The State printing is done by contract, the_contractors for the last 13 years being W. S. George & Co. (Geo. Jerome), the former the active partner, who also publishes and edits the Lansing Republican, a paper noted for originality, condensation and careful make-up."

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TOPOGRAPHY.

Michigan is a little southeast of the center of the continent of North America, and with reference to all the resources of wealth and civilization is most favorably situated. It is embraced between the parallels of 41°.692 and 47.478 north latitude, and the meridians of 820.407 and 90°.536 west of Greenwich. The upper peninsula has its greatest extent east and west, and the lower, north and south. The extreme length of the upper peninsula is 318 miles, and its extreme breadth, 1644 miles; its area, 22,580 square miles. The length of the lower peninsula is 277 miles, its width, 259 miles, and its area, 33,871 square miles. The upper peninsula is rugged and rocky, affording scarcely anything but minerals as a source of wealth; the lower is level, covered with forests of valuable timber, and is excellent for all the products of Northern States.

The total length of the lake shore is 1,620 miles, and there are over 5,000 smaller lakes in the States, having a total area of 1,114 square miles.

A RETROSPECT.

And now, how natural to turn our eyes and thoughts back to the log-cabin days of less than 50 years ago, and contrast it with the elegant mansion of modern times. Before us stands the old log cabin. Let us enter. Instinctively the head is uncovered in token of reverence to this relic of ancestral beginnings and early struggles. To the left is the deep, wide fire place, in whose commodious space a group of children may sit by the fire and up through the chimney may count the stars, while ghostly stories of witches and giants, and still more thrilling stories of Indians and wild beasts, are whisperingly told and shudderingly heard. On the great crane hang the old tea-kettle and the great iron pot. The huge shovel and tongs stand sentinel in either corner, while the great andirons

patiently wait for the huge back log. Over the fire-place hangs the trusty rifle. On the right side of the fire-place stands the spinning-wheel, while in the further end of the room the loom looms up with a dignity peculiarly its own. Strings of drying apples and poles of drying pumpkin are overhead. Opposite the door by which you enter stands a huge deal table; by its side the dresser whose "pewter plates" and "shining delf" catch and reflect "the fire-place flame as shields of armies do the sunshine." From the corner of its shelves coyly peep out the relics of former china. In a curtained corner and hid from casual sight we find the mother's bed, and under it the trundle-bed, while near them a ladder indicates the loft where the older children sleep. To the left of the fireplace and in the corner opposite the spinning-wheel is the mother's work-stand. Upon it lies the Holy Bible, evidently much used, its family record telling of parents and friends a long way off, and telling, too, of children

Scattered like roses in bloom,

Some at the bridal, and some at the tomb.

Her spectacles, as if but just used, are inserted between the leaves of her Bible, and tell of her purpose to return to its comforts when cares permit and duty is done. A stool, a bench, well notched and whittled and carved, and a few chairs complete the furniture of the room, and all stand on a coarse but well-scoured floor. Let us for a moment watch the city visitors to this humble cabin. The city bride, innocent but thoughtless, and ignorant of labor and care, asks her city-bred husband, "Pray what savages set this up?" Honestly confessing his ignorance, he replies, "I do not know." But see the pair on whom age sits "frosty but kindly." First, as they enter they give a rapid glance about the cabin home, and then a mutual glance of eye to eye. Why do tears start and fill their eyes? Why do lips quiver? There are many who know why, but who that has not learned in the school of experience the full meaning of all these symbols of trials and privation, of loneliness and danger, can comprehend the story that they tell to the pioneer? Within this chinked and mud-daubed cabin, we read the first pages of our history, and as we retire through its low doorway, and note the heavy battened door, its wooden hinges, and its welcoming latch-string, is it strange that the scenes without should seem to be but a dream? But the cabin and the palace, standing side by side in vivid contrast, tell the story of this people's progress. They are a history and prophecy in one.

HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY.

INTRODUCTION.

Prior to entering upon a historical inquiry, or rather a consideration of the men who raised up this county from its wilderness state, and the means employed to effect the great work, it may not be inappropriate to refer to the value of local history. It is the duty of the present to commemorate the past, to perpetuate the names of the pioneers, to furnish a record of their early settlement and to relate the story of their progress. The civilization of our day, the enlightenment of the age and this solemn duty which men of the present time owe to their ancestors, to themselves and to their posterity, demand that a record of their lives. and deeds should be made. In local history is found a power to instruct man by precedent, to enliven the mental faculties, and to waft down the river of time a safe vessel, in which the names and actions of the people who contributed to raise this country from its primitive state may be preserved. Surely and rapidly the great old men, who in their prime entered the wild forests of America and claimed the virgin soil as their heritage, are passing to their graves. The number remaining who can relate the history of the first days of settlement is becoming small indeed, so that an actual necessity exists for the collection and preservation of historical matter without delay, before the settlers of the wilderness are cut down by Time. Not only is it of the greatest importance to render history of pioneer times full and accurate, but it is also essential that the history of the county, from its settlement to the present day, should be treated through its various phases, so that a record, complete and impartial, may be handed down to the future. If this information is not now collated and compiled in historical form, the generations of the future will be called upon to expend large sums of money in research and exploration. The present, the age of progress, is reviewed, standing out in bold relief over the quiet, unostentatious olden times; it is a brilliant record which is destined to live in the future; the good works of men, their magnificent enterprises, their lives, whether commercial or military, do not sink into oblivion, but, on the contrary, grow brighter with age, and contribute to build up a record which carries with it precedents and principles that will be advanced and observed when the acts of soulless men will be forgotten, and their very (115)

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