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Michigan OAKLAND COUNTY
The pioneer of fifty years ago, in a locality such as Novi then wasr felt entirely beyond the reach of outside aid. He must bear alone his; poverty, his misfortune, and severest trials.
The emigrant of yesterday or to-day rides to his prairie home on an easy car; his provisions are transported in the same way. If misfortune overtakes him the world is at his back; if drouth sear his corn, or grasshoppers light in his wheat field, his wail comes down the wires and an , instant response is made.
Not so with our first settlers. When Thomas Pinkerton and Wm. Yerkes came here they walked 500 miles with their axes and knapsacks on their shoulders. When their families and friends came they were ten days on Lake Erie and four weeks on the whole journey. Some of them were taken sick on the way, and anxious days and sleepless nights filled up the measure of time, and theirs was not an isolated case. Scores of our pioneers repeated their struggles—went through their sufferings—perhaps in varied form, but still the same.
Oakland Co. Michigan
Page 31
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