made by Act 209, Laws of 1875, for the year 1875.. Received for interest on bank account... 250 00 11 70 Amount of receipts.... $430 70 DISBURSEMENTS. Paid out on the order of the President, Aug 18, 1875.... Amount disbursed $50 00 15 50 $65 50 Balance on hand.... $365 20 It will be remembered that the last Legislature, by act 209, appropriated "to the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan the sum of five hundred dollars for each of the years 1875 and 1876, to be expended by the society in collecting and embodying, arranging and preserving, in authentic form, a library of books, pamphlets, maps, charts, manuscripts, papers, paintings, statuary, and other materials illustrative of the history of Michigan, to rescue from oblivion the memory of early pioneers, to obtain and preserve narratives of their exploits, perils, and hardy adventures, to secure facts and statements relative to the history, genius, progress, and decay of our Indian tribes, to exhibit faithfully the antiquities and the past and present resources of Michigan." See Laws of 1875, page 238. In pursuance of this law, this appropriation, like all others of a similar character, can only be drawn as fast as required for disbursement by the society. As has been stated above, only $250 of this appropriation has been drawn by the society. The balance of the appropriation, $750, remains to be drawn when required for the purposes named in the act. This sum, together with the money now in the treasury of the society, makes the resources for the year to come $1,115.20 over and above what may be received during that period for memberships. It is a matter for congratulation that the society is at length in possession of means to justify it in entering upon some plan for carrying out is objects; and it would seem proper for it to adopt some measures and mature some system for doing this, and fulfilling the designs of the Legislature expressed in the above mentioned act. Respectfully, O. M. BARNES, Treasurer. ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. DR. O. C. COMSTOCK OF MARSHALL, FEBRUARY 2, 1876. FELLOW PIONEERS: Another year has gone by since we last met in this place. But few of the number who were with us at our second annual meeting, so far as I can learn, have exchanged time for eternity. In view of the inevitable infirmities of age, this prolongation of life calls for devout thanksgiving, for many of our number are traveling on already in the twilight of another world. Soon the last pioneer will have passed Children and friends, in recounting his toils, his successes, and his virtues, must necessarily speak of the trials and privation of his frontier life, and with patriotic and ancestral pride tell of his continued and successful efforts in the cause of morality, education, and good government. Fellow pioneers, we make no boast of felling the forest and constructing highways, although these are no mean achievements; but we are proud of the institutions of learning, of benevolence and reform, which we have conceived and carried forward to that degree of perfection which challenges the admiration of sister States and the world. "I hear the tread of pioneers Of nations yet to be, The first low wash of waves, where soon Shall roll a human sea. The rudiments of empire here; Are plastic yet and warm; The chaos of a mighty world With commendable pride we look back from our present stand-point upon the scattered fragments of home and country, which, within the compass of 50 years have been so symmetrically adjusted into our comfortable homes and good State fabric. In coming up Detroit river in the slow, lumbering craft of forty years ago, no wonder that the description given in Morse's geography should occur to the venturesome emigrant of that day, to wit: that it was a land of swamps and sand knobs, chiefly the former. A short ride into the interior, however, dissipates this erroneous idea. The oak openings, the spreading prairies, and the beautiful flowers burst upon his ravished vision. He has entered a new world, and upon a new experience. Presto! His life purpose is formed. and he communicates to friends, perhaps to the girl he left behind him, the beauty, fertility, and promise of this Eldorado. Have these spontaneous conceptions been a cheat to him? What has been accomplished in the short space of forty years? All we have and are, and all that posterity will receive at our hands, is the fruit of the mental and physical labors of our rapidly diminishing numbers. To gather up with historic accuracy the events and achievements of the past is the high emprise of the State Pioneer Society. Now the living witnesses of the incipient and onward actors in this grand drama are among us, and have treasured up in their own breasts this invaluable history. Verily, they are earthen vessels. When these are gone all staple history is lost. The uncertainty of tradition will write up the history of Michigan, for written it will be in the general history of the country. From romance and legends, good Lord deliver us! We have already entered on the centennial year,-the centenary of the inventive and applied genius of the Yankee nation, and Michigan should have a conspicuous place at the grand gathering at Philadelphia. Not