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SETTLEMENT IN MICHIGAN BY HON. G. V. N. LOTHROP
Where now stands the beautiful city of Kalamazoo, if my memory serves me rightly, there was but one cabin, that of its first settler, Mr. Bronson. He then turned his steps southward to the beautiful Prairie Ronde. There he found a few settlers who had come in from Kentucky the previous year, and who had pitched their tents under the shelter of the woods along the western
border of the prairie. They were a hardv frontier race, most of them loving
the sports of the chase and the turf. Among them was Mr. Harrison, who afterwards attained the patriarchal age of 106 years. I have heard Mr. Lothrop say that Mr. Harrison had told him he moved into the country with a wagon drawn by several yoke of oxen. He reached St. Joseph river, where Three Rivers how stands, on Christmas day, 1829. The river was much swollen, and there being no bridges, it was necessary to ford it. To do this safely he must go beside his team. Accordingly he stripped to the skin, and thus1 safely led his team through the wintry and swollen stream. I wonder if any one has since tried this as a recipe for longevity.
The fertility and loveliness of Prairie Ronde seem to have gratified all the expectations of Mr. Lothrop, and he did not hesitate to make it his home. He selected a spot on the southern margin of the prairie, and there, in the shelter of a projecting tongue of the forest, he built a log cabin, which was his first residence. He began at once to enclose and cultivate his farm. His original farm, with some later acquisitions, made a compact body of 720 acres, I believe.
MICHIGAN
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