month, returning thence to Kalamazoo County, remaining there one year. In 1871 he came to Hersey Township and secured a claim of 80 acres of land by purchase from the individual who had become its proprietor under the Homestead Law. Mr. Hope found himself obliged to go back to first principles to protect his title and re-entered the claim. About 15 acres were partially improved, and the clearing had a small log house. The latter is now their home, and the entire place manifests the care and energy of the owner.

Mr. Hope was married Jan. 29, 1870, to Sarah J. Ross, and they have one child-Cora B.-born June 3, 1872. Mrs. Hope was born June 7, 1850, in Norwich, Ont. Her mother, Mary (Mustard) Ross, died in Norwich when her daughter was about nine years old. Her father, Hopkins Ross, is living in the village of Hersey. The brothers and sisters of Mrs. Hope are named Wm. H., Nelson A., Mary J. (twin sister of Mrs. H.), Sylvester, Daniel (deceased), and Martha A. Three brothers and a sister of Mr. Hope are all living. They are Charles E., Mary A., Isaac H. and Chauncey C.

enjamin F. Gooch, farmer, section 25, Richmond Township, is one of the earliest settlers in Osceola County and is as closely associated with the history of the "first things" of the county as any other member of its pioneer element. He has been a resident of Michigan since early childhood, his father, Benjamin Gooch, having removed from his native. State to the Territory of Michigan in 1834. He was a merchant and lumberman in Maine, where he was born, and married Lucy Boyington.

In the year named they set out with their family of nine children to found a home in Michigan. They traveled westward on the Erie Canal, and while in the immediate vicinity of Rochester, in the middle of the night, the wife and mother rose from her berth, made her way to the deck, and as the watchman observed her she suddenly walked overboard and sunk from sight! The watchman roused the occupants of the boat, and in half an hour her life

less body was rescued from the cold waters. Every effort at resuscitation was made, but in vain, and she was buried in the beautiful cemetery of Mount Hope in the southern suburb of the city of Rochester, and the bereaved family pursued their sad journey to their destination. The senior Gooch had disposed of all his business interests on leaving the Pine-Tree State, and the money realized-all in gold —was in a belt clasped around the body of the wife, and was the means of her death, as its weight prevented her rising to the surface. The family located in Wayne Co., Mich., where, later, the father married Phebe Sherman, and they became the parents. of four children. In 1848 they removed to Kent Co., Mich., where the father died of small-pox. His wife died in 1847, in Plymouth, Wayne County.

Mr. Gooch of this sketch was born March 20, 1831, in Machias, Washington Co., Maine. He was but three years old when he was deprived of his mother's care. Until he was 16 years of age he passed his life in the manner common to farmers' sons in a pioneer period. He was a level-headed boy, having a well-balanced temperament, formed of the excellent traits of a mixed Scotch and English ancestry, the former predominating and descending to him in the maternal line. The element of active effort is his leading characteristic and has marked all his life. He is an embodiment of the principle of doing a duty himself instead of delegating what needs to be done to the chance of a transferred duty. His education consisted chiefly of a comprehensive knowledge of Daboll's Arithmetic, obtained by resolute braving of the wintry winds daily a distance of nearly two miles, where he was a pupil in a log school-house with horizontal windows, stone fire-place, "stick" chimney and slab seats. But in this instance, as in thousands of others, the achievements of Mr. Gooch attest the value of rugged training and lack of the effeminating appurtenances of the life of to-day, which fosters weakness and extracts the vigor and fire from the human composition.

The capital was removed from Detroit to Lansing at a time when that portion of Ingham County was a wilderness, and in three localities the eager citizens began to build with all haste. A Mr. Randolph, who owned a foundry, engaged the senior Gooch to draw a load of stoves to Lansing, and Benjamin was

sent with the team. Mr. Randolph gave him in addition a quantity of cast-iron boot-jacks to peddle in the city on commission, which he did, and sold them when there was not a painted building in the place. All finishing material had to be drawn from Detroit with teams, and the people waited for the advent of winter and snow in order to facilitate transportation of heavy merchandise.

In 1849 Mr. Gooch went to Virginia, where he worked by the month in a steam saw and grist mill, and also aided in the management of a cardingmachine. He operated in that capacity until 1853, when he returned to Michigan and engaged as a farm assistant and as a lumberman in the woods near Grand Rapids.

In the fall of 1855, in company with three other men and driving an ox team, Mr. Gooch proceeded to the northern extremity of the thoroughfare in Mecosta County, to a point four miles north of the present city of Big Rapids, when the site of the plucky and prosperous city was not marked by a single structure. On the fifth day of September he began cutting a road northward into the wilderness, crossing the boundary of Mecosta County into Osceola County on the 14th day of the same month. This was the the first wagon road in Osceola County. A few settlers had come in the previous spring, and had utilized the water routes, coming hither by means of canoes on the Muskegon, the general method of travel in Northern Michigan previous to the day of railroads and State thoroughfares. The line of road constructed by Mr. Gooch extended to Cat Creek, a distance of 16 miles. The party were joined by Delos A. Blodgett, who made a permanent settlement and became inseparably connected with the development of Osceola County, but who removed to Grand Rapids, where he is now a resident. Nicholas Rescoe also came with them. He is still a resident of the county.

In the latter part of November, Mr. Gooch hired a Mr. and Mrs. Dildine and their daughter-eleven years old--at Grand Rapids, and moved them to Cat Creek. It is believed these were the first white women within the county limits.

In that winter Mr. Gooch shot a large number of deer, and a lynx. He has still in his possession a robe made from the pelts of six wolves which he killed the same winter. The exigencies of the time.

in which he became a resident of Northern Michigan developed his abilities as a hunter, and he has shot deer in the counties of Kent, Newaygo, Mecosta, Osceola, Missaukee and Clare, at a date when the present sites of Big Rapids, Reed City, Hersey and Evart were fair fields for the hunter's harvest, which he gathered with his rifle on more than one occasion.

Mr. Gooch passed the winter in the discharge of his duties as foreman of a logging party and lumber camp, and in the spring of 1856 pre-empted 160 acres of Government land where he has since maintained his residence. Later, he bought 40 acres additional. He made a small clearing on his original purchase, built a log shanty and entered with characteristic vigor and energy into the work of clearing his farm. He is now the proprietor of 200 acres of land, of which 110 acres are free from stumps and in valuable farming condition.

In the spring of 1857 he set out 100 apple-trees on his farm, which he bought from John Foxbury, of Walker Township, and drew from Grand Rapids with an ox team, a distance of 75 miles, as the road was constructed. Many of these trees are still in a flourishing condition, some of them having branches 15 feet long. When these trees were planted the ground was still the resort of deer, wolves and foxes. The orchard scheme of Mr. Gooch was the source of much comment among the farmers of Grand Rapids and vicinity, as it was firmly believed that apples could not be raised so far north as Osceola County. He was told by one distinguished gentleman that some of his trees would live and blossom on the south side and perhaps one or two apples might mature on the south side of the core, but the severity of the climate would prevent the sap circulating all around the apple. The apple crop of the orchard in 1884 (current year) is 400 bushels. The fact is, the fruit is more perfect and hardy than in regions farther south.

A prominent faculty of Mr. Gooch, and one which has been of inestimable value to him as a pioneer and in other capacities, is his superior abilities as a pedestrian. In the fall of 1857 he was troubled by a decayed tooth. The only available instrument in the settlement was an old-fashioned pair of turnkeys, and on their application to the tooth it was crushed, proving only an aggravation of the difficulty. Mr.

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Gooch retired with a determination to endure the suffering, but it proved too much for his endurance, and he arose before morning and started afoot for Grand Rapids, walking the entire distance to that city, where he procured the services of L. D. Rogers, who is still living and pursuing his profession in the same place. Traversing the distance from Richmond Township to Grand Rapids in those early days was a common practice with Mr. Gooch, who has preserved no record of the number of times he has made the trip--" hundreds of times."

The first school-house in Osceola County was built on the northwest quarter of section 25, Richmond Township, and was donated by Mr. Gooch for the purpose to which it was devoted.

The first official dignity borne by Mr. Gooch was that of Highway Commissioner, his jurisdiction including the entire county, which was then attached for municipal purposes to Mecosta County, and known as Green Township. In the spring of 1861 the township of Richmond was organized, the meeting for that purpose being held at the house of D. A. Blodgett. Nine votes were cast. Mr. Gooch was elected Town Treasurer, Justice of the Peace and School Inspector. Mr. Gooch was one of the Judges of Election.

The echoes of the shot at Sumter in their journey round the world aroused the spirit that actuated the pioneers of Osceola County in their toil and privation, and Mr. Gooch, in May, before the wave of patriotism had surged across the continent, made another journey on foot to Grand Rapids to search. for a recruiting officer, full of an invincible determination to lend his aid to preserve intact the integrity of his country. He went thither alone, and was the first enlisted man from his county. He enrolled in Co. F, Third Mich. Vol. Inf. The regiment was mustered in 1,040 strong, Col. Daniel McConnell commanding. Mr. Gooch was under fire in all the important engagements in which his regiment was involved, and in the common experiences of skirmishes and deploys. He was in the first battle of Bull Run, and afterwards, while stationed at Arlington Heights, to guard against rebel invasion, he had some interesting experiences.

On one occasion, when foraging in the corn and potato fields beyond the line of Union pickets, the party was discovered by the rebels, who sent a shell

into the field they had just left. No one was injured, but they returned to gather the potatoes dug by the missile, which they ate with a grim relish, in consideration of the murderous intent which failed of its purpose and added to their stores.

During his period of military service, Mr. Gooch received four wounds. At the battle of Fair Oaks he sustained an injury to his right arm from a gunshot, and in the same conflict a piece of shell struck his right shoulder; but he remained in the ranks. The regiment went into the second fight at Bull Run with about 500 men. The command was deployed to make a feint attack upon the main line of the rebel army, a movement which depleted the ranks of the "Third" to a fearful extent, roll-call showing that 20 more than half the number who went into action were either killed or wounded. All the colorbearers and color guards were killed or wounded. Mr. Gooch had borne the regimental standard presented by the ladies of Grand Rapids since the siege of Richmond, and during the second fight at Bull Run he was shot through the right thigh. After spending two months in the hospital he came to Grand Rapids on recruiting service, for which he was specially detailed. He rejoined his regiment. previous to the battle of Gettysburg, where he was a fourth time wounded, by a minie-ball, in the calf of the right leg. This injury was so severe as to cause him to be sent to the hospital, and his life was seriously imperiled by the appearance of gangrene in the wound, and from which he remained eight months in ths hospital. He was discharged June 21, 1864, and returned to his farm. He is a member of Post John J. Bagley, Grand Army of the Republic.

In the spring of 1865 he was elected Supervisor of Richmond Township, which then comprised the entire county. In the fall of 1866 he was elected Surveyor of the territory of Osceola and Mecosta, then included in one county, and held the position. two years. Since the organization of the county he has officiated as Superintendent of the Poor, a number of terms as Justice of the Peace, and has served several times as Director of the County Fair. He has been also a Director of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company of Osceola, Lake and Wexford Counties. Mr. Gooch is a Republican in the completest sense of the term. He did not vote for Pres