I RS roe. htenaw, inaw. 13 urdy strokes, from a shower, a lady's bower. de woods we worked and sung, ar, delightful friends have gone, our hearts so sad and lone. love does warm these hearts of ours, oughts we strew their graves with flowers. good, old friends so tried and true, Did you all a kind adieu. tryst is on the golden shore, here love and life will fade no more. the legislature they were unable to commence work on the society's volume 4. It being the expressed wish of many members of the society that the portraits of the ex-presidents, the present president, and the recording secretary, with a short biography of each, should be published in the "Pioneer Collections," the executive committee and the committee of historians, at a joint meeting, had the matter under discussion, and decided to comply with the request; consequently, the ex-presidents, the present president, and the recording secretary, furnished photographic negatives that alberttypes might be made from them to be published in volume 4. Your committee opened correspondence with several of the leading artists upon the subject of furnishing alberttypes, and finally they made a contract with the Forbes Company of Boston to print alberttypes of six ex-presidents, the present president, and the recording secretary. Two of the ex-presidents having steel plate engravings of their portraits, they were used instead of alberttypes, so that in vol. 4 there will be ten portraits, viz., eight alberttypes and two steel plate engravings. Your committee were in hopes to have the alberttypes here by the time of this meeting, but they have not yet arrived. A short biography of each of the persons represented will accompany the alberttypes. It is the intention of the society to have a portrait of each of the succeeding presidents, with other illustrations, appear in the future volumes of the pioneer collections. Volume 4 will be published as soon as the printers and book-binders can get it out. Persons wishing for copies of volume 4 can leave their orders with the recording secretary, who will forward them as directed. The price of each of the four volumes here in Lansing is seventy-five cents; if sent by mail the postage will be twenty-five cents per volume, making the cost of a volume one dollar. Volumes 5 and 6 will be printed by the State printers. Volume 5 will contain the proceedings of the annual meeting of June, 1882, and other pioneer matter. JOHN C. HOLMES, OLIVER C. COMSTOCK, M. H. GOODRICH, H. G. WELLS, M. SHOEMAKER, TALCOT E. WING, HARRIET A. TENNEY, Committee. WELCOME TO THE PIONEERS BY WILLIAM LAMBIE, YPSILANTI Read at the annual meeting, June 13, 1883 To the vines and wines of rich Monroe. Welcome all who struck the sturdy strokes, In early days of Parson Ruggles. Mrs. Finley tells of Washtenaw, Since Geddes first began to saw, When the only shelter from a shower, Was a log house in a lady's bower. Then Port Huron's judge dined on a bear, When in the woods we worked and sung, While love does warm these hearts of ours, In thoughts we strew their graves with flowers. Dear, good, old friends so tried and true, We bid you all a kind adieu. The tryst is on the golden shore, Where love and life will fade no more. THE COPPER NUGGET PRESENTED BY B. 0. WILLIAMS To the State Pioneer Society of Michigan, assembled at Lansing, June 13, 1883. I herewith donate in the interest of science, this accompanying copper nugget purchased by me June 11th instant, from Isaac N. Moss the finder, and I am fully persuaded and believe that it belongs to the drift period, and when discovered showed no signs of having before been in human hands. Two other specimens of copper have been found in the same vicinity, one enclosed in a large boulder found by myself in 1857, upon spliting open a rock; another in an excavation in the earth. These discoveries may aid in showing the direction of the drift from the mines of Lake Superior. B. O. WILLIAMS LETTER FROM ISAAC N. MOSS This copper nugget weighing about 614 lbs. was found by me, Isaac N. Moss, upon my farm in the township of Caledonia, Shiawassee county in May, 1883, on section 30; being 11⁄2 miles southeast of the city of Owosso, upon the ridge of sand south of the river. When found it had no appearance of ever having been cut or pounded by artificial means. The cutting and pounding as now shown was done by me. I have disposed of it to Mr. B. O. Williams of Owosso, who designs to deposit it in the State Pioneer Society collections at the State Capitol at Lansing. Owosso, June 11, 1883. ISAAC N. MOSS TO SEARCHERS IN SCIENTIFIC FIELDS AND SEARCHERS IN THE MINERAL WORLD My experience in mining of the precious metals, as well as of the baser, has fully convinced me that all masses of native metals, such as gold, silver, copper and galena, are the results of electric and galvanic actions whenever and wherever found in true veins, without regard to the size, density, or purity of the nuggets or masses, and that the pressure of water in such veins is, or was, during the process of decomposition, necessary as a conducting agent, combining with the forces of attraction and cohesion, and it is no doubt true that the Ash Beds, amygdaloidal and conglomerate copper deposits, were the result of heat, as volcanic action combined with the aquatic and possibly electrical agencies. Owosso, June 12, 1883. B. O. WILLIAMS FIRST VISIT TO MICHIGAN SOME INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH EARLY METHODISM IN DETROIT BY REV. GEORGE TAYLOR Read at the annual meeting of the State Pioneer Society, June 13, 1883 It was on Monday morning, early in the month of July, 1837, in company with Hon. Joseph Sibley and others of Rochester, Monroe county, N. Y., that I left that city by packet boat on the raging canal, arriving at Buffalo the same day in the afternoon. By a severe storm on Lake Erie, we were here detained one whole day. On Tuesday evening, the storm having somewhat abated, we left Buffalo on board the steamboat New York, bound for Detroit, Michigan. The New York was a very old boat, had two high-pressure engines, which in every revolution made the vessel tremble from stem to. stern as though ready to fall to pieces, adding a continual coughing as though a volcano had the hiccoughs. As the result of her worn machinery, she became disabled before we had reached Erie, and it was with great difficulty that we made that port, where we were detained twenty-four hours for repairs. Twice after this her machinery gave out; and once, under signal of distress, we were picked up near the Canadian shore, and towed across the lake to Cleveland, where, after more repairs, we went on, but were soon again disabled, and towed into Sandusky, helpless. After more substantial repairs, the rickety old craft ventured out to sea once more, making a successful trip to Detroit reaching that city about ten o'clock on Sunday morning; thus accomplishing our voyage from Rochester, N. Y., in six days. Hearing the sound of the church-going bell, with others I hastened ashore; and for the first and only time in my life, visited the barber's shop for a shave on the Lord's day; and then hurried away to the sanctuary, with a heart full of gratitude for deliverance from this tedious and dangerous voyage. If my recollections are not at fault, Detroit at that time had no paved streets, few sidewalks, but an abundance of deep, black mud, through which it was difficult to wade. Leaving Detroit on Monday morning at eight o'clock. in a four-horse stage, and the first coach sent out that season, we succeeded in reaching Ypsilanti by two o'clock after midnight, a distance of only thirty miles; nearly onethird of which some of us walked, and helped the stage along. Two of our fellow passengers were called Judge O'Keife and Mr. Vandyke, attorneys en route to the village of Wayne, on law business. We found them very |