The Spokesrider » 2008-May-17

Alfred Arnold of Eckford Township

Spokesrider — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:46:53 +0000

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 [...]

Land-looker

Spokesrider — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 07:07:29 +0000

Hays did his own land-looking, but sometimes investors would hire others to do this field work for them. And maybe some actual settlers would hire a land-looker, but I'm not so sure about that part. If so, it would probably be as a guide. Most settlers would want to see the land in person before they'd buy. But investors back east would often need the services of a land-looker.

Land-looking

Spokesrider — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:22:25 +0000

She told of one of the practical jokes that was played during the Black Hawk war -- one that was played on her by a local Anishinabe man. Her husband Andrew was a physician, not a farmer, and would have bought this land for investment purposes.

James Fowle

Spokesrider — Sat, 31 May 2008 02:06:31 +0000

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 the place seem like it was of a different time. But it burned down 5 years ago, and has been replaced by a little convenience store back from the road. This was the first time I had been there since the old store was gone. I missed it, but do have a photo of it somewhere.

Four generations of Whites

Spokesrider — Sat, 24 May 2008 03:18:04 +0000

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 [...]

Reuben White again

Spokesrider — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:20:46 +0000

Saturday on my way to Moscow I stopped here, across the road from the Convis township hall. It’s a place where I had stopped once before, on a Thanksgiving Day ride in 2006. I couldn’t remember the name of the person, a militia veteran of the Black Hawk war, who had farmed here years afterward, [...]