The Spokesrider

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Over at the phred bicycle touring list, there was a request for an Ordnance Survey map from England. A list member offered one that was published in 1959. I got to thinking that for my bicycle rides, I often look for maps a lot older than that. Sunday afternoon’s ride was guided in part by [...]

For yesterday’s bike ride, I looked for a destination in Eaton County. The wind forecast suggested that would be a good direction. I searched the county histories, and came up with a Black Hawk anecdote that was new to me. From the 1880 history of Eaton County, page 477, is the following material (which seems [...]