11 October 1901 - Grand Haven Daily Tribune, p.1

A. Bursley of Jenison, 80 years of age, claims to be the oldest resident of Ottawa county in point of years of residence. Mr. Bursley came to Georgetown in his teens. He remembers when the first printing press that was ever used in Grand Rapids was brought up the river from Grand Haven to Grand Rapids. The press was hauled over the ice by a team of dogs and sled. Mr. Bursley says he has seen many accounts of the first steamer that plonghed through the waters of Grand River, most of the accounts giving the date as 18838 or 1840. He saw the first steamboat that was ever launched on Grand River make its trial trip from Grand Rapids to Grandville on July 4, 1837. It was called the Governor Mason, and was not built on the graceful lines that characterizes modern shipbuilding.