Alfred Arnold of Eckford Township

An old barn with a stone foundation is a good enough excuse to stop for a photo break. This one is in Eckford Township, Calhoun County, Michigan, on a road I had never ridden before when I came through here last May.

Tonight I looked for information about the original owner. It seems this was part of 120 acres that was purchased from the government by an Alfred Arnold of Rhode Island back in the mid 1830s. In addition to the land patent records, there is also some information about him in a collection of local biographies published in 1891.

It’s possible that this was not where his farmstead was located, because Arnold also bought 40 acres elsewhere in the township at the same time that he bought this land. I would wager a small amount that this was the place, though. And according to the biography provided by his son, Jared, after farming here for 20 years he left it for a new farm 6 miles away in a neighboring township.

Farmers seem not to have been very rooted to the land in those days — it’s not all that uncommon that one would pick up and move. Alfred had not been a farmer before he came to Michigan, though. He had worked in a cotton mill. It’s different than in the 20th century, when you’d have farmers leaving the farm for a factory job. It was part of the process of the industrialization and urbanization of America. That process had already been underway by 1830, but back then it wasn’t a one-way street. Back then there were opportunities for a person to leave other employment to begin life as a farmer out in the western country.

Why Arnold would have left 120 acres of good farmland after 20 years to move to a smaller, undeveloped farm six miles away is not clear. (I see from the map that the location of that 2nd farm is one I’ve ridden past, but I confess to having no recollection at all of what the land there is like. I’ll pay closer attention next time I go there, though!)

It may be that the published biography is somewhat garbled as to what happened. It says that the son, too, farmed in Eckford township for some years before moving to the farm in the neighboring township. But according to the county atlases, in 1873 the new farm was owned by Jared, the son, while the 1894 atlas shows it as being owned by Alfred, the father. Usually ownership would pass from father to son, not vice versa. (Actually, the 1894 atlas just says A. Alfred, but it seems there was no other A. Alfred than the father.)

Not that it matters a lot. It’s just that I get snoopy about the things I see while out on the road, and like to look for clues about what was going on in peoples’ lives.