History of Ottawa County, Michigan with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.

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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

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uary first, 1851, at which time the Constitution reported by the
Convention of 1850, and ratified' by the people, at the general election in that year, went into effect, and continues to the present time
as the Constitution of the State.
- The Legislature of 1873, by a Joint Resolution approved April
24th, provided for the appointment by the Governor, of a Commission, to consist of two persons from each Congressional District
in the State, in all, eighteen members, for the purpose of revising
the Constitution, and reporting to the Legislature, at its next session
"such amendments, or such revision to the Constitution, as in their
judgment may be necessary for the best interests of the State and
the people."
Of the eighteen delegates, Ottawa County had one representative in the present Senator Ferry, who took the place of Lyman G.
Mason, of Muskegon, who resigned.
The delegates performed their duty to the satisfaction of all
parties.
The Governor, from 1877 to 1881, was Chas. M. Croswell, who
greatly reduced the public debt, and under whose administration the
Capital at Lansing was completed.
A great riot centered -at Jackson in 1877, but the promptness
of the Governor speedily quelled it.
In Feb., 1881, David H. Jerome was called to the gubernatorial chair, finding all departments of the government mI good running order, and prosperity generally prevailing among all classes of
the people.
For a long time Michigan labored under a great drawback in
the way of an official report on its lands, by the Surveyor General,
of Ohio, dated Nov. 30, 1815, relative to the bounty land of Michiganl. On the 6th of May, 1812, Congress had passed an act granting among other lands, two million acres of the Territory of Michigan to the soldiers of the war with Great Britain, but the Surveyor
reported that there were no lands in Michigan fit for cultivation, and
Congress repealed the act, changing the grant of land to other
States.
The report we publish as a curiosity:
Extract from a letter of the Surveyor General of Ohio to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, dated Chillicothe, November
30, 1815, relative to the bounty land in Michigan, granted by act
of May 6, 1812:
DEPUTY SURVEYOR'S REPORT.
"Description of the military lands in Michigan. The country
in the Indian boundary line, from the mouth of the great Auglaize
River, and running thence for about fifty miles, is (with some few
exceptions) low, wet land, with a very thick growth of under-brush,
intermixed with very bad marshes, but generally very heavily timbered with beech,'cottonwood, oak, etc.; thence contiluing north,
and extending from the Indian boundary eastward, the number and
extent of the swamps increase, with the addition of numbers of
lakes, from twenty chains to two and three miles across. Many of
the lakes have extensive marshes adjoining their margins, sometimes
thickly covered with a, species 3f pine called ' tamarack,' and other
places covered with a coarse, high grass, and uniformly covered
from six inches to three feet (and more at times) with water. The
margins of these lakes are not the only places where swamps are
found, for they are interspersed throughout the whole country, and
filled with water, as above stated, and varying in extent. The intermediate space between these swamps and lakes, which is proba

bly near one-half of the country, is with a few exceptions, a poor,
barren, sandy land, on which scarcely any vegetation grows, except
very small, scrubby oaks. In many places, that part which may be
called dry land, is composed of little, short sand-hills, forming a
kind of deep basins, the bottoms of many of which are composed of

marshes similar to the above described. The streams are generally narrow, and very deep compared with their width, the shores
and bottoms of which are (with a few exceptions) swampy beyond
description; and it is with the utmost difficulty that a place can be
found, over which horses can be conveyed.
"A circumstance peculiar to that country is exhibit3d in many
of the marshes, by their being thinly covered with a sward of grass,
by walking on which, evinced the existence of water or a very thin
mud immediately under their covering, which sinks from six to
eighteen inches from the pressure of the foot at every step, and at
the same time rising before and behind the person passing over.
The margins of many of the lakes and streams are in a similar situation, and in many places are literally afloat. On approaching the
eastern part of the military lands, towards the private claims on the
Straights and Lake, the country does not contain so many swamps
and lakes, but the extreme sterility and barrenness of the soil continues the same. Taking the country altogether, so far as has beenexplored, and to all appearances, together with the information received concerning the balance, is so bad that there would not be
more than one acre out of one hundred, if there would be one out of
one thousand, that would in any case adniit of cultivation."
EDUCATIONAL.
The ordinance of Congress, passed in 1787, providing "for the
government of the Territory of the United States, northwest of the
river Ohio," declared that "religion, morality and knowledge, being
necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind,
schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
PRIMARY SCHOOLS.
By terms of another ordinance of Congress, adopted in 1785, in
regard to the disposal of lands in the western territory, it was provided
that section numbered sixteen of every township should be reserved
for the maintenance of public schools within such township.
The Legislative Council of the Territory, in 1827, provided for
the establi hment of public schools in every township containing
fifty inhabitants or householders. -The.first Constitution of the
State, adopted in 1835, declares in its article "Education:"
"The Legislature shall encourage by all suitable means, the pro- *
motion of intellectual, scientifical, and agricultural improvement.
The proceeds of all land that have been or hereafter may be granted
by the United States to this State, for the support of schools, which
shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which together with the rents of all such
unsold lands shall te inviolably appropriated to the support of schools
throughout the State."
The same general provisions are retained in the present Constitution, adopted in 1850.
The whole amount of primary school lands derived from the
reserve of the sixteenth section, and sold by the State, to the close
of the fiscal year, 1880, as shown by the records of the State Land
Office, is 650,864 56-100 acres, leaving 370,751 22-100 acres unsold,
with about 50,000 acres yet to be selected and placed at the disposition of the State Land Office, on account of sales which had been.
made from sections numbered sixteen, previous to the enactment by
Congress of the ordinance dedicating these lands to the primary

school fund.
During the years 1863-73 the amount of primary school interest
apportioned to the several counties in the month of May in each
year has ranged from forty-five to fifty cents for each child between
the ages of five and twenty years. - In 1864 the humber of children

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