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Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ============================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ============================================================================= Muskegon Weekly Chronicle Thursday, 15 June, 1899 The Pioneer Days MRS. GEO. B. WOODBURY, who lives on the corner of First and Morris streets, is an old settler. To The Chronicle she said the other day: "It was on November 5, 1854, that I came to Muskegon. MR. WOODBURY came here in '40, but he left for California in '50, returning to Grand Haven in '53 when we were mar- ried and then in '54 we moved here. We have always lived here since, excepting the ten years of '85-'95 which we spent on a farm in Egleston. When I came here they had mostly got thorough lumbering right in Muskegon. We first lived next door to HENRY LASLEY'S mother, down under the hill, on what is now called Water street, near the old Foss mill. "There were not very many houses then. In all this place there wasn't a house. There were some on Market street. After we had been here a couple of years, we moved to Market street, just the other side of what is now the WINTERMUTE barn, the corner of Badeaux and Market. We lived there a couple of years, then MR. WOODBURY bought a place where the Merrill block and city hall now is. The KINGSBURY house on Clay avenue is the very house we had there then. In this place we lived ten years be- fore we sold out. By that time they had built it up around us so I didn't like it anymore. We had a nice place there - all kinds of lovely fruit - plums, peaches as big as coffee cups, grapes and great big ox-heart cherries. Where the city hall now stands we used to have our vegetable garden. From this place we moved to where the Stafford factory's plant is now, then near the McGRAFT'S, then on the farm and finally four years ago this coming Christmas we came here where we have lived ever since. "In those early days we never bothered about locking our doors. We went when we had a mind to and came back when we had a mind to. There was no little petty thiev- ing. We used to think there were some pretty nice people here then. Of course, the transients who worked in the woods in the winter and came down and came down here to get their pay would hava a big spree, spending all the money they earned and then go back; but the people who lived here were all good. There were a great many highly educated and very nice people here. There were a few Indians around then, but not many. After a while the Indians all went away. There used to be a few on the other side of the lake, with baskets to sell. We never went down to the mouth then as we do now - only went as we went to Chicago or Grand Haven. All that I can remember of Port Sherman, was that there was a light house there and a few little shanties. "Where we used to live then, the water sometimes used to come up right into our garden. I remember one day I was playing on the accordian and my sister said, 'Oh stop, quick!' and I went to the door and there lay a big snake drawn right up into the garden by the music. I shut the door pretty quick. We used to have to go to Chicago and buy things by the quantity and lay in sup- plies. We could get things here but there was always such a price that we used to go to Chicago. We made our own candles. I can remember when I was a little girl seeing my mother dip candles, but we had things improved and used candle moulds. Generally in the fall we bought a box of candles and then when they were used up we made candles in a candle mould. We tried out our own lard and tried out our own tallow. You could make half a dozen candles at a time, or a pound. We put the wicks in the mould and filled it right up and then slipped the candles out. We thought it was a big thing when we got burning fluid. It was awfully explosive and people had to be very careful with it. It would explode if you were the least bit careless with it." "Yes," laughed MR. WOODBURY. "I recollect the burning fluid stuff. Brother GILES thought he'd show me how harmless it was, so he covered his handkerchief with it and said it was going to burn up and not hurt the handkerchief and then it burned the whole thing up." "Kerosene came next," says MRS. WOODBURY, "black, smelling and dirty stuff it was, and that was very explosive too and we had to be very careful, but it was so much better and burned such a bright, clear light. It was so dangerous, though, that many people lost their lives by it, and finally they began to rectify it and improve it until they got it where it is now. "Sometimes we made our own butter, using the old fashioned stone churn. I used to have to paper my own walls and do my own housecleaning. We had no paper- hangers in those days nor no women who went out house- cleaning. In our house on the Merril block lot we had a nice large fire-place. The young people used to like to come there. In the fall we laid in hickory nuts, pop corn and apples for them and they used to like to come there almost better than any place in town. They always knew they'd have a good time. "In the early days I learned to dance here. It was all the amusement we had. We met at the boarding houses. We'd get up a dance in half an hour. There would be a knock at your door and a voice would say, 'Get your things. We are going to have a dance at BOYD'S or auntie WITHERELL'S!' I've been to many a dance in a calico dress. Sometimes we danced down at the TROW- BRIDGE boarding house and sometimes at GEO. RUDDIMAN'S. After MR. WHEELER had a drug store we used it. The first seven or eight years, before we had a dancing school, we danced according to our own sweet will. We used to have quadrilles and money musks. After a while we had a dancing teacher and a singing teacher. The singing teacher used to go between Grand Haven, Muskegon and Whitehall. It took him about a week to get around because he had to go by stages. "When the ministers came here we had donation parties. The first I remember, MR. WOODBURY had been to Grand Rapids and got a couple of hogs and he took a hand- sled and drew one of them up to the donation party for the minister. After the Methodist church was built we had a Fourth of July celebration and I remember how we walked around in the deep sand." ===============================================================================