READ FAMILY CONNECTIONS

What compelled these four young men to leave family and friends behind and travel to the Old Northwest Territory? For Levi and Richard, it was probably a question of land. Their father owned a farm, but he also had six sons among whom the farm would be divided at his death. This would leave precious little acreage for each son. Land in Warren County was spread across the fertile floodplains of numerous drainages that fed into the Delaware River. But it was also spread over the rocky slopes and tops of the mountains that run across the county. The bottom lands were all taken up early in the settling process. When they came available, they were expensive. Farm holdings shrank with each pasing generation as they were subdivided among numerous heirs. In order to buy a decent sized farm, one had to amass capital and wait for the right land to come available. Only then, when the land was purchased and the farm started, could a young man begin to think about marrying and raising a famiiy. In 1837, Levi was 27 and Richard was 25; neither of the brothers was married.

There was also the myth about becoming rich in the west, that every pioneer to the new lands believed, had to believe, in order to survive the ordeals associated with clearing and breaking unplowed land, building a house, fencing the property. Twenty years after Levi and Richard settled in Michigan, Ellen Spaudling Reed (no known relation) of Glendale, Wisconsin, wrote in a similar vein to her parents, Stedman and Arterista Spaulding, in Vermont:

Ellen's friend, Esther Bagley Cline, arrived in Glendale in the summer of 1857. In a letter to Stedman and Arterista Spaulding, she also commented on the struggle to get rich in the west.

Levi Read left Warren County the year that the Morris Canal was completed. The 1820s and 1830s were decades of canal builing. The Erie Canal was authorized by the New York State legislature in 1817. It opened in 1825, and extended from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo on Lake Erie (New York State Canal System). In 1828, the State of Maryland began a canal extending from Georgetown to Cumberland along the Potomac River. It was competed in 1850 (Olson 1980). The Morris canal was authorized by the New Jersey State legislature in 1824. It was originally conceived as a means to transport coal from the Leigh Valley in Pennsylvania to the New York Harbor. The Morris Canal ran between the Delaware and Hudson Rivers. In Philipsburg (Warren County), the canal connected with the Leigh Navigation and Delaware Canal via an outlet lock and a cable ferry across the Delaware River. By 1831, the canal was completed between Philipsburg and Newark, New Jersey. It was opened in 1832. The section of the canal from Newark to Jersey City on the Hudson River was finished in 1837. The Morris Canal was 109 miles in length, raising over one thousand feet in elevation. There were 34 locks and 23 inclined planes along the canal. The Canal went bankrupt in the late 1830's, due to cost overruns during construction and the depression of 1837. The canal was reorganized under new management. In 1845, it hauled total tonnage of 58,259. By 1866, over 900,000 tons were hauled on the canal. However, railroads began to make inroads into the canal's business and by the late 1880's long distance hauling on the Morris Canal had stopped. The cable ferry in Philipsburg ceased to operate in 1889. A flood in 1905, destroyed the outlet lock in Easton. Commerical traffic stopped on the Morris Canal in 1915. Seven years later the State of New Jersey took over the canal. By 1929, most of the canal route was destroyed (National Canal Museum; New Jersey State Archives)

The Perry family lived on a farm near the Read homestead. They were originally from Sussex County, New Jersey. In 1824, John and Eleanor (Miller) Perry, left New Jersey in a covered wagon and traveled for several weeks to Oakland County, Michigan. Their family consisted of four daughters, Mary (born 1817), Susan (born 1819), Elizabeth (born 1821) and Anna (born 1823). Five more children were born in Michigan: Hannah and George (born 1825), Adam (born 1830), Sarah (born 1835) and John (born 1841) (Perry 2001). Levi and Elizabeth were married on 18 February 1841 in Orion Township, Oakland County, Michigan. Within three years, Levi's brother Richard, married Elizabeth's sister Anna. After Levi and Elizabeth married, they settled on the Read brother's farm (Chambers 1892:559). Evidently, Richard moved out of the house as the 1840 United States Federal Census for Orion Township, Oakland County, Michigan only lists two inidivduals in the household, a male 30 to 40 years of age (Levi, born 1810, who was 30) and a female 30 to 40 years of age (Elizabeth, born 1821, who was actually 19).

The 1850 United States Federal Census (page 275), places Levi and Elizabeth in Orion Township. The census gives Levi's occupation as farmer. His real estate was valued at $1,500. The Read's next-door neighbor, on the census, was Elizabeth's sister, Mary Brown. Elizabeth's mother, Eleanor Perry, and siblings, George M., Sarah and John Perry lived on the farm next to Mary Brown's farm. Levi and Elizabeth were the parents of four children in 1850. Their household was composed of:

In 1860, the Reads moved to Lapeer County, Michigan. When the census was enumerated that year they were living with Levi's brother, Richard and his family. Richard's farm was in Lapeer Township, Lapeer County, Michigan, the post office was Lapeer (1860 United States Federal Census, page 813) Levi was a farmer with a personal estate valued at $3,000. He had no real estate. The census lists the following individuals as members of the combined households of Levi and Richard Read:

In 1861, Levi purchased a farm in Metamora Township, Lapeer County Michigan. The original farm contained 167 acres, on which Levi built a frame house, rather than a log house. By 1892, Levi had expanded the farm to include 207 acres. The family had only lived on the new farm for seven years, when their 17 year old son, Marshall, became very ill. He died in the late winter of 1868. His deth certificate lists the cause of death as congestive chills. Marshall was not married at the time of his death. His occupation on the death certificate was given as farmer.

The 1870 United States Federal Census (page 238), places Levi and his family on their farm in Metamora Township, Lapeer County, Michigan (Hunters Creek P.O.). Levi's real estate in 1870 was valued at $8,000, his personal estate at $1,740. The family in 1870 consisted of the following members:

Levi and Elizabeth lived in Metamora Township until their deaths. Levi died on 12 November 1901, a few days short of his ninety-first birthday (Kern 1938). Elizabeth was still alive in 1892 (Chambers 1892:559), her death date is unknown.

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