DRIYING THE FIRST STAKE 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 CAPITOL AT LANSING 
 
 BY REV. F. A. BLADES. 
 
DRIYING THE FIKST STAKE 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 CAPITOL AT LANSING 
 
 BY REV. F. A. BLADES. 
 
F~5 7i- 
 
 l\x exchange^ 
 MAR 2 9 1915 
 
DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 
 
 BY REV. F. A. BLADES, 
 
 I have been requested to furnish your society with some pioneer rem- 
 iniscences of Michigan. I have never thought that any of my particular 
 early experiences were of sufficient consequence to call for recital, or be 
 of more than a passing incident that might be called up in connection 
 with something of modern times. One objection I have had and still have, 
 that one has in reminiscences to refer so often to his own personality that 
 it is "I," "I," until ego becomes '4t" of modern times. 
 
 The incidents to which particular reference has been made, of my first 
 visit to Lansing, occurred, I would now think, in the early part of the 
 month of April, 1847. I think the bill for locating the capital where it 
 now stands was passed in March, 1847. Before referring to that partic- 
 ular event, I would say that my father immigrated from Western New 
 York to the State of Michigan, reaching Detroit in May, 1835. As I re- 
 member Detroit at that time, it seemed but a large village ; I do not now 
 call to mind more than one or two buildings north of Jefferson avenue; 
 still my observation might not have been correct, as I was then but a poor, 
 sickly boy who had been condemned to die of consumption. My father 
 took his immigrant wagon from the boat, and with such help as he could 
 command put it together, and with goods loaded, and horses attached, 
 the family started for Grand Blanc, Genesee county, Michigan, leaving 
 Detroit at about nine o'clock in the morning. The first day revealed to 
 us the longest mud hole that I had ever seen ; it reached from Detroit to 
 a small log cabin, not far from where the log cabin now stands on Senator 
 Palmer's farm. The inn was kept by a woman who came to be known as 
 Mother Handsome. She was a homely woman, but she knew how to keep 
 a hotel, and make everybody mind their own business and behave them- 
 
4 ANNUAL MEETING, 190S 
 
 selves while on her premises. Seven miles v^^as this day's progress, and it 
 was a hard day's work, and we were all tired out. It took two and one- 
 half days to go from this place to Grand Blanc. What is now known as 
 Woodward avenue extended, was then known as the ''Saginaw Turnpike," 
 and was just being put through. Part of the way it had been plowed and 
 scraped up in the center, but it was new and wet, and it was mud, 
 "Michigan Mud." Michigan May rains furnished the water, and the im- 
 migrants' wagons churned and mixed up the mud. This trip was always 
 fresh in the memory of the Blades family, consisting then of William and 
 Charlotte, his wife, F. A. Blades, the writer, and J. H. C. Blades, a law- 
 yer of Flint, who died in early manhood, and two daughters — one de- 
 ceased in Grand Rapids, the other living in Chicago. On reaching Grand 
 Blanc we found an old Indian trading house had been reserved for us by 
 a friend of my father, Mr. C. D. W. Gibbson. At first this was thought to 
 be almost a Godsend, as we did not know but that we would have to live 
 in the wagon, until we could build something. As I said before, it was 
 an old Indian trading house, and the Indians had come to think they had 
 acquired some right there, at least they made themselves so familiar that 
 they would come and go at their own sweet will, and the result was that 
 we were very soon invaded by a lot of wild Indians ; it was very embarras- 
 sing, and my mother was terror stricken with our new friends, as they 
 afterwards proved themselves to be. I will relate a little incident that 
 serves to encourage humanity to try and do right. The Indians came in 
 great numbers soon after our arrival at Grand Blanc on their way to Sagi- 
 naw, I think to receive their annual payment from the government. Chief 
 Fisher had a beautiful daughter about sixteen years old, and when they 
 camped near our house that night they came to solicit some advice from 
 the "white squaw," as they called my mother, and she went over and tried 
 to persuade the chief to let the girl go home with her, and she would 
 take good care of her. The next morning, however, she was sick, and as 
 the Indians must go to Saginaw and get their money, my mother took the 
 girl and cared for her with all the tenderness she could bestow upon her 
 own child. When the chief returned she was very much improved and 
 gave evidence of a speedy recovery, but the human sympathy of the white 
 squaw for the Indian girl was never forgotten by that tribe. I remember 
 something over a year after that, when Fisher and some of his brave 
 hunters were passing, they called at the house, and every member of the 
 family was sick with ague, some shaking with chills, others burning with 
 the fever, and I alone carrying on the work of relief. Provisions were 
 scarce ; there was not a pound of flour in the whole settlement, which con- 
 sisted of four or five families within a radius of two miles, but we all ex- 
 pected some parties home with some flour almost any day or hour. Fisher 
 inquired for something to eat, and when told the condition of things, he 
 gave an Indian grunt, and went away, but it was not very many hours 
 
DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 5 
 
 before he returned with a saddle of venison, and for some time afterwards 
 we had a call every few days from some of the Fisher Indians to know if 
 we wanted anything. 
 
 The fact was that the malaria that was curing my consumption was 
 seemingly killing the rest of the family with ague and bilious fever. My 
 health improved very fast, and it was not long before I was racing through 
 the woods with my rifle to supply the table with food, and for a time the 
 family depended as much on my rifle for their meat as your households 
 now depend upon the market. The friendliness of the Indians gave me the 
 companionship of some of the Indian boys, and some of the older men of 
 the tribe took me along with them and taught me their art in stalking or 
 tracking deer or bear. These Indians were the soul of honor according 
 to their standard. If I wounded the game, and the Indians pursued it to 
 the finish and secured it, he was as sure to bring me the skin as he got the 
 game. My mark or bullet hole made on it gave it to me. The carcass 
 was his. Possibly a little incident of this Indian friendship may interest 
 you for a moment. I was married in September, 1846, to Miss Helen 
 Brown of Grand Blanc. We had been lovers from childhood. In the fall 
 of 1847, I was returning with my wife for a short visit to the homes of 
 both our parents at Flint and Grand Blanc, coming out of the woods on 
 the then unopened road a part of the way between Shiawassee county, and 
 Flint, Genesee county, Michigan, we came into what was known as the 
 Miller settlement. I had not seen any of my Indian friends for several 
 years; on coming into the settlement we noticed several Indian ponies 
 picking grass by the side of the road, but thought nothing particular 
 about them until we were right in the midst of their owners, who were 
 lying in the shade of the trees and fences. All of a sudden a stalwart 
 Indian arose and gave a whoop that brought every Indian man and 
 woman to their feet, and rushing up to the buggy where we were sitting, — 
 my wife shivering from fright and alarm of what might come next, — the 
 Indian grasped my hand and arm, and I was on the ground beside him. 
 "Boo-sheu, boo-sheu, ne-con-nis?" (I do not know if this is the right spell- 
 ing for these Chippewa words.) ''How are you, my friends?" It was 
 Mash-quet, I think next in line for chief when Chief Fisher was gone, and 
 such a demonstration of friendship I never had before or since ; he hugged 
 me, and shook hands with me over and over again. Then he sent for his 
 four wives and all his papooses, and my wife, recovering from her alarm, 
 got out of the buggy and shook hands with Mash-quet and his whole fam- 
 ily. Then he called all the Indian men and women about him and told 
 them the story of the "white squaw" who cared for the sick Indian girl, 
 and told them all if they ever had an opportunity to do me or mine a favor 
 to do it. The interview over, wife and I got into the buggy and rode ofif. 
 For a time there was nothing said, I was busy thinking of the past, then 
 only a few years gone by, as my wife broke the silence by the remark, "If 
 
6 ANNUAL MEETING, 1903. 
 
 you think you are likely to meet any more of your personal friends, I wish 
 you would tell me a little in advance, for I would like to be prepared for 
 such a reception." That was the last I ever saw of my Indian friends; 
 still I cherish the memory of their friendship. I remember their gratitude 
 for a little service rendered that puts to shame the exhibition of more 
 pretentious civilization and religion. I have never forgotten Shake- 
 speare's words, ''Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend." If the recital 
 of these incidents shall inspire gratitude in any heart, either toward God 
 or man, then I am more than paid for the etfort. 
 
