wn. The
result has been that Ann Arbor has become one of the most attractive
academic centers in the country, with a distinctive charm in her homes
and shady streets, that strikes the visitor no less than the beauty of
its location and the dignity of many of its public buildings.

Ann Arbor lies in the rolling country of Southern Michigan, thirty-eight
miles west of Detroit, in the quietly picturesque valley of the Huron
River. The University and a good part of the present town lie upon the
top and slopes of a gentle hill which falls away to the valley levels on
all sides except toward the northeast. From this situation arises one of
the characteristic features of Ann Arbor; the ever-present glimpses of
distant hills covered with rolling farm lands and woodlots, toward
which almost any of the longer streets lead the eye.

At the time the University was established the flow of immigration from
the East was at high tide. Ann Arbor had already become one of the
progressive and settled communities of the new State; but farther to the
West other districts were constantly being opened and towards them a
steady stream of settlers pressed on. One of the early inhabitants of
Ann Arbor has given us a picture from his boyhood memories, of the long
line of wagons filled with household goods and drawn by horses and oxen,
which sometimes stretched along the pike as far as the eye could reach.
The men who drove these wagons and the women who rode above with the
youngest of their little families were not adventurers; they were
essentially home-seekers. Their strong fiber was shown by their energy
and courage in seeking thus to better their condition in this new
country, which at last had in prospect means of communication with the
seaboard states through the Erie Canal and the railroads soon to be
built. It was settlers with this stuff in them who gave to the
University of Michigan the support that spelled success instead of the
failure which had attended many similar efforts.

The very name, Ann Arbor, recalls an idyll of pioneer life. It sketches
in a picture that is no doubt more charming than the bitter mid-winter
reality faced by the first two families, whose tents were pitched in a
burr-oak grove beside a little stream flowing toward the nearby Huron.
John Allen of this party, a vigorous young Virginian, was the driving
force which first turned the tide of settlement toward Ann Arbor. By
chance, on his way West, he met E.W. Rum