Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1905-03-17
HONOR TO OUR PIONEERS
The Day Set Apart by the Union
Farmers Club of Seville
and Sumner
ENJOYABLE MEETING MARCH 3
They Will Meet at the Home of Mr..
and MRS. John Morton In April.

The Union Farmers Club of Sevill,
and Sumner was held at the home O.
Mr.. and Mrs. +. A. Potter, Thursday
March ,. 1t was Pioneer Day and tn,
older members of the club gave som,
of their experiences as pioneers OF
Gratiot county, which were very inter
esting.
The following is the program:
Prayer, Mr.. Gilpin; Song. by the
Club; Reading, Mrs r. \. Wood. en-.
titled The Old North Bed Room"
Paper by Mrs. Walter Mallory entitled,
What We Owe TO the Pioneers"
Mrs. Mallory's paper was SO much
enjoyed by all that we reproduce it in
| full
How often when we gaze on the
well cultivated farmlands and broad
eXpanses with only a few scattering
trees, the comfortable farm buildings
and mechanical inventions. do we let
our thoughts wander back 70 the brave
frontiersmen who delved out our homes
for US, who laid the foundation for our
prosperity and success?
Go back with me, if YOU will. 10 the
year of 1854 when these broad acres of
Gratiot were entirely one mass of I'M
cleared, uncultivated land. Congress
itself regarded it doubtful, for since the
organization of the Northwest Territory
III llS1 very few settlers had come as far
north as Central Michigan and il seemed
expedient TO enfore Horace Greelev's
famous advice, Go West Young man.
go West SO after numerous plans
and trials the Graduation Act was
passed giving a settler the choice of any
government land, not already occupied.
at fifty cents an acre.
The plats of sectional SURVEYS were i'm
the Land Office at Lansing and if n
person could succeed in getting here.
decide on a location and return 10 Lans- |
ing IN time TO secure patent before |
someone else deprived him of il. he was !
ready to get his family together and |
start out as pioneer.
But securing a patent was bur "A small |
portion OF the difficulties 10 be endured
before permanent home was estab-
llshed. The dispOsing of their property.
the packing, and above all, the prepare
tons OF the mind TO adjust itself TO so
a change The breaking off
)ld ties, the parting from friends and
'hen the long journey made with. in al
most every case OK teams, cutting their
'oads, stopping where night overlook
hem, now and then striking a lonely
rail made by the Indians and at last
'eaching spot corresponding to the
description on the patent, where they
ocate and proceed TO make their home.
Hewing the logs and setting up the
abin was the first work and il was only
he busy hands of the settler and his 1
wife that kept the terrible home sickness
rom becoming master. But there was
90 much TO do to waste time in vain
Ongings and III short time the home
Ike garden and the log cabin gave
ozy appearance that gladdened the
eart OF the weary pioneer and his
wife. II only the store of pro-
isions that had been brought with them
would last until some were produced
rom the little space of cleared ground
hey would feel quite clear and COM
Ortable.
Can we now in this age of plenty, If
lventions and science, Of literature and
beral education, put ourselves back
1to comparative isolation, without
pace for cultivation, without tools.