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Michigan Select Michigan Counties
Nathaniel Barney, who kept the public house in Battle Creek, in 1835, had a contract for carrying the mail between Marshall and White Pigeon, and would frequently allow a guest to take his team and go to Marshall and back, or to White Pigeon and back with the mail; and Mr. Meacham recollects that he took the mail to Marshall, and delivered the same to Charles D. Smith, post-master, at Marshall, and, after feeding his team and getting some refreshment for himself, he called for the return mail. Mr. Smith at first refused to deliver it, strongly censuring Barney for allowing so many irresponsible men to carry the United States mail; but, Meacham demanded the mail, and stated that his appointment was regular, and that he had that day been duly sworn as a mail carrier, before
Pollydore Hudson, Esq., at Battle Creek; Mr. Smith very reluctantly at length brought out and delivered the mail, and Meacham says this is his first and last experience as a mail carrier.
A post-office was established in Bedford, but I cannot remember the year; Erastus R. Wattler was the first post-master. The office is new kept at Bedford village, and is the only post-office ever established in that township.
I was informed that a sturgeon weighing ninety pounds had been taken as high up as the forks of the Kalamazoo river at Albion, and in the spring of 1836 I spent several days on the river, hoping to capture one, but the dam at Albion had stopped their migration above that place; the right which the sturgeon had enjoyed to navigate the Kalamazoo from time immemorial, was suddenly taken away by the Allegan dam.
Michigan Counties
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