Joseph M. Blodgett
Joseph M. Blodgett served in Co. E, 3rd Michigan Cavalry during the Civil War. He enlisted at the age of twenty on March 16, 1864, at Kalamazoo, Michigan. He was mustered in on March 16, 1864, and sick in the General Hospital at St. Louis, Missouri, in April 1864.
The 3rd Michigan Cavalry was organized at Grand Rapids, Michigan, in September 1861. It was mustered in on October 4, 1861. The regiment returned to Michigan on March 10, 1866, where the soldiers were paid and the regiment disbanded.
Joseph M. Blodgett was born about 1844 in Ohio, the son of Eber and Julia Blodgett. In 1850, the Blodgett family lived in Oneida, Eaton County, Michigan, where Joseph was a farmer.
Joseph married Laura Shiffee before 1874. Laura was born about 1849 in New York, the daughter of Reuben and Esther (Sanborn) Shiffee.
Civil War veteran Joseph M. Blodgett died from consumption of the lungs and liver after a three-week illness on Sunday, March 9, 1879, at the age of thirty-five at his home in Orange Township, Kalkaska County. He was survived by his pregnant wife, Laura, and a five-year-old daughter, Laura. A son, Joseph W. Blodgett, was born on August 20, 1879, in Orange Township, Kalkaska County.
Mr. Blodgett is buried in the Lodi Cemetery in Orange Township, Kalkaska County, Michigan. He was the first Civil War veteran to be buried in this cemetery and the second adult to die in Orange Township since its organization. Mr. Blodgett's grave is marked by a Civil War military headstone and a G.A.R. flag holder.
Joseph Blodgett's widow, Laura, married (2) Jacob Frank Ayers on April 14, 1888, at Lodi in Kalkaska County. Mr. Ayers was born about 1852 in Ohio to Aaron and Margaret (Kratson) Ayers. In 1900, Laura and Jacob lived in Orange Township, Kalkaska County, and in 1910 they lived in Mingo, Bates County, Missouri.
Laura Ayers wrote several letters to friends in Kalkaska that were published in the Kalkaska Leader and the Kalkaskian newspaper. The first undated letter tells of the pioneer life and her family life in Kalkaska County:
"Editor, Leader-Kalkaskian:
"I have thought at times when I have been reading some of the close and exciting times of pioneer life, experienced by some of the first settlers of Kalkaska County, that I would just like to write a little on that line myself.
"My husband had returned from camp life, as a soldier, broken down in health, and after a few years in southern Michigan he decided to move to Kalkaska County, to live among the pines and hemlocks, and ferns, in the hope that his health would be better, and I might add that I think that the change did help him. Well, in 1874 we sold our little home in Clinton Co., and moved to Kalkaska and located at Lodi.
"South Boardman and Kalkaska were then in their infancy. There was a shanty in Boardman that served as a boarding house, and the frame of the first hotel, I remember that, as I stepped off the train looking around with fear, and peering into the gathering shadows of the dense woods, that some wild animal might come upon us.
"We walked a half mile to the first house for shelter for the night, and we were made very welcome. There was only a wagon track with plenty of brush and shintangle from Boardman to Kalkaska then. The road wound in and out among the trees. A careful driver could drive a team over the road in daylight, at that early date, but there was no road east or south from Lodi. How we did enjoy the big woods, and the blackberries and huckleberries were something wonderful. Our table was well supplied with wild game, and we had plenty of maple sugar too. We kept the place until 1907, when we sold and moved to Missouri.
"I shall never forget those early days in the big woods. I had seen deep snow when in childhood I lived in New York state; but I never saw anything like the snow that dropped straight down from above until everything was capped with an immense load of it.
"We moved onto our place in the winter and as there was no well, we melted snow until that was gone, then my husband said we must have a well. I took hold of one saw handle and he the other and we cut up a hemlock log, and while he split and made the curbing and looked after our little girl, I took the water pail and went through the woods to Orange Row's place a mile and one half and got what water we used daily until that well was completed. But oh how we did enjoy life. We raised a nice patch of buckwheat the second year, but there was no grist mill nearer than Williamsburg, and the snow was something fierce. The roads were awful too, but our supply of flour that we shipped in with our goods was exhausted, so C.W. Pierson and I think E.A. Blodgett took an oxen team and the grist for the three families and started to brave the rigor of northern winter on a trip to Williamsburg, while we pounded and crushed buckwheat in a towel to make cakes until the grinding was done.
"We never failed to have plenty in our new home. But the pleasures and happiness of this life are of short duration and in 1879 death visited our little home and my husband was laid to rest in the new cemetery and I was left alone with my two little ones. My brothers and sisters wanted me to take the children and live with them, but I loved my home in Kalkaska County, and I found kind friends on every hand ready to supply our needs, and cut and haul all the wood we could use, and we were not made to feel dependent, but were treated with the utmost consideration until 1888, when I was married to Mr. Ayers. But the memory of the first years in Kalkaska remain like a pleasant dream. There is much more I could say, but will try not to be tedious, so goodbye. - Laura Blodgett Ayers"
When Laura and Jacob Ayers lived in Missouri, she wrote another letter to her friends at Kalkaska.
