FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 349 



The land above referred to was cultivated up to and including the year 1835, 

 since which time a large portion of it has been unfit for cultivation on account 

 of high water. It is impossible for nie by any description I can give, to con- 

 vey to the minds of my hearers an idea of the beautiful appearance that our 

 prairies presented in the summer of 1835. The whole expanse was covered 

 with blue joint grass about four feet high, near the banks of the river being 

 decked with jieablossom, morning glory, and other beautiful llowers, present- 

 ing to the eyes of those passing up and down the river, or riding on horseback 

 over the firm prairie ground, an enchanting view, which so captivated those 

 from the east who visited our valley that summer, that some of them made 

 large purchases of the land which so delighted them. 



It was in the month of June of that year that Dr. Daniel H. Fitzhugh made 

 his first visit to Saginaw, and his name so fref{uently found on the tract books 

 of the valley will testify to the attractions it had for him. In the summer of 

 1835, Albert H. Dorr (a member of the then wealthy firm of Tucker cS: Dorr, 

 of New York city) came west with a view of investing in government lauds. 

 On his arrival at Detroit, after looking at the map of Michigan, he determined 

 to locate lands on the Saginaw river. The tract books at the land office showed 

 him several vacant fractions of land on the immediate banks of the river which 

 he purchased, and then came to view his purchases, which lie found not valu- 

 able, principally lying at the mouth of creeks and bayous. One tract, a frac- 

 tional section of two hundred acres at the mouth of the river, is now wholly 

 submerged, not a foot of land to be seen, owing to the change that has taken 

 place since the government survey. But nothing daunted, Mr. Dorr purchased 

 other tracts, among which was the land lately improved by Thomas 11. Mc- 

 Graw (through diking and pumping) and a tract of eight hundred acres in the 

 vicinity of Crow Island, which latter tract he determined to make immediate 

 use of for a stock farm. At that time the price of cutting and puttmg up 

 prairie hay was one dollar and fifty cents per ton. Mr. Dorr left one hundred 

 and fifty dollars with ])arties at Saginaw to pay for putting up hay, and went 

 directly to Ohio to purchase a stock of cattle and horses. Parties at Saginaw 

 with whom Mr. Dorr came in contact, had little faith in his being able to carry 

 out his plans for stocking his farm, and neglected to cause the hay to be put 

 up. When he arrived in the month of November with a stock of one hundred 

 and fifty head of cattle and fifty horses he found no provision made for their 

 winter's food, and being a stranger in the country, with so large an "elephant" 

 on his hands he became somewhat disheartened, greatly desiring to get the 

 whole thing off his hands so he could return to New York. Cold weather had 

 set in early that season, killing the wild grass, leaving very little for stock to 

 subsist upon. After a day or two spent at Saginaw City in the vain endeavor 

 to make some disposition of his stock, Mr. Dorr came to my house at Green 

 Point, on Thanksgiving day, wishing me to take a lease of his farm and stock 

 for ten years. This I consented to do, on conditions proposed by myself, one 

 of which was that 1 should receive no stock on the lease till after the first of 

 the succeeding May. On Mr. Dorr's departure for New York, the next day, 

 he gave me three hundred dollars to provide food for the stock during the win- 

 ter, with which I purchased all the hay and grain that was then for sale in the 

 Saginaw valley. This enabled me to keep the stock alive till the ice on the 

 creeks and bayous became sufficiently strong to bear, after which I drove the 

 whole number to the rush beds on the Quouicasee river, ten or twelve miles 

 east of Bay City. Here I erected a log shanty to shelter the men I left in 

 charge, visiting the place myself once a week. The cattle throve nicely and 



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