BRANCH COUNTY. 229 



0. W. Garfield, in ''A Brief of Horticulture," published in 1884, remarks: 

 *'At the Hillsdale fair each year may be seen the most attractive county 

 exhibit in the State. Peaches are grown to some extent on the high lands in 

 eastern Hillsdale and western Lenawee which find a ready home market at 

 good prices. In this region a considerable attention has been given to the 

 embellishment of farm premises and the planting of screens of evergreens 

 for ornament and protection." ' 



The census of 1884 gave to Hillsdale county, of 



Apple orchards, 11,579 acres, 383,076 bearing trees, yielding in 1883 98,- 

 127 bushels of fruit. 



Peach orchards, 259 acres, 24,327 bearing trees, yielding in 1883 113 

 bushels of fruit. 



The value of orchard products of all kinds, sold or consumed in 1883, was 

 |<50,533. 



Vineyards, 23 acres: grapes sold in 1883, 6,694 pounds. 



wine made in 1883, 1,401 gallons. 



Nurseries, 32 acres; products sold in 1883, $3,051. 



Market garden products sold in 1883, 818,213. 



BRANCH COUNTY. 



This county was originally set off, and received its present name, by act of 

 the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, approved October 

 29th, 1829, and was organized by an act of that body, approved February 1st, 

 1833. 



It was named from John Branch, secretary of the )iavy in Andrew Jack- 

 son's cabinet. 



An Indian trading post is alleged to have been established at or near Cold- 

 water in 1821, by Peter and James Godfrey, but it is understood that no per- 

 manent settlement was made in the county prior to 1826, soon after which a 

 settlement is supposed to have been effected at or near the present Coldwater. 

 Be this as it may, Allen Tibbitts removed from Plymouth, Wayne county, and 

 settled at Coldwater on July 20th, 1831, at which date the village consisted of 

 but a single log-house, of but one room, which his and another family occu- 

 pied during the remainder of that summer. 



The settlement of the county must have progressed but slowly, since, as late 

 as 1836, the three townships of Quincy, Algansee and California were yet 

 under a single township organization. 



The first nursery of which we have any account was planted in the year 

 1831 or 1832, in the township of Bronson, on the farm of Seth Dunham. 



During the latter year Mr. Dunham procured twenty apple trees from De- 

 fiance, Ohio (?), fifteen of which he planted in Bronson; the remaining five 

 were planted at Branch, then the county seat. 



Of those planted in Bronson, twelve are yet alive and thriving, the largest 

 being eight feet in circumference at the base, with a spread of branches of thirty 

 feet. Two of the twelve have produced, in a single year, one hundred and 

 ten bushels of apples, forty-five bushels each being a common yield. 



In 1836 Samuel Berry planted the first orchard in Quincy, consisting of 

 twenty-five seedling apple trees. 



