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Bloomfield Blossoms: p. 66-67

Smith, Kay, 1925-

Bloomfield Township Public Library

Bloomfield Township (Mich.) -- History

Land settlement -- Michigan -- Bloomfield Township --History

Log cabins -- Michigan -- Bloomfield Township -- History

GB01a035

part of 'Bloomfield Blossoms' by Kay Smith

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INSIDE THE LOG HOUSE, A CHEERFUL FIRE, A HAPPY FAMILY We owe most of our glimpses into life in early days here to two chroniclers--Captain Hervey Parke and Miss Fannie Fish. Fannie lived in the house pictured on page 23, first in the original log part and later in the brick addition. She wrote this reminiscence of her mother's life for the Oakland Pioneer Society. "The small house was not a pretentious affair; my father used to say he measured the few articles of furniture they possessed and built his house to fit them. I do not know its dimensions, but will venture to say it afforded them a comfortable shelter. What if the walls were composed of unhewn logs, and the floor of the same, split and hewn as smoothly as might be. The great stone fireplace may not have been beautiful in itself, but when filled with a cheerful blaze that shone out upon a spotless floor, and lit up the farthest corners of the little room, it must have been a pleasant sight. A muslin curtain, dainty white, I imagine, shaded the one little window. "The year of 1820 my mother always spoke of as the very happiest of many happy years. The two little boys played about the door, the fair babe smiled in her cradle, and the mother, with heart full to overflowing with hope and happiness, went about her household cares. "There were hard places, no doubt, days of discouragement and nights of weariness. One day's work of man and team must be paid for with four days of hard labor, and yet these days were referred to by both of my parents as very happy ones, and the impression left on my mind by the story so often told was not of a time of great hardship, but of keen enjoyment, and I believe, when at the close of day they bowed their heads at their humble hearth stone and my father returned unfeigned thanks for the goodness and mercy that had followed them this far, they both truly felt that their lives had fallen unto them in pleasant places; yea, that theirs was a goodly heritage." The room pictured here is a recreation of an early house in the Township, done in authentic detail by Mr. and Mrs. A. David Pottinger in their home on Quarton Road. 66 description