Early Land Buyers
Among the patentees of United States lands in this township, previous to January, 1837, were James Fulton, Section 1; William G. Hathaway, L. J. C. Chatterton, George Smith, T. D. Babcock, Samuel Gardner, Richard Nelson, Thomas Palmer, D. F. Kimball, Lot Clark, S. Warren, J. M. Soverhill, M. Healy, B. B. Kercheval, Stephen Cornwall, David Hart, Richard Allington, Mary Hart, Silas S. Hart, Henry Baird, Andrew Westbrook, M. H. Sibley, J. W. Throop, Daniel Lockwood, James McClenan, Jacob Sims, Barzilla Wheeler, John Beach, Daniel McQueen, Jr., Joseph Pitcairn, Bowen Whiting, John Stewart, Chester Baxter, William Steele, William Sweat, Henry Hammond, Franklin Moore, Zachariah Chandler, T. L. Latham, Asahel Northway, Reuben Moore, Samuel Carleton, Edward C. Carleton, W. H. Carleton, Ebenezer Cole, Amos Wheeler, Clark Worden, P. Merrill, George Palmer, Matthias Rikert, Moore R. Barron, William Kingsbery, Mary M. Wheeler, Squire Gillam, Richard Gordon Morris, Henry B. Turner, Trumbul Granger, John Clark, Henry Agens, Joseph Boyton, Samuel Leonard, Miles V. Rood, Almeria Tuttle, Charles Hawkins, Porter Chamberlain, Cornelius Sullivan, Thomas Green, David Robertson, William Gallagher, Samuel Ward, Edward Axtell, Michael Delhene, Charles Cauchois, James H. Woods, W. Willson, Thomas Fargo, William Gallagher, Abram Bush, James Rooney, Charles Bovert, John Franz, Joseph Engert, F. G. Frank, Alexander Cummings, Nathan Clark, J. L. Atkins, C. H. Atkins, Joseph Wakerman, W. Franz, George Kraft, Godfrey Dien, Otto Dien, Joseph Noblet, B. W. Sharp, W. B. Wells, Perrine, Helm, John C. Wheeler, Jacob Warner, James Edwards, J. P. Delentash, Peter M. Dox, Adolph Coburn, Hugh Robinson, Josiah Snow, Benjamin Hager, L. Goddard, A. G. Peir, Jonas C. Brigham, Marcus H. Miles, Valten Sauer, Jonathan Kearsley. The private claims patented were Nos. 302, 303, 304, 306, 310, 358, and 243. - See general history for early sketch of these claims.
What was there in this isolated region to justify such toil and sacrifice? Why have men come from pleasant homes in the States - from gay circles which they enlivened and adorned - to contribute, perhaps, like the coral insect to its jeweled reef, their very lives in the splendid new civilization slowly building here? Ah, there was incentive! The stories of the woods had reached the ears of the restless and ambitious. The souls tormented with the perplexing problem of daily bread, and anxious to get on faster in the world, had heard of the rich forests. Poor, selfish human nature bowed to the god that all worship, and came to find his throne. The love of venture and the hope of gain - the old debated problem among the schoolboys, enjoyment of possession and pursuit - started the tide of emigration. Following the vanguard of prospectors to the new paradise, where, after all, fortunes are to be made only by toil, there is found a Columbus in civilization, tracking the wilderness, as the great discoverer did the sea to discover a new world. He finds, and tells the public; others come in and possess the land. They who bought the pineries and manipulated their properties, have grown rich, and gained lives not been a failure, seeing their results, and reflecting that history is impartial. And who knows by that land where every deed and thought is weighed, and all that each has stiven to do considered, a tardy recognition may not come to the patient prospector, and his be rich dividends, without assessment, through an unending term?