he south
of the present William Street save scattered farmhouses and a large
brickyard.

[Illustration: A VIEW OF ANN ARBOR
Across the valley of the Huron--The hospital buildings with the
University beyond]

In the beginning Ann Arbor was solely a farming community, a character
it retained essentially until the increasing number of manufacturing
plants in recent years has somewhat changed its aspect. The first
inhabitants were almost entirely New Englanders, true Yankees in faith,
resourcefulness, and business enterprise. But it was not long before
immigrants of another type began to arrive; South Germans, who had left
their native land to seek homes in the freer religious and political
atmosphere of the new world. They speedily became an important factor in
the growth of the town, as the business names on Main Street nowadays
show; almost all borne by descendants of the early German settlers, who
have for the most part identified themselves wholly with their new home.
This was revealed by the recent war. While there were some who, through
a sentimental attraction for the home of their fathers, stimulated by
the unscrupulous efforts of Germany's representatives, were actively
pro-German in their sympathies or at least violently torn between their
love for the old home and loyalty to the new land, there were many
others, probably the majority, who were out and out loyalists on every
occasion, and who by spoken word and action proved their unhyphenated
Americanism. The brave record of the Ann Arbor men in the Civil War, and
in France a half century later, where several of foreign parentage lost
their lives, is ample proof of the solid qualities in this element among
Ann Arbor's first inhabitants.

Whatever their parentage or creed, the dwellers in the little double
community saw to it from the first that, at least in some measure, the
religious and intellectual needs of the people were satisfied. There is
evidence that occasional religious services were held in 1825, but the
first church, the Presbyterian, was not established until August, 1826.
For some years it was migratory in its meeting places, passing from a
log schoolhouse to a room in "Cook's" hotel and finally in 1829 to the
first church built in Ann Arbor, an unpainted log structure 25 by 35
feet on the site of the present church on Huron Street. The other
denominations quickly followed this example and by 1844 there were six
churches to serve the needs of t