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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verse, and man cannot alter or control it; he can only avail himself
of these blessings and reap the benefits.
The atmosphere receives its heat only by reflection or radiation
from the earth's surface, We have been taught that as we go upwards the air grows cooler, yet we must get up high if we wish to
avoid frosts and yet if we get too high we and our plants will
freeze together. It is on the principle of radiation that a board only
a foot wide over a grape trellis often saves the whole vine from frost
as it retains the ascending heat. Every night, heat climbs up the
mountain sides. Therefore sloping lands are better than level
plains, and valleys enclosed on all sides by hills are extremely unsafe. In the spring of 1865 Mr. Peck witnessed the destruction of
100 peach trees in a slightly depressed basin while on ground not
more than 20 inches higher the trees were spared. Ravines running through level grounds are of service as they enable the cold air
to descend.
In planting peach trees one should select a site where the water would all run off, for the cold air of the night, like the water, seeks
the lowest ground.
Few ever think of Michigan as a tropical state, the common impression being that it is one of the coldest in the Union, but the narrow strip along the west coast is famous for its mildness of temperature, which gives it a semi-tropical climate. In 1881 the shipments from this belt amounted to 2,500,000 bushels, and in one
year 806,000 bushels of peaches were shipped.
It is somewhat anomalous that while the cities are filled with
idlers so much land in Ottawa and more especially in Muskegon
County and the adjoining counties on the lake shore should be lying
unutilized. In the first place, fuel, one of the necessaries of life, may
be found in abundance; lumber for building purposes is plentiful
and cheap, and labor finds a ready market in the lumbering business,
which makes money plentiful; and no better tract can be found for
the cultivation of peaches, grapes and small fruits. The drift in
most parts of the lower peninsula abounds in calcareous pebbles and
large boulders, whose constant slow solution affords an unfailing and
inexhaustible supply of calcareous matter, which is most abundant
in the regions underlaid by limestone outcroppings, and in the districts south of there. These great drift agencies have a wide-spread
distribution over a great part of lower Michigan, in which we consequently find many silicious soils. Even those composed of (apparently) pure sands, are made up largely of comminuted limestone.
Hence we witness the anomaly of luxuriant farm crops and orchards
upon soils which an ordinary observer would pronounce sterile.
The county has also a proportion of marsh and savannah
lands, consisting in general of a mucky loam, over a sandy subsoil,
which when drained is the most valuable land to the farmer, capable
of raising good grass and various other crops, where now but marsh
hay is obtained.
As one of the burning questions of both Ottawa and Muskegon
Counties is the question of utilizing the sand soils which cover so
large an area, we have induced Mr. A. T. Linderman, of Whitehall,
formerly secretary of the State Pomological Society, and who has
successfully treated a sand farm of 640 acres in Cedar Creek, to
give his views as follows:
HOW TO MANAGE SANDY SOILS.

The great staples of this class are wheat and clover, which
should be kept firmly in mind, and as a regular system is needed to
bring this land up to -the required standpoint, the cultivation of
these staples should not be departed from without very good reasons indeed. The reasons why it is necessary to adhere to these
specialties are that this soil must have a regular annual dressing of
green manure. Wheat and clover are the preferable crops on new

land. On old, worn out soils, however, the production of clover
is attended with so much risk, owing to the liability of the spring
clover to be scalded out by the heat of the sun on the bare sand,
or the ravages of the cut worm, that, as a rule, it is not best to
make the attempt until the soil has had a sufficient amount of green
manure added to it to render it heavy, in which condition it is not
liable to sun scald; it is here and for this purpose that the potato
crop becomes valuable-plant early sorts, and as soon as dug scatter over the land a plentiful seeding of winter rye; the land need
not be plowed, a thorough harrowing being sufficient for the rye.
The next spring, when planting time comes, turn under the rye and
plant to potatoes again, and repeat the operation, until in three or
four years the land can be sown to winter wheat and seeded to clover with little risk of not getting a "catch" of the clover seed.
Once this is accomplished, you are ready for the clover and wheat
relation, which is a much desired object. The next season after
the wheat is taken off, cut the clover early, so that the second crop
shall have time to ripen its seed thoroughly before time to plow for
winter wheat again. Turn this second crop with its ripe seed
under, and have no fear but that when you turn it up again two
years later every seed will grow. It will be necessary to seed with
this crop of wheat also, so as to have a crop of clover to turn under
the second year again. This with its seed will give you clover on
both sides of the sod, and no further sowing of clover seed will ever -
be necessary.
It is advisable to divide your farm into two nearly equal parts,
and arrange it so as to have one-half to clover and the other half to
wheat each year.
A succession of these two crops will not only be profitable, but
will annually improve the soil, and after a few years fruit can be
grown from the trees, plants or vines you may desire to plant on
this land that will astonish the natives.
Properly managed this sandy land will make the best and most
easily cultivated farms in the State. When brought to condition
it stands drought much better than clay, is never too wet to work,
and while not at present adapted to general farming, will produce
most happy and profitable results in the special way described.
SUPERVISORS' RECORDS.
We cull from the county records and other sources a few of the
most salient points in the history of the county:
This county was organized by act of Legislature approved
December 31, 1837, and at the ensuing township meeting of the
three townships of Ottawa, Muskegon and Talmadge, that composed
the county, the following officers were elected:
Timothy Eastman, Clerk; Clark B. Albee, Register of Deeds;
Edmund H. Badger, Judge of Probate; Henry Pennoyer, Sheriff;
Supervisors Bethuel Church, Talmadge; William Hathaway, Ottawa; Erastus Wilcox, Muskegon.
The first meeting of the supervisors was held at the house of
Nathan Troop on the 11th day of April, 1838. Present-Erastus
Wilcox and Wm. Hathaway. Organized by appointing E. Wilcox
Chairman and Timothy Eastman Clerk.
Resolved, That the courts of the county be held at the village
of Grand Haven until further ordered.

The board of two supervisors then adjourned.
The next meeting was held at Troop's house on the 8th of
May.
Business-Extending the time for making up the assessment
roll, and appointing Timothy Eastman to locate a quarter-section
of land for the use of the county, in accordance with the provisions

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