 The events of early pioneer life are ordinarily very tame ; they are only 
 interesting as they magnify themselves when compared with the circum- 
 stances of modern civilized life. I think the friendships of the early pio- 
 neers were a little warmer and stronger than at the present time. I be- 
 lieve that the first settlers of Michigan lived and got as much out of life 
 as any people or any civilization in any epoch of the world's history. In 
 making this statement I am not unmindful of the privations, the coarse 
 and sometimes scanty fare of the early pioneers ; but then their life was 
 simple, unpretentious; their fellowship in the family and neighborhood 
 was hearty, whole-souled, overflowing with kindness, manifesting a desire 
 to help rather than hinder. If a neighbor fell sick and ran behind in his 
 work, the whole neighborhood would come together, sometimes men and 
 women, the men to do the hard work on the farm like logging and clearing 
 the land for sowing his fall wheat or gathering his harvest ; the wife or 
 daughter came along with some knic-knacs for the table, which was set in 
 the yard for dinner and supper, and to help along with the work, and it 
 became a gala day, and helped in soul and body the poor, sick man. When 
 an invitation had been extended to several families to come together for a 
 dinner, which was quite frequent in the fall and winter time, as soon as 
 the ladies got there they would put on aprons and turn in and help the 
 good wife who was getting ready to entertain them. And while the din- 
 ners were not such as they serve at the present time, with a great number 
 of courses and variety of wines, still they were hearty, toothsome and very 
 enjoyable, and the memory of them to-day is as pleasant as the memory 
 of more sumptuous occasions in later life. Just think of a twenty or 
 twenty-five pound wild turkey, fat and flavored with the nuts from the 
 woods, and a ham or a saddle of venison, both done on a spit before the 
 fire, but in the open air, watched every minute and basted at regular inter- 
 vals ! The venison with large holes cut with the hunting knife, and then 
 filled with strips of salt pork drawn into them, flanked by the vegetables 
 of the season and "home made bread," and doughnuts cooked in fine bear's 
 oil, and the lusty crowd, and sometimes the children's table on the side ! 
 Talk about dinners and a dinner party; why, a man that is only about 
 fifty years old, compared with those old pioneer days, hardly knows what 
 a square meal or a "good time" is ! And the best of all is the heartiness 
 
DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 7 
 
 of the fellowship. The old pioneers do not need your pity; no, not "a 
 little bit." I believe that the young people in early pioneer days got as 
 much out of life as do the young people of the present time. Fifteen or 
 twenty boys and girls from sixteen to twenty years old would go six or 
 eight miles on an ox sled to a party, and have a better evening's entertain- 
 ment than could be had by a New York, London or Paris society party at 
 |20 a plate. It was an ox sled and possibly two of them chained together, 
 and straw thrown in; it was two or more feet deep, and every girl and 
 every boy brought a blanket to protect them from the cold, and though 
 the oxen moved slowly the party began as soon as the sled was full, and 
 song and story and laughter made those old woods ring, and they ring yet 
 as they echo back to-day the song and shout and laughter of those who 
 have long since crossed the last river, I hope to mingle in eternal day. 
 These parties were not pretentious. There was no latest fad in the gowns 
 the girls wore ; there was not a tailor-made suit in the crowd. Some of 
 those gowns were spun and woven at home in the log cabin, and made by 
 "mother's own hands." They were shapely, simple and beautiful, and 
 they covered the forms of bright, beautiful girls, full of spirit and life. 
 The boys were of like pattern, strong, courageous and manly, not a mean 
 streak in them, ready to work or play or fight as the occasion demanded. 
 These were the boys and girls who have since made Michigan what she is 
 to-day. These boys and girls, or their like all over the State, were the 
 fathers and mothers of the men who, from 1861 to 1865, said to the dark 
 proud wave of slave civilization, "so far but no further," and they, with 
 comrades from the other liberty loving States, put a million of human 
 bodies with bayonets in their hands as the breastwork that that proud 
 wave of death and dishonor never surmounted. These boys and girls, 
 their children and children's children, produced the civilization and made 
 the happy homes of this day in Michigan. The suppers that those boys 
 and girls sat down to had no half-dozen diflferent colored wine glasses at 
 their plates. Oh, no! it was a plain, honest meal, produced by loving 
 hands and eaten by innocent and happy humans, and when the supper 
 was over the real fun began. Every flat iron or smooth flat stone that had 
 been provided beforehand, and a hammer for each boy, was brought out, 
 and every boy and girl separated in pairs, close in toucli and reach with 
 the other pair near them, and baskets of black walnuts, butternuts, hick- 
 ory nuts and hazel nuts were brought out, and the boy cracked the nuts 
 and gave them to his partner girl ; she picked out the meats and put them 
 in a saucer, and together they ate and divided with their neighbors, and 
 it was wonderful how much they could eat! And then the apples and 
 cider that had been kept sweet until then. But alas! how short these 
 evenings were. We began to gather those loads about five o'clock p. m., 
 and here it was nearly twelve o'clock, and there was a hustle and rush, 
 and the patient, slow but sure going ox team was homeward bound, and 
 
