“An important phase in the history of the colony began at this time. A Jewish peddler who had witnessed the colonists’ sufferings brought the story of their heroic struggle to Martin Butzel, a prominent Detroit merchant, with whose firm this peddler had had business dealings. Butzel was known for his broad philanthropies and was at that time the president of Temple Beth El Hebrew Relief Society. A close friend of Butzel and also a member of Congregation Beth El was Emanuel Woodic, an experienced farmer who had had twenty-five years of successful farming back [sic] of him. Woodic was then living in the village of Utica, near Detroit, on a small farm whither he had retired when his advancing years and his wife’s illness compelled him to give up more active farming operations.”
Butzel turned to Woodic and asked him to investigate the conditions at the Palestine Colony. When Woodic arrived there in March of 1892, he found 57 colonists – 16 men, 7 women, 26 boys, and 8 girls. “They occupied ten shacks. Some of the wives and children were still in Europe. Not more than an acre or two on each farm had been cleared. The sum total of all the livestock was seven horses and two cows. One of the settlers had brought with him a team with which he had made his peddling rounds, another a single horse. Four horses were bought on time and had not yet been paid for. Enough money was scraped together with which to buy the two cows that furnished the entire milk supply for the population.”
“Upon Woodic’s return to Detroit, Butzel called a special meeting of the Beth El Relief Society. Immediately a supply of clothing, groceries and matzah, was sent to Bad Axe, and arrangements made to procure fodder for the livestock. A fund of $1200 was raised which was entrusted to Woodic to use according to his own best judgment. Because of the intervening Passover holidays and a spell of stormy weather, Woodic could not return to Bad Axe until early in May. His first step was to provide each farmer with a cow. He also bought three plows, three drags, a yoke of oxen, other equipment, and oats, peas and potatoes for planting. He supplied each family with a small quantity of groceries. What is more, he remained in Bad Axe throughout that spring and summer, teaching these raw recruits how to sow and cultivate, and later how to harvest their little crop.
“Realizing the necessity for more cleared land, he kept the men constantly at work under-brushing and clearing. During these operations he installed a temporary sawmill of the crudest type in order to cut the burned logs – a considerable supply of which had accumulated – into rough boards to be used as siding for the almost open shacks, so as to make them more habitable for the winter. Not only was Woodic the agricultural advisor but he acted as the communal leader and arbiter of the many petty disputes which naturally arose among the colonists. Living accommodations were barely sufficient for the colonists’ own families and Woodic had to lodge in Bad Axe village. Despite his age [56 at the time] he tramped the distance of four miles each morning and, after a strenuous day’s work under a broiling summer sun, trudged back again to his modest room in the village. The noteworthy thing is that he received no compensation for his self-imposed task. To him it was truly a labor of love.”
Despite much hardship the colonists struggled on for the next few years.