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Eaton County MI

• 08.01.08
  Anna Carpenter Smith
  Amish country, Eaton County MI (0)

  In a previous article I quoted the 1880 history of Eaton County that said the wife of Edward O. Smith saw a large group of Potawatomi Indians during the Indian removal of 1840, the year before she died. (The county history said she died in 1842, not 1841. I would usually trust the gravestone over the history.) This cemetery is next to Edward O. Smith's farm, though it's not the place he was farming in 1840. And here I learned the name of his wife. She was Anna Carpenter Smith. Her original gravestone is here under ...
  
  
• 08.01.08
  Bismark Highway
  Eaton County MI (0)

  Another scene from Sunday's ride. A few miles back I had been at Edward O. Smith's old farmstead toward the southeast corner of Sunfield Township, Eaton County. I was now on my way to the place where he farmed for one year in 1840, and where his wife had seen a large band of Potawatomi Indians during the military roundup operated by Gen. Hugh Brady. I had this quiet gravel road, called the Bismark Highway, all to myself.
  
  
• 07.30.08
  David Lucas
  Eaton County MI (0)

  The 1880 county history said that a portion of the Potawatomi people at Bellevue fled north in 1840 when they heard that Gen. Hugh Brady's soldiers were coming. My destination for the day was about 20 miles north, in Sunfield Township, where a Mrs. Smith was said to have been surprised and frightened to see 260 Potawatomi, probably these same people who had fled north from Bellevue. I didn't stop to take photos until I got to Vermontville, about 2/3 of the way to my destination. There is a tank on display there to remind us that ...
  
  
• 07.27.08
  Brady at Bellevue
  Eaton County MI (0)

  I tried a different route from the west into Bellevue on Sunday afternoon's ride. Then I noticed the name: Brady Road. Was this Brady road named after the Gen. Hugh Brady who was in charge of the roundup of Potawatomi Indians in 1840? A township in Kalamazoo County is named for him -- much of the Nottawasepe Reservation was part of what is now that township. Brady Was this road named for him, too? This road is 2-3 miles from where a group of Potawatomi men had been seen in hurried consultation upon hearing that ...
  
  
• 07.26.08
  The Peter Kinney place
  Eaton County MI (1)

  Instead of writing up the story of the apple trees from Thursday's bike ride to Girard in Branch County, I've been spending my time planning a Sunday afternoon bike ride in the opposite direction, to Sunfield Township in Eaton County. My main destination is circled in yellow on the map below. This map is from Wilbert B. Hinsdale's "Archaeological Atlas of Michigan" published in 1931. The red lines are Indian trails. The triangles are village sites. I regret to admit that I've forgotten what the red dots and the circles with a cross inside are. ...
  
  

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