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THE EARLY HISTORY Of MICHIGAN BY HON. EDWARD W. PECK
My education was such as could be acquired in the common district school and commenced in the little log school house on the corner, with slab benches for the scholars to sit on, and a cross legged table for the use of the school mistress. The school books in general use were Webster's spelling book, the English reader, Lindley Murray's English grammar, Daboll's arithmetic, and Morse's geography; and the books were not changed, as is the modern custom, in the interest of the book makers, but not unfrequently lasted through the family. Continuing to work on my father's farm until I was twenty one, he then having sufficient help from younger brothers, I hired out for two seasons to neighboring farmers for thirteen dollars a month, and taught district (schools for two winters at thirteen and fifteen dollars a month.
In May, 1830, in company with some friends, I came to Michigan on a tour of observation. We spent some weeks in Detroit, in Washtenaw and Oakland counties, and at Pontiac, then a small town with fair prospects. We returned to Detroit and waited several days for the arrival of the steamboat, Henry Clay (which was thought to be a marvel), in order to take passage to Buffalo. The population of Michigan according to the United States census of that year was"31, 649, and of Detroit, 2, 200. The Detroit and Saginaw turnpike was then in course of construction, six or seven miles having been completed, by laying the logs across the road, and partially covering them with earth, and many of us know what sort of a road we had.
MICHIGAN
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