US27007.5 By exchange. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1900, by the in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. PREFACE. Owing to the veto by Governor Pingree of the appropriation made by the legislature of 1897 for carrying on the work of the Pioneer and Historical Society, the publications of its historical collections were suspended during the years 1898 and 1899. Annual meetings of the Society were held in Lansing each year, pursuant to the provisions of law, and meetings of the Executive Committee and of the Committee of Historians were also held as occasion seemed to require, the members thereof paying their own expenses rather than to permit a discontinuance of the work that has been performed for the past twenty-six years. The sentiment was unanimous that it would be unwise to let the Society die because of the failure of an appropriation for two years. Its publications are highly prized by historians, Historical Societies and Librarians throughout the United States. We may mention the fact that obtaining copies of numerous and important original documents in the Canadian archives, through the painstaking efforts of the late Col. Michael Shoemaker, and their publication by this Society, was their first and only appearance in print. Other persons had searched for them in vain, and have gratefully acknowledged the work thus performed. The Legislature of 1899 made a moderate appropriation to continue the work of the Society, which received Governor Pingree's approval, and now, after a lapse of nearly three years, the Committee of Historians take pleasure in presenting to the public volume twenty-eight of the Collections of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society-Volume twentyseven having appeared in 1897--and also take pride in recommending it as one of the most interesting volumes of the series. Among the papers published herein, to which special attention is called will be found one on "Early Lansing," p. 172, a paper most carefully prepared by Mrs. Sarah E. Dart from her own reminiscences and helps from the House Journal. Following this on page 179, will be found a history of "Fort St. Joseph," by L. H. Beeson, "The old Mission Church of Mackinac Island," on page 187, and "Early Missions at Sault Ste. Marie," page 520, will be found very interesting. "The Vermontville Colony with personal sketches of the |