Will (William McKendree) Carleton, 1845-1912, lived near Hudson in Lenawee County, Michigan. He wrote many poems about farm life in the 1870s and other topics. His most famous poem was Over the Hill to the Poor-house.

The Michigan legislature designated October 21 of each year as Will Carleton Day (Public Act 51 of 1919) to honor Michigan's "Pioneer Poet" and encouraged schools to celebrate his poems by reading them and preparing exhibits and doing activities about them.

The orange star on this township map shows where his family's sixty-acre farm was located (two miles east of the village of Hudson).

Source: 1874 Atlas of Lenawee County. Reproduction by Unigraphics Inc. Evansville, IN. The Heritage Collection Illustrated Atlas, 1978.

This photograph of Will Carleton was taken in his old home near Hudson.

(Source: Finney, Byron A. Will Carleton: Michigan's Poet. Michigan Historical Collections. Vol. 39 (1915). Lansing, MI: Michigan Historical Commission, 1915, pp. 189-203.)

Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
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