Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-08-12
Pioneer Days In Michigan
Through Flame and Smoke

For the most part rural life in
Michigan is now one of comparative
luxury. In earlier times settlers, few
and scattered. lived at considerable
distances from one another. Access
was by "blazed trails" or by rude cor
duroy" roads through swamps and
dense forests. The "blazed trail'' was
a rough track leading and winding
through the forests along line Of
trees with blaze" or eharred spot
on one side. The corduroy road was
made by placing logs transversely on
the track to he followed and filling in
between them with mud. Men still
living remember that where concrete
and macadam roads now facilitate the
speed of the automobile the log road
once made the rude ox-carts rattle
and jolt.
The isolated settlers in the forests
were exposed TO a peril far deadlier
than that Of the proving wolf, wild
cat lynx or bear, or roaming treach-
erous Indian marauder. That peril
was the fire menace. Fire was reck-
lessly used in aiding the clearing of
farmsteads. Magnificent trees that
would now bring large sums of money
were chopped down by thousands,
falling across one another in tangles.
Sometimes these were rolled mp into
heaps: at other times they lay where
they fell and fire was applied from a
torch lighted oftentimes at the rude
fireplace of the settler. Flames swept
through the "slashing" and what
would have otherwise have taken
months to clean up was speedily i'm
condition for the plowman.
If the flames were kept confined
within the "slashing" in which they
were started. only good resulted But
sometimes they were left unguarded,
or gale arose, sweeping them into
the adjoining standing timber, and
great damage frequently resulted.
Many settler was burned out in this
way. Sometimes lives were lost.
Cattle were often burned to death In
1871 and in 1881 large districts were
burned over and scores of lives and
hundreds of thousands Of dollars
worth Of property destroyed in the
tier OF counties known as the
Thumb"
one pioneer who went through both
tempests of flame recalls that they
started when gales arose after pro-
longed drouth. In 1881 the burned
territory was 80 miles long and 60
miles wide. Many survivors in 1871
escaped by making their way along
the flaming trails and burning log
roads TO the Cass and other small
streams and to Lake Huron. Some
floated without rudder or sail for
hours on crude RATS on the waters
of Lake Huron. In 1881 many saved
themselves by hiding in wells. by lying
face down in the mud of bitches and
creeks and by similar desperate
means.
Where twice ragged great fires that
have become matters of historic re-
cord, is now one of the beauty and
garden spots of Michigan. The sons
and daughters and grandsons of ''the
Thumb" fire sufferers" Of 1871 and
1881 have received heritage of hand
some homes, farmsteads and prosper
Gus and pleasant towns won by their
progenitors literally through flame
and smoke as terrifying and awe-in-
spring as any battlefield ever present
ed. Pioneering may HAVEN fact.
did have-its pleasures. But 1t had
its stern side. too. and men without
courage of the unadulterated sort sell
dom fingered long in the struggle
to subdue the wilderness.