History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests / compiled from the official records of the county, the newspapers and data of personal interviews, under the editorial supervision of Thaddeus D. Seeley.

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

379

not steep enough to shed rain well, and must be changed; as this could
not be done in one day, my mother went to Judge Bagley's where Mrs.
Rowland Trowbridge now lives, to spend the night. She returned to
her home at the expiration of three weeks, bearing in her arms Bloomfield's first white daughter. This year of I820 my mother always spoke
of as the very happiest of many happy years. So many times have I
heard that time described that I can see it all now, almost as if I had
been there.
"In the spring the sweet brier seed which she brought with her
came up and its delicate green, giving promise of fragrance and beauty
in the future, was watched with living interest, for it was a bit of the
old home transplanted here. Every stroke of the axe, every crashing,
falling tree, was cheering prophecy of corn and wheat crops. The two
little boys played about the door, the fair babe smiled and crooned in
its cradle, and the mother, with heart full to overflowing with hope
and happiness, went about her household cares. There were hard places
no doubt, days of discouragement, and nights of weariness. What life
anywhere is free from them? Felling trees all day and tending log
heaps far into the night could not have been easy work. One day's
work of man and team must be paid for with four days of hard labor,
and yet these days were always referred to by both of my parents as
very happy ones, and the impression left on my mind by the story so
often told, was not of a time of great hardship, but of keen enjoyment,
and I believe, when at the close of day they bowed their heads at their
humble hearth stone, and my father returned unfeigned thanks for the
goodness and mercy that had followed them thus far, they both truly
felt that their lives had fallen unto them in pleasant places; yea, that
theirs was a goodly heritage.
"My father, with characteristic forethought, brought with him a
year's supply of provisions, so there was no fear of actual hunger,
though probably their fare was of the plainest, relieved a little perhaps by maple sugar and syrup in the spring and wild berries in the
summer. The canister of tea costing $1.75 or $2 per pound was never
taken down except in cases of company or sickness, save Sunday mornings, though I doubt it was ever empty.
"That little happy family are all gone. The dear daughter stayed
with them eight bright summers, and when she went every heart in
that little community seemed to throb with sympathy with them. My
mother never forgot this expression, and used to say 'We never know
how good people are until we are in trouble.'
"In course of time an addition was built to the first home, fields were
cleared, orchards set, and somewhere between I830-55, the maple grove
planted, and in 1836 the brick house built, the ruins of which are still
inhabited. And during all these years they found time for social intercourse, for Christian labor in church and Sunday-school. Feeling keenly
his own lack of education, my father was deeply interested that his
children should not labor under the same disadvantage, though I think
no one can really be called uneducated who reads as understandingly
and thinks as clearly as he did. It is scarcely necessary to speak of his
record as a temperance or anti-slavery worker. He never cast but one