because she is a sovereign State, but because she is, par excellence, the home of the arts and sciences; because of the humane provision she has made for the insane, for the blind, for the orphan, for the poor; because she has provided without stint for the reformation of the vicious of both sexes and all ages; because her legal enactments and the administration of justice have for their only object the maintenance of good order, the security of all the rights of person and property, and the positive and universal equality of our citizens before the law; because her ministers of religion are guiding both the old and young all through this land into the paths of virtue and obedience, and imploring them, with more than human zeal and eloquence, to walk therein. Next comes the grosser elements of our greatness, -our minerals, fisheries, saline and medicinal springs, our inexhaustible beds of plaster. our unsurpassed forests, our agricultural resources, the great variety of luscious fruits, both indigenous and acclimated; in short, a land flowing with milk and honey. All these things have their history. Human agencies have necessarily been employed in their development and elaboration. Shall these men die? Shall they go into the grave, where all things are forgotten? Coupled with their deeds they will be immortal; divest them of these and they have no incentive to immortality. When a new constellation or a new star is discovered, the exact minute is fixed and established forever, and the fortunate star-gazer is knighted in Europe and lionized in this country,-and all this is well. The granite monument raised at Detroit as a memorial of our gallant soldiers will ultimately succumb to the tooth of time; not so with their heroic achievements. All coming generations receiving their primary education in our common schools, and passing through our higher institutions of learning, will hold in ever-grateful remembrance John D. Pierce, the father of our system of education, even though no monumental marble be raised to his memory. The counties of Wayne, Washtenaw, Calhoun, Branch, Berrien, and Kalamazoo are being pretty thoroughly explored in view of writing up their early history. In connection therewith a succinct personal biography of many of their pioneers will constitute a marked feature. This may be in progress in other portions of the State; if so, it has not come to the knowledge of the State Pioneer Society. No effort should be deemed onerous and no time should be wasted in perfecting this work, and I trust this meeting will not adjourn until one or more historians have been appointed, who will enter at once, and with determined zeal, upon the duties of their appointment. The county organizations should cheerfully cooperate with the State Society in hunting up historic incidents and in developing the resources of their respective localities; these, when collated, to be subjected to the close scrutiny of an intelligent committee, and published under the direction of the State Pioneer Society for general distribution and correction. A good beginning will then have been made toward perfecting a truthful and exhaustive history of this State. More frequent meeting of the Executive Committee are desirable, and if they were held in different sections of the State, greater good would be accomplished. A delegation from this society to the centennial gathering at Philadelphia, as representatives of its important functions and character, will undoubtedly suggest itself to your favorable consideration. The Legislature should be asked to make a further appropriation for the society, that it may carry forward to completion the high objects contemplated in the foregoing remarks. I thank the society for its indulgence, and will only add my humble thanksgiving to a kind Providence for His continued blessings, not the least of which is that so many old friends and pioneers are permitted the enjoyment of this anniversary occasion. PAPER READ BY H. A. SHAW OF EATON RAPIDS. The following paper on the early efforts made by the State of Michigan to demonstrate the practicability of a ship canal across the Peninsula was read at the annual meeting, February 2, 1876: It has fallen to my lot to discuss before you a subject of peculiar interest, and at the present time of surpassing importance, a subject with which many of you are more conversant than myself, more especially, perhaps, with the early efforts made by the State to demonstrate the practicability of a ship canal across our beautiful Peninsula. If this was the only obstacle which presents itself, I should hope at least to be able to entertain some who are present with a few thoughts and suggestions which it is my purpose to make in regard to the proposed ship canal, its utility, practicability, if not of its necessity to aid in the growth and prosperity of the greatest cereal-producing region in the world. Think not that we are deaf to the demands of the people for retrenchment, or blind to the fact that confidence has been for the time lost by capitalists in measures tending to the development and improvement of our common country. Does any one suppose that with but a small portion of our country improved and the concession made that the granary of the world lies west of us, and the record standing out so that even the passers-by may read,-here is the country that furnishes more of the nec essaries of life for the consumption of man than any other.