The writer of the original manuscript started for Michigan, taking a steamer to Detroit and a stage to the western part of Michigan.

The evidence

• “In the year 1834 I started for what we called "West, for Michigan. I took a steamer to Detroit, and a stage to western part of Michigan.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/08-i-t-smith-reminiscences.md, Vol. 1, PDF p. 222 / book p. 202

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources