pipipiiiiiipipii^^^^^^^^ 4> XV . .<.^^.\ /.c;^.*''^ < V '^ • " " Ay ^■^'\ \1^- /\ ••^' /\ -•.^- /\ ^- O ^ * ^^ Jk .0^ * o j> c » " • ♦ <^. ^0* ♦ o. ^ ^ '' 7 mSTOR-lt' -OF THE- ipAwwciljirp HP Mill^rlale Ooiinty M:iCHIGA_ISr. J-uly 4rtli, ^. ID., 1876. -BY- SAMUEL B. BROWN. HILLSDALE: Standard Steam Prinliiin affecting this town was Mos- co in 1835; it included towns 5, 6, 7, 8, and fraction 9, south of range 2 west. In 1837 Jefferscm was organized as Florida, and for three years Florida exercised a fatherly care over this town, laying out roads, collecting taxes etc. Woodbridge was organized the same year this town was, and in 1841 Cambria was oiganized; Wright, in 1838 was organized as Canaan, and the first settlers in Ransom lived not far from the land of Canaan. In 1850 Am- boy was organized as a town made up of one tier of sections from town 8, south 2 west, and one tier from 8 south 3 west, and fractionals 9 south 2 west, and 9 south 3 west, which leaves Ran- som a fractional town with 30 sections instead of 36. In 1839, we have already mentioned that one son of Mr.Bird's died. In April 1840; within two months of the time she was married, Mrs. Candee, his eldest daughter, died April 9th, the same day Eunice Bird, his youngest daughter, died, both of scarlet fever. September 18, 1840, Mr. Bird's young- est son died, aged six years. Septem- ber 22, four days after the death of his son, Rowland Bird died, aged 47 years. Of the remainder of the family two are now living, Mrs. Nelson Doty, of Ran- som, and her sister in Sylvania, Ohio. The spiritual wants of the inhabi- tants of Ransom have not wholly been neglected; churches have been organ- ized, meeting houses built, and the gospel bx'ought within the reach of all the inhabitants. There are five meet- ing houses in town, the First Congre- gational, erected in 1855; the next the Methodist Episcopal; the Seventh Day Advents have a house, and the United Brethren have two houses in town, with arrangements made for building a third. There is no place in town where intoxicating liquors are sold as a beverage, and never has been, except it was sold clandestinely. The first 6 church organization was the Congrega- tional church, orgauizetl May 19, 18i8. In this history it will be impossible to specify year by year the improve- ments made, or the increase of popula- tion; but by a comparison of the pres- ent with forty years ago, we shall arrive at the facts in the case. In 1838, forty years ago. Ransom was an unbroken forest, not one acre of cleared land, but all heavy timber. Of the 19,185 acres of land in Ransom, 12,071 acres are im- proved, 2,111 acres are included in the highways and partial improvements, and 5,099 acres are wood. The im- provements including highways aver- age nine acres to every inhabitaut of the town. Forty years ago people traveling in Rmsom with a team had to cut and clear a road, to-day there are in Ransom seventy miles of high- way, occupying .569 acres of land. The inhabitants of Ransom have invested in their highways a capital of 870,400, and are expending annually .$2,009 in repairing. their highways. (It is no part of this history to state whether the roads are as good as the investment ought to furnish.) Forty years ago there was not a rod of fence in Ran- som; to-day there are 429 miles of fence, at 50 cents a rod is .$169 a mile, making .$57,299, the cost of fences, not including any repairs. Forty years ago there was one dwelling house in Ransom, to-day there are 341; then there was one family, to-day there are 346; then there were ten inhabitants in town latest statistics give us 1,.539. The census of 1874 furnish us with items of interest, some of which we will record. In 1873 1,982 acres of wheat were harvestedin Ransom, yield- ing 24,871 bushels, 13 bushels per acre; 1,852 acres of corn were harvested, yealding 99,660 bushels of ears, 51 bushels au acre. In 1874 there were 522 acres of apple orchards in Ran- som; sheep 1,848; hogs 1,138; horses 577; mules 5; oxen 46: cows 886; wool sheared in 1873, 16,079 lbs; pork sold 183,504 lbs; cheese made 49,882 lbs; butter made 89,580 lbs. In comparing the productions of Ransom in 1873 with the productions of Hillsdale coun- ty in 1840, we have the following re- sults in 1840: Hillsdale county produc- ed 80,250 bushels of wheat; Ransom in 1873 produced 24,871 bushels cf wheat; in 1840 the county produced 82,757 bushels of corn; Ransom in 1873 pro- duced 99,669 bushels of corn. Tlie dairv protluct of Hillsdale County in 1840 was worth $5,628; the dairy pro- duct of Ransom iu 1873 was .