ing than he who started thirty-five miles for jail on foot, refused to walk even ten miles to the justice's office, where he was to be tried. This defiance of authority greatly exasperated the Teutonic functionary, and there being but one team of horses in the neighborhood, he was for the moment at a loss what to do; but there happened to come along a loaded team just in time to be pressed into service, and the irate officer, in the best English he could command, thus addressed the driver: "Rufe, you knows I'm constable; vell I comman' you by the name of the Peoples of dis State Michigan dat you load off dem shingle-bolts so quick as you can, and carry dis dam ugly cuss to Squire Randall's office so quick dem hoss can go dare.' "Rufe," like a good citizen, promptly obeyed, and in less than two hours delivered his passengers at the place assigned and was honorably discharged. Many more true stories might be told to illustrate the efficiency of our early executors of the law, but these must suffice.

The first doctor in the county (and he was one of the very first settlers) was Dr. Thomas Phillips, who is still in practice here. His beat for several years, without a rival, extended along the lake shore, from Muskegon north to Lincoln, a distance of over fifty miles. His only road was the lake beach, and, for want of better conveyance, he generally traveled on foot. Summer and winter he might have been seen, frequently stripped of his clothing, holding his medicine bag and clothes on top of his head with one hand, while with a pole in the other he steadied himself against the current, wading the several streams emptying into the lake. At one time during the prevalence of a contagious disease (small-pox, I believe), which had been scattered along the shore, he had forty-three patients on hand, a daily visit to which required over forty miles' travel.

Our first minister's name was Grow (a Baptist), who traveled on foot from what is now Muskegon county, a distance of twenty miles, every two weeks, to give us religious instruction. He obeyed the scriptural injunction, by taking with him neither "purse nor scrip," when he came and when he went. Another, Timothy Brigham (Methodist), acting in the double capacity of preacher and shoemaker, moved in about the same time, so that the condition of our souls (or soles) need not have been neglected.

L. D. Grove was the first lawyer who settled in Oceana county. C. W. Dean came next. Both put out their "signs" at Pentwater. When lawyers became more plenty, Mr. Grove, "unable to maintain the unequal combat, quit the plain." Mr. Dean, after several years' residence in the county, during which time he represented it one term in the Legislature, opened an office in Chicago, where he is still in practice. Since those days,

the bar of Oceana county has contained some able lawyers, of whom at least three have been chosen as circuit judges in different circuits of this State.

There was an Indian reservation of two townships in the northeast part of the county, to which the red men were given possession in 1858, when they were moved to the county by the government, from which they received an annual annuity averaging about $1,300. There were about thirteen hundred, a part of which number belonged to a like reservation in Mason county, but, as is remembered, all were paid off annually at Pentwater. As showing the tact of an agent and the influence of a good dinner, an incident might here be related. One year, when the government agent, Rev. Mr. Fitch, came to pay the Indians the stipulated annuity, they declined to receive it, because, as they contended, the amount offered was too small. The more they smoked and talked over it, the more determined they appeared to be. Finally, the agent, remembering that "a soft answer turneth away wrath," ordered two fat oxen, ten bushels of potatoes and other food in proportion, which were prepared by the Indians, and cooked, under the direction of the agent, in large kettles borrowed for the purpose. Long tables were constructed of boards, on which a bountiful dinner was spread, and a "bugler" sent out with his horn to notify the anxiously waiting children of the forest that the feast prepared by the "Great Father" at Washington was ready. They came to the table by scores and by hundreds, and, after grace, partook of a bountiful dinner, under the genial influence of which they received the amount first offered, less the cost of the feast, without a murmur or sign of dissatisfaction. Moral: If you have a difficult matter to adjust with your neighbor, call on him soon after dinner.

4

The first post office in the county was established at Claybanks, about 1854, and ten years later the number of postoffices scarcely exceeded a half dozen; they now number twenty-two. The first school district was organized in 1855 and there were probably not twenty scholars between five and twenty years in the county; now there are eighty-seven districts and at least four thousand scholars.

There were at the election of the first county officers in 1855, seventy-two votes cast; in 1856, one hundred and three were cast; in 1864, five hundred and thirty-three; in 1884, three thousand two hundred and seven were cast for president. The population has increased from two thousand three hundred and seventy-three in 1864 to not far from fifteen thousand in 1884.

Farming is, of course, the principal business, but other pursuits are by no means neglected. The men who early took the lead in business, excepting, perhaps one, were opposed to the sale of intoxicating drinks, and the saloon.

business was held back for several years, but at last it got a good foothold and whisky was sold by the drink as well as by the gallon. But they who sold it were not the worst of "saloonists." One of them had his bar over a little crystal brook which issues from the foot of a hill but a half mile eway, and although his trade in the liquid he called whisky became quite extensive for such a place, one barrel of twenty-five cent whisky and a pump to raise the crystal stream that flowed beneath his bar made a supply that lasted a long time. But very few, if any, went from that bar drunk. Whether true or not, I cannot say, having never tried it, but it used to be asserted by men whose veracity on most subjects was unquestioned that one "could not get drunk at Stewart's bar." But it would be useless to deny that the water of that little creek actually tasted of whisky, for from that fact it took the name of Whisky creek," which it retains to this day. Another vender kept his whisky barrel so near Stony creek that when the faucet had been left leaking or a little of the whisky had been left in the glasses over night, or spilled on the floor, more than one who came in the morning for his dram or on other business has seen icicles hanging from the faucet to the floor, and ice in the glasses and on the floor where the so-called whisky had been spilled.

