Name/Title
Steamboat trip to Newark, 1837Entry/Object ID
2025.03.05Scope and Content
Scanned newspaper clipping from the August 23, 1837 Democratic Free Press (Detroit Free Press) that was a reprint from an article in the Grand River Times (no date). The description of sites on the Kalamazoo begins in the second paragraph.Context
Second paragraph contains descriptions of Newark (Saugatuck) and mentions "Hon. J. Almy, appointed by the state to survey the grand and Kalamazoo rivers and H.S. Miles, assistant engineer, who proceeded on the survey up the Kalamazoo." and Colonel [Oshea] Wilder who is building a large hotel and saw mill in what will become Singapore.Collection
1830 Settlement, pioneer era, Transportation: water, 1836 Singapore, 1835 Logging and LumberingCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2025.03Acquisition Method
FoundLocation
* Untyped Location
Digital data in CatalogItRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Wilder, OsheaResearch Notes
Person
Faasen, James T.Date
Nov 22, 2024Notes
Description of an excursion up the Kalamazoo River to Newark (Saugatuck) by the steamboat Governor Mason, the second steam boat to ever enter the mouth of the river, the first being the Pioneer that ran about four years before in (c1833) according to this story.
It is interesting about the “the young ladies of Newark” turn out "en mass" to take their first steamboat ride on the river. I didn’t know the village had so many young ladies to even mention at that time and they took the steamboat to the mouth of the river and left them there.
Also noted about a mile from the mouth of the river, Colonel Wilder is building a large hotel which is nearly finished and preparations are being made to build a steam saw mill expected to be completed by the fall. This is Singapore, a year before it was platted.Person
Winthers, SallyDate
Nov 23, 2024Notes
Since the author had poetic aspirations, and took pains to paint the the loveliest impression of the journey, I wonder if the young ladies of Newark line may have been an exaggeration. For example, maybe just two women boarded the boat. They must have been hardy souls if they slogged back to Newark on their own.
My impression is that much writing about the Michigan "frontier” in this era was soaked in land-speculation boosterism (note the comment at the end of the first paragraph hinting that the government should grant the lovely inhabitants their hard earned farms) and is therefore unrealistically or even outlandishly glowing.Create Date
January 17, 2025Update Date
January 17, 2025