Osceola County MI Archives History .....Osceola County Introduction 
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Jan Cortez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00020.html#0004939 January 9, 2008, 9:38 pm

The forests of Osceola County have been but recently subdued by the enterprise 
of a civilized race, preparatory to the 

establishment of comfortable and permanent homes for a dense popilation.  The 
early surveyors which the Government sent 

out to make the survey of this part of the State reported that it was an 
irreclaimable waste and not fit for cultivation 

in any quarter, the soil being of that character which precluded the 
propagation of cereals.  The subsequent rapidity of 

settlement and enormous crops of everything in the line of cereals has 
demonstrated conclusively their mistake, for no 

acreage surpasses Northern Michigan in productiveness.  Notwithstanding the 
oft-repeated tales of want and hardships 

told by their earthly sires, men of energy, with their families and all their 
earthly possessions loaded upon wagons 

drawn by oxen, pushed their way step by step, through the unbroken forests of 
Osceola, until they found suitable 

locations.  With a spirit of heroism have they toiled until the forests were 
laid low, and their herculean labor is 

manifest in the broad acres of highly cultivated land, upon which stand 
palatial residences and outbuildings of the most 

expensive character.  Over the grounds where the red man chased the bounding 
deer, and the wildcats and wolves held 

their nightly vigils, may be seen herds and flocks feeding and reposing in 
content; where useless weeds and unused 

timber cumbered the ground, the husbandman may now be seen gathering the 
golden harvests; and where the savage's 

miserable wigwam occasionally appeared, now stands a dwelling which by 
comparison is a mansion, with here and there a 

school-house or a church, the greatest distinctive feature of all in contrast 
with the aboriginal paganism.  

Transportation of goods by ox teams has given way to the power of steam, and a 
commerce has been opened up with all 

parts of the civilized world.  Prosperity in a high degree has smiled upon her 
people, who, taking age into 

consideration, are fortunate in living in the most healthful, beautiful and 
productive States in the Union.

The history of this county is possessed of no small degree of interest.  While 
other counties were connected with the 

frontier by large bodies of excellent lands, this seemed for a long time shut 
off from the gaze of shrewd speculators by 

reason of its heavy growth of timber.  They were destined to become the 
heritage of an honest, industrious people, and 

the income derived from the timber and products of the soil has given many of 
the first comers a handsome competency.



HOW OUR FATHERS LIVED.

The young men and women of today have very little conception of the mode of 
life among the early settlers of Osceola 

County.  In but few respects are the manners of the present time similar to 
those of a quarter of a century ago.  The 

clothing, the dwelling, the diet, the social customs, etc., have undergone a 
total revolution as though a new race had 

taken possession of the land.  Pioneer life in Osceola County finds its 
parallel in almost every county in the State and 

throughout the entire Northwest.  The land ws to be cleared of forests, and 
the skill of human art used to transplant to 

the fertile region the civilization of the East.  Cabins were to be erected, 
wells dug, and the rivers and creeks made 

to labor for the use of mankind.

As many living citizens can well remember, the pioneers had many difficulties 
to contend with, not the least of which 

was the journey from civilization to their forest homes.  The route lay 
through a wild and rough country; swamps and 

marshes were crossed with great exertion and fatigue; rivers were forded with 
difficulty and danger, night were passed 

in the dense forests, with mother earth for a couch and the trees and foilage 
for a shelter; long, weary days and weeks 

of travel were endured, but finally their eyes were gladdened and their hearts 
beat faster when a vision of their future 

home burst upon them.

The first thing upon his arrival was to set about building a cabin.  While 
this was being done the family slept in the 

wagons or upon the grass, while the horses or oxen, tethered to prevent 
escape, grazed on the grass around them.  Trees 

of a suitable and uniform size were selected, felled and prepared for their 
places.  The day for the raising was 

announced and from far and near came other pioneers to assist in the labor.  
The structure went up, a log at a time, 

those engaged in the work stopping now and then to "wet their whistles," and 
soon it was ready for the clapboard roof, 

which was held on by huge weight poles.  A door and a window were cut where 
the good wife directed, a chimney built, and 

the building was ready for its occupants.  The space between the logs was 
filled with split sticks of wood, called 

"chinks," and then daubed over, both inside and out, with mortar made of 
clay.  The floor was sometimes nothing more 

than earth tramped hard and smooth, but was commonly made of "puncheons," or 
split logs, with the split side turned 

upwards.  The roof was made by gradually drawing in the top to the ridge-pole 
and on cross pieces laying the clapboards, 

which, being several feet in length, instead of being nailed were held in 
place by weight-poles, reaching the entire 

length of the cabin.

For a fire-place, a space was cut out of the logs on one side of the room, 
usually about six feet in length, and three 

sides were built up of logs, making an offset in the wall.  This was lined 
with stone, if convenient; if not, then earth 

was used.  The flue, or upper part of the chimnet, was built of small split 
sticks, two and a half or three feet in 

length, carried a little space above the roof, and plastered over with clay, 
and when finished was called a "cob and 

clay" chimney.  The door space was also made by cutting an aperture in one 
side of the room of the required size, the 

door itself being made of clapboards secured by wooden pins to two cross 
pieces.  The hinges were also of wood, while 

the fastenings consisted of a wooden latch catching on a hook of the same 
material.  To open the door from the outside, 

a strip of buckskin was tied to the latch and drawn through a hole a few 
inches above the latch bar, so that on pulling 

the string the latch was lifted from the catch or hook, and the door was 
opened withoug further trouble.  To lock the 

door it was only necessary to pull the string through the hole on the inside.  
Here the family lived, and here the guest 

and wayfarer were made welcome.  The living-room was of good size, but to a 
large extent it was also a kitchen, bedroom, 

parlor and arsenal, with flitches of bacon and rings of dried pumpkins 
suspended from the rafters.

