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Doraville Whitney was the
first Black settler in Isabella County in 1860. The first documentation of
an African-American settler in Mecosta County Michigan was James Guy.
His deed was signed by Abraham Lincoln. He obtained 160 acres in Wheatland
Township on May 30, 1861. Lloyd & Margaret Guy were the first
Black settlers in Montcalm County in 1861. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed each
settler 160 acres in Michigan. By 1873 African-Americans owned
1,392 acres in the three counties of Isabella, Mecosta and Montcalm.
In the 1860's most of the land in Remus was owned by the Old Settlers. |
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Old Settlers
Isabella, Mecosta, & Montcalm Counties - Michigan
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This website is dedicated to the Old Settlers who
settled in Mecosta, Montcalm, and Isabella Counties.
I am what I am--a child
of the Americas. I am the child of the many Diaspora born into this
continent at a crossroads. I am Mecosta, Remus, Blanchard,
Winn, McBride, Millbrook, Stanton, Mt. Pleasant, and Big Rapids. I am the son and daughter of many immigrants. African waters the roots of my tree, but I cannot
return. I am a late leaf of that
ancient tree, and my roots reach into the soil of America. Each plate is different. Europe lives in me, but I have no home
there.
The table has a cloth woven by one, dyed by another,
embroidered by another still. I am a child of many mothers.
They have kept it all going. All the civilizations were erected on their
backs. All the dinner parties given with their labor. We are
new. They gave us life, kept us going and brought us to where we are.
Born at the crossroads. Come, lay that dishcloth down. Eat!
Drink! Eat! History made us, and we are whole.
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This website will never replace the Old
Settlers' Reunion Association or the book Old Settlers: A Nation Within Itself
(1988). The intent is to depict the
families from Michigan's
Isabella, Mecosta and Montcalm Counties in digital-electronic
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Old
Settler's Reunion Discussion Group
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There are "Old Settlers"
who came from Canada via "The Underground Railroad." It was the
most dramatic nonviolent protest against slavery in the United States
that began in the Colonial Era and reached its peak between 1830 and
1865. An estimated 30,000 to 100,000 slaves
used the "railroad" to get to Canada; many others escaped to Mexico,
the Caribbean, and Europe.
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