| Benjamin D. Brand | |
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| Benjamin D. Brand | |
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In March of 1836, Philo Bates and William Babcock came to the western town line of Ionia, south of the Grand River, to begin the improvement of a large tract of land they had purchased in 1835. This tract, which Bates and Babcock bought in common, comprised fully four thousand acres, and lay in the townships of Ionia, Berlin, and Orange. When they came, they brought the families of Moses Marsh and Benjamin D. Brand to assist them. By the fall of 1836, Bates and Babcock having got up their cabins and made a fair start, brought out their own families.
Benjamin Brand then became the second settler in Orange Township. His farm was located on Section 8, in the northwest corner of the town. He was the first person to build a house in Orange. His house was constructed entirely of wood and bark and was put together without the use of nails. At this time the present town contained no roads except for an Indian trail. It was densely timbered in every part and was, in short a wide wilderness inhabited by wild beasts and resounding with the cried of wolves by night and by day. This was by no means an inviting prospect to the hardy settler who counted upon making a home there, but was a prospect common enough in Michigan at that time.
| Jane Yaw | |
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