven or eight years. Soon after this he had the advantage of three terms in the Academy of Rochester, Michigan, a private school, organized by Peter Moyers and afterwards taught by the late Prof. R. S. Kedzie, later of the Michigan Agricultural College. This was all the school education he received. From this time he taught school four winters and worked as occasion offered during the summer. In the autumn of 1846 he joined an exploration party to search for minerals in the Lake Superior region near the site of Ontonagon, on a tract upon which he had discovered a vein of copper. It was upon this locality that the "Norwich" Mine was discovered and the village2 of that name was built which gained some fame at one time, but has since been deserted. He passed the winters of 1846 and 1847 here and on his return home had saved up $100 and a good deal of useful experience. In the spring of 1849 he entered the employ of William A. Burt, a noted practical surveyor and engaged in the examination and correction of the surveys of the public lands of Upper Michigan. It had become known to the Surveyor-General that much of the contract work of the field survey had been negligently and fraudulently done and would have to be corrected before anything like accuracy could be obtained. Judge Burt was assigned a large portion of this work and at this time invented his solar compass, in the use of which Mr. Cannon became an expert. Read at the annual meeting, June, 1910.

"The Norwich is one of the old mines of this locality having been started in 1850. Much of the capital raised was expended on roads and a few houses. The mine never paid a dividend. In 1863 it was reorganized but abandoned in 1865. A few squatters located on the land on account of the improvements.

See this volume on Hist. of Burt's Solar Compass.

In 1850 he was given entire charge of as much of the work as he could handle. In August of that year he was appointed Deputy United States Surveyor but was hindered in the prosecution of the work by a severe attack of typhoid fever. Upon recovery he was assigned a contract south of Black Lake in Cheboygan County, completing the work late in the fall of 1852. As he and his party were leaving this work on the way home and while crossing the straits from Cheboygan to Mackinaw in a small open boat they encountered a severe storm of snow and wind which upset the boat, and all his fixtures and reports were emptied into the lake. One of the party was drowned. The remainder of the party were washed ashore and Mr. Cannon, being unable to walk, crawled on his hands and knees a half mile to the cabin of some Indians who attended to his needs. The field notes were in a small box and were rescued by some Indian hunters. They were returned to the surveyor's office and afterward to him. This work brought Mr. Cannon the sum of $700 and this enabled him in the following season to fit out a party for the survey of a tract of land lying between Higgins Lake and Elk Rapids, Mich. This was a good contract and enabled him to lay up some $1,500, and on his return home he was married to Lucy M. Cole, a niece of Judge Burt, with whom he enjoyed a congenial companionship for more than fifty-five years. The work of Mr. Cannon seems to have been quite satisfactory to the Surveyor-General so that in 1852 and 1853 he was employed to survey the islands in Saginaw Bay and vicinity, and also to examine the .condition of the surveys of Upper Michigan, west of the "Soo," a distance of over one hundred miles. In the years 1855, 1856 and 1857 his work lay near the village of Cheboygan and along the headwaters of the Tittabawassee River. In 1858 he was awarded the contract to survey a district of township lines along the northwest shore of Lake Superior extending to the national boundary, and also the survey of the Indian Grand Portage Reservation.

This work of Mr. Cannon was successfully performed and was approved by the Surveyor-General at his office in St. Paul, he having removed to that city from Detroit. This report was, at the request of the Surveyor-General, made by Mr. Cannon in person and the visit to the office and the city of St. Paul was greatly enjoyed and often referred to by him in later life. St. Paul was then a very small city and Minneapolis a hamlet of a few houses. The work on the Grand Portage Reservation was the last of Mr. Cannon's work on the public land surveys.

The later years of his life were mainly employed in dealing in wild lands and in estimating timber. He defined and marked individual boundaries. He took an active part in the early development of Osceola County in clearing up a large farm and in building one of the first business places of the village of Evart. Early in the sixties he erected

the house upon the homestead at the village of Washington, Mich., in which was passed the latter fifty years of his life, surrounded by noble trees planted by his own hands, and in the midst of books and periodicals which had become such a part of his life that he could not be without them.

He was always active in the affairs of historical interest both in his own county and in the State, often an officer in both societies and a frequent and welcome contributor to their literature. His paper on "Our Western Boundary" published in the Pioneer Collections attracted much interest, as it clearly showed that a mistake had been made in defining that line, and the State had been the loser of a large amount of mineral land now occupied by Wisconsin and that efforts should be made to recover it to the State of Michigan.

His word was
As a

Both Mr. Cannon and his wife were early members of the Baptist Church at Mt. Vernon, Mich., but later removed their membership to the Union Church at the village where they lived. As a man of business he was a model of honesty, integrity and thrift. never questioned and his judgment was shrewd and correct. father he was indulgent, generous and a faithful example to his family. As a friend he was steadfast, loyal and true. As a statesman and politician he was alive to the best interests of his country and demanded of all office-holders that as servants of the people they must be found true to the trusts and responsibilities which they assumed.

Thinking of such lives as his (and there are many) we may well say we have none to spare.

