The Olden Time

BITOR DKMOCBAT : I have thought that the publication of n occasional article npon the olden ime of " old Washtenaw," would serve ie doublé purpose of interesting your eaders and also of perpetuating the hisiory of the early settlement of our beauiful county. And I propose, with your pproval, to furnish The Democbat from ime to time with such incidents and acts as the means in my hands may alow. And let me state at the outset, that all ie articles I may send you will be drawn, ot from my own imagination, or from ctual knowledge, nor from the verbal eclarations of those of our fellow citiens who were familiar with the history f those early times, but from the public rints of those days. Mark Howard, ow a resident of Hartford, Conn., and ne among the early settlers of this ounty, and who himself was one of the craft," kept a file of the first papers irinted in this county, amounting in all ;o eight volumes. Some years since he rindly donated these volumes to the pineer society of the county, and from iese papers the facts and incidents coniained in the articles that I shall write, will be drawn. If my proposition meets our approval, you can indícate by pubishing this, the first of the series. THE FIRST PAPER. I have before me Vol. 1, No. 1, of the Western Emigrant," dated Ann Arbor, November 13, 1829, by Thomas Simpson, ditor and publisher. This was the first japer printed in Washtenaw county. 'he sheet is a little less in size than the iegister, now printed in this city. The ubscription price was three dollars a ear in advance. Advertisements for 1.25 for each square for the first three weeks, and twenty-five cents for each ubsequent insertion. The first article n the paper is the declaration of indeendence printed in fulL The second is n article on hemp, from the Western ?iller. The third is on tobáceo raising, 'rom the Niles Weekly Kegister. These hree articles fill the first page. The first ariicle on the second page is a thanksgiving proclamation by Gov. Cass. Thanksgiving that year was on he 26th day of Nov. -The next is a short editorial on the object and aims of the Emigrant. The editor says: "He will spouse constitutional principáis, advoate and enforce a plain system of political common. sense." (A formidable underaking.) Then follows a letter from Hon. S. W. Deiter, asking the views of the editor on masonry and anti-masonry. ?he editor replies by saying " that the olumns of the paper shall be open to a uil investigation of masonry and antimasonry." Ann Arbor in those days had a W. in Abor. I offer this short paper as an ion.