Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1908-05-13
THE PIONEER FARM
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an unfinished stocking they would
often strole into the neighbors for
little chat. Thus years rolled on,
changes took place; more children
were born. There was Lula who only
lived six years and Mrs. Mcnamara
had Cornelius. Harvey and Michael
and she too lost a daughter named Ida.
In.sickness or health they were always
neighbors.
Although they were the first. other
neighbors were coming Mr.. Gee in
payment for work and other improve
ments sold from this tract of land un-
til he had left pro acres. MIR. Ander-
son bought So Mr.. Rexford so and
Mr.. Quick owns 40 acres of the origin
al place. The remaining is still held
in the family. On 1t there has never
been mortgage; no taxes returned
and the deed comes direct from the
government.
The first wheat grown here was
Graded and threshed on barn floor
with oxen. Afterwards Mr. Rockefeller
got as much again wheat from the
straw. whipping it with fail
Time and Labor cleared away the
timber and stumps. Several fields
were ready machinery when Mr.. Gee
brought mower and reaper combined
from Ionia. AS there was no one
here who conld run machine we
hired Theron Kress, recently from
Jackson county to run the first reaper
of this erection. What had been done
by hand was now coming under the
wheels of the machine. Its click
click. click sounded over the plains
and like the call Of the birds brought
| its kind, for the machine is here and
with its improvements. is here to stay.
After their last son, Edwin, was
born in 1897. Mr. Gees health failed
and he was no longer able take charge
of his business. 1t was then that his
wife put her shoulder TO the yoke
and fort wenty years iudiciously manag-
ed the farm doing what few women care
or can do. 1t was not.an easy task
but there was the family to be fed and
the farm to keep New buildings
had been erected few years previous.
each new improvement bringing added
expense. The times were getting close;
the price of wheat and other products
was going down. Farmers were
crying hard times; crops were poor
but with tenacious hold she piloted
the farm through the clustering
waves of financial crises and brought
1t through tree from debt. Not only
that, when better years smiled upon
the farmer she made money. bought
more land and other property
First Jay and then Eulah were mar
ried, leaving the old home for the new,
and after 35 years of married life Mr..
Gee left Pioneer Farm for his final
resting place. The widow is left here
with Edwin and together they greet
You today. She says, 1T is fifty
years l have lived here.
AS time draws his curtain around
the Pioneer Day we bid farewell to the
pendulum of early life. The forest
disappears; crooked roads are made
straight; the log cabins are gone and
friends who lent their untiring efforts
to bring civilization into the wilds.
have dropped their axe. The wood
mems clack clack, clack. is silenced
forever, and many of the Pioneer
Builders have taken their final rest.
Kind owners allowed the KIeis cabin
to stand until it out-lived all other
land marks. Many buildings OF later
date fell in debris long before rot and
decay, the destroyers, made for it a
funeral pyre.