The Naming Of Ann Arbor

A recent relation of the alleged origin of the name of Washtenaw's county seat has impelled one of our oldest residents to furnish the following for publication. ïo the Editor of The Sentixei, : Can you spare a s small space in your paper aside froin politieal matter? I wish to teil what I knovv of the naminii of our sister city, Ann Arbcr. In the fall of 1831 I carne to Ann Arbour, as it was then spelled, with my father and his Iarge faniily. Mrs. Ann Allen, John Allen's seeond wife, and Mrs. Ann Rumsey, a widow, were living th ere at that time. Messrs. Allen and Kumsey were partners in the enterprise of starting the village. I think they came in 1824. At one time we lived in the first frame house that they built. The log house, a two story affair, was still standing beside it, in goodcondition. We used itfor store-room, play house in bad weather, etc. Mr. Allen's family, at the time I flrst knew them, were his wife, one child (Sarah Ann), two children by hia first wife (who died in Virginia), James, recently died in Ann Arbor, and Elizabeth, afterwards Mrs. Wilson, his mother, a very nice old lady. Other relatives had followed - Mr. Turner Allen, who married Miss Maynard, sister of William S. ánd John Maynard, and whose third wife was a Mrs. Crofts, sister to Samuel P.-Jewett's first wife. There was then no dispute over the name. Many of the noble forest trees were still standing, especially on the jail square. The jail was of logs. There was a large brick house on one side of the square. For four years Miss Sarah Sargeant taught a select school in this liouse, and I never niissed a day in my attendance. It was occupied by the Methodists as a place of worship. In 1840, when I became a pupil of Miss Clark's school, Miss Sarah Ann Allen was a classmate, also a pupil of mine, for I taught Miss Clark's arithmetic classes. Mrs. Allen and her daughter (Sarah Ann) returned to Virginia. Mr. John Allen was still in Ann Arbor in 1843 or 1844. I watched with her sister, Mrs. Mary Welch, every Saturday night for months and finally with her corpse. He was an ininate of hor house at the time. He was a fine looking man, a splendid singer, and bad been state senator. Mrs. Welch was stepmother to Mrs. Dr. Dentón and Mrs. Olney Hawkins. I attended dancing school when I was 14, and Mr. James Allen, recently deceased, was the lirst gentleman witli wliom I danced.-