|
Michigan State Education
" In youth she sheltered me, And I'll assist her now."
While I am permitted to be reckoned as a pioneer, still I cannot rank with many who are now in this room, whose heads are silvered o'er with age. They were foremost in the great battle of subduing the wilderness, and causing it to blossom like the rose; they had the genuine hardships of a pioneer life to endure.
I do not forget to give all praise to the wives of these noble pioneers, who stood by their husbands in all their trials, troubles and vicissitudes incumbent upon the early settler. Many and many a day and night these heroic women have cared for the various flocks left in their charge, with the nearest neighbor from two to three miles off, and the husband distant perhaps ten miles, working for fifty cents a day, or thirty miles away to the nearest grist-mill. We who came to Michigan at a much later period can acknowledge their many self-sacrificing acts, but never fully know the sore trials and hardships of the old originals. I arrived in Detroit on the 28th day of August, 1846, with nine silver dollars in my pocket, eight of which I disposed of for necessary expenses, and the remaining one I still retain in my possession.
University of Michigan
Page 18
|
|
If you find this information helpful please consider making a donation
Thank you
Thank you
|
