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BATTLE CREEK BY A. D. P. VAN BUREN
The high contracting parties dispersed—the original patentee to fall into pecuniary embarrassment, and transfer his claim to Phineas P. Sackett and Ezekiel B. Gurnsey, and Sands McCamly and his family to a home on Nottawa Prairie, where he had entered land the previous summer.
"An incident in Judge McCamly's life, while living on Nottawa Prairie, is illustrative of the trials and sufferings of the early settlers in this part of the country. The judge remembers that one morning in March the mercury in the thermometer stood 19 degrees below zero. He had reason to keep that cold night in remembrance. On his way with Corwin Johnson, from the Nottawa to Marshall, he was obliged to cross Pine Creek on a log. But he missed his footing, and slipped into the stream; yet with his companion he pressed his way onward. His pantaloons soon became stiffly frozen. His boots became like ice, and as hard as horn, and after traveling miles, the chafing of his garments can well be imagined. His feet bled, cut by the frozen boots. By evening the two travelers had arrived at Willow Plains, east of Climax. But they had missed the way and were lost. The cold was intense. McCamly could not step without crying out with pain. Both were apprehensive of freezing unless they could have relief immediately. A splintered tree was found, and they were about to attempt to strike a fire with a tinder-box, when a fresh horse track was discovered. They concluded to follow it with all the haste
Michigan
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