-does any one, I ask, suppose all has been done that can be in the interests of cheaper transportation? Michigan, situated midway between the producing and the consuming States of the Union, with a population of intelligent and enterprising people, will not concede that the future is destined to witness no further efforts to enchance the price of our products at home, or to lay them at the doors of the consumer-whether within our own borders or foreign climes as cheaply as can be done by the most favored people of any land or country. I am aware that many look to the extension and enlargement of the facilities for shipment by rail for that relief, and in that way to work out the grand problem of the cheapest transportation. But with the millions already invested, and the small returns to those who own the roads, we are led to reply that already railroads are carrying freights at less per ton per mile than will return profit to their owners; and unless some new invention like the "Keely motor" shall be brought to the aid of railroads, but little may be expected from them in the future regarding cheaper transportation. Eighteen years have now passed since any new railroad between the east and Chicago has been opened, and the capacity of those completed has not kept pace with the increased demand for their use. With unfavorable returns for roads already constructed and the cry of "no more railroad subsidies" throughout the country, what corporation, what statesman, what party will dare to undertake the opening of new roads which the growth of commerce demands? Early in the history of the State it was proposed to construct several canals, among which were the Clinton and Kalamazoo, from Lake St. Clair to Lake Michigan; the Northern Canal, from Saginaw bay to the Grand river at the mouth of the Maple: the Sault Ste. Marie; and the canal around the rapids of Grand River. It was also in contemplation to improve the St. Joseph river, the Kala mazoo, Grand, and Maple rivers. From these sources we gather many important facts as to the practicability and feasibility of the several proposed lines of ship canal. Many surveys of railroads have been made, many of which have been completed, and others run as experimental lines and the records preserved; from these the height of most of the localities in this Lower Peninsula is known to the investigator of this subject. Early in the history of our State it was asserted, and we yet hear and see it repeated, that our highest grounds are situated among the numerous lakes some twenty miles southeast of Jackson, the source of Grand, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, and Raisin rivers. Between Camden and Reading the land reaches an elevation of 613 feet. Later surveys show that Otsego Lake, in Otsego county, is 1,100 feet in height, and Higgins Lake, the source of the Muskegon, is 700 feet above the level of Lake Michigan. This southern divide, or water-shed, runs in a northwestern course, and as it passes the line of Jackson and Washtenaw counties shows an elevation on the line of the Michigan Central of 411 feet. Dropping down as it passes north and west, we find by actual survey, recently made to test the route of the Michigan Ship Canal, on the proposed line of the ascent of the Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, crossing over the Grand river and striking into the 150 lakes upon the summit near the base line of the State whose waters mingle with the waters of the Huron, the Raisin, and Grand rivers, to be only 250 feet above the waters at Trenton on Detroit river. Passing north from here into the counties of Oakland and Livingston, we find this summit, between the waters flowing north to the Saginaw, east to Lake St. Clair, and west by the Grand river to be from 300 to 529 feet in height. Still further north, and bearing more strongly west, we find that the waters flowing towards the Grand river start from an elevation less than 100 feet above Lake Michigan. Here, by the way of Grand river to the mouth of the Maple at Muir, following the Maple to its source, and passing down Bad river -a tributary of the Saginaw-to the Bay, is unquestionably the cheapest route of a canal across our Peninsula. But this accomplishes only a portion of the design of those advocating this new avenue for the great and growing commerce of the west. Here the Huron, with its many tales of suffering and losses, is to be encountered, with its long and circular outlet to Lake Erie. Considering this project in its true light, that in which a nation, not a single State, is interested, and but half its object is accomplished, the true statesman and philanthropist will seek further in his efforts to improve and ameliorate the condition of the producer and consumer. This State early saw the necessity, and by actual and careful surveys for the Clinton and Kalamazoo canal demonstrated the practicability of a canal uniting the waters of Lakes Michigan and St. Clair by a canal of 216 miles and 79 chains in length, commencing at Mount Clemens and |