8 ANNUAL MEETING, 1903. 
 
 the old song or new story, and shout and laughter lasted until we were all 
 home. Next morning found the boys down in the woods with ax in hand, 
 chopping to clear the land for next fall's wheat sowing. 
 
 Now, after this rambling prelude, let me say that in 1844, having re- 
 jected a very tempting offer of a place and an interest in a dry goods 
 house to be established in Chicago, or what was then the place where Chi- 
 cago now is, I accepted an appointment in the old Michigan conference of 
 the Methodist Episcopal church with the privilege of traveling on horse- 
 back about three hundred miles, and preaching twenty-eight times every 
 four weeks on an expected salary of |100 a year. The |100, however, did 
 not materialize, only about $38. It was very seldom that I could sleep 
 two nights consecutively in the same bed, but my wants were all supplied ; 
 I lived with the people and was one of them. My first appointment from 
 the old Michigan conference, in 1844, was Shiawassee circuit — Rev. R. G. 
 Crawford, preacher in charge; F. A. Blades, junior preacher; J. W. Don- 
 aldson, supply — a six weeks' circuit and three preachers, and if I remem- 
 ber, twenty-eight appointments and very nearly three hundred miles on 
 horseback to get around to the several appointments with the necessary 
 travel to get to our stopping places for the night. Wolverton's school 
 house, within three miles of Fentonville, was the most easterly appoint- 
 ment; thence via Byron, Vernon, Shiawassee town, Corunna, Owosso, 
 Dewey's, Bennington, Pitt's, Morrice, Perry, Shaft's, Fuller's in Ingham 
 county; thence into Livingston via Rogers' school-house, Ramsdell's, 
 Boutwell's and all the country within the circle. 
 
 This is from memory of fifty years ago, but it seems to me I could go 
 over the road to-day if the old woods and blazed trees were as I left them. 
 The people were poor, but their hospitality was unbounded. Although 
 suffering all the privations incident to pioneer life, and living in cabins, 
 on coarse fare, and sometimes short even at that, the pioneer minister was 
 always welcome. Nor was this hospitality confined to the members of the 
 church, but every house was open to him. In the fifty years now passed 
 since I first went to old Shiawassee I have met courtly people in all the 
 great cities of this country, and enjoyed the hospitality of many, but none 
 of them while sitting at luxurious boards could out-do the old Shiawassee 
 pioneers in cordiality and warm-hearted, home-making hospitality. My 
 colleagues. Rev. R. C. Crawford and Rev. J. W. Donaldson, were most 
 genial, courtly. Christian gentlemen and my year of hard work passed 
 pleasantly. I could fill a whole paper with incidents, but will only men- 
 tion one as illustrating some of the early experiences in pioneer work. 
 
 One day, I think some time in March, 1845, I was in a store in Corunna, 
 and my attention was called to, and I was introduced to, a stranger and 
 a new-comer in ''these parts." On inquiry I learned that early in the fall 
 before some five or six families had gone into the wilderness and had been 
 busy all the fall and winter in chopping the timber and preparing to burn 
 
DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 9 
 
 the brush and timber preparatory to their spring crop. He urged me to 
 visit them, and for direction I was told to follow the road as far as it was 
 cut north from Corunna, and then find a certain oak tree marked on four 
 sides, and then follow marked trees north, when I would come to a large 
 beech tree, also marked on four sides, there turn to the left and follow a 
 line of marked trees about two miles, when I would find an ironwood tree 
 and certain witness trees near by, when I was again to turn north and 
 keep on that line until I came to the settlement. I made an appointment 
 to visit them, I think, the last Tuesday in April or the first Tuesday in 
 May. The day appointed came around and about daylight I left my 
 friend Kimberley's house and after, I think now, about three or four 
 miles, I came to the end of the road as it was partly cleared out, and on 
 looking carefully around found the oak tree, got my bearings and plunged 
 into the woods, found all my tree marks, and about noon arrived at the 
 settlement of five or six log shanties, as I remember them. I was most 
 heartily welcomed, and arrangements had been made for worship, and 
 some othet parties from other settlements of four or five miles from them 
 had come in. The people came together and I preached to them as well as 
 I could and then had a class meeting. I remember the testimony of one 
 woman who had walked four miles, carrying a child about two years old, 
 to attend the meeting, who said she had come because she wanted once 
 more to worship with somebody as she had not heard a sermon or a prayer 
 in over three years. We sang, preached and prayed and had what I 
 thought then and think now a "good time." But after meeting came the 
 embarrassment. Two of the men of the settlement had gone to Saginaw 
 for some flour and tea and were two days past due, and there was not a 
 loaf of bread or a pound of flour in the settlement, but there was plenty of 
 maple sugar, a few potatoes and plenty fresh fish from the river, and I 
 was just as happy as I have since been when dining at Delmonico's, New 
 York. It was getting late and two young men piloted me out of the 
 woods. I noticed that each one had a large bundle of hickory bark on his 
 back, and as we went on they would lay down a little pile by a tree, and 
 then another, and so on until, when we got to the road I had left in the 
 morning, the bundles of bark were nearly all gone. I stayed with the boys 
 until with flint and steel and a little dry punk they had kindled their fire, 
 lighted their torches and started back into the woods, to replenish their 
 torches from the piles of bark left on their way. I bade them good-bye, 
 they going to the dense forest seeking their homes. I turned my face 
 toward Corunna, and late at night found myself at my friend Kimber- 
 ley's, and after a little refreshment found my room for the night. This 
 was a day's work I have never forgotten, nor do I know that I have ever 
 seen one of that settlement since. 
 
 In the fall of 1846 my appointment was to Lyons Circuit, including 
 Lyons, Ionia and Portland, and about as far east as Wacousta in Clinton 
 2 
 
10 ANNUAL MEETING, 1903. 
 
 county, and over in Ingham just below Lansing, and an appointment or 
 two in Eaton county. 
 
 In the winter of 1847 the legislature in Detroit resolved to change the 
 location of the capital of the State of Michigan. The constitution adopted 
 in 1835 fixed the seat of government at Detroit ; it also provided that the 
 legislature of 1847 should determine where the permanent capital should 
 be located. Hence the preparation for the fight of 1847 over the place. 
 
 I see that Senator Scripps has been giving the public recently some in- 
 teresting facts about the locating of the capital at and naming it Lan- 
 sing ; he deals with the records. In what I have to say I deal with the 
 unrecorded legends of the times. 
 
 It was currently reported, and believed by many at that time, that the 
 upheaving force to lift the capital from Detroit was a real estate deal in 
 which a great many persons were involved, and it was believed by some 
 that Detroit parties were largely interested. It was claimed by some that 
 men having large land interests near Corunna were responsible for the 
 move to get the capital from Detroit, and they thought they had the 
 strength to locate it at Corunna, but there were other parties who kept 
 very quiet as to where it should go, but were nevertheless active in the 
 effort for its removal. The question once up, the struggle for its location 
 became intense, and while nearly every village and town in central Mich- 
 igan offered desirable places for it, the real struggle all the time in the 
 deep water beneath the surface was between Corunna and what is now 
 known as Lansing. The Corunna side claimed that the fight at first was 
 between them and the Seymours (two brothers, one of whom was after- 
 wards Governor of New York), who owned land adjoining the school sec- 
 tion where the capitol now is, and some parties who were represented by 
 Messrs. Bush, Thomas and Geo. Peck, who in those days were prominent 
 men in Michigan. When these rival interests became reconciled on the 
 plan of placing the capitol on the school section between them, they then 
 became too strong for the Corunna crowd, and they were able to play the 
 school interest for help, and hence it was located where it now is. The 
 stories told of the masterful plays and manipulations of this fight were 
 interesting and sometimes comical. I am only giving you the legends of 
 the times immediately succeeding the events themselves, as they were told 
 me by parties who were interested in the Corunna crowd and saw things 
 from their standpoint. It was finally decided that the capitol should be 
 built on this section of school land in the corner of Ingham county. News 
 in those days did not travel as fast as it does now, but it got around that 
 the capitol of the State was to be located in the wilderness, somewhere in 
 Ingham county, so in the early days of April, 1847, when I went up to the 
 eastern part of my circuit, I thought that I would go and see if I could 
 find the ground that had been selected. I came up to a place that was after- 
 wards known as "the lower town" of Lansing, but at that time known as 
 
DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 11 
 
 Page's saw mill. It was a saw mill on the property that belonged to the 
 Seymours. I stopped there, near to the supposed location of the eapitol, 
 and went in and found an old gentleman by the name of Page, and a 
 very pleasant family. I told him what my mission was, and he gave me 
 certain directions following certain lines of marked trees by which I 
 might find myself upon the school section indicated as the ground se- 
 lected. At that time most of us were as ready to follow our way through 
 the woods by the old marked trees and witness trees for the section cor- 
 ner or quarter section corner as we are now by the roads. After follow- 
 ing the direction given by the old gentleman, I reached a spot that was 
 clearly in my mind within the lines that were designated as the place 
 upon which the eapitol would be located. It was on a beautiful knoll in 
 a dense wilderness. The outlook was grand and lovely beyond descrip- 
 tion ; I never saw such a piece of timber before or since. I sat down on a 
 log and was taking in the scenery, and remember well the thought that 
 passed through my mind : "It is too bad to destroy such scenery as this ; 
 too bad to build a babbling town and break this silence and mar this 
 scene so beautiful and so grand." While sitting there I heard a noise ; it 
 sounded as though it might be a bear or a deer, but a deer hardly made 
 such a noise as that. I waited, and in a few minutes a man emerged from 
 the shadow of the trees into the light ; as I remember him he was about 
 six feet high and well proportioned. He saw me nearly as quickly as I 
 saw him, and he was the first to break the silence by saying, "I think this 
 is probably a mutual surprise ; it is oh my part ;" and I assured him that 
 it was none the less so on mine. He asked me who I was, and I told him 
 I was a Methodist minister looking for a congregation. "Well," he said, 
 "it is a mighty poor show for a congregation." I asked whom I had the 
 honor of meeting in this wild place. He said, "My name is Glen ; I am 
 one of the Commissioners looking for a place to locate the State Capitol." 
 I said to him: "Mr. Glen, do you take in this scene? Look how grand 
 and how stately are those trees, and how they sway their branches to the 
 wind. Look upon this scene, how beautiful it is; it is too bad to bring 
 a babbling town into this sacred place." He looked at me and said : "Mr. 
 Blades, I want to make a bargain with you. If you will help me find a 
 place to locate the eapitol, I will try to help you find a congregation." 1 
 accepted his proposition. We proceeded to locate the eapitol on that 
 beautiful spot by driving into the ground a stake cut with my pocket 
 knife, and marking some small trees to identify the spot, and I learned 
 afterwards that the place we agreed upon was the identical spot selected 
 where the eapitol should stand, and where it now stands, both the tem- 
 porary and permanent buildings. The Commissioners met the next day 
 and after a careful examination of the grounds located the place for the 
 eapitol. 
 
 Mr. Glen expressed a wish that we could get something to eat, and I 
 
12 ANNUAL MEETING, 1903. 
 
 told him that I left my horse down at the saw-mill, and he remarked that 
 where there is a saw-mill there is always men, and usually there was 
 something to eat. Following the lines back he went down with me, and 
 we got there just before the horn blew for dinner. I introduced him to 
 Mr. Page, and he was very cordially received. I remember we had pork 
 and beans for dinner, and what else we had I don't know, but the "cheek" 
 of Mr. Glen disclosed itself just as the dinner was over. He related to 
 Mr. Page the incident of our meeting in the wilderness, and his proposi- 
 tion to "help me find a congregation;" he said we had already found 
 what we thought to be a good place for the capitol, and he thought right 
 here was a good place for a congregation, "and (addressing Mr. Page), 
 with your approval, I move that Mr. Blades give us a sermon right here 
 and now." The motion was carried unanimously, and as it was always 
 a motto of my life to obey orders when it is possible, I arose, gave out a 
 hymn, which was sung from memory, and after a short prayer, I pro- 
 ceeded to speak and preach to them the best I knew how for about twenty 
 minutes, and this, so far as I know, was the first sermon preached in 
 Lansing. Subsequently 1 was there in May. I had been invited to preach 
 there Sunday morning, and a place had been selected over in +he woods 
 under a big beech tree in the vicinity of the place where the capitol now 
 stands. The ground chosen was soon cleared, the woods disappeared as if 
 by magic, and it was not long before streets were being laid out and 
 buildings began to rise preparatory to the convening of the first legisla- 
 ture to meet in Lansing for the session of 1848. My father, William 
 Blades, was the first Whig member ever elected from Genesee county to a 
 seat in the State legislature, and he was a member of that session. 
 
