“When we came here, this part of the country was wilderness, inhabited by wild animals and Indians, but it settled up fast, and as soon as people began to raise more than they wanted for their own use, the next thing was to get to market. We were sixty-five miles from Milwaukee, where all surplus farm products had to be hauled, and most invariably by an ox team, which was a long, tedious journey. If a man took in a load of produce to market and was fortunate enough to get a load of merchandise or immigrants or something of the kind to bring back, he would come out about even financially. But if he failed to get the load back, he would come home owing hotel bills along the road.” Man Who Dumped Brewery is Dead. Reverend Abraham de Kack, one-time prosperous brewer, who emptied the contents of his brewing plant into Grand River and later became a Methodist minister, is dead in Ionia, Mich., of pneumonia. De Kack, more generally known as “De Quack,” and familiarly to his immediate circle of acquaintances as “Quackie,” which appellation is by no means lacking in the respect that it would seemingly fail to convey, was once a brewer in Holland, and later a celery grower, and finally a preacher of the gospel. It was many years ago that De Kack brewed beer--it was considered good beer, too--but when he saw the harm that alcohol does, even in small amounts, he at once went to his little brewery, discharged the help, opened up the spigots of the beer vats, and, at the loss of a small fortune to himself, drained all the beer into the sewers. Then he became a minister. It was a habit of De Kack’s to pay his hired help daily as far as possible, for he took seriously the biblical saying: “Owe no man.” Martin Dows, of Grand Rapids, one of De Kack’s employees, received his pay every night for twenty-nine years. Old Nag Dies After Race. After serving his master, Peter l’Heureux, of Marlboro, Mass., for the most of his twenty-six years of life, Mr. l’Heureux’s faithful family horse, either out of shame because he was beaten or because he felt bad about putting his owner out of pocket, turned around and died after he had just lost the second straight out of three heats in a race against the equine owned by Joseph Chaput on the Lakeside Avenue Straightaway. For some time there had been arguments between the two men relative to the merits of their horses as “steppers.” It was decided to settle the matter. Bets were placed and all concerned repaired to the scene of contest. There were friends of both parties, probably 500 in all, assembled to see some free racing. The distance was to be a quarter mile, best two heats out of three, and, after the stationing of officials, the race was on. L’Heureux’s horse was beaten by a good ten yards in the first heat and was a bad second in the next sprint. The animal was just turned round by the driver and headed in the direction of home when it suddenly pitched out of the shafts--dead.