JULY 10 ISSUE ANSWERS: Part two of Clara Chloe Finch’s and her daughter Harriet’s new adventure continue: What would Harriet be doing in Detroit, a young girl of 16, all by herself in a strange new territory? Perhaps making sure her oxen, sled and few but precious belongings were safe while her father, and brother Sylvester “started out on foot for Indian Village?” “Reaching Indian Village on a Saturday night in 2 days made it a season of great rejoicing;” especially when they were welcomed into their old neighbor’s, the Bailey’s, new forest home. “Arrangements were soon made by which Mr. Finch was to take up 160 acres of land on which the Fair Ground is now located and 16 acres of Mr. Bailey’s land where he would build his house.” written at the request of the Romeo Historical Society and printed in The Romeo Observer in 1874. “Early on Monday morning, Sylvester was sent to Mr. Lazarus Green, six miles south-west, to hire a wagon to go to Detroit. He found the old Quaker at home, and asked him if his name was Green.” “Yes, sir,” said he, “my name is Green, what do you want of Lazarus Green?”
“The use of your wagon to go to Detroit.”
“What does thee want to go to Detroit for?”
“To move in a family.”
“Well thee can have Lazarus Green’s wagon to move in a family for one dollar, but for anything else thee could not have it.”
The next morning Ashael and Chancey Bailey and Albert Finch started for the city, leaving Sylvester to do the chores in their absence.
On reaching the sand plain south of Utica, they found the flats entirely over-flowed and frozen nearly one inch in thickness.
Chauncey Bailey then went ahead in the water up to his hips, and broke the ice, while the other two men managed the team.
While in this condition, night came on and they lost the trail, and were obliged to leave the wagon and break the ice so as to get the cattle out and retrace their steps some distance.
They spent the night in a hut of a new immigrant who had very little food to share.
They gave the cattle some marsh hay, but the men went hungry.
As soon as it was light, they returned to the wagon, found the trail and soon reached a hotel, kept by one Stephen, where they procured some breakfast.
Continuing to Detroit, they found Harriet, who had been watching over their team of oxen and the few necessities they had. Then they returned to Indian Village on Friday night. On Saturday they returned the wagon to its owner, thus consuming one week for the journey.
A log house was soon erected, some land cleared, and in June Albert Finch went back to New York to move the remainder of his goods, his wife Clara Chloe, and the six children that remained in their New York home.
This trip was made with a horse team but was made in much less time and in a more comfortable manner.
Mr. Finch had told Sylvester and Harriet to be sure and have some venison killed for their return, for he said, “your mother will be tired and homesick, and you must have one thing to cheer her up.” I believe she would be totally exhausted as she was tending six children, feeding, bathing, providing for their needs all on her own, not to mention the long journey with the little ones through the wilderness.
One day word reached them that the family was not far off, and would be at the village before night. Sylvester started out toward what is now the Campground Road area, where he shot a buck, so large that three men did all they could do to bring it in. This was dressed and some of the choice pieces of steak put in the frying pan to be ready to cook upon the instant the sound of wheels reached their ears. Toward morning Sylvester and his sister Harriet both fell asleep, and so the family found them that way. The final part of the journey resulted in the horses giving up, so the couple had to make the journey on foot the rest of the way. Their clothes were wet completely through.
However challenging, the family could move more quickly and comfortably even though Mrs. Finch had to carry Alanson the one-year-old baby for the last portion of the trip. I’m sure that the two and a half year old Addison may have needed some holding as well.
“The family was prosperous in their new home, except for the loss of their son, Alanson. One day Alanson and his brother were walking home but took different paths. Alanson never reached home. Weeks were spent in looking for him and afterward a party of Indians were hired to continue the search. It was in vain, nothing of a definite nature ever transpired to show them the fate of Alanson. Grief stricken, the father and mother soon went to their grave, separated by only a few days. It was thought by the family that an Indian chief named Kanobe had stolen the child. This Indian was frequently at their home, and called him his ‘Papoose’, and ask him to come and live with him in his wigwam. After the boy went missing, the Indian could never be found, so the conviction that the Indian had stolen him, became an accepted belief.
About the year 1850 a young man of Indian manner and habit, but whose features were evidently European, visited the Finch family, claiming to be the lost boy. Many circumstances regarding him strongly indicated that he might be the very one; but it could not be definitely proved, and his stories were strangely contradictory.
Chloe as she was more often called, died on Oct. 23, 1829 and husband Albert on Nov. 22, 1829.
It was said that they died of broken hearts shortly after their son Alanson disappeared.
They died one month apart; both being close to the age of 51. They are buried in Hadley Cemetery in Armada.
Research primarily came from the 1874 stories in The Romeo Observer collected by J. E. Day.
—By Joan Beringer,
Romeo Historical Society curator