History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

CHAPTER IV.

PIONEER SOCIETY OF THE SAGINAW VALLEY.
Over half a century has passed away since the American pioneers began to exercise dominion in this region of country. Those
years have been full of changes and the visitor of to-day, ignorant
of the past of the country, could scarcely be made to realize the
fact that within this comparatively short period, a population
approximating 60,000 grew up, and now occupy the country.
These people are as far advanced in all the accomplishments of
life as are those of the old settlements of the old States. Schools,
churches, colleges, palatial dwellings, extensive marts, busy factories, and cultivated fields now occupy the hunting grounds and village sites of the aborigines, and in every direction there are
evidences of wealth and progress. There are but few left of the
old landmarks; advancing civilization and its demands have tended
to raze almost every monument of the red-man, to obliterate almost
every trace of his occupancy.
Previous to 1819, and for a few succeeding years, the only white
inhabitants were the Campaus, and the French trappers who made
his post their home. The treaty attracted a few more white men,
but not until 1822 did the Americans visit the district with a view
of occupying it. In 1824 the American Fur Company introduced
a few more "pale-faces" to the savages, and in less than three years
the first American settlers visited the land and resolved to make it
their future home.
It is not strange that among the pioneer settlers of a country, a
deep-seated and sincere friendship should spring up, to grow and
strengthen with their years. The incidents peculiar to life in a
new country, the trials and hardships, privations and destitutions,
are well calculated to test, not only the physical powers of endurance but also the moral, kindly, generous attributes of manhood
and womanhood. Then are the times that try men's souls, and
bring to the surface all that there may be in them of either good or
bad. As a rule there is an equality of conditions that does not recognize distinctions of class; all occupy a common level, and as
a consequence a brotherly and sisterly feeling grows up that is as
lasting as time. In such a community there is a hospitality, a kindness, a benevolence, and a charity unknown and unpracticed among
the older, richer and more densely populated settlements. The very
nature of the surroundings of these pioneers teaches them to feel
each other's woe and share each other's joys. An injury or wrong
may be ignored, but a kind, generous, charitable act is never forgotten;-the memory of old associations and kind deeds is always
(1F2)