"Pleasant Hill Farm, Mo., December 9, 1911.
"Editor Leader-Kalkaskian
"I hope you will not think I am coming too often but I want to write home to the dear old friends occasionally so try and have patience with me.
"When I wrote you before we were parched and dried the length and breadth of old Missouri. The ground was cracked open in places everywhere. The bark on the forest trees and in the orchards was so blistered and burned that it hung dead from the dead and dried trunks and limbs. About the last of July and the first of August we had some refreshing showers that helped the corn on our place far beyond anything we had dared to hope for and the crop is very good, so that when it is all husked it will amount to nearly 1,500 baskets full; but some fields were a failure, and never eared. We cut twenty acres this fall and husked the rest standing in the field and turned the cattle and horses into the stalk field where they range day and night. The army worm has been very troublesome this fall, destroying the hundreds of acres of wheat and late sowed corn and late gardens. We would be very glad if we could have some of those fine potatoes that grow so plentiful in Kalkaska Co. and which we used to enjoy so much while there. This is no country for potatoes, and this year there are none to speak of. We think it is hard to do without them. We are plowing now for corn in the spring.
"I want to say a word to those who are dissatisfied with their location when the cold weather comes, and dread the snows so badly, that they have many advantages over the southwest and south to compensate them. We have spring early here perhaps six weeks earlier than you, and we have our new potatoes when they are only just planting in the north, but by the middle of July peas and potatoes are ready to harvest and by that time it is so hot and dry that we can't have a second planting; but the few potatoes are soon gone, and unless one has an extra crop they must buy before Christmas. Cabbages grow quick - that is the early ones, but if one has a few heads more than one needs for immediate use, they crack open and rot down. When the late ones come on the fall it is so warm and the worms are so bad that there are none saved, while in the north there is always a good supply to go to the cellar.
"Land is high and there is a renter for every vacant lot. A great many people are going to Oklahoma to rent there. Rent is so much cheaper there. I would advise every one that has a home to try and be satisfied where they are, as there are but few who better themselves by selling off everything and moving to a strange country. Still we like the climate here and would not want to go north, now that we are here.
"Saturday and Saturday night we had a fine rain that has wet the ground more than any we have had in twelve months and it has cleared off warm, so that the mercury stands at 60. With kindest regards to old time friends I am Very Truly yours, Mrs. Laura Ayers."
Another letter was published on April 27, 1916:
"Lavina, Mont., March 18, 1916.
"Editor Leader-Kalkaskian:
"I have been thinking that some of your readers will be interested to know how we have passed through the winter in this cold northern country so will try to inform them.
"We had quite good weather up to November 23d, when about eight inches of snow came. About December 10th the snow all melted off in two days, but it came again the third day after the thaw and stayed with us and the cold was something terrible. We have never experienced such long and severe cold as has been the case this winter. The snow came about ten inches deep with some drifts and the cold and snow was with us until the first of February, when the thaw came and took the snow all off in a very few days. The rest of February and so far in March we have had lovely weather. Some of the settlers got smart and did some plowing in February, but we did not start the plow until the thirteenth of March. The weather has been fine, everybody working in shirtsleeves, doors open and children playing out bareheaded. On March 21st we had a good shower in the night but in the morning it turned colder and about six inches of snow fell and melted as it fell and by the 22nd it had all gone. It is still cold and frosty nights, however, and the ground froze some last night. All the land around here has been taken up and men are buying up the railroad land which sells for ten dollars an acre. Some farmers are planning to break one hundred acres this spring. One can buy railroad lands here and make crop payments, which makes it easy for a settler to pay for his home. It was reported here that when the mercury was 40 to 60 below that two girls that were holding down a claim and who were unable to get a fire froze to death in their cabin. Also two men who had each taken large loads of wheat to town were also frozen to death along the road. It was very cold but the high price of wheat at the time tempted them out. And after selling the wheat and under the impression that whiskey would keep them warm they filled up and started for home taking a good supply of booze along with them.
"There is a great deal of liquor bought and sold in the northwest, but the power of the temperance movement is being felt even in this country, for which we are thankful. The ladies can vote in this state and when there is a vote against intemperance, March 27th, I think every one will be at the polls.
"There is plenty of soft coal almost everywhere here and parties near Billings have been successful in finding oil, and the price of land has been going up considerably since then.
"Well this will do for this time and I will come again some time in the future. - Yours truly, Laura L. Ayres"
In 1920, Laura and Jacob Ayres lived in School District 41, Musselshell, Montana.

"Brave Boys Were They! Civil War Veterans, Kalkaska, Michigan", c. 2012, Dawn Triplett