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2008-Jul-24

• 02.22.09
  Pigging out
  2008-Jul-24, Calhoun County MI (0)

  Somewhere north of Union City, Michigan, I stopped to take photos of these pigs, who seemed to be enjoying their day as much as I was enjoying mine. I don't have any historical information to add, because I don't know exactly where I took these photos. I didn't record anything about the location on the voice recorder built into my camera, and it was a few weeks before I bought the GPS that I now use for the purpose. It was a relaxed, lazy time for me, too. Later on in the day I ...
  
  
• 02.19.09
  Burlington Township rectangularity
  2008-Jul-24, Calhoun County MI (0)

  I've already told about the last part of the July 24 ride to Girard. This photo was taken earlier in the day, on the way there. It's in Section 6 of Burlington Township, Calhoun County, Michigan -- right on the township border, or range line. The 1873 and 1894 county atlases show that the place was owned by an "A. R. Thompson." I haven't been able to learn much about him. The 1869 directory for the county lists him as a trustee for the Protestant Methodist Church at Wet Prairie. The term Wet Prairie, when capitalized, seems to sometimes refer to ...
  
  
• 02.18.09
  Martin Barnhart on West Prairie
  2008-Jul-24, Branch County MI (0)

  (July 24, 2008, continued) Two miles west of Girard, I stopped to take a photo of the old home at the intersection with River Road, just in case there was a history connection I'm supposed to know about. Then some coneflowers got more of my attention than the house did. Tonight I finally got around to checking out the ownership of the land where the house is located, and found that there is indeed a connection of the type that I'm looking for. The original purchaser of that land was Martin Barnhart. Barnhart was one of the ...
  
  
• 02.17.09
  Whose apple tree?
  2008-Jul-24, Branch County MI (3)

  (July 24, 2008, continued) Just north of Girard, north of Hog Creek, I spied this apple tree. Perfect, I thought! I couldn't have asked for a better photo op. I stopped at the house ahead (in the background of the photo) where the woman of the family was cleaning out a SUV, to ask if it would be OK for me to take photos. By way of explanation, I mentioned the story of the apple trees and asked if she knew about it. It turned out that she knew the story very well, and that she is ...
  
  
• 02.13.09
  Girard neighbors
  2008-Jul-24, Branch County MI (0)

  The 1879 history of Branch County, Michigan tells about the first settlers at Girard. The Americans weren't the first people living at Girard, though. It's a common enough story. Many of the first settlers in southern Michigan told how they wouldn't have made it through the first winter without the assistance of their Potawatomi neighbors -- the people who in 1821 had ceded the land the Americans were now occupying, and who would be deported from Michigan in 1840. Early in the spring of 1829, Richard W. Corbus, a young, unmarried man, accompanied by his mother and his niece, Sarah ...
  
  

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