Dear Group, This is a long message but I thought you might be interested in reading the talk I gave at our Town of Porter Historical Society last month. It has to do with the westward movement from here to Michigan in the 1830s. This was what I said. vee WESTWARD HO! (Talk given to the Town of Porter Historical Society, March 20, 2000) Vee L. Housman The area now known as Michigan was made part of the Northwest Territory in 1787 when the Northwest Ordinance decided how land was to be organized into independent territories. In 1805 Michigan was officially given the designation of the Michigan Territory. When the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, it gave settlers easy transportation across all of New York State and by 1830 there was a steamboat line running between Buffalo and Detroit on a DAILY basis. The combination of the Erie Canal and a steamboat line brought SUCH a rush of settlers into the Michigan Territory, that by 1837 Michigan received her statehood. And the majority of those early settlers into Michigan came from New York and New England. But why would those who had already gone through the hardships of settling here want to pack up and go through it all over again? Well, maybe after they had built up their farms, they knew that they could sell them at a good price and with cheaper land westward, they could buy much more acreage and end up with a larger farm. After all, the Town of Porter had been growing at a fast rate, and there were plenty of buyers. In fact, in 1840 the population around here was over 45 inhabitants per square mile; whereas in the area of southeastern Michigan around Detroit it was between 18 and 45 inhabitants. A few miles west of Ann Arbor, MI it was only between 2 to 18 inhabitants per square mile. So it seems that whole families left this area when Michigan put its land on the market at a low price. My history books and the Internet tell me that 1836 was the peak year for land sales in Michigan and that one-ninth of the total land area of Michigan went on the block. As a popular song of the period put it: Come all ye Yankee farmers who wish to change your lot, Who've spunk enough to travel beyond your native spot, And leave behind the village where Pa and Ma do stay, Com follow me and settle in Michigania, And so that's what the situation was here in the Town of Porter in 1836 when William Carpenter decided to move to Michigan. We know only bits and pieces of his life here. But I personally know where his land was that he bought from the Holland Land Company. It says so right on the Title Search to my very own property on Creek Road. By February of 1835 he had paid off the mortgage and was given the deed to the land. According to our records, William had been very active as a member of the board of trustees in School District No. 3 from 1819 to 1832. That's the school district around the area of Creek Road and Blairville Road. He had married Mary Taylor and all of their children were born in Town of Porter. Mary's two brothers John and Nehemiah Taylor were also active on the school board until the early 1830s. Our records also show that William and Mary Carpenter were members of the original congregation of the First Baptist Church at Four Mile Creek in 1834. By 1836 they were on their way to Michigan and so was Mary's Taylor family. In a Michigan history book there is a biographical sketch about their son Griffin Carpenter of Oakland Co., MI, and this is what is says about William and his trip to Michigan: William Carpenter, was born in New York in 1792 and obtained a common-school education. He lived with his brother-in-law [that would have been Mary's brother, Nehemiah Taylor] until he was eighteen years old, doing farm work in the summer, and teaching in the winter as soon as his age would allow of his getting a school. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. In 1817 he married Mary Taylor, a native of New York, born in 1799, and buying eighty acres of land in Niagara County, he remained in his native state until 1836. He then sold out and came to this State, via Buffalo. Soon after leaving that port the vessel was injured in a storm and the captain put in at Cleveland, Ohio, where Mr. Carpenter embarked on another boat. The second vessel was wrecked, but the passengers were landed at Port Huron, Ohio, whence they came by land to this county. Mr. Carpenter bought eighty acres in Novi Township and subsequently eighty acres in Lyon Township. He built a house on the latter tract and lived there until his death, in 1878. He was an honest, upright man, with good standing in religious circles, being a Deacon in the Baptist Church. In politics he was a Republican. To him and his wife there came five daughters and five sons, and Griffin is the second son and third child. And this is what it says about Griffin Carpenter who was born in 1821: He was a youth in his teens when he accompanied his parents hither, and he did much hard work on the new land on which they made their home. He owns and occupies a farm located in Lyon and Novi Townships, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres of thoroughly developed land. Mr. Carpenter has owned three hundred and fifteen acres at one time, but has reduced his possessions, as he assisted his children to make a start in the world. Having known what it was to begin the battle of life unaided and to toil and struggle in order to get a footing, he has been desirous of doing for his own offspring more than circumstances made it possible for his father to do for him. He started in life for himself by clearing land at $10 per acre and boarding himself, and little by little he saved the wherewithal to secure and improve a farm. Industry and good management brought added prosperity, and he now has a good home and pleasant surroundings. Other members