REV. RILEY CROOKS CRAWFORD1

BY HENRY S. BARTHOLOMEW

Riley Crooks Crawford was born January 27th, 1817 in Richmond, Ontario, N. Y.; died November 18, 1910 at Grand Rapids. His paternal grandparents came to Richmond from Saratoga, N. Y. His materual grandparents came from Massachusetts to Richmond. His mother's father's name was David Crooks; his mother's mother's name was Knox; a direct descendant of John Knox. This ancestor was frequently referred to by Mr. Crawford with quaint humor and simple pride; especially because, notwithstanding his dominant Methodism, one side of his family tree was all Episcopal, and the other pure Presbyterian.

'See Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls., Vol. XXX, p. 244. 'Read at the annual meeting, June, 1911.

In 1819, he, with the family moved to Ontario, Canada, near the place now known as Port Stanley. Here they remained six years. In 1825 they came by ox-team to Michigan by the way of Detroit, father, mother, the eight-year-old boy Riley and his three younger sisters. Going from Detroit to Troy Township, Oakland County, they made their new home in the forest.

During the following ten years of boyhood and adolescence there were no incidents conspicuous enough to claim our attention; but to understand the unique character we are considering, and to appreciate the attitude of the mature mentality, we must remember that they were years of hardship, toil and adventure. Independence and initiative were nurtured into strong activity. Book learning was not neglected but it was almost out of reach. Poverty everywhere; and pauperism unheard of.

In 1836, however, when Michigan was an independent commonwealth, governed by elective officers and a legislature, unrecognized by federal authorities; with no territorial government and no representative in Congress, young Crawford stepped into the limelight of history, marching in the vanguard of Michigan's Army of invasion.

The fact that he joined the patriots under Gov. Mason to defend our border against our enemies the Ohioans under Gov. Lucas at Toledo, is a significant indication of the temper of the man. In all his after life he was never found idling at home when there was a chance to fight for the common good.

In the later years of his life, it was his boast, that no other man living in Michigan had shaken hands with Gov. Mason who was only about one year older than the young fifer who cheered the weary pioneers on their patriotic march. This mention of playing the fife in the Toledo War is the first biographical indication of his musical taste and abilities which played so large a part in his life. Later on he learned to play the violin and he could always sing, so truly and with such loudly resounding spirit, and fervid enthusiasm, that only the most recalcitant sinner could hold back from the mercy seat.

In 1835 he again moved following his father and family into Shiawassee County near where the village of Byron now is. Here he worked with his father, piloted land lookers and entertained the neighborhood with his violin, his songs and great gift of narrative and anecdote, until 1838, when he was converted. He really thought that he had been leading a frivolous and sinful life, but the more liberal view now-a-days would undoubtedly be that he deported himself like a high-spirited, well brought-up youth, who had many friends because of his charming personality and kindly unselfish character.

Soon after this he began to act as a volunteer exhorter among the

Methodists. At the quarterly conference held at Pontiac in May, 1841, he was licensed to preach and recommended to be admitted as an itinerant minister. That fall at Coldwater he was admitted on trial, as junior preacher in the Palmer circuit, which was a strip from five to fifteen miles wide, extending from Lake St. Clair northward along the river, and twenty-five miles along the shore of Lake Huron. There were twenty-five preaching places. Into this wilderness he sallied-seventy years ago at the age of twenty-four, after relatives and neighbors had contributed his equipment. The salary was $100 a year, but that was a mere theory, he only received sixty dollars and his board, such as the brethren were willing to donate. It was on this circuit that he became acquainted with a little boy who always took care of his horse at one of his stopping places. They remained friends for many years, and even after the boy grew up to be Gov. Jerome, he referred to himself as the "Rev. Crawford's Hostler."

Knowing this good man's character as I do, it is very easy for me to imagine the cheerful willingness with which he encountered the privations of such a life. I can picture him riding his horse through the bogs and forests of St. Clair and Sanilac counties; perhaps there was a road; certainly the journey was a long one, and Michigan weather was the same then as now but he is singing, loudly and tunefully, not a dirge, but a glorious old revival hymn of praise and holy joy. If fortunately there had been a traveling companion the wayside would have heard much laughter and genial chat. If this companion had been a devout Methodist, the young preacher would have regarded him as a very exceedingly good man; if he had been of another faith or none at all, he would have regarded him merely as a very good man.

I know, however, that he recognized the existence of mean, sordid, selfish, people because I have heard him tell funny stories about them. The next year his circuit was changed slightly and his salary increased to $200 ($150 received) because he married Mary Warren, the daughter of Abel Warren, also a Methodist preacher. She was six years younger than her husband and died at Grand Rapids in 1897. There were no children. Though there never was bitterness nor rebellion, the loss of his dearly loved wife and the lack of children caused sorrow so profound that all his triumphant faith in the goodness of God and the goodness of all creation, was needed to uphold his spirit during his lonesome last years, for not a friend remained to him on earth who had been a friend of his youth and this he often told me is the one great affliction of very old age.

For forty-one continuous years he preached in Michigan having his home in twenty-four different places up to 1883, when he went to Oregon on a visit and having preached in many times that number of places.