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EARLY SETTLEMENT OF SOUTHWESTERN
MICHIGAN BY A. B. COPLEY.
June 7, 1882.
He died in 1847 at his daughter's residence in Berrien Center, Berrien county, universally beloved and respected.
Dolphin Morris, the pioneer of Van Buren county, moved from Deer Creek, Sciota county, Ohio, to the farm previously spoken of, where he lived till his death, which occurred January 7th, 1870, aged 71 years. He was very prosperous in business, notwithstanding his limited education, leaving a property worth $G0, 000 to $80, 000, besides providing farms for all his children except his youngest son, to whom he left the homestead, where he and his young wife were brutally murdered on the night of September 28, 1879, the mystery of which remains unsolved to this day.
Up to the years 1835-6, when land speculation set in, nine-tenths of the settlers were from the south, or who came that way. They were a cheerful,, contented people, whose wants were few and those easily supplied; hospitable to a fault, the latch strings of their cabin doors had' knots in the end and were always out. ~No one was refused accommodation, white or Indian; the cabin never was full. They had plenty of time to visit or for amusement. Clearings were rarely made as they settled on the prairies first; when settled in the woods several acres cleared for corn was all that was needed, that crop furnishing bread for themselves, food for horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, and the stalks for fodder. The food of the early settlers was generally corn bread, pork fattened in the woods, fish, venison, turkeys, water fowl, and other game in its season; turnips, potatoes, sweet and Yankee pumpkins,, cabbages and other vegetables of the common varieties.
MICHIGAN
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