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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. 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.
Most of the land where Remus sits in the 1860's was owned by the Old
Settlers. |
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Fred Todd
(1893 - 1975)
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Fred Todd & Lindley Norman |
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Verda (Harris) Todd |
Frederick Todd was the eighth child and
third son of Stephen and Caroline Todd. He married Verda Lucille
Harris, daughter of Walter and Jessie A. Harper Harris of Glenham and
Mobridge, South Dakota. They lived on the Todd farm in Sheridan
Township from 1928 - 1943 until it burned down. They later moved to
Morton Township, Mecosta County, Michigan in 1943 - 1944. Fred farmed
until 1947 and then went to work at Grandee Brick Company in Grand
Rapids, Michigan. He retired in 1959. To this union 16 children were
born: Dorothy, Lucille, Bernice, Fredrick (Tom), Jack, a baby boy died
shortly after birth, Marvin, Robert, Connie, twins James and Gerald,
Walter, Francis, Kenneth, Loren and Gary. Fred Senior died December 30,
1975.
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Fred & Verda (Harris)
Todd 1943 |
Verda (Harris)
& Fred Todd
South Dakota 1926 |
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Dorothy & Lucille Todd
Hermetta Davis holding
Fred, Jr.
& Bernice Todd |
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Fred & Verda (Harris)
Todd (1929) |
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Dorothy, Lucille, Bernice
& Verda Todd |
Back to Top
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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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