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Michigan Judges George G Bates
Now, then, comes in the moral. We were five long days in getting from St. Joseph to Detroit; but to-day, in palace cars as magnificent as any apartments of Queen Victoria, we can shoot across the continent in the same length of time. In this connection I might mention that in the summer of 1836, in Detroit, in the office of Bates & Tallbot, the Detroit and St. Joseph Railroad Company was organized. I was the first secretary, and my partner was the first treasurer. The amount subscribed was $100,000, and that magnificent gentleman, John Biddle headed the list.
I have traveled six different times by sea to California and back, and crossed the continent 26 times. I have crossed the stormy Atlantic and, weathered the terrific cape where two of our gallant steamers have lately been dashed to pieces. I have floated in a gorgeous palace down that tranquil sea, never disturbed by storms, from Panama to San Francisco ; and in all my wanderings I have never forgotten my attachment for this beautiful peninsula. More than that, I have looked out from the first log house ever erected on beautiful Puget Sound, over that second Mediterranean Sea, where vessels can come square up to the dock in a hundred fathoms of water, and I have thought of my own pioneer home, washed by lakes Erie, Huron, Superior and Michigan.
Michigan
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