$21,152,75. The earlier settlers were all on an equal footing, all lived iu log houses, all choped and cleared laud; all shot wild animals; all had their axe and gun, the strife among them was who should make the litrgest clearing. It is said that history repeats itself, and I shall state the situation correctly if I quote from Sacred History: "A man was famous according as he had lifted up his axe against the thick trees." Ransom abounded in men of fame. It is within the recollection of the grown up boys and girls to-day, who had the first carpet on their floor; who had the first framed house; who had the first buggy; who had the first mowing ma- chine; the first s-wing machine, or the first melodeon. But not one of them can tell how many of these articles there are in town to-day, for they have ceased numbering them. Those early days were not without their recreations. Raisings, logings, huskings, and quilt- ings were recreations, and the fiddle the only musical instrument, iu town was available in every house as occa- sion required. When they got married some paid the justice in money, some in work, some got trusted, and some paid a broom. The geuious of our people was al- ways equal to all emergencies, many a family has wintered in a house without a dooi% or window, or lower fioor; the way they managed, they put the stove and bed iu the chambei and lived up there. Tha bear and wolf were kept from the door in the day time with the riflle; and from the bed side in the night by drawing the ladder into the chamber. When one of our first set- tlei's wanted sash for the windows of his new log house he got up iu the morning and started for Jonesville, fol- lowing Indian trails, and blazed trees, arrived at his destination he»bought his sash for five windows, paid for them every cent of money he had, strung them on his arms and turned his steps homeward where he arrived late in the evening, not having eaten a mouthful since he left home in the morning. Another man wanting some oats for seed took with him his boy thirteen years old nnrl stnrteci; he got his oats two or three rniles this side of Hudson; he took two Imshtls liis boy one, putting them on their slionlders they started for lionie; between, two and three o'ch-;ck they came ih sight of the house, and that boy laid his bag on the ground and laid down on it the tiredest he ever was. When those oats were sown they were not Avild oats. These incidents show how the first set- tlers lived. Some of the first settlers bought their land of the government, but most of them bought second hand. Only three or four now living in town received their deeds from the govern- ment, iwo are Gilbert Rowland, and Thomas Burt. This town has had sixteen different supervisors, nine served one year each, four served two years each, two served five years, and one served ten years. There has been levied upon the town for incidental expenses an average of | S190.00 a year since its organization; | the largest sum was .$300., the smallest was S25. The town of Ransom is square with the world owing no one, and no one owing them. At the organ- ization of the town, 23 officers served the town, now 16 officers fill the bill. The duties formerly performed by six officers are now executed by the super- visor, and one man does the duties of Commissioner of Highways. The first resident Physician in Kan- Bom, was Dr. Lee. The first store in Ransom, was kept by Dr. Lee, in 1851. The first store in Ransom village, was kept by Ichabod Stedman, in 1855. A Post Office was first established in Ransom in 1847; A. T. Kimball was Post master, residence on Section 9; mail once a week. The first sawmill in town was built by Mr. Gay, in south part of town, now in Amboy. Grist mills, the town has never had but a short time, not long enough to get used to it. The inhabitants of this town go to Amboy, Pioneer, Cambria, Jeffer- son, Wright or Hillsdale to mill. The first settlers used to go to Tecumseh with their grists. Ransom has had her share of fires. Some ten or twelve families have lost their dwellings, and all or part of their household goods and provisions. C. B. Shepard met with the first loss of this kind in the fall of 1841 in Oct.; with the lumber he had drawn from Keene, north of Hudson, for floors and doors to his house. He had built a shanty in which he slept, cooked his meat and potatoes, and stored las ef- fects. He left Saturday afternoon for Adams, to spend the Sabbath, and on Jiis return to bring a load of goods. On Monday when he returned his lum- ber for his UfcW house was gone, and he mistrusted it was burned; from what he could discover he suspected the powder he left in the bottom of the boiler, that was full of tin pans and cooking utensils, had exploded for the woods about there was lull of tin twist- ed and torn in all manner of shapes. .And his suspicions were confirmed by folks living within five or six miles having heard an explosion in that di- rection about sundown Saturday. He never sees a piece of crooked tin but he thinks of the powder he lost. He kept on in the even