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2008-May-17

• 03.03.09
  Alfred Arnold of Eckford Township
  2008-May-17, Calhoun County MI (0)

  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 ...
  
  
• 03.02.09
  Land-looker
  2008-May-17, Calhoun County MI (2)

  This is a view of the section of land I wrote about in the last post. Andrew Hays bought the entire section to the right of the road as an investment. According to the reminiscences in the county histories, Hays frequently would go out on horseback from his Marshall home, land-looking. What he was looking for was good agricultural land. After he'd identify some good parcels for agricultural purposes, he'd go to the land office in White Pigeon to make his purchases. This is one of them. How long he ...
  
  
• 02.23.09
  Land-looking
  2008-May-17, Calhoun County MI (0)

  googlemap My usual route to Hillsdale County takes first takes me to Marshall. There are several ways to ride to Marshall. This road is not one of the usual ones I've taken, but I may use it more often from now on. To get here I have to cross the Battle Creek river. (Yes, that's what we call it.) I then go through a relatively wooded area, then over a little hill to this T-intersection where the land opens up onto a broad, flat valley. I don't know the name of the little creek that drains this valley. ...
  
  
• 05.30.08
  James Fowle
  2008-May-17, Hillsdale County MI (0)

  More from two Saturdays ago. I was tired enough after setting up camp, but there was still daylight and rain was forecast for the next day. Time to go get some photos while the weather was suitable. So I had a nice five-mile ride unencumbered by all that weight in my panniers. The sun had already set on the east-facing slope of the valley. Moscow would look even more like Sleepy Hollow if the decrepit general store building down at the bottom, on the right. was still standing. It was a building that crowded the road, and somehow made ...
  
  
• 05.23.08
  Four generations of Whites
  2008-May-17, Calhoun County MI (2)

  Yesterday I speculated that the homeowner I met on last Saturday's ride may have, when he was a boy, met the grandchildren of Reuben White, who had served in the militia during the 1832 Black Hawk war. There's a good chance that I now know the names of those old people who would come to look at the old house. The 1916 History of Calhoun County tells about four generations of the White family. I'll bet those were great-grandchildren, not grandchildren, and that they were three of the following: Thera, Guy, Glenn, and Esther. And they ...
  
  

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