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Gratiot County Michigan Gratiot County
Animals of all kinds were driven from the woods by the fires that were burning everywhere, into the roads, streams and fields, and cases occurred where men and animals came in collision before seeing each other—some cattle died from the effect of the smoke; the fish in the streams were floating on their backs, so stifled they might have been picked up by hundreds. Some of the settlers were seriously affected; one man, a Mr. Johnson, of Hamilton, died, as was supposed, from its effects.
In the summer of 1856 Mr. Wm. Comstock, now, as then, a resident of Ithaca, purchased and brought into the county a printing press, and commenced the publication of a weekly paper, giving it the name of the Gratiot News, having the honor of introducing the first enterprise of the kind north of Maple river. The rapid settlement of the county, the hard time, bad season, and uneven bad roads, was really a great calamity to the county, giving it the name of starving Gratiot. The writer has felt more combative than religious, sometimes, when having the term starving Gratiot flaunted in his face.
Michigan Counties
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