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

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HISTORY OF OTTAWA COUNTY.

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ness dissolved, and the rocks which it held dropped down as rocky
fragments or rocky drifts. The countless currents which sprang
into existence and formed for themselves channels, were the chief
agency in forming the stratum known as Modified Drifts.
Prof. Winchell's theory is that at this period the whole State
was submerged, and one great lake existed, from the Falls of Niagara to Chicago. At all events, from Saginaw Bay to lake Michigan,
via the valleys of the Shiawassie, Maple and Grand Rivers, a great
channel, deep and wide, extended. South of this line barriers
existed to the flow of waters and the accumulation of ice water, and
a second ice period resulted in the formation of another glacial
field, not over four feet in thickness, and when the second spring
time arrived, millions of cubic feet of ice water were added to the
lakes, resulting in barsting asunder their green coating of ice, carrying with them their tables of limestone, and, as the waters fell,
depositing them where they lie to-day. As the Niagara rock was
worn down, the rushing waters made for themselves deeper channels, and the inland lakes became proportionately lower. The
present river system was then laid out by nature.
The counties of Muskegon and Ottawa, together with all
Michigan, except an oval formation in the interior, with Lansing as
the center, and over one hundred miles in diameter, is regarded by
Prof. Hitchcock, of Dartmouth, as belonging to the Devonian or
Lower Carboniferous region, which is the middle stratum of the
Paleozoic era. In fact, all Michigan can be classified as Paleozoic,
the oldest formation being of the first stratum, or Silurian, which
is confined to the upper peninsula. The lower peninsula, with the
exception of the central portion above mentioned, ranks next below
in formation, and is Devonian or Lower Carboniferous, and the
central portion is still later, being the third, or highest division of
Paleozoic, the coal measure, or Penno-Carboniferous.
The Devonian, which affects the counties of which we are
speaking, is termed by -many American geologists the Erfe formation, and Dr. Dawson recommends that Erian be used here as the
name solely, in view of certain difficulties in reconciling the nmeasure with that of the Devonian of the Old World. In this age there
was a great advance over tile Silurian; terrestrial plants, reeds
rushes, and trees made their appearance ill great numbers; also I
enormous ganoid fishes, more terrible than sharks. No evidence of
vertebrate life has been found in Devonian beyond that of tile
fishes. If the Silurian is the Age of Trilobites, the Devonian is the
Age of Fishes, not certainly like those of the present, but more
obscurely resembling our sturgeons, gars, sharks and chimeras.
As a portion of God's green earth, Ottawa had existed from
time immemorial' to a period to which the memory of man runneth
not back. Col. Ferry has demonstrated that, at a comparatively
recent period, the western portion of the county, from the head of
Spring Lake southeast to about a mile west of the mouth of Crockery Creek, thence still southeast by a line which would take in
Robinson and part of Allendale and Blendon, and thence westerly
along Pigeon Creek and again southerly to a mile from tile mouth
of Black River-a space comprising about one-third of the present
county-was submerged, and. a mere bay on the west coast of
Michigan; the Grand River then poured its floods into tile lake not
far from where Spoonville now stands.
Look again at the remarkable depression in the valley of tile.Black River, and consider that it would now take an obstruction in
the Grand River below Jeriisonville of but 15 feet to cause that
stream to seek what was perhaps its ancient course, or at least the
safety valve for a portion of its overflowing waters. What forces
of nature have been ceaselessly working out happy homes on the farfamed fruit belt of Michigan; grain by grain it has been lifted out of

the sea by the ever-acting currents that play around the lake, bringing debris on the west coast of the lake southward and then gradually eastward, and northward, piling the light drifting sand-pulverized
rock -on the east coast, to be whirled into mountain sand banks by
the prevailing west winds farther and farther into the land, until at
last Ottawa County is completed. But no, tile same forces are still
at work and although slowly they are surely changing our western
boundaries, and where the waves are now disporting will be the
homes of men in the future. The effect of this formation is clearly
seen and marked in the general contour of the county. The east
and northeast is a fine rolling country thickly strewn with
boulders, with considerable clay land mingled with gravel, and sandy
loam, altogether forming a grand agricultural and grazing region,
well watered and easily drained. The people are becoming wealthy,
or at least in easy circumstances. They had their hardships in
clearing up the dense growth of forest, chiefly hardwood, with here
and theie belts of pine. It is a pleasant sight to drive through the
prosperous towns of Jamestown, Talmadge, Wright, Polkton or Chester. In the west especially of the line traced by Col. Ferry, all is
changed. The soil seems a bed of sand covered with a thin vegetable mould. There are no gravel or boulders to speak of, pine and
hemlock prevail, with here and there hardwood, and in the lower
portions tamarack, white ash and white cedar. The soil which was
supposed to be worthless is found to produce fruit in profusion, so
that the Fruit Belt of Michigan has secured a national reputation. As
we shall endeavor to show further on as having been proved by actual experience, these supposed sandy barrens' may under proper
treatment become the finest wheat and grass lands in the State.
Gather up a handful of tlis sand and examine it; it is something
more than mere sand; there is abundance of silica and other valua.
ble vegetable food in it. Sow on it a crop of winter rye and the
length and strength of the exuberant straw will prove the existence
of the silica. Plow under the crop, plaster freely, seed thickly with
clover, let this ripen and plow under, again seed, and one
then has a soil which will produce of itself clover, and has sufficient
vegetable mold to produce heavy crops of cereals and grasses. Coming down through the ages we find the soil fit for man, but until the
last forty years, when "'the heir of all the ages" the all-conlquering
Aryan appeared on the scene how little impress did man make upon
nature. A mound here and there, a few arrowheads and fossil pottery scattered about, some small clearings or oak openings for the
squaw to sow her corn on, all else, dense forest or miasmatic swamp
given up to nature and her wild children, the devouring beasts of
the field, or the ravenous birds of the air.
It is folly to say that the Indian has a "right" to keep any portion of the Great Father's heritage as a hunting ground, supporting
but a handful, when his pale-faced brothers are ready and willing to
come'in and make it support multitudes, to make the waste places
glad, and the desert to blossom as the rose. The earth was made
for man to Iuse, not as a hunting ground for savages, and they must
either adopt the custolnms of civilization or perish. Such is the hard
but just and inflexible law, the survival of the fittest.
ARCH:EOLOGICAL.
Without speculating at any length on the pre-historic races that
have successively occupied the soil, there is undoubted evidence that
the mound builders, that mysterious race of old, once swayed the re

gion of the Grand River valley. About three miles below Grand
Rapids there exists a group of 17 mounds on the farm of Capt. Norton, from 2 to 15~ feet in diameter. The great age of these mounds
is established by the fact that trees are growing upon them with 260
rings of growth, while at the base lie the remains of still older trees,
which must have been giants when the former were saplings. Still

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