Perhaps the state of public sentiment as to the organization of the county, and some of the attending difficulties, can as briefly and clearly be shown by reproducing a short article written by myself several years ago for the Pentwater News. It was as follows:

"Just how our county machinery was put in motion, I presume very few ever heard. In February, 1855, the act to provide for the organization of Oceana, Mason and Manistee counties, was passed by the Legislature and the first election of county officers was held at Stony Creek, (now Benona) on the first Monday of April following. The county convention nominated. John Barr for sheriff, Amos R. Wheeler, for treasurer, and Harvey Tower for clerk and register. The remainder of the ticket is not remembered. Charles A. Rosevell aspired to the office of sheriff, and Malcomb Campbell to that of clerk and register, and vigorously pushed their claims in that direction. But after a spirited canvass the whole of the regular ticket was elected. The act provided that when, by a certain day, therein named, the clerk and register and treasurer elect should file their official oaths with each other, the official machinery of the county should. begin to move, having a legal existence. On the last day of the time allowed for filing said oaths, the officers elect, with several prominent citizens, met to consider the question whether, after all, it were not better to remain attached to Ottawa for municipal and judicial purposes, as our taxes

then were very light, than to incur the much greater expense of supporting a separate organization. But as the people had expressed a desire to organize by electing their officers, it was deemed best to perfect the organization. How the oath was to be taken was a question that seemed greatly to trouble some of the knowing ones, anxious to avoid any error that would vitiate the proceedings and insisting that the officers "must be sworn in on the Bible." But to those upon whom devolved the duty of qualifying that day there was a matter of greater concern than the manner of administering the oath, the nearest officer qualified to do which residing at White River, fully fifteen miles distant, the only road being the sandy beach of Lake Michigan. Before a conclusion was reached, the clock marked two P. M., and it took another hour, at least, to obtain horses for the journey. About three o'clock Tower led off, mounted on his elegant Brutus,' Wheeler closely following on his less showy but more plucky old Bob.' Arriving at White River, after some delay, Justice J. D. Stebbins was found who, going immediately to his office, administered the oath with great dignity.

"Meantime the horses had rested, and the officers, full-fledged (save filing. their oaths officially), mounted their steeds for home, which they reached just ten minutes before twelve o'clock, midnight, and just in time to file their papers before the time allowed by law expired. To say that the rain fell in torrents would give but a faint idea of the storm encountered on the 'homestretch' of that romantic ride. I doubt if it ever rained harder since the time of Noah. The clothing of the riders was wet through, and the water ran down, filling their boots, and running over in streams. Stony Creek we found

The fire fair blazing and the vestment warm;'

Arriving at

And the new treasurer, after his first official act of filing the clerk's oath, came from an adjoining room with glass and decanter in hand, remarking as he appeared, Tower, I don't believe a little good Bourbon would hurt either of us.' What could Tower do but 'take a little?' which act finally completed the organization of Oceana county."

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.

BY EPHRAIM S. WILLIAMS, OF FLINT.

The Williams family dates back in the history of the British islands to a remote age. The name is of Welsh origin, and the descendants among the mountains of Wales claim to trace their ancestry back to the time of "Rodric the Great," king of Britain, about the year 849. Others claim that the family has descended from Brutus, the first king of Britain, 1100 years before Christ. The famous Oliver Cromwell is said to have belonged to a branch of this family. The earliest representative of the name in the American colonies is believed to have been Robert Williams, who emigrated from Norwich, England, and settled at Roxbury, Massachusetts, about the year 1638. Among the noted men of this wide-spread family have been Roger Williams, the pioneer settler of Rhode Island; Colonel Ephraim Williams, killed at the battle of Lake George, in August, 1755; General Otho Holland Williams, a prominent officer in the American army during the Revolution; Hon. Charles K. Williams, chief justice of Vermont; Hon. Norman Williams, of the same State; Hon. Archibald Williams, of Quincy, Illinois, and many others prominent in the field, in the pulpit, and at the bar.

My father, Major Oliver Williams, one of the pioneer settlers in Michigan, and of Oakland county, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, May 6, 1774. He came to Detroit in 1808, established the mercantile business there, purchasing his goods in Boston, carting them overland in covered. wagons to Buffalo, and shipping thence by water to Detroit. He ordinarily made two trips a year, on horseback, between Boston and Detroit. During the winter and spring of 1810-11 he built, at the River Rouge, a large sloop, which he named the "Friends' Good-Will," and in the summer of 1812, just previous to the breaking out of the war between the United States and Great Britain, made a voyage to Mackinaw, acting as super-cargo. At Mackinaw his vessel was chartered by the government to take military stores and supplies to the garrison at Chicago, then a small military and trading post. She was also to bring back a cargo of furs and skins for the government and himself. The commanding officer at Macki