More from Sunday afternoon’s bike ride. This house is on Farrand Road in Colon Township, St. Joseph County. It’s just south of the St. Joseph River.

I had noticed it on my very first ride here, back in June 1996. That was before I had any idea of doing a “Black Hawk Slept Here” project. But on some of my training rides I had started to wonder about these old houses in rural southwest Michigan. I figured there must be some history to go with them. This one made an impression that one doesn’t get from this photo, because the narrow road was lined with impressive rows of tall trees on both sides. There is somewhat of a break in the trees through which this house can be seen. This was the first time I was there when there were no leaves on the trees. I hadn’t realized just how large that house was until I saw it this time.

To get ready for this ride, I had looked up the original owners of the land in the vicinity of Goodrich Prairie, and then checked those names against the roster of militia soldiers from the Black Hawk war. A man named George Brooks had bought this land, and sure enough, he was one of those who served in Henry Power’s company from Nottawa Prairie. (Nottawa Prairie is a larger prairie just a few miles to the west of here.) I remembered this house from several previous rides here, and sure enough, it’s on the land that George Brooks had bought.

I found a little information about him in the 1877 history of St. Joseph County. He had come with his family in 1831. He built a small log cabin here, and in a few years had 30 acres broken for cultivation. But he didn’t stay here long enough to build the brick house. In 1837 he sold it to Joseph Farrand. Joseph’s son Phineas was about 17 years old that year, and was the owner of this property when the county history was written in 1877. I presume he was the one who built this house, judging from the age of it.

The county history called him “one of the most successful farmers in Colon Township,” so I suppose there is a reason the road is named Farrand.

Before he came to Michigan, Joseph Farrand was said to have owned and operated the second successful cylinder threshing machine in the United States. (I presume that bit of information came from his son.) Well, that gives me something to learn about sometime. What is a cylinder threshing machine? And Joseph’s father-in-law was said to have “owned and operated the first mill for cutting iron into bars ever used in America.” But during the Revolutionary War, had to do it in a cave, to keep the British from confiscating it.

So there is some history connected to this house, and even a slight connection with the Black Hawk war.

This horse was in a pasture next to the house. He wasn’t skittish at all. Unlike some horses, he wasn’t bothered by having a camera pointed at him. Maybe he was hinting for food, but I didn’t have any to give him. Although he seemed to enjoy posing, he wouldn’t cooperate enough to move to a position where I could get horse and house all in the same photo.

I may have met the present owner of the house on the gravel road that runs through Goodrich Prairie. It’s a very rural area, but there were several people out walking on the road that fine afternoon. A couple of the men I met were willing to talk, but were not willing to stop and talk. They kept moving. Maybe they were trying to fill their quota of miles. One of them said no, he wasn’t the owner of the land I was looking at, but lived in the house back at the corner. This is the only one I can think of in the vicinity of the “corner.” I asked if he knew who the original owners were, but he said no, it was too far back.