West to Far Michigan: Settling the Lower Peninsula, 1815-1860

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Overview

West to Far Michigan is a study of the lower peninsula's occupation by agriculturalists, whose presence forever transformed the land and helped to create the modern state of Michigan. This is not simply a history of Michigan, but rather a work that focuses on why the state developed as it did. Although Michigan is seen today as an industrial state whose history is couched in terms of the fur trade and the international rivalry for the Great Lakes, agricultural settlement shaped its expansion. Using a model of ...
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More About This Book

Overview

West to Far Michigan is a study of the lower peninsula's occupation by agriculturalists, whose presence forever transformed the land and helped to create the modern state of Michigan. This is not simply a history of Michigan, but rather a work that focuses on why the state developed as it did. Although Michigan is seen today as an industrial state whose history is couched in terms of the fur trade and the international rivalry for the Great Lakes, agricultural settlement shaped its expansion. Using a model of agricultural colonization derived from comparative studies, Lewis examines the settlement process in Michigan between 1815 and 1860. This period marked the opening of Michigan to immigrants, saw the rise of commercial agriculture, and witnessed Michigan's integration into the larger national economy.
     Employing numerous primary sources, West to Far Michigan traces changes and patterns of settlement crucial to documenting the large-scale development of southern Michigan as a region. Diaries, letters, memoirs, gazetteers, and legal documents serve to transform the more abstract elements of economic and social change into more human terms. Through the experiences of the early Agriculturists process, we can gain insight into how their triumphs played out in communities within the region to produce small-scale elements that comprise the fabric of the larger cultural landscape.
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Editorial Reviews

Booknews
Lewis (anthropology, Michigan State U.) explores how the agricultural colonization of southern Michigan before the Civil War created the territory's historical landscape. He begins by describing Michigan before European settlement, then considers such aspects as the environmental context, the transfer of land, the frontier economy in 1845, long-distance transportation and external trade, and the consolidation of settlement and transportation in a transitional economy. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780870135514
  • Publisher: Michigan State University Press
  • Publication date: 2/28/2002
  • Pages: 514
  • Product dimensions: 7.00 (w) x 10.00 (h) x 1.30 (d)

Meet the Author

Kenneth E. Lewis is Professor of Anthropology at Michigan State University. As a historical archaeologist, he has investigated material aspects of colonization in geographical contexts and has written extensively on British colonization on the southern Atlantic Seaboard.

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Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
1 Frontier Studies: An Approach to Michigan's Past 1
2 Michigan Before 1815: Prelude to American Settlement 13
3 The Environmental Context of Colonization 31
4 The Impact of Perception on Settlement 71
5 The Transfer of Land 81
6 The Settlers' Acquisition of Land 103
7 Strategies for Settlement 127
8 Michigan's Frontier Economy in 1845 153
9 Population Expansion, Transportation, and Settlement Patterning on the Michigan Frontier, 1845-1860 179
10 Long-Distance Transportation and External Trade 217
11 The Restructuring of Michigan Agriculture 235
12 The Organization of Production and Marketing 269
13 The Consolidation of Settlement and Transportation 283
14 The Landscape of Settlement in Southern Michigan in 1860 301
15 Epilogue 311
App. 1 Populations of Michigan Settlements from Censuses, 1854-1864 313
App. 2 Populations of Michigan Settlements from Gazetteer Listings, 1856-1864 315
App. 3 Hierarchical Order of Central Places in Michigan in 1860 Based on Functional Index Values 321
Endnotes 329
Bibliography 443
Index 501
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