The old cabins are rapidly being superseded by modern frame and brick 
structures, yet with almost tearful eyes we watch 

them disappear.  Every log and chink has a history; could they speak, they 
would tell us of the days of toil and 

privation under gone by our fathers, of the days made sacred by the birth or 
death of his children, of the religious 

services which were held there when no church was yet buolt in the 
neighborhood, or the merry-makings which the 

neighbors for miles around attended, when logs were to be rolled, and a dance 
given in the evening; the whole to 

conclude with a supper, the delicacies of which consisted of venison, maple 
sugar and corn bread.   One by one of the 

old log structures are being removed; but it seems almost a sacrilege to tear 
the down, so closely have they been 

connected with the success of our pioneers, many of whom now state that 
although they are now wealthy and have every 

comfort and luxury that money can procure, yet the days spent in their 
primeval home and the kindness which everywhere 

prevailed among neighbors, brought more happiness than is now enjoyed, 
although their barns are filled with grain, their 

pockets with gold and their lands dotted with herds of cattle and sheep.


VALUE OF LOCAL HISTORY.

The great dread of mankind from the remotest ages has been to be forgotten.  
The means employed to prevent this and to 

perpetuate his memory has been in proportion to the amount of intelligence he 
possessed.  It has been conceded now by 

scientists that the principal object of the Egyptians in building their 
pyramids was to perpetuate the name and deeds of 

their their great leaders and rulers.  The walls in the extensive apartments 
beneath those huge stone monuments are 

covered with paintings illustrating the deeds, both in peace and war, of her 
illustrious princes, and in chronological 

order.  These colors are as bright, apparently, as when they were first laid 
on, and the work shows great skill and 

artistic design.  The exhumations made by the archeologist of Egypt from 
buried Memphis indicate a desire of these 

people to perpetuate the memory of their achievements.  The walls of these 
palaces found buried here are decorated with 

historical emblems representing the lives and deeds of these people.  In 
Memphis they displayed a higher art.  They 

carved out in marble elegant and life-loke statues of their distinguished 
princes, accompanied with hieroglyphics, 

illustrating their deeds.  The erection of those great obelisks were for the 
same purpose.  Coming down to a later 

period we find the Greeks and Romans erecting mausoleums and monuments, and 
carving out statues to chronicle their great 

achievements, and carry then down the ages.  It is evident that the mound 
builders, in piling up their gross mounds of 

earth, had but this idea, to leave something to show that they had lived.  All 
these works, these representations, 

though many of them costly in the extreme, give but a faint idea of the lives 
and character of those whose memory they 

were intended to perpetuate, and scarcely anything of the masses of the people 
that them lived.  The great pyramids and 

some of the obelisks remain, objects only for scientists or curiosity seekers; 
the mausoleums, monuments and statues are 

crumbling into dust.  The monuments, statues and other relics are being 
gradually conveyed to the different museums of 

the world, and soon there will nothing remain in these countries to illustrate 
the lives of the people who once dwelt in 

them.

Generation after generation comes and goes like the leaves of autumn.  Nations 
have been born, have had their rise and 

fall, and then passed away leaving scarcely a riffle on the great ocean of 
time to show that they ever existed, so 

imperfect and mutable has been their means to perpetuate their achievements.  
It was left to modern ages to establish an 

intelligent, undecaying, immutable in that it is almost unlimited in extent, 
and perpetual in its action; and this is 

through the act of printing.  Nations may become disintegrated and pass away, 
monuments and statues may crumble into 

dust, but books will live.  This art has been rapidly advancing from its first 
inception until now it would seem that 

there were no longer any further fround for improvement.  This is pre-
eminently an age of printing, an age of books.

To the present generation, however, are we indebted for the introdction of the 
admirable system of local history and 

local biography.  By this system every man, though he has not achieved what 
the world calls greatness, has the means to 

perpetuate his life, his history, through the coming ages; so alike has every 
community.

We come to the work before us.  To our patrons, we say, that the scythe of 
Time cuts down all; nothing of the physical 

man is left; the monument which his children or friends may erect to his 
memory in the cemetery will crumble into dust 

and pass away; but his life, his achievements, the work he has accomplished, 
which otherwise would be forgotten, is 

perpetuated by this book through coming ages.  Shakspeare has said:


The evil men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.

Our aim in this work has been only to preserve the good.  We have sought to 
gather from the best sources of information 

obtainable, the conditions and incidents of the early pioneer life, and to 
present that, together with the present 

development of the county.  Many of the pioneers came into these primeval 
forests without a dollar in their pockets, and 

with but the ax on their shoulder to carve out their fortunes and build up a 
country.  With undauntd hearts, and a 

courage equal to that of the great heroes of history, they began life.  

The land where the wild animals once roamed undisturbed, where the Indian 
later on built his wickeup, has been 

transformed into cultivated fields , or is occupied by business houses, 
dwellings, schools adn churches.  Here now may 

be seen all the elements of an advanced civilization:  the husbandman at his 
plow; the artisan at his forge; the 

merchant with his stock of goods; the railroad train steaming through the 
country; the youth gathering into schools, and 

the people into their places of worship.

Additional Comments:
1884 Portrait & Bio Album of Osceola Co.

Chapman Brothers, Chicago

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