 I took Lansing in as a regular appointment on my circuit and visited it 
 periodically. I had some privileges in and about the houses that entire 
 strangers could not have. At this time my intimate personal friend, Wil- 
 liam M. Fenton, was lieutenant governor, and Hon. Edwin H. Thompson 
 of Flint was a senator; my relation with these gentlemen was as inti- 
 mate and confidential as it was possible for men to be. To illustrate, I 
 will tell a little story on Lieutenant Governor Fenton. My father was 
 for a number of years justice of the peace in Grand Blanc, Genesee 
 county, and had business with nearly every town in the county. Fenton 
 came over from Fentonville to try the first case he ever had in court, 
 which he lost. My father had an office built in his yard, and I persuaded 
 him to let me have a bed in one corner. The day on which Fenton tried 
 his case was rainy and cold, and I said to Fenton, "Bill, don't go home in 
 the rain ; you had better stay and sleep with me, and go home in the morn- 
 ing." He finally consented to do so. We went to bed, and after I had 
 gone to sleep I was suddenly awakened, and was surprised to see Fenton 
 standing in the middle of the floor, cussing himself. I said, "What is the 
 matter?" He said, "I am a fool ; I forgot to call on the principal witness, 
 
DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE FOR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 13 
 
 and so lost the case." "Well," I said, "come back to bed and don't make a 
 fool of yourself the second time the same day." 
 
 I was in Lansing one day and went up to the Senate Chamber, and 
 the first man I met was Senator Thompson, and he said to me : "Frank, 
 Bill and I have put up a job on you ; we are going to pass a resolution re- 
 questing you to preach before the State ofiicers and Senate." The resolu- 
 tion was passed. I lay awake nights to prepare a sermon suitable for 
 the occasion, but when the time came I sat there and looked down on 
 that crowd of distinguished men — Governor Ransom and other men that 
 I knew, and some who were strangers to me — and I laid my prepared 
 sermon aside and turned to a passage in Romans, the first chapter and the 
 sixteenth verse : "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ ; for it is 
 the power of God unto salvation ; to every one that believeth ; to the Jew 
 first and also to the Greek," and for my sermon I said what was in my 
 heart and what I fully believed, without thought of oratory, or what any- 
 body might say or think of me or my sermon. For the first time since my 
 determination to be a minister, after preaching this sermon, I had the 
 approval of Hon. E. H. Thompson. He felt that I ought to practice law, 
 as I had read law under his direction for some time, and only after this 
 sermon did he say to me, "Frank, it is all right ; go ahead and do the best 
 you can." 
 
 The legislature of 1848 was not a phenomenal but rather a typical one. 
 From the amount of plank-road charters granted it might have been 
 called the "plank-road legislature." And that we may have a little clue 
 from the past to look and see if we can find anything that has a parallel 
 in our present civilization and experiences with legislatures, I will call 
 your attention to one thing that transpired during that session. I think 
 the charter for some railway, I do not now remember the title, provided 
 that the principal offices and shops should be either in the State of Michi- 
 gan or in the city of Adrian, and whether there was any other question 
 involved I do not remember, but I think there was something about 
 moneys past due from the railroad. Whatever legislation was sought to 
 be secured was being engineered under the direction of the people who 
 then had charge of what came to be known as the Lake Shore & Michigan 
 Southern railroad. There was a great deal of opposition to the legisla- 
 tion pending, and there was some very hard work being done in favor of 
 it. It was then that I saw for the first time a gold pen, and they were 
 very prominent on the desks of some of the members of both House and 
 Senate. It so happened that my father, William Blades, was one of the 
 members who was decidedly and bitterly opposed to the measure, what- 
 ever it was, and after he had made as good a speech as he knew how to 
 against the measure, a prominent member of the bar from Southern Mich- 
 igan arose to answer him, and after a very lengthy argument in which he 
 severely called down the gentleman from Genesee for his opposition, he 
 
14 ANNUAL MEETING, 1903. 
 
 turned to the speaker, and in a very vehement manner said : ''Mr. 
 Speaker, I want something, this legislature wants something from the 
 gentleman from Genesee beside rhetoric ; I want facts, I want some tangi- 
 ble evidence in support of his position, and reason for his opposition to 
 this measure." It was at this moment that the gentleman from Genesee 
 arose in his place and said : "Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman permit me 
 to interrupt him just for a moment? He demands some facts, some tan- 
 gible evidence. Permit me to say in reply, sir, that there is no gold pen 
 on my desk." And in less than one minute there was not a gold pen to be 
 seen on any desk in either the upper or lower house, nor could you find 
 anybody who had seen one ! My recollection is that the measure did not 
 prevail. In this I may be mistaken, as this was fifty-five years ago. Of 
 course no such thing could possibly happen in a legislature in Michigan 
 in this year of grace 1903. 
 
 I remember well some incidents of the last night of that legislature. 
 The House was waiting to hear from the Senate and time was hanging 
 heavily on their hands. A little incident of the evening may amuse you 
 for a moment. I think it is quite common at the close of a legislature for 
 the members to look about for some boxes in which to pack certain per- 
 quisites, the "aftermath" of the supplies for the session, in stationery, 
 books, etc. Lansing was new and but few stores in the place. Empty 
 boxes of the proper size were scarce, and one of the members, rather 
 tardy, had to take what he could get, and this was three or four times as 
 large as any of the rest, but even this was not large enough to pack a 
 chair. It attracted attention, and finally a gentleman arose and made a 
 motion that a certain, suspicious looking box then on the floor of the 
 House be examined by a special committee appointed by the chair, which 
 should make a prompt report to this House. The motion was carried, the 
 gentleman making the motion was named chairman, and others selected 
 to complete the committee. They sent for a hammer and opened the box, 
 and scattered the contents about the floor, greatly exasperated the 
 owner, who sat by in rage and disgust, but said nothing. In the box were 
 found some soiled linen, some books and stationery, and a long piece of 
 nice cord that had come around some packages during the winter, which 
 he had saved for a cord for his boy's sled. When the committee had fin- 
 ished the examination, they made a report, recited the contents of the 
 box and facetiously called attention to the cord and begged to be ex- 
 cused from further acquaintance with said cord. This was the opening 
 for the owner of the box, who arose and protested against granting the 
 request of the committee to be excused from further acquaintance with 
 the said cord, claiming that the only proper use for it was to hang the 
 chairman of that committee. And then such a discussion for over an hour ! 
 They fired off their oratory and raised their points of order and constitu- 
 tional questions while they waited to hear from the Senate as to final 
 
DRIVING THE FIRST STAKE P'OR THE CAPITOL AT LANSING. 15 
 
 adjournment. The owner of that box got even with his persecutors before 
 it was over. 
 
 In the Senate Hon. N. G. Isabel of Livingston county was the only 
 Whig member of that body. If my memory serves me, the legislature 
 met Monday, January third, and on Saturday, New Year's day, there was 
 a preliminary meeting of some kind of the members of the Senate who 
 were in town to arrange for the organization of the Senate on Monday. 
 As the story goes. Senator Balch gave notice that the Democratic mem- 
 bers of the Senate would meet to select officers for that body, and ex- 
 pressed a hope that every Democratic member of the Senate would be 
 present. As he sat down. Senator N. G. Isabel arose, and in a very grave 
 and dignified manner, gave notice that the Whig members of the Senate 
 would meet in his room at the hotel to caucus on the officers for the Sen- 
 ate and hoped every member would be present. As he sat down it dawned 
 on the dazed majority that Isabel was the only Whig member of the Sen- 
 ate, and they saw his joke; they gathered around him, shook him by the 
 hand, and from that hour he had a warm friend in every other member. 
 On such little things often hangs the success or failure of public men. 
 
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