of the family had their own stories to tell. In the obituary of Nancy Dolph Carpenter who married William, Jr. the oldest son of William and Mary, it says: Miss Nancy C. Dolph was born in Camillus, Onondago Co., New York, Sept. 25, 1826, and came with her parents to Michigan in 1842, settling near Howell, Livingston county. In 1844, she was married to Wm. Carpenter and after residing two years on a farm near Howell they sold there and purchased a farm in Lyon township where she resided until about a year ago. With courage and energy, the young couple set about carving out for themselves a home in the forest. They made a small clearing and erected a log house, the wife bore bravely her portion of the burden, assisting her husband in the work out of doors as well as attending to her household duties. Here were born to them nine children. She spun and wove the material for their garments and their various household needs, braided straw which she deftly fashioned into hats, and in all possible ways contributed to the comfort and pleasure of her household. So their lives in Michigan didn't differ much from their lives when they first settled here in Town of Porter. But in Michigan they ended up with more land. William started out with 80 acres here and ended up with 160 acres in Michigan. His son who started out in Michigan with nothing but ended up with as many as 315 acres before he started parceling it off to his own sons. Because of email and the Internet I have been able to track many of our pioneer families to Michigan. From another biographical sketch from a Sanilac County, Michigan history book, this is what it says about one of our Clapsaddle families: Alexander Clapsaddle, farmer, Moore Township is a son of George and Elizabeth Clapsaddle. (BTW, his mother Elizabeth was Elizabeth Quade, daughter of Alexander Quade of local Quade family). His parents were natives of the state of NY, his father having been born in 1804 in Herkimer Co. They moved to Ontario, Canada, in 1836 and now (at least around 1881) reside there. Mr. Alexander Clapsaddle was born May 1828 in Niagara Co., NY, and at 19 years of age he decided to learn the business of a tanner and currier, in which he was engaged three years. At the expiration of that time he became a farmer, and later on he became an assistant in a saw mill, which pursuit he followed some years. In 1871 he came to Sanilac County and located on the farm on which he now resides. It comprised about 130 acres of land with 60 acres under fine improvements. He passed through the scourge of flame that devastated the county in 1881, losing all his buildings and loss of farm property amounting to thousands of dollars. And then it goes on to say who he married and the names of their seven children. Other Clapsaddle families moved to Michigan also. Nicholas Clapsaddle and his wife Eleanor (McCollum—another local family that you've heard of) moved to Genesee Co. MI, with their family in 1854 and even though they had left the Town of Porter behind, they still kept in touch with their family back here. Apparently one of their grandsons, William Hill Clapsaddle, kept a diary that mentioned frequent trips back to Ransomville to visit their cousin Kit (Christopher) Clapsaddle. Christopher's father was Rudolph, the brother of Nicholas. And they were all related to Alexander. There was at least one of the members of our Tower family who moved there. She was the daughter of Peter Tower and Hannah Bailey, Leanda Tower. She married Samuel Robinson and she died in Genesee Co. in 1892. And from another local family there was Isaac Canfield who died in Ionia Co. in 1860. He was the son of David Canfield and Hannah Northrup. There was Chatford Howell who died in Bay Co. in 1917. He was the son of John Howell and Phebe Vrooman. Henry Knapp died in Gratiot Co. He was the son of Stephen Knapp and Catherine Ripson. There was also Christina Knapp who died in Genesee Co. She was the daughter of Tunis Vrooman and Polly Sykes. But there's one family that we kinda forget that also had close ties with Michigan. It was Isaac Swain's family. You see, two of his daughters had married and had moved to Michigan very early on. One was his daughter Sarah who had married John Clark in 1813 and had moved to Wyandotte, near Detroit. In 1815 another of his daughters, Rebecca, visited her sister Sarah there and it was during that visit that she met her future husband Frederick Granger Williams. To make a long story short about what happened to Rebecca and Frederick, just ask any Mormon who knows his history of the Mormon Church. Frederick was the First Counselor to the founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, and Rebecca made the long trek to Salt Lake City in 1849 with Ezra T. Benson's wagon train over what is now known as the Mormon Trail. Oh yes, the other daughter of Isaac Swain who ended up in Michigan. It was his daughter Mary who died in Oakland Co., MI, in 1825. She had married Orestes Taylor. Hmmm! Orestes TAYLOR?? Oakland Co.?? Wasn't that where the Carpenter and other Taylor families settled? It seems as if the migration of families to Michigan had as much to do with families following family members as it did with finding new land to plow and develop. And in many cases those who settled in Michigan also came back here and married into other Town of Porter families. To rattle off a list of those families who have Michigan connections: Ash Austin Baley Brown Bullock Carter Conn Cudaback Dean Declute Fowler Hosmer McConnell Monzo Myers Perry Pierce Sanborn Servis Simpson Smithson Spickerman Tryon Warren Washburn Williams And they are just the families that we have in our museum computer right now that show a Michigan connection. Just think how many other families there were! As the old song put it, Com follow me and settle in Michigania!