Note: Justce of the Peace 1876 (J Manutes GEDCOM). Have on file a summons signed by Roswell Burt issued on 26 Dec 1882 and issued to John McCalhey(sp.).
This is a copy of an article by Roswell Burt Pioneer Record - Roswell Burt, Esq., of Davisburgh
EDITOR PONTIAC GAZETTE:
I thought I would write a few lines of the pioneer life in Michigan. My father, Simeon Burt, with his wife and family of ten children, left the township of Royalton, Niagara County, N.Y., in the spring of 1826., for Michigan, and took the canal boat at Lockport, and arrived in Buffalo in due time. At Buffalo, we took the steamboat Mayflower, for Detroit, and arrived on the fifth day of May, 1826.
It was customary at the time to carry a cannon on board a steamship to shoot off before landing. We landed in the night. The cannon was fired that night before landing, which woke up the passengers. I think there were but two hotels in Detroit at the time, one called the Eagle Hotel, kept by Campbell. The old breastworks still remained that our soldiers threw up in the night to get behind to drive the British soldiers out of Detroit, after General Hill, then Govenor of Michigan from 1805 to 1812, had surrendered Detroit to the British general Brock. The breastwork was on Woodward Avenue, north of where the city hall now stands; It remained standing a number of years after we came here. Diodate Hubbard, (formerly called Captain D.) was in Detroit with his team, waiting for the arrival of the steamboat to move us out to his place, one mile below the Piety Hill, now called Birmingham.
The Saginaw Turnpike was only built out of Detroit five miles, then the road turned to the southwest until it struck the sand ridge running north to Royal Oak; there was a hotel kept by a woman called Old Mother Hanson, where we stopped to rest and feed; then we went north two miles, then northwest on a road running past Dennis Quirk's to Hubbard's farm, where an older brother of mine lived, who emigrated to Michigan five years before his father's family came.
The roads were so bad that ten hundred weight made a good load for a team of horses. At Piety Hill there were two families living, John W. Hunter and Mr. Willits. Emigrants kept coming in very fast, so in a few years there was quite a large settlement at Piety Hill. I lived in Royal Oak and Troy, Southfield and East Bloomfield, until I was large enough to leave home and go to work. My brother, Erastus Burt, who came to Michigan four or five years before we came, built the old depot now standing at Royal Oak. At that time the R.R. was called the Detroit and Pontiac R.R.
When I lived at Piety Hill and Royal Oak, the Indians would go to Canada every year to draw presents from the British government, which goods consisted of calico, blankets, and other trinkets too numerous to mention; the British government gave these presents to keep them as allies, so if war should break out between England and the United States they would fight for the British. The Indians would come all of the way from Saginaw in drives, from one hundred to six or eight hundred together, and stop at every home and beg for someth ing to eat. They would have footpaths that they would follow all of the way to Saginaw; their trail was always in the valleys, they never traveled over hills, but went around them; at all times. It would be six or eight days for them to go to Canada, and as many more to come back with their presents and the fire water. They were very friendly to the white people when they stopped to beg for something to eat. I helped raise the Piety Hill grist mill, built by R. T. Merrill; this place was first called Piety Hill for a number of years, until a soldier from the Canadian army, and came there; reward was offered for his return to the army, two men returned him for the reward; the citizens of Piety Hill did not like to have the deserter returned; after the men came back from Canada, one night the men of Piety Hill took one of the men that took the soldier back to Canada, and put him on a rail and rode him on the west side of the street in the bushes, and tarred and feathered; after that the people of Piety Hill called the west side of the street Birmingham, and it has gone by that name ever since that night. The tar and feathers caused a long law suit in the Circuit Court in Pontiac.
I lived near Piety Hill until I was old enough to go away from home, when I went to the town of Independence to work on the Davis farm, north and east of the Fischer farm, on Sashabaw Plains. The next year I went to Springfield, fifty-one years ago in the year 1836, when Col. Stanard kept a hotel at Springfield village; I worked on a farm in Springfield for Isaac Lossee, father of A. H. Lossee of Pontiac; have lived in Wayne two years and in the village of New Haven, Macomb County, two years, and the remainder of the time I have lived in Springfield and in the village of Davisburgh. When Davisburgh was a wilderness I helped clear up the country and helped built the mills there and other buildings. Deer were plenty in the woods, all over Oakland county at that time, also bear and wolves; bear sometimes invaded pig pens and took the pigs out. Many a time the men had to drive the bears off and cover the pens with boards to save their pigs; this happened near Piety Hill, when a wilderness, and happened often. This occurred several times with a man by the name of Zenos Fox, two miles southwest of Piety Hill. Have seen wheat sold at Piety Hill for forty cents a bushel, buckwheat for ten cents per bushel; pork $1.75 per hundred pounds. Cattle, sheep, and horses were all brought from Ohio to supply the farmers at Piety Hill for a number of years. Men from Springfield went to Ohio for cattle years later for teams with which to break up their land, when it took four or five teams on one plow. Cornelius Davis built a saw mill in Davisburg, in the year 1837 and a few years later J. C. Davis, (son of Cornelius Davis), built a grist mill in Davisburg, kept the first dry goods store there, and got the post office established and had it named Davisburg. The country round about Davisburg is old now, and few are left to tell of the hardships of the old settlers and pioneers of Springfield and Michigan.
I, Roswell Burt, was born in Royalton, N.Y., December 31, 1821, brought to Michigan by my parents in 1826. Had the usual limited educational advantages of the sons of pioneers, learned the trade of carpenter and joiner, and also worked at wagon making.
I was married in the city of Pontiac, September 1, 1844, to Miss Carline Randall, daughter of Lealand and Sally Randall. The marriage ceremony was solemized by William S. Henderson, justice of the peace of Pontiac.
My wife was born in Broome County, N.Y., March 24, 1827, we raised nine children, four boys and five girls; have lived during our married lives in Springfield and Groveland, except two years in Macomb County; have lived in the village of Davisburg for the last seventeen years.
Roswell Burt
Twelve children were born to Roswell and Caroline Randall Burt. Three died in infancy, Theodore born in 1853, August 12; Fanny born October 13, 1857; and Lealand.
Mary 1849 February 26 George 1851 June 7 Will 1855 August 10 Ed 1859 September 14 Florence 1862 June 13 Idela 1863 November 20 Frank 1865 December 21 Jane 1868 July 28 Minnie 1870 September 6
More About Roswell Burt: Occupation: Farmer, Joiner, Waggonmaker, Merchant, Carpenter.1495 Residence: Groveland, Springfield, Davisburg, Taylorville.1495
More About Roswell Burt and Caroline Randall: Marriage: September 01, 1844, Pontiac,Oakland,MI.1495 Marriage Fact: September 01, 1844, Copy of Marriage Certificate on file..1495
Children of Roswell Burt and Caroline Randall are:
Roswell Burt (b. December 31, 1821, d. January 10, 1900)
Notes for Roswell Burt: