alarmed for the safety of his house and the pump-stock was withdrawn, an eight inch pipe being inserted in its place. At the time of the writer's visit a very rapid stream two feet broad and four inches deep was flowing from the well to Otter creek. Within these artesian areas not infrequently natural openings have been made to the surface through which the water escapes and flows as a mineral spring. These are more common in the central and eastern part of the county, back from the river to a distance of two to three miles. Some of them sometimes occur outside of the artesian areas, for instance the sulphur springs near the foot of Ottawa lake upon the farms of Harmon Branch and William Bell. A strong natural flow of sulphur water, with some iron, occurs at Christopher Nichols' claim 685, south River Raisin. This would fill a five inch pipe and is but slightly affected by drought, never drying up. Upon land belonging to Catherine Sorter, claim 673, south River Raisin, there is a strong sulphur spring which feeds Sulphur creek. This has been known to stop flowing but twice, in 1875 and 1895. South of Monroe, one and three-fourths miles, is located the once celebrated "Shawnee Spring, upon claim 160, south River Raisin, just east of the Michigan Central tracks. From 1860 to 1879 or 1880, the place secured some note as a resort. The water is said to retain practically the same temperature throughout the year and to be unaffected by drought. An examination of the water was made in 1864 by Prof. S. H. Douglass, then of the University of Michigan, who reported that the water contained free carbonic acid, magnesia, and abundance of lime, chlorides and sulphates and that hydrogen sulphide would probably be found in the water at the spring. The spring has formed a large mound of sphagnum moss and calcareous tufa over five hundred feet across and eight to ten feet high, through which the water escapes by numerous mouths. Quite large masses of this tufa are loose in the field and ledges of it occur in position. The water tastes and smells of hydrogen sulphide and is depositing sulphur. Similar springs are found on other farms in the vicinity notably one on the Peter Cousineau farm, near the Sharkey well, described. Another larger spring occurs in the marsh near Erie, (Vienna). It can be reached by boat, by punting half a mile through a natural channel. THE MARL BEDS The marl beds of Monroe county are not very numerous nor extensive. The largest deposit known occurs on claim 422 north of La Plaisance creek, two and one-half miles south of Monroe, with an area of six to eight acres, there is a layer of black spongy muck, containing many fossil shells. Beneath this is found a bed of marl varying in thickness from one to three feet. The marl is so free from grit that, after washing, it has been found to produce a good polishing powder for gold, silver, nickel, brass, etc. It was boxed and sold for this purpose some years ago under the name Paragon Polishing Powder, being prepared by the La Plaisance Manufacturing Co., of Monroe, of which John M. Bulkley was president and Robt. Flemming, secretary. This novel use for the marl was found to be very successful and a large business was built up and afterwards sold to P. H. Mathews, Esq., who conducted a fine business for a few years, but finally closed it out. The marl contains some shell but appears to have been in the main precipitated from the water of a small lake charged with lime carbonate. Such a deposit may now be seen in process of formation over the bottoms of the series of lakes through which the Huron river flows in Washtenaw county. Upon claim 161, about one mile west of the Asam deposit at the place of Eli P. Duval, there is said to be a black deposit with white clay. The latter is undoubtedly marl and a similar reference to a ten inch layer of "whitish dirt" was obtained at W. J. Kelley's, claim 520, South Otter creek, where it is overlain by two and one-half feet of yellow sand and one foot of black sand. Beneath the sand layer is one foot of yellowish-white clay, one and one-half inches of gravel and then common clay to the rock. Judging from these deposits we have here a former lake site. At the cranberry marsh (S. E. 14, Sec. 24, Summerfield), more or less marl occurs, but the maximum thickness is said to be but six or eight inches. It is quite probable that thicker deposits occur towards the center of the marsh, possibly of considerable extent. In his early report Hubbard reported marl as occurring on Sec. 7 of Exeter and Sec. 9 of Ash township. A very extensive marsh occurs in Sec. 9 of London and probably contains marl beneath the surface. FARMER'S FENCES "Abraham Lincoln as the champion rail-splitter would have little opportunity for the exercise of his prowess today," said the twentieth century farmer of Monroe county, "for the reason that the rail-splitting days are over. The old stake-and-rider fence which played a conspicuous part in the development of this country in the way of hard work and backaches is now a thing of the past. Time was when rail-splitting was a profession with the husky farmers' sons. The scarcity of timber, and the waste of land by the old "worm fence have changed this. Then came the wire fence, with occasional wooden posts, and digging post holes became a real art. Now, in this "concrete" age wooden posts are disappearing because of the expense and the progressive farmers are using wire fences with concrete posts, and the pouring of cement is one of the fine arts. Total valuation of farms, (supervisors estimate) city and CHAPTER XXV OLD ROADS AND TRAILS THE OLD-TIME CONCORD COACH-MONROE COACHES AND ROUTES THE "TAVERNS❞—MAIN TRAVELED ROADS-FAMOUS STAGE DRIVERSPIONEER ROADSIDE TAVERN-TROUBLOUS DAYS OF TRAVEL UNITED STATES HOTEL"-"MURPHY HOUSE"-MACOMB STREET HOUSEMAILS AND MAIL CARRIERS. The era of stage coach traveling and its incidents has been invested with so great a fascination and the lapse of time has robbed it of so little of the half romantic and wholly interesting tales of the old regime, the "good old times," when our forebears fondly believed that all the comforts and most of the luxuries of the civilized world were theirs, that the charm still clings to the memories of them, as the vine to the tree, as a fond recollection. THE OLD-TIME CONCORD COACH The old Concord coach will remain like the Plymouth rock an established and unremovable institution in American history, with all its accompanying glories of dashing teams of four and six well-bred horses, their showy caparisoning and rattling chains-driven with marvellous skill by the knights of the ancient and honorable guild of self-respecting drivers, is equally firmly fixed in the mind-not forgetting the polished metal horn or key bugle, long and sonorously blown to signal the progress of the pageant through village and hamlet and its sensational arrival at the doors of wayside inns and taverns-these remain a glorified spectacle of the past, as we lift the curtains of two centuries to view the panorama in which our ancestors moved; always are we affectionately leaning towards the old roads and trails. MONROE COACHES AND ROUTES It is not so far a cry either, from the old stage coach days of New England to those experiences along the same lines in the west, at the opening of the last century. Monroe, the first stopping point in the undeveloped west, had her coaches and coach routes, and her old taverns that cared for the wants and comforts of the traveling public and the settlers moving nearer to the sunset land, who must certainly have needed all the comforts that could be afforded in their tedious and sometimes dangerous journeyings to and fro through the miry roads and over the perilous bridges and swollen streams in those wilderness days. As early as 1836 a daily line of stages was established between Monroe and Ann Arbor, and duly announced in the Monroe Sentinel of that year: "DAILY LINE "The subscribers, proprietors, will commence on the 1st of June, next, a daily line of stages to run direct from Monroe to Ann Arbor. "Monroe, Feb. 6th, 1836." "ORANGE RISDEN, This route lay through a most pleasant region amid the noble hardwood forests and the oak-openings-over the Lodi plains, and along the winding streams-the wooded banks of the River Raisin. The taverns were not numerous nor spacious, but sufficient in both respects, to afford "refreshment for man and beast" as their sign boards proclaimed good home cooking and fairly comfortable lodging, all at modest prices. One of the first on the route westward was that popular inn kept by John Plues, a few miles west of Monroe, which was not only liberally patronized by the stage passengers, but was the objective point of frequent parties from the city, especially during the winter when the sleighing was good, when many a jolly oyster supper and dance was enjoyed to the limit, and the music of Geniac's fiddle lent inspiration to the scene. There was another at Milan and still others; most of these primitive taverns rejoiced in the huge fire-places at one end of the big "public room, "where blazed the immense maple and hickory logs that sent their cheerful light and summer warmth throughout the apartment, not to mention the smoke that adverse drafts brought down the big chimney. and floated through the room. MAIN TRAVELED ROADS On the highway between the principal north and south termini, Monroe and Detroit, the road was generally pretty well thronged in good weather with all sorts of conveyances from the huge, swaying Concord coach with its four or six horse teams, driven by the mighty Jehus who were looked up to by the small boy with an admiration and reverence that was beautiful to behold; to the one horse or ox cart. The roads were good and fairly smooth during the summer and autumn months and the dread at encountering the discomforts, even then not always absent, was turned to keen enjoyment; but woe to the traveller who was obliged to throw himself into the "imminent and ready breach" during the spring months at the "breaking up of winter." The old plank road was by no means the guarantee of safety-much less comfort-when its planks floated free from the stringers and the bridges were meditating a departure from their supports-then the life of the tourist was a misery, if nothing worse. The old Toledo and Detroit turnpike was the great thoroughfare between these principal termini up to the date of the building of the railroad in 1852. The plank road was in use as far south from Monroe as Vienna and was generally in good condition, but occasionally, from neglect or from floods it became a "condition, not a theory" such as to bring forth language that would not be quotable in polite literature. The big lumbering Concord coaches would be filled with passengers and the capacious "boot" in the rear crammed with baggage and well covered with mud, while the forward "boot" extending under the driver's seat, would be heavily loaded with mail bags and the smaller baggage of passengers. These coaches in busy times ran in bunches of two or three or even more and reached a speed of six to eight miles or more an hour. (when the equipment was adequate and the roads in favorable condition.) FAMOUS STAGE DRIVERS The drivers were generally a class of hardy, bluff, good natured and adventurous men, who gloried in their occupation and justly prided themselves upon their skill in handling their spirited four-in-hands and successful avoidance of perilous risks in "fancy driving" and showy evolutions when entering a town. There is well remembered, a driver of more than local renown who drove a coach on the Toledo-Monroe route, a sight of whose dash into town with the sharp turning of corners, as he wheeled his load of admiring passengers (not altogether free, however, from more or less nervous thrills) today, would certainly be a drawing feature as he pulled up at the door of the old "Mansion House, or the "Exchange" and "well worth the price" as an exhibition of daring coachmanship. This man was Robert Hendershot and when his bugle was blown as the grand entré into town, was made, everybody knew that a "show was on" that could not be missed, and the windows of all of the houses along the road had their interested spectators, while troops of small boy worshippers and full grown admirers welcomed "Bob" with shouts and cheers. Bob generally drove a cross-matched four, two dapple greys and two blood bays, which were his favorites; when this was the case, the occasion reached its climax of excitement and joy. Alex. Peabody, another of the old time drivers brought to the west certain of the colonial coaching days' customs. He was a typical coachee, versed in all the ways of the public road and inns, perfectly reliable, with all his sensational performances, with his irreproachable four-in-hand, groomed to the last minute before being put into harness and driven with a skill and spirit that was a delight to the spectator, and infinite relish to the passengers. No king or prince was prouder of his domain. He drove one of the huge coaches that formed a part of the line owned and operated by Neil, Moore & Co.-between Columbus, Ohio and Detroita long route, with a relay every ten miles; his horses always seemed fresh, and came out of the stable full of life and energy. Peabody took in |