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The Andrews Bailiwick A Geographic Study of Migration to and Settlement of Northern Macomb County, Michigan, 1805-1810 and the Andrews-Lathrop Connection By Mary True Dooley A rather crude old box is pictured on the back cover of The Andrews Bailiwick. The box is made mostly of unfinished wood, but the lock indicates that it once contained something of value or importance. I discovered the box in the attic of my family home in rural Armada, Michigan. Inside, were several hundred letters written in the 1800s. My ancestor, Elisha Deming Andrews, had saved our family's correspondence, both personal and business. The letters tell the story of the Andrews family, beginning in New England and progressing to New York State and Michigan. Elisha bought undeveloped land in southeastern Michigan from the government and supervised the transformation from forest to farm. The Andrewses were part of a typical migration pattern for many families that pushed into newly acquired territory following the opening of the Erie Canal. These letters are a rare collection that I used as the basis of my unorthodox doctoral dissertation about the migration, Part 1, written as a letter to my family. Later, I returned to the letters to write Part 2, using more personal information. I fell in love with the Andrewses and I think you will too. Hard cover, 220 pp. About the Author Mary True grew up on a dairy farm 35 miles north of Detroit, a farm that was a gift to her great grandmother from her parents. Mary graduated with a bachelors degree in geography from Michigan State College and a masters, also in geography, from Northwestern University. She was always interested in college teaching, but after her marriage to William Dooley, another geographer, she was not allowed to teach in many states because of nepotism laws. They were both able to teach for the University of Maryland in their overseas program for military personnel and spent three years at various posts in England, Germany, Austria and Trieste. After their first child was born in England, they returned to the states. There she worked with the District Court systems in North Dakota and Indiana, where her husband taught. Following her divorce, she returned to do her doctorate at Michigan State University and then accepted a position at Mankato State, where she taught for 24 years. She still had to wrote a dissertation and with three young children was in a difficult position to do field work. However, she made the letters that had been kept in the family attic in Michigan the subject of her dissertation, and they are also the basis of The Andrews Bailiwick, Parts 1 and 2, and other books which will follow. Reviews & Comments "The Andrews Bailiwick demonstrates that westward migration was a much more complicated process than is often depicted, with folks going back and forth between New England or western New York and Michigan numerous times in order to select land, and also the difficult process of getting the land cleared and settled, involving hired labor, scarcity of money, lawsuits, etc--a difficult process taking many years. The progression of chapters-from selecting the land, to clearing and first settlement, etc reveals in more detail than elsewhere in print all that this process entailed. The second half of the book-chronological study of the Andrews family-is equally interesting. The author draws the reader into the life of the family. Of all of the members of the familyportrayed, I was most drawn to the patriarch, Elisha Andrews, and his daughter Anne. Elisha was such an intelligent, forward thinking man. who seemed to do everything well, from his education at Yale, to serving as a minister, to approaching farming in a scientific, business-like way, but especially his concern for his children. He had a right to be satisfied, when in 1851 or 2, he expressed pleasure at getting all of his children well settled in Michigan, several with farms of their own. Anne I liked so much because despite her own health problems she seemed to always put her family first. It was so nice that finally at age 35 she was able to marry and start a family of her own." |
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