to be called Huron, should be
formed, because the region at Galena was said to have received hundreds of
settlers during the preceding summer and to have at the time of writing
ten thousand or more, and government in the lead region could not be
properly carried on from Detroit, which was eight hundred or one thousand
miles distant, by the routes commonly traveled. The legislature of
Michigan was said to be compelled to meet in the summer in order to enable
delegates to attend and that was the busy time at the mines.(387) A
congressional act of February, 1829, provided for the laying out of a
village at Galena. The plat was not to exceed one section of land, no lot
was to be larger than one-fourth of an acre, unimproved lots were to be
sold at not less than five dollars, improved lots were to be graded,
without reference to their improvements, into three grades, to sell at the
rate of twenty-five, fifteen, and ten dollars, respectively, per acre, the
occupants having the right of preemption.(388) Another mode of relief,
which the inhabitants were working out for themselves, is described in a
Galena paper of September 14, 1829: "Mr. Soulard's wagon and mule team
returned, a few days since, from Chicago, near the southernmost bend of
Lake Michigan; to which place it had been taken across the country, with a
load of lead. This is the first wagon that has ever passed from the
Mississippi River to Chicago. The route taken from the mines was, to
Ogee's ferry, on Rock River, eighty miles; thence an east course sixty
miles, to the Missionary establishment on the Fox River of the Illinois;
and thence a north-easterly course sixty miles to Chicago, as travelled,
two hundred miles. The wagon was loaded with one ton and a half of lead.
The trip out was performed in eleven, and the return trip in eight days.
The lead was taken, by water, from Chicago to Detroit. Should a road be
surveyed and marked, on the best ground, and the shortest distance, a trip
could be performed in much less time. And if salt could be obtained at
Chicago, from the New York Salt Works, it would be a profitable and
advantageous trade."(389)

As the life history of an individual recapitulates the history of the
development of a species, so does the history of Galena, in respect to the
difficulties of its early settlers, recapitulate the history of the
several parts of the United States in their early days. As Illinois had
sent petitions for relief to the gover