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A PIONEER MINISTER BY REV. SUPPLY CHASE
APRIL 21, 1873
There soon were ominous whispers heard: bills were at a discount, 5-10-20-50 per cent, and finally unsalable at any price. Men were filled with anxiety, their pockets full of money, and yet unable to buy a barrel of flour. The bubble burst; the "wild eats" died, and their unburied and decaying carcasses polluted the air of the whole State with an intolerable stench. Many of the farmers were ruined, for their mortgaged farms were the only assets; the speculator had nothing at stake. [They did not lose their farms, because the banking law was declared unconstitutional, and the mortgages went for nothing.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT SCHEMES.
At the first session of the Legislature after the State was admitted to the Union, a magnificent system of internal improvement was determined upon,, and an act passed to borrow $5, 000, 000 to carry out the project.
Through the southern tier of counties was to be built a railroad, having its eastern terminus at the city of Monroe, and its western at New Buffalo-Commencing at Detroit and running through the second tier, was the Central, with its western terminus at the mouth of the St. Jo. From Port Huron a railroad was to be built through the wilderness to the navigable waters of Grand river, or Lake Michigan. From Mt. Clemens was to be built a canal through the third tier of counties to the mouth of the Kalamazoo river. On the route of this last a corps of surveyors and engineers was employed, with headquarters at Mt. Clemens, and in the fall of 1837 the ceremony of breaking ground took place near the village.
Michigan
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