About the Author: Jim Wood was born in Big Rapids and is a retired aerospace engineer. His wife Doraluvinia, was born in Los Angeles and is a stained glass artisan. They reside at Peachwood in Millbrook Town, Mecosta County, Michigan on a high and windy hill where times stands still.
This tale of our Muskegon River Valley begins with the following question: If a man traveling through the primeval dense roadless forest north of Croton-Newaygo espied two women carrying a carpetbag and armed with long guns, how would a prudent wayfarer react? Would he say hello and risk a violent reaction, or would he hide hoping to avoid a violent confrontation, or would he leave hoping to reach safety?
Bachelor John Davis, the first year round resident of Mecosta County, settled on his farm in Mecosta Township in 1851. Trapper-hunter John Parrish followed him, settling a half mile south of the big rapids of the Muskegon River in 1852. The Brockway family, who temporarily stopped in our river city before locating permanently in Hinton Township, followed them in 1852-1853. In March 1854, Zerah and Margaret French founded Big Rapids. In 1854-1855 Alfred and Fannie Clark and their daughters arrived. These pioneer families had chosen to live in the dense untamed pineries of northern Michigan. Each homestead was isolated in a small clearing with a well and a log cabin or shanty for shelter. When the Laura and James Montague families arrived in 1855, they had to chop a lane from the French cabin on Mitchell Creek to their property located where Coolidge Road now intersects the west bank of the Muskegon River.
The nearest settlement was situated 28 miles away at the forks of the Muskegon. The small river hamlet of Croton was reached by traveling a crooked way through dense underbrush, around wetlands and across un-bridged streams in the wilderness forest. Settlers in our river settlement were able to buy limited supplies at Croton, which had a small general store. When the desire for mail became unbearable, a good nieghbor from one hamlet made the trip to Croton to pick up the accumulated mail. The trip to Croton and back required from four to six days. Sometimes a wayfarer traveling north brought the mail. However, visitors were few and far between and the local men were mostly to busy to go for the mail.
If the desire for mail became overwhelming, two of the adult local women volunteered to make a mail run. Carrying a carpetbag for the mail and armed with long guns, each of the mail ladies knew that they were competent to make the trip. On the way to pick up the mail, there were halfway houses such as the John Davis home on Eight Mile Road for rest and shelter. Halfway houses were not necessarily halfway between anywhere, but were just in between here and there. Only eight possible mail lady candidates of the proper age lived in or near the river settlement. Those ladies who may have gone for the mail were: Caroline Baker, 36; Fanny Clark, 30; Abbie Cobb, 36; Charlotte Ives, 45; Margaret French, 32; Mary French, 16; Laura Montague, 43; Sally French-Moore, 52. The ages given represent a woman mail carrier's approximate age during the years 1854-1857. The era of the mail ladies on January 24, 1857, when Leonard Township's first supervisor, Jesse Shaw was appointed postmaster of the Leonard (Big Rapids) Post Office.
Two questions from our River Cit's history will always remain a mystery. One, what did our wyafarer imagine that two armed women carrying a carpetbag were doing alone in northern Michigan's vast primeval forest? Two, how did our wayfarer react? In a flash, I would have scampered over the nearest rise!