tenor of his way as best he could after what had happened, and on the 14th day of December, 1841 moved his family into his new house, and for the want of lower floor, doors and windows, he lived up stairs the first winter. Death by accident has occxirred iu a number of instances. In 1851 Mr. Featherly was killed by a falling limb, while in the woods east of Danforth Bugbees Corners. In 1860 Mr. Joles was killed by lightening; not far from that time old Mr. Siddle was killed while falling a tree, in the southwest part of the town. A young man b\ the name of Ward was killed by falling onto a pitch fork, in the south part of the town. The explosion of a steam boiler in a saw mill on the farm of Charles Burt, in the southeast part of the town in 1872 killed four and injur- ed a number of others. In the north- east part of the town, violent death by premeditated violence, occurred Feb. 6th, 1876; Horace A. Burnett was the victim, Jacob Stevick the criminal. The great event, the one that most effected Ransom of any that ever oc- curred, was the rebellion. Ransom with a population in I860 of 1,159, and with possibly 300 liable to military du- ty, furnished for the army during the war, for the preservation of the union, one hundred and forty-three (143.) These one hundred and forty-three men, in the language of Jeptha, "put their lives in their hands and passed 8 over a"gainst the enemy." Forty of this uuuiber hiiJ down their lives for their country. Mauy of theiu hiy in far off and uuknowu gi-aves. lu the Fourth Michigan lufautry, the first regiment that went from this vicinity, enlisted as three months men, and which took part in the first Bull Run, five went from this town; their names were James Tarsney, Riley Aiusworth, Hiram Hartson,Ira Williams and Avery Randall. April 15, 1861, the day the call was made for 75,000 men, James Tarsney was in Hillsdale, from Ran- som, and enlisted. A^jril 16 Riley Ainsworth, Hiram L, Hartsou, Ira Williams and Avery Raudell, enlisted^ being the first from Ransom. Of this number Hiram Hartson only came back, the others died in the service of the country. Eleven years have passed away, tha great oijenings made by the war are closed up, and we have almost forgotten that there Avas a war, but for the record kept by our war supervisor, the late Warren McCutcheon,we should have had no account of many of Ran- soms citizens who went into the war. We have no data from whicli we can ascertain the number of births or deaths that have occurred in Ransom since the settlement of the town, but from statistics taken of late years we learn that one birth occurs to every thirty-one inhabitants; and that one death occurs to every seventy inhabi- tants annually. How many trees were planted on the fifteenth of April last, in response to the proclamation of Governor Bagley, I am not able to state, but that many trees were planted on that day is a part of this history. On this one hundredth anniversai-y of our Nations existence, while Uncle Samuel with representatives of all the families of this nation and witb invited guests from every nation on tlie earth, is holding a Cc'lebration at tiie old homested in Philadelphia, in the very room where his existence began, or in the language of another, "where he is holding his second (lohlen Wedding at the old homested," we in Ransom are celebrating the Fortieth Anniversary since the settlement of Ransom, and the Fortieth Anniversary since ti.e ad- mission of Michigan into the Union, or in other words are clebratiug our 'Wool- en Wedding.' When I sball have recorded the pro- gramme of the proceedings of this day my work as historian will be finished. CELEBRATION IN RANSOM JULY 4, 1876. President of the Day — Napoleon Clark. Vice Presidents — William H. H. Pet- tit, of Ransom; C. D Luce, of Jeffer- son; Edward Carroll, of Pittsford; George Likely and Leonidus Hubbard, of Wright; William Drake, of Amboy; Peter Hewitt, of Woodbridge. Field Marshal — Richard Hart. Ground Marshal— T. 0. Baker. Chajjlain — Rev. Mr. Stout. Reader of the Declaration — Alfred Hart. Orator— Rev. D. A. Ide. Historian — Samuel B. Brown, jMusic by Marshal Band from Pio- neer. Procession to form and mai'ch to the grove at ten o'clock a. m., after litera- ry exercises refreshments, the after- noon to be devoted to various sports; in the evening grand torch-light pro- cession and fire works. The fifth pe- riod of our history is clo^l. Samuel B.\5rown, Historian. 107 89 ■I « ^\ %„./ .-iS^". ^-^..^^ /J^*v X./ :Mm^ \..^^ ^ O^ *..o* .0-' -^ *^o. o V ^^ .,. -^^ '"-* ^0 ^- 4- - j^ ♦ . . o ' . '<^ * " ^ * . '?>^ °^ • • - » ' j,o V * • ' • . v^ ./.-^k.-V //i:^.'"°o >*r.«^.:.'\ '^''.r:'-y "\/"^^\/" "V^^"V "V'"^'^-'/ ... .* >.^^.v^ ^^^^^^ ..j^, -.^^^^^,-. ..^%^,.. ^^ . .. ^' ^^ • it?^Brvi ♦ a!? 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