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MICHIGAN FOOD & BEES BY A. D. P. VAN BUREN
Old Gran'ther Morehouse, father to Aaron and Bradley Morehouse, was sometimes the musician at these parties when the violin was called into requisition. He was a fine old gentleman of the school of the first half of this century—tall and dignified in person, yet so affable and genial in manner that everybody liked him and felt at home in his presence. He was an old man then; his gray locks and wrinkled face indicated the grandfather; yet when he took the violin, there was all the graceful ease and skill in handling the bow, for which he was celebrated in his younger days. He could yet evoke weird strains from his favorite instrument. 'Tis said he purchased his violin at Montreal in 1800; that its trade mark was 1600, and that it was made at Innspruck in the Tyrol, by Jacob Steiner, who learned his trade at Cremona in Italy. This instrument is now owned by Wm. Neale of Battle Creek. We knew nothing of the history of this violin then, but we knew that Gran'ther Morehouse could give "Zip Coon, " "Monnie Musk, " and all the favorite tunes of that day to the delight of everybody, on the instrument that he handled. Daniel Angell also "handled the fiddle and the bow" at these frolics. He is long since dead. The Halladay boys—both "Mat. " and "Cal. "—were also much in vogue as fiddlers, on these occasions. They are yet living in Battle Creek, and often revert to these frolics as their palmy days with the fiddle.
These parties were not only a source of amusement, but afforded an occasion for the young folks to get acquainted with each other. They were really a kind of social school to the young people in the settlement. We had no churches, and no preaching, save an occasional sermon in a settler's house, by some wandering minister; there were no newspapers, few books, no public lectures, or any public meetings for entertainment or instruction. There was a dearth of social and intellectual culture. These parties were the first phase of social entertainment and improvement. They were for that period highly enjoyable. All were neighbors and true friends—a community of first brotherhood or genuine Alphadelphians. There were no purse-proud families. They all lived in log houses and were bound to each other by bonds made strong by continued acts of neighborly kindness. Pride of dress was in its healthy normal state. The "ten dollar boots" and the "hundred dollar bonnets, " had not got into the new settlement; neither had "Mrs. Lofty, with her carriage, and dapple grays to draw it. " Neither had Mrs. Grundy pulled the latch string at the door of a single log cabin in the settlement. She with all her kith and kin were east. Neither had the "fashions" got in among us. It was fashionable then to live within your means, and the best suit of clothes you could afford to wear was the fashionable one. People lived by the maxim: "Earn what you get and pay as you go. " All classes worked for a living and thrived. Wealth and its handmaid, leisure, were not here to create distinctions. Aristocracy, which is said to be the offspring of wealth, was not in these regions. Yet in the true sense, every settler was an aristocrat—one of the true nobility, who had earned his title by useful toil in the noble school of labor.
Michigan
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