Faasen, James T.

Nov 22, 2024

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.

Winthers, Sally

Nov 23, 2024

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.