Saturday, November 5, 2011

1878 Letter from Ralph Fowler

Upon the death of Mr. Metcalf on March 28, 1878, the following letter was published in the local paper, written by Ralph Fowler:

A Reminiscence

Editor Review:

A short time since, through theh courtesy of our old friend, E.R. Rowell, we received a copy of the Stanton Herald, which contained a short sketch of olden times. On looking it over, my mind could not but dwell upon the scenes of those days as they occurred at a period of my life when politics concerned me much more than at present. In looking over the rehearsal of 34 years, I stop and contemplate how vast the change! As my thoughts roam over the county, I see it thickly dotted with beautiful residences sparkling in the sun light and made beautiful by the skill and labor of the industrious husbandman. As I see all this change how natural for the mind to recall here is where Mr. So-and-so settled and built a shanty of logs and came from such a state with his wife and one span of oxen. How many such thoughts and recollections pass through our minds. Again, how natural for us to think and ask ourselves where are all those we once met on the road to mill or market, or at public meetings, or for a social visit? And the answer comes, goes, gone to their long home! After this thought survey of the county, I only find here and there one or two at the most left in a township, and to come to my own town, I find none of the first settlers to whom I can extend a friendly hand except to the wives of the two first settlers in the township.

The Stanton Herald is edited by a man who has seen much hardship and oppression from sickness and the loss of dear ones in a comparably new county, still its appearance and neatness as well as the amount of instructive and useful reading tells for itself that its editor retains the former editorial skill and thought which aided him when he wrote the first editorial ever penned in Livingston county by an editor.

Ralph Fowler
Fowlerville, April 2, 1878.

Mr. Fowler would live until 1887; both he and his wife, Mary, passing away within five days of each other.

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