The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-08-11
Correspondence OF the True Northener.
LOCAL HISTORY.
BEING RfcOAGCiiORs md "Reminiscences
Of the EdTIy settlers.

Being RrcOHGCifORs md "reminiscences
Of the Early settlers.
For our present chapter of Recol-
lections, which pertain to the township
of Almena, we are indebted to one of
her oldest inhabitants, Micajah Burns
Esq. We have no dates and statistics
which tell of her organization and pre-.
siding officers, except that the time of
settlement was nearly indentical with
that of Bloomingdale and Waverly.--
The white mans tread is a sure proph-
coy of the scattering of the Indian tribes.
1t was in April, 1887, that Mr. Burns,
then boy but nineteen years of age,
came into Almena from Barre, Orleans
Co., n. Y, which was the former home
of the Burns family. The young man
was sent by his father to see a piece of
land containing two hundred acres,
which the elder Burns had obtained by
trading eighty acres of improved land
in Barre, and received one thousand
dollars in cas1, "to boot" The new
possession was represented as being well
watered and well timbered, which was
an error the water being on an adjoin-
ing lot and the timber, coax openings"
which was then considered no timber at
all. Young Burns returned to his faith.
er's house the next month, in May, with
sorry description Of the new land, but
as the trade was made and the deeds
had been conveyed, there was no reme-
dy but to claim damages, which Mr.,
Burns did, and collected two or three
hundred dollars in property, and made
the best of his chad bargain" The
following February 1888, the "sadder
and wiser father moved his family to
the wilderness of Almena with horse
team, leaving the Oldest son. of whom
we have spoken, to bring the main part
of the household furniture, and provi.-
ions for year, when navigation should
open. These were conveyed to Toledo
by water, and the father returned with
an OK team and hauled them to the new
home. He was absent three weeks
while the boys were working for wages
having taken a job Of cutting a road one
mile for the town Between this and
clearing little land for the first crop
they had a hard springs work. A
that time barley was q sure and easy
crop to raise on the new land, but the
raising, and getting to a distant market
with Il small price, made large outlay
of work for small compensation; ant
wheat was hardly as remunerative a.
barley; three shillings bushel being 6
common price. The main labor of the
Burns family was chopping and clear
ing for several years. 70 make ou
their supply of axes, they borrowed one
on their first job, Of Thomas Kemp, who
was at wor5 there, and in Hartford
where he took up land, and is still re
siding. The first blow that young
Burns struck on the clearing job for the
town, he broke and spoiled the borrowed
axe To add to the calamity, there wa
no place within a shorter distance thar
Kalamazoo, where an axe could b,
bought. The horse team had been ex
changed for oxen, for logging, and they
were the only express train that coulC
he put in acquisition fox the distan
market. They had no money, and tn,
best that could be done, was to promis,
seven bushels of wheat fer new axe
to replace the broken one The follow
ing year, when the cotton shirts were al
worn out in the chopping and logging
service, the Burns family bought sup
ply Of narrow shifting cloth, at the rat,
of twenty five cents per yard, and pal,
in barley at ten cents per bushel.-
Hoy is that fer high" and low !? tax
ing into consideration the cost of trans
portation. Mr.. Hall, bachelor, had :
log house in the woods partly finished
into which the Burns family moved, bu
it was a long time before they had :
barn, and their grain was threshed By
hand in the open field on foor made
of split logs. With the current price
of grain in those days, and the tediou,
process Of getting it into the bags, to
gethcr with the time hauling it over q
new aud rough road to Kalamazoo, with