muddy streets as fast as their little French or Canadian ponies can be urged to go. This is the most common mode of getting about in the spring and fall when the streets are so very muddy. Gentlemen are seldom seen in the streets without their boots outside their pantaloons, prepared to wade through the soft mud or mortar on the sidewalks, or where the sidewalks should be. The streets are not paved or walks laid, if I except a narrow board and plank on and across some of them. The middle of the street is so constantly stirred up by the carts that it is a sea of mud so deep the little French horses often get set with almost an empty cart."

Under date of March 15th he writes: "Since the Canada question has received its quietus, by dispersing the 'patriots,' nothing is talked of but the 'wild cat' banks, some of which are showing the stuff they are made of, and proving themselves rotten to the core. There is scarcely a single one of the whole number (about 60) whose bills will be received at the stores for goods, while many a farmer has sold his produce, and some even their farms for this worthless trash. Most of the laborers and mechanics hold all their receipts and earnings for the last six months in these worthless rags which they cannot use. We hear almost daily of the arrest of Presidents, Directors, and Cashiers for fraud, and injunctions placed upon the banks. The Legislature has passed a law preventing any more from going into operation."

"April 2d.-Election day for charter officers of the city of Detroit,— and such a fuss, ‘a rumpus, and a rioting' I never witnessed in a State election. The hand bills, flags, processions, and a band of music, with a marshal mounted on a richly caparisoned horse with gilt trappings, were only equaled the Saturday before by the opposite party (whigs) getting up a farce of distributing to the poor, evidently for political effect and electioneering purposes. It is difficult to describe the scene to one who never witnessed it. Fish, pork, and bread were the only articles handed out by the committee to the 'hungry' applicants as they presented themselves on all sides of the stand. Many of them were Canadian women and children who had come across the river on the invitation, and some were well-fed farmers who lived out of the city; but they were chiefly French and Irish, who would crowd up again and again, get their baskets filled, go and empty them and hurry back for more. Most of the whigs themselves were sufficiently disgusted before the farce was ended. I left before the election waxed hottest, but learned that there was fighting, broken heads, and bloody noses, and that the whigs were the successful party."

He mentions the arrival of a steamboat, April 5th, from Buffalo, earlier than was ever before known.

My father left by steamboat for Buffalo, April 11th, proceeded to Utica, and on the 15th of May, 1838, as appears from the same diary, he left Utica with his family and "2,240 pounds of furniture and 4,009 pounds of merchandise" for Michigan. They reached Buffalo, May 20th, took passage on the steamboat United States, at 9 P. M. of that day, arrived at Detroit, May 22d, at 3 P. M. The family arrived at Stockbridge about June 1st, 1838. David Rogers, not long since deceased, had preceded us in the settlement of the town, and there were one or two families in the "village." My father died in 1857, at the age of 53.

The "peeled shantee," five miles west of Stockbridge, towards Mason, was a log building wherein "old" Felton kept "tah-vern" in the primitive days, when it was known from Detroit to Grand Rapids. I can remember

in the "40's," when father was first P. M., what enormous bags of mail used to go through our place into the western counties. He settled in Stockbridge under the impression that it would be on the line of the Michigan Central railroad to a point on Lake Michigan; but when the road reached Dexter it shot off in another direction, and Stockbridge was left out in the cold.

IONIA COUNTY.

Be it enacted by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, That the country included within the following limits, to wit: west of the line between ranges 4 and 5 west of the meridian; east of the line between ranges 8 and 9 west; south of the line between townships 8 and 9 north of the base line, and north of the line between townships 4 and 5 north of the base line, containing 16 townships, be, and the same is hereby set off into a separate county, by the name of Ionia.

Approved Mach 2, 1831.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Michigan, That the county of Ionia be, and the same is hereby, organized; and the inhabitants thereof entitled to all the rights and privileges to which, by law, the inhabitants of the other counties of this State are entitled.

SEC. 3. All suits, prosecutions, and other matters now pending before any court, or before any justice of the peace, or either of the counties, to which the said counties of Ionia and Van Buren are now attached for judicial purposes, shall be prosecuted to final judgment and execution; all taxes heretofore levied shall be collected in the same manner as though this act had not passed.

