Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1881-02-16
The Advantages Of Northern Mich
igau for Settlers,

WESTERN New YORK, December 20, 1881.
AS myself and quiet number of
my neighbors are expecting to look
through Michigan in the spring for
homes, | would like TO gather all the
information concerning the induce
ments and advantages offered actual
settlers by your State. First, what
part of the State Gin your opinion
offers the greatest advantages, all
things considered, for parties of
small or moderate means Give me
address of railroad companies, real
estate agents and private parties
who have land wild or partially
improved) for sale? also address of
your land office? Can a soldiers
homestead be located in Michigan
The northern part of the lower
peninsula and the eastern part of
the upper peninsula hold out decided
attractions for settlers. You can
get tracts of excellent land for agri-
cultural purposes, well located and
within easy reach of railroads, good
soil, for 81 per acre, if enough club
together to make little colony and
take up quite tract, say from 1000
to 5000 acres. These lands will be
found in Cheboygan, Charlevoix,
and Antrim counties. These coun-
ties are already rapidly filling, and
roads and schools and mills are
fairly started. Homesteads are also
to De had for the locating and oc-
cupying, but the government lands
are further away from the improve
ments very naturally. 1t will only
be a short time, however, before this
whole region will be within quite
reasonable distance of the two great
railroads that traverses the lower
peninsula from north to south on its
eastern and western sides, and of
the new Marquette and Mackinac
road in the upper peninsula. The
land offices for this region are at
Reed City, Marquette and East Sag
NAV. The railroad companies have
their offices, one at Lansing, o. NJ.
Barnes, agent, and another at Grand
Rapids, w. o. Hughart, superin-
tent, and another at Detroit, w. o.
Strong, agent. For agents with ex-
tensive tracts Of land in this region
for sale we can mention the names
Of D. j. Evans and Geo. S. Frost &
Co., Detroit. You can scarcely fail
to do well. There is not q State in
the west that offers superior advan-
tages to Michigan. Hardly one that
offers as good.-Detroit Post and
Tribune.
There is probably not a locality
in the whole union where a settler
can do any better than he can in
Northern Michigan, and the most
promising and best situated part of
Northern Michigan is, in our opin-
ion, Alpena county. Alpena coun-
ty is settling up as fast as any new
county in the State, and every set
tier seems to be perfectly satisfied
with the country. There are at pre-
sent about $4,000 acres of State
lands in this county, and nearly all
Of that amount is well adapted for
farming purposes, and can be taken
up under the homestead act, or pur-
chased Of the State for 1926 per
acre. But these lands will not re-
main long vacant, as the figures for
last year shows that they are fast
being taken up or purchased. For
the year ending Sept. 80, 1880, lands
in this county were taken up rapid
ly, the number of acres bought
from the State being 1888, and the
number Of acres granted settlers un-
der the homestead act was 1888,
while the number of acres standing
as licensed at that date was 1886.
The showing is decidedly favorable
to this county, and yet these figures
fall a long way short of giving the
amount of lands taken up or pur-
chased in the county during the Pc
Rod mentioned, as the lumbermen
of this region are all large land
owners, and as soon as the pine is
stripped from a piece of land, the
owner is then ready to sell the same
to actual settlers at a price that is
certainly cheap enough and far be-
low the actual value, not that the
owner thinks that he is selling at a
fair value, for he has thousands up
on thousands of acres of good farm
ing lands, but after he has cut his
pine he has no further use for the
land, and is therefore willing to sell
the same at very low price to some