SEC. 4. The circuit court for the county of Ionia shall be held, until public buildings shall be erected, at such place as the supervisors of said county shall provide, at the seat of justice in said county, on the last Monday of May and in November, in each year.

SEC. 6. All that part of the State lying north of the county of Ionia, and not included in any organized county, be, and the same is hereby, attached to the county of Ionia for judicial purposes.

SEC. 8. There shall be elected in the said county of Ionia on the second Monday of April next, all the several county officers to which by law the said county is entitled; and whose term of office shall severally expire at the time the same would have expired had they been elected on the first Monday and the next succeeding day of November last; and said election shall in all respects be conducted and held in the manner prescribed by law for holding elections for county and State officers.

SEC. 9. In the said county of Ionia the board of county canvassers under this act shall consist of two of the presiding inspectors of said election from each township; and said board shall meet in their respective counties on the Thursday next after said election, at the county seat, at one o'clock P. M. of said day, and organize by the appointment of one of their number chairman and another secretary of said board, and thereupon proceed to calculate and ascertain the whole number of votes given at such election for any individual for either of the said offices, and shall set down the names of the several individuals so voted for, and the number of votes given to each, for either of said offices in said county, in words

at full length, and certify the same to be a true canvass of the votes given at such election in said county; and that the person receiving the highest number of votes for either of said offices is duly elected to said office, which certificate shall be signed by the chairman and secretary and delivered to the clerk of said county to be filed and kept in said office.

SEC. 10. In case the election for county officers shall not be held on the second Monday of April, as provided in the eighth section of this act, the same may be held on the first Monday of May next.

SEC. 11. This act shall be in force, and take effect, on and after the first Monday in April next.

Approved March 18, 1837.

IONIA. Named from a province in ancient Greece.

County seat, Ionia. Incorporated into a village under the general law in 1857. In 1867, reincorporated by special legislation. It was made the county seat in 1836. First court was held in 1837, Hon. E. Ransom presiding.

FIRST SETTLEMENT OF IONIA COUNTY.

BY W. B. LINCOLN.

When our colony came into Ionia county it was a wilderness in good earnest. No settlement had then been made on Grand river below Jackson, Ionia being first settled in May, 1833, by the Dexter colony from Herkimer county, New York.

The colony consisted of six families and a few single persons. Three of these families, however, subsequently settled in Kent county, one immediately, the others following in a year or two.

Ionia county was organized into a township April 6th, 1835, and attached to Kalamazoo for judicial purposes. The first supervisor elected was Erastus Yeomans; first township clerk, W. B. Lincoln. The first and second township meetings were held six miles east of Ionia, at the Genereau trading-post, just below the mouth of Maple river. The county was organized April 13th, 1837. The first election of county officers was held at the house of Asa Spencer, now the residence of A. F. Carr, cashier of the First National Bank. This house was built by the writer of this sketch, and sold to Mr. Spencer in 1836, about the time the United States Land Office was located here.

The officers elected at the place above referred to were as follows:

For Associate Judges, Truman H. Lyon, Isaac Thompson; Judge of Probate, William D. Moore; County Clerk, Asa Bunnell; Treasurer, John E. Morrison; Register of Deeds, Adam L. Roof; District Surveyor, Buel H. Mann; Coroners, Thaddeus O. Warner, Philo Boque.

BAPTIST CHURCH.

The first church organized in this county was the First Baptist church, Aug. 24, 1834, consisting of eight members, whose names were as follows: Sam'l Dexter and wife, Erastus Yeomans and wife, Alfred Cornell and wife, B. G. Barber, and W. B. Lincoln. Our first pastor was Elder A. C. Sangster, of Pike, New York, an Englishman by birth. Our second pastor, Henry D. Buttolph, from Oakland county; next, Rev. Alfred Cornell, Jr.,

son of Alfred Cornell, above named, and at present pastor of the Portland Baptist church. Elder Cornell was pastor of this church, in all, 19 years. Our next was Rev. J. H. Morrison, from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Next, Levi Parmely, from Wisconsin; next John Rowley, and last, E. O. Taylor, who has been with us two years. The present membership of the church numbers about 300.

IOSCO COUNTY.

SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That the county of Iosco shall be organized, and the inhabitants thereof entitled to all the rights, privileges and immunities to which, by law, the inhabitants of other organized counties of this State are entitled.

SEC. 2. There shall be elected in said county of Iosco, on the first Tuesday in July next, all the several county officers to which, by law, the said county is entitled; and said election and canvass shall, in all respects be conducted and held in the manner prescribed by law for (holding) elections and canvass for county and State officers: Provided, That the canvass shall be held on the Monday next following said election; and said county officers shall immediately be qualified and enter upon the duties of their respective offices, and their several terms of office shall expire at the same time that they would have expired had they been elected at the last general election: And provided further, That until such officers are elected and qualified, the proper officers of the county of Saginaw shall perform all the duties appertaining to the said county of Iosco, in the same manner as though this act had not been passed.

SEC. 3. The board of canvassers under this act shall consist of the presiding inspectors of election from each township in said county, who shall organize by appointing one of their number chairman and another secretary of said board, and shall thereupon proceed to discharge all the duties of a board of county canvassers as in ordinary cases of election for county officers.

SEC. 4. The county of Iosco shall have concurrent jurisdiction upon Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay with the other counties contiguous thereto. SEC. 7. The county seat of said county shall be established by the board of supervisors at Ottawas Bay.

SEC. 8. The inspectors of election for township officers, shall also be inspectors of election for county officers.

Approved February 16, 1857.

Iosco. An illegitimate Indian name to which Schoolcraft gave the meaning "water of light." Since the establishment of the county seat as named in the foregoing act it has been re-located, and is now at Tawas City at the mouth of Tawas river, on the north shore of Saginaw Bay.

IOWA COUNTY.

Be it enacted by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, That from and after the first day of January next ensuing, all that part of the county of Crawford to which the Indian title has been extinguished, and embraced within the following boundaries, namely: Beginning at the mouth of Ouisconsin river, and following the course of the same, so as to include all the islands in said river, to the portage between the said Ouisconsin and the Fox river, thence east until it intersects the line between the counties of Brown and Crawford, as established by the proclamation of the Governor of this Territory, bearing date the twenty-sixth day of October, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, thence south with said line to the northern boundary of Illinois, thence west with said boundary to the Mississippi river, thence up said river with the boundary of this Territory, to the place of beginning, shall form a county to be called the county of Iowa.

SEC. 2. That Samuel W. Beale and Lewis Grignon, of the county of Brown, and Joseph M. Street, of the county of Crawford, are hereby appointed commissioners to fix the seat of justice of said county of Iowa, and they are required to perform the said duty on or before the first day of January next ensuing, at such place within said county as to them may seem best calculated for the public interest, being first sworn to the faithful discharge of that trust; and so soon as they shall have come to a determination the same shall be reduced to writing and filed with the clerk of said county, whose duty it shall be to record the same, and the place thus designated shall be considered the seat of justice of said county.

SEC. 3. That the commissioners appointed by the last preceding section of this act shall be entitled to receive the sum of two dollars and fifty cents each per day, for every day necessarily employed by them in the execution of the duty aforesaid; to be paid out of the first moneys that may come into the treasury of said county.

SEC. 4. That in the event of the said commissioners being prevented, from any cause whatever, from performing the duty required of them by this act, then in that case, the seat of justice is hereby temporarily established at Mineral Point, in said county.

SEC. 5. That there shall be two terms of the county court of said county, annually. The first term shall commence on the first Monday of June, and the second term shall commence on the first Monday of December in each and every year.

SEC. 6. That the taxes authorized by the act entitled "An act to regulate the assessment and collection of territorial taxes," approved December thirty, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, are hereby remitted in favor of said county of Iowa, and the collection and disbursement of the same shall be conformable to the provisions contained in the eighth section of the said act.

SEC. 7. That all suits, prosecutions, and other matters now pending in the circuit court of the United States for the county of Crawford, or before the county court of said county, or before any justice of the peace within the same, shall be prosecuted to final judgment and execution, and all taxes heretofore levied, and now due, shall be collected in the same manner as if the said county of Iowa had not been organized.